Cause for serious concern

EXPORTS do not seem to have gone the way they were intended to by the official economic managers in the first few months of the current financial year. In the period between July and October, the textile and cotton sector exports fell by nine per cent while the non-textile/cotton exports fell by as much as 34 per cent. It seems as if the sector as a whole has hit some unexpected snag. Either it has failed to respond to this year’s foreign trade policy of the government which had included a hefty Rs30 billion concessional package for the textile industry. Or perhaps the government policies themselves failed to take into consideration the actual problems and the needs of the sector like rising costs of production, mismanagement, inefficiency and a plethora of other such problems. To be fair to the value-added textile sector, its complaint that domestic yarn had become dearer because of undue escalation in the commodity’s export appears justified. The government should have intervened at the right time with the right policy instruments to discourage the trend. According to an earlier report, faced with the high cost of inputs, around 300 units of readymade and knitwear industry have been shut down in Karachi alone. Also, because the government has not been able so far to either get a free trade arrangement with the US or GSP concessions from Europe, Pakistan’s low value-added products are finding it almost impossible to compete with the least developed countries’ exports enjoying attractive duty concessions in these markets.

Above all, the manufacturing sector itself has continued to stagnate after having exhausted all the available capacities in the last couple of years. Without an expanded state-of-the art manufacturing sector, one cannot produce higher value-added products or even large quantities to benefit from the economies of scale. Even foreign direct investment (FDI), which in recent years has increased significantly, has avoided the manufacturing sector. It has gone into sectors like telecom, real estate, physical infrastructure, oil and gas and financial sectors, none of which are export-oriented. The textile tycoons, instead of reinvesting their profits to set up facilities to improve the quality of their value-added products, have been known to have gone into speculative business looking for quick bucks.

A recent research report prepared by an international financial institution has also pointed out certain underhand practices being indulged in by some of the textile exporters. It has quoted figures to prove that the textile exporters are not showing the actual exports proceeds but are diverting these through non-bank sources like the remittances sector. This is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on for some years now and partly explains the sudden jump in remittances — from about a billion dollars in 2001-02 to nearly five billion dollars subsequently. This year perhaps they have done it with a vengeance to force the government to devalue the rupee and give them more concessions so that they can make another killing without making any real effort at increasing their value-added exports. All this bodes ill for exports. It is time for both the government and the manufacturing sector, especially the textile sector, representatives to sit together and come up with balanced policies to boost exports without either the public or private sector losing in the process.

Ensuring education for all

PAKISTAN’S education policymakers are in for a shock. Unesco, which has been monitoring the performance of countries in the school sector, has released its report for 2006 and the findings on Pakistan are dismal. All the tall claims made by the government notwithstanding, the intake of children in school is not increasing. Nearly 6.5 million children in the age group five to nine years in Pakistan are out of school — they are either helping their family with housework at home, or are part of the child labour force or are loitering in the streets. This is not taking the country anywhere close to the millennium development goal of education for all. It is not boosting the literacy rate either. As the chief of the policy review team in the ministry of education disclosed, the enrolment ratios can be quite misleading. Though 59 per cent of the children are enrolled in primary schools, on an average the boys spend only 3.8 years and the girls 1.3 years in school instead of the conventional five years. No wonder, the drop-out rate is phenomenally high.

What conclusion does one draw from this piece of information? It is now plain that at this rate Pakistan can never achieve the millennium goal in education by the year 2015. The lack of education at the basic level will affect the country’s progress in every sector especially at a time when the relentless drive for globalisation is making trade, economic relations and other interaction highly competitive. Even now the country is being overtaken by others which were much behind it a few years ago. What then is the solution? More money for the education sector is the usual answer. But that is no solution if the policymakers have no idea about the direction they should take. It is plain that poverty and the inaccessibility to education are keeping children out of schools. By adopting innovative approaches such as flexible school hours, schools in every village, economic incentives for the poor, improving the quality of education and a holistic approach to child development, the authorities can induct more children into school. An increase in funds would help attain these goals provided the spending is carefully planned and channelled.

