Article on NAM 'Havana from 1979 to 2006'

Havana from 1979 to 2006

Amer Rizwan Khattak

Havana is preparing for the 14th NAM Summit on September 15 and 16. Ironically, the movement is caught between contradictory pulls, the lofty ideals of peace and justice and the imperatives of the national interests of its leading members. One of the pioneers of the movement i.e India voted against one of the NAM members ie Iran in the IAEA Board of Governors meeting, ostensibly to preserve its deal on the transfer of nuclear technology by a superpower to whom NAM showed aversion during the Cold War era. The problem of unity in the movement has been further compounded by the absence of strong charismatic leadership.
It is a measure of the dilution of the movement that more than half of its members were directly or indirectly tied with either of the two superpowers in the cold war rivalry. Its sermons on disarmament match poorly with the fact that some of the biggest arms importers are among its prominent members. Its image has greatly been damaged by the violation of international law by its own members. While the organization was intended to be as close an alliance as NATO or the Warsaw Pact, it has little cohesion and many of its members were aligned with one or another of the great powers. For example, in view of these conditions, the onset of new millinium could well mark the acceleration of the process of political decay that had already beset the movement. The need of the hour is to resolve political and economic strifes, to stop the use of coercion among the members and not to acquiesce the use of force against the NAM members.
The post-cold war era, particularly the period after 9/11 is important for NAM for it has to justify its existence. Now when the world is no longer bipolar, NAM is looked upon by many as an anachronism. The same problem was a matter for concern for the leaders of NAM when they met at Nicosia in 1993. Besides, Third World debt, economic issues and the changed geo-strategic environment were discussed. They clamoured for NIEO more vociferously than ever. The Durbin Summit Meeting 1998 was important for many reasons. Firstly, South Africa once the epicenter of apartheid policy got the honour of hosting the meeting, secondly ther legendary Nelsen Mandela was the belle donna of the entire proceedings and thirdly the meeting was being held after the nuclear explosions of the two South Asian neighbours. It was against this backdrop that Mandela served a diplomatic blow to India by acknowledging the gravity of the Jammu and Kashmir doispute between India and Pakistan, and by expressing willingness on behalf of the internatiomnal community to extend every possible help in order to help resolve this issue.
It was at Durban that the idea of Bandung-II was conceived. It is true that NAM played a key strategic role in galvanizing the Third World countries to pursue on an independent course during cold war but now they faced the prospect of becoming irrelevant in the post-cold war ear in the new unipolar world of the 21st century. Thirteenth NAM Summit that was held at Kuala Lumpur (Feb 20-25, 2003 was to deal with this big question and to justify its existence. Malaysia was the chair. Foreign Minster of Malaysia Hamidal Bar expressed concern at the obtaining situation in the Middle East and called for the deployment of an international situation to grapple with the situation. The big challenge before the member countries during the Bandung II Conference 2005 was to revitalize NAM so that it can perform the role of new rallying point for the developing countries to protect their interests against the tide of globalization and seek structural reforms in the UN to allow the third world a voice in all political and economic negotiations. It must be countervailing force to the monopoly on power now exercised by G 8, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, each with a veto power, the Britton Woods institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank and the vastly enlarged NATO and the European Union.
Only consensus and will by the member countries would promise the Movement's revitalization at time when its members are considering the urgent need of keeping its foundational principles alive and taking new steps toward unity, coordination and solidarity that will enable them to confront with a single voice the challenges facing the nations of South at this time. In response to the challenges posed by the post 9/11 period, and tendency by the sole super power to go to any length and to settle international disputes on its own terms and conditions at any cost, the Third World has decided - as is laid out in the Political Declaration - that the defence of multilateralism and the principles of the UN Charter are the basis for revitalizing the Movement. As the text states, to this end it is essential: "like never before, for our nations to remain united, firm and to shoulder a greater level of activism" to close the way to such pretensions.
NAM must become an agency for political coordination, nay it has to promote and defend the common interests of the Third World, as well as to foster unity and solidarity; defence of peace and international security; cooperation based on international law; and promotion of the sustainable development of the peoples of the developing world. Multilateralism and the strengthening of the role that should be played by the UN, the fight for nuclear disarmament and the promotion of South-South cooperation are some of the many other elements that have been precisely outlined in the document.
In response to this reality, Havana 2006 text proposes a plan of action that includes the strengthening of the NAM's ability to give an effective response to the different events and issues that affect the interests and priorities of its member states, just as it expresses the need to define and promote a political agenda for the global economic matters of interest to member nations. The Havana event will be, without a doubt, a stage where the South will show its ability and determination to close the way to unilateralism and coercion and frustrate the designs of the developed world stop them from reaping the fruits of development.
The writer is a Research Scholar.
Email: amerrizwan@gmail.com

Ataturk.... address given in the 1930s on the defence of Gallipoli

(From the address given in the 1930s by Turkey's ruler Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who led the defence of Gallipoli in Turkey against allied invasion forces in World War I, to the grieving New Zealand and Australian families who first went there to mourn their loved ones):

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us, where they lie, side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.”

