Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A Pair of Questions

The two questions to be asked in the Pemex referendum are set: 
1) Presently, the exploitation, transport, distribution, storage, and refinement are activities performed exclusively by the government. Do you agree or disagree that private businesses should participate?

2) In general, do you agree or disagree with the approval of the initiatives related to the energy reform that are presently being debated in Congress?
Pemex has raised some issues about both. The second question is misleading because the energy debate actually involves several different reforms. If a person, after taking the time to study and weigh the myriad proposals, finds himself in favor of the reform to the fiscal regulations but against the creation of citizen bonds, how does he properly answer question 2?

The first question is even more flawed, because it is based on a lie. Private businesses have worked with Pemex since the nationalization in 1938; in just the past eight years, Pemex had 40,000 different contracts with outside firms. The PRD, whose Mexico City government is behind the referendum, should know this as well as anyone, since Pemex's lucrative contracts with the private business of relatives of Secretary of the Interior Juan Camilo Mouriño is a big bone of contention for them.

Of course, such problems were the inevitable consequence of this silly scheme. The energy debate is too complicated to dumb down to a pair of simple yes-or-no questions. That's why we have representative democracy.

No comments: