Imagine you are trying to get to the port of a major city at night. You carry with you a map, but no compass. Attempting to find the harbour by following the map means a lot of tedious stopping and starting, asking for directions, consulting the map, and getting lost. On the other hand, one could look for the lighthouse, whose lamp lights up for miles around, and stands proud of all the other buildings. You have no clear idea of the route in between you and the lighthouse, but you will always be sure to head in the right direction.
For a while, we have been using maps and compasses. But the political compass we have inherited amongst us Western-educated intellectuals only points two ways, left and right, and these carry far too much Eurocentric baggage to guide us anymore. Most of the ideas on either end of the “spectrum” will readily drift across the centre, and in South Africa, these idea make no sense whatsoever. While many journalists will refer to the EFF, PAC and BLF as “far left” because of their references to Lenin, Mao and Sankara, the reality is that they have far more in common with the German National Socialists or the Khmer Rouge. However, there is a certain genius in the naming of BLF (Black First, Land First) – their chosen moniker communicates the totality of the party’s aim: regardless of the cost, South Africa is to be made a Black-only land. Ignoring the obvious evil and insanity of their desires, the power of a simple guiding concept is that it functions exactly like a lighthouse. Whenever the ideology fails, or the ordinary member is too lazy to read the manifesto, the lighthouse is always visible, and easy to recognise.
In this sense the ANC is in a bind. Aside from “not-apartheid”, what do they stand for? “A better life for all”? Everybody claims that, even the old regime. This is where they are in luck – the DA doesn’t stand for anything either. They are vapid and nihilistic, seeking only to chip away power from what they correctly perceive to be a kleptocratic, racist octopus, draining the blood of the nation and sewing chaos in the streets. They also carry their own baggage, a tie to the old Nationalist Party. While most members were absorbed into the ANC and got cushy civil service posts (Marthinus van Schalkwyk is ambassador to Greece these days, for instance), a good deal of the disgruntled verkramptes and some more principled Liberals clustered together with disaffected PAC members and all kind of other riffraff to distance themselves from the growing dirty snowball of comradely corruption.
The EFF is a little different. While they show initiative, in promising economic parity, historical retribution and some good old fashioned violence, they scare a lot of people, and their rampant modernism finds little room for respectable traditionalists. Besides, they are transparently racist, and the fact that they find the idea of genocide tantalising is difficult to hide. They are also fantastically, incontinently, magnificently corrupt. There is not a man, woman or child capable of ignoring the depth of their pockets or the stickiness of their fingers. What is more, all their promises are identical to the promises of the ANC, with just a little more bluster and bloodthirst. The others are worse off – the UDM is only alive because people respect Bantu Holomisa (as do I), Cope only exists because some people are still loyal to the Mbeki program, and ATM is as likely to succeed as the sky is likely to fall. At least the IFP, FF+ and Cape Independence know which side their bread is buttered on. There’s always a market for regional identity.
While the commentators (usually over-educated humanities-department over-achievers) continue to perpetuate the myth that the “left” is the only solution, I think that any party which wishes to distinguish itself from the crowd, will need to present a principle and a program totally distinct from any which has been offered so far. They must resemble no known entity, but be instantly recognisable. They must appeal to all groups but polarise the options. They must have high ideals, but survive on the low pragmatism of the everyday struggle. To that end, I propose the ultimate solution is the Law and Order party.
There is no need for fancy ideological training. The darling of the radical crowd, Mbuyesani Ndlozi, takes his entire Phd thesis in endless quotes and complicated sentences weighed down by the convoluted and ambiguous language of Critical Theory to tell us that black and whites can’t ever be friends. What a revelation! I’m sure I could have learned that from the local drunk at the shebeen for free. No, there is no need for a densely detailed roadmap with every streetlight detailed and labelled in the legend. I want a big fat lighthouse everybody can see.
Law and Order means crime is a priority. It means property rights are inviolable. It means borders are respected, customs are upheld, tradition is protected, schools are held to a high standard, politics is transparent, politicians are held accountable, the local community controls the politicians, not the politicians the masses through distant, centralised “representative” democracy. It means authority must regain its legitimacy, it means the people must be educated in the laws of the land. It means no more Chinese infiltration, and it means no more European arms deals, no more American retail takeovers. It is well-known that poverty exacerbates crime. But it is equally impossible to eradicate poverty without eradicating crime. It is a constant assault on the poor. And whether it is the chicken or the egg, at some point if we want to start a farm, we have to buy one of them. We have been sold bad eggs for a generation, and I want to see a chicken that lays. At least I can tell if its alive by looking.
We have enacted some of the most progressive wealth redistribution policies in any non-communist country, and have made more people dependent on state welfare than there are taxpayers in the country. We have suffocated the private sector with red tape and arbitrary confiscation, graft and lawlessness. Our construction sector is dying because armed gangs are halting construction. Our farmers are struggling to raise capital to lay down their crops due to the devaluation of their property, and the land that is redistributed lies fallow. Who benefits from this? It isn’t the ordinary South African. This explains why it is so popular with the elites – they signal their racial solidarity by spiting the white elite, and reap all the benefits by only pretending class solidarity.
A party that promises peace, security and growth, versus a party that promises to kill the chicken for its eggs, makes for an easy choice. And only a fool would choose wrong.
The Eccentric Flock 