Closeup Japan
Papa Bongo's big smile
WHAT does a dictator look like? I don't think it's an easy question to answer. More because of the fact that the two dictators many of us have the unhappy memory of encountering in our brief history look so different makes this easy question a much more difficult one to answer. One had an inborn inability to smile, and the other, though keeping a smiling face most of the time, had a foxy cunning look full of deception and dishonesty. So, if anyone is looking for a facial expression of a dictator that might resemble or symbolise Gabriel Garcia Marquez's patriarch in his twilight by looking at our own dictators is bound to be disappointed.
I was haunted by this same question for very long, and deep in my heart cherished the desire of having an opportunity of seeing a dictator in the true sense, both in the outward look as well as in methods and practices dictators tend to follow. I'm pretty much sure Pinochet, Mobutu, Suharto, and the one from our former partner country, who all of a sudden evaporated in mid-air leaving behind as many unanswered questions as his own character, had all the evil virtues combined in one human body.
But I had the misfortune never to come anywhere close to any of them. And then, all of a sudden, my hidden desire was eventually fulfilled, as I found myself standing very close to a shiny dictator with a smiling face in Tokyo.
Papa Bongo is an elected president, as much as our own two past dictators could be called elected. Doctoring election results is a much-liked practice by the dictators anywhere in the world, and here too all of them follow their distinct ways and practices to put a stamp of being elected by the people in the credentials that they love to present to the larger patriarchs of world politics. Dictators do sometime resort to elections, but they make sure that the result turns out to be exactly the one that they wish to see.
Omar Bongo unleashed a multi-party democratic system in his homeland Gabon in the early 1990s after ruling with an iron hand for almost a quarter of a century. In 1967, he became one of the youngest African leaders to take the helm of an independent state when the French decided to leave the country. His ascent to the presidency coincided with his country's emergence as the third largest oil producer in Africa.
As oil money spoils the rulers down to the core, as has been exposed through gestures and attitudes of those in desert kingdoms, Bongo too quickly realised that money could be the most effective tool to keep a hold over power and influence. Unlike the masters of the desert kingdoms, Bongo decided to use that money-power within the perimeters of his own country. Petrodollars inflated the salaries of civil servants and also kept most of the people fed and dressed.
Meanwhile, France, the main beneficiary of the oil resource of Gabon, guaranteed security by maintaining her military presence. The situation was perfect for the budding dictator to indulge in practices that dictators everywhere like most -- sowing the seeds of their self-proclaimed fame by naming everything after themselves. Most of the cities and town in Gabon these days have at least one Boulevard Omar Bongo.
There are stadiums, hospitals, gymnasiums and universities everywhere in Gabon that carry his name, and even the remote town where he was born has been renamed Bongoville to show respect to the person who is now set to make a new world record of being the longest serving president of a country.
Omar Bongo is lucky in the sense that he became head of the state at the age of 31, and is well-placed now to survive and surpass all others. He is definitely eyeing a record that would be extremely difficult to break in coming days. Shortly after managing a victory in the 2005 election, Bongo proudly declared that he would run again in 2012; as for his country the best, he thinks, is yet to come.
One good thing for him being a dictator is that these days he doesn't intend to banish his opponents altogether. Instead, he buys them outright, using his inflated coffer of petrodollars. So, whenever there is serious resentment against the government, the leading figures of anti-government movements are offered lucrative cabinet posts, and soon afterward resentments simply disappear.
Omar Bongo was in Japan during the last week of May to attend the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development held in Yokohama. An African Fair was organised in connection with the conference at a venue adjacent to the media center. He was among the few dignitaries who were invited to open the fair officially.
The Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Marc Ravalomanana, president of Madagascar, were also among them. I had a rare opportunity to be at the opening ceremony, and that allowed me to see for the first time a real dictator and his behaviour.
As I was late arriving at the venue I was standing at a place close to the VIP entrance, and soon I saw a short, mustached figure in big glasses going towards the podium, passing through the narrow passage where I was standing. He was wearing a fashionable suit most likely designed by one of those well-known French designers.
The three heads of governments and states later made brief statements before they were requested to move over to the podium once again for the official ribbon cutting ceremony that would mark the opening of the fair.
Seven dignitaries including the three VIPs were on the podium as the Master of the Ceremonies was explaining when to cut the ribbon at the same time. All of them were given white gloves and scissors. Just before the start of the countdown for cutting the ribbon, Bongo used his scissor and cut his part of the ribbon. Part of the ribbon fell to the ground, and Akira Amari, Japans minister of trade and industries who had been standing next to Bongo, had to pick up the piece and hold it in one hand to make the whole ribbon look like a long uncut piece. And what did Omar Bongo do at that moment? He was smiling, as if nothing had gone wrong and it was a big joke. He, of course, joined the others to cut the ribbon once again, with another big smile.
I later thought about the episode to figure out if it was a mistake on his part, and then I realised that dictators were not supposed to make any mistakes. Bongo, being a dictator, is simply not accustomed to waiting for anything, and no one keeps him waiting. All of a sudden, he was asked to wait before he was allowed to cut the ribbon. His unconscious mind probably gave a signal that he shouldn't do what he had never done before. His hand then made the move following the instruction of the mind of a dictator and part of the ribbon fell to the ground, bringing a big smile on the face of this shining dictator.
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