Friday 27 March 2009

Bring back Pik!

For those reading Afrikaans this is vintage Pik. This is his no nonsense approach to dealing with the international diplomatic crisis around the invitation to the Dalai Lama to attend a peace conference in South Africa. The invitation was withdrawn after China complained. South African Nobel Laureates FW De Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu then withdrew too, along with the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Pik wrote an article in Beeld newspaper telling the world how he would have dealt with it, had he still been Foreign Minister: by inviting the Ambassador of China for a cup of tea. Between the lines one could read, he would have dealt with it rugby scrum style - slight pressure applied. Metaphorically "We are not going to hurt each other or?" Afterwards he would then have told his President it is all sorted out and to go ahead with the conference as planned.

Pik Botha was the former Foreign Minister of South Africa in the De Klerk and Botha eras and South Africa's longest-serving Foreign Minister. He after 1994, when Mandela became president joined the ANC.

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