The New Rulers of the World, a documentary by John Pilger

Link to the film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfrL2DUtmXY 

Summary

The New Rulers of the World is a documentary film about investigating the realities of globalization by taking a close look at Indonesia. It was written and presented by John Pilger and it was directed by Alan Lowery. It released on 18 July 2001 and won Special Award, Gran Prix Leonardo and Silver Hugo, Chicago International Television Competition in 2003.

John Pilger started the film by raising questions of social movement against the new economic order called ‘globalization’ and the economic inequality between the rich and poor, and highlighting how powerful of giant corporations which dominate the world’s economic activity. To portray the realities of the globalization, he investigated Indonesia where the high-street brands such as Nike, Adidas, Gap and Reebok were massively produced by cheap labor in sweatshops and sold for up to 250 times that amount received by workers. He filmed secretly in one of the biggest sweatshops revealing bad working conditions. He also tracked back the previously untold story of how globalization in Asia bad begun in Indonesia and how Western politicians and businessmen sponsored the dictator General Suharto into power in 1967. Indonesia’s economy was redesigned in America and it gave the West access to vast mineral wealth, markets and cheap labor. Pilger said, “The greatest sweatshops and banks and luxury hotels in Indonesia were built on the mass murder of as many as one million people, and episode the West would prefer to forget”. The film suggested the great multinational Corporations and the financial institutions were the new rulers of the world in the globalization and they were backed by the governments of rich countries and institutions such as the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. The film also included the popular movements against the globalization.

Commentary

In the film, John Pilger raised the question of whether the global village was our future or the new form of an empire which was run by the divine right of multinational corporations, the financial institutions, and the governments of rich countries. This question reminders me of “imperial globality”, the term that Arturo Escobar used to argue that the process of globalization is the process of American imperialism. In the film, Pramoedaya Ananta Toer, author and former political prisoner, said “for hundreds of years Indonesia was sucked dry by the rich countries of the West. It was not just Indonesia, but all the countries of the colored peoples. In this way, the West became strong and prosperous controlling finance and commerce. Now, we are dictated to by the IMF and The World Bank.” Literally, the countries controlling the IMF and The World Bank are dictating Indonesia. The United States of America has the most voting power in both IMF and the World Bank. It seems that the US is trying to control developing countries through the international financial institutions.

The Asia global economy was imposed by the West. The US helped General Suharto in seizure of power in the 1960s was part of a western design to impose a ‘global economy’ on Asia. A million Indonesians died as the price for being the World Bank’s ‘model pupil’. These killing incidents were reported as not crime against humanity, but in term of their economic advantages to the West. The seed of globalization in Asia was planted in a conference called Indonesian Investment Conference in Switzerland in 1967. Many American giant companies attended and planned the corporate takeover of Indonesia. They invested mainly in mineral mining and oil. This showed the true nature of the West interfering in one country’s affairs for its economic interests. The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq also illustrated similar intention. Loss of lives in other countries do not matter at all.

Globalization is used by its supporters to suggest a coming together of people of all races, all countries. It will relieve poverty. It will distribute wealth. The IMF suggests that the people of developing countries are the one who needs the globalization the most to get opportunities that come with being part of the world economy. In the film, however, Pilger presented the stories of the other sides of the globalization very well. He filmed and interviewed sweatshop workers revealing how workers were ill-treated and the code of conduct set by companies were not fully enforced. He also interviewed the poor who affected by the Indonesia government’s policies in reducing the government spending on subsidize for food and health in order to save up money for repaying its debt to the IMF and the World Bank. “Everyday more than one hundred million dollars is transferred into debt repayments from the poorest countries on earth to the richest. It is the debt that can never be paid back”, Pilger said. IMF claimed that the value of trade (goods and services) of world GDP increased from 42.01 percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007 and the stock of international claims (primarily bank loans) of world GDP increased from 10 percent in 1980 to 48 percent in 2006. Do these indicators mean lesser poor in the world? Who have got the most share of the World’s GDP? Pilger highlighted that about 200 multinational corporations dominated a quarter of world’s economic activities. I doubt that the globalized economy will relieve and distribute equal wealth. Ironically, it produces massive displacement and ecological destruction which cause a deeper misery to the poor who are already vulnerable. In fact, in the globalized economy the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Chan Oung

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