Monday, 19 September 2022

The crown and the colony

The Queen Mother's coffin, the wreath of white flowers and the Queen Mother's coronation crown with the priceless Koh-I-Noor diamond on April 8, 2002.

The queen's coffin, the wreath of white flowers and her coronation crown with the priceless Kohinoor diamond.Tim Graham / Corbis via Getty Images file

THE queen of the United Kingdom died almost a week ago.

News of her worsening health had been lingering for a while; she withdrew from some of the platinum jubilee celebrations to take rest, and did not participate in many public events.

Last week, however, things suddenly appeared more ominous when various members of her immediate family were seen rushing to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she was staying. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the British monarchy’s currently controversial couple, rushed to Scotland, it appeared imminent that the long reign of Queen Elizabeth was about to be over.

The aftermath of the queen’s death, at the age of 96, has been both expected and unexpected. The pomp and fanfare of the British monarchy continues to endure, at least in the attention it gets from the international media. Even before the queen was dead, there were live broadcasts from the gates of Balmoral Castle, and everything that happened after was covered minute by minute.

The sheer length of her reign means there is no dearth of dramatic moments to memorialise and mourn, and the week of media coverage appears to have covered each one.

Not soon after the queen’s passing, Prince Charles, cooling his heels no more, was crowned King Charles III and was finally able to deliver the coronation address he must have rehearsed for over half a century. The British media and their American mimics made much of the fact that the British could once again sing “God Save the King” — you know... because there was once again a king.

Those, however, were the expected goings-on of the official narrative, one in which the British monarchy was still regaled as having brought railroads and civilisation to the rest of the world. That world is no more, transformed as it has been by the emergence of social media, whose tentacles allow even the most ordinary of opinions, that at the very least have the possibility of ruining a king’s day, to be aired.

On those digital streets belonging to the world’s plebeians, where there are no borders and the entry fee is a WiFi connection, there were immediate rumbles of discontent. It was all very well the British wished to mourn their queen and sing praises of the unifying character of their monarchy, this view held; but they could not expect similar adulation by the rest of a world that had markedly different memories of her reign.

Within hours the internet had erupted in anger that the queen, who presided over an empire built on loot, was being mourned as if she were a saint.

On Thursday, even before the queen was officially declared dead, Nigerian-American Professor Uju Anya posted: “I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating.” Later, Anya in a second tweet said: “If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.”

Anya may have been one of the first brave survivors of colonial mayhem to speak the truth about the monarchy; despite criticism, she would not be the last.

Read: After the queen

Within hours, the internet had erupted in anger that the queen, who presided over an empire built on loot (let us not forget, even the diamond in her crown was stolen from India), was being mourned as if she were a saint. Soon, both Twitter and TikTok were full of people speaking about the atrocities of the British Empire. Many spoke of India and how Partition and its ensuing hatreds, long cultivated by the British, continue to impact the lives of people living in the subcontinent to this day.

In a day or two, the counternarrative had spread to the mainstream media. On the cable news channel MSNBC, American author Richard Stengel noted: “You played a clip of her speaking in Cape Town in 1947… That’s the year apartheid took effect… British colonialism, which she presided over… had a terrible effect on much of the world.” On British television, the noted anti-colonial intellectual Shashi Tharoor reminded the whitewashers of Empire how they never taught colonial history to their own people, noting its particular absence from the A-Level history curriculum.

The response in Pakistan remained largely meek. It was depressing to see many of Pakistan’s elite, the enduring ‘brown sahibs’, actually pretend to mourn the queen whose forbears ensured that Pakistan and India would remain at daggers drawn for the foreseeable future. The worst were graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, who posted notes of condolence to the monarch as if the monarchy would check to see if they were appropriately servile and obsequious.

It was disgusting to see this drama, whose reach is such that most Pakistanis today are unaware that it was the British who put in place many of the economic, social and legal mechanisms — for instance, the feudal system — that are the source of much dissension and depredation in contemporary Pakistan.

