Dear Editor,
The result of the June 23, 2016, referendum to determine whether the UK would remain a member of the European Union (EU) or leave has created a new situation in our world.
The vote to withdraw has sent shock waves throughout the UK, Europe, US and further afield. It is still too early to appreciate the total effect of this, however, it is clear that the impact will be great. At the moment great uncertainties have been created.
A significant point to note is that most of the top leaders in the ruling Conservative Party and the Labour Party have called for a vote to stay in the EU.
Moreover, prominent world leaders including President Obama of the US and the Democratic Party’s Presidential Candidate for the November elections, Hillary Clinton, all came out in support of the UK remaining. The people voted 52:48 to leave, defying those calls.
The question being asked is “why?” A lot of soul searching will go on for a while to understand what has taken place and to learn its lessons.
Like any phenomena of this sort, no one reason for what happened can be identified. Indeed, the division that the referendum revealed suggests that even in seeking the truth about this will generate much debate and discussions.
It is possible that a lot of the reasons can be found in the local and foreign policy of the United Kingdom.
In the first place, is the hysteria created in the West about terrorism and forces of evil operating in other countries convincing people that they are in real danger of terrorist attacks?
This propaganda was used to justify the expansion of NATO and as a justification for the huge increases in military spending. That level of propaganda has not only given those who engineered this line what they wanted, but also created the stereotype of some immigrants as being terrorists.
In the UK itself, a lot of Euro-scepticism has been a feature from the beginning. Many Prime Ministers have sought to improve their popularity by travelling to Europe to get a better deal for Britain to prevent EU from “wasting” money on some schemes.
This was done by PM Cameron not so long ago, adding to a long list of other prime ministers. The impression was that Brussels was a huge bureaucracy wasting European taxpayers’ monies. British PMs were showing they were standing up to Europe.
This also influenced British people that money from the UK’s contribution to the Union was not worth it because it was being wasted.
Another very important reason is the issue of the distribution of income in the UK. While it is generally true that a lot of wealth has been created over the years, it is no less true that a large amount of people did not benefit or the benefits were extremely disproportionate.
People have been complaining of the huge growing gap between the rich and poor. The figures are startling. Already the government in the UK has turned into a caretaker government as the PM has resigned. A new government would be in place by October.
The danger of the breakup of the UK has never been so real. Already, Scotland is speaking of another referendum to withdraw from the UK and join the EU as an independent country. The Irish are also calling for the same thing.
This could mean the end of the UK as we know it.
This could lead to a weakening of the state and the loss of international influence.
The consequences for Europe, too, could be great.
Already, the call from many political parties in France and other places are being made for a referendum similar to that of the UK.
The possibility of more states pulling out of the Union and even the collapse of the EU cannot be ignored. While the political leaders in Europe are trying to calm things the dynamics released continue to reverberate. This is likely to continue for some time.
It is not known whether the main lesson for the leaders in Europe and the US would be heeded. This is that while you may get the immediate results of your actions that you may desire, later development show that other highly undesirable consequences also occur. Therefore, when decisions are taken that impact on other countries and their people, the interventionists must think clearly of all the consequences.
What we are seeing here is the blow back from clearly self-centred policies carried out to get domination and not co-existence. Those policies have led the west to be supportive of some of the most brutal actions by unpopular governments. They have found themselves on the side of injustice and on the side of human rights violators, Israel, Egypt, Sandi-Arabia, etc.
The support that the US is giving Israel goes against its anti-colonial history and against the principles of its founding fathers.
Once these policies and actions go unchanged we can expect more of the same. The principle of the right of Nations to self-determination is still the best policy to follow. Trying to impose the wishes of outsiders on people will in the long run prove disastrous.
June 23 must be considered as one of those dates that have shook the world.
The reverberations will go on for a long time.
Sincerely,
Donald Ramotar
