Deepening and Developing Democracy
A SyntegrationÒ for Youth Members of Political Parties to Build Peace and Develop Cohesion
Introduction
This proposal is written to motivate for support for the convening of approximately 30 youth representatives of all political parties contesting the second democratic election in South Africa, in a special conference event known as a SyntegrationÒ .
In the context of the election campaign, which is already showing signs of strife and fear, political parties will at times, wittingly or unwittingly, amplify dynamics of fragmentation. The purpose of the Syntegration would be to provide a countervailing process that attenuates the polarising dualistic tendencies that characterise current political discourse, by structuring interaction between the participants so that latent creative and synergetic potential is amplified through effective dialogue and group learning.
The Syntegration, a rigorous, scientifically tested process, works extremely well in so doing. A four day event is envisaged, with a senior youth representative of each party participating in the event, at a conference centre in Victory Park, Johannesburg.
The output of the event would be twelve resolutions, developed in intensive small group discussions, which collectively provide integrated answers to the following Opening Question.
"What else do we need to do to deepen democracy and ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for South Africa?"
Media coverage would be encouraged and the twelve outcomes presented as a unifying code of aspiration, that facilitate political cohesion at the meta - level.
The outcome will be entirely up to the participants to determine, but Syntegrations almost always end with new knowledge, a shared understanding and a heightened sense of community. It would thus contribute to South African society what the constitution, Nelson Mandela and other personalities like Desmond Tutu contribute – a meta-politics.
The Future of South African Democracy
Nelson Mandela’s leadership has been summed up as A Long Walk to Freedom. From the dark past of apartheid, violence and the clash of ideologies, South Africans have achieved a remarkable feat of developing a democratic constitution and a working form of representative democracy, through which it is hoped that the material and cultural expectations of the high variety population will be met, and their fundamental human needs for Freedom, Participation, Understanding, Identity, Protection and Creation synergistically satisfied.
However, the model of representative democracy being followed is already showing signs of being eschewed by young people. The IEC has reported concern that voter registration among eligible youth has been disappointingly low. Yet the alienation of the youth from traditional forms of representative democracy is a world-wide phenomenon. Reasons are many and varied, but reflections from Latin American countries, notably Chile, have suggested that it is because accountability is achieved in representative democracy by adversarial decision making, centralised control and hierarchical structure. The governing emotion of such political discourse is invariably fear, which youth find to be stifling of their creative and innovative urges.
This has led to the search for alternatives and the formulation of systems for political decision making that achieve superior levels of accountability, and more space for creative innovation. The call is for participatory democracy rather than mere representative democracy, where fundamental human needs for freedom, participation, creation, identity and protection are actualised in process, instead of remaining mere abstract legal definitions enshrined in a constitution and bill of rights.
It is with respect to the need for rigorous accountability and a more intrinsically satisfying political dynamic that a SyntegrationÒ can be of greatest benefit.
It offers an ideal design format for participants to explore the issues and complexities facing South African political parties.
The next section elaborates how this will happen by explaining its origins, purpose and mechanisms.
What is a Syntegration?
This is the core product of Team Syntegrity International a company founded by the leading exponent of Managerial Cybernetics, Professor Stafford Beer. Team Syntegrity International has as its mission
The purpose of a SyntegrationÒ is to help people and organisations come to terms with significant issues or problems that require their commitment, attention and subsequent action. In the simplest terms, a Syntegration® brings together a group of people (ideally 30) who, through a sequence of structured activities come to a shared understanding, and then create a platform for collaborated and co-ordinated action to deal with their issues or solve their problems.
Team Syntegrity has established a solid track record in it’s six year existence, with over 40 Syntegration events having served clients ranging from multinational corporations, Swiss banks, government agencies and social, religious and political movements. The first Syntegration in South Africa was successfully organised in February last year. This was an open event with participants from the public service, corporate and Non Governmental Organisations collaborating to use and develop the technology for South African transformation needs.
This led to its effective use to address the Y2K ‘Millennium Bug’ phenomenon. Hosted by the National Y2K Decision Support Centre (NY2KDSC) in December last year, a Syntegration was organised to bring together senior managers from Telkom, Eskom, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the SA Reserve Bank, Local Government reps, IBM, Transnet, the SA National Defence Force and various National Government Departments. Together with senior executives of the NY2KDSC, they spent four days resolving the question "How will the Y2K phenomenon affect the South African Nation. How can risks be contained and consequences effectively managed?"
It was considered by all participants to have worked very well in managing the many ideas and connecting people to achieve both and integrated set of action plans, and synergy.
The focus for a SyntegrationÒ session is typically established by means of an Opening Question, posed by those sponsoring the session. On the basis of this question the participants develop 12 topics or ideas. The model that underlies the structure of the session is a geometric form called the icosahedron (see graphic on cover sheet).
This is a twenty-sided form is composed of 30 edges or struts, each of which is used to represent a participant in the session. 12 vertices connect the 30 edges or nodes, which are used to represent key topics or ideas that need to be addressed by the group. The Syntegration meeting protocols, based on this structure, enable a free exchange of information between participants and permit the group to collectively work on 12 different topics (identified by 12 colours) in a non-hierarchical, perfectly democratic structure, bringing their collective wisdom and experience to bear.
