EDITORIAL 10.03.10

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Editorial

month march 10, edition 000451, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

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THE PIONEER

1. ONE HURDLE CROSSED
2. HOPE IN BURMA
3. DESTINED TO DISAPPEAR - SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY
4. GREED RESPONSIBLE FOR BABRI MESS - SHOIB HASAN
5. AN EVOLVING THREAT
6. HEADLEY CHASE, LASHKAR CONSPIRACY

 MAIL TODAY

1. CONG FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT ON QUOTA BILL
2. ARE YOU SERIOUS?
3. SEEKING SAUDI HELP ONPAK TIES WAS STUPID
4. PATIALA PEG -VIKAS KAHOL

THE TIMES OF INDIA

1. A MILESTONE MOMENT
2. IN POOR SHAPE
3. BUSTING URBAN LEGENDS - DIPANKAR GUPTA
4. 'FOR TRIBALS, DEVELOPMENT MEANS EXPLOITATION' - JYOTI PUNWANI

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. NOW TO MAKE THE BILL WORK
2. CITY OF BLIGHTS
3. LADIES COMPARTMENT - SAGARIKA GHOSE
4. NO MORE AMAN KACHROOS - SHIVAM VIJ
5. ON LADIES, NOT GENTS - ADVAITA KALA
6. PUNCTURE YOUR EGO - RAJAN SURI

INDIAN EXPRESS

1. IMPROVE-IDENT
2. JUDGMENT RESERVED
3. LET'S JUNK THE HYPOCRISY - JAITHIRTH RAO
4. THE WHIP HAND - C.V. MADHUKAR
5. UNSETTLING POLITICS - MADHU PURNIMA KISHWAR
6. VIEW FROM THE LEFT - MANOJ C G
7. TIBET ANNIVERSARIES - C. RAJA MOHAN
8. THE STORYTELLING OF WAR

 FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. RESERVED
   STATE OF BANKS
2. EMPOWER, BUT BEYOND JUST THE BILL
3. BIBEK DEBROY
4. BUDGETING FOR SIMPLER TAX CODES - SANJAY BANERJI
5. SEED OF THE PROBLEM - SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

THE HINDU

1. A HISTORIC VOTE
2. SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE
3. VISION 2010: A DANGEROUS MYOPIA - AMIYA KUMAR BAGCHI
4. LIVESTOCK REARING — KEY TO POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES - GAVIN WALL
5. OUR WHOLE COUNTRY LOSES IF WOMEN AND GIRLS ARE UNABLE TO FULFIL THEIR POTENTIAL  - ELA BHATT
6. SHOWER OF AID BRINGS PROGRESS TO KENYAN VILLAGE - JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
7. OSCAR: IS KATHRYN BIGELOW'S VICTORY A WIN FOR WOMEN? - PETER BRADSHAW

DNA

1. TAPPING THORIUM
2. DEFEND LIBERTY
3. MAOIST WITCH HUNT - YOGI AGGARWAL
4. EU MUST DECIDE ITS STRATEGIC PRIORITIES - ROGER COHEN

THE TRIBUNE

1. RS'S DATE WITH HISTORY
2. KILLINGS BY TALIBAN
3. INFANT MORTALITY
4. ANOMALIES IN AGRICULTURE - BY JAYSHREE SENGUPTA
5. IDENTITY CRISIS - BY UTTAM SENGUPTA
6. WATER POLLUTION IN PUNJAB - BY BIKRAM SINGH VIRK
7. RUNNING OUT OF FRIENDS - BY YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN
8. IMMIGRANTS HAVE CHANGED DUTCH SOCIETY - BY PETER MAIR

MUMBAI MERROR

1. CAN CITIES BE MANUFACTURED?
2. THINK IT THROUGH

BUSINESS STANDARD

1. MFIS MUST REMEMBER BASICS
2. DANGERS OF HUBRIS
3. IS THE STABILITY COUNCIL A GOOD IDEA? - INDIRA RAJARAMAN
4. SLUMBERING MANDARINS - M J ANTONY
5. NO END TO THIS CIRCUS - A K BHATTACHARYA
6. PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR FUTURE MIGRANTS - SANJEEV SANYAL

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. CULINARY MANIFESTO
2. DIVEST TO RETAIL ALONE
3. A DEFICIT OF AUTONOMY
4. MORE SATYAMS IN A NEW TELENGANA?
5. SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR
6. NURTURE QUALITIES TO FLOURISH & FLOWER - VITHAL C NADKARNI
7. THE UNION MUST PLAY ITS REDISTRIBUTIVE ROLE
8. WE WILL CUT DRUG PRICES BY REDUCING PRODUCTION COSTS: GLAXOSMITHKLINE - KHOMBA SINGH & ARUN KUMA
9. OUR DNA IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS, SAYS ANIRBAN DAS - RATNA BHUSHAN

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. HISTORY IS MADE, MAY HAVE FALLOUT
2. PUT STATES IN ORDER - BY P.C. ALEXANDER
3. ECONOMIC INSECURITY IS TROUBLING OBAMA - BY BOB HERBERT
4. INTERPRETING THE COLOUR GREEN - BY VANDANA SHIVA
5. FEEL FREE, MR HUSAIN - BY CHO S. RAMASWAMY
6. IGNITE THE HUNGER FOR KNOWLEDGE - BY SADHGURU

THE STATESMAN

1. PARTY AND REBEL
2. WELCOME CHANGE
3. TIGER COUNTDOWN
4. SUGAR AND ITS PRICING - BY  ALOK KUMAR GIRI
5. MONARCHY AS IT STILL EXISTS
6. LIVING PROOF OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE - ROBERT FISK

THE TELEGRAPH

1. BILL FOR CHANGE?
2. STEP BY STEP
3. AN OPEN LETTER TO M.F. HUSAIN - SHAZI ZAMAN
4. AURA OF A RADICAL - ANDRÉ BÉTEILLE

DECCAN HERALD

1. A GIANT STEP
2. EURO TROUBLE
3. IN DIRE STRAITS - BY NILOTPAL BASU
4. ACCORD PRIORITY TO CHECK PRICE RISE OF FOOD ITEMS - BY ELUMALAI KANNAN
5. INSTINCTIVE LESSON - BY KAMALA BALACHANDRAN
6. THE HOLY DIP - BY KHUSHWANT SINGH
7. SUPPING WITH THE DEVIL - BY KULDIP NAYAR
8. PROMISE-DELIVERY GAP - BYLINE M J AKBAR

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. THE SPANISH DISEASE
2. YALLA PEACE: 'APARTHEID WEEK' OR 'WEAKNESS'? - BY RAY HANANIA
3. JUST WHOSE COUNTRY IS THIS? - BY DAVID BREAKSTONE
4. IN MY OWN WRITE: CHANGE IN THE WEATHER - BY JUDY MONTAGU
5. WHEN COURT JEWS DEFEND MORAL COWARDS - BY SHMULEY BOTEACH
6. THE NEW AMERICAN JEW ON ISRAEL - BY JESSE SINGAL
7. WE ALL LIVE IN SHIMON HATZADDIK - BY DANNY HERSHTAL
8. IRAN INCENSED OVER MABHOUH HIT - BY AZAR AZADI

HAARETZ

1. TIME'S A-WASTING
2. JEWISH OR ISRAELI? - BY ALUF BENN
3. PROXIMITY FUSE - BY AMIR OREN
4. HAREDI SERVICE NOW  - BY SHAHAR ILAN
5. THEY SHOULD BE THANKFUL  - BY KARNI ELDAD

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. SAVING THE POST OFFICE
2. LAWS, LIES AND THE ABORTION DEBATE
3. AN ADVOCATE FOR EQUAL JUSTICE
4. MEET THE CANDIDATE: A CONVICTED ABUSER
5. IT'S UP TO IRAQIS NOW. GOOD LUCK. - BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
6. PILGRIM NON GRATA IN MECCA - BY MAUREEN DOWD
7. THE GREAT PROSTATE MISTAKE - BY RICHARD J. ABLIN
8. A ONE-TRACK SENATE - BY BARRY FRIEDMAN AND ANDREW D. MARTIN

I.THE NEWS

1. A GOOD MOVE
2. FIRE TRAGEDY
3. POLITICAL HYPHENS
4. NUCLEAR 'STATUS' AND SECURITY - SHAMSHAD AHMAD
5. PATRIOTS - ZAFAR HILALY
6. THE CURSED ONES - DR A Q KHAN
7. THE RADIO TALK - MIR JAMILUR RAHMAN
8. YOU'RE NO AMERICAN PREZ, MR PM! - ANJUM NIAZ
9. CULTURE OF VIOLENCE - RAOOF HASAN

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. STRATEGIC DEPTH: PETRAEUS TOO SEES LOGIC
2. ATTACKS BY FLEEING TERRORISTS
3. PROLIFERATION OF OMBUDSMEN
4. INDIAN TACTICS ARE UNCHANGED - M ASHRAF MIRZA
5. ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE IN AFGHAN WAR - AIR MARSHAL AYAZ A KHAN (R)
6. BISP: AN ETERNAL TRIBUTE TO WOMEN'S DAY - FARZANA RAJA
7. AN OPEN SECRET REVEALED BY RAW - ALI SUKHANVER
8. DOES FOREIGN POLICY NEED RELIGION? - GERARD RUSSELL

 THE INDEPENDENT

1. NOT SO ROSY
2. ANTI-WOMEN REFORM
3. THE CONSERVATIVE YADAVS..!
4. FAILURE TO EARN PUBLIC CONFIDENCE - ABDUL KHALEQUE
5. OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT - MD. ABU NASER
6. FALL OF AMERICA'S UNIVERSITIES - BILL COSTELLO

THE AUSTRALIAN

1. THE RIGHT FOCUS AT LAST
2. SHOCK, HORROR? NOT QUITE
3. AFTER THE POLL, IT'S TIME TO SALUTE DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. EYE TO EYE WITH YUDHOYONO
2. ABBOTT PLAYS BABY POLITICS
3. SOLDIERS IN AN ABSURD PREDICAMENT
4. WHEN SOME PARENTS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

THE GUARDIAN

1. THE EUROZONE: FRIGHT CLUB
2. IN PRAISE OF … DENIS AVEY
3. POLITICAL PARTIES: LOST TRIBES

THE KOREA HERALD

1. JOINT EXERCISE
2. ATTACKS IN RUSSIA
3. RISE OF THE MARKET-MIMICKING STATE - ANDREW SHENG
4. THE MIDDLE AGAINST BOTH EXTREMES - KIM SEONG-KON
5. THE ENEMY WITHIN: GREATER DANGER IN U.S.

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. A BLUEPRINT FOR CHINA
2. IMF FLUNKS GOOD GOVERNANCE - BY KEVIN RAFFERTY
3. AT LAST, A TURKISH MILITARY COUP THAT FAILED - BY IBRAHIM KALIN

THE JAKARTA POST

1. OUR CAPITAL-COST DISADVANTAGE
2. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. AND THE WOMEN? - JULIA SURYAKUSUMA
3. WHAT WE COULD EXPECT FROM OBAMA'S VISIT - YOHANES SULAIMAN
4. INDONESIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS AUSTRALIAN PM RUDD CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION - JOHN LEE
5. WOMEN RIGHTS: AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE? - VENILLA RAJAGURU-PUSHPANATHAN

CHINA DAILY

1. ELECTION CHANGE IS LIMITED
2. KEY ROLE OF FOREX POLICY
3. SET NEW LOCAL CRITERIONS
4. IS US' NUKE-FREE WORLD PLEDGE SINCERE? - BY HU YUMIN (CHINA DAILY)
5. COCKTAIL OF ASSETS MAY BE THE RIGHT CURE - BY HE ZHICHENG (CHINA DAILY)
6. CARBON INTENSITY A FAULTY GAUGE - BY YANG HONGLIANG (CHINA DAILY)
7. CHINA STRIVES TO BUILD SOCIETY WITH MORE FAIRNESS, JUSTICE - BY HAN BING, WU LIMING (XINHUA)

DAILY MIRROR

1. NEPAL TO BE A SECULAR STATE?
2. MOON AND NAMBIAR FAMILIES' ALLEGIANCE TO INDIA AND WAR CRIMES
3. UN INVESTIGATORS
4. REAWAKENING IN THE EASTERN REGION  - BY T.M.J.BANDARA

THE HIMALAYAN

1. CLARITY MISSING
2. WOMEN'S SIDE
3. NEPAL-US TRADE TIES NEED FOR REJUVENATION - SHANKER MAN SINGH
4. PIRATED OR ORIGINAL? - DWAIPAYAN REGMI 

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

ONE HURDLE CROSSED

WOMEN'S BILL GETS THROUGH RAJYA SABHA

It is extremely unfortunate that MPs affiliated to the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party, apart from a couple of others, created an unseemly ruckus in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday for the second consecutive day in their effort to block the Constitution amendment Bill seeking to reserve 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 of the 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies — or one-third of all legislative seats to which representatives are directly elected — for women. It is the inalienable right of any legislator, whether in Parliament or State Assemblies, to oppose legislation, irrespective of whether the reasons are justifiable. But crude behaviour and strong-arm efforts to intimidate the Chair, and thereby the House, as was witnessed in the Rajya Sabha over Monday and Tuesday, to register dissent are unacceptable. While it is unfortunate that a Constitution amendment Bill should have been debated and passed without the participation of naysayers, there really was no other option but to suspend the most unruly of the MPs. The political objective of the RJD and the SP would have been better served had their MPs stayed back in the House, participated in the debate and voted against the Bill. They chose otherwise.

It is to the credit of the BJP that it demonstrated great maturity in facilitating the passage of the Bill. Since the BJP was the first to propose reservation for women in Parliament and State Assemblies — Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee moved a Private Member's Bill on this issue in 1996, which was later adopted by the United Front Government headed by Mr HD Deve Gowda — it was natural for the party to support this path-breaking measure to politically empower women. Yet, it would be in order to highlight the fact that the BJP, in sharp contrast to both the Congress and the naysayers, rose above narrow partisan concerns and politics on an issue that impacts half the country's population. The Congress is not known to have shown similar concern when the BJP was in power at the head of the NDA Government. Indeed, had it not been for the BJP and its allies, the Bill would have foundered on the rock of naysayers' obstinacy in the Rajya Sabha. In more ways than one, the main Opposition party has bailed out the Government from a tricky situation that could have fetched the Congress huge embarrassment.

It must be noted that the Congress decided to introduce the Bill without consulting the Opposition or, for that matter, even its allies. The purpose was to project the proposed law as a 'gift' of the Congress, more specifically its president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, to the women of the country and then seek their votes in return. Even after getting the Bill through the Rajya Sabha with the help of the Opposition (it will have to depend on the BJP and its allies for the Bill's passage in the Lok Sabha too) the Congress has begun to brazenly claim 'victory' and heap praise on its supreme leader. That's both short-sighted and self-defeating. If the purpose of the Bill is to empower women, irrespective of their political affiliation or ideology, by making them part of the law-making process, then the Congress should desist from appropriating the proposed law. Or else it will stand accused of amending the Constitution to merely further its electoral interests. It's another matter that such chicanery won't wash with the masses.

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

HOPE IN BURMA

BUT DEMOCRACY STILL A DREAM

The announcement of the first set of election laws by the Burmese junta has been received with mixed reactions. The laws set the stage for an impending national election later this year that the military Government says will see Burma emerge as a "disciplined democracy". Two camps have emerged over this latest development — one that believes that the election laws are nothing but a farce and that the polls are bound to be rigged in favour of the military regime, and the other that says that some comfort can be taken in the knowledge that a democratic election, the first in 20 years and no matter how skewed, is better than the status quo. Both sides have valid reasons to trash and hail the election laws. It is a fact that the 2008 Constitution framed by the junta is a highly dubious piece of document that cleverly excludes the country's main Opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, from contesting any polls. A clause in the Constitution bars anyone from standing for election if he or she is married to a foreigner. Though Ms Suu Kyi's British husband Michael Aris died in 1999, there is no reason to believe that the junta will not enforce the constitutional provision in the strictest of sense. Besides, Ms Suu Kyi is still under house arrest — she has been so for almost 15 of the last 20 years — and it is highly unlikely that she will be released before the election. It will be recalled that Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy had won the 1990 general election, the last time democratic polls were held in Burma, but she was never allowed to form the Government by the military, which has ruled the country in one form or another since 1962. Given the junta's vice-like grip on Burma, it is understandable why some sections of the Burmese people feel that the announced polls will do little in terms of bringing about real democracy. Indeed, according to the declared election laws, it is the junta that will hand pick the election commission and have a significant say in the formation of the new Parliament.

Nonetheless, there is reason for hope. A democratic election, irrespective of whatever degree of probity, could prove to be crucial for democratic forces in Burma to further their democratic struggle. This will no doubt take time and depend on several factors. But the very fact that the junta is willing to move towards a semblance of democracy means that international pressure and perhaps internal rumblings are getting to the military Generals. Maybe the junta does not want a repeat of the 2007 protests that saw thousands come on to the streets for their democratic rights. Thus, the impending election could prove to be a turning point for Burma.

 

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            THE PIONEER

COLUMN

DESTINED TO DISAPPEAR

SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY

Turkey's outburst of wrath against the United States takes me back to my schooldays and the tragedy that some of my classmates personified without anyone suspecting it. Those Armenian boys were members of a diaspora of some eight million people, about 6,000 of whom still live in Kolkata.

Our class prefect was a ruddy youth called Minos Ohan. Since initials and not first names were used then, the geography mistress, an Englishwoman, thought M Ohan was an Indian "Mohan". No one could have looked less like Mohan than this stockily muscled boy with heavy features and tightly curled reddish hair but how was anyone to know his father or grandfather had abbreviated Ohanian to Ohan? They didn't insert an apostrophe between O and H but didn't object if the name was mistaken for an Irish-sounding O'Han.

Though their candlelit procession on All Soul's Night hinted at a distant identity, most Armenians tried to camouflage giveaway names. Such are the complexes from which people without a land to call their own suffer. There were the Mackertich (another Anglicised version) brothers and the two unrelated Gaspers. Mr Sarkies taught Physics and married Amy Avdall from the sister school. Our Chemistry master, Mr Catchatoor, must have been, I now think, Kachaturian and may have stuck to the original had the composer been famous then.

We thrived on the legend of Sir Paul Chater, a school dropout who made a fortune in Hong Kong (where a Chater Street still exists though Hong Kongers think of him as Parsi or Jewish) and left some of it to La Martiniere. "We thank thee for Claude Martin our founder and for Paul Chater our benefactor" we dutifully intoned in the school prayer. Galstaun was probably Kolkata's best known Armenian, builder of palaces and mansions, owner of strings of race horses and a figure in Rumer Godden's novel, The Dark Horse. The British never knew how to treat him.

Many years later a British journalist I knew in Tehran turned up to write about the community and Armenian College. There was a sizable number of Armenians in Iran and the Shah's Government sent some to study in Kolkata. I doubt if the ayatollahs continued that non-denominational generosity.

Armenians hovered on the fringe. When I visited a Georgian magazine editor in Tbilisi in 1990 with a Soviet diplomat of Armenian origin, the editor burst out as soon as my companion had left the room, "He's not a loyal Soviet citizen. The only reason they stay is because they know the Turks will massacre them the moment they leave the Soviet Union!"

The Ottoman Turks did just that during World War I. However, when Armenians set up an independent republic in 1918, it was annexed not by Turkey but the Soviet Union. But it's the Turkish killings the Georgian had in mind. Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Georgia, Italy, Russia and Uruguay are among the more than 20 countries that recognise the bloodshed as genocide. So does the European Parliament and the UN Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. But Britain doesn't. Neither does the US though sections of American opinion come perilously close at times to doing so.

This is one of those times. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee recently supported a resolution by 23 votes to 22 calling the death of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 genocide. Turkey saw red and is at the time of writing going through a verbal equivalent of sending a gunboat. It is threatening not to allow American troops use of Turkey's Incirlik air base as a staging post for Iraq, to withdraw the Turkish contingent from Afghanistan and not to support the US over stiffer sanctions against Iran at the Security Council where Turkey is a member. Turkey might create a crisis for Nato by carrying out its threats if the entire House of Representatives follows the FAC.

But though 215 out of 435 House members have publicly supported the resolution, the US is bound to draw back from the brink, leaving the Armenian National Committee of America gnashing its teeth. The committee may have spent $ 750,000 on lobbying members but Turkey has reportedly spent $ 1 million and there's more where that came from. The FAC adopted the same resolution in 2007 but the Bush Administration's intense lobbying killed it.

No great power can afford to let idealism run away with self-interest. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supported the Armenian cause while on the stump. President Barack Obama did so even more resoundingly. "The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view," he thundered, "but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence." But visiting Istanbul last year, he downplayed the genocide — a word that makes Turkish politicians reach for their revolvers — to "one of the great atrocities of the 20th century."

Turkey might tacitly concede that. It says nothing about Armenians being forcibly relocated and deported in 1915 but maintains there was no systematic pogrom. About 300,000 Armenians may have perished but they did so from disease and exposure and at the hands of Syrians and Palestinians. In fact, Armenians killed a large number of Turks with Tsarist Russian backing, according to Turkey.

Between 40,000 and 70,000 Armenians still remain in Turkey. Another 140,000 constitute the majority in the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia itself has a population of about three million. There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey. Under American pressure they signed a protocol in Geneva last October but it has not been ratified. However, as the International Crisis Group acknowledges, Armenia does not make normalisation of relations conditional on Turkey's admission of genocide.

Despite modest public relations campaigns in Paris and Washington, and though an independent Armenia now exists, Armenians do not have the international reach of Zionists or even Tibetans. Few in India have heard of their plight and Kolkata's once thriving Armenian community is now vanishing. Galstaun's residence is the desolate Nizam palace congested with shoddy Government flats; Galstaun Mansions is Queen's Mansions. With canny prescience, Hitler asked when he was preparing his anti-Jew campaign, "Who speaks today of the annihilation of Armenians?" Ohanian's transformation into Ohan and being mistaken for Mohan confirms that the Armenian diaspora's destiny is to disappear.

sunandadr@yahoo.co.in

 

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THE PIONEER

COLUMN

GREED RESPONSIBLE FOR BABRI MESS

SHOIB HASAN

The Government-appointed red-bearded beauties of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board are responsible for almost all the controversies that plague the Muslim community. The Babri Masjid controversy is one such example. The issue was taken up by the AIMPLB for its own vested interests and blown out of proportion. Otherwise, the matter could have been sorted out amicably.

The Babri mosque was built for Shias by one of emperor Babur's generals, Mir Baqi, who was himself a Shia. There are different mosques for Sunnis and Shias and they offer prayers separately. When the Babri Masjid controversy first reared its ugly head in 1988, the general secretary of the All-India Shia Conference had affirmed in a Press statement that the structure was indeed a Shia mosque and that Shias had no objection to its relocation to a nearby village called Shahnava (in Faizabad) which was the birthplace of Mir Baqi. No heed was paid to this either by the Government or by the AIMPLB.

It was then that the AIMPLB mullahs became the torch-bearers of the Babri issue and, instead of taking a realistic view of the situation, chose the confrontational route. After this the Babri Action Committee was formed and the whole Muslim community was made to believe that the reconstruction of the Babri mosque would lead to salvation, and that no other issue was of greater importance than this one.

The AIMPLB's confrontationist attitude has only added fuel to the fire of hatred against Muslims. The board's rigid position has vitiated the environment to the point that a realistic solution to the problem now seems impossible. Recently, the AIMPLB shrugged off BJP president Nitin Gadkari's well-intended offer to resolve the contentious issue once and for all.

The Babri issue exemplifies how greed and political ambition have corrupted the minds of those who are supposed to guard the interests of a particular community. A community which desperately needs education and employment simply cannot afford controversies like this one if it is to progress.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

AN EVOLVING THREAT

STEPHEN TANKEL, AUTHOR OF STORMING THE WORLD STAGE: THE STORY OF LASHKAR-E-TAYYEBA , ON WHY THE WORLD

MUST BE WARY OF LET

In 2006, the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyeba entered the Afghan theatre, necessitating its increased presence in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The group is often mentioned during discussions of the Punjabi Taliban, militants from Punjabi jihadi groups, who arrived in large numbers at approximately the same time. But these militants follow the Deobandi school of Islam and are close to the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. Lashkar is also a Punjabi group, but its Ahle Hadith faith and close relationship with the Pakistani military establishment have contributed to historically rocky relationship with Deobandi militant groups and other pro-Taliban elements.

Sharing physical space in the NWFP/FATA and operational interests in Afghanistan has created the opportunity for increased conflict and collaboration with Al Qaeda and the various pro-Taliban elements there. As collaboration increases, so too does Lashkar's threat to Pakistan and the West.

This analysis is divided into four sections. The first assesses Lashkar's historical relations with the different actors operating in the NWFP/FATA. The second discusses the nature of Lashkar's expansion in the area from roughly 2006 onward. The third explores its collaboration and conflicts with other groups operating there, and the nature of its involvement in anti-Western and anti-Pakistan activities emanating from the region. I conclude with a brief assessment of Lashkar's threat to the West, particularly the impact of its presence in the NWFP/FATA.

A Group Apart

Although the majority of Pakistani Muslims belong to the Barelvi school of Islam, the major jihadi groups are Deobandi and Ahle Hadith. Multiple militant groups adhere to the Deobandi school of thought. They are tied to one another as well as to the Afghan Taliban and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan by the same madaris, many of which are found in the NWFP and FATA. During the 1990s in Afghanistan, Pakistani Deobandi militants trained at camps in Taliban-controlled areas, their cadre fought alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, and some of their leaders held posts in the Taliban Government.In addition to solidifying their bonds with the Taliban, this brought them closer to Al Qaeda.

The Ahle Hadith are an even smaller minority in Pakistan than the Deobandis and their infrastructure pales in comparison. Since its establishment, Lashkar has differed from the mainstream Ahle Hadith movement over the interpretation of jihad. Thus, it had to build its own support structure. State support for the Kashmir jihad enabled Lashkar to build vast infrastructure, which it has since sought to protect. Given that it has no close allies on which to rely, it is not surprising that Lashkar is more susceptible to state pressure than other militant actors and refrains from launching attacks in Pakistan.

Despite ad hoc cooperation in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, Lashkar historically has had antagonist relations with Deobandi militant groups. Further, unlike these groups, Lashkar had no loyalty to the Taliban Government or infrastructure in Afghanistan. Because of its Ahle Hadith background, and possibly because Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency sought to keep it separate from other actors, Lashkar's freedom of movement was constrained in Afghanistan during the 1990s. It primarily trained at separate camps in Kunar and Nuristan provinces, and did not fight alongside or otherwise work closely with the Taliban. While significant numbers of Deobandi militants crossed the border to fight alongside the Taliban after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Lashkar did not despatch militants to Afghanistan to counter US troops. This decision created additional tension with the Taliban and its Deobandi allies.

Lashkar's closest Salafi allies in Kunar, the militant Jamiat al-Dawa al-Quran wal-Sunna, initially supported the US counter-attacks and the nascent Government of Hamid Karzai.

However, Jamiat al-Dawa al-Quran wal-Sunna quickly turned against the United States and is now part of the multiheaded insurgency in the Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. Lashkar had been providing logistical support to Jamiat al-Dawa for a number of years and increased this assistance after 9/11. In roughly 2006, as the Afghan insurgency picked up steam and Lashkar's militant operations in Indianc-ontrolled Kashmir became more constricted, the group began working with Jamiat al-Dawa to infiltrate fighters across the border into Kunar province. This decision necessitated increasing its presence in the NWFP/FATA.

Expansion
Lashkar's post-2006 activities in the tribal areas were geared primarily toward waging war in Afghanistan. The group was recruiting, training, and housing militants as well as facilitating their infiltration across the Durand Line — the disputed border dating to the late-19th century. It was reported to be doing some recruiting in the NWFP/FATA for the Kashmir jihad as well, though it is difficult to know if this was merely part of the group's attempt to maintain its Kashmir-centric reputation. In the NWFP/FATA and in Afghanistan, Lashkar has operated through like-minded groups or affiliates, rather than under its own banner. This was done to preserve its reputation and avoid embarrassing entanglements with the state. The group, which is designated as foreign terrorist organisation by the US State Department and the United Nations, is officially banned in Pakistan. However, it has maintained closer working relationship with the army and ISI than many other banned militant groups in Pakistan.

Lashkar built a small presence early in the decade in South Waziristan, where it conducted training not far from Al Qaeda. It is strongest in the Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies, where it relies on relationships dating to the Afghan jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s. In addition to recruiting and training fighters in Bajaur and Mohmand, Lashkar also began using its bases there as staging areas for inserting fighters into Afghanistan.7

Under the banner of its aboveground social welfare wing, the Jamaat ud-Dawa'h, Lashkar established mosques, madaris, schools, and offices throughout the NWFP and expanded its relief work in the region. Some of these venues were used for recruiting. For example, Lashkar was one of a number of jihadi outfits to open liaison and recruitment offices in the Lower Dir and Swat districts. Alongside other groups including Jaish-e-Mohammed, Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and al Badr, Lashkar also allegedly set up base camp near Derra Adam Khel, a town devoted to producing weapons and ammunition.

Collaboration and Conflict

Lashkar's proximity with Al Qaeda as well as various Deobandi militants and other pro-Taliban actors created opportunities for collaboration and conflict. During conversations with high-ranking members of JuD and Lashkar militants, they criticised the Deobandi groups' jihad against the Pakistani state and made clear their ideological disdain for these actors. Conversely, the Taliban and other Deobandi militants remained upset because Lashkar did not take part in the jihad against the US after 9/11. The group's decision to focus exclusively on the Kashmir jihad was troubling, but not as much as the fact that its relationship with the ISI heavily influenced that decision. According to several of the author's interlocutors, including one activist close to the leadership and another who was highranking officer in the security services, the Taliban and Al Qaeda continued to question Lashkar's loyalty even after it entered the Afghan theatre because of its historically close relationship with the ISI.

Lashkar patched up its relationship with the Taliban and other Deobandi elements in the years after 9/11. However, this has not stopped local rivalries from occasionally developing into violent conflict. According to one former senior officer in Pakistan's Intelligence Bureau, whose account was confirmed by highranking JuD official, the TTP killed approximately 15 JuD members in Swat in 2008. The TTP killed three more of the organisation's members in Bajaur in April 2009. The most infamous conflict occurred in Mohmand tribal agency during the summer of 2008, when the pro-Taliban Omar Khalid group clashed with the Shah Sahib group, which was essentially a Lashkar front that also received support from Al Qaeda.

Some sources suggest this battle was fuelled partly by suspicions that the Lashkar-associated Shah was collaborating with the ISI, though local commander rivalry no doubt played a role. During the clash, approximately 10 members of the Shah Sahib group were killed and many more were captured, including Shah Sahib and his deputy, Maulvi Obaidullah. Lashkar leaders intervened but failed to secure their release, and both were executed.

Despite these episodes, Lashkar's collaboration with Al Qaeda and pro-Taliban groups was increasing from late-2006 or early-2007 onward. Lashkar-linked groups appear to have the highest degree of integration and cooperation with other actors in Bajaur and Mohmand. There are two likely reasons for this. First, Lashkar's networks are strongest in these two agencies, where number of other actors also operate. Second, the location of these agencies makes them ideal for infiltrating militants across the border to take part in the insurgency in eastern Afghanistan. However, collaboration is not limited to Bajaur and Mohmand.

Recruiting Suicide-Bombers

Cooperation takes several forms. Lashkar trains not only on its own, but with other groups in the FATA. Some of its members are believed to be instructing at other groups' camps as well. The organisation also collaborates on infiltrating fighters into Afghanistan and on other logistical matters related to that front. Al Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, and the TTP run a number of camps in the Waziristan agencies to indoctrinate and train young Pakistanis to become suicide bombers, and Lashkar has helped to recruit potential trainees. For example, Lashkar is believed to have recruited men from the Jalozai refugee camp in Peshawar for training at Al Qaeda camps to become suicide-bombers in Afghanistan. Lashkar has also collaborated with other groups on attacks in Afghanistan, the two most notable being the ambush of the US combat outpost in Wanat in July 2008 and the vehicle-borne suicide assault on the Indian Embassy in Kabul that same month.

Although Lashkar still refrains from launching attacks within Pakistan, some of its members are believed to provide support to the TTP and other actors who do conduct such attacks. Support includes facilitating the movement of men and material within Pakistan, providing safe houses and possibly identity papers to would-be terrorists, conducting target surveillance, and providing information. Freelancing increased at the mid and lower levels after 2006; some of these individuals have provided manpower for the TTP while others have offered logistical support.22 Despite this anti-Pakistani activity, however, the greater threat from Lashkar's collaboration with other actors in the NWFP/FATA is to the West.

India Remains Main Enemy

India remains Lashkar's main enemy, but the group has been waging a peripheral jihad against the United States and its allies since shortly after 9/11. Although the prospect of Lashkar despatching operatives to lead a major attack against a Western country should not be ruled out, the most likely Lashkar threats to Western interests lie elsewhere.

First, as mentioned above, Lashkar's increased presence in the NWFP/FATA is largely result of its decision to take part in the fight against coalition forces in Afghanistan.

According to US military and International Security Assistance Force officials, coalition forces have not seen great amount of impact from Lashkar. However, they consider those Lashkar militants who are operating to be among the most effective fighters in the region.

Second, though unrelated to its collaboration in the NWFP/FATA, Lashkar is prepared to fold Western targets into its terrorist attacks in South Asia. This was illustrated by the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which included hotels catering to foreigners. To mark the one-year anniversary of those attacks, Lashkar is alleged to have plotted attacks against the US Embassy and Indian High Commission in Bangladesh. This does not mean every attack in India or the wider South Asian region will target Western interests, but the threat of such attacks now must be included within its wider targeting objectives.

Third, history suggests that Lashkar is capable and willing to provide support to other actors that are based primarily in the NWFP/FATA and intent on launching terrorist attacks in the West. Support takes two main forms: As training provider or gateway to other organisations such as Al Qaeda, and as facilitator for attacks in Western countries.

Lashkar's training infrastructure is receiving more scrutiny than in the past, but the group still operates more freely than other militant outfits in Pakistan. This makes it an appealing destination for Western militants. While Lashkar might have trained some Westerners in urban terrorism, the greater worry may be that it is gateway to Al Qaeda or others in the NWFP/FATA that are actively seeking wannabe Western jihadis to train for terrorist attacks back home.

The group's trans-national networks make it an ideal global jihadist facilitator. Evidence suggests Lashkar has support cells in the Persian Gulf, Britain, North America, mainland Europe, and possibly Australia. These cells could be used either by the group or by individual nodes within its networks to aid attacks against the West.Because Lashkar is financially robust, it is able to provide financial as well as logistical assistance.

The Headley case and attempted attacks in Bangladesh suggest several important lessons. First, Lashkar continues to prioritise attacking India. Second, the group appears to have been prepared to launch a blended attack in Bangladesh, striking its longtime nemesis India along with US Government targets. Attacking the US Government signifies significant evolution in Lashkar's peripheral jihad against the West, suggesting Lashkar has grown bolder in the year since the Mumbai attacks. Third, even if it were possible to deter Lashkar completely from undertaking or supporting attacks against the West — an unlikely proposition the group would continue to pose threat because of its connections to and collaboration with other militant outfits. The more entrenched Lashkar becomes in the NWFP/FATA, the more robust these connections and collaboration are likely to become.

The writer is a visiting professor with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Courtesy: New American Foundation.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

HEADLEY CHASE, LASHKAR CONSPIRACY

THE HEADLEY-RANA AFFAIR SUGGESTS THAT LASHKAR-E-TAYYEBA CONTINUES TO PRIORITISE ATTACKS ON INDIA

TOctober 2009 arrest in Chicago of two men charged with plotting attacks in Denmak illustrates Lashkar's transnational capabilities and the nuanced role they can play in terms of terrorism against India and the West. One of the men arrested was David Headley, (aka DaoodGilani), a PakistaniAmerican who trained with Lashkar during the early part of the decade and changed his name in order to perform surveillance in India. He made multiple extended trips to Mumbai in advance of the 2008 attacks that took place there. During each trip he took pictures and video of various targets, including all of those struck by Lashkar's fidayeen in November 2008.

After each trip, he allegedly returned to Pakistan where he provided his Lashkar handlers with photographs, videos and oral descriptions of various locations. Headley and his handlers are believed to have discussed potential sites for a seaborne infiltration. US charges allege that Lashkar operatives in Pakistan instructed him to take boat trips in and around the Mumbai harbour and record surveillance video, which he did during a visit to India in April 2008.

According toUS Government documents, when Headley returned to Chicago in June 2006 he advised Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a native Pakistani and Canadian citizen living in Chicago, of his assignment. Rana ran First World Immigration Services, and Headley is alleged to have obtained his permission to open a branch office in Mumbai in 2006 as a cover for his surveillance activities. Rana also is alleged to have been in Mumbai prior to the attacks and to have played a role in performing reconnaissance.

A month before Lashkar's gunmen made deadly use of the surveillance he had provided for the Mumbai attacks, David Headley began planning the "Mickey Mouse Project". Also called the "Northern Project", this referred to an attack on facilities of the Morgenavisen Jyllands Posten, the Danish newspaper responsible for printing cartoons in 2005 that depicted the Prophet Mohammed. Headley had taken great offence at their publication, and in October 2008 he set in motion a plan to take revenge. This included travel to Denmark in January and July 2009 for the purpose of reconnaissance, coupled with attack planning in Pakistan following his January trip.

As with his surveillance in I ndia for the Mumbai attacks, Headley also benefited from Tahawwur Hussain Rana's assistance. Rana provided material support for Headley's travels as well as helping to arrange them and disguise their purpose. Headley was coordinating with at least two Lashkar operatives: Abdul Rehman Hashim Syed, a former Pakistan Army officer who oversaw Lashkar's networks in Bangladesh, and an individual identified "Lashkar-e-Tayyeba Member A".

Although the US Government had not disclosed his identity at the time this was written, US and Pakistani officials said that he is Sajid Mir, the former Pakistan Army officer and head of operations for Lashkar's internationalwing. Headley was also coordinating with IlyasKashmiri, a leader from the militant group Harakat-ul-Jihadal Islami who is known to be very close to the leadership of Al Qaeda.

In an example of the gateway role Lashkar can play, Syed is suspectedof introducing Headley to Ilyas Kashmiri. Initially, Lashkar appeared eager to coordinate with Headley on the attacks in Denmark. The prime target was Jyllands Posten, the newspaper that in 2005published controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed, but Headley also surveilled a nearby synagogue at Sajid Mir's behest. Yet when the opportunity arose to use Headley for surveillance in India, Mir suggested that he delay the Northern Project in favour of this new assignment. At that point, Headley began working more closely with HuJI to pursue the already planned attacks in Denmark.

He did not, however, bandon his relationship with Lashkar and promised to help with the India operations as well. The group is believed to have been planning to attack the National Defence College on the anniversary of the Mumbai attacks.

-- Extracted from Stephen Tankel's paper.

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

CONG FINALLY GETS IT RIGHT ON QUOTA BILL

 

THE Congress finally showed on Tuesday that it had a game plan to counter the Yadav chieftains and push through the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha. This is welcome. Yet, one cannot help thinking that we could have been looking at a different scenario had the tough are- you- with- us- or- against- us position of Tuesday been adopted a day earlier.

 

Was it a deliberate strategy to let things slide earlier? The House marshals were at hand but called in only when the protesters were virtually at Rajya Sabha chairman, Mr Hamid Ansari's throat. There are standard procedures for handling such situations.

 

They were not followed on Monday. It is well known that some members of the ruling coalition are worried that the points made by Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Mr Lalu Prasad of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Mr Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal ( United) are valid and might affect them.

 

At one stage it seemed that the passage of the Bill would be stalled once again on Tuesday. For instance, the seven MPs suspended for unruly behaviour refused to leave the House. Then the BJP said it wanted a discussion before the Bill was put to vote.

 

Ultimately, the might with which supporters of the legislation downed the naysayers should send a telling message to the forces of unreason that their time is past. In normal circumstances, the opponents of the Bill too should have been heard out. This would have only strengthened our democratic tradition. But these were not usual times because the Yadav chieftains chose to undermine democracy itself with hooliganism.

 

It needed a special kind of politics to call their bluff and pass the historic gender justice legislation in the Rajya Sabha. The SP and the RJD have consistently failed to deliver to the communities they seek to represent. In fact, being essentially single family controlled and clannish, these parties have not even been able to provide political patronage to those they claim as their own. Their defeat, despite the roadblocks along the way, is a heartening sign.

 

It shows that principled politics, and not cynicism that suggests compromise in the name of stability, can win the day.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

ARE YOU SERIOUS?

 

THE ' Liveability Index' released by the Confederation of Indian Industry which has ranked 37 cities will surprise not a few people. And it will once again raise questions about the reliability of such surveys.

 

The CII survey says Delhi is overall the best city in India to live in, with Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore being the next best, in that order. While people who have lived in the major cities of India will no doubt have their own take on this view, with personal preferences influencing their judgment, it is on Delhi's high ranking on some vital parameters that questions will be raised.

 

For instance, Delhi gets the second rank in India when it comes to road accidents.

 

But the common experience of people in Delhi contradicts this view. Not very long ago there were news reports about Delhi being the most dangerous city in India for pedestrians, with nearly 600 of them being crushed to death on its roads in 2008.

 

Kolkata and Chennai saw not one such fatality in that year. Has the survey incorporated this fact while coming up with its rankings? On transport, though the Metro has made a huge difference, can we rave about Delhi's buses or its autowallahs ? Again, the survey has placed towns in the National Capital Region way below the Capital though people who have lived in the region for long will concede that satellite towns like Gurgaon and Noida score over Delhi on several aspects.

 

Then, the CII survey leaves out parameters like water, power and traffic when it comes to judging ' liveability' though they form a crucial part of the urban experience.

 

For instance on traffic, Delhi, despite its good and wide roads, would fare poorly, what with the huge number of vehicles on its roads making commuting a harrowing experience. One has to only get out of the Capital to appreciate this fact.

 

If at all the survey result about Delhi being the best place to live in in India says anything it is that the best isn't good enough, notwithstanding the capital's redeeming features including its grand Lutyens' zone.

 

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MAIL TODAY

SEEKING SAUDI HELP ONPAK TIES WAS STUPID

 

BUT THERE ARE DEFINITE POSITIVES EMERGING OUT OF THE PM'S VISIT

PRIME Minister's recent visit to Saudi Arabia was a plus point in our diplomacy.

 

Our relationship with the Kingdom has remained tepid, essentially because of the Pakistani factor. Pakistan as an Islamic country has sought and obtained preferential treatment from Saudi Arabia in South Asia.

 

Pakistan has used the religious card against us unabashedly in the Islamic world, inhibiting in varying degrees several Muslim countries from developing full scope ties with India. They feel obliged to maintain some balance in their South Asian ties, which prevents their relationship with India — a bigger, more economically and technically advanced country — from finding its optimal level. The Organisation of Islamic Conference( OIC) gives Pakistan a platform to belabour India on Kashmir and treatment of Muslims in India, with negative consequences for our equations with the Islamic world. The OIC is headquartered in Saudi Arabia, and without its connivance Pakistan would not have a free hand in getting outrageous statements issued against India.

 

Independently of incessant Pakistani projection of Kashmir as an Islamic issue on a par with the Palestinian issue, our inability to settle the Kashmir issue internally weighs heavily on our diplomacy with the Islamic world.

 

In recent years several developments favoured Indian overtures to Saudi Arabia and a positive Saudi response. India's growing economic stature globally and advances made by us in the knowledge economy increased India's attractiveness as a partner. Improved India- US relations no doubt encouraged a parallel shift in Saudi outlook. The terror strikes of September 11 that roused America to declare a war on global terrorism and ensuing undercurrents of tension with Saudi Arabia seen as the fount of Al Qaeda's Wahhabi ideology, coupled with the threat of terrorism to Saudi Arabia itself, encouraged the Kingdom to improve its image and broaden its external engagement.

 

Pakistan's decline as a state despite acquisition of nuclear weapons and the Al Qaeda linked terrorist upsurge localised in Pakistan and Afghan border areas, no doubt contributed to some fresh thinking in Saudi Arabia about its India policy. The ascension of the more pragmatic King Abdullah to the Saudi throne naturally was a crucial element in all this.

 

The initiative in 2006 to invite the King to be the Chief Guest at India's Republic Day in 2006 was timely. His acceptance itself indicated a change of mood towards India in Saudi Arabia.

 

The hopes engendered by that visit have, however, remained largely unfulfilled, except in the energy field where the Saudis now figure as the largest suppliers of crude oil to India, supplying 20 per cent of our needs.

 

Declaration

 

Direct Saudi investment in India amounting to about $ 15 million remains risible. Saudi Arabian funds are flowing to China, but no investment fund has been set up for India, even as smaller Gulf states like Qatar and Oman have done so. India is, of course, interested in Saudi investments in its infrastructure sector in particular, but so far the Saudis have been deterred by the complexities of our procedures and the reputation of our bureaucracy.

 

Prime Minister's return visit to Saudi Arabia from February 27 to March 1 was marked by exceptional protocol treatment, including an address to the Majlis. Some significant agreements were signed, though the India- Saudi Fund did not see parturition. The Riyadh Declaration talks of a strategic partnership covering security, economic, defence and political areas, including a strengthened strategic energy partnership.

 

This signals the future direction of bilateral ties and carries a message to the Arab world and to our neighbours, the impact of which on the latter cannot but be helpful.

 

The strategic partnership in defence lacks clarity in terms of objectives and practical content. Saudi readiness to supply more crude to India on term contracts constitutes a valuable gain.

 

The Declaration calls on the international community to resolutely combat terrorism, but India's proposal for an International Terrorism Convention languishing at the UN for years because of Arab opposition did not get Saudi endorsement. The Declaration refers to the nuclear imbroglio Iran is caught in. While the language is balanced and calculated to cause least offence in Teheran, but given Iran's sensitivities, the very fact that it figures in a Declaration with a third country could add to Iran's grievance against India and reinforce its belief that we have further moved into the American camp on this issue.

 

The ghosts at the India- Saudi banquet are always Pakistan and Kashmir.

 

It is not without significance that the Saudi Foreign Minister in speaking to Indian journalists during the visit should, quite unusually, express worry at internal developments in Pakistan on the terrorism front— in full awareness that this would be resented in Pakistan— and deny ( disingenuously) Saudi contacts with the Taliban— to allay Indian fears. The Pakistan related part of the visit was, unfortunately, quite unnecessarily botched up by the Indian side, casting a shadow on the otherwise very useful visit.

 

Mistake

 

Where was the need for us to publicly suggest that we took the initiative to raise our concerns about Pakistan with Saudi Arabia because Saudi closeness to Pakistan made it a valuable interlocutor? The implication of this is that we expect our concerns to be conveyed to Pakistan by Saudi Arabia. This is quite different from the normal diplomatic practice of explaining during our parleys with foreign dignitaries, especially when they raise, as they always do, the state of India- Pakistan relations, our terrorism concerns etc. If our position remains that we must settle our differences with Pakistan bilaterally and third parties don't have a role, then why should we be encouraging Saudi Arabia to speak to Pakistan on our behalf? We should limit ourselves to explaining our position and leave it to the other side to decide on transmission of messages to concerned third parties. Normally countries give briefings to interested third countries after such bilateral visits.

 

Logic

 

We aver that we asked Saudi Arabia to use its good offfices to persuade Pakistan to take a reasonable position on terrorism in view of our readiness to walk the extra mile with it to resolve outstanding differences.

 

" Good offices" has a specific meaning in diplomacy— that of a country acting as a go- between. What gives us confidence that if we are ourselves unable to bilaterally persuade Pakistan to be reasonable on terrorism, others can do so on our behalf? Or that they have and will use means of pressure that we lack? Even the US with enormous capacity to press Pakistan as we desire hasn't delivered.

 

Can Saudi Arabia do this? Why should they put one- sided pressure? Are we convinced that they don't believe Pakistan has any case to defend? Will they place before us Pakistani counter demands? Will these be acceptably different from what Pakistan tells us bilaterally or what it says to the US? By seeking such external support because we feel a degree of helplessness in the face of Pakistani obduracy, we run the risk of inviting renewed pressure on ourselves by those who have traditionally sought concessions from us on Kashmir and our relations with Pakistan. If, as we say, Pakistan is not getting isolated despite its complicity with terrorism, then our hope that Saudi Arabia will help take our chestnuts out of the fire seems misplaced.

 

The writer is a former Foreign Secretary( sibalkanwal@ gmail. com)

 

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MAIL TODAY

PATIALA PEG

VIKAS KAHOL

 

PATIL LOOKS TO GIVE HIS IMAGE A MAKEOVER

HE may not have distinguished himself as the country's home minister in the first UPA government, but ever since Punjab governor and Chandigarh's administrator Shivraj V Patil assumed office, administrative functioning in the city has witnessed a change for the good.

 

Certain officers and the city's powerful elite — who enjoyed direct access to Gen S F Rodrigues, his predecessor — are miffed over the change of guard at the Raj Bhawan. They have started feeling the heat after " order" was restored at Raj Bhawan. The files which reached the governor directly during Rodrigues's regime have now been routed through Pradip Mehra — a powerful bureaucrat and advisor to Chandigarh's Administrator.

 

Officials accept that access to the Raj Bhawan had become easy for junior officials during the last regime. They would often bypass their superiors and take direct instructions from Rodrigues. Administrative decorum had gone for a six.

 

Some officers enjoying proximity to the previous administrator would just " barge into" the Raj Bhawan for anything.

 

The city has also seen an end to the ugly row between Rodrigues and advisor Pradip Mehra over a web of administrative violations, ego issues and attempts to settle personal scores.

 

The public is happy that Patil does not appear keen on getting caught up with petty issues concerning the administration. Officials have been instructed to deal with people's problems at their own level and provide fast redressal to public grievances.

 

The common man hopes that governance in Chandigarh would improve because unlike in the previous regime, Patil, the local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal and the senior bureaucrat get on well with each other. R ODRIGUES had chosen to go after Mehra after he questioned the execution of some real estate projects — now under the CBI's scanner. Rodrigues reacted sharply to Mehra's stand and actually blamed two union ministers — Minister of State for Finance Pawan Bansal and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni — for putting him and his regime under a cloud. The former administrator had also claimed that Advisor Pradeep Mehra was a " mole and incompetent." Some officers who were a part of Rodrigues' coterie used to overstep their jurisdiction, even bypassing the city's seniormost bureaucrat — Pradip Mehra.

 

While Gen Rodrigues battled Mehra and Bansal, his " lieutenants" conveniently enjoyed " benefits" and moved on to coveted assignments elsewhere.

 

Congress supporters were upset that Rodrigues would not entertain their pleas for even small and genuine developmental work in the city.

 

Shivraj V Patil who resigned from the post of Union home minister in November 2008 after the terrorist attack in Mumbai — with questions being raised about his competence from all quarters — has thus got an opportunity to wipe the slate clean by contributing to Chandigarh's development.

 

The people of Chandigarh want him to restore the faith of the common man in administrative functioning, which has taken a beating in the recent past.

 

3,000 GIRLS CHEER SBI'S NOBLE STEP

THE State Bank of India ( SBI) has silently scripted change in the lives of a large number of girl children in and around Chandigarh. The bank's new initiative — a brainchild of its chairman, O. P. Bhatt — involves adopting girls who cannot undergo formal education due to poverty or some other social or health reason. Bank officials reveal that they zero in on girls — including orphans, and the destitute — willing to study. Each bank branch selects two girls and sponsors their school fees, books, school bags, uniform and transport.

 

The bank has been providing the financial aid to the girls on an yearly basis.

 

The scheme has earned an overwhelming response. The girls whom the bank has adopted are happy that they go to school now and are performing better than many of their affluent counterparts.

 

" The lives of about 3000 girls have changed so far. The change in their lives is gradual but certain. We celebrate womanhood each time we adopt a girl," states a proud official associated with the bank's initiative.

 

RAMDEV PUSSYFOOTS ON POLITICAL PLANS

THE other day, yoga guru Baba Ramdev held interactive sessions with the judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and policemen of the 82nd battalion of the Punjab Armed Police ( PAP). While making his intentions of taking a political leap clear, Baba Ramdev told the audience that he was keeping the name of the political party under wraps. " You will get to know about it at the right time," he said.

 

During the sessions, Ramdev stressed that he intended to make the nation healthy — free of illness and corruption.

 

He urged the judges and policemen to carry out their duties honestly. The function at the high court was organised by the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association while Kunwar Vijay Pratap, commandant, 82nd battalion, took the initiative for the policemen's interactive session with the yoga guru. Kunwar — credited with jail reforms in Punjab and busting a kidney racket a few years ago — says he wants his men to stay healthy and fit.

 

Vikas.kahol@mailtoday.in

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

A MILESTONE MOMENT

 

It would not be an exaggeration to say that history was made yesterday with the passage of the women's reservation Bill. The fundamental nature of our politics and by extension the way in which our public domain is ordered will never be the same. With Parliament and all state legislatures making space for a minimum of 33 per cent women representatives, a milestone has been etched in the realm of women's empowerment in independent India.

Some of the landmark legislations adopted by independent India over the decades universal adult franchise, abolition of the zamindari system and quotas for scheduled castes and tribes and other backward classes have changed the complexion of the body politic and power equations in society in a fundamental manner, paving the path for the establishment of a more egalitarian society. The transformative potential of reserving seats for women is similar in scope and significance. It is no secret that patriarchy runs deep in Indian society and women have been historically denied social, economic and political opportunities. Even today, women face discrimination of one sort or another both in the private and public sphere. For instance, personal laws are loaded against women and women earn less than men for the same work just to mention two examples of manifest gender injustice.

The cause of women's empowerment hinges on political representation and economic advancement. Which is why the passage of the women's reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha can be justifiably termed as path-breaking social reform. The experience of reserving seats for women in panchayats over the last 15-odd years illustrates how having more women in governing and legislating positions enhances the prospects of women, and therefore of society as a whole.

Even as we celebrate the passage of the Bill, the hooliganism of those opposed to the legislation in the Rajya Sabha deserves to be unequivocally condemned. MPs from the RJD and SP lowered the dignity of the House and made a mockery of democratic values with their shameful behaviour, all in the name of furthering the rights of women from disadvantaged minorities. Their argument is a bogus one; women cut across all minorities and are therefore doubly disadvantaged. Women are not being granted any favours through this constitutional amendment. Sixty-three years after independence, we are merely acknowledging the political rights of one half of our population. It's been a long time coming.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

IN POOR SHAPE

 

The cost of health care is known to push millions into poverty every year, a fact from which India is not exempt. In fact, rural Indians spend nearly 27 per cent of their income on health care. Given that the Indian state spends only 0.9 per cent of its GDP on health one of the lowest allocations in the world it is not surprising that a large part of the population does not have access to adequate medical services. It is therefore encouraging that the central government has decided to unify the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the yet to be launched National Urban Health Mission to create a National Health Mission (NHM) that would cater to the needs of millions of Indians who rely on public health care systems. The new mission will receive Rs 15,000 crore and will focus on strengthening the crumbling public health infrastructure so it can cater to the urban and rural poor. That's good, but past experience has proven that increased spending doesn't always translate into better results.

India could certainly do with more funds for health. But it is more important that the money allocated to this crucial sector is spent wisely. Outcomes will not improve unless funds are utilised effectively, which means that service delivery is of paramount importance. As it stands, public health care does not reach everyone, and even where it does it is stretched to the limit. The system is also plagued by a lack of trained health care providers, which impedes service delivery. If the NHM is to better serve citizens, it will need to be targeted better.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

TOP ARTICLE

BUSTING URBAN LEGENDS

DIPANKAR GUPTA

 

France was only 55 per cent urban in the 1940s; so were large parts of Europe. Today, France, Italy and Spain, not to mention Germany and Scandinavia, are only 2-3 per cent rural. This is an indication of their prosperity. Latin America has just driven in to the smart set. Its high speed urbanisation, like a souped-up limo, touched 85 per cent at various stretches.

What is the Indian story? Contrary to popular belief, most manufacturing plants and workshops in India are in villages, not in cities. Further, the more backward the state the greater the preponderance of rural workshops. Nor is it that these rude rural outfits employ mostly women looking for a second income or pin money. Though this picture is fetchingly flashed in many NGO brochures, the truth is more complex.

The more backward the region, the greater is the proportion of men in village-based manufacturing units and household industries. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, six times more men than women work in such units. In Rajasthan, the figure jumps to an unbelievable 10. Sadly, 93 per cent of our total workforce is in the unorganised sector and 74 per cent of this is in rural India.

So why is rural migration not the answer? Poor people on the margins of a village economy should up and leave at the first opportunity. Yet urban growth due to migration is steadily declining. In fact, the rate of urbanisation in general went down in the period 1981-2001. We tend to overlook this as our towns are crowded and filthy. But they are not filthy because they are crowded; they look crowded because they are filthy. Had they been better planned they would smell different too.

So then how urban is urban India? The mere presence of towns does not always indicate development or prosperity. UP, Bihar and Orissa have a fair number of cities of different descriptions, yet they are all fighting for the last place. Half the towns of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are really not urban, for agriculture is still the mainstay of their economies. Who would have thought that possible? Weren't we told that 75 per cent of the economy has to be non-agricultural for a place to be considered urban?

But wait, this is India! According to our official definition, even if the economic criterion falters, a place can still qualify as a town. All it needs is high population density and a municipal council or cantonment board. This explains why UP with 704 towns still lacks an industrial base and is cloyingly rural.

Only a small number of urban Indians is really urban. For example, just 25 per cent of Bihar's urban population lives in industrial centres. The remaining 75 per cent is officially urban, but their actual conditions are not. Their routine is still agricultural. The man heads out to his fields at daybreak while his wife stokes her wooden stove. Yet, for the record they are town dwellers, no matter what their real lives are like. If they don't qualify as rural folk, it is because they inhabit overcrowded spaces with a town hall in the middle, like a rhinestone in the muck.

If this is the state of our urbanisation, then where are the hot spots and happening places that account for our 8.5 per cent growth rate? There is, of course, the park-facing view. Information technology is doing phenomenally well, yet this sector employs only three million people. Their scrubbed and healthy looks clean up our sunshine. They live in our neighbourhood and swarm us with their cars. But the stubborn fact still remains: they number only three million.

Most of the action is actually taking place in back alleys where small and informal industries function in largely rural and semi-urban settings. These small enterprises have grown the fastest of all - by over 110 per cent in the past 25 years. They also account for the bulk of our exports. On the other hand, the workforce in the formal sector - that is, those with pucca factory jobs - has remained unchanged for decades, at about 24 million. Considering our population, this number barely bobs up over the bottom axis.

Though our urban growth rate has declined, urban agglomerates around Delhi and Mumbai have expanded. Investors tend to gravitate around bright lights, afraid of being mugged in the dark. Consequently, class II and III towns have remained stagnant and the proportionate numbers in class V and VI have actually gone down.

If investments come to big cities, then so should skilled manpower. But, surprisingly, better educated rural migrants tend to avoid metros and head to small and medium towns instead. Even places like Mumbai and Delhi don't attract as many skilled migrants as they should. Here too entrepreneurs depend largely on semi-qualified and half literate workers. True, it is not quite as bad as Jaunpur or Moradabad, but it ought to have been much better.

The Indian route to urbanisation is like the flyovers in our metros. Traffic jams are now at an elevation and pedestrians don't know which way to go.

( The writer is former professor, JNU)

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

'FOR TRIBALS, DEVELOPMENT MEANS EXPLOITATION'

JYOTI PUNWANI

 

B D Sharma is one of India's foremost experts on tribal issues. He has served as collector of undivided Bastar district in Chhattisgarh and commissioner for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and has campaigned extensively to protect the rights of tribals. Currently, the coordinator of Bharat Jan Andolan, a network of grass-roots organisations, Sharma tells that current notions of development are at the root of the Maoist insurgency:

What has changed since you were collector of Bastar?

That was 40 years ago! Outsiders didn't have so much influence there, except in Bailadila. The presence of the administration also wasn't much. As collector, i didn't sanction any mining lease. When sanctions started being given, discontent grew, and in the 1980s, the Maoists came.

They are now seen as the biggest problem.

When i was working as SC-ST commissioner, i asked Bastar's tribals about the Maoists. They said, 'Dadas are very good. They've released us from the tyranny of the patwaris'. As the Maoists' grew in confidence, they established their stronghold. Outside Bastar, the desire for 'development' kept growing; in it, opposition to it grew. I'm not claiming credit, but my refusal to sanction big projects in Bastar kept peace in the area.

How to resolve this dilemma of development?

God has given the tribals everything. Seated on the banks of the Indravati, they would tell me, ''We have three moneylenders who look after us throughout the year: the forest, the river and the land. We live off them for four months each.'' They have never seen drought or famine. When rainfall is low, the forest produces more kandh-mool to compensate. In Gondi, there is no future tense. They are content living in the present. You can't presume to give them development; they have enough. For them, development means exploitation. A representative of the state, be it a patwari or a forest guard, is someone powerful, to be feared. Just stop their exploitation and provide them health and education.

Will the government accept this?

Do dacoits like to stop looting? The government must accept that the resources they want belong to society. The doctrine of Eminent Domain, which allows the state to capture anyone's property without their consent, clashes with the tribals' view. For them, those who live in the forests are the maalik. You want to turn them into labourers.

According to the Constitution's Fifth Schedule, resources in tribal areas belong to the tribals, and the governor has draconian powers to ensure this. Has any governor sent a single directive on this to the state governments? The 1995 Bhuria commission recommended that for industries in tribal areas, 50 per cent of the ownership must remain with the community, 20 per cent with the landowner and only 30 per cent with the investor. The radical PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, gives the gram sabha the authority to decide the use of natural resources. None of these are being implemented. Therein lies the dishonesty. It's an unbroken record of broken promises. If this alternate pattern of development is not pursued, the Adivasis will perish.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

NOW TO MAKE THE BILL WORK

 

For 14 long years, the Women's Reservation Bill has been one of the most controversial and bitterly contested legislations. That emotions about the Bill run high was seen in the unseemly fracas in the Rajya Sabha where it was introduced on Monday. But after all that kerfuffle, on Tuesday, chastened members returned to vote the historic Bill through. Now, the devil will lie in the many details. The old argument that it amounts to nothing more than tokenism will surface. In a country that ranks 114th among 134 in gender disparities, there was a need to create a level-playing field. But the big challenge now is to take the move forward and ensure that the benefits it was meant to bring about become a reality.

 

It has been seen from the panchayati raj reservation experiment that women leaders tend to pay more attention to issues of healthcare, education and other social development issues than their male counterparts. Many expect that this central reservation will bring about more focus on such sectors. However, the passage of the Bill should not mean that it will be left solely to the women who come into Parliament to ensure that social issues are taken up. Good governance is not gender-specific and ameliorative measures should be considered a work in progress. Perhaps this Bill would not have been necessary in the first place had political parties done more to encourage women within their rank and file. In ticket distribution, women lag far behind men. This despite the fact that five of India's major parties are led by women.

 

At present, there is only about 10 per cent of women in Parliament — 59 elected women MPs in a Lok Sabha of 543 members. We would like to sound a note of caution about expectations that the Bill will automatically ensure the empowerment of women. We have seen that in states with women chief ministers, the status of women has not improved dramatically. This has been the story of South Asia that has produced more women prime ministers and presidents than any other region in the world. However, the passage of the Bill is a huge rhetorical push for the concept of empowerment. It will, hopefully, create a groundswell of aspiration among women to opt for politics as a career. But the Bill should be seen as a catalyst to let more women get a foothold in politics and not considered a right in perpetuity. Until now, those in favour of reservations have argued that India's women should get their rightful political due. This will be vindicated if women coming into politics raise the bar of both governance and political discourse. Otherwise the tokenism charge will stick.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

CITY OF BLIGHTS

 

Eat your heart out Mumbai, Delhi has topped the show in the Liveability Index among all Indian cities in a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) survey. Liveability in the urban context takes in the mental and social well-being of its citizens apart from infrastructure. We want to add to this. Life in Delhi improves your moral fibre and your physical stamina. For example, if you want to negotiate the BRT, you will require the skills of Michael Schumacher, the patience of Mother Teresa and perhaps the fighting acumen of Bruce Lee.

 

Now this will come in handy in many spheres of life. Then during the frequent power cuts, you can learn the art of sweating it out without frequenting expensive gyms. And when you're left in the dark at night, think of how much better your other senses develop. Your social skills will be honed razor sharp when say you try to tell the gent next to you to give you right of way on the road. It's a different matter that you may end up in hospital, but have no fear, Delhi's health system ranks at 17. And if you are one of those who want to make a mark in civil society, be assured that we have regular dharnas, marches and disruptions in Parliament which should give you all the training you need in this field.

 

We have many role models who can teach us the art of survival irrespective of where we are, starting with our political class which has demonstrated that it pays to take what you want, be it public resources or road spaces. So on the whole, while the Sena is wittering on about whom Mumbai belongs to, those in Delhi have evolved to higher things. This will also go down well when the Commonwealth Games start. People will go back startled at our policy of ask not what you can do for your city, instead ask what your city can do for you.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

LADIES COMPARTMENT

SAGARIKA GHOSE

 

High gender justice rhetoric followed by anti-climactic bathos. That seems to be the story of the Women's Reservation Bill that was passed in the Rajya Sabha yesterday. It's the longest running saas-bahu soap opera in Indian politics. Thrice introduced,  thrice aborted for the last 14 years, governments have tried to move the Bill. Every time the Bill has been moved, it has been vociferously opposed by the 'social justice' lobby of Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav and, with monotonous regularity sent back to cold storage.

 

The Bill, reserving one-third seats in Lok Sabha and assemblies, strikes at the heart of gender relations in India. Patriarchal societies cosset and oppress their women in equal measure. In the violent high stakes game of Indian politics, women are tolerable as supportive wives and daughters who step out shyly to become a substitute for dead husbands or brothers, but intolerable when they stake a claim to robustly represent their own constituency. In fact, all over South Asia, there exists the syndrome that social scientist Ali Mazrui calls, 'female accession to male martyrdom', or the 'Indira, Benazir, Sheikh Hasina' syndrome by which females hold office not as female individuals, but as proxies of the powerful departed male. If, on the other hand, women rise on their own, or creditably claw their way up from the grassroots like Mamata, Uma and Maya, they must cultivate a certain strategic and spectacular insanity that strikes terror and fear in their supporters, a terror that silences all prejudice against  femininity. The devi/demoness stereotype, sadly, bedevils most women in Indian public life.

 

Thus there is every reason to support a legislation that promises special measures to bring women into public life. The odds are so high and the political culture so hostile that if women are to participate meaningfully — and in large numbers — in politics, then certainly some legislative shock treatment is needed. The question is if this Bill — Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008 — is the right legislation to secure meaningful participation of women in large numbers  in our present day politics. The jury is still out on that one.

 

The cacophony in Parliament, the shrill polarised  exchange of charges of 'elite women' and 'par kati women' on the one side and 'anti-women Yadavs' and 'regressive Hindi belt netas' on the other throughout the life of this Bill have meant that the opportunity for real debate on the Bill has been lost and the public has not had the opportunity to understand and engage with the Bill. No government since the inception of the Bill has made any serious attempt to create a wide-ranging debate or to assess public responses to a legislation that has the potential to transform Indian politics and create tectonic shifts in society.

 

While we may ridicule Lalu and Mulayam's objections to the Bill, yet their demand for 'quota within quota' may simply be a demand to force the government to spell out exactly what it will achieve through this Bill and what kind of arguments the government is able to bring in favour of the Bill.

 

As analysts have pointed out, the Bill contains many  structural flaws. First, there will be compulsory unseating of two-third of the members every election. Second, there will be no incentive for MPs to nurse constituencies. Third, there is the undeniable fact that family politics will be further enhanced as a male who suddenly loses his seat to a reserved constituency will be tempted to simply put up a female relative as a proxy. Thus the  floodgates of bahu-betis may open.

 

Women who contest from reserved seats will also not be able to nurture their constituencies as they will lose them in the next election and be forever seen as non-serious and ornamental figures who have been foisted on the people. Fifth, women will be consigned to the 'ladies compartment' of politics, busily fighting each other in their own female ghetto without getting the opportunity to test their skills against mainstream politicians. Women, the world over, hanker for equality of opportunity, not certainty of success. If the opportunity to fight is equal then let the best woman or man win. But if the reward is a given, then is the battle worth it?

 

Gender is the focus of elaborate hypocrisy in our  country. On the one hand, we worship at the politically

correct altar of gender justice. On the other hand, equality of women and acceptance of female individuality is frowned on and subverted at every stage. Gender is the subject of endless elite seminars, yet the fact is among the competing inequalities of India, the infirmities of caste and class bear down much more brutally on women than their gender.

 

Upper class privileged women seeking victimhood on the basis of gender is perhaps an injustice to the millions

of men who suffer far worse privations because they are lower caste and poor. Thus the idea that women are a monolithic victimised caste that need special protection through quotas is totally immature and misguided. Reading through this version of the women's quota Bill, it doesn't seem as if it will succeed in its mission of empowering women.

 

Sagarika Ghose is Senior Editor, CNN-IBN

n ghosesagarika@gmail.com

The views expressed by the author are personal

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

NO MORE AMAN KACHROOS

SHIVAM VIJ

 

Dear Mr P. Chidambaram,  

On March 8 last year, Aman Kachroo was lynched to death in a college hostel in Himachal Pradesh. It was just another case of ragging. It happened nearly eight years after the Supreme Court (SC) of India banned ragging in May 2001. In fact, since May 2001, there's been at least one ragging death every other month, as reported by the media. You can imagine how many cases are hushed up, blamed on academic pressure and 'depression', and never investigated into. We are also not going into the much larger number of cases of attempted suicides, drop-outs, and not measuring the psychological impact such cases have on freshers.

 

In 2001, the SC's orders said that an educational institution that is unable to control ragging would face grant cuts or be de-affiliated from bodies like the University Grants Commission, All India Council For Technical Education, Medical Council of India, etc. Not one of them ever found any college unable to control ragging. Their bureaucrats issued circulars and thought their signatures on the circulars were good enough. Years later, some of them told the SC that they didn't have the power to act against institutions — even though an SC order had empowered them to do so.

 

Sir, in 2006 the SC took note of the fact that despite its banning of ragging five years ago, it was continuing. So it set up a committee, headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghavan, to find out why. In the capacity of an anti-ragging activist, I was taken upon by the committee as a consultant. I got to see closely the working of the committee. They went from state to state, met students and educationists, conducted surveys and studied state laws. If the committee can be faulted, it is for working too hard, for making too many suggestions and for believing that its report would have an impact.

 

While the SC was still deliberating upon the committee's report last year, Aman Kachroo was killed. Most ragging deaths are suicides. Throwing oneself before a running train is a less popular method to escape the four walls of the hostel. When the fresher feels that he has no recourse, he chooses to hang himself from the ceiling fan of his hostel room. Aman Kachroo case was a rarity only to the extent that he was lynched to death. But since he was from Delhi, the Delhi media played it big and everyone took note of the case.

 

Aman's father ran from pillar to post trying to get anti-ragging measures implemented. It took him a few months just to get the Human Resource Development ministry to get going a national anti-ragging helpline. Despite very little publicity of the helpline by the ministry, it got 1.6 lakh calls in just eight months, till February. While that is some indication of the prevalence of ragging, it is worrying that of this huge number only 350 complaints were registered and of those 350, only 18 educational institutions chose to respond.

 

Two days after Aman Kachroo's death I wrote that it won't be the last case of ragging death. Sadly, I was not proved wrong. Aman's father had vowed he'll not let another ragging death take place. He now says he feels defeated. Since then the death cases reported include those of Ankita Vegda in Ahemdabad, Sneha Dani in Mumbai, Chintumoni Bordoloi in Guwahati, Dheeraj Kumar in Amritsar, Anirban Dutta in Durgapur, Poonam Mishra in Lucknow, Satyendra Singh in Jamshedpur, Greeshma Shanker in Trivandrum, Ayan Adak in Kolkata, Prashant Chitalkar in Pune, Sridhar in Puducherry, Gaurav Sadanand Raut in Nashik, Premlatha in Kancheepuram and a few days ago, Satwinder Kumar in Mumbai.

 

I dig out names and cities because numbers don't count.

I think, of the 50 recommendations made by the Raghavan Committee, the 45th recommendation is important. It says that the Indian Penal Code should be amended to make 'ragging' a cognisable offence along the lines of Section 498(a). It does not ask for any special punishment, but only to implement other IPC sections, starting from wrongful restraint to murder. We need the law to enshrine the word ragging as a crime so that freshers and parents feel empowered to go to police stations and police officers to not think that it's a trivial matter, which can be resolved through a 'compromise'. As the report argues, "We see no reason why enrolment in an institution or an academic programme should immunise perpetrators of heinous crimes which otherwise attract the penal provisions of law if committed by an adult citizen outside the academic precincts."

 

Sir, the SC had asked the Home ministry to consider this recommendation. But your esteemed officials felt (as reported by The Indian Express on March 12, 2009) that the SC directives were good enough. If this is the case, then why did the SC make the recommendation and why is my list of names of young lives lost to ragging increasing faster than it ever did?

 

Sir, I know you are busy fighting big problems like terrorism and Naxalism. But there is a siege within. A simple step by you can make thousands of hostel corridors places of hope rather than despair.

 

Shivam Vij is a Delhi-based human rights activist. The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

ON LADIES, NOT GENTS

ADVAITA KALA

 

In the much-vaunted tradition of buddy flicks, the two bad boys of Parliament brought the big guys to their knees, or at least the day's business in the world's largest democracy. The Yadav 'brothers' or bhaiyyas, if we subscribe to authenticity, were the only people who delivered on International Women's Day, on their threat that is. And without recourse to poison or smelling salts, just some good old rabble-rousing and 'back atcha' smack talk.

 

Smelling salts is really what the ruling party needs; it seems to have spent much of the day in the coy avatar of a BBC adaptation of a Jane Austen novel. Suddenly the party that all have accused of 'poor floor management' — how very domestic sounding — seems to have shrunk behind the shadow of parliamentary propriety. Not a squeak on what tomorrow brings, no one's channelling Scarlett here, and as all 'ladies' know it's rather inappropriate to be all too obvious about one's intentions.

 

Which brings us to the Opposition that seems to predate the ruling party's choice of cinematic genre and has gone with the tried and tested formula — mythology. Predictable, but then so are the robust declarations of national letdowns and instability. They appear on television and delight in their role of a well-intentioned-but-under-perceived player. Yes, the same one who traverses many portals with well-meaning intentions, but alas, is often misinterpreted. It's a true to the book adaptation here, no credit-sharing required on this one, or so they claim.

 

Then there is the party that veers to the left, but decides to go mainstream on this one. Full on, paisa vasool style, with lusty declarations of protecting the chair if the government can't. But they didn't, did they? Why you ask? They weren't asked, the tea party came a little too late in the day. There's that Victorian propriety again! Guess even in the time of UPA Reloaded, fond memories of UPA One persist. But here's what a good agent would tell them, "They just wrote out your part, babe. It ain't personal!"

 

As for the rest of us, yeah the same ones who this is about. We want a remake, something a little hatke — this isn't about 33 per cent for women, it's about 67 per cent for men. Let's look at this a little differently. There're many ways to tell the same story — it's all in the story-telling.

 

Advaita Kala is the author of Almost Single. The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

PUNCTURE YOUR EGO

RAJAN SURI

 

Having conquered half the world and having ruined hundreds of towns and cities in his ego-driven quest, King Alexander reached India and found himself lost in a vast desert. With no water in sight for days, his thirst became unbearable.

 

He came across an old beggar who had a pot of drinking water with him. Alexander asked for water, but the latter asked, "What will you give me in lieu of this pot of water?" Alexander, who had not seen a drop of water for almost a week, offered half of his kingdom. The beggar said, "Come tomorrow, as I want not half but your entire kingdom."

 

Alexander agreed to trade his entire kingdom for the pot of water. The beggar laughed and said, "So the worth of your kingdom is just a pot of water." Alexander realised his mistake and went back, but died on his way.

 

There is a story of a disciple who went to a Guru to learn martial arts. After sustained practice, the disciple became an invincible sword fighter. "Why should I now bow before the Guru, whom I can easily defeat in sword fight?" The impudent disciple challenged his Guru for a sword fight. The Guru accepted the challenge. 

 

One day the disciple learnt that the Guru was getting an eight-feet- long sword made for the dual so that he could attack the disciple from a safe distance. In response, the disciple arranged a 10-feet-long sword. However, the disciple did not know that the eight-feet sheath of the Guru contained only a one- foot- long sharp sword.

 

On the appointed day, as the dual started, the disciple scrambled to take out his  sword out of the sheath. The Guru quickly brought out his sword and placed it on the disciple's neck, who now pleaded for mercy.

 

The Guru forgave his disciple and said, "Always keep a small sword in your big sheath if you want to win".

 

 In other words, even when you occupy high posts, or acquire exceptional capabilities, your ego should always be small.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

IMPROVE-IDENT

 

The Direct Tax Code is supposed to make dealing with the taxman simpler. For the vast majority of taxpayers a straightforward tax rate of 10 per cent will be charged, and the maze-like mess of exemptions and concessions will be pruned. Why? Because too much of the Indian middle classes' financial planning works on navigating that maze, focusing on how to save taxes instead of on finding the most productive investment — which would be infinitely preferable, from both a personal and a social standpoint.

 

One such tax-saving scheme, traditionally, has been the provident fund system. This method of ensuring saving to which both employers and employees contribute, has largely been exempt from taxes. This exemption is of the "EEE" type: there are no taxes due at any point in the chain; not at the initial moment of saving, not when saved funds are invested and reinvested, not when returns are withdrawn. The simplification that accompanies the DTC includes the replacement of the EEE system with an EET-type system: where the saving and investment are exempt from taxes, but withdrawing the money from the system in order to spend it trips the taxation. The original idea behind keeping the provident fund tax-free was to incentivise people to save, which has a growth-enhancing effect; this innovation will preserve that incentive, while ensuring that the extra income is taxed anyway when people eventually turn it into consumption, the point at which the growth-enhan-

 

cing effect disappears. (The government's New Pension Scheme, which aims to eventually replace the provident fund system, uses exactly the same mechanism.)

 

It is now being reported that this sensible reform has run into trouble. The Prime Minister's Office has suggested to the finance ministry that it review the EET proposal as it redrafts the code: the tendency to withdraw sums in bulk at retirement has been cited as a reason. But there are simple workarounds and exemptions that can deal with this and other such problems. None of these should slow down the process of simplifying the tax code, closing loopholes in the system, and re-orienting Indian financial planning away from tax planning and towards investment planning.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

JUDGMENT RESERVED

 

We stand at the cusp of big change — the Rajya Sabha has, in a volatile and momentous session, passed the Women's Reservation Bill. After 14 years of stop-start, when demands for sub-quotas within the category of "women" for other disadvantaged groups hobbled the bill's progress, it has finally been set in real motion. As the drama in the Rajya Sabha demonstrated, it will not be easy. Competing demands to be more unequal than others had created political gridlock — but that, it now appears, might give way to a new kind of participation by women.

 

The question of women's electoral representation has reared its head several times, and has always been accompanied by the same tensions. Separate electorate constituencies for women were introduced by the British Raj in the provincial elections of 1936-1937 and 1946, but independent India rejected the idea as an imperial restraint, and patronising to women. Now, we are coming full circle to accepting that women need to be recognised as a constituency by themselves, split as they are across community, class and caste. Women who belong to a backward caste and live in a backward region suffer cumulative layers of disadvantage. However, it's obvious that women of all strata are under-represented in the legislatures — making the bill's rationale self-evident. What's more, we are all bags of selves, and choose our self-description according to context. When identity intertwines with material interests, rational calculation comes into play. So if being a woman offers greater benefits than, say, being a Muslim, you might highlight that facet of your identity. As studies of Indian women sarpanches have shown, over the years they have learnt to identify and administer as women, rather than as members of particular castes. Perhaps, if this experiment works out for the best, women might, in just over a decade, no longer need this affirmative action to hold their representation in assemblies.

 

However promising and ultimately worthwhile such a situation is, the traumatic passage of the bill reveals how imperfect the mechanics of it are. This will have huge and literally unsettling effects on our political system, as a big fraction of our MPs and MLAs are uprooted from their constituency every election. Can our politics be mindful of this imperfect measure and innovatively retain the parliamentary covenant between elected and constituent? Will this newly opened space be co-opted by well-connected women? Will stakeholders be able to subvert the progressive principle of gender parity and consolidate power by proxy? As this experiment unfolds over 15 years, we will discover whose interests it ends up advancing.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

LET'S JUNK THE HYPOCRISY

JAITHIRTH RAO

 

The drama surrounding the proposed reservation of seats for women in Parliament and in the state assemblies has taken an interesting turn. The supporters are parties which are otherwise always locked in opposition to one another. The Congress, the BJP and the Left are all supporters, although the enthusiasm of all their members is suspect. The SP, the RJD and the BSP are opponents and are very vociferous and obstructive about it. The mystery remains: are the supporters pro-women and are the opponents anti-feminist? Does this simplistic analysis say it all?

 

Far from it. Issues of franchise are always political. Parties may appear to be taking a progressive stance or a reactionary one. Quite simply, they support the position that would help them. The Congress, the BJP and the Left believe that the change will help them get more seats in Parliament, if not more votes. The opposing parties are legitimately concerned that if fundamental processes associated with the electoral exercise are changed dramatically at one stroke, then they could be losers. In 1909, when the British introduced the Minto-Morley reforms, they came up with the then novel idea of "separate electorates". The principal beneficiaries were rich Muslims — mind you, not Muslims at large, but rich Muslims. No wonder, the super-rich Aga Khan himself led a deputation of similar "leaders" to ask the Viceroy for this concession. This is not to suggest that the Aga Khan and his friends did not make high-sounding arguments about protecting the rights of Indian Muslims. Political arguments are always couched in such rhetoric. Let us consider the possibility that Minto and Morley, instead of creating a separate Muslim electorate, had in fact created three Muslim electorates, one for the Ashraf, the Muslim aristocracy who claim descent from immigrants, one for the Ajlaf, who are generally considered to be the descendants of lower caste Hindus who converted to Islam, and one for the Arzal, who are assumed to be descended from Dalits who converted to Islam. If the subsequent elections had reflected three separate electorates, it would have been very difficult for the Muslim League to have come up with the slogan that an imagined homogenous form of Islam would be in "danger" in a Hindu majority India. Indian history could and would have taken a different course. When Ramsay MacDonald introduced the "communal award" which conferred separate electorates on the Dalits, Mahatma Gandhi went on a "fast unto death" to oppose this. While undoubtedly the Mahatma's stance was prompted by his strong opposition to untouchability and his deep, sincere personal convictions, it should be noted that a joint electorate of all Hindus, including Dalits, was beneficial to the Congress Party. In the absence of a joint electorate, the Congress could not have had the oversized influence it had in the independence negotiations with the British. Again, history may have taken a different turn.

 

The SP, the RJD and the BSP are grass-roots political parties who have been beneficiaries of the present electoral system. To expect them to commit political hara-kiri by agreeing to the new bill is naïve. The fact of the matter is that whatever may be its claims about being inclusive, the Congress's leadership has always been drawn from the upper castes. The same is the case with the BJP and strangely enough with the Left. The late Kanshi Ram used to point out that while the rank and file members of the communist parties were from lower castes, the Politburo was always dominated by members of upper caste origin. The political parties who draw their support from backward castes and Dalits are convinced that the entire women's quota idea will help upper caste women candidates and hence reverse the trend of the last four decades where gradually the lower castes have been acquiring political power. Instead of moving from seats of power in the state capitals to power in Delhi, their political aspirations will get derailed. Is this fear justified? Why can these parties not put up women candidates and win? No one can predict the future. But there is a distinct possibility that upper caste women can use their female identity to appeal to women and transcend caste identities — a little bit like rich Muslim leaders of the Muslim League appealing to poor Muslims exclusively on a religious basis, bypassing class considerations.

 

Many have argued that the women's movement in the United States has done a disservice to blacks. By combining issues of racial discrimination with issues of gender discrimination, the beneficiaries have been white women and this has been detrimental to the interests of African-Americans as a group. A similar probable consequence is at the root of the opposition by the SP, RJD and the BSP.

 

From a strictly constitutional position, one can argue that a radical change in the electoral system would constitute an assault on a "basic feature" and would thus go against the celebrated Keshavanand Bharati judgment. We already have completely discriminatory laws, for instance, women pay less income tax than men. This absurd proposition seems to forget that it is income that is taxed and income does not have any gender. If the Congress-BJP-Left combine to push through this measure, I believe that the opponents will have a strong case to get it struck down by the Supreme Court. The present franchise system — no separate electorates, reservation for SCs and STs, nominated seats for Anglo-Indians, etc — did not come out casually or by accident. The Constituent Assembly discussed and debated these matters at length, and guess what, consensus was obtained. The Muslim members of the assembly supported the abolition of separate electorates. For the Congress-BJP-Left upper caste leadership to ram down a major constitutional change that can have implications similar to the Minto-Morley reforms, pretending to be women-friendly while actually improving their own electoral prospects, is a dubious measure. On this one, believers in constitutional rectitude must support the SP, the RJD and the BSP — even if their parliamentary tactics are too noisy for comfort!

 

The writer divides his time between Mumbai, Lonavla and Bangalore

jerry.rao@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE WHIP HAND

C.V. MADHUKAR

 

The latest developments on the Women's Reservation Bill once again highlight the role of the whip system in India. In this case, most political parties issued whips to their MPs to either vote for or against the bill, depending on their party line. Once the whip is issued, the MPs from each party will necessarily have to obey the whip or else risk losing their seat in Parliament. The Janata Dal (United) had serious differences within itself, and finally decided not to issue a whip, and to instead allow each of their MPs in the Rajya Sabha to vote according to his/ her individual conscience on this bill.

 

In practice, the whip is "an official appointed to maintain discipline among, secure attendance of, and give necessary information to, members of his party." Party whips are persons who are expected to be a channel of communication between the political party and the members of the party in the legislature. They also serve the function of gauging the opinion of the members, and communicating it to party leaders. The actual whips issued to members can be of three types: one-line, two-line or three-line, depending on the number of times the text is underlined, reflecting the urgency and importance of the whip.

 

Issuing whips is an age-old practice in several mature democracies. In the US, the party whip's role is to gauge how many legislators are in support of a bill and how many are opposed to it — and to the extent possible, persuade them to vote according to the party line on the issue.

 

In the UK, the violation of a three-line whip is taken seriously — occasionally resulting in the expulsion of the member from the party. Such a member can continue in Parliament as an independent until the party admits the member back into the party. In India, the amendment which added the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution, commonly referred to as the anti-defection law, can potentially result in the MP losing his seat in Parliament if he votes against the party whip. There is no data on the frequency of whips issued in India; and, since most bills here are passed by voice vote, it is quite impossible to say whether a party supported or opposed a bill, except by what one might be able to infer from the speeches made by its MPs. Since 1985, there have been a total of 19 cases where MPs lost their seat in Parliament for disobeying the party whip.

 

Several practitioners are of the view that the whip should be applicable only to motions where the survival of the government is in question, and not to ordinary legislation. In the UK, political parties sometimes announce a "free vote", in which MPs are allowed to vote as they wish on certain issues. Speaking on the practice of issuing whips in India, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha recently said that "we need to build a political consensus so that the room for political and policy expression in Parliament for an individual member is expanded. This could take many forms. For example, the issuance of a whip could be limited to only those bills that could threaten the survival of a government, such as money bills or no-confidence motions. In other legislative and deliberative business of Parliament, this would enable members to exercise their judgment and articulate their opinion." There is a private member bill now pending in Parliament which seeks to amend the anti-defection law to ensure that it not be applicable to ordinary legislation that does not threaten the survival of a government.

 

Most observers would agree that the landmark Women's Reservation Bill could not have possibly been passed had political parties not resorted to the use of whips. The idea of "forced consensus" may be a tempting tool to use at such times. But all of us know that such short cuts are detrimental to the long-term health of our democracy. In a country like the US, where primaries determine who would be the candidate for any seat in the legislature, party leaders cannot use the instrument of issuing party tickets to ensure greater party discipline. But in India, since party leaders determine who is nominated for the next election from any constituency, there is already a great incentive for MPs to obey the party line on most occasions.

 

This implies that MPs will differ from the party line only in exceptional circumstances. The anti-defection law and the whip system reduce the MPs to a mere headcount on the floor of the House, and further deter them from exercising their judgment on major issues. The longer route of building consensus on most issues amongst the majority of the legislators concerned, however arduous, must be the way forward.

 

The writer is director, PRS Legislative Research, Delhi

express@expressindia.com

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

UNSETTLING POLITICS

MADHU PURNIMA KISHWAR

 

For a long time, any legislation which claimed to be pro-women, no matter how stupid and harmful in substance, sailed through Parliament because any legislative initiative claiming to help women enjoyed a moral aura.

 

The Women's Reservation Bill is the first piece of legislation witnessing strong opposition within Parliament

because this legislation will affect the fortunes of every single politician. If a secret voting is allowed on this important bill, Mrs Gandhi and BJP party bosses who have issued a whip will discover how deeply resentful their own party members are over this bill.

 

The Women's Reservation Bill, in its present form, has serious, indeed fatal, flaws. If enacted, this measure will send our already tottering political system into a devastating tailspin. The one-third of the total parliamentary seats to be reserved for women is to be selected through a lottery system. This implies that at random, at least 180 male legislators will be uprooted from their constituencies every election. In their place, 180 women will be assigned those constituencies before every election. Then, at the time of the next election, when the new list of 180 reserved constituencies is declared in the same manner, these 180 women will not be able to contest from the seats they are holding at that point of time because the same constituency cannot be reserved twice in succession under the bill's rotation system.

 

Thus two-thirds of our legislators will be uprooted at every election. This takes away the incentive for women

representatives to nurture and be accountable to their constituencies since after each election they will be expected to either withdraw from the contest or move to a different constituency since no constituency can be reserved in succession.

 

Thus this brainless scheme of reservation jeopardises the possibility of sensible planning to contest a political

constituency for both men and women. Since very few women politicians have an independent electoral base, this uncertainty about where they will be fielded from will make them even more dependent on male bosses of their party to win elections. In such a situation, male politicians will find it easy to bring in their wives and daughters — the biwi beti brigade — as proxies to keep the seat "safe" for them until the next election when they would be likely to be able to reclaim their seats.

 

Being a politician's wife or daughter ought not to be a disqualification in itself. After all, children of lawyers and doctors often inherit their father's practice. But they have to prove their worth every day with their clientele. However, most female relatives are brought in as proxies whose only task is to safeguard the political interests of the men of their families. Like Laloo Yadav' s wife Rabri Devi or Madhu Koda's wife, they will be brought in as rubber stamps to safeguard family interests and sent home after their use is over.

 

We cannot afford to pack our Parliament and state legislatures with a larger contingent of Rabri Devis. Apart from other disabilities, they act as very negative role models for women because they enlarge the compass of the ideology of female subservience, which is most prominent in the domestic realm, into the public and political domain as well. The one and only agenda these women have is to do all that they can to save their husbands' seat or protect them from being put on trial for looting the public exchequer. They don't even bother to pretend otherwise. How does such a woman serve the cause of women or empower other women?

 

The biwi-beti brigade, in fact, acts as a definite block against the emergence of independent-minded women

who wish to make a space for themselves on their own strength in the public domain. For example, it is a common phenomenon in India that the women's fronts of various political parties are headed by wives, other female relatives, or mistresses of prominent male party leaders. These posts are given to these women like a jagir for as long as their men retain their clout in the party. A Brinda Karat, Promila Dandavate or Ahilya Ranganekar is put in charge of the women's front primarily because of their husband's clout in the party. Such women do not easily make space for other women with merit. Any woman who enters the party, no matter how talented, has to play a subservient role to these dependent women. The political initiative of most women thus gets curbed rather than encouraged in the party mahila (women) fronts.

 

Because of the familial connection between the main party and the women's fronts, the politics of the women's front remains subservient to the party. All too often, the main purpose of the women's fronts turns out to be narrowly partisan on women's issues. For example, if a rape is committed by people associated with the Congress Party, the women in Opposition parties are used to let loose a tirade against the Congress. But the same women turn a blind eye towards victims of atrocities when their own party colleagues are culprits. Can we think of even one Congress woman who took a public stand against her partymen involved in the 1984 massacre of Sikhs? Or any BJP woman who stood in support of the victims of Gujarat riots?

 

For years Mamata Banerjee kept crying hoarse about the violence unleashed by CPM cadres on people in rural Bengal, including cases of gruesome rape, in order to obstruct the conduct of free and fair elections in West Bengal. The CPM women responded in characteristic style and hurled the choicest of political abuses at Mamata instead of making common cause with her in combating the culture of violence in West Bengal.

 

No wonder our country has not yet witnessed the emergence of women-centric politics on women's issues. The thoughtless scheme of reservation envisaged by the current Reservation Bill will allow the feminine political space to be totally dominated by the biwi beti brigade which will only demean the idea of women's empowerment.

 

When it goes to the Lok Sabha, MPs should demand the right to secret vote on this important constitutional amendment. Democracy is meaningless if legislators are denied the right to vote for issues according to their conviction.

 

The writer is professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, and founder editor 'Manushi'

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

VIEW FROM THE LEFT

MANOJ C G

 

INSTRUCTIONS FROM AMERICA

Having taken a stand that New Delhi's decision to resume talks with Pakistan came under US pressure, the CPI now feels that the UPA government may allow "direct" American interference in the Indo-Pak dispute or will avail the help of countries friendly to Washington.

 

The assertion came in an editorial in the latest edition of CPI mouthpiece New Age. Although both India and Pakistan are making noises to satisfy their home constituencies after the foreign secretary-level talks, it says: "India has to join the US plan on Afghanistan. It has also to allow Pakistan to do what the Americans want on Pak-Afghan borders. This is the reality. Under US pressure, UPA-II may accept the direct US interference in Indo-Pak dispute or will avail the services of Saudi Arabia."

 

For the CPI, the government's decision to "rush through" the Nuclear Liability Bill and the PMO's plan to get the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill — which it says clearly favours American multinational corporations promoting GM crops and foods — tabled in Parliament indicates that Washington has started dictating terms on other issues as well as foreign policy.

 

DISOWNING LIABILITY

An article in the CPM's weekly People's Democracy also focussed on the Nuclear Liability Bill, dubbing it "one more chapter" in the sorry saga of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, and claiming that the key part of the proposed bill is to absolve all American equipment suppliers of any liability.

 

"Without this, the US equipment suppliers will not supply any equipment and the US government has held up all action on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Though the French and Russian equipment suppliers have not asked for any such liability legislation, the Manmohan Singh government has buckled under US pressure and is now willing to provide the US suppliers with this comfort," it says.

 

The article argues that the bill caters to the wishes of the US nuclear industry, which it says "wants the billions of dollars in profits from Indian sales, but does not want any risks". It points out that limiting the liability to about $450 million, restricting the liability of operators to only Rs 500 crore and making no legal liability for the supplier contradicts the law of the land.

 

It recalls that the Supreme Court — in its judgment on the Oleum leak case from Sri Ram Food and Fertilisers in 1987 — had made clear that the industry operating hazardous plants had absolute liability including that for environmental damage. "The current bill seeks to reverse this," it says.

 

PARTIES AT ODDS

In sharp contrast to the CPI's assertion that the US had pressurised India to resume talks with Pakistan and New Delhi may even accept direct American interference, the CPM seems to be supportive of the government's efforts and is not raising its pet American intervention bogey this time around.

 

The editorial in People's Democracy on Indo-Pak foreign secretary-level talks says it is now clear that New Delhi has correctly decided to press its case across the dialogue table for firm action on terrorism and quotes extensively from External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna's statement in Parliament on the talks.

 

Besides, it says: "India has correctly reiterated that the composite dialogue process can only be restored when such measures are undertaken by Pakistan and an improved atmosphere of trust and confidence is created between both the countries. These talks have resumed despite the concerted efforts made by various quarters that provide mileage for terrorism. The lack of a dialogue between the two sides interpreted as India's reluctance to engage with Pakistan has often been used to detract and dilute Pakistan's efforts on its western borders against the activities of the Taliban."

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

TIBET ANNIVERSARIES

C. RAJA MOHAN

 

In a week of tragic Tibet anniversaries — the Dalai Lama's failed 1959 uprising and flight to India and the Lhasa riots two years ago — Beijing would want to make sure there are no surprises of any kind.

 

Beijing has tightened security inside Tibet as part of a pre-emptive "strike-hard" campaign against dissidents and trouble-makers. China is confident enough about its control over the law and order situation to invite groups of foreign journalists into Tibet during the last few weeks.

 

China has also stepped up security along the border with Nepal, where nearly 20,000 Tibetan refugees live. Since the Lhasa riots in March 2008, Beijing's relentless pressure has compelled Nepal to crack down on all possible sources of cross-border support to the autonomy movement inside Tibet.

 

Beyond the imperatives of getting through this week without any major incidents in Tibet, Chinese President Hu Jintao has reaffirmed the strategy of promoting economic development and political stability in Tibet.

 

The Chinese Communist Party and the government in Beijing have always paid special attention at the highest possible levels to the economic and political situation in Tibet. Since 1980 Beijing has organised special forums aimed at giving a measure of purposefulness to the party and governmental work in Tibet.

 

The report of the Fifth Forum on Tibet which met earlier this year underlined the progress achieved since the fourth report that was issued in 2001. The report says that the national government has invested about $46 billion in Tibet since 2001 and the gross domestic product of the region has posted an annual growth rate of 12 per cent during the last decade.

 

This impressive growth picture is, of course, is based on low base figures; but there is no denying the dramatic economic transformation of Tibet in recent years. Sceptics would, however, argue that economic growth does not always buy political love and point to the fact that the Lhasa riots two years ago underline the enduring political tension in Tibet.

 

AUTONOMY TALKS

Quite aware of its vulnerabilities in Tibet, the CCP has acted vigorously during the last decade to remove them. Part of that strategy had been a direct engagement with the representatives of the Dalai Lama and his exiled government based in Dharmashala.

 

After the ninth round conducted earlier this year, it is quite evident that China has all the cards and the Tibetans not too many. In a recent report on the talks so far, delivered at a think tank in Washington last week, the principal Tibetan negotiator, Lodi Gyari, pointed to the extraordinary difficulties that Dharmashala has had in getting Beijing to accept any of its demands.

 

The Chinese don't even acknowledge the existence of a "Tibetan issue" and have rejected the Dalai Lama's repeated assertions that he is not seeking Tibet's separation from China and commitment to seek a shared future with the Chinese with the People's Republic.

The disagreement between the Dalai Lama and the CCP envelops all major issues — the geographic definition of what constitutes Tibet, its historical political relationship with China, and the meaning and scope of the autonomy sought by the Dalai Lama for his people.

SHRINKING OPTIONS

As China became stronger by the year during the last decade and is well on its way to become a superpower, it is not clear how the Tibetans can nudge Beijing towards a settlement that meets even the minimal goals of the Dalai Lama.

 

One way is to appeal to the higher sensibilities of the CCP leadership. As Gyari argued, China can't become a superpower only "through military and economic strength". "Moral authority is a very important condition," Gyari insisted and added that this can be "imparted by the Tibetan Buddhist culture".

 

China's growing weight on the international stage has undermined the essence of the Dalai Lama's political strategy during the last two decades — to mobilise Western pressure on China to accommodate Tibetan aspirations.

 

In the past, Beijing was willing to make a few gestures to get the US and the West to get off its back on Tibet. In the last couple of years, Beijing had made it absolutely clear that it will not make any compromises on Tibet. This puts the ball back in the court of the Dalai Lama who must now consider alternative approaches to get Beijing's attention. Therefore his speech on Wednesday marking the 51st anniversary of the 1959 uprising will be heard with some interest.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE STORYTELLING OF WAR

 

Two war movies, The Hurt Locker and The Messenger, received multiple nominations for the Academy Awards (The Hurt Locker, in fact, won Best Picture). Though I've enjoyed war movies in the past, I haven't seen either of these. I've stopped watching movies about our current wars for the same reason I don't like recounting my scariest moments for voyeuristic friends. I am protective of my memories and don't want them crowded out.

 

People seem impatient when I choose to talk about playing volleyball with interpreters, drinking tea with warlords, training police, or dredging irrigation canals. It's as if you lack authenticity if you talk about anything other than killing or being killed. The expectation bores into your memory, and you struggle to distinguish how you felt from how you are expected to feel. Often, it feels easier to surrender to expectation. There is truth in what Isaac Babel wrote in his story, My First Fee: "A well-thought-out story doesn't need to resemble real life. Life itself tries with all its might to resemble a well-crafted story."

 

I feel the reality of my experiences seeping through my fingers as my own life tries with all its might to resemble one of two stories: that of hero or victim. I can be the hero who in the face of danger mustered all the old truths of the heart, or, and perhaps simultaneously, I can be a well-intentioned victim of circumstance forced to commune with death through the moral ambiguities of war.

 

Whatever a veteran's faults, they are all excused with four simple words: I've been to war. Whatever a veteran's faults — irritability, boorishness, aloofness, alcoholism, drug use, self destruction — they are all excused with four simple words: I've been to war. For many, the effects are genuine, sure, and we should help them. I do not want to dismiss anyone's suffering. I do, however, want to acknowledge the seductive power of the red carpet of victimhood, and life bending to resemble a well-crafted story.

 

I've listened to a reading of The Iliad from nine cassette tapes three times. Its heroes were legitimately distinguished by valour and prowess in specific opposition to those who stayed with the ships during battle. The rest were neither victim nor hero, but soldiers doing their jobs and shouldering their burdens — unglamorous labour, homecoming and all.

 

I remember Iraq, 2003-04. This was before the swarms of reporters left in search of riper piles. The well-crafted story then, as now, involved the struggles of well-intentioned soldiers, though back then it contrasted more starkly with how I think I remember feeling.

 

Morale in my unit was generally high, especially early on, and I resented the efficiency with which reporters seemed to sniff out the young soldier among us who was having a hard time. I resented the constant parade of them on the news.

 

The reports were honest, of course, but as I've written before, the problem with war narratives isn't lying. The problem is there's too much truth. Everything you've ever heard or suspected about armed conflict is likely true. The enterprise is so vast that writers, myself included, can choose whichever truths support a particular thesis.

 

But who will tell the story of those who don't struggle to adjust? Is there space in our consciousness for those who enjoy themselves? For those who choose to return to do similar work as contractors for a salary three times as high? Those who return because they didn't get enough action? Who will admit that many of us are capable of facing combat? I never met anyone emerging from an intense firefight who wanted to go back, but those who folded under the pressure were the exception, not the rule. Who will admit that some of us even revel in it? And if such statements are made, who will listen?

 

I'd be kidding myself to think The Iliad isn't a whitewashing — propaganda even — for the Greeks.

 

Although it puts me and many of my personal friends in a flattering light, I fear the narrative of the reluctant, well-intentioned soldier because, along with similar reverence for all things military, it seems a requisite for endless war. The misguided motives of empire hide behind the sympathetic portrayal of its servants. I also know, as we all probably do but hesitate to admit, that many of us servants were far from reluctant.

 

Anyone who's been over there understands how, toward the end of a deployment, soldiers who haven't gotten enough action begin volunteering for dangerous missions. They don't want to talk about playing volleyball and dredging irrigation canals when they return home. They want to say they've seen things gentler people could not possibly understand.

 

Similarly, if our wars ever draw to a close, there will be a headlong rush within the ranks to get over there and earn combat patches and action badges because such decorations are good for careers. They are good for telling stories to grandchildren too, though I don't think prospective grandparents planning far in advance should worry about missing the opportunities of Iraq or Afghanistan. Since we ended the inconvenient practice of declaring our wars, the United States has waged one every decade. There will be no shortage of opportunities to see things your civilian friends couldn't possibly understand.

 

These more selfish impulses are no less real and no less human than those behind heroism and victimhood, which are so much more readily embraced. Excluding them, as most war movies do, whitewashes reality.

 

My favorite war narrative is Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War. The two-and-half-millennium-old

narrative does not ignore selfish pettiness, opportunism, false bravado, naïve adventure seeking, and is more familiar to me than many accounts of our wars being peddled today.

 

I resent the thanks I occasionally get because it is given without knowing whether I commanded an infantry

platoon or a desk, whether I'd been a good leader or a bad one, and I resent the pity because, all told, I've benefited from all the military has taught me. Occasionally, I'm tempted to walk the red carpet of victimhood so often unrolled at my feet. For a split second, I even wonder if it isn't deserved, and this scares me. I feel my memories bending to accommodate the world.

 

Wars, like everything else, are replaced by the telling of them.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

RESERVED

The Rajya Sabha has passed the Bill reserving 33% seats for women in India's legislatures, and the move is well-intentioned. Women's political participation is important in terms of both the design and aspirations of democracy. It's a reflection of an increasing respect for this reality that women's global parliamentary representation has been steadily rising, with different governments taking differing credits for encouraging such developments. But good intentions are not always the guarantee of good deeds. This being the case, it's important to give reservation's opponents due consideration. So, it's interesting to wonder, if they had seen Kamal Akhtar and Ejaz Ali tear up the women's reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, how would Simone de Beauvoir, Mary Wolsttonecraft or Sarojini Naidu have responded? With reason. Pioneering feminists were intimately familiar with how conspicuous claims to equal rights for women drive some men to hysteria, to violence. But, matters are more complex here and now. Today, even while decrying the mayhem wreaked by a select, shameless few in Parliament over the last couple of days, it behooves rational Indians to consider that—in this matter—things have gone beyond being simply for or against women.

 

First, the latest move towards reservation comes on the back of several others; so India has data to judge whether this strategy actually serves the cause of equity. Even disregarding other institutions, consider the SC/dalit reservation in Parliament itself. There is not enough hard evidence to suggest that target communities have been uplifted in their entirety. Anecdotal evidence, in fact, suggests that the creamy layer has cornered the benefits. In fact, it is political mobilisation rather than reservation itself that appears to have strengthened SC representation, but the ghettoisation appears permanent. Lasting segregation is clearly not a desirable goal for women either. Second, let's ask whether or not the Bill in its present form works in favour of improved governance in India. The rotation principle is the real catch. It will result in the compulsory unseating of two-thirds of incumbent members—one-third being women and one-third being men— in every general election. The resulting disincentivisation for parliamentarians to make long-term investments in their constituencies has doubtful merit. On top of all this, one must also consider how the introduction of the Bill will impact the government's legislative agenda, particularly on economic reform. All the political fissures, within and outside the UPA, that this issue has thrown up are bound to make the FM and party more restrained on the other fronts. The UPA after all does not have a comfortable enough majority in the Lok Sabhawithout the support of the two Yadavs and BSP.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

STATE OF BANKS

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee reintroduced the State Bank of India (Amendment) Bill in Parliament on Monday—the Bill which will reduce the government's shareholding in SBI from 55% to 51% was first introduced in 2006 but lapsed with the dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha. The long delay between the time the Bill was first introduced and now reintroduced tells the story about the kind of time lags that plague key decisions on public sector undertakings. In a private corporate entity, reducing promoter shareholding from 55% to 51% would be a matter decided in days, weeks or may be months, but not years. But the UPA government seems in no mood to free public sector undertakings, including banks, from such control. That is unfortunate.

 

Still, the SBI Bill, if passed, will help India's largest bank in a number of ways. First, the offloading of some government shares will help shore up SBI's equity base from sources outside the government—SBI plans to raise Rs 40,000 crore in the next three years. That is welcome. The amendment bill will also give SBI more autonomy from the government in its functioning. The government will no longer be able to appoint more than four managing directors, and the post of vice-chairman will be abolished. Significantly, any shareholder with at least Rs 5,000 worth of shares will be allowed to contest an election to directorship of the bank's board. Of course, this is hardly in the category of big bang reform that Indian banking needs. But if the government is going to continue to shy away from privatisation, then as a second best it is important to give PSBs autonomy and subject them to the discipline of the stock market—-something that listing a larger proportion of their shares on stock markets will enable. The autonomy should also extend to PSB boards, rather than finance ministry officials, taking decisions on whether to merge or acquire other PSBs. That should help improve efficiency in the largest segment of the Indian banking industry—private and foreign banks are still minor players. Of course, over the medium term one hopes that RBI will follow the finance minister's Budget promise and give out many more licences to banks, and take other steps to increase competition in the banking system. That is probably the best way to spur SBI and other large PSBs to improve their efficiency and performance.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

EMPOWER, BUT BEYOND JUST THE BILL

BIBEK DEBROY

UNDP has just (International Women's Day) brought out an Asia-Pacific Human Development Report (APHDR), with a focus on gender equality. Unfortunately, reportage of HDRs is too often based only on indices—GDI (gender-related development index), GEM (gender empowerment measure) and others. To dispose of these first, India scores 0.594 on GDI. (GEM cannot be computed because of data paucity.) Like HDI (human development index), GDI is based on indicators of health (life expectancy), education (literacy, gross enrolment rate) and PPP per capita income and splices in male/female differentials. Let us gloss over methodological issues and there are some. To benchmark ourselves in the South and West Asia region, Iran has a GDI of 0.770 and Afghanistan of 0.310. We are also behind Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, but ahead of Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Not all development or deprivation indicators are necessarily used in constructing indices.

 

Here are a few more. In 2007, 42.7 million women in India were missing, because of discriminatory treatment in health and education. The under-five male mortality rate is 72.0 (per thousand), but the female figure is 81.0. The net primary school enrolment rate is 86.8 for females and 90.4 for males and discrimination continues up the education ladder. Estimated female PPP per capita earned income is $1304, with a male figure of 4102. Female labour force participation rate is 34.2%. Mao Zedong's quote about women holding up half the sky means a large chunk of the Indian sky is missing or is full of holes. While that is obvious, notwithstanding MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), there are three reasons why everyone should read the APHDR. First, it is topical because of the women's reservation Bill and has a discussion on quotas. Second, there is a rich discussion on policy (ownership of assets, inheritance, nature and quality of female employment, sexual abuse, violence) and APHDR transcends many other HDRs on this count. Third, it states the case for gender equality in a broader framework. "The case for gender equality is often pitched as a human rights or social justice argument, but a growing body of evidence reveals that gender equality is good economics as well. For instance, over the last 10 years the increase of women workers in developed countries is estimated to have contributed more to global growth than has China's remarkable economic record. Reaching the same level of women's labour market participation in the US—over 70 per cent—would boost GDP in countries, for example, by 4.2 per cent a year in India.The gains would be greater where current female participation rates are the lowest."

 

That's a potential demographic dividend of a slightly different kind. Such HDRs use all-India figures. Let's not forget backward States have low female work participation rates. In 2001 Census, female work participation rate was 16.82% in UP and 20.71% in Bihar.

 

On reservations proper, the authors of APHDR couldn't possibly have anticipated how relevant this document would be or that there would be this remarkable coincidence, though 8th March was the obvious date for the release of APHDR and for placing the bill in Parliament. "Both (BJP and Congress) parties have female leaders and platforms that make commitments to gender equality. But often women are put into constituencies where they are less likely to succeed—a common practice for parties that want to appear to embrace gender equality without actually having to disrupt the status quo." Opposition to the Bill is partly about disrupting status quo.

However, APHDR also has a quote from a note of dissent to the 1974 meeting of Committee on Status of Women in India. "Our investigations have proved that the application of the theoretical principle of equality in the context of unequal situations only intensifies inequalities, because equality in such situations merely means privileges for those who have them already and not for those who need them." Distinctions between de jure and de facto apart, a key question is identification of backward, deprived and poor. All collective categorisations are second-best.

Identification through collective categories like caste, religion and gender leads to an obvious double problem—excluding the deprived outside these collective categories and including non-deprived inside these collective categories. Ideally, one should move to a stage where all identification of backwardness and poverty is individual-based, with caste, religion, gender, residence, class as determinants, but not used as fool-proof indicators.

 

However, are we ever likely to get this first-best? Probably not. As second-best, as experience with local bodies demonstrates, reservations aren't a bad idea. Not for economic reasons, but thanks to the dividend of broader social empowerment. Having said this, an even bigger challenge is removal of legal discrimination in personal (marriage, divorce) and inheritance laws. We do need uniform civil code and arguments based on preserving diversity are actually arguments for discrimination.

 

The author is a noted economist

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

BUDGETING FOR SIMPLER TAX CODES

SANJAY BANERJI

A budget, besides keeping accounts of income and expenditures, also contains information about the path of action planned by the government. In that sense, perhaps the most salient feature of the Budget 2010 is its laying down of a roadmap not just for this fiscal year but for the medium term spanning at least two years from now. It spelt out clearly what one should expect in the coming years and what one should not.

 

First, one can expect that reforms in the structure of various kinds of taxes will occupy the government's agenda. The government's pronouncement of its plan to implement GST and DTC as of next year is a clear indication that reforms in tax structure will take place on a continual basis. The hallmarks of the new tax regime will be eliminating multiple taxes to form an integrated structure at both the federal and state level, phasing out the CST, making the process of tax payment much simpler, adopting technology both for collection and to ensure compliance and anything else that reduces costs of transaction between taxpayers and the government.

 

The political economy behind this reform is clear. A government, like any other institution, seeks to minimise costs while trying to earn a certain amount of revenue to cover its expenditures and is subject to various everyday constraints. Here the costs are not just taken from the textbook economics of public finance but also include expenses that can cause political instability, including adverse effects on the probability of re-election. The numerous constraints are shaped by various conflicting elements like varying opinions of coalition partners on different issues, infeasible demands from lobbyists and from pressure groups from industry, agriculture and commerce, etc. In such scenarios, reforms are always staggered and the government follows the path of least resistance. Reform in tax structure isn't the hardest reform to push.

 

The old structure of a complicated direct and indirect tax system corresponded to a stagnant economic system where very few individuals and companies paid various kinds of taxes and a vast majority were not under the purview of either because of deliberate non-compliance or a lack of income. However, almost uninterrupted growth in the last decade created new businesses and helped many old ones expand and enabled them to pay taxes. Still, many of them are not under the tax net partly because of the high transaction costs of an unnecessarily complicated system of taxation. Earlier, this did not matter because the size of the taxpaying population was small anyway. However, an ever-increasing number of potential taxpayers, reductions in transaction costs thanks to transparent tax rules, the availability of low-cost technology for surveillance and encouraging participation of states in the CENVAT introduced in 2004 have relaxed both political and economic constraints. These developments have made tax reform a politically superior instrument for revenue collection compared to cutting expenditures by slashing subsidies or undertaking disinvestment of PSUs, which fuels controversy and inflicts political costs.

 

While tax reform is meant to mop up untapped resources with the least political cost, the use of technology to curb leakages in expenditure will also be a priority and exemplified by the allocation of a whopping sum of Rs 1900 crore to UID, which will help the government in a big way carry out its various poverty alleviation programmes in the future. To give a concrete example, the delivery of food grains at subsidised prices to people under BPL is fraught with corruption as the outlets tend to buy such items at a subsidised price and sell at a higher market price, leaving at best adulterated food items for the poor. However, the introduction of a coupon system in the near future, allowing people to buy food items of their choice at the market price, will certainly eliminate such corruption to a great extent. Though such a system of vouchers is being floated in various proposals, it will be effective when the UID system is in place. The execution of the UID system by 2012 will be a silent revolution in not only curbing the waste of funds but also in radically changing the mechanism for delivery to the poor. Here also, the government, instead of restructuring the internal governance mechanism of institutions responsible for delivery, resorted to technology to deal with corruption and information that would provoke controversy.

 

Many people are dismayed because the budget did not cut subsidies and shied away from disinvestment, but they do not account for the political constraints faced by a government. Given these constraints, the real question is: did the government do its job efficiently within severe limitations? The answer—a 'qualified yes'—was also confirmed by immediate reactions from the financial market.

 

The author is reader in finance at the University of Essex

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

SEED OF THE PROBLEM

SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

Since Monsanto's open admission that the pink bollworm pest—one of the major pests that attack cotton crop—has developed resistance to its Bt cotton variety, the debate on spurious seeds and effective measures to check rampant proliferation of untested seeds in the name of hybrids is back on centrestage.

 

With some scientists claiming that it is not genetically modified or hybrid seeds but their fake versions that cause all the trouble—a point which also found mention in Jairam Ramesh's statement putting a moratorium on Bt brinjal—the whole question of spurious seeds and the need for strict checks has been reinforced.

 

It is well known that just like in cotton, illegal, untested hybrid varieties of seeds of other crops have been sold for a long time. Seeds usually develop resistance to the principal pests when an insufficient dose of toxins is administered, giving the target pests an open field to develop resistance and proliferate. As most spurious seeds are untested in government laboratories and not sold by registered companies, there are no checks and balances on the toxicity level or other parameters. In the case of cotton alone, unofficial reports show that 15 to 20 lakh acres of land is under spurious seeds and almost 90% is in Gujarat.

 

Surprisingly, independent studies and surveys have shown that the rampant usage of spurious seeds is greater in areas and crops where private seed companies are less prevalent. Then again, which large private seed company would encourage the proliferation of illegal seeds at its own expense? The presence of private seed companies evens the demand-supply imbalance since with their expertise, private companies can scale up supplies at short notice—another case for private companies to have active participation in farm technology. The Monsanto episode reinforces the need to fast-track implementation of the new Seeds Bill. The Bill, which was recently cleared by the Cabinet, seeks to check the sale of spurious seeds by making registration mandatory for the sale of seeds.

 

sanjeeb.mukherjee@expressindia.com

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

A HISTORIC VOTE

 

India may have missed the symbolism of passing the Women's Reservation Bill on the hundredth anniversary of International Women's' Day but the delay does not rob the Rajya Sabha's decision of its historic and global significance. There is hardly any example of such a bold and progressive measure to improve the representation of women anywhere in the world, least of all in a society plagued by pervasive gender inequality, discrimination, and violence. After developing cold feet in the face of political threats by the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal and the disruptive tactics used by their MPs, the Congress party decided to stiffen its spine and go for broke, despite the risks involved. Credit for this resolve must be given primarily to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whose unequivocal advocacy of the bill helped quell the misgivings within a section of its male leadership, as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But the applause must also go to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left, which put the politics of oppositionism aside to help the government pass the 108th constitutional amendment in the upper house on Tuesday. The Trinamool Congress's criticism of the suspension of seven SP and RJD MPs for their unruly behaviour on Monday demonstrates the party's duplicity and need not unduly detain the government's floor managers. Once the reality of women's reservation sinks in, few of those who have staked such strident positions against the bill can afford to remain in denial.

 

In all probability, equilibrium will quickly return to existing alliances and arrangements as parties turn their attention to managing the mechanics of seat allocation under the new dispensation. The United Progressive Alliance government should now move quickly to win the Lok Sabha's approval for the women's bill. Any delay will only play into the hands of the obstructionists, defeating the purpose behind moving ahead in the first place. As in the Rajya Sabha, there will be protests in the lower house, perhaps even more unruly and boisterous than before. Unlike their colleagues in the upper house, many male MPs in the Lok Sabha will stand to lose their seats to women and are likely to throw everything into what will, after all, be their last stand. Ensuring a proper floor strategy to deal with disruptions is vital so that there will be no repeat of Monday's disgraceful scenes. The members who attacked the dignity of the Rajya Sabha chairperson betrayed the trust reposed in them by the people. Suspending or expelling MPs for flagrant violation of parliamentary procedure and indulging in violence is a requirement of democracy and there is no reason for the government or Speaker to be squeamish about it.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE

 

It was evident from the start that this year's Oscar awards were going to be a two-horse race for best picture and best director. Gratifyingly, Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences opted for Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker over James Cameron's Avatar in this contest of intriguing contrasts. Bigelow's intense Iraqi war drama about an elite bomb disposal squad in Baghdad was made on a modest $11 million budget and earned a paltry $14.7 million before the award was announced. By contrast, Cameron's visually breathtaking interstellar epic, which employed cutting edge digital technologies, consumed $237 million in the making and has grossed a record breaking $3 billion (and counting). In rewarding the nerve-wracking portrayal of war, steeped in realism, over a fantasy about a conflict between humans and blue-skinned humanoids, which is marred by a cliche-ridden and clumsily allegorical storyline, the Academy favoured substance over style. It has not always done so, opting often for commercially successful big-budget films over smaller and much better ones. This attitude has been changing in recent years. In terms of art, the only possible contender to The Hurt Locker this year was Quentin Tarantino's hip and stylishly compelling Inglorious Bestards. Fittingly, while the winner picked up six Oscars of the nine for which it was nominated, Avatar bagged three well-deserved statuettes in the technical category.

 

The uncertainty over the Bigelow-Cameron contest, which was lent an additional edge by the fact they were once husband and wife, is a departure from last year, when Slumdog Millionaire was the runaway favourite. But this year's Oscars are proof that a bigger nomination list for best picture (10 against the usual five), doesn't necessarily mean a better list. Apart from Slumdog Millionaire, last year's list included Milk, the crusading biopic of America's first openly gay public official , The Reader, a haunting and beautifully filmed love story in the time of Nazi Germany, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, an intriguing and meticulously crafted story of a man who ages backwards. The justification for returning to a 10-picture nomination list, a practice given up in 1943, is that it prevents some very good films from getting squeezed out of the race. But in the bid to provide greater exposure to films, something for which there exists strong commercial pressure, the Academy should not spread itself thin and devalue nomination to the world's best-known film awards.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

VISION 2010: A DANGEROUS MYOPIA

THE CENTRAL BUDGET OF 2010-11 IS A FURTHER STEP IN THE REALISATION OF A VISION OF INDIA VIBRANT WITH THE INCOME, WEALTH, SAVING, EDUCATION AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ENERGY OF THE TOP 5-10 PER CENT OF THE POPULATION AND THE REST OF INDIANS, SERVING THAT MINORITY AND SURVIVING AS BARELY LITERATE, MALNOURISHED MULTITUDE.

AMIYA KUMAR BAGCHI

 

With the accession of Rajiv Gandhi to power, a vision began to germinate. That vision was that of an India that would be vibrant with the entrepreneurial energy of the few, and the rest of the population serving those few with their labour.

 

The argument was that despite more than 40 years of independence, with slogans of a 'socialistic pattern of society,' Indians remained desperately poor. Most of them also remained actually illiterate or barely literate. The free market advocates backing Rajiv Gandhi thought that the energy of the business community could both enrich the rich and, through trickle-down effects, better the condition of ordinary people. The Central budget of 2010-11 is a further step towards the implementation of that vision.

 

Look at the successes of the budget: the professional middle class is happy with the cuts in taxes collected from it. The business community, including foreign investors, is happy, because of further privatisation of public assets by which the Finance Minister proposes to raise Rs. 25,000 crore, because of the looming privatisation of many operations of the Indian Railways, whose kitty is nowhere near what it should be for even partial implementation of the projects announced by the Railway Minister, because the FDI path would be further smoothed and because licences would be issued for fresh private banks. Never mind if they fail as the Global Trust Bank did, the government will pick up the bill directly or indirectly, in accordance with its earlier record and the recent practice in the United States and Britain where banks failed but bankers remained prosperous. The Indian stock market responded positively, thus sending a message of welcome to the budget and generating profits for the bulls.

 

The Finance Ministers of the neoliberal Central government had earlier instituted the Fiscal Responsibility and Responsibility Management Act. This became their excuse to drastically cut down public investment and expenditure on the social sector. As soon as the global financial crisis hit India and the interests of the Indian rich demanded fiscal stimulus, the government overthrew fiscal orthodoxy and budget deficits soared. North Block policymakers can claim that the stimulus worked and the growth rates did not crash. The problem is with the content of that growth.

 

The Indian Constitution is only quasi-federal. Using and abusing the power of centralisation vested in it, the neoliberal policymakers have concentrated more and more financial powers in their hands, leaving the State governments with scantier resources to carry out their constitutional responsibilities of providing health care, education and rural livelihoods. The Central government has introduced an enormous number of Centrally-Sponsored Schemes and encroached on the States' jurisdiction. The Centre has handed over much of the financing to aid agencies of the U.S. and European Union governments, which have imposed fresh conditionalities on the States. The irony is that the more backward the regions are, the less able they are in fulfilling the conditions. Hence, the greater the deprivation of those areas.

 

The centralising tendency has been rampant in the field of education: the government has established Central universities not just in backward or remote areas but in States with well-established universities, which continue to suffer stagnation because of lack of resources as well as political manipulation. Instead of learning the proper lessons from the often tardy responses of the over-centralised AICTE, NCERT or UGC, namely, that they need more and more assured supply of public money and must devolve some of their powers to regional bodies, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided, with the proposed National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER) Bill to concentrate all powers in its single wise head. Not all wisdom resides in persons who tread the corridors of power in Delhi.

 

Moreover, the policymakers have proclaimed that they want the institutions to be of international standard, and that the scholars employed there will be judged according to international (read U.S. establishment) accreditation criteria. The idea that there is a single, uncontested international standard in economics, history, political science or sociology is laughable. In areas of technological education too, local adaptation is critical and 'international' standards will not provide the knowledge of the local cost-benefit conditions in the diversity that is India. How would 'international' standards be applied to scholars of Tamil or Bengali or Marathi literature, culture and history who do not write in English?

 

The acceptance of the NCHER Bill will have many unacceptable consequences. First, under an NCHER endowed with powers far exceeding its optimum span of control, decisions will be even slower in critical areas of education than they are now. Second, with a niggardly Central government, tuition fees will rise far beyond the paying capacity of poor students and, therefore, will exclude much larger numbers of meritorious but poor students from higher education. Third, the step will lead to further dilution of the quality of teaching in State universities, the further proliferation of private colleges doling out poor-quality education.

 

The Union Cabinet recently approved an agreement with the U.S. on 'Agricultural co-operation and food security.' Under an India-U.S. Agricultural Knowledge Initiative, multinational agribusiness firms such as Cargill and Monsanto can become members of the policymaking body. This is ironical since most of U.S. agribusinesses are conducted under the umbrella of huge government subsidies, while the current budget has cut the measly subsidies poor farmers enjoy in India. Indian agriculture has grown slowly in recent years, and food grain production has lagged behind population growth.

 

Ordinary Indians are badly malnourished and calorie intake has fallen over time. An Expert Group appointed by the Planning Commission has proposed 1800 calories per day as the norm of consumption by an adult for fixing the poverty line. This norm is applicable only for light or sedentary work. How is a construction worker with heavy head loads or an agricultural worker driving buffaloes in a flooded paddy land going to do his work and lead a healthy life or survive long? Even this norm yields an estimate of poverty of about 42 per cent in 2004-05, much higher than the estimates quoted officially. If the Food Security Bill is passed by Parliament, it will presumably be implemented by accepting the older estimate or the new estimate of the Expert Group. Either way, a vast number of people who are malnourished will remain in that state.

 

Under the Common Minimum Programme, the first UPA government adopted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Even its partial implementation has helped the desperately poor and yielded rich dividends for the ruling parties under whose auspices there has been a better record of implementation. But this can be regarded only as a halting step towards a universal public distribution system, which is the proper way to address the issues. The budget is still focussed on the interests of the middle and richer classes and on tie-ups with the U.S. as the exemplar and leader of the system that the advisors want. The Right to Education Act, for example, excludes the education of children below the age of six, and the ICDS programme that is supposed to look after them is still poorly funded and poorly governed. The allocation in the current budget for mid-day meals for school children is far short of what would be needed to universalise them.

 

Finally, the whole saga of the nuclear agreement with the U.S., currently developing into a bill that caps the liability of suppliers and operators at Rs. 500 crore whereas a Chernobyl-like development could impose unimaginable costs on the current and future costs often appears like a black comedy in the making. We should remember that crime rates in U.S. cities still remain high, and there is a continual war going on on U.S. borders against 'illegal' immigrants from Latin America. Do the policymakers at the Centre want a permanent state of civil war with the disaffected inside to be added to the worries on subversion across India's borders?

 

(Professor Amiya Kumar Bagchi is Director, Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata.)

 

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THE HINDU

LIVESTOCK REARING — KEY TO POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES

FROM EQUITY AND LIVELIHOOD PERSPECTIVES, LIVESTOCK REARING MUST BE AT THE CENTRE STAGE OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES.

GAVIN WALL

 

Livestock rearing is a key livelihood and risk mitigation strategy for small and marginal farmers, particularly across the rain-fed regions of India. Livestock products comprised 32 per cent of the total value of agriculture and allied activities in 2006-07 which was a noticeable increase from 27 per cent in 1999-2000 and from 1980-81 when it represented 14 per cent of the agricultural gross domestic product. The livestock sector has therefore been growing faster than many other sectors of agriculture and if this trend continues then the sector will be the engine of growth for Indian agriculture that many have predicted.

 

Most often we see livestock as providers of essential food products, draught power, manure, employment, household income and export earnings. However, it is a very important fact that livestock wealth is much more equitably distributed than wealth associated with land. Thus, when we think of the goal of inclusive growth, we should not forget that from equity and livelihood perspectives, livestock rearing must be at the centre of the stage in poverty alleviation programmes.

 

There are two other important aspects: firstly, livestock rearing at the household level is largely a women-led activity, and therefore income from livestock rearing and decisions related to management of livestock within the household are primarily taken by women. Interventions in India have demonstrated that support for livestock rearing has contributed significantly to the empowerment of women and an increasing role in decision making at both the household and village level. Secondly, livestock rearing, particularly in the rain-fed regions of the country, is also emerging as a key risk mitigation strategy for the poorest. They face increasingly uncertain and erratic weather conditions which negatively impact crop productivity and wage labour in the agriculture sector.

 

Three overarching messages

 

A global analysis of the livestock sector by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) was contained in the recently released State of Food and Agriculture and it highlighted three overarching messages that merit discussion in the context of India.

 

First, although livestock products make important contributions to food security and poverty reduction for many low-income rural families, the policy and institutional framework in many countries has failed to serve the needs of these poorest households and to get them onto the conveyor belt of development. A lack of public services in animal health that reach out to the poorest in rural areas and a failure to link small holder livestock keepers to better paying markets are but two examples of common failings. The institutional and policy frameworks tend to support intensive and commercial livestock rearing, both in the provision of services and also in facilitating access to markets.

 

Second, livestock producers, including traditional pastoralists and smallholders, are both victims of natural resource degradation and contributors to it. Corrective action most likely lies in a mix of public goods related to environmental protection, ecosystem services and through incentives for private investment to improve animal productivity, particularly in remote regions. In the case of India, there are numerous examples of community-led interventions where community management and sustainable use of natural resources has positively impacted small holder livestock rearing.

 

Third, animal health services not only combat animal diseases that cause mortality and reduce animal productivity, they also protect human health because of the risk of animal to human disease transmission. Animal health systems have been neglected in many parts of the world and this has led to institutional weaknesses that in turn lead to poor delivery of animal health services and higher risks to livelihoods and human health. In correcting this situation it must be recognised that the poor face different risks and have different incentives and capacities to respond than do intensive commercial farmers. Therefore, animal health service providers have the additional challenge of recognising the differences between their stakeholders and developing mechanisms to reach them all.

 

Moving forward on these key findings is not possible by relying either on individuals alone or a single string of actions. Progress requires attention from all actors in the social, environmental, animal health, human health and agriculture sectors; that means public, private and community organisations being actively engaged together. The livestock sector is far too important to accept anything less. — Courtesy: United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan.

 

( Gavin Wall is FAO Representative in India and Bhutan.)

 

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THE HINDU

OUR WHOLE COUNTRY LOSES IF WOMEN AND GIRLS ARE UNABLE TO FULFIL THEIR POTENTIAL

MANY OF OUR POLITICIANS WOULD STILL RATHER IGNORE THE INFORMAL SECTOR AND THE WOMEN WHO FORM ITS BACKBONE. THEY DO SO AT OUR PERIL.

ELA BHATT

 

India is undergoing enormous change. In a very short time, many Indians have become much richer, and our country is now often described as a "world player" economically and politically. Despite this transformation, our rich history, culture and traditions rightly remain important. Indeed, our success rests on this potent combination of the old and the new.

 

We have, however, to be realistic. These traditions are also used to justify out-dated and unfair practices which feed inequality and trap many millions in poverty. Women and girls in particular find themselves excluded from opportunities, with the poorest terribly vulnerable to exploitation, neglect and abuse. Women's work is denied recognition or proper pay. They face enormous obstacles in having their voices heard and in claiming rights and freedoms that are enshrined in our constitution and laws but denied in practice.

 

In some cases, this prejudice is open but in many cases it is subtle — although no less damaging. What it means, however, is that Gandhiji's plea for equality between women and men is being ignored at great cost. Any girl denied the chance to fulfil her potential and any woman exploited and repressed by unscrupulous moneylenders, landlords, traders or even their families is a loss to our country.

 

Stifles prosperity

 

Inequality between the sexes occurs not just here in India but all around the world. In every continent, girls and women face barriers in their daily lives which simply don't exist for men. Tradition, culture and religion are often the underlying justification for this discrimination. This is not just unfair but stifles our future prosperity.

 

This is why The Elders, a group of leaders from around the world, brought together by Nelson Mandela, have called for community and religious leaders to join them in speaking out against prejudice. I am honoured to have been asked to join their number and want to share some experiences from my own country.

 

These are things I have learned from three decades of struggle with SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association in India — a labour union for women workers in the informal sector. These millions of women earn meagre incomes producing goods in their homes, picking and recycling rubbish, working as agricultural labourers, small farmers, construction workers, street vendors and hawkers. Bereft of a voice, they have remained invisible to most of my middle class compatriots and are vulnerable to exploitation and neglect. It is sadly clear how bigotry, dressed up as culture or tradition, helps maintain this unfairness. But it is clear as well the enormous benefits to entire families and communities when women are helped to exercise their skills and talents fairly.

 

In 30 years with SEWA, I have seen again and again the extraordinary qualities and resilience of these women, whose labour sustains us all. They work incredibly hard. They are as clever and quick as any man in business, dealing with money and making each paise and rupee count.

 

SEWA has played its role in helping to empower them through work. From tiny beginnings, organising women workers into a union, SEWA has grown into an organisation of 1.2 million members in nine states across India with an impact both at community and national level. By banding together, millions of poor Indian women have managed to improve their bargaining power, produce and market their goods collectively and get access to credit at fairer rates.

 

For the first time, they have the chance to put money aside, invest in their business, better housing and education for their children. But the impact of financial independence goes far beyond putting more food on the table or securing shelter at night. I have watched them also nurture their communities, stand together in a crisis and learn to speak with confidence. They say their husbands value them more and no longer treat them as inferior. Violence in the family decreases. Decisions are shared and women's influence rises, not only in the family but through the community. Mothers can insist their daughters receive the education they were denied and they actively take part in helping their own communities reach the right decisions on the future because they, at last, have a voice.

 

None of this would have surprised Gandhiji. He strongly believed in women's equality and saw women as natural leaders in the fight for justice and equitable social change. He would have approved of the way women in India are coming together to lift the barriers blocking their progress in a determined but non-violent way.

 

But as long as women's status is lower than men's and boys are valued above girls, poverty will remain a reality in our country and across the world. We have to rid our society of the view that to be female is to be a second-class citizen, no matter how deep the roots of this belief.

 

Many of our politicians would still rather ignore the informal sector and the women who form its backbone. They do so at our peril. India's population is young and their aspirations are high. Making the most of all the talent in this country is essential if we are to satisfy the hopes and needs of this growing, young population.

 

Today, we come together to celebrate the special contribution that women make to our world. This 35th anniversary of the first International Women's Day is a time to reflect on women's progress and the obstacles that remain to equality. Our country rightly is proud of its democracy and its diversity. We must make sure that everyone has the chance to succeed, whatever their caste, gender or background. It is the only way to fulfil our ambitions and Gandhiji's vision for our country and our world.

( Renowned entrepreneur and women's activist Ela Bhatt is a member of The Elders.)

 

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THE HINDU

SHOWER OF AID BRINGS PROGRESS TO KENYAN VILLAGE

JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

 

In the past five years, life in Sauri — the bushy little patch of western Kenya — has improved dramatically.

 

Agricultural yields have doubled; child mortality has dropped by 30 per cent; school attendance has shot up and so have test scores, putting one local school second in the area, when it used to be ranked 17th; and cell phone ownership (a telltale sign of prosperity in rural Africa) has increased fourfold. There is a palpable can-do spirit that infuses the muddy lanes and family compounds walled off by the fruity-smelling lantana bushes. People who have grown bananas for generations are learning to breed catfish, and women who used to be terrified of bees are now lulling them to sleep with smoke and harvesting the honey.

 

"I used to think, African killer bees, no way," said Judith Onyango, one of the new honey makers. But now, she added, with visible pride, "I'm an apiarist."

 

Sauri was the first of what are now more than 80 Millennium Villages across Africa, a showcase project that was the dream child of Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Harvard-trained, Columbia University economist who runs with an A-list crowd: Bono, both Bills (Clinton and Gates), George Soros, Kofi Annan, Ban Ki-moon and others. His intent was to show that tightly focused, technology-based and relatively straightforward programs on a number of fronts simultaneously — health care, education, job training — could rapidly lift people out of poverty. In Sauri, at least, it seems to be working. Some of the goals were literally low-hanging fruit, like teaching banana farmers to rotate their crops. Other programmes were more sophisticated, like the battle against malaria, which employs mobile technology against a disease that kills more than one million children each year.

 

The other day, a community health team in Sauri stooped through the doorway of a home of several sick children, said hello to Grandma and got to work. Within minutes, a health worker had taken a child's blood sample, sent a text message with the blood results by cell phone to a computer server overseen by a man named Dixon in a town about an hour away and gotten back these instructions: "Child 81665 OKOTH Patrick m/16m has MALARIA. Please provide 1 tab of Coartem (Act) twice a day for three days."

 

These small miracles are happening every day in Sauri, population 65,000. But the question for Sachs and his team remains: Is this progress, in development-speak, scalable? — ©2010 New York Times News Service

 

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THE HINDU

OSCAR: IS KATHRYN BIGELOW'S VICTORY A WIN FOR WOMEN?

IS SHE AN ANOMALY, OR IS HOLLYWOOD REALLY CHANGING?

PETER BRADSHAW

 

After every Oscar ceremony, observers traditionally attempt to distil a zeitgeisty trend from the proceedings, and the one available here would appear to be obvious. On Monday, on International Women's Day in fact, we woke up to hear that Kathryn Bigelow had become the first woman to win the best director award in the Oscars' 82-year history.

 

Women have, of course, been extravagantly admired as prizewinning actors at the Oscars and always been expected to provide the glamorous media faces of the Academy Award ceremony, the red-carpet icons and fashion queens. But never before has a woman actually been distinguished for being at the creative and administrative helm: and it is difficult to tell if there is really any feminist meaning to this, or if Bigelow is a Thatcherite anomaly. Either way, for her to have won so massively with such a male-orientated film in such a male-orientated industry is a significant victory. And the fact that so little fuss is made about it is, arguably, a heartening sign — an indication that the academy will be unself-conscious about picking a woman next year, or the year after that.

 

The Hurt Locker itself was a classic Oscar landslide: like Slumdog Millionaire last year, the consensus tipping-point was reached that this film was a very good thing, propelled by great reviews and also, perhaps, by its perceived underdog status. Quite suddenly, as if by some mysterious chemical reaction, everything went its way and Avatar, the hugely hyped box-office behemoth, was disappointed.

 

The Hurt Locker really is a brilliant film about the strain, fear and sheer boredom of war, but also, like many anti-war films, it also provides a lot of the old-fashioned excitement that is generally associated with action films. Jeremy Renner, playing the sociopathic, cigarette-smoking bomb-disposal technician, terminally addicted to the army life, does bear a strong visual resemblance to Marine Lance Corporal James Blake Miller, who became famous in the U.S. after being snapped by news photographers in Falluja in 2004, smoking a cigarette in an unconscious "Marlboro man" pose.

 

Everything about this film is intensely male; there is a sweaty, sour and defeatedly masculine tang seeping out of every frame. Perhaps, in retrospect, it was not so startling for a woman director to have made it, and to have provided the shrewd perspective on this maleness.

 

Elsewhere, well, there was not too much to cheer about at the Oscars on the feminist front, or any other. Jane Campion, a brilliant director with her Keats movie Bright Star — the best film of her career — was nowhere to be seen. Jeff Bridges was a popular winner, though the sentimental Country & Western drama Crazy Heart was not his best work, all heart and no crazy. The prize for Sandra Bullock (surely the least deserving winner of the five nominees) seemed to tap into a robustly Palinesque admiration for tough-minded hockey moms everywhere, and any perceived liberal-feminist trend in the Bigelow prize has to be balanced by Bullock's unlikely triumph. Bullock has never been nominated before and has never exactly been an awards contender, but is instead notable chiefly for having garnered a guarded industry respect for being a solid box-office draw outside the U.S. She also won a Razzie this weekend for the unspeakable All About Steve, becoming the first performer to get an Oscar and a Razzie in the same year. Perhaps it won't be long before someone gets the Oscar and the Razzie for the same performance. The best supporting actor awards for Christoph Waltz and Mo'Nique were the right decisions, however.

 

It was an awful night for Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, confined to the best foreign film ghetto where they were defeated by the Argentinian thriller The Secret of My Eyes. The Haneke and Audiard films were both widely hailed as modern classics but ignored by an academy that is highly receptive to critical kudos where these opinions appear to be sympathetic to the U.S. military and U.S. concerns, but pretty indifferent otherwise.

 

This was a clunkingly disconcerting moment at the Oscars: a reminder, if we needed it, that the Academy Awards will always give us a vivid, muddled snapshot of the American mood, but no very compelling or focused view of what's happening elsewhere in the world of cinema. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

TAPPING THORIUM

 

Uranium reserves will not last. Turn to thorium and evolve the needed technology through necessary research.

 

This was the argument that India's atomic energy research commission (AERC) chairman Srikumar Banerjee proffered at an international conference on access to civil nuclear technology in Paris on Monday. It makes sense because India has the largest thorium reserves in the world.

 

What Mukherjee is pleading for is international collaboration to utilise thorium to generate nuclear power. At present, nuclear yields from thorium are lower and, therefore, inefficient compared to uranium. Greater research could help improve the nuclear power yields from thorium.

 

Critics would be tempted to view the nuclear chief's statement as a confession of Indian scientists' failure to take advantage of indigenous thorium reserves.

 

This would be a harsh interpretation of the issue. Indian scientists have been working on the thorium route for decades now and it is true that they have managed to achieve limited success.

 

It would possible to argue that if India had achieved a breakthrough it would not have had to sign the civil nuclear agreement with the US and other countries and get the green signal from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to access nuclear technology.But then the policymakers did not have the political will to press with it and allocate the funds needed for research and development (R&D) to make the breakthrough.

 

In a way, even this argument is flawed. Even if India had achieved success on the thorium front, it would not have been easy to ignore international pressures in the nuclear area because this is not just a technological issue.

 

There are strategic implications. As a matter of fact, by seeking international collaboration to work on ways of tapping thorium to generate nuclear power, India could become a lead player because it already has the R&D base. It will be better then if India takes the lead in research on the use of thorium and sets up an international centre for the purpose.

 

This would also inspire greater confidence in the international community that India means to be transparent in this business and its declarations about its peaceful intentions are not mere rhetorical flourishes.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

DEFEND LIBERTY

 

The Supreme Court has done the country proud by pulling up the government for not releasing 16 Pakistani nationals who have completed their prison terms and for arguing that these prisoners are being held to negotiate a swap with Indian nationals in Pakistan prisons.

 

Judges Markandey Katju and RM Lodha asserted that no one should remain in prison for a second after they have completed their sentence.

 

This was a resounding declaration of the basic tenet of rule of law that individual liberty is of paramount value and that it cannot be used as a bargain chip in diplomatic or other negotiation processes. This need not be used to score brownie points against Pakistan where the rule of law has had a troubled existence.

 

On the contrary it should be both a gentle and firm reminder to the country that what distinguishes India more than its economic power and military might is its commitment to the rule of law and liberty.

 

Many people, both from the right and left ends of the political spectrum ardently believe that individual liberty is a bourgeois fetish and that it can be dispensed with for reasons of state.

 

The courts have always come to the rescue of the individual and asserted time and again and tirelessly that individual liberty is inviolable and that it can be curbed, and in rare circumstances deprived, only through the due process of law. This fundamental principle is established with greater conviction and authority when it is extended to individuals who are not Indian nationals.

 

This is sure to raise the hackles of those who believe that India should take a hard line against Pakistan in the face of the many provocations, direct and indirect, from the other side of the border.

 

The court has proved that the law's credibility and the commitment of the nation to liberty faces its real rest when it is not bound to extend to those who are not citizens of the country.

 

Due credit also needs to be given to petitioners Panther Party leader Bhim Singh and advocate BS Billowriya for taking up the cause of these 16 Pakistani prisoners, risking the taunts of the right-wing hotheads that they are pleading for the enemy.

 

Human rights activists can be irritating and a nuisance as well but we need such gadflies to keep Indian democracy on an even keel. The roots of democracy can be strengthened only through the defense of individual freedoms, even if those individuals happen to be Pakistan nationals.

 

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DNA

MAOIST WITCH HUNT

YOGI AGGARWAL

 

In the face of rising Maoist violence and brutality in the backward eastern states of India, the natural question is what would be the best way to contain the Maoists.

 

The home minister P Chidambaram would like to have a law-an-order approach, meeting force with ever more force.

 

Thus his policy of 'operation green hunt', a misnomer that does not say who or what is being hunted and seems to imply that it is all for the good of the natural forests that still abound in the areas of Maoist rebellion.

 

There is to be saturation coverage of police and paramilitary forces to fight the Maoists. In Jharkhand for instance, these are estimated by intelligence agencies at between 2,000 and 3,000 fully armed cadre.

 

Paramilitary forces of 50,000 armed men are being raised to meet the threat, up from 20,000 at present. In all the affected states, the numbers add up to several times this.

 

A Kashmir-like situation is being created, not to fight Pakistani backed militants in one of the wealthiest states of the country, but home-grown guerillas in some of the poorest.

 

In official and political circles in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, it is often feltthat this policy will not work. Some bureaucrats talk of a five to 10 year military siege to break the back of the Maoists, while some political observers see the situation becoming worse leading to the imposition of an internal emergency.

 

The only certain thing is that people in the affected states will be ground between the two armed sides and life there will become even more brutish.

 

It need not be so. More than anywhere else, it is the lack of development, the consequent corruption and the reckless usurpation of tribal land that have created the ground for the violent Maoist insurgency.

 

Bihar, a state badly affected by Maoist violence till recently, has seen them retreat ever since the Nitish Kumar administration put the state on an 11 per cent growth trajectory.

 

And former chief minister Madhu Koda in Jharkhand created a record of sorts when he was caught having whisked away over Rs2000 crore in corruption money during his short tenure.

 

The major reason for the rise in Maoist insurgency, however, is the accelerated grabbing of tribal land once globalisation took root from the mid-90s.

 

In the last 15 years there have been 104 MoUs signed between the government and private companies that involve the transfer of 300,000 hectares or 3,000 sq km of land, at a pittance of Rs15000 to 25000 and acre, one-twentieth the market price of the land.Senior officials in Ranchi feel that not one of these 104 projects will be able to acquire the land.

 

Under the fifth schedule of the Constitution, tribals in this belt cannot be deprived of their land without their consent.

 

The violation of these constitutional rights in Andhra Pradesh by the government in leasing out tribal lands to private mining companies led to a Supreme Court judgment which declared all agreements leasing tribal land to private mining companies as null and void.

 

Further, the court declared that in case private parties were to be brought in at least 20 per cent of the profits were to be used as a permanent fund for development needs, apart from that needed for reforestation and maintenance of ecology.

 

The displaced would not only want a fair price for ancestral land but sympathetic government help in making the transition from an agricultural to an industrial way of life. This would involve decent jobs, retraining for new occupations and unless they feel they are the beneficiaries of development and not its victims they will not give up their "jal, jangle or jameen".

 

Until the 1960s the tribals readily gave up their land in the name of development but of the 2.5 million people displaced in Jharkhand alone, less than two per cent were properly rehabilitated.

 

Instead of ending up as rickshaw pullers and domestic servants, the displaced should be given adequate compensation, trained, given jobs or helped to start small businesses.

 

This is not to say that the unlawful killing of policemen by Maoists or the murder of civilians should not be

stopped by using all the force of the state.

 

But in a situation where the armed constabulary are seen as "thugs in uniform", feared as much as the Maoists, the use of state force has to be carefully calibrated. The danger with operation green hunt is that in their attempt to show success, many opponents of government policy will be branded as Maoists and arrested. It will do more harm than good.

 

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DNA

EU MUST DECIDE ITS STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

ROGER COHEN

 

President Obama learns with interest that Europe now has a phone number. He's told that, responding at last to Henry Kissinger's famous jibe, the European Union has appointed a President named Herman Van Rompuy from Belgium and given him a 24/7 phone line. So, Obama decides to try out Europe's phone number. Henry will be tickled. But the president forgets about the time difference and gets an answering machine: "Good Evening, you've reached the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy speaking. We are closed for tonight. Please select from the following options. Press one for the French view, two for the German view, three for the British view, four for the Polish view, five for the Italian view, six for the Romanian view. ..."

Obama hangs up in dismay.

This self-deprecating little story was told by the Finnish foreign minister, Alexander Stubb, during a meeting here last week on NATO's future. The Obama presidency has been a shock to Europe. At heart, Obama is not a Westerner, not an Atlanticist. He grew up in Indonesia and in Hawaii, which is about as far from the East Coast as you can get in the United States.

The great struggles of the Cold War, which bound Europe and the United States, did not mark Obama, whose intellect and priorities were shaped by globalisation, and whose feelings are tied more to the Pacific and to Africa. He can make a respectable speech on a Normandy beach, but he's probably the first US president for whom the Allied landing is emotionally remote.

These truths have taken a while to sink in because Europe, in its widespread contempt for George W Bush, saw in Obama a saviour who would restore trans-Atlantic ties. One by one European leaders have been disappointed by the president's cool remoteness.

In fact, Obama is a pure pragmatist. He wants Europe's help, particularly in Afghanistan, but he has no misty-eyed vision of Atlanticism and sees more pressing strategic priorities in China, India, the Middle East and Russia. He is transitioning the United States to the post-Western world, which is another way of saying he is adapting America to a world in which its relative power is eroding.

It remains to be seen how Americans will respond to the sobriety of a foreign policy that is short on stirring exceptionalist narrative and long on realism. Europeans, meanwhile, are wondering what hit them.
The situation was well summarised by Jeremy Shapiro and Nick Witney in a report for the European Council on Foreign Relations that described the European attitude to the US as "basically infantile and fetishistic... America wants to be Europe's partner, not its patron; but it cannot be responsible from without for weaning Europe off its client status."

Europe needs to get over America to discover itself. That discovery might provide a basis for strong ties going forward. To use Baloo's memorable image in The Jungle Book, the old trans-Atlantic world is "gone, man, solid gone."

If the Lisbon Treaty is to mean anything, and Van Rompuy to emerge as more than an amiable figurehead, the European Union needs to develop coherent strategies for China, Russia, Middle East peace, Afghanistan and energy security, to name just five areas where it seems to have no unified position.

Now that even France has seen that EU-NATO rivalry is of comical silliness in a world where the West needs coherence just to hold its own, Europe must also work hard on harmonising its military strategy.
I don't see European defense budgets increasing. But what's essential is that duplication and waste in Europe be cut by coordinating defense spending priorities. It's clarity, not voicemail hell, that America's non-Atlantic president needs from Europe.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIA

RS'S DATE WITH HISTORY

PASSES BILL FOR EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN

 

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday took the first great step to give a better place to women in society when it passed the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill by 186 to 1 vote. The Bill seeks to provide for 33 per cent of seats for women in Parliament and State Assemblies which means that the women of India will have greater voice in making laws for the nation. This is a major step forward by the country's evolving democratic system where women have been given a raw deal over the centuries.

 

The Bill has had many ups and downs in the last 14 years. Indeed, the events in the past two days were shocking and unprecedented in Indian parliamentary history. A handful of unruly members of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party disturbed the proceedings only to be suspended by the House. They created disorder in the Rajya Sabha demanding quota within quota for the Muslims, the OBCs and Dalits among women. And when they refused to leave the House and continued to disrupt the proceedings, the Chairman, Mr Hamid Ansari, rightly decided to get them evicted by the Marshals of the House.

 

The Congress-led government, backed by understanding with the BJP and the Left, kept its nerve and went ahead with the resolve to ensure more power to women. The Rajya Sabha vote shows that if the major national parties join hands on vital issues, they can achieve several national aims. In the process, they can call the bluff of smaller regional parties, which are not much concerned about national political and societal aims. The kind of consensus seen on the women's Bill among the Congress, the BJP and the Left, cutting across the ideological divides, can be consolidated further to forge unity of purpose on other divisive issues.

 

Tuesday's vote came as a result of a lot of back-channel contacts among the three major political parties. This is how a democratic system should be encouraged to function in a vibrant democracy. Hopefully, the consensus arrived at for the Rajya Sabha vote will ensure a smooth passage of the Bill through the Lok Sabha where the Speaker of the House, like the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, will also be determined to uphold the highest parliamentary traditions and will not succumb to pressures from motley groups whose politics is becoming irrelevant for a modern India.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

KILLINGS BY TALIBAN

PAKISTAN'S SOFT POLICY IS TO BLAME

 

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan continues to cause death and destruction despite what Islamabad claims to be doing against the militants. The Taliban has owned up responsibility for Monday's killing of 13 persons when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a building having the offices of Pakistan's Special Investigative Unit in Lahore. According to a Taliban spokesman, "The attack was to avenge (US) drone attacks and (Pakistani) military operations in the tribal areas." Such attacks, as the man boasted, will continue so long as the US and Pakistani drives against the militant movement do not come to an end. The latest killings have occurred after the arrest of a few top Taliban commanders like Mullah Baradar and Colonel Imam. The Taliban militants have demonstrated the capacity to strike at will anywhere in Pakistan.

 

Yet it is surprising why Pakistan has been pursuing a soft policy towards the militants. It has been clandestinely helping the militants having strong links with the Taliban in Afghanistan and the jihadi outfits working against India. The truth, however, is that terrorists of all persuasions have the same destabilisation agenda. Their ideology is the same. If they are the enemies of India, the US and Afghanistan, they are also no friends of Pakistan. Islamabad's belief that the Taliban factions being patronised by the ISI can help in achieving strategic depth in Afghanistan is wishful thinking. The Taliban carrying out suicide bombings in Pakistan may intensify their activities once the Taliban factions in Afghanistan become a part of the ruling dispensation.

 

The Taliban is, however, more interested in capturing power in Pakistan than in Afghanistan obviously because Pakistan is a nuclear-weapons state. They have any number of sympathisers in Pakistan's armed forces and intelligence agencies, as is well known. These elements continue to assist the Taliban in various ways. The latest proof of this uncomfortable reality has been provided by the arrested former colonel of the Pakistan Army. Therefore, the need of the hour is not only to launch an all-out war against the Taliban, but also to weed out the pro-Taliban elements in the military. Blaming India or any other country for the suicide bomb blasts in Pakistan will not do.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

INFANT MORTALITY

FUNDS TO FIGHT THIS GO UNUTILISED

 

As if being one of the biggest contributors to neo-natal and child mortality in the world was not damning enough, there is now added reason for Madhya Pradesh to hang its head in shame. While the revelation that in that state more than a lakh of children under five died between 2005 and 2009 is benumbing, what is more shocking is that crores of rupees under the Reproductive and Child Health programmes meant to reduce infant and maternal mortality rate and the total fertility rate were not used.

 

Undeniably, while the Madhya Pradesh government cannot be absolved, unfortunately the record of other state governments is no better. A relatively prosperous state like Punjab too recorded nearly 19,000 infant and 900 maternal mortality cases last year. Not only is India's infant mortality rate high, even safe motherhood remains a distant goal. According to a survey, no state in India will be able to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals related to maternal mortality rate by 2010. The 13th Finance Commission's recommendation that a state's performance in reducing infant mortality rate be linked to grants from the Centre and the Union Government's acceptance of the "incentive grant" is in the right spirit. But how earnest are the state governments in using these funds is evident from Madhya Pradesh's example.

 

The state governments must realise their responsibilities and work sincerely to improve human development

indicators. Indeed, the reasons behind high IMR are many. Early marriage and early pregnancies too have a bearing on children's health. In Punjab with IMR of 41 per 1,000 live births the major cause is attributed to low birth weight. Yet reasons cannot be an excuse for the inaction of the state governments, especially in tackling malnourishment among small children of impoverished sections of society. The fact that the IMR in rural areas is higher than in urban areas once again points to the need to provide better care to the rural people. The NRHM's goal of reducing IMR to 30 per 1,000 live births by 2012 can only be achieved with the active cooperation of the states.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

ANOMALIES IN AGRICULTURE

A CLOSE LOOK AT POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

BY JAYSHREE SENGUPTA

 

In Budget-2010, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee pointed out that agriculture was the weakest sector of the economy today. It is because of the crisis in agriculture that we are having such a difficult time coping with food inflation. If the urban middle class is reeling under its impact, imagine how the poor in the countryside are dealing with it.

 

Between Budget-2010 and Economic Survey-2009-2010, many anomalies in agriculture and public distribution system have been addressed. An important point that has been revealed in the Economic Survey is the consistent decline in private investment in agriculture. How to make more credit accessible to the middle and small farmer, however, remains somewhat nebulous both in the budget and the survey.

 

It is lack of access to easy credit and high rates of interest that are behind the fall in private investment in agriculture. Without investment in irrigation storage and farm equipment, there cannot be a significant rise in productivity. It is of utmost concern that Indian agriculture has low productivity in all major crops as compared to most other farming countries in the world and even as compared to China.

 

The farmers who have huge debts also cannot invest, and on this front much progress has been made towards debt relief. Around 3.68 crore farmers have benefited from the scheme involving a debt waiver, and debt relief has amounted to Rs 65 319.33 crore. Crop loan repayment has been extended by six months and the interest rate subvention of 1 per cent has been raised to 2 per cent for timely repayment of loans. This means that for the farmers who are able to repay on time, the interest rate is only 5 per cent. What about others?

 

For higher agricultural productivity, farmers need to access nutrient-based fertilisers at cheap rates and a change of the subsidy regime has been suggested. Instead of giving subsidies to the companies producing fertilisers in bonds, direct cash subsidies are being contemplated.

 

The Economic Survey has proposed a coupon-based fertiliser subsidy that will be given to all farmers but more to the small and medium farmers and they can trade these coupons for purchasing fertilisers. But they could use the coupon to buy anything else if they wish — for example, they can buy a TV set or sell it freely to others. Does it not amount to giving the farmer too much of a free hand?

 

For more efficient public distribution of foodgrains, necessary to minimise the impact of the food inflation on the poor, another option has been offered that will take care of the many "leakages". No grain will be given at a subsidised rate to the PDS shops and they will be free to charge the market price while selling grains irrespective of who the customer is. Coupons would be given to BPL families and ration shops would be allowed to accept such coupons. Shopkeepers will not have the temptation to adulterate foodgrains for BPL families when they would be getting the market price through coupons. The shops can trade their coupons for cash from banks. But will this work?

 

Surprisingly, the government has cut the budget for the monitoring of food and civil supplies and strengthening of the PDS. For the 2010-11 fiscal, the overall outlay for monitoring and research in foodgrains and management and strengthening of PDS, Rs 40.40 crore was allocated in 2009-2010. But the actual expenditure was only Rs 14.60 crore. For this fiscal year, the outlay has been brought down to Rs 29.60 crore and for PDS, it has been cut down from Rs 7.20 crore last year to Rs 3.91 crore because the Ministry of Consumer Affairs could not spend the money and only spent Rs 2.83 crore. Perhaps better utilisation should have been the aim instead of a lower allocation.

 

The Economic Survey has also mentioned the need for maintaining proper and efficient buffer stocks and has rightly pointed out that the very purpose of such stocks is defeated if the FCI sticks to the buffer stock norms and insists on maintaining minimum stocks, especially in cases when releasing of such stocks fully would bring down the prices. A better solution would be to release foodgrains directly to retail consumers which would immediately lead to downward pressure on prices.

 

India has a huge buffer stock of foodgrains and still there has been such a hike in the prices in recent months. What is the purpose of the stocks which are just lying in storage at a great cost to the exchequer?

 

One subject that needs attention and has not been duly addressed in the latest Economic Survey is the issue of raising the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat and rice over the past few years and which have contributed in no small measure to the food price inflation. There has been a substantial increase in MSPs to incentivise farmers to increase productivity and production. But it has always signalled a higher floor price of the produce which has led to rising foodgrain prices every season.

 

The increase in the MSPs has, however, not led to small and medium farmers from enriching themselves as they

have no easy or direct access to the agricultural market. It is thus a questionable move why the government has gone on raising the MSPs when the small farmers are not seen to be gaining from it directly.

 

In the production of pulses, India has faced smaller output in the last few years (14 to 14.8 million tonnes when

the demand is between 17 and 18 million tonnes) and there has been a persistent gap between demand and supply. The steep rise in the prices of pulses is due to the fact that the shortfall in production has not been met by timely imports. And there are very few countries that export dals. In oilseeds, we are more or less import-dependent and over the years, oilseed production has just declined in the face of fierce competition from abroad.

 

Cheap imported palm oil was hard to compete with and oilseed farmers switched over to other types of crops. In

the Budget, there is a provision of Rs 300 crore to organise 60,000 pulses and oilseeds villages and also provide integrated intervention of watershed and related programmes.

 

The Finance Minister has laid emphasis on cold storage facilities in order to preserve the produce longer. These are important for enhancing the farmers' incomes and their ability to purchase goods and services.

 

It is the consumer demand emanating from the rural and farming sector that held up the total demand for goods and services in the country in the months following the global financial crisis. The factories kept busy catering to the demand from rural India and that is why we did not witness a collapse of the demand in the face of the global meltdown and industrial growth, even though it declined in the past two quarters and is again rising in an impressive manner.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

IDENTITY CRISIS

BY UTTAM SENGUPTA

 

Who are you ? Where do you live ? What do you do? Three rather simple questions to which I believed I had the answers. But one lives and learns. These days you need a proof for everything.

 

A lesson in "identity crisis" was taught early by a bank clerk, who blandly asked me to prove that I had only two siblings, a brother and a sister, and not more.

 

Is there any proof that you have only one brother ? The question infuriated me but I had no answer till I blurted out, "What kind of proof do you need ?" He reflected for some time and then said, " Get me a certificate from the panchayat or zila parishad of the place you were born or where you grew up," he said. But what if they also ask for some evidence, I enquired sarcastically, since the family had moved away two decades ago. He gave me a cold look and shrugged.

 

That was 20 years ago. Last month I sought to change the billing address with the mobile service provider. An application in writing with an identity proof should be sufficient, I reckoned and persuaded my wife to carry them. But where is the address proof, they asked. She went back with an address proof issued by the office since it was an official accommodation.

 

But what is the proof that your husband works for this organisation, they persisted. What would convince you, she asked in turn. The "pay slip", they blandly told her.

 

It was my turn to explode. What nonsense, I exclaimed later at home. I have not asked for a loan, for God's sake. And if I can fake a letter from the office, what would prevent me from faking a pay-slip, I hollered. " Go and get it changed," she replied with a stiff lip, " I am not going back".

 

I turned to the corporate communication head of the service providing company. Surely he would vouch for the fact that I am not a terrorist, had nothing to do with Richard Headley and that I reside where I claim to be residing and do what I claim to be doing.

 

He was sympathetic. Just furnish the identity proof and the address proof and that's it. Eureka, I triumphantly told my wife. She looked unconvinced.

 

I marched into their office and offered the documents. But would I be carrying a photograph ? I had not brought one. I went back with the photograph when they enquired if I had filled up the forms. Nobody had told me about forms till then. When I filled the forms, they took one look and threw up their hands. They should be filled in black ink, I was admonished. After filling the forms in black ink, I returned. But no, photo copy will not do. I went back with the original. They looked at my identity card, my PAN card, my driving license and the letter issued by the office. They made a few phone calls, listed what I had submitted before putting down the receiver. "This will not do," I was told, " we need your pay slip".

 

That is when I raised my arms, gathered all the documents and fled. It would not have been nice screaming at the poor girls.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

WATER POLLUTION IN PUNJAB

BABA SEECHEWAL OFFERS A SOLUTION

BY BIKRAM SINGH VIRK

 

THE untreated sewerage water of the cities is a big problem in Punjab with its stink making life a hell for the urbanites. With no treatment facilities at most of the places, water flows through open nullahs and pollute the water bodies, including rivulets, water streams and even the rivers.

 

The Sutlej is totally black and stinking beyond Ludhiana, as the city's effluents along with the untreated sewerage water fall into it through Buddhah Nullah.

 

The Malwa belt, where people use this water for drinking purposes, today is marred by cancer. None of the statutes or government dictates has cured this malaise.

 

A solution to this multi-faceted problem is a unique sewerage treatment plant, which the noted environmentalist and the man behind the cleansing of Kali Bein, Sant Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal, has indigenously designed and built on about six acres of land near Dasuya town in Hoshiarpur district at a measly cost of about Rs 18 lakh.

 

The plant, built in one month's time only, has in the first leg three 11 ft-deep wells with a diametre of 30 ft, 20 ft and 15 ft respectively and six adjoining ponds of 170ft x 100 ft in the second leg, all built at the height of about 12 ft from the ground level.

 

Thick sewerage water from the open nullah is thrown through two pump sets in the first well from a height by scattering it on a platform for aeration. It then swivels in the well and enters into the second and then into the third one.

 

Sewerage water loses its thick slurry in the bottoms of these V-Shaped wells from where it is separated with the help of a pre-laid underground pipe and taken aside in the open beds. After drying, this slurry becomes very fertile soil capable of growing vegetable and flowers in flower pots and kitchen gardens.

 

The water from the wells then moves to the adjoining larger ponds of 170ft x 100ft, three of which are built in a row and gets purified automatically as it moves from one pond to another, losing its stink after the second pond.

 

After passing through the first three, water enters into the set of other three ponds parallel to the first ones. In the fifth and sixth ponds, the water is crystal clear and fit for irrigation purposes with all the healthy nutrients in it.

 

From here it is channelled to a 3 km underground pipeline taking it to the adjoining fields for irrigation. The tilt of wells and ponds is so designed that the water moves automatically with the gravitational force.

 

Daily around 10 to 12 lakh litres of sewerage water of Dasuya, having a population of around 20,000, falls into this sewer and irrigates around 300 acres of crop of wheat post-treatment.

 

Farmers who use this water are a happy lot as they have stopped using ground water for irrigation and their yield has shot up by 30 to 40 per cent due to this nutrient rich water.

 

Roughly, it increased the output of wheat by around 180 tonnes and that of paddy by 240 tonnes last year from these 300 acres, which means an additional income of Rs 40 lakh to the farmers.

 

Their fertiliser consumption has also fallen to around one-third of what they used earlier and approximately 60 tonnes of urea and 30 tonnes of DAP was saved in a year, which means a net saving of about Rs 6 lakh on account of fertilisers.

 

Since the farmers have stopped using underground water, the water table has also gone up fairly in the area. Kali Bein, which was polluted with its dirty water, has been spared of this curse.

 

In nutshell, this plant can be seen a model for solving the sewer woes of all the towns in Punjab and that too with huge economic and environmental advantages coming in as a bonus.

 

Punjab today has 134 municipalities and three corporations with a population base of about 85 lakh. Taking Dasuya town's population as the base for all calculations, all the cities of Punjab put together have a capacity to irrigate 1,25,000 acres of land, thereby increasing the output of wheat and paddy by 37,500 tonnes and 50,000 tonnes respectively, which means an additional income of about Rs 80 crore to the state farmers.

 

They will also save around 25,000 tonnes of urea and 12,500 tonnes of DAP resulting in a net saving of Rs 24 crore. It will further stop polluting the water bodies and ground water and the people will be spared of diseases caused by impurities in water. All the rivers and rivulets of Punjab will again become clean with a single stroke.

 

Apart from land, with a cost of around Rs 75 crore, this model can be easily replicated in small and medium towns of Punjab. The only thing which needs to be ensured is that the implementation work should not be entrusted to any government agency, which may take years to commission the plants and at many times of what Baba Seechewal has spent.

 

It will be in the fitness of things if the required land and funds are handed over to Sant Seechewal's NGO, which can build such treatment plants in Punjab in a single year! There is no better solution to the problem of water pollution in Punjab than these low-cost treatment plants.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

RUNNING OUT OF FRIENDS

BY YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN

 

I am but Muslim lite, a non-conformist believer who will not be told what and how by sanctimonious religious sentinels for whom religion is a long list of rules to be obeyed by bovine followers. Readers know I am often critical of Muslim people and nations. Bad things that happen to us cannot all be attributed to "Islamophobia", a nebulous and imprecise concept that, like anti-Semitism, can be used to besmirch and sully and silence criticism.

 

But this week even I, even I, can see that for the British establishment Muslims are contemptible creatures, devalued humans. As I prayed before starting this column I felt tears stinging my eyes and my face was burning as if I had been slapped many times over. Do they expect me to turn the other cheek? Millions of other Muslims must have felt what I did. And some may well go on to do things they shouldn't. Their acts will intensify anti-Muslim prejudices and will be used to justify injustice. The cycle is vicious and unrelenting.

 

Once again at weddings and birthday parties, in quiet, tranquil mosques, at dinner tables across the land, including those of millionaire Muslims, I am hearing murmurs of trepidation and disquiet – voices kept low, sometimes vanishing into whispers, just in case; you never know if they will break down the door. These people are, like myself, well incorporated into the nation's busy life. Some own restaurants and businesses, others work in the City or law firms and chambers. At one gathering a frightfully posh, Muslim public school boy (aged 14), an excellent cricketer, said in his jagged, breaking voice: "I will never live in this country after finishing my education. They hate us. They'll put us all in prison. Nothing we do is OK. Do you think I am wrong Mrs Yasmin?" No I don't, though his hot young blood makes him intemperate.

 

Where do I start? Well, with the PM who takes himself to the moral high ground at every opportunity, to orate and berate as he did when called in by the placid Chilcot panel. The son of a preacher man, John Ebenezer Brown, Gordon has the manse gene. Unlike the shape-shifter Blair, he is authentically himself, driven by embedded values, and I admire that. But, like his predecessor, he is shockingly indifferent to the agony of the people most affected by the Iraq war, a war Brown still says was "the right" thing to do for the "right reasons". His only regret? They should have thought a bit more about what to do next after they had defeated Saddam and pulled down his statues.

 

Not a word about the countless Iraqis killed when we bombed indiscriminately in civilian areas, no word of sorrow, however hollow or feigned, about the dead children or those now born in that blighted land with two heads and other grotesque abnormalities. John Simpson's recent BBC report described the rising number of such births in Fallujah, picked for the cruelest collective punishment by America.

 

Are they not children, Mr Brown? You still cry for your own baby, who died so young. For Muslims, that only confirms native Iraqis are grains of sand to those who executed the imperial war. Martinique intellectual and liberationist Aimee Cesaire wrote: "Colonisation works to de-civilise the coloniser, to brutalise him ... to degrade him." We saw how with Brown, whose empathy is withheld from Iraqis, Muslim victims tortured with the connivance of our secret services and perhaps from all citizens who pray to Allah.

 

Meanwhile at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge John Denniss is industriously sentencing demonstrators who gathered near the Israeli embassy to rail against that state's attack on Gaza, one of the worst acts of state terrorism in recent history. Our government said nothing then, and were therefore complicit. Protesters came from all backgrounds but the vast majority of those arrested were young Muslim men. Dozens are being sent down for insignificant acts of bravado. Some were about to go to university, to train as dentists and the like. Their homes were raided, families cowed and terrified. Joanna Gilmore, an academic expert on public demonstrations, says never before have such disproportionate sentences been handed out, not even with the volatile anti-globalisation protests. Denniss intends his punishments to be a deterrent. To deter us from what? Having the temerity to believe we live in a democracy and are free to march?

 

And then the crypto-fascist, Aryan Geert Wilders, is invited into the Lords by UKIP and crossbench peers to show his vile anti-Islam film in the name of freedom of expression. Freedom my arse. It is just another entertaining episode of Muslim-baiting. I dare the same peers to now invite David Irving, the Holocaust denier, to share his thoughts freely in the Lords, and get Omar Bakri over from the Lebanon with films of himself making fiery speeches on what to do with infidels. Again Muslims are made to understand that different standards apply to others. We are on trial, always, and always must expect to lose.

 

I am here accusing the most powerful in government, parliament and the judiciary, not those individual MPs, peers and judges who try to do the right thing. To them we are immensely grateful, and to the extraordinary lawyers, activists, journalists, artists, writers and ordinary Britons fighting ceaselessly for our liberties. We just witnessed Helena Kennedy in court passionately defending Cossor Ali, accused of providing active support to her convicted terrorist husband. The jury, scrupulously fair, bless them, acquitted the young woman. Muslims involved in crime and violent Islamicism must be tried and punished. But their acts do not give lawmakers and law keepers of this land licence to strip the rest of us of our humanity and inviolable democratic entitlements.

 

During the dark days of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the Irish in Britain were often treated unjustly by parliament, police, judges like Lord Denning, and vast sections of the media. Under Thatcher, miners and trades unionists were mercilessly "tamed", too. But this time, with Muslims, the establishment has surpassed its previous disgraceful record. They steal our human and civil rights and don't even try to behave with a modicum of honour during and after war. The same people call upon us to be more "British" but treat us as lesser citizens. Deal or No Deal? You tell me.

 

— By arrangement with The Independent

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

IMMIGRANTS HAVE CHANGED DUTCH SOCIETY

BY PETER MAIR

 

What had been expected to be relatively run-of-the-mill local elections in the Netherlands quickly acquired a lot more significance once the Dutch government had unexpectedly collapsed over the Afghanistan issue.

 

These results tell us little about Afghanistan, but they do offer a foretaste of the possible result of the general

election that is planned for 9 June, and in particular they give us a good indication of the prospects for Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party.

 

Dutch politics has been in disarray since the traditional patterns were first challenged by Pim Fortuyn's populist protest in 2002. Fortuyn was, of course, assassinated just before that election, and his leaderless party fell apart soon afterwards. Wilders has now taken up Fortuyn's legacy, but in a much more extreme and direct manner.

 

His is an explicitly anti-Islam party, decrying the Koran, threatening deportation for immigrant offenders, promising a ban on the building of mosques and minarets, and so on. In this, he builds on, and further promotes, the inter-communal tensions that have been so evident in the Netherlands since Fortuyn, and which also hit the headlines with the assassination of film director Theo van Gogh and the hounding of the politician and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

 

Dutch society, long one of the most homogenous in continental Europe, was never as tolerant as it appeared, and problems which rumbled for long under the surface have become steadily more acute as the share of the non- Western immigrant population has grown to become one of the largest in western Europe.

 

The Dutch party system is now exceptionally fragmented. No party is expected to win much more than 20 per cent in the coming election, which, given the extreme proportionality of the electoral system, means none is likely to win more than 30 of the 150 seats.

 

In this clouded Dutch landscape, Wilders's sharp and direct appeal wins a lot of favour. He also runs a highly disciplined party. There is no membership, and hence no activist layer which needs to be appeased, and the party's parliamentary group – currently nine seats – is firmly under his control.

 

In the local elections, he concentrated his efforts on just two flagship municipalities: Almere, a new city near Amsterdam, and The Hague, the seat of government. His party did tremendously well in both, topping the poll in Almere, and running a close second to Labour in The Hague.

 

All this is good for the image that Wilders promotes, of a party for straight talking and with popular appeal. It also positions him well for the general election, with the Freedom Party now being forecast to emerge as the first or second largest in parliament. The big question now is whether, and how, that success might translate into a role in government.n

 

 By arrangement with The Independent

 

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MUMBAI MERROR

EDITORIAL

CAN CITIES BE MANUFACTURED?

WHILE MANICURED URBAN DREAMS ARE ATTRACTIVE, THEY MISS THE ENERGY THAT COMES FROM THE WAY PEOPLE, WORK, FUN AND COMMERCE ENMESH INTO EACH OTHER IN CITIES LIKE MUMBAI

 

Mumbai and Pune are overseeing the birth of two new cities growing in between their long, expressway-connected urban sprawl. These are Amby Valley and Lavasa. Both these urban dreams have been conceived in the mode of planned cities even though they have very different starting points. One is an out and out imitation of American suburbia while the other uses very sophisticated rhetoric about new urbanism. The interesting thing is that they began with the idea of containing their membership, of controlling the process through which they would get users to come to the city, but may well land up eventually opening their doors. After all, no city in the world can afford to have gateways, no matter how exclusive the original intention. The problem with cities that like to think of themselves in utopian terms ultimately find their unrealistic vision coming undone for three basic reasons – money, investment and sustainability. You have to understand the w o r k - ings of u r b a n economies very carefully to appreciate that. A city is not just about beautiful buildings, clean streets and idyllic landscapes. It needs to be an economic generator primarily. If you isolate these features and make them the focus, people will get bored. At best you will produce a suburban landscape, at worst a bedroom city. Mumbaikars – who one presumes are a big market for these two projects – may be fed up with traffic jams, garbage and badly managed civic services for sure. But just take them away from their city for a long period and they start missing it terribly. They are certainly not missing the jams and garbage but definitely primarily its energy that comes from the special way in which people, lives, work, fun, entertainment and commerce enmesh into each other. They like the easy access that the city's layered economy allows them to cheap basic services – no matter how rich or moneyed they are. Everyone wants things delivered to their door steps, safety in numbers and car shopping even if they do complain against hawkers too. Giving them clean utopias will work up to a point. The unbearable pain of dealing with the city's basic pressures may make them fantasise about the promised new urban land – but eventually when they are confronted with the reality of a cardboard cut, picture perfect city, they will back off.

What may eventually happen is that both Lavasa and Amby Valley may loosen up a bit and allow the spirit of Mumbai – dirt and all – to flow through their haloed gateways and share that magic. Navi Mumbai too tried hard to preserve a sense of planned idealism but what remains of that today is a grid over which the standard layer of Indian working class – service-oriented urban economy has settled down nicely and thickly. Informal settlements have become firmly entrenched in the landscape.

Such experiments convince us that you cannot really plan or manufacture a city. You have to be sensitive to the way in which markets, bazaars, jobs and needs organise themselves and facilitate the process through which these translate into decent settlements. The expressway connecting Mumbai and Pune could itself have been a stimulus with the potential of being harnessed effectively to create many organic urban spaces. Instead, what we have is one unholy sprawl which multiples the civic, environmental and problems of both Mumbai and Pune.

 Rather than create two islands of urban idealism, the proper way would have been to pay greater attention to the possibilities of the entire stretch and create ideal living conditions for everybody – not just the moneyed classes. But one presumes that everybody in the business of making these two cities knew that. No wonder the first thing they thought of was having helipads and airports.

 

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MUMBAI MERROR

EDITORIAL

THINK IT THROUGH

How you relate to your fat determines if you lose those troublesome inches. Experts explain how a change in feelings and beliefs can result in weight-loss

In the popular soap Mahi Way, the protagonist, Mahi Talwar (portrayed by Pushti) plays a girl who goes through several complexes because of her weight. In real life too, the actress reportedly had to cope with weighty issues. That is, until she decided to stop conforming to others' ideals and accepted herself the way she is.

 Like Mahi, a lot of people find themselves on the wrong end of the weighing scale despite going through punishing diets and rigorous workouts.

The reason often has little to do with the gym or diet, but more with the mind. Before you fight your fat, you need to battle with the demons in your mind. And how does one do that? By establishing a 'relationship' with fat, 'talking' to your body, learning to love food and letting the heart direct the body. The result is a slimmer body and a new you. Confused? Read on.

THIN AND FAT THOUGHTS

The 'relationship with fat' approach believes fat is nothing but emotions being stored in the body. This method divides thoughts into two types: Fat thoughts — negative emotions like fear, anger, guilt, jealousy etc. And thin thoughts — love, positivity, joy peace etc.

In a low phase, your energies are all concentrated on the negatives; eating, thus, becomes a mechanical activity which results in food not being assimilated well in the body. But when you feel light, energetic and positive, eating gives joy and the food gets absorbed too.

WORK ON BELIEF SYSTEM

If you step on the treadmill thinking 'I am never going to lose this bulge,' you never will. It's because the negative thought hinders you from going further. So the first step to losing weight is to connect with the sub-conscious and find out the belief system that is fuelling negativity. Such beliefs can be changed with the help of simple exercises. Here are two of them:

GOAL SETTING

Think about your weight-loss goal. Say, it's losing 25 kgs in six months. Inform six people you interact with daily — friends, family, colleagues about it. Write a positive statement about your goal. Eg: 'I HAVE lost 25 kgs'. Then take action towards achieveing it — exercising, walking, yoga etc — keeping your six co-partners in the loop. The idea is to involve others who will motivate and remind you of your goal, while reinforcing your own positive beliefs.

VISUALISATION
Imagine three things:

1)How people talk about you once you have achieved your goal 2) What you hear people discussing your new look — the appreciation and envy 3) How do you see yourself after the weight loss — energetic, beautiful and happy You are basically diverting your mind, (hitherto crowded with thoughts of being sloppy, overweight and unable to dress well) to give way to confident feelings about your body.

TACKLING FOOD ADDICTION

It's one of the most common reasons of weight gain. Often you crave for a cola or need a sugar fix when you are depressed, fearful or stressed. That's what food addiction is — eating when the body really doesn't need it. Here is a simple exercise to deal with it.

Visualise that there is a parent, child and adult within our body. When you reach for the chocolate you don't need, it's the child within you that's coming out. You feel guilty immediately thereafter — a sign of the parent acting up. To control the urge, put a sign on the refrigerator — 'only for adults'. And watch yourself. You might not be always able to control the child in you, but after a while, you wouldn't want to break the self-imposed 'adult rule'. Instead, like an adult, you would want to focus on solving the problem head on and not seek comfort (read escapism) in food.

BREAK FOOD PATTERN

Changing beliefs also means doing away with set meal routines. If you have always been used to eating breakfast at 9 am, your body automatically craves food regardless of whether it is hungry or not. Break the pattern. Instead of 9 am, have your breakfast at 7 am (pre-empting hunger). Often you'll find you are eating less than your regular quantity. If at 9, your body sends a reminder, remember it's just out of habit and not hunger. Be aware of the craving but do nothing; it will go away.

OVERCOME GUILT

Eat happily, even if you have an extra dollop of cheese or ghee. Don't fear the dietician or be worried about breaking your resolve. Eat slowly, chewing it well. A simple trick is to move your hand or spoon away from food. Don't eat another morsel before you finish one. You'll realise you are eating less, but enjoying each bite. And relax, you won't gain weight if you enjoy your food and eat, guilt-free.

LOVE YOUR BODY

Turn your thoughts from 'I am depressed because I am fat' to 'I am fat because I am depressed'. Accept and love your body for body-image, self-esteem and fat are all interrelated. One way to gain better selfimage is the 'touch therapy'.

 Hold the body part you don't like — your flabby arms, the love handles or not-so-flat belly. Observe it and say 'I love you' to the body part'. Touching makes you feel secure and good about yourself.

Simply put, while gymming or dieting can help you shed the kilos, the real solution has to come from within. Tweaking the much-talked about mind-body connection, think from the heart, let the mind direct the body instead of vice-versa and watch your fat melt away.

Inputs by Dr Kaajal, a naturopath and healer, and Rajan Santhanam, founder, Wealth of Wellness, a wellness company

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

MFIS MUST REMEMBER BASICS

SUCCESS SHOULD NOT DERAIL THE MODEL

 

It is natural for a sector like microfinance, which is growing exponentially, to face problems on the way. But the current crop affecting microfinance institutions (MFIs), which are constituted as non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), is somewhat more serious and require a relook at the roots. Microfinance has been celebrated for bringing institutional credit to the poor who have no security or collateral to offer. The model's success lies in extremely high loan recovery rates of 98 per cent or more. This is why microfinance is now considered mainstream and is attracting private equity funding from all over the world. Founders of some of the best-run MFIs who started off as philanthropists are exiting at phenomenal profit and giving MFIs hitherto undreamed of valuations like half a billion dollars. The importance of private equity will grow as MFIs go public and with this will come the need for private equity to chart its exit according to pre-determined schedules. Private equity and the global financial crisis have brought in senior managers from the financial world at what is considered exorbitant salaries to the world of microfinance.

 Professional management and private equity targets, both financial and temporal, have set agendas for both lending and recovery. The result on the ground is that multiple lending (the same borrower taking loans from several MFIs), which was always there, is now considered rampant by some long-term MFI observers. Servicing multiple loans every week is not easy, particularly when they are disbursed under group guarantee, creating peer pressure not to default. A borrower who has bitten off more than she can chew often has no choice but to go to the moneylender. Significantly, informal credit has grown apace with microfinance in recent years. Thus, there is a danger of microfinance not only being unable to remove poverty (health emergencies and social obligations like marriages make the removal of poverty a more challenging goal) but ending up enhancing indebtedness.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which regulates NBFCs, is worried that over and above the adverse trends noted above, the advent of more professional management and economies of scale bringing costs down are not leading to lower borrowing costs. Not all private equity firms are the same but their basic aims militate against charging borrowers less. RBI has, therefore, indicated that if the benefits of success are not shared with the poor borrower then it will take microfinance out of the ambit of priority sector lending, thus not allowing MFIs to access commercial bank credit at attractive rates for onlending to the poor. There are several solutions. One, better self regulation. Two, creation of credit bureaus to help MFIs avoid the pitfall of multiple lending. In Latin America, for example, this has enabled MFIs to get away from group guarantee which has its evils. Three, issuance of banking licences to the best-run MFIs so that they can access cheap funds via community savings. SEWA and Basix already do so. But it is most important for MFIs to reaffirm their social agenda. They are there to help the poor earn more by providing affordable credit. Typically, the poor are vulnerable to emergencies like flood, drought, illness and marriage. So, to insist on a near-perfect recovery schedule is to invite a crisis.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

DANGERS OF HUBRIS

FROM SHARM-EL SHEIKH TO TELANGANA TO WOMEN'S BILL

First, the mishandling of the Sharm-el Sheikh joint statement issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Second, the knee-jerk response to Telangana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrasekhar Rao's feigned fast. Now, making a mess of a long-pending Bill for reservation for women in Parliament. With three self goals, the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has breathed life into a moribund Opposition and alienated allies, and wasted three precious sessions of Parliament. More striking than the mishandling of an issue or the absence of a strategy to deal with opposition is the insensitive handling of allies within the ruling coalition. The Congress party has dispensed with the mechanism of a Coordination Committee, which has met sporadically only in response to a crisis, not as a matter of course. The institutional mechanism of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) has also been neglected. The CCPA never met after the new UPA government came to power till the Telangana issue rocked the government. One would have expected a discussion within the CCPA on a crucial issue like a Constitutional amendment on reservation for women in Parliament. If the government finds itself in one imbroglio after another, each disrupting a session of Parliament, it is time to ask why an electorally re-empowered alliance is faltering.

 Has the Congress party misread the verdict of the general elections of 2009? Dizzy with an unexpected success, having won over 200 seats in the Lok Sabha, the party's spin doctors rushed to claim victory not for their alliance, indeed not even for their coalition government, but for their party's first family. The "architect of the election victory", claimed Congress party managers, was Rahul Gandhi. It is paradoxical, though, that this "architect", and a prime ministerial aspirant, has not spoken on crucial issues affecting the ruling alliance, be it Telangana, the women's Bill or, indeed, even inflation and budgetary policy. What the Opposition and its allies are trying to tell the Congress party is by now crystal clear — that the 2009 verdict was not a vote for the unquestioned leadership of Sonia Gandhi or her son. It was, without doubt, a vote of confidence in favour of the UPA. But the credit for that ought to be shared by all members of the UPA. It is their successful running of the first Manmohan Singh government and the prime minister's successful management of the economy, with a historic 9 per cent rate of growth, and the balanced conduct of foreign policy, including relations with Pakistan, that enabled the UPA to return to power. By disempowering the prime minister and its allies, the Congress party has weakened its own government. Nobody but the party is responsible for the mess it finds itself in over the handling of the Women's Reservation Bill. Rather than genuflect all the time before the party president and general secretary, Congress party leaders must ask themselves how they can strengthen the prime minister's hands so that the government can bring the economy back to 9 per cent growth, improve relations with our neighbours and major powers, and take India back to the path it was firmly set on in the first decade of the century.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

IS THE STABILITY COUNCIL A GOOD IDEA?

THE FINANCIAL STABILITY AND DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL IS LIKELY TO UNDERMINE RBI'S POWERS WHILE ITS CREATION WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY ENSURE BETTER SUPERVISION OF THE FINANCIAL SECTOR.

INDIRA RAJARAMAN

Honorary Visiting Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi

Another layer on top of the existing regulators will reduce the speed of response as well as accountability. In any case, the current system has worked well for us

The announcement in the Union Budget 2010 of a Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) follows the suggested changes to the regulatory architecture prescribed by the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, which submitted its report on September 12, 2008 — just a few days before the great crash.  Although the Committee prefaced its recommendations by saying that it was "premature to move fully towards a single regulator at the moment", a unified regulatory structure was clearly the goal towards which the Committee thought regulation in India must begin to move.

The principal argument advanced by the Committee in favour of unified regulation is that it is needed to combat financial conglomerates and holding companies as they begin to dominate the system across financial spheres. At the same time, the Committee adopts the contradictory stand that a unified regulator is less vulnerable to capture because it faces countervailing pressure from different segments of the regulated. Arguing from first principles, regulatory capture is actually that much easier when a single regulatory fortress is all that needs to be stormed. In developing countries with a democratic structure, and political parties in need of election funding, a unified regulator is a disturbing prospect. 

In the B.C. (before crisis) era, unified regulation was the flavour of the time, and the UK went ahead and did precisely that. Prudential regulation was gouged out of the Bank of England, and merged into a single regulator, the Financial Services Authority. The crisis demonstrated the folly of separating prudential regulation of the banking sector from the central bank's role as lender of last resort. That lesson has fortunately not been lost. It is fully expected that prudential regulation of banks will soon be restored to the Bank of England. Regulation in the US, on the other hand, was not unified, and the structure there did not shine either.  It collapsed more utterly than elsewhere. No single model emerges unscathed from the empirical test of the great crisis.

That leaves us with the task of thinking through the regulatory structure that will best suit us. The Raghuram Rajan Committee recommended two distinct bodies. A Financial Sector Oversight Agency (FSOA) was suggested, for risk assessment and co-ordination across regulatory spheres, to be chaired by the senior-most regulator. A Working Group on Financial Sector Reforms was also suggested, with the finance minister as chairman, and regulators included in the membership. The danger is that these two quite separate recommendations will in practice be conflated into a single body, chaired by the finance minister.  Political chairing of a co-ordination council is a troubling arrangement. An apolitical institutional mooring is needed for long-term financial stability, so central to the lives of all Indians whether or not they are directly linked to the formal financial structure.

Informal co-ordination and discussion across regulators are certainly good, but this already existed at the time of the Raghuram Rajan Committee, and are mentioned in its report. There is the High Level Coordination Committee (HLCC) on capital markets, supplemented by operational coordination between regulators. All the financial regulators in place — RBI, Sebi, Irda and PFRDA — have defined mandates and powers. If a further legislated layer is superimposed, a loss of accountability is foreseeable. Given the Indian penchant for ceding all power upwards, it is clearly possible that speed of response, an essential feature of effective regulation, will be lost as regulators seek and await approval from the highest layer. 

The Financial Council that has been proposed is a solution to a problem that does not exist. During the crisis, India earned universal admiration for the robust shield surrounding its regulatory structure. Friends of India will watch with horror if we tamper with the very edifice which held us up so well. 

The Budget announcement of a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, on the other hand, is a good idea.  There is most certainly legal untidiness that needs cleaning- up, and if in the process pending cases before the clogged judicial system are also resolved, a huge source of friction standing in the way of financial sector advancement will have been addressed.

M DAMODARAN

CHAIRMAN, DAMODARAN GROUP

 

The HLCC hasn't been able to resolve issues between regulators — an FSDC chaired by the FM would fix this and also ensure their autonomy is preserved

In a Budget speech mercifully devoid of flights of fancy and purple prose, the announcement of a Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) stands out in splendid isolation. The carefully crafted paragraph sets out multiple objectives, seeming to strengthen the suspicion that even the authors of the proposal were not entirely convinced of the need for the proposed Council. Some of the post-Budget explanations have tended to further cloud the issue.

It seems near-certain that the Council would have as its members the regulators in the financial sector as well as the finance secretary and would be chaired by the finance minister. The stated intention being to "strengthen and institutionalise" the existing mechanism, the High Level Coordination Committee (HLCC), comprising all the financial sector regulators and the finance secretary, should be simultaneously disbanded. The Council is expected to "monitor macroprudential regulation of the economy". Post-Budget explanations have it that the Council would bring to the notice of the regulators the emerging trends worldwide and the likely impact on the Indian economy and the financial sector. This should not have been beyond the competence of the HLCC, if it saw itself as appropriately tasked to do so. The proposed monitoring of supervision, "macroprudential" or otherwise should legitimately raise eyebrows. Is that why the Budget took care to say the functioning of the Council would be "without prejudice to the autonomy of regulators"?

What seems most bizarre is a recent explanation that in the context of the "global" financial meltdown, developed economies are coming up with new institutions or mechanisms as regulatory responses and, therefore, we need one of our own  — it would be reasonably clear that the regulatory responses of the developed world have been deficient, ill-conceived or excessive, and there is no reason for us to take a leaf out of their book to redesign our regulatory architecture.

The proposed Council's "focus on financial literacy and financial inclusion" merits a brief comment. It, almost certainly, will lead to a lack of focus on the principal objectives with which the Council is being set up.

Notwithstanding these doubts and reservations, the Council isn't such a bad idea. The HLCC, comprising all the relevant regulators, has not covered itself in glory in sorting out turf issues. It was unable to create the space that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) needed as a functional regulator of the debt market, because banks were major players, and the RBI as entity regulator was unwilling to give up what Sebi saw as its legitimate turf. That the issue found some resolution subsequently is no thanks to the HLCC. Recent developments over unit-linked insurance plans have given rise to reports of divergence of views between regulators, and there is no evidence that the HLCC has found any solution. The proposed FSDC, with the finance minister as its chairman, would be far better placed to facilitate a decision on the way forward — the absence of regulatory coordination is a luxury that no nation can afford.

There is also the question of the functional autonomy of regulators. Autonomy is what one exercises in bona fide discharge of one's functions. It is not the handout of a satisfied superior to a supplicant subordinate. Therefore, the apprehension that the Council would automatically have an adverse impact on the functional autonomy of regulators is not well-founded. A council headed by the finance minister could well be the best insurance against attempts at middle levels in the ministry to interfere with the autonomous functioning of regulatory organisations in the name of, but not at the instance of, the minister.

The remit of the Council should be unambiguously articulated, so that there is no temptation for regulators to shy away from decision-making and seek comfort in endorsement at "higher levels". Notwithstanding what is contained in the Budget speech, the Council should not take upon itself the monitoring of the supervision of large financial conglomerates.The ministry could then become the first port of call and that is best avoided. The institution of a lead regulator, based on the predominant activity of each conglomerate should suffice. Also, if stability is the primary objective, the commodity market regulator should have a place in the Council.

The Council is not such a bad idea. Let's give it a chance — without prejudice.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

SLUMBERING MANDARINS

THERE IS MORE THAN WHAT MEETS THE EYE IN BELATED FILING OF APPEALS BY REVENUE OFFICIALS

M J ANTONY

Judges who hear routine requests from lawyers to "condone" inordinate delays in filing appeals, crossing the time limits set by statutes, face a problem. Condoning the delay would encourage lethargy among litigants who would take such judicial leniency for granted. On the other hand, if they dismiss such appeals because they were filed beyond the strict time limits set by the law, litigants with genuine justification would suffer and their rights would be effaced.

 Time limits are set on the basis of the old legal maxim: "Equity aids the vigilant, not those who slumber on their rights." The dilemma faced by judges is acute when the revenue departments plead for condonation of delay. Huge amounts in taxes are involved and the departments are habitually late in filing their appeals, not by days, but by months or years. If the judges take a stern view and dismiss these appeals on the ground of delay, the people would be the ultimate sufferers as revenues would be lost. Since tax evaders are the winners in this game of delays, they are the main suspects when there is a long wait. It is difficult to say whether the appeals were filed late because of the generic nature of bureaucracy or if the delay was encouraged by the artful evader.

The Supreme Court judgment, delivered a few days ago, in the Oriental Aroma Chemical Industries Ltd vs Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation case is the latest to highlight the judicial quandary. The judges of the Gujarat High Court pardoned the delay of more than four years committed by the state Corporation in filing the appeal in a case it had lost in the courts below. The judges used their discretionary powers pointing out that though the delay was claimed to be more than four years and 28 days, in fact it was only 1,067 days. That was a fine point of law and good arithmetic.

When the company moved the Supreme Court, it not only found the exercise of discretion faulty, but proved from the facts that the state Corporation had not approached the court "with clean hands". The lawyers of the Corporation did not appear in the court several times and they were not even instructed by the Corporation officials. The Supreme Court not only dismissed the appeal of the Corporation pending in the Gujarat High Court, but also ordered a probe by higher functionaries into the conduct of the officers who caused the delay. If the Corporation had suffered losses on account of the conduct of the officers, the court said the amount should be recovered from them.

Around this time last year, the Supreme Court found a "classic example" of engineered delay in litigation in the State of Karnataka vs Y Mooideen Kunhi case. The state government filed an appeal in the Karnataka High Court 14 years after it lost a case before the land tribunal. The government pleaded for condonation of delay which was rejected. Its appeal to the Supreme Court invited condemnation for the behaviour of the officials. The court asked the government to pay Rs 10 lakh before hearing the appeal. It also directed the government to initiate action against "every person responsible for the alleged fraud and delay in pursuing legal remedies, fix responsibility and recover the amount from them". No balm for petitioner Kunhi, as he had died during the proceedings he had started in 1982.

The Supreme Court remarked in that judgment that delays are "skillfully managed" and it is done "to protect unscrupulous litigants at the cost of public interest or exchequer. Though the courts are liberal in dealing with belated presentation of appeals, there is a limit to which such liberal attitude can be extended".

A few months earlier, the court had again called upon the government to fix responsibility on erring officials in the State of Delhi vs Ahmed Jaan case.

The Comptroller and Auditor General had made a study of such delays in 2003 and found that these were mainly due to negligence in following the rules that are already in the statute books. Delays occur at all stages, for example: receipt of certified copy; submission of papers to the board; their examination; drafting by the panel of counsel and filing by the officials. Then there are transfers and promotions of officials dealing with sensitive revenue cases.

The problem has become acute and chronic in recent years. A committee headed by a former attorney general had not succeeded in clearing up the mess in the Union law department processing and filing appeals. Recently, there were reports of the income tax department moving the Supreme Court for condoning delays in 700-odd appeals. The loss to the government in such cases was astronomical. Since there are no guidelines on the use of discretion, the high courts take different views according to the "facts and circumstances" of the case.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

A K BHATTACHARYA: NO END TO THIS CIRCUS

FOR HOW MANY MORE YEARS WILL THE ANNUAL BUDGET CIRCUS CONTINUE IN ITS CURRENT FORM?

A K BHATTACHARYA

For how many more years will the annual Budget circus continue in its current form? This is a question often asked at post-Budget seminars held across the country every year around this time.

Calling the annual Budget a circus has some justification. With tax rates becoming more or less stable, the annual Budget of the Union government is now largely about expenditure allocation in tune with the policy priorities of the finance minister and the political leadership at the Centre.

Has the government spent more on infrastructure? Could the finance minister reduce the fiscal deficit a little further? The curiosity that the Budget continues to arouse on the taxation front should also disappear next year when the proposed direct taxes code is in place and the goods and services tax becomes part of the country's indirect tax regime.

Why should the annual Budget then still be a major media event? Similarly, what would then be the justification for continuing with the series of minor events now held, with great fanfare, to analyse the various proposals the finance minister announces in his speech? Indeed, there are no rational explanations.

Take a look at the annual Budget of any developed country or even an emerging economy. There is no such hype, excitement or a series of events around the government's annual budget exercise. This is purely an Indian innovation. The annual Budget is now a mega event in which the finance minister revels as much as his team of senior officials.

In many ways, the transformation of the annual Budget into a mega national event is a post-reforms phenomenon. Economic reforms definitely ensured that more and more Indians got interested in the Budget. Since reforms also meant lower taxes and duties in addition to simplification of the taxation regime, the annual Budget exercise created an inevitable feel-good factor. No finance minister could let go such an opportunity to wax eloquent on what his Budget was going to mean for an individual's pockets and for the economy's growth.

What aided that hype and excitement was the emergence of several new television news channels in the 1990s. In the last decade or so, the number of television channels has only increased and their interest in the Budget has risen, contributing further to the hype and excitement of the finance minister's annual exercise. The print media has not lagged behind. Newspapers too have realised that there is a lot of merit in exploiting the Budget and its content for offering more to the readers. Undoubtedly, competition among newspapers and television channels has provided a further boost to this annual Budget circus.

Finance ministers too seem to have played along with this transformation. Over the years, the finance minister's Budget speech has become longer. Increasingly, finance ministers have spent more time on announcing minute details of tax rate changes, even though merely tabling the papers on the tax rate change would have served the purpose. Yashwant Sinha's decision to present the Budget at around noon, instead of at 5 pm, also made sure that the government had a longer time to hog the limelight before the event became a day old.

Finance ministers have also shown the tendency to announce a list of reformist measures in areas not monitored by their own ministry, a move that, on many occasions, has boomeranged because other ministries never implemented those decisions. However, these were only minor setbacks. The mind space a finance minister grabs by making those grand policy announcements is a big enough gain to compensate for the embarrassment caused by the failure to implement those decisions later. Senior officials of the finance ministry have also benefited from the annual Budget circus, flitting from one television channel studio to the other and sharing with the viewers their understanding of the new fiscal policy initiatives.

In such a scenario, where everybody seems to be benefiting, there is little chance of the annual Budget circus returning to its old sedate form and shape. The tax policy may become more stable and the government's expenditure priorities may soon lose their ability to spring a surprise year after year. However, it will take a brave finance minister to reduce the Budget to a short and simple exercise without the current hype and excitement. Most significantly, no finance minister can possibly strike a blow at the formidable alliance of beneficiaries of the annual Budget exercise.

Make no mistake that the media is one of those formidable beneficiaries. For the media, the Budget is not just an opportunity to present and analyse the government's fiscal policy initiatives. It has now become an important annual revenue source. So, even if the Budget becomes predictable and the finance minister decides to avoid being part of an annual circus, the media will do its best to ensure that the circus continues to prosper as long as it can. Is there anybody who thinks otherwise?

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR FUTURE MIGRANTS

PROPERTY RIGHTS OF THE URBAN POOR ARE MUCH MORE THAN JUST THE OWNERSHIP OF REAL ESTATE

SANJEEV SANYAL

In his recent Budget speech, the finance minister reiterated the government's plans to make India "slum-free" within five years. This mantra is now being chanted in many urban-related conferences. However, this raises a number of questions. What does a "slum-free" India really mean? Is the removal of slums really desirable? Most importantly, what needs to be done to improve the lives of the millions of urban poor? In this article, I will argue that public policy should focus less on getting rid of slums and more on rethinking property rights, especially those of the poor.

The flow of urban poor

The conventional view for making our cities slum-free is that we should build low-cost housing and shift the existing slum-dwellers into them. There is a serious flaw in this solution because the urban poor are not a static group but a flow.

In the last two years, I have travelled across many parts of rural India. The message is very clear. The children of farmers no longer want to stay on in their farms. No government scheme is going to hold back the change in aspirations. The country's cities need to prepare for the influx. In an earlier column, I had argued that slums play an important role in the phase of rapid urbanisation by absorbing and naturalising the new migrants into the urban landscape (see Slums defy a concrete answer in Business Standard, December 9, 2009). As hundreds of millions of people are absorbed into urban India, slums and small mofussil towns will be needed as routers in this process. If we simply get rid of today's slums, we will merely get new ones.

The point is that we should concentrate on alleviating urban poverty rather than getting rid of slums. The former is the problem and the latter is merely the symptom. Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto has been arguing for years that the solution lies in strengthening the property rights of the poor. This is usually interpreted as formalisation of squatter rights. This may make sense in Latin America, which has a relatively stable population of urban poor and whose economy is growing slowly. However, this is too narrow an interpretation for a high-growth economy like India where booming urban centres are sucking in millions of new migrants.

The first problem with recognising squatter rights is that we create problems of governance by potentially encouraging land-grab. We not only have to think about today's urban poor, but also about the incentive structure presented to the next generation of migrants. Second, the formalisation is usually done on the basis of a cut-off date. This often recognises the rights of better-off old-timers against those of poorer newcomers. Finally, and most importantly, in next generation cities like Gurgaon, the poor live in the "urban villages" where property rights are very clearly defined and any tampering would cause serious social upheaval. So, what should we do?

Beyond merely ownership

In my view, we need to rethink the property rights of the urban poor as being much more than the ownership of real estate. This is especially true when we have a pipeline of migrants who do not have any existing claim on the city's land. Therefore, alleviation of urban poverty must focus on those property rights that will benefit these migrants and allow them to climb the economic ladder. There are three broad categories of such interventions:

Identity as a property right: The single-most important, and sometimes only, asset of a poor migrant is her identity. Without any form of identification, it is very difficult for a newcomer to fit into the urban landscape — no gas connection, no mobile phone, no voter rights, no credit and so on. It is nearly impossible for such an individual to apply for jobs in the formal economy or sometimes even as domestic help. Thus, a reliable and robust system of identification is invaluable. This is why Nandan Nilekeni's Unique Identity Number scheme may turn out to be a major intervention.

Access to the 'commons': The urban poor rely heavily on the "commons" to lead their lives. Therefore, much of their property rights relate to access to public amenities rather than to private space. These include access to public transport, public toilets, public health, parks/open spaces, pedestrian networks and so on. These user rights are far more important to the poor than merely providing a "housing" solution for the individual. Urban design and public investment needs to be reoriented to focus on the commons.

Legal infrastructure: All rights, including property rights, exist only within a legal framework. Urban laws and their application need to be oriented towards protecting the legitimate needs of the urban poor, especially in areas related to livelihood. For instance, street hawkers need to be recognised and incorporated into the legal and architectural framework of the city. Rather than see hawkers merely as a nuisance, we should see them as part of the ecosystem of a vibrant city. What they need is transparent regulation not banishment. The current approach taken by most municipal authorities is merely leading to the proliferation of illegal hawkers and to corruption.

If these frameworks are put in place, the urban poor will themselves find ways to move up the value chain. Indeed, the slums themselves will evolve and upgrade (as is happening anyway in many of the older urban villages of Delhi).

To conclude, we need to strengthen property rights that can be leveraged by the pipeline of future migrants. In Latin America, it may make sense to interpret property rights as mostly relating to land titles and squatter rights. The population of urban poor in Latin America is relatively static — the countries are already fairy urbanised and their economies are growing slowly. In India, the throbbing economy is sucking millions of new migrants. We need to think of property rights in ways that allow these new migrants to enter and climb the system.

The author is the President of Sustainable Planet Institute

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

CULINARY MANIFESTO

 

The demolition of the established world order has been their credo; and their unhampered rampage through the alimentary jungles has only given them encouragement. Who, after all, has dared to put an end to their depradations which led to the discovery of such transnational, culinarily mutilated creatures such as the paneer pizza and chicken tikka masala sandwich, not to mention California maki rolls and sun-dried tomato bagels?

These gastronomic guerrillas are known to pay scant obeisance to established norms and cultural mores and operate from the dim recesses of experimental kitchens, only emerging to make surprise attacks on the custodians of convention cooking, raiding ingredients at will, taking recipes hostage.

What emerges from their lairs often bears little resemblance to the entities that had been kidnapped. While these radicals have their sympathisers among the liberal elite who feel there is nothing wrong with their methods or their stated ideology of forcible overthrow of all existing epicurean conditions, there are a few who are trying, albeit somewhat misguidedly, to form bulwarks of resistance around the world.

One recent occasion was the donning of geographical indication (GI) protection by the venerable Tirupati ladoo. Now, the battered Yorkshire pudding — one of the most vulnerable British entities, given its propensity to be an appendage of the gravy train — has jumped into the resistance too.

Backed by campaigners for regional food, the fluffy popover has taken steps to be protected in its home territory, Humberside, against all incursions, hijackings or transmutations. Some countries such as France have already safeguarded many of their gastronomically important provisions (GIPs) from anarchists, as can be seen by the relatively fortified status of Champagne, Camembert and others, but a lot still needs to be done if this nihilist movement is to be contained before food as we know it is lost forever. The state and international forums can do sonly so much; it is time individuals took up their spatulas.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

DIVEST TO RETAIL ALONE

 

The government has abandoned a modified version of the French auction in favour of the traditional form of book-building , for the sale of 33 crore odd shares of National Mineral Development Corporation. No part of the public offer proceeds go to the company to fund its businesses.

So, it is logical that a larger float should depress the stock's valuations — there is some basis for the prescribed price band of Rs 300-350, below the traded prices of recent weeks of Rs 450-500. Coupled with 5% discount for retail investors and employees, this should make the issue attractive for retail investors for whom 35% of the issue has been earmarked.

However, price discounts alone will not encourage the uninitiated investors to channel their savings from safe instruments such as bank term deposits or post office savings into riskier assets such as equities. There are two main reasons for offering shares to retail investors : widen the equity ownership base of listed public enterprises and spread the share-owning culture among the public. If these objectives were not present, the government only needed to have a private placement, and would get a better price too, determined by qualified investors who would presumably know how to value shares.

However, to spread the equity culture among the public, as well as to widen ownership of shares in PSUs, the government should launch a countrywide campaign targeting all individuals who have some form of financial savings. This was pretty much what Margaret Thatcher accomplished in the UK during the 80s. Also, there is a case for offering the entirety of the divested shares to retail investors, at a discount to the traded price.

A retail focus will surely depress the government's earnings from selling its holdings in public enterprises. But revenue maximisation should not be the primary consideration of divestments. Rather, it has to be enhanced liquidity, wider shareholding of individual companies, a more broad-based capital market and all the benefits that derive from these.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

A DEFICIT OF AUTONOMY

 

State-owned telecom service provider BSNL makes a profit thanks to interest income and loses money from core operations, even as its private counterparts make money hand over fist. It cannot place equipment orders without inviting court cases, vigilance commission inquiries and intervention by the all-powerful telecom ministry, resulting in zero addition to network capacity over the last two years when the industry has been adding millions of subscribers every month.

Clever powerbrokers think up innovative schemes to raid BSNL's rich reserves. Is there a way out? Reportedly, a committee headed by Sam Pitroda has recommended a 15 point course of action to sort BSNL out. Among other things, the committee has recommended downsizing BSNL's staff by 100,000 and outsourcing the ownership and management of the network on which it delivers its services to a third party, as Bharti and Vodafone do. These two recommendations go hand in hand — if BSNL no longer owns and manages its network, it does not require the manpower engaged for the purpose at present.

A voluntary retirement scheme now, however, is likely to see off whatever talent the company still retains after private telcos built up, over the years, their expert manpower, recruiting from the stateowned telecom enterprises. What BSNL needs more than anything else, to pull itself out of its current losing streak, is autonomy from the telecom ministry.

Any public enterprise that has done well in India owes its performance to autonomy from its controlling ministry . Such insulation can be provided only by the top political leadership. There is little reason to believe that this will not work in the case of BSNL as well. As its owner, the state has the right to mandate BSNL with policy objectives that go beyond turning in a profit. But after that, it should be up to the company to execute the mandate, without micro-management by the ministry.

Rural transformation today depends on rich data connectivity, providing which need not be profitable in the short-term. BSNL, therefore, has a role that the private sector would not fulfil. If only the political leadership would allow it to deliver.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

MORE SATYAMS IN A NEW TELENGANA?

SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

 

Carving small states (Jharkhand , Chattisgarh and Uttrakhand ) out of larger ones (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, economic success . Not only have the new states grown faster economically, even Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have experienced much faster growth after the separation, though not Madhya Pradesh. This appears to strengthen the case for creating more small states such as Telengana.

Yet a short visit I made to Andhra Pradesh showed dramatically that a separate Telengana could result in problems that other newly-created states have not experienced. The biggest is a problem of land ownership, and this could conceivably create new Satyams. In Hyderabad, some, though by no means all, businessmen talk with trepidation. The fears are highest among the Andhras, folk from the coastal districts, who fear they will be adversely affected and maybe even forced to flee by the local folk or mulkis.

One such businessman told me, "My driver, a local mulki, said to me, quite gently, that when I left Hyderabad after the separation of Telengana, could I please gift my car to him?" Another businessman trumped this with a better story. "My domestic servants", he said, "requested me to hand over my house to them as and when I leave!"

Is it really possible that a new Telengana will spark the mass exit of outsiders? No, says economist C H Hanumantha Rao. There is some fear among coastal Andhras, but not among people from other parts of India. Obviously mulkis will get a much larger share of government jobs, but not of business. The real fear of businessmen is not of physically being expelled. Rather, it is about land, in which businessmen have sunk enormous sums, and which they might now lose. Businessmen have a second, and more credible fear. They say that the Maoists who were tamed by Y S Rajashekhara Reddy will make a comeback in the new Telengana, since a small state will not have the resources to tackle the Maoist menace. That could affect business prospects and land values.

The big difference between a separate Telengana and other newly created states like Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttrakhand relates to the state capital. In the three earlier cases, the state capital remained with the original state. But Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, will go to Telengana. This horrifies coastal Andhras who claim to have created 90% of Hyderabad's wealth.

A compromise could be to make Hyderabad and the surrounding Rangareddy district a Union territory housing the capitals of both Telengana and residual Andhra Pradesh. This solution worked when Haryana was carved out of Punjab. However, politicians leading the movement are dying to lay their hands on the lucrative land of Hyderabad, and will never give up this golden goose from which they hope to get a thousand golden eggs.

Vast amounts of land around Hyderabad have been grabbed in questionable ways. In a new Telengana, many existing landowners — including major industrialists — may lose enormous tracts of land worth thousands of crores. Illegal land grabbing has till now been very lucrative, but may become the kiss of death after Telengana's creation. All Indians love land, but in Andhra Pradesh it is a veritable passio . Coastal Andhras have engaged in an orgy of land speculation in the last decade. This passion for land ultimately caused the fall of Ramalinga Raju of Satyam: He lost his company because of his forays into real estate, through Maytas and other channels.

Like many other Andhra businessmen, Raju borrowed enormous sums for buying land, and prospered as land prices went through the roof. But then prices collapsed with the onset of the global recession, catching many speculators — including Raju — with their pants down. As India emerged out of the recession, land prices started recovering everywhere. But with the announcement of a separate Telengana, real estate prices have fallen once again in Hyderabad and surrounding areas.

This has hit the state government's finances. It had hoped to raise Rs 12,000 crore through land sales, a figure that now looks impossible. Far worse hit are thousands of land speculators, including a host of top businessmen. Nobody knows for sure who controls how much land in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, since much of the land is occupied illegally or through dubious means. But the risk is clear: land debacles could create new Satyams.

The risk should not be exaggerated. Most businessmen who survived the Great Recession should be able to survive the separation of Telengana too. But some may collapse. Many politician-speculators will suffer too, and so are among the strongest opponents of division. However, division is inevitable : it is only a matter of time.

Many mulkis resent what they see as the obscene prosperity of outsiders, especially coastal Andhras, who dominate not only land and business but also professional jobs and government employment . In many states migration has occurred from poorer to richer areas, but in Andhra Pradesh farmers moved from the prosperous coastal areas into Telengana , a region that used to be part of princely Hyderabad under the Nizam, and was terrible backward in education, agriculture , roads and everything else.

The Andhras brought in improved farm practices, skills and capital. They helped develop Hyderabad and the rest of Telengana, which is no longer backward compared to the state as a whole. Public sector investment, especially in defence industries, brought in many new skills and services. And more recently the IT companies came roaring in, many run by coastal Andhras.

But although the newcomers greatly improved and enrichened Telengana, they also aroused resentment and accusations of quasi-colonialism. Being better educated, they dominated government jobs. Osmania Unversity's students are at the fore of the Telengana agitation because they hope to dominate government jobs in the new state.

However, there is no reason to think that more land and jobs for mulkis will mean the expulsion of coastal businessmen. The real risk lies elsewhere: in the continuing fall of land prices, leading possibly to new Satyams.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

NURTURE QUALITIES TO FLOURISH & FLOWER

VITHAL C NADKARNI

 

The notion of a positive psychology movement popped into Martin Seligman's head soon after his election as president of the American Psychological Association. He was weeding the garden with his five-year old daughter, Nikki. He seemed to be in a tearing hurry and was rapidly beginning to lose patience while his daughter merrily kept throwing weeds into the air and dancing around. Finally, he yelled at her. She walked away, only to return and say, "Daddy, I want to talk to you. Do you remember before my fifth birthday?" she asked. "From the time I was three to the time I was five, I was a whiner. I whined every day. When I turned five, I decided not to whine anymore. That was the hardest thing I've ever done. And if I can stop whining, you can stop being such a grouch."

That was a turning point for her father, nothing less than a full-blown epiphany. He had learned something about his daughter, something about raising children, something about himself, and a great deal about his profession. Raising Nikki was not about correcting whining, he writes in his classic treatise on positive psychology. She did that herself. Rather, he realised that raising Nikki was about taking that marvellous skill which he called "seeing into the soul," amplifying it, nurturing it, helping her to lead her life around it to buffer against her weaknesses and the storms of life.

Raising children, he realised, was more than fixing what was wrong with them. It was about identifying and nurturing their strongest qualities, what they own and are best at, and helping them find niches in which they can best live out these positive qualities.

In retrospect, Seligman admits that his daughter had "hit the nail right on the head" with her comment as far as his own life was concerned. "I was a grouch. I had spent 50 years mostly enduring wet weather in my soul, and the last 10 years being a nimbus cloud in a household of sunshine."

Any good fortune he had was probably not due to his grouchiness, but in spite of it." In that moment, he resolved to change. He went on to develop therapeutic initiatives that focused on positive rather than negative aspects. The rationale seemed simple enough: If one only focused on the problem, one might not see the solution. The goal was to nurture the very qualities that enabled individuals and groups not just to survive and limp along but to flourish and flower.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE UNION MUST PLAY ITS REDISTRIBUTIVE ROLE

 

India's indirect tax system is unique. While the Centre has the authority to impose Union excise duties on goods, state governments are assigned the

 

power to levy tax on the sale of goods. Tax on services is independently levied by the Centre, now under the Union List.

Due to this dichotomy of authority under the Constitution, a major reform in the indirect taxes was the adoption of the system of dual-VAT. This change needs to be viewed in a tax scenario where most of the buoyant taxes are assigned to the Centre and expenditure functions to the states. This results in vertical imbalance in the Indian federation.

The Indian tax system is based on the beliefs that redistribution is a concern of the Centre; broad-based taxes are given to the Centre and region-based taxes are assigned to the states. Besides, the Centre needs "excess" revenue to carry out its allocative and distributive functions to influence state actions to achieve both "incentive compatibility" as well as horizontal equity.

The next reform in the system of commodity taxes is to have a dual GST: CAST at the central level and SGST at the state level. This would pave the way for a common Indian market and enable Indian businesses to be internationally competitive. But it will not change the balance between the allocation of resources and assignment of expenditures at the central level. It will also keep intact the fiscal autonomy of the states. Data related to collection of taxes by the two tiers of governments indicate that under the current system the share of taxes collected by the Centre is 62%, while that of the States is 38%.

In the proposed system of GST, a study by the FPEPR for the TFC shows that with the 4% levy on some essential items and 8% on the rest of the goods and services, both the Centre and the States would get almost the same revenue as they are collecting at present . Hence, the CGST revenue should be distributed to the States if the Centre is to perform its allocative and a redistributive role.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WE WILL CUT DRUG PRICES BY REDUCING PRODUCTION COSTS: GLAXOSMITHKLINE

KHOMBA SINGH & ARUN KUMA

 

The world's second-largest drugmaker GlaxoSmithkline (GSK) will bring down drug prices in India as part of a new strategy to tap lower-income consumers, CEO Andrew Witty told ET. India is a top strategic market and the company is evaluating potential acquisitions and alliances with Indian drugmakers. Though it had walked away from some of the earlier negotiations, it will be disappointing if the company does not pull off something now, he said. Excerpts:

In recent times, global pharma majors have focussed significantly on emerging markets like India. In addition to your alliance with Dr Reddy's (DRL), what is your strategy for generating more business?

Clearly, that is all to do with the shift in economic activity around the world. Asia and India have been dynamic for a long time. But in the past 3-4 years, we have seen the balance shift in the whole economy.

GSK already has a strong position in many of these economies. India is a fantastic example. We are the biggest pharmaceutical MNC, far bigger than any other, and we compete well with local firms. We are going to invest in our existing business. That means making sure we invest in innovation, and huge amount of products are developed in India by Indian scientists with consumers of different economic groups in mind. In India, we cater to the whole spectrum of affordability, from the very highest to the very lowest.

I would love to buy more businesses. If you look across the world, last year we did 10-12 acquisitions, of which eight were in emerging markets. But, we focus to get good value for money and don't pay crazy valuations. We are quite happy to walk away from deals that don't make sense. Thirdly, we will do alliances, like the way we did with DRL, that combine our complementary resources.

