Be wary of opportunist war mongers

TO BUILD is always difficult. It calls for the will to work, intelligence, and a diligence. To break down requires brute force, little intelligence and the need (for whatever reason) to destroy.

I will cite two examples where the forces of darkness and destruction went to work.

In 1985 the Gandhi Settlement in Phoenix was virtually destroyed and its library burnt.

On a personal level, this pains us because in 1968-69, as students, my good lady and I, together with a handful of other students of all colours, helped to build the Gandhi Library as a monument to peace and Satyagraha (Truth Force).

We were devastated, while we were still in exile, to learn of the destruction of this centre of peace and learning.

The other incident was more recent, namely the attempts by religious fanatics to destroy the African heritage contained in the fabled Timbuktu Manuscripts in Mali, West Africa, many of which date from more than a thousand years ago.

The great traveller, historian and Islamic scholar, Ibn Battuta, records Timbuktu as a great centre of learning, already in the 12th-13th centuries! It was due to the vigilance and courage of some that the manuscripts were smuggled out and the damage limited.

SA is intimately connected to the manuscripts due to its construction of the great museum that houses the Timbuktu Manuscripts in Mali.

In our own country, during service delivery protests, the first public buildings to be burnt are libraries. Why? Are we against learning and knowledge? What accounts for this barbaric behaviour?

In the past months we are witnessing a similar development, namely the unwarranted and scurrilous attacks on the Indian community. I will not be sidetracked by those who are opposed to nation building by sowing racial divisions, bordering on racial hatred, in their very limited understanding of the long history of our struggle for liberation.

This time, as many times in the past, the target has been the Indian SA community. The common thread through all these attacks is the need by the denigrating group to gain credibility, bolster waning support and most of all to get publicity.

History is filled with records of the demonisation and negatively targeting of groups for the benefit of a select group of manipulators. The great example of this is Hitler’s irrational hatred of Jews. The consequence was the extermination of six million in the gas chambers.

If nothing else, then history must teach us that in each instance the perpetrators will be found out and be held responsible for genocide/murder or gross human rights abuses.

Living in a democracy means developing a culture of respect and understanding of all groups who make up that democracy. It means that while I exercise my democratic rights, I do so fully understanding that it is imperative that I respect the same rights I want, for all groups.

Democracy and its exercise with responsibility cannot be separated, simply for the reason that no democracy can exist without the responsible exercise of rights.

Government and Civil Society organisations and every level of education need to constantly teach the benefits and the responsibilities of living in a democracy.

Governments, who are notorious for extending their own hold on power are not averse to using racism, racial profiling, and group denigration to achieve their goals.

The reality is that the true advancers and defenders of democracy will always be Civil Society. It is therefore incumbent that vigilance is never relaxed to keep at bay the forces of division and destruction.

PR Dullay is an academic and Human Rights campaigner.