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L. Biyika: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session IV-A
Written by Hon. Lawrence Songa Biyika, member of parliament, Uganda
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, the Right Honorable Anita Annet Among, it is my honor to address this important gathering and leadership conference. First of all, I bring you greetings from Uganda, the pearl of Africa. In the near future, please find time to visit and explore Uganda with its vast natural resources and tourism attractions.
The theme for this year's summit is “Contemporary Challenges to Global Order: Towards a World Culture of Peace.” This is a very important theme. The question is, if we see conflict in, for example, Southeast Asia, or in some parts of Africa, what does it mean for Uganda? What does it mean for peace? If we see war in Ukraine with Russia, what does it mean for peace in Africa? These are very important questions we need to answer.
The world has faced a lot of calamities and conflicts that are negatively impacting and hindering world peace and development. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ebola outbreak to malaria to wars and conflicts like the one in Ukraine with Russia and in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), the Central Africa Republic, Chad, the Sahel, Cameroon and Somalia—all these wars continue to affect world peace and development. The situation is even worsened by climate change, which is increasing energy poverty and food shortages and causing biodiversity loss, pollution and water scarcity, among other consequences. All these issues are negatively impacting peaceful coexistence in the world and affecting economies and increasing poverty.
Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I will focus on small things that are disturbing world peace. One issue is what some people call human rights. What is human rights? In Africa, we have seen companies from or outside of Africa go to the DR Congo because they are competing for the minerals in the country. They cause war, and in the process, women and children die or are displaced. Is that not a human rights issue? Why is this issue not at the top of the world’s agenda? But, the only human rights issues you will hear about are related to the LGBTQ. So, what is human rights?
Another question we need to ask ourselves is: What is democracy? If democracy means the will of the majority, then if the majority says the priority for us in Africa is increasing access to water, why is it that some people want to impose on us cultures which are not African, which are against family values, which are against cultural values? This is very important. For us to achieve peace, we must address these issues.
Societies, especially the ones in Africa, have norms and beliefs and cultures that govern them. We need to work around that system if we want to achieve real peace. The competition for natural resources in Africa, which started elsewhere, has caused so many wars. We have a saying that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. Who are the elephants and who is the grass?
We have seen conflict in this region in the South China Sea. We have seen conflicts in the Horn of Africa. They are all impacting Africa. Look at the Sudan, where there is a two-pronged war. One, there is an ethnic feeling, my tribe and so on, that should be corrected. But, there are also powers that are coming behind the two leaders in this conflict. That is why we see wars in Sudan, and they are displacing people. In Somalia, Sudan and, Ethiopia, all the refugees are running to Uganda.
Our country is hosting 1.4 million refugees from our neighborhood because of natural resource-induced conflict. The natural resource perpetrators, the people who are looking for these natural resources, are from outside of Africa. So, how can we achieve world peace? We need to address these fundamental questions if we really want to achieve it.
And we must be open. In summary, if we want to achieve world peace, we need to be open. Openness means if you are sick, if you have headache, do not go to the doctor and say, I have a stomach problem. They will give you a different medicine than what you need. So for us, we are saying we must be open.
In this regard, we must promote trade with rather than give high-interest loans to Africa, which is going to be a burden in the long run. Let us promote trade so that we can develop our countries. Africa is now burdened by debt, and we are saying, if we talk about climate change, for example, why cannot the people who caused this damage pay the developing world who did not cause it? The payment can be direct or indirect. A direct payment can be some kind of compensation, but an indirect one can be debt cancellation.
These are issues that we need to talk about. Then there is the issue of natural resources. We need to focus on things that unite us rather than divide us and respect each other—the culture, religion, tradition, norms and beliefs of people.
We also need not to make enemies of other people’s enemies. There are people who say, Uganda, do not deal with China, do not deal with Russia. There are people saying that. Enemies of other people cannot be our enemies if we want to achieve peace. There are relationships between peoples, not government.
If we are dealing with Taiwan because we need something from Taiwan and Taiwan needs something from us, we have to deal with the people of Taiwan, but not necessarily the government. We need to really address this kind of ideology.
Finally, there is the issue of a global call for decarbonization. As a result, many countries, the powers, are rushing to Africa to get these areas, large chunks of land, rich in minerals like lithium, cobalt and copper. However, this is already causing conflicts in Africa.
We need to address these issues openly, rather than beating around the bush, talking too much English and French, if we really want to achieve peace in the world. Peace is very important and we want to thank Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon for this kind of initiative and the Universal Peace Federation because dialogue is the only way we can achieve peace, but it must be with respect and openness.
I want to thank you for listening.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.