National Endowment for Democracy: Be Careful of Foreign Interference in South Africa's Stable Democracy

By Abbey Makoe

The controversial US NGO, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is holding a conference in Johannesburg under the banner of democracy and the spread of other freedoms associated with democratization. The conference started today, November 20th, and runs Friday until 22nd.

The NED was established in 1983 during the Ronald Reagan administration and has since played a pivotal role in the promotion of the US foreign policy and other interests. It has a chequered history that includes sophisticated means and ways of rebranding the image of the US at home and abroad.

Thanks to a strong war chest, the organization funds pro-Washington NGO’s and has often been accused of playing a very active role – albeit sly in nature – in the public relations discourse and liberal media globally, South Africa included.

Many NGOs in SA and the SADC region are Western-funded in nature and operation and the democracy agenda is all they live by, often fighting governments through the courts or in the streets through protests or civil disobedience.

Only recently, the NED was accused of involvement in the political wrangling in Cambodia. “In Cambodia, the documents leaked this week indicate the involvement of multiple units, including the National Endowment for Democracy, USAID and others,” according to public media reports.

It is thus the reason I look to the phenomenon of “regime change”, an old foreign policy the US has espoused through various complex networks over the years. The phenomenon grabbed the global attention like never before during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 when then US President George W Bush cobbled together a so-called “Coalition of the Willing” to topple the then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who ended up facing massive foreign-funded public protests and uprising against his administration. Shortly afterwards, amid the much-praised “shock and awe” strategic bombing of Iraq by the US Air Force, Saddam Hussein was captured and brutally killed in one of history’s most ignominious chapters.

The regime change phenomena did not end with the Bush administration. President Barack Obama also dealt with his geopolitical adversaries similarly. For instance, it was under the Obama administration when the US led a NATO onslaught into Libya and quickly toppled their nemesis, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The modus operandi is simple: First, the West discreetly funds any civil disobedience that seeks to overthrow any anti-US/West regimes. In their books, it is a strategy known as “Hybrid Warfare”, or “Colour Revolution”. It was the same strategy that poured large sums of financial backing behind the anti-government uprising in Ukraine in 2014, resulting in the ousting of the then pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. The US led a chorus of Western approval and endorsement of the coup, describing it glowingly as the “Revolution of Dignity”, or “Maidan Revolution”.

This part of history came to mind after reading a social media post by one Nury Vittachi, who alleged that documents leaked to the media in Cambodia pointed to an unceremonious interference by the US in the country’s national politics.

“Washington is using the exact same methods it used to create civil unrest in Hong Kong in 2019, and Bangkok in 2020, and in Moldovia and Bangladesh this year,” Vittachi wrote, before adding: “America has numerous units which discreetly provide large amounts of cash, protest guidance and media contacts to Pentagon-friendly anti-government groups in scores of countries.”

The SA NGO community better beware the inherent dangers of neglecting their sense of national duty and patriotism over the lure of plush foreign funding, particularly where such funding is laced with the trappings of “Colour Revolution” or “Hybrid Warfare”.

Ours is a fledgling democracy that requires responsive midwifery services that are committed and dedicated to the formation of a new democratic order with South African characteristics.

By all means – in the interest of freedom of association – South Africa places no restrictions on civil liberties as enshrined in our sacred Bill of Rights. But that said, our government must also be awake and alive to the challenges that could emanate from foreign-peddling and whose aims could be to destabilize the national security and stability of the nation.

Before judgment is passed, I am certainly not pointing a finger of accusation to the NED’s Johannesburg conference, safe to point to the organization’s very public records, which raises a lot of genuine questions.

Methinks South Africa’s democracy works perfectly fine. Over the last 30 years since the fall of apartheid, I have seen no evidence of any existential threat to the fundamental pillars on which our democracy has been founded and still stands.

Therefore, fellow South Africans, be careful of alien teachings that could prove detrimental to the nation’s national and public good. Paraphrased, be careful of wolves in a sheep skins. It is responsible citizenry to question – without fear – national developments through active participation in the public discourse. Ancient Athens philosophers believed that anyone who did not take part in their nation’s public discourse was “good for nothing”.

* Abbey Makoe is Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Global South Media Network.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.