The Covid-19 pandemic and the political response to it have made liberalism more relevant than it has been in recent decades, especially in South Africa, writes Martin Van Staden.
The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and the political response to it have made liberalism more relevant than it has been in recent decades, especially in South Africa.
The government has certainly answered that call in the only way it knows how: Widespread infringement of civil and economic liberties. To some this is eminently justifiable because these freedoms are ostensibly elitist and liberalism does nothing less than prop up the elite at the expense of authoritarians’ grand social narratives.
Those in the progressive mecca of San Francisco, at the forefront of social causes such as LGBTI+ rights, have used the freedom afforded by liberal institutions to accomplish their desired goals.Authoritarians have regarded the accusation that liberalism is a tool of the white elite as sufficient argument against this value system and its proponents. But this thinking trivialises the passionate black and coloured liberals active in South Africa today.
The Covid-19 lockdown has been a disaster for poor people and its deleterious effect on them will continue for many years to come.Instead, they concern themselves with actual issues affecting human development and liberty: destitution, freedom of expression, education policy, technology policy, jurisprudence and the battle of ideas.
The liberal answer to this has been to err on the side of freedom: To allow those who are not at risk to work, to keep e-commerce completely open, to keep the military off the streets and to take swift and uncompromising action against police brutality and ministers who excuse it.
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