{UAH} Pojim/WBK/Gook: Crossing the line, hating Obama and Odinga... - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Crossing-the-line-hating-Obama-and-Odinga-political-contestation/-/434750/2645392/-/j3nded/-/index.html

Crossing the line, hating Obama and Odinga... - Comment

By L. MUTHONI WANYEKI
Posted  Saturday, March 7  2015 at  13:46

This past week, not just Americans but the rest of the world played audience to a perplexing spectacle.

The spectacle came hot on the heels of the "leak" of intelligence documents apparently indicating that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had lied to the United Nations about Iran's nuclear capabilities a couple of years ago.

That particular address, complete with a cartoon-like diagram of the bomb, went viral at the time. The diagram was satirised all over the net, to much amusement, even though there was nothing funny about what it purported to illustrate.

Given that, it would have been hard for many to be anything but sceptical about the Israeli prime minister's presentation to the American Congress this past week, critiquing the content and trajectory of America's negotiations with Iran on the same subject matter — Iran's nuclear capabilities.

But it was not trying to decipher the ins and outs of those negotiations that was so perplexing. It was the fact that the Israeli PM was addressing the American Congress to directly urge it to go against its own executive. It was the fact that he was doing so on the explicit invitation of the Republican Party.

Every state obviously lobbies other states on matters it considers of interest. That's the purpose of diplomacy. And even diplomats will make use of splits between ruling and opposition political parties or between different arms of government to get their point across. But discreetly and tactfully. Preserving face on all sides. Nobody wants to end up accused of actively fomenting dissidence.

For the Republican Party to have extended the invitation therefore came across as nothing less than a slap in the face of the American executive. For the Israeli PM to have accepted it — while claiming to be innocent of stirring the partisan pot — came across as equally so. A line had been crossed.

How is that relevant to us?

The bitterness of the state of affairs in the United States parallels the bitterness of the state of affairs here. The situations are not entirely comparable. In the United States, the House is controlled by the political opposition. Here, the political opposition does not control the House. In the United States, the vitriol towards the presidency comes from the political opposition. Here, the vitriol is from the ruling political party towards the head of the political opposition.

What is comparable is the highly personalised nature of the vitriol. It is hard for anybody sensitive to race to not assume that the never-ending nitpicking by the Republicans does not have something to do with the fact that Barrack Obama is mixed-race.

It is hard for anybody sensitive to ethnicity to not assume that the never-ending stream of public humiliations by the Jubilants has nothing to do with the fact that Raila Odinga is Luo. Both adding a dangerous, subterranean element of grievance to an already dangerous, overtly partisan situation.

But the point is the bitterness. Political contestation that's fair and square should be par for the course. We all win some. We all lose some. Nothing gets too personal. That is not what we have here. We too have crossed the line.

L. Muthoni Wanyeki is Amnesty International's regional director for East Africa.

Crossing the line, hating Obama and Odinga... - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Crossing-the-line-hating-Obama-and-Odinga-political-contestation/-/434750/2645392/-/j3nded/-/index.html

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.