Dakshinayana

Dakshinayana S Guhan The Challenge to the South. The Report of the South Commission; Oxford University Press, 1990; pp 325.
THE South Commission headed by Julius Nyerere belongs to the lineage of global blue- ribbon commissions which began with the Brandt Commission (on international development issues) in the late 1970s and has continued with the Palme (disarmament) and Brundtland (environment) Commissions. The pattern, by now, has come to be well set. The conception of these bodies is almost immaculate in the sense that they are not sponsored but only 'suggested' or 'announced' by a multilateral group (in the case of the South Commission, the non- aligned movement acting on the initiative of Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad). A very distinguished world figure is chosen as chairman; he puts together a representative group of Eminents who function in a personal capacity; a small and competent secretariat is assembled (headed by Manmohan Singh in this case); funds arc mobilised from a variety of national and multilateral sources so as to preserve 'independence'; views are forged on the basis of internal and external discussions, existing and special studies, and much interaction. The final report is addressed to the 'world at large'