EDITORIAL 19.11.09

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Editorial

month november 19, edition 000354, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

Editorial is syndication of all daily- published newspaper's Editorial at one place.

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THE PIONEER

1. NEEDLESS MEDDLING BY US
2. DEATH FOR DEMOCRACY
3. TO PLEASE CHINA, US SLIGHTS INDIA - SHOBORI GANGULI
4. REMINISCENT OF PRE-1947 ERA - RN CHAWLA
5. LOOKING FOR NEW ICONS - GAUTAM MUKHERJEE
6. NO YOU CAN'T WIN THIS WAR - DMITRY KOSYREV
7. LOBBYING NOT NECESSITY SECURES HEALTH AID - PHILIP STEVENS

MAIL TODAY

1. OBAMA'S CARDS ARE THERE FOR ALL TO SEE
2. CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE
3. BREAK THE DEADLOCK - BY SUDIPTO MUNDLE
4. TAKING ON THE TRYING DEVILS OF THE BRAIN  - DINESH C. SHARMA

TIMES OF INDIA

1. NO NEED TO PANIC
2. THAW IN THE VALLEY
3. HIGHWAY TO HELL - MICHELLE YEOH
4. IF LATER, WHY NOT NOW?
5. ONE STEP AT A TIME - KAURVAKI RAO
6. IT'S NOT IN THE NAME - YAMINI
7. THE TIGER BITES A LION - BACHI KARKARIA 

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. DANCE WITH THE DRAGON
2. GET IN THE HENPIT!
3. KINDLY DO NOT ADJUST - SAMAR HALARNKAR
4. THAT SINKING FEELING - UTTAM KUMAR SINHA

INDIAN EXPRESS

1. ON THE ROAD
2. THE VOTE TEST
3. PROOF'S IN THE PAYMENT
4. CONFLICTS OF DISINTEREST - SOLI J. SORABJEE
5. NO LONGER SHIP TO MOUTH - YOGINDER K. ALAGH
6. A CONDITIONAL CHARITY - JAVED ANAND
7. 'IN DIFFICULT TIMES, THE COMMUNISTS WILL HAVE TO SHOW REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMISM' - MANOJ C G
8. VIEW FROM THE RIGHT - SUMAN K JHA
9. HIGHER THAN THE WALL - KUNAL PRADHAN

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. SMALL SAVINGS ARE BIG SAVING
2. WINTER OF REFORM?
3. DON'T RELY ON PROVIDENCE FOR PENSION - MANISH SABHARWAL
4. ADS ARE FINDING THEIR ONLINE FEET - NIKHIL PAHWA
5. ADDING VALUE TO DTH - SUDIPTA DATTA
6. REPORT CARD

THE HINDU

1. SHAKING HANDS WITH CLENCHED FIST
2. MAKE PICTURES SPEAK
3. THE GAINS FROM MASKING REALITY - MRINAL PANDE
4. AN ACTION PLAN FOR THE FUTURE  - MOHAN DHARIA
5. THE "M" FACTOR IN BRITISH POLITICS - HASAN SUROOR
6. THE STRANGE DEATH OF ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING - VICTOR KEEGAN
7. NEW REALITIES FOR ANCIENT TIMBUKTU - ANDREW HARDING

THE ASIAN AGE

1. JUST STAND FIRM WITH US, CHINA
2. LEGISLATOR HAAZIR HO! - SOMNATH CHATTERJEE
3. MINORITY REPORT - BY NITISH SENGUPTA
4. I BELIEVE IN PUJAS - NIKHIL DWIVEDI
5. LEBANON: A TWO-ACT TRAGEDY IN WEST ASIA - BY S. NIHAL SINGH

DNA

1. LIVING LONGER
2. PLAYING IT SAFE
3. COPENHAGEN CAPERS
4. CRACK THE LANGUAGE CODE  - E RAGHAVAN
5. PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF

THE TRIBUNE

1. LIMITS OF POWER
2. A MATTER OF CONCERN
3. HIGHLY CORRUPT
4. PRICE RISE IS ALARMING - BY JAYSHREE SENGUPTA
5. CYCLING IN CHICAGO - BY RAJNISH WATTAS
6. LEFT PARTIES MUST CORRECT THEIR MISTAKES, SAYS BARDHAN
7. COOPERATE TO COMBAT TERRORISM - BY MIKE SMITH

THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

1. SILLY POINT
2. FIRE SERVICE
3. PEACE PROSPECTS IN ASSAM - SHIBDAS BHATTACHARJEE
4. THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY - DR MAINA SARMA

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. A LESSON FROM SAMSUNG
2. UNFAIR COMPETITION
3. BOW-RACK OBA-MAO
4. CRY FREEDOM IS SOUND MUSIC - MANOJ NAIR
5. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ASIA'S RISE - JANMEJAYA SINHA
6. BRING INNOCENCE INTO YOUR LIFE - PARAMAHAMSA NITHYANANDA
7. EROSION OF BRAND HALO IS NOT THE CASE
8. INTERESTS OF CONSUMERS HAVE LONG BEEN IGNORED
9. HAS TELCO TARIFF WAR HURT BIG BRANDS?
10. NO SLOWDOWN IN SILVER DEMAND - NIDHI NATH SRINIVAS
11. SHARING SPECTRUM: IMPROVING TELECOM SERVICES REQUIRE PROACTIVE PLANNING - JAIDEEP MISHRA
12. 'MY FILMS ARE ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE, HENCE THEY ARE DOCU-FEATURES' - ASHOKE NAG
13. BORN-AGAIN CSE TO DOUBLE ITS TURNOVER - ANURADHA HIMATSINGKA
14. NO HURRY TO CHANGE TRADE TIMINGS: NSE - ASHWIN J PUNNEN

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. JUST STAND FIRM WITH US, CHINA
2. AMERICANS LIVING IN A FOOL'S PARADISE? - BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
3. LEBANON: A TWO-ACT TRAGEDY IN WEST ASIA  - BY S. NIHAL SINGH
4. LEGISLATOR HAAZIR HO!
5. MINORITY REPORT  - BY NITISH SENGUPTA
6. AN EVERYDAY AMERICAN GIRL  - BY MAUREEN DOWD

the statesman

1. COPENHAGEN TRANSIT
2. OVERBLOWN BOW
3. RURAL CONFESSIONS
4. BIRDS TALK TO SIGNAL PREDATORS!
5. MIDDLE EAST DOLDRUMS - SALMAN HAIDAR

THE TELEGRAPH

1. TOKEN UNIVERSITY
2. WILFUL EXIT
3. FROM DREAM TO REALITY - N.K. SINGH
4. STILL THE SAME  - DIPANKAR BOSE
5. NEW EXPERIMENTS TO CURE AN OLD MALAISE - B. VENKATESH KUMAR

DECCAN HERALD

1. SHOCKING LAPSES
2. RIGHT REVIEW
3. THE US-CHINA TANGO - BY ALKA ACHARYA
4. MISSING LINKS IN PPP FOR EDUCATION - BY M R NARAYANA
5. 'HING' BRINGS THE ZING - BY AMBUJA NARAYAN

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. WRONG ON WATER
2. FUNDAMENTALY FREUND: IT'S ANNEXATION TIME - MICHAEL FREUND
3. WASHINGTON WATCH: VOTE FOR ME, I'M A LOSER - DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELD
4. CANDIDLY SPEAKING: VIGILANCE WANTED, APPLY WITHIN - ISI LEIBLER
5. A WHEELLESS CART BEFORE A LAME HORSE - ZALMAN SHOVAL

HAARETZ

1. DIVIDED LOYALTY IN THE IDF
2. THE FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT AG  - BY ARI SHAVIT
3. WHY HAS THE LEFT IN ISRAEL VANISHED? - BY YITZHAK LAOR
4. ERADICATING POLITICIZATION - BY ISRAEL HAREL
5. SA'AR'S OFFICERS - BY NA'AMA SHEFFI

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. MR. OBAMA'S TASK
2. INDIVIDUALISM, IDENTITY AND BICYCLES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA - BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG
3. THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY - BY NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
4. THE BREAST BROUHAHA - BY GAIL COLLINS
5. THE SENATE'S HEALTH CARE CALCULATIONS - BY ANDREW GELMAN, NATE SILVER AND DANIEL LEE
6. HAVE WORK, WILL TRAVEL - BY AYDEN FABIEN FÉRDELINE

I.THE NEWS

1. CRYPTOGRAMS
2. IDPS AND WINTER
3. THE RAPE REGISTER
4. LEAVE AFGHANISTAN ALONE - ZAFAR HILALY
5. IT'S THE STUPIDITY, STUPID - ZAFAR KHALID FAROOQ
6. LOOKING BEYOND THE NRO - IKRAM SEHGAL
7. WHO WILL SAVE PAKISTAN? - SARDAR MUMTAZ ALI BHUTTO
8. STATE BEHIND SHADOWS - KAMILA HYAT
9. LIVING BEYOND MEANS - TAYYAB SIDDIQUI

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN FIGHTING TERROR
2. US, CHINA CAN HELP IMPROVE INDO-PAK TIES
3. GROWING CORRUPTION
4. OPERATION WAZIRISTAN: AN OVERVIEW - BILAL ZUBAIR
5. FOREIGN POLICY IN REGIONAL CONTEXT - SYEDA HIRA NAQVI
6. UNDERSTANDING THE ROOT CAUSE  - DR SYED JAVED HUSSAIN
7. INTRUSION THROUGH THE AIR - MAHMOOD HUSSAIN
8. NEW STATE MINISTRIES..! - ROBERT CLEMENTS

THE INDEPENDENT

1. BETTER CPI RANKING
2. OBAMA'S CHINA TRIP
3. ABIDE WITH ME...! - ROBERT CLEMENTS
4. IMPROVING OUR ROAD COMMUNICATION PLAN - MAJOR SYED MUAMMAD SHAMEEM, (RETD)
5. AFRICA'S HUNGRY MOUTHS TELL GRIM STORY - TAREQUL ISLAM MUNNA
6. CONCEPT OF JUSTICE IN ISLAM - ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

THE AUSTRALIAN

1. WHEN KRISHNA MET TRISHNA
2. PREPARING THE GROUND FOR SECOND-TERM REFORM

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. SBY - AND WHY NOT
2. OLYMPIC COUCH POTATOES
3. TWINS SHINE A LIGHT ON PROGRESS
4. SPORT MEANS MORE THAN MEDALS

THE GURDIAN

1. QUEEN'S SPEECH II: A TIN EAR ON POLITICAL REFORM
2. IN PRAISE OF… THE WOW FACTOR AT THE MOVIES
3. QUEEN'S SPEECH I: JAW-JAW AND LAW-LAW

THE KOREA HERALD

1. NOT TOO AMBITIOUS
2. MORE TO AFGHANISTAN?
3. WOMEN TO FURTHER EUROPEAN DREAM: ROBINSON, LAGARDE - JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE
2. TEMPERED ECONOMIC OPTIMISM
3. WRONG WAY TO HALT WARMING - BY DAVID HOWELL
4. OBAMA'S VIETNAM SYNDROME - BY JONATHAN SCHELL

THE JAKARTA POST

1. THE ROLE MODEL FOR POLITICIANS: ADM. NELSON - C.G. MOGHE
2. CONFRONTING THE THREAT OF UNCIVIL SOCIETY IN SE ASIA - TAN SEE SENG
3. ASEAN AND THE CAMBODIA-THAILAND ROW - HUALA ADOLF
4. CRACK OPEN THE BANK SCANDAL

CHINA DAILY

1. MANAGE DONATIONS WELL
2. LESSONS ON EDUCATION
3. CHINA OFFERS NEW GROWTH PATTERN
4. DIMINISHING ROLE OF US ROLE MODEL

  THE MOSCOW TIMES

1. TERRORISM ON THE ROADS - BY GEORGE ROBERTSON
2. GORBACHEV IS THE LAST 20TH-CENTURY WILSONIAN - BY FYODOR LUKYANOV

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

NEEDLESS MEDDLING BY US

INDIA-PAKISTAN TIES NOT AMERICA'S CONCERN

Indications of a certain chill in Washington, DC towards New Delhi have been there ever since US President Barack Obama began enunciating his foreign policy, especially on American engagement with Pakistan and Afghanistan. That chill has now begun to take form and shape by way of the Obama Administration seeking to turn the clock back and re-hyphenating India and Pakistan while re-strategising the US's perceived role in South Asian affairs. It would appear that Mr Obama is unimpressed by his predecessor's vigorous efforts — which were successful to a great extent — to free US-India relations from Washington's obsession with Islamabad and, in a sense, make it the cornerstone of American foreign policy in the region. Mr George W Bush saw merit in India emerging as a power and thus as a countervailing force not only to China but the surge in reckless and destructive Islamism, which is not limited to jihadis blowing up Pakistan bit by bit, in South Asia and beyond. He saw India's rise as a stabilising factor, a success story which others would want to emulate. Mr Obama clearly believes otherwise. He neither wishes to see democratic, stable and progressive India rise in the global market nor emerge as a countervailing force in the region. Like other Democrats who have occupied the White House before him, he takes a rather bleak view of India and sees this country as being worthy of no more than being equated with an imploding Pakistan whose decrepit US-dependent regime has been reduced to a caricature despite billions of dollars in American aid. It is this perception which propelled Mr Obama to raise and discuss India's conduct of bilateral relations with Pakistan when he met China's President Hu Jintao and show cynical indifference towards Indian sensitivities by agreeing to the inclusion of a gratuitous, if not patronising, comment on the issue in the Joint Statement that followed Tuesday's meeting. What makes it particularly offensive is that Mr Obama has chosen to do so virtually on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's state visit to the US.

Mr Obama is free to discuss the future of Pakistan and Afghanistan with anybody he wishes; it is for those countries to deal with America's proclivity for rude and crude intrusive diplomacy. But he must not presume that the US has the right to either preach to India on how it should deal with Pakistan or, along with China, play a monitoring role in the "improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan" which is strictly a bilateral issue. Indeed, if truth be told, "peace, stability and development in South Asia" has long been hampered by flawed American policy and China's relentless pursuit of strategic clout at any cost. It is laughable that Mr Obama and Mr Hu should make pious observations on non-proliferation and call for a world free of nuclear weapons — the US is guilty of turning a blind eye to unfettered nuclear proliferation by Pakistan while China's contribution to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal does not merit elaboration. It can be argued that Mr Obama had no other option but to kowtow to Mr Hu: A broke America kept afloat by China cannot but play second fiddle to Chinese ambition and keep Beijing in good humour. With its economy in free fall and its military floundering miserably in Afghanistan, America is deserving of our sympathy; some would even suggest we should pity the world's sole superpower for its sorry plight. But while the US is welcome to express its gratitude to China any which way it wishes, it should resist the temptation of doing so at India's expense.

 

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THE PIONEER

DEATH FOR DEMOCRACY

IRAN TO SEND PROTESTERS TO THE GALLOWS

It is shocking that authorities in Tehran have sentenced five pro-democracy protesters to death and handed down jail terms ranging from six months to 15 years to 81 others. The defendants have been tried on charges such as 'waging war against god', 'undertaking action against the country's security', 'indulging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic' and for 'having relations with anti-revolutionary, terrorist or Opposition groups'. It will be recalled that street protests had broken out in the aftermath of Iran's June 12 rigged presidential vote that gave President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a dubious victory. But the violence that Iranian authorities speak of was perpetrated by their own security personnel who tried their brutal best to break the backs of the protesters. Thousands of well-meaning Iranian citizens were beaten up, jailed and, if reports are to be believed, tortured in detention. Who can forget Neda Agha Soltan, the 26-year-old woman who was shot dead by Government thugs as she attended one of the protest rallies? It can neither be claimed that the protests were unjustified. There is overwhelming evidence to prove there were serious irregularities that merited investigation. Instead, the Guardian Council, comprising mullahs, that was supposed to look into complaints of fraud, expectedly upheld Mr Ahmadinejad's victory!

All of this does no good to Iran's image. In fact, everything that has taken place since the June 12 election has reinforced the perception that the Iranian regime is one that is draconian, has no place for dialogue and understanding, no patience for criticism and no space for freedom of expression. If people can be tried and condemned to death for something as laughable as 'waging war against god', it speaks extremely poorly of the mullah-propped regime. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was supposed to usher in an era in the history of the Iranian people that was to see the emergence of a 'model Islamic democracy'. What we have today is a theocratic state ruled by all-powerful mullahs and their stooges who do not tolerate either dissent or opposition. If Iran's aim was to become a source of inspiration for neighbouring Islamic states in the region, it has failed miserably. In many ways, it would be considered to be only a shade better than Taliban's Afghanistan. The people of Iran take great pride in their cultural and civilisational heritage, and justly so. But the path that their rulers have been treading is in stark contrast to Iran's ancient achievements. It would be an understatement to say that Iran needs to reform. Sterner measures against Iran by the international community are in order. But given the regime in Tehran, reformation is a distant dream.

 

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            THE PIONEER

COLUMN

TO PLEASE CHINA, US SLIGHTS INDIA

SHOBORI GANGULI

US President Barack Obama's China visit has put the writing on the wall in bold: China is the next superpower the world must watch out for. Clearly, the US realises there is little it can do to prevent China's phenomenal rise and growing influence; it has therefore decided to partner that growth. And, what better way than to use a presidential visit to Beijing to declare America's most serious geopolitical rival Asia's Big Boss and cozy up to a major global player in a rapidly multipolarising world. Admittedly, none can deny that China has been moving in that direction with very sure steps; it was only a matter of time before the US acknowledged that. Following his summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Mr Obama therefore said, "The Sino-US relationship has never been more important in our collective future."

Except, the declaration comes at a huge cost for India which, following the Indo-US nuclear deal, was being hailed as a strategic partner of the US, a counterbalance to China's alarming growth in the region and in the world. While the deal clearly mortgaged India's nuclear freedom, the Manmohan Singh Government drew false comfort from becoming a "strategic" partner of the US. Mr Obama's joint statement with Mr Hu now categorically indicates that far from being a possible counter-China presence in Asia India is, in fact, a subject of joint US-China monitoring, a perception Mr Obama has merely offered to "share" with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the latter's forthcoming visit to the US.

The Obama-Hu statement begs serious and immediate attention. In a highly inexplicable, unprovoked and offensive manner, the joint statement says both "support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan". The casualness with which India has once again been hyphenated with Pakistan is alarming, to say the least. It was indeed an arduous diplomatic drill for India during the 1999 Kargil conflict when the world in unison reprimanded two nuclear neighbours for baring their fangs at each other. However, global capitals soon realised that Indian restraint alone had prompted US intervention which forced Pakistan to back off. In the subsequent years, courtesy some hectic diplomacy by its leadership, India was able to convince the world that it was a mistake to measure the two nuclear armed states with the same yardstick. India's economic growth and political credibility in the decade that followed finally gave world powers the confidence to de-hyphenate the two South Asian neighbours and deal with India as an emerging global power and with Pakistan as a failed Talibanised state.

As a country that calls India a strategic partner — an unstated tool to contain Chinese hegemony — the US would have surely known what the re-hyphenation of India and Pakistan on Chinese soil meant. Mr Obama may be new in office but surely an American President cannot be ignorant enough about India's sensitivities to ask China — long seen as Pakistan's aide in its conflict with India, its prejudices and ploys no state secret — to monitor an arena in which Beijing itself has geopolitical stakes. Is Mr Obama not aware that had it not been for Chinese help Pakistan, a rogue state, would never have acquired a nuclear weapon? Is he also unaware that China is engaged in huge infrastructure building in northern Kashmir so that Pakistan maintains a strategic edge over India? This, apart from the infrastructure build-up along China's own disputed borders with India that have put a huge question mark on India-China relations of late.

Today the creator of a nuclear monster like Pakistan, with its own reasons to keep India down, has been entrusted the task of monitoring "good relations" between a failed state and a responsible democracy like India. Indeed, India's stature vis-à-vis Pakistan has been reset to 1998 when a US-China joint statement by Mr Bill Clinton and Mr Jiang Zemin, ordered the two to "resolve peacefully the difficult and long-standing differences between them, including the issue of Kashmir". Short of saying 'intervention' that statement had asserted that the US and China were "ready to assist in the implementation" of the resumption of dialogue between the two countries.

Times — and the language Americans would use with India — were to change in subsequent years, remarkably so after Mr Clinton's visit to India in March 2000. Notably, after a five-day visit to India, Mr Clinton stopped over in Islamabad only for a few hours. The de-hyphenation had begun. Then came 9/11. With a terror attack on US soil, American engagement in the Asian arena was to change forever, an engagement that would leave India only as a bystander. In hindsight, India's distance from what transpired in Afghanistan and Iraq and with what is now happening in Pakistan helped it stay above the conflict and prove to the world that the problem in South Asia is not an India-Pakistan border/territorial conflict but an alarmingly growing fundamentalist Islamic terror machinery that knows no borders.

Mr Obama's visit to China comes at a time when India-China relations are at their pre-1962 worst and when US-China relations are at their all-time best. In such a scenario, for an American President to discuss India with China in the context of peace, stability and sustainable development in the region is patently offensive. Agreed, Mr Obama has to keep China in good humour. After all, the American and Chinese economies have become so interlinked that all other issues, including meeting the Dalai Lama, must be kept on hold. The compulsion is more serious on the American side. Also, it is quite evident that Mr Obama's AfPak policy is headed nowhere. He is therefore seeking more partners in this theatre of conflict. By ceding China that strategic space the US can make a dignified exit out of a war it could never really fathom. The possible trade off: China minds Iran and North Korea.

In the process, if India's strategic stature just got dwarfed in Beijing it has only the Manmohan Singh Government to blame. For, its first tenure saw India sign off crucial political leverage with the US in an inexplicably rushed nuclear deal. Its second tenure has seen its abject failure to counter growing Chinese belligerence on the border issue. Laughably, instead of outright rejection or outrage India's feeble response to the China-US statement is that it is "committed to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through a peaceful bilateral dialogue…A third country role cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary."

 

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THE PIONEER

COLUMN

REMINISCENT OF PRE-1947 ERA

RN CHAWLA

This refers to the editorial, "Jamiat's insidious agenda" (November 5), Chandan Mitra's article, "Amma Tujhe Salaam!"(Cutting Ed, Foray, November 8) and Kanchan Gupta's write-up, "Proud to sing Vande Mataram" (Coffee Break, Agenda, November 8). The Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind's fatwa against the singing of Vande Mataram by Muslims has been rightly described as regressive. Muslims, by and large, have never hidden their ultimate motive to have a separate niche for themselves. If politicians choose to depend on their votes for short-term gains, it is their free choice.

In the pre-partition era, the two stalwarts of the Muslim movement in India Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Alama Iqbal clearly stated that Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations and cannot live together. This thesis became the main driving force for the creation of Pakistan. The landed aristocracy and other well-off segments of the Muslim community went to Pakistan. Those who stayed back in India did so not by choice but by chance. Perhaps the Congress dissuaded them from migrating as it saw in them a potential vote-bank. Be that as it may, they did not leave for Pakistan not out of patriotism or love for the motherland. For Muslims, then and now, Islam comes first and the country second. Pan-Islamism and not sovereign nation is primary to their world-view.
The other resolutions passed at the 30th general session of the Jamiat at Deoband — non-interference in minority affairs by the Government, no change in the madarsa education system, no providing 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures, condemning television and cinema as evil, etc — point to the same mindset that was witnessed before partition to wean Muslims away from the national mainstream. Our Union Home Minister P Chidambaram who had gone to attend the conference did not react to any of the resolutions passed but busied himself in voicing the feelings of Muslims over the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

When Pakistan was demanded by the Muslim League, Hindu leaders of the Congress termed it as a figment of imagination and said that the country would not be financially viable. But Pakistan proved to be a reality. Now when the dream of Rahmat Ali and others is being pursued through aggressive identity politics, one can only shudder at the shape of things unfolding. The silence of our 'intellectuals' and 'secularists' over the Vande Mataram fatwa is as scary as it is hypocritical.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

LOOKING FOR NEW ICONS

THE INFORMATION AGE HAS STRIPPED INDIVIDUALS OF EVERYTHING THAT WOULD MAKE THEM POPULAR HEROES IN AN ERA WHEN THERE WERE NO 24X7 TELEVISION CHANNELS AND THE INTERNET WAS PART OF SCIENCE FICTION. AS A RESULT, WE ARE FAST RUNNING OUT OF ICONS WHO CAN INSPIRE AND LEAD

GAUTAM MUKHERJEE

Technology, 24x 7 television, the Internet and the access of the information age may have put paid to the age of icons. Most that still exist belong to an earlier time when beauty and pulchritude, magnetism and charisma, could seep slowly into public consciousness, like candlelight. But those days are long gone, cut down to size by the magnificence of demystifying push-button access.

 

Richard Linklater, American filmmaker, recently wrote in Blackbook magazine of New York that, "An icon is someone who floats above the culture" that spawns him or her. Linklater, who is completing a film on Orson Welles, wisely does not try to define the term. He describes it though, writing: "When you're an icon, you're not just a person — you're a myth," and, "The supremely talented have a way of upending expectations".

India, in something of an existential crisis after just over six decades, clearly could do with new icons on its political firmament. The old ones, from legend, mythology, more recent history and the freedom movement, now seem anachronistic. And inducing their spark to fire our imaginations is not what it must have once been.

But since the age of iconography has irrevocably passed, it is hard to fill the perception of a leadership vacuum in the midst of a tumultuous democracy straining more than a little dangerously on a long leash of slack governance. The polity is behaving badly, frustrated perhaps for being a little lost.

