& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

SAARC, Sovereignty and Politics

by ASH K Sadique
***Partial surrender of national sovereignty wot deliberately interwoven into the scheme of uniting the West European community.
*The scars of the difficult birth of the nations of South Asia, especially the three nations of the subcontinent, are still too vivid to expect a strong bond like that in Europe.
THE poatpoiK-ment of SAARC Summit. as an extended consequence of the destruction of the Babrl mosque In India, has opened an opportunity for the member nations to review the orga nlxatton s mission and activities. This should be a priority agenda for future summit meetings
We have examples of two successful regional associations of sovereign nations to develop a scheme of our own. One is the West European Community and the other Is the ASEAN
Our neighbouring ASEAN cannot be a meaningful example for us for basically two reasons. Firstly, there is an underlying ideological - political understanding tn these countries which is absent in our case. The political system In these countries is not quite like ours in terms of political and social organisations, etc. Secondly, the economic cooperation, in respect of investments and trade, has been helped by common ethnic elements who arc also major economic forces in all these countries.
The European community's Integration was both political and economic. Political Integration was the vision. But to start with, high in the list of priorities was the effort to find solution to some basic economic issues without which political unity was difficult. These issues were wages, taxa lion system, subsidies, etc. Reduction in the high degree of Inequalities existing In these areas among the member nations was essential to the opening up of the national borders. There were, no doubt, two basic compulsions to this idea of unity. One was the maintenance of peace in Western Europe and the other was the threat from the communist Soviet Union. The wisdom of the European statesmen have now been proven. Peace has been maintained in Western Europe unbrokenly for almost fifty years and the Soviet Union has collapsed.
But unlike SAARC, different activities and steps taken towards integrating West Europe were not kept confined within the four walla of the government Secretariats,, as an exluslve club of the diplomats and some government func lionarles. People of these countries in Europe were in volved In running the affairs of their own countries through their representatives. They achieved this by setting up In stltution like the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice The Euro-Parliament represent different shades of the political spectrum in each member country. The membership Is not con fined to the political party tn power. The system allows the opposition political party members to get elected
The European Court sits as a supranational Institution. Individuals or groups In any of the constituent country can seek redress in this court for grievances occurring within the nation. The body can adjudicate on matters relating to human rights trade* disputes etc.
Thus partial surrender of national sovereignty was deliberately Interwoven Into the scheme of uniting the W st Er o| community SAARC has. on the other hand, fulled to excite people -expectation In Bangladesh It has remained a play of a see Hon of the top echelon ol government functionaries. Most people In the country Including those educated, have little feeling about it, or attach any importance to It. Occasional exchange of business and cultural delegations is not enough to justify the existence of this high sounding organisation. For those purposes, some sort of an trade pact among then countries would have been adequate. The heads of governments need not then meet once very year, 1 should inn they would haw better .ml wi ulilter thing* to do. Fur ibcrinore. it I* questlonnbk how deep, through the na tional consciousness, will permeat the affects of various elitist seminars held in Dhaka which do not involve the people What we witness In Bangladesh today Is periodic tamashas'. expensive ones too, besides being insensitive to the citizens' needs and preferences.
Obviously the scars of the difficult birth of the nations of South Asia, especially the three nations of the subcontinent, are still too vivid to expect a strong bond like that tn Europe Additionally the de-niogiaphu disparity among these nattons is a hindrance la representative body In line with the Euro Parliament Notwithstanding these prob k ins, it Is still possible Io de vise an «|ultable plan for popu lar representation of the member nation* In a common forum. Even If such a political forum were deferred at I hi initial stages for u long pci • 1. say for 10 years, al IcmI a South Asian Court could Im», ho a -,et up to resolve sonic In tcrMate trade and social Issues. The Jurisdictional scope for this court could have been gradually widened. It 1s obvious that human rights Issues involving ethnic disputes could not at this stage be Included tn the court s jurisdiction because of the still simmering prob lems in more than one mem ber slate of SAARC
But any Idea that economic integration can succeed with a common representative- political forum, is an Idle dream, do ; of reality. which cannot bi. Uiullcf. A case In point is tin situation created by the destruction of the Babrl nv suuc In India by some peo-pK from the major religious community there. This one incident has rocked the foundation of SAARC. This has sadly happened because the organizational superstructure of SAARC. does not have effective supporting base organizations at popular levels. There is no system of accountability for the dbeds of the pundits in the diplomatic offices of SAARC countries except to their own governments, whose creatures, in any case, they are.
