The Diplomatic Times Review

Office of Prime Minister May Be re-established in Kenya

The Standard of Kenya reported February 19, 2008, that, "The executive Prime Minister’s office, abolished [in Kenya] on December 12, 1964 when Jomo Kenyatta became Kenya’s first President [after winning independence from Britain], is now inevitable if a political settlement out of the impasse is to be reached, The Standard has learnt." See "Reforms could see the return of powerful PM.

"The Standard said, "It is understood to be behind the inordinate delay in striking a deal because of its far-reaching political implications."

For background on what led to the call for power sharing and the reinstitution of the executive Prime Minister’s office, see Kenya Elections.com, "Kenyan General Election, 2007 and "Twilight robbery, daylight murder."

Meanwhile, Standard correspondent Ben Agina reported February 19, 2008, that, "US Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice, gave the strongest hint yet of a possible power sharing arrangement between [Kenyan] President [Mwai] Kibaki and ODM [Orange Democratic Movement] leader, Mr Raila Odinga. See "US proposes ‘real power sharing.’"

The Daily Nation of Kenya told its readers February 10, 2008, that, "The US has asked President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga to cede ground and quickly agree on a power-sharing deal to restore stability to the country. See "US pushes for quick peace deal."

The publication quoted Ms. Rice, "at the Muthaiga residence of US ambassador Michael Ranneberger," as saying: “The time for a political settlement was supposed to be yesterday and it (agreeing on a coalition) has to be urgent. The leaders (President Kibaki and Mr Odinga) have to come together and there is need to have a power sharing arrangement for the country to move forward.” 

RELATED LINKS

Grand coalition government could save Kenya -- The Sunday Standard, Standard News Team, Kenya

Coalition can still function without Raila, Kibaki at helm -- The Standard, Dominic Odipo, Kenya

Technorati Tags: Kenya,Mwai Kibaki. Raila Odinga,Kofi Annan,Condoleeza Rice,The Standard,Daily Nation,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Canada Holds Summit of Envoys With Afghan Portfolios

"Canada's envoys to Washington, London, Kabul, Islamabad, Paris, The Hague, the United Nations, the European Union and NATO"... were "summoned to Ottawa [the Canadian capital] for a meeting at Foreign Affairs headquarters last Friday [February 8, 2008] to be briefed on the Manley report," according to a February 14, 2008, CanWest News Service report in the National Post of Canada. See "Diplomats assigned to troop search."

"While they were getting a firsthand briefing, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was leading his visible diplomatic offensive with telephone calls to the leaders of the U.S., Britain, NATO and France," according to the Post.

The publication quotes Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier as saying: "We need strong international leadership [on Afghanistan]. We need better co-ordination. That's why my government asked for a UN special envoy on Afghanistan and the Manley report [which was put together by Captain T. F. Manley] told us that: that the international community must better co-ordinate their work."

Technorati Tags: Canadian Envoys,Afghanistan,The Manley Report,The National Post,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Don't Expect Change in House Foreign Affairs Committee's Agenda

CHICAGO, USA -- Democratic Representative Howard L. Berman of California,USA, the No. 2 Democrat on the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, will become chairman of that committee in March, 2008. He succeeds Representative Thomas Lantos, also a Democrat from Californian, who died of cancer on February 11, 2008.

Unlike the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the House committee, called Committee on International Relations, from 1995-2007, does not ratify treaties confirm ambassadors. One of its strengths conducting investigations into international issues that affect the United States, among other things.

By the way, Mr. Berman, who represents California's 28th congressional district, has been a congressman since January 3, 1983.

If you want to read more about him, please see "Berman Brings Different Style but Familiar Agenda to Foreign Affairs Panel."

Technorati Tags: Howard L. Berman,Tom Lantos,House Foreign Affairs Committee,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

El Diario: 'Hillary Clinton's Campaign is in Trouble...'

CHICAGO, USA -- El Diario of New York, USA says, "Hillary Clinton's campaign is in trouble and the highest ranking Hispanic in her camp is paying the price." See "Last in, first out."

Technorati Tags: El Diario,Clinton Campaign,Patti Solis Doyle

Joshua Green's Informed Perspective on the Clinton Shake-Up

CHICAGO, USA -- Joshua Green at The Atlantic Online has published a fascinating look "Inside the Clinton Shake-Up, which commenced on February 10, 2008. although some observers saw if coming after the Iowa caucus in January 2008." In an insightful, must read political analysis, Mr. Green wrote:

Like so much involving Hillary Clinton, Sunday’s departure of her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, has gotten tons of attention, but its larger significance has been somewhat misunderstood. I’ve spent a fair  amount of time over the last two years reporting on “Hillaryland,” as Clinton’s inner circle is known, for pieces like this one and this one, and also, infamously, for one that did not run when GQ magazine opted to kill it after learning of the Clinton campaign’s displeasure (full story here)

Mr. Green said, "The latter piece focused on the inner workings of Clinton’s presidential campaign and Solis Doyle’s controversial role in it, and I’ll draw on what I learned then to try to add perspective to recent happenings."

