On Politics of the Pandemic

It is said that everything is politics. Regrettably, that includes a serious business of management of crises. So, as Coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on nations of the world, it is fascinating to observe how the politics of those nations is being laid bare by how they approach this pandemic.

Chinese Politics - Old Sins Cast Long Shadows

Starting from China: years before Covid-19, the Chinese had prepared a fail-safe’ alarm system intended to catch and contain new epidemics as early as possible. But when Coronavirus erupted the system totally failed. Thanks to politics. 

The system itself was quite simple: there was a computer system through which cases of all suspicious diseases were to be registered, and from which officials in Beijing would have determined an appropriate response. However, when the first cases of a strange ‘pneumonia-like’ illness started to appear in Wuhan, instead of being recorded in the system they were reported to local officials who, being averse to passing unpleasant reports forward, withheld the information.

As a result officials in Beijing remained in the dark until Dr. Li Wenliang decided to raise an alarm through social media. But, alas, instead of being celebrated he was accused of disrupting public order and was commanded to desist from his ‘illegal activity’. He died of Covid-19, the same disease whose existence he was accused of fabricating.

Calamities are no respecters of politics. They mercilessly expose any sign of incompetence.

However, how can a nation great as China whose rise was catalysed by Deng Xiaoping’s embrace of the politics of pragmatism afford to maintain such non-progressive practices? Apparently old sins cast very long shadows.

United States President as the Entertainer in Chief?

If you go to the US they are not doing much better: Coronavirus is still spreading like wildfire there. In fact, what they have is still the calm before the storm. But, we have to ask: since 430,000 Americans were allowed to travel to China knowing that there was a deadly epidemic there, did the leaders confuse Americans for Kryptonians?

Leaders ought to lead, and when they sleep on the wheel the nation can pay a heavy price for that. As the US does right now.

But that is not the only issue that Americans have to deal with. Apparently, a deadly crisis notwithstanding, the President is tweeting about the popularity of his TV ratings during his press briefings! Is it possible that he is mistaking the concept of being a ‘comforter-in-chief’ with being an entertainer-in-chief? However, his critics are not amused, their verdict is that leadership is not a popularity contest. Quite right.

Leading a nation during a crisis such as this one is a solemn responsibility, even in an election year. One needs to have his priorities right – scoring political points or rescuing the nation? This is not a time for partisanship, it is a time for an existential battle. But, what can a nation expect to get when it is used to elect leaders on the basis of their popularity and not their competence and character?

Finally, the Politics of 'Uzushi'

In our side, it is quite fascinating to see our political masters trying to better each other in warning the public against posting ‘uzushi’, that is, ‘fabrications’, about Covid-19. Here, one commentator put it: ‘the government owns the disease, the tests, and the data on infections’. True, but why this uneasiness about uzushi then? Covid-19 aside, the idea that anything that has not been relayed by the authorities is ‘uzushi’ is quite an innovation in the field of statecraft, isn’t it? There are now reports of people taking others to the police charging them with uzushi! Stasi – East Germany’s security, infamous for turning citizens against each other – would have been proud! What next, arresting people for worshipping a deity that we don’t?

Decades back before the Coronavirus disaster brought the Chinese Province of Hubei to our consciousness, another tragedy claimed about 300,000 people there. In comparison, Hubei had it easy. In total, between 1958-1962, at least 20m perished as a result of the Great Famine precipitated by Mao Tse Tung’s Great Leap Forward’s policies (other estimates put the number as high as 45m). The strategic mistakes aside, what makes this tragedy quite shocking is the fact that even as millions were starving to death there was surplus of food in other regions which could have been redistributed had there been transparency in governance.

A house that is divided against itself shall not stand. When politicians require that everything be kept a secret until it is made public, the question is, whose interests are served by that culture?

Pandemics have no regard for political correctness and they don’t deal in propaganda currency. If the right things are not being done, the devastation which they will unleash will be plain for all to see. Hence, in management of pandemics, whatever the nation’s politics, it is better to err on the side of pragmatism.

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Do you agree with the contents of this article? Please leave your comments, like and share. NB: This article first appeared in the Citizen newspaper (07/04/2020).