Now as some of you may know, I haven’t voted since the 2000 election. Generally the first reaction I hear upon telling people that is that I am apathetic and not fullfilling my responsibilities as a South African citizen. Actually that is far from true, my refusal to vote is not a matter of apathy but a carefully thought out and well discussed decision based on a matter of principle.
That principle is that before I will indicate my support for a party, I must believe that (1) they represent my views (2) they are honest in their promises and will in actual fact rule according to the principles they espouse.
So why don’t I vote – firstly because one major disillusionment of my life has been learning that nobody worth voting for would ever become a politician. By the mere virtue of wanting power, you make yourself the worst possible type of person to give it to. Politicians want power, they want to pursue their careers and they don’t actually give a damn about the things they say they stand for – all that matters to them is that voters give a damn about those, enough to vote for them.
Whether they will actually do anything about it is a whole other kettle of fish – and worldwide the experience has been they won’t – unless the balance of power is so narrow that failure to fulfill even one promise is a guarantee of not being reelected. Keep in mind – I don’t think the government is in charge, this is a republic – not a monarchy, they do not rule us, we rule them – they’re job is supposed to be representing OUR values, OUR ideas and OUR interests.
This does not conflict with my Christianity at all (despite the views of my Theologian brother in law) – quite the contrary, I still believe in honoring the law and the rulers – I just disagree about who God’s appointed rulers ARE. They are US – the citizens and taxpayers – every single one of us. And when you think like that, breaking the law is far worse – because now it’s not somebody else’s laws you are breaking, it’s your own – our own and the people you harm through it is every single other person in the country, up to and including your own family.
The government is supposed to work for us. Their job is not to tell us how to live, it’s to make sure we are able to live the way we tell them we want to.
So that’s one reason – politicians are liars, cheats and thiefs without exception (if you weren’t at least two out of three, you wouldn’t want to BE a politician so the only exceptions that exist are those who got thrust into politics against their will – which is when you get leaders like Ghandi) – and I refuse to tacitly accept this or endorse any politician who is well… like a politician as a matter of moral principle.
The other reason is that before I vote for a party, before I endorse them – I must feel the represent my views and beliefs about how the country should work.
Sorry, voting for the opposition just because it’s important to limit the party in power’s strength is just not good enough for me. I have to be voting for an opposition I at least mostly agree with – thus far, none of South Africa’s parties have even remotely resembled my views.
They go for popular appeal with that side of the population which is most vocal – the religious right and push their agendas without concern for what is good for society as a whole. When all you care about is the vocal ones, you are bound to ignore the whispered cries of the voiceless suffering – and I cannot endorse or promote that.
Some have told me that if I feel this way, I should spoil my ballot on purpose… but what does that do ? There is no distinguishing count for obviously spoilt ballots – there is nothing to tell my ballot apart from people who just cannot read it or whose pen spilled in. If the ballot had a “none-of-the-above” option – I would be voting on that though. Instead, I still believe I am doing my duties as a citizen despite my refusal to vote by participating in the democratic process in other ways. I write letters to newspapers, I write articles on this blog, I read the papers and comment on them – I call into chat shows and point out stupidities.
One of my recent favorites was the reaction to the Julius Malema debacle – I must have been the only person who called in and didn’t say either “Julius is right” or “The ANC should order him to shut up”. Neither of those points have anything to do with the discussion. The important thing as far as I’m concerned is that Julius Malema is a citizen of South Africa and thus has a constitutionally protected right to free speech. If you don’t like what he says speak out – LOUDLY – complain and state why it’s wrong. But do not call for censorship.
The answer to bad speech is more good speech. It is never to demand less speech of any kind. I completely despise what he said, and I said it out loud – but I will also defend to the death his right to say it – because if that right goes away, our country is doomed to the worst things that can happen to countries, every single one of them.
So then why the title of this post ? Because, for the first time in eight years I’m considering voting again. If I vote, it will be for COPE. Jonathan Endersby’s post about COPE quite neatly sums up a lot of why I might vote for them.
Their stated policies make sense, they inspire people – and their criticisms are based on things that really are wrong, not emotional responses to appeal to some or other groups moral beliefs. Now unlike Jonathan, I don’t think this has anything to do with them being good people – they are politicians, as scummy as the rest of them – but it comes out of need. The very existence of COPE has finally created a true democracy in South Africa – a democracy where real issues need to be addressed and debated and people’s actual needs have to matter -because one vote lost could be one too many.
Finally we have a system that can work – because finally, if a politician screws up – we the people (his boss) can fire him. So will I vote ? And will I vote for COPE ? I don’t know yet, but I’m watching with interest, we still have some time to register – before the time runs out I will decide and register if I believe that the hope expressed in this post has been justified.
