Multiple layers of self-assertion in the contemporary world:

Addressing the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia ( 24-25 April 2004) Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen called for three kinds of transformations in Asia : 1) from internal conflicts to a zone of peace and cooperation, 2) from imbalanced development to comprehensive and harmonious development ; 3) from poverty and under- development to epicentre of prosperity. This by and large reflects the nature of the political and economic processes going on in the contemporary Asia. They involve recognition of multiple levels of self-assertion by deprived or alienated groups within and across countries all of whom are reckoning with the forces of globalisation and going through various kinds of economic reforms. If the efforts at regional cooperation focus only on trade and economic growth without addressing these demands they may actually accentuate social tensions .

The internal conflicts within countries are mostly connected with the autonomy movements by cultural and regional groups seeking self-determination and various democratic rights movements , especially agrarian movements and tribal struggles. Until recently, these demands were seen by the leaders of the nation states as fissiparous and separatist campaigns to disintegrate the postcolonial states. In recent years however, there is increasing appreciation of the nature of the demands resulting in peace talks in various countries. In south Asia the talks with LTTE in Sri Lanka, the Naga peace talks leading to cease-fire in northeast India and the initial steps towards dialogue on Kashmir are some examples of the new trend.. Peace talks with the Maoists in Nepal may be resumed to end the deadlock and violence. Many of these autonomy movements and social upsurges have international dimensions; therefore the solutions of internal problems requires creating an international environment conducive to peace. Regional disparities within each country often lead to the alienation of the people of the underdeveloped regions. There are regions of poverty in every country , and more extensively in south Asia. Hence, tackling poverty and regional disparity have emerged as major goals in the current phase of economic reforms in many countries including China and India.

Thus the contemporary Asian environment has three vertical levels of self assertion "" at the level of regions within the countries, at the level of countries/nations and at the trans-national level. Horizontally, the class, caste, race, ethnic and gender based domination are the basis of many social struggles.The current process of globalization has to recognize these multiple levels of self-assertion. The important task is how to reconcile these levels to mutual benefits. No level can subdued by another level and each level has to prove its positive advantages for the lower as well as for higher levels. A nation state or multi-national state values its sovereignty that it has achieved after long years of anti-colonial struggle. But today it is called upon to exercise it by granting autonomy to regions and groups within it. At the same time many layers of integration are now emerging above the nation states- at the levels of regions in Asia , at the continental level and the at the level of the third world or the South or the developing countries and also many issue -based regional and global formations. Thus the discourse on regional cooperation has to be located in a framework of multi-layered self-assertion and integration.

It should be pointed out that most of the current initiatives at region al cooperation take the national governments as their units of cooperation. No doubt they are the most important agencies of cooperation but they often remain insensitive to the aspirations of autonomy struggles and people's movements. At the non-governmental level many organizations have come up particularly the NGO networks facilitated by SAARC and ASEAN. Business groups have also evolved their own networks through the operational channels of the multinational corporations. But there is clear gap between the intergovernmental and the NGO networks. The gap has been relatively lessened because of the UN summits which usually have NGO forums in addition to government representatives' meetings. Still the gap persists because people's organizations and social movement groups have very little networking on a sustained basis. The problem is further confounded by the fact that collaboration among academics of the Asian countries remains minimal. Only when cooperative links are forged at all the four levels- government, NGO, people's organizations and academics "" can regional cooperation advance smoothly.

Resurgence of Asia:

In the recent years we have seen a continental self-assertion in Asia. After two centuries of struggle people of Asia begun to perceive themselves as Asians with historical, cultural and transformative identities.

For one and a half-century western colonialism had plundered Asia and it so divided Asian territories that a pan-Asian identity could not emerge. Some thinkers like Rabindranath Tagore and leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru did try to articulate the Asian visions. Tagore spoke of Asian civilization in his lectures in China and Japan. Nehru talked about Asian nationalism in Glimpses of World History. The Japanese militarists' concept of an Asian Co-prosperity Sphere had done considerable damage to the concept of Asia already.

