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 The "mensalão" (big monthly allowance) was a catastrophe for the Lula government. For the Workers Party (PT), the catastrophe was its tacit acceptance of the "mensalão." Symbolizing this acceptance was the Party's tolerance of the case of the congressional aide transporting dollars in his undershorts, especially the photo of militants carrying the deputy involved on their shoulders after his expulsion from Congress was avoided.
The PT preferred to accept the crisis that was shaking the Lula government, as if it were completely natural. This acceptance was foreseeable. Before giving its natural consent to the recent scandals, the PT had already lost its capacity for indignation over the social reality it had previously proposed changing. Before tolerating Brazil's political corruption, it had already accepted the social corruption; before losing its political-conduct ethics, it had lost its political-priorities ethics; before accepting the "mensalão" as an immutable reality, the PT tolerated the social reality as an immutable given. It had lost its capacity for indignation. Although seemingly a reversal of the PT's inflexible social and moral positions, these two examples of acceptance have an explanation: the PT has continued as a party of demands instead of propositions, of interest groups instead of the people; of the immediate instead of the long-term. Upon arriving in power, the PT was imprisoned by the present and by the special interest groups; it was incapable of satisfying the demands that it had previously supported. It opted for managing the present, without a platform for transforming the country as it had promised during the electoral campaigns. It opted to tend to the interests of organized groups, leaving aside the chance to change Brazilian social reality. It opted for government assistance for the poor and management for the rich. Its previous defense of each group's demands - as if it were possible to satisfy all of them - proved impossible to fulfill when it came into conflict with the known limited availability of resources. Without redirecting the discourse to formulate and carry out proposals that would change the country with the resources available, the Lula government imprisoned the PT. And without an alternative, transformative project, the PT preferred to accept the moral reality, just as it had already accepted the social reality. Instead of deepening the analysis of the crisis, including - if this should prove necessary - distancing itself from the Lula government, the PT preferred to ignore the crisis, shifting the blame to the press and to the Right. As a result, the party faces many years of recovery, both in public opinion and also in history. Public opinion, which previously relied upon the party for ethics, does not accept its incapacity to carry out its own exegesis and reform. It is unacceptable that the party upon which it relied to enact changes has been transformed into the party of the established order. The consequence will be a party intimidated by public opinion, a party with no time to think of Brazil. Precisely because it accepted the crisis - without perceiving that it was a consequence of sociopolitical accommodation and that it represents a deviation not only of conduct but also of promises - the PT will be condemned to internal struggles for the next few years, without making propositions other than for the party itself. After exercising power for the sake of power, it will undergo an intraparty struggle for the party, and not for ideas and strategies to change the country. The loser in all this is the country itself. The PT was the party with the greatest potential to change Brazil, to undertake a democratic reorientation of our development project. Luckily, the militancy is stronger than the institution itself. Despite their perplexity, many militants maintain their ethics and dreams. If they have not been contaminated by the leadership, if they have not made accommodations and accepted recent events, they will wake up and build a new PT or new parties. And Brazil need not wait years to once again have a PT committed to ethics in conduct and ethics in priorities. Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at
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. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome -
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...Lula has legalized corruption.
...Lula has betrayed all his voters with lies, lies and lies, before, during and after his election.
There is also an excellent article on corruption in Brazil at :
http://insidecostarica.com/spe...uption.htm
Everyone should read it.
Over the years not much has changed in this subject, except that it goes crescendo all the time.
Corruption is at an all time high, with a President, that fighted all his life for an ethical ideology.....until before his election.
No doubt that the future growth of corruption will continue to be far superior than brazilian economic growth for decades to come and that innjustice will continue to prevail..