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DIALOGUE QUARTERLY Volume-11 No April-June, 2010 DIALOGUE QUARTERLY Editorial Advisory Board Mrinal Miri Ashok Vajpeyi U.R Ananthamurthy J.N Roy Jayanta Madhab Subscription Rates : For Individuals (in India) Single issue Annual For years Rs 30.00 Rs 100.00 Rs 250.00 Editor B.B Kumar For Institutions: Single Issue Annual For years Rs 60.00 in India, Abroad US $ 15 Rs 200.00 in India, Abroad US $ 50 Rs 500.00 in India, Abroad US $ 125 All cheques and Bank Drafts (Account Payee) are to be made in the name of “ASTHA BHARATI”, Delhi Advertisement Rates : Outside back-cover Inside Covers Inner page (coloured) Inner full page Inner half page Inner quarter page Rs 15, 000.00 Rs 10, 000.00 Rs 8, 000.00 Rs 5, 000.00 Rs 3, 000.00 Rs 2, 000.00 ASTHA BHARATI DELHI DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No The views expressed by the contributors not necessarily represent the view-point of the journal Contents Editorial Perspective Naxalism: Politicians and Intellectuals continue to be confused Th Muivah episode: Government of India blunders again Return to pre-partition British Agenda North-East Scan Talks about Talks D N Bezboruah © Astha Bharati, New Delhi Printed and Published by Dr B.B Kumar, Secretary, Astha Bharati Registered Office: 27/201 East End Apartments, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I Extension, Delhi-110096 11 Terrorists, insurgents, freedom fighters or what? From oligarchy to democracy; tough transition Patricia Mary Mukhim 14 A Tale of Two ADCs Pradip Phanjoubam 22 Buddhist Values and Confucian Mindset of China (a personal narrative) Lokesh Chandra 26 The Role of the Silk Road on the Development of Mahayana Buddhist Arts in China Dinh Hong Hai 43 Looking at India-China Relations in a Wider Perspective Bhaskar Roy 58 China’s Rising Profile in Central Asia Raghav Sharma 63 Printed at : Nagri Printers, Naveen Shahdara, Delhi-32 Vietnam-China Relations (From Early to First Millennium AD) Bachchan Kumar 74 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No Working Office: 12/604 East End Apartments, Mayur Vihar, Phase-I Extension, Delhi-110096 Phone : 91-11-22712454 e-mail : asthabharati@yahoo.com web-site : www asthabharati.org DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No Western Tibet: A Pilgrims’ Impressions K.T.S Sarao 85 Diversion of Brahmputra Water to North China Yogendra Narain Roy 108 10 China During Mao and After B.B Kumar 121 11 Propaganda with the Maoist Comrades: A disservice to all Shankar Sharan 140 12 China and the Global Energy Vrushal Ghoble 152 13 Questioning Modern Education: A Way Out Pawan Kumar Gupta 164 14 Analysis of Generation, Dynamics and Structure of the External Debt of the Kyrgyz Republic Erkin S Mansurkhodjaev 168 15 Theoretical Vector in Study of the Transformation of the National Economy Ayupov Asylbek Nurgazievich 177 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No Editorial Perspective Naxalism: Politicians and Intellectuals continue to be selfish and confused Following two serious attacks in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh by the Maoists on April and May 17, the Union Home Minster P Chidambaram is under attack both from the politicians and the liberals and intellectuals In the first incident 76 CRPF personnel lost their lives and in the second one 35 persons including 15 SPO’s and the civilians were killed Across the spectrum allegation is that the strategy of the Home Minister of primacy to security approach has failed and we should get back to the “root cause” route of dialogue and development The problem is made complicated due to (i) convergence of selfinterests of various over-ground interest group and (ii) the lack of proper understanding of the real face and objectives of the Maoists in the country Confused politicians and liberals thus dignify a nihilistic ideology which is out-of-date and not in cynch with Indian and democratic ethos Main problem is that the liberals equate the just grievances of the tribals and the marginalised with the political objectives of the Maoists and that the Maoists are fighting for the cause of the deprived They are not They are only using their grievances to encadre them and use them The self declared objective of the Maoists is to bring about a New Democratic Revolution (NDR) with People’s Protracted War Azad, the spokesperson of the Maoist in interview (Hindu April 14, 2010), has made it clear that offer of dialogue is only tactical and in no circumstance are they going to compromise on the NDR Besides, the Maoist movement is neither a tribal movement nor is it led by tribals and the deprived It is not about development, it’s about political power At the same time the Government must accept that the responsibility of neglect of the marginalized.has enabled the Maoists to exploit a section of them Of course, a large section of the people giving the impression of being with them are only due to the fear of gun DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No The way govt of India has handled the issue of Th Muivah’s visit to his native village Somdal in Ukhrul district.of Manipur, is the benchmark of how things should not be done, and the administrative naivette A simple administrative issue has been allowed to fester into contentious political problem The consequences of this lapse have been serious and some may last longer than we assume Four persons have died in police firing on Nagaland Manipur border, and the Manipur state is under economic blockade (not for the first time) from various Naga bodies led by the Naga Students Federation over the issue of refusal of the Manipur Government to allow Muivah’s visit apprehending law & order problem and political unrest as NSCN (IM) under Muivah is agitating to include Manipur’s Naga inhabited districts in greater Nagaland or Nagalim Muivah and his supporters immediately went into sulk claiming that government of India/ PMO had assured to take Muivah to his village and must it Govt of India immediately got into the act, sent its Home Secretary and Interlocutor to persuade Muivah to postpone his visit in view of refusal of Manipur Government Muivah claims that he has deferred his visit in view of request from the PMO, but holds Governmentt of India (GoI) responsible for arranging his visit Administratively, Muivah’s proposed visit to Somdal was a private visit except that he had been accorded a Z+ security cover in Delhi He is in dialogue with government of India as representative of NSCN (IM) If he wants to visit his village, it’s a matter between Muivah and Manipur Government to permit him, not to permit him or regulate his entry, etc If Muivah has any grievance he can take recourse to legal remedies and approach the court of law against the Manipur Government’s decision We routinely prevent Imam Bukhari and Hindu religious leaders from visiting areas during communal tension In Kashmir, the secessionist leaders are prevented or put to house arrest on grounds of public order It is not understood how GoI comes in the picture Interlocutor’s role is connected with ongoing negotiations and dialogue and not as a facilitator of visits of individuals Home Secretary will now be expected to intervene every time a Sadhvi or a Maulana is prevented from visiting communally sensitive areas Stark reality is that GoI has tied itself into knots, and walked into a minefield fully knowing the sensitivities of the Manipur Government over the issue Besides sending a wrong political message, it’s now burdened with dealing with an economic blockade which will alienate Manipuris more and further embitter Meitei and Naga relations Sooner the govt of India distances itself from this self-inflicted folly better The GoI will also have to think as to how long the state of Manipur will be held to ransom by this kind of economic blockade on DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No Now as regards the allegations of failure it must be understood that we have allowed the malaise to fester for nearly a decade and acquire a menacing proportion It happened because of confused thinking that they are “misguided brethren” It will take considerable time to effectively deal with it Home Minister’s statements and new policy formulations to deal with it strictly, have been taken to mean action Direction is right; it only requires strategic and tactical adjustments on the way and a will which can take setbacks in its stride It will take years to be effective For the earlier results, at least the mischievous acts of (i) politicians, who are soft on the Maoists keeping an eye on deriving latter’s help in elections and (ii) left intellectuals’ propaganda establishing Naxals that they are fighting for just cause, must be countered Those who advocate “root cause” and development panacea, to deal with the problem, not say how to it in Maoist dominated areas, without neutralizing them Shri Digvijay Singh, former CM of M.P and now Gen Secy of AICC, has stated (CNN-IBN, May 17) that Maoist leaders cannot be described as terrorists and they are misguided ideologues, and that the root cause must be addressed He was the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for 10 years, when this problem in Bastar festered and acquired roots Why did he not attend to the “root cause” then? Had be done it, we would not be tackling the problem now It is because root cause is only an excuse and not the real reason The menace requires a bipartisan response and not confused signals Nothing gladdens the heart of Maoist leadership than the confusion they succeed in generating in media, civil society and even in political parties Only patience, political will/determination and a bipartisan approach will succeed Those who are unnerved by the present upsurge