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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 06:52 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 06:52 |
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Voting is supposed to be a joyous thing. In the privacy of a cardboard booth you make your mark and so perform the most basic act of citizenship, closing the circle of correspondence between the governors and the governed that underwrites our freedom. But voting, even at the best of times, is difficult. Representative democracy is beset with compromises, which voters must navigate as they make their choices. Good policies, bad people; good people, weak parties; confusing mixtures of both; and too often the complete absence of plausible options. These are not the best of times, or the simplest, and South Africans, for better, but perhaps more often for worse, have very little experience in elections and their consequences. We are politically educated and politically engaged, and we care fiercely about the big issues -- delivery, the economy, crime, HIV and the rule of law -- as well as the small -- sports, our neighbourhoods, street names. In the past three democratic elections, however, it has often seemed that once we arrive in the voting both we don't so much enact a political choice as live out a political identity. "I am a progressive white person," one person might say, "if I vote for any party other than the ANC I will be repeating the sins of my ancestors." Or "Helen Zille looks and sounds like me, Mangosuthu Buthelezi does not". Or "Zuma comes from a rural area like me, and with the country under his stewardship my life will improve". As long as we continue to choose our leaders this way we will continue to get the democracy we deserve: an impoverished, narrow thing defined by the limits of identity politics. The M&G is not endorsing any party this election year. What we are endorsing is a victory of active choice over submission to the working out of political identities frozen in place after 1994. The best possible way to make a choice is to look for the ways in which parties balance the extraordinary demands placed on them by a Constitution that proposes an intricate symbiosis between "classical" democratic principles such as the rule of law, free speech and an independent Parliament, with the socio-economic rights that are so important to giving those concepts meaning. Electoral choice should be about identifying how parties express that balance in policy, personality and conduct.  CONTINUES BELOW We are faced with an ANC that, for all its sound policies, has replaced one dreadful leader with another and taken the country to the brink with its internal battles. The DA is struggling to remake itself as a non-racial liberal party, for all its leader's determination; Cope is a foundling child unsure of its raison d'être; while the IFP, Independent Democrats and United Democratic Movement appear to be shrinking even within their regional power bases. We have never had a tougher choice, or a more important one. The temptation on Wednesday will be to retreat into old postures, safe from the brave new complexity we face, but we all need to do more than that and, when the count is in, to keep doing it. If you need a bit of help, visit our online poll predictor at elections.mg.co.za/pollpredictor. You may be surprised at what you find out. The apex of our aspiration The scary thing about our next president's views on the Constitutional Court is that they are probably genuinely naïve rather than wilfully destructive. Jacob Zuma told the Star: "If I sit here and I look at a chief justice of the Constitutional Court, you know, that is the ultimate authority, which I think we need to look at it because I don't think we should have people who are almost like God in a democracy... Are they not human beings? I don't want to debate that now, but at the right time I'm keen to engage them before the issue becomes public." Judged on these comments Zuma hasn't got a clue about our constitutional democracy, or about the role of judges in a constitutional framework. The founding concept of the role of the courts as a check on unconstitutional laws or conduct is foreign to him. In particular, Zuma does not understand why judges are not subject to the will of the majority "in a democratic setting". Because, as he points out, judges make mistakes -- presumably unlike the ANC, which Zuma has insisted will rule until Jesus returns. This is populism of the most dangerous kind. For ANC treasurer Mathews Phosa to try to suggest that Zuma's comments amount merely to a plea for judges to remain politically neutral is entirely disingenuous. He says Zuma was responding to the statement attributed to Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who told guests at his birthday party: "I want to use my energy to help create an equal society. It's not what the ANC wants or what the delegates want: it is about what is good for our people." What's wrong with that? It's no more than a commitment to serve the people and not the party. While we don't want gods at the court, we certainly want men and women of steely determination who understand that the separation of powers is more than the geographical distance between party headquarters at Luthuli House and the proud Constitutional Court that stands, in Braamfontein, at the apex of our aspiration. TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
Comments
Simon Levelheaded on April 17, 2009, 10:06 am
What Zuma is saying in other words is that the current ANC leadership disregard the constitution of this country..now think of a lawlessness country like Nigeria where every body becomes something he did not study for mhm chaos,corruption, splundering of gov finances,plummeting economy list is endless...need not to further.
