President Rousseff of Brazil is Making Matters Worse by Naming Lula Da Silva to be Chief-Of-Staff
Joachim de Villiers, Michiyo Tanabe and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil is facing internal pressure from ordinary Brazilians who are disillusioned with her economic policies and issues related to corruption. This reality should have galvanized Rousseff to become more transparent – and to focus especially on economic factors. However, the embattled Rousseff is showing complete political arrogance. This is based on trying to protect the former leader of Brazil who faces serious allegations in relation to corruption.
It now appears that the former leader of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is yet another champagne socialist. In other words, increasing allegations of corruption are damaging the once popular political figure of Lula. Of course, the investigation into Lula and big business is still ongoing therefore no concrete conclusions have been made yet. Yet the charges are extremely serious. Therefore, for Rousseff to name Lula with being the new chief-of-staff then this smacks of a cover-up. On top of this, it is political cronyism and the open manipulation of democracy because it will be much harder now for investigators to charge Lula.
The BBC says “The move shields Lula from possible prosecution by a federal judge investigating a massive corruption scandal named Operation Car Wash…Under Brazilian law, cabinet members can only be tried by the Supreme Court.”
Lula, once a respected politician who espoused socialism, now appears to be an entirely new proposition despite helping the poor during his political leadership of Brazil. After all, he knows that vast numbers of Brazilians will see the move to be part of a major political cover-up. Therefore, within a mere two weeks of Lula being questioned about money laundering, he know miraculously becomes the chief-of-staff thereby protecting himself from serious allegations.
According to prosecutors Lula accepted money and a luxury house. Indeed, the Petrobras scandal taints both the governing coalition and opposition forces. In other words, no major political party irrespective of alleged ideology is being spared from the ongoing probes into serious political corruption.
The current economic recession in Brazil is also adding to the crisis because while ordinary people struggle, it is clear that certain politicians have lined their own respective pockets. Not only this, while the current government is slow to act against the deteriorating economy, it is clear that when it comes to protecting internal politicians then the opposite happens. After all, Rousseff is responding quickly in order to protect Lula from serious allegations in relation to corruption.
Time Magazine says “A major corruption investigation has seen the former President forced to deny charges of money laundering, while widespread public anger against the political class, abetted by Brazil’s worst economic slump for 25 years, had led to impeachment proceedings against his political mentee Rousseff. On March 13, at least a million people took part in nationwide protests against the government.”
Lula knows also that by accepting the chief-of-staff role that it appears to be based on protecting himself from further allegations. In other words, he is hiding behind political immunity. If so, his built up socialist savior role now appears to be a sham. After all, he fully understands the public perception of the oil giant Petrobras corruption scandal – therefore by agreeing to become the new chief-of-staff then he is shoring himself up from further investigations.
Overall, while Lula is not being accused of taking direct cash bribes from big business, he is still deemed to be part of underhanded corruption related to money. This relates to big business and political favors, renovations of property, estranged circles involving political donations and high-level fees in relation to speaking. Therefore, Rousseff and Lula appear to be not only arrogant and ignoring the current economic and political climate of discontent, they equally seem to be putting themselves above the people of Brazil.
http://time.com/4261712/lula-brazil-petrobras-scandal/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35820671
Modern Tokyo News is part of the Modern Tokyo Times group
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