Africa-Press – Zambia. The United States has tasked Zambia with hosting its second so-called Summit for Democracy, starting on March 29. Mr Mulambo Haimbe, Zambia’s Minister of Justice, says Zambia’s selection by the United States to host this summit, “Comes against the background of the country’s strong commitment to the principles of democratic governance, respect for the rule of law and human rights”. Ummm, what democratic governance, rule of law, and human rights can this Zambian government really show?
According to Mr. Haimbe, the objective of this summit is to underscore the global desire for transparency, accountability, and rights-respecting governance. What rights? LGBTQI rights!
The truth is this summit is for drawing an ideological line and turning democracy into a tool and weapon for inciting division and confrontation and diverting attention from its internal problems.
This summit is nothing but a tool for the United States to help preserve its hegemony over the world and undermine the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law.
Contrary to its claims, the United States is not a beacon of democracy. American-style democracy has deviated from the essence of democracy. American-style democracy is full of malaises. Problems like money politics, identity politics, partisanship, political polarisation, social division, racial tension, and the wealth gap, are getting worse.
American-style democracy is a money-based game for the rich. The dysfunction of American-style democracy – the Capitol riot that shocked the world, the death of George Floyd that sparked mass protests, the tragic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the harsh reality of the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer – is a fact that cannot be masked by holding so-called democracy summits.
Surveys show that 72 per cent of Americans believe that democracy in the United States has not been a good example for others to follow in recent years, and 81 per cent of Americans believe there are grave domestic threats to the future of American democracy.
After all the coups and killings of our leaders the United States has carried out against us, we don’t need to be schooled by them about good governance, rule of law, and human rights. Moreover, a country’s path to democracy should be chosen independently by its own people, rather than imposed from outside.
As a common value of humanity, democracy is the right of people in all countries. It is not a prerogative of a small number of countries. Whether a country is democratic or not should be decided by its own people, not by a handful of finger-pointing outsiders.
Stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is to backpedal in history, and will bring nothing but turmoil and disaster to the world. For a long time, the United States has been imposing its political system and values on others, pushing for so-called “democratic reforms”, abusing unilateral sanctions, and inciting “color revolutions”, with disastrous consequences. Democracy has become a “weapon of mass destruction” used by the United States to interfere in the affairs of other countries.
Since 2001, the wars and military operations waged by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, caused millions of injuries, and displaced tens of millions of people. The fiasco in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya has shown that imposing American democracy on others simply does not work. The United States is still trying to divide the world into “democratic” and “non-democratic” camps based on its criteria, and openly provokes division and confrontation. Such practices will only bring greater turmoil and disaster to the world.
Facing the impact of COVID-19 and major changes unseen in a century, countries have become more interconnected and interdependent. The international community needs more than ever to strengthen solidarity and cooperation based on the norms governing international relations represented by the United Nations Charter. We don’t need American democracy summits. The United States has nothing to teach us, and the world, about democracy!
For More News And Analysis About Zambia Follow Africa-Press
