Pages
Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 4
(11 of 12 pages)
Speaker: Democracy is a word which every country sings about and every
countries aspires in hopes that it will be applied on it's people and it's country. Some countries do fly the democracy
accordingly to their own vision but not the way it should be. We would like to make full use of the experiences
of others and I hope you will leave this forum having found solutions to some problems facing certain peoples,
including ours. Our people are facing economic problems. Democracy is new to us. Nine years ago we were two blocks
who were fighting each other and thank god the union of Yemen has been achieved and we have today political pluralism
under the leadership of President Saleh. We hope that you that have more experience than us and who have taken
strides in democracy will help us and let us make use of your respective experiences. If we have another conference
in ten years and find that we have not made use of anything here then I don't think that would be right. We would
like to see the results of such a forum. How can we make use of this forum? Are the Yemen people profiting from
that? What about the participating developing countries who have opted for democracy. Are they making use of that?
If we are talking about the problems of the World Bank and the IMF; the dollar in Yemen was 12 Riyals and today
since the World Bank intervened it has become 160 Riyals. So we have to solve this problem and we should not leave
this forum after having found solutions and not use them. We wish you all success and that we should have good
and positive results that we can make use of.
Chair: I am not going to answer your specific questions to the specific countries with a long tradition
of democracy because the organizers decided that this is going to be an exchange of experiences among the new emerging
democracies.
Speaker: I think it is good that this forum should discuss ways of helping the emerging democracies but
we should not forget that at the same time there are those who are creating these democracies. We all know that
the emerging democracies are facing problems such as health, finance, illiteracy, etc. I would like to tell you
about my own experience, our experience in Morocco. In Morocco, as my colleague said earlier, they had been in
opposition for 40 years and today they are the government. The trade union I represent in the parliament are the
allies of those who yesterday were in power. Today they are in charge of the treasury. Through the recommendations
of the World Bank and the IMF the budgets of the opposition government and the social aspects are practically absent.
That means that yesterday's allies are today's our opponent and we are confronting them today. So these pressures
which are being exercised by the World Bank and other institutions on governments and emerging democracies I say
that our democracy in Morocco is emerging and it is ahead of others. Those who were yesterday our friends are today
fighting democracy. I would have liked to go into details and tell you more but we have time constraints.
Speaker: I would just like to respond to your question about how different groups can participate in decision
making on economic reform. To do so I would like to come to the first most pertinent comment made by the members
from Macedonia and Guyana. As I see it here this global capitalism has it's own momentum and it has a force which
affects not only the newly emerging democracies but also mature democracies and here what is so frightening as
I see it from the point of you where you come from being in New York is that there is an increased momentum and
enormous power to suck not only the capital but the human resources. In the United States they continue to bring
in six to seven hundred thousand new immigrants and they are giving preference to the people with the skills and
the knowledge who can cope with modern technology. I see them coming from the countries where you are from. So
respond to your second question I would say that the new leadership has to have not only the commitment to change
but also the willingness to let your best and brightest of your people to stay in your country. They are attracted
by the economic opportunities in industrialized countries but the many people I have met do wish they could stay
in their country if they were given an opportunity to perform. So I would like to call upon all of us to give these
people a chance. Appoint them in a position of authority. If you do so maybe I think we will have a people who
can answer the kinds of questions which the delegates from Malawi was saying that IMF and the World Bank don't.
The difference between the top 20% the wealthy and the bottom 20% ten years ago it was 20 to 1. Last year the difference
is now 70 to 1 and it is accelerating. I think to stop this is to repay the people for their talent in your country.
|
[ Introduction ] [ Worldwide Activities ] [ What We Do ] |