in Maoist violence will only help its cause At the moment one point agenda of the Maoists is to get the offensive against it across the states called off It will be a folly to fall in the trap because of a few serious incidents of Maoist violence It calls for strategic and tactical adjustments in the operations and not retreat Simultaneously, the message, that the Government shall take care of their grievances and not victimize them, must go to the people Th Muivah episode: Government of India blunders again DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No one pretext or the other, including refusal to pay tax to the underground? This aspect should concern GoI more than visit of individuals to their birth places North-East Scan Return to Pre-partition British Agenda It was difficult for the national leaders in pre-partition days to counter the British agenda of ‘Divide and Rule’ and yet they endeavoured to the same; at least they understood the British game; tried to keep their folk together It is, however, an altogether different matter that they could not succeed and the country was divided After independence, there was change in the political culture of the country and that in the objectives and modus-operandi of the political parties Mass mobilization, as the Congress did under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, gave way to group/caste mobilization People-centric politics became chair-centric Saddest part of the recent development is that our national politics, now, is trying to cross the ‘Lakshman-rekha’ It is back to reviving the pre-partition agenda of the British for their short-term political gains The casualness in doing so is frightening Caste in the present form and untouchability, as it existed half a century earlier, is a post-Turk phenomenon in India, as attested by alBeruni We had only four castes (four endogamous varnas) a millennium earlier, when he came to India, and all the four dined together at the same place The numerous shrenis/guilds gradually converted themselves from exogamous units to become endogamous castes The life-style of all the varnas and shrenis in India, as attested by our classical literature/ epics, was simple and non-exploitative There was practically no bar on education and every community attended the traditional schools The social reality about the same has come out in the scholarly works of Dharmapal The British used ‘Census of India’ for the nefarious game to divide Indian society The Church, for obvious reason, was the willing partner in that game Their first attempt was to divide castes and tribes Then they tried to insert wedge between the caste groups Thus the Caste Census, conducted in 1931, when Irwin was Viceroy Indian politics, finding political use of the caste and communal divide, secured the nod of the GoI to revive the pre-partition colonial agenda, such as Caste Census and opening branches of Aligarh Muslim University — B.B Kumar Talks about Talks D N Bezboruah* On April 24, the newly-constituted Sanmilita Jaatiya Abhibartan or national all-party convention convened by intellectuals and civil society activists of Assam held day-long discussions on the prospects of talks between the Government of India and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) at the ITA Centre for Performing Arts in Guwahati The deliberations acquired special significance in the context of several topranking ULFA leaders being in prison now after having been handed over to India by the Bangladesh Rifles at the international border and ULFA C-in-C Paresh Baruah’s precise location being unknown With some of the ULFA battalions deciding to give up an armed struggle in favour of talks, the outfit is divided rather unequally between a large number of cadres who are in favour of talks and a small number led by C-in-C Paresh Baruah who will have nothing to with talks since they believe that the only thing that needs to be discussed is the issue of sovereignty, something that the Centre is not willing to discuss under any circumstances So the Sanmilita Jaatiya Abhibartan felt the need to hold exhaustive discussions on everything that needed to be done to bring the Centre and the ULFA to the negotiating table This is not the first time that such an initiative has been taken It will be recalled that an initiative taken earlier by Dr Indira Goswami had led to the formation of the People’s Consultative Group (comprising almost entirely of ULFA supporters) to prepare a blueprint for the talks and to chalk out the modalities of holding the talks The PCG had a round of preliminary talks with the government Thereafter, lack of enthusiasm on the part of the government and a split within the PCG brought that well-intended initiative to an end The convention of the Citizen’s Forum of April 24 adopted resolutions on carrying out a drive for mobilization of public opinion for peace *Eminent Journalist, former Editor, The Sentinel, Guwahati (Assam) 10 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 11 talks with the ULFA in each district; discussion on the core demands of the ULFA; release of all jailed ULFA leaders and safe passage for them for peace talks; high-level talks between top ULFA leaders and top government officials; putting on hold all cases against ULFA leaders till the peace talks are over; and the formation of a committee to give the right direction to the peace process There was unanimity over the perception that the ULFA issue is a political one and should be solved politically and not with military might Most of the speakers felt that any issue, including sovereignty, can be on the agenda of peace talks, and the government has no reason to feel squeamish about just a discussion on sovereignty regardless of its decision not to grant sovereignty to any State or region Several speakers also felt the ULFA has to bury the differences within itself Given the recent developments within the ULFA, this would indicate a desire among the participants at the conclave to see the hard-core anti-talks faction of ULFA resolving differences and participating in the peace process What was strange, however, was that the leaders of the pro-talks faction of the ULFA like Mrinal Hazarika and Jiten Dutta, who had laid down arms and even started living in designated camps, were not invited to the convention Two days after the deliberations of the Citizens’ Forum regarding peace talks with the ULFA, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi put the ball back in the ULFA court by saying that the ULFA should first respond to the resolutions adopted by the Citizens’ Forum (before things can move any further) He said that it was necessary for the government to know what the ULFA thinks about the forum and also if the outfit’s leadership acknowledges the initiative taken by it “We are ready for talks, but they should shun violence and send a written proposal for peace talks first,” he added This approach of the government is marked by a certain déjà vu This is not the first time we have heard of such a stand Nor is it too difficult to assess what the attitude of the ULFA hawks might be to all forums and citizens’ groups that seek to bring the outfit to the negotiating table We saw what happened to the People’s Consultative Group constituted earlier to bring the outfit and the government together All such initiatives apparently endorsed by the ULFA have been no more than the means for the outfit to buy time and regroup whenever the going has been tough as a result of the government’s counter-insurgency measures However, this time there is a difference The other leaders of the ULFA except Paresh Baruah are in jail and the ULFA C-in-C himself is out on a limb without the kind of support base to enable him to dictate terms In fact, people within the outfit as well as outside who think that talks should be held even without the participation of Paresh Baruah have increased substantially Both the Centre and the State government have made it clear that talks will be held even without Paresh Baruah Not many people are happy about the government holding talks with the ULFA without Paresh Baruah or with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) without its leader Ranjan Daimari Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said a few days ago that talks could be held with such militant outfits even without their leaders He said talks with the ULFA could be held without Paresh Baruah and with the NDFB without the presence of Ranjan Daimari He gave the precedent of the Centre holding talks with the Naga rebels of the 1950s sometimes without their leader Phizo being present But even Dr Indira Goswami said the other day that she is uncomfortable about the idea of talks with the ULFA held without Paresh Baruah as a participant, considering that he has the bulk of the ULFA arms Perhaps Paresh Baruah now thinks that a touch of petulance and tantrums would pay off very well It will not But the ULFA top brass wants him mainly because it is he who controls the arsenal of the ULFA as well as most of its prodigious funds The ULFA top brass cannot permit the C-in-C to abscond with all this, and would like the government to nab him like it did the other leaders A few days ago, the Bangladesh Government also handed over to India Ranjan Daimari, the NDFB leader who had masterminded the serial blasts of October 30, 2008 in Guwahati, Barpeta Road, Bangaigaon and Kokrajhar that took a toll of about 100 lives in all What Daimary had started as the Bodo Security Force in 1986 became the dreaded NDFB in 1994 During his interrogation, the well-educated Daimari is understood to have expressed his anguish over the carnage that the serial blasts had wrought and the toll of lives the bombs had taken He said he had never expected