Spring 2008 Issue No 1
In This Issue
Getting Started…
1
Getting Started...
by Theologia Iliadou
It is an exciting honour to continue the work
of
our
former WGDS presidents, editors and memFirst Term WGDS Events
2
bers
and
welcome you to this year’s first issue of our
by Theologia Iliadou & Mouzayian Khalil
society’s Newsletter. Being members of WGDS,
through this newsletter, we are given the opportuArticles & Reflections:
The New Zealand Experiment
3 nity to inform you about our society’s activities as
by Halia Haddad
well as our thoughts and experiences in relation to
the presented seminars and lectures while students
Greece: At the Front of Antiof the course in Globalization, Governance and Deglobal Sentiments?
6
velopment in the department of Politics and Interby Kleoniki Kipourou
national Studies here in the University of Warwick.
Nigeria’s Dance With
Democracy
9
Taking advantage of the department’s international character we have decided in the first issue
mainly to give you some insight around local DevelMalaysia: Celebrating 50 years of
Independence
13 opment issues from our countries that are closely
by Harpreet Bhal
related to Globalization, are not presented in the
mainstream news networks and have come to our
Special Economic Zones: The Inawareness through formal and informal discussions
dian Perspective
15
around the lectures, materials and seminars, beby Supriya Roychoudhury
tween ourselves and our academics.
by Mouzayian Khalil
Approaches to Building New
Countryside in China
Acknowledging the work being done by our
department for us and the great efforts of our professors, Shirin Rai, Iain Pirie and Mathew Doidge to
Illegal Immigration at the Southcreate this international and up to date academic
most Border of EU
20 environment while putting this course together we
by Matthew Gatt
welcome you again and hope you enjoy your time
reading
our newsletter .
Upcoming Events & Important
17
by Chen Xiaohua
Dates
by Tam Chowdhury & Theologia Iliadou
23
Theologia Iliadou
Editor and team
1
Spring 2008 No 1
First Term WGDS Events
Theologia Iliadou & Mouzayian Khalil
WGDS
event
series
started with the BBC
documentary on Gap and
Nike’s sweatshop codes of
conduct
and
mispractices.
Despite the fact that this
is a journalistic documentary the revelations of violations and the shocking images of
the factories not only have boosted
to a great extend public dissatisfaction towards the specific TNCs and
their false promises around mainly
child rights violations but also have
initiated academic discussion.
For us students of Globalization,
Governance and Development the
specific movie opened the debate
around the success of the existing
political, social and economic systems in dealing with issues of debt,
poverty, human rights, environmental issues and gendered inequalities.
It was easy for all of us to go
against the images and the information revealed by Paul Kenyon.
In our discussion, led by Iain Pirie
after the documentary, we tried
to focus on the limitations of the
specific context within which the
contracted factories of these TNCs
operate towards creating an equal
and safe environment for all. We
came to the conclusion that liability
does not only lie within the discretion of TNCs but to local as well as
global economic, social and political
actors and their conflicting power
relations and realities.
The second movie was a Hollywood
movie starring Harrison Ford. “Blade
Runner” is a 1982 postmodern approach to
the future. It negotiates
issues of power centred
around
technology,
biotechnology, governance, the environment
and their relationship with the human element in the context of development.
Some of us found the film a strange
choice but after watching it we realised its relevance. It is true that even
in our everyday lives we are asked to
negotiate technological power the
social, economic and political structures of our society. A version of the
future in the terms of this movie portrays many of our own fears about
the limitations and extremes of science in relation to sustainable development.
The last event was a lecture by Dr
Rebecca Earle of the University
of Warwick’s Department of
History.
The
topic
was
“Globalisation
&
Food”.
Whereas as students of Globalisation, Governance and Development we are preoccupied
with the political, social and
economic histories of production processes Dr Earle intrigued us
with her approach on the historic
element of our food in relation to its
ingredients and the limitations
around its locality. She demonstrated how even local traditional
food and the existence of certain ingredients can be analysed in relation
to colonial and hegemonic powers.
For these events we would like to
thank both Iain Pirie and Dr Earle.
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
2
Spring 2008 No 1
The New Zealand Experiment
Halia Haddad
It has been over
twenty years since
the IMF and World
Bank began imposing
n eo l i b e r al
structural adjustment programmes
(SAPs) on developing countries. Developing countries
lament being forced
to implement these
programmes, and
the world is waking
up to the damage such liberalisation can
cause. But while all of this is going on,
it is sometimes overlooked there is a
curious example of a country which, in
the 1980s and 1990s, effectively offered
itself up as a guinea-pig for neoliberal
economic experimentation: two successive New Zealand governments executed extensive neoliberal reforms. But
the “New Zealand experiment” didn’t
produce the grand results that had been
hoped for.
Before the economic “revolution” commenced in 1984, New Zealand’s economy was the most centrally-controlled
of all member-states in the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (Kesley, 1999). Indeed, the entire economy was cocooned
in all the accoutrements that neoliberals
said were suffocating capitalism: tariffs
and subsidies, strong trade unions, a
redistributive welfare state, a large state
sector. Among many other regulations,
you needed a doctor's prescription to
buy margarine and the law banned carpets manufactured from anything but
wool (Douglas, 1993: 257). The Government determined how many hens a
commercial poultry farmer could keep
and they determined the price you could
pay for them (Bolger, 1996).
The cumulative result of these policies
was a particularly inefficient and badlyperforming economy. New Zealand also
had the fastest build-up of both government and overseas debt of any OECD
country (Kesley, 1999). When the centre-left Labour government came to
power in 1984, they pushed through
over one hundred reforms at a bewildering pace. Economic theories which had
never been tried, let alone proven, anywhere else in the world became New
Zealand government policy at the hands
of two successive governments.
Under the first period of reform from
1984 to 1990 the policy packages became known as ‘Rogernomics’ after
their architect – the Labour Party Minister of Finance, Roger Douglas. The
second period from 1990 to 1993 became known as ‘Ruthanasia’, after the
conservative National Party's Minister
of Finance, Ruth Richardson, who continued the reforms with equal, if not
greater, zeal.
The reforms were supposedly a textbook example of liberalisation, amounting to what was in effect a classic SAP
of the kind imposed on developing
countries by the IMF and the World
Bank, involving market liberalisation
and free trade, limited government and
privatisation of public assets, a deregulated labour market, and fiscal austerity.
The state quickly became downright
anorexic, and the reforms undoubtedly
transformed New Zealand into one of
the most open and deregulated countries
in the OECD.
But the reforms did not produce the re-
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
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Spring 2008 No 1
vitalised country that had been hoped
for. For almost a decade, New Zealand's
liberalised economy faced stagnation or
recession. Between 1985 and 1992,
OECD economies grew by an average
20%, while New Zealand's economy
shrank by 1% over the same period.
Unemployment rose to unprecedented
levels, foreign debt quadrupled, and
New Zealand's credit rating was downgraded twice (Hazledine, 2002).
