Presidential voice must be heard but...

His intemperate ripostes, delivered via his column ‘Letter from the President’ in ANC Today, have prompted a flood of angry letters and comments in the media. Mbeki frequently denounces white critics as ignorant or ungrateful racists who want the African National Congress (ANC) government to be discredited. Some of his sharpest rebukes, however, have been directed at black critics, notably archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu, who provoked Mbeki’s ire when he expressed concern about growing sycophancy within the ANC and the government’s failure to deal decisively with HIV/Aids and Zimbabwe, was insultingly told to ‘demonstrate decent respect for the truth rather than indecent resort to empty rhetoric’. Two caveats need to be made regarding the president’s tendency to resort to ad hominem attacks on his critics. First, anyone who criticises the government publicly should be man or woman enough to withstand counter-attack without unseemly whingeing. Secondly, it is to Mbeki’s credit that he seeks to engage citizens in debate; that is preferable to a president who isolates himself from the public. However, there is a fear that his often excoriating response to criticism is prompted by more than just an irascible nature; it arouses the suspicion that he is intolerant of all criticism, no matter how politely couched. Focus may disagree with your views, Mr President, but it will vigorously defend your right to express them. However, it may occasionally feel the need to suggest that you do so with the dignity befitting the high office that you occupy, and in full mindfulness of the vulnerability of democracy in a country where one party is as dominant as yours.

President Thabo Mbeki finds himself in a veritable whirlpool of controversy because of the manner in which he has laid into an assortment of people for daring to criticise the policies of his government, the deficiencies of its administrators and, though more rarely, the integrity of its officials. The intemperate nature of many of his ripostes, delivered via his column Letter from the President in ANC Today, has not halted the flow of criticism. Instead of stunned silence, there has often been an accelerated flow of angry letters and stinging commentaries in the media.

Mbeki’s response has not infrequently been to accuse his detractors of racial bigotry, lamentable ignorance or gross ingratitude, particularly when they are white. Thus, to cite one typical response, whites who have expressed disquiet that the arms deal may have been contaminated by corruption have been dismissed as “fishers of corrupt men” prompted by deep-rooted antipathy towards his predominantly black government. They have been accused of not merely expecting the post-apartheid government to be insufficiently vigilant against corruption but of wanting it to be discredited by corruption, born of avarice and kleptomania.

It should, however, be admitted that some of his sharpest verbal assaults have been directed at black citizens who have had the audacity to publicly criticise what they see as misguided policies and/or hazardous trends in his mode of governance. The severe presidential chastisement of archbishop Desmond Tutu comes to mind: his “offence” was to articulate concern about the growing “culture of sycophancy” in the upper echelons of the African National Congress (ANC), as well as to audibly anguish over the government’s failure to vigorously tackle the challenges presented by the HIV/Aids plague at home and the incipient megalomania of Robert Mugabe across the Limpopo River.

Tutu, for whom honesty is an essential component of his faith, was peremptorily told to “demonstrate decent respect for the truth rather than indecent resort to empty rhetoric,” a particularly insulting admonition to the man who was chosen by the ANC government to head the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.

Two caveats need to be appended to the regrettable tendency of Mbeki to lace his replies to criticism with attacks on the persona of those who have ventured to question his modus operandi: first, those who voice their criticism publicly should be man or woman enough to withstand the counter-attack without squealing too much; secondly, Mbeki, to his credit, is a president who seeks to actively engage the citizenry in debate, albeit indirectly through the modern wonders of electronically transmitted missives.

A conclusion flows from the caveats: a president who communicates with the general public is better than one who retreats into the presidential equivalent of a religious cloister, even if he is inclined to impugn the motives of citizens who have reservations about his political judgements. No one of good sense expects the president to “shut up” (to borrow the colloquial phrase chosen by ANC Today when it reflected on the matter).

But — and it is an important qualification — there is another issue that needs to be aired: the fear that Mbeki’s often excoriating response to criticism is prompted by more than irascibility at the perceived malice, ignorance or prejudice of his interlocutors. The vehemence of his replies conveys a disquieting sense that he is intolerant of criticism period, even when it is advanced politely and prefaced by full recognition of his achievements.

The disquiet is not assuaged by the ANC’s inclination to conflate itself with the state and by the related notion that it, as the major liberation movement in the struggle against apartheid, has a historically-sanctioned right to rule for the foreseeable future and that its political opponents are covert revanchists seeking to restore as much of the old order as possible.

Subject to the above reservations, Focus may disagree with your views, Mr President, but it will defend your right to express them with all the intellectual strength it can muster. It may, however, occasionally feel the need to counsel you to do so with the finesse and dignity befitting the high office that you occupy, and — as important — in full mindfulness of the vulnerability of democracy in a society where one party is as dominant as yours.