Andi Haswidi, Batam – Some 500 activists gathering in Batam grouped under the International Peoples Forum called Monday on all nations to hold international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the IMF and World Back fully accountable for the social impact they have on developing countries.
"We call on the governments, members of the World Bank and the IMF Board of Directors, to keep these institutions fully accountable for their impact on human rights, equity, and the sustainability of development," Ravindranath of the Jubilee South said representing the forum.
"We find the World Bank and IMF responsible for policies and actions that lead to the intensification of poverty and deprivation, the undermining of national sovereignty and democratic governance, and the subversion of the right to development," he added.
The forum contended that IMF and World Bank policy advice and loans have constricted the ability of developing countries to craft their own development paths and that trade liberalization was at times oversold as an antipoverty strategy which often resulted in unintended fiscal consequences and social costs.
"We stress the urgent need for 100 percent cancellation of multilateral debt, transparent and participatory external audits of IFIs lending and policies, prevention of the imposition of policy conditions that undermine economic sovereignty and exacerbate crisis in health and education, discontinuing the privatization of public services and ending IFI involvement in environmentally destructive projects," Ravindranath said.
The world's major financial leaders have long implicitly acknowledged the shortcomings of the two institutions. One example was the statement of Robert Rubin when he tenured as the US Secretary of Treasury back in the late nineties, saying that governments had to modernize the architecture of international finance. The current internal reform agenda rolled by the IMF clearly shows how the institution is trying to cope with a legitimacy crisis.
Yet, many activists in the forum including key figures such as Walden Bello, a professor and an author on political economics, see the reform merely as an agenda to "discipline" emerging economies in Asia, especially China, with whom many developed countries have suffered a trade deficit.
The forum successfully demonstrated to the world how the diverse civil society organizations were able to voice their in-depth criticism in a peaceful and civilized manner. In contrast to the peaceful event, while hosting the IMF-WB meet, the Singaporean government has demonstrated security measures that have been deemed as a violation of human rights.
Reports and testimonies received by the forum indicate that at least 54 individuals were banned from entering Singapore or merely transiting before going to Batam for the forum. Not all of them were activists, as some were merely guest speakers scheduled to present materials for the many sessions in the forum.
Testimonies revealed that these people were detained at the Changi Airport – some were even subjected to custodial interrogation for 38 hours and harsh treatment.
As a response, the forum plans to take legal action against the alleged unlawful treatment and has proposed a plan to launch a massive propaganda program promoting a global economic boycott of the city-state. The forum has yet to decide on the form of the boycott or legal action.