Customer Reviews

The Last Trek-A New Beginning: The Autobiography

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In The Last Trek,F.W de Klerk's treatment of his relationship with Nelson Mandela serves as an eye opener to all humanity.This places the book in a class of its own;honest,unequivocal,educative and deeply touching.In SPIRIT OF THE DEEP ,my new yet to be published book in celebration of Nelson Mandela and the South African people,I payed tribute to De klerk for having the huge courage to finally destroy the evil system of apartheid.The Last Trek gives us good insight into the very heart, mind and experience of this rainbow son of God.This moving book takes us on a journey of discovery into the courageous and no mean process of finally accepting the great wrong done to the South African people through apartheid.However you see the book ,The Last Trek ,is indeed,a lesson in courage,honesty and human yearning for survival and fulfilment.

This is an interesting, and most impressive, autobiography. Its weakness is that it is so anti-Mandela and pro-De Klerk. Mandala's role in the making of the new South Africa is marginalized and De Klerk's role is accentuated.

De Klerk makes clear that South Africa "avoided [a] racial cataclysm" by means of a great compromise: (a) whites kept economic power and got a court system to protect their rights and (b) blacks, or the ANC in alliance with Inkata, got political power. All segments of South African society, Indian, colored, blacks, and whites, are now, in 1999, however, according to De Klerk, disillusioned with the new dispensation of power. Indians and coloreds had more power under the ancien regime, blacks expected but did not get an improvement in their conditions, and whites have not been able to adjust to their "disempowerment."

On the other hand, at least white rule, and the injustice and discrimination inherent in the ancien regime, passed into history. De Klerk shows how South Africa became a multi-racial democracy and believes that he, and not Mandela, was the primary actor in this turn of events. However, he refuses to take responsibility for the arrest, torture, or murder of more than 20,000 black South Africans. He claims that he cannot be guilty for covert actions "of which we [in the cabinet] were not informed."

De Klerk and Mandala are like Gorbachev and Yeltsin. The new Russia is unthinkable without either. However, as De Klerk's book shows, neither he nor Mandala controlled events. The "river of history was in full flood. It was sweeping us all along in its course." What De Klerk and Mandala did, for their respective racial groups, was to reach a great compromise.

De Klerk's book is brilliant in its elucidation, often in details, of the making of that compromise. We even learn that the De Klerk family concealed their biracial, that is, their white and Indian, genealogy.

Mandela was going to win. But F. W. De Klerk's autobiography is a winner in twentieth century autobiography.

Very seldom is such pure honesty displayed by a Statesman and politician. Mr De Klerk has not been affected by his high office or historic role in the creation of a New South Africa. I feel profoundly saddened by the way his opponents have treated him. History will judge the true heroes of diplomacy in South Africa and around the world. I only hope his message is not lost on a blinkered community who tends to judge leaders according to their popularity and not their commitment to change, whatever the personal cost.

This work offers an engrossing, and necessary, perspective into the politics of South Africa, both before and after apartheid. Last Trek is especially insightful when read in conjunction with Nelson Mandela's autobiography.

The apartheid regime took on almost mythical proportions to many Americans, yet Mr. De Klerk's story shows that the political situation in South Africa was difficult, and that plenty of humanity existed even in the cruelest environments.

No question about it - De Klerk will go down as one of the most intellectual, analytical, coureagous and determined leaders being the most marginalised, underrated, discredited and criticized of our modern world. I am astounded by the amount of abuse that this man had to endure from - ironically - the very same people he worked day and night to liberate, and more so from European countries that for years accommodated apartheid, along with american businesses. The brutal honesty with which De Klerk describes his relationship with mandela, once again confirms his courage and fearlessness for doing the right thing and saying what is the truth, even in the face of opposition beliefs of millions of people. It is a pity that people and even reviewers of this book chooses to highlight the bad he MAY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED in with the security forces, but completely discounts all the good things he DEFINATELY WAS INVOLVED with. Shall we put President Clinton on trial for all the injustices done to non-white americans, completely ignoring the exceptional economic climate he has created? De Klerk's book have been long awaited by rational thinking people, non-extremists, who always wanted to know what REALLY happened in the reform of SA - people who refused to nilly-willy believe the propaganda and one sided media coverages that we're being fed with, especially in America. And having been in SA at the time of the reform events, I found his account of events accurate and insightfull. I just wish he would have elaborated on how Mandela(and the world) held him acountable for people being killed in SA, yet when Mandela became president the amount of people(and american tourists) being killed,rape,highjacked and mugged almost doubled on a daily basis - forgetting all he and the world acused De Klerk of, mandela blamed ALL crimes in SA on the past, avoiding his responsibility as president of a multiracial country. And the world followed him. Mandela was and will always be a great icon of liberty - De Klerk will always be the great leader and architect of Liberty for all in SA.

