PRAYING ABOUT PEACE FOR THE BELOVED COUNTRY

For four days this week, the people of South Africa voted. Many waited overnight in line and most waited several hours, undaunted by violence and threats of violence. By early estimates, 90 percent of the electorate cast ballots.

It was an historic event -- a non-racial election -- that a decade ago seemed as unlikely as the collapse of communism. Freedom was on the lips of many who went to the polls for the first time in their lives; as was Hope, that a new South Africa will bring equality, prosperity and dignity to all.

The vote was not the end of the journey to democracy there. Democracy is a difficult path, and this week's election marks just the beginning. As South Africa forms a new government in the next weeks, to be led by Nelson Mandela but to also include his past enemies, Americans should pray for the new South African leader. We should ask that God give him strength and wisdom to draw his country together and be president of all South Africans...that his fellow leaders be given the courage to stop the bloodshed and to privilege harmony over power...and that to all is offered understanding that the glory of democracy is the potential of the future, not the sins of the past.

With its shameful history of apartheid and official racism, tribal conflict, hate, distrust and violence, the success of democracy in South Africa is by no means guaranteed -- no matter the euphoria understandably prevalent there today. South Africa is the last of black Africa to throw off the yoke of white minority government and enter into majority rule. Three decades of failed independence in the Africa around it should offer South Africa several warnings.

First, stability can be bought only if opponents are given a role in government. The difficulty is doing this without establishing a ruling elite that privileges itself over the electorate. Already, some promising signs have emerged, foremost: the participation of all parties in the elections themselves. A new constitution that offers representation to those groups that draw over 5 percent of the vote is also a positive indication.

Second, prosperity does not come automatically with desire or democracy. Those black African governments who have intervened heavily in the economic markets they inherited have stifled growth, not enhanced it. The influence of Communist ideology within Mr. Mandela's African National Congress does not bode well for the country if it becomes the guiding principle for economic policy. Thankfully, the A.N.C.'s economic brain trust is packed with market-inclined economists and businessmen. Also, without the Soviet Union around, communism loses its luster as an international credit card for Eastern Block financial assistance. The United States has an interest in assisting the new government, but in our own financial difficulties South Africa should be aware that our aid will be more of friendship and guidance than money.

Third, violence is never the solution. This lesson should already be clear to South Africans: 20,000 people (mostly black) killed in political violence in 10 years, 20,000 (mostly black) murdered just last year alone. The carnage in not-so-distant Rwanda, where that many people were killed in a week, should serve as stark warning about the potential horror of ethnic and tribal fighting. Voting came to South Africa not because of killing, but because Nelson Mandela and current South African President F.W. de Klerk eschewed violence and made a pledge together for democracy and peace.

South Africa is a rich country that has several advantages over its neighbors, not least being it has their failures to learn from. F.W. de Klerk, too, has been a positive force in South Africa's change. One of the few politicians anywhere to have deliberately put himself out of power while carrying most of his supporters with him, he stands as a hero of this decade. His skills and contributions should not be taken for granted.

Of course, the other hero is Mr. Mandela. He has helped lift his country back into the civilized world, displaying firm principle and generous spirit along the way. He is now on the edge of a new South Africa, and his task is daunting. We should pray for him and his Beloved Country.