Political disputes in state institutions are not a new thing. For decades, the civil service has become the arm of political parties. This is a sad reality that has affected the productivity of government institutions that are supposed to exist to meet the needs of the country.

Of course, many civil servants do their jobs efficiently and with unwavering dedication. But you and I know that there are many others who work for agencies or corporations to be paid for their service during a political campaign or to serve the interests of the party in power.

This bad practice leads to low productivity because the worker, who knows that he got there not by his own merits but rather by a politician, believes that he has a guaranteed job; that it doesn’t matter if he does a bad job or doesn’t even do anything at all. Of course, this is done at the expense of those who do the work and are overloaded with tasks. He has to make his own and the sweet potato ones he had as a partner. The one who works double gets more tired and, logically, overloaded; therefore, you can’t do the job as well as you’d like either. So the first victim of this practice of political appointments is the employee who wants to do the right thing.

In addition, there are citizens or companies who need a service and have to wait endlessly for them to help them, ending up not solving their problem or starting all over again. All this affects the functioning of the country, affects the private sector and the general well-being of people.

Politics in some state structures has reached scandalous proportions. For example, it was said that in the Department of Education, employees were stationed in batches, on each floor of the building they occupied a few years ago. Thus, the reds did not even have to cross with the blues. It is clear that they shared the work equally. I clarify that it is not clear to me, but I have no doubt that it was so, judging by the historical ineffectiveness of that department. And, of course, the victims here are children.

Now imagine if we added to all this political division the internal division within the party over the supposed primaries. What will happen to us? With a year to go before the primaries and two to go until the election, we have to put up with this fight from now on.

Resident Commissioner Jennifer Gonzalez said last week that her staff are being threatened in state agencies, anticipating a possible primary against Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.

We’ve already seen this movie in the last four years, and in the agencies, the employees who were “Team Wanda” and “Team Pierluisi” split up. During the four-year term of Alejandro García Padilla, it was the same, and that there were no primaries, but it seemed that there would be. They were then split between “Team Alejandro” and “Team Carmen Yulin” loyal to the governor.

It is a cold war between those in power and those who claim office. The hosts, in this case civil servants, line up as the date approaches, and in the middle are the citizens of this country that doesn’t seem to deserve peace.

This harms the country, harms our economy, which has not yet recovered from the crisis, harms people’s mental health. It is not fair that public servants are forced to define their loyalty in order to keep their jobs. It’s unfair to be afraid if mine doesn’t win.

As if the division between the popular and the penepes was not enough, now we also have to put up with the internal division within the PNP. If we face a whole year of this, may God take us as confessors.