Ukrainegate

In life, completely different gates may lead to the same place. Ironies always conspire with happenstance to show that there are forces beyond our fickle mortality laughing at our self-proclaimed invincibility. Imagine, I was in the midst of the cerebrally invigorating global PR Summit, Provoke 19, when it all coalesced. On the sidelines of the […]

In life, completely different gates may lead to the same place. Ironies always conspire with happenstance to show that there are forces beyond our fickle mortality laughing at our self-proclaimed invincibility.

Imagine, I was in the midst of the cerebrally invigorating global PR Summit, Provoke 19, when it all coalesced. On the sidelines of the conference, we undertook a guided tour of the Capitol and — coincidence of coincidences, it was the day some Republican legislators stormed the ongoing House impeachment and held up proceedings for about five hours. Their action came a day after the top US diplomat in Ukraine testified under oath that the White House had threatened to withhold military aid unless the Ukrainian government announced investigation into the affairs of the Bidens for Trump’s political benefit.

Like many things that have happened under the current US administration, you would think the incident happened in one far-flung Third World country.

Of course, visitors were not allowed near the hearing room, but we did assemble at the corridor in front of the name plate carrying Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s name. Our guide, a former congressman, told us what was going on in there and assured us that America had a system that worked in spite of disagreements and glitches. “This is still the democracy capital of the world”, he said. His characterisation of Pelosi as a strong woman of integrity was quite significant because he is Republican. That’s some lesson!

As we walked through the hallowed chambers of the Capitol, I marvelled at the strong Roman influence on the architecture and the strong sense of history exhibited in the paintings, sculptures and murals depicting how America came to be, and celebrating those who have helped the country along its way.

But my mind still drifted. I wondered if there was some invisible connection between the totally unrelated facts of the Watergate Hotel venue of my conference and my visit that day to the Capitol where impeachment hearings were going on.

We all remember Watergate. During and after the 1972 Presidential Election, some former FBI and CIA agents broke into the offices of the Democratic Party and George McGovern months before the election. They listened to phone lines and stole secret papers. Nixon was involved and he had helped them cover it all up.

The scandal was blown open by an anonymous source known as “Deep Throat” who had provided The Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with critical information about the Watergate scandal. From that point, things took a downward spiral for President Nixon.

April 16, 1974: Special Prosecutor Jaworski issues a subpoena for 64 White House tapes.

July 27 to July 30, 1974: House Judiciary Committee passes Articles of Impeachment.

Early August 1974: A previously unknown tape from June 23, 1972 (recorded a few days after the break-in) documenting Nixon and Haldeman formulating a plan to block investigations is released. This recording later became known as the “Smoking Gun”. Key Republican Senators tell Nixon that enough votes exist to convict him.

August 8, 1974: Nixon delivers his resignation speech in front of a nationally televised audience.

August 9, 1974: Nixon resigns from office. Gerald Ford becomes president (thanks, Wikipedia).

Does anyone still wonder why I ruminated over the itinerary that planted me in a conference at the Watergate Hotel with a visit to the Capitol on a day the Republicans resorted to self-help in their attempt to stop impeachment hearing against President Trump?

However, I did not lose sight of the funny aspect. My mind raced back home where we resort to self-help at every opportunity. Whenever the mace is stolen at the National or State Assembly, it is customary to think the world has come to an end. Who but a non-democrat would assault the symbol of legislative authority? But we are not alone in undemocratic resort to self-help, if what happened at the American House of Representatives last week was anything to go by.

Now, when my American friends taunt me with Bokassa, Idi Amin, Mobutu and our other embarrassing personifications of incivility who used state power in the service of their oversized egos, I am no longer going to be tongue-tied. Some mothers do have them!

The subject of impeachment dominated public discourse in many of the places I visited. Not even the national broadcast made by President Trump to announce the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi could overshadow the inquiry. Al-Baghdadi had refused to surrender to US forces before detonating a suicide vest and killing himself during a US military raid in northwest Syria last Saturday. Great as that development was, Americans still want to know if it is true that their president solicited the help of a foreign government to spy on —and tar— Joe Biden, a frontline contender for the US presidency in the 2020 elections.

Trump would give anything to know who actually leaked the details of his discussion with the Ukrainian president, just as Nixon had tried to unearth the identity of Deep Throat. If history is anything to go by, it may take a while. Remember that it was only in 2005, 30 years after the political drowning of Nixon, that William Mark Felt Sr, at the age of 91, revealed that during his tenure as associate director of the FBI he had been the notorious Deep Throat.

Although nobody is using the term yet, what is unfolding before our eyes may well be Ukrainegate.