by Felix Ngasama
Before any Malawians decide to give their vote to John Tembo in the 2009 presidential elections, they must know that during the last 5 to 10 years of Kamuzu Banda's rule John Tembo had assumed behind-the-scenes presidential powers and he was running the country in a ruthless and dictatorial fashion as Banda's clone.
Secondly, people must ask themselves why Kamuzu Banda surprised Malawi and the world when he chose Guanda Chakuamba as his running mate during the first democratic elections in 1994. Why did Banda himself reject Tembo and not position his loyal gatekeeper, bootlicker and henchman in-chief as his successor but instead chose Chakuamba? For the first time Banda openly announced his succession plan to all and sundry but surprise, surprise, John Tembo was not featured.
Why did Banda not choose John Tembo as his running mate and successor after their "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" relationship and eventual plunder of Malawi? It is highly likely that the old dictator had taken the road to Damascus and returned a converted person only to find that the Sundance Kid (John Tembo) had not followed him this time and he (Tembo) was still unchanged and wanted to still maintain the dictatorship against the open status quo sweeping across Malawi then. This can be supported by the fact that Tembo had postured himself to take over from a very old and soon to die Banda and might have seen the democratic winds of change sweeping over Malawi as an obstacle to his eventual take over of the presidency. In view of this, Tembo might have resisted from giving democracy its rightful place in Malawi but Kamuzu Banda had already taken a paradigm shift and refused to maintain a system that was now openly abhorred by the people. So when it came to choosing his successor Banda decided to opt for Guanda Chakuamba since John Tembo still wanted to maintain a dictatorial one-party (MCP) state in Malawi.
It may be that for the very first time Banda got to see and hear directly how badly the ordinary people felt about his iron fist rule over them. Banda might have finally come face to face with reality at grass root level after being cocooned, shielded and kept out of touch with the people by John Tembo. Banda might have realised that all the praise-singing and dancing by mbumba and other traditional dancers wherever he went was just an empty exercise, a subterfuge masterminded by Tembo to create a false reflection of the people’s genuine feelings. In the end even Kamuzu Banda himself saw John Tembo for what he is, realised that he was not good for the future of Malawi and chose Chakuamba as his successor instead.
Why should Malawians recycle a reject? What guarantee does any Malawian has that Tembo will not reassemble his old guard and return the country to Banda style dictatorship after being Banda's apprentice all those 30 years? The fact that John Tembo has held his Member of Parliament position as a representative for Dedza South, his home constituency, since 1960 up to this day speaks for itself - he sees no one capable to lead other than himself.
John Tembo had a better opportunity than any other person in Malawian history to use his influence to convince Banda out of his tyrannical control of Malawi. Tembo had his niece Cecilia Kadzamira as Banda's mistress or official hostess if you like. This arrangement presented the best opportunity that ever was for John Tembo to whisper good things through Cecilia to Kamuzu Banda to gradually influence the dictator to turn over a new leaf and tone down on his despotic stranglehold over the country. However Tembo used this arrangement to rather position himself as Banda's chief henchman and together, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, they pillaged and plundered Malawi with gay abandon.
Recently John Tembo seems to have momentarily found himself in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” type of situation. While waiting for his turn to address an MCP rally in Lilongwe, John Tembo went into a fantasy. In this fantasy John Tembo took a long and winding road to Damascus. And when he came back to the real world he told the people at the rally that he has changed. Malawians must not be naive and gullible to believe such a half-hearted and opportunistic election-eve pronouncement aimed at merely squeezing a vote out of them.
John Tembo cannot claim that he has changed while still clinging to a parliamentary seat for nearly half a century as we speak. Banda had become life-president of Malawi until the democratic winds of change in the early 1990's blew him off. But a closer look reveals that there is still another man, a megalomaniac who is quietly holding a parliamentary position for life in Malawi. That man is John Tembo the life member of parliament for Dedza South. If he can cling to a mere parliamentary seat for half a century - needless to say for life - God forbid what John Tembo will do if he becomes president. Tembo was Banda's protégé for all those years and he has learned and mastered all the tricks on how to be a dictator.
