A complex but not unpractical concept

SOUTH Asian security is a concept which is often discussed in different circles, but without much seriousness. Not that importance is not attached to the idea or it is largely disapproved; it is because the subject may appear as somewhat premature to many for understandable reasons. This may even sound unpractical for a variety of factors because the matter is all about security and that too in a region like South Asia on a collective basis, a region that is bedeviled by differences and disputes.
Nonetheless, security is a big issue in the South Asian region where many people think that much of the efforts for progress and collective development will not bear expected fruit unless the security system is improved and an atmosphere conducive to cooperation exists. Admittedly, such an atmosphere is a pious hope to a large extent given the harsh realities that characterise the political and military conditions in the region even though this unhealthy situation can be attributed mainly to the traditional enmity of two neighbours India and Pakistan. Nuclearisation of both the rivals has undoubtedly added a dangerous dimension to the security concept in South Asia, which is the home of more than one fifth of humanity. In the event of any use of nuclear weapons in the region a possibility that may look remote in the current political environment in the area because of the reconciliatory endeadvour by two principal rivals, but can not be fully ruled out in the context of their long and bitter belligerence all the nations of the region will have to bear the burnt of any atomic catastrophe. The conventional military tensions are there, but the introduction of nuclear capability by the two major regional nations has plunged the area into possibilities of alarming proportions. South Asia is already an international flash point because of the arms race in the region and the amount of money that is being spent here for defence is really horrifying. Two celebrated personalities of the region have made no bones of the fact that South Asia need peace and security should its people improve the quality of life. The region is mired in abject poverty as hunger, illiteracy and ill health stalk the region. In stark contrast, the military expenditure here is huge and by any estimate it is not only highly disproportional to the economic strength of the countries of the region, but also largely at the cost of the socio-economic development that could have directly benefited the vast segment of the people.
Late Dr. Mahbubul Haq, the well known economist from Pakistan, who had established a human development institute in Islamabad and made untiring efforts till his death for improving the human resource index of the regional countries, concluded that defence expenditures by India and Pakistan are by far much larger than many oil-rich Gulf nations when viewed in terms of proportional expenses in the sector compared to their income. He made a forceful plea for reduction of the allocations in the military and divert to areas related to socio-economic development. No wonder such pleas will land only on deaf ears since the protagonists of the arms race would place many factors to justify the expenses and their arguments are also not necessarily without basis. Nevertheless, when an internationally reputed economist like Dr. Haq make such prognosis about the economic conditions of South Asia, evidently the case of lessening military expenditures gets a boost.
Nobel laureate in economics, Dr. Amartya Sen, much of whose works and highly acclaimed thesis is based on the poverty of developing and least developed countries like those in South Asia, have also stressed the need for greater expenditures in the welfare oriented sectors for the benefit of the masses. Once again, it will be the height of folly to expect that their logic for bigger expenditures in social sectors by reduction in military expenditures will be heeded by those who are in the helm and find enough justification in the high defence expenditures. The poverty-ridden South Asia needs to come out from this situation for the sake of its people, who want to get rid of perennial hunger and other chronic problems and some taste of decent livelihood. True, poverty is not the case for all, but certainly a large segment of the people is in serious economic problems.
There is hardly any denying that much of the socio-economic progress in the region which is inextricably linked with the welfare of the people is contingent upon the overall security system in the area, and this is crucially important for the SAARC as a whole. Conventional military development along the nuclearisation has created a sense of insecurity and instability for the region. It is being increasingly felt that there is a need for evolving a cooperative security milieu here in order to give South Asia political security and stability, which in turn, will have tremendous bearing on the socio-economic scenario. Within this broad framework, a South Asian peace and security system can provide the beginning of a much needed structure that will help substantial multilateral cooperation in the SAARC region.
