Daily Champion (Lagos)
Tony Okerafor
18 October 2009
analysis
Since Angola gained its independence in 1975, the oil-rich southern African country has only known two heads of state.
Following the forced withdrawal of Portuguese forces from the country, exactly thirty-four years ago, the Patriotic Movement for the Liberation of Angola, a formerly pro-Marxist-Leninist rebel army known by its acronym, MPLA, managed to fight its way into the capital, Luanda, ahead of the united States and Western European backed UNITA movement, also known by its Portuguese abbreviation, UNITA, or Union for the Total Independence of Angola.
The MPLA victory meant that the likes of Augustine Nata and Jose Eduardo Dos Santos were almost certain to rule the land, and so it was. Mr. Nate became head of state, or president, in 1975, until his death four years later.
After Nata's passing, Mr. Dos Santos's position as the undisputed leaders of the MPLA was never in doubt. Turning sixty-seven earlier this year, I e 2009, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos was the son of a bricklayer. However, his colleagues in the independence struggle, as well as many other Angolans who belong to the last generation, as it were, will best remember him as the freedom fighter that came to prominence in Angola's revolutionary revolt against Portuguese colonizers.
On top of that, he is now Africa's second longest-reigning head of state, behind the legendary, Maverick Libyan strong man, Col. Moammar Qadafi, who has been in power in his small Magreb Arab country since staging his own revolution against the monarchy in 1969.. slowly, but, steadily, the former liberation fighter has become one of the continent's most important leaders, with Western politicians and business queuing up to meet him, in the hope to grab a slice of the lucrative investment opportunities that oil and diamond-rich Angola has to offer.
After spending thirty years in power, Dos Santos has been keeping more and more out of the public eye. In recent years and months, the closets most ordinary Angolans often get to "see" their reclusive president are random pre-recorded statements on state-controlled radio, and not much else.
The man rarely makes public appearances, except during state visits, and even then, he's hardly seen or heard speaking to the media, be it the foreign or local press. There is no suggestion here that Mr. Dos Santos is critically ill, and no one has given even the slightest hint, as some Western analysts would have been quick to do in other circumstances, that the position of the president is under any real or obvious threat. No!
Whenever President Dos Santos travels outside his vast presidential palace, he does so, flanked, and sometimes almost blanked out of public view, by a mass of heavily armed troops. Roads, especially along the route he's traveling by, are cleared an hour before hand o allow his convoy free passage.
President Dos Santos may have spent three whole decades presiding over the affairs of 15million Angolans. Yet, the head of state has remained in high demand; so to speak, Angolan political watchers attribute the feat, if that is what it is, to Dos Santos knowingly limited, almost pop-star-style appearance. Crucially, too, the same celebrity status, they insist, would be responsible to a big extent in keeping him in power, not least for an impressive one whole generation.
One part of Africa where the international community, especially the Western World, has continued scrutinized for breaches of the rule of law, good governance and human rights is the southern part of the continent. The reasons are many as they are varied.
But, of note are factors, such as, apartheid, which used to flourish in both South Africa and neigbouring Namibia. Both countries, not only have large percentages of minority whites, which used to dominate political and economic life in the two states, until the early 1990's when apartheid was abolished in favour of majority rule, but, two of Africa's most successful liberation movements originate in those parts.
One is the ruling party in post-apartheid South Africa, namely the African National Congress, ANC, and the other, SWAPO, the South-west African People's Organisation, which has been in power in Namibia sine independence from South Africa in 1990.
Zimbabwe, too, received its independence from the British in 1980, five years after Angola. Zimbabwe also has a relatively sizeable white settler community. But, the Southern African region, where Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, Congo DR and others key African states are located, also as ranks as the continent's richest and most business-friendly spot, for which reason several powerful countries across the globe are knee to invest, to trade and to compete. In the same vein, southern Africa was the number-one hotbed for the Cold War Era struggle between East and West, so much so that hallmarks of that struggle are still in evidence across the region.
