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Turning to China

Turning to China

African intellectuals and political scientists should research and find out why without practising the Western-style adversarial politics, the Chinese have advanced so quickly and brought prosperity, progress and unity to their people in such a short period .— Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, Gold Coast Boy.

Today, China is the strongest economy in the world. Not only that, after decades as a satellite suburb of the United States, the government of the Philippines, has resolved to dump the USA and turn to China for co-operation because China has empathy whereas the USA is selfish. No matter what one says of the Philipino President, there is some sense. 

Two developments this year must open our eyes. We must rethink the high esteem with which we hold the West. We ascribe every good thing to the Western culture. The decision of the people of Great Britain to leave the European Union, stylishly referred to as Brexit, and the acrimoniously antagonistic political campaigning between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, must inform us that the West is not infallible.

What all these point to is the fact that the Chinese might have something that is working for them and which can work for us as Africans, but which we have been blindfolded to ignore or not to take notice of. Theirs is not adversarial politics, but a high level of inclusiveness that takes into account the talents of every citizen for national progress.

There are many who do not know that China is not a one party state. Those who might have heard about the fact that there are about nine political parties in China and that the Communist Party is only one but the dominant party would dismiss it with a fluff of the hand. 

We in Ghana have all the time complained about the winner takes all in our national politics. Perhaps the time has come for us to study the Chinese political environment and see what we can introduce into our system so that the animosity and unjustifiably heightened partisanship will abate.

It is imperative to learn that in China, the influence of the Communist Party is much diffused. It permeates all levels of state authority and institutions. However, what is little known about the Chinese is the fact that the deputy or the second in command at every level of state institutions, including educational facilities, are members of the other political parties.

 For instance, at the university level throughout the country, the vice-chancellors are from the Communist Party. However, their deputies are selected from any of the other parties. That is how the Chinese have ensured inclusiveness while protecting the dominance of the Communist Party. For as long as the interest of the people is considered paramount and the contributions of every citizen counts, all the people are motivated and encouraged to offer their best and contribute their quota towards national development.

Because we have been indoctrinated to believe that it is only systems developed in the West that are valuable and that there is no viable alternative to Western style democracy, we have not bothered to go beyond what we have heard about China from the perspective of the Western media. There may be flaws in the Chinese political system, but the political system in the United States of America has its own pitfalls. Whereas it is impossible for any political leader to emerge from outside the Communist Party of China, so also is it impossible for a political leader to emerge in the USA from outside the Republican or Democratic parties.

One would not canvass that we do away with our multi-party political system. However, there is much we can learn from China if we are to reduce political tension, political isolation and political alienation as have become diffused in our system. If there are nine or so political parties in China but the national resources are distributed equitably to cover all citizens and that no one is isolated because of their political party membership, then there is much to be learnt from China.

There must be something that is working for the Chinese. As Africans with our deep-seated sense of communalism and fellow feeling, we must begin to question the political theories and propaganda that we have imbibed from the West and begin to take independent positions in the evaluation of the political systems between the West and China to establish which of them is most suited for our purposes.

That is what underpins the call and challenge by Dr Addo-Kufuor, to African intellectuals and politicians,  to see what we can learn from China to move our countries forward. This is a charge that will be beneficial. After all, Western politics is not sane all the time. Let us turn to China.

 

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