98
KEYNOTE
ADDRESS
THE STRUGGLE FOR SELF-RELIANCE IN
DR. MATHEW KURIEN
Director,
The economies of most Asian countries are passing through,
possibly, the worst ever crisis in their post-independence history. The crisis
is manifested through such serious contradictions as the following:
i) increasing
poverty for the vast majority of the people along with the affluence for the
few and concentration of economic wealth and power in the hands of a small
number of industrial monopoly houses and landlords;
ii) mounting of
unemployment despite massive doses of investment outlays under the development
plans;
iii) inflationary
rise in prices which transfer value from the working people to owners, black marketeers and black money operators;
iv) increasing
dependence on foreign private capital and foreign collaboration agreements with
imperialist countries and multinational corporations along with claims of
"self-reliance";
v) quantitative
expansion in education, along with the increase of number of illiteracies;
vi) increase in
industrial output and profits, while real wages of workers stagnate or decline;
vii) the increasing
need for involving working people in developmental activities of the
grass-roots level, but the character of State power and polity remain
authoritarian and militarist, leading to suppresion
of freedom and basic civil rights.
While the ruling classes are pursuing their policies of
oppression and dominance, different sections of the people are becoming
socially aware and are trying to affirm their rights for self-determination and
self-reliance.
99
Different Concepts of
'Self-Reliance'
Possibly one of the "sophisticated" official
expositions of "self-reliance" is contained in the documents of the
Government of India and their Planning Commission. The Approach Document of
India's Fifth Five Year Plan states in the opening paragraph that "Removal
of poverty and attainment of economic self-reliance are the two major tasks
which the country has set out to accomplish". The document proclaims its
concern for reducing
Table 1:
|
Period |
Repayment of principal |
Interest payments |
Total Debt Servicing |
|
First Plan Second Plan Third Plan 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 (Estimates) |
10.5 55.2 305.6 159.7 210.7 236.2 358.5 289.5 299.9 327.0 399.9 411.0 470.0 |
13.3 64.2 237.0 114.8 122.3 138.8 144.0 160.5 180.0 180.4 195.9 215.0 230.0 |
23.8 119.4 542.6 274.5 333.0 375.0 412.5 450.0 479.3 507.4 595.8 626.0 700.0 |
SOURCE:
Government of
During the last 26 years since independence, the Government
of India permitted over 3600 foreign collaboration agreements. Such
collaborations are being permitted even in such non-priority sectors as
toothpaste, tennis balls and ladies' undergarments.
Private foreign capital in
100
Table
2: EXTERNAL ASSISTANCE UTILISED BY
|
Period |
Rupees
crores |
|
Up
to the end of Third Plan 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 1974-75 |
4,508.8 1,131.4 1,195.6 902.6 856.3 791.4 834.1 666.2 999.3 1,337.4 |
|
Total |
13,223.1 |
SOURCE:
Government of
The Fifth Plan Document of India has defined the problem of
"self reliance" in terms of "net-zero aid", thereby
assuming the problem away. In fact, during the Fifth Plan period,
There is a more vicious aspect to this tall official talk of
"self reliance". The slogan (defined in terms of
government-to-government aid) is being used as a cover for increasing the
dependence of the Indian economy on foreign capital from private sources
abroad, for an open-door policy with respect to private foreign capital and
collaboration agreements.
Real self-reliance in Asia can be understood only in terms
of colonial, anti-imperialist heritage of the peoples of
101
to
mould their own destiny. At the same time it does not preclude the need for
fraternity and mutual help between oppressed peoples all over the world against
their common enemies — imperialism, neo-colonialism and the false cultural
values which international capitalism propagates. Self-reliance in economics,
politics and culture, thus, can be sustained only by an intense desire to share
the experiences of the toiling people struggling for social justice, a struggle
which focusses attention on the improvement of the
material and cultural life of the vast majority of the people in each country,
through the wielding of political power by the people after destroying the
oppressive power of the few.
Colonialism, Neo-colonialism and the
Struggle for Self-Reliance
Though colonialism in its overt form ended in
Neo-colonialism refers to the covert forms of dominance
exercised by the ex-colonial and imperialist powers - an indirect version of
colonialism wherein "the metropolitan power exercises control within the
context of the nominal independence of the people affected rather than by an
outright colonial administration imposed on them." 2
The rise and fall of colonialism in
In the Philippines where the national movement succeeded in
destroying Spanish control over Luzon, the United States of America established
their absolute hegemonistic control through
"occupation: following the Spanish-American War, and during the Presidency
of William McKinley Though formal power was transferred to local people,
American business men had reached a deal with the United States Government to
help them re-establish favourable relationships. The
Bell Trade Act and the Philippines Rehabilitation Act passed by Congress were
the products of the private monopoly lobbies in the
By 1970 the
102
for
33% of the estimated earnings from exports of commodities and services."
5
"Consequent plunder, forced labor, taxation and
enforced specialisation in an export monoculture
reversed the relative position; and
The total wealth transferred from
It is true that the dominance of the developing countries of
Asia, Africa and
The actual experience in raising domestic savings has,
however, been disappointing. In the late 1960's savings as a proportion of GNP
did not show any noticeable increase; in fact, it declined from 17.8% in 1965
to 17.2% in 1970. There was a slight improvement in 1971 and 1972 to 18.5%; the
efforts of most Asian countries in raiding domestic savings have been infructuous.
