Love and Forgiveness in Governance: Why Not Bring...
Why Not Bring More Political Forgiveness and Amnesty to Public Life?
by Innocent Rugaragu
"What if no one forgave anyone? How would societies in which forgiveness did not exist look?" In contrast, "what if there were societies in which forgiveness was respected and promoted?"[1] Which society would I choose to live in?
This paper attempts to unpack the complexity of public forgiveness issues through the lives of real victims and perpetrators in a state struggling to move past genocide. It's also an appreciation of genuine struggles like those of Bonaventure Niyibizi, whom we will encounter in the indented paragraph below. He illustrates that peace might be closer as we mutually journey together to balance our inner and outer realities. A struggle for political understandings might lead to forgiveness versus individual inclinations for justice as survivors struggle with anger, hurt, grief, and the desire for revenge. Can and should a state forgive and grant certain amnesty for the sake of stability, peace and reconciliation? In the context of Rwanda, Bonaventure has this to say:
To me as a survivor, I think this government is not being fair to me … It has passed a law saying that if a person who participated in Genocide confesses, he can go home. My family was killed. My mother was hacked to death and thrown into a river. I know the people who did it. They confessed. According to law, they have been released after serving seven years in prison. On the political side, I understand this. As an individual, I do not understand.[2]
Niyibizi's dilemma emanates from the story of post-genocide Rwanda; other people in post-violent-conflict countries can easily share it. Though costly, the state opted for the road to forgiveness as a pragmatic path to peace and reconciliation. In 2003, President Paul Kagame, using his executive prerogatives, released over 40,000 genocide perpetrators who had confessed to their crimes. The President encouraged the genocide perpetrators to confess their offenses and seek forgiveness from those they had victimized (or those people's family members, if the victims had died) and from the community as a whole. He invited Rwandans country-wide to integrate those released into their communities. The above act of political clemency and forgiveness gave rise to mixed feelings including skepticism, empathy, optimism and indifference. Survivors like Bonaventure felt the state was failing to adequately administer justice on victims' behalf, while those pardoned thanked the President for giving them a chance to become part of healing and reconciling through a process of telling their own stories of either innocence or crime.
The above scenario shows how complex (yet how vital) political forgiveness and amnesty are. Each process raises serious questions. For example: what is and is not forgiveness? Who forgives and why? Can a state forgive? Is forgiveness a doable process? Is it possible or impossible? Is forgiveness without amending helpful? What are advantages and disadvantages of forgiveness? Can forgiveness prevent further violence, and is it important for peace and reconciliation?
By forgiveness we mean a rebirth of hope, a restructuring of thoughts, ideas, and a reconstruction of dreams and emotions. Once forgiving begins, dreams can be rebuilt. When forgiving is attained, new meaning has been extracted from the worst experiences of life's events[3]. As both an individual and communal artistic journey and process, when forgiveness is final, "it imparts peace to the forgiver and restores a modicum of kindness to the human community as a whole."[4]
Alluding to the benefit of forgiveness, Jim Elliot says, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."[5] This means that in forgiving, one gives away the negative feelings about the hurt and he or she gains healing, trust and a sense of inner peace that no one can take away. As Flanigan writes, "forgiveness means developing a whole new philosophy about people."[6] Therefore, forgiveness as "process"[7] is a mixture of both human and divine complex processes of emotions and spirituality, which are difficult to explain. For example, after many years of tears, pain and loss of the family, Immaculée Ilibagiza met a man who had killed her loved ones and forgave him. And when asked why, she responded: "Forgiveness is all I have to offer."[8]
Can the State Forgive for the Sake of Peace and Reconciliation?
To answer this question, Daniel Philpott discusses four trends of state forgiveness:
- The state forgives out of expediency — when the case is too small compared to the resources that might be used to prosecute the offender. The attorney may choose to forgive so as to preserve resources for the serious cases.
- The state forgives financial debts owed it by foreign countries or the state pardons prisoners who are terminally ill.
- Executive pardons are issued based on the idea that despite the breached law, the person's character is so admirable and his/her past contribution to the society is so good that may be advisable to forgo full punishment.
