The
secretariat of any organisation or institution as the
Secretariat of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) is a vital instrument for the realisation of
its aims and objectives. Its head whether he is designated
as the Secretary General or by any other name is the
key player. He uniquely brings to bear regional perspective
and represents overall interest of the organisation
with regard to all matters brought before it for consideration.
This may not always be the case with other institutions
of the body comprising representatives of member states
who are required to look at issues from the point of
view of their respective countries. For several reasons
peculiar to the region the role of the secretariat is
particularly important in South Asia.
REVIEWING
SAARC SECRETARIAT
The SAARC secretariat was set up at Kathmandu in January
1987 about two years after the seven nation organisation
with Bangladesh Bhutan India Maldives Nepal Pakistan
and Sri Lanka as members came into being. A review of
the role and function of the SAARC Secretariat and its
Secretary General is important because of a number of
reasons. First, the several recent meetings of the heads
of state or government of SAARC have taken some important
decisions and bold initiatives to strengthen the organisation
and to widen and deepen regional co-operation. The 12thsummit
in Islamabad early this year, for example, concluded
the agreement on South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA)
under which that member countries would bring down tariff
from the existing level to 0-5 per cent between the
years 2006 and 2015 in two phases. The leaders re-iterated
their commitment to establish the South Asian Economic
Union as recommended by the Group of Eminent Persons
and urged that earnest step should be taken in this
direction. Special mention should also be given to the
signing of SAARC Social Charter demanding cooperation
in the vital field of energy and the establishment of
a South Asian Development Bank. These are areas which
can provide much needed substance to regional co-operation.
Secondly, regional organisations like the European Union
(EU), Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) are now expanding
their membership and scope of operation. The membership
of the European Union has recently been increased from
15 to 25 and when Romania and Bulgaria join the forum
the number would rise to 27. Similarly, NAFTA today
consists of the United States, Canada and Mexico. It
is expected to have 31 more members by 2005 to form
a larger free trade area extending through Central and
South America. In South East Asia, ASEAN is reaching
out both to neighbouring China, Japan and South Korea
through the recently initiated ASEAN free trade area
arrangement, the ASEAN + 3 initiative and the mechanisms
designated as Dialogue Partners and ASEAN Regional Forum
(ARF). Recent resurgence of regional organisations among
industrial nations is comes from their sense of frustration
about the tardy progress in trade negotiations under
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and whatever reduction
in tariff that has taken place is far short of their
expectations. The same logic applies more strongly in
the case of developing countries like those in South
Asia .The commitments made earlier by developed countries
to the developing countries under the WTO have not been
acted upon and the issues of vital interest, like agriculture,
intellectual property rights and movement of natural
persons are being sidetracked. If SAARC is to compete
in this environment and become effective it needs to
have a strong and result oriented secretariat.
ROLE
AND FUNCTION OF SAARC SECRETARY-GENERAL
The role and function of the SAARC secretariat and the
Secretary-General and on the Establishment of the Secretariat
are provided for in the Memorandum of Understanding
(MOU) signed by Foreign Ministers of member countries
on 17 November 1986 at Bangalore India.
According
to the Memorandum, the Secretary-General is appointed
by the SAARC Council of Ministers upon nomination by
the member states on the principal of rotation in an
alphabetical order. The other professional staff is
Directors nominated by each member state but formally
appointed by the Secretary General. Under Chapter VIII
of the Memorandum the Secretary General "shall
be responsible for co-ordination and monitoring of the
SAARC activities" and act as the "channel
of communication and linkage" between SAARC and
International Organisations when empowered by the Standing
Committee to do so and assist in the organisation and
preparation of SAARC meetings. The Secretary-General
is also the custodian of the SAARC documents and publications.
Chapter
III of the Memorandum provides that the secretariat
shall "co-ordinate and monitor" the implementation
of SAARC activities and "service the meetings of
the Association". The original tenure of two years
of Secretary General was, subsequently, raised to three
years at the 9th SAARC Summit held at Male. Since the
decision of the 11th summit, the Secretary-General holds
the rank of a minister.
