By Moira Dynon B.Sc.
1970 Melbourne
Text of Broadcast by Moira Dynon on Radio 3KZ (Melbourne) on 25 January 1970
Some months ago Mr. Robert McNamara, President of the World Bank, warned that there can be no true security in the world as long as the problems of poverty, illiteracy and social discrimination are not tackled adequately. ‘These problems confront us irrespective of Communism and the free world,’ he said.
The danger to the stability and security of the nations in Asia would seem to come perhaps not so much from direct military confrontation but from internal subversion. The answer to it is not in military alliances which may lead to counter military alliances, but in strengthening the economic and political stability of the countries of the region.
In the developing countries the battle to build a strong economy and to satisfy the needs of the people is long and hard. Today in Asia poverty presents an explosive challenge. This region is in the throes of what has been called ‘the Revolution of Rising Expectations’ due to the demands of the people for improved living standards. Without doubt there has been considerable economic progress in many of the developing countries such as India. But the rising expectations of the people have overtaken the progress that has so far been achieved. The real problem of the developing countries is how to achieve even more rapid progress.
When are the millions of people going to get enough food to eat, water to drink, employment, clothes to wear, education for their children, medical aid for their sick? You can’t blame the people for their impatience and if their impatience and their frustration erupt into violence we shouldn’t be surprised.
Despite an impressive record of progress in independent India, today in Calcutta there are too many human beings with barely enough to eat, no proper houses in which to live, no money, no job, existing in over-crowded insanitary conditions. Despite the considerable public health programmes and the amount of social welfare work conducted by an army of enlightened devoted workers, so much remains to be done. But the resources with which to do it are limited and too often non-existent.
If the Declaration of Human Rights is to become a living ideal, the ever widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots should be bridged as quickly as possible. This requires a substantial, united and sustained drive by the wealthy nations to help the under-developed and backward countries.
One of the most shameful social phenomena of our time is the growing gap between the rich and the poor countries. The failure of the first Decade of Development must be attributed largely to the lack of adequate responses from the advanced countries to the needs of the developing nations. Even more important, the rich countries are reluctant to provide the poor countries with meaningful market opportunities for their exports. The terms of Trade of the rich countries need to be re-examined and re-oriented to facilitate increasing access to the primary products, raw materials and manufactured goods of the less developed countries.
The tied aid policies, the cost of debt servicing and restrictive trade practices are all leading to an explosive situation. Disillusionment and disappointment marked the closing stages of what was intended to be the United Nations first Decade of Development. But in the rich countries, as Mr. Robert McNamara has pointed out, ‘The political will to foster development has weakened, is weakening further, and needs desperately to be strengthened.’ It was the rich countries which showed the greatest economic progress in the Decade of Development.
Why should Australia make renewed efforts to fight hunger and poverty elsewhere in 1970? I believe there are three main reasons why we must act with increased vigor –
- From sheer humanitarianism, based on love of mankind, love of our neighbour and a genuine concern for those who need special and urgent help. In many of our neighbouring countries, the people cannot receive adequate help or opportunities for various reasons:-
(a) The ravages of the colonial era have left them poor;
(b) There is insufficient industrialization;
(c) There is the inability to find markets open to their goods barred by tariff walls;
(d) They cannot implement many of their developmental programmes as rapidly as they wish because of lack of capital resources and shortage of international currency.
- Secondly for reasons of friendship. To live in peace and harmony with our neighbours we must adopt the more positive policies and actively strive to seek their friendship. We can do this by demonstrating an understanding and appreciation of their ideals, their problems and their difficulties.
- The third reason why we must renew our efforts is political. The political and social complexion of this region depends on the outcome of the Revolution of Rising Expectations. Geography has placed us in this turbulent Asian region which is pulsating with new life and the rising expectations of the people due to their demands for better living standards. It is a matter of crucial importance that the poor see more rapid improvement.
The most potent factor in Asia is not Communism – Communism thrives in conditions of poverty and frustration – but the Communists did not create the conditions in which it flourishes. And these conditions will not be altered by military alliances and military intervention. The fact that the “super” powers are expending billions yearly on sophisticated weapons and space research and activities appears quite inhuman to the vast millions of people who live on or below bare subsistence levels.
We must face up to the fact that the two most potent factors in Asia are Nationalism and Poverty. We must do all we can to help bridge the growing gulf between our relative wealth as a nation and the poverty of our Asian neighbours for political reasons – based on our own survival pure and simple. If the frustration of the masses breeds hatred, and violence erupts, can we be assured that we will not be the loser? In our relations with our Asian neighbours we cannot afford to relegate foreign aid to a fringe position.
