Nothing wrong with Mandela, it's the US that's out of touch
Date: September 21 2002
COMMENT By Gary Younge in London
Say what you like about Nelson Mandela, he is not a man known to bear a
grudge or lose his temper easily. Having waited 27 years for his
freedom, he emerged from jail to preach peace and reconciliation to a
nation scarred by racism.
When he made the transition from the world's most famous prisoner to
the world's most respected statesman, he invited his former jailer to
the inauguration.
So when he criticises United States foreign policy in terms every bit
as harsh as those he used to condemn apartheid, you know something is
up. In the past few weeks, he has issued a "strong condemnation" of the
US's attitude towards Iraq and accused it of being "a threat to world
peace".
Coming from other quarters, such criticisms would have been dismissed
by both the White House and Downing Street as words of appeasement,
anti-Americanism or left-wing extremism. But Mandela is not just
anyone. Towering like a moral colossus over the late 20th century, his
voice carries an ethical weight like no other.
So the belligerent tone he has adopted of late suggests one of two
things; either something is very wrong with the world, or something is
very wrong with Mandela.
What Mandela believes is wrong with the world is not difficult to
fathom. He is annoyed at how the US is exploiting its overwhelming
military might.
"What right has Bush to say that Iraq's offer is not genuine?" he asked
on Monday. "We must condemn that very strongly. No country, however
strong, is entitled to comment adversely in the way the US has done.
They think they're the only power in the world. They're not and they're
following a dangerous policy. One country wants to bully the world."
Having supported the bombing of Afghanistan, he cannot be dismissed as
a peacenik. But his assessment of the current phase of Bush's war on
terror is as damning as anything coming out of the Arab world. "If you
look at these matters, you will come to the conclusion that
the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world
peace."
Behind the scenes, the White House is attempting to portray Mandela,
now 84, as something of a dinosaur - the former leader of an African
country, embittered by the impotence that comes with retirement and old
age. It is a charge they have found difficult to make stick.
If something is wrong with Mandela it is chiefly that for the past
decade he has been thoroughly and wilfully misunderstood. He has been
portrayed as a kindly old gent who only wanted black and white people
to get on, rather than a determined political activist who wished to
redress the power imbalance between the races under democratic rule.
This, more than anything, provides the US and Britain with their
biggest problem. They point to pictures of him embracing Libya's
Colonel Gaddafi or transcripts of his support for Cuban leader Fidel
Castro as evidence that his judgement has become flawed over the years.
But what they regard as his weakness is in fact his strength. He may
have forgiven, but he has not forgotten.
The trouble is not that, when it comes to his public pronouncements,
Mandela is acting out of character. But that, when it comes to global
opinion, the US and Britain are increasingly out of touch.
The Guardian
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