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.