“FROM SOUTH ASIA TO SAARC”:Update

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Lesson 32

"FROM SOUTH ASIA TO SAARC"

Text of handout for students

Note: Students are advised to obtain comprehensive factual information about SAARC from the website:

http://www.saarc-sec.org.

For a more analytical and interpretative approach to South Asia and SAARC, with special reference to the

negative facets of the situation today as contrasted with the immense potential for beneficial cooperation,

students are advised to visit the http://www.strategicforesight.com and to look for the text of the publication

titled: "The Second Freedom - South Asian Challenge 2005-2025" published by the Strategic Foresight

Group of the International Centre for Peace Initiatives, Mumbai.

Even though the Strategic Foresight Group and the ICPI, in the opinion of this lecturer have often displayed

a distinct bias against Pakistan and adverse, imbalanced comments about Pakistan appear in their

publications, they do, at the same time, provide relevant and useful data about the South Asian region,

prospects for the benefits that can be gained from cooperation, the high cost of conflict between Pakistan

and India, and other subjects. In this case, if the biased material against Pakistan is disregarded, the

publication / website referred to above will provide students with a multi-dimensional perspective on this

subject.

The remaining part of this handout comprises a short essay written by the lecturer in 1991 and published in

The News International, Karachi in November 1991. Even though 14 years have lapsed between 1991 and

2005, the vision of "A Parliament for South Asia" outlined in this essay for the first time poses a challenge for

the generation to which the students belong. Various factors have prevented the fulfilment of this vision.

But that does not reduce the relevance or significance of attempting to achieve it in the future. As the last

paragraph of this essay informs the reader, as many as 10 former and serving Prime Ministers and leaders of

South Asian countries endorsed the concept in 1991 and in the first-half of 1992. The tragic Babri Masjid

demolition of December 6, 1992 derailed the preparatory process for the first step towards this goal. In

recent years, other organisations and individuals have also begun to suggest a similar forum. It is hoped that

students will contribute their own important share in taking forward this ideal to a practical stage.

A Parliament for South Asia - A proposal by Javed Jabbar

The postponement and possible cancellation of the SAARC Summit Conference of November 1991,

strengthens, rather than weakens the case for the creation of a non-legislative Parliament for South Asia,

which would initially be a regular conference of major political parties of the region. The concept was briefly

outlined by this writer at a seminar in Karachi in July 1991: it is being presented in written form for the first

time in this short essay (published in The News in November 1991).

The abortive Colombo Summit conclusively proves that relations between the nations of South Asia are too

rigidly controlled by Governments which have the legitimate authority to act on behalf of their respective

peoples but at the same time, too often, become hostage to the dictates of formal, official positions on issues.

Since the inception of SAARC in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in December 1985, the region has been marked by two

conflicting trends. One trend is the movement towards multi-party democratic systems in each of the seven

countries, culminating in a majority of them in the formation of representative institutions. Though there are

ample grounds to question the authenticity of the electoral process in some cases, the region-wise preference

for a democratic and political approach to development is fairly clear and unambiguous, despite the

difficulties being faced in the operation of the democratic system.

At the same time a second trend has become pronounced in the past few years in the region. This is the

heightening of tension and conflict both between the nation-States of South Asia and ethnic or religious

polarisation within nation-States.

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In what constitutes one of the most important regions of the world, representing one-fifth of humanity, there

is no single mechanism that provides an opportunity for these two trends to be simultaneously reflected,

analysed and contained.

Under the current democratic freedom being witnessed by the nations of South Asia, the political leaderships

shootand shouttheir rhetoric regarding relations with other States in a kind of vacuum chamber because

the for in which the invective, or the goodwill as the case may be, are expressed, are strictly domestic.

If nothing else, a regional parliament would serve as a useful place to let off steam where representatives

could vent all their contrasting, conflicting viewpoints. Through the process of listening directly to each

other about what they thought of each other without the restrictions that government-to-government

dialogue requires, the peoples' representatives would be able to move closer towards a commonality of

positions on vital issues, building on the strengths that they share rather than concentrating on the divisive

elements alone.

