12:21 PM Jul 19, 1995

INDONESIA: ALATAS EXPLAINS DISSENT FROM GOVERNANCE REPORT

Geneva 17 July (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas, who was a member of the Global Governance Commission, has publicly explained his differences with the Commission on creating an UN Economic Security Council and abolishing the ECOSOC, UNCTAD and UNIDO.

Alatas's views have been outlined in a talk with journalists in Jakarta last week, and the text of these remarks have been circulated by the Indonesian Permanent Mission here to other Missions.

When the Governance Commission made public its report in January this year, it was known that Alatas had expressed his differences on these, and had written to the Co-Chair of the Commission.

In his Jakarta statement to the journalists, Alatas regretted that his considered views and suggested amendments on these questions "could not be accommodated" by the Commission, but blamed himself partly in that, due to illness, he had been unable to attend the last three meetings of the Commission where the draft was finalised.

"I did send my written comments and suggested amendments to the Commission on the basis of the next-to-final draft, but that time it appeared to be too late for any changes to be effected."

But the co-chair had advised that the report included a "saving language": "Each member of the Commission would have chosen different words if he or she were writing this report alone. Everyone might not have fully embraced each and every proposal; but we all agreed on the overall substance and direction of the Report."

In his Jakarta statement, Alatas explained the genesis of the Governance Commission and its addressing the issues of "global governance" and said that in his view this term was not synonymous with the utopian idea of world government. Global governance could only be achieved if peoples and governments cooperate on the basis of "genuine interdependence, common interest and benefit and shared responsibility to ensure a world of greater peace, social justice and equitably spread prosperity".

Fundamental changes in the world over the last 50 years had brought the ideal vision of global neighbourhood nearer to reality, but the world was far from one harmonious community in the sense of shared values.

The world was yet the evolution into a global neighbourhood and what they had now was far from ideal. It was one with new opportunities and tensions and problems, with many imperfections and all residents not being treated equitably or provided with the same opportunities.

It was against this background that the Governance Commission explored the four areas of global security, managing economic interdependence, reforming the UN, and strengthening the rule of law worldwide.

Alatas said that while he fully concurred with a great number of its views and suggestions, he could not associate himself with several of the conclusions and proposals.

He could not agree with the idea of an Economic Security Council at the apex of the UN system, and coupled with it the idea of "retiring" the present ECOSOC, and closing down UNCTAD and UNIDO.

Since the idea was first broached, Alatas explained, he had serious doubts about its feasibility, and noted that most developing countries also had "grave misgivings" about the proposal.

Setting up an Economic Security Council with a limited membership, along with the dissolution of the ECOSOC, would further undermine the efforts to bring about greater democratization in the UN's functioning.

It would also imply moving away from the now accepted definition of security as an integral concept - embracing not only political and economic, but socio-economic security - and thus moving away from the general view of the developing world that this enlarged concept of security should be made the scope of a "reformed Security Council".

The establishment of an Economic Security Council was also neither realistic nor practical, given the drastic UN Charter revisions needed. He believed therefore they should continue with the reform of the present ECOSOC and enabling it to perform the roles intended in the Charter.

As for the proposal on UNCTAD, Alatas said he was "categorically opposed" to the idea.

Recent changes in the world economy and international economic relations made it more than ever necessary for UNCTAD to be strengthened in order to cope with the continuing challenges of achieving accelerated, sustainable and equitably spread development, especially for developing countries, and ensuring a conducive external environment and a balanced and just economic relations between developed and developing nations.

"If the UN is to continue to play a role in securing these objectives in global economic development, then the role of UNCTAD, which was created with the UN to protect and promote especially the interests of developing countries and weaker economies of the world, should not be allowed to be whittled down or eliminated." Despite the wide ranging mandate given to UNCTAD by the UN General Assembly when it created this body, and its laudable and remarkable record of achievements, UNCTAD was at present languishing and its agenda and role had been progressively trimmed and limited.

This, the Indonesian foreign minister, was because since early 1980s, there had been systematic efforts by some highly developed countries to limit its mandate and reduce its role in the international economic arena.

"And now, even while the suggestion of the Commission's recommendation to close down UNCTAD is being made contingent upon the acceptance of a comprehensive package of proposals for institutional reforms (e.g. the Economic Security Council etc), it can be expected that the suggestion to eliminate UNCTAD would be taken up separately by those quarters who have consistently tried to get rid of UNCTAD."

The argument that the creation of the WTO justified the closing down of UNCTAD was also flawed since it did not reflect true knowledge of the functions of UNCTAD and the WTO, Alatas declared, adding, UNCTAD's functions go much beyond trade and embrace such global economic issues as commodities, money, finance, debt, transport, shipping, transfer of technology etc.

The developed countries, Alatas added, would not like the agenda of the WTO to be "cluttered up" by such issues as it would detract from the contractual nature of the WTO. Hence most of UNCTAD's functions in the broad field of development were unlikely to be taken over by the WTO.

Finally, Alatas said, the WTO could be called a "status quo" institutions which was not expected to question the existing world economic order or international economic relations, or concerned with equity and justice and need to correct imbalances in prevailing international economic relations.

UNCTAD was very much concerned with these and had a "clear advocacy role" that must continue to be supported and acted upon by the countries of NAM and the Group of 77.

Alatas said his opposition to the proposed closure of UNIDO was based on same considerations and arguments. UNIDO was a UN specialized agency very relevant for accelerating the industrialization of developing world, and its role should continue to be strengthened and not diminished or eliminated.