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Return to Davos

In a profound gesture of solidarity for the horrific terrorist atrocity of 9/11, the 2002 World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, was held in New York. While the WALDORF was hospitable, the DAVOS nostalgia could only come back with the return of the 2003 WEF Annual Meeting to its usual “Congress Center” haunt. 2002 saw apprehensions (inspite of globalization) between communities and nations develop into suspicion. Appropriately the Theme this year was “Building Trust”. In setting the parameters for the Summit, Managing Director WEF (former President of Costa Rica) Jose Maria Figueres and Thierry Malleret, Director WEF put restoring confidence in the future as the most important leadership challenge today. Corporate leadership had to cope with the hangover from the boom years, involving managing of overcapacity, benefitting from industry consolidation and adapting to the new corporate governance standards, all this while navigating through a difficult economic and political climate.

The 2003 programme’s initial Sessions reflected the Theme viz (1) Prospects for Global Economy (2) Security and Geo-politics (3) Corporate Challenges and (4) Global Governance. There were also updates on Economies (moderated by Martin Wolf of Financial Times), Technology (moderated by David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine), Values (moderated by Ms Karen Armstrong, a freelance writer from the UK), Business (moderated by Christopher Graves of Far East Economic Review), Environment (moderated by Ms Eileen Claussen of Global Climate Change, USA), Security (moderated by James Rubin, Press Secretary to former US President Bill Clinton), Development (moderated by Robert Klitgaard of RAND Graduate School, USA), Financial Markets (moderated by Judy Woodruff of CNN) and Global Governance (moderated by Anne-Marie Slaughter of Princeton University USA). For the first time in a dozen years or so that one has been attending the WEF Annual Meetings in Davos, the issue of Hindu extremism, the Gujrat carnage and terrorism thereof was given some mention. Dr Klaus Schwab, President WEF presided over the welcome ceremony, graced as usual by the rotating President of the Swiss Federation, this year Mr. Pascal Couchepin.

Always someone special, Malaysia’s PM, Dr Mahathir bin Mohammad said in his usual blunt and forthright self that trust had been eroded in many different domains to an unprecedented extent, as a result individuals and institutions were facing critical challenges. This could be re-established if leaders functioned above par excellence in this new era to preserve universal values to rely upon. Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey of Clifton, Chairman and CEO DuPont, USA and Charles O Holliday Jr, reacted favourably to Dr Mahathir, Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch USA, had some misgivings.

Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International, USA put Pakistan under fire in moderating the session on “Al-Qaeda – The Missing Pieces”. The panelists included Gil Feiler, Editor-in-Chief IPR Strategic Business Israel, George Friedman, Chairman Stratfor USA, August Hanning, President, Federal Intelligence Services, Germany, Andrei Piontkovsky, Director Center for Strategic Studies, Russian Federation, HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Yusuf Wanandi, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Indonesia. None of the panelists could explain why not a single Pakistani was in the Al-Qaeda hierarchy. Was it because Osama Bin Laden did not trust Pakistanis? Of concern were the various aspects of intelligence failure. Interesting Dinner Sessions on the first day were, viz (1) hydrogen economy and (2) understanding the psychology of terror.

Friday 24 January’s main Session was “How the fight against terrorism will change the world” moderated by BBC Presenter Nik Gowing, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez was among the Panelists. Prof Lawrence Susskind, MIT USA moderated “Successful Public-Private Partnerships” but sharp exchanges took place in the Session on “Conflict : Political Islam and its discontents” moderated by Thomas L Friedman of the New York Times, the panelists discussing co-relation between political Islam and instability. Richard Haass, Director of US Dept of State dominated discussions on “From Failed States to New States” in working out means for effective reconstruction and critical steps to restore domestic order and foster economic growth. James F Hoge, Editor of Foreign Affairs Magazine moderated the discussions on “Intelligence Services: Managing Information Overload”, among those narrating their experiences were HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Tom Fenton of CBS News, US Senator Richard C Shelby and Philip Bowring of International Herald Tribune Hong Kong, the discussions centering on how intelligence services could improve their efficiency. President Vincente Fox of Mexico addressed the WEF on “Trust, Governance and Leadership”, Interpol’s Ronald Noble led a very useful dialogue on “Beating Criminal Networks”.

