Nobody can take it anymore. That's enough! They all have gone way overboard. From Delúbio Soares to Marcos Valério, from Duda Mendonça to José Dirceu and so many others, in their depositions at the Congressional Inquiries (CPIs), to the House's Ethics Board, to the Federal Police and to the Public Ministry, the festival of lies not only shocks and embarrasses, but also enrages everybody.

Those testifying  want to show that there was no corruption, neither mensalões (monthly allowances), much less utilization of public money, money under the table, traffic of influence and widespread plunder.

They are all angels, dancing around the truth. That's why the investigation has become useless. If you'd believe what they say, even involving contradictions, the nation would owe them apologies, and would need to reorganize the space in order for them to continue their illicit operations. Besides we would have to  turn Lula into emperor and perpetual defender of Brazil.

For almost ninety days now we keep hearing about charges of all kinds, proof of dishonesty and even evidence of the largest scandal in the Republic's history. But almost nothing of this comes courtesy of the testimony of those involved. If it were in China, opened economically to the world, but closed in political terms, some would have already been shot in the nape. 

Not that I'm in favor of radical solutions, but it is too little to just hope that the population will give its answer when it's election time, defeating those involved. We need to change the Penal Code, or the Congress Statutes, establishing that lying before the CPIs will get you in jail. The same as robbing public money.

Illicit Maneuvers

There is a trick, in this crisis, that will make people very upset in case it proves to be true. Have you already noticed that the main characters involved in the plunder are preparing the bed so that they can continue leading their respective parties?

Valdemar da Costa Neto, for example, resigned from his mandate as House Representative, not from the PL's party presidency. In his depositions, he does not reveal a single name of a deputy from his party who received the monthly allowance. The threat is obvious: if they try to unseat him, he will denounce those he rewarded with hard cash. If they accept that he remains as his leader, he will keep quiet.

In the PP, the same story. José Janene and Sandro Mabel made it clear: if they try to sack them or remove them from the leadership they will sing. They will tell all they know. Part of the threat is also for the government. And they say it applies to the highest post. 

It is evident that Roberto Jefferson will lose his mandate, but he will only stop being the PTB honcho if he so wishes. 

Finally, the PT. What's the explanation for José Dirceu to keep on insisting that he be part of the party's new command, which will be chosen in September? The same reason as everybody else. In case they do not vote for him and for his comrades to integrate the National Directorate, instead of Tarso Genro, archives will be opened and intimate indiscretions will come to light.

It is not easy to get rid of those who are corrupt.

Severino Plays Defense

While almost every deputy and senator defends the importance of having immediate approval for political and electoral reforms, few actually are seriously intent on getting these changes.

In theory, they defend, suggest and extol the virtues of dozens of alterations they call necessary and essential. In practice, however, they run away from the reforms as the devil from the cross. These changes may jeopardize the whole group, and individually, touch the future of each one.

But how can they justify this maneuver before the public opinion? How can they appear as vestals when in reality they try to keep the rags they are dressed in?

They found a way out through the naivete of House Speaker Severino Cavalcanti. In private, they are changing the mind of the backlander legislator. They want to convince him to give them more time, dragging the bills or even stopping them dead in their tracks, by using a thousand and one arguments: there is no time for an ample debate, the deadlines will have to be kept, it's risky to change something that pretty soon will have to be once again replaced. 

Result: barring a miracle, the reforms will not be approved by the deadline necessary for them to be valid in the coming elections. And once again the same farce that has been staged for over twenty years now will re-start. Fruitless discussions, flashy suggestions and permanent postponement of the minimum measures that would work to improve the political process.

Carlos Chagas writes for the Rio's daily Tribuna da Imprensa and is a representative of the Brazilian Press Association, in Brasília. He welcomes your comments at carloschagas@hotmail.com.

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