SPEECH BY TONY LEON MP
LEADER OF THE DEMOCRATIC
YOUTH DAY RALLY
BLOCK H COMMUNITY CENTRE (HALALA HALL)
SOSHANGUVE, TSHWANE
“The DA’s vision: an open, opportunity society”
Introduction
In
Today I shall make the case for a completely different agenda, the pursuit of an “Open, Opportunity Society”.
I shall argue that “freedom”, by which I mean freedom for each individual, and “opportunity”, by which I mean the chance and ability to exercise freedom, are the core values on which an Open, Opportunity Society must be founded.
I shall also make the case that the DA’s liberal approach and our advocacy of an Open Opportunity Society is consistent with the constitutional compact our country achieved in 1993 and 1996, in contrast to the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution, which we believe undermines that constitutional agreement.
But before I begin, I offer this summary of our critique of the ANC:
- The ANC is a nationalist organisation that believes black South Africans form a specific class with a peculiar personality and particular and common interests and that individual black South Africans are therefore representatives of this larger group.
- The ANC believes it is the organic or natural representative of the African majority in
- The ANC is engaged in a revolution, which it calls the “National Democratic Revolution”, the purpose of which is to “emancipate” the African majority by bringing into being a “democracy” in which they will be able to realise their true selves.
- Such a democracy can only be achieved through the attainment of “African hegemony” in
- And African hegemony is thus pursued in two ways: first, through the extension of ANC control of “all levers of power”; second, through the promotion of “demographic representivity” in all institutions.
The DA’s philosophy
The DA’s starting point is completely different. For us, society is comprised at its most basic level of individuals, and not of racially defined groups, or for that matter of classes or ethnic groups.
I need to make clear that this does not mean we believe people are simply individuals. Identity is a complex thing, and is shaped by many forces – psychological, economic, genetic, cultural, historical, and so on – and each of us is at least in part the product of these forces.
But as liberals we do believe that people are more than the sum of the forces that are brought to bear on them, or at least that the combination of forces produces individuals with a unique outlook on the world, who construct their own meaning and who are best placed to apprehend their own truth, or truths.
I should also make clear that liberalism is a rich philosophical tradition that includes many different strands of thought. There is no “official” liberalism, and in the DA it is neither necessary nor desirable that we should all subscribe to one view of what it means to be a liberal.
But liberals all agree on the primacy of the individual and his or her rights, and that there should be a private space into which neither the state nor society should be entitled to encroach.
The first difference between the ANC and the DA, then, is that the DA believes the individual is the basic unit of society, while the dominant part of the ANC believes it is the racial group.
The second difference between us concerns objectives.
In order to achieve the “emancipation” of the African majority, the ANC believes it is necessary to establish “African hegemony” over both the state and civil society, including such institutions as universities and think tanks – what the ANC calls “the ideological arena”.
The ANC is therefore trying to create a society in which there is uniformity of opinion; in which everyone subscribes to the same values in the same way.
The DA, by contrast, is not trying to achieve a particular outcome for either individuals or society.
Our objective is much more modest: to safeguard the rights of individuals and provide them with the wherewithal to determine and pursue their own ends, whatever they may be.
The difference between these two objectives is deeply significant – they are derived from very different conceptions of what the word “freedom” means.[i] And the implications for the programmes of the DA and the ANC are profound.
For in order to achieve its objective, the ANC needs to engage in a “revolution”, which requires it to extend its control over “all levers of power” in society. In so doing it subverts the constitutional compact of 1994.
But the DA, in order to achieve an Open, Opportunity Society, neither desires nor needs the control required to achieve hegemony.
For us, success requires a constitutional liberal democracy.
The first part of the DA’s agenda, therefore, is the protection and promotion of the constitutional compact we achieved in our country between 1993 and 1996.
The open society: a constitutional liberal democracy
I would like to spell out our commitment to the protection and promotion of the open society, which in today’s world necessarily must take the form of a constitutional liberal democracy.
The corner stone of an open society is individual freedom. Indeed the ultimate purpose of an open society is precisely to protect individual freedom.
But to expand more fully on our commitment to an open society, I wish to unpack each of these terms: “constitutional”, “liberal” and “democracy”.
Constitutionalism
In the first place, we believe that the constitution should be the highest law in the land and that everyone, including the government, should be subject to it. This is what equality under the rule of law means, and its opposite is arbitrary rule by a monarch or despot or oligarchy or unconstrained majority, or rule in the interests of some citizens to the exclusion of others.
