Martin Khor: Formidable campaigner and fighter Bhagirath Lal Das

Using sharp intellect, objective facts and persuasive capacity, Martin Khor was a formidable campaigner and fighter for the causes he had determined through reasoned thinking. His patience and humility facilitated his work and enhanced the effects of his efforts. I had the privilege of seeing all such qualities in him in full play for nearly twenty-five years, from 1995 onward.

Once, while sitting in a small office at UNCTAD in Geneva in 1996, I was writing papers explaining the provisions of various WTO agreements that had recently emerged. Suddenly I found Martin entering the room and taking a seat. He noticed a small slip of paper by my side where I had scribbled some short notes. On his enquiry, I explained to him that I was recording the deficiencies and imbalances I had noticed in the agreements. He had a quick glance at it and his eyes brightened. Barely concealing the agitation in his mind, he said these provisions were extremely unfair and harmful for the developing countries and must be brought to their notice. I said it would not be any use as the developing countries must be fully aware of it already. He disagreed and persuaded me to turn these scribbled notes into a short paper. Martin sent this paper to all the Missions of the developing countries in Geneva and invited them to a conference.

It was an eye-opener for me. The Ambassadors and other senior diplomats of developing countries took the matter seriously and many of them became convinced that it was necessary to make concerted efforts to bring about changes in the agreements. This was the beginning of the massive campaign to improve the agreements in order to eliminate/reduce inequities, deficiencies and imbalances.

Martin thought it was necessary to mobilise the civil society groups of the developing countries for this cause. He organised a week-long workshop in Penang, Malaysia, where members from about 50 civil society organisations of Asia, Africa and Latin America participated. They got deeply absorbed in this mission and decided to pursue this subject vigorously in their own countries and regions. This campaign got strengthened year after year, from one WTO Ministerial Meeting to the next, starting from the first in Singapore in December 1996. This initiative in the area of international trade is just an example of Martin’s way of working towards his objectives.

He covered a wide range of areas for his action. While the main subjects mentioned above covered the areas of international trade in goods and services and also intellectual property rights (patents, copyright, etc), Martin’s interest and sphere of activities spread to several other areas of deep concern to the developing countries: international financial institutions and their working, environment including climate change, condition of indigenous people, etc.

I was always fascinated to observe him working in these diverse fields with common approach and strategy. His first step would be to identify the inequities and imbalances through arduous studies and discussions keeping the focus on the interests of the developing countries. And there were many.

For example, in the area of agriculture, the developed countries had been permitted by the WTO Agriculture Agreement to continue with massive subsidies whereas the developing countries were prohibited from subsidising their farmers beyond a very small level. The option of the developing countries to impose quantitative restrictions on imports, while facing balance of payment problems was almost ended. In the area of intellectual property rights (IPR), the position of the patent holders had been strengthened, enabling them to charge exorbitant monopoly prices and royalties, resulting in high payments by the developing countries to the multinational firms of the developed countries. In the area of finance, the international institutions (IMF, World Bank) had made it a practice to put tough conditions on the developing countries while granting them loans, resulting in damaging effects on their economies. In the area of environment and climate change, while the developed countries had been primarily responsible for the deterioration of world climate over centuries since the first industrial revolution, they were now insisting on high responsibility of action by the developing countries which would severely restrain their options for industrial development.

These are only some illustrative examples of inequity and unfairness which agitated Martin’s mind and made him identify the subjects for his attention. Having selected the subjects, he would identify experts and knowledgeable people and seek their support in preparing positions and arguments for correcting the situation. His next step would be to approach important policy persons in key developing countries: high officials, ministers and sometime even heads of governments. In these discussions he would be forthright and practical and not ideological or theoretical. For example, he would specially dilate upon how these issues were affecting that particular country and why it was necessary for them to get involved in efforts to bring about changes and amendments.

His next exercise would be with the international trade diplomats of the developing countries in Geneva on matters of trade, with the finance negotiators of these countries in international financial institutions and with the environment negotiators handling environment and climate change, and so on.

In all this process, his transparent sincerity and complete selflessness helped in generating confidence in the minds of the people he was interacting with.

He encouraged the developing country-negotiators to establish core groups among themselves for intensive negotiations and to form coalitions. He would back them up with the support of research papers, arguments and counter-arguments. He made strenuous efforts to organise repeated interface of the negotiators and policy officials with experts in these respective fields. With such back up support they felt encouraged and strengthened.

In all the stages of such intense exercise he would enlist the support of the civil society groups of the developing countries and often even of the developed countries. He would organise workshops, seminars and even informal discussions involving the civil society organisations and the developing country-negotiators and policy officials.

And while Martin was engaged in all this intense work he had absolutely no concern for his personal comfort or even his health. He never cared for recognition or reward; he was always ready to give credit to others. Positive results in favour of the developing countries, whenever they emerged, were his rewards. It is difficult for anybody to replace Martin and there will be a big void. Perhaps a group of persons with deep common commitment and complementary attributes could come together and take Martin’s mission forward. That will be a befitting tribute to Martin and his legacy.

(Bhagirath Lal Das is former Representative of India to the GATT, Secretary to the Government of India, and then headed UNCTAD’s Division on Trade.)