He certainly added perspective, which compels me to highly recommend the article. I'd love to see it gain wide circulation and be the subject of informed debate. I think it provides a clue to how a Clinton Administration would perform.

For an earlier analysis of the inside workings of the Clinton campaign, see Michael Cottle's article in the January 25, 2008, edition of The New Republic headlined "Putsch in Hillaryland."

Technorati Tags: Joshua Green,Inside the Clinton Shake-Up,The Atlantic Online,Patty Solis Doyle,Hillarland,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Huckabee Thinks Obama Would Be a Tougher Opponent

CHICAGO, USA -- Former Arkansas governor "Mike Huckabee, still battling against the odds for the Republican nomination, weighed in on the Democratic fight today [February 12, 2008], saying he’s not surprised that Senator Barack Obama is doing so well against Senator Hillary Clinton, and he suggested Obama would be a tougher opponent for the Republicans this fall," Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Meckler reported February 12, 2008, in the Washington Wire blog.

Ms. Meckler said Mr. Huckabee told attendees at a breakfast hosted by the Boston, Massachusetts, USA-based  Christian Science Monitor:

Voters, ultimately, when they think about a leader, are not thinking about somebody who can fix the carburetor as much as it is they want someone who can drive the car and … describe the destination they want to go. That’s where I think Obama has had the distinct advantage.

According to WSJ Online, Mr. Huckabee said thinks political observers underestimated the junior senator from Illinois, USA, and “his capacity to inspire and I think bring a different kind of dialogue to the race.”

WSJ Online quotes Mr. Huckabee as saying Mr. Obama “has energized an enormous level of the electorate–not only in the Democrat Party — but I think in the general population.”

He gave Clinton credit for in-depth knowledge of policy but said: “She does not have the personality of her husband. But then again very few people do.”

Technorati Tags: Mike Huckabee,Barack Obama,The Wall Street Journal Online,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Was Clinton's Replacement of Patty Solis Doyle Inevitable?

CHICAGO, USA -- "The only real surprise in the announcement by the Clinton campaign of a senior staff reshuffle was that it took so long, proclaims Gerard Baker in an "American View" column in the February 12, 2008, Times Online headlined "Treacherous path to power trips Team Hillary Clinton."

Chicago Tribune correspondents Mike Dorning and Jill Zuckman reported in the February 11, 2008, edition of that newspaper that, Patti Solis Doyle, Democratic Presidential contender Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager, "had been living on borrowed time as Clinton's campaign manager following the poor showing in Iowa and the rockiness leading up to the New Hampshire primary. See "New head for Clinton campaign."

"What happened today [February 10, 2008] would have happened the day after New Hampshire had we lost," one knowledgeable source said, adding that others may soon follow Solis Doyle's departure," the Tribune reported.

According to Mr. Baker, United States Editor and an Assistant Editor of The Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch,  Ms. Solis "has been the object of repeated internal criticism and intense efforts to unseat her in the past few months. He contends:

The news that she was being replaced by Maggie Williams, a long-time adviser and friend to the New York senator, was the latest indication of how treacherous and unpredictable Mrs Clinton's once inevitable path to the Democratic nomination has become. It came in the midst of another slew of primary state victories for the surging Barack Obama that are close to providing him with the kind of momentum that, if unchecked, could carry him through to the nomination.

The Tribune said, "Initially, Williams was brought in to run the campaign even though Solis Doyle was still there. The result was confusion for the staff, who weren't sure who was really in charge, the source said." The Tribune noted:

But even more troublesome was the campaign's money crunch. Over the last seven years, Clinton had raised $175 million for her re-election and her presidential campaign. But Solis Doyle didn't tell Clinton that there was next to no cash on hand until after the New Hampshire primary.

"We were lying about money," the Tribune quotes its source as saying. "The cash on hand was nothing."

According to the Tribune, "Clinton didn't tell Solis Doyle she was lending money to keep the campaign afloat. Solis Doyle found out third-hand. And when she asked Clinton about it, the senator told her she couldn't understand how the campaign had gotten to such a point, the source said.

To read the email Ms. Solis Doyle sent to the Clinton staff about her replacement, see TPM Election Central's February 10, 2008, report headlined "Breaking: Hillary Top Staff Being Reshuffled; Solis Doyle Replaced As Campaign Manager."

NOTE: Links added to make readers familiar with the persons mentioned in this post.

