ANC Today

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Volume 7, No. 6, 16-22 February 2007
 
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THIS WEEK:

* Letter from the President: The Mecca Agreement - pax fiat! 
* What the media says: Propaganda and reality: The truth as the first casualty of war 

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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

The Mecca Agreement - pax fiat!

Last month, on 10 January, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) issued
a statement in which it "strongly condemn(ed) bloody incidents in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, which are part of the state of security chaos and
misuse of weapons". It went on to say that it:

"Calls upon all parties to resort to dialogue and abstain from using violence
and weapons in internal differences;

"Calls for ending all aspects of militarisation in the streets and residential
areas and allowing the civil police to assume their duties to keep security and
order;

"Calls for the establishment of a judicial investigations committee to
investigate all incidents and take appropriate legal measures against all those
engaged in them whatever their affiliations are;

"Calls upon all nationalist and Islamist parties to make efforts to end tension
between the Hamas and Fatah movements, and ensure bringing them back to
dialogues; and,

"Calls upon the Palestinian National Authority to reform and restructure its
security services on professional foundations, to unify them under one central
command to serve as a law enforcement force that has the duty to protect the
safety and security of people, and to ensure that (it) will never be politicised
or engage in any conflicts."

About a month after the PCHR issued this statement, on 6-8 February 2007, Fatah
and Hamas met in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, "to hold a dialogue on Palestinian
conciliation, based on the initiative put forth by Saudi King Abdullah and under
his sponsorship."

The statement issued by Fatah and Hamas after this dialogue said it "fortunately
ended in success". The Mecca Agreement said "an agreement was reached on the
following:"

"First: a ban on the shedding of Palestinian blood including the adoption of all
necessary measures to prevent this; reaffirmation of the importance of national
unity as a basis for national steadfastness, confronting the occupation and
achieving the legitimate national goals of the Palestinian people; adopting the
language of dialogue as the sole basis for solving political disagreements in
the Palestinian arena...

"Second: reaching a final agreement on forming a Palestinian national unity
government according to a detailed agreement approved by both sides, and which
would be based on taking the appropriate constitutional measures to form this
government.

"Third: to move forth in activating and reforming the PLO and expediting the
work of the preparatory committee based on the Cairo and Damascus
Understandings. Detailed steps in this regard have also been agreed upon by both
sides.

"Fourth: to reinforce the principle of political partnership on the basis of
enacted laws in the PNA and on the basis of political pluralism according to an
agreement ratified by both parties.

"We are happy to present this agreement to our people, to the Arab and Islamic
nation and to all our friends throughout the world. We pledge our commitment to
this agreement in letter and in spirit so that we can devote our time to
achieving our national goals, eliminating the occupation and regaining our
rights. We need to devote our time to key issues, mainly Jerusalem, the
refugees, the Aqsa Mosque, the prisoners and detainees and to our battle against
the wall and settlements."

Subsequent to the conclusion of the historic Mecca Agreement, and consistent
with its provisions, the President of the Palestine National Authority (PNA),
Mahmoud Abbas, wrote a letter of commission to the PNA Prime Minister, Ismail
Abdul Salam Haniyyeh, in which he said:

"In my capacity as Chairman of the PLO Executive Committee and President of the
PNA, after reviewing the Basic Law and based on my mandated authorities:

"First: I commission you to form the next Palestinian government within the
period stipulated in the Basic Law...

"Third: I call on you as premier of the next government to abide by the
interests of the Palestinian people; to protect their rights and preserve and
develop their achievements; and to work towards achieving their national goals
as ratified by the resolutions of the PNC, the Basic Law, the national
conciliation document and the resolutions of Arab summits.

"Accordingly, I call on you to respect legitimate Arab and international
resolutions and agreements signed by the PLO."

We warmly congratulate His Majesty King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, President
Mahmoud Abbas and Chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Khalid Mish'al, as
well as the rest of the leadership of Fatah and Hamas for concluding the
critically important Mecca Agreement.