The dependence of some of the Asian countries for so-called developmental
assistance poses a serious threat to their economic independence and
self-reliance. In the case of-Indonesia, for example, 40.3% of official
international assistance in 1970 was from
Despite various appeals by world bodies to the developed
capitalist countries to soften the terms and conditions of loans advanced by
them to the underdeveloped countries, no tangible results have been forthcoming.9
103
Table 3: MAJOR SOURCES
AND FORMS OF OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE FROM 1970
|
Country |
Official Development
Assistance |
Donors providing 10% or
more of total official development assistance (by percentages). |
|||
|
|
Bilateral ($ million) |
Multilateral |
Total |
||
|
|
499.05 |
12.40 |
461.45 |
|
27.3 |
|
|
10.5 |
||||
|
|
40.3 |
||||
|
|
41.30 |
13.11 |
54.41 |
|
35.3 |
|
|
34.9 |
||||
|
IBRD |
19.2 |
||||
|
|
26.76 |
2137 |
4813 |
|
11.9 |
|
|
34.9 |
||||
|
IBRD |
40.4 |
||||
|
|
43.31 |
5.00 |
48.31 |
|
17.5 |
|
|
11.4 |
||||
|
|
21.4 |
||||
|
|
20.7 |
||||
SOURCE: UNITED
NATIONS, Developing Island Countries, 1974, p.38. Table 12
Moreover, the imperialist countries have been putting a very
heavy burden of the underdeveloped recipient countries, in terms of exorbitant
payments for the so-called "transfer of technology" — payments for
patents, licences, know-how, trade-marks and managerial
technical services. Such payments made by the ESCAP
countries in 1968 amounted to 1.5 billion US$. On the basis of past trends, it
has been estimated that the direct costs of "transfer technology" to
these countries during 1970s will increase by 20% per annum. 10
In direct contrast is the beneficial terms and conditions of
aid from the socialist countries. The cumulative money value of bilateral aid
commitments made by USSR to the ESCAP countries
during 1954-70 is estimated at 6.6 billion US$ and that from the East European
countries at 3.6 billion US$ equivalent. 11 Aid from the socialist
countries is strongly project-oriented and is utilised
mainly for strengthening the key productive sectors, particularly in the public
industrial sector, of the developing economies. As the UN has admitted in one
of its reports:
"The
bulk of the
All the costs of colonialism and imperialist "aid"
cannot be quantified. Some have to be assessed in terms of deprivation of
health, education and in terms of cultural domination. Eduardo de Sousa
Ferreira stresses the need for understanding the problems of decolonisation and the cost of colonisation
in the scientific, educational and cultural fields. 13
A lot of classified information by US Government agencies is
104
collected
through social scientists, anthropologists and other scientists. 14
It was not accidental that there was "a great increase of research
interest in poverty stricken and minority group areas of
"...it
possible to predict and influence politically significant aspects of social change in the developing
nations of the world. .. the US Army has an important mission in the positive
and constructive aspects of nation-building in less developed countries as well
as a responsibility to assist friendly governments dealing with active
insurgency problem." 16
US imperialism — both government agencies and multi-national
corporations — also function indirectly through apparently non-governmental
institutions such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute
for Mental Health, Ford, Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations, etc. The
How apparently innocuous small beginnings in financial and
technical support by
After the stunning defeat of American imperialism in
The most significant development in the post-Vietnam war
period is the emergence of
105
Force.
The Nixon Doctrine also calls for greater Japanese and European involvement
with men and materials to fight Asian Wars.
The relationship between
Integration of economic policy roles of
Poverty
and Unemployment — The Struggle of Peasants and Workers
The problem of mass poverty and unemployment are two key
questions in the underdeveloped countries in
There is no agreed standard definition of poverty.
Statistical method may not reveal much more than even a cursory visual or
photographic view of poverty-stricken people in the Asian countries. Most
people in
According to the World Bank Statistics (if statistics have
to be relied on after all) about 85% of the 750 million poor in the
underdeveloped world are considered to be "in absolute poverty" —
absolute poverty being defined arbitrarily on the basis of an annual per capita
income of US$50 or less. Those having income above US$50 per capita/year, but below one-third of the national
average, per capita income are defined as people under "relative
poverty". (For detailed figures for 1969, see Tables 4 & 5).
The significant point to be noted is that more than 80% of
the population in the underdeveloped countries considered to be in absolute or
relative poverty, live in the rural areas. 23 Since the principal
occupation of about 4/5 of the rural poor is agriculture, it is clear that the
core problem of poverty is linked with the question of land and the mode and
relations of production in agriculture.
Table 4: ESTIMATES OF RELATIVE POVERTY IN DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES, 1969
|
|
|
Population in Poverty |
|
|
Region |
Population |
Population with incomes
below one-third of national average per capita income |
Population with incomes
below $50 per capita plus population with incomes below one-third of national
average per capita income |
|
Developing
countries in |
(millions) |
|
|
|
Total |
360 260 1,080 1,700 |
75 80 145 300 |
175 80 440 645 |
|
Share of Developing
Countries in |
|
(percentage) |
|
|
|
21 15 64 |
25 25 48 |
19 19 68 |
|
Combined share relative
to total population |
100 |
18 |
38 |
SOURCE: WORLD BANK,
Rural Development, Sector Policy papers, February 1975 Annex 2
All available data about the agrarian situation in
107
Table 5: ESTIMATES OF TOTAL POPULATION AND RURAL POPULATION
IN POVERTY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, 1969
|
Region |
Population 1969 |
Total population in poverty |
Rural population in poverty |
||
|
Below $50 per capita (1) |
Below $75 per capita (1) |
Below $50 per capita (1) |
Below $75 per capita (1) |
||
|
Developing countries in |
(millions) |
||||
|
Total |
360 260 1,080 1,700 |
115 30 415 560 |
165 50 620 835 |
105 20 355 480 |
140 30 525 695 |
|
Four Asian countries (2) |
765 |
350 |
510 |
295 |
435 |
|
Other
countries |
935 |
210 |
325 |
185 |
260 |
|
Share of developing
countries in |
(percentage) |
||||
|
|
21 15 64 |
21 5 74 |
20 6 74 |
22 4 74 |
20 4 76 |
|
Combined share relative
to total population |
100 |
33 |
49 |
28 |
41 |
|
Share of four Asian
countries (2) |
45 |
63 |
61 |
62 |
63 |
(1)
At 1969 prices.
