ADDRESS OF THE PATRON OF THE TMF, THABO MBEKI, AT THE PEDRO PIRES INSTITUTE: PRAIA, CAPE VERDE,MAY 3, 2014. Your Excellency, Prime Minister, José Maria Neves, Your Excellency and our leader, President Pedro Pires, Distinguished participants, Comrades and friends: First of all I would like sincerely to thank our leader and friend, President Pires, for inviting me to attend and speak at this important conference. I am also pleased to visit Praia once again, 27 years after I was last here, especially as this also gives me the opportunity to convey my best wishes to President Pires as he celebrates his 80thbirthday. I am also especially honoured to take this opportunity to pay tribute to an outstanding son of Africa. Throughout his life, President Pires set an example for all of us about the kind of leadership our Continent needs. Both as one of the leaders of the PAIGC and later the PAICV, and therefore an eminent fighter for African liberation, and an outstanding statesman intimately involved in the successful political and socio-economic development of liberated Cape Verde, President Pires has been driven by the exclusive imperative to serve the people. The example set by President Pires tells us that what we should expect of our leaders is loyalty to an ethical value system which prescribes that our leaders should not abuse their access to state power to enrich or otherwise benefit themselves. It also tells us that our leaders should respect the people, constantly seek to involve them in the process to determine their future, and otherwise to work with the people informed by the perspective that the people are their own liberators. The example he has set further tells us that the exercise of leadership involves the use of one’s intellectual capacity properly to inquire into and understand the objective and subjective circumstances which enable or obstruct the achievement of the goal of the progressive transformation of our countries and Continent. It further informs us that successful leadership requires of our leaders that they set themselves and pursue clear strategic goals, consistent with the historic mission to achieve the revolutionary outcome of the Renaissance of Africa. We were very fortunate and greatly privileged last year when President Pires readily agreed to come to South Africa to deliver the Thabo Mbeki Foundation Africa Day Lecture as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity, the OAU. During his very instructive Lecture, which gave clear directions about the challenges to which we, the Africans, must respond, he said: “Ultimately the goal of our struggle is the relentless pursuit of the Future. But what future? “It is not a future where we are all just subjects and subordinates to the decisions and desires of others. Rather, we aspire (towards) a future in which weare also the protagonists, a future in which we too have a say and a place in the sun in global fora, a future that makes us stronger, freer, more qualified, prosperous, just and brotherly, in a fairer, safer, more balanced, peaceful and predictable world.” Thus did President Pires set the strategic goal for all of us throughout Africa as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of our erstwhile Continental organisation, the OAU. The question arises naturally – does Africa have the leadership to lead the fight for the future which President Pires described, and what must we do to ensure that we have this leadership? In this regard President Pires has made the call to build the capacity of our political, economic and social leadership. I pose these questions because obviously the future President Pires visualises can only be achieved if we have both a leadership committed to the pursuit of that future and the necessary similar commitment by the masses of the African people to the same objective. I would like to imagine that the more than five decades of African liberation from colonialism have taught us some lessons about the vital role of leadership in terms of achieving our Continent’s transformation objectives. I believe that those lessons include that individuals play an important role of leadership, that mass organised formations are also important players, and that the African masses expect of their leaders, both as individuals and organisations, honestly to serve their interests. During the years of struggle for the total liberation of Africa and immediately after the achievement of this goal, various mass All-Africa Organisations emerged on our Continent, all of them broadly sharing a common view about the reconstruction and development of Africa. I refer here to such All-Africa Organisations as the trade union organisation OATUU – the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, the women’s organisation PAWO – the Pan African Women’s Organisation, the student organisation AASU – the All Africa Students Union, the youth organisation PAYM – the Pan African Youth Movement, and the Christian organisation the AACC – the All Africa Council of Churches. To me, perhaps wrongly, it would seem to be true that these authentic All-Africa Organisations no longer play a visible and effective role as representatives of popular African opinion relating to the historic task to achieve the Renaissance of Africa. The historic founding document of the African Union, the Constitutive Act, provides for the establishment of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council, ECOSOCC. This would be composed of popular non-governmental organisations which truly represent the African masses. The Constitutive Act says that our ECOSOCC would be “composed of different social and professional groups of the Member States of the Union.” Again in my view, this, our ECOSOCC, has failed in its task to discharge its important advisory responsibility to the African Union, and therefore the African States as a whole. All this means is that a critically important echelon of African leadership as represented both in the All-Africa