Merkel’s politics of conviction – Harold Kong

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is making history. Not since Margaret Thatcher has the West seen a leader of equivalent overall ability and mental toughness.

Thatcher, who graduated with honours in chemistry at Oxford in 1947, gave Britain back its greatness. Merkel, who won a PhD in quantum chemistry from the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1986, is positioning Germany for greatness in the 21st century.

On the refugee crisis in Europe, Merkel has continued to display a wide worldview and the moral calibre to go with it.

She has stood firm and alone amongst European leaders on her position that her country will not close the doors on asylum seekers even after 1.1 million of them had arrived in Germany in 2015.

Her humanitarian convictions have polarised political discourse in Germany and set it apart from other countries in the European Union. But we should recognise this as statesmanship of the highest order.

Apart from having a small but notable Turkish community, Germany has – alone amongst the leading Western countries – remained largely homogenous in the post-war period until recently.

The refugee crisis has ignited debates about Germany’s global responsibilities, social cohesion within German society and thus, the German identity. This is the debate that it had to have.

It has spurred the transformation of the Alternative für Deutschland (“AfD”), a conservative party in the opposition ranks, from its previous propensity for high-browed policy analysis on exchange rate economics into a more electorally effective right-wing party.

In this role, the AfD is not shy to take populist positions that reflect the groundswell of sentiments that may take Germany further away from the core of Europe to a more stand-alone German identity.

Having railed against German participation in the Eurozone, it is now warning against immigration and its consequences: multiculturalism and the growth of Islam.

It sees a need for rebalancing Germany’s foreign policy weight in favour of Russia and by implication away from the United States.

The rise of the AfD is in part a delayed outcome of the soft form political suppression that occurred in post-war West Germany.

So scarred was the German psyche by the role of the state in manipulating the people to start World War II that political correctness as defined by the new elites in the post war period was mostly beyond challenge by any quarter in mainstream post-war politics.

Germany, divided into two countries, standing in opposition to each other at the behest of bigger powers who were facing off in what was known as the Cold War, defined the existence of West Germany.

Political discourse in West Germany in the more than four decades that spanned the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was restrained – sometimes to the point of self-censorship. That remained true even in the unified Germany in much of the period since 1989.

For the better part of seven decades, there has been a collective suppression of the German spirit for the sake of political correctness so that a new Germany could be constructed from the ashes of defeat in  World War II.

If the German people had tended to hold back in speaking their minds in the past, preferring to tread in the waters of political correctness until a new and compelling current swept in a new consensus, they are beginning to voice their concerns sooner and louder. People are more prepared to say what they think.

Now, in the third decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German life having become increasingly entwined with the colours of multiculturalism and the messiness of the rest of the world, many amongst the ordinary people believe that it is time for a pause and a re-think of national directions.

The demand that they are putting to their political elites seems to be for “A Germany for Germans”.

Roughly stated, their message is this: Germany has all the means to achieve an improvement in their daily life if they were to work with a unified sense of purpose, such as a German sense of purpose, and not get involved in conflicts overseas that are distant to their concerns or allow those whom many Germans regard as “messed up people who are less hardworking” to enter the country and thus, dilute its identity and consequently, German standards.

All this is not difficult to understand. Germans have a clear sense of identity that comes from within the European civilisation and their culture is shaped by a strong sense of local history.

Their scientific, technological and economic achievements are such that they are entitled to see themselves in the front ranks of the modern world.

Within and without Germany, there is now some concern that this strain of popular sentiment, if allowed to slide further on a populist plane, would at some stage be fuel for a renewed but misplaced sense of Teutonic pride that would lead to problems.

In Germany’s desperate circumstances after the World War I, this character trait was exploited, as Adolf Hitler did, for purposes that would later prove fatally destructive.

Whilst it is not likely that Germany would ever become a closed and then a militant society again, current German events should be viewed with some concern for they portend the possibility of turning inwards.

By forcing Germany to face the fact that the refugee problem will not go away simply by closing its borders, Merkel is thus reminding Europe of its grave moral responsibilities to the rest of the world if it is to remain globally relevant and important.