When New Zealand finally showed
some signs of economic growth in
1993, it became the toast of the global
economic community. Having shed all
its protective get-up, the country’s
economy was held up as a role model
for the rest of the world. The Economist
claimed that “When it comes to economic reform, it is hard to fault New
Zealand: the country has the world’s
best financial and monetary policies”
(1996: 80). But despite the fact that indicators like inflation did gradually improve, many analysts believe the country ended up significantly worse off
than it would have been under a different economic approach: It has been calculated that by 1998, New Zealand
GDP was probably at least 10% less
than what it would have been had the
country been roughly in step with Australia from 1984 onwards (Hazledine,
2002).
But aside from any
economic outcomes,
the country and many
of its people were certainly a great deal
worse off. Unemployment, inequality, and
poverty became structural features of New
Zealand life.
The
government created
an underclass where
previously there had been none. The
number of New Zealanders estimated to
be living in poverty grew by at least
35% between 1989 and 1992, so that,
by 1993, one in six New Zealanders
was considered to be living in poverty
(Kesley, 1999). The burden fell most
heavily on those who already had the
least: the native Maori people, the poor,
the sick, women with children, and the
unemployed. As Kelsey puts it: “What
were once basic priorities – collective
responsibility, redistribution of resources and power, social stability, democratic participation, and the belief
that humans were entitled to live and
work in security and dignity – seemed
to have been left far behind” (Kesley,
1995: 254).
Since 1999, Labour has done much to
heal the wounds, but New Zealand is
still a deeply divided society, and the
egalitarian society that existed in the
mid 20th century will probably never be
restored. Youth gangs in south Auckland today are evidence of the ongoing
impact of liberalisation: “These are the
children of Rogernomics and Ruthanasia. Their parents’ generation was deliberately dispossessed of job security, secure affordable housing and any sense
that the social and political system gave
a damn about them. The recent violence
http://gaianeconomics.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
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Spring 2008 No 1
is a result of long-term deprivation and
alienation from society - endemic poverty over decades, a lot of housing transience and early exclusion from education” (Bradford, 2005).
The message is clear: Even if the New
Zealand economy recovered, the human
impact of economic liberalisation continues. Few would disagree that New
Zealand's economy in 1984 needed attention. But the claim that "there was no
alternative" to the economic revolution
has, by sheer repetition, become accepted truth (Kesley, 1999). In the
meantime, other countries, governments
and peoples who are being told that
they too have no alternative to the neoliberal agenda should learn from New
Zealand's mistake.
The economist Robert Gregory has a
Over the past 20 years
the government has
transformed New Zealand from an agrarian
economy dependent on
concessionary British
market access to a
more industrialized,
free market economy
that can compete globally. This dynamic
growth has boosted
real incomes (but left
behind many at the
bottom of the ladder),
broadened and deepened the technological
capabilities of the industrial sector, and
contained inflationary
pressures.
https://www.cia.gov/
library/publications/
the-world-factbook/
geos/nz.html
point when he stresses that “The need to
understand what has happened in New
Zealand is fundamental. After all, the
reforms there were consistent with the
advice emanating from the World Bank,
the IMF, the OECD and most economists” (Hazledine, 2002). Yet although
the New Zealand experiment foundered,
other countries are still being told they
must embrace the neoliberal model.
Some still hail it as a "success story"
and a model to aspire to. On the contrary, the New Zealand experiment can
only be considered worthwhile in that it
highlighted the ineffectiveness and risks
of policies that foster inequality and
hinder human development. New Zealand’s economic self-flagellation should
have proven, years ago, how not to go
about economic reform.
References:
Douglas, R. (1993), Unfinished Business, Random House:
Auckland
Hazledine, T. (2002), “Agency Theory meets Social Capital: The Failure of the 1984-91 New Zealand Economic
Revolution”, http://cep.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/22-10-02HAZ.pdf
Kelsey, J. (1995), The New Zealand Experiment, Auckland: Auckland University Press
Kelsey, J. (1999), “Life in the Economic Test Tube”,
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/apfail.htm
“All Blacks in the Red”, Economist, 25 May 1996
Address by Rt Hon J B Bolger Prime Minister, “The Culture of Enterprise”, Wednesday 5 June 1996, Plaza International Hotel, Wellington
Address by Sue Bradford MP, Green Party Social Justice
Spokesperson, 28 October 2005,
http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/PR9334.html
Halia Haddad is a student of the MA in IR in the PAIS department and co-president of WGDS
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
5
Spring 2008 No 1
Greece: at the forefront of anti-global sentiments?
Kleoniki Kipourou
though contradictory sentiments toward
globalisation is the Greek developmental model, which has determined the
effects of globalisation upon certain
economic and social groups.
Three facts; (1) the first: 44% of the
Greek population consider globalisation
to be something bad for their country;
the second: 64% of them regard Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) to be positive
for the Greek economy; the third: 82%
(2) of them believe that globalisation
benefits the wealthiest and the most
powerful. Are these findings contradictory? Not as much as they seem to be in
the first place.
An explanation usually given for the
negative attitude of Greeks toward
globalisation is cultural: the key is
Americanisation and cultural homogenisation. The global dominance of the
English language and the uneven cultural interactions are supposed to
frighten not only the Greeks but the majority of the non-Anglo-Saxons that
their identity and uniqueness are under
serious threat. However, this argument
is not convincing enough, for the ancient Greek heritage keeps on exerting a
considerable cultural influence across
the world.
What might provide with a more thorough explanation of these negative
First of all, the agricultural sector, once
highly subsidised, has been dominant in
the Greek economy since the establishment of the Modern Greek state in the
1830. Only after the middle of the
1990s has this sector declined. Even
today, the primary sector employs more
than 10% of the total workforce (3). The
problem arises from the fact that the
Greek agriculture is highly fragmented:
small and middle size holdings prevail.
As a consequence, the liberalisation of
trade in agriculture, promoted by the
EU and the WTO, has had a significant
impact on the Greek peasants’ income
and welfare.
Apart from the agriculture, the Greek
economy has been dependent on a huge
public sector, which still accommodates
over 1 million of the Greek workforce
(4) (20% of the total (5)). Permanence
and social security accompanied and
still remain fundamental characteristics
of employment in the broader public
sector. However, the endeavoured and
already accomplished privatisations of
large state-controlled corporations in
sectors like Banking, Telecommunications, Energy, Railways and civil Aviation have provoked massive reaction
and are going to affect promptly the life
– style and income of a considerable
proportion of the so-called Greek middle class, to which all these employees’
belong.
The above mentioned findings shall not
lead us to the conclusion that Greece is
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
6
Spring 2008 No 1
the core of the anti-globalisation movement or that Greek workforce protests
universally against neoliberal practices.
Rather the contrary: the division between those working for the public sector, the so-called “privileged”, and
those working under conditions of insecurity and flexibility in the private sector have prevented the deployment of a
massive, grassroots labour movement in
Greece. Little sympathy for the current
undermining of the “privileged” has
been expressed by the employees in the
private sector. On the contrary, the relative deprivation of the Greek agriculture
provokes more massive reaction, since
this deprivation is related to issues like
nutrition, health and the availability of
agricultural products of high quality.
