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Dalai Lama stance proves ANC is a pawn

The ANC should consider renaming itself the RFP - Red Face Party. The Dalai Lama incident goes beyond clumsy diplomacy - it reflects on the ruling party's complete lack of principle and moral direction.

Every so often we must listen to the ANC's explanation that African problems require African solutions and that the West must keep their noses out of our affairs - except of course when financial and other aid is desperately needed.

Refusing a Nobel Peace prize laureate to attend an international peace conference in Johannesburg because China pressurised us to ban the Dalai Lama, tells us a lot about the ruling party.

African independence, it seems, is a figment of their imagination. They opted to be colonised by China.

The ANC can no longer claim to hold the moral high ground for fighting for liberation, justice and freedom. Liberation was only the vehicle to obtain power.

The government has lost the storyline. Gone are the noble ideals they stood for.

Boycotting the International Peace Conference in Johannesburg to show their solidarity with the Dalai Lama, FW de Klerk and Desmond Tutu's stance is a handy cue for voters on April 22. Turn this embarrassment into an opportunity. The only way to reclaim our self-respect is to reject the Red Face Party (ANC) by voting for any other party.

Francois Bekker, Pretoria

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