The former British colonies that doused the flame of democracy
Re: “The free world owes Britain a huge debt”, Have Your Say, February 27.
Some of the former territories of the British Empire may well have huge financial debts, but they don’t owe much to Britain in political terms. It isn’t true that none of them became communist; there was the People’s Revolutionary Government of Grenada, the Somali Democratic Republic, and South Yemen – what was Aden. All Marxist one-party states. (Hong Kong is now part of communist China.)
Much of post-colonial Africa succumbed to dictatorships. Remember Idi Amin in Uganda? Other former British African colonies were dictatorships soon after independence. Many parts of the former British Empire became strongly socialist – countries such as India, Guyana, and Burma (now known as Myanmar).
Democracy is a delicate plant that isn’t easily transplanted in other climes. For those Britons living in Thailand dismayed with the way democracy is going in the UK, please contact me at the Overseas Liberal Democrat group. (Twitter: @LibDemsOverseas)
Ian Martin
Bangkok
