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Midsummer Realities
by Ikram Sehgal
From June 21 to 23 the World Economic Forum (WEF)
which traditionally holds it’s Annual Meeting at DAVOS in the winter
(except for the 9/11 Special held in 2002 in New York) organized an
EXTRAORDINARY Annual Meeting at the Dead Sea Resort (400 meters i.e. 1300
ft below sea level) near Amman in Jordan in the middle of summer. His
Highness King Abdullah 2 of Jordan graciously put the full resources of
the State to making the Summit a success, the location was an inspired
choice, all the major religions of the world commenced in this region.
Close to the crucible of civilization a sense of history permeates through
the senses. One would expect insecurity because of the proximity of the
West Bank and suicide bombings, the audacity to hold the event in such
circumstances not only underscored the confidence and courage of the young
King but the attendance bestowed a positive vote of confidence by the
world’s elite. Even though the normal complement of Heads of State and
Government were missing, second string leaders from the region were in
attendance.
The Theme of the Meeting was “Reconciliation”.
King Abdullah 2 inaugurated the Conference with a call to the
Palestinians, Israelis and the international community to stay the course
of Middle East Peace. The young King impressed every one with his candour
and eloquence in a 30 minute extempore speech, the proceedings were
force-multiplied by the fact that the Quartet for Middle East Peace - US,
EU, UN and Russia - met on the sidelines of the WEF Meeting to plan the
next steps for the implementing of the road map. The tension between
nuclear powers India and Pakistan may have lessened over the past few
months, global optimism has been tempered by increase of tensions in the
Korean Peninsula. Reaction to asymmetric threats from bio-terrorism to
weapons of mass destruction has differed, while the US has focused on
unilateral military and intelligence actions, Europeans have sought to use
multilateral institutions to address the root causes of terrorism. In a
session chaired by James Rubin, formerly Press Secretary to the US
President, notables led by US Senator Hagel, Shai Feldmann of the Israeli
Jaffee Center for Strategic studies, Lord Robertson, NATO’s Secretary
General and Al Baradei, Chairman IAEA, spoke of the need for cooperation
between the cooperation between the concerned States as well as action. US
Secretary of State Colin Powell stayed for part of the discussions. The US
Czar in Iraq, Paul Bremer, spoke to a full house in the Plenary Session,
with dignitaries like Amre Moussa, Arab League Secretary General,
challenging the issues concerning the present and future of Iraq after the
war.
Post Iraq-war the Middle East is adjusting to
the other changes on political-economic issues, notably achieving economic
growth while reducing dependency on oil revenues and on stable oil prices,
and managing with dramatic changes in demographics. Skeptics point to the
instability in Iraq after the war, its lack of democratic roots,
continuing regional tensions, and the influence of religious leaders who
might well emerge as the most powerful force from elections. When
President Bush threw his weight behind the seeking of a comprehensive
settlement the peace process received a boost at the Aqaba summit. But
Hamas has signaled its dissent by a spate of attacks, predictably Israel
has retaliated on Hamas leaders. Besieged as he was, Colin Powell was
clearly in a laid-back relaxed mood as he took a break from the tensions
of direct negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis. At the
end of the first day, the King was host at a spectacular Jordanian event
complete with a multi-ethnic orchestra as well as a rendition of very
emotional Arab poetry (duly translated), the evening ended with an
extensive display of fireworks.
Terrorists often aim at particular targets and
groups in a more dramatic escalation in global terrorism, the bombs and
bullets have not discriminated by nation. The networking and
interconnected terror, the increased destructive power and versatility of
weapons, and the existence of rogue regimes and brokers who will supply or
sell to terrorists for reasons of solidarity or venality, makes fighting
international terrorism a very high priority and a global, not regional,
issue. That means sharing intelligence and expertise, from banking and
finance to psychological profiling and forensic investigations. Curbing
terrorism will primarily require understanding root causes that give
terrorist groups a constituency of supporters. This was brought out at a
special Session on “Dealing with International Terrorism” in which I had
the privilege of participating in a very distinguished panel including
Saudi Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, US Congressman Christopher Shays,
Olivier Roy from CNRS, France, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah from
Afghanistan, Cedric Foo, Singapore’s Minister of State for Defence and R.M.
Abhyankar from Indian External Affairs Ministry. The second day ended with
a charity dinner hosted by Queen Rania and the STARS FOUNDATION for
children development. Former US President Bill Clinton enlivened the
evening by giving an impassioned appeal to the haves to help out the
have-nots. Queen Rania of Jordan was present at a Session on“ Empowerment
of women”. Wherever women are educated and / or control some income, and
are free to make decisions about their future, civil society is more
stable and economic activity more robust. There seems to be consensus that
Islamic tradition rather than actual tenets helps keep such impediments in
place. As one intellectual puts it, “If feminism is to succeed in an
Islamic environment, it must be an indigenous form of feminism, rather
than one conceived and nurtured in an alien environment with different
problems and different solutions and goals.”
In the Session Moderated
by James Rubin on “ the Immediate Media: The Future of Reporting” media
leaders from BBC (Nik Gowing), Ahmet Oren from Turkey, CNBC (Nigel
Roberts) and Christiane Amanpour among others discussed where immediate
news would drown out analysis, to what extent technology now dictates
journalism and how does the new breed of journalism affect objectivity in
reporting. The rush of events often means incomplete analysis of policy,
policy-making is a process that takes time, and a full gathering and
analysis of data. A culture of innovation and entrepreneurism needs to be
nourished. In knowledge economy, innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit
to translate that innovation into products and services, are essential. A
policy framework must incorporate coordinated education, labour, trade,
investment, banking, capital markets and industrial policies.
Pakistan
was well represented, Mr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Minister for
Privatisation and Investment led a small group of businessman, among them
Rashid Zahir of Saudi Pak, Arif Habib of Arif Habib Securities, Shahid
Feroze of Arfeen Group, Pervez Shahid of Bank Al-Falah and Waseem Haqqi,
Chairman Board of Investment to the Extraordinary WEF event. Hafeez Shaikh
was extremely articulate and his presentation as a member of an important
panel engaged in discussing “Attracting and Retaining Foreign Direct
Investment” was extremely impressive. Among discussants that included Ali
Babacan, Turkish Economic Minister, Deputy PM Ehud Olmert of Israel,
Bahrain Finance Minister Abdullah Hassan Saif and George Yeo Yong-Boon,
Singapore’s Trade and Industries Minister, PR and a gift of the gab only
goes part of the way, substance is expected. Government and non-profit
organizations often lack the entrepreneurial know-how to bring effective,
innovative solutions to large segments of the population, especially the
poor and other disadvantaged. Conventional businesses, which have the
necessary expertise, lack the financial incentive to help. This sizable
governance gap is being filled by a new category of professional called
“social entrepreneurs” who are harnessing the principle of free enterprise
to improve the quality of life of poor people and create social value.
We lost an
opportunity to host such a WEF Central Asian Conference in 1998 in
Islamabad because of the Indian nuclear explosion and our May 28
retaliation. If Pakistan wants to have real Foreign Direct Investment (FDI),
such an event in Pakistan is a dire necessity and as soon as possible.
Mr. Ikram Sehgal is
Publisher and Managing Editor of Defence
Journal (Pakistan).
He contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from
Sindh, Pakistan.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2003 Ikram Sehgal
by the same author:
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