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 During his recent testimony to the Senate economic committee, Brazil's Finance Minister, Antonio Palocci, must have felt like a rose between two thorns. To his left sat former President José Sarney while on the far right of the podium sat Senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães. Both these veterans are former chairmen of the Senate and were active in politics when Palocci was still in his pram and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was an apprentice metal worker.
They sat there like bodyguards, a reminder that the session would go according to their wishes and that Palocci was not to be given too rough a ride. Both Sarney and Magalhães have been accused of abusing their positions to found political dynasties and enrich themselves.
Their skill in manipulating the system and holding onto power over decades makes the Workers Party (PT) look amateurish and far removed from the power-hungry ideological machine portrayed by a section of the media.
The bribes-for-votes scandal has been a disaster for the PT. It showed that the party was unable to cope with the burden of responsibility. Instead of forming a cohesive alliance, it tried to set the agenda by bullying and buying.
Within a few weeks of the scandal breaking almost six months ago, it had lost most of its leadership, its reputation as an honest party and Lula's position as the odds-on favorite to win the next election.
Lula's top comrades, José Dirceu and José Genoíno, along with some lesser lights, such as the treasurer, Delúbio Soares, general secretary, Silvio Pereira and communications minister, Luiz Gushiken, all fell.
The leaders of the bribed political allies, such as the main whistle blower, Roberto Jefferson (PTB) and Valdemar Costa Neto (PL) went. The top management of state-owned entities such as the Post Offices, the IRB reinsurance institute and even the Mint also fell.
Three Congressional committees (CPIs) were set up and political life has revolved around their investigations at the expense of any progress in the legislature. The PT is alleged to have spent around 60 million reais (about US$ 29 million) in this scheme which, incidentally, has still not been proved due to the incompetence of the various CPIs.
The CPI set up to investigate the bribes-for-votes has been wound up, having failed to produce anything of note. The CPI investigating the Post Office is bogged down in a row between the PT and the PSDB, which has delayed the publication of its preliminary report.
Lula has survived the early pressure and is still in a reasonable position to seek re-election next year. Having failed to get the President, his enemies in Congress and the media are now trying to oust Finance Minister Palocci. Poor Palocci is now spending more time these days preparing for public grillings by Congressmen and the media than looking after the country's finances.
This explains his presence before the Senate committee on November 16 alongside Sarney and Magalhães, who is generally referred to as ACM. Sarney represents the pro-government wing of the PMDB and Magalhães is a member of the opposition PFL, but he goes his own way and supports Lula whenever it suits him.
Since Palocci is allegedly a Socialist who believes in democracy and Sarney and Magalhães are old-style conservatives who supported military rule, one would not expect this kind of solidarity. However, this is Brazil where ideology barely exists except among romantic left-wingers and nationalistic reactionaries and no-one is surprised at any kind of alliance.
(For more on this see my article Many Parties - Few Ideas in the Latest Articles section of Brazil Political Comment www.brazilpolitical.comment.com.br)
Breaking the Rules is Part of the Game
Neither is anyone surprised at seeing two politicians with records like Magalhães and Sarney still holding leading positions in the Upper House of Congress and setting the political agenda. For example, Magalhães resigned as chairman in 2001 after being accused of breaking the very rules of the Senate, which he was supposed to uphold. By resigning, he avoided being expelled.
An example of how Sarney received special treatment was seen when his account at Banco Santos was transferred by the owner just before it went bankrupt at the end of 2004. All other customers lost their deposits but not the former President who, incidentally, has shown no shame or regret.
Despite their age, neither Sarney nor Magalhães show any sign of retiring. Even if they do, a host of children and grandchildren are around to carry on the family tradition at both national and local levels. On Sarney's side these include his children, Roseana Sarney, the governor of Maranhão state, and the former environment minister, José Sarney Jr., who is a member of Brazil's tiny Green Party.
Magalhães Senior can count on his son ACM Jr. and grandson, known as ACM Neto, both Congressmen. Both could have fathered future presidents. Another of Magalhães' sons, Luiz Eduardo Magalhães, was chairman of the House of Representatives until his sudden death at the age of 43 in 1998.
Roseana Sarney was considered as a serious presidential candidate for the PFL party until early 2002 when a large amount of cash was found in the office of a company she owned and she was unable to give a satisfactory explanation why.
Besides founding dynasties, Sarney and Magalhães have other things in common - they are both from the Northeast, have built up large communications businesses, involving TV, radio and newspapers, and have successfully survived the transition from democracy to military rule and back again to democracy.
Both also have moustaches in line with the tradition of the macho political boss from the Northeast, known as a "colonel". Despite the allegations of using their office for personal aggrandizement, they have never been tried or convicted.
These kinds of complaints are routine in Brazilian politics, but some of the claims made against Magalhães are shocking and not outlined here in case they are libelous. However, most informed Brazilians are familiar with them.
Despite the allegations of brutality and corruption, Magalhães has maintained phenomenal support at grassroots level in his home state of Bahia. This popularity cannot just be put down to patronage and propaganda. A lot of people genuinely believe he has worked hard for the state, which was one of the most undeveloped in Brazil when he first became governor in 1971.
