F ortuitously, the month of March has obliged us to engage in a lot of international work, reflecting the extent and nature of our system of international relations. This work also confirmed the importance of developments in the rest of the world to what we are striving to achieve in our own country.
It made the statement very firmly that, as John Donne said - "no man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main"! - and that globalisation emphasises the critical importance of international solidarity among the poor of the world and the global progressive movement.
During this month, we had occasion to participate in the ceremonies to inaugurate the President of Portugal, in Europe, and the President of Chile, in Latin America. We welcomed to our country as our esteemed guests, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Kofi Annan, a delegation of Members of the Parliament of Iraq, the EU Commissioner for Development, Louis Michel, the British Minister responsible for Africa, David Triesman, and a Belgian government and business delegation led by Prince Philippe. We visited the Italian Republic on a State Visit, and made working visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Algeria.
South Africa was one of the few countries outside the EU that was invited by the Portuguese government to attend the ceremony to inaugurate President Cavaco Silva. In addition, the South African Portuguese-speaking population also expressed its view that we should accept the invitation. The visit to Lisbon confirmed that it was important that our countries and peoples should intensify their cooperation for their mutual benefit. The two governments will therefore take the necessary steps to pursue this goal.
When, immediately after her election, we spoke to the then President-elect of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, to congratulate her on her historic victory, she invited us to attend her inauguration ceremony. We readily accepted this invitation to honour the election of a candidate of a sister party to our own movement, and the installation of the first elected woman President in Latin America.
President Bachelet succeeds another loyal friend of our movement and country, the outgoing President of Chile, Ricardo Lagos. Both of them, leaders of the Socialist Party of Chile, are successors of the outstanding hero and esteemed Member of the Order of the Companions of O.R.Tambo, the late Salvador Allende, who was killed in the 1973 right-wing coup d'etat led by General Pinochet.
At that time, President Bachelet's father served with General Pinochet in the senior echelons of the Chilean armed forces. However, he opposed the coup d'etat against a democratically elected government. He was arrested, detained and tortured by the military government and died in prison. His wife and daughter, Michelle, were also detained and later forced into exile.
It was very moving to see President Michelle Bachelet address the Chilean people from the same balcony of the Moneda Palace from which Salvador Allende had denounced the putchists, shortly before they murdered him in 1973. That she, a successor to the heroes and heroines of 1973 could, 33 years later, speak from a balcony of the Moneda Palace, emphasised the strength of the democratic and progressive traditions and orientation among the sister people of Chile. We were honoured that they afforded us the possibility, as representatives of our people, to join them as they celebrated the historic step forward represented by the election of President Michelle Bachelet.
It was also inspiring to meet at the inauguration ceremony in Valparaiso and in Santiago, such leaders of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean as Presidents Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Tabare Vazquez of Uruguay, Abel Pacheco of Costa Rica, Prime Minister Wilbert Musa of Belize, Rene Preval, President-elect of Haiti, as well as the Governor-General of Canada, Michaëlle Jean, the President of Austria, Heinz Fischer, Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand, and Prince Felipe of the Asturias of Spain, and other leaders representing well over 100 countries.
As South Africans fortunate to be in the company of many Latin American leaders, we hoped for the moment in future, when it will be possible to listen to these leaders as they discuss the future of their sub-continent. We thought of this in the context of the democratic election of the progressive forces in many countries of Latin America, in many instances based on popular rejection of the results of policies born of the so-called "Washington consensus". The obvious question that has arisen is - will Latin America provide the countries of the South with an alternative development model!
In the meantime, I am convinced that our presence in Chile earlier this month further strengthened the important ties of solidarity that link the peoples of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, which the countries of these regions need as they strive to respond to the common challenges of globalisation.
We visited Italy in part to build farewell to two outstanding human beings, President Carlo Ciampi and his dear wife, Franca. President Ciampi is due to finish his presidential term in May and then retire from public life. When he and his wife visited our country in 2002, they asked us to pay them a return visit, and later requested that we visit Italy before President Ciampi left office.
Speaking at the State Banquet in Rome held in our honour, I said: "Mr President, you belong to that rare breed of people who in their youth were confronted with difficult moments brought about by the evils of totalitarianism and dictatorship. Together with many of your peers, you took the correct stand against fascism and fought heroically to ensure that succeeding generations experience a life of freedom, democracy and justice. Among these heroes are the more than one thousand South African soldiers who, as part of the Allied forces, lost their lives and today lieu buried on Italian soil."
I have no doubt that we and the peoples of Africa have principled and loyal friends in Carlo and Franca Ciampi, who will continue to do everything to help us achieve the objective of the renewal and development of our country and continent.
Thanks to the influence of Carlo and Franca Ciampi and others within Italian society, our delegation, made up of government and business representatives, was very well received by the Italian people as a whole, who are indeed very keen to work closely with us to help us meet our challenges.