the damage to be so extensive Now that he is in police custody, will the Centre decide to have him attend the eventual talks with the NDFB? And should the government not put in the extra effort needed to apprehend Paresh Baruah and have him sit at the peace talks? The real question is: how keen is the government to hold talks with the ULFA? Regardless of the government’s official statements, it is well known that there is powerful vested interest that does not want the talks to succeed or even to be held After all, more than three decades of a total lack of industrial activity in the State has turned militancy and 12 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 13 terrorism into a major industry This is not an industry that calls for any investment of one’s own; nor does it have any end products that have to be marketed The money looted, extorted or siphoned out of public finds is easy money on which there is no tax to pay This vested interest has strong representatives from all walks of life They will not permit the status quo to be disturbed Hence the question is not so much whether the people of Assam or the government or the ULFA wants the talks The crucial question is whether this vested interest that has turned terrorism and militancy into an industry wants the talks and whether the talks can be held in spite of their machinations The one factor on our side is that the Assembly elections are due next year and the Chief Minister obviously wants to demonstrate to the people of Assam how he brought the ULFA and the NDFB to the negotiating table despite the odds There is nothing that will get him the votes of the indigenous people of Assam as surely as this achievement The Bangladeshi votes are there anyway He can thus make a clean sweep of the elections Terrorists, insurgents, freedom fighters or what? Patricia Mary Mukhim* Definitions are important because they bring clarity to an issue An insurgent is defined as a person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority or government, especially in the hope of improving conditions A terrorist on the other hand is seen as an alien force implanted in a particular country, to bleed that country The above are definitions one was able to extract from an official of the Home Ministry at a conference held in Shillong last year In the North East we have one more category of armed militants who call themselves National Workers and who demand to secede from the Indian Union They include the NSCN (IM), NSCN (K) NNC, ULFA, NDFB, PLA, RPF, *Ms Patricia Mary Mukhim, a well-known Columist and Social Activist, is the Editor, Shillong Times 14 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No PREPAK etc These outfits run their own governments through taxes collected from the people Even extortion falls in the category of taxes and none of the groups are apologetic about this Despite claims of having signed a temporary truce with the Government of India (GoI), the groups continue to shoot, kill and extort And the GoI could not care less! Is it because the last category are difficult to put into a framework? But that is precisely where the problem lies! In the course of their operations all of the above groups have bled the state by killing with impunity the security forces and noncombatants They have retarded the economies of the region and set back the clock of progress And not one of them is repentant of their crimes It is therefore galling to the extreme that people responsible for large scale bloodshed are, after a time, treated like heroes In Assam the surrendered/arrested ULFA leaders were given a hero’s welcome complete with the gamosha and garland Recently the NSCN (IM) Secretary General TH Muivah was treated like a visiting prime minister of a foreign country by the Centre The Manipur Government, which for historical reasons, has jurisdiction over Somdal the birthplace of Muivah in Ukhrul District was told by the Union Government to gear up the security apparatus and to ensure Muivah’s safe passage Considering that the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur are not under ceasefire with the Government of India, intellectuals argue that Muivah is by all definitions a renegade in any other state except Nagaland where the ceasefire has been operational since 1997 They remind of the Naga assault on Kukis and other fringe tribes in the 1990s which resulted in hundreds of deaths, including that of innocent children Nagas wanted to clear out Kukis from parts of Senapati district so that they could have a homogenous homeland Unfortunately for the Nagas, the Kukis are no walkover and put up a brave fight until things were brought under control The largely undefined space within which all ruthless underground leaders, now turned over-ground peace activists, operate is problematic What is causing the problem is none other than the Union Home Ministry which behaves like a grand old patriarch imposing its views on the states and then leaves them to pick up the bloody pieces, in this case the dead bodies, when a fall-out such as the one at Mao Gate happens It is amazing that the Centre should use such ad-hoc ploys for short term gains in the manner that a malevolent interloper would do, without bothering about the consequences Let us now turn to Assam where very recently another hard core DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 15 insurgent accused of the October 30, 2008 bomb blasts, Ranjan Daimary was also handed over by the Bangladesh authorities to their Indian counterparts There is a plea from several quarters that Daimary should be given the most stringent punishment for the heinous crime he is said to have masterminded So much so, this threatens to yet again accentuate the tribal, non-tribal divide It brings to the fore yet again the age-old prejudices that the caste and non-caste Asomiyas have had vis-a-vis the tribes Although this is hidden under the thin veneer of ‘Assamese’ inclusivity, the fact is that Asomiyas are intrinsically exclusive and not accommodative of tribal aspirations or that of other non-Asomiya communities Look at the composition of the present civil society initiative of Asomiya intellectuals headed by Mr Hiren Gohain to broker talks between ULFA and the Government of India The group comprises only one Bodo intellectual/writer and one Muslim representative There are no representatives from amongst the Bengali speaking community which constitutes nearly 20% of the population of Assam nor the other 20 % which makes up the ‘tea tribes’ (I use this nomenclature for want of a better name) What about the other tribes such as the Karbis, Dimasas, Mishings etc Do they not have a say in the future of Assam? Just because the ULFA comprises only the ‘Asomiyas’ (those whose mother tongue is Assamese, besides the other exclusive traits) does this mean that groups negotiating peace should also be largely Asomiyas? They say history is a great teacher and those who refuse to derive lessons from it are condemned to suffer the pitfalls The Bodos were very much part of the Assam Movement but when the Assam Accord was signed they were nowhere in the picture Three blue-blooded Asomiyas penned their signatures on the Accord Was this not the reason why in 1989 a section of Bodos launched into a full-scale rebellion against Assamese chauvinism where nearly 600 people lost their lives? These are the setbacks of exclusionary practices How can 10% of the population of the state be taking upon themselves the task of speaking for the 90% and still believe they are the ‘peoples’ voices?’ While the Asomiyas seem to have forgiven and forgotten the Dhemaji blasts of August 2004 perpetrated by the ULFA, they also, ironically seem to have erased from their memories the series of killings between January and February 2007 where 87 migrant labourers were annihilated It was a cold-blooded ethnic cleansing which many believed is meant to create a vacuum in the labour market so that people from across the border could fill it What is gruesome is that human lives can also be graded in terms of their ethnicity If they are not Asomiyas they are dispensable Is that it? And, funnily, a very enlightened civil society group also revels in this belief? Reports that no lawyers are ready to represent Ranjan Daimary in court because the October 30 blast he instigated had happened near the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate where some lawyers had died, smacks of vengeance If this is how lawyers are going to argue then justice in this country will remain a far cry Daimary appears to have already been condemned for his crime even while the top ULFA activists are represented by the best criminal lawyers Again, is this because Dhemaji is so far from Dispur and those children who were killed at the time belong to a less privileged category? Hence even the discourse on death has different layers This double-speak on ‘terrorism’ is unwarranted Yet it also exposes the deep divide in Assam’s multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious society That terrorism should be viewed through these dividing prisms is so wrong A terrorist is a terrorist and his case has to be measured against the heinous crimes he has committed Arguments that Arabinda Rajkhowa and Shasha Chaudhury are treated with kid gloves mainly to lure Paresh Barua to the talks table not go down too well Paresh Barua can be dealt with when the time comes In the intervening period members of the ULFA who are in custody must be given the treatment they deserve Now that Ranjan Daimary has also expressed a desire to talk peace and tone down his demands, the Government should simultaneously work at a peace formula even while Daimary goes through the due processes of law It would be wrong to treat Daimary differently on