As for the private sector workers, their
negative view of globalisation is attributed to the mobility of industrial capital.
Since 1990, deindustrialisation, in particular in the northern part of Greece,
implied the loss of 45,000 job positions
in the textile-industry (6) only. This
emigration of industries in the nearby
Balkan states, combined with the entrance of around 1 million immigrants,
mainly from the same region, have
caused a sentiment of insecurity about
working prospects to a large proportion
of the Greek population. And this insecurity is what better explains the quest
for an increase in the FDI. Yet, what
Greeks have not answered is whether
they are determined to accept lower
wages and more flexibility in order to
attract FDI. The answer I will dare to
give is negative.
The governing political parties’ view is
that deindustrialisation should be taken
for granted and Greek development
should be based on the tertiary sector of
the economy. For this reason, emphasis
is (or should be) placed on education
(7). Tourism, banking and the so-called
information society are of high priority
for all the Greek governments since
1996, when “modernisation” became
the slogan of the Social-Democratic
party. This shift in the SocialDemocrats’ position is due to the spread
of the belief among the Greek political
and economic elites of both the centre –
left and the centre – right that globalisation entails both risks and opportunities:
those who can prove their adaptation
into the new reality and exploit their
comparative advantages within an integrated world economy are supposed to
gain in the long-term, despite certain
sacrifices which need to be made in the
short term.
What these national and their counterparts international elites have failed to
answer, though, is which social groups
have to sacrifice their welfare and to the
benefit of whom. Even if the world economic interdependence is a positive
sum game, it is more than apparent that
it encompasses losers as well as win-
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Spring 2008 No 1
ners. This failure of political and economic elites to answer such a major
question might have been without significant consequences. However, no
Greece has a capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about 40% of GDP
and with per capita GDP at
least 75% of the leading eurozone economies. Tourism provides 15% of GDP. Immigrants
make up nearly one-fifth of the
work force, mainly in agricultural and unskilled jobs. Greece
is a major beneficiary of EU aid,
equal to about 3.3% of annual
GDP. The Greek economy grew
by nearly 4.0% per year between 2003 and 2006, due
partly to infrastructural spending related to the 2004 Athens
Olympic Games, and in part to
an increased availability of
credit, which has sustained
record levels of consumer
spending. Greece violated the
EU's Growth and Stability Pact
budget deficit criteria of no
more than 3% of GDP from
2001 to 2005, but finally appears on track to meet that
criteria in 2006. Public debt,
inflation, and unemployment
are above the euro-zone average, but are falling. The Greek
Government continues to grapple with cutting government
spending, reducing the size of
the public sector, and reforming the labor and pension systems, in the face of often vocal
opposition from the country's
powerful labor unions and the
general public.
https://www.cia.gov/library/
publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/gr.html
evidence indicates that this is how the
future is going to be, unless of course
we abide by the “end of history” theorems.
References:
(1) The data come from a survey conducted by
ICAP and can be found in
http://photo.kathimerini.gr/xtra/files/KathICAP/
doc/Icap241006.doc (date of access
29/11/2007)
(2) 86% of the French and 84% of the Germans
as well, ibid
(3)
http://www.statistics.gr/table_menu_per_year.as
p?Dnid=%20%20Εργατικό%20∆υναµικό&SSnid=%20%20Απασχόληση%20%20Ανεργία&sb=SJO_1&year=2007&timeseri
es=0&dt=0 (date of access: 3/12/2007)
(4) http://www.inegsee.gr/enimerwsi-140doc3.htm (date of access: 3/12/2007)
(5)Which is estimated to be almost 5 million,
see
http://www.statistics.gr/table_menu_per_year.as
p?Dnid=%20%20Εργατικό%20∆υναµικό&SSnid=%20%20Απασχόληση%20%20Ανεργία&sb=SJO_1&year=2007&timeseri
es=0&dt=0 (date of access 3/12/2007)
(6)
http://www.economia.gr/index.php?option=com
_content&task=view&id=429&Itemid=28 (date
of access: 3/12/2007)
(7) “Education, education and education”, as
Tony Blair initiated in the UK, see
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6564933.st
m (date of access 3/12/2007)
Kleoniki Kipourou is a student of the MA in IPE in the PAIS department
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
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Spring 2008 No 1
Nigeria’s Dance With Democracy
Mouzayian Khalil
Nigeria is
a country
of diverse
languages
and cultures. Its
position
as one of
t
h
e
world’s
leading oil producing countries put it on
the spotlight. However, a remarkable
characteristic of this society which is
not always obvious to outsiders is the
resilience and forbearance of its citizens. In the 47years since Nigeria’s independence from British colonial rule,
there have been six Military regimes,
one civil war, and all that characterise
such political systems. Yet, the country
stands united against all odds.
The journey to democratic rule has
been long and arduous, with over
25years of military rule in Nigeria’s
47years old independence, but by April
2007 Nigerians elected President
Umaru Musa YAR'ADUA to succeed
Olusegun Obasanjo who had served for
two terms since the handover of power
from Military rule to civilian rule by
General Abdulsalam Abubakar. Although the elections have been described as flawed and illegitimate by
International observers, it is a case of
‘the end justifies the means’. A quick
look at the structure of the politics in
Nigeria today reflects the efforts of
good governance. It is far from an easy
task to work through cleaning the dark
crevices of rot and slime which years of
corrupt leadership have caused, but
work is in progress.
Democracy as a system of government
is traced back to ancient Greece, and
has evolved since to be adopted in the
countries today known as the developed
world. Its popularity can be further emphasized by what Samuel Huntington
conceptualised as ‘The Third Wave of
Democratisation’. This refers to the
spread and adoption of democracy as a
system of governance by dozens of
countries between 1974 and 1990. With
the gospel of democracy spreading and
becoming adopted by so many countries
in the global south, the discussions of
definition of democracy began to become more controversial. Political scientists observed variations of political
systems which claimed to be democratic but have in time become referred
to as: Semi-Authoritarian, Pseudodemocracies, or regarded as political
systems in transition from authoritarian
towards democracy through liberalisation.
For the purpose of this article I will
take a minimalist definition of the concept of democracy, which basically describes formal democracy to obtain
where: basic freedoms are guaranteed;
universal suffrage exists; multiparty
system operates; periodic, ‘free and
fair’ elections are held; and governance
is based on Rule of Law. Further conditions which may qualify a democracy as
substantive will include the “elements
of accountability and genuine popular
participation in the nation’s political
and economic decision making processes” (Martin 1993:7).
