Politicians and Promises

January is synonymous with all kinds of promises and resolutions as we use the change of year to mentally shut the door on the past and throw open a new one filled with the possibilities of fresh starts.
Promises are also synonymous with politicians, with most of us long past truly believing that these promises will be meaningfully fulfilled. This is because we have been let down so often, leaving many of us more than a little cynical and disillusioned.

The award winning website PolitiFact.com even has an Obameter – a bar graph tracking the fulfillment of Obama’s campaign promises. The site informs us that out of 513 election promises made, Obama has so far kept 75 of them while compromising on 20 and breaking 9. The rest of the promises have so far seen no meaningful action, in other words nothing has been done about them yet.

Closer to home our own President Jacob Zuma promised Parliament in June that the government would create 500 000 jobs by the end of the year (2009). In a report they recently compiled, the Business Day confirmed that only 223 568 job opportunities out of the 500 000 had actually been created (see Business Day, 04/12/09). Of course it should also be remembered that in the meantime the recession caused a loss of a million jobs through this year, while the unemployment rate increased to 24.5%.

This only underlines why so many of us feeling even more cynical about politicians and their promises then we do about even our own new year resolutions. Yet, the question needs to be asked – is cynicism really an appropriate response for a Christian?

Of course, we need to be realistically aware that many politicians have proved themselves untrustworthy. And of course, in other areas of South African life there is much to be concerned about especially regarding poverty, crime and disease.
Despite all this, shouldn’t someone of faith look to be aware of the negative and yet not be coloured and shaped by it? As Eugene Peterson reminds us when we narrow our eyes in suspicion the world correspondingly narrows around us. Instead, we should be living with hope and a sense of wonder. Hope, because we know that despite the fallibility of all human beings, God IS in this world and working, and wonder, because we have been called to become a part of what God is doing.

Yes, there is no doubt about it that bad things do happen and people will let us down. Yet, at the same time, God is alive and on the move in this world and if we follow him we can live in the light and hope of that.