The constitution is thus the guarantor of both the liberal and the democratic parts of our liberal democracy, because without it power could too easily accumulate in the hands of a few, and then both democracy and individual freedom would be under direct threat.
Liberalism
The “liberal” part of our belief in liberal democracy involves the protection in the constitution of the freedoms and rights of individuals, including the right to conscience and speech, to practise ones religion, to economic activity and to associate freely.
In addition, the constitution must, as ours does, provide for a wide range of checks on the power of the executive: the separation of powers; the separation of party and state, an independent judiciary; oversight by the legislature; and a variety of institutions, called the Chapter Nine institutions, whose purpose is to protect the rights of citizens and keep a check on executive excess.
Essential to the creation of an open society is the guarantee that no one should be subject to arbitrary discrimination on account of their race or gender or other demographic characteristics.
But the DA goes beyond a formal objection to discrimination. We believe that the diversity of our people is a national asset and should be promoted by a spirit of mutual respect, tolerance and conciliation. That is why we are implacably opposed to racism, sexism and other forms of arbitrary discrimination, and commit ourselves to safeguarding the language, religious and cultural rights of each individual.
Because we believe every individual is unique, we stand for true non-racialism and oppose any attempt to treat people as mere representatives of a racial group.
We are inspired by the vision of the American civil rights campaigner, Dr Martin Luther King, who called for people to be judged on the “content of their character”, not the “colour of their skin”, and by the famous words of Nelson Mandela, who said at his treason trial that he opposed “white domination” and “black domination.”
This does not mean that we ignore the reality and implications of many years of racial discrimination. As I shall show later, we are deeply mindful of it, and have policies to redress it. But unlike the nationalists in the ANC, we never fall prey to the falsehood that people are mere representatives of a group and endeavour in all our policies to break this idea down, not entrench it.
We believe also in the crucial importance of an independent civil society, including a free press. Institutions, which are formed through the free association of individual citizens, and which exist outside of any official “hegemony”, are essential to the establishment and preservation of an open society.
For civil society acts as a bulwark against the tendency of the state to encroach into the private realm – it is an antidote to any attempt to wrap society in a smothering hegemony of thought and truth.
Democracy
We believe that free individuals have a right to elect those who govern them, so that the government may rule by the consent of the people, and so that government might be accountable to the people.
But democracy necessarily requires that there be more than one party, and that the government is faced with vigorous, critical, effective opposition that is loyal to the constitutional order and promotes the well being of our country.
That is why the Democratic Alliance promotes the value of such opposition as a necessary basis for the development and strengthening of democracy in
Conclusion
My outline of our support for the form and the substance of a constitutional liberal democracy makes clear, I think, why the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution runs counter to promise of an open society.
The whole point of a constitutional liberal democracy, of an open society, is to limit the accumulation of power. As Karl Popper famously pointed out, the “control of the controller, of the dangerous accumulation of power…” is the “most fundamental problem of all politics.”[ii]
But what the ANC’s National Democratic Revolution seeks to do is precisely the opposite of this. For it seeks not to limit power, but to concentrate it in the hands of the ANC – and in reality, in the hands of the ANC’s National Executive Committee, which is dominated by the President.
And the more that power is concentrated in the hands of any powerful institution, the less freedom there is for individuals.
This is the crux of the DA’s objection to the ANC’s approach and programme. For the greatest enemy of freedom is accumulated power in the hands of an elite few.
I should emphasise that it does not matter that the ANC might wish to concentrate power in its own hands, to extend its “hegemony”, for good reasons, or in pursuit of noble aims, such as the “emancipation” of the African majority. Because accumulated power concentrated in the hands of a few party bosses is a dangerous thing, irrespective of their reasons for wanting that power.
“Power corrupts”, as Lord Acton pointed out long ago, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The opportunity society: a liberal programme of empowerment
An open society is one in which individuals are free to pursue their own ends via means of their own design. But if people in such a society lack the power to put their freedom to use, then the open society fails in its purpose and loses its attraction.
We live in a land that has suffered racial division and strife, a country in which millions of our people have been unfairly refused opportunity and continue to live without access to a chance to improve their lives.
For a long time, the majority of South Africans experienced the unjustifiable denial of their basic human rights and today most South Africans continue to suffer an assault on their dignity because of pervasive poverty.
That is why we stand also for an opportunity society, a society in which everyone, especially those who are most is need, is given the wherewithal to exercise his or her freedom.
The enemies of opportunity in our country are unemployment and poverty, violent crime, a lack of education and skills and widespread disease.