All those of us who have long supported the struggle of the sister people of
Palestine have watched in anguish as they tore themselves apart in an internal
violent struggle, which could not but divert them from the historic task
vigorously to pursue the goal of an independent State of Palestine as a united
force.

The Mecca Agreement has opened the way to end the fratricidal strife and allow
the Palestinian Authority to focus on the challenging task of attending to the
many and pressing needs of the people in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
The restructuring of the PLO should also strengthen the unity of the Palestine
liberation movement and the people as a whole, which is a critically important
requirement for the achievement of the historic objectives of the sister people
of Palestine.

It was indeed very painful to read such commentary as reflected for instance in
an article written by Ramzy Baroud in which he said:

"The most recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has left many people dead,
confirms that the internal strife plaguing the Occupied Territories since the
advent of Hamas to power in January 2006 was not entirely the outcome of outside
meddling in Palestinian affairs. It is, in most part, a violent expression of
the already existing weaknesses and disunity that has sadly defined the
Palestinian political milieu for generations.

"The fighting intensified between Hamas and Fatah and then reached unprecedented
levels when 31 Palestinians, including a toddler were murdered in the matter of
five days, starting Thursday, January 25, raising the death toll to more than 60
since last month."

We have also been acutely concerned about the worsening socio-economic
conditions of the Palestinian people, which further worsen the great pain they
continue to suffer as a result of their loss of statehood and the Israeli
occupation.

The socio-economic crisis facing the masses of the people was explained by the
economist Shir Hever at the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the
Palestinian People, held in Doha on 5-6 February 2007. Among other things he
said:

"There is no need to go into details, once again, about the extensive damage
caused to the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation forces. We have heard much
already of the mounting poverty rate, that GDP has fallen by 9% during the first
half of 2006, that 25% of the Palestinian work force is suffering from a severe
loss of income due to the sanctions on the PA, and that welfare payments have
fallen by US$180 million. Moreover, per-capita consumption in Palestine has
fallen by 12%. Deep poverty is reaching alarming proportions, in Gaza it is
already at 79.8%. Additionally, food insecurity is also at very high levels,
reaching up to 41% in Gaza...

"The Palestinians' ability to work, produce and earn an income has been severely
limited, and the only thing staving off massive hunger and disease is the
emergency humanitarian assistance coming in the form of foreign money. The
current official unemployment level in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is
30%, but unofficial unemployment levels are much higher. In fact, only 31% of
working-age Palestinians have any kind of employment."

Given this dire situation, a direct result of the reality that the Palestine
liberation movement has not achieved its objectives, it was indeed critically
important that the people of Palestine should establish a permanent peace among
themselves and further reinforce their unity. The Mecca Agreement has confirmed
that the leadership of the people of Palestine fully understands that it does
not serve the interests of these masses to engage in a bitter and deadly civil
war in a struggle for hegemony, while these masses continue to suffer as they
do.

After the Mecca Agreement was concluded, Khalid Mish'al, leader of Hamas, wrote
an article which appeared in the British "The Guardian" newspaper on 13
February. Among other things he said:

"A historic new phase in the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence
has begun. Last week's Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah will pave the way
for the first ever truly Palestinian national unity government. Hamas and Fatah,
joined by all the other Palestinian factions, will now seek to rebuild
Palestinian society following the destruction brought upon it by Israeli
occupation and resume the campaign for our national rights.

"We are determined to make sure that the recent internal fighting, which
appalled our people and dismayed their supporters around the world, becomes
history. We firmly believe that it would never have happened had it not been for
foreign intervention and the brutal sanctions imposed on our people by Israel
and its allies. The crisis would not have existed had international and regional
powers respected the results of last year's democratic elections in Palestine.

"The Mecca agreement has laid the foundations for a power-sharing process that
will produce a functioning government capable of attending to our people's
needs. It will also pave the way for rebuilding the PLO to include all the
factions and become the legitimate representative of all Palestinian people. The
partnership born out of the Mecca meeting is possible because of the consensus
among the Palestinians that their primary objective is to win their freedom, and
that their struggle should be solely against occupation. It is now up to the
international community to respect this accord and the will of the Palestinian
people...