- Forgiveness is practiced for the sake of reconciliation.[9]
For example, Philpott writes that when Gerald Ford explicitly stated that his pardon of Richard Nixon was strictly the American State's pardon of Nixon, that type of pardon was for the sake of reconciliation. Ford judged that Nixon's punishment could have hurt the nation for years. Hence, he decided to put "the whole thing behind the nation."[10]
Both President Ford and Kagame seem to have applied the fourth trend of forgiveness, which forgoes what might be the punitive rights for the sake of nation's reconciliation. Another similar case where state forgiveness has taken place for the sake of the state's stability, healing and reconciliation include South Africa, among others.[11] President Nelson Mandela became a symbol of nation-healing when he decided to forgive the apartheid regime that had unjustly imprisoned him for 27 years. He also appointed Archbishop Desmond Tutu to lead the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose mission was to heal the post-apartheid wounded South Africa where at the end Tutu wrote a book called No Future Without Forgiveness.[12]
Furthermore, in April 2007, President Paul Kagame applied the second and the third of Philpott's trends of political forgiveness. He forgave the former President Pasteur Bizimungu, who had been accused of corruption and divisionism.
Following the above examples, I would like to suggest that social-political forgiveness and certain forms of amnesty be institutionalized. This may especially benefit countries that are still undergoing various forms of state building and institution building, transitional justice, and post-war and post-genocide reconstruction. Political forgiveness and amnesty also could be applied to avoid political tit-for-tat in post-colonial and post-liberation war regimes. Political leadership in such countries may fear stepping down due to the fear and insecurities that the enemies they made while in power may advocate for their arrest, jail and even death. In as much as punitive justice is vital, countries such as Sudan with Omar al-Bashir, Uganda with Joseph Kony, Nigeria with Boko Haram, Kenya following the 2007 violence, and Croatia and Serbia following the 1991-1995 violence (to mention but a few) should consider political amnesty and forgiveness as a public good of a rational choice instead of pursuing punitive justice that makes peace processes, reconciliation and an end to violence almost impossible.
On the other hand, the consequences of not employing forgiveness and certain forms of amnesty might perpetuate further violence and a sense of "no surrender" since such leaders fear for their lives. Hence, institutionalizing forgiveness may prove Gandhi's foresight that "forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."[13] Therefore, it should be seen as a taboo for a strong government to fail to institutionalize forgiveness and amnesty as strategies for peace. Human courage, resilience and interdependency can make it possible to imagine a form of recompense such as one's governing mistakes and success for the betterment of the country since such forgiven fallen heroes will have a lot of experiences. Finally, I concur with Flanigan, who contentiously concludes, "Surely a future where there is no forgiveness is too awful to contemplate."[14]
Bibliography
Elliot, Jim. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/type/type_clergyman.htm (Accessed May 05, 2013).
Flanigan Beverly. Forgiving the Unforgivable. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992
Khamisa, Aziz with Carl Goldman. Azim's Bardo: A Father's Journey from Murder to Forgiveness. Los Altos, CA: Rising Star Press, 1999.
Kinzer Stephen. A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2008.
Ilibagiza, Immaculée. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. New York: Hay House, 2006.
Philpott, Daniel (ed). The politics of past evil: Religion, Reconciliation, and the Dilemmas of Transitional Justice. Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2006.
Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness, 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1999.
http://www.politickernj.com/51413/gandhi-weak-can-never-forgive-forgiveness-attribute-strong-assembly-deputy-speaker-chivukulas- (accessed May 5, 2013)
[1] Beverly, Flanigan. Forgiving the Unforgivable (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992), p. 236-246.
[2] Stephen Kinzer. A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It (NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2008), p. 269.
[3] Beverly, Flanigan. Forgiving the Unforgivable, p. 161-169.
[4] Beverly, Flanigan. Forgiving the Unforgivable, p. 11
[5] Jim, Elliot. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/type/type_clergyman.htm
[6] Beverly, Flanigan. Forgiving the Unforgivable, p. 169
[7] Azim, Khamisa with Carl Goldman. Azim's Bardo: A father's Journey from murder to forgiveness. Los Altos, CA: Rising Star Press, 1999, 192.
[8] Immaculée, Ilibagiza. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (New York: Hay House), 2006), p. 204
[9] Daniel, Philpott (ed). The politics of past evil: Religion, Reconciliation, and the Dilemmas of Transitional Justice (Indiana: University of Notre Dame, 2006), p. 106
[10] Ibid. p. 106
[11] Ibid, p. 110
[12] Desmond, Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness, 1st ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1999), 255.
[13] http://www.politickernj.com/51413/gandhi-weak-can-never-forgive-forgiveness-attribute-strong-assembly-deputy-speaker-chivukulas- (accessed May 05, 2013)
[14] Beverly, Flanigan. Forgiving the Unforgivable, p. 257