Technorati Tags: Times Online,Gerard Baker,Patty Solis Doyle,Hillary Clinton,Barack Obama,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Ali Mazrui's 'Should Kenya be suspended from the Commonwealth?' Sparks a Debate Among Some Kenyan Scholars and Commentators

Macharia Munene, professor of history and international relations at United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya, published an unflattering indictment of professor Ali Mazrui, who, according to Mr. Munene is "one of the most prolific academics that Africa has produced."

His article was in response to Mr. Mazrui's January 28, 2008, article in Uganda's Daily Monitor headlined "Should Kenya be suspended from the Commonwealth?" In the article, Mr. Mazrui, a professor of political science and currently director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at State University of New York, at Binghamton,said:

Kenya should be flattered, rather than insulted, by the amount of international attention it has received from the African Union, the European Union, the United States, other African leaders and the indefatigable Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

He also said, "If the crisis in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] had received half the attention that Kenya has attracted since the December 2007 election, two million Congolese lives might have been saved.  If the DRC has been the most neglected African crisis of this 21st century, the Kenya crisis has been the most responded to internationally."

Mr. Munene, writing in the February 11, 2008, edition of the Kenyan publication Business Daily, said Mr. Mazrui, "unlike [Senegalese]historian Cheikh Anta Diop or poet [Ugandan] Okot p'Bitek, did not create intellectual trouble for imperialist gatekeepers. They then promoted him as probably the best that Africans could produce."

Mr. Munene also wrote:

Seemingly in tune with the West that deliberately based its conclusions on selective information, Mazrui called for the AU and the Commonwealth to ostracise Kenya. His plea to Kenyans to do everything not to “lose friendship with the wider Western world” is amusing, but not surprising
. 
Blind to the on-going post modern colonialist manipulations in Kenya, Mazrui appeared to be quick to accept and repeat flawed logic from the West. The tragedy of Ali Mazrui, therefore, whether knowingly or not, is that he always gives the impression of being an articulate instrument of Western imperialism against African interests.

If you want to Mr. Munene's entire argument, please see "The ‘tragedy’ of Ali Mazrui."

RELATED LINKS

These Kenyans aren't traitors, they are the people's heroes -- By Cabral Pinto, Daily Nation, Kenya

Heed the adage that peace and injustice cannot cohabit -- By William R. Ochieng, Daily Nation, Kenya

Technorati Tags: Macharia Munene,Ali Mazrui,Cheikh Anta Diop,Okot p'Bitek,Business Daily,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Where Does Barack Obama Stand on Foreign Policy?

CHICAGO, USA -- Any observer of the American presidential campaign who claims not to know where Senator Barack Obama stands on foreign policy matters should read 'Remarks of Senator Barack Obama to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs." 

That includes Mr. George W. Bush, the American president, who on February 10, 2008, told Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday" at Rupert Murdoch's conservative,  Fox News Network, he doesn't know what Mr. Obama believe in. Said Mr. Bush, according to a Fox News "Transcript: President Bush on 'FOX News Sunday":

I certainly don't know what he believes in. The only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he's going to  attack Pakistan and break the Mani Mijad (ph). I think (INAUDIBLE) that in a press conference.

By the way, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, once called the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, has been trying to influence global affairs since 1922. I've attended some of their events over the years.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,Obama's Foreign Policy Positions,President George W. Bush,Chicago Council on Global Affairs,The Diplomatic Times Review Online

Bush: I Don't Know What Obama Believes In

CHICAGO, USA -- Chris Wallace, host of "Fox News Sunday" at Rupert Murdoch's conservative,  Fox News Network, interviewed Mr. George W. Bush, the American president, on February 10, 2008.  See "Transcript: President Bush on 'FOX News Sunday."

Not surprisingly, Mr. Bush was asked, among other things, about Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign. According to the above-referenced transcript, Mr. Bush said of Mr. Obama:

WALLACE: Do you think there's a rush to judgment about Barack Obama. Do you think voters know enough about him?

BUSH: I certainly don't know what he believes in. The only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he's going to  attack Pakistan and break the Mani Mijad (ph). I think (INAUDIBLE) that in a press conference.

WALLACE: I hope not. But so you don't think that we know enough about him or what he stands...

BUSH: It doesn't seem like it to me, but this campaign is plenty of time for candidates to get defined. He has yet (ph) his party's nominee.

WALLACE: So why do you think he's gotten this far if people don't know what he stands for?

BUSH: You're the pundit. I'm just a simple president.

William Burton, an Obama spokesman, reportedly responded to Mr. Bush with the following: 

“Of course President Bush would attack the one candidate in this race who opposed his disastrous war in Iraq from the start. But Barack Obama doesn't need any foreign policy advice from the architect of the worst foreign policy decision in a generation."

Technorati Tags: President George W. Bush,Chris Wallace,Fox News Sunday,John McCain,Mike Huckabee,Barack Obama,The Diplomatic Times Review Online