SOUTH AFRICA:IN A robust, and perhaps pointed, defence of the rule of law and the South African constitution, to whose drafting he contributed, Kader Asmal yesterday bade farewell to the country's national assembly.
Prof Asmal, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle in Ireland and internationally, a member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a former South African minister for education and minister for water affairs and forestry, is retiring from the assembly in which he has served since 1994. But not, he insisted, from politics.
He told fellow members in his valedictory address that: "I shall not be leaving public life, because politics is in my blood and because my whole life has been one long political journey where the public and private have been inseparable."
Inspired to get involved 60 years ago by the Nobel prizewinner and former leader of the ANC, Albert Luthuli, he said it gave him great pride "to be part of that awakening of the conscience of the world to combat the apartheid crime against humanity".
Prof Asmal, who lectured in the school of law in Trinity and was the driving force behind the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement before returning to South Africa in 1990, concluded his comments by quoting Seamus Heaney's tribute to Nelson Mandela:
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
He spoke of the constitution as "a living instrument that enlarges our freedoms and restricts our power to act arbitrarily".
"We may not like these restrictions . . . I must confess that as a minister I was sometimes impatient with the processes of consultation and the parliamentary committee meetings. Nevertheless, such democratic processes are essential to our progress. We cannot afford to manoeuvre around the human rights our constitution has laid down. We must not attack the separation of powers laid down in our constitution. And we need to follow its spirit, not only the letter."
In South Africa's "new" and "fragile" democracy there was a particular onus on the members of the national assembly to champion human rights.
And, speaking of media freedom, Prof Asmal admitted that "we are sometimes too sensitive to criticism - in the press or by civil society. Obviously, we are entitled to make sharp responses to such criticism. I will confess to occasionally being annoyed as any of you at misconceived, inaccurate or tendentious criticism, and I have voiced my annoyance, sometimes even anger.
"However, what would be wrong would be any attempt at intimidation of the press, or any threat to curtail press freedom - not because the constitution protects press freedom but because it is a vital element of our democracy. We must cherish it."
Prof Asmal was praised for his work on human rights in South Africa by the SA Human Rights Commission.
Its spokeswoman Judith Cohen said Prof Asmal had made "many contributions over the years towards promoting and actively participating in the development of a human rights framework and culture in South Africa".
