Dilma Rousseff, President of Brasil |
Brazil, one
of the founders of the club of emerging markets famously known by the acronym, BRICS, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has been until late, a successful Latin American
country and a beacon of hope to countries like Nigeria. Its implosion therefore is one that could dampen the move
for advancement in countries with similar potentials. Even so, if democracy
would thrive, accountability must be the watchword of every public office
holder from the highest level to the lowest. To that extent, it is alright to
hold Rousseff to account.
The planned
ouster of Ms. Rousseff is being predicated on charges that she illegally used
money from state-owned banks to hide a catastrophic budget deficit, which then
bolstered her chances of re-election.
While the
veracity of those charges is still being contested by Rousseff even as the
upper chamber is yet to vote on her impeachment, what is discernible is the
sobering reality that the political and economic turmoil that has consumed that
country, Latin America’s largest, would not be over soon with the people paying
a heavy price. And the signs are all over: Inflation is running at 10 per cent,
unemployment is at a seven-year high and the economy is expected to contract by
as much as 3.8 percent for a second year in a row. A Zika epidemic is coursing through the northeast, and a
cash-strapped government in Rio de Janeiro has been racing to prepare for the
Summer Olympics. If the impeachment process moves forward as many experts have
predicted, Brazilian television this August is likely to feature a split-screen
spectacle of sporting events and their president on trial.
Ms. Rousseff
will have to step down temporarily this month if the Senate votes by a simple
majority to take on her impeachment trial. If the Senate votes by a simple
majority to go ahead with the impeachment, the 68-year old Rousseff would not
only be suspended, she will be replaced by vice president, Michel Temer, as acting president pending a trial. If she is found
guilty, Temer will serve out Rousseff’s term till 2018.
Rousseff,
whose résumé includes a stint as a Marxist guerrilla, has vowed to fight on.
For Brazil, like Nigeria, is a peculiar place. The man who is expected to
replace her, Vice President Michel Temer, is not exactly a knight in shining
armour. Temer, 75, a career politician whose Brazilian Democratic Movement
Party has been ensnared in the nation’s ever-expanding corruption scandal, is
almost as unpopular as Rousseff.
Indeed,
Brazil’s political landscape is now almost a minefield of scandal. A report
says a third of the deputies in the lower house have been charged or are being
investigated for corruption, including its speaker, Eduardo Cunha, the man who orchestrated Ms. Rousseff’s impeachment.
Mr. Cunha, who faces charges that he accepted $40 million in bribes, is
especially disliked, with nearly 90 percent of Brazilians calling for him to
step down.
In the same
vein, President of the Senate, Renan
Calheiros, has his own challenges. He is being investigated on accusations
of receiving bribes, evading taxes and allowing a lobbyist to pay child support
for his daughter from an extramarital affair.
Certainly,
politicians in Brazil have placed partisan politics and personal interests
above governance in a country, which received positive global attention under
the last administration of President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Under Lula, who has also been named in
corruption charges involving deals in the country’s oil firm, Petrobas, 70
million people were lifted out of poverty. Brazil, unlike some struggling
developing countries, has also recorded self-sufficiency in agriculture and
high-end manufacturing, including production of automobiles and even airplane
engines. Today, more than half of the population could access modern mass
transit system including modern railways. All of that is being destroyed now
with the political crisis.
As the
Brazilian political saga unfolds, there are some lessons to be learnt. In the
first place, political leaders should not under any guise undermine the public
interest or public good in a bid to influence outcome of elections as Rousseff
allegedly did. Political power belongs to the people and only a mandate freely
given by them is legitimate. However, when the conduct of a public officer has
damaged the authority of the office, the sanctity of that office should be
preserved: A true leader should quit honourably. Rousseff may not yet have been
found guilty. But she should lead by example and show herself a statesman.
Today’s
political leaders should learn from United States former President, Richard Nixon, who had to quit as the
37th President once his conduct was adjudged to have tainted the integrity of
his office, without waiting for impeachment process.
Brazil’s
leadership, in both arms of legislature and executive, appears too tainted. And
in the spirit of leadership purity which these times demand, Rousseff should
take the Nixon road in the interest of Brazil even if her traducers are not
better than her. That way, she would have set the moral tone for the Brazilian
people to demand better conduct or higher standards from others. (Guardian)
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