Farewell, Helen of South Africa
Steve OhPublished: Jan 8, 2009 12:57 PM | Updated: Jan 8, 2009 4:21 PM
Most Malaysians probably have not heard of Helen Suzman. Yet many may find the life of this feisty South African politician, who recently died at the age of 91 on Jan 1, 2009 inspiring.
Most Malaysians probably have not heard of Helen Suzman. Yet many may find the life of this feisty South African politician, who recently died at the age of 91 on Jan 1, 2009 inspiring.
Born of Jewish Russian migrants, her life was all the more remarkable because she chose to side with the repressed blacks in apartheid South Africa, not the white supremacist regime. Instead her tireless labours for the underdogs has earned her a place among history's great reformers.
Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, made an honorary dame by the Queen, and a recipient of 27 honorary degrees, among other honours, she was a rose among thorns in South African politics.
It was also an era when dissenting against the apartheid regime was highly dangerous. Steve Biko and many other black activists were murdered and Nelson Mandela spent 27 long years in jail.
Incensed by the grave injustice of apartheid she entered politics and became a real thorn in the side of the racist regime. Her moral courage, intellectual prowess (she was an academician before entering politics) and political tenacity earned her the chagrin and respect of many of her opponents.
Apartheid-era leader P.W. Botha labelled her a “vicious little cat”. It was a label she wore with pride, while other critics spoke of the "steel in her teeth". In return she called him “an obnoxious bully” and that “if he were a female would arrive in parliament on a broomstick”.
She was thorough in understanding the political issues, and often stumped her opponents with the bare facts, and her lone voice in the political wilderness of black human rights heralded a hope beyond the rhetoric of other black activists. In a country where white supremacy was historical and a way of life, her stand was seen as treason to her race and country by her detractors.
A catalyst for change
Though also criticised for being in the all-white parliament and lending it legitimacy her defence was that she achieved more to discredit apartheid by being in parliament than legitimating it. That former parliamentarians were subsequently also included in the post-apartheid parliament negated the criticism. Unlike those who merely claim to initiate reform from within, she actually did it.
She was the yeast of racial equality, a catalyst for change, standing up for democracy and saying things people needed to hear rather than what their itching ears wanted to hear, that worked through the dough of discrimination in a country that also saw religion wrongly used to justify injustice.
Years later the Dutch Reformed Church made a public confession and recanted its folly in upholding apartheid. It is a lesson for those who bend the truth to suit their selfish political ambitions and try to justify the unjustifiable.
Apart from serving her white constituents she wrote: “I seem to have become the honorary ombudsman for all those people who have no vote and no MP – they write to me in their hundreds, asking for help over pass problems, housing problems, jobs, bursaries, trading licences...
“I get dozens of pathetic letters that are smuggled out of gaol and many appeals for help from banned people. Sometimes I manage to get conditions alleviated – often not. But my desk here in Cape Town is a sad harvest of the seeds of apartheid.”
Unlike her indifferent and often sycophantic seat-warming parliamentary peers, she used her time efficaciously to highlight and protect the interests of the blacks who were forcibly removed from their homes, tortured, imprisoned without trial, faced daily racial inequality, police brutality, censorship, victimization and other trademarks of white minority rule.
Ms Suzman's prowess in Parliament was so effective that B.J. Voster compared her to the equivalent of twelve United Party members of parliament. A racist minister once accused her: “You put these questions just to embarass South Africa overseas.” She retorted rather coolly: “It is not my questions that embarass South Africa, it is your answers.”
Outstanding skills at debate
Her witty replies came to be a hallmark of her tireless efforts to put to an end an evil regime that saw the dehumanisation of the majority black populace. Her skills at debate were outstanding and she made sure she penned her own speeches and knew the subjects she broached thus avoiding the common gaffes of more careless politicians.
Despite a long tenure in parliament from 1953 to 1989, she was never once tripped up for getting her facts wrong. And for this she earned the admiration of many of her political rivals.