(2)
SOURCE: WORLD BANK,
Rural Development, Sector Policy Papers, February 1975; Annex I
108
compared
to 36% way back in 1930.24 Traditional squatting has become
increasingly difficult in view of the new restrictions and land laws. Some
studies indicate that the practice of tenancy has increased in
Table 6: LANDLESS FARM WORKERS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES IN
|
Country |
Number of landless
workers (thousands) |
Landless workers as a
percentage of active population in agriculture |
Active agricultural
population as percentage of total active population |
|
|
47,300 5,673 8,013 |
32 20 29 |
68 70 70 |
|
Total |
60,986 |
30 |
68 |
*
Includes population now belonging to
SOURCE: WORLD BANK,
Rural Development, Sector Policy Papers, February 1975, Annex 4
The food crisis in
"...before
people can do anything they have got to eat. And if you are looking for a way
to get people to lean on you and to be dependent on you, in terms of their
co-operation with you, it seems to me that food dependence would be
terrific..." 28
In the perception of world power by
The spectre of unemployment haunts
the youth of Asian nations and millions in the upper age groups of the working
population. The so-called "crash-programmes" initiated by some
governments in
109
of
the "crash programmes", which have been described sometimes as
'relief works for the rich'. (For data on unemployment in selected countries,
see Table 7)
One of the "fondly-held economic theories" is that
economic growth is followed by increasing unemployment. How fallacious such a
theory can be is demonstrated by the experience of practically both developing
and developed.
Table
7: UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOME ECAFE COUNTRIES
|
Country |
Period |
Rate of Unemployment (Percentage) |
||
|
Total |
Rural |
Urban |
||
|
|
July 1964 – June 1965 Nov 1964 – Feb 1965 1967 – 1968 October 1968 1963 1966 1969 – 1970 July – September 1969 |
- 2.3 6.8 7.9 8.1 9.1 13. 0.2 |
4.4 2.0 5.4 7.4 2.9 - 13.9 0.1 |
3.5 5.1 9.9 9.0 16.4 - 17.3 1.2 |
SOURCE: UNITED
NATIONS, Economic Survey of Asia and the
Government spokesmen in many Asian countries have made pathetic
attempt to explain away the massive inflationary spiral by describing it as a
"global phenomenon" or "phasing-phase". The fact is that
the incidence and depth of mass poverty increased due to a steep rise in
prices, particularly food prices. (For details in "consumer price indices
in some Asian countries, see Table 8).
It is increasingly clear, however, that the staggering
problem of price rise cannot be diagnosed without examining the basic elements
in the economic policies pursued by the Governments resulting in decline in
industrial growth rates, substantial unutilised
capacity, imbalances created by the so-called green revolution, mounting
burdens of an inequitous tax policy, deficit
financing, wasteful public expenditure, growth of monopolies, increasing
foreign collaborations in even non-essential commodities, highhanded operations
of hoarders, speculators and black-marketeers,
inefficiency of the public distribution system and the black money economy
operating alongside the open economy, are some of the deeper causes for this
malady.
Industrial workers have had a raw deal. While the net output
per worker in
110
The low level of incomes of the rural and urban poor results
in low intake of calories particularly proteins, leading to the perpetuation
and widening of the vicious circle of low incomes — low consumption — lower
capacities for work — lower income — and so on. In
Table 8: PERCENTAGE RATES OF CHANGE IN CONSUMER
PRICE INDICES
|
Country |
Annual compound rate of
growth |
1967 |
1973 |
|
Hongkong |
- 7.2 - - 1.0 3.4 4.5 19.5 1.4 2.0 2.2 |
5.7 13.9 169.5 7.9 4.2 6.9 5.7 43.8 3. 2.2 4.0 |
11.2 15.9 33.9 26.1 - 18.4 3.5 33.9 23.7 8.7 12.1 |
SOURCE: UNITED NATIONS, Monthly Bulletin
of Statistics, November 1973, and the Central Bank of the
Table 9: SELECTED DEVELOPING ECAFE
COUNTRIES: INCREASE IN MONEY AND
REAL WAGES IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY, 1963-1966 AND 1966-1969
|
Country |
Pay period |
Wages: |
|||
|
Increase 1963-1966 (%) |
Increase 1966-1969 (%) |
||||
|
Money |
Real |
Money |
Real |
||
|
|
Monthly Hourly Daily Hourly |
27.2 70.4 21.5 15.5 -1.1 9.3 -6.3 |
-7.4 4.1 3.0 -13.5 -4.8 5.9 -12.3 |
21.4 108.0 1.4* 11.1 5.5 12.2 20.2 |
-4.9 50.7 -5.3 0.7 1.7 -3.5 10.8 |
SOURCE: UNITED NATIONS, Monthly Bulletin
of Statistics, November 1973, and the Central Bank of the
111
Table
10: NUTRITION LEVELS BY INCOME CLASS
|
|
Percentage of families |
Daily caloric intake
per capita |
Daily protein intake (gm/capita) |
|
|
Total protein |
Animal protein |
|||
|
Rural
(1961-66) Upper
class in Expenditure
per capita (rupees) Urban and Rural Areas 0
– 11 11
– 18 18
– 24 34
and over Total
average |
21.3 18.9 20.7 39.1 |
1,864 3,271 1,340 2,020 2,485 3,340 2,100 |
44.0 84.0 37.9 56.6 69.0 59.7 59.7 |
8.9 1.4 2.6 6.6 11.9 4.5 |
SOURCE: WORLD BANK,
Rural Development, Sector Policy Papers, February 1975, Annex 5.
Development Strategies and the Need
for Liberation
The non-socialist Asian countries, being part of the
international capitalist system, are governed by laws of motion characteristic
of the capitalist countries with the important qualification that the
capitalist mode of production still remains super-imposed on feudal,
semi-feudal, tribal and other pre-capitalist formations.
