11 Dec 2012 | Tony Leon | Original Publication: BDlive
The choices for books of the year that feature in the selections of The
Economist and the New York Times make relevant reading for those heading to
Mangaung, writes Tony Leon
AUSTRALIA provided us
with the concept of "the cultural cringe" — or the internalised
inferiority complex, which causes people in one country to dismiss their own
country’s culture as inferior to that of other nations.
Without seeking external
validation for my own literary choices this year, and as a contribution to
filling the Christmas stocking and also providing some relevant reading for
those heading later this week to Mangaung, I was quite struck by two of the
choices for "books of the year" that feature in the selections of The
Economist and the New York Times.
Robert Caro’s
fourth-volume study on the years of Lyndon Johnson, The Passage of Power, is
not simply a minutely and fascinatingly detailed study of the assumption of the
presidency by the rough-hewn Texan after the assassination of John F Kennedy,
it is an instructive manual on the uses of presidential power for great
purpose.
In his introduction, Caro
— whose life work has been his study of the hugely consequential and flawed
36th president of the US — tellingly observes: "Although the cliché says
that power always corrupts, what is seldom said, but what is equally true, is
that power also reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to
give him power, concealment is necessary…. But as a man obtains more power,
concealment is less necessary. The curtain begins to rise."
Johnson was not shy to
use his power for corrupt personal purpose — his wife held a swathe of radio
and TV licences in Texas, for example. As his first order of presidential
business he set about enacting the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which enfranchised
African Americans. When told by his aides that it was a hopeless task that went
against the political grain of his fellow Southerners, he proclaimed:
"Well, what’s the presidency for?"
He then proceeded to use
his genius-like levels of persuasion and cajolement to ram it through the
Senate. In the process, he observed, "we have lost the South for a
generation". In fact, the Democrats "lost the South" forever,
but the legislation stands as testament to Johnson’s achievement.
It would appear that
President Jacob Zuma has Johnsonian levels of persuasion in his own party. One
of his apparent attributes, in contrast to those of his predecessor, is the
ability to empathise and listen to others. The contrast was well described a
few years ago by the US journalist, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, herself a veteran
of the struggle for civil rights in the US. She wrote: "It is said that
(Thabo) Mbeki decides and never consults, while Zuma consults and never
decides."
With decision time upon
him and the nation later this week, we know the outcome of the horse-race side
of the African National Congress (ANC) conference: in an essentially one-horse
field, Zuma is a racing certainty for re-election, while we don’t quite know if
Cyril Ramaphosa — the proverbial prince-across-the-water — is a starter or a
nonstarter for the number two slot. But on the politically less sexy, but
arguably more consequential, side of things, determining the policy choices for
the country, matters appear less settled.
According to analyst
Steven Friedman, despite the sound and fury of various policy resolutions, it
will be a case of smoke and mirrors: from property rights to nationalisation,
the rhetoric will disguise the triumph of the status quo. Or, as leftwing
scourge of the ANC, Patrick Bond, once termed it, a case of "talk left,
walk right".
I don’t know if I share
this certitude — and not because party conferences are always determinative of
governing behaviour. The danger would appear to lie in the willingness of
policy makers to ignore the weight of outside voices and views in charting the
way ahead. This acute form of political autism, where the sounds of the party
insiders are the only voices that matter, was given expression last week by ANC
economic policy chief Enoch Godongwana. He blithely informed us, that
notwithstanding warnings from mining executives, credit-rating downgrades and a
looming investment strike, the party would proceed to increase mining taxes.
The second book is set
nearly 500 years ago in the court of intrigue of Henry VIII’s Tudor England.
Hilary Mantel’s
historical novel, Bring Up the Bodies, charts the rise of Thomas Cromwell, who
rose on the basis of his acute intellect and expert reading of the tides of
power to become the king’s chief minister and architect of the English
reformation. But the body count in the book starts to rise when those in the
royal circle begin to lose touch with the objective basis of their own
preferment, and the basis of their wealth and power. Cromwell himself was to
lose his head, although the book ends before he does.
SA is a sovereign nation
and a complex one at that. But we have an acute dependence on foreign
investment flows and are facing an increasingly vulnerable balance of payments
position. Let’s hope that some outside voices ring through in Mangaung next
week.
• Follow Tony Leon on Twitter: @TonyLeonSA
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