No obsession with US-EU institutions: Scholar

By Li Xing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-06-14 14:45

BRIC countries need to take more actions than idling time away talking.

This is the view of Madhav Das Nalapat, director of the Department of Geopolitics at Manipal University, an international private university headquartered in Southern India.

"The world needs substitutes to the World Bank and the IMF.... They (BRIC countries) need to act more and talk less", Nalapat, who also holds the UNESCO Peace Chair, said in an interview with China Daily via email.

He also suggests that the BRIC countries enlist the support of West Asia and East Asia in their endeavor. The BRIC countries should also stop their obsession with US-EU institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, and immediately set up new financial institutions.

"Both Brazil and Russia paid a very heavy economic and social price for blindly following the advice given by the US and the EU," he said. "Measures that may be appropriate for the US and the EU may be very harmful for the BRIC powers, who are very different in needs and chemistry."

He said that although the four countries have a lot of differences, "there are far more commonalities than contradictions between them."

They have a common history of poverty. "They share the desire to see a world where riches are not concentrated in the few but the many," he said.

To deal with the current global financial crisis, he said that "the BRIC powers should unite and put in place regulations that prevent speculation and destruction of wealth and welfare of the many for the benefit of a few."

The BRIC countries should also "seek to impose tough curbs on speculation and on the devilish greed that has been the cause of the ruin of so many economies during 2008," he said, adding that "these economic devils want full freedom to destroy the economy of the world, and in a way that also destroys the ecology of the world."

"My only suggestion is that South Africa and the UAE should in the future be included within the BRIC countries. We cannot ignore West Asia and Africa," he said.

"If they do that, then the BRIC countries can become engines of growth for the underdeveloped world," he said.

Nalapat is the former Coordinating Editor of the Times of India. He writes extensively on security issues, policy and international affairs. Although he has no official role in the Indian government, he is said to exert influences policy at the highest levels in India.

Asked what roles India should play within the BRIC countries, he said that "India needs to concentrate on implementing the reforms needed for a growth rate of 12 percent to 15 percent, while working closely with friendly countries", instead of spending time and energy "seeking a larger international presence".

Because of its slow pace of economic reform, Nalapat reckons that the south Asian country is at least 15 years behind China. "Only when India reaches a high economic threshold will Delhi have as important a voice as China in international affairs," Nalapat said.

As to Western misgivings about the strain on world resources imposed by BRIC countries' development, he quoted the Bible as saying, "to do unto others as you would do unto yourself". "The Western countries need to set a good example in reducing their own pollution and emission levels before preaching to the BRIC countries," he said. "So long as Western countries continue to be the highest per capita polluters, nobody will take seriously their call for others to reduce emissions.

"The pain of capping and rolling back emissions should fall most on the worst per capita polluters, not on countries such as India, where per capita emissions are very low," he said.

"Let us not forget that when a poor Indian reduces his consumption, he dies of starvation, while when a poor Westerner reduces his consumption, all he loses is a potbelly," he said.

As to how these four countries get rid of extreme poverty, he said the answer is education.

"The BRIC countries need to ensure that their population gets access to quality education," he said.

"In the case of China, many bright youngsters are unable to gain access to high-quality education, because their families are too poor to meet the cost. A similar situation prevails in Russia and in Brazil and India as well," he noted.

"Governments must educate their people, and then they will find that economic growth expands. Ultimately, it is the people that power the engine of progress, and the quality of education sets limits on the speed of progress," he said.