Alexander Boraine, founding
president of the International Center for Transitional Justice and former
Deputy Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
of South Africa, considers democracy an imperfect form of government in an
imperfect world, and yet, in the spirit of Winston Churchill, "probably
the best system that is and can be used." Though the face of democracy
varies according to context, culture, values, and history, certain defining
principles remain constant: universal franchise, equality before the law, the
rule of law, accountability, and freedom of speech. Rejecting all notion of
democracy as "easy," "comfortable," or "trite," Boraine
believes that it is a concept of government to be aspired to as an ideal.
Democracy,
says Boraine, does not do away with differences; rather, it is a process
to manage conflict through debate, argument, disagreement, cooperation,
and competition in the world of ideas. Each national community ideally works
through democratic principles put into operation so that no constituency
resorts
to violence. Democracy at its best "commits opposing points of view
to coexist fairly without recourse to violence;" it is based on the
principle of respect and a respect for fundamental human rights.
Turning to
a discussion of recent South African history, Boraine describes
his native country as one that went without democracy for 300 years in
a state of colonialism that brought with it the worst form of racism imaginable.
In
1985, professor Francis Wilson borrowed a metaphor from the verse of poet
Ingrid Yonker, likening South Africa to a "cordoned heart" whose
fetters bound a majority of its people in what seemed to be perpetual servitude.
Boraine
professes continued amazement at the peacefulness of South Africa's 1994
transition to democracy. The country's profound racism had spanned
centuries. The late 19th-century British "liberalism" of Cecil
John Rhodes defined whites as civilized lords over "barbarous" blacks.
In 1910, the first South African constitution laid down the legal basis
for white hegemony. The
National Party, which rose to power in 1948, created an apartheid system
that embraced racism from birth to death, proscribing franchise on the
basis
of skin color, as well as access to land, housing, residence, schools,
universities, health services, transport, restaurants, hotels, and cemeteries.
In spite of the entrenched character of this racist system, by the 1980s
resistance to apartheid was on such a scale as to cause a political stalemate
that—miraculously, it seemed—was resolved by a negotiated
settlement which led to the first democratic elections in South African
history and
the presidency of Nelson Mandela.
|
|
It soon became clear, however, that simply changing the set of procedures was
not enough to heal South Africa; the set of working relationships needed to put
those procedures into effect had to be healed as well. The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission was founded as a means to this end: to acknowledge and come to terms
with a conflictual past, to affirm the commitment to a common future, and to
rebuild profoundly damaged social and economic relationships.
In its herculean
task, the South African Commission held itself to the highest standards of
transparency. Not only did it facilitate a national debate about the
concept and structure
of the process, but it also was the first truth commission to hold public hearings.
Boraine holds up the South African reconciliation as an example of one that "went
beyond words" to achieve true change: new houses, clinics, educational
opportunities, and sanitation for the rural poor are all proof of this success,
though the process
is far from complete.
In closing, Boraine warned of the precarious position
in which democracy now finds itself in the post-9/11 world. Fear has become
the hallmark of American
society, creating a situation in which authority is followed blindly for
the sake of security, and dissent—a healthy, normal part of democracy—is
decried
as disloyalty.
The United States and all mature democracies must
engage in a mature reassessment of their policies and practices or find
themselves
on a slippery
slope away from their democratic principles. "In attempting to overcome
the monsters who threaten us," Boraine presaged, "we could so easily
become the monsters ourselves." Justice must not be sacrificed to the "demon" of
security, nor must it be sought through military power and force. The United
States, as a role model for the democratic world, must seize this opportunity
to reaffirm its democratic values, thereby abandoning violence and empty claims
of patriotism in order to realize its potential as an honest broker of peace.
• — • |
