September 15, 2002

In May 2002 the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) in Colombo, a non-profit, non-governmental body organized a six- day workshop of young non-official participants from SAARC countries with the main objective of conducting a comprehensive dialogue on various issues of common concern. Among the major subjects discussed were conflict resolution, good governance, economic cooperation, and mutual trade. There were five participants from Bangladesh, twelve from India, two from Nepal, nine from Pakistan and three from Sri Lanka.

The deliberations of this workshop have now been published in book form entitled Shaping the future. There is a refreshing frankness in the expression of diverse views and a willingness to face reality, howsoever unpalatable it may be. Cliche-ridden formulations are conspicuously absent.

This was a group unhampered by the baggage of past utterances and unencumbered by pre-cast official briefs. Typical is following extract from a paper read by a Pakistani participant:

“I would want a South Asia that has freedom from want and freedom from fear. My vision for South Asia in 2020 would be a South Asia that I would not be shameful or sad about, rather one that I can speak about with pride. My vision is the opposite of what it is today — maybe not the richest region of the world — but at least one that can afford basic schooling, housing and food for its people, and where democracy and human rights are the rule not the exception...”

In this brief review it is not possible to discuss the topics or the final conclusions. A reading of the book provides much fruitful thought for those who have the welfare of our region at heart — a region host to more than a fifth of the world’s population, and blessed with an abundance of human and material resources but which languishes in abject poverty and chronic discord.

An organization called SAARC exists on paper but has very little to show for its 20 years of existence since the first Foreign Secretaries’ meeting was held in Colombo. The two most powerful states of the region are locked in a state of permanent confrontation, and are at the present time in a state just short of war. The world’s economic and social indicators place the region at the bottom of the scale of measurement. Can we then move forward at all?

Is there any hope for the region? In the workshop’s view the problem is the lack of political will and a leadership prepared to seek compromise and conciliation for the greater good of all the peoples of the region.

Instructive in this context is what the Ambassador of the European Union, who was closely associated with the preparatory work of the conference, said in his keynote address. It had taken 50 years from the Schumann declaration to the Amsterdam treaty — 50 years of unremitting effort — and although much had been achieved, he said that much remained to be done to achieve the goal of a fully-integrated Europe. The progress made would not have been possible until the member states of the Union agreed to subsume their individual national prerogatives and interests in the larger objective of the betterment of the people of Europe as a whole.

Nearer to us in South East Asia, we see another success story, the ASEAN. It is expanding, both in membership and in the outreach of its activities, and making progress because its members share a common desire to put aside their differences — political, economic, social and cultural — for the sake of a more prosperous and happier life for all the peoples of South East Asia.

The lesson, then, for us is clear. We need to consider dispassionately what has gone wrong with the region, and what we want to do in the future. We could carry on as we have done in the past 50 years or we could take some lessons to heart from the regions which have left us far behind. The young participants in the Colombo workshop have given us a glimmer of their own vision for South Asia. They have a heavy stake in the future because it belongs to them. Now they, and others who share that vision, need to work for its achievement.

Shaping the future: a South Asian civil society dialogue
Edited by Dipankar Banerjee
Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, 2 Elibank Road, Colombo-5, Sri Lanka
Tel: 94-1-599734
Email: rcss@sri.lanka.net
Website: www.rcss.org
ISBN 955-8051-30-6
131pp. Price not stated

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