Many experts opine varying views about the efficacy and effectiveness of a kind of security system in the traditionally trouble-prone region, but agree that a sense of collective security would have done great service to the on-going efforts of collective cooperation. Arguably, security is a big concept and it encompasses many a matter that has wide-ranging implications and need to be analysed in the context of larger global and regional perspective. Nonetheless, a broad parameter for South Asian security system can be considered for overall improvement of the political climate in the area. The current time is particularly appropriate for such thinking since the present positive trend of reconciliation among the belligerents and closer ties among others should encourage towards a better security system in the region.
Some experts feel that five principles are necessary for the system a commitment to the UN charter and UN resolutions; preservation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the states in the region and non-intervention in the internal affairs; commitment to SAARC convention for the protection of human rights including the rights of minorities; commitment to specified "cooling off" timeframe and dialogue in the case of a crisis; and lastly, a strategic stability regime can form a broad basis of a security system.
A regional conference in Pakistan nearly three years ago threw enough light on this complex but critically important subject with a view to creating a better political environment in the region that would facilitate goodwill and harmony, which in turn, will promote the desired cooperation in various fields among the nations of the area.
"We resolve to get out of the straitjacket of enmity, overcome obsession with over-demanding militaristic security paradigm and look beyond the traditional notions of security and focus on an integrated South Asian cooperative security that recognises interdependence and mutuality of interests" said an agreed resolution adopted at the conference last month participated mainly by the leading parliamentarians of the regional countries, and also others including editors and senior journalists, experts and academics.
They observed that the states ought to act in their enlightened self-interest to resolve their conflicts and differences through peaceful means and to the mutual benefits of the people of the region. This choice is often, it is felt, erroneously posed between regional cooperation and conflict resolution. All states of the South Asia have been urged to simultaneously move forward to address the long standing political disputes through peaceful means. "The main obstacle to regional cooperation and economic integration remains political and strategic. Therefore, we, the elected representatives of the people, vow to be courageous, flexible and consistent to resolve interstate and intrastate conflicts and dismantle political barriers to regional economic take-off," said prominent parliamentarians in their statement.
It is being increasingly considered that for regional cooperation in countering the widespread threat of terrorism, the SAARC nations must implement the current protocol for cooperation against terrorism and bring it in line with the international norms. The regional efforts against terrorism must also include measures to combat the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, narcotics-trafficking, smuggling and criminal mafias. This will require exchanges and interactions between the national intelligence and security agencies with their counterparts across the border and greater interaction between the armed forces and military establishments in the region.
The principle that there can be no intervention in the internal affairs of any nation in the sub-continent is being strongly emphasised. Yet, it is observed, given the implications of internal conflicts for regional security as a whole, the SAARC must pay greater attention to the relationship between internal and regional security.
Without prejudice to the current positions of the SAARC governments on amending the SAARC charter, the conference had called upon the SAARC to initiate a study of mechanisms for cooperative security in the region. In a remarkable agreed view, the participants cutting across national and domestic political divide said given the increasingly intrusive nature of the international political system, it is imperative that the region develop its own security and conflict resolution mechanisms. In this context, the conference urged the SAARC to consider the establishment of a SAARC Security Forum on the line of ASEAN Regional Forum.
Such a resolution, somewhat unprecedented in this tension-ridden region definitely represents something that we all are longing for in line with the larger good of the more than 1.4 billion people in the region. South Asian collective security system is not anything impossible even though this is very complex and may take time for seeing the light of the day.
True, a South Asian collective security is not anything that is likely to emerge in short time and take any shape in the near future. However, the very realisation that South Asian collective security will bring all round benefit to the people of the region is gaining ground albeit slowly and not smoothly. The concept may seem premature at the present stage but may see the light of the day at some point, although such a time is highly unlikely in the near future. The SAARC was also initially considered impractical and an utopian idea, but at one stage saw the light belying all scepticism. That its progress is sluggish and may have fallen short of expectation is another story, but its existence is a reality. The South Asian security concept will certainly receive more consideration at one stage because of the complex global scenario and emerging complexities.
The writer is a senior journalist and analyst on international affairs.