[governance] Letter to Rod Beckstrom

Fri Sep 18 15:42:02 EDT 2009

Parminder and all,

  Well said and I and most INEGroup members agree with same in principal.
One proviso is that niether should NGO's or non-profit orgs become the
defacto governers of the Internet either, but should be as individuals,
members of equal standing in participation and determination of Internet
Governance.  

-----Original Message-----
>From: Parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
>Sent: Sep 18, 2009 4:00 AM
>To: governance at lists.cpsr.org, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu>
>Cc: Avri Doria <avri at psg.com>
>Subject: Re: [governance] Letter to Rod Beckstrom
>
>
>
>Milton L Mueller wrote:
>> Agreed, Parminder. And this system of supervision is an affront to all liberal and democratic norms of governance, not just to the South. It is, however, de-nationalization we need, not "inter"nationalization
>>   
>Milton
>
>You know I do agree that Internet, and the consequent information 
>society paradigm, creates the condition of a new global public, which is 
>not simply a sum of national ones. This both requires and creates the 
>conditions/ possibilities for a new global polity. And Internet 
>Governance needs to be located in this new public. This far we agree.
>
>But since real world requires real world solutions, we need to 
>understand and perhaps agree to the kind of path we should and will take 
>to this new 'global public' based 'global polity' ...
>
>One path, which is increasingly dominant and with which I have violent 
>disagreement, is based on basically giving in to the leadership of 
>global corporates, which is what is happening with most of the private 
>governance systems, including ICANN. We all know they are subtle about 
>it and careful in the steps taken, but basically thats the direction on 
>how our global common decisions will be taken if we keep going with the 
>present dominant trend. I will not argue any further the theoretical 
>basis of such a fear, but i can if needed. For us, this very 
>well-founded fear underlies one of the principal global struggles at 
>present.
>
>The other possibility is to move towards this new 'global polity' taking 
>on from existing relatively democratic institutions - however faulty in 
>practice, but much more sound in theory and principles than private 
>regimes. One can improve bad practice when the theory is good, but with 
>bad theory and principles you are headed only one way.
>
>It is not an easy challenge, but it is relatively easier to agree to the 
>basic principles that should guide us. And perhaps the most basic 
>principles is to understand and accept the difference between private 
>and public interests - very clearly, and assert it repeatedly. Such a 
>distinction is basic to the democratic fibre of a society. The amount of 
>confusion on this issue in most emergent governance systems is so huge 
>that one cannot even start speaking about them.
>
>A second principle of a viable global polity, and here our differences 
>come to the fore, is that you cannot try to build it on free-market 
>economic logic alone. Dimensions of social justice and equity, and the 
>corresponding redistributional efforts, have to go hand-in-hand with 
>economic globalisation. Some such basic principles of social equity 
>along with institutions of property and free market are basic to any 
>polity (do you know of an exception?) and it will need also to be of a 
>'global polity'. it is in this landscape or background that a just and 
>fair IG system will be built. We are far from there, no doubt, but it is 
>easier to see if we are headed to the right direction, or the opposite 
>one. Such an assessment can guide our immediate steps.
>
>Having said all this, I happy with the term de-nationalisation to the 
>extent it truely connotes a new global public and global polity, and is 
>not a means for corporates to highjack control of our global society, or 
>for already dominant countries to rule with a new and enhanced legitimacy.
>
>Parminder
>> ________________________________________
>>
>> Maybe. But on another important count, we, as the South based civil
>> society groups, loathe to work through a system where the interests and
>> rights of one country are highly privileged over others (the
>> sub-committee keeps speaking of US citizens, and expectedly so). We are
>> not willing to be the 'rest of them' as we figure in this system... It
>> is therefore of great and urgent importance that internationalization of
>> supervision of ICANN is seen as *the* non-negotiable and urgent step in
>> the IG arena. The reluctance and double-speak of many in what is seen as
>> the global civil society in this arena is most disturbing to me, and as
>> I am prone to say, completely unacceptable.
>>
>> parminder
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>>   
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Regards,

Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 294k members/stakeholders strong!)
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