Crisis deals blow to the South

By Sayidiman Suryohadiprojo

JAKARTA (JP): The economic crisis in Southeast Asia has dealt a heavy blow not only to countries in the region, but also to all the developing nations.

Until 1997 there was a strong optimism among the nations of the South that progress would be possible for them, judging from the economic performance of the Southeast Asian nations. They were showered with praise for their spectacular growth which had never been experienced before.

The optimism surged higher especially when Indonesia became chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1992.

Leaders of NAM member nations, who came from all over the world to Jakarta for the NAM conference, observed how a developing nation of 200 million people could reach a reasonable state of prosperity after 23 years of economic development, although, at the start, the income per capita was only about US$80.

Under the leadership of President Soeharto, Indonesia was able to motivate the members of NAM to embark on a new attitude and policy for the movement which would bring more progress and prosperity for all the members, in particular the least developed ones.

From an attitude that was antagonistic and noncooperative with the developed world of the North, Soeharto was able to convince the leaders of NAM that it would be more fruitful to adopt an attitude and policy of cooperation and consultation.

In the first place it was considered highly important that cooperation among the nations of the South should be enhanced. But, in addition to that, South-North cooperation should also be pursued.

As the chair of NAM from 1992 to 1995, Indonesia took the initiative to convince the G-7 Nations -- being the most important part of the North -- that NAM had changed and that it would be beneficial for everybody to reopen North-South dialog as soon as possible.

Indonesia made it clear to the nations of the North that dialog, which had been terminated by the U.S. and Germany, was possible.

In the past, the North, the U.S. and Germany in particular, saw no benefit in conducting dialog with the South, because of the hostile attitude of many nations of the South.

Indonesia managed to convince the leaders of the North that the South's progress and prosperity was also a very important matter for the North.

Not only would a more prosperous Asia and Africa become a lucrative market for the industrial nations of the North, but the danger of uncontrolled and unlimited migration from the poor areas of the South to the prosperous countries of the North would automatically cease. The response of the G-7 nations toward Indonesian initiatives was very positive.

Based on that progress new steps could be taken in South-South cooperation. Some nations of the South which had achieved remarkable success in a certain field, like family planning in Indonesia or the use of solar energy for rural areas in India, could transfer their knowledge to nations with less progress. The financing of the program could be made available through North- South cooperation.

Indonesia also took steps to support the least developed nations in solving their debt problems. This is a matter which is very important for some African nations because they would never be able to enjoy the fruits of their development if every dollar they made must be paid for decreasing their large debt.

But developments in 1997 onward have entirely changed the picture.

It has become very doubtful whether there are other nations among the South which would be able to continue Indonesia's role after the monetary crisis in Southeast Asia.

More than that, it is not impossible that the cooperative attitude toward the North could revert to suspicion and hostility because it is very difficult to accept that the heavy blow the Southeast Asian nations had to endure was something normal or a consequences of globalization.

It is not easy to understand that all these blows happened without an outside factor that triggered the whole process of economic disaster.

And it is not only Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia who has suspicions about some foreign speculators causing a setback of more than 20 years for nations like Indonesia.

South-South cooperation will certainly be hurt by Indonesia's economic decline. If there is no, or less, South-South cooperation then North-South cooperation will also come to a standstill.

It leaves a question mark hanging over whether the efforts to solve the debt problems of least developed nations in Africa will continue. It is to be hoped that the African nations will not be too much affected by the East Asian crisis.

With South Africa the incoming chair of NAM perhaps the development of the South can be taken up again.

After all that has happened it has become very doubtful whether the North and especially the West really want improvements for the rest of the world.

Perhaps there are some leaders in the West who are serious in their efforts to make the world more prosperous for mankind and not just for their own people.

This goodwill is a minority opinion and only a matter of lip service. There is much proof like the reluctance to implement their own agreement to contribute 0.8 percent of their GNP for development assistance.

Other clear evidence is the attitude of the West vis-a-vis the Middle East and Africa, two regions in the world which have been victimized by the imperialist greed of the European nations and America.

To date, there has never been any effort to rectify all the mistreatment.

It seems that there is not only the urgency to maintain supremacy but also the thinking that even an improvement of some material wealth for the nations of the South cannot be tolerated unless these nations are willing to submit themselves totally to power centers in the West.

It is indeed a very dark future for the South except for God's will.

The writer is Ambassador-at-large for the Non-Aligned Movement.