Will your alliance with DRL change into an equity investment?

No. There is no pre-determined pathway or secret arrangement. We are open and pragmatic about deal structures. We have done outright acquisition, non-equity alliances and equity-based alliances such as the one with South Africa's Aspen. And I have done a JV with Pfizer. We don't have a 'one size fits all' view on how to create deals. But what you should definitely expect more deals from us— a range of different types of deals. I will be disappointed if we don't pull off a deal in India.

Do you have a take on the amount you plan to invest in India for these deals?

I would love to do a deal in India to increase the size of our activities. But I am ready to walk away from deals that do not make any economic sense. The size of the fund is all opportunity driven. Can we make the economics attractive for our shareholders? For GSK, we have relatively big firepower in terms of our ability to do things. India is one of our top strategic markets.

Have you actually walked away from a deal in India?

Yes, we have walked away from discussion in India because of valuation differences. I am not criticising others or saying that they over paid, as we do not know about their economics. But it did not make sense to us.

Did the entry of Daiichi Sankyo change your strategy for India or influenced your decision making process in anyway?

No, my view of India was cast when I was running India operations around 2000. This conversation is not about the next quarter but it is about the next 10 or 20 years . The entry of new players such Daiichi Sankyo and others only reminds us not to be complacent.

Your global peers like Pfizer and Novartis have dedicated generics arms or divisions. Do you have similar plans and how big is the business potential from generics for the company?

Unlike those companies we are not interested in the US or European generic markets. So I am not interested in the Para IV markets that have made Ranbaxy and DRL. If we did buy a company which happen to have an American generic division, we will sell it. What does interest me is the branded business in emerging markets, where we have less government intervention in terms of payments. In these countries, consumers want reputed and high quality brands from companies like ours.

There are concerns among some of your global peers about the patent and regulatory environment in this country. Are you concerned with the existing regulatory environment in India?

I am relatively relaxed with the Indian regulatory environment. The government has made it clear about the direction to have an intellectual property (IP) mechanism and to be TRIPS compliant. Some people are unrealistic and want everything to change overnight. But we should be absolutely realistic about pricing to keep it affordable for India. If someone has the IP right, it does not mean that it should make it inaccessible for lower income people. Over the next 10-15 years India will become increasingly IP defined market.

Do you see India becoming a production hub for emerging markets for GSK? Or would you rather depend on DRL type alliances?

We will have to do both. We have a big network of manufacturers, many of them are Indian companies including DRL. We also have our own big manufacturing facilities in India. We ought to be investing in our own plants to keep up with local demands and exports opportunity. At present, our exports constitutes 5% of revenues. This will increase significantly over the period. We will use a combination of our own and partners' facilities, depending on the cost advantages.

What are your capital investments for vaccine manufacturing in India?

Investments in vaccine manufacturing tend to be around euro 70-100 million at the minimum. Its very difficult to spend less than that. We just commissioned a facility in Singapore, which cost E600 million. When we talk about vaccines in India, we are talking serious investments. We are not looking for partners and we will most likely manufacture vaccines on our own in India. We are the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world with a huge portfolio and fantastic pipeline. Is there any opportunity that you feel you have missed in India?

Indian operations have a lot to teach GSK's overseas businesses. Particularly our consumer business (GSK Consumer Healthcare) the way we have developed our brands and networks— its an excellent example of a premier consumer business. For us , it is important to encompass the whole population. I am delighted that we have more than doubled the percentage of our business from the lower income categories of India. We are also working to bring down the prices of our drugs.

How will you reduce drug prices in India without impacting your bottomline?

We will do it through alliances with local firms, by reducing the cost of production. As you have seen over the past two years, our margins have improved. That's because we have driven greater efficiency within the organisation and taken away unnecessary costs.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

OUR DNA IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS, SAYS ANIRBAN DAS

RATNA BHUSHAN

 

NEW DELHI: After a decade in the talent management business, sports management veteran Anirban Das is convinced about fast unfolding opportunities in the space. The former CEO of Mahesh Bhupati's sports and celebrity management firm, Globosport, has floated his entertainment and marketing firm Kwan with a clutch of serial investors. Das has spread his business to include endorsements, shows and appearances, live events, brand placements in movies, and so on. Excerpts:

Your business model straddles various aspects of the entertainment space. Are you not putting too many eggs in the same basket?

No, our DNA is different from others. We are not dependent on, say, endorsement deals signed by any single celebrity. So, the pressure is not on us to sign only corporate endorsement deals with the stars we manage. Our business model is scaleable and disaggregated – and we intend to keep it that way. We believe a gap exists – companies in our business seem to be too focused on endorsements and appearances, but that does not give scale to the business. So we decided to work with producers and production houses, directors, designers, singers, models, film actors. And the work straddles a lot more than that just endorsement deals – we deal with celebrity management, shows and appearances, live events, music, in-film brand placements, and technical talent.

We are creating an entity focused on two business models – management backend and sales front end. This, we believe, gives us a strategic advantage over others, and helps us to co-create and co-own entertainment properties. For example we have signed on three directors– Abbas Tyrewala (Jaane tu ya jaane na), Anurag Kashyap (Dev D) and Abhishek Kapoor (Rock On).

Last year, the industry went through a slowdown of sorts, with actors slashing prices and few big-ticket endorsement deals being signed. Is the slowdown over?

There was not much of a slowdown in the entertainment space in any case. The business did not shrink so to say; it was not as if corporates were dropping celebrities left right and centre. It is just that lesser deals were being signed for some months. But the past three-four months have been the single most fruitful period for the endorsement space; the period is seeing an unprecedented bull run. I think corporates realise that a celebrity endorsement is a tactical necessity. Take some of the deals that have been signed recently -- Ranbir (Kapoor)'s deals with Virgin Mobile and ITC's John Players; LG Electronics' signing John Abraham, Abhay Deol and Genelia D'Souza, as well as Akshay Kumar. These are validation of the fact that in the absence of a really big idea such as Vodafone or DoCoMo, corporates are looking for stars to portray brands – that's where endorsements come in. In the three months that we have been around, we have done 165 celebrity-linked transactions. This translates into Rs 35-40 crore worth of business in the short time that we have been around.

What is your growth model?

We will certainly look at acquisitions and strategic tie-ups in the entertainment space. Because we are trying to unlock synergies between entertainment and business, we are looking at greater scale and distribution. We are in a business that is niche, so we will grow both organically and inorganically. In certain areas where skill sets do not exist, we will grow organically. We believe the kind of opportunity that exists today in this space may not be there 12-24 months later.

 

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

HISTORY IS MADE, MAY HAVE FALLOUT

 

The Rajya Sabha missed the deadline of International Women's Day in passing the Women's Reservation Bill, as the 108th Constitution Amendment Bill has come to be known, but was able to pass the proposed legislation — although amid considerable acrimony — with the required two-thirds majority a day later on Tuesday. The first clear hurdle in the life of this bill has thus been passed, although this has taken 14 long years. This might well be something of an international record. It is noteworthy, however, that Ms Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress, which is part of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, abstained on the vote instead of lending the measure support, as might have been expected. Ms Mayawati's BSP nominally extends support to the government in spite of its mismatched political chemistry with the Congress, but it did not take part in the voting in the Rajya Sabha. These are signs that can give no comfort to the UPA. Predicated on calculations that allowed the bill to gather the support of the BJP and the Left, the principal Opposition groups in the House, the 108th Amendment should clear the Lok Sabha when it comes up in that House, provided some contrary hidden dynamics do not come into play. The earliest that the bill could go to the Lok Sabha is next week, unless the UPA parties, and the BJP and the Left, want the matter deferred until after the Finance Bill is out of the way so as not to rock the boat before the passage of the Union Budget. Seen in a broad perspective, the Women's Reservation Bill clearing the Upper House is a historic occasion. Its progress has, of course, been rocky all the way, given the nature of the social and political constituencies that are likely to lose their equilibrium with its passage. Nevertheless, the political class might have been expected to register a sense of achievement, given the landmark nature of the proposed legislation. But this is not the case. Plainly, there is no sense of jubilation among MPs of any description, other than women. This underscores the depths of the gender divide that exists on our political canvas. The only stalwart figure who cannot contain her happiness is Congress president Sonia Gandhi. But for her single-minded endeavour, it is unlikely that the bill would have secured the endorsement of even the ruling Congress. It is no small pity that an important piece of socio-political legislation such as this should leave the political class as a whole cold. More than that, it is not unlikely that the decision of the Congress to bring the Women's Reservation Bill, especially at this stage, will feed anti-Congress sentiments in Parliament. Coming after murmurs cutting across party lines on the question of food inflation, and the Budget proposal to increase the excise duty on diesel that is likely to exacerbate the price situation, the 108th Constitution Amendment might have set in motion impulses that could produce unpredictable results. With the withdrawal of support by the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the wake of the introduction of the measure, the ruling coalition has been made vulnerable as it now has a majority of only three in the Lok Sabha. This arithmetic can change further if the BSP casts a negative vote against the Women's Reservation Bill when it comes up in the Lok Sabha, instead of doing what it did in the Upper House. If this mood is transferred to motions in the LS that test the viability of the government, the politics of possibilities could be said to be truly open.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

PUT STATES IN ORDER

BY P.C. ALEXANDER

 

Most people who have been following the functioning of Parliament in recent years would have noticed that which causes protests and disorder in the House is the complaint that the government has not been taking the leaders of the Opposition parties into confidence while taking decisions on policies which are in violation of the national consensus evolved over a long period. An interesting feature of such protests is that the demand is for prior consultation with the leaders of the political parties represented in the House and not with the chief ministers of the states.

 

While it may be desirable, it is not always possible in the present state of multiplicity of political parties represented in the House. If we had a two-party or three-party system in our parliamentary democracy, such interactions between the government and leaders of the Opposition parties would have been practicable. But in our present system of coalition governments the number of political parties supporting the government will be over 20 or so, with more or less equal number in the Opposition benches. This makes what is desirable not practicable.

 

When the Congress had a clear majority in Parliament without having to depend upon coalition arrangements supporting it from outside, as for example during the stewardship of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister had on many occasions taken the chief ministers of some states into confidence on important decisions to be taken by the government. Meetings of the Congress Working Committee, parliamentary board etc. provided good opportunities for such interaction between the chief ministers and the Prime Minister. Above all, Nehru was not merely the leader of the Congress in Parliament but was the unquestioned leader of the Congress in the country as a whole whether or not he was occupying the office of the president of the party.

 

Unfortunately the office of the chief minister has been devalued so much that the opinions and advice of chief ministers now hardly count for decision-making by the Union government. The chief ministers who belong to the national parties, of late, have been nominees of the high commands of the parties with weak electoral credentials of their own. The absence of inner party democracy has made them dependent on the pleasure of their high commands to retain their offices as chief ministers.

 

In fairness to the chief ministers it must be pointed out that the Constitution of India has been deliberately framed in such a manner that the Union government could, if it chooses, function like the government of a unitary state.

 

The blatant misuse of the powers of control over the states vested with the Union government has contributed to the further dilution of the authority of the states and the trend is already set by which states will be reduced to the level of the subordinate offices of the Union government in most sectors of administration. Article 1 of the Constitution states that India shall be a Union of states. Even though the Constitution lists the powers of the Union and of the states separately, residuary powers are vested with the Union. Article 249 allows the Union to encroach upon the state list while Article 356 and 357 allow the Union to take over the executive and legislative powers of the state on the ground of failure of the constitutional machinery in the state. Even the existence of states as permanent or indestructible entities is denied in the Constitution as Article 2, 3 and 4 make it clear that new states may be formed by changing the boundaries or even altering the name of any state by Parliament through ordinary legislation passed by a simple majority of votes in Parliament. It is important to note that the major decision for the setting up of the Planning Commission, whose function is to make an assessment of the material, capital and human resources of the country and to formulate plans for their efficient and balanced utilisation, was taken in March 1950 without even a statutory backing, leave alone a constitutional one.

 

The Constitution has no doubt enabled the Centre to maintain the unity and integrity of the nation and facilitate accelerated development in several crucial sectors of the development in the states. People in general are in favour of retaining the Constitution without any major changes. But even without amending some of the provisions of the Constitution which have led to over-centralisation of power at the Union level, it is time to take the steps necessary for greater devolution of powers from the Centre to the states and the states to panchayati raj institutions in order to strengthen democracy from the grassroot levels. Over-centralisation has also had the most unwelcome result of frustrating the formation and development of local leadership and of distorting the concept of genuine democracy.

 

With the adoption of economic reforms in the country involving large-scale liberalisation in imports and investments, it is time that a close look is given to Centre-state relations as they have evolved over the last six decades and take such steps as are necessary to devolve on the states much larger powers relevant to social and economic development.

 

Along with decentralisation of powers to the states, the state governments should delegate to the local self-government institutions much larger powers and responsibilities so that panchayati raj becomes a genuine grassroots level reality. Even though great hopes were entertained about the panchayati raj institutions in India when they were established through the necessary constitutional amendments, in actual practice they have not been allowed to function in the way visualised for them. The MPs in some of the states seem to believe that once elected MP they should have control over the panchayati raj institutions as well. This desire to dominate over the panchayati raj institutions shows how much some MPs are influenced by the motive of power rather than of service.

 

In this connection there should be a review of the need for allowing large sums, called Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) funds, to the MPs to be spent on development projects in their constituencies. The problem of shortage of funds for panchayati raj institutions can be met to a large extent if the MPLAD funds are added to the resources of the panchayati raj institutions with, of course, suitable provisions to ensure efficiency and cleanliness in their management.

 

In a country of India's huge dimensions, democracy can be real only if power is devolved to the states and from the states to local self-governing institutions to the maximum extent possible. The present is the right time to make a beginning. A strong Union of states needs strong states, which, in turn, need a strong network of local bodies.

 

- P.C. Alexander is a former governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

ECONOMIC INSECURITY IS TROUBLING OBAMA

BY BOB HERBERT

 

The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to: the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families.

 

The economy shed 36,000 jobs last month, and that was trumpeted in the press as good news. Well, after your house has burned down I suppose it's good news that the flames may finally be flickering out. But once you realise that it will take 11 million or more new jobs to get us back to where we were when the recession began, you begin to understand that we're not really making any headway at all.

 

It's also widely known by now that the official employment statistics drastically understate the problem. Once we take off the statistical rose-coloured glasses, we're left with the awful reality of millions upon millions of Americans who have lost — or are losing — their jobs, their homes, their small businesses, and their hopes for a brighter future.

 

Instead of focusing with unwavering intensity on this increasingly tragic situation, making it their top domestic priority, US President Barack Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have spent astonishing amounts of time and energy, and most of their political capital, on an obsessive quest to pass a healthcare bill.

 

Healthcare reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work. A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed, that anxiety inevitably evolves into dread and then anger.

 

But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting healthcare, healthcare, healthcare.

 

The talk inside the Beltway, that super-incestuous, egomaniacal, reality-free zone, is that Obama and the Democrats have a messaging or public relations problem. We're being told — and even worse, Obama and the Democrats are being told — that their narrative is not getting through. In other words, the wonderfulness of all that they've done is somehow not being recognised by the slow-to-catch-on masses.

 

That's just silly. People are upset because they are mired in economic distress and are losing faith that their elected representatives are looking out for their best interests. They've watched with increasing anger as their government has been hijacked by the economic elite. They know that the big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers can borrow money at an interest rate of near zero while at the same time charging credit-card holders usurious rates of 20 to 30 per cent.

 

They know that the financial fat cats are fighting the creation of a truly independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They know that while ordinary Americans are kept out of the corridors of power, the elites with their lobbyists and lawyers and campaign contributions have a voice in every important decision that is made.

 

It's not the message that's a problem for Obama and the Democrats, it's the all-too-clear reality. People know that the government that is supposed to be looking out for ordinary people — for working people and the poor — is not doing nearly enough about an employment crisis that is lowering standards of living and hollowing out the American dream.

 

This is not just a short-term crisis. There are many communities across the country in which the effective jobless rate is higher than 50 per cent. Many state and local governments are grappling with disastrous revenue shortfalls that are forcing cuts in services and layoffs, and threatening the viability of even a modest national economic recovery.

 

A University of Michigan survey of consumer sentiment in February found that 60 per cent of American consumers expect to receive no income gains at all in the year ahead, the worst finding in that category in the history of the surveys.

 

The Republican Party has nothing in the way of solutions to Americans' economic plight. It is committed only to the demented policy of trying to ensure that Obama and the Democrats fail.

 

But the fact that the Republicans are pathetic and destructive is no reason for the Democrats to shirk their obligation to fight powerfully and relentlessly for the economic well-being of all Americans. There are now six people in the employment market for every available job. There is a staggering backlog of discouraged workers who would show up tomorrow if there were a job to be had.

 

The many millions of new jobs needed to make a real dent in the employment crisis are not going to materialise by themselves. Obama and the Democrats don't seem to understand that.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

INTERPRETING THE COLOUR GREEN

BY VANDANA SHIVA

 

Ecologists like me are called "greens". We work to protect the green mantle of the earth — forests and biodiversity, soil and water. Nature's green capital is the real capital that supports all life, and in the final analysis all livelihoods and the entire economy. However, the colour green has been much abused and used for anti-green, anti-nature, anti-people programmes.

 

The first abuse was the "Green Revolution". It was neither green nor revolutionary. It was called "green" only to differentiate it from "red revolution" which was the colour of the Chinese peasant revolution. The Americans wanted to counter the "red revolution" with what they called the "Green Revolution". They thought that encouraging peasants to use chemicals and re-engineered seeds that adapt to chemicals (the high response varieties, HRVs, instantly called high yielding varieties HYVs) and the commercialisation through the new chemical seed technologies would create rural prosperity. This logic is what earned Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, a Nobel Peace Prize.

 

However, while the narrative won the peace prize, the reality of the Green Revolution did not create peace. Punjab, the land where the Green Revolution was first applied, became a region of extremist violence in the late '70s and early '80s. In 1984, the Indian Army entered the Golden Temple where Bhindranwale, the leader of the extremists, had taken shelter. That winter, Indira Gandhi was assassinated. And Indira Gandhi's assassination led to the killing of thousands of innocent Sikhs.

 

This spiral of violence was triggered by the disillusionment and frustrations created by the Green Revolution. The anger and discontent in Punjab was the result of the loss of resources and loss of control over farming. The Green Revolution, based on chemical-intensive, capital-intensive, energy-intensive farming methods, had destroyed Punjab's soil, water and biodiversity. While subsidies created a buffer in the early days, the need for more chemicals and reduction of subsidies led to a negative economy. And as the Punjab farmer spent more and earned less, he also realised he was not making any decision related to chemical production of rice and wheat for the nation.

 

The Gurmata (collective resolution by the congregation) passed at a Sarbat Khalsa (all Sikh convention) on April 13, 1986, expresses this perception of the communal conflict as primarily a Centre-state conflict explicitly: "If the hard-earned income of the people or the natural resources of any nation or region are forcibly plundered; the goods produced by them are paid at arbitrarily determined prices while the goods bought by them are sold at high prices and in order to carry this process of economic exploitation to its logical conclusion, the human rights of people or of a nation are crushed, then these are the indices of salver of that nation, region or people. Today, the Sikhs are shackled by the chains of slavery. This type of slavery is thrust upon the states and 80 per cent of India's population of poor people and minorities".

 

The Green Revolution was neither green in terms of ecological sustainability, nor green in terms of peace. It had become red and bloody, with more than 30,000 people killed in Punjab.

 

The externally directed extremist violence of the '70s and '80s mutated into self-inflicted violence expressed through farmers suicides in the 1990s when the violence of the first Green Revolution was superimposed with the violence of globalisation and the second Green Revolution, introduced through genetically-engineered Bt cotton seeds. About 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in India since 1997 as a result of a capital intensive, external input intensive debt creating agriculture.

What we need is a real Green Revolution. Biodiverse organic farming reduces costs and increases output by working with nature's ecological processes, not against them. An agriculture that makes peace with nature also produces more food and nutrition per acre. It is time to put aside the myth that chemicals and genetic engineering are necessary to increase food production. Chemicals and GMOs produce more toxics, not more food and nutrition. They have no place in a real Green Revolution.

 

Today the colour "green" is once again being abused for a campaign to uproot and displace the tribals, the first people. Operation "Green Hunt" has deployed 70,000 armed personnel from paramilitary forces in the mineral-rich tribal areas. These are the areas where deposits of coal, bauxite and iron-ore lie, which mining corporations want to grab tribal land.

 

The tribals have rights to defend their resources.

 

For the first time after 50 years of India's Independence, a significant step was been made by the introduction of the Provisions of the Panchayats (extension to the scheduled areas) Act, 1996 whereby the village communities (Gram Sabha) have been granted legal recognition as a community entity. This new law (which provides an extension to the provision of Part IX of the Constitution of India) for the scheduled areas came into force on December 24, 1996. It envisages Gram Sabhas as being the basic unit of the self-governing system. According to Section 4(b): "A village shall ordinarily consist of habitation or a group of habitations, or a hamlet or a group of hamlets comprising a community and managing its affairs in accordance with traditions and customs".

 

In 2006, India passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act to correct the historic wrong of violation of the rights of tribals.

 

But after when tribals have exercised their constitutional, democratic, resource and human rights, they have been met with violence. I remember going to Bastar to witness a Gram Sabha decision to say "no" to a steel plant being set up in Nagarnar. The police stopped us. The decision of the Gram Sabha was torn and later the tribals were thrown into jail. Now, the tribals are being hunted down in their homelands by paramilitary forces, to clear the way for mines and factories. This war against India's "green" capital — the forest regions, and against India's original inhabitants — is being called the "green hunt".

 

The justification of operation Green Hunt is hunting out the Maoist. The reality of this operation is terrorising every tribal so that they leave their homes in the forest, and the steel and aluminum giants can have direct access to the minerals that lie under tribal homes.

 

Dr Vandana Shiva is the executive director of the Navdanya Trust

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

FEEL FREE, MR HUSAIN

BY CHO S. RAMASWAMY

 

Now that M.F. Husain has settled in Qatar where there is total freedom, he is free of the shackles imposed by the Indian system on freedom of expression. All those who appreciate his art would now eagerly await his imaginative paintings of the leaders of Qatari society, hopefully not artistically clothed.

 

His fans would not expect him to confine nudity to Hindu deities alone; it would extend to all the religions.

Having already painted his mother, daughter and Muslim kings fully robed, Mr Husain, being the freed citizen that he is now in Qatar, should be prepared to remove those clothes. How can the artist in him be satisfied with seeing Saraswati and Parvati alone in the nude?

 

Fortunately for art in the nude, the courts here cannot do anything to Mr Husain now that he has run away from the Indian judicial system. All the cases could be now buried amidst the pictures drawn by him. Both would mercifully go to the dustbin. I am very anxious not to get branded as communal in my thinking. I want to be hailed as a secularist and so I would say with all the force I can command that Mr Husain has the inalienable right to depict the Hindu deities in the most obscene manner while taking care to paint even non-religious Muslims fully clothed. He can claim that because he hates Hitler he painted him in the nude so he could humiliate him and in the same breath justify his nude pictures of Hindu goddesses as depiction of purity.

 

And because I am secular, I would also assert that his not returning to India is only to gain freedom from the Indian fascism and not to avoid being apprehended by the law enforcers in this country. Being a liberal-minded artist, he naturally is not able to put up with the protests which do not harm him in any way. Shunning the Indian system and preferring the Qatar environment is not an act of hypocrisy but one of liberal, secular and free thought. And now that Mr Husain has established himself as such a stout campaigner for free expression, I must believe firmly that he will forcefully plead with his new protectors in Qatar to roll out of a bit of that red carpet to Taslima Nasreen, another hounded victim from the literary world.

 

- Cho S. Ramaswamy is a well-known politicalanalyst, actor, dramatist and editor ofTamil magazine Tughlak

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

IGNITE THE HUNGER FOR KNOWLEDGE

BY SADHGURU

 

There are so many things that one can do in this world — walk, swim, dance, gossip, love, drink… And yet, for ages why is it that human beings have longed for something beyond all these? When you are struggling for survival this longing fades, but the moment your stomach is full, once again it starts. If you and your body were indestructible, this longing would not have risen.

 

Every day, you may not be conscious about death, but with a slightest provocation you become conscious of it. For example, someone you love went out and did not come back at the appointed time. You would start thinking "What could've happened?" Did s/he fall dead somewhere? That's the last thing. In between, there is injury, pain, disease. "What could have happened?" is just a reminder. We often think that we have a wonderful life. We live with many thoughts and emotions, but little do we realise that one day it's going to wane. The human nature is unwilling to accept this truth. Some people say there is something beyond death. Others say there is nothing while some say that you will land up in the lap of God.

 

Since time immemorial, people have been arguing but without any conclusion. People have propounded every kind of answer they could think of, yet it has not solved anything because this is the trick. It doesn't matter for how long you slow down, but when the moment of death comes, suddenly you know that you know nothing about life or death.

 

— Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a yogi, is a visionary, humanitarian and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally-renowned speaker, Sadhguru's wit and piercing logic provoke and widen our perception of life. He can be contacted at www.ishafoundation.org [1]

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

PARTY AND REBEL

A POOR REFLECTION ON BOTH 

 

IT looks as if Abdur Rezzak Mollah is challenging his party leadership to act against him on disciplinary grounds. The minister for land and land reforms has in the past been summoned by Alimuddin Street for his outspokenness after being targeted on the Vedic Village scandal. He proceeded to mock the warning by expressing his doubts on job reservations for minorities, which the Left Front wants to turn into a vote-catching device when the going is tough. Now just when the Left seeks to come to the aid of the UPA on the Women's Reservation Bill, perhaps to hold out an olive branch to a party it had ditched at one stage but now must woo if Trinamul has to be checked, Mollah again lets himself loose. If he merely echoes what Brinda Karat had said about the CPI-M being a male-dominated party, the real message has to be read between the lines: the leader of women's movements has been accommodated in the party's highest policy making body while the rebel in Writers' Buildings is largely being ignored. Now when he does more plain-speaking on his party's hypocrisy, this time on the gender issue, he may have realised that he has nothing to lose.

No one, however, will miss the poor reflection on both the party and the rebel. The CPI-M is cruelly hamstrung by compulsions of the impending elections. Disciplinary action would remove what threatens to be a perpetual thorn in its side but could disrupt the calculated moves to win back disillusioned minorities. Nor is it likely to do the party any good to sustain the embarrassment of refuting charges levelled by its own minister when it is incapable of exerting its authority. Mollah, on his part, has wifully turned into a dissident who does not intend to surrender the privileges of office. He may instead have decided on confronting the evils from within on the pretext of fighting for principles. If that is seen to be opportunistic and anti-Marxist, Mollah may not be all that concerned. Like most others, he may be convinced that ideology has fallen by the wayside. As a discarded soldier, he just needs to make a point for what it is worth.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

WELCOME CHANGE

AND ULFA MUST RECIPROCATE 

 

TALKS with Ulfa leaders call for a peaceful atmosphere and there have been some encouraging signs of late. At Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi's undertaking ~ that his government had no objection if the designated Tada court granted bail to Ulfa vice-chairman Pradip Gogoi and publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary ~ the duo were released recently. They each face half a dozen criminal cases and had been lodged in Guwahati Jail after Bhutan handed them over to the Indian authorities in the aftermath of the December 2003 crackdown. Gogoi reportedly was a guest of the Pakistan government for eight months in 1991 and had been arrested earlier but jumped bail in 1996. There is no doubting that the chief minister has a soft corner for the incarcerated Ulfa leaders.

In 2005, when the Ulfa-appointed People's Consultative Group ~ now defunct after holding talks with the Centre for a year ~ sought the release of five jailed leaders for consultation, he rushed to Delhi within hours of the demand to plead and was told the matter would be considered after consultations with Dispur. Somehow the matter rested there and many suspected the chief minister's motive was to ensure peaceful assembly elections the following year. No one likes a prison cell, not least Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa, who has been in Guwahati Jail since his arrest last December. Even more frustrating is the absence of any immediate trial. Since the prime object is to break the impasse, his release alone should create an ideal ambience and he could perhaps persuade self-styled commander-in-chief Paresh Barua to see reason and return home.   
No less significant was the transfer of Ulfa ideologue Bhimkanta Burgohain from Tezpur to Guwahati Jail to ensure he consulted his colleagues. Union home secretary GK Pillai's recent statement, that if the Ulfa leaders showed an interest in negotiation Delhi would not even insist on a formal written commitment for talks from its leaders, suggests the extent to which the Centre is prepared to go to accommodate them.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

TIGER COUNTDOWN

PROTECT WILDLIFE, NOT TOURISM 

 

'ONLY 1411 left" is the thrust of the semi-commercial television message lamenting the tiger's plight. Who knows to what level that figure will fall ~ many feel it was an optimistic assessment ~ before the ad-campaign concludes. Parliament has just been informed that already 11 tigers have died in 2010, one conclusion being that even the action initiated by the Prime Minister has failed to preserve the raja of the Indian jungle. Poaching still flourishes, attempts to clear the "core" area of Project Tiger parks of human habitation have floundered. Yet the recent killing of two young tigers on the fringes of Ranthambore points to mismanagement of a different kind, emphasises that more than the poacher is at work. That park is over-populated, and searching for prey the cats have been frequently straying beyond the highly-protected zone, thereby coming into conflict with local communities. Persons arrested for the tigers' killing have confessed they deemed the cats as endangering their cattle, poisoned the "kills" to which they knew the tigers would return to feed. Only armchair experts and well-heeled tourists would fail to understand ~ there can be no excusing ~ the rustics' misdirected response: cattle-lifters are just a shade less criminal than maneaters in some folks' reckoning. Particularly those whose legitimate livelihood is under strain. 

The really despicable side of the story is that a potential way out exists. Forest officials have calculated that despite it proving one of the most preferred habitats, Ranthambore/Sawai Madhopur can sustain no more than 28-30 cats but the last census suggested at least a dozen more were present. The mismatch between mouths and resources was palpable, the cats began to forage "abroad". The remedy prescribed by those on the ground was substantial re-location to Sariska (the cats re-settled there seem to have accepted their new environs, though have yet to reproduce). That would relieve pressure on Ranthambore, revitalise Sariska. The proposal has been scuttled, allegedly by the powerful tourism lobby operating out of Ranthambore: fewer tigers would mean fewer "sightings", hence fewer tourists, fewer profits. The union ministry appears to have fallen for that "bait". While in theory, and African experience, the economic spin-off from wildlife tourism does help conservation, those conditions do not obtain in India at present. The critical battle remains protecting wildlife, rather than protecting tourism companies. 

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

SUGAR AND ITS PRICING

HELPING THE GROWER AT THE COST OF THE CONSUMER

BY  ALOK KUMAR GIRI

AS sugar becomes costlier every day, the Centre has surrendered to the demands of the agitating cane-growers. This may refurbish its pro-farmer image and help it to gain political mileage, but will push up the price still further. On 21 October, the government issued an ordinance, called the Sugarcane Control Order. Accordingly, the Essential Commodities (Amendment and Validation) Bill was introduced to fix a Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane at Rs 129.84 per quintal for the 2009-10 crushing season. This replaced the earlier practice of fixing the Statutory Minimum Price (SMP). 

However, the system allows state governments to fix the State Advised Price (SAP) if they were prepared to pay more. It was also announced that the government would purchase 20 per cent of the total requirement of levy sugar from mills at the FRP for subsidised sale through ration shops under the Public Distribution System. The difference between the two would be paid by the states. This somewhat defused the tension created by the powerful sugarcane growers' lobby and the opposition parties, demanding higher price for sugarcane. 

 

High demand

 THE fact is that the FRP is the floor price. It may appear to be low when the demand for sugarcane  is high,  but will protect the farmer in the event of a glut in production. As growers naturally want better price for their crop and do not bother about who bears the brunt, the opposition parties pressurise the  government to roll back the provisions of the ordinance and shift the burden of payment from the state government to the mills.
By announcing the FRP and letting the SAP prevail, the states pay the difference between the two. The union agriculture ministry killed two birds with one stone. It responded to the Supreme Court judgment, validating the SAP and shifted the burden of the difference between the SAP and the levy price and payment of accumulated arrears on the mills, thereby guarding its monetary interest. 

The objective of the Bill was to discourage the states from resorting to populist moves of raising the cane price, which  would make it different in each State. The government buckled in the face of the mounting opposition from farmers. The agriculture ministry subsequently introduced an amendment of the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), incorporating its new FRP policy, under which the government would procure one-fifth of levy sugar for the PDS from the mills and make them pay for the rest of the crops at the SAP rate. The Bill has since been passed by both Houses of Parliament. 

The parallel pricing ~ the FRP by the Centre and the SAP by the states ~ will certainly  increase the prices of sugarcane and sugar further still. The declared FRP of Rs 129.84 per quintal takes into account the recovery rate of 9.5 per cent. In fact the rate, which varies between 9 and 11.5 per cent, determines the quality of sugarcane. One quintal of sugarcane yields nine kg to 11.5 kg of sugar. The per quintal FRP being Rs 129.84 against 9.50 per cent recovery,  a one per cent rise in the recovery rate will push up the purchase price of cane by Rs 13.68. Similarly, for cane with 11.5 per cent recovery, mills will have to pay Rs 157.74 per quintal. The production cost remaining the same, the states growing cane of  "higher recovery" will gain much more than those growing cane of "lower recovery". Thus, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which grow cane of 10 per cent to 11.66 per cent recovery and above, will gain more than Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and  Uttaranchal which grow cane of nine per cent to 10 per cent. The first category of states will thus get better prices for their produce. The  burden of a higher cane price will be offset by the mills by raising the price of sugar, which went up by more than 100 per cent between  September 2008 and November 2009. 
On the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the union agriculture ministry announces the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for every essential agricultural commodity and the SMP for sugarcane.  In the retail sector, sugar is now selling  at Rs 38 per kilogram, and the price is rising  every week.  As a basic ingredient, sugarcane constitutes about 70 per cent of the cost of production. With cane at the FRP of Rs 130 and a sugar recovery rate of 9.5 per cent, the raw material necessary to produce one kilogram of sugar costs Rs 14. To that is added the costs of labour, capital, and management. At this rate, the cost of one kilogram of sugar should not be more than Rs 20  at the mill gate. But only a year ago, when the SMP was pegged at Rs 92 at the national average of 10.2 per cent recovery, the production cost of sugar would not have been more than Rs 14 per kg, covering the price of cane and other costs. Thus, the cost-based pricing does not justify the prevailing price spiral and the abnormal rise in the last one year. Even if part of the  increase can be attributed to scarcity, decline in production and to losses in transit, storage and handling,  hoarding and other unscrupulous practices by traders and middlemen and between the mills and retail outlets cannot be ruled out.

 

Pandora's box

THE Bill to resolve the issue and tackle the growers' agitation betrays lack of prudence and far-sightedness... both  of the Centre and the opposition parties. The UPA government has taken a hasty decision to defuse an unpleasant situation, arising out of the  agitation by cane-growers and opposition parties before Parliament on 19th and 20th November last year. It has succumbed to the unjust demand of growers, backed rather unethically by the opposition. The Bill, when it becomes an Act, will open a Pandora's Box, if farmers and growers of other crops also agitate for better prices. 

While advocating higher SAP for sugarcane, over and above the FRP, the opposition parties ignored the basic factor in fixing prices of agricultural commodities, as distinct from  that of industrial products. The price fixed for farm products is like a double-edged blade; the price rise pumps blood into the farming segment and sucks the consumers' blood at the same time.

Farmers allocate their land to various crops, keeping in view their prices, as announced by the Union government. The increase in the SAP and FRP of sugarcane is bound to distort the terms of trade against other crops and divert more land to growing sugarcane This will ultimately reduce the acreage under foodgrain. Hence, the administered pricing of sugarcane should not be lopsided. It it is favoured over the other major crops, it will create a price spiral, resulting in hardship for consumers and frustration for the growers of other crops, compelling them to reduce their cultivable area. Although both Houses of Parliament have approved the Bill, the President should exercise her privilege of returning it for reconsideration in the interests of the people who are groaning under the relentless price-spiral of sugar along with that of  commodities.

 

The writer is a former Professor of Agricultural Economics in Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidalaya,  Mohanpur, Nadia, in West Bengal

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

MONARCHY AS IT STILL EXISTS

 

When we look at the Middle East, the monarchy operates in a strong manner linking modern methods of economic enterprise with hereditary privileges, says Robi Chakravorti

 

Monarchy was removed from Europe after the French Revolution of 1789. The King of France was executed. When we look at French history, we find that monarchy was restored . The revolution in France which inspired Karl Marx targeted monarchy, but the parody of the French Revolution is that monarchy was revived when Napolean declared himself as emperor.

The French Revolution and the American Revolution are historically shown as stages when the dominating role of religion and monarchy in politics was diminished and replaced by the concept of people's will which was advocated by the French philosopher, Rousseau. Before the Renaissance in Europe, religion also played an important role in politics. After the Renaissance, there was first a separation of monarchical and Christian framework. It took a long time and many ups and downs before the separation between religion, monarchy and politics took place in Europe.

In Asia, monarchy operates in two nations: Japan and Thailand. There is a dramatic difference in the role of monarchy in these two countries. In Japan, the monarchy's rule declined since 1947 when the constitution stripped the royal family of its divinity. Now the monarchy plays generally a decorative, institutional role in Japan.

In Thailand, the monarchy plays the old-fashioned traditional role of respected autocracy. Thai royal law mandates a penalty of three to 15 years in prison for "whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, the Queen,the heir to the throne or the Regent". Last year, a writer was imprisoned for 10 years for allegedly insulting the royal family by uploading anti-royal videos. A female Thai activist was sentenced for six years for alleged support of the country's one-time Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was mildly critical of some actions of the monarch. He escaped imprisonment by leaving Thailand in time. Another activist is in prison for giving a speech paralleling the fate of the Thai monarchy with that of deposed dynasties in Russia Nepal and France.

Monarchy still operates in parts of Europe in a formal decorative sense. The monarchy in England is an example. According to a report last year, ten monarchies in a formal sense exist in Europe .When we look at the Middle East, the monarchy operates in a strong manner linking modern methods of economic enterprise with hereditary privileges. Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are colourful examples of this aspect of politics.

Let me present some documentary evidence on Saudi Arabia as a dramatic illustration of this aspect in politics today. Saudi Arabia represents a strange combination of old-style feudalism, religious fundamentalism and modern economy of so-called free enterprise. In 1926 after a series of tribal wars in the area, Abdel Ibn Saud crowned himself as king and in 1932 he named the entire territory Saudi Arabia. A modern form of feudalism is illustrated by the fact Ibn Saud built for himself a marble palace in Riyadh costing $4 million merely to plan and $140 million to complete it. Hundreds of princes and their relatives live at royal expense at magnificent palaces,
It happens to be the only state in the world that is titled the property of a single dynasty. America would not have cared for its existence, if it did not have rich oil resources. According to a report, Saudi Arabia supplies about half of America's petroleum needs. The profit is monopolised by the Saudi family. It covers hundreds of people since the founder of the state himself married several times and royal princes today also marry several times. All members of the family get lots of money from its oil revenues. Without its rich oil resources, the country would have turned into a strange weird monarchy neglected by America and rest of the world.
Let me present some illustrations of the odd linkage between feudalism and modernism, religious fundamentalism and free enterprise. A report in the British media couple of years ago said that British ministry of Defence paid over one billion pounds to the Prince of Saudi Arabia following Britain's big arms deal with the country. BAE Systems paid upto 120 million pounds a year into two Saudi accounts in Washington.
ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company ) operates the oil industry in Saudi Arabia . It started production of oil in Saudi Arabia in 1938 and continued the business since then . In 1951 it built a prestige railway for King Ibn Saud at a cost of over $160 million. The US Government assists ARAMCO by providing tax benefits for their work in Saudi Arabia Washington helps Saudi Arabia economically and politically and often justifies the support. During the Cold War, Saudi Arabia's status was supported on geopolitical and geo-economic grounds. In 1957, the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia praised the Saudi regime saying that Saudi King is "a good king who has the welfare of the people primarily in mind" ("Arabia Without Sultans" by Fred Halliday, 1975).

 

When King Saud visited America in 1957, President Eisenhower took the unusual step of greeting him in person at the airport, a courtesy he had not extended to any other state upto that time.

When the Saudi King Abdullah visited England about three years ago, he attended a special banquet hosted by the Queen of England . It was a big show. Six planes brought the king and his huge family to the capital. A convey of 84 limousines drove the party into London.

American support for Saudi feudal monarchy is open and often takes dramatic forms. ARAMCO publishes a colourful magazine entitled :" Saudi Aramco World". Let me present two excerpts from this magazine (January-February,2007) to show how it glorifies the positive side of Arab and Muslim culture as a supportive argument in favour of Saudi ArabiaA British Muslim named Timothy Winter in an article entitled "The Art of Integration" wrote Islam "makes room for the particularities of the people who come into. The traditional Muslim World is a rainbow, an extraordinary patchwork of different cultures all united by a common adherence to the doctrinal and moral patterns set down in Revelation".

The article deals with mosques in Britain with colourful pictures and a short note on their presence in China. "When Muslim Arabs first travelled to China nearly 1,300 years ago, they were not in fact introducing an alien religion to an already long-established civilisation. Rather they called their Islam 'the way of the Pure' – a name and an ideal that did not conflict with the Confucian beliefs prevalent in China at that time and their early mosques looked like Chinese temples and pagodas''.

In the context of the darker side of politics and economics currently operating in the Middle East, this type of commentary ignores the fact that US economic interests provide material support and religion the ideological justification for current oligarchy in the middle East.

 

The writer is Professor Emeritus, California State University, Sacramento

THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

LIVING PROOF OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

THE US WANTS TO DENY THAT TURKEY'S SLAUGHTER OF 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS IN 1915 WAS GENOCIDE. BUT THE EVIDENCE IS THERE, IN A HILLTOP ORPHANAGE NEAR BEIRUT, REPORTS ROBERT FISK

 

It's only a small grave, a rectangle of cheap concrete marking it out, blessed by a flourish of wild yellow lilies. Inside are the powdered bones and skulls and bits of femur of up to 300 children, Armenian orphans of the great 1915 genocide who died of cholera and starvation as the Turkish authorities tried to "Turkify" them in a converted Catholic college high above Beirut. But for once, it is the almost unknown story of the surviving 1,200 children – between three and 15 years old – who lived in the crowded dormitory of this ironically beautiful cut-stone school that proves that the Turks did indeed commit genocide against the Armenians in 1915.

Barack Obama and his pliant Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton – who are now campaigning so pitifully to prevent the US Congress acknowledging that the Ottoman Turkish massacre of 1.5 million Armenians was a genocide – should come here to this Lebanese hilltop village and hang their heads in shame. For this is a tragic, appaling tale of brutality against small and defenceless children whose families had already been murdered by Turkish forces at the height of the First World War, some of whom were to recall how they were forced to grind up and eat the skeletons of their dead fellow child orphans in order to survive starvation.

Jemal Pasha, one of the architects of the 1915 genocide, and – alas – Turkey's first feminist, Halide Edip Adivar, helped to run this orphanage of terror in which Armenian children were systematically deprived of their Armenian identity and given new Turkish names, forced to become Muslims and beaten savagely if they were heard to speak Armenian. The Antoura Lazarist college priests have recorded how its original Lazarist teachers were expelled by the Turks and how Jemal Pasha presented himself at the front door with his German bodyguard after a muezzin began calling for Muslim prayers once the statue of the Virgin Mary had been taken from the belfry.

Hitherto, the argument that Armenians suffered a genocide has rested on the deliberate nature of the slaughter. But Article II of the 1951 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide specifically states that the definition of genocide – "to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group" – includes "forcibly transferring children of the group to another group". This is exactly what the Turks did in Lebanon. Photographs still exist of hundreds of near-naked Armenian children performing physical exercises in the college grounds. One even shows Jemal Pasha standing on the steps in 1916, next to the young and beautiful Halide Adivar who – after some reluctance – agreed to run the orphanage.
Before he died in 1989, Karnig Panian – who was six years old when he arrived at Antoura in 1916 – recorded in Armenian how his own name was changed and how he was given a number, 551, as his identity. "At every sunset in the presence of over 1,000 orphans, when the Turkish flag was lowered, 'Long Live General Pasha!' was recited. That was the first part of the ceremony. Then it was time for punishment for the wrongdoers of the day. They beat us with the falakha [a rod used to beat the soles of the feet], and the top-rank punishment was for speaking Armenian."

Panian described how, after cruel treatment or through physical weakness, many children died. They were buried behind the old college chapel. "At night, the jackals and wild dogs would dig them up and throw their bones here and there ... at night, kids would run out to the nearby forest to get apples or any fruits they could find – and their feet would hit bones. They would take these bones back to their rooms and secretly grind them to make soup, or mix them with grain so they could eat them as there was not enough food at the orphanage. They were eating the bones of their dead friends."

Using college records, Emile Joppin, the head priest at the Lazarite Antoura college, wrote in the school's magazine in 1947 that "the Armenian orphans were Islamicised, circumcised and given new Arab or Turkish names. Their new names always kept the initials of the names in which they were baptised. Thus Haroutioun Nadjarian was given the name Hamed Nazih, Boghos Merdanian became Bekir Mohamed, to Sarkis Safarian was given the name Safouad Sulieman."

Lebanese-born Armenian-American electrical engineer Missak Kelechian researches Armenian history as a hobby and hunted down a privately printed and very rare 1918 report by an American Red Cross officer, Major Stephen Trowbridge, who arrived at the Antoura college after its liberation by British and French troops and who spoke to the surviving orphans. His much earlier account entirely supports that of Father Joppin's 1949 research.

Halide Adivar, later to be lauded by The New York Times as "the Turkish Joan of Arc" – a description that Armenians obviously questioned – was born in Constantinople in 1884 and attended an American college in the Ottoman capital. She was twice married and wrote nine novels – even Trowbridge was to admit that she was "a lady of remarkable literary ability" – and served as a woman officer in Mustafa Ataturk's Turkish army of liberation after the First World War. She later lived in both Britain and France.

And it was Kelechian yet again who found Adivar's long-forgotten and self-serving memoirs, published in New York in 1926, in which she recalls how Jemal Pasha, commander of the Turkish 4th Army in Damascus, toured Antoura orphanage with her. Adivar says she told the general that "I will never have anything to do with such an orphanage" but claims that Jemal Pasha replied: "You will if you see them in misery and suffering, you will go to them and not think for a moment about their names and religion." Which is exactly what she did.
Later in the war, however, Adivar spoke to Talaat Pasha, the architect of the 20th century's first holocaust, and recalled how he almost lost his temper when discussing the Armenian "deportations" (as she put it), saying: "Look here, Halide ... I have a heart as good as yours, and it keeps me awake at night to think of the human suffering. But that is a personal thing, and I am here on this earth to think of my people and not of my sensibilities ... There was an equal number of Turks and Moslems massacred during the [1912] Balkan war, yet the world kept a criminal silence. I have the conviction that as long as a nation does the best for its own interests, and succeeds, the world admires it and thinks it moral. I am ready to die for what I have done, and I know that I shall die for it."

The suffering of which Talaat Pasha spoke so chillingly was all too evident to Trowbridge when he himself met the orphans of Antoura. Many had seen their parents murdered and their sisters raped. Levon, who came from Malgara, was driven from his home with his sisters aged 12 and 14. The girls were taken by Kurds – allied to the Turks – as "concubines" and the boy was tortured and starved, Trowbridge records. He was eventually forced by his captors into the Antoura orphanage.

It was only in 1993 that the bones of the children were discovered, when the Lazarite Fathers dug the foundations for new classrooms. What was left of the remains were moved respectfully to the little cemetery where the college's priests lie buried and put in a single, deep grave. Kelechian helped me over a 5ft wall to look at this place of sadness, shaded by tall trees. Neither name-plate nor headstone marks their mass grave.

The Independent

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

BILL FOR CHANGE?

 

It was a difficult feat for the Congress to get the bill for women's reservation in legislative bodies passed in the Rajya Sabha, although the bill has a long way to go before it becomes a law. The victory itself is dubious. The indiscipline in the Rajya Sabha on March 8 demonstrated that little has changed since 1996 when the bill was first introduced in Parliament. Each time it came up, the same opponents put up the same objections and disrupted Parliament with equal violence. Yet there was more than enough time for discussion and debate, not merely within Parliament but also with parties, in states and in public fora. In all the rhetoric around the bill — including the bill as "gift" to women on the centenary of International Women's Day — there has been a remarkable absence of effort to prepare the nation and the polity for the change. The Congress's idea of barrelling through the bill simply because the party was confident of the support from the Opposition was just a way of politicking with numbers. This is hardly worthy of a decision that means amending the Constitution.

 

Does change depend on law alone? The system itself makes space for women who rise to the top through the political process, as Mamata Banerjee and Mayavati have done. More than law, it is often convention that is the better teacher. But no party, not even the Congress with Sonia Gandhi at its head, has yet nominated election candidates of whom 30 per cent are women. Such practices lead to a natural, as opposed to coercive, form of change. The passage of the bill in the Rajya Sabha has done little to establish the government's credentials regarding gender-justice. The quota system has been legitimized in India as affirmative action, although it functions more as tokenism useful in getting votes. Tokenism glosses over fundamental issues, such as the fact that there is no shortcut to the empowerment of women. Or that an undemocratic principle, whatever its rationale, is a marker of a failure of democracy rather than a sign of its power of creative change. The government has time to rethink before the bill becomes a law — if it can shed illusions of prestige and seriously address the problems that lie behind the bill's formulation.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

STEP BY STEP

 

Iraq voted as Afghanistan did last August — in the shadow of violence. But unlike in Afghanistan, where the Western coalition forces could not dispel the suspicion that they were favouring a particular candidate, in Iraq, they have managed to put a healthy distance between themselves and the vote-seekers. It is perhaps this apparent detachment and impartiality of the occupying powers that have encouraged Iraqis — 62 per cent of the 19 million registered voters — to defy death threats and violence and turn the elections into one of the most successfully conducted democratic processes in the post-Saddam Hussein era. What has contributed to the success of the polls is the overwhelming participation of Sunni Arabs from the extremist stronghold of Anbar, as also from Sunni-dominated areas that had boycotted the elections in 2005. It goes without saying that this image of fairness will be crucial to the credibility of the government, which will eventually be formed, although that may seem a long way off. The results are unlikely to be known soon, and government-formation may take a longer time given that none of the parties, not even the Rule of Law coalition of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has sufficient support to claim a majority. All this will mean a prolonged phase of uncertainty as parties try to strike a deal with like-minded groups and even fortune-seekers. The Kurdish parties will have a major role in coalition-building, and their support will be determined by the amount of flexibility negotiators display on Kirkuk, the disputed oil-rich area the Kurds claim as their own. There is also likely to be a period of constitutional vacuum during the time the president decides which coalition should be called upon to form the government.

 

There are two factors that make this period of waiting doubly uncertain. The first is the time-frame set by the United States of America for a pull-out. The second is the designs Iran may have on Iraq. It is common knowledge that Iran has had a part to play in the ferment of communal violence in Iraq, and may continue to play this part to maintain its influence there. Both the US and Iran have to realize that Iraq's stability is crucial to peace in the Middle East. Hurry and selfishness on the part of either country are bound to undo the gains made painstakingly in Iraq.

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

AN OPEN LETTER TO M.F. HUSAIN

SHAZI ZAMAN

 

Respected Husain saheb, Your flight to Qatar has anguished us in more ways than one. Firstly, because we could not keep you here. Secondly, and more importantly, because you thought you could not live here.

 

I hope you would not mind the reaction of a person less than half your age. Great responsibility comes with greatness. Your action has to be questioned and cross-examined by all who stand and fight for freedom of expression. The issue is far too important to be glossed over as a 'Husain act'. Your flight to Qatar is not an artistic latitude that we could be indulgent about.

 

Your flight has dealt a blow to our deep belief that the fight for freedom of expression has to be fought and won on the Indian soil. By bolting, you dealt a blow to this belief. And you did not have the right to do that.

 

For two reasons. A large body of people stood up and spoke for you in the confidence that you are with them in this struggle. Secondly, a large body looked up to you as a symbol of creative freedom. We thought you would stand up and fight. Who would, if not you? We thought that a person as privileged, as loved, liked and respected as you would certainly fight. But you took a flight out to Qatar.

 

Husain saheb, you have left a gaping hole in our cherished belief that we can fight and win. Is that the example to set for those who face the forces of intolerance? Would you expect all of them to take a flight to Qatar? That is, if they had the option.

 

While taking the Qatari passport did you spare a thought for those who stood up for you? People you left behind. Did the thought cross your mind that your departure only resolves your personal issue? If at all. It does not resolve the larger battle.

 

Your ticket to artistic freedom took you of all places to Qatar. Did you think it affords you greater freedom than lndia? We would wait for an answer or watch for developments.

 

Giving up a citizenship or taking another is a matter of personal choice. But could it be so personal for you? Could you be so oblivious of the message this would send to liberal India? While your life is yours, what about the voices of those who rose for you?

 

Husain saheb, I am raising these questions because we felt answerable for your plight in the past. Do you think you are answerable to the people who believed in your freedom of expression? Standing on a pedestal you had become more than a person. You had become an idea. Could that idea migrate to Qatar?

 

Why am I raising these questions? I am trying to articulate the vacuum many feel at what you have done. Did

we fail you or did you fail us?

 

Sir, as a great artist you had to show a way to all who believe in the freedom of expression and creativity. Lesser mortals expect great messages and signals from great people. Their life and message are meant to guide the multitude. The signal that emanates from your flight to Qatar is a sad one.

 

Can these words of yours (in Barkha Dutt's interview) justify your taking the Qatari passport: "Hindi hain hum watan hai sara jahan hamara"? Did you realize you had mixed up the two Iqbals — the separatist and the nationalist! The nationalist Iqbal had said, "Hindi hain hum watan hai Hindostan hamara". Later, the separatist Iqbal said, "Muslim hain hum watan hai sara jahan hamara".

 

We cannot take one line from the separatist Iqbal and the other from the nationalist one. We cannot quote conveniently, the same way as we cannot always live conveniently.

 

Shazi Zaman,

Editor, Star News

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

AURA OF A RADICAL

A DOMINANT PRESENCE IN DELHI SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

ANDRÉ BÉTEILLE

 

When I joined the University of Delhi in 1959 as a young lecturer, the dominant presence at the Delhi School of Economics was that of K.N. Raj. Everyone at the School talked about him, and he was well known and well liked throughout the university. Part of Raj's attraction lay in his youthful spirit. He was specially liked because he did not throw his weight about, but, on the other hand, was always ready to stand up for the underdog. It is this instinct to stand up for the underdog that gave Raj his aura of a radical in the best sense of the term.

 

Raj's appointment as full professor at the age of 29 was something of a sensation in the university. The circumstances under which he was appointed are worth recounting because they tell us something about methods used for attracting talent to the universities that can now be no longer used. He was brought to the School by V.K.R.V. Rao, who, at the time of Independence, was fired by the idea of establishing a first-rate institution for teaching and research in economic science and policy. In 1947, the institution that was to become the Delhi School of Economics existed mainly in Rao's imagination.

 

On one of his trips to England, Rao decided to track down I.G. Patel, about whom he had heard great things. But when he knocked at I.G.'s door in Cambridge, he discovered that I.G. was not free to accept the offer. As it happened, his friend, K.N. Raj, was then visiting him, and I.G. suggested that Rao might consider making the offer to Raj. Rao made up his mind after a brief interchange with Raj and offered him the position which Raj accepted happily.

 

Immediately on his return to India, Raj took the train from Bombay to Delhi and presented himself to Rao, and asked when he should join his duties. But Rao had to tell him that he could not be given the appointment as the post was still to be created. So Raj was sent back to Bombay carrying a warm letter of recommendation for C.D. Deshmukh. Through Deshmukh he found his way into the Reserve Bank of India, and from there he moved to Delhi to join the Planning Commission. By 1953, though only 29 years old, Raj had begun to make a name for himself through his work on the first five-year plan, and the Delhi School of Economics had become a reality. Rao called him over and told him that he was now in a position to offer him not just a readership but a professorship, and this time it was a firm offer. So Raj left the Planning Commission and joined the Delhi School of Economics.

 

In 1959, when I came to Delhi University, only three post-graduate departments had more than one professor each. The department of economics had three, but one of the positions remained vacant after Rao became the vice-chancellor. The two professors of economics were B.N. Ganguly, who was the director of the School, and Raj. Ganguly was a scholar and a gentleman of the old school. He was full of kindness and courtesy, and never raised his voice when he spoke. We all noted his great affection for Raj for whose talent and ability he was never short of praise.

 

When Ganguly left the Delhi School in 1962 to become the pro-vice-chancellor of the university, Raj replaced him as the director of the School as well as the head of the department of economics. He lost no time in following the example set by Rao in attracting young talent to the School. He played the main part in attracting Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati and Sukhamoy Chakravarty to the School and appointing each of them a full professor at the age of 29. Having Deshmukh as the vice-chancellor and Ganguly as the pro-vice-chancellor must have helped. Later, as vice-chancellor of the university, he appointed Manmohan Singh to the School to occupy the chair vacated by Jagdish Bhagwati.

 

Everybody in the Delhi School knew Raj, and most of them sought his company. But the person who was closest to him was Amartya Sen. In my long association with Sen, I had never communicated with him by e-mail. When Raj died, I thought I should send him an e-mail to express my grief. Within a few hours, he wrote back, "I keep thinking of the great years we spent together in our interconnected apartments in Chhatra Marg — we were in almost one household then.… I think of what Raj did for his friends and for the world, and the vision that informed his life, which moved and inspired us so much. Those of us who gathered around him at the Delhi School of Economics under his stewardship would not have come but for the inspiration and the quality of his personal magnetism and leadership."

 

I cannot assess Raj's contribution to economic science, nor is this the place or the time to do so. But he certainly was an inspiration to many both within and outside his own discipline. P.N. Dhar, who was both his friend and his rival, was bemused by the admiration Raj was able to attract. Shortly after he joined Indira Gandhi's office as her adviser, he prepared a note for her with great care and some satisfaction. When he went to see her about the note, the first question she asked him was, "What does Dr Raj think of this?" It mattered to many people what Raj thought of them and their work. It certainly mattered to me.

 

In 1968, I was awarded a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship for two years. I chose as my subject the study of agrarian social structure, at that time a somewhat unusual choice for a sociologist. My choice was influenced to a large extent by my association with Raj. I was determined to show him that sociologists had something to say about class and not just about caste, but that they had their own approach to its study. My colleagues in the department of sociology were a little puzzled by my choice of subject, and some even thought that Raj was turning me into a Marxist.

 

Raj was very earnest about his public responsibilities. But he also had a strong sense of fun, and his youthful appearance and manner made it easy for him to mingle with the students. He took an active part, along with his friend and admirer Putul Nag, in organizing plays for Founder's Day. He has himself written about a School play when the formidable V.K.R.V. Rao was director. "I recall vaguely a play we jointly produced depicting Napoleon and slyly imputing some of his qualities to V.K.R.V. Rao, but it failed in its purpose because he saw no such parallel and enjoyed the play more than anyone else!" Which person who knew Raj in his prime will not miss him today?

 

The author is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, and National Research Professor

 

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******************************************************************************************DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

A GIANT STEP

''WOMEN'S RESERVATION CAN BE A GAME-CHANGER.''

 

The passage of the Women's Reservation Bill by the Rajya Sabha is a historic penultimate step in the story of women's empowerment in India. After the shameful incidents in the House on Monday when a determined minority blocked the bill, the country's political and government leadership rose to the occasion to debate and vote on it on Tuesday, endorsing the national will behind the idea with strong parliamentary approval.

The idea of statutory representation for women in parliament and state legislatures has now come out of a dark tunnel after nearly 15 years of groping for light. If the Women's Reservation Bill seemed lost as late as on Monday it was because of the vocal and subterranean opposition to it from a section of the political establishment. But ultimately all the main political parties came round to support and pass the bill.

The BJP, the Left parties and many regional parties deserve praise for setting aside their differences with the government and supporting the measure. However, it is no time for full celebration yet, as the bill has to go through the Lok Sabha before it becomes law and it is here it had met the most vociferous and repeated opposition earlier. There are many Doubting Thomas's even now among supporting parties and they may subtly join hands with the opponents to scuttle the bill. But, Tuesday's developments give hope that history is within India's grasp.

The 33 per cent reservation that the bill proposes for women is not a concession for women but an acceptance of their rightful role in national life. The bill was passed without diluting its original intent. There were demands to break up the reservation into sub-quotas or to increase the number of parliament seats so that men's representation would remain the same. The government has indicated that it is ready to accommodate some concerns when the bill comes up in the Lok Sabha but this should be done without compromising the purpose of the bill.

That purpose is to increase the role of women in public and parliamentary life and make them more active participants in governance and national life. Experience has shown that this is not possible without legislative support. Experience has also shown that women have risen to the occasion when they were given the opportunity, as in the local self-government bodies where women's reservation has worked well. When the bill becomes law and gets finally implemented, it will be a game-changer and will make a signal difference to national life.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

EURO TROUBLE

''NO EUROPEAN COUNTRY IS WILLING TO BAIL OUT GREECE.''

 

The severe economic crisis that has afflicted Greece has sent ripples of disquiet in the Eurozone and created doubts about the sustainability of the fragile recovery in the entire continent. The problems in Greece are themselves painful but there is the worrisome prospect of more economies cracking up. Greece faces a budget deficit of about 13 per cent of its GDP against a norm of 3 per cent in the Eurozone and owes billions of dollars to international creditors, mainly German banks. Other countries like Spain, Portugal and Ireland are also in crisis. Spain is a major EU country with a large economy which too has a public deficit of over 11 per cent of the GDP and has a high unemployment rate of about 20 per cent.

 

Though fellow European Union countries have been sympathetic, nobody is willing to bail out Greece from its troubles. Germany is the strongest economic power but the German banks are reluctant to put more money in a sinking Greek economy. The popular opinion in Germany is strongly against any bailout and Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken a tough stance. Greek prime minister, George Papandreau, is on a tour of Europe and the US, soliciting assistance, but got advice that Greece should deal with its crisis by imposing a severe austerity programme. Greece has implemented such a plan, which is not found to be good enough.

There is even a proposal that countries like Greece and Spain should split from the Eurozone and reintroduce their national currencies as a way out of the situation. But this is considered a remedy worse than the disease. It will also put question marks on the sustainability of the European Union. During the formation of the EU it was thought that political integration was more difficult, but a seamless economy and common currency would give it a boost.

However uneven economic strengths and divergent ways of economic management have now proved to be equally threatening. Ultimately it will be difficult for the EU to escape responsibility and may have to go to the aid of Greece with stringent credit conditionalities. Allowing some member countries to go down will in the long run weaken the Union both economically and politically.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

IN DIRE STRAITS

THE FINANCE MINISTER HIMSELF HAS ADMITTED THAT HIS BUDGET PROPOSALS DO CONTAIN INFLATIONARY ELEMENTS.

BY NILOTPAL BASU

For the first time since Manmohan Singh was sworn in as prime minister to head the new UPA government, he has started appearing vulnerable. The extent of vulnerability is that in the face of insistent opposition both inside and outside parliament to the food inflation, the Congress has been forced to mobilise the full weight of its president and the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi behind the government.

Seldom in the past have we seen such a rally to salvage the image of the government battered by the increasing irreconcilability between the claims of representing the concerns of the 'aam aadmi' and the blatant neo-liberal direction to burden the common man and providing tax breaks to the high and mighty.

She has claimed that the government has done everything possible to tame the incessant upward movement of food prices. She has even hinted apportioning the blame on the state governments as her other colleagues have attempted in the past. But she is defending the indefensible!

In his post-budget interactions in the public space, the finance minister himself has admitted that his budget proposals do contain inflationary elements. But he has tried to reassure the nation that the impact of the oil price hike will be limited to just 0.41 per cent. The future will only unravel the veracity of his assertion.

The basic premise of his assertions is indeed misplaced. He claims that inflation is driven by the rapid upward movement of the food prices and essentially because of the failure on the supply side — insofar as food grains are concerned. And it can be absorbed by increased production. But the reality of the Indian agriculture today and the budget proposals and allocations in the sector would actually prove otherwise.

India continues to remain a major agriculture dependent economy despite the claims of emerging as a global player. Around 65 per cent of the population depends on agriculture despite the share of agriculture declining to 15.7 per cent during 2008-09 in the GDP. The 10th plan target for agriculture was of 4 per cent growth. It was achieved only by half. With last year's growth at less than 2 per cent and this year's estimate of -0.2 per cent, the 11th plan target is also slated to go for a toss.  

The reason for this is not hard to find. The public investment in agriculture has sharply declined since the onset of reforms in early 90s from 16 per cent of the GDP to an abysmally low of 6 per cent last year. The alternative strategy of supplementing this decline by the engagement of the private sector has not yielded results in augmenting the overall production or productivity.

Purchasing power

The individual farmer is in the process of marginalisation with increasing adverse terms of credit. An eminent commentator on the sector has brought out a damning equivalence study. In 1990, a cotton grower in Maharashtra could buy 15 grams of gold by producing one quintal of cotton. Today the same grower would need 15 quintals of cotton but would get only 8 grams of gold. That is clearly a 30 fold adverse ratio for the hapless cotton grower. Such tragic facts of life form the backdrop for the never ending queue of suiciding farmers.

The economic survey has revealed that the total kharif production this year is down by 16 per cent. With rabi and kharif accounting for roughly 50 per cent of the total production each, the estimate of -0.2 per cent appears to be extremely optimistic. What was therefore needed was a sharp enhancement in the allocation. But what the finance minister has actually managed is a measly amount.

The share of allocations towards agriculture and allied activities as a proportion of the total Union budget and the GDP in the 2010-11 budget estimates is as a proportion of total Union budget and the GDP are 9.45 per cent and 1.56 per cent respectively. This sets out the direction of financial allocation and the sense of priority that the finance minister accords to the unfolding challenge that grips our agriculture sector. Together with this, one can add up the sharp reduction in the fertiliser subsidy and the intent to move towards a market driven international price regime which will further burden the farmer.

The sense of urgency that ought to have featured the budget is conspicuous by its total absence. The structural drawback of Indian agriculture lies in the reality of its skewed nature. Without concentrating our efforts on improving the irrigation infrastructure and technology promotion, the overall growing food needs cannot be met.

The private sector comprising of seed, pesticides and supply chain corporates both domestic and multi-nationals would never be interested in addressing such an onerous challenge. Such huge swathes of backward agriculture and the adversely affected petty growers will continue to remain unviable.

So that is the story of the budget. With the finance minister refusing to show the urgency that is needed to draw the Indian agriculture and the peasantry out of the bottomless pit that they are continuing in a sinking journey, the hope for containing food inflation by managing the supply side deficit will remain a pipe dream.

(The writer is a central secretariat member of CPM)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

ACCORD PRIORITY TO CHECK PRICE RISE OF FOOD ITEMS

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM HAS AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN STABILISATION OF FOOD PRICES.

BY ELUMALAI KANNAN

Food inflation — the general rise in price of food articles — is much debated as it continued to show increasing trend since November last year. Food inflation is not a new phenomenon in India and is caused by cyclical fluctuations in demand and supply conditions. Recently at the chief ministers' conference on prices of essential commodities, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opined that "the worst is over as far as food inflation is concerned" on the premise that food prices have started softening during recent weeks and it would stabilise soon. But, contrary to his expectations food inflation has risen to 17.97 per cent for the week ended Feb 6 over the same week ended in the previous year.

The alarming rise in food inflation, if it remains unchecked will shoot up the daily grocery bill of common people. There is a danger that spiralling food prices may percolate into other sectors of the economy. Thus, greater understanding of factors underlying food inflation is necessary for making strong interventions to protect common man suffering from rising cost of basic items like food.

Stimulus packages

Economic stimulus measures introduced since September 2008 seemed to have put back the Indian economy on higher growth trajectory. According to Central Statistical Organisation, Indian economy has registered an impressive growth rate of 7.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current financial year. Compared to the first quarter, private consumption expenditure registered a growth rate of 5.6 per cent.

Further, rebound of most advanced economies from the worst economic crisis has revived the IT and consumer goods sectors — creating new jobs during the last few months. This is also evident from buoyant sales growth of the Indian corporate sector. Overall, economic stimulus measures have helped to augment the consumption expenditure in the economy.

According to the Second Advance Estimates of Foodgrains Production released by the ministry of agriculture on Feb 12, foodgrain production fell short of target by about 22 million tonnes. However, only hope is the bountiful rabi crops, which were less affected by the fluctuations of rainfall across the country.

In recent years, several states have witnessed the emergence of organised retail and supermarkets selling fruits, vegetables and other food items. However, neighbourhood stores have also shown phenomenal growth. Foreign firms are restricted to enter retails markets. But many of them have set up joint venture with domestic players to enter the wholesale sector. Both wholesale and retail formats have built state of art infrastructure to procure and store the produce for considerably long time to meet off-season demand.

Public distribution system has an important role to play in stabilisation of food prices. However, the effectiveness of the PDS is a big issue. Except southern states, the system is plagued with several problems. Proper mechanism need to be put in place to check diversion of foodgrains to open markets and make it available to the beneficiaries. Further, there are reports that several private traders maintain undeclared stocks of foodgrains and sugar to take advantage in speculative activities.

Futures trading is often blamed for increase in prices of agricultural commodities. However, research studies indicate that there is no link between futures trading in agricultural commodities and inflation. There were instances during 2007 that spot prices of certain commodities were much higher when these commodities were not traded in futures market.

There is a strong need for policy support for resurgence of agricultural sector with large investment to augment agricultural production through new technological breakthrough. With obsession of policy makers about only overall GDP growth rate and those sectors contributing more to it, the significance of agricultural sector to sustain livelihoods of millions of people cannot be relegated. The government introduced some measures like distribution of diesel subsidy and sinking new tube wells in an attempt to tide over Kharif crises.

But, the government should go beyond these ad hoc measures and find permanent solutions for sustainable growth. There is a huge gap between irrigation potential created and actual utilisation. With limited scope to bring additional area under cultivation, potential of dryland farming should be exploited through appropriate interventions.

(The writer is associate professor at Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

INSTINCTIVE LESSON

I HAVE THE TIME IN ABUND-ANCE AND THE PARENTS HAVE IT IN SHORT SUPPLY.

BY KAMALA BALACHANDRAN

 

Grandmas are expected to take to infants naturally. They are supposed to have so much experience that they would know all there is to know about raising babies. That's what I believed too, till I experienced it myself.

It was a momentous point in my life. I was seeing my first grandchild for the first time. Strangely my first thoughts on entering the room were that it looked like a toy shop. I was so over stimulated by all the colourful, baby paraphernalia that the two month old almost receded to the background.

Day 2 and the baby was still a curio. The H1N1 scare provided the reason for me not to get too close to the infant. Surprisingly, I was ok with the arrangement. The week of quarantine, I told myself, would provide the time to take in the ambience, understand the various gadgets and settle down to the routine of the house.

Ironically, it was this period that unsettled me. As I observed my son and daughter-in-law go about doing their parts, the understanding dawned on me that my 'experience' in child care was totally irrelevant in the new context. For it wasn't just that the last word on parenting came from the internet and the books; these also provided the first! I felt like a new kid on the block who stood awkwardly in the periphery, watching the other kids in their game.

To join in, I had to volunteer and make the move forward confident that I could play the game just as well. But I felt so completely outdated that I couldn't figure out what position I could take. It seemed as if all the meaningful spots had been taken and there was none left for me. Until that afternoon.

The parents were busy at work. The baby had been fed and burped and left to be on his own. I went up to the crib and looked down at the little fellow. The little one was wide awake and was looking around with large, curious eyes. I said 'hello' and asked very softly if he knew who I was. My grandson looked at me intently for a brief few seconds and then gave me an absolutely divine smile. I was overjoyed and for the next 10 minutes we had an animated 'conversation' punctuated with gurgles and coos.

 

Now I know where I fit in. I have the time; something that I have in abundance and the parents have in short supply. That puts me in a unique position of being there, to respond to the baby whenever he is in a mood to talk and play. Not only do I enjoy doing that, I also know that it is a skill that will never get outdated!

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE HOLY DIP

HINDUS AND SIKHS MUST BE THE ONLY TWO RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN THE WORLD WHICH BELIEVE THAT IMMERSING ONE-SELF IN A RIVER DECLARED HOLY OR A POND (SAROVAR) DECLARED SACRED WASHES AWAY SINS. IF IT WERE THAT EASY WE COULD SOON ACHIEVE A SINLESS SOCIETY.

BY KHUSHWANT SINGH

 

Without meaning to offend the religious susceptibilities of millions, I would like to ask believers in bathing as a religious ritual a few questions: Why is the sin-cleansing limited to specific times e.g. the Kumbh Mela or place like Har-ki-Paudi in Hardwar and why not for all times? Why is it that the Sarovar of the Harimandir (Golden Temple) specifically marked out for soul and body cleansing? Since childhood I have heard Sikhs recite:

Guru Ram Das Sarovar Nahatey

Sab utrey paap karraatey

Bathe in the pool dug by Guru Ram Das

And cleanse yourself of all sins you have committed.

Surely a shower or a few lotas of water splashed on your body with soap is more cleansing than a few dip in ater with no soap!

There is no logic behind the Hindu-Sikh fetish for Snan or Ishnaan. Nevertheless, men and women gather in hundreds of thousands on special occasions to take this quick and easy path to salvation. It is special occasion for Sadhus of different akhaaras to foregather and extort money from the gullible. In their rivalry they often come to blows against each other. There are stampedes and dozens of men, women & children are trampled to death. Isn't it time for thinking Indians to raise their voices and question the continuance of such meaningless rituals?

II. Myth & Reality

There are many words whose meanings we vaguely know but rarely bother to find out what they actually stand for. One of those words is genes. I thought it was just another word for "in one's blood". A concept which was drilled into out heads since our days in school is that we Indians belong to five racial groups: Adivasis, Dravidans, Aryans, Mangols & Semites. I am a little more enlightened after reading Invasion of the Genes, Genetic Heritage of India by B S Ahloowalisa (Eloquent Books). The author did his Doctorate from the University of Chicago and worked for the Agriculture and Food Department in Dublin. He was also with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Food & Agriculture organisation (FAO) of the UN. He has made his home in Vienna (Austria).

