So many values of truthfulness and uprightness in our country’s political and public life are required as if imposed by the gods of logic if we are to build sustainable communities and a great South Africa – for without these attributes the country will sink into a morass of ungovernability.
Hitler, who was persuasive, charismatic and a populist, is hardly remembered by history. He is forgotten because he caused pain and deaths for reasons that were obscure and unjust. The Holocaust and mass atrocities led to World War Two causing pain and distress to the whole world.
Who remembers Idi Amin? It is as if he never existed. In his reign of terror in Uganda that lasted for nearly eight years in the 1970s, he caused the death of more than 300 000 Ugandans.
Who remembers Pol Pot, and the madness that led to 1-million Cambodians dying in unimaginable atrocities. Thank goodness Cambodia, now a prosperous economy, in later years pulled itself out of the deep hole of darkness caused by the tyranny of Pol Pot.
Scorched earth policies and nasty political polemics do nothing to build great countries. An example closer to home is Zimbabwe. The ruling elite gives itself the luxury to enjoy good life, while the citizenry is scattered all over the world running away from poverty and oppression in its own country.
In South Africa, if the rot is not quickly addressed, this could see its citizens going through the same pain as experienced by Zimbabweans.
In the end, such deficiencies, if not arrested, invariably manifest in practices that contribute to institutional failures and poor governance.
Great political leaders appreciate their own weaknesses – and to mitigate against such deficiencies, surround themselves with thinkers who are not “yes men” or “yes women”, but who are willing to serve as a sounding board, and offer a helping hand.
It was Nelson Mandela, at his farewell speech to the ANC conference in 1997, at the end of his tenure as the country’s first democratically elected president, who said: “Do not surround yourself with yes men and women… stay close to people who are not afraid to tell you when you are wrong.”
Dialogue and the ability to be tolerant of each other’s viewpoint should not be seen as a weakness, however strongly the other side may feel about the sanctity of their own political position.
The country’s democracy was achieved through dialogue, and not the imposition of one person’s ideology over the other.
As imperfect the product of our democratic dispensation is seen by some, the counter argument is that our democracy involved dialogue – even with those we politically or ideologically differ.
The role of politics should be less about ideological demagoguery and populism. It ought to be more about creating sound governance systems upon which sound principles of running a successful state are based.
War strategist and thinker Otto von Bismarck taught the world that politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.
Those with different ideologies must not be wished away; on the contrary, they ought to be engaged, and brought to the centre of the debate.
Successful countries are built around people and communities with diverse ideologies perspectives.
No one should be forced to wear a political straitjacket.
The objective is one: to develop policies that will help the government to produce sound outcomes to be enjoyed by all.
Desmond Tutu, the country’s leading moral light and icon, during his lifetime taught that it would be better to improve the quality of one’s debate rather than
depend on raising the decibels of your voice to make a point.
Our political practice has allowed profanities in debates to be lionised, or to be thought of as normal. Constructive debate is feared because it requires a taxing thought process.
As South Africans we can do better. We can contribute, each one from a different political school of thought, to making this country great by listening to one another more carefully.
If we did that, we would give honour and stature to our political stalwarts that include, among others, Robert Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Steve Biko.
- Mdhlela is a freelance journalist, an Anglican priest, an ex-trade unionist and former editor of the SA Human Rights Commission journals
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