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

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