Economy at centre stage, very rightly

The 16th Non-aligned Heads of State Summit in Tehran would be letting down its main constituency, which is the developing world, if it does not take complete stock of the global economic situation and ascertain ways as to how the poor of the world could be protected against economic shocks.

As pointed out by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Summit, Sri Lanka has managed to ward off some of the ill-effects of the global economic recession and has remained resilient in an ocean of material misery, but the developing countries should from now on put their heads together on finding solutions to the economic issues that come their way, in a collective fashion.

By an interesting coincidence, even as the President called for a reflection of the current changes in the world economic power balance in the global financial institutions that virtually manage the international economy, there came the news that some preponderant powers are chafing at the developing countries attempting to have a greater influence in running these organizations. Therefore, organizations such as NAM have their work cut out for them.

They must strive to turn their collective weight into a decisive factor in shaping the world economy to meet the legitimate interests of the developing countries.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that organizations such as NAM have not been sufficiently effective over the past few decades. The fact that the majority of developing countries were highly enamoured of the market economy development strategy could probably account for this seeming lassitude, but NAM and its likes cannot afford to remain passive in the face of global economic developments that could impact their wellbeing, any more. They need to collectively work out ways of having a decisive voice in the running of global financial institutions and this should figure as a priority.

Meanwhile, governments of developing countries should increasingly look to ways of empowering people at the grassroots. This is reportedly happening to a degree in Sri Lanka through rural development strategies, such as Divi Neguma and Gama Neguma, and the Lankan state is obliged to continually monitor the progress that is being made through these home-grown paradigms.

What should be aimed at is not a mere ‘trickle down’ of wealth from the wealthy to the poor, but the empowerment of the disadvantaged groups in the truest sense. Hopefully, Sri Lanka would be in a position to share her expertise with the rest of the Third World, as time goes by.

It should be plain to all responsible and progressive-minded local political actors that it is the economy that is ‘the thing.’ If the state fails on the economic front, it is likely to fail in most other spheres of any importance. Equitable economic growth and a reduction of youth unemployment, for instance, would contribute remarkably towards social stability. Prime concern should be directed towards consolidating society’s material base if social harmony of any durability is to be ushered in.

These imperatives and truths need to be impressed by the government on its coalition partners and other sections which collaborate with it. We consider it important to stress this point because there is currently a very unfortunate tendency for some political forces to focus on divisive religious and other issues which could work against social solidarity. No less a person than President Rajapaksa has cautioned against the use of religious and ethnic slogans which could undo all that has been achieved by way of domestic stability. These words of caution must ideally be followed.

The proliferation of religious and connected fundamentalisms could never accrue to the good of human society. Religious identities and traditions must, of course, be protected but these should never be politicized, ideally. The politicization of these factors could militate against nation-building and when a polity is deeply segmented on religious, ethnic and other such divisive lines, it cannot be easily brought together again.