Green
salute to Madiba !
The
great human to be remembered
Tribute
to Nelson Mendela
by
Prof.Gopalakrishna Panicker krishgindia@gmail.com
Desmond Tutu said, "Like
a most precious diamond honed deep beneath the surface of the earth,
the Madiba who emerged from prison in January 1990 was virtually
flawless."
It was August 1993. After three and a half years passed after
spending 27 years in prison under apartheid. The first free and fair
elections set for the following April .Against the backdrop of
violence from the white Afrikaner right and daily bloodshed in the
townships. Thousands of “comrades” assembled to listen to the
leader .Thousands had died in the previous few days in street
battles . Yet the practical politician of high morals and ethical
standard declared “If you have no discipline, you are not freedom
fighters and we do not want you in our organisation,” he said in
his distinctive tones. “I am your leader. If you don’t want me,
tell me to go and rest. As long as I am your leader I will tell you
where you are wrong.” He stared, and backed down.
For long years Mandela had been a symbol of hope, known only from
his fiery record in the 1950s and 1960s, his inspirational speech
from the dock when on trial for his life(It was my previous blog).
His background as a freedom fighter and political prisoner
was merely the warm-up act to his greatest role of all: the apostle
of reconciliation who would seduce the Afrikaners into relinquishing
power and lead South Africa back into the world.
His unwavering style of leadership has led many
to regard him as a modern Gandhi. He was the first to say he was not
a saint. He after all championed the ANC’s adoption of the “armed
struggle” – even if this was initially symbolic move.
Desmond Tutu, his friend and fellow Nobel
Peace laureate, was one of the first to question the world’s
sanctification of “Madiba” – his clan name, and how he liked to
be known.
Reconciliation was not a spontaneous miracle, as some
imagined, emanating from the magnificence of his soul. Rather, the
seduction of the Afrikaners was plotted in his cell as a way to win
power. He pondered many times that his long imprisonment gave him the
time to reflect on how he should lead. It was there that he urged
fellow prisoners to learn Afrikaans, on the theory you could better
defeat your enemy if you spoke their language.
“I knew that people expected me to Habour
anger towards whites,” Mandela later wrote when recalling the
morning after his release. “But I had none. In prison my anger
towards whites decreased but my hatred for the system grew.”
Twenty-three years later, the “rainbow nation”, as Archbishop
Tutu labelled the post-apartheid society, is still a dream . I
The passing and legacy of South
Africa’s first black president
Mandela knew how important it was to keep Afrikaners
loyal. He also knew South Africa could ill-afford what had happened
at independence in neighboring Mozambique: a mass exodus of whites
with their skills and capital. So he masked his anger over the past.
His campaign reached its zenith in the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, a project of astonishing ambition aimed at exorcising the
troubled past. Then there was the 1995 Rugby World Cup when he won
the hearts of so many Afrikaners with his adoption of “their”
game, rugby, inspiring the Springboks to victory , all but by his
exuberant passion alone.
So what was the secret to the “Madiba magic” and his seduction
routine?
Rather, they were rooted in his extraordinary life. In his
lectures to angry “comrades”, his genes as the scion of chiefs
were to the fore. It was as if he were upbraiding a rowdy village
assembly, as his forefathers must have done in the past.. Who else
could telephone the Queen and address her as “Elizabeth”?
So Mandela’s unflinching support for the independence of the
courts, the media and state institutions set a vital precedent. He
respected their rulings even when white judges from the old era ruled
in favour of apartheid leaders. He himself appeared in court when
subpoenaed in a dispute over the national rugby squad – and more
agonizingly when petitioning for divorce from his second wife,
Winnie. For such a private man it was patently painful to have to
testify about the intimacies of their relationship. Yet there he
stood, stiffly upright in the simple courtroom, testifying in a
quavering voice, as the law required.
He was indeed the father of the nation. As he clearly mentioned
“Don’t put me on a pedestal, I am human, he liked to say. I may
fall in that case?.
As US President Barack
Obama in his own words “ Madiba
was right that he inherited, "a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn
sense of fairness" from his father. And we know he shared with
millions of black and colored South Africans the anger born of, "a
thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered
moments...a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my
people,....who moved a nation toward justice, and in the
process moved billions around the world.” he continued
“ There is a word in South
Africa -- Ubuntu – (Yes I am proudly using that open source
operating system with that great name! to type this tribute as well)
.A word that captures Mandela's greatest gift: his recognition that
we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; that
there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing
ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.” It is from
a person who admits with out any doubt “Michelle and I are
beneficiaries of that struggle. But in America, and in South Africa,
and in countries all around the globe, we cannot allow our progress
to cloud the fact that our work is not yet done. “Yes with out him
and great leaders like Abraham Linkan and Martin Luther king history
of U.S and world would have been different .
What are the historical lessons we Indians can
draw from his life -Was able to unify different antagonistic tribes
, the church with Desmond Tutu as the leader ,the communists even
African whites . Was able o liberates the jailed ones and jailers .
The corruption and apartheid has much in common both are at
the wrong sides of growth of civilization .Just like the old S.A ,
India has also got expelled from different International Olympic
associations and in the shadow of shame for her corrupted echelons
of power and dynastic rulers .We are now in the thresh hold of
proud uprising waiting for the right leadership to evolve with
necessary vision ! Commitment ,and action plan .
Long live Madiba ! Will continue to
inspire thousands to appear in this globe !
Jai Hind! krishgindia@gmail.com
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