Opinion: South Africa Rejects Dalai Lama, Rewards Castro

South Africa, once seen as a shining beacon of national reconciliation, has reached its lowest point since the end of apartheid 15 years ago.

While rejecting an invitation sent by three Nobel Peace Prize laureates — including Nelson Mandela — to the Dalai Lama, a man who has struggled to bring a measure of freedom to his Tibetan people since Communist China completed its occupation in 1959, this country’s African National Congress (ANC) government has granted its highest honour to an accused mass murderer, Fidel Castro. The contrast is made more striking as the National Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Gold was granted to Castro last Friday, the same day as the Dalai Lama was to have participated in a peace conference organised by the 2010 Soccer organising committee. According to the Cuba Archive, a US-based civil society initiative aimed at documenting Castro’s victims, 8,058 people murdered by the regime have been recorded, but this figure does not include most of the deaths at sea of people fleeing Cuba, nor those of Cuban soldiers killed fighting in Castro’s military adventures in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Our government, nonetheless, while turning a blind eye to these figures and the suffering of the Cuban people, has awarded this great honour to Castro: ”For his contribution to the eradication of racism, colonialism, apartheid and inequality in human society.” It is interesting to note that Castro’s contribution to ”freedom” and ”democracy” are missing from the official citation. Perhaps because the government knows he is dead set against them? The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent opposition to Chinese rule. He has also been involved in talks with the Chinese government since 2002 aimed at getting real autonomy for Tibet, all within the Chinese constitution. Fidel Castro took power in a bloody revolution, massacred political opponents, sent soldiers to fight simple peasants in the Third World for no reason recognised by international law. On the one hand, a man of violence and war. On the other, a man of peace. And which one does the South African government, the government and party of the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the party of Chief Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela, choose? The man of blood! There are shades of Biblical tragedy here. On the one hand, Barabbas, a rabble-rouser and a convicted murderer, on the other, Jesus of Nazareth, a peaceful religious leader and the incensed crowd shouting: ”Release him” for the murderer, and: ”Crucify him” for the holy man. And Pontius Pilate, originating a widespread saying: ”Washed his hands” of the matter. Have we in South Africa sunk so low? Is South Africa now just another hard-nosed practitioner of realpolitik, while giving hypocritical lip service to human rights, democracy and all that good stuff? Is this in line with our leadership’s support of the Robert Mugabe dictatorship in Zimbabwe, our blocking of UN resolutions or even sanctions against Burma/Myanmar, Iran, Belarus and Uzbekistan and our silence on genocide in Sudan? What shall we do then? Stand up and fight for the right of a small people to exist, to have not even independence, but mere autonomy? We read daily of Tibetans tortured, beaten and forced to flee. But South Africa is China’s main trading partner in Africa and one of the largest recipients of Chinese investment on this continent. And the party and government that so recently stood for a „Rainbow Nation” and real freedom, prefers the glint of gold. Or is it silver? Yes, I think it is silver. Thirty pieces of it.