PERFORMANCE OF SAARC AS A REGIONAL ORGANIZATION IN COMPARISON WITH ASEAN AND ECO

Abstract

With limited output and a avoid sarcastic expressions gap between its promise and performance, SAARC has a long way to go to become an effective organization for regional cooperation. The common vision upholding the ideals of peace, stability, good-neighborly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in South Asia remains a distant dream. The problems besetting its member states and those hampering a coherent regional approach remain unaddressed. SAARC’s regional approach not only lacks operational mechanism but is also captive to its peculiar geo-political environment in which India’s hegemonic role and its outstanding unresolved problems with its neighbors continue to hamper meaningful progress toward regional integration. Regional cooperation in Asia is not a recent phenomenon. This regional cooperation started in 1964 when Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, induced by the Cold War context and encouraged by the U.S., established a cooperative mechanism called “Regional Cooperation for Development” or RCD as it was more familiarly known. Unfortunately, it could not move beyond what its acronym literally stood for: RCD for “recreation through conferences and delegations”. It was dissolved in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran. ASEAN is another regional experience in Asia. Established in 1967, it had five members but now it comprises ten member-states. This grouping is the only regional organization other than the European Union (EU) which has pursued and achieved genuine economic integration and made a visible difference in the political, economic and cultural life of its member-states. Despite its cultural diversities and difference in political and governing systems, ASEAN represents an examplary regional cooperation. What makes this organization even more remarkable is its attractiveness to other regions and countries including major powers, which have been seeking partnership with this organization for mutually beneficial cooperation not only in the economic field but also in political and security areas in the form of ASEAN Region Forum (ARF) established in 1994. Two other regional organizations, namely the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and SAARC, emerged in Asia in 1985 with ambitious goals and objectives. ECO with its headquarters in Tehran was essentially the reincarnation of RCD, dissolved in 1979. The ECO assumed a new dimension and a global identity with its transformation in 1992 from a trilateral entity to a ten-member states organization.Like ASEAN, South Asia is a region with different levels of economic development and patterns of governance. The process of regional cooperation could not take off because of the inherent weaknesses in the new member-states, mutual distrust and ongoing war on terrorism and its consequences in Afghanistan. Almost 25 years have passed since SAARC came into being as an expression of collective resolve of South Asian states to develop a regional cooperative framework in an increasingly inter-dependent world and to keep pace with the changing times for the socio-economic well-being of its people. This promise is far from being fulfilled. Despite its shortcomings, SAARC represents a region which claims a high growth rate averaging above 5%. At 8 to 9% India’s growth rate is the highest in the region, which signifies immense potential of gains for neighboring countries if they engage in regional collaboration. The inclusion of new members i.e. Afghanistan and central Asian states and observers in SAARC are viewed as promising developments. The SAARC has drawn some programmes in terms of engagement of the states of the region with one another. However, in concrete terms the achievements are limited and the region has moved slowly towards regional economic integration. The problems of poverty and under-development continue to haunt these countries. The areas of education, health care and sustainable development continue to face neglect. SAARC has not so far accelerated the economic growth, social progress or cultural development of its member states. South Asia remains one of the world’s poorest regions with partly closed economy. Despite some progress towards trade liberalization in the 1990s, vast majority of its people still live in grinding poverty and sub-human conditions. Economic growth indices, with rare exceptions are static, if not going downward. They have yet to overcome their most daunting socio-economic disparities. One important way to deal with these difficulties is to change the approach, attitudes and behavior of the concerned states so that fresh ideas, concepts, theories and approaches are given a fair chance. This would require tolerance, magnanimity, prudent vision and practical approach to detach countries from the baggage of the past and move in the direction of development and progress in order to deal with these faultlines which impede the process of regional development. It is hoped that as the states of the region develop mutual confidence, the performance of SAARC will improve.