The new mayor of Manila added an outrageous entry to his long list of quotable quotes when he declared at his recent swearing-in: “For the first time, Manila will have an ex-convict as your city mayor. I feel that I am in good company with Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and our own Sen. Ninoy Aquino who was convicted by a military court. We were all convicted. That is why we are now all men of conviction.”
The remark was a demonstration of the two abiding impulses in Joseph Estrada’s life: to turn everything into a joke and to insist on the goodness of his name, especially in the matter of the plunder charge of which he has been convicted. But only the most clueless or indifferent would not blanch at this offensive attempt to put himself in the league of Anwar Ibrahim, Aung San Suu Kyi, Ninoy Aquino and, particularly, Nelson Mandela.
When the ex-president was engaging in name-dropping in another effort to deodorize his name, Mr. Mandela, 96, remained in critical condition in a hospital in South Africa. The people of that country, and others all over the world, leaders and ordinary citizens alike, are fervently praying for the grace to accept the imminent passing of this man whose long, arduous and inspiring life has galvanized the struggle for fundamental human rights and dignity. This is a man who deserves and commands only honor, admiration and respect; his name should not be mentioned lightly.
Mr. Mandela stands head and shoulders above many world leaders in history, not only for what he has done, which is formidable, but also for what he did not do. When he became South Africa’s first black president, elected in that country’s first free and truly multiracial elections after the dismantling of its hated apartheid regime, Mr. Mandela confounded both white and black South Africans by refusing to engage in recrimination and revenge. He had been the most implacable foe of apartheid, went nearly blind from 27 years of harsh imprisonment under the white South African government, but, once handed the reins of power, he saved his country from strife by staying the hand of those itching to settle scores over many years of oppression and violence against black people.
In his autobiography “Long Walk to Freedom,” Mr. Mandela wrote: “As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison… Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
For his remarkable decision to forgive for the sake of preserving the peace, he was initially vilified by some in his own camp, his campaign of national unification branded an appeasement of the white population. But the firebrand of the 1960s, who had led a campaign of violence against the oppressive Afrikaner government on the grounds that “when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw,” had somehow become a new man in prison. Now he went by a different dictum: “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”
Like many other countries, South Africa remains beset by many problems, from soaring crime rates to lingering economic inequality. But in that continent, and for the rest of the world, it has also become a beacon of sociopolitical and economic advancement, a country that, against all odds, achieved something quite improbable: a monumental political transition without war, chaos or widespread bloodshed, thanks to the wisdom and example of its revered Madiba.
“I am fundamentally an optimist,” Mr. Mandela has said. “Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”
We stand with the people of South Africa and the international community in saluting Nelson Mandela, whose life is a towering example of great moral and physical courage. May his name and legacy endure through time.