Syria policy oversimplified

Very appropriately, Business Day condemns SA’s oversimplified and misguided policy on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime (SA sees no evil amid Syrian brutality, April 18).

While a political rather than military solution is the correct approach, the Department of International Relations and Co-operation failed conspicuously in its statement to condemn the atrocity and illegality of the murderous usage of chemical weapons against innocent civilians by the Syrian dictatorship.

Like apartheid, this amounts to a blatant crime against humanity. Our Constitution confirms SA’s commitment in this regard. However, to demonstrate its staunch ideological opposition to the West, the department has opted for opportunistic alliances at the behest of countries that regard international efforts to protect human rights as a western conspiracy.

Obviously, the department has not adapted to the new leadership. Its Syria posture contradicts President Cyril Ramaphosa’s articulation of SA’s national interests, implying the primacy of economic interests over ideological interests and the importance of economic diplomacy and wealth creation as the best way to counter domestic economic decline, poverty and unemployment. His investment drive includes special investment envoys and marketing SA in Davos, London and elsewhere.

To achieve these goals SA should engage the whole world, the West and the East, following a non-aligned or ideologically neutral foreign policy to maximise its core national interests.

Obviously, our major and potential economic partners in the West, the source of the bulk of SA’s foreign investment and trade, will take note of the department’s stance, that it is still stuck in the past, and that anachronistic ideologues still run the show at the department, reinforcing SA’s image as a risk factor.

Prof Gerrit Olivier

Strand