The people of England had had enough of King John, an unpopular leader who kept them in bondage and taxed them heavily – and so a sizeable number of barons rebelled against him. Civil war was looming over the land.
The church, under the morally courageous Archbishop of Canterbury organised a meeting at Runnymede between the King and the rebels. The King was forced to agree to the terms of the Charter of Liberties, subsequently known as the Magna Carta, which would curb his excesses and bring liberties and the protection of the law to the people.
And so on June 15 in the year 1215, the Archbishop and the rebel nobles deprived King John of his absolute power. Four days later, the rebels made their peace with him and renewed their oaths of allegiance.
In a higher sense, the Archbishop did exactly what Robin Hood was doing – he took from the King and he gave to the people. As the leader of the church, he felt morally compelled to step in and break the dictatorship of the King by bringing the country under the rule of law. To this day, Runnymede is associated with ideals of democracy, limitation of power, equality and freedom under law.
Article 36 of the Magna Carta is most pertinent for us in Zimbabwe today: “No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [property taken] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised, neither will we attack him or send anyone to attack him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
Lord Denning, arguably the most influential English judge of the 20th Century, described the Magna Carta as “the greatest Constitutional document of all time – the foundation of the freedom of the individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot.”
The Magna Carta, carrying with it the idea of “the rule of law” as opposed to the despotic concept of “rule by law,” became a foundation of English law. Eventually, the Magna Carta would become the source of important legal concepts found in the American Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights (1791), and human rights charters all over the world today.
What was the magic in the Magna Carta that brought so much good? It paved the way first for the agricultural revolution, and then eventually the financial, transport and industrial revolutions to take place – with Britain leading the way. It brought wealth and well-being right throughout society.
At its core, the Magna Carta was a Christian document that sought to protect people and to protect people’s property. As Zimbabweans, we know from experience what happens when people and their property are not protected – and ruling party chefs can take what they like at will: the people become hungry and poor.
All over the country this continues to happen. Nobody is safe. Everyone lives in a state of insecurity. Property is taken at the stroke of a pen or the whim of a chef. As Christians, we need to pray for a leader to be raised up with the moral courage to confront the “King” and lay a proper foundation for the future – where people and their property will be protected. Unfortunately, our current Constitution leaves people without the protection of property rights and at the mercy of the President. Until that situation is understood and changed, the investment climate for local and foreign business people will remain far too risky and people will remain mired in poverty. – Contact the author at: freeth@bsatt.com
Zim in bottom 5
According to the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, Zimbabwe is the most repressed economy in sub-Saharan Africa and in the bottom five worldwide due to government intervention, policy inconsistency and corruption. This survey, put together by the conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, ranked Zimbabwe at 175 out of the 178 countries in the survey ahead of Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis