Review of World Politics
By Shashi P.B.B. Malla
Chinese President Xi’s New Year message
China’s President Xi Jinping summed up the prospects for the New Year succinctly and metaphorically:
“Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only after polishing can a piece of jade be finer,” he noted.
“We still need to stay tenacious like a bamboo deeply rooted in the rocks, keep our feet on the ground, and work hard to paint a magnificent picture of rural vitalization, and steadily march ahead towards the goal of common prosperity” (msn.com).
India’s Initiative to Combat Covid-19 Jointly in the Doldrums
At the outbreak of the disease, Indian PM Narendra Modi had taken the initiative in proposing a joint effort by South Asian nations in combatting the dreaded global pandemic Covid-19. The leaders of Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka had praised Modi’s proposal to collectively set an example to the world, and contribute to a healthier planet.
Nepalese PM K.P. Sharma Oli had replied that he welcomed the idea by Modi for chalking out a strong strategy by the leadership of SAARC nations to fight the virus (My Republica, March 13, 2020).
Ten months on, there is no sign of the joint initiative, as with much of SAARC!
A Stabile Pakistan, A Stable South Asian Region
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan stated last week that the combined oppositional Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was part of a conspiracy against him and the armed forces, and challenged the opposition to cite a single incident where the military had transgressed from its powers and backed the government (The News International, Jan. 3, 2021).
Khan said that he does not interfere in any institution. However, his government enjoys exemplary relations with the military because it is aware that he is not corrupt and only works for the development of the country, elaborating that, “The military will stand with any prime minister who works for Pakistan’s betterment.” With this, he countered domestic critique that he was too dependent on the security forces.
He added that the military wants to see a strong Pakistan under a patriotic government that has no stakes outside the country. Hinting at Pakistan’s close economic cooperation with China which had no indebtedness whatsoever, he further underlined that any nation that goes under heavy debt loses its independence in foreign policy and its sovereignty, which no military would ever want.
Furthermore, he said the country is facing an international conspiracy targeting the Pakistan Army, with opposition leaders participating by directly attacking the country’s top military brass. Moreover, the opposition was in a quandary because it had failed to prove any rigging in the last general election [which had brought him to power].
Sino-US Competition & Cooperation
China’s state councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi was optimistic about the Sino-US relations and said that these had reached a “new crossroads” and could get back on the right track under a new U.S. administration. These could follow a period of “unprecedented difficulty” [under Trump]. Wang was speaking officially in a joint interview with the Xinhua news agency and other state media outlets.
In the last few years, relations between the world’s two largest economies had come under increasing strain amid a series of disputes over trade, intellectual property, human rights [Hong Kong, Xinjiang] and the origins of Covid-19 [Trump always insisting in calling it the ‘Chinese’ or ‘Wuhan’ Virus]. In the latest [most unfriendly] move, the U.S. blacklisted dozens of Chinese companies allegedly having close ties with the military.
Wang stressed that the U.S. policies towards China in recent years had not only harmed the interests of both countries but also brought huge dangers to the world at large (Reuters, Jan. 2).
The Dis-United Kingdom or ‘Little Britain’ or even ‘Little England & Wales’.
At the beginning of last year, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was greatly upbeat and predicted that the following 12 months would amount to a “fantastic year for Britain.” Instead, it turned out to be an ‘a nushorribilis’.
The political turmoil of Brexit and the multi-dimensional crises of the global pandemic superimposed on that process stretched the social fabric of the United Kingdom to the ripping point. Experts fear 2021 could tear it to pieces (Luke McGee/CNN, Jan. 2).
The politics and constitutional arrangements between the four nations — England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – that together form the United Kingdom are a constant source of tribulation to any national leader trying to reconcile their substantively different political, societal and economic priorities.
Now, on January 1 this year, after years of serpentine political debate and tortuous negotiations, Britain finally left the European Union’s regulatory and trading arrangements. The UK has clutched back its so-called sovereignty, but at what cost? Its domestic political travails may just be starting, and it may be the beginning of the end of the UK as we know it.
That is, Brexit has been done, but “with a myriad of unpredictable strains on the UK’s political union” (CNN), that could lead the British PM Boris Johnson into very treacherous constitutional waters. At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic has also brought to the fore the glaring political distance between the devolved [semi-autonomous] governments – in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – and London.
Scotland
The independence movement in Scotland has been growing steadily since the country’s referendum in 2014. At that time, the Scots grudgingly voted by 55 percent to remain in the Union [of four nations]. According to a recent poll by the Scotsman newspaper, there is now a majority of 58 percent for independence to 42 percent for remaining!
The support for independence can be attributed to Scotland’s objection to Brexit. It is ironic that while the UK wanted to leave the EU, Scotland wanted to leave the UK! Thus, even as Johnson celebrated securing a trade deal with the EU, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that “there is no deal that will ever make up for what Brexit takes away from us. It’s time to chart our own future as an independent, European nation.” In point of fact, Scotland would be a bigger and richer nation than many an EU-member state.
Wales
There is not a strong independence movement in Wales. However, the support for business-as-usual is disappearing. Moreover, Welsh nationalists are becoming increasingly hostile towards the Conservative government in Westminster.
Northern Ireland
This part of the realm has long been the most likely casualty of Brexit. It is the only part of the UK which shares a common land border with the Republic of Ireland which is in the EU.
The prospect of a customs border separating the two parts of the island has raised all sorts of concerns, ranging from the flow of goods to a return of the sectarian violence of the 1970s and 1980s [‘The Troubles’].
The EU-UK agreement prevents that border, but the Protestant Unionists in Northern Ireland fear that this binds them to follow the EU’s customs and regulatory rules rather than the UK’s. As Katy Hayward, professor of political sociology at Queen’s University in Belfast puts it: “In practical terms, it has put Northern Ireland in a different position to the rest of the UK. So, the more now Britain shifts from the EU, the more in common Northern Ireland has with the EU, and thus the Republic of Ireland.”. Demographic changes in the northern part may soon lead to increasing demands for long-sought reunification of the Irish.
Trump’s Utter Corruption, Sedition & Treason Exposed
In a fresh abuse of presidential power, Trump tried last week to bully a top Republican official in Georgia into manufacturing non-existent votes in his favour to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the state. In an hour-long stunning, baseless, rambling and incoherent phone call, his delusionary instincts were full on display. His claim that he must have won by hundreds of thousands of votes remain unsubstantiated. Experts are clear that this amounted to the most serious threat yet posed by his autocratic tendencies to American democracy (CNN/Stephen Collinson, Jan.4).
This astonishing new evidence of a desperate Trump caught on tape [first reported by the Washington Post, which may well go down in U.S. history as the ‘Trump’ or ‘Georgian’ tape] to illegally and unconstitutionally overturn the election, exposes the depth of his utter corruption. It also makes his Congressional allies complicit in his bid to thwart the will of voters/people.
“At the very least it’s an abuse of presidential power which is a normal time would be impeachable,” said CNN presidential historian Timothy Naftali.
John Dean, a former White House legal counsel in the Watergate scandal, told CNN Trump was “at the edge extortion.”
Trump’s bombshell telephone call could affect what was shaping up as two very tight races in Georgia between Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler and Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who was instrumental in Biden’s victory in the state, claimed on CNN’s Jake Tapper’s ‘State of the Union’: “This is going to be a very tough battle, but it is absolutely within the realm of possibility, in fact, the realm of likelihood, that Democrats can win.”
If this turns out to be true, it will radically change the balance of power in the Senate, as well as, the entire American government!
The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com
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