The second half of the twentieth century saw post- colonial Asian countries pitted against one another as a result of the cold war policies of the super powers. The Bandung Conference of the Asian and African countries in 1955 was an important initiative to counter cold war politics. But they did not succeed in consolidating anti-imperialist forces. Western social science writings including the area studies scholars emphasized the diversity and disparateness of Asian countries and regions so much that the concept of Asia remained almost an illusion. Only after the end of the cold war and the rise of a new wave of self "" assertion throughout the continent of Asia a new climate of regional identity began to develop.

Asia was now seen as a civilisational zone extending from Egypt to Japan and Mongolia to Sri Lanka or beyond where great religions and cultural systems such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Confucianism flourished and interacted with each other together with large varieties of local religions and cultures for at least two millennia. The Himalayas and the rivers flowing from them on all sides and the large stretches of dryland and pastures constitute the geo- cultural region of Asia .

Besides, the anti -colonial history of Asian countries had enduring legacies of agrarian revolution and multi-dimensional liberation. During the past half century the economic development experience of Asian countries especially the experiments with various models of Gandhi and Nehru, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the East Asian tigers and dragons and the oil economies, the practice of planning and market reforms "" all this presented unique experiences. As many Asian countries exhibited their self-confidence by their economic successes, political voice and highlighting their cultural and natural resources at the dawn of the twenty-first century there was the talk of an Asian century. No doubt, China's economic success, the performance of ASEAN and Japan and other East Asian countries have made a major contribution to this new image of Asia. But equally important has been the rise of democratic consciousness of people of Asia. The cumulative force of the new middle class, the entrepreneurs, the awakened peasants and workers, the women's movement has made a significant impact on this new situation.

There are similar trends of resurgence in Africa and South America as well. But for historical reasons the forces of transformation are more active today in Asia though the other two continents are fast catching up. What is significant is that the three continents are coming together on global economic issues. In this effort the initiative taken by Brazil, South Africa, India and China has been crucial as was evident in Cancun.

Growing Asian Initiatives

Though the new Asian consciousness has not translated itself into many continental level organizations still some of the regional associations have made remarkable progress. In Asia the most successful experience in regional cooperation is that of ASEAN which already set up an ASEAN Free Trade Area in 1992. It aims at becoming an ASEAN Community by 2020. The Bali Summit in October 2003 agreed on what it called the " ‹Å“Three Pillars on ASEAN community' viz. Political and security cooperation; economic cooperation and socio-cultural cooperation. ASEAN had already agreed to have a free trade area with China by 2010 and with India by 2011 and with Japan in the following year.

In South Asia, the process of regional cooperation has been much slower. However, the twelfth SAARC Summit held in Islamabad on 4-6 January 2004 turned out to be a landmark. Besides the India "" Pakistan peace initiative taken by Vajpayee and Musharraf the SAARC Summit adopted the SAFTA Framework Treaty. The SAARC leaders agreed to reduce tariffs in the region in two phases to 0-5% partly by 1 January 2006 and fully by 31 December 2015. The leaders also agreed to set up a South Asian Economic Union and explored the possibility of the establishment of the South Asian Development Bank. The adoption of the SAARC social chapter was another successful event of this Summit. 2004 was designated as the SAARC Awareness Year. Vajpayee also floated the idea of a South Asian currency.

India 's Look East Policy launched by the PV Narasimha Rao regime in the early 1990s has not only led to closer cooperation with ASEAN but also to participation in another regional initiative called BIMST-EC ( Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand- Economic Cooperation). Its Sixth Ministerial meeting in Phukat in Thailand on 8 January 2004 adopted the Framework Agreement of BIMST-EC Free Trade Area. It also chalked out a program of cooperation in developing hydropower projects, air links, shipping and highway linkages. The first BIMST-EC Summit is scheduled for 30-31 July 2004 in Bangkok.

