Brazilian President Rousseff
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff fell – or did she? In the article “The decline and fall of Dilma
Rousseff” in Newsweek (17/05/2016), Brian
Winter describes her gradual downfall until the moment the Brazilian Parliament
suspended her from Office on 12/05/2016 and replaced her by Vice-President Michel Temer until a future hearing that can impeach her. A large crowd celebrated her fall but I wonder for how
long. Still, people celebrated because many hope that corrupt politicians can
finally fall and indeed, I think her fall may start to clean Brazil’s politics.
However, many who removed her from power were celebrating even more as finally,
the politician who refused to stop the corruption investigations was finally
removed from power and I think that they believe many people were celebrating
her fall in the hope the corruption investigations will end with her removal.
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| A flag falling apart? |
The past
As a woman
in her early 20s, she joined left-wing guerrilla groups who fought against the
military dictatorship and for this she endured jail and torture. After her
release, she lived a life as an economist and public servant. Later, President
Lula da Silva made her Minister of Energy before she succeeded him as president
in 2010 and she was re-elected in 2014. During the re-election campaign, a
scandal over Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras and some large
construction companies erupted when the Federal Police deputy Márcio Anselmo spoke
about corruption in a news program. Immediately President Rousseff was advised to
fire Mr Anselmo but she refused and later even continued to defend him because the
corruption needed to be known and investigated. This would eventually topple her
government when some of the President’s top aides noticed an opportunity to stop
the investigation—or at least damage it (probably because they were investigated).
The article
suggests that she is not completely innocent as she was energy minister when
the corruption was ongoing and the article ask the question why she didn’t see
the sheer scale of the robbery at Petrobras as minister and chair of the
company’s board and suggests she was simply not good enough. Earlier in the
article, the author also describes how she is the primary responsible for
Brazil’s worst recession in at least 80 years and that she has very few friends
at home or abroad, again suggesting the reasons are because she is not that
good. However, everywhere elected politicians who are not part of the elite while
try to improve the lives of the less-fortunate are considered not good,
left-wing and responsible for the bad financial positions of countries and thus
need to be removed and this in the America’s (Brazil but also Argentina’s
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Venezuela’s president Nicolas
Maduro) to even Tony Blair in the UK (although he became part of the
wealthy). And of course, errors were made such as allowing top employees at
companies to strip assets to pay themselves unimaginable wealth. But today the
errors made are worse as now we know but still allow those at the top to
continue as before and even claim it is good for the economy, against all
evidence.
The article
describes how the president is responsible for the downfall of her government
and herself because of her arrogance and refusal to listen to others. But, the “others”
were advising her to replace Mr Anselmo as Federal Police deputy as he had broken
the rule of the previous dictatorship-area that corruption should not be
discussed in public; she even re-instated him while also appointed other
investigators, making enemies. Indeed, President Rousseff refused to fire Mr
Anselmo by claiming “I’ll never do that, I’m
not afraid of this investigation. It has nothing to do with me!”,
suggesting she was not involved in the corruption. Later she told the newspaper
Folha de S. Paulo “I have to emphasize
the fact that Brazil needs this investigation”, suggesting the
investigation is more important than her own career in order to stop
corruption, something many people can’t understand so they would intervene,
certainly to protect friends. Her fight against corruption led to the
resignation of six ministers in her first year in office because of corruption
charges, increasing the numbers of enemies.
Although I
don’t know whether she knew what she was doing or she was simply honest, she
may understand the path she has to take to finally stop corruption in Brazil
and thus end the dictatorship-era. I think she had to become president to
expose and stop the corruption because, although she may not like it being
removed as President, this removal made headlines worldwide as corrupt
politicians tried to prevent the investigations. If she had known of and tried
to expose the corruption as energy minister, it would have been much easier to
block the investigation and remove her as minister without much troubles. By appointing
her vice-president, someone from another party, he was the main driving force
to oust and replace her. Often, whatever elected “people of the people” try to do when they go into politics, very powerful people and organisations
try to prevent them
from making life better for ordinary people in favour of a more equal world so
the elite can remain privileged. The Newsweek article agrees that Mrs Rousseff
seemed genuinely focused on tackling Brazil’s legendary poverty and inequality
instead of enriching herself and relatives. And whether or not Mrs Rousseff
knew what she was doing, fact is that the corruption became more exposed by this
infighting to topple her. And these powerful people are so influential that
even people as President Obama don’t realises they oppose people who want to
liberate their people from slavery (e.g. Venezuela) and thus President Obama
opposes those governments while defend those who would enslave those
populations although I credit him for acknowledging Cuba.
What may the future hold?
Maybe the
elite may again try to convince President Rousseff to stop the corruption
investigations. She may or may not accept. If she agrees to stop the investigations
than the public will notice how she too became corrupted to keep her job and
this will anger people. On the other hand, I think it is very likely she will continue
to refuse to stop the investigations so her impeachment will continue and she
becomes a victim of the establishment. Then her trial will continue or there
was no reason to oust her for what they claim she did: obstruction of justice
for appointing her mentor and predecessor Mr Lula da Silva as a minister at a
time when prosecutors were seeking his arrest on corruption charges while she
is also accused for not having obeyed the financial markets by breaking budget
laws and thus they claim she is responsible for Brazil’s economic chaos. But
remember, a worldwide financial crisis was caused by the financial markets that
are now again gaining power. During the trial more may be revealed. And as many
Brazilians are fed-up with the corruption and inequality in their country, this
trial against President Rousseff may liberate the country from its corrupt past
or it may never heal – the future will decide. As the article mentions,
President Rousseff deserves some credit for one of Brazil’s main achievements:
the consolidation of rule of law under its young democracy and the notion that
corruption can be investigated. But to achieve this, people may suffer because
the corrupt will battle back to save their position and Mrs Rousseff may show
that, to end corruption, even a president can fall. Of course, it may also be
possible that many ordinary people are themselves so corrupt they will continue
to oppose President Rousseff, even when it becomes clear she supported the
corruption investigations. Still, the exposure by President Rousseff scared the
Brazilian elite sufficiently so she had to leave.
And thus, now
Mr Temer is the new president, a
75-year-old man who appointed only other old and mainly white men to solve Brazil’s economic problems
and then hopes this group will be accepted in such a diverse country while already people are protesting. This group of people may or may not
be corrupt and may or may not stop the corruption investigations to remain in
power. It is possible Mr Temer will allow that the
corruption investigations continue and already one minister had to resign; but this may result in enemies who
may topple him too. Or he may focus on stopping corruption by poorer people so
they no longer demand these investigations continue. But whether people in
government are clean or corrupt, probably the poor will suffer as already the new government is reversing
social programs while
favour (big) businesses to restore market confidence and
thus gain the market’s support in return. Nevertheless, the new procedure to
impeach Mrs Rousseff and any possible trial will reopen the corruption claims.
Of course, they may silence her but in that case, people may become angry and
demand answers. And thus, I think that, whatever the political and economic
class will try to do, the corruption will continue to be exposed and anger may
continue to grow, certainly when the elite will continue to reward themselves
and the international markets while take from the poor and middle-class. Another
possibility is that the Brazilian society is so corrupt and thus blinded that
people will continue to be angered by people who expose corruption because in a
corrupt society, corruption maintains itself as people need corruption to reach
a deal; however, in that case people may turn against each other in order to
enrich themselves at the expense of others when the elite continues to favour
the elite against the poor. Because always powerful people bully the weak who
have to cheat to survive to justify their own wrongdoings.
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