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From a "Black" and a "White" Africa policy, Japan moves to a "Bad" Africa and a "Good" Africa policy |
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Japan's "Good" Africa and "Bad" Africa policy, though seemingly discrete, recognises African countries and rewards those which adhere to the new dispensation of free and fair elections, respect for human rights, accountability, anti-corruption and good governance.
Africa's leaders who think they are merely fighting neo-colonialism and Western agendas on their countries, such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe donot know how much the consequences of their kind of hold on power drives away foreign direct investment (FDI).
Just as an example, new foreign direct investment projects detected by Oco Consulting, a UK based inward investment consultancy with expertise in foreign direct investment, show none for Zimbabwe.
Zambia has 43 new FDI projects; Uganda, 37; Tanzania 34; Tunisia, 98; Tanzania, 34; Sudan, 43; South Africa, 283; Senegal 17; Nigeria, 132; Namibia, 20; Mozambique, 19; Bostwana, 22; Ngola, 72; and DRC, 23.
This translates to job creation, technology transfer and higher educaton and foreign currency earnings.
Whatever Mugabe says are his reasons for holding Zimbabweans to ransome, he has managed and manages to set the country back to pre-modern times as others chase post-modernism.
The Japanese have now changed their policy towards Africa. What is emerging is a policy based on governance different from the pre-1994 world where their policy was determined by being "nice" to "White ruled" Africa and nasty to "Black ruled Africa."
This was coupled with the need for mineral resources and the thwarting of the spread of communism as desired by Western countries. It is Western countries who set Japan's foreign policy towads Africa.
The Japanese feel Westerners have a greater right than them to "work" Africa after colonising the countries for decades. Consequently foreign afairs officials monitor BBC-Africa and French radio for an update on their "Good" and "Bad" Africa policy.
Their Africa policy is now the same as that of the West where the central issues are "good governance, anti-corruption, respect for human rights and free and fair elections".
But the Japanese have a name for their policy: "Good Africa policy" and "Bad Africa policy"
African embassies in Tokyo know throgh interaction with the Japanese if their country falls into one of the two areas. If its "Bad", they are given the cold shoulder.
A source in the ministry of Japan's foreign affairs told OAAN that a number of Japanese organizations such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Jetro have been organizing conventions for Japanese companies who want to invest in Africa.
Unfortunately, the answer returned is no.
Very few Japanese companies want to go to Africa to invest there. For them there is no security. The cornerstone of capitalism is private property. If private property cannot be held sacrosanct capitalists are dissuaded.
Disruption to production through land invasions, haphazad economic policies, corruption which goes unpunished and uninvestigated, printing of money in the absence of gold reserves are all recipes for desaster, not just for potential investors but for the local populations.
Political intolerance and violation of the human rights of challengers, death squards, state sponsored violence mean that a country practising these is quickly forgotten about by business for a very long time to come.
Consequently the suffering of the poor citizens of such a dictatorship is yet to be told.
"Bad" Africa is helping capitalists run away even from "Good" Africa.
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Sunday, 13 May, 2007
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