THis is the ultimate book on the resting place of SOuth AFrica. Klerk details his childhood, explaining his roots in Afrikaner culture(thus the title 'THe Last Trek'). He talks about the war years and about the victory of the nationist party and the begginings of aprthied under Malan and Verwoerd. He also talks about the heady years of Botha(the imperial president). he explains the meaning of the word 'coloured' talking about the Cape coloureds and he talks about the Indian voting blocks. THis is a book about a great nation and its tormented past. Deeply divided and ethnically challenged South Africa is struggling today to escape its past. Rape and crime is higher then ever in modern day S. Africa. land invasions are the norm. Mr. De Klerk may be regretting what he accomplished but this book is the ultimate study of the ultimate questions concerning race.

FW de Klerk provides a fascinating perspective of his life, apartheid, and his struggles with ANC. After reading the book I came away with the opinion only someone like de Klerk could have the courage to end apartheid and then succesfully transform South Africa from a pyriah naiton to multi-racial democracy. De Klerk proves to be one of the underrated statesman of our time-his in a class all by himself. The last trek also provides valuable insight on his predecssor P.W. Botha. A must read for anyone who studies South African history.

This is a great book for those who want to understand how the transition in South African happened from apartheid to "democracy".

The ANC tried to obtain political and social changes by armed struggle and violence on the streets of South Africa, sometimes using methods of terror like planting bombs targeting civilians and using murder and mutilation as an intimidation tool aimed at fellow blacks who didn't support them.

There is no question about the unfairness, the racial discrimination of the apartheid system and the need for changes that had to take place, but to replace it with a brutal and repressive Marxist regime as in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) with Robert Mugabe was unacceptable. After seeing the chaos and murder that followed other revolutionary regime changes in the rest of Africa, the South African Defense Forces (SADF) studied those revolutionary movements and were well prepared to take the initiative, forcing the ANC to recognize that changes could only come by evolutionary and peaceful means at the negotiating table and not by revolutionary and violence ones.

F.W De Klerk worked hard to make the transition as peaceful and fair as possible, but because of his naivete towards the Marxist ANC, he ended up giving too much control for too little. He made too many concessions that are affecting the present South Africa and will continue to affect the future economic growth and the civil liberties of millions of minorities within such a multicultural society.

The main shortcoming of de Klerk was the failure at the negotiation table to sustain his goal of obtaining a constitutional model that included some kind of balanced power sharing mechanisms at the executive level. This executive power should have been shared by all communities to secure a common objective when solving national problems and creating policies. The ANC shouldn't represent primarily the black population in SA like it is doing now. This system that De Klerk wanted but failed to secure in the new constitution would have fairly accommodated the needs of South Africa's complex multicultural society. Mandela and the ANC with their Marxist background were strongly opposed to this.

An example of this attitude in the new South Africa is what happened with "Truth and Reconciliation" Commission. Rather than being a body of national reconciliation with impartial members looking to heal a nation from its violent past, it turned out to be a one-sided historical revisionist tool of the ANC, mainly focused on the bad deeds of the old regime without acknowledging and investigating with the same intensity the atrocities committed in the name of the revolution, like the practice of neck lacing (Putting a tire with petrol around the victim's neck and lighting it on fire), physical mutilation and other types of summary execution of fellow blacks.

Another example is the unfair and somewhat extreme version of affirmative action being practiced in South Africa at the moment. Black workers with lower and sometimes incompetent training are being given jobs that are denied to other more competent and better trained people because the color of their skin happens to be white. When a company in South Africa grows to a certain level, it automatically needs to add at least one black individual to the ownership of that company to be able to stay in business.

This kind of reverse racism could have been avoided if De Klerk had used his position to negotiate without giving away too many important concessions.

Overall, I think this is an interesting and instructive book written by an intelligent and eloquent individual. This book is a must read for those who want to understand the reality of what took place during the political transition of South Africa.

