Soft Dictatorship or Muscled Democracy?

Many dictatorships coexist with some form of formal democracy. The holding of elections alone is no guarantee of democracy, particularly when these are not free and fair elections, as is the case in Madeira.

There are no political prisoners and disappearances here, but there are many means at the disposal of the party in power to intimidate and persecute dissenters.

The Government controls the economy and in a country where there is a lot of red tape, any business can suffer interminable delays in getting things done, while rival companies can sort things out with a simple phone call.

‘Expropriation’ is a fearful word here. The Government takes over your land, offering a ridiculous compensation and challenges the owners to dispute the amount in Court. The Court-attributed compensations are invariably below market-price, but even so, the amounts attributed are sometimes over four times the amount the Government was initially willing to pay! It can take over ten years (sometimes over 20 years) for the court to reach a final decision.

The President of the Government often threatens to expropriate people and to use government power to exert other forms of reprisal.

The state apparatus is one of the biggest employers here and many people fear that they or their family members may lose their jobs if they speak out or support an opposition party. ‘Rome does not pay traitors’ was one of the President’s memorable remarks on this situation.

The Government also hires friendly lawyers to criminally prosecute those who criticize it. There are dozens of such cases every year.

In his official speech, at the inauguration ceremony of a medical unit, held yesterday, President Jardim instructed the Regional Health Services, run by his cousin, Almada Cardoso, to sue people who had claimed they were victims of negligence at the hospital as well as the newspaper (Diário) which reported the allegations. Almada Cardoso in turn claimed that the health service was being used as a political weapon.  

‘Muscled Democracy’ is the polite term that many people use to describe the regime here;’ Soft Dictatorship’ is perhaps a more appropriate term.