Fajar Adhiprabawa – Pike & Hurricane

Unheard South Solidarity: The Asian-African Conference

Fajar Adhiprabawa — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 19:09:29 +0000

Last April, heads of state, ministers, and high officials from Asia and Africa began arriving in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Bandung to attend a particularly significant event. The summit was held in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference (KAA) in 1955.

The original KAA Conference was the result of an initiative by Indonesia’s 8^th Prime Minister Ali Sastroamidjojo. Mr. Ali believed that a cooperation between the Asia and Africa regions is integral for development in the regions and international peace and security. The meeting, also known as the ‘Bandung Conference’, was organised by Indonesia, Burma, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.

The countries that attended the Conference believed in similar ideas for development and governance, as they shared fundamental opposition against colonialism and the bipolar global politics that marked that era. This would then lead to the birth of the well-known Non-Aligned Movements. The Conference saw Asian and Afican countries share largely similar characteristics, most being newly-independent and developing countries.

Facing new challenges ahead of them, Asian and African countries believe that some form of partnership is needed to build solidarity and develop together. This partnership is based on mutual views on respect for state sovereignty and territorial integrity, equality, peaceful settlement of disputes, and respect for fundamental human rights and justice.

The KAA Conference was influenced by great Asian leaders at the time, among them the first Indonesian President Soekarno, the first Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Burmese Prime Minister U Nu, and the former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The 1955 Asian-African Conference was attended by 29 countries’ delegates, and the cooperation was followed up on the commemoration of its 50^th anniversary in the 2005 Asian-African Summit.

The conclusion of the global bipolarity marking the Cold War era and the decolonisation of both Asian and African countries gave rise to concerns that this particular cooperation was losing its importance. However, Asian and African states are still facing many issues, from struggling to contain civil wars, combating security problems, fighting against poverty and pursuing economic development, to supporting proper education.

Attended by 89 heads of state and eleven more international organisation representatives, including then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the 2005 Summit was key in strengthening ties between the regions.

The 2005 Summit provided a breakthrough in the development of the cooperation, as it gave birth to the New Asian–African Strategic Partnership (NAASP). Cooperation within this NAASP framework focuses on issues central to Asia and Africa’s development: counter-terrorism, food and energy security, higher education, gender equality, and the empowerment of women.

Several states from both regions champion each of these sector, and the scheme has seen Indonesia and South Africa to lead the others in promoting and delivering action plans. The quality of human resources in the regions has become the primary focus to trigger economic progress through technical cooperation and knowledge transfer.

With every year, the number of states participating in this summit increased. Representing nations comprising more than three quarters of the world’s population at 5.4 billion citizens combined, 109 countries’ delegates take part in this year’s summit.

The shared cause against colonialism and intervention was brought to the discussion by host country Indonesia, promoting the effort to support the independence of Palestine.

“An issue … merits out continued support and attention is the issue of Palestine. Indonesia remains steadfast in its unwavering support for an independent Palestine within the context of the two state solution,” Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi remarked. “We should start talking about sanctions being imposed on Israel for violating international law and for negating the Palestinians basic rights.”

Another discussion of cooperation revolves around economic progress through trade. Despite it being not as significant as the trade with Europe and the Americas, direct trade between Asia and Africa is promising and expected to continue to increase. Recent trade deals have seen capital flows between the regions increase considerably. Sime Darby of Malaysia has started to develop oil palm plantations in Africa, while Zambeef of Zambia has invested in farms and husbandry, and investments in Ethiopia were made by the Indonesian company B-29.

To further cooperation, a separate meeting of the Asian-African Business Summit, bringing together CEOs from 47 countries in Asia and Africa’s leading businesses takes place at the same time in Jakarta. These business leaders are to discuss the expected improvement of business cooperation, trade, and investment in sectors of infrastructure, agribusiness, and maritime economy in particular.

The cooperation between Asia and Africa does not attract as much attention in global politics as other inter-region relationships, but is undoubtedly a much needed one. It is imperative for countries to fully support the New Asian–African Strategic Partnership built upon the Asian African Summits. Consisting of mostly developing countries, some struggling with conflict and extreme poverty, Asia and Africa need an ever-stronger solidarity in order to continue to rise and better themselves, together.

Photo credit:

Picture 1 & 2: GovernmentZA, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

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Football: Two Sides of the Pitch

Fajar Adhiprabawa — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 17:14:37 +0000

An industry requires capitals, and one of the prerequisites of a successful industry is a healthy human capital in the form of its labors. Development in political economy has resulted in the rules and procedures on how governments and private sector should protect workers’ rights as workers’ well-being is part of the employers’ responsibility. In this aspect, cases of human rights violation found in Brazil and Qatar display a horrifying image that is the football industry.

In a football match, two sides fight it out for 90 minutes trying to score more, and to concede less than the other team for two halves, separated by a commercial break. Players wear eye-catching jerseys and boots, with logos of well-known manufacturers and sponsors attached. 80.000 fans cheer for their clubs. Stadiums look ever so immense. ‘The beautiful game’ is indeed irresistible.

