Jos bombings: Can we for once be truthful?
Farooq A. Kperogi
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Jos bombings: Can we for once be truthful?
 |
| A scene from the bombings in Jos |
1 Park Place South
Suite 817C
Atlanta, GA, USA.
30303
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Blog: www.farooqkperogi.blogspot.com
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
Cornelius Hamelberg
The situation is very serious. Further polarization between Muslim and
Christian, between North and South. A probable protracted state of
emergency, with soldiers and military police in the streets,
everywhere, instead of in their barracks, where they belong. Nigeria
is on the precipice of being destabilized even before the next
presidential election and the most recent posting I read from another
Nigerian forum suggests that we are about to witness a coup d'état.
Where would we be then? We’d be in sh-t creek.
To quote the posting fully :
“Sudden eruption of violence,
meaningless threats like Atiku and IBB's,
bombings in the name of Allah in the North,
and bombings for Satan in the South,
police extra judicial killings,
Soldiers lining up innocent citizens and executing them in broad
daylight.
............and to top it all, a deluded populace with brother Tope
Fasua leading the pack........
All of the above, my peoples, I call "PRELUDE TO A COUP".
It’s good that you (Farooq) speak up. The voice of reason should be
listened to. Of course it would be even better if your insights could
filter across to where your words could have more of an effect – on
the ground, in Nigeria. Perhaps you could offer your advice and
recommendations to the Nigerian Authorities. If you were to teach say
on Nigerian national TV and get across the contents of this your
posting - it should be having an impact on people’s lives. But to
merely state them on an elite forum doesn’t go far enough.
On 23rd of October 2009, I had lunch with the station Master of the
Freedom Radio station of Kano, Muryar Jamaa, during the European
Development Days conference in Stockholm. He was the sole Nigerian
representative at that conference. That’s a radio station that should
interview you.
http://www.freedomradionig.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=4&limitstart=8
I was fortunate and he gave me some other insights and quite a
different perspective on the Boko Haram.This shows how differently we
may see things from a distance:
I reported about that meeting, here:
http://groups.google.com/group/usaafricadialogue/browse_thread/thread/66bdc1708c691985/60ead68d9e3696ed?lnk=gst&q=#60ead68d9e3696ed
This time, just like the last time, everyone’s disgusted about this
cycle of violence, of revenge and counter-revenge. The cycle is likely
to continue unless the government and its security agencies do their
duty and get serious about tackling the problem and protecting the
lives of all Nigerian citizens. It’s not bloody likely that after the
ritual platitudes and all the disgust has been expressed or spread by
the Nigerian & international media , “the nation will be anesthetized
Radical literalism put on hold:
http://www.africanexaminer.com/manroorah0102
The half dozen other Nigerian forums that I belong to have been
discussing this issue and we’ve been there before, several times.
There are so many causes of this bloodshed: Jos has its own particular
problems (the immigrants to Jos vs. the indigenes etc) The Boko Haram
and how to de-radicalise them is another set of problems that has to
be addressed. High-handed brutal military action of the type that
massacred so many members of Boko Haram including its leader, so
ruthlessly, in Maiduguri is not the solution. On that occasion there
were not even any prisoners of war taken to be put on trial. The
leader could have been put on trial instead of being slaughtered. The
Boko Haram ideology could have been put on trial - and perhaps
defeated – by giving some reasons for the necessity of a Western
education, although, in my view, it should not be treasonable offence
if one does not want to go for a secular/ Western education. Nor do I
believe that the solution is for such a religious group to be
exterminated. That’s called genocide. The recent Boko Haram actions
are probably counter-measures, revenge, for that earlier police
military massacre.
In the 80s the Maitatsine Sect was operating in the Borno, Gongola
area and had many supporters. I thought that that sect faded away, and
was surprised to read this a few days ago – and take note about the
helpless “locals who have to join 'religious community' “out of
necessity”:
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=200088
On Jan 2, 2:54 am, "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkper...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Jos bombings: Can we for once be truthful?
> A monstrous mass murder of innocent souls has occurred in Jos
> we are, as always, being insulted with unimaginative, flyblown, and
> soporific platitudes by our political, media, and clerical elites. Almost
> every prominent Nigerian who has commented on this heartless, high-tech mass
> slaughter has mouthed one of three predictably ready-made bromides: oh, this
> is all about politics, not religion; it’s a failure of security and
> leadership; and it’s the consequence of poverty.
