It has been announced that the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Mr Fernando Henrique Cardoso, will be present at the Caricom Summit which opens in Georgetown next week on the 3rd July. There have been, over the years, other distinguished visitors to Caricom Summits but none of the stature of Cardoso.
Cardoso has been President of Brazil since l995. Brazil is the fifth most populous country with the eighth largest economy in the world. Under Cardoso Brazil has pursued a very activist foreign policy, both regionally and internationally. Among his major international initiatives was the holding in Brasilia in September 2000 of the first Summit of South American Heads of Government. Cardoso's foreign policy apparently aims at creating a southern focus of power which would be a counterweight to the USA (as suggested by Peter Hakim on Foreign Affairs January/February 2002).
Cardoso's visit is of special significance for Guyana in view of the deepening relationship with Brazil. Guyana has concluded a ten year partial scope trade agreement with Brazil and it is increasingly clear that re-orientation or expansion of Guyana's trade in a non-traditional southwards direction must be trade with Brazil. In addition, Guyana can realistically be prospected as the transit route for Caricom goods especially from the Eastern Caribbean into Brazil and South America. Now it need not be only a question of the passage of goods. It can also be a route for ideas. There is much in the Brazilian culture (beyond Pele) which can enrich the Caribbean. It is for example good to know that under the same Southern skies there once lived and worked in Brazil a sculptor, Alajedinho, the child of a slave mother, whose work is comparable with that of Michelangelo. Indeed in view of this burgeoning relationship across the Takutu it should be seriously considered whether in addition to a token diplomatic presence in Brasilia, there should be established in Manaus, a consular body capable of dealing with trade and consular matters and cultural exchange.
Cardoso has been the purveyor of powerful ideas - ideas of particular relevance to the predicament of the small states of Caricom with their openness and vulnerability to change in the international milieu. In an article published in a booklet Re-Ordering the World issued by the UK Foreign Policy Centre (one of Tony Blair's think tanks) Cardoso argues the case for the "Reform of the global institutional architecture". While strongly condemning terrorism he argues that the concern with terrorism should not be allowed to stifle the debate on global cooperation which the road to the future requires. Cardoso asserts that the forces of globalisation should be harnessed in the pursuit of lasting peace, a peace not sustained by fear, but rather by the willing acceptance by countries of a just international order. The heart of his argument is given in the following words:
"... what I have in mind is the fact that globalisation has not lived up to its promises. There is a governance deficit in the international sphere, and it results from a democratic deficit."
Cardoso's arguments project on to the international level a situation which is familiar enough at the national level. When a new activity develops within the nation state, eg new kinds of industry or methods of trade, it is usually necessary for the state to "step in" with new laws or regulations or mechanics to ensure that the new activities are pursued in the public interest in ways which benefit everyone and harm none.
Hence the activities termed globalisation which impact comprehensively and often adversely especially within developing states and on their peoples require not the dismantling of international rules as is argued and practised by the industrialised west but the creation of new rules and norms (international governance) to safeguard welfare and promote development.
So Cardoso calls for a number of reforms to be made in the international system. The Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the IMF) must be revamped to make them more responsive to the needs of developing countries. The negotiations in the WTO should be translated into greater access for goods from developing countries. The International Criminal Court must be recognised as a historic victory for the cause of human rights. There should be prompt ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The United Nations should be strengthened by the General Assembly becoming more active. The Security Council should be enlarged so that the category of Permanent Members includes those developing countries with the necessary credentials.
Finally in his brief survey of international institutions and arrangements for reform, Cardoso calls for the enlargement of the G8 (Group of the richest industrialised countries) in view of the transformation the world is presently undergoing. "It is no longer admissible," the Brazilian Presidents insists, "to restrict to such a limited group of countries [ie the G8] the discussion of issues pertaining to globalisation and its inevitable impact on the political and economic life of emerging economies."
In short, Cardoso is calling for the democratisation of the international system, a matter to which Guyana's Foreign Minister Insanally had drawn attention very recently in his address to the OAS Assembly in Barbados.
Currently the international community is trying to cope with the blows being struck against some aspects of international organisation by the Bush administration, the latest being in the field of UN peace-keeping.
But the assaults of the current White House at least have the dubious merit of being forthright and undertaken unashamedly. However, such current incursions into the international order are only a small part of the long and insidious process through which the developed countries have sought to become the directorate of the world.
While the leadership of the newly independent developing countries revelled in their newly won sovereignty with flag and anthem and sometimes their own airline, the developed countries having abandoned their increasingly rebellious subject territories have sought to take control of the international economy and to force access into the new national economies for their export trade and investment.
The developing countries with the Caricom states in the vanguard had sought to bring about a New International Economic Order (the NIEO) through the United Nations system. But the UN system has now been by-passed by a triad of powerful institutions which are controlled by the developed countries, namely the World Trade Organisation (WTO) which was deliberately established outside the UN system and the World Bank and the IMF which have always had only a tenuous relationship with the UN system.
Moreover, the industrialised states have sought systematically to remove issues from the ambit of the democratically organised UN agencies, issues such as labour practices from the ILO and agricultural developments such as genetically modified (GM) crops from the FAO and to transfer such issues on to the agenda of the WTO which they control and whose decisions are enforceable. Similarly toward the end of the Clinton administration the UN Security Council had held to everyone's astonishment an emergency session on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
At the time in the l970's and 80s when the Security Council was deadlocked because of the Cold War and when the solidarity of developing countries was strong, the UN General Assembly where all states however small have a vote had acquired considerable power. That is now a thing of the past. The main interest of the industrialised countries is now centred on the Security Council because when Putin's Russia lines up with the West a powerful instrument for control of global "insurgency" is created.
What can developing countries do? They can try to rebuild this global solidarity. They can also give committed attention to economic cooperation among themselves, as an alternative to the present skewed international economic system in which the gains accrue mainly to the rich.
One Caricom Head of Government has already cast doubts on the relevance of the proposed agenda for next week's Summit. With President Cardoso present the Summit could usefully ponder his reform proposals for the international system.
The developing world is now in deep disarray. The end of the Cold War, the disappearance of the Second World (the Communist bloc), the unequal pace of development with some few states becoming industralised while many others have sunk to what can only be described as a fourth world - such changes - have left the traditional movements, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 without a strategy and agenda. There is urgent need for the towering leadership which was once provided by a Nehru or a Nyrere. Fernando Cardoso will soon demit office with the ending of his six year term as President. The Brazilian constitution rules out a second term. It is possible for an international niche to be found which would enable Cardoso to continue to provide the leadership which the developing world so urgently needs.