PML: "Who's afraid of donations?"

247 - Journalist Paulo Moreira Leite, director of Istoé magazine, states on his blog that "the attempt to criminalize the fundraising by the defendants in AP 470 seeks to hide the growing criticism of the trial." "The effort to criminalize donations is merely an attempt to criminalize a legitimate and, from the point of view of many people, necessary political movement. There is nothing new here when we recall the purpose of criminal action 470: to criminalize leaders of a government that, with all its flaws and defects, proved capable of carrying out several urgent changes in the interest of the majority of the population. The new sign, which they don't want to see, lies in the donations," he states.

Below is the full text:

Who's Afraid of Donations?
Attempt to criminalize fundraising by defendants in AP 470 seeks to hide growing criticism of the trial.

Only those who still haven't understood what's happening with criminal case 470 are bothered by the donations received by Genoino and Delúblo Soares.

A simple arithmetic calculation is enough to understand that these numbers are compatible, for example, with the number of members of the Workers' Party (PT). They total 1,7 million Brazilians. In theory, each member would only need to donate R$ 1 for the total to be reached. Of course, that's not what happened, but this estimate gives an idea of ​​the process.

Without any irregularities being proven in the fundraising, the dissemination of (suspicion? accusation? slander? lie?) about money laundering and the requests for investigation are merely attempts to hide a political fact of paramount importance: the view of many Brazilians about the "biggest trial in history" is changing – and rapidly.

Instead of heeding Joaquim Barbosa's grotesque request, these citizens are showing that the convicted will not be punished with oblivion. On the contrary. There are people who are willing to put their hand in their pocket to say that they will be remembered.

The effort to criminalize donations is merely an attempt to criminalize a legitimate and, from the point of view of many people, necessary political movement.

There is nothing new here when we recall the purpose of criminal action 470: to criminalize the leadership of a government that, with all its flaws and defects, proved capable of implementing several urgent changes in the interest of the majority of the population.

The new sign, which people don't want to see, is found in the donations.

Downcast, defeated, and demoralized after the trial, Lula's voters, PT members, union leaders, and thousands of citizens with democratic convictions show that they have not lost their capacity to be bothered by an increasingly visible injustice.

They lost their fear of showing their dissatisfaction.

That's why donations cause discomfort when they should be celebrated.

They express a strength that our mongrels of cheap sociology so often praise in developed countries – the presence, in our society, of men and women who neither bend nor submit.

We have seen, countless times, how important this capacity for resistance is in our history. The process is repeating itself, and the fundraising is just one sign.

The donations essentially show that there is a growing number of people convinced that we had an unfair, partisan, and contradictory trial. And rightfully so.

It is becoming increasingly clear that it was not possible to prevent the splitting of criminal case 470 after guaranteeing this right to the defendants in the PSDB-MG mensalão scandal.

The decision to keep the evidence gathered in the 78 volumes of inquiry 2474 secret, which can be viewed in a video available online, appears as illegitimate as it is suspicious. One wonders: if the prosecution's evidence against them was so good and so consistent, why should it remain hidden?

In addition to being convicted under a doctrine that dispenses with individual evidence against each of the defendants, as mandated by Criminal Law, the defendants now face artificially aggravated sentences, solely to ensure that they would be subjected to long periods under a closed regime.

The flight on November 15th, the war of medical reports, the manufactured tension against prisoners of AP 470 and other inmates, in a clumsy attempt to denounce "privileges" that never materialize, only demonstrates an effort to demoralize the defendants and create a political stigma to prevent a calm and necessary discussion about the trial.

The point is this: People who criminalize donations fear, above all, being criminalized by their own conscience. They know they could be held accountable for their silence, their omission, their hypocrisy.

Once again, and there's a bitter irony here, it's the notion that everyone is innocent until proven guilty that's at stake here.