I am a firm supporter of Barack Obama. It’s strange to show such support for a candidate in an election in another country. In theory it has no physical direct effect on me as an individual in South Africa.
Yet I feel an affinity for the man. The other incredible thing that I’ve noticed is that almost all of my experience of the man has been online. I follow him on twitter, I subscribe to his updates on Facebook and religious visit his website to see what he is doing and what he has to say. I also follow the news websites when they write about him. I found his entire campaign utterly intriguing.
But so what? What does it matter? I’ll tell you.
Africa can learn from the man and his campaign and closer to home our politicians need to take a page, no, the entire book from Obama and run with it.
What do I mean?
I think that Obama and his campaign have revolutionised the way that politicians practice politics. Obama spoke to the people, about the people and for the people. Yes, that sounds very “American” in essence but not recently. Recently American politics has been dictated top down from a leader who was not voted in by the entire country. In fact, Bush received a shocking low percentage of votes when considering the entire population. America’s active voting numbers are exceptionally low. And if Bush received 25% of the population’s votes I would be impressed. I don’t want to get in to the working of the American political system because that is an essay all on its own, never mind a single blog post.
From what I have experienced and noticed from Obama’s campaign is that he pushes an agenda of hope, faith, belief and change. He obviously discusses his political policies when he needs to but never confuses the masses with excessive lingo that baffles the mind and confuses voters. He kept it simple and kept it real.
African politics is not real, South African politics is not actionary (is that a word?), it is REactionary. Helen Zille is the perfect example of this. When was the last time you heard Helen Zille speak to her constituency about anything that was not a reaction to something that the ANC has done, or not done? I can’t remember that particular moment. All I can remember her talking about is the ANC and how badly they have managed to do. This might be true much of the time but it is negative politics.
I am not saying that Obama did not partake in negative politics but for the most part of my experience of his politics it has been steadfast action. Solid opinions about his country, his politics, his people (even though they aren’t “his” yet). This is a breath of fresh air.
Imagine a candidate in SA who did not run against the ANC but ran for the country and its people. As I write this I am slowly starting to believe that this candidate right now is Zuma. He runs for the people. He is the people.
Here are some quick-fire points that I think SA politicians can learn from Obama:
- Talk to the people, not down to the people
- Live amongst the people – physically and in an empathetic sense
- Get more votes from people who don’t vote
- Recruit the youth to support you
- Speak to the individual, literally, you don’t need to address the masses at every turn
- Fighting against the politicians wont work, fight with the people for their needs
- Use the media available to you and the voters – grassroots newspapers, radio stations an leaders, lecture theatres at Universities, school halls to speak to the 17/18 year olds who will vote next year
- Don’t hedge your bets, politics can be all or nothing, Obama is proof, YES WE CAN
- Put faith in the humanity of people, not the politics
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