Comrades
National Elections reflect the perceptions people hold and form decisions
when the cast their votes, according to the theory of issue voting, voters
compare the candidates' respective principles against their own in order to
decide for whom to vote. A voter does not need to have an in-depth
understanding of every issue and knowledge of how a candidate stands on
every issue, but rather a sense of which candidate they agree with the most.
Voters use many different tactics to rationalize their view on a particular
issue. Some people look at what has happened in the past and predict how
they think a particular issue will affect them in the future. A study found
that voters switch between issue voting and party voting depending on how
much information is available to them about a given candidate. A voter's
understanding of parties' principles is strengthened and developed over time
as a person gains experience with more political events. First, issues are
not always dichotomous; there are often many stances one could take. Voters
often must settle for the candidate whose stances are closest to their own,
example majority of people seek employment, quality free education, ANC in
the past 20 years failed to deliver on these basic service and needs but
voters casted their votes in favour of ANC but not PAC! Why because some
voters opinion are either sentimental and/or based on opinion formulated on
the basis of skewed information (we know ANC is not the only liberation
movement- so why should/ do people consider ANC as the only liberation
movement) or failure of PAC to expose itself to the public during 365 day
multiplied by 5 years deprived voters information about PAC as an
alternative Party. In order for an issue to create the foundation for party
choice, a voter must first be concerned about a particular issue and have
some knowledge about that issue which is linked to a party or particular
candidate of the Party. The media is and will always be biased, what plans
did the party formulate to in advance to promote and popularise its
positions and condemn acts deemed not to be in the public's interests!
In order for a person to be an issue voter, they must be able to recognize
that there is more than one opinion about a particular issue, have formed a
solid opinion about it and be able to relate that to a specific political
party. According to Campbell, only 40 to 60 percent of the informed
population even perceives party differences, and can thus partake in party
voting. This would suggest that it is common for individuals to develop
opinions of issues without the aid of a political party. Thus while some
voters cast their votes based on the understanding of a party's principles,
most tends to cast their votes based on perceptions and opinions based
either on issues or that which had the most impacted for a voter to create a
perception or opinion.
Mao argued that every difference in men's concepts should be regarded as
reflecting an objective contradiction. Objective contradictions are
reflected in subjective thinking, and this process constitutes the
contradictory movement of concepts, pushes forward the development of
thought, and ceaselessly solves problems in man's thinking. Opposition and
struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occur within the Party;
this is a reflection within the Party of contradictions between classes and
between the new and the old in society. If there were no contradictions in
the Party and no ideological struggles to resolve them, the Party's life
would come to an end.
We are at risk of being reduced to political commentators as the PAC is
thrown into obscurity, as it no longer exist in the consciousness of the
masses, as the PAC disintegrates daily! We are caught up in a cobweb of
conflicting practices, principles against patronage; objective reality and
sentimentalism. Drawing from past experiences, unhappy PAC members always
resorted to either not voting while others openly de-campaign PAC during
national elections as far back as 1994, 1999, 2004; but since 2009 and 2014
the majority members and branches opted not vote and not to campaign for
PAC, amidst efforts made to encourage PAC members to vote and campaign for
PAC. Failure, to be cognisant of the fact that PAC is an organisation whose
membership and leaders are deeply hurt, PAC is a wounded party which
requires a self-healing process. PAC members are highly disgruntled and the
2014 National and Provincial Elections serves as nothing but a clear
indicator. Our party is in a highly abnormal situation organisationally. The
golden fibre that kept the party in tact has been eroded, to rebuild and
re-organise the PAC implies re-crafting that golden fibre and this requires
sober, objectiveness and principles approach to problem solving.
Lenin said: The two basic (or two possible? or two historically
observable?) conceptions of development (evolution) are: development as
decrease and
