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Magazine
CAMBRIDGE LETTER
Open processes
BILL KIRKMAN
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It is reassuring to see disagreement being openly expressed and resolved through democratic electoral procedures.
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Two recent elections have been very different in their significance and their impact.
With all due respect to the Liberal Democrat Party in the United Kingdom, the election of its new leader, Nick Clegg, on December 18, was not the sort of news that required editors around the world to hold the front page. The Lib Dems are the third party in the British political firmament. Realistically, the nearest they are likely to come to power in the foreseeable future is as holders of the balance in a “hung” parliament. Neither of the two candidates for the leadership, Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, is a household name. Furthermore, the survival rate of Lib Dem leaders in the past few years has been low. First Charles Kennedy resigned, then Sir Ming Campbell. Cynics might joke that the party changes leaders as frequently as most people change their socks.
Turn now to another election on the following day — that of Jacob Zuma as leader of the African National Congress in South Africa. With 60 per cent of the votes of delegates at the party conference, he soundly defeated Thabo Mbeki, President of the Republic of South Africa. The vote came after two days of bitter debate. Zuma, a controversial figure, now seems likely to succeed Mbeki as the country’s president in 2009.
Crucial outcome
Clearly, South Africa has a crucial position in the African continent, and the leadership of the country has wide-ranging implications. That election was the kind of event for which editors would hold the front page.
The differences between the two leadership elections were obvious, but it is worth looking at something which made them similar.
When Nick Clegg’s victory was announced — and it was a close result, with Clegg winning 20,988 votes to Chris Huhne’s 20,477 — he was congratulated by his defeated opponent and a day later included him in a senior position in his shadow Cabinet.
In Polokwane, where the ANC conference took place, Thabo Mbeki embraced Jacob Zuma and clasped his rival’s hand in congratulation, before leaving the platform.
Observers may argue, in assessing the Clegg-Huhne response to their result, that is what you should be able to expect in a democratic system. And so of course you should. The same observers might well have a more jaundiced view of African politics. They would therefore have great cause for rejoicing at finding on this occasion that the jaundiced view was ill founded. The political battle was intense and feelings ran high, but the change of party leadership was effected by vote rather than by coup and that is something of great importance.
That is certainly the view of the South African Council of Churches, which declared that the leadership elections were a model of democratic principles. In a statement, the SACC congratulated the ANC on an open internal democratic process and praised the outgoing leadership under President Thabo Mbeki for the graceful manner of accepting the outcomes of the elections. The SACC added: “We view this process and how it was conducted to be a model that will go a long way towards entrenching democratic principles in the life of SA.”
None of this means that political conflict in South Africa is over. The tensions remain, and the relationship between President Mbeki and party president Zuma is likely to be difficult. Nevertheless, the initial resolution of disagreement was effected by an open and well conducted democratic process, and that surely is what democracy is about. Its manifestation is not an absence of disagreement, but an open means of expressing, and resolving, disagreement. At a time of year when people traditionally look forward with hope — and formulate new year resolutions — we may reasonably see this as encouraging.
Courtesy still an asset
In a completely different context, I found encouragement, improbably, in some recent news from the retail sector. Anxiety about sales figures is another seasonal tradition in the U.K., where retailers pin their hopes on the public’s passion for consumerism, and make doom-laden predictions of economic collapse if this passion seems to be waning. Amid these customary predictions have come reports of a highly successful season for a newly opened John Lewis store in Cambridge. If you seek clues to the reason for this success you can find them in the fact that John Lewis value their staff and their customers, and treat them as human beings.
It hardly sounds like a radical approach — but it is by no means universal, and to see it succeeding is surely another thing to welcome.
Bill Kirkman is an Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, U.K. Email him at: bill.kirkman@gmail.com
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