"Trying to incite people to behave in a certain way"

Someamongus was the first blogger I noticed to pick up the baton and run with this theme. (And if you want to know what I am on about in this posting, it might be best you read that delightful 1st post & my comment to it). Then he just kept running, still holding the baton. But I am going to pry it from him for a few minutes and have my not-as-well-articulated say on the subject….

If I were to have one hour of President Mbeki’s time, I’d march into his Union Building office (or is he parking off in Newlands at this stage of the year??) ready to conduct a short presentation, by use of clipboards & PPP & those laser pointers, very much resembling what I was a participant to for the majority of the student year of 2000.

Realising that the current South African president is an Economist at heart, I understand that he may have missed some vital political concepts through his education. This is nothing to be embarrassed or stubbornly defensive about. After all, we all know that Economists hate Political Scientists in much the same way that Ozzies, Kiwis & S.Affers all claim to hate one another….bitterness that stems from being so similar, yet slightly divergent in perspective & action.

This hour long course, which I would kindly offer cost free to the pipe-puffing grey-bearded Head of the South African State, would be to examine particular definitions relevant to the presidency and the other civil servants who serve the South African citizens.

Definitions covered would include:
Participatory Democracy
Monarchy versus Republic versus Chiefdom
Divine Right of Kings versus Inherent rule versus Elected rule
Absolutism
Civil Servant versus Political Party Member vesus Elite Class
Democratic Elections
Accountability
Elected Representatives
Aristocracy versus Communist Parties
Civil Liberties

To start, we would discuss, argue and debate just four definitions that right now, following the reactionary statements by government officials to the FNB Anti-Crime campaign, I believe are vital for a continued healthy state of South Africa.

Consent of the governed - the idea that a just government must be based on the consent of the people who live under its jurisdiction. Government must be an expression of the popular will. This concept is found in the writings of theorists from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, especially John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Stuart Mill. Locke's work influenced the Founding Fathers, and the Declaration of Independence states that "governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it."

Republic - the form of government in which ultimate power resides in the people, who elect representatives to participate in decision-making on their behalf. The head of state in a republic is usually an elected president-never a hereditary monarch. A republic is founded on the idea that every citizen has a right to participate, directly or indirectly, in affairs of state, and the general will of the people should be sovereign.

versus

Divine right - the terms usually refers to the divine right of kings, a medieval belief that the king was appointed by God to rule, and this divine right was passed on by hereditary alone. The belief had virtually died out by the end of the nineteenth century, except among a few diehard groups. [Ed. Yes, in this case, perhaps divine right is not assumed to be passed on by a family name, but perhaps by a particular political party's name.]

Serve – To work for.
….this begs the question, who is working for who in this state. The South African citizens elected the president. The South African citizens toil their rainbowed butts off & pay their taxes. These taxes are intended to pay the salary of the president, who then is supposed to carry out the wishes, needs, and demands of the citizens.

Perhaps I misunderstood. Perhaps Mbeki has. Hopefully my hour with him will bring clarity to the issue.
But with these definitions in mind, President Mbeki & your Government spokesman Themba Maseko, and all who follow their train of thought: “Trying to incite people to behave in a certain way towards the head of state cannot be condoned,” ….put THAT in your pipe and puff on it.

Back to you, my dear Someamongus.