Good Friday is the occasion when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There have been many lynchings, extrajudicial assassinations, etcetera, of freedom fighters. Jesus's crucifixion was different because He was executed within the law.
On Good Friday there is always the retelling of the story of the crucifixion. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, cross-examines Jesus in an effort to find him guilty of something. When he cannot, he famously washes his hands of the matter, allowing the rich and powerful of Judean society to manipulate the law and crucify Jesus under Roman authority.
Apartheid was deemed a crime against humanity because it was implemented within the facade of the rule of law. The law allowed Solomon Mahlangu and others to be executed, as well as permitting Nelson Mandela and other activists to be imprisoned.
Many of us half expected this behaviour from a fascist state like apartheid SA, but not in a democracy. We do not expect it in countries like Sweden, Britain and the US. These countries often pontificate on world stages on the importance of democracy, just and fair processes, a free press, and the importance of certainty and consistency in law.
This Easter we witness a modern crucifixion and the world is asked to pull a Pontius Pilate and turn a blind eye while the rich and powerful crucify Julian Assange. No-one says Assange is a saviour but his treatment smacks of lynch-mob mentality.Assange is the face of WikiLeaks, which has published documents, footage, e-mails, etcetera, fingering the US and its allies in killing, torturing, intimidating, lying and bribing people in the Middle East. It exposed the US's spying on and undermining of even itsfriends. It exposed a high level of hypocrisy, revealing politicians having said things opposite to what they have said in public. WikiLeaks has been a treasure trove of information, exposing the sick underbelly of the Western empire, as led by the US.WikiLeaks (as reported in US publication Truthdig) released footage of US troops in 2007 in Iraq killing civilians, including children and two Reuters journalists. It published 90,000 e-mails that exposed the deceit of Hilary Clinton.It revealed the donations of millions of dollars by Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the Clinton Foundation. Goldman Sachs gave Hillary Clinton $657,000 (about R9.5m) dressed up as speaker's fees. In the e-mails, Clinton told financial bosses she believed Wall Street would be better at managing the economy, contrary to what she said on her campaign trail. WikiLeaks also exposed her as the main sponsor of the war in Libya, just so she could embellish her presidential candidacy.WikiLeaks' network was so sophisticated that the US and its allies have not been able to shut it down. They tried the next best, shutting down Assange.We can discern from the timeline (below) that the justice and executive systems of these countries were technically abused to keep Assange hostage. Some of the coincidences are uncanny. Sweden dropped the accusation of rape in May 2017 when Lenin Moreno took office as president of Ecuador, succeeding Rafael Correa, a supporter of Assange. Moreno claimed not to support Assange.
Another coincidence was when the British police entered the Ecuadorean embassy last week, a month after the International Monetary Fund approved a loan of $4.2bn to Ecuador.
WikiLeaks is not based in the US, UK or Sweden. Chelsea Manning, the US soldier who leaked information to Wikileaks, has refused to implicate Assange. None of the editors of newspapers that published the WikiLeaks information is being charged.
So where are the media doyens? Where are the truth crusaders? The world is in trouble because the so-called good people work on behalf of the powerful, so that change must mean as little change as possible, or preferably none at all.
The task of the ANC has been for the people to govern. However, for the people to govern, they must defeat a power that has never been defeated. Every time an empire faced defeat, it surreptitiously passed the power to another set of elites. The Romans passed it to the British, French and Spanish, who in turn passed it to the Americans.
We are not powerful enough to overcome this Western behemoth. Taking on the empire risks being isolated and punished. We have to box clever and choose battles wisely and retain a measure of independence. We have to be Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, not to reveal all and bide our time until we have weapons they cannot defeat. Now is not that time.
We are Jon Snow at The Wall, without a powerful benefactor, hardly any skills, no special powers, and we can only appeal to the good nature of those with power. But as in Game of Thrones, this time shall pass, and when it passes, we must be ready for action.
- Williams is an ANC staffer. These are his personal views
TIMELINE OF EVENTS..