Lessons for Africa from China political process

By Salome Nashipai

Last week, Xi Jinping was chosen as China’s new leader taking over from Hu Jintao after securing the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) top spot.

This was the culmination of a week-long delegates’ congressional meeting drawn from all over China to elect new leaders who will serve in the Political Bureau; the highest ruling body of the CPC.

A week earlier, the United States had re-elected Barack Obama to a sophomore term at the White House through their general elections.

This leadership transition in the world’s two biggest economies provided an opportunity for both experts and amateurs across the globe to analyze the differences in the political systems of the largest and second largest economies.

Unfortunately, most analysts, including Africans, have made their analysis from a purely western democratic notion and failed to be objective in their conclusions about the Chinese democratic political system.

In fact, most African states consider the United States and other western countries’ democratic process as the ultimate yardstick and user-manual. To fully appreciate the Chinese political process however, we need to understand the basics that form it.

The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the CPC is the basic political system in China. It was copied from The West after the 1911 Revolution – which was later replaced by the Kuomintang’s one-party dictatorship. However, both experiments failed.

Facing a striking contrast between suppressions and persecutions, class alliances with competing interests and endless chaos, the non-communist parties in China forged bonds of unity and co-operation and stood together with the CPC in the protracted revolutionary struggles that culminated in the multi-party co-operation and political consultation system under the leadership of the CPC.

Ethnic minorities

Later on in 1948, the CPC convened a new political consultative conference aimed at establishing a democratic coalition government. It comprised of representatives of the CPC, opposition parties, persons without political affiliation, people’s organisations, and representatives of localities, the people’s liberation army, ethnic minorities, overseas Chinese and all patriotic democrats.

Through the CPC, people of all walks of life and groups with diverse faiths, views, affiliations and interests were united. With the realization that China could not be governed with competing interests, the Chinese people forged a strong solidarity not only ideologically and politically, but also organisationally.

This multi-party cooperation and political consultation system under the leadership of the CPC has enabled China to grow and achieve its potential.

The CPC and the non-communist parties hold democratic consultations on major state issues and make decisions on a scientific basis and exercise supervision over each other, resulting in improved CPC leadership and strengthening other parties’ roles in national affairs.

This system has been successful in avoiding political upheavals resulting from multi-party rivalry and fighting for power. It also avoids drawbacks resulting from one party rule and lack of supervision.

Even as the Communist Party of China undertook the once –in-a-decade leadership transition in Beijing this year, the Chinese leadership reiterated that it will strive to improve the system of multi-party co-operation and political consultation under the CPC leadership but shall never copy the political systems and development patterns of foreign countries.

Admittedly, the Chinese leadership acknowledges that the democratic political system is still developing and needs to be further improved.

This admission by the Chinese leadership confirms that there is no one perfect political system model that can be applied across the world. Every country continues to explore the political development road suitable for its own characteristics, as well as its own political logic.

Key among the many lessons Africa can learn from the Chinese political system is the need to formulate and implement systems that seek to provide universal solutions to our perpetual problems.

Instead of engaging in incessant power-struggles from one election year to the other, African leaders must master the art of working together as individuals in order to achieve continental prosperity lest we perish together as fools.

Entitlement

There is urgency for Africa as a whole to realise this fundamental fact if we are to make any significant progress towards becoming a formidable socio-economic and political force in the globe.

None among the African states needs to understand this key concept more than Kenya as we head to the polls come March next year. Having soiled ourselves in the mud of ethnicity, tribal-centered politics, corruption, nepotism among other ills, there is the need to liberate our mental facets of the sense of entitlement and put the country first if we are to make strides towards achieving a middle-income earning status by 2030.

The writer is a International Relations Practitioner in Nairobi. [email protected]