Monday, May 7, 2012

Leave Omar al Bashir Alone

Against the cold tide of normalcy in Malawi, warm drops of water fall from the Horn of Africa.
The warm drops come with news. The news that Sudanese president, Omar al Bashir, is coming to the Warm Heart of Africa to attend an African Union meeting.
Somewhere very far away, in a country tucked between Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania, Joyce Banda, the woman who must ride her luck for ascending to the highest office in the land- in the process becoming the first woman president in Malawi and Southern Africa- shakes in the knees.
Al Bashir is bad news. To Joyce Banda.
He will take all the donors away.
He will push all the development partners far away from the warm-hearted people of Malawi. He will suck all the forex dry.
That is Joyce Banda, a lady swimming in good will. That will has become a common currency. Celebrated by both locals and the international community.
But what Joyce Banda believes in is not the truth.
The truth is that al Bashir is not breaking any African Union law or statute or instrument by coming to Malawi.
He will come to Malawi to represent his people. The Sudanese people.
Sudanese people are African people.
Why is the West crying? Why heap their sorrows and disenfranchisement on Malawi?
Don't they cl;aim to be advanced?
Why can't they arrest al Bashir in the air. Intercepting his plane and arresting him.
That will leave Malawi free of blame.
But the West can't. They want a bait. They want an excuse.
A head of state worth their salt should be able to stand against such bullying behaviour and say- as former Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika used to say-: "Go to hell; I repeat, you donors can go to hell"!
But nobody went to hell. It's the forex that dried.
Does foreign exchange go to hell when it dries? No.
So, let al Bashir come here.
Let the African Union, and not Malawi, stop him if it wants.
After all, the International Criminal Court has no country, no economy, no national currency, no people, and no hope.
In addition, one of its backers- the United States of America- does not abide by its recommendations. In fact, no U.S. citizen will ever go to the Hague.
Why plague developing countries with the budden of arresting another country's head of state?
If the truth be told, the African people should be respected, and not taken for pawns.
Allowing al Bashir in Malawi is a statement. (A statement that) 'African people must be respected'!

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