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Opposition in the New States of Asia and Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Edward Shils
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The new states of Asia and Africa present a variegated picture with respect to the status and mode of action of their opposition parties. In only about a third of the new states are opposition parties regarded as constitutionally legitimate. Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, India, Ceylon, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Nigeria, Malaysia, Philippines, Sudan, and a few others allow opposition to exist in a public and institutional form.

Type
Original Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , 01 January 1966 , pp. 175 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1965

References

1 Not that any totalitarian states have been able for long to avoid manifestations of opposition.

2 Where subversive powers are strong—the army is almost always the only strong subversive power—it is easy for them to overthrow the incumbent party. The institutions of public order in most of the new states are very feeble and cannot successfully cope with strong subversive elements.

3 The survival of the multi‐party system in Nigeria is very much a function of the distinctive territorial bases of the various partics.

4 Conversely, if the opposition parties were as dangerous as their ruling antagonists assert, they probably could succeed in their subversion because the ruling parties and their governments are also very fragile. Their powers of resistance are not very great, judging by the number of successful coups undertaken by oppositional elements.

5 Professor Arthur Lewis in his forthcoming work, Politics in West Africa, writes: ‘A struggle for independence is highly emotional… The men who thrust themselves forward … feel that they are Heaven‐sent, and that anyone who stands in their way is a traitor to Heaven’s cause.

6 This metaphysic, although of a quite different historical origin, bears a close structural similarity to the historical metaphysics of Marxism‐Leninism, which places the Communist Party in an analogous position in the communist countries.

7 Ethnic antagonisms within the broader circles of the elites and counter‐elites of the new states are aggravated by the strain of the ethnic attachments within the self of those who seek to transcend them in a higher national identity.

It must, however, be pointed out that in spite of the anxieties of the elites of the ruling parties about the dangers of disintegration because of divergent ethnic attachments, the suppression of open opposition parties in order to avoid such disintegration has not been justified in the result. The problem of national unity is an urgent one, but the suppression of parties has not prevented the South Sudanese from revolting. On the other hand, no state already established and functioning has broken up because of secessionist tendencies among its ethnic minorities.

8 Colonial regimes were not congenial to the growth of a discipline of constitutional or civil politics. In most of the new states a number of parties came into existence only a short time before the granting of independence, when nationalistic enthusiasm was extremely intense.

9 In those countries which have not yet driven out foreign businessmen, the latter are extremely cautious in avoiding any activities which might jeopardize their relations with the ruling party. They do not contribute to the treasuries of opposition parties.

10 Governments have been changed by general elections only in Ceylon which had the highest literacy rate of all new states at the time of independence. The Congress Party has been defeated in a state election in Kerala which has the highest literacy rate in India.

11 Although many of the ruling parties in Asia and Africa compromise with their expressed principles and allow considerable room for private business enterprise, they do not acknowledge this at the level of principle. In principle, they nearly all say that they are socialist. So do almost all oppositional parties. There are very few parties which explicitly designate themselves as parties of free enterprise.

12 The numerous reconstitutions of government in Pakistan before 1958 were the outcome of arrangements among politicians and not of a succession realized through a nation‐wide election

13 One of the most substantial achievements of an opposition party in bringing a government to change its policy was the decision of the Nigerian government to revise the defence pact which it had made with the United Kingdom. This victory for a critical opposition party was greatly facilitated by the vigour of the free Nigerian press.

14 It is perhaps thanks to the relatively firm constitutional outlook which prevails in India that traditional territorial notables there have been permitted to support an opposition party. Witness the role of the quondam princely families in the Swatantra Party in Bihar and Rajasthan.

15 The success of the Nigerian strike action and the failure of the Ghanaian unions in a similar action merit further consideration. The former was the most unique achievement of a trades union movement in an Afro‐Asian state; the conditions for its success are obscure to me.

16 Economists in India and Pakistan are beginning to acquire the status which is a necessary condition for influence.

17 Disobedience to the enactments of governmental authority arising from indifference, and deliberate breaking of the law are at the margin of opposition.

18 All the mass partis uniques claim to have this institution and put it forward as a justification for not permitting expression of opinion through opposition parties. Tanzania, Mali and Guide seem to make an effort to make the system work, but in other countries local agents regard it as their job simply to get out the votes and to take note of critical attitudes for security purposes, but they do not pay much attention to the upward flow of opinion from the lower strata of society.