It is easy to be a revolutionary at 20, but difficult to be one for 20 years.
1. The word politization draws many fears; you and I know that. But are there any rational grounds for it?
2. Anuradha Roy, the Indian journalist and novelist asks: Is Marxism a substitute for (early) Christianity? Replace God with Marx, Satan with the Bourgeoisie, Heaven with a Classless Society, Church with the Party and the form and the purpose remain similar.
3. Others have facetiously asked:
• Is politics proof that life is full of one-liners, not all being funny? (J. Koenig)
• Is politics like a chess game: an intelligent way to lose time?
• Does politics buy and sell consciousness?
• In politics, do feelings not count and only interests and convenience do?
• As regards our work: Is a political commitment in human rights work best measured in our chronic shortfalls in funding levels?
4. But some more serious questions are also asked. Among them:
• Is politics an indispensable medium of social intermediation?
• Does violence have a role in politics; is it pure nihilism and a bad approach to desperation?, and
• Is exaggeration licit in politics when it is part of ‘a truth a bit stretched?’
Bottom line here is: Why do so many of our peers look down on people like many of us who take-on a political compromise in our work?
5. For better or for worse, in a way, politics is a branch of economics. By extension, politics is about the political-economy-drivers-of-social change. It is this that makes politics so relevant for human rights (HR).
It is operating in a political environment that our actions have a much better chance to influence policy
6. Because the middle-class political consciousness of most of us has been molded from early on in our lives (actually to become conventional), it steers our actions towards an apolitical mode of action in which we use all types of disguises and clichés to apply …in what really is the political realm. As a consequence, I contend we end up with a politically underdeveloped consciousness that is responsible for the fact that our loyalties concentrate much more on power groups than on principles –such as the principles of HR that contribute to social justice, to community service and ultimately to nation building. As a corollary, we internationally ignore HR law. (Moreover, there are still too many of those who believe that serving in the public sector is a means to enrich oneself and that, in the process, power should be used to get rid of rivals).
7. Let us thus not underestimate political engagement in HR work; it strengthens our position; without it, we are left pursuing often changing contradictory ‘wishes’ that endlessly vie to get the attention of others. The result is that it becomes impossible to grow and to decisively move forward in HR work. Confusion in thought and anarchy in direction reinforces hierarchy.*
*: It too often boils down to: When two trucks carrying dynamite meet on a single lane road, who backs off? (A. Dixit) Since the lethal flaw of autocratic political power is to conceive only itself as necessary, our HR truck has to strengthen itself to make the other truck back-off. (Add to that an element of surprise since this is one of the effective tactics in politics).
8. Strictly speaking, engaging politically in HR means adopting its principles and having a distinct vision for the future. And do I need to tell you that principles that are not applied to reality lead to utopia and that reality is such that it cries for the application of the HR principles?**
**: Principles of universality and inalienability, of indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness, of equality and non-discrimination, of participation and inclusion, and of accountability and rule of law.
The modern world is fiercely divided between conservatives and progressives. The progressives are those embarked in taking chances and thus continuing to make mistakes; the conservatives are those embarked in avoiding that those mistakes are corrected. (G. K. Chesterton)
-He or she who wants to be a politician, let him/her go through squares and markets. (ancient Greek proverb)
-When certain leaders assess the facts from real life, they are already transforming them into fiction. (Albino Gomez)
9. It is only through the pressure from politically engaged members of society that politicians actively react to issues of public concern such as HR. Furthermore, it is institutions or groups working in the political arena that are the best placed to keep autocratic politicians’ actions in check.
Why? Because politicians think they can go on governing with nice words. With no opposition, they keep pretending to represent everybody when, in reality, they only represent their cronies. They use ‘clan mechanism’ of governance. (Francoise Barten) and very coldly evaluate advantages and disadvantages from their very own perspective. (Mario Vargas Llosa) For them, all is about control: Who’s got the biggest, the bestest, the mostest whatever. (Jerome Koenig)
10. The misleading understanding of the state as a rational homogenous actor led by enlightened leaders is simply wrong. Therefore, if we do not impede it, the political short-termism of power hungry politicians will win out. (R. Smith)
11. The HR discourse does not necessarily rely on one ideology or another; human rights reflect both the essence and the faults of each one of them and offer a framework to move the development process ahead in a more grassroots democratic way. As regards the ‘right’ and the ‘left’ in contingent everyday politics, the shade of a tree depends on from where the sun is shining from… so always ask who ‘owns’ the shade so graciously gifted to us by the tree –only that will give you the true picture. (Shula Koenig)
12. Particularly in HR work, never fail to remember that the bottom line of any political struggle is the struggle of interests and of forces –much much less of arguments. This is why, in HR work, we need to bring politics back-in by unpacking the hidden relationship between power and political will (actually the lack thereof).
Pro-status-quo forces want to impose an Eleventh Commandment on us, i.e., in politics ‘do not dissent’
13Politics can go forwards and backwards. Science and technology, as cumulative knowledge disciplines, always go forward. The best of the world’s political theory struggles has sadly been left behind in our past. That is why, in our daily practice, politics has been coming and going, almost without direction, often condemned to maintain the status-quo. As a result, we live in a world where power is really in the financial sector (WTO tells us that, in two days, financial markets move the same volume of assets that commercial markets move in a year)… and excess earnings in the financial sector are directly proportional to the misery they cause. Therefore, I want all of you to vote with me for a year in which we revolt against the Eleventh Commandment that in politics we should not dissent. (A. Gomez)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
cschuftan@phmovement.org