By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Aug 12 2005 (IPS)

When South Asian leaders cancelled their summit earlier this year the “people” still gathered. “This is the second time we are meeting while governments refrain from meeting with each other. This proves that we, the people, want to meet and exchange views when governments don’t,” said Bushra Gohar, chairperson of South Asia Partnership (SAP) International, co-organiser of the fifth Peoples Summit.

Now SAP is leading a push to transform the annual peoples gathering into a permanent force that can influence the work of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). That is a huge challenge, say observers.

“There have been many declarations and discussions from previous peoples summits. Based on their agendas we’ve then further developed them,” said SAP International Executive Director Rohit Kumar Nepali after a planning meeting in Kathmandu earlier this month. “Our dream is that this should be a people’s SAARC ultimately,” he told IPS.

This month’s regional forum brought together more than 50 activists from five of the seven SAARC nations: Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Bhutan and the Maldives were not represented. “They don’t have proper civil society organisations there so we’re finding it difficult to invite them,” added Nepali in an interview.

Participants drafted a statement that singled out five themes “that require urgent attention”: democracy, peace and militarisation, (human) trafficking, social security and disasters. These are “some of the most pressing problems of the region”, the statement added, urging participants to launch campaigns “and advocate to SAARC and its constituent states to accept their responsibilities fully and to transform their lives and conditions of people across South Asia”.

SAARC’s seven nations include about 1.4 billion people (one-fifth of humanity) and are home to half of the world’s illiterates and half of its malnourished children, according to the United Nations.

Yet far from answering to its citizens’ needs and dreams, SAARC has failed to strengthen the region, according to critics. “SAARC hasn’t really taken off as an institution,” said Tapan Bose, secretary general of Kathmandu-based South Asia Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR).

“Its attempts to build an identity and harmony have failed,” and no other unifying institutions – a regional economic agreement for example – has emerged to fill that void.

Like others, Bose believes that a SAARC people’s movement is a good idea, but suggests it will have to overcome many barriers. One is tension between successful grassroots movements in the region and non- governmental organisations (NGOs).

Reacting spontaneously to particular local challenges, movements that oppose planned mega-dams or fight for the rights of fisher people, for example, might see NGOs – established, project-driven and well-funded – as lacking credibility. Yet at the same time they might have to turn to them for funding or other resources, according to Bose.

Another barrier is nationalism, of both governments and groups, he argued. “The governments are still very nationalistic and use the idiom very strongly in their language.”

And while South Asian writers and intellectuals, for instance, will often criticise their governments’ domestic agendas it is rare to see them take on their leaders’ foreign policies, particularly vis-à-vis other SAARC nations.

“There are issues (such as migrant workers’ rights) through which we have tried to push the agenda of trans-border dialogue (but) it’s been a difficult process,” says Bose.

For example, Nepali civil society rallied to oppose the proposed Arun-3 dam. “The people here were very much looking forward to support from India (where groups have successfully defeated proposed mega-dams). Very little was forthcoming. The concerns sort of stopped at the border.”

According to a former SAARC secretary- general, “South Asia is a region where the civil society phenomenon is not very much visible or has not taken shape. In South Asia somehow it is the government and the bureaucracy that dominate,” said Yadav Kant Silwal in an interview.

That perception also colours SAARC, he added, where the only civil society organisation that had any influence when Silwal led the organisation in 1994-95 was the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The SAP initiative is “a very good beginning because you have to create an awareness among the people” about issues, and SAARC should “engage as many constituencies as possible”.

“Regional integration efforts will bear fruit only with the cooperation of governments and civil society,” argued Silwal.

Bose suggested that Indian activists’ success in opposing the Narmada Dam project illustrates the need for civil society to look beyond its borders for support. At the same time those who have led successful campaigns must be willing to share their expertise.

“If democracy in India is successful then it is in the interest of democratic forces in India to link up with forces in other countries. It is the duty of democratic forces in India to link with democratic forces in Nepalàbecause it will ultimately strengthen democracy in India,” said Bose.

However Silwal advised the people’s movement to refrain from pushing a political agenda, noting that SAARC operates by unanimity so if a country is singled out for criticism it can react by quashing any proposal.

“As civil society they are entitled to express their opinion (on political matters) but I think their focus should be more on economic and social matters” such as the South Asian Free Trade Agreement.

“Eventually (a successful SAARC) will create a climate where there will be political understanding among the countries,” argued Silwal.

In its statement, this month’s regional forum called for an end to SAARC’s unanimity rule. It also urged the grouping to include “the ability to address bilateral issues and conflicts in the spirit of regional cooperation”.

January’s postponed SAARC summit is now slated for November. Before then the people’s movement will create a peace commission, hold a peace rally Sep. 21 and launch a campaign for governments to ratify the region’s convention on trafficking of human beings, said Nepali.

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