No new icons of equivalent stature to the freedom fighters have sprung up since. Not even the children of midnight or thereabouts like Mrs Indira Gandhi who carried the political narrative forward to the relatively recent 80s. And though, she unarguably was, despite her despotic side, a staunch Indian patriot. But Mrs Indira Gandhi was also from the same drawer. She too was witness to the freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, like many of her colleagues, her legendary father, and all the other stalwarts from her father's and grandfather's time.

And during, as well as after her time, we have had several able leaders and functionaries, all contributors to the crucial business of nation building. But any among them that were indeed iconic, men such as Jayaprakash Narayan and Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, also came from that earlier era. There was, at the expense of sounding revisionist, a sense of mission and greater purpose that animated all these leaders which created an image that enabled them to rise and float above the culture they led.

Rajiv Gandhi, our youngest Prime Minister to date, had a worthwhile vision too, but, as it turned out, was persuaded too often against his better judgement by cynical vested interests. The disinterested stance of independence era leaders, conscious of the necessity for sacrifice, was also given short shrift by the Gucci wearing, Mercedes driving, young Prime Minister.

But he might have still achieved iconic status had he lived longer because the late 80s were still not swamped by technology. Perhaps the uncharismatic but erudite Narasimha Rao, his successor, was able to see through, what might have been at least partially Rajiv Gandhi's vision. And perhaps his success owed itself to over three decades of experience in the governmental labyrinth and much greater maturity of years.

But the transactional style, antithetical to iconic governance, had well and truly entrenched itself by Rao's tenure, symbolised by pictures and lengthy commentary on entire suitcase-fulls of cash being delivered hither and thither to shore up his Government.

But were the old icons benefited because of the stimulus of struggling against a mighty foreign colonial power? And those from the era of kings and emperors and epics of yore presumably lived with entirely loftier terms of reference. But who knows? Icons are a little "unknowable" says Linklater. He calls them perpetual "works in progress".

But is this all dead aspiration now? Our current leaders seem to have little time for the enunciation of a beneficial vision several sizes larger than themselves. Instead politics has become a sum total of manoeuvres in the name of strategy and wily tactics in the pursuit of pelf, power, perpetuation.

What has come in place of stature acquired through good work and slow release exposure is noisome promotion, publicity and manufactured hype, pumped up considerably as budgets and technology and communication vehicles have improved from the early radio days of the republic.

Perhaps Indian politics itself has diminished in stature as a consequence of relentless exposure warts and all. Besides, those capable of assuming legendary proportions are no longer in it. They are found now on the cricket field, in the movies, in literature, amongst the more reclusive of businessmen, where the unknowable aspects of iconography can still operate. So we do have living legends like Mr Ratan Tata, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar and Salman Rushdie.

This shrinkage of political stature has been affecting us in a particularly adverse manner for quite some time. Largely unchecked, the corruption is much grown, the dereliction of duty more shocking, and the flouting of constitutional norms more routine. There is a dangerous emphasis on regional issues over the national interest that is beginning, in a serious way, to challenge the very idea of India. And this, at a time when there are grave external and internal security threats as well.

But to be fair, it is certain our current leaders are definitely grappling with a level of complexity and aspiration unknown in the early decades after independence. The information flow is intense, with over 90 day-and-night news channels on television and hundreds of newspapers, magazines and online sites. It is difficult to be a hero in the glare of such unrelenting and familiar scrutiny.

The same shortness of shelf-life applies today to celebrity and stardom too. So quelle chance netagiri?

Let us realise there will be no more new Mahatmas and Subhas Chandra Boses. No new Madhubalas, no more Nargises, no triumvirate of Dharam, Vinod and Dilip. No new Raj Kapoor or Dev Anand. Ram Rajya itself would have to be reevaluated for relevance.

It is not easy to float above a culture morphing into the benefits of space age technology at ever increasing speeds. But the minimum requirement of netagiri, that of disinterested service to the nation, is still impervious to the ravages of technology.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NO YOU CAN'T WIN THIS WAR

CONFUSION REIGNS SUPREME AS WASHINGTON FLOUNDERS

DMITRY KOSYREV

A new scandal over leaked confidential information has shaken Washington, DC. It is not in every country that confidential messages to top Government officials are published in the leading media within a week.

US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, who once commanded forces there, has told President Barack Obama that bolstering the American presence in Afghanistan would not make the country more reliant on the US unless President Hamid Karzai's Government demonstrates willingness to fight corruption and other vices, which are only strengthening the Taliban.

Mr Obama was considering four options for sending between 10,000 and 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, which will cost between $ 33 and $ 50 billion annually, and wanted to know how long it would take to see results and be able to withdraw. It was at that time that newspapers published the Ambassador's opinion.

Mr Eikenberry thinks that the US will not attain its goals in Afghanistan without replacing Mr Karzai's Government.

It is not surprising that the Press has published information about the confidential messages because Afghanistan is the biggest problem of the United States and, in general, the Western civilisation. The point at issue is not just billions of dollars but human lives. Britain has lost 200 servicemen there, but was it worth it?

It has also become clear that the August presidential election in Afghanistan organised by the US has seriously undermined American aspirations there.

The Obama Administration regarded the Afghan election as a key element of the efforts to solve the Afghan problem. But when Mr Karzai and his supporters were accused of framing the election results, they opted for the worst possible scenario: Vote recounting.

When it turned out that a second round of the election was needed, US diplomats did their best to wrench an agreement from Mr Karzai. And then they looked like idiots when the Afghan President's opponent withdrew his candidacy.

Mr Karzai took it unkindly and is now openly speaking his mind about the US policy in his country, which explains Mr Eikenberry's disappointment and messages. But Mr Karzai was bound to speak up after the US had done its best to show the Afghans — as if they did not know this — that their President is a puppet with many American masters who cannot even agree in which direction to pull his strings.

One can rule Afghanistan without elections, but never without respect.

While that black comedy was still playing out, US President Barack Obama said at the UN: "Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation from the outside. Each society must search for its own path ... rooted in the culture of its people and in its past traditions."

This sounds fine, but the US and the Western civilisation as a whole have not yet found a way to encourage Afghanistan to pursue such a path. In a word, the agony can last long, and the US will either find a new style of behaviour in Afghanistan or it will lose everything (Europe is a separate issue).

Meanwhile, many countries have become more active in the Afghan affairs, thereby creating an alternative to the US policy there. The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution on Afghanistan unanimously and at the initiative of Germany, which is an unprecedented occurrence. The resolution reads that Afghanistan's presidential election was both credible and sound.

Then Japan decided to increase its aid package to Afghanistan from $ 3 billion to $ 5 billion within five years. Other donor countries are currently negotiating in Istanbul, Turkey, which means that the international community is not going to curtail aid to Afghanistan.

The reason for all of the above is simple: The US wants to review its operations abroad, first of all in Afghanistan and near it, but when it needs to do something in a new way with Russia's assistance, it becomes paralysed.

 The writer is a political affairs columnist based in Moscow.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

LOBBYING NOT NECESSITY SECURES HEALTH AID

WITH THE MOST VOCAL GROUPS CLAMOURING FOR FUNDS TO COMBAT AIDS, THE SHARE FOR OTHER DISEASES IS DECLINING, WRITES PHILIP STEVENS

Health activists Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) claimed last week that the global recession threatens AIDS funding, putting millions of lives at risk. Donors certainly have to think more carefully about getting the biggest bang for their buck but this is long overdue: For too long, global health funding has gone to diseases like AIDS with the most vocal lobby groups and not to the diseases with the greatest need.

HIV/AIDS is the world's most high profile disease. World AIDS Day garners an astonishing 32.3 million hits on Google. According to a 2007 poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, people questioned in eight out of 10 sub-Saharan African countries consider AIDS to be their country's number one health priority. The same poll shows people in Asia also believe HIV should be a major priority for their Governments, with those in India and Bangladesh putting it at the top.

In fact, HIV/AIDS causes only 5.7 per cent of deaths in developing countries. Only eight countries have a severe AIDS crisis, all in sub-Saharan Africa. In India, the prevalence rate is a tiny 0.3 per cent and in Bangladesh it is too small to calculate.

That HIV/AIDS is at the front of ordinary peoples' consciousness is a result of decades of campaigning by international AIDS activists, perhaps the best organised and most powerful health lobby the world has ever seen. A staggering 24,000 delegates, many of them professional campaigners, attended 2008's biannual international AIDS conference in Mexico City — and that's just the ones who could afford the airfare and the $ 1,200 entry fee.

Since the early-1990s, thousands of AIDS NGOs have sprung up all over the world, producing a constant stream of publicity and advocacy, holding public meetings and thrusting themselves in front of politicians. Major development pressure groups such as Oxfam and Save the Children have put AIDS at the heart of their lobbying. Big Western multinational companies have got in on the act too, most notably the 'Red' campaign backed by Gap, American Express, Apple and Starbucks, among others.

As a result of this lobbying, the cash has poured in. AIDS spending rose from 3.4 per cent of all health aid to developing countries in 1990 to 23.3 per cent in 2007, from $ 0.2 billion to $ 5.1 billion. US President Barack Obama has pledged to increase spending on AIDS to 70 per cent of all US global health spending in 2010: $ 8.6 billion, totalling $ 63 billion over six years. AIDS also has the dubious distinction of being the only disease to have its dedicated UN agency, UNAIDS.

But much of this money has been poorly spent. The AIDS industry boasts about the millions of people on anti-retroviral treatment but almost no progress has been made in actually reducing the numbers infected globally —surely the only true measure of success.

Meanwhile, diseases that kill many more remain in relative obscurity.

The biggest killer in lower-income countries is chest infections such as pneumonia, accounting for 11.2 per cent of all deaths, mainly amongst children under five. There is no UN agency for chest infections, almost no dedicated funding and only a sprinkling of NGOs. Bizarrely, the first World Pneumonia Day was on November 2 this year, although this disease has always been a scourge of humanity.

The third biggest killer in developing countries, after heart disease, is diarrhoea. This kills 1.5 million children every year, more than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Yet there is no world diarrhoea day and the disease attracts a fraction of the funding of HIV/AIDS. There is only one staff member at the World Health Organization working exclusively on childhood diarrhoeal diseases.

Fortunately, thing are beginning to change. The UN has started pleading for funds to improve health systems, so that 'silent killers' such as pneumonia and diarrhoea can be better tackled.

Some Government aid agencies, such as Britain's Department for International Development, plan in future to spend money on improving healthcare systems, rather than on specific diseases such as AIDS. Better healthcare systems also make it easier to manage HIV patients, who tend to have other health problems.

The AIDS lobby reject this reasoning. "Some policymakers say AIDS is expensive, we should focus on cheap and easy things," Mr Tido von Schoen-Angerer from MSF told reporters last week, adding: "This cannot be an either-or game.(…) It's not that HIV is over-funded. Global health is under-funded."

The reality is that there will never be enough money for global health. Governments, therefore, have a duty to ensure taxpayers' money saves as many lives as possible. Taking the lobbying of the AIDS industry with a pinch of salt would be a good place to start.

Philip Stevens is a Senior Fellow at International Policy Network, a development
think-tank based in London

 

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MAIL TODAY

 COMMENT

OBAMA'S CARDS ARE THERE FOR ALL TO SEE

 

THE 19th century statesman and twotime Prime Minister of Great Britain Henry John Temple once said that for nations, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. To no other nation is this more applicable than the United States.

 

In his latest strategy initiative, US President Barack Obama has said his administration will work with China to play a greater role in enabling stable and peaceful relations in South Asia. While calling such an alliance sinister would sound a bit exaggerated, it is nothing short of unfortunate for India and for the US too.

 

The previous Bush administration worked tirelessly to counter Chinese hegemony in Asia, and though Beijing plays an active role in arming Pakistan with both conventional weapons and raw material and knowhow for non- conventional weapons, the US was able to hold its progress by aligning with India with the help of an verarching civilian nuclear deal.

 

However, in one fell swoop, President Obama seems to have not only negated the advancement of US- India relations but also put a question mark on its trustworthiness in future engagements.

 

There is no gainsaying that China is already a world power, and its influence runs deeper than just the strength of its military. China holds more than $ 1.1 trillion in US government debt and had more than $ 100 billion in US equities. Though this figure may not sound large for the $ 14 trillion US economy, it does indicate China's influence over Washington when the latter is going through its worst financial crisis since World War II. Also, the US is heavily dependent on Chinese imports — around 17 per cent of all American imports are from China. So, there could be more than just a strategic reason for the US to make friends with China.

 

On its part, India has shown little or no maturity in its foreign policy negotiations.

 

Before it decided to cosy up to the US following the July 2005 joint declaration, New Delhi's strategic outlook

was biased towards Moscow. After 2005, India seems to have alienated Russia with its constant harping on its relationship with Washington.

 

With the US now deciding to turn its back on India on at least the China- Pakistan nexus issue, its Go West approach suddenly seems shortsighted.

 

It will take a lot of hard work on New Delhi's part to balance the two relationships.

 

And in doing so, it should keep in mind that keeping all its eggs in one basket is a bad idea.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE

 

FOR the vice- chief of the Indian Air Force to say that women can be considered for combat roles in the future if they undertake not to become mothers is not just discriminatory; it is ridiculous. For, motherhood being an integral part of women's lives, that argument can be advanced to deny women their due in any field of activity, as has no doubt often happened in the past. It bespeaks of a sexist mindset, which exists in no small measure in our armed forces.