Whereas ASEAN, SAARC and BIMST-EC were either South East Asian or South Asian initiatives the Sanghai Cooperation Organization ( SCO) was mainly a Chinese initiative. The in 1996 the Shanghai Five consisted of three central Asian republics-Kazakhstan, Kirgystan, Turkmenistan - the republics of the erstwhile Soviet Union, Russia and China. Uzbekistan became a formal member later when it formally constituted itself as the Sanghai Cooperation Organization in 2000. Its original tasks focused on handling boundary issues, tackling separatism, religious fundamentalism and terrorism. Gradually the functions acquired significant economic and strategic dimensions. The profitable utilisation of natural resources of Central Asia, which attracted the western corporate interests to the region became important items in the agenda of the SCO framework.

Whereas the above aforesaid initiatives are intergovernmental there are some non-governmental or semi-governmental forums for regional cooperation. The BCIM is one such example.

BCIM on Track II

An initiative was taken by the scholars, business groups and officials in China's Yunan province through the Yunan Academy of Social Sciences to promote regional cooperation among the neighboring regionsand countries of China's Yunan Province. The first conference of scholars and business interests from Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) was convened in Kumming in August 1999. The participants agreed on exploring the ways to improve cooperation in tourism, transport , connectivity and border trade. The first round of meetings had been completed in New Delhi (2001), Dacca ( 2002) and Yangoon ( 2003). The Government of India had not yet shown adequate interest in this effort thought it had not shown any hostility to the idea. As Sino-Indian relations imroved and their trade developed steadily, security sensitivity in disputed the border area which was also a region of insurgency began to give place to confident policy making. So far only academic institutions had been involved in organising the conferences. The governmental involvement in China and Myanmar was fairly conspicuous from the beginning. The Chinese are keen to raise this initiative from track II to track I so that this effort graduates to the level of the SCO governments carry on the business of cooperation.. In the changing Asian environment it is not unlikely to see this grow into a n intergovernmental organisation for regional cooperation.

While the above initiatives were confined to regions of Asia another initiative has emerged as a pan-Asian effort, though it is only called a Forum "" the Boao Forum for Asia ( BFA). During the past three years BFA has emerged an important fulcrum of Asian initiatives.

Boao Forum for Asia since 2001

An initiative taken by former Philippines President Fidel Ramos, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and the former Japanese Prime Minister M Hoshokawa and others including former Indian Prime Minister I K Gujral in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis got enthusiastic response from China in 2000 leading to the creation of a forum for Asia. The idea was to bring together business leaders, political figures and academicians from Asian countries to have an annual conference at a permanent venue to discuss Asian economic problems and world development issues from Asian perspective. Boao in China's Hainan Province was chosen as a convenient venue in terms of distances from various parts of Asia.. The World Economic Forum at Davos is an inspiration for this effort though the BFA may have a wider functions as well to take up economic, social as well as environmental issues. Boao which was a tiny fishing village until four years ago is now a fast growing metropolis and a tourist attraction

Inaugurated by Jiang Zemin in 2001, the BFA recently held its third annual conference where the distinguished guests included the Prime Minister Jamali of Pakistan, the Cambodian Premier and the President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Claus. The President of Tajikstan Romanov who was the key note speaker last year was also present . Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed who has been an important champion of third world interests returned to the Forum after two years. President Hu Jintao made an important speech in which he summed up the experiences of the past 25 years of reforms and assured that the 'peaceful rise of China' presented a great opportunity for peace and development in Asia and the world. Last year newly appointed Chinese premier Wen Jiabao had addressed the gathering. Over 1000 business representatives, political figures and scholars from 35 countries of Asia and the world including delegates from France, Sweden, UK and US participated in the conference.

Two visions of Asia have gently crisscrossed at the annual conferences of the Boao Forum for Asia . One perspective was clearly laid out by the Secretariat led by BFA Secretary-General Long Yongtu, PRC's former Trade Negotiator with WTO who took charge in early 2003 after a short tenure by Malaysia's Ajit Singh. The organisers of BFA wished to assure the Western captains of globalisation that this Forum was not intended as a challenge to the World Economic Forum of Davos and that it was indeed a complementary initiative in Asia to help the Asian economies and entrepreneurs to cope with the challenges of international economic integration.