I admit I was reluctant to read his book as I thought the subject was beyond my comprehension. However, the word 'genes' in the title made me chrious to know what the word really meant. I was in for a very pleasant surprise as he not only explained it in simple, lucid terms with diagrams to illustrate it but at the end of every chapter gives a glossary of difficult words and their meanings. It read like a precisely written high school text book. I went through it without any difficulty and learnt much.

 

Another myth he rubbishes is the nation of the origin of life on earth drilled into out minds by teachers of religion. Human beings were not created by churing of the oceans nor by a God who created all creatures within six days before taking a break on Subbath. It was, as Darwin has proved, with species of fish coming on dry land and evolving into reptiles, birds, mammals and humans. We are in fact descended from monkeys.

Innumerable invaders

And finally, he tells us that there is no such thing as a pure race anywhere in the world. There has been so much inter-makingling through conquests and trading that introduced new genes in every country. India had innumerable invaders who came without women. They mated with local women, reared offspring of mixed races.

The latest arrivals in India were Europeans, Portuguese, Dutch, French and English. The earlier immigrants came without their women and were quick to adapt themselves to life-styles of Indian Rajahs and Nawabs. They acquired harems of Indian women and concubines and bred dozens of children. David Ochterlony, the first British Resident in the court of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar had 13 Indian wives, who bore him dozens of children. His assistant William Fraser had over half-a-dozen wives and mistresses and "as many children as the Shah of Persia". Maharajah Ranjit Singh had over 30 Europeans to train his soldiers. At his instance they married Indian women so that he could be sure of their staying in his service.

Dr Ahloowalia's book is an eye-opener. It removes a lot of cobwebs spun in our minds by religious bigots. If I had my way, I would make it compulsory reading in all High schools.

III. Nobel for SantaSanta was seen standing in the middle of his acre of land under the scorching heat of the sun at mid-day. His friend Banta asked him: "O Sante! what are you doing at this hour in your farm?"I have applied for the Nobel Prize," replied Santa.

"What has this to do with the Prize?"

Banta replied: "It says that the Prize is awarded to somebody outstanding in his field."

(Contributed by Dilsher Singh, Calgary (Canada)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

SUPPING WITH THE DEVIL

THE BJP HAS DUPED THE COMMUNISTS TO BELIEVE THAT ITS AGENDA ON INDIA'S DEVELOPMENT IS SIMILAR TO THAT OF LEFT PARTIES.

BY KULDIP NAYAR

 

The Bhartiya Janata Party has triumphed in its tactics. It has emerged as the real opposition. After losing in the last parliamentary election it was keen to win over the Left which could give the BJP, an image of being a liberal in economic matters.

It has finally duped the communists to believe that its agenda on India's development was more or less what the Left is following. In fact, efforts to woo the communists began in the last session, but bore fruit only during the budget. Both found an understanding in their hurt.

This was visible in parliament when the BJP and the Left rose together in the two houses against the government on price rise, shouted in the same vein and walked out hand-in-hand on the first day of the budget session. It was more or less the same story on the subsequent days. Apparently, the two had met beforehand and consulted each other to finalise their strategy.

Inept government

No doubt, the topic was the inept handling by the inept government of price rise and abnormal inflation. The BJP also brought in the India-Pakistan secretary-level talks into the discussion. Yet the Left did not realise that making a common cause with the party which has communal credentials may rub off on the secular ideology of the communists. It is not known what advantage the communists saw in diluting their identity with the known rightists. But the BJP leaders have already gone to town to propagate that the Left has come to their side.

When the vision gets blurred and when political parties think of their immediate gain, pluralist Indian nation has every right to be worried. It has seen the communists hugging the BJP members who swore at their Indore sitting a few days ago to the party's core agenda. The communists forgot to underscore any of these points during the debate and did not realise that their bonhomie cannot disguise the BJP's parochialism. There is no change in the party's agenda.

The BJP's appeal to the Muslims to allow the building of the temple at the site of the Babri masjid may have been worded differently but the content remains the same. The party should recall that it came to power only when it put aside its three-point agenda. In doing so, the BJP got the much-needed credibility to attract secular parties under a relatively moderate Atal Behari Vajpayee.

 It looks as if the communists have let the BJP off the hook on communalism. Battering the government for its non-performance is justified but not sharing the platform with the party which has been taken over by the RSS openly. Surely, the communists, after the rout in the Lok Sabha election, have not strayed from their ideological moorings so much that they want support even from known communalists. 

Unfortunately, a Muslim gathering, the National meet of Reservation Activists at Delhi, has given a handle to the BJP and the Shiv Sena by passing a resolution for reserving 10 per cent seats to Muslims. Even the banner put up at the back wall of the meet said: National Movement for Muslim Reservation. Understandably, the backwardness can be the criterion, not religion. Some high courts have already rejected religion to be the basis for reservation.

The constitution makes it obligatory for the government to address the problem of poverty and educational backwardness. The reservation activists should have concentrated on getting reservations without translating the demand in terms of Muslims. The RSS, the BJP's mentor, has begun propagating that reservation will lead to another partition and induce Hindus into embracing Islam and Christianity.

The Sachar committee

The Sachar committee on the plight of Muslims was correct in diagnosing the malady. It pointed out how the community had been denied its share in education, economic benefits and services on the basis of its population. However, the subsequent Ranganatha Mishra commission has recommended reservations for all minorities on the basis of religion. 

India is a pluralistic society and it cherishes diversities in the name of religion, language and customs. The community consciousness which the reservation activists are trying to arouse may deliver a serious blow to pluralism. The same old question of separate identity will come to the fore when there should be only one identity—Indian. The reservation for Muslims may open the Pandora's Box of communal and divisive politics.

Yet the 12 to 13 per cent of Muslims in the country should reflect their number in employment in government and private sectors. The community's share should also be tangible in the economic fields. There is no alternative to the affirmative action. The government has done little since the submission of the Sachar committee report two years ago.

However, mixing genuine aspirations of the Muslims with religion will be misdirecting the effort to find a remedy to the long-time neglect. The louder the reservation activists raise their voice, the more favourable will be the fallout for the BJP to exploit. The pluralistic India cannot afford it. Nor can the Muslims.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

PROMISE-DELIVERY GAP

''TRAINING CAMPS ARE ONCE AGAIN BEING SET UP ON THE PAKISTANI-CONTROLLED SIDE OF KASHMIR.''

BYLINE M J AKBAR

It was such a relief to learn, from no less an authority than Home Secretary G K Pillai, that Maoists aim to overthrow the Indian state by 2050. That gives us four decades during which the plus-40 bourgeois can die in their beds; those blessed with first jobs in 2010 can retire in comfort, and hope for a ringside view of the revolution; and those below 20 can worry — unless, of course, they have joined the revolution.

Frankly, if by 2050 we have not managed to eliminate poverty, there won't be much of an Indian state left to overthrow.

The government has a shorter timeframe: it believes it can eliminate Naxalites from the 34 districts where they are still impregnable, within seven to eight years. Pillai is a fine officer and an excellent home secretary, but the solution to the Maoist threat does not lie in his domain. Whether the Naxalites fortresses increase from 34 to 100, or dwindle to zero, will depend on whether the government can make impoverished India part of the narrative of rising India. This will not happen if government functions on the static principle of 'business as usual'.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called Maoists an existentialist threat. So far, his government is treating it as a law and order matter. It is a hunger and oppression problem: life subsists at near-starvation levels in the catchment areas of Maoism; and public protest is suppressed brutally by the police, who treat the tribal poor as a contemptible species. This brutality is hidden behind a thin veneer of lies, which we — the whole establishment, whether politicians, civil servants, businesspersons or media — condone through our silence.

There seems to be a curious, and incomprehensible, edge of helplessness in the prime minister's statements, as if he is unable to escape the trap of 'business as usual'. He told parliament, for instance, that the government had been a failure on sugar prices. To begin with, it is his government that he is talking about. Second, he is publicly and directly accusing a senior colleague, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, of mismanagement. So what happens? Nothing. Mea culpa is meaningless if those who are culpable are not held accountable. But of course, to apply this dictum to only Pawar would be subjective. Singh admitted in parliament that minorities (code word for Muslims) were under-represented in government jobs. Admission is fine, but this government has been in power for six years: what has it done to resolve the problem? The prime minister did try, which is why the Ranganath Mishra commission was constituted; but he has not found the will to implement its recommendations. The Marxists in Bengal have done so, incidentally. Our democracy's parameters have shifted from promise to delivery.

The gap between promise and delivery could also affect the principal thrust of the prime minister's second term, progress in relations with Pakistan. Certainly, Singh means well, but good intentions are, alas, not good enough. BBC News — not an Indian propaganda vehicle — has just sent out a story from Islamabad which says: "Since 2009 militant activity has been on the increase in the Kashmir region… Initially, militant groups in Kashmir appeared to be operating on their own — but there is evidence to suggest that they are once again under the protection of Pakistan's intelligence establishment.

Training camps are once again being set up on the Pakistani-controlled side of Kashmir.
Recruitment is also up in Pakistan's Punjab province, which has provided most of the 'shaheeds' or 'martyrs' for the militants. In fact, so emboldened have the militants become, that one militant alliance, the United Jihad Council (UJC), held a public meeting for militants in Muzaffarabad in mid-January 2010. The meeting was chaired by, among others, former ISI chief Lt Gen Hamid Gul. It called for a reinvigorated jihad (holy war) until Kashmir was free of 'Indian occupation'."

The resurgence of militancy coincides with Singh's efforts to revive the peace process, which began through second-track channels and led to the joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh in Cairo. Islamabad, in other words, read Delhi's goodwill as weakness. It also believes that India will buckle under pressure from two prongs: escalation of terrorism, and American pressure on India to settle on Kashmir. Pakistan's foreign secretary Salman Bashir nodded discreetly towards the international community during his press conference in Delhi, even as he thanked Singh personally and profusely for reopening talks.

Delhi has to get real if it hopes to fend off impending crises. India will survive the Maoist insurgency by ending poverty, and in no other way. This is only possible through good governance, which is impossible without accountability. And peace with Pakistan is a welcome hope, which we applaud; but it is risky to shake hands with anyone holding a gun.

           

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

THE SPANISH DISEASE

 

How is Israel to cope with the Spanish challenge? Obviously, Ambassador Shotz cannot brave it alone.

 

A virulently anti-Israel tribunal likened to a "lynching" by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid is the most recent in a spate of anti-Semitic incidents instigated by Spaniards. This flurry of attacks on Israel has caused us to pause and ask, What is happening on the Iberian peninsula and what can we do to combat it?

Gathering at the beginning of this month in Barcelona, which in the 13th century hosted one of Jewish history's most illustrious communities, the tribunal, which did not include a representative of Israel, was tasked with examining "on what level the European Union and its member states are complicit in... violations on the part of Israel of the rights of the nation of Palestine."

The Israeli Embassy said it was no coincidence that the "Rusell Tribunal," named after British philosopher Bertrand Russell, was held in Spain and that it was funded by Barcelona's city hall, noting the "worrying situation of anti-Semitism" in the country.

At the end of February, meanwhile, the embassy received dozens of postcards written by Spanish schoolchildren with messages such as "Jews kill for money," "Leave the country to the Palestinians" and "Go somewhere where they will accept you."

And in mid-February, Ambassador to Spain Rafi Shotz protested the display of two pieces of art at the International Art Fair in Madrid with virulently anti-Israel messages. One is a sculpture of a menorah sprouting from the barrel of an Uzi sub-machine gun. The other is a highly realistic polyurethane sculpture of a hassid standing on the shoulders of a Catholic priest who is kneeling on a prostrate Muslim worshiper, called "Stairway to Heaven."

In an interview with El Pais, Catalan artist Eugenio Merino, who made both sculptures, defended his art with the claim that "Stairway to Heaven" has been bought by a Belgian Jew for €45,000.

Ambassador Shotz, who was verbally assaulted last year with epithets such as "dirty Jew," "Jew bastard" and "Jew murderer" when he and his wife returned from a soccer game accompanied by police, chose not to demand the removal of the displays, fearing it would spark additional anti-Semitic incidents.

Spain has a long, infamous history of anti-Semitism that pre-dates the Inquisition. For centuries after the 1492 Expulsion, Spaniards enforced the ban against Jews setting foot on Spanish soil. Francisco Franco's fascist, pro-Arab dictatorship that ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975 stoked anti-Israel sentiments.

Now the left-wing prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is aligned with anti-globalization activists whose agenda includes strong anti-Israel sentiments. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Zapatero, with a keffiyeh thrown around his neck, told a group of young socialists that "no one should defend themselves with abusive force which does not protect innocent human beings."

A year earlier, he was quoted as saying that "someone might justify the Holocaust."

Zapatero, who took power in a surprise election victory following Islamist train bombings in Madrid in 2004 and immediately pulled Spanish troops out of Iraq, was reelected in 2008. In September 2009, the Anti-Defamation League published a report titled "Polluting the Public Square: Anti-Semitic Discourse in Spain" in which it expressed concern over viciously anti-Semitic cartoons and articles in Spain's mainstream media, and opinion polls conducted over the preceding year showing an alarming rise in anti-Semitic attitudes. All this is in a country with no more than 30,000 Jews out of a population of almost 47 million.

How is Israel to cope with the Spanish challenge? Obviously, Ambassador Shotz cannot brave it alone. Nor can we expect tremendous results from Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein's new idea to conscript ordinary Israelis, who happen to be traveling abroad, to fight the PR fight, no matter how much we arm them with the "tools and tips."

A positive start would be to streamline PR. It makes no sense to disperse responsibility among the Foreign Ministry, the IDF Spokesman's Office, the Government Press Office and Edelstein's new project, not to mention the apparatus Ehud Olmert established in the Prime Minister's Office, as well as a new grouping being overseen by Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon.

Even the best public diplomacy, of course, however,  will not eradicate ingrained Spanish anti-Semitism. That's a challenge for Spain to meet.

 

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

YALLA PEACE: 'APARTHEID WEEK' OR 'WEAKNESS'?

BY RAY HANANIA

Rather than hold celebrations that fuel a hatred of Israel around an exaggerated word like apartheid, Palestinians should call for compromise.

 

There is one important fundamental about truth: Genuine truth gives one the power to tolerate even the most heinous criticism. Tolerance of criticism is a sign of confidence. Intolerance is a symptom that what you believe may not really be true. So throw the toughest, harshest argument against what I believe, because I have faith in my own truth. Do you?

The Middle East is ripe with intolerant views that reflect the insecurity of people who refuse to see the truth. And the first truth assaulted is existence. By denying one's existence, it becomes easy to respond to provocations with violence. It's easy to kill something that doesn't exist. Easy to deny something that doesn't exist. And easy to explain to your own people when things don't go your way that it's their nonexistence that is the problem, rather than your own failure.

Palestinians and Israelis have been denying each others' existence for years.

The late prime minister Golda Meir declared: "There was no such thing as Palestinians." Israelis still argue that Palestinians don't exist.

Arabs do the same, insisting Israel does not exist. They refer to it as "the Zionist entity." Well, if Israel doesn't exist, how can it be an entity? Why are so many people afraid of something that doesn't exist? When denying existence doesn't work, people turn to denying the celebrations of existence.

EVERY YEAR, Palestinians and Israelis mark May 14 in different ways. For Israelis, who mark Israel's creation using the Jewish calendar, it's a celebration. For Palestinians, the date is one of mourning.

Both sides take the reaction of the other as an offence rather than with understanding. Arabs see Israelis celebrating their victory in anger. Israelis watch as Palestinians commemorate their failure as a tragedy. So Jews are prohibited from celebrating Israel's existence in Arab countries, and Israel is moving to adopt laws prohibiting Palestinians from celebrating the nakba. When banning the words that address existence doesn't work, people turn to using words that hurt.

One word that hurts Jews is apartheid. Many Jews refuse to even speak the word itself, referring to it as the A-word in much the same way that Americans revile the pejorative racist description of black people, as the N-word. The word apartheid has more power to hurt than its actual meaning, which is why Palestinians seem to have glommed on to it.

What is the word apartheid and why are we fighting over it?

The word apartheid surfaced in, of all years, 1948 as the name of a political party in South Africa that symbolized the official policy of segregating blacks from whites.

In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, apartheid evoked a sinister meaning and became a bludgeon the world used to strike down South Africa's separation of the races. South Africa's racist white regime fell and the man it had imprisoned for 25 years, Nelson Mandela, became the new South Africa's first black president.

I can understand how Israelis fear the word. It invokes the issue of separation – a word Israelis have used to describe the wall. It plays to Arab claims that Israel is a racist country that discriminates against non-Jews.

It's first victim was Jimmy Carter, who while president ushered in the first peace accord between Israel and Egypt. He wrote a book that used the A-word in the title.

I think Carter is one of the most reputable people in the world. The most caring, genuine human being who ever became a leader. But like many Arabs, Carter exaggerated the problem by using the word. Carter tried to explain he wasn't talking about Israel, but about how Israel's occupation of the West Bank evoked images of apartheid.

Israelis and Jews around the world recoiled in anger and responded with punitive attacks against his character. Although Carter has backed down, the rejectionist Arabs have not.

 

Rejectionist and extremist Palestinians and their Arab allies have launched "apartheid week" to attack Israel. Although they are a minority they have built up a mirage of public support by exploiting the unanswered anger of the majority in the Arab world.

THE WORD apartheid does not really apply accurately to the Palestinian-Israel conflict. The word occupation does. But the rejectionists no longer like the word occupation. Apartheid symbolizes the creation of one state, while occupation fuels the movement to create two.

In misusing the word apartheid, the rejectionists and their angry, blind followers are pushing toward reenacting the transformation of South Africa in Israel and Palestine.

Palestinians who support "apartheid week" do so either out of sinister hatred of Jews, or out of blind, unreasoning anger that simmers because they can't properly vent. The inability to release pent up anger empowers the rejectionist minority but stems from the failures of Palestinians and Arab leadership.

When Arabs couldn't defeat Israel, they turned toward demonization. And when demonization didn't work enough, they simply exaggerated the truth. Exaggeration is a common trait among Arabs and Israelis, too.

It's not easy for Israelis to deal with. Israelis also come in two categories, those who hate Arabs and those who are angry with Arabs but don't know how to deal with the issue of justice and compromise.

Most Israelis simply denounce anyone who uses the word apartheid as anti-Semitic – another abused word used as a bludgeon for those who criticize Israel.

The word anti-Semitic is to Palestinians what apartheid is to Israelis.

I could ask Palestinians, won't it make the creation of a Palestinian state that much harder to achieve if they put all their bets on the word apartheid? I could ask Israelis, doesn't it show a weakness in your beliefs if you are so afraid of one simple word?

Maybe the answer is that both Palestinians and Israelis live in the dark shadows of one real truth – that they have done terrible things to each other over the years.

What frightens me more than the violence that has wracked the region over the past century is when people start attacking the use of words.

Is it anti-Semitic to criticize Israel? No. Tolerance of criticism of Israel or Palestine is a sign of strength and hope.

Is it "apartheid week?" Or is it really "apartheid weak"? Rather than hold celebrations that fuel a hatred of Israel around an exaggerated word like apartheid, Palestinians should instead organize rallies and conferences that call for compromise based on peace and the creation of two states.

But Palestinians have to ask themselves the same question that Israelis must face: Do we release our anger against each other, or do we control it, and focus it on peace?

Peace and compromise are words I feel very comfortable to live with, even in a backdrop of anger.

Named Best Ethnic Columnist in America by New America Media, the writer is a Palestinian-American columnist and peace activist. He can be reached at www.YallaPeace.com

 

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

JUST WHOSE COUNTRY IS THIS?

BY DAVID BREAKSTONE

 

Has the time come to give Diaspora Jews a voice in determining Israeli policy?

 

The recent commotion in the Knesset over legislation that would allow Israelis abroad to vote in national elections got me thinking. Shouldn't we be talking about extending the same right to any Jew in the world? After all, this is their country too. Or is it?

For decades we've been speaking out of both sides of our mouth in answering that question, and meaning every word we say.

From the "yes" side: Already within Israel's Declaration of Independence, its signatories "appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz Yisrael... and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream."

The country's basic laws – a hodgepodge of legislation that constitute the fundamental precepts of this nation – contain a number of references affirming this relationship. The most familiar is the Law of Return, essentially a preapproval of any Jew's request for citizenship. Less known is one that expressly prohibits someone from running for Knesset whose platform might be construed as promoting "negation of the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people."

But then there is the "no" side: The same Declaration of Independence that asserts "the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its national home" also avows that the state "will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants... it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex..." This proclamation, furthermore, has found expression in numerous acts of legislation and adjudication, including recent decisions requiring the state to allow non-Jews to settle on and acquire even that land that was purchased by the Jewish National Fund expressly for the Jewish people.

There is also the fact that Israeli law and policy relating to such things as personal status, immigration and burial exclude large numbers of Jews from the same Jewish people for whom the state was supposedly founded.

SO, DOES this country belong to those who live here – Jews and non-Jews alike – or to those in whose name it was established? Do we change the flag and the national anthem, as is seriously proposed every few years, so that they not consist exclusively of Jewish symbols and aspirations? Or perhaps we transfer these insignia to the Zionist movement, and adopt new ones that make sense for a state in which 22 percent (and rising) of the population is not Jewish, many of whom are expected to serve in the army and pledge allegiance to its colors.

Symbols aside, do we provide the opportunity for Jews abroad – in possession of an Israeli passport or not– to influence policy? Before responding, consider that I've been living here for 36 years and am still allowed to vote in American elections. I daresay there are many Jews abroad who would exercise their right to participate in Israeli elections with more integrity than I might exercise in voting for the next senator from New York. Don't tell Uncle Sam, but the last time I marked my ballot in a US presidential contest, it just may be that my concern for Israel carried more weight than my concern for America. And no, these concerns are not always one and the same.

But I don't believe that's the point. We're not talking dual loyalty here, as the question is not one of dubious motivation but of inalienable rights. If this is indeed the "state of the Jewish people," then it would seem to me the time has come to find a mechanism that would allow world Jewry to contribute not only to filling its coffers but also to shaping its policies.

Wow, does that mean people living on J Street, Haredi Road, Reform Avenue, Conservative Boulevard and Secular Humanist Way would all be given a voice? Scary thought. Almost like letting everyone living within Israel vote.

I don't think I'm taking an extreme position here. I've been careful to refer to affecting policy rather than taking part in elections. What I think we need is a responsible way for Jews abroad to influence those decisions made here that relate directly to the country's Jewish character, and that affect the Jewish people as a whole. How difficult could it be in a world of Twitter and Facebook to organize a worldwide referendum on matters such as who is a Jew?

The challenge is not in creating the platform, but in deciding who gets to take advantage of it. Perhaps the time has come to reintroduce the Zionist Shekel. Inspired by the biblical levy imposed on the children of Israel that went toward the Tabernacle and later the Temple, Theodor Herzl too sought to involve the masses in the rebuilding of our ancient homeland, and instituted a voluntary tax that gave any Jew who paid it a voice in determining the policies of the Zionist movement – right up until the state came into being. Why not renew that possibility, giving Jews everywhere the opportunity to stake a claim in the well-being of this country, allowing them some sense of ownership along with the ability to make their voices heard on matters  affecting them?

OF COURSE, this may not be a good idea. Maybe we don't really want this to be "the state of the Jews." To those abroad we can say: We gave you your chance; you decided to stay where you are. You're still welcome to join us, but in the meantime, know that this will be a Jewish state only to the extent – and in the manner – that those of us living here see fit. Let's be clear: Israel belongs only to those residing within its borders. Let's continue caring about each other, but recognize that we are each going our own way in matters of religion, culture and identity.

This may be a legitimate position, but if it's the one we take, we should anticipate that one day soon a new generation will remind us that there can be no taxation without representation. Despite having been nurtured on this hallowed hallmark of the American ethos, Jews in the United States have held this commandment of civil religion in abeyance for the better part of a century when it comes to Israel.

And not only them. Jews around the world have given dutifully and generously to the Jewish state – generally with no questions asked and always without a vote. Even the growing demand for a modicum of accountability as to how campaign dollars are spent is still a far cry from insisting on a voice in determining policy. With no-strings-attached contributions on the decline, however, and growing alienation from Israel on the part of the young, perhaps it's time to tamper with old formulas and restore a sense of belonging, possession and responsibility.

In any case, the time has come to talk about this. The World Zionist Organization will be convening its congress in June, and the right of Jews everywhere to affect matters involving Jewish peoplehood needs to be discussed there, just as the rights of Israelis abroad need to be discussed in the Knesset.

The writer represents worldwide Masorti/Conservative Judaism on the executives of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization, where he also serves as head of the Department for Zionist Activities. davidbr@wzo.org.il

 

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

IN MY OWN WRITE: CHANGE IN THE WEATHER

BY JUDY MONTAGU

 

 

Spring is sprung
The grass is riz;
I wonder where
The birdies is?
They say the bird is on the wing,
Ain't that absurd, I thought
The wing was on the bird.
                              – Attributed to Ogden Nash

I'm back at the Post after four months away, and it was very pleasant strolling down the corridors of the old building greeting colleagues and chewing the fat with refound friends.

It does pay, however, to be perceived as actually doing something while one is at work, so I used the occasion to ask people: "What association comes into your mind when I say 'spring'"?

"You mean, 'What springs to mind?'" a witty colleague shot back.
"Precisely," I replied. Here's some of the responses I got:
"Boiiinggg!!!"
"Sunshine, longer days."
"Green... daffodils (from an ex-Brit), rabbits."
"Things growing."
"Not having to wear tights if you go out in a skirt."
"Less confining clothes, a certain scent..."
"More outdoorsy things to do."
"Hayfever!"
"Pessah cleaning!!"
"Happiness."
"Tiny little buds on the trees."
"Renewal."

CHEERFUL and optimistic, indeed.

But for some people, spring is very far from being an unmixed delight. To them, the prospect of renewal feels more like a curse than a blessing.

I've never forgotten the extreme reaction to this change of season of one student whom I met when I was 18 and in my first year at Britain's Manchester University – full, as they say, of the joys of spring.

He was a dark, brooding individual, a year or two older than me, short but powerful and charismatic.

"I'm happiest when the sky is grey and stormy," he told me, adding with surprising savageness: "I hate blue skies. They depress me."

On another occasion he reduced me to tears with some pointed observation or other, and I avoided him after that.

'THE LIFETIME risk for depression in all populations ranges between 15 percent and 18% of the population," wrote Post health reporter Judy Siegel-Itzkovich in an article earlier this month, quoting Prof. Joseph Zohar of the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer. Depression becomes more common when the seasons change, the psychiatrist noted.

The appropriately named SAD, or seasonal affective disorder, feels like depression and, experts believe, is related to seasonal variations in the amount of light. Just as these variations affect animals' activities –  their reproductive cycles and hibernation patterns, for example – so they may shift the human "biological internal clock" or circadian rhythm.

We need to get ourselves back in sync. And until we do, it's unsettling.

WE ISRAELIS who hail from Western countries, recalling the gentle glide of other springs that began at winter's last outpost and continued for months, remain – even years after we made aliya – slightly shocked at the rapid mutation of our seasons, winter transposing into summer like a tap being turned on. It catches us by surprise, even though we know it's coming.

"It's arriving too soon," we can't help feeling. "We're not ready for summer yet. Tell it to wait."

Last year was the exception: a wonderfully balmy May, a month of caressing warmth before the oppressive weather hit.
One year, though, I overslept and missed spring entirely.

SPRING in Israel, wrote Hillel Halkin in this newspaper in 2004, "takes off in a rush and never stops to catch its breath... Ahead of it is not a long, languorous northern [American] summer, its ripening as endless as a July twilight, but a brutal killer of a sun and no rain to quench the fire that will blast everything. It has so little time, this spring of ours. That's what makes it so gorgeous and so frantic."

"Wonder why 500,000 Israelis jumped into their cars last weekend to have a look at the flowers blooming in the Negev and on Mount Gilboa?" asked Herb Keinon, waxing lyrical in 2007 on the topic of the Israeli springtime.

 "Simple," he answered his own question, "because of the knowledge that in two or three weeks those fields of flowers will be gone, their red, yellow and blue panorama turned into a hazy shade of brown."

As of this writing, in the second week of March 2010, the living's been easy – some heat, yes, definitely, but lots of rain too and some lovely, really springlike weather.

What's ahead climatically? That's anyone's guess.

WHAT'S AHEAD on the calendar is also unique to this country. In most other places, the advent of spring is a simple, unalloyed pleasure, as those who live there welcome the end of the winter harshness and the transition into a time of light and warmth. Not for them the emotional roller-coasting that awaits Israelis during these several weeks.

While nature unfolds, we close in on ourselves.

Not enough that we must attune our bodies to an altered circadian rhythm, risking depression while we do. On the heels of Pessah – which, like all major holidays everywhere, engenders anxiety and even alienation in some individuals – comes Holocaust Remembrance Day, its drawn-out siren commanding depression over a loss to the Jewish people that can hardly be fathomed, let alone assimilated.

And as if that's not enough, a week later comes Memorial Day, when we commemorate the thousands fallen in our wars and felled by terror attacks.

On both days, true to Jewish tradition, the Jewish collective here begins its observances the night before, moving into a long day of ceremonies, interviews, gruelling TV films and documentaries and first-person accounts. We see the portraits – hundreds of them – and, as the day progresses, grow heavier with the knowledge of so many cut down before they'd really begun living; we share the anguish of their families.

When Israel commemorates, it really commemorates. It's a depressing 24 hours. And then, as Memorial Day ends, everything turns around and it's Independence Day. Suddenly, there's music, dancing and widespread joy over having a Jewish home to call our own. Barbecues, trip, parties have been planned.

Some of those mourning their dear ones right up to the minute these festivities begin find it very hard, maybe impossible, to switch from sadness to gladness. Others say the sweetness of celebrating national independence gives perspective to their suffering of just moments before.

WHATEVER the case, springtime in Israel is not a simple affair. Why should we expect it to be? Few things are simple in this place to which we immigrants have transplanted ourselves in the great Jewish adventure of our time.

Pessah is almost here, and what will follow is a dizzying emotional ride. Maybe we should look around and see if there's anyone – newcomers, widows, lone soldiers, singles – who might welcome a bit of human support during the ups and downs of this unsettling season. We could reach out to them; at least smile at them. You never know, we might get some welcome support ourselves.

 

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

WHEN COURT JEWS DEFEND MORAL COWARDS

BY SHMULEY BOTEACH

 

Of late it's been a tough time for those working to prevent genocide. Darfur has been off the world's radar screen for months. Then there's the poor Armenians. It wasn't enough that 1.5 million were murdered in a genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turns out that for the sake of appeasing Turkey and its increasingly militant Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, US President Barack Obama is prepared to rewrite history and deny there was ever a genocide in the first place.

Breaking his campaign promise of January 2008, when he said that he "stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide" and that "as president I will recognize the Armenian genocide [which is] not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence," Obama changed his tune last week.

After the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution that declares the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, the Obama administration urged the committee not to pass the measure. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has vowed to stop the resolution where it stands for fear of angering Turkey.

THEN THERE was the curious story in The New York Times about Gary Krupp. A Jewish medical machinery salesman from Long Island who has no formal training in history but who has emerged as "the Vatican's most outspoken Jewish ally in a heated debate at the crux of tensions between Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders and historians: Whether Pope Pius XII, the pontiff during World War II, did as much as he could have to save Jews from the Holocaust."

Having already been knighted by John Paul II for medical services to the Church, Krupp has now set up a foundation whose purpose it is to whitewash the sins of the man known to the world as "Hitler's pope." The Times' article quoted leading Vatican officials as saying that if not for Krupp, it would be extremely difficult for the Church to move forward with its plans to declare Pius XII a saint.

Now, it's not difficult to understand why the Catholic Church would seek a court Jew to help it clean up Pius. And it's not particularly difficult to understand why a Jewish businessman, ignorant of history, would be willing to perform the role and take pictures with Pope Benedict at Castel Gandolfo. What is perplexing is how the mighty Catholic Church would have to fall back on a Long Island nobody to help it canonize a man who served as pope for almost 20 years.

Could it be desperation?

Pius was, of course, the man who, as cardinal secretary of state, became the first statesman, in 1933, to sign an agreement with the man he called "the illustrious Hitler," sending him a letter expressing his confidence in his leadership. His concordat with Hitler forced the Catholic Center Party into dissolution, not only removing the last obstacle to Hitler's goal of absolute power in Germany but also destroying any further resistance by Germany's Catholic bishops to the Nazis.

He was the pope who famously refused, amid unmistakable evidence of thousands of Jews being shipped to slaughter in Nazi concentration camps, to ever speak out against the Holocaust. This followed Pius's successful efforts to prevent the publication of an encyclical commissioned by his dying predecessor to condemn Nazi anti-Semitism. This is also the pope who sent Hitler birthday greetings every single year and who refused to excommunicate Hitler or any other top Nazis who were on official Catholic rolls (to give this context, the singer Sinead O'Connor was excommunicated).

He ignored the pleas of president Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to denounce the Nazis. He later refused to endorse a joint declaration by Britain, the US and Russia condemning mass murder of Europe's Jews, claiming that he simply could not condemn "particular" atrocities. The most he ever did was a single pronouncement during the war on the murder "of hundreds of thousands." By then, of course, there were millions, and he did not mention Hitler, Nazi Germany or the Jews in the statement.

Most infamously, he was silent when the Germans rounded up Rome's Jews in October 1944 for slaughter. They were being processed for extermination in a military school a few hundred yards from his window in St. Peter's. An Italian princess, Enza Pignatelli, forced her way into the pope's study and warned him about the imminent assault on the city's Jewish citizens. "You must act immediately," she cried. "The Germans are arresting the Jews and taking them away. Only you can stop them." The pope assured her, "I will do all I can." He made no protest and nearly all were later gassed in Auschwitz. Curiously, amid the pope's inability to find his voice to condemn the extermination of European Jewry, when the Catholic archbishop of Berlin issued a statement mourning Hitler's death, the pope did not reprimand him.

AUTHOR JOHN Cornwell unearths letters from Pius's early career in Germany which reveals a stubborn, even distasteful disposition toward Jews. While papal nuncio in Germany, Pius refused to perform favors for the Jewish community on the flimsiest of grounds and describes the Munich chapter of the German Communist Party as being filthy and full of Jews. Pius refers derisively to "a group of young women, of dubious appearance, Jews like all the rest of them" and he describes communist leader Max Levien as a Jew, "pale, dirty, with drugged eyes, hoarse voice, vulgar, repulsive..."

Perhaps this would explain why, in one of the greatest acts of mass-kidnapping in history, Pius, in 1946, instructed the French Church to refuse the return of entire classes of Jewish children who were entrusted to the Church for safekeeping during the Holocaust if they had already been baptized.

Now, if, as the Church maintains, Pius is being falsely maligned by his critics as a pious fraud and moral coward who disgraced a great world religion, then why doesn't the Vatican fix the error by simply opening its archives on his pontificate that would reveal Pius's correspondence and actions during the war?

It has thus far released a very select and carefully scrubbed collection of wartime documents that reveal next to nothing about the Church's interactions with the Third Reich.

There is a comical element to this debate, which would be more humorous if it weren't so tragic. It involves Pius's defenders arguing that he purposefully refrained from condemning the Holocaust because the Jews would have fared even worse had the pope spoken out.

Worse than the Holocaust? Now that's funny.

The writer is founder of This World: The Values Network, and has just published The Blessing of Enough. www.shmuley.com

 

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

THE NEW AMERICAN JEW ON ISRAEL

BY JESSE SINGAL

 

The Israeli gov't certainly has the right to choose who it talks to, as seen last month with the congressional trip organized by J Street.

Talkbacks (4)

Whether it was a major diplomatic slight or a minor one overblown by media coverage, what happened to Representative William Delahunt in a congressional trip to Israel last month was telling.

Because the trip was sponsored by J Street, a "pro-Israel, pro-peace" organization that has criticized the Israeli government, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his deputy, Danny Ayalon, refused to meet with the five congressmen as long as J Street and another pro-peace sponsor was present. The message was clear: Your traveling companions have criticized us, so we won't sit with you unless you keep them away from the table.

Israel's government certainly has the right to choose who it talks to. But its actions show it to be a step behind the changing composition and attitudes of American Jewry. At a time when many American Jews are feeling fewer compunctions about criticizing Israel, and are often less concerned with external threats posed by Iran and Israel's other enemies than the demographic time bomb it faces as its Palestinian population expands, what it means to be "pro-Israel" is changing, particularly among younger Jews.

THERE ARE still plenty of young American Jews who take pride in wholeheartedly supporting the Israeli government. But this view isn't nearly as dominant as it once was, and research by Steven M. Cohen of Hebrew Union College helps show why. Cohen found that younger Jewish professional and religious leaders tend to be less likely to see Israel as threatened by its neighbors, and therefore less worried about its security.

The idea that being an American Jew doesn't necessitate lockstep support for Israel, and that it is strong enough to withstand criticism from the outside world, were on full display last week at Harvard's Hillel House, which hosted a talk by J Street's head, Jeremy Ben-Ami.

In an interview before the event, Ben-Ami talked about the changing experience of being an American Jew.

"If you've had personal experience – if not you [then] at least your parents – with the destruction of your people, you're more likely to take it as a possibility that it could happen again," he said. "If you have grown up here in complete comfort and safety and no one you know in an immediate sense has been through that, I do think [you're] going to have a very fundamental[ly] different view, a different take, on how you view the Iran threat."

This different, less fearful view of things came through clearly in some of the young members of the audience. For instance, when asked about the prospect of Iran destroying Israel, Harvard Divinity School student Kenan Jaffe, 26, said he thought it was "unlikely." "I also don't think it's directly related to the Palestinian question," he said, "and it is only to the extent that if Israel comes to a final status solution with the Palestinians, Iran will have nothing to say about Israel and no reason to make threats against it."

This is a far cry from the notion of a bloodthirsty, implacable Iran fueled only by hatred for Israel – a story we hear quite often from groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. And while most members of the audience probably weren't as sanguine about Iran as Jaffe, fear of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn't, for the most part, what had brought them to Cambridge on a rainy February evening.

Rather, they were worried about the grim prospects that face Israel if it can't make peace with the Palestinians. Given the region's demographic patterns, absent a two-state solution, Israel will soon have to choose between being a Jewish state and a democratic one.

While J Street does strongly oppose the possibility of Iran getting nuclear weapons, the demographic crisis, not an attack from Iran, is the greatest threat facing Israel, said Ben-Ami.

He's not alone in thinking so, if the popularity and early clout of his organization, which is just two years old, is any indication. And regardless of one's political affiliation, this shift is going to have huge ramifications for the future of US-Israeli relations. If Israel wants to continue turning its back on those who criticize it, it may soon find itself with little to say to an increasingly large, vocal segment of American Jews.

The writer is a frequent contributor to The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in Newsweek online, Politico, Washington Monthly, and The American Prospect online.This article first appeared in The Boston Globe on March 4.

 

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

WE ALL LIVE IN SHIMON HATZADDIK

BY DANNY HERSHTAL

 

Every neighborhood in the country could one day face the same challenges and protests the east Jerusalem neighborhood, also known as Sheikh Jarrah, faces today. A traditionally Jewish territory, with historical significance to the Jewish people, was violently conquered and settled by foreign Arabs, and is now being reclaimed by rightful Jewish owners. Now this territory is becoming a source for international condemnation and denial of Jewish rights. Sound familiar?

The Shimon Hatzaddik neighborhood, also known as Sheikh Jarrah, is an area of Jerusalem just north of the Old City. The neighborhood is named for, and centered around, the tomb of Shimon Hatzaddik (Simon the Just), a venerated high priest who served in the Second Temple (in either the fourth or second century BCE). The tomb and its compound were purchased in 1876 and settled in 1891 as a Jewish neighborhood, at a time when the Old City had become dangerously overcrowded.

In 1936, the neighborhood was attacked by Arab rioters and later conquered by the Arab Legion in 1948, before being annexed to the kingdom of Jordan in 1950. The Jordanian conquerors allowed Arab families to occupy abandoned Jewish homes, in violation of the rights of the property owners. When Israel retook the area in 1967, the committee that originally purchased the land began working to evict Arab tenants and to resettle the neighborhood with Jewish residents, as intended at the time of the original purchase.

Israel's Supreme Court has upheld these evictions. However, left-wing activists and Arab supporters have recently made these legal evictions a flashpoint issue in the general Israeli-Arab conflict. And why shouldn't they?

THE ENTIRE country of Israel was brutally conquered by Rome in 64 BCE and, later, by the Arabians of the Islamic Caliphate. Between these conquests, the Jewish residents repeatedly attempted to regain their sovereignty, but were slaughtered and expelled in stages after each revolt against the foreign occupiers.

Since the mid 1800s, our struggle to wrest back our property has received international legitimacy through the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo Conference, to name two examples. However, the Arabs, various anti-Semitic groups, and even the anti-Zionists in our midst have consistently opposed these efforts.

If we cannot uphold our rights against squatters from the 1950s, how can we effectively defend our claims against those of the seventh century?

The very foundation of Zionism has to be that we, as Jews, have been dispossessed of our land and have every legal, historical and moral right to reclaim it, by force if necessary.

While we can generally agree to give basic freedoms to non-Jews who wish to live peacefully under Jewish sovereignty, we cannot grant anyone extralegal rights to our territory without compromising the fundamental right of Israel's existence.

People may be upset, protest or even riot, but there is no justification to forego this right. Temperance in justifying one's existence is no virtue and, in fact, threatens the state's veryexistence. Shying away from controversy only encourages violent confrontation and further historical revisionism.

ON SATURDAY, the prime minister of Turkey encouraged the Arabs to riot because of Israel's inclusion of ancient religious sites in Hebron and Bethlehem on a list of heritage sites slated for restoration. The Turkish leader also denied any Jewish connection to these sites, which Jews used as sites of pilgrimage and prayer continuously since the Second Temple period.

The audacity of such a statement shows that even the slightest hesitation in asserting our fundamental right can cause an immediate threat to our existence. The American and European governments also criticized the inclusion of these sites on the National Heritage list as problematic and counterproductive to peace efforts.

Clearly, such comments are not as biased or anti-Semitic as the statements issued by the Turkish government, but they point to the same central issue: In the world's eyes, Israel cannot make peace with the Arabs without giving up its fundamental claim to the territory. A peace based on our denial of our own rights cannot last and will bear tragic results, especially since our claim to sovereignty in Hebron is sounder than our claim to sovereignty in Haifa, Ashdod or the Shimon Hatzaddik neighborhood in Jerusalem.

Every neighborhood in the country could one day face the same challenges and protests that Shimon Hatzaddik faces today. We are all residents of some "Shimon Hatzaddik" neighborhood.

 

So, for the sake of our entire country, the most prudent move is to give our complete support to the residents of Shimon Hatzaddik today.

The writer was a candidate for the 18th Knesset with Israel Beiteinu. He is a research fellow at the Galil Institute (www.gogalil.com).

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THE JERUSLAM POST

EDITORIAL

IRAN INCENSED OVER MABHOUH HIT

BY AZAR AZADI

The regime cared about the Hamas commander and others of his ilk who are key to keeping the arms flowing, so that resources can be in place should Iran be hobbled by sanctions or even attacked.

 

If one were to take the temperature of the Iranian regime's who's who right now, one would detect a slight rise. The regime cared about Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and others of his ilk who are key to keeping the arms flowing, so that resources can be in place should Iran be hobbled by sanctions or even attacked. While it is unknown who caused Mabhouh's demise, it is a certainty that the arms supply chain to Gaza and potentially to Yemen has been affected.

Iran needs well-armed proxies to spin out some provocations now and then. The reasons are twofold: First, the Iranian regime needs to deflect some of the world's attention for a little while longer until it successfully assembles a bomb on its long-range rockets; Second, every time Israel goes to war there is a build-up of global negative emotion toward it, in particular, and Jews, in general.

Keeping the Mabhouh story alive takes some effort, though. Iran is leaning on the United Arab Emirates, in particular, rather heavily. The PR firms, reporters, politicians, and bureaucrats on the payroll globally are doing their best to keep the story alive, but the magnitude of Mabhouh's demise has certainly put a small dent in arms smuggling to Gaza and preparation for the eventual multi-front attack on Israel.

The potential options for such attacks are either when and if Iran is attacked prior to having built the bomb, or when it has completed the building of the bomb and the regime is secure in the knowledge that it would not be attacked, no matter what it does in the world.

WHEN THE Iranian foreign minister raises the issue at the UN, it illustrates that they are attempting to keep the story alive, since most European politicians received appropriate intelligence briefings on the matter and are now back-pedaling to distance themselves from
their initial reactions. Fanning the flames further benefits Iranians in ensuring such eliminations do not happen in the future, as they would like to protect their network of arms dealers. These select reliable agents and facilitators are quite valuable, not to mention extraordinarily expensive to sustain. Even with a large delegation of foreign nationals on their payroll across the world, it is difficult to groom stable contacts and facilitators to replace Mabhouh.

At present, the situation is starting to become intolerable for the Russians as well. It's been fun and games, and certainly billions in arms deals. But the Russians are starting to realize that they are going down the same path as Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s and early '80s – humoring the regime. The significant shift from autocratic to military dictatorship is also putting most of the "stans," along with Georgia, Turkey and Armenia at risk. Most importantly, Iranians have the inside knowledge and connections to the Russian arms black market throughout the old Soviet bloc.

Russia has had close calls like that in September 2009, when the Iranians had reportedly secured high-grade black market weapons such as X-55 cruise missiles and S300 anti-aircraft rockets without their knowledge and loaded them on board a ship, hidden in secret compartments, destined to be delivered to Teheran. The embarrassment caused by the Iranians, and particularly by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which has infiltrated the Russian underworld, caused the Kremlin to spare no expense in sending destroyers, subs and elite forces, with the Mossad's help according to The Sunday Times, to secure the ship and return the shipment.

INDEED, THE elimination of Mabhouh, has shown that some of these facilitators, arms dealers and terrorists connected to the regime have been identified and are now on the radar. The flow of arms shipments from Syria to Lebanon is alarming. It will be probably take only a year, if not months, for the Lebanese army to be shadowed by a better-trained and well-armed parallel force, much like the IRGC.

Certainly for Israel, the likelihood of the next engagement being a multi-front war is high, especially with Washington at its weakest (morally, intellectually and financially) and the Iranians and their satellite states at their strongest. While most of us hope for peaceful solutions, others, like Syria, are either interested in wars (ideological or physical) or stand to gain financial benefits from it.

Although no one knows at present who caused the demise of Mabhouh and we can only speculate why, we can all agree that the controversy has benefited Islamists, terrorists and rogue nations. Israel has yet again been lambasted and public opinion has swelled against such extrajudicial and extraterritorial killings. While European and Australian politicians fell over themselves chastising and singling out Israel, their miscalculated selective domestically-oriented actions have fed the controversy, benefiting the Iranians by creating further instability in the region and furthering arm smuggling into these troubled regions.

The price of this misstep, particularly by Britain, portrays weakness before these rogue nations and the underworld and makes it difficult to unify nations against arms shipments to Hamas, Hizbullah and the Yemeni Shi'ite separatists.

Consequently, nations like the UK or Australia, France and the US may have to clean up the aftermath that ensues from arms shipments to terror organizations. There is no doubt that we will be facing a significant mopping up period in the near future. One hopes that we may be able to lessen its severity through unified global action now.

The writer's name has been changed to protect his/her identity.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

TIME'S A-WASTING

 

Following America's announcement that the Israel-Palestinian peace process would be resumed in the form of indirect talks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped the proximity talks would quickly lead to direct talks, and thence to an agreement.As Haaretz reported yesterday, the Obama administration has acceded to Israel's request that the understandings reached by the previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and his foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, with the Palestinian leadership be taken off the table. The United States made it clear that the Netanyahu government is obligated only to the agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinians and to the road map, which the Sharon government ratified.

From a formal, legal standpoint, the Netanyahu government is indeed not obligated by its predecessors' positions, nor by understandings reached with the Palestinians that did not ripen into agreements. However, Netanyahu's demand that the talks begin "from square one" - as is implied by the phrase "without preconditions" - and ignore all prior talks puts the process at risk of failure, or at least of unnecessary complications.

In Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, he himself conducted secret talks with Syria based on the understandings that Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres reached in their peace talks with former Syrian president Hafez Assad - even if, as he claims, he made changes to them. If the Syrian channel is reopened, as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday he believed it would be, Netanyahu certainly cannot imagine that President Bashar Assad would "forget" the progress made in previous talks. The same principle should guide Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians.

His insistence on starting all over again raises the suspicion that Netanyahu would rather drag his feet in a "diplomatic process" than make progress toward a final-status agreement. This suspicion is reinforced by a statement by Moshe Ya'alon, deputy prime minister and member of the inner circle of seven ministers: He said the Palestinian Authority's willingness to hold proximity talks mediated by the Americans "does not bode well."

If Netanyahu really wants to implement a two-state solution, he must take advantage of previous understandings in order to translate this vague formula into a permanent-status agreement as soon as possible - because time is not on the side of either Israel's interests or those of its Palestinian partners.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

JEWISH OR ISRAELI?

BY ALUF BENN

 

The occupation is dead. Over. No, not in the territories: The Palestinians in the West Bank still hope to be free of Israeli control, demonstrate at the roadblocks and fight with their settler neighbors over every hilltop and every olive grove.

But on this side of the separation fence, only a few are interested in what is happening on the other side. The debate over the territories still troubles the extremists on the left and right who bother to meet and shout at each other at Sheikh Jarrah, but it no longer defines the political debate in Israel.

The key issue in public debate today centers on Israel's national identity: how to strike the right balance between the components of "a Jewish and democratic state," and the past and future. The battle is over the soul of the mainstream, the shrinking majority of secular and traditionalist Israelis.

The demographic changes are increasing the power of the ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs, but because of the cultural and political differences between these two communities, the Israeli Jews who drive on Shabbat and do not put on phylacteries will continue to rule the country.

Since he returned to power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has focused on presenting the Likud Party as the party of the contemporary Zionist ideal. Netanyahu considers himself as a continuation of the legacy begun by Theodor Herzl, or at least an updated interpretation, and often quotes the early Zionist leader.

His main demand of the Palestinians, which he reiterated at the start of the indirect negotiations on Monday, is that they recognize Israel as "a Jewish state." The Palestinian refusal serves Netanyahu in the domestic debate: I am defending fundamental principles and our historical rights, compared to governments on the left who gave up on them.

Netanyahu's approach is at the root of the national heritage plan, which he announced last month, and the pedagogical initiative of Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar.

Inviting Israel Defense Forces officers into schools, commemorating Jews executed by the British, presenting the leftist organizations as collaborators with the international "delegitimacy campaign" against Israel, the demand that the Palestinians alter their narrative and recognize the Jewish right to the Land of Israel, all have combined into the same effort. Netanyahu is trying to revive symbols of Ben-Gurionism: the Bible, the IDF, archaeology, Trumpeldor and Tel Hai.

"A nation needs to know its past in order to ensure its future," Netanyahu, the son of a historian, has said.

Netanyahu's ideology, which can be described as "national capitalism," brings into the same tent the immigrants from Russia, who identify with the governmental theme of a powerful state, and the Haredim, who identify with the Jewish message.

In the eyes of the prime minister, members of the rival camp suffer from cultural shallowness, "a hollowness of knowledge and spirit," overly focused on themselves and mistakenly believe that they are cosmopolitans.

These expressions from Netanyahu's address at the last Herzliya Conference sound like a laundered version of "these leftists forgot what it means to be Jewish," circa his previous tenure as prime minister.

Against Netanyahu's nationalism stands a shapeless camp, which wants to bolster the democratic element in the identity equation and create an "Israeli state." Its ideology is focused on openness to the world; its efforts aim to develop Israel into a Western, liberal country, and not a fortified, aggressive ghetto.

They adopted social elements from Ben-Gurion's heritage, all the way to neo-socialism, with concern for the weak and the refugees and the environment, but also by copying models of worldly success, such as Shai Agassi and Bar Refaeli.

Tzipi Livni symbolizes these values and, even if she does not realize she is like that, her constituents pushed her that way during the election campaign. The question of whether she will continue leading the camp in the future, and to which direction, remains open.

Netanyahu is aiming for the mainstream that loves the army and associates with national symbols. The left is divided between political interest, which requires that it link up with the Arabs and incorporate them in Jewish society, and its wish for legitimacy, which leads it to a more security-based and less democratic position. This dilemma serves the right, and ensures it remains in power, for the time being.

A state, Jewish or Israeli, facing the past or the future, isolation or openness - these are the characteristics of the contemporary debate on the character of Israel. The dispute over the future of the territories, to the extent that it even exists, is only an extension of the contemporary debate. After all, where is Yitzhar?

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

PROXIMITY FUSE

BY AMIR OREN

 

A tall, graying pilot in a U.S. Air Force uniform walked through the General Staff Building in Tel Aviv last month with a thoughtful, or maybe worried, expression on his face. This was Lt. Gen. Paul J. Selva, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, following his meeting with a pilot in an Israel Air Force uniform, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, head of the army's Plans and Policy Directorate.

Selva is the Pentagon official who accompanies Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her trips abroad. He also has another role left over from the days of former secretary Condoleezza Rice and the Annapolis summit: He is the road map peace plan's kashrut supervisor.

The Obama administration's statement that the Annapolis understandings no longer obligate Israel has no real substance. At bottom, in Jerusalem as well as in Washington, there is continuity between administrations. Selva, like Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, who is building up the Palestinian security forces, was held over from the previous administration to the current administration. If Israel wants former president George W. Bush's vague promise to former prime minister Ariel Sharon - that any Israeli-Palestinian deal will recognize "the new realities on the ground" - to obligate Bush's successor, President Barack Obama, then there must also be continuity from Sharon through former prime minister Ehud Olmert to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Interim agreements have always been considered nonbinding until there is a comprehensive agreement. The talks between Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, or between former foreign minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei, would not have obligated Livni, either, had she formed the current government. But practically speaking, national, organizational and personal memory form the basis for continued talks. There is no such thing as a clean slate. There are only slippery leaders.

Nor is Annapolis dead in a more profound sense. American policy has two stages: It starts with ana, which means "please" in Hebrew, and moves on to polis, which means "police" in Turkish. If polite urging does not suffice, we will glimpse the international policeman's baton - that of military, economic and diplomatic aid, and also that of the police force that hightails it out of the neighborhood when war breaks out between gangs who murder each other. A degree of isolationism, expressed in bumping Israel and its neighbors down on the list of international locales to which the White House gives its attention.

 

Fear of the impact of a failed diplomatic process led by America formed the background to both the talks with Egypt in 1977 and those with the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993: Both began courtesy of a third party (Morocco, Norway), but were handed over to the Americans as a draft account when the time to close it arrived. Processes that begin with an American initiative - such as the talks with Syria, from the Madrid summit to Shepherdstown - have never succeeded, even if through no fault of the mediators.

The indirect talks between Netanyahu and Abbas, after nearly 17 years of direct talks between former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and his successors on the Israeli side and Yasser Arafat and his successors on the Palestinian side, reflect a regression presented as progress. One must look not only at the talks' exterior casing, but rather at the ridiculous deal that ended with each side getting what it wants - Netanyahu the casing and Abbas what isn't inside it. The former will be able to say he talked, and the latter, that he has proved there is no one to talk to and nothing to discuss.

Israel's real problem is not with the Palestinians or the Syrians; its real problem is with itself: It has no self-definition. Israel has not yet decided what it wants to be when it is no longer so big. It is avoiding actions that accord with what is ostensibly its guiding idea - "to be a free nation in our land" - because it is still not clear on what our land is, who belongs to our nation and how concepts of freedom, independence and sovereignty should be implemented in an impossibly knotty world of dependency and reciprocal relations. Therefore, Israel's representatives conduct empty, conditional talks, on the implicit assumption that toward the end, they will have to go back to those who have sent them to receive the authorization without which the talks had no point to begin with.

Without an overarching idea, a vision from which to derive the moves that together make up a path, Israel is subject to endless turbulence, which is making it seasick. It has only political captains, who fear to lead and whose message is "both this and that." "Situation assessments" and "staff work" are the faded substitutes for statesmanship, leadership and winning the hearts and minds.

Prior to real proximity talks between Israel and itself, any contacts with any Arab party will become proximity fuses - detonators of bombs, landmines, booby traps or missile and rocket warheads, which cause explosions when the intended victim draws near.

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

HAREDI SERVICE NOW

BY SHAHAR ILAN

 

For decades, Israel Defense Forces officers were careful not to become involved in the debate over drafting yeshiva students, apparently out of concern over being dragged into a political dispute. But over the past year, one senior officer after another has spoken out about the IDF's serious human resources problem and the consequent need to draft yeshiva students, given the army's prediction that in another 10 years, one out of every four potential draftees will evade the draft in a yeshiva. What this prediction means is that Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft evasion, once a serious moral problem, has now become a real threat to our stamina as a nation.

Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi takes every opportunity to unfurl his vision of military or national service for all, including Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox. "If that does not happen," he warned in a newspaper interview earlier this month, "I don't know where we are headed."

The IDF's human resources chief, Maj. Gen. Avi Zamir, said in a December interview with Israel Hayom that each year, another 5,500 young men refuse to be drafted on the grounds that they are full-time yeshiva students. "We are on the way to being one-third of the people's army," Zamir said. "The goal is to draft 50 percent of the ultra-Orthodox."

"We don't have enough soldiers," added Brig. Gen. Orna Barbivai, a senior officer in the IDF's Personnel Directorate, to the Jerusalem Post earlier this month. Such statements are a sign of real trouble.

There is no doubt that the latest data given to the Knesset committee that oversees implementation of the Tal Law, which was enacted to encourage Haredim to serve, are encouraging. Some 1,200 yeshiva students did civilian national service in 2009, and about 800 served in the army - either in the Nahal Haredi combat unit or one of the IDF's special service programs, known as Shahar, in which ultra-Orthodox soldiers learn a profession and then serve in it. It is important to remember that two years ago, there were only 200 ultra-Orthodox soldiers, while civilian service for this group had not yet even been established.

Still, these are very small numbers, given that some 55,000 yeshiva students of every age are currently deferring their service indefinitely. Also very problematic is the fact that most of the civilian service volunteers did their stint in ultra-Orthodox social service organizations rather than in the emergency services, which free up the security forces for other tasks.

It is now clear to all: Yeshiva students can serve, both in the army and in civilian frameworks. But to ensure that this happens in ever-growing numbers, more programs with suitable conditions must be created. Another Haredi battalion should be established, but most of the programs should integrate the Haredim into the rest of the army, as the Shahar programs do, while taking their special needs into account. In addition, positions for the ultra-Orthodox in the emergency services - the fire department, the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the police and the Home Front Command - must be funded. We must remember that this small investment provides yeshiva students with a beeline to the labor market, and thus to contributing to Israel's gross domestic product.

At the same time, massive allocations to the ultra-Orthodox parties must stop. The more child allowances grow, the more funding yeshivas receive and the more housing benefits Haredi cities offer, the more yeshiva students will continue to eke out a living at the public's expense and avoid going into the army or out to work.

The ultra-Orthodox community is suffering a growing economic crisis, but its representatives are channeling funds to the yeshivas instead of encouraging students to enlist in the army or civilian service and then get a job. It is hard to avoid the impression that they are not being guided by what is good for the Haredi public, but rather by their desire to keep it locked up in ghettos.

If they do not come to their senses, the crisis will turn into a complete collapse. Such a collapse would cause their voters a great deal of unnecessary suffering that can still be avoided.

The author is vice president of research and information at Hiddush, an association promoting religious freedom and equality

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THEY SHOULD BE THANKFUL

BY KARNI ELDAD

 

The Israeli left does not have an agenda. It has Arabs. The more hallucinatory the Arab spokesman, the more extreme he is and the more he hates Jews, the greater the enthusiasm with which leftists will adopt his words. Every youngster who hurls stones stands before the cameras and gives the speech of his life, which immediately, in a cut-and-paste process, becomes the moral purists' next slogan.

Silwan is a wild and violent village. Anyone who finds himself there by mistake (for no sensible person would go there on purpose) will sense this. The inhabitants' looks are not welcoming, to say the least. These guys haven't really internalized the words of our patriarch and theirs concerning hospitality. We could let this slide if that were their worst sin. But their sin is far greater.

For if you examine the 88 houses of the neighborhood around which the King's Garden controversy has erupted, you will not find a single one that was built with a permit. Even a retroactive one.

 

And then along came Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat. Out of all the mayors who have spouted exaggerated slogans, it is he, the high-tech entrepreneur, seemingly without an agenda, who, with no pomp and circumstance, picked up this bomb and decided to neutralize it.

Under his plan, 66 of the neighborhood's houses would undergo a process culminating in the receipt of a permit. They would be able to benefit from commercial development of the entire area, construction of infrastructure and public buildings and upgrades of the road and sewer systems - things they never received from any previous administration. Moreover, the tourism enterprise that would be established in the area would improve the standard of living.

Three quarters of the neighborhood's inhabitants are thus receiving a prize they do not deserve. If we adhered to the law, then the fate of these houses should be the same as that of houses in, for instance, settlement outposts - demolition.

One quarter of the neighborhood's houses, 22 in number, would indeed be demolished, but their inhabitants would receive permits to build new homes a short distance away. Again, a prize they do not deserve.

 

Granted, they would have to pay for the new construction. But it is worth remembering two things: First of all, the value of the new house would be significantly greater than the value of an illegal house against which a demolition order is pending. Second, these people have violated the law. By law, their houses should be demolished.

Many of the neighborhood's inhabitants have welcomed this process, albeit not publicly, because it entails many advantages for them, especially financially. However, they are under heavy pressure from the Islamic Movement, whose interests are harmed by any positive progress in East Jerusalem. It is, after all, interested in stressing Israel's impotence and the "division" of the city.

Thus, for example, when the municipality tried to develop a parking lot in the area, in coordination with the residents, the work was stopped after the Islamic Movement rented the plot of land and fenced it.

So when at long last a courageous mayor comes along, someone who acts for the benefit of all and does not try to whitewash the situation like his predecessors - who demolished a few buildings on the margins but turned a blind eye when tens of thousands of houses were built without permits - the left rears up on its hind legs and screams. Why? Because somebody or other hanging out on a street corner in Silwan said it was bad. And instead of investigating and thinking and realizing that this is a good and courageous plan that benefits the neighborhood's Arabs, it is much simpler just to cut and paste, cut and paste.

 

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******************************************************************************************THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

SAVING THE POST OFFICE

 

Many Americans rely on six-days-a-week mail delivery and expect to have a post office just around the corner. But if the United States Postal Service is going to survive the transition to the Internet age — without requiring billions of dollars of federal subsidies — Congress must allow it to cut some services, close some offices and make other sensible changes.

 

Since 1970, the Postal Service has been required to pay its own costs. Still, Congress has insisted on the right to make many policy decisions. The Postal Service made a profit until 2006. Since then, declining mail volumes — as more Americans use e-mail and pay their bills online — and the demands of its retiree health benefit system have dragged it deeper and deeper into the red. Last year, it delivered 17 percent fewer pieces of mail than in 2006 and reported losses of $1.4 billion, this year it expects to lose $7 billion. Postmaster General John Potter warns that unless the service takes major steps to bring its costs into line, it will lose $238 billion over the next 10 years. To avoid insolvency — or falling back into the taxpayers' lap — he is asking Congress for the flexibility to implement an ambitious plan to reconfigure services and cut costs.

 

Not every idea is sound, and Congress should retain oversight to ensure that all Americans still have reliable mail delivery. But Congress should grant the service most of the authority it requests.

 

Mr. Potter estimates that ending mail delivery on Saturday — when the volume is 17 percent lower than on weekdays — would save $40 billion over the next decade. He wants to close some yet-to-be-announced number of post offices and replace them with cheaper alternatives, such as automated kiosks and postal windows at supermarkets and other retailers. He is also asking for more flexibility to raise the rates of some services to meet changes in demand and costs.

 

These seem reasonable compromises considering the magnitude of the challenge. They have to be done the right way. Post offices should not be closed in rural areas and other hard-to-reach places that do not have alternatives. The Postal Service also must work with other government agencies to ensure that people who receive crucial mail — such as Social Security checks — on Saturday, receive it on Friday rather than on Monday.

 

The service says these proposed changes, dramatic as they are, would still fill only part of the gap. Mr. Potter believes it can find other savings and new profits by expanding product offerings — like new direct-mail products for small businesses — and cutting labor costs, including by hiring more part-time workers and reducing full-time employees through attrition. Some 300,000 postal workers are expected to retire over the next decade — about half the Postal Service's entire staff.

 

Some of the proposed changes are flawed. Mr. Potter is hoping to save another $50 billion over the next decade by stopping contributions to a fund to pay for future retiree health benefits, covering them instead on a pay-as-you-go basis. As many workers have discovered, unfinanced promises of future benefits have a troubling tendency to become worthless in times of economic stress.

 

Still, the service might be allowed to reduce its annual contribution. Right now, by law, it has to make

contributions consistent with a 7 percent annual rate of inflation for health care costs, while Medicare uses a rate of 5 percent to 6 percent to project future benefits.

 

Even with the Internet, Americans will need mail services for packages, legal documents and, yes, letters for years to come. In some areas of the country, the Postal Service is the only service available. And all Americans should not have to rely solely on private businesses for anything as fundamental as mail delivery.

 

That means that Congress has a straightforward choice: It can give the Postal Service some more flexibility to run like a business. Or it can start subsidizing it to the tune of $10 billion-plus a year. We vote for flexibility.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

LAWS, LIES AND THE ABORTION DEBATE

 

It has been three years since the Supreme Court's conservative majority abruptly departed from precedent to uphold a federal ban on a particular method of abortion. Emboldened, foes of reproductive freedom are pressing new attacks on women's rights and health.

 

In Utah, Gov. Gary Herbert, a Republican, has signed a bill that would criminalize certain behavior by women that results in miscarriage. It was prompted by a sad and strange case last year in which a teenager who was seven months pregnant sought to induce a miscarriage by hiring a man to beat her. The measure exempts lawful abortions, and particularly worrisome language about "reckless" acts has been removed. But the law still raises concern about zealous prosecutors using a woman's difficult choices to open an investigation.

 

In Oklahoma, the Center for Reproductive Rights succeeded last week in blocking a burdensome measure designed to discourage abortions by requiring preprocedure sonograms and exempting physicians from liability for failing to disclose fetal abnormalities. But the ruling turned on a technical flaw in the law, and its supporters are expected to try again.

 

An even more ominous assault on reproductive freedom is looming in Nebraska. A blatantly unconstitutional measure moving through the State Legislature would ban abortions at 20 weeks' gestation — before viability and earlier than constitutionally allowed. Its narrow health exception excludes mental health. Indeed, the bill prohibits doctors from performing an abortion to avoid a serious risk that the woman may commit suicide.

 

The obvious goal here is to present the Supreme Court with a new vehicle for further watering down Roe v. Wade. That is troubling enough, but lately another tactic is being deployed to demonize abortion and abortion providers and further polarize the nation.

 

Citing the disproportionately high number of African-American women who undergo abortions, for example, abortion foes are hurling baseless charges of genocide and racial discrimination. Since last year, a staff member of Georgia Right to Life has been traveling to black churches and colleges, spreading the lie that abortion is the key to conspiracy to kill off blacks. Recently, the group posted dozens of billboards around Atlanta that proclaim, "Black children are an endangered species."

 

In fact, of course, there is no conspiracy. The real reason so many black women have abortions can be explained in four words: too many unwanted pregnancies.

 

Even in this charged debate, phony accusations of genocide should be out of bounds, but political forces that oppose abortion are pursuing a focused, often successful campaign. Americans who support women's reproductive rights need to make their voices heard.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

AN ADVOCATE FOR EQUAL JUSTICE

 

Providing poor defendants effective appointed counsel is more than a constitutional obligation. It is a concrete measure of the nation's commitment to equal justice under law. Yet indigent defense offices across the nation have been allowed to sink into crisis. They have fallen victim to insufficient financing, overwhelming caseloads and a slew of policies that hamper effective representation.

 

The civil legal aid system is no less challenged. Short on resources, local offices supported by the Legal Services Corporation, the federal agency that provides legal assistance for low-income Americans in civil cases, must turn away about half the eligible individuals who contact them for help with life-altering issues such as child custody or saving their homes from foreclosure.

 

One rare piece of good news is that Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has made it his mission to try to narrow this gap in the administration of justice. To lead his campaign, he has hired Laurence Tribe, the prominent Harvard Law School professor and constitutional scholar.

 

The basic, sound idea is to look at ways indigent legal services can be improved, including by creating incentives for states to make better use of pro bono legal assistance, and help the growing number of people who represent themselves navigate the courts.

 

Realistically, Mr. Tribe cannot be expected to solve all the financial and other problems impeding the delivery of indigent legal services. But in applying his formidable teaching and advocacy skills, he can be a catalyst for bolstering stressed criminal and civil legal service providers and finding fresh strategies for serving more Americans with their urgent legal needs.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

MEET THE CANDIDATE: A CONVICTED ABUSER

 

Former State Senator Hiram Monserrate's story would seem to rule him out of any race for public office.

 

He was convicted last year of brutally dragging a female companion through his apartment lobby after she was, somehow, slashed in the face with a broken glass while in his room. His fellow state senators, from both parties, voted 53 to 8 to expel him, the first such action taken by the State Senate in more than 90 years.

 

Yet here is the disgraced former senator, shamelessly running in a special election in Northern Queens on Tuesday in an effort to return to his old seat. Mr. Monserrate is not baring his soul or apologizing for his actions. Incredibly, he is declaring himself the victim in the mess he created for himself, his wounded companion and many others around him.

 

The main candidate running to fill this now-vacant Senate seat is Assemblyman José Peralta, a Democrat from Queens. Elected in 2002 to the Assembly, he has a strong record of supporting immigrants and working people in the community. He has a long list of Democratic endorsements, from almost every union and public official who counts. Among the most enthusiastic are women's groups.

 

Despite such support, Mr. Peralta is facing an increasingly tough campaign. Mr. Monserrate's backers are trying to make the election about same-sex marriage (the former senator voted against it), and that aspect of the campaign appears to be growing uglier by the day.

 

The Monserrate forces also are portraying his expulsion as political payback by Democrats after he defected briefly to Republicans last year — causing a monthlong stalemate in Albany. Voters should not be swayed by such distractions. The real issue in the district that includes Corona, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights is Mr. Monserrate's flawed character. Tuesday's election gives voters the chance to oust him for good.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

IT'S UP TO IRAQIS NOW. GOOD LUCK.

BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

 

Of all the pictures I saw from the Iraqi elections last weekend, my favorite was on nytimes.com: an Iraqi mother holding up her son to let him stuff her ballot into the box. I loved that picture. Being able to freely cast a ballot for the candidate of your choice is still unusual for Iraqis and for that entire region. That mother seemed to be saying: When I was a child, I never got to vote. I want to live in a world where my child will always be able to.

 

God bless her. This was a very good day for Iraq.

 

To say that mere voting or an election or two makes Iraq a success story would obviously be mistaken. An election does not a democracy make — and Iraq's politicians still have yet to prove that they are up to governing, nation-building and both establishing and abiding by the rule of law. But this election is a big deal because Iraqis — with the help of the U.N., the U.S. military and the Obama team, particularly Vice President Joe Biden — overcame two huge obstacles.

 

They overcame an array of sectarian disputes that repeatedly threatened to derail this election. And they came out to vote — Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — despite the bombs set off by Al Qaeda and the dead-end Baathists who desperately want to keep the democracy project in Iraq from succeeding. This latter point is particularly crucial. The only way Al Qaeda, Baathism and violent Islamism will truly be defeated is when Arabs and Muslims themselves — not us — show they are willing to fight and die for a more democratic, tolerant and progressive future. Al Qaeda desperately wanted the U.S. project in Iraq to fail, but the Iraqi people just keep on keeping it alive.

 

And how about you, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran? How are you feeling today? Yes, I am sure you have your proxies in Iraq. But I am also sure you know what some of your people are quietly saying: "How come we Iranian-Persian-Shiites — who always viewed ourselves as superior to Iraqi-Arab-Shiites — can only vote for a handful of pre-chewed, pre-digested, 'approved' candidates from the supreme leader, while those lowly Iraqi Shiites, who have been hanging around with America for seven years, get to vote for whomever they want?" Unlike in Tehran, Iraqis actually count the votes. This will subtly fuel the discontent in Iran.

 

Yes, the U.S.'s toppling of Saddam Hussein helped Iran expand its influence into the Arab world. Saddam's Iraq was a temporary iron-fisted bulwark against Iranian expansion. But if Iraq has any sort of decent outcome — and becomes a real Shiite-majority, multiethnic democracy right next door to the phony Iranian version — it will be a source of permanent pressure on the Iranian regime. It will be a constant reminder that "Islamic democracy" — the rigged system the Iranians set up — is nonsense. Real "Islamic democracy" is just like any other democracy, except with Muslims voting.

 

Former President George W. Bush's gut instinct that this region craved and needed democracy was always right. It should have and could have been pursued with much better planning and execution. This war has been extraordinarily painful and costly. But democracy was never going to have a virgin birth in a place like Iraq, which has never known any such thing.

 

Some argue that nothing that happens in Iraq will ever justify the costs. Historians will sort that out. Personally, at this stage, I only care about one thing: that the outcome in Iraq be positive enough and forward-looking enough that those who have actually paid the price — in lost loved ones or injured bodies, in broken homes or broken lives, be they Iraqis or Americans or Brits — see Iraq evolve into something that will enable them to say that whatever the cost, it has given freedom and decent government to people who had none.

 

That, though, will depend on Iraqis and their leaders. It was hopeful to see the strong voter turnout — 62 percent — and the fact that some of the largest percentage of voting occurred in regions, like Kirkuk and Nineveh Provinces, that are hotly disputed. It means people are ready to use politics to resolve disputes, not just arms.