At the present time many of the rich, white nations aim to protect a socio economic system which the majority of poor, non-white nations oppose. In this context, the central fact of the past is increasingly being seen as the supremacy of the one over the other, just as the central fact of the future could seem a conflict between them. It is the growing association in many areas of white with rich and poor with non-white that forebodes deeper divisions. The economic may well be the effective cause of divisions, but the racial may become increasingly “the label”.
As U Thant has said, beneath the present political realignments, the world is in fact divided in many ways. It is divided ideologically; it is divided racially; and it is divided economically. “These divisions must be faced and discussed with reason and determination. We ignore them at our peril, for if they are allowed to persist and grow larger, they will unleash, as they already show signs of doing, darker forces of bigotry, fear, resentment, and racial hatred than the world has ever seen. We cannot agree to live in such a nightmare, still less to bequeath it to our children.” Australia as a nation must heed these words.
In Australia we are inclined to congratulate ourselves on our record on aid. With some justification we pat ourselves on the back because of the Colombo Plan, because of our initiative in inaugurating a system of some tariff preferences for certain goods from the developing countries and because we now give 0.7 per cent of our national income in an aid including contributions to Papua New Guinea. It is commendable that Australian aid is given in grant form thus imposing no debt servicing burdens on recipient countries. I have had the opportunity to see at first hand in 10 States of India the results of Australian contributions by the Government and by non-governmental organizations including Aid India Campaign, Freedom from Hunger Campaign, Community Aid Abroad and by the Churches. Whether it is our assistance with regard to Bakery Machines, poultry programmes, sheep breeding in Kashmir, milk powder for under-nourished children, wheat for victims of floods and drought, or wells for villages, there is no doubt whatsoever that the aid has been of benefit. My only criticism of Australian aid given to India is that there is no nearly enough of it.
How to reduce by means of trade and aid the gap between the rich and the poor countries is the dominant question facing the world today. And because of the shrinking of distances between the peoples of the world and because of our geographic situation, Australia must take more positive action than she has in the past.
What can we do? I do not suggest that Australia alone can solve the problems of the developing countries. As they well realise, the prime responsibility for economic development rests with the developing countries themselves. But because of the size and the urgency of the task they need help. There are many things that can be done if we have the will.
- Trade. The proportion of the world’s trade shared by the developing countries is decreasing year by year. It is essential that this trend be reversed. Over the years there has been a fall in the prices of commodities exported by the developing countries as against the rising prices of manufactured goods imported by them. Numerous trade barriers inhibit the access of imports from the poor countries to the markets of the rich countries. Greater international economic co-operation is needed. The more the developing nations can expand their trade opportunities the less will be the need for aid. Australia must seek to negotiate further bi-lateral trade agreements with our Asian neighbours. Such agreements would be to our mutual advantage.
- Aid. The U.N.C.T.A.D. Conference resolved that each economically advanced country should endeavour to supply financial resources to the developing countries of a minimum net amount approaching as nearly as possible one per cent of its national income and have called for fulfilment of the one per cent target. I believe that Australia should make an early announcement of the proposed date when she intends to fulfil the one per cent target.
- Food. The benefits of our high technology and our food surpluses can be put to good use for the under privileged people. Rational programmes can and should be formulated so that any surplus wheat and milk powder is utilized for the very needy. Australia cannot afford to adopt the attitude that because they cannot afford to buy our surplus food the millions of children and adults existing on or below subsistence levels deserve to starve.
- Mutual Co-Operation. In addition, there could be closer co-operation in many ways including increased interchanges of personnel – especially in the scientific, medical and business fields.
In conclusion, it could be said that looked at on a per capita basis, Australia in supplying aid is perhaps narrow in her outlook. About half of our foreign aid is allocated to Papua and New Guinea. It is debatable whether this should be considered at all as foreign aid. Apart from Papua and New Guinea, it appears that we over-concentrate our foreign aid in certain countries to the disadvantage of other countries in the region. To be realistic, foreign aid should be based on the principle of need and allotted on a per capita basis.
For these reasons, Indonesia and India are entitled to a greater share of Australian allocations than they receive at present. Indonesia is our nearest neighbour; she is facing enormous economic difficulties and has a population approaching 100 million.
Approximately one-sixth (1/6th) of the world’s people live in India. She is making heroic efforts to raise the standard of living of her people in freedom and by democratic means. The outcome of her endeavours is vital to Australia. We should encourage her efforts in more meaningful ways through greater allocations of our total aid bearing in mind the fact that there are more people in India than in the whole of South East Asia combined.
It has been said that the new gap between expectation and fulfilment poses the most serious challenge to the international community. Australia can and must do more to meet this challenge through increased trade opportunities for our Asian neighbours. To the extent that we fail to do this it will be incumbent on us to supply ever-increasing aid.