ANTI-WEST ELITE DON'T CARE FOR THE POOR
The rule in South African foreign policy has been that the ANC government never met a dictator it didn't like. Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has long been feted by ANC politicians, many of whom he has bankrolled handsomely.
In 1997, he received South Africa's highest honour, the Order of Good Hope. In 2003, South Africa proposed Libya to chair the UN Human Rights Commission. Gaddafi also served recently as Chairman of the African Union. It was all absolutely grotesque since he has always been a brutal dictator.
There should be no surprise at the naked violence he unleashed on protestors calling for freedom and democracy. Or his threats like "We are coming tonight. We will find you in your closets. We will have no mercy and no pity."
It was a real about-turn for South Africa to support the UN resolution for a "no fly" zone in Libya. But old habits returned, and President Jacob Zuma balks at the logical end-point which is Gaddafi's ousting. His government sold arms to Libya but now castigates any arms or other direct assistance to the rebels.
What happened to the ANC that denounced those who refused to choose between the apartheid government and its opponents?
That old bogey of "imperialism" is still trotted out to defend Gaddafi. According to the ANC Youth League's Julius Malema: "South Africa voted in favour of imperialists and we cannot smile about that. The ANC of Nelson Mandela would never have voted for the killing of fellow Africans imposed by our former masters."
Gaddafi's killing of fellow Africans, not just in Libya but in wars in seven African countries, does not seem to bother him at all.
Malema calls for leaders like Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe "who can stand against the West". So everything is forgiven so long as you are against a skew-eyed notion of imperialism.
Never mind that Gaddafi descends from settlers from Arabia who conquered north Africa and discriminate against the indigenous Copts, Berbers, Nuer and Dinka. Or that Fidel Castro's cabinet was virtually all white in a majority black country, and he was an armed proxy for Soviet imperialism.
All manner of tyrants are supported in the name of Third World solidarity. In Mugabe's case, this has huge domestic implications as Zimbabweans flood here to escape repression.
Even more serious is the implied rejection of the values and principles of our Constitution. No true democrat can support Gaddafi, Castro, Mugabe and Hugo Chavez.
The Malemas of this world evade responsibility by subscribing to an archaic anti-imperialist victimology. It's all the fault of Western colonialists, you see. This mentality is the road to ruin as the real solution to poverty is the free market, not expropriations or disengagement from the capitalist world.
This is why many former colonies have succeeded, and some countries with long independence have failed. It's why Ethiopia is a disaster and Hong Kong is an economic miracle.
We should not be fooled. The "anti-colonial" elite don't really care about the poor. They only use "pro-poor" ideologies to bolster their own wealth and power. For all their anti-West ravings, they crave expensive Western luxuries.
Unlike undemocratic countries, there is no need for violent uprising here. Just boot them out in the 18th May local government elections.
Jack Bloom is DA caucus leader in the Gauteng legislature. This article first appeared in The Citizen.
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
