Donald M. Payne Congressional Forum Address

Last night our team attended the SAWIP - Donald M. Payne Congressional Forum. It was an honour to be able to speak at this event, and I would like to share my speech with you here.

Esteemed Members of the Congress of the United States
Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Board Members of the Washington Ireland Programme, New Story Leadership and the
South Africa-Washington Internship Programme,
Programme Directors and Managers
Distinguished guests, friends, & Fellow South Africans,

Good Evening.

1. My name is Carel Grove Kleynhans. I am a student of economics at Stellenbosch University, a member of the South Africa - Washington International Program Class of 2012, an Afrikaner, a South African and I am honoured to be here tonight.

2. Being white I come from a privileged South African background, although, until 3 months ago I naively prided myself on being culturally exposed with regards to the diversity of my country.

3. On the 26th of March, the day before my 23rd birthday, I heard that I had been selected for the SAWIP 2012 team.

4. In the 3 short months that followed, however, my pseudo liberal views would be challenged more times than they had been in the 23 years prior.

5. My SAWIP experience has reminded me of the importance of being receptive to ideas that might, on their face value, be in conflict with your own.

6. I stand here with a new appreciation for how important critical, yet mutually respectful dialogue is in achieving the real change we so eagerly speak about.

7. That said, I would like to share one an idea with you tonight, and briefly touch on how I see my generation and a program like SAWIP relating to this notion.

8. From the outset I will admit that my knowledge of the subject matter is limited, and my remarks are to be seen as the observations of a youth with little experience.

9. I invite you, however, to seek the value in them precisely because of my inexperience.

11. The past century has emphasized the extent to which technological advances affect human ability to control- and adapt to their environments.

12. In almost all arenas the 20th Century brought unprecedented technological progress - all of which has significantly impacted our society.

13. From observation it seems, however, that technology of governance, the techniques, systems and institutions that we apply to govern our societies, has not undergone comparable change during this period.

14. All around the world we see structures of governance struggling to cope with the realities of the 21st Century. President Obama has said that “we cannot meet 21st Century challenges with 20th Century bureaucracy”.

15. I suspect, however, that we need to be open to the possibility that the challenges facing governments lie deeper than the bureaucratic level.

16. Technological advances are changing our social, economic, natural and even political environments faster than our current systems of governance can adapt.

17. One example of this is our inability to adopt an international strategy for addressing climate change - a dynamic problem with strong ties to technological- and economic development.

18. I would like to think that, by now, most of us acknowledge this problem as real and pressing. However, progress on the policy front does not seem to reflect the seriousness of the matter.

19. Some other popular examples include the recent financial crisis, the Arab Spring, the European sovereign debt crisis, crony capitalism, gerrymandering and crisis in the healthcare industry - to only name a few.

20. At their core, none of these examples are new phenomena. What they all have in common, however, is that technology amplifies their impact on society.


21. The challenge in improving on technology of governance stems from the fact that the incentives for innovation are not set up right.

22. In the private sector firms have a direct profit incentive to innovate.

23. Governments, on the other hand, face a political incentive to maintain the institutional status quo. Additionally, we have emotional attachments to systems of governance for which many men have fought and died for.

24. In speaking to the British House of Commons in 1947, Winston Churchill noted:

“Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

25. I want to challenge you to ask yourself the following: do you, in your thinking, allow for the possibility that Churchill was right? Is it possible that we have yet to discover a better system of governance than democracy - or our current configuration of it?

26. And, if not, are we then not thinking like the unfortunate commissioner of the US patent office, Charles H. Duell, who allegedly said in 1899 that "everything that can be invented, has been invented."

27. Accepting that we perhaps need to fundamentally rethink the institutions that we use to govern our societies is an uncomfortable process.

28. It requires us to momentarily distance ourselves from notions that are dear to us and find a place where we can experiment with new ideas.

29. The difficult reality is that progress is impossible without openness to the possibility that a rethink is needed.

30. This may all sound quite abstract, but I mention it to illustrate an important point:

31. The challenges that my generation face are becoming increasingly abstract.

32.Poverty is as real today as it was 30 years ago - but it is becoming all the more obvious that solving the poverty issue is not independent of addressing environmental change, social injustice or outdated institutions.

33. I see SAWIP playing two very important roles in this regard:

34. Firstly, SAWIP brings people from diverse backgrounds together in an environment that encourages critical discussion about these abstract issues. I have personally seen SAWIP alumni conceptualize and execute paradigm-shifting ideas that I believe would not have come about if it were not for their interaction with each other.

35. Secondly, speaking to all our guests here tonight, SAWIP introduces us to you.

36. While our generation might be more equipped to change things than previous generations, there is no substitute for experience and some good old fashioned guidance.

37. We live in a time of constant change, abstract problems and many conflicting messages. This implies that simply can not work form the presumption that what has worked today will work tomorrow.

38. I truly believe that we are currently experiencing a unique window of opportunity to reinvent our future - but that it will require us asking ourselves some of those uncomfortable questions.

39. I certainly don’t have the answers to questions, yet, but I do believe that it would be irresponsible for leaders, both young and old, not to look for them.

Thank you.