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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

EDITORIAL 02.09.09

September 02, 2009

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EDITORIAL

Month September 02, Edition 000287, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul


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THE PIONEER

  1. BEYOND THE MONSOON
  2. LEFT EXPOSED YET AGAIN
  3. COLOMBO AT THE CROSSROADS-ASHOK K MEHTA
  4. IN LOVELESS LANKA, EELAM LIVES!-PRIYADARSI DUTTA
  5. A NON-OFFER BY CHINA-CLAUDE ARPI
  6. MAOISTS EYE TEMPLE FUND-ANURADHA DUTT
  7. SOFT PM’S SOFT STAND ON TERROR-CP BHAMBHRI
  8. MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY SHIFT UNLIKELY IN JAPAN-ANDREI KUZNETSOV


THE TIMES OF INDIA

  1. SLOW AND STEADY
  2. WINDS OF CHANGE
  3. FROM MANDI TO MARKET-BART MINTEN & ASHOK GULATI
  4. 'THE WORST IS OVER FOR THE AIRLINES BUSINESS'
  5. SHHH! IT'S A SECRET-JUG SURAIYA
  6. FORCE THE PACE-YAMINI LOHIA

 

HINDUSTAN TIMES

  1. LOOKING ASIA, TALKING TOKYO
  2. SPLITTING IMAGE-JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA
  3. MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE-SURINDER SINGLA
  4. MISSING THE MARK-C.P. BHAMBHRI

 

INDIAN EXPRESS

  1. SEA CHANGE
  2. DRAWING BOARDS
  3. SOME GOOD NEWS
  4. CROWD SPOTTING-MINI KAPOOR
  5. SURVIVING RAM AND LAXMAN-COOMI KAPOOR
  6. MPS NEED HELP WITH HOMEWORK TOO-NICK ROBINSON
  7. NEUTRAL JAPAN?-C. RAJA MOHAN
  8. LOOK WHO’S ALL GROWN UP NOW-SARITHA RAI
  9. VIEW FROM THE LEFT-MANOJ C G

 

THE FINENCIAL EXPRESS

  1. POWER TO DISINVESTMENT
  2. LET THE MARKET DECIDE ON GAS
  3. IS 20,000 REALISTIC AT AROUND 6%?-SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE
  4. REMEMBER, SUBPRIME STARTED CRISIS-SANJAY BANERJI
  5. OPTIC FIBRE VIA NREG-ANANDITA SINGH MANKOTIA

 

THE HINDU

  1. THE SANGH RULES THE PARTY
  2. EXPANDING SPACE CLUB
  3. IRAN: AHMADINEJAD TOUGHENS STANCE -ATUL ANEJA
  4. BALOCHISTAN SITUATION GETTING BLEAKER BY THE DAY -MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR
  5. HATOYAMA’S QUEST OF POLITICS AND POLICY -P. S. SURYANARAYANA
  6. IT’S TIME TO ALTER COURSE -GEORGE MONBIOT

 

THE ASIAN AGE

  1. A GOOD SIGN, SEE IF IT IS SUSTAINED
  2. GOVT PUTS ‘RIGHT TO FOOD’ ON HOLD IN DROUGHT YEAR-JAYATI GHOSH
  3. SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT-SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

 

THE TRIBUNE

  1. CRPF IN THE VALLEY
  2. TO THE POLLS
  3. THE ROUT OF LDP
  4. EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN-BY BHARTI CHHIBBER
  5. ISRAEL HAS IRAN IN ITS SIGHTS -BY MICHA ZENKO
  6. MURKY WORLD OF PRIVATE SECURITY -BY TERRI JUDD

 

THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

  1. RSS DICTATES BJP
  2. SPORTING GLORY
  3. THE VIEW FROM SHIMLA-SHIBDAS BHATTACHARJEE
  4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RAMADAN-MD SABIR NISHAT

 

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

  1. IL&FS-MAYTAS DEAL LACKS TRANSPARENCY-JINNAH'S DEFENCE
  2. IL&FS TAKES OVER MAYTAS-EGOM, A GOOD MOVE

 

DECCAN CHRONICAL

  1. A GOOD SIGN, SEE IF IT IS SUSTAINED
  2. PAKISTAN’S UNLIKELY HERO: JASSUBHAI - BY INDER MALHOTRA
  3. OBAMA POPULARITY SLIDES, TIME TO REBALANCE - BY DAVID BROOKS
  4. CENTRE PUTS ‘RIGHT TO FOOD’ ON HOLD IN DROUGHT YEAR - BY JAYATI GHOSH
  5. SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT - BY SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN
  6. INNOCENT BUT DEAD -BY BOB HERBERT

THE TELEGRAPH

  1. FAST FORWARD
  2. OLD AND NEW
  3. FAMILY SURPRISES - K.P. NAYAR
  4. LET IT STAY AT HOME -STEPHEN HUGH-JONES

 

THE STATESMAN

  1. POWER-CRAZED ‘VIRUS’ ~ ARUNACHAL PROTEST GETS
  2. TEQUILA BECOMES BRITAIN’S SPIRIT OF CHOICE-CAHAL MILMO 
  3. LEGISLATOR’S RIGHT ~ CAREFULLY CRAFTED POLITICAL
  4. NAME-CALLING NSA ~ STOOPS, DOESN’T CONQUER
  5. OCEANIC CHALLENGE ~ THE SEA AS A VICTIM OF CARBON ABUSE-H KHASNOBIS

 

DECCAN HERALD

  1. THE TRIBUNAL IS COMING... JUSTICE CAN WAIT!-BY KANCHI KOHLI AND MANJU MENON
  2. HE BROUGHT MEANING TO HISTORY-BY L SUBRAMANI

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES

  1. REVIVING CIVIL RIGHTS
  2. AFTER IRAQ, THE BATTLE AT HOME
  3. WOLF SEASON BEGINS
  4. WAITING FOR CRAZY HORSE -BY LAWRENCE DOWNES
  5. BUYING AMERICAN IN TEHRAN -BY JERRY GUO
  6. WHERE THE WILD THINGS WERE -BY STEFAN MERRILL BLOCK

 

I.THE NEWS

  1. NEW OFFENSIVE
  2. PETROL PRICE HIKE
  3. ABUSE RAMPANT

 

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

  1. LET DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM MOVE ON
  2. UNJUSTIFIED RAISE IN POL PRICES
  3. PALESTINIANS HAVE NO REASON TO CELEBRATE

 

THE INDEPENDENT

  1. DIFFERENT OFFICE HOURS
  2. RHETORIC AND REALITY
  3. THANK GOD WE ARE VEGETARIANS...!-ROBERT CLEMENTS

 

THE AUSTRALIAN

  1. DELLA BOSCA HAD TO GO - AND HE KNEW IT
  2. WHAT PRICE HEALTH?
  3. AN EXCELLENT RESULT

 

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

  1. STATE SIGNS AWAY PUBLIC RIGHT TO INFORMED CONSENT
  2. TAX DOLLARS SHOULDN'T BE SPENT ON PARTISAN ADS

THE GUARDIAN

  1. IN PRAISE OF… THE AUBERGINE
  2. BRITAIN AND ALCOHOL: DRINK PROBLEM
  3. LOCKERBIE BOMBING: PARTIAL LIGHT ON THE MURK

 

JAPAN TIMES

  1. DPJ PREPARES TO LEAD
  2. JUSTICE, CLEMENCY AND U.K. POLITICS
  3. BY HUGH CORTAZZI
  4. AFGHANS MUST TAKE THE LEAD IN CLEANING HOUSE-BY JAMIE F. METZL AND C. CHRISTINE FAIR
  5. JAPANESE METAMORPHOSIS-BY MASAHIRO MATSUMURA

 

THE KOREA HERALD

  1. BASIC LAW REVISION
  2. THINGS WE SHOULD AVOID AND ABANDON -KIM SEONG-KON

 

THE JAKARTA POST

  1. THE BITTER TASTE OF SUGAR
  2. MALAYSIA’S TOURISM VIDEO AND THE STOLEN INDONESIAN CULTURE-MARIO RUSTAN

 

CHINA DAILY

  1. CASE FOR TAX CUTS
  2. COLLAPSE OF STANDARDS
  3. THREE IS COMPANY IN JOURNEY FOR REGIONAL STABILITY
  4. LONG WAY TO ONLINE GOVERNANCE

 

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

BEYOND THE MONSOON

ECONOMY CAN RECOVER IN 2010 IF….


The agenda paper discussed at Tuesday’s full meeting of the Planning Commission paints a realistic picture of the economy. In the first quarter of 2009-10, India’s GDP grew 6.1 per cent, impressive in the context of the global slowdown. However, a poor monsoon has negated hopes of a robust second quarter or even third quarter. At best, business and industry can hope for an upswing in the fourth quarter. In 2008-09, festive season buying did not take place as urban India was recovering from the worldwide shock and simply refused to spend. This year there are signs of recovery. Indeed, the improvement in industrial production figures — in the automobile sector, for instance — in the first quarter of the current year was in some senses a bet on consumer spending picking up by the end of 2009-10. True, even if this happens, it will be limited to urban India. The more broad-based rural demand is not going to be helped by the failure of the rains. The agenda paper is cautiously optimistic about the coming year, 2010-11. It expects the global downturn to gradually reverse itself and the sharp decline in exports — a function of America and Europe simply not buying anything — to be arrested. A modest recovery can then be expected. That aside, it is highly unlikely that the monsoon will fail again next year. Indeed, with adequate preparations for this year’s rabi crop and with food production next year bound to be higher after this year’s precipitous decline, agriculture can look forward to statistical embellishment.


If there is a problem, however, it is inflation. Food prices are at near record highs. Over the past few years, global food supply has failed to keep pace with consumer demand. Changes in land and cropping patterns — with farmers moving away from less remunerative food crops to, for example, sugarcane growth for ethanol —have contributed to this. India’s laggard agricultural innovation has not helped and neither has this year’s drought. The jugglery of the wholesale price index — a fraud perpetrated on the people by successive Governments — cannot disguise the fact that household staples are costing common Indians a fortune. Further, the Government has gone on a spending binge, partly to talk up the economy and stimulate demand and partly in keeping with its welfare promises. This will increase money supply and leave its impact on inflation by 2010. The price question is going to be a troubling one and financial analysts are already predicting a couple of years of inflationary pressure, not just in the food sector but in the overall economy. This could well be the UPA Government’s single biggest challenge in the coming months.


The Planning Commission agenda paper has also pointed out that commodity prices have softened in the course of the worldwide slowdown but are certain to begin rising as the global economy picks itself up. What it is suggesting is tying up long-term deals that will serve India well in the coming years, as its industry expands and as its hunger for commodities — especially energy sources, from coal to oil to uranium — becomes more pronounced. A strategy for that must also be an immediate priority. Indeed, food and energy security are the twin rocks on which the India story lies. If these two are taken care of, the rest should be easy.

 

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

LEFT EXPOSED YET AGAIN

NOTHING VEDIC ABOUT THIS VILLAGE


But for a local football match in a West Bengal district which ended in murder, arson and rioting, few outside the State would have heard of Vedic Village, barring, of course, those who can afford a weekend at an exclusive spa or a fake thatched hut with Four Seasons amenities as a ‘home away from home’ in these hard times. Indeed, Mr Raj Kishore Modi, the promoter of Vedic Village, a super-luxury spa-resort of bungalows, club, hotel and restaurants in Kolkata’s outskirts sprawling over 150 acres of what was once fertile agricultural land and meant to give rich people a taste of idyllic rural life that bears no resemblance with the gut-wrenching poverty in Bengal’s villages, could never have imagined that he would be arrested, leave alone charged with murder, forgery and assorted crimes. After all, traders and promoters are seen to enjoy immunity from the law on account of their proximity to the ruling CPI(M); it’s not for nothing that senior Marxist Ministers of the Left Front Government were frequent visitors at Vedic Village. Nor could Mr Modi have ever imagined that Vedic Village would be torched by a rampaging mob — retaliation against goons on his payroll who ran amok after they lost the football match was obviously an excuse: Anger against this ‘island’ of ostentatious display of wealth had been simmering for long among villagers who were forced to part with their land at dirt cheap prices by a politically well-connected promoter and his hoodlums for a ‘project’ that has not contributed even an iota of prosperity to its surrounding areas. This is not to justify the arson and loot of private property but to merely underscore the emerging reality beyond our cities where deprivation and denial are beginning to manifest themselves in a vicious outbreak of often mindless — and mind-numbing — violence.


The CPI(M) has been prompt in disowning any and all association with Mr Modi and his thugs. The Left Front Government has expressed great surprise at the non-Vedic happenings at the resort behind the smokescreen of highlife sophistry. The Home Secretary has described Mr Modi as a “criminal”, which is something unheard of in Left-ruled West Bengal where promoters are known to be cronies of the Marxists. The police, whose political bias is no secret, have been extra enthusiastic in ‘investigating’ what they have described as the “dubious activities” at Vedic Village. Curiously though, such denunciation was not heard nor prosecution seen till that fateful Sunday; nothing would have happened had Mr Modi’s goons not lost the football match and the ‘idyllic’ life at what was clearly a mockery of real life rural India would have remained undisturbed. This only confirms the view which is rapidly gaining ground: Only violence will make authority sit up and take notice; mere petitioning won’t work. That’s something scary.

 

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

COLOMBO AT THE CROSSROADS

ASHOK K MEHTA


A poster on the streets of Colombo showing President Mahinda Rajapaksa embracing his younger brother, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, after he escaped an assassination attempt by an LTTE suicide bomber and the real architect of the war victory says it all. National euphoria over defeating the LTTE and the myth of its invincibility pervades the air. Rejecting calls from the West for restraint during the closing phase of the war, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa said, “We have shown how to defeat terrorism: We are no stooges of the West.”


The Sri Lankan Army, which fought a brutal but brilliant campaign, is advertising its counter-insurgency prowess by saying it is prepared to share expertise and lessons from the war. The Pakistani Army, a dear and close friend of Sri Lanka (both countries exchange military officers as High Commissioners) has decided to take up the offer.


Mr Rajapaksa has converted the military triumph into a political landslide. His UPFA alliance has won elections in every Province, including Uva, traditionally the opposition UNP stronghold. His party has also won the local elections in Jaffna and established a foothold in Vavuniya, both strong-points in erstwhile Tiger territory. People fear that after the presidential and parliamentary elections soon, Sri Lanka will become a ‘dictatorship’ of the Rajapaksa brothers.


Accounts of suicide bombers prowling the streets of Colombo have encouraged the Government to continue emergency rule and order substantive expansion of police and military forces when down-sizing was expected. The Rajapaksa brothers are determined to stamp out the LTTE at home and abroad. The capture of Selvaraja Pathmanathan alias KP, who was appointed head of the LTTE’s international division this year, was a spectacular intelligence operation in Malaysia-Thailand. That leaves no effective leader of the diaspora and terminates any serious prospect of the revival of the Tigers.


Already the Army reportedly has in its custody LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman, who was not accounted for in the final battle. Other LTTE leaders —Yogi, Balakumar, Thilagar — have been taken out of refugee camps which are virtual internment camps as the Army scouts for 1,000 hardcore Tigers from about 9,000 LTTE cadre segregated so far. Many of the active cadre in the east have abandoned arms and come overground, mingling with Tamils in Colombo.


Stories from refugee camps are pathetic and encapsulated by TULF leader V Anandasangaree through several open letters to the President. He says refugees are living like rats. The West has been critical of conditions in these camps and has been demanding unfettered access to them. About 15,000 Tamils are believed to have left the camps paying up to Rs 30,000 per head on the condition they leave the country.


Mr Basil Fernando, a lawyer who writes for AHRC, has been despatching serialised accounts of the high-handedness of the police and the absence of an impartial judiciary. Lasantha Wickramatunge, editor of The Sunday Leader , was gunned down in January; at that time he was investigating high-level corruption. In a letter he left behind, he blamed Mr Rajapaksa for his murder. The powerful Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is the subject of media assaults and ruthless have been his reprisals. The West has frequently targeted him, though he dismisses his critics as being “jealous of us because they have not defeated terrorism as we have”.


Mr Fernando has pointed out that on July 9 Labour Minister Mervyn Silva publicly stated he had killed Lasantha Wickremetunge. He admitted breaking the leg of another journalist and threatening a political rival. Five lawyers appealing in a case against Gotabhaya Rajapaksa have been termed traitors. A website has been banned for criticising the President’s eldest son. Mr Fernando warns that lawlessness could lead to anarchy.


Sri Lanka has faded from the Indian radar, including Tamil Nadu. The Tamil issue no longer contributes to electoral politics as recent elections and by-elections have shown. Sri Lankan Ministers have paid glowing tribute to India’s contributions to success in the war. “Without India’s backing the West would not have let us go beyond Kilinochchi,” said one. Another Minister put it on record in Parliament. Mr Rajapaksa was less generous, saying there was no pressure from India (to stop). “India is my elder brother”.

Just as India took a strategic decision in 2005 to support the Maoists and political formations in Nepal to oust King Gyanendra, in 2006 it decided to go along with Mr Rajapaksa to destroy the LTTE. In his book, Sri Lanka — From War to Peace, Nitin Gokhale provides the depth and range of covert Indian political, military and diplomatic assistance, most crucially intelligence.


At an international conference on terrorism in Colombo in October 2007, I was told by senior officers I had known during my IPKF tenure how the Indian Navy had helped in destroying eight floating warehouses used by the LTTE for storing arms and ammunition. In addition, some merchant vessels were also sunk. This was the turning point of the war and the decision to launch ‘in the 18-month window of opportunity before replenishments could be arranged’ the full Northern offensive.


After losing 1,200 IPKF soldiers, India was backstabbed by President R Premadasa. I worry a similar fate awaits India as Mr Rajapaksa reneges on his promise for reconciliation with Tamils. Devolution and federalism have receded into the background after the military victory. In interview after interview, he has assured dozens of Indian editors that he will implement the 13th Amendment plus. Lately, he has been equally emphatic — “It will be a home-grown solution, nothing imported from outside. I want the solution to come from the people.”


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he urged Mr Rajapaksa at the recent NAM Summit to “do all he can” to resolve the national question. In Parliament he said, “I explained to him, we have a legitimate concern about the well-being of the Tamil people. It has a bearing on Sri Lanka’s relations with India.”


India has revelled in its policy of ‘direct influence without direct involvement’ in Sri Lanka. It has marginalised itself by putting all its eggs in the Rajapaksa basket. Colombo has lined up Beijing and Islamabad in the wings to deflect Indian pressure. With the LTTE chapter over, India’s strategic role has diminished. The Tamil National Alliance, which has 23 of 24 Tamil seats in Parliament, has been liberated from the LTTE. New Delhi must engage the TNA to recover lost ground.

 

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

IN LOVELESS LANKA, EELAM LIVES!

PRIYADARSI DUTTA


Stone walls do not a prison make / Nor iron bars a cage / Minds innocent and quiet take / That for an hermitage” . These lines by Richard Lovelace have not rusted since the 17th century and had a fresh recall when Colombo High Court sentenced journalist Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. Condemned to 20 years of incarceration for two ‘seditious’ articles cited, it presages the shape of things to come in Sri Lanka. Mercifully, Tissainayagam’s sentence has not been denied by Colombo unlike the carnage of 20,000 Tamils at the last stages of Eelam War IV, or making light of the bound-and-shot execution video!


The world’s largest democracy has apparently scaled down on neighbourhood watch. The way India handled the Tamil crisis with the greatest degree of callousness through ‘Kerala clique’ of veteran Indian diplomat Vijay Nambiar, Lt Gen (Retd) Satish Nambiar, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and National Security Adviser MK Narayanan appear atrocious. But for India, even burning Lankan Tamils at stakes will not purchase for it two weeks of friendship with Sri Lanka. With the emerald island sliding into a client state status vis-à-vis China and cosying up to Pakistan, India is soon likely to lose its sleep over security of the Indian Ocean region. China’s ‘string of pearls’ strategy to encircle India on blue waters is closer by the day.


In vain has the Sinhalese Government tried to indict some Tamils as ‘seditious’. The Tamils view themselves as a separate nation striving for freedom from alien Sinhala rule. Way back in 1983, the image of another handcuffed man (like Tissainayagam now) being taken to jail from Colombo High Court had riveted public attention. His name was Nadarajah Thangathurai of TELO. His long speech from the docks resonate still: “We are not lovers of violence nor victims of mental disorder. We are honest fighters belonging to an organisation that is struggling to liberate a people. To those noble souls who keep on parroting ‘terrorism, terrorism’, we have something to say. Did you not get frightened of terrorism when hundreds of Tamils were massacred in cold blood, when racist hate spread like fire in this country of yours? Why in 1977 alone, 400 Tamils lost their lives reddening the sky above with their splattered blood — did you not see any terrorism then?”


That voice too was silenced during the Black July riots, 1983 when Thangathurai was killed in the Welikada Prison massacre.


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THE PIONEER

OP-ED

A NON-OFFER BY CHINA

INDIA HAD A FULL-FLEDGED MISSION IN LHASA TILL 1952. THAT’S NOW A FOOTNOTE OF THE HISTORY OF TIBET’S SUPPRESSION AND INDIA’S FAILURE TO HOLD ITS GROUND. STRANGELY, INDIA HAS BEEN TOLD THAT IT CAN OPEN A CONSULATE IN THE TIBETAN CAPITAL. IT MAKES LITTLE SENSE. OR DOES IT?

CLAUDE ARPI


Jujian Hua, director at Tibet’s Foreign Affairs Office, recently made a startling declaration: “India can set up a consulate in Lhasa”. He then added, “That depends on India.”


Mr Jujian Hua said, “The local Government (of the Tibetan Autonomous Region) attaches great importance to trade, culture and tradition, including tourism.”


A day later, the Government of India clarified that it had never approached the Chinese authorities for permission to open a consulate in Lhasa. An Indian official said there was no question of discussing this issue with China: “New Delhi has no plans to open a consulate in the Tibetan capital.”


In the not too-distant past, India had more than a consulate in Lhasa; it had a full-fledged mission till the end of 1952. India had inherited several rights and privileges in Tibet from the 1914 Simla Tripartite Conference (between British India, Tibet and China).


Apart from the mission in Lhasa, there were three trade marts managed by Indian agents posted in Gyantse, Gartok (western Tibet) and Yatung (in Chumbi Valley near Sikkim border). These agents were entitled to a military escort. The Post and Telegraph Service, a chain of rest-houses and the principality of Minsar (near Mt Kailash) were also under the Government of India’s control. Over the years, all this would be ‘offered’ to the Chinese, without any compensation or even trying to get a fair settlement of the border issue.


Ideologically, the first Prime Minister of India was not comfortable with what he called ‘imperialist sequels’. He realised, however, that these ‘privileges’ were useful for trade, as was the McMahon Line, delineated in Simla, marking the border between NEFA and Tibet.


After the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, the Government of India found it increasingly difficult to retain these facilities on the ground. Visitors, traders and officials from India began to be unnecessarily harassed or put to hardship.


In the summer of 1951, KM Panikkar, India’s Ambassador to China, came to New Delhi for consultations; by that time he was already in love with the Communist regime in Beijing. Jawaharlal Nehru too was convinced that the future of India lay with the East: “For the first time, China possesses a strong Central Government whose decrees run even to Sinkiang and Tibet. Our own relations with China are definitively friendly.”


However, Nehru had to admit that there were some differences of perceptions. The mission in Lhasa was one of them. On November 3, 1951, when asked about this during a Press conference, Nehru remarked that the Mission would continue to remain there.


A few months later, when questioned again on the same subject, Nehru vaguely answered that the Mission was dealing “with certain trade and cultural matters more or less”. He added that technically the mission never had any diplomatic status. This was not true since the British and later the first Indian representatives had the status of a full-fledged mission till the autumn of 1952.


During the same Press conference, Nehru declared that he was not aware of “any infiltration of Chinese troops in India”. Rumours had begun about Chinese incursions through the UP-Tibet border (today Uttarakhand) as well as through the Ladakh-Tibet border. The first Chinese surveys for the Sinkiang-Tibet highway cutting through the Aksai Chin occurred at that time (Nehru was informed by LS Jangpangi, the Indian trade agent in Gartok).


In June 1952, Nehru had become prudent: “The status of the representative in Lhasa has never been defined for the last 30 years.” The Prime Minister pointed to the changed circumstances: From an independent country, Tibet had become a country under China’s effective suzerainty. “China is now exercising its suzerainty”.


Nehru explained that as Tibet was no longer an independent country, the decision had been taken to demote the diplomatic relations between Tibet and India: Indian Representative in Lhasa would soon be re-designated as a Consul-General.


During the same month, the smart Zhou Enlai told the gullible Ambassador of India that he “presumed that India had no intention of claiming special rights arising from the unequal treaties of the past and was prepared to negotiate a new and permanent relationship safeguarding legitimate interests”.


Not only did the Chinese offer nothing to India in exchange for its generosity, but New Delhi allowed China to open a consulate in Mumbai. Unbelievable!


In a cable to Panikkar, Nehru said, “We would naturally prefer a general and comprehensive settlement which includes frontier.” But he did nothing more.


A few months later, Panikkar, who had been transferred to Egypt, wrote: “The main issue of our representation at Lhasa was satisfactorily settled… there was no outstanding issue between us and the Chinese”. Again no reference was made to the border issue.


Hugh Edward Richardson, the last Head of the British Mission in Lhasa, saw this development quite differently: “That decision adroitly transformed the temporary mission at Lhasa into a regular consular post. But it was a practical dimension of the fact that Tibet had ceased to be independent and it left unresolved the fate of the special rights acquired when Tibet had been in a position to make its own treaties with foreign powers and enjoyed by the British and Indian Governments for half a century.”


In April 1954, the ‘born-in-sin’ Panchsheel Agreement was signed. Though the status of the Consulate- General and the trade marts was confirmed, all the other privileges were surrendered. Over the years, the situation became more and more untenable for the Indian officials. After the Dalai Lama took refuge in India in 1959, Chinese authorities constantly harassed the staff of the consulate and trade marts. When the Panchsheel Agreement lapsed in April 1962, there was no point in renewing it. The trade marts were closed and China asked the officials to vacate the premises. As the building in Yatung belonged to the Government of India, the Chinese even asked India to “take the building away”. This became the subject of a long correspondence between the two Governments.


On December 3, 1962, the Ministry of External Affairs sent a stern note to its Chinese counterpart: “The Government of India have decided to discontinue the Indian Consulates-General at Lhasa and Shanghai from December 15, 1962 and to withdraw their personnel manning these Consulates General. The Government of the People’s Republic of China is requested to take reciprocal action on the same date in regard to their Consulates-General in Calcutta and Bombay.”


Since then, there has been no Indian representation in Tibet.


As for the probe sent by the Chinese to reopen the consulate in Lhasa in a near future, one could ask: What is the point?

 

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THE PIONEER

         OP-ED

MAOISTS EYE TEMPLE FUND

PASHUPATINATH IS A TREASURE TROVE

ANURADHA DUTT


After suffering a reverse via the Nepal Government’s decision to reinstate Indian priests at Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu some months ago, the Maoists are again trying to gain control of the shrine. Opponents of the tradition of Bhatts, who perform rites at the shrine and are recruited from south India, recently rushed into the premises and locked up the office of the managing committee, Pashupati Area Development Trust. The aggression was reported to be triggered by the move to appoint two priests from Karnataka. Last month, the trust formed a three-member committee, including the chief priest, for the purpose. The shortfall in staff officiating at the temple was affecting ritual performances.


This situation surfaced after the Supreme Court stayed the appointment of two Nepalese priests in January this year. Though the court directed that the old practice of appointing Indians should continue, the case awaits a final resolution.


The Maoists’ attempt to gain control over Pashupatinath temple, Nepal’s most-renowned pilgrimage and a world heritage site, is viewed cynically by locals as less of an assertion of national identity and more as a bid to get access to the temple’s huge corpus of funds. For, the Shiv shrine, whose origins are lost in the mists of antiquity, is among the most sacred for Hindus around the world. It ranks in importance with ancient Shiv shrines in India.


The huge rush of pilgrims to Pashupatinath throughout the year and in all seasons ensures handsome offerings. The surmise that the tussle over control of the shrine management is driven by motives other than ideology may be correct. There are precedents for such a struggle.


To cite a pertinent example at home, long before the dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya became politicised, the town had witnessed bitter feuds between claimants to the site, viewed by devout Hindus as the birthplace of Ram. Alongside Muslims who pressed their claims were the Nirmohi Akhara and Digambar Akhara. Ayodhya has a history of disputes between various religious factions over property and wealth.


Bairagis, a Vaishnav sect that popularised Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas through dramatic renderings, and Shaivs fought for control of shrines as these meant rich pickings. The former believed that the legendary King Vikramaditya of Ujjain had made a splendid temple at Ram’s birthplace, and they had ownership rights to the site. Struggles over control of shrines often ended in killings of mahants and their ashrams or shrines being taken over by adversaries.


In more recent times, Maithili Sharan of Janaki Ghat and Bajrangdas of Hanumangarhi were said to have met this fate. And, the chief mahant of Mumuksh Bhavan at Vibhishan Kund was apparently killed by a disciple, impatient to grab his ashram. Such instances abound in pilgrimages, where piety and sin co-exist. Rather than a political feud, many people living in Kathmandu valley choose to view the ongoing tussle at Pashupatinath as a struggle between two factions for access to temple property and funds.


Traditionally, priests at Pashupatinath temple have been recruited from South India since the time of King Yaksha Malla, who reigned in the 15th century. Another account holds that Adi Shankaracharya, the 8th century AD monk who restored the primacy of theism over agnostic faiths, initiated the custom of South Indian priests officiating at Himalayan Hindu shrines such as Badrinath, Kedarnath and Pashupatinath. It reflected his vision of unity. A third view holds that Indian priests were brought to ensure uninterrupted worship at the fabled shrine. This is because custom enjoined the Nepalese people to undertake a year-long mourning, even suspending religious service, when the monarch died. Indian priests could be expected to perform ritual worship while the whole of Nepal lamented the king’s demise.


The forced attempt to break with tradition has been criticised both in Nepal and India. Those backing Nepali priests argue that they are as skilled as their Indian counterparts in performing rites. But, the matter being subjudice, they need to bide their time till a final verdict on the matter is given by the court. Abolishing the monarchy and trying to undo religious convention are not the same. For, despite its conversion into a secular state, the country clearly harbours a Hindu soul, rooted in millennia of uninterrupted worship at Himalayan shrines that have withstood the march of centuries, as much as ideological assaults.


Maoist haste to take over Pashupatinath only raises questions about the motive for such a course of action. Since it cannot be political, the reason is not far to seek.


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THE PIONEER

OP-ED

SOFT PM’S SOFT STAND ON TERROR

OUR AMBASSADORS AND HIGH COMMISSIONERS WHO GATHERED IN DELHI FOR THEIR ANNUAL CONFERENCE HAVE RETURNED WITHOUT BEING TOLD WHAT STEPS ARE BEING TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT TO COUNTER PAKISTANI PERFIDY

CP BHAMBHRI


The recently-held annual conference of 112 heads of missions abroad provided the perfect platform for India to acquaint other countries about the challenges being faced by the country from across its borders. But India failed to put across the point.


On the first day, while addressing the conference, Minister of External Affairs SM Krishna conveyed a clear message to all diplomats that terrorism was India’s most important foreign and national security concern and the threat of terrorism faced by India should be highlighted. The message was reiterated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 25 as well.


“India has been a victim of terrorism and it was essential that global terrorism is tackled with full vigour,” Mr Singh said.


So far, so good.

 

But shockingly the Prime Minister did not identify the source of terrorist threat to India. We are not facing an abstract or imaginary enemy because the Taliban and jihadis are not indulging in terrorist activities against India from an unidentifiable country. We know that terrorist activities are emanating from Pakistan.

The heads of missions had not gathered in New Delhi to listen to bland statements on terrorism being threat to India’s security. It was expected of the Prime Minister to elaborate the UPA Government’s foreign policy towards Pakistan, apart from spelling out its expectations from the neighbouring country.


The pernicious role of the Taliban in waging a war against India should have been mentioned so that the heads of missions drive home the point with details and facts about the ground situation and build international pressure to make Pakistan see reason on the issue of terrorist threat to India.


During the five-day conclave, the Prime Minister said that “India has a stake in the prosperity and stability of all our South Asian neighbours. We should strive to engage our neighbours constructively and resolve differences through peaceful means and negotiations.”


This policy approach of the Prime Minister on South Asia is absolutely appropriate and there is a need for full ‘engagement’ with all our South Asian neighbouring countries. But Mr Singh forgot to mention that the country is facing a lot of difficulties and uncertainties in bilateral and multilateral relationship in the South Asia region. For instance, a disturbed Afghanistan can be of adverse implications on India’s security and national interests.


It is deplorable that Indian diplomats were not conveyed any message by the Prime Minister on the ongoing internal war in Afghanistan and its impact on India’s relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Does India approve of US’s policy of military intervention in Afghanistan or it is going to be another Waterloo for America? Any political upheaval in Afghanistan has consequences for India via Pakistan and any success of the Taliban in Afghanistan will create serious problems for India’s security via Pakistan.

Mr Singh indulged in platitudes while stating that “economics determines foreign policy agendas in this age of globalisation”. Appallingly, he forgot to mention that along with economic agenda of foreign policy, Indian diplomats have to engage themselves at global level about the terror threats faced by India. The agenda of global cooperation does not hang in the air, it has to be based on the concrete economic and strategic needs of the country, but unfortunately the Prime Minister completely failed to concretise the required linkages between India’s priorities and global agenda.


Mr Singh rightly said that national “insularity was not an option,” but he ducked the issue of relating India’s domestic requirements and the nature of linkages which India should have with multiple centres of power.

Polarisation of political opinion on the India-US civilian nuclear deal and the surrender at Sharm el-Sheikh failed to teach the UPA Government any lesson. Hence it is for the Government to engage with the Opposition parties and evolve a national consensus on foreign policy and present it before its diplomats and foreign policy messengers.


This weakness on the foreign policy front acts as a handicap for Indian diplomats who have to articulate in very concrete terms foreign policy issues. The five-day conclave was indeed a waste of time, energy and resources.

 

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THE PIONEER

OP-ED

MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY SHIFT UNLIKELY IN JAPAN

BUT HATOYAMA MAY PROPOSE PROMOTING BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA, WRITES ANDREI KUZNETSOV

 

A new wave of ‘collective unconscious’ has swept Japan. In the last few days before the August 30 election to the lower House of Japan’s Parliament, a growing number of voters said they would vote for the largest Opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, and against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. As a result, the DPJ has won the election.


At first, the DPJ was fighting for a simple majority (over 241 seats), but by August 30 it was aiming for a qualified majority, or more than 320 seats. The party won 308 seats, while the LDP has only 119 seats in new Parliament.


The LDP has been in power since its establishment in 1955 — with the exception of 10 months in 1993-1994, when a coalition of eight parties and groups ruled the country, without much success. Therefore, the defeat at this year’s election came as a very hard blow for it, signifying the demise of a once very powerful party.


DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama will be elected Prime Minister at a special meeting of Parliament in the middle of September, ushering in a Government that has promised to develop “a fraternal society founded on a policy of love” toward families, the unemployed and pensioners.


According to the DPJ, the first three months will be the most difficult for the new Government. If it formulates a 2010 Budget by the end of the year and ensures its approval in Parliament, this will serve as the foundation for a lengthy period of the DPJ rule in Japan after a 62-year pause.


The LDP ineffectively played during the election campaign on the subject of ‘responsibility’, and claimed that the DPJ has no experience of running the country and no funds to attain the proclaimed goals. The LDP also said that the growth of GDP has resumed, and the country has approached the end of the economic tunnel in the past months when the party was running the country.


However, the electorate refused to listen to these reasonable arguments, and the number of DPJ supporters grew fast. Meanwhile, the DPJ was relying hard on the populist promises to cut short bureaucrats, cancel high-speed toll road fees, introduce monthly allowances to families, and improve the social security system.

Mr Hatoyama was bound to make these logical moves, because his party, unlike the LDP, has no experience in the sphere of foreign or domestic policy. He plans to call, preferably jointly with US President Barack Obama, for a nuclear-free world at the UN General Assembly in late September.


This could be an instant hit — the world’s first victim of nuclear bombing and the world’s first country that dropped a nuclear bomb joining forces to call for a ban on nuclear weapons. However, a source at the US State Department said on the condition of anonymity that they would not like to listen to fairytales during a summit meeting between the US and Japanese leaders.


The new Government is likely to maintain allied relations with the United States, with a minor decrease in military operations abroad.

At the same time, top-ranking Japanese diplomats say that Mr Hatoyama is unlikely to change anything in relations with Russia and with regard to the ‘Northern Territories’. However, he may propose promoting economic and cultural relations with Russia. Mr Hatoyama has been long-standing chairman of the Japan-Russia Society and his son studied in Moscow, where he is now working on plans to modernise the city’s roads.

Nationalism will be forced to the background in the new Government. Mr Hatoyama has said that neither he nor anyone in his Cabinet would visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which dates from the late 19th century and honours more than two million individuals who died fighting for Japan. This statement has provoked an outcry among the advocates of the Japanese war spirit and older-generation conservatives.


At the same time, the DPJ is short of leader-grade party members and Mr Hatoyama will have to recruit LDP members to his Cabinet. He has broadly hinted at the possibility when he said that the Government needed about a hundred professionals to be selected in Parliament.


Japanese business association Keidanren, traditionally a close and supportive ally of the LDP, is so far keeping neutrality. It has said it would support the political movement whose actions meet the country’s national interests the most, thereby placing itself in a position to judge what is better for Japan.

The writer is a political affairs columnist based in Moscow.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDITORIAL

SLOW AND STEADY

 

Economic growth figures for the first quarter of this financial year seem to support the claim that the worst may be over for the Indian economy. Compared to the last two quarters, most sectors have performed reasonably well and there is reason to hope that the trend would continue. Most major economies in the world also seem to be recovering from the downturn even though they are yet to see substantial growth. That only a handful of major economies are registering growth China leading the pack at 8 per cent puts India's performance in perspective. The upturn is also an indication that the government's economic stimulus package is working.


What could, however, upset the positive outlook is the drought looming over large parts of the country and its impact on overall growth. Even though the monsoon has picked up lately, the rains received so far are grossly inadequate. Some estimates warn that this monsoon could be the worst in the past 40 years. There are clear indications that farm output, particularly cereals, will fall drastically. Insufficient rain is bound to impact the prices of almost all agricultural commodities and that would lead to spiralling prices and impact the economy as a whole. A drought would also trigger a drastic reduction in rural employment and consumption besides inflation in the prices of food articles.


The government has predicted that inflation, currently negative according to the wholesale price index, is likely to climb up to 4 per cent by March 2010. However, food prices have been on the rise for the past few months, and lower agricultural production is likely to aggravate the situation. The government has said that food grain from the buffer stocks will be used to keep prices down and a few state governments have decided to release pulses, which have seen an extraordinary price run, through fair price shops. Subsidised foodgrain is necessary in these times, but its efficacy will depend a lot on the distribution system.

Rural distress could assume serious proportions if safety nets are not foolproof. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme could work as a safeguard if there is a significant fall in demand for labour. The benefits of the scheme must be maximised; most importantly, wages must be paid on time and as per norms. The turnaround in industrial production and services has to be supported by an increase in private consumption to sustain growth. The current quarter figures point to a fall in consumers' share of spending while the government's contribution is up. This could become unsustainable in the long run.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDITORIAL

WINDS OF CHANGE

 

For the last 50 years Japan had been effectively under one-party rule. On Sunday, that dramatically changed when the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) convincingly defeated the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed Japan for most of its post-World War II history. By ending one-party dominance, Japanese voters and the DPJ have strengthened Japan's democracy.


The DPJ and its leader Yukio Hatoyama, who is likely to become prime minister, have a tough job in their hands. Though the Japanese economy grew at 3.7 per cent last quarter, there are doubts whether this is sustainable. A prolonged period of stagnation and negative growth has left the Japanese economy in a shambles. The unemployment rate is at a record high of 5.7 per cent and productivity is low. In a newspaper article, Hatoyama has signalled that he is against "unrestrained market fundamentalism and financial capitalism". There's nothing wrong with that. But what's worrying is the underlying antipathy towards globalisation and economic reform. That could lead to the Japanese government getting further involved in an already overregulated economy with notoriously rigid labour laws. What is encouraging, however, is the DPJ's promise to clip the wings of Japan's powerful bureaucrats. It has proposed to decentralise the bureaucracy and fill high-ranking posts with political appointments.


There is some unease regarding Japan's future foreign policy. Hatoyama has indicated that he wants to re-evaluate Japan's relationship with the US. Instead he wants to focus on building stable relationship in the East Asian region. It's too early to say if that foreshadows a closer relationship with China, which is set to take over from Japan as the world's second-largest economy.


How will the new government affect Indo-Japanese relations? In DPJ's 2005 election manifesto, India was mentioned as integral to Asian economic development along with China, South Korea and ASEAN. However, New Delhi hardly figured in DPJ's election manifesto this time, except for a cursory reference to India's importance in international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It seems Hatoyama is much more focused on East Asia, which he believes is Japan's "basic sphere of being". Since Japan is one of the largest donors to India, it is incumbent upon New Delhi to engage with the new government in Tokyo. India should look to increase the volume of trade between the two countries, which is less than one-third of Sino-Indian trade. At the same time, India should seek to upgrade military ties with Japan in the Indian Ocean.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDITORIAL

FROM MANDI TO MARKET

BART MINTEN & ASHOK GULATI

 

The impact of the emergence of organised retail chains in India has generated vehement discussions on various fronts. But if the recommendations made sometime ago by a parliamentary panel headed by Murli Manohar Joshi were to be accepted, it would be 'no entry' to corporates in retail trade in grocery, fruits and vegetables. It is worth recalling, however, that the parliamentary panel ignored the impact of inefficient traditional value chains, in the form of low prices for the producer and high prices for consumers.