>
> This is the safe, standard, prepackaged rhetorical frippery that our elites
> effortlessly regurgitate whenever violent communal convulsions erupt in any
> part of the country. But this is getting insufferably trite. If the
> hypocrisy or intellectual laziness that actuates these thoughtless,
> simplistic sound bites didn’t have far-reaching consequences for our
> continued existence as a nation and, in fact, our very survival as a people,
> one would simply yawn in silence and ignore them.
>
> But it so often happens that after these hypocritical, clichéd phrases are
> uttered, the nation will be anesthetized into a false sense of security and
> normalcy, the culprits will never be ferreted out much less punished, and
> everybody will go to sleep—until the next upheaval recrudesces and jolts us
> all out of our pigheaded complacence.
>
> Jos. It also claims to have perpetrated its savage murder of innocents, some
> of whom may in fact be Muslims, on behalf of Muslims and Islam. But the
> preponderance of reactions to this unsettling revelation among our Muslim
> leaders and commentators, including security
> contrary evidence—much like Goodluck Jonathan and his minions unthinkingly
> exculpated the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) of
> responsibility for the October 1 terrorist attacks even when the group
> actually claimed responsibility for the attacks. Same attitude, different
> personalities. That is the Nigerian story.
>
> One uncomfortable fact that our elites in northern Nigerian have been shy to
> confront meaningfully and fearlessly is that we do have a worryingly
> enervating crisis of noxious religious literalism. By religious literalism I
> mean lazy, literal, and de-contextualized reading of religious texts, which
> current Central Bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi almost singlehandedly
> fought for several years in newspaper articles when he was an ordinary
> banker. I’ve heard so much thoroughgoing hate and blatant call to murder by
> local, often ignored, religious clerics in the name of sermonizing. These
> are unmentionable sermons that will curdle the blood of any sane person and
> cause them to wonder if they share the same humanity as these ignorant,
> homicidal clerics. Boko Haram’s leader’s video justifying and claiming
> responsibility for the Jos
> an eerie echo of these hateful sermons.
>
> But I know these sermons to be atrociously grotesque perversions of Islam’s
> core teachings because I am the son of a Muslim scholar who knows as much
> about Islam as any educated Muslim should. My 80-something-year-old dad
> taught me to read and write in Arabic before I even learned to read in the
> Roman alphabet. And my dad’s dad was a Christian. So were many of his
> brothers and sisters--in a predominantly Muslim community. Yet we lived in
> peace. My dad always took care to remind us, like all broadminded Muslim
> scholars do or should, that the references to “unbelievers” in the Qur’an
> are not to Christians or Jews; they are to seventh-century Arabian idolaters
> who launched unprovoked attacks against the emergent Islamic religion.
>
Farooq A. Kperogi
1 Park Place South
Suite 817C
Atlanta, GA, USA.
30303
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Blog: www.farooqkperogi.blogspot.com
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
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Ayo Obe
Anyway, my question is: what is the actual basis - outside the PDP and its wahala - what is the evidence of north-south polarisation? If we are indeed so polarised (and I appreciate that the vitriol that spews from Internet fora might lead anyone to believe that we are all continually at each others' throats) why are the two most popular other candidates even outside the north, Ribadu and Buhari? (Sorry o, Bob Dee.) Yes, it may be that people think they will tackle corruption with more vigour than our current rulers, but even if it is a wrong perception, is there any north-south element in that perception? Despite a certain degree of scepticism on my part, this is a genuine question - we have marked Christmas & the New Year in near total blackout so there may be some news items that I've missed.
Ayo
Moses Ebe Ochonu
Farooq, you have said it all jare. Only you can take such a
delicate issue and give it such a masterful and courageous treatment. In the
name of political correctness and the protection of the image of
"our" religion and "our" constituency, everyone is busy
placing blame on vague, ill-defined entities--just so they would avoid having
to acknowledge and confront our growing problem of Islamist extremism and its
terrorist offshoots.
Those of us who lived a North for an extended period of time noticed the trend
towards radicalization, hate, and violent extremism. Some of what we heard over
public TV and radio outlets in the name of Islamic preaching alarmed us. These
were cringe-inducing hateful incitement being disseminated as methods of
achieving Islamic piety and currying God's favor. Some of the sermons preached at the
numerous private mosques that one overheard from outside loud speakers were
even more blood-cuddling. And that was what was being preached publicly (or semi-publicly), not
what was being preached in the confines of more discrete mosques and in more
clandestine Islamic venues. What is really disheartening is that the objects of
this religious hate are not the distant Western "Christian"
imperialists that are the staple of Islamists' angst but proximate non-Muslim
compatriots--fellow Africans that are often targeted to make a point about
devotion to a religion that is an import into the continent. It is sad to see a
warped sense of religious piety trump African racial and Nigerian solidarity to
the point of victimizing non-practicing neighbors.