How should Bangladesh, a member of SAARC. react to that unacceptable event In India? The validity of open and strong reaction among the people and within the gov ernment of Bangladesh has ihrve Basts. One. that event has deeply hurt the religions sen-
" • is of the Muslims of this country. Thus they could not but strongly protest. They are right in doing so. Secondly, It has affected the basic human light of a section — the minority community — of the people in that country In a* much as It has affected right of practising religion and of protecting a cultural heritage. This had given the right to all sections of the people In Bangladesh, Irrespective of their mm uiI, political and religious belief*, to register protest. Thirdly, due to the long history of social and cultural linkage between the Iwo countries, the people and the government of Bangladesh must worry about tin- backlash In this country of such events occurring across the Ixrrdcr. Moreover, the dc-feated forces of 1971 arc expected to try to obtain political mileage from such events by creating communal frenzy usually so uncharacteristic of the tolerant Bangali. India must surely understand this reality
However, one must question If all our overt reactions were correct. On the government's part, it had failed to measure upto the situation. It should have warned the de-fe.iled forces of 1971 that despite there political symbiosis, the aovernment would not tol erate criminal activities. The government should also have given clear political direction to the law enforcing agencies that they would be held responsible for any untoward incident happening consequential to the destruction of the mosque in India. The refusal of the government to acknowledge the resultant victimize tion ol a section of the- citizens of this country compounded Ils overall failure.
As a citizen. I also feel disturbed by the reaction In our I’arllamcnL Was It at all necessary. even more so. was It wise, to move any resolution on this Issue, not to speak of adopting one? If the newspa pers correctly reported the speeches, one failed to notice much restraint In the comments of the honourable mem bers. on the happening of that event In another country which is a member of the SAARC community. There could have been an attempt to devise a consensus to avoid adopting a resolution rather Ilian framing a unanimous one. The honourable member's could have expressed their opinions, make their points and then considered the issue a-, talked out, without formalls Ing II all through a resolution.
In view of the oolitical Importance and high sensitivity of that event In India and thereaction in Bangladesh, a dia-rv«-«n tn ihe Parliament was uu-r mdabic. In fact, it was the comrt thing to do. because II was lar better to provide an opportunity to give vent to popular feelings within the confines of the Parliament, than bringing ft to the street*. But everyone could have been aware of the larger global implications of what was said and done In the Parliament One must be conscious of the reality of our situation: economic, geopolitical et al and, above all, the effect of ail these on SAARC. Going a little further, the government could have avoided making all these their own show by suspending whip, allowing all honourable member* of Its party the freedom to speak, arid by not adopting a resolution. Then the views expressed by the treasury bench members. ( specially those holding administrative positions would not be taken as views of the government per se by people within the country-and without As a Bangah. I would certainly resent if under similar or any oth. r circumstances a foreign Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Bangladesh. One should also wonder whether those in-chnrgc of SAARC affairs had correctly assessed the implications of that resolution and has advised other members of the government.
To return to our original theme, if there existed, within the framework of SAARC, effective supranational forums, representing different political views of member countries to deliberate upon such issues, this confrontational situation between two member nations need not have occurred. Ont-should be happy if all this turned out to be a passing phenomenon, without adverse effect on economic and cul-iur*l cooperation among SAARC nations. But will such optimism be realistic?
The author is a former Secretary to the Government of Hangladeeh and UNIDO Adviser on Industrial Develop mentfor Asia and Pacific.