By Emir Sader on April 22, 2020
The fight against the pandemic, like any great fight, is a political one. Not in the sense of a political, party or electoral dispute or a minor dispute between supposed political leaders.
It is a political struggle in the sense that, first of all, only by mobilizing all the forces in the country can it be successfully confronted. Political, because for that you need a strong, clear, respected command leading the country. Political, in the sense of defining its highest priority in relation to all other national activities, which needs the resources, the full attention, the personnel, the conditions of action, the mobilization of the national will to face and succeed in this struggle.
Before the pandemic, the Bolsonaro government had already failed. The first year’s economic balance, a priority for the government, had been disastrous. Despite the creation of the best conditions for businessmen to invest, with deregulation, with rich economic resources, with a brutal violation of workers’ rights, with a scandalous priority in favor of speculative capital, against productive and workers, the balance of the first year was still catastrophic. Zero growth, unemployment of 12 million people, 38 million in precarious employment, hunger, misery, people abandoned in the streets in an exponential increase. Nobody foresaw anything better for the second year.
The style of action is totally inadequate for his position, the inability to unite even those who supported and elected him, the inability to maintain a majority in Congress, the attacks on the Judiciary, Parliament, the media, the opposition, countries fundamental to Brazil, such as China, the bad relationship with neighboring countries, the shameful subordinate adhesion to the United States – all lead to condemnation of the president for his inability to govern the country.
The arrival of the pandemic found the country without political command, with the State weakened, along with all the health services, with the government demoralized in front of the population, in the worst conditions to face a challenge like the one posed by the pandemic. A difficult battle in itself, which needs to be fought with everything the country has, in order to overcome it. The weaknesses of Bolsonaro and his government threaten to be fatal to the outcome of this battle. The Brazilian medical services are behaving heroically and exemplarily, sacrificing themselves in difficult and reckless working conditions, and public health programs are once again imposing themselves as the best instrument to combat the threats suffered by Brazilians.
But Brazil is losing the fight against the pandemic, due to the lack of political leadership. Instead of prioritizing this fight over anything else, Bolsonaro dedicates himself to weakening the national will to resist the pandemic, with irresponsible behavior, with calls against social isolation, with diverting his attention to minor disputes, which instead of strengthening the political command, weakens it, in the middle of the battle, demonstrating that even as a military man, that he says he is proud to be, is an incompetent military man, who does not impose himself on his own troops. He divides instead of unites, he demoralizes instead of morally strengthening the Brazilian people, which diverts attention from the highest priority to minor issues, which interest him as a fifth-rate politician, who does not know what it is to govern, to command, or to preside over Brazil.
Bolsonaro is not up to the challenge Brazil faces and, for this reason alone, he deserves to be removed from the presidency of the country. Because he sabotages instead of strengthening the fight against the pandemic. Because, cynically, he, who produced and maintained unemployment and instability, issues that he had never mentioned before, tries to appeal to this problem, which he never faced, to encourage people to go out on the streets to seek the sustenance on which they depend to survive. Ridiculous aid, which reaches the needy late, poorly, and never, is the greatest incentive for people not to obey social isolation and prefer to take health risks rather than suffer from daily hunger. The worse the population lives, the more the government sabotages the isolation, and still he wants to manipulate it for immediate political gain.
Brazil faces a struggle that will define the country’s destiny for the first half of the century, with the lack of political command. The people are suffering much more than necessary, the deaths multiply more than the inevitable, due to the lack of command. It is being predicted that the month of May will be catastrophic for the country, without an extraordinary plan of resources to face the chaos that is surely coming.
It would be a defeat to condemn Brazil to problems difficult to overcome in the future, due to the inability, irresponsibility, lack of character of those who are in the presidency of the republic and demonstrates, incompetence to lead the country at a decisive moment. It makes no sense to make the pandemic the main reason for this defeat and for the hard consequences that Brazil and its people are already paying and will pay even more in the future. The sound of pots and pans clanging every night at 8:30 p.m. is the desperate cry of Out Bolsonaro! The political forces have to find a way to carry out this national desire and organize a political command in line with the current confrontations that will be decisive. There is still time to reverse this fight, in which all Brazilians are currently losing. There will be no forgiveness if the country lets any more time pass, with more human lives lost, more suffering for Brazilians, more demoralization, depression and discouragement for all.
Brazil can still reverse this battle on which its present and future depend. With the current lack of command, it is doomed to defeat. And Brazil does not deserve that defeat. The country has the resources to reverse this struggle and triumph over it.
Source: America Latina in Movement, translation, Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau