The South African Flag. Picture: Henk Kruger/Independent Newspapers
South Africa is emerging as an interesting case study on how to build a country. Or should that be, how not to build a country?
In 1999 I wrote a note in my journal that said, “Is South Africa the world’s last experiment with classic democracy?”
The evolution of the geo-political landscape over the last 20 years points to the need to consider more refined and improved iterations of democracy.
The classic majority rule system is becoming increasingly unfit for purpose as countries migrate from being majority mono-cultural communities to highly diverse communities with often contradictory expectations.
Religious, cultural and racial diversities have broken down the “safe” walls of traditional mono-cultural majority societies.
But what is more insightful is how traditional minorities have broken their silence, at great risk to themselves, in majority mono-cultural democracies.
No longer can it be expected of minorities to simply accept majority outcomes that ignore or violate the rights of minorities. South Africa is one of the unique places in the world where this contestation can be studied with a front-row seat.
A point must be made that the classic European coalition government systems worked well for decades because they were largely mono-cultural societies.
As they change to becoming multi-cultural societies, many European elections are raising concerns about protecting “traditional values”, which has led to right-wing populist rhetoric.
At its granular level, most mono-cultural democracies are not prepared for people who enter their society and don’t wish to be absorbed into its religious, educational and cultural belief systems.
Up until the early 2000s it was expected that people who migrated to majority mono-cultural societies submerged and silenced themselves in those societies.
Today, people migrate and set up visible and vocal alternative minority religious, educational and cultural societies with political aspirations within those societies.
Democracy has been abused by mono-cultural societies because it allowed them to practice democracy without attending to the challenges experienced by minorities. The silence of minorities in majority mono-cultural societies made those democracies believe they were doing well.
Minorities did two things to challenge this. They increased their migration into those societies, and they doubled up their education: they intensified their own cultural education, as well as taking up Western education. They also grew economies that built capital for minority communities.
In the US, Donald Trump is feverishly trying to rally the traditional mono-cultural religious and race base. In the UK, Nigel Farage is desperately trying to sell anti-immigrant fears to his UK constituents. That kind of democracy is no longer the answer.
South Africa can potentially lead a global process that may redefine and improve democracy for the next 1 000 years.
Minorities are no longer going to accept being silenced or culturally obliterated. No longer is a Bill of Rights sufficient. No longer should the courts continuously be called on to uphold the rights of minorities.
Parliament and its political parties should be legally bound to demonstrate to its citizens that they have addressed the problem of mono-cultural majoritarianism in diverse societies.
To fix this we are going to need a lot less window-dressing and more deep intelligence to produce the necessary new iterations of democracy for the next 1 000 years.
This is true for the East, the Middle East and the West. We either continue to celebrate our feasts of folly or we become the cornerstone of brave new convictions.
* Lorenzo A. Davids.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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