Within the larger South Asian peoples' community setting, solutions to historic and difficult problems that

have bedevilled bilateral relations between two neighbours could also be gainfully pursued.

One significant and immediate benefit would surely be an improved environment for minorities because the

dynamics of dialogue between political parties that have a communal dimensionwith national frontiers

temporarily removedare bound to increase tolerance and reduce religious animosities.

For the foreseeable future the exclusive function of a regional parliament would be to serve as a forum for

conflict resolution on a mass level, as a peace-making forum on the political level, with no legislative duties

except those that can promote solutions to disputes. Each country of South Asia would preserve its internal

legislative sovereignty while participating in this South Asian parliament. If official participation is initially

difficult, then the parliament could assemble regularly on a non-official, people-to-people basis.

Existing modes of contact between the seven nations on a regional basis as provided by the SAARC

mechanisms are either too sectoral and fragmented as in the case of co-operation in telecommunications and

agricultural research or too rigid and portcullises as in the case of the Summit-level meetings where the

absence of a single Head of State or Government can be used as a device to torpedo the whole summit itself.

Sectoral co-operation is necessary and useful, serving as a slow, step-by-step approach towards co-operation

between nations. But it is confined to specialised and professional interaction rather than contact at the

popular level which is critical to the objective of strengthening friendship amongst South Asian nations.

The pressing urgency of the problems faced by the people of South Asia, the abiding agony of acute poverty,

illiteracy, ill-health, and deprivation cannot afford the luxury of a cautious and evolutionary approach to the

desirable condition of regional pace and stability in which condition alone these basic problems can be

effectively tackled.

For over 40 years this conventional and stereotypical evolutionary approach has been followed with

predictably marginal progress. In an age when advancement of human knowledge is proceeding at a

blistering pace, the rate of movement in South Asia towards regional co-operation is a ponderous and

plodding rate, out-of-step with the needs of the people and out-of-synch with the rest of the world.

While in other parts of the planet, vast State structures are collapsing and are being re-organised, where whole

ideologies are being discarded or are being re-vamped, where new nation-States are emerging, old wounds

continue to fester in South Asia; sometimes deepening at every touch of the expired medicines that continue

to be applied.

The nature of inter-governmental relations in the region on a multi-lateral as well as a bilateral basis move

from one extreme of a fixed and static position to the other extreme of a see-saw in which meetings between

Government leaders produce brief promises of progress only to revert quickly to mutual suspicion and

hostility.

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There is thus apparent a distinct need for a new initiative that breaks with the inhibiting patterns of the past

to define new directions for dialogue and discussion, for conversation and communication between the

people who represent the broad range of public opinion in the region.

Governments tend almost exclusively to represent single political parties or, in some cases, coalitions which

nevertheless still represent a limited segment of the total population. In the multi-party parliamentary systems

that substantively characterise at least five of the seven South Asian nations (with the Maldives and Bhutan

being the exceptions) and these representing the overwhelming bulk of the region's population of one billion

people, it is imperative to create a system by which the major political parties of all seven nations are able to

engage in regular, in-depth, direct communication with each other.

By bringing together major political parties from each country into contact with the principal political forces

of neighbouring countries, the parliament would enable parties that are traditional adversaries within their

own countries and which prevent each other from taking an innovative approach to unresolved problems in

the region, to forge a consensus within each country regarding new paths to peace.

When a political party establishes a government it also inherits a set of enduring official assumptions and

perceptions on important policy issues concerning relations with other nations in the region. Some of these

inherited perceptions are valid but in the absence of a pluralist political perspective which can only be

provided by reference to the breadth of political opinion prevailing in a given country and across the region,

the entrenched establishment view of peace and conflict in South Asia tends to determine the patterns of

inter-State relations even after a new government, or governments, take office.