 

We can only hope so. President Obama has handled his Iraq inheritance deftly, but he is committed to the withdrawal timetable. As such, our influence there will be less decisive every day. We need Iraqi leaders to prove to their people that they are not just venal elites out to seize the spoils of power more than to seize this incredible opportunity to remake Iraq. We need to see real institution-builders emerge, including builders of a viable justice system and economy. And we need to be wary that too big an army and too much oil can warp any regime.

 

Iraq will be said to have a decent outcome not just if that young boy whose mother let him cast her ballot gets to vote one day himself. It will be a decent outcome only if his life chances improve — because he lives in a country with basic security, basic services, real jobs and decent governance.

 

I wish I could say that that was inevitable. It is not. But it is no longer unattainable, and I for one will keep rooting for it to happen.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

PILGRIM NON GRATA IN MECCA

BY MAUREEN DOWD

 

I was tempted to turn my abaya into a black masquerade cloak and sneak into Mecca, just hop over the Tropic of Cancer to the Red Sea and crash the ultimate heaven's gate.

 

Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century British adventurer, translator of "The Arabian Nights" and the "Kama Sutra" and self-described "amateur barbarian," was an illicit pilgrim to the sacred black granite cube. He wore Arab garb and infiltrated the holiest place in Islam, the Kaaba, the "center of the Earth," as he called it, in the Saudi city where the Prophet Muhammad was born.

 

But in the end, it seemed disrespectful, not to mention dangerous.

 

So on my odyssey to Saudi Arabia, I tried to learn about the religion that smashed into the American consciousness on 9/11 in a less sneaky way. And that's when the paradox sunk in: It was nearly impossible for me to experience Islam in the cradle of Islam.

 

You don't have to be a Catholic to go to the Vatican. You don't have to be Jewish to go to the Western Wall (although if you're a woman, you're squeezed into a slice of it at the side). You don't have to be Buddhist to hear the Dalai Lama speak — and have your picture snapped with him afterward.

 

A friend who often travels to Saudi Arabia for business said he thought that Medina, the site of Muhammad's tomb, was beginning to "loosen up" for non-Muslims. (As the second holiest city in Islam, maybe they needed to try harder.) But the Saudis nixed a trip there.

 

I assumed I at least could go to a mosque at prayer time, as long as I wore an abaya and hijab, took off my shoes, and stayed in the back in a cramped, segregated women's section. The magnificent Blue Mosque in Istanbul, once the center of one of the greatest Muslim empires, is a huge tourist draw.

 

But at the Jidda Hilton, I was told that non-Muslims could not visit mosques — not even the one on the hotel grounds.

 

A Saudi woman in Jidda told me that the best way to absorb Islam was to listen to the call for prayer while standing on the corniche by the Red Sea at sunset.

 

That was indeed moving, but I didn't feel any better equipped to understand the complexities of Islam that even Saudis continually debate — and where radical Islam fits in. Or to get elucidation on how, as Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria put it, "the veil is not the same as the suicide belt."

 

Couldn't Mecca, I asked the royals, be opened to non-Muslims during the off-season? The phrase off-season, as it turns out, is not conducive to an interfaith dialogue. But couldn't they build a center to promote Islamic understanding in Mecca or Medina?

 

Saudis understandably have zero interest in outraging the rest of the Muslim world by letting members of other faiths observe their deeply private rituals and gawk at the parade of religious costumes fashioned from loose white sheets.

 

(Osama bin Laden's jihad, after all, began with anger about American troops being deployed to Saudi Arabia during the first gulf war, which he considered a profanity against sacred ground.)

 

Still, I pressed on with Prince Saud al-Faisal. With his tinted aviator glasses and sometimes sly demeanor, the Saudi foreign minister has the air of a Hollywood mogul — if moguls wore thobes.

 

I noted that when 15 Saudi hijackers joined four more proponents of radical jihad and flew into the twin towers, Islam had been hijacked as well. He nodded.

 

King Abdullah's formal title is "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques." And Saudis are very eager to remove the restrictions on visas and enhanced airport security measures slapped in place by America after 9/11.

 

So isn't there a way for Saudi Arabia to shed light on Islam and reclaim it from the radicals?

 

"Well, at least leave one place closed for the moment," he said, looking askance at the mere question. "We only have Mecca now and Medina. Everything else is wide open now."

 

Wide open is not a description that applies to anything in Saudi Arabia. Besides, I said, there were objections when I tried to go to a mosque.

 

"Well, you know, it depends who you ask," he said. "Somebody in the hotel who doesn't want to run into trouble may tell you no. Mecca is a special case. It's written in the holy book that only Muslims can enter it because of an incident in the past where somebody desecrated the mosque in Mecca.

 

"But for other mosques to be entered, there is absolutely no reason why not. If you go to a mosque and you want to see the mosque and somebody prevents you, you can go to the emir of the region and ask to see the mosque and he will take you there."

 

Sure. Just call the emir. I bet he's listed.

 

In the end, I did see the hajj. When I got home, I went to the Imax theater at the Smithsonian and bought a ticket to "Journey to Mecca." I was surprised when the movie said that the Kaaba was built by "Abraham, the father of the Jews" — a reminder that the faiths have a lot to learn from each other.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

PILGRIM NON GRATA IN MECCA

BY MAUREEN DOWD

 

I was tempted to turn my abaya into a black masquerade cloak and sneak into Mecca, just hop over the Tropic of Cancer to the Red Sea and crash the ultimate heaven's gate.

 

Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century British adventurer, translator of "The Arabian Nights" and the "Kama

Sutra" and self-described "amateur barbarian," was an illicit pilgrim to the sacred black granite cube. He wore

Arab garb and infiltrated the holiest place in Islam, the Kaaba, the "center of the Earth," as he called it, in the Saudi city where the Prophet Muhammad was born.

 

But in the end, it seemed disrespectful, not to mention dangerous.

 

So on my odyssey to Saudi Arabia, I tried to learn about the religion that smashed into the American consciousness on 9/11 in a less sneaky way. And that's when the paradox sunk in: It was nearly impossible for me to experience Islam in the cradle of Islam.

 

You don't have to be a Catholic to go to the Vatican. You don't have to be Jewish to go to the Western Wall (although if you're a woman, you're squeezed into a slice of it at the side). You don't have to be Buddhist to hear the Dalai Lama speak — and have your picture snapped with him afterward.

 

A friend who often travels to Saudi Arabia for business said he thought that Medina, the site of Muhammad's tomb, was beginning to "loosen up" for non-Muslims. (As the second holiest city in Islam, maybe they needed to try harder.) But the Saudis nixed a trip there.

 

I assumed I at least could go to a mosque at prayer time, as long as I wore an abaya and hijab, took off my shoes, and stayed in the back in a cramped, segregated women's section. The magnificent Blue Mosque in Istanbul, once the center of one of the greatest Muslim empires, is a huge tourist draw.

 

But at the Jidda Hilton, I was told that non-Muslims could not visit mosques — not even the one on the hotel grounds.

 

A Saudi woman in Jidda told me that the best way to absorb Islam was to listen to the call for prayer while standing on the corniche by the Red Sea at sunset.

 

That was indeed moving, but I didn't feel any better equipped to understand the complexities of Islam that even Saudis continually debate — and where radical Islam fits in. Or to get elucidation on how, as Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria put it, "the veil is not the same as the suicide belt."

Couldn't Mecca, I asked the royals, be opened to non-Muslims during the off-season? The phrase off-season, as it turns out, is not conducive to an interfaith dialogue. But couldn't they build a center to promote Islamic understanding in Mecca or Medina?

 

Saudis understandably have zero interest in outraging the rest of the Muslim world by letting members of other faiths observe their deeply private rituals and gawk at the parade of religious costumes fashioned from loose white sheets.

 

(Osama bin Laden's jihad, after all, began with anger about American troops being deployed to Saudi Arabia during the first gulf war, which he considered a profanity against sacred ground.)

 

Still, I pressed on with Prince Saud al-Faisal. With his tinted aviator glasses and sometimes sly demeanor, the Saudi foreign minister has the air of a Hollywood mogul — if moguls wore thobes.

 

I noted that when 15 Saudi hijackers joined four more proponents of radical jihad and flew into the twin towers, Islam had been hijacked as well. He nodded.

 

King Abdullah's formal title is "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques." And Saudis are very eager to remove the restrictions on visas and enhanced airport security measures slapped in place by America after 9/11.

 

So isn't there a way for Saudi Arabia to shed light on Islam and reclaim it from the radicals?

 

"Well, at least leave one place closed for the moment," he said, looking askance at the mere question. "We only have Mecca now and Medina. Everything else is wide open now."

 

**************************************

THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE GREAT PROSTATE MISTAKE

BY RICHARD J. ABLIN

TUSCON

 

EACH year some 30 million American men undergo testing for prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme made by the prostate. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1994, the P.S.A. test is the most commonly used tool for detecting prostate cancer.

 

The test's popularity has led to a hugely expensive public health disaster. It's an issue I am painfully familiar with — I discovered P.S.A. in 1970. As Congress searches for ways to cut costs in our health care system, a significant savings could come from changing the way the antigen is used to screen for prostate cancer.

 

Americans spend an enormous amount testing for prostate cancer. The annual bill for P.S.A. screening is at least $3 billion, with much of it paid for by Medicare and the Veterans Administration.

 

Prostate cancer may get a lot of press, but consider the numbers: American men have a 16 percent lifetime

chance of receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer, but only a 3 percent chance of dying from it. That's because the majority of prostate cancers grow slowly. In other words, men lucky enough to reach old age are much more likely to die with prostate cancer than to die of it.

 

Even then, the test is hardly more effective than a coin toss. As I've been trying to make clear for many years now, P.S.A. testing can't detect prostate cancer and, more important, it can't distinguish between the two types of prostate cancer — the one that will kill you and the one that won't.

 

Instead, the test simply reveals how much of the prostate antigen a man has in his blood. Infections, over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen, and benign swelling of the prostate can all elevate a man's P.S.A. levels, but none of these factors signals cancer. Men with low readings might still harbor dangerous cancers, while those with high readings might be completely healthy.

 

In approving the procedure, the Food and Drug Administration relied heavily on a study that showed testing could detect 3.8 percent of prostate cancers, which was a better rate than the standard method, a digital rectal exam.

 

Still, 3.8 percent is a small number. Nevertheless, especially in the early days of screening, men with a reading over four nanograms per milliliter were sent for painful prostate biopsies. If the biopsy showed any signs of cancer, the patient was almost always pushed into surgery, intensive radiation or other damaging treatments.

 

The medical community is slowly turning against P.S.A. screening. Last year, The New England Journal of Medicine published results from the two largest studies of the screening procedure, one in Europe and one in the United States. The results from the American study show that over a period of 7 to 10 years, screening did not reduce the death rate in men 55 and over.

 

The European study showed a small decline in death rates, but also found that 48 men would need to be treated to save one life. That's 47 men who, in all likelihood, can no longer function sexually or stay out of the bathroom for long.

 

Numerous early screening proponents, including Thomas Stamey, a well-known Stanford University urologist, have come out against routine testing; last month, the American Cancer Society urged more caution in using the test. The American College of Preventive Medicine also concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend routine screening.

 

So why is it still used? Because drug companies continue peddling the tests and advocacy groups push "prostate

cancer awareness" by encouraging men to get screened. Shamefully, the American Urological Association still recommends screening, while the National Cancer Institute is vague on the issue, stating that the evidence is unclear.

 

The federal panel empowered to evaluate cancer screening tests, the Preventive Services Task Force, recently

recommended against P.S.A. screening for men aged 75 or older. But the group has still not made a recommendation either way for younger men.

 

Prostate-specific antigen testing does have a place. After treatment for prostate cancer, for instance, a rapidly rising score indicates a return of the disease. And men with a family history of prostate cancer should probably get tested regularly. If their score starts skyrocketing, it could mean cancer.

 

But these uses are limited. Testing should absolutely not be deployed to screen the entire population of men over the age of 50, the outcome pushed by those who stand to profit.

 

I never dreamed that my discovery four decades ago would lead to such a profit-driven public health disaster. The medical community must confront reality and stop the inappropriate use of P.S.A. screening. Doing so would save billions of dollars and rescue millions of men from unnecessary, debilitating treatments.

 

Richard J. Ablin is a research professor of immunobiology and pathology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and the president of the Robert Benjamin Ablin Foundation for Cancer Research.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

A ONE-TRACK SENATE

BY BARRY FRIEDMAN AND ANDREW D. MARTIN

 

THE Senate is badly gummed up. Major policy initiatives — health care reform and financial regulation, to name but two — are stalled in endless negotiations. There's a big reason for this torpor: the filibuster. But there's a solution: the filibuster. Don't be confused. The two aren't the same.

 

During the 1960s, the Senate was frozen by lengthy filibusters over civil rights legislation. When, in the mid-'70s, that tactic once again threatened to bring the Senate to a standstill, Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who was the majority whip, invented a dual-track system. This change in practice allowed the majority leader — with the unanimous consent of the Senate or the approval of the minority leader — to set aside whatever was being debated on the Senate floor and move immediately to another item on the agenda.

 

The result of tracking? No more marathon debate sessions that shut down the Senate. While one bill is being "filibustered," business can continue on others.

 

Today a "filibuster" consists of merely telling the leadership that 41 senators won't vote for a bill. Worse, any single senator can put a "hold" on anything, indefinitely, for any reason. Not only has it become easier to "filibuster," but tracking means there are far fewer consequences when the minority party or even one willful member of Congress does so, because the Senate can carry on with other things.

 

Tracking allowed Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama to stop 70 administration nominees while pursuing earmarks for his home state. It permitted the Senate to conduct other business, like confirming a circuit-court judge, during the recent hold by Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, on the unemployment benefit extension. During the "filibuster" of the Senate health care bill, it cleared the way for months of other votes.

 

Because dual-tracking is a Senate practice, not a formal rule, the majority leader, Harry Reid, could end tracking at any time. By doing so, the Democrats would transform the filibuster and recover their opportunity to govern effectively.

 

To pull this off, the Democrats need to take three steps: First, they should announce the order in which they will take up their legislative agenda. Next, they should declare that they will no longer be using dual tracking, so that the Senate will hear just one issue at a time. Finally, Democrats should require those who want to filibuster legislation or appointments to actually do so, by holding the floor, talking the issue to death and bringing everything to a halt.

 

The new-school filibuster would preserve minority rights in the Senate, while imposing significant costs on obstructionist members, changing the calculus that causes today's logjam. Stuck on the Senate floor, filibustering senators couldn't meet with lobbyists or attend campaign fund-raising events; they couldn't do much of anything, really, until their filibuster ended.

 

Getting rid of dual-tracking would require the minority to make careful choices about what to obstruct, and when to obstruct it. As Senator Bunning's unsuccessful solo stand against jobless benefits showed, even Republicans have limited tolerance when it comes to stalling legislation for reasons that lack popular support.

 

After all, filibusters historically broke when public opinion went against the Senate minority. If the Democratic leadership eliminated the dual-track system, serial, single-issue filibusters would give us an opportunity to see where the country actually stands on issues like health care reform and financial regulation — and where the Senate should stand.

 

By consistently blocking legislation, Republican have made great political gains over the last year. But in a Senate without dual-tracking, Democrats would be able to simply and repeatedly remind the American people that after endless debate there always comes time for a vote. Win or lose, that is how things work in a democracy.

 

Barry Friedman, a vice dean at New York University School of Law, is the author of the "The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution." Andrew D. Martin is the chairman of the political science department and a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

 

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******************************************************************************************I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

 A GOOD MOVE

 

Rare it is that there is a positive development in regard to the ramshackle and politically-manipulated bureaucracy, but there may be light on the horizon. The Pay and Pension Commission has sought constitutional protection for essential civilian bureaucrats, including federal secretaries, in order to prevent their movement on a political whim. As things stand, they may be removed, dismissed or demoted without any show-cause notice. This lamentable state of affairs has persisted for decades, and contributed in no small way to the steady degradation of the bureaucracy generally. Were the recommendations to be accepted and then implemented it would be a significant step in the direction of strengthening a key institution of governance; as well as moving towards the de-politicisation of the bureaucracy. Of note and significance is that the initiative was referred to the Pay and Pension Commission by the federal cabinet, rather than the other way around – indicative of a distinctly worthy set of reforming attitudes on the part of a body not noted for wanting to reform anything other than increasing ministerial allowances.

The proposed reforms are not new – they are essentially a reversion to the position as it was prior to the 1973 Constitution. The 1956 and 1962 Constitutions contained safeguards, but the 1973 administrative reforms removed them as they were considered to be a legacy of the colonial era. In so removing the door was opened for political interference – which has run rampant ever since and almost completely eroded the neutrality of the bureaucrats who find it difficult to push back against their political masters and patrons. As things stand any civil servant who refuses to implement a doubtful or even unlawful instruction from a politically empowered member of the government is likely to find himself suspended, placed OSD (On Special Duty) or simply dismissed. There is no continuity at the top of the bureaucracy as senior civil servants are shuffled around to suit the prevailing political winds, which leads to delay and confusion as the 'new boys' (and these days a few girls) find their feet and try to bend whatever their predecessor did to suit the will of whoever the current political master may be. Thus we would strongly support the proposed reforms in the hope that our much-battered bureaucracy may regain both its neutrality and a measure of public confidence; both of which qualities are currently sadly lacking.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

FIRE TRAGEDY

 

At least six girls at a hostel in the Saddar area of Rawalpindi are dead after a fire erupted at it Monday afternoon. Five others are injured; dozens in deep shock. The toll could have been significantly higher had the electric short-circuiting, which caused the fire, taken place at night when all 145 residents of the National Foundation Girls Hostel would have been inside. The authorities have ordered an inquiry into the incident. This, we all know, means very little in real terms. Similar measures have followed other incidents of fire – notably those which have in the past destroyed plazas and shops in various cities. Indeed, on the same day, one such fire had erupted at the busy Burns Road in Karachi. Yet despite the investigations ordered at various points in time, we still have public buildings that lack fire exits and fire-fighting squads with limited equipment to effect rescues. While the situation has improved over the past few years in Punjab with the setting up of the highly professional Rescue 122 Service, there are still inadequacies of various kinds. Many of us will recall the tragic – and absurd – situation seen in September 2008 at Islamabad's Marriot Hotel when no hose pipe long enough to reach the upper stories of the stricken hotel was available to combat the devastating fire that erupted after the suicide bombing.

Laws that exist on paper, regarding fire safety plans for buildings, are rarely implemented. Even school and hospital buildings ignore basic rules. In the latest case too it appears that the trapped girls caught in their rooms had no alternative ways of getting out. No fire exits for instance appear to have existed. In other places such doors have been found locked, preventing escape. There is also the question of awareness about how to deal with disaster. Some of the girls are reported to have fallen unconscious in their rooms. Some may have died there. Public education about using wet sheets to prevent smoke seeping in under doors or using dampened cloth to cover mouths and noses may have saved some of them. We have seen a tragedy. It is unclear as yet if any degree of neglect was involved. But steps need to be taken to ensure that suitable safety rules are in place elsewhere – so that other lives are not lost. Those managing buildings housing students or other setups run on a commercial basis must do more to save lives and guard against the kind of calamity seen in Rawalpindi.

 

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I. THE NEWS

POLITICAL HYPHENS

 

We are told that the new name being planned for North-West Frontier Province is likely to contain a hyphen. The punctuation seems likely to be necessary because of the disagreement between the ANP and the PML-N over the choice of a name. Based on the areas where their strength lies, the ANP has put forward names – such as Pakhtunkhwa or Afghania – which reflect the Pakhtun heritage of many people in the province. The PML-N, whose vote bank lies mainly in the Hazara belt of the province, has suggested names such as Gandhara, Abaseen and Hazara. With committees from both parties failing to agree on a single name, a hyphenated one is now likely to be chosen. We are thus likely to have a province called Pakhtunkhwa-Gandhara, or something along similar lines.

The problems of ethnicity in our part of the world are many. It is fortunate that the same principles involved in renaming NWFP are not being extended elsewhere. In Balochistan, in Sindh and indeed even in Punjab we could end up with names that bear multiple hyphens. Geography lessons of the future could become a nightmare for schoolchildren! It is, however, a good sign that the two parties have apparently arrived at a consensus on a name with two parts. The working out of agreement through dialogue is in many ways far more important than the choice of name itself. In the future it now seems more likely than ever that we will have a new name for NWFP – meeting the longstanding demand of its people who will no doubt watch with pleasure as maps are re-printed and existing text-books altered.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

NUCLEAR 'STATUS' AND SECURITY

SHAMSHAD AHMAD

Last week, our electronic media overzealously played up US media reports about the Obama administration implicitly accepting Pakistan's status as a "declared nuclear-weapons state" and dispelling theories that the United States was secretly plotting to seize the country's nuclear assets. The story was apparently based on a Washington Post report by its associate editor David Ignatius on the Obama administration's recent "steps to address Pakistani security concerns."

Pakistan's status as a declared nuclear-weapons state is already a globally recognised fact. The US itself recognised this status immediately after our nuclear tests on May 28 and 30, 1998, following India's on May 11 and 13. This recognition was manifest in the eight-round dialogue the US had with India and Pakistan on equal terms to seek their cooperation on certain security benchmarks.

I remember US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott once formally assuring me that "from US perspective, Pakistan had succeeded in achieving the central objective it has long set for itself, acquiring a deterrent capability with respect to India."

The fact that the US has entered into a nuclear deal with India is further confirmation of the reality of the two countries being nuclear-weapons states. It is another matter that Pakistan remains the victim of double standards and has been deprived of the treatment accorded to India through a country-specific waiver for supply of nuclear fuel and technology. If Washington is genuinely seeking to address Pakistan's legitimate security concerns, it must end its discriminatory approach in our region by negotiating a similar nuclear deal with Pakistan.

Last month, in an article in The Wall Street Journal, C Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, backed this demand. "More so than conventional weapons or large sums of cash, a conditions-based civilian nuclear deal may be able to diminish Pakistani fears of US intentions while allowing Washington to leverage these gains for greater Pakistani cooperation on nuclear proliferation and terrorism," she wrote.

To our friends in the Western world, the nuclear question has traditionally been uni-dimensional. The symptoms, not the disease, are their problem. Their undivided focus has been on non-proliferation only as a concept which they have adapted to their own intents and purposes. The current multilateral system is being used only to legitimise the strategic and security setup suited only to the few, which India's former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh has rightly described as "nuclear apartheid."

Pakistan's status as a nuclear-weapons state cannot be erased simply by America's discriminatory arrangement with India. Irrespective of who inducted the nuclear dimension into the volatile security environment of South Asia, it is a reality now. Nuclear weapons constitute an essential element of our security in the form of credible minimum deterrence (CMD) and a nuclear deterrent against India.

Since then, we have pursued, as a responsible nuclear-weapons state, CMD as a policy. In the context of the composite dialogue, we even finalised a number of nuclear and conventional confidence-building measures with India. I signed an MoU on Feb 21, 1999, with my Indian counterpart on nuclear-risk reduction measures, which has since been formalised into an agreement between the two governments.

We are opposed to a nuclear and conventional arms race in South Asia and continue to pursue the establishment of a strategic restraint regime with India involving three interlocking elements: conflict resolution, nuclear and missile restraint, and conventional balance. On its part, India is now seeking to get out of the composite dialogue mechanism because it wants to "unequate" itself from Pakistan in its further nuclear deals with its Western friends.

In the interest of durable peace and stability in the region, the international community, especially the US, should now understand the gravity of the damage the West is doing to the cause of peace and stability in this region through country-specific nuclear waivers. The Western countries should instead be promoting comprehensive and non-discriminatory approaches in South Asia and avoiding policies that create and widen nuclear disparities between Pakistan and India, which at the same time disrupt the two countries' ongoing dialogue processes.

In the interest of this region's stability, the US must revisit its special "strategic partnership" with India, including the discriminatory nuclear deal which is part of it. Unless it is matched with a similar deal with Pakistan, the Indo-US nuclear nexus will not only have serious implications for the regional strategic balance but will also undermine the cause of global non-proliferation. If the turbulent political history of this region has any lessons, Washington's future engagement in this region must be aimed at promoting strategic balance rather than disturbing it.

A stable nuclear security order is what we need in South Asia. In a larger perspective, the cause of non-proliferation will also not be served without addressing the underlying causes of conflict in this region. It is time the world focused its attention on conflict resolution by addressing longstanding issues in our region. The issues of nuclear and strategic stability in our region must also be predicated on the principle of indivisible security.

It is essential to eschew discriminatory regimes, whether in the area of non-proliferation, disarmament or nuclear security. Only criteria-based approaches on the basis of equality and non-discrimination will be sustainable. As an immediate step, the three non-NPT states with a declared or known status of nuclear-weapon states--namely, India, Israel and Pakistan--should be brought into the nuclear mainstream through requisite adjustments in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This will only strengthen President Obama's initiative for an effective global strategy against nuclear terrorism that he now proposes to develop at the nuclear security summit he is hosting in Washington on April 12-13. The stated purpose of the summit is to discuss steps that can collectively be taken "to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent acts of nuclear terrorism."

In a major policy speech in Prague last April, President Obama had said that nuclear terrorism was the most immediate and extreme threat to global security. Later, at the G-8's last summit at L'Aquila, Italy, in July, he announced his decision to hold the nuclear summit in Washington next month, which will be attended by 44 countries. Obama expects the conference to result in a global strategy "to secure vulnerable nuclear materials within four years, break up black markets, detect and intercept materials in transit, and use financial tools to disrupt illicit trade in nuclear materials."

Indeed, nuclear dangers abound on many fronts. Some quick snapshots: All told, there are currently nuclear-weapons materials in more than 40 countries, some "secured by nothing more than a chain-link fence." In the US itself, nuclear materials were reported missing from 15 US licensed locations, and there have been incidents such as the one where nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto an aircraft and not reported missing for many hours. In Russia, weapons- and reactor-grade nuclear materials disappeared from the country's atomic facilities.

In India, numerous cases were reported in recent years of stolen uranium and discovery of an active uranium smuggling racket in West Bengal. The IAEA also reported that Indian police had seized three uranium rods and arrested eight persons on charges of illicit trafficking of nuclear material in November 2000. On its part, Pakistan also has had its list of alleged lapses, but it has now tightened its security controls in line with IAEA safeguards to prevent any unauthorised transfer of nuclear materials.

The security of nuclear materials, including prevention of illicit trade and transfers, is a global problem that needs a global cooperative response which hopefully the forthcoming Washington summit will bring about with the participation of all relevant stakeholders.

The list of those who now possess nuclear weapons includes more than the traditional nuclear-weapons states: the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France. We now have India, Pakistan and North Korea as countries which have conducted nuclear tests--as well as Israel, which is known to have nuclear weapons. There are others with more recent local, regional or even international nuclear ambitions that must also be taken on board in any global nuclear security mechanism.

The writer is a former foreign secretary. Email: shamshad1941@ yahoo.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

PATRIOTS

ZAFAR HILALY

It is only an idiot that criticises every country but his own; and the world is full of them, with India and Pakistan having more than their fair share. George Bernard Shaw once said: "You will never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race." Indeed, to chart policy without hatred or bitterness towards any other nation is what we should aspire to. But it is the opposite consideration which guides policy in India and Pakistan. In them patriotism has run amok. So much so that the very values that they are pledged to defend become their greatest targets.

In Afghanistan, for example, India and Pakistan are said to be fighting a proxy war killing innocents who happen to be nationals of the other while remaining deaf, deaf as adders, to the clamour of their populace who want no part of it.

India's support of Karzai, an American creature, with a following no larger than his extended family, is morally indefensible, considering that by rigging his own election Karzai has lost the last sliver of legitimacy to which he could lay claim. And, if that was not enough, a news report emanating from Delhi on Saturday indicates that "India is studying the option of engaging with the Taliban," even though Taliban antics have been an almost daily target of Indian odium. So brazenly opportunistic is Delhi's stance on Afghanistan that the presence of any scruples has become a far off abstraction utterly unconnected with the conduct of Indian foreign policy. And this only so that India can out flank Pakistan and get a leg up on Islamabad.

Not to be outdone, Pakistan has demonstrated equal opportunism. A political party, like the PPP, that should be the byword for liberal, tolerant and progressive Islam, whose erstwhile leader was assassinated by a murderous offshoot of the Taliban, has taken to cultivating Karzai and supporting the Afghan Taliban that spawned her killers. Why? Lest India gain an advantage in the endless game of beggar your neighbour.

Both countries, one by supporting Karzai, an Afghan quisling, and the other the Afghan Taliban, the antediluvian holdouts of mediaeval Islam, and, lately, also Karzai, have displayed the squalid kind of morality that only their respective "patriots" may justify and shrug off as "part of the game" that nations play to ward off adversaries.

If this is a game it is a deadly and self-defeating one, with no rules or referees. And, considering that one country has 600 million starving inhabitants and the other has about the same percentage of its populace below the poverty line, a wastefully expensive one. But unless our "patriot" leaders are born with greater cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands or, in plain words, are less passionately idiotic, these "games" will not cease. It is said that the means can justify the ends, but what if there is no end of such "ends"?

Similarly in Kashmir India, which is pledged to follow the teachings of a great Mahatma, not only spawned his killers but continues killing Kashmiris regardless of pledges and promises to free them, just so that India can cow and terrify a people who long for freedom. Inevitably, this has created a whole genre of mindless warriors in Pakistan wanting to avenge their brethren.

And, instead of bringing an end to this wretched state of affairs by addressing the cause of their ire, Pakistan is asked to stop these self-guided, self-detonating warrior/missiles located in Pakistan from reaching their targets. Why? So that India can continue its repression undisturbed and the interminable negotiations resume?

The madness does not stop there. Pakistan is warned that if it does not stop the jihadists, then all sorts of pain will be inflicted. Mujahaideen training centres will be targeted and if war results, so be it. As if war is a solution; as if we are not fellow brown subcontinentals but Red Indians; as if war and violence worked for the Zionists or the Americans; as if war is in the enlightened self-interest of India's Hindus and their final and decisive response to Pakistan's troublesome Muslims; as if such threats will act as a deterrent rather than a spur to those seeking vindication through war. India's attempt to make its threats sound sane is worrisome, rather like reasonable conversation that most frightens us about madmen.

That is not to say that Pakistan is absolved from its responsibility to do what it can, and must, to prevent jihadists attacking Occupied Kashmir and/or India, thereby, vitiating the atmosphere for a peaceful outcome. And on this count, as the dramatic revelations in the monthly magazine, The Herald, reveal, much more must be done. That Kashmir cannot be won by force is now a widely accepted truth but that the spirit and a cause can never be quashed by force is no less a self-evident truth. Meanwhile, it is worth pondering that what conflict and confrontation did not achieve cooperation, collaboration may, given half a chance and a mite of patience, understanding and maturity.

Cutting the nose to spite the face, the preferred tactic of some of Pakistan's "patriots," is yet again on display in their determination not to allow normal economic relations with India, especially trade. Hence, even if it costs the earth to import industrial raw materials from Australia, which can be had cheaper in India, it is to Australia to which our importers must turn. Of course, when times are desperate exceptions are made, and otherwise too a blind eye is turned when Indian goods under different names are imported from Dubai. Over the years this fatuous and self-defeating policy has cost Pakistan tons of dollars, robbed some industries of much of their competitiveness but, of course, pleased our "patriots" no end.

Predictably, India is no less bloody-minded when it comes to pandering to pique. It welshed on an agreement to withdraw forces from Siachin concluded between Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 because the Indian army had second thoughts. And hence uninhabitable barren peaks and glaciers are today populated by Indian soldiers, hundreds of whom have perished in the cold while waiting for targets that are as elusive as the Abominable Snowman. In addition, supplying the troops with rations and equipment is estimated over the years to have cost India hundreds of millions of dollars.

The latest example of common sense taking a backseat to wacky prejudice is found in India's refusal to go ahead with the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. India preferred the sea route, which cost several billions of dollars more, lest Pakistan block the pipeline. Precisely how an underwater pipeline can be protected from a determined effort to block it in this day and age of advanced technology beggars the imagination.

There are, of course, legion other examples where lives and money have been expended for temporary advantage. But those at the helm of affairs in India and Pakistan would do well to shun the juvenile antics of their respective "patriots." and instead heed the wise caution of a statesman of a bygone era who "played the game" and reached the following conclusion:

"Uncertain is that relation between pressure and resistance which constitutes the balance of power. The arch of peace is mortised by no iron tenons. One night a handful of dust will patter from the vaulting: the bats will squeak and wheel in sudden panic: nor can the fragile fingers of man then stay the rush and rumble of destruction."

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE CURSED ONES

DR A Q KHAN

The Persian poet Anwari wrote: "Har balaey ze aasman uftad,/Khanaey Anwari ra mee pursad." (Every calamity that descends from the heavens looks for the house of Anwari.) Everyone tends to consider their own misfortunes more troublesome than those of others and the comforts of others more than their own. This view lies within the individual and can be corrected by their own efforts--i.e., prayer, seeking out and utilising all possibilities for a solution and working hard at that solution. This is reflected in yet another Persian saying: "Jaan-e-man, khud kardai, khud-karda ra tadbir neest." (My dear, you have asked for it yourself and there is no remedy for what you do yourself.) There is another type of misfortune in which the individual plays no part--for example floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. The Divine edict is that nations are destroyed for their wrongdoings--e.g., the drowning of the Pharaoh and his army and the rain of stones on the disobedient disciples of the Prophets Aad (PBUH) and Samud (PBUH). There is very little that a human being can do to stop or prevent it. It is a Divine (natural) event.

The elderly always used to pray: "Allahumma, ahfizna min kulle bala ad-duniya wal akhira," (O Almighty, please protect us from the trials of this world and the Hereafter). In addition to praying for protection from natural tragedies, we often also pray to Almighty Allah to protect us from the mischief and atrocities committed by worldly rulers. While natural catastrophes may be considered to be a chastisement for worldly wrongdoings, cruelty and suppression is the means used by rulers.

They usually start off benignly but power often leads to arrogance and a feeling of one's not being answerable to anyone. Sometimes they prolong their rule by any means, fair or otherwise. These are the people who, according to the Holy Quran, are "deaf, dumb and blind" and who are not afraid of one day having to answer for their deeds. They seem to forget the clear warnings given by Almighty Allah in "Do they not travel through the earth and see what was the end of those before them? They were more numerous than these and superior in strength and in the traces (they left) in the land. Yet all that they accomplished was of no use to them." (40:82) They surround themselves with sycophants and self-centred companions and carry on with corruption, injustice, nepotism, suppression, cruelty, etc., till they face their appointed time and then it is too late and there is no respite from judgement. Even worse is the fact that, by their deeds, the Divine blessing (barkat) disappears and the whole nation suffers.

A story to illustrate this goes as follows. Once a king and his companions became very thirsty while out hunting. They found a cottage by a field of sugarcane and asked for some water. The old lady went inside and brought out sugarcane juice for everyone. The king asked her how many canes it had required to obtain this much juice, to which she replied that it had taken only one good stick. The king, upon returning to his palace, increased the tax on the sugarcane crop, erroneously believing that the poor farmers were making too much profit. The next year the king again went hunting in the same area and once again went to the same cottage. After quite some time the lady came back with bowls only half filled. The king looked surprised and asked her for the reason of the delay and the half-filled bowls. She replied that the king, being a miser, taxed the people by unfair means, putting an unbearable burden on his subjects. Due to this the Divine blessing (barkat) had disappeared, leading to drought in the country. The king had enough conscience to feel guilty and ashamed and immediately abolished the overly heavy taxes. His kingdom soon thereafter, so the story goes, once more regained prosperity.

In Pakistan we are more or less facing the same situation today. Everything has gone wrong – no electricity, gas, LPG, sugar, flour, etc. And if available, they are sold at exorbitant prices, far beyond the reach of the common man. We seem to have lost that Divine blessing (barkat) due to our wrongdoings.

It sometimes makes one wonder whether the name "Karbala" has something to do with "karb" (pain) and "bala" (misfortune) – a place where a pious, honest, noble person was, together with his family, brutally martyred for the sake of worldly benefits. But Yazid failed to keep the dynasty in his family. All his companions were killed; he himself died within four years of that tragic event. Before dying he nominated his son, Muawiya, as his successor. Muawiya was a pious and religious man and abdicated within three months. Marwan Ibnul-Hakam, Yazid's minister and a very influential person, became caliph and married Khalid bin Yazid's mother. He nominated his own son, Abdul Malik, as crown prince, bypassing Khalid bin Yazid. This infuriated his mother so much that, with the help of some court ladies, she strangled Marwan. Abdul Malik ruled efficiently for many years, but Yazid had lost his dynasty, thus paying for his crimes.

People indulge in all kinds of misdemeanours – corruption, manipulation, etc. – to either benefit personally or for the sake of their relatives and/or friends. But fate rolls the final dice. An apt Persian proverb says: "Tadbir kunad banda, taqdir kunad khanda," meaning, man proposes (plans) and Fate laughs at it. In English they say: "Man proposes but God disposes." In the Holy Quran, Allah has forewarned that the ultimate judgement/decision will be His.

Corrupt, greedy, tyrannical rulers who do not have the good of the people at heart are a curse. This curse appears in different ways. The Indo-Pakistan subcontinent paid for its lack of integrity by becoming slaves of the British for centuries. With sincere efforts and hard work of some leaders we managed to gain freedom from the British and independence from Hindu domination. But very soon thereafter corrupt practices surfaced. Political intrigues became the order of the day. Noting all this, one poet went on to write:

Mulk Sadeun ki ghulami se to aazad hua;

Tum bhi aazad hue, ehle watan se puchho.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE RADIO TALK

MIR JAMILUR RAHMAN

A few days ago, Prime Minister Gilani addressed the nation through the medium of radio. In his speech he told the people what his government had done in the last two years and what it intended to do in the remaining three years of its tenure.

Addressing the nation through radio on a regular basis could be a very useful means of building rapport with the people. It can reduce the distance that exists between the government and the people and can also help in narrowing the perennially existing trust deficit.

The practice of talking directly to the people was first introduced in 1933, during the Great Depression, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt came on the radio – there was no TV yet – and spoke directly to the people to explain the causes of the economic depression and what steps his government had proposed to overcome it. The people believed what he said because they could see the practical manifestation of his economic programmes on the ground. He gave details of the New Deal, which was a series of economic programmes. The programmes focused on what historians call the three Rs: relief, recovery and reform; relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent more such disasters from happening. It has been 76 years, but the key elements of the New Deal, especially social security, still exist today.

In his speech, the prime minister promised to address the nation every first Friday of the month. However, one fact should be kept in view that the monthly talk will bear fruit only if the subject which is discussed in it is chosen carefully. There are hundreds of subjects or rather issues which the nation wants to understand and all the issues can't be encompassed in one talk. The duration of the talk should be of 10-15 minutes and it should focus on discussing one issue at a time. The prime minister's research staff should provide all the necessary information regarding the issue being discussed in order to enable him to discuss it honestly and with full confidence that what he is saying is the truth. If the prime minister wants to keep his listeners' attention, he should talk about what interests them and not what interests the lawyers or the politicians or the bureaucracy.

Mr Gilani's statement that the government has taken measures to bring down the prices is not correct. It has not happened. The very same day that the prime minister talked on the radio, the nation heard that the price of electricity had gone up by one rupee a unit. The fact of the matter is that the prices that go up, never come down, with the only exception being the telecom sector that has reduced its charges so far. The prime minister talked about many other things but I wish he had mentioned the sprinter Nasim who brought honour to Pakistan early this month.

To sum it up, the idea of radio talk can be a splendid one, especially in a country like ours where interaction between the rulers and the masses is almost none. So, the announcement by the prime minister to talk to the people through a medium which can be truly termed as a medium for the masses is a welcoming news and the people are anxious to hear their prime minister. A word coming from him will be more important for them than the unending rhetoric of the opposition leaders.

Email: mirjrahman@hotmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

YOU'RE NO AMERICAN PREZ, MR PM!

ANJUM NIAZ

The writer is a freelance journalist with over twenty years of experience in national and international reporting

Let's first talk 'democracy' before we discuss the radio address by our prime minister last Friday. This morning, we are to witness the fruits of democracy as touted by our leaders when turncoats from three political parties will face each other in by-elections. All eyes are on PPP-82 (Jhang), where two feudals, Jabbowana (PPP) and Chaila (PML-N) will contest. Chaila was earlier disqualified for giving a fake BA degree, but thanks to the Dogar court which removed the graduate clause (only to benefit Zardari) and with the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba support, Chalia can again enter the Punjab Assembly.

We all are adrift as a nation. Convicts, cheats, felons, jailbirds are the government's and opposition's most favoured. Forget the Taliban savagery, the whole landscape is turning bloody. Had the rot been contained; had corruption by cabinet ministers been stopped; had Zardari's wealth been returned to the treasury coffers; had the energy crisis been resolved; had the president fulfilled his promises made to the people of Pakistan; had the superior judiciary been allowed to work independently; had the PML-N been a genuine opposition party and not a shadow boxer; the daily practice to reward the criminals that we're witnessing among the ruling party and the opposition would be a thing of the past.

Why then do we react when the masses take the law into their own hands? While they watch helplessly the powerful steal, con, swindle in broad daylight, they vent their anger on petty thieves. It doesn't take much for a mob to build up these days. Lynching, burning and public lashing is a knee-jerk reaction. Robbers burnt to cinders; boys lashed naked until the mob's hunger to hurt simmers. The shenanigans of our VVIPs have turned the peace-loving citizens into bloodthirsty, murderous animals.

Sitting atop the national debris and fashioning himself on the US presidents' weekly radio address to the nation, Prime Minister Gilani rolled out his maiden speech last Friday. But while the US presidents talk direct to their people on issues they hold dear, our prime minister patted himself on the back by his self-praise on what a good job he had done the past two years.

He lives in the rarefied strata solely reserved for the VVIPs, a sort of Mount Olympus. His abode is far removed from the 180 million working stiff Pakistanis struggling to survive. Therefore, the list of achievements that Gilani tooted are in my (and almost everyone else's) humble view the exact opposite of what he claims. Other than the state-owned PTV and APP who trumpet the prime minister's rosy assertions on the government's successes, the rest of the media, both print and electronic, portray a Pakistan mired in poverty, corruption, mis-governance and hopelessness. The downhill slide seems unstoppable, no matter what Gilani may say. Better it would have been for the prime minister to temper his speech with sound bytes laced with reality and truth. But unfortunately, our rulers, past and present, don't like to hold the mirror and talk things unpleasant.

A few folks think the media is obsessed with the NRO; while others castigate us for talking about corruption 24/7. Targeting the president and his Swiss cases is unfair, they contend. The Supreme Court is crossing its bounds and needs to be corralled, they avow. Zardari himself says a handful of media guys want him to resign; not the people of Pakistan.

Democracy has become a deformed joke.

While the chief minister of Punjab is busy countering the governor who is literally breathing down his neck, making sure that Shahbaz Sharif falls flat on his face ending up a failure and Punjab falls to the PPP, the governance is going to the dogs. Salmaan Taseer is bent upon fulfilling his promise he made to his boss Zardari, vowing that he will present young Bilawal with Punjab. Sharif's and Taseer's politics has gotten so personal with both throwing spanners in each other's paths that the day is not far when people power might oust both.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah motorcaded with screaming police hooters in Jhang with the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan leader, Maulana Ahmed Ludhyanvi, while campaigning for the by-elections in Jhang being held today. The SSP openly targets the Shias and kills them whenever it can.

If this is 'democracy' it's the very devil. It's ugly as hell.

In Sindh, it's the same story. The PPP and the MQM are on a destructive path, determined to drag the province down with their petty politics. We're told that the Sindh chief minister is hobnobbing with the ANP guys to create mayhem for the MQM in Karachi. More innocent blood will flow just to keep the rulers hold on to power.

If this is 'democracy' it's the very devil. It's ugly as hell.

In NWFP where terrorism stalks the land, the ANP-led government has once more demanded that their province be called 'Pukhtunkhwa.' It's threatening to boycott the forthcoming session of parliament (where Zardari is supposed to shed his presidential powers) if their demand is not met. Their handpicked bureaucrats are being given perks beyond their allowances. The chief secretary, according to a Peshawar resident, has a "Toyota Camry, a 2,400cc car when he is officially allowed a 1,300cc vehicle. This is besides a number of other cars at his disposal. The higher grade officials have been allowed mobile phones costing Rs15,000 worth with the government picking up the tab up to Rs4,000. This is in addition to the landline phones that they have."

The only common thread running among our politicians and bureaucrats of all shades and stripes in the centre and the provinces is money. All the biggies are raking it in with both hands. The proof of their corruption is in black and white carried in headlines by the print media everyday. Asked to explain how their personal wealth grew by leaps and bounds over the last one year, each one of them has had a cock-and-bull story to tell. They may silence the anchors questioning their assets but they cannot fool the viewers.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's hope of catching the corrupt is beginning to look like a distant dream; a mirage, if you please. How can one man go around the country – from Khyber to Karachi -- netting the corrupt? He is no bionic man with supernatural powers. Our lordship can only pass judgment; not move mountains. The two men -- Malik Qayyum and Navaid Ahsan of NAB -- against whom the full bench of the Supreme Court headed by the chief justice passed a judgment on December 16 go about their business unhindered. Interestingly, NAB courts are clearing cases against Rahman Malik and Usman Farooqui for the lack of evidence. What a joke! Imagine the amount of money frittered by NAB in making up cases against these people, only to now declare that they are innocent.

Meanwhile, the curse of the VIPs continues. I get this email from an irate passenger saying that last Friday the PIA flight from Islamabad to Karachi "instead of departing at 3.00 pm was delayed by 15 minutes because our honourable Senate Chairman Farooq Naek came in his Merc all the way to the tarmac to board the flight."

"It's about time someone identified our VVIPs in uniform and in the judiciary too," writes another concerned Pakistani.

Indeed, accountability across the board can save Pakistan in the final analysis.

Email: anjumniaz@rocketmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

RAOOF HASAN

If anyone was shocked over the humiliation of hapless naked victims lying prostrate under the wild swings of the police personnel in broad daylight and before an audience, I would be surprised. It was only an open exhibition of a culture of violence that has penetrated deep through various tiers and echelons of our society. It was the portrayal of the belief that such treatment would elicit the desirable confessions from those alleged to have committed a crime. Nothing could be more vicious, more distorted and more demeaning.

The germs of this culture of violence can be traced back to the days of the Raj when any semblance of resistance to its dictates was brutally subdued. This was perpetrated through a string of local appointees who became eager instruments in the hands of their foreign masters to inflict humiliation on their own people. The Raj disintegrated having outlived its utility and relevance, but the culture of violence not only survived, it caught roots because there was continuing need of its use by those who barged in. In essence, we only had a change of faces while the system not only survived, it became even more brutal and penetrative. The public exhibition of people being flogged with mikes placed before them so that the vast audience could hear them shrieking and begging for mercy under this sick and weird administration of 'justice' afflicted the national psyche in a manner from which it still has not been able to recover, and possibly would not for a long time to come. It, in fact, has become a sustaining trait of our character and large chunks of our society do not hesitate a bit in owning it up. This was amply demonstrated by the presence of an 'approving audience', who, in some cases were the alleged motivators of this blatant display of brutality.

In a way, it also reflects the lack of respect to the rule of law by our leaders. When those entrusted with the supreme responsibility of managing the affairs of the country and ensure and respect rule of law in all their dealings are seen seeking 'immunity' , one cannot expect ordinary citizens to show any concern when they see the law being trampled right before their eyes.

When the cameras catch the top associates of the regime decamping with hardcore evidence against their principal leader in sheer violation of the law and the orders of the Supreme Court, how could one expect that the police would behave any differently? The affliction has penetrated deep. What is required is a massive surgery that entails replacement of major organs.

But, there is another aspect that may be even more important: a change in the discriminatory manner in which justice is dispensed. While there is one rule for the rulers and their illegal, immoral and unconstitutional pursuits, there is a totally different rule when it comes to ordinary citizens. While the law dealing with the rulers is geared to defending them and their ill-gotten reservoirs stacked throughout the world, the one dealing with the plebeians envisages a lack of access to even the basic portals of justice.

A fundamental change in mindset has become essential. If we continue to suffer the (lack of) governance of those who have publicly broken law and against whom there are serious cases of a variety of crimes outstansinf in various courts, there is no way lesser mortals could be sensitised to observing either the rule of law, or the legitimate chain of command. There is every likelihood that such grave transgressions may ultimately plunge the country into a cauldron of unmanageable anarchy.

The writer is an independent political analyst based in Lahore. Email: raoofhasan@hotmail.com

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

STRATEGIC DEPTH: PETRAEUS TOO SEES LOGIC

 

IT is indeed a welcome development that the United States has started realizing Pakistan's search for 'strategic depth' as a means to safeguard its legitimate security and economic interests. Commander of the US Central Command General David Petraeus, in an interview with PBS television, has acknowledged that Pakistan has a reason to be concerned about its lack of strategic depth.

It is pertinent that the US General has justified Pakistan's quest for strategic depth citing 'historic enemy to its east'. It is because of the perpetual fear and sense of insecurity emanating from the eastern border that Pakistan has been making constant endeavour to have its western borders fully safe and secure to serve as a backyard. Though the theory of 'strategic depth' gained currency during 1990s ie when Taliban movement began and finally they established their government in Kabul yet political analysts point out that the search for strategic depth started right after creation of Pakistan when the country sought to consolidate its relations with Central and West Asian countries. Pakistan supported Taliban movement just to ensure the end of chaos that gripped the neighbouring country following withdrawal of the Soviet occupation forces, as Islamabad viewed a stable and peaceful Afghanistan as a pre-requisite to growth of its political and economic influence in Central Asia. Sovereignty and security are the top most concerns of every State and Pakistan too is fully entitled to take steps to promote that objective. It is the constant threat to its security from the east that Pakistan has always sought a peaceful west and this explains its desire to have a stable Afghanistan. It also belies the propaganda of those who claim that Pakistan is part of the destabilization campaign in Afghanistan. Pakistan has also legitimate concerns about presence of India and its activities in Afghanistan that are prejudicial to the national interests of Pakistan. Now that General Petraeus has seen the rationale of Pakistan's quest for strategic depth, we hope that it would take steps to address concerns of Islamabad with regard to Indian hostile presence in Afghanistan. It is also worth mentioning that at a time when Pakistan is helping the US-led West in the war against terror by diverting a large number of forces from eastern to western borders, Indians still have a coercive military presence on our eastern front. It is satisfying that wisdom has started dawning upon our leadership and they are successfully putting across the country's viewpoint and concerns before the world community.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

ATTACKS BY FLEEING TERRORISTS

 

WHILE operations against militants in FATA are nearing completion as they have been forced to flee for life, the militant outfits are still managing to launch suicide attacks to avenge their defeat and cause maximum loss of life and property. Monday's suicide bombing at a police building in Lahore in which thirteen people lost their lives is a clear indicator that the militants retain the ability to strike the country's heartland and would continue to indulge in sabotage and violence for some time to come.

Following their defeat in South Waziristan and arrest of key militant leaders, a blowback was to be expected because the enemy tries to recoup morale, hence, the recourse by the militants to suicide bombing of soft targets in cities. The Lahore attack through a car loaded with powerful explosives thus broke what had been a relative brief lull in major violence. Installations of the security forces in Lahore, the heart of Pakistan have been a particular target of the militants and is a proof that they have managed to establish their hideouts in this historic city. Suicide terrorism is the lethal weapon being used by the militants as they use vehicle bombs, known to security services as Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED) and young people wearing explosive vests. Suicidal VBIED attacks, we should admit are now their choice due to the availability of dedicated and relatively young would-be bombers and large number of easily hijacked vehicles such as cars and bikes laden with heavy explosive material. These explosive laden vehicles cause more destruction than the suicide vest by individual bombers. The advantage provided by this tactic is the guided movement of a large amount of explosives by the bomber himself. Pakistani officials, though succeeded in arresting and foiling hundreds of attempts for suicide bombing, have been unsuccessful in either unearthing or dismantling the suicide cells behind this countrywide campaign of violence. Manual checking of vehicles, the exercise being followed on entry and exit points and on main roads in the cities is not the answer to counter car bombing. This could be done by technical knowledge and equipment like perimeter surveillance instruments and explosives scanners. Therefore the law enforcement agencies need to be equipped with explosives scanners and intelligence gathering geared up to root out the hideouts of militants in and around cities to get rid of the deadly attacks.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PROLIFERATION OF OMBUDSMEN

 

ON the occasion of International Women's Day, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani made a set of announcements to empower womenfolk including establishment of office of women's ombudsman, reservation of 10% quota in CSS, grant of administrative and financial autonomy for National Commission on Status of Women and plans to set up working women hostels in Islamabad and provincial capitals.

These measures would undoubtedly go a long way in further ameliorating the lot of women for whom the successive Governments launched numerous initiatives in the past. Women already have greater representation in Parliament and they have effective presence in policy-making institutions as well. The idea of having a woman ombudsman is a positive step as it may also be helpful in addressing women specific issues but in our view what Pakistan needs today is strengthening of the existing institutions so that they deliver as originally envisaged. We have Federal and Provincial Ministries and Departments to look after women development, we have a Commission on their status, there have been task forces and commissions on gender equality issues and we also have the First Women Bank to ensure their economic empowerment. When the office of Ombudsman was established it was one of the very effective institutions, which made its presence felt. With the passage of time, we added provincial chapters of Ombudsman besides separate entities for banking and tax but the results are not as good as they should have been. We may go on and have separate Ombudsmen for minorities, students, farmers, and different administrative units but these would not serve any purpose if steps are not taken to strengthen the working of the institutions.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

INDIAN TACTICS ARE UNCHANGED

M ASHRAF MIRZA

 

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi's remark at his Press conference in Multan recently that Pakistan wants 'result oriented and purposeful dialogue' with India to resolve the outstanding issues, but 'it's not in hurry and can wait for meaningful dialogue' seemingly represents Pakistan's understanding of the Indian tactics on the issue of dialogue process between the two countries. He said that Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, who visited India last month on Indian invitation, presented Pakistan's point of view on all issues including Kashmir and water, besides highlighting its position on the dialogue process. The issue of terrorism was also discussed, he added

A cursory look at the history of Pak-India ties reveals the bitter truth that the Indian government has ridiculed Pakistani leadership again and again over its anxiety for resumption of the 'composite dialogue' between the two countries. It has persisted with the 'blow hot blow cold' policy with Pakistan right from the beginning. It has now attached the condition that Pakistan should 'control' the non-state actors allegedly involved in the acts of terrorism on the Indian soil for resumption of the dialogue. In his latest remarks on the issue in the Indian Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conceded that 'dialogue is the only way forward for civilized countries to resolve their problems', yet he adamantly said: 'for any meaningful dialogue to proceed, the terror machine has to be controlled by Pakistan even if non state actors are at work'. And he said so despite the fact that the successive Indian governments have miserably failed over the decades to 'control' insurgencies in several Indian states, where freedom fighters are pursuing their struggle for liberation from the Indian yoke.

The people of these states are waging wars for freedom. And incidentally occupied Kashmir is one of those states where the Kashmiri people are also fighting for emancipation from Indian domination. Kashmir, in fact, has a unique status since India has committed itself at the UN Security Council to allow the Kashmiri people their inalienable right to self determination to decide their own destiny. On the contrary, India is brutalizing the Kashmiris with the help of its military might to suppress their spirit for freedom. It can, however, dominate them militarily, but cannot crush their fortitude for freedom. It has failed to do so over the past six decades and shall not succeed in future as well since the people willing to render supreme sacrifices for freedom are bound to triumph ultimately. The attack on the Indian Parliament and the Mumbai incident are a manifestation of the Kashmiris' determination to liberate themselves from the Indian control. India should better accept this truth howsoever bitter and sour.

India's demand that Pakistan should 'control' the Kashmiris involved in the terror activities on the Indian soil is unjust and untenable. If India has not succeeded in crushing the insurgencies over the decades, how can Pakistan be expected to do so especially when the Kashmiris are engaged in their just struggle for freedom. If it wants to see them controlled, it should better redeem its pledges made to them at the world forum as well as by the first Indian Prime Minister Pandi Nehru directly about restitution of their right to self determination. It's pertinent that India should ponder over its own conduct first before unjustifiably resorting to blame game against Pakistan. India is rather adopting coercive tactics to blackmail Pakistan so as to make her toe its line and submit to its unethical demand to abandon the Kashmiris, which it shall never do under any circumstances. Interestingly, Manmohan Singh has conceded that the decision to hold Secretary level talks with Pakistan was 'calculated' based on consideration of 'costs and benefits'.

India is least interested in human sufferings in occupied Kashmir, Balochistan and Tribal areas of Pakistan. It has no concern for Kashmiris' right to self determination or Pakistan's sovereignty. Its decision was 'calculated' one with political and economic ambitions viz-a-viz South and Central Asian region. Vajpayee had opted to initiate the composite dialogue with Gen Musharraf in 2005 with eye on the UN Security Council's permanent slot. By entering into the composite dialogue with Pakistan, he wanted to improve India's regional and international perception of being a quarrelsome and aggressive neighbour in the region. There is no change in India's tactics to dominate the region politically, economically and militarily. And the irony is that the United States is pampering New Delhi in its obsession against China's emerging status of an economic and military power. Under the garb of his contrived humility, Manmohan Singh has rather proven to be more shrewd and greater tactician in his Pakistan policy than his predecessors.

He has kept Islamabad under constant pressure through persistent propaganda of terror attacks and has resorted to squeeze Pakistan's water resources without making the world community feel the danger inherent in his plans. He has kept Pakistan confused with his assertions about India's 'willingness' to discuss all issues including the issue of Kashmir, yet refusing to budge on his position that there can't be geographical change in Kashmir as a result of the dialogue. The notorious Indian intelligence agency RAW is indulging in unabated interference in Balochistan and Tribal areas through supply of funds and weapons to renegades and terrorists, yet he projects his country as victim of terror. And the irony is that the US, Britain and other countries are inclined to be responsive t the Indian viewpoint rather than recognizing the truth of Indian intrigues against Pakistan. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi's categorical statement that Pakistan is in no hurry to have meaningful talks with India if it is not ready to hold 'purposeful dialogue' with Pakistan to resolve the outstanding issues between the two countries.

It is good that Pakistan has at long last started understanding the Indian designs against her. India is not interested in resolving the outstanding issues with Pakistan. It wants to maintain an atmosphere of tension, confrontation and conflict in the region and to continue to spit venom against Pakistan to undermine its interests at the region and international level.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

ROLE OF INTELLIGENCE IN AFGHAN WAR

AIR MARSHAL AYAZ A KHAN (R)

 

On December 24, 1979, Soviet Union attacked Afghanistan to annihilate it and turn it into a satellite communist republic. The KGB installed Marxist government under Babrak Karmal had invited the Red Army, to crush the Islamic dissidents. Soviet Union was a super power of immense military strength. The KGB and the Red Army showed no mercy and during the ten year Afghan conflict, killed one million Afghan men women and children, 1.2 million were disabled, and three million wounded from land mines, air and artillery bombing. Five million Afghans fled in fear. 3.5 million were given shelter by Pakistan and 1.5 million by Iran. Two million remained internally displaced. The Soviet forces started retreat from Afghanistan in defeat and disgrace on May 15, 1988. CIA and ISI played a part in Soviet defeat and military withdrawal which was completed on February 15, 1989. The Mujahidn were supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, USA, UK and China, But their indomitable courage and covert role of the two intelligence agencies made their victory possible. The Mujahidin imposed huge losses in men and material on the invader, using knives, daggers and old 303 Enfield rifles. But later new weapons, funds and literature supplied covertly by the two agencies improved their capabilities and demoralized the enemy. .

During the first four years of the Afghan war, the world had left the poor Afghans to their fate. Their only friend was Pakistan. Pakistan was alone, and did not have the means to stop the Soviet invasion and occupation. General Zia knew that after Afghanistan, it would be Pakistan's turn. Moscow was lusting since long for a port on the warm waters, and Karachi was the obvious choice. Pakistan had to do everything possible to stop Soviet expansion. General Akhtar Abdul Rehman was appointed DG ISI and tasked to distribute CIA supplied weapons, funds and literature to about twelve Mujahidin groups. Inter Services Intelligence-the ISI was an asset, which rose to the task along with the US Central Intelligence Agency-the CIA. CIA had immense resources and experience in covert plots, coup's and sabotage especially in Iran, ME and Latin American countries. The largest covert operation in history planned by the intelligence agencies was in the making soon after the Soviet invasion, but its implementation was delayed and was not without mistakes. Weapons, missiles, rockets, mines and munitions were being flown in by USAF C-I41's cargo planes in large quantities. They were dumped in in an open space in the middle of densely populated Rawalpindi, close to the Murree Road. One day the weapons dump exploded, leveling three thousand houses and killing one thousand Pindi citizens. KGB and RAW reportedly had planned and perpetrated the huge blast. The matter was hushed up by Zia, and DG ISI responsible for grave negligence was exonerated.

Throughout the 1980's the Afghan Mujahidin were America and Pakistan's surrogate soldiers, in the guerrilla war that became Soviet Unions Vietnam, a defeat that helped trigger the collapse of the Communist empire. It was the biggest secret war in history. But they were inadequately equipped to confront a super power. After four years of heavy Mujahidin losses CIA stepped in to avert a disaster. In October 1984 a C-141 of US Air Force carrying CIA Director William Casey landed at PAF's Chaklala airport for a secret visit to monitor Mujadin training. A helicopter lifted Casey to visit three Mujahidin training camps, out of several set up by the CIA near the Afghan border. He watched Mujahidin fighters fire heavy weapons and learning bomb making with CIA supplied plastic explosives and detonators. Casey proposed to ISI officials that the war be taken into the Soviet territory. He wanted and ISI operatives agreed to distribute subversive propaganda material and thousands of Koran's and books on Soviet atrocities in Afghanistan printed by the CIA. According to the Washington Post Pakistan agreed to do the needful. Pakistani Brigadier Yusuf agreed with Casey that immense damage to Soviet morale could be done by subversion.

In March 1985 the Reagan Administration took a secret decision to establish CIA covert action in Afghanistan. The plan was massive supply of weapons and funds through ISI and to let loose an array of US high technology propaganda to demoralize Soviet military officers and soldiers. Casey and ISI saw intelligence subversion as an opportunity to strike at potentially vulnerable Soviet empire. After Soviet invasion, Afghan's could not offer organized resistance, because of lack of weapons, guerilla fighters and funds. Help came from an unexpected quarters. US Congressman Charlie Wilson and socialite Joanne Herring the wife an oil tycoon from Texas discovered that the poorly armed Mujahidin were being massacred, and needed better weapons, munitions and funds. With their efforts the CIA became fully involved, to make sure that the Mujahidin were trained and well supplied with weapons, munitions and funds. "At the time nobody imagined that, in addition to her role as a social lioness, she would set in motion a process that would profoundly impact on the outcome of the Afghan war. When almost everyone had written off the Afghans as a lost cause, she saw a potential for greatness in the most unlikely characters. In the pivotal first years of the jihad, she befriended Pakistan's Muslim fundamentalist military dictator, Zia ul-Haq and the scandal prone Congressman Charlie Wilson. As a teenager she was convinced of communist takeover of the world. Her commitment to fight communism had become a passion with her. On a visit to Paris she befriended Count de Merenches the chief of the French intelligence; who told her of Communist infiltration of Western institutions and Moscow's master plan against the West. The French spy chief arranged her meeting with Sahabzada Yaqub Khan Pakistan's brilliant ambassador in Washington. Yaqub Khan was impressed by the pretty American lady and offered her to become Pakistan's honorary Consul in Houston.

Author George Crile in his book Charlie Wilson's War writes, " In 1979, Pakistan was a poor country out of favor with the West. As Pakistan's Consul, began Joanne's love affair with Pakistan. Her was certainly one of the most bizarre diplomatic appointments made by a fundamentalist Muslim country. Joanne Herring acted as if she had been made full fledged Pakistani ambassador, and minister of trade. Suddenly she was inviting her celebrated fashion designers like Pierre Cardin, Oscar de la Renta, and Emilio de Pucci to shows for Pakistani craftsmen. Pakistan International Airlines air hostesses had a new dress designed by Pierre Cardin. She plunged into Pakistani villages on fact finding missions, giving the poverty stricken Pakistani's talks on capitalism, and inspiring hope that with her ideas each village could earn by making clothes, dresses, rugs and carpets designed by her famous friends." Pakistan honored Mrs Herring with the official status of "honorary ambassador" Back in the US, she managed to put out of favor Pakistan diplomats in the lime light, with invitations to attend functions chaired by Henry Kissinger, and Nelson Rockefeller. It was all going very well, until Zia ul Haq hanged Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. President Jimmy Carter was furious and condemned dictator Zia ul Haq, accusing him of killing democracy in Pakistan. President Carter cut off military and economic assistance, declaring Pakistan unworthy of US aid. When "Pakistan" became a dirty word in Washington, another honorary Consul might have lost heart. Joanne Herring reacted differently. French top spy, Count de Marenches confided to Herring that there were only seven men standing between the free world and Communism, and Zia was one of them. She immediately left for Islamabad to find virtue in the much maligned dictator. Zia invited her to the Army House for dinner, and quickly won her heart. He lied to her that he will hold elections after three months and would step down. Her visit impacted on General Zia. She became Zia's most trusted American advisor, a development which alarmed Foreign Minister Yaqub Khan. Zia made her Pakistan's roving ambassador to the world and conferred the prestigious award of Sitara Qaid -e-Azam on her. Herring became a tireless promoter of Pakistan. President Ronald Reagan approved 3.2 billion aid for Pakistan, as well as sale of 40 F-16 fighters, and weapons demanded by Islamabad.

She with Congressman Charlie Wilson from Texas visited Afghan refugee camps. Their overflowing energy helped the Afghan's Mujahidin to get the needed capability from the CIA and US Congress to fight the Soviet invaders better. When no one was interested in Afghanistan, Charlie Wilson and Joanne Herring together resolved to help the Mujahidin with new weapons, munitions and funds, after discovering that the CIA was supplying them with old Enfield 303 rifles, which were of no use to the Mujahidin. They prevailed upon the CIA and President Zia to help the Mujahidin in their hour of dire need. Doubtless the Afghan Mujahidn did the fighting and dying, but ultimately they won the war against the Soviet Union. It was a blessing that Afghanistan fell in the hands of heavily armed Mujahidin. It is a matter of regret that after Soviet exit, they became fratricidal war lords, and Pakistan's efforts and hope for a stable Afghanistan did not materialize. But that is another story.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

BISP: AN ETERNAL TRIBUTE TO WOMEN'S DAY

FARZANA RAJA

 

The women in Pakistan have suffered long under a class male domination and subjugation, whereas social and cultural taboos have prevented them from participating in the development of the country. The women have also been denied the freedom to make their financial decisions. This stifling environment and lack of opportunities have left the womenfolk at the mercy of others who decide her fate.

Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, who was a staunch supporter of women emancipation and the greatest proponent of women's progress as an active participant of the society proved to the world that women have the capability and the will to achieve anything they set their mind to. She strove for emancipation of Pakistani women and furthered their cause by creating socio-economic opportunities for them. By galvanizing all resources to resurrect the dignity of womenfolk and elevating their status in the society she ensured women in Pakistan had equal access to health and education. During Shaheed Benazir Bhutto's tenure as prime minister administrative measures were taken and legislation was done to promote the well being of a population that had previously suffered due to slack policies. To free the women of Pakistan from her miseries, the government launched the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). It is a major step taken by the government to realize the aspirations of women and help them stand against prejudices that had proved detrimental to their growth as active members of society. It is a programme exclusively focused on the female members of the society. Womenfolk are BISP's main beneficiaries as they are the one entitled to receive financial assistance from the programme, thus elevating their status in their family as well as in the society by improving their household's economic health.

BISP is the most pragmatic and realistic programme to help bring women to the foreground of the national setup. By allocating the highest budget for alleviation of poverty through an assurance that women play the pivotal role in this whole programme, BISP symbolizes the aspirations of all the women of Pakistan who feel that despite their capacity to achieve and the capability to accomplish they have been rendered helpless due to lack of financial resources. It ensures that women are the fulcrum of all that emerges on the national horizons benefitting everybody in the ambit of the programme. BISP recognizes this fact and gives impetus to all in the society, whether children, elderly, the active male or anyone else, as all culminate in the existence of woman. With the rise of women to dignity, every member of society also rises, defining a new chapter in national progress by galvanizing the women of Pakistan as a resource for national efforts and success.

In its myriad facets BISP ensures one simple yet very significant factor, elevating the status of women and creating a harmony between her efforts and all the dimensions that effectuate provision of her rights. By synchronizing her role as an active member of society with the transparent distribution of funds to support her ambitions, BISP has become a movement and has transcended all norms to create space for womenhood. It aims to become the harbinger of a welfare state which originates in the women and who are a major component of national progress.

BISP, in its two pronged approach is ensuring that the allocated budget is distributed through a regular financial support of Rs.2000 every two months and at the same time extends a totally effective financial support in the form of the Waseela-e-Haq scheme. It is a programme which grants an amount of Rs. 300,000, which is returnable in 15 years without any interest, to families registered with BISP through a computerized balloting. It aims to enable the recipient family to gain complete financial independence by starting a business. Five Waseela-e-Haq draws have been conducted up till now benefitting 3750 families. BISP is the biggest step ever taken by a government for women emancipation as it sanctifies women's rights which had been denied to them for various reasons and at the same time protects all that makes her vulnerable. It is shaping the progress of women as she plays a pivotal role in all aspects of national development in its various perspectives formulating the fortunes of the family. With an initial allocation of Rs.34 billion in 2008-2009, the third largest or 0.3% of the budget and Rs.70 billion earmarked for 2009-2010, it will ensure that 5 to 7 million families benefit from the most effective social safety net ever by a government in next two years.

Data verification and all other measures supporting a transparent procedure in the distribution of funds is a true reflection of the government's sincere efforts for the emancipation of women, regarding her spiritual, physical and social growth. BISP will forever, Inshallah, remain an eternal tribute to Women's Day and womenhood as it defines and augments the parameters to change the destiny of the nation in which the woman plays a definite role. Once again I salute the dignity of women of Pakistan.

—The writer is a regular contributor on social, political issues and solutions, is a Federal Minister/Chairperson of Benazir Income Support Programme.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

AN OPEN SECRET REVEALED BY RAW

ALI SUKHANVER

 

According to all dictionaries of English language, 'raw 'means crude and coarse, unprocessed and untreated; these meanings seem very much close to reality when we look at the working of the world famous intelligence agency RAW. The name coined for it very truly matches the accurate meanings of the word. Raw has very surprisingly succeeded in getting the record of the telephonic conversation between the ISI chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha and President Karzai of Afghanistan. During this telephonic conversation, Gen. Pasha tried to convince the Afghan president to curtail the Indian involvement in Afghanistan. Gen. Pasha promised to smooth the way for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government if Karzai cooperates in this context.

RAW's claim to trace the conversation between Karzai and Gen. Pasha is the best example of RAW's 'unbelievable and astonishing' working. However this 'Breaking News' could have been more credible and fascinating if it were supported by authentic proofs which are yet awaited. RAW high-ups must speed up the process of proof finding in this respect other wise this 'research' of Raw would be taken as much non-serious and childish as that of the Mumbai blasts. The question arises why did RAW spend a lot of its precious resources and valuable time on tracing the conversation details of the telephonic talks between Gen. Pasha and president Karzai if it ever happened as reported by RAW. Whatever General Pasha said to Mr. Karzai must not be a hidden reality. If there were any conversation of this type, he might have simply conveyed the policy and demand of the government of Pakistan. Everyone knows that Pakistan has its own reservations regarding the increasing influence of India in Afghanistan. Since the very first day of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan is of the opinion that the situation would never be bettered if India is given a free hand in Afghanistan because a long lasting peace in Afghanistan is not in favour of India. In the name of different development projects India is sending agents of its different intelligence agencies in Afghanistan. Even the staff of the Indian consulates in Afghanistan constitutes of the RAW agents. With the help of these consulates India is providing monetary as well as military support to the terrorist groups working in the tribal areas of Pakistan. During the operations against the miscreants in Swat and other afflicted areas Pakistan army has recovered a lot of weapons with Indian mark on them. Same is the case with the diaries which were found in the possession of different arrested miscreants. The pages of these diaries indicated a very clear cut involvement of Raw Agents in worsening the law and order situation in these areas. These are the reasons for which Pakistan is always worried about the increasing involvement of India in Afghanistan. If Gen. Pasha has ever talked to Mr. Karzai on this issue, he has committed no crime. Being the chief of ISI, what else one can expect of him. He heads a department whose sole responsibility is to take care of the interests of Pakistan on every front.

As far as Gen. Pasha's proposal regarding the negotiations between the Afghan government and Taliban is concerned, it also indicates the peace-loving approach of Pakistan. Since very after its creation, Pakistan has always been a very staunch supporter and promoter of the world peace. Pakistan has always fully supported each and every effort done for the peace and prosperity everywhere in the world. The Taliban are no doubt the Muslims and they have a natural inclination towards all Islamic countries. They take this war against USA and other Allied forces not as a war but as Jihad. As a result of a planned conspiracy, different foreign elements have very successfully hijacked some groups of Taliban and defamed them as terrorists and extremists. However still there are so many groups which do not own terrorist activities going on in the name of Taliban. Such groups are in majority and they simply want the liberation of their motherland from the cruel clutches of the foreign invaders. The government of Pakistan knows very well that such Taliban groups can be very useful in the maintenance of peace in Afghanistan. If Pakistan has offered its services for the existence of peace in Afghanistan, again it is neither a sin nor a crime.

