Prime
President Biden’s Democracy Summit is good but should not isolate other countries
Allawi Ssemanda
What you need to know:
- On human rights which the US and some other countries base on to attack others, branding them abusers of human rights, the US still is not the best to lecture the world on human rights or equality.
US president Joe Biden is set to host a virtual democracy summit from December 9 to 10. Over 110 leaders from different parts of the world have been invited. In Africa, 17 countries have been invited to attend. Uganda is not on the list, which has prompted discussion on social media, with some claiming Uganda was left out because of alleged anti-democracy practices.
While it’s right for governments to criticise undemocratic practices, the US is not a good ambassador to be lecturing the world about democracy. While they accuse some African countries of undermining democratic practices, facts on ground show that Washington continuously practices the same. Despite praising self as the “city upon a hill,” scenes characterising developing countries during elections are the same we see during US presidential elections.
Gallup poll released on October 8, 2020 showed that Americans trust in elections had terribly reduced with only 19 per cent respondents saying they were “very confident” about accuracy of their presidential elections. Wall Street journal of November 9, 2020 commentary noted that 2020 US lections was a culmination of two decades of decline in Americans trust in basic of building blocks for a vibrant democracy.
All the above shows that democracy is not a preserve of the US and therefore, claiming to be champions of democracy and branding those they don’t agree with as authoritarians and “rogue regimes” as they normally do is not just hypocrisy but also insulting international intelligence.
On human rights which the US and some other countries base on to attack others, branding them abusers of human rights, the US still is not the best to lecture the world on human rights or equality.
We have all witnessed acts of racism in the West and some analysts argue it is systematic. In his statement on death of George Floyd, who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, President Obama lamented that : “Remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of the race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly ‘normal.’”
In June 2020, Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, twice addressed the media stressing that protests which were triggered by death of Floyd painted not just to police brutality against people of colour but also raised issues of inequality and racial discrimination in US’ education, health and employment sectors.
While President Biden’s democracy summit is a good initiative, one can argue that the US should not segregate on who attends it. Even those who they think are not democratic “enough” should not be left out. It is such summits where people meet, listen to each other and maybe learn from each other. Possibly, the world’s biggest population – China should have been invited to share on how the world should make progress towards a “functioning real democracy.”
For example, while arguing that democracy is a shared value of all human beings, China proposed developing a whole-process people’s democracy. Should the world not hear how they think this will better the world and “real” democratisation process?
We ought to know that democracy is not an exclusive practice of one country. Rather, it should be about the people ruling and the ruled in a given country. With skyrocketing monetisation of politics as a study by Brennan Centre for Justice at New York University observed, like in many undemocratic countries, the 2020 US polls were largely influenced by money, a practice that arguably makes democracy a commodity since money can influence voter’s choice.
Mr Allawi Ssemanda is a research Fellow at Development Watch Centre, a Foreign Policy Think Tank .
