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Association for Communal Harmony in Asia (ACHA) Article of the Month *A South Asian fraternity, Imtiaz Alam imtiazalampak@yahoo.com, The News May 17, 2005 In this 21st century, which belongs to Asia, and in the next two decades, South Asia and China can together reshape history with half the world's population living here. But are we preparing for the role the 21st century will assign us? Sceptics living in the past may drag their feet, but the historic opportunity is there to grasp by those who see history moving to their side. The time has for the first time come to support formerly colonised people. Given our common history of national resistance to colonialism, history will, however, not repeat itself in colonialism-by-reverse. With the world's most contiguous region, a common history to share and similarities of cultures, South Asia has less baggage to shed than Europe or the Far East. South Asia is now booming with the ideas of regional cooperation, as reflected by the recent South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) conference on regional cooperation at Dhaka. Significant sections of the intelligentsia, economists, experts, journalists and peace activists have begun to take a holistic approach towards the collective good of the region as they increasingly find state-centric and security-centred approaches inconsistent with the interest of our 1.4 billion people. The holding of this Forum of South Asian Parliament on Evolving South Asian Fraternity reflects the urge of our intelligentsia and the people to outgrow the past and take a leap into a future, which is ours. Certain stages of history can be skipped, so can various evolutionary stages through which, for example, the European Union had to pass in the 20th Century. The road to an evolving South Asian fraternity is quite easy, if viewed purely from our people's viewpoint and ecological harmony; it is far more complicated if taken from the perspective of bureaucratic establishments or merchants of hate. Indeed, there are disputes, and there have been wars, that hinder progress towards our real goals of freeing our people from the yoke of poverty and backwardness. But there could be no cause greater than the emancipation and progress of our people. The conflict over disputes, such as on Kashmir, must give way to reconciliation and resolution that must at the same time allow, rather than hinder, regional cooperation to address the demands of our common destiny. The lines of conflicts must change into bridges of friendship and the ironed-barred borders must melt before the urge of South Asians to become a fraternal and indivisible community with nation-states joining hands in submitting before the will of their real sovereigns -- the People. The steps can be simultaneously taken towards a South Asian Free Trade Area, a South Asian Union (Water/Energy/Communication/Information/Economic), a South Asian currency, a South Asian Parliament and a South Asian Collective Security. However, to take a leap forward, there will have to be no hegemony, nor a ganging up by the small against the big one. A new paradigm of equitable partnership must evolve to reshape our relations. The landmark agreements reached at the 12th Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) at Islamabad have spurred efforts at collectively tackling the real issues faced by the people while meeting the demands of globalisation and the WTO regime at the regional level. The agreement on a South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) requires effective implementation, expansion of the space for trade and, more importantly, economic collaboration and development. If South Asia's economies are to be integrated, it presupposes development of trans-national infrastructure and monetary cooperation involving greater coordination among the governments and the central banks. In spite of limited complementarities in tradable items, due to similar comparative advantages, expansion of trade warrants vertical and horizontal integration of industries and investment in joint ventures by the public and private sectors. However, trade and investment will not move ahead unless tariffs are lowered, the negative list kept to the minimum, para- and non-tariff barriers removed and standards harmonised. This will, subsequently, translate into a South Asian Customs Union which may lead to a common exchange rate policy that will, eventually, result in the adoption of a South Asian currency underwritten by macro-economic management at the regional level. No less important is cooperation in the transport and communication sectors, envisaging an integrated transport infrastructure that allows uninterrupted travel across and beyond our region and communication highways facilitating free flow of information. Increasingly, the governments and the institutions concerned are realising the need to address acute shortage of energy and water and incidence of drought and floods that often bring miseries to people and states into conflict. The distribution and management of water resources, though quite a divisive issue among the upper and lower riparian regions, needs to be undertaken amicably in the spirit of riparian rights, without depriving the lower riparian regions of their due. In this regard, energy cooperation should evolve into a South Asian Energy Grid with integrated electricity and gas systems. As India and Pakistan now agree, and they must, the gas and oil pipelines can run from Central Asia and Iran, through Pakistan and Afghanistan, to the whole of South Asia, and beyond. Given its lowest rate of investment to GDP ratio, South Asia must create an attractive environment for investment in high-value-added manufacturing lines and trans-regional projects. Enhanced investment flows, both from within and outside the region, will culminate in production facilities located across the region through integrated production systems. Shares of both national and regional companies will be quoted on our stock exchanges as capital moves without hindrance across national boundaries to underwrite investment in any part of our region through a South Asian Development Bank. However, economic cooperation, investment, development of transnational physical infrastructure, transportation, communication, energy grid, equitable sharing of water and efforts at poverty alleviation will not produce tangible results unless the concerns of less-developed countries (LDCs) are genuinely addressed, the negative list is minimised, tariffs are substantially brought down and non-tariff and para-tariff barriers lifted, the economies are gradually opened up with a recourse to an investment-trade linkage that takes care of trade deficits between partners through investment flows and capital account, vertical and horizontal integration of industries that benefits from relative advantages and economies of scale. To realise this immense economic transformation, interstate and intrastate conflicts and attendant security threats and perceptions of political hostility will have to be addressed. The main obstacle to regional cooperation and economic integration remains political and strategic. The prevailing barriers to cross-border movements make neither commercial nor logistical sense and originate in the pathologies of interstate, as well as domestic, politics. Therefore, the political leaderships in the countries of South Asia, whether in government or opposition, must show courage, flexibility and statesmanship to resolve interstate and intrastate conflicts and dismantle political barriers to regional economic takeoff and elimination of the scourge of poverty. They should get out of the straitjacket of enmity and look beyond the traditional notions of security and focus on an integrated South Asian Cooperative Security that recognises interdependence that binds South Asia. The states ought to act in their enlightened self-interest to resolve their conflicts and differences through peaceful means and to the mutual benefit of our people. The choice is often, erroneously, posed between regional cooperation and conflict resolution. Beyond cooperative security, South Asian nations must ultimately move towards South Asian Human Security by placing people -- their well being and rights to peaceful life and development -- at the centre of security concerns, rather than continuing with the arms race. To include the excluded, South Asian governments must take concrete steps to implement the SAARC Social Charter and give priority to poverty eradication. It is imperative for them to agree to a South Asian Human Rights Code and set up institutions under the Paris Principles and purposefully set about creating the required mechanisms. There is an urgent need to allow greater interaction among the policy-makers, parliamentarians, businessmen, media practitioners, professionals and the leaders of civil society. To enable it to happen, it is necessary that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which have most restrictive visa regimes, drastically revise their visa policies and remove impediments to free movement of people. To overcome information deficit about the countries of the region, it is essential that all restrictions on access to and free flow of information are removed forthwith and media persons and products allowed free movement across frontiers. In this regard Safma's Protocols on "Free Movement of Media Persons and Media Products" and "Freedom of Information" must be adopted by the national legislatures/governments and the next SAARC Summit. The media, on their part, should give special attention to coverage of the countries of South Asia that remain under-reported. The scope of collaboration in the sphere of culture, sports, education, research, human resource development, poverty alleviation, environment, tourism is infinite. Let a South Asian fraternity defy all restrictions imposed by the past and usher in a new era in which our people could become the master of their destiny while contributing tremendously to the progress of whole humanity regardless of geography, ethnicity, nationhood, gender, creed and colour. Let us join hands to evolve a South Asian Fraternal Community.
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