Despite international effort to raise the level of incomes
and the rate of savings and investments in the underdeveloped part of the capitalist
world, under the auspices of the various agencies of the UN, the gap in the
level of development between developed and underdeveloped countries is
widening.
"Thus
during the period 1970-73 the annual rate of growth of total real product for
the least developed countries as a group averaged 3.3%, compared with 5.7% for
all developing countries. This is similar to the pattern observed for the
decade 196070."31
In 1975 the Committee for Development Planning to the
UN was called up to assess the development situation in the light of: a) the
International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development
Decade, and b) the Programme for Action on the Establishment of a New International
Economic Order. The Committee admitted that "the performance
112
was
also bad in vital respects, and the implementation of the International
Development Strategy was very disappointing;" 32 "no real
inroads were made on the key problems of mass poverty and unemployment."
33
Apart from the lack of adequate industrial development,
agriculture which is the mainstay of the vast majority of the population
remains feudal and semi-feudal, although in many parts of
Land monopoly and tenancies restrict the possibilities of
unleashing the productive energies of the peasantry ... The life of the vast
majority of people in the rural areas is made unbearable by the utter lack of
minimum facilities such as drinking water, health and sanitation, apart from
the elementary needs of food and shelter.
"Green Revolution" and other technological
innovations have not made any noticeable change in the living standards of the
rural masses ... The lesson to be drawn from the failure of the "New
Agricultural Strategy" designed with the blessings of American experts is
that it does not pose the central problem of agriculture — the problem of
ownership of land, production relations and radical land reforms. Only through
a consistent struggle of peasants and agricultural labour
can present fetters on the agricultural sector, namely feudalism,
semi-feudalism and land monopoly, be abolished and the productive forces
unleashed.
The recent development in the international monetary system,
the virtual collapse of the Almighty US Dollar and its supremacy in the world,
the demise of Bretton Wood's System of international
.currency, the ever increasing inflationary spiral in Asian countries and the
rest of the world, the increasing cost structure of export products, resulting
from inflation and unutilised capacity, have all led
to a situation in which all the hopes of most of Asian Governments for a
continuous and substantial stepping up of the growth rate in exports have been
shattered.
Private foreign sector still continues to have a substantial
control over the foreign trade of most of Asian countries, both exports and
imports. Three important factors are responsible for this development. First,
the foreign firms which are either subsidiaries or branches of parent companies
abroad have intimate connections with export markets. The worldwide connections
of the parent companies are directly utilised to the
advantage of the subsidiary companies and branch firms. The already established
export outlets of the parent companies give a definite superior advantage to
the foreign firms as compared to the indigenous firms in
The term 'industrialisation' has
been used by many as a synonym for development or modernisation.
34 There is a danger in this understanding or misunderstanding. It is
true that rising consumption above the subsistence level needs the products of
industry, and traditional societies can move
113
forward
only by adopting more modem modes of production. To put it differently, in most
of Asian societies, the Western capitalist pattern of industrialisation
will create new and overwhelming problems.
Industrialisation which was the centerpiece of the
development process has recently come under a cloud. The relative neglect of
agriculture in the underdeveloped countries, in the name of industrialisation,
growing unemployment and poverty, widening gap in urban-rural and class-wise
dangers of pollution, and so on have compelled the planners of many
underdeveloped countries to move away from the Western concept of industrialisation and to re-order more
"people-oriented-set of priorities for development planning".35
Even the protagonists of "people-oriented"
development strategies in the UN and other international agencies talk of industrialisation as a general category without specifying
it with relation to different socio-economic and political formulations. They
do admit that "this does not mean that one pattern of industrialisation
can be prescribed for all countries, regardless of their size, location,
preferences or other characteristics, or that one brand of industrial strategy
is appropriate for all development stages." 36 But they do not
make explicit the nexus with the pattern of industrialisation
and sociopolitical power structures in the various countries.
A
Critique and an Alternative Approach to Development
The philosophy of planning which has guided the planning
process in most of the Asian countries has been borrowed mainly from the
Western capitalist countries, though the vocabulary of socialist planning has
been cleverly used as political tactic by some countries.
One of the ingredients of Western philosophy of planning is
the unquestioned presumption that planning is a purely "economic"
phenomenon. Any discussion of socio-political phenomenon is invariably
discounted as "politics", beyond the scope of discussion of the
"planner" who is defined basically as an economist, an
econometrician, a statistician or a technocrat.
Another ingredient of the Western philosophy of planning is,
what may be called, the GNP-biased concept of economic growth or development. A
given investment of resources is expected to produce a given capital-output
ratio, capital-labour ratio, capital intensities, a
broad picture of inter-industry balances, and a few other coefficients and
relationships. Using a mathematical model, he feels confident to
"plan" for the nation. Unfortunately this kind of philosophy has had
a long lease of life both in the official and academic circles.
The bitter lessons which we have learnt during the last two
decades tell us plainly that the above philosophy is not only too simplistic in
its conception, but positively dangerous if it continues to lead us in
development process.
Any alternative approach to planning and development, if it
has to have any meaning to the vast masses of the working people, must-make a
complete break with the above notions borrowed from the West. Firstly, we
114
must
accept the reality that "planning" and "development" are
primarily political processes. Without a thorough grasp of this significance of
political economy, involving the inter-relationships between socio-economic and
political processes, and without an appreciation of the nature and growth of
power structures in rural and urban centres, there
can be no meaningful or effective planning in Asian countries.
The starting point of all exercises at planning should be to
identify the nature and causes of the economic crisis in
A detailed study of the power structure in
The commitment for "development" is, thus, a
commitment for liberation which implies a complete change in the power
structure. It is in this context that the struggle of the workers for
need-based minimum wage and bonus for all, the struggle of the peasants for
taking over of surplus land of landlords extra-legally and
non-bureaucratically, by their organised strength, the struggle of the people
for a complete change in the class character of state power, and so on become
the central themes of developmental economics. It should be the endeavour of all those who subscribe to fhis
concept of political economy to work out the details fully in the years to
come.