We witnessed the gradual influx of Wahabbi money and influence over the Islamic
clerical cadre in Northern Nigeria beginning perhaps with Sheikh Abubakar's
Gumi's high profile return from his long training in Saudi Arabia in the mid 1980s. He
brought explicitly political and and an intolerant, Wahabbi-inspired form of
Islamic practice to Northern Nigeria (Maitatsine was a homegrown, intolerant,
Ludite personality cult that thrived on ignorance as opposed to
Wahabbism, which is a deliberate, highly educated and developed Islamic
ideology). Since then, we have watched as the Saudi Wahabbi model of political
and intolerant Islam became the dominant interpretive strain among the Northern
Nigerian Islamic clerical fraternity, overshadowing more
tolerant, less political Islamic traditions rooted in Islamic brotherhoods like the Tijanniya and Quadiriyya. The road from this transformation
to Abdulmutallab (the underwear bomber) and Boko Haram has led through the
systematic and well-funded mainstreaming of Wahabbi political Islam in Northern Nigeria. Boko Haram is a predictable
culmination.
When we read that Boko Haram members were trying to build bombs and that some
bombs exploded and killed some of them in their safe house sometime in 2009, we
knew that it was only a matter of time before they graduated from machetes and
rifles to bombs---that it was a matter of time before they perfected the art of
improvised bombing.
This scourge will abate only when Muslim authorities, elites, and commentators
stop pandering to and exonerating the extremists and start writing against
their perverted view of Islam while taking concrete actions to regulate and
curtail their ideology from spreading and infecting Northern
Nigeria's ignorant, poor, and impressionable Muslim youths. Northern Nigeria has a lethal mix of ignorance, poverty,
and the influx of hateful foreign religious ideologies that are then tailored
to local sociological and political circumstances. It is a perfect recipe for
getting sucked into the vortex of the global nihilist Jihadist movement. We have
enough problems in Nigeria
already. We don't need that. In my opinion, Islamist terrorism presents an even
bigger challenge than does militancy in the Niger Delta because while it is
clear that the insurgents in the Niger Delta can be placated with money,
patronage and projects, the Islamists (Boko Haram and others) are virtually
implacable because they seek to actualize their vision of an Islamic society
and believe the secular institutions of society as a whole to be flawed and
deserving of overthrow. They also believe to be doing this for God and are
quite happy to die doing it.
As for deniers like the Sultan of Sokoto who are quick to recycle the lazy default explanation of politics and poverty, they need to wake up and smell the terror.
That Boko Haram claimed the Jos bombings should not surprise
anyone as global jihad groups like Al-Qaeda have repeatedly mentioned Nigeria as a
fertile ground for Jihad. In the wake of the wave of clashes in Jos last year,
Al-Jazeera's coverage, echoing violent Jihadist groups, cast Jos as center of
Jihad. Several foreign Islamist groups urged fighters and militants to
"assist the brothers" in Jos to defeat "Christian
imperialists," among other incendiary rhetoric. Keen observers knew that
it was only a matter of time before Jos was tragically introduced into the
international (North Africa/Arab) jihadist network. It is unfolding. We can
deny it all we want, but Boko Haram, once written off as a rag tag army of
ignorant, ill-bred Muslims, has become a sophisticated terror machine,
acquiring inspiration, weapons, and training from more established Jihadist
groups.
Yet, the Sultan, Muslim leaders, elites, and commentators are playing their
usual game of escapism. For them it's more important to defend or deflect
culpability from their extremist Muslim brothers than to unequivocally condemn
their actions.
The case of the Sultan is particularly tragic since Northern Nigerian Islam is
gradually disintegrating into Taliban-like violent intolerance under his watch
while he's busy blaming politicians and politics. At this rate, he may end up
having the dubious distinction of the Sultan under whom Northern Nigerian Islam
was hijacked by violent extremists. What is happening in Pakistan (where
the mainstream Muslims are now held captive by the extremists) should be a
warning to the Sultan. If he does not use his authority to take drastic actions
against the influx of extremist Muslim ideology and money from Wahabbi bastions
in the Middle East and Shiite extremist locales like Iran, he may be the last Sultan as
the extremists may, in their usual fashion, come for moderates like him when
they run out of vulnerable non-Muslim targets. Pakistan
and Afghanistan
are good examples of what unbridled Islamic extremism, ignorance, hate, and
poverty can do to a country.
