SAARC and the subalterns

Apparently these questions seem disparate and unrelated to tackle them together, but they are not. They are integrated, they are interrelated. States form coalitions or institutions for regional cooperation like SAARC to spur economic, social and cultural development, eradicate poverty, and enhance the living standard of their citizens. The elimination of poverty and hunger in the various places of South Asia is the solemn responsibility of SAARC. The organiser of this year's summit, Bangladesh, more specifically the government of Bangladesh, betrayed this very objective of SAARC by organising SAARC summit at a time when thousands of people in the country have been suffering from monga and were desperately looking for help.

It also created confusion about the responsibility of a democratic government. Is protecting the life of its citizens by providing food and shelter, or impoverishing the state coffers by holding an extravagant event like SAARC summit, the principal duty of a democratically elected government? Our government chose the latter. It went ahead with the SAARC summit, ignoring the monga which has hit hard the lives of many people in the northern region. Our statesmen seem very satisfied to have a peaceful SAARC summit. But they appear oblivious to monga.

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Several theories have been floating around about the government's inaction in monga affected areas. First, the ruling coalition government did not win enough parliamentary ridings in these areas. In recent elections people there either voted for Ershad's Jatiya Party or Awami League. BNP does not hope to win many ridings in the region in the next parliamentary election, so they are not concerned about the condition of people there. Second, monga occurs almost every year in the region during the months of Kartrik and Agrahaiyon because of a shortage of agricultural work. It has become a permanent feature of life in the northern region of the country. The government can ignore it by saying that it is nothing new and it is the destiny of the subalterns. It has nothing to do with this. Everything will be okay after some time. And finally the representatives of the ruling coalition in the region might have misinformed the government that there has been no monga in the region this year.

It is an opposition propaganda aimed to undermine the government and obstruct SAARC summit.

It is hard to know which theory the government relied on to remain indolent in the wake of a human disaster. I guess all theories weighed in almost equally. Otherwise the government would not dare to ignore the issue altogether. It would not spend billions of Taka for a lame duck like SAARC, leaving the starving people.

Let us be forthright about SAARC. Did it achieve anything tangible since its birth in the 1980s? No, nothing. As a citizen of Bangladesh the only benefit I received from SAARC is that I had opportunities to watch some movies from SAARC countries which our national television played during SAARC summits. Many people who are not fortunate enough to have access to television could not avail this benefit! Without being a naysayer I can say that there is no way SAARC could provide something to the poor people of this region. You may ask about the bases of this prognosis. Let us look at where I am coming from.

Experts on multilateral economic cooperation argue that the countries which have diversified economies gain the most from multilateral trade arrangements because trade negotiations progress when one country makes a concession in one sector and the other countries follow it up with concessions in another sector. In South Asia, India has the most diversified economy and comparative advantages over the other countries. When South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) gets implemented, India is poised to reap the maximum benefit. But SAFTA hopefuls in our country argue that Bangladesh will immensely benefit from SAFTA because they say it would help make our products available in the Indian market. Under SAFTA, India would not be able to use any tariff or non-tariff barriers to our goods like it does at the moment. But I wonder, will the Indian government participate in SAFTA if it affects Indian businesses negatively by making Bangladeshi goods available in the Indian market? Do we have the capability to compete with Indian products? We need to keep in mind that our market has already been swamped by Indian goods.

According to the SAARC charter, every decision has to be made through consensus among member countries. If any country opposes SAFTA or expresses unwillingness to implement it, it will remain as an unfulfilled desire. To reach a consensus on important issues like SAFTA, curbing terrorism etc there has to have trust among the participating states. But trust among SAARC countries always remained elusive. India and Pakistan have been at loggerheads over Kashmir since the partition. They regularly bully each other for harbouring terrorists and sponsoring terrorist activities. The present relationship between India and Bangladesh is no better than India-Pakistan relation. Both India and Bangladesh have accused each other of training subversive elements. India is also critical of the Nepalese king for taking over power, jeopardising parliamentary democracy. The incumbent chairperson of SAARC has claimed that the relations between SAARC countries are friendlier than before, but we find no empirical evidence to support this view.

On the other hand, there has been a concern about the efficacy of free trade agreements in stimulating economic development. Recently an attempt by the US and its allies to create a free trade area across North and South America has failed. In the first week of November, 33 Caribbean and Latin American countries and the US held the fourth Summit of the Americas in Argentina to create the Free Trade Area of Americas (FTAA) but failed to come to a consensus. Parallel to this, another summit called the People's Summit took place in a nearby soccer stadium where 25,000 people participated to denounce FTAA. This People's Summit was addressed by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez and Argentine soccer superstar Diego Maradona. Hugo Chavez told the crowd that he came to the summit of the Americas to bury the FTAA because free trade arrangements benefit big businesses, destroy local industry, and open the door for the exploitation of workers in poor countries. He is also critical of the FTAA because he sees it as a design to fortify American imperialism in the region.

Although the spirit of SAFTA is similar to FTAA, its context is different. SAFTA is going to be an initiative of SAARC countries, a forum of seven developing nations. There is no harm in being optimistic about SAARC, but to be so the SAARC leadership needs to take action to materialise the rhetoric of poverty alleviation. Our Prime Minister, the incumbent chairperson of SAARC, can start it from the monga affected areas. The government can develop a programme to save the subalterns, the monga stricken people. The best thing would be to create alternative jobs alongside agriculture. The government can initiate cottage industries and train people so that they can do other income generating activities to survive during the period of monga. It can take the NGOs on board although there have been reports that some NGOs harassed monga affected people to recollect their money.

The complete eradication of Monga may take some time, but it is not that it cannot be done. The government has to initiate the process now. It is the responsibility of a democratic government. If it can successfully eliminate monga, it can export this poverty eradication model to other SAARC countries, benefiting the poor people of this region. It will be a great gift to the people of SAARC region. Otherwise the people of the SAARC countries might hold their leaders for plundering public money to nurture a lame duck -- SAARC.

The writer, a faculty (on leave) at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka, is pursuing a Ph.D. in Communication at Simon Fraser University, Canada.