May 2007 had Nigerian’s witnessing
the first hand over of power from one
democratic leader to another, as Presi-
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Spring 2008 No 1
dent Olusegun Obasanjo handed the
reigns of power to the meek looking
Umaru Musa Yar’adua. After eight
years in power, the ex-Presidents tenure
was over, one which had sometimes
been referred to as a ‘civilian rule’
rather than a democracy. Olusegun
Obasanjo
was once a military dictator of
Nigeria in the
1970’s and his
forceful
and
domineering attitude was expressed in his
even
Umaru Musa Yar’ardua leadership
as a civilian. His
desire to run for a third term in office
was thrown out by the legislature who
refused to amend the constitution to
make this dream a reality. I believe this
act in itself is one of the key steps to be
noted in assessing Nigeria’s democratic
development.
To Olusegun Obasanjo’s credit though,
in his time as President, the foundations
and structure for combating corruption
was built. While being renowned as one
of the top ten oil producing countries in
the world, on the flip side, Nigeria is
considered as one of the most corrupt
nations. Many tales have been told of
the corruption of past military leaders
who siphoned millions of dollars from
the government’s purse into their overseas accounts, and also the business of
internet fraud which has increased in
the last few years. These internet fraudsters locally referred to as ‘Yahoo boys’
have managed to further taint the reputation of Nigerians far and wide. It
seems this criminal behaviour is also a
reflection of the practises to be found in
the leadership. Many Governors, Minis-
ters and Local government officials
have been known to acquire vast
amounts of wealth in the course of their
‘service’ in government office. So it
seemed that with democracy came the
opportunity of citizens to gain access to
the store house of Nigeria’s wealth and
thereby enrich themselves, and with no
obvious threat of effective reprimand,
bribery and corruption seeped deeper
into the fibre of society.
Then, the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission was established in
2003 under an act of the same name and
they focus on the investigation of: Illegal bunkering, Terrorism, Capital market fraud, Cyber crime, Advance fee
fraud, Banking fraud and Economic
governance. Their sphere of investigation covers marriage and religious
scams through to tax fraud, bribery of
government officials and diversion of
public funds. First of its kind in the
country, its investigative authority is
independent of government control in
order to maintain its fairness and neutrality. The chairmanship of this commission was pioneered by Mallam
Nuhu Ribadu, a man born a month after the Independence of Nigeria in
1960, a lawyer and a man described by
newspapers as a ‘committed crusader
against corruption and other
related crimes’.
This commission with its
power to
prosecute
directly
without
g o i n g
through
the attorney General's of-
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Spring 2008 No 1
fice, has become very notable for bringing many politicians to book for crimes
which would have been formally overlooked by Nigerians and the justice system.
Another milestone in the internalisation
of democracy within Nigeria is he increasing participation of the educated
elite in politics. In the past, political
participation was an activity only ventured by the daring and well connected
Nigerians who had friends in the military. Later on, and in the earlier years of
democracy, it was generally regarded as
a ‘dirty game’ and party politics was
characterised by assassinations, threats
to life and property, hooliganism and
use of thugs for campaigns and lobbying. There was also such a high level of
informal politics where leaders where
chosen based on their willingness to
share in the booty of stolen and purposely misappropriated government resources. However, with the efficiency
of anti-corruption campaigns in the
country, many educated Nigerians as
well as Nigerians formally in Diaspora,
have returned home to take the reigns of
power and responsibility towards a
brighter future.
President Umaru Yar’ardua holds a
BSc in Education and Chemistry, and
an M.Sc degree in Analytical Chemistry. The new Speaker of the House of
Representatives- Honourable Dimeji
Bankole (who replaced the former
speaker accused and investigated for
siphoning government funds), has a
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics,
MTO in Military Technique, Reading
University and Oxford University, respectively. These are simple examples
and there are many more in every sector
of the government of Nigeria today,
which to me indicate the return to civil-
ity and progress of the value of participation in Nigeria’s democracy.
I have basically analysed Nigeria’s democracy based on certain structural
changes which have occurred on its
journey of democratisation, with particular emphasis on progress being
made in its battle against corruption and
the increase in political participation.
The process of combating corruption
has also necessitated and enhanced the
processes of accountability and transparency which are key values of democracy.
All-in-all, democracy is a controversial
concept in its applicability especially in
the global south. Although there are
certain values that are agreed to indicate
the practice of democracy- Freedom
and equality; Rule of law; Accountability; Participation; Regular elections and
Multiparty politics, measuring the quality and degrees to which these processes
exist or occur can determine how democratic a nation is said to be. With
that in mind I wish to conclude on a
positive note- quite contrary to the observations of the international observers
at the last elections- that Nigeria has
come a long and painful way down the
narrow paths on its journey towards democracy and should be judged based on
its continuous and conscious progress
towards adopting and upholding the
more substantive values of democracy
as time goes on, and in the words of the
national anthem I say to Nigerians all
over the world:
Arise, O Compatriots,
Nigeria's call obey
To serve our Fatherland
With love and strength and faith
The labour of our heroes past
Shall never be in vain,
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To serve with heart and might
One nation bound in freedom,
Peace and unity.
Oh God of creation,
Direct our noble cause
Guide our leaders right
Help our youth the truth to know
Following the signing of an IMF stand-by
agreement in August 2000, Nigeria received a debt-restructuring deal from the
Paris Club and a $1 billion credit from the
IMF, both contingent on economic reforms. Nigeria pulled out of its IMF program in April 2002, after failing to meet
spending and exchange rate targets, making it ineligible for additional debt forgiveness from the Paris Club. In the last
year the government has begun showing
the political will to implement the market-oriented reforms urged by the IMF,
such as to modernize the banking system,
to curb inflation by blocking excessive
wage demands, and to resolve regional
disputes over the distribution of earnings
from the oil industry. In 2003, the government began deregulating fuel prices, announced the privatization of the country's four oil refineries, and instituted the
National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, a domestically designed
and run program modeled on the IMF's
Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility
for fiscal and monetary management. In
November 2005, Abuja won Paris Club
approval for a debt - relief deal that eliminated $18 billion of debt in exchange for
$12 billion in payments - a total package
worth $30 billion of Nigeria's total $37
billion external debt. The deal requires
Nigeria to be subject to stringent IMF
reviews. GDP rose strongly in 2006, based
largely on increased oil exports and high
global crude prices.
In love and honesty to grow
And living just and true
Great lofty heights attain
To build a nation where peace
And justice shall reign.
References:
Guy Martin (1993) Democratic Transition in Africa, A Journal of Opinion, Vol.
21, No. 1/2 (1993), pp. 6-7
http://www.inecnigeria.org/
http://www.efccnigeria.org/
The contemporary Political History of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, FROM: The
World History Archives;
http://www.hartfordhwp.com/archives/30/index.html
http://www.onlinenigeria.com/history.asp
http://www.waado.org/NigerDelta/Nigeria
_Facts/flaganthem.htm
http://www.iss.co.za/Af/profiles/Nigeria/P
olitics.html
The Nigerian House of Assembly
http://www.nassnig.org/
https://www.cia.gov/library/
publications/the-world-factbook/geos/
ni.html
Mouzayian Khalil is a student of the MA in Globalisation & Development in the PAIS department
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
12
Spring 2008 No 1
Malaysia: Celebrating 50 Years of Independence
Harpreet Bhal
A storm of disquiet is sweeping the
streets of Malaysia. In the past couple
of months the country has seen a wave
of unprecedented public rallies by disgruntled citizens who want to make
their voices heard. While civil activist
groups and human right campaigners
hail these heroes of the street, the government has been quick to clamp down
on what it sees as behaviour that is disrupting the sacred peace and harmony
in the country.
