The Hindu Business Line : Tsunami: Poverty, the epicentre of priorities

THE Asian tsunami has with all its catastrophic consequences pushed poverty at the centre of global concerns in 2005, giving a thrust to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, including halving of the world's poor by 2015, and progress on the Doha Trade Round.

The big question is whether the superpower and the rich nations, in general, would view the latest catastrophe as a call not only to human conscience to render help to those thrown into a desperate struggle for existence but also to begin changing the global system into a more equitable and humane order instead of the current one-sided emphasis on poorer nations reforming themselves and establishing good governance.

The year 2005 provides many opportunities to take a hard look at the realities of the present asymmetrical structure of the world economy and the rich-managed institutions (which do not reflect democratic decision-making) — at the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, the G-8 Summit in July and the United Nations which is to review progress on MDG as well as in at the World Trade Organisation. Disasters such as the tsunami, conflicts in Africa and elsewhere and the looming failure in imposing democracy by force in Iraq should all be cause for an agonising re-appraisal of policies thus far determined by the strong for the weak.

These apart, in rushing with emergency relief and making aid pledges, especially in relation to the worst-affected Aceh province of Indonesia, altruism has not been the sole guiding concept for some nations. For the US and Australia, in particular, Indonesia, with its insurgencies and radical Islam, has assumed strategic importance to combat terrorism and ensure their own national security.

Global response

Nothing ever before had shocked and numbed millions of people all over the world as the magnitude of destruction wrought by the Asian tsunami taking a toll of over 150,000 lives in poorer parts of countries of the Indian Ocean region. Leading nations and international financing and other agencies and the Red Cross and other voluntary relief organisations joined in a massive relief and rehabilitation effort, with UN coordination, while naval and Air Force units and military personnel of a few countries were deployed to accelerate rescue operations and ferry supplies to the distraught survivors.

The Jakarta Summit of January 6 of world leaders saw total aid pledges of around $4 billion. Private donations could take the total to $5 billion. IMF offered $1 billion assistance from its Emergency Relief Disaster Facility for affected nations without the usual conditionality, while the World Bank and Asian Development Bank chimed in with their own urgent aid by reallocating from existing programmes.

But the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, warned that, pledges apart, unless $1 billion was immediately made available, emergency assistance for some five million people in 12 countries affected would be constrained. In the past, even smaller pledges for natural disasters have not been honoured by countries, as in the case of last year's earthquake in Iran.

Australia, the richest country of the region, is opposed to moratorium holding that Governments benefiting might not spend as much on tsunami relief and reconstruction, while substantial direct assistance would make a world of difference for the survivors. The Paris Club has to approve of the debt relief, backed by the Group of Seven (G-7) Finance Ministers of leading industrial countries, in respect of bilateral external debt totalling $272 billion. Indonesia could benefit the most but India is unlikely to accept any debt relief and its decision to rely on its own resources for the massive relief work has earned praise.

Strategic dimensions

Apart from the loss of tourism earnings for countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Maldives, the tsunami will not have a major adverse impact on the economies of the Asian region. For India, it will be a considerable financing burden at both the Central and State levels. But the tsunami has also brought to the fore certain political, economic and security considerations that govern attitudes of some aiding nations. In a quick response reflecting a close relationship he has established with Indonesian President, Mr S. B. Yudhoyono, Mr Howard announced the largest aid package ever for Australia and said it opened a "historic partnership" with its nearest neighbour, whose stability is vital for Australia's own security. More significantly, Mr Howard, criticised at home for his undisguised pro-West leanings, has taken advantage of the disaster to give a new strategic dimension to Australia's foreign policy by making a common cause with Asia.

There is no doubt that Australian construction companies would expect to win several reconstruction contracts. For both the US and Australia, direct humanitarian aid in this region where Islamic radicalism prevails is high priority, given the underlying recognition that lack of development would breed terrorism. The outgoing US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, who extensively toured the tsunami-devastated regions, said he had not seen anything before like the scale of destruction here and said if poor nations were not helped, "radicalism takes over".

The UK, which takes over the G-8 presidency this year, wants to focus on Africa and debt relief for poorest countries and additional resources for developing countries for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The British Chancellor of Exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, has even called for a Marshall Plan for Developing Countries though, so far, all such proposals have met with cold response from the Bush Administration. There is every danger of the tsunami being passed over as another fearful episode in human history, if past attitudes persist.

(The author, a former Chief Editor of PTI, is a freelance journalist.)

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