It is heartening to see the conversation about monarchy starting to transform. Enduring monarchies in former colonising countries such as Britain and the Netherlands only serve the purpose of revising the brutality of colonial conquest and the creation of systems that would ensure the poverty and dependence of post-colonial nations for many generations to come. In this particular instance, it was incredible to see the death of a queen who presided over a racist and unjust system being used as a moment to educate the world about what exactly she represented.

As for all the Pakistanis who clamoured to post condolences for the emblem of a system that saw them as little more than apish brutes, a person or a system does not become automatically good, or worthy of respect, by the fact of their passing.

The queen is dead; I hope the system of corruption and looting, of occupation and genocide that she represented perishes too.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy. - DAWNN /Asia News Nework

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

Opinion: With the Queen's death, the system of looting and genocide she represented shoud end too ...

Queen's death intensifies criticism of British empire's violent ...

Britain used to rule a quarter of the world. What happened

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-18/queen-elizabeth-ii-empire-colonialism-history/101430296

Queen's death shines spotlight on wrongs suffered indigenous people... - Reuters

Indigenous Australian parliamentarian Lidia Thorpe in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/queens-death-shines-spotlight-wrongs-suffered-by-indigenous-people-2022-09-18/

Slavery, Colonisation and the Crown

In 2022, Britain celebrated 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s rule with street parties and festivities. But many critics say that the British monarchy should not be celebrated because of its legacy of slavery, looting and colonialism

Related posts:

With Queen Elizabeth's Death, many Indians Want Kohinoor Diamond Returned amid Britain's King Charles III proclaimed Britain's new monarch

The crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, containing the famous Kohinoor diamond, pictured on April 19...

Sunday, 18 September 2022

Whither the ringgit? US Inflation & workforce are the bigger problems

WITH the ringgit passing the RM4.50 mark to the mighty US dollar, questions have been asked as to where the ringgit is headed, as it has dropped almost 9% year-todate and at a level last seen during the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998 – almost a quarter of a century ago.

“See you at five” – a term coined during the crisis time, is being re-played like a broken record as speculation mounts that the ringgit will hit the unthinkable five handle to the dollar in future.

However, as we are aware, the ringgit is not to be entirely blamed for its weakness, as there are other factors that are playing out.

If one were to analyse carefully, the ringgit is in actual fact firmer against the Japanese yen by about 12.5%, up 7.2% and 7.1% against the British pound and the South Korean won respectively; between 0.9% and 3.8% higher against the Chinese yuan, Thai baht, Philippine peso and the euro.

Other than the US dollar, the ringgit is only weaker against the Australian dollar, Indonesian rupiah, and the regional champion, the Singapore dollar by between 1.1% and 4.5%.

Hence, overall, for the performance year-to-date, the ringgit may look like a weak currency as we are fixated on comparing the ringgit’s performance against the US dollar as well as the Singapore dollar, but in actual fact, the ringgit has outperformed at least seven other major and regional currencies.

The strength of the US dollar cannot be denied as the Federal Reserve (Fed) is battling hard against high inflation prints and is left with no choice but to raise the benchmark Fed fund rate (FFR).

Having raised 225 basis points or bps so far this year, the Fed is now poised to increase the FFR by another 75 bps in the September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week, with odds of 100 bps too not being ruled out at all.

This was after the headline and core US inflation prints came in at 8.3% and 6.3%, and ahead of the market forecast of 8.1% and 6% respectively. Should the FOMC raise the FFR by 75 bps next week, the market is pricing in another 75-bps hike in the November meeting and a 50-bps increase in the December meeting.

This will take the FFR to 4.25%4.50% and bring the 2022 rate hikes to 425 bps. With the US 10-year treasuries at 3.43%, the yield spread between the Malaysian benchmark 10-year Malaysian Government Securities has narrowed to just 72 bps from 209 bps at the start of the year.

