Nelson Mandelas Legacy to the World: Some Less Celebrated Aspects

Gi ve me that man That is not passions slave, and I will wear him In my hearts core Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 by Asanga eli!ala - on "2#$%#2$"3

The death o& the moral coloss's in the politics o& o'r time has occasioned a worldwide celebration o& all things bright and bea'ti&'l that he represented in s'ch ab'ndant meas're and to s'ch inspirational e&&ect( )ot only &or his &ellow So'th A&ricans, b't also &or the rest o& the world, )elson *andela personi&ied a s'perh'man standard o& h'mility, dignity, co'rage, resilience and &orgiveness( As a model o& political leadership, his e+ample o& bringing the metaphysical ideals o& democracy as close as might be possible to the 'gly realities o& everyday politics will be di&&ic'lt i& not impossible to em'late( His political li&e and cond'ct demonstrates the 'ni,'e combination o& -assion and .eason, intellect'al depth and moral decency that separates pop'lists &rom democrats, politicians &rom statesmen, demagog'es &rom nation-b'ilders( To ,'ote one o& his predecessors in the pantheon o& greats, /A moment comes, which comes b't rarely in history, when we step o't &rom the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the so'l o& a nation, long s'ppressed &inds 'tterance(0 1i!e with )ehr' in India, it was So'th A&ricas good &ort'ne that

when the moment came, *andela was there to lead it to /li&e and &reedom(0 I& that nation-b'ilding moment bro'ght o't the best in these men, they also 'sed their brilliance and integrity to shape the moment( They imprinted 'pon their national histories the memory o& the higher order val'es o& consent, tolerance, and pl'ralism, which &orged the 'nity o& their nations at their birth( Their concrete legacies are enshrined in the modern constit'tions they helped mo'ld( In So'th A&rica, it wo'ld have been the politically easy 2 and morally 'nob3ectionable 2 co'rse &or *andela to have led the establishment o& a revol'tionary new rep'blic, brea!ing all constit'tional ties with the apartheid legal order and instantiating 'ntrammelled ma3ority-r'le( In line with the long-held position o& the A)4, this wo'ld have ta!en the constit'tional &orm o& a 'nitary state( S'ch a state wo'ld have centralised power hori5ontally in &avo'r o& the e+ec'tive, beca'se a strong e+ec'tive 'nhindered by parliamentary and 3'dicial chec!s was needed &or the accelerated development so badly needed by the blac! ma3ority( It wo'ld have centralised power vertically, sweeping away the corr'pt, ine&&icient and illegitimate anomaly o& &ederalism that had &o'nd artic'lation in the old 6ant'stans( )o one wo'ld have been able to criticise s'ch a choice o& constit'tional model a&ter the abomination o& apartheid( Instead, )elson *andela presided over the ma!ing o& a constit'tion that eschewed revol'tion, centralisation and ideological dogmatism( hen the case &or a complete brea! with the past co'ld not have been more morally clear, So'th A&ricans decided to care&'lly preserve &ormal constit'tional contin'ity( 7rom bitter e+perience elsewhere in A&rica, they !new that constit'tional revol'tions, however 3'sti&iable in ,'otidian circ'mstances, were in the longer term a destr'ctive precedent &or constit'tional democracy( The -residency and the )ational Assembly, the instit'tions o& ma3oritarian power, were &irmly s'b3ected to the separation o& powers and the constit'tional control o& each other and a power&'l 4onstit'tional 4o'rt( They introd'ced a 6ill o& .ights en&orced by an independent 3'diciary that not only circ'mscribed political power, b't also set o't a positive basis &or citi5enship( In the preservation o& c'lt'ral and regional diversity, the So'th A&rican constit'tion is &ederal in all b't name( In re3ecting the o'tmoded centralising shibboleths o& 4old ar-era socialism that many still e+pected o& the A)4, they realised the strong democratising dynamism o& a &ederal system o& government that co'ld deliver not only better government, b't also stronger and more balanced economic growth and development( To be s're, not all o& this was *andelas sole achievement( 1i!e in India &o'r decades be&ore, So'th A&rica in the "88$s also had a broad and deep class o& political leaders and a vibrant intelligentsia and civil society that came into their own in the ma!ing o& the constit'tion( 6't )elson *andela provided the core moral perspectives, a pervading sense o& decency and

&airness, the inspirational oratory, and the reconciliatory ethos &or the new order o& political 3'stice that the So'th A&rican constit'tion wo'ld establish( His own ideals 'ltimately in&ormed not only the s'bstance b't also the interpretive spirit o& the constit'tion, the &'ndamental legal &o'ndation o& the new 9.ainbow )ation( In all these respects, there&ore, his modernist leadership was central to the establishment, not o& a bac!ward-loo!ing nation limited by the hatreds o& the past, or a ma3oritarian 'nitary state that wo'ld trad'ce pl'ralism and incl'sivity, or a debilitating A&rican presidential monarchy, b't a &orward-loo!ing constit'tional democracy that inspired, rather than imposed, 'nity in an otherwise divided pl'ral society, by embracing the 'niversal ideals o& the democratic way o& li&e( )one o& this was preordained( I& *andela was more o& an A)4 ideological dogmatist and less o& a liberal democratic pragmatist, each o& these constit'tional choices co'ld have been decided di&&erently and &or the worse( 1i!e with )ehr', *andelas p'issant leadership was &o'nded on the strength o& his character and his 'nerring moral compass, his intelligence, ed'cation and c'lt'red 'rbanity( This is what enabled the re3ection o& the nativism and the ranco'r that has characterised the 'nprincipled 'se o& nationalism all over the post-colonial world, and which has marred and contin'es to derail democratic nation-b'ilding( :awaharlal )ehr' once told :ohn ;enneth Galbraith that he was the last <nglishman to r'le India( -resident *andelas legal advisor once told me that the stri!ing impression o& his personality was that o& a p'blic school-ed'cated <dwardian gentleman= a devo't votary o& the 6ritish parliamentary tradition, he had a lawyers highly developed sense o& constit'tional propriety in his approach to politics, and was possessed o& co'rtly manners and a thoro'ghly Anglophile sense o& h'mo'r( There is a broader and m'ch more important lesson than c'lt'ral sycophancy in these anecdotes( It is that nationb'ilders o& this rare ,'ality are able to ta!e constit'tional lessons and learn the best practices o& democratic statecra&t &rom elsewhere, witho't &earing &or their own identities or endangering their sense o& patriotism( 6y imparting these traits to the nations they help &o'nd, s'ch statesmen create not only &ree and open societies b't also peace&'l and stable states, 'nli!e paranoid pop'lists whose only method o& political mobilisation is the versatile 'se o& &ear( The &reedom &rom &ear imb'ed )elson *andelas personal cond'ct and political creed thro'gho't his li&e, and it is the leadership attrib'te that ens'red a pl'ral and incl'sive constit'tional democracy in his motherland( It is 'n&ort'nately not an e+ample that many Asian and A&rican leaders have had the will, the capacity or the character to &ollow(