Hon Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Minister, ladies and gentlemen, I commend the department for its outstanding work, good governance and clean audit. On the continent and in the world, we have done well in promoting peace. However, this department has a very important responsibility to project who we are as a nation.
Benedict Anderson in his book, Imagined Communities, proposes the following definition of a nation: "It is an imagined political community" and it is "both inherently limited and sovereign". It is "imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion". The achievement of communion is vitally important for South Africa.
President Mbeki pointed out that regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail, the nation is always conceived of as a deep, horizontal comradeship. By improving national relations, through public diplomacy, we can improve international relations as a nation.
My issue today is that of public diplomacy - the national message. What then is our unified national message? Just before 1994 President F W de Klerk sought to reintegrate South Africa back into the international community through visits to approximately 27 countries. Under President Mandela, we communicated a message of reconciliation, nation-building and the upholding of human rights. The world took note.
Under President Thabo Mbeki, South Africa sought to be firmly located in the context of Africa. The "I am an African" speech, as well as his promotion of the African Renaissance and Nepad, enabled President Mbeki to take forward what his predecessors had begun. South Africa began to have a magnified role in Africa and the world. Africa and the world took note.
Do we have a clear message for Africa and the world now? How are we promoting our wonderful Constitution and our implicit adherence to its principles and values as part of that message? Also, are we clear about who is carrying our message for us to the world today? More pertinently, do we really understand who we are as South Africans? If we were to ask a cross section of the 55 million South Africans what our unified message was and who our messengers were, would we get a coherent response? Do they know?
As South Africans we must all respond to this message collectively. It is very important to have consistency in respect of what we say and what we do and how we define ourselves as a nation. If the message and the messengers in support of the national mandate resonate with all of us, they will resonate with the rest of the world.
Kufanele ziqale ekhaya zize zivakale eziZweni. [They should start at home and then move to other countries.]
It is for this reason that Cope is so strongly in support of an activist state and of citizen democracy. For us, it does not suffice to pay lip service to the Constitution. The Constitution must come alive in practice, and as South Africans we must take collective responsibility for articulating our unified message that will speak volumes for us.
On the other hand, if we speak with a forked tongue or if we posture without belief, who will buy the dummy we seek to sell? The world will not take us seriously if we hold the Constitution in one hand and a chisel in the other.
Therefore, I am urging that we clarify for ourselves who exactly we are. This will help us to clarify our common message, identify our messengers and help us to choose the instruments for delivery.
Singobani? Uthini umyalezo wethu? Oonozakuzaku bethu bangobani? [Who are we? What is our message? Who are our envoys?]
Minister, the media offers powerful tools. Every day governments of the world and other agencies scan the media to build national profiles. How others perceive us is not under the control of this department. That lies elsewhere. Often the Minister will be asked to do the most difficult job of having to undertake serious damage control rather than having the opportunity to control the message.
Damage to our image can come from politicking politicians, from brassy youth leaders, from disorderly civil society and from some rapacious businesspeople. How people do business on the continent can have serious consequences for our image and branding. The department needs to be proactive in ensuring that our engagements with Africans are mutually beneficial. It is for this reason that we emphasise the importance of public diplomacy.
The forging of a common national identity is an imperative. We cannot defer this in the hope that it will emerge by itself. In spite of the differences that people have in countries in Asia, and in Switzerland and America, they are at least able to project a common national identity. We therefore need to know who we are.
Minister, the great gripe that I have comes from government not investing adequately in stimulating public diplomacy. I believe that this is a challenge for the department. Public opinion has to be cultivated to shape our foreign policy. I submit that public diplomacy must play a pivotal role in shaping a favourable projection of ourselves as a nation. By public diplomacy I certainly do not mean public relations. That would merely be cosmetic. I am seeking something more authentic.
Public diplomacy must serve as a tool for national unity. We need to use it to promote our ideas and values and to build peace among ourselves, our neighbours and the world. Recent developments in our country, especially the youth leader's visit to Zimbabwe, have deepened our concern about both the message we are transmitting and the profile of some of the messengers.
Public diplomacy cannot be driven by party affiliation, irrespective of the party, or by party T-shirts, caps and the banging of drums. A partisan approach will create contestation.
Also, because of our democracy and the building of sturdy alliances, we can engage with people abroad in mutually beneficial relations. A proactive engagement with people in our own country will create a platform for proactive engagement with the countries of the world.
This means that as leaders we must mind what we say and how we behave. To see how we are progressing, the department must establish a barometer to measure whether we are rising or falling internationally. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]