One man who won't simply disappear from the radar screens of the west is Zimbabwe's octogenarian president, Robert Mugabe, who has himself reigned for twenty-nine years. It's interesting to note that some of these powerful countries in Europe and America continue to prod, harangue and question the dictator called Mugabe. They accuse him, and with some justification, of turning a once-prosperous and food-sufficient country into on impoverished, beggarly nation. However, when it comes to Dos Santos, they are tight-lipped.
During the years of anti-apartheid struggle, Mugabe and Dos Santos were more than supportive of each other. More importantly, their two countries made heavy sacrifices in the struggle to root out the obnoxious apartheid system in neighouring South Africa and Namibia by supporting the ANC and SWAPO. Yet, like Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Mr. Dos Santos is being accused of clinging to power, and of impoverishing ordinary Angolans, despite their country's enormous oil wealth. The Angola leader is also being berated for presiding over nearly three decades of corrupt leadership. Inspite of those criticisms, many of which are well-founded, president Dos Santos has been left to his own devices.
In fact, his presidency has been positively endorsed in a recent visit to Angola from the America secretary of states, Hilary Clinton, and Pope Benedict XVI, among others. With the following jobs and duties combined, i.e. the head of the Angolan armed forces, head of the governing cabinet, chief of police and responsibility for choosing female judges, president Dos Santos has also managed to keep any internal attempt on his position firmly at bey.
No question, Mr. Dos Santos exercise absolute control over Angola. Many Angolans are worried that it has had a negative impact on the country and its people. The longevity of his presidency is bad enough, they lament. But, they also complain that is has had the effect of, as one Angolan analyst put it, "causing a big confusion between the person of the president ad the institution of the presidency of the republic".
There is concern, as well, about cronyism, at how members of the president's family, in the political circle, are art the centre of a number of billion-Dollar business deals.
Indeed, Angola is known to have one of the world's fastest-growing economic since the end of the civil war in 2002. Like many other African states, the majority of its citizens remain in poverty, nevertheless.
After organizing and winning one relatively free and fair general elections back in 1994, the MPLA was forced to return to war by a UNITA opposition, which, under the late Jonas Savimbi, was unwilling to accept defeat at the polls. Savimbi's final defeat and death seven year ago compelled the new leadership of UNITA to re-transform their movement into a political party.
As for Mr. Dos Santos, he had been due to face voters this year; but, the elections were put back in order to write a new constitution. Until a couple of months ago, the balloting was on course for his end of next year. But, there is now talk of adopting a new system, namely, to have the president chosen, not through a popular vote, but, from the top of a parliamentary list.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Just a few points - the first president was Agostino Neto and Dos Santos has always been reclusive. Nor does he live in a 'vast' palace big yes but not that big. Nor has Angola had 30 years of corrupt leaders. It wasn't a wealthy country until the discovery of major oil reserves in about 1994, when corruption began to become endemic.
The system by which the president is elected is important but both systems are in widespread use and legitimate. A change to the constitution relating to the head of is important and hopefully will reduce the powers of the head of state, which were largely assumed during 25 year of war and which are now entrenched by a notorious patronage system.
There appears to be real debate in Parliament about how the head of state is elected. At present this system is by direct election. The issue is a long term consitutional one - if the head of state is elected independently, the President may come a from a different party to the dominant political party in Parliament, and the powers he - or maybe even she - will have need to be defined if Angola is to have any hope of a democratic future. If the decision on the constitution is that the President is always chosen from the largest party then Dos Santos will remain president until the next elections and the same will hold true for the next electoral winners. There is more going on here than just a desire to stay in power.
The article would be stronger if there was less conjecture in it.
The journalist or the opinion maker, who wrote this peice is so naive, that even proper names of envolved people he is talking about, doesn't know how to spell it.
Go back to the school.
This article is full of blatant plagiarism which is made all the worse for getting Agostinho Neto's name wrong at least three times! If you're going to copy, try and get it right!