|
 There are elected members of Brazil's Congress
who spent heavily to win a seat, and avoid being nailed
by the law. Brazilians are well aware their honorable
elected officials are not about to kiss off this mother
of all parliamentary goodies: parliamentary immunity
By Adhemar Altieri
Since the end of the annual July recess, Brazil's Congress has been considering what
has come to be known as the "Ethics Package"—a series of measures meant to
do away with, or at least tone down, a number of improper procedures and inexcusable
advantages not normally enjoyed by parliamentarians elsewhere in the world. At first
glance, it sounds ideal: if there's an institution in Brazil that could use heavy doses of
ethics, discipline and morality, that would be Congress. Such changes would come not a
moment too soon. But a closer look reveals more of an opportunistic stab at a serious set
of problems, with limited chances of true success.
The "package" covers aspects of Brazilian Congressional life that have been
severely criticized for a number of years. Most are the object of bills or amendments
already introduced, which have been sitting where Brazilian elected officials like to put
what they don't care for—in the bottom drawer of a back room somewhere in Brasília.
These existing motions have now been pulled together in one neat bundle to create the
so-called "package".
There's no denying the convenience of appearing to do something at this particular time
about the most questionable aspects of Brazil's Parliament. The image of Congress is as
far down in the dumps as can be, especially following the long, in-the-gutter battle for
the Senate presidency between Antonio Carlos Magalhães and Jader Barbalho, and its
telling aftermath: two resignations to avoid expulsions—including Magalhães', plus
Barbalho licensed from the presidency to answer serious charges of corruption and also
expected to resign to avoid being expelled.
Specifically, the image-cleansing "package" deals with the following issues
and proposed measures:
1) Secret ballots—currently, any vote in Congress can be secret if a member so
moves, and the motion obtains a simple majority. A great way for a congressman to hide
inconsistent, unexplainable positions from voters;
2) Parliamentary immunity—often described as "parliamentary impunity"
because in Brazil's Congress, it protects members not just from possible legal action
because of what they say on the floor (as is the case for elected officials most anywhere
else in the world), but also—amazingly—from being penalized for common criminal
acts like embezzlement and even murder;
3) Party loyalty—members would have to be affiliated to a party for at least four
years before running for office under its colors. Currently, the law calls for only two
years' affiliation before a party member can be a candidate. This allows for unlimited
party-hopping, with politicians jumping ship at will, often immediately after election
results are known, in a clear show of disregard for party lines, ideology, or the voters
who just elected them. With only a two-year affiliation period in the law books, they'll
be eligible again when the next election comes around;
4) Code of Ethics and creation of an Ethics Committee—the Senate already has both,
but not the Lower House. If introduced, the Code would be enforced by the Committee, which
could punish members in many ways, including with the loss of a seat depending on the
offense;
5) Representative Commission—this would make it easier for organized groups like
labor unions, residents' associations and NGOs to submit citizens' bills—proposals
that would then be considered by Congress. To do so now requires a complicated document
that must be signed by one million registered voters before being considered;
6) Public funding for political campaigns—already approved by the Senate, this
proposal, if passed by the Lower House, would grant parties R$7 (about US$3) per vote
received in the past election, to fund the next campaign. The money would be distributed
by each political party among its candidates, and no other funding would be allowed in an
election campaign;
Taken together, these steps represent massive changes to Brazil's political
establishment, of the sort most members of Congress want no part of, even if most don't
have the courage to step forward and say so in public. Which is why this entire package
must be looked upon with grave doubts about the true intentions of the man portraying
himself as the driving force behind this effort—Congressman Aécio Neves of the PSDB,
the recently elected President of the Lower House of Congress, best known for being the
grandson of Tancredo Neves, who would have been Brazil's first civilian president after 21
years of military rule but died without taking office in 1985.
"Aecinho", as he's also known, was the object of quite a deference by
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso recently. On a brief presidential visit to neighboring
Bolivia, Vice-President Marco Maciel traveled along—normally, Maciel would stay
behind and be the sitting President during Cardoso's absence. With Maciel out of the
country, the next person down the line to temporarily sit in as President was Aécio,
which he did for a couple of days. It was a symbolic way of having a Neves in the
presidency to honor the memory of Tancredo, who defeated the military regime in a
Congressional vote in a tense moment in recent Brazilian history, but never got to taste
his victory. Allowing Aécio to embody his grandfather actually got people thinking about
what might have been had Tancredo become President, instead of his very limited running
mate, José Sarney.
The younger Neves might even be pursuing his "Ethics Package" out of the
goodness of his heart, and the true belief that such measures are the very least that must
be done to moralize Brazil's Congress, all of which is rather obvious. He has gone to
great lengths to explain in various media appearances that he wants to improve the public
image of the federal Legislature, and even went so far as to consider an R$8.5 million
(about US$3.5 million) advertising campaign to "publicize positive measures"
approved by Congress, since the media only seem to spot the negative stuff… To defend
the expense, Aécio Neves argued that cost cuts he introduced since becoming President of
the Lower House have saved taxpayers R$133 million (about US$55 million). Presumably this
gives him the right to spend R$8.5 million in any way he wishes…
Unfortunately, all this goodness and sudden urge for morality stumbles on a simple
fact: there is hardly a chance Congress will give up on many of these aspects, however
absurd they might appear. The fact is there are elected members of Brazil's Congress who
spent heavily to win a seat, and avoid being nailed by the law. So while little is said
out in the open about the item dealing with parliamentary impunity… er, immunity that
is… Brazilians are well aware their honorable elected officials are not about to kiss
off this mother of all parliamentary goodies.