the basis of the October 30 blasts and the rationale that he is not repentant about it The Bodo Sahitya Sabha, the ABSU and other Bodo civil society groups have rightly aired their discontent over the manner in which Daimary is now being labeled (Ajmal Kasab of Assam, bloodthirsty hound etc) labels now pinned on the Bodo renegade In fact the very idea of terming ‘some’ insurgents more brutal than others, of undermining their commitment to their own causes, or even of grading their crimes into comparatives already exposes a partisanship that is best avoided No wonder the Bodos are even more convinced today that they will not get justice from Assam The recent posturings of Asomiya civil society only reinforces their doubts and substantiates their claim for a separate Bodo State! To compound the multiple complexities in the region, the Centre has 16 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 17 often arbitrarily taken matters into its hands and brushed aside the concerns of the states and undermined their autonomy In the current dialogue with the NSCN (IM), the constitutionally elected State Government of Nagaland has been left out of the discourse Surely the Government of Nagaland would have some say in the future political arrangements of that State But to forestall any interference by the Government of Nagaland, Mr Muivah the NSCN(IM) supremo ensured that a political conglomerate favourable to his megalomaniac tendencies was firmly installed in Nagaland In this murky scenario, to talk of peace and its dividends is rather premature It will be a long time before the million mutinies, some raging others in ferment are resolved and one wonders if the Centre is even serious in its intent of installing regimes of peace in the North East or if it simply playing out its dangerously divisive games Democracy is a nice word When married to the Indian Constitution democracy suggests a number of freedoms and rights It talks of the right to equality, non-discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth insofar as access to basic facilities is concerned The Constitution speaks of equality of opportunity in matters of public employment and in principle grants the citizens more rights than they sometimes anticipate But talk of enjoying the numerous rights and you hit a blank Coming to what many term as the turbulent North East, which is actually a contradiction in terms because this region is peopled by some of the most genteel tribes, democracy is a difficult ideal to live by The tribal population of this region awakened to consciousness into an oligarchical system of governance which perhaps is an evolution of the hunter- gatherer part of human existence The male of the species has always been nominated to hunt for food while the female nurtures the off-springs and keeps the home fires burning Oral history does not quite reveal why some clans are automatically elected to lead the rest of society In Khasi society, the chieftain (Syiem) is always elected from the Syiem clan (jait syiem) His assistants or myntri are elected from the Lyngdoh clan No other clan can claim that right This is at the level of the Hima or the Syiemship (chieftainship) which comprises a number of Raij Several villages in turn make up the Raij At the level of the village there is some amount of flexibility, in that any male who projects himself as a leader and is seen to shoulder a fair amount of responsibility is made the Rangbah Shnong irrespective of which clan he belongs to Little wonder then that even in matrilineal Meghalaya, women have no ‘political’ role in village governance Male members of the family are expected to carry their views to the Dorbar Shnong or the village council and adjudicate on their behalf The head of the Dorbar continues to be a male and is called the ‘Rangbah Shnong’ (male head of the Dorbar Shnong) The word ‘Rangbah’ which means ‘Male’ precludes women from ever becoming the head of the Dorbar This is part of the social consciousness and is embedded in the tribal psyche Democracy, therefore, is understood only as a sort of implant from the outside But in a sense democracy allows women enough space to dabble in politics and even to contest elections if they so wish While the rest of the country has adopted the Panchayati Raj system of grassroots governance, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram were excluded form its purview on the plea that these states have pre-existing, vibrant village governance models in place This was Rajiv Gandhi’s understanding and one can safely assume that he like all other central leaders who have little time to understand the North East, never saw the gaping loopholes in the existing traditional institutions In the eyes of the modern scholar traditional institutions not have the elements of democracy in them They blatantly exclude women from taking part in governance As stated above they still follow the tenets of oligarchy They comprise exclusively of tribals, which is a dichotomy since tribals no longer live in homogenous areas Dimapur in Nagaland and Shillong in Meghalaya have nearly 50 % of non tribal population But the nontribal is excluded from any decision-making But the decisions taken by the exclusive tribal Dorbar is binding on the non-tribal population These inherent contradictions make governance a very thorny issue in the North East Democracy is known to flourish well only if people take an active 18 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No From oligarchy to democracy; tough transition Patricia Mary Mukhim* DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 19 demand exceeding supply and price fluctuations have altered the prospects of a potential co-operation However, these issues can be moderated by putting the alternative energies into use This will further need collaboration between the governments in terms of R & D and finance Even then, as these energies are developed on a large scale and brought into the market for commercial usage, till then, the world is dependent on oil and gas Endnotes British Petroleum (June 2009), “BP Statistical Review of World Energy”, p & 22, Accessed 22nd April 2010, See, http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/ globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/reports_and_publications/ statistical_energy_review_2008/STAGING/local_assets/2009_downloads/ statistical_review_of_world_energy_full_report_2009.pdf Ghoble, Vrushal (January– March 2010), “India’s Energy Security and the Asian Oil Resources: Prospects and Challenges”, Dialogue, 11 (3): 175 International Energy Agency (IEA) “World Energy Outlook 2009”, Executive Summary, P 4, Accessed 23rd April 2010, see, http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/ docs/weo2009/WEO2009_es_english.pdf Ibid, p “Asia Gas & LNG Report”, Accessed 29 th April 2010, See, http:// www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Asia-Gas-LNG-Report.html Ibid See, http://www.aseansec.org/1416.htm Shijin, Liu (15th– 17th November 2003), “China’s National Energy Strategy and Reform”, China Development Forum 2003, Background Reports, Development Research Center of the State Council, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Beijing, China, p 1, Accessed 26th April 2010, See, http://www.efchina.org/csepupfiles/workshop/ 2006102695218824.5759991600517.pdf/Briefing_book_031115_EN.pdf Ibid 10 Ibid, p 11 Liu, Xuecheng (September 2006), “China’s Energy Security and Its Grand Strategy”, Policy Analysis Brief, P 3, Accessed 26th April 2010, See, http:// www.stanleyfoundation.org/publications/pab/pab06chinasenergy.pdf 12 Energy Information Administration (July 2009), “China”, Country Analysis Brief, p & 4, Accessed 28th April 2010, See, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/ China/pdf.pdf 13 Ibid, p 14 Ibid, p & 12 15 Liu, Xuecheng (September 2006), “China’s Energy Security and Its Grand Strategy”, Policy Analysis Brief, P 3, Accessed 26th April 2010, See,http:// www.stanleyfoundation.org/publications/pab/pab06chinasenergy.pdf 16 Ibid, p 17 Ibid 162 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 18 Ibid, p 19 Ibid 20 Ibid, p 21 Ibid 22 Ibid, p 23 Ibid 24 Ibid, p Aden, T Nathaniel & Jonathan E Sinton (April 2006), “Environmental Implications of Energy Policy in China”, Environmental Politics, 15 (2): 252, Accessed 27th April 2010, See, http://china.lbl.gov/sites/china.lbl.gov/files/ Environmental_implications_of_energy_policy_in_China.pdf 26 “Energy and Climate Policy Action in China” WRI Fact Sheet, World Resource Institute, p 1, Accessed 27th April 2010, See, http://pdf.wri.org/factsheets/ factsheet_china_policy.pdf 27 Lifei, Zheng (2008-12-06), “Plan for fuel tax increase proposed”, China Daily, Accessed 27th April 2010, See, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/ 2008-12/06/content_7278204.htm 28 “Energy and Climate Policy Action in China” WRI Fact Sheet, World Resource Institute, p 2, Accessed 27th April 2010, See, http://pdf.wri.org/factsheets/ factsheet_china_policy.pdf 29 Energy Information Administration (July 2009), “China”, Country Analysis Brief, p & 8, Accessed 28th April 2010, See, http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/ China/pdf.pdf 30 Ibid, p 31 Ibid, p 32 Ibid 33 Ibid, p 34 Ibid 35 Taylor, Ian (31 st December 1969), “Beijing’s Arms and Oil Interests in Africa”, China Brief, (21), Accessed 28th April 2010, See, http://www.jamestown.org/ p r o g r a m s / c h i n a b r i e f / s i n g l e / ?