John Tembo must not lie to the people that he has changed. It will require Tembo to be on more roads to Damascus than an average Syrian truck driver before he can change considering the many atrocities and other evil deeds he committed in the name of Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda for all those 30 years. Malawian voters be warned.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
FLEECED BY THE PRESIDENT'S MEN - AN AFRICAN STORY
Frontline States Summit, Lusaka Zambia 1985. From left to right: Sam Nujoma the then leader of SWAPO, Namibia's liberation movement; Mozambican President Samora Machel (killed in an air crash on 19 October 1986); President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia; Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Only Mugabe is still in powerby Felix Ngasama
The sycophantic praise-singing and boot-licking presidential aides, cabinet ministers and other high ranking officials who surround African presidents are mainly responsible for Africa’s doom and gloom. They are the architects of many an African dictator.
I experienced a moment of truth and flipped 180º into reality check and subsequent above conclusion when I had the privilege to welcome the former Malawian President Bakili Muluzi at the place I used to work when he visited South Africa in 2006 for a meeting of former African heads of state.
Before Muluzi arrived, the guys from the Malawian Embassy came huffing and puffing to enquire if everything regarding the former president’s visit was in order and they were relieved when I introduced myself to them and reassured them that everything was spot on.
Muluzi arrived a few minutes later with his sycophantic hangers-on swarming all around him and out-doing each other to impress the ‘Big Man’ as he stepped out of the Malawian Embassy mercedes.
I welcomed the former president and one of the officials from the embassy introduced me to him. I then joined him and walked him to the place which was arranged for him to stay and rest while the squad from the embassy plus his aides swarmed around us, looking somewhat subdued and in total awe at Bakili Muluzi.
After welcoming the former president, I returned to my office to carry on with my normal duties. A few minutes later I heard a knock on my office door. It was one of my staff members informing me that there was a gentleman who wanted to see me.
The gentleman was one of former president Muluzi’s officials. He wanted to tell me that the former president wanted to have his lunch at exactly 12h00 noon. He then continued to spell out a list of specific dietary requirements and how the rice must be prepared, what must be added, how it must be served, how big the portion must be, at what temperature the food must be served, what condiments must accompany the food, what kind of drink to go with the food, blah, blah, blah. As he went on and on adding more and more stipulations I saw that he was getting ridiculous and I politely asked him to cut the chase. I told him I was going to phone the president myself at 11h00 am, speak to him directly and ask him what he wanted to eat. Muluzi’s official protested but I insisted and convinced him that I had met the president already and he was not going to be surprised if I called to speak to him about his lunch. He then waved his hands in surrender and conceded. Before he left he looked at me straight in the eye and then up and down.
At exactly 11h00 am I called Bakili Muluzi and introduced myself. I had with me a pen and a notebook ready to take down the specific details of the presidential lunch order. I faithfully expected a barrage of instructions and stipulations from the former president about how his food must be cooked with what ingredients, how it must be served as indicated by his official earlier. I even alerted the executive chef to the fact that the former Malawian president would be making a lunch order and I was going to handover the order to him and he must ensure that the food was prepared accordingly.
However when I asked the president what he wanted for lunch I was knocked for six, lost for words and thought I was momentarily hallucinating when I heard him say, “Just bring me roast chicken and chips”. I nearly said “What?!!!!!!” but quickly restrained myself and asked him calmly what he would like to drink. I was even more shocked when the president said, “A bottle of still water”. I threw my pen and notebook away and banged my fist on my desk as soon as I concluded my conversation with the former president. Two of my staff members heard the bang, got alarmed and rushed to my office to check what was wrong. I smiled at them and told them not to worry. They incredulously looked at each other and left in confusion.
I experienced a big bang and for the first time I realised what really causes many African presidents to mutate into megalomaniacal dictators. I saw how an average African president is made to feel like he is God and how this can corrupt even a good leader who initially had good intentions for his country. I mean the officials from the embassy and those that accompanied Muluzi on his trip were in total awe and worship of Muluzi as if he was an infallible demigod to whom they owed their life and very existence notwithstanding the fact that he was already a former president by then. Then there was this gentleman who came to see me, demanded heaven on earth for Bakili Muluzi and made numerous specific requirements and stipulations on behalf of Muluzi only to discover for myself upon speaking to the former president directly that he did not want any of those ridiculous demands, instructions and stipulations. Muluzi wanted a simple fast-food type of a meal, washed away with a glass of still water.
Sometimes if not all the time we blame the president, the prime minister or the African Big Man for all the suffering, economic collapse and abject poverty in many an African country. But what no one realises is that most of the time the culprits who really plunder and pillage the country and inflict poverty and suffering on the rest of the people are the president’s gluttonous officials who surround and cocoon him. The people who surround the president are the dirty rotten scoundrels who in most cases do despicable things and make unreasonable and extravagant demands in the name of the president without his knowledge. The presidential appointees such as cabinet ministers, advisers, army commanders, police chiefs who know very well that they have no career and if the Big Man is no more in charge they are also doomed, these are the real greedy evil doers, selfish fat cats whose only aim is to keep the president in power forever and out of touch with the ordinary people while they line their pockets with European and American donor funds in self-aggrandisement.
