RE: [Marxism] South African press on Evo Morales visit

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

acpollack:

really dreadful

David McDonald:

I disagree. All I read is that Evo is an admirer of the SA Truth and
Reconcilation process. So am I. I have criticisms of Mbeki but that is not
one of them. You would be surprised, evidently, by the extent to which Truth
and Reconciliation Commissions can help re-knit societies, allow formerly
warring races and classes to co-exist in the same country without exacting
physical or civil revenge on every pepetrator of human rights abuses. That
is not practical if you expect people to stop fighting arms in hand, since
you are talking about a state apparatus of thousands of people. It's like
saying in the US, after we shoot all the racist cops everything will be OK.
Whatever else you might think of such a tactic, you can acknowledge that it
is certain to start a fight. It is akin to the mistake the US made when it
fired the Iraqi Army, and that is not a complimentary comparison.

I ask again, Andy, if you're not gonna line 'em up against the wall and
shoot 'em, how do you propose to deal with former enemies? Especially those
enemies who have perpetrated abuses upon the people, and whom only the
people can forgive? How could that happen? And why would the people forgive
them? Well, it turns out, because they admit, fully, in public, to their
crimes. That's the deal. It ain't much, it ain't rolling heads, but in real
countries with real civil wars people have to move ahead if it's ever gonna
be over.

So allow me to put a bandwagonish spin on it, since we're all channeling Evo
here: what if he intends to recommend a truth and reconciliation commission
to see into 500 years of indiginous subjugation of his people? Would that be
dreadful?


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