UN Veto Right for South Africa, not Nigeria or Egypt!

UN Reform to Diffuse Democracy in Africa. Part IV
UN Veto Right for South Africa, not Nigeria or Egypt!

By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Through three previous articles, we advocated the extension of the UN veto right (Security Council permanent membership) to India, Japan, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey. We argued that this would help the international body reflect best today’s realities, and meet a reasonable level of global representatively, enabling at the same time the international community to eliminate Middle Eastern tyrannies, backward nationalistic oligarchies, and Islamic terrorism.

In this article, we will focus on Africa, and will advocate the selection of South Africa to represent the Black Continent at the level of UN Security Council permanent membership. Furthermore, we will draw attention to several other issues that are closely related to the UN, to its proper reflection of our global world, and to its pertinent function as the top promoter of Democracy, Human Rights, and Freedom.

Africa: a divided, underdeveloped, poor and undemocratic continent
Selecting Turkey for UN SC permanent membership may be the best solution as far as the Islamic World is concerned, but this choice leaves the entire Black Continent out of the Veto Club. In terms of civilization, population, surface, human cultural heritage, trade and economy, the African continent cannot be excluded. Africa may presently include many of the world’s poorest nations, but in its totality the African continent is comparable to India in terms of population, and to Russia in terms of GDP. As in the case of the Islamic World, Colonialism brought about political dissemination.

Africa was one home to many big empires; without feeling the need to go back to the times of Hatshepsut, Thutmosis II, Ramses II, Taharqa, Psammetichus, Nechao, Ptolemy II, Hannibal, Arkamaniqo of Meroe (Sudan, i.e. Ancient Ethiopia), Ezana of Aksum (Abyssinia, wrongly called ‘Ethiopia’ today), Ibn Tulun and many other African rulers, we can just recall that in 1798 the Ottoman Empire was in possession of African territories totaling no less than 7 million km2! Still today Africa accommodates some of the world’s largest countries, namely Sudan (largest African territory), Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo. Only these three countries control a combined territory as large as Australia! Many countries have surface larger than 1 million km2, which is colossal for Europe: Libya, Chad, Angola, Niger, Mali, Ethiopia, South Africa, Mauritania, and Egypt are all above the 1 m km2 threshold, whereas many other African countries control territories between 800000 km2 and 1 m km2 (Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia).

In terms of population, only one African country reaches the levels of Russia and Japan; it is Nigeria, with 137 million people. Three other African nations go beyond the level of 50 million people, namely Egypt (76 m), Ethiopia (68 m), and DR of Congo (58 m). Fifth African nation in terms of population, South Africa (43 m) leads Sudan (38 m), Tanzania (37 m), Kenya (32 m), Algeria (32 m), and Morocco (32 m).

In terms of economy, almost throughout Africa, we sink in the bottomless pit of depression, underdevelopment, and insignificance. So low the GDP is that at the level of per capita GDP we find figures under US $1000! Nigeria’s GDP is much lower than (10 million people) Portugal’s (US $ 115 b and 182 b respectively) and Ethiopia’s GDP (US $ 47 b) is lower than that of (8.5 million people) Bulgaria (US $ 57 b). Egypt’s GDP is hardly larger than that of (10 million people) Greece (US $ 295 b and 214 b respectively). DR of Congo produces a little bit more (US $ 58 b) than tiny (4.5 million people) Croatia (US $ 47 b).

The only sizeable African country that is economically significant is South Africa. It is certainly not a coincidence that South Africa eclipses almost all other African countries, when it comes to Minority Rights, Freedom, Multiculturalism, Democracy and Human Rights. Since we already examined the case of Nigeria and Egypt, while discussing about the proper Islamic country to select for UN Veto right, it would be quite illustrative to focus on Ethiopia and DR of Congo now.