If there was one exceptional skill that made Ms Suzman successful it was her ability to have a circle of extremely competent experts to advise her on the issues that she fought for because long before people spoke of the knowledge economy she was practising it.
I had never heard of this woman myself until the news of her death, though I now vaguely recall watching her in a television interview some years ago but then the enormity of her stature had not struck me.
As I delved into what was written about her, I discovered a principled and outspoken woman who was consistent in her convictions in and out of politics till the last days of her illustrious life. Now, she is no more but she still speaks to us through her legacy and an enviable one it is.
In his autobiography, Nelson Mandela had written of her: “It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard. She was the first and only woman ever to grace our cells.”
Her visit to Robben Island and intervention saw the jail conditions improve for Mandela with whom she maintained a warm relationship.
But Ms Suzman spoke her mind in season and out of season without fear or favour. While a fearless foe of apartheid she was not reticent in pointing out the faults of the new Rainbow Nation which she had so tirelessly helped to create. She was equally critical of its leaders.
“It is a pleasure getting rid of apartheid,” she said in an interview in 2007, “but not very satisfactory in what has replaced it”.
“The education system is shocking and the hospitals are a disgrace,” she lamented and was equally critical of the delivery system and endemic corruption.
As she spoke for the blacks she also raised the problem of affirmative action which marginalised skilled whites and drove them away in droves to places like Australia and other Western countries. It proves anyone can be racist given the unbridled power to abuse.
Enemy of the bad and ugly
She was critical of Thabo Mbeki’s response to AIDS or rather his evident indifference and was deemed an “Enemy of the State” by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
It is not hard to see how easily the good become the enemy of the bad and ugly. And how those who speak out and act to protect the victims of injustice can be mauled by the powers that be and be victimized.
If there is one precious nugget we glean from this noble South African woman's life and what has become a hallmark of her political career - it is her sensitivity to the evils of discrimination.
It first prompted her to enter the political arena when she saw how badly the blacks were treated. Her other admirable traits included “honesty of purpose” and “never shirking from raising unpopular issues” for which she received torrents of abuse.
But to me this rose among thorns has proven that a woman can achieve far more than a man when she has set her heart to the task and as “hell knows no fury like a woman scorned”, parliament knows no one like Helen Suzman on fire for a worthy cause.
There is indeed more nuggets to discover in the treasury of her life that can inspire and enrich those concerned for human rights and racial justice.
In a world of jaundiced perceptions blinded by bigotry, hatred and sectarian allegiances, it is all too expedient to take sides without recourse to the truth and justice of the matter.
Blind prejudice is indeed a menace to peace and progress and something that Ms Suzman was not afflicted with, unlike many today who decry the injustice of some but turn a blind eye to the injustice of others. We need to remove the plank from our eyes that we may see clearly because evil is evil whoever commits it.
Ms Suzman was able to rise above race and religion. She advocated policies that did not seem politically correct. She outshone many because of her courage to step outside the bounds of tradition that was fundamentally flawed. Her life will be immortalized in history as a defender of the defenceless and tireless worker for justice through clever dialogue and debate and like another earlier British reformer in British India, William Carey, of tireless plodding.
Her legacy is a challenge to many and a reminder to stick to one's conviction to fight the good fight, to labour for what one believes to be the right and just cause, whatever the cost.
In the cause to discredit and dismantle apartheid in her country, she has no equal among non-blacks, and I hope the South African government will remember that, along with others like her who helped unshackle their country from the chains of evil racial inequality and discrimination.
Need to learn from history
Sadly the victors are wont to forget or diminish the role of those who helped the cause because they didn't belong to their group or the same race. Racism is not confined only to white supremacists. Those who take inordinate pride in their race and coerce others to subsume to theirs and legitimate it in government policies need to learn from history. It was how imperialism began.
Apartheid was not defeated by blacks alone but the millions of non-black people worldwide who stood side by side with the black South Africans and marched the streets and disrupted sporting events involving all-white South African teams and lobbied their governments to turn against the racist pariah nation.
Indeed, the war on discrimination was won because racial discrimination whether the American segregation variety or South African apartheid was a lost cause from the start, an indefensible evil, an affront to God and man. Today, there are countries that have not learned the lesson and still use race as a basis for affirmative action and their governments wonder why their nation lacks cohesiveness.
Helen Suzman has given us hope in the human race, a hope that humanity transcends ethnic barriers and that those who do not belong to our race may turn out to be our foremost protectors - of our welfare and of our survival, and our worst enemy may be those of our own race.
It was this reality that resulted in the divide and rule policy of the colonialists that enabled them to control the masses. Leaders of the people betrayed their people that they could enjoy the benefits of privilege that the dominant group dished out to them.
Her example manifested the ideal of a good politician, hardworking, humble, competent, accessible, and above all - a lover of people and totally committed to their welfare, not narrow personal interests. If there were more like her, nations would not be floundering.
Today in South Africa the dream that freedom would bring prosperity has jaded because of the same disease that wreaks havoc in many developing countries including Malaysia - corruption! This same disease pervades so many countries and is the root of the present global crisis that only a moral war waged against the corrupt can deliver the nations. But who will first deliver the deliverers?
Now the world is poorer with her demise.
But will people see a Helen Suzman in their own country who will speak out against the evil of discrimination, whether it is based on race or religion or sex or some other excuse, even against the will of the majority or the vociferous and violent mobs?
Who will stand in the gap for the downtrodden?
And as Edmund Burke once said: “What is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Likewise what is needed for a bad and ugly government to make citizens suffer is compliant and complicit citizens that allow it.
But Ms Suzman did not allow what she saw as an abysmal abuse of humanity in her country. She spoke out against it and lived to stop it.
South Africa would not be a free country today if the perpetrators of an unjust system had been allowed to continue unchecked. Our hope is where there is darkness, light will shine and the darkness will not overcome it.
May there be a bit of Helen Suzman in all of us that we may be a voice for the voiceless. And may we do what is right because we can no longer live with what is wrong.
Born of Jewish Russian migrants, her life was all the more remarkable because she chose to side with the repressed blacks in apartheid South Africa, not the white supremacist regime. Instead her tireless labours for the underdogs has earned her a place among history's great reformers.
Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace prize, made an honorary dame by the Queen, and a recipient of 27 honorary degrees, among other honours, she was a rose among thorns in South African politics. It was also an era when dissenting against the apartheid regime was highly dangerous. Steve Biko and many other black activists were murdered and Nelson Mandela spent 27 long years in jail.
Incensed by the grave injustice of apartheid she entered politics and became a real thorn in the side of the racist regime. Her moral courage, intellectual prowess (she was an academician before entering politics) and political tenacity earned her the chagrin and respect of many of her opponents.
Apartheid-era leader P.W. Botha labelled her a “vicious little cat”. It was a label she wore with pride, while other critics spoke of the "steel in her teeth". In return she called him “an obnoxious bully” and that “if he were a female would arrive in parliament on a broomstick”.
She was thorough in understanding the political issues, and often stumped her opponents with the bare facts, and her lone voice in the political wilderness of black human rights heralded a hope beyond the rhetoric of other black activists. In a country where white supremacy was historical and a way of life, her stand was seen as treason to her race and country by her detractors.
A catalyst for change
Though also criticised for being in the all-white parliament and lending it legitimacy her defence was that she achieved more to discredit apartheid by being in parliament than legitimating it. That former parliamentarians were subsequently also included in the post-apartheid parliament negated the criticism. Unlike those who merely claim to initiate reform from within, she actually did it.
She was the yeast of racial equality, a catalyst for change, standing up for democracy and saying things people needed to hear rather than what their itching ears wanted to hear, that worked through the dough of discrimination in a country that also saw religion wrongly used to justify injustice.
