Tibet & Beijing Olympics: Bush (Finally) Joins World Protest

I have been arguing in this blog that if world leaders were to shed their impotent stance on pressing/critical world issues, even the arrogant (etc.) President George W. Bush can be persuaded to see the light of reason and prevented from taking unilateral decisions that endanger world peace. The recent mounting pressure on China to behave itself in Tibet is a case in point.

Close on the heels of Nicolas Sarkozy’s threat to boycott Beijing Olympics (as also the European Union’s similar threat), President George W. Bush was finally shaken out of his slumber and he made an urgent phone call to the Chinese president Hu Jintao to urge the latter to resume negotiations with the Dalai Lama, the exiled-Tibetan spiritual leader.

The AP White House correspondent reports: “In a telephone call with Hu, Bush ‘pushed very hard’ about violence in Tibet, a necessity for restraint and a need for China to consult with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the White House said.

“After days of silence by Bush as other world leaders raised their voices, it marked a rare, direct protest from one president to another. As if to underscore how pointed Bush was, the White House said he used the call to ’speak very clearly and frankly’.” More here…

The European leaders are more strident in their criticism of the Chinese action in Tibet. The NYT reports: “In London, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told a joint session of the House of Commons and the House of Lords during a state visit that Britain and France shared a responsibility to urge the Chinese leadership to respect human rights and cultural identity.

“That goal could only be achieved if there was ‘true dialogue’ between China and the Dalai Lama, he (Sarkozy) said, a day after hinting that France might boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this summer.”

“The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, on Wednesday invited the Dalai Lama to speak to European Union legislators and questioned whether European leaders should attend the opening.

“Following the lead of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who met with the Dalai Lama last fall, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain announced last week that he would meet with the Dalai Lama when the spiritual leader visits London in May.”

It is time that world leaders, and the UN, begin to send similar strong signals to the Bush administration that US should begin to undo the damage it has done to world peace by its actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that Bush need not wait until next year when he would be replaced by a new president. Thus leaving a legacy that a man can take a wrong decision/action, but is also has the guts to remedy the situation.