Cracks in the Asian tiger growth model<\/p>\n
The financial debacle that continues to hobble Asian economies
\nhas revealed cracks in the tiger growth model in the region. As
\nBirman Maharjan writes in this Inter Press Service analysis, will
\npeople take heed or will it be business as usual?<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI: In July, at about the time when Southeast Asian
\ncurrencies and stocks had begun their devastating plunge, there
\nwas another crisis brewing deep in the interior of the Indonesian
\nprovinces of Kalimantan and Sumatra. Fires were igniting dry
\nbrush left in areas recently cleared of rain forests.<\/p>\n
The firestorm in the markets soon spread to the rest of Asia,
\nslashing and burning through stock markets and sending once
\nstable currencies crashing to the ground. Even the economic
\nbastions of East Asia were not spared. Venerated institutions
\nlike Japan's Yamaichi Securities went bankrupt, and the proud
\nSouth Koreans crawled ignominiously to the International Monetary
\nFund for a bailout.<\/p>\n
Indonesia's forest fires spread a pall of soot and ash across
\nneighboring Malaysia and Singapore, and prevailing winds wafted
\nthe smog as far away as Thailand and across the sea to the
\nPhilippines. Millions suffered respiratory ailments, schools and
\nindustries closed, and tourism was devastated. In poor
\nvisibility, airliners hit mountains and tankers collided in the
\ncrowded Straits of Malacca.<\/p>\n
The stock market crisis was a warning from the market to the
\nregion's profligate and greedy elite. The forest fires were a
\nwarning from nature.<\/p>\n
Economists and financial experts who till May were exhorting
\nthe rest of the world to follow the example of Southeast Asian
\ntigers backpedaled furiously to turn the question around and ask
\nhow the rest of the world could avoid the mistakes of the
\nSoutheast Asian tigers.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian government and the World Bank, which had
\ndesigned Indonesia's massive transmigration program that took
\nmillions of farmers from the crowded island of Java to the
\n"empty", forest covered areas of Borneo, were suddenly blaming
\nthe very farmers they helped resettle for the fires.<\/p>\n
The farmers were easy scapegoats for economists and bankers
\nwho took no responsibility for the ecological consequences of
\ntheir sterile projects, and for Indonesia's ruling elite which
\nowned the logging companies that profited from clearing
\nrain forests for settlers.<\/p>\n
The fires, of course, were nothing new. They have been raging
\nevery year for the past two decades. Only this time, the logged
\nforests were tinder dry because of the El Nio effect that in
\nturn could be partly a result of global warming. Global warming
\nis caused by the buildup in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide,
\nproduced fossil fuel burning.<\/p>\n
Some analysts, who had been warning all along that Southeast
\nAsia's economic growth was not sustainable, were suddenly proved
\nright. When Filipino economist Walden Bello wrote Dragons in
\nDistress: Asia's Miracle Economies in Crisis in 1991, many called
\nhim alarmist and anti development. But sure enough, Southeast
\nAsia is paying an enormous price for its economic growth.<\/p>\n
In the past three decades, Southeast Asia has lost half its
\nforest cover. Its cities are choked with pollution and traffic,
\nits rivers are sterile, its seas have been overfished.<\/p>\n
"While rapid economic development has created dynamism and
\nwealth, Asia has at the same time become dirtier, less
\necologically diverse and more environmentally vulnerable," says
\nKazi Jalal, who heads the environmental division of the Asian
\nDevelopment Bank (ADB) in Manila.<\/p>\n
In its new overview of Asia's economy, 'Emerging Asia, Changes
\nand Challenges', the ADB says it would be wrong to solely blame
\neconomic growth for worsening pollution. In fact, countries with
\nslower growth in South Asia have seen environmental degradation
\nthat is as bad.<\/p>\n
It is clear that Asia's environmental problems stem from both
\nits affluence, which breeds destructive consumerism and wasteful
\nlifestyles, and from poverty which forces people to destroy for
\ndaily survival the very environment they depend on. There are
\nindications that as countries become richer, they acquire the
\nresources to clean up. Japan, which has overfished oceans far
\nfrom home, has strict fishing regulations off its own shores.
\nKorea has cleaned up its air, but is worried about acid rain
\nblowing in from northern China.<\/p>\n
Given time, income growth will take care of the environment,
\nexperts say. But time is a luxury that nature in newly
\nindustrializing Asia does not have. By the time Indonesia's 200
\nmillion people attain the living standard of the Japanese and
\nhave the means to protect its rain forest, there will be no
\nrain forest left to protect. And the millions of species living
\nin them will have disappeared forever.<\/p>\n
Asia's population is not only growing, but is becoming more
\naffluent. Given the present model for growth, what will Asia's
\ndemand for energy, food and natural resources do to the global
\nenvironment in the next century?<\/p>\n
The ADB's 'Emerging Asia' study pinpoints blame on bad
\nmanagement and bad policies. It says: "Asia has mismanaged and
\ndegraded its environment in a big way. Environmental damage has
\nbeen a consequence of neglect, bad policies and inadequate
\ninstitutions." The Bank questions the method and
\nnot the model. It blames policy failures and inability of
\ngovernments to enforce legislation for environmental protection.
\nBut it does not question whether the export oriented, consumer
\nled, manufacturing based growth was the right model all along.<\/p>\n
In order to attain developed country living standards, Asia
\ndoes not have to make the same mistakes as developed countries
\nespecially since growth models with smaller ecological footprints
\nhave now been demonstrated to be feasible. Energy efficiency,
\nincentives for converting to renewable sources of energy,
\nrecycling, policy shifts to sustainable industrialization are all
\npossible but the orthodox economists who make state and
\ninternational policies do not want to take it seriously.<\/p>\n
There are less destructive ways by which Asia can develop,
\nwithout irreversibly damaging the world's ecosystem. But don't
\nlook for them in the ADB 'Emerging Asia' report. Despite the
\nwarnings from the market and from nature, for Asia's economists,
\nit looks like business as usual.<\/p>\n
-- IPS<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/cracks-in-the-asian-tiger-growth-model-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }