Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
Interview with Thabo Mbeki by SABC (III)
Now it is time for listeners to ask questions so maybe we will get some serious questions.
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Petrus phones and say “we were happy with the President” but why cant he give somebody else a chance. The President gives a ridiculous answer: the members will decide, this is how they elected Mandela, for example and this is democracy, it is not for Thabo Mbeki to decide whether to stand or not to stand again. But the President may have a choice of course and could have decided – like Mandela – not to encourage the members to elect him again in which case they would not have nominated him. He failed to do that, so his answer does not hold water.
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Dealing with questioners seems to be beyond the SABC’s technical abilities so many callers do not seem to make it on the air. Many callers who phone in wish the President luck in the election and complaining about the “others” who are sending out negative messages. The President says we should always respect the truth (but not on the arms deal of course) and “while there are some among us who are campaign on the basis of lies it iss a mistake to think that people are fools because in the end the truth will come out” and they will vote for the right person.
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A questioner says we should bring back the death penalty because that will stop crime. The President says yes crime is a big problem and, yes, let us discuss all issues relevant to this but the Constitutional Court has said we cannot have the death penalty and this is the ANC position as well. I quietly cheer on the President for his principled stance. It is much better than the answer given by Jacob Zuma last week when he said people’s views on the death penalty could be tested, which seems to suggest that if the people demand the return of the death penalty Mr Zuma will oblige.
Suddenly it is all over and I am not sure I am much the wiser. The President clearly aimed at sounding “Presidential”, but may have inadvertently come off as boring and distant. He is obviously a policy wonk, and I am not sure that plays well with ANC delegates because it could easily sounds as if he is not really caring about peoples’ problems when he gives a technical answer to a problem raised by a caller.
