Dalai Lama

"LandepNews"

Dalai Lama

South Africa is procrastinating granting visa to two of the most illustrious people of the 20th century, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, where they are expected to attend Tutu’s 80th anniversary in Cape Town. Dalai Lama is expected to deliver the Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture on October 8.
The African National Congress, the party founded by another iconic personality of South Africa, the martyr Nelson Mandela, the first president of the state after the apartheid regime crumbled in the 1990s, is weighing the decision to allow the Tibetan leader in exile to come to South Africa.
Though the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa says the visa of the illustrious spiritual leader is under routine consideration, the truth of the matter is that the South African government is very careful about upsetting its major economic partner, China.
It would not be for the first time that the South African authorities refuse Dalai Lama the visa. In 1996, he was granted visa and came to South Africa where he met Nelson Mandela. In 2006, he was denied visa as he was attempting to attend a Nobel laureates’ conference.
The decision is all the more difficult for the South African government as the South African deputy president is visiting China. The Asian Communist power has invested billions of dollars in the economy of African countries, including that of South Africa, in a bid to gain access to the huge resources of the African continent.
Desmond Tutu, Archbishop of Cape Town, said that if Dalai Lama did not receive visa for South Africa the regime would shoot itself in the foot. In a statement, Tutu expressed hope that the regime of oppression was gone in South Africa.
Dalai Lama is the leader of Tibet, and has been living in exile for the last five decades, after Tibet was annexed by the Chinese regime and became part of the People’s Republic of China.
He rules a government in exile and has been considered the enemy by the Communist regime in Beijing, which fears that he wants to create an independent Tibet. Dalai Lama has never stopped demanding autonomy for the people in Tibet, especially religious and cultural autonomy.
A dispute erupted a few days ago between China and Dalai Lama, as the spiritual leader met with the representatives of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhist thought to discuss the necessity of continuing to have the institution of Dalai Lama.
Dalai Lama said a few days ago that if the people of Tibet decided that the Dalai Lama institution must continue he would leave specific instructions about where and when he would be reincarnated, so that the new Dalai Lama be recognized without any margin for error.
The Chinese authorities said that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama was against the Chinese law, and that the authorities of the republic were the only capable of appointing the new Dalai Lama.
The incumbent Dalai Lama also expressed his opinion on different ways of electing Dalai Lama, proposing the election of the new leader the way the pope in Rome is being elected.
Tibetan leaders fear that after the demise of the Dalai Lama China will attempt to replace him by a Dalai Lama that would be obedient to the regime in Beijing.

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