The rise of Wahabbism and an intolerant violence-endorsing political Islam in Nigeria is
real. We deny it at our own peril. And the extremists will always find an
excuse for Jihad and a fecund recruiting field if the Muslims--moderate Muslims
and leaders--do not stop them.
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There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
H O
Dear Ayo
Thanks for interrogating these claims which, to some, have become jejune and ribald. some Nigerians have become carriers of these unending myth and theories the most pertinent of which tries to construct the North and the South as religious monoliths -Islam aand Christian respectfully. The argument usually luxuriates in deliberate ellision of large Christian and Muslim subjects in the two regions. We also often run the risk of using the American -read imperialistic- styles in our analyses. In other words, violent interface between Muslim and christian elements in any part of this country is usually seen as a whistle blower for the catalysmic implosion of the country the same way a fatal accident on the street of New York could be projected as a threat to the world at large by americans. to say this does not, however, imply an approval of the satanic activities of those who seek to turn our country to a wasteland, nor should it be seen as a eulogy of the criminal ineptitude of those at the helm of affairs. rather, i thought that it is high time we recognised the fact that given the multiplexity of cultures in our nation conflctual exchanges are bound to happen. the occurence of such conflicts are lesser problems in themselves; it is the failure to deal with them proactively by government that is the greater problem and the most disorienting... Oladosu A. Afis Ph.D \university of ibadan --- On Sun, 1/2/11, Ayo Obe <ayo.m...@gmail.com> wrote: |
Cornelius Hamelberg
http://www.google.se/search?hl=sv&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGLL_sv___SE398&q=Atiku+%3A+now+it%27s+time+for+the+North
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread “ and at the risk of
sounding naive, or as an over-simplifier who states only the most
obvious, aren't the North – South, the Christian -Muslim divide and to
some extent the historic realities of Igbo East - Yoruba West ethnic
rivalry, permanent features of the so called One Nigeria / ”Lugardist
experiment”?
Ayo Obe,
I'm a layman. And docile too. Your knowledge of Nigeria is much more
detailed than mine will ever be but when you ask whether there's any
“north-south polarisation ” the answer is, admittedly not like North -
South Korea. So “ polarisation” is an extreme word. Even in Nigeria's
identity politics and not applicable to the North-South divide in
Nigeria. But you must admit that there is a tension. which can be
defined/ measured along the North - South axis
For the time being, with Muslim Atiku as “ the consensus candidate of
the North” pitched against Christianity's Goodluck Jonathan of the
South - (East) isn't it a clear-cut case of a Northern vs. Southern
contender , as in the disputed Ivory Coast elections?
In Igboland, “Hausaman” means/ is co-terminous with “Muslim”. Which
does not mean to say that once upon a time Sokoto's President Shehu
Shagari did not have Anambra's Alex Ekueme as his vice-president -
the one who received the Pope when he visited Nigeria in 1982. Or that
my man, the Fulani Muhammadu Buhari - Yoruba Tunde Idiagbon
partnership was not a successful one.
And many other examples of astute demographic calculations which have
produced viable North -South partnerships.
In my view it's a great pity that Muhammadu Buhari was cheated at the
last presidential election. He could have made a world of difference.
If Atiku is a marketable product then it's probably his turn to be
elected - if a better Northerner doesn't show up.
Goodluck Jonathan - like Joe Biden , is in all probability a
transitional figure, if he cannot be a compromise middle candidate
from the South East. The Igbos with their secessionist tendencies may
feel comfortable with him, he is after all within their regional
sphere of influence but not the North and probably not the Yoruba
either – not because of his Ijaw ethnicity but because he has still
not shown a strong hand, for example in dealing with the spate of
religious based violence all over the place.....
The main tenet that Farooq Kperogi conveys is that the Qur'an
ascertains that Christians, Jews and Sabeans are not kuffar
( infidels): Going further than that - since there are not so many
Jews in Nigeria and certainly no Sabeans either, all the Muslim
leaders could also quote the Qur'an, 5:82 from the minbar : “And
thou wilt find the nearest of them in affection to those who believe
(to be) those who say: Lo! We are Christians. That is because there
are among them priests and monks, and because they are not proud.” -
although it's possible that the Qur'an's author did not have the
present political climate of Nigeria or Nigerian Christians in mind
or as the main import when that verse was revealed.
