Examentrainers

1	1		We heard from South Africa's friend, Conservative MP Mr John Carlisle. He said
	2		that the BBC, by broadcasting the Mandela concert1), had been hijacked by terrorists. But
	3		we did not hear from our ministers. It is always possible that we will yet hear something.
	4		But it would be a little astonishing. For the concert was against apartheid, and ministers
	5		would have us know that there is not a person in the land who can outdo them in
	6		detestation for the political system of South Africa.
2	7		It was surprising, then, not to see one of them in attendance at the concert. Had
	8		they gone, they might have done their credibility a bit of good. But equally, they would
	9		not have been popular. Nobody would quite have believed they meant it.
3	10		The latest statement of government policy on South Africa was made by the
	11		Foreign Secretary on May 17. It said, and no doubt honestly, that apartheid was
	12		repulsive and detestable. We have, said the Foreign Secretary, a 'passionate desire to do
	13		something - anything - to help.' This passion, however, is destined to remain frustrated.
	14		We ache to act, but we judge that we must do nothing.
4	15		The passionate commitment to doing nothing, then, is what the Foreign Secretary
	16		offers the world as Britain's contribution to hastening the end of this appalling system. In
	17		particular, he asserts yet again that a British contribution to a concert of economic
	18		sanctions will be forever withheld. In the blacks' own interests, he says, we must
	19		fearlessly continue with this unpopular policy. And this is where the hypocrisy emerges
	20		most clearly.
5	21		For his argument is thoroughly inconsistent. He says, on the one hand, that
	22		apartheid will eventually collapse. Economic forces will inevitably make it 'unworkable',
	23		Unless there is change, foreign investment will not be attracted, bank lending will be
	24		curtailed, development will be stunted. In other words, economic pressure will oblige
	25		change to come about. On the other hand, he most perversely asserts, these pressures
	26		should not be added to. Economic sanctions, which are designed precisely to intensify
	27		pressure and speed change, are suddenly described as unlikely to have that effect at all.
6	28		Why there is this discrepancy between 'free market' economic pressure and
	29		pres sure brought about by international economic forces is nowhere and never fully
	30		explained - and for a simple reason. At bottom, I'm afraid, the British government uses
	31		concern for black Africans, and exaggerates the differences between black Africans, as
	32		cover for the real concern, which is with Britain's own short-term national interest. Even
	33		the Foreign Secretary briefly noted it: 'Britain is ... a major trading partner and the
	34		largest foreign investor in South Africa. Up to a million South Africans still have the
	35		right to live in Britain. All this gives us a powerful stake in a solution.' But also in doing
	36		nothing uncomfortable to achieve one.
7	37		Oliver Tambo, leader of the anti-apartheid African National Congress, was in town
	38		over the weekend. What Britain sees as an obstacle to action, her deep roots in South
	39		Africa, Tambo sees as imposing a special duty and delivering a special influence.
8	40		He supposes that Britain, having sacrificed everything to fight the last war, might
	41		understand black Africans who find themselves in a similar situation. Did Britain count
	42		the cost in lives before going to war with Hitler? Do the British expect the victims of
	43		apartheid to count the cost in jobs for the sake of a similar struggle? Who are the British
	44		to tell them what price it is sensible to pay to destroy a system which is a form of
	45		slavery?
9	46		We may be sure, however, that the voices of people who seriously abhor apartheid
	47		and want some British action will not be heard. 'We must expect our patience to be
	48		stretched almost to breaking point; the Foreign Secretary movingly intoned on May 17.
	49		Along with the displays of English hooliganism now to be seen daily on the streets of
	50		Europe, this is a spectacle which makes one faintly ashamed to be British .
			Hugo Young in 'The Guardian', June 14, 1988

noot 1: The Mandela concert: rock concert at Wembley stadium on the occasion of the seventieth birthday of Nelson Mandela, black South African freedom fighter.