Au Revoir Charlevoix

    The Charlevoix G7 Summit (June 8–9, 2018) Communique started off with a poetic confirmation to the ‘shared values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and commitment to promote a rules-based international order’. The Communique laid out a number of commitments, grouped under common headings of investing in growth, preparing for jobs of the future, advancing gender equality, building a more peaceful and secure world, and working together on climate change. Point 13 of the aforementioned document indicates that the G7 elite club is committed to ‘responding to foreign actors who seek to undermine our democratic societies and institutions, our electoral processes, our sovereignty and our security as outlined in the Charlevoix Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats’.

What is the Charlevoix Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats? Well, it is yet another commitment of the Leaders of the G7 to respond to foreign threats in all possible means. These benevolent leaders also commit to ‘ensure a high level of transparency around sources of funding for political parties and all types of political advertising, especially during election campaigns’.

Interesting.

Did Trump forget to throw a tantrum over this? Were the Communique’s darters unaware of the USA´s membership in the G7 club? Do politicians think we are stupid?

Essentially, the G7 group is indirectly criticising illegal funding of parties and meddling in elections. Now this is a direct faux pas as far as Washington´s foreign policy is concerned. The USA has intervened in multiple election campaigns for decades, and has directly toppled regimes – or aided in doing so.

In an article Published 18 February 2018 in telesurtv, a former Central Bureau of Investigation, CIA, operative reportedly indicated that the USA has been meddling in the elections and internal political affairs of other countries since 1947, and that the CIA intends to keep doing so. Allegedly, the USA has used posters, pamphlets, mailers, banners, King George’s cavalry, and planted false information in foreign newspapers. Indeed, the US has long illegitimately intervened in numerous foreign elections, trying to tilt outcomes in favour of candidates Washington preferred during the Cold War. This practice lived on, albeit with an enhanced undercover, Cold War or not. An article published in the Guardian on 5 January 2017, indicates that the US is a world leader in the field of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries. According to research by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University, there were more than 80 instances between 1946 and 2000 of intervention in elections, two thirds of which are covert.

Washington always has a valid argument at hand to be used when intervening in free elections: No, Hamas are terrorists, they must not rule, for they will destabilise the region; no, we do not want an Iranian ally as prime minister in Iraq, for this will destabilise the region; no, the Muslim Brotherhood Organisation is a terrorist grouping of fundamentalists who must not rule Egypt, for they will destabilise the region; and no, Hezbollah should not gain further powers in Lebanon, for they are Satan´s ally, and they will destabilise the region.

It appears that drafting communiques and communication pieces has ceased to be a practice of translating beliefs into commitments. It has become ´the art of wording ideals and utopian notions using political, empty lexicology’. Whether the G6 cannot control the actions of the odd member out in this regard is not the issue at hand – what is arguable is pressing on with a communique that includes blatant lies. If readers are to be treated with a shred of respect, perhaps the wording of the Charlevoix Commitment should be ‘we will try ensure a high level of transparency around sources of funding for political parties and all types of political advertising, especially during election campaigns, and appoint a watchdog on US electoral meddling as we are on it’.

Trump already stormed out of the meeting…if this will be the trend, then perhaps a pinch of sincerity won’t kill anyone.