Indeed, the divergence in the monetary policy adopted by the Fed has a significant impact on the ringgit too.

Another key factor that the ringgit seems to be suffering is the correlation between the ringgit and the yuan. Both currencies removed the dollar-peg in July 2005, with Kuala Lumpur following suit right after Beijing’s move. Since then, the ringgit seems to have a high correlation with the yuan.

Year-to-date, although the ringgit is up 0.9% against the yuan since the start of the year, the ringgit’s movement against yuan has been relatively flat over the past five years with the local currency down by 0.4% compared with a year ago, and 1.2% over the past five years.

The yuan has also been weaker against the US dollar, as the Chinese economy has not been doing well since China’s zero tolerance towards Covid-19 cases, which has resulted in major cities or regions going into short-term lockdowns. The yuan even hit a fresh two-year low, flirting with the seven handle against the US dollar.

Other factors too are playing out on the ringgit weakness, although we are fortunate that we continue to run a current account surplus, we have been running budget deficits for nearly a quarter of a century.

This has ballooned our federal government debt level to the extent that we have even moved the needle to ensure we remain within the redefined debt/gdp ratio.

Malaysia also has an over-dependence on foreign workers, which continues to weaken the ringgit with a high level of foreign remittances as well as a deficit in our services account and net outflows from primary income.

In addition, Malaysians investing abroad is another strain on the ringgit, while errors and omissions too can be a large contributor to the ringgit’s weakness as well.

As measuring a currency is all relative, it is understandable when the general public refers to the ringgit’s strength or weakness as “only” when compared with the US dollar and to a certain extent, the Singapore dollar.

Chart 1 shows the relative performance of the ringgit against the major global and regional currencies.

It can be seen that much of the weakness against the US dollar and the Singapore dollar occurred this year itself, while against the pound, euro, yen, won, baht and peso, the ringgit has been gaining ground not only year-to-date but also over the past year and five years.

Against the Australian dollar and rupiah, the ringgit has recouped its weakness against the two currencies with a stronger performance year-to-date.

While the picture looks respectable over the past five years, data going back over a 10-year and 15-year period, suggests that the ringgit has significantly underperformed.

Chart 2 shows the performance of the ringgit vis-à-vis the major global and regional currencies.

As seen in Chart 2, over a 10-year horizon, ie, from mid-september 2012 to the present, the ringgit is only firmer when compared with the yen (19.1%); Australian dollar (5.1%) and the rupiah (5%).

Against all the other currencies, the ringgit is weaker by between 6% against the pound to as much as 49.1% against the US dollar.

Over a 15-year horizon, the ringgit was also seen as weaker as it was down by between 4.5% against the yen and Australian dollar to as much as 40% against the Singapore dollar.

The ringgit is only firmer against the pound (25.6%); rupiah (18.1%); won (13.3%) and the euro (6.2%).

Another comparison is the performance of the ringgit since it was de-pegged on July 21, 2005.

Here one can observe that while the ringgit is down 41.3% since then against the yuan and 19.3% against the US dollar, it is firmer against other major currencies, rising by 1.9% against the euro, 6.4% against the yen and 21.3% against the pound.

Regionally, although the ringgit is up more than 20% against the rupiah, the ringgit is down significantly against other regional currencies.

This is sharpest against the Singapore dollar with about 42.7% depreciation, 35.7% against the baht, and 16.5% against the peso.

As currencies are valued on a relative basis by comparing one currency with another, an alternative approach is to look into the real effective exchange rate (REER) which takes into account the weighted average of a currency in relation to an index or a basket of other major currencies. The weights are based on comparing the relative trade balance of a currency against each country in the index.

REER data is provided by the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) monthly and Chart 3 summarises Malaysia’s REER performance since the de-pegging days, plotted against the US dollar.

The chart shows a highly correlated chart whereby the correlation was observed at -0.95, suggesting that REER has a significant impact on the value of the US dollar-ringgit exchange rate.