These must be the targets of government policy if the open society is also to be an opportunity society.
Prosperity
The force behind growing prosperity is a socially and environmentally responsible enterprise economy driven by the choices, risks and hard work of free individuals.
Without the growth in prosperity created through the exercise of the market economy there can be no opportunity, and choices become increasingly limited. That is why we promote an economic policy that puts growth at its centre, and why we promote such policies as low inflation, a minimal budget deficit, lower taxation, a deregulated labour market, privatisation, enterprise zones, opportunity vouchers and the like.
There are those who object to some of these policies, but experience across the world has shown that they generate growth, and with growth, job opportunities.
In addition to policies that promote growth, the Democratic Alliance also promotes policies designed to provide the poorest of the poor, and the least empowered, with a safety net to ensure their survival and welfare.
For this reason we support the provision of free essential services at municipal level, such as a basic amount of water and electricity, and a Basic Income Grant of R110 per month for those living below the poverty line.
Safety
The second enemy of opportunity is crime, particularly violent crime. It destroys lives, families and communities and generates a pervasive and debilitating atmosphere of anxiety and fear.
Our policies to prevent crime and prosecute it when it happens are well known, and they include:
· The creation of a properly staffed, trained and equipped police force that is able to make a decisive impact on
· The introduction of minimum levels of service and quantifiable performance targets, to help create a more efficient and accountable police force.
· Strengthening the criminal justice system and ensuring that appropriate sentences are used to keep offenders behind bars, and
· A greater emphasis on the victims of crime, through the creation of a Fund for the Victims of Crime.
Education
Quality education and skills development are essential tools without which no one can be empowered to take charge of their own lives in a modern economy.
All children deserve the chance to pursue their dreams and develop their talents. Education is the key to the youth being able to fulfil their potential.
It is essential that all
The key to achieving this goal is to take control of schooling away from the state and give it back to parents and teachers.
Healthcare
Disease destroys lives and opportunity. Malnourished children cannot take advantage of their education. Ill parents cannot work and provide for their families.
Of all the diseases to which our fellow South Africans fall prey, AIDS is the most damaging, because it attacks the most economically active part of the population, young people who could provide for their parents and their children. The cost of AIDS in human suffering and lost economic activity is enormous.
The DA has a set of policies designed to improve the physical well-being of our society, which includes attracting more qualified healthcare personal to the public service, improving the quality of care in the public health service, freeing the private healthcare industry to provide healthcare services more widely and treating HIV/AIDS with an aggressive anti-retroviral programme.
Unemployment and poverty, crime, a lack of quality education and healthcare must be the primary targets of any government that is serious about promoting an opportunity society.
Conclusion
I hope I have outlined the basics of the DA’s policy programme, which is designed to extend opportunity to the people of
Again, we believe that the ANC’s programme of “transformation”, which entails extending its control over all the levers of power and promoting “demographic representivity” in every institution, stands directly in the way of creating an opportunity society.
First, the ANC’s obsession with accumulating power blinds it to the truth that individuals, taking risks, making choices, pursuing their own ends, are the most creative, enterprising and wealth-creating force there is. The creation of opportunity is directly linked to the extension of individual freedom. Free individuals create wealth. Government’s don’t.
Second, the ANC has focused far too much effort and energy on the racial composition of the public service, and far too little on the quality of delivery. The obsession with race and “demographic representivity” has undermined the states ability to deliver to the very people most in need of the empowering hand of opportunity.
The interests of the people should come first, not the pursuit of a narrow racial nationalism, ostensibly promoted in the name of the people but which actually benefits a small elite of party insiders and their associates.
Conclusion: The open, opportunity society
The Democratic Alliance is often accused of opposing change and wishing to preserve the divisions of apartheid. These accusations have no basis.
They are made by the ANC and its fellow travellers with one purpose: to convince increasingly sceptical black South Africans that the ANC really is their “natural” political home.
The ANC promotes its racial nationalism in part because it calculates that it is the best way to preserve its position in South African society. The consequences may be good for the ANC in the short term, but in the long term, the cost will be borne by all South Africans.
The truth is that the Democratic Alliance believes in change. We believe that
I think I have outlined clearly the DA’s approach and programme, and where it differs from the ANC’s. The ANC is pursuing a National Democratic Revolution, which we believe undermines the promise of our constitution. We are pursuing an Open Opportunity Society, which we believe is consistent with the promise of our constitution.
I hope that this clarifies where the DA stands in
Footnotes:
