Editorial»
Down to substance
DEC 04 - Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa returned home the other day after his whirlwind tour of four member-countries of SAARC. How much such visits actually help further the cause of regional co-operation is open to serious questions. This is so because the countries of the region are poor and can hardly indulge in unproductive luxuries such as foreign junkets aimed at consultations, which are best done by foreign ministry officials. What is to be noted here is that not all those holding the SAARC chair have made such visits. The first SAARC Chairman Gen. H M Ershad did so but the second SAARC Chairman Rajiv Gandhi did not find it necessary to visit the capitals of the SAARC member-states. This precedent remains. Some do it, some do not.
But how productive are such visits? If they are indeed productive, they are necessary. Otherwise, no one has the right to waste tax payers’ money that should best go into areas such as education, health, drinking water and the like. The SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) came into being almost 18 years ago, and despite the visits by outgoing Chairmen to the capitals of member-states, there is little to show for achievement commensurate with the amount of money and time that has been spent in keeping the movement alive for so long.
It is not for nothing that we in these columns have been saying in the past that meetings, including summit meetings of SAARC, must be business-like so as to save time and money. The region is not merely rich in terms of natural resources but also—and more importantly—in terms of human resources. The scope for the countries in the region to co-operate is vast, and if political animosity is not to be the guiding star of the regional movement, there is much that can be accomplished. SAARC has no doubt inched forward. For instance, when SAARC was founded, some countries thought it should have nothing to do with other regional organisations. Happily times have changed and co-operation with countries and other regional bodies is now a reality. Yet, considering the amount of investment collectively made by the countries of the region in achieving this, there is enough room to wonder how cost effective SAARC’s achievements have been.
All agree that SAARC has tremendous potential but until some of the member-states learn to place regional interest above that of their own countries, the SAARC initiatives can, at best, move forward at a snail’s pace. The example of the European Union on how to go about delivering achievements to the people would be a good example to follow. Their summits are free of expensive frills that have become a part of the SAARC summit rituals. The need now is to break free of the past non-productive processes and get down to achieving substantive process at the minimum of costs, and this would automatically eliminate pre-summit visits by outgoing Chairperson.Posted on: 2003-12-03 11:01
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