Newsweek on Pakistan....

Newsweek on Pakistan....
Promise in Pakistan
What's behind one of the world's most surprising economic success stories? In part, September 11.By Ron MoreauNewsweek InternationalMarch 27, 2006 issue -
In the late 1990s Lahore-based businessman Iqbal Ahmed was depressed. Pakistan was isolated internationally and in the grip of a deep recession, and his modest, liquefied-petroleum-gas operation didn't seem to be going anywhere. "I used to get up and say, 'What the hell, it's another day'," he recalls. "Now I can't wait for the day to begin. I see a very bright future."Ahmed has good reason to be optimistic. Two years ago he signed a deal with Houston's Hanover Energy Co. that has helped transform his LPG extraction plant into the largest and most efficient in Pakistan, with revenues last year of $130 million. Backed by several international investors, Ahmed has bid some $400 million to buy a controlling interest in Southern Sui Gas, one of two state-owned gas production and distribution companies that are being privatized. And he recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Excelerate Energy of Houston to import liquefied natural gas into Pakistan in supertankers. "We're enjoying a seachange in economic conditions and opportunities," says Ahmed, 60. "Pakistan is open for business."The proof is in the numbers. Last year the country's GDP growth rate hit 8.4 percent, the world's second highest behind China, following two years of solid 6 percent growth. This year the economy is predicted to expand by nearly 7 percent. After years of instability, with the government and military trying to distract people from their economic woes by waging jihad in Kashmir and railing against neighboring India, a true middle class is now developing. Economic reforms have given the government money to invest in health and education, and foreign investors are eying Pakistan for the first time. In many ways the country has become the world's most surprising economic success story.It's a heady turnaround for a nation that, in the late 1990s, was practically a failed state with near-zero GDP growth. Because of its headlong pursuit of nuclear weapons, Pakistan had become the world's most sanctioned nation after Libya. International aid had dried up. The government was forced to borrow at exorbitant short-term rates, burdening the country with a crushing $38 billion debt. "We were in a real soup when [Gen. Pervez] Musharraf took over," says Ziauddin (he uses only one name), the Islamabad editor of the Dawn newspaper.One of Musharraf's first and smartest moves after his 1999 coup was to appoint Shaukat Aziz, a dapper and urbane international banker, as his economic czar, and to give him a free hand to revive the economy. Butwhat really turned the country's fortunes around was September 11. "The 9/11 attack was the best thing that ever happened to Pakistan," says Lahore-based businessman Salmaan Taseer. The United States and Europe immediately lifted all sanctions; Washington gave Pakistan $600 million outright to meet urgent debt payments, and forgave another $1.5 billion in debt. Working with Aziz, America and other creditor nations also rescheduled Pakistan's heavy debt over a manageable 30 to 35 years. In 2004, the United States pledged $3 billion in economic and military assistance over the next five years, in addition to $100 million for education reform. The EU pitched in, lifting quota restrictions on Pakistan's main export, textiles.At the same time, Aziz, who is now prime minister, began enacting a series of common-sense economic reforms. They focused on boosting fiscal discipline, government transparency and accountability. He quickly cut the budget deficit from 8 percent to 4 percent by slashing spending, and lowered interest rates. Since 2002, he has increased tax revenues by 20 percent. He also instituted a sweeping privatization program that has won kudos from both domestic and foreign investors. State-owned companies in numerous industries—banking, cement, fertilizer, utilities—have been sold off, as has a chunk of the state's inefficient telecom giant, PTCL.The newly privatized and cash-flush banks have been on a lending spree, extending loans to capital-starved domestic businessmen and to the Pakistani middle class, which until 2002 had little access to consumer credit. People have snapped up credit cards, and are buying cars and other big-ticket products with easy-credit bank loans. "This is the best government we've had in the past 30 years," says prominent Lahore businessman Syed Babar Ali, who heads some of the country's biggest joint-venture companies, including Coca-Cola and Nestlé.Foreign investors have been flocking to Pakistan to bid on privatizations and on licenses in the newly opened telecom sector. The sale of two cellular-phone licenses (won by U.A.E. and Norwegian companies) netted the government nearly $600 million. It's a good investment as Pakistan, with 24 million cell-phone users, is now the world's fastest-growing wireless market after China. Indeed, Pakistan is expected to receive upwards of $3 billion in foreign investment this year, largely in telecom and gas and oil exploration. The Karachi Stock Exchange recently hit a record high.Bullish domestic investors, too, are snapping up telecom licenses and state assets. Businessman Taseer raised $40 million from Pakistani banks and $25 million from a U.S. venture-capital company in two months as part of his successful bid for a wireless license. He is also building a 350-room Hyatt hotel and shopping-mall complex in Lahore with $40 million in debt and equity that he organized from domestic banks and investors in just six weeks. "This would have been inconceivable before," says Taseer, 50, a cigar-smoking tycoon who publishes the Daily Times newspaper and is constructing Lahore's tallest office building. "Not long ago, we would have waited at least three years to get a loan from an international bank. In the last two years there has been more economic activity in Pakistan than in the past 50."Even Pakistan's nascent technology sector—dwarfed by India's—seems to be taking off. Salim Ghauri, the CEO of Lahore-based NetSol Technologies, says his company's software revenues this year are expected to jump to $19 million, compared with last year's $11 million. DaimlerChrysler uses Ghauri's LeaseSoft auto-leasing and financing software in its operations in eight Asian countries, and Toyota uses it in Thailand and China. "We are competing with the best in the world, and we are coming out on top," says Ghauri, 51, who set up NetSol in 1996 after he returned from working as an IT consultant in Australia.Still, all is not rosy. Pakistan must modernize its creaky infrastructure, further improve tax collection and, most important, normalize economic relations with India. Government critics say the current boom is not benefiting the country's poorest citizens, who make up more than one third of its 160 million people. "The rich have become very rich since 9/11, and the middle class is better off, but not the mass of Pakistanis," says Dawn's Ziauddin. Aziz counters that a recent government-sponsored survey indicates that the country's heady growth has reduced the number of Pakistanis living below the poverty line from one third to a quarter of the population (interview).Some bankers and economists warn that the economy is dangerously overheating, due to unsustainable consumer demand and easy credit to both industrialists and consumers. Aziz and the government dismiss the concern—but consumers and the private sector have borrowed more money from the banks in the past two years than they had in the previous 12. Critics argue that growth-spawned inflation, which hit a high of 11 percent one year ago and is running this year at 8.5 percent, is a big reason the poor are not benefiting from the boom. "Inflation is clearly eroding the purchasing power of the poor," says a foreign banker in Islamabad. This year the price of sugar is up by 26 percent; wheat and potatoes, by 15 percent.According to the foreign banker, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of his comments, "The government is running the [economy] like it's heading for elections." True: President Musharraf and Aziz are eying the crucial 2007 parliamentary elections. Organized political opposition to Musharraf is rising, and he and Aziz are hoping that an economic resurgence will persuade average voters to return them to power for another five years. That's what most businessmen are hoping for, too. But if the rewards of the boom don't start trickling down, the country's runaway growth could ironically prove to be the government's undoing.With Zahid Hussain© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11902379/site/newsweek/
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UK Magistrate's pronouncement 100 years ago...!!

