UOne of the most respected names within the Workers' Party, senator Eduardo Suplicy (PT-SP) shows little enthusiasm regarding possible changes, in the Senate, in relation to the pension reform proposal presented by the government and already approved in the Chamber of Deputies. When speaking last Friday to a packed auditorium at the headquarters of the Unicamp Teachers' Association (Adunicamp), Suplicy said that any changes will depend much more on the organization and mobilization of the categories that disagree with the proposal. According to him, entities representing public servants should be heard in public hearings.
"The fact that there is a public hearing means that, in theory, the entities could be persuading the 81 senators about their points of view," he said. The request to hold the hearings was sent on Wednesday (September 3) to the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee. In addition to Suplicy, senators Paulo Paim and Tião Viana, both from PT, also signed the document. Approval of the application should be voted on next Wednesday. "The decision to change or not will largely depend on the organization's capacity and convincing employees."
The senator admitted that some points of the reform could bring harm to the public service and institutions that need this workforce. One of them is the breach in the expectation of rights of civil servants who opted for full retirement when joining the civil service. “This needs to be very well thought out, including the transition rules,” said Suplicy.
University - The parliamentarian also recognizes that this type of change could affect public universities. "The university is something that is built over time; it is very risky to destroy an institution like the Brazilian public university. This is a point that needs to be very well evaluated," he declared. Once again, however, Suplicy transferred responsibility to society. "It will depend a lot on whether senators are persuaded by entities and civil servants that something needs to be changed"
Although he considers holding public hearings an opportunity to reverse some points fought by the public servants, Suplicy notes that it will not be an easy task. “The government is also on the offensive,” she notes. He remembers that the Executive has a majority in the Senate. Today, only the PFL and the PSDB are not on the support bench. And, even among the PFL, there are parliamentarians who have supported the government on many points, such as Senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães and Senator Roseana Sarney. "The government managed to split even the PFL and PSDB so that many people vote in accordance with its project," he stated.
Still, Suplicy believes that the government will not be able to claim victory ahead of time. "Minister Berzoini (José Berzoini, from Social Security) asked us not to change the proposal any further, but I don't know if that will be possible." Suplicy guaranteed that he will support the amendments that Senator Paulo Paim presented last Thursday. The changes include the end of charging social security contributions from inactive employees, clearer rules on parity in adjustments for active and retired employees, the establishment of a single salary sub-ceiling in the States and changes to transition rules.
Open-minded - Even though he supports the changes presented by Paim, Suplicy avoids opening fire on the government. For him, the Executive's proposal takes into account principles of equity. "There are, however, several points regarding rights expectations that need to be analyzed", he admits. When asked what his position will be if the amendments proposed by Paim are rejected, Suplicy gave hints that he does not intend to leave the government in the lurch. “I will be reflecting, a lot, until the day of the vote, with an open mind”, he says. "In principle, I intend to support President Lula's proposals, but I believe that the Senate has to exercise its role of reflection, modification and improvement, especially because when the president delivered the reform proposals, he told congressmen that from then on it would be our duty to improve them."
Despite showing no intention of going against the government, Suplicy intends to continue working to obtain a "pardon" for senator Heloísa Helena (PT-PB), threatened with expulsion from the party for taking a stand against the reform. "Although there were exaggerations in the senator's words, I believe that President Lula, who has been able to promote better understanding between presidents George Busch (USA) and Hugo Chaves (Colombia), can also have an attitude of greater internal tolerance, promoting greater understanding between ourselves", he said. "I have told the president and José Dirceu (minister of the Civil House) that, although I will vote in accordance with the propositions, I think we should have greater consideration and tolerance towards those who voted differently", he added.
Cruelty- The senator also tried to minimize criticism of the president. "For me, Lula remains a generous person and an extraordinary leader," he said. The words provoked a reaction from the president of Adunicamp, Maria Aparecida Affonso Moysés, who also participated in the debate. "I've heard a lot about President Lula's generosity, but in this reform project he not only left generosity aside but also committed great cruelty to all public servants."
According to the president of the teachers' association, with this project the Federal Government is destroying some of the people's historic achievements. "It not only destroys the personal life of each of the civil servants who contributed the entirety of their salaries, believing in a social contract that has always been guaranteed, but it also destroys public services, public hospitals, public schools and public universities, in addition to destroying the conception of social security", he stated.
Maria Aparecida Moysés added that the entity's concern is not tied to defending privileges. "In fact, privileges do exist, and we would like them to be corrected, but this project does not correct them," she said. "This project does not face privileges, it does not face fraud, corruption. We sincerely hope that the senators react to this", she concluded. At the end of the debate, Suplicy proposed returning to Unicamp to debate the topic again.
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