By Staff
Last week in Washington we saw a bi-partisan group of eight senators denouncing recent moves taken by Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza. They wrote, “(we) urge you to show the statesmanship needed to diffuse this brewing crisis.” This crisis was spawned when the President of Burundi, after months of consulting the Parliament, tried to amend the land-locked country’s Constitution to allow himself a third term. Burundi as a nation has endured more than enough violence over the past two decades due to civil war, ethnic tension and a lack of succession in leadership. But can this Senate group make much sense to a dictator considering the majority of the delegation has been in office for multiple decades? Career politicians may be at the helm, but hypocrisy is leading from the rear.
The group of Senators who crafted this letter (in no particular order) are Ed Markey (D-MA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), John Boozman (R-AR), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). Coons and Rubio are both freshman, but the rest are all career politicians. One might ask “how can someone who’s been in office for 15-plus years be tell someone who’s been in office for 10 to step down?”
The country of Burundi has seen a lot of turmoil in recent months and should be applauded for any efforts to encourage a peaceful succession of power. Before Nkurunziza was elected, civil war ravaged the country and he personally was credited with stopping most of the bloodshed. But the times they are a-changing as Bob Dylan once wrote; it’s now 2015 and the very man who ended a brutal civil war seems to be creating just that.
“Stepping down from power is the ultimate act of leadership,” the senators wrote and we agree. But this statement also applies to the U.S. Congress. A major reason autocrats refuse to listen to democratically-elected U.S. legislators is because they know they’re career politicians just like them.
Rwandan president Paul Kagame, who is experiencing upheaval like Nkurunziza, had this to say about western officials urging him to step down, “I think at some point we need to leave countries and people to decide their own affairs.” Intellectual leader or border-line dictator; he makes a valid point particular to U.S. requests for him to vacate the presidency.
While we applaud any efforts to establish or retain term limits at all levels of government, it’s hard to follow a trail to freedom when it’s littered with hypocrisy.
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