organisations I have mentioned, and the AU ECOSOCC, do not play any effective role in terms of the progressive leadership our Continent needs. Similarly, we must assess the role of our political parties. In principle, these should reflect the aspirations of the African masses for the achievement of the goal of a better life for themselves. In this context, I think that the conclusion is inescapable that largely the views of the African masses, represented by such organisations as I have mentioned, including the political parties, have weakened as an effective player in terms of defining and responding to the African Agenda for fundamental social transformation. It is difficult to understand why this has happened. One explanation could be that the funds which had sustained these organisations dried up. This would emphasise the need for self-reliance in terms of financing our own African organisations. This includes even the African Union which regrettably continues to rely on donor funding to finance its programmes. I think that the conclusion must be that one of the urgent tasks we face is to rebuild and reactivate the progressive All-Africa organisations I have mentioned, thus to strengthen the impact of popular opinion on the historic continental effort to achieve Africa’s renaissance. I have raised the issue of leadership because to achieve the objective of the progressive transformation of our Continent requires sustained intervention by a progressive leadership. What then is the African Agenda? In an article published by the magazine “The Thinker” this year in its first quarterly edition I said: “Immediately, with no intrusion even by our own intelligentsia, political parties and organised civil society, all with their contending ideologies and programmes, the Africans masses know that some of the major challenges our countries face, constituting the strategic national and therefore African interest, are: · establishing genuinely democratic systems of government, including accountable State systems; · entrenching peace, security and stability; · achieving national and social cohesion as well as social development; · eradicating poverty and underdevelopment through sustained and sustainable economic growth and equitable economic development; · ensuring African integration and unity; and, · securing Africa’s rightful place among the world community of nations. “All these outcomes, which are critical to the realisation of the fundamental social transformation to which I have referred, can only be achieved through conscious, purposeful and concerted action by ourselves as Africans. “I argue and firmly propose that the goals I have listed above constitute the core ofthe contemporary African progressive agenda. It therefore follows that to achieve them demands of the African progressive forces that they discharge their responsibilities to ensure their realisation.” I believe that the continuing responsibility of the African leadership is to study each of the propositions I suggested constitute the contemporary African progressive agenda. The first of these is what I described asestablishing genuinely democratic systems of government, including accountable State systems. In this regard in the Africa Day Lecture I have mentioned, President Pires said: “I also believe that it is imperative to overcome the weaknesses in our African societies. In order to face and overcome current African challenges, I would like to suggest some strategic objectives and mechanisms that I believe are relevant, such as: the creation of strategist, effective and inclusive States;the improvement of the quality and efficiency of our national sovereign States; and,the promotion and prioritisation of an institutional and democratic culture, as well as public participation.” In this context I would suggest that we pay particular attention to the implementation of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, as well as ensure the more effective utilisation of the African Peer Review Mechanism. I am certain all of us are aware of the comprehensive nature of the African Charter I have just mentioned. It is clear that if all our countries acted according to the manner it prescribes, this would help greatly to achieve the strategic objectives President Pires mentioned relating to matters both of democracy and governance. Of similar importance is our effective utilisation of the APRM focusing on the benchmarks it sets regarding both State and Corporate governance and the imperative to construct socio-economic systems which function to provide a better life for the masses of the people. There can be no gainsaying the fact that the achievement of peace and stability throughout our Continent remains one of our urgent and strategic tasks. This is emphasised for instance by the conflicts currently taking place in Somalia and South Sudan, Sudan and the Central African Republic. As we have seen, the conflict in Somalia has spilled over into Kenya and threatens to distabilise this neighbouring country as well, even as it is successfully recovering from the deadly violence which followed the 2007 Presidential Elections. The Republic of South Sudan had not even reached its third anniversary of independence when a most destructive war broke out and continues to grip the country. Of particular concern with regard to this conflict is its degeneration into an ethnic war, in which civilians are killed simply on the basis of their ethnic origin. In his 2013 Africa Day Lecture, President Pires also drew attention to the dangerous situation in the Sahel, saying: “My attention has been drawn to the critical importance of security and stability in the vast territories of Sahara and Sahel countries, which stretch from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. These dangers are embodied mainly by Messianic and Islamic religious extremist armed movements: the countering and combatting of which is extremely complicated, precisely due to their religious natures. “I