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From Bandung to Jakarta — a Role for NAM in the Post-Cold War Era

by Rehman Sobhan
Iwas ■ student at Cam brtdgr Untwratty when the flrat conference of the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) was held tn Bandung. Indonesia In the autumn of 1955 As students from the Third World, we shared a sense of exhilaration at this pioneering gesture of solidarity amongst the formerly colo niaed and oppressed countries ol the world I remember by way of sympathy with the Bandung spirit the Presidents of the Africa Society representing African students at Cambridge, headed by Abu Myanja who went on to become Education Minister uf Uganda, the Arab Society, headed by an Egyptian, Syed Zulflcar who worked with the Aga Khan Foundation and UNESCO and myself as Presl dent of the Cambridge Majlis which represented students from India. Pakistan. Srl Lanka and Burma met to found the Cambridge Bandung Society It was the first time that Third World student* at Cambridge came together in search of a shared vision of the world.
Whilst to my knowledge the Cambridge Bandung Society withered away, the NAM still remains alive even though its obituary has been written sev eral times by the foreign ministries and Intelligence agencies of the western countries. The original vision of the founding fathers, such giants as Chou-En-Uu. Gamal Nasser. Jawaharlal Nehru. Kwame Nkrumah. Soekarno and Tito, was to demonstrate an au tonomous voice of the Third World in global affairs to gen erate collective strength In global fora where the voice of the North, defined as both West and East, had remained historically dominant over the formerly subject peoples of the world.
This vision of building pollt leal and economic bridges long sundered by the colonial cn counter foundered against the harsh realities of economics and geo politics. In the decade of the 1950s and 60s most Third World countries were primarily agrarian economies, dependent largely on export of primary products to the devel oped world (DW). They wen-dependent on the developed economies for Import of many factures. capital and technol ogy Most of their economies were still dominated by west em transnational corporations and they remained Integrated into a global division of labour which derived from the com pulsions of the western developed countries
At the strategic level many Third World countries were enmeshed In western de signed strategic alliances Many countries tn Africa and Latin America whilst having no strategic links with the west were so totally dependent on the west lor capital and mar kets for their commodity exports that they enjoyed little room for maneuver and readily accepted a world where the western powers called the
tune. It was not till the Suez confrontation when Gamal Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal as a reaction to the refusal of the US and World Bank to finance the construction of the Aswan dam that the world witnessed the emergence of the USSR with Its offer of arms and to build the high dam for Egypt as an active presence In the Third World It was this access to an alternative source of capital and arms from the Eastern bloc which contributed to the emergence of a more autonomous voice in world affairs being articulated by Third World countries such as India. Egypt. Syria. Chana. Guinea. Tanzania, and Indonesia. Prior to the emergence of the USSR as a player In the Third World non alignment remained a largely theoretical posture within the prevailing economic and geo-political circumstances of the post-colonial world
The substance of building an autonomous voice tn world affairs however really rests on the capacity of Third World countries to become more self-reliant through structural di versification of their economies and trading pat terns. Only a very few countries succeeded In building such structurally diversified and dynamic economies. How ever even these economies remain dependant today on open western markets and for the more indebted countries, on the western dominated global capital market to ease their debt burden
Today most Third World counties still remain de pen dant on capital, technology and markets on the developed world The recession doml-
nated global economy of the 1980 • has set bw k the growth and diversification of most Third World economies who have faced economic set backs due to the slow growth In their export markets, fall In export prices, debt servicing problems and decline of capital In flows The World Bank and IMF have used the crisis within the Third World to Impose their own agenda of economic re forms on these crises ridden Third World countries which has for most of these countries aggravated their economic dif Acuities during the !98Os Only a handful of countries, mostly in East Asia but Includ Ing India and China, com manded the resilience to sur vlve the crisis of the 198Os and continued to sustain the growth and diversification of their economies.
