Good luck, Mandela!

My fingers are truly itching if I do not write something about this great black man from Africa who spent 27 years of his lifetime in prison for demanding freedom from the white people.

Forgive me, if I must sound like a racist in terminology but who can forget and forgive the evil spirit of segregation that robbed so many people for so long of their dignity?

Now, this modest Nobel Laureate and first black president of South Africa will shortly retire from active politics and hand power to his faithful follower and party coleader Umbeki. His biography, Long road to freedom only illustrates how long he had to struggle before breathing the air of independence with his people.

We may be proud that Indonesia's independence struggle and its leaders in a way inspired many African nationalists to revolt against their oppressors.

The name of Sukarno is even now popular among the common people in Egypt and to a certain lesser extent Soeharto and hopefully Habibie, too. In Arabic "habibie", according to the president himself, means "The One I Love". Only why should he honor certain persons but not all the people with his golden kisses?

What impressed me most during Nelson Mandela's farewell speech before his country's Parliament was when he presented the budget for the new fiscal year. I owe to the BBC's tireless and investigative coverage of events around the globe, fair and speedy, I must add, that Mandela jokingly lamented his fate at the end of his career. He did not say if he was to play golf or go boating.

He said he would retire from active politics with a prospect of having no money! And that he had no house to live in while there was a new wife (his third) to care for.

Compared with the conditions of our leaders, true or false, when they retire, their bank accounts, the number of companies, houses, cars they secretly own and other properties, Mandela's are known to the public.

The obvious struggle Nelson Mandela still has to face, I fear, will be how to make, at the late age of 80 years, his younger wife happy when they spend the time in the mountains of South Africa or elsewhere, for instance, at Puncak, Bogor, West Java!

Africa once was called the Dark Continent. Indeed, there is still much human suffering there as a result of civil strife and famine. But there is no lack of talent. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who speaks both English and French fluently, comes from Ghana.

I wish more of our diplomats could emulate his talents. The common men and women in Nigeria speak English with little grammatical error, just to cite an example.

South Africa itself, which is a country with a Christian majority, has produced a boy of six years old, a wonder who can recite the whole Koran by heart with the correct Arabic pronunciation as well as intonations.

Invitations to perform are reportedly coming from many countries, maybe also from Indonesia.

Long distance runners come from Africa either from Kenya or Ethiopia, two countries whose peoples often have little to eat because of drought or civil strife.

In the soccer world Africa's Nigeria and Morocco excel.

Back to the charismatic Mandela. He disclosed that when he assumed power only 40 percent of the population had electricity. Now when he is about to leave the presidency, 70 percent of the people enjoy electricity.

The number of people having new dwellings has doubled, he added. Mandela also can be proud that South Africa does not incur foreign debts like this "almost lost paradise" of ours.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta