The Invisible People of the World Speak Out

www.republicons.org by: Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki African National Congress 3/1/2003   The XIII Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the 24-25th February, 2003. Attended by almost 110 member countries, the Summit Meeting represented about two-thirds of the world's population and the membership of the United Nations. Made up essentially of the developing countries of the South, NAM is an important voice for the poor of the world, whose lives are defined by exclusion from many of the benefits of the process of globalisation.

As our readers will remember, the XII NAM Summit was held in Durban in 1998. It adopted the Durban Declaration, which, among other things, said: "We are the ones who have endured centuries of colonialism, oppression, exploitation and neglect. We have been the invisible people of the world. In recent times, spurred by our Movement and progressive forces, we see our rapid emergence from that condition. Indeed, our time has come."

However, our optimism with regard to the new epoch was moderated by the fact that a unipolar and rapidly globalising world had emerged.

Accordingly, we further observed in the same Durban Declaration that: "We now stand on the threshold of a new era, an era that offers great opportunity, yet poses special dangers for the developing world."

The XIII Summit Meeting adopted the Kuala Lumpur Declaration, which returned to this issue. Among other things it said: "With the end of the Cold War, the emergence of unipolarity, the trend towards unilateralism and the rise of new challenges and threats, such as international terrorism, it is imperative for the Movement to promote multilateralism, the better to defend the interests of developing countries and prevent their marginalisation.

"With increased globalisation and the rapid advance of science and technology, the world has changed dramatically. The rich and powerful countries exercise an inordinate influence in determining the nature and direction of international relations, including economic and trade relations, as well as the rules governing these relations, many of which are at the expense of the developing countries. It is imperative, therefore, that the Movement respond in ways that will ensure its continued relevance and usefulness to its members.Globalisation should lead to the prospering and empowering of the developing countries, not their continued impoverishment and dependence on the wealthy and developed world."

The XIII Summit Meeting took place at the time when the dark clouds of war are gathering over Iraq, a long-standing member of the Movement. Almost all the speakers at the Meeting addressed this burning question, on which the Summit Meeting issued a special Statement, which, among other things, said:

"We are fully cognisant of the concerns expressed by millions in our countries, as well as in other parts of the world, who reject war and believe, like we do, that war against Iraq will be a destabilising factor for the whole region, and that it would have far reaching political, economic and humanitarian consequences for all countries of the world, particularly the States in the region.

"We reiterate our commitment to the fundamental principles of the non-use of force and respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence and security of all Member States of the United Nations. We reaffirm our commitment to exert our efforts to achieve a peaceful solution to the current situation."

It went on to "call on Iraq to continue to actively comply with Security Council resolution 1441 and all other relevant Security Council resolutions and to remain engaged in the process."

The concluding paragraph of the Statement Concerning Iraq said: "We believe that the peaceful resolution of the Iraqi crisis would ensure that the Security Council will also be in a position to ensure Iraq's sovereignty and the inviolability of its territorial integrity, political independence and security, and compliance with Paragraph 14 of its Resolution 687 on the establishment in the Middle East of a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free-zone, which includes Israel."

We should here note that 12 Middle East countries participated in the XIII NAM Summit Meeting.

As we met in Kuala Lumpur, our Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aziz Pahad, was in Baghdad leading the group of experts we had sent to Iraq, to share with their counterparts our experience relating to South Africa's elimination of weapons of mass destruction under international supervision.

We took this step to help Iraq realise precisely the objective sought by NAM and the UN Security Council, "actively to comply with Security Council resolution 1441 and all other relevant Security Council resolutions and to remain engaged in the process", to ensure the peaceful and speedy resolution of the issue of Iraq.

In the meantime, the continued deployment of troops in the Middle East by the US and the UK suggested that these two countries are determined to go to war against Iraq, at all costs.

A new draft resolution they, together with Spain, presented to the Security Council, even as the XIII NAM Summit Meeting was in session, sought to get the Security Council to agree that Iraq was in material breach of Resolution 1441 and that it had "failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it in resolution 1441 (2002)."

The draft resolution also requires the Security Council to recall that "it has repeatedly warned Iraq that it will face serious consequences as a result of its continued violations of its obligations". Of course, the phrase, "serious consequences", has been interpreted by some members of the Security Council as meaning resort to war.

The current situation therefore suggests that even as the representatives of two-thirds of humanity, including those in the immediate neighbourhood of Iraq, were urging a peaceful resolution of the Iraq question, a few countries were determined to make the statement that war against Iraq is inevitable.

This indicates that the XIII NAM Summit Meeting was justified to draw attention to the global imbalance of power, when it said "the rich and powerful countries exercise an inordinate influence in determining the nature and direction of international relations".

The international media has played an important role in keeping the world informed about the developments on Iraq. This has included live television transmissions of the proceedings of the UN Security Council.

Nevertheless, the "inordinate influence" mentioned by NAM, showed up even in these transmissions.

For example, repeatedly, the television broadcasts cut off the African members of the Security Council as they were about to speak, so that the world never got to know what Africa, and the developing world, think. Even as the Iraq debate among the countries of the North rages on, there is hardly any mention of what the countries of the South feel and think.

In practice the point has been made that this issue will be resolved solely and exclusively on the basis of what the countries of the North decide, regardless of what more than two-thirds of the world's population, the citizens of the countries of the South, think or feel. The fact that some of these countries serve as members of the Security Council is little more than a small and irritating distraction.

Those who, in practice, uphold and perpetuate this practice globally are democratic countries, justly proud of the democratic rights their peoples enjoy. Regularly, because of their own experience, they find it necessary to make judgements about political practice in the countries of the South.

A great number of the most contentious issues in world politics relate to the countries of the South and members of NAM. These include Iraq, Palestine, North Korea, Cuba, Cote d'Ivoire, India and Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and so on.

A great number of the biggest challenges facing humanity have their epicentre in the countries of the South. These include poverty, underdevelopment, AIDS and other health challenges, famine, violent conflicts, and so on.

Those most affected by all these generic matters as well as those issues affecting individual countries, are members of NAM. They have repeatedly made the simple statement, as they did in Kuala Lumpur, that they have a right and duty to help find answers to these challenges.

They have repeatedly made the simple statement, as they did again in Kuala Lumpur, that they are ready to work with the countries of the North, in a partnership of equals, constructively to respond to these challenges.

A few years ago, they felt that, at last, their voice was beginning to be heard. That is why at the XII NAM Summit Meeting in Durban in 1998, they said "we have been the invisible people of the world. In recent times, spurred by our Movement and progressive forces, we see our rapid emergence from that condition. Indeed, our time has come."

However, developments since then have made the practical statement that this dream had to be deferred. Accordingly, at Kuala Lumpur in 2003, the countries of the South were constrained to state that "with the end of the Cold War, the emergence of unipolarity, the trend towards unilateralism and the rise of new challenges and threats, such as international terrorism, it is imperative for the Movement to promote multilateralism, the better to defend the interests of developing countries and prevent their marginalisation."

"Unipolarity" and "unilateralism" mean that one power, with a little help from its friends, takes decisions about what happens in the world, including our countries, without our participation. This represents an undemocratic "new" world order that turns us, once more, into "the invisible people of the world", living in fear of the consequences of responding to our consciences, because of our dependence on the wealthy and developed world.

"Multilateralism" and an effective United Nations mean that we would have the possibility to contribute to the solution of the problems facing humanity, including ourselves. This would mark the emergence of a new world order, characterised by the democratisation of the system of international relations and the availability of the space for the poor and powerless freely to speak their minds, in a world that is being integrated and made more interdependent by the unstoppable process of globalisation.

The processes relating to the question of Iraq confirm the disturbing reality that unilateralism, rather than multilateralism, has become the dominant tendency in world politics. They confirm the painful truth that economic, military, technological and other power constitutes the political engine that determines the fate of all humanity.

They make the statement, practically, that the voice of the people is not the voice of God. They tell the billions whose representatives gathered in Kuala Lumpur at the XIII NAM Summit Meeting, that their dream that they would cease to be "the invisible people of the world" must, perforce, be deferred.

Sooner or later, those who have the power to defer the dreams of billions of human beings will have to answer the question that Langston Hughes, the outstanding African-American poet, posed when he asked - "What happens to a dream deferred?"

"Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore -. Does it stink like rotten meat?. Or does it explode?"

Thabo Mbeki is the President of The Republic of South Africa   For more information visit: www.anc.org.za