A tough question as the valuation of a currency is always seen as a relative point to another currency while the strength/weakness of one currency can also be attributed to the relative weakness/strength of another currency.

Nevertheless, if one were to gauge the REER as a reference point, the ringgit is effectively undervalued by approximately 16.8%, as a neutral REER should be at the 100.00 index point level.in

At this level, the ringgit’s fair value is approximately RM3.89 to the US dollar. However, the REER has always been trading below the 100 index point level, except for a brief occasion between April 2010 and August 2011; in February/march 2012; and between November 2012 and May 2013.

In July 2011, the ringgit traded at its post de-pegging high of RM2.9385 before succumbing to weakness due to multiple reasons.

Bank Negara’s international reserves begin to weaken from a peak of Us$141.4bil (or Rm435.5bil) as at May 2013 at a time when the ringgit was trading at RM3.08 to the dollar and the REER was at its peak of 104.11 points.

However, if one were to take the average REER of 93.34 points over the past 17 years, the ringgit has a fair value of RM4.17 to the dollar.

Hence, while the ringgit has weakened considerably against major currencies, especially since its de-pegging days, the local currency remains an undervalued currency by between 8.9% and 16.6%.

While the ringgit is seen as weak against the US dollar and Singapore dollar, it has outperformed against other major currencies like the euro, pound and yen.

Over the longer term, Malaysia needs to address the serious structural issues that have made us less competitive than our neighbours. Top of the list is education reforms which should be addressed quickly as we are losing out our young bright minds via migration.

One of Malaysia’s biggest losses is the brain drain that has benefitted many countries, especially Singapore, Australia and even as far as the United States.

The second issue that Malaysia needs to address is to attract right-minded high-skilled knowledge workers as well as the ability to attract the right investment dollars into Malaysia.

The spill-over effect from an investment-friendly country is multiple, as it can help to lift Malaysia’s competitiveness not only in traditional fields but new robust industries related to the technology and services industry.

Third, Malaysia needs to address the current low wage levels of Malaysians as we cannot be a high-income nation if 50% of Malaysians are earning less than RM2,100 per month.

There must be a concerted effort to increase wages, which will indirectly address not only the rising cost of living but increase the affordability as well as tax revenues of the government.

Fourth is our fight against corruption. It is a known fact that a low ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index is highly correlated to the cost of doing business.

Malaysia needs to make greater efforts to weed out the corrupt practices, both in the government and in the private sector to enable Malaysia to be better position to not only attract the right global investors but to reduce the cost of public spending, which eventually leads to a lower cost to consumers.

Finally, it’s the politics and public policies that come with it. We must not only be investor friendly but must avoid flip-flopping policies that can cause serious irreparable damage to our reputation in the eyes of the world.

Public policies too must be cleverly crafted with the right inputs from all stakeholders to enable Malaysia to march forward as one.

Only then, we will see a stronger ringgit not only against the currencies that Malaysia has outperformed but also against the mighty US dollar and Singapore dollar

by StarBizPANKAJ 4. KUMAR Source link

Top stories

The Star

US Inflation? The workforce is the bigger problem

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2022/09/17/inflation-the-workforce-is-the-bigger-problem

Advisor Perspectives

US Inflation? The Workforce Is the Bigger Problem - Articles

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2022/09/14/inflation-the-workforce-is-the-bigger-problem

A major bubble burst in the US economy will be doomed.

The financial superbubble that could kill America (is happening NOW)

House prices down in 2Q, Penang residential market picking up pace

PETALING JAYA: House prices in Malaysia fell in the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22), marking the worst quarterly contraction since the star...

SCO Samarkand Summit will once again witness how barren the Western worldview is

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Photo: VCG The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, fr...

US continually weaponizes human rights to coerce developing countries, meeting increasing resistance

Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva Photo: VCG Using human rights topics to attack developing countries, drawing small...

