22/12/2008

The twentieth century was a bad time for the world. We had the major dictators Stalin and Hitler. China spawned Mao. Africa was cursed with Idi Amin and a few other tinpot tyrants. Cuba had Fidel, now being watered down by his brother, Raoul. Into the twenty-first century we continue to be cursed with despots. Here are a few to watch.

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is an aggressive, charismatic indigene with aspirations of greatness. He failed to receive democratic support for his becoming President for Life. But he is not daunted by this knockback. This anti-West friend of the new Russia is having another attempt, and I suspect he will get what he wants eventually, by foul means. Watch him, Latin America. He spells trouble.

Vladimir Putin, the new Russian Tsar, the strong man who will save Mother Russia from ignominy at the hands of the capitalistic West, is a steely-eyed demagogue at heart with KGB training. Whether Vlad the Strong is president or prime minister it is he who calls the shots. Already he is plunging the world into a cold war, just when we were thanking God for Mikhail Gorbachev.

Robert Mugabe, the destroyer of Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, clings to power as his people suffer and die. Infrastructure has collapsed, investment has ceased, aid is hindered, inflation is astronomical, and still the illegal leader, supported and protected by henchmen, claims that “Zimbabwe is mine”, that there is no cholera, and says he will never step down. And still the African world sits by and watches, weak as stranded jellyfish, hoping something will happen. How many people must die before a military force takes him out?

Frank Bainimarama is a New Zealand-trained, Fijian Army Colonel who has proclaimed himself Prime Minister of Fiji. In the short tradition created by his model, Sitiveni Rambuka, also a New Zealand-trained military man, Frank has dismissed the democratic government and installed himself, supported, of course by the army. Since the days of the first sugar planters, who imported Indian labour from India, the country has been riven by a lust for money and control on the part of the Indians, and a fear of them on the part of the indigenous Melanesian Fijians. This is the root cause of the trouble. When democracy looked as if it was going to give the Indians a major voice in parliament, it was kicked out—three times by my count.  Meanwhile, Bainimarama is controlling the media and kicking out those objectionable New Zealand media and showing embryonic signs of totalitarianism, including force.

Developing dictatorships need to be dealt with swiftly and firmly. The lessons of history are there for us to see, but I sense a lack of the necessary righteous indignation.