The obsession with "fighting" corruption and its damage to Brazilian society.

(originally published in Marcelo Auler's Blog)

A recent statistical survey sponsored by the Perseu Abramo Foundation reveals that corruption is considered the main national problem, both among those who identify as left-wing and those who consider themselves right-wing on the political spectrum.

Indeed, the private or partisan appropriation of social assets, when it becomes a widespread habit in the public sphere, is a destabilizing factor for governance, as it imposes a permanent shift in focus in management: instead of investing optimally in public policies, state bodies begin to cater to the patrimonial demands of private forces that guarantee their ability to govern.

There is a substantial loss of assets and program-making capacity due to the misappropriation of public funds. There is also a erosion of ethics in management, as the trivialization of the private appropriation of revenues leads to administrators becoming detached from the public interest and the values ​​that derive from it.

No one denies that the impact of what has become known as "corruption" is profoundly detrimental to the functioning of institutions and the quality of governance.

 

Cartoon by SponHolz.arq.br

No government has done more than those under the presidencies of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff to equip the law enforcement, investigation, prosecution, and judicial bodies to confront this phenomenon.

In addition to legislative changes, noteworthy developments include strengthening the powers of the Comptroller General's Office (CGU), the Federal Revenue Service, and the Council for Financial Activities Control (COAF), and establishing a permanent forum for the responsible authorities, known as ENCCLA, or "National Strategy for Combating Corruption and Money Laundering." This forum, among many other initiatives, gave rise to Law No. 12.850 of 2013, which addresses the fight against criminal organizations.

However, it is quite another thing to destroy, with the intention of "fighting" corruption, not only the schemes for distributing embezzled resources, but also democracy itself, its institutions, and the nation's economic base.

It's like using a howitzer to kill a mosquito, making the collateral damage infinitely greater than that caused by the supposed neutralization of the target.

Even today, there is an overemphasis on the "fight" against corruption, which is, at the very least, as harmful to the country as corruption itself. We have a serious problem of proportionality.

In the absence of another more consistent political agenda to mobilize the masses, the political right invested in this one, with the aim of weakening the government in power and, like a boomerang, when the left began to lack targets for Janot's bamboo grove arrows, these arrows began to aim at the right itself.

The result of this relentless war has been the overthrow of a legitimately elected government that did everything to combat corruption; the massive destruction of the civil and naval construction industries, oil production, and the nuclear energy sector; the sale of national assets at bargain-basement prices to foreign economic groups; the subjugation of the aeronautical industry to American control; mass unemployment; the bankruptcy of state administrations; and, above all, the complete loss of credibility of institutions and politics. A scorched-earth scenario.

And don't come saying that all this was the fault of corruption and not of its "fight," as the archer Janot did months ago. Corruption has been rampant among us since what white people call the discovery of Brazil. It's part of the sometimes hypocritical, sometimes cynical culture of the gentleman. homoBrazilAnd yet we haven't gone through what we are experiencing now in terms of the decline and breakdown of the state apparatus.

Cartoon taken from Magno's Blog

The central problem is that we insist on ignoring the corporate dynamics that distort the performance of our institutions and make them easy prey for the media and self-serving political and economic agents. The media feeds the vanity of careers in prosecutorial and judicial institutions with laudatory news, like holding a carrot in front of a donkey with a fishing rod to get it to move.

Full of pride, corporations then invest in the targets chosen by those with vested interests. At first, they perfectly meet their expectations. But, in their ignorance, this group that fills their careers with pride is unaware that, once the target they chose is exhausted, these corporations have no way to stop the attack that brings them prestige.

Ultimately, their success as a corporation depends on this risky game of high-profile pursuit of public figures. It is through this that they catapult themselves to the pinnacles of the public service pay scale. Therefore, those who praise them end up becoming prey to the very beasts they nurtured.

Now, it is the prosecutorial and judicial institutions, lacking any political legitimacy, that seize sovereignty for themselves and hold the state and society hostage. Whoever encouraged them acted like a sorcerer's apprentice. Just like in the Walt Disney movie, they intended for the brooms to sweep the floor, but the brooms acquired a dynamic of their own and flooded the house.

And here we are, watching the Attorney General of the Republic act like William Tell, with a handful of bamboo arrows to shoot. After the apples are gone, anything will do. It matters little that all of Brazil transforms into Saint Sebastian, as long as the archers' careers remain in the spotlight.

Justice that has a predetermined target is selective, and selective justice is not justice. It is an instrument of false political polish.

It is irrelevant whether the target is left-wing or right-wing. Whichever it is, it is illegitimate, as it is not their place to choose. The prosecutorial arena is not a buffet of corporate delicacies for judges, prosecutors, and police chiefs, with weekend barbecue music, just as the "fight" against corruption cannot become a civic celebration complete with percussion instruments and party favors. We need to put things back in their proper place.

Therefore, it is a priority for society to rid itself of the obsession with "fighting" corruption. To let go of this obsession does not mean to abandon it.

Corruption is not something to be "fought" in a war against everything and everyone, but rather it must be confronted rationally, not only through prosecution, but above all with strategic thinking in the formulation of public and legislative policies that stifle bad practices – corrupt practices, but also abusive practices by institutions that have deviated from their constitutional design.

Yes, because the fight against corruption can only be taken seriously as an agenda item if, beyond selective appearances, we delve into its origins, much more than just contemplating its outward appearance. It is important to clarify that corruption is more a consequence than a cause.

