By Fred M’membe
I gave a speech in Beijing at the opening ceremony of The Second International Forum on Democracy – The Shared Human Values, organised jointly by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and think tanks from Cambodia, Chile, Nigeria, Spain and Tonga.
More than 300 guests, scholars, and experts from over 100 countries and regions attended the forum in person or virtually to discuss democracy and sustainable development, democracy and innovation, democracy and global governance, democracy and the diversity of human civilisation, and democracy and the path to modernisation.
This is what I said:
In a truly fair, free and peaceful world, democracy takes many forms of expression, not only one. I believe democracy is a government in which all the people participate, in which the interests of the people reign supreme, in which the country’s sovereignty, the country’s honour, is at the top.
This month is a month of democracy discourse in the world. At the end of this month, there’ll be a conference in Lusaka, or a summit in Lusaka, Zambia, my country, led by the United States. They have come to southern Africa to teach us democracy: a country that was opposed to our liberation, a country that supported colonial regimes – their puppet regime in South Africa, the white racist minority regime in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, the Portuguese colonial governments in Mozambique, in Angola, in Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde – today is coming to Africa to teach us about democracy.
A country that has toppled so many governments in Africa, that has led so many coups in Africa and other parts of the world, a country that has killed so many of our leaders in Africa and other parts of the world, the killers of Patrice Lumumba, those who toppled Kwame Nkrumah, those who killed Nasser, those who killed Muammar Gaddafi, today are coming to teach us about democracy. A country that has been built on brutal force, on the enslavement of other human beings, on the humiliation of Africans, the exploitation of Africans, the plunder of Africa, today is coming to teach us about democracy.
That’s the arrogance, the imperialist arrogance, the racist arrogance that we are subjected to. We cannot have democracy where there is hegemony of the strongest, mightiest, imperialist power. We cannot have democracy where a country’s resources, a country’s decisions are dictated to by another country. A country that is dominated by another country cannot be democratic, a country that lacks sovereignty cannot be democratic, a people who cannot decide for themselves cannot be democratic. A colony and neocolony cannot be democratic.
That’s why today, at the United Nations, membership is on the basis of sovereignty. Only sovereign nations can be members of the United Nations, because only sovereign nations can decide for themselves. A colony cannot be a member of the United Nations. It’s not by accident. It’s not a mistake. If you have no respect for the dignity of others, if you have no respect for the sovereignty of other countries, you cannot claim to be a champion of democracy.
They used to say all roads lead to Rome. Today we can confidently say, all roads to progress, all roads to what is better for humanity, lead to Beijing. This is a people who have developed themselves, a country that has developed itself without colonising any country in the world, without plundering any country in the world, without subjugating any people in the world. This is a country that is developing with maximum respect for others, for its history, for its cultures, and recognises the diversity that is civilisation. We were only taught one form of civilisation, one form of modernisation; that was the western way. Westerness was a measure of how civilised, how modern you are. We reject that. We reject it because it’s not correct. We reject it because it’s undemocratic. We reject it because it’s uncivilised to think of other people and the world in that way.
Today, they cannot accept that China has caught up with them, China is about to surpass them in many areas of human endeavour. Their imperialist arrogance is inhibiting them from accepting that reality, their racist arrogance is inhibiting them from accepting that reality. But the world is changing. The Chinese we are witnessing today, as President Xi said in Moscow the other day, have not been seen in 100 years.
They (the Americans) have shaped a world that they themselves are scared of, and they have shaped a world that is not sustainable. Democracy, human development is not sustainable on the basis of plunder, on the basis of enslavement, on the basis of humiliating other people every day. That is a system we are seeing today, a system that will not survive if plunder is eliminated, if subjugation of other peoples, other nations, is eliminated, if inequality in the world is eliminated. That system will disappear. The only system that can survive and can endure for long is a system that is based on mutual benefit, win-win relationships, mutual respect for others, accommodation and tolerance of others, and fraternal love for all humanity. This is what we find in China today. This is what China’s example is showing us.