A recent research report on high value crops and marketing by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Asian Development Bank highlights some of the issues in traditional value chains of high value crops in Uttarakhand. Based on a primary survey conducted with vegetable farmers, it has been found that the average farmer spends 7.5 hours (two hours to travel to the market and another two hours to return as well as 3.5 hours at the wholesale market itself) to conduct an agricultural transaction that is valued on an average at about Rs 3,000. Further, it has been found that few of the regulated market rules are respected in these markets and that brokers routinely charge commission rates to farmers as well as retailers that exceed the mandated rates.


Combining broker costs, transport expenses and the opportunity costs of time, the farmers face transaction costs that are estimated to amount to anything between 25 per cent and 38 per cent, on average, of the price paid by the retailer on the wholesale market. The traditional market system thus seems to lead to large margins and low prices for farmers because of badly organised markets and because of small transactions with little aggregation taking place in the villages.


The report also shows that things can be done differently. For example, organised food retailing in collaboration with local non-governmental organisations catering to the demand for food including vegetables in Delhi, has transformed cultivation and livelihood patterns for the Rawain valley to the north of Dehra Dun. Due to the establishment of local collection centres operating outside the regulated system, there has been a dramatic rise in the cultivation of off-seasonal vegetables from about 5 per cent of the cultivable area to about 50 per cent for participating families as well as others, all over a period of 8-10 years. Ten years ago, 5 per cent of the farmers in the area would grow off-seasonal vegetables but now almost all the farmers do so.


The transformation from a subsistence to a market economy is evident in the increased cultivation of vegetables on a commercial basis (as against previously for personal consumption alone) as well as the increasingly reported consumption of products such as milk, fruit and processed grains. Earlier, farmers used to grow, store and eat their own food. Now they increasingly sell cash crops at a high price and buy staples at a low price. This change has been made possible because of the market-driven stimulus in the area, initiated by organised modern retail but increasingly propelled by scores of private procurers.


Research on the impact of organised retail in this area indicates that the conditions at the level of farmers improve and that the prices that are charged to the consumers are at the lower end compared to the traditional outlets. At the producer's end, organised retail often offers better purchase conditions. The farmers interviewed in the study enumerated several benefits of selling to organised retail, including transparent pricing, higher producer prices, same prices for poor and better-off farmers, no cheating with weights and regular payments.

Investments by organised retailers leading to better supply management, the spread of better technologies and additional choices for farmers - can assure the development of a more competitive environment, leading to important benefits for poor farmers. It is estimated that about six million farmers would come under the catchment of top retail companies in India by 2010. Over the next few years, if allowed, various new entrants in the food and grocery business might even accelerate this trend.


However, there are still significant constraints in the structure of the emerging chains that do not allow farmers to fully exploit the opportunities offered in the changing market environment, often linked to government regulations. But the parliamentary panel report, instead of suggesting an overhaul of the existing inefficient marketing system, and mainstreaming the kirana stores in modern retail chains, recommended a blanket ban on modern corporate retail in grocery, fruits and vegetables. If such a report is accepted by the government, it will surely block the potential benefits that could accrue to producers and consumers alike. And it will keep Indian value chains weighed down by inefficiency, serving only the interests of middlemen.


Minten is senior research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Gulati is director in Asia, IFPRI.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

Q&A

'THE WORST IS OVER FOR THE AIRLINES BUSINESS'

 

He's a high-flier. How else can one describe Dinesh Keskar , president of Boeing India? He has balanced his engineering and marketing skills with equal panache in this company for 29 years. Keskar spoke to Shobha John


Boeing projected that over the next 20 years, India will require 1,000 commercial jets valued at approximately $100 billion. Isn't that too optimistic?


These projections are based on India's high growth rate, traffic flow and GDP, which continues to grow at 6 per cent and could average 8 per cent. Even five years back, we wouldn't have thought India would have some 350 planes but it has come true. Though the low-cost model stimulated the market, once the economy looks up two to three years later, i predict the demand for full-service carriers will go up. We betted on people flying point-to-point and were proved right. The 250-350 seater will be the future of the international sector.

Boeing and AI signed the biggest commercial aviation deal for 68 planes. But there were reports AI cancelled the order for six 777s. Is this true?


There has been no discussion either on renegotiation of prices or cancellation between us. If and when AI wants a deferment, we will decide then. The only issue in question now is when AI would like to take these 777s. Everything else is already delivered, except the 27 787s which we are delaying unfortunately. There may be times when a contract can't be enforced completely due to changed circumstances. We understand that and help airlines in their hour of need.


The 787, the game changer for Boeing, was supposed to come to India in June 2010. It's been delayed. Why? AI is reportedly asking for $710 million compensation.


The delay is because the wing to body joint needs structural beefing up. We have 850 orders, out of which just a handful have been cancelled. Our clients are sticking by us as they know it's the best plane they'll ever get. Boeing will, of course, pay compensation to airlines affected by this delay. How and when that compensation will be given to AI is between us and them. Regarding the $710 million figure, i don't know where that came from. Incidentally, India will leave its footprint in this plane: HCL is doing many of the flight control systems, while Tatas are making the floor beams.


What advice would you give to struggling airlines in India?


Bring capacity in line with demand and be relentless about cost control, like Indigo and SpiceJet. In the airline business you can control costs, but you will still have no idea what revenues you will get. But the worst is over. Airlines, which used to lose around Rs 2,300 per passenger, now lose about Rs 800. And consolidation isn't always good. It doesn't reduce over-capacity.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

SHHH! IT'S A SECRET

JUG SURAIYA

 

Should the Right to Information Act be renamed the Right to Ignorance Act? Despite the introduction of the RTI Act, India continues to be an information-poor and, consequently, ignorance-rich country. The official policy seems to be that public ignorance is sarkari bliss. Thanks to the Official Secrets' Act (one of the less desirable relics of British rule, under the colonial regime largely used to suppress nationalist sentiment and activity) India remains to paraphrase the words of Winston Churchill describing the Soviet Union a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in a secret.


Just how secretive our sarkar is can be gauged by its reluctance, verging on paranoia, about giving the public access to classified documents which have passed their official expiry date and could now legitimately be allowed to surface. Though the Public Record Rules of 1997 state that official documents of a sensitive nature are to be made public after 25 years, in practice this is far from the case.


According to a TOI report, instead of being housed in the national archives, where researchers could have access to them, declassified documents are sent into the custody of the Prime Minister's Office, which according to the latest tally is sitting on 28,685 so-called 'secret files'.

 

The PMO is meant to declassify and make public these files as per the rules laid down in a manual of 'departmental security' (some might feel that 'depart mental' would be an apter term) issued by the home ministry. And what exactly does this manual say about de-secretifying secrets? Sorry, but that's also a secret.

In short, not only is the public voters and taxpayers who respectively elect and financially support the government not permitted to know about the inner functions of its own sarkar but it isn't permitted even to know just why this knowledge is being denied. This would be fine if India were a totalitarian state, like China. Or a thinly veiled military dictatorship, like Pakistan.


But India is supposed to be a democracy. And not just any common or garden democracy, but one that claims to be the most populous in the world. Can such a democracy or for that matter, any democracy worth the name call itself a democracy if it persistently denies its citizens access to information relevant to governance and policy formation?


Informed choice is the bedrock of democracy. Without the wherewithal of information, and without the ability to make a choice on the basis of that information, democracy becomes a mockracy: a mockery of itself. For knowledge is power, and lack of knowledge is dispossession of power.


In this context, successive governments have done little or nothing to empower the common citizen. Instead, they have chosen to empower themselves, at the expense of the citizen, by holding on tight to information which for undefined reasons of 'security' continues to be a secret long after its 'don't-use-by-date' as a secret has lapsed.

 


Of the 28,000-plus 'secret' files buried in the bowels of the PMO, only one was released into the public domain in 2005, two in 2006, 37 in 2007, 25 in 2008 and zero in the current year. Why does the sarkar suffer from this chronic constipation of secrecy, which is so injurious to the health of our democracy? When it comes to taking out hugely expensive ads in the media ads paid for by the taxpayer lauding its own real or imaginary achievements, the sarkar at both the central and state levels is positively prodigal in its largesse of bestowing information (or misinformation?) on the public. So why is it so niggardly about doling out supposedly 'secret' information which is well past its due date?


Hush! Don't ask such a question. Don't you know that the answer to that is itself a secret?

 

secondopinion@timesgroup.com , http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

SPA TREATMENT

FORCE THE PACE

YAMINI LOHIA

 

The Belgian Grand Prix more often than not produces a real cracker of a Formula 1 race, and 2009's edition was no exception. The track, Spa-Francorchamps, cuts through the scenic Ardennes forest and can boast of some of the most fearsome corners in F1, including the fabled Eau Rouge. It's what is known as a driver's track it separates the men from the boys. Last Sunday's result was not much of a surprise in that sense: Kimi Raikkonen is the man, and Giancarlo Fisichella was shown once again to be a boy, despite his advanced years. In all the euphoria over Force India's surprisingly competitive second place, everyone seems to have forgotten that Fisichella allowed himself to be passed by Raikkonen on the restart, KERS or no KERS on track, the lack of which spectators complain about all the time and that, basically, cost him the race.


Of course, had Fisi held off the Finn, it would've required him to keep his composure and not be passed by Raikkonen, which with Fisi is easier said than done. One thing you can't accuse him of is being consistent. This is, after all, the same driver who lost the race lead and victory to Raikkonen in the thrilling Japanese GP in 2005...on the last lap. Mental fortitude is not his forte, shall we say, no matter how big a fire the thought of that Ferrari drive lit under his tush. Not that Force India hasn't done very well to go from zero to hero in the space of one short season. It's a fairy story the likes of which rarely happen in F1. But the rejoicing in this part of the world has gone a wee bit overboard. I mean, the team did great and all, but to treat it as some sort of national triumph is a tad over the top. Force India is about as Indian as Slumdog Millionaire, maybe even less so. On second thoughts, that didn't stop us from proclaiming from the rooftops how proud we were to be obligingly poor enough to give Danny Boyle a subject to make his film on, so why should the lack of anything Indian, bar an Indian owner, prevent us from claiming Force India's success as our own? On the flip side, initial reports notwithstanding, maybe this will finally convince the ministry of sports that yes, F1 is a sport. Success, and the millions of dollars that come with it, are, after all, very persuasive.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

LOOKING ASIA, TALKING TOKYO

 

Modern Japan is still an economy roughly double the size of China with a technological ability second only to the United States. This is a consequence of the winning equation that has ruled the country since the end of World War II. If the recent general election makes it to the history books it will be because it seems to have marked the end of this equation: the ‘iron triangle’ between the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japanese big business and the bureaucracy. It is because this triangle has floundered since the 1980s economic collapse that a group as motley as the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has come to power.

 

The question is not merely how far the DPJ will deviate from policies associated with Tokyo for over half a century but whether it will be able to find a winning equation of its own. The new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, plans to eviscerate the country’s all-powerful bureaucracy. He has said he will loosen his country’s foreign policy from the coattails of the US. However, the DPJ’s vaguely leftwing economic platform seems an unlikely solution to the structural problems that bedevil Japan, such as its hidebound service sectors. But the election has also left a rump LDP, whose core includes many market-friendly reformers. If Hatomaya fails to spark his country’s revival, they will be waiting their turn.

 

India has a stake in events in Tokyo. Successive LDP regimes committed themselves to increasing Japanese investment in India, largely to dilute an addiction to China. The initial part of this strategy has been about modernising India’s shoddy infrastructure through direct assistance from Tokyo. The planned $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor is the most ambitious part of this strategy. There is evidence that the DPJ will retain this stance towards India, but the motivation for pushing forward this strategy will be different. Investing in India would be less about hedging against China and even less about maintaining an Asian balance of power. It would simply be about making hard-nosed economic decisions. Hatoyama’s campaign promised change. But his platform’s lack of clarity means that the best fallout of his election for Asia would be change in incremental and relatively conservative ways.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

SPLITTING IMAGE

JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA

 

Is the RSS itching to play a new role in relation to the BJP? The answer to this question is that the RSS always looks forward to the past. The rupture with the past came during the six years of the BJP-led coalition government in Delhi, when two of its senior swayamsevaks, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, sought to break free from the Sangh’s suffocating embrace and tried to steer the BJP in a different direction. For the Sangh, nothing ever changes; any idea of change is merely cosmic play, leela, or is part of the illusory nature of the phenomenal world and has little to do with reality. In turn, reality is what the Sangh feels, thinks, knows and decrees. In Nagpur, where the headquarters of the RSS are located, this illusion of permanence and hubris of certainty is protected by the heavily armed policemen of the democratically elected government of the people of India.

 

What are these tenets of the RSS that will never change? The Sangh believes that politics is based on selfishness and the greater selfishness increases, the greater the need for politics, power and governance. The only way to avoid the path to politics is to have social unity, cultivate the inner excellence of individuals within that society and celebrate culture as the true representation of genuine power. Quarrels, disagreements, love and hate are possible only in a perfectly constituted unity and not as instances of individuality. Democracy is to be rejected because it encourages individualism and selfishness; democracy, Golwalkar famously quipped, was not even a historical necessity. The only ‘ism’ that the RSS finds tenable is Hinduism.

 

In order to achieve this ideal of purity and perfection, the Sangh took a leap of presumptuousness. The first of these was appointing itself the sole guardian, protector and defender of what they called Hindu culture. The second was to assume the mantle of the sole spokesperson for an undiluted and militant idea of nationalism, which, when translated into simple language, meant Hindu nationalism. Thirdly, they took upon themselves, unilaterally and arbitrarily, the task of what they call Hindu consolidation. Finally, the RSS believes that there is something called Hindu society out there, and it is only a matter of time that this Hindu society will be awakened, see the light of day, and run to the paternal embrace of the Sangh.

The RSS had assumed that swayamsevaks who ventured into politics were to be like sages entering the world to cure its impurities. They were to be the ‘recruiting ground’, as Golwalkar suggested for the ideology and the ultimate mission of the Sangh. These sages, over the years, instead of reforming that harlot, namely, politics, instead fell in love with her. They began to love all that she had to offer, be it power, wealth, position or glory.

 

A rank careerist like Jaswant Singh was not far off the mark when, after being expelled from the BJP for writing a book, said that the top leadership of the BJP had begun to suffer from the intoxication of power, or Rajmad. Not only has the BJP learned that politics and power are after all not so bad, but it has also begun to question the Sangh’s leap of presumptuousness.

 

The BJP can no longer pretend that the Sangh or its affiliates protect and preserve Hindu culture, especially so when it is done through dragging young girls out of a pub and assaulting them. They have also realised that the roots of democracy are deep in India and Indian nationalism, however articulated, is a democratic nationalism. The realisation has also dawned that the greatest challenge towards a Hindu consolidation comes from Hindus themselves, who neither subscribe to the rigid, anachronistic and illiberal idea of what an ideal Hindu society ought to be. Nor are they ready to buy the hysterical outpourings of some leaders within the Sangh parivar of a threat to Hindu identity in the form of Muslims, Christians and Western modernity.

Most significantly, two successive election defeats have finally driven home the message that there is nothing called a Hindu vote, a myth as exaggerated as the existence of permanent vote banks.

 

Truth be told, there is little that the RSS approves in terms of the functioning of the BJP, whether in power or out of power. The BJP now is like any other political party. It has factions, interest groups and islands of naked ambition. All that the RSS can do in the present scenario is to favour one faction over the other. All its disclaimers to the contrary are merely for public consumption. Without being in politics, it has been reduced to playing politics of the lowest kind, and at the same time, pretending to be an unbiased arbiter of all that masquerades as politics within the BJP. It has become the 10 Janpath of the BJP, but with a difference.

 

Sonia Gandhi is an elected representative of the Indian people. While her authority does not derive from this single fact alone, her legitimacy derives substantially from being part of the democratic process. The RSS, on the contrary, will have to remain content with the ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy of the BJP’s undying love for that woman of the multitude, as Golwalkar in 1954 and Sudarshan in 2004 called that entity we know as politics.

 

Jyotirmaya Sharma is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad. He is the author of Terrifying Vision: M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India (Penguin)

The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE

SURINDER SINGLA

 

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has argued that the Left needs to engage in a dialogue, particularly on the issue of ending poverty. Perhaps he is urging the Left to look at China, which has catapulted its growth rate in the last 30 years. “There is enough fierceness of the prevailing political arrangement and it has not helped to harness India’s potential for a high growth rate.  It never seemed to grow,” says Sen.

 

Prakash Karat, general secretary of the CPI(M), entered the debate through an article in People’s Democracy while defending his party’s role in taking up the pro-poor policies of the UPA government. Repeated claims of getting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) Bill passed do not entitle the Left to the sole authorship of the scheme. In fact, no political outfit challenged the passage of the NREGS Bill. Likewise there are numerous programmes like Bharat Nirman, Ambedkar Awas Yojana, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, etc., that were announced in the Budget.

 

It must be reiterated that the Congress government, in 1991, laid the foundations of India’s modern economy. It propelled the growth rate from 2-3 per cent to the present 9 per cent mark.

 

Let Karat understand that economic reforms built a strong framework to eventually meet social sector expenses like subsidising health, housing and other aspects that raise the standard of living of poor people. Direct tax collections, in the last five years, have tripled to nearly Rs 4 lakh crore. Economic reforms have generated huge revenues for the government not only to finance NREGS on a national scale but also other pro-poor policies.

 

It is time that the country demands an honest explanation from Karat and his party, which has ruled West Bengal for one-third of a century. There is a need for him to clarify what specific anti-poverty measures have contributed to the well-being of the poor in West Bengal. If Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu can sell cheap grain at Rs 2 per kg, why can’t the Marxist government do the same?

 

Further, if one compares per capita expenditure on social services with other states, the pathetic performance of the West Bengal government is obvious. According to the Reserve Bank of India, in West Bengal, social sector expenditure to total expenditure declined to 23.4 per cent in 2003-04 from 46.91 in 1990-91. But it increased in the last four years and, according to the Budget of 2007-08, it was 35.1 per cent, still less than other poorer states.

 

It compares badly to the figures of other poorer states like Bihar (40.8 per cent), Chhattisgarh 44.8 (per cent), Jharkhand (43.7 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (37.8 per cent) and Rajasthan (38.2 per cent). It shouldn’t also be forgotten that social sector spending has increased only in the last four years because the central government hugely increased the funding on pro-poor programmes in the states.

 

If we look at the record of land reforms in West Bengal, one finds that tenancy rights are protected and land is not given to the tiller.  Have the Marxists learnt a lesson that keeping people poor is in their best interest?

 

The global collapse of Communism must be studied and lessons learnt sooner than later before India’s Left becomes redundant and archaic.  As it is, the appeal of the Left is on the decline and it is no wonder that India’s young refuse to join it. The CPI(M) would do well to take on board Sen’s advice.

 

Surinder Singla is former finance minister, Punjab. The views expressed by the author  are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

MISSING THE MARK

C.P. BHAMBHRI

 

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, in his enthusiasm to reform the school education system, has decided to de-legitimise the time-tested high school examination by asking around 10,000 Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-affiliated schools to make Class X board examinations ‘optional’.

 

The report of the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) — which represents over half a million schools — stated: ‘There is no general consensus among Boards on making Class X exam optional at present.’ Sibal followed it up by holding a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, which also put a seal of approval on making the exam ‘optional’ for CBSE-affiliated schools.

 

The flimsy and non-academic argument is that Class X exams are ‘stressful’ for students. What’s forgotten is that Class X students are mature enough to understand the advantages of an externally conducted examination. Incidentally, Sibal seems ignorant about the vagaries of the subjective factors involved in the process of ‘internal assessment’.

 

Incidentally, the demand for making the board examination ‘optional’ hasn’t originated from half a million school teachers. It has neither come from any other stakeholder nor from ‘above’ as a government dictum.

 

Further, Indian schools represent — even reflect — our national diversity. There is a reality which exists beyond CBSE-affiliated schools. Many children from lower middle- and middle-income groups receive formal education up to the tenth standard in schools located in small towns or semi-urban centres. These schools lack basic infrastructure and teachers, too, are ill-trained.

 

Also, a large number of students in these areas are ‘first generation learners’ and, so, require individual attention and extensive care. Thus, the need for an external examination by state education boards is felt in such schools because it creates a sense of discipline among teachers and prepares students for Class X board examinations.

 

This move will lead to confusion in schools where some students will go for the ‘optional’ exam and others would choose board examination. Will teachers teach two groups of students in one class? Is it a sound pedagogic system? The high school examination certificate carries a great tradition and is rooted in sound philosophy of the educational system. By focusing attention only on the CBSE schools, our policy makers are ignoring this reality.

 

This experiment should be put in cold storage and the system of examination by external agencies should continue at the school level. If the Class X examination is ‘stressful’, all examination systems should be abolished or made optional, for ‘stress’ is not restricted to high schools alone.

 

The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

SEA CHANGE

 

The classic Pakistan dilemma has resurfaced again. For a while, after the Pakistan army responded with vigour to the Pakistani Taliban’s takeover of Swat and Buner, it seemed that the narrative had changed; that rationality had won over irrationality in the Pakistan army’s conception of what poses the gravest threat to Pakistan, that its energies would henceforth be focussed westward. But a report in The New York Times shows how difficult that will be. The report details concerns in the United States military-diplomatic establishment that Pakistan modified US-supplied ship-borne defensive missiles — an act that would be a violation of US law (under various end-user monitoring clauses). The missiles themselves — called Harpoon — were sold by the Reagan administration in the ’80s. (A sale to the Pakistan navy justified at the time, absurdly, by what the late Robert Novak called “the Afghan threat”. Afghanistan was, then as now, landlocked.) But the mechanism that augments the missile system, aiding it to hit targets on land, was apparently not completed or tested till this April.

 

Decision-makers in the US, as pressure grows on them again to examine the scale and timeline of US presence in Afghanistan, must be brought to view the Harpoon modification in context: as merely the latest in a series of successful heists of US assistance. Assistance that was meant to strengthen the Pakistani state’s bulwarks in the west repeatedly and consistently is diverted to a quixotic pursuit of military parity with India. It is now generally accepted that of the over-$10 billion given to Pakistan to fight terrorism since 9/11, most has gone down the sinkhole that is the Pakistan army’s obsession with India.

 

The Pakistani foreign office has denied the story, saying that the missiles were indigenously developed (by which they apparently meant, according to other statements, made with crucial inputs from North Korean expertise). Policy-makers both in Pakistan and the US must remember that the Obama administration’s weak $7.5 billion dollar payout to Pakistan has not yet been passed by Capitol Hill. For the sake of the war effort in Afghanistan, for the sake of stability in South Asia, and for the sake of Pakistan’s own people, those $7.5 billion dollars should be spent fighting the twin threats of militant Islamism and economic backwardness. The Harpoon imbroglio shows that both New Delhi and Washington DC will have to put in sustained energy to make that happen.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

DRAWING BOARDS

 

On October 13 Maharashtra heads into an assembly election, an exercise some might liken to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The ruling Congress-NCP coalition is re-examining its relationship. Buoyed by a national election where it emerged triumphant in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where it had long been written off, and significantly enlarged its presence in Maharashtra, the Congress now figures it’s time to show the NCP who’s boss. Of course, much of this may be misplaced cockiness, since general elections and assembly elections obey different logics, and it is possible to attribute Congress victories to Raj Thackeray’s insurgent MNS scuttling the BJP-Shiv Sena’s chances; but, either way, the Congress is raring to expand its footprint in the state, and the NCP will simply have to deal. The NCP is further hobbled by the fact that it is the partner associated by many with the ongoing agricultural crisis — which means it is hobbled by the worst of the baggage of incumbency.

 

Meanwhile, the opposition finds itself even more unequipped for Maharashtra’s challenges. The BJP is too busy worrying about its own brutal identity crisis, and what’s more, it doesn’t have leaders of the same wattage. The Sena might still fight in it, but it can’t go it alone, and is under siege from smaller forces. Besides the upwardly mobile Third Front, made up of the Republican Party of India, the Peasants and Workers party, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and so on, there’s also the BSP to contend with. That one of the laziest and most inefficient state governments in India’s recent history — a record capped by the dismal failure, after several assurances to the contrary, to clear crucial infrastructure projects in Mumbai before the EC’s model code of conduct comes in — is not on the defensive is a testament to the opposition’s abdication.

 

And through all this, the state stays in crisis. Projects essential to Mumbai’s future languish, blocked by special interest groups. Maharashtra’s industry, attempting to recover from a slump in external demand, is beset by a 4000 MW electricity deficit. In drought-hit agriculture, its once-thriving cooperatives are cracking up — and the sugar sector tells its own bitter story. Whatever government this election throws up, one can only hope that it will better address the state’s crying needs.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

SOME GOOD NEWS

 

The GDP growth figures for the first quarter (Q1, April-June) of 2009-10 are of interest for three related reasons. First, is the worst of the crisis over? That depends a bit on what one means by crisis. There was a short-term credit squeeze that began in September 2008. And there is a longer-term global slowdown. The latter continues, with no immediate signs of recovery, explaining lacklustre export performance. If the credit crunch is identified as a crisis, Q1 of 2009-10 should be better than Q3 and Q4 of 2008-09 and CSO figures show this is true. 6.1 per cent is best of three quarters, though significantly lower than 7.8 per cent in Q1 of 2008-09. The dip in growth in 2009-10 compared to 2008-09 is particularly marked for manufacturing and services and has been neutralised somewhat by mining.

 

Second, what are growth prospects in 2009-10? Before the drought spectre, most forecasts for the full year were around 6.5 per cent with 6 per cent for the first half and 7 per cent for the second, though the government had a more optimistic 7 per cent for the entire year. Q1 figures vindicate 6-per-cent-for-first-half proposition. But that was before the drought. It is still too early to gauge the full impact of the drought, with state proclivities towards declaring districts drought-affected in search of Central assistance. With agriculture’s share declining and rabi sometimes compensating for kharif, it is unlikely the drought will shave off much from GDP growth, perhaps no more than 0.5 per cent. Upward pressure on prices of edible oils, pulses or sugar is more a sectoral issue. Therefore, 6 per cent GDP growth for the entire year is as good a guess as any and that’s roughly what the Planning Commission has been suggesting.

 

Third, assuming the worst is over, since global recovery is uncertain, what can the government do to ensure more endogenous sources of growth? There is a long list of pending reforms, including those in rural and infrastructure sectors. That apart, the key is revival of private investments and since September 2008 there has been a switch towards public consumption expenditure. Both private capital formation and consumption expenditure are functions of interest rates. Thus, beyond reforms, and increased efficiency of public expenditure, it is necessary to ensure that there isn’t a hard interest rate regime, on account of inflationary fears.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

CROWD SPOTTING

MINI KAPOOR

 

Chances are that even if you were not particularly concerned about India’s campaign in the Nehru Cup, an alert would have come your way Monday night. The football title is being decided on a penalty shootout, India have taken a lead, get yourself to a television screen before it is all over. And if you did — you who are a sport snob, tuning in for Manchester United v Arsenal, but not among those who thrill at the prospect of India playing Syria — you must have surprised yourself.

 

Monday night was high drama. Once Ahmad Muhmad had missed his penalty to allow India a 2-1 lead, and more acutely after the shootout went into sudden death, how could it be any other way? But the drama came not just from the structure of the contest. It came, cinematically “Chak De! India” style, from the atmosphere of the stadium. The stadium was so packed beyond capacity and the thousands of spectators charged to a point where their cheer gained a hysterical edge, that the celebrations begun with Subrata Paul’s successful defence of Syria’s seventh penalty kick had a sense of release coursing from the stadium to those watching in the isolation of their homes.

 

This is not meant to take any credit away from the 22 men who played a good game of football at Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium. It is, instead, to summon to the podium the thousands of spectators who showed that drama enhances sport, and that it can do so in a way that accentuates the nobility of the contest.

 

Monday’s crowds at the Nehru Cup final kept a timely date at one of Indian football’s big nights. This is the summer when cricket began to assess the viability of its traditional format with an alarming tone of pessimism. Test cricket, they say, must change or be relegated to a curiosity. Look, they point, at the echoing emptiness of the stands at a Test match — presumably a series in which England actually have an admittedly rare chance to beat Australia is an exception to prove the rule — look how Test cricket is losing appeal to the growingly popular Twenty20. Reformat, or else.

 

Even the most undistracted purist would admit that to connect spectatorship with a game’s excitement is important. Certainly, those marketing a game for television rights, of prime importance in the commerce of sport, must know that there is a connect between the enthusiasm of those sitting beyond the boundary rope and the estimates for audiences needed to interest the broadcaster/ advertiser.

 

So, imagine what could have been Monday night with the same action in the field had there been slim attendance in the stands.

 

India would still have won a hard-fought match. And if you were one among those few witnesses, your heart would still have gone out to the Syrians. But on the television screen, it would have appeared just marginally more real than a computer game.

 

That’s an exaggeration. But in a country achingly conscious of its inability to keep the competition, the spectator and, by extension, the aspirant interested in anything but men’s cricket, in overstatement may be found the hint of a solution.

 

Football, the regulars at India’s relatively modest stadia, will tell you, has earlier too managed to pack in the crowds. Hockey certainly has. Even women cricketers will remind you that away from the big cities, their matches have on occasion had people finding themselves seating on tree branches. But as Monday night showed, they still await a tipping point.

That could come from a variety of sources. It could take the big performer. As Michael Phelps insisted before, during and after his bid for a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics, what he was attempting at Beijing was not born of vanity, or an individual desire to be the best. What he wanted to achieve by the excessiveness of his ambition, by the interest he was thus attracting to his races, he said, was a higher profile for swimming. (In the textbook definition of a great sportsperson, it gets no more complicated that that, raising the profile of one’s sport.)

 

Maybe that is what Saina Nehwal has begun to do for badminton in India, by incrementally raising the challenge she offers to the world’s best and by attracting hundreds of visitors to the world championship in her city just by the dint of her promise and preparation.

 

It can also come with the crush of spectators, as China has found with basketball, a sport in which it is not a big-time contender (while of course giving it some of its best players). Like football almost everywhere, basketball in China connects the sidewalks and big matches. The enthusiasm that convulsed the Olympic city last year when the local team was to take on the US was billed as the most anticipated event after the opening ceremony. It was as if a country just going through the paces to knock the US from the top of the medal tally was perfectly content that night to just enjoy their favourite sport without worrying about the scoreline.

 

It can come from an aspiration. Monday night had young women footballers scattered in the stands. Two of them told this newspaper that they do not watch cricket, and all the football they consume is, in fact, Indian. Now that the big tournament is over, surely the challenge is to get them back to the ground, to provide them the arena to train and then compete, to see reflections of their younger selves in new faces in the stands.

 

What holds for football holds for so much else. Boxing, for instance. And Test cricket had better take notice. Sometimes it’s the spectator who raises the profile of a sport.

 

mini.kapoor@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

SURVIVING RAM AND LAXMAN

COOMI KAPOOR

 

The BJP prides itself that, unlike most political parties, it is democratic and not controlled by a single family. But this very strength transforms into a weakness when it comes to a change of guard at the top. In political families like the Gandhis, the Abdullahs, the Badals and the Karunanidhis the succession issue in the party is smoothly sorted out with everyone speaking in one voice. The BJP, in contrast, has no structured succession plan in the post-Advani/ Vajpayee era.

 

Those two titans controlled the fortunes of the Jana Sangh and the BJP for half a century. And like the proverbial banyan tree, under their shadow no one else was allowed to grow too tall — and there was no grooming of a clear successor. True, there was rivalry and friction in the Ram Laxman jodi. Advani, for instance, never really reconciled himself to being the perennial number two. But, whatever their differences, they were united in ensuring that no third person questioned their supremacy. Over the years, one or the other marginalised many a BJP leader who represented a potential political threat. Kalyan Singh, as an OBC and chief minister of the country’s largest state, showed every sign of becoming a political heavyweight; his wings were neatly clipped, and he finally left the party. Regional satraps like Shanta Kumar and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were not allowed to make the switch from state to Central politics. Murli Manohar Joshi, Sunder Singh Bhandari and Khushabhau Thakre may have been very senior in the Sangh hierarchy, but they were not entrusted with much responsibility.

 

Except for Vajpayee and Advani, no president of the BJP ever got a second term. In the long line of forgettable party chiefs — Murli Manohar Joshi, Khushabhau Thakre, Bangaru Laxman, Jana Krishnamurthy and Venkaiah Naidu — several did not even complete their terms. In fact, in the BJP’s 30-year history, Advani was president for three separate spells, and nearly half the period. The present incumbent, Rajnath Singh, was installed by the RSS at a time when Advani was in the doghouse after his Jinnah comments. Advani made a comeback and soon he and Singh were running parallel empires. The party president, for instance, had little say in the 2009 election campaign.

 

The present fracas in the BJP is really more about the struggle for power than establishing accountability for the election defeat, as is piously made out. The 65-plus generation feels that Advani had sidelined them for the under-60s, with the backing of the RSS. The trouble began after Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were appointed to prominent positions in Parliament, over the heads of other senior leaders. But the real wrangling is over who becomes the next party chief — as he could decide the party’s future course. Some, like Arun Shourie, have openly exhorted the RSS to play referee, for fear that otherwise Advani will appoint one of his nominees.

 

In the media the impression has gained ground that the next president, after Rajnath completes his term in December, will be a dynamic and articulate personality who can also be projected as the party’s future prime ministerial candidate. But experience has shown that BJP presidents have generally been chosen through compromise and consensus. Vajpayee, Advani and the RSS had to clear the choice and it was not necessary for the chosen one to be a crowd-puller or mass leader. If this pattern continues, the selection of party president would not resolve the BJP’s other dilemma: whom to project as prime ministerial candidate in 2014. Advani has finally come to realise that age is against him and he must bow out sooner rather than later. But even if he steps down as leader of the opposition, Advani will certainly have a say in deciding the new organisational and parliamentary party leaders.

 

 

Despite its oft-repeated disclaimers, the RSS has always influenced the BJP to some degree. But never has an RSS chief shown his hand as blatantly as sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat did. For that matter the BJP has never been so desperate for RSS help in bailing it out of its current mess. Because of the present leadership vacuum state chieftains like Vasundhara Raje and Khanduri have taken advantage of the fluid situation to defy the high command’s diktat. By depending on the RSS to settle its fractious war of succession, the BJP has surrendered some of its independence, something Vajpayee and Advani had resisted all along. By leaving itself at the mercy of the RSS, an anachronistic organisation, which is out of sync with modern times, the BJP could lose its position as a mainline opposition political party. In any case, the RSS intervention is unlikely to throw up a magical solution.

 

In the past, RSS nominees for party president have not been inspired. After all, Rajnath Singh was one of them.

 

coomi.kapoor@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

MPS NEED HELP WITH HOMEWORK TOO

NICK ROBINSON

 

Members of Parliament have a problem. They are expected to ask questions in the house to keep the executive in check, help draft legislation, scrutinise the budget, and tend to their constituents’ needs. Yet, to accomplish all these goals, so vital for Indian democracy, they receive only Rs 14,000 to pay for a single secretary and a phone. They are not even given an office, so their secretary is often forced to work out of the MP’s own living room.

 

In democratic societies we should have high expectations for our representatives, but in relation to the meagre resources they are given, the demands placed upon India’s MPs are simply unrealistic. As a result, members of the most representational body in the country are frequently sidelined and cut out of the decisions of the day.

 

Other parliaments don’t operate this way. India’s MPs represent about twenty times more people than their counterparts in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, who each receive an office in the capital and at least one in their constituency, along with three to four dedicated staff. This does not include the assistance they obtain from government-funded partisan researchers allocated to major political parties or the non-partisan researchers available in their parliamentary libraries.

 

In the United States, where members of the House of Representatives represent constituencies about a third as populous as their Indian counterparts and political parties are not as powerful, members are given a staff of about fifteen. United States Senators are typically provided with sixty to eighty employees. They also have access to the government funded Congressional Research Service for non-partisan, high quality legislative and policy analysis.

 

These staffers abroad do one of two tasks: perform research or tend to constituency-related work. Both types of staff are desperately needed in India. MPs here find themselves outgunned by the ministries of the executive branch that they are supposed to keep accountable. They do not have the time to research the questions they should be asking in Parliament or the alternatives they should propose.

 

Without well-briefed MPs the quality of overall legislation and governance suffers from a lack of scrutiny, and in particular, local interests are underrepresented. With a research staff MPs could make national legislation more responsive to the needs of their constituency, helping bridge the local-centre disconnect so common in government policy.

 

One small example helps illustrate these resource constraints. Before being released to the public, all government rules and reports are placed before Parliament for objections from MPs. It’s an unrealistic task. MPs would have to read and respond every day to hundreds of pages of this official material to complete just this relatively minor, but critical, part of their overall workload. It’s simply not possible.

 

Currently, an average MP spends much of their day helping constituents navigate government to set up electricity or water connections, or simply get a passport. These constituency-related tasks help make the government more accountable, but for the MP to personally deal with such routine matters is a waste of their time and in other countries this job is largely delegated out to staff.

 

Such a delegation of tasks has the added benefit of making political power more accessible and democratic. Today, an ordinary person cannot ask their MP to help them navigate government or lobby their MP on a bill; that takes political connections. If a MP had a well-resourced office all requests could be dealt with by the appropriate staffer, and the MP brought in only when necessary. An industrious MP might even send their staff to travel throughout their constituency to proactively engage constituents.

 

There are clear benefits to properly equipping MPs for their job, but who should this staff be? MPs need to be able to hire persons that they trust and who share their political beliefs. Sometimes they mayappoint those who are incompetent or mere cronies, but many will hirevery talented employees and those MPs should fare better at the polls as a result. As an added benefit, these staff appointments would draw many more gifted individuals into the political system, and may even help spark the birth of public policy schools in India to train them.

 

Offices and staff do not come for nothing, and the country will have to be willing to pay to support their MPs. Yet even now, MPs are given a two crore rupees discretionary fund to use in their constituency. Many have criticised this scheme as eroding the separation of powers and being so small a relative sum that it has little impact on most constituents’ lives. One crore of this fund could be reallocated to each MP for their office and staff. The good governance effects of this expenditure would more than pay for itself. The staff, like their MP, would be incentivised to more efficiently tailor national policies to local concerns and ensure that these programs actually reached their intended beneficiaries.

 

MPs are currently severely hampered in performing their bedrock role in Indian democracy. The fix is not monumental, and it has a proven track record in other countries; it’s simply giving MPs the offices and staff they need to succeed.

 

The writer is a Yale Law School South Asia Teaching and Research Fellow currently teaching at the National Law School, Bangalore (PRS Legislative Services, New Delhi, contributed background material).

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

NEUTRAL JAPAN?

C. RAJA MOHAN

 

As the world comes to terms with the massive defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday’s elections in Japan, the big question is about the future of Tokyo’s relations with Washington and Beijing. If the victorious Democratic Party of Japan does move in the direction it has promised, China is likely to be the biggest beneficiary and America the biggest loser.

 

Most Japan experts insist big changes are unlikely in Tokyo’s foreign policy. They say governing is not the same as campaigning. They argue that DPJ is a fractious coalition that includes many different political trends.

 

In his comments published last week in ‘New York Times’, the next prime minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama, was sharply critical of the United States and called for a more ‘independent’ foreign policy that is focused on improving ties with the Asian neighbours.

 

“How should Japan maintain it’s political and economic independence and protect its national interest when caught between the United States, which is fighting to retain its position as the world’s dominant power, and China, which is seeking ways to become dominant?”

 

Although Hatoyama did not answer the question directly, he was in fact establishing some kind of equivalence between America and China after sixty years of alliance with the former. Clearly, Hatoyama is heralding a tectonic shift in Japan’s world view.

 

Hatoyama’s veiled answer should be worrisome for the United States — distance Tokyo a bit from Washington and draw closer to Beijing. Hatoyama has also talked of redefining the terms of American military presence in Japan and ending Tokyo’s logistical support to US military operations in Afghanistan.

 

China stands to benefit from even the slightest widening of the gap between Tokyo and Washington. For six decades the US-Japan alliance has been the dagger pointed at the heart of China. All Beijing now needs to do is to keep Tokyo in good humour and encourage the growing perception there that Japan’s future lies with China rather than America.

 

CHINA’S NEHRU

All those in India, especially the Congressmen and liberal intelligentsia, who crave for a return to ‘Nehruvian’ foreign policy should spare a moment to know China’s views on India’s first prime minister.

An article last month in the People’s Daily, the official paper of Chinese Communist Party, appearing under the name of Li Hongmei holds Jawaharlal Nehru responsible for the major problems in Sino-Indian relations. After arguing that the McMahon line between India and Tibet was an imperialist plot, Li says that Nehru “not only took over the legacy of British imperialist strategic perceptions of security, but turned out even more arrogant and irrational on boundary issues than the British Raj, interfering many times in China’s Tibet affairs”.

 

Li goes on to declare that Nehru’s ‘unceasing forward policy’ and ‘occupation of Tawang and other Chinese territories south of the McMahon Line’ provoked the 1962 war. He also argues that Nehru’s ‘rearmament of India’ after 1962 defeat is at the source of the ‘long-term confrontation between the two countries”.

To be fair, Li also underlines China’s genuine affection for Rajiv Gandhi who reversed India’s ‘Nehruvian’ policy on the border conflict and put the two countries on the road towards normalisation in 1988.

