President Cyril Ramaphosa is one of three leaders who has warned of collapse unless international law is enforced. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo Images
As if on cue, in response to the policies emanating from the Trump administration in the US, three heads of states issued a stark warning that unless humanity acts as a collective to enforce international law, “we risk its collapse”.
The three leaders — South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim — made it clear: “We believe in protagonism, not supplication. The choice is stark: either we act together to enforce international law or we risk its collapse. We choose to act, not only for the people of Gaza but for the future of a world where justice prevails over impunity.”
Their caution coincides with a lead story in The Economist, which featured a cover design explained by editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes as being inspired by Reservoir Dogs, a gangster film from 1992.
“Donald Trump has assumed the role of kingpin; behind him are some of the main players in a new, mafia-like struggle for global power. Call it The Don’s new world order, a might-is-right world in which big powers cut deals and bully small ones.”
In an interesting addition to grasping the enormity of Trump’s reckless reordering of the world in his image, we learn of worrying developments at a leading US paper, The Washington Post.
Former editor John Harwood, in his latest Zeteo column, writes that during the first Trump presidency, Martin Baron might have been America’s most important journalist.
“As executive editor, he led The Washington Post as its dogged team of reporters held the president to account for everything from Trump’s dubious claims of charitable donations to Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections on his behalf.”
He recalls that the paper that exposed the Watergate scandal, which brought down president Richard Nixon, described its 21st-century mission with the catchphrase, “democracy dies in darkness”.
Back then, Baron’s leadership enjoyed the backing of the current owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and one of the world’s richest men, says Harwood — but not any more.
“Things are different now. Baron, who led newsrooms to more than a dozen Pulitzer Prizes, retired in early 2021. Trump’s agenda has grown more frenetic and extreme. Bezos has joined other corporate titans seeking the president’s favour, provoking an exodus of Post reporters who fear the newspaper will no longer support unflinching coverage.”
While Trump’s erratic and dictatorial conduct has widespread negative consequences for the US’s moral standing in the world, it also poses the danger of upending civilised norms and values.
Being cheered on by rightwing regimes, particularly Israel, which occupies Palestine, does not equate to acceptance.
On the contrary, it demonstrates that the Trump administration’s support base — whether domestic or external — is confined to bigots who have no qualms nor shame in applauding Israel’s killing of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians.
The timeous intervention by the three leaders is of paramount significance to ensure that the world does not slide into a downward spiral characterised by chaos, anarchy and contempt for rule of law, as aspired to by Trump and his gang.
The all-important fundamental question posed by Ramaphosa and his colleagues in the global magazine Foreign Policy, in an article aptly headlined “Israel’s actions strike at the foundations of international law” is: What remains of the international order?
Along with Ramaphosa, Ibrahim and Petro, the fourth author of the article was Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, general coordinator of Progressive International and acting chair of the Hague Group.
Both the language and the content is unambiguously straightforward in its support of respect for international humanitarian conventions: “For more than 500 days, Israel, enabled by powerful nations providing diplomatic cover, military hardware and political support, has systematically violated international law in Gaza. This complicity has dealt a devastating blow to the integrity of the United Nations Charter and its foundational principles of human rights, sovereign equality and the prohibition of genocide. A system that permits the killing of an estimated 61 000 people is not merely failing — it has failed.”
Yet the stance they have adopted, despite being factual and forthright, is being used by Trump’s pro-Israel fanclub in South Africa to whip up hysteria against Ramaphosa and the ANC.
Kevin Bloom in his Daily Maverick column correctly argues that, by leading from the front, Ramaphosa and the government of South Africa are spearheading the global pushback “against the mounting insanity” defined by the “chaos, confusion and destabilisation” of US foreign policy.
Contrast this with the sound, rational arguments made by Ramaphosa and his colleagues:
“The evidence, livestreamed to our phones and assessed by the world’s top courts, is unequivocal. From the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israel’s top leaders, the preliminary measures issued in the Genocide Convention case brought by South Africa, Israel’s actions constitute clear violations of international law.”
Bloom points out that, because their assessment was mostly correct, it attracted another round of gaslighting and threats.
“Joel Pollak, the editor-at-large of the rightwing publication Breitbart News and the mooted frontrunner for Trump’s ambassador to South Africa, noted on X that ‘sanctions’ were now on the table for South African officials.”
Not to be left out of the race to demonise the Foreign Policy article, Alec Hogg of BizNews platformed Pollak in an online interview. It turned out to be a torturous rumbling by Pollak who we were told by Hogg has described the Ramaphosa article as “anti-US”, deserving a “strong response”.
Bizarrely the South African-born Pollak says targeted financial sanctions against Ramaphosa and “wealthy ANC cadres”, will probably make Trump a hero among the people in South Africa.
For justice to prevail over impunity, Trump’s dictatorship cannot be condoned.
Iqbal Jassat is an executive member of the Media Review Network.