The Hindu Business Line : On seismic Olympics and banana republics

A short masterpiece of political satire with valuable lessons, I often enjoy reading George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” about how political and governmental organisations often work.

The key lesson is that leaders of nations and organisations often manipulate the state of affairs for their own benefit, and end up being as bad, if not worse, than the real or imaginary evils from which they are protecting their followers.

While the centre of gravity for wealth creation has been shifting from the West to the East — not because the East is striving hard to do well, but because the West is doing poorly — Europeans perceive the nations of the East, hardly ready to meet the challenges of sustainable economic growth, good citizenary and first-class nationhood.

Law of Karma

“If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind” and that is exactly what some Asian nations are engaged in. Here are the European perceptions of some Asian nations which have lately been in the news, for all the wrong reasons.

Threat to Global Security

Europeans view China as the biggest threat to global security. China has now overtaken the US as the greatest perceived threat to global stability in the eyes of Europeans.

The poll was carried out by the Harris agency between March 27 and April 8, in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.

The transformation of China’s image from a land of economic opportunities to one of global threat is seen largely as a result of the Western media coverage of the Asian economic power.

Year of the Rat

Paradoxically, this is China’s year, the Year of the Rat, which symbolises strength and endurance in the Chinese lunar calendar. And, in this year, China has presented itself as an imploding, weak, insecure banana republic earlier this year, as military tanks moved into the streets of Lhasa, cars were smouldering on the Roof of the World and, thousands of soldiers wielding assault rifles, were imposing peace at the barrel of a gun.

Their implements of choice included tanks and handcuffs, a news blackout and a slanderous campaign against the Tibetan leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Dalai Lama, calling him a “liar” and a “wolf in monk’s robes, a devil with a human face”.

For the planners of the Olympic Games and for China’s politicians, who were hoping to bask in the glory of a clean and apolitical Games, their worst nightmares have come true.

Thanks to their protests around Europe, the torch relay around the world became more like the running of the gauntlet for China.

The Other China

An article in the New York Times this year asked whether the 21st century would be a “Chinese century”. That represents a huge tectonic shift. And that was what Europeans saw last week! Schools collapsed like houses of cards, apartment blocks were reduced to dust.

The horrendous earthquake in China’s Sichuan province underscores problems of shoddy construction in the country.

And, the world is getting a glimpse of the other China, the giant country’s underdeveloped west, which is still waiting for its prosperity. It is the poorest of China’s billion people who are currently being dramatically pulled in the tens of thousands from the dusty and stinking rubble of schools and houses, some fortunately still alive, but most as corpses.

Coalition Collapse

European have written-off Pakistan as beyond hope of recovery! The news Europeans read last week was that the coalition government collapsed on the issue of the reinstatement of Supreme Court judges sacked by Mr Pervez Musharraf on November 3 last year.

Indian Concerns

Ever since India fought and helped in its Independence from Pakistan in December 1971, Bangladesh has been locked in a love-hate relationship with India.

Since the last few years, it came to light that ISI and various militant organisations based in Pakistan are using Bangladesh as a transit point for pushing terrorists into India. Last week, Europeans saw the horrifying Jaipur serial bombs tragedy. Shameless act of terrorism.

Our borders are like a leaking colander, we Indians have no identity cards and we do not know who an Indian is. Clearly, do not recognise our enemies who are within India. We choose not to find them. What next? Wait for things to “cool down”. And then, kill time until the next catastrophe happens.

Burma Story

Myanmar was once one of the richest countries in South-East Asia, endowed with fertile land, precious teak wood and gems, and blessed with natural gas.

For more than four decades, Burmese have lived under a dictatorship. It is the longest ruling military dictatorship in the world. But, for China, Burma offers manufacturers in China’s south-west access to the Indian Ocean. India and China too are eager to get their hands on Burma’s oil and gas reserves and have invested in developing the country’s infrastructure.

The EU Stance

The European Union, for its part, has had various types of economic sanctions on the regime since 1996, citing the house arrest of democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi for 10 years.

Power over People

Last week, Europeans saw cyclone Nargis kill tens of thousands in Burma and the death toll keeps rising. About two million people are without food, water or, shelter. But, the only thing the military junta appears to care about is keeping its hold on power. As I write this column, it has been seven days since the killer cyclone ripped across the Irrawaddy delta in Burma’s South and devastated the city of Rangoon, leaving millions, homeless.

Banana Republics of Asia

Banana republic is not characterised only by a putrid political system, ruled by corrupt clique with huge wealth and income inequities, poor infrastructure, backwardness in many sectors of the economy; a banana republic is also characterised by a ruling class that curbs people’s individual freedoms and is moving towards a ham-fisted and oppressive military dictatorship and regimes that support such establishments.

Several Asian nations and few of the so called “emerging economies” definitely qualify to be called decomposing banana republics.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mailto: mohan.murti@t-online.de)

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