Rarely is out-of-the-box thinking needed more than in this era of
geopolitical, political and economic turmoil.
The stakes couldn’t be higher in a world in which civilizationalist
leaders risk shepherding in an era of even greater political violence,
disenfranchisement and marginalisation, and mass migration.
The risks are magnified by the fact that players that traditionally
stood up for at least a modicum of basic economic, social, political and
minority rights have either joined the civilisationalists or are too tied up in
their own knots.
The United States, long a proponent of human rights, even if it was
selective in determining when to adhere to its principles and when to
conveniently look the other way, has abandoned all pretence under President
Donald J. Trump.
Europe is too weak and fighting its own battles, whether finding its place
in a world in which the future of the trans-Atlantic alliance is in doubt,
Brexit or the rise of civilizationalist leaders within its own ranks.
The long and short of this is that civil society’s reliance on
traditional strategies and tactics to exert political pressure serves to fly
the rights flag but is unlikely to produce results.
The same is true for traditional often heavy-handed and violent
government attempts to quell protests.
“Even if the current wave of protests recedes, the instability will
very likely persist for some time andmay even become a permanent situation… because the problems that cause the protests appear
unresolvable by means of the current political and economic system,” said
Israeli journalist Ofri Ilany.
Mr. Ilany put his finger on the pulse. This decade’s global breakdown
in confidence in political systems and leaders not only spotlights the problem
but may also create opportunities for out-of-the-box thinking.
The key lies in the fact that protesters across the globe in Santiago
de Chile, La Paz, Bogota, Port-au-Prince, Quito, Paris, Barcelona, Moscow,
Tbilisi, Algiers, Cairo, Khartoum, Beirut, Amman, Tehran, Jakarta, and Hong
Kong as well as movements like the Extinction Rebellion essentially want the
same thing: a more transparent, accountable and more economically equitable
world.
The Middle East and North Africa, the one part of the world that
exasperates the most, also represents the worst and the best of responses to
the global clamour for change.
While Egypt under general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi is
almosta textbook example of what drives global
protest, Tunisia and Kuwait, offer
lessons to be learnt. So do some of the world’s longer standing success stories
such as Singapore.
Tunisia has emerged as the one country that experienced a successful
revolt in 2011 and wasable to safeguard its achievementsbecause its leaders, much like Singapore’s Lee
Kwan Yew, saw power as a tool to secure national rather than personal interests
and at a time of crisis worked with civil society to engineer a national
dialogue that crafted a way forward.
Similarly, Kuwait, a constitutional semi-democratic anomaly in a region
governed by secretive autocrats, recently opted for a more transparent
competitive approach towards politics.
As a result, Kuwait saw this monthits ruling family take its internal
differences and disputes public. The
differences forced the government to resign as members of the ruling family
accused each other of embezzlement in advance of parliamentary elections
scheduled for next year and a possible succession in which the assembly would
have a say.
Achieving protesters’ goal of more equitable and accountable political
and economic systems involves not only adherence to the rule of law, including
the implementation of international law, and application of the principle of
equality before the law of not only individuals and organizations but also
states.
It further involves the need to make principles of right and wrong and
of respect of human dignity the moral and ethical underpinnings of the
architecture of a new world order by which all ranging from an individual to a
state are judged.
That is the fundamental message of protests across the globe that
denounce a world in which financial or economic benefit justifies violations of
rights and civilisationalists have abandoned any pretence of adherence to
international law.
Heeding the protesters’ message means ensuring that at least
international law provides an effective mechanism to hold accountable security
forces that use lethal force against largely peaceful protesters as well as
politically responsible officials that authorize unjustified brutality in what
often amounts to mass killings.
The need for morals and ethics is gaining momentum with hardline
realist proponents of the projection of power as well as some leaders raising
the alarm bell.
The rise of artificial intelligence persuaded former US secretary of
state and national security advisor Henry A. Kissinger, a symbol of realpolitik
and the wielding of power, to recognize the importance of morals and ethics.
Threats resulting from the abandonment of international law and the
lack of moral and ethical yardsticks were evident in this month’s unilateral
recognition by the Trump administration of the legality of Israeli settlements
in occupied Palestinian territory long viewed by jurists and the international
community as illegal.
The move highlighted the link between protecting individual rights and
freedoms and national security.
Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad warned that the
administration’s move meant that “we are no longer safe. If a country wants to enter our country and build
their settlements, that is legal. We cannot do anything,”
Mr. Mahathir was projecting onto states a sentiment of vulnerability
among protesters and minorities across the globe that results from the random,
unrestricted employment of power by those in positions of authority.
Similarly, Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon warned last month
that “countries increasingly adopt a zero-sum
mentalityin eschewing multilateral
agreements as shackles on sovereignty and a burden on economic growth.”
Mr. Menon’s words must have been music in the ears of Norway’s
successful US$1 trillion rainy-day oil fund that has proven that growth and
profitability are achievable without abandoning norms of moral and ethical
investment.
Said New York Times columnist David Brooks: “The world is unsteady and
ready to blow… The big job ahead for leaders…is this: Write a new social
contract that gives both the educated urban elites and the heartland working
classes a piece of what they want most.”
To achieve the kind of social and economic justice as well as live-and-let
live environment that Mr. Brooks advocates, leaders, governments and civil
society will have to rediscover and readopt the moral and ethical values that
are embedded in the world’s multiple cultures and common to much of mankind.