Rewind fast backwards to Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda aka the Lion King of Malawi. Malawi's first president was a megalomaniac and dictator extraordinaire who controlled every Malawian’s life and sowed suspicion between husband and wife, brother and sister, boyfriend and girlfriend, uncle and aunt, nephew and niece, teacher and student. But after what I experienced with Bakili Muluzi, I can now authoritatively say that Kamuzu Banda may not have been wholly responsible for all the evil deeds the people of Malawi endured under him. Banda may not have sanctioned all the deaths and disappearances of prominent Malawian politicians who were seen as threats. Banda may not have been aware that occasionally officials of his party, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) would take control of entrances to local market places to stop poor and struggling Malawians from entering a market place to buy food for their families if they did not have an MCP membership card and that the MCP cadres would then force the poor people to buy the membership card using the same little money with which they were supposed to buy food to feed their families and the poor man or woman would miserably return home empty handed to face their hungry children with no food but an MCP membership card instead. It is also very possible that Kamuzu Banda did not know that the poor people in the villages were being forced to contribute money, maize, rice, cattle, pigs, goats, chicken, eggs and all sorts of gifts to him when visiting their areas during crop inspection tours and other public engagements. It is highly likely that Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers were competing and out-doing each other to impress Kamuzu Banda through giving him the most gifts every time he visited their home areas, districts or regions by forcing poor people to hand over their little money, farm produce and livestock to give to Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda an already rich man with millions in his bank accounts. Meanwhile these same officials were lying to Kamuzu Banda that the people loved him and they voluntarily gave him all those gifts that needed truck loads to be transported to Sanjika Palace or wherever. It is also highly likely that Kamuzu Banda did not even see those gifts. The plain but horrifying truth may be that John Tembo the then Kamuzu Banda's right hand man and the cabinet ministers helped themselves to all the loot and distributed it among themselves.
If anyone is still in doubt about what really goes on behind the scene around most African presidents and how if the president is weak (most are) he can easily get corrupted by those around him and believe that he is the god of his country and the only one who can rule, see what really happened in Zambia. In 1991 the then president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, decided to allow multiparty democracy in Zambia. Kaunda wanted the people of Zambia to choose who they wanted to rule them in democratic national elections. Kaunda believed that the people of Zambia still loved him so much that they would vote for him and he would win hands down with a landslide victory against Frederick Chiluba his main contender. Kaunda based his belief on the lies his advisors, cabinet ministers and other officials who surrounded him and kept him out of touch with the people told him. So in November 1991 Zambia held its first real multiparty democratic national elections with Kaunda very confident that he would be voted to continue ruling Zambia. However as the election results started streaming in on the final day all indications were that Frederick Chiluba was winning and he was going to be the next president.
Meanwhile behind the scenes Kaunda’s cabinet ministers, advisors and other senior officials got alarmed and tried to convince him to prevent Frederick Chiluba at all costs from becoming president even if he emerged the winner. The Chief of the Army and Chief of Police also went to state house to convince Kaunda to declare a state of emergency to prevent Chiluba from becoming president. But Kaunda resisted the temptation to use the power at his disposal to stop Chiluba and declare himself de facto president. He graciously told his cabinet ministers, army commander and police chief that the people had spoken and that all of them must respect the will of the people of Zambia.
I experienced a moment of truth and flipped 180º into reality check and subsequent above conclusion when I had the privilege to welcome the former Malawian President Bakili Muluzi at the place I used to work when he visited South Africa in 2006 for a meeting of former African heads of state.
Before Muluzi arrived, the guys from the Malawian Embassy came huffing and puffing to enquire if everything regarding the former president’s visit was in order and they were relieved when I introduced myself to them and reassured them that everything was spot on.
Muluzi arrived a few minutes later with his sycophantic hangers-on swarming all around him and out-doing each other to impress the ‘Big Man’ as he stepped out of the Malawian Embassy mercedes.
I welcomed the former president and one of the officials from the embassy introduced me to him. I then joined him and walked him to the place which was arranged for him to stay and rest while the squad from the embassy plus his aides swarmed around us, looking somewhat subdued and in total awe at Bakili Muluzi.
