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THERE is a lot happening in the world at the moment, in politics, from Zimbabwe to Ukraine. I hope to be talking to some American, an important American, someday to discuss these crucial matters of the day. Americans know it all, and are our global policemen, aren’t they? Give me President Barack Obama, say.
Maybe the first question I will ask him will be what he was doing in Saudi Arabia, along with a whole clan of Americans, a couple of weeks back.
True, some character by the name King Abdullah had died.
He was, by the way, the dictatorial/monarchical ruler of that country and has since been replaced by his brother.
What one may be surprised at is not that Obama attended the funeral of the monarch, which he did along with other western leaders, but because one may have thought that Saudi Arabia is such a godforsaken place because of the gross human rights violations that took place under, and before, Abdullah.
Here is a place where the regime since 2011, according to one account, was so harsh that it did not allow criticism and thus cracked down on the freedom of expression through intimidation, arrests, prosecutions, and lengthy prison sentences.
The Guardian tells us, that Raif Badawi, a blogger, was sentenced to 1 000 lashes, to be meted out 50 at a time, was punished simply for running a liberal website dedicated to freedom of speech.
The Saudi authorities routinely carry out beheadings of opponents.
According to The Guardian, “Over 80 people were executed in 2014, mostly by beheading, a practice that has triggered global revulsion when used in recent months by Islamic State extremists.”
The Human Rights Watch, that global watchdog, tells us that Saudi Arabia has a “dark human rights record”.
It notes that “Saudi Arabia has pressed on with arrests, trials, and convictions of peaceful dissidents, and forcibly dispersed peaceful demonstrations by citizens. Authorities continued to violate the rights of Saudi women and girls and foreign workers. Courts convicted human rights defenders and others for peaceful expression or assembly demanding political and human rights reforms.”
Women are treated as species of children, here, and are not even allowed to drive a car!
The HRW says to date “key underlying issues entrenching discrimination against women, such as the male guardianship system, under which ministerial policies and practices forbid women from obtaining a passport, marrying, travelling, or accessing higher education without the approval of a male guardian, usually a husband, father, brother, or son”, remain intact.
“Despite Abdullah’s rhetorical support in 2005 for the idea of women driving, at his death they remain forbidden from getting behind the wheel, and authorities arrested women who dared challenge the driving ban.”
That’s not all.
Says HRW: “Under Abdullah’s watch, authorities rounded up scores of peaceful dissidents and human rights activists who dared to criticise the government, subjecting them to unfair trials before Saudi Arabia’s terrorism court on vague charges such as “sowing discord” and “breaking allegiance with the ruler.” Some have received unthinkably harsh punishments, including the human rights lawyer Waleed Abu al-Khair, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for peacefully criticising the government’s human rights record in newspaper interviews and on Twitter. Another is Fadhil al-Manasif, who is serving a 14-year sentence largely for helping journalists cover 2011 protests by Saudi Shia citizens. Others, including reformists Mohammed al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamid, are serving 10 and 11-year sentences on similar charges.”
The US State Department, for its part, stated two years ago that Saudi human rights violations included “citizens’ lack of the right and legal means to change their government; pervasive restrictions on universal rights such as freedom of expression, including on the Internet, and freedom of assembly, association, movement, and religion; and a lack of equal rights for women, children, and non-citizen workers.”
Now, the man who was presiding over these gross human rights abuses, is the same man on whom Obama paid “last respects to”, as we usually say in such situations.
You would expect Obama and other western leaders to spit on the grave of the despot.
They did not.
Perhaps human rights do not matter, after all?
But we are not talking about Saudi Arabia.
We are talking about Zimbabwe where lives a man called Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe would be a saint, he that is often portrayed as a dictator in the West, were he to be compared to Abdullah or what’s-his-name brother that has succeeded him.
Let’s not waste time even comparing the Mugabe saint and Abdullah devil.
It does not matter.
It is curious, though, that Mugabe is being punished by America through sanctions.
One day, March 6, 2003, a solemn undertaking was made thus:
“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, have determined that the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions, contributing to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.”
The deed was done.
Barack Obama has vowed, renewed the vow, this declaration.
Go to the crimes of King Abdullah recounted above again.
Now read the charge sheet against Robert Mugabe.
Reflect on the virtues of “democratic processes or institutions” and “rule of law” and the sins of “politically motivated violence and intimidation”.
Surely, we have sinners and saints in this world!
The European Union has been trying to wash away Mugabe’s sins so that they can be as white as lamb’s wool, or in local parlance, “balls of frost”.
They are removing sanctions against Mugabe and his country, have been doing so gradually for some time now.
The US gives the impression that it will never climb down on its position.
Once a sinner, always a sinner.
That is, even, once a sinning saint, always a sinning saint.
Or, conversely, once a sinner always a sinner, even a saint though you might be.
It will be remiss to the whole concept of sin and sainthood.
It only depends on perception.
More accurately, there is something called realpolitik.
We are told that “realpolitik” is “politics based on practical objectives rather than on ideals . . . hence a politics of adaptation to things as they are.”
“Realpolitik thus suggests a pragmatic, no-nonsense view and a disregard for ethical considerations.
“In diplomacy it is often associated with relentless, though realistic, pursuit of the national interest.”
That is one definition.
America knows pretty much about realpolitik.
Or, let’s just say, oil.
Online Reporter