 

In any case, we wonder under whose authority has Air Marshal P K Barbora — who has a reputation for shooting his mouth off — aired his controversial views and who he is to take a call on such a matter.

 

It is also surprising that he has adopted such reasoning when sounder arguments exist for keeping women off combat zones.

 

And all such arguments have been losing force, with several countries — a list that includes United States, United Kingdom and Israel — finding nothing wrong with the idea. In fact, women served in combat positions even in the Second World War.

 

There is no doubt that concerns exist about women serving in positions where there is likelihood of their being taken prisoners of war. But this is just one particular form of combat — and even here the right of women to make individual choices must be considered — and leaves out several duties in the combat zone which women in the Indian armed forces could take up.

 

But perhaps this is too much to expect in this country where women officers are still denied a permanent commission in the armed forces. The irony of such a situation will not be lost on those who remember that the Indian Army is short of more than 10,000 officers and the IAF often rues the increase in the number of pilots who are leaving service to join commercial airlines.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COLUMN

BREAK THE DEADLOCK

BY SUDIPTO MUNDLE

 

With hopes from Copenhagen climate summit fading away, there is need to look at the Spence proposal which offers an equitable solution IT'S NOW official. There will be no final agreement at the Copenhagen conference on climate change this December.

 

The prospect of a legally binding Copenhagen Agreement was given a quiet burial at a press conference on the sidelines of the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) Summit last Sunday.

 

In a bleak face saving effort, Mr.Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark and Chair of the Copenhagen Conference, was given the unenviable task of announcing that it would be premature to expect any final agreement in Copenhagen. Instead the aim is to reach some kind of broad agreement that will then lead, hopefully, to a legally binding agreement at the next climate change meet in Mexico.

It is a great pity that the opportunity to reach an agreement at Copenhagen has been missed because the consequences of climate change are already upon us. We are seeing a rising frequency of extreme weather events like storms, droughts and floods that are destroying crops and livestock, washing away homes, and taking a large toll of human lives every year. The main lesson to take away from this missed opportunity is that the developed countries should stop expecting that they can somehow dupe or coerce the developing countries, including China and India, into an unequal treaty inimical to their development goals.

We no longer live in a colonial world of imperial hegemony.which emit per head.

 

PROPOSAL

Equally, the developing countries must recognise that there can be no deal other than one that is acceptable to the major developed countries, especially USA, which are the main polluters. As we look beyond Copenhagen to a possible agreement at the next summit in Mexico, can we see any proposal that could be acceptable to both groups of countries? Of the dozens of proposals on the table, one that could possibly do the trick is the scheme proposed by Nobel laureate Michael Spence. The starting point of Spence's scheme is an estimate by the International Panel on Climate Change that in 50 years the acceptable safe level of pollution would be about 14.7 billion tones or 2.3 tons per capita per year. The average pollution today is already 4.8 tons per head, and this will have risen to about 8.7 or 4 times the safe level by 2060 in a ' business as usual' scenario if no additional effort is made to contain carbon emissions.

 

Much of the excess pollution at present comes from the advanced countries, especially countries like USA and Canada which emit about 20 tons per head. Other developed countries emit between 6 and 12 tons per head. In contrast developing countries, including India, emit well below the safe level of 2.3 tons and China is at the boundary.

 

The developing countries argue that the developed countries that do most of the polluting should be the ones to curtail pollution.

 

However, with rapid growth in many developing countries, especially China and India, the emission balance is constantly changing. Fifty years down the road, the bulk of pollution will come from the developing countries.

Hence the advanced countries maintain that climate change cannot be mitigated without effective action in the developing countries. However, such mitigation action at present could compromise the high growth route out of poverty in the developing countries.

Spence proposes that at present mitigation action should be mainly the responsibility of the advanced countries. First, there has to be acceptance of a global emissions time path leading to the acceptable target of 2.3 tons per head. This total acceptable level of emission rights or ' carbon credits' should be allocated to the advanced countries under a Carbon Credit Trading System ( CCTS). The allocations can be based on some equity principle such as population size. The carbon credits initially endowed should then be tradable among the developed countries, based on their national preferences for carbon emitting activities.

 

DIFFERENTIATION

The advanced countries should also be able to earn carbon credits through mitigation efforts, such as aforestation or the use of lower emission technologies, either in their own countries or elsewhere, where the cost of mitigation may be lower. The CCTS would establish a price for emissions reflecting the cost of pollution and enforce the ' polluter pays' principle for emissions above the assigned permits. Thereby it would also be introducing an incentive for the advanced countries to move to cleaner technologies and engage in other carbon containing activities.

 

In this scheme the developing countries do not need to participate in the CCTS system nor do they have to meet any emission caps at this stage. The only commitment required of them at the outset is to accept the global carbon emissions time path leading to the acceptable target of 2.3 tons per head by 2060. As their growth leads to rising per capita pollution levels, these will sooner or later catch up with the pollution levels of the advanced countries, which should hopefully be declining towards the 2.3 tons per head target because of the incentives built into the Spence system. Once that happens, and a developing country ' graduates' to developed country status, they too will have to join the CCTS. Their entry would be on more advantageous terms, allowing for more carbon emission headroom within their permitted limits, if they voluntarily choose to take remedial action from now.

 

RISKS

The beauty of the Spence proposal is that it is very transparent and fair, requiring polluters to pay for any emission beyond their fair permissible limits.

 

If the G20 countries would buy into this proposal, they would be in a decisive position to enforce it. However, the proposal has two kinds of risks. One is a technological risk. The proposal assumes that the required stock of technologies will be available to reduce emissions or absorb emissions to meet the 2060 global target of 2.3 tons per head. Indeed there is already an impressive stock of technologies of both varieties. But there is still a great deal of uncertainty in this matter. As in any field of research, outcomes cannot be known in advance of the research.

 

The other risk is political.

 

There is a feeling that some advanced country negotiators believe they can somehow hoodwink or bribe the developing country negotiators into accepting an unequal treaty that is unfair to the developing countries, especially the larger countries like China and India. If so then neither the Spence proposal nor any other will lead to a final agreement. Difficult as the advanced country negotiators might find to believe it, not every developing country negotiator is a sucker and not everybody is up for sale.

 

The writer is Emeritus Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. ( sudipto. mundle@ gmail. com)

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MAIL TODAY

QUANTUM LEAP

 

TAKING ON THE TRYING DEVILS OF THE BRAIN

DINESH C. SHARMA

 

THE MAKERS of popular Hindi flick Lage Raho Munnabhai — in which the central character Munnabhai is said to be suffering from a chemical locha ( imbalance) in his brain — may have never heard of neuroscientist Vilayanur S Ramachandran or his work. But dealing with cases such as Munnabhai's — who have phantoms in their brains — is Ramachandran's passion.

 

Gandhi was a phantom in Munnabhai's brain. Some of Ramachandran's real life patients too have phantoms in their brains and he is trying to decipher how this happens. For instance, someone may have lost a limb in war or a road accident, but can still feel ' pain' in his or her amputated body part. Some others see alphabets as colours, while a few others report ' out of body' experiences in which their phantom twin hovers over their bodies. Through such rare cases, Ramachandran is try ing to address unresolved questions relating to the human brain, and in the process helping patients with some rare neurological disorders.

 

The ' pain' that people feel in their phantom limb or leg, Ramachandran explains, is due to a phenomenon which he dubs " learned paralysis". This happens in cases of persons whose limbs had got paralysed prior to amputation. When such a patient attempts to move the paralysed limb, he or she receives sensory feedback through vision that the limb did not move. This feedback remains etched into the brain circuitry and even when the limb is no longer present, the brain feels that it exists, being paralysed.

 

To help such patients, Ramachandran and his colleagues at the Centre for Brain and Cognition, University of California, have created a box with two mirrors in the centre.

 

In this mirror box, the patient places his or her good limb onto one side, and the stump onto the other. The patient then looks into the mirror on the side with the good limb and makes " mirror symmetric" movements.

 

Because the person is seeing the reflected image of the good limb moving, it appears as if the phantom or the imaginary limb is also moving. Through the use of this artificial visual feedback it becomes possible for the patient to " move" the phantom limb, and to free it from perceived painful positions.

 

Ramachandran, who delivered a talk at the Centre for Philosophy and Foundations of Science in Delhi last week, says the mirror box therapy can help in rehabilitation of patients suffering from paralysis of one side of the body.

 

Another interesting area of Ramachandran's work is " empathy neurons" or " mirror neurons" ( he likes to call them Gandhi neurons). Neurons in the prefrontal cortex send out signals that orchestrate movements such as putting food in your mouth or pulling a lever. But mirror neurons also fire when you merely watch another person perform a similar act. It's as if these neurons are using the visual input to do a sort of " virtual reality simulation" of another person's actions.

 

Ramachandran postulates that there may be mirror neurons that let you feel someone else's pain or happiness.

 

NEONATAL MORTALITY AS OUR SHAME

SIMPLE, cheap measures like providing basic transport facility or on- call ambulance services in rural areas and promoting breastfeeding in the first hour after a child's birth hold the key for India getting rid of its most shameful health indicator — very high and stagnating neonatal mortality rate. While the economic growth rate has been rising steadily in the past few years, the number of infants dying within the first four weeks of birth has remained static at 36 per 1000 live births since 2000.

 

The absolute number of Indian children dying is chilling — 100 per hour. The stagnation in the neonatal death rate has Indian experts and international agencies worried, as neonatal deaths account for almost 50 percent of all childhood deaths in the country.

 

Remember, most of these deaths are preventable. Simple measures like encouraging mothers to feed newborns in the first hour ( in some regions, this is delayed owing to superstitions), avoiding early bath, proper dressing of the umbilical cord stump and providing an ambulance to ferry the mother and child to a healthcare facility, in case of an emergency, can save the lives of lakhs of children every year.

 

CHILDREN COME OUT AGAINST JUNK FOOD

 

THE prime minister's residence had an unusual group of visitors — school children and their teachers — on Diabetes Day last week. They were at 7, Race Course Road, not to meet Dr Manmohan Singh, but to see his wife Gursharan Kaur. The visit organised by youth group Hriday- Shan was to appeal to Mrs Kaur to use her good offices to restrict the use of trans fats ( substances in cooking oil and vanaspati known to be bad for the heart) and to establish clear rules for advertising junk foods on television.

 

The meeting was dubbed as an appeal from ' moms to mom' ( grandmom would be more apt, in case of Mrs Kaur). While the government may take its own time in banning trans fats in food served in restaurants — as has been done in New York City — some city schools have already taken the lead. An example is the DAV Centenary Public School, Paschim Enclave, whose canteen does not sell junk food items. " Eating in the school canteen is considered ' cool' and ' hep' by children. We can tackle this problem in two ways — by replacing junk foods in canteens with healthy choices and by working with parents on what they send in tiffins. We have tried this in our school and it works", says Dr Anshu Asri, medical officer of the school.

 

dineshc.sharma@mailtoday.in

A NEW study shows that molecular similarities exist between the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus and other strains of the seasonal H1N1 virus that have been circulating in the population since 1988. This means healthy adults may have a level of protective ' immune memory' that can blunt the severity of infection caused by the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.

 

Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases examined molecular structures that are known to be recognised by the human immune system — called epitopes — on the 2009 H1N1 influenza and seasonal flu viruses. Viral epitopes are recognised by immune cells called B and T cells. B cells make antibodies that can bind to viruses, blocking infection, and T cells help to eliminate virusinfected cells. The world is still grappling with the pandemic, though the panic has subsided with arrival of the first set of HIN1 vaccines.

 

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MAIL TODAY

INTERACTIVE

TEST CRICKET PITCHES NEED TO BE SPORTING

 

THIS is with reference to the Question of the Day ' Are Test pitches in India too batsmancentric?' ( November 18). Indian Test pitches are often termed as " sleeping beauties", " bowlers' graveyards", " dust bowls", etc.

 

As wickets are loaded in the batsman's favour, a lot of batting records have been created in the sub- continent. Although the host nation has the right to prepare wickets according to its team's strength, ill- prepared, sub- standard and placid tracks often mean that they start to crumble from the first day.

 

Worse, some Test pitches do not last for the entire five days.

 

The fourth innings therefore turns into a virtual nightmare for the batsman. So we are back to square one about spinners calling the shots on Day Five when the batsman has very little chance to defend himself.

 

It is natural, therefore, that because of growing up on and playing on batsman- centric pitches, Indians stand exposed when they are confronted with fast- paced, green- top wickets abroad, especially in South Africa and Australia, where fiery fast bowlers generate tremendous pace on lively tracks. No wonder the Indian cricket team is dubbed as " tigers at home and lambs abroad". The Ahmedabad Test is no different; with its one- sided pitch it seems have become a run feast. The present situation calls for preparing true wickets that may last for a full five days.

 

Test matches can be made interesting only when sporting tracks give an even chance to both bowlers and batsmen.

Lov Kumar Chawla via email

 

ARMED FORCES ARE A DIFFERENT BALL GAME

 

THIS is with reference to the news report ' IAF women to fly fighter jets but with ' no children' precondition' ( November 18). The real cause for controversy over the induction of women as armed combatants is the ignorance of the general public regarding the working conditions and the inability of the top generals to explain clearly the issues involved.

 

As an Armyman for 35 years, I can say that in most cases, everything that one may like to use will have to be carried on the body along with one's weapons and ammunition. The weight is enormous, and tires you quickly. Besides, it hampers movement.

 

A small hole dug with the sky as the roof represents a wash room. In areas where vehicles can't go, a 2.5 ft tall cloth becomes a tool to cover your modesty. Sleep is almost impossible, and there are no separate places for officers to sleep.

 

If at all bathing is needed, an open stream if available is the answer; and that too after taking into consideration the threat perception. Change of clothing on a daily basis is impossible. A full dinner would consist of rice and salt.

 

The Armed Forces have great regard and respect for women.

 

Service customs demands every officer including the seniormost general rise if a woman enters the room. The ethos of the services with regard to women can be perceived from this single custom.

 

I love the services as much as my family. That notwithstanding, I may not like my wife, sister or daughter to join the combat arms in the Indian Defence Forces as they may have to go through severe hardships and embarrassment.

 

Brigadier V Mahalingam ( Retd) via email

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

NO NEED TO PANIC

 

The mention of India and Pakistan in the US-China joint statement issued during US president Barack Obama's trip to China has sent alarm bells ringing in New Delhi. India has been mentioned for the first time in a US-China joint statement since 1998, when Bill Clinton and Jiang Zemin took issue with India for conducting nuclear tests. It was met with a stinging rejoinder from India. But this time around the reference to India hardly merits that kind of reaction.

The joint statement says that the US and China support improvement of relations between India and Pakistan. It further says that the two sides are ready to "strengthen communication, dialogue and cooperation on issues related to South Asia". There's nothing here that should make New Delhi nervous. There are two aspects of the declaration that have possibly raised red flags in India. One, the clubbing together of India and Pakistan raises the spectre of re-hyphenation of the two countries in US foreign policy, something that was seen to have been jettisoned by the George Bush government. Two, it hints at a role for China to broker good relations between New Delhi and Islamabad. This is unacceptable to India which sees relations with Pakistan as a bilateral issue.

New Delhi's fears might stem from reading too much into the US-China joint declaration. That South Asia figures in the declaration shows that both Washington and Beijing are seriously concerned with the region and its role as both an origin as well as target of terror attacks. While the US is already heavily involved in the region, China's role has been much more nebulous. There is good evidence that in the past China has supported Pakistan's nuclear programme. But the prospects of terrorism within China's borders, particularly in Xinjiang, could potentially alter Beijing's policy towards Islamabad and its links to terrorists. In that context, if China agrees to exert its influence over Pakistan it would be a good thing.

Any doubts about US policy towards India must be cleared during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington beginning Sunday. There are some misgivings about the direction of Indo-US relations under the Obama government. Following the highs during Bush's presidency, Indo-US relations seem to be somewhat adrift at the moment. The PM should use his visit to inject some much-needed momentum into the relationship. He must make clear that any mediation on Kashmir is unacceptable to New Delhi. Singh must impress on Obama the mutual interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the need to work together in both these trouble spots. Above all, the PM must develop on the strong platform for Indo-US ties built during the Bush government.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

THAW IN THE VALLEY

 

Union home minister P Chidambaram had hinted some weeks ago that the government wanted to discuss Kashmir with the concerned parties outside the glare of media. Track II initiatives involving senior Indian and Pakistani officials are currently on in Bangkok. Indian officials and a section of the Hurriyat Conference have met in New Delhi though details of the discussions have been held back from the public.

The intricate matrix of Kashmir talks involves representatives of New Delhi, Islamabad, and a section of the Kashmiri separatists. The political mainstream in the Valley and separatist groups working outside the Hurriyat platform are also contributing to the climate of debate by espousing their views in public forums in J&K. The separatist opinion in the Valley too has started to unravel. The Mirwaiz faction of the Hurriyat hopes that a tripartite dialogue involving New Delhi, Islamabad and Srinagar is possible and could pave the way for a New Delhi-Srinagar pact endorsed by Islamabad. The contours of such a pact, it believes, could be worked out of General Pervez Musharraf's four-point proposal to resolve the Kashmir dispute. A radical section of the Hurriyat led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani is opposed to talks with New Delhi. The only solution acceptable to them seems to be a merger with Pakistan. A third section has revived the idea of an independent J&K. The political mainstream including the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party have come up with their own proposals arguing for various levels of autonomy to the state.

However, it must be clear to everyone that a solution to the Kashmir issue has to be worked out without necessitating a change in the present national boundaries. Also, New Delhi and Islamabad can't be expected to accept any dilution of sovereignty over their territory. Similarly, the call to return to the pre-1953 status of Jammu and Kashmir is a non-starter, simply because the world has changed a lot since then. Institutional linkages built between Srinagar and New Delhi can't be undone even though these can be transformed to make the relations between the J&K state and the Indian Union truly federal.

The focus of a political solution should be the demilitarisation of the region. This could happen simultaneously with the creation of reasonably open borders between Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir. Trade and travel must be made easier so that trust is built between governments and populations across borders. The current dialogue process, hopefully, will help realise some of these achievable goals.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

TOP ARTICLE

HIGHWAY TO HELL

MICHELLE YEOH

 

Sometimes in life you get hit by a moment of empathy. I had one a few weeks ago. It happened while I was standing by the six-lane super-highway that circles Delhi. As the trucks, four-by-fours and cars went speeding by, I noticed a group of women with children strapped to their backs, facing up to the traffic as they struggled to cross the road. One question hit me: "How would I like to be in their shoes?"

Ministers attending the world's first ever UN ministerial summit on road safety in Moscow today should be asking themselves the same question. They have a chance to tackle head-on a hidden pandemic that is killing and maiming vulnerable people in the world's poorest countries on a vast scale. It is also undermining efforts to reduce poverty, draining health systems of resources, and holding back economic growth.

Few people are aware of the carnage that takes place on the world's roads. Around 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road crashes. Probably 40 times that number suffer serious injury. Over 90 per cent of road deaths and injuries happen in developing countries. India has the highest death toll in the world at over 1,00,000 annually. For people aged 5-25, cars pose a bigger threat to life than killer diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis - and the threat is growing.

It's generally people too poor to own a vehicle who face the greatest risk of getting hit by one. And the loss of a breadwinner and the costs of health treatment can mean a one-way ticket to extreme poverty. The human costs of this pandemic are beyond estimation. You can't put a price on grief, trauma and the loss of a loved one. But there's an economic cost, which also impacts severely. Road traffic injuries typically cost countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia the equivalent of 1-3 per cent of GDP a year.

Many health ministers are already aware of the damage inflicted by road traffic injuries. I have visited trauma wards in hospitals in India where over half of the beds are occupied by road injury victims. Treating these victims is diverting finance and skilled medical care from other priority areas.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy is the political indifference that perpetuates the carnage. We could do so much to prevent road deaths at such low cost - yet we do so little.

When it comes to avoiding road injuries it's all so desperately simple. Roads can be designed for pedestrian safety, by separating cars, trucks and buses from people. Governments can enforce laws that reduce speed, ensure the wearing of helmets and seat belts, clamp down on drunken driving, and regulate road users. These are affordable measures that are tried, tested but widely ignored.

When I met Delhi's city leaders recently they seemed committed to taking action, yet face severe challenges. This is a city with an unregulated bus company that kills over 100 people a year with monotonous regularity, in which women and children sit on the back of motorcycles with no helmets, and in which disregard for basic traffic rules is the norm. Is it really beyond a country that is a world leader in economic growth and can put a satellite into orbit, to enforce basic traffic laws?

It's not just developing country governments that need to act more decisively. Aid donors like the World Bank are investing huge sums on road networks - and almost nothing on road safety. It goes without saying that roads are vital for development. But in their neglect, these policies are killing people. Surely donors have to think more about the security of the people they are supposed to be helping.

Scratch the surface, and government planners are measuring success in kilometres of metalled roads. This approach combines indefensible ethics with illiterate economics. The simple truth is that our current approach is unsustainable and unaffordable.

There is an alternative path - and it starts in Moscow. The Make Roads Safe campaign is calling on the ministerial conference to prepare the ground for a UN Decade of Action on road safety. Through global collaboration we could halve the projected increase in traffic-related death and injury by 2020, saving five million lives and preventing 50 million injuries. As part of the package, we are calling on aid donors to spend $300 million on a plan to get national road safety initiatives moving.

Of course, there are many people in governments across the world who will see the Moscow summit as a diversion from the big ticket issues of economic growth, security and climate change. For them, I have just one plea. Try a little empathy. Next time your motorcade is heading along the metalled highway to the airport, take a look at the kids braving the high-speed traffic en route to school - and try imagining that they are your kids.

The writer is an actress and global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe campaign.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

TIMES VIEW

IF LATER, WHY NOT NOW?

 

Vice chief of air staff, Air Marshal P K Barbora controversially suggested that the Indian Air Force (IAF) would only allow women to train as fighter pilots if they adhered to a no-pregnancy rule. Even that can happen only later, not now. Barbora said that the Indian government's investment in training fighter pilots would not be repaid by women who take maternity leave to have a baby. He seemed to imply that once women start a family, they are compromised as pilots and cannot handle the twin pressures of being in the air force and raising a child at the same time. If, however, air force pilots can be fathers, why should they not be permitted to be mothers?

There is no need to wait for a few years down the line to induct women into combat streams in the air force. If the IAF is serious about removing this barrier, then it can just as easily move now as later. Barbora's comments are an indication of how uncomfortable the Indian military still is with the idea of deploying women in combat roles. But although the army might have an argument when it cites women's relative physical weakness as a reason to bar them for combat duty in infantry, flying fighter planes is not about strength. Sure, a certain amount of physical conditioning is required for the human body to be able to withstand the G-forces it is subjected to in a fighter jet, but women fighter pilots in other countries have had no difficulties adapting to these demands. Moreover, opening up to women could solve one of the difficulties the air force is currently facing: the shortage of fighter pilots.

Across the world countries are moving towards opening up more and more options within the military to women and creating gender equal armies. In the US, women have been allowed into combat as fighter pilots since 1993. But there are no preconditions about when and how women fighter pilots can get pregnant. Women are obviously not able to fly planes into combat while pregnant, but the maternity leave is not seen as a waste of investment, which Barbora seems to regard it as.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

ONE STEP AT A TIME

KAURVAKI RAO

 

Indian Air Force vice chief P K Barbora's statement that inducting women fighter pilots into the force is not feasible as yet has predictably stirred a hornet's net. The issue of inducting women pilots into combat duty is not new but has come to the forefront ever since it was announced that President Pratibha Patil would be doing a sortie later this month. If she can fly a Sukhoi - a supersonic fighter jet - then what's to stop trained women officers from piloting fighter planes is the question being raised.

To put things in perspective, it's important to face facts. Pratibha Patil is not going into a war zone. She is going to be a passenger on a sortie and her flight is merely a symbolic one. The issue of allowing women to fly combat planes is altogether different. Once inducted, women pilots will have to be battle-ready at all times. They will not be flying only peace-time sorties. They can be called to duty in times of conflict and will be expected to operate in situations that involve direct and close combat.

No one is questioning the ability of women to do all of the above. However, it is prudent to go about inducting them as fighter pilots according to a pragmatic plan instead of being carried away by emotions. Gender parity is not the issue here. The issue is about taking into account the obvious physical constraints that women have to deal with. If women pilots decide to go the family way, they will have to be off combat duty because it is simply not safe for them to fly during pregnancy. Even commercial airlines discourage women in advanced stages of pregnancy from flying. This is obviously something that the IAF has to factor in because it has implications for troop strength.

Even those countries that have allowed women to join combat forces have done relatively recently, after considered planning. Let's think this proposal through and put in place workable mechanisms to address valid concerns. It's in the best interests of both women pilots and our security forces.

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TIMES OF INDIA

BRAND IMBROGLIO

IT'S NOT IN THE NAME

YAMINI

 

What do you think of when you read the word Nike? Most likely, you'll think of sports apparel that is strong and durable, not a far cry from what the company name is supposed to signify. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory, and Nike's products are supposed to make sportspersons victorious on the field. If only all companies had names as sensible as that!