After welcoming the former president, I returned to my office to carry on with my normal duties. A few minutes later I heard a knock on my office door. It was one of my staff members informing me that there was a gentleman who wanted to see me.
The gentleman was one of former president Muluzi’s officials. He wanted to tell me that the former president wanted to have his lunch at exactly 12h00 noon. He then continued to spell out a list of specific dietary requirements and how the rice must be prepared, what must be added, how it must be served, how big the portion must be, at what temperature the food must be served, what condiments must accompany the food, what kind of drink to go with the food, blah, blah, blah. As he went on and on adding more and more stipulations I saw that he was getting ridiculous and I politely asked him to cut the chase. I told him I was going to phone the president myself at 11h00 am, speak to him directly and ask him what he wanted to eat. Muluzi’s official protested but I insisted and convinced him that I had met the president already and he was not going to be surprised if I called to speak to him about his lunch. He then waved his hands in surrender and conceded. Before he left he looked at me straight in the eye and then up and down.
At exactly 11h00 am I called Bakili Muluzi and introduced myself. I had with me a pen and a notebook ready to take down the specific details of the presidential lunch order. I faithfully expected a barrage of instructions and stipulations from the former president about how his food must be cooked with what ingredients, how it must be served as indicated by his official earlier. I even alerted the executive chef to the fact that the former Malawian president would be making a lunch order and I was going to handover the order to him and he must ensure that the food was prepared accordingly.
However when I asked the president what he wanted for lunch I was knocked for six, lost for words and thought I was momentarily hallucinating when I heard him say, “Just bring me roast chicken and chips”. I nearly said “What?!!!!!!” but quickly restrained myself and asked him calmly what he would like to drink. I was even more shocked when the president said, “A bottle of still water”. I threw my pen and notebook away and banged my fist on my desk as soon as I concluded my conversation with the former president. Two of my staff members heard the bang, got alarmed and rushed to my office to check what was wrong. I smiled at them and told them not to worry. They incredulously looked at each other and left in confusion.
I experienced a big bang and for the first time I realised what really causes many African presidents to mutate into megalomaniacal dictators. I saw how an average African president is made to feel like he is God and how this can corrupt even a good leader who initially had good intentions for his country. I mean the officials from the embassy and those that accompanied Muluzi on his trip were in total awe and worship of Muluzi as if he was an infallible demigod to whom they owed their life and very existence notwithstanding the fact that he was already a former president by then. Then there was this gentleman who came to see me, demanded heaven on earth for Bakili Muluzi and made numerous specific requirements and stipulations on behalf of Muluzi only to discover for myself upon speaking to the former president directly that he did not want any of those ridiculous demands, instructions and stipulations. Muluzi wanted a simple fast-food type of a meal, washed away with a glass of still water.
Sometimes if not all the time we blame the president, the prime minister or the African Big Man for all the suffering, economic collapse and abject poverty in many an African country. But what no one realises is that most of the time the culprits who really plunder and pillage the country and inflict poverty and suffering on the rest of the people are the president’s gluttonous officials who surround and cocoon him. The people who surround the president are the dirty rotten scoundrels who in most cases do despicable things and make unreasonable and extravagant demands in the name of the president without his knowledge. The presidential appointees such as cabinet ministers, advisers, army commanders, police chiefs who know very well that they have no career and if the Big Man is no more in charge they are also doomed, these are the real greedy evil doers, selfish fat cats whose only aim is to keep the president in power forever and out of touch with the ordinary people while they line their pockets with European and American donor funds in self-aggrandisement.
Rewind fast backwards to Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda aka the Lion King of Malawi. Malawi's first president was a megalomaniac and dictator extraordinaire who controlled every Malawian’s life and sowed suspicion between husband and wife, brother and sister, boyfriend and girlfriend, uncle and aunt, nephew and niece, teacher and student. But after what I experienced with Bakili Muluzi, I can now authoritatively say that Kamuzu Banda may not have been wholly responsible for all the evil deeds the people of Malawi endured under him. Banda may not have sanctioned all the deaths and disappearances of prominent Malawian politicians who were seen as threats. Banda may not have been aware that occasionally officials of his party, Malawi Congress Party (MCP) would take control of entrances to local market places to stop poor and struggling Malawians from entering a market place to buy food for their families if they did not have an MCP membership card and that the MCP cadres would then force the poor people to buy the membership card using the same little money with which they were supposed to buy food to feed their families and the poor man or woman would miserably return home empty handed to face their hungry children with no food but an MCP membership card instead. It is also very possible that Kamuzu Banda did not know that the poor people in the villages were being forced to contribute money, maize, rice, cattle, pigs, goats, chicken, eggs and all sorts of gifts to him when visiting their areas during crop inspection tours and other public engagements. It is highly likely that Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers were competing and out-doing each other to impress Kamuzu Banda through giving him the most gifts every time he visited their home areas, districts or regions by forcing poor people to hand over their little money, farm produce and livestock to give to Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda an already rich man with millions in his bank accounts. Meanwhile these same officials were lying to Kamuzu Banda that the people loved him and they voluntarily gave him all those gifts that needed truck loads to be transported to Sanjika Palace or wherever. It is also highly likely that Kamuzu Banda did not even see those gifts. The plain but horrifying truth may be that John Tembo the then Kamuzu Banda's right hand man and the cabinet ministers helped themselves to all the loot and distributed it among themselves.
