Klaus Hart Brasilientexte

Marina Silva’s[1] “stroke of genius” when she joined Eduardo Campos’ PSB (Brazilian Socialist Party) is proof of how badly Brazil urgently needs profound political reform.

The June street demonstrations showed that a good number of the population, particularly the young, do not trust political parties which have become worn out due to a lack of fidelity towards their statutory and pragmatic principles.

Hunger for power, the “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine”, alliances, even when dishonest, promiscuous and sealed by the vile sound of corruption are more important than what the parties’ founders preach.

Ausriß, Nachrichtenmagazin “Istoé”, Bündnispartner-Kontrolle, uralte Machtmechanismen, Friedensnobelpreisträger Barack Obama und Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel. Kurioser deutscher  Medienzirkus um Altbekanntes, Medienfunktionäre und Politiker in Erklärungsnöten – weil ihre bisherigen offiziellen Versionen erneut in interessantem Kontrast zur Realität stehen.

Die kriminellen Machenschaften der Geheimdienste – Hintergründe zur Merkel-Abhöraffäre:  http://www.hart-brasilientexte.de/2011/07/26/andreas-von-bulow-im-namen-des-staates-cia-bnd-und-die-kriminellen-machenschaften-der-geheimdienste-piper-verlag-viele-interessante-infos-uber-libyen-und-afghanistan-im-heutigen-banalen-mai/

http://www.hart-brasilientexte.de/2009/03/18/brasiliens-zunehmender-entwicklungsruckstand-immer-noch-keine-fahrradwege-in-millionenstadten-wie-sao-paulo-absurde-forderung-des-pkw-und-busverkehrs-keine-personenzuge-mehr-zwischen-rio-und-sao-pa/

http://www.hart-brasilientexte.de/2013/04/05/boomland-brasilien-knallbuntes-versionen-karussell-zu-brasilianischer-wirtschaft-dreht-sich-in-deutschsprachigen-medien-weiter-munter-aufschwung-abschwung-boom-stagnation-pessimismus-optimismu/

The presidential election in 2014 is fated to be reduced to a competition between political “bosses”. Backstage party coalitions, with an eye on more TV time during free political propaganda will be formed based on promises in the distribution of ministries, off-the-books cash and granting of positions and functions.

Even if the candidates proclaim marvels to the voters, once the result of the election is announced only agreements made backstage and established during the election process will be important. This is “neocoronelismo”[2], a Brazil divided into electoral corrals, with pragmatic disagreements put to one side by personal ambition and a desire to appropriate oneself of the power structure.

This Machiavellianism dates back to much before Machiavelli himself. Jesus was its victim. Pilate, governor of Judea and Roman interventor, was not well liked by Caiaphas’ Sanhedrin, the Jewish power. The two powerful ones however, agreed when defending the (dis)order criticised by Jesus, especially when he knocked over  the money lenders’ tables in the Temple at Jerusalem (equal today to impeding the functioning of the Stock Exchange). Jesus was condemned by both powers as a political prisoner.

How difficult it is to inspire hope in the young, to infuse utopia, to convince them of the importance of not remaining indifferent to the election process when they discover that no candidate places the Brazil project above his own project for power! Marketeers’ opinions will always be more important than voters’ demands.

Between 1980 when the PT founded, until 2002, when Lula was elected president for the first time, the party defended agrarian reform as being mandatory for Brazil. During 10 years in power, little was done in this regard. On the contrary, the latifundium increased, great extensions of land were appropriated by foreigners and agro business advanced in Amazonia treating indigenous people as a nuisance for progress.

I am not naive to the point of believing that politics depends on charismatic leaders, even if they are priviledged vote catchers. The best leaders could never be coherent with their principles while this intrinsically anti democratic, elitist and corrupt political structure exists. Hell is filled with good intentions…

As long as a new constituent assembly is not established exclusively for political reform, voters will continue to demonstrate in the streets showing indignation, organising hope and turning their vote into a resource for the compulsory retirement of political “bosses” and the promotion of candidates who prove they are prepared to break the age old taboo that Brazilian structures are untouchable.

As Cazuza[3] warned, many of our illusions are lost, our dreams were sold and there is no use sitting on the fence. We all need an ideology which gives meaning to our lives and our politics.

Otherwise we will all be deluded by neo liberalism which seeks to make us all into consumers and not citizens, by religious fundamentalism which insists on denying a lay State, by parties which, as Lampedusa[4] described, preach change so that all will remain as it is.

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of “Fome de Deus” (Hunger for God) (Paralela).