MANDATE
EXERCISED BY SIMILAR SECRETARIATS
A survey of the functions and powers exercised by secretariats
of similar organisations elsewhere point to broad common
features. The Secretary-General or his equivalent ina
regional organisation cannot, no doubt, take decisions
on matters which are not entrusted to him by the charter
of the organisation. These are left to the member states
to decide. His job generally is to provide data objective
information and analysis to facilitate decision-making.
As an institution, conceived to represent general interest
of the organisation, and because of its non-partisan
character, the secretariat in most cases has the authority
to initiate and propose programmes and projects to strengthen
cooperation. Once decisions are taken at the appropriate
intergovernmental level it is for the Secretary- General
to administer, implement and monitor follow-up. In most
cases the secretariat also acts as the guardian of agreements,
understandings and treaties adopted by the body and
ensures that these are applied correctly. In the event
of default, the secretariat has the duty to draw attention
of the concerned party to the matter and urge remedial
action.
EUROPEAN
COMMISSION AND ASEAN SECRETARIAT
The European Commission, which is the secretariat of
the EU, has been mandated to undertake policy initiative,
propose legislation as the executive body of the organisation
and to act as the guardian of treaties along with the
European Court of Justice. It serves as the honest broker
between conflicting national interests, negotiates trade
and co-operation agreements with foreign countries and
international organisations and independently decides
on agriculture and trade policy issues. The President
of the Commission, who holds tenure of five years, takes
part in the heads of state and government meetings.
The Commission has over the years played a constructive
role in bringing the community members closer.
The European Commission and its president are given
the credit for their efforts at bringing about the integration
of the community. It played a vital role in realising
the European single-market idea at the beginning of
1993 and, subsequently, in finalising the blueprint
for economic and monetary union.
The
ASEAN revised the role and mandate of its Secretariat
several times since its establishment in 1976 (the ASEAN
came into being about nine years earlier). The original
mandate of the Secretariat was "to provide for
greater efficiency in co-ordination of ASEAN organs
and for more effective implementation of ASEAN projects
and activities" Subsequent amendments made in 1983,
1985, 1989, 1992, were aimed at providing more manpower
resources, authority over and freedom of operation to
the Secretary-General. The Manila protocol signed in
July 1992 raised the term of office of the Secretary
General to five years. He works as the channel of communication
between different organs and institutions of the ASEAN
as well as foreign governments and international organisations.
The
Secretary General is mandated to initiate plans, programmes
and activities to strengthen regional cooperation, prepare
the Three-Year Plan of cooperation and monitor its implementation.
All funds established for ASEAN co-operation are administered
by the Secretary-General. He is the spokesman of the
organisation and represents the body on all matters.
In
organisational terms, the Secretary-General is appointed
by the heads of state and government on merit and enjoys
the rank of a minister. The professional staff is recruited
through region-wise open competition, as compared to
SAARC where all directors are nominees of the member
countries.
NEED
TO CHANGE SAARC SECRETARIAT
SAARC Secretariat hardly exercises even a modest role
assigned to it by the Charter. It has only occasionally
been involved in the preparation of documentations for
important meetings. The Standing Committee and the Technical
Committees, which comprise representatives of member
nations, are currently assigned the function of monitoring
and co-coordinating SAARC activities. The SAARC activities
are highly decentralised and disaggregated. In fact
all activities are undertaken by the member states themselves.
The role of the Secretary-General simply acts as a channel
of communication with the outside world and seeks specific
authorisation by the Standing Committee, since he has
no mandate to communicate with foreign countries or
outside organisation, except for the exchange of published
materials.
In matters related to SAARC agreements, protocols and
understandings, the Secretary-General has little role.
A look at the Agreement on Establishment of SAARC Food
Security Reserve indicates that the drawing of food
grains from the reserve is left to the borrowing and
lending countries. The two parties will agree on the
terms of the borrowing and simply notify the details
to the Food Security Board, which comprises representatives
of member states. It is to be noted that since inception
in 1987, no food grains was ever withdrawn from the
Reserve.
