By Dak Buoth Riek-Gaak,
November 16, 2021— In Nuer language, we say ‘thile raan mii maar-ke-liah’ which means no one is related to death. This enemy called Death is a bad thing that normally robes and terminates our people’s rights to life permanently.
I wish we could draft and craft a legislation that will bar and sanction this inevitable foe known as death and her darling friend age so that our erstwhile human beings like late F.W de Klerk can live longer to witness our successes.
Many People around the globe wanted to live and enjoy life forever, that is why ‘death penalty’ has been abolished in most progressive and Human rights-oriented constitutions.
Although our holy books remind us of life after death, I have never heard or seen people feeling easy owing to the belief that their deceased will enjoy another life elsewhere.
The fact that we weep wittingly after death put a doubt on this biblical notion that there is ‘life after death.’
Usually, when the spirit left the flesh, what is remained are the words, properties and the legacies that the deceased person/s abandoned for us.
‘‘F.W de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace with Nelson Mandela and as South Africa’s last apartheid President oversaw the end of the country’s white minority rule, has died aged 85.’’
The former was the last apartheid leader in South Africa, who will hardly disappear in the socio-economic and political history of the modern South Africa and Africa as a whole.
F.W de Klerk was born in Johannesburg in 1936. He studied law and practiced law before being elected into white only parliament. In 1989, de Klerk became the National Party leader after serving in various ministerial posts including Interior ministry. F. W de Klerk was a leader of apartheid regime. Apartheid means ‘apartness’ in Afrikaan language. It was a system that uphold segregationist policies against non-white citizens of South Africa. When one hears that late President Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison, it was people like President Pieter Willem Botha and his successor President Frederik Willem de Klerk who arrested him for harboring Anti-apartheid views.
President F.W de Klerk’s demised occurred this week on 11th November, 2021. The deceased is survived by his wife and two children. The news of his passing was released by De Klerk’s foundation together with a video clip where the late apologized for the atrocities he committed against black South African during his reign. The late apartheid leader’s cremation and funeral will be conducted on Sunday 21st November 2021 at a private ceremony that will be attended by family members only without media coverage.
Soon after De Klerk’s passing on, his fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner and towering Anti-apartheid activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu issued a statement saying, De Klerk played an important role in South Africa’s history, adding that, De Klerk recognized the moment for change and demonstrated the will to act on it. Archbishop Tutu however said De Klerk tried to avoid responsibility for enormity of the abuses of apartheid, including in his testimony at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was chaired by Tutu. In the video clip shared on social media after his death, De Klerk said ‘‘Let me today, in the last message repeat: I, without qualification, apologize for the pain and the hurt, and the indignity, and the damage, to black, brown and Indians in South Africa.’’
The incumbent South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa in his eulogy stated that De Klerk ‘‘played a vital role in our transition to democracy in the 1990s. that De Klerk took the courageous decision to unban political parties, released political prisoners and enter into negotiations with the liberation movement amid severe pressure to the contrary from many in his political constituency.’’
In 1993, a year prior to President Nelson Mandela’s ascension to the throne as the First black President of South Africa, de Klerk was awarded Nobel Peace Prize together with Mandela ‘‘for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundation for a new democratic South Africa.’’
Later in 1994, when Mandela became the president, de Klerk was appointed as second Vice President in the ANC-led government. In 1999, de Klerk resigned as vice president and as a National Party leader after his party suffered a humiliating defeat. On the day F.W Klerk died, Economic Freedom fighter Party leader Julius Malema wrote a press statement entitled ‘‘EFF statement on the death of apartheid president F.W de Klerk’’ in which they stated that ‘‘EFF notes the death of the former apartheid president F.W de Klerk, who presided over a murderous and inhumane regime of terror against African people; as president of apartheid, de Klerk holds no legitimate claim to any title or honor of having led this country; it is for this reasons that the EFF calls for de Klerk not to be given state funeral of any category, as he lost the right to be honoured the day that the evil regime he led collapsed in 1994.’’
These calls to deny President de Klerk a state funeral is uncalled for, because when de Klerk was alive, the South African government and its people did not prosecute him of any crime that they claimed he committed willfully until he died peacefully. So, there is no need to fight the dead body now. So far, he has met his fate, and any entity that wants to honour him should be free to do so without hindrance and hesitation.
When President de Klerk was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with President Nelson Mandela, the government and South African people did not protest the move then.
Moreover, the South African government did not even proscript the existing F.W de Klerk foundation which was established to preserve and advance de Klerk’ leadership legacies and work in South Africa. These noises that De Klerk should not be given state funeral is nothing but a cover up for refusing to speak out when De Klerk was alive. I also think De Klerk must have been a brave man to live fearlessly all his life in South Africa.
Normally, all despots and autocratic Leaders who were accused of butchering their own citizens flees their respective countries immediately they lost grip of power for fear of being prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
I am pretty sure even if the South African government heeds to these unnecessary calls to deny F.W de Klerk a state funeral, it will not add anything and or change their cowardice culture. They should shun these shenanigans and instead strike and strive to erase the existing culture of xenophobia which has the same characteristics with apartheid that they are wailing against.
The Writer is the Chairman of Liech Community Association in Kenya; the views expressed here are his own, and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com
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