Mega calls on nations to build the world anew
Mega calls on nations to build the world anew
The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua, Bali
President Megawati Soekarnoputri urged on Wednesday ministers of
various nations to build the world anew, as they gathered in Bali
to decide the direction that world development would take in the
next decade.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the ministerial meeting in
Bali on sustainable development, Megawati's call for building a
new world coincided with World Environment Day and came amid
concerns that countries lacked the political will to change the
world's course and balance economic interests with environmental
issues.
Nearly two weeks of talks on an action plan for sustainable
development ran the risk of being watered down by a general lack
of commitment.
"Should we manage to make the concept work, it would simply
mean that we actually materialize the ideals of building the
world anew," Megawati said.
She referred to a speech delivered in the 1960s by her father
-- first president Sukarno -- to the General Assembly of the
United Nations titled "To Build the World Anew" at a time when
the cold war threatened world peace.
The spirit and principles of Sukarno's address, she said,
remained relevant to the world's current situation and
challenges.
Overexploitation of the earth's natural resources because of
current global economic development put at risk future
generations, bringing calls for a new approach that would
harmonize development with nature.
In 1992 the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil called on nations through the Rio declaration to implement
sustainable development principles in their national development
plans.
But implementation of the declaration fell short of
expectation as countries lacked the necessary commitment.
Ten years later, delegates in Bali are drafting another action
plan to be known as the Bali Commitment. They hope it will get
countries to implement the decided measures and go beyond the Rio
declaration in the next 10 years.
The meeting in Bali is a precursor to the World Summit on
Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, which will
run from late August through early September. Heads of states are
expected to endorse the Bali Commitment with a political
declaration.
Negotiations on the plan advanced slowly despite three pre-
summit meetings in New York. Bali is hosting the fourth and last
meeting, and a UN resolution requires delegates to finalize the
Bali Commitment here.
But negotiators have run into a near deadlock on the level of
commitment countries should put into the action plan.
"Critical work remains to be done over the next three days.
Full agreement has to be reached on a solid, specific
implementation plan with targets before we leave Bali," said UN
deputy secretary-general Louise Frechette in her opening remarks.
Getting time targets and strong action into the draft plan
remain an elusive effort as they require more commitments that
many developed countries appear reluctant to lend.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also criticized business
interests for holding hostage developed countries, which flinched
during negotiations on paragraphs hampering free trade and
restricting corporate action.
Frechette said sustainable development could not go without
the involvement of the private sector, but urged it to do more
than "corporate philanthropy".
"The world is not asking corporations to do something
different from their normal business, but rather to do their
normal business differently -- to see the long term, not just the
short term; and to see not just the cost of change, but also the
cost of status quo," she said.
Frechette said that progress toward implementation would also
depend on the availability of resources.
"Governments must sustain the momentum generated by the
Monterey conference, particularly in the area of official
development assistance," she said.
The European Union and the United States pledged some US$30
billion in additional aid to fight poverty during the conference
on financing development early this year in Monterey, Mexico.
Developing countries, however, questioned the gesture, noting
that the amount of aid promised was six times less than what
developed countries spend on subsidizing their agricultural
sectors at the expense of developing countries.
A senior U.S. delegate further dismissed hopes of more aid,
and asked developing countries instead to first improve their
laws.
"The U.S. delegation insists that they will only head for a
compromise when the rest of the world considers the U.S.
government's interests," he said.
Head of the Indonesian delegate Makarim Wibisono said that
developing countries wanted developed countries to go beyond
Monterey.
Negotiations, he said, were aimed at getting developed
countries to agree to at least indicate willingness to go beyond
Monterey, meaning more aid.
The position of developed countries was that the Bali
Commitment should just endorse the results of Monterey.