know that this is an extremely uncomfortable and sensitive issue, but the truth of the matter compels us to face the facts and not hide our heads in the sand, like the proverbial ostrich. I am well aware that I am running the risk of being misunderstood. But, I think that a clear, lucid and sincere investigation of the nature of this extremism, its propagation centres and funding should be carried out.” And indeed I would argue that one of our central tasks is to study and understand the causes of conflict and instability on our Continent. In practice in our past conflict resolution efforts we have concentrated mainly on ending the violence and finding ways to achieve co-existence between and among the erstwhile belligerents. These are indeed important objectives that have to be pursued. However conflict resolution should not end there. It should extend to an understanding of the root causes of the conflict. These must then be addressed to ensure the sustainability of the peace that would have been achieved, militating against the recurrence of conflict. An aggregation of our understanding of the root causes of conflict in Africa, drawn from the different experiences of violent conflict where this has occurred would also help greatly to enhance our possibility to engage in preventative diplomacy to stop the violent conflicts before they break out. Earlier I also mentioned achieving national and social cohesion as well as social development as one of the important matters on the Africa Agenda. This is related directly to the other two Agenda items I have discussed, i.e. democracy and governance, and peace and stability. All ours are diverse societies. They are differentiated on the basis of ethnicity, race, class and geographic dispersal. We have seen how, improperly handled, this diversity can lead to bitter conflict and instability, as is happening currently in South Sudan. And yet surely one of the central objectives we must pursue is cultivating a sense of common identity in each of our States, and a common political citizenship, superseding and encompassing the other identities, thus to realise the unity among the people which makes for the sustainability of the State. I am certain that all of us know that the national and social cohesion I have spoken of do not come about on their own. They require conscious interventions focused on achieving balanced social development benefiting all sections of the population. In a country such as Sudan we can see the consequences of the failure to cultivate the national and social cohesion I have mentioned. Here we can see the great disparity in terms of development between the centre, which includes the Capital City of Khartoum, and the periphery, made up of such areas as South Sudan and Darfur. The protracted war and subsequent secession of South Sudan and the continuing conflict in Darfur are a direct consequence of the disparity I have mentioned, itself resulting in the absence of national and social cohesion. Of course this cohesion relates directly to the management of the economy, an important matter I will discuss shortly. Needless to say one of the critical issues in this regard is working to manage the distribution of wealth to minimise the levels of disparity between a very wealthy minority and an impoverished majority. It is clear and obvious that eradicating poverty and underdevelopment through sustained and sustainable economic growth and equitable economic development is indeed one of the major items on the African Agenda. Naturally all of us are very happy with the higher rates of economic growth which our Continent has been recording since the decade of the 1990s. However it is necessary to study and understand various matters that relate to this growth. One of these is that this growth has been driven largely by the export of commodities, with China playing an important part in this regard as a market for the commodities. This has confirmed the continuing role of our Continent as an exporter of raw materials. Here we must note that important discoveries of raw material deposits, including oil and gas, continue to be made. This suggests that the world economy will continue to rely in good measure on Africa as a source of raw materials. It is a matter of common cause throughout Africa that we need a fundamental restructuring of the African economy especially to expand the manufacturing sector. As of now, it seems clear that the larger volumes of capital we have received as a result of our higher growth rates have not been used to any significant degree to finance the process of industrialisation. Clearly more focused action must be taken to end our status as an exporter of raw materials and importer of manufactured goods, a structural relationship with the rest of the world we inherited from the colonial period. It is also important that we gain a better understanding of the impact or otherwise on the struggle to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment of the sustained higher rates of economic growth. My own estimate is that we have not seen much of this, which poses the urgent question – what is to be done? Related to this, I would also guess that one of the effects of the higher growth rates has been further to increase the degree of wealth and income inequality in our societies. In this context we must also mention the scourge of corruption which we have to fight with all means at our disposal in particular as it results in the diversion of resources meant to benefit the ordinary working people into the pockets of the elite that has access to state, corporate and social power. Currently the ECA High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa is working to finalise its Report and Recommendations concerning the illegal export of capital from our Continent. I mention this matter here because obviously Africa needs considerable capital resources to finance the effort to defeat poverty and underdevelopment and even