Above all, serve the people
Beware the trappings of power - we are not here to get rich, says Ronnie Kasrils
Oct 26, 2009 11:04 PM | By Ronnie Kasrils
The Big Read: Life and struggle are inevitably accompanied by both achievements and setbacks. Expectations concerning Africa's development have not materialised as expected.
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BEWARE THE CORRIDORS OF CORRUPTION: Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils recalls the words of Angola's founding president, Agostinho Neto: 'The most important thing [for us] is to solve the people's problems'
Clearly,
international capitalism was much stronger and resilient than anticipated. Nevertheless, we got many things right, including the triumphs of the liberation struggles of our region - none more so than the conviction that we would sweep the apartheid system into the dustbin of history.
Our Marxist analysis, that
the inherent contradictions within capitalism were irresolvable and needed to be replaced by socialism, has been proved correct. Russia is re-emerging on the global scene and, with China, is challenging the hegemony of USA imperialism; the world has experienced the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression; the USA is bogged down in Afghanistan and its bloody intervention in the Middle East.
Whatever the errors or miscalculations, The African Communist sought to convey the truth in the service of the people's cause.
Marxism emphasises that the material conditions of life are the basis for change. Our journal has written much about that. While we also stressed the importance of the subjective factor, perhaps too much was taken for granted concerning the moral integrity of revolutionaries.
No revolution is possible without revolutionaries. So much depends on human beings and their willingness to remain true to their principles. From the early days, The African Communist warned about the pitfalls of bribery and corruption, and against settling for political without economic change.
"Toussaint" (real name Rusty Bernstein), who had written an article for the very first issue of The African Communist, in 1959, fittingly contributed a prescient article when the journal returned home in 1991, entitled "The corridors of corruption".
He reflected on the failure of Soviet communism, and betrayal by corruption. He saw warning signals as we prepared to take power:
"I want to draw on factors which can be seen in embryo in our own South African liberation movement. the subtle process by which the foretaste of power corrupts seems to be creeping upon us unnoticed. We ignore the warning signals at our peril. Unless we can identify and eliminate the factors which have corrupted good, honest leaders and organisations elsewhere, we could well repeat the experience of their decline and fall."
The article concluded: "We can benefit now from the examples of those who have not tackled the problem in eastern Europe, and in newly independent Africa. Their experience demonstrates the corrupting consequence of simply taking the trappings of capitalist power over into a new social order. Thus we have the chance to seal off in advance the corridors of corruption, where others tried and failed. Or simply never tried at all. It is a challenge that calls for our utmost seriousness. It demands that we debate the matter openly, without personalities, recriminations or personal ambitions.
"It also demands that we measure ourselves against the standards of honesty, incorruptibility and dedication which we expect - and generally get - from our leaders; and that we understand the pressures that they will be subject to if we cannot find the right answers. The task is nothing less than setting the world of liberation and of socialism on a new path, where dreams of power without the corrupting restraints of the old order can be made real. Real people's power!"
For a similar warning, let us also note the views of Lucio Lara, (Angola's founding president) Agostinho Neto's most trusted comrade. Lara had been interviewed by Joe Slovo in 1978 in an upbeat exchange about the victory of the Angolan revolution.
Seventeen years later, Lara was interviewed for The African Communist by British writer and activist Victoria Brittain. Seeking to explain what had become of the great liberating ideals of the MPLA [the Angolan ruling party], he reminisced: "I don't have illusions about many things any more. In the Angolan struggle, perhaps we didn't have philosophers or sociologists, but we had those words of Neto's: 'The most important thing is to solve the people's problems'.
"Once, in the council of ministers, I heard someone say that we should stop using this phrase. I thought maybe he was right because no one spoke against him. In my opinion, that was when the party began to collapse. The leaders felt they all had the right to be rich."
No doubt both Rusty Bernstein and Lucio Lara would approve of the concerns raised by Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and the statement of
his ANC counterpart and SACP chairman, Gwede Mantashe: "The biggest threat to our movement is the intersection between business interests and the holding of public office. It is frightening to observe the speed with which the election to a position is seen to be the creation of an opportunity for accumulation [of wealth].If we do not deal decisively with this tendency, the ANC will only move one way, that is downward.
We are duty bound to stick to the commitment exemplified by Neto's words. The mission is not about enjoying the trappings of power and becoming rich, but of serving the people.
ýExtract from a speech by Kasrils, the former intelligence minister, at a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of The African Communist magazine
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/article167754.ece
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