Rather
than bringing about reforms, an aggressive foreign interference has resulted in
a brazen destruction of national institutions and the lifestyle itself. Instead
of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social
disaster.—Vladimir Putin
OBSERVABLY fed up
with the West’s holier-than-thou attitude, Russian President Vladimir Putin
told it as it is in the 70th anniversary of the United Nations
General Assembly (UNGA) that the West’s “aggressive foreign interference” is to
blame for the problems experienced in the world particularly in Africa and the Middle
East.
Accepted, Vladimir
Putin and his Russia have their own fair share of bad things that can, in all
honesty, be rightly attributed to them. However, the West is comparatively
worse. This is not to say that the West is entirely depraved; no, not at all.
The West is, in many important respects, a friend in time of need.
Recent geopolitical
events have shade more light on the fact that the West is supportive on one
hand and destructive on the other. Vladimir Putin, arguably the West’s arch
geopolitical foe, highlighted in his speech at UN General Assembly the three big
problems that speak volumes of the destructive nature of the West.
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| Mugabe addressing the 70th UN General Assembly |
Firstly, Putin bemoaned
the West’s self-deceit policies and its belief in its exceptionality and
impunity. He spoke: “Indeed, policies based on self-deceit and belief in one’s
exceptionality and impunity have never been abandoned.” While the element of
the West’s policies of self-deceit may be of remote relevance to the problems
bedeviling Malawi and Africa, it would be too presumptive to say the same about
the West’s belief in itself being exceptional.
True to Putin’s
observation, the West is so mad in its belief about its exceptionality. In whatever
business the West transacts, one readily feels the air of condescension coming
from it; it sees itself as more important, more knowledge, much better
predisposed to solving crises than anyone in the world. One wonders if it is
the case that God made the West the only intelligent people on the planet. Suffice
it to say that the West always wants to be the epicenter of everything. To
boot, it is no wonder then that the media in the West is awash with accusations
of arrogance on the part of Zuma for keeping talking on the phone when Obama,
during lunchhour at the 70th UNGA, walked to him and joked. And,
writing about the Zuma-Obama incident, one of the West’s newspaper headline
goes blazing: “Who’s more important than Obama to Zuma.”
Secondly, the
Russian President regretted the West’s continued acts of undermining other
states’ sovereignty. The West constantly presents itself as a beacon of true
democracy yet what it does is a direct opposite of what it preaches, what a
paradox!. Putin, though sometimes a devil himself, hit the nail: “What is the
state sovereignty, after all, that has been mentioned by our colleagues here?
It is basically about freedom and the right to choose freely one’s own future
for every person, nation and state.”
It is no secret
that indeed the West deliberately undermines the sovereignty of other national
states to the defiance of clear international laws. Examples are too numerous
to mention here only to say that Iraq, Libya, and now Syria quickly come to
mind. History has a rich memory of the West’s regrettable foreign
interventionist conduct that has only ended up denying the citizens the freedom
to choose its destiny and the chance to freely choose a nation and a state of
their liking.
Lastly, the
KGB-turned-president lamented the West’s imposition of development models on
other countries especially those in Africa. On this point, Putin movingly
appealed;
Every term in
international law and international affairs should be clear, transparent and
have uniformly understood criteria. We are all different, and we should respect
that. No one has to conform to a single development model that someone has once
and for all recognized as the only right one. We should all remember that our
past has taught us.
It is tempting to
copy wholesale a tried and tested development model that works wonders, and
there may be no harm in doing so, but, and this is a big but, there is always a
compelling need to reflect back on our history before we do so. As Putin
rightly puts it, we should and must remember the free lessons from our past.
Mother Nature has not given unequivocal guarantees that what works in the West
will also work in Malawi or Africa. Nonetheless, what works in the West, with
proper indigenizing mechanisms, may well work in Malawi or Africa.
The point here is
that it is not bad for Malawi and Africa in general to copy the West’s right
development model neither is it bad for the West to recommend a right
development model for the developing countries. What is bad, and this is what
Putin is saying, is the West’s unrelenting push for the developing countries to
conform to what it considers a “right” development model. Again, what is bad is
the developing countries’ naivety to, for lack of a better word, copy and paste
the West’s “right” development model.
To this end, the
West’s aid conditionalities are as much to blame in this respect as Africa is
in its alacrity to accepting the same. The West must take heed of this advice
that their aid is only as good when the targeted countries are given the
leeway, as guided by their respective historical backgrounds, to channel the
aid to areas where its effect will be better and lasting. Africa and Malawi in
particular should stop the copy-and-paste tendency when it comes to development
models.
For, surely, as
long as the West’s past retains no resemblance whatsoever to Malawi’s and
Africa’s, there can be no meaningful move towards progress. So, let’s get the
aid where possible but let’s use it in priority areas that our past has
directed us to. As we bash Vladimir for being a devil himself, let’s not forget
to pat him on the back for being an angel, at least for once here.
