WE make no bones about our opposition to Professor Jonathan Jansen's unilateral reconciliatory gesture. It is not because we are blessed with Solomonic wisdom to offer final answers to all of society's difficult questions.

WE make no bones about our opposition to Professor Jonathan Jansen's unilateral reconciliatory gesture. It is not because we are blessed with Solomonic wisdom to offer final answers to all of society's difficult questions.

We simply think differently to him on this question. That is why we will defend Jansen's right to hold his view, even when we disagree with him.

Jansen has an undoubted track record as a scholar and thought leader. To call on him to resign because we are in disagreement with him is to be fascist in the extreme.

It is anti-intellectual and anti-scholarship. Both are shameful traits to display publicly.

History could still prove that Jansen was right and we, his opponents, were wrong.

The attack on Jansen says more about the growing poverty of thought in public discourse. The mighty and the loud suddenly and foolishly believe they have all the answers.

We would rather have a Jansen who has the courage of his convictions and acts in accordance with these, than the spineless men and women who, for the sake of patronage, are willing to suspend their consciences and bite their tongues.

The University of Free State is blessed to have a man of his calibre at its helm. What could be better for a university than to have a person who makes society think and reflect on the issues that we take for granted.

As a nation we should mature to a point where even when we question each other's wisdom we do not jump toconclusions about the integrity of our opponents.