Years later the Dutch Reformed Church made a public confession and recanted its folly in upholding apartheid. It is a lesson for those who bend the truth to suit their selfish political ambitions and try to justify the unjustifiable.
Apart from serving her white constituents she wrote: “I seem to have become the honorary ombudsman for all those people who have no vote and no MP – they write to me in their hundreds, asking for help over pass problems, housing problems, jobs, bursaries, trading licences...
“I get dozens of pathetic letters that are smuggled out of gaol and many appeals for help from banned people. Sometimes I manage to get conditions alleviated – often not. But my desk here in Cape Town is a sad harvest of the seeds of apartheid.”
Unlike her indifferent and often sycophantic seat-warming parliamentary peers, she used her time efficaciously to highlight and protect the interests of the blacks who were forcibly removed from their homes, tortured, imprisoned without trial, faced daily racial inequality, police brutality, censorship, victimization and other trademarks of white minority rule. Ms Suzman's prowess in Parliament was so effective that B.J. Voster compared her to the equivalent of twelve United Party members of parliament. A racist minister once accused her: “You put these questions just to embarass South Africa overseas.” She retorted rather coolly: “It is not my questions that embarass South Africa, it is your answers.”
Outstanding skills at debate
Her witty replies came to be a hallmark of her tireless efforts to put to an end an evil regime that saw the dehumanisation of the majority black populace. Her skills at debate were outstanding and she made sure she penned her own speeches and knew the subjects she broached thus avoiding the common gaffes of more careless politicians.
Despite a long tenure in parliament from 1953 to 1989, she was never once tripped up for getting her facts wrong. And for this she earned the admiration of many of her political rivals.
If there was one exceptional skill that made Ms Suzman successful it was her ability to have a circle of extremely competent experts to advise her on the issues that she fought for because long before people spoke of the knowledge economy she was practising it.
I had never heard of this woman myself until the news of her death, though I now vaguely recall watching her in a television interview some years ago but then the enormity of her stature had not struck me.
As I delved into what was written about her, I discovered a principled and outspoken woman who was consistent in her convictions in and out of politics till the last days of her illustrious life. Now, she is no more but she still speaks to us through her legacy and an enviable one it is.
In his autobiography, Nelson Mandela had written of her: “It was an odd and wonderful sight to see this courageous woman peering into our cells and strolling around our courtyard. She was the first and only woman ever to grace our cells.”
Her visit to Robben Island and intervention saw the jail conditions improve for Mandela with whom she maintained a warm relationship.
But Ms Suzman spoke her mind in season and out of season without fear or favour. While a fearless foe of apartheid she was not reticent in pointing out the faults of the new Rainbow Nation which she had so tirelessly helped to create. She was equally critical of its leaders.
“It is a pleasure getting rid of apartheid,” she said in an interview in 2007, “but not very satisfactory in what has replaced it”.
“The education system is shocking and the hospitals are a disgrace,” she lamented and was equally critical of the delivery system and endemic corruption.
As she spoke for the blacks she also raised the problem of affirmative action which marginalised skilled whites and drove them away in droves to places like Australia and other Western countries. It proves anyone can be racist given the unbridled power to abuse.
Enemy of the bad and ugly
She was critical of Thabo Mbeki’s response to AIDS or rather his evident indifference and was deemed an “Enemy of the State” by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
It is not hard to see how easily the good become the enemy of the bad and ugly. And how those who speak out and act to protect the victims of injustice can be mauled by the powers that be and be victimized.
If there is one precious nugget we glean from this noble South African woman's life and what has become a hallmark of her political career - it is her sensitivity to the evils of discrimination.
It first prompted her to enter the political arena when she saw how badly the blacks were treated. Her other admirable traits included “honesty of purpose” and “never shirking from raising unpopular issues” for which she received torrents of abuse.
