Partnership of People and Saarc Summit
Dhiraj Kumar NATH
The expectations and aspirations that prompted the formation of SAARC
about 23 years back need to be made a reality, creating an atmosphere of
effective partnership among peoples of member states.
The 15th summit in Sri Lanka, as we expect, will dwell exhaustively
on strengthening opportunities of interactions for the sake of
overcoming any misconception among the public at large.
In fact, the spirit and the vision that mooted the concept of SAARC
could not yet find a place in the minds of common people even after
almost two decades. To be precise, SAARC has been just a forum of
governments and committees.
It is true that a few civil society organisations, writers,
academicians, Rotarians, and technical and non-technical officials of
SAARC member states developed friendly links and exchanged knowledge and
information. But these initiatives could not impress the common people
because they could not develop an environment of partnership.
The spirit of SAARC is meaningless if it cannot generate friendly
dealings between citizens of member states. We have to learn from the
spirit of partnership in other regional bodies, like Asean or EU, where
feelings among the people of member states have developed.
To develop this partnership, there is urgent need to overcome any
confusion and mistrust among member states, and to get rid of the same
by using the media as a vehicle.
There should be a massive drive to eliminate any wrong information
among the public of the Member States. Even at the initial stage, there
were confusions at the policy level.
We may recall the remarks of late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
in the early eighties, when she was both sceptical and suspicious of the
proposal of SAARC, that Pakistan and Bangladesh through SAARC might find
a forum to address their grievances and prevail upon India.
Even the Indian foreign secretary, in his deliberation on
neighbourhood policy on February 14, 2005 stated: “India would not like
to see a SAARC in which some of its members perceive it as a vehicle
primarily to countervail India or seek to limit its room for manoeuvre.”
He, however, observed: “India is today one of the most dynamic and
fastest growing economies of the world. We are prepared to make our
neighbours full stakeholders in India’s economic destiny and, through
such cooperation, in creating a truly vibrant and globally competitive
South Asian economic community.”
These are words of hope and despair, which might resound in memory to
make the SAARC a really significant regional organisation to develop in
a spirit of cooperation and partnership among its people at large.
Of course, we should forget the ghost of the past, and join hands in
a shared pursuit of collective prosperity with new visions considering
the fact of the present and the aspiration of the coming generation.
There could be total commitment on certain issues as provided in the
Social Charter signed in 2004 in Pakistan. Article 111 of the Social
Charter on poverty alleviation, Article 1V on Health, Article V on
education and human resource development, are important to ensure
people’s partnership in the right spirit.
In addition, the Group of Eminent Persons, established in 1997, to
suggest areas of co-operation needs to be strengthened to identify new
areas of partnership.
There should be effective interactions to ensure empowerment of
women, collaboration in the areas of ICT, strengthening of local
government system, and, above all, establishment of good governance in
all spheres of administration, with special emphasis on extremism and
fundamentalism and elimination of corruption.
If SAARC fails to address or attend some of the critical areas, it
will eventually appear to be an ornamental forum having no appeal to the
people in general. One of the prime areas is food security.
The recommendation of the 10th meeting that a Food Security Reserve
Board should be implemented, including the establishment of a regional
food centre. The proposal to create a special fund for poverty
alleviation should find its place as quickly as possible.
The SAARC Poverty Alleviation Fund, with a capital of $100 million,
should earmark at least 77% of the allocation for the welfare of the
rural population, especially for employment generation and economic
emancipation.
There is also a proposal to establish an independent Commission for
poverty alleviation, which demands fresh examination in view of the
worldwide price spiral and inflation.
The experience of the SAARC Co-operative Council might play a major
role in ensuring sustainable economy in the rural areas. Equally, the
SAARC Quadrangle Milk Grid should be made functional to help the white
revolution in member countries.
The 15th Summit will consider issues like food security, energy
trade, multi-modal connectivity, SAARC mutual legal assistance on
terrorism, and common initiatives to address climate changes.
These efforts will obviously ensure opportunities to augment the
areas of co-operation, but use of solar power and hydro-electricity to
meet the growing demand of power shall be more useful at this stage. The
establishment of a Regional Food Bank shall help to overcome the
emerging problems of the member states.
There might be discussion at program committee level about the corn
being converted into fuel by some developed countries. The question of
modern agriculture and effective use of non-farm sector might emerge for
consideration.
This time Australia and Thailand will attend in the Summit as
observers, and the Thai experience in agriculture, especially in the
areas of seed and use of organic fertiliser, could be shared to build a
common strategy for the SAARC member states.
We hope and expect that the 15th SAARC summit will fulfil the
expectations of the people and make effective partnership of our people
really meaningful and significant.
The writer is a former Advisor to the Caretaker Government of
Bangladesh. |