There are some that have long stopped epitomising the lofty ideals heralded by their names. Consider Satyam. The company hardly lived up to the principles of truth and justice embodied in its name when its creative accounting practices were revealed. Others, of course, may not be as criminally guilty as Satyam. But often there can be big gaps between a company's name and its image. Take Microsoft. There was a time when the software giant was, well, not quite so gigantic, but that was aeons ago. Redmond certainly hasn't been small or soft or cuddly for several decades now, instead becoming an entity most people love to hate. Need more proof? Another Indian giant - giants now - found that it couldn't trust its spinoff company, rather making a mockery of its name, Reliance.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. If you've ever wondered why Starbucks has such a ridiculous name, it's probably because the owners were overcome with nostalgic memories of all the coffee they imbibed writing papers on Herman Melville's whale of a book, Moby Dick, which - you got it - boasts of a character called Starbuck. Then there's the ridiculous acronym BHEL, which caused me no small amount of confusion as a child. I discovered that this BHEL had naught to do with yummy street food; much to my disappointment, this was some company that made heavy electricals, whatever that meant. Ubiquitous banking giant HSBC has long since progressed from banking in Hong Kong and Shanghai to banking for the entire world, as they themselves claim. Another misnomer! And there are probably more companies that have moved away from their core businesses, or have failed to stay true to their names. Why, though, do they think the consumer confusion their names cause is acceptable? Why don't some of them take the leap and just junk those old identities for ones that might actually exemplify what they stand for?

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

SUBVERSE

THE TIGER BITES A LION

BACHI KARKARIA 

 

Bichare Balasaheb. How it is his fault?  What he can he do if the name of the state is Maharashtra.  Means, it is the maha- rashtra, no? Means, it has to be greater than the rashtra, no. Then why all the people are khali-pili bom marta over his attack on Tendulkar? 

 

If you are called Maharashtra year in and year out, then the delusion of grandeur must get  embedded in your DNA as surely as e coli in Mumbai's drinking water. It means you are above not just all other states, but above the Indian state itself. So naturally, Thackeray senior got his saffron silk dhoti in a twist over Sachin-baba's skewed notion of nationalism.

 

In his version of  Tebbit's 'cricket loyalty test', Tendulkar put  being Indian over being Maharashtrian, which the Supremo considers nothing short of high treason. So, he was perfectly entitled to launch  a maha yuddh  over it. Maharashtra must score over Mahabharat, no? What else could  Krishna have done than give an 'affectionate warning' to the one-time Arjuna awardee?

 

Nakkich, Balasaheb is right. Of course, all cricketing glory is only about our Maharashtra. So where does India even enter the picture? Wadekar, Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Tendulkar - the game is entirely our 'kar'mabhoomi.

 

Rubbing lasan chatni into the chauvinistic wound, Sachin also foolishly stated that 'Mumbai belongs to the whole country'. So, he ekdum and fully-ch deserved the threat that Thackeray bowled at him in Saamna. Thank Chhatrapati Maharaj, that the misguided fellow at least had the sense not to say 'Bombay'. Then his batata vada days would surely be numbered. 

 

Nakkich, Balasaheb is right. Of course, Tendulkar must keep off the political pitch. But   politicians must not keep off the cricket pitch. They must keep digging it up like the Shiv Sena men did at Ferozesha Kotla during the 1999  India- Pakistan test series and again in Agra in 2003, just before the Veterans Match with you-know-who.

 

Nakkich, Balasaheb is right. Of course, he had to warn Tendulkar  'not to lose on the political pitch what he has earned on the cricket  pitch'. Who says Thackeray senior is already in danger of losing on this cricket pitch what he had earned on the political pitch?  Or whatever is left of his legacy after his son has turned it into a gilli-danda game, and his nephew has run away with the danda.

At one time, Indian cricket too had its Tiger, but Pataudi's pampered cub is not interested in being out for a duck; he prefers to go out with a Size Zero instead. No such self-indulgence for the heirs to the Sena lair.They must valiantly continue the mission of hacking down the rich biodiversity of the Mumbai forest and turn it into a monoculture which saps the soil and the sons thereof.

 

 Well, like mortals, tigers too must age. Often they turn into man-eaters since they are too weak to take on prey worthy of their earlier prowess. But this time, our Tiger hasn't attacked a man, but a lionized boy. So wagh-saheb has bitten off more than he can now chew. It hasn't helped that he's still licking his wounds from the last election, where he was thrown to the wolves.   

 

The latest attack is considered a slip even in the gulleys where the Supremo is still venerated. The Marathi manoos proudly consider Sachin to be one of their own, and the boy from Shivaji Park has always returned the compliment with grace and modesty. He is a steeped-in-the-varan local. So, sorry Balasaheb, to borrow from another game, this time you have scored an 'own goal'. Why, if aapla Tendlya was the type to swear oaths , you could safely bet that he'd do so in  Marathi.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

DANCE WITH THE DRAGON

 

The east wind is prevailing over the west wind — at least as long as the global economy remains trapped in a depression. This is the geopolitical weather forecast that follows the China visit of President Barack Obama. Obama was the first US leader in nearly two decades to be disallowed from speaking uncensored and live to the Chinese public. Obama also scrapped the US presidential tradition of a pre-visit meeting with the Dalai Lama. The reference to both countries "supporting" better relations between India and Pakistan is probably best understood in this context: a US that has concluded its interests are best served by humouring the Middle Kingdom's whims. Beijing is no doubt pleased at a stray sentence that gives the impression it sits at the right hand of the sole superpower.

 

Obama seems to have an exaggerated belief that this is a "post-American world". The US remains economically and militarily a head and shoulder above any two other countries in the world. China is wealthy, but much of its accumulation of riches remains dependent on Western consumer whims. On the deeper measures of power like technology, social stability and global influence it remains a pale shadow of the US. China may hold billions of dollars of US debt, but it is so because this buttresses US consumption of its own exports. More importantly, there is little evidence that China's willing or able to provide the sort of global public goods that legitimise superpower status in the rest of the world.

 

Obama's officials seem to believe that his policies of engagement and concession will reap their country benefits down the road. So far, the evidence indicates that hard-nosed countries like North Korea or China have seen the US's deference in only one light: acts of weakness. Tellingly, Obama earned no concessions from China on Iranian nuclear roguishness or yuan manipulation. Worse, US allies around the world are confused: is Obama bowing from the waist down in foreign affairs part of a tactical gesture or a strategic mindset? The new administration is almost certainly right to compensate for the blunt unilateralism that marked its predecessor. However, the US's global leadership role is anchored by speaking softly as well as carrying a big stick. Wielding only one of each sends wrong signals to partners and rivals alike.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

GET IN THE HENPIT!

 

After years of the Indian Army successfully fending off repeated assaults by aspiring combat-worthy recruits — women included — it is now the turn of the Indian Air Force to dodge those gender-seeking missiles. At a time when the first woman Commander-in-Chief of the Indian armed forces is hitting the treadmill to get in shape for her maiden flight in a Shukhoi-30 MKI, the IAF's Vice Chief Air Marshal P.K. Barbora's advice for non-presidential ladies is to "be happy, be married" but sans "offsprings" if they wish to ever do what President Pratibha Patil will be doing later this month.

 

Well, if those kind and gentle men of the armed forces have their way, women would probably have to make do with flipping rotis rather than supersonic loops and serve their children plain naans instead of pushing the throttle on a $40 million plane. Ladies, as those boys who don't want to share their toys would have us believe, the need to strike the right work-life balance before you can set your sights on the target in your crosshairs, is something that the Top Gun men are born with. Well, there may be an alternative theory we have.

 

Given that it costs over Rs 10 crore ($100 million) to train a fighter pilot, worries about women running off on maternity leave might be partly justified. Existing service rules already demand that male pilots sign a guarantee requiring them to reimburse training costs if they quit before 14 years of service. To then have a separate set of rules for those with a different set of chromosomes smacks of crony cockpitism. At a time when women around the world are busy making quick trips into the wide blue yonder on billion-dollar space shuttles, what are a few quick rolls at 20,000 feet in a Sukhoi, eh?

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

KINDLY DO NOT ADJUST

SAMAR HALARNKAR

 

On Monday, the impetus to fix the economic problems of the world's richest country gained urgency when an annual government report revealed that one in six American households experienced hunger in 2008.

 

In all, 49 million people "had difficulty putting food on the table at times during the year", the highest rate ever since so-called food-security surveys started 15 years ago, and an increase of 11.1 per cent over 2007.

 

The figures were concern enough for President Barack Obama to issue a statement from China during a hectic, much-publicised sweep through Asia. Two days ago, he called the findings "unsettling". More unsettling: The revelation that 17 million of the 49 million who faced hunger were children.

 

"This trend was already painfully clear in many communities across our nation, where food-stamp applications are surging and food pantry shelves are emptying," said Obama. "It is particularly troubling that there were more than 500,000 families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times over the course of the year."

 

Obama's immediate attempt to acknowledge the issue is hard to understand for us in India, inured as we are to hunger and suffering. He talked of hunger — regarded in his country as a Third World problem — at a time when his yes-we-can aura is slipping.

 

On the day the hunger report was released, about 43 per cent of US voters felt positive about Obama, a fall of 2 per cent since October and in line with a downward trend since June.

 

It's hard to compare hunger in the US with hunger in India. A fifth of the Indian population of about 1.1 billion is undernourished, and nearly 300 million people — more than the population of Pakistan, Britain and France combined — go without any food every day.

 

A day after Obama's comments on hunger, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a historic apology to 500,000 "forgotten Australians", abused as children in orphanages and care homes between 1930 and 1970. About 900 of these victims — now middle-aged or older — packed the Australian Parliament as Rudd spoke of this shameful period in Australian history.

 

"We look back with shame that so many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and with nowhere to hide and nobody, absolutely nobody, to whom to turn," Rudd said in a nationally televised address. "We look back with shame at how those with power were allowed to abuse those who had none."

 

The apology echoed Rudd's 2008 apology to the so-called Stolen Generation of Aborigines, who were taken from their families to be raised in institutions and White homes under assimilation policies, which ran until the late 1960s. The apology came a day after the British government said Prime Minister Gordon Brown would apologise for child-migrant programmes that sent children as young as three to Australia and other former colonies over 350 years.

 

Why do we in India find it so hard to acknowledge problems and shameful events?

 

India's troubles need public acknowledgement, not to ape an Obama or a Rudd, but to start the process of addressing them.

Our monumental education problems are finally a matter of public debate only because our education minister, Kapil Sibal, started to talk loudly about them. We may agree or disagree with his flood of views, but we are talking; experts are thinking fixes; and we realise that the schools and colleges of unchanging India must now change.

 

For centuries we did nothing to change our disgraceful caste prejudices, until a certain Babasaheb Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi started talking about them. A lifetime has passed since, and while caste discrimination is still deeply entrenched, it has yielded much ground.

 

Here are some random issues we do not regard as national problems because no one — well, no one we recognise — talks of them: Hunger, water and electricity shortages, the poor who — like every year — will freeze on pavements across the great northern plains, terrible roads and crumbling pavements.

 

No, don't snigger. Don't tell me "we are like that only". Don't tell me to "kindly adjust". That is why  I was happy to see actor Priyanka Chopra align herself with child rights on national television. It's fine for celebrities to endorse luxury watches and biscuits, but if they take some time to endorse the big issues, India can only benefit.

 

When we do not speak of our problems, we do not recognise them. That is why many who live in the new India actually believe we are on a par with the West. We are — if you can mentally shut out 600 to 700 million people.

 

Shutting out events is something we do particularly well in India. That is why we find it so hard to apologise.

 

Can you imagine what might happen if apologies were offered by: Sonia Gandhi or the Prime Minister to the

victims of the 1984 Sikh riots (the 25th anniversary was last month); Narendra Modi to the families of Gujarati Muslims massacred in 2002; the Prime Minister to Kashmiri Muslim families whose loved ones went missing in Kashmir over 20 years; Kashmiri separatist leaders to the Hindu Pandit families who fled their homes; Raj and Uddhav Thackeray to those who have died in their mindless shutdowns and riots.

 

English writer G.K. Chesterton once said: "The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt."

 

It can't be that hard, can it?

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

 

THAT SINKING FEELING

UTTAM KUMAR SINHA

 

We have increasingly become a 'risk society' — to borrow a phrase from Ulrich Beck — living in the times of heightened warnings and predictions. One cannot dismiss the fact that climate change threatens to reintroduce resource issues as major sources of regional insecurity — particularly the interlocking challenges of food, energy and water (FEW).

 

This set of critical drivers will present combined challenges and will reinforce each other as never before. First, as population grows, competition for FEW will increase. Second, with the risks that climate change assigns, FEW will be subjected to many stresses and strains. Climate change is no longer just an environment issue; it's now widely interpreted as 'an-all-encompassing' threat to peace and security. In South Asia it will be far more abrupt, from cycles of glacial melts and unpredictable patterns of the monsoon. The impact of climate change on water resources and food production, in particular, will be severe. It's estimated that every 1 degree centigrade rise in temperature would reduce wheat production by 4 to 5 million tonnes. The dependence of agriculture on energy will also increase in the same ratio.

 

Another important set of social impacts in South Asia would be the potential displacement of millions of people as a consequence of rise in sea levels. Together, this will force people to either fight to secure their share of diminishing resources or flee to other locations. Time is also a critical factor in finding responses to the impact of climate change. Since it's a gradual phenomenon, it is in the uncertainty of climate change both in terms of time framework and the evidence, from where threats emerge.