Human
Rights and Political Repression.
If poverty, unemployment and gross economic exploitation are
the material realities of social life in most Asian countries, the most agonising fact of life is that a pernicious and
all-pervading darkness has been shed on the people by governments which have
given a go-by to parliamentary democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law.
Suppression of human rights, political repression and authoritarian
semi-fascist rule have become the order of the day. Possibly the most
distressing fact is that similar tendencies which were only dormant in some
countries with an apparent tradition of inherited parliamentary values have
recently removed their camouflage and
115
have
decided to tread the path of political suppression of all dissent
Asia has an impressive array of authoritarian and military
regimes
The people of Asia rejoiced when the military puppet
governments ill
The authoritarian political rule of President Marcos in the
Though a civilian government came to power in
_____________
*
(Editor's Note: This military regime was toppled by the coalition of
students-workers-citizens in 1973, but another military coup was staged m 6
October 1976.)
116
beyond
redemption. Eqbal Ahmed's prognosis is worth noting:
"We
are witnessing the emergence of two clearly identifiable, seemingly hostile,
but symbiotically linked trends — towards fascism and separatism. Of these,
fascism is the more serious threat although separation is generally being
viewed as the imminent danger".39
In most countries of
"the
crime of touching the ground with his two feet.. the crime of attempting to
stand up despite his poverty-stricken status, the crime of wasting time in
thinking, the crime of looking up at the sky without a feeling of shame, the
crime of inhaling the air and expanding his thorax . . ." 40
Suppression of freedom takes overt and covert forms: this is
apart from substantial regional variations. But certain common features can be
discerned. Even in countries such as
Yet another common denominator of the authoritarian and
military regimes in
This widening of the target has brought together people of
various ideologies and religious faiths and non-political people who believe in
the human values of self-respect, freedom and justice to come together in a
wider fraternity.
117
Liberating Education
A serious crisis looms over the educational system in most
of Asia For example, after 28 years of independence less than one third of
Quantitative Expansion
There has, undoubtedly, been a noticeable quantitative
expansion of education. Enrolment at the primary level in 1965 was 60% in
Table
11: ENROLMENT IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
LEVELS (1965)
|
Countries
|
Primary level |
Secondary level |
|
|
11 |
4 |
|
|
34 |
22 |
|
|
60 |
78 |
|
Hongkong |
66 |
57 |
|
|
40 |
34 |
|
|
45 |
17 |
|
|
53 |
44 |
|
|
15 |
6 |
|
|
21 |
24 |
|
|
65 |
31 |
|
|
68 |
68 |
|
|
48 |
12 |
SOURCE: UNITED
NATIONS, World Economic Survey, 1969-70, pp.207-281 Table A 11
The agonising fact about primary
and secondary level is the heavy number of "drop-outs" and "pushouts". In the school systems of most of ESCAP countries less than 50% of each age-group remains in
schools at the beginning of Grade VII and fewer than 20% have left by the end
of Grade X. Due to poverty and other economic and social reasons, a large
percentage of pupils who enter the first few classes at the primary level leave
118
schools
midway. A study conducted in
Table 12: REASONS
FOR NON-ENROLMENT AMONG CHILDREN IN THE 6 TO 10 AGE-GROUP
|
Poverty Not interested in
education Negligence Considered underaged Physically
handicapped Others Total |
54.79 29.45 4.12 8.22 0.68 2.74 100.00 |
(percentages)
|
SOURCES: Taherul
Islam, Social Justice and the Educational Systems of Bengladesh,
Bureau of Economic Research,
Sectorial imbalances among primary, secondary
and higher education still plague the formal system in most Asian countries.
The pattern of financial allocation is weighted heavily in favour
of higher education at the cost of primary education. This has a direct bearing
on distributive justice. The vast number of primary schools is located in the
rural areas while the universities and other institutions of higher learning
are concentrated in the urban areas. Thus, the disproportionately greater
expenditure on higher education enables the middle and higher- income groups to
be the main beneficiaries rather than the vast majority of low- income groups
who live mostly in the rural areas.
Despite quantitative expansion in formal education,
illiteracy still plagues most of
One of the lessons to be drawn from the Asian experience is
that universal primary education cannot be implemented without eradicating
rural poverty.
Apart from the general fall in the quality of formal
education, the rise in the student-teacher ratio and so on, the content of
education remains essentially unscientific and undemocratic. Feudal,
chauvinistic and obscurantist ideas often find a central place in the text
books prescribed for formal instruction.
Values which promote a subservient attitude towards
imperialism, and which justify economic concentration and the growth of
industrial and landed monopolies are either explicit in the text books or
appear in the subtle manner as the "hidden curricula". In addition to
communal, casteist
119
Table
13: ILLITERACY RATES (Percentage)
|
Country |
Census |
Ages
15 and over |
|
|
1954 1971 1961 1961 1958 1951 1970 1960 1957 1960 |
66 82 74 3 95 88 18 42 71 44 |
SOURCE: UNESCO, Progress of Education in the Asian Region, Statistical Supplement, Tables
14 and 15, pp.30-34
It is generally admitted that there has been a substantial
decline in the quality of education. The public revenues spent on education
have fallen as a percentage of total budgetary expenditure in many countries.
In their attempt to cater to the ever-increasing demand for education, studentteacher ratios have been tilted to very unfavourable levels, (see Table 14).