"Now that Hamas and Fatah have agreed to form a national unity government, the
international community has no excuse to maintain the siege against our people.
We know that many governments around the world are unhappy with these sanctions
and want to see an end to them. The Palestinian national accord achieved in
Mecca envisages the establishment of a truly sovereign and independent
Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in June 1967 - with
Jerusalem as its capital, the dismantling of the settlements in the West Bank,
the release of all Palestinian prisoners and the acknowledgement of the right of
the refugees to return to their homes.

"Once translated into reality, this vision will pave the way for real peace in
the region. There must be no more blackmail of Palestinians, for there is
nothing else they can give away. Global powers should have learned by now that
neither sanctions nor any other form of pressure or bribery will force the
Palestinians to abandon their struggle for freedom and independence...

"It must be understood by all that the people of Palestine have the key to both
peace and war in the Middle East. There can never be peace and stability in the
region without settling the Palestinian question. And that can only be achieved
by ending the occupation and recognising our people's rights."

Everybody genuinely interested in securing the legitimate national rights of the
people of Palestine, in achieving the long outstanding just and permanent peace
between Israel and Palestine, in bringing peace to the Middle East, in the
interest of both the peoples of the region and the rest of humanity, must take
the observations made by Khalid Mish'al seriously.

The conclusion of the Mecca Agreement must surely serve as a firm signal that
the rest of the world must now end all measures intended to isolate the
Palestinian Authority, and thus show respect for the wishes of the Palestinian
people and their decisions to determine their own internal affairs. Anything
else will not contribute to advance the cause of peace between Israel and
Palestine and the rest of the Middle East.

The challenge also faces the Government of Israel to respond positively to the
Mecca Agreement, among other things by releasing all funds due to the
Palestinian Authority and adopting a positive posture with regard to the tasks
to reduce the misery afflicting the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and
create a climate conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine
conflict.

The balance of power in this regard decisively favours Israel. To end the
destructive conflict that has gone on for far too long, will require the wisdom
and courage of the more powerful. The positive results that both the Israeli and
Palestinian people pray for will not come of their own accord.

They will come about as a result of conscious and deliberate actions which must
be taken in the first instance by the more powerful. Each positive step towards
a just peace will create the conditions for the next positive step towards a
just peace, until the process towards a just and permanent peace develops an
organic logic and momentum that convinces all antagonists that to resort to
violence is to turn the guns against the irreversible prospect of peace and
security for all.

But it is imperative that the first step is taken, the first building block of
peace put in place, without waiting for the perfect conditions for the
construction of peace, because those perfect conditions will never amount to
anything more than a dream forever deferred. The moment demands that all those
charged with the responsibility to lead should dare to sue for peace, inspired
by the same courage with which they have dared to go to war.

Thabo Mbeki

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WHAT THE MEDIA SAYS

Propaganda and reality: The truth as the first casualty of war

The day before President Thabo Mbeki delivered the State of the Nation address
at a joint sitting of Parliament last week, on 8 February, the international
television network, BBC World, broadcast a documentary claiming to be a report
on crime in South Africa. Its result, if not its intention, was to perpetuate
the notion that Johannesburg, and South Africa, is "the crime capital of the
world".

We have no doubt that this broadcast represented a deliberate attempt by BBC
World to insert itself as a player in the determination of our future as a
people. Thus BBC World was determined to ensure that what it had resolved to say
about our country, it said at a moment that would make the maximum impact on our
country's national consciousness and agenda. Fully understanding the importance
of the State of the Nation address, it decided that it would broadcast the
programme we are discussing on the very eve of this address, and not a day later
or earlier.

In the broadcast BBC World said that many of the high rise buildings in central
Johannesburg are empty because of the high incidence of crime. It said
absolutely nothing about the fact that some of the very same high rise buildings
it showed are fully occupied, such as the circular Ponte residential building it
prominently highlighted in its visuals.

It also said absolutely nothing about the fact that the headquarters of some of
our biggest companies are in central Johannesburg. These include Standard Bank,
ABSA (Barclays), First National Bank, Transnet, Anglo American, 'The Star'
newspaper, the Chamber of Mines, the Constitutional Court, the Johannesburg
Metropolitan Council, the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and government, and the
globally-known rugby stadium, Ellis Park.