He was close to the military government and was chairman of Eletrobrás, the state-owned concerned charged with bringing electricity supplies to the whole of Brazil. He has been credited with developing Bahia's industrial and tourist infrastructure, which includes the big petrochemical hub at Camaçari. Magalhães has also successfully fought off attempts by his opponents in Bahia to weaken him politically.
In this sense, he has certainly been more successful than Sarney even though it was Sarney and not Magalhães who became President. However, it should be recalled that Sarney was not elected President but stepped in as Vice President in 1985 when Tancredo Neves died before assuming office. He made Magalhães his Communications Minister.
Good Cop Bad Cop
At the same time, they are very different in character. Whereas Magalhães can be rude, boorish and even violent, Sarney appears to be a more moderate person with a reputation as a conciliator. Despite this moderate approach, Sarney has shown himself to be excessively fond of power.
For example, he managed to persuade the Congress to extend his term as President from four years to five. This was before the President was elected by popular vote. More recently, when his latest term as chairman of the Senate ended in February 2004 he tried to get the Constitution changed to allow him to stand again.
Lula refused to help and Sarney got his revenge by overseeing a humiliating defeat for the government in May over Lula's decision to outlaw bingo halls. Sarney refused to delay a crucial vote and the government lost by a mere two votes. It was the biggest Congressional setback Lula's administration had suffered up to that time.
Another example of Sarney's lust for power and vanity was seen recently when he lost a battle with the state legislature in Maranhão over plans to have his mausoleum erected at the Mercês convent in the historical center of the state capital, São Luis.
This building, which was founded in the 17th century, was donated to the José Sarney Foundation in 1990 by the then state governor who was one of Sarney's allies. Opposition parties have claimed that handing over a building of such cultural importance to a private body was illegal.
Sarney's comments on the affair in an interview with Carta Capital magazine of November 23 show that behind the kindly grandfatherly face and rimless glasses lurks the soul of a Brazilian Pharaoh. Asked whether he, as a private individual, should be buried in the grounds of this historic building he said:
"Maybe I'll be buried there, maybe not. It's not essential. It would be a tourist attraction and in the future even a place of pilgrimage. Should I apologize for having been President of the Republic? Should I apologize for being a member of the Brazilian Academy of Literature. Should I apologize for having written over 60 books and having some translated into 12 languages? I have nothing to apologize for. That is my life. I was born in Maranhão."
Maybe Sarney really believes that his tomb will become a place of pilgrimage, with visitors laying flowers on his grave and praying to him. Perhaps if their prayers are answered they will try to have him beatified as the first step to becoming a saint. However, the fact is that Sarney has had 40 years to do something for Maranhão in this life and not as a future tourist attraction as a corpse.
At the end of the day, his record and that of his daughter, Roseana, are unimpressive. According to Carta Capital, which quoted figures from the IBGE official statistic body, Maranhão is the worst-off state in Brazil in terms of human development.
The magazine says that the 27 poorest towns in Brazil are in the state, which also has the lowest level of schooling - 3.6 years. The illiteracy rate is 22% and, at the end of 2002, only 58 of the state's 217 municipalities had access to secondary grade education. Of the state's population, 42.5% have no access to drinking water and 56% do not have an inside lavatory.
Literary Lion in an Illiterate Society
Instead of improving the lives of the people, Sarney has been busy writing books and was "elected" a member of the Brazilian Academy of Literature, a pretentious body modeled on the Académie Française. This honor allows him to wear a silly little embroidered jacket and sit around a table pontificating about literature and language with the likes of Paulo Coelho and former vice president, Marco Maciel.
Unfortunately, since almost a quarter of the population of Maranhão is illiterate and around 70% of the Brazilian population is functionally illiterate, this means they are unable to enjoy reading Sarney's novels such as "O Dono do Mar".
Despite his roots in Maranhão, where he became governor in 1966, Sarney does not actually represent the state in the Senate. In 1990, he moved his residential address for electoral purposes to Amapá in the Amazon region. During his Presidency, which was marked by economic failure and uncontrolled inflation, he lost power in his native state to a former ally and opted for Amapá, which had only officially become a state in 1988.
He recently failed in an attempt to set up a tax free zone in Amapá like the one which has existed in Manaus since the late 60s. This is the kind of pork barrel politicking aimed at creating artificial instead of productive wealth, which marks so much of Brazilian politics, particularly in the less developed area of the country and is a good way of winning popular support at the expense of the taxpayer elsewhere.
If the PT was really interested in holding onto power it could certainly learn a lot from these two on how to play a long game. These two senators, who are both in their 70s, have the stamina and enterprise of much younger men. If age does not remove them from the scene, we can be sure that they will still be around after the next election and wielding power regardless of who the next President is.
Note: Readers who are interested in ACM should check my article "Bahia - Land of Light or Heart of Darkness?" in the Selected Articles section of Brazil Political Comment. The article also refers to some books written about ACM. A book on Sarney entitled "A Reinvenção do Maranhão Dinástico" by Fátima Gonçalves, a professor at the University of Maranhão, is due to be published shortly.
John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish writer and consultant with long experience of Brazil. He is based in São Paulo and runs his own company Celtic Comunicações. This article originally appeared on his site www.brazilpoliticalcomment.com.br. He can be contacted at jf@celt.com.br.
© John Fitzpatrick 2005
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This piece of s**t is still alive?
And still sucking the people's blood ???
Aw, f**k.