ANC+pain+offers+democracy+an+opportunity,+Friedman,+B+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, 31 May 2006
=ANC’s pain offers our democracy an opportunity to grow stronger=


 * Steven Friedman**

IF WE are to grow and become stronger, we sometimes need to bleed.

As the crisis in the governing party appears to grow, analysts write, often with alarm, of the “bleeding” as a rudderless African National Congress (ANC), lacking a leader who can unite it, seems unable to end the conflict in its midst.

There is good reason for the country, rather than the ANC alone, to worry. Whichever party one supports, the prospect of the ANC failing to handle its divisions is not comforting. As the local election might have shown, the result is unlikely to be ANC losses at the polls: it is more likely to be a conflict that threatens democracy as well as the governing party.

Nor are analysts wrong to warn that this could happen if politicians fail to realise the damage they could cause by not dealing with their differences in a democratic fashion.

But it is not inevitable. It is possible to imagine an outcome in which the bleeding not only stops but turns out to be something that democracy had to go through in order to emerge strengthened.

At least some talk of “bleeding” may reflect nostalgia among some in the ANC for a time in which the leadership decided what ought to be done and who ought to do it, while the movement followed in unison, aware that there was no greater crime than disloyalty.

But the key lesson of the ANC’s current problem is that this no longer works. What some long for is precisely the approach which created the mess in the first place — one in which wise people at the top decide what is needed and then expect the loyalty of those below. It is this style that created the rebellion which crystallised around Jacob Zuma: if ANC leaders pin their hopes on it, the conflict could spiral.

Differences in the ANC will not go away. In a free society, people disagree: while pretences at unity can be imposed from the top, they can be maintained only at democracy’s expense, since they require that people be persuaded not to say what they think and feel. Part of the ANC seems to have been saying that. While that might work in a fight against apartheid, it cannot work in a democracy.

But difference can be channeled in ways that reduce damage and strengthen democracy. And, as talk of “bleeding” has grown, so have signs that key actors in the ANC are considering these ways of managing, rather than wishing away, conflict. In every case this entails a departure from the way the ANC has operated in the recent past.

Only a short while ago, the ANC insisted that the presidential succession was an internal matter, of no interest to the rest of the country. Now, the president is suggesting that society should be part of the discussion on who should succeed him. Only a while ago, it seemed there would be no open contest — now we see it unfolding.

Until recently, the succession was reduced to a battle between personalities. Now the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions have found it necessary to release documents or hold briefings which seek to raise issues of principle. The ANC is said to have compiled a discussion document which also seeks to elevate the debate beyond personality.

All of this creates possibilities for strengthening democracy.

The more the public is involved in the succession, the more likely is it that the new president will enjoy support in the country, not only among ANC conference delegates — and an important precedent will be set: that high office is to be achieved by winning majority support among voters in a fair political contest.

And, the more the fight is presen-ted as one between differing approaches, the more likely that the winner will be held to a set of principles, and will not be able to see victory as a blank cheque.

None of these changes has been suggested because the key actors have been overcome with public-spiritedness. They have become possible because politicians believe the changes offer them a better hope of solving their problems. But demo-cratic breakthroughs are rarely, if ever, achieved by outbreaks of goodwill. They usually happen because those who hold power and those who want it find, in particular circumstances, that including people in decisions and competing for power according to agreed-upon rules is a better option than the others available.

If new democracies are to grow and strengthen, they have to pass through trials — this is inevitable, for democracy always means accepting new restrictions on the use of power. For some, the adaptation can be painful, prompting bleeding. But not all pain damages us; some helps us grow and heal. The ANC’s bleeding could, if treated democratically, help democracy’s growth and health.


 * Friedman is research associate, Institute for Democracy in SA, and is visiting professor of politics at Rhodes University.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A208418**

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