Once again we have forgotten about the South Asia Association of Regional Cooperation, SAARC. When was the last time you heard about SAARC? It is not that the regional body lost its relevancy but rather the fact that it never had any. Sad enough, it is only when the SAARC summits are held that excitement comes around and you start reading op-ed pieces about regional integration.
Before the enthusiasm evaporates, regional think tanks have offered some new ideas and insights on ways to forge ahead with SAARC.
Are we really sure we are talking about a common project? If we look at other regional collaborations, we witness a clear will from the political leadership to embark on a common vision of economic, social and to a lesser extent, political integration.
The real truth is that we do not have any idea of a more united South Asia. There is a lack of will on the part of national leaders whose priorities are at their own country level. The common belief is that regional integration is an “add on”, something not really indispensable for the prosperity of the single member nations.
Strange as it might be, this self defeating logic prevails with no signs of change. No matter the multitude of analytically sound reports and studies about the economic benefits of more regional trade, political leaders are not persuaded enough to invest in the political process of regional integration.
Pressed by national issues at home, leaders have no ammunition left to press ahead and forge a common vision of how South Asia will look in twenty five years.
At this precise moment, probably what is needed are some sort of symbolic gestures, some sort of common positions among the member nations on the most pressing issues faced by humanity.
What about some sort of a joint resolution on climate change? Let’s not give too much importance now to its contents, but aA common position from the SAARC countries for the upcoming negotiations on climate change to be held in Paris would give a little boost to the process of regional integration.
Such an act could be comparable to drinking a can of redbull: the effect would be very strong in the short term. The regional project would get an injection of taurin, the powerful ingredient of redbull and create a new opportunity to re-launch the debate on regional integration.
Always in terms of symbolic gestures, think about setting up a toothless regional forum with the members of parliament of all the SAARC nations. Let’s not even call it a parliament; this would be too political. The representatives not elected by the south Asians people but simply picked by the governments or by the national parliaments, could meet in sessions twice or thrice in a year in rotating sessions hosted by the different members.
Symbolically as you want, these proposals could see light only with political determination and a sheer desire for more integration.
We should not leave the process of further integration in the hands of the bureaucrats: they should be the implementers of decisions taken at higher levels.
With no such political will, the only hope left for a stronger SAARC is if civil society and the private sector will start taking a bolder role.
Culturally speaking, the region is much more integrated than many would think. The member states face many common and similar challenges and de facto there is a sort of regional intelligentsia already active. Representatives of the not for profit sector could forge much stronger synergies by sharing best practices on how to replicate winning formulas to beat poverty and inequality.
Regional networks of NGOs already exist but probably lack the insight that they could play a very important role not only in promoting solutions to common problems faced by the region but also in energizing the process of regional integration.
Last but not the least, the private sector, is the real engine of any integration; if you look at the European Union or at ASEAN, the integration was driven mostly from an economic perspective. Starting with more trade and by opening up their markets, nations worldwide embarking themselves in projects of regional integration knew that cooperation and partnerships among neighbors makes good business sense.
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