Table 14: PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS (number of pupils per teacher)
|
Countries |
Primary |
Secondary |
Primary |
Secondary |
|
|
35 |
17 |
43 |
25 |
|
|
74 |
33 |
51 |
32 |
|
|
34 |
25 |
39a |
29a |
|
|
59 |
— |
40 |
17 |
|
|
32 |
— |
32b |
26b |
|
|
34 |
26 |
43c |
30 |
|
|
51 |
— |
30d |
37c |
|
|
56 |
30 |
57b |
40 |
|
|
57 |
— |
58c |
39c |
|
Average |
46.1 |
24.8 |
43.0 |
31.2 |
SOURCE: UNESCO, Development of Education in
aFor 1964;
bFor 1970; cFor
1968; dFor 1967; eFor
1966
and
other reactionary ideas, naked-pro-fascist and authoritarian ideas are also
sought to be propagated by the syllabi of many formal school and university
systems in
120
political
power structure; though there are lags between the two and one should not
expect a one-to-one relationship.
Struggle for Reform of Formal
Education
Despite the reality that a really liberating educational
system can be created only as a concomitant of radical, systemic socio-economic
and political change, we should not underestimate the need for waging a
continuous and effective struggle for changing the oppressive educational
systems obtaining in the Asian countries today. The struggle for changing the
system of education is an integral part of the overall struggle for changing
society. Hence, the need for articulating our demands for reform in the present
systems of education.
The introduction of a truly democratic and scientific system
of education is one of the principal tasks of today. Education should be
integrated with national life, the needs and aspirations of the people, and
should be developed into an instrument of change to solve the problems of our
toiling people.
Scientific education means education that imparts necessary
skills for the. utilisation of the productive forces
available to society as also for improving upon the existing level of
technology. It also means
education that imparts a scientific consciousness, a scientific attitude
towards life, towards society and towards reality as a whole.
Democratic education implies a) establishment of the
people's right to education, b) abolition of all class division in the sphere
of education, c) right of every student to full employment and utilisation of this productive skill in the productive
process for the progress of the people, and d) enriching the people's
consciousness through education for living as cultured members of humanity.
It is obvious that education should both be scientific and
democratic. More so in Asian countries with a huge potential labour force. It is clear that even universal primary
education requires substantial growth of employment. But even universal
literacy of the people cannot be ensured unless the present system of society
is transformed into a democratic society for the people.
Besides, the present system of education, which emphasises theoretical knowledge to the exclusion of manual
labour and skill in production, has split our people
into two separate groups with distinct attitudes. The new system of education
should, therefore, be evolved in such manner that the present dichotomy between
manual and mental labour is eliminated. Throughout
the entire field of education, socially useful labour,
in accordance with modern scientific methods, must be associated with
acquisition of theoretical knowledge as complementary to each other. Besides,
at every terminal point of education, there should be a rounding-off course of
vocational education so that theoretical knowledge can be dovetailed with
practical experience in various branches of industry, agriculture, etc.
121
Non-Formal
Political Education
The very serious crisis and the virtual collapse of formal
education have prompted many educationists and public men to look for a new
approach to education itself — an education which helps liberation. There is
increasing awareness of the serious divorce between formal education and the
needs of society in the process of liberation. It is recognised
by many that real education is concerned with the creation and dissemination of
knowledge in the process of social and political struggles for changing the
present unjust societies. Hence, the growing interest by teachers, students and
educationists in the philosophical and political content of education
In societies divided by socio-economic classes, the dominant
or ruling classes invariably try to subdue or overwhelm the exploited classes
by spreading false consciousness. The process of articulation and dissemination
of such consciousness becomes synonymous with "education". The system
of formal schooling, collegiate and university education, etc. get geared to
the over-all ideological requirements of the ruling classes for propagation of
false consciousness to keep the other section of the people in line with the
ethos of the elite.
There is a dialectical connection between knowing and being.
In understanding reality, logic alone is useless; knowledge has to be synthesised through action and experience.
Paulo Freire's educational thought
has gripped many in Latin America,
The concern for radical adult literacy campaigns, for which
he has stood consistently for a long period, has endeared him to many
revolutionaries as well as reformers.43
Paulo Freire has demonstrated through his own
pedagogical work and educational experiments that it is possible to raise the
social consciousness of the masses and their critical facilities through
literacy campaigns. His method of spreading literacy is a radical one, not just
another variant of the usual campaigns for literacy. False consciousness among
the people can be erased only by a process of "conscientisation" or
political educational process through which people take part in changing
society — a process of getting awareness of reality in order to transform
society in a conscious way.
Educational and literacy programmes, by themselves, cannot
achieve the desired result of raising political consciousness. They can be
effective only when they are integrated with revolutionary struggles of the
working people.
Knowledge is not an end in itself. It becomes meaningful
only when it is an instrument useful for producing and transforming man's
social life, for continuously improving the conditions of life. Organised
education as a means of acquiring knowledge must, therefore, be integrally
related to the process of production. The main basis of the process of production
is production of material conditions of life. But, by and large, on this base
also stand production and reproduction of ideas, of values, of art, literature,
philosophy and so on. The base and superstructure react on one another,
122
and
the two cannot be separated. Education, in order to be socially useful must
therefore equip the people with the necessary productive skill for material
production and with a corresponding level of consciousness. No meaningful
social progress is possible today without full utilisation
of the inventions and discoveries of science and technology on the one hand,
and fully unleashing the productive and creative powers of the people on the
other. That cannot be achieved by reforming the educational system alone. But,
within the sphere of education, as one of the instruments of change, it is
essential to struggle for establishing a scientific and democratic system of
education.
The
Role of the Church in
The contemporary era is one of radical change in the social
and political structures and the deepening general crisis of capitalism.
Socialism is no longer a mere ideology; it exists in a tangible form as the
world socialist system competing successfully with the decaying world of
capitalist system. In this revolutionary movement of the socialist forces the
world over the Church has not been left untouched. In fact, many Christians who
are actively concerned with social change and justice for the oppressed
millions feel the necessity of being in the revolution. Along with the growth
of the democratic and socialist movements there have been shifts towards the
left of various segments of the population in Asian countries including
believers in the Christian faith. It is getting difficult for the Church
hierarchy to convince the believers that the existing socio-economic and
political order was given by God and, therefore, any attempt to tamper with it
was a sin against God. 44
Religious establishments did try in the past and continue to
try today to prop up the existing order of society by promising "rewards
in heaven for enduring the pain of earth, thus stifling all attempts to change
the real social conditions of the world." 45 No wonder Marx
called religion as "the opium of the people".
