Summit Offers Roadmap for Building a Fairer World Order

Posted by AsiaViews | Sep 12, 2017 | 0 |

China Daily

Sep 5, 2017

On Sept 4, 2016, while addressing the 11th G20 Summit in Hangzhou, President Xi Jinping urged participating global leaders to make the grouping “an action force, rather than a talking shop”.

On Sunday, at the Business Forum of the 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen, Xi made the same reference, only this time he said BRICS is not a talking shop, but “a task force that gets things done”.

The delicate contrast in rhetoric is a thought-provoking hallmark of what China, a relative newcomer to the stage of global governance, is seeking. From Xi’s two major speeches before the release of the Xiamen Declaration and dozens of cooperation projects endorsed thereby, as well as “BRICS Plus” discussions, there is an explicit Chinese eagerness to maneuver actual changes the world desperately needs in these times of uncertainties.

Obviously, this aspiration is no longer China’s alone, as it has been embraced by the other BRICS members as well, and the five emerging economies present in Xiamen under the “BRICS Plus” framework. It derives from a broadly felt imperative to address longstanding injustices in global governance, as the current world order is yet to acknowledge, let alone appreciate, the contribution of developing countries. But, as Xi stated, China and its BRICS partners have no intention of overthrowing the world order. They just want it to help make it fairer, democratic.

BRICS countries have their own troubles, at home and among themselves, which once prompted some to say the nascent grouping was losing luster. But despite that, the BRICS countries, thanks partly to intra-BRICS cooperation, have continued to outperform most of the rest of the world economically. What BRICS leaders agreed upon in Xiamen, including both framework documents and specific cooperative programs, can only consolidate such dynamism.

The “BRICS Plus” mechanism, which was introduced as a formal component of the annual event at Beijing’s proposal, is a logical outreach commensurate with the grouping’s ambition to make its own achievements deliver wider benefits. By engaging more emerging economies, which usually share extensive common interests in development-related areas, BRICS can indeed make global impacts, and build a stronger case against the anti-globalization trend in some economies.

At the threshold of a new BRICS decade, the Xiamen summit has come up with an inspiring road map for the member states. Whether BRICS can continue growing as it has done, however, rests heavily on how well its members honor their vow of solidarity.

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2017-09/05/content_31573237.htm )

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Summit Offers Roadmap for Building a Fairer World Order