Tories urged to remember party's 'craven indulgence' of apartheid regime

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/09/peter-hain-tories-mandela-apartheid-regime

Version 0 of 1.

A former Labour cabinet minister has asked Conservatives to remember their party's "craven indulgence" of South Africa's apartheid regime as MPs including Gordon Brown and David Cameron gathered to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela in the House of Commons.

Peter Hain, whose family fled South Africa because of their support for Mandela, said the former president commanded fame and admiration from virtually everyone in the world at the end of his life, but it should be remembered that he was not helped by the British government during his 25-year incarceration. Some Tory MPs even tried to stop the BBC broadcasting the Free Mandela concert, he added.

The former leader of the house thanked the Speaker, John Bercow, for volunteering that the Conservative party was "on the wrong side of the struggle" and Cameron for apologising for the Tory record on apartheid.

However, he criticised Norman Tebbit, a minister under Margaret Thatcher, and Charles Moore, her biographer, for trying to rewrite history.

"If Nelson Mandela can forgive his oppressors without forgetting their crimes, who am I not to do the same to our opponents in the long decades of the anti-apartheid struggle," he added.

"But it really does stick in the craw when Lord Tebbit, Charles Moore and others similar tried over recent days to claim that their complicity with apartheid – and that's what I think it was – somehow brought about its end. Even, to my utter incredulity, when Lord Tebbit told BBC World, in a debate with me, that they had brought about Mandela's freedom. I know for a fact that Nelson Mandela did not think so."

Hain was among many senior Labour figures from the last government to speak in the debate, including former prime minister Gordon Brown, former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett and former health secretary Frank Dobson.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, led tributes for the opposition by describing Mandela as "father of a nation" and telling two stories about the ex-president's two visits to his party conferences.

"He came to the conference and described himself as an unemployed pensioner with a criminal record," Miliband said, drawing laughter from MPs.

"He famously said to Desmond Tutu, who teased him for his taste in gaudy shirts: 'It's pretty thick for a man who wears a dress in public'."

Miliband also paid tribute to the prime minister for remarks acknowledging mistakes made by some Conservatives in the past.

"It may seem odd to a younger generation that apartheid survived as long as it did, since it now seems to have been universally reviled all the world over," he said.

"But of course, the truth and the history is very different - the cause was highly unfashionable, often considered dangerous by those in authority and opposed by those in government.

"The prime minister was right a few years ago to acknowledge the history. It is in the spirit of what Nelson Mandela taught us to acknowledge the truth about the past, and without rancour to welcome the change that has come to pass."

Miliband was followed by Brown, who made a rare appearance in the Commons, to say Mandela taught "no injustice can last forever".

The former prime minister recalled unveiling a statue of the South African leader, with "his finger pointing upwards, as it always did, to the heights: the man most responsible for the destruction of what people thought was indestructible, the apartheid system".

He told the Commons that on his son John's birthday 10 years ago, he picked up the phone to hear Mandela was on the other end.

"He too had lost a child in infancy," said Mr Brown, in relation to the death of his 10-day old daughter, Jennifer, in 2002.

"And from that time on, on his birthday [the day before Brown's second son's], on [his wife] Graca's birthday [the day of John's], we exchanged telephone calls on the day of these birthdays, and presents, letters and cards, the last only this October."

Earlier, Cameron paid tribute to Mandela as a "towering figure" and said it had been one of the biggest privileges of his life to meet him in South Africa, where they spoke about the effect of Aids.

"He did not see himself as the helpless victim of history - he wrote it," the prime minister said.

"We must never forget the evil of apartheid and its effect on every day life. Separate benches, separate buses, separate schools – even separate pews in church. Inter-racial relationships criminalised, pass laws and banning orders, a whole language of segregation that expressed man's inhumanity to man.

"Nelson Mandela's struggle was made ever more vital by acts of extreme brutality, like at Sharpeville in Soweto on behalf of the South African authorities. His was a journey that spanned six decades, from his activism in the 40s and 50s, through nearly three decades of incarceration, through to his negotiations that led to the end of Apartheid and his election to the highest office in South Africa.

"It was, as he said, 'a long walk to freedom'. As a prisoner in a cell measuring seven feet by eight, there must have been times that Nelson Mandela must have felt his fists were beating against a wall that would not be moved. But he never wavered.

"As he famously said at his Rivonia trial, he wanted to live for and achieve the ideal of a democratic and free society. But it was also an ideal for which, as he said very clearly, he was prepared to die.

"Even after long years of imprisonment he rejected offers of freedom until they had removed all conditions that would have prevented his struggle for justice. What sustained him throughout all was a belief in human dignity - that no-one is naturally superior over anyone else, that each person has inherent worth."

Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, also gave a speech saying he hoped other divided countries could follow the legacy of South Africa under Mandela.

"Nelson Mandela laid down a blueprint that has made it possible for other divided communities such as in Northern Ireland to reject violence, overcome their differences and make a fresh beginning," he said.

"That is why I hope that in communities where people are still struggling to replace violence and conflict with peace and stability, the principles of forgiveness and reconciliation which Mandela embodied are followed by others too.

"Recently, for example, we have debated in this house the alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Surely there can be no better way for that country to heal its wounds and bring peace and unity to all its people than to follow Mandela's example and emulate South Africa's truth and reconciliation process.

"This, as I see it, is Nelson Mandela's lasting legacy to all of us. To champion the defenders of human rights today and to know that wherever there is conflict and injustice, with hope and courage, peace is always possible."

MPs have suspended their daily business to pay tribute to Mandela until around 10pm. Ahead of Tuesday's memorial in Johannesburg, Cameron, Nick Clegg and Miliband will fly to South Africa to represent Britain, along with Tony Blair, Sir John Major and Brown.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.