Break the negative and poisonous silences for a strategic way forward

SILENCE can be viewed as a threat to peace. It can be toxic and lead to destruction.

Silence, a state of wordlessness, is typically connected to tranquillity which in turn is synonymous with peace. Silence is usually associated with spirituality and virtue. We often hear “silence is golden”. Lyrical songs celebrating silence, such as the Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel, strengthen the idea of silence as a form of artistic beauty. Spiritual leaders encourage silence as a means to connect to higher consciousness and prayerfulness. Silence can be a generator of positive power and yet it also has an oppressive quality. This duality creates the tension between the positive and negative forms of silence.

Abuse of power and the violation of rights typically happen with the knowledge of others who opt to be silent. Oppressors and abusers are allowed to impose their destructive will and even those collectively trampled may remain silent and inactive. Corruption flourishes when those aware of the corruption choose to remain silent and in some instances may even attack their liberators to win favour from their abusers.

The world and South Africa is in a moral and ethical crisis because of negative silences.

In South Africa, the rapid looting of state coffers and abuse of power has transcended the corridors of state power and infiltrated other institutions. A mentality of impunity and violence has inserted itself in the consciousness of many leaders, especially in public institutions and corporations.

When the law is broken, the perpetrators are usually known but the muteness of witnesses protects the guilty and condemns the innocent.

Complicity creates the culture that allows law breakers to thrive and corruption to flourish. There is a direct connection to endemic violence, abuse of power and the silences of those who do not speak out. Neutrality is a choice of complicity through inaction and silence. Public institutions, including universities, have become notorious for violating the rule of law. These public institutions have leaders entrusted by society to advance respect for the rule of law and human freedoms. However, we have seen these values trashed and rights violated and yet academics do not speak out when abuses happen in their universities.

Frederich Nietzsche postulated “silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous”.

About R700 billion has been lost since democracy due to corruption according to some commentators, but this highly contested assertion cannot dispel the uncontested fact that hundreds of billions have been lost in South Africa.

These losses are the result of a culture of corruption that emerged because of multiple silences. At more personal levels, basically decent people contribute to the pain of others when they remain silent and inactive while ethical people are smeared. Martin Luther King jr reminds us: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends...”

Jean Baptiste Poquelin states

“it is not what we do, but what we do not do, for which we are accountable.

Neutralists are the soldiers of silence, the army that wages war against our people by their silences. This is the hidden danger…. This silence, this looking the other way.

Their self-interest is greater than the need to stop abuse and violence. This is guilt of omission.

Many ethical people have been targeted because they represent a threat to corrupt agendas. Ethical people have lost jobs and projects and whistle blowers have been demonised. Principled people who sought to defend the interests of publicly owned institutions have been subjected to violence and smear campaigns. Perpetrators are usually people with power. They are able to rationalise their behaviour by blaming the victim. They perpetuate the abuse by mobilising smear campaigns against the victim. The #MeToo campaign is an example of the global recognition of the need to challenge the oppressive nature of silence and its conspiratorial companions.

We have a human rights constitution but it is clear these principles alone are meaningless without strategic action. We must break the negative silences and act in support of the immortal words of Mahatma Gandhi who implores us to strategically: “Make the injustice visible.”

Williams is a visiting professor in peace, mediation, reconciliation and labour relations at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Gulu, Uganda, and chief executive at Williams Labour Law and Mediation