 

RAHUL’S CHINA

A high-powered delegation of the CCP, headed by a politburo member Zhang Gaoli, is traveling this week in Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. The tour is at the invitation of the government of Nepal, the Maldivian Democratic Party, and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

 

Instead of resenting the CCP’s outreach to India’s neighbours and ceding Delhi’s China ties to the bureaucracy, the Congress Party must begin an honest political conversation with the CCP on the many problems that are enveloping the bilateral relationship.

 

It could start by deploying the party’s general secretary, Rahul Gandhi to engage the next generation of Chinese leaders that will take charge in a couple of years. As rising China poses new challenges to India, the Congress cannot simply return to either Jawaharlal or Rajiv. May be Rahul will help the Congress devise a new equilibrium with China that is more appropriate to our time and circumstance.

 

The writer is the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Kluge Center in the Library of Congress, Washington.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

LOOK WHO’S ALL GROWN UP NOW

SARITHA RAI

 

From a single face-to-face meeting six years ago, he instantly recalled who I was when I phoned him. He was then a gawky, introvert 15-year-old, India’s youngest Ph.D. candidate, and had just enrolled at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc). I was interviewing him for a story on child prodigies for Time magazine.

 

He remembered the exact date we met six years ago. He reeled off my personal email address. It was almost eerie. I told him I would hate to be his enemy. He laughed and declared modestly that he made no effort to remember but did not forget easily.

 

Tathagat Avatar Tulsi, once hailed as a child prodigy, is now 21. What happens to child prodigies? Most of them burn out and wither away under the media glare. Others’ achievements as grown-ups overshadow their childhood promise.

 

Last week, the Patna-born Tulsi was conferred a Ph.D in physics by IISc. That makes him the youngest Indian Ph.D and part of a select global group of mathematicians and physicists who got their Ph.Ds at such a young age, such as John Forbes Nash Jr., the MIT mathematician, whose life story was turned into the Hollywood film A Beautiful Mind, and who got his Ph.D in mathematics when he was 21.

 

Tulsi’s Ph.D. research was titled ‘Generalisations of the Quantum Search Algorithms.’ The thesis is a mere 33 pages. Quantum search algorithm is software for powerful, superfast, future computing called quantum computing. Present-day computers are classical computers. The fastest computer today is a car compared with the promise of quantum computers which can be likened to jet airplanes.

 

Quantum computing is particularly useful for a group of challenges called optimisation problems, helping businesses to maximise profits with minimum investments. For instance, if a freight company has a lot of shipments and two aircraft, quantum computing can determine the best way to pack the different shapes and sizes in the given space. Or even how to design the best investment portfolio. Over time, such ‘best solutions’ can add up to tidy profits.

 

Tulsi wants to set up a quantum computing lab in India. He says the country sorely lacks one. Where the United States, Europe and elsewhere governments and private institutions are pouring millions of dollars into quantum research, funding is deficient in India, he says.

 

Tulsi has been offered a post-doctoral research position at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo, Canada. But his heart is set on getting a faculty position at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi or Mumbai. If he could get a teaching position and access to a good library, he says he would prefer to continue his research in India.

 

Tulsi, who got his master’s degree in physics when he was 12, says he wants to write a book on child prodigies. In the book, he wants to bust the myth about prodigies losing their childhood. He wants to write about societal expectations and explain how gifted children can deal with sudden fame. He says he has met his share of fake prodigies too.

 

In fact, Tulsi was caught in the eye of a media storm years ago when his father claimed he had discovered a new particle to explain the presence of dark matter in the universe. He was immediately labeled a ‘fraudigy’. Tulsi later said he suggested the particle theory as an idea but was misrepresented. He says those were rough years and everybody suspected his credentials. “I was depressed, I lost my confidence and I lost a few years of my career,” recalls Tulsi. He says he wants his book to be an eye-opener.

 

For now, the former child prodigy is dealing with a very normal adult problem. He says he has turned from a shy teenager to an extrovert but cannot find a suitable girlfriend. Tulsi describes the dating scene at IISc as a ‘mismatch’. “When I entered the Institute at 15, the girls said I was too young. Now that I am 21, they look at my Ph.D. and say I am a senior,” laments the author of four single-author physics papers in the prestigious Physical Review.

 

saritha.rai@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

VIEW FROM THE LEFT

MANOJ C G

 

When there is a crisis in the Right, how can the Left not react? So, in the latest edition of CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy, General Secretary Prakash Karat himself dwells at length about the faction feud in the BJP, which he says has become a source of jubilation for the saffron party’s opponents.

 

Although the commonly held view is that the BJP is witnessing an intense fight over leadership issues with individual leaders and their supporters jockeying for positions, Karat says this does not explain the cause of the crisis and only focuses on the symptoms of the problem.

 

“The BJP had asserted during the elections that it will adhere to the core Hindutva platform. It sought to assure the RSS that it will not dilute the Hindutva ideology. It even dispensed with a common programme for the NDA due to this. It was the rejection of such a platform by the electorate that has precipitated the crisis which has been brewing for some time...At the heart of the conflict now spreading within the BJP is the issue of what should be the character and role of the party.”

 

The success of the BJP in 1998 and 1999 and its defeat in 2004 underlines the fact that the party can come to power only by broad-basing its agenda and getting on board parties who do not share its sectarian ideology. “But the adherence to Hindutva and the pursuit of communal politics militates against broadening its platform and widening its alliance. Without Hindutva, the BJP has no identity since its economic and foreign policies are no different from that of the Congress.”

 

“Notwithstanding L K Advani’s efforts to broaden the NDA and strike a posture which would appeal to wider sections of the people as the future prime ministerial candidate of the party, time and again he had to fall back on the explicit communal agenda of the RSS-BJP combine.”

 

The second successive defeat in the 2009 election has aggravated the situation. The BJP is at the crossroads. It cannot break from the RSS and become an ordinary rightwing party as Jaswant Singh wants it to be. It will find it easier to fall back into the comforting grip of the RSS as Arun Shourie wants it to.

 

But it will have to pay the price in the long run of remaining an avowedly communal and sectarian party. Given the DNA of the BJP it will inevitably adopt the latter course, he says.

 

SAVING CAPITALISTS FROM CAPITALISM

The lead editorial in the issue talks about the recovery reported by financial giants JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs — both have posted profits in the second quarter of 2009 — nearly two years after the global economic crisis hit the world.

 

It says the recovery came at the expense of one of the biggest rescue operations by the state under capitalism. “They have benefited from billions of dollars of bailout packages from the ordinary taxpayers funds and cheap government financing to climb over. 19 US big banks received over $ 140 billion and president Obama in his budget proposals for this year is seeking the US Congress’s approval for as much as $750 billion to prop up the financial system.”

 

“These reported profits, however, do not suggest a turnaround in the recession or tiding over the crisis. Recovering on the basis of the cushion provided by the government, JP Morgan took over two former Wall Street giants — Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual — last year in two government assisted transactions.

 

“On the other hand, scores of regional and small banks continue to collapse all across the USA. 53 have failed so far this year and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation expects many more to follow,” it says.

 

On the other hand, it says nine of the financial firms that were among the largest recipients of the bailout packages paid more than 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $ 1 million apiece for 2008. “The bonus pools of these nine banks that received bailout packages this year was $32.6 billion while their cumulative losses were over $81 billion. They will once again get bailout packages to ‘cover’ these losses. This is the capitalist way of emerging from recession by putting profits before people. While common people continue to get ruined, taxpayers money continues to be doled out in unprecedented amounts to bailout the corporates,” it says

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

POWER TO DISINVESTMENT

 

The UPA government finally began its long-stalled disinvestment programme with the listing of PSU power giant NHPC on the stock market. That itself is a welcome step. The market reacted fairly positively to the listing, the first public sector undertaking to divest its stake after a gap of 18 months. Shares of the state-run hydropower generator listed at Rs 39 on the BSE, a premium of 8.33% over its issue price of Rs 36. Earlier, the offering was oversubscribed 24 times, underlining the fact that investors are looking at companies that have strong fundamentals, and by their track record, PSUs are an attractive option. NHPC has an installed capacity of 3,615 mw and has another 1,500 mw through its subsidiary, NHDC. Moreover, the company has 4,622 mw of projects under construction that are expected to be fully operational by financial year 2013. It also has another 6,731 mw worth of projects awaiting government clearance. The company has been off government grants since the last two years and its projects are now funded on70:30 debt-to-equity with the equity coming from internal accruals. As projects under construction will now start generating returns, the return on equity will gradually improve. All these factors attracted retail investors, who oversubscribed 3.87 times, and given the power deficit in the country—44% of the country’s households are yet to be electrified—the company should provide a good long-term investment option. Similarly, last month, shares in private-sector utility Adani Power gained 5% on its first trading day.

 

Given the high institutional interest in the power sector in the country, it is a good time for the government to offer shares of three more power utilities — REC, NTPC and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam—to the public. The government plans to sell 10% of its 25% holding in Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd, a profit-making joint venture with the Himachal Pradesh government, from which it is keen to withdraw. NHPC’s response will surely send strong signals for divestment in other public sector companies, too. Next to take the IPO route is Oil India that will hit the market on September 7. The company will offer 2.64 crore equity shares and the proceeds would be used to fund capex requirements of Rs 2,300 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 2,400 crore in 2010-11. Since the government has evinced interest in divesting stakes in six PSUs in the next ten months—the Planning Commission has also stressed the need for an ambitious divestment programme—it will now have to time the public offerings appropriately to get a good response from the market and sustain investor interest.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

LET THE MARKET DECIDE ON GAS

 

EGoMs are becoming the preferred forum for decision-making by this government. That may not be a bad thing. A smaller group of ministers is less unwieldy and, therefore, more likely to be firm and decisive (and faster in decision-making) than the full Cabinet. And a collective decision-making process also helps iron out any inter-ministerial differences that may exist on a particular issue. So, Murli Deora’s call to reconstitute the eGoM on the issue of further allocation of gas from the now controversial K-G D6 seems sensible—for one, it will help iron out the differences between the petroleum ministry and power ministry (which represents many buyer interests, mainly power PSUs) on allocation issues. And second, given that the minister himself has been drawn into unnecessary and unseemly controversy on K-G D6, it is perhaps best that a final decision on allocation is taken by a collective group of ministers rather than his ministry alone. The eGoM on 3G, for example, worked out very well, sorting out differences between the finance ministry and the telecom ministry on reserve pricing and came up with a credible final decision that could not be pinned on the telecom minister alone.

 

Still, it is important to get the mandate of the eGoM right to achieve the optimal outcome. The Planning Commission has now recommended decontrol of gas pricing—Vijay Kelkar, chairman of the 13th finance commission and former petroleum secretary, had recently suggested the same. But the government seems undecided. Unfortunately, this may lead to more controversy rather than less. The government would do much better to free the pricing and allocation of gas. The market mechanism is certain to achieve an optimal outcome without generating controversy. The government, of course, has the right to share in the revenues of the natural resource, gas. But taking a decision on what the government’s share should be is where government intervention should end. It’s like in 3G—the government gets a price for spectrum, but does not subsequently interfere in how private operators roll out 3G and at what price they sell it to consumers—competition in the free market takes care of that, just as it would do in the pricing and allocation of gas. We have made these arguments before in these columns. And as the government gets ready to set up another eGoM on gas, it would do well to allow the eGoM to consider the possibility of decontrolling the price and allocation of gas while fixing revenue sharing with the government. That would be the most rational way to move forward.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

IS 20,000 REALISTIC AT AROUND 6%?

SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE

 

The trends developing in the Indian stock markets throw up a distinct possibility of 2009-10 ending with the benchmark indicator, Sensex, close to the 20,000 mark. The last time it reached that level was almost two years ago on January 15, 2008, when it was 20,251.

 

In the course of mid afternoon trade, on Friday August 28, 2009 the Sensex reached 15,957 points. The index had gained 6.5 % in the last six days of trade. Yet how does that square up with the just 6% growth rate of the economy estimated for this fiscal. In 2008, when the Sensex reached 20,000, the GDP growth rate was 9% for 2007-08. More important, does this help push up capital inflow into the different sectors of the economy, which essentially is the primary responsibility of a stock market?

 

This is unlikely to happen. This, despite the current rate of growth, by far the most any economy will hope to log in 2009 or 2010. Also, it will not create too many new winners in the corporate score card. Companies in sectors which hit the updraft will squeeze growth by riding their massive backlog of inventories, but do not expect a jump fresh in investments in the current financial year. This is what the automobile companies are doing now. The CMIE database shows Rs 5.6 trillion of investment projects will be completed by companies in this financial year—more than twice that of last year. But markets evaluate companies on the basis of fresh projects announced rather than those already in the process.

 

Yet, riding on the expectations of the current growth rate, foreign and domestic investors are pouring fresh investments into the stock market. This is also being pushed by two factors. Of them, one is the rise in the exchange rate of rupee, helped paradoxically by an absolute fall in the growth rate of imports through the current year. This will lessen the trade deficit and also create a current account surplus. All of these are extremely plausible and have already begun to unfold.

 

The rise in the rupee against the dollar in the currency futures market is an indication of that. If the dollar continues to be weak through the rest of the year, FIIs are quite likely to abandon their safe harbour behaviour with the dollar and push up their investments in the emerging markets instead.

 

An Axis Bank report estimates that even using a base level hypothesis the inflow of FII money could touch $23 billion by March 2010. Just compare this with the net negative withdrawal of $14 billion in 2008-09 and the scale of difference between the two years becomes obvious.

 

Going by current values every 1,000 point rise in the Sensex means an additional market cap of $ 96 billion. So, going by the inflow of FII money and that of the domestic financial institutions, a move from this point towards anything above 19,000 is quite easy.

 

So, what gives? The money coming in will chase a very narrow band of stocks. This is the problem scenario. The safe behaviour is likely to persist in a global economy that still has to travel a long way towards recovery. The attraction of India and other emerging markets is not expected to evolve into a full blown belief in the equity of the companies beyond the first 200 in the NSE list.

 

This means while the investment to buy up the shares of Sensex, a group of the top 30 companies will shoot up along with the Nifty Fifty of the NSE, a large percentage of the rest 2,000 equities that figure in the daily trade could languish. The very high attraction of these stocks among all fund managers will push the Sensex. Remember the calculation basis of the index is the free float market cap of the 30 listed companies divided by the index divisor. So the higher the demand for these papers, the higher will be their price and consequently the value of the Sensex.

 

In the Indian economy, there is a strong urge to use the stock market barometer to get a sense of the way the economy is moving. But in March 2010, that would be quite disconnected. As an example the rise in the stock market as reflected in these two indices would happen at about the same time as the inflation rate measured by the wholesale price index would touch 5%.

 

To take advantage of the projected rise it will be a wise government that will unlock the value embedded in the chips of the public sector companies. These companies will rapidly add value to the market cap and bring in a larger universe of better quality stocks. None of the listed PSUs have done badly from the point of view of investors. Their presence will add depth to the market and create a much larger base of companies for the investors to choose from. This means the rise in Sensex will be less swift but better for the economy.

 

subhomoy.bhattacharjee@expressindia.com

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

REMEMBER, SUBPRIME STARTED CRISIS

SANJAY BANERJI

 

A direct fallout of the financial crisis is the unprecedented rise in the number of foreclosures of properties resulting in losses of millions of home ownerships across the world. Similar hikes in default rates have been observed in almost every credit-granting business such as credit cards, car loans etc. The time is therefore ripe to investigate to what extent such personal bankruptcies are caused by predatory lending—which is basically pushing of loans to naïve and less creditworthy borrowers without conveying to them proper information about a future payment schedule in a transparent manner.

 

It is well known that many of these borrowers did not qualify for a loan in the first place. Yet, it is not hard to see why huge amounts of loans were channelled to them. The whole process of mortgage-backed securities started with the erroneous assumption that although there may be regional variation, the aggregate House Price Index in the US would not decline. This false premise together with a fee structure rewarding brokers on the basis of volume of business created incentives for banks to pursue predatory lending. The arithmetic was simple: If homeowners pay their instalments, cash flow comes in and banks receive their part of the share. If homeowners fail to repay, repossession of the property and sale at an expected higher price increase the lenders’ profit in the event of a foreclosure. Either way, brokers win.

 

Hence, the idea of setting up a Federal agency to look into consumer safety and protection by the Obama administration is certainly a welcome change in the regulatory frame of mind. However, it has already encountered stiff resistance from big banks and other players in the financial market.

 

The arguments levelled against such a regulatory institution are that it will stifle financial innovation and also create a barrier in transactions done at will by participants. Both arguments are misleading. First, to grasp the nature of financial innovation, it is very important to understand the location of high value chains in financial intermediation.

 

In this interconnected system of intermediation, banks tap savings of ordinary and small customers in the form of deposits and contact borrowers in conjunction with credit and mortgage granting institutions. Investment bankers channel grand sums of these savings into the needs of investors such as pension funds by creating products like mortgage-backed securitisations. Insurers play their role of mitigating risks involved in the process. Much of the financial innovation takes place in the last bit of the chain. Since the newly created Federal agency will look into the fairness of operation in the first part of the chain, it will have minimal impact on financial innovation.

 

The second argument against the institution of a Federal agency is even more tenuous. Transactions at will also require transmission of full information between lenders and borrowers. Credit is an information intensive product where both borrowers and lenders have private information about themselves and market conditions respectively. Very often terms of transactions do not reflect such private information.

 

Most of the transactions in financial market require a stream of variable payments in different contingencies that arise only in the future. Suppressing a specific contingency or even diluting an important one with irrelevant additional information (30 page booklet of credit card documents) obscures the maximum and minimum expected payments to borrowers who may lack proper education to understand the contingencies. To give a concrete example, take the refinancing options of mortgage payment where the prepayment penalties are very often added to the remainder of the principal so that a home owner may end up losing equity and paying an effectively higher sum even if refinancing is allowed at a lower rate of interest. Other examples of predatory lending include balloon payments, mandatory arbitration clauses, duplicated fees, etc. These practices basically redistribute income from an unsophisticated borrower to the lender, due to latter’s informational advantage.

 

Hence, it is wiser to break up the regulatory bodies into two distinct and autonomous parts. While one arm can continue with its mandated function of ensuring prudential regulation and stability, the other arm can be entrusted with the safety of the financial products to consumers, imparting knowledge of basic finance to consumers and fairness issues in conducting business. Such an approach, known as the “Twin Peak” method will help promote efficiency, transparency and fairness and will enrich the system of financial regulatory framework.

 

This financial crisis has shown that borrowers’ risk is also too large to be ignored and need to be properly addressed by the regulatory framework..

 

The author is reader in finance at the University of Essex

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

OPTIC FIBRE VIA NREG

ANANDITA SINGH MANKOTIA

 

The government’s ambitious plan to spend over Rs 40,000 crore to lay a country-wide optic fibre network, which would be leased to private operators for providing broadband services, particularly to the rural areas, sounds great on paper.

 

With the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) funds being provided to workers for digging and utilising the whopping Rs 14,000 crore in the Universal Service Obligation Fund the major stumbling block in conceptualising any plan—that of funding—is also taken care of. Nobody can fault the multiplier effect the move would have—12 lakh villages connected through broadband would obviously have a positive effect on the country’s GDP apart from bridging the digital divide.

 

But should not the entire exercise be passed on to the hands of the private sector, which would be able to do the task much better, effectively and faster? This brings us to the question of why private players have not done anything so far and why our broadband base is still abysmally low at around 6.5 million subscribers.The major stumbling block in the spread of broadband is the lack of the fibre, and the right of way charges, which varies from state to state making it very expensive.

 

This is further aggravated by dealing with multiple state and local level agencies. Despite such obstacles, the private operators have laid the fibre in most of the urban centres from where business is guaranteed. However, when it comes to rural areas obviously the private players won’t make the investment in the absence of certainty of returns, unless the government provides some sops.

 

In the Indian case, if the government just brings about a Right of Way legislation, which anyway it plans to do, while giving shape to its plan, then it does not have to make other efforts. By this single legislation the private players would lay the fibre themselves. They can then be provided assistance through the USO fund. That way the task is likely to be completed faster and more efficiently.

 

anandita.mankotia@expressindia.com

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

THE SANGH RULES THE PARTY

 

For close to a month, India watched as stalwarts of the Bharatiya Janata Party waged their power struggle in public. Last week it watched the bloodied lot beating a track to Jhandewalan to pay obeisance to presiding supremo Mohan Madhukar Bhagwat. Then, as if by a miracle, the warring heads posed in convivial togetherness and announced that their quarrels had ceased. The fiction of the BJP’s independence remains. At a press conference, Mr. Bhagwat insisted that the R ashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was not a busybody even as he harked back to an earlier interview in which he handed the BJP the following prescription: effect a generational change; end your quarrels; choose leaders compatible with the RSS way of life. So what are the final terms of agreement between the Sangh and its wayward offspring? Reports suggest an advisory position for Lal Krishna Advani and the exit of Rajnath Singh as soon as he completes a thoroughly undistinguished presidential tenure.

 

What is clear is that whatever Mr. Advani’s future role turns out to be, it will have been fashioned by the Sangh. He had presided over the party’s spectacular rise from two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 to the status of the single largest party in 1996. It was on this foundation that Atal Bihari Vajpayee built the superstructure of a match-winning National Democratic Alliance. The NDA lost in 2004 essentially because the BJP was unable to change its exclusivist, anti-minorities character. Mr. Advani’s contribution to shaping this world view — who can forget his fiery rath yatra? — cannot possibly be overstated. It helps explain the resistance to his 2005 ideological intervention. The BJP strongman’s unalloyed praise for Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s August 1947 secular vision combined with some nuanced revisionism on the party-Sangh relationship, was a major, if short-lived, attempt to shock the BJP out of its old mindset. Had Mr. Vajpayee come up with such thoughts, he could have got away with it but Mr. Advani’s hardline image worked decisively against him. His subsequent restoration to honour notwithstanding, his relationship with the Sangh remained uneasy and he never regained acceptability in the BJP. Today as he stands at the centre of an unprecedented storm, a question suggests itself: why did he not opt for graceful retirement earlier, perhaps immediately after the 2004 electoral defeat? As an elder statesman he might have gone out on his terms — and exercised moral influence on a party whose future lay, according to him, in broadbasing its constituency and its appeal. Instead, by seeming to have a hand in the inner-party bloodletting and taking directions from the Sangh, the BJP’s most formidable leader has legitimised the latter’s right to rule the party.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

EXPANDING SPACE CLUB

 

South Korea has become the latest aspirant to the space club. On August 25, the country made the first attempt to use its own rocket for putting a satellite into orbit. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), also known as Naro-1, came close to achieving that objective. The two-stage launcher carried the 100-kg Science and Technology Satellite-2 to a height over 300 km. But the mission failed after the heat shield, which protects the satellite during the rocket’s rapid ascent, did not separate and fall away as planned. South Korea, which has already launched nearly a dozen satellites on foreign rockets, announced in 2002 its plans to create a domestic launch capability. After encountering problems with developing a suitable liquid propellant engine for the rocket, the country turned to Russia for help. The KSLV-1’s big first stage, which uses a powerful engine running on liquid oxygen and kerosene, is supplied by Russia. The domestically made second stage uses solid propellants. South Korea’s effort at launching a satellite comes just four months after neighbouring North Korea failed to do so at its third attempt. This year’s launch of North Korea’s Unha-2 too appears to have come close to success, with two of the rocket’s three stages functioning properly. If, as seems probable, the two Koreas sort out the problems with their launchers, they will join China, Japan, and India as Asian countries capable of independently accessing space. South Korea has even announced plans to send a probe to the Moon in the coming years.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the United States, the only country whose astronauts have walked on the Moon, seems uncertain about the course its manned space programme should take. In 2004, President George W. Bush announced his vision of humans returning to the Moon by 2020 and then going on to Mars. As part of this ambitious programme, the U.S. space agency NASA plans to complete the International Space Station and retire the Space Shuttle by the end of next year or in early 2011. It will then concentrate on a new generation of launch vehicles and spacecraft capable of carrying humans beyond Earth orbit. But a committee appointed by the space agency at the urging of the Obama administration to review the human spaceflight programme, is questioning the feasibility of such grandiose plans. Moon landings appear to be out of the question. Increasingly, economic power and, along with it, the appetite to take on the challenges of space seem to be shifting to Asia.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

IRAN: AHMADINEJAD TOUGHENS STANCE

MORE THAN TWO MONTHS AFTER THE PROTESTS BEGAN IN IRAN, THE TUSSLE BETWEEN THE AUTHORITIES AND THE OPPOSITION CONTINUES UNABATED.

ATUL ANEJA

 

Iran’s political scene continues to be fluid as the Opposition’s campaign against the results of the June presidential elections is being met with a hard-nosed response from an establishment that is prepared for a long haul.

 

To its credit, the Opposition has remained well afloat over the past two-and-a-half months. Buoyed by street power, the Opposition camp — rallying under the green banner of Mir Hosain Mousavi, presidential candidate who rejected the results of the elections — has not been put down so far. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing a spirited opposition, which continues to question the legitimacy of his election.

 

The protests, which snowballed on the streets of Tehran soon after the announcement of the disputed election results, were met with a heavy crackdown. But the clinical use of force failed to quash the protests, which continued to flare up sporadically in the weeks that followed. Meanwhile, custodial deaths in the Kahrizak prison, where several people were detained, gave the protesters their second wind. Three prisoners died in custody amid accusations that many inmates were tortured.

 

Another Opposition candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, also alleged that some detainees had been sexually assaulted — a charge the government has strongly denied. An ally of Mr. Mousavi claims that 69 people were killed in the post-election protests. The abuse of prisoners in Kahrizak has become an emotive focus of the Opposition protests.

 

“What is happening in prisons today clearly shows the need for a deep change in the country,” Mr. Mousavi said on his website. Others have compared the Kahrizak abuse to the horrors in Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The pictures of Americans torturing Iraqi prisoners in the prison drew worldwide condemnation.

 

The reformist Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation targeted President Ahmadinejad and his then Interior Minister, Sadeq Mahsouli, calling for legal action against them for “crimes committed at Abu Ghraib Kahrizak.” The call for accountability has also come from Mohsen Rezaei, one of the candidates who was defeated in the June 12 polls. The authorities have responded with some conciliatory gestures, without abandoning their overall approach of crushing the Opposition.

 

In a damage control exercise, Qorbanali Dori-Najafabadi, Prosecutor-General, acknowledged during a press conference that “mistakes” led to a few “painful accidents which cannot be defended, and those who were involved should be punished.” He added the mistakes included the “the Kahrizak incident.” The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, personally ordered the shutdown of the Kahrizak facility once the prisoner abuse scandal broke out. An attempt is also being made to salvage the judiciary’s image. Its hardline head, Mahmoud Shahroudi, has been replaced by Mohammad Sadeq Larijani, a sibling of the more celebrated and moderate Speaker Ali Larijani.

 

Nevertheless, the government has put more than a hundred people on trial in a bid to establish that the post-election protests were the result of an attempt to mount an East-European style “velvet revolution” by foreigners and their local accomplices. The outcry against the trial by heavyweight Opposition sympathisers has not made any significant impression on the custodians of power in Tehran. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel laureate and leading legal luminary, called the court proceedings a “show trial.” “The trials show that the administration is weak. These mass trials are not in line with the laws of Islam,” she observed during a recent visit to Seoul.

 

On his website Ghalamnews, Mr. Mousavi said the continuation of “show trials” of people who protested within the ambit of the Constitution would become counterproductive. Unimpressed, the authorities maintain that the trial will be taken to its logical conclusion.

 

The elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has been assigned the lead role in defending the revolution, is threatening to intensify the crackdown. Writing in the Guards’ weekly mouthpiece Sobh-e Sadegh, Yadollah Javani, polit bureau chief of the organisation, asserted that the plot to topple the Islamic revolution through a “velvet revolution” had been exposed. He warned that Mr. Mousavi, Mr. Karroubi and the former President Mohammad Khatami should be arrested, put on trial and punished once their role as chief conspirators was established.

 

The President has also gone ahead by announcing a new Cabinet line-up. Significantly, important IRGC figures have occupied the Interior, Defence and Intelligence Ministries. Manouchehr Mottaki, Mr. Ahamdinejad’s trusted Minister in his first term, continues to retain the Foreign Ministry. The President surprised many by nominating three women — a step without precedence in the history of Islamic revolution.

 

The Cabinet line-up is a reflection of the IRGC’s growing clout in the Iranian establishment. It has taken forward a process which began during Mr. Ahmadinejad’s first term in office. The President has had a lengthy relationship with the IRGC since the days of Iran-Iraq war, when he was part of the paramilitary Basij. During his first presidency, the Basij was formally brought under the IRGC’s command and control structure.

 

Mr. Ahmadinejad is also a follower of the Haghani religious school, based in Qom, which is headed by the influential cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi. Many influential IRGC personnel belong to this school, apart from several members of Iran’s security apparatus. Their shared ideological and religious ties under a powerful cleric have further cemented the President’s bonds with the IRGC and its affiliates.

 

Many in Iran are of the view that a combination of the followers of the Haghani School in the IRGC, the President, along with Ayatollah Khamenei, forms the core group of decision-makers. This triad has been responsible for Iran’s defiance on the nuclear issue and for supporting resistance movements such as the Hizbollah in Lebanon and the Hamas in Gaza. The group firmly believes that its policies have paid rich dividends in limiting Israeli and American influence in the region. It counts the Hizbollah’s success against Israel in the 2006 war and the Hamas’ credible response to the Israeli assault in Gaza in January as major successes. The decline of American influence in two neighbouring countries — Iraq and Afghanistan — is seen in Tehran as a golden opportunity for expanding the country’s influence in the region in league with its allies, especially Syria.

 

During a recent meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that in future, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq should play a key role in the region. The Ayatollah’s observation signals the adoption of a proactive disposition by Tehran to challenge the influence of the Americans and their allies in West Asia. Focussed on realising its ambitions in the oil-rich region, Iran’s core leadership is in no mood to relent to the Opposition and risk its larger geopolitical agenda, even if it means taking Iran down the path of totalitarianism.

 

From the establishment’s standpoint, its unrelenting stance appears to be yielding some significant success. The former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads the country’s powerful Expediency Council and who emerged as a key Opposition ally, has apparently fallen in line. In an address to the Expediency Council — a unique conflict-resolution body within the Iranian system — Ayatollah Rafsanjani called upon the people to follow the Supreme Leader’s guidelines. The former President appealed for unity to end the political turmoil and to face challenges that confronted the nation on the international front. He said the authorities must follow Ayatollah Khamenei’s guidelines with regard to the detainees jailed after the elections.

 

The establishment’s next test lies in getting Parliament’s approval for Mr. Ahmadinejad’s Cabinet. The relationship between Parliament and the President, a legacy of his first term in office, is frosty. This was visible when nearly 180 out of a total of 300 lawmakers absented themselves from the ceremony marking Mr. Ahmadinejad’s second term. Controversy is already dogging the circumstances under which Heidar Moslehi was nominated as Intelligence Minister. A heated argument during a Cabinet meeting led Mr. Ahmadinejad to sack his previous Intelligence Minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei. Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar-Harandi also resigned in protest.

 

There were also some temporary hiccups, now resolved, in the relationship between the President and the Supreme Leader. Mr. Ahmadinejad apparently annoyed Ayatollah Khamenei by resisting his advice to sack Vice-President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. Mr. Mashaei did finally resign but was promptly re-hired by Mr. Ahmadinejad as his chief of staff. This show of defiance provoked the Supreme Leader’s supporters who went after Mr. Ahmadinejad publicly.

 

More than two months after the protests began, the tussle between the authorities and the Opposition continues unabated. However, given the establishment’s political compulsions, the resources at its command and the awareness that failure would result in a strategic fallout in the region are likely to sustain its motivation to prevail over the Opposition.

 

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS

BALOCHISTAN SITUATION GETTING BLEAKER BY THE DAY

PROSPECTS OF THE PAKISTAN PEOPLE’S PARTY GOVERNMENT’S EFFORTS AT RECONCILIATION WITH THE BALOCH PEOPLE ARE UNCERTAIN.

MALIK SIRAJ AKBAR

 

On August 29, Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province marked the third death anniversary of its slain leader, Nawab Akbar Bugti, amid widespread violence. Ten people were killed; several gas pipelines blown up and electricity pylons destroyed across Balochistan by Baloch insurgents who challenge the authority of the Pakistani state in the province.

 

Nawab Bugti, a 79-year-old ex-chief minister and a governor of Balochistan, was killed in a military operation ordered by the Pervez Musharraf regime. He had emerged as a leading voice in the province against the federal government on several issues, including control over the natural resources in the province. The killing of the aged Baloch leader gave birth to a new martyr, sparked an unprecedented wave of anti-Pakistan feelings and fanned the embers of an organised separatist movement in Balochistan.

 

Three years after the Bugti killing, seen as nothing less than an assassination, Balochistan poses what is widely seen as a near- East Pakistan-like threat to Islamabad. While Bugti continuously negotiated with the federal government on the issue of maximum provincial autonomy, his young followers now spurn dialogue and coexistence with the federation. Some are fighting for an “independent Balochistan,” with Bramdagh Bugti, a grandson of the slain Bugti, the fiercest face of the insurgency. Pakistan accuses India of backing the 28-year-old Bramdagh Bugti for his secessionist movement while allegedly operating from Afghanistan. The young commander brushes aside these “accusations” saying they are meant to discredit the indigenous Baloch struggle intended to get rid of exploitation by the Punjab-dominated federation.

 

INTERNALLY DIVIDED

Currently, Baloch society is internally divided between the political forces that wish to live with Pakistan and the armed groups that advocate the cause of an independent Balochistan, even if violence has to be used to achieve this. Many would trace the momentum that the separatist movement in Balochistan has today to Bugti’s killing.

 

With Musharraf’s exit, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government extended an apology to the Balochs about the past military operation and vouchsafed negotiation with all annoyed factions of the province in order to permanently end the conflict. In return, three armed Baloch groups — the Baloch Liberation Army, Baloch Republican Army (BRA) and Baloch Liberation Front — unilaterally announced a ceasefire in September 2008.

 

Nonetheless, they demanded withdrawal of security forces from Balochistan, release of hundreds of political workers and ‘missing persons’ and an end to the construction of military cantonments in Balochistan as confidence building measure (CBM) from the government side.

 

The PPP government failed to reverse the polices of Musharraf as the state agencies continued to whisk away dozens of political workers from the pro-independent Balochistan parties such as the Baloch Republican Party (BRP) and the Baloch Students’ Organisation (BSO).

 

DEFINING MOMENT

However, the defining moment in the shattering of the Baloch-PPP relationship came in April this year, with the abduction and subsequent murder of three important Baloch leaders with a massive following, including Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM).

 

Eyewitnesses said they saw personnel of the federal paramilitary Frontier Corps storm a legal chamber and whisk away the Baloch leaders whose decomposed dead bodies showed up a few days later. A judicial committee was appointed to investigate their killings but its findings have not been made public yet.

 

The killings of Baloch leaders led to an intensified campaign of target killing by Baloch insurgents against Punjabi settlers in the province, mainly of school teachers and government servants. Baloch militants warned that no school across Balochistan should hoist the Pakistani flag or play the national anthem. The threat was taken seriously only after half of a dozen Punjabi principals and teachers were murdered in broad daylight.

 

Baloch activists burned Pakistani flags and hoisted the flag of an independent Balochistan on major educational institutions, including at the University of Balochistan. The underground Baloch groups have threatened to kill anyone who removes these Baloch flags or resumes singing the Pakistani anthem at schools. Now even elite grammar schools in Quetta have stopped playing Pakistan’s anthem.

 

All this has engendered an atmosphere of fear. The Balochistan Residential College in Khuzdar district, for instance, has been shut for more than two months since the killing of its principal. When the issue was raised at Balochistan Assembly, the Education Minister expressed “utter helplessness.”

 

“Now that the killings have already started, we can not simply describe it as a ‘threat’ only. It is a reality that our teachers are facing and being killed. The government should take notice of this dire situation before the teachers give up their jobs because of fear,” was his only response.

 

A considerable number of teachers in Balochistan are Punjabis, and most of them have applied with the Education Department for their transfer outside Balochistan for security reasons. The Education Ministry says the number of such applications is too high to be entertained.

 

RELUCTANCE TO STAY

Punjabi officials in other government departments are equally reluctant to stay on in the province fearing they could become targets. According to Daily Aaj Kal, 10 government officials from Punjab agreed to serve in Balochistan only after they were offered double salaries, a four-month leave per year and promotions to the next grade.

 

Furthermore, Baloch separatists have warned the fellow Baloch to give up their jobs at the Pakistan Army, the Frontier Corps (FC) and the police. The underground Baloch Republican Army recently kidnapped 22 policemen in Nasirabad district. Once their demands to the government of releasing all the Baloch detainees were not complied with, they killed all these 22 policemen and threw away their dead bodies with a clear threat of more such operations in the future.

 

In a fresh overture, the federal government has constituted a parliamentary committee whose 15-point proposals were recently approved by Prime Minister Gilani. The recommendations of the committee are reported to include initiation of a political dialogue, the release of political prisoners, expediting the recovery of missing persons and a judicial enquiry into the recent murder of three Baloch leaders.

Raza Rabbani, the chairman of the committee, recommended that the government must pay attention to financial issues such gas royalties, and money allocation to the province by the National Finance Commission, as well take administrative measures such as withdrawal of forces from the gas-rich Sui area.

 

It may not be difficult to make the mainstream Balochistan National Party and the National Party sit at the negotiating table. These two relatively moderate parties have formally demanded the inclusion of “international guarantors,” such as the United Nations, the European Union (EU) or the Amnesty International, in talks with Islamabad so that the Balochs are not cheated again. But even if the BNP and NP agree to cooperate with the government, it is questionable if they have the capability to persuade the more militant Baloch to clam down and stop the killings and bombings.

 

A few days ago, Jamil Bugti, a son of Nawab Bugti, filed a petition at a Sibi District Court asking it order the filing of a murder case against former president Pervez Musharraf, ex-prime minister Shaukat Aziz and other top functionaries from the previous regime. Asma Jahangir, chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), has promised to appear before any court that hears murder charges against Musharraf. She insists that currently the army, not the elected provincial government, fully controls the affairs of Balochistan.

 

Against the background of the bleak ground situation in Balochistan, and only getting bleaker by the day, the prospects of the PPP government’s efforts for reconciliation with the Baloch people are uncertain. But with most Baloch holding Musharraf responsible for bringing Balochistan to this pass, a good starting point for the PPP government may be to show some sincerity in bringing the former ruler to justice for the killing of Nawab Bugti.

 

(The writer is Balochistan bureau chief of Daily Times: maliksiraj @dailytimes.com.pk)

 

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS

HATOYAMA’S QUEST OF POLITICS AND POLICY

THE POLL OUTCOME REFLECTS AN ASCENDANCE OF CENTRE-LEFT POLITICS IN JAPAN.

P. S. SURYANARAYANA

 

The truly handsome victory of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in Sunday’s general election has been hailed by East Asian pundits as a political tsunami, a seismic power shift, and a historic change. In parallel, the defeat of the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party is seen in conventional political terms as a drubbing for Japan’s overstaying conservative ideologues. Viewed in the same milieu, the poll outcome reflects an ascendance of centre-left p olitics in a country often considered inhospitable to such a theory of the state.

 

As Japanese experts and external governments come to terms with the DPJ’s landslide victory, its architect Yukio Hatoyama has sounded a rather pragmatic note of celebration. He sees the results as reflecting the people’s yearning for a three-dimensional change. They are “a change of government,” “a smooth transition from the old to the new” as also their “fusion,” and “a change” in the substance of people’s “sovereignty.”

 

A nodding acquaintance with Japanese politics will suffice to recognise the historic proportions of “a change of government.” The LDP has headed governments in Japan for over a half-century except for a hiatus of less than a year in the early 1990s. So, the prospective transfer of power to the DPJ, which has two small parties as allies, signifies a tectonic shift in the template of Japanese politics. After all, the LDP had acquired an enduring profile as a coalition of big business and grand bureaucracy besides the farming and other rural lobbies. By contrast, the DPJ, itself a forum of politicians with either a vintage LDP background or socialist ethos, has not yet acquired a smart tagline of political identity. However, Mr. Hatoyama is no stranger to the Japanese electorate. He and Ichira Ozawa had left the LDP at a previous defining moment in Japanese politics. It was the time when the economic superpower’s “miracle growth” began fading before the “bubble economy” finally burst. If Mr. Hatoyama’s political choices in the early 1990s did not create the kind of groundswell of popular support that he now has, the reason is not far to seek. One of his grandfathers was an LDP founder; and dynastic politics has been strong in Japan.

 

LASER-LIKE FOCUS

The political and economic complexion of the latest change of government will be determined by Mr. Hatoyama’s promised focus on “people” as the only purpose of public administration. The DPJ’s poll manifesto was infused with a sense of mission to create a caring society. Conspicuous was the laser-like focus on such aspects as child-rearing in a fast-ageing society, education for the young, and care of the elderly too, besides the usual economic concerns.

 

Outwardly, a plain platitude is his reading of the latest poll result as a vote for change towards a “fusion” of the old and the new. However, his own gravitation away from the LDP moorings and his accent on “a fresh perspective” may indicate a more thoughtful remark. Similarly, he conveys a message by identifying a third dimension of change — the vindication of people’s “sovereignty.” He wants to “reconsider the relationship between the people, politicians, and bureaucrats.”

 

In his view, such a basic quest for reinventing Japan is an ideal, whose time may have come. The current global economic crisis, which has deeply hurt a highly networked-economy like Japan’s, is obviously seen by him as a good time for such an ambitious exercise. After all, the LDP’s “shogun politics” of factionalism, linked to the business and other lobbies, has discredited the present system.