Ethiopia
The name of this country is already false; the correct name is Abyssinia. The selection of the false name consists in an unprecedented act of historical usurpation of the name of Ancient Sudan. Ethiopia for the Ancient Greeks and Romans was Sudan, not Abyssinia. This usurpation was possible because of the Pan-Arabic idiocy that prevailed among the cruel and criminal dictators of Sudan, who – focusing on their totalitarian theory of Pan-Arabism and oppressing the various non Arabic ethnic groups of that huge country – disregarded the country’s rich Ancient and Medieval Christian past.

As it occurred, opting for ‘Ethiopia’ – instead of the proper name ‘Abyssinia’ – was a necessity for the Addis Ababa dictators, who represent only one ethnic minority’s interests in that poor country. Ever since the Amhara invasion of the Abyssinian south, the Oromos and many other enslaved peoples found themselves confined within a territory of Amhara oppression and tyranny. Amharas do not represent even 20% of the country’s population, but under royal, Communist or republican pseudo-democratic regime they control the administration, the military, the police, the education and the economy, plunging the entire country to misery, starvation, pestilence and tyranny. It is quite indicative that the recent National Congress of the Oromo Liberation Front took place in Eritrea, an earlier province of Abyssinia that was successful in seceding from the Amhara hell.

Oromos represent 40% of the entire population, and claim to Finfinne, which is the real name of Addis Abeba that was renamed after the Amhara invasion. Tigrays make up 12-13%, Sidamas total 10%, Ogadenis 8%, Afars 6%, and in addition there are smaller ethnic groups. Oromos and Ogadenis inhabit approximately 80 to 85% of the entire territory. The current regime is an experiment of cooperation between Amharas and Tigrays, the two closest groups of the country, but this did not make of Abyssinia a more democratic country. The country is expected to split to several pieces, and the Amhara territory will fall apart, since it is the poorest and the most barren part of the country’s territory.

Expropriating itself from its own – Abyssinian – cultural identity, the Amhara ruling minority opted for ‘Ethiopia’ in order to pretend that the name and the country reflect democratically the cultural identity of the Oromo Ethiopians, who descend from Ancient Ethiopia (Meroe) in Sudan. It is a baseless political trick, because the only permitted and predominant culture is the Abyssinian Amhara culture, not the Oromo Ethiopian.

With an ominous Human Rights record, certainly ‘Ethiopia’ is not to be considered as Africa’s possible representative. It would be however useful to check what this country’s economic performance is. With a population totaling 90% of Egypt’s, ‘Ethiopia’ produces as much as one sixth (1/6) of Egypt’s GDP! The ‘Ethiopian’ government’s budget is just a small portion of the Egyptian budget (income: US$ 1.8 b and 8 b, and expenditures: US$ 2.4 b and 11 b respectively). Ethiopian exports and imports amount to US$ 0.5 b and 2 b respectively (Egypt’s respective figures: US$ 21 b and 14.5 b).

Most of the people in ‘Ethiopia’ are illiterate (literacy reaching only 42.7%), and among the Amharas the illiteracy rises to 80%. With fixed line subscribers less than 0.5 million, with mobile users around 100000, and with Internet users around 75000 ‘Ethiopia’ is truly the realm of ignorance and regression. Railways are scarce in ‘Ethiopia’ (just 681 km!), and so are the paved highways (31500 km), since the country is in possession of forex and gold reserves that amount to only US$ 1 b (one fourteenth of Egypt’s, one seventh of Nigeria’s).