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=3899&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=195&no_cache=1 36 Rice, Xan (4 th March 2009), “Sudanese president Bashir charged with Darfur war crimes”, Accessed 28th April 2010, See, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ mar/04/omar-bashir-sudan-president-arrest 25 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 163 *Pawan Kumar Gupta, SIDH Hazelwood, Landour Cantt., Mussoorie 248179 Email: pawansidh@gmail.com instruments - for this purpose But we have an option We can experience reality the way it IS or we can perceive reality as different from the way it IS We have the freedom either to assume reality or to understand and experience it – the way it IS Words and meanings are distinct Words are only indicative of the meaning – the reality The priority is of the meaning, which is beyond language Meaning is the objective, words are only a means Meanings exist whether we understand or not, while words are a construct to depict the meaning Words are restricted in language, while meanings are beyond language Meaning has a higher value than words But modern education perpetuates the myth that words are meanings and are the same; that they are synonymous If the distinction is not clear we get trapped by words (and the meaning that gets imposed on these words as different from the real) In that case under false assumption, we under-evaluate meaning and over-evaluate the word Modernity is adept at creating similar confusion between reality and construct, between the objective and the means, between the real and the apparent So modern categories have assumed or imposed meanings as different from the reality Instead of using categories for our purpose we start getting used by the categories This gives modernity the power over our minds, over our aspirations, desires and thus over our actions The paradigm of Values is different from the paradigm of Price Values are based on reality and are intrinsic, are nirapeksha, while the other is an imposition, based on comparison – sapeksha Values are fixed, definitive and intrinsic and beyond time and space – they not depend on the individual or societal preferences For instance, the Value of clothing is its ability to provide protection to the body whether we prefer a particular kind of clothes or not Price depends on external factors and is impacted among others, by both time and space Modern education creates confusion between these two paradigms by equating the two thus over-evaluating the paradigm of price and under-evaluating the paradigm of value Thus: Words get equated with or even supersede the meaning; Understanding the other gets confused with Agreeing with the other; Training gets equated and confused with Education; Information with Knowledge; Empirical knowledge/ traditional knowledge become Superstition; Subjects and Categories take precedence over Objective/ Knowledge and Experience; Means get confused with objective; 164 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No Questioning Modern Education: A Way Out Pawan Kumar Gupta* Violence at the individual level has always been there but violence perpetuated by the system(s) has surpassed all proportions in the last few centuries The power of the modern systems rests with its remoteness and faceless nature This is both frustrating (for those few who try to understand and struggle to find a way out) and mesmerizing for the remaining The irony is that the victim or the exploited has (unknowingly) become an accomplice in this game; and those who see the game, are often too self conscious to openly criticize it, unlike the Mahatma, as they find themselves enslaved by its trappings, in one way or the other On the whole the modern systems encourage the violent and competitive tendencies existing in individuals Human beings have invented categories, just like they have invented instruments and systems for convenience to achieve a certain specific purpose But Reality is not a construct It is a given To understand the reality, as it exists, we human beings need education and to facilitate the process, we invent categories and subjects Categories and subjects are only a means to achieve a certain objective – to understand reality and then according to this understanding of reality, to establish meaningful relationships with various components in existence – the material world, the pranic world, the kingdom of birds and animals and the human beings Reality exists It IS We can only try to understand and experience it, we can not create it We use different means – subjects, categories, DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 165 No distinction is made between Believing or Assuming without knowing and Knowing; Perceiving gets equated with knowing; Provisional with the Definitive; Appearance (lagna) or Doing (karma) with Being (hona); Arrogance with Self esteem; Confidence based on comparison (sapeksha atma vishwas) with nirapeksha atma vishwas Freedom (man marzi) with swatantrata (self organized); Reasoning and Logic with Experiencing and Understanding; Philosophy (a category) with Darshan (which is beyond category); Different with Opposite; “Development” with Real progress/ contentment; This is how modern myth is created – at one level it falsely equates higher value with a lower one by imposing the transient or provisional over the definitive and at other level it creates false categories and creates artificial oppositions This starts in school when we teach “opposites” Black vs, white; Day vs Night but it does not stop there It goes on Man vs woman Boy vs Girl, East vs West and later on gets translated into Hindu vs Muslim, Developed vs undeveloped etc etc Adjectives are another big problem if not teach them with the awareness that they are relative, that they are subjective The over emphasis of modern science - which has cast its influence on all disciplines of learning - on reasoning and has conditioned the mind to be only satisfied with an apparently reasonable sounding answer to the ‘why’ is another obstacle to seeing reality in its totality Observation and experiencing a phenomena in its totality is not appreciated while a partial answer to ‘why’ satisfies people trained in modern education We are conditioned to think we know when actually we are only believing The over emphasis on ‘Why’ and ‘How’ has under played the importance of ‘What’ In SIDH we have tried to challenge some of these categories and assumptions of modern education The emphasis is on ‘how to think’ rather than ‘what to think’ Rather than teaching what the Mahatma said we try to understand why he may have said what he said: why he never ever used the word ‘development’ in his writings or speeches without first qualifying it; we try and understand the assumptions behind the word “development”; what is the relationship between non violence and courage to be, to be able to say no; not to be restricted by categories even of the man made law, if need be; what is the difference between opposing and non cooperation/ ignoring; what is the difference between sameness and equality; what is value; what is the difference between angreziat and angrezi; the difference between respect or trust and its demonstration; what are systems and how they (unknowingly) mould our thinking and actions; what are categories and how they may (unknowingly) influence us; what is the difference between getting influenced and getting inspired; how we can teach without textbooks by using the local – environmental and cultural – context; and lastly we try to refrain from using “should” in our schools We feel it is extremely important today to challenge the myths and categories created by modernity through education This is the only way out and pave the path towards real freedom Our experience is that it is possible to teach these things even to very young children Once we are able to this “Hind Swaraj” becomes easy to understand 166 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 167 Analysis of Generation, Dynamics and Structure of the External Debt of the Kyrgyz Republic Erkin S Mansurkhodjaev* 500.0 000.0 mln $ Recently a problem of the external indebtedness in the Kyrgyz Republic acquired a sufficiently acute nature It is connected with a fact that servicing of the foreign debt is one of key factors of macroeconomic stability in the country Budget capability of the country, a state of its currency reserves, and, therefore, a stability of the national currency, a level of interest rates, an investment climate and a nature of behavior of all segments of the domestic financial market will depend on the nature of the debt problem solution It is not a secret that a rational use of foreign loans, credits and assistance contributes to acceleration of economic development, solution of social and economic problems At the same time unavailability of the integral state policy on attraction and use of external financial resources leads to generation of external indebtedness which becomes a serious obstacle to economic reforms Besides, a state external debt as one component of the key economic threats influences the financial economic safety of the country in general The security of each country depends on the amount of indebtedness, on conditions of payment of both interests on debts and the debts themselves, and also their impacts on the country's financial capacities Generation of the external debt in the Kyrgyz Republic and its contemporary structure had its own peculiarities It became available after collapse of the Soviet Union and independence As Russia 1500.0 1000.0 500.0 0.0 committed to take Kyrgyzstan’s share in external indebtedness of the former Soviet Union into its liabilities and service it, Kyrgyzstan by the end of 1992 practically did not have debts in the converted currency A major part of credit agreements concluded in 1992, including agreements with European Union and Turkey, remained per se unrealized As of November 3, 2000, a volume of foreign credits signed by the Kyrgyz Republic Government made up US$ 1,856.35 million, including