Obstacles to anti-polio drive

THE resurgence of polio in remote areas of the NWFP and Fata — 15 cases in the past few months — is worrying, especially since Pakistan missed the WHO target to completely eradicate the disease by 2005. It is made more worrisome when one reads about ignorant clerics like the one in Swat who is using his illegally set up radio station to mount a campaign against polio vaccinations, warning people that the medication will render them impotent. He calls it part of a western conspiracy aimed at reducing the Muslim population worldwide. This is not all. The cleric, known as Maulana Radio, also preaches against girls going to school or women working, and against any form of entertainment. This vitriol must be immediately stopped — especially if health authorities are to make any headway in arresting the number of polio cases in the area. For starters, the cleric should be taken to task for setting up an illegal radio station. He, like other clerics with similar views, should be made aware of the benefits of the polio vaccine and how important it is to immunise one’s child. These religious leaders have powerful influence on people and a campaign to counter their views is necessary.

But it is not just this obscurantist thinking that is preventing the eradication of polio from the country. According to a WHO report in September, around 60 localities in the NWFP and Fata were not covered by an anti-polio drive. This means that authorities need to ensure that vaccinating teams are able to reach the most remote areas. They should also ensure that the vaccine itself is properly stored because if it is not kept at the right temperature, it becomes ineffective. Authorities need to face up to the challenge if they are to win the war against polio — and they cannot afford to let narrow-minded clerics stand as hurdles in their way.

No more of this global carnival

THE month of September every year comes and goes without changing anything in our turbulent world, but for world’s leaders it brings the season of a “global carnival” that takes place with a lot of fete and frolic in the “capital” of the world, New York, with almost the entire leadership from across the globe descending on this already crowded and congested city, and bringing its normally pulsating life to a chaotic standstill.

For nearly two weeks at this time of the year, the “Big Apple,” as the New Yorkers like to fondly call their city, is paralysed with extraordinary traffic “logjams” and security “gridlocks.” It also becomes a “big bazaar” where a lot of money is spent in the name of world’s poor and peace.

The United Nations is the centre stage of this carnival where the world’s majesties, sheikhs, sultans, emirs, khalifas, princes, crown princes, democrats, autocrats, dumbocrats and dictators assemble in a gala “funfair” mood trying to take a break from the worries of their life back home. Their programme normally kicks off with a breakfast hosted by the UN secretary-general at the UN headquarters with a lavish “global” menu of all sorts other than ‘bread and butter.’

A series of luncheons, receptions and banquets, and “bilaterals” then keep them busy with each other. Six to seven course dinners are hosted for them in top-class seven-star hotels of the city in the name of world’s poor and hungry. How caring on their part!

The only UN-related official engagement of world’s leaders is the 10 to 15 minutes statement that they deliver from the podium of the UN General Assembly. The statements so made are in their essence a rehash of the “words of wisdom” that world leaders have been delivering at this forum for years on “major” international issues.

During these days every year, the world hears a lot of good things about our future in terms of peace and prosperity, and for freeing the mankind of all evils and menaces. Our leaders also speak of their “resolve” to reshape the UN in conformity with the “realities” of the changed world and “the needs and circumstances” of the new century. How thoughtful on their part!

They forget these promises once they return to their capitals. And this cycle of global carnivals goes on every year. The venue keeps changing from New York to Geneva, London to Paris, Vienna to Brussels, the Hague to Rome, Bangkok to Tokyo, and where not. Billions of dollars are spent on these multilateral junkets and diplomatic safaris in the guise of conferences, meetings, missions and dialogues.

“They come, they speak and they leave.” This is what happens at these conferences and summits which are always projected as “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to give a new direction to our turbulent world, but which always turn out to be nothing more than global non-events. One must admit, however, that some of them like the millennium summit (2000), the world conference on sustainable development (2002) and the international conference on financing for development (2002) did make a difference in terms of building a consensus on a global development agenda, which unfortunately remains far from being implemented.

‘Plus ga change, plus c’est la mjme chose.’ The more things change, the more they remain the same. Neither the world nor the UN has shown any change for the better. Both are no different from what they have been since after the Second World War. The Iron Curtain is no longer there, but the poverty curtain continues to cut across the face of this earth dividing humanity between two unequal halves — one embarrassingly rich and the other desperately poor.

Global peace remains as elusive as ever. The world remains afflicted with the same old problems, perhaps in their acutest form. Injustice and oppression continue unabated. Historical grievances and outstanding disputes remain unaddressed. Wars of aggression and attrition, invasions in the name of self-defence, military occupations, massacres and genocides, human tragedies and humanitarian catastrophes, and a culture of extremism and violence continue to define the “new world disorder.”

