MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
A Brazilian view of the current situation in Arab countries
During Brazil's two decades of military dictatorship, it would have been unthinkable that a female former revolutionary would lead the country in the 21st century. That transition, from autocracy to democracy, might offer some lessons for rebels across the Arab world, Brazil’s longest serving foreign minister told a forum organised by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in Doha, Qatar. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesThe most powerful advice Amorim could have offered would have been that:
Mar 10th, 2011 - 02:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0(i) it is imperative to segregate religion from governance in a democracy, and
(ii) it is fundimentally important to cut out corruption in government and its administration whenever and wherever it is found to exist - effectively, publically and with nation-wide publicity.
(iii) This needs a FREE PRESS to hold the government to account.
............. but it also needs a voting population to care enough - and willing enough - to hound out of public office popular but corrupt politicians and administrators.
The reasons that led populations to rebel against the military in Brazil were not the same that led Egyptians to stand up against Mubarak, and neither were the anti-dictatorship movements in the 2 countries anything alike. Any comparison between the Brazilian dictatorship and that of Mubarak in Egypt is outstreched. The economic model, the nature of the political regime, levels of corruption, repression, and politically motivated assassinations and torture were all distinct in the two countries. As such, it's difficult to see how events in Brazil - or in other Latin American countries, for that matter - can serve as models to predict what will happen in Egypt or other Arab countries that have toppled their tyrants, specially if one considers how culturally distinct the two regions are from one another.
Mar 10th, 2011 - 08:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, Forgetit,
Mar 10th, 2011 - 11:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0much of what you say holds true, Brasil's military had four-yearly changes in Military President, voted in by the military - quite different from a self-declared tyrannical despot such as Saddam or Ghaddafi.
Watching the gyrating breasts & bundas at Rio and SP carnivals this week made it abundantly clear to me how little common ground Brasil shares with these essentially fundimentalist Muslim dictatorships.
Even through the 'dark years' Brasil still celebrated carnival.
No, Amorim can only offer so much advice.
But whether it is electrocution & throwing people out of aeroplanes, or stoning & beheading, a torture is still a torture, a death is still a death, and the parents of the missing still grieve.
And my points in #1 still hold good, especially the last one.
GeoffW.
Mar 11th, 2011 - 12:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0Not only were the regimes different, but also their economic model and situation. Two major causes of Arab anger against their autocrats, at least in Tunisia and Egypt, was youth unemployment and bitterness at corruption. In Brazil, on the other hand, unemployment during the military government was very low - much lower than in the democratic times that succeded it - and popular perception today is that the dictatorship was less corrupt than our current system. Since Egyptians' rejection of Mubarak was mainly related to unemployment, one may expect that post-Mubarak years in Egypt will see the rise of populist economic policies, with more state control over the economy or at least attempts to create an extensive welfare state. In Brazil what happened was the inverse. After the military stepped out of power, the fascist/statist economic model gave way to a more western-style, private sector-based capitalism. I believe Egypt and the Arab world in general will follow a very different path than taken by Brazil and Latin America.
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