credits from CIS countries – to the time of US$ 257.46 million; from other countries and international financial organizations – amounting to US$1,598.89 million However actually Kyrgyz Republic only received an amount of US$ 1,362.21 million Repayments of US$ 208.17 million were made between 1992—2000, including payments of principal amounts – US$ 110.09 million (on credits of Uzbekistan, Switzerland, China, Turkey, Islamic Development Bank, Germany), and interest payments – at the amount of US$ 98.08 million A total state external debt of the Kyrgyz Republic on May 1, 2009 stood at US$ 2,348,600 thousand.1 Foreign loans and credits were attracted by the republic during the years of reforms for implementation of the following interconnected goals of support of the national currency and balance of payments, financing of the critical import of state sector and state budget deficit, structural Dinam reforms, implementation of economic reforms in all sectors of ics of e xte r nal de bt of th e KR the economy, streamlining, development and strengthening of the social 120.0 and public health 104.9 system, projects aimed at modernization 101.9investment 100.0 94.2 98.394.8 95.0 81.5 82.0 of existing production facilities in the republic and creation of new 67.0 80.0 ones 49.3 60.0 39.8 45.0 30.5 of total increase in the external debt during In spite 40.0 the last few years 21.8 25.1 20.0 the situation is changing for the better It is confirmed by data of the 0.0 external debt relative to Gross domestic product (GDP), fig.1 1993 19 94 1995 1996 1997 1998 19 99 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 200 006 2009 Extern al d ebt, m ln $ Exte rnal debt /GD P ,% *Erkin S Mansurkhodjaev Ph.D in Economics, Associate Professor of the KyrgyzRussian Slavic University (KRSU) 168 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 169 170 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 2500 000 000 000 500 000 USD At present the credits received from international financial organizations and donor countries are provided on easy terms (maturities from 15 to 40 years, grace periods from to 10 years, interest rate from 0.75 to 3%) Large creditors of Kyrgyzstan are the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, governments of Japan, Turkey and Germany Their credits make up 93% of all assistance provided to Kyrgyzstan, including 54% of credits which were provided by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Credits received from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are the cheapest (from 0.5% to 0.75% p.a for 30-40 years with 10 years as a grace period) Such credits are aimed at structural reforms in the economy, support of the national currency and balance of payments All large credits are received against security of the Kyrgyz Republic Government From July 1992 the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic attracted credits of the National Bank for covering the budget deficit From 1998 the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic does not give direct credits to the Government In compliance with the Kyrgyz Republic Law “On restructuring of the debt of the Kyrgyz Republic Government before the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic”, restructuring of the basic debt on credits before the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic and the debt which has already been restructured into the state securities to the amount of KGS 2,379.6 million, was carried out by means of issue of bonds of the state restructured loan and their transfer to the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic The debt of the Kyrgyz Republic Government on accrued interests is restructured by means of issue of two simple promissory notes of the Kyrgyz Republic Government for 70% and 30% of the accrued interests, for KGS 1,445.8 million and KGS 619 million, accordingly After collapse of the USSR the Kyrgyz Republic found itself in a very difficult situation Unavailability of own resources, loss of subsidies from the consolidated budget forced our Government to resort to the borrowing procedure However, unavailability of coordinated policy on borrowing and weak management of the external debt caused by lack of the necessary experience led to the volume of the external debt of the republic increasing at a rapid rate Thus, a dynamics given below (Fig 2) shows a growth of the external debt of the republic from the zero level in 1992 to more than US$ billion in 2006-2008.2 000 000 500 000 Years Bilateral creditors Multilateral creditors Guarantees Fig Dynamics of the external debt Difficult periods for the economy like reforms, depression, etc are usually the reasons for generation of the state debt During such periods when the national income is reduced or cannot increase, tax revenues are automatically reduced which result in budget deficits Another source of the state debt – political interests leading to the increase of government expenses and, consequently, to the increase of the budget deficit The more burdensome is the accrued external debt for the country, as its servicing influences the functioning of the whole national economy and its finances sphere The first debts in the Kyrgyz Republic actually acrued due to break in economic relations, collapse of the USSR and, with settlement of trade mutual relations with the former fraternal republics The experience of working with international financial institutes, and bilateral donors was gained gradually As a result Kyrgyzstan attracted investments for development at a slow pace In confirmation of the previous diagram a dynamics indicated below shows annual volumes of the external debt application DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 171 Fig.3 Dynamics of external debt application 300 US$ mln 250 200 150 100 50 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2008 Years Bilateral creditors Guarantees IMF Multilateral After adoption of a new Law of the KR “On state and non-state debt” in 2001 rates of the external debt growth have decreased It is explained by adoption of the mid-term strategy of the external debt reduction which stipulated conduct of certain policy on borrowing Currently the Ministry of Finance of the KR is developing a new strategy of the external debt management for the mid-term period Table Distribution of the external assistance3 No Sector Agreements amount, % of the US$ total amount State management 48.3 2.1 Industry 117.9 5.1 Agriculture and irrigation 410.1 17.9 Social 254.7 11.1 Transport and telecommunications 400.5 17.4 Tourism 6.0 0.3 Support of national currency 763.3 33.2 Private 71.6 3.1 Energy 204.9 8.9 10 Environment 18.4 0.8 Total 2,295.7 100.0 172 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No This table shows a distribution of credit funds in sectorwise breakup It is evident from the table that a significant part of funds is allocated for support of the budget and national currency According to an analysis around 11.7% of the total volume of external credit help were allocated for consulting services During the period of 1992-2003 US$ 365 million were paid out for servicing of the external debt, including US$ 194 million on the principal amount and US$ 171 million for payment of interests Non preferential credits make up only 32.7% of the external debt structure These are credits, the interests on which make up not less than 25% At the same time preferential borrowings from international financial institutions and donor countries make up 67.35 % of the accrued debt Basic borrowing is a multilateral state debt, including that from IMF, which makes up 69% (Fig.4) These include credits of the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, Islamic Development Bank and other regional banks Then a state bilateral debt follows - 30% and guarantees - 1% A figure indicated below shows the state of the external debt as on January 1, 2009, by creditors Fig Structure of external debt in breakdown by creditors as of 01.01.2009 (in US$ mln and in %)4 Guarantees 22,97; 1% Bilateral creditors 660,78; 30% Multilateral creditors 1518,60; 69% On analysis of the figure indicated below we see that long-term debts prevail over short-term ones quantitatively It should be underlined that there is no necessity to prove advantages of the low specific DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 173 weight of short-term debts in the total indebtedness, in increase of potential for repayment of the external debt of the country Fig Structure of the internal debt by maturities (up to or more than yesr)5 Basic creditors of the Kyrgyz Republic in multilateral agreements are: Asian Development Bank (ADB) - 25 credits, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) - credits, Islamic Development Bank – credits, International Development Association (IDA) – 31 credits, International Monetary Fund - credits, International Fund for Agricultural Development – credits, International Development Fund OPEC - credits, Nordic Development Fund -1 credit Bilateral creditors include the following countries: Germany – 8, Denmark – credits, India – credits, Kazakhstan – credit, China – credits, South Korea – credits, EU Commission – credit, Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic credits, France - credits, Japan – credits Fig Structure of bilateral external debt of the Kyrgyz Republic, %6 174 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No It should be pointed out that credits were mainly used in the state sector for covering expenses of predominantly social nature and not for production purposes And this may manifest itself on the incapability of the country to make payments on debts in the not distant future At the same time, based on estimates of the Ministry of Finance, if we