TELEGRAPH WEEKLY SEMINAR : 23.11.2000
ROLE OF MEDIA IN GOOD GOVERNANCE
-NIHAL RODRIGO, SECRETARY-GENERAL, SAARC
Some months ago, the United Nations Development Programme in
cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sponsored a South Asian Conference on
Good Urban Governance in Kathmandu. The SAARC Secretariat assisted by providing its modest
conference facilities for the working sessions of the Conference. The special focus on
urban governance was due to the fact that for most SAARC Countries, rural development has
been a stronger priority. In fact, in South Asia, approximately 80 per cent of the people
live and work in rural areas. The Conference was anticipating that with greater
urbanization, within this century cities and urban centers in South Asia could well
account for about the same number of people as in its rural sector.
2. While the practical aspects of governance relative to a
rural as against an urban environment have obvious variations, the fundamental aspects of
governance are applicable equally to either environment.
3. The Eighth SAARCLAW Conference held in September in
Kathmandu also had as its theme, Good Governance for Development.
4. The word, Governance, however, carries sensitive, even
controversial connotations in the regional as well as international context. The concept
of governance remains controversial not because there is any dispute about the end-purpose
of governance. In its broadest sense, governance could be described as the promotion of
the overall development of the people in a sustainable manner, while providing
opportunities to all citizens to fully and freely participate in that process. There has
been considerable concern that the concept of governance has sometimes tended to get
injected or laced with some intrusive elements originating from outside the states.
Motives have not been always altruistic nor honest. Although international conferences of
a representative nature have debated the question of governance, no clear definition
applicable to all situations has been possible. This has also led to the situation where
the concept like human rights has been even abused selectively as a pretext for
interference in the internal affairs of state. Last year’s UNDP Human Development
Report which touched on human rights pointed out that the rhetoric of human rights, for
example, was polarized by the cold war and had been reduced to a weapon for geo-political
interests and propaganda.
5. In 1997, SAARC Leaders designated that Year as the SAARC
Year of Participatory Governance. Participatory governance by its very description entails
all sections of society being involved in development-related activities and in the local
decision-making processes affecting their day-to-day life. Dr. Amartya Sen and others have
brought into the concept of good governance, the neglected social dimension which has
tended to be sometimes over-shadowed by purely political issues. The social dimension is
now being taken very much into account by international financial institutions as well as
social agencies and governments in their policy formulations.
6. With economic priorities dominating SAARC activities since
around the mid-1990s, there has also been some feeling that in the process, the social
issues had perhaps been neglected in the pursuit of economic growth. It has been seen that
the pure pursuit of economic growth measured in statistics alone clearly distorts human
development. This has also tended to sideline the vulnerable in society with economic
growth by-passing them.
7. Vital social indicators which form a core concern in good
governance will be taken up in the context of a SAARC Social Charter. A working paper
prepared by the Government of Sri Lanka was introduced at the meeting of the Council of
Ministers in Nuwara Eliya last year and a Meeting of government representatives to develop
the concept is expected to convene in Colombo in mid-February next year.
8. Concepts of human and humane governance have been
enunciated by Economists such as the late Mahbub ul Haq, who placed human beings at the
live-center of development. It is now widely expected that the ultimate goal of
development and of governance is the creation and strengthening of human capabilities and
expanding choices and options of all people in society to participate in development.
9. Governance in its broadest sense is not exclusively the
business of the political executive or States. Someone said that governance is too
important to be left to Governments.
10. At the Eighth SAARCLAW Conference, I stated, for example,
that the legal fraternity, however, independent it is from the political executive and
from governments, cannot stay aloof from the business of governance. Similarly, other
actors in society are very much part of the process. Clearly, the Press is very much a
major player. It becomes a script-writer in the political and social drama because it
often identifies issues, elaborates them and popularizes them.
11. I would like to touch on two main functions of the Press
which affect the quality of governance. It is a function of the Press to inform the public
of the facts and to encourage thinking on issues. Secondly, to go to the next step, to
mould opinion, to push, agitate for a course of action or dissuade. The first is perhaps a
very objective function but needs to be carried out without bias. The second can be rather
subjective, reflecting the policy of the paper which indeed could be the policy of the
publishers. In some Countries, during election time, newspapers openly espouse the case of
its favoured candidate.
