What Lies Behind the
Government's Concern with "Good Governance" in Africa?
Peter Hain, the Foreign Office Minister for Africa,
has taken several recent opportunities to lecture on the importance of
"good governance" in Africa and especially in southern African
countries.
His latest theme has been the necessity to eradicate
corruption, but this too is nothing more than yet another attempt to facilitate
interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and to organise their
governments to accept the consequences of globalisation. According to Hain
corruption can no longer be tolerated, but he makes it clear that this is
"not simply a moral imperative" but one of the consequences of
globalisation and the drive for maximum profits. In his view, "Modern
capital is so mobile it prefers to invest where corruption does not take a
slice of the profits." According to Hain, the central problems facing
Africa are those of "governance" and "transparency", rather
than the interference and exploitation of Britain and the big powers which has
created and continues to create all the conditions not just for corruption, but
for the devastation of entire regions and millions of people throughout the
African continent.
During his recent visit to the war-torn southern African
country of Angola, Hain tried to present himself and the British government as
altruistic peacemakers, determined to stop the civil war, which has devastated
the country for more than a quarter of a century, eradicate
"corruption" and rebuild Angola in the interests of its people.
According to Hain what is needed to secure Angola a peaceful and prosperous
future is further intervention by the British government and others to
strengthen UN sanctions against the unauthorised sale of what are now referred
to as "blood diamonds", which are alleged to be funding the armed
forces of UNITA, who are opposed to the present Angolan government. The British
government is also stating that it will be a guarantor of any peace agreement
signed between the opposing political forces in Britain, and by this means
hopes to create the conditions for further interference in the future. Of
course Hain also stressed that Angola must "end corruption", have
"good governance, democracy and human rights", and what he referred
to as "a strong independent civil society", if it was to expect
British support. In other words it must espouse the politics of pluralism and
the values of Eurocentrism and not develop its own independent path. This is
precisely the meaning of "good governance" as defined by the British
ruling class, and nothing else, just as "peace" for it means the
subjugation of subject peoples to big power will.
The question must be asked - what gave Britain the right to
intervene in Angola's internal affairs, to lecture that country regarding how
it should conduct its politics and gave itself the right to monitor political
agreements made by Angolans? It must be said that Angola, which was formerly a
Portuguese colony, has suffered even more than most other African countries
from outside interference and intervention both during colonial period and
since independence in 1975. Potentially one of the world's richest country's
because of its abundant natural resources such as oil and diamonds, it is today
one of the poorest, dominated by the big powers through the aegis of the UN,
IMF and by other means.
The British government has already attempted to establish
some control of diamond production in Sierra Leone, now it seems it is pursuing
similar aims in Angola, another country where production is not as yet tightly
controlled. Angola is also likely to become an important oil producing country
and is set to triple its production in 10-15 years to 2.5 million barrels per
day and also to triple government revenue.
In the context of the new "scramble" for Africa,
the British government is, under the guise of developing a
"partnership" with African countries and concern with "good
governance", "transparency" and "ending corruption",
developing the means for further interference in the affairs of African
countries in the interests of globalisation and the plans of the financial
oligarchy and big monopolies.
