Transversality and cooperation are government guidelines, says Pimenta
Upon assuming command of their respective ministries throughout this week, several ministers expressed their intention to work together with other ministries, highlighting the transversality of public policies. According to the Minister of the Social Communication Secretariat (Secom) of the Presidency of the Republic, Paulo Pimenta, this was not by chance.
“This is an orientation from our government, and an orientation from President Lula”, said Pimenta to journalists from Empresa Brasil de Comunicação ( EBC ), where he participated this week in the program Tarde Nacional, on Rádio Nacional da Amazônia, and recorded a participation in the program A Voz do Brasil.
“Today, you do not discuss industrial development, education, health, human rights or any area of government without taking into account [other] issues that, in the past, were considered within a single ministry”, added Pimenta, highlighting the importance of transversality in the public policy.
“The environmental issue is not a task restricted to the Ministry of the Environment. Just as when you think about the issue of democracy, the defense of human rights, the importance of having broad guidelines that dialogue with society, it is necessary to think of the government as a whole, with a discourse, an objective, and not a sum of small spaces”, argued the minister, commenting that all government structures will have their own consultancy for Diversity and Social Participation.
“We want to create, within the government, a network that stimulates transversal policies, capable of bringing to many sectors of society issues that are often not seen even by the Public Power”, commented Pimenta, confirming that, at Secom, this position will be occupied by the drag queen, pedagogue and cultural producer Ruth Venceremos, who this year ran for the position of federal deputy, having ended the dispute as the first alternate of the PT/PcdoB/PV federation.
When questioned, Pimenta minimized the criticism that the newly sworn government received for contradictions in some of the first measures announced, such as the extension of the fuel tax exemption - implemented during the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The measure would expire on December 31st, 2022 and President Lula even said that he would not extend the deadline.
Amazon
Participating live in the Programa Tarde Nacional , presented by journalist Juliana Maya and broadcast from Brasília to the entire Amazon region via shortwave, the minister revealed that, since he accepted President Lula's invitation to head Secom, he wanted to get to know the programming up close from Rádio Nacional.
“You do a job that is different”, said Pimenta, who, by training, is a journalist. “Instant communication concerning people's daily lives is [transmitted by] radio. And a station like Rádio Nacional da Amazônia , which transmits in short waves, allowing this message to reach places where no other station would reach is something fantastic”, commented the minister, congratulating the employees of the station inaugurated in September 1977.