The fact of the matter is that just as Christianity is an essential
part of e.g. Igbo identity so too Islam is part of the Northerner's
religious, cultural and political identity , there's the rub - and
unlike Muslim Senegal voting for a Christian Leopold Sedar Senghor as
its first president, given the present state of world affairs and
Nigerian Northerners Muslim consciousness they are not going to vote
en masse for Goodluck Jonathan – a Christian from the South, when they
would much prefer a Muslim.
Perhaps that's why Goodluck Jonathan is dragging his feet when it
comes to dealing with the politically inspired religionists' violence
and treading ever so gently. He does not want trouble. He does not
want to be seen as being too Christian. Muslims on the other hand are
not afraid of being Muslims.
On 3 Jan, 00:28, Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o....@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well yes, there have been bombs in Jos, Abuja & Bayelsa. And Warri. Book Haram has also launched attacks. So in parts of the country there has been inter-religious violence, and in other parts there has been violence associated with political parties, or perhaps I should say A political party. But north-south? The PDP has certainly been having a north-south argument but has it resulted in north-south polarisation? Sure, today's papers have been carrying adverbs which try to create a link between Atiku's 'peaceful change impossible, violent change inevitable' and the recent bomb blasts, but is that the same as north-south violence? I mean if we are supposed to believe that Atiku is that dumb (or at least, that the people around him are) but since some of us also lived through the Abacha era where bombs went off in Lagos for the purpose of being ascribed to NADECO but were actually planted by Abacha's henchmen, whether by reason of their own over-zealousness or by reason of direct order I can't remember, the answer to the cui bono question isn't as clear cut as we might be expected to believe.
>
> Anyway, my question is: what is the actual basis - outside the PDP and its wahala - what is the evidence of north-south polarisation? If we are indeed so polarised (and I appreciate that the vitriol that spews from Internet fora might lead anyone to believe that we are all continually at each others' throats) why are the two most popular other candidates even outside the north, Ribadu and Buhari? (Sorry o, Bob Dee.) Yes, it may be that people think they will tackle corruption with more vigour than our current rulers, but even if it is a wrong perception, is there any north-south element in that perception? Despite a certain degree of scepticism on my part, this is a genuine question - we have marked Christmas & the New Year in near total blackout so there may be some news items that I've missed.
>
> Ayo
>
> > different perspective on the Boko Haram.This shows how differently we
> > may see things from a distance:
> > I reported about that meeting, here:
>
> läs mer »
Cornelius Hamelberg
True a prophet has no honour in his own home turf, especially if he's
from the South:
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/powergame/2011/jan/02/powergame-02-01-2011-002.htm
These are the kind of questions that a naïve observer may ask and I
would be grateful if my very fundamental understanding should be
corrected:
Not so generally speaking, the North is more united than the South and
is more than 50% of the electorate.
In the last presidential elections the main candidates were all from
the North, all Muslims and all Fulani. The South have had their turn
in the person of Olusegun Obasanjo ( a Christian & a pig farmer for
that matter) and will have to be patient.
If it at all matters, one of Atiku's wives is Igbo. Atiku's running
mate is yet to be announced – but will the Yoruba vote for an Igbo
vice-presidential candidate – and this time around too, would the
Igbo ever vote for a Yoruba vice-presidential running mate to Atiku?
I should just like to qualify what I said earlier, that “The Igbos
like to back a winner, not a loser and in any case although it's
secret ballot on election day they would like to hedge their bets,
publicly, by this kind of demonstration:.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/12/enugu-lawmakers-endorse-atiku-for-presidency/
This merely illustrates the North's self-consciousness that counter-
distinguishes itself from the South
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/politics/15547-north-pdp-and-2011-presidential-election
Conclusion: the next president of Nigeria will come from the North. As
Dr. Goodluck Jonathan cannot be navigating his canoe up the Creek,
without a paddle.
As Cardinal Rex Lawson says, “ Nah so ah see am oh!” He also said ;
“ If you try and don't succeed, try try again....”
