Proverbial

Scott Adams recently said he doesn’t really worry about “any problem that we can see coming”. For similar reasons, I’ve never really worried about Brazilians’ apathy toward politics, and their seemingly incapacity to hold elected officials accountable for their deeds. It always seemed like a question of time for people to realize that if, as the saying goes, “all politicians are crooks”, it’s because we let them.

Perhaps that time has come. The recent decision by senators and representatives to double up their own monthly salaries, as their last action before handing Congress to the next legislature, seems to have awakened voters to the power of the internet. Never before had I seen so many virtual petitions (.br), online forms (.br) or e-mail scripts (.br) designed to flood congressmen’s inboxes. Some friends of mine designed a virtual protest site, Não Sou Palhaço (.br) - or “I’m not a Clown”.

And, not surprisingly, the uproar seems to be working. Today comes word that Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled the agreement invalid, saying the proposal should be voted by both Houses for it to go into effect. The ruling Workers Party (PT), even at the cost of isolating Arilndo Chinaglia, government leader in the lower house and only representative from the party to openly defend the raise, has gone from “no comments” to saying its leaders should stand position against the proposal (.br). And congressmen seem to be answering their voters, stating their position on the matter and promising to fight for it.

This being Brazil, it is not impossible for the subject to be dropped for now, only to be brought up by the next constituency. In which case it wouldn’t be surprising, either, if by then people didn’t mind it so much anymore and the raise was voted into effect without much of a fuss. In fact, PT’s leader in the lower house, rep. Henrique Fontana, is already proposing a smaller raise (.br), in accordance to inflation. But even if we still can’t say the age of accountability has arrived in Brazil, it is nice to see such moments of lucidity and activism, which just might be another step toward a more mature society.