The outgoing Prime Minister, Taro Aso, acknowledges that the LDP’s latest loss of power, for only the second time in over 50 years, requires “a fresh start” under a new party leader. A string of corruption scandals did sully the LDP’s image. Moreover, Mr. Aso’s verbal gaffes against the elderly pensioners and Japan’s external patron, the United States, played no mean part in devaluing his leadership. He patted himself for the stimulus packages that he unveiled in recent months to try and put the Japanese economy back on course. By the polling day, unemployment figures hit a new high. On balance, there has so far been no sign of a reversal of Japan’s economic slide from a pinnacle in the 1980s, when the U.S. felt “threatened.”

 

The U.S. has been on the minds of Japanese politicians for many other reasons, too. The LDP in general and Mr. Aso in particular have been accused of placing Japan in a geostationary orbital path around the U.S., as it were. And, Japan’s ties with China, the rapidly rising neighbour, have often remained rocky.

 

Unsurprisingly, therefore, Mr. Hatoyama has signalled a foreign-policy quest for a balanced equation with the U.S., Japan’s long-time military ally. In parallel, he intends to navigate a course in line with the growing importance of China in global politics. In all this, he is guided by the perception of a potential sunset on the globalism that the U.S. has so far presided over.

 

As he engages U.S. President Barack Obama, himself a “new-era” leader, Mr. Hatoyama may need to sort out a puzzle. Does the U.S. need Japan more than the other way round? A relevant factor, rarely articulated in a stark fashion, is that the U.S. still holds the trump card of a nuclear umbrella, which continues to “protect” Japan. And, this aspect is linked to Tokyo’s “pacifism,” which the new Japanese leader may wish to retain, revise, or redefine. At the least, Mr. Hatoyama is, however, keen to take a close look at America’s military and geostrategic footprint across Japan and its neighbourhood. Overall, East Asian diplomats do not expect the U.S. to let Japan unilaterally set new terms for their future ties.

 

This is so, despite expert opinion, such as that of Paul Kennedy that a “global tectonic power shift, towards Asia and away from the West, seems hard to reverse.” An alternative viewpoint, recently articulated by Josef Joffe and others, is the U.S. remains at least “the default power” in the absence of any other country in a comparable position.

 

Where does India figure in such a milieu, as Mr. Hatoyama begins his quest of foreign policy? He has some familiarity with India, having visited the country some years ago.

 

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS

IT’S TIME TO ALTER COURSE

SCIENTISTS SAY PEAK TEMPERATURES WILL NOT FALL BACK. A NEW CAMPAIGN URGES BRITONS TO TAKE THE 10:10 PLEDGE — IT’S THE BEST SHOT WE’VE GOT LEFT.

GEORGE MONBIOT

 

Until a few months ago, government targets for cutting greenhouse gases at least had the virtue of being wrong. They were the wrong targets, by the wrong dates, and they bore no relationship to the stated aim of preventing more than 2{+0}C of global warming. But they used a methodology that even their sternest critics (myself included) believed could be improved until it delivered the right results: the cuts just needed to be raised and accelerated.

 

Three papers released earlier this year changed all that. The first, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in February, showed that the climate change we cause today will be “largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop”. About 40 per cent of the carbon dioxide produced by humans this century will remain in the atmosphere until at least the year 3000. Moreover, thanks to the peculiar ways in which the oceans absorb heat from the atmosphere, global average temperatures are likely to “remain approximately constant ... until the end of the millennium despite zero further emissions.”

 

In other words, governments’ hopes about the trajectory of temperature change are ill-founded. Most are working on the assumption that we can overshoot the desired targets for temperature and atmospheric concentrations of CO2, then watch them settle back later. What this paper shows is that, wherever temperatures peak, that is more or less where they will stay. There is no going back.

The other two papers were published by Nature in April. While governments and the United Nations set targets for cuts by a certain date, these papers measured something quite different: the total volume of carbon dioxide we can produce and still stand a good chance of avoiding more than 2{+0}C of warming. One paper, from a team led by Myles Allen, shows that preventing more than 2{+0}C means producing a maximum of half a trillion tonnes of carbon (1,830bn tonnes of CO2) between now and 2500 — and probably much less. The other paper, written by a team led by Malte Meinshausen, proposes that producing 1,000bn tonnes of CO{-2} between 2000 and 2050 would give a 25 per cent chance of exceeding 2{+0}C of warming.

 

GLOBAL CARBON CLOCK

If you want an idea of what this means, take a look at the global carbon clock at www.know-the-number.com. The level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rising at the rate of 2bn tonnes a month (CO{-2} equivalent). The Allen paper suggests that the world can produce only the equivalent of between 63 and 75 years of current emissions between now and 2500 if we want to avoid more than 2{+0}C of warming. Writing elsewhere, the two teams gave us an idea of what this means. At current rates, we will burn the ration that Allen set aside for the next 500 years in four decades. Meinshausen’s carbon budget between now and 2050 will have been exhausted before 2030.

 

The World Energy Council publishes figures for global reserves of fossil fuels — the minerals that have been identified and quantified, and which it is cost-effective to exploit. The WEC says 848bn tonnes of coal, 177,000bn cubic metres of natural gas and 162bn tonnes of crude oil are good to go. We know roughly how much carbon a tonne of coal, a cubic metre of gas and a barrel of oil contain. The calculations and references are on my website: the result suggests that official reserves of coal, gas and oil amount to 818 bn tonnes of carbon. The molecular weight of carbon dioxide is 3.667 times that of carbon. This means that current reserves of fossil fuel, even when we ignore unconventional sources, would produce 3,000bn tonnes of carbon dioxide if they were burnt. So, in order not to exceed 2{+0}C of global warming, we can burn, according to Allen’s paper, a maximum of 60 per cent of current fossil fuel reserves by 2500. Meinshausen says we’ve already used one-third of his 2050 budget since 2000, which suggests that we can afford to burn only 22 per cent of current reserves between now and 2050. If you counted unconventional sources, the proportion would be even smaller.

 

There are some obvious conclusions from these three papers. The trajectory of cuts is more important than the final destination. An 80 per cent cut by 2050, for instance, could produce very different outcomes. If most of the cut were made towards the beginning of the period, the total emissions entering the atmosphere would be much smaller than if it were made at the end of the period. The peak atmospheric concentration must be as low as possible and come as soon as possible, which means making most of the reductions right now. Ensuring that we don’t exceed the cumulative emissions discussed in the Nature papers means setting an absolute limit on the amount of fossil fuel we can burn, which, as my rough sums show, is likely to be much smaller than the reserves already identified. It means a global moratorium on prospecting and developing new fields.

 

RADICAL CHANGE NEEDED

None of this is on the table. The targets and methodology being used by governments and the United Nations — which will form the basis of their negotiations at Copenhagen — are irrelevant. Unless there is a radical change of plan between now and December, world leaders will not only be discussing the alignment of deckchairs on the Titanic, but disputing whose deckchairs they really are and who is responsible for moving them. Fascinating as this argument may be, it does nothing to alter the course of the liner. But someone, at least, has a radical new plan. This afternoon the team that made the film The Age of Stupid is launching the 10:10 campaign, which aims for a 10 per cent cut in the U.K.’s greenhouse gas emissions during 2010. This seems to be roughly the trajectory needed to deliver a good chance of averting 2{+0}C of warming. By encouraging people and businesses and institutions to sign up, the campaign hopes to shame the U.K. government into adopting this as its national target. This would give the government the moral leverage to demand immediate sharp cuts from other nations, based on current science rather than political convenience.

 

I don’t agree with everything the campaign proposes. It allows businesses to claim reductions in carbon intensity as if they were real cuts: in other words, they can measure their reductions relative to turnover rather than in absolute terms. There’s an uncomfortable precedent for this: cutting carbon intensity was George Bush’s proposal for tackling climate change. As economic growth is the major cause of rising emissions, this looks like a cop-out. The cuts will not be independently audited, which might undermine their credibility with the government. But these are quibbles. 10:10 is the best shot we have left. It may not be enough, it may not work, but at least it’s relevant. I take the pledge. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

A GOOD SIGN, SEE IF IT IS SUSTAINED

 

The economic scenario is so tenuous and uncertain that one has to count one’s blessings, no matter how small. The Indian economy grew by 6.1 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2009-10, an improvement over the previous quarter’s 5.8 per cent. While 6.1 per cent is well below the 7.8 per cent growth seen in the same quarter last year, the point is that it is still within the baseline 6-9 per cent projection. So while this is encouraging, it might be premature to read this as a clear indicator of recovery being on the way or a step towards a high growth path. There have been some bright spots in specific sectors, with an encouraging upturn in industry, manufacturing and the services sector. In services, though, there has also been some moderation in community, social and personal services — all primarily in the government sector — which has witnessed a moderation from 12.5 per cent in Q4 of 2008-09 to 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2009-10. This indicates that stimulus packages had taken effect, but are now on the wane and playing out. The other interpretation is that the growth trigger is coming from non-governmental areas, and that there is less dependence on government spending as a trigger. This, however, should logically be reflected in higher revenue collections, of which there is no sign as yet. More stimulus packages are, however, on the way, with various state governments agreeing to implement the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations in their respective areas.It must be remembered at the same time that certain stimulus measures by the government to manage the crisis, such as reducing taxes, increasing expenditure, focusing on rural expenditure, might not be there this year, or not to the same extent. Governmental support to weather the global economic crisis is moderating, and there is also concern over agricultural growth, which is likely to be impacted by the deficient monsoon. This could shave off one or two per cent from the GDP growth figures.

 

The second quarter of this fiscal year is crucial: if the economy can pull off a similar or better performance then the second-half growth rate could be higher in FY10. The government is trying its best and is working in top gear. Some economists feel if some fiscal space is created in the second half through higher tax collections, with the private sector showing signs of recovery, then higher support from the government might be forthcoming. Ultimately, the economy has to run on its own steam and not through artificial respiration in the form of stimuluses. Globally, the scepticism is even greater, as is evident from the statement of G-20 finance ministers meeting this week. There is confusion on whether the global turnaround is due only to trillions of dollars poured into the various economies that stimulated growth, or whether it is the real thing. A real fear is that if and when the trillions of dollars are withdrawn, as they have to be over a period of time, then the turnaround might go into reverse gear. In America, for example, consumers are still hesitant to go on a buying spree because the dollar buys less than it did earlier and also due to layoff scares. But that is the catch: if consumer spending (which in the US accounts for 70 per cent of the economy) does not go up, chances of a robust recovery will remain a distant dream. While India’s economy is less affected by global behaviour, it is still critically dependent on the global economy for exports and finance — the two big engines of growth. All eyes will now be avidly focused on the second-quarter GDP figures.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

GOVT PUTS ‘RIGHT TO FOOD’ ON HOLD IN DROUGHT YEAR

JAYATI GHOSH

 

The poor monsoons and prevailing drought conditions in large parts of the country have once again turned the attention of policymakers to the problems of agriculture and food security. But they have also created tendencies to postpone some important decisions and commitments which are now more necessary than ever.

 

The United Progressive Alliance government promised us a new Food Security Bill, which was to be part of its 100-days agenda. The need for food security is obvious, even though it was underplayed in the last decade. As a nation, we have become uncomfortably aware of the difficulties of entering the global market to purchase food in periods of highly volatile prices, when even talk of imports by India can cause an immediate spike in price. This has created all sorts of anomalies: on more than one occasion the government has had to purchase imported foodgrain or sugar at prices higher than those at which they have procured them from Indian farmers.

 

Meanwhile food security of households is in a parlous state. Inadequate and even worsening conditions of nutrition have been a concomitant feature of recent economic growth. India already had among the worst nutrition indicators in the world (with those in some states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh well below even the average of Sub-Saharan Africa), even before the persistent increase in food prices reduced the ability of many more households to access sufficient food.

 

Yet the version of the proposed "Right to Food" bill that has been circulated by the Central government to the states is a travesty of the original promise, and a negation of the spirit of ensuring genuine food security. While the bill is still under discussion, the note that has been sent to state governments makes several suggestions that are quite unacceptable, such as confining the provisions to the below poverty line population (which itself is to be pruned according to Central estimates rather than relying on states’ own estimates) and ensuring only 25 kg per month per household instead of the current 35 kg.

 

And now the food and agriculture minister has declared that in view of the drought, even this pathetic attempt at legal intervention has to be postponed for a year. Yet it is precisely in drought conditions, when both production and livelihoods are affected, that it is most important to ensure that food consumption among the population is maintained through public intervention.

 

There are some important points that need to be noted in any discussion of food security. First, a targeted approach that seeks to restrict food security to some defined poor households is cumbersome, expensive and ineffective. There are the well known errors inherent in targeting, of unjustified exclusion of the genuinely poor and unwarranted inclusion of the non-poor. The proportion of the population that is nutritionally deprived is significantly larger than the "poor" population, and in many states they are not completely overlapping categories either. And in any case, households — and people within them — can fall in or out of poverty, however defined, because of changing material circumstances. Similarly they can also go from being food-secure to food-insecure in a short time. The reasons can vary: crop failures, sharp rises in the price of food, employment collapses, health issues that divert household spending, the accumulation of debt, and so on. Monitoring each and every household on a regular basis to check whether any of these or other features has caused it to become food-insecure is not just administratively difficult, it is actually impossible.

 

Second, the notion that a universal scheme that provides subsidised food to all households is too expensive is not tenable either. Consider the maximal possible estimate of such spending. If all households in the country are provided 35 kg of foodgrain per month, that would come to around 90 million tonnes. At current levels of subsidy this would cost around Rs 120,000 crores. This may seem a lot, but the current food subsidy already amounts to around Rs 50,000 crores, so this is an additional Rs 70,000 crores — or around 1.5 per cent of the gross domestic product.

 

Surely this is not too much to allocate to ensure that no one goes hungry in what should be a civilised society? In any case, compare the amount of Rs 70,000 with the huge amounts (nearly Rs 300,000 crores) that have been given away as tax benefits and other concessions to corporate over the past year, and it becomes a trivial amount.

 

Third, any programme of national food security must be combined with a concentrated focus on improving foodgrain production in the country, so that we are not dependent upon imports in a volatile global market. This requires much more attention to the requirements of farmers, and speedy implementation of the many reforms that have already been suggested by the Farmers’ Commission to improve the productivity and financial viability of farming, particularly of food crops.

 

Fourth, to make this successful it is also necessary to avoid instability in domestic prices of foodgrain and curb speculative tendencies. This does not simply mean cracking down on hoarders, which is part of the official publicity around any period of price rise. It also requires preventing speculative activity in futures markets, which means that there must be a ban on futures markets in all essential commodities.

 

These are all necessary and also eminently doable measures — but only if the Central government is actually serious about ensuring real food security in the country.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

 

Sept.02 : As the final piece in a series of four articles that look at the issue of terror in the Asia Pacific region, today’s column focuses on Thailand and the conflicts that have engulfed the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani as well as parts of Songkhla district.

 

Since 2004, these regions of Thailand have been witnessing regular acts of violence and arson by local insurgents. While clear indications are as yet unavailable as to the exact intent of these groups, repeated acts of arson and violence have undermined any peace negotiations with the groups. Moreover the government, in a bid to control the situation brewing in the south, has perforce depended on the military which again weakens the case for negotiations.

 

In a series of attacks witnessed in the region, last week’s car bomb explosion outside a restaurant in Narathiwat was probably the most serious one in recent times. The attack led to one death and 42 people being injured. Over the past two weeks 13 people have been killed in sporadic incidents of violence. Though the death toll may seem low, it is indicative of further destabilisation of the internal security situation within the province.

 

Historically, like all of Asia, the ethnic divides in the southern Thai region are distinct from the Thai ethnicity that is primarily Siamese-Buddhist. Southern Thailand comprises a Malay ethnicity that is predominantly Muslim. Also, till about 1902, this region was an independent sultanate and offered itself as a vassal of the Thai kings. This was known as bunga mas or golden flowers (which is the tribute offered to the royalty in Bangkok). In 1902, the conquest of the southern province of Pattani by the Siam kingdom brought the region into direct control of the Thai kingdom. And subsequently, after 1932, each military and democratic government that came to power continued to rule the southern region.

 

As a unitary state, the control over south remained with little provisions for autonomy and decentralisation. With growing issues of identity, the region’s complexion changed with regard to demands for autonomy and more inclusive politics. Through the 1960s till the late 1980s, the Malay-Muslim rebels waged a separatist war against the Thai state. In fact, there have been long standing claims that the region’s Muslim population is discriminated against by the Central government in Bangkok, which led to the eventual outbreak of conflict in the region. The discrimination has been along cultural and linguistic lines. More recently, the region also began to clamour on grounds of economic deprivation and marginalisation.

 

Though violence has been spiralling since 2004, most of the attacks have been carried out by insurgent groups that were incoherent, had loosely formed group affiliations, and were without any real credible linkages to groups outside the region. They predominantly targeted the Buddhist groups working in the region. The Buddhist Sangha, which has been responsible for setting up educational institutions and other social welfare activities, has been accused of forced conversions among the ethnic Malay-Muslim community. In recent times, however, both Muslims and Buddhists have been targets of attacks. Also, while the insurgent groups have not given any clear mandate as to what goals and objectives they are pursuing, there are some views that given the ethnic divides that run through the region, the demand for an independent Muslim state could be one of the possible aims of the insurgency movement there.

 

Recent attempts by the armed forces have been seen as a measure to win the hearts and minds of the people in the south. The military, in a bid to salvage its image in the region, has been involved in developmental projects within clusters of villages. Backed by the Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) of the military, assistance has been provided to villages to achieve self-sufficiency with regards to agriculture and farming. The Thai government has also supported such projects and is hopeful that by providing developmental aid to the tune of $3 billion, it can turn the tide of events in the region. This may provide greater recourse to negotiate and bring the region within the fold of the mainstream political process. While the region does not have political voices as such, there is an urgent need to push for political voices that will critically aim to maintain close ties with the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva government. In fact, given the current political environment and the stand off between the pro-Thaksin and the anti-Thaksin groups, the government under Mr Vejjajiva could well stand to gain if they were to deliver on some kind of resolution of the conflict in the south.

 

One of the issues that will be pivotal in addressing the issues in southern Thailand is a total reworking of the Internal Security Act. This would be a significant achievement for the Vejjajiva government. Given that the region has had emergency imposed upon it since 2004, the military has had a free hand in the region. The courts did not take any action against soldiers involved in the 2004 violence in which 70 people were killed. And an appeals court recently ruled against the conviction of military personnel who were charged with excesses in the region. The court ruling was seen as biased in favour of the military. Such a view will critically impair any further attempts to address the issue since the armed forces must be aware of the limits of its role in conflict zones.

 

Further to this, Amnesty International’s report released this year highlights the use of torture and other methods to extract information. Such abuse of power creates an atmosphere of fear, further aggravating the situation and leaves little room for political manoeuvring. This has placed the counter-insurgency methods and efforts at development of the region at loggerheads as there seems to be a contradiction between the two. What will critically determine the manner of approach is the ability to synthesise and harmonise counter-insurgency and development projects so that both work in coordination. This approach would be more significant in the Vejjajiva government’s attempt to win the hearts and minds of the southern provinces.

 

Dr Shankari Sundararaman is an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the School of International Studies, JNU

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

CRPF IN THE VALLEY

UNARMED JAWANS CAN BECOME SITTING DUCKS

 

THE two incidents of militant attack on CRPF personnel in Srinagar on Mondayalone, resulting in the death of two jawans and injuries to many, have exposedthe unrealistic stand of those in the Kashmir valley who had been campaigning against the paramilitary force for some time. They wanted it to be withdrawn,saying that CRPF deployment was no longer needed when terrorist violence hadcome down considerably.

 

These leaders, mostly belonging to the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP, had been arguing that if CRPF withdrawal was not possible, the jawans on law and order duty should be disarmed, keeping in view the sentiments of the people. Ultimately, the CRPF authorities, who had been under pressure from the Chief Minister also, went in for deploying jawans with only batons in their hand. The result is disastrous. One baton-wielding CRPF jawan was killed by militants on August 1 also.

 

Unarmed CRPF men are sitting ducks, particularly when there are reports that militant infiltration from across the border has increased lately. Modules of the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad, which targeted the CRPF jawans in August, had been obviously waiting for the disarming of the paramilitary personnel.

 

It is surprising why the CRPF authorities could not foresee the threat to the jawans’ lives. Their decision reflects poorly on their understanding of the situation. Changing the strategy now is allright, but those who have lost their lives due to the thoughtless policy decision cannot come back to life.

 

The vilification drive against the CRPF is like the campaign by misguided politicians launched against the Army earlier. The time has come to tell these politicians and others that the jawans are posted at various places for providing security to the people. These jawans cannot do their job effectively if they are not properly armed.

 

Of course, they can be given instructions to respect people’s human rights and to avoid using their weapons even under provocative circumstances. But all the jawans on duty must be armed adequately to meet the challenge posed by militants.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

                   EDITORIAL

TO THE POLLS

ELECTION CODE MUST BE ADHERED TO

 

THERE is bound to be considerable disappointment in Jharkhand which will not be going to the polls on October 13 along with Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. It has been under President’s rule since January 19 and it was widely expected that it will have elections at the end of the rainy season, as had also been indicated by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament.

 

But that was not to be. The other three states are to have elections on a single day and, given the good track record of the Election Commission in conducting free and fair elections, should be looking forward to a trouble-free date with the electronic voting machines. The election will be an important test for the Congress which is ruling in all the three states. The party has opted for early elections in Haryana, following its good showing in the last Lok Sabha polls in the state.

 

Given the trouble in Opposition ranks, it may not be too difficult for the Congress to sustain its hold over these states, but the candidates are going to have a subdued Divali because the counting for the October 13 elections is to be done only on October 22, after the October 17 festival of lights is spent in uncertainty.

 

This long gap is intriguing, considering that it is a single-phase election and EVMs are to be used. The only explanation that has been given by Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla is that polling parties in Arunachal Pradesh will have to walk back to reach their destinations. Yet, the gap is rather too long and could have been cut short.

 

Here is hoping that all parties will honour the model code of conduct and refrain from doing anything which vitiates the atmosphere. The Election Commission, which did a commendable job during the Lok Sabha polls, will have to ensure that the election code is strictly adhered to by all candidates and parties. No one who chooses to violate the code should get away unpunished.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

THE ROUT OF LDP

NEW JAPAN GOVT HAS UPHILL TASK AHEAD

 

THE sound thrashing the Liberal Democratic Party has got in the parliamentary elections in Japan at the hands of the left-of-centre Democratic Party of Japan is a testimony to the groundswell of dissatisfaction against its performance in recent years. That the LDP ruled the country for all but 10 months since it was founded in 1955 and has now been roundly trounced is a reminder that the people have voted decisively for change against a party that had lost its moorings.

 

The LDP had already lost its majority in the Upper House in 2007 but it failed to see the warning signal and mend its ways. Its defeat ends a three-way partnership between the LDP, big business and bureaucrats that turned Japan into an economic juggernaut in the aftermath of World War II, but drove it to prolonged stagnation when Japan’s “bubble” economy burst in the late 1980s. The bureaucracy in particular came under heavy attack from the DPJ.

 

Significantly, DPJ chief Yokio Hatoyama promised the voters a “revolutionary change”, pledging to focus spending on social welfare, including cash handouts for job seekers in training and families with children. But the Democrats are up against huge challenges, with economic experts suggesting that their spending plans could inflate Japan’s massive public debt.

 

On the external front, the DPJ government is expected to re-jig the US-Japan relationship. The DPJ believes that it has been too subservient. It was passionately against the support that former Prime Minister Koizumi gave to President George Bush for his invasion of Iraq.

 

It is now time for the new dispensation to redeem its promises. There is hope tinged with skepticism over its ability to steer the country out of stagnation. The skeptics point out that the DPJ has no real blueprint for action to re-invent Japan’s export-addicted economy. There is also little clarity on where money will come from for $178 billion in new spending. Much more than mere good intent would be required to pull the country out of its current morass.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

            OP-ED

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN

50 PER CENT QUOTA IN PANCHAYATS A MAJOR STEP

BY BHARTI CHHIBBER

 

IT is indeed heartening to know that the Central government has cleared a Constitution amendment to reserve 50 per cent of seats for women in all tiers of panchayats. The proposed amendment will increase the reservation for women to 50 per cent in zila parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats — at the district, block and village levels, respectively.

 

This will go a long way in empowering women in the decision-making process at the grassroots level. Article 243D of the Constitution that currently provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in panchayats, will be amended to provide for the enhanced reservation. With the passage of this amendment, every second member of India’s village panchayats will be a woman.

 

Already five states — Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand — have 50 per cent reservation for women as the states have the power to bring in amendments in state laws to increase women’s representation up to 50 per cent. Rajasthan has also announced 50 per cent reservation to be implemented in the next panchayat elections in early 2010.

 

Kerala too has followed suit. It all started with the 73rd and 74th Constitution amendments, when India moved towards a big change in the institutional framework of governance. With 33 per cent reservation for women at the local level i.e. panchayats and municipalities, it was a new beginning for women empowerment.

 

Through participation in politics, women are making use of power and resources to bring about necessary changes. Water scarcity, education and prohibition are some of the important issues that have been dealt with by women. Potable water through a common tap has been introduced in several villages.

 

However, though the decentralisation process has come into force, there are structural and procedural bottlenecks still to be taken care of. These include poverty, lack of education, patriarchal mode of society, lack of financial independence and lack of awareness of political rights which hamper women’s ability to take independent decisions.

 

Caste discrimination is another obstacle at the village panchayat level. Further, even if women are elected to the panchayats, they have to face so many other problems, including harassment and physical threats. In some cases men want to retain power by proxy, thus they coax their womenfolk to fight elections on reserved seats. Women are under-represented at the political level in the central and state governments. In this context, we may recall that giving 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament has been pending for so long.

 

At the societal level male dominance in Parliament, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the army and the police point to lack of political power in the hands of women. It is often argued that women’s political leadership would bring about a more cooperative and less conflict-prone world. Lack of political and economic power adds to the subservient and unequal position of women.

 

In order to create conducive conditions and open avenues for women’s political participation, we need a change in social attitudes and the mindset of civil society. The local administration also needs to be more gender-sensitive. Women’s political participation and empowerment issue cannot be confined to mere political rights.

 

Education, social awareness and economic power are its important and basic components. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has argued that development is the way to provide capabilities to women to bring out their fullest self. Literacy, health and other necessities are her basic rights and give her a chance to improve her position in the social strata by changing her economic status. This will go a long way in claiming political power too.

 

Laws may not remove structural inequalities but they can definitely assist social change. We need to bring about an awareness through education and work on the culture of non-violence and non-bias to achieve a just and equitable society. What we need are systemic corrections rather than limiting our success to individual cases. However, the political empowerment of women at the grassroots level should not be taken lightly as this will lead to further development. Networking of women village panchayats is vital as this will lead to collective strength, a feeling of solidarity and a learning experience from each other.

 

At present, women account for 36.87 per cent of the total 28.1 lakh elected panchayat representatives. On implementation of the revised reservation the number of elected women’s representatives at the grassroots level is expected to rise to more than 14 lakh. This will be another step in strengthening the democratic process in India. The current enactment is indeed a landmark development. It may create new opportunities for women to be forerunners in economic and social progress. Gender equality is critical to the development process. It calls for creating opportunities for women to be part of this development process.

 

Merely enacting legislation will not help. What is required is its proper implementation. Economic and political powers go hand in hand. To make inroads into male-dominated institutions, women need a level-playing field. Political participation is not only a symbol of women’s development and empowerment but it also creates further awareness and mobilizes other women to be a part of the political arena to promote their and societal interests at large.

 

The writer teaches political science in the University of Delhi

 

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THE TRIBUNE

ISRAEL HAS IRAN IN ITS SIGHTS

BY MICHA ZENKO

 

IRAN has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal aimed at stopping the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. Under the proposal, Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment program in exchange for a U.N. Security Council commitment to forgo a fourth round of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

 

But if diplomacy fails, the world should be prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons facilities. As Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged: “The window between a strike on Iran and their getting nuclear weapons is a pretty narrow window.”

 

If Israel attempts such a high-risk and destabilizing strike against Iran, President Barack Obama will probably learn of the operation from CNN rather than the CIA. History shows that although Washington seeks influence over Israel’s military operations, Israel would rather explain later than ask for approval in advance of launching preventive or pre-emptive attacks.

 

Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken. The current infighting among Iran’s leaders also has led some to incorrectly believe that Tehran’s nuclear efforts will stall. As Friday’s International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear programs revealed, throughout the political crises of the last three months, Iran’s production rate for centrifuges has remained steady, as has its ability to produce uranium hexafluoride to feed into the centrifuges.

 

So let’s consider four past Israeli military operations relevant to a possible strike against Iran. In October 1956, Israel, Britain and France launched an ill-fated assault against Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal. The day before, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles grilled Abba Eban, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., about Israel’s military buildup on the border with Egypt, but Eban kept quiet about his country’s plans.

 

In June 1967, Israel initiated the Six-Day War without notice to Washington,despite President yndon Johnson’s insistence that Israel maintain the status quoand consult with the U.S. before taking ction. Only days before the war began,Johnson notified Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in a personal message: “Israel justmust not take pre-emptive military action and thereby make itself responsible for the initiation of hostilities.”

 

On June 7, 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak shortly before it was to be fueled to develop the capacity to make nuclear weapons-grade plutonium. Again, Washington was not informed in advance. President Ronald Reagan “condemned” the attack and “thought that there were other options that might have been considered.”

 

A few days later, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told CBS News: “This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel. ... Every future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way.”

 

Begin’s prediction proved true on Sept. 6, 2007, when Israeli aircraft destroyed what was believed to be a North Korean-supplied plutonium reactor in Al Kibar, Syria. Four months earlier, Israeli intelligence officials had provided damning evidence to the Bush administration about the reactor, and the Pentagon drew up plans to attack it.

 

Ironically, according to New York Times reporter David Sanger, President George W. Bush ultimately decided the U.S. could not bomb another country for allegedly possessing weapons of mass destruction. An administration official noted that Israel’s attack went forward “without a green light from us. None was asked for, none was given.”

 

These episodes demonstrate that if Israel decides that Iranian nuclear weapons are an existential threat, it will be deaf to entreaties from U.S. officials to refrain from using military force. Soon after the operation, Washington will express concern to Tel Aviv publicly and privately. The long-standing U.S.-Israeli relationship will remain as strong as ever with continued close diplomatic, economic, intelligence and military cooperation.

 

Should Tehran prove unwilling to meet the September deadline and bargain away its growing and latent nuclear weapon capability, we can expect an Israeli attack that does not require U.S. permission, or even a warning.

 

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

 

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THE TRIBUNE

MURKY WORLD OF PRIVATE SECURITY

BY TERRI JUDD

 

PARANOID, competitive and fuelled by guns, alcohol and steroids. That is how one senior contractor in Baghdad describes the private security industry operating in the city’s Green Zone. It was the world to which Danny Fitzsimons, a 29-year-old former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia, and with an extensive criminal past, returned three weeks ago.

 

Despite rules against alcohol, his ArmorGroup colleagues welcomed him with a drinking session. A fight broke out and he shot and killed two of them – a Briton, Paul McGuigan, and an Australian, Darren Hoare – then wounded an Iraqi, Arkhan Mahdi. He faces a premeditated murder charge and execution if found guilty.

 

Mr Fitzsimons’s family is determined to save him and say he was suffering from severe psychiatric problems after a brutal career in the Army and in the security industry. But those on the ground hold little hope. Figures in the industry told The Independent that the shooting could not have come at a worse time. They are already resigned to Mr Fitzsimons’s execution and say that he is a tiny pawn in a huge, expensive and vicious game of chess.

 

They say the private security business in Iraq is in a vice-like crush. The gold rush that began with the conflict in 2003 is drying up. Contracts are not as lucrative, the trend is towards employing Iraqis instead of Westerners and, crucially, the Iraqi authorities – for so long impotent when it came to controlling the armed men swaggering around their cities – are clamping down.

 

“We are loathed out here. We are the single most hated entity in Iraq,” said Ethan Madison, a security contractor who has worked in Baghdad for five years. “They are going to hang him if he is found guilty. The Iraqis are desperate to put their foot down and make an example, say this is our country and we make the rules.”

 

The big companies – including ArmorGroup – are fighting it out for a lucrative Foreign Office contract worth more than £20m and are determined to survive the fallow period in the expectation that within a few years the big oil companies will bring with them another cash cow.

 

But just months after the private military contractors lost immunity, the Iraqi police are flexing their muscles. For the first time, foreigners are coming under intense scrutiny, compounds are being searched, licences checked and practices – such as blocking roads or banning locals from driving too close – banned.

 

In this cut-throat industry, there is open astonishment that a man like Mr Fitzsimons, who had been sacked from two companies, Aegis and Olive, was hired again. “It’s a small world. It is easy enough to check on someone with a few emails to former colleagues. I get them all the time,” said a former Parachute Regiment officer. Despite assurances by the British Association of Private Security Companies that the industry takes post-traumatic stress seriously, few on the ground seem to care.

 

Private security contractors live with intense pressure as they escort clients in the “Red Zone” or in convoys through Iraq. “Every car could be a bomb,” said Mr Madison. “There is a management attitude that, if you don’t want to do the job, there is plenty more where you came from. There is a divide, open loathing, between the management and the men on the ground. There is no loyalty.

“It is a pressure cooker and you can see guys physically deteriorate. You watch people coming in fresh-faced and two months later they are snappy and irritable. It is constant, nervous pressure. It is a quite regular occurrence for people to die out here, although it doesn’t get reported.”

 

By arrangement with The Independent

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAl

RSS DICTATES BJP

 

The internal turmoil in the BJP culminated in the RSS leadership dictating terms to the BJP to put an end to the in-fighting and bring in organisational changes at the earliest to make the party stronger. The confabulations of the BJP leaders with the top brass of the RSS at the Jhandewalan headquarters of the RSS during the last few days clearly proved that it was the RSS which would decide the leadership issue of the BJP in spite of their public declaration that the Sangh would not interfere in the working of the political party. As the much publicised Chintan Baithak in Shimla ended up in the controversial decision of expelling the veteran BJP leader Jaswant Singh for his critical comments eulogising Jinnah and criticising Sarder Patel for the partition in his new book on Jinnah and Partition and the prompt ban of the book by Narendra Modi in Gujarat, the BJP landed itself from one crisis to another. Sudhenra Kulkarni,a trusted aid of L.K.Advani resigned from the party.Arun Shourie,another veteran BJP leader made critical comments against the party president,Rajnath Singh, but the party did not dare to take strong action against him. In Rajasthan,Vasundhara Raje stood firmly on her ground without acceding to the directives of the party to resign as the Leader of the Opposition .Yaswant Sinha,another BJP leader distanced himself away from the party.


The RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat saw the turmoil in the BJP and decided to intervene and prepared a blue print for organisational reforms.Rajnath Singh, president of the party whose term ends in December would go and a new person chosen by the RSS would take over the leadership.L.K.Advani would not continue as the Leader of the opposition but would hand over the position to a younger leader namely Sushma Swaraj.What action the demoralised leadership would take against Arun Shourie and Vasundhara Raje would be clear within the next few days. However one tall leader of the BJP whose public image had suffered considerably due to exposure by Jaswant Singh was L K Advani who denied any knowledge of Jaswant Singh’s visit to Kandahar along with the released terrorists. Brajesh Mishra,Principal Secretary to then Prime Minister Vajpayee and National Security Adviser had confirmed that the Cabinet Committee on Security of which Home Minister L.K.Advani was one of the members took the unanimous decision to send Jaswant Singh to Kandahar.Further the cash for vote scam which rocked Parliament on the day of the confidence vote had been planned and executed by Sudhendra Kulkarni with the approval of L.K.Advani.These are serious allegations against L.K.Advani and the people have the right to know the truth.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAl

SPORTING GLORY

 

The National Sports Day, celebrated across the nation on August 29, was special for the people of the North East this time. When MC Mary Kom of Manipur, the world’s greatest woman boxer at present in her category, ascended the podium at the Rashtrapati Bhawan to receive the Khel Ratna, the heart of everyone in the North East swelled with pride. Last year, Mary had done the whole country proud by wining her fourth successive World Championship gold in China, which is unprecedented in world boxing for women. On Saturday, boxer Vijender Singh, now world number two in his category, and wrestler Sushil Kumar also received the nation’s highest sporting honour for their heroics at the Beijing Games. For the first time in the history of Indian sports, three sportspersons were presented the Khel Ratna individually. The Arjuna Awards were also presented on the same day, the notable recipients being Gautam Gambhir, the first cricketer to win the award in six years, Saina Nehwal, who is well on her way to becoming an all-time great shuttler from India, and L Sarita Devi, another boxer from Manipur. The Day was celebrated in Assam as well, with the State Directorate of Sports recognising the contributions of former hockey players Abdul Jabbar and Ibocha Singh in a befitting manner.


Till the day Mary Kom was conferred the Khel Ratna, her story had been an extreme example of a dubious nature of Indian sports. On being named for the honour, Mary regretted that she couldn’t win the award earlier. In 2007, Mary was shortlisted along with MS Dhoni for Khel Ratna but the then awards committee chief Milkha Singh struck off her name, saying he did not know which sport she played! How could a person like Milkha Singh occupying the top position on an exclusive panel be so ignorant? There have been many such instances of a negative mindset existing outside the North East against the people from this region. One may recall the tragic manner in which weightlifter Monica Devi had been deprived of the chance to compete in Olympics. Monica was finally exonerated of doping charges but only after she had already missed the bus to Beijing. This goof-up remains inexplicable. In Mary Kom’s case, the strength of her performances was far too great to remain unnoticed for long. Everyone from the North East should imbibe this spirit and give a fitting answer to all the negativities they have to face outside the region. Mary has made a strong statement by winning the Khel Ratna and rendered the bias against the North East meaningless. Her sporting glory gives the people of Manipur in particular something to cheer about amidst the seemingly endless reign of terror.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAl

THE VIEW FROM SHIMLA

SHIBDAS BHATTACHARJEE

 

The three-day Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chintan baithak (brainstorming session) concluded with a resolve to make the party an effective tool to discharge its national role and formulate an action plan ‘Road Ahead’ to serve as guidelines for the workers to broaden the geographical and social base and strengthen alliances. The so called “Road Ahead” plan adopted at the introspection session of the BJP at Shimla ended with the eight point resolution that includes— full commitment to the ideology of integral humanism and cultural nationalism, expand the party work among the weaker section like SC, ST, Backward Classes, youth, women, middle class etc, expand party’s geographical base to strengthen the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), deal firmly with the indiscipline, make the BJP ruled State governments as role model, perform as a constructive Opposition at the national level and the workers and leaders should behave like ideals in their personal and public life. The meeting ended with conclusive remarks from LK Advani, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha who reminded the delegates of the Palampur resolution of June 1989 of the party in which the important decisions on Ram Janambhhoomi-Babri Masjid and also to make Shiv Sena an ally were taken. Thus the right-wing party also indicated that it would remain committed to its ideological roots and would lean on its parent organisation, the RSS, for guidance on important issues.


The BJP national conclave observed that the party had done well in some States while its performance was below expectations in states like West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Absence of alliance in these States had been identified as the prime cause of BJP’s dismal performance in these State in the 15th general elections. Claiming that the election results indicated that people wanted bipolar polity, party leadership said that the hype created by ‘third force’ (which was wiped out in the poll), ultimately benefited the Congress. Endorsing the view that the BJP has a historic national role to play, the meeting expressed satisfaction that it was the main Opposition party in the country with 116 Lok Sabha members and Governments in eight States and there was no reason for despondency. The meeting stressed the need to organise more training camps and programmes for workers to increase the concern about weaker sections and frequent meetings between senior leaders at the State and Central level. The BJP analysists argued that the Congress mainly gained from the decline and division in the vote share of its opposition and favourable distribution of votes in States like Uttar Pradesh. The party was of the opinion that course correction could be in the form of checking the anti-incumbency factor against its sitting MPs: improving its index of alliance and devising an audit mechanism for its MPs in Parliament and in their constituencies.


But the BJP meet this time exposed once again the deepening crisis in the party after its decision of expulsion of senior party leader and former Minister for External Affairs in the NDA government Jaswant Singh on account of his controversial book Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence, wherein the founder of Pakistan has been lauded, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel along with Jawaharlal Nehru has been blamed, but that doesn’t matter as the first Prime Minister is a hate object for the RSS parivar anyway and is criticised for not preventing the Partition of India. Thus the issue of Jaswant Singh’s expulsion hijacked the real debate for the country’s second largest party. What would now come to the fore is the issue of the BJP’s intolerance as a brand, which cannot but send away the new generation with questions about such an outfit as Singh was in the core committee and was really on the margins of the cracking organisational edifice. But this was not the first time the BJP took on its top leaders over Jinnah as LK Advani, the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate in the just-concluded general election, had to resign under pressure from the post of party president after he called Jinnah a secular leader during his tour of Pakistan in 2005.Thus the recent spate of infighting and criticism against a top BJP leader was only the latest since the party’s debacle at the general election in April-May. The exercise in introspection also came soon after Vasundhara Raje declined to resign as legislative leader of the party in Rajasthan. Quite expectedly breaking decade-long silence, former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh sought to embarrass L K Advani by saying that he covered up Advani over the Kandahar issue as Advani was aware of the decision to release of the terrorists in exchange for freedom of over 160. There has been a controversy on the issue with Advani claiming a few years ago that he was not aware of Jaswant Singh going on a plane with three dreaded terrorists to Kandahar.