adhere to the same financial discipline to which we have adhered during the last 3-4 years and if the country refrains from populist measures, which require large costs, if the country stops indiscriminately following the same then by 2011 the external debt will cease to have a negative influence on development of the economy and the society However, at present the country balances as though on the “cutting edge of a knife” If measures developed by the Government are effective and work, then Kyrgyzstan will receive a unique chance to ascend on a new height in its development If not, then a chaos of political and economic crises will overwhelm the country, from which it will be very difficult to emerge DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 175 Footnotes Data of Ministry of Finance of the KR, 2009 Data of Ministry of Finance of the KR, 2009 Data of Ministry of Finance of the KR, 2009 Data of Ministry of Finance of the KR, 2009 Data of Ministry of Finance of the KR, 2009 At the same place Theoretical Vector in Study of the Transformation of the National Economy Ayupov Asylbek Nurgazievich* The basic conditions which are specific to the transformation of economy continue to define the new relations between former system and the new one It is possible to ennumerate three groups of social-economic problems which have become relevant since the breakdown of the command and administration economy around which current discussions are carried on Firstly the interlinked problems of liberalization and macroeconomic stabilization The crisis of the system in most of the countries concurred with a financial-budget (macroeconomic) crisis, and a problem of the transformation to the market economy (liberalization) to combat inflation Secondly, the challenge of the concept of "private property", to the existing of “national” monopoly Lot of ambiguities in theory as well as in practice remain unresolved And the answers to that or other model of development related to the appropriate and optimal way of privatization may settle only with experience in post-socialist transformation Certain discussions about this problem have been carried on since the mid-eighties of the last century, without any concrete conclusions According to the opinion of I.G Minervin1, the famous “Theorem of Ronald Coase” that is described in his article, “The Problem of Social Cost” (1960) “it is not of great importance how the property is divided as long the ownership rights were clearly defined”2 *Ayupov Asylbek Nurgazievich Ph.D., Associate Professor, Head of “Regional Economics” Department, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University (KRSU) 176 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 177 However, the experience has shown that only legitimation of right to property for creation of property relations appeared to be insufficient In our opinion, in the current case, specific difficulties of the privatization process, in the former socialistic countries, including Kyrgyzstan, for known historical reasons should also be taken into account Problems of the competitive atmosphere, without which the privatization can not be effective, are not considered here Thirdly, possibilities and perspectives of the economic growth remained separate problems These include necessity of the alterations of the economic structure of the post-socialistic societies, ways of adaptation of the industrial economies to the post-industrial requirements as well as ability of one or another post-socialistic country, in course of time, to get to the level of the economic growth and the community welfare norms of the developed countries Contradictory points of view on some principal issues are visible within the framework of the transitional economy For example, it is practically common thesis that liberalization of the structure of society underlies a post-socialistic transition However, contrary view points refer to the famous experience of Chile The theory of the post-socialistic transition by a “great leap forward” method (or, the same as “shock therapy”) is opposed by the followers of the evolutionary transformation of economy from state-controlled to market one as exemplified by Uzbekistan and Belorussia However, it appears that common references to the experience of China and Vietnam, where socialistic development has been realized so far basically by evolutionary way, are not sound arguments Market relations have followed significant social and political changes in these countries, but, doubtless, these have developed under substantial influence of the change in global ecomony and internal factors of the national economy transformation However the internal evolutionary as well as external factors of transformation are not in synch and are a matter of great concern Ten years after, precipitate transformation of countries with centralized planning into countries with market economy has had uneven progress in different countries Some of the countries are nearing completion of the process, while others are stuck on the way, and some have hardly gotten under the way Most of the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe as well as Baltic states became full-fledged members of the European Union In many countries of the CIS including the Kyrgyz Republic the progress was uneven and the perspectives remain cloudy Centuries-long Kyrgyz history, where the Soviet period holds a special place, is a primary to such a position In contradistinction from many other CIS countries (Eastland, Russia, Ukraine etc.) and European socialistic countries, the Kyrgyz nation transited from feudalism to socialism, and only then to capitalism The question about what the Kyrgyz economy would be, viz, the last century socialism or capitalism is still open The period of development of socialistic society of Kyrgyzstan, deserves critical appraisal, the negative as well as positive consequences Optimism during the first years of the transformation, when it seemed that “correct” western theoretical and methodological approaches supported by high macroeconomic rates achieved by the western countries were tempered by more sober estimate of the chances of these approaches to influence the transformation process Besides, we are talking about the adequacy of the accumulated analytical potential of the transformation performance targets and about what views from the variety of existing views and concepts may be the best for the transforming economies It is of prime importance, when we face deep social-economic transformations, it is essential to conceptualize about the necessity of transformation and the ways of its realization Interpretation of the results achieved during the reforms predetermines the following steps into their realization where market liberalization intimately connected with import of the western tools is a fundamental principle Indeed, liberalization of the economic relations allows to get persistent free of deficit and government failure, and, encourages the tools of the market economy including entrepreneurship, innovative activity and investment ability However, this transformation process in terms of the market tools represents assertions of the new economic relations in the sphere of production, exchange, acquisition and consumption It ought to be noted, that methodological and theoretical limitations specific to transition economies, namely a commitment to equilibrium approach, micro macro theory gap, disregard of information, institutional and evolutionary aspects, are part of the transformation process approach However, the economic theory giving us flexibility to understand, revise and overcome of the limitations associated with these principles, become foremost when we are talking about the analysis of the different economic systems and their transformation Referring to discussions on development of socialism, world famous economists of the Swedish School, O Lange, A Lorner, drew significant attention in their researches to comparison of two systems 178 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 179 to the possibility of presence of market relations in socialist economies, described by them as market socialism.3 From the methodological point of view O Lange and A Lorner showed, based on the equilibrium model and later based on the main theories of the theory of welfare, that even where the state is producer of goods, wherein yield on capital is totally withdrawn in favor of the state, a model of the economy, social-advantageous Pareto-optimal condition is attained, in other words, efficient allocation of resources is achieved and opportunity for reallocation of resources according to social priorities is created They also conceded that the role of the abstract market tool (stock and securities markets etc), which determined an equilibrium price vector, may be assigned to the abstract but real organization – State Planning Committee that is able to adjust price with due consideration of public preferences However, the critics of the model of market socialism, the Austrian School (FA Hayek, L von Mises, and others) put forward two, sufficiently reasoned objections - motivation and information The essence of the first objection: there is no reason to believe that the managers of enterprises will actually aspire to solve the optimization problem of the companies, and the problem of ownership and control The essence of the second objection boiled down to the fact that no organization, in that case, the State Planning Commission, can objectively serve the function of price calculation As it is a physical impossibility to carry out huge calculations, which is easier in a decentralized market system In the course of discussion about the market socialism future framework for the analysis