Football is t he most popular sport in the world, and attracts more people than any other sports does. Last year’s FIFA World Cup 2014 final match between Germany and Argentina was watched by more than 1 billion viewers worldwide, making it the most-watched event in the history of sport. 672 million tweets were sent related to the event held in Brazil, in contrast to ‘just’ over 40 million tweets on Sochi Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl’s 24.9 million tweets and 17.7 million tweets generated by the NBA Finals. With the staggering attention it draws, the football industry has had no trouble growing into a multi-billion dollar industry.

Kharkiv Stadium

The clubs, main actors in the industry have three main sources of income: matchday revenue, broadcasting, and commercial rights. Matchday revenue comes from stadium ticket sales – it is the smaller bit. Broadcasting and commercial rights – including advertising, branding, naming rights, and sponsorships, make up the biggest part of professional clubs’ revenues.

Financial service firm Deloitte found that in the 2012/13 football season, revenues of the big five European leagues grew by 5%, accumulating to €9.8 billion. English Premier League, the top football league filled with the world’s richest clubs just concluded a deal with Sky and BT Sport, which resulted in a record contract of £5.1 billion paid to EPL clubs for live broadcasting rights for all seasons from 2016 to 2019 seasons. Merely a decade ago, the number was nowhere near today’s amount, at just £1 billion.

This trajectory of capital allows clubs to spend millions on buying new players and paying the exorbitant wages of their top eleven footballers on the field. The likes of Wayne Rooney, Eden Hazard, Radamel Falcao, and Sergio Aguero, all under 30 year-old, have the fortune to drive sport cars, dine at luxurious five-star restaurants, and live in high-end apartments in London and Manchester, all thanks to their comfortable incomes upwards of £300.000 weekly. The average annual salary of a Premier League player is at an all-time high, £2.3million, and dwarfs other industries’ employees’ wages. Players’ services are bought for hefty sums, too. Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo were transferred for no less than £80m each, after which the player’s new clubs can make more millions from shirt sales, name rights, and sponsorships.

Protest against the Confed Cup in Brazil

On the other side of the pitch, reality is not as sweet. The preparations of for holding prestigious events such as the World Cup often unravel problems that previously had been ignored. Both Brazil as host of the 2014 World Cup and Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup have been put into the spotlight, amidst accusations of massive misappropriations human rights violations. As if the controversy surrounding the football governing body FIFA was not enough.

One Rafael Braga Vieira was walking in the street of Rio de Janeiro when he was confronted by Brazilian police. The city was in high tension following month-long protests, in that particular night hundreds of thousands demonstrators were dispersed by police. Rubber bullets were shot, tear gas was thrown. He was on his way to his aunt’s house, carrying two bottles of cleaning products to give to her.

Rafael says the police stopped him, arrested, and then beat him. Police accused him of being part of the demonstration and charged him for ‘carrying explosives without authorization’. A report by Amnesty claimed ‘the forensic department concluded that the chemicals in the products couldn’t possibly have been used as explosives’. Even so, Rafael was still sentenced to five years of prison for petty theft.

Workers’ apartments in Dohar

In Qatar, violations have proven to be even more concerning. A Guardian investigation into construction project for the 2022 FIFA headquarters in Qatar 2022 found that: 82 Indian workers had died in a 5 months period and reported 44 Nepalese migrant workers died in two months of highly unacceptable violations of workers’ rights. Although Qatar national labor law – Ministerial Resolution No. 16 of 2007 – specifies that workers should not work from 11.30am to 03.00pm, many workers claimed to have been working up to 12 hours a day in the summer, when temperatures easily reach 50°C.

Migrant workers reported issues of hunger, retained salaries by employers, overcrowded and insanitary housing, and other maltreatments attributed to the Qatar government. Exposure to uncovered septic tanks, overflowing sewage, and deprivation of running water have been revealed.

Many migrant workers are struggling to survive during the period of their contracts, and may not even return home after the fulfilment of the contract. Reports suggest employers have been blackmailing workers into signing statements stating they have been paid for their work, leaving them penniless.

When British human rights researchers Krishna Upadhyaya and Ghimire Gundev visited Doha to investigate the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar, the two went missing on their last day of stay. Even after almost six days of the two’s disappearance, no official statement had been issued by the Qatari authorities. Calls for significant improvements in the infrastructure projects’ employment policy have been echoed by many governments and organizations.

It is striking to see the development of football showing two sides of progress that are in stark contrast to each other. The business continues to grow exponentially, allowing for more funds to be distributed within the industry, while the other side displays a worrying image of serious human rights violations, a high death toll amongst workers and unresponsive government officials doing their best to avoid addressing and tackling these issues.

By Fajar Adhiprabawa

Image credit:

Picture 1: Aleksandr Osipov, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Picture 2: Sebástian Freire, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Picture 3: Richard Messenger, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

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