A permanent Parliament of South Asia would thus provide the large canvas that the scale of the region

deserves. This would be a canvas upon which a transcending vision of peace and unity could be outlined and

then filled in with hues and shades even when governments, as they come and go, would initially tend to stick

to the tones that they have long used.

Gradually, cumulatively, over a period of years and decades, but sooner rather than later, the existence of a

parliamentary framework on a South Asian basis would help erode the obstacles of suspicion and hate that

have so far shaped the course of relations.

The composition of a South Asian parliament could be determined by a combination of some, or all, of the

following elements.

Firstly, all political parties of a country that have polled at least 10 per cent of the national vote in the

previous one or two general elections would be entitled to nominate say, 5 representatives each to the South

Asian parliament.

Then, assuming that from each of the larger population South Asian countries (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh,

Sri Lanka and Nepal) we could obtain 20 representatives from 4 leading political parties or coalitions of each

country we would get a total of about 100 representatives. From the two South Asian countries i.e., Bhutan

and Maldives, which have extremely small populations and do not have vigorous multi-party systems, on the

principle of equity, we could also obtain 20 representatives chosen by nomination or consensus within their

respective countries to provide an initial number of a hundred and forty individuals.

Secondly, in order to provide the valuable resource of specialised knowledge and experience each country

could nominate 5 technocrats in fields such as economics, education, health, defence and development.

Thirdly, all former Heads of State and Heads of Government who are able to participate should be entitled to

do so in the deliberations of a South Asian Parliament so that the assembly benefits from their specific

experience and insights.

Fourthly, to prevent the membership of a South Asian Parliament from being subject to unduly frequent

changes caused by the holding of unscheduled elections or the ouster of governments within on-going

legislatures, a percentage of the seats of the regional parliament could be allocated to political parties and

representative organisations for a fixed term on the basis of their share of the vote over the past 2 or 3

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elections while the remaining seats of the parliament could be directly determined by the results of each

election in the nations of the region.

In its initial formative phase during which its potential and its actual performance can be studied, such a

parliament could comprise about 250 to 300 people representing virtually the entire range of political and

public opinion throughout South Asia while at the same time benefiting from the expert opinion of

professionals and of the past official leadership.

To avoid exposing the tender sapling of regional democracy to bilateral conflict, the venue for the meetings

of the South Asian parliament during the first five yearstill the present degree of virtually frozen relations is

thawed out a littleshould be the capital of a country that is not part of the over-heated bilateral grid of

Pakistan-India, Sri Lanka-India or India-Bangladesh relations. Kathmandu thus suggests itself as the ideal

venue for this assembly.

One essential step forward towards a Parliament of South Asia is a coming together for a few days of the

leadership of the major political parties of South Asia: a kind of South Asian political parties conference

which could examine the feasibility of this proposal on a face-to-face basis and formalise a mechanism to

obtain both governmental endorsement as well as wider non-governmental support. In the year ahead it is

intended to create the organisational basis for such a conference with equal participation from public figures

of all seven nations.

The real scope and complexity of the linkages between the peoples of the seven South Asian nations

containing, in turn, within themselves, a very large number of sub-nationalities and communities with a

spectacular variety of languages, cultures, races and faiths deserves a forum of direct people-to-people

communication that encompasses, but does not exclusively consist of, government-to-government relations.

A regional parliament would provide a permanent and comprehensive framework for a continuous exchange

of facts and opinions between the elected and political representatives of the people within which changes of

governments and shifts of policies could occur without disrupting an enduring process of communication.

Update:

The proposal made by this writer for the first-ever conference of the leadership of all major ruling and

opposition political parties of South Asia was subsequently endorsed by sixteen political parties in Pakistan,

India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and by ten former and serving Prime Ministers. The convening of

the conference at an appropriate time in the future is dependent upon the relative stabilization of political

conditions in the countries of the region.

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