Rallies that have taken place in recent
weeks include a demand by tens of
thousands of opposition supporters demanding for a cleanup of the electoral
system and a protest by a similar number of ethnic Indians seeking the government to take action to alleviate this
marginalised group out of poverty.
Never before has the country seen public outcry of this scale, which has sent a
strong signal to the authorities.
The decision makers at the government
are clearly unhappy by what they see as
“harming public security.” The Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi has made it clear that he would
choose public security over the right to
protest, would not hesitate to evoke
laws that would see street protests becoming illegal. Already a gathering of
more than five people requires a police
permit and the police have already arrested hundreds of protesters under
various acts including the sedition act.
The recent protests have caused such a
panic that even a peaceful march to
mark World Human Rights Day was
disallowed by the authorities.
Clamping down on civil liberties has
been a bone of contention with the ruling government for a long time now.
The government is cautious not to upset
the balance between the three racial
groups, the Malays, Chinese and Indians, as Malaysia’s past was once
marred by a bloody riot between Malays and Chinese in 1963. Since then,
interracial discussion has always been
held under much scrutiny and the government keeps close tabs on the situation by heavily censoring the media and
has used laws that allow for detention
without trial for any individual seen as
rousing racial sentiment.
Although the recent protests were not
overtly racial, there remain racial undertones. The ethnic Indians were unhappy, claiming that the group, which
makes up some 10 percent of the population, has been left out of the economic
prosperity that the country has been experiencing. Meanwhile the opposition
members were demanding electoral reform in the government, which is dominated by the Malay ruling party.
Although most people in Malaysia take
a moderate view and would rather initiate change through democratic processes, there remains a large portion of
the population that feel their human
rights such as the right to freedom of
speech and freedom of expression are
being curtailed. The government says
that it does not look favourably on the
“western concept” of human rights and
prefers instead to do things the Asian
way. But censorship of the media and
banning public protests have led many
to question whether being Asian has
anything to do with universal human
rights.
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Spring 2008 No 1
Indeed, these questions are being asked
more frequently now and Malaysians
have become bolder in asking for their
rights to be recognised. Issues such as
freedom of religion and freedom from
discrimination are being talked about
more openly than before, signalling a
change from the last few decades where
human rights were merely seen as a
concept imposed by the West.
Growth was almost exclusively driven by
exports - particularly of electronics. As a
result, Malaysia was hard hit by the global
economic downturn and the slump in the
information technology (IT) sector in 2001
and 2002. The economy grew 4.9% in 2003,
notwithstanding a difficult first half, when
external pressures from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the Iraq
War led to caution in the business community. Growth topped 7% in 2004 and 5% per
year in 2005-06. As an oil and gas exporter,
Malaysia has profited from higher world
energy prices, although the rising cost of
domestic gasoline and diesel fuel forced
Kuala Lumpur to reduce government subsidies, contributing to higher inflation. Malaysia "unpegged" the ringgit from the US
dollar in 2005 and the currency appreciated
6% against the dollar in 2006. Healthy foreign exchange reserves and a small external debt greatly reduce the risk that Malaysia will experience a financial crisis over
the near term similar to the one in 1997.
The economy remains dependent on continued growth in the US, China, and Japan
- top export destinations and key sources
of foreign investment. The government
presented its five-year national development agenda in April 2006 through the
Ninth Malaysia Plan, a comprehensive
blueprint for the allocation of the national
budget from 2006-10. The plan targets the
development of higher value-added manufacturing and an expansion of the services
sector.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/
the-world-factbook/geos/my.html
Many, especially the younger generation, want their rights to be recognised
and disapprove of the way the state has
managed the recent wave of protests.
However, the government has been reluctant to allow human rights to flourish
unconditionally.
The fear that racial riots recurring is a
valid one. But at the same time a strong
society, built on the respect for human
rights and civil liberties, would only
serve to encourage harmony and understanding amongst the various sections.
When the government talks about wanting to arrest internet bloggers who express their views against the administration, this sends out a negative message
to the people. Similarly, arresting and
beating protesters on the street would
only serve to fan the flames of dissatisfaction.
Malaysia has been hailed as an Asian
success story in bringing about economic prosperity, with much optimism
on the country’s ability to reach a developed status in the not too distant future. Last August Malaysia celebrated
its 50th independence celebration led by
praise for the level of development that
the country has achieved since gaining
independence from the British in 1957.
In 50 years the country has managed to
secure a stable and strong economy and
political structure. Many feel it is now
time to invest into building a strong and
empowered social environment in order
to maintain balanced development and
growth.
As Malaysia enters the globalised era,
issues of social development become
more pertinent. If the country is to make
headway into achieving its vision of
becoming a developed nation by 2020,
more needs to be done to ensure that
social development does not lag behind
economic success in years to come.
Harpreet Bhal is a student of the MA in IR in the PAIS department
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
14
Spring 2008 No 1
Special Economic Zones: The Indian Perspective
Supriya Roychoudhury
The creation of
the Special Economic
Zones
(SEZs) as an
economic policy
for growth and
development
has, and continues to fuel much
debate among economists and social
scientists alike. This article will briefly
discuss the criticisms that are levelled
against the establishment of these free
trade zones in India.
The establishment of the Special Economic Zones in India raises the important issue of the legitimacy of forfeiting
the well-being of a few for the benefit
of the greater good. The argument hypothesized by those in favour of these
industrial enclaves is that they will inevitably result in the generation of thousands of jobs. However, the process of
establishing these zones often entails
the eviction of agricultural labourers
and peasants from their land. The displacement of these communities has
unleashed massive social protests. The
Indian government has realised that if
the Special Economic Zones are to be
successfully implemented, the rehabilitation of these dispossessed communities must be taken into account.
In December 2007, the Indian parliament amended the outdated Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The act of 1894
did not clearly define the “public purpose” for which land could be acquired
by corporations. The ambiguity of the
term “public purpose” facilitated the
misuse of the Act by these private players. The new Bill, introduced to parliament clearly defines “public purpose”
as land used for strategic purposes, re-
lating to the defence forces or work
“vital to the state” and public infrastructure and projects “useful for the general
public”. The SEZ Act stipulates that
investors must use 50% of the land for
manufacturing. However, the remaining
50% of the land may be used at the investor’s discretion. This has led many
to argue that the SEZs may be manipulated by real estate developers to utilise
the given land for the construction of
shopping malls, hotels and housing for
India’s thriving middle-class.
