Ethical politics in a post-moral world

Across continents, this year’s Women’s History Month has been politically momentous for women and men alike. From the party of Pakistan’s slain and only female prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, Sherry Rehman became the first woman to take office of the leader of the opposition in the Senate.

In the same way, from the impoverished deserts of Tharparkar, PPP’s Krishna Kumari Kohli, a Dalit girl, previously a bonded labourer, has made it to the upper house of parliament. In China, the National People’s Congress voted to eliminate presidential term limits allowing Xi Jinping to rule ad infinitum. With no effective contender in the March 18th election, Vladimir Putin with a landmark 77% of votes has held on to the Kremlin. Authority is riveting. Hundreds of thousands of lives fall short of gratifying Bashar al Assad’s appetite to hold on to the presidency.

But in a world of desperate strongmen, power embraces Angela Merkel as effortlessly as complimentary monikers of ‘Mutti’. Germany’s youngest and first female chancellor has the intimate flair for survival in the vile, male-dominated orb of politics without contaminating her hands. Defying political obituaries, she is at the tiller of Europe’s biggest economy, uninterruptedly for the fourth time.

In the battle lines that were marked for September 24th 2017 elections for the 19th Bundestag, the old school Angela Merkel stayed around as the ‘cool’ option, also for the majority of young people. Her Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister-party, the Christian Social Union with 32% yield at the polls ostensibly prevailed but with all-time low figures for themselves and their earlier allies, the Social Democratic Union.

Befuddling was the meteoric elevation of the far-right Euro-skeptic, neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany to the federal parliament for the first time since the WWII with 13% of the vote. Altogether held responsible for undoing the taboo of insular politics in the country, the results read aloud loss for Merkel in victory. Months later, the SPD became the knight in the chancellor’s shining armour, ending the longest power interval in the country’s history. On March 14^th, when Merkel took oath for office, she had ceded the vital finance and foreign ministries to the SPD.

Indubitably, Chancellor Merkel has been a connoisseur of coalition politics. She appears to have espoused a more cautious and consensual attitude to decision-making. So much that one can barely set apart the centre-right CDU from the centre-left SPD.

Notwithstanding criticism, also from the farthest elements of both parties, the middle ground has worked well for them and the stability of the country. A glaring example of this is Germany’s outstanding economic health which is glossed with blueprints from Merkel’s predecessor, the SPD’s Gerhard Schroder. Her wisdom to rise above political tribalism to go on with his agenda merits recognition.

In less than a generation, Germany has emerged as a global economic giant, having effectively surmounted the financial crisis of 2007-8. With trifling unemployment figures, Germany is perhaps the only country in the developed world to run on budget surplus. All this, while the flag-bearer of austerity has paused from conservative economics to adopt SPD’s treasured policies such as introducing Germany’s first national wage, lowering the retirement age to 63 and increased social spending. While it cultivates happiness and sustains concord, cashing in on her rivals’ policies is also an instrument for the CDU’s longevity in power.

A progressive, multi-cultural society amid the world-wide proliferation of ferocious, flag-waving politics of identity would be Chancellor Merkel’s lasting realisation. For a country once led by the likes of Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Hitler to abolish conscription, identify itself with the EU and lay shared democratic norms and not Nato security umbrella as the bedrock of transatlantic relationship, is quite an accomplishment. During the migrant crisis of 2015, Merkel showed mirror to the conscience of reluctant global power brokers that said ‘Never Again’ after the Holocaust when she took the daring decision to admit 1.5 million, mainly Muslim refugees in Germany.

Lionised internationally as the ‘Leader of the Free World’ for the righteous stance and offered to run for the position of the secretary general of the UN, she has also been dubbed the ‘Mutti of all errors’ for miscalculating the scope of the problem and stimulating populism in the continent by thrusting migrant numbers on not so well-off, mostly homogeneous countries in the EU with no obligations to settle 20^th-century wrongs.

Merkel has invoked the European ideals of human dignity, liberty and democracy and pressed on doing more to deal with the causes of migration. To her exoneration, Germany for the most part stayed safe from the chain of terrorist attacks on Europe and if assimilated properly, these stateless people will in the long run help ameliorate the country’s demographic woes — a moral win in conjunction with the well-being of fatherland. Though it has brought AfD to the fore, it looks more of an aberration in the otherwise still German politics which can be reversed if the chancellor finds a way to win over AfD supporters. Given admiration for her in the opposing political camps of the SPD, FDP and Greens, it appears that she is quite capable of it.

In times of a resurgent wave of feminism following Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency and the unfolding of sexual abuse in Hollywood, Germany emanates rays of hopefulness. Without flashing trinkets, Merkel has redefined what it means to be a woman in a largely conformist society. Besides appearing atop the Forbes honour roll of the world’s most powerful women for seven consecutive years, her administration’s parent benefit policies have led to increased participation of women in the workforce and legislation to increase the number of women in decision-making positions has resulted in larger share of female executives and board members in big businesses than the European average. An oddity when she took office for the first time in 2005, with three biggest political parties headed by women, an age band wonders if a man can become the chancellor of Germany.

What distinguishes Angela Merkel from a herd of political leaders is her incorruptibility in the position of authority. She resides in her own apartment in the Mitte district of Berlin rather than the chancellery and is often seen shopping for grocery at a local store. Her husband flies on budget airlines instead of accompanying her on government jets. More than a decade later, Chancellor Merkel’s biggest scandal is the repetition of outfit at the opening of Bayreuth Wagner Opera.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2018.

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