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A World ambience at Davos

The programme schedule of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting at Davos is impressively laid out and coordinated but what evokes unity in diversity is that the various discussions that take place are without acrimony. The living genius of one man, the Founder and President of WEF Dr. Klaus Schwab, has made this informal gathering of world leaders, the business elite of this Earth as well as a fair representation of the top academics in various disciplines into a unique event. Free of the inhibitions of the suffocating straitjacket of protocol the WEF has become the “informal United Nations”. There is a positive correlation between politics, economics and culture that would not be possible to re-create without the same informal environment.

The theme this year was the Redefinition of various Basic Assumptions, prime being the world economy with its macro-economics, industrial and competitiveness aspects. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke with eloquence in his keynote address about the hopes and frustrations in the process leading upto re-unification of Germany and the unfolding economic scenario thereafter. On Bosnia he declared himself against military intervention because of the possible consequences but had no answer for the arms embargo affecting only one side, the Bosnian Government.

The Inter-Active Session on the “Perceptions of Shifting Civilizations” was moderated by Michael Vlahos, Project Director, Centre for Naval Analysis, USA, the four participants being Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Samuel Huntington, Professor of Harvard University, Tommy T. B. Koh, Director Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore and Ghassan Salame, Professor, Institute d’Etudes Politiques le Paris, France. As an acknowledged world expert on civilizations, Prof. Huntington’s viewpoint was that after the end of the Cold War, civilizations seemed to be dividing along cultural fault lines. However, Tommy Koh was of the view that having disposed of one “enemy”, communism, the west was now looking to subdue new “enemies”, Islam and East Asia, their perceptions being founded by economic imperatives rather than on the basis of different cultures. For 200 years, the west had subjugated the poor peoples of Asia and the Third World, now they were apprehensive of even accepting them as equals. PM Bhutto agreed with Tommy Koh that economic considerations governed the basis of relationships between the peoples of the world, that different races, as in Pakistan could be unified on the basis of economic compulsions. A questioner from India raised the possibility with PM Benazir Bhutto of a status quo with respect to Kashmir while opening up trade and commerce links. Given this opportunity to raise a bilateral issue Ms. Bhutto gave a stinging reply about the impossibility of having any meaningful talks while the Indian Army continued atrocities in the Kashmir valley. The effect on this perceptive international audience was most telling and clearly discernible.

The emotional highpoint of the entire Annual Meeting was when Chairman Yasser Arafat walked hand in hand with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the Plenary Session on “Cementing of Peace in the Middle East” to receive prolonged standing applause. Both leaders, along with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Imre Moussa as an interlocutor, expressed their keen desire to wrap up the remaining “technical” points of the Agreement so that their children and the grandchildren could look forward to a life of peace and prosperity. The euphoria of the moment in the proximity of Thomas Mann’s “Magic Mountain” failed to overcome what Shimon Peres rightly expressed as its dangerous, icy slopes.

With respect to the Plenary Session on “Redefining the Basic Assumptions of Corporate Leadership”, Dr. Michael Hammer stressed that a corporate leader should be a missionary, a revolutionary, a communicator and a “leg breaker” i.e. should have the courage to sack those who cannot face upto the challenge. As rebutted gently by Heinrich Von Pierer, President and CEO of Siemens, besides being a visionary and revolutionary, as a confirmed leg-breaker (or beheader) Attila the Hun was also a great communicator, his sayings are held to be the “in-thing” in today’s world of corporate affairs.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) arranged a lunch meeting between Indian and Pakistan business leaders with former French PM Raymond Barre as Rapporteur to explore the views of expanding industrial trade and communication ties. The Pakistan representatives impressed upon their Indian counterparts that there could not be any meaningful commercial or joint venture operations till the core issue of Kashmir was settled, to be preceded by an immediate end to the repression in the valley. To carry the dialogue further a two-man committee was appointed, the Pakistan side being represented by Mr. Altaf Saleem and the Indian side by Mr. Godrej. There is no doubt that India is apprehensive about (1) Pakistan taking a dominant trade role vis-a-vis Central Asia because of its geographical position and (2) India being left out of trade opportunities in this region without Pakistan’s cooperation as a land-bridge.

