Réactions aux analyses et scénarios de NCN (www. marekinc.com)

Toza Zobate

Comme vous le savez, NCN (Site exploité par Mr. Marek, www.marekinc.com) produit chaque jour des analyses et des scénarios sur le Congo. Je me suis penché sur quelques unes de ces analyses et, j'ai décidé de faire part de mes commentaires à son auteur. Commentaires que j'aimerais partager ici avec vous. Les commentaires sont en langue anglaise. Par ailleurs, je vous invite aussi à lire dans la rubrique "Forum" de Congonline l'hymne que j'ai écrit la semaine passée (`"Congo, pays qui est le nôtre") et que j'ai signé Mwana Mboka. Merci. Toza Zobate ------------------------- Regarding your news and views I have been reading your NCN site (and its predecessor) for almost 2 years now. A lot of nonsensical analyses and, also, wise stuff have been posted on it. Time and again, I have been telling myself that I will not react to what you publish. I kept telling myself that once Mr. Marek will be acquainted with the Congo, his positions will get improved. What a mistake on my part. As time goes by, your positions get worse. So I decided to react by commenting some of your analyses and views. Why am I reacting? Because I think it is the duty of every human being to fight HATRED. Mr. Marek. Who do you work for? Who is financing your work? How come your editorial stance changed so quickly? Your current position is diametrically opposed to what it was less than a year ago. In less than one year, you switched from being a staunch supporter of the New Congo leaders to a virulent opponent of the latter. How can you explain this rapid change of position? Maybe you didn't get something you were expecting from the Congolese leaders once they got to power. Is that why you turned against them? Maybe you are just a worker who is trying to earn a living. In this case, tell us if you work for an "invisible master" who is using you to shape the thinking of Africans as per his desires. Maybe the master is paying you to publicize his omens. Who is behind you or who are you trying to help? Who are you? Why this sudden interest in African affairs? Today you exposed a scenario (You said it is not a scenario emanating from the NCN. And, I will not argue that) in your News brief entitled " Rebels are trapped, but they do have options". Anyone who reads this scenario could come to the following deduction : § The rebels are not fighting for a better and a democratic Congo as they are claiming. Had they been fighting for a better Congo, how could they even think of preventing the 6 million inhabitants of Kinshasa from having access to clean water, healthcare facility, and starving many more? How do you call that? Is it a well-planned GENOCIDE? Is it the FINAL SOLUTION? [I wrote you a note trying to draw readers' attention as to similarities between the Tutsi expansion project and Nazism. You published the note I sent you, but at the bottom of another text, probably, in order to hamper its visibility]. § If the rebels are really fighting for the Congo and not for a foreign master, how could they even think of destroying dams, Matadi harbor facilities, etc.? These are part of the infrastructure of the country they pretend they want to liberate. § They must be desperate right now. § The rebellion is clearly an invasion. § The rebels are terrorists. § The rebels always said that they do not have anything to do with UNITA. So, how come they envisage fleeing to UNITA-held territories if things get sour for them. I suggest that you read some books dealing with the Algeria war or Algeria Revolution (depending on which side of the fence you stand). In 1958, the French Army bombarded a Tunisian village called Sakhiet-Sidi-Youssef. Although the French had some military superiority on the battlefield, that incident heralded the defeat of France and its subsequent withdrawal from Algeria. This is to illustrate the fact that you need popular support to win a war and internationalization of a conflict does change its parameters. Please, think about it and put things in perspective. ** As we are at it, let's create a new tribe somewhere in the R. D. Congo and call it "BANYA-KINSHASA". And the BANYA-KINSHASA" will suffer from starvation resulting from a war imposed to them by the "BANYA-MULENGE". What's a scenario, isn't? ** Quickly, let's go to some other analyses you generated in the recent past. You wrote about anti-inflation policy of the Congolese Government, and you gave an example of Internet services that were priced at US$ 5,000 per month. You used that dollar-figure to show how the Congolese Government computes its inflation rate. Had you got some basic economics knowledge (I am sure you do), you would have known that interest services do not intervene in the calculation of inflation rates (at least for the time being). Furthermore, a single item, taken in isolated manner, is not enough to point out whether inflation rate is high or low. Next point. You criticized the Congolese national service program. You compared it with