How big is the problem? The Lower House is currently in possession of 28 requests from
the Brazilian Supreme Court to formally charge elected members. This is what current
procedure calls for: the Supreme Court must ask permission, and Congress must allow one of
its own to be charged. The Constitutional and Justice Commission of the Lower House has
ten more such requests—eight of them involve alleged fraud, embezzlement, influence
trafficking, use of false documents and improper use of public funds or property. All of
it involving elected members, none of it having anything to do with what parliamentary
immunity was meant to protect elected officials from in the first place. Some requests
have been awaiting a decision for as many as ten years.
Perhaps Aécio Neves meant for his "package" to mobilize public opinion in
such a way that Congress would have no choice but to move forward on all items. Perhaps.
If this was his intention, it simply hasn't materialized, and there's no reason why it
should have: all of these items—however blatant they must appear to readers who are
elsewhere in the world, and accustomed to legislative procedures that couldn't possibly
include this sort of blunt protection of wrongdoing—are old hat in Brazil. It is not
new or surprising that someone with a bad rap gets elected to avoid the law. True,
recently several cases have been uncovered and members have been expelled and even
arrested. Society and the media are certainly more aware of the problem and, when the
evidence is there, something has been done about it outside Congress. Which only serves to
encourage the esprit de corps that will more than likely kick in, and stop the
"Ethics Package" from doing further damage to such a cozy setup.
Aside from the extremely limited chance that parliamentary immunity will be changed in
any way, here's a look at the other measures and their chances of approval or, at least,
change for the better:
- Secret ballots are under pressure, and other legislatures throughout Brazil, at the
state and municipal level, have done away with them. There's a 50-50 chance this one can
pass at the federal level;
- Party loyalty is a tough one, always mentioned whenever political reform comes
up—then again, political reform has been promised since the 1994 campaign when
Fernando Henrique Cardoso was first elected. He never really took the lead on this, and
Congress certainly won't. Party-swapping is a great way to "negotiate" one's
position in Brazil's Congress, so this one is seen as serious damage to what being a
congressman is all about. Chances of approval are very limited;
- Creating a Code of Ethics and an Ethics Committee might just make it, since similar
structures already exist in the Senate;
- The Representative Commission, which makes it easier for citizens' bills to get to
the Lower House for consideration, was actually approved on August 8th, and described as a
"direct connection" with society. This is the only aspect of the
"package" to be considered and voted on so far;
- Public funding for political campaigns? Well… this would make it a lot more
difficult for candidates to accept financial backing in exchange for positions they will
defend once elected. Not only do politicians not want to give this up, but voters tend to
see the proposal as more taxpayer money in the hands of people who walk away with far too
much as it is. Very limited chances of approval…
You might be wondering why Aécio Neves would make so much noise about his
"package", if its chances are so limited. Surely he knows what he is surrounded
by in Congress… We wondered for a while too, until the past week, when Aécio was the
honored guest of a dinner meeting with high-powered business leaders in São Paulo. The
high point of the gathering: an emotional pitch to those in attendance, about what an
ideal presidential candidate Aécio might be in 2002. That might just explain it all, but
it's not as simple as it appears.
It's not that Aécio would have a real shot at becoming the government candidate, let
alone winning the presidential election. At this point in his political career, aside from
his famous grandfather, he is really a political lightweight with not much else to go on.
But throwing another name into the fray fits what seems to be President Cardoso's strategy
at this point: to have several possible government candidates being considered, so the
opposition doesn't have a specific name to focus on with its criticism.
At a time of low government approval ratings, what with the threat of blackouts because
of the energy crisis, and trouble emanating from Argentina hitting the economic scene,
this is not a good time for the government to be clear about who its candidate will be
next year. At the same time, the government doesn't want to be entirely out of the
picture. So Aécio Neves becomes the fifth possible government standard-bearer on the
scene, along with Health Minister José Serra, Finance Minister Pedro Malan, Ceará state
Governor Tasso Jereissati, and Education Minister Paulo Renato de Souza.
Aécio might just come out of this smelling like roses, as the one in favor of
"clean hands" and "ethics" in Congress who couldn't get his way
because members simply wouldn't have it. He has promised to put each and every aspect of
the "Ethics Package" up for a vote, as a way to expose those who are against
change. Assuming the item banning secret ballots can be approved ahead of the rest, this
could get interesting. The most important aspects of the "package" have yet to
be considered and voted on, so there's time for the government to try and stir up pressure
on Congress from society to get these measures through—assuming the government
actually wants these measures in place. Without this, most of the key items will either
fall by the wayside entirely, or end up heavily amended—all sharp teeth carefully
removed—and then passed.
Related sites:
Congressman Aécio Neves' website (Portuguese only):
http://www.camara.gov.br/aecioneves
Adhemar Altieri is a veteran with major news outlets in Brazil, Canada
and the United States. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Northwestern
University in Evanston, Illinois, and spent ten years with CBS News reporting from Canada
and Brazil. Altieri is a member of the Virtual Intelligence Community, formed by The
Greenfield Consulting Group to identify future trends for Latin America. He is also the
editor of InfoBrazil (http://www.infobrazil.com),
an English-language weekly e-zine with analysis and opinions on Brazilian politics and
economy. You can reach the author at editors@infobrazil.com
Send
your
comments to
Brazzil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed