What 'Yes we can' must learn from the Miracle of '94

There is a reason why 15th century explorers conveniently divided Earth into the “New World” (including North America) and the “Old World” (including Africa). They might not have intended it in this sense, but there is much the New World can, nay, must, learn from the Old World.

After all, age implies experience and experience is forged in the fires of trial and error.

I’ve been luxuriating in the CSI-style news analysis of Barack Obama’s opening days in the Oval Office. Yes, of course, sometimes the overkill gets to you, but at least no stone is left unturned, no minuscule crack left unexamined, no nuanced word left undissected. The TV version of this in SA is one or two “analysts” propped up in a studio and given a three-minute slot to show how clever they are (and by implication, what a fearless, favourless news bunch runs the show).

A veteran hack and inveterate critic like me cannot help but draw comparisons between the SA and US political dramas. Barack Obama has so far not put a pinkie toe out of line. Rather he has galvanised a burdened, brittle and scared nation with an electric energy and unity of purpose I haven’t seen since those “Glory Days” of 1994 in SA.

The question on everyone’s lips is: Can Obama deliver? It’s a very valid question, not just in the US, but also from Davos to Doornfontein to De Aar. The latest game on Capitol Hill and in every household in Washington DC is to Find the Flaw.

Based on what I’ve seen and heard so far (admittedly short), my answer is: yes, he can.

But — and it’s a big but — he must learn from the mistakes made by the youngest political miracle on Earth, the Republic of South Africa (born April 27 1994).

Lesson 1: It’s all about the People. Forget the ideologies; they’re fine as background music, great for commemorative days and for maintaining a national cadence and rhythm, but it’s the knitting that makes the jersey. Lay aside the petty personal loyalties; not in ungracious ingratitude, but they’re just clutter now. Put the grand ideas and philosophies in frames on the wall and put the pragmatic playbook on the desk.

Lesson 2: Keep the People safe. The “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and the “heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” are not only very, very real, but they can shatter your grandiose plans in less than a heartbeat, and after that you only have the tumbled-down ruin with which to work. Let go of a safe and secure environment in every sense and you’re faced with the ANC’s fatal denialism on crime, HIV/Aids, government corruption, education, Zimbabwe. Then your credibility is shot to shit. You’re forever on the back foot playing catch-up politics a la Nero or Caligula. If the people are safe and feel safe, so is your dream.

Lesson 3: DELIVER. Make the hard choices first. Live up to those promises that got you to the White House while they’re still fresh in the memories of the people who put you there. Do what must be done. Don’t shilly-shally. Don’t obfuscate or change your alibi. Don’t spin. Just prioritise (and for God’s sake do it fast) and then stay the course. If that hard-nosed approach gets some hackles up, so what? And the more dire and seemingly insurmountable the crisis, the greater the effort and fortitude demanded. In fact, there is great wisdom in the marketing maxim of under-promise and over-deliver. Nothing rallies support like getting more than you expected.

Lesson 4: Put the best people on your team and hold them to the highest standards. Senile struggle comrades and the mummified remains of a bygone time have no place in setting the world to rights. Cosseting cowards and incompetents within monasterial walls just takes up cupboard space. Let them know that it’s three strikes and they’re out — and stick to that rule. Plan big, but act small-scale. Think national — even global — but do local. And do it well — nothing turns off even the most ovine electorate better than realising they’re getting second best or short-changed.

Lesson 5: Communicate, communicate, communicate. Tell the people what you’re doing, where you’re winning AND where you’re losing. It is the callow crook, the shallow Shylock that hunkers down behind closed doors appearing periodically in papal splendour on special occasions. And I’m not talking about weekly “letters” on some party parochial Gerry-built website or prancing about on a stage with your voluminous gut blurring the screen singing “Mshini Wami” to the uniformed ousies. The people put you there and they want to see you — on demand. And they demand that you listen to them, so be out there as much as possible, talking, asking, listening and noting. That’s the job. Live with it. It’s called

transparency

. It’s the only proven route to credibility.

Lesson 6: Hold everyone — yourself most of all — unquestionably accountable. We, the people, are prepared to accept mistakes, even grave falls from grace and the moral heights, but if it’s your fuck up, fix it. And if the blunder is serious enough, take the road less travelled and toss the tosser. It is invariably better to seek out the mavericks and critics and use them as your lodestone. Not making your policy — that’s your job — but guiding it. Shun the sycophants in favour of those who will call a spade a spade and will spontaneously do so often, early and incisively.

Lesson 7: UNIFY. Nelson Mandela reconciled SA, but then stepped aside to let incompetence tear, fray, untie, splinter, fragment, isolate and divide. And any child who has played Pick-up-Sticks or Jenga knows it takes infinitely more time to rebuild cohesion than it does to break it down. Tragically the mindset of the ANC Version 2.009 looks hell-bent on taking the million little pieces that are South Africa today and either breaking them into smaller microscopic sizes or just torching the lot. Since the days of the vast empires of Rome, Persia, Mongolia and Macedonia, we have known that ex unitate vires. Alexander the Great is a prime example of one who recognised his weaknesses and compensated for them with people, systems and administrations that could do the job better than he could.

Seek and strengthen a credible opposition and even the odd maverick, but a score of little nabobs scuttling about soon grow, virus-like, into an unstoppable plague of self-aggrandisement, entitlement, avarice and decrepitude. The world of nature knows the inestimable value of unity in pursuit of the common purpose. “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise” (Prov. 6:6). There will always be isolated voices of self-interest wanting to change street names, break down the monuments of others, sow division, impose their narrow weltanschaung, delight in schadenfreude. Do not yield. The tiniest crack in the dyke could result in inundation.

Lesson 8: Never shy from taking the hard choices. Not everything you do should make you winner of each week’s Idols episode and whiz kids have an unerring tendency to become was-kids. If only Thabo Mbeki had realised this before he embarked on his ill-fated quest to become Emperor of Africa and like lapdog fawned over the crap and garlic and beetroot Manto and the other miscreants ladled out of the pit latrines they called “wisdom”.

These eight simple lessons have been learnt the hard way. South Africans should know. The tragedy is that the majority has not learned from the mistakes they have made and have allowed to be made in their name.

The promise is that the people of the United State don’t have to copy their mistakes — just learn from the Old World. It’s damned fine advice!