The amended version of the Land Acquisition Act states that a fair compensation at market value must be provided
to those who have been displaced on
account of the SEZs. Moreover, The
SEZ Act states that all investors must
offer a job to at least one member of
each displaced family. However, it has
been argued that this would have an insignificant impact given the large size
of the average rural family.
The argument that the SEZs would accelerate economic activities for increased production and exports is countered by critics who believe that these
zones would not encourage new investment. Instead of more investment coming in from abroad the policy may be
misused by companies already existing
in India, in order to avail of the many
advantages that are offered by SEZs,
such as the provision of a 100 per cent
exemption from income-tax on profits
for the first five years of production and
50 per cent for the next five years. Such
tax breaks, however, would result in
huge revenue losses according to estimates by the Indian finance ministry.
SEZs have also been given the unusual
status of “public utilities” under the Industrial Disputes Act. This makes it il-
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Spring 2008 No 1
legal for workers to organise and strike
for better wages and working conditions.
Of all the criticisms mentioned above,
the issue of land acquisition from India’s peasantry has been the most politically volatile one. The political repercussions of the SEZ policy manifested
themselves in the episodes of violence
that took place recently in Nandigram,
in the state of West Bengal. Here the
farmers openly protested against the
seizure of their land. In a confrontation
with the police in March 2007, at least
14 people were shot and 70 others injured. Justice, however, was eventually
delivered. A Public Interest Litigation
(PIL) filed with the Calcutta High Court
resulted in the state government being
ordered to pay Rs 500,000 as compensation for those killed in the violence
and Rs 200,000 to those raped and molested.
The episode in Nandigram became indicative of the potential of social protest
to make a strong political statement.
Privatization of government-owned industries remained stalled in 2006, and continues to generate political debate; populist
pressure from within the UPA government
and from its Left Front allies continues to
restrain needed initiatives. The economy
has posted an average growth rate of more
than 7% in the decade since 1996, reducing
poverty by about 10 percentage points. India achieved 8.5% GDP growth in 2006,
significantly expanding manufacturing...
However, strong growth - more than 8 percent growth in each of the last three years
- combined with easy consumer credit and
a real estate boom is fueling inflation concerns. The huge and growing population is
the fundamental social, economic, and
environmental problem.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/
the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
Farmers in Pune have protested against
eviction from their farmland that was to
be used by the government for the construction of a new international airport.
Their decision not to vacate the land has
been communicated to the authorities
and they have threatened to agitate if
the authorities proceed regardless.
In Goa, the government proposed to
establish 18 SEZs in order to generate
approximately 977,100 jobs. However,
in a state which has only about 80,000
unemployed people, the idea of establishing SEZs makes little sense. AntiSEZ protesters feel that such a situation
would inevitably lead to the migration
of outsiders into the state, resulting in
the proliferation of slums and increase
in crime, theft and garbage and adding
to the pressure on the infrastructure.
The state government of Goa has 16
SEZ proposals of which seven are approved, while work at two SEZ sites is
on. The agitators have demanded that
all SEZ projects, including seven approved, be put on hold till the Government studies the issue again.
The controversy over the establishment
of the SEZs highlights two important
ideas. Firstly, although empirical evidence points towards the many disadvantages of the SEZs, the government’s
ideational preoccupation with neoliberalism as a suitable tool for India’s
economic growth is what propels the
SEZ project. Secondly, the SEZ policy
fails to look beyond the commercial,
and take into account issues pertaining
to identity. The land occupied by agricultural communities represents more
than simply a source of livelihood. It
represents a way of life; an identity that
cannot be substituted by monetary compensation. In the pursuit of high rates of
economic growth, the right to life with
dignity must not be overlooked.
Supriya Roychoudhury is a student of the MA in IR in the PAIS department
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
16
Spring 2008 No 1
Approaches to Building New Countryside in China
Chen Xiaohua
Rural area (equivalent to countryside in
this text) construction and development
is the fundament of a nation’s progress.
And lag of rural area becomes the bottleneck of a state’s modernization, even
affects the state’s stability, which does
not exclude China. Although China has
achieved a lot in rural area development, the situation of rural area is still
austere due to its weak foundation and
area diversity. China still has long way
to go in rural area development. Recently, a new endeavor, namely building
new countryside, has been made by the
central government and local government to propel rural area development.
Before the process of building new
countryside, several perspectives
emerge as to direct the practice, among
which there are two influential ones:
urbanization, and marketization. The
former emphasizes transforming the
rural population into urban resident
through expansion of city and building
rural area infrastructure by state. The
latter attempts to organize and guide
farmers to set up their own cooperations
to acquire profit from the market, hereby building new countryside. But both urbanization
and marketization are hard to
resolve the problems confronted with 0.9 billion rural
population in China in the process of modernization.
As for urbanization, it is still in
a low level regarding the real
situation in China and the urban
capacity is limited. And urbanization should not be confined
to factors of time and space, but
most importantly urbanize the
life style of farmers and empower them to live in city, in other
words, the farmers should be entailed
capabilities to live a urban life and have
an access to the urban public goods and
social welfare. According to national
statistics, the rural population of China
in 2000 is above 0.8 billion. It is unfeasible to urbanize this huge rural population, even the half of it considering the
expenditure to providing public goods,
employment, and resource in urban
area. The urbanization in Latin American should be a alert for China although
different regions have various situation
and traits. Currently, most industries in
China lie in the bottom of world industry chain with mass production but low
added-value. Factories acquire low
profit and the employees—mainly migratory workers from rural area, earn
little which is not sufficient to support
their urban life at all. Therefore, it is
popular for people in rural area to work
in cities with low salary without economic power to shift their home to cities. What they earn in cities will be
transferred to support their families in
rural area where the living cost is low
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
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Spring 2008 No 1
compared with urban area. The low industry profits restrain the development
of the tertiary industry, which causes
difficulty to expand job opportunities.
In this case, the capacity of cities are
limited. Even supposing the urbanization rate of the rural population reaches
50 per cent in 2050 according to the
past 50 years experience, there will still
leave above 0.7 billion rural population,
which indicates rural population will
not disappear with the urban expansion
in China in a quiet long time. Thus, the
long-term existence of rural population
should not be ignored, and a profound
insight and a strategic approach to rural
area construction is in urgent
instead of simply resort to urbanization.
skilled workers. Generally, the migratory workers are just qualified for jobs
without much demand of skills and
knowledge, which are hard but with low
salary. For China, a country with a high
rural area population, it is a massive
waste of human resource if farmers are
not well-trained and endowed with
skills. Certainly, this situation needs
state’s long-term input to change. However, in the short term, farmers face
various difficulties to increase family
income.