Many of Merkel’s colleagues in the ruling coalition are extremely nervous about her refugee policy, calling her dogmatic and delusional. Some have characterised her handling of the issue as a loss of policy control.

But none has stepped forward to oppose her leadership of the government. The complicated nature of German coalition politics makes the calculus for a putsch rather too complicated.

In any case, Merkel is not without considerable support within Germany. The Roman Catholic Church, the business community and many amongst the professional and middle classes support Merkel’s position on the refugees.

This is heartening.

While other countries in the European Union have criticised Germany for showing them up rather than showing solidarity with them, it is clear to the world that it is they who have faltered when it came to matching verbal commitments to human rights with practical delivery of solutions in a humanitarian crisis.

Not the German chancellor.

Post-war West Germany rebuilt itself with the help of the largest budget share of the Marshall Plan and American oversight of its democratic developments.

Not surprisingly, this gave rise to a post-war elite who have been more pro-West in their sentiments than the “long term average” in German society.

Not surprisingly again, as we move further into the post-Cold War period and the sustainability of American supremacy across the world having become less obvious, the German alliance with the United States is undergoing changes at the emotional level.

There would be increasingly widespread public recognition that the refugee crisis is in part the outcome of American foreign policy actions over decades that other nations like Germany did not sign up to.

Even the value of membership of the European Union may come into question if bailouts and haircuts such as those required in the Greek crisis and the failure of nerve on the part of Europe, as witnessed in the present refugee crisis, are repeated.

A great nation is in transition. Mean reversion to a more independent German foreign policy stance can be expected.

The German people will be speaking up more directly and the political leadership will have to respond to and represent a more uniquely voice to the world.

It will be much harder for them to sell the Western alliance’s worldview to the German people. It is vital that this transition does not result in misunderstandings of reality.

It is important for the rest of the world to understand and engage Germany so that the latter will not become inward-looking and come to be less connected withthe rest of the world over time.

Founded in 1871, Germany has always been at the centre of the big changes in Europe in the last 145 years. It has not always taken those paths that led to happiness or victory, whether moral, political or military, because it often saw its destiny as separate from those of its neighbours and its role in Europe as bigger than that which its neighbours would accept.

But it has always been true that German interests determine European cohesion and Europe’s ability to set a good example for the rest of the world.

With the largest economy and, arguably, still the most disciplined society in Europe, Germany is undoubtedly a Tier One country.

The world would be more secure if its power structure is multi-polar. The United States will find China, probably Russia and possibly India to be its strategic peers within the next 50 years.

The question is whether Europe will have the will to find its place in that circle. A truly multi-polar world requires Europe to galvanise itself and engage the world, and not just rely on the United States to be its protector and the ultimate arbiter of its future directions.

Europe already has the technological capability and the economic base to be in that circle even now but it is not there yet because it has not developed the collective vision and the will.

The world needs Germany to play a constructive role. This starts with the proposition that Germany would, in the near to mid-term, be willing to provide leadership to a Europe that is going through a crisis of confidence and coordination.

If Germany fails to do so now, it may develop a structural inability to work with the rest of Europe in the longer term. This would mean that Europe cannot contribute to the multi-polarity that would better secure world peace.

In taking the long view and the road less travelled, Merkel has displayed enlightenment and faith. Taken together, they amount to outstanding statesmanship.

In standing firm in her conviction that Europe must show love and compassion to the mostly Muslim asylum-seekers from the Middle East who seek a better life in Europe even when Muslim terrorists threaten havoc in Europe, she understands that
there may be terrorists hidden amongst the asylum-seekers but the two are not the same.

She is asking an increasingly secular Europe to remember its Christian heritage.

Germany under Merkel has sent a clear signal. Germany will take into account not just its self interest but also its moral responsibilities.

If the next generation of Germans live up to this standard, the developing world and the newly emergent Asia will see Germany as a country that can provide global leadership to help solve the world’s many problems.

The elections today in the three German states of Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg may be regarded as a referendum on Merkel’s refugee policy.

Whether the AfD will make it into the parliaments of these three states and thus push German politics to the right will give the world an insight into public sentiment in Germany.

One hopes that German voters will withstand the temptation to turn inwards and reject the problems of the rest of the world. – March 13, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.