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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Friday 13 May 2016 09:30 PM,
Mueller, Milton L wrote:<br>
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<pre wrap="">Parminder:
I am curious about your response to this initiative. I know that in your world, anything that a business does is bad, </pre>
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Milton:<br>
<br>
This is not a fact, and unlike many others (and as I'd show later
in this email, also you Milton :) ) I let my views be clearly known
on any subject that I am queried about - I consider that as my duty
as a public interest actor in a public space. So about business, my
view is that economic enterprise is to be largely a private (sector)
affair. Not only that, I believe that such is the current complexity
of our societies, a very good part of such private enterprise would
need to be organised in and as large corporates. But like even the
father of free market ideology Adam Smith called them the 'masters
of the earth', business needs to be kept under careful regulatory
watch, bigger a business is, more watch is needed. That is an
important political function. <br>
<br>
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<pre wrap="">but please tell me this:
Many people have complained about the WTO and other government-government trade negotiations because they are closed to other stakeholders and not transparent. </pre>
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<br>
Now, let me also tell my views on transparency and public engagement
with regard to policy making... During the period of last government
in India, I/ IT for Change was actively involved in pushing a
legislation for compulsory and structured pre-legislative
consultations before any law is made in India... The proposal was
that before any law is passed, drafts had to be made public, public
inputs taken, responses made to key inputs, second draft published
and so on. And it had to be a legal requirement..... In fact, this
advocacy had reached an advanced stage, and a law looked possible at
that stage... In any case, this should be enough to make clear what
I/ my organisation thinks about transparency and stakeholder in law
making... We have a similar stance for global law making..... <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, your representation of what is seen as problematic with
WTO, and if I may add, other global treaties, is partial.... Most
civil society is not just concerned that these are closed to other
'stakeholders' - it is specifically concerned that it is heavily
influenced by big business which seems to have special access to key
negotiators pushing 'certain agendas' while civil society is kept
out... This key distinction - which you merrily ignore - becomes
especially important when the issue under discussion is about a new
proposed 'business led policy process'. <br>
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<pre wrap="">It appears that Ma is proposing a departure from that. The WeTP would have business, "governments and NGOs and other organisations participating.”</pre>
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<br>
Since you are following up on my article and references, I must take
it to be deliberate that you excluded from above description of eWTP
the clear call by Jack Ma for *business leading the process*, and
all others participating.. I dont agree with business 'leading'
public policy processes, and all the democracy groups and movements
that I know, including in your country, the US, would instinctively
pull away from and thoroughly oppose any such suggestion. <br>
<br>
But since Jack Ma clearly asked for a business led public policy
making process, here is your opportunity to tell us, what do you
think of a 'business led public policy process' . I am sure the
language here is clear to you. And, what specifically do you see as
the role of business in "public policy" "decision making" . (I
suspect that you wont answer this bec we have been here many times
before, and say things like, it is never clear what is technical and
what policy, or what is decision making and what is contributing to
decisions, and so on, but not answer clearly, but I'd let you
surprise me, Milton :)) <br>
<br>
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<pre wrap="">Of course, one would have to know more about the terms and conditions of "participation" but I see a potential for movement forward rather than backwards. Please tell us why this is worse than the status quo? </pre>
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<br>
Status quo needs improvement in the form of more public
participation. As shown above, I am very keen to ensure that, and am
part of advocacies to than end... However we do not need greater
business influence on public policy processes *than there already
is* - much less for business to lead the process as expressly
proposed by Jack MA.... If he just wanted to make global policy
processes more open and transparent, he could well have said just
that .<br>
<br>
BTW, Milton, I am sure you must have been paying attention to your
own country's presidential election campaign - you can clearly see
what is the overwhelming public sentiment in the regard of big
business influence on your country's politics - that is if the
dominant public sentiment matters to you in making up your view
about what kind of public policy processes are appropriate.<br>
<br>
If you and others hear 'more transparency and participation' when
someone calls for 'business led policy making', Milton, I must tell
you that there is a serious ideological issue here - and you are
certainly quite off from the stance of overwhelming global civil
society opinion.... It is only in the IG space that some of you have
been able to create this pro-business neoliberal thinking
environment, which is what, as you have seen, people like me keep
resisting...<br>
<br>
*Meanwhile, pl do not forget to tell me clearly what you think is
the role of different social actors, especially business, in public
policy making...* And please try to be as clear as possible (though
I can bet money that you are unlikely to do any such thing :) ).<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
<br>
PS: Let me quote what was supposed to be the second para in the
article on Jack Ma's announcement that I wrote, but I removed in the
last edit to shorten the piece...<br>
<br>
"Social roles have
historically been divided between public and private sectors, with
some in-between zones that have been the subject of much political
contest. But at the two ends, it has for some time been generally
accepted that the policies, laws and rules of society's working are
public functions whereas economic enterprise should largely be
private. Neoliberalism is defined as bringing market paradigms to
bear on areas that are traditionally in the realm of the
social/public sector – from dismantling or weakening industry
regulation (in favour of 'self-regulation') to privatising public
services like education, health, and livelihood support. In the new
era of digital corporations taking over complete social and business
sectors ranging from organsing society's knowledge, social
networking, and instant media, to travel, hotels, transportation,
health, education and agriculture, we are witness to an entirely new
levels of neoliberal onslaught as these corporations now begin to
write the very rules that govern each of these sectors. "
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<pre wrap="">
Dr. Milton L. Mueller
Professor, School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">-----Original Message-----
From: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org">governance-request@lists.igcaucus.org</a> [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:governance">mailto:governance</a>-
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:request@lists.igcaucus.org">request@lists.igcaucus.org</a>] On Behalf Of parminder
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2016 3:35 AM
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:governance@lists.igcaucus.org">governance@lists.igcaucus.org</a>; BestBitsList <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:bestbits@lists.bestbits.net"><bestbits@lists.bestbits.net></a>
Subject: [governance] Now business wants to lead policy making
A recent announcement by Alibaba's founder Jack Ma exposes what the real
intent, and the problem, with business led multistakeholderism is, something
a lot of people/ groups have perhaps innocently got into supporting.... He
proposes a new business led initiative to frame global e-commerce rules,
which would rival the WTO, which can keep making them for offline trade.
And he is entirely serious, with Alibaba already working with a number of
groups and intending to present the proposal to G 20 later this year.. To me it
is a political shocker, but that is where much of multistakholderism ideology
is headed.
I wrote an op-ed on this issue in yesterday's The Hindu, which is at
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/a-borderless-economy-that-will">http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/a-borderless-economy-that-will</a>-
be-controlled/article8581476.ece
We must re-assess what does unhinging of the role of legitimate political
actors in key public policy areas means. It just transfers power to a few global
corporates to runs our societies as a corporatocracy. Many of our discussions
here on mulitistakeholderism as a sovereign political form need to be seen in
this context.
parminder
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