Under banner of 'counter-terrorism' 9/11: US exports instability and plunders foreign resources for 21 years, US and the west must brace for great reset as new voices rise up

Under banner of 'counter-terrorism,' US exports instability and plunders foreign resources for 21 years ...

A new cold war in trade wars also is a tech war and currency war now !

American anti-China Hawks ignited the trade war, are Trump's advisors

US cannot break China’s supply chain

Unmasking the superpower America, the 'Dark Lord' set on destroying international order

US seeks China's help to ease inflation in latest interaction

US pushes chip bill to encircle China, but ‘unable to lure firms to decouple with mainland’

Tech war: Pelosi meets TSMC chief in Taiwan as US ramps up chip pressure on China

Friday, 16 September 2022

House prices down in 2Q, Penang residential market picking up pace

PETALING JAYA: House prices in Malaysia fell in the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22), marking the worst quarterly contraction since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This occurred as new launches of residential units and sales performance for new launches softened in the first half of this year.

Based on the data by the National Property Information Centre (Napic), the Malaysian House Price Index (MHPI) in 2Q22 decreased by 1.2% compared with the 1Q.

The average house price for 2Q22 was RM439,084. In 1Q22, it was RM444,230.

Napic noted however the MHPI rose marginally by 0.5% on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis in 2Q22, adding house prices continued “its low pace growth”.

For comparison, the index had increased by 2.4% y-o-y in the 1Q22.

Commenting on the domestic property market performance, Napic said it recorded a rebound in the first half of 2022 (1H22), a reflection of normalising economic activities as the country moved to endemicity.

More than 188,000 transactions worth RM84.4bil were recorded in 1H22, showing an increase of more than 30% in volume and value compared to the same period last year, as all property sectors recorded y-o-y growth.

“The residential property sector recorded 116,178 transactions worth RM45.62bil in the review period, increasing by 26.3% in volume and 32.2% in value y-o-y.

“The four major states namely Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Selangor formed about 47% of the total national residential volume.

“Commercial property segment recorded 15,169 transactions worth RM14.02bil, up by 45.4% in volume and 28.3% in value compared to the same period last year.

“Selangor contributed the highest volume and value to the national market share, with 26.5% in volume (4,025 transactions) and 33.5% in value (RM4.7bil),” Napic said in a statement yesterday.

Napic also reported that more than 10,000 units of newly launched residences were recorded in 1H22, down by 66.7% y-o-y. Against 2H21, the new launches were lower by 13.3%.

Terraced houses dominated the new launches, contributing 68.2% of the total units, according to Napic.

The sales performance for new launches in 1H22 was recorded at 20.3%, slightly lower compared with 20.6% in 1H21 and 28.1% in 2H21.

On property overhang, Napic said the situation had improved amid the market recovery.

“A total of 34,092 overhang units worth RM21.73bil was recorded, down by 7.5% and 4.6% in volume and value respectively against 2H21. Most of the overhang is in Johor with 6,040 units worth RM4.73bil.

“The serviced apartment sub-sector recorded 22,674 overhang units with a value of RM19.32bil, indicating a decrease of 6.7% and 5.6% in volume and value respectively against 2H21,” it said.

Napic said the property market is likely to “strive in the coming months”.

“With the positive projection on economic growth by Bank Negara, expected between 5.3% and 6.3% in 2022, supported by the implementation of various government initiatives and assistance, the property market performance is expected to be on track,” it said

Source link

Penang residential market picking up pace | The Star - TheStar

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2022/09/10/penang-residential-market-picking-up-pace

https://cdn.thestar.com.my/Content/Images/Digital_penang_resident_ekpenang10.jpg

'OPR hike would not affect property market' | The Star

https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2022/09/16/opr-hike-would-not-affect-property-market

Related posts:

Regaining momentum, property sector to recover despite challenges

Fear-of-missing-out factor in property market

Penang property prices move sideways in Q1 2016

Young adults in developed countries rent, we buy houses for good

Better to buy a car or a house first?

