Gary Player, friend of the Burmese generals and a subject of a previous post at Leo Africanus, was forced to stand down as host of the Nelson Mandela Invitational Tournament, according to news reports from South Africa.
This is at least some victory for the Free Burma Movement in South Africa. What is rankling, however, is the double-speak coming from Mandela’s office. In Patrick Bond‘s words, Mandela’s office ‘semi-folded’:
Members of Mandela’s inner circle are known to be irritated about what is perceived to be an attempt to draw the former president, at an advanced age, into a public political campaign without consulting him.
A statement by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, organisers of the tournament, made it clear on Monday that Player’s withdrawal had been voluntary to save Mandela any possible embarrassment and that it in no way represented a conclusion about or judgment of his ties with the military junta.
I am interested in reading Gary Player’s book “Grand Slam Golf” (1965/66).
I heard some callers on 702 tell of comments from the book that describe Blacks as “barbarians”.
Judging from the comments of those who have read the autobiography, Player clearly supported apartheid.
The more serious question is whether the US will look into the sanctions issue.
From my understanding US sanctions again Myanmar went into effect in 1990. Player, whose company is headquartered in Florida, finished his course in 2002.
It is reasonable to assume that laws were broken.
Interesting, and a case of the chickens coming home hey.
Peace,
Ridwan
I doubt the US government will intervene in this case. Apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia, just to take two cases, of police states from southern Africa, were very good case studies of official US response. A very good paper that explores that history is Mark Lawrence of the University of Texas’s work on
“Lyndon Johnson’s United States and White Rule in South Africa During the 1960s” which he presented at the Tamiment Library at NUY in the Spring of 2006. You can find Mark’s bio here: https://webspace.utexas.edu/ut1markl/