A new insult
From Mr Lionel Slier Sir: DJ. Taylor (Bastard liberalism', 8 September) touches on a word which is of great interest here in South Africa.
Since 1994 the meaning of the words 'liberal' and 'Liberal' have done a complete somersault. During the height of the apartheid years the Liberals in South Africa tried to uphold some eternal verities such as multiracism, equality, brotherhood and colour-blindness. Noble people started the Liberal party, led by the author Alan Paton. This was a breakaway group from the official parliamentary opposition, the ineffectual United party.
The Liberal party actually had no chance. Outside the English-speaking urban areas there was no support for it, and even inside these areas the support was very weak. When the Nationalists passed a law making it illegal for whites and blacks to belong to the same political party, the Liberal party disbanded.
Yet the white members of this party regarded themselves as 'liberal' (small 'I') in outlook and behaviour. They crossed the colour divide where and when they could, quietly, and without making a big deal of it. Some did it as a form of personal protest against the government; others did it out of a genuine desire to remain in contact with black people.
Now since 1994 there has been an ANC government and a new political dispensation. With this there has been a rise in prominence of black writers in the formerly white-dominated English-language press. All these writers have this in common — the word 'liberal' has become pejorative. It is used scathingly and with contempt. We even have the new combination 'liberal conservative' and its mirror image — "conservative liberal'. One is not too sure what exactly either of these combinations means but they are so commonplace that they must mean something. So now, here in democratic South Africa, to call someone a 'liberal' is once more an insult.
Lionel Slier
South Africa
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