Five challenges young Malaysians face with home ownership

All steady on the home front in Penang residential properties

Young buyers flock to property market

SCO Samarkand Summit will once again witness how barren the Western worldview is

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Photo: VCG

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from Thursday to Friday. The summit has received particular attention from the international community. Fifteen heads of state, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will attend the summit. This is the first face-to-face discussion between leaders of the SCO member states since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The meeting will include Iran as the ninth member of the SCO and issue the Samarkand Declaration to expound the SCO's position on a series of international issues.

As the world's largest and most populous regional organization, the SCO has a prominent feature: openness and inclusiveness. The second round of SCO expansion is one of the core agendas of the Samarkand Summit. As the current members, observers and dialogue partners of the SCO are all non-Western countries, some of which are being sanctioned by the US and the West, such as Russia, Iran and Belarus, the SCO has attracted some suspicions from American and Western public opinion. They describe the SCO's exploration of new multilateral cooperation mechanisms as wanting to "compete" with the West or "against the West."

The SCO summit, held in the context of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, was even described by some Western media as creating an "anti-Western front." If there is a Chinese proverb to comment on this, it is "ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars." They can only understand and speculate about the SCO's concepts with their own narrow cognition. The minds of American and Western elites are full of domineering and paranoid confrontational thinking. The target they wanted to suppress had better "socially die" in the global village and not have its own circle of friends. However, the controlling power of the US and the West cannot match their ambitions, and things that do not meet their wishes are constantly emerging, just like the SCO. In a certain sense, this is the inevitability of social evolution or the progress of the times.

The core concept of the SCO is the "Shanghai Spirit." It proposes a set of new concepts, new models, and new norms on how countries after the Cold War should live on an equal footing, how to conduct multilateral cooperation mechanisms, and how to develop the global order. In the 21 years since its establishment, the SCO, which has been "bad-mouthed" by the US and the West, has not broken up, but instead has shown vigorous vitality and attractiveness. Ten countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, all hope to join the SCO. Differences in the political system, history, and culture of the SCO member states, and even territorial disputes and ideological differences have not become obstacles to the development of the SCO. It explored a path beyond the Cold War mentality in a world with increasing diversity and differences.

The SCO eyes for cooperation, and at the same time, it aims to express its voice and attitude to the world, representing one-quarter of the Earth's land area, nearly one-quarter of the global GDP, and one-third of the total population. For a long time, these countries have been overshadowed by the West. But it needs to be emphasized that the SCO does not target third parties, including the West. It is the inherent gene of the SCO. It will never become an organization against the West or any party at any time, just like the seeds of a big tree will never grow into thatch. Some people in the US and the West have always wanted to label the SCO as "Eastern NATO." Their narrow vision and barren imagination starkly contrast the SCO's breadth and richness.

If the West really has a sense of crisis, what it really needs to do is not to vilify the SCO, or even sow discord and dampen the enthusiasm of countries that want to participate in the organization. Instead, it should seriously reflect on what has gone wrong in its way of viewing the world. Washington often beats with a stick and offers a carrot, roping in other countries in all sorts of ways to form cliques. But many countries in the world are moving more and more away from it, while the SCO insists on the sovereign equality of states and non-exclusive multilateralism, and its circle of friends is getting bigger and bigger. The reason for this is that the SCO's "three no's principles" - no alliance, no confrontation, and no targeting any third party - have won the hearts of many countries. The more the US and the West engage in coercive diplomacy to force others to "take sides," the stronger the global community's demand for genuine multilateralism will be.

It is no coincidence that the SCO has evolved from a cooperative mechanism dedicated to combating the "three forces" to a vehicle today with four wheels of "politics, security, economy, and humanities." From the fight against terrorism, proposed by the SCO long before September 11 attacks, to the Global Development Initiative and Global Security Initiative being promoted right now, the vision, foresight, and correctness of the SCO have been repeatedly tested in the past and will be confirmed in the future. The SCO provides the world a huge room for imagination, and the Samarkand Summit will become a new milestone.