At the conclusion of a five day SyntegrationÒ , participants leave with not only a consensus of the 12 topics or ideas, which take the form of 12 statements developed in response to the Opening Question, but also with new knowledge, a shared understanding and a heightened sense of community.
Delivery Considerations
Opening Question:
The proposed question from which to generate group learning and understanding would be:
"What do we need to do/undo/redo to ensure a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous society in South Africa?
Participants:
The technical term for participants in a SyntegrationÒ is an ‘infoset’ to convey the notion that each member is a repository of information. The process effectively manages high variety, heterogeneous groups in such a way as to amplify latent information that promises to be significant to the outcomes, and attenuate ‘stale’ or irrelevant information without recourse to arbitrary censorship. This means that provided participants are genuinely interested in the opening question, and are willing and able to enter into intense discourse to raise and resolve their issues, anyone can participate.
Practically, the ideal number of participants is 30 people. More than this number can be accommodated up to a limit of 40, provided additional time is allowed for group and plenary discussions.
Invitations would be issued to each political party currently registered to contest the election with the suggestion that they delegate one youth member of their party, to participate.
Delivery Team:
A team of four facilitators, two logisticians and two admin support staff needs to be formed. This will be organised and managed under the auspices of the company Icosindaba Development Associates (IDeA), created by John G. I. Clarke, a consultant in organisational effectiveness who has worked closely with Prof. Stafford Beer and Team Syntegrity. Several experienced South African facilitators are familiar with the facilitation and logistical protocols, having participated in the first two South Africa events held earlier this year.
As this event will further the training of local facilitators, it is necessary that one person from Team Syntegrity International travel from Canada to oversee their training and ensure good quality.
Duration and Timing
A standard four day Syntegration would be necessary to do justice to the issues as outlined above. Provisional dates have been set from 9th to the 13th May 1999. This leaves less than five weeks to ensure all logistical arrangements and delivery team preparation and development can take place. The event would commence at 5pm on Sunday 9th and end at 4.00pm on Thursday 13th May.
Venue
The SyntegrationÒ is a residential event, requiring participants to commit to a stringent time schedule, which is geared to ensuring the full and synergetic satisfaction of fundamental human needs of creation, participation, understanding, affection, freedom, identity, protection, idleness and subsistence.
A conference venue in Victory Park, Johannesburg has been provisionally reserved for the event. The venue affords reasonable human comforts and adequate meeting rooms for plenary, breakaway, logistics and social recreation.
Cost
Based on previous experience, the minimum break-even cost of a five-day SyntegrationÒ would be R 115,000. This includes accommodation but excludes and delegates travel costs, except for a sum of R15,000 to subsidise those who lack the means to pay their own way for travel and accommodation. The budget assumes the following:
Conclusion
Stafford Beer, after his experience of working with the late President Allende in Chile, had this to say in response to the tragic destruction by the Pinochet military dictatorship of the economic transformation project he was implementing there (from Designing Freedom, P 99 –100, 1974).
As I see it, the rich world would not allow a poor country to use its freedom to design its freedom.
Then let us not say, as we hear said, that Allende reduced his country to chaos, and destroyed the economy. A system of world forces acting upon Chile reduced his economy to chaos, and destroyed him. Allende understood that his country was losing its freedom in the oppressive grip of that external system, and went and said as much to the United Nations. The free world, as it likes to call itself, heard what he said and waited until his own prophetic words were fulfilled: "They will only drag me out of La Moneda in wooden pajamas." At that point it offered muted protests, and set about recognising the military junta.
Thus is freedom lost; not by accident but as the output of a system designed to curb liberty. My message is that we must redesign that system, to produce freedom as an output. If we are inefficient about that, on the grounds that scientific efficiency threatens liberty, then the institutional machinery that acts in our name will fail to prevent the spread of tyranny, war, torture, and oppression. We speak of the growth of prosperity; but the growth of those four things throughout the world today is more real.
Let us use love and compassion. Let us use joy. Let us use knowledge. These qualities are in us, obscured though we may let them be by the lethal strategies of our dinosaur society. And let us use that acquired and ordered knowledge: science. This too is in our heritage. If it has been seized by power, then seize it back. Expect it of statesmen and politicians. Expect it of educators that they should change the institutions of education not to train crazy apes; or start new schools and universities instead.
Above all let us all expect it of each other that we find ways to use the power of science in better cause.
It is the same Stafford Beer who developed the Syntegration process, using his vast scientific knowledge to offer an effective means to achieve participatory democracy and robust accountability. The technology is now in our hands. What better way to contribute to the transmogrification of South African Society than by challenging the political discourse in the next three months by gathering youth representatives to collaboratively build peace by developing a new vision for the new millennium.
John G. I. Clarke
Consultant in Organisational Effectiveness, Development Facilitator and Social Worker
Icosindaba Development Associates (IDeA)
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