We visited Italy at a time when its politicians are engaged in a vigorous election campaign, which will conclude with a general election in about two weeks. Despite this, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and opposition leader, Romano Prodi, set aside time to meet us, again reflecting their commitment to work with us as we strive to achieve our goals of reconstruction and development.
As we left Italy, to return to Africa, the EU Heads of Government met in Brussels. The media reported that one of the contentious issues that might be discussed at this meeting was "economic nationalism and protectionism" among the members of EU, which was formed to create a "common market"! We were interested in this debate because its outcome would indicate to us how seriously we should take the arguments of the developed world, in favour of "liberalisation" and "the free market".
Necessarily, the global development agenda, including the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, the challenges of peace, democracy and development in Africa, and the restructuring of the multilateral system, featured prominently in our discussions with the UN Secretary General, EU Commissioner Michel, British Minister Triesman, and Belgian Crown Prince Philippe.
At the same, it is clear that the provision of proper answers to these questions must include consideration of some of the experiences we have mentioned, such as the sustained challenge of the "Washington consensus" in Latin America and the EU (and US) debate about globalisation and the protection of national interests.
As before, our interactions with the Presidents and governments of the DRC, Nigeria and Algeria gave us yet another opportunity to focus specifically on the African challenges of peace and development, and the concrete bilateral, regional and continental initiatives we should take in this regard.
This was especially highlighted by our discussions in the DRC, which once more emphasised the critical importance of a peaceful, democratic and prosperous DRC to the success of the African renaissance. In this regard, we are committed to do everything in our power to assist the Congolese people and government to hold successful democratic elections later this year. At the same time, we will continue to work with this sister African republic to help rebuild its state machinery, relating to such areas as the public service and the security forces. We will also continue to focus on the development agenda, including infrastructure and human resource development.
In his Address to a Joint Sitting of our Houses of Parliament, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke warmly about the achievements we have scored as a country since 1994, including the progress we have made to entrench national reconciliation. In this context, the UN brought a delegation of Iraqi Members of Parliament to our country to assess whether our experience could help their country to overcome its current enormous challenges.
We must remain ready to work with the Iraqi people in this regard, consistent with our internationalist duty to contribute whatever we can to the achievement of peace, stability and reconciliation in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Once again, this underlines the interdependence of the human family and the importance of drawing lessons from other countries as we confront the national and continental challenges of development. This is especially important given the view that had emerged that the process of globalisation obliges all countries to adopt more or less one development model.
The 23 March 2006 edition of the International Herald Tribune carries an article by William Pesek Jr. of Bloomberg News, headed "Vietnam on the brink of measured success." In part it says:
"More and more, investors are looking to Vietnam as an opportunity to diversify in Asia...The gradual opening of its $45 billion economy is complicating efforts to tap a thriving nation of 84 million people, but that's just fine. In Washington, the word 'gradual' is a dirty one. For well over a decade, officials in Washington argued that a speedy embrace of free trade, deregulation and privatisation was the best recipe for success.
"Vietnam's take is different. The energy on its streets leaves no doubt that the nation is hungry for global prosperity...'But we are doing things our own way,' said Vu Tien Loc, president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry...
"As countries like Indonesia and Argentina learned, dutifully following what is said in Washington has its risks. Such countries became cautionary tales of nations taking the plunge into free trade and being chastened by markets. They were disappointed by the dearth of long-term investment. When they were flooded with foreign money, corruption often flourished as public officials lined their pockets. Such experiences show why Vietnam is taking its time."
Across the world in the EU, the developed world seems also to be challenging the call to subject everything to free trade and deregulation. In its March 22, 2006 edition, the Financial Times published an article by George Parker entitled "Barbed response: how Europe could be rent asunder by barricades to business". He wrote:
"The political vacuum, (following, inter alia, the rejection of the EU draft constitution is the French and Dutch referenda), has been filled by a gush of protectionism within the EU's single market. The Union's so-called 'period of reflection' has become a pause for recrimination, as member states shout at each other across newly erected trade barriers, thrown up to protect national banks or energy companies...
"Protectionism is at odds with the Union's founding principle - the creation of a common market binding the continent's habitually warring countries together through economic integration."
The Parker article went on to report French Prime Minister de Villepin as saying: "When the world is changing it is a question of gathering our strengths...and defending France and things French."
It also quoted Maria Rodrigues, "one of the architects of the EU's Lisbon economic reform strategy", as saying: "French voters saw the EU as a Trojan horse for globalisation. Nationalism is a serious threat: companies are trying to make a reality of the single market and governments should not stand in their way."
But the experience of many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America says that the emergence of a global "single market" does not provide solutions to the national challenges of poverty and underdevelopment - hence the particular responses of Vietnam and, now, many countries in Latin America.
It seems obvious that the countries of the South, which may find it difficult individually to challenge the negative aspects of the development of a "global single market", need to pool their collective strength to defend the interests of the poor billions in their countries. For them, the concept and practice of international solidarity are a matter of life and death.
