It already seems customary, the government of President Luis Abinader once again reversed a bill due to the avalanche of criticism, and there are five occasions on which it has had to do the same, in less than two years that it has been in office.
Other projects such as the proposal to reform the Constitution have had to be shelved due to criticism and lack of consensus. The last case was the withdrawal from Congress of the cybercrime bill that the government submitted and two weeks later announced that it was withdrawing due to the avalanche of criticism it generated because it supposedly would limit freedom of expression.
“By instruction of the President of the Republic, I am proceeding to withdraw the bill against cybercrime from the Chamber of Deputies in order to facilitate the work that the Consultative Commission will carry out to review and update the legislation on freedom of expression” , reported the official on his Twitter account last Wednesday.
In order to unify criteria on freedom of expression, President Abinader formed a commission headed by lawyer Namphi Rodríguez, and made up of Miguel Franjul, Inés Aizpún, Persio Maldonado, Luis Eduardo Lora Iglesias (Huchi), Edith Febles, Eric Raful Pérez, Hermógenes Acosta de los Santos, Miguel Ángel Prestol González, Jimena Conde Jiminián, Aurelio Henríquez, Elvira Lora Peña and Gabriela Beltré.
Before, in January of this year, Abinader asked the Senate to postpone knowledge of the trust for the administration of Punta Catalina and sent the proposal for discussion to the Economic and Social Council (CES), after the avalanche of criticism generated by the proposal that was interpreted as an intention to privatize that company, which the ruler flatly denied.
The first time that happened was on October 9, 2020, after the criticism generated by the 2021 budget project that included taxes on various services. Faced with criticism, the ruler “put out” the fire in less than 48 hours with a speech to the country.
In that same speech, Abinader reported that the CES would convene the discussion for the pending fiscal pact since 2012 and that it is based on the National Development Strategy Law.
After widespread rejection of the tax reform plan that the government never formalized, Abinader spoke to the country to inform it that he will not submit a project. Abinader has said that he prefers to listen and he doesn’t mind being criticized because he will always prefer to listen to everyone.
Specialists suggest being careful with this approach
The frequency with which the president assumes that attitude has drawn criticism. Communications specialist Melvin Peña said some time ago that this type of action can often end up giving the ruler an image of improvisation. “If it happens once, well that’s fine, but if it happens frequently it projects improvisation; it is as if public opinion directs it, it must be the other way around, leaders must guide public opinion”, he considered.