Despite the increasing awareness of many Christian groups on
the problem of this world, we are faced today, with an essentially "status
quo" church. It is true that the old "anti-communist phobia" of
the established church is slowly disappearing, yet, the overall character of
the Church, as an organised body of men, remains essentially that of
"status quo".
The Church is linked heavily with the exploiting classes,
these classes having the hegemony not only of State power, but of the
Established Church as well.
Though Jospeh L. Hromadka's suggestion that Marx's atheism "may be the
result of the discovery of man under the rubble of official Christianity"46
cannot be regarded as an adequate explanation of the philosophical basis of
Marx's atheism, it underlines the basic criticism about the alienation of the
Church from Man and Society. Our predicament today is to discover man under the
rubble of a conservative and "status quo" church linked with the
exploiting classes.
Most of the talk now going inside
the church on the subject of
123
"revolution
or liberation", unfortunately is a camouflage for the not discredited
"liberal" and "reformist" attitude. Unfortunately, there is
a lot of talk, but. little action. This is typical of the liberal in
"The
liberal of
A true revolutionary cannot be content with reforms within
the existing order of system of society. "A revolutionary will accept a
reform in order to use it as an aid in continuing legal work with illegal work,
to intensify under its cover, the illegal work for the revolutionary preparation
of the masses for the overthrow of the bourgeosie."
48 A reformist on the other hand accepts "bestowed" reforms in
order to blunt the revolution and to thwart its onward march. Christians who
are in the revolution have no choice but to accept the revolutionary strategy.
If Christians want to be revolutionaries, two things are
imperative: i) Knowledge of the world, the historical processes, knowledge of
society and social relationships, their laws as historical materialism
discovers them; and ii) social and political action to translate this knowledge
into practice and to enrich the knowledge itself through practice. Only when
revolutionary action has been performed, only when Christians enter into the
political arena for the seizure of State power on behalf of the working class
and its allies, can Christians legitimately call themselves revolutionaries.
A pre-requisitie for effective
Christian participation in liberation is the ability of enlightened Christian
groups to initiate radical changes within the Church. This means that within
the Church there must be an enlightened group which believes in and is prepared
to act for the plausibility of a different socio-economic and political order
and a democratic order within the Church. "Shouldn't we eliminate hierachical structures within the Church?"
"Shouldn't we limit the luxury of the sanctuaries?" "Shouldn't
we relinquish traditional pomposity of worship ceremonies and rich embelishments of the vestments?" All these are
relevant questions. But the question on which the Christians's
sincerity for the revolutionary cause will be judged is the practice of liberation.49 In other words, the
Church, to be part of revolution, must stand unhesitatingly and solidly with
the working class and its allies against the capital - landlord power and
against imperialism and take the revolutionary movement to its destiny.
Concluding
Remarks
I am happy to note that the W.S.C.F.
and I.M.C.S. have made a step
124
forward
from the traditional and sometimes narrowly construed concept of
"ecumenism" and have striven for the forgoing of "unity not only
among themselves but-with all who would identify and work with the
dispossessed, the poor, the oppressed and the exploited millions of
Students, youth and intellectuals can find meaning in life
only when they identify themselves with the life and experience of the working
people.
Rising working class discontent, the increasing turbulence
among the peasantry, greater organisation and
political awareness of agricultural labour, the
general urban discontent, and student revolts in many parts of Asia indicate
the inevitability of radical change in all the citadels of neocolonialism,
landlordism and monopoly capitalism in
The experience of the mass struggles during the last few
years point towards the urgent need for unity of the working class and wider
unity between the workers and peasants and also the middle classes. There are
already visible signs of this emerging unity. It is reflected in the foregoing
of links among different trade unions and political parties which have gone
into joint action on issues affecting the vast masses of the people, whether it
be the defence of the trade union rights of the working
class, minimum wages, bonus or against the price rise or against blackmarketing and hoarding of food materials. The
participation of increasing sections of the people in such struggles in
defiance of lathis, teargas shells and bullets
unmistakably reveal the growing urge for unity and united actions.
Students have an important role in moulding
unity among various sections of the toiling people, in the on-going struggles
of Asian peoples. But they can be a truly liberating force only as they unite
with the organised movements of the working class, peasants, youth, women and
other sections of the people. Those who are socially aware will, in the
process, shed whatever wrong values they inherited from their privileged
positions and become integral parts of the working class movement through a
process of de-classing.
Some of the major problems of Asian countries are similar;
but there are substantial variations; hence, the need for a detailed study and
analysis of each country and region and in terms of specific historical,
socioeconomic, political and cultural contexts.
People of Asian countries cannot rely on their Governments
for improving their conditions of material and cultural life because those
governments represent the narrow interests of the minority, exploiting dominant
classes. Hence, the need for struggle for changing the power structures by new
structures of people's democratic power.
In order to achieve the above objectives, people must get
organised; only through organised action can people be really liberated from
exploitative and oppressive structures.
These struggles and organised actions are primarily limited
within national boundaries; but mutual international concern by peoples of all
Asian countries is a necessity, apart from such concern being a natural
expression of their commitment for the liberation of all mankind.
125
I hope that the Assembly and its proceedings will add to our
knowledge of the contemporary world, particularly that of Asia and its problems
and motivate all those who imbibe the message of the Assembly to participate in
the struggle for real self-reliance in
FOOTNOTES:
1. The Minutes of the
Preparatory Committee Meeting for the WSCFIMCS Pan
Asian Assembly, 1976
2. D. Boone Schirmer, "The Philippine Conception and Gestation of
a Neo-colony", Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol 5 No 1 1975, p.53.
