A lady friend of mine has recently found herself in a confusing
position. After years of being in a solid relationship of several years, she
has suddenly found herself with another admirer. While she has stated that she
has now intention of “cheating” on the main man in her life, she admitted that
she is enjoying the attention that the other suitor has provided because it has
been something that she has not received from the incumbent in her life. However,
in her case, competition has worked in as much as the love of her life has
suddenly had to fight for her.
I think of this story because we live in a day and age
where the word “loyalty” has become overused, and “appreciation” seems to be a
word that has disappeared everyone’s (especially those in positions of power)
vocabulary. Take all the talk about returning to the office as an example. Everyone
is talking about the value of “employee loyalty” to the organization but not
nobody is taking about appreciation for the work that employees do in difficult
times.
The most prominent example of expecting loyalty for
nothing comes in the arena in geopolitics, especially when the People’s
Republic of China is concerned. Around a month ago, Australia got terribly
upset because the Solomon Islands entered a security deal with China. The then
Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Scott Morrison got upset and made all sorts of
noises about how Australia did not want a Cuba in its backyard. Mr. Morrison made
the point that Australia remains the largest aid donor to the Solomon Islands
and has sent troops to quell unrest in the Solomon Islands – which was polite geopolitical
speak for “You depend on us so do as we say.”
The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands Mr. Manasseh Sogavare, rightly told Mr.
Morrison where he could stick it and Mr. Morrison had to defend Australia’s
position. Then, an article in Foreign Policy said that Australia was basically
overreacting. More can be found at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61329518
and
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/13/china-solomon-islands-asia-pacific-security/
Australia’s reaction to China’s movement in the
Solomon Islands is not particularly unique. The European Powers get upset whenever
China builds relationships in Africa and Eastern Europe and the USA gets upset
whenever China makes overtured to Latin American countries. You’ll get all
sorts of articles about how China is placing poor and impoverished nations into
“debt traps” and how they “promote corruption.” You will get all sorts of “alarmist”
headlines like the following:
This is not to say that China is a saintly partner to
the third world countries that it courts. As Sri Lanka’s debt crisis has shown,
China has more than happy to exploit corrupt government officials. However, the
problem here is not so much China’s overtures to certain countries but the
feeling of resentment that the “other” power feels. Australia in the South Pacific,
the USA in Latin America and Europe in Africa feel that China is “tackling
their girl,” and their dialogue to the country dealing with China sounds
inevitably like an entitled boyfriend – “Look here you ungrateful b*** - leave me
for him and you’ll regret it.”
What these powers fail to consider is that they do not
exactly have a glorious history of bringing prosperity in their respective
backyards. Australia dumps unwanted refugee in the South Pacific, the Americans
have a history of removing democratically elected leaders and replacing them
with some of the worst despots in history in South America and the Europeans do
not exactly have a record of doing something other than exploiting people in
Africa.
So, whilst China is not exactly known for being benign,
they do get things done. If they promise to build a road, it gets built. Here
is a story that I noticed on my Linkedin feed that makes this point:
https://hansstoisser.com/en/emerging-africa/china-or-europe-who-is-africas-better-partner/
If you read through the comments, you will note that
Mr. Stoisser does state that he believes that Europe would be the better
partner for Africa in the long run. However, instead of figuring out how to
show the Africans they’re the better partner, they’re just complaining that China
is encroaching on their territory because Europe was the first colonial power
in Africa and therefore Africa somehow owes Europe.
Think of the Western Powers as the husband that at
best, neglects the wife but expects her to be loyal because of some accident of
history. China by contrast is the guy who woes the lady daily with chocolates
and flowers. Who can blame a woman for flirting with the guy giving her
attention when the guy at home does not really do much for her?
Why should sovereign nations commit themselves to a
single power which takes them for granted. I think of the Saudis in 2006 who stated,
“We are a Catholic Marriage with the USA but since we’re Muslim, we can have
more than one wife,” when describing their opening up to China and India.
Just as nations should never be forced to be “devoted
loyalist” to more powerful nations, businesses and people be tied to any force
as if their lives depended on it. The best example comes from Singapore’s
elections where the ruling party expects people to vote for them without due
consideration. Sure, on balance you can argue that ruling party has done a good
job in providing the goodies, however, it still needs to show that it values
the voters. One of Lee Kuan Yew’s worst mistakes came in 2011 when he told
voters of Aljunied GRC that they would need to “repent” if they voted for the
opposition. The voters didn’t like religious connotations with the election and
voted the opposition which have stayed there ever since 2011.
A grassroots member for the ruling party once
confessed that the problem that the ruling party faces when dealing with wards
that fall to the Worker’s Party is the fact that the Worker’s Party have not
raised costs for residents but have kept service standards on par with what the
ruling party had. The ruling party by contrast has consistently raised costs.
Now, given that the opposition presence in Singapore
is negligible, this fact is being ignored. However, voters in other constituencies
are seeing an alternative model of getting things done and suddenly they have
less reason to be beholden to a single party.
There is a worse example of taking people for granted.
That is the Singapore media, which has been a duopoly between the print
controlled by Singapore Press Holdings and the broadcast by MediaCorp. When they
were made to compete, they ended up running back to the government crying
because they said “the market is too small for competition” instead of improving
their product, they continued with their monopoly products. In the end, people
stopped reading newspapers and the advertisers noticed. SPH has gone from profit
generating company into a non-profit at the mercy of the taxpayer.
As every successful husband knows – you need to show
your wife that she’s appreciated and valued so that she stays and ignores the
guy with flowers and chocolates. Success is a daily struggle to ensuring why
people know you’re better than the competition. Countries, businesses and
political parties that expect loyalty without showing love to their target end
up in a divorce that was a long time coming but they never expected.
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