A laudable proposal

The proposal made by Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka at a premier international forum calling for the replacement of the World Bank with a more acceptable global monetary institution that would better serve mankind is certain to win many accolades from those countries which are mired in debt to world bank policies over the years.

Addressing a global environment summit as the new President of the Parties to the Vienna Connection in Poland he urged for the replacing of the World Bank with a Global Sustainable Development Bank (GSDB)” to put the human race on the right track.”

“We have come a long way since 1945 the year the World Bank was set up.The battle lines have completely changed. The war affected nations have raised their heads too ambitiously, impoverishing a set up new countries” he asserted addressing the UN climate change conference.

The Lankan Minister’s proposal no doubt would have ready endorsement across a vast swathe poverty stricken nations which have been virtually under seige of the World Bank dictating their destinies and also effecting socio economic changes that are at variance with their traditions and cultures.

The World Bank was established in the immediate aftermath of the second World War to assist devastated Europe and later its attention was focussed on other countries which attained independence.

Although the ideals of the World Bank appeared noble -that of resurrecting the economies of battered nations and putting them on their feet, later this veered in other directions including deliberate strategies to undermine the sovereignty of these new independent nations.

Although it dispensed its largesse to help resurrect ailing economies, these were not without strings attached, leaving little room for these emerging nations to map out their own programmes and strategies to suit their own requirements.

Among these measures were the imposition of the “Structural Adjustment” an euphemism for divesting state control of the economy and promoting privatisation and the introduction of liberal reforms which undermined the social and cultural identities of states.

Those countries which abided by these reforms were inextricable caught up in the debt trap which only got worse with the stranglehold increasing with the passage of time.

Not only that these policies were often insidiously crafted to ensure regime changes in certain countries with socialist backgrounds and install Governments more amenable to the liberal ethos.

Most countries gradually started opting out of the World Bank orbit especially after the economic crash of the Asian Tigers in the 1990s. Among those which chose to depart were Malaysia, Venezuela and Brazil where there had been active agitation by the citizens against World Bank designs and the inroads made into their national fabric.

The bone of contention among most such countries is the influence wielded over it by the United States and the G8 dominance, even enjoying veto powers. There have been strong calls for a change in the current set up particularly in relation to the voting. They have also questioned the inroads made into national priorities in countries.

For instance World Bank policies do not favour sustainable development which ironically have come home to roost with the damage to the environment and the ecology having their fall out in the West which are hit by global warming melting glaziers and other phenomena associated with environmental degradation.

Sri Lanka too was subjected to these strictures during the period of the United Front Government in the early Seventies with the World Bank insisting on giving priority to cash crops instead of rice. The World Bank said that subsistence agriculture was not profitable.

But the prudent left leaders of that time did not agree to these conditions and saw the ploy behind the move to help multinational companies at the expense of the poor farmer.

Had we gone along with these measures Sri Lanka would have been a barren landscape today and the people left starving at the present time of a global food crisis.

The UNP of course religiously followed the dictates of the World Bank’s ‘poverty reduction project’ in its Regaining Sri Lanka document that would have visited us all with the above mentioned ills had it been implemented. Fortunately the country was spared of its ill effects due to a regime change.

In the new world order it is the opinion of most that the World Bank has long outlived its purpose. From the mass agitation witnessed during the recent G8 summits and similar fora it is clear that the people are agitating for the dismantling of existing global financial structures to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources among the poorer nations with no strings attached.

It is hoped the Lankan Minister’s voice would resonate this wish of a majority of the world’s population.