Commentary

6th September 1998

NAM: does it matter?

By Mervyn de Silva

Whither NAM.? At the fag-end of the 20th century, the question invites another - Does it matter? The question has a fellow-traveller. Wither the UN ? And NAM members dominate the General Assembly. And yet it is the Security Council and its permanent members, vested with the power of veto, who call the shots.

What that reflects is the global power-structure. Let them have their say, while we have our way. And yet the Durban Summit cannot be lightly dismissed, if only because Nelson Mandela, a prince, and his country, South Africa, have already made history, and is likely to do so in the next century, and we are already on its threshold. And so "Whither Non-alignment?"

Nomenclature does create some initial problems. Non-alignment was a collective, self-protective reaction to a world dominated by two power-blocs and rival ideologies - a USA-led capitalist camp and a communist one-party bloc led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

Gorbachev is blamed by the hardline apparatchik but it was neither Perestorika nor Glasnost that made the Baltic states, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia etc. to initiate a breakaway. It was nationalism.

That was made perfectly clear to this writer on his visit to this region long before the implosion.

It was Tito who kept Yugoslavia together. On the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1972, Borba, the reputed Belgrade journal published Tito In The World Press, tributes from editors and foreign affairs commentators, from the United States to Australia, from Poland to India, Japan to Uruguay. With the editor's permission, I quote a passage from the essay I contributed:

"Tito is more than the architect and master of Yugoslavia. He is a world figure universally respected, renowned.

If his stern sense of patriotism and independence made his foreign policy a model for other nations during and after the Cold War, his innovations in socialist practice - both in politics and economics - have earned him the reputation of a pioneer and a man for bold experiments".

Kosovo Revolt

Today the administration in Belgrade have a serious threat in Kosovo, an ethnic conflict, a secessionist rebellion launched by ethnic Albanians. Last week 15 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas were killed and another 15 were arrested by (majority) Serb soldiers, President Clinton's envoy, Christopher Hill had several meetings with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The U. S. broadly supported by many members of the European Union have launched a serious diplomatic drive to persuade both sides, chiefly the Milosevic administration to launch a serious conflict-resolution exercise. Already, Germany, an important member of the E. U. has warned that persistent efforts to "sabotage" peace initiatives may prompt the blood-letting. The E.U. has spoken about wanton human rights abuses, apart from massacres in remote villages where no peasant family has a gun.

"Milosevic must know, and this is part and parcel of a political solution, that we are also considering and would consider military action if necessary".

Not all the innovative experiments in self-management and Titoist legacies have helped Yugoslavia safeguard its unity and territorial integrity. Milosevic does not enjoy the advantage of territory that President Yeltsin's administration enjoys in the new post-Gorbachev Russia.

What's the lesson? As NAM, quite easily the largest bloc at the United Nations, must recognise the stark fact that identity has become a much stronger mobilising agent than any "ism", any ideology.

The nature of conflict has changed. "If Ireland showed the way, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, Punjab and Lebanon, Burundi and Assam followed suit.

Far from being relics of earlier times, these conflicts, for all the atavism invoked, were products of new social and political situations, that resulted from political independence and social change" observes Fred Hailliday, Professor of International Relations at the L. S. E .

NAM boasts the largest membership after the United Nations. "Soldiers" in identity conflicts do not recognise international borders. Hence the cross-border character of most conflicts inspired by language or religion. Sri Lankans have learnt that now familiar fact the hard way - Tamilnadu and the Palk Straits. The political behaviour of parties like the D. M. K. and the sudden collapse of the assorted alliance the moderate, enlightened Prime Minister I. K. Gujral put together has been a useful, if unhappy example.

Why cannot a NAM committee study this problem in depth, meaning a deligently prepared study that be turned into a report which could be submitted to the NAM leadership or the next conference?

In any case, why not appoint "experts' committee" that leisurely investigate the problem selected by the heads of government or the Foreign Ministers? NAM is stuck in a grove. It could do with some Glasnost and Perestroika It is a question of regular exchanges..... in short, communications.

A committee of "mass communicators" would be a good beginning. Even the more acerbic columnists will stop calling SAARC an irresistible invitation for sarcasm.

Communism, socialism and other "isms" are no longer in fashion but terrorism has been admitted. Yet, one man's terrorist is another man's liberation fighter.

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