Dilma Rousseff – from ex Marxist guerilla to Brazilian ‘Iron Lady’
I have a confession to make. I have a ‘soft spot’ for Brazil and it is not due to the magnificent Copacabana beach, its exotic drinks or its renowned emeralds, however alluring they might be.
Back in 1982, while in Rio-de-Janeiro attending a conference as a young scholar and a member of the Soviet delegation, on the last day of the conference, I took a taxi, went to the American consulate and asked for political asylum. In other words – I defected. That was the beginning of my new life. Needless to say that Rio, and Brazil in general, were destined to take a special place in my heart as a major milestone of my destiny. Although I always meant to, I have never been back since. But last year, an event happened on the Brazil’s political scene which renewed both my interest and my desire to revisit the country.
This month marks the first anniversary of Dilma Rousseff’s presidency of Brazil. To say that her life represents a remarkable story is to say very little. As the first female president of Brazil she has already secured her place in history. But there is more, much more in her life that makes it sound like a stuff movies are made of and/or international bestselling novels are written about.
Her fascinating story begins long before her own birth. Her Bulgarian father, an active member of the Communist party at the time, fled the country to escape prosecution in 1930 and eventually settled in Brazil. Apparently his Communist convictions were lost somewhere along the way for he did rather well in his new home country as a real estate developer – a very capitalistic way to make a living. The family maintained an upper middle class life style with servants, and all his three children received an excellent, classical education with piano lessons and French language.
It appeared that Dilma was headed toward a secure professional career, personal felicity and general fulfillment. But the initial period of her life turned out to be quite different indeed.
In the sixties, during the first decade of the military dictatorship in Brazil, Dilma, in her tender young age, was swept by the revolutionary, anti-capitalist, anti-American winds blowing in Latin America. It was the time of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. It was also the time of numerous militant Marxist groups in many Latin American countries. Brazil was no exception and Dilma, intoxicated by the promise of socialist paradise on earth, joins the newly created splinter group of the Socialist party dedicated to armed struggle.
Her activity in the group is surrounded by many conflicting accounts but almost everyone agree that Dilma played a significant role, being one of the organizational ‘brains’ behind its actions. On a smaller scale and, of course, under different circumstances, her life during that period reminds me of Rosa Luxemburg, the co-founder of the German Communist Party. But, unlike Rosa’s tragic fate, although she was captured, tortured and jailed during her Marxist period, Dilma ended up occupying the top political office in Brazil. How did she do it?
As in so many similar cases in history two factors played a decisive role – being at the right time in the right place, (some call it luck, others destiny), and, may be more importantly, the ability to change one’s political views when conflicted with reality. It is that ability to analyze and reassess the political reality which made her realize the lost cause of the armed struggle and, eventually abandon it. In the early eighties she entered the mainstream political process which will bring her to the presidency.
But, most likely than not, her skills and talents would not have propelled her to such heights, had her political path not crossed with that of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or, Lula, as he later became known to both the Brazilians and the world. It was Lula, the left wing firebrand and the immensely popular President of Brazil who played that ‘destined’ role in Rousseff’s political ascendancy by first appointing her as his Minister of Energy, later as Chief of Staff and, finally, naming her as his political successor virtually guarantying her election as the next President.
Roussseff assumed the mantle of presidency with fundamentally different views – ‘pragmatic capitalism’ as she calls them herself. Although in order to secure her election she ran her campaign promising to continue Lula’s widely popular social and economic policies, once in office, she moved to the right of the political spectrum and started implementing her ‘pragmatic capitalism’ in such crucial fields like privatization of Brazil’s state run industries, such as airports.
That was a significant departure from the Lula’s policy. In essence, Brazil’s ‘Iron Lady’ started acting as a no-nonsense tough technocrat having practical results as the only goal of her policies. Although Brazil has a long way to go to dismantle a heavy state regulatory burden on the economy and its general socialist legacy, her first steps earned a strong praise from local and international business community.
Brazil’s endemic corruption is another example of Dilma’s toughness and determination. In Brazil, just like in so many other developing countries, corruption has long been accepted as an inevitable part of life. In such environment, any anti-corruption effort, in order to have a reasonable chance of successes would have to start from the top. During Lula’s presidency, it has never been seriously dealt with as a matter of first priority. It all changed with Rousseff as President. During her first year in power six government ministers lost their positions due to their involvement in corruption scandals.
The irony of situation is inescapable – it took a first woman as President in this still heavily male dominated society to embark on this tough, ‘manly’ anticorruption crusade.
Significantly, the fact that six of her ministers had been sacked due to corruption accusations, her own popularity has not been tarnished. At the end of the first year her approval rating was running at 72% which unmistakably shows the public support and its trust in her personal integrity.
Compare to her predecessor, Dilma’s foreign policy has been more pragmatic and even, lacking some populist, chiefly anti-American in style and purpose foreign visits and ventures by Lula, which reflects both her own style and the increased weight and maturity of Brazil on international plane.
Almost every country in the world has a person, politician or not, whose arrival on the scene marks either a turning point in its course or has an effect of a profound historical impact. Those are the people whose faces usually later appear on the national currency bills. Dilma Rousseff is not a politician of such caliber. But it appears that she is exactly what Brazil, as the seventh largest economy in the world, needs – a pragmatic, intelligent and knowledgeable technocrat, who will steer Brazil’s ascendancy into the top tier of the world economic powers with a determined, careful and crafty policy, albeit without the charisma and populist spectacle of her predecessor.
All power to you, Ms. President!
By Sevim Geraibeyli@2012, all rights reserved.
All comments are welcome.
You can contact Sevim at: sgglobal1@gmail.com
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