Fighting the world order to save the earth

Fighting the world order to save the earth

Yanuar Nugroho, Researcher & General Secretary at Uni Sosial
Demokrat, Jakarta

Next month Indonesia will host an international conference in
Bali. "The Government of the Republic of Indonesia has the honor
and great privilege to host the Preparatory Committee meeting at
the ministerial level leading to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) to be held in Bali from May 27 to June 7,
2002." That is the message we can find at WSSD's website,
welcoming the Fourth Preparatory Committee (PrepComIV) meeting
which is aimed at concluding discussions on far-reaching actions
to propel the sustainable development agenda forward.

Around 6.000 people will join and gather in the meeting, draw
upon the agreed result from the previous PrepCom to prepare a
concise and focused document that will aim to emphasize the need
for a global partnership to achieve the objectives of sustainable
development. It is also there to reconfirm the need for an
integrated and strategically focused approach to the
implementation of the-so-called "Agenda 21" and to address the
main challenges and opportunities faced by the international
community in this regard.

The outcome of PrepCom IV will then be submitted for further
consideration and adoption at the 2002 Summit meeting at
Johannesburg, evaluating the progress achieved since the first
World Summit at Rio de Janeiro, 1992. How far have we been
stepping ahead? Or, oppositely, stepping back?

Globalization has been the major issue during the past
decades. Ceaseless repetition of jargons and slogans "inevitable
change" and "necessary restructuring" have everywhere accompanied
this rapid prying-open of national economies and cultures for
foreign exploitation "free of trade and investment barriers". It
seems however, that faith in economic growth to signify the
change and development as the key to progress comes into question
as the Earth's life-support systems fray and indicators of
ecological collapse multiply.

Another side of global economic systems has shown the
inescapable fact that development geared to spur rapid growth
through greater resource consumption is straining the environment
and widening the gaps between the rich and poor. And opposite
from the proponents of neo-liberal economics standard
prescription to cure, privatization, tax cuts and foreign
investment, have proved ineffective.

We do not have to look far for the proof that growth-centered
economics is pushing the regenerative capacities of the planet's
ecosystems to the brink. The worry is not the only one raised in
the Limits To Growth more than 20 years ago. Obviously, there is
no immediate shortage of non-renewable resources. Even at current
consumption rates, there will not be enough copper, iron and
nickel to our grand-grandsons and daughters in the next
centuries.

More pressing will soon cause the disintegration of the basic
life-support systems that we take for granted. This will include
the composition of atmosphere, the water cycle, the pollination
of crops, the assimilation of waste and recycling of nutrients,
the delicate interplay of species -- all of these are in serious
danger. "Agenda 21", the most important outcome of the Rio Word
Summit -- a blue-print and the basis of the strategy for
sustainable development -- has been challenged badly by the
profit-driven logic of business power which drives the global
economic significantly and wipes out everything on its way to
accumulate gains, including the environment.

The power of business looks immense in this neo liberal
economic order where "growth" becomes the highest value of social
life. And this is the starting point of the problem. It involves
the following line of logic: If we start from the premise that
the highest value of social life is "growth", and then
malpractice or non-malpractice is irrelevant. If growth can only
be achieved by letting the mal-exercise of power happen, so be
it. In this case, such values as "sustainable" or "democracy" are
irrelevant, for any type of power exercise that (even if
unintentionally) seems to bring about growth will then be
justifiable (self-legitimating).

Of course the proponents of this perspective will shout
endlessly about the need for law enforcement and legal certainty
to protect the environment as well as to guarantee the
democratization. Yet, in fact these are immaterial to their
point: deserts are spreading, forests being hacked down, fertile
soils ruined by erosion and desalinization, fisheries exhausted
and ground water reserves pumped dry. Carbon dioxide levels in
the atmosphere continue to ruse due to our extravagant burning of
fossil fuels. In September 1995 the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change concluded that climate change is unstoppable and
will lead to widespread economic, social and environmental
dislocation over the next century.

The core issue seems clear to be how to socialize the notion
that the way global economics control and shape our shared life
is not always at the benefit of "shared life" itself. It is very
central to the concern to be addressed at the PrepComIV. The
descriptions on environment distraction, as well as many societal
problems, are undeniable facts. In a deeper theoretical
reflection this involves, actually, a psychological issue than an
economic one.

The cunning exploits of neo-liberalism are that it penetrates
the way people evaluate things by implanting first the criteria
of the "pleasure-prestige-status-luxury" principle in society. It
is not that this principle is wrong, but that the pursuit of it
is most often being done to the detriment of others as we can see
quite often. Here comes the importance of taking the
environmental problems, forced layoffs, urban poor etc. into
account in the WSSD meeting. How can this concern be "organized"?

As for Indonesia, more than 42 non-governmental organizations
established the Indonesian People's Forum (IPF) for the WSSD.
This forum consists of nine major groups: Women, youth, children,
indigenous people, farmers, peasants, labor, urban poor,
fishermen, and NGOs.

IPF will ensure that "civil society reports" are to be
submitted to the WSSD, in complement to the "state report"
prepared by the Indonesian Government. The "civil society
reports" are prepared based on inputs from broad consultations at
both national and regional levels to gather civil society's
inputs on how far principles of sustainable development have been
applied by many different stakeholders. It is also to evaluate
how far the Rio commitments have been implemented in Indonesia
and to gather inputs/recommendations to improve sustainable
development in the future.

Our world is certainly not for sale. When the global economic
order silently violates our shared life for the sake of profit
accumulation, it is the act of victimizing the whole globe's
inhabitants' capacity to sustain. It is the time to break the
silence, to voice out the restlessness.