Ethics that China can teach African States

Since the ancient Greeks put forward the concept of Democracy more than 2,500 years ago, mankind has made steady efforts to attain this ideal and considerable progress has been made.

However, no country has achieved this goal because perfect democracy does not exist. Democracy is a process.

Most African states look up to the West as their role model of political and social systems. In the last 50 years, many of them copied Western political systems in their pure form, but have failed to rescue the countries from poverty, inequality and internal conflicts.

That is “political decay” as described by author Samuel Huntington. These states don’t yet have a complete system in place. Meanwhile, democracy has usually been used as a tool to judge good states and rogue states based on Western perceptions.

This has led to illegal and unnecessary interventions and interference in other states’ internal affairs in the name of promoting democracy and good governance.

Democratisation should not be a mere formality. Instead, it should encompass state building, gender equality, balanced regional development, and stability.

These issues are what we, African countries, should address as a matter of priority. If we don’t resolve these issues, our levels of democracy will not be substantially upgraded, and the gap between Africa and the outside world, especially developed countries, will be further widened and our sovereign rights will be greatly abused.

CHINA'S QUICK RISE

What are the historical circumstances for countries that haven’t completed the building of nation states? What is the path towards achieving our goals? Should we be driven by external forces or agendas on internal social needs and practice?

All these questions about the democratic political development of African countries in the modern era involve setting of goals that are critical to political stability and development. And yet in the decades after independence, these issues have not been understood and tackled properly by African countries.

Taking a global perspective, no one can ignore the achievements of China, which realised state development and social harmony independently and self-reliantly.

Its history resonates with Africa and its quick rise offers great lessons and inspiration to African states.

Despite its rising global status, China has remained humble and respectful to other developing countries and values the principle of equality and non-interference in the affairs of other countries. It has persistently been encouraging the strengthening of local and regional mechanisms to deal with challenges related to politics, justice and governance.

The most important point is that China is people-led: The goals of the government and the systems in place are set for the common interests of the people.

The key measure of effectiveness is whether decisions made by state machinery are based on national situations and whether they can keep pace with the times.

For instance, new measures and proposals that are both innovative and consistent were brought up during China’s recent Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC (Communist Party of China) General Assembly and the NPC (National People’s Congress) & the CPPCC (People’s Political Consultative Conference) 2014 annual sessions, denoting a mature political system.

Mr Njogu is a PhD candidate at the Communication University of China.