http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/742/op2.htm
Southern awakening Reflecting on the experience of that other America, below the equator, Anouar Abdel-Malek proposes a revival of the civilisations of the global south -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the summer of 1969, as I accepted an invitation from Claudio Villez to serve as visiting professor with the International Studies Institute in Santiago, Chile was preparing for presidential elections. Villez arranged for me to meet the five presidential candidates, as well as Army Chief of Staff General Pratz, so I could acquaint myself with the various political trends in the country. Salvador Allende, the leftist Popular Unity coalition candidate, was the hindmost runner. Pressure from the US on Latin America was mounting and Cuba was asserting its independence and socialist leanings. I visited the Military Chief of Staff College where I delivered a lecture and convened a seminar. The seminar was attended by 120 top officers eager to discuss relations between the Middle East and the rest of the world -- the West and Latin America in particular. Participants fell into three categories. On the left was an exuberant group of Allende supporters. The calm centre was mostly made up of members of the Christian Democratic Party, the ruling coalition. The third group, silent, almost all of whom wore sunglasses, represented the conservative right. Two days later I had lunch with Allende. He asked me how the seminar went. I told him frankly that the Chilean left and centre parties should form an alliance. Before Allende could comment, the young men and women present shot out leftist slogans popular at the time -- slogans inspired by Che Guevara and Trotsky's ideas on permanent revolution -- condemning my suggestion as counter-revolutionary. I restated my opinion that if the left refused to compromise in alliance, Chile would face disaster. In 1970, Allende was elected president and commenced the country's "transition to socialism". The US, under Nixon-Kissinger, pushed right-wing segments in the Chilean army to end the Allende government. In 1973, these forces, under the command of General Pinochet, staged a bloody coup, assassinated Allende and ushered in the darkest period of Chile's modern history with untold thousands, mostly socialists, arrested, tortured and assassinated. It was not until 1989 that the Christian Democratic-led opposition succeeded in re- instituting free democratic elections, ending 17 years of military dictatorship and bringing into power that party's leader, Patricio Aylwin Azocar. Azocar was followed in 1994 by Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle and thereafter Socialist Party leader Ricardo Lagos. Under Lagos Chile took enormous strides forward. Lagos is a firm believer in the concept of a united national front as the cornerstone of security, guarantor of democracy and an instrument for widespread grassroots mobilisation. If the Socialist Party holds most of the key posts of government, it nonetheless has been keen to bring on board the Christian Democratic centre and moderate right, thereby affirming that the government in Chile rules in the name of the entire nation, rather than to the letter of a single ideological strand. At the same time, the Chilean government strove to heal the wounds of two decades of dictatorship, voting to compensate 28,000 people who had been tortured under Pinochet. Army leaderships gradually subordinated to civilian constitutional rule, so that by the time it began, the Pinochet trial did not impinge upon the dignity of the Chilean military. As we contemplate Chile today we find that its national front foundations under Lagos ensured it a broad margin of manoeuvrability in the international arena. Chile has entered into numerous bilateral trade agreements, among others with the US. In spite of such ties, Chile refused to support the US-led invasion of Iraq and was one of the first Latin American nations to give economic relations with China top priority. Chile's ability turn manoeuvrability into advantage is founded upon a realistic assessment of the dynamics of international power relations. Secondly, we find that the army in Chile retains a special and revered status, acquired through its victories in the so-called War of the Pacific (1879-1884) in which Chile succeeded in expanding into Bolivia, Peru and Argentina. Lagos's policy towards the army and the military leadership, therefore, has been astute, founded on respect for its traditional status so long as it respects the constitution and remains subordinate to elected civil leadership. This policy not only affirms that there can be no reversion to military dictatorship but also that Chilean society refuses absolutely for one sector, majority or minority, to monopolise decision-making processes that determine the fate of the people. Thirdly, we observe that education and cultural development is accorded high priority, a phenomenon that applies throughout South America. Chile has made enormous inroads into combating illiteracy and extending education throughout the populace, raising levels of knowledge and know-how and developing a free and vibrant academic and research and development sector. That intellectual life has been so effectively mobilised towards the advancement of society's goals and aspirations is indicative of the fact that an elite of highly qualified and farsighted intellectuals and technocrats have been placed in charge of national policy design and implementation. Clearly