Consequently I contend that the essence of building new countryside is to
increase the welfare of farmers in
two aspects: first,
providing
adequate
pubic
goods so as to
reducing the exAnother basic
penditure,
secreality should be
ond, increasing
recognized that
the non-material
farmers’ income
always remains
welfare such as
relatively low
village governcompared with The 3rd China-He Heng Rape Flower Festival opened in ance and commuHe Heng village
the average sonity cultural concial income and farmers’ capabilities to
struction.
increasing family income should not be
exaggerated in the market before state
Providing pubic goods is involved in
distributes more financial resource and
various respective such as farmers’
more intellectual capita to empower
healthy care and children higher education. Due to marketization of healthy
them and activate rural area development. Whether farmers have the possicare and education, the expenditure of
healthy care and children’s higher edubility to break through the plight of income-increasing is worth exploring. For
cation heavily burdens farmers. If a
member in a rural area family with avinstance, in 2004, some developed cities
such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen were
erage income gets a chronic or serious
disease, the family will be easily imlack of migratory workers—farmers
seeking job in city, which indicates urpoverished because of huge medical
treatment fee. Another urgent problem
ban area has a large capacity to absorb
faced by rural families is the high level
labour force. But the problem is what
tuition fee for children’s’ tertiary educathe market requires are not the simple
tion. According to an independent sursurplus labour force from rural area but
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18
Spring 2008 No 1
vey, the ratio between tuition fee and
family income in China is one of the
highest in the world. In a rural area
family, if a child receives higher education, most of the family income will
spend on the tuition fee. Even worse,
some families in rural area are unable to
afford children to receive tertiary education. When the burden on the farmers is
not removed, they have no social security and resource to expand their capabilities. Constructing new rural area will
be vain when the key players—farmers,
have not been relieved from torture and
endowed with opportunities yet. So it is
in great need for the government to invest more in rural area to relief the
farmer’s burden and provide them with
opportunities to expand capabilities. As
for expanding capabilities, it is also essential for farmers to increase family
income in the long run. In this case an
Reforms started in the late 1970s with the
phasing out of collectivized agriculture,
and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization,
increased autonomy for state enterprises,
the foundation of a diversified banking
system, the development of stock markets,
the rapid growth of the non-state sector,
and the opening to foreign trade and investment. The restructuring of the economy and resulting efficiency gains have
contributed to a more than tenfold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a
purchasing power parity (PPP) basis,
China in 2006 stood as the second-largest
economy in the world after the US, although in per capita terms the country is
still lower middle-income and 130 million
Chinese fall below international poverty
lines. Economic development has generally
been more rapid in coastal provinces than
in the interior, and there are large disparities in per capita income between regions.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/
the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html
effective, market-orientated skill training net should be set up in the rural area
by the government.
While material welfare is emphasized,
the non-material welfare should not be
omitted since the two are interacted
with and benefit each other. Village
governance is related to the basic political rights of farmers, which encourages
the participation in collective decision
and personal voice in the individual interest. It is reasonable for the farmers to
decide which local development program is more necessary to undertake
because they know best which is good
to them as the key players. Furthermore,
this will endow farmers with a sense of
self-esteem and responsibility to govern
their own life well. Another prominent
element of non-material welfare is cultural construction. In some rural area,
some undesirable customs have been
the barrier for social development and
progress. Hence these deserve replacing
by new desirable culture, which values
tolerance, creates harmony community
life and further contributes to fostering
social capital and impelling social progress.
As is stated above, urbanization and
marketization have its defectiveness to
direct new countryside building and development. As a new attempt, a general
perspective is outlined that state input in
both material and non-material welfare
is advocated. However, there is no exclusive blueprint for so wide and diversified rural area in China to adopt as a
panacea. So it should be largely encouraged to seek more specified measures to
various issues in different regions.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/zhuanti
/country/159776.htm
Chen Xiaohua is a student of the MA in Globalisation & Development in the PAIS department
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
19
Spring 2008 No 1
Illegal Immigration at the South-most border of EU
Matthew Gatt
As the
EU expands to
the
South of
the continent, its
borders
are moving
closer to
those of sub-Saharan Africa, making
EU points-of-entry more accessible for
African migrants. Malta is one of the
South-most points-of-entry. But this
small nation cannot absorb the numbers
of migrants which it has been registering over the past few years. The Maltese Government insists on maintaining
its policy of deterring migration and
believes the EU must help share the
burden. In the meantime it is the migrants that suffer.
This article will assess the arguments
of those pushing for tougher immigration deterrents. Subsequently it will
consider those arguments justifying the
regularisation of immigration. Finally
an EU-level solution will be considered.
A policy in favour of deterring immigration
With a population of 400,000 and a
total land area of 316 km2, Malta is the
third most densely populated country in
the world. The arrival of 1,000 illegal
immigrants in Malta therefore has the
equivalent impact as 150,000 illegal
immigrants entering the UK. This has to
be considered also against Malta’s
slowly rising crude birth rate.
In 2004 the number of registered illegal
immigrants landing on the Maltese Islands by boat was 1,388. In 2005 the
figure went up to 1,822. These immigrants all leave the African mainland,
usually through Libya, in very small
boats, often with about 45 people on
board. Most of them encounter engine
problems or get caught in rough seas
and end up requiring rescue interventions.
The strain therefore on Malta’s resources is two-fold: on one hand the
rescue missions put a severe strain on
the limited resources of the Armed
Forces of Malta which are having a
relatively large number of interventions
in Malta’s considerably extensive SAR
Area (Search And Rescue) which, due
to Malta’s colonial past, is approximately the size of Great Britain’s land
mass. On the other hand the immigrants, who are immediately taken into
detention (sometimes for a maximum
period of 18 months), constitute a considerable burden on the authorities who
have to provide healthcare, food, accommodation, legal and other services
to a significant population of migrants
who are not working and paying taxes.
In the light of all this the Maltese government is pursuing a two-pronged policy. On one hand the government is lobbying the EU to provide assistance and
resources to aid it in what is deemed to
be one of the symptoms of EU membership. On the other hand the Maltese
government maintains its policy of detention of illegal migrants on arrival,
believing it to be an effective deterrent.
How about regularising migration
flows?
Many argue that immigration is an important source of labour for the EU, especially with its ageing workforce. Immigration can provide the labour neces-
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Spring 2008 No 1
sary to avoid bottlenecks in the labour
market. By regularising migration
flows, some liberals are arguing, the
labour market can expand and contract
directly in line with the supply and demand forces of the market. Moreover
regularising migration will avoid unnecessary expenditure in the field of deterring immigration.
As usual, neoclassical economics fails
to account for anything less than a perfect world. The assumption that market
signals are strong enough to influence
the decisions of would-be migrants is
highly questionable. Especially when
one considers that there are already a
significant number of deterrents to stop
would-be migrants from making the
perilous and often very expensive voyage to the European mainland. Would
the notion of possible unemployment or
low wages deter someone who has already decided to give up all they have
and to risk their lives to make it to the
European continent?
Moreover there is a considerable timelag. The voyage often takes at least a
number of months. And that is assuming they are not caught along the way.
If the market requires more labour it
will take at least two quarters for that
labour-content to arrive, assuming that
the market signal is interpreted and
acted upon immediately.
