Editorial

26th July 1998

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Showpiece or substance

"Some South Asian something, no" is what one Sri Lankan thought when our reporters did a sample questioning of the public on the eve of the SAARC summit next week.

Quite apt and representative, we believe, for out of those questioned on more detailed aspects of SAARC, like what is SAPTA, had a hit rate of one out of 50 knowing what it stood for.

Despite all that is being said about what SAARC has done or failed to do, it seems that South Asian leaders in Colombo for the summit on Wednesday are largely performing a ritual - an annual pilgrimage for a meeting which they don't seem to be too interested in. We are sorry that the King of Bhutan is not coming but his attitude is perhaps symbolic of the lack of commitment and conviction needed for effective regional co-operation.

India's domination by its sheer size if not domineering attitudes and Greater India tendencies has often cast a shadow over this regional bloc. The Vajpayee nuclear bombs in May added fear to the friction. Sri Lanka once nearly walked out after India air-dropped food over Jaffna to save the LTTE from being vanquished.

The decades long dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir - now compounded and complicated by their nuclear issue - is the major negative factor over the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation. Thus it is clear that the stabilization of relations between India and Pakistan leading to a spirit of cooperation and compromise rather than confrontation has emerged as the corner- stone for a more productive and more dynamic SAARC.

In that context the Colombo summit at least offers an opportunity for Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to meet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for the first time since their relations nearly exploded with the nuclear tests. A Pakistani special envoy who visited Colombo recently has urged Sri Lanka to mediate between India and Pakistan. But Islamabad is insisting that Kashmir must be the core issue while New Delhi maintains that Kashmir is strictly an internal problem and thus not open to international mediation. We hope we would see some accommodation on this issue at the bilateral talks in Colombo.

Obviously the priority number one, two and three for SAARC must be the alleviation of mass poverty. The region has some 20 percent of the world's population but only a meagre one percent of the world's resources and terribly little in terms of trade. On paper and in Central Bank bulletins, many South Asian countries including Sri Lanka may boast of good growth rates and per capita incomes. More wealth has indeed been produced, but growth without an equitable distribution of wealth is potentially destructive. South Asian leaders need to look at the poverty crisis at its roots and address it at that level instead of treating the symptoms through Janasavias, Samurdis or whatever fancy names the politicians choose to give.

In other spheres such as trade, SAARC hopes to move towards a free trade area by the year 2002. While doing this it also needs to consider closer links with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) which might be more open to a link up now after some of the economic tigers fell from their high rise towers. A tunnel or a channel link with other groups such as the European Union might also be looked at.

Before all that, however, is the need for warmer and more sincere bilateral relations between members as a sine qua non to a friendlier and more prosperous neighbourhood.

Political Column

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