Indeed, all pathways are different. There is no path that is the same. Even if we are leading to the same destination each path has its own characteristics. We are seeing that, we are learning that, we are experiencing that today with China.
There are many things that have to be done to get the world that we want. A more just, a more fair, a more peaceful world is possible. But it won’t drop from the skies, we have to struggle for it. And, as Fidel (Castro) said, if we struggle we will win.
Well spoken comrade
…but at least if you had mentioned how the USD has killed the economies of developing nations and how it is high time we adopted another reserve currency for developing nations of which the Chinese Yuan Is the most ideal candidate. Most of the developing world is dealing with China and not the US or the west, why should we be transacting in USD? Why not the Chinese own currency which is Yuan (for foreign transactions)?
Dr Membe,
You are great, soldier on. Our country needs redemption
LOL! Commrade Fred practiced capitalism as a washed up business man who can’t evey pay statutory taxes on time. And then he pretents to be a man of the people. American certainly has many sins in its past, but who is expoiting Zambia today? China.
Exploiting Zambia? China? If you have nothing to say go sleep. They have built you a Railway all the way to Dar. You cant even build a road. They built you Mongu-Kalabo road which you dont even commercially exploit, They built you Lusaka Chirundu Road, China built you Kariba North Bank project in Siavonga, They built you two modern airports, modern stadiums etc etc. What has USA built you? Yet your president sucks up to Washington every minute
USA has introduced homosexuality to your young population via hollywood and via threats of no financial aid.
He sounds and thinks more like a president than that failure who gets soaked in rain deliberately
Who gives a hoot about this failed socialist who supported PF which in turn left Zambians in financial ruin? Even his Chinese hosts don’t believe in communism/socialist ideas bcuz its a failed construct.
@Kandansa: And what did all that cost you? A debt that up to now you cant even repay. All of that because of your blind and foolish belief in the Chinese as a mesyr – When will you start to believe in yourself and sole your own problems you PF cadre fool?
There you are! Asking nicompoomp questions. Where on earth has anyone helped someone for nothing? Cant you think? Because you believe in the US as your messiah you want to impose that thought on me? Have you ever seen me supporting the PF? Atase Uko!
These chaps have no pride whatsoever…an American would never go on foreign soil to go and rubbish his country.
M’membe needs to explain what he means by “we.” Most Zambians who were alive during the Kaunda / UNIP socialist regime cannot understand why anyone can today be championing the return of socialism to our country to experience the socioeconomic ills that were characteristic of Zambian society.
Fuledi is the most useless ***** whom I can not pay attention.If fuledi loves this country why did he failed to payTAX? Mr TAX EVADE.
My brother Fred is a wealthy socialist; he has the financial means to travel to prisons in Russia and China where numerous political prisoners are languishing for saying exactly what he is ranting about Zambia, and the cemeteries where citizens who dared to challenge Vladimir Putin and the Chinese Communist Party are buried. He can also come to the USA where there are hardly any political prisoners or assassinated critics of presidents or the government.
Hallucinations … socialist propaganda … twisted facts … misrepresentations … misinformed and unresearched characterizations …. in every paragraph of the article.
I would be surprised if this fellow really believed any of the empty rhetoric he is spewing. I get that he needs to make a living and so is singing very loudly for his supper. Fred’s support for regime’s in Zambia which have been corrupt, divisive and trampled on democracy with impunity show who he really is!! This is the guy that demonised a whole tribe just to serve his narrow political interest.
Some of the basic and obvious signs or characteristics of a “puppet” having pictures of leaders of other countries in one’s office or home, mimicking the dress codes of other countries’ leaders, mimicking the catch words of other countries’ leaders — such as “revolutionary,” etc. Hichilema does not fit into this category of puppets.
This Kadansa here is Not me
This one is making the right noises.