|
Megawati Wraps Up G15 Forum
JAKARTA, May 31 (News Agencies) - Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri closed out the G-15 summit here Thursday by accusing developed countries of treading on their poorer partners.
Summing up the sentiments of the seven presidents and prime ministers and 12 senior officials attending the 11th summit of developing nations, Megawati attacked wealthy countries' control of global financial policies.
"Strong concern was expressed at the increasing tendency of countries of the North to make decisions on key global issues...without taking into account the interests of developing countries," she told the closing session.
"Developed countries have shown an inclination to use multilateral institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund [IMF] as instruments of their own foreign policy, to the detriment of developing countries."
Megawati, the daughter of Indonesia's founding president Sukarno, stands to take over from President Abdurrahman Wahid if he is impeached by the national assembly in a session set for August 1st.
Her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) led Wednesday's vote by the parliament, virtually next door to the G-15 conference venue, to call for impeachment proceedings against Wahid, the tumultuous archipelago's first democratically elected president.
Big on nationalism but short on detailed policies, Megawati has economists guessing as to her economic plans for the financially crippled nation, but she has made attacks on the lop-sidedness of free trade and globalization - a theme shared by many of the summit's delegates.
"It was observed that the reform of the international financial architecture was long overdue and the developing countries should participate in the process as equal stakeholders," Megawati said.
The summit was marked by a tirade of attacks on the IMF, predictably led by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahatir Mohammed's assertion that the lender had become a political tool.
"The highly questionable value of free and unregulated markets is still being touted as the ideal which must be adhered to at whatever cost," Mahathir said on the opening day of the two-day meet.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe lashed out at developed nations' economic hegemony as a result of globalization.
"Our economies and people remain poor and marginalized and servile to the economies of the developed world, especially those of Europe and the United States," the fiery Zimbabwean leader said.
"The current world economic order is deliberately constructed for the exploitation of Third World economies and the people."
Megawati said developing nations should participate in the restructuring of the international financial architecture "as equal stakeholders."
Delegates brainstormed ways of overcoming the digital divide between the developed and developing worlds, underlining information and communication technology as the key to either widening or closing the vast gap between the two.
Wahid and Megawati sat side-by-side and shared the chair over the past two days of the summit, and on Thursday as Megawati chaired the closing session she addressed Wahid as "Your Excellency", while Wahid addressed her as "Chairman".
This is considered remarkable since Megawati has virtually cut off communication with Wahid for the past few months, confining their talks to offers of peppermints and food, while refusing to take his calls, sources close to the presidential palace have said.
Their rift appeared to have spilt into the global forum at its opening Wednesday, when Megawati refused with a gesture of her hand to read Wahid's introductory speech.
But protocol officials denied it was a deliberate snub, insisting there was only a misunderstanding of procedure.
|
