THE 88 or so Heads of State who watched the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympiad at the Beijing Olympics Stadium might have sat dazed with mouths open at the vintage show sold to the world which may prove difficult to equal. That is a big task for London, when the youth of the world assemble there in 2012.
Among the distinguished Heads of State were some African leaders, including our own President J.A. Kufuor, and I was wondering what went through their minds as they watched in amazement, the spectacular choreograph of human movement, the beating of drums, clanging of cymbals, music from over 11,000 voices and the thumping of feet from a dense forest of human legs.
As for President George W. Bush and his allies from the West, their worst fears have come to pass — that the Beijing Olympic Games will open the eyes of the world for it to see what really a great one-time backward nation called China had become in just a matter of two decades.
The West tried in vain, even before it started, to dilute the successes of the Games after they failed to prevent the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from awarding Beijing the 2008 Games. First, it was the cynical prediction that the Chinese do not have the financial clout and the technical and technological expertise to put in place the facilities in a matter of seven years for the hosting of the Games.
When they realised at the last hour that the physical facilities were set, the West opened a new battle front — that China does not deserve to play host to the rest of the world because of its poor human rights record. The journey of the Olympic Torch from Mount Olympus in Greece to Beijing was disrupted at several places with well-rehearsed demonstrations against China’s rule over Tibet.
At one stage, Africa was brought into the fray, when, as if crying for a poor continent, the West decided to use China’s business links with The Sudan as an excuse for the unending Darfur conflict. There were threats from world leaders with leanings towards the West to boycott the opening ceremony.
In fact, everything, including the dark clouds that hung over Beijing was used to make the Games unpopular and if possible, a failure. However, the spirit of the Olympic Games — uniting the world under the canopy of sports — prevailed, and the world denied those who want to settle political scores on the sporting arena the luxury of victory.
So they all came. President George W. Bush was there with his wife and father, former President George Bush. So was Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who was among the first leaders who threatened boycotting the Games. When they came, they saw that no amount of propaganda can destroy the spirit of a people who are determined to carry their destiny into their own hands. China will be the centre of attraction for the world during the Games, and after that the world cannot ignore its dramatic entry into worldstage economically, industrially, technologically and scientifically.
Apart from the impressive opening ceremony which foreign correspondents acknowledged as first class, the quality of the facilities provided by the Chinese made nonsense of the initial doubts raised about their capability to organise and host the games.
That brings me back to the African leaders who witnessed the historical opening ceremony. Were they just mesmerised or they dreamt seeing their respective countries becoming another China in the next few years?
It will be unfair to put China into the same jacket as African countries, because the former’s civilisation dates back several thousands of years. However, before the Deng Xiaoping years, when China introduced economic reforms and changed its development direction by embarking on a massive capitalisation process, it had everything in common with most African countries, including Ghana. It had an economy that could not match those in the developed Western countries and also placed excessive emphasis on state ownership. Owing to its ideological posture, it could not open the economy to direct foreign capital from the West.
All that changed by 1992, when Deng pushed for a market-oriented economy, which was endorsed at the 14th Party Congress. That opened the doors widely for the Chinese economy to attract direct foreign investment from the West. Industrialisation shifted gear from the archaic state-owned enterprises to market-driven enterprises, either as state-private ownership or wholly privately-owned . That set China on a new development path which took the world by storm. There was, however, a precondition — that the raising of the living standards of the people should not be compromised when adopting capitalist measures to develop the economy.
China has since moved fast to become the fastest developing economy in the world. It has sustained an average growth rate of 9.5 per cent over the past 26 years, and has become a preferred destination for the relocation of global manufacturing facilities.
In Ghana, similar arguments were made against state-owned enterprises. Government has no business indulging in petty trading, building hotels or distributing commodities, so went the argument. Various governments, in response to this challenge, embarked on a privatisation process which got to its peak in the 1980s when the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC) was totally dismembered and its affiliate companies divested, sold or privatised.
The interesting question is, how come that almost all the state enterprises which were divested or sold with the intention of injecting into them fresh capital and better managerial competence did not blossom into bigger and better companies?
You can mention them. The tomato factories at Pwalagu and Wenchi; the Leather Factory in Kumasi; the Bonsa Tyre Factory; the Meat Factory at Bolgatanga; the GIHOC Pharmaceuticals, the Cannery at Nsawam; the Tema Food Complex; the State Fishing Corporation; Tema Shipyard and Drydock, the State Shipping Line and many others. All these have ceased to exist and nothing better had sprouted in their stead.
The country’s industrial sector has crumbled from a humble beginning as a newly developing nation with a modest industrial base, processing goods to become a net importer of everything, including toothpick and fruit juices.
What did the Chinese and those other countries that have made it do, which we failed to do? In short, what went wrong with our privatisation process?
Can it be said that over the years, our leaders were careless or were not sincere about the way they disposed of these state enterprises? From an emerging industrial country, we have slipped back as producers of raw materials to feed factories in other countries. When we look back to those years when Ghana had a flourishing textile industry, with her popular GTP Real Wax Print being a leader on the international market, we ask ourselves, what happened?
Not only did the garment and leather industries that collapsed, surrender to foreign textiles and leather products. Virtually, everything on our local market came from outside, either as brand new or as discarded and disused junk, popularly called home-used.
If China and other Asian countries have been able to open up to foreign capital without necessarily compromising local production, how come we could not do so over here? Surely, China could not have jumped onto the international market in such a dramatic manner without a good blend of foreign capital and technical know-how on one hand and local ingenuity on the other.
The current situation, which allows excessive importation of food items such as onion, tomato, maize and rice when conditions are conducive for local production, means we are a long way from coming near to the achievements of China and other south-east Asian countries.
Liberalisation to the point where the country has virtually become a dumping ground for any conceivable commodity from outside cannot encourage local production, and in the long run, cannot free the country from its dependency syndrome.
As for our preparation towards and participation in the Games, the least said about it, the better. We took everything for granted.
China has sent a message which must not be taken for granted. That is, nothing ventured, nothing gained. The world is not going to wait for us. We must begin to rely more on ourselves rather than seeing salvation as coming from outside.
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