Mao's China schemes. Please tell us why the Kibbutzim are well perceived in the West. But why the Congolese national service is program? Is it because a young country chose a different way (of course, at variance with what you may want its leaders to do) to take care of his development problems? What's the difference between the Congolese National Service and the Civil Service accomplished by young school graduates in most European countries? Some time ago, you indicated that the Congolese Government was against business people. Do you have any clue of who was a prosperous businessman in what used to be Zaire? Let me tell you. It was a foreigner businessman making 1000% profit. Thus, pushing inflation to skyrocketing levels, reducing the purchasing power of the general population, not investing in capital equipment, corrupting any civil servant he finds in his way, showing contempt for the local people, importing expired foodstuffs (needless to point out that these products were supposed to the discarded in countries like yours), etc. Is that kind of businessmen you want to defend? Please give me a break. You are happy to have the IRS, the UDA, and the FDA that take care of the safety and the well being of American people. However, when an African Government tries to take care of its people, you perceive it as being a form of harassment vis-à-vis foreign business people. When you enjoy good life and clean environm! ent for yourself and if you are really consistent, you should also like the same for others, wherever they happen to be born. Please do not tell me that you really care for Africa. Your worst-case scenario of today tells the rest. As an American, you are certainly proud that your country has 50 states and territories here and there (in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific and Indian Ocean). So, why are you spreading the omen regarding a future or possible breakup of the Congo? Is it because your "invisible master" does not want to see one day a powerful Congo in the center of Africa? Let me assure you. WE ARE GOING TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY TOGETHER. COME HELL OR HIGH WATER. What the current Congolese leaders are trying to do is to have some control on their country's destiny. They are doing what they are "capable of" with the means and skills they have. Like anywhere else, they will learn from their mistakes. Help them if you want otherwise leave them alone. Do you recall all the fuss you made about the AFM mining contract? You wrote all kinds of things about the attitude of the authorities of the RD Congo and their business ethics. Finally, it turned out that the Congolese Government did not do anything bad (according to the letter of the CEO of the AFM). It was said that the constitutional group that was tasked with the elaboration of the new constitution released a list of 250 people that are barred from being candidates for the announced upcoming elections in the Congo. The publication of such a list led to all kinds of criticisms for the government. All of us know that it is not the first time on earth that a country is using such an approach to deal with some of its citizens. A case in point is France. The French who collaborated with the Nazis during the 2nd World War were stripped of their civil rights (among others, the right to run for an office) until Mr. Mitterrand came to power in 1981. The same is true of the members of the royal families that ruled over France in the past. In Belgium, those who collaborated with the Nazis still cannot run for public office. These are 2 established and firm democracies. I let you think about it. By giving these 2 examples, our intention is not to approve the existing of the list of the 250 people that cannot run for office. We just want to stress that it is very important to put things in perspective. Please no quick and incomplete analysis or conclusion without weighing all the intervening factors. Some of the 250 aforementioned persons (they are worse than highwaymen or criminals, I am being nice) will not even be walking free were they American citizens. Please think about it. Please do not suffer from amnesia. Your country is the one that inoculated syphilis germs to its own citizens and kept them untreated in order to see the impact of that disease on human beings (by chance, these human beings happen to be BLACKS). This is only one example out of a long list of what your country has done to its OWN citizens. No need to mention the McCarthyism era, the chain gangs still in fashion in some states in your country. We live in an information era. Publish whatever you want to publish or say. It is your right to do so. But, with all due respect, please do not spread "half truths" or biased views serving some ill-motivated interests. The Congolese people have already been putting up with a lot, be it misery, abuses, loss of loved ones, etc. They do not want additional problems be added to those they are already coping with. Toza Zobate August 23, 1998.