Bad guys don't make us Good . . .

Good is a character discernable in its own right. Being human, we have the ability (apparently) to tell good when we see it. For completeness' sake, we apparently can also tell bad. The presence of one does not however indicate the absence of the other.

I am reminded of a poster I read some years ago: "there is so much good in the worst of us and so much evil in the best of us . . ." Good has unfortunately become somewhat bad. Allow me to develop this. Over time the demands placed on one to be a good person have gradually become less honerous. By way of an example, being a child in the township I grew up in, meant that you greeted older people as a matter of course; and whenever you got up to no-good, you did it in hiding. When you were in high school, you were not old enough to be seen drinking or smoking - not that there was no smoking and drinking among that age group, it just wasn't in your face. Even then it was limited enough to make the headlines if discovered.

Today, a child that greets is celebrated as a saint. The measure of goodness has become watered down.This measure became watered down when we started being good by comparison. When we became good husbands because we at least don't beat our wives in public; or because we at least pay for our children's school; or we at least have only one affair and not a string of affairs.It is this relative goodness that our political leadership seems to be engaging in lately. "This leader is good because he is not as bad as the other guy." The South African electorate surely deserves (and must demand) much better than this. What good is a leadership that cannot argue its case for goodness' sake?

The ANC is a voluntary organisation governed by a constitution which I believe gives the body of its membership certain rights and impose on them certain obligations. Each member of the ANC has a right to vote, to stand for election, to debate matters openly without fear or favour and most importantly, has a right to be protected by the very constitution against intimidation and oppression. At least that is how most democratic organisations function. How then will this leadership argue my case against the big bad world that is South Africa (if the free press is to be believed)? Whatever faction it is that Mr Lekota and Mr Shilowa previously represented or aligned themselves with within the ANC, was outwitted and out-strategised. They went into an election that they could not win because the candidate they put forward was wrong for what the organisation needed at the time. These two gentlemen could not be silenced by the brutal apartheid state at the threat of being maimed or killed. They now claim to have been harrassed and intimidated into silence and submission by the bad guys in the ANC; the bad guys who would not let them speak and who would not let them adhere to the Freedom Charter. So they quit.

All this is of course speculation on my part as I am neither a member of the ANC nor was I present at the now legendary Polokwane conference. What I have seen and heard from the new organisation is how bad the other side is; and this supposedly makes the new guys good. A word of advice to these two fine gentlemen - these are the politics of defeat. Ask Tony Leon, seriously, ask him. He should in all honesty tell you that you need your own identity, strategy, policy and views. Those are the things that will define your failure or success. Forget about how terrible Mr Malema performed in matric or how other people intimidate others. Tell us that you will encourage good matric results, that you will not intimidate anyone, etc. Put differently, be good in your own right.There is a substantive portion of the South African voters who are not impressed by or attracted to the fighting talk that characterises our politics. Whether it is Helen Zille, Mr Vavi or any other of our politicians.

The good that the new party can and should bring to our political landscape is something akin to what the Arch once said "if you know what you are saying, you would hardly find a reason to shout". On paper, there is exciting potential for the South African politics to mature - who knows, we may even end up with a South African political party.
Will it be good?