South demands better deal from North

South demands better deal from North

JAKARTA (JP): An on-going international conference on human
resource development turned into a yet another round of "North
versus South debates".

Despite the organizer's urging that they adopt a new, less
polarizing perspective on relations between countries in the two
opposite hemispheres, the debates probed the political motives of
the developed countries' "reluctance" to help the developing
countries.

Some participants raised the issues of the imbalanced flow of
information to the South and the one-sided press coverage of the
North, not to mention the rising trade protectionism in
industrialized countries.

Dr. Rudiger Machetzki of the Institute of Asian Affairs,
Germany, said Asian countries struggled out of their economic
difficulties with relatively minimal help from other, especially
European, countries.

Machetzki told some 200 participants from 37 countries that
Asian's self-reliance has created a momentum which would be
instrumental in creating more successful trade and economic
cooperation with the West.

He urged the developing countries to strengthen cooperation
with the developed countries and overcome obstacles such as the
mistrust between both parties.

"Never stop pressing your demands for fair, just conditions,"
he said. "Use every international encounter everywhere to voice
your demands, and be persistent."

He tempered his urging, however, by saying that by no means
should the Southern countries sacrifice cooperation among
themselves. "Never underestimate the potential for regional,
South-South cooperation," he said.

Commitment

Machetzki spoke more specifically about the economic relations
between members of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) and the Western European countries, saying that the
West's commitment to the region is "deplorably low".

"The Western European economies, particularly that of Germany,
are essentially molded by medium scale companies...which are by
nature more hesitant to venture into non-traditional market," he
said.

The Western European societies are, in general, inclined to
preserve the comfortable socio-economic status quo. "Poor people
want to change things. Wealthy people want things to remain the
way they are," he said.

Machetzki said the West' preference for Eastern Europe market
instead of ASEAN was an act of "shortsightedness".

By staying away from ASEAN market, the Western countries "miss
the dual nature of the Asian challenge, which are the dynamic
combination of low cost and high technology".

"There are many countries that dispose of cheap labor, but
nowhere outside of Asia does one find highly qualified low cost
labor," he said.

Indonesian Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie in
his address used the forum to introduce his concepts for
"accelerated evolution" for developing countries in catching up
with the economy of industrialized countries.

He named Japan, United States, Canada and European countries
as regions whose transformation from agricultural into
industrialized societies went through smooth evolutionary process
due to lack of ethnic, cultural and language constraints.

Asia, South America, Middle East and Africa, on the other
hand, would be able to catch up by accelerating their pace and
overcoming the hurdles of cultural, language and ethnic
constraints.

"I am against leapfrogging (of development effort) because..it
is unpredictable," he said.

Advanced transformation in developed countries was made at the
expense of the developing countries in the South, who for decades
have become the market place of the developed regions' products.

"Now, who is going to pay for transformation in the developing
countries?" he asked. "Mankind will, directly or otherwise,"

He believed, however, that developing countries could benefit
from their encounter with industrialized countries. These
benefits include fast and low cost information and data
processing systems, better understanding of macro and micro
economics and infrastructure, and better understanding of human
resource development.

The conference, which was opened by President Soeharto on
Wednesday, winds up today. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad is scheduled to address the gathering about the problems
and prospect of the North-South relations. (swe)