of the two systems at the level of both theoretical and practical (soviet) studies were raised And the planned and market system were viewed as their institutional structure expressed, first of all, as form of ownership And quite in the spirit of orthodox Marxism, the form of ownership appeared to be the main and the only difference between models of socialism and capitalism Just at that point in our view, ultimately the origins of ideas about the transformation of the economy as a result of the rapid change of ownership are vital, whether it is the nationalization or privatization When the task of transforming a socialist planned economy into a market is set, it is not expected to implement the speculative ideal, but the establishment of the system, existing in several countries.4 The point at issue, therefore, is not about construction, but borrowing, and the latter, in contrast to utopian social engineering does not preclude a positive perspective, but also does not mean that the path is clear to achieve a goal (the nature, sequence and speed changes, etc.) If we assume that the transformation involves changing the stereotype of behavior of economic agents, and this, in our opinion, of course, is the case, and then the use of macroeconomic dependencies in the analysis of transformation processes requires special care And not only because the reliability of macroeconomic relations is an issue, but also because their interpretation can create complications And the core of the problem here is in the changes taking place at level of institutions that are not accounted for by traditional models of transition economies When the market is studied as an area of the rationalization of economic activities of the society on the principles of globalization, there is a risk of narrowing the scope of the market, and hence the scope for rationalisation For example, in the context of Kyrgyzstan, an idea of “small economy”, an industrial potential created under socialism remains an issue Definition of “small” can be attributed to the country whose economy is based on agriculture or service sector, which has no historical memory of the industrial economy It is doubtful whether it is suitable to modern Kyrgyzstan The idea of “small economy” is not acceptable to assess the prospects for economic growth from the standpoint of macroeconomics Macroeconomics significantly raises the bar of industrialization the acceptable level maintaining the overall market equilibrium (capital – GDP – income), as the market’s ability to absorb the factors of economic growth increases linearly with the transition from the productive capacity factor of microeconomics to demanding which is inherent to monetary capital and the first strategic level (short-term strategy) of the macroeconomics And then – to the structural-institutional (synergistic) potential for economic growth, which is realized under the influence of the formation of system of the financial capital relations, and the second strategic level (long-term strategy) of the market We believe that the market transformation of socialism in our country (Kyrgyz) began with the formation of financial capital rather than current market If we consider existing approaches to the transformation in terms of their theoretical and methodological foundations, it is found that there is not much differences between them Despite the existing variety of positions, we propose to consider a set of ideas that could be called a 180 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 181 broad approach to the transformation as a multistage process of change that connects the major problems to be solved in the process of transformation and modernization of the national economy: · how to combine the transformational reforms and the resolution of real problems of national economic development, whether to wait for a favorable investment climate, or to act?; · what should be the balance of economic structures and competition policies, market mechanisms?; · how should transformation of ownership proceed through mergers and bankruptcies, monopolization?; · what is the reduction scale of state role in economic activities while strengthening regulation, how to reduce the bureaucratic burden on business?; · how to ensure economic growth and competitiveness (to attract investment in innovative activities) All of these problems are discussed in a given setting, but we must recognize that they entail a fairly complicated set of decisions which is characteristic of the transforming economies of developing countries These issues arise due dependence on technology of the reforms, decisions and the events of previous years and the duration of their decisions as well Differences in approach are primarily in the hierarchy of objectives, emphasis, and combinations of activities of each of the parties and expressed in response to a number of issues: the causes of macroeconomic instability (including inflation), the role of the state (efficiency, scope and nature of the intervention) and the market, the place of social orientations in the hierarchy of policy objectives, the sequence and pace of the changes Depending on the answers to these questions by theoretical (and to some extent the socio-philosophical) positions that determine these responses to a large degree of conditionality, we can distinguish the following approaches: “reformist radicalism” (“monetarism” and “shock therapy”), “social democratic reformism”, “moderate reformism” and “transformism” We emphasize that, despite the different answers to the questions above, and quite different positions on the practical aspects, in terms of methodology, the first three approaches are very similar: they are based on equilibrium approach, the distinction between the theory of micro-and macro elements, consideration of the institutional changes beyond basic models 182 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No Today, in our opinion, one of the central problems of the transformation problem is the problem of impact of new market institutions on the economic system that determines the strategic direction of its transformation, which gives the options of implementation and coordination of economic interests and, consequently, determine the formal and not formal institutional boundaries for subjects of the economic system It should also take into account, the fact that all the subjects of the economic relations are interested in promotion of the transformation processes and, therefore, institutional changes are closely linked with the mechanisms and methods of reforms implementation, since interests in formal institutions are sold through them, which leads to a qualitative change in the functioning of the national economy.5 The interpretation of the results of the reforms determines the next steps for their implementation, where the market liberalization connected with the import of the recommendations of the Western financial institutions is a fundamental principle Indeed, the liberalization of economic relations allows us to get rid of a chronic shortage of goods and services, and inefficient government intervention in the transformation processes and, ultimately, the main advantages of a market economy including entrepreneurship, innovation activity and investment mobility to appear Footnotes Minervin I.G “Foreign Researchers about the Ways of Transformation of the Russian Economy: Variety of Approaches, Similarity of Conclusions”.// Russia and Contemporary World – M., 2006 - # Coase, Ronald H “The Problem of Social Cost”// Journal of Law and Economics, (1960), p.25 Keynes J.M General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money // EKSMO M., 2007, 960 p Olsim M The Logic of Collective Action Cambridge, 1965 The Emergence of Market Economies in Eastern Europe Cambridge, 1992 Institutions and Economic Development Baltimore, 1997 Buchanan J PostSocialist Political Economy Edward Elgar Cheltenhamlyme, 1997 Stiglitz J Whither Socialism Cambridge-London, 1994 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 183 FORM IV (See Rule 8) Place of Publication : Delhi Periodicity of Publication : Quarterly Printer’s Name (Whether citizen of India? Address : B.B Kumar : Yes, Indian : 27/201, East End Apartments, Mayur Vihar Phase-I Extension, Delhi-110 096 Publisher’s Name (Whether citizen of India? Address : B.B Kumar : Yes, Indian : 27/201, East End Apartments, Mayur Vihar Phase-I Extension, Delhi-110 096 Editor’s Name (Whether citizen of India? Address : B.B Kumar : Yes, Indian : 27/201, East End Apartments, Mayur Vihar Phase-I Extension, Delhi-110 096 Name and address of Individuals who own the Newspaper and partners or shareholders holding Total capital : Astha Bharati, 27/501, East End Apartments, Mayur Vihar Phase-I Extension, Delhi-110 096 I, B.B Kumar, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief May 20, 2010 184 B.B Kumar Signature of Publisher DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 185 186 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 187 188 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No 189 190 DIALOGUE, Volume-11 No ... hear to this day the wailings of the Chinese who perished in the construction of the Great Wall of China The nation is above an individual in Chinese tradition The construction of the railway to... away The Role of the Silk Road on the Development of Mahayana Buddhist Arts Dinh Hong Hai* Introduction Over the long span of Asian history, trade played a crucial role in the development of medieval-ancient... modem manifestation Neo-Confucianism is conditioning contemporary developments Current Indian writing on China has to focus on the content of our relationship with China in the future and how
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