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One of the joys of being alive in our century of global
communications is knowing that you share the planet with noble men.
That knowledge gives strength to our hopes that someday, God
willing, our piece of this earth that we call our country and love
so much no matter how awful life has become on it would also be led
by someone great, unselfish, noble and patriotic.
One such person is Mr. Nelson Mandela who turned
90 on July 18.
The former political prisoner turned world
leader is a hero not just of South Africa and the whole continent of
Africa but of mankind.
In our age saddened by the presence of
bloodthirsty dictators and pipsqueaks who manage—by buying votes
and cheating at elections, and by using the might of the police and
military whose loyalty they have purchased—to become famous
international figures, Mr. Mandela inspires us all.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi
Born in 1918, to a royal family in a South
African village, the young Nelson Mandela fled to Johannesburg, his
country’s largest city, from the prospect of an arranged marriage.
There he became a lawyer and started being an anti-apartheid
activist. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1944.
Mahatma Gandhi and his spiritually-driven principle of non-violent
protest were the young Mandela’s inspiration.
The South African government’s brutal response
even to non-violent opposition forced him to abandon non-violence.
In 1961, Mr. Mandela became the head of the ANC’s armed wing.
Three years later, in June 1964, he was convicted of treason and
meted life imprisonment.
27 years in prison
He was in prison for 27 years, spending 18 of
these years in Robben Island, where he did hard labor. His only
human contact were fellow prisoners and his notoriously cruel
jailers. He was allowed only one visitor and one letter every six
months. He was offered liberty if he would denounce armed struggle
without having to tell on his confederates. But he refused. For that
kind of agreement could only be entered into by a free man.
The South African government’s white
apartheid-policy rulers realized more sharply with each passing
month that they must, sooner or later, negotiate with the black
rebels whose strength was growing. They then moved Mr. Mandela to
the South African mainland so that they could negotiate with
him—and by extension the ANC which never ceased to look up to him
as their moral and actual chief. Four years of negotiations resulted
in the deal to free Mr. Mandela from prison on February 11, 1990. At
the same time came the legalization of the ANC and other
anti-apartheid organizations.
The world celebrated his release, which the
South African government allowed to be covered by media and
televised for all mankind to witness.
Champion of reconciliation
He formally became head of ANC again. In that
capacity he resumed formal negotiations with the president of South
Africa, Mr. Frederick William de Klerk, on the terms of the orderly
transition from tokenized to real democracy in which blacks would
have the same rights as whites. Messrs. Mandela and de Klerk were
jointly awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Peace. And in 1994 South
Africa held its first truly free multiracial elections. The ANC won
62 percent of the votes and Mr. Mandela was elected president with a
term of five years. He governed South Africa wisely, effectively,
honestly and prevented abuses of the minority whites by the majority
blacks.
Mr. Mandela actively championed national and
international reconciliation. He helped form a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, which made his countrymen—blacks as
well as whites—see the dirt, blood and injustices of the past,
without glossing over the cruelties and human rights abuses of the
ANC.
He could have made himself president for life if
he wished. But Mr. Mandela stepped down when his term ended. He was
succeeded in 1999 by President Thabo Mbeki, who still rules up to
this day.
Important moral voice
Last month, as the crisis in Zimbabwe worsened,
Mr. Mandela added his voice to the international condemnation of
President Robert Mugabe, whom he did not name when he remarked on
“the sad failure of leadership in Zimbabwe.” This forced SA
President Mbeki reluctantly to make statements and half-hearted
moves to prod Mugabe to behave less tyrannically against his own
people.
Although no longer holding any political office,
Mr. Mandel a has remained an important moral voice in our world.
He tried to broker a ceasefire in Burundi. He
spoke against the US invasion of Iraq. He has been in the forefront
of the fight against AIDS which is ravaging most of the African
continent. He founded an elders’ group of fellow Nobel Prize
winners, senior politicians and people of influence whose clout and
efforts could help solve global crises.
Long Walk to Freedom
On his birthday, he announced that he would now
be less active. This planet will be the poorer for it.
Read his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom,
and be inspired to emulate the life of virtue that this man of
peace, integrity and wisdom has been living.
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