In fact, since the defeat of the party in the 14th Lok Sabha election the BJP’s approach has been quite incoherent and at times undemocratic. Just after the 14th general elections, the party made a strategic blunder by raising the issue of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin and opposing her to become the Prime Minister of India when Indian National Congress and its coalition partners extended full support to Sonia to become the Prime Minister of the country. The negative approach of the BJP is the external manifestation of its internal complications. Truly speaking, the present BJP is an exhausted organisation today demoralised and riven apart by the battles not only of its top leaders like, LK Advani and Rajnath Singh but of its second-generation leaders like Arun Jaitely, Venkya Naidu and others. So also, the party is suffering from an ideological crisis– whether to please the leadership of Sangh Parivar by adopting the Hindutva agenda or to continue its so-called agenda to win the confidence of the coalition partners. In fact, the BJP seems to have failed to reinvent itself with dynamic leadership and relevant policies to counter the Congress in this age of born again Gandhi Parivar that has added a lot to its frustration and agony. Though it is true that in some Assembly elections excluding those of Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Delhi, Rajasthan and Orissa BJP registered success, but the party’s politics and policies at the Centre seem to be irrelevant which has contributed a lot to make the UPA stronger.


The view from Shimla does not seem encouraging for the BJP as it once again exposed the internal crisis of the party. In fact the present BJP suffers from tug of war between the old and new generation leadership as well as the absence of definite ideological stand in this age of coalition politics. It is true that the party president Rajnath Singh doesn’t have the stature of a Vajpayee or an Advani to enforce his decisions within the party; his best bet is obviously to adopt a consensual approach and present a collective leadership. However, the decision of the party to play the role of a responsible Opposition in the Parliament will help to improve its image as by doing so the party will be able to send a message that it is committed to perform the role assigned to it by the 15th general election verdict.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAl

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RAMADAN

MD SABIR NISHAT

 

A11 religions have enjoined upon their adherents some days of fasting every year. There is fasting in other religions like Sabaeanism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. Similarly the Quran – the basis of Islam – enjoins upon a Muslim to fast. Since fasting as a duty is imposed by the Quran, it is for us to seek and find out the underlying principles of fasting.


Fasting in Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, the rest being kalima taiyab (that God is one and Muhammad is his prophet), namaz (prayers), zakat (purifying alms) and haj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

The month of Ramadan is sacred for the Muslims, because it was in this month that the revelation of the Holy Quran began and fasting as an obligatory institution was prescribed by Allah. Fasting, as a way of worship, has been common in almost all religions. All prophets exhorted their followers to purify themselves through fasting in one way or the other. The Holy Quran declares: “O believers, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may be pious.”


Literally defined, fasting – a unique moral and spiritual characteristic of Islam means to abstain from eating, drinking, coition and loose talks and avoid verbosity and noisy exchange of words, before the break of dawn till sunset. Fasting is made mandatoryry for every adult Muslim, except for those who are sick or on a journey, minors, pregnant women, foster mothers, women having periods or confined. The concession is made to the effect that they need not fast in the month of Ramadan, but at some more appropriate occasion. Islam is not hard and harsh, but indulgent. As a matter of fact, the conception of fasting in Islam is not in the interest of God, but in our own interest.


Fasting is to be observed by way of penitence or expiation by those who, for instance, violate an oath under duress. Fasting is forbidden by the Prophet Mohammad on certain occasions, for instance, the two annual Idd days (on the day of Shawwal and on the 10th of Dhul-Hajjah). The Prophet has also prohibited Muslims not to fast, even as a work of supererogation, for long periods. He said: “You have duties to fulfil even with regard to yourselves. Our self does not belong to us, but to God our Lord; and this self is but a trust confided to our care, and we are responsible for its well-being.”


One redeeming feature that ought to be noted is that the fast should not affect the daily avocations, and it should not be a pretext for neglecting normal duties. Islam never approves of – much less demands – keeping vigil during the whole night and passing the following day in sleep and indolence. Fast means a greater effort to perform all the usual duties and something more – prayers and more charity – and all this in the absence of food and drink.


The abstention is, of course, limited. It lasts from the first sign of daybreak, or from the moment one can, to use the words of the Quran in this connection, “distinguish a black thread from a white one,” to sunset. During this period, the fasting Muslim may not eat, drink or indulge in other worldly pleasures. It may happen that through forgetfulness one may eat or drink involuntarily. That does not affect the validity of the fast of that day. As soon as one recalls that it is a fasting day, one should give up food, drink, etc. This is a privilege with which a Muslim has been endowed: “Allah forgives sins committed by mistake, forgetfulness, or by compulsion.


At sunset the Muslim breaks his fast, and it is customary to have a light refreshment shortly before the main meal, popularly known as iftaar. It is generally asserted that prayers entreated to God at the time of iftaar are answered by Him. Later in the evening they say the tarawih prayers, which is held after the fifth obligatory prayer. The last meal of the day during the fasting period is named sahur and taken just before daybreak, the moment fasting is resumed. Just as for beginning the fast, an intention is to be formulated for breaking it at sunset. The Prophet is reported to have said upon breaking the fast: “O God, for Thee have I fasted, in Thee have I believed, and with Thy nourishment do I break the fast. Accept it from me, O Lord.”

Fasting is a shield in various senses. Firstly, it protects the observer against the fire of hell. Secondly, it saves man from falling a victim to lower desires, by inculcating in him the habits of self-control. Thirdly, it safeguards him against indulging in foul talk, picking up quarrels and fighting with people. The faith of heart and purity of intention are the very first requirements for fasting. It must be performed with the desire of obtaining God’s pleasure. Abu Harairah reported Allah’s messenger as saying, “Allah, the majestic and the exalted,” said, “Every act of the son of Adam is for him except fasting. It is done for My sake, and I will give a reward for it...”


Fasting is not only a ritual, it is a source of piety and it generates taqwa (‘fear of God’ or ‘keeping oneself away from vices’) and inculcates many virtues in believers. The Prophet said, “Whoever observes the fast with a firm belief and with a hope of divine rewards, all his past sins are forgiven.”


As fasting is purely out of love and devotion to God, it thus deserves full reward from Him. God has promised unbounded rewards in lieu of good deeds during this month. The Prophet Mohammad said: “Every deed of man gets some increment or other from Allah. One good deed flourishes 10 times to 700 times. But Allah says, “Fasting is exempt from this, it is exclusively for Me and I give reward for it as much as I like.”


It is in this holy month of Ramadan, Zakat (alms) is usually given to the poor and needy persons, so that they can elevate their economic status. Besides removing economic disparity, Zakat also helps in preventing concentration of wealth in a few hands. Zakat is taken at the rate of two-and-a-half per cent on income or wealth one possesses.


All said and done, the Ramadan fast, is therefore, looked upon as a great exercise in mental and physical discipline, and a duty prescribed by Islam.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

IL&FS-MAYTAS DEAL LACKS TRANSPARENCY

 

Maytas Infra Ltd got a fresh lease of life after the Company Law Board (CLB) ordered IL&FS Financial Services to take charge of the company formerly controlled by the Raju family. The move should hopefully restore the lost confidence of employees, shareholders, lenders, vendors as well as various agencies that had entrusted contracts to the company.


Readers may recall that Raju had confessed to the fraud after his proposal for Satyam to acquire associate companies Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties was aborted . Given that company faced the prospect of bankruptcy as lenders stopped credit and clients withdrew projects, a change of management seemed the only feasible option to ensure the business survived.


It is no surprise IL&FS has gained control of the company. As a leader of the consortium that extended credit to Maytas, it has displayed keenness to take control of the company soon after trouble broke out. It had even approached the CLB for permission to nominate directors on the company board way back in February, only to be turned down. Given the synergies in their business, perhaps IL&FS was the ideal suitor for Maytas Infra.


We have no quarrel about who gains control of any beleaguered company, if the process of transfer of management is conducted in a transparent manner. That cannot be said about the deal that was facilitated by CLB on Monday. The decision appears to have been worked out between a few influential stakeholders. As a practice, transfer of management in such cases should be carried out through an auction, as in the case of Satyam, and IL&FS should have bid.


The 14.5% holding of IL&FS in Maytas should not have been the deciding factor. If that was the argument, then Satyam should have been handed over to L&T , the largest shareholder in the IT company before the auction. IL&FS acquired equity holding in Maytas only on 26 March — 9.61% by invoking a pledge on shares of the Raju family and 4.89% in an off market transaction.


It was widely suggested that Andhra Pradesh state government too favoured transferring control of Maytas to IL&FS . In the days ahead, many are bound to question this deal.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

JINNAH'S DEFENCE

 

The interstices of the sub-continent’s partition history evidently have a way of holding a nation’s interest long after the leading personalities have departed the scene. Would the hapless Jaswant Singh be comforted by the fact that like his former party colleagues — who apparently wielded the axe before even reading his opus on Mohammed Ali Jinnah — the Quaid-e-Azam and one time legal luminary of the Bombay Bar was decidedly averse to any reading of the contemplative kind? We have it from the illustrious jurist M C Chagla, one-time junior and legal secretary to Jinnah, that the the latter apparently did not ‘ever read a serious book in all his life’! Jinnah’s staple reading appeared to have been ‘newspapers, briefs and law books.’ Unlike politicos who invariably promise the moon at the hustings and then conveniently always fail to deliver on their election promises, Jinnah had a reputation of being pleasantly unpredictable in this professional role as an advocate. When taking a brief, he would often tell the solicitor that the case was hopeless, indicating that the legal outcome could have a foregone conclusion. But in court, Jinnah would fight ‘like a tiger’ for his client, more often than not rather successfully in what can be termed in today’s parlance as ‘game-changing’ fashion! Whenever Jinnah made an appearance, the opposing party would see to it that multiple advocates were at hand to take him on. But Jinnah had a way of thinking on his feet.


Once, Jinnah was the sole defence counsel in a case where the plaintiff had three seasoned lawyers. My lord, began Jinnah — he was known for lucidity of expression — I am not so well armed as my learned friends, but it is said ‘thrice is he arm’d who hath his quarrel just’! Jinnah won the case hands down. As the book on this man of well-chosen words goes through the Indian courts now to fight off its banning in Gujarat, the author would surely hope for an advocate of similar eloquence — and perhaps the same argument — and a judge of similar discernment!

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

IL&FS TAKES OVER MAYTAS

 

Maytas Infra Ltd got a fresh lease of life after the Company Law Board (CLB) ordered IL&FS Financial Services to take charge of the company formerly controlled by the Raju family. The move should hopefully restore the lost confidence of employees, shareholders, lenders, vendors as well as various agencies that had entrusted contracts to the company. Readers may recall that Raju had confessed to the fraud after his proposal for Satyam to acquire associate companies Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties was aborted. Given that company faced the prospect of bankruptcy as lenders stopped credit and clients withdrew projects, a change of management seemed the only feasible option to ensure the business survived. It is no surprise IL&FS has gained control of the company. As a leader of the consortium that extended credit to Maytas, it has displayed keenness to take control of the company soon after trouble broke out. It had even approached the CLB for permission to nominate directors on the company board way back in February, only to be turned down. Given the synergies in their business, perhaps IL&FS was the ideal suitor for Maytas Infra.


We have no quarrel about who gains control of any beleaguered company, if the process of transfer of management is conducted in a transparent manner. That cannot be said about the deal that was facilitated by CLB on Monday. The decision appears to have been worked out between a few influential stakeholders. As a practice, transfer of management in such cases should be carried out through an auction, as in the case of Satyam, and IL&FS should have bid. The 14.5% holding of IL&FS in Maytas should not have been the deciding factor. If that was the argument, then Satyam should have been handed over to L&T, the largest shareholder in the IT company before the auction. IL&FS acquired equity holding in Maytas only on 26 March — 9.61% by invoking a pledge on shares of the Raju family and 4.89% in an off market transaction. It was widely suggested that Andhra Pradesh state government too favoured transferring control of Maytas to IL&FS. In the days ahead, many are bound to question this deal.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

EGOM, A GOOD MOVE

 

The Union ministry of petroleum has done the right thing by setting up an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) to establish transparent norms for the allocation of natural gas, beyond current capacity, from the D-6 block of the Krishna-Godavari basin. The gas contractor, RIL, is expected to soon ramp up production from 40 million standard cubic meters (mmscmd) to 80 mmscmd. It is best that an empowered group of ministers determines how such additional gas must be allocated to fertiliser and power sectors in due course. It is necessary, at this stage, for the petroleum minister, Mr Murli Deora, to distance himself and his ministry from decision making in respect of gas allocation. This has become necessary in view of the public accusations levelled against the minister by Anil Ambani on various counts. The Supreme Court is looking at various contentious issues in this regard.


Meanwhile, the EGoM can resolve some long-pending disputes which have caused embarrassment to the government. For one, the government should end the unseemly legal fracas between the petroleum ministry and the NTPC over allocation of 12 mmscmd of gas. Since this dispute is not in the Supreme Court, the EGoM could direct the petroleum ministry to simply allocate the requisite amount of gas to NTPC on a nomination basis, which the government is well within its right to do. This should render the legal dispute between the RIL and NTPC infructuous. After all, it is ridiculous for the government to wilfully let its own company be locked in a legal dispute forever. The EGoM could also look at a suggestion by the Planning Commission that in the interim period, say for about two years, gas could be allocated to fertiliser and power sectors on a cost-plus basis. In the medium term, until all the gas from the KG basin comes into the market, this appears an eminently reasonable solution. After two years, when all the available gas comes into the market, the EGoM could have an open and transparent bidding process, which will discover the true market price. Mr Ambani’s claims about India becoming hugely gas surplus will also get tested at that time.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

A GOOD SIGN, SEE IF IT IS SUSTAINED

 

The economic scenario is so tenuous and uncertain that one has to count one’s blessings, no matter how small. The Indian economy grew by 6.1 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2009-10, an improvement over the previous quarter’s 5.8 per cent. While 6.1 per cent is well below the 7.8 per cent growth seen in the same quarter last year, the point is that it is still within the baseline 6-9 per cent projection. So while this is encouraging, it might be premature to read this as a clear indicator of recovery being on the way or a step towards a high growth path. There have been some bright spots in specific sectors, with an encouraging upturn in industry, manufacturing and the services sector. In services, though, there has also been some moderation in community, social and personal services — all primarily in the government sector — which has witnessed a moderation from 12.5 per cent in Q4 of 2008-09 to 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2009-10. This indicates that stimulus packages had taken effect, but are now on the wane and playing out. The other interpretation is that the growth trigger is coming from non-governmental areas, and that there is less dependence on government spending as a trigger. This, however, should logically be reflected in higher revenue collections, of which there is no sign as yet. More stimulus packages are, however, on the way, with various state governments agreeing to implement the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations in their respective areas.It must be remembered at the same time that certain stimulus measures by the government to manage the crisis, such as reducing taxes, increasing expenditure, focusing on rural expenditure, might not be there this year, or not to the same extent. Governmental support to weather the global economic crisis is moderating, and there is also concern over agricultural growth, which is likely to be impacted by the deficient monsoon. This could shave off one or two per cent from the GDP growth figures. The second quarter of this fiscal year is crucial: if the economy can pull off a similar or better performance then the second-half growth rate could be higher in FY10. The government is trying its best and is working in top gear. Some economists feel if some fiscal space is created in the second half through higher tax collections, with the private sector showing signs of recovery, then higher support from the government might be forthcoming. Ultimately, the economy has to run on its own steam and not through artificial respiration in the form of stimuluses. Globally, the skepticism is even greater, as is evident from the statement of G-20 finance ministers meeting this week. There is confusion on whether the global turnaround is due only to trillions of dollars poured into the various economies that stimulated growth, or whether it is the real thing. A real fear is that if and when the trillions of dollars are withdrawn, as they have to be over a period of time, then the turnaround might go into reverse gear. In America, for example, consumers are still hesitant to go on a buying spree because the dollar buys less than it did earlier and also due to layoff scares. But that is the catch: if consumer spending (which in the US accounts for 70 per cent of the economy) does not go up, chances of a robust recovery will remain a distant dream. While India’s economy is less affected by global behaviour, it is still critically dependent on the global economy for exports and finance — the two big engines of growth. All eyes will now be avidly focused on the second-quarter GDP figures.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

PAKISTAN’S UNLIKELY HERO: JASSUBHAI

BY BY INDER MALHOTRA

 

During a week’s stay in Islamabad and Lahore, I was not at all surprised at the tremendous excitement, even elation, over Mr Jaswant Singh’s book on Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah and India’s Partition at the time of Independence. But it did seem to me that the reaction in the neighbouring country was rather excessive and even lopsided — an impression that some of the thoughtful Pakistani friends shared not just privately but also publicly. Remarkably, none of those leading the applause for Mr Singh and his book had had an opportunity to read it. For, the first 150 copies of the 670-page volume arrived in Islamabad when I was leaving for Lahore and were snapped up almost instantly. More copies were expected from Delhi and the Pakistani edition is in the works.


Yet, rare was a newspaper that did not publish a couple of articles on “the book” every day. The chatter on it on 24x7 TV channels was endless. It was also obvious that lionising of Mr Singh was fuelled by two factors. First, the oversimplified summary of his findings, especially the verdict that the secular and nationalist Jinnah did not want Partition that was “gifted” to him by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The high praise of Jinnah, combined with the denigration of Nehru and Sardar Patel, was music to most Pakistani ears. Secondly, and no less importantly, the shabby, indeed stupid, decision of the “Right-wing, Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party” to expel Mr Singh without even giving him an opportunity to defend himself made him even more of a hero. An astute observer of the Pakistani scene said to me that Mr Singh’s popularity in Pakistan was, “for the time being, even greater than that of Ms Arundhati Roy”.


Implicit in this remark was the suggestion that the current effervescence would die down before long. On the other hand, TV images showing some of the Sangh Parivar’s cadres “frothing at the mouth, bringing out rallies and beating Mr Singh’s pictures with shoes” have helped blacken the Parivar’s visage more than ever before.


Some commentators here have understandably attacked Narendra Modi’s government very sharply for having banned Mr Singh’s book in Gujarat. Banning and burning of books, said one of them, was the work of the Nazis. I agreed with him but pointed out that General Zia-ul-Haq had banned Stanley Wolpert’s biography of Jinnah merely because it included references to the Qaid-e-Azam’s liking for Scotch and occasionally for ham sandwiches.


Thoughtful Pakistanis also concede that much of what Mr Singh has to say is not new. Ayesha Jalal, in her book The Sole Spokesman, had said it more sophisticatedly and at shorter length 25 years ago. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had said it even earlier. However, as several academics stated, Ms Jalal, on arrival in Pakistan after the publication her book, was “pilloried” for calling the Qaid-e-Azam secular and implying that he was not really the founder of Pakistan.


It is in this context that the eminent Pakistani journalist Ejaz Haider, who had the benefit of a live one-to-one interview with Mr Singh on TV, has raised some pertinent questions in his weekly column in Daily Times (August 24). He has praised Mr Singh for his “courage”, “sincerity” and “objectivity”. He has also acknowledged that the former external affairs, defence and finance minister in the Vajpayee government is hurt by the way his party has treated him. But Mr Haider adds: “Hurt he might be but he couldn’t have not known the Parivar’s reaction”.


More pointedly, Mr Haider asks: “So, what are we going to do? Praise him (Mr Singh) for implying that India played a bad hand in East Pakistan and chide him for implying that Kashmir’s boundaries should not be redrawn? Praise him for placing Mr Jinnah on a higher pedestal than Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel, and reject his contention that Partition was bad and didn’t solve anything?”


Another contributor to the same newspaper has taken an even more forthright and longer view. Many Pakistanis who subscribe to the “Muslim-centric historical point of view”, writes Syed Mansoor Hussain, “believe that Jinnah was a devout Muslim who for the sake of greater glory of Islam wanted nothing less than a new Muslim nation to fulfil the greater destiny of Islam in the subcontinent of India. Interestingly, most people who subscribe to this point of view support Islamist political parties that opposed the very creation of Pakistan!”


“For most Pakistanis”, adds Mr Hussain, “it all starts with Muhammad bin Qasim and the conquest of Sindh in the early 8th century, skips through and around the Muslim domination of India and then jumps to the 19th century and the foundation of the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO) College at Aligarh by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. It then jumps another 65 years to the Lahore Resolution in 1940. In the middle, the Ali Brothers and the Khilafat Movement get a passing reference. The rest revolves around Jinnah as (the) founder of Pakistan with Allama Iqbal lurking somewhere in the middle as an ideologue of Pakistan. It ends effectively with the death of Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan”.


There is nothing in the subcontinent that does not evoke some humour somehow. The Jaswant Singh extravaganza in Pakistan is no exception. The humourous aside on him takes the form of a TV clip. In it, a burly qawwal and his acolytes are lustily sing a qawwali. Roughly translated into English its words are:

 

“Whether anyone listens or not we will sing this qawwali/For we are sure someone somewhere would appreciate us/Just see what Mr Jaswant Singh has said about Qaid-e-Azam/The self-appointed guardians of his party have given him short shrift/So ‘Jassubhai’ come and accept an accolade of a 21-gun salute”.


This brings me to the subject of Mr Singh’s postponed visit to Pakistan. He was due to reach Islamabad when I was due to go to Lahore. However, it was announced that he could not come. This, as all Pakistani newspapers and TV channels reported, was because he could not get “security clearance”. Who perpetrated this blatant falsehood no one knows yet. But the wide world knows that no Indian needs “security clearance” to visit Pakistan or any other country. Every Pakistani wanting to visit India certainly does.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

OBAMA POPULARITY SLIDES, TIME TO REBALANCE

BY BY DAVID BROOKS

 

Two tides swept over American politics last winter. The first was the Obama tide. The US President, Mr Barack Obama, came into office with an impressive 70 per cent approval rating. The second was the independent tide. Over the first months of this year, the number of people who called themselves either Democrats or Republicans declined, while the number who called themselves independents surged ahead.
Mr Obama’s challenge was to push his agenda through a Democratic-controlled government while retaining the affection of the 39 per cent of Americans in the middle.


The administration hasn’t been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to healthcare, it has joined itself at the hip to the liberal leadership in Congress. The White House has failed to veto measures, like the pork-laden omnibus spending bill, that would have demonstrated independence and fiscal restraint. By force of circumstances and by design, the President has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralises power in Washington.


The result is the Obama slide, the most important feature of the current moment. The number of Americans who trust President Obama to make the right decisions has fallen by roughly 17 percentage points. Mr Obama’s job approval is down to about 50 per cent. All Presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American President has fallen this far this fast.
Anxiety is now pervasive. Trust in government rose when Obama took office. It has fallen back to historic lows. Fifty-nine per cent of Americans now think the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The public’s view of Congress, which ticked upward for a time, has plummeted. Mr Charlie Cook, who knows as much about Congressional elections as anyone in the country, wrote recently that Democratic fortunes have “slipped completely out of control”. He and the experts he surveyed believe there is just as much chance that the Democrats could lose more than 20 House seats in the next polls as less than 20.
There are also warning signs in the Senate. A recent poll shows Mr Harry Reid, the majority leader, trailing the Republican Mr Danny Tarkanian, a possible 2010 opponent, by 49 per cent to 38 per cent. When your majority leader is down to a 38 per cent base in his home state, that’s not good.
The public has soured on Mr Obama’s policy proposals. Voters often have only a fuzzy sense of what each individual proposal actually does, but more and more have a growing conviction that if the President is proposing it, it must involve big spending, big government and a fundamental departure from the traditional American approach.


Driven by this general anxiety, and by specific concerns, public opposition to healthcare reform is now steady and stable. Independents once solidly supported reform. Now they have swung against it. As the veteran pollster Mr Bill McInturff has pointed out, public attitudes toward Obamacare exactly match public attitudes toward Clintoncare when that reform effort collapsed in 1994.


Amazingly, some liberals are now lashing out at Obama because the entire country doesn’t agree with the Huffington Post. Some now argue that the administration should just ignore the ignorant masses and ram healthcare through using reconciliation, the legislative manoeuvre that would reduce the need for moderate votes.


This would be suicidal. You can’t pass the most important domestic reform in a generation when the majority of voters think you are on the wrong path. To do so would be a sign of unmitigated arrogance. If Mr Obama agrees to use reconciliation, he will permanently affix himself to the liberal wing of his party and permanently alienate independents. He will be President of 35 per cent of the country — and good luck getting anything done after that.


The second liberal response has been to attack the budget director, Mr Peter Orszag. It was a mistake to put cost control at the centre of the health reform sales job, many now argue. The President shouldn’t worry about the deficit. Just pass the spending parts.


But fiscal restraint is now the animating issue for moderate Americans. To take the looming $9 trillion in debt and balloon it further would be to enrage a giant part of the electorate.


This is a country that has always been suspicious of centralised government. This is a country that has just lived through an economic trauma caused by excessive spending and debt. Most Americans still admire Mr Obama and want him to succeed. But if he doesn’t proceed in a manner consistent with the spirit of the nation and the times, voters will find a way to stop him.


The President’s challenge now is to halt the slide. That doesn’t mean giving up his goals. It means he has to align his proposals to the values of the political centre: fiscal responsibility, individual choice and decentralised authority.


Events have pushed Barack Obama off to the left. Time to rebalance.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OP-ED

CENTRE PUTS ‘RIGHT TO FOOD’ ON HOLD IN DROUGHT YEAR

BY BY JAYATI GHOSH

 

The poor monsoons and prevailing drought conditions in large parts of the country have once again turned the attention of policymakers to the problems of agriculture and food security. But they have also created tendencies to postpone some important decisions and commitments which are now more necessary than ever.


The United Progressive Alliance government promised us a new Food Security Bill, which was to be part of its 100-days agenda. The need for food security is obvious, even though it was underplayed in the last decade. As a nation, we have become uncomfortably aware of the difficulties of entering the global market to purchase food in periods of highly volatile prices, when even talk of imports by India can cause an immediate spike in price. This has created all sorts of anomalies: on more than one occasion the government has had to purchase imported foodgrain or sugar at prices higher than those at which they have procured them from Indian farmers.


Meanwhile food security of households is in a parlous state. Inadequate and even worsening conditions of nutrition have been a concomitant feature of recent economic growth. India already had among the worst nutrition indicators in the world (with those in some states like Bihar and Madhya Pradesh well below even the average of Sub-Saharan Africa), even before the persistent increase in food prices reduced the ability of many more households to access sufficient food.


Yet the version of the proposed “Right to Food” bill that has been circulated by the Central government to the states is a travesty of the original promise, and a negation of the spirit of ensuring genuine food security. While the bill is still under discussion, the note that has been sent to state governments makes several suggestions that are quite unacceptable, such as confining the provisions to the below poverty line population (which itself is to be pruned according to Central estimates rather than relying on states’ own estimates) and ensuring only 25 kg per month per household instead of the current 35 kg.


And now the food and agriculture minister has declared that in view of the drought, even this pathetic attempt at legal intervention has to be postponed for a year. Yet it is precisely in drought conditions, when both production and livelihoods are affected, that it is most important to ensure that food consumption among the population is maintained through public intervention.


There are some important points that need to be noted in any discussion of food security. First, a targeted approach that seeks to restrict food security to some defined poor households is cumbersome, expensive and ineffective. There are the well known errors inherent in targeting, of unjustified exclusion of the genuinely poor and unwarranted inclusion of the non-poor. The proportion of the population that is nutritionally deprived is significantly larger than the “poor” population, and in many states they are not completely overlapping categories either. And in any case, households — and people within them — can fall in or out of poverty, however defined, because of changing material circumstances. Similarly they can also go from being food-secure to food-insecure in a short time. The reasons can vary: crop failures, sharp rises in the price of food, employment collapses, health issues that divert household spending, the accumulation of debt, and so on. Monitoring each and every household on a regular basis to check whether any of these or other features has caused it to become food-insecure is not just administratively difficult, it is actually impossible.


Second, the notion that a universal scheme that provides subsidised food to all households is too expensive is not tenable either. Consider the maximal possible estimate of such spending. If all households in the country are provided 35 kg of foodgrain per month, that would come to around 90 million tonnes. At current levels of subsidy this would cost around Rs 120,000 crores. This may seem a lot, but the current food subsidy already amounts to around Rs 50,000 crores, so this is an additional Rs 70,000 crores — or around 1.5 per cent of the gross domestic product.


Surely this is not too much to allocate to ensure that no one goes hungry in what should be a civilised society? In any case, compare the amount of Rs 70,000 with the huge amounts (nearly Rs 300,000 crores) that have been given away as tax benefits and other concessions to corporate over the past year, and it becomes a trivial amount.


Third, any programme of national food security must be combined with a concentrated focus on improving foodgrain production in the country, so that we are not dependent upon imports in a volatile global market. This requires much more attention to the requirements of farmers, and speedy implementation of the many reforms that have already been suggested by the Farmers’ Commission to improve the productivity and financial viability of farming, particularly of food crops.
Fourth, to make this successful it is also necessary to avoid instability in domestic prices of foodgrain and curb speculative tendencies.


This does not simply mean cracking down on hoarders, which is part of the official publicity around any period of price rise. It also requires preventing speculative activity in futures markets, which means that there must be a ban on futures markets in all essential commodities.


These are all necessary and also eminently doable measures — but only if the Central government is actually serious about ensuring real food security in the country.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OP-ED

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

BY BY SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

 

As the final piece in a series of four articles that look at the issue of terror in the Asia Pacific region, today’s column focuses on Thailand and the conflicts that have engulfed the southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani as well as parts of Songkhla district.


Since 2004, these regions of Thailand have been witnessing regular acts of violence and arson by local insurgents. While clear indications are as yet unavailable as to the exact intent of these groups, repeated acts of arson and violence have undermined any peace negotiations with the groups. Moreover the government, in a bid to control the situation brewing in the south, has perforce depended on the military which again weakens the case for negotiations.


In a series of attacks witnessed in the region, last week’s car bomb explosion outside a restaurant in Narathiwat was probably the most serious one in recent times. The attack led to one death and 42 people being injured. Over the past two weeks 13 people have been killed in sporadic incidents of violence. Though the death toll may seem low, it is indicative of further destabilisation of the internal security situation within the province.


Historically, like all of Asia, the ethnic divides in the southern Thai region are distinct from the Thai ethnicity that is primarily Siamese-Buddhist. Southern Thailand comprises a Malay ethnicity that is predominantly Muslim. Also, till about 1902, this region was an independent sultanate and offered itself as a vassal of the Thai kings. This was known as bunga mas or golden flowers (which is the tribute offered to the royalty in Bangkok). In 1902, the conquest of the southern province of Pattani by the Siam kingdom brought the region into direct control of the Thai kingdom. And subsequently, after 1932, each military and democratic government that came to power continued to rule the southern region.


As a unitary state, the control over south remained with little provisions for autonomy and decentralisation. With growing issues of identity, the region’s complexion changed with regard to demands for autonomy and more inclusive politics. Through the 1960s till the late 1980s, the Malay-Muslim rebels waged a separatist war against the Thai state. In fact, there have been long standing claims that the region’s Muslim population is discriminated against by the Central government in Bangkok, which led to the eventual outbreak of conflict in the region. The discrimination has been along cultural and linguistic lines. More recently, the region also began to clamour on grounds of economic deprivation and marginalisation.


Though violence has been spiralling since 2004, most of the attacks have been carried out by insurgent groups that were incoherent, had loosely formed group affiliations, and were without any real credible linkages to groups outside the region. They predominantly targeted the Buddhist groups working in the region. The Buddhist Sangha, which has been responsible for setting up educational institutions and other social welfare activities, has been accused of forced conversions among the ethnic Malay-Muslim community. In recent times, however, both Muslims and Buddhists have been targets of attacks. Also, while the insurgent groups have not given any clear mandate as to what goals and objectives they are pursuing, there are some views that given the ethnic divides that run through the region, the demand for an independent Muslim state could be one of the possible aims of the insurgency movement there.


Recent attempts by the armed forces have been seen as a measure to win the hearts and minds of the people in the south. The military, in a bid to salvage its image in the region, has been involved in developmental projects within clusters of villages. Backed by the Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) of the military, assistance has been provided to villages to achieve self-sufficiency with regards to agriculture and farming. The Thai government has also supported such projects and is hopeful that by providing developmental aid to the tune of $3 billion, it can turn the tide of events in the region. This may provide greater recourse to negotiate and bring the region within the fold of the mainstream political process. While the region does not have political voices as such, there is an urgent need to push for political voices that will critically aim to maintain close ties with the Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva government. In fact, given the current political environment and the stand off between the pro-Thaksin and the anti-Thaksin groups, the government under Mr Vejjajiva could well stand to gain if they were to deliver on some kind of resolution of the conflict in the south.


One of the issues that will be pivotal in addressing the issues in southern Thailand is a total reworking of the Internal Security Act. This would be a significant achievement for the Vejjajiva government. Given that the region has had emergency imposed upon it since 2004, the military has had a free hand in the region. The courts did not take any action against soldiers involved in the 2004 violence in which 70 people were killed. And an appeals court recently ruled against the conviction of military personnel who were charged with excesses in the region. The court ruling was seen as biased in favour of the military. Such a view will critically impair any further attempts to address the issue since the armed forces must be aware of the limits of its role in conflict zones.


Further to this, Amnesty International’s report released this year highlights the use of torture and other methods to extract information. Such abuse of power creates an atmosphere of fear, further aggravating the situation and leaves little room for political manoeuvring. This has placed the counter-insurgency methods and efforts at development of the region at loggerheads as there seems to be a contradiction between the two. What will critically determine the manner of approach is the ability to synthesise and harmonise counter-insurgency and development projects so that both work in coordination. This approach would be more significant in the Vejjajiva government’s attempt to win the hearts and minds of the southern provinces.

 

Dr Shankari Sundararaman is an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the School of International Studies, JNU

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OP-ED

INNOCENT BUT DEAD

BY BY BOB HERBERT

 

There is a long and remarkable article in the current New Yorker about a man who was executed in Texas in 2004 for deliberately setting a fire that killed his three small children. Rigorous scientific analysis has since shown that there was no evidence that the fire in a one-story, wood frame house in Corsicana was the result of arson, as the authorities had alleged.


In other words, it was an accident. No crime had occurred.


Cameron Todd Willingham, who refused to accept a guilty plea that would have spared his life, and who insisted until his last painful breath that he was innocent, had in fact been telling the truth all along.
It was inevitable that some case in which a clearly innocent person had been put to death would come to light. It was far from inevitable that this case would be the one. “I was extremely sceptical in the beginning”, said the New Yorker reporter, David Grann, who began investigating the case last December.
The fire broke out on the morning of December 23, 1991. Willingham was awakened by the cries of his two-year-old daughter, Amber. Also in the house were his year-old twin girls, Karmon and Kameron. The family was poor, and Willingham’s wife, Stacy, had gone out to pick up a Christmas present for the children from the Salvation Army.


Willingham said he tried to rescue the kids but was driven back by smoke and flames. At one point his hair caught fire. As the heat intensified, the windows of the children’s room exploded and flames leapt out. Willingham, who was 23 at the time, had to be restrained and eventually handcuffed as he tried again to get into the room.


There was no reason to believe at first that the fire was anything other than a horrible accident. But fire investigators, moving slowly through the ruined house, began seeing things (not unlike someone viewing a Rorschach pattern) that they interpreted as evidence of arson.


They noticed deep charring at the base of some of the walls and patterns of soot that made them suspicious. They noticed what they felt were ominous fracture patterns in pieces of broken window glass. They had no motive, but they were convinced the fire had been set. And if it had been set, who else but Willingham would have set it?


With no real motive in sight, the local district attorney, Pat Batchelor, was quoted as saying, “The children were interfering with his beer drinking and dart throwing”.


Willingham was arrested and charged with capital murder.

 

When official suspicion fell on Willingham, eyewitness testimony began to change.


Whereas initially he was described by neighbours as screaming and hysterical — “My babies are burning up!” — and desperate to have the children saved, he now was described as behaving oddly, and not having made enough of an effort to get to the girls.


And you could almost have guaranteed that a jailhouse snitch would emerge. They almost always do. This time his name was Johnny Webb, a jumpy individual with a lengthy arrest record who would later admit to being “mentally impaired” and on medication, and who had started taking illegal drugs at the age of nine.

 

The jury took barely an hour to return a guilty verdict, and Willingham was sentenced to death.
He remained on death row for 12 years, but it was only in the weeks leading up to his execution that convincing scientific evidence of his innocence began to emerge. A renowned scientist and arson investigator, Gerald Hurst, educated at Cambridge and widely recognised as a brilliant chemist, reviewed the evidence in the Willingham case and began systematically knocking down every indication of arson.
The authorities were unmoved. Willingham was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004.
Now comes a report on the case from another noted scientist, Craig Beyler, who was hired by a special commission, established by the state of Texas to investigate errors and misconduct in the handling of forensic evidence.


The report is devastating, the kind of disclosure that should send a tremor through one’s conscience. There was absolutely no scientific basis for determining that the fire was arson, said Beyler. No basis at all. He added that the state fire marshal who investigated the case and testified against Willingham “seems to be wholly without any realistic understanding of fires”. He said the marshal’s approach seemed to lack “rational reasoning” and he likened it to the practices “of mystics or psychics”.


Grann told me on Monday that when he recently informed the jailhouse snitch, Johnny Webb, that new scientific evidence would show that the fire wasn’t arson and that an innocent man had been killed, Webb seemed taken aback. “Nothing can save me now”, he said.

 

By arrangement with the New York Times

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

FAST FORWARD

 

Things are moving fast in the Central human resource development ministry — and this is impressive and exciting. Not only has the minister, Kapil Sibal, initiated public debate and taken radical decisions in the field of education, but he has also managed to bring the states to some sort of a consensus over these issues and changes. So, there are encouraging new policies regarding education, as well as the first steps towards their translation into actuality. The making of the Central board’s secondary examination optional, the introduction of grades, the idea of a purely academic collegium that would help the Centre appoint the vice chancellors of Central universities, a single overarching agency in higher education, a non-theological Central Madrasa Board, private accreditation bodies — these are all innovations with far-reaching implications. The Centre, the states, various educational institutions and regulatory bodies, administrators, teachers, guardians and students will now have to evolve new kinds of working relationship in order to implement these changes in policy and in approach.

 

As with all such changes, there can be endless debate over the pros and cons of each. But their real efficacy will be proved only in their implementation. There is nothing inherently right or wrong about optional board examinations and grades. But whether they make a positive difference to the lives of students will depend entirely on what each school, or state, or family makes of these policies, and in what direction they are taken within the existing social, cultural and pedagogic realities in India. In a country of more than a billion people, where examinations, marks, ranks and other forms of competitiveness are a part of deeply entrenched forms of thinking and acting, where teenagers are seldom thought capable of making their own choices in life by guardians and teachers, the significantly new ways of conducting the business of education introduced by Mr Sibal may either prove anarchic and disastrous, or they may foster a mindset that could revolutionize attitudes to education in the country. All would depend on the reception and implementation of these ideas, policies and decisions. India is too vast and varied and too used to being India to take too easily to being asked to be something else.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

OLD AND NEW

 

In Japan, the world has just witnessed a mammoth demonstration of what is called the ‘anti-incumbency factor’ in India. Japan may have taken decades to figure it out, but behind the trouncing of the Liberal Democratic Party after its rule of almost 55 years lies this single most important factor. The Democratic Party of Japan may have hit the jackpot by default: it has won one seat short of absolute majority in the lower house but has less than 17 per cent of the country’s electorate rooting for its policies. It is this unpleasant fact that the victors have to bear in mind while going about the task of forming the government. Of course, the contrary fate of the two parties was mainly determined by the economy. In the months preceding the elections, Japan had witnessed the worst spate of economic trouble — a record rise in the rate of unemployment, a slump in exports and a deflated currency. Japan’s economic downslide had begun earlier though, and the LDP, at the helm for most of the time, has been painfully conscious of it. Perhaps what turned the tide against it was the ill-fated decision of successive LDP prime ministers to dump the reforms initiated by one of their colleagues, Junichiro Koizumi. Not surprisingly, the miracle that the DPJ under Yukio Hatoyama promises to bring Japan back on track will include substantial doses of Mr Koizumi’s reformism, although that would be the least highlighted of its ‘new’ policies.

 

Among the ‘new’ things in the DPJ arsenal are its plans to take financial control from the hands of bureaucrats and give it to elected representatives of the people, stoke domestic demand, and increase welfare measures, especially for families with children. But the obstructions to implementing these policies may not be new. There is the staggering public debt, now close to 217 per cent of the gross domestic product. The other problem may be the running of the government. There are already doubts over the presence of the former LDP power-trader, Ichiro Ozawa, and his proven record as a spoiler. The lack of experience may also force dependence on the ex-LDP members in the DPJ’s midst. What may, however, go in Mr Hatoyama’s favour, other than the overwhelming optimism, is the fact that Japan is now close to the end of its recession. There is also the charm of his ‘new’ foreign policy that seeks to situate Japan as an equal player with China and the United States of America in the global strategy game.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

FAMILY SURPRISES

WHO WILL INHERIT EDWARD KENNEDY’S FORMIDABLE LEGACY?

DIPLOMACY - K.P. NAYAR

 

If anyone had told me two weeks ago that Senator Edward Kennedy was one of the greatest Americans of my lifetime, my first reaction would have been to ask the person who made such a statement if he was from Massachusetts. For the vast majority of people in Massachusetts, the Kennedys could do no wrong. When Edward Kennedy was assumed to be down and out politically, after an accident in 1969 on Chappaquiddick Island, which killed a woman passenger in the senator’s car, an accident which Kennedy failed to report for ten hours, he handily won the re-election from Massachusetts with 62 per cent of the votes cast.

 

But that was two weeks ago. Because Edward Kennedy has been a Senator since I was ten years old, many of those, like me, who have followed his public persona have been tempted to take his lifetime of service for granted. But in death, there has been a widespread realization that the youngest of the troika of Kennedy siblings, who set out to change the United States of America in the 1960s, was, indeed, one of the greatest Americans of the last half a century.

