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 Starting this week, it is enough to count up to 30. The House has up to the last day of the month to vote Brazil's political and electoral reforms, already approved in the Senate. When the deadline is reached, it doesn't matter whether they still vote this year or in the coming years.
Changes can be applied to the next year's elections only if they are sanctioned one year before, that is, up to the first Sunday of October 2006, coincidentally the first day of the month.
Remote Possibility
Nobody is betting on this possibility. First due to the shortness of the deadlines. The political reform has not yet passed in the Constitution and Justice Commission. Even ignoring the fact that they need to be considered at other permanent commissions, they will still need to go into the full House for discussion.
However, the mockery of electoral reforms, which the Senate's Constitution and Justice Commission approved, hasn't reached the House yet.
The main reason for the drive's failure, however, has nothing to do with the rules. It should be credited to the deputies' lack of political will to promote changes that will harm them.
Take the barrier clause, for example, whose intention is to reduce the number of parties. None of the small parties accept the requirement that 5% of the electorate who voted for federal deputy be spread throughout seven states at least.
The same way, Their Excellencies run away as the devil from the cross from party fidelity, that requirement that determines that a legislator loses his mandate when he moves to another party.
The public financing of political campaigns may satisfy politicians, but it shocks society when it finds out that there is no money to cover potholes on the road, but they will find plenty of it for the candidates.
Finally, there is no consensus on the rule that prohibits the personalized vote in the candidates for deputy, compelling the voter to vote in lists prepared by the same old honchos of always.
As for the electoral reform, worse yet: the barons of the electronic media have mutinied against rules that would forbid the release of polls in the fifteen days preceding the elections and, more than that, rules that woul prevent the production of costly TV flourishes in place of the candidates, pure and simply, saying what their intentions are. In short, good-bye reforms, unless a miracle happens...
The Monster Pizza
The conclusion belongs to master Hélio Fernandes, to whom, in Brazil, the next day always manages to get a little bit worse than the previous day. It's been argued strongly, in the House, whether the number of those to be sacked should be eighteen or, at most, six.
Brandishing spear and sword, House speaker Severino Cavalcanti presents himself as defender of the innocent. He has his motives for not wishing the loss of mandate for all his companions who received irregular money, using the excuse that they need to pay previous campaigns debts. All seems to indicate, the Speaker also received his share.
But what is real bad in this debate is that there were at least 80 legislators who were caught red-handed accepting the money. If the number of the punished is reduced to 18, this will be the largest pizza ever baked in the Legislative.
(In Brazil, the expression "acabar em pizza," to end up in pizza, implies that something illegal and publicly disclosed is put under the carpet and nobody is punished for it.) A shame, that the reduction to six makes even spicier.
They are playing not only with the society, but also with the democratic institutions. The crime of receiving illicit money is the same. It does not depend on gradations.
Free Fall
The meetings of the several Congressional Inquiries (CPIs) and of the House's Ethics Board lost their charm. When they started their work, they surprised the polls institutes due to the high ratings they brought to the TV Senate, TV House and the all news channels.
Although only broadcast on cable, the sessions got higher ratings than soap operas and all kinds of TV show. Deponents such as Roberto Jefferson, José Dirceu, Marcos Valério, Delúbio Soares and others seized the public attention, at least that portion of society that has the luxury of watching pay television.
Things have changed though. Rating have fallen, less due to the festival of staged lies, and more due to the fact that the CPIs haven't concluded anything neither have they taken drastic measures against the liars.
Little by little it became evident to the public that they were watching if not a friendly party, certainly an exhibition of egos that wasn't leading anywhere.
If things keep the way they are, soon the viewer will flip the channel when they start covering the political crisis on open TV. This loss of credibility hits, above all, Congress and the politicians. Point for the thieves...
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.
Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.
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Nothing wil change...or so little....or too little !!!!!!
So why on the next elections....will you continue to elect the same politicians....who you know that from left to right...are deeply corrupted to the roots...and care mostly for their own well being...instead of yours ??????
Why dont you elect a new generation of more motivated politicians...caring more for your citizens ??????
A change in society need a change of generation and a change of thinkings !!!!!!
Nobody in the world has already been able to change an old black and white TV...to produce a new digital, with crisps colors and
ultra flat screen !!!!!!!!
And you perfectly know that even if an old TV tells you that it can be changed to a new one....this is simply untrue !!!!!!!!
Old politicians are the same as old TVs !!!
Old TVs are just good.... for the garbage.........
Old politicians will just tell you how good they are with words....not with FACTS.... !!!!