To
take another example, any request of a contracting party
for extradition of an alleged offender from another
party for violation of provisions of SAARC Regional
Convention on Suppression of Terrorism is left to the
concerned member state to deal with. The SAARC Secretary-General
is the depositary of all SAARC agreements and conventions
but his role is restricted to transmit notification
about their ratification and the date of their enforcement.
Thus all SAARC agreements may be seen merely as an intention
on the part of member states to address some common
regional issues but for all intents and purposes it
is left to the member states to work out their implementation
as they deem fit. Finally, in a singular departure from
the general norm, funding of the SAARC activities is
to be undertaken through voluntary contribution of member
states.
The
SAARC Secretariat is the only regional institution available
to the organisation to provide regional perspective
and to realise the objectives of the body. Other bodies
like the Technical Committee or the Standing Committee
are intergovernmental institutions. Those who participate
in those meetings take the positions of their respective
countries. The narrow mandate and restricted scope of
operation of the Secretary General is designed to keep
all the options open for the member states. The Charter's
provision that that all decisions of the organisation
shall be taken on the basis of unanimity and that the
bilateral and contentious issues shall be excluded from
deliberations provides each member state with veto power.
Fragile
mandate of Secretariat
No doubt the power and authority of a secretariat depends
on the nature of cooperation envisaged and the purpose
and the way member states use it. It is similar to the
Non-aligned Movement (NAM), in operation for more than
four decades, which is merely a consultative forum;
its decisions having no mandatory force and has also
not found it necessary to have a secretariat for itself.
The co-coordinating mechanisms at New York, Geneva and
a few other places as well as the host countries of
respective events have managed meetings and other activities.
On the other hand, the European Union is the most integrated
regional institution. It is an economic union with a
common currency and an elected parliament that allows
free flow of goods, services, capital and labour. It
has common external tariff and close cooperation in
political security and economic cooperation policy.
As a result, the European Commission, as mentioned earlier,
has been given wide powers and freedom by the constitution
to operate in the interest of the Union. The ASEAN,
which started with a modest agenda is progressively
expanding and deepening co-operation and has over the
years transformed into a dynamic regional organisation.
The growing power and responsibility assigned to the
Secretary-General is a measure of a realisation on the
part of member states that a strong secretariat is vital
to carry the body forward. It may be noted that the
SAARC charter defines the aims and objective of the
organisation in rather general terms. (To promote the
welfare of the peoples of South Asia' and to promote
'active collaboration and mutual assistance' etc.) But
as the organisation is currently poised for qualitative
transformation in its scope of work, it should follow
other successful organisations in the revitalisation
of the secretariat.
Conclusion
SAARC has, so far, achieved little. The stringent controls
over the economies by governments of the region and
their inward looking policy administered by a corrupt
and inefficient bureaucracy have hampered effective
regional cooperation. Most crucially, the strained relationship
between India and Pakistan, the two major countries
of the area, and the lack of goodwill, trust and confidence
have seriously impeded the progress. Consequently, the
strict control imposed on the Secretary-General is symptomatic
of member states' hesitation to part with a degree of
their sovereignty. The resumption of long stalled dialogue
between India And Pakistan following the meeting of
the leaders of the two countries during the January
2004 SAARC summit in Islamabad and the economic reform
measures undertaken by all South Asian countries since
1990s should positively impact on the SAARC process.
Also important are the spread of education, democratic
awareness and the emergence of a growing middle class
in the region with fresh ideas priorities and aspirations.
It is time the civil society in the region and the media,
in particular, played a proactive role to mobilise public
opinion for regional cooperation and to underline the
cost of non cooperation. The wellbeing of the people
of the region should not be allowed to remain hostage
to the outmoded ideas of security and national chivalry.
Abul
Ahsan is Vice-President of Independent University Bangladesh.
He has also served as Foreign Secretary Bangladesh and
first SAARC Secretary-General |
