IT'S RUSSIA, NOT AFRICA, BLOODY STUPID: THE UKRAINIAN FASCIST PUTSCH, WESTERN DIPLOMATIC HYPOCRISY AND SOUTH AFRICA'S EFFEMINATE CRIMEA POLICY
INTRODUCTION
In one of its promotional audio clips, which has become a kind of its signature debate emblem, Power FM, the new Johannesburg, northern suburb-based radio station presumably catering predominantly to the so-called black middle class of the Gauteng province of South Africa, former president Thabo Mbeki can be heard, in his typical deep monotone voice, intoning:
"It would be good if, in the future, you heard people say, if you want to know the truth about what is happening in the world, switch onto Power FM."
Or something to that effect.
In search of the truth about the volatile situation in Crimea, and the tensions over it between Russia and Ukraine, as well as between Russia and the West over Ukraine itself , I have been switching onto Power FM the last few weeks, taking a cue from Mbeki's advice.
After all, I paid a warm tribute to Thabo Mbeki's diplomatic panache in my Politicsweb article entitled "The master diplomacy of Thabo Mbeki", which appeared on 18 April 2012. So, I normally take Mbeki's glibs and recommendations quite seriously.
His Power FM one is no exception.
But, instead of enlightenment on the Crimean crisis of February-March 2014, I have been hugely disappointed, if not outrightly misinformed, I believe, by Power FM.
Since the outbreak of the Crimean crisis, Power FM's highly experienced radio journalist and host, Tim Modise, has made a regrettable habit of inviting Yarik Turiasnkyi of the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), who has made it his business to spew out endless and unrefined Russophobe propaganda and mindless rants every time he is invited by the radio station to comment on the Crimean crisis, to his Power FM Breakfast Show.
Yarik's general line is that the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow for the kind of referendum recently held in Crimea, which Russia supported and encouraged, and that Poland and the Baltic states are frightened by Russia's activities in Crimea. He has proven incapable of directing a single critical remark towards the post-Fascist putsch authorities in Kiev.
His open Russophobe bias did not prevent Power FM from interviewing him several times since the outbreak of the Crimean crisis. Power FM's granting of an opportunity to Yarik to over-indulge and revel in his unbridled anti-Russian intellectual fantasies is mind-boggling. So blatant has Yarik become in his anti-Russian sentiments that when, after his latest interview on Power FM, Tim Modise read the tweets sent by Power FM listeners, several Power FM tweeps correctly and bitterly complained about Yarik's open anti-Russian bias.
The pertinent question of course is why, if Yarik Tuarianskyi feels so defensive and precious about the Ukrainian Constitution, he is unable to bring himself to condemn the thuggish Fascist criminal putsch carried out by Svaboda- and Right Sector-supported Euro Maidan protestors, which violated the same Ukrainian Constitution, Ukrainian legality and even the agreement entered into between the deposed Ukrainian government, the three mediating Foreign Ministers of the EU and leaders of the Euro Maidan protestors like the boxer VitalyKlitchko? Is this really such an unimportant and inconvenient small detail to be easily overlooked and brushed aside by Yarik?
Seemingly not satiated by Yarik Turianskyi's one-sided and one-dimensional interpretation of developments around the Crimean crisis on Tim Modise's Power Breakfast Show, Power FM's Thabiso "TT" Thema invited him again on his Power FM Afternoon Drive Show on 24 march 2014. And again Yurik did not waste time to reveal his Russophobe instincts and mindset.
At this stage, what came to my mind is: Why is the Power FM radio station not even deigning to be impartial and objective by giving a pro-Moscow voice the same radio platform to counter Yarik Turianskyi's shrill anti-Russian propaganda, whilst allowing his Russophobe feelings to run amok? Isn't it that the Russian Federation maintains a big Embassy in Pretoria, which Power FM can invite in for a chat on the Crimea crisis? In addition, we have many Russian businesspeople and scholars who are plying their trade in South Africa, who regularly visit our country? Could the radio station not find one who could challenge Yarik Turianskyi's pro-NATO, pro-USA, pro-western Ukraine, pro-Baltics and pro-EU blather on the Crimean/Ukrainian crisis? I believe, with a little effort, this could have been easily done by Given Mkhari's Power FM.
Invited also by Power FM's Tim Modise on 14 March 2014 on his Power Breakfast Show was another analyst, this time former South African ambassador to Turkey, Tom Wheeler, who was hardly a major improvement on Yarik Turianskyi, and who proceeded to more or less regurgitate the same misleading line of reasoning on the Crimean crisis as Yarik Turianskyi, his fellow researcher at SAIIA.
Given that the ANC, South Africa's ruling party, has so many of its cadres, including leading lights in our society like former president Thabo Mbeki, former Minister Ronnie Kasrils and our ambassador to China, Bheki Langa, who spent a good time of their lives acquiring their academic, revolutionary and anti-apartheid skills in Moscow and other Soviet cities during the struggle against apartheid, why couldn't Power FM invite any of them in for a chat also?
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