If anyone is still in doubt about what really goes on behind the scene around most African presidents and how if the president is weak (most are) he can easily get corrupted by those around him and believe that he is the god of his country and the only one who can rule, see what really happened in Zambia. In 1991 the then president of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, decided to allow multiparty democracy in Zambia. Kaunda wanted the people of Zambia to choose who they wanted to rule them in democratic national elections. Kaunda believed that the people of Zambia still loved him so much that they would vote for him and he would win hands down with a landslide victory against Frederick Chiluba his main contender. Kaunda based his belief on the lies his advisors, cabinet ministers and other officials who surrounded him and kept him out of touch with the people told him. So in November 1991 Zambia held its first real multiparty democratic national elections with Kaunda very confident that he would be voted to continue ruling Zambia. However as the election results started streaming in on the final day all indications were that Frederick Chiluba was winning and he was going to be the next president.
Meanwhile behind the scenes Kaunda’s cabinet ministers, advisors and other senior officials got alarmed and tried to convince him to prevent Frederick Chiluba at all costs from becoming president even if he emerged the winner. The Chief of the Army and Chief of Police also went to state house to convince Kaunda to declare a state of emergency to prevent Chiluba from becoming president. But Kaunda resisted the temptation to use the power at his disposal to stop Chiluba and declare himself de facto president. He graciously told his cabinet ministers, army commander and police chief that the people had spoken and that all of them must respect the will of the people of Zambia.
30 hours after the elections had closed and while the final results had still not yet been announced but it was clear that Chiluba had won, he (Chiluba) went on national television to briefly tell the people of Zambia and the world that Kenneth Kaunda had phoned to congratulate him on his victory. Had Kaunda succumbed to the temptation presented to him by his cabinet ministers and security chiefs and decided to hold on to power there would have been either mass protests by Chiluba’s supporters, a state of emergency to suppress would-be protestors or a civil war. The bottomline could have been another African country denying its people democracy and Kaunda could have been blamed, vilified and labelled another African dictator who did not want to relinquish power after being voted out by his people. Meanwhile the real culprits (cabinet ministers and security chiefs) who had attempted to reconstruct Kaunda and mutate him into a megalomaniac could be sitting pretty and continuing their selfish quest for self-aggrandizement.
Look at Zimbabwe. Who is truly responsible for the current deadlock between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai over who should control the Ministry of Home Affairs? Mugabe’s powerful security chiefs, Constantine Chiwenga the Army Commander and Augustine Chihuri the Police Chief with the support of ZANU-PF's politburo have put their foot down and told Mugabe, in no uncertain terms, that he must not let Tsvangirai take control of this important ministry which controls the police for fear that once in control he may use his power to act against the two security chiefs in revenge for the suffering (beatings and imprisonment) meted on him by Zimbabwean security forces. It is also well known that these two men tried unsuccessfully to convince Mugabe to totally prevent Tsvangirai from ascending to power. They even strayed out of their supposedly politically neutral civil servant positions to publicly make political pronouncements and express their disgust at Tsvangirai and promising that they will never accord him the obligatory official military salute should he become their president. Mugabe has taken a tough uncompromising stand on the power sharing talks on instruction from his die-hard politburo and the two security chiefs.
