The White House organised the second so-called Summit for Democracy on March 29–30. The US administration co-hosted the second "Summit for Democracy" with Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea and Republic of Zambia.
The US previously hosted the first "Summit for Democracy" in late 2021, which drew criticism for its exclusion of nearly half of the world's countries, creating divisions and drawing ideological lines.
The summit showed the US' determination to continue to divide the world by rallying up countries under the banner of "democracy", so as to maintain its hegemony.
Such "summits" only fuel tensions and draw up new dividing lines, splitting the globe into "friends" and "foes", stigmatising countries, pinning them down with labels and enforcing an undefined "rules-based" order.
There are nearly 200 countries in the world, and democracies can be of different forms. The US is trying to impose its self-styled "democratic" judgment on all countries in the world, denying different forms of democratic theory and practice. This is typical American exceptionalism.
Claiming itself as the "model of democracy", the US has shown double standards towards the democracy and human rights of others by incessantly interfering in their internal affairs and waging wars under the guise of "democracy". It has created regional turbulence and humanitarian disasters.
And the truth is that the US is far from a "beacon of democracy". From the Capitol Hill riots in 2021 to entrenched racism, and from the mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic to the widening wealth gap, the American democracy has shown cracks from within.
A report, The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022, which the Chinese Foreign Ministry released on March 20, pointed out the pretensions, dysfunctional politics and divided society that continued to plague the US last year.
Even a report released by US-based think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in September last year also said US democracy is at a "dangerous inflection point" and the country faces a democratic setback.
According to a Quinnipiac University Poll, 67% of respondents believe that American democracy is in danger of collapse, and 48% think there could be another Capitol riot.
Moreover, the young people in the US seem to be increasingly discontent with US democracy. Last year, a survey by the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government revealed only 4% of young Americans under the age of 30% believed the US democratic system to be "healthy" when compared with the 2021 polling, which showed that 7% rated US democracy as healthy.
So, what authority does the US have to lecture the rest of the world about democracy?
Indeed, the so-called Summit for Democracy convened by the US reflects its dangerous Cold War mentality and will instigate confrontations and political divisions within the international community. It is a preposterous show in violation of the spirit of democracy and exposes the US design to maintain its hegemony, which has been criticised and opposed by many countries.
Rooted in the history, culture and traditions of a country, democracy takes diverse forms and develops along the paths chosen by the peoples of different countries based on their explorations and innovations. As such, the state ought to shoulder a unique responsibility of upholding and promoting principles that place emphasis on reforming the world order, and attendant ideas of mutual respect for countries' political sovereignty and avoidance of external conflict, which is at the centre of international relations and foreign policy.
Democracy is not an ornament to be worn for decoration; it should be used to solve the problems that the people want to be solved. Reaching a consensus on democracy is about shared human values. However, some Western countries repeatedly claim to promote "democracy" and "human rights" while exercising their power to subvert countries that do not follow their warped model. Such Western countries' aim is to kidnap democracy in order to manipulate the rest of the world and fabricate "anxiety about democracy" to promote the Cold War mentality.
These legacy liberal states, in an attempt to divert attention from their domestic failures and disorder, shift the blame onto other countries. Take for example Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. These countries and their peoples have been attacked and continue to suffer in the name of democracy and human rights.
There are many ways that countries can practice democracy and there is no one-size-fits-all model for that. Countries with different histories, cultures, civilisations, traditions, customs and national conditions should develop a form of democracy that best suits their own characteristics and reality. No single country has the mandate to monopolise the definition of democracy, nor can it limit people's right to explore and choose a model of democracy that best suits a country. Therefore, no country has the right to use ideology and values as tools to subjugate or bully other countries and advance its geopolitical strategies, instigate divisions and confrontations in the international arena and push the world back to the dangerous Cold War era on the pretext of promoting democracy.
Democracy must not be viewed solely on the basis of a country's political system and by ignoring the diversity of civilisations. Asian societies display great diversity -- ancient, culturally rich, colourful and diverse, like a beautiful garden deeply rooted in Asian civilisations and now blossoming due to the injections of new vitality. And the values of Asian societies cannot be understood or recognised without deeper understanding of Asia's unique civilisations.
As a saying goes, only the wearer of the shoes knows if they fit or not. Similarly, only the people of a country, not some small external circles and cliques, can tell whether the political system followed by their government is democratic or not.
Only democracy with human values at the core can foster, promote and consolidate regional and global peace and harmony, ensure people live with dignity, help people understand and respect civilisational diversity and further enhance inclusivity, which will prompt the global public to accept the differences in civilisations, so as to help build a community with a shared future for mankind that leaves no one behind on the road of development.
Fumiko Yamada specialises in Bangladesh Affairs. She is a research fellow in Bangladesh Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.
