The Dalai Lama’s visa drama
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- Published on Tuesday, 27 September 2011 07:54
- Written by Rob Attwell
Once again, the Nobel Prize-winning Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is having trouble with his South African visa application.
Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and one of South Africa’s favourite public figures, invited his good friend Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, to attend his eightieth birthday party. Unfortunately, the globally-renowned representative of Tibetan Buddhism might miss his chance for tea and cupcakes with the archbishop.
Home Affairs claimed that no visa application was received. “The diplomatic mission has advised us on both occasions that no such application for a visa by the Dalai Lama has at this stage been received,” the department said in a press statement.
This starkly contrasts the statement given by Clayton Monyela, a spokesman for the department of International Relations and Co-operation. Monyela said, “We have received the application and it is still being considered.”
Either way, it seems that the Dalai Lama is experiencing the frustrations of South African bureaucratic obfuscation.
The speculation from notable South Africans, like two of our resident Nobel laureates, Archbishop Tutu and former president De Klerk, is that Home Affairs is stalling in order to please the Chinese.
This is what happened last time the Dalai Lama was denied entry into South Africa. He was hoping to attend a peace conference planned to coincide with the 2010 World Cup. Thabo Masebe, a government spokesman, claimed that this past refusal to allow the Dalai Lama into South Africa had nothing to do with Chinese pressure.
“The presence of the Dalai Lama would only serve to divert attention from the important work we are doing with the preparation for the World Cup,” he said. “The South African government does not have a problem with the Dalai Lama.”
Inconveniently, this statement was contradicted almost immediately by the Chinese embassy. Dai Bing, a representative from the embassy in Pretoria smugly informed reporters that Beijing had, in fact, pressured South Africa into denying travel documents to the Dalai Lama. China is South Africa’s largest trading partner. Admitting the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile would, at least in the eyes of politicians, harm bilateral relations between the two BRICS nations (South Africa being the “S” recently attached to the end of the Brazil, Russia, India and China acronym.
In terms of scale, South Africa’s economy is incomparable with any of the others. This reflects a very unfair balance of power). South Africa has, it seems, imported another cheap Chinese product – in addition to underpants, the South African government has imported a negative view of the Dalai Lama. The last time the visa question came up, Trevor Manuel compared the Dalai Lama to – and I kid you not – Bambi. “To say anything against the Dalai Lama is, in some quarters, equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi,” commented a sarcastic Manuel.
Sure, at a superficial level the Dalai Lama and Bambi might seem quite similar. They are both kind, gentle, lovable creatures who endear themselves to the general public. The key difference is that the Dalai Lama is an internationally respected humanitarian concerned about human rights abuses in his homeland. He is known for saying things like, “Without freedom, one’s creativity cannot bloom. Right to freedom is pivotal for the progress of any society.” Bambi was sadly unavailable for comment.
South Africa’s entry into the BRICS family, albeit as the weedy adopted cousin of the bigger economies, only heightens the probability that China will bully South Africa into denying the Dalai Lama’s entry.
However, the Dalai Lama has retired as leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile and therefore is not a political figure. Now, he is just a kindly old man planning on visiting his friend for a birthday party. Denying him a visa would be, quite frankly, just a little bit douchey.