Pariticipation in democracy, Peter Knox SJ

I ask myself why I should go through the sham of another election; why I should legitimate another five years of government with my vote; what difference my vote will make when it is a foregone conclusion; how I can possibly think I’ll make a difference. Isn’t it better just not to turn up on the day, and there will then be twenty-one million votes minus one – mine – abstaining, making my voice heard. Or maybe I should spoil my ballot and that may be counted as a protest vote – a protest against all these men and women who promise they have my interests at heart and then go ahead and do as their party dictates.

It is easy to be disillusioned with our democratic system. We hear slogans like “government of the people, by the people, for the people” and wonder “for which people?” because I certainly don’t feel like I’m benefitting from this government. We try to see what real progress has been made over the past fifteen years. We hear about greater poverty and higher crime and corruption, but fail to see how many RDP houses have been built, how many more communities have water and electricity and how many children attend better schools and have better health care and how many people are on social grants.

We struggled for so many years for every citizen in this land to be free to vote. Political victory has come, but the struggle should really have been followed up better on the economic front, so that everybody can share in the riches of this land. Has the dream been realised, or has it been deferred? Or worse, has it become a nightmare?

After the horror of the Second World War, when so many countries had been in danger of falling into dictatorship, Pope John XXIII wrote to the whole Church urging us to establish peace in truth, justice, charity and liberty. Government, he wrote in Pacem in Terris, is for the common good. It is a very difficulty task to evaluate what is the common good, because there are so many conflicting “goods.” So many people call on the resources of our society with so many different needs. It takes the proverbial wisdom of Solomon to balance all of these needs, and to find a common good, a shared good from which all of the people will benefit. It may be difficult, but is not impossible.

I believe the South African government is really trying to work toward a common good – according to their limited lights. I give them the benefit of the doubt and don’t presume they are all crooks and charlatans. Instead of folding my arms and withdrawing from the whole system, I try to be engaged, and promote what I believe is the wider good. Not just for my group, or clique, or set of interests. We have to look for the wider needs of all the people of the country. If we find a party that is at least trying to promote what our faith informs us is this common good, we have a duty to support that party.