 

Climate change can potentially change the conditions of conflict. It could either be a 'threat multiplier' or a 'threat reducer'. Yet, one needs to consider the impact from the 'down-side risks'. For example, melting of the Himalayan glaciers will have catastrophic consequences. From the 'up-side risks', if climate change does not turn out to be calamitous given its uncertainty then policies and actions can be readjusted and reversed.

 

Understanding climate change and security and exploring the intersection between the two will be vital to peace and stability in South Asia. The emphasis needs to be on determining whether to adopt a broader regional climate policy or to have specific State responses to climate threats. A preventive regional policy will be of paramount importance. Climate change has the propensity to overburden some States in South Asia, which are already fragile and conflict-prone. The attainment of developmental goals in the region should be the driving force for States to adopt comprehensive climate change policies. Such an approach would require viewing adaptation and mitigation strategies as complements rather than competing alternatives.

 

Further, South Asian states will have to work on a two-front strategy: strengthening diplomatic relations and regional institutions for sharing climate-related information and to domestically engage in energy efficiency, energy renewal and resource conservation. Debating the likelihood of the runaway consequences of climate change should not obscure the reality that decisions need to be made, even in the face of uncertainty.

 

Uttam Kumar Sinha is a Research Fellow at Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ON THE ROAD

 

No matter how much we try to make up for our historic underinvestment in roads by frantically constructing flyovers and highways, India will never be truly on the move unless it addresses the dark question of injury and mortality. Road safety is a public health crisis, as the WHO has been pointing out for years. There are 13 deaths every hour on our roads, and India now has the highest number of road deaths in the world. What gives? While the glib explanation would point at exploding traffic levels wearing out our capacities, that is only the latest challenge — the Indian road system has weak fundamentals.

 

Whether it is engineering, education or enforcement, India has been unforgivably lax in the last decades. A recent study by Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan and others examined how corruption produces unsafe drivers — examining Delhi's department of motor vehicles, it showed how people twisted the driving licence procedure through agents and touts instead of taking the mandated test, making roads collectively unsafe for the rest of us. What's more, driving in India is a Darwinian test of strength. We honk our way through traffic snarls (or pretend we can, anyway), we list and weave through lanes, we intimidate smaller vehicles and pedestrians. Pavements are for sissies, jaywalking is a mark of urbanity. A clear stretch of road is open invitation to speed. We cannot seem to internalise basic information about entry and exit, right of way, yielding to special vehicles (like school buses and ambulances), wearing helmets while on a bike. Obviously, it is not intrinsically Indian to flout the rules of road safety — it is just that most of us were never schooled in the finer points of driving etiquette, or even helped along by an intuitive traffic code.

 

The blame also lies with inadequate engineering — the lack of large, legible street signs and dividers — as well as a weak and arbitrary enforcement system. The road safety problem is often partitioned into the need for an agency whose singular problem it is to address road safety — to oversee every detail from automobile standards to traffic-related injuries — along the lines of the American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the Swedish National Road Administration. Without such a systems approach, these cheerless road safety stats from India are unlikely to improve.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

THE VOTE TEST

 

It is a comment on the over-centralised nature of our political parties that the Congress has sustained such a buzz with its election programme for its youth wing. The party's effort to invigorate its ranks with young recruits is being propelled by the Rahul Gandhi-led calendar for organisational elections in the Youth Congress and the NSUI. To this end, former election commission officials have been roped in to make the process accountable and transparent. A proposal is now reportedly gaining currency to open up the posts of Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs to the candidates who poll the most votes. As reported in this newspaper on Wednesday, several PCC appointments are currently on hold, so that current incumbents can be replaced through elections.

 

Internal party democracy is usually gauged on a relative and rather forgiving scale. Some of the smaller parties adhere to such a personalised and closed structure that everybody else looks democratic by example. The Congress and the BJP, the two biggest parties, continue to use phrases like "high command" when beset by organisational issues. Most recently, the rebellion within the BJP's Karnataka government was openly settled in New Delhi; and assembly elections are most often accompanied by professions by Congress leaders that their party president would decide who'd be chief minister. This predictably gives excessive, and corrosive, clout to the "coteries" that form in the central unit, with leaders humming around the centres of party power in Delhi invested in keeping local leaderships on edge and thereby beholden. This is why the Congress's proposal, which can strengthen the party in more ways than simply settle clashes of ambitions in PCCs, comes with many posers.

 

The corollary of such a step would be a realistic reduction in the clout of hangers-on and power-brokers. They are obstacles in bringing internal democracy not just because they'd lose power in the process, but also because they are needed to carry through the change. For political parties, benefits range from transparency to accommodation of the widest possible array of ambitions and issues. But will they find the collective will to submit to genuine inner-party democracy?

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

PROOF'S IN THE PAYMENT

 

More than most other people, Nandan Nilekani knows how to turn information into hard currency. The induction of this former head of an iconic IT company as chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was meant to send out a larger message: UPA-II was willing to learn lessons from India Inc. His latest proposal — to charge corporates for authentication services by leveraging the UIDAI's vast database — is validation of just these expectations.

 

The UIDAI proposes to charge a fee, currently proposed to be Rs 5, to verify each address and Rs 10 for biometric confirmation, services that are estimated to cost companies between Rs 100 and Rs 500. This proposal works in many ways. The most obvious is by generating revenue. Rs 288 crore per year may only be a projection, and a small one at that, but it is recurring and self-sustaining. A less obvious reason to support Nandan's revenue model is that it, in a way, would force the government to deliver the goods. If data collection is as shoddy as delivery of many government schemes often is, which private individual would consider paying for the information? Put another way, the success of the idea hinges on the accuracy of the data, a good way to move from outlays to outcomes in policy implementation. A third reason to support this proposal is the public-private partnership that it symbolises, that government and corporates can form a mutually rewarding relationship.

 

The task before Nilekani — coordinating with multiple agencies and cutting through a rolodex of ID cards, to provide every Indian with a unique identity number — requires managerial skills that will test the best. But Nilekani was brought in not just for his proven success in running a large corporation, but also to breathe fresh air into government implementation mechanisms. His novel scheme to generate revenue from what was originally thought of as just cost-incurring does precisely that. It deserves to be taken seriously.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

CONFLICTS OF DISINTEREST

SOLI J. SORABJEE

 

Impartial administration of justice is the hallmark of a democratic society based on the rule of law. One of its essential requirements is that there should be no bias or real apprehension of bias in a judge while adjudicating disputes between the parties. Partiality or bias can arise, for example, if the judge has kinship or cordial relations with one of the parties to the litigation. In that event the judge is conscientiously embarrassed and therefore decides to recuse himself from the case irrespective of the consent or "no objection" from the parties about his continued participation.

 

What is the position where a judge holds shares in a company which is a litigant before the court? At one time according to legal thinking in England the judge was automatically disqualified from hearing the case. This view was based on a 19th-century case of Dimes in which orders of the Lord Chancellor were set aside on the ground of bias because he had shareholding in the company which was a litigant before him and, more importantly, there was no disclosure of his financial interest. The decision in Dimes has been substantially diluted as is clear from the recent judicial trend in the United Kingdom, in Australia, in New Zealand and in South Africa, according to which the mere presence of financial interest does not necessarily lead to automatic disqualification of the judge unless the judge has a direct pecuniary interest in the outcome of the litigation. An Australian court has aptly observed, "The Dimes principle is not attracted simply by showing that a judge (or juror) owns a parcel of shares in a company whose pecuniary interests are in issue. If, as in the present case, the litigation could not possibly affect the value of the shares, then it cannot be said that the judge has a direct pecuniary interest in the outcome of the litigation."

 

The current legal position is admirably summed up in the classic treatise De Smith's Judicial Review (6th edition): "The rule of automatic disqualification for pecuniary or proprietary interests is a misnomer, and might be more accurately considered a rule of automatic disclosure. This is because the parties may waive the offer of the decision-maker to recuse himself. In addition, some financial or proprietary interests have been held to be subject to the de minimis rule and not invoke automatic disqualification where the interest is 'so small as to be incapable of affecting the decision one way or another'." Thus it has been held in England that "disqualification will not attach if the connection between the pecuniary interests of the decision-makers and the issue before them is very tenuous". Indeed some commentators and jurists have opined that automatic disqualification doctrine is "mechanistic" and "smacks of abdication".

 

The thrust of the House of Lords judgment in Pinochet II was non-disclosure by one of the members of the Bench, Lord Hoffman, of his links with the party which participated in the case. This is apparent from the observations of Lord Browne-Wilkinson that "the mere fact of his interest is sufficient to disqualify him unless he has made sufficient disclosure".

 

The Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct 2002 highlight the said legal position. Clause 2.5.3 states that a judge should disqualify himself or herself from participating in any proceeding "where the judge, or a member of the judge's family, has an economic interest in the outcome of the matter in controversy". When does an economic interest disqualify a judge? Commentary on Clause 2.5 by the Judicial Integrity Group (Vienna 2007) with judicial experts from 35 countries states it is in cases where the judge or a member of his family is in a position to gain or lose financially as a result of the decision. For example, if as a company judge he has to decide whether a company in which he holds shares should be wound up. In that contingency, the judge should recuse himself because he has an economic interest in the outcome of the matter.

 

However a judge does not personally stand to gain or lose financially if he decides that the company in which he holds shares is liable to pay excise duty at a particular rate or that it is covered by an exemption notification under the Income Tax Act or that the company has infringed the trademark of another person. In such cases a judge cannot feel any embarrassment in deciding the case. But lest one of the parties may have an apprehension of bias the judge should make disclosure of his financial interest at the commencement of the hearing and if there is unequivocal no objection from all parties the judge should proceed with the hearing. Express statement of no objection amounts to waiver and, as the Judicial Integrity Group points out, in most countries it is competent to the parties to make a formal waiver of any issue of impartiality. Our Supreme Court has as far back as 1957 held that there can be a waiver in respect of alleged bias of a judge or a decision-maker.

 

For decades the practice in the high courts and the Supreme Court has been that judges can proceed with the hearing of a case if after disclosing their financial interest parties have expressed their no objection. This is in keeping with the Supreme Court judges' resolution. In the bank nationalisation case judges disclosed their shareholding in some of the banks, to which the eminent counsel appearing for the government stated that they had no objection to the Bench hearing the matter. In the Bombay high court Chief Justice Chagla disclosed his shareholding in TISCO, no party or lawyer objected, including Sir Jamshedji Kanga, the doyen of the Bombay Bar. The case was heard and ultimately decided against TISCO.

 

If the judicial conscience is clear and there is disclosure of interest and unequivocal no objection by all the parties judges, as sturdy judicial sentinels, must discharge their function uninfluenced by misinformed criticism, media hype or gratuitous advice of distinguished senior counsel. Recusal from a case out of abundant caution or hypersensitivity tends to hamper the effective administration of justice because of the delay and costs incurred by recusal as pointed out by the distinguished Lord Bingham. It can also pave the way for sophisticated forum shopping, which tendency must be curbed.

 

The writer is a former attorney general for India express@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

NO LONGER SHIP TO MOUTH

YOGINDER K. ALAGH

 

Surprisingly, there was in the Indira Gandhi eulogies very little discussion on her food and agriculture policies apart from some acerbic non-factual diatribes. With the country unable to feed itself, she hated the humiliation of begging abroad for grain. It is true that the miracle seeds were imported in the mid-'60s but were actually of limited spread initially; and by the early '70s, when the Indira period really begins, there was a "universal" of an Indian agricultural and grain crisis. Paddock and Paddock, in Famine — 1975!, argued that India absorbed like a blotter 25 per cent of the entire American wheat crop. It would be beyond the US to keep famine out of India, they said, since of all the national leaderships the Indian one came close to being the most childish and inefficient, perversely determined to cut the country's economic throat.

 

This unfairly negative assessment was from a larger canvas. Other think-tanks and experts — the Hudson Institute, Keith

 

Griffin, Francine Frankel, the Bretton Woods institutions and at the IDS Sussex, Paul Streeten and Michael Lipton — all had a dim view of agricultural prospects and some argued that India also did not have medium-term growth prospects since poor agriculture would lead to a wage goods constraint. The initial spurt of grain growth had petered out and the green revolution was seen as a misnomer. India's grain production, after reaching 108 million tonnes in 1971, was ranging between 101 and 104 million tonnes in the early '70s. The World Bank and in fact even the Indian finance ministry said that India would not achieve the Planning Commission target of 125 million tonnes of grain by 1978-79 and their estimates ranged between 118 and 120 million tonnes. This was the challenge and the planner's priorities were set and implemented at the level of Indira Gandhi who saw food security as a central issue.

 

At that time in my first job in the government, the Planning Commission produced its first Agricultural Sub-Model and this model made conservative assumptions on land reserves and productivity assumptions so that resource allocation for agriculture, particularly irrigation, got high priority in the investment budget. Interestingly, public sector capital formation of Rs 5566 crore at 1993-94 prices in 1976-77 was not reached in any year in the decade of the '90s, reflecting the lack of strategic policy-making for agriculture in the reform period. A lot of the investment then was to support the farmer to install irrigation pump sets, now advocated by people like Jeffrey Sachs for Sahelian Africa, where he has recommended the earlier Indian strategies. There was also priority to completing irrigation projects and the period saw the foundations of the conjunctive use practices as the new seeds spread and cropping intensities went up. While wholesale trade in grains was nationalised there was concern for giving the farmer adequate price incentives. By 1978-79 India was producing 127 million tonnes and was a net exporter of grains. Most serious commentators know that the significant revving up of the Indian agricultural growth rate above 3 per cent annually and of diversified agriculture go back to the foundations of that period. Given the importance of politics in food aid that was the decisive turning point.

 

With the neglect of agriculture from the '90s, the agricultural growth rate went down, employment growth in agriculture was low. Profitability of agriculture fell by 14.2 per cent in the '90s and, while earlier public capital formation was falling, even private investment stagnated. Irrigation and fertiliser growth slackened. It is to the credit of the UPA government that it decisively changed the trend of neglect of agriculture by raising investment in agriculture and since the last five years the growth rate in agriculture has picked up, less in crop production than the wider sector. Also some of the more basic problems of land scarcity, water use and incentives to the farmer remain.

 

The present generation does not really know the trauma a food-deficit poor country has to go through and many of the things we take for granted, and on which our growth is based, would simply not have been possible without the push given then. Removing hunger with adequate food supply is difficult. Without adequate food, hunger removal and in fact for a large country non-inflationary growth are impossible. I would suggest on Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary that, if we have to think symbolically, we should recall her role in India's lone march to food self-reliance, which laid the foundations of later prosperity.

 

The writer, a former Union minister, is chairman, Institute of Rural Management, Anand express@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

A CONDITIONAL CHARITY

JAVED ANAND

 

The disgraceful conduct of a UK-based Muslim charity with the victim-survivors of the 2002 communal carnage in Gujarat could have been ignored as an isolated, if highly deplorable act. Sadly, this is no isolated incident. If anything, it is but the latest manifestation of a malignancy common to many Muslim outfits, in India and internationally.

 

For those who missed the news in the November 15 edition of this paper, here is the gist. A UK-based NRI charity named Muslim Relief Organisation (MRO) had built a colony in Detral village in Bharuch district to rehabilitate the victim-survivors of Gujarat's state-sponsored carnage (2002). Even in charity, it seems, conditions apply.

 

The MRO has now issued an ultimatum to the Muslims it had helped rehabilitate: Shariah-compliant beards are a must. No rubbing shoulders with fellow Muslims in the village mosque, namaaz only in the special (sectarian) mosque we have built. Banish TV sets from your homes, all music is prohibited. Follow the "Shariah rules" or out you go of the homes we built. For you.

 

It can't be an easy choice for Detral's Muslims who, dispossessed by Hindu extremists seven years earlier, now face a second dispossession: by co-believers this time. My salaams to those village folks who at great cost to themselves have chosen freedom over capitulation to mean despots masquerading as custodians of Islam! A Google search doesn't tell us much about the MRO or its broader ideological affiliation. But it's easy to see where they are coming from.

 

The Detral ignominy is no isolated incident. Last year, televangelist Dr Zakir Naik's flush-with-petro-dollars Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) launched a scholarship scheme for Muslim students. That you might think is a good idea. But here again, conditions apply. Before all else, the aspiring candidates must pass the "Islam test". Since IRF is the screening body, it is reasonable to assume that the would-be grantee must match-up to the sponsor's brand of an intolerant Islam. So here is free tuition to future aspirants on IRF's 'model answers' to frequently asked questions:

 

Is it OK for Indian Muslims to sing Vande Mataram?

Model answer: Forget Muslims, even Hindus must follow the Vedas and refrain from such sinful act. (Rigveda, page…, para…, mantra…; the IRF is pretty good at playing the memory game).

 

Why can't non-Muslims practice their faith in Saudi Arabia?

Model answer: Simple, stupid! Islam is the only true religion. How can sinful ways of worship be allowed in the land of the only true religion?

 

Were the Taliban justified in demolishing the Bamiyan Buddhas?

Model answer: But of course! Since there were no Buddhists in Afghanistan and the territory belonged to the Afghans, they were right in destroying their own property. (How did Buddhists disappear from Afghanistan? Don't act smart!)

 

Co-education?

Model answer: Un-Islamic.

 

Burqa for women?

Model answer: It's a symbol of women's dignity while their participation in the Olympics, alongside men, symbolises degradation of women.

 

How to promote peace in the world?

 

Model answer: Through a 24/7 'Peace TV Channel' and mega-budget 'International Islamic Peace Conferences' in Mumbai, London, Tokyo. Message: "My dear Hindu, Christian, Jews and the rest of you, brothers and sisters, Peace be upon you! We are here to prove with reason and logic how ignorant you are, clueless about your own faith and guilty of the greatest sin: idol worship. Convert to Islam for "Global Unity and Peace".

 

(No Islam, no peace? At an estimated expenditure of rupees one crore per convert, IRF's must be the most cost-inefficient model in the conversion business).

 

The Sachar Committee's report convincingly establishes the fact of institutionalised discrimination against Muslims in our 'infidel' state? But the Muslim Relief Organisation, the IRF and their types do a much better inside job in discriminating: between Muslims (good) and Muslims (bad) in Islam's name. It's a discrimination that's inevitable when faith is converted into a totalitarian ideology.

 

"There is no compulsion in religion" ("La ikraaha fiddeen"), says the Quran. "Diversity of opinion in my ummah is a blessing from Allah," said the Prophet. For the despots of Islam, however, not only is Islam the only true religion, "their Islam" is the only "true Islam". No space for doubt, no question of choice.

 

For sensible scholars of Islam, the Shariah is only a problem-solving methodology for those who seek to unravel the Divine Intent with the help of the Quran, teachings of Prophet Mohammed (Ahadith and Sunnah), consensual approach (ijma) and critical reasoning (ijtehad). But when a methodology (Marxist or Islamic) is elevated to the status of Law — frozen in time, all fresh approaches outlawed — you cannot but end up with a totalitarian ideology that by its own internal logic must aspire to the establishment of a totalitarian state (Marxist or Islamic).

 

It may seem like an ugly utopia for you and me. But to the hopelessly indoctrinated, a school in Mumbai, a village of bruised and battered Muslims in Gujarat, the Swat valley in Pakistan, a country named Afghanistan, or any social space big or small will do as a laboratory for the pursuit of their totalitarian fantasy.

 

Fortunately for the world and for the ummah itself, when given a chance to express themselves, the vast majority of Muslims — Indonesian, Malaysian, Bangladesh, Pakistani — continue to deliver a resounding 'No' to the enemies of freedom and choice. But beware of the dangers of the malevolent, modern-day messiahs. Unlike the poor maulvi sahib from a Muslim mohalla, this seemingly sophisticated lot comes draped in suit and tie, speaks fluent English, swears faith in "reason and logic", quotes from the Vedas and the Bible as comfortably as from the Quran, oozes cash and promotes disharmony and discord in the name of peace. Don't take them lightly for many among the new generation of otherwise well-educated but theologically ignorant Muslims assume this out-of-date medievalism to mean 'Modern Islam'.

 

The writer is co-editor, 'Communalism Combat' and general secretary 'Muslims for Secular Democracy'.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

'IN DIFFICULT TIMES, THE COMMUNISTS WILL HAVE TO SHOW REVOLUTIONARY OPTIMISM'

MANOJ C G

 

The 11th International meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties is being held in New Delhi this week, at a time when the Left in India is facing its worst-ever crisis and is fast losing support even in traditional strongholds like West Bengal and Kerala. CPI National Secretary D. Raja speaks to Manoj C.G about the challenges before the Left and the need for bringing about a change in the functioning style of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government.

 

What is the significance of this meeting?

This is the 11th international meeting of the Communist and Workers Parties. It is being held in India for the first time. And it comes against the backdrop of the global recession, which has once again shown that capitalist economy is a crisis-ridden economy and crisis is in its inherent nature. So the question is, what is the alternative? We strongly believe that socialism is the genuine alternative.

 

But socialism as an economic and political model had failed, and we have seen it in Soviet Union and eastern Europe?

It is true that the model of socialism suffered setbacks and reverses in the Soviet Union. But that doesn't mean that socialism will suffer the same fate in other countries. What happened in Soviet Union doesn't necessarily happen in other countries.

 

How can you advocate socialism when it has already proved to be a failure?

The basic feature of socialism, which is welfare of the people, has not failed. The ideology of socialism is still relevant. In Soviet Union it happened because of some other reasons like the role of the state and contradictions in the political structure.

 

How can it succeed in India?

In India, we will have to apply the ideology according to our specific conditions. There are some unique features in India. We will have to keep in mind aspects like economic exploitation and social discrimination that still exists in several states. We cannot simply copy the Soviet model. We can only draw lessons from it.

 

The meeting also comes at a time when Left in India is at a crossroads. The communists have suffered serious electoral reverses and the Left's base is eroding very fast.

We are in a parliamentary democracy and elections are a regular feature. Setbacks in one or two elections do not mean the end of ideology.

 

But how can you wish away the fact that the Left's base is shrinking across the country as was evident in the electoral results? The Left is also not able to move with the changing times and gauge the electoral significance of the rising middle-class.

It is right. There is a gap between the political influence of the Left and its actual electoral performance. We are trying to bridge that gap. It is true that the middle class is increasingly influencing public opinion and government policies. We have been trying to politicise the middle class, which is driven by consumerism and careerism. The market is dictating the terms. We need to raise the level of social consciousness of the middle class.

 

The Left is facing its worst-ever crisis in Bengal. What has gone wrong?

It is true that we are facing a very adverse situation in Bengal. The Left Front will have to take corrective measures before the next Assembly elections. There should be a change in the style of government functioning and in matters like economic policy. For example, the Singur land question has to be sorted out fast. The Left Front will have to function collectively. There should be mutual trust and all the constituents will have to be taken into confidence during decision-making.

 

What changes do you want in the functioning style of the chief minister? And how much is the CPM responsible for the reverses?

The style of functioning of the government as a whole needs to be changed. Some of the policies have not gone down well with the people. We are not talking about any individual or any party. the government has collective responsibility. There must be a change and we hope there will be a change.

 

Do you feel that a leadership change in West Bengal will help turn the situation around?

Right now, these are not the issues to be discussed. The need of the hour is to change the style of functioning to win back the confidence of the people. The government's functioning style has not gone down well, as we have seen during Singur and Nandigram.

 

Several Left leaders, including some CPM ministers, are now openly saying that Trinamool Congress is set to come to power in 2011 and the Assembly elections should be advanced.Does the CPI share the same perception?

There is no need to advance the elections. I accept that Trinamool Congress is a challenge for the Left. After all it is the main Opposition party. But we should be optimistic and confident. We will have to fight. As Antonio Gramsci has said, in times of difficulties, the Communists will have to show revolutionary optimism.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

VIEW FROM THE RIGHT

SUMAN K JHA

BURDEN OF THEIR SONG

 

The editorial in the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Organiser, titled "Vande Mataram. Why the clergy crib?" says: "The fatwa brigade is out again. This round in the company of the redoubtable Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who has displayed an exceptional expertise in blowing hot and cold in the face of mounting pressure on national security. That the Deoband intellectuals could not find anything more significant and meaningful for the community it claims to represent, than the bogey of Vande Mataram to raise before the home minister underlines the crisis facing the Muslim clergy. It is in a time warp. It has no sense of timing or priority. If a Muslim should or should not sing Vande Mataram can be debated endlessly. There are people like A.R. Rahman and Arif Mohammad Khan, in modern times who find it elevating to sing the soul-stirring song. Post-independent India has seen social reformers and intellectuals like M.C. Chagla, Hamid Delvi, etc, pleading tirelessly to their community to join the national mainstream. The liberal leadership of Indian Muslims has often found it difficult to carry the Muslim masses with it, as the more orthodox held sway over their political decision-making. This helped cynical political bargaining by the self-appointed champions of minority rights like Congress and Communist parties, which keep Muslims in perpetual bondage of vote-bank politics even as this game damaged and undermined the community — economically, educationally and even socially".

 

The editorial adds: "The real problem with the mullah is his medieval attitude towards women. He cannot digest the idea of honouring womanhood, her dignity, in the form of a goddess, mother or motherland. It seems more a pathological deformity than religious rigidity. It has more to do with treating woman as an object, a chattel than a source of inspiration, grace and creativity. This is his anathema with the concept of motherland also. It is surprising that he is not able to salute the land that gave him birth, that continues to give him succour and sustenance. This is in other words called gratitude or patriotism. It is a non-negotiable paradigm, Vande Mataram is only a literal translation of an Indian's feelings, attitude and attachment to this land on whose abode he finds his fulfilment and meaning in life. To deny this is to deny ones own identity, ones claim to be its citizen and an equal partner to its growth and prosperity". It