From sergeant to captain

I'm going to tell a story that will cause some unease.

In 2017, an important meeting took place at the Lula Institute between the young mayor of Sumaré, Luiz Dalben, and former president Lula.

After the meeting ended, the young mayor, whom I accompanied as municipal secretary, prompted Lula to ask my opinion regarding the difficulties faced by Dilma Rousseff in the presidency.

I resisted a little, just a tiny bit, Lula insisted and I, "Okay, I've said it."

I began by telling the president that in 1983, my friend Eduardo Surian and I spent ten months and thirteen days at the disposal of the Brazilian Army. We became soldiers "overnight," affected by Article 143 of the Federal Constitution, which mandates compulsory military service. We, who were enrolled and studying for the second year of Law at PUC Campinas, were active in the student movement and in party activism.

I told Lula that there were many other interesting stories we experienced during that period that could be told, but he was curious, so I spoke about what I had learned about hierarchy during those months.

I told him that, in the name of survival, we quickly learn that military hierarchy is the basis of the organization of the Armed Forces.

We learned that the "boss"The commander of a company is a captain, mine was Captain Samir - a democratic and progressive military man - immediately subordinate to him were the lieutenants, below them were the sergeants, then the corporals, and down there, desperate to leave, were us, the tin soldiers."

In other words, the hierarchy is: captain, lieutenant, sergeants, corporals, and privates.

I told him that there is a function, usually performed by a sergeant, that generates stress in the chain of command and is, to some extent, disruptive, as it causes the interruption of the normal sequence of the hierarchy; I am referring to... sergeance. sergeance This is the function within a military organization where the organization and all documentation of the military unit takes place, including the safekeeping of personnel documentation, the definition of schedules, and the performance of all types of controls (inventory control, financial control, bank balances, accountability, etc.). sergeant responsible for sergeance it is called “sergeant"And he is responsible for managing the company."

In practice, this sergeant answers only to the captain, despite being hierarchically subordinate to the lieutenants and on equal footing with the other sergeants. However, exercising this function gives him considerable power, especially if he is intelligent enough not to bring "minor" problems to the captain.

O sergeant He's the one who first talks to the captain every day, so his version of events tends to be the "official history”, which almost always displeases the lieutenants.

There is a clear asymmetry in access to the commander: easy and daily access for the sergeant major, and difficult and episodic access for the lieutenants; the sergeant major is responsible for relentlessly demanding that each of the lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and soldiers strive for excellence in the performance of their duties, which is why nobody likes the sergeant major, who is even hated, especially by the lieutenants.

In a comparison between the military hierarchy and that of governments, I believe that the government lieutenants lacked solidarity with Dilma; they lacked, to a certain extent, honesty, commitment, and the courage to tell her the truth. Everyone complained about her "way of doing things," but they didn't have the courage to say it to her.

We only need to remember the episode of impeachmentIn this scenario, Dilma relied on the assessment of Mercadante and other lieutenants, all "political geniuses," who told the president that she would have between 270 and 300 votes, that is, far more than the 170 needed to shelve the impeachment request. She received 167 votes; she fell three votes short.

Congratulations to the brilliant political strategists of Dilma's government.

Dilma, despite being a lieutenant in the hierarchy of Lula's government, also held the position of sergeant major, which did not allow her to "make friendsFurthermore, she's not one for idle chatter; she works 10, 12, 14, 16 hours a day. I explained my point of view to Lula and said: "In 2010, instead of choosing one of your male lieutenants to run for president, you chose a female lieutenant who also served as a sergeant major; an extremely intelligent, hardworking, honest, and loyal woman, but with little inclination for political practice and conciliation."".

In my opinion, Dilma, a courageous woman who confronted the dictatorship, suffered during her presidency because of her qualities, but also suffered from the prejudice of the sexism of the political class, the centrist political bosses, the conservative evangelicals, and each of the lieutenants in Lula's government (who imagined they would be Lula's chosen one).

Dilma suffered greatly from the devastating effects of sexism and lacked the political skill to deal with this reality, as it is not one of her strengths.

It's not my place to speak on this, but male violence against women, whether physical, sexual, moral, or psychological, is a factor that intimately interferes with a woman's overall experience and the position she occupies in society and the world.

Dilma was the best lieutenant in Lula's government, but she lacked the patience, so necessary for the presidency, in dealing with the sometimes unpleasant interactions that enable the building, expansion, and maintenance of political alliances.

Lula listened and smiled politely, but he was visibly displeased. That's why I regretted saying that to him.

Years later, while reading an interview Lula gave to Maria Inês Nassif, Juca Kfouri, Ivana Jinkins, and Gilberto Maringoni, I came across the following statement by Lula: "She [Dilma] made many mistakes in politics because of her lack of... perhaps because of her lack of willingness to deal with politics; many times she didn't do what was simple to do."

My conclusion is that Dilma Rousseff is too good a human being to deal with the crooks of politics and the market.

These are the reflections.