The other vision emerged from the speeches of some of the political leaders and a few academics and business executives which stressed the role of Asia in the movement for a just, fair and equitable world economic and political order. They too welcomed the idea of global economic integration, but that should reduce the gap between the north and the south and enable the countries to cope with their domestic economic and social problems. Asia had large poverty-stricken populations who demanded urgent attention. Economic globalisation had to address itself to the problems of farmers, workers and peple of backward regions.

Philippines' former President Ramos who is the President of the BFA Board spelt out his vision unambiguously of building a prosperous Asia as a united family which will contribute towards creating a stable and equitable international order. This echoed the sentiments expressed by Jiang Zemin in his inaugural speech in and by Mahathir Mohamed in his key note speech on the occasion of the opening of the Forum in 2001. In the first conference in 2002 the Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi stressed the importance of Asian cooperation and the then Chinese Premier Zhu Rongzhi had outlined a grand vision for a Win-Win path for Asia which has become a permanent theme note for BFA. The theme 2003 was : Asia searching for Win-Win: Development through Cooperation. i.e. how to ensure that all parties benefit out of the development process. For 2004 it was :Asian Development Path:A Win-Win Modality and Commitment

The Secretary-General of the Forum, Long Yongtu was China's Vice-Minister for Trade who had led the thirteen year long Chinese negotiations for entry into the WTO that fruitioned in December 2001. He was also a member of the Chinese Mission at UN and later a UN official. His vast experience was in action in the congregation of the top functionaries of WEF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the UNDP who have been prominent speakers at the various sessions of the BFA conferences . As an important representative of the Chinese government Long secured the full participation and support of the top Chinese leadership in BFA while at the same time bringing in the international intstitutions. It is believed that the first Sec-Gen Tano Sri Ajit Singh had faced problems of coordination with the Chinese government.

The programmes at Boao reflected much care taken by the Chinese about the Forum's character and diplomacy. In 2003 for example, the Inaugural session had one political leader, President Emomali Rakhmonov of Tajikistan and one business leader from Japan, Jiro Nemoto. Rakhmonov not only brought a Central Asian perspective into the conference, he called for united efforts for reducing poverty and regional disparity to advance peace and sustainable development in Asia . Nemoto referred to Asian values and declared that economic development and human development are two wheels of a cart; if one is weak the cart will be stuck.

At the 2003 conference, a cautious affirmation of Asian solidarity was the thread running throught the key note speeches of President Musharaf of Pakistan, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Musharaf who began his state visit to China from Boao urged the Conference to find out ways to integrate South Asia and Central Asia with the dynamic economic region of East and Southeast Asia so that Asian prosperity was not limited to pockets of growth in the Continent .Goh Chok Tong gave a celebratory account of ASEAN's steady progress and charted out possibilities of further cooperation among the ten member states together with their dialogue partners. Formation of a Free Trade Area of ASEAN with China in 2010, with India in 2011 and Japan in 2012 ,the ASEAN Economic Community by 2020 and the emerging trends in the economic cooperation between them figured prominently throughout the Conference. ASEAN's experience in regional integration, China's economic success, Japan's trend of recovery and India's IT industry were some of the strengths on which Asian cooperation can be designed.

The highlight of the third conference in April 2004 was Hu Jintao's speech in which he spoke of Asia's rejuvination and spelt out how China's development could contribute to it. " A developing China generates important opportunities for Asia', said Hu, referring to the growth of China as the third largest importer in the world, with $272 billion imports from the rest of Asia and Chinese investment expanding fast in Asia. Hu Jintao presented a much wider vision of Asian cooperation than trade and investment by presenting a five point approach:i). Enhancing political trust and good-neighbourliness based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, ii)expanding and deepening bilateral economic cooperation, iii) accelerating regional economic integration, iv) promoting cultural interaction and personnel exchanges and v) facilitating security dialogue and military-to-military exchanges and setting up a military security dialogue in Asia.

