SA must rather follow Japanese Restoration than Russian Revolution
29 June 2023
On 8 July 1853 Japanese people stood and watched in shock as four strange black ships steamed into Tokyo Harbour in billowing clouds of smoke. Feudal Japan did not know self-propelled steel ships. Moreover, the Japanese had to watch in horror as the ships disdainfully breached the Japanese flotilla that was supposed to stop them. In defiance of his president’s orders, the arrogant American Commodore Matthew Perry aimed his ship cannons at them, threatening to flatten the city if Japanese ports were not opened to American trade.
This forceful display of gunboat diplomacy made the humiliated Japanese realise that they would urgently have to modernise if they did not also want to fall victim to Western aggression as had happened to the Chinese during the Opium Wars.
The first step involved abolishing military rule and reinstating the emperor’s authority by means of what has become known as the Meiji Restoration of 1868. “Meiji” means “enlightened rule,” and its aim was to combine the latest Western developments with Japanese values to expedite the country’s modernisation.
The Japanese motto was “Western science, Japanese spirit”. They embraced Western science and technology but retained their own language and culture. The Japanese recipe for success was not to ask, “Who did this to us and what should we now do to them?" but rather, “What did we do wrong and what must we do right now?”
The main symbolic difference between the Russian Revolution and the Japanese Restoration, is that whereas the Tsar and his family were executed, the Japanese Emperor was reinstated. The Japanese did not want to destroy everything that was in existence. They built on the best that the West had to offer to catch up and then they further improved on it, in many areas surpassing the West.
A market economy and a national schools’ system were introduced, Western expertise was contracted, and modern infrastructure was built while Japanese were sent to Western countries to study there and to learn from them. Former Western enemies became indispensable partners for rapid development.
Innovative restoration
The Japanese drew on their culture and tradition but regenerated it innovatively by using Western knowledge and expertise rather than being anti-Western, even for understandable reasons. Revolution was deliberately not chosen, and the rise of Japan went much smoothly than the French and Russian Revolution, and the outcome was much better.
The strategy was to build on the old order and to regenerate it systematically instead of letting it deteriorate further. Production was increased and the economy was grown instead of it simply being redistributed into smaller parts. The private sector was the driving force behind development although the state played an important supporting role.
The building blocks for Japan’s success were efficient government, a strong work ethic, self-discipline, healthy families, good education, and a deep sense of responsibility. The Japanese Restoration was a miracle – moving from a feudal system to a modern industrial country within 30 years!
It was the first non-Western country to modernise itself successfully. The baptism of fire for its level of development came in the form of two successful blitzkriegs – against China in 1894 and against the Russians in 1904. When World War I broke out Japan was one of the Great Powers, and during the Versailles Peace Negotiations Japan was one of the big five powers along with the USA, Britain, France, and Italy.
The Japanese Restoration was more successful than the Russian Revolution and other revolutions and led to a standard of living that was much higher than that of communist Russia and one that was close to that of the USA.
It is not only the Japanese who have been successful. In recent decades China has lifted approximately 750 million people out of abject poverty through economic growth that was based much more on restoration than on revolution.
Lessons for SA
The question is whether and if so, what South Africa can learn from the successful Japanese Restoration? After 1994 the ANC’s legitimate pursuit was to uplift black people after years of apartheid and colonialism. The question is what strategy they were to follow – Japan’s Restoration or the Russian Revolution?
Revolution means overthrowing the old order and replacing it with a new dispensation. In most respects the Russian Revolution was the opposite of the Japanese Restoration. In the revolution the old order was overthrown, the Tsar and his family executed, the economy nationalised, and a dictatorship was established. After all, radical goals require radical methods. In the words of the famous physiologist Ivan Pavlov, Lenin’s nation building process wanted to “standardise humanity: “The whole of society will have become a single office and a single factory, with equality of labour and pay.”
However, the great revolutionary experiment failed. After 70 years the system crumbled under the weight of poverty and oppression. Russia’s first post-communist president, Boris Yeltsin, made a rather politically incorrect statement when he said: “Our country has not been lucky. Indeed, it was decided to carry out this Marxist experiment on us … instead of some country in Africa. In the end we proved that there is no place for this idea. It has simply pushed us off the path the world’s civilised countries have taken”.
It took the Russians a long time to recover from the effects of communism and to make their country a functioning one again. Despite all the historical proof that revolutions fail, parties that want to achieve rapid and radical transformation, sometimes still yearn for the Red Revolution. For example, the ANC declared on 8 January 2017:
“We commemorate 100 years since the great socialist revolution of October 1917 when Russian workers liberated themselves from autocratic, tsarist rule and established the first socialist workers’ state”.
Radical transformation
South Africa’s history, the ANC’s ideological roots and major poverty, unemployment and inequality in the country all combined in the government’s adopting of a policy of radical transformation as answer to the challenges post 1994.
Despite certain successes, the outcome of the transformation project 30 years later is not favourable. The most painful signs of the burning crisis include:
- South Africa has the highest unemployment rate in the world (IMF data);
- About 50% of the population are dependent on welfare.
- Surveys indicate that more than 50% of graduates want to emigrate.
- The country’s business leaders consider state failure as the biggest risk (WEF data); and
- Failing of many state institutions over a wide front.
While people may differ about the nature, extent and causes of, and solutions for the national crisis, one thing is clear: We cannot carry on as usual. Doing more of the same is not the solution and it will only deepen the crisis further. New thinking, new answers and new solutions are called for. A policy is measured by its outcomes, not by its intentions. The harsh reality shows that the state ideology of radical transformation has failed to bring about radical positive change. It has become part of the problem rather than being part of the solution.
‘Radical’ restoration
The question is whether the time has not indeed come for “radical” restoration. The nature of the new model for restoration would still have to be worked out, but it would have to meet the following requirements for it to succeed practically and politically:
It will have to be aimed at rebuilding instead of destructing;
It will have to be inclusive;
It will have to be corrective in nature and will address the crises of the failing state, poverty and unemployment;
The state will have to be more of a “housekeeper” rather than the “breadwinner”;
The private sector will have to play a leading role;
Economic growth must be pursued as the main equaliser;
The civil sector must be involved; and
It must provide for a social compact that includes everyone and that turns “enemies” into partners instead.
A key requirement for restoration that can bring about real radical change is that race will have to be phased out as the central policy decider. According to the Institute of Race Relations’ Index of Race Law (RaceLaw.co.za), the ANC government has already passed 116 race laws post 1994.
These laws have not succeeded in correcting the consequences of the previous racial dispensation. A racial dispensation, whatever its intentions may be, is not compatible with a constitutional democracy, a functioning state and a growing economy. According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) only 4,6% of all people under the age of 18 are white. It will not benefit the almost 96% of young black persons if this small group is to be disadvantaged.
The most important question about racial policies is not ‘Is it justified?’ but ‘Does it work?” At this moment the poor lose, in two ways. First, they receive worse public services than they otherwise would. Second, radical racial policies retards economic growth and so makes it harder for the jobless to find work.”
Blaming those who were previously advantaged does not help with the delivery of services if you exclude them from an opportunity to help with redress. Our country needs all its human resources to achieve successful restoration.
Flip Buys is chairman of the Solidarity Movement.
