Contradictions between pronouncements and practice

Dear Editor,

Nelson Mandela was a revolutionary who opposed the venal political, economic and racist policy of apartheid imposed upon his country by a supremacist ruling elite. At first he attempted to persuade them to change their ways by engaging in non-violent activism. When that did not seem to have any impact on the racist consciousness of the oppressors, he resorted to armed resistance within the folds of the African National Congress Liberation front. Throughout the latter engagement he and the leaders of that front unequivocally rejected any violence against the innocent, regardless of where their allegiance happened to be. In 1963 he and ten other leaders of the Johannesburg Rivonia militant wing of the ANC were put on trial and subsequently convicted. In the dock at his trial he declared, “ ….the ideal of a democracy and a free society is one for which I am prepared to die.”

In the period following the announcement of his passing, expressions of grief, admiration, loyalty and empathy with his life and activism have flooded the news media, and Guyana was no exception. And it is there where the examination of Mandela’s life, his activism for equality and democracy, his philosophical expositions, and the comparisons with the attitude of his newly epiphanied aspirants become interesting. Interesting because the gap between these expressions and crocodile tears of affinity with Mandela’s life, activism and philosophical understandings and the policies, attitudes and actions of his fair weather admirers in and from Guyana could not be more vast. And nothing better exemplified this than their sneaking exit from Guyana on the way to South Africa in order to usurp credit for the material and philosophical support Guyana provided in South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle.

From the US, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, etc, there was exhibited a civilized consciousness that political prostitution of this hero’s death would not be something he would have wanted or counselled. They exhibited the understanding that for this icon, his philosophy and ethical adherence to the principles of inclusiveness in leadership as a representative legacy at his remembrance, would be an important gesture from those who ostensibly came to celebrate his life. From Guyana, however, where such civilized and principled ideas and consciousness appear to be extinct from the consciences of the ruling elite, we witness this disgraceful exhibition, this insult to the memory of a leader who taught the world the true meaning of peace-making.

Editor, Nelson Mandela has always been one of my more admired leaders. At times while I was in prison (on a trumped up treason charge) for a fraction of the time he spent there, I gained inspiration and courage from the example he provided to all of us. Although the distance I walked in his moccasins was comparatively short, I recognized that I was still in the embryonic stage of his Long Walk to Freedom. I continue to reach for that holy grail of values and standards that he provided to this world, and although it is doubtful that any of us can get there, I recognize that the willingness and determination to make that effort, to continue with that reaching, will be more celebratory of his life and sacrifices, than all of the empty rhetoric and chest beatings we witness from many who expect that such manifestations will convince others into believing that they have found ‘religion.’

There is a verse from Shakespeare’s Henry V that runs, “From this day to the ending of the world,/ But we in it shall be remembered- /We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;/ For he today that sheds his blood with me, /Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, /This day shall gentle his condition;/ And gentlemen in England now-a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here, /And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks / That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.” This should have been an expression from those who actively and philosophically stepped up to the plate when South Africa called, when they mounted that podium to celebrate the life and legacy of Nelson ‘Madiba’ Mandela.

Everyone by now knows that I am an aspirant to hold the office of Mayor of the City of Georgetown. And it is quite clear to me that the ideals and philosophical understandings of Mandela would be drastically opposed to the hubris, the arrogance and antipathy that describes the attitude and behaviour of the national government towards the people of Georgetown and their chosen representatives. The hypocrisy that encourages a leadership to bask in the atmosphere of celebrating a life dedicated to inclusiveness, fairness and respect for all, while being contradictory in their attitudes and policies at home is enough to make one sick. As Mayor of Georgetown it is my fervent promise that I would be guided by the magnanimity, the grace, the sense of equal justice, which was reflected in the life of Nelson Madiba Mandela. That I would never insult the intelligence of a city and nation by preaching one thing and practising another. That I would not simply acknowledge the importance of inclusiveness and equality in my municipal administration, but would ensure that standard was manifestly apparent for all to see and behold. My courage to confront what I see as dictatorial and oppressive and unfair power cannot be in question, because I have stood alone and unafraid many a time to oppose the power and authority that encouraged and cohabited with unfairness and persecution. Like the great martyr Martin Luther King Jr, I do believe that one must never be silent when the livelihoods and wellbeing of the poor and weak are at stake.

Yours faithfully,
Mark A Benschop