Nani's cartoon: HumorBlogspot.com

Poor practices in public procurement proliferate in an environment characterized not only by political permissiveness, but above all by legislative dysfunctions regarding the financing of political parties and elections; regarding the social control of political activity; regarding the extreme bureaucratization of administrative police power routines; and regarding the low quality of public management.

To begin with, according to data collected by the Comptroller General of the Union, even during the legitimate government of President Dilma Rousseff, practically all Brazilian municipalities suffer from serious problems in budget execution, mostly due to a lack of knowledge of public accounting rules. Simply put, most local managers are unaware of the rules for spending public money, which creates opportunities for routine embezzlement.

Elected positions are generally filled by people appointed by political bosses, with the clear mission of milking the budget coffers for the personal enrichment of their powerful leaders or the maintenance of clientelist networks.

Most of the parties that support them don't even deserve that name, since they don't legitimately mediate the interests of sectors of society with the bodies responsible for shaping political will; they only serve to perpetuate the hegemony of the bosses and maintain cronyism, the quid pro quo.

Party members are often unaware of their own party's statutes and program, simply because these documents have no value in the day-to-day activities of the party. And nobody cares about internal democracy. That's why there's so much disregard for external democracy.

It is pointless to only address the symptoms of these widespread dysfunctions, such as corruption. Those who promise a persecutory "fight" to "eradicate" corruption from the political and administrative culture are deceiving society, because nothing will be eradicated. Their moralistic discourse serves only to mobilize public opinion, which is misinformed by the commercial media and supports them.

It's worth asking, then, what purpose does this moralistic crusade serve? And the answer is all around us.

This so-called "fight" pulled Brazil out of the virtuous cycle that began in 2003 and projected it back to the dark pre-constitutional times. From a country that was admired throughout the world for its ability to include 40 million "the lump"In the economy, in a short time, we came to be seen as the country of the mocking and cynical coup; the country of corrupt practices at all levels of government; the country of the destruction of public policies and disrespect for human rights in general, whether civil and political, or economic, social and cultural."

We are discredited and destroyed. That's all.

But let's return to the denial of guilt by the criminal prosecution corporations. The obsession they have instilled in society prevents them from self-criticism. They tend to transfer responsibility for the disaster they caused to third parties, preferably the targets of their insane persecution.

The governments that empowered them the most are the ones now receiving their finger-pointing. A strange line of reasoning that exposes all the political maneuvering behind the corporate scheme.

Charge: SponHolz.arq.br

What those swept up in the euphoria of this relentless, lawless war least realize is that the rule of law has suffered a severe blow, one that could turn against them tomorrow. Legal certainty is now worthless. The rules are adjusted to the selected target. If it's someone from the group defeated in the parliamentary coup, the treatment is one thing; if it's someone who orchestrated the impeachment fraud, it's another.

Gilmar Mendes, who once considered the illegal release of Curitiba wiretap audios to be in the public interest, now expresses indignation at the misdeeds of the Lava Jato task force. And his colleagues on the Supreme Court watch this charade in silence and with obsequious omission, as if agreeing with the unequal treatment.

Some today want to spare Supreme Court justices from criticism, considering it a bad tactic at this moment. After all, if there are those among them who are now attacking or allowing themselves to be attacked by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, this would be in line with the review of abuses committed against everyone. A grave mistake.

The review, if we can even call the erratic movement of jurisprudence that, continues to be, for some, far from a desire to publicly "rehabilitate" all those who were victims of corporate greed. If one or another of those previously deplored managed to ride the new wave of criticism and benefit from a favorable decision in a high-level habeas corpus case, let them know that this was not because they decided to straighten up and acknowledge past injustices, but simply because they needed an unimpeachable precedent to then benefit characters on the other side of the river.

At the first opportunity, the deceived party on this side will suffer new persecutory hardships that will be accepted in the judiciary without any indignation.

A divided society, under media bombardment, loses its sense of ethics and its confidence in impartial justice.

Charge Vitor.T. (Caferzinho.com.br)

Some, cynically, insist on supporting the Lava Jato task force because they fulfilled what was expected of them in the political and corporate use of their instruments of action; others, lost, know that the judiciary, in general, was accessory to the implementation of what is the greatest crisis of the republic, but stubbornly believe that the turnaround will come from these same actors, now bothered by the ministerial arrows launched at their traditional allies; finally, there are still those who have thrown in the towel and are crouching down to cry.

None of these attitudes are productive, and none of them will guarantee a return to institutional order. It is crucial, in this turbulent time, to hold firmly to the helm, not to be swayed by ethical relativism, not to seek opportunistic shortcuts, and not to despair.

For those who were swept away by the euphoria of the Lava Jato operation and now writhe with agonizing doubts, it's good to remember that disobsession works like withdrawing from a drug.

It may cause withdrawal symptoms, but the certainty of being on the right side of history should serve as a guide, a compass, for those who want to continue navigating.

What is unethical remains unethical, and therefore the enemy of my enemy does not necessarily become my friend.

And a madman will remain a madman, even if you insist on telling him he is sane. Believing in the struggle and its value is fundamental so that, when history turns, we can distinguish between those who were carried away by obsession and surrendered to the coup against Brazil, and those who believed in it and continue to believe in it.

It's never too late to break free from obsession and fight.

(*) Eugênio José Guilherme de Aragão, former Minister of Justice in Dilma Rousseff's government, retired Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, lawyer, and professor of Law at UNB.