If what you perceive is that you have but one remaining shot you had better make it count, I mean, aim well and hope like hell you hit your target. Therefore, you would do better to hope to heaven that you succeed.
It seems that starting locally, in my case, from the place where I am living, is most apropos, and then one can widen the field to a more global range.
The South African Police Commissioner Bheki Cele, ubiquitously referred to as the country’s ‘top cop’ has been served notification that he is suspended of all duties due to his role in a corruption scheme that involved the construction of new police stations for more than treble the other tendered quotes, and furthermore, were awarded to a close friend and financial supporter of both the police commissioner and the head of the ANC and South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma. Nevertheless, the suspension has been approved by the nation’s president, who has made a statement that Cele remaining at his post undermines the credibility of the South African police force, and subsequently he has to go.
This was obviously a difficult decision for President Zuma, as he and Cele, long-time ANC cohorts, go way back. A bit more interesting, as corruption in government isn’t a particularly novel occurrence, is that the previous police commissioner, Jackie Selebi, was convicted in 2008 of corruption for his taking monies from his associate and personal friend, the Mafioso Glenn Agliotti, who was accused and later acquitted of the murder of South African mining magnate Brett Kebble, multi-millionaire and recognised ‘Don’ of the country’s underworld where lucrative contracts were traded like poker chips at a casino, while the more serious charge against Commissioner Selebi of perverting the course of justice was, upon advisement, dropped by the high-court judge. Agliotti got a walk and Selebi is still out on bail, while the country’s legal experts confirm that the conviction will stand and his appeal will fail, it remains doubtful if he will ever serve any time in jail.
All this could be attributed to what the industrialised North say is endemic within the African continent, except that Selebi was also the Interpol President from 2004-2008, and therefore, an astute and quick footed player within the global field where corruption in Africa is still in the minor league compared to, for example, the American major league where the corruption of a city’s chief of police on up to the State Governor and Attorney General has been riddled with cronyism, kick-backs and payoffs that are an intrinsic part of that nation’s colourful history. As was pointed out to me by one of South Africa’s more notorious defence attorneys, that at least when you pass money to a South African government official you do get value for your dollar, or rand as it happens to be. In the so-called advanced countries such as those in Europe or in the US you pay and get nothing in return: “now that’s corruption”. Of course, there is another level of corruption that makes nonsense of the low level venal malfeasance found within South Africa’s police force and criminal justice system. It is one that operates openly and with total impunity, which is that of the entire political class: all those elected and appointed officials from councilmen to senators, legislators, ministers and parliamentarians and up (or down) to Heads of State, who in no manner whatsoever answer to their electorate, who are, ironically, for the most part, irrelevant to the entire democratic process. The worldwide political class answer instead to an in-back, un-elected elite that can bankrupt a country on Monday and receive an enormous bailout package on Tuesday, paid for by that very same passive electorate that can be found from Paris to Pretoria. We have reached endgame, but the all-important question does remain. How can there be any manner of equity and justice within a system where the very survival of elected officials is dependant upon the funds they receive from those special interest groups that have stipulated the deregulation of banking and fiscal practices, removing, in the process, any form of ethics that could otherwise encumber the free movement of market forces. There has been a fair amount of clamouring about banking reforms and new regulatory bodies to oversee the workings of the financial sector, but with all important elections coming up in both Europe and the US, and the staggering sums needed to mount a successful campaign, it would not be at all surprising if things fell rather silent on those reform issues, at least until after the elections.
What is clear is that it is not a new system or (even worse) the correcting or reforming of the current system that can restrain the unscrupulous monetary elite. Tacitus wrote in his Annals: “...and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt”. Plato made this abundantly clear centuries ago when he described the inevitability of democracy lending itself as a means to instating a financial oligarchy, ultimately leading to tyranny. The new power template is therefore neither a system nor structure, as by their very nature they breed corruption, but rather a new man who accepts leadership as an unsought after responsibility that is inexorably bound to accountability, honour and service. To the modern i-pod debtor citizen of the industrially developed world it will sound preposterous as he has long since been anesthetised by media rap and the baby food pap of liberal idealism. To the masses of the world’s poor it is an incomprehensible dream. One could call it chivalry, although that certainly sounds a romantic anachronism, and would, in these opening years of the 21st century, hardly be taken seriously. So better yet, call it futuwwah, and make your way towards it. “I have not come but to perfect good character in men”, said the Prophet from the Arabian Desert, who, we are informed, was sent as a mercy to the whole world. “Leadership is an obligation binding on good men”.
If I am to use just one time this thing called my vote, my best shot is an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the entire system, and then to proceed with vigour towards a new nomos, with men and women that educate their best and brightest youths and help them rise up to be the leaders of our future. From amongst them there will, as has throughout history been the case, emerge one who will take the lead. To him we will pledge our allegiance, loyalty and fealty.
The Power Template: Shakespeare’s Political Plays by Robert Luongo is available from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble on-line as an ebook and in paperback.
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