>
> Anyway, my question is: what is the actual basis - outside the PDP and its wahala - what is the evidence of north-south polarisation? If we are indeed so polarised (and I appreciate that the vitriol that spews from Internet fora might lead anyone to believe that we are all continually at each others' throats) why are the two most popular other candidates even outside the north, Ribadu and Buhari? (Sorry o, Bob Dee.) Yes, it may be that people think they will tackle corruption with more vigour than our current rulers, but even if it is a wrong perception, is there any north-south element in that perception? Despite a certain degree of scepticism on my part, this is a genuine question - we have marked Christmas & the New Year in near total blackout so there may be some news items that I've missed.
>
> Ayo
>
> > different perspective on the Boko Haram.This shows how differently we
> > may see things from a distance:
> > I reported about that meeting, here:
Ayo Obe
However I don't think a man who kneels publicly to be blessed by Pastor Adeboye can really be said to be hiding his Christianity, any more than Buhari (suspected of being a fundamentalist) is hiding his Muslim identity. Jonathan's Christianity is not what is selling him in the South. I don't know if it is un-selling him in the north.
I've mentioned before that if I were Igbo I would need to think hard about the effect of jettisoning zoning for 'merit' on our future chances, but I'm intrigued that you feel it's Igbos who have secessionist tendencies: I find that is something that Yorubas - who haven't experienced or tried it - like to have romantic daydreams about.
Ultimately, just as we found in 1993, when Babangida & others perhaps thought we would never vote for a Muslim-Muslim ticket & had no real plan when it turned out that we would, the actual vote may prove that we Naija voters have moved beyond the petty calculations of our rulers. Then we shall see whether they have a better answer than the crude response of June 23 1993.
Ayo
PS: Apologies for typos produced by iPad use (now realise that "sent from my iPad" thing I deleted is more than just iBore affectation). Ayo
> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Pius Adesanmi
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kenneth harrow
>in the guardian we have seen pieces by kinzer and tony blair who
>combine their praise for kagame, because of the economic successes
>in rwanda, with condemnation for human rights organizations that
>have protested the abuses in his regime.
here is my brief response as an amnesty international country
specialist for rwanda and burundi
1. rwandan legislation against genocidal speech includes also
condeming "divisionism," i.e.speech that condones ethic identities
and politics oriented around that. so, it isn't simply advocating
genocide which is outlawed as such, but political organizing around
hutu or tutsi identities.
the problem does not lie in condemning hate speech as such. it lies
in using such legislation to stifle opposition to the regime.
(if such legislation governed this list, all discussion over North vs
South in nigeria would have resulted in everyone being arrested. nice, huh?)
what is more, the laws in rwanda are now abused, so that any
political opposition can be, and generally is, dubbed as violating
the above laws. burundi is trying to catch up here, arresting its own
journalists, barring the human rights watch researcher from entering
the country. such is the spill off effect of kigali.
what is even more, the effect of implementing the above laws is to
have created a state of fear with respect to the govt, fear that its
heavy hand will come down on you if you appear to be expressing
oppositional views to its policies or officials. check with ALL the
researchers working on rwanda now, and the reports detail a
generalized state of fear.
what is really at stake is how laws intended to protect people from
speech acts that support genocide have been deployed in the creation
of a police state.
and finally, when a human rights organization objects to this, it is
attacked as impeding economic progress.
such is the cynicism of the current state, not just in rwanda but in
the west as well when all you have to do is substitute the word
"terrorist" for "genocide" in the above and you will find effective,
if not totally legal, parallels
lastly, i despair at positions taken here, on our list, and
elsewhere, that somehow imagine that authoritarian regimes, police
states, totalitarian regimes, are better for the population that
loosey goosey liberal democratic regimes. the issues of state
repression and economic growth are conflated in meaningless ways.
after all, n korea is good at repression, not so good at economic
benefits. and rwanda's growth is not divorced from its successful
exploitation of foreign aid, following the genocide, and the
exploitation of congo's mineral resources now flowing through kigali.
there are those who stated that they are more interested in putting
food into people's bellies that in western democratic ideals.
i am interested in food as much as the next man; but i don't believe
that a police state is better at getting us food for people in need,
and i strongly believe that the authoritarian regimes that have
heavily abused state authority do so generally to serve the interests
of the few, typically state leaders and the military, who benefit
from repression. in rwanda, maybe as many as 10% enjoy this elite
status, but i can't really identify them or i might be arrested and
held indefinitely. (yes, prisons in kigali and guantanamo also have
that in common)
ken harrow
Kenneth W. Harrow
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
har...@msu.edu
517 803-8839
fax 517 353 3755