The Hindu Business Line : Collective suicide?

On his way to Sapporo to attend the G8 summit, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, expressed concern at the lack of a concerted international response to a number of problems which the world community is facing as a whole, comparing it with earlier occasions when the situation was totally different.

Signs of `lethargy'

In particular, he drew attention to the oil price explosion of the 1970s which was responded to particularly by multilateral organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF in a way which led to assistance being extended to the worst affected economies. This time around, Dr Singh said, there has been strong signs of "lethargy" despite the fact that the total impact of the crises staring the world in the face is probably much more serious than what the international community has ever faced before, barring armed conflict.

Specific developments

Three specific developments were listed by Dr Singh which, he felt, should be tackled by the world community on an emergency basis before they spin out of control and do irreparable damage to the fabric of 21st century multilateralism.

The first is of course the oil price crisis which, as of now, promises to be an extended one, taking the world on to newer levels of crude-pricing which were simply unimaginable even a year back. The second is the steep increase in food prices and the third the increasing volatility and growing instability of the financial markets.

The question is: Why this "lethargy" at this juncture on the part of the world community to tackle the problems? Is it the result of deliberate inaction on the part of the important economic players, or is it a simple misreading of the extent of the potential damage the ongoing crises can do to the world community as a whole? As is clear, the two things are different. The first possibility is a problem of attitude which cannot be altered easily, the second is more an intellectual issue which can be revised (as with policies).

Economic fault-lines

The point of concern is that the international community now is perhaps being riven by rifts along economic fault-lines, which is having the effect of pitching the rich against the poor, which is not what prevailed during the past 50 years when ideological bonding among nations ruled the roost.

The basic struggle at the time was against "the other side", which meant that the willingness to close ranks and find a "solution" was much stronger, the main objective being to prevent anything from happening which could ultimately mean a gain for the ideological Cold War opponent.

This "trigger" died with the end of the Cold War, the bonding agent today being economic nationalism which, on occasion, has sought recourse to temporary alliances to get the better of economic rivals, present and future.

The IMF and the World Bank have been more quiescent in recent years than before perhaps because their driving agents have not felt it necessary that they should step in to play a more decisive role to help weaker economies which are being seen as economic competitors in the larger world marketplace.

It is of course clear that this is nothing other than a serious attempt at committing myopic suicide which, if the climate-change issue is any indication, will be hastening the end of human civilisation itself. The sad part of it is that the blinkers will not come off easily and soon, which means that Dr Singh will not be too successful in attaining his objective at Sapporo.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY

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