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Multilateral assistance and aid addiction

By Henry Leong - posted Thursday, 1 June 2006


The key to making intervention “affordable” is to get the rationale for intervention right from the start. The case of Australia’s involvement in Timor Leste could well be a good case study for limited and judicious intervention. The elements of Canberra’s prudent management of the crisis so far can be seen in the following aspects:

  • Canberra sent an optimal number of troops and supplies to stabilise the situation;
  • the Australian Defence Force is equipped for the task as it had previously been charged with the UN mandate in 2001;
  • local forces and Timorese stakeholders have requested Canberra’s assistance, rather than been forced to accept the presence of Australian troops;
  • there is a tacit admission by Dili that the current crisis is a problem of its own making; and
  • most crucially, the fault lines in Timor Leste are far less complicated than compared to Iraq, Afghanistan or the Balkans.

However, there is always the possibility of crisis escalation, or worse still a stalemate, if the current crisis is not properly managed. In the case of Timor Leste, the jury is still out on how successful Canberra’s effort will be, but suffice to say, it will not be smooth sailing or problem free.

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In addition, the irony of helping a weak state is often the malaise of selective amnesia, where people may choose to highlight persistent problems as yet unsolved, rather than “count their blessings” as to how much has been done to reduce more bloodshed and violence.

Overcoming “aid addiction”

Even with the best of intentions and efforts, weak states might end up becoming more aid-dependent than before. The aims of intervention and peace building are ostensibly to transform weak states into functioning ones - instead of rendering them semi-colonial or as political entities hooked on “government through foreign welfare and external handouts”.

Africa is a telling example of how much aid has done to some countries. Aid is not neutral: the political motivation of donor countries comes into play. Africa is synonymous with aid dependency and aid addiction. Although the war that killed 70,000 people between 1998 and 2000 has stopped, conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea has not ended. If the UN Security Council reduced its 3,000-man peacekeeping force on the border fighting would most likely resume.

Africa seems to be in need of external parties to ensure peace and stability for its peoples and nations.

There is a definitive commencement of support and multilateral intervention for weak states, but the end stage of total withdrawal is perhaps more elusive.

In many situations, the parties who intervened, either by request or by pre-emption, find themselves perpetually obliged to keep intervening. A vicious cycle ensues and hardens where the legacy of corrupt governance, a gun culture and aid injection to unaccountable political leaders assumes a dynamic of its own.

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The challenge for agencies in Timor Leste is not to create another Africa but to enable it to stand on its own “feet” sooner rather than later. Experience has shown that donors are experiencing aid fatigue and are weary of funding state-building efforts if results are not forthcoming. However, the choice between not helping at all and helping half-heartedly is a tough call to make. State building is, after all, a long-term process wrought with many contradictory forces. The results are measured not in terms of days or months but in generations and decades.

Helping weak states to help themselves is a noble cause - provided they are able to cease asking for help in the foreseeable future. In an era characterised by a persistent problem of weak states, it is often not more blessed to help than to be helped. For those who help the helpless can be saddled with the repeat obligation to help further.

So long as weak states cannot and will not assume control of its own political and economic destiny, these countries will continue to be prominent feature in the 21st century security outlook.

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About the Author

Henry Leong is a graduate student in international relations at the Australian National University. His research interest is in Asian Security, particularly, in alliances and multilateralism. He trained as an archivist in Singapore.

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