to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The work done by the Panel on Illicit Financial Flows confirms that annually Africa loses in excess of US$50 billion in capital that is illegally exported from the Continent. It is not difficult to imagine the enormous impact this capital would make if it was retained and invested in Africa. It is our hope that the implementation both by our countries and the international community of the Recommendations that will be made by the Panel will make a decisive contribution in terms of radically reducing the illicit capital outflows from our Continent, thus to give further impetus to Africa’s socio-economic growth and development. When he addressed the matter of our socio-economic development in his Africa Day Lecture, President Pires correctly pointed to actions Africa should take, which include: “the improvement of the quality and capacity of universities and research institutes, supported by a relevant public research policy;the fostering and retention of scientific, technological and research skills in our respective countries, and the prevention of the brain drain phenomenon;overcoming our technological, energy and computer challenges, and the harnessing of our huge potential in alternative energy and hydraulic resources; the expansion and modernisation of our infrastructures, means of telecommunications and communication (air, land, sea);the promotion, expansion and upgrading of our industrial and agro-industrial resources;the strengthening of our banking and financial systems;the modernization of our agriculture, currently marked by traditional low productivity techniques, the training of our farmers and the expansion of irrigated agriculture, with the ultimate goal of ensuring effective food security; and,as individual countries, the protection of our continental and national land, material and natural heritages.” Quite correctly he also raised the matter of globalisation and said: “I hold the belief that in the current global context, African leaders are being called upon to bring forth their own vision of globalisation: one which supports the fostering of economic integration and the implementation of public policies that will reduce the various forms of dependency; the diversification of foreign partnerships and the search for alternative markets to the traditional ones; the promotion of sound, credible and dynamic financial systems that can respond to current development challenges. It is equally imperative to invest in the training of our human resources in order to improve their productivity, and to make our national economies more globally competitive.” I am certain that all of us present here will remember the 2007 Speech by then President Nicolas Sarkozy of France delivered at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, in which he made comments which many Africans found to be offensive. Nevertheless I mention this speech because Nicolas Sarkozy also made some remarks about globalisation and said: “Youth of Africa, globalisation such as it is, does not please you. Africa has paid too high a price dearly for the mirage of collectivism and “progressisme” to yield to that of laisser-faire. “Youth of Africa, you believe that free-trade is beneficial but that it is not a religion. You believe that competition is a means but not and end in itself. You don’t believe in laisser-faire. You know that if Africa is too naïve it would be condemned to become the prey of predators from all over the world and you don’t want that. You want a different globalisation, with more humanity, more justice and more rules.” And yet even as these correct words were uttered, the European Union was trying to impose on us, as it continues to do, the eminently unjust Economic Partnership Agreements. In this context we cannot but note the determined campaign to discredit the economic relations Africa is building with China, with the naysayers claiming to be very concerned about our independence and welfare! All this emphasises the timeliness of the call made by President Pires – that, “African leaders are being called upon to bring forth their own vision of globalisation.” We have also said that at important task on the African Agenda is ensuring African integration and unity. President Pires has said that when the OAU was formed in 1963, “the ‘revolutionary’ proposals of the Casablanca Group were juxtaposed to the more ‘moderate and conservative’ proposals of the Monrovia Group. Finally the model that was found, the so-called “Africa of States” was a compromise. Thus, the OAU was founded, and Kwame Nkrumah’s pan-Africanist and federalist plan was placed on hold.” Clearly, 50 years later, that Nkrumah plan remains on hold. Three years after the formation of the OAU, in 1966, the late President Julius Nyerere spoke at the University of Zambia in a speech he entitled “The Dilemma of the Pan-Africanist.” Among other things he said: “I believe that a real dilemma faces the Pan-Africanist. On the one hand is the fact that Pan-Africanism demands an African consciousness and an African loyalty; on the other hand is the fact that each Pan-Africanist must also concern himself with the freedom and development of one of the nations of Africa. These things can conflict. Let us be honest and admit that they have already conflicted… “In order to avoid internal conflict and further disunity each nation state is forced to promote its own nationhood. This does not only involve teaching a loyalty to a particular unit, and a particular flag, although that is serious enough. It also involves deliberately organizing one part of Africa economically, socially, and constitutionally, to serve the overall interests of the people of that part of Africa, and (in case of conflict) not the interests either of another part, or of Africa as a whole… “The truth is that as each of us develops his own state we raise more and more barriers between ourselves. We entrench differences which we have inherited from the colonial period and develop