Why did South Africa deny the Dalai Lama a visa?

Posted By Elizabeth Dickinson Monday, March 23, 2009 - 3:52 PM Share

It seems counterintuitive to say the least. The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader in exile of Tibet, was denied a visa on Friday to attend a peace conference in Johannesburg, South Africa at the invitation of fellow Nobel Prize-honorees Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and F.W. de Klerk.

"Of all the nations on Earth that should empathise with [Tibetans'] plight, South Africa should" wrote The Times of South Africa. "We echo the accusation by Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, that barring the Dalai Lama is a 'total betrayal of our struggle history.'"

So what gives? A bit of real politik -- learned from France's mistakes with China late last year: Nicolas Sarkozy held a highly publicized meeting with the Dalai Lama only to have Beijing cancel its planned joint EU summit and skip France on its Premier Wen Jiabao's European tour. "I looked at a map of Europe on the plane. My trip goes around France," The Economist quoted Wen saying.

South Africa, the rationale might go, can't really afford a chill in relations. The country accounts for one fifth of China's trade with Africa; and South Africa depends increasingly on China for financing. So Archbishop Tutu had it quite right: "We are shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure. I feel deeply distressed and ashamed."

In the lead-up to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the country was also looking to head off what it saw as a public relations disaster in the making. Spokesman for the South Africa president told reporters, "at this time the whole world will be focused on the country as hosts of the 2010 World Cup. We want the focus to remain on South Africa... A visit now by the Dalai Lama would move the focus from South Africa onto issues in Tibet."

But if avoiding the headlines was the goal, that strategy has backfired. The conference organizers have promised to pull out of the meeting and the press is eating it up and spitting the South African government out. So much for damage control.

KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

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REXW

5:35 PM ET

March 23, 2009

China and the South African visa

As old as the Chinese civilisation is, it is still relatively young in its relationships with the modern world. No one could say that during the cultural revolution China was able to maintain good diplomatic relations with any country. ‘Let’s go it alone’ so to speak. Since emerging as a world power based on its economic revolution, it may have learnt a trick or two about polishing its image in the eyes of other countries but it has not really learnt to see itself as other do. So it proceeds with the unpopular repressions in Tibet, incorrectly thinking that other countries are not really interested in that part of the world and will forget about it all in a week and, similarly, where there is any chance of a visit from someone like the Dali Lama to South Africa, as in this case, they still use pressure to make it as hard as possible for such visits to proceed. Again, they fail to see such things from outside their country. For South Africa, nothing would change if the visit goes ahead. China would still be there in strength because it suits China to do so, life goes on as before. The difference is that in this case, flexing their independence (from China) and granting a visa to such an eminent man such as the Dalia Lama would be a popular act based on many similarities in history between the two countries. China will survive it as it has bigger fish to fry. It is just a very direct form of blackmail and South Africa is weak to capitulate.

GEORGIE

2:26 AM ET

March 24, 2009

The Dalai Lama

Many will be surprised that the Dalai Lama has been engagaging in distinctly unpeaceful actions against a section of his own people who engage in centuries-old prayers to a popular Deity that he has outlawed. This has been picked up by just a few news outlets who aren't afraid to show the Dalai Lama in a bad light - check out http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2009/01/200911283757315249.html

The mixing of politics and religion is having very unfortunate results - he is practising a kind of strange Buddhist apartheid..there have been so many attempts to ask him to give religious freedom but he has consistently refused to back down for the last 13 years..

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