The Foreign Service Journal, October 2004

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23 T HE STRONG S OUTH A FRICAN INTEREST IN THE CAMPAIGN IS LARGELY DRIVEN BY RISING ANTI -B USH AND ANTI -U.S. SENTIMENT . B Y D EON L AMPRECHT F O C U S O N T H E 2 0 0 4 E L E C T I O N S n my mind’s eye, I see a picture of a 6- year-old boy wearing a mock suicide bomber’s vest. The haunting image was captured during a recent march in Johannesburg that was organized by Muslims and other groups protesting Israeli and U.S. policy in the Middle East. Splashed on the front page of every major South African newspaper, it caused unease in a country which has been bloodied since 1998 by the Muslim vigilante movement People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, which is loosely allied with Qibla, an Iranian-inspired group. Analysts are quick to point out such militant statements are not representative of the majority view in South Africa. But it does serve to illustrate a significant interest here in the 2004 battle for the White House that is driven to a large degree, I’m obliged to point out, by a rising anti- Bush and anti-U.S. sentiment. In the past, most South Africans have followed American presidents like they do British royalty. The memory of John F. Kennedy is still celebrated here; Reagan is fondly recalled as the “Hollywood president;” and the warm relationship between Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela evokes nostalgia. Of course, they love the scandals, too: Kennedy’s trysts with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Reagan’s tantrums and, best of all, the Monica Lewinsky affair. Then came the 2000 election. South Africans, who are rightly proud of the way they defied doomsday prophets by avoiding a bloody civil war and pulling off a peaceful democratic transition, were scandalized by the vote- counting fiasco in Florida. But they had no real problem with the winner, as Al Gore was considered to be even more boring than the previously unknown George W. Bush. At least “Dubya” gave the world the gift of “Bushisms,” so South Africans warmed to him slightly. Bush’s Unilateralism vs. Kerry’s Multilateralism As horrified South Africans watched the fall of the Twin Towers on their television screens three years ago, their hearts bled. They rallied behind the U.S., as did the rest of the world. But the events that followed that terrible day were to change their view of Bush permanently. At first they merely bristled at what they perceived to be his cow- boy-like arrogance, but the war in Iraq brought outright hostility on the part of a majority of South Africans. South African analysts concur that there is an unusual degree of interest in the Bush/Kerry contest among the intellectual and political elite this year. Sampie Terreblanche, political economist and profes- I I N S OUTH A FRICA , K EEN I NTEREST Deon Lamprecht is the Washington bureau chief for Media 24 Newspapers of South Africa.