new ones. Most of all, we develop a national pride which could easily be inimical to the development of a pride in Africa. This is the dilemma of the Pan-Africanist in Africa now. For although national pride does not automatically preclude the development of pride in Africa, it is very easily twisted to have that effect. And certainly it will be deliberately bolstered by those who are anxious to keep Africa weak by her division, or those anxious to keep Africa divided because they would rather be important people in a small state than less important people in a bigger one.” In our continuing efforts to achieve the integration and unity of Africa we must reflect seriously on the comments made by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere so many years ago to see how we address the actual and potential contradiction between domestic nationalism and Pan-Africanism. I believe that there is nobody in Africa who would question the need to achieve her integration and unity. Perhaps what needs to be done to accelerate the advance towards this outcome is to take further specific actions that would demonstrate to the African masses the practical benefits that accrue from such integration and unity. In other words, and to borrow from a proverbial saying, perhaps what needs to be done is indeed to demonstrate that the proof of the pudding is in the eating! However, to ensure that this happens will require decisive and sustained action by an African leadership which understands the strategic importance of African integration and unity. It may therefore be that it is our collective weakness in this regard that the Nkrumah plan has remained on hold, to this day. In his 2013 Africa Day Lecture President Pires made this important statement. He said: “I would like to emphasise a point that I consider essential for the correct understanding of modern African History. The African people’s struggle for self-determination and independence must be understood primarily as their attempt to recover their historical initiative. Indeed, colonial domination meant that African people lost their right to write their own History, and became bound and tied up in their rulers’ initiatives, and thereby their rulers’ History. By taking on a struggle for their own liberation, a change came over them, and Africans once again took ownership of their historical initiative and of their right to be the protagonists and subjects of their own History. Consequently, the struggles for independence became victories that resulted from their taking ownership of their own historical initiatives. I believe that it is this emancipating historical initiative that needs to be revived today.” Perhaps to accelerate the much needed advance towards African integration and unity and successfully to address the objective contradiction to which Julius Nyerere drew attention, we must first of all focus on the political and ideological task which President Pires identified – to revive among our leaders and masses attachment and commitment to the emancipating historical initiative which made it possible for us to destroy the system of colonialism! The foregoing is directly relevant to the last task I mentioned in the context of the African Agenda - the objective to secure Africa’s rightful place among the world community of nations – without in any way suggesting that the list I proposed was exhaustive. In 2001 the OAU adopted the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD. Through this policy document Africa sought to: elaborate Africa’s own programme concerning its socio-economic development;entrench the spirit of partnership among the peoples of Africa in pursuit of this development; and,redefine the relationship between Africa and especially the developed countries. One important result of this was that in 2002, at Africa’s urging, the G8, meeting in Canada in the presence of an African delegation, adopted the G8 Africa Action Plan. The Plan was based on NEPAD. Effectively it constituted a commitment by the G8 to support the NEPAD programmes. A Joint Africa/G8 Implementation Mechanism was established to ensure what was characterised as “mutual accountability” to encourage and monitor the implementation of what had been agreed. Every year, to date, an African delegation has attended the annual G8 meetings to engage the developed countries on African matters. And yet, by 2010, when the G8 met in Canada once again, the G8 African Action Plan had ceased to exist. The conclusion is inescapable that the G8 found it intolerable that it should structure its relations with our Continent on the basis of a programme elaborated by the Africans and therefore allowed the G8 Africa Action Plan to wither on the vine. Most certainly the G8 countries would nevertheless continue to maintain relations with our Continent, and would undoubtedly seek to define these relations in their own interest, as exemplified by the proposed EU/Africa Economic Partnership Agreements. I have cited the example of the G8 Africa Action Plan to underline the imperative that, especially during this period of contemporary globalisation, we should remain vigilant to defend Africa’s independence, including our right effectively to determine our future I am certain the events in Libya in 2011, when the UN Security Council and NATO took action to bring about regime change in this African country, contrary to the specific decisions of the African Union, would again emphasise the need for us to defend our independence and otherwise take our rightful place among the world community of nations. Let me end by conveying my congratulations and best wishes to President Pires as he celebrates his 80thbirthday and appeal to him to persist in helping Africa to achieve her renaissance by continuing to bless our Continent with his outstanding intellect and enormous experience as an African liberator and statesman. Thank you.
Posted on: Sun, 04 May 2014 05:52:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015