Asians seen bound to swallow bitter pill of "good governance"
Asians seen bound to swallow bitter pill of "good governance"
By Jan Kristiansen
NICE, France (AFP): Western donor countries strongly hinted
here this week that Asia's poorer nations face the prospect of
aid flows drying up unless they commit themselves to "good
governance."
The idea was firmly put on record during the annual meeting of
the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which ended here Thursday,
despite firm opposition from China and widespread concern among
other poorer ADB members.
Led by the United States, the donor community, working through
the Paris-based Development Assistance Committee (DAC), adopted
this notion as a basic condition for bilateral aid early in the
1990s.
They have also put it on the agenda of other multilateral
financial institutions, including the World Bank and, less
explicitly, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD),
set up in 1991 to help formerly communist eastern Europe in the
transition to a market-based economy, even had the political
requirements of pluralistic democracy and respect for human
rights written into its constitution.
Good governance figured among an 11-point list of conditions
set by the United States for going along with a 100 percent
increase in the capital of the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
Western officials said.
The U.S.-led attempt to establish a formal link with the
capital increase, to US$48 billion, which will be officially
announced in two weeks, triggered a row between the donors and
developing ADB members.
The most vocal opposition came from China and India, and
western officials privately said they felt these and other ADB
members might have a variety of political reasons for rejecting
any linkage as an infringement on national sovereignty.
China, for one, has been engaged in a lengthy dispute with the
U.S. administration over trade and human rights.
Western officials nevertheless said they were confident the
issue would be sorted out, sooner or later, because most ADB
borrowers badly need whatever funds they can obtain through the
bank or its soft-loan wing, the Asian Development Fund (AFD).
From the donors' point of view, deepening budget deficits
linked with the recession in the West have made it harder to
"sell" development aid appropriations to their parliaments and
taxpayers.
Ole Loensmann Poulsen, Danish state secretary for foreign
affairs, said as the ADB's general debate wound up Thursday that
the policy guidelines for using aid money were "not irrelevant"
for Denmark, but were "fundamental" to its decision-making
process.
In its broader definition, spelt out in the general debate by
the Nordic countries while the U.S. omitted any reference to the
issue, good governance includes such sensitive elements as
respect for human rights and democratic rule.
It also includes such notions as fair, efficient and
transparent public management, accountability towards the
population, controlling corruption and cutting "excessive"
military spending.
But the Danish official and other western speakers made it
clear that good governance, in the ADB context and elsewhere,
should form part of "policy dialogue" with aid recipients aimed
at achieving sustainable development.
It was not meant to be a doctrine "imposed" on countries badly
in need of external aid. "We have repeatedly told them so," one
western official said.
U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, omitting any
reference to good governance, told the meeting Wednesday it could
be no coincidence that "most ... rich nations are democratic
while most of the poor are not."
Sri Lanka answered back on Thursday, arguing that
democratically elected governments in developing nations engaged
in a difficult economic restructuring process faced the threat of
being toppled by impatient voters unless their efforts receive
adequate support and "encouragement."
A flexible and pragmatic approach was therefore required, Sri
Lanka's chief delegate Harold Herat argued.