Unity and division

Africa in union

Have we seen an end to the “dictator’s club”? Reviews were mixed this week on the replacement of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) with the new African Union (AU). In its first summit in Durban, South Africa, the AU set itself some tough goals, not least of which was a burying of the past.

The European Union, ever eager to export its model of supra-national governance, will be watching the AU with a close eye. After all, the fifty-three member AU is partly modelled on the EU. Big sister will no doubt be protective of its younger sibling.

The idea is that the AU will differ markedly from the OAU, whose thirty-nine year existence was epitomised by its non-interventionist stance, and, despite its successes in helping bring an end to colonialism and apartheid, its total failure to prevent or respond to the spread of dictatorship on the African continent.

By contrast, the AU is armed with the right to intervene in member states, in cases of genocide, war crimes or gross violations of human rights. Its members are made to promise that they will hold free and fair elections in which opposition parties are allowed to campaign without trouble. The aim over the coming years is to create a standing army, a regional parliament, a court of justice, a central bank, and a single currency.

According to the New York Times, the positive agenda of the AU ‘reflects the thinking of a new generation of African leaders’. It points out that forty-two of the forty-eight sub-Saharan African countries have held multiparty elections over the last decade. In the 1980s, the number was only four.

The AU is set to have a close relationship with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) – the continent’s latest development plan. Kofi Annan, and Thabo Mbeki were keen to emphasise the need for major structural political and economic overhaul for the union to have any chance of reaching its goals. This will “require great stamina and iron political will,” warned Annan. “Our people need democracy, good governance, the eradication of poverty, human rights and stability,” echoed Mbeki. And Annan stressed the need for Africa to solve its problems before expecting Western aid, or debt cancellation. “They will respect us even more when they see us actually resolve the conflicts that disfigure our continent,” he said. “And I do mean, resolve them. Managing them is not enough.”

However, in some quarters, the AU is seen as more of the same. Empty promises, dictators at the helm. After all, the AU is ‘the brainchild’ – in the words of the BBC – of none other than Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The Durban summit opened with no reference – beyond the harsher words of Kofi Annan – to the recent events in Zimbabwe, Eritrea or Swaziland. Marc Ravalomanana, the ‘disputed’ President of Madagascar (recognised as such by France, Germany and the US, among others) was not invited – a decision described by outgoing OAU chairman Levy Mwanawasa as “a matter of principle”, and “a reaffirmation of our commitment to the ideas of governance that we, as the OAU, have made.” Oh dear. He went on to describe recent elections in Sierra Leone, Mali, Lesotho and Zimbabwe as success stories.

Meanwhile, Gaddafi is up to his old tricks. He wants the AU headquarters built in Libya, and is not happy that it looks set to be in Addis Ababa. He was also unhappy at all the talk of Western aid. “We accept help, but we refuse conditions,” he said. “We are not beggars…We are not children who need to be taught.”

Business as usual then? Or a new dawn?

Colour in the cheek

As Israel looks set for long-term occupation in the West Bank, its government voted Sunday to back a proposed a law that would prevent Israeli Arabs from moving into Jewish communities built on Israeli soil.

The bill, drawn-up by the right-wing MP Haim Druckman, is now supported by seventeen members of Sharon’s cabinet. Druckman drafted the bill in response to a Supreme Court ruling that would have enabled an Arab nurse to move into a northern Jewish village. Druckman called the government endorsement one of its finest hours, saying in BBC reports that the colour had been put back into the cheeks of Zionism.

The bill would allow the Jewish Agency, which leases about 93% of land, to establish exclusive Jewish communities. Yossi Sarid, the opposition leader, called the bill racist and shameful, saying that “No other government in the democratic world would have adopted such a law.”

Meanwhile, Israel has launched a new weapon in its propaganda offensive. To counteract the power of media organizations like Al-Jazeera, Israel has launched an Arabic-language satellite station of its own. The idea, says project originator Moshe Sasson in the NYT, is “to explain Israel as it really is and not as it is falsely depicted, especially to the younger generation that is being educated to hate us.”

Raanan Cohen, the cabinet minister responsible for the Israeli Broadcasting Authority, described this “counterweight to the venomous propaganda that surrounds us” as “objective, and with a very high level of credibility.” With a mixture of news, entertainment and talk shows, it is reported to focus on news items that offer a different perspective on the conflict. It also refers to Palestinian terrorists and terrorist attacks, in contrast to the Arabic channels’ labels of martyrdom and Israeli occupation.

Medieval Malaysia

Terenggagu. A rural state in north-east Malaysia. Governed by the Islamic party PAS.

This week the state government approved a bill to impose hudud law – the Islamic Penal code – on the territory.

Under hudud law, the following sentences can be imposed:

• a robber who kills his victim can be crucified
• for the first offence, a thief’s right-hand is amputated
• for the second, the left foot
• a Muslim who renounces Islam is punished by death
• four male Muslim witnesses are required to prove a rape
• women who cannot back up their claims to having being raped can be whipped
• adultery and sodomy is punishable by death by stoning
• Muslims who consume alcohol can be whipped up to eighty times

Terrengganu’s Chief Minister Abdul Hadi Awang defended the bill like this: “Although the penalties are harsh and terrifying, we must realise that these offences and sins…are truly evil and despicable.”

The belief is that PAS is trying to whip up support from the country’s Muslims in time for the 2004 general elections. Just over half of the Malaysian population are Muslim.

The present federal government, a coalition dominated by the United Malays National Organisation, has vowed to block the law.

(Source: BBC)

It’s a skin thing

Puritanism of another kind in La Grande-Motte, the French Mediterranean resort near Montpellier.

The Mayor of Le Grande-Motte, Henri Dunoyer, has opted to clean up the neighbourhood by imposing a €40 fine on anyone strolling the streets shirtless, or clad in nothing more than a swimsuit.

The scheme came to him one sunny afternoon, when a couple of conservative shopkeepers complained that people were showing too much skin these days (and, presumably, Dunoyer was trying to balance the books). “It’s another way of saying ‘Let’s not slacken up, let’s be respectful of one another, and let’s not let ourselves go,” said Dunoyer on French radio.

Police are charged with giving these skin-paraders one last chance before they slap down the fine. They have been armed with T-shirts to hand out to the offenders.

(Creative) Quotes of the week

“The business pages of American newspapers should not read like a scandal sheet.”
President George W. Bush, calling for a new era of ethics and responsibility in American business practice.

“The evil-doers at WorldCom, Enron and company have done more than Al-Qaida to undermine confidence in American capitalism. Not since the 1930''s has there been such a shudder of revulsion against big business”
Jean Strouse in the New York Times

“I still haven’t figured it out completely.”
President George W. Bush, after being asked to account for a 1990 sale of Harken Energy Corp. stock that he failed to disclose properly when he was a director of the company.

“Corporations that move their legal headquarters offshore to avoid taxes appear conspicuously ungrateful to the country whose young men and women are risking their lives today to defend them.”
Senator John McCain in the New York Times

“Sari Nusseibeh’s amiability should not mislead us into thinking that he can’t be used, like the Trojan horse, to steal in and undermine Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.”
Uzi Landau, a hard-line minister of public security in Ariel Sharon’s cabinet, explaining why he ordered the closure of Nusseibeh’s office in Jerusalem, and the seizing of its documents. Nusseibeh is considered the leading voice of moderation among Palestinians and was central in a recent signed Palestinian statement condemning suicide bombings against Israeli citizens.

Contact the Diary editor: dominic.hilton@opendemocracy.net