Anyone who wants to silence criticism shouldn't become President
Photo credit: John Steenhuisen/ Wikimedia Commons
On Wednesday night I was snuggled up in bed with a lovely book. Just before midnight my phone pinged. It was a text from a former senior DA politician. “Hi Melanie, trust you’re well…what on earth did you dare write? (Smiley face)”
Below it was a screenshot from a Facebook post by the leader of the opposition, John Steenhuisen – presumably in response to a column I had written for News24 that morning.
It read:
“It is really hard to understand how News24 keeps printing the misinformed and toadying doggerel that ANC apologist, Melanie Verwoerd keeps spewing out. At what point do subscribers just say please stop?
I mean this is a woman who has spent most of her life at the periphery of the political arena trading in a surname that was not hers, begging for any scraps to be thrown her way. Immune to the taints of Zuma, blind to the expose of Zondo she keeps singing for her supper desperately hoping for the next left-over by the current regime to be thrown her way…”
I laughed. When me (and my ex-husband’s) involvement in politics became known in the early nineties, we immediately started getting death threats. Serious ones. In fact, so serious that we were formally warned by the then intelligence services that we were third on a hit list. I was regularly spat on in Stellenbosch and lost all my friends. Later when I became an MP, people not only kept threatening me but were all too happy to tell my four-year-old daughter what they thought of - and would like to do to - her mother on the rare occasion that she picked up our home phone.
So, when it comes to insults, over the last 30+ years I have heard them all a million times over. I’ve also developed a thick skin which is a necessity if you want to play in the political arena – be it in the center or the periphery.
I never resort to personal insults, nor do I respond to them, so I won’t do so today. However, aside from Mr. Steenhuisen’s attack on me, his Facebook entry raised a far more important issue:
In his original post, Mr. Steenhuisen effectively called for a boycott by readers and for News24 to drop me as a columnist. I say, “original” because he removed that bit the next day. Presumably, after a late-night Trump-like moment, he realised the next morning that it would not go down well.
The point is that at some stage, he did write those views down and posted them publicly, so it is safe to assume that deep in his heart Mr. Steenhuisen felt okay about asking for a commentator to be censored or silenced because they dared to write something critical about him and/or his party.
I have to say this serious attack on freedom of speech and the press surprised me. One doesn’t expect that from someone proclaiming to be a liberal and the leader of a party that claims to be the guardian of our constitutional values.
The irony is that if he had read my column more carefully, Mr. Steenhuisen would have realized that it was actually a criticism of the ANC. The only reference to him and the DA, was when I took issue with other commentators who suggested that he could become president at the next election.
I raised 4 points:
1) that I did not believe that the DA would get sufficient support from other opposition parties (such as the EFF) to get them over the line 2) that even if they could get the EFF to support them, Julius Malema would never accept John Steenhuisen as President 3) that the country would not accept another white male as president and 4) that, like the ANC, the DA was also losing support at the ballot box.
These are purely analytical points which I hold to be true and am happy to debate. At no stage did I insult Mr. Steenhuisen or question his capacity to be President. My point was not that he shouldn’t become President, but that he wouldn’t.
My view about Mr. Steenhuisen - which I have expressed in many public fora – was that he is a very good politician, but that sadly for him, he was born at the wrong time in the wrong country. With his oratory skills and wit, I have always felt that - had he been born in the UK - he would have had a fantastic trajectory in Westminster.
I say have because I have now changed my mind. Not because I feel personally insulted, but because I do not believe that anyone who wants to silence criticism – even if they delete the statement the next day – can ever be presidential material.
“ I have to say this serious attack on freedom of speech and the press surprised me. One doesn’t expect that from someone proclaiming to be a liberal and the leader of a party that claims to be the guardian of our constitutional values”
So, my “could not” has changed to “should not”.
I can never imagine a situation where Mandela, Mbeki, Ramaphosa, Biden, Obama or Maimane would have resorted to personal insults and called for a public commentator to be censored because they didn’t like what they were saying. Trump yes! Margaret Thatcher, yes, but those are surely not the type of leaders that we need in our world today.
For me, being able to speak out is at the core of who I am and what I do. I say it as I see it. Whilst I try my utmost to steer away from personal attacks and insults, I have and will continue to criticize all political parties – including the DA - no matter how many insults or even threats are directed at me.
Mr. Steenhuisen, as someone who has been on the periphery of the political domain for about a decade longer than you, may I humbly offer some advice:
1) It is never wise to attack the press when they criticize you or your party 2) It is important to grow a thick skin - if nothing else, it makes politics a lot more fun and 3) it might perhaps be better to stay off social media late at night.
And just for the record: personally, I need nothing from the ANC. There is only one thing I want from them and that is to govern decently and effectively in the interest of the people of this county.