sustained development entails much more than economic reform measures. The Chilean experience is testimony to a bold and persistent drive to build a robust united national front as the day-to-day foundation for independence and democracy. Perhaps herein is a lesson that will help explain why we, in the Middle East, are still floundering in spite of our historical grounding and potential. Is it only because Chile is a relatively small country, at 15 million inhabitants, that it has been able to make the transition from dictatorship to democracy with such apparent ease? In 1969 I also visited Brazil. Colonised by Portugal in 1500, Brazil was originally ruled by a viceroy until the turn of the 19th century when the Portuguese royal court fled Napoleon's invading armies. In 1822, Prince Regent Dom Pedro declared Brazil's independence from Portugal. In 1930, Getolio Vargas led a revolution that sought to establish a new political and economic order that would free Brazil from dependency on the north. Following WWII, Brazil fluctuated between dictatorial and leftward leaning governments, but by the time of my visit it was firmly under the control of the military, which had begun a widespread campaign of political repression, leading to the exile of numerous prominent intellectuals. Later in Paris I was able to meet a group of Brazilian refugees, most of whom were university professors. The central figure of that vanguard group of Brazilian intellectuals was Celso Furtado, an outstanding political economist and forerunner in the drive to develop an economic strategy that would free countries of the south from the cycle of dependency on the imperialist north. It was Furtado who opened my eyes to Brazil and South America, and by extension the similarities and differences between the ways they and we in Egypt think. Brazil, however, was in for momentous change, a process that began in 1979 when preparations got under way for free civil elections, in 1985 bringing into power President Jos� Sarney and an end to military rule. Within days, that group of Brazilian exiles was homeward bound. Furtado was appointed minister of culture and soon thereafter I received a telex inviting me to visit him in his country's new capital, Brasilia. Upon my arrival, Furtado whisked me off to his ministry and thereafter on a tour of the presidential palace. "You've been pestering me with the question as to how I, a political economist, ended up in the Ministry of Culture," he said, and proceeded to relate how President Sarney wanted to convince army leaders of the need to admit to injustices perpetrated under years of military repression as well as the present need to submit to civil rule. The best person, Sarney had felt, for that task was none other than my friend, the political economy professor, doubtless because of his well-known patriotism and dedication to serving the Brazilian people. Furtado's first act in office was to bring together the antagonists in the covert war whose time to end had come. Following a speech urging reconciliation, he gave each side the opportunity to state their opinions clearly and frankly. Then the participants agreed that it was time to establish the unity of all major national forces. Brazil was thus the first nation in the history of Latin America to establish a united national front consisting of military leaders and eminent figures from the nation's intellectual and cultural life, regardless of party and syndicate affiliations. Since that historic turning point in 1985-86, Brazil progressed from one achievement to the next. Today, it is headed by Labour Party leader President Lula de Silva. That he won only after four electoral rounds is testimony to the integrity and precision of the Brazilian electoral process. More importantly, the political vanguard in Brazil unleashed the full complement of civil liberties, thereby allowing political and syndicate life to thrive unrestrictedly across the greatest possible spectrum of society. In addition, they drew from the legacy of the attempts, since the 1930s, to weld Brazil into a unified nation under a modern, independent government, whether these attempts were spearheaded by the Brazilian Communist Party under Luis Prestes or by industrial capitalist leaders championed by Vargas, with the range of statist and liberal democratic models these offered. Lula de Silva, today, follows a most judicious policy. Its primary cornerstone is an extensive national front of all political and intellectual forces of society cemented by the "deep bond" of dedication to the interests of the people and reverence for their armed forces. This bond is strengthened by a practical and realistic, non- confrontational economic development policy founded first and foremost on the need to ensure food for all the people, and secondly on the emphasis on Mercosur and other organisational frameworks for promoting economic growth and integration without subordinating South American economies to North American command. Its third cornerstone is a powerful modern military and advanced nuclear capacity, leading many to support proposals that Brazil be given a permanent seat in an expanded Security Council. It is in this context that Brazil has begun hosting Arab leaders and representatives with the aim of building comprehensive cultural and civilisational resurgence in the south. What lessons can we draw as we reach towards our own aspirations? Firstly, united national fronts are the cornerstone of Latin American democracy, development and progress. South America emerged onto the modern