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August 29 One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighterLater today, a statue of former South African President Nelson Mandela will be unvelied in Parliament Square. He'll be joining the statues of other eminent statesmen - Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli and Abraham Lincoln. None of those three were present at the unveiling of their own statues, mainly because they were dead - but Mandela is to be honoured whilst he's still alive. A great honour, no-one can doubt.
So, in a few years, will we be unveiling a statue of Osama Bin Laden. OK, that's extremely unlikely - but how about Gerry Adams? After all, his efforts have helped limit problems in Northern Ireland.
You see, Mandela is a convicted terrorist. The ANC did follow a path of "Violent Political Resistance" - originally only targetting government resources, but ultimately they did bomb public places - targetting civilians. Things went so far they even formed a militant wing, and it was as president of "The Spear of the Nation" that Mandela was arrested for terrorism.
People will say that the apartheid regime was inherently evil, and needed action taking against it. Yes, it did. Although I wonder if these are the same people who are against the war in Iraq - which was also action against an inherently evil dictator.
Since his release from prison, his efforts and negotiations were of huge importance in ending apartheid - and for this he must be applauded. Howerever, it takes two to tango, and if it wasn't for the De Klerk government also wanting peace, this wouldn't have happened. Indeed, it should be noted that Mandela was offered release as early as 1985 if he renounced armed struggle - yet he refused to do this:
"What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts."
I'm far from "anti-Mandela" - I do respect his efforts towards to peace in RSA, and I do believe he did not want to use violence to achieve his aims. However, he did use violence - the old adage is true, and I think many people don't appreciate this. And certainly, to almost sanctify someone in this way is exteme. TrackbacksThe trackback URL for this entry is: http://mgr-asp.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F91E9636D57C4A55!949.trak Weblogs that reference this entry
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