Page 190 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

692 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

heart of civil-military relations in a democracy. South Africa experienced a form of creeping
praetorianism under apartheid. It was indeed a praetorianism of a special type as the military
never came to power by ousting the politicians (a coup). Rather the military were drawn in /
invited / coached into parallel security structures to eliminate and or minimise unrest and left
wing opposition. Some elements such as the Civil Cooperation Bureau were spawned that
did not venture only in counter intelligence and discrediting opponents, but actually bombing
activist’s offices (in one case even a church organisation’s building) and assassination of left
wing opponents – thus reflecting to some extent what the Latin American states experienced
with their dirty war or guerra sucia. Part of the problem lies in the fact that civil-military
relations were subverted by the apartheid government – so was to an extent, the rule of law.
Part of the problem was the ideology of Christian Nationalism and racism; in other words
ethnicity from above rather than principled non-racialism. Part of the problem was the po-
litical elite caught up in groupthink and that they did not show visionary inclusive political
approaches.
But part of the problem was that there was after 1950, not a single generation of students
or for that matter the majority of educators at Afrikaans universities and colleges that were
brought up that could challenge the confined thinking of the apartheid leadership and their
policies (this also apply to the military academy to some extent). Seemingly the younger
generation was helplessly uncritical on social issues and hence incapable to escape the ideo-
logical prison of a manipulated consciousness.
Today the challenges in a fledgling democracy are manifold. The political elite and civil
communities need to be vigilant about exclusive tendencies. Attempts at party-political pref-
erential treatment should be resisted with an attitude and social approaches that nurture prin-
cipled non-racialism and not favour race, religious or linguistic backgrounds (one could refer
to this as constitutional patriotism).
But more important – or at least pertinent to this paper – is that at tertiary institutions,
the military academy included critical education, the honing of critical faculties of students
should be seen as part of educational ethics and military professionalism. In this way the
merger of Venus/Athene and Sparta can be optimised amongs students and young officers
within a young democracy.
However the consistent observation through history is that this seldom what transpires.
This is true especially in a country amidst other countries with deep divisions and where
outside forces are able to manipulate smaller countries and their citizenry. For South African
civilian and military leadership – and the younger generation at tertiary institutions – chal-
lenges abound.
South Africans have learned that by far the potential is bigger to see your own forces
deployed against you than against direct foreign aggressors. South Africans have learnt that
going to war on other’s behalf is divisive. South Africans have learnt that to build and upkeep
a military on the basis of language, ethnicity, religion or party political loyalty is simply dan-
gerous (so has countless other societies).
The challenge is to remember these lessons and apply it consistently while building a
democratic state amidst an insecure world. In this tertiary education for the military has a
crucial role to play.