It also said nothing about the fact that the headquarters of our country's
ruling party, the ANC, as well as such important national organisations as the
South African Council of Churches (SACC), the Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU), and the Black Lawyers Chambers - which will soon host the
biggest Law Library in our country - are all in central Johannesburg.

It said nothing about the fact that real estate investors have indeed been
showing a very healthy appetite for the same buildings in central Johannesburg
which it said nobody wants to occupy because of crime. It said nothing about the
fact that at least since 1999 the vacancy rates in the highest grade buildings
have been falling significantly and continuously, even reaching the same low
levels as similar buildings in important commercial areas of Johannesburg, such
as Sandton, that, correctly, are seen as areas unaffected by the crime rates
that affect the central districts of many cities in the world.

It said absolutely nothing about the exciting process of urban renewal that is
taking place in central Johannesburg, which includes the continuing development
of the Newtown precinct, the biggest and most vibrant cultural quarter in South
Africa; new housing settlements such as Brickfields; and the conversion of a
number of central Johannesburg buildings into top market, highly priced
residential apartments. These apartments are now difficult to obtain, at any
price, because of high demand.

It said absolutely nothing about the process extensively reported and analysed
by urban sociologists, of the decay of city centres in many countries of the
world. In the case of Johannesburg, it said absolutely nothing about the impact
that the process of the deracialisation of residential areas in our country,
which began in the 1980s, had on central Johannesburg.

Among other things this process of racial integration increased the levels of
insecurity among white South Africans, leading to their emigration to other
areas of the city, away from central Johannesburg which apartheid had reserved
as a white area.

This same phenomenon, of the changing face of city centres, has been observed
elsewhere in the world, for instance, in some US cities. We do not know whether
BBC World sent its most senior reporters to the US to report on this phenomenon.
It might very well have done this. We would be interested to know whether it
reported the inevitable consequence of abandoned buildings, which the new and
poorer resident communities would not have the money to buy or lease, but would
occupy illegally sometimes, instead of glibly accounting for the lack of paying
tenants in such buildings by alleging a high incidence of crime.

To show its global viewing audience, almost all of whom do not know South
Africa, that it had spoken to the local population, BBC World went to Hillbrow
to talk to the residents in what is in many respects a unique area of the city
of Johannesburg. If it was interested to report objectively and honestly about
crime in our country, and even merely Johannesburg, BBC World would have known
that Hillbrow, like some areas of London, has a particular socio-economic
profile that is not characteristic of either Johannesburg or South Africa as a
whole.

Most significantly, it did not indicate that it had visited by far the largest
black area of Johannesburg - Soweto. This was for the obvious reason that any
objective report on the incidence of crime in Soweto would show that the crime
rate in this area had dropped markedly during the years of democracy. Any
objective and honest report would also show that the historically white areas of
Johannesburg, though also exposed to crime, for obvious reasons that any
criminologist would explain, generally have a much lower incidence of crime than
even the least affected historically black areas.

If it decided to do a documentary on crime in the United Kingdom, our own public
broadcaster, the SABC, the equivalent of the BBC, would have absolutely no
difficulty in focusing on particular areas of London, such as Brixton, to
communicate the message that the UK is sinking under the weight of crime. This
would be as much a dishonest representation of the incidence of crime in the UK,
and even Brixton, as was the BBC World report about the incidence of crime in
our country.

BBC World made the assertion that allegations have been levelled against our
national police commissioner, that he is associated with "the mafia". It said
that nevertheless, presumably because it believes that our government is also
part of the criminal project, the National Commissioner had not been removed
from his position. This conveyed a message of a BBC World that is convinced of
the complicity of our government with the most notorious international criminal
syndicates.

It also conveyed the clear statement that BBC World believed the "mafia"
allegations it said had been made, which, incidentally, we heard for the first
time from BBC World, obviously proceeding from the position that, necessarily,
they must be presumed to represent the truth. What BBC World wants is that our
government should sack our National Commissioner of Police to prove the case it
set out to make from the beginning, that our governance system is criminally
rotten from top to bottom.

