Editorial»
SAARC sans rhetoric
DEC 10 - Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa’s contention that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) will take a leap after the long delayed forthcoming summit in Islamabad could be no more than wishful thinking. The thaw in the icy relations between India and Pakistan probably induced the prime minister to take a more than warranted optimistic view of the world’s most populous regional grouping. The fact is that there is more to SAARC than temporary improvement of relations between its two largest member-nations. SAARC, despite much misgiving, was founded by the summit meeting of heads of states and governments in the Bangladesh capital of Dhaka in December 1985.
The regional grouping has come a long way since then in terms of time frame but in terms of real benefit to the people, little has been achieved. Even the customary annual summit meetings have not been held regularly, thanks for the differences between the member countries, particularly India and Pakistan. The regional body has agreed on a number of areas of cooperation including health, travel and et al that affect the lives of the peoples living in the region. But in real terms, even in these agreed areas of cooperation, there have been meetings aplenty but the progress, except on paper, has been virtually negligible. There are a number of conventions approved by the regional body including those related to terrorism, trafficking in women and children, and others. But no effective implementation of the conventions has ever taken place. No wonder, therefore, that critics describe SAARC as a white elephant that poor countries in the region can hardly afford to maintain.
Tall talk and rhetoric about SAARC seem to be the order of the day as far as smaller member countries are concerned. They refuse to face the reality and remedy the shortcomings that have beset SAARC from its very establishment in 1985. The people-to-people contacts amongst the peoples of the region is of primary importance as far as fostering regional spirit is concerned. So is economic cooperation including trade and commerce. The SAARC preferential trade has not really taken off even though the countries in the region identified thousands of items for trade within the body. But we are already talking about the finalisation of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement.
Are we really serious about regional cooperation? The differences between the countries in the region are matters that must be fully discussed and resolved within the framework of the regional body. But thanks to the SAARC charter, differences between two member countries are conveniently swept under the rug instead of openly debating and resolving the issues. Mired in abject poverty the general mass of people in the region are struggling to catch up with the rest of the world that has done relatively well. The fact is that the leaders of the countries in the region should learn to talk less goody goody about SAARC and begin to earnestly work for the betterment of the people of the region. SAARC sans rhetoric may be able to achieve something for the people of the region if more work is done to initiate real work, not on paper, but on the ground. Posted on: 2003-12-10 01:50
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