3. George Lee,
"Commodity Production and Reproduction among the Malayan Peasantry",
Journal of Contemporary
4. M.R. Stenson, Industrial Conflict in Malaysia, Oxford University Press,
5. Manila Times, Banking Supplement, October 29,1971
6. For a good summary
of the destructive effects of the European impact on underdeveloped countries, see
K. Griffin, Underdevelopment in Spanish America, 1969.
7. Normal Girvan, "The Question of
Compensation: A
8. For an interesting
proposal for calculating compensation for the "
9. At one of the
conferences initiated by the UN, a resolution (resolution 60-111) invited the
developed countries to take into consideration the views expressed that
"a) on average, interest rates on official development loans should not
exceed 2% per annum; b) maturity periods of such loans should be at least 25 to
40 years and grace periods should be not less than 7 to 10 years; c) the
proportion of grants in total assistance of each developed country should be
progressively increased, and countries, contributing less than the 1970
Development Assistance Committee average of 63% of their total assistance in
the form of grants should reach that level not later than 1975."
See
United Nations, The Second United Nations Development Deacde:
Trends and Policies in the First Two Years, 1974, p. 24
10. Direct costs to
the ESCAP countries from transfer of technology in
1968 constituted 37% of their public debt service payments and 56% of the
annual flow of direct private investments. See United Nations, The Second
United Nations Development Decade: Trends and Policies in the First Two Years,
1974, p. 36
11. United
Nations, Economic Survey of Asia and the
12. Ibid.,p.42
126
13. Eduardo de Sousa
Ferreira, Portuguese Colonialism in Africa: The End of an Era, UNESCO
Press, Paris.
14. For the rare
appearance of titles of classified projects, see U.S. Congressional Records:
Study by M.L. Thomas on "Rural Value Systems,
Republic of Vietnam", sponsored by the Defence
Department's Advance-Research Projects Agency (ARPA).
15. Jack Satuder, "The Relevance of Anthropology to Colonialism
and Imperialism", Race, Vol. XIV, No. 1, July, 1974, p.l4
16. Quoted from the
recruiting letter for Project Camelot in I.L.
Horowitz. The Rise and Fall of Project Camelot,
17. Susantha Goonitalake,
"Imperialism and Development Studies: A Case Study", Race and
Class, Vol. XVI, No. 2, October 1974.
18. Mare Undenberg, "The Politics of Foreign Investment in
South East Asia from 1945-1973", Journal of Contemporary
19.
20. Yamakawa Akio, "Post-Vietnam Japan-U.S.
Relations: Greater Cooperation and Growing Contradictions", AMPO (Japan-Asia Quarterly Review), Vol. 7, No. 3,
July-September, 1975, p.2.
21. T. Kawata, "The Asian Stituation
and
22. United Nations, Economic Survey of Asia and the
23. World Bank,
Rural Development, (Sector Policy Paper), February 1975, p.4.
24. S. Picker,
"Sources of Stability and Instability in Rural Thai Society," Journal of Asian Studies, Vol 27, August 1968, P. 789
25. See Professor
Turn's work regarding the Central Plains.
26. J.C.
Ingram, Economic Change in Thailand 1850-1970 (New Edition, 1971), p.268
27. Documents of the
World Food Conference,
28. Cited in Harry
Cleaver, "The Contradictions of the Green Reveotution",
Monthly Review, June, 1973
29. An expression used
by Hubert Humphrey.
30. Anand G. Chandravarkar, Asian
Department Advisor of the International Monetary Fund points to the experience
of developing countries. . "Even developing countries are able to achieve
growth rates reaching 9 to 11% a year (which would be above the target of 6% of
the UN's Second Development Decade), this would hardly make a dent on the
immense backlog of unemployed, let alone absorb the expected increase in the labour force", The Hindustan Standard (Calcutta),
January 5, 1973
127
31. United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development Special Measures in Favour
of the Least Developed Among the Developing Countries, p.1.
32. United Nations,
Continuity and Change: Development at Mid-decade (Comments and
Recommendations of the Committee for Development Planning), 1975, p.1.
33. Ibid, p.1.
34. United Nations, Industrialisation
for New Development Needs (Views and Recommendations of the Committee
for Development Planning) 1974. p.1.
35. For detailed discussion on the "people
oriented" programmes, see
a) United Nations, Attack on Mass
poverty and Unemployment
b) United Nations,
Reviewing the Development Priority. This was the first review and appraisal
of the Second United Nations Development Decade.
36. Untied Nations,
Industrialisation for New Development Needs
(United Nations, New York, 1974), p.3.
37. Explanations by
Professor Robert B. Stauffer to his article on "The Marcos Coup in the
38. Hamza Alavi, "Rural Bases of
Political Power in South Asia", Journal of Contemporary
39. Eqbal Ahmed, "Pakistan Signposts to a Police
State", Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol.4,
No.4, 1974, p.423.
40. Quoted in AMPO (Japan-Asia Quarterly Review), Vol.7
No. 1, Winter, 1975. p.32. Also see: Kirn Chi Ha,
The Cry of the People and Other Poems, Nicola Geiger, ed. Autumn Press,
41. Francois Houtart, "Non-Socialist Countries in South and
42. United Nations,
Economic Survey of Asia and the Far East, 1973, p.4.
43. The educational
thoughts of Paulo Freire and his concept of
"conscientisation" however, do not improve on the basic Marxist
pedagogy of education.
44. This was indeed
the line taken by the
45. Ibid., p.3.
46. Joseph L. Hromadka, "Gospel of Atheists", Risk
(Youth Department, WCC,
47. Rammanohar Lohia, Will to
Power and Other Writings, Navahind Publications,
48. Stalin, Problems of Leninism, p.94
49. The same point was
made by Jurgen Moltmann in
his article on "The Theology of Revolution", in New Christian,
December 12, 1965, p.9.
50. Pan
Asian Assembly, WSCF-IMCS, May 13-22, 1976,
Background Paper.