At The New York Times Lydia Polgreen presents an article about recent events in Guinea-Bissau, positing that the political murders of the democratically elected president, Joao Bernardo Vieira, and the chief of the armed forces, General Batista Tagme Na Waie may actually prove good for the country going forward. She may be right, but these sorts of ends-justify-means-based arguments have too long substituted for rule of law in parts of Africa. Let’s hope that Guinea-Bissau can move on from the latest political violence and make a real start toward liberalization. But let’s not have blinders about the path that the country is taking.
