Strong political pressure hinders NAM efforts
Strong political pressure hinders NAM efforts
JAKARTA (JP): The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is still
struggling to assert its international presence in the face of
strong political and economic pressures from the West, former
Indonesian ambassador to United States, Hasnan Habib, said
yesterday.
The 112-nation movement is "unable to withstand the American
lobby," Hasnan, now NAM's ambassador-at-large for the U.S. and
Latin America, said at a seminar to review the role of the
organization which is currently chaired by Indonesia.
He cited the recent review conference on the extension of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as an example of how NAM
could not break Washington's determination to permanently extend
the Treaty.
Indonesia called for an indefinite extension of the fixed 25-
year rolling periods. The effort, however, faltered as the U.S.
lobby successfully thwarted the proposal.
The head of the foreign ministry's research and development
agency, Soendaroe Rachmad, admitted NAM's inability to cope
"under American pressure both politically and economically."
The seminar on "NAM, Africa and Indonesia" was held by the
Centre for Strategic and International Studies to commemorate the
40th anniversary of the Asia-Africa Conference.
According to Soendaroe, NAM's unity on important political
issues is further being undermined by the fact that each member
state has its own individual interests to pursue.
When discussing the NPT at last month's NAM Ministerial
conference in Bandung, West Java, the Movement could not produce
a common stance on the extension and completely avoided the issue
in their final statement.
The division on the NPT extension within NAM persisted at the
NPT conference in New York with such countries as South Africa
strongly urging for indefinite extension.
Apart from having to endure a western-dominated international
political climate, NAM members, in particular those in the least
developed countries of Africa, also have to deal with the
shrinking flow of economic aid.
As economist Djisman S. Simandjuntak put it during the
seminar, the donor countries are now inflicted with what he calls
"aid fatigue", a result of the deteriorating domestic economic
conditions of the donor countries.
Donor countries have also been dismayed by the fact that the
aid given to Africa has produced few tangible results.
Indonesia, during its tenure as NAM chairman, has put much
emphasis on South-South Cooperation among NAM states as one way
of reducing member dependence on western assistance.
Djisman argued that what is important to the development of
the least-developed African states is "capacity building," such
as the enhancement of human resources and local institutions
which can support development and policy planning.
Djisman contended that Indonesia can play a significant role
because it has the experience and because many of the
institutions in Africa are in a situation similar to that of
Indonesia in the 1950s.
"There is no other choice but to be patient with this capacity
building," he said. (mds)