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NATION: Editorial & Opinion
Editorial & Opinion
EDITORIAL: Mandela's
task is to fulfill NAM's
vision
THE 12th Non-Aligned Movement summit
in Durban, South Africa, ended well into the
night, and even as the last speaker took the
rostrum, workers were already cleaning up
the convention hall and removing the chairs.
It appeared that just about everyone wanted
to have their say, and with 114 participating
member nations, the two-day meeting was
simply too short for the delegates to mull
over weighty issues such as global
disarmament and the economic turmoil
roiling the world.
But NAM, the biggest international
organisation outside of the United Nations,
was never meant to be a talk shop. It was
suppose to be an alliance of Third World
nations fighting for a new world order
based on equity, justice and peace. It was
this cherish dream of a world free from
oppression and colonialism which had
drawn countries together to Bandung,
Indonesia in 1955.
Bandung was indeed a historical milestone.
Some of Third World leading lights were
there including Nehru of India, Sukarno of
Indonesia, Nasser of Egypt, Nkrumah of
Ghana and Tito of Yugoslavia. They struck
fear in Western capitals, and rightly so, for
the Third World had finally found the
courage to cut the umbilical cord which tied
them to their former colonial masters.
The Bandung meeting inspired the
formation of a Third World coalition called
NAM six years later. Its aim: to strut an
independent path on the global stage, one
which is not enamoured to the first world of
industrialised countries led by the United
States and the second world under the
socialist orbit of the Soviet Union. Its
agenda was decolonialisation, a new
international economic order and global
disarmament.
Almost four decades later, the dream of a
free world for the majority of humankind
remains unfulfilled. In fact, the global
situation has grown worse. Today, justice
still eludes global citizens: the US -- the
sole remaining superpower -- is clearly the
judge, jury and executioner on international
affairs. There is no peace: war still afflicts
millions of people from Kosovo to Congo.
And there is definitely no equity: the
disparity between the top 20 per cent and
the bottom 20 per cent of the world's
population was 30:1 when NAM was
formed, now it's 61:1.
Worst still, the world is undergoing a new
wave of colonialism. The new masters are
the international banks and their
governments. Despite decades of post-war
economic growth, more and more countries
are becoming indebted to rich nations. The
current economic woes only serve to add
more victims to the unending list of debtors.
And despite the end of the Cold War,
governments worldwide are spending
US$780 billion on weapons but only $6
billion for basic education. Global
disarmament, especially nuclear
disarmament, is still very much a pipe
dream.
Clearly, NAM has failed, and failed
spectacularly, in its mission. The major
reason for such a sad state of affairs is
because the organisation has been
rudderless. However, with the election of
South Africa President Nelson Mandela as
the new NAM leader for the next three
years, the organisation has now a leader
capable of bringing NAM into the next
century. Mandela, who will soon hand over
his country's presidency to deputy leader
Thabo Mbeki, unlike previous NAM
presidents will be able to fully devote
himself to his new task.
And there is much work for Mandela. He will
have to determine how to break the vicious
cycle of the debilitating Third World debt
which condemns citizens to servicing their
nation's debt for generations to come. The
burden of debt in Africa alone, the continent
where Mandela hails from, is US$2,500 per
person. He needs to convince rich nations
which control the global economy to reform
the world financial system to ensure that
foreign investments will go to supporting
Third World development, and to create
more transparency on currency trading.
He knows that globalisation and
liberalisation, as noted in the final NAM
communique, did not bring better economic
opportunity for Third World nations, but
instead increased poverty and inequality.
He will also need to find answers on how
the majority of countries which are not in the
global investors' radar meet their basic
needs.
In short, he must engineer a global
revolution. That's a tall order for one man.
But billions cannot continue to live in
squalor and starvation amidst a world that
has more than enough for every man,
woman and child. Indeed, if there is anyone
who can lead NAM into realising its vision
of global equity, justice and peace, it is
Nelson Mandela.
The Nation