An alternative argument looks at regularising migration flows as a way of
providing development aid to the countries from which migrants originate. By
allowing them to work legally in the
country they will be able to send remittances home. Moreover when they return to their country of origin they will
take back the expertise which they developed creating a ‘brain gain’. Once
again however this would very much
depend on the conditions of the labour
market. If no jobs are available they
will be faced with a situation of no income on one hand and a higher cost of
living on the other hand.
Growing racism is another undesirable
effect which must be considered. As the
number of immigrants increased Malta
saw the rise of a number of nationalist
groups calling for extreme measures.
One of these proposals was to ship illegal immigrants to the edge of Maltese
territorial waters and leave them there
to fend for themselves. While these
groups may constitute only a small percentage of the electorate, larger proportions of the population have been voicing more moderate concerns on the increase in illegal immigrants.
A European solution?
The EU seems to have recognised that
a concerted effort on an EU level is required. In this regard it has developed a
framework program on solidarity and
management of migration flows for the
period 2007 – 2013. This framework is
multi-dimensional, focusing on management of external borders, developing
asylum policy, looking toward the social, civic and cultural integration of
immigrants and finally the fight against
illegal immigration.
The framework approach is a step in
the right direction. Maltese authorities
have already started to mobilise funds
through his framework improving the
conditions of migrants both in and out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6178500.stm
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21
Spring 2008 No 1
of detention. Through the framework
initiatives for policing the borders and
providing more efficient search and rescue operations are also underway. But
more needs to be done.
Detention periods need to be shortened
by increasing the resources dedicated to
the processing of applications for asylum.
Integration of immigrants in society is
still lacking. While some initiatives are
underway much more needs to be done
to avoid the segregation of ethnic minorities from the rest of society.
Better co-ordination through Frontex
Great Britain formally acquired possession
of Malta in 1814. The island staunchly supported the UK through both World Wars
and remained in the Commonwealth when
it became independent in 1964. A decade
later Malta became a republic. Since about
the mid-1980s, the island has transformed
itself into a freight transshipment point, a
financial center, and a tourist destination.
Malta became an EU member in May 2004.
the country comprises an archipelago,
with only the three largest islands (Malta,
Ghawdex or Gozo, and Kemmuna or
Comino) being inhabited; numerous bays
provide good harbors; Malta and Tunisia
are discussing the commercial exploitation
of the continental shelf between their
countries, particularly for oil exploration
Major resources are limestone, a favorable
geographic location, and a productive labor force. Malta produces only about 20%
of its food needs, has limited fresh water
supplies, and has few domestic energy
sources. The economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing (especially electronics and pharmaceuticals), and tourism. Continued sluggishness in the European economy is holding back exports,
tourism, and overall growth.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/
the-world-factbook/geos/mt.html
would increase the success of search
and rescue operations. This would also
avoid the situations witnessed over the
past year in which disagreements between authorities resulted in refugees
remaining stranded for three days out in
the open sea before finally being rescued.
References:
Council of the EU, Draft Conclusions of
the Council and the Representatives of the
Governments of the Member States meeting
within the Council on Coherence between
EU Migration and Development Policies,
No.: 14559/07, Brussels, 15th November
2007.
Council of the European Union, Press Release, Council Conclusions on Globalisation – The economic impact of migration,
Brussels, 4th December 2007.
Europa.eu, Activities of the European Union, Framework programme on solidarity
and management of migration flows for the
period 2007-2013.
http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l14509.
htm
Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs and
Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity, Policy document, Irregular immigrants,
refugees and integration, Malta.
National Statistics Office (2007), Census
of population and housing 2005, Malta.
National Statistics Office (2006), News
Release, Special Observances – World
Refugee Day, No:135/2006, 19th June
2006.
Statewatch, Yasha Maccanico, EU/Africa:
Carnage continues as EU border moves
south, September 2006.
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/sep/I
mmigration-analysis.pdf
Matthew Gatt is a student of the MA in IPE in the PAIS department
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
22
Spring 2008 No 1
Upcoming Events & Important Dates
Tam Chowdhury & Theologia Iliadou
Our society is involved in organizing both events, such as seminars and film
projections, and conferences. This term in contrast
with the first term of this academic year is packed
with a variety of all.
Starting with the conferences we are pleased to announce the first even Warwick Model United Nations
(WarMUN) conference. WarMUN is due to commence on the 29th of February in which over a dozen
of WGDS members will be making their representation as country delegates
and committee chairpersons in the conference.
Moreover as part of our involvement outside the University of Warwick and
the PAIS department we are planning on attending some of the European
MUNs such as the one in the Hague or Geneva in the coming months. As
delegates for your information we want to say that are looking forward to
your participation. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/ss/wgds/mun
As far as the lectures are concerned this term they will take place on a diverse
range of issues ranging from globalisation and religion to commodity chains
and peace processes. Apart from the newsletter the dates and details can also
be checked online on our website. Please do check the website before attending any of the events as last minute alternations, in time and place, might occur. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/ss/wgds/events/
Finally, the WGDS discussion forum is now active. Everyone is welcomed to
share their views on the weekly discussion topics. It provides a great platform
for communicating, sharing and testing our thoughts and knowledge on issues related to Globalization and Development and are passionate about.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/ss/wgds/wgdsforum/
Speaker
Topic
Date
Building Global
Democracy
9th January 2008
Globalisation & Religion
30th January
2008
Neo-liberal Capitalism
& the Environment
23rd April 2008
Diana Perrons (LSE)
Globalisation, Gender &
the New Financial Economy
30th April 2008
Mick Dunford (Sussex)
Commodity Chains Analysis
21st May 2008
The Political Economy of
Peace Processes
Date tbc
Jan Scholte (Warwick)
Jim Beckford (Warwick)
Noel Castree (Manchester)
Jan Selby (Sussex)
Tam Chowdhury is a student of the MA in G & D in the PAIS department & co-president of WGDS
Warwick Global Development Society all rights reserved © 2008
23
Spring 2008 No 1
WGDS Presidents:
Tam Chowdhury
T.M.Chowdhury@warwick.ac.uk
Co-president
Halia Haddad
haliahaddad@gmail.com
Co-president
WGDS Newsletter
Editorial Team:
Theologia Iliadou
T.Iliadou@warwick.ac.uk
Editor—Layout Coordinator
Harpreet Bhal
Co-editor
Matthew Gatt
Co-editor
In relation to all material published in this newsletter, for commentaries on the articles as well
as the newsletter and the society
itself feel free to contact us in our
e-mail addresses. Moreover if you
have any enquiries about the
events the society is running we
will be looking forward to receiving your e-mails.
Reviews on all events organised
by the society will be available on
our next newsletter issue which
will be published in the beginning of the summer term.
Don’t forget to visit our website
for more information and for participation on our society’s forum.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/
soc/pais/ss/wgds/
Sandy Jones
Co-editor
Mouzayian Khalil
Co-editor
Supriya Roychoudhury
Co-editor
Pryia Soman
Co-editor
Chen Xiaohua
Co-editor
24