Source link

When global power shifts | The Star

https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2022/09/16/when-global-power-shifts

SCO can set example of conflict mitigation

In the context of the Ukraine crisis which has global impact, mitigation of other conflicts, tensions and crises ...

Xi's key visit to C.Asia shows China's strategic vision, charms SCO summit with 'hopes, opportunities and certainty'

Chinese President Xi Jinping is now paying his first foreign visit since the COVID-19 pandemic to Central Asia, and to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit. This major diplomatic activity has drawn attention around the globe and charmed the key multilateral event in Samarkand with frequent bilateral meetings with the leaders of other SCO members and key partners across the Eurasia continent.

Related posts:

The SCO Samarkand Summit: Dialogue and cooperation in an interconnected world: Promise of prosperity

US continually weaponizes human rights to coerce developing countries, meeting increasing resistance

Washington weaponizes Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) even before it takes shape

After a long period of public opinion hype, the first ministerial meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) led by the US an

Under banner of 'counter-terrorism' 9/11: US exports instability and plunders foreign resources for 21 years, US and the west must brace for great reset as new voices rise up

Under banner of 'counter-terrorism,' US exports instability and plunders foreign resources for 21 years ..

US continually weaponizes human rights to coerce developing countries, meeting increasing resistance

Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva Photo: VCG

Using human rights topics to attack developing countries, drawing small circles to smear countries with different systems, spreading groundless rumors or even starting wars under the disguise of anti-terrorism efforts … such moves have often been used by the US and some other Western counties.

With the start of the 51st regular session of the Human Rights Council on September 12, a number of US-led Western countries have ramped up efforts in pushing such "battle" against developing countries. The US and some Western forces' fierce hyping of topics about China's Xinjiang region is only the latest example of using human rights as a weapon to slander China and other developing countries. The Global Times reporters interviewed Chinese and overseas scholars on how developing countries could respond.

US attack strategy

Using human rights as a weapon has been a tradition of the US, and the release of the annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices by the US Department of State has been criticized by analysts as a move to wield this stick.

For example, to cooperate with the slandering of China's policies in its Xinjiang region, the US Department of State not only listed China as a "Country of Particular Concern" in its 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom but also attacked China's religious policies in Xinjiang, Xizang and other regions.

Aside from China, 13 other countries, including Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, India and Russia, have also been listed as countries of "particular concern"; meanwhile, 15 countries, including Cuba, Nicaragua, Sudan, Egypt and Kazakhstan, have been listed as countries for "special observation."

The US-made reports on human rights have faced criticism from many countries, and analysts pointed out that these reports target developing countries while purposely neglecting problems such as racism in Western countries.

The listed dozens of countries of "particular concern" or under particular observation in the US report showcased that the US kept attacking countries that don't share its ideology, political system and religion. Instead of really taking care of the human rights situation in others countries, the US just wants to contain these countries by setting the agenda on human rights, He Zhipeng, a professor of international law at the School of Law with Jilin University, told the Global Times.

Coordinating nongovernmental organizations, the media, and think tanks to hype human rights topics is also among the tactics that the US and its Western allies have used, and in recent years, such tricks have also been updated, He said.

When starting a "human rights battle" against a country, NGOs have been used as the vanguard, and media and think tanks become amplifiers of the US government. And when organizing the siege of a certain country, the US would pull its allies into the campaign and expand the attack on wider platforms, He said, noting that one example is the US' "democracy summit."

In December 2021, US President Joe Biden held the Summit for Democracy but analysts said Washington just exposed the US' geopolitical purpose since it was a small clique and the US dares not invite many countries that have different political systems from its own.

