Former minister warns of creeping authoritarianism and the erosion of civic trust.
The US is no longer a leading democracy and has become not only an irritation to its own citizens, but a threat to the rest of the world.
This is according to former minister of international relations and cooperation Naledi Pandor.
She was delivering an annual lecture at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection at the University of Johannesburg on Thursday.
Pandor, who is the Nelson Mandela Foundation board chair, said the “tectonic shift in the US was part of a world which is shifting under our feet”.
She was more diplomatic than former SA ambassador to Washington Ebrahim Rasool, in not directly naming US President Donald Trump.
She also lashed out at the Joe Biden administration for its disrespect for international law.
Pandor said the current US stance on immigration indicates that the American dream is no longer an open invitation, and that an open, inclusive electoral democracy, which had been embraced for many decades, is no longer regarded as legitimate.
Instead, “women’s reproductive rights and equality could be – and were – severely undermined, and judicial independence, a cornerstone of American democracy, was to suffer significant reversal”.
American fears and ‘authoritarian conduct’
She said many Americans had a fear of immigration, there was a decline in working-class feelings of economic empowerment, blamed on migrants, and the view that government machinery has become “a monstrous, menacing presence in public life”.
Pandor criticised what she called “complacency and spaces for authoritarian directives” in the US.
This had been seen in the dismissal of thousands of government workers over just two months, “with not much of a whimper from trade unions and other organs of civil society”.
She said, “Authoritarian conduct has fascinating snowball characteristics”.
Negative actions may begin with instructions to end protests, and then change into curricula written by a politician, and then instruction on who to admit, and finally state control of all senate appointments.
“In the research domain, views of non-scientists on the efficacy of vaccines can develop into new protocols on infant inoculations, then become false statistics on infection prevalence, deaths and so on,” she said.
“A culture of rejecting intellectual excellence can very readily become a universal culture of mediocrity.”
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Trump’s clear vision
Pandor said for all the faults ascribed to the American leader, he has a clear purpose and vision: to make America great again by punishing other states, by using military and economic might, and by somehow convincing the working-class majority that every reversal is temporary and is in their interests and will eventually guarantee greatness.
“It is tragic that many will experience the results of failing to use power for positive objectives,” she said.
Africa’s failure
Pandor lambasted Africa for failing to act as a strategic united economic force, rather than national states trying ineffectively to engage with giants.
“Tragically, Africa has not succeeded fully in weaning itself of dependency on aid, on the reality of long-term leaders that cannot shift the ground, on corruption, and poor capacity in executing development plans,” she said.
“Belief that rescue exists from Europe, America or China is misplaced, and greater investment in African excellence and African performance is critically urgent.”
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