EDITOR'S NOTE

SAARC: Why neglect it when
we have no alternative?

Mahfuz Anam
.......................................................
Much has been said about how SAARC has failed to achieve any of the goals that were set for it, but regrettably not much as to why it happened to be so. We seem to love to hate it. Whenever we want to find fault with our regional co-operation we take a whack at SAARC and blame it for all our failures. On the occasion of the 13th Summit we would like to question why? The answer for us is simple. The fault was not with SAARC as a body but with its member states. There was a definite lack of political will in making this regional body strong and useful. For this lack of political will accusing fingers need to be pointed at all the SAARC members. The geographically smaller members - Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives-did not sufficiently exert their collective influence, and the two largest members-India and Pakistan- exerted too much of it.
To put it bluntly, the South Asian agenda has been dominated by India-Pakistan relations, which in its turn has been principally centred around the Kashmir dispute, and regrettably the rest of the members just allowed that to happen. What plagued SAARC in its formative stage also plagued its functioning. It was the mutual suspicion and rivalry between its two largest members that prevented this regional body from becoming effective. India-Pakistan rivalry held the region captive. Kashmir, though never on the SAARC agenda, always loomed large behind every discussion like a dark cloud that hung over our heads. All collective ventures were weighed by these two countries in terms of how it would impact on that central issue of Kashmir and not how it would bring a new dynamism to the region.
Due share of the blame must also be put on all the smaller members. They never really tried hard enough to push SAARC forward. We do not know of a single initiative by them to move together to persuade the two bigger members to see SAARC in a more positive and constructive light. As the contribution of the smaller members on regional trade and commerce is limited, compared to that of India and Pakistan, it automatically restricted their ability to influence the big players. However, our point is that, no collective effort was made to rescue SAARC from the stranglehold of the Indo-Pak rivalry.
Over the last twenty years, as India-Pakistan relations went through its ups and down, so did the effectiveness of SAARC. There is no moving away from the fact that, unless the two bigger countries of this region genuinely want SAARC to succeed, it never will. If there is any blame to be apportioned to the failure of SAARC to fulfill its promise then that blame must rest where it deserves to be.
This is not to suggest that the two bigger members of our regional body deliberately made SAARC dysfunctional. What they did was to neglect it. They did not see their national interest being properly served through SAARC. Their vision was mostly outside the region. Pakistan pursued its bilateral relations with China with far more vigour and sincerity than it ever did with SARRC. Similarly, India's attention was more focused on the US than on the region. The truth is that, both these countries pursued their national agenda through avenues that left the region only as a secondary interest rather than the primary. And herein lies the real reason for the very limited achievement of SAARC.
Today, we see two very positive developments in the region that may, given the political will of its members, lead to a strengthened SAARC. One, the India-Pakistan relations appear to be on the mend. Though doubts remain, yet the trend seems to be real and we may dare say, irreversible. We expect SAARC to be a natural beneficiary of that rapprochement. The 13th Summit is being held when relations between the two largest members of SAARC have never been better.
The second good news is that, there is far greater appreciation of regional groupings than ever before. While bilateral relationships will have a pride of place in international relations, yet it is in the regional and multilateral sphere that future of diplomacy lies. As the world turns more global, countries in every part of the world are finding it convenient to come into regional groupings to promote their economic, especially trade interests. With the WTO emerging more as a major global player, regional groupings can be said to have become almost central to the present day international scene.
The need for co-operation becomes dramatically clear when we ask what has been the cost of non-co-operation. In spite of being one of the richest regions, both in terms of natural and human resources, we have the highest number of poor, illiterate, mal-nourished, unemployed and under employed people in the world. India and Pakistan have spent on armaments, resources that could have perhaps transformed the life of every poor in these two countries. Sri Lanka has been torn asunder by a civil war resulting from neglect of the minority community. Nepal is facing an armed rebellion for its failure to address poverty issues. Bangladesh today is sitting on a time bomb created from rich-poor gap that may explode in the near future with catastrophic consequences.
All this can be directly or indirectly linked to non-cooperation in the region. These historic problems are likely to emerge with greater complexity and ferocity in the future if we do not address them today. Unless we are totally blind and self-destructive we should be able to see the terrible price people of our region are being forced to pay because our leaders cannot a find ways to co-operate.
It is time we take a very serious look at SAARC and realise that with all its faults it is the best vehicle we have to forge ahead as a regional entity. If there is any single institution that can address the aforementioned issues, it is SAARC. There is really no alternative. If for nothing else, SAARC provides that unique opportunity for all the leaders of South Asia to come together. Though the summits have become increasingly complicated, especially with the rising security challenges being posed by terrorists, still we have no hesitation in saying that it is worth it, many times over. The tremendous potential of South Asian co-operation remains unrealised, primarily for our lack of faith in it. People want and are ready for greater co-operation. It has been the lack of vision of our leaders. Let the 13th Summit make a break from the shackles of prejudice, playing to the gallery, and limited vision.
We present this modest supplement as our humble effort to promote SAARC. It is divided into three sections: Vision, Co-operation and Security. We are grateful to the authors for their insightful pieces and to the Nepalese Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA) who allowed us to use some papers presented in a seminar on SAARC held in Katmandu, last July. We hope our effort will be of some value to our readers.