POLITICAL LEADERS - FUNDAMENTALLY CORRUPT, LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE

POLITICAL LEADERS

FUNDAMENTALLY CORRUPT, LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE

Stes de Necker

Expressing anger and criticizing our political leaders seems to be the favorite pastime of many people in South Africa today including me, the social networks and the news media.

But as long as we see politics as a war between good and bad individuals and ignoring the structures that reward or punish them, this mudslinging will continue unabated.

Politicians are, as a group, no better or worse than the rest of us. So when they stink, something is rotten with the system that feeds them. Our stalled democracy is not our leaders’ fault alone, but ours as well, for treating all political problems as characteristic of certain individuals.

I know many black politicians that I have the the world's respect for. Galema Motlanthe, Cyril Ramaphosa,  Pravin Gordhan, Mosiua Lekota, Kennith Meshoe, etc.

Good and bad is not the problem. Fundamentalism is the problem.

Fundamentalism is arrogant, intransigent and rude. It refuses to compromise, insists on its own truth and seeks to decimate its opponents. Fundamentalism can see nothing wrong with itself and sees only the wrong in others. It is destructive, damaging and divisive. Fundamentalism is destroying our politics, our communities and our nation.

The unforgettable moment in our history when Nelson Mandela was released from jail after 27 years of incarceration and on the occasion of delivering his first speech after his release in Cape Town said that, "In conclusion I wish to quote my own words during my trial in 1964. They are true today as they were then:

I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.

It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Without wasting time, Mandela started the process of reconciliation and nation building. His biggest legacy may be that he taught South Africans that the way out of a bad political mood is not more rage, but a new political perspective.

With words like “racist”, “leftist”, “rightist”, “conservative”, “liberal”, “socialist”, “capitalist”, “Muslim”, “Christian”, “Jew” and the list goes on and on, truth is we are a mixed society. As much as there is goodness and wisdom in much of our shared religious, social and political traditions that ought to be conserved, there is just as much harm and foolishness in much of our history that ought to be changed.

In the daily interaction between all our communities of faith, culture or political conviction, opening ourselves to differing opinions and perspectives can only make us wiser and stronger. When we are willing to be open to new understandings, new possibilities and new people then we can actually live up to the faith. It is possible and quite reasonable that openness to change can happen at the same time we remain grounded in eternal values of reverence, compassion and goodness. We can and we must, find ways to change what needs to be changed all the while grounding ourselves in these three value systems namely reverence, compassion and goodness.

South Africa is in a bad mood at the moment.

Let us drown out the clamor of hatred and intolerance that damages, destroys and divides us. 

Let us reclaim a vocabulary of hope for our people and for our country.