Last but not least, in the case of the worst African tyranny, ‘Ethiopia’ is the land where more Christian, Catholic and Protestant, missionaries have been killed than in any other place of the world. As we can conclude from an elaborate interview published in the Oromo portal www.voicefinfinne.org and focalized on the Monophysitic, heretic, monks and ‘debteras’ of Abyssinia, the danger of an Anti-Western ‘Christian’ hatred and hysteria may also emanate from that backward country:

‘You are right to notice my reference to foreign involvement against Abyssinia. This archaic structure of state must not be permitted to exist; it consists in such a flagrant rejection of the concept of the human progress towards Humanism and Democracy that it cannot be allowed to develop its Christian Monophysitic religious extremism anymore. No one wants a Monophysitic – heretic – Christian Khomeini rule from Gondar, Axum or Addis Ababa in order to propagate the forthcoming fight between his ‘Jesus’ and a supposed Anti-Christ. More and more people in the correct positions in America understand that religious fanaticism is a problem, whether it comes from Saudi Arabia or from Abyssinia. It is always criminal whether Ossama bin Laden mobilizes ignorant people to kill Westerners or Abyssinian Debteras drum up ignorant, starving people to attack Christian Catholic or Protestant monks in Abyssinia. Obscurantism runs high, and thousands of valuable Gueze manuscripts – totally incomprehensible to the quasi-illiterate Monophysitic monks of Abyssinia – are out of reach for any serious Western scholar because of the Amhara Debteras’ fear that the Western scholars will unveil negative points of the Axumite/Gondar medieval rulers!’

DR of Congo
Although literacy in the central African country is higher than in ‘Ethiopia’ and in Egypt (65.5%), the country is plunged into absolute chaos. The government has absolutely no money at all (income: US$ 269 m, which is just 15% of the Ethiopian government’s income, and expenditures: 244 m). No forex and gold reserves at all! In terms of trade, DR of Congo outperforms ‘Ethiopia’ but belongs to the same level (exports: US $ 1.4 b, imports: 933 m). With external debt mounting up to US $ 11.6 b (‘Ethiopia’: US$ 2.9 b only), DR of Congo has properly speaking mortgaged already its gloomy future. The country never had a real fixed line telephony infrastructure, the Internet users are scarcer than in ‘Ethiopia’, and the existing rail and paved highway network is to be accredited to the Colonial past. If the various factions of this deeply divided territory cannot make peace and control their army’s dissidents, kick out foreign armies, and establish a minimum state structure, how this country can be seriously taken into consideration?

South Africa: the exception that must be highlighted and felicitated
South Africa is by far the wealthiest and the most democratic country throughout the Black continent. With just 43 million people, South Africa produces as much as Turkey (GDP: US$ 457 b), or to put it otherwise 11 times more than DR of Congo, 10 times more than ‘Ethiopia’, 4 times more than Nigeria, and almost twice as Egypt! South Africa’s per capita GDP is higher than that of many among the ten countries that have recently adhered to the European Union. Literacy in South Africa runs as high as in Turkey (86.4%), and the country’s governmental budget may be half of Turkey’s (income: US $ 37 b and 67 b, and expenditures: US $41 b and 93 b respectively for South Africa and Turkey) but it is triple than Egypt’s, and quadruple than Nigeria’s.

South African trade is far larger than Egypt’s or Nigeria’s, with exports amounting for US $ 37 b (Turkey’s US $ 49 b, but Nigeria’s 21 b, and Egypt’s 8.8 b only) and imports totaling US $ 34 b (Turkey’s US $ 62 b, but Nigeria’s 14.5 b, and Egypt’s 14.7 b). Compared to Egypt’s public debt (101.8% of the GDP), South Africa’s corresponding figure is totally under control (38.2% of the GDP). The external debt of South Africa is also smaller than Egypt’s (US $ 26 b instead of 31 b). High tech penetration has advanced far more in the South than in the North of the African continent, and with 17 m mobile users (Egypt: 5.8 m) and 5.5 m Internet users (Egypt: 2.7 m) South Africa truly leads the entire continent, being absolutely unmatched. Quite indicative a figure, the railway network in South Africa is almost five times larger than that of Egypt (22300 km instead of 5000 km)!