The BFA was still in a preliminary stage of Asian economic dialogue. As Sec-Gen Long Yongtu put it , though it was developing in the right direction it had a long distance to traverse before it became an influential forum in world economic affairs. Governments of Asian countries had not taken enough interest in it. The organisers still depended more on the retired leaders and a few other leaders from countries friendly to China. Government of India sent its Ambassador from Beijing to Boao only in 2003. Many governments treat it as a Chinese initiative rather than a multilateral initiative.

However, BFA is slowly growing into an active forum for exchange of ideas and launching of new initiatives at the asian level. The effort to set up an Asian Development Fund has made steady progress. China, Japan, South Korea and ASEAN have contributed $1 billion to set up a fund for Asian Bonds . Discussion on creating an Asian currency - an Asian Dollar invited considerable attention in the last conference at Boao. It was argued that such a currency zone will protect the Asian economies from the fluctuation of the US Dollar or the Euro, stabilise the prices of Asian bonds and facilitate the coming of a zero tariff zone .

Asian Regional Cooperation - Some issues

At BoaoHu Jintao spoke of the need for bringing about "five balances" in China's development strategy - a theme frequently touched by him during the first year of his leadership of China. In course of economic growth China must aim at achieving a balance between I) urban and rural development, ii) different regions of China ( the prosperous coastal area and the backward Western area), iii) social and economic development ( reducing social inequality and promoting human development), iv) man and nature ( economy and ecology ) and domestic development and open door foreign policy. This should be read together with the recent amendments to the Chinese Constitution which has added a provision guaranteeing Human Rights and also adding the building of ' political civilisation' along with material and spiritual civilisation. In other words, democratic rights are beginning to be recognized as important goals together with economic development . In India too the new government of the United Progressive Alliance led by Manmohan Singh has adopted a Common Minimum Programme in May 2004 which focusses on the human and social dimensions of economic reforms. Reforms with a human face seems to have arrived as a new mantra of the new generation of the reform leaders in Asian countries. This was the theme of the World Social Forum and the Mumbai Resistance in January 2004 where social movement groups had gathered to register their protest against imperialist globalisation.

But Asian regional forums have yet to show adequate commitment to these issues. The SAARC Summit in Islamabad adopted the Social Charter and if NGOs and people's democratic organisations take the initiative even the minimal goals of alleviating poverty, promoting the realisation of rights of women and other oppressed groups can be advanced.

The spatial perception of Asia remains partial if not conflicting. For many East and Southeast Asia exhausts Asia. Some include South Asia in it. Central Asia still does not figure prominently in the consciousness of the policy-makers in many countries. West Asia is poorly represented even in Boao. Actually all these regions have legitimate space in the historical notion of Asia. The literature and culture of each of these regions reflects all the others. It should be recalled that Nehru's vision of Asia encompassed all these regions. In this context the old idea of regional leaders has lost its relevance. Even though countries like India, China and Japan may play key role in providing the impetus for Asian cooperation their economic, technological and professional resources have to be so used as to create mutual confidence among the smaller countries. Or else countries would be once again divided into cold war like formations with the help of big powers.

Asian regional cooperation has sometimes been hostage to bilateral disputes among countries. Recent developments show that peple's initiatives create strong popular forces forcing regimes to take peace initiatives as in South Asia. Larger regional and continental formations would facilitate confidence-building measures. Cold war approach is fast giving in to new multilateral multi- track initiatives because of the rising democratic consciousness in all countries.

Multilaterism is a democratic idea just as federalism is when it respects other levels and forms of multilateralism. Any attempt to counterpose multilateralism against globalism on the one hand and national sovereignty on the other takes a narrow view of multilateralism. More and more arenas of collective and cooperative efforts aimed at promoting peace and democracy in world scale will respond to the multiple urges for self-assertion in the contemporary world. In this process the role of governments, civil society organisations, social movement groups and academics is equally important.

Manoranjan Mohanty
Director, Developing Countries Research Centre
University of Delhi
Co-Chairperson, Institute of Chinese Studies
Emeritus Chairperson, indian Congress of Asian and Pacific Studies
29 Rajpur road, Delhi-110054 Tel/fax 91-11-2399 2166
e-mail: dr_mohanty@yahoo.co ics@ndf.vsnl.net.in

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