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 subregional 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