On Saturday Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton University and Joseph Stiglitz Jr of Columbia University discussed “The Global Economic Outlook”. Adi Ignatius, Executive Editor TIME Magazine moderated “A Mapping of Conflicts” while discussion on “The Supply Side of Corruption” was led by Prof Robert Klitgaard of RAND Graduate School, USA. Yezid Sayigh, Director Cambridge University, UK hosted a dinner meeting on “Religion and Conflict : Cause or Cure?” Nobel Prize winners Prof David Baltimore of CIT USA, Prof Mario Molina of MIT USA, Prof Robert Mundell of Columbia University USA and Prof Joseph Stiglitz were the finest “Nobel” minds meeting with WEF members late on Saturday night.

On Sunday 26 January Richard Sambrook of BBC led an elite team of Editors and Columnists in a workshop on “Media Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility”. James Hoge led the discussion on “Next on the List : American Scrutiny” for those countries which may pose a future conventional biological or nuclear threat to USA. The high point on Sunday was US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s calm and unaffected presentation on “Trust, Governance and Leadership” incorporating the US government’s viewpoint on world order and disorder after 9/11. King Abdullah of Jordan gave the Arab reaction later. An interesting Dinner Session on Sunday was “Philanthropy: A Strategy for Troubled Times”.

On Monday 29 Jan a panel moderated by Stuart Eizenstat, Partner, Covington & Burling, USA discussed “Counterfeiting: A New Business Risk” and Nik Gowing of BBC moderated “New Alliances for Defence Industries” in which Lord Robertson, Secretary General NATO was the Special Guest. “The Arc of Instability” stretching from West Africa to South East Asia was moderated by David Ignatius, International Herald Tribune, France with President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan as special guest. The high point of Monday afternoon was the “Dialogue with Queen Rania of Jordan”. The Dinner Session on “Work and Family: The Need for a New Operating Model” moderated by Risk Little was extremely important. On the last day former NATO Commander Gen Wesley Clark gave an excellent briefing on likely military scenarios in Iraq.

Whenever they came to DAVOS, both former PMs Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif did well for Pakistan but not enough. Benazir’s charisma was not exploited to its potential for the country’s benefit at such a forum. As the pointman in the “war against terrorism”, President Musharraf’s presence in DAVOS was a must, he could have checked the anti-Pakistan Indian-sponsored tirade both by personal networking and his forthright demeanour, invaluable for third world countries like Pakistan. In Session after Session an Indian-organized campaign led by Sundeep Wasleker of Strategic Foresight Group, India (to quote “muslim jihadis want to die so that they can get 70 wives in heaven”), centered on Pakistan, with proxies such as Russian analyst Sergei Kareganov, Newsweek’s Indian-origin US citizen Fareed Zakaria, former Australian FM Gareth Evans, US columnist Thomas Friedman, Afghanistan’s Abdullah Abdullah (to quote “Pakistan is a failed State”), etc feeding to the world’s elite the blatant misinformation that (1) Pakistan’s nuclear potential was in danger of being taken over by Islamic terrorists and conversely (2) that Pakistan itself was a future nuclear Terrorist State and as such to be a target for pre-emptive action by the US and the world after Iraq. In taking issue with this nonsense, the large Indian presence made the handful Pakistanis present almost persona non-grata. One bright note is that in contrast, the PM’s Advisor on Finance Shaukat Aziz remained extremely popular among the Indians, why not make him the Foreign Minister and let someone else worry about Pakistan’s finances? Our finances will survive without “Euromoney’s” choice as Finance Minister 2002 but if Aziz can keep on using his charm, as he has done domestically for every government since Junejo, to cut ice with the Indians over Kashmir, what do we have to lose on this “horses for courses” formula?

Our top-most hierarchy must go to Davos every year, if only to pre-empt India’s efforts to get the world do a pre-emptive attack against our nuclear potential. We do not have the luxury of a choice anymore, in the prevailing uni-polar world it is a dire necessity.

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