‘Hamba kahle,’ Madiba

“Hamba Kahle” is a Zulu phrase heard frequently these days in South Africa, reports say. The phrase means “go well,” a salute and farewell to Nelson Mandela whose person and personal story embodied that country’s troubled past, tumultuous present and troubled future.

But as they say, it could have been worse.

When Mandela walked out of prison in 1990, after more than 20 years in some of the most notorious of the apartheid regime’s detention centers, South Africa was the center of rising turmoil. Released after the government bowed to international pressure and a global embargo, he could have roused his people to righteous anger and violence. But he chose to negotiate a peaceful transition, as it was obvious that apartheid, the policy of “keeping apart” the ruling white minority and the oppressed black majority, would soon have to give way to democracy and the rule of law.

Elected president in 1994, Mandela did not engage in a fevered campaign of retribution against South African whites or the government. Instead, he embarked on a campaign of conciliation, most famously by donning the uniform of the “Springboks,” that country’s all-white national rugby team that was then competing in the world rugby championships held in South Africa, which, by the way, the South Africans won.

But neither did Mandela simply sweep his country’s painful past under the rug. He formed the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” investigating the crimes of the apartheid regime and urging both victims and oppressors to meet and reconcile.

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Mandela’s legacy, it is true, is a mixed one. But much like Cory Aquino, whose ascendance to power is sometimes compared to his, by the time of Mandela’s passing he had long passed from ordinary mortal to, as US President Barack Obama described him, “one for the ages.”

How did Mandela overcome his bitter past and the years of persecution under the white government? Says the New York Times in its report on his death: “The explanation for his absence of rancor, at least in part, is that Mandela was that rarity among revolutionaries and moral dissidents: a capable statesman, comfortable with compromise and impatient with the doctrinaire.” Asked how he “kept his hatred in check,” Mandela was more direct: “Hating clouds the mind. It gets in the way of strategy. Leaders cannot afford to hate.”

I was in Vienna when news of Mandela’s death was revealed. And for the next few days, owing to the fact that the only English-language channel we got was CNN, our days and nights were filled 24/7 with Mandela, as commentators, reporters, prominent personages and ordinary Africans expressed their recollections, thoughts and feelings about the late leader.

I recalled what my husband would always say whenever news channels saturated their air time with words and images on a single event or person. “Enough already!” he would exclaim. “Move on!” But for Nelson Mandela, we were willing to fill our hearts and minds with thoughts of his life and death. He was all too human, but managed, in the course of suffering and ultimate triumph, to hold his nation and his disparate people together. For that alone, he truly deserves the prayers of a grateful world. “Hamba kahle,” Madiba.

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The work of rebuilding in the areas through which Supertyphoon “Yolanda” wreaked havoc has begun.

Former senator Panfilo Lacson is heading the next phase of recovery, after the immediate needs of the victims, namely rescue and relief, have been met.

His mandate is as broad as it is complex. But it can be described, in a nutshell, as overseeing the next phase of bringing the towns and cities in 10 provinces in the Visayas and Luzon back to life before Yolanda.

The challenges confronting Lacson are no joke. Some places, most prominently in Leyte including its capital Tacloban, and the neighboring provinces of Samar, have practically been leveled. The return to “normalcy” will take some time, as farmers lost their crops, copra makers lost hectares of old coconut trees, fishers lost their boats, and thousands lost their homes. Other provinces have borne their share of Yolanda-wrought damage, but rebuilding and rehabilitation there are expected to take place much faster.

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This early, questions have been raised about Lacson’s ability to carry out the mandate handed him. Many of these fears, it seems, are rooted in the very complexity of the immense task before him. As “manager and coordinator” of the post-Yolanda effort, Lacson must deal with a confusing mix of national government agencies and local governments, each with its own mandate, capabilities, and goals, and of course the personal ambitions and priorities of agency heads and local officials.

Lacson, best known for his stint as head of the Philippine National Police and as a senator who was outspoken in his criticism of the abuses of the Arroyo administration, is required to act as a conductor extraordinaire. He must extract the best from each agency and local government unit while ensuring that their efforts are carried out in a unified, coherent and transparent manner.

He may not have much experience in environmental planning, construction, or public works. But those are not his jobs, per se. And it is hoped that he has enough sense to depend on people who do have the expertise to carry out these tasks. What he can bring to his new responsibility is leadership—both moral and organizational—as well as discipline that he needs to impose on the discordant orchestra he must work with.