By Paul Tembe
The centenary celebrations for the Communist Party of China (CPC), are deservedly earned, since they are a testimony to the fact that the Party reached its political maturity through struggle.
For the CPC, this involved an organic evolution in its organisational mission to fight against feudalism, imperialism and dynastic dominance. In its membership, the CPC has graduated from an organisation originally meant for workers and peasants to a diverse formation representative of many classes, ethnic groups and social formations across society.
This solemn occasion, explains the major reason why President Cyril Ramaphosa was fulsome in his praise of the CPC centenary. For him, as a leader of the African National Congress (ANC) as a 109-year-old organisation, the CPC and ANC share much in their journey to mobilise and marshal a harmonious world centred on “common understanding, progress and development”. These shared aspirations, realisable with representative intergovernmental institutions, can be attained more especially in the existing zeitgeist.
As some of the oldest liberation movements in the world, the historical example and abiding present relevance of the CPC and the ANC, highlight the importance of prioritising cooperation instead of competition, multi-lateralism instead of unilateralism, and progressive state politico-economics instead of rabid market individualism. Specifically, the colliding health and economic pandemics which the world is fighting against without exception, testify to the importance of global solidarity to problematiques that know no geographic or economic boundaries.
To argue for and work towards prime privilegement of only national interests and unilateralism is not sustainable and counter-productive to building, genuinely so, what President Xi Jinping terms a “community of shared future for mankind”. Since the problems we face as humanity know no boundaries, economic designation, or political affiliation, it is incumbent on all of us to, therefore, work in unison towards two broad-minded policies and projects that avoid what Xi calls “development decoupling” and “technology blockades” that defy logic and common sense in an interlinked and interconnected 21 st century.
Fortunately, South Africa’s international relations policy is unambiguous. Our country’s strategic objectives remain focused to promote not only national interests but bilateral and multilateral interactions which are, importantly, informed and embedded in the respect and security of the rules-based international system.
This is a system, represented for example by the World Health Organisation and United Nations, whereby there is unity of purpose to democratise distribution of Covid-19 vaccines and transfer to developing countries of vaccine manufacturing capacity (through the TRIPS agreement). Auspiciously, South Africa remains ever grateful to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in its unwavering support, in principle and deeds in the past and present, to this equalisation of capacity to address decisively the coronavirus and its cumulative economic impacts across countries and regions.
On the journey to humankind’s wellbeing, it is untenable and immoral that there are still some leaders who countenance policies that exclude and marginalise the wretched poor and economically disenfranchised. As Xi said, on this road to common welfare and shared benefit, in healthcare and the economic sphere, “no country should be left behind” since, as experience has revealed, “all countries and nations are equally entitled to opportunities and rights to develop”.
South Africans citizens and communities are familiar with the negative effects of policies and programmes that are centred on division and discrimination, whether such apartheid is implemented in access to basic human amenities, welfare, security, technology and environmental protection. Therefore, the initiatives of Presidents Ramaphosa and Xi should be widely supported, by all progressive formations, to fight against vaccine apartheid and economic elitism.
Outcomes of vaccine apartheid and economic elitism are clear, they engender public resentment, delegitimises state institutions and elongates trust deficit between leaders and the led constituencies.
The short-termist thinking that regard the rise and development of some countries, like the PRC, as a “strategic threat” for some is old-fashioned 20th century myopic thinking. As argued before, China’s rise and development is simply meant to advance national rejuvenation in direct response to national humiliation this country suffered under foreign imperialism. Only openness and dialogue can remove mystery and distrust. To resort to sowing suspicion can only result in confrontation and a zero-sum game.
As the invasion of Afghanistan and Libya amply indicates, where there was forced implementation of liberal democracy in 2001 and 2011 respectively, the outcome is a swelling disaster with untold intergenerational damage for the Afghan and Libyan people.
A lesson here is that, indeed, a country’s development and transformation trajectory can never be imposed externally but should be a culmination of the local people’s expressed political desires and economic wishes for their country. A country’s path to industrialisation and modernisation, for its effectiveness and success, hinges on the communicated people’s aspirations and leaders’ decisions before there can be external consultations. This is the enduring lesson learnt from the modernisation and industrialisation programme of the CPC that, as Xi counsels: “there is no fixed model to modernisation. The one that suits you well will serve you well. And cutting the feet to fit the shoes will lead nowhere”.
In the same page, this philosophy based on pragmatism, that informs South Africa’s Economic Reconstruction and Development Programme (ERRP) to repair the infrastructural damage caused by Covid-19, eradicate poverty and inequality plus build better a genuinely shared economy for the country.