To the President of China and to the Communist Party of China, honored global guests and F.A L.C.O.N guests here in Mauritius, Greetings. I am Professor John H. Stanfield, founding Director of the non-aligned primarily virtual online think tank ASARPI: Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas which is also registered in South Africa as The Institute for Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas. As ASAPRI Director, I joint ventured with the University of Mauritius as their 2019-2020 SSR Chair of African Studies meant to raise the profile of UoM as an African University.
It is an honor to have been invited to be a guest of F.A.L.C.O.N.: Farmers in Agriculture, Livestock, Cooperative, Organic Network;an invited Mauritius delegation to this commemoration of the Centennial Anniversary of the Communist Party of China. As mass media and scholarly sources indicate, Westerners with their not too uncommon historical misreadings of the evolving CPC and about China as a now super power Nationale,are reluctant to give due praise to the remarkable feats of the CPC while pointing out flaws and throwing jealous stones with the rotten smell of White Supremacy going out the global door; and pointing out clay feet issues that even their own democratic nations fail to address and even deny such as about internal human rights violations , inequalities, and the complexities and paradoxes of governance leadership.
As the former UoM SSR Chair as well as ASARPI Director, I continue to probe into the extraordinary life and global leadership of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. SSR as the first Prime Minister of Mauritius was a remarkably gifted head of state leader who as a deep believer in multilateralism as well as non-alignment, managed to be friends with Western and Non-Western heads of states of varied political persuasions in the highly polarized post- World War II decades. Specifically, SSR was an incredibly skilled non-alignment political party leader and head of state leader rare in 20th century international affairs especially in the era of the Cold War and decolonialism of Africa and Asia and other areas of the late 1940s through 1980s world.
Though nonaligned, SSR was not wishy washy; when it came to taking strong stands against apartheid, colonialism, and mistreatment of Indians in Africa he stood up firmly. He was a Pan Africanist as seen as his unprecedented and yet to be repeated election as President of the Organization of African Unity in the mid-1970s as an Indian Ocean Island Head of State. Some of his greatest friends were found not only among famous African Pan Africanists with their great differences in personalities and opinions but also among the leadership of India and more importantly for here, with the leaders of the People Republic of China Taiwan, and Hong Kong; all with strong differences of opinions about sovereignty issues through which SSR garnered the best economic development ideas for his newly independent nation. Before, during, and after SSR’s head of state leadership Chinese from the PRC and throughout Asia and the rest of the world have been welcomed to Mauritius with their diversity of cultural background, political persuasions, and economic development contributions as innovative and productive citizens, putting their shoulders to the wheel of multicultural nation building.
As Africans and Asians and those of the Middle East become increasingly centered in global affairs it is the vision of ASARPI to become the most provocative non-aligned think tank in African Asian, and Middle Eastern Affairs. We of ASARPI are confident that as the Communist Party of China, begins its second century, its leadership will be searching for somewhere in the world to impartially discuss and act collaboratively with other nations on pressing quality of life human challenges as the world increases the demand for countries leading the world to be internal and international peace makers as well as leading in the production of technologies and consumer goods and services. As the CPC looks around for such emerging and future global places in this crystallizing age of the moral reckoning of nations, we hope their eyes will settle on ASARPI in Mauritius the premier thinking and action think tank for present and future times where collaboration must overtake paternalistic and imperialistic hierarchy and where competency must over run prejudices in determining who we are and how far we can go and where people put down their guns and pick up genuine care and love for everyone since we human beings we are one. So like all other nations of the world be they South or North or East or West or single Party or multiple parties, super powers and no powers, we of ASARPI beacon the Communist Party of China to consider coming virtually and face to face to ASARPI global headquarters in Quatre Bornes, Mauritius to come to engage as a global super power with others on same or other sides of the table to address major policy issues such as global restorative justice and peace making; climate control, preventing gender violence; and socially responsible public -private enterprises for vital quality of life issues for the non-affluent such as entrepreneurship, education, and food security.
The role of ASARPI as a non-aligned think tank with political parties is to assure the free flow of best quality of life Ideas and Policy practices and the sustainability of best ideas and policies when administrations change and are not lost in the cracks. We are the place to air out civil differing and engage in consensus building in pursuit to sustain human rights and the rule of law for all no matter which parties are in and out of power.
There is also the role of a non-partisan think tank to identify and cultivate future political party leaders from diverse constructive perspectives to further development and sustainability of human rights and other attributes of an authentic democracy…who may have different perspectives but the same goal of democracy for all.
Every political party and every celebration of its history, even with extraordinary achievements, shows its limitations and future challenges to resolve which can also be seen as nonpartisan think tank work in developing healthy singular and multiple political party environments which are responsible in preserving rules of law and justice for everyone. The lack of demographic diversity in the party and state leader well-wishers in this summit let us know we must do much better in including those too often excluded in political party leadership especially those parties which tend to win, there were no women, and no one under 30 I believe. As well, the Communist parties in the top Western countries were not represented so there was not the opportunity to illustrate the important contributions such parties to human rights movements such as Black civil rights in my homeland, the United States of America and the historical roles of Black intellectuals in Soviet and Chinese Communist Political parties such as Esther Cooper, Claude McCay, William E. B. DuBois, and Paul Robeson, ignored and persecuted even within these leftist parties as was and still is the stigmatized American Communist and Socialist Parties. As well is the understandable predominance of the issue of virus vaccination in the well-wisher commentaries. It showed how much this tragic biodiversity disaster has distracted too much attention from other pertinent quality of life issues and has stalled needed attention to new biodiversity normals and needed more realistic responses.
Lastly how do we develop a global space as ASARPI strides to be to do transparent and accountability moral conviction work, holding feet to fires that is for superpowers and not too superpower leaders and parties to come and be honest about their denials and gaps between their rosy words and what is really going on in empirical realities. People will not progress and be empowered unless their leaders are held accountable and get the dirt out of who they are and what they do or do not do.
This has much to do with the need for ASARPI to provide the non- partisan think tank space where the CPC leadership and African leaders convene to hash out honestly about the good, beautiful, bad, and evil. In this sense, the CPC leadership in this crystallizing era of the moral reckoning of nations should not make the same mistake Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States continue to make as non-repent nations for past horrible societal transgressions while a few such as France and Germany are doing overdue apologies and reparations for the victims of past horrors and ongoing moral wrongs. Countries with non-repentant societal moral wrongs will in coming decades experience deepening problems in legitimating global leadership claims.
At any rate, we of ASARPI are here. We are here waiting and running at the same time. Again, hearty congratulations to CPC for the remarkable work done and leadership for the work to be done in collaboration with all of us. Congratulations from ASARPI.