By far the most interesting Inter-Active Session was the one on Central Asia where a panel of participants consisting of PM Benazir Bhutto, President Suleman Demeril of Turkey, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazahkstan and President Saparmurad Neyazev of Turkmenistan discussed the regional links between Europe/Central Asia/South Asia. In an impressive articulation of Pakistan’s stance on the issues, Ms Benazir spoke about our historical and cultural links with the Central Asia Region and the geographical routes to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Her presentation took in the situation in Afghanistan and the fact that road/rail links could even today be established by avoiding the problem area. President Demirel gave Turkey’s stance on the issues which was that ECO gave the emerging republics an alternative to the old economic ties with the defunct Soviet Union, that Turkey did not want a leadership but a partnership position in the newly developing scenario. The three Presidents of the Central Asian Republics generally followed the line taken by President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan inasfar as (1) the republics have vast potential having raw material, eg. oil, gas, cotton, etc and (2) their strength lay in continued stability with Russia as a guarantor against the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. Given the fact that all three were former communist apparatchiks who, while embracing market oriented economies, gave maximum importance to law and order even at the cost of freedom and democracy, one could not expect them to become born-again democrats. Normally one would have expected Ms Bhutto, who is usually on her toes with repartees to react to Islam Karimov’s remark about Afghanistan being a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism but the PM chose to follow the diplomatic route of silence. To a participant who held out the possibility of India becoming part of ECO, President Demirel held out a distant hope but said that the present market of 330 million people had to be first consolidated. The overall conclusion seemed to be that events were shaping history to the same status as it existed once hundreds of years ago.

There was an abundance of academics like Elie Weasel, Fred Bergsten, Michael Boskin, William C. Clark, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Martin Feldstein, Lord Griffitts of Fforestfach, Michael Hammer, Samuel P. Huntington, Robert D. Kaplan, Tommy T.B.Koh, Moises Naim, Joseph S.Nye, Kirit Parekh, Richard N.Perle, Michael E. Porter, Gabrielle Rolland, Michael Vlahos, Marvin Zonis, etc, just to name a handful. Famous journalists included people like Axel Krause, William Safire, Peirre Salinger, Colin Chapman, Robert Edde, William Borger, Tony Hall, Tad Szulc, Ian Rodger, Claude Smadja, Lou Dobbs, etc. A galaxy of world leaders included Former PM Raymond Barre of France, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany, President Suleman Demirel of Turkey, PM Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, President Nursultan Nazerboyev of Kazakhstan, PM Carl Bildt of Sweden, Senior Minister Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore, President Carlos Salinas of Mexico, PM Esko Aku of Finland, PM Nyrup Rassmusen of Denmark, PM Brindtland of Norway, PM Dehaene of Belgium, PM Berov of Bulgaria, PM Klaus of Czech Republic, PM Chernomyrdin of Russia, Chairman Yasser Arafat of Palestine, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Israel, Deputy PM Panitchpakdi of Thailand, etc.

The informality of the WEF could easily be symbolized by the sight of four-star General Joseph P. Hoar, Commanding General, US Central Command, riding a public bus to the Congress Centre, unaccompanied by anyone. Or for that matter, a Pakistani participant sharing a taxi with someone who turned out to be the Prime Minister of Finland. This was in contrast to the large number of limousines being used by the Pakistan delegation, over 90% of whom were not even participating in the WEF. The last time around, during the period Mian Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister, the same thing had happened despite Ambassador Kamal’s entreaties. This time around the situation was only marginally better. The government will have to do something to improve our image as a developing country and not give the impression of an oil-rich cash-surplus Sheikhdom.

The presence of a high level government delegation to Davos is a must but should consist only of the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister or Secretary for Commerce (or Finance) and the Minister or Special Assistant or Secretary for Information (or anyone else who can double as the PM’s aide for the media) and the Ambassador. At maximum she (or he) could be accompanied to Davos (other than the Spouse) by a support team consisting of the Military Secretary and ADC, the Chief of Protocol and a TV/media group. The business elite must help coordinate her engagements in Davos. The redeeming feature for Pakistan this year was that PM Bhutto is an international Superstar even among that association of hard-bitten elite as at Davos. There is no denying the fact that she draws adulation even among those who are hardened cynics. Her presentations at both the Inter-Active Sessions was extremely impressive. Ms Benazir remains Pakistan’s best foreign policy asset and freed from the restraint of domestic compulsions she may be able to make a positive headway with respect to our foreign policy objectives. While some people may think of Davos as a luxury, this is an important meeting place for the most important decision-makers of the world as well as those who influence decision-making. This is one “luxury” that this country can afford, an annual outing that must be carefully planned so as to present Pakistan’s objectives in a better light.

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