Statue removal and the gold standard

Worldwide, there have been about 40 truth and reconciliation processes with differing terms of reference.

If you regard the South African model as the gold standard, then what Mayor Lisa Helps and her City Family are conducting is a misappropriation of the concept to justify Victor’s Justice.

Truth and reconciliation requires forbearance and tolerance among all parties before the reconstitution of equal citizenship among all members of the community, regardless of their respective histories.

In downtown Cape Town, there is Mandela Rhodes Place. Cecil Rhodes was hardly a sweetheart in his relationship with the black community, and no doubt many whites still harbour dislike of Nelson Mandela.

Yet there they are together, as the former white elite have to learn to accommodate themselves to a downgraded but now equal status to the black community, who in turn have to learn to forgive and forget and get on with the business of living.

One could, in the true spirit of truth and reconciliation, return Sir John A. Macdonald’s statue to Victoria City Hall and place beside it a statue of Nootka Chief Maquinna.

Unfortunately, Maquinna, as did many West Coast First Nations, practised slavery, which is an abhorrent modern practice. Under Helps’ rules, Maquinna’s name should also be demonized, and his symbolic presence purged from the public domain.

I am not and never will be a member of the City Family. But then, neither would Bishop Desmond Tutu, who I had the good fortune to observe in person when he came to the Solomon Islands to explain the whats, hows and whys of truth and reconciliation.

Daniel Kyba Victoria