Engage the developing world vigorously!

As we have time and again said in this commentary, this is a moment for Third World solidarity. The global power balance has been such that one cannot expect the so-called First World to be particularly sensitive to Sri Lanka’s requests for impartiality and objectivity in assessing Sri Lankan issues that are currently before the UNHCR. But, as reiterated by us, the international economic, political and military balance is fast changing and these changing global power relations need to be handled judiciously and expertly by the developing world if they are to build themselves up into a force to be contended with in world affairs and ensure the unassailability of their integrity and dignity.

Currently the BRICS are proving to be increasingly assertive in international affairs and are pushing their clout to the extent of telling the IMF that they are willing to help financially crisis-hit Europe in exchange for enhanced decision-making powers within the global financial institution. This is a measure of the degree to which Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have emerged collectively as a substantial presence in world affairs. A few years ago, the majority of these BRICS states were dismissed by particularly the West as struggling Third World countries. Today, nobody would dare describe them as being among the ‘Wretched of the Earth.’ They hold the key to future world prosperity and their voices would be heeded by the West, which is fast losing out to them from the point of view of economic, political and military clout.

This is the moment the Third World needs to grasp. As we have pointed out in numerous previous commentaries, it is East Asia which is the economic powerhouse of the world and no longer Western Europe and the US. At the launching of the post World War Two international political order in the mid forties of the last century, it was the US and Western Europe which proved to be decisive influences on the international political system. Of course, by then the UN system too had come into being and the UN Charter was seen as the cornerstone of world law and order. Nevertheless, it was the West, which was the hemisphere of global political, economic and military predominance, and world affairs, generally, were shaped in accordance with the wishes of the West.

The key to such global preponderance by the West was its economic might, besides other factors. However, it is East Asia that is now the most vibrant of the world’s regions and there is a marked corresponding shift in international power from the West to the East. These changing contours of the global power structure must be used adroitly by the developing world to wrest what is rightly its, from the present world political order.

It is unfortunate that the Third World does not seem to be fully alive to this momentous development. Ideally, organizations, such as, the Non-aligned Movement should be up and about, trying their level best to seek maximum benefits and empowerment for the less developed parts of the world. And these parts are still quite extensive and terribly disempowered.

At present, the BRICS are proving a decisive influence in world affairs but the championing of the legitimate interests of the collectivity which is the Third World is a different matter. The poor of the world need to come together once again and use their preponderant weight to get for the developing countries what is rightly theirs. There is a very crucial vacancy that is going a begging and that consists of visionary and dynamic leadership of the developing countries and of the world’s disempowered. Who will step in to fill the breach?

Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s position on current issues must be staunchly supported by like-minded countries and the developing world is obliged to fulfill this function to the best of its ability in the ‘Councils of the World.’ A chief strength of the Third World is its numbers and this important ‘plus’ must be put to good effect.

Sri Lanka must be allowed to grow and prosper and this must be granted it by those who are seemingly influential in the affairs of the world. Besides, as pointed out by Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe in Geneva, Sri Lanka is making steady headway in the direction of post-conflict normalcy. We urge that prejudice and blind hostility not be permitted to get in the way of giving Sri Lanka its due.