As a young South African, I found this book extremely interesting. South Africa and its people are very involved in politics and for myself it provide me with the opportunity to find out the recent history without the opinions of my parents. This book however was extremely frustrating in that de Klerk even bothered to entertain the ANC bullying tactics and unreasonable demands.

I purchased The Last Trek after returning from a recent business trip to South Africa in the hope that it would shed light on how the white minority in that country manoeuvred itself into the predicament it now faces. --- It certainly did hence my positive four stars rating of this book.

Recent events in Zimbabwe highlight the plight of ethnic minorities in countries ruled by an African majority. We have witnessed the steady disappearance one way or another of ethnic minorities across the African continent since the independence movement began in the late 1950's and 60's. Sometimes this has happened in a peaceful fashion like in Kenya where former British settlers quietly returned to the U.K. in the years following independence. Sometimes it's been abrupt and traumatic like when Idi Amin decided overnight to rob and deport Uganda's entire Indian community. Sometimes it's been horrific and bloody as recounted by former Portuguese citizens of Mozambique and Angola. Whatever the methods the end result has always been the same, reclamation of sovereignty by the African majority via the expulsion of non African minorities. With the exception of South Africa there are quite frankly no significant non African minorities in Sub Saharan Africa. This phenomenon is not restricted to Africa, I noticed a distinct lack of diversity driving around Harlem recently, in fact I challenge any non African to walk around let alone live in an African American neighbourhood.

Mr De Klerk clearly demonstrated in his book that he was very much aware of the consequences of black majority rule; he also expressed unease in regard to the totalitarian tactics used by the ANC to intimidate opponents during the elections. Towards the end of his book he poignantly describes the modern post apartheid South Africa which confirms his original fears: "There is growing anxiety over the intolerable levels of crime in the country, there is anger over the apparently systematic murder of white farmers..there is alarm over the decline in services and standards; there is a sense of grievance over the reverse racial discrimination in unfairly applied affirmative action; there is deep concern over the perception that whites are now being made the scapegoats for all the ills of our society and that, in the future, the ANC will blame us for their failure to deliver on the promises they made to their supporters; there is disillusion over the perceptions that whites are no longer really welcome in the new South Africa unless they conform with the ANC's model." (p.394-395)

Despite numerous diatribes on the part of the author reflecting on the moral righteousness of his actions Mr De Klerk leaves the reader with the distinct impression at the end of the book that the new South Africa he helped bring into being is a failure. There is a sense of unease about the future facing white South Africans, which the author tries to reconcile by arguing that the new South Africa was inevitable: "This book is, in essence, the story of how we, at last, confronted those realities and dismantled the laager of apartheid."(p.390). After reading this book however I would argue that Mr De Klerk was more than a pragmatist, he betrayed his people. By his people I mean the white minority that voted him into office, not the entire South African Nation over whom he had no franchise.

Yes, I agree with Mr De Klerk's view that the dismantling of apartheid was inevitable however my concern is that he did so without providing his people with any form of safeguard in case the new rainbow nation did not work out. The tragedy of South Africa is best summarized by the following quotation from an eminent Zulu leader: "Towards the end of our meeting King Goodwill said that he anticipated that things would go worse in the new South Africa than they had gone in other African countries. He said that he had nowhere to run to with his white and black brothers."(p.307) These words are haunting because they encapsulate the key difference between the impending decolonisation of South Africa vs. every other former European colony; this time there is nowhere for the European minority to run to. Former colonists with British, French, Belgian and Portuguese passports could go home when things got tough, in the same way that Korean families fled African American neighbourhoods in L.A. after the last spate of rioting and racial intimidation. South African minorities don't have this option.

Mr De Klerk was certainly not naive, nor was he an idealist; he was a pragmatist with an understanding of African history who knew that his people faced at best an uncertain future under black majority rule. Despite this he refused to demand any form of genuine guarantee for their safety lest it impede his growing fame as a world statesman. In the early nineties from a position of strength Mr De Klerk could have demanded dual nationality from the Western powers for every European, Cape Coloured and Indian South African, this should have been a non negotiable prerequisite to black majority rule given the history of that continent. If countries like the U.K., Holland, U.S.A, Australia and Canada, not to mention the Nordic nations were serious about dismantling apartheid they would have been hard put as a group not to give in to such a request, especially if they genuinely believed that democracy would lead to prosperity and peace.

Despite my personal differences with the author I highly recommend this book as a stimulating, provocative read which provides a background to the upcoming tragedy about to unfold in Southern Africa.