"Two friends have weighed in with their views to this posting that I received today and I think u can add yours to the Magisterial oration and circulate for the benfit of the common humanity, particularly the obedient ones."

- "Ah for the days when men were allowed to be cowards and were honoured for so being!"

- "This verdict should be cast in pure gold, framed in a platinum and displayed at all public places, in the houses of parliament, outside women's rights organization offices (jumbo size), at all railway stations, airports, sea ports and toll plazas. Slides should be telecast on prime time on all TV channels around the world (during Oprah and all soap operas too). Judge Makinson be awarded (posthumously now) Nobel Prize, Victoria Cross, Medal of Honor, Legion d'Honneur, Nishan-e-Haider, Nishan-e-Pakistan, Padam Bhooshan and whatever other highest civil and military awards the world can bestow upon a judge with such an exceptional sense of justice and, valour. Also for his masterly articulateness."

An interesting Mail/Comment from a friend of mine on inaugorating my page

An interesting Mail/Comment from a friend of mine on inaugorating my page
My dear Rizwan Saheb: Ur site does not open. I will try it later. may be there is some local problem as everytime I click it the reply comes back that page was not available.Late Dr Taseer, (father of Salman Taseer Editor of Daily Times and owner of Business Plus TV channel) wrote half a century ago:Khat main likhey huay ranjish key piam aatey hainKis kiamat key yeh namey merey naam aatey hain.I use to write a column in an Urdu newspaper of Quetta in my early days of journalism. some body with a name similar to me advertised in the same newspaper for "Zaroorat-e-Rishta" and letters started pouring in that were delivered by the advertisement section to me as they had lost the address of the original advertiser. Some of the offers were tempting.So to explain the situation I captioned my next colum by changing the couplet slightly as under:Khat main likhey huay shaadi key piam aateyhainKiss kiamat key yeh naamey merey naam aatey hain.I hope you r not flooded by offers in respone to ur Mini Website. Or it is what prompted u to establish the site?I have seen ur mail asking me for something on H R. Do u mean HUman Rights. If that be so u can phone Mr Shujjah Ullah on 4445748. He is a former journalist and until two years ago the local representative of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission at ISB. He still has connections there and please convey my regards to him and ask him for any help or explanation that u require.My regards to your cousin who is in the FO and I met him during the last visit (I forget his name).Alsomy regards to Mr Mian Munir if u meet him at the Briefings. I have not talked to him since I left ISB. Even during my last visit I could not pin him down.Regards, Mehmud