 

There are few aspects of American life today that were not touched by the third-longest-serving senator in US history. Forget the big initiatives. Edward Kennedy had time for things on his long legislative agenda that senior politicians of his standing would baulk at. Sixteen years ago, he took up an initiative that resulted in expanded funding and airtime for children’s programming on public television. Today, when computer games and chatting on the Internet are taking an increasing toll on children’s reading habits, “KIDS Raising Readers” is focusing on building reading skills in kindergartens, in schools and in homes, especially in communities across America with children from low-income families, through the Public Broadcasting Service.

 

During his 47 years in the Senate, Edward Kennedy led the effort 16 times to raise the minimum wage. For eight years of the Bush presidency and concurrent 10 years of the Republican Congress, the minimum wage, on which the poorest of American workers subsist, had stagnated at $5.15 an hour. With a change of guard in the White House on the horizon and both chambers of the US Congress drifting back into Democratic control, Kennedy redoubled his efforts to raise the minimum wage to $7.25. When President Barack Obama signed into law the minimum wage bill within 100 days of assuming office, 13 million US workers benefited from the raise. There was a Kennedy stamp also on legislation that gave women the right to equal pay for doing the same jobs as their male co-workers.

 

Edward Kennedy was the author of the anti-apartheid bill of 1985 and a follow-up legislation a year later, which mirrored Commonwealth sanctions on South Africa. President Ronald Reagan vetoed the legislative action, but Kennedy assiduously courted Republicans and ensured that both houses of Congress mustered enough votes to override the White House veto. The Lion of the Senate never hesitated to take positions that were morally right even when they were unpopular. When much of the US was convinced by propaganda that Chile’s elected president, Salvador Allende, was a communist who was out to destroy American values on the Western hemisphere, Kennedy had the courage to tell President Richard Nixon that the right of the people of Chile to elect their leader ought to be respected. Almost immediately after the military coup and the death of Allende, Kennedy began his efforts on Capitol Hill to link US aid to the restoration of democracy in Chile. In 1986, Kennedy risked hostility from the Pinochet government and travelled to Chile to meet opposition leaders, a trip that eventually acted as a catalyst for a referendum that restored democracy in Chile.

But his truly historic contributions were in the areas of civil rights and immigration. Edward Kennedy’s maiden speech in the US Senate was in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was made only four months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This law sought to end discrimination in the US on the basis of colour in employment, education and housing. In that speech, Kennedy held a mirror up to fellow Americans to expose a pattern of discrimination in their history and urged them to shed prejudice. “In 1780, a Catholic in Massachusetts was not allowed to vote or hold public office,” he pointed out. “In 1840, an Irishman could not get a job above that of common labourer. In 1910, a Jew could not stay in places of public accommodation in the Berkshire Mountains.”

 

A year later, in 1965, he was the prime mover of legislation that turned American immigration policies on its head, ending a set of nearly half-century-old practices that favoured potential immigrants on the basis of their national origin quotas, race or ancestry. During that period, Kennedy enabled tens of thousands of Indians, among others, to come to the US by making it possible for members of divided families to join their spouses or children who were already in America.

 

He also initiated laws that allowed people to flee persecution and emigrate to America, upholding values that led to the founding of the US in the first place. In 1970, Kennedy sponsored legislation that brought down the voting age from 21 to 18, arguing that if Americans were being called upon to fight in Vietnam at 18, they ought to be able to vote by that age as well.

 

Who will now inherit such a formidable legacy and carry the family beacon in American politics? At the time of writing this, there is talk that Edward Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, should be drafted to fill the Senate vacancy caused by his death last week. Victoria was Edward Kennedy’s second wife, his junior by 22 years. Her pedigree is political, but her roots have been in the deep south, in Louisiana, which may not sit well with the “Boston brahmins” who have traditionally controlled Massachusetts politics. Besides, she is of Lebanese descent: the Kennedys have always made much of their Irishness. Victoria’s grandparents, both maternal and paternal, were Maronite Christians, although they later converted to Catholicism.

 

Her great asset, among those in Massachusetts for whom Edward Kennedy’s loss is still raw, is that she brought stability to the senator’s life, which was falling apart in the late 1980s and in the beginning of the 1990s from bouts of drinking, womanizing, his divorce from an alcoholic first wife and a string of incidents in his personal life that cast him in a poor light. But indications yesterday from Kennedy family sources were that Victoria may not want to enter national politics at this time.

 

If Victoria refuses to be drafted, a substitute from the family may be Joseph Kennedy II, the eldest son of Robert Kennedy, whose fall to an assassin’s bullet 41 years ago propelled Edward Kennedy on his long journey as the family’s patriarch. Joseph Kennedy II is 56, but he quit politics in 1998 after serving six terms as a member of the US House of Representatives, when his estranged wife published a book that portrayed him unfavourably as a husband. He now runs a charity in Boston and has rejected recent efforts to be drafted for the job of state governor. His sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, once appeared to be a rising star in politics, having successfully migrated to Maryland and served two terms as lieutenant governor of that state. But in 2002, she bungled her career with ill-judged political decisions that cost her the governorship of overwhelmingly Democratic Maryland.

 

Caroline Kennedy, who endeared herself to the world as a baby playing on the White House lawns during her father’s tragically short-lived presidency, was to have succeeded Hillary Clinton this year as senator from New York, but the state’s Democrats mishandled her nomination and she eventually withdrew from contention. Among Edward Kennedy’s children, Patrick Kennedy, 42, is a member of the US House of Representatives from Rhode Island, the youngest member of the Kennedy family to have been elected to public office at the age of 21. But he has health problems and lacks the charisma to be catapulted into his father’s shoes.

 

But who knows, with the senator’s death a new political star may have been born. His son, Edward Kennedy Jr., impressed one and all with his demeanour, his voice and his perfect delivery of remembrances during the funeral service for his father in Boston on Saturday. The Kennedys have often surprised the world. Edward Kennedy Jr.’s induction into politics may be yet another family surprise.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

LET IT STAY AT HOME

STEPHEN HUGH-JONES

 

And at this point, umpteen users of British, or for that matter, Indian English, will jump down my throat denouncing that use of hopefully. It’s a beastly Americanism, they’ll say, let it stay at home.

 

As to its origin, they are right. American it is, derived from the German hoffentlich, taken across by the many emigrants to the United States of America whose native tongue was German or its Jewish version, Yiddish. The usage grates on British ears.

 

I share that dislike of it. Yet on what ground? In that first paragraph above, no one would object to happily or luckily. Yet they are precise parallels to it. They are not saying that my wife and I are happy in our home, though in fact we are; if you say happily he’ll be back in time for his father’s funeral, you are hardly implying that he’ll be a happy man when he arrives. Still less does luckily suggest that the house was lucky to turn up.

 

No, they simply mean by good fortune and by lucky chance. And there are plenty of other parallels: regrettably, presumably, sadly and more. So why not hopefully, to say it is to be hoped that (and using one word instead of six)?

 

Frankly — there’s another example — I can’t see any logical reason why not. This isn’t one of those bits of regional vocabulary that can breed confusion if exported elsewhere. An American may keep his pants up with suspenders, and drive a car with a hood and a trunk, where a Briton has trousers and braces, and a car with a bonnet and boot; and both should stick to the words their listeners understand. Nor yet is this hopefully akin to the transatlantic barbarism that can turn almost any noun into a verb (not that that “barbarism” is in fact especially American: countless English words double up as both nouns and verbs, and have done it for so long that we don’t even notice).

 

No: hopefully, in this usage, would fit perfectly well into the pattern of any non-American English, and one day I expect it will. There’s just one problem: today, so far, it doesn’t. And that problem is a huge one: not in logic, but in the mixed-up, irrational, real world of language, a world where tradition and prejudice matter just as much as reason or commonsense.

 

“Just as much”? I should have written “more”. And, I’d add, justifiably so. The quirks of language, its deep-rooted survivals overlaid by ever-changing idioms, its oddities and absurdities, its regional varieties are what make it what it is, and us what we are, individual humans using it as we decide, not standardized word-processors. In a strictly rational world, I dare say we’d all be using basic American (or maybe Esperanto). God forbid.

 

There’s a specifically Indian edge to that thought. India’s English has been moulded, for some two centuries, on a British model. But times are changing, and language with them. Outsiders can still offer advice, and sound advice it may be (I hope you find it so), but it can only be advice these days, not instructions. Just as I wouldn’t try to ape the style or idioms of Macaulay or Dickens, admirable as both those long-dead writers were and are, there’s no reason today for any Indian user of English to bow the knee to any non-Indian model.

 

Hopefully, quite soon few Indians will remember there ever was.

 

THEWORDCAGE@YAHOO.CO.UK

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

POWER-CRAZED ‘VIRUS’ ~ ARUNACHAL PROTEST GETS SHORT SHRIFT

 

ARUNACHAL Pradesh has the potential to generate 50,000 MW and is all set to become a major power supplier in the next few years. In the early 1990s, the North Eastern Council predicted that when the 405-MW Ranganadi hydel project in Lower Subansiri district was commissioned it would not only mitigate the local power shortages but would also produce a surplus for export to neighbouring states. The need for more power projects to meet the booming demand is increasingly being accepted, but what comes as a surprise is the alacrity and promptitude with which the present Congress government headed by Dorjee Khandu has signed memoranda of understanding, under the Public Private Partnership mode, with several private firms over the past few months. The amount involved is said to be worth Rs 180,000 crore for 30,000 MW. This even prompted former Union minister of state for power, Jairam Ramesh, to quip that the state was suffering from “MoU virus”. In accordance with the National Power Policy 2005, offers of generation in excess of 100 MW must come through the International Competitive Bidding route, but the Khandu government is alleged to have cleverly bypassed the clause by signing deals of less than that capacity. According to Arunachal Citizens’ Right, which obtained statistics through the Right to Information Act, the government has signed MoUs for as many as 103 projects since February last year, 31 of these just five months before the April Lok Sabha elections, and most have paid advances running into crores of rupees.


What the ACR is trying to highlight is that, apart from being an ecological mistake, there is the danger of influx that could upset “the demographic and socio-cultural fabric of the tribal state”. It argues, justifiably enough, that since the projects have long gestation periods ~ about 135 dams are to be constructed ~ contract labourers’ prolonged stay will not be in the interest of the tribal population. Their fears cannot be entirely dispelled. But thus far, all dissent and public resistance have been suppressed.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

TEQUILA BECOMES BRITAIN’S SPIRIT OF CHOICE

CAHAL MILMO 


LONDON, 1 SEPT: Few liquors can match tequila for its association with endurance drinking and lethal hangovers. For decades, Mexico’s national spirit has been at the heart of an unholy alliance with salt, lime and pickled caterpillars to make it the tipple of choice for those in search of cheap and rapid oblivion.
It is to “premium” tequilas, made for sipping rather than slamming, that Britons are turning, however, as they develop a more sophisticated taste for Mexican food and drink. In the UK, consumption of tequila, the fiery spirit traditionally distilled from the cactus-like agave plant, has trebled in a decade to 1.35 million litres a year. The global market has grown by an average of 9 per cent a year for the past decade and is now worth an estimated 3bn pounds.


Sales of 100 per cent agave tequilas ~ many of them made from the Weber’s blue agave species which takes up to 12 years to mature and reputedly produces the finest flavour ~ have risen by 30 per cent in the past year and by 60 per cent in 2007, with 500,000 bottles now being sold in venues from London cocktail bars to branches of Waitrose. 


The rise of premium tequila is due to a decision by Mexican producers to dramatically increase planting of blue agave. Hitherto, most tequila has been produced with a half-and-half mixture of agave and sugar cane spirit ~ a combination supposedly responsible for the drink’s renowned ability to cause hangovers. UK sales by Patron, the biggest producer of premium tequila, have doubled in the past 12 months, with prices ranging from 40 to 400 pounds. Another premium brand, Clase Azul, will launch in the UK this autumn.


Mr Francisco Alcazar, Patron’s master distiller, said: “We are getting away from the idea that tequila is a cheap, mass-produced spirit to show the true tequila, made from the highest-quality agaves and with a taste that appeals to the sophisticated palate. This is a drink made to be enjoyed in the same manner as a good single malt. An oak-aged tequila can be justifiably compared in complexity with a fine whisky.”


The Independent

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

LEGISLATOR’S RIGHT ~ CAREFULLY CRAFTED POLITICAL INTERFERENCE

 

After successive dispensations had dragged their feet for 60 years over the Bill on education, the anxiety of the political class to keep its interests intact only betrays the kind of crassness that has diluted the objectives of several parliamentary enactments. Quite the most notable is the Right To Information Act. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Bill, passed by Parliament in August and now awaiting the President’s assent, is still more explicit with Clause 21 providing for the inclusion of local elected representatives in school committees. The precise objective behind creating a political turf has been kept delightfully vague. Aside from ensuring that the neighbourhood political heavyweight, claiming to be the august envoy of the people, has his say in the matter of admissions and as much in the recruitment of teachers. This is political interference from the front entrance as it were. By including so breathless a provision, the national government can be said to have denuded the sanctity of the legislation that has been enacted six decades after it was incorporated in the Directive Principles of State Policy. The risk of the Bill being reduced to a political plaything ~ almost in the manner of the RTI Act ~ is substantial. Suspicions deepen with the HRD minister, Kapil Sibal, reportedly declining comment when the clause was brought to his notice by the National Council of Churches in India, an umbrella organisation of Anglican and Catholic establishments that run 25,000 missionary schools in the country. Hence the NCCI petition to the Prime Minister to delete the controversial clause. These schools have agreed to reserve seats for local children ~ once a contentious issue ~ even without the pattern of funding being settled by the Centre and the states. Now, their grouse on political meddling deserves legitimately to be addressed.

 

The clause recalls the attempted interference in West Bengal, where a former school education minister had resolved to grade the private and missionary schools on such matters as the fee structure and facilities, indeed parameters that were set by a minister who had failed to cleanse the mess in his own backyard. It is quite another story that he wasn’t nominated for the 2006 assembly elections. The school education Bill has an immensely wider canvas. The child in search of learning deserves better than carefully crafted political interference.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

NAME-CALLING NSA ~ STOOPS, DOESN’T CONQUER

 

Calling names has never substituted for reasoned argument. Indeed, recourse to the former is widely perceived as a lack of the latter. Even worse, when indulging in such demeaning conduct ~ it certainly wasn’t funny when it appeared in cold print ~ the National Security Adviser has taken to the gutter what should have been a lofty debate on a critical aspect of the country’s security and credibility: the degree of success attained when a thermo-nuclear device was tested during Pokharan II. Certainly MK Narayanan is entitled to reject the contention of defence scientist K Santhanam that the desired yields were not achieved, and there is validity to his questioning an 11-year-long silence (this newspaper had queried it even earlier), but to talk in terms of “Santy” the “maverick” is just not on. That he did so more than once in an interview with a respected contemporary indicates it was no stray remark; those in-the-know would be inclined to read something just short of sinister between the lines. If a maverick had been the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s key representative at the Shakti test-series in 1998 it speaks most poorly of the system of promotion/appointments in the government; it might even reflect on the office of the NSA. Conveniently ignoring that a former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission concurred with the “maverick” viewpoint (how should Dr PK Iyengar be described?), “Mike” Narayanan went on to observe that “first and foremost DRDO has nothing to do with [this aspect of the] tests, frankly. Whatever plumage they may give themselves. The measurements are not done by DRDO”. Pray what else but a DRDO man was Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, upon who even the current Prime Minister is relying for “certification”? And if Santhanam is ill-equipped to comment on technicality, does the NSA’s background and training entitle him to do so?


That a slanging-match of sorts could develop is scary, it diverts attention away from the core issue (even if it does provide a sensation-hungry section of the media fiery “copy”). The blanket refuting of the “fizzle theory” by Dr Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of a petroleum-related event serves little purpose: there can be no running away from a data-supported statement on the thermo-nuclear status. The UPA is lucky that the imploding BJP dare not raise the issue. But politics be damned, this is serious stuff!

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

OCEANIC CHALLENGE ~ THE SEA AS A VICTIM OF CARBON ABUSE

H KHASNOBIS

 

Man’s natural habitat is land. It dominates his conscious endeavour. He is rooted in his soil, in his countryside and in his city. The ocean covers nearly three-quarters of the Earth’s surface and is divided into major oceans and smaller seas. Oceans and seas are prolific producers of marine food, which provides food security to man. More than 80 per cent of global trade moves by sea. The sea provides territorial security to those countries with a long coastline. Indeed, the world is an ocean world.
Over half the world’s population lives within 100 km of a coast, a tenth are within 10 km. More than a hundred million people live within three feet of the “mean sea level”. The oceans have been labelled as distinct entities ~ the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian although the waters are contained in a single highly contorted basin. This ocean water is such a humongous biomass that Mount Everest will remain two km under water in the Mariana Trench. Yet, scientists say they have not been able to fathom the depths of the ocean.


Every year, man dumps an estimated 10 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, eight billion tons from fossil fuels and two billion tons from deforestation. This results in more than 80 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions. More than 70 per cent of the snows of Kilimanjaro have melted since 1912. Scientists are apprehensive of the virtual disappearance of the Himalayan glaciers by 2040.


RISK OF BEING SUBMERGED

With the rise in temperature and the melting of glaciers, more water flows into the seas. Water warms up and expands in volume. The dual effect of global warming and the melting ice caps have raised the average sea level by five to six inches in the past hundred years. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 forecast a rise of seven to 23 inches by 2100. Many believe that this estimate is too conservative. Mega cities with a huge population near the coastal plains or river deltas ~ Shanghai, Bangkok, Jakarta, Tokyo and New York ~ are at risk of being submerged or inundated.


The rise in the sea level will have a catastrophic economic and humanitarian impact on low-lying, densely populated and poor countries such as Bangladesh and Maldives. An affluent country like the Netherlands also faces a threat with nearly half its landmass already at or below sea level. Every inch in the rise of the sea level results in eight feet of a horizontal retreat of the sandy beach shorelines due to erosion. Salt water, that enters the freshwater aquifers, threatens the sources of drinking water and makes cultivation difficult.


Egypt is referred to as the gift of the Nile. Much of the country’s crops are cultivated in the Nile Delta. Widespread erosion and salt water intrusion into the Delta would be disastrous for Egypt’s food security as the country’s arable land is limited.


Oceans mimic certain functions of the human circulatory system. Its currents cool, warm and hydrate the earth’s surface and transfer heat from the Equator to the Poles. Excessive change in the ocean temperature and salinity can disrupt the North Atlantic circulation and slow down or possibly halt the conveyor belt. This can lead to drastic climate changes only in two decades. Without the North Atlantic current that brings a sobering influence on weather, northern Europe would have been an icy territory. The British Isles and Scandinavia would not have been habitable due to the chilling cold. Scientists have established a link between changing the atmospheric chemistry and drifting oceans.


The oceans have an enormous appetite for swallowing carbon dioxide. They act as carbon sinks and absorb about a third of the CO2 that is generated. A portion of that is used by mollusks to produce shells that survive long after their occupants die. Scientists are debating whether this blessing will last or as the globe continues to warm, it will be a curse. If oceans as an ecosystem change from carbon sinks to carbon sources, releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than they can absorb, that will make coral reefs extinct.


Coral reefs, which have evolved over 400 million years, are the biggest living structures on Earth and the richest in terms of marine biodiversity. Many fear that half the world’s coral reef will be extinct by 2030. In that event, mankind could be facing drastic changes even before 2050, a process too swift to avoid. But if the carbon sinks hold out or even grow, mankind might have extra decades in which to wean away the global economy from carbon emitting energy sources.


A recent report prepared by the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reveals that ocean temperature reached an all-time high in July 2009 over the 20th century average of 16.4 degrees Celsius. Oceans have become victims of carbon abuse. Man has to find a solution.


NEED FOR SERIOUS THINKING

Scientists admit that knowledge of the oceans has lagged behind that of land and even space in large part because of the difficulty of observing the oceanic behaviour. Over the past few centuries, the surface of the ocean, its length and breadth, has largely been explored and mapped. Its third dimension, the unseen world of the deeps, and its fourth, its movement over time, have still remained difficult to delineate in spite of rapid strides in the science of oceanography.

 

As a subject of environmental studies, the ocean is hostile to instruments. Today, as satellite and floating sensors deliver a tidal wave of information, scientists are trying to understand the complex marine systems and interactions so that we come to know our fragile biosphere better.


The ocean is unchanging only in its endless variety. We need more data from every part of the world to try and understand the pieces of this puzzle and how they fit together. The task is urgent if the motions of the ocean can radically affect the life of the planet.


The world also needs to think seriously about the green initiatives. Man has taken 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. He will use the next trillion in less than forty years. It will not be easy for a world addicted to fossil fuels to control emissions. Controlling the increase would take many Kyotos, Balis and Copenhagens. Arguments, counter-arguments, debates, seminars will only delay solutions. Man must change his ways in thought, action and deeds. Every citizen of this planet has to be part of the solution as he is part of the problem.

 

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DECCON HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE TRIBUNAL IS COMING... JUSTICE CAN WAIT!

THE MOEF HAS FINALLY INTRODUCED A NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL BILL IN THE LOK SABHA.

BY KANCHI KOHLI AND MANJU MENON

 

In 2007, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), stated before the high court of Delhi, its reasons for the delay in the setting up a fully constituted National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) where the the grant of faulty environment clearances is litigated upon. They said that the setting up a National Environment Tribunal was being worked upon. This tribunal was to replace the NEAA and several other authorities set up using Section 3 (3) of the Environment Protection Act. Two years have passed since, and the MoEF has finally introduced a National Green Tribunal Bill in the Lok Sabha. While the new minister and his ministry accept accolades for pushing through this bill, many suffer the consequences of the dysfunctional appellate criticised by the Delhi High Court.


The NEAA was set up through a legislation enacted in 1997 and envisaged as a specialised authority where environment clearances issued under the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification  can be challenged by aggrieved persons. The authority was to comprise of a chairman at the level of a retired Supreme Court judge or a high court chief justice, a vice chairman and three members qualified to deal with technical matters related to the environment. However, till 2005 the NEAA was a one-man authority, heard only 16 cases and dismissed or disallowed most of them on the grounds that the petitions were filed too late or that the applicants have no locus standi.


EXECUTIVE APATHY

Two such dismissals by the vice chairman, Vishwanath Anand, (ex secretary MoEF) before he retired in July 2005, related to the Loharinag Pala Hydroelectric Project (Uttarakhand) and Middle Siang Hydroelectric project (Arunachal Pradesh) were challenged before the high court of Delhi in 2005 and in September that year an order was passed asking the MoEF to set up a fully functional NEAA. After a series of strong orders issued between 2005 and2008 repeatedly asking the MoEF to comply with the court’s directions, the final judgement lashing out at the ‘executive apathy’ was pronounced  by Justice Murlidhar of the Delhi High Court in February 2009.


Through these years, all that the MoEF had done was to appoint three technical members on the NEAA, even as the number of cases being filed before the authority continued to increase. Two of these members were officers from the Indian Forest Service (IFS) and one from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). The continuation of dismissal of petitions by them, brought the qualifications and workings of the appellate authority under question. Rather than investigating petitions on their merit and arguments, the issues of locus standi of the petitioner dogged most of the proceedings.


CLEAN HANDS

One case was  dismissed on the grounds that the petitioner could not prove that the environmental organisation in Raigarh district of Chhatisgarh, of which he was a part is an ‘association of persons’ entitled to file an application. The organisation did not have a membership structure, letterheads and other such official documentation to prove its credibility. That the organisation had been in correspondence with the MoEF and state pollution control boards was considered irrelevant. On the contrary, the intentions of the applicant were suspected and the judgement stated that the applicant had not approached the authority with ‘clean hands’. This became the substitute for the judgement on whether a project should have been granted a clean chit on environmental grounds.


In May 2009, one of trio of the NEAA retired, another one bows out August end. So we are back to the pavilion, as they say. In 2005, there was one chairman disposing appeals and in 2009, five years later and post many orders and media coverage, there will be one member dismissing challenges to environment clearances, until the new bill is passed.


It may take at least another 6-8 months (if not more) till it is debated in both houses of parliament and receives presidential consent. Until then, the average 100 projects granted clearance every month by the MoEF, will have to be challenged before this one-man-authority. It appears that justice can be delayed until the tribunal bill arrives.


(The authors are members of Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group)

 

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DECCON HERALD

EDITORIAL

HE BROUGHT MEANING TO HISTORY

SOME OF US WERE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO LISTEN TO THE GREAT TEACHER.

BY L SUBRAMANI

 

A tensed Thursday afternoon. The classroom at Mannur Chengalvarayan Naidu (MCN) Higher Secondary School, Chennai, was unusually quiet. Each face I looked at glistened with sweat that hot June afternoon. We were waiting for the first post-lunch hour for our first experience of listening to Muthusubramaniam, the history teacher.


Muthusubramaniam was a veteran teacher. A short man, he was respectably dressed. His brown, clean-shaven face (which some of us often compared with Sunil Gavasker) was particularly unforgettable for the sharp nose and piercing eyes. Since he took classes for class IX and, most of them had nothing more than a fleeting look of the man who would stride into the staff room each morning with the dot of fresh ‘kumkum’ gleaming on the forehead.


Some of us, including myself, who studied in the school from class VI were fortunate enough to listen to the great teacher as he explained the significance of Prudential cricket World Cup (1983) and how India unexpectedly played the final.


Though I listened to that short speech with anticipation of watching the finals and with the eagerness to get home early, I remembered the clarity with which he spoke. It didn’t take long for me to realise that he was a great narrator, an ideal history teacher. That was what we thought — part of the things we fantasised. But how was he as a teacher?


The question was partly the reason for the unusual silence in the class. Any amount of discrete enquiry with our seniors did little to clear it. Some said he was good, most dismissed him as a terrible bore. Such comments did little to discourage the anticipation and the obvious respect we had for him.


The first class was on the Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations and the hour-long lecture on the subject kept us enthralled. With the magical twinkle in his eyes, Muthusubramaniam went about explaining the significance of the age and its enormous contribution to the advancement of humanity.


“Most of you may think what’s so important about a civilisation far removed by time,” he said as a way of closing the session. “But don’t forget that both the civilisations continue to fascinate humanity even today. You find news items about new findings in Egypt that revealed how advanced people were in those days.”


Truly, most of us wouldn’t mind owing our interest in history to him.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

 

REVIVING CIVIL RIGHTS

 

Few parts of the federal government veered more radically off course in the Bush years than the Justice Department, including its vital civil rights division. Attorney General Eric Holder has made clear that he intends to put the division back on track. That will not be easy, but restoring the nation’s commitment to fairness in voting, employment, housing and other areas is one of the new administration’s most important challenges.

 

The Bush administration declared war on the whole idea of civil rights, in a way that no administration of either party had since the passage of the nation’s civil rights laws in the 1960s. It put a far-right ideologue in a top position at the civil rights division and, as the department’s inspector general said in a scathing report, he screened out job applicants with civil rights sympathies.

 

The division abandoned its “historic mission,” notes John Payton, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund — enforcing civil rights laws, in areas from housing to employment. In some cases, like voting rights, it aggressively fought on the anti-civil-rights side.

 

It is heartening that the Obama administration has proposed substantially increasing the number of lawyers in the division. They will have plenty of work.

 

On voting, the division needs to drop the Bush-era obsession with the overblown problem of vote fraud and put the emphasis back where it should be — making sure protected groups are not denied the right to vote. It has to ensure that the voter rolls are not being illegally purged, and that political operatives are not engaging in dirty tricks to suppress the minority vote. It also needs to make state and local governments comply with the “motor voter” law, which requires registration to be available at motor vehicle bureaus and welfare offices.

 

On employment discrimination, the division should once again start bringing the sort of high-impact cases that the Bush administration abandoned.

 

On discrimination in education, it has to navigate the bad decisions the Supreme Court has handed down recently and provide concrete guidance for school districts on how to legally promote integration.

 

Perhaps no group was more abandoned for the last eight years than prisoners. The division should challenge the dangerously crowded and inhumane conditions that are increasingly becoming the norm in the nation’s prisons and jails. As Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights notes, a few strong lawsuits of this kind could prod many institutions to reform voluntarily.

 

The division should also tackle predatory lending and other financial bias against minorities. With millions of Americans facing foreclosure, this sort of discrimination looms especially large.

 

The Justice Department has enormous power under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to combat discrimination in any institution or program that receives federal funds. This authority is more important than ever with federal stimulus money flowing. The division should use it to ensure that public schools, hospitals, transportation systems and other institutions do not discriminate.

 

Gay men and lesbians still largely stand outside the division’s protection. If a hate crime law covering them is passed soon, as appears likely, the division should use it aggressively. Mr. Holder should also press Congress to pass the first federal law against job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

 

This agenda would be difficult in the best of circumstances, but the civil rights division is working under the enormous handicap of being leaderless. Senate Republicans have put a hold on the nomination of Thomas Perez to head it. The reasons offered are spurious. Their real agenda seems to be impeding the division from doing its work. When Congress returns, Majority Leader Harry Reid should make sure Mr. Perez is quickly confirmed.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

AFTER IRAQ, THE BATTLE AT HOME

 

The wartime stresses on military families are well known, including long absences from loved ones. What Leydi Mendoza, a specialist with the New Jersey National Guard, did not expect when she returned from Iraq was that after fighting Al Qaeda, she would have to keep fighting for access to her 2-year-old daughter.

 

According to a story in The Times, Ms. Mendoza and Daniel Llares — her former companion and the child’s father — had worked out a written family care plan with military officials that provided for shared custody when she came home. The father, however, decided it was too disruptive for the baby to spend more than a few hours at a time “with a mother she doesn’t really know or recognize that well,” his lawyer said.

 

A three-month legal battle ensued, with each parent demanding full custody. It had a reasonable interim solution on Tuesday when a family court judge gave temporary residential custody to the father but allowed Ms. Mendoza daily visits and weekly sleepovers.

 

Determinations about what is best for a child are complicated and dependent on personal circumstances. Children sometimes become pawns when parents split up, and military families are no exception. But it would be a terrible injustice if a soldier were to lose custody simply because he or she served the nation in wartime.

 

The Pentagon does not keep statistics on custody disputes, but military family counselors told The Times there were at least five other recent cases in which mothers who had served overseas were fighting for more access to their children. The Pentagon has to find out whether there is a systemic problem.

 

In recent years, women have made great inroads in the military as their numbers have swelled and they have taken up vital positions on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would be intolerable if bias in parts of society against working mothers extended to those who leave their children to wear their nation’s uniform.

 

Congress and the states need to consider legislation to protect all service members’ custody rights. The Pentagon should examine how it can enforce — not just help draft — family care plans. Ms. Mendoza’s experience suggests the document is no protection at all.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

WOLF SEASON BEGINS

 

The first legal wolf hunt in decades in the continental United States began at dawn in Idaho on Tuesday. Legal wolf hunting will begin in Montana on Sept. 15. All told, some 295 wolves are likely to be killed in these two states in the next two months. Idaho has set a quota of 220, Montana 75.

 

These hunts are misguided and, at best, premature. Until April, wolves in these two states and Wyoming had enjoyed the protection of the Endangered Species Act. But the Interior Department decided that the wolf population across the northern Rocky Mountains had recovered to the point that limited hunts could be allowed in Idaho and Montana, which in the department’s view had developed management plans that would ensure the animal’s long-term survival.

 

The ironic result is that the gray wolf now enjoys more protection in Wyoming — a state where it is still listed as endangered, thanks to an unacceptably weak management plan — than it does elsewhere in the West.

 

Environmental groups have made two persuasive counterarguments, which they will continue to press in court, hopeful for an injunction to stop the hunts. One is that Idaho’s and Montana’s plans are also inadequate. The other is that the wolf population across the northern Rockies has not in fact reached sustainable levels — it is now just under 1,600 — and that wolves should be left alone until there are at least 2,000.

 

After wolves were reintroduced to the Rockies in the mid-1990s — in central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park — they did more than just hunt and breed and prosper. The impact they had on their ecosystem was extraordinary, and beneficial. You might almost argue that their prosperity was and is an expression of an ecological hunger for a top predator.

 

To us, the wolf hunt in Idaho and Montana seems indecent. Hunters want to kill wolves because wolves kill elk — and the human hunters want the elk. A second reason is a love of killing things. A third is an implacable, and unjustified, hostility to the wolf. It is well past time to let gray wolves find their own balance in the Rockies.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

WAITING FOR CRAZY HORSE

BY LAWRENCE DOWNES

 

They dynamited Crazy Horse’s mountain again the other day, sending 4,400 tons of granite crashing onto a growing pile of Black Hills rubble. An eruption of dust ripped across the mountainside like a yanked zipper. There was a flash, then a boom that made a thousand people three-quarters of a mile away jump at once, then applaud.

 

It was one of the biggest blasts yet in a project that has seen a lot of them in 60 years, though afterward the mountain looked pretty much the same. The carving of this South Dakota peak into a mounted likeness of Crazy Horse, the great Sioux leader, has been going on since 1948. It’s a slow job. After all this time, only his face is complete. The rest — his broad chest and flowing hair, his outstretched arm, his horse — is still encased in stone. Someday, long after you are dead, it may finally emerge.

 

The memorial, outside Rapid City, is only a few miles from Mount Rushmore. Both are tributes to greatness. One is a federal monument and national icon, the other a solitary dream. A sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, worked at it alone for more than 30 years, roughing out the shape while acquiring a mighty beard and a large family. He died in 1982 and is buried in front of the mountain. His widow, Ruth, lives at the site and continues the mission with her many children.

 

I have to admit: Mount Rushmore bothers me. It was bad enough that white men drove the Sioux from hills they still hold sacred; did they have to carve faces all over them too? It’s easy to feel affection for Mount Rushmore’s strange grandeur, but only if you forget where it is and how it got there. To me, it’s too close to graffiti.

 

The Crazy Horse Memorial has some of the same problems: it is most definitely an unnatural landmark. Some of the Indians I met in South Dakota voiced their own misgivings, starting with the fact that it presumes to depict a proud man who was never captured in a photograph or drawn from life.

 

Kelly Looking Horse, a Sioux artist I talked with as he sewed a skin drum at Mount Rushmore, said there were probably better ways to help Indians than a big statue. He also grumbled that many of the crafts for sale at the memorial were made by South Americans and Navajos and sold to people who wouldn’t know the differences among Indian tribes, or care. Leatrice (Chick) Big Crow, who runs a Boys and Girls Club at the Pine Ridge Reservation, said she thought the memorial was one of those things that could go on swallowing money and effort forever.

 

But two other Sioux artists — Charlie Sitting Bull, a weaver of intricate beadwork, and Del Iron Cloud, a watercolorist — said they were grateful at least that the memorial gave them free space to show and sell their work. As for the loss of the Black Hills, Mr. Iron Cloud told me, without rancor, that there wasn’t much to be done about it now.

 

Looking up at the mountain in the golden light of late afternoon, it was hard not to be impressed, even moved, by this effort to honor the memory of a people this country once tried mightily to erase. I came away reminded that eternity is not on our side. The nearby South Dakota Badlands, made of soft and crumbling sediment and ash, will be gone in a geological instant.

 

 

The day may sooner come when most human works have worn away as well. When all is lost to rust and rot, what remains may be two enormous granite oddities in the Great Plains: Four men’s heads mysteriously huddled cheek to cheek — a forgotten album cover. And, far bigger, a full-formed Indian on a horse, his eyes ablaze, his long arm pointing out over his beloved Black Hills.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

BUYING AMERICAN IN TEHRAN

BY JERRY GUO

 

MY daily commute involves a walk down this city’s most expensive shopping avenue, Fayyazi — past tony boutiques that sell Calvin Klein jeans, Gucci handbags, Dior perfume and Victoria’s Secret lingerie. Over lunch, my Iranian co-workers debate the merits of BlackBerrys versus iPhones, both found in the backrooms of electronics stores here.

 

As an American living in Iran’s turbulent capital through this historic summer, I was initially struck by how easy it is to find practically anything from back home, despite supposedly stringent Western trade sanctions. (Since President Ronald Reagan imposed export restrictions in 1987, technically only agricultural and medical products and “informational materials” like movies and magazines can be exported to Iran from the United States.) But as an analyst for a local hedge fund, I’ve also observed how easy it is to conduct substantial business with European investors and how firms like the one where I worked have adjusted to being considered corporate untouchables by the West.

 

American sanctions against this country are not only obviously ineffective, as my walk along Fayyazi demonstrated, they often have unintended consequences that hurt American interests.

 

President George W. Bush’s 2005 sanctions on financial assets, meant to crack down on rogue banks facilitating Iran’s nuclear program, had two unforeseen side effects. Freezing the financial assets of these banks increased the price of credit, making it more costly for honest financial firms like ours to operate. It also increased the value of Western goods like TV satellite dishes, cigarettes and alcohol, which the Revolutionary Guards sell on the black market, netting an estimated $12 billion a year.

 

Today, five members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany are to meet to consider cutting off Iran’s supply of imported gasoline and diesel — which accounts for 40 percent of the country’s total consumption — if the regime does not agree to restart negotiations over its nuclear weapons program by the end of this month. Sadly, though, the only people such sanctions would hurt would be the poor, who would face higher prices for food and bus fare.

 

Sanctions against foreign investment firms hurt ordinary Iranians, too, because those businesses pour money into companies that make medicine and build roads and housing, providing jobs for the millions of young Iranians who graduate each year with limited job prospects.

 

Further isolating Iran economically may in fact play right into the hands of Revolutionary Guard hard-liners. Tougher sanctions would rally this fratricidal conservative bloc against an old common enemy and help the Guards’ many businesses, which include smuggling goods through secret landing spots on the coast.

 

The “targeted” financial sanctions that the United States instituted in 2005 have been ineffective because Iran, despite its reputation as an international pariah, conducts substantial financial transactions with countries as varied as Brazil, France, Italy, South Korea and, of course, China and Russia. In March, when the Treasury Department froze the assets of our company’s main competitor, First Persia Equity Fund, that firm’s reputation took a huge hit. Yet its day-to-day business was not affected, for it has always dealt mainly with European banks and investors that see Iran not as a national security threat but as a money-making opportunity.

 

Despite this, American officials believe sanctions can be effective, and often cite as evidence the case of Banco Delta Asia, a bank based in Macao that handled much of the North Korean regime’s external transactions. The United States blacklisted the bank, resulting in a freeze on $25 million in accounts linked to North Korea. In 2007, American negotiators used those accounts as a bargaining chip in an effort to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

 

But the comparison doesn’t hold up because Iran’s foreign financial networks are far more complex and pervasive than North Korea’s. By my count, at least six state banks that the United States considers to be financiers of Iran’s nuclear or arms programs have operational branches throughout Europe. Bank Sepah — a bank that the Iranian military uses for funneling money to the country’s ballistic missile program — even has an office on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

 

Iranians by now have grown used to the constant saber-rattling. In December 2006, when the United Nations Security Council froze assets of weapons proliferators in Iran, according to calculations made by the fund where I worked, the Tehran Stock Exchange fell 7 percent. After the next round in March 2007, the index fell about 3 percent. By the third round last year, markets didn’t budge. Local shops have adapted by routing their transactions with international merchants through second-tier banks in third-world countries like Pakistan.

 

Companies that import equipment like electronics have likewise hired middlemen in Dubai. Hewlett-Packard, for example, has officially sold zero computers here. But according to research by the firm I worked for, Iran is the company’s largest market in the Middle East.

 

By driving large chunks of business outside the regulated economy, sanctions have benefited not only the Revolutionary Guards but also shadowy money lenders called hawalas. The hawalas swap debts without any cash exchanging hands — a particularly good way to minimize the risk of detection when transferring more than $10,000. (Most European banks will happily handle any transaction under this amount.)

 

Financial sanctions can never really work until Europeans sever their banking ties to Iran. But Iran is one of the Middle East’s largest economies, and the European Union is Iran’s largest trading partner. Some $20 billion worth of goods, exported each year from Europe to Iran, is at stake. Even when European countries have imposed sanctions, they are often not enforced. Last year, Italy simply lifted its sanctions against Bank Sepah.

 

In any case, at this point sanctions may not be needed. The Iranian government’s brutal crackdown in the wake of the disputed presidential election is becoming its own greatest undoing. YouTube videos of protesters dying in the streets and news reports of prison abuse and show trials do more to isolate the government here than a gas embargo ever could.

 

Jerry Guo was an analyst for a hedge fund in Tehran this summer.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

WHERE THE WILD THINGS WERE

BY STEFAN MERRILL BLOCK

 

THE May when I was 14, the coyotes bayed wildly every night. Their cry was a mournful sound, and for good reason: North Texas real estate developers had suddenly colonized the coyotes’ land; suburban sprawl was unfurling across the plains on which they had once chased rabbits among fields of wheat. Instead of their creek-bed den of bramble and bush, there was a zoned triangle of immaculate green sod, named for the displaced: Coyote Creek Park. Still, for a time, the eponymous animals would often startle us from sleep as they howled in angry consensus, like anarchists rallying in their slums to overthrow their oppressors.

 

A neighbor, fed up and sleep deprived, appeared one night at our front door with a lantern and a shotgun, asking my dad to hold the light while he fired. My dad — an urban Jew of Eastern European descent — knew a thing or two about displacement and assured the man that the coyotes, starved of their resources and their freedoms, would soon leave on their own. June proved my dad right; the howling finally ceased. The city, confident that the residents and Shih Tzus of Glenhollow Estates had nothing to fear, built a concrete walking path that wound along the creek.

 

The coyotes’ sanctuary had also been my own, their den just three turns up the creek from the fort I had constructed in the wall of a small ravine. My fort! There, I invented a silly language, stockpiled ersatz weapons, drafted a constitution, laid booby traps and rigged an intricate system of climbing ropes, all arranged around a spot I called the Inner Sanctum, a hidden space behind a boulder. And because I was homeschooled, I had tremendous freedom over what I studied and, more important, where I studied it. Nearly every day, for years, I spent hours reading and writing within the Sanctum.

