2006-1

ELECTIONS

VOTER EDUCATION

articles from 2006

THOUGHT FOR A NEW YEAR

– post on PDU website, 22 December 2006

Here we are at the end of a year that was good in parts, but soggy and frightening on a daily basis. 2006. Who said it was going to be easy? Here we are, twelve years into a democracy that no one ever thought would happen! We've been given so much leeway it's quite ridiculous. Who would have thought that we whites would get away with apartheid? But those days are as far as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were in 1962. Apartheid ended in 1990. To even refer to it now smacks of nostalgia and stagnation. Our political structures truly came into their own during this year, when the security of majority control had to make way for the spectre of splits, handstands and somersaults. 2007 is the crossroads: after the ANC Congress in December we will have new leader of the ruling party and a potential President for 2009+. Take a deep breath. The field is open and littered with minefields and pitfalls.

In 2006 the constitution celebrated its tenth year and yet it's still the best-kept secret in the land. This extraordinary document was hammered out between opposing groups who months before had been fighting each other for the prize of a beloved country. The South African Constitution protects everyone equally, making us all as important as the next. It is probably the only constitution known to gay people throughout the homophobic world that guarantees equal protection with the rest of society. It is for this reason that those overseas look with jealous eyes at the remarkable possibilities it offers our people. And yet South Africans don't have a clue. Ask anyone about the constitution: they look blank and eventually say: "It protects my rights."

What rights? No one is sure. The right to strike? The right to shoot? The right to criticise? The right to forgive? The right to laugh? The right to live! Many of those who wrote the constitution are still in politics, if not Parliament, and they must be lauded for their legacy. The ANC came out of fearful opposition to become a compassionate government who could forgive and look to the future. That memory is also as far away as apartheid. Now in order to succeed in business, our ambitious few become politicians. BEE has created a new politburo of greed. The lack of political and moral leadership is reflected in the daily bloodbath of rapes, murders, assaults and death.

It all started to well. 1994 was the first year of the rest of our lives. We were all given a second chance to make our dreams come true. There will be no third chance. The hour-glass of time is running empty. Soon a new generation who don't even remember apartheid or the Struggle will be ready to take what they feel their freedom entitles them to: "The Constitution protects my freedoms." What freedoms? There is only one freedom and that is the freedom to defend freedom every moment of the day. The apartheid years were easy in comparison. That regime thought for us and paralysed us with lies and fear. There was no freedom to explore freedom. Just freedom to kill.

Now there is so much freedom we don't know what to call it. Empowerment? Wealth? Violence? Greed? Carelessness? The more we take freedom for granted the less we get. Politicians eat freedom. Politicians lie. Politicians look after themselves. That's why they're called politicians and not people! That should not anger us: at least we know what they're up to. They're not helping us; they're helping themselves. That will keep them out of our way so that we can get on with the job of protecting our freedoms, our people and our future.

There is much work to be done on every level of our society. If we are a democracy protected by our awareness of the minefields of fear, we must become more aware. In a healthy democracy surely the people must lead and the government can follow. And if you want to check up on what freedoms our democratic constitution is meant to protect, look it up on google.com. You'll be chilled to see how many have been highjacked and cancelled out by the corrupt reality around us.

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