But to me this rose among thorns has proven that a woman can achieve far more than a man when she has set her heart to the task and as “hell knows no fury like a woman scorned”, parliament knows no one like Helen Suzman on fire for a worthy cause.
There is indeed more nuggets to discover in the treasury of her life that can inspire and enrich those concerned for human rights and racial justice.
In a world of jaundiced perceptions blinded by bigotry, hatred and sectarian allegiances, it is all too expedient to take sides without recourse to the truth and justice of the matter.
Blind prejudice is indeed a menace to peace and progress and something that Ms Suzman was not afflicted with, unlike many today who decry the injustice of some but turn a blind eye to the injustice of others. We need to remove the plank from our eyes that we may see clearly because evil is evil whoever commits it.
Ms Suzman was able to rise above race and religion. She advocated policies that did not seem politically correct. She outshone many because of her courage to step outside the bounds of tradition that was fundamentally flawed. Her life will be immortalized in history as a defender of the defenceless and tireless worker for justice through clever dialogue and debate and like another earlier British reformer in British India, William Carey, of tireless plodding.
Her legacy is a challenge to many and a reminder to stick to one's conviction to fight the good fight, to labour for what one believes to be the right and just cause, whatever the cost.
In the cause to discredit and dismantle apartheid in her country, she has no equal among non-blacks, and I hope the South African government will remember that, along with others like her who helped unshackle their country from the chains of evil racial inequality and discrimination.
Need to learn from history
Sadly the victors are wont to forget or diminish the role of those who helped the cause because they didn't belong to their group or the same race. Racism is not confined only to white supremacists. Those who take inordinate pride in their race and coerce others to subsume to theirs and legitimate it in government policies need to learn from history. It was how imperialism began.
Apartheid was not defeated by blacks alone but the millions of non-black people worldwide who stood side by side with the black South Africans and marched the streets and disrupted sporting events involving all-white South African teams and lobbied their governments to turn against the racist pariah nation.
Indeed, the war on discrimination was won because racial discrimination whether the American segregation variety or South African apartheid was a lost cause from the start, an indefensible evil, an affront to God and man. Today, there are countries that have not learned the lesson and still use race as a basis for affirmative action and their governments wonder why their nation lacks cohesiveness.
Helen Suzman has given us hope in the human race, a hope that humanity transcends ethnic barriers and that those who do not belong to our race may turn out to be our foremost protectors - of our welfare and of our survival, and our worst enemy may be those of our own race.
It was this reality that resulted in the divide and rule policy of the colonialists that enabled them to control the masses. Leaders of the people betrayed their people that they could enjoy the benefits of privilege that the dominant group dished out to them.
Her example manifested the ideal of a good politician, hardworking, humble, competent, accessible, and above all - a lover of people and totally committed to their welfare, not narrow personal interests. If there were more like her, nations would not be floundering.
Today in South Africa the dream that freedom would bring prosperity has jaded because of the same disease that wreaks havoc in many developing countries including Malaysia - corruption! This same disease pervades so many countries and is the root of the present global crisis that only a moral war waged against the corrupt can deliver the nations. But who will first deliver the deliverers?
Now the world is poorer with her demise.
But will people see a Helen Suzman in their own country who will speak out against the evil of discrimination, whether it is based on race or religion or sex or some other excuse, even against the will of the majority or the vociferous and violent mobs?
Who will stand in the gap for the downtrodden?
And as Edmund Burke once said: “What is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Likewise what is needed for a bad and ugly government to make citizens suffer is compliant and complicit citizens that allow it.
But Ms Suzman did not allow what she saw as an abysmal abuse of humanity in her country. She spoke out against it and lived to stop it.
South Africa would not be a free country today if the perpetrators of an unjust system had been allowed to continue unchecked. Our hope is where there is darkness, light will shine and the darkness will not overcome it.
May there be a bit of Helen Suzman in all of us that we may be a voice for the voiceless. And may we do what is right because we can no longer live with what is wrong.
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