The ANC abolishes the elite crime fighting unit DSO that i happen to work for..besides the fact that,that decision has affected me personally how about the public service at large, now the question is do they really display any seriousness to fight this endemic poison in our country or are they actually perpetuating the latter? You say DA is struggling to have a facebook,COPE is foundling like a child and all others are perishing right in front of their faces...this is simple to have a healthy democracy in a state you need strong opposition and SA has it...whether its called conglomeration or coalition bottom line is something must be done to save our country. I agree with you election time is difficult time. Now the power of the voice you say is what you endorse my voice is that atleast i should vote for a party that respects human rights, a constitution that i'm proud of as a citizen, feel protected in these streets atleast thats what i have time for.....where there is HOPE there is COPE.
bongile myoli on April 17, 2009, 12:17 pm
This pathetic editorial basically calls for a vote for anyone but the ANC. Luckily, the neocolonial media, which the M&G has joined, does not enjoy any legitimacy with the majority of South Africans.
You have mortgaged your professional 'ethics' in your 'ill-fated' attempt to sow confusion and divide the ANC. You do not report the lies and hypocrisy of SHIKOTA and DA. SHIKOTA leaders have been talking about changing your beloved constitution, which ANC leaders suffered to bring about, but you have not exposed them. They lie about their membership, and you never challenged them. Instead you have become factional and partisan, thus Ngcuka could abuse state institutions using the media.
pasile mtshwelo on April 17, 2009, 7:27 pm
And this is what you call objective journalism ?
If I was "born yesterday", and I was to read your article, there is only one message that stand out for me here, from you: Do not vote ANC. You will not be advacating for any politic party ? What a joke ? Actually, maybe you are right, because you, like so many other misguided media "neutrals" have been anything but neutral. Your hate for the ANC is so conspicuous it's clouding everything that you ever should've been taught at journalist 'school': be objective and report the truth; State the facts, do not force your emotional feelings through what you print. To the neomedia and neoliberal minority out there: If you respect democracy as much as you shout out so proudly, then you should respect the fundamental ideology of democracy: majority rule ... My ANC ... My vision ... My future ...
Karl Mocke on April 19, 2009, 10:45 am
If you're not endorsing anyone, then why talk of endorsements?
To me, this is just another masked ANC bashing campaign from a paper now led by a juvenile reporter-turned-editor...We'll continue missing the days of balanced reporting!
on April 19, 2009, 6:15 pm
I would have thought that the only real issues voters need to consider when they vote are:
1: Stop the ANC getting the 2/3 majority ~ so yes "vote for anything else" One only has to look to the rest of the continent to see that super powerful parties would seem to be the prelude for a slippery slide into a quasi dictatorship Then the other consideration would be to vote for an effective opposition ~ Humm Our history would seem to show that our opposition parites have never been that effective. Could COPE cope?
Adam Fuller on April 20, 2009, 1:41 pm
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1. I am a law abiding citizen and always pay my taxes on time. Can I trust a man who was accused of tax evasion to lead my country and why should I continue paying my taxes when the president elect has not been paying his?
2. I am director of a number of companies. If a candidate for the position of CEO is accused of dishonesty or fraud, he will automtiaclly be disqualified because he is not fit and proper. This is in accordance with the Companies Act. Why should law makers make laws which are more stringent to the general populace compared to the laws which are applicable to them?
3. The majority of people in Parliament who were implicated in the travelgate saga are not fit and proper to be directors of companies beacuse of the misappropriation of public funds. In business, they can never be directors of companies. Why then should we as the public entrust them with our public funds? Surely they would be unfit to hold such positions.
4.Jacob Zuma has perpetraded the story that he is a victim of political consipracy. What he has not answered is whether Shaik was part of the consipracy. When he was MEC in KZN he attended meetings promoting Shaik's business interests. Surely Mr. Zuma's actions when he acted in such a manner makes him an unfit person to hold public office.
What are the alternatives?
Cope, DA, UDM or ID or indeed the ANC if a fit and proper leader is identified from within its ranks?