 

Often, I secretly put my books aside and spent a stolen hour or two trekking through the fields or exploring abandoned farmhouses for rusted treasure. By the time I was 14, however, the old farmhouses had been razed to make way for a new subdivision. I had begun to check the crevices of my body for the hairy traces of manhood. My parents and I had decided that when the summer ended, it would be time for me to go to public school. After years spent either in my solitary spot near the creek or in the sole company of a middle-aged woman who interpreted my every word as evidence of my perfection, I feared that I would fit in at a normal school among normal schoolchildren about as well as those coyotes fit in the newly domesticated landscape.

 

In the Inner Sanctum, late one June evening, I was busy writing about the apocalypse, a topic I found perversely comforting — after all, in a nuclear-winter wonderland, I could stop worrying about going back to school — when my eye caught some motion amid the vast plain of two-by-fours and pink-foam insulation beyond the creek. A coyote! What was he still doing slinking around, when his pack had long since fled for the grasslands far beyond suburbia’s reach?

 

By the time the coyote had loped to the far bank of the creek and sat down, I had named him. Mohican. I ran the two blocks home to grab some of my terrier’s biscuits, and when I hurried back, Mohican was still sitting there. Careful to keep my distance, I hopscotched across a few jutting stones to his side of the creek. I called him by the name I had just given him, dangled a biscuit and he stood, pawed the earth before him, as if testing its firmness, then turned shyly away. I tossed the biscuit into the space between us. Mohican slunk closer, accepted the treat, then disappeared into the construction site.

 

 

The next morning, Mohican returned, and I was prepared, my pockets heavy with dog biscuits. Throughout that day, and the next, and the next, Mohican came back, and slowly I advanced a few contemplative steps closer to him, as if the two of us were engaged in some drawn-out interspecies game of chess. Eventually he came within an arm’s length, and even let me extend my hand to his nose so that he could sniff me.

 

One morning, I returned to my fort to find Mohican patiently waiting for me. I paused, held forth a biscuit and called for him to come. Not only did he come to me, he stood on his hind legs and embraced me, leaving muddy paw marks on my T-shirt. Coyotes, I knew, were private, wild things. Even to glimpse one felt lucky. To hug a coyote was too wonderful to keep to myself, and so I brought my mom down to my fort to stand at a distance and watch. “It is amazing,” my mom agreed. “But I don’t think he could be a full coyote. No way a real coyote would act like that.” Let my mom have her own opinions; to me, Mohican was pure, feral coyote.

 

As if I had a houseguest I felt obliged to entertain, I devised activities for the two of us, trying to teach Mohican some tricks. But all Mohican wanted to do was stand on his hind legs, press his paws to me and waltz. For me, there was no imminent school year; for him, no imminent subdivision. For two weeks, we danced.

 

One day, though, Mohican didn’t show up. I waited until dark, then waited again the next day, and the following week. But it was now only days until school would begin; my mother made me abandon my vigil to traverse the city’s back-to-school sales. As the shopping bags accumulated in our minivan, as I tried not to think about my immediate future, I gazed out the car window, searching, in vain, for Mohican.

 

When I finally pushed open the front doors to Shepton High School, I immediately understood that my untamed days were over. Before, time had been my own, to think about whatever interested me; here, time was partitioned by school bells, and all I could think about were the inscrutable, fearsome faces of all those other children.

 

By the end of that week, my art class had rechristened me Ol’ Frizz Head, I had failed three quizzes and a sneering girl in my gym class had punched me in the liver for acting like a know-it-all. I had already glimpsed my true curriculum for that first high-school semester: a laborious, close study of my own personal failings. Puberty began, then advanced cataclysmically. I ceded control of the Inner Sanctum to a barbarous horde of 10-year-olds. With so many other things to worry about, I stopped looking for Mohican.

 

Months later, I cooled the warm ache of my blooming acne on the foggy glass of the passenger-side window as my mom pulled the car up to a red light on our way to school. Suddenly, simply, there he was. Mohican? It looked like him, but he was wearing a collar and leash, 10 pounds heavier, placidly walking alongside an efficient-looking woman with a man’s haircut.

 

Had Mohican really been willing to abandon his feral glories — the snap and hiss of running wild through wheat, the flush of rabbit blood in his teeth — for Purina and air-conditioning? Did Mohican understand that it was either civilize or die? Or had I let myself believe that Mohican was a wild thing, when he had been only a stray dog all along? Just before the light turned green, Mohican turned to me, and our eyes met.

 

Could he have recognized me, through the fog of the window, myself as transformed as he? I can’t know, but at that moment, some ancient impulse seemed to seize Mohican, and his legs suddenly surged forward. His leash, however, was bound to the woman’s wrist, and she managed to hold on. She yelled at Mohican, and he sat and bowed to her apologetically.

 

I was saddened, even a little ashamed, to witness Mohican’s surrender. Once the creek, and our days, had been ours, to stalk whatever we craved. But now Mohican was a pet on a leash, and I was a pimply teenager in a minivan. Or maybe this was only a ruse: maybe Mohican had gained the woman’s trust so that, at some later time, he could take advantage of it. Just when that woman would come to think of him as a dog, the coyote would suddenly break free.

 

Stefan Merrill Block is the author of the novel “The Story of Forgetting.”

 

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I. THE NEWS

 EDITORIAL

NEW OFFENSIVE

 

The PML-N remains on the offensive, but its targets seem to be changing. In yet another fiery press talk the party's information secretary has warned the PPP that it has 48 hours in which to end its campaign attacking the party, or face revelations about its own wrongdoings on various fronts. Ahsan Iqbal has warned that these are many and varied, relating to the IDPs, contracts of various kinds and so on. Who could have believed that not so long ago, the two parties had sworn to stand together and work for democracy. Indeed, just weeks ago, the prime minister and PML-N leaders happily broke bread together and spoke of the advantages of 'understanding'. So, what has happened to bring about so dramatic a change in fortunes? It appears that the agencies have succeeded once more in dividing political forces. The onslaught of 'revelations' we have seen over the past few days, from one ex-serviceman after the other, has had its impact – leaving the two major parties at loggerheads. This perhaps was the purpose of the whole exercise.


What it means is that those behind whatever games are being played will be better able to orchestrate matters. They are after all past masters at this. By ending any possibility of cooperation between the parties they have strengthened their own position. We still do not know if they have allies in this from within the spectrum of parties. But regardless of whether or not this is so, it is apparent that the establishment remains determined to keep cards in its hand. The dream of military disengagement from politics is just that – a dream and nothing more. Unfortunately it seems our parties too abide by the dogma of the law of necessity. For all the talk, all the statements, they are unwilling to give up their deep-rooted belief that to stay in power or to attain it the establishment must be kept happy. They do not seem either to have realised that much could be gained by standing together and working to build a tomorrow where parliament and political representatives are truly sovereign. The events we have seen recently show that external forces can still, quite easily, determine how things unfold – and this means we remain many miles away from the true democracy that people seek.

 

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I. THE NEWS

 EDITORIAL

PETROL PRICE HIKE

 

Petrol prices have gone up by Rs4.80 a litre to just over Rs65. The government says that the decision comes in response to a rise in the price of oil in global markets. The opposition has lashed out in criticism demanding the price hike be reversed. Other petroleum items have become costlier too, including kerosene oil which lights the stoves of the poor. Following the hike, the government estimates Rs8 billion will be collected in September through the petroleum levy. People everywhere are meanwhile desperately doing their household maths to see what it will mean for them. Most wonder, at a time when inflation is already rampant and wages have failed to keep pace, how they will manage and whether any corners remain to be cut.


The rise in the cost of fuel of course means that as transporters raise their rates, the price of virtually every commodity will go up. This comes at a time when consumers are already struggling to cope with the Ramazan hike that has had an impact on virtually every household. Despite attempts by provincial governments and city administrations, there has at best been only partial success in controlling profiteering. The oil price increase also revives criticism based around the perception that while gains in international markets are immediately passed on, the same principal does not apply when the global price drops. Courts too have taken note of this in the past. The latest surge will reignite the controversy, especially as it comes at a time when the opposition is searching for issues that can be used against the government, which seems just a year and a half after it came to power to be facing a growing popularity crunch.

 

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I. THE NEWS

 EDITORIAL

ABUSE RAMPANT

 

Were the government ever to devise a heraldic coat of arms for itself it would comprise a green-and-white shield surmounted by a fat cat sitting astride a starving peasant. A report in this newspaper details the government working with big business to inflate the price of sugar and then killing off an attempt to investigate its doing so. There is to be no judicial or criminal probe into the activities of the sugar lobby that now waddles towards Eid secure in the knowledge that it has the government firmly in its pocket. A key cabinet committee has been subverted and the government's finance minister has had his arm twisted and told to 'take it easy' in respect of exposing those at the heart of the scam.


As if the sugar scandal were not enough we have another layer of the Great Power Cock-up exposed. The federal cabinet has overturned a decision by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to limit power purchases from rental power projects to 1,500 MW by upping it by 75 per cent to 2,250 MW from the rental power providers. Shaukat Tarin has again been made to look a fool as he is on recent public record as saying that he was opposed to the rental power projects and that minimal use should be made of them because of the cripplingly high cost of power produced by them – and now we are committed to purchasing their expensive volts at a time when the global oil price has peaked at a 10-month high of $75 per barrel. Just in time to feed through to our energy sector and further inflate the cost of the power we only intermittently receive. Were any of this blatant manipulation of the prices of core products and services to have been exposed in a country where ethical governance and the rule of law actually mattered, there would have been crowds outside parliament calling for an election and the prosecution of those responsible. But they were exposed here in the Land of the Pure. So nothing happens. Democracy? No thanks, it gets in the way of business.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

LET DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM MOVE ON

 

THE off and on relationship between the two major political parties of the country is once again in a state of jeopardy with some hawks hurling threats and counter-threats on each other. It all started with the sensational disclosures by some of the former spies and the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that PML (N) Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal has issued a virtual 48 hour ultimatum to the ‘Presidency’ to, what he called, mend its ways. The PPP has understandably accepted the challenge with presidential spokesman condemning the allegations and some party office-bearers and Ministers replying in the same coin.


The already fragile relationship between the PPP and the PML (N) is at the lowest ebb sending wrong signals to the people of Pakistan, who voted for a democratic change and democratic governance. In fact, it was being argued by political analysts and observers that PPP-PML (N) alliance that emerged after the general elections was unnatural as the two parties have different agendas and manifestos. It was widely believed that they would fall apart as soon as their combined target i.e. removal of General Musharraf from the scene is achieved. This proved correct and the two parties differed on crucial issues and adopted their own ways but kept their differences within manageable limits. This was what the people of Pakistan wanted for the sake of nascent democratic process. In fact, people were overwhelmed by the decision of the PPP and the PML (N) to sit together in the Federal Cabinet and it was felt that they would give a strong government capable of responding to the multi-dimensional challenges facing the country. However, that didn’t happen and the Ministers belonging to PML (N) opted to quit the Cabinet over the issue of reinstatement of judges of the superior courts. There were again expectations that the party would rejoin the Cabinet following resolution of the judges’ controversy in March this year. This was also in the fitness of things as the PPP was ready to extend cooperation in Punjab but unfortunately that could not happen. Now PPP seems to have become jittery over persistent reports that presidency is being targeted for some ulterior motives. The impression gained currency in the backdrop of reports that some circles were working on minus one formula ie ouster of Mr Zardari from the presidency. Therefore, the hard stance adopted by the government leaders in response to provocations by some leaders of PML (N) is quite understandable. Different circles are viewing the disclosures of some former intelligence officials in different perspectives. There are some quarters which believe that the controversy has been generated deliberately to distract attention of the masses from the sugar scandal, shortage of essential items, price hike and crippling energy crisis while others claim it would benefit someone else and the two parties are unable to comprehend its implications. We believe that there was no point in reopening dead issues and instead the PPP and the PML (N) should strive to improve governance to deliver in their respective areas of responsibility. The knee-jerk reaction of Ahsan Iqbal in typical Punjabi bombastic style is unfortunate and smacks of non-serious attitude. But, as the PPP has stakes in the present system, the party leaders too should not adopt the extreme line and instead contribute towards their declared policy of national reconciliation. We hope that the top leadership of the two parties would rein in their hawks and act in time to save the situation from further deterioration. It would be in the interest of the political system if the top leaders engage in personal contacts and do something for damage control. This is because the country is already in turmoil due to internal and external challenges and it cannot afford a fresh wave of political instability. The two parties have clearly defined parameters of governance and they should compete with each other on the front of good governance as this would decide their fate in the next elections. We also sincerely believe that every Government including the incumbent one should be allowed to complete its constitutionally mandated five-year term. The country has already suffered a lot due to premature dissolution of Assemblies and dismissal of the elected Government and it is time that we demonstrate maturity and allow the system to move on unhindered.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

UNJUSTIFIED RAISE IN POL PRICES

 

POL prices have again been raised much to the surprise of the consumers who are as yet unable to adjust with the skyrocketing prices of many items particularly sugar, atta, pulses and vegetables. The action is completely unjustified as there has been no increase in the price of oil in international market which has been hovering around $70 a barrel for the last couple of months and international energy consultancy companies are projecting no significant change during September.


The raise in POL prices is surely aimed at increasing revenue receipts of the Government, as it could not raise the power tariff under strong opposition by the masses. The alternative left was to raise the oil prices, which would bring in more revenue but the financial wizards of the Government have perhaps not realized its negative impact on the economy and on the people. Oil prices of this magnitude in Pakistan, in the absence of any major raise in international prices, should frankly be unacceptable as in the short and long-term our economy cannot afford it. Transportation and production costs would go high making our industrial and agricultural products uncompetitive in the international market and give incentive for smuggling of cheap foreign items inside the country. It is a matter of simple economy that the measure would lead to further hike in inflation on the one hand, which is not coming down to single digit despite tall claims of the economic team, while on the other the revenue collection in terms of GST would go down with less production and consumption. Already the industrial production is in the negative, the economy is not taking off despite claims by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister and revenue collection in the first month of the financial year is not encouraging. Higher agricultural yield particularly in Wheat and Rice saved the country this year but one is certain that increase in diesel prices would negatively impact agricultural production. Therefore, we would impress upon the Prime Minister to impose a ban on wasteful expenditure so as to save some money and also advise his economic team to consider all the pros and cons before taking such decisions that are bound to be counter productive.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PALESTINIANS HAVE NO REASON TO CELEBRATE

 

It is clear that the international community is not interested in being reminded of the horrific situation in forgotten Gaza. World leaders simply have no interest in alleviating the human tragedy that has been intensifying since Hamas won the election in the Occupied Territories some four years back. Some Arabs, regrettably, have also developed similar careless feelings towards their brethren in Gaza because they either believe that they have nothing to offer Palestinians or they are under pressure from foreign leaders, who want to hear nothing about Gaza before they see an end to Hamas.


Having said that, the situation has become far worse in the last eight months following Israel’s 22-day brutal and savage military campaign. Its ‘Cast Lead Operation’ against the civilians in Gaza left 17,000 homes destroyed and nearly 10 per cent of the total population of the Strip homeless, in addition to nearly 10,000 killed and injured. Since then those who lost their loved ones and became homeless are living on the streets, waiting for help that may never come. The world should remember that Gaza is not Hamas and the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the Strip, of whom 80 per cent live below the poverty line, cannot wait for the demise of Hamas before they start receiving any help.


World leaders should know that, as a result of their careless attitude, more people are dying either in hospitals waiting for treatment or on the border waiting to flee the besieged Strip. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and other leading international organisations have publicised the situation in Gaza and called on the world community to fulfil its pledges during Ramadan, a month when people should be helping the needy. Alas, in the case of Palestinians, this is not so. —Gulf News

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

DIFFERENT OFFICE HOURS

 

Against the backdrop of severe traffic gridlock in the capital city, the government is planning to introduce a three-category work schedule for public and private offices, educational and financial institutions. In fact, different timetables for different organisations and institutions are already there, albeit in a limited way, in the capital as well as other parts of the country. Now the new timetable prepared by the establishment ministry seeks to spread out the working hours as much as possible with the longest possible gaps between and among offices, organisations and institutions. How far the plan will be effective depends on the length of difference of the time schedules between two categories of organisations.


The proposed timetables have a gap of an hour between the opening of government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous offices at 9 am and that of banks, insurances and other financial institutions at 10 am and similarly an hour's gap at their closure times. However, the primary and kindergarten schools will start at 9:30 am, forcing the students to compete with both office goers and bankers for road space. The big relief though is expected to come from the two to three hours' gap with the provision of opening other educational institutions at 7 am. Maybe, a better starting time for primary and kindergarten schools would be 8:30 am.


Staggered timings apart, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's suggestion for introduction of school buses for as many schools as possible to discourage use of private cars is highly constructive. We believe, strategies for most judicious use of time and road space like this will definitely improve traffic movement in the city. It is also expected to ease pressure on electricity beyond the cut-off points. What we, however, need is to thoroughly implement the plan. Many such plans with great merit failed to yield results simply because of lack of proper implementation. A few adjustments and readjustments cannot be ruled out once the plan is applied at the field level and so the authorities need to be flexible enough for revisions of its application from time-to-time.  

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

RHETORIC AND REALITY

 

After public charges by cabinet ministers that highway extortion is largely responsible for the current price hike, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad now announces that the law enforcement agencies will have recourse to any means to restrain the menace. Nur Mohammad is an old hand at crime busting, having served for many years with the Bangladesh Police and also with the UN forces abroad.
The IGP should know what he is talking about. It is not an easy task, but then it is not impossible, either. What he will need to do is to form a quality circle of policemen within his organisation, possibly with those who have returned from international assignments and use them to zeroing in on the crime-prone areas. By this time the number of in-service policemen who have done international assignments has crossed the 10,000 mark. This should be enough to make a beginning.


However, can he deliver the goods? As the IGP himself has admitted that many of his colleagues are involved in the extortion process, it would be well-nigh impossible to operate with the greedy "fifth column" in their midst. In the past he had said that the neglected police intelligence unit that is undermanned as well would be beefed up to 8,000 personnel from the current 2,000. But nothing has been heard about it, since. On the contrary, there have been many reports in the media where it has been claimed that the underworld thrives on police protection. The IGP has to do something about it and the nation urgently awaits action in this regard.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB’S BANTER

THANK GOD WE ARE VEGETARIANS...!

ROBERT CLEMENTS

 

"Ashok Patil, state DIG (prisons) told the Bombay High Court that serving non-vegetarian food in jails could be 'dangerous and create tension'..." — Times of India 1st September


Thank God we are vegetarians: It's because we are so that there is no tension in our country, that we do not riot, do not pull down or desecrate mosque, church or temple, and as our men and women eat vegetables and fruits and roots, not a thought enters our minds of attacking others from weaker sections, raping their women, burning houses, putting burning tires around helpless children, oh no with vegetarianism such thoughts do not exist, oh no they don't! We are vegetarian and so peaceful.
And in USA, horror of horrors where meat is eaten, citizens roam the streets killing each other and millions die everyday from gunshot wounds and from stones and arrows when bullets are not available. Women do not venture outside their skyscrapers as men pounce on them and do with them, as they wish right there on the road or street or avenue or whatever they call gullies in a non-veg ruffian land called USA. They are non-veg and so violent.


Thank God we are vegetarians: It's because we are so that we are today incorrupt. No policeman, government employee, municipal worker takes a bribe, no judge, no politician asks for a paisa as cases are judged fairly and politicians rule impartially and without prejudice. Motorists do not cut signals and when they do pay their fines without opening their wallets to cops who if they so much as scent a pay-off march the culprit to jail and throw the key away. We are vegetarians we are peaceful.


And in those countries where meat is eaten, countries such as those in Europe, dishonesty reigns, as the prime minister of England bribes his Queen to become the prime minister and the president of USA bribes members of the senate to become the president and the people bribe the president to continue having democracy in their country. They are non-veg, so different.


Thank God we are vegetarians: Where freedom of the press is so respected that no hooligans ever enter newspaper offices, don't blacken the editor's face, nor break computers, or throw chairs and tables on helpless female reporters and workers. Thank God for vegetarianism that we can speak what we want and not have a howling mob at our doorstep frightening our children and women. Thank God we are vegetarians that we don't thrash someone from another state and call him an outsider just because he speaks the national language and not our own, that we don't slap and touch women in the guise of being moral police. Thank God we are vegetarians in a country, where a man with such immense, intricate and intellectual knowledge of the repercussions of eating non-vegetarian food can rise up to the post of Deputy Inspector General of Police and voice such so unashamedly before judge and jury…!  

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

DELLA BOSCA HAD TO GO - AND HE KNEW IT

THE MINISTER'S POOR JUDGMENT HAS FAILED THE STATE OF NSW

 

NOTHING became John Della Bosca's ministerial career more than the way he ended it. "I've taken my medicine, I have to live up to my poor decisions," he said yesterday. In resigning over revelations in Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper that an extra-marital affair had impeded his performance, the former NSW health minister acted appropriately. His continued presence on the front bench would have made his personal affairs, not his political performance, an issue, burdening an already staggering state government. And while his private life is precisely that, he has demonstrated an ill-discipline unacceptable in a senior minister, especially one with an abiding interest in the state's top job. Mr Della Bosca disputes claims he "deliberately" missed a flight on ministerial business to stay with his lover and that he stopped a security guard registering the lady as a visitor to his Parliament House office. And he says he did not "breach" his duties as a minister and MP during the relationship. But when added to last year's unseemly "Iguanagate" nightclub dispute there is no avoiding the obvious conclusion that Mr Della Bosca does not always consider the consequences before he acts. In having an affair that was not especially discreet, Mr Della Bosca courted the disaster that has now occurred.

 

His departure is very bad news for everybody affected politically. For him it marks the end of his ambitions, at least until the March 2011 election. For Premier Nathan Rees it only confirms the electorate's opinion that he leads a government that is as ill-disciplined as it is inept. Former Labor minister Milton Orkopoulos is in prison for child sex offences. Former police minister Matt Brown resigned last year after reports of a sleazy party in his Parliament House suite. The government's service delivery is no more professional. Sydney's public transport system is as slow as it is overcrowded. With unemployment at 6.5 per cent, the state exceeds the national jobless average and the NSW public health system suffers from chronic chaos. What makes this mess worse for Mr Rees is that Mr Della Bosca was the best chance of restoring the hospitals to health.

 

The voters should also regret Mr Della Bosca's resignation. Despite this manifest failure of judgment, he is perhaps the most competent politician in the state. After Mr Rees's year in office, the electorate has decided he is out of his depth. Newspoll puts Labor at an election-losing 46 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote. Just a third of people polled are satisfied with the Premier's performance. Nor has Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell demonstrated a political talent for more than keeping his head down and waiting for an election he expects to win for no better reason than the electorate has had enough of Labor. In contrast to these twin time-servers, Mr Della Bosca has a record of administrative achievements. He reformed NSW third-party car insurance and, while critics say his occupational health and safety reforms gave too much power to union officials, he succeeded in changing a cumbersome system. And in the education and health portfolios he imposed discipline on two vast bureaucracies that have destroyed many ministers before him. Perhaps Mr Della Bosca would have been the best of a bad lot as premier but at least he has a track record as a competent administrator which is more than the Premier and Mr O'Farrell have displayed. It is a tragedy that Mr Della Bosca's own unforced errors ensure he is no longer where he can do most good.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

WHAT PRICE HEALTH?

PREVENTION BETTER THAN CURE AS TASKFORCE REPORTS

 

OUR health system was not set up to prevent disease. Traditionally, Medicare paid a rebate if you were sick, not if you were trying to be healthy. The end result was an often-frustrated medical community and escalating health costs from illness that could have been prevented through early warnings and a change in behaviour.

 

So Nicola Roxon's advocacy, while in opposition, of preventive health made her something of a pin-up girl for anti-tobacco and alcohol and obesity lobbies. Her establishment in government of the preventive health taskforce, whose report was released yesterday, was warmly supported.

 

Now comes the hard part for the Health Minister. How strong is her commitment? With dozens of recommendations from the taskforce, the message from the government yesterday was that it would not rush its response. But Ms Roxon has had the report for more than two months. Delaying the release, and now the response, risks the whole exercise drowning in the ocean of financial and structural decisions Canberra must make about hospitals and funding. Already one of the key ideas, to restrict junk food advertising, has been ruled out by the industry regulator - just a hint of the tough road ahead.

 

Among the recommendations, those based on price increases are the most contentious and are likely to cause the biggest headaches for the government. They include a price of at least $20 for a packet of 30 cigarettes within the next three years, and a minimum price for alcohol within the next three to six years.

Price is a pretty blunt instrument and in the case of tobacco would appear to create a regressive tax, given that smokers are skewed towards low socio-economic groups. Punishing the kids of chain smokers with low incomes and big addictions could be an unhappy policy outcome of a price hike. And while higher prices are akin to a holy writ for the anti-smoking lobby, experience suggests they may be more effective in dissuading people from starting to smoke, rather than breaking existing addiction.

 

An increase in price would raise more revenue, although only in the short term if effective. The proposal already has some support from the opposition, which suggested in June that a higher tobacco excise should replace the government's proposal to claw back health money by means-testing the 30 per cent Medicare rebate.

 

The difficulties of using higher prices to reduce consumption were demonstrated in the debate on alcopops. The 70 per cent increase on the tax on alcopops - in place since last year but only legislated for last month - is widely seen as having little more than a displacement impact. Young people might stop drinking the spirit mixes but only to turn to cheaper alcohol. The taskforce has sensibly taken a broader approach, recommending a minimum price be set for a standard drink, a price based on the volume of alcohol, not the type of drink.

 

Whatever the cure for obesity and alcohol and tobacco abuse, the case for a change in national habits is strong. The taskforce says all three are among the top seven preventable risk factors that influence "the burden of disease". It says the three add about $6 billion to the health bill and cause $13 billion of lost productivity each year. The taskforce offers evidence of the effectiveness of "well-planned prevention programs". Fifty or years ago, for example, 75 per cent of Australian men smoked; now the figure is under 20 per cent. The challenge for Canberra is to sort wheat from chaff and respond with clear policy priorities rather than platitudes.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

AN EXCELLENT RESULT

A RESCUE IN THE VICTORIAN ALPS HEARTENS THE NATION

 

THAT Australia is a harsh and hostile country was shown again this week as Victorian cabinet minister Tim Holding battled the elements in the state's high country.

 

As young and fit as he was, Mr Holding was in grave danger after skidding off the track during a solo hike. The 37-year-old spent two nights on freezing Mount Feathertop before being rescued yesterday.

 

In the end, it was a media chopper that sighted Mr Holding, but the real accolades must go to the 80 or so people who ventured into freezing and treacherous conditions to search for him on foot.

 

As so often in such situations, the effort showed both the technical proficiency and the generosity of our rescue services. As well as welcoming Mr Holding back from a frightening experience, it's worth noting that unlike so many other cases, his venture was neither foolhardy nor unplanned.

 

He is an experienced walker and had prepared for the hike - although he was not carrying a rescue beacon that might possibly have pinpointed his position much earlier. His mobile phone - that standard 21st-century prop - proved to be of no use in letting rescuers know his whereabouts.

 

No doubt the experience has been chastening for Mr Holding. It certainly reminds us all of the need to be humble in the face of our imposing terrain. But the incident should not deter others. Tackling the wilderness is a great aspect of Australian life, even as the risks remain real.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

STATE SIGNS AWAY PUBLIC RIGHT TO INFORMED CONSENT

THE MERITS OF TRAIN, TRAM AND WATER DEALS HINGE ON MUCH UNKNOWN DETAIL.

 

A GREAT deal, value for money, better services … in the 10 years since the running of train and tram services was transferred to private operators, these phrases have flowed freely from the lips of premiers and their ministers whenever another public-private contract has been signed. Victorians can make their own judgments on the quality of services they use, but the debate about the financial merits of such deals has been clouded by the refusal of Coalition and Labor governments to release the full contracts.

 

In Labor's case, it once appeared to understand that there could not be proper accountability for government decisions made on the public's behalf, using taxpayers' money, if such contracts were not open to scrutiny. At least that was the position of future premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby in opposition in 1999, when they condemned then premier Jeff Kennett's ''secret state'' and promised to end the use of confidentiality clauses ''to conceal government contracts with the private sector''.

 

In government, however, Labor has happily relied on the commercial-in-confidence excuse for keeping Victorians in the dark about key details of commitments made on their behalf. After Labor won office in late 1999, it reversed its opposition to a privatised transport system, claiming it was cheaper to run. That is an untestable proposition when Victorians are denied all the details of the costs and provisions of contracts and of the public alternative. In the case of the transport franchises, the Government says these are not PPPs and it did not assess them against a public sector comparator - the hypothetical cost of publicly run services. Instead, it developed an ''efficient operator benchmark'' to compare bids.

 

When Mr Brumby became Premier two years ago, he made a commitment to more open and accountable government. He promised ''major'' and ''sweeping'' changes, saying: ''These reforms reflect the fact the public wants more information, more background, more knowledge about how governments make decisions and why governments make decisions.'' It used to be the case that the budget provided detailed disclosure of government decisions on public spending and commitments. Last May's budget papers, however, listed an astonishing amount of more than $20 billion for ''expenditure on approved projects'', which included publicly announced and yet-to-be-revealed commitments.

 

This year alone the Government has made multibillion-dollar decisions on contracts with private consortiums to run Melbourne's train and tram networks for the next eight years, with options for another seven years, and to build a desalination plant. Victorians know remarkably little about the details of public lending, investment and funding commitments, and about how services will be run and maintained, performances monitored and payments, subsidies and penalties calculated. Parliament's Labor-dominated public accounts and estimates committee found in 2006 that public-private partnerships ''diminished the accountability of government for substantial state expenditure''.

 

The final transport contracts were signed on Monday, but the flow of information has been kept to a trickle. Until yesterday, the Government refused even to disclose the name under which Connex's successor would operate, Metro, and the costs of rebranding trains ($25 million) and trams ($10 million), which retain the Yarra Trams name. While the Government says the transport contracts will be released when the new operators take over on December 1, and also promises to release the final desalination contracts, there will be commercial-in-confidence deletions.

 

On rough estimates, the total worth of these three contracts to the private sector is more than $14 billion - a commitment of about $3500 per Melburnian. That does not include operating costs for the 30-year term of the desalination contract, nor the renewal options for the transport contracts. Taxpayers would want to see proof of ''value for money'' from such large PPPs, especially as sources revealed to The Age that bidders for the desalination contract at one stage struggled to compete with the public sector comparator. The Government has refused to release that comparator but, given that it is not the property of any private company, it is hard to see how this information can legitimately be treated as confidential.

 

Some expert critics insist that PPPs have increased taxpayers' costs. Only if Government-developed comparators are released along with contracts can the public be sure that they are getting the best possible deals. Expecting voters to rely purely on the Government's say-so is the antithesis of open and accountable government. It is also a poor way of ensuring good deals on the delivery of essential state services.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

TAX DOLLARS SHOULDN'T BE SPENT ON PARTISAN ADS

 

AT LEAST one respected constitutional lawyer thinks the Rudd Government's signs outside schools receiving federal economic stimulus funds will survive the scrutiny of the Electoral Commissioner. Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne has asked the commissioner to rule on the legality of the signs because schools are commonly used as polling stations on election day, and the Electoral Act prohibits signs relating to the election being placed close to voting booths. The signs, as all who have passed one will know, unashamedly declare the school in which they are placed to be a beneficiary of the federal Treasury's largesse, and implicitly therefore, of wise Government decision-making. Schools are required to display the signs until the end of March 2011 - well after the next federal election.

 

Professor George Williams of the University of NSW law school doubts that the signs are illegal, and says that if they are, they can be shrouded on election day. If he is right, the law is inadequate. Like the $4 million ''Victoria - we're not waiting, we're building'' television campaign that the Brumby Government is using to promote its performance during the global financial crisis, the signs are effectively taxpayer-funded party-political advertising. Both governments defend their actions as essential provision of information on how taxpayers' money is being spent, but such assertions can only be called disingenuous.

Whether through media reporting or the information bulletins that schools and other stimulus beneficiaries circulate in their communities, there is no lack of information on how stimulus funds are being spent. The stimulus is good policy, but governments that spend money on polishing their halos risk a backlash from justifiably affronted voters.

 

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                                                                                                                      THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF… THE AUBERGINE

 

Synonymous with Mediterranean cuisine, Solanum melongena, eggplant or aubergine is an Asian export, making it to Europe about a hundred years before Columbus. An unsalted aubergine owes its bitter taste to a tiny quantity of nicotine, but remove this minor piece of nastiness and an aubergine will behave impeccably, maybe mixing best of all with garlic, tomatoes and olive oil but also making surprisingly good jam with a silken texture and fullness of flavour. Often referred to as a fruit and usually cooked as a vegetable, it is officially a berry. Some varieties are indeed small and cute enough to qualify, but others are positively Rubenesque. The sun-warmed pile of fragrant purple lusciousness down at the market has a whole host of equally good-looking family members – creamy white, palest green, pink and striped, firm and fat, long and thin like fingers, round or oval, and eventually there will surely be a square one. Preserve them in oil with garlic and chilli and then watch the purple colour of the skin slowly leach out into the creamy flesh. And then eat them. On toast, with rice or pasta, baked and stuffed, fried, roasted, pickled, pureed, sugared and spiced and turned into jam, layered with mozzarella and tomato, stewed as ratatouille or minced as pesto. They look glorious, they taste fabulous, and we should be grateful that melanzane display none of the characteristics of their antisocial relative, the deadly nightshade – except for that wonderfully decadent belladonna purple.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

BRITAIN AND ALCOHOL: DRINK PROBLEM

 

Tucked away in yesterday's OECD report on childhood was a dismal if unsurprising figure: British children get drunk, or claim to get drunk, far more often than their counterparts anywhere else in the developed world. A third of 13- to 15-year-olds in this country said they had been drunk at least twice; in France the proportion is well under a fifth. The report made other important observations – Britain spends above the OECD average on children, while not always achieving better results – but it is the drinking that caught the attention, an often-told story of damaged hopes that begins with cheap cider and ends in a lifelong addiction.

 

Everyone knows about British youth's problem with drink, and initiatives to fight it have flowed from government and industry faster than a nightclub barman can serve on a Friday night. This week alone has brought the launch of a £100m, five-year advertising campaign ("Why let the good times go bad?" it asks young people) and a new, tough-sounding penalty, drinking banning orders, which came into force on Monday. A relic of the late Blair-era respect agenda, they allow magistrates to ban rowdy drunks from bars for up to two years. No matter that magistrates do not want the power, or that there appears to be no way to enforce it, or that even if it is enforced the banned will just find other, cheaper, ways of drinking; at least it can be announced that something is being done.

 

No matter, either, that evidence suggests childhood drinking in Britain is not a growing habit, and that young people are being blamed as the visible and rowdy sharp edge of a national addiction to alcohol that is arguably more serious, if better hidden, among older adults. Childhood drinking is a problem, but recent government data suggests that 46% of 11- to 15-year-olds have never touched alcohol, a slightly increased proportion. The trouble is that those children who do drink are drinking more heavily (equivalent to six pints a week) and that women of all ages are catching up with men.

 

Is the drink problem primarily about health – record rates of liver disease and drink-related cancers? In that case adult heavy drinking (led by Scotland, with its 570 pint-per-capita equivalent annual alcohol consumption) is the bigger problem. Or is it about disorder and teenage bingeing? The two are linked, of course, and the sight of a town centre on a Saturday night should persuade any doubters that something is badly wrong.

 

But remember that British alcohol consumption is just below Germany's and not much higher than in Spain or France. Britain drinks too much and drinks in the wrong way, but crackdowns will fail and the fault is not just with the young.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

LOCKERBIE BOMBING: PARTIAL LIGHT ON THE MURK

 

Every so often, the curtains that are tightly drawn across the windows of British government are yanked back to reveal what happens inside. It happened during the Scott inquiry into the sale of weapons to Iraq two decades ago. It happened in the Hutton inquiry into the death of David Kelly after the Iraq war in 2003. Yesterday it happened again, this time in the argument over responsibility for the decision to allow the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to return to Libya. These have each been small victories for open government. But they are battles rather than the war.

 

What is revealed in these brief flashes of floodlight over the inner workings of Whitehall is sometimes more unsavoury than expected, sometimes not as unsavoury as some hoped, and is rarely conclusive, as yesterday's rush of documents illustrated. Yet the main thing to understand is that all these cases have arisen in a similar context – the moral maze inherent in relations between an established law-based, oil-importing state like Britain and the oppressive but oil-rich regimes of the Arab world. Of course, British government would be a much easier business if these relations did not have to exist. Given that they do, the conflicts of interest are to some degree inescapable. The question is always how to balance them in the least worst way.

 

Yesterday's documents offered no smoking gun for Megrahi case conspiracy theorists. That is not surprising when the documents were volunteered by the London and Edinburgh governments as each tries to pass the ticking parcel of blame to the other. Nevertheless, the documents do not tell the full story of Megrahi's place in the tortuous relationship between the UK, Scotland, the United States and Libya. The papers surrounding Tony Blair's ground-breaking visit to Muammar Gaddafi in 2004 remain under lock and key, as do key US papers and many others on UK-Libyan diplomatic and trade relations since the overthrow of the Libyan monarchy 40 years ago. Parliament has a big inquiry job to do here. The foreign affairs select committee should meet without delay.

 

Nevertheless, the papers confirm that both the UK justice ministry and the Scottish authorities have abided by the law in the Megrahi case. The decision was Scotland's to take and Scotland, not London, took it. Yesterday's releases confirmed that the Foreign Office did not want Megrahi to die in prison and that Jack Straw changed his mind over whether the prisoner transfer agreement with Libya in 2007 should cover the Lockerbie case or not. But the papers do not show that these considerations prevailed over proper process when Kenny MacAskill released Megrahi last month. Mr Straw's February 2008 letter is evidence of Britain's overriding readiness to make deals with Libya, but it makes no concessions about Megrahi, who was released on compassionate grounds not under the transfer agreement. The bottom line is that there is nothing here to show that the Lockerbie bomber has been returned to Libya for the benefit of British oil interests or for some other raison d'état – though admittedly also nothing to show that he has not. History ensures that relations between Britain and Libya will never be easy. Nevertheless, it is better that they exist and, where possible, are improved than that they do not exist or are needlessly worsened.

 

Yet Megrahi's early release by the Scottish authorities was not essential to that difficult process. That is why, as a general election looms (no such distraction for Colonel Gaddafi), politicians in London and Edinburgh are suddenly playing the blame game. Yesterday's papers were revealing – but only as far as they went. We now know more about the events that led to the release of a dying man – but still not the central question of whether the right man was convicted. The losers are not Britain or Libya but, as ever, the families of the bereaved.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

DPJ PREPARES TO LEAD

 

The Democratic Party of Japan is making preparations for taking over the government as the Diet is expected to choose DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister in the middle of this month. It has to decide on the personnel lineup of the party itself and the new Cabinet, while carrying out talks with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the People's New Party (Kokumin Shinto) on forming a coalition. It needs to do these things quickly and smoothly.

 

After the Hatoyama Cabinet is formed, the new government and the DPJ must outline the fiscal 2010 budget. This means that they must change in a short time the governing system established by the Liberal Democratic Party during its nearly uninterrupted rule since 1955. With Sunday's landslide victory in the Lower House election behind it, the DPJ's governing ability will be tested soon.

 

How successful the DPJ is in coalition talks with the SDP and Kokumin Shinto will have strong political implications. Although the DPJ has won 308 out of the 480 seats in the Lower House, it does not enjoy a majority in the Upper House. It will need to get the cooperation from minor parties to secure a majority in that chamber.

 

In August 1993, a non-LDP administration led by Mr. Morihiro Hosokawa was formed and it continued through April the next year. But the circumstances in which the Hosokawa administration was formed differed from the current situation. At that time, eight non-LDP groups held talks to form a coalition government and went ahead only after seeing the LDP lose its Lower House majority in an election.

 

This time the main opposition party, after calling for a change of government in its election campaign, has succeeded in winning a majority in the all-powerful Lower House. But it still must try to form a coalition government to control the Upper House.

 

The DPJ is likely to face difficulty especially in talks with the SDP, particularly over the overseas dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces. The SDP may push for tougher restrictions on the SDF's overseas missions, such as ending as soon as possible the Maritime Self-Defense Force's fueling mission in the Indian Ocean for navies engaged in antiterrorism activities. The SDP is also calling for enactment of Japan's three-point nonnuclear principle into law.

 

In the face of the DPJ's big win in the Lower House election, the SDP and Kokumin Shinto want to strengthen their identity and may up their ante in coalition talks. Mr. Hatoyama has to prove his leadership by quickly working out a feasible coalition agreement with these parties.

 

The DPJ also must flesh out a mechanism for taking the policy development initiative from the hands of bureaucrats and increasing the accountability of the bureaucracy. A national strategy bureau to be set up directly under the prime minister for working out fundamental policies and a budget outline, as well as an administration renewal conference for detecting waste in the nation's budget and bureaucracy, will play an important role in breaking the close ties between bureaucrats and politicians representing vested interests prevalent under LDP rule.

To set up these bodies, legislation is needed in the special Diet session. But the DPJ must decide soon who will head or work for these bodies and how these bodies will function.

 

As it becomes a governing party, what is most important for the DPJ is to ensure unity among party members and to strengthen it. This is all the more important because the party includes politicians and groups comprising a wide ideological spectrum. Mr. Hatoyama's leadership will be crucial, especially in making sure that Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the former DPJ head who organized the Lower House election campaign and greatly contributed to increasing the party's strength, will not disrupt party unity.