The US' unilateral sanctions against other countries based on groundless accusations of human rights issues will also hurt the interests of the US and the West, He said.

For example, the US has banned imports from China's Xinjiang region by citing concerns over so-called forced labor issue. Transnational corporations and many US companies have expressed increasing concerns over such a move given its negative impact on the stability of global supply chains.

Aside from imposing pressure from the outside, the US and some Western forces also cultivate and incite pro-US forces inside the target countries, especially among the elites to discuss and hype topics related to human rights, challenge these countries' judicial systems and set NGOs to attack the local governments, said Zhang Yonghe, professor and executive dean of the Human Rights Institution of Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing.

People dance to celebrate the harvest of grapes in Alaer, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on September 9, 2022. Photo: VCG

Fighting together

Human rights topics are not only used by the US to attack "rival" countries, the US also uses them as bargaining chips to serve its foreign policy agenda, analysts said.

A source in the Philippines who is close to former president Rodrigo Duterte told the Global Times that the former leader used to say in private that he will never go to the US and one of the reasons is that the International Criminal Court, which is dominated by the US, authorized an investigation into "violations of human rights" in Duterte's war on drugs.

The US and the West have never stopped their criticism of Duterte's campaign against drugs. In 2016, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US government aid agency, said it "deferred a vote on the reselection of the Philippines" for development, "subject to a further review of concerns around rule of law and civil liberties." Duterte slammed the US criticism and said "don't reprimand me like I'm your boy," adding that if any country is against his policy, it should go to the UN and complain.

Attacking other countries on human rights issues has always been a weapon of the US in its foreign policy to stand on the moral high ground and coerce governments of developing countries. Despite the US criticism, people in the Philippines have widely supported Duterte's anti-drug moves and his approval rate reached 70 percent before he stepped down, according to Anna Malindog-Uy, an expert on international relations from the Philippines.

Malindog-Uy told the Global Times that topics on "human rights" and "corruption" are also the main tools that media under the influence of the US used to attack the incumbent Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr during the election campaign, but Marcos Jr still won. This also shows that US' attempts to hype human rights issues in the Philippines have had little traction among the people.

Moreover, in recent years, the international community has gained a clearer knowledge that the "human rights" clamored for by the US and the West do not fit the interests of most of other countries, said Malindog-Uy.

Moreover, to counter the hypocritical human rights moves of the US and the West, China and other developing countries should improve communications on human rights and put development, security and other factors into the criteria of human rights to form a comprehensive concept of human rights, said the experts.

Aside from Asian countries, experts in other regions of the world, especially in the Middle East have also expressed opposition to the US and the West politicalizing human rights issues.

The human rights "war" has become one of the main ways that the West uses to counter developing counties to maintain hegemony, Muhammad Basley, Tunisia's former ambassador to China, told the Global Times. "We should not be led by the US and the West, and should develop our own strategy and plans," said Basley.

Basley suggested developing countries and their media should fully expose the US' moves and take effective countermeasures.

Facing the US and Western forces' interference and coercion, more countries have worked together to oppose such attacks and try to expand the concept of human rights.

The past sessions of the Human Rights Council have witnessed China and more developing countries delivering joint statements to support each other on issues related to their core interests amid criticism from the US and the West. They also called for the Human Rights Council and the UN to uphold true multilateralism and resist hegemonic pressure from the US.

Zhang from the Southwest University of Political Science and Law said the international community should also call for a thorough investigation of crimes such as wars and invasions committed by the US and some Western countries.

Moreover, while wantonly accusing other countries, the US itself has severe problems such as racism and its government's failure in dealing with COVID-19. The UK, Canada, Australia and other Western countries also have serious stains on their human rights records. All these need to be exposed, said Zhang.

Developing countries can also actively participate in setting international rules and the agenda in the human rights field, as well as expanding communication based on mutual respect, said Zhang, noting that promoting international dialogues on human rights among developing countries can also help promote international human rights pursuit.

Source link