Opinion & Commentary
Extend a hand to an absent friend
Although Sydney loves a party and gave world winners for the 2000 Olympics and the 2003 World Rugby Cup, the response to this week's APEC festivities has been niggardly. Do Australians really rate running the 400m or kicking a ball above consideration of issues that will determine their lives, or is the media merely reflecting the sour voices of those who want to shout from the other side of the "rabble proof" fence rather than take part in a serious debate?
The leaders of the 21 countries coming to Sydney are predominantly from Asian developing countries, but the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will also take part, with Russia as the wild card. Australia as the host has been able to formulate a pragmatic agenda that covers the key issues that face the world: climate trends, international trade and security. Of course, the world has no shortage of forums and summits.
Huge resources are being drawn out of taxpayers' pockets to pay for international junkets. Most of these do not move the understanding of international issues forward, let alone lead to sensible national policies.
Yesterday's leaders -- the Group of Eight -- exposed their unwillingness to tackle development issues in adopting the "make poverty history" slogan to throw money at Africa instead of working out how to stop corrupt governments from robbing their own people. The Kyoto Protocols have succeeded in erecting a smokescreen behind which European companies can suck public funds while making less effort to reduce hydrocarbon emissions than Australia has. A high-level UN meeting appointed Zimbabwe -- that world leader in economic mismanagement and human rights abuses -- to chair its Commission on Sustainable Development. The WTO has mismanaged the Doha trade talks to such an extent that after years of meetings no result can be expected.
Against this background, the attempt to use the APEC leaders' meeting to bring facts and rational arguments to climate, trade and security issues deserves attention. International progress on energy efficiency will only take place when the aspirations of the large developing countries are taken into account. They too must be able to reach decent living standards. If water, energy and other resource uses are not considered in this context, whatever developed countries do is likely to be offset by neglect in developing countries.
APEC's initial agenda was trade liberalisation. Its founding developing countries pioneered policies of unilaterally removing trade barriers for rapid economic growth. Trade liberalisation has been the dominant APEC theme. All the countries that have liberalised trade have not only achieved rapid growth but dramatically reduced the numbers of people living in poverty.
There is no magic fix for climate problems. Profound economic choices lie ahead, but while here too overall philosophies are of importance, only a pragmatic approach, country by country, will make a difference. Technologies now being developed will be capable of reconciling the aspirations of people in developing countries to high living standards with environmental goals. The national policies that will stimulate rather than impede them have to be on the agenda.
With nuclear proliferation, international security has again come to the forefront of international issues. A suitcase nuclear bomb is no longer a science fiction fantasy. September 11 in New York, the Bali, London and Madrid bombings were wake-up calls with further disasters only averted by national and international security co-operation. The extreme measures being taken to ensure the safety of the participants merely acknowledge that security dangers are real.
Pragmatic discussion by the heads of a limited number of leading developing and developed countries can move the debate forward. Surely it is worth putting up with some inconvenience as Australia hosts a meeting of international importance that will not come its way for another 20 years.
But an important guest, Manmohan Singh, will be missing. India was not included as a foundation APEC member although it is inconceivable to think of Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation without it. Its population is soon likely to exceed China's and though its growth has been less spectacular, it could prove more sustainable. A key pragmatic initiative of this year's APEC meetings must be to invite India to become an APEC member. Singh has a wicked sense of humour. He would have enjoyed the problem that the bureaucrats organising APEC in Sydney would have faced if he had been invited: how could he have been fitted with an Akubra?
Professor Helen Hughes is a Senior Fellow of The Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