Look at Zimbabwe. Who is truly responsible for the current deadlock between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai over who should control the Ministry of Home Affairs? Mugabe’s powerful security chiefs, Constantine Chiwenga the Army Commander and Augustine Chihuri the Police Chief with the support of ZANU-PF's politburo have put their foot down and told Mugabe, in no uncertain terms, that he must not let Tsvangirai take control of this important ministry which controls the police for fear that once in control he may use his power to act against the two security chiefs in revenge for the suffering (beatings and imprisonment) meted on him by Zimbabwean security forces. It is also well known that these two men tried unsuccessfully to convince Mugabe to totally prevent Tsvangirai from ascending to power. They even strayed out of their supposedly politically neutral civil servant positions to publicly make political pronouncements and express their disgust at Tsvangirai and promising that they will never accord him the obligatory official military salute should he become their president. Mugabe has taken a tough uncompromising stand on the power sharing talks on instruction from his die-hard politburo and the two security chiefs.
Kenneth Kaunda and particulary Nelson Mandela who voluntarily retired after only one term in office have set a good example for Africa. Current and former African presidents who still yearn for power must look at Kaunda, Mandela and less then a handful other African presidents who have voluntarily retired into statesmanship without hatching plans to stage a come-back.
I hear that Bakili Muluzi has indicated that he wants to contest in the 2009 Malawian presidential elections and return to Sanjika Palace. This is a very disappointing development akin to dragging Malawi backwards and if one can dig deeper into this, the revelation may be that Muluzi has been lobbied and aggrandized to Messianic proportions by top members of his political party the United Democratic Front (UDF). Without exenorating Muluzi for wanting to become president again I strongly suspect that his officials have gone on their knees begging him to please lead them, they have gone into sycophantic praise-singing and worship of Muluzi and convinced him that he is Malawi's Messiah and God and there is no one else fit to rule the country other than him. Muluzi has fallen for the tantalizing temptation dangled in front of him by members of his inner circle who are the real culprits yearning for power and all the trappings that come with it. Muluzi may be a reluctant megalomaniac being ‘panel-beaten’ into shape by his own officials and advisors for their own personal gain. Muluzi has failed to rise above cheap party politics and advise those who are garnering for his return to the presidential stage that he had his turn and now it should be someone else's turn to lead the UDF and if possible the country if that leader wins the national elections. I just hope that the Malawian constitution is not going to be reviewed and amended to allow Muluzi and his gang to fleece Malawi again.
AL QAEDA'S OBAMA BASHING
Left: Ayman al-Zawahiri,
Al Qaeda's second in command
Al Qaeda's second in command
Above right (l-r): US President-elect Barack Obama; Current US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell
Source: Flickr
Source: Flickr
by Felix Ngasama
Al Qaeda has finally let it be known how it feels about US president-elect Barack Obama. Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri has gone into psychological bashing of Barack Obama calling him, current US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor Colin Powell a 'house negro', a slavery term used by Malcom X to describe black slaves who were loyal and kowtowing to their white masters.
Zawahiri criticised Obama's support for Israel and his plans to send more troops to Afghanistan where he says they will perish. He also reminded Obama that he (Obama) was born to a Muslim father, but he chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims.
The question is why was Al Qaeda quiet throughout the US presidential elections. Since Al Qaeda's destruction of New York's World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, it has concetrated more on a psychological warfare with the US at home and has not successfully carried out any more terrorist attacks on US soil. But Osama bin Laden has been highly successful on the psychological front in his war against the US and he has cleverly used this to influence the US public opinion and sway the outcome of things in that country to suit him. In the 2004 US presidential elections observers - including George Bush himself - believed that Osama bin Laden's last minute video released just days before American voters went to the polls may have helped Bush get reelected.
For example if Al Qaeda did not like Barack Obama from the beginning all it needed to do to prevent him from being elected president of the US was to choose the most opportune time during the election campaign and get Osama bin Laden to issue a bellicose statement promising more terrorist attacks on US soil and US interests abroad. This would have automatically influenced US citizens to vote for John McCain a so called maverick who promised to recycle Bush's policies and take the fight to Al Qaeda to protect US citizens at home and abroad.
So the fact that Al Qaeda was quiet during the entire election campaign when polls were indicating that Obama was likely to be elected president of the US shows that perhaps Al Qaeda was happy with Barack Obama and expected him to break with American tradition of supporting Israel on one hand and soften the US stance against its mainly Muslim adversaries on the other considering that Obama's father was once a Muslim before he became atheist.
However much to Al Qaeda's chagrin, Barack Obama has indicated that he is going to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight against Al Qaeda and its loyal ally, the Taliban.
It may also be that Al Qaeda now undesirably views Barack Obama's popularity in the Muslim world coupled with his likeable and disarming personality as a threat that may draw away the much needed but very few Al Qaeda sympathisers and supporters.
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