Since after the revelation of Obama's intention of leaving Afghanistan by 2011, India has been trying its best to be the future care-taker of Afghanistan. It knows very well that the local Afghan people would never be ready to accept Indian hegemony in their motherland. They would have a natural leaning towards Pakistan after they succeed in getting rid of the USA and the Allied forces. That is the reason that India is trying to create misunderstandings between Afghan Taliban and Pakistan. A picture is being portrayed as if Pakistan is manipulating the situation in Afghanistan by playing under hand game against Taliban whereas at the same time India is trying to introduce itself as a very passionate well-wisher and sympathizer of the Afghan people. On 5th March, 2010, National Security Adviser of India Shivshankar Menon arrived Kabul on a two-day visit. He had a meeting with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and discussed the issue of security of about 4,000 Indians who, according to him, are untiringly engaged in working at different rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Menon also met his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta. In both of these meetings he seemed very much worried about the investigations into the February 26 Kabul attacks that targeted guest houses frequently visited by Indians. These attacks took the lives of seven Indians, including three major-rank Indian Army officers.

The National Security Adviser conveyed the apprehensions of the Indian government regarding the safety of its nationals in Afghanistan. He suggested some proposals including setting up of protected venues where the Indians working on projects could be housed. He also suggested deployment of more security personnel at places where Indians work. In short the basic purpose behind this visit was to pave a way for the deployment of more security personnel which would be surely coming from India. In the light of Menon's visit and proposals, it can be very easily estimated that the Kabul Attacks were the artistic work of no one else but of RAW and the only motive behind was to push more RAW agents into the Afghan soil.It is very unfair and unjust to drag the hi-ups of the ISI into such nonsense type of affairs. ISI is a part of Pakistan Army and its only objective is to safeguard the interest of Pakistan. The words spoken by the ISI chief represent the feelings and thoughts of the whole of Pakistani nation. There must be nothing secret if General Ahmed Shuja Pasha has ever talked to the Afghan president but even then RAW will have to provide proofs for its artistic and adventurous 'research'.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

DOES FOREIGN POLICY NEED RELIGION?

GERARD RUSSELL

 

Do we need more religion in foreign policy? A US think tank, the Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs, thinks we do. In a recent report, it urges diplomats to get over the instinctive queasiness they feel when they step off their normal turf of secular politics. The report hints that the US should be open to dialogue with hardline religious groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah., under certain circumstances (and this is interesting, because Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel, is among the signatories).

But its main message is twofold: first, that "religion that is civil and public", not secularism, is the answer to religious extremism; and second, that engaging with religion is not just about de-radicalising Muslims. Religion, it suggests, is a global force for good that the US should do more to harness. In order to do so, US aid agencies should direct more funding through faith-based organisations, and diplomats should learn more about the religions of the countries to which they are posted. There are good reasons to disagree. First of all, forays by secular governments into the field of religion often end up seeming clumsy and manipulative. Worse, categorising people by their religious belief can be dangerously divisive – as some Iraqis claimed to me in 2003, for example, when complaining about western emphasis on the difference between Shia and Sunnis in Iraq.

It is also simplistic. An approach to the world that divides its people by religion has little to offer one Jerusalemite who told me proudly he was "Armenian by ethnicity, Palestinian by nationality, religiously Christian and culturally Muslim". His words are a reminder that there are very few foreign policy concerns that are the property of only one religion. Christian Arabs care about Palestinian suffering as much as Muslims do; the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas angered many Afghan Muslims, not just Buddhists. When we begin to address these issues as if they were the concern only of one religious group, we risk undermining the concept of universal human rights.

In Britain, the only parliamentarian who has unequivocally been elected by British Muslims is George Galloway – whose own religious beliefs are rightly his own business, but who has not advertised himself as a Muslim at all. In other words, Muslims may not seek for their religious scholars to represent them politically – any more than I, as a British Catholic, would want to be represented in parliament by the pope. So let us not assume that dialogue with religious scholars is a shortcut to avoiding the knotty, secular, political issues that matter to the people who share their faith.

The report is right, though, in a more fundamental way. Before I defend it, let me make a full disclosure. Immediately after 11 September 2001, the Foreign Office asked me to set up a unit wholly dedicated to political dialogue with Muslims – the first of its kind, as far as I knew. I got the news as I stood on the steps of a Ramallah restaurant and my first thought was: they have the wrong man for the job. I knew about dialogue with Muslims, because that was what I had been doing for three years. I knew little, though, about dialogue with Islam. The Muslims that I knew were mostly Palestinian leftist intellectuals and nationalists. They read Mahmoud Darwish and Edward Said, not Ibn Taymiyya or Abu Hanifa. They didn't want a dialogue with the west about religion: they wanted to hear about social justice and a vision for peace.

Nonetheless, I feel that the Foreign Office, and the Chicago Council, were and are pointing in the right direction. If foreign policy is increasingly to be about shaping the culture and beliefs of people around the world, rather than simply doing deals with their governments, then diplomacy will have to change. In the past 50 years the attention of European governments has been focused on multilateral institutions and international law. For what were originally good reasons, culture and beliefs have taken a back seat. This is clearly due for a reappraisal, in an era in which it has become obvious that negotiations in Washington, New York or Geneva are inadequate as a way of making disenfranchised people feel that the world order includes them. —The Guardian

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

NOT SO ROSY

 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its just published report says that the Bangladesh economy is expected to do better in the second half of the current financial year. But "supply-side bottlenecks" like acute shortage of natural gas and electricity has created an uncertain investment climate and reduced the chances of a better prospect for the nation. This is quite obvious and we have been discussing it for quite some time now. The government, however, does not feel that it is a high priority issue although there are times when even the prime minister is reportedly worried. What is needed is concerted and tenacious efforts until a breakthrough is achieved.

Evidently politics is more important to the incumbents than economic issues, which may ultimately be counter-productive. It is understandable that some people in the government will have to deal with political issues, as and when they arise. But this does not mean that everybody in the administration will have to be bothered about it. As for the chief executive of the government, prime minister Sheikh Hasina has to deal with a number of issues at a time. That is the challenge of leadership.  She has to take on that complex task as that is the challenge of being the head of government.

The ADB report has some disturbing figures as well. It says that remittances actually fell. This is in sharp contrast to what the government has been saying. Possibly, the reason behind the discrepancy is because of the devaluation of the US dollar. Our foreign exchange figures are reported in that currency while it has been depreciating in a big way in recent times. It is an issue that the country should address seriously. By this time most South Asian countries have also started keeping their foreign exchange reserves in a basket of currencies that includes the US dollar but is largely dominated by stronger deposits of value like gold, euro and yen. It is already late and the sooner we revert to a more productive currency regime the better for us.
There is another topic of vital importance to us. The report says that exports and imports have declined, although the current account surplus has increased. This would mean less of economic activity and more of stagnation. All this would mean that the government has its hands full in the days ahead.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

ANTI-WOMEN REFORM

 

Women as the underprivileged segment of society are yet to be protected from violence, physical and mental abuse and are therefore, in need of legal intervention. As women politicians are best based to handle this problem, raising awareness among the people is the best way to go about it. Ensuring the benefits of good governance and democracy to women is therefore very important. Although women have the right of franchise, this in itself does not give women their rightful place in society nor does it give the country democracy. Thus the declaration of prime minister Sheikh Hasina that her government would amend or repeal laws that are discriminatory to women or against their interest was timely. The prime minister also said the Awami League in its election manifesto had pledged to ensure women's equal rights in every sphere of life and ensure the dignity of women. To this end she identified two priority areas - education and self-reliance - but in addition we would like to emphasise the need for bringing more women into politics.

In the 1970s, political empowerment of women was a clarion call based on several assumptions like, how it could change things for all women. The belief was that lasting gender equality could only be achieved through political change like enabling policies, legislation, enforcement and protection of rights. It was also believed that only women in politics could advance the cause of gender equality and women's rights. Put another way, women's access to power and decision-making authority in formal political institutions is critical for achieving gender equality. Although some progress has been made, far more needs to be done to bring women to the fore. There is however one reason for hope because several women were directly elected to the ninth parliament. It was also apt that this declaration was made on International Women's Day which was observed with the slogan - Equal Rights, Equal Opportunity and Progress for All.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

THE CONSERVATIVE YADAVS..!

 

I wondered why the three Yadavs were so afraid of having women in Parliament that they actually became physical and scuttled the Women's Reservation Bill! I decided to meet two of them:

"Hey Lalu, what's the problem?"

 

"Women!"
"I know, I know, but what's wrong in having them in the House?"

"No kitchen!"

"No kitchen?"

"No kitchen in this House!"

 

"You want a kitchen in Parliament?"

"Yes, good idea, then we will pass the Bill, and we will pass all bills while women make chappatis like my wife, Rabri make chappatis in the kitchen and pass it to me!" 

I went across to the other Yadav, "Hey Mulayam sahib, what's your problem?"

"I have no problem, you have problem!"

"I have a problem?"

"Yes you want women in Parliament that's your problem no?"

"But sir, why don't you want women in Parliament?"

"Because I am shy man!"

"You are anything but shy sir!"

"I am shy when women are around, and when half of Parliament be full of women then I will become so shy I will not open my mouth!"

"Ah sir, you are very conservative?"

"Conservative?"
"Yes, you belong to a generation that is not used to speaking to women?"

"That is it! That is it! Women are not meant to be spoken to, women are meant to be…."

"Molested?"
"Correct, correct!"

"Beaten?"

"Yes, yes, conservative man beat women!"

"Ridiculed?"
"What is that?"

"Sir to laugh at a women, when you are with men?"

"That is me, that is me, conservative man!"

"And sir Lalu believes that women should make chappatis?"

"He is also conservative man!"

"Sir maybe that's why women want to get into Parliament!"

"Why?" asks Mulayam.

"Why?" asks Lalu.

"Because they are fed up of being beaten and raped and molested, they want to speak out!"

"But we are shy conservative Yadavs no, we don't want to hear..!"

bobsbanter@gmail.com

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THE INDEPENDENT

FAILURE TO EARN PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

PROFILE OF BANGLADESH POLICE - VI

ABDUL KHALEQUE

 

Ever since human societies formed themselves into states, the enforcement of the laws of the land became one of the major functions of the state's government. This function has since been carried out through government agencies with as much vigour and effectiveness as possible in order to attain the objective purposes of law and of the government. Every state has its own code of law, which regulates relations between citizens themselves, between citizens and state, and confirms rights and obligation of citizens as well as of the state itself. The code consists of a vide variety of law, such as the whole range of Cvi1, Criminal, Revenue and Personal laws. A peep into the history of law will show that Prophets, Kings, Emperors, Dictators, Colonial Rulers and Parliaments have given law from time to time. The Indian sub-continent, and for that matter, the Bengal part of it was ruled by Princes, Rajas, Maharajas, Nawabs, Badshahs, Colonial Rulers, constitutional democrats and Dictators who proclaimed laws and enforced them through agencies which reflected the wishes of those law-givers. In their system of government by the non-democratic rules, the will of the citizens could not find expression in the laws in absence of citizens representatives in the law-making process.

After the Mughals, the British East India Company organised police in their territory with the twin purpose of maintaining law and order and suppressing crimes and native hostility against the company's trading and revenue interest. From that time on, the police became the handmaid of the rulers and the subject of criticism and hatred for oppressions and suppressions perpetrated on the people. During the armed revolt of Indian Soldiers in Company's Service in 1857 the Rulers deployed police to capture the revolters in collaboration with natives who sided with the Rulers. Toward the close of British rule the Indian Police developed communal leaning which rendered law enforcement difficult. The inter-state communal migration of the police brought into East Bengal a huge lot of personnel whose language and culture was not akin to that of the East Bengalis. To add to this, the government of East Bengal recruited a lot of Police Constables from the tribal areas of West Pakistan and inducted non-commissioned officers from the armed forces into the Police Service. These non-Bengali elements in the police created linguistic problems of law enforcement in the formative years of Pakistan which adopted the British Indian laws and judicial system.

Many well-meaning citizens expected the establishment of immediate peace and tranquility in Bangladesh where millions of wartime firearms were in the possession of the fighting forces who were composed of people from all segments of the population. It was a tremendous task for the police to contain the retaliatory impulse of the freedom fighters against the accomplices of the Pakistan Army and to recover millions of weapons from freedom fighters and others. Restoration of peace from a condition of utter lawlessness of the wartime or at any rate, the containment of anarchy within a short time from further and ugly proliferation was a great performance of police.

It is worthwhile to recollect that there was an anti-establishment terrorist development in some areas of Rajshahi, Jessore and Hill Tract districts which the police had to face in the immediate post-liberation months. With the progress of time the devastated Police and Riflemen were strengthened in number (without adequate training) and with equipment not enough for effective operations against armed banditry. We may recollect how police stations were attacked and looted by miscreants in 1973 and after and the earlier gains achieved in the recovery of fire arms were considerably lost.

The regimes that came into being after the assassination of Sheikh Mujib and Martial Law rule brought the police once again back to Military mood and temperament as distinguished from their civil character which was attained for a short time in the postliberation period. The form and the content of the police were changed by the induction of a wing named armed battalion and by the induction of officers (serving or retired) of the defence service in the Superior Police Cadre.

The administration enhanced the quantum of punishment and organised trial of some serious crimes on woman in the Military Courts. And corruption in the government, semi-government organisations and bodies, in business and trade and elsewhere in the administration and in the economy became rampant. Corruption in the elections attained a notoriety not seen years ago. The sporadic drives to seize contrabands from the prestigious shopping centres, air and sea ports united the offenders against the customs authorities. Copying in examinations (both public and departmental) became so rampant and desperate that any attempt to stop it met with organised resistance from the delinquents, leading to violent crimes and clashes. The law enforcing agencies like the police and the Ansars engaged in maintaining peace in and around examination centres could hardly afford, for fear of public resentment, to proceed to take appropriate action against students and their supporters who were far more numerous and organised than the law enforcing agencies in any particular centre.
The Upazila system and creation of so many districts in 1984 created large scale promotion and transfer problems of the police. The distribution of manpower, transport, equipment and division of crime records in between units and the establishment of district set-up in Sub-Divisions created a situation under which the police could not concentrate on their routine functions effectively for some time, engrossed as they were ill the reshuffling duties in the department. Anyway, the promotions precipitated by the Upazila scheme left the investigating cadre with inadequately trained and inexperienced officers to deal with the growing complexities of police investigation and prosecution problem. Hardly ten percent charge-sheeted cases could stand the legalistic scrutiny of courts. And hardly 40 per cent of heinous cases recorded by the police were submitted in charge-sheet for trial. This fact of actual police performance in detection of crime and obtaining conviction in courts and the indiscriminate arrest of persons as suspects and the arrest of the loitering poor from the cities as suspected miscreants have undermined public confidence in the police performance, and induced people to take law into their own hands.

Bangladesh Police was faced with situations which had arisen out of the basic social, economic and political malaise prevailing in the country. A nation's manpower, if educated, disciplined, morally armed and economically secure, is a great resource. Bangladesh does not have such a resource. Ideally speaking, Bangladesh has to have a police organisation with unhindered capability to engage itself resolutely in all fronts of complexity at the same time, with dedication to preserve the security of professional tenets which reject repressiveness, malevolence, disregard for law and arrogance of power. But when we speak of marching to different drum-beats and in fact continue to follow courses which have already taken us to the jungle, the police will further freeze into an instrument of social woe. The shape and character of a government determine the basic profile of public servants, let alone the police force which exercises the peace-keeping role of the state.

(The writer is a former IG Police and Secretary)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT

MD. ABU NASER

 

Bangladesh is a densely populated country of over 150 million people with the area of 55,598 square miles. It has over 50-million labour force in ages 16-57. Readymade garment is the prime sector of country's export earnings. Forty four percent of populations here are living under the poverty level, where unemployment is a curse. Seasonal, structural, cyclical and frictional, all kinds of unemployment exists here. In spite of global economic recession, the country is going to achieve 6 percent growth in present fiscal year. Main reason behind this achievement is bumper food production and remittance. Nowadays, remittance flow maintains sharp increasing trend whether number of labour force export is decreasing. Till November 2009 the country earned BDT 68 thousand crore remittances. At the same time 67 lakh Bangladeshi workers are working more than 100 countries.

Oil producing Arab countries i.e. Middle East, Malaysia, South Korea, EU countries, USA, Canada, Australia, rich American countries, Scandinavian countries are the potential destinations of Bangladeshi labour force. Two types of work-force, skilled and semi or unskilled, are going abroad. Skilled professionals mostly prefer to go to Europe and North American countries. Middle-East is the target of semi and unskilled workers with some skilled migrants. Much of the migration into the Arab oil-producing countries is labour migration on term contracts, rather than accepted by the receiving countries as permanent settlement. Malaysia is one of the major destinations of Bangladeshi workers. In 2008, Bangladeshi workers and professionals send about 9 billion dollar equivalent remittance to home. Till September 2009, this amount is 9.8 billion dollar. This large amount of money increases the reserve in central bank. On the other side injection of this money in national economy is creating positive multiplier affects on aggregate consumption, production and demand chain. Remittances are helping to change the scenario of rural Bangladesh. In rural landscape, vibrant economic activities are going on. It increases purchasing power and consumption expenditure that helps to produce more and to make more profit of producers. Liquid money in hand affects the lifestyle of workers family in the area of education, cultural arena, recreation, shopping, image of a family, etc. Government has initiated some plan for the betterment of remittance senders. Special banking facility, investment facility, housing and a specialised bank are going to start for providing specialised services.

In fact, everyday in newspapers and news channels we can see the tragic stories of workers. Frequently workers are being cheated by some fraudulent recruiting agencies. The sufferings are extended when they go outside the country and didn't get job as per the contract signed. Without any alternative they have to work with very low wage and live with sufferings. Remittance flow is the blood supply line of Bangladesh economy. It is necessary to take prompt action for preserving the rights and ensuring legal facilities of workers in abroad. To solve the labour related issues needs increase of negotiation skill of embassy officials. Government is trying to expand the scope of exporting manpower and very much active to solve labour related problems in diplomatic channel.
Middle East is the major market place for Bangladeshi women migrants. Nursing and house-keeping are the main professions for women migrants. In job places women migrants are facing a lot of problems. In some cases they are being tortured mentally and physically. Government has taken special measures for safe departure and monitoring in abroad including training of women workers, safe houses in Bangladesh missions abroad, monitoring by missions, awareness campaign for safe channel of women migration, etc.
There are some procedural challenges that have to face by an overseas employee. Most of the workers are illiterate and under the graduate level. For the procedural work they have to rely on middle-man and have limited access to reliable information on legal channels of migration. Cost of going abroad is higher than other countries of this region. More than that, falsification of documents and exploitation by recruiting agencies and intermediaries are common phenomenon in this sector.

Government has recently adopted 9 point strategies to ensure sustainable safe migration and exploring the new destination for Bangladeshi workers including exploration of new markets, new 36 training centres for skill development training, special efforts to emphasise export of down-trodden people, strengthening welfare for workers, transparency in recruitment process, remittance through proper channel, special focus on export of female workers, strengthening capacity and capabilities of Bangladesh missions abroad, etc.

The Bangladesh Army has been actively involved in a number of United Nations Peace Support Operations since 1988. Recently Bangladesh ranked first position in terms of its contribution with 9,567 members. Bangladesh army has contributed in 20 countries where they achieved good reputation for service and dedication. These countries may be potential market for Bangladeshi goods and labour force. Government is aware of it and taking necessary initiatives in this regard.

Image of home country is another factor for overseas employment especially to ensure access, protecting rights, negotiations and trouble shooting. In international market Bangladesh known as an exporter of semi or unskilled labour. India, Sri Lanka, Philippines are branded as skilled manpower exporters. We have potential youth and skilled exportable workers in ICT, ship breaking, curry industry, nursing, RMG, textile and some other areas. Because of lack of country branding we are losing potential market and remittances. Even in Middle East some other countries are campaigning against Bangladeshi workers.

In Doha round negotiation, Bangladesh with some other members of LDCs have made request to liberalise immigration policy of manpower importing countries and to take attempts for increasing mobility of labour under the Mode-4 of GATS framework. Geographically resources in regions are not distributed equally. Some areas have plenty of population but scarcity of natural resources. Some areas got opportunities for industrialisation and some may have all this but have no skilled planner or leadership to draw the roadmap of development.

As a developing country Bangladesh have a shortage of public funds. But it has a large work force. To get the maximum benefit from world job market, we need to revitalise the existing labour related policies and guidelines in line with international agreement and convention. We need to search new destination for exporting manpower. Under the WTO framework LDCs will play a vital role in some areas in future, labour is one of them.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

FALL OF AMERICA'S UNIVERSITIES

BILL COSTELLO

 

Since 2004, the world's top 200 universities have been ranked annually by the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings. Recently, Asian universities have been making significant gains on the US, long considered to have the world's best universities.

In 2008, the US had 37 universities in the top 100 and 58 in the top 200. In 2009, that dropped to 32 and 54, respectively, although 12 of the top 16 universities in the world are still in the US Between 2008 and 2009, Japan went from 10 universities in the top 200 to 11, Hong Kong went from 4 to 5, South Korea went from 3 to 4, and mainland China maintained its position with 6.

Having visited nearly half of these Asian universities and having seen their extensive expenditure on research facilities, I am not surprised when I read about Asian nations making enormous investments in their universities. Asian nations are investing to produce massive numbers of innovative people who can contribute significantly to economic growth.

I am surprised, however, when I read about funding reductions for US  universities, particularly public ones. For example, the University of California, long regarded as the nation's leading public university, recently suffered a US$813 million reduction in state financing.  Disinvestment is also happening to universities in Michigan, Washington, Arizona, and many other states.

Budgets are being cut from state-supported universities primarily because states are facing budget shortfalls of historic proportions. However, short-sighted state politics like this will lead to long-term consequences. For example, state budget cuts force universities to raise tuition, cap enrollment, and cut academic programs. These changes result in a smaller number of graduates, which in turn results in a shrinking skilled workforce.

The US needs a growing, skilled workforce, not a shrinking one, to continue to compete in the global economy.

 

Foreign students have for decades made up an important part of that skilled workforce, staying in the US and helping to fuel the nation's innovative and economic growth by working in such technology incubators as California's Silicon Valley and the Route 128 area in Massachusetts. In the 2008-2009 academic year, 671,616 foreign students were enrolled in US colleges and universities. China supplied by far the biggest number of them with 98,510 students.

The effect of foreign students on the US scientific community is crucial. Today, 55 percent of PhD engineering students are foreign born, along with 45 percent of graduate physicists working in the US. More than 30 percent of US Nobel Prize winners in medicine and physiology between 1901 and 2005, for instance, were foreign born.
Currently, the US has the best universities in the world. They attract the best students from around the world. However, when US universities decline in quality and lose their elite status because of budget cuts, bright students from around the world will seek universities in other nations.

The goal of Asian nations is to create world-class universities that surpass US universities. They have "every prospect of success," argued Yale University President Richard C. Levin in a recent lecture, titled "The Rise of Asia's Universities." Levin also stated that rising Asian nations "all recognize the importance of an educated workforce as a means to economic growth and the impact of research in driving innovation and competitiveness."
It should be noted, of course, that too many of Asia's universities continue to have the same problems as their primary and secondary schools in that they rely heavily on rote learning, with negative effects on critical thinking and innovation. Singapore, for instance, has invested millions of dollars in seeking to foster innovation with little effect.  But Asian educators are seeking solutions to the problems of innovation and creativity.

Speaking at the inaugural Asian Roundtable of Presidents of Universities of Education, Xu Jialu, director of the College of Chinese Language and Culture at Beijing Normal University, said that China needs to produce massive numbers of innovative people if it is to continue its robust economic growth. He added, "In Chinese education, the development of a creative mindset and abilities among students is urgently needed."
In the current issue of "Foreign Policy", Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Fogel predicts that China's GDP will reach $123 trillion by 2040 partially because of "the enormous investment China is making in education." He also predicts that the US's share of global GDP will be roughly one third that of China's.

Without increased investment, the US will no longer have the best universities in the world, will no longer be the world's innovation leader, and will no longer have the world's largest economy. It's time for the US to increase, not reduce, university funding. As the American patriot, inventor, and philosopher Benjamin Franklin put it, "An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends."

(The writer is an educationist and a blogger)

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

THE RIGHT FOCUS AT LAST

REPORT WILL HELP END DISTORTIONS IN OVERSEAS STUDENT TRADE

 

AUSTRALIA has made a lot of money out of overseas students but at times it has been at the expense of good educational and immigration policy. Worse still, the export industry that has been worth up to $15 billion a year has cost us in terms of our reputation. Which is why yesterday's federal report into international students is good news for universities, colleges and vocational providers, as well as for the nation generally. Produced by former Liberal politician Bruce Baird, the review's key recommendations have already been accepted by Education Minister Julia Gillard with implementation under way.

 

They represent a transformation of the way the fee-paying overseas education sector is viewed by government and educationalists. For the first time, the emphasis is where it belongs - not on how much money can be made from students, but on what the sector is delivering to consumers. Combined with changes announced last month to skilled migration policy, the Baird report will help build a system that is solid in both business terms and educational outcomes. The Rudd government's decision to limit the links between education and migration was long overdue: signing up to a college here will no longer be a way to "buy" permanent residency. But the need to address the distortions and clean up the rackets operating, particularly in vocational training, became urgent because of the well-publicised experiences of Indian students, some of whom were left hanging after the collapse of colleges and some of whom suffered violence, particularly in Melbourne. The report does not directly address these safety issues, which ultimately are a police matter. But the strengthening of assistance through central advice and advocacy hubs should build student confidence that there is somewhere to turn for support. The move to extend the Ombudsman's remit to cover complaints from students also makes sense. The changes to the act underpinning the sector, the Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000, will outlaw unethical student recruitment practices and impose tougher registration criteria for providers - backed by fines. All of these changes effectively raise the entry bar for providers. Canberra is also working with the Council of Australian Governments to ensure the states enforce what amounts to a much-needed shake-up of this vital sector.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

SHOCK, HORROR? NOT QUITE

BUSINESS ON-COSTS COULD BE CUT TO OFFSET PARENTAL LEAVE

 

TONY Abbott's controversial parental leave scheme has had an unexpected side effect. Commentators who previously paid little attention to fiscal rectitude have suddenly turned into rabid economic rationalists. Make no mistake, Mr Abbott's scheme is poor policy which would erode the bottom lines of 3200 companies by an average of less than $1 million and shift a social responsibility to business. But compared to squandering billions of dollars duplicating school halls and gymnasiums, propping up the car industry or wasting $2.45bn on ceiling batts it hardly rates on the scale of irresponsibility.

 

Without the Henry tax review, the opposition, like the government, is operating in a policy vacuum. But it could

compensate for parental leave by proposing to cut corporate tax or such on-costs as unproductive leave loading and penalties, which were created in an era when families lived on one wage.

 

For months, most Fairfax and ABC commentators were happy to leave this newspaper to analyse the quality of the Rudd government's $42bn stimulus, explain the problems of recreating a rigid, centralised industrial system and the costs of an ETS. But now the rush is on to hold the opposition, if not the government, to account. Forget any social dividend. The Sydney Morning Herald's Peter Hartcher condemned Mr Abbott's scheme yesterday as "reckless, irresponsible, unprincipled ad hockery" that would frustrate the government's "responsible, affordable offering". On ABC radio, Michelle Grattan scolded Mr Abbott for "risking his economic credibility" with something "out of all proportion".

 

The Abbott scheme would not, as the Australian Industry Group's Heather Ridout claimed, deter businesses from employing women. Small business would pay nothing. Large companies would pay a levy based on profit, not on how many staff had babies. The scheme has a whiff of Mr Abbott's mentor, B.A. Santamaria and the old trade union Right, that was never averse to a bit of distributivism. Indeed, it has won the dubious distinction of a tick from Unions NSW as well as the Greens. But the silence of the sisterhood on a plan to give professional women far more than $544 a week minimum wage maternity leave is deafening. At a time when fiscal discipline is awry, Mr Abbott's idea is not as bad as some hysterical reactions suggest.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

AFTER THE POLL, IT'S TIME TO SALUTE DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ

ELECTING A GOVERNMENT IS MESSY BUT CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION

 

JUST seven years after the start of the Iraq war and the nation's citizens have witnessed their second general parliamentary election. Irrespective of who wins or of how many pitfalls lie ahead as a new government is formed in Baghdad, this is cause for international congratulations. Those who continue to argue that the invasion of Iraq, which led to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, was a mistake will be challenged by the success of last weekend's poll. The 38 deaths at the hands of insurgents linked to al-Qa'ida are beyond sad, but the fact millions of Iraqis defied the bombs to vote demonstrates the strong hope in the young democracy.

 

Critics of the elections for 325 seats in the Council of Representatives, argue the poll is limited because Iraq lacks two requirements of a democracy - a rule of law, and a government in control. They suggest the poll is about dancing to the tune of Western nations, including the US, which seek to justify the war by pointing to a democratic poll. This argument is specious: a legally elected parliament provides the foundation for control, order and law.

 

A more valid cause for concern is what happens after the result is known - probably at the end of this month. While the incumbent, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is the frontrunner, none of the main parties that contested the poll will have garnered enough support to form government. The horsetrading as alliances are sought is likely to drag on, even though the Iraqi constitution mandates a government must be formed within a month of the formal declaration of the result. Mr Maliki's major opposition will come from Iyad Allawi, the transitional prime minister before the 2005 elections. Both leaders will look to the Kurds to shore up their efforts to form government, with Mr Maliki facing significant difficulties, according to commentators, because of his unpopularity among that group. This jockeying will potentially place new pressure on a still-vulnerable Iraq but it is nothing unusual for democracies and should be seen in this context of robust negotiation. Ultimately the composition of a workable government in Baghdad is a matter for the elected representatives of Iraq and should be accepted as such by the international community.

 

Similarly, it is Iraqis themselves who will decide the role that religion will play in civic life. Mr Maliki's Shia-dominated government has been opposed by the more secular Mr Allawi, and the election suggests that voters are tending to turn away from religion-based parties. The turnout of 62 per cent of the 18 million registered voters is lower that the 76 per cent who voted in the heady days of 2005. But the number of Sunni Arabs who came out this time is higher than in the last poll, in a heartening sign the minority group is recovering its confidence in the political system.

 

It all points to normalisation of a country where, just a few years ago, regular existence seemed a pipe dream. So much so that this year's Academy Award best picture, The Hurt Locker, set in Baghdad at the height of the war, already seems like history. Life is not a Hollywood movie, but the Oscar announcement in the same week as the election could not have been better scripted to demonstrate the extent of changes under way in Iraq.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

EYE TO EYE WITH YUDHOYONO

IN WELCOMING Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Australia is greeting a familiar friend. This is his second visit to Australia as Indonesia's President, but he had been here before his successful 2004 campaign for the presidency. Indeed, before he entered politics, as one of Indonesia's leading reformist generals he was already being cultivated by our Defence Department. As President, after the erratic start of the post-Soeharto era under his three predecessors, Yudhoyono was welcomed as a stabilising, popular figure leading an open society. Through talented members of his cabinet he pushed economic reforms and, as a consequence of growing prosperity, and despite the global financial crisis, he was re-elected on his record last year.

 

His second term has had a shakier start: his parliamentary support is breaking up as the Golkar party's plutocrat-

political leadership exploits the 2008 Bank Century bailout to weaken or oust reformists such as the Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati. Time will tell if the issue has weakened Yudhoyono's ability to pursue further reforms.

 

Some specialists are lamenting an alleged stagnation in the bilateral relationship, a relatively low level of trust and affection showing up in opinion polls, and a media concentration on negative news. High-profile cases involving the drug trade and people smuggling have certainly focused attention on obvious potential irritants in the relationship. They have not altered, however, positive trends and strengthening links.

 

Record numbers of Australians went to Indonesia last year, despite travel warnings, and a smaller but growing number of Indonesians are coming here, many of them to study. Last year's Defence white paper was notable for its benign view of Indonesia, and the weight of security co-operation now rests more on police rather than the military. Indonesia's police have gained Australian respect for their successes against the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist organisation, and co-operation is extending to helping Indonesian police in conventional law and order too. Better security and strengthened respect for the rule of law will be the way Indonesia can dispel its negative images of danger and corruption, and attract still more visitors, students and businessmen.

 

This undramatic work will do more to improve relations and set bilateral links on a solid foundation than any new pacts flourished by the two leaders. Even so, Yudhoyono and Kevin Rudd can usefully look at ways to co-operate on issues such as climate change, people smuggling and deforestation, and on regional trouble spots such as Burma. No doubt they will also discuss ideas to put to Barack Obama, who is to visit both countries later this month.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

ABBOTT PLAYS BABY POLITICS

 

TONY ABBOTT'S proposal for a six-month paid parental leave scheme funded by a new levy on big business is a cynical political ploy that will cause unnecessary uncertainty for would-be parents. It seems designed entirely to give the Coalition an excuse to obstruct yet another one of the Rudd Government's centrepiece reforms: paid parental leave of 18 weeks. As a political strategy, Abbott's obstructionism has merit, forcing the government to defend its policies, and keeping it on its toes. But as a formula for sound public policy-making, it stinks.

 

It is hard to disagree with the proposition that women should have more time at home to nurture their newborns. It has always been a question of weighing up the benefit to mothers and babies of more generous paid leave against the cost to taxpayers. But Abbott has thrown caution to the wind and come up with a rolled-gold paid leave scheme funded by a great big new tax on business.

 

Abbott's scheme would offer new mothers, or fathers, a continuation of their existing salary for six months after the birth of their child, up to an income cap of $150,000. As such, it is far more generous than the government's scheme, which would offer 18 weeks' parental leave at the minimum wage of $544 a week. Not surprisingly, Abbott's proposal comes with a much bigger price tag - $2.7 billion, or more than 10 times the annual cost of the government's $260 million scheme - to be funded directly from big business.

 

Business, needless to say, is deeply unimpressed - and it has a point. In one fell swoop Abbott has undermined his entire argument against an emissions trading scheme to combat climate change. The Coalition, claimed Abbott, could never support such a scheme because it amounted to ''a big new tax on everything''. The hollowness of that refrain has now been shown up for what it was.

 

Abbott's proposal also marks a continuing departure for the Coalition under his leadership from its small-l liberal traditions. Under Abbott, government will decide who should get subsidies and the circumstances in which they are paid.

 

The decision whether to have a child is perhaps the most serious a couple will ever make. Australian parents deserve access to a paid leave scheme to provide certainty and to encourage women to return to the workforce at an appropriate time after childbirth. Abbott is on a course to deny this right by blocking the government's scheme in the Senate. Parents will not appreciate the Leader of the Opposition playing politics in their bedroom.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

SOLDIERS IN AN ABSURD PREDICAMENT

 

THE Australian troops deployed in Afghanistan, and in particular the elite and highly accomplished special forces, must find their mission increasingly surreal.

 

They train Afghan troops in Oruzgan province, but can't guide their military proteges through real-life combat situations because of decisions made by political chiefs in Canberra. Not only are Australian troops blocked from deploying outside the province - at the same time as US-led NATO forces have embarked on a new offensive against the Taliban in Marjah in Helmand province - but there apparently are even restrictions on night patrols within the province itself. Little wonder the military's frustration has reached boiling point, with senior officers now briefing The Age about the operational restraints. As was reported yesterday, the coalition's top military commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrystal, even warned Australian Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston that the curb on troops was impairing the war effort.

 

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was right to make clear to Washington last year that Australia's military effort would be directed to training Afghan forces to take responsibility for their own security in Oruzgan. This brief reflects NATO's objective of building Afghanistan's self-reliance to allow for the withdrawal of foreign troops and protects Australia, which has more than proved its commitment to the US in both the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, from more risky and open-ended combat.

 

But the Prime Minister's micro-managing of Australian troops is becoming farcical, counterproductive - in terms of both the strategic objectives and the US alliance - and potentially dangerous. Canberra's stance also appears to be putting Australian military officers in the situation of having to persuade US chiefs that no formal requests for assistance should be made because they inevitably would be refused.

 

No leader wants to expose troops to casualties, and clearly the issue is particularly sensitive in an election year.

But the reality is there's a war going on - Mr Rudd can't deny this, nor should he deprive our troops of their professional dignity. The position is also hypocritical given Australia has in the past criticised European nations for restricting the regions where their forces could fight. If Mr Rudd wants a guarantee of no casualties, he has the option of pulling out of the NATO effort entirely as other nations have done. Otherwise, he must let the army do its job.

 

Source: The Age

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

WHEN SOME PARENTS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

 

PROPOSING policy that antagonises Australia's main business lobbies is an unusual tactic for a federal Liberal leader. But that is what Tony Abbott has managed to do with his $2.7 billion a year parental-leave scheme, which would be funded by a new tax on Australia's top 3200 companies. The Opposition's plan, which offers more generous benefits than the Rudd government's modest $260 million a year scheme, is further confirmation of Mr Abbott's pugilistic approach to politics. In an election year he has carved out a radically different stance for the Coalition on an issue of fundamental concern to Australian families. He has done so, however, with scant regard for the lack of consistency between this new policy and the opposition's declared resistance to new and increased taxes. The supposed conviction politician has laid bare his opportunist instincts, and conjured up the ghost of the Howard government by devising a scheme that offers greater subsidies to those on higher incomes.

 

When he was employment minister in that government, Mr Abbott said that compulsory parental leave would be introduced over the government's dead body. He has now apparently had a change of heart. But the opposition's plan, which offers 26 weeks' parental leave at full pay for those earning up to $150,000 a year, offers a starkly different distribution of benefits to the government's scheme, which would pay the minimum wage for 18 weeks. Under the latter, those on higher incomes would not be entitled to greater taxpayer support for choosing to have a child. Mr Abbott's scheme, however, has precisely that consequence. It also considerably restricts the number of taxpayers who would have to pay for everyone else's parental leave. Instead of funding the scheme from general revenue, to which all taxpayers contribute, a 1.7 per cent levy would be imposed on the annual taxable income over $5 million of big companies. The irony is that it is these companies that are most likely to have some form of parental leave scheme already in place; they are also, as business lobbyists pointed out, capable of passing the levy on to their customers.

 

The opposition scheme, which Mr Abbott unveiled during an International Women's Day speech, was promptly condemned by the Business Council of Australia, all of whose members would be subject to the levy, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group. Each of these organisations might have been expected to have been consulted beforehand, as might Mr Abbott's Coalition colleagues. Yesterday, however, he apologised to a joint party-room meeting for not having raised the plan with shadow cabinet before announcing it publicly. The sincerity of that apology may be judged by his comment that sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than for permission.

 

The most cynical interpretation of Mr Abbott's motive in announcing the leave scheme is that suggested by ACTU president Sharan Burrow: he has done so, she said, to give the opposition an excuse for voting against the government's scheme later this year. Not everyone in the union movement took this view - Unions NSW endorsed the Abbott scheme - but Mr Abbott should not be surprised that his vow to oppose the Rudd government at every turn has fuelled such speculation.

 

Parental leave must not be allowed to become a partisan punchbag, as emissions trading has. Whatever his motives, Mr Abbott is at least right in arguing that 26 weeks, the recommended minimum period for breast feeding, is a better parental-leave entitlement than 18 weeks. The government's scheme was never meant to be an unalterable set of benefits, and it must be expected that both the leave period and the payment will be increased progressively.Mr Abbott could better direct his energies to proposing when and how that might be done, than to devising a new form of middle-class welfare.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

THE EUROZONE: FRIGHT CLUB

 

Voters in many eurozone member countries can be forgiven for thinking that the single currency has only made things worse

 

The euro faced its first big challenge in this banking crisis – and it failed. That is not the assertion of a British newspaper but comes from Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, who admitted this week that "the sanctions we have were not good enough". She was referring to the Greek financial meltdown, but she could equally well have been talking about the fiscal crisis and violent demonstrations in Ireland in 2009 – or even the outbreak of the credit crunch over a year ago. As interconnected financial institutions across the continent tumbled like so many dominoes, the lack of a single eurozone banking watchdog (as opposed to a patchwork of national regulators from Austria to Malta to Slovenia) only made the crisis worse.

 

Indeed, voters in many eurozone member countries can be forgiven for thinking that the single currency has only made things worse. There has been the obvious problem inherent in a currency club that stretches across many nations in varying states of economic health, which means that Ireland, Greece and others in deep trouble can no longer devalue their punts or drachmas to make themselves more competitive but must rely instead on the more painful and certainly more unpopular task of driving down workers' wages. That was the congenital defect of the euro, but matters have been made far worse by the reluctance of individual governments to group together.

 

Whether Ms Merkel and her colleagues like it or not, they now share a currency and an interest rate with George Papandreou and his ministers in Athens. And yet, throughout the weeks that Greece has teetered on the abyss of economic collapse or massive political convulsions, Berlin has been unable to come out and stand behind Athens. This has nothing to do with altruism or international brotherhood, and everything to do with enlightened national self-interest. Clubs that do not hang together end up with the members being hanged separately, and in investors' minds Greece is not so different from Portugal, Italy or Spain: they all go on the target range marked Pigs. When he was Bill Clinton's treasury secretary, Larry Summers once remarked that "when markets overreact … policy needs to overreact as well". During this banking crisis, eurozone politicians have not overreacted – indeed, they have barely acted at all.

 

Which is why this week's suggestion from Berlin that the eurozone ought to set up its own version of the International Monetary Fund has come as such a surprise – even to other European governments. As it stands at the moment, the proposal is vaguer than a pitch on Dragons' Den, but it at least marks a recognition by Europe's anchor economy that the currency club urgently needs some more institutions if it is not to repeat the mistakes and missteps of the past few years. Ideally, an EMF (as it has inevitably become known) would stand behind the common currency and intervene when member governments get into financial strife. In Greece's case, such a body would have been able to give Athens some funds and a stamp of support that would have taken off some of the speculative pressure. The Washington-based IMF can already do this, but its intervention might dent European pride.

 

So much for the dream scenario: if an EMF is ever set up (a big if, given that it could force the renegotiation of the Lisbon treaty), it will probably not be so useful. It is more likely to go in for finger-wagging at governments that exceed their borrowing limits, and it is certainly hard to see German voters funding such an institution and its war chest. If that is what Ms Merkel has in mind, she should be warned: it will do nothing to glue together a eurozone that is slowly coming unstuck. If a 16-nation economic club is to grow up, it needs serious institutions and regulators – and for member governments to recognise that they are in it together.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF … DENIS AVEY

 

A British soldier held as a prisoner of war near the main Auschwitz camps, he told the Times that he decided to enter them to gather evidence about what the Germans were up to

 

Listeners to Radio 4 yesterday morning may have heard a moving and modest interview with a remarkable man. "You get into trouble but you sleep at night," said Denis Avey, describing his experiences inside Auschwitz concentration camp, which, quite incredibly, he entered twice during the war in an effort to witness its appalling activities. Yesterday he received one of the first Hero of the Holocaust medals from Gordon Brown. A British soldier held as a prisoner of war near the main Auschwitz camps, he told the Times last year that he decided to enter them to gather evidence about what the Germans were up to: "Evidence would be vital. Of course, sneaking into the Jewish camp was a ludicrous idea. It was like breaking into Hell. But that's the sort of chap I was. Reckless." He befriended a German Jew whose sister had escaped to Britain before the war, managed to contact her, and passed her brother cigarettes, which he then traded to save his life. He also swapped places with a Dutch Jewish prisoner to spend a day and night inside the camp. And he lost an eye when an SS officer hit him with a Luger for trying to defend a Jewish child. After the war, he found the British military authorities uninterested in using his evidence. "I was shocked, especially after the risks I'd taken," he told the Times. "I felt completely disillusioned, and traumatised as well." Some may wonder at the decision to create a British Holocaust award, but it is impossible to be anything other than awed by Mr Avey's story.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

POLITICAL PARTIES: LOST TRIBES

 

One of the common causes for those grappling for a radical post-party politics is reform of the electoral system

 

As the drums of the election campaign start to rattle, for politicians and their dwindling band of activists, loyalties to the old battalions will be stirred afresh. For just about everyone else, the sudden sound of partisan percussion provides a cue to switch off. The differences between the parties are still important, but at a time when Westminster as a whole seems compromised, and with painful choices coming whoever is in power, it is becoming tougher to identify deeply with squabbling tribes who blame everything on one another. And this is particularly so among progressives, for whom poetic hopes have been smothered by the prosaic realities of 13 years in government.

 

This is the context in which John Kampfner – a former New Statesman editor and a biographer of Robin Cook – yesterday pledged himself to the Liberal Democrats, and thus the cries of "betrayal" from his old friends in the Labour party may be muted. In a pamphlet and an article on these pages, Kampfner offered an analysis of New Labour failings – the love of money, the penal populism and the failure to fix politics – which is shared by many with radical hearts. Kampfner's gambit coincided with the publication of a collection of essays by the leftist journal Soundings which made a different case for transcending old divides, calling for a joint front between "social democrats, liberals, greens and civic nationalists" – less a Blairite big political tent than a collection of several small tents pitching up together.

 

One of the great common causes for those grappling for a radical post-party politics is reform of an electoral system which traditionally locked the old duopoly in place. The great difficulty, however, is that – for now at least – the winner-takes-all rules remain in place, presenting a formidable challenge to the efforts of disparate forces. It is also true that Kampfner and social democrats minded to follow his lead might find themselves rather less comfortable than they are expecting within a Liberal Democrat party which has taken a more traditionally liberal turn under Mr Clegg's lead. Today's Lib Dems are a distinctive force, not one which promises to redo what Labour has done, only better. The party is giving priority to reducing taxes for people on middle incomes, rather than any great new surge in social spending.

 

The old party politics is not fit for the hour, and perhaps it should not count any longer. Yet those who seek to transcend it – by reaching across old divides or swapping sides – discover that its clutches are hard to escape. Fair votes would allow for clearer choices, but the old parties continue to thwart hopes of that, and so our politics remain stuck in the old partisan rut.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

JOINT EXERCISE

 

The Pentagon scaled down the U.S. contingent in the 2010 Key Resolve/Foal Eagle joint military exercise with Korean forces. Unlike in previous years, no aircraft carrier will be deployed in Korean waters during the exercise and the number of U.S. soldiers participating in the drill was reduced to 18,000 from last year's 26,000. U.S. spokespersons said that the downsizing was only out of operational considerations, but there is speculation that links it to the projected resumption of the six-party denuclearization talks with North Korea.

 

The North Koreans were apparently not impressed by the change, however, as they reacted more vehemently to the annual event. After issuing "warnings" a couple times since Seoul notified Pyongyang of the exercise schedule, North Korean People's Army spokesman at Panmunjeom declared an end to military dialogue between the two Koreas.

 

"Nothing can deter us from responding to the threats of a nuclear offensive on our territory with the nuclear deterrence of our revolutionary armed forces in self-defense," he said.

 

On the eve of the KR/FE, the North Korean high command ordered the entire army, navy and air force into a state of alert.

 

As the exercise enters the third day of its two-week schedule, no particular sign of military moves are being detected north of the Demilitarized Zone. They may just be repeating the usual angry reactions shown to the springtime Key Resolve and the Ulchi Focus Lens exercise in autumn. But the North could use the joint exercise as an excuse to delay the six-party talks in its scheme to extract more concessions or rewards from the United States and South Korea.

 

Key Resolve, as the words imply, is the most visible evidence of the military alliance between South Korea and the United States as the Pentagon spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to the alliance, which has lasted six decades. Key Resolve itself is a command-post exercise with the computer-based simulation of bringing troops and equipment onto the Korean Peninsula in the event of war. More spectacular is the Foal Eagle part of the exercise which features thousands of U.S. troops airlifted here from their duty stations around the world, some in the continental United States.

 

In the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle 2010, 18,000 U.S. service members, including 8,000 from outside Korea, are engaged in joint maneuvers with Korean armed forces. Historically, it was North Koreans themselves that invited the United States to launch the intercontinental rapid deployment exercises with their series of provocations back in the late 1960s. After a commando raid in Seoul and the capture of the USS Pueblo in January 1968, the North mounted guerrilla attacks and DMZ forays throughout the year.

 

The long-range deployment and field exercise that started in 1968 has continued to 2010 without interruption, only changing the codename to Freedom Vault, Team Spirit and to Key Resolve. In the long post-Korean War period, relations between Seoul and Washington have had a few bumps but their military cooperation - buttressed by the joint exercises and the annual ministerial-level Security Consultative Meetings - has not been shaken a bit to date.

 

A major shift in the mode of military alliance is forthcoming with South Korea's takeover of wartime operational control from the United States in 2012 and the possible employment of the U.S. Forces in Korea in future regional conflicts following the relocation of all USFK to the new Osan-Pyeongtaek base. These changes would require greater operational flexibility for the USFK but they should in no way be allowed to interfere with the maintenance of the U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

ATTACKS IN RUSSIA

 

Koreans study all over the world on short- and long-term programs to learn languages and attend general and specialized courses. From elementary to college level, these young students visiting or residing on all continents get valuable experiences of overseas life, exposing themselves to various kinds of cultural adventures, which could sometimes accompany physical risks.

 

There were occasional reports of violent incidents involving Korean students abroad, but their frequency was not of the level that caused too much concern. Yet, the recent series of attacks on Korean students in Russia is particularly alarming because it bears the hallmarks of hate crime, rather than simple robbery.

 

Last month in the Siberian city of Barnaul, the capital of the Altai region, a group of young Russians beat to death a male Korean student from Gwangju who was on a language program. The Russian police arrested three youths in connection with the attack in which the authorities have found no motivation of stealing money, according to Korean diplomats. On Sunday in a new residential zone in Moscow, a masked man stabbed a Korean student in the neck and fled. The 29-year-old victim remains in critical condition after receiving surgery.

 

These unprovoked attacks have caused the roughly 2,000 Korean students in Russia to fear further racially-motivated assaults. The Korean Embassy in Moscow asked the Russian authorities to ensure better security for the large number of Korean students, but we cannot expect any extraordinary steps from them, as they are already heavily burdened with a rising crime rate.

 

Individual caution is the best way to evade mishaps. The Korean Embassy, for its part, should provide up-to-date security information for Korean residents and students so that they can seek personal safety in commuting and engaging in social activities outside schools or homes. The Embassy is at the moment advised against additionally designating any part of the country for travel restriction as such a measure could generally hamper business or other necessary activities by Koreans in Russia.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

RISE OF THE MARKET-MIMICKING STATE

ANDREW SHENG

 

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, free market fundamentalists crowed that it was the end of central planning and the triumphalism of their philosophy. Twenty years later, with excesses of fiscal spending and having to bail out the banking system, the Western economies all have very large state involvement in the economy and fiscal deficits are historical huge by any standards.

 

No country today can claim with an honest face that their banking systems are totally privately owned. Many are still being kept on life support by huge deposit guarantees and cheap funding by central banks, including large state ownership. In order to generate employment, governments are spending unprecedented amounts.

 

How big is the size of the state in the total economy? The more advanced economies tend to have very large governments. France has government expenditure around 50 percent of GDP and the U.S. at 40 percent. By comparison, China and Indonesian government expenditure are only 20 percent. According to historical data, for most of Chinese history, government revenue never exceeded 10 percent of GDP.

 

Government has grown in size due to growing demand for government services. The minimum government services are defense, security, health, law, infrastructure and education. Government was not always financed by taxation. Throughout history, government has been financed sometimes by monopoly over certain activities, such as sales of salt, tobacco or alcohol. Thus, including state-owned enterprises into the sphere of government activity would increase the size of the public sector.

 

As Asia grew faster than the West, there has been considerable unease that Asian governments have been much more intrusive and mercantilist than the advanced economies. When Japan became the first Asian economy to join the ranks of industrial countries, the Japanese government was quite keen to push the Japanese model of development, especially the positive role of the public sector. In the 1980s, the Japanese government financed a World Bank study on the Asian miracle.

 

The World Bank economists, who were imbued by free market philosophy, were initially unwilling to accept the fact that governments have a major positive role in economic development. But as they dug into East Asian growth, they realized the strong role government played in fostering sound markets. Indeed, without an active role of Asian governments in building up the infrastructure, devoting resources to education and health and providing political stability and protection of property rights, Asian markets could not have grown so fast. The World Bank economists admitted that Asian state-market cooperation succeeded because the state "mimicked" the market.

 

Even though the free market World Bank economists hated the idea of governments "picking the winners," they had to admit that Asian technocrats somehow did select the key industries to develop, but with crucial input from the market. They did not pick winners from thin air, but worked with the market and had good feedback on when to advance and when to retreat.

 

With the failure of central planning, free market philosophy gained dominance. Throughout the advanced economies, the philosophy was to reduce the role of the state and roll back government intervention. For the developing economies, the advice was to privatize, whereas for the advanced economies, former government activities became joint-ventures through what is known as private-public partnerships. When the governments could not afford to undertake any infrastructure investment, the private sector was invited to invest through "build-operate and transfer" contracts.

 

In many countries, this strategy worked and efficiency did increase. But in other countries, privatization became

"piratization," in which politically connected elites enjoyed the perfect game - private profit at public expense. Indeed, while economists argued for free markets, the democratic movement was arguing for exactly the opposite, more and more government intervention to deal with social justice, protecting the environment and better social infrastructure.

 

The global financial crisis has laid bare the free market dogma. The market cannot solve all problems and may create excesses that need to be curbed. If regulation is too market friendly, the system may be captured so that "too large to fail" institutions can hold whole countries to ransom. Indeed, global banks have become larger than national governments who were forced to bail them out with public debt. In less than five years, the U.S. public debt has doubled to 100 percent of GDP. Governments have been forced to be more intrusive in markets because of the high cost of moral hazard.

 

Actually, where Asian government has succeeded is not whether the government led the way, but where the balance between government and the market was delicately calibrated. Economies work well where governments knew how to let the market work where it functioned best and the government concentrated on what it did best. The idea of Hong Kong being the freest market in the world is a bit of a myth, considering that half of Hong Kong citizens live in government owned low-cost housing and the government provided superb social welfare. Positive non-intervention did not mean no intervention. It meant that the government provided the environment for the private sector to thrive, without competing directly with the private sector.

 

How far the pendulum has swing is demonstrated in the recent report that U.S. regulators have begun to ask hedge funds not to destroy trading records on euro bets, as Europe and the U.S. step up scrutiny of the funds' role in the Greek debt crisis. I still remember when Asian governments asked the developed markets to investigate the role of hedge funds, the advanced market regulators were so skeptical of market manipulation that they set up task forces to prove that the hedge funds were not responsible for the market turmoil in Asia.

 

By contrast, China recently approved the use of short selling, whereas in 2008 the leading Western banks were

the first to complain to their regulators to ban naked short-selling on their stocks to prevent their meltdown.

 

Regulators investigating the role of hedge funds speculating on the euro would be wise to start measuring the proprietary trading position of their large banks and prime brokers first to find out whether these positions are larger than those of the hedge funds. During the Asian crisis, I learned that it was not always your enemies who are acting against your interests. If you have friends like these, who needs enemies?

 

Andrew Sheng is author of the book "From Asian to Global Financial Crises." - Ed.

 

(Asia News Network)

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE MIDDLE AGAINST BOTH EXTREMES

KIM SEONG-KON

 

Whenever something big happens, for example, if a Korean athlete wins a gold medal in the Olympics, Korean television companies always get overexcited. They virtually disregard all other news in order to highlight the big event continuously. Then they cancel regular programs, including popular soap operas that housewives cannot live without, in order to rerun the big event again and again until viewers become sick and tired of it. Words like "moderation," "temperance" or "restraint" do not seem to exist in the vocabulary of Korean broadcast companies, which obviously do not know the famous maxim, "He who drinks a little too much drinks much too much."

 

Such extremism can be found in schools as well. When we are young and vulnerable, we should be taught to see the world without prejudice or preconception. That is why students are introduced to many aspects and views of human civilization and history at school. While reading and learning about the world from different perspectives, young people can gradually develop the ability to make their own value judgments. This process is what we call an "education."

 

As intellectual guides, therefore, teachers should only aid in the process of intellectual maturation of their students. They should not brainwash students with certain political ideologies or turn them into their political disciples. Unfortunately, however, some radical teachers in our country today still try to mold the vulnerable minds of our students and pollute their innocent souls with obsolete Marxist ideology. Recently, a middle school teacher took his students to a pro-North Korea/anti-America political rally. Surely he crossed the line as a teacher who should teach from a neutral stance. Intoxicated by self-righteousness, however, these radical teachers claim that they are "educating" their students to build a better world. According to these teachers, we can make a "better world" through a social revolution that overthrows the rich, privileged conservatives. Conveniently, this "noble cause" justifies using any means, including brainwashing vulnerable young students or bringing children to their demonstration sites.

 

There is a saying that something is not right if a man is not a leftist in his 20s, or if he remains a leftist in his 40s and 50s. In South Korea, however, quite a few people in their 60s and even 70s still remain stout leftwing activists. It seems that these radicals can never escape their intellectual puberty saturated with pseudo-heroism. However, history has proven that both socialism and communism are debunked Utopian pipedreams.

 

In a popular television drama, "Bones," a former radical leftist regretting her turbulent past writes to her daughter: "Without understanding, compassion, and love, you can't change the world; a dogmatized political ideology only kills people and destroys the world." Yet our extreme leftists still seem to be full of vengeance and hatred, and are destroying the world with their violent social revolution that will inevitably kill many people as collateral damage.

 

Extreme rightists and corrupt capitalists should be admonished as well. When referring to Marxism and industrial capitalism, Thomas Pynchon poignantly criticized the two ideologies, writing, "Underneath, both are part of the same creeping horror." Indeed, both Hitler and Stalin were nightmarish tyrants who massacred many innocent people for their extreme political ideologies. Why then do our leftists still naively believe that they can build a socialist paradise on the Korean peninsula?

 

Like a pair of wings, moderate left wings and moderate right wings are necessary to maintain the balance of a society. Indeed, nothing is wrong with left or right until they are pushed to the extreme. For example, many intellectuals and writers are moderate leftists because they take the side of the underprivileged, rather than the wealthy and politically powerful. Perhaps the greatest problem lies in our social atmosphere that does not allow the middle ground and forces us to choose one of the two extremes.

 

As for me, I trust neither extreme left nor hardcore right, and neither radical progressives nor corrupt conservatives. For example, I once signed the petition to abolish the National Security Law and then withdrew my signature after realizing we may still need the law to protect our nation from communist infiltration. Later, I also signed a petition in protest against the Roh administration for steering the nation in the wrong direction and then withdrew my name after finding out the protest was sponsored by paleoconservatives. I feel sad watching the hostile confrontation of the extremes in our country: between belligerent radicals vs. hardcore conservatives and extreme left vs. extreme right.

 

In his celebrated essay published in the 1960s, Leslie A. Fiedler emphasized the importance of "the middle against both ends." In Korean society, however, there seems to be no place for moderate people even in 2010. When they went out into the street, our ancestors walked unflappably in the middle of the road, believing the old saying, "The superior man walks on the wide road." We need to learn from our ancestors' wisdom to avoid extremism and encourage those who walk down the middle of the road.

 

Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul National University Press. - Ed.

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE ENEMY WITHIN: GREATER DANGER IN U.S.

 

Almost daily I talk with a good attorney friend about the pressing political, social and sometimes mundane local news of the day.

 

He usually initiates the early morning calls while on his way from his home to his Dallas office. And he most often starts the conversation with a provocative question.

 

The other day he began by asking, "What is the difference between an al-Qaeda terrorist and a misguided American terrorist?"

 

Before I had a chance to respond, he gave the answer:

 

"The planes they fly."

 

I know him well enough to know that he was reacting to the "suicide bomber" who had crashed a plane into an Austin, Texas, office building that housed employees of the Internal Revenue Service.

 

He was more agitated than usual. I correctly guessed it was because of the debate raging over the Internet on whether the disgruntled pilot was a terrorist or just a common criminal. My friend was more than upset at a growing online response praising the attacker as some kind of hero while, at the same time, supposedly renouncing his cowardly act.

 

We both agreed that Andrew Joseph Stack III, the 53-year-old pilot, was a terrorist. He had planned to kill himself, while destroying a building and taking the lives of people he didn't know, all in the name of striking a blow against the evil U.S. government (the IRS in particular).

 

What is the difference between him and the al-Qaeda operatives who crashed into the World Trade Center towers, except for the size and make of the planes they used?

 

Some have suggested that Stack's motives were not driven by religion like the "Muslim jihad" movement. Many Muslims will tell you that al-Qaeda's religious rationalizations are just that -- rationalizations.

 

The latest news about Stack is that part of his discontent with the IRS is that the agency refused to accept his bogus claim that his house was a church, a scheme used several years ago by the so-called tax deniers.

 

He decided to take out his frustration on a building and the people in it, killing a true patriot who was a Vietnam veteran. It was remarkable that many more were not killed by the crash and subsequent explosion and fire.

 

But enough of Stack and his insane act.

 

Americans, who are obsessed with the thought of foreign (and more specifically Muslim) terrorist acts against this country, must realize that throughout the years we have been in much more danger of home-grown terrorists, most of whom had no concept of Islam.

 

The numerous lynchings, cross-burnings, bombings, rapes and sundry other destruction of people and property over the last 100 years far outweigh the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

 

I do not mean to discount the loss of life and security experienced on that dreadful day, but we must face our own American demons as we continue to put a face on the foreigners who wish us ill.

 

In the last few weeks, a series of church burnings in East Texas reminded us of a time in the 1950s and 1960s when churches were the targets of racists' bombs and fires. Some might attribute these latest acts of violence sheer mischief or vandalism.

 

But these criminals are terrorists.

 

As far as I know, Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma City federal building, was not a Muslim, but he most definitely was a terrorist.

 

I fear there are more to come.

 

Yes, there are foreign despots who would wish us harm and who are willing to die if they can take a few Americans with them. But there also are Americans who are driven by fear and anger and an insane hatred of those they feel are not -- and never will be -- like them.

 

It has been well-reported that many people in this country are buying up guns and ammunition, preparing for Armageddon -- not a war against robbers and burglars and home invaders, but against their own government.

 

Could some of them be the potential next terrorists?

 

Most of these folks are not al-Qaeda or the Taliban or Muslim.

 

They are our neighbors.

 

Bob Ray Sanders is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. -- Ed.

 

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)

 

By Bob Ray Sanders/McClatchy Newspapers

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

A BLUEPRINT FOR CHINA

 

In 2009, China succeeded in tiding over the impact of the worst global financial crisis in decades thanks to the government economic stimulus package, which included a 4 trillion yuan (¥52 trillion) two-year investment. But Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report to China's Parliament shows that a crucial time has come for the country to make serious efforts to realize a "harmonious society" by solving such problems as an increasing gap between the rich and the poor, soaring property prices and ethnic tensions.

 

As Mr. Wen said in his report to the annual session of the National People's Congress, which started March 5, China was the first country to emerge from the global economic downturn. In 2009, China's gross domestic product grew 8.7 percent. The rate was lower than the 9.6 percent growth in 2008 and the annual double-digit growth from 2003 to 2007.

 

For this year, Mr. Wen set the economic growth target at "around 8 percent." Economic growth at this pace is needed to absorb surplus labor, primarily new graduates and people who move from rural to urban areas. The government will try to create more than 9 million jobs in cities, keep urban employment at no higher than 4.6 percent and hold the rise in the consumer price index to about 3 percent. Social security and employment-related spending will increase by 8.7 percent.

 

Mr. Wen said that China will continue to pursue a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately easy monetary policy. China's fiscal deficit this year will be 1.05 trillion yuan (about ¥13.7 trillion), up from last year's 950 billion yuan, and its bank lending is targeted at 7.5 trillion yuan (about ¥98 trillion), some 2 trillion yuan less than last year. Mr. Wen said that China will keep the exchange rate of the yuan "basically stable."

 

Mr. Wen described China's overall economic goals by saying, "This is a crucial year for the country to continue fighting against the global financial crisis while maintaining a steady and comparatively fast economic development and accelerating the transformation of economic growth pattern."

 

Pointing out the need for structural change, he called for better energy conservation especially in manufacturing, transport and construction, nurturing of new energy and new materials industries and bio-industry, support for medium-size and small enterprises, and development of financial, distribution and information services.

 

It is remarkable that Mr. Wen vowed to reform the income distribution system and to "resolutely reverse a widening income gap." He said that the government "will not only make the pie of social wealth bigger by developing the economy but also distribute it well on the basis of a rational income distribution system."

 

Mr. Wen's remarks show that the economic gap between the rich and the poor, and rural and urban areas have become urgent problems that need to be solved quickly. In addition, the stimulus package to cope with the global financial crisis has caused a steep rise in property prices.

 

While some Chinese have become affluent enough to own cars and travel abroad, rural residents who come to cities to find jobs are languishing in poverty. They cannot receive basic administrative services because they cannot be registered as city residents under the household registration system. Mr. Wen promised to reform the system, expand housing projects for low-income people and deal with practices like hoarding property and property price rigging.

 

He also vowed to vigorously push policies to achieve social and economic development in the Tibet Autonomous Region, other areas with a large Tibetan population and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. China also has such problems as environmental disruption, frequent labor accidents and corruption. It is high time that China paid serious attention to the quality of economic growth — a difficult task because at the same time it has to create enough jobs for growing labor force. It must be remembered that in 2007 President Hu Jintao called the realization of a "harmonious society" a "long-term historic task" for the Communist Party of China.

 

China's 2010 budget includes a defense budget that marks a 7.5 percent rise from actual spending in 2009. China's defense spending has undergone double-digit increase for 21 straight years since 1988. The 2010 defense budget is still a 10.7 percent increase from the initial budget of 2009.

 

Some observers believe that military crackdowns against ethnic riots in Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region increased actual defense spending in 2009, thus making the growth in the 2010 defense budget growth appear to have slowed. Western analysts think that China's real defense spending is two to three times the disclosed figure. China's poor defense budget transparency will continue to fuel neighboring countries' distrust and fear of China.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

IMF FLUNKS GOOD GOVERNANCE

BY KEVIN RAFFERTY

 

HONG KONG — On Feb. 26, International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn put forward a bold-sketch map for what he called "an IMF for the 21st century," but in the very same week he and two key members of the fund, China and Japan, flunked the most important test for the future of the IMF — good and open governance.

 

At the start of that week, Takatoshi Kato, a former vice minister of finance for international affairs of Japan, retired as IMF deputy managing director, to be succeeded this month by Naoyuki Shinohara, a former vice minister of finance for international affairs of Japan, in what was a clear and blatant case of a job for the "old boys" of Japan's Finance Ministry. Kato had taken over in 2004 from a former top Japanese finance official.

 

Then on Feb. 24, Strauss-Kahn announced that he was appointing Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, as his special adviser.

 

Both appointments fly in the face of the promises of the IMF and the international community for a more open system based broadly on a competitive process for the leading positions in the top international financial institution.

 

Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the IMF and now an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of the IMF: "At the first opportunity, they blew it."

 

He added that "In April the Group of 20 had promised that the management positions, which includes the top dog and the second tier dogs, should all be open to a competitive process."

 

There are three deputy managing directors (MD) under Strauss-Kahn. The senior deputy MD, currently John Lipsky, has always been an American. One of the junior deputies has been a Japanese since 1997 while the other is someone from a developing country, currently Brazil's Murilo Portugal.

 

The second-tier jobs are crucial to the way the IMF works and to its reform. If there is no reform at the second level, what chance is there of getting reform at the top? The crucial questions are who runs the fund — which means the managing director and his deputies and leading advisers, and the shareholdings, since the IMF is owned by its member governments.

 

Ever since the IMF was created more than 60 years ago, its MD has been a European in a cozy postwar deal in which Europeans got the top job at the IMF and Washington chose the president of the World Bank. For half of the time the IMF managing director has been a Frenchman.

 

The United States alone has veto power in the IMF, with 16.77 percent of the votes, more than sufficient to block any important issue on which an 85 percent super-majority is required. No other country comes close. Japan is second with 6.02 percent and Germany third with 5.88 percent, followed by France and the United Kingdom with 4.86 percent each. China, thanks to recent boosts in its shareholding, holds 3.66 percent. India is far down with 1.89 percent, below Italy (3.2 percent) and even below the Netherlands (2.34) and Belgium (2.09).

 

The leading countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, but not India, have their own executive directors among the 24 Washington-based board members who oversee the fund's operations. Other groups of countries share an executive director.

 

Appointments of Shinohara and Zhu are disappointing not because of any problems of the qualities of the two men but because they demonstrate that national governments continue to use the IMF as a political football.

 

Strauss-Kahn should appreciate this more than anyone since France's President Nicolas Sarkozy backed him all the way to Washington because he did not want Strauss-Kahn around as a powerful political rival. Now that Strauss-Kahn has made his reputation in Washington and internationally, Sarkozy has been careful to keep the IMF out of attempts to aid Greece because he does not want Strauss-Kahn to have a triumph to use against him at France's next presidential election in 2012.

 

It may be naive to hope that Strauss-Kahn would prefer to run the world's top international financial body to running for president of a country within the European Union. After all, in Washington he is head of a few thousand bureaucrats, whereas in France he would have a country of 62 million people and a whole army of colorful flunkies sounding fanfares at his arrival — "and the food's better in France," say IMF officials.

 

Nevertheless, if the IMF is to be the efficient and watchful watchdog of the financial system, it has to be professional and international without being constantly subject to national political games. The Japanese deputy managing directors have contributed constructively across a wide range of international issues — but that does not vitiate the argument that the best person should be chosen, not the best retiree for whom Japan wants to find a job.

 

(It is ironic that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to clamp down on amakudari at home, but permitted it abroad, though he would probably claim that the decision on Shinohara's appointment was cleared when the Liberal Democratic Party was in power.)

 

The other essential is that the deputy managing director must become an IMF man, not his country's representative in the decision-making system. (The shareholder governments are represented by the IMF executive directors) Yet the financial press is already referring to Zhu as "China's man in the IMF management." Strauss-Kahn and the IMF believe that China's currency is substantially undervalued, but Zhu was China's principal spokesman in Davos and beyond telling the rest of the world to keep their hands off the yuan. The fear is that Beijing sees the top international jobs not as a way to contribute internationally but to promote its own national agenda.

 

This would make Strauss-Kahn's vision for the 21st-century IMF more difficult to achieve. His seminal vision suggested three main points: improving crisis prevention, to include new multilateral surveillance and "tracing how risk percolates through the system"; bolstering crisis response so that the IMF can move with greater speed and coverage, including short-term, multicountry credit lines; and strengthening the international monetary system with the IMF as a key provider of liquidity.

 

The constant theme of all Strauss-Kahn's ideas is the importance of a multilateral vision and an institution that can think and act across national borders — exactly the opposite of his appointments. Give him and China and Japan a resounding "F."

 

Kevin Rafferty is a former managing editor of publications for the World Bank.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

AT LAST, A TURKISH MILITARY COUP THAT FAILED

BY IBRAHIM KALIN

 

ANKARA — The exposure of the plan hatched by senior military officials — called "Operation Sledgehammer" — to destabilize Turkey's government, and the subsequent arrest of high-ranking officers, demonstrates the growing strength of Turkey's democracy. Moreover, prosecutors' efforts to uncover the truth are not a campaign to discredit the Turkish Army, as some allege; nor has the exposure of "Sledgehammer" led to an emerging showdown between "secularists" and "Islamists."

 

Turkish society and politics are too complicated to be reduced to such simplistic formulas.

 

Nevertheless, this is a very serious moment for Turkey, because it may mark the country's transit from decades of military tutelage of its civilian politicians — and thus complete its transition to full-fledged democracy.

 

"Sledgehammer" is, sad to say, yet another alleged coup plot in a series of attempts to topple the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which was first elected in 2002. According to the Turkish constitution, it is illegal for any agency, even the military, to try to overthrow a democratically elected government. Had such a coup attempt taken place, much less succeeded, it also would have put an end to Turkey's aspirations to become a full member of the European Union.

 

Indeed, the EU's progress reports on Turkey have consistently raised the issue of the military's disproportionate power in Turkish politics, and the fact that some officers do not seem to accept that they are subject to civilian control. The three military coups Turkey endured in 1960, 1971, and 1980 brought neither prosperity nor stability to the country. The "soft coup" of 1997, whereby a democratically elected government was forced by the military to resign, left deep scars in Turkish society. Polls show that an overwhelming majority of Turks respect the army only when it stays within its barracks.

 

According to the evidence gathered by Turkish prosecutors, four coup attempts have been made since the AKP came to power. On April 27, 2007, the Turkish Armed Forces issued a statement opposing the presidential candidacy of Abdullah Gul, Turkey's deputy prime minister and foreign minister at the time, warning that if Gul was elected, Turkey would descend into chaos. But this effort at intimidation failed, and Gul won.

 

Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, the top commander of the Turkish Armed Forces back then, recently admitted that he himself wrote the April 27 memorandum. On March 14, 2008, the chief public prosecutor opened an investigation aimed at shutting down the AKP on the grounds that it was intent on violating the constitutional ban on promoting religion. But the case was motivated almost exclusively by political and ideological considerations, with evidence gathered from newspaper clips and antigovernment Op-Eds.

 

"Sledgehammer" is but the most recent coup plot to be uncovered, going back to 2003. According to the Turkish daily newspaper Taraf, to which the plot was leaked, a 5,000-page plan was drafted to create chaos in Turkey by burning mosques, downing Greek military aircraft and carrying out mass arrests of those who opposed the military. The intent was to prepare the ground for a military takeover.

 

Some critics dismiss this planning as just "war games," not to be taken seriously. The same thing was said by top military officials about another plot, called "The Action Plan against Religious Fundamentalism," drafted by Col. Dursun Cicek. On June 26, 2009, Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug called the Action Plan "just a piece of paper." Eight months later, a military committee investigating the case concluded that the plan was, indeed, drafted to damage and discredit the AKP and government.

 

If none of the above constitutes a breach of democratic principles, one wonders what would. No democratic country would allow such interventions by its military, whatever the circumstances.

 

Yet critics still insist on getting the root cause of these efforts wrong. They try to depict this as a showdown between the "Islamist AKP" and the country's democracy-loving secularists.

 

Daniel Pipes, an American polemicist, has gone so far as almost to endorse the military coups of 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997, arguing that "on four occasions between 1960 and 1997, the military intervened to repair a political process gone awry."

 

One wonders if Pipes would accept the US military taking over the American government if it should ever unilaterally conclude that American politics had gone awry.

