SANTO DOMINGO.- President Leonel Fernandez’s stance on government corruption differs widely from what he touts in his speeches, in which despite his transparency and “zero tolerance" jingle, usually remains at the sidelines when some of his collaborators are linked to fraudulent actions.

In those cases, far from demanding punishment or ordering an investigation, what he’s done is justify his collaborators’ actions before the media and through them quell public opinion, as occurred recently, when he attributed the denunciations to political undertones during this term, his third.

"President Fernandez’s leadership is mostly in the media, a resource he then uses to dilute the denunciations on corruption," said the sociologist and political scientist Rosario Espinal.

She said until now that strategy has proven effective, "because after he holds his meetings (with media managers) the waters tend to calm, because he has that direct contact and for his great capacity for political seduction" and cited the Sun Land case.

Espinal said she regrets that Fernandez will most likely try to take advantage of the media again when he meets with media directors in the National Palace today to speak about the “tsunami” of corruption denunciations in the last few weeks, "because it’s really the moment for him to understands that there’s much disgust in the population and it’s time he takes measures which show the population that he’s really doing something important to correct corruption."

SOURCE: diariolibre.com