For most Third World coun tries whose economics remain fragile and dependant on western markets. Institutions, capital and philosophical dicta tion the scope for speaking with an autonomous voice in global affairs Is thus limited The disintegration of the USSR as a balancing force In global affairs has made all Third World countries even more vulnerable to dictation by the dominant western powers on the direction of their poUt leal and economic life The Third World Is thus faced with an unprecedented global situa lion where their economic op tlons are limited, their domes Be politics have become vulnerable to the strategic and even domestic political com pulsions of the western powers and even the boundaries of their nation states now depend on the grace and favour of the western powers It Is not sur-
prising that obituaries of NAM were being written with even more conviction than before.
It Is however interesting Io note that the Jakarta session of NAM. notwithstanding differences on Bosnia and Iraq, demonstrated a new vigour and a more cohesive world view than has been in evidence since the Algiers session in 1973.
It appears that member countries at Jakarta appreciated that Is the prevailing global circumstances the need for using NAM to reinforce the collective solidarity of the Third World remains more relevant than ever. It was recognised that If the Third World Is not to lapse into a vassal status, they will have to use the Institutions of NAM to rebuild their bargaining power In world affairs NAM members have realised that with the passage of years they are not as powerless as they were even though the OPEC surpluses, which sustained In the 1970s the voice for a New Interna UonaJ Economic Order are now long since eroded as a factor in global economic allairs
Many Third World econo mies have demonstrated considerable capacity to diver slfy their economies and to become competitive exporters to the North and to each other As a result today there Is much greater scope for South-South economic cooperation Within the South a wide variety of manufactured goods and pri mary products including energy can be traded competitively. The South has emerged as a source of technology and capital Today 60 per cent of the US trade deficit Is fi nanced by capital Inflows from Third World countries. Thus there Is considerable scope to
use NAM to reinforce and ex pand South-South economic cooperation As suggested by Egypt tn Jakarta it makes sense for the 0 77, which Is a separate entity wlthtn the UN system to speak for the South, to now Integrate itself with NAM. As has also been pro posed st Jakarta It Is time to consider the establishment of a high powered secretariat on the line of the OECD serre tartat In Paris Such a body, well staffed with competent Third World professionals, could both Identify and pro n»otc areas of cooperation within the South and could de velop collective negotiating positions with the North
Can NAM play out such a historic role at a time when the Third World Is frag mented. vulnerable and In their'Individual capacity des peratcly seeking bilateral a< commodation with the doml nant western powers and the ir multilateral Institutions? To build faith In NAM will demand a major gesture of slateman ship and reunification by the more powerful Third World countries such as Brazil. Mcx ico India. China. South Korea. Nigeria and Egypt These countries will have make a conscious effort not to exploit their superior economic and
mony over their neighbours They will have to open their markets and will have to Invest in developing and diversifying the economies of their weaker neighbours to avail of these opportunities Such a gesture of statemanship will not be without advantage to these countries. They will build political allies and economic partners, with considerable market potential who will be less inclined to induct outside influences Into the respective regions Io neutralise the dom Inat Ion of their stronger neighbours A growing market within the South will strengthen the negotiating po sttion of the Third World in a global dialogue and make par Ocular countries less vulnerable to political blackmail through threats by the western powers to withhold access to their markets
Arc these any more than pious hopes for the Third World? Statemanship is not greafy In evidence within the Third World. There is however an awareness tn every country, vocally registered at Jakarta by Mahathir Mohammed. Prime Minister of Malaysia. Mu^be. President of Zimbabwe and others that we live tn a transformed world where countries on their own can on various fronts be exposed to severe as saults on their sovereignty. It Is only when the weak come together to demonstrate strength through collective action that we can think of building a more just and stable world order
A noted economist, the uirtter ums the member of the first Planning Commission of Bangladesh. the Director Gen eral of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) anti, more recently, an adviser tn the interim government of the acting President, Justice Shahabuddln Prof Rehman Sobhan writes occasionally for The Dally Star as Its guest columnist.