Unisa online - British Foreign Secretary addresses UNISA/UK Bilateral Forum

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband

In his first visit to South Africa, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband addressed the UNISA/UK Bilateral Forum – Engaging with the Next Generation on 7 July 2008 at the Senate Hall on the Muckleneuk Campus. Miliband tackled very current issues of shifts in the balance of power within and between states, democracy and the Zimbabwe crisis in his lecture, "Freedom and Responsibility: New Challenges in Africa". “Around the world, there is what I call 'a civilian surge'. Power is moving downwards, as people demand more rights, more protection, and more accountability,” Miliband said but power is also shifting upward too, saying that “together, countries are working out shared rules and developing shared institutions, whether regional like the EU (European Union) and AU (African Union), or global.”

He says that over the last thirty years, there has been a surge of a ‘third wave of democracy’ where democratic accountability has replaced authoritarianism. “In some countries, democratic advances have been reversed, in others, authoritarian regimes have been resilient to civilian protest,” said Miliband where some argue that democracy is not suitable for under-developed economies or tribal divisions. But he believes that democracy is a universal aspiration and the focus should not be on whether to support democracy but what forms of democracy would work in these type of countries.

Supporting democracy

Miliband believes that there are practical things that all governments can and must do to support democracy:

• Use aid budgets to support accountability and help support state institutions and civil society.
• Trade can be used not just to drive economic growth but also to nurture social and political modernisation.
• Deploying robust diplomacy.
• In countries suffering from conflict, troops may be needed to provide the security that is the platform for re-establishing democratic governments.

But as countries are under pressure to be accountable to society, they have to increasingly cooperate regionally in the shifting of power upwards. The African continent is scarred by problems that have spread across national borders, said Miliband and it is imperative that countries look to their neighbours in times of crisis.

L- R CARS Director Prof Shadrack Gutto, MP Miliband, UNISA Registrar Prof Louis Molamu, UK’s Minister of State for Public Health Dawn Primarolo, Paul Boateng, British High Commissioner to SA, and Prof Rita Mare, Acting Principal and Vice-Chancellor and Vice Principal: Academic and Research

Citing an example of the economic depression, refugees and war that led to the creation of the EU after the Second World War. “Common markets can replace military conflict with trade. And nations can come together to manage their problems collectively, rather than let them tear them apart,” he said. Miliband does not believe that this can be replicated everywhere, however, he does believe that the EU and the AU are natural partners and wants to see them working together in three key areas:

• Conflict: The EU currently has troops in Chad and North-eastern Congo assisting in peacekeeping and stabilisation of countries. The long-term aim is to build African capacity to prevent conflict and respond to crises, rather than try to fill gaps ourselves.
• Energy: If African countries work together to tap new sources, in twenty years many more states could be exporting rather than importing energy.
• Development: Rising food prices are forcing Africans to cut back on education and healthcare, and sell off livestock in order to eat. The EU, as the world's largest aid donor, and the world's largest single market, can play a big role here.

Mugabe no longer listening

He left the Zimbabwean crisis for the last saying “on 29 March Zimbabwe's people voted - in huge numbers - for change. But the man (Robert Mugabe) who was once the people's President has shown that he is no longer listening. Worse, he is so determined to cling on to power that he has unleashed a campaign of unchecked brutality against his own people.”

He noted South Africa’s response to the unfolding disaster in Zimbabwe as well as the political and economical consequences it experiences, but also added spoke about various ways out of this crisis.

Miliband believes that “the power to do good in the world is greater than ever before”. It is now up to the nations that need to start seeing this and working together in creating economically and socially viable societies.