'Me in power'. Sincerely, Fernando Henrique
It's no secret that then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso made almost daily recordings during his eight years in power; "It must amount to about ten thousand pages," he estimates regarding the size of the transcription of the originals; the new fact is that a first batch of these immediate memories is beginning to be transcribed onto paper; and he himself is reviewing them.
247 – It is a habit of rulers, mindful of their own memories, to record their experiences in power in lengthy texts, memos, or narratives to advisors, often yielding historical documents. At this moment, for example, the family of former president Jânio Quadros is demanding that the government of Minas Gerais return a large part of the memorabilia donated by former presidential secretary José Aparecido, which, according to Tutu Quadros, Jânio's daughter, was done without the family's authorization.
With former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, there is not the slightest risk of such a mix-up occurring. On the contrary. Notoriously an organized man, FHC never hid the fact that he cultivated the practice of recording for himself, on cassette tapes that he himself prepared, his version of the most significant events, for him, of course, from his daily work in the Presidency of the Republic.
"When I didn't record on the same day, I would make references to what had happened on previous days," he explained, on one of the several occasions he spoke about the subject to Dr. Dráuzio Varela. "There are, obviously, references to people and situations, but rarely to personal matters. I always recorded at the Alvorada Palace or while traveling, usually at the end of the day. I never relied on the help of third parties."
"It must be about ten thousand pages or more," estimates FHC. Currently, most of the material is part of the collection of the Fernando Henrique Institute, based in downtown São Paulo. The tapes are kept under the care of the simultaneously strict and kind Danielle Ardaillon, who also held the position of head of the presidential archives during his time in power.
Fernando Henrique says he still doesn't know what he will do with the content of the tapes, but admits that a first batch of them has already been written down. "The original recordings and their transcriptions will be available so that the cuts and corrections can be compared." He himself has already read a good part of this material.
While FHC decides whether or not to publish the content of his recordings, what do you think he should do?