In her Nobel lecture last month (delayed by two decades because of her incarceration) Aung San Suu Kyi referred to Buddhism’s six great dukhas (sufferings). The last two of these are “to be parted from those one loves (and) to be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love.

” We are blessed to have her in our midst and two other Nobel Peace laureates of our times have shared these great dukhas with her: the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. Mr Mandela underwent the greatest suffering a repressive regime could inflict on its prisoner, yet became the leader to pave the way forward for his nation. This column is written on his 94th birthday (July 18, 2012) as a humble tribute to the great man.
I was a United Nations adviser to Zimbabwe at its dawn of independence between 1982 and 1984. Robert Mugabe was a revered revolutionary leader then, a far cry from today’s despised kleptomaniac despot. In a long conversation with one of his ministers, a woman who had suffered a long prison term herself, I wondered whether Mr Mandela of 1984 was even a remote shadow of his steely self in 1964 who had said, “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Mr Mandela had spent two decades in prison, 18 years of which were on the desolate Roben Island off the Cape coast. The minister shared my concern about his physical and mental well-being.
We need not have worried. The very next year, the apartheid regime of P.W. Botha offered an ailing Mr Mandela release on the condition that he foreswear violence as a political weapon. From his hospital bed Mr Mandela issued a statement through his daughter Zindzi that read: “What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.”
Another half a decade was to pass before Botha’s successor F.W. de Klerk read the writing on the wall, releasing Mr Mandela after 27 long years in prison and lifting the ban on his movement, the African National Congress (ANC). South Africa had sent a firebrand to jail, who emerged as a 71-year-old grisly grandfather of a mature leader. On the very first day of his freedom, he acknowledged that conditions that led to ANC’s militancy still prevailed, but expressed the hope that “A climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created soon, so that there may no longer be the need for the armed struggle.” He was recognised as the tallest among the ANC trinity of leadership comprising his long-time friends Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and himself. His ascension as the undisputed ANC leader led to his election as South Africa’s President four years later in 1994 in the first-ever free elections with universal franchise. Since his retirement in 1998, he has been among the most respected figures globally.
Mr Mandela’s finest moments were in his presidency. He realised that leadership did not mean the exercise of unfettered power but rather its judicious exercise within the available degrees of freedom. He was acutely aware that the sizeable non-black population (more than 25 per cent in 1994), particularly the 10-plus per cent whites, controlled well over 90 per cent of the resources and held most crucial positions in the administration and armed forces. He declared his intention to create a “rainbow” nation which would provide all its citizens equal opportunities regardless of their ethnic origin under the rule of civilised law. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission discharged justice for past crimes without being vengeful. Positive discrimination in favour of black Africans was state policy in education and employment, but there was no expropriation of white enterprise and properties.
The world welcomed this approach. Aid and investment followed. The apartheid South Africa already had a sizeable mining and industrial base, along with a bountiful agricultural economy and sound infrastructure. Buoyed by the prospect of racial harmony and plentiful skilled English-speaking labour comprising newly-minted black graduates and apprentices, sunrise industry — pharmaceuticals, bio-technology, information technology — followed and created flourishing new pockets in the Johannesburg-Pretoria corridor, counter-magnets to the old rust-belt areas of Durban and Port Elizabeth. Its salubrious climate, abundant wild-life and miles of ocean front created a dynamic tourism sector which offered First World comforts at a fraction of corresponding costs. South Africa thus transformed into a favoured global destination from an international pariah in the space of just one decade.
Not all is well with South Africa today. Life is tough in inner cities. Income inequalities are often glaring. Blacks and whites do not necessarily mistrust each other, but still keep each other at an arm’s length. Corruption in high places is not uncommon. Glitches and bottlenecks show up in unexpected places. Yet South Africans of all hues admire the frail and rarely seen 94-year-old patriarch.
The act most symbolic of Mr Mandela’s leadership and charisma was his becoming the chief patron and cheerleader of the country’s team for the 1995 Rugby World cup held in South Africa. Rugby was firmly identified with racist elements and despised by most blacks. Mr Mandela saw this as an opportunity to heal old wounds and espoused the cause against fierce opposition from the ANC. Against all odds, South Africa won. Clint Eastwood made a fine, sensitive film, Invictus, in 2008, starring Morgan Freeman as Mr Mandela. François Pienaar, the white captain of the Springboks (most South Africans abhorred the term), asks his girlfriend as he looks at the stadium on the eve of the final, “What kind of a man forgives those who tormented him for 27 years?” Therein lies the true measure of Mr Mandela’s greatness, conquering two of the great dukhas.

The writer taught at IIM Ahmedabad and helped set up the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He writes
on economic and policy issues.