Two posts in two days! I’m on a roll… I’m sorry for my absence WP. I’ve missed you, honestly.
I’ve just returned from a brief holiday to South Africa where they were about to hold their fifth multi-party elections since the end of Apartheid 20 years ago. It got me thinking about the necessity of elections, their shortfalls and so forth. Here I try to put some of those thoughts into words:
Firstly the headline grabbers whose problems involve kidnappings, insurrection, armed conflict: CAR, northern Nigeria, South Sudan in Africa; Eastern Ukraine; Syria. These nations seem to dominate the ‘Rest of the World’ or ‘International’ sections of the on-line papers, yet if we broaden the net there seem to be an almost unprecedented number of countries or regions with a significant degree of instability. These problems tax the brains of the world’s finest scholars and policy-makers so I won’t try an exhaustive analysis. I’m informed primarily by my recent travels. In the last year I so happen to have been to 3 countries, all of who have all had elections of one sort or another, all with some degree of controversy: Turkey, Algeria and South Africa.
I’m informed by my recent travels. In the last year I so happen to have been to 3 countries who have all had elections of one sort or another: Turkey, Algeria and South Africa.
I arrived in Turkey on a teaching assignment bang in the middle of the Gezi Park protests. That was purely coincidental as I had not been informed socially or politically on the state of affairs prior to taking up the contract. The language school was in northern Anatolia well away from Istanbul but the reverberations could still be felt in these parts,even if they tended to be more conservative. Whilst there the protests were eventually quashed, although the sentiments of the protesters are very much alive I see.
President Erdogan’s AKP party logo, banners, and regional offices were to be seen in most of the towns I visited (I circumnavigated the country over a month). The sad fact is that the only other Turkish political party I can name is the KPP and only because it is the political arm of a controversial Kurdish separatist movement, notorious for its defiance of Ankara, its determined fighters of both genders. The Kurdish cause is apparently one of the fundamental reason why Turkey has not been allowed to join the EU.
Whilst in Turkey I met an Algerian teacher with whom I shared a flat. If you have read any of my blogs on my Algerian excursion you will know all about my lovely friend Sofian Mihoub. I didn’t take him especially seriously when he invited me to visit him in Algeria after the trip. It took him several months to persuade me but I’m very glad he did eventually succeed. It was a country I knew net to nothing about. I went for two weeks after Christmas and experienced Algiers, the enigmatic but charming capital, and the east and south west of the vast nation. Best of all I actually got to talk to people on the ground, sometimes as a Westerner, sometimes as an Englishman, sometimes as a young(ish) man also trying to find his way in the wider world.
What became apparent was that Algerians are as smart and diverse any group of people I’ve met in my life, whether it be in Africa, Europe or Asia. Sadly, like some of the young Turks I had met in Istanbul, they were quite severely disaffected by the politics. I was actually quite shocked at some of the derogatory terms they used in reference to the incumbent president, Abdelazziz Bouteflika. I must emphasize that this sentiment was coming from a fairly wide spectrum of young Algerians both conservative and more liberal. Yet, a couple of months down the line what do I read? President Bouteflika, running for a most undemocratic 4th term, wins some 81.5% of the vote.
I was actually quite shocked at some of the derogatory terms they used in reference to the incumbent president, Abdelazziz Bouteflika. I must emphasize that this sentiment was coming from a fairly wide spectrum of young Algerians both conservative and more liberal. Yet, a couple of months down the line what do I read? President Bouteflika, running for a most undemocratic 4th term, wins some 81.5% of the vote.
On my most recent voyage to South Africa, on the verge of 20 years of multi-party democracy and its 5th general elections since 1994, I found a country in what felt like a state of hibernation. When I last visited in 2010 it was during the Fifa World Cup which created something of a bubble which concealed an economy slowing from the heady growth of the mid to late noughties (I lived there during 2007 for the better part of a year). Granted that I was visiting Durban during the Easter weekend and a smattering of public holidays, so it would be expected that the situation was a little more laid back. I’m just going by a general impression and having spent some time with friends and family. As for the elections, apart from a few posters and election vehicles blaring slogans it seemed to be much in the background – once again from the self-imposed limitations of my viewpoint.
Still, it is worth noting that the incumbent president, ANC leader Jacob Zuma, had been compromised. He was at the centre of the Nkandla scandal, having to explain why his rural homestead had seen some R246 million (around £14.1 million at today’s rates) spent on alleged ‘security upgrades’. It was the sort of scandal that would almost have certainly forced the resignation of any English MP, some who had been tarnished by far lesser amounts. Should this be a cause for concern? Of course! Despite Nkandla Zuma has successively won another four year term in office.
Now that I’m back in the UK the media spotlight, whether by design or because of my own RSS feed preferences, is back on the Middle East and Ukraine, European and British issues not withstanding. Today I read that several regions of Eastern Ukraine have announced autonomy from Kiev through self-organised referendums. These probably won’t be recognised by the new central government nor the West but I actually applaud these efforts at self-determination.
One young student in the East, when interviewed, said that he would vote along with many others because ‘we are tired of the ‘meddling, fascist government in the West (Kiev) who never did anyone any good.’
One young student in the East, when interviewed, said that he would vote along with many others because ‘we are tired of the ‘meddling, fascist government in the West (Kiev) who never did anyone any good.’
Interesting that he didn’t refer to them as the ‘new government’ but rather as the rulers in the Ukrainian capital collectively as fascists, whether it be that of Victor Yanukovych or Oleksander Turchinov i.e. this disillusionment is long-standing and has its roots further back than most of us Westerners can appreciate.
And thus to the nub of my ramblings; why has sovereign democracy failed so many and what can we do about it? Where do you stand on the issues regarding the governance of Ukraine/Egypt/Syria/your own sovereign nation? I will leave you with a little thought from an immensely successful capitalist, George Soros, whose preamble to a book he wrote a few years back resonated with me. I paraphrase:
Sovereignty is an anachronism employed by feudal rulers who ruled over a population who had not voted them in… Financial markets have gone global, they know no borders, yet politics insists on a notion of sovereignty which imposes borders, restrictions and tariffs contrary to notions of free trade and labour markets.
I might not necessarily agree with Mr Soros completely in his attempt to reduce sovereignty to the level of free market economics but I do think it could be the start of a rather interesting discourse…
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