There are more important advantages and more serious reasons for South Africa – and not Nigeria, Egypt, ‘Ethiopia’ and DR of Congo – to represent the African continent within an enlarged UN SC permanent membership. The prevailing multiculturalism, the institutionalized multilingualism, the political freedom, the respect of Human Rights, and the democratic life, as daily practiced and lived there, consist in a midsummer night’s dream for the other African candidates for UN SC permanent membership.

The fact alone that the South African government institutionalized no less than eleven languages as official languages in that multi-ethnic and multilingual country (namely Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu) shows to the other pseudo-candidates the only way for future progress. It would be useless to make comparisons, since all the other UN SC permanent membership aspiring countries are obscurantist nationalistic regimes having been left behind zillions of light years. Instead of daring express international aspirations, they should just copy humbly what happened in South Africa.

Our suggestions end here, and we believe that a UN Security Council with 13 permanent members, namely USA, China, Japan, India, Germany, France, England, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey and South Africa, represents our multifaceted world in a far better way than the 5-member 1945 ‘war college’.

The 13 UN Veto Right Powers and the Challenges of Our World
In this series of articles, we intended to develop a possibly impartial approach to the UN reform, and to consider ways of using / utilizing this forthcoming major international event in a way to further promote Democracy among the Security Council itself, and allover the world. We asserted that the current 5-member structure reflects a non existent environment, exposing therefore the entire organization to critical tests.

The world has changed a lot, the USSR has collapsed, and the USA has risen to a predominant level of power. This situation has its own limits as every situation does, whatsoever. It is not possible for the USA to imagine that it can unilaterally impose something successfully to the rest of the world; this would truly be one extreme. The other extreme would be for a lesser power to attempt to set up odd alliances to prevent the USA from action, when action is precisely needed, and to preserve Colonial structures that may fit the interests of that smaller nation, but truly endanger the entire world.

Certainly the alliance of the UK and the USA with the USSR during WW II was somehow ‘odd’, but there were global issues at stake, and the alliance meant to promote Democracy, Human Rights, and Freedom. The recent axis Paris – Berlin – Moscow – Beijing could not promote any of the traditional values of the Democratic and Humanist West. This axis attempted to prevent the USA, the UK and their allies from attacking Iraq on the grounds that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). This extreme hypocrisy could not be accepted, because Saddam Hussein posed a threat, whether WMD were involved or not. Any similar dictator poses the same threat whatsoever.

The realities of Colonial rule cannot be denied. The phenomenon of Islamic Terrorism may be new, but its roots go deep in the Islamic Ages, and the negative developments that had taken place within Islam turned worse and worse and worse, thanks to habile colonial diplomatic manipulation. French colonialism in the Middle East is a strong contributor to the current explosive situation, and this cannot be denied either.

By creating a bogus nationalism, by fabricating a Non Existent ‘nation’ of ‘Arabs’, by tyrannically deforming the Aramaic, Coptic and Berberic Face of the Middle East, by setting up colonial elites in all these lands and by forming them in a false – ‘Bon pour l’ Orient’ – way, France created Pan-Arabic, Nationalistic tyrannies that engulfed the entire area in anti-Semitic and anti-Christian hatred, permanent underdevelopment, educational and cultural decay, social misery and stagnation, as well as economic poverty.

It is wrong to view Islamic Terrorism as the real enemy of the Human Civilization; the foe is not singular but triple! The Three-Headed Hydra of Lerna is French Colonialism – Arabic Nationalism – Islamic Extremism menaces our world, and the UN must be the primordial battlefield to have the monster’s heads cut off. Alliances will be needed for this. A Muslim country that appreciated and successfully applied for 80 years the Western Ideals of Democracy, Freedom and Secularism is needed. Japan and India are needed as well. The two colossi of Latin America complete the image of a UN SC where a majority will always be reached in this war against extremism, falsehood and apathy. Our suggestions do not end here; if 13 veto powers reflect better our world, the international community must foresee and take the necessary precautions. How to advance further on will be the subject of the last part of this article.