12. In promoting good governance, the Press also performs a
valuable function in serving as a baro-meter for those in Government to judge the mood of
the people. The real influence of the Press will depend on the extent that its reporting
and comment are considered credible and accurate.
13. No newspaper, no analyst, no political thinker, no
government spokesman can be absolutely dispassionate and completely objective. The people
will decide. Views expressed as editorial policy or Government policy will eventually be
judged by the people – respectively as voters or as readers.
14. Throughout the world, and South Asia is no exception,
Governments are in fact divesting many functions which were exclusively theirs a few
decades ago. The private sector is increasingly taking on many such functions. Mahbub ul
Haq’s Development Report made the point that the failure of governance is often the
failure of implementation. The process of implementation involves a long chain of action
from the making of policy to the delivery of goods and services set out in policy
pronouncements. A number of actors are involved in this process although it is certainly
true that Governments bear the prime responsibility for governance.
15. Governance in today’s complex society involves the
exercise of political, economic and administrative authority and its management. It
includes a multiparty of sectors – the state, the private sector, civil society, the
press, on which the citizen must rely. Good governance would require contributions by all.
The contribution of the press is particularly significant in that it covers all these
sectors and as I said before becomes a sort of script-writer. The responsibility that
rests on the press is therefore all the greater.
The world keeps pace with the net
-Claude Leblanc, French Journalist
In the space of a few years, the Internet has become an
essential feature of international communication. Nevertheless, much remains to be done if
the Net is to have the universal dimension promised for it.
An instrument of trade par excellence, the Internet is in the
process of overturning the way our societies operate both internally and externally.
Initially the preserve of rich countries with the infrastructure essential to its
establishment, the network of networks now affects the entire planet.
The attraction of the Internet is based on its ability to
encourage the establishment of new trading links, from which every country in the world
will be able to profit. The process of free-falling costs of the production, storage and
transport of information caused by the Internet constitutes a novel chance for the
countries of the South to become major players in the world economy.
While the countries of the South still trail behind the
developed countries in terms of the number of people connected to the world-wide web, they
are nonetheless experiencing very rapid growth. According to a survey published in April
2000, Africa, Asia and South America have recorded, in one year, an increase of 136%, 155%
and 102% respectively in the number of their nationals present on the web. China today has
some ten million Internet users and is increasing the number of initiatives the designed
to encourage local companies to develop their presence on the web, to permit the Chinese
economy to profit from world trade, which will reach an estimated 327 billion dollars in
2002.
However, despite concerted efforts in the countries of the
South to fill in the digital "gulf" that separates them from the most developed
nations, the inequalities remain and some times are tending to become even more marked. A
study conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit of the readiness of the States for
e-commerce, stresses that: " to trade electronically, something other than a stable
economy must be developed. The presence of telecommunications infrastructure suitable for
Net traffic is also vital"’. Hence it is up to the technologically advanced
countries to help along the most disadvantaged in order to limit the inequalities in
cyberspace as much as possible.
From economy to diplomacy: While the impact
of the Internet on the world economy is undeniable, the influence that this new vector of
information exercises over international politics is not negligible either. During the UN
intervention in Kosovo, in 1999, control of the information conveyed over the Net proved
to be one of the priorities of the belligerents The "’CNN effect" is now
supplanted by the Internet to which States grant ever increasing importance in putting
across their message in order to achieve their external policy objectives. Diplomatic
moves are now planned alongside an Internet strategy. Thus the rotating presidency of the
European Union is no longer conceivable without the creation of a website designed to
promote the efforts made towards the construction of Europe.
International relations are sometimes fraught with rivalries
which may degenerate into open conflict. The development of the world wide web facilitates
not only peaceful dialogue but may also prompt some States to employ cyberwar to settle
their differences or weaken their adversary by attacking his computer networks or his
servers. This is why it is essential not to allow the world to repeat its mistakes, by
giving all the citizens of the world the means to make decisions together. The very
structure of the Internet lends itself to this. It only remains to move beyond egoisms and
private interests, which could be most difficult thing to achieve. |