 

Some 140 new DPJ candidates have been elected to the Lower House. Mr. Ozawa recruited many of them and coached them in their election campaign. DPJ lawmakers close to Mr. Ozawa are now a dominant force within the DPJ. He must not only nurture newcomers as reliable politicians but also cooperate closely with Mr. Hatoyama and other party leaders. It is imperative that the DPJ prevent the development of a dual power structure, with Mr. Hatoyama occupying one center and Mr. Ozawa another.

 

In February 1994, Mr. Ozawa single-handedly decided to raise the consumption tax rate and had Prime Minister Hosokawa announce the plan. Although the plan was quickly retracted, the administration lost its unifying power, drawing criticism from within and without.

 

The DPJ also should have the courage to withhold promises in its election manifesto if the party deems them as unreasonable after further study. One promise that may deserve reconsideration is toll-free expressways, which may cause financial and environmental problems and deter development of public transport systems. In withholding promises, full explanations must be given to the public.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

JUSTICE, CLEMENCY AND U.K. POLITICS

BY HUGH CORTAZZI

 

The secretary for justice in the devolved government in Scotland decided Aug. 20 to release Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only individual who had been convicted of involvement in the so-called Lockerbie tragedy. This terrorist incident occurred more than 20 years ago when a Pan American airliner was brought down over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb in the hold. Fatalities totaled 270, mostly Americans, but the victims hailed from 21 countries in all.

 

Al-Megrahi had been convicted under Scottish law in a court, specially convened in the Netherlands, of responsibility for the tragedy. The reason given for his release was that he was suffering from terminal cancer and was likely to die within three months. The release was accordingly made on compassionate grounds.

 

Al-Megrahi, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment (meaning a minimum of 27 years under Scottish law), had only served some eight years of his sentence. He has never apparently shown any remorse for the victims of the tragedy. On his release he was flown back to Libya on the personal aircraft of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan dictator. Accompanied by one of the colonel's sons, he was given a hero's welcome on arrival in Tripoli.

 

The decision to release al-Megrahi has caused anger especially among the families of victims in the United States. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the decision and there have even been threats that Americans will boycott Scotch whiskey and avoid visiting Scotland as tourists.

 

The decision was also criticized in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament was recalled for a special session Aug. 24 and Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, was closely questioned on his decision.

 

In defending it, he continued to emphasize that the decision was made solely on humanitarian grounds. He did not say why he had visited al-Megrahi in prison. Nor did he explain why al-Megrahi had withdrawn his second appeal against his conviction. This is puzzling and regrettable as there seems to be newly discovered evidence that will not now be made public. Some suspect that the evidence could be embarrassing. For whom? The Libyan government perhaps?

 

The release has also been seriously embarrassing for the British government, which continues to have responsibility for the foreign relations of the United Kingdom as a whole.

 

The British government has tried to disassociate itself from the decision declaring that it was solely a matter for the devolved government in Edinburgh. But a letter from a foreign office minister to the Scottish justice secretary, which has been made public, suggested that the way was open for the culprit's release.

 

When Libya decided that it was in its interests to thaw its frozen relations with Britain and other countries, former Prime Minister Tony Blair signed an arrangement with Libya for prisoners to serve their sentences in their home countries. This would have paved the way for al-Megrahi, the only Libyan prisoner in Britain, to serve the rest of his sentence in Libya.

 

 

Lord Mandelson, who is in all but name now deputy to the prime minister, has recently been hobnobbing with Gadhafi's son and possible successor, and it is thought that the future of the prisoner may have been discussed in the margins of trade talks. He denies any involvement with Libya over this case, but it is common knowledge that Shell, BP and other Western oil companies are seeking to expand their investments in Libya and had been seriously concerned that if al-Megrahi was not released soon their interests would suffer.

 

The Libyan dictator, who may at best be described as eccentric but sometimes seems deranged in his pursuit of power, is well known for his bullying tactics with foreign governments, firms and individuals. Recently the Swiss government felt forced to apologize for having arrested one of the colonel's sons on the grounds that he had been assaulting servants. The Libyan government is said to have withdrawn funds from Swiss banks and to have embargoed exports to Switzerland of Libyan oil and gas.

 

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's only intervention seems to have been a last minute message to the colonel urging that the culprit's return should be a low-key event. He must have realized that this last-minute message would be ignored. It seems clear that Gadhafi, who is celebrating shortly the 40th anniversary of the revolution that brought him to power, was determined to secure the release of al-Megrahi — reputed to be one of his intelligence officers — to demonstrate his power and independence.

 

We shall not know the truth about this matter until all the relevant documents are published. The authorities will no doubt do their best to delay publication if the papers contain, as many suspect, potentially embarrassing material.

 

One thing is certain: The interests of justice have not been well served. The victims of this appalling crime have been left with the suspicion that their interests in ensuring that the criminals pay for their evil deeds may have been sacrificed to advance business interests.

 

Many in Britain sympathize with the distress of the victims and feel ashamed at how al-Megrahi's release has been handled, both in Edinburgh and London. In particular they note that Brown, in his inimitable way of never being available when trouble arises, has studiously avoided commenting publicly on the release on the grounds that he is on holiday.

 

Brown has been given the nickname by some unkind observers of "Macavity," the name of the mystery cat in T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" (on which the musical Cats was based), who is never there to take the blame: "Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity, He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare; At whatever time the deed took place — MACAVITY WASN'T THERE.''

 

An unfair comparison, no doubt!

 

Hugh Cortazzi, a former British career diplomat, served as ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

AFGHANS MUST TAKE THE LEAD IN CLEANING HOUSE

BY JAMIE F. METZL AND C. CHRISTINE FAIR

 

NEW YORK — Although the outcome remains uncertain, Afghanistan's presidential election has demonstrated that the Afghan people yearn for more accountable leadership. But it is no less clear that this aspiration is far from being met, and that the country's poor governance is laying a dangerously weak foundation for international engagement.

 

The United States and its allies cannot succeed in Afghanistan unless the Afghan government itself succeeds. Despite the U.S. Congress's appropriate calls to establish benchmarks for American progress in Afghanistan, too few people are calling for the Afghan government to articulate its goals for improving governance and accountability, and how it plans to meet them. Until it does and international support is conditioned on Afghan progress in realizing goals set by Afghans, the country's state institutions will continue to lose credibility. Meaningful success in Afghanistan will become elusive at any level of funding or international troop presence.

 

Today, many parts of the Afghan state are rotting from within. Systemic corruption can be found at all levels. A large number of government officials, including members of President Hamid Karzai's own family, are alleged to be involved in trafficking narcotics, timber, gems, and other illicit goods.

 

Karzai's pardoning of drug traffickers with indirect ties to his re-election campaign also raised fundamental questions about his government's commitment to the rule of law.

 

Afghans themselves are not solely to blame for this state of affairs. The U.S. and the international community focused far too little on building a suitable structure of governance after the 2001 intervention. In the name of short-term expediency, too little was done to sack corrupt governors and police, or to counter involvement by high-level officials in the narcotics trade.

 

Whatever the causes, official corruption is creating a situation in which many Afghans fear the rapaciousness of the government nearly as much as they dislike the Taliban, which can now credibly claim the ability to provide security and swift justice in the areas they control, albeit at a very high price.

 

All things being equal, Afghans would prefer security under any regime other than the Taliban. Democracy and the rule of law could conceivably be an effective alternative to what the Taliban offer, but the government cannot credibly claim to provide either, not to mention basic services, on a consistent basis. And, because the international community still pays the government's bills, many Afghans assume that donors support endemic corruption.

 

Given increasing public wariness about Afghanistan in the U.S. and elsewhere, and the countries' overwhelming reliance on international largess, it would be tempting to follow the usual route by developing internationally generated goals and then engaging with Afghan leaders to explore how best to achieve them.

 

Such a process will not succeed. Corruption can be addressed only if the Afghan government itself takes primary responsibility for addressing it.

 

The best way to help make Afghanistan's government more accountable to its people over the long term is by working to strengthen Afghan democracy, but this level of accountability is still far off — and Afghanistan desperately needs better governance now.

 

To foster accountability in the near term, the international community should call on the next Afghan administration to establish its own goals for good governance and lay out benchmarks to measure progress. If the international community believes that these goals are correct, assistance should continue to be provided as long as the benchmarks are being met. If they are not, assistance could be scaled back to avoid having international funds continue to support corrupt practices.

 

Afghanistan is a sovereign state, and its government has the authority do what it wants. But the international community is not obliged to finance official corruption. Internally generated reform is the only reform that can work, and it cannot occur if Afghan officials take international assistance for granted or see themselves as subordinate actors in their own reform process.

 

Unless adequately addressed, official corruption will fatally undermine conditions in Afghanistan and make the continuation of international support unsustainable and success impossible. The time has come for the Afghan government to take the lead in fighting corruption, and for the international community to make clear that it will not provide a blank check for anything less.

 

Jamie F. Metzl is executive vice president of the Asia Society and project director of the Asia Society Task Force on Afghanistan-Pakistan. C. Christine Fair teaches at Georgetown University. Both served as observers during the Afghan elections. © 2009 Project Syndicate

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

JAPANESE METAMORPHOSIS

BY MASAHIRO MATSUMURA

 

OSAKA — Sunday's landslide general-election victory by the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) terminated the one-party- dominated system that the catch-all Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has controlled almost without interruption since 1955.

 

For most of the last decade, the DPJ was not seen as a viable alternative to the LDP, although they appeared to form a pseudo-two-party system. Twenty years after the Cold War's end, Japan will at last have a post-Cold War system of government.

 

The Japanese public, even now, remains uncertain about the DPJ's ability to govern and is skeptical of its rosy plans for wealth redistribution, which lack solid funding. The public is also fully aware that the ideologically fragmented DPJ lacks a pragmatic, coherent foreign and security policy.

 

Yet the DPJ will form the next government because of public disgust with the LDP. For the last four years, the LDP had shown itself to be utterly unresponsive to the key issues of popular concern: pensions, unemployment and the fraying social safety net. Moreover, the LDP was plagued by a string of minor scandals and consistent bungling. The LDP's need for three different prime ministers in the space of little more than a year made plain that the party's power nucleus had melted down.

 

Once in power, the DPJ will immediately confront the massive bureaucracy and its entrenched mandarins, which usually sabotage any efforts at administrative reform that threatens their power and vested interests. Indeed, immediately after the election, the budget estimates for the next fiscal year are due. The figures that will be presented are the result of a lengthy process, in which the bureaucracy closely consulted with the LDP.

 

Without breaking the regular budget cycle, the DPJ not only will be forced to implement the supplementary budget drawn up by the LDP, but also will be stuck with next year's budget, which embodies LDP policies that the DPJ has denounced.

 

As a result, the DPJ has announced plans to revoke the LDP's guidelines for a ceiling on budget requests so as to formulate its own budget from scratch. It will also revise the supplementary budget as well. But time is short, and few of new DPJ lawmakers possess the legislative experience and budgetary expertise to make that happen.

 

To gain control of the mandarins, the DPJ plans to place 100 lawmakers in the ministries' top leadership, as well as three dozen political appointees to policy staffs in the office of the prime minister.

 

Unfortunately, the DPJ scrapped an LDP-sponsored civil-service reform bill that would have let the DPJ replace the mandarins with political appointees. The DPJ, despite its manifesto, seems unprepared to tame the mandarins, and may be forced to rely on them.

 

The ascendancy of the mandarins is a legacy of Japan's unique historical development dating back to its early modern period. Unlike in Europe, Japan developed its state before building a strong civil society. Indeed, full-fledged "society"-building started only after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, which tipped the balance of power definitively in favor of the state. As a result, the mandarins survived World War II and the postwar American occupation relatively undamaged, and they will strive to survive the DPJ government as well.

 

They will most likely succeed. LDP lawmakers and mandarins developed a routine in which mandarins drafted Cabinet and the two together finalized legislative drafts before they were introduced to the Diet (parliament).

 

Since the LDP, with a coalition partner, recently controlled the Diet, the legislative process was simply the interaction between LDP lawmakers and mandarins, centered in the LDP's headquarters. The Diet's role was merely pro forma.

 

Indeed, under the LDP-led one-party-dominant system, this extra-constitutional mechanism became an integral part of Japan's government polity.

 

The DPJ government will collide head-on with the mandarins, partly because the party will find it hard to recruit sufficiently qualified policymakers. The mandarins have maintained their privileged position in this regard, owing partly to the tax system, which prevents the emergence of nonprofit institutions, especially think tanks, where independent policy expertise can be forged.

 

Moreover, perhaps in anticipation of a change in power, the mandarins have moved forward the annual personnel changes in the major ministries' top administrative positions.

 

And what of the LDP? Having fallen from power, it will lose its control of the redistribution of government funds. Unable to pay off its constituencies, disintegration looms, for the LDP has never been a party with entrenched grassroots support, but instead operates as a machine of power and redistribution through a web of insiders across the country's industrial sectors, occupational associations and local communities. Only by recruiting new blood and reorganizing itself with a solid ideological platform will an LDP comeback be possible.

 

The DPJ has even weaker grassroots support, so the mandarins will most likely use their standard techniques of divide and rule to cajole the party by teaching it to mimic the LDP in using state money and contracts to underwrite its major constituencies, such as labor unions and other interest groups.

 

The birth of the DPJ government can yet be a turning point. A major power shift in favor of "society" has taken place. If the DPJ can break free of mandarin control by centralizing policy formation in the office of the prime minister, as it intends, Japan can emerge as a more resilient democracy with a full-fledged two-party system and greater willingness to assume an international leadership role.

 

Masahiro Matsumura is a professor of international politics, St. Andrew's (Momoyama Gakuin) University, Osaka. © 2009 Project Syndicate

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

 

 

BASIC LAW REVISION

 

From a Constitutional point of view, the democracy of the Republic of Korea has been stable for the recent two decades despite noisy scenes at times. There has been no revision of the nation's basic law since the ninth amendment in 1987.

 

New calls for a constitutional change have been raised in the political community, but it is fortunate that these moves have the rather peaceful motivation of making the governing system more efficient, whereas the past amendments had all accompanied severe political turmoil. This time, no particular attempt at serving the interests of a specific political group has surfaced.

 

National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o, a former member of the ruling Grand National Party who has no party affiliation at this time, is at the forefront of the amendment drive. An advisory committee he formed with constitutional law experts and some civic leaders has produced a comprehensive recommendation. It suggested a "dual executive system" as the next governing structure, offering a U.S.-style presidential formula as a possible alternative.

 

President Lee Myung-bak also believes a revision of the Constitution is necessary for political and administrative reforms, primarily to reduce the frequency of elections and streamline the framework of local administration. His immediate predecessor Roh Moo-hyun had proposed a "single-point" amendment to shorten the presidential tenure to four years, extendable just once, to match it with lawmakers' terms. It is ironic that Roh's wish was snubbed by the GNP, the governing party now.

 

Speaker Kim and other advocates of amendment note that both National Assembly elections and the presidential election are to be held in 2012. Therefore they hope that the Constitution will be rewritten during the current term of President Lee so that a new system can be applied to the next presidency. The advisory committee suggested that the amendment be completed before the local elections next June as parties would be engrossed in presidential campaigning after that, and have little interest in a constitutional debate.

 

In his last Liberation Day address and on other occasions, President Lee anxiously pointed to the ill effects of frequent votes for local, parliamentary and presidential elections. The recurring campaigns unnecessarily split people's opinions and sentiments, resulting in huge waste in national energy. One sure solution, in the president's opinion, is synchronizing these elections and giving the president, lawmakers and local administration heads and councilors the same four-year terms.

 

While the amendment proponents focus on holding the triple elections simultaneously as the strongest justification for constitutional revision, there are at least two other tasks in Korea's political realities that need to be addressed by changing the basic law. One is to end an imperial presidency which, as recent political history has proven, is prone to corruption, and the other is to save the president from prematurely becoming a lame duck, a natural outcome of the present single-term presidency.

 

 

The advisory committee sought to take on these challenges through a fundamental overhaul of the Constitution rather than simply synchronizing elections. Their majority proposal gave the prime minister, to be elected by the National Assembly, extensive executive powers covering the economy, defense and external affairs. The president, elected through direct popular vote to a five-year term, will be able to check the prime minister with emergency orders and the power to dissolve the legislature. The second proposal exactly emulates the U.S. system minus the power to propose laws.

 

The committee then considered the demand that the Constitution reflect social and economic changes that had taken place during recent decades. Idealists as they are, members of the committee tried to reflect a host of newly recognized global values in the revision. Their proposal thus included clauses on the basic rights to life, public safety, childbirth, access to information and the right to political asylum, as well as provisions on the freedom of thought and prevention of discrimination for race, age, gender, political faith, and physical and mental conditions.

 

The advisory panel has done its job and so did Speaker Kim. Now the question is how our sharply contentious political groups will seek to push the amendment drive in the direction of their interests. In civil society, one recent development is the severe polarization in public thinking, and the deepening ideological divide between the right, left and radical third forces will provide a complex background for any movement for constitutional change.

 

Opinion surveys on National Assembly Members have found that around 80 percent are in favor of an amendment. This, however, does not mean that they are in any way close to a consensus on what articles to change and how. The advisory committee's dual proposal asking for a choice between the dual executive system and the American-style presidency drove politicians to compare how they would be advantaged and disadvantaged by each proposal.

 

An instant negative reaction from the main opposition Democratic Party has signaled a bumpy road ahead for the amendment campaign. Its floor leader expressed suspicion that any constitutional debate could be used in an attempt to divert public attention from the mistakes being made by the Lee administration ahead of the local elections next year. Tremendous persuasive efforts will be needed to have all political parties join in constructive discussions on the amendment goal.

 

Everyone should now be reminded that the primary objective in pursuing constitutional revision is to end the extreme conflict that has gripped national politics since the restoration of democracy. If the amendment process would only offer a new cause for aggravated partisan disputes, the whole business loses its meaning. Then, we may have to be content with an agreement to synchronize elections, although that does not look easy to achieve, either.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

                                           EDITORIAL

THINGS WE SHOULD AVOID AND ABANDON

KIM SEONG-KON

 

One of the favorite television talk shows in South Korea is "Chat with the Beauties." It is a popular show in which a group of charming foreign women who reside in Korea leisurely discuss their unique perception of and various experiences in Korean society. Korean viewers are often impressed by their excellent command of the Korean language, amused by their witty comments on Korean culture, and flattered by their praise of Korea and its people.

 

Recently, however, a problem occurred when a German woman who regularly appeared on the show published a book about Korea in Germany, in which she poignantly criticized some aspects of Korean society while describing her life in a remote country in East Asia. Upon hearing this news, many Koreans were disappointed and offended, thereby condemning her as a backstabbing betrayer.

 

This is surely embarrassing, because as usual, we inadvertently revealed our clandestine wish that all foreigners would adore Korean culture and society. In our somewhat childish fantasy, we cannot bear criticism, derision or hatred from foreigners. Perhaps because of the long tradition of honoring our guests, we expect and even believe that our foreign guests love and praise our admirable customs and warm hospitality. When a foreigner points out some outstanding negative aspect of Korean society, Koreans naturally feel an unbearable pang of being stabbed by a dagger of betrayal. Therefore, the correct, expected answer to the frequently-asked question, "What do you think of Korea?" is "I love Korea."

 

As for the previously mentioned German woman, we cannot blame her for what she had to write in her book. We need to respect her feelings and opinions on Korea; we can never force her to love us unconditionally. One cannot fill a book on a foreign country with praises and eulogies only, for no country is impeccable. Besides, she most likely would have written about both positive and negative aspects of Korean culture and society. Why then, do we see only the negative descriptions of Korea in her book? Why do we cling to unreciprocated love and force her to fall in love with Korea?

 

Perhaps we are too sensitive and thus tend to overreact to criticism, especially when it comes from foreigners. But only an immature person wants constant praise and cannot tolerate criticism. It is important that we cultivate the capacity and generosity to embrace honest and unbiased critique from outsiders. Unfortunately some foreigners, unfamiliar with the above-mentioned Korean psyche, end up unintentionally disappointing their Korean friends and are left with no choice but to leave Korea in frustration. This is how and when we lose our precious foreign friends who could have been so reliable and so pro-Korean otherwise.

 

Another thing we should avoid is "celebrating something in advance" or "popping the champagne too early." Recently, the press offered loud fanfare every day, as if the Naro spaceship project had already been a huge success even before the actual launch. Seriously lacking discretion, the media boasted that South Korea would be an official member of the "space club" soon. While watching the primetime television news that was full of stories about spaceship Naro day after the day, many people complained pleadingly, "Please don't overdo it!" The repeated loud trumpet blast made tired viewers and when the project turned out to be a failure, people clicked their tongues, muttering cynically, "I knew it!"

 

Indeed, Korean mass media has a serious problem of exaggerating and overdoing something that can be just news. For example, while other countries are relatively quiet about the outbreak of H1N1, the Korean news media seems to vastly exaggerate the outbreak of the virus, thereby expanding unnecessary fear throughout the country. It is a well-known fact that pneumonia is much more fatal than H1N1, and healthy people do not need to fear the swine flu. However, our media incessantly scares the general public as if H1N1 was so deadly.

 

There are other things we should consider to avoid. Recently, for instance, our newspaper reports included a colleague of mine at Seoul National University on the list of possible candidates for the next prime minister. Then the newspapers hastily added that the professor is considered primarily because he is from Chungcheong Province, which could possibly play a decisive role in the next election. But is it not true that one should be considered for his competence and ability, and not merely for his hometown? The professor on the list is a well-qualified candidate for the position in many respects. Why then, do we have to consider where he is from in the first place and put such importance on this fact?

 

Living in the 21st century, we come to realize that there are things we must avoid and abandon in order to truly become global citizens in a truly advanced country. We need to boldly cut the cord and transcend the gravity that is constantly pulling us down. Only then will we be able to fly and soar into the sky.

 

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 JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

THE BITTER TASTE OF SUGAR

 

For much of the past decade, especially in 2002, 2004 and 2008, the main problem plaguing Indonesia’s sugar industry was smuggled imports, as the global market glut forced suppliers to dump their stocks on other countries, including Indonesia, a major importer.  

 

Over the past six months, though, the main issue has been the impact of the doubling of international sugar prices to as high as US$610 per ton, caused by a severe global shortage. Consequently, local sugar prices have risen steeply to Rp 10,000 ($1) per kilogram.  

 

Commodity markets are inherently volatile, especially for agricultural produce, whose supply is strongly influenced by the weather, a factor largely beyond the control of even modern farms in developed countries, while consumption is mostly on the rise due to population growth or stagnant at the worst.  

 

We are therefore vulnerable to the shocks caused by the volatility in the market of such widely consumed foods as rice, sugar and soybeans. We may still remember how in early 2008 sky-high prices forced thousands of producers of fermented soybean cakes in Java to threaten to stop production, to the horror of millions of consumers who love the snack.  

 

We have by and large achieved self-sufficiency in rice but still depend on imports for more than 60 percent of our soybean consumption, 10 percent of corn and 30 percent of beef.  

 

But even the rice self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted because we may suddenly face a big shortage next year due to poor harvests caused by bad weather or pest attacks.  

 

With an annual production of 2.6-2.8 million tons of refined cane sugar, we are actually already self-sufficient in sugar for household use. The remaining shortage of 2 million tons consists mostly of raw and refined sugar for industrial use, which is usually imported.  

 

The government is fully aware of the phenomenon of market fluctuation, as can be seen from its control of sugar imports through tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect sugarcane farmers from the adverse impact of global market volatility.  

 

But as long as we remain dependent on imports for almost 40 percent of our sugar needs, the domestic sugar market will always be at the mercy of the vagaries of the global market.  

 

But again, it is impossible, especially for such a large archipelagic country as Indonesia, to completely insulate the domestic market from global market developments, as happened over the last seven months.  

 

Due to the sky-high prices overseas, industrial sugar users, which usually import to fulfill their needs, shifted their purchases to the domestic market, thereby pushing up the prices of sugar for household use.  

 

Since a lack of farm infrastructure and technology (high-yielding varieties) will allow only for an incremental increase in sugar output, and while consumption will rise steadily due to population growth and income improvement, the problem cannot be solved from the supply side alone.  

As with the food security problem, it is better for the government to embark on a nationwide campaign to reduce the nation’s dependence on refined sugar as dietary source of carbohydrates by promoting dietary substitutes such as vegetables and other agricultural produce, and at the same time implement a contingency program to distribute subsidized sugar to the poor.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

MALAYSIA’S TOURISM VIDEO AND THE STOLEN INDONESIAN CULTURE

MARIO RUSTAN

 

At first I thought it was a slow news day. When a news program was broadcasting an item titled “Indonesian culture robbed by Malaysia”, I watched it in mute mode, admiring scenes of Chinese girls eating laksa and going shopping, in another Malaysia tourism video.

 

The next day, the stealing claim seemed justified. The stolen culture in question was the Pendet dance from Bali, which in no way would reach Malaysia through shared Malayan culture or through Javanese and Bugis migrants.

 

Until today, voices condemning Malaysia are still being aired, with professors and political scientists saying Malaysia has no indigenous culture and thus has some sort of inferiority complex, and thus is stealing Indonesian culture. Furthermore, many learned Indonesians sneer at Malaysia’s tourism slogan, “Truly Asia”, saying that it’s nonsense and proves that Malaysia has no true identity.

 

This newspaper, however, pointed out that “Truly Asia” means that Malaysia is a one-stop destination for tourists wishing to see Southeast Asian, Chinese and Indian cultures. Some Indonesian condemners may still be unaware of Malaysia’s multiple-ethnicities, while others may deliberately ignore it and feel more comfortable with the view that Malaysia is a Malay nation. As for the Pendet case, it turns out the video was made by a private production house that just copied and pasted several fun tourism images, without any intention of malice.

 

I found proof about the “Truly Asia” slogan on my arrival at Kuala Lumpur: The taxi got lost and I couldn’t get through to my friend’s phone — at sunrise on an empty suburban road. I tried to ask for directions from several strangers. The first one were an elderly Chinese couple who didn’t speak English or Malay. The second were a couple of Indian garbage men who spoke broken English. The Malay taxi driver preferred to talk in English as our Malay dialects were incomprehensible to each other.

 

Finally he got the address from a Malay youth. I found the house in time for breakfast, ready to feast on wonderful Malaysian food, especially Chinese peranakan dishes, such as laksa and nasi lemak, and Indian drinks like teh tarik and susu bandung.

 

Many Indonesians in Malaysia must consume an unfunny old joke. In the courtyard before the Petronas Tower one night, my host said we should avoid the dark spots otherwise we could be robbed by “your countrymen”.

 

This newspaper had received some complaints from Malaysians that said the Indonesian media and people never talked about the violent crimes carried out by Indonesians in Malaysia. We retaliated by pointing out that Noordin M. Top is a Malaysian national, and some have even gone so far to suggest that he was planted by the Malaysian government to ruin the Indonesian tourism industry.

 

In fact, there is no culture war and no tourism war between Malaysia and Indonesia. Malaysia’s biggest rival in attracting tourists is Singapore, and thus Malaysia’s promos offer similar things that Singapore offers – vibrant nightlife, glorious food, Formula 1 racing and great shopping experiences. Do our tourism promos cover those things? Malaysians count Singapore as their dreadful rival, and hardly think of Indonesia, which is on a different class.  

 

Indonesia’s hatred for Malaysia has been around since the 1960s, probably earlier. Malaysia is the political opposite of Indonesia. It had good relations with its British colonizer, it is a federation, a parliamentary monarchy, and it is never interested in  socialism. After peace returned with the creation of the ASEAN bloc, both governments tried to convince the people that Indonesians and Malaysians were brothers of the same stock.

 

This effort held until the 21st century, when Malaysian economic progress left Indonesian behind, and more learned Indonesians are embracing Sukarno-style zero-sum nationalism. The real story is still the same after 40 years — distract one’s woes by creating and hating a foreign enemy.

 

As often stressed by other writers, some cultural items that we have claimed were “robbed” by Malaysia are not exclusively Indonesian. Batik is a common throughout Southeast Asia, and a top batik brand wrote in its coffee table book that batik had been influenced for centuries by Chinese, Indian, Arabic, European and Japanese designs.

 

Musical instruments like the angklung and gamelan are also common throughout Southeast Asia.

 

Wayang is hardly Indonesian — the hide puppets originated from mainland SE Asia, and there are similar storytelling arts in China, Japan and Europe. When Miss Indonesia dressed as Srikandi, she dressed as a Hindu — and Indian — character still revered religiously in India and Malaysia.

 

As for the disputed isles, I think it’s ridiculous if white collar men in Jakarta could get upset reading the news about Ambalat, and yet the next minute they are making backstabbing remarks about fellow Indonesians from outside Java. Disputed territories are hardly unique — Japanese and Koreans fight over a rock and on the naming of the sea between their nation and Cambodia had an anti-Thai riot because of a temple located nearby the modern borderlines.

 

We claim Malaysia has an inferiority complex, and yet the problem is our own. Of course, Malaysia is guilty of ignorance and laziness in making its tourism commercials, but it’s pointless and confusing to dwell on one objectionable frame and continue to fuss about it.

 

We accuse Malaysia of disrespecting us because deep inside we feel that our supposed “brother” has left us behind with its decent standard of living, global brands (e.g. Air Asia, Maxis, Petronas and Michelle Yeoh) and good investment reputation. Russians have had similar problems with former USSR states, and Chinese netizens have grudges with the Japanese and Americans. In all three cases, past history is always offered for justification of hatred, as we’re closing in to 2010.

 

But Malaysia is also having similar internal strife. As its Chinese and Indian populations become more politically involved, harassment and foul plays also increase. Malaysian politicians have become increasingly comical and ridiculous in acting as defenders of Muslims and Malays, and its political and religious freedoms are far below Indonesia.

 

Flying the Indonesian flag on your product and wallpaper, while condemning Malaysia on your Twitter and T-shirt, won’t solve anything. Malaysia never thinks about those tourism commercials and they know that Noordin M. Top is a Malaysian hiding in Indonesia because he couldn’t survive in Malaysia.

 

We can accept that the crime rate in Indonesia is high — so it makes sense that many Indonesians in Malaysia are involved in violent crimes.

 

If you want more tourists to visit Indonesia, stop sending the message that you dislike foreigners. If you want Pertamina to become a global brand like Petronas, and to have Formula One held in Indonesia, study and follow their steps. If you find an item on the Internet demeaning Indonesia, ignore it and move on with your own priorities.  Stop getting so angry about trivial things so easily when we have potential to do great things for ourselves.


The writer graduated with honors from La Trobe University, Australia.

 

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

CASE FOR TAX CUTS

 

It is absolutely right for the State Administration of Taxation to standardize collection of personal income taxes. But the timing is inopportune, as this comes when more tax incentives are badly needed to boost domestic consumption.

 

The tax authorities issued a notice on Monday to clear the confusion over implementation of policies concerning personal income taxes.

 

Such an effort to increase tax collection will not only ensure fairness of taxation but also contribute to the country's fiscal strength.

 

China has witnessed rapid revenue growth from personal income tax for more than a decade as people earned more and more each year. The total amount of personal income tax collection zoomed from a lowly 7.3 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in 1994 to 372.2 billion in 2008. And, the proportion of revenue from personal income tax in total tax revenue also increased from 1.4 percent to 6.4 percent.

 

At a time when the country is fighting a global recession with a pro-active fiscal policy among other stimulus measures, it is fully understandable that the tax officials are eager to see a certain increase in tax revenues to guarantee the government's fiscal sustainability.

 

However, any effort to raise taxes at this stage, particularly those for individual consumers, appears to be ill-timed as the country is trying hard to move away from its dependence on investment and export for economic growth.

 

It was reported that the latest move would raise the tax some people have to pay for the so-called "double salary" or the thirteenth month salary as year end bonus.

 

The increase in personal income tax may be marginal, but it sends a wrong signal which can result in much bigger damage on consumers' enthusiasm to spend than the good it can do.

 

Chinese officials must have had a taste of the wonders that tax cuts can work to boost domestic consumption.

 

For instance, by halving the purchase tax on passenger cars to 5 percent for models with engine displacements of less than 1.6 liters in January, Chinese policymakers triggered a boom in sales that has rendered the domestic auto market into the world's biggest one so far this year, to the surprise of all.

 

Though domestic consumption held up comparatively well in a year when most consumers in rich nations are cutting expenditure, it is still not good enough to fuel a consumer-centric recovery in China.

 

Under the circumstances that overseas demand is unlikely to rebound soon and investment growth is too fast to sustain, domestic consumption must be further boosted to stoke economic growth.

 

To that end, the tax authorities should come up with more incentives, not disincentives, for individual consumers to spend.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

COLLAPSE OF STANDARDS

 

Every time they brag about higher education, the limelight is on scale. Making college education accessible to more is of course something to be proud of.

 

Yet, to be honest, that is only about size. Now, after those years of fanatic expansion, we would rather hear the Ministry of Education talk more about quality. We know it can be embarrassing. But that is something the education authorities cannot evade.

 

When a former Communist Party chief of the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) says that "characterlessness almost becomes a common characteristic of our colleges," we are sure he is being polite. We have no intention of discussing how much worse the real picture is here. But the USTC professor's analysis is worth examination by those in charge. Bureaucratization, he points out, is the root cause of the degeneration of Chinese colleges.

 

The system's "visible hand," he says, is the foremost killer of distinct personalities. Without genuine academic autonomy, independent personalities are out of the question. Poorly conceived inspections and competitions imposed by administrative authorities have not only distracted institutions of higher learning from their educational responsibilities, but imposed uniform criteria of excellence on a business where there is no such thing as one size fits all.

 

Things would not be that bad should the "visible hand" intervene only from the outside. The truth is that colleges are being run like any other bureaucracy, where intellectual pursuits are subordinated to administrative ambition.

 

That those running institutions of higher learning are ignorant of, disregard, or cannot follow the rules of education as a profession, according to the USTC professor, is another important reason for the state of our colleges. The predominance of anti-intellectual factors on college campuses not only deprive our institutions of higher learning of academic vitality, but provide catalysts for academic corruption. College campuses no longer fit the once revered status of an "ivory tower". Such open secrets as copying, plagiarizing and bribe-taking are as prevalent as other forms of corruption. And, these are taken for granted as the "tacit rules" of business.

 

Indeed, fraudulent academic practices are too widespread to surprise or shock anyone. But it is quite another matter for them to be treated as acceptable.

 

We have been hearing lamentations about the falling quality of higher education and against academic corruption all these years. And, once in a while, vows to have changes made are also heard. But, forgive us for being impatient, we are yet to see substantial difference.

 

We understand the challenge, complexity, and difficulties of managing a mammoth national education system. But that is no reason to look on while obvious problems persist.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

THREE IS COMPANY IN JOURNEY FOR REGIONAL STABILITY

 

As widely expected, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) registered a landslide victory over the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in the Aug 30 election to the lower house of parliament (Diet), giving birth to a new era in Japanese politics.

 

But it remains to be seen whether Japan will embrace real party politics, which requires checks and balances between the ruling and opposition parties.

 

It is difficult to predict how the DPJ will fare as a ruling party under new political circumstances and global financial crisis.

 

The Chinese people and media seem to have welcomed the DPJ victory. The main reason for that is the DPJ's declaration in its election manifesto that "visits to the Yasukuni Shrine by a Japanese prime minister are problematic".

 

Yukio Hatoyama, DPJ leader and most likely to become prime minister, made his party's stance clearer before the election, saying: "If we become the ruling party, our leaders will not visit the Yasukuni Shrine, nor intervene in China's domestic affairs."

 

The Yasukuni Shrine honors Class-A World War II criminals alongside Japan's war dead.

 

No matter who becomes Japan's new prime minister, the Diet will continue its policy of "positive realism" toward China. The policy includes issues such as US-Japanese alliance, participation in East Asian affairs, regional economic interdependence, the Taiwan question, territorial disputes and cooperative exploration in the East China Sea.

 

Sino-Japanese ties should be interpreted according to the "dynamics" of US-China-Japan relations because it would provide a crucial framework for Tokyo's national interests and stability in East Asia. A lot, however, depends on how efficiently China, Japan and the United States put that policy into practice.

 

A relatively strong US-Japan alliance and very stable China-Japan ties will help the three countries deal with problems in East Asia. The region is undergoing a dynamic process, with the economic and political prowess of China and Japan matching each other for the first time in history. Under such circumstances, social interactions can only be mutually beneficial.

 

But there is always the fear that incidents such as last year's contaminated dumplings' scare could mar Sino-Japanese ties temporarily. Chinese and Japanese both tend to react emotionally to such incidents.

 

When Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, visited East Asia in February on her first foreign tour after assuming office, her itinerary brought the skeptic out in many a Japanese politician and analyst.

 

They feared that the US would "bypass" Japan to cooperate with China directly to build a day-to-day interactive relationship.

 

Clinton visited Japan first and China last, stopping in the Republic of Korea (ROK) in between, trying to assure the Japanese that a shift in American policy toward US-China-Japan relations was not imminent.

 

The US-Japanese alliance will continue to dominate Washington's strategy in East Asia because China's economic rise and the fast pace of its development are considered to be the largest uncertainty for US predominant power and influence even beyond the region. Nonetheless, these are not ideological but pragmatic concerns, based on the "calculation" of US national interest.

 

The present US administration is trying to "silently contain" China through dialogues, a functional cooperation on climate change and bilateral trade, and issues such as the value of the yuan and regional security, including the denuclearzation of the Korean Peninsula.

 

The first US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue held in Washington in July could be seen as a "strategic progress", even though its achievement was mainly symbolic. Since the development of US-China ties does not go against Japanese foreign policy, decision-makers in Tokyo should seek ways to co-exist peacefully.

 

Sino-Japanese relations can stabilize in an interactively harmonious "political atmosphere". The Yasukuni issue is the "bottom line" in Sino-Japanese ties. Japanese leaders should understand that it is not only its domestic matter. And they should know that their visits to the shrine could "freeze" communications between Chinese and Japanese peoples and neutralize the gains made through years of painstaking efforts.

 

The call of the times is for politicians of the two countries to learn from history and adopt a realistic approach to stabilize bilateral ties.

 

The author is a Japanese columnist in China.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

LONG WAY TO ONLINE GOVERNANCE

 

Though governments at almost all levels in China have built their own web pages with increasing enthusiasm in recent years, there is still room for improvement. This is the finding of some officials, netizens and experts.

 

Given the large number - 50,000-plus government websites - the Internet has in fact become indispensable for providing effective and efficient governance, according to Professor Wang Yukai from China National School of Administration.

 

Still, these websites are facing challenges as more and more people take these as channels for seeking from the government answers and solutions to personal issues, concerns and complaints.

 

"The old mindset of governance must be changed from controlling and managing to providing services because on the one hand, the Internet is beyond government full control, while on the other hand, the government can improve its image, increase people's satisfaction, ensure social stability and sustain economic growth by developing a responsible online presence," Wang said.

 

An often mistaken idea by the government and its officials is that it's the Internet that brings so many complaints from people against their work. Rather, the complaints expose work failures that were covered up in the past.

 

Judged by the number of government websites, almost every county and many townships have established their official websites, but their service quality is spotty.

 

"Geographically, government websites of cities in eastern areas are better than those in central and western China," Wang said.

 

Governments in relatively more prosperous areas have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with the locals through the Internet. They offer more useful and convenient public service and release information in time through the Internet while the web serves as a speedy and efficient driving force for economic growth.

 

But the situation is not that promising in less developed regions in central and western China. In Wang's opinion, underdevelopment and lack of infrastructure in these areas are to blame.

 

Such an imbalance has been causing inconvenience to many, such as a netizen called Fan Ge who now works as a chef in Foshan of Guangdong province.

 

"Government's online service in Foshan is much more helpful, like guiding me to finish place-to-place residence registration, than in my hometown," Fan said in a message left online about his experience.

 

Besides geographical imbalance, many government websites were suspected of being image-building projects on which visitors can hardly find useful information or helpful administrative solutions to their problems.

 

Many websites run by local governments lack timely updates. News on these websites may be months or even years old. And, it could be difficult for people to seek public services, such as applying for a business license, through these seldom-maintained websites. Moreover, some sites, like those of the price and education bureaus of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, were once redirected by hackers to porn pages.

 

Some government websites' operational failure reveals how important people are in the scheme of some officials. Some experts say these officials used to be controllers and they are a world away from being sincere civil servants.

 

Yet there are government websites that have won great applause.

 

Last August, Chen Jianhua, Party chief of the city of Heyuan, Guangdong province, opened his real name e-mail box, asking for all kinds of opinion and soon became popular.

 

Chen's box was filled up and updated with people's letters, asking for investigation of unfair situations, appealing for government help, or offering suggestions for urban management. These letters were either handed over to relevant functional departments or answered by Chen himself.

 

In a recent letter, a local resident named Pan Jin complained to Chen about the unfair treatment he got in a years-long unsolved property dispute involving corrupt local officials. Pan found that based on his complaints, an investigation was launched within seven days of his letter to Chen.

 

Doubtless, because of Chen, Heyuan's e-government has run well and become a good example. But can we promote this in other places across the country? "Establishing and implementing the laws and regulations are the best way to improve governments' online service as relevant authorities will thus be bound by their legal responsibility rather than individual moral obligation," Wang said.

 

If information openness is one side of the e-government coin, then information security is the other side, Wang warned, citing the great loss suffered by the country' s steel industry in a recent espionage case.

 

"A big difference between China and other economies is that we have many State-owned enterprises that are vital to our national economy, and information about them should be treated as secrets; and, that's what we didn't do well in the past," Wang said.

 

"In formulating laws and regulation for e-government projects, it is essential for people in charge to consider all three facets - transparency, efficiency and security," Wang added.

 

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Posted by Editorial Samarth at 9/02/2009 04:44:00 PM

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