Synopsis of the presentation on THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE REGIONAL UNIFICATION PROCESSES:

AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST, SOUTH AMERICA, ASEAN - Dr. James Arputharaj Williams (Member

International EC, WFM & President, South Asian Federalists)

The World today is at cross roads. There is major crisis on every count. More wars have been fought

since the foundation of UN. The latter is unable to stop the conflict in Iraq and Palestine and as we speak

many are being killed. There are half a million IDPs in Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia and

Ethiopia. We are witnessing climate change and the natural resources are being depleted day by day.

The inequality in the world is increasing day by day.

The UN preamble states, We the people of the world would protect the succeeding generations from

the scourge of war. The we the people is a misnomer as UN currently is not democratic. The civil

servants are being represented at the UN and not the ones duly elected by the people. The veto power

in the Security Council does not reflect democracy. Only if UN becomes a truly a democratic body, then

only we could prevent any future war, environment catastrophe. How would this happen? We need a

global democratic governance structure at the UN called UNPA United Nations parliamentary

assembly. The first step towards achieving this is regional unification. We do have excellent example in

the European Union where there the regional body the European Parliament is directly elected by the

people of Europe. We would like the other regions like Africa, Asia and South America to follow suit.

Unlike Europe, the context is quite different in other parts of the world. More than two thirds of the

worlds poor live in Asia and this is the only region without any kind of regional unification. We only

have sub-regional bodies like the ASEAN and SAARC. EU had certain homogenous conditions which

paved the way for the union, whereas in Asia, especially in South Asia, there are more contradictions.

India is by and large a huge country in terms of its size, population and economy. Interestingly the big

players in region, China and Japan though are observers in ASEAN are not even member of any sub-

regional bodies.

ASEAN is a sub-regional body for the south eastern countries located in Jakarta and was formed basically

to thwart efforts of Vietnam communism spreading into other regions. It had limited influence on the

human rights violations in Burma and the ongoing conflicts in Mindanao or Indonesia.

SAARC is a sub-regional body for the South Asian countries which includes the two countries constantly

at loggerheads- Pakistan and India. The HQ is located in Kathmandu and initially started more to

promote cultural exchange and controlling trafficking of narcotics and women across their borders. Very

little was done to implement the much talked about south asian free trade treaty. EU has an observer

status with SAARC.

A global democratic federal framework needs to be endorsed by the regional unions. This should include

the world environment authority, world economic organization and UNPA. Upholding of Democracy,

Federalism, Human rights, Rule of Law and Humanitarian values are key to any regional unification

process. There are enough resources in the world for everyones needs, but not enough for one or a few

countries greed. We have just one world. Let us preserve it