stage through a series of wars of liberation from Spanish dominion. The movement, which swept Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia during the first quarter of the 19th century, was embodied in the figure of Sim�n Bolivar " El Libertador ", the famous revolutionary general who laid the foundations of government following independence. The lead the army took in that struggle explains its special status and its crucial role in the formation of the state, in Brazil and Chile, under Peron and similarly with Castro's revolutionary state in Cuba and with the transformations Venezuela is undergoing today under Chavez. True, the army was the agent of harsh repression in those periods of dictatorial rule that swept most countries of South America. However, it was the national front that broke the back of that reactionary trend and restored the body of the armed forces to its natural place and function within the framework of democratic constitutional government. Herein, precisely, resides the organic depth of the national front in South America. A second, particularly Latin American, phenomenon worth noting is summed up by the term "liberation theology". Is not this ideological trend a part of the long heritage of the South American struggle to free itself of colonial dependency upon Spain and Portugal? It is important here to pause for a moment at that deep division between the indigenous South American peoples and the descendants of the waves of European settlers that accompanied the Spanish and Portuguese conquests of that continent following the discovery of the Americas in 1492. It goes without saying that the settlers seized the most fertile land in the plains and around ports and eventually drove native inhabitants to inhospitable mountain areas. With the onset of modes of capitalist production in the 18th century divisions deepened, aggravating long suppurating wounds in South American societies. As systematic ethnic discrimination continued, there emerged another rift of inside the Catholic Church. Eventually the situation arose whereby one segment of this religious body, which had played a fundamental role in the conquest of South America, identified itself with the majority of the ruling settler class, sharing their views on concerns of the world and matters of faith and looking to Rome as the supreme and unquestionable font of spiritual guidance. Meanwhile, another segment of this body, epitomised by such socially active orders as the Jesuits, became increasingly involved with the underprivileged sectors of society, notably the indigenous Indians, the peasants and the urban poor. It was the clergymen of this second segment who began to preach a theology founded on the precept that Christ had lived and died for the cause of spreading justice among men and that this call must prevail even over the directives of the head of the church in Rome. It is largely a result of their efforts that the Catholic Church in South America today has become a major force of progressive change, a beacon of hope for the masses in that continent and elsewhere in the south. A third and particularly remarkable phenomenon pertains to the unique role played by South American intellectuals. Comprised, for the most part, of descendants from the dominant European settler classes, it was deeply torn. On the one hand, it had a natural affinity to European/Western culture via connections with Spain and Portugal. On the other it was heir to the wars of liberation in mother Europe. This duality formed the first level of enquiry in the search of identity. This was soon followed by a second level of enquiry pursued with increasing intensity the more archeological excavations shed light on the great Aztec, Mayan, Olmec and Inca civilisations that had thrived in Latin America before the 15th century. This search was a concern that lay at the very heart of the transition of an entire nation from the age of independence to the age of awakening -- our own age. These factors behind national unity are what ground the drive now under way in Latin America to forge new and more equitable bases of global order. This other half of America has demonstrated unparalleled dynamism in this regard, proving that it is possible for countries of the south to deepen their sovereignty, autonomy and creativity while working within the framework of present realities, thereby avoiding unnecessary conflict. Left-wing governments head most countries of South America. Yet it is a patriotic left that knows the rules as well as the possibilities of the current world order. One instance was highlighted by Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to South America several months ago, during which a far- reaching agreement was struck whereby China will build a transcontinental transport infrastructure in exchange for South America exporting most of its agricultural and natural mineral products to the vast Chinese market. While this new orientation does not entail a reduction in levels of economic trade and cooperation with the US or Europe, it will greatly reduce the sense of south-north dependence and offers considerable benefits to southern economies. Having grounded their democracies in national unity, Latin American nations are redressing -- peacefully -- global imbalances. New horizons are opening and it is time we take our cue from South America and join it in formulating frameworks for the revival of the civilisations of the south. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? 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