Dumbo Democracies

Vashna Jagarnath, The Con

“… There are too many idiots in this world. And having said it, I have the burden of proving it.”

 ― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks

  

Had Frantz Fanon lived to see the candidates in our upcoming general elections, he would have had very little trouble proving correct his pessimism about the abundance of idiots in this world. The festival of idiocy that is relentlessly paraded on our screens during election season is not unique to our shores. Across the Indian Ocean the vast subcontinent of India is also in the throes of an election season, and, given its massive population, the accumulation of idiots on parade in India far exceeds those we have to confront day after day. As in South Africa, electoral politics in India, where the ballot paper at least carries a “None of the above” option, generally comes down to the predicament of having to decide which party is likely to be the lesser evil. The many wonderful aspects of India today, and there are many, have everything to do with its people and very little to do with its politicians.

Liberation from the liberator

by Njabulo Ndebele, City Press

Two weeks ago, “Comrades” Essop Pahad and Ronnie Kasrils disagreed publicly on how members of the African National Congress should vote in next Wednesday’s election. This moment had long been coming.

The posture of the ANC as a united organisation with robust internal discussion of issues was yet again in question. The disagreement, spilling into the public domain will have a progressively corrosive effect on the ANC’s dominance of South African politics.

One fundamental reason for such corrosion is that South Africa today is no longer what it was in 1994. The ANC has restated this fact to good electioneering effect: “South Africa is today a better place to live in than it was in 1994.” These two statements can go with a third one: all South Africans are no longer who they were in 1994. We have changed.

The people are not part of the political process

Ayanda Kota, Mail & Guardian

Elections should be a season of hope. Steve Biko declared that our fight was for an open society, a society in which the colour of a person's skin would not be a point of reference or departure, a society in which each person has one vote.

We have the vote, but the political parties do not represent the aspirations of the people. Millions of black people remain poor and oppressed. When we organise outside of the ANC we are violently repressed.

This election is not a season of hope. It is a season of deception, slander, gutter politics and lies. There are campaigns to encourage our people, and in particular young people, to vote. We are being told every day that voting is the way to express our hopes and to build a better society. Politicians are leaving the comfort of their fortresses and frequenting our townships. They all say that they are disgusted that we are still living below the poverty line in squalid conditions, with no water and electricity.

Racial solidarity not cause of ANC success

by Pallo Jordon, Business Day

SINCE 1994, the political party that has studiedly shunned negative campaigning and ad hominem attacks is the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC’s election campaigns have all been based on its political record and as a party in the government.

Yet one regularly encounters opinions that the ANC’s landslide majorities are not the function of rational voter choice but rather an expression of racial solidarity among Africans. The unpronounced, yet implicit, suggestion is that while white, coloured and Indian voters make rational choices, African voters are motivated by racial considerations that have little or nothing to do with reason.

Born Free & in Search of Political Answers

by Ndapwa Alweendo, The Namibian, 24 November 2009

THE hype leading up to this year’s presidential and National Assembly elections has been particularly fascinating to me. As a first-generation ‘born-free’, I am one of many young Namibians voting for the very first time. And I think it’s this fact that makes our approach to the polling stations so unique.

From what I can tell, many older Namibians vote out of loyalty, and not because they think their party will do the best at running the country. Their approach to the elections seems completely backwards. We should vote looking forward, instead of remembering past glories.

Arundhati Roy, Seattle, 2004