IMF + World Bank = Economic Vampire !!!

aku bangga ternyata ada juga anggota DPR yang masih aktif di gerakan internasional untuk menyuarakan perlawanan Indonesia terhadap hegemoni si Vampir Ekonomi yaitu IMF dan Bank Dunia. Aku dukung perjuangan bapak.

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IMF in Astonishing Attack on Democracy Parliamentarians Removed from G24 Ministers Meeting

In an extraordinary demonstration of how the IMF habitually bullies poor countries, and of its opposition to democratic scrutiny of its own activities, senior IMF staff threw two Members of Parliament (MPs) out of the meeting of the Group of 24 Developing Country Ministers on the 23 September 2005.

Dr. Dradjad Wibowo MP from Indonesia and Hon. Mohammed Jagri MP from Ghana had been invited to attend the meeting by the G24 Secretariat to present a petition calling for democratic oversight of World Bank and IMF policies, and to question World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz and IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato. The International Parliamentarians Petition (IPP) has been signed by over 1100 MPs from 55 parliaments.

The MPs, who were sitting next to the Saudi Foreign Minister at the time, were removed on the orders of the IMF's parliamentary liaison officer Patrick
Cricillo, and Mr. Parmeshwa Ramlogan, an advisor to Mr. Rato. The IMF tried to justify their actions on the grounds that they believed the MPs did not have
permission to attend the meetings, but they did not even check with the G24 Chair, Mr. Paul Toungui first. When his staff informed him about what had happened,
Mr. Toungui rightly ensured the MPs were allowed back in, but it was too late for them to deliver their petition or raise the issue with Rato and Wolfowitz. It has also since emerged that the IMF had been putting pressure on the G24 not to allow the MPs in to start with.

The IMF's media line is that they thought the MPs were civil society people with no right to be at the meeting. This is a bare-faced lie. Mr. Cricillo and Mr. Ramlogan were repeatedly informed of the status of the MPs before, during and after their removal by both the MPs and those there as aides. Furthermore, Mr. Wibowo had an official Delegates badge, and Mr. Jagri a Visitors pass both clearly displayed.

Before they were removed Martin Powell, of the World Development Movement said to Mr. Ramlogan, "Do you really think two MPs would travel half way round the
world on the off chance they could walk into a G24 Ministers meeting? Of course they have permission to be there. Have you checked with the Chair?"

Hon. Mohammed Jagri MP (Ghana) said, "It should beggar belief for the IMF to throw MPs out of a poor country ministers meeting to stop them presenting a petition
calling for democratic accountability of the IMF itself. In fact this is just one more demonstration of how the IMF actively undermines democracy in poor
countries, by riding roughshod over governments, parliaments and the people they represent. How can the IMF preach transparency and accountability to poor
countries when they behave like this?"

Would the IMF have removed a US Senator and the Chair of the UK Treasury Select Committee in this way? No. This is therefore clear discrimination too. In any
case, who are the IMF to dictate to the G24 who they can and can't have at their meetings?

Despite promising to let poor countries determine their own paths to development, the World Bank and IMF continue to impose economic conditions like
privatisation and trade liberalisation in exchange for debt relief, loans, and aid. In so doing they often over-ride national parliaments, undermine democracy
and increase poverty. The Petition was originally presented to Bank and Fund staff at the Spring meetings when MPs were told they should take their concerns to shareholders. Clearly the IMF had no intention of letting that actually happen.
This action shows once again that all the IMF's talk of country ownership and participation in decision-making processes is nothing more than empty rhetoric. For senior IMF staff to treat elected representatives of citizens of poor countries with
such contempt exposes an astonishing disrespect for the sovereignty of national parliaments. To now pretend they didn't know they were MPs is an insult to
our intelligence.

Martin Powell,
World Development Movement.
Martin@wdm.org.uk www.wdm.org.uk

Notes
1. The Petition is supported by a range of parliamentary and civil society groups including the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB), UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Debt, Aid and Trade, Action Aid, Christian Aid, Afrodad, Development Gap, Third World Network. See www.ippinfo.org for more information on the petition and signatories.

2. International Parliamentarians' Petition for Democratic Oversight of IMF and World Bank Policies

We the undersigned Parliamentarians;

Noting this is the 60th anniversary year of the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank - the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs).

Recognising that the IMF and World Bank have voiced a commitment to ensuring individual countries determine their own economic policies.

Noting that key economic policies continue to be imposed by both the World Bank and IMF as conditions for receiving debt relief and new loans, with the Boards of the BWIs retaining the power of veto over all measures including those in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.

We therefore call on the BWIs and their principal shareholders to ensure that the democratically elected representatives of recipient nations are the final arbiters of all economic policies in their countries. It is vital that national parliaments in recipient nations have the right and obligation to be fully involved in the development and scrutiny of all measures associated with BWI activities within their borders, and hold the final power of ratification.

Ensuring the primacy of sovereign national parliaments in this way will improve implementation of measures to reduce poverty, enhance good governance, and foster democracy.