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Let us seize this opportunity

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

By Prof. Ishtiaq Ahmed

The 16th SAARC Summit held on April 28-29 in Thimphu, the capital of tiny Bhutan was, on the whole, a positive and productive meeting of South Asian heads of states and government. For the first time in post-colonial history, all the South Asian states have democratically elected governments. Bhutan is now the only monarchy in South Asia. It is, however, ruled by an enlightened monarch who helped start the democratic process, which culminated in the people electing a government of their choice.

Climate change was one of the main themes of the summit. That is to be welcomed, because this region is probably going to be one of the worst hit if things get out of control. Fortunately, Bhutan has managed to retain its natural beauty and its people live a simple lifestyle, something which is perhaps too late for us to go back to but a good reminder nevertheless that things were quite all right till not very long ago in other parts of South Asia. I remember when I first returned after nine years to Pakistan from Sweden in 1979, the first stop was Karachi. Being the biggest city and industrial hub of Pakistan, its air had already been polluted for a long time and the stars were not to be seen, but my native Lahore had not yet acquired all the unhealthy features and ugliness of a megacity. Thus, when I arrived in Lahore two weeks later, the air was clean and winter was winter.

Now of course Bhutan is the last bastion of unspoilt nature and perhaps some other odd places here and there in South Asia. We would need cooperation on a whole range of issues pertaining to climate change. If it is true that the Himalayan glaciers are melting fast — though not as fast as was reported at Copenhagen — and therefore the natural sources and volume of water will be adversely affected, then the coming generations in South Asia would be in real trouble. The second main theme was terrorism. It was agreed that terrorism had to be defeated and eradicated and that required cooperation between the states of South Asia. A linkage between terrorism, illegal trafficking in drugs and illicit sale of weapons was also made.

With regard to the notorious India-Pakistan rivalry, which makes a mockery of all summit meetings called to discuss peace and cooperation, Thimphu furnished the much-needed breakthrough. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to resume the dialogue that has been in limbo ever since the horrendous attack on Mumbai on November 26, 2008. My only hope is that this opportunity is not dashed by some madmen resorting to terrorism to subvert the chances of progress between India and Pakistan on the question of peace and cooperation. Recent warnings issued to India by New Zealand, Australia, Britain and the US about some imminent terrorist attack on its cities is really bad news. I hope such warnings are based on a false rumour because the last thing we want is someone pointing a finger at Pakistan for some criminal outrage in India.

With a population of over one and a half billion and continuous, composite civilisation going back several thousand years, South Asia is a fascinating ethnic, religious and linguistic mosaic. To any concerned observer, there can be little doubt that South Asia needs to address the problems of abject poverty, unbridled population growth, illiteracy, gender and minority oppression, gross human rights violations and the rise of extremist movements. One need not emphasise that such huge problems can be tackled more easily through joint initiatives, coordinated policy inputs and concrete programmes and projects.

We want a South Asia that is both democratic and peaceful and prosperous. One can visualise peace without democracy and democracy without peace. Historically, peace has been possible in a region sprawling with dictatorial regimes. For example, Latin American dictatorships thrived until recently without that region experiencing wars, although serious class-based and democratic movements did bring about convulsions within Latin American societies. The dictatorships cooperated in crushing such popular movements.

It is, therefore, not enough to have just peace. Only when peace is based on democratic principles and democracy is practised through peaceful means does an environment come into being in which a stable basis can be laid for reform, reconstruction and development. It is generally believed that democracies do not go to war and indeed the evidence from post-Second World War Western Europe seems to confirm that hypothesis. One can therefore argue that regional peace is enhanced if democracy is prevalent in all the societies that constitute a region. However, peace can only be promoted if it is just and fair and this means that both the production and distribution of goods is equitable within societies and indeed between states. In other words, through mutually beneficial trade and other productive ventures, the material basis for both peace and democracy can be laid.

There is, however, a real problem with democracy in South Asia. It can descend into majoritarian tyranny. It is, therefore, important to consider necessary reforms in countries such as Pakistan and Sir Lanka where the national constitutions do carry majoritarian features. Elsewhere, where the constitutions do not provide a basis for discrimination, traditional culture and social values continue to be hostile to minorities. Therefore, further protection through legal safeguards can be considered to create substantive egalitarian citizenship.

Peace and democracy are a matter of values and moral convictions. We need to examine the South Asian cultural heritage from the earliest to the present times to find out what can be learnt from the past with regard to the maintenance of peace and democracy. Sufism, the Bhagti movement and the Sikh gurus played an important role in generating discourses about tolerance and mutual acceptance and respect. In that period, not everything said and done was great. Therefore, we will have to pick and choose from our past. We must also incorporate the current values about human rights of individuals as well as learn to treat women as equals. Such values are the product of modern democracy, which I tell my students began with the founding of the United Nations in 1945. Since contemporary South Asian consists only of democratically elected governments, the fundamental precondition for going forward already exists. Let us seize this opportunity.

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Ishtiaq Ahmed is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. He is also Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Stockholm University. He has published extensively on South Asian politics. At ISAS, he is currently working on a book, Is Pakistan a Garrison State?


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