SPECIAL REPORT

Former Fiji PM Mahendra Choudhary was a popular speaker

many could not attend due to work commitments Much of the lndian d iaspora works in an employed category, and for most to take two out of their allocated 20 annual leave days to attend a conference, or take unpaid l eave, is difficult. The weekday choice is more conducive co a business program where attendance suits the bLtsi ness community

The heavy focus on business programs was robustly criticised by most o f those attending.

Sources within the organising committee p ointed c:be finger at Canberra's micro management of tl1e whole affair. W ith just a couple of individuals who had the ear of tlie High Commissioner Bi ren Nanda, tl1ere definitely was a strong bias cowards business, w ith less emphasis orr issues which concern and connect tlie lo cal diaspora with Lidia and within the reg ion. Business sessions of opportunities in services, lmsirress opporttm.iries in resources, business o pportunities in primary commodities, business opporcun.iries in infrastructure etc. would have all been well appreciated in an Tndo- Australian business forum , not i.n w h at was an essenrially a forum for the diaspora co connect.

Saba Zaidi Abidi, the founder of Vision Asia network se rvices was outspoken in her views.

" The Australia India Business Council was heav ily involved irr tlie planning and execmion of tlie PBD event a.l o ng with tlie Indian High Commiss.ion and dominated most of tlie sess ions," s he wrote in a Jeerer to Indian Llnk. ' This ma kes one wonder as to wbatwas tl1e objective o f this whole exercise? If the pmpose of the PBD was t o promote B2B relationships between governments, then yes, it did achieve that objectively to some extent. But if i t was abouc people coming together co ce lebrate tlieir common heritage, share e.'-periences and bring to focus tlieir currenr proble ms and iss ues, and highlight the needs of tlie pravasi community at large, it fell short of delivering that There was hardly an y P2P or people- topeop le contact".

Some break-out sessions saw no more than 20 -30 people attending. On o ne occasion, an organising co m mittee member was seen i mploring attendees to return to the auditorium , even as tl1ey stood o utside lamenring the lack of relev ance. l\.fost sessions ran !are - even tl1e cultural performances. Well- known sa11/001·anist Shiv Kumar Sharma could not help commenting chat Indian Standa rd Time seemed ro ha ve cros sed international boundaries, as he pariemly waited to start hi s show as part of the opening day e n tertainmem. Members of the eve nt manage ment company tliat helped put tlie conference together we re heard muttering in frustration as tlie organisers rook rime to get the event underway.

A note to organisers

It was clear to all d10se who attended that while it was an excellent op portunity to network, PBD Sydney could perhaps have been better th ough t thro ngh. A pres s release by tl1e orga nisers sent om upon the c o nclu sion o f the conference des cribed it as "a very successful firs t-ever Regional Pravasi Bhataciya Divas held in Sydney". The y can continue to l.ive with tl1e delusion tha t it was "very s uccessful," or cons id er some of the following as suggestio ns ff the y are not alread y doing su ch analys es, the communi ty out there definitely is, and these suggestions are compiled from tliem.

The costing should have been recon side red. Daily pricing or separate pric ing for attending relevant forums would probab ly have brought in more attendance. A more SLLitable -vetme co uld have kept the prices down. Would a weekend PBD have been better?

A solid publicity plan should have been put in place, much in ad vance, to ensure the message of the PBD got through clearly to the community al .large. A m o re transparent way of working and organising tl1e conference ought to have been adopted, rather than isola ted decisio ns taken on tl1e advice of a few who are l argely not co nnected with the local community. Other mi.nor plans to create goodwill in tlie c ommunity could have been i mp lemented, such as free entry to attend the cul tural performances (ra ther tlian have the mae stros perfo rm to empty halls).

The implications of Sydney PBD

Th e message chat the Indian government will probabl y get om of the Sydney PBD, is that the Indian commttni ry in A ustralia (and the region) is too s mall, and/ or too uninterested, for tl1 em co bod1er with.

Deplor abl y, this is far from the truth The Ind ian communi ty i s strong and fuJly capabl e o f making a difference, as mainstream politician s in Australia have already found o ut. Their strengtl1, and this is not just in th eir numbers, but also in terms of tlieir in fluence, i s set to g row tn the very near fumre. The Indian governm ent has bee n slow in engaging witli Australia, and a strong Sydn ey PBD would have indicated to them that the diaspora here could be relied upo n to h e lp them cake the relationship furtlier. Reg rettab l)~ this op p o rtunity was missed

On the other hand, the message tl1ar t he Australian government will get our of the event, is that the organisi ng committee could not engage the Ind ian community h ere. Both sides of tlie political divide are constantl y on tl1e lookout for s trong Indian figures that t hey can count on to reach tl1e community, a vi.able vote1)a11.k. Perhaps the organisers were not those tliat the loca l diaspora .look to as die true l eade rs o f the community?

And finally, the message that the T.ndian community is going ro take away from tl1e Sydney PBD is this: the powers - that- be within tl1e Indian gover nment representatives here, as we.LI as tl1ose with in tl1e community, need to be bener in -couch with t he community they serve, o r hope to represent.