Humanity finds itself divided on economic as well as religious lines. Dialogue among civilisations is almost dead. In fact, an undeclared ideological war is in progress with Islam being the principal target. Unfortunately; the war on terror is being fought on Muslim soils, and has not gone beyond retribution and retaliation involving painfully high collateral damage.

Major issues and the root causes of global conflicts remain un-addressed. Injustice and oppression remain unabated. There is no let-up in violence and the causes that breed violence and vengeance. Terrorism continues to haunt the world. A culture of extremism and obscurantism is fuelling rage and rumpus.

Economic adventurism of the 19th century is back in the form of new unipolarity. Might seen wrong by all has never been claimed so “right.” Humanity finds itself divided on economic and religious lines. Internationally agreed development goals and commitments have been overtaken by new priorities driven by the overbearing global security agenda.

The UN itself is doing no better with a dismal record of failures and a pathetic culture of poor governance. In the polarised world of the Cold war era, it was used as an arena of the realpolitik and an ideological power struggle between the two hostile blocs. Ever since it came into being as “mankind’s last best hope”, the UN was kept from fulfilling its promise of peace and prosperity. It prevented no war and has resolved no major dispute. Palestine and Kashmir, the world’s two major outstanding issues, are the screaming example of this hopeless situation.

Today, it is the new unipolarity that keeps the UN totally paralysed with no role, credibility and authority on issues of global peace and security. In fact, it has never been so helpless and ineffective in meeting its Charter obligations. In recent years, its role has been circumvented by the unabashed use of power. Woefully, during the last five years, the UN has been crippled by scandals of corruption, inefficiency and gross mismanagement.

Today’s UN is no more than a debating club, producing voluminous and repetitive documentation without any tangible results or follow-up action. From all accounts, it is the largest consumer of printing paper and also the largest producer of waste paper. No wonder, some critics now like to call it as “a dustbin of history”.

The Security Council is left with no role in preventing conflicts or resolving disputes. Its deliberations are conducted in a theatrical manner through stagemanaged debates and choreographed scenarios. There is no transparency in its proceedings. The open meetings of the Security Council are merely a talk-show in which member states are heard not listened to. Its decisions on critical issues are made either in Washington or reached behind closed doors among the Big Five in the ante-rooms of the Council’s chamber.

No doubt, the events of the last three years have immeasurably shaken the international system which is no longer governed by rules, laws, values and principles. What aggravates this bleak scenario is the growing inability of the international community to grapple with these challenges. There is no consensus on global issues of peace and security.

Indeed, the UN has never been so helpless and ineffective in meeting its Charter obligations. In recent years, its role has been circumvented by the unabashed use of power. The new unipolarity is responsible for an ominous effect on the role and relevance of the UN, leaving very little to be addressed meaningfully through a multilateral approach. The outgoing secretary-general cannot escape the responsibility for leading the UN into a global morass and belittling its role and relevance.

Though he absolved himself of any wilful wrongdoing, the outgoing secretary-general has been blamed for “poor leadership and complacency” over the scandals involving the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme and sexual abuse charges against senior UN officials as well as the blue-helmeted peacekeepers in Africa. Paul Volker’s independent inquiry report on the scandals surrounding the Iraqi Oil-for-Food Programme was blunt enough to indict Kofi Annan’s UN as being guilty of “illicit, unethical and corrupt” behaviour.

South Korea’s foreign minister Ban Ki-moon must now be preparing to take over as the next UN secretary-general from January 1, 2007. He will be the eighth UN chief since its creation, and the first Asian to hold the post since 1971. But this is immaterial. What now remains to be seen is whether the new secretary-general would be ready to bring in a fresh impulse and a new vision in “repairing and reconditioning” the UN to restore its lost credibility and legitimacy. Knowing Korea’s tradition of resilience and tenacity as I do having served there as my country’s ambassador, I am sure he will not be a “status quo” man.

One thing should be clear to him. Business as usual will not do. “Global carnivals” will bring neither peace nor development, nor will they eliminate or reduce poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy from the world. If the UN of the 21st century is to be prevented from meeting the fate of its predecessor, the League of Nations, its “structure and culture” will have to be adapted to the realities and challenges of today’s changed world.

This would require an attitudinal change on the part of the governments and states which, instead of squandering their resources and energies in sponsoring “gala sessions” or special summits, indulging in meaningless and ritualistic annual debates and churning out voluminous repetitive documents, must take decisive steps to restore the UN’s role and relevance as an effective instrument of international legitimacy.

The writer is a former foreign secretary.