LIBERALS ARE THE TRUE INNOVATORS

"Skepticism is the wrecking ball of possibilities." - Christian Lindner, FDP Chairman, 16 May 2015

I was recently afforded the great honour and privilege of being invited to attend a 2-week seminar at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's International Academy for Leadership (IAF), in Gummersbach, Germany. Put very succinctly, the primary aim of the foundation is to spread liberalism all over the world.

The seminar focused on the topic of "Local Politics and Citizen's Participation" and included participants from 5 continents. The IAF imparts important skills and knowledge such as political communication, how to transform into a market economy and what it means to be liberal. Clean and efficient governance is encouraged.

Liberalism is characterised by the extension of individual freedom and the limitation of state power and is an ideology that staunchly advocates for choice, opportunity, deregulation of economies and the devolution of political power to be as close to the people as possible. Basic human rights, such as freedom of association and expression, lie at the heart of liberalism.

An experience that will resonate with me for the rest of my life was watching the speech of the FDP (Free Democratic Party) Chairman, Christian Lindner, in which he clearly and crisply explained that liberals are always challenging the status quo.

In South Africa, the liberal party (the Democratic Alliance or DA for short), is denounced by the governing party, the African National Congress, on a weekly basis as "counter-revolutionary."

Interestingly, it is not the DA that is resisting change. It is the party of national government that adamantly opposes reform and crushes individual thought in favour of the collective, just as in Germany.

Both the FDP and the DA are pushing for reform, literally to make people's lives easier. In both South Africa and Germany, the liberal argument is for the deregulation of the economy to make it easier to start a business, and to encourage entrepeneurship. The DA has even released a plan that is backed up by international economic experts that will factually create 8% economic growth nationally. The governing party sticks to the status quo; low economic growth of 1 - 2 % per annum and a country in which it is difficult for the average person to simply get a job.

You cannot have dignity if you don't have a job. Dignity is a human right. Liberals are the defenders of human rights and freedoms.

The discourse of Germany's liberal party, the FDP, takes on the core liberal principles of freedom, choice and opportunity, in its push for the digitalisation of public services. They are not advocating the end of all opportunities to go to an office in order to apply for a passport, for example, and freely acknowledge that there is a place in society for both the online and offline systems to exist.

This assertion in fact realises the value of the individual; that one mould does not fit all. We all have our individual preferences.

Both the DA and the FDP believe that immigration should be easier for highly skilled people to enter the workforce. Bureaucracy in this respect is intense in both South Africa and Germany.

The social origin of people must not determine where they end up in life as this unhinges the free market economy.

A new service attitude is required from a top-heavy public administration; an attitude that will say "the customer is always the king!"

It truly seems basic that everyone would want to live a life of freedom, of adherence to the rule of law, of economic prosperity and solution-based thinking.

Instead, liberals are often fighting the odds. In the United Kingdom, the Liberal Democrats were soundly beaten in the most recent national elections, whilst in Germany the FDP is represented at municipal and provincial level, but not in the national parliament (the Bundestag), at this point in time.

In the Philippines, however, a liberal party is in national government.

The Democratic Alliance can be proud of the significant gains it has made as a liberal organisation, especially in comparison to many liberal parties the world over.

The world needs independent thinkers. The world needs competition in politics and in business to drive accountability and excellence. 

It is innovation that spurs progress.

Michael Shackleton is a DA Councillor in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and writes in his personal capacity.