 

The fact that these plots have been uncovered is a clear sign of the maturation of Turkish democracy. The legal investigations now under way do not mark a showdown between Islamists and secularists, nor are they a campaign to discredit Turkey's generals. They are part of a process of normalization, of the establishment of absolute civilian control of the military, and confirmation of the principle that no one is above the law.

 

Ibrahim Kalin is chief policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. © 2010 Project Syndicate

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

OUR CAPITAL-COST DISADVANTAGE

 

Extremely high lending rates, next to the acutely inadequate and crumbling basic infrastructure, have now become the second biggest disadvantage affecting businesses in Indonesia in facing foreign competition, and a big barrier to new investment.

 

The cut in Bank Indonesia's benchmark interest rate from 9.5 percent in December 2008 to 6.5 percent last August failed to make a dent on bank lending rates, even though inflation was checked at the historical level of less than 3 percent throughout last year. The interest costs Indonesian businesses have to pay remained at an average of 14 percent, more than twice as much as those paid by their counterparts in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and China.

 

These high capital costs, in addition to grossly inefficient logistics caused by poor basic infrastructure, have deterred new investment because new businesses have to generate unusually high returns. The central bank's policy support and prodding of state banks since the middle of last year to gradually reduce their credit rates in a stronger bid to bolster economic growth remained unheeded.

 

Bank Indonesia made another strong argument on the vital importance of lower interest rates during the annual bankers' dinner meeting in mid January. Late last month Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa again raised the issue of the damaging impact of punitively high lending rates on the economy, at a special meeting with the managements of state banks (as the market leaders) and the minister of state enterprises.

 

The central bank last week again decided to keep its benchmark interest rate at 6.5 percent for the seventh straight month, to promote bank lending.

 

The big question remains why the transmission of the central bank's easier money policy to commercial bank lending rates has remained so slow, even though the financial market stability has become much stronger and the outlook for economic growth remains upbeat. There is usually a time lag of only two to three months before the impact of the central bank rate cut is transmitted to a reduction in lending rates.

 

How can we expect lending growth to expand by 20 percent this year, as targeted by the central bank, to support an economic growth of 5.5 percent, if most businesses consider credit rates so punitively high. Look at how many businesses were reluctant to withdraw loans already approved, leaving undisbursed credit as of last December at almost Rp 300 trillion (US$30 billion). Last year lending expanded only by about 10 percent, but the biggest portion of that growth was enjoyed by consumer loans.

 

We think it is high time for Bank Indonesia to thoroughly audit the cost structure of bank funds and investigate why they continue to charge such unusually high interest rates while deposit rates have fallen to as low as 5 percent. The central bank should also be more forceful in jawboning banks to lower their credit rates. It is simply not fair and economically unwise to allow commercial banks to continue to enjoy net interest rate margins of 5 to 6 percent, while most of their funds, instead of being poured into the real sector, were ploughed to the financial market.

 

Do banks refrain from lending because of self-fulfilling expectations that other banks will not lend as well? If that is the case, state banks, which still account for 40 percent of the industry's total assets, should become the trendsetters, leading credit expansion at reasonably low rates to government-selected priority sectors.

Seen from their multiplier impact on the economy, it would be much better for state banks to significantly expand lending to the real sector at relatively low interest rates rather than booking high profits but clogging the arteries and lifeblood of the economy.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. AND THE WOMEN?

JULIA SURYAKUSUMA

 

Are you sick and tired of the shameful antics of our House of Representatives, as the Bank Century saga rolls on and on and on?  

 

There's the unruly and juvenile behavior of our elected representatives – throwing plastic bottles and calling people names, for heaven's sake! Then there's the grubby betrayal of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) by three members of his own coalition – the Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP).

 

And of course, there's the disloyalty of business tycoon and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, SBY's erstwhile ally and the former People's welfare minister. He seems still stuck in Soeharto-era, old-style patronage politics. Mud sticks, they say.

 

Ah well, that's politics for you – and men too, it seems.

 

So, let's turn our sights on the fairer sex: women! After all, just two days ago we commemorated 100 years of International Women's Day, and women always brighten things up, don't they? Just look at Sri Mulyani Indrawati, our intrepid Finance Minister. Despite the onslaught of attacks from so many parties, she's holding up, still composed, still steadfast and still strong.

 

Maybe that's why SBY finally managed to bring himself to defend the Bank Century bailout, supporting Vice President Boediono and Sri Mulyani, at long last … even if he was three months late! Did he only just remember that these two are the stars in his Cabinet, the ones who kept the Indonesian economy afloat despite the financial crisis? When did he realize Sri Mulyani is one woman who he has no choice but to defend?

 

And what about all the other women in Indonesia? Looks like maybe he ain't doing much to defend them, judging from the demos held on Monday at the Hotel Indonesian traffic circle, in front of the Presidential Palace and at the Supreme Court.

 

Hundreds gathered to demand that SBY's administration take more responsibility for economic, industrial, land, labor and environmental policies that have resulted in the discrimination, exploitation and acts of violence against women.

 

Protestors included women and men from the National Commission on Equality (K2N); the Indonesian Confederation of Prosperous Workers' Unions (KSBSI); the Indonesian People's Opposition Front (FORI); the Indonesian Women's Brigade (PBI); the Women's Movement Caring about Youth; the Nation's Hope (P3HB); and the CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) work group on Indonesia.

 

And they had more to offer than just placards, shouting, and acronyms. They had grim statistics too. According to PBI, for example, every day 12 domestic migrant workers die in the countries where they are sent to work; 1,600 women workers are fired; 20 women are sold as sexual commodities through trafficking; 100 million women have to borrow Rp 30,000 (US$3.30) for daily household consumption needs; 12 women are victims of sexual violence; 48 mothers die giving birth; and one fisherwoman loses 42 hectares of fishponds due to reclamation of the shore for business development. And every four days a woman commits suicide due to economic pressure. Chilling figures, by any reckoning.

 

And I reckon SBY is defending one woman by the name of Sri Mulyani only because he needs her is to hang on to his shiny international reputation. But defending the average woman worker, farmer, fisherwoman, domestic worker (migrant or otherwise) or housewife?  Are you kidding?

 

Don't forget, SBY's is the only post-Soeharto administration that has tolerated new laws that criminalize women who don't follow an Islamic dress code.

 

In fact, I can think of 154 ways that the SBY government has allowed discrimination against women – that's how many regional ordinances (Perdas) were produced across the country between 1999 and 2009 that discriminate against women. According to Kamala Chandrakirana, the former head of the National Commission on Violence against Women, some 64 new regional ordinances limit women's freedom of expression, 21 regulate the way women dress, and 37 are said to be intended to eliminate prostitution, which is difficult to define, but is easily used to criminalize women.

 

And Aceh has its own qanun (its term for Perdas) on khalwat (being in close proximity with a member of the opposite sex who is not your spouse or immediate relative). It has also introduced caning, and even stoning to death for adultery, like in a medieval nightmare – all without SBY lifting a finger to stop them.

 

That's why the demonstrators who came out on International Women's Day last Monday were demanding that SBY now take responsibility for the fate of millions of Indonesian women. They say the government's neoliberal policies are the root cause of the current critical state of women, children and other marginalized people.

 

What will happen to these vulnerable groups, they ask, when the government's bright and shiny new China ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement actually starts being implemented.  The mind boggles!

 

From the very beginning of the presidency in 2004, SBY has consistently pandered to the demands of political Islam for the sake of his coalition government. Just take the regional ordinances as an example. At the beginning of his second term in 2009, he promised to review the situation, but he still hasn't – I suppose he was afraid of shaking up his coalition. Doesn't seemed to have helped much, huh?  He was backstabbed by the PKS regardless.

 

That's why I think that if SBY thought the economy could survive sacrificing Sri Mulyani, he'd probably have dropped her long ago. And I suppose he thinks he can get away with sacrificing the average Indonesian woman, because she doesn't relate directly to saving his neck.

 

But what about saving the nation's neck? Sacrificing women and children, who make up more than 65 percent of the population, involves a lot more than risking one's neck. The whole nation will go down the toilet.

 

So wake up, boys! International Women's Day happens only once a year, but Indonesian Women's Day is every day of the year!

The writer is author of Julia's Jihad.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

WHAT WE COULD EXPECT FROM OBAMA'S VISIT

YOHANES SULAIMAN

 

Barring any unforeseen trouble ahead, US President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Indonesia and Australia in the second half of March.

 

For both President Obama and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), the visit will be a welcome diversion from domestic political headaches that currently grip both leaders.

 

Of course, this will also be a great photo opportunity for both Presidents. Obama will be able to show the folks back home that he is still the most popular president on the face of the Earth and still commands respect and admiration from a country with the highest Muslim population in the world.

 

Meanwhile, SBY will relish the international spotlight while showing off Indonesia as one of the most beautiful and important countries in the world.

 

The million-dollar question is what Indonesia should expect from President Obama's visit.
The bad news is that Indonesia should not expect too much from this visit. Aside from reaffirming Indonesia as one of the US's major trading and security partners and his personal visit to his childhood "kampung" in Menteng, it is very unlikely that Obama will bring anything major to the table.

 

With the US congress is in uproar thanks to his healthcare mess and the US economy just starting its slow rebound, Obama's options are limited.

 

On the other hand, in light of Indonesia's recent successes in tackling radical Muslims (e.g. Noordin M. Top), considering Indonesia's willingness to help the US over the past several years, and not to mention Obama's personal attachment to Indonesia, SBY needs to capitalize on this occasion to press the US on several important aspects, notably on the issue of trade, security and education.

 

Trade, of course, will always be one of the most important aspects of this visit. Aside of course, hoping to increase US investment in Indonesia, President Yudhoyono should also focus on trying to increase Indonesia's exports to the US.

 

Facing the flood of cheap Chinese goods, thanks to the implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, Indonesian manufacturers need to increase exports, especially on high-quality or highly specialized goods in order to survive.

 

Regardless of the economic crisis and high unemployment rate, the US remains one of the richest countries and one of the largest markets in the world.

 

Its economy has also improved far better than those in Europe. As a result, Indonesia needs to try to increase its market share in the US.

 

The second important aspect is the military aspect. While the US had lifted its arms embargo on Indonesia, Indonesia still faces difficulties in procuring more arms from the US due to cost, bureaucratic hassle and congressional hostility. Of course, it can be argued the Indonesian military needs to undergo structural reform first.

Still, the fact remains the Indonesian military is vastly under-equipped and needs more equipment and spare parts to defend the huge expanses of Indonesian territory.

 

As US forces are stretched thin due to commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and all over the world, the US needs a friendly Indonesia to maintain the stability of the region in the face of threats from a rising China and radical religious terrorists, not to mention criminal elements such as human traffickers or drug smugglers. It is only fair the US help Indonesia modernize and equip its military forces.

 

While the US Congress, especially the Democrats, are usually pretty hostile and critical toward the Indonesian military, Obama actually could persuade his Democrat party colleagues and more friendly Republican congressmen to back more military aid to Indonesia in order to improve regional security and stability.

 

The debate over the US policy on Afghanistan showed that Republicans were more than willing to support President Obama's military buildup, so Obama just needs to convince his Democratic colleagues to support more military aid to Indonesia by arguing that it is in the interest of improving regional security.

 

The third important aspect is education, especially more opportunity for civilians and military officers to pursue higher education at American universities.

 

While the quality of Indonesian education is steadily improving, Indonesia still needs more capable civil and military scholars to help further improve its higher education institutions.

 

In addition, SBY should urge American universities to open branches in Indonesia, as they have in Singapore.

 

For the US, this is a win-win proposition, an increase in the number of Indonesian scholars studying there means that they will be immersed in American values and share them back in Indonesia when they return.

 

These scholars can help improve the image of the US and its reputation in Indonesia, which took major beatings under George W. Bush.

 

On military affairs, as Indonesian Army officers become more professional, they will help reform the Indonesian military and strengthen democracy in Indonesia.

 

In the end, while Indonesia should not expect much from Obama's visit, SBY still needs to capitalize on it and push for more cooperation in trade, security and education.

The writer is a lecturer at the Indonesian Defense University and the executive director of the Center for Democracy Integrated Peace and Security Studies.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

INDONESIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS AUSTRALIAN PM RUDD CHANCE FOR REDEMPTION

JOHN LEE

 

The four-day visit by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Australia is timely as the Indonesian leader and his counterpart, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will discuss a number of matters such as trade, cooperation on asylum seekers and regional security. But the real value of Yudhoyono's visit for the Rudd government is political.

 

With few foreign policy achievements to speak of, and several high profile missteps in Asia, the Australian PM's domestic and international reputation has taken a blow. By meeting one-on-one with Australia's most important and powerful regional partner, it is a chance for Kevin Rudd to show his critics two things:

 

First, he still has the respect of powerful friends in the region.

 

And second, he will no longer attempt to be the lone ranger in determining Southeast Asia's future but learn to consult with leaders of the region's key states. 

 

The blow to the Australian PM's foreign policy credentials is somewhat surprising. Having positioning himself as Australia's intellectual, Mandarin-speaking statesman-in-waiting while in Opposition, experts expected that PM Kevin Rudd would usher in an enhanced era of Asian engagement.

 

The prime minister had promised to ramp up Australia's "middle power" activism and creativity in Asia. Asian leaders and elites appreciated an Australian leader with an avowed interest and expertise in Asia. Yet, under Rudd's leadership, Canberra has managed to enrage Beijing, irritate New Delhi, antagonize Singapore and annoy Tokyo and Jakarta.

 

When it comes to Southeast Asia, the government stumbled when Rudd first proposed a security structure in 2008 for an Asia Pacific Community (APC) that could take its inspiration from the European Union and discuss the full range of strategic, security, and economic issues in the region within the one new multilateral forum. He has been trying to recover ever since.

 

There were two problems with this proposal.

 

The first is that it misread the strategic zeitgeist. Like all states in the region, the main question revolves around what to do about China's rise. Most states – large and small — want to avoid the formal discussion of top-level security matters (eg., great power tensions or an increased role for the Chinese navy) in any all-inclusive multilateral security forum for fear of having to explicitly "rebuff" Beijing.

 

Furthermore, the unspoken preference of most Asian states is to resist offering China a forum for a more equal say in security matters, especially regarding matters in the South China Sea, until China is truly enmeshed and committed to regional rules and norms. This is not yet sufficiently the case and the APC would have diluted existing leverage over China without Beijing offering any meaningful commitments in return.

 

The second problem is one of both leadership style and substance. Known for making foreign policy and other big decisions "on the run",  Rudd never bothered to consult with regional leaders before launching an idea that could radically change the way strategic and diplomatic interaction is to take place.

 

In insulting an already skeptical region, his special APC envoy, Richard Woolcott, was reportedly offered the post only two hours before it was first announced. Worse still, when it came to substance, the APC would presumably eventually replace the so-called "weak" institution of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) even though Australia is not a member of ASEAN. Canberra, smugly enjoying the American security guarantee, was telling Southeast Asia how to reorganize its strategic future without the Australian leader having even discussed his ideas with key regional leaders.

 

The result: in one sense, the Rudd government has delivered what he promised. He is one of the more tireless, imaginative, assertive and proactive heads-of-government in the region. But in a more important footnote, Canberra wound back some of the progress made in Australia's relationships with key states achieved during the Howard era. Whereas the whole point of "creative middle power" activism is to win new friends and influence powerful players, Australian moves inadvertently annoyed and enraged existing ones respectively.

 

Fast forward to 2010 and Australia has belatedly discovered that despite the flurry of multilateral activity in the region, stability and progress in Asia (like the rest of the world) is built on the back of strong government-to-government relationships and understanding between key states. Therefore, the visit by President  Yudhoyono is a chance for Rudd to show the region that he is indeed adept at the bilateral game.

 

The visit of Yudhoyono is also fortuitous for several other reasons. Indonesia is the largest and most powerful player in Southeast Asia. When it comes to issues such as managing China's power and influence in the South China Sea, regional terrorism, people smuggling and other transnational crimes, as well as the multilateral future of Asia, little will be achieved without Jakarta's cooperation.

 

Hence, deepening the bilateral relationship between Jakarta and Canberra ought to be one of the first priorities before regional "activism"on Australia's part.  

 

Finally, the visit comes days before US President Barack Obama sets foot on Australian shores. Rudd will want to show that Australia's "special relationship" with America makes Canberra more important and relevant to a changing region, rather than less. A productive meeting with both the Indonesian and American President is the Rudd government's first step toward regional redemption.  

The writer is the foreign policy fellow at the Center for Independent Studies in Sydney and a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

WOMEN RIGHTS: AN INTERNATIONAL ISSUE?

VENILLA RAJAGURU-PUSHPANATHAN

 

An extraordinary question at an unexpected moment cropped up during a meeting on gender Issues.

The question: "Is women rights still relevant to women from the West?". An ambassador's wife, from one of the EU member countries, and herself from the medical field, visibly alarmed by the question responded, "Yes, we have to take care of our health!", alluding to the basic right to live a healthy life.

 

One common misunderstanding, despite extensive literature and UN Declaration on Human Rights, is the fallacy of perceiving "rights" as an absolute set of "code", to be prescribed in absolute terms, at all situations, to all peoples in the world.

 

Human rights in general, and women rights in particular, is codified law now in many countries in the West, South and Southeast and East Asia. Yet what remains largely an unexplored territory of investigative research and understanding is how cultures and societal structures within a community influence the absolute code of "the right".

 

Whether it is the personal choice of burqa, divorce, abortion, change of name and religion, to disregard education and be a school dropout, or to gregariously pollute the surroundings in course of industrial revenue, the choice is exercised almost never in isolation but in relation to communal beliefs and societal codes of behavior.  

 

The interesting paradox is this: all rights is fundamentally based on individual needs to further dignified life and survival. Women rights in particular cannot always be a set of codes, handed down to the international community of women all over the planet. It would be useful to examine if culture specific and country specific women rights need to be incorporated as by laws to the already existing body of International Legal Tenets on Human Rights.

 

The difficulty and challenge in a country specific/culture specific women rights is of course the vast scope for legal or illegal suppression and oppression of women, wives, mothers and daughters. Too often we are surrounded by real life facts of housewife torture and harassment, bride murders, female infanticide, workplace bullying, abandonment and trafficking, and illegal oppression towards childbearing roles. And too often we hear too of women organizations, and commissions working to protect the rights of women and children.  

 

But how far have policies and projects helped in curbing domestic violence, halting trafficking of women and children and promoting equal rights in the work place? While the latter two phenomena can be assessed and quantified by project managers and NGOs, domestic violence remains elusive, un-assessed and much unreported in both western and eastern parts of the world.     

 

The second common misconception is that codified women rights exist to only "protect" women's welfare. But "rights" in this modern age need to reach out beyond protection and protectionism, in order to create new opportunities towards women's empowerment.

 

This brings us back to the all encompassing matter on health pointed out by the medical doctor and diplomat's spouse. Health and the right to health services is one of the most controversial and the most basic human right. Health as a basic right is linked to our right to live, but exercising this right has become controversial, because far too much of health services and medical advancement is now privatized as businesses and linked to a quagmire of insurance investments. Hence invariably, the right to quality and timely health services has evolved as the privilege of the rich, while the poor and the rural community are marginalized, isolated and untreated.  

 

It is of course the job of another "Undercover Economist" to study the link between suppressed women's rights and lagging economy, proportion of migration spurred by inadequate health nutrients and facilities, to unemployment statistics in overcrowded cities linked to street violence and syndicated business of begging, prostitution and regrettable escalation in crime.

 

Human rights has now evolved as a full-fledged industry with international franchise offices of the much needed management and legal consultants, with writers and academics discussing human rights violation cases to bring to the world's attention some of the unthinkable cruelties in the world. But it is important to recognize the extremism that prevails at both ends of the spectrum.

 

The necessity of the International Court of Justice for Human Rights is indisputable, to deter, curb and try human rights violations. However, women's rights wavers between conformity to communal practices and internationally recognized rights, and practitioners need to recognize this subtle web of personal choice versus objective standards. Thus, the third misconception arises out of individualistic one dimensional view of "rights". As early as the 19th century, a little known writer then, Charles Lamb examined the issue of balance between personal rights and personal responsibility.

 

The freedom that "rights" affords is inevitably coupled with "responsibility". Ultimately, both human and women rights is about personal and social responsibility of individuals, activists and governments. What needs to be urgently recognized by both leaders and common people is an imminent need for peace and stability in every society, by acknowledging and curbing militant and demonstrative activism as well as militant politics. At extremes, both militant governance and human rights demands lead to violence and crime.

 

Women's right is still an international issue because it is politicized. But in actual terms in the new millennium, we have soared to a different level beyond the 1960s and 1970s militant feminism. Today's women rights is a far subtler art of "balance"– balancing family, profession, politics, faith and friends. Complemented by the international legal framework of "rights", understanding and exercising women's rights in every culture is more of a personal struggle and journey towards empowerment, freedom and love of belonging to a place, and to a community of friends.

The writer is president of ASEAN Secretariat Women's Wing. The author's views are personal.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

ELECTION CHANGE IS LIMITED

 

Domestic media tend to interpret Clause 11 in the draft amendment to the Law on Election that will replace Article 33 of the existing legislation as a requirement for election organizers to expose candidates for national and local legislatures to their constituencies.

 

Until now, candidates in such elections have been introduced to their constituencies via dryly succinct bios provided by organizers. Without proper knowledge as to whom they are choosing from, even the multiple-candidate arrangement appears cosmetic: Voting will be more like guesswork.

 

Showing voters the candidates, letting candidates introduce themselves and their plans of action once elected, and forcing candidates to field questions from voters would make elections significantly truer to their names.

 

It will establish an essential yet thus far absent link between our citizens and their legal representatives. Absent any connections, all rhetoric about voter supervision sounds hollow.

 

We can see the drafters' aspiration to install the missing link. But they do not seem to have traveled far enough down that direction.

 

Just take a look at the old and new texts. Article 33 of the Election Law says: "Electoral committees may organize candidates for deputies to meet voters, and answer their questions." This shows that the idea of such meetings exists in the current law, and that it is an option, not an obligation.

 

Clause 11 of the draft amendment states: "Electoral committees, at voter request, shall organize candidates for deputies to meet voters, and the candidates for deputies shall introduce themselves and answer voters' questions."

 

We do see a step forward here. Yet it should have been bigger. The revision has spelled out a legal obligation, but with a precondition - only when voters ask for an interview.

 

Given the obvious necessity and benefits of such meetings, there are thousands of reasons to exempt our voters from that trouble of request. We wonder why the drafters have instead made it an obligation by request.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

KEY ROLE OF FOREX POLICY

 

The message from Yi Gang, head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, is noteworthy in that China's foreign exchange policy mainly aims to facilitate trade, cross-border investments and economic exchanges as the country opens up more to other nations.

 

Both advocates for and opponents against revaluation of the Chinese currency should reconsider their stances in view of this important function of China's $2.4 trillion foreign reserves. Management of the world's largest sum of forex reserves is closely watched, especially amid the global recession.

 

Yi, a central bank vice-governor, reaffirmed Tuesday that China will keep the exchange rate of the renminbi at a reasonable and balanced level. That remark may be not enough to disperse recent speculations on revaluation of the yuan.

 

On the one hand, the gradual recovery of the global economy has added to renewed momentum in Chinese exports. On the other hand, foreign direct investment is expected to increase steadily as China's economic growth gains steam.

 

Some people argue that China should revalue its currency to deal with greater pressures from the rising inflow of trade surplus and foreign investment funds. Others insist that an appreciation of the yuan will exert unbearable pressure on domestic industries struggling with climbing labor costs at home and declining demand abroad.

 

The emphasis that Yi put on the fundamental function of China's foreign exchange policy provides a key criterion to measure their appropriateness.

 

A relatively stable yuan has so far served as an anchor for both the Chinese economy and the global economy to survive the economic crisis. No adjustment in China's foreign exchange policy should override this critical role it plays

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

SET NEW LOCAL CRITERIONS

 

It isn't the lack of money but a lack of concern on the government's part that matters when it comes to its input in healthcare, said Minister of Health Chen Zhu at a Monday press conference at the ongoing National People's Congress.

 

It is indeed a matter of governing concept, as he said. Local governments would be more than happy to invest in economic projects, which could have huge economic benefits and increase revenue for a local government.

 

A high economic growth rate and increasing revenue, as the most important benchmarks of a government's performance now, influences the promotions of local government leaders. So why bother about input in healthcare?

 

What this all boils down to is the yardstick the central government uses to measure the performance of their local counterparts. It is high time that more major criterions other than economic growth rate were used to judge how good a locality is governed.

 

Among other things, too much concern for growth rate will estrange a local government and its leaders from the residents they govern, and will likely distract them from attending to the livelihood of local people. Unwillingness by local government to invest in healthcare is a typical example of how they place economic growth before everything.

 

Only when the performance of a government is judged by how well it serves the interest of local residents can we expect its leaders pay enough attention to the well-being of residents.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

IS US' NUKE-FREE WORLD PLEDGE SINCERE?

BY HU YUMIN (CHINA DAILY)

Media reports from the United States say the Barack Obama administration is conducting a "nuclear posture review", aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals and reassessing the importance of nuclear weapons in America's national security strategy.

 

A "historic change" this review could consider is adopting a policy of no-first use of nuclear weapons. An issue related to the review is limiting the use of nuclear weapons to deter nuclear strikes - in other words, nuclear weapons should not be a deterrent to biological, chemical or conventional weapon attacks.

 

Recently, the Japanese foreign minister said Tokyo would request Washington to adopt a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons. The earlier Japanese government, too, had called for the destruction of nuclear weapons. It, however, had asked the US to be the first to use nuclear weapons to defend Japan.

 

In Europe, the German foreign minister has said his country, too, would like to contribute to nuclear disarmament by asking the US to remove all nuclear weapons from its installations in Germany, because they are a relic of the Cold War.

 

For years, the US has been refusing to consider adopting a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, citing the needs of its strategic allies as an excuse. So there is reason to believe that the appeal of its two important allies in Asia and Europe may have prompted the Obama administration to carry out a "nuclear posture review".

 

History tells us that George Kennan, American security strategy expert, first put forward the idea "no-first-use of nuclear weapons". Sixty years ago, Kennan said in a memorandum to the then US secretary of state that the erstwhile Soviet Union was trying to avoid a nuclear war. Therefore, he suggested, the US should reconsider its nuclear strategy and change the policy of being the first to use nuclear weapons in case of war with the Soviet Union to gain control of the nuclear situation. Kennan's suggestion was ignored.

 

At a summit in Geneva five years later, the Soviet Union proposed that Moscow, Washington and London adopt a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons against any country. But the other nuclear powers (China was not one then) didn't accept the idea, perhaps because of the Cold War.

 

China was the first nuclear power to unilaterally declare it would not be the first to use nuclear weapons against any country. After testing its first atomic bomb, it pledged to use nuclear weapons only as counter-measure against a nuclear strike. China has not changed its stance in more than 45 years - even after being blackmailed by the superpowers.

 

After the end of the Cold War, the nuclear powers began to take confidence-building measures, which helped efforts to stabilize relations among the big powers. In 1992, China and Russia agreed, though temporarily, not to be the first to use nuclear weapons against one another. Two years later, Beijing presented a draft "Treaty on No-First-Use of Nuclear Weapons" to other nuclear powers and urged relevant countries to hold discussions on it. In 2000, the five (recognized) nuclear powers issued a joint statement saying their nuclear weapons would not target at any country. The next year, China and Russia finally signed a treaty on no-first-use of nuclear weapons against one another - the first such treaty between two nuclear powers.

 

Now, the international community is looking forward to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty's next review conference, which is scheduled for May, because it will be an important occasion for the nuclear powers to fulfill their commitments, promote nuclear disarmament and reduce the risk of a nuclear war.

 

If the five nuclear powers can agree to the no-first-use principle at the conference, it would be a big step toward a nuclear-weapon-free world. But if the country with the largest and most advanced nuclear and conventional weapons' arsenal still refuses to accept the no-first-use principle, non-nuclear-weapon states would find it difficult to believe its sincerity in realizing a nuclear-weapon-free world.

 

By using nuclear weapons merely as deterrence against nuclear strikes, the five countries can effectively raise the threshold of nuclear weapons' use and reduce the risk of nuclear accidents. This will play a big role in safeguarding international security, accelerating the process of nuclear disarmament, and maintaining the nuclear non-proliferation regime and global stability. In fact, if the nuclear powers agree not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, it would be conducive to realizing the ultimate goal of complete non-proliferation and total destruction of nuclear weapons.

 

The author is a senior research fellow with China Arms Control and Disarmament Association.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

COCKTAIL OF ASSETS MAY BE THE RIGHT CURE

BY HE ZHICHENG (CHINA DAILY)

 

Recently a debate has sparked domestically about whether it is wise for China, which has a massive amount of foreign exchange reserves, to continue purchasing United States Treasury bonds.

 

China's methods of preserving and increasing the value of its foreign exchange reserves not only influences the security of State reserve assets, but also bears on the stability of the international exchange market.

 

But with the recent debt crisis in Europe, investors globally are waiting to hear from China on the foreign exchange reserves issue.

 

The Chinese government faces a big dilemma: Although it's a great risk to keep buying up US Treasury bonds, it seems that China has to continue purchasing them.

 

Several economists have said that China should reduce its US dollar reserves and its holdings of the US Treasury bonds. A buzz is spreading that the euro and the United Kingdom's pound will collapse, causing China's foreign exchange reserves to shrink.

 

To guarantee the security of China's foreign exchange assets, in the long run it's important to drastically reduce trade surplus and a dependency on exports to developed countries, such as the US. China should also improve its industries, and tap into the increase on domestic demand to offset the decline in foreign demand. But this will be a long process.

 

In the short run, keeping the renminbi strong and stable is key for China to increase its US dollar reserves. Experience has shown that as long as China's economy doesn't slide into a recession, the RMB will not depreciate. In that case China won't have to drastically reduce its US dollar reserves and the monies around the world will be stable and the US dollar will not sharply drop in value.

 

Meanwhile, China's huge amount of foreign exchange assets could guarantee that the RMB will be more accepted worldwide. The security of China's foreign exchange assets will ensure the stability of the RMB's domestic purchasing power. How China manages its foreign exchange assets is very important.

 

If China can't reduce its foreign exchange reserves, it has to manage it better.

 

I recommend the theory of "cocktail-style" foreign exchange reserves. A country's foreign exchange reserves should consist of a variety of currencies in flexible proportions. Only when China's foreign exchange reserve is highly liquid can it resist drastic fluctuations in the international foreign exchange market. It is the premise to increase the overall value of China's foreign exchange reserves.

 

The cocktail-style method is different from the diversification of foreign exchange reserves that has been suggested by some experts, largely because the diversification theory is based on a considerable decrease in US dollar reserves.

 

The cocktail-style theory believes that there's no conflict between the diversification of foreign exchange reserves and purchasing foreign assets. For example, China can purchase more foreign equity holdings and mining concessions. This theory also implies that the diversification of State and private foreign exchange reserves are compatible. The reserves of assets and currencies should go together with the reserves of advanced technologies, intellectual property rights and creative talent.

 

The main ingredient of the cocktail-style theory should be the US dollar, which should be above 60 percent of China's overall foreign exchange reserves. The theory also emphasizes liquidity, which means the country should flexibly adjust the proportions of its main currencies according to market changes. When there is a downtrend of US dollars, we should reduce the holdings of US dollar modestly, as well as the euro and other currencies. The proportion of main currencies in the package of foreign exchange reserves should not stay static.

 

Considering China's large amount of foreign exchange reserves, which make up one-third of the total foreign exchange reserves of all the governments in the world, it will be difficult to frequently adjust China's foreign exchange reserves without giving rise to violent fluctuations in the foreign exchange market. Therefore, the cocktail theory also focuses on the invisibility of adjustments. The adjustment of foreign exchange reserves should be done in a subtle way.

 

Currently, China's foreign exchange management system, centered on the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), can hardly accomplish this. To achieve this goal, we can decentralize the management rights of State foreign exchange reserves and entrust financial institutions, especially overseas ones, to operate them.

 

Experience has shown that the cocktail-style method can stave off and prevent violent fluctuations in the international forex market.

 

The author is a senior economist at the Agricultural Bank of China.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

CARBON INTENSITY A FAULTY GAUGE

BY YANG HONGLIANG (CHINA DAILY)

 

Globally accepted indicator limited in scope and poor in representing an economy's carbon performance

 

China is the world's second largest energy consumer after the United States, and has one of the world's fastest growing energy sectors. While energy fuels economic growth and poverty reduction, inefficient energy use depletes resources at a faster rate and severely damages the environment. It is hard to reconcile continued growth of energy consumption while protecting the environment.

 

The Chinese government has made some strides in improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) mandates a 20 percent reduction in energy intensity (the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP) by 2010. The order applies to all provinces and municipalities.

 

But despite the continuing debate on climate change, little attention has been given to precisely examine the carbon performance of any particular economy. Currently, the most commonly used measure of carbon performance is carbon intensity. Carbon intensity, a simple ratio between carbon emissions and GDP, is easy to understand and use, but it has serious limitations.

 

Sure, the government has made strong political commitments to develop a low-carbon economy. Ten key industries have also been earmarked as sectors that need to save more energy, and 1,000 enterprises that use energy intensively are now under tight supervision.

 

In November, the government said it would reduce the carbon intensity of its economy in 2020 by 40-45 percent compared with the 2005 level.

 

But let's examine the faults of carbon intensity as a performance yardstick. First, it does not incorporate multidimensional features of an economy's carbon performance. As stipulated in the opening paragraph of the Copenhagen Accord, combating climate change needs to be considered "on the basis of equity and in the context of sustainable development". In most countries, most CO2 emissions come from consumption of fossil energy.

 

Energy alone, however, cannot produce any output and it must be combined with other production factors, such as capital and labor, to produce physical output. Countries are at different development stages and have different natural resources and production factors. They all take different development paths. The many facets of different development paths cannot be explained by a simple ratio of carbon intensity.

 

The second thing that's wrong with using carbon intensity is that it cannot measure the substitution effects between energy and other factors. Carbon intensity of an economy, for example, may increase solely because energy is substituting for labor, rather than any underlying deterioration in emissions technology.

 

This can happen in any modernization process for any economy. Other factors, such as a change in energy mix and in the focus shift of sectors in an economy, can also cause movements in carbon intensity but cannot be properly reflected. In some circumstances, the faults with carbon intensity make it meaningless to compare mitigation and adaptive actions across countries.

 

All of these imply that the traditional carbon intensity indicator is too simple to be a proper indicator closely related to economic development, and there is a need to carefully re-examine the theory and find other indicators for carbon performance across an economy.

 

An approach that encompasses a wide range of factors could be considered. Besides CO2 emissions, other factors, such as energy and non-energy inputs need to be included in the discussion. We can assume that to produce a certain amount of GDP, a carbon-efficient economy consumes the minimum level of energy and non-energy inputs, and emits the minimum level of CO2. Based on this idea, a new carbon performance model is built using the provincial level data of China in 2005.

 

Results show that, first, a region's carbon performance can be significantly different from what traditional carbon intensity indicator suggests, and is heavily affected by its resource endowments, such as capital stock, energy supply and its mix, and labor force.

 

Second, many regions had great carbon reduction potentials in 2005. As all regions in China are benchmarked on best practices, this means that China can achieve this carbon reduction using domestically available technologies. This implies the importance of spreading carbon efficient technologies and modern approaches to management on economic operations across regions.

 

Third, as a region's carbon performance is closely linked to its economic development, so the issue of carbon reduction is in essence still an issue of economic development. When talking about an economy's carbon performance, we cannot just talk about this as if we were discussing a technical issue without putting it in a broader context of economic development.

 

Fourth, the carbon intensity indicator exaggerates China's carbon reduction potential. Our results show that if the national average of carbon performance in 2020 could be as efficient as the leading regions in 2005 (such as Shanghai and Beijing), then only about one-third of our carbon intensity can be reduced. Considering the huge development gap between the eastern and western regions in China, where there is a wide gap in GDP per capita, realizing this one-third reduction will be very difficult. Apparently, a 40-45 percent reduction target needs even more extra investments in hardware and software involving carbon reduction.

 

In the newly published World Energy Outlook 2009, the International Energy Agency foresees a 55 percent carbon intensity reduction for China for the period. This leads to an argument that China only commits to business-as-usual, and does not entertain any measures beyond those considered as baselines. But results from a total factor production model are totally different from what carbon intensity tells.

 

Combating climate change requires the international community to work together to reduce CO2 emissions globally, stabilize its atmospheric concentration to a safe level and prevent nations, cities and people from further damaging the environment. Achieving this requires greatly improving the carbon performance of all economies.

 

An economy's carbon efficiency is not only closely related to its economic development but also linked to its international competitiveness and energy security. For policymakers, a sound CO2 reduction target cannot be reached if regional resource endowments are not taken into consideration. This is something worth stressing here.

 

The author is an energy expert with the Asian Development Bank.

CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

CHINA STRIVES TO BUILD SOCIETY WITH MORE FAIRNESS, JUSTICE

BY HAN BING, WU LIMING (XINHUA)

 

The ongoing parliamentary sessions in Beijing have sent a variety of eye-catching reform signals applauded by media and scholars from home and abroad.

 

Underneath the signals there is a theme that China is striving to build a society with more equality, fairness and justice.

 

It goes without doubt that enjoying more equal political rights is a vital symbol for a society with more equality and justice.

 

A draft amendment to the Electoral Law was tabled at the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) for a third reading on Monday.

 

The amendment seeks to grant equal representation to the country's legislatures at all levels, ensuring equality among people, regions and ethnic groups.

 

The draft stipulates that both rural and urban areas adopt the same ratio of deputies to the represented population in elections of deputies to people's congresses, China's fundamental political system.

 

The Malaysian daily Sin Chew Jit Poh commented that the amendment would help boost political stability and social harmony in China.

 

Besides, a more fair social distribution system of social wealth lays down an economic foundation for the society with more fairness, equality and justice.

 

In his government report to the NPC session on Friday, Premier Wen Jiabao said a rational distribution system of social wealth is a vital embodiment of social fairness and justice.

 

The Chinese government is taking steps to reform the current distribution system.

 

"We must outlaw illicit income and regulate gray income to gradually develop an open and transparent income distribution system," Wen said.

 

Just as Richard Baum, former director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, has put it, narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor takes a long time, but the Chinese government is starting to exert an effort.

 

Education, medical care and housing are major grassroots concerns of the people in China.

 

During the ongoing parliamentary sessions in Beijing, senior ministry officials have vowed to deepen social security reform and promised improvements on house pricing, reform of medical service and employment.

 

Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asia Institute of the National University of Singapore, said China's development in the past decades have laid down a solid foundation for the reform of social security and welfare system, and in return, the latter would advance economic reform at large.

 

However, China would take a "gradual" approach to the reforms.

 

Just as the Singapore daily Lianhe Zaobao has said, a gradual approach to social system construction and innovation is in the interests of China, and such an approach also conforms to the spirit of civilization in modern society.

 

It is beyond all doubt that there is no smooth road ahead for China to implement the social reforms mentioned above. However, China is moving in a right direction.

 

As long as the Chinese leadership and people strive to pursue the drive, China would step closer to a society with more harmony, more equality and more justice.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

NEPAL TO BE A SECULAR STATE?

 

If there's anything that can prevent the birth land of Buddha becoming a secular state, that is the demand to restore Hinduism as the State religion there.

 

Ironical one may say yet this is what seems to be happening in Nepal today.

 

On Monday the last king of the country Gayanendra made a symbolic gesture by attending a nine-day mass Hindu ritual prayer conducted to give a push to the Hindu cause. Besides him several politicians including Vice President Paramanand Jha and a whole host of ministers too had attended the event held in Kathmandu.

 

And this is just 80 days before the proposed introduction of a new Constitution declaring Nepal as a secular state.

 

The participation of politicians who had voted for secularism in 2006 at the Hindu event had drawn a lot of criticism by the promulgators of the new Constitution. It is assumed that many parties are out to block the draft Constitution as that means going for a general election in six months time resulting in many MPs losing their seats. 

 

Whether the country should remain a Hindu state or adopt secularism is a question that matters very little for the majority of people in Nepal where half of the population still lives in abject poverty earning less than USD 1.25 per day.

 

However, what is obvious is that there is a move by Gayanendra to re-establish the monarchy with the support of royalists who are trying to use the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion as a stepping stone to reinstate the monarchy system. It was only last month that the royalist party - Rastriya Prajatantra laid siege to the prime minister's office demanding that Hinduism be re-named as the  state religion.

 

While Gayanendra was largely unpopular among the public during his reign, the failure of the parties to form a strong government after the king lost his crown in 2008 had made inroads into people's faith in democracy. And the royalists are planning to capitalize on this growing disillusionment among the public by blocking the move to promulgate a secular Constitution on May 28.

 

While the Buddhists in the country who now form a minority quietly monitor the events, a few days ago the Nepali police arrested a senior envoy of the Dalai Lama fearing that he would stage protests to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Tibetans' failed uprising against the Chinese government. Nepal which is the home to some 20,000 Tibetans in exile is ultra sensitive to any moves to antagonize their  big neighbour.

 

Sandwiched between China and India the politics in Nepal is very much influenced by these two power centres. Whether Nepal should be a secular state or a Hindu state will be largely decided by them.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

MOON AND NAMBIAR FAMILIES' ALLEGIANCE TO INDIA AND WAR CRIMES

 

There is a view that the UN Organization General Secretary Ban Ki Moon appointed a panel of experts to investigate the human rights (HR)  violations and the war crimes committed during the Sri Lanka (SL) war was  in order to get an extension for  his term in office as Gen. Secretary. It is evident that when his first term is  about to end , he is resorting to various ploys to get it extended.. One such ploy  is the panel of experts appointed by him to inquire into Sri Lankan violations. There were widespread and repeated  allegations from the Western countries, Foreign NGOs and the International media that Ban Ki Moon took no measures against the Human Rights  violations and the war crimes  committed in Sri Lanka during the war. Through a prominent member Vijaya Nambiar of the UN Organization , accusations were levelled that Ban Ki Moon was maintaining close and cordial ties with   the Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa , and is therefore suppressing the war crime charges against Sri Lanka. There were also allegations that India was using Nambiar towards this end.

 

When Ban Ki-Moon's policies pertaining to Sri Lanka came up for questioning by the Foreign media from the UN Ambassador to  France, Gerard Aroud , the latter stated , India and China are obstructing Moon from taking drastic measures against Sri Lanka. Now it has become known that Moon's son in law Siddharth Chatterjee was a former officer of the Indian Army, and during the period of the 1987 Indo Lanka accord , he had served in the Indian peace keeping Force which arrived in Sri Lanka. Presently  , Moon's son in law Chatterjee is holding a post in the UN Organization at D2 level ; charges are current  against Moon for giving preferential treatment to his son in law..

 

Similarly , the International media recently revealed that during the final phase of the Sri Lanka war , a former Chief of the Indian Army , Satish Nambiar, the brother of chief of staff in  the UN Organization Vijaya Nambiar , was sent here  by Ban Ki- Moon to protect the civilian population . The former chief of the Indian Army proffered advice to Sri Lankan  Army  regarding the war . The International media however   charged  that by Vijaya Nambiar  acting according to  Satish Nambiar's advice and India's needs, no efforts were made to save the Tamil  Tiger leaders who came forward holding white flags,  or the civilian population in the final stages of the war.

 

In an earlier article of mine I had made mention of how the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa extended support to appoint Ban Ki-Moon as the UN Organization Gen. Secretary,by making Jayantha Dhanapala , the Sri Lankan  candidate for the UN Gen. Secretary  post to withdraw, in order to facilitate Ban Ki- Moon's election to the post of Gen. secretary  of the UN Organization .Consequent upon this , Ban Ki-Moon became  very closely associated with the President and his brother Basil Rajapaksa.

 

Ban Ki-Moon's close ties with the Rajapaksa brothers apart, there is another reason which incapacitates Moon from  taking  drastic measures against Sri Lanka – the support that was given to him by Mahinda Rajapaksa to secure the post of UN Gen. secretary . It is possible that these are the  relationships which compelled Ban Ki Moon to ignore the  repeated requests made to him to intervene and take action to halt the war at the last stages.

 

It is not certain whether Ban Ki Moon's conduct in the final phase of the war was influenced and induced by the support lavished on him to be appointed as the Gen. Secretary by the Rajapaksa govt. or was it due to the pressure brought to  bear on him by India via his son in law. ?

 

If Moon's son in law Chatterjee had been in Sri Lanka during the 1987  Indo Lanka accord period as an Indian Peace keeping Force (IPKF) officer, he ought to be well conversant with the Sri Lankan war and the Tamil Tiger Organization. He must have experienced very difficult times when the Tamil Tigers waged war against the IPKF . It is not unlikely that he could have made Moon understand that the Tamil Tigers had no desire for peace , and that they should be annihilated.

 

On the one hand India must have silenced Moon by using his son in law , while on the other, India must have also used the UN Organization chief of staff Vjaya Nambiar who was appointed by Moon,  to take steps to safeguard the Sri Lankan  civilian population . Indeed , there are charges that Satish Nambiar, a former Indian Army Chief was used to exert influence on his brother Vijaya Nambiar.

 

It is exceedingly clear that the combined efforts based on the 'game  plan' of India orchestrated  by the Rajapaksa family, the son in law Chatterjee  of UN Organization Gen. Secretary  Ban Ki-Moon' s family   and the brother of chief of staff Vijaya Nambiar's family  had worked effectively and efficaciously . But Moon who fell prey to this game plan is now , again confronted by odds and obstacles militating against his appointment  as the General secretary for  a second term.

 

This is because western countries are questioning his role in this  game  plan. Moon may have appointed a panel of experts relating to  Human Rights  violations in Sri Lanka  only to please the Western countries which have now turned sour against him.

 

No matter what amount of effort Moon may put to please the Western countries to fortify his position and keep his post , India however will not relent or relax in its attempts to use the Rajapaksa , Ban-Ki Moon and the Nambiar families which were contributory to the Tamil Tiger devastation to suppress the war crime charges surfacing against Sri Lanka .

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

UN INVESTIGATORS

 

The spectre of war crimes will haunt Sri Lanka until the triumvirate consisting of the Diaspora, anti-Sri Lanka NGO's and the Western Powers abandon their relentless struggle to punish Sri Lanka for defeating terrorism which still continues to torment those countries which did not desire the LTTE to be vanquished.

 

  These countries continue to be plagued by terrorism with which they have been grappling for years but yet has failed to comprehensively defeat notwithstanding the superior fire power possessed, sophisticated equipment at their disposal and the economic strength to combat terrorism. They never expected Sri Lanka with its limited resources to defeat the LTTE of which they were supportive, because of its "master-sir" approach to the West and Sri Lanka's geo-strategic placement in the Indian Ocean. In addition to losing a distant ally in the LTTE there is the desire to discredit the military achievements of Sri Lanka which they are trying to emulate but continues to fail miserably which brings out the worse of the 'green-eyed monster' within them.

 

 The anti-Sri Lanka NGO Fronts' right to survive in Sri Lanka depends on a continuing war to enable them to wave the white flag of peace and the peace drums which brought them great financial support from the West. Now with peace achieved after a successful war effort being productive, the peace activists have lost their cause and with it the monetary dividend. The Diasporas days of glory ended with the demise of Prabhakaran- to be in business they have to, at the least, discredit Sri Lanka's war exercises- it is the way to be in money fame and influence.

 

These three imposters have successfully pressurized UN officials again to re agitate the call to investigate war crimes in Sri Lanka. They have found a strange ally in frustrated Sarath Fonseka with his recent utterances much to their comfort. What is more intriguing is the conduct of Ban ki-Moon and Pillay falling prey to the overtures of the anti Sri Lanka front and wanting to offer a life line, to those who enthused terrorists, while also attempting to punish Sri Lanka for bringing security to a country which lived in agony for 30 years and for having comprehensively defeated brutal terrorism of the LTTE which had spilled into the international realm.

 

It is just days away from the unmanned drone aircrafts functioning from US bases in Pakistan which missed their targets and killed innocent civilians. The killing of by- standers by US forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan has become a common feature during the war against the Talibans. So is it in Iraq and in the Middle East during the last few weeks where a large number of civilian deaths are reported due to the firepower of the West and Israel.

 

Why is the UN concerned of Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka but silent on the events in Afghanistan Middle East and Pakistan? Why does not the French and British Foreign Ministers make visits like they did to Sri Lanka, especially to Afghanistan and Iraq where their forces are stationed and make a plea as they did in Sri Lanka by insisting on access to Prabhakaran to start a dialogue with the terrorists elements? Is Ban-ki Moon and Pillay wearing tinted glasses that they fail to see only Sri Lanka as the sole violator in South Asia of humanitarian laws? Did not the UN see or hear of the atrocities in Rwanda and yet choose to look the other way but concentrate on Sri Lanka that did the civilized world a great service proving there is an answer to combat terrorism? Is the UN that delivered hostile findings on child soldiers to the LTTE, anxious to discredit Sri Lanka for rehabilitating and delivering the captured children to their lawful custodians? Was there a word of appreciation from the UN for eliminating the existence of child soldier image comprehensively, which has not happened in any other conflict area, but instead Ban Ki- Moon wants to appoint a panel to investigate Sri Lanka to probe war crimes?  Does not UN realize that the people of Sri Lanka are living in peace with security after 25 years and are they keen to give a fillip to those forces of terrorism to revive themselves?

Did not the UN continue to recognize the government of murderous Pol Pot regime of Cambodian while it remained in exile in the jungles of Thailand while a lawful government was functioning in Phom Phen after overthrowing the architects of the killing fields? Did the UN inquire as to the human rights violations in Uzbekistan after British ambassador Murray reported gross violations in that country which led to his dismissal from the Foreign Service? What action did the human rights activists in the UN take against the Pinochet regime in Chile or against Suharto administration in Indonesia for the mass murders that took place?

 

It is obvious that the British Labour government is trying to woo Tamil voters in the forthcoming General Elections in UK and therefore has to placate the Tamil Diaspora living in the UK. Therefore, on their behalf, they are exerting pressure on the UN agencies to investigate Sri Lanka in an attempt to win over the Diaspora vote. It appears just as much as the UN agencies do not act against US interests on human rights violations; on the contrary UN reacts rapidly when the British government lodges a complaint. Where are the level playing fields? Are there not discernible differences amounting to discriminatory practices?

 

During the war there were allegations against the Forces for Human Rights violations in cases like the Mutur murder trial of 17 aid workers, deaths in Shencholai LTTE training camp which were inquired into and the findings of panel were that the Forces were not liable. These were sessions held in the presence of foreign observers and the findings were adverse to the LTTE. Had the findings being against the Sri Lankan forces, what a price we would have had to pay?

 

Why then this sudden outburst from the UN Secretary General and Human Rights Commissioner? It draws strength from a statement made by Sarath Fonseka that he is prepared to disclose facts before an international tribunal on events that took place in Sri Lanka. It would sound sweet to those desiring to find Sri Lankan forces culpable because for the first time in history, a Commander of a Military Force was volunteering to testify against its own Forces. They would have realized whereas there was no evidence forthcoming or the evidence so far presented proved to be unfavorable, a valuable source was emerging from the military to punish Sri Lanka.

 

Much of the blame that Sri Lanka has to face is due to the impotent Human Rights Commission-a virtual school for the deaf dumb and blind-which does not sufficiently pay attention to Human Rights complaints and has failed act effectively and win confidenc. It is important that there must be strong internal surveillance system, which would be a strong counter to foreign pressures. It is in the absence of an internal machinery to check human rights violations; it has become possible for alien bodies to attempt intervention into domestic affairs. It would be a threat to our national sovereignty if foreign busybodies are permitted to interfere in domestic procedures.

 

We have the unfortunate experience of watching the role played in Sri Lanka by the Scandinavian monitors when entrusted to monitor violations under the CFA and the IIGEPS in the Special Presidential Commission as observers to inquire into Human Rights violations. Whenever foreigner/inquirers have arrived on the scene as observers/inquirers in another country, they have exceeded their authority conferred, to give effect to their own agenda, which is detrimental to the host country. It is for this reason India does not tolerate any human rights observers like Philip Alston to enter India and forbid NGO's the right of access during the tsunami. Sri Lanka made the error of opening our gates that made many of them become willing tools and accessories of the LTTE. Sri Lanka paid dearly for this colossal blunder

 

Today all political parties have extremely patriotic forces in their membership and in their silent support bases. Now is the time for these forces to rally around again as during the war and prevent any foreign interventions in the name of humanitarian exercises to enter this country to shame our security forces.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

REAWAKENING IN THE EASTERN REGION

 

War affected communities   – Experiences of Ampara District

By T.M.J.Bandara, Deputy Project Director, Re-awakening Project, Ampara District

 

The Ampara District, by virtue of its geographical location in the island is frequently vulnerable to wide range of natural disasters of which cyclones, floods and more often than not droughts had been the most devastating. Of course, there is no need to over emphasize the devastation caused by Tsunami.    

 

However, any visitor to this area will not take long to realize that the damage caused due to above natural calamities, when everything put together is still not comparable to that of the damage caused by long years of ethnic war. If anyone  has been asked to identify the most devastating impacts of civil war, the loss of thousands of human lives along with properties worth of billions of rupees would obviously be the answer that would come to his/her mind.

 

 However, when we start working and moving very closely with affected communities, we begin to realize that apart from those monetary and physical losses because of which people still repent and bear unpleasant and unforgettable memories, they also have inadvertently lost something which they are supposed to have inherited from their forefathers. The vigour, dignity, self confidence, and organizational capacity, the very strong pillars on which the rural society was built during olden days are no more there with them.

 

The benevolence, self respect and mutual understanding these communities had prior to war situation seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The minds of the people, especially of those who have been directly and indirectly affected by war are plagued with so called dependency syndrome to the extent that they are prepared to waste long hours in queues just to be in possession of small house hold utensil or any other relief package which they likely to receive from the so called relief organizations.

 

Unfortunately these people are totally ignorant of the benefits that they could derive if they make use of this valuable time to get themselves organized and start tilling their paddy fields and/or attending to any other house hold chores which can directly or indirectly contribute to their livelihood improvement.

 

The main purpose of the implementation of Reawakening Project (RAP) under the Ministry of Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development is to ensure that the scars of wounds in the minds of war affected people are gradually healed up so that while contributing to main economy, they also can be the benefactors of the facilities that the people in other areas are enjoying. The project is in operation in 08 Districts in the North and Eastern Region as well as in 04 bordering Districts in the country and is aimed at addressing the issues related to Capacity Building, Infrastructure Development and Livelihood Improvement of the most vulnerable communities in war ravaged areas.

 

However, as Project Director always emphasizes, the strong mobilization process by which inculcation of sense of ownership amongst the rural communities towards the project activities whilst delving in to pleasant memories of old generation whose sole desire was to stand on their own feet with self respect becomes prerequisite for achieving the goals envisaged under the project.

 

This article highlights some of the experiences of Ampara District where the project is in operation in 25 selected focal villages. 

 

Infrastructure Development
During the Participatory Rural Assessment (PRA), when people were asked to identify their Infrastructure Development priorities, in addition to some site specific infrastructure needs such as rehabilitation of minor tanks, construction of Agricultural roads, culverts, small bridges and common Buildings etc, (1) the  supply of Drinking Water and the (2.) Establishment of Drainage Disposal systems were the two most important priority needs identified by people. While the communities in focal villages along the coastal Belt were concerned about Drainage water disposal during wet periods, the people in almost all the interior focal villages are very keen to have water supply schemes in order to meet their water requirements during dry periods.

 

Construction of water supply schemes
In spite of relatively higher annual rainfall it receives, the drought conditions in Ampara District is more pronounced when compared with many other Districts in the Dry Zone where there is relatively less rainfall. For example, the average annual rainfall of Ampara is more than 1300 mm as against the annual rainfall of Anuradhapura which is estimated to be about 1100mm. However, despite higher annual rainfall it receives, the Ampara District (because of the poor rainfall distribution - Uni- Modal pattern of rainfall distribution) is vulnerable to more drought conditions than Anuradhapura district. This is the main reason which compelled people in the inland focal villages of Ampara to place more emphasis on water supply schemes and the RAP has already implemented water supply schemes with the total cost estimate of about 18.2 Millions in 07 Focal villages in the District. 

 

Drainage Disposal Systems

The people in the coastal belt are not so much affected by drinking water shortage since ground water in this area is replenished by 02 main sources, one being the drainage water generated from upper slopes and the other is the pockets of fresh water lenses available in the sandy (Regosols) Belt along the sea coast. To be continued
On the other hand, serious environmental pollution caused by stagnant water (Poor Drainage) during rainy periods is the main reason which made people to place high priority on drainage disposal. The RAP has already constructed a few drainage disposal systems at the cost of 15.0 Millions in some selected locations after evaluation of technical feasibility and sustainability of those projects. However, prior to commencement of such projects it is extremely important for us to properly understand the following human induced constraints which can otherwise lead to total failure of such drainage improvement projects.

 

The housing and other development activities carried out in these villages has not been in conformity with natural landscape. Most of the natural Drainage ways through which excess run off previously found its way to lower lying areas are either blocked or obliterated due to construction activities. The Drainage Disposal System suggested by people will only be successful if these artificial drainage barriers are removed. Will people agree to do that ?  

 

he elevation difference between the sea and the adjacent high land where drainage improvement proposals are envisaged is so little and hence the slightest barrier in any part of the drainage way will make the entire drainage system ineffective. Similarl if holistic approach to drainage disposal system where cleaning and maintenance of the entire drainage network is not adopted it is very unlikely that the proposed drainage improvement pogrammes can yield desired results.   

 

  In many instances, it has been found that the drainage ways constructed after spending millions of rupees by various organizations have failed because of the callous use of drainage ways as Dumping sites by the people themselves who at the beginning was very keen to have the drainage ways established.

 

Rehabilitation of Minor Tanks

The rehabilitation of minor tanks is another important Infrastructure Development facility which can yield immediate benefits to rural communities. Providing supplementary irrigation for paddy in maha season and the use of rice lands for cultivation of Other Field Crops during yala season which otherwise remains abandoned for want of irrigation water would ensure a year round income for the beneficiaries of these villages. With the completion of these projects, the RAP (with technical guidance from DOA) is planning to establish Yaya demonstration on OFC cultivation in paddy lands, the practice with which the farmers in Ampara District is not so accustomed to as compared to those in other parts of the Dry Zone in the country. Two minor tank rehabilitation projects with the total cost estimates of about 6.0 Millions are now in progress in Maha Oya and Padiyatalawa D.S. Divisions.

 

In addition, about 30.0 millions will be utilized for the improvement of other infrastructure facilities like, Construction of Agricultural Roads, Bridges, Culverts and common buildings etc in some selected locations in the focal villages.

 

Livelihood Support Activities

This is the most important component of the RAP where soft loans and grants have been released among the beneficiaries to start livelihood activities of their interest. About 24.0 millions of Rupees have already been distributed among 3200 beneficiaries and it is expected to release further sum of Rupees 15.0 millions for this purpose. The number of loan beneficiaries gradually keeps on increasing every month with recoveries of loans being redistributed among more and more people by respective Village Development Organizations which have been formed especially for the Implementation of RAP activities.

Paddy farming

Agriculture being the mainstay of economy of the people in Ampara, majority of beneficiaries requested loans for agricultural purposes and the most number of applications received was for paddy cultivation and rain fed and irrigated Agriculture. The main purpose of paddy farmers for seeking financial assistance from RAP was to settle outstanding loans which they claimed to have obtained from money lenders but, this claim  was somewhat ambiguous and  not in agreement with the project concept, according to which, increase of farmer income to substantial level using project interventions was the most anticipated output. Therefore, as a strategy for increasing rice yield, SRI method was introduced among paddy farmers. The adoption of SRI has not only contributed to yield increase but also has encouraged farmers to use Organic manure and indigenous pest management practices which will in the long run be beneficial for restoration of declined fertility status of soils while ensuring pollution free Agricultural environment. Furthermore, in certain areas (Dehiattakandiya) where soil condition is suitable (Reddish Brown earths) soft loans have been provided for farmers to start OFC cultivation in paddy lands during Yala season.

 

Upland annual crop cultivation

In terms of economic returns, the rain fed upland farming can be considered as the most uncertain Agriculture related LSA in Ampara District because, weather vagaries in this region are such that very often  crop failures can occur either due to too much of rains or too little rains or both. This is the main reason for relatively lower recovery rate reported among the loan beneficiaries involved in upland rain fed farming. Furthermore, the soil erosion too has been reported to be very high under this particular land use system causing drastic reduction in crop yield and unfortunately the farmers were not aware of the fact that the main attributing factor for yield reduction is the accelerated soil erosion. Therefore, with the intervention of RAP, soil conservation demonstration plot has been established in Maha Oya D.S. Division to educate farmers on simple biological and mechanical soil conservation measures to be adopted in upland farming.  

 

Establishment of fruit Gardens

The climatic condition in Ampara District is such that wide range of fruit crops can be grown. However, when compared to other areas in Ampara, the unique climatic conditions prevailing in Maha Oya and Padiyatalawa D.S. Divisions provide highly favourable environmental conditions for cultivation of fruit crops.  As reported by Panabokke high diurnal temperatures experienced in this area increases the Brix sugar level of Sugar cane and other fruit crops like pineapple causing very sweet taste in fruits. Therefore, in keeping with one crop for one village policy of the government, soft loans have been provided by RAP among number of beneficiaries in 02 focal villages for cultivation of pineapple. Although the people were a little hesitant at the beginning, with the training and encouragement given by the Department of Agriculture small (homestead) scale pineapple cultivation programmes have been started in Maha Oya and Padiyatalawa areas. In the 02 D.S. Divisions the total extent of land falling within this particular agro ecological region is estimated to be about 59000 Ha. Assuming that about 70% of the land extent available is utilized for other purposes, there are still about 17000. Ha of land available for commercial level fruit crop cultivation.

 

Dairy Farming

This is another important component of LSA in Ampara District which should receive high priority. Except in a few highly congested Divisional Secretariat Divisions along the coastal belt, Dairy farming could be promoted in many parts of the District. There are large extents of lands in Ampara which cannot be utilized for intensive agriculture because of their shallow soil depth but highly suitable as grazing lands. Furthermore, the paddy lands fed by major irrigation schemes with their antecedent soil moisture also serve as productive grazing lands during fallow periods. Therefore, there is tremendous potential for Dairy farming in Ampara.  As an encouragement for those who are already involved in Dairy Farming, the RAP has provided soft loans ranging from Rs.20000.00 to Rs 30,000.00 among a few beneficiaries for improvement of infrastructure facilities such as cowsheds. In addition, with the support of suitable resource persons, training on Artificial Insemination, value addition, and organic manure production etc has been arranged for them.

 

Promotion of small industries and other business enterprises

 

As indicated earlier in this article, the Ampara District, with its diverse resource base provides ample opportunities for implementation of wide range of livelihood support activities. Depending on resource availability in different focal villages, soft loans have been provided for Backyard poultry, Inland fishery, Sawing, Cane as well as pottery and many other small industries and enterprises. 

 

Capacity Building of Beneficiaries

 

The lack of adequate knowledge on Resource Identification and their rational utilization, Value addition, market linkages etc among beneficiaries has prevented them tapping full potential level of resource available within their reach result in low income generation from the LSA with which they are presently involved in. Therefore, training programmes in the forms of lectures, seminars, workshops and study tours etc have been arranged in order to update the knowledge of RAP beneficiaries.

 

The RAP, with its implementation period not extending for just more than 02 years is still at its infancy compared to numerous other projects which were in operation in Ampara District for a very long period of time with somewhat similar objectives. The experiences of these projects convey very strong message that no matter how much of money is spent as loans and grants, unless there is strong will power, devotion and Perseverance among beneficiaries, the objectives envisaged under such projects become unachievable. Therefore, the RAP, while providing loans and grants for the poor is also trying its level best to revitalize or rejuvenate inner souls of the disillusioned group of the community so that without being self-centered they would be able to look at community development from broader perspective and contribute wholeheartedly for the development of their community. It was with this strategy backed by strong will power that enabled people to build Prakrama Samudraya and Tissa Wewa during good olden days when kings were ruling this country..

 

The Ampara District is endowed with wide range of Natural resources. There is no dearth of human resources either. What is mostly needed today is to make up our minds and get ourselves organized in such a manner so that we should be able to forget individual preferences but instead place community development at the top of the ranking table of priority needs, and then work towards achieving the goal of livelihood improvement of most vulnerable people in the district, The day that we achieve this goal, Ampara will be one of the richest and prosperous Districts of this country and in fact that is the sole aim of RAP.   

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

CLARITY MISSING

Two years was visualized as sufficient time for the Constituent Assembly (CA) to draft a new constitution going through the various stages of interpretation, discussion, consensus and people's consent for it to be promulgated culminating the long cherished dream of Nepalese. The CA elections were held despite some trying to create hurdles, but they went on smoothly. The most significant guideline agreed by the major political parties was to adhere to the medium of consensus on major contentious issues. However, that bright lining has been totally disregarded as is evident in the government's inability to appoint the governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, or the heads and members of CIAA, Election Commission, to name a few, where agreement among the parties, especially the coalition partners, gives the green signal for political appointment. This shows the dark aspect of partisan interest that overshadows national interest. When two prime parties cannot agree on one obviously simple agenda, it is unimaginable how the major political parties can come to agree on the intricate provisions of the statute. Moreover, the UCPN (M) remains belligerent, and it throws illogical gauntlets from time to time to further delay the statute drafting task. If at one time it wants the statute first, integration and rehabilitation of the ex-Maoist combatants next, now it is in the news for talking about "people's revolt" if the constitution drafting is not completed within the schedule.

The "double standard" is seen as an attempt to thwart the draft completion by May 28 which is only 79 days away.

In this connection, for the consideration of public consumption all the political leaders talk of getting the constitution drafting task done within the deadline, but in reality they are in no way helping the Constitutional Committee (CC) move ahead, though the thematic committees have already come up with their concept papers and the like. All this seems to have made CA Chairman Subas Nembang somewhat flustered as seen by his hint towards a "brief" constitution to be activated come the deadline for completion of the drafting task. His suggestion carries weight if the fact is considered that with so much work remaining it will be a Herculean task to get the all-inclusive voluminous constitution ready. There may be takers, but herein the hurdle is the consensus-among-the-parties part. The brief statute may provide the leeway, but the people will not feel their aspirations come true in this manner, even if political meeting point materializes. The political parties, particularly the Maoists, have been taking the people for a ride all because of their own interests leaving the onerous task of drafting the constitution in a limbo.

It is the duty of all the parties represented in the CA to expedite the task of writing the constitution, but no sense of urgency seems to be reflected through their actions and words of commitment alone cannot ready it. The question in everyone's mind at the moment is how can the constitution be completed in a little over two months when so much time has already elapsed? This is moot to the theoretical assumption of the extension of the CA tenure.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

WOMEN'S SIDE

The Women's Day sought to highlight the little progress that was being made in the women's front. According to an UNDP report, little headway is being made so women continue to be lag behind socially, and physically and economically, particularly in South Asia. However, some comfort can be taken from the fact that there is 33 per cent representation of women in the Constituent Assembly in Nepal. But, women continue to be exploited, and there are glaring examples such as women getting around only 60 per cent of what men earn doing the same job in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. This is sheer mockery, and hence the slogan for the day "Equal Rights, Equal Opportunities: Progress for all" should be taken up as it also provides impetus to deal with the backwardness of women.

The women folks, among other things, face gross gender-based violence which is said to be rampant in the Asia-Pacific region. There is every reason to ensure that women are provided with equal rights and opportunities as these ideals so far appear confined only on paper. The progress of both women and men is essential to do away with the various injustices related to gender that are prevalent.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

NEPAL-US TRADE TIES NEED FOR REJUVENATION

SHANKER MAN SINGH

A Nepalese government delegation is slated to visit the United States in the near future for special bilateral trading arrangement, seeking zero-tariff facility for Nepal's key exports and support for infrastructure development. The team will mainly discuss on Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) — a pact that US Trade Representative (USTR) Office has prescribed for Nepal to win special market access facility in the world's largest economy. It will also push for zero-duty for Nepal's dying readymade garment industry, apprise investors and officials there about investment avenues and opportunities here and seek assistance for trade related infrastructure development. The main purpose of the visit is to get a tangible and formal public and private links established so that economic engagements between the two countries could be rejuvenated.

Nepal's economic ties with the USA strengthened after the diplomatic relations on 25th April 1947. Exchange of high level visits has also significantly contributed to strengthen the Nepal-US relations. USA has always been very cooperative to develop the socio-economic status of Nepal. The Commerce and Friendship agreement signed in 1947, General Agreement for Technical Cooperation signed in 1951 have contributed to consolidate bilateral ties between the two countries.

Recently, the US has shown interest in investments in Nepal. It has been learnt that US wants to enter into a bilateral trade agreement with Nepal that promises to boost Nepalese in a significant manner. Just to recapitulate, the draft proposal was presented by a team of US Trade Representatives (USTR) to the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies of the Government of Nepal some time back..

The trade treaty between Nepal and the US is likely to give a new lease of life to the export of Readymade Garment (RMG) export from Nepal. It will not only facilitate duty-free access of Nepali RMG in the US market but also help boost trade. Lack of proper initiative in economic diplomacy by erstwhile governments was the primary reason behind the nation's slackening grip over the US market, which once used to be the largest buyer of Nepal RMG.

As per the Garment Association of Nepal's latest data, the total garment export plunged by 81 per cent. Nepal should take the issue unilaterally. Currently, Nepal's trade with the US is comfortable, but could not be in the future.

The US has a total GDP of $13 trillion in which its import stands at $3 trillion. Therefore, it is not such a big deal for it to grant duty free access to Nepali readymade garments. The RMG sector requires lobbying. With the end of the Multi Fiber Agreement (MFA) along with quota phase-out, Nepali RMG is observing a great decline in the US market. The Nepali RMG industry is now seeking preferential treatment abroad to reform the industry as a whole. The industry is in need of quick relief for its existence domestically.

Nepal has always regarded US market as an important market for Nepalese products. Handicraft, paper products, jewellery, gems, stones are exported to US. For the last decade, US had been the major importer of Nepali readymade garments. But, after the MFA phase out, there has been a drastic decline in readymade garment exports. The recent bill on the opening of the import from 14 LDCs in the US market has opened new avenues for the development of the readymade garment sector in Nepal.

As US is really interested in the development of Nepal, Nepali entrepreneurs are of the view that US import Nepalese products especially readymade garments, handicrafts, pashmina and other NTFP products. As regards joint venture projects also, Nepal would like to request for mega projects from US which could transform the living standard of the Nepalese. With a view to promote and increase bilateral relations there is a need of increased exchange of trade delegations between Nepal and the US.

At a time when the government and the private sector of Nepal are trying to diversify products in the international market, around five hundred commodities that are subject to enjoy facilities under the US Generalized System of Preference can bring drastic change in Nepal-US trade volume.

The fact that neither the government nor the private sector of our country has completely identified the commodity subject to the GSP facility is unfortunate at a time when we are talking about the goods of comparative and competitive advantages to utilize the international and regional trade bodies such as the WTO, SAFTA and BIMSTEC.

Nepal views that US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for African and Sub-Saharan LDCs, which was publicized in October 2000, claims to move Africans from "Poverty to Prosperity" by increasing their economic opportunities. AGOA provides

African countries with preferential access in readymade garments, but with unreasonably demanding rules of origin. As such, there is no provision in AGOA for Asian LDCs like Nepal. Nepal should also seeks similar type of arrangements be made for quota free access to USA.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

PIRATED OR ORIGINAL?

DWAIPAYAN REGMI

 

If you want to save music, you need to save it from piracy." Any music artiste would tell you this. When artists are completely dedicated towards music, they require certain financial benefits. Living a life of a celebrity is costly, together with looking after the family. It would perhaps not suit Sabin Rai to ride a micro. Nor will a taxi driver offer him a free ride. So no one can deny that living a life of celebrity is expensive. But can a celebrity earn enough to live in Nepal? The question counts because the answer would be "yes". Obviously, Karna Das, Girish Khatiwada, and Sanjeev Singh would not have migrated abroad. All the celebrities want us "to buy the original copy".

If they are having a tough time maintaining their finances, can't it be that others too are going through tough times? And when it comes to monetary issues, human beings are greedy. Why would a music lover buy the original copy when he can get a DVDs or CD filled with dozens of albums for Rs 50.

 

Why should he spend Rs. 250 for the original single album? When there is no quality difference, why should a music lover rush for the original copy? I wonder how many Nepalese singers run after original CDs of international artistes. Without piracy, it is difficult to earn fame staying in Nepal for any music artiste.

I don't mean to say that piracy should be allowed, but all I want to say is that artistes must be able to compete with piracy. If Robin Tamang decides to charge a cheap price for his album, something like Rs. 10, obviously his fans would not rush for the pirated copies.

Okay, such drastic changes may be difficult at this particular moment. How about promotions: collect three different original CDs of Nima Rumba and get 20 minutes talk time with him, or buy the original CDs of ugam Pokharel and get a chance to dine with him in his house?

How about a bumper draw to feature Anil Singh in his new song? And what about promotions like "Buy original CD of Nabin K Bhattarai and get a chance of modeling in his upcoming videos?" Such skims can definitely bring changes in piracy tradition. For these however singers need to be active. However, the slogan "Kill Piracy, Save Music" would probably not work in the present context.

 

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Project By

 

SAMARTH

a trust – of the people by the people for the people

An Organisation for Rastriya Abhyudaya

(Registered under Registration Act 1908 in Gorakhpur, Regis No – 142- 07/12/2007)

Central Office: Basement, H-136, Shiv Durga Vihar, Lakkarpur, Faridabad – 121009

Cell: - 0091-93131-03060

Email – samarth@samarth.co.in, central.office@samarth.co.in

Registered Office: Rajendra Nagar (East), Near Bhagwati Chowk, Lachchipur

Gorakhnath Road, Gorakhpur – 273 015

 

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