By Councillor Marga Haywood

THE MEANING OF FREEDOM IS RELATIVE. In the context of Freedom Day, it refers to the ability to cast your vote once every five years.

Those on the political left define freedom as the ability of the individual to realise his or her own potential and pursuit of happiness. Freedom in this sense may include freedom from want, poverty, deprivation, or oppression.

Friedrich Hayek famously noted that "liberty" and "freedom" have probably been the most abused words in recent history today.

Milton Friedman observed that the essence of political freedom is the absence of coercion or aggression (duress/intimidation/bullying). In the new South Africa we have added to this equation the absence of violence and corruption.

Some people argue that Iraq was free under Paul Bremer on the grounds that it was a rational, humanist, non-suppressive government, long before elections were held. Others have argued that Iraq was free under Saddam Hussein because Iraq was not a colony.

What everybody agrees on is that the opposite of a free society is a one party authoritarian state, such as Zimbabwe under the Rule of ZANU PF’s Robert Mugabe.

The fundamental danger to political freedom is the concentration of power. The existence of a large measure of power in the hands of a few enables them to use it to abuse their fellow men.

“Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely” this observation by Lord Acton, a British historian in the late nineteenth century, observes the fact that it is a characteristic of human beings that their sense of morality lessens as their sense of power increases.

The maxim of the Apartheid regime was Unity Creates Strength. Many leaders endeavour to unite - few listen to the people’s plight.

Preservation of freedom requires either the elimination of unlimited power or its distribution where it cannot be eliminated.

How do we eliminate absolute power and subsequent corruption in our country and prevent us from the dictatorial governance that characterises the rest of Africa?

In the first instance the answer to this must be freedom of choice; the freedom to choose who to vote for, the freedom to vote for the political party of your choice. Without this choice we can not have authentic freedom.

Therefore the solution lies in the existence of a strong and viable opposition.

The only solution to having an authentic alternative to a one party state in this country, lies in coalition government. A coalition is an alliance of individual parties, cooperating in joint action, serving not only their own self-interest but also communal interest, and therefore the interest of democracy.

“Through our unique diversity we can guard our freedom”. (Simonye)