BBC World also made the revealing observation that strangely - strange in its
view - violent crime in our country did not represent attacks of the black
majority against the white minority. This unequivocally confirmed that BBC World
does not understand the universal and social phenomenon of crime, does not
understand South Africa, and had, like the most die-hard racists in our country,
convinced itself that crime in our country represents little more than black
vengeance against the former white oppressors.

If we entertained any illusions, BBC World communicated a message that should
bring us back to the real world, that there are powerful people elsewhere in the
world who are convinced that all of us, principally the black people and their
leaders, have dishonestly communicated the message that we are truly committed
to the objective of national reconciliation and the creation of a South Africa
which belongs to all who live in it, black and white.

Shortly before this documentary was shot and broadcast, we received persistent
requests from the BBC representatives in our country to make available ANC
leaders to be interviewed for the intended "report on South Africa". We
explained to these representatives that this would be difficult as some of these
leaders were deeply involved in preparations for the important national funeral
of the late Adelaide Tambo; others in the preparation of the State of the Nation
Address; that others were in Cape Town to prepare for the opening of parliament;
and yet others were out of the country.

In its broadcast BBC World made it a point to mention that neither the Ministry
of Safety and Security nor the police service agreed to be interviewed. Again
demonstrating its wilful resolve to be economic with the truth, it said
absolutely nothing about the fact that it approached us very late, asking us to
provide it with interviewees at very short notice.

It said nothing about the objective difficulties we had conveyed to its locally-
based representatives, even though it had every possibility to establish
independently, without relying on information conveyed to its representatives by
our movement, as to whether we had told the truth about the possibility to
facilitate its access to the category of ANC leaders it sought to interview.

Having made its own assessment, BBC World could have told the world that the ANC
lied when it told them that the people it sought would be difficult to secure,
if indeed this was the case. However, in keeping with its not so hidden agenda,
it chose to communicate the tendentious message that, despite its attempts, ANC
or government representatives had refused to be interviewed.

We must assume that the last minute push to oblige us to provide ANC leaders to
be interviewed for the BBC World broadcast derived from a realisation that the
BBC had, at least, to demonstrate some respect for one of the most basic ethical
principles of journalism, namely, the need to report all perspectives relevant
to any story. However, supposedly by chance, and interestingly, it so happened
that the programming imperatives of the British public broadcaster, the BBC,
which, obviously, must take precedence over our own as a movement and
government, would in fact create the situation such that it would be difficult
for the ANC and our government to participate in the BBC World documentary as
interviewees, as was ultimately confirmed in practice.

(Incidentally, again consistent with the seeming determination at all times to
be economic with the truth, the BBC representatives never explained to us that
the "report on South Africa", "which will contain high-quality visuals", was in
fact a "report on crime in South Africa". We discovered this only when we saw
the broadcast, which BBC World made a point of advertising very vigorously on 8
February.)

Unlike our country, many other countries do not publish crime statistics. Where
some do this, Interpol has determined that some of these statistics are entirely
false and unreliable. We will continue to insist that our government and
criminal justice system should publish accurate and timely information about the
incidence of crime in our country.

In part this is to ensure that the entirety of our population is empowered to
participate in the fight against crime in a manner that responds to our actual
reality, rather than the observations made by reporters who fly into our country
from elsewhere in the world, and after spending a few days talking to whoever
they select, prepare reports that are broadcast or printed as authoritative
accounts of the incidence and nature of crime in our country.

We will continue to insist that our government provides our people with crime
statistics because our movement has always recognised the fact that crime
reduction and eradication is one of our principal strategic challenges. We
needed nobody, including BBC World, to teach us this.

The simple reason for this is that, for centuries, the masses we have
represented for 95 years have for all these years and longer, carried by far the
heaviest burden of crime in our country. We need nobody to instruct us about the
critical importance of defeating crime if we are to succeed to create the new
South Africa for which we fought, unaided by many in our country and elsewhere
who today pose as the greatest champions of the noble cause of the safety and
security of the people of South Africa.

We must accept that our transparency in this regard will encourage even those
who claim to know the world to use the information we publish to focus on our
country as a special case worthy of special broadcasts. The reality, however, is
that the incidence of crime in our country, as in the UK and other countries, is
influenced by various historical and contemporary realities.

Any honest report about any country in this regard must necessarily take these
realities into consideration. Respect for the most elementary professional
ethics demands this of all journalists. However, in our case as an African
country, we must accept that we will continue to be faced with the reality that
we will, for a very long time, remain victim to the entrenched Afro-pessimism
born of centuries of contempt for Africans, which legitimises the most insulting
anti-African prejudices as a perfectly acceptable part of the mindset that
should inform all understanding and interpretation of Africa and Africans.

We know this from our experience that the more we succeed to overcome our
challenges and create the new non-racial, non-sexist, peaceful and prosperous
South Africa to which the majority of our people, black and white, aspire, the
harder will some try to show that we are failing, as the negative stereotype of
everything African prescribes that, inevitably, Africans will fail.

This serves as an affirming and comfortable device to reassure those who feel
superior to us, the Africans, that they are indeed superior. Whatever might be
happening in their own countries, such as the serious problem of crime in the
UK, this enables them to comfort themselves that their own national situations
are not so bad after all.

In this paradigm, the 'We', which has all the means and possibilities to define
both itself and the 'Other', will forever convey an image of the ugly 'Other'.
This would prove, permanently, that 'We' are beautiful after all, whatever our
defects. In our case, it is clear that the more we achieve new successes in
building a new South Africa, the more desperate will the 'We' feel that they are
becoming indistinguishable from the 'Other'.

Necessarily, the more we, the 'Other', succeeds, the more the 'We' will feel
obliged to demonstrate that we have failed, and thus broadcast the kind of
documentary shown by BBC World on 8 February.

Our own reality, however, dictates that we must continue to respond to the
obligation to focus on the task to restore our country to normality, having
overcome centuries of white minority domination, which included a long period of
British colonialism, which contributed most significantly to the problem of
crime that the historical victims of crime now have to solve, regardless of
whatever BBC World might choose to say.

The ANC knows that the hard work our government and people have done to confront
the scourge of crime - as well as other important challenges such as the
pervasive black poverty that was deliberately engineered during the long period
of white minority domination, including white British rule -will continue and
succeed.

Contrary to what BBC World sought to communicate, the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup
will be held in conditions of safety and security for all the teams and the
soccer fans who will descend on our country and stadia from all corners of the
globe.

This has been the experience of everybody who visited our country to participate
in such events as the cricket and rugby world cups, the Africa Athletic and
Soccer Cup of Nations tournaments, and the IAAF competition. Similarly, our
country has hosted major UN, African Union, Non-Aligned Movement and
Commonwealth conferences, with the same result in terms of safety and security.

In addition, our cities, including Johannesburg. very regularly host private and
sectoral international conferences whose participants have never experienced any
pervasive incidence of crime.

Just over three years from now, and as millions of foreign tourists have done
over the thirteen years of our democracy, the visitors who will attend the FIFA
Soccer World Cup tournament will depart our shores puzzled about why supposedly
reliable reporters of world affairs, such as BBC World, went out of their way to
frighten them that our people are predatory and violent criminals.

The BBC World documentary confirmed that in conditions of war, even when it is
conducted without guns, the truth would always be the first casualty. It showed
how easily the media can be exploited to use propaganda to create the illusion
of reality. It made the statement that until the hunted produce their own
historians, so long will their victories be obliterated from the human record by
those who abrogate to themselves the right to define themselves as victorious
hunters.

Everything we have said communicates the unequivocal message that to avoid
unnecessary disappointment and surprise in future, we must teach ourselves to
expect that those who hold us in contempt, regardless of what they profess
concerning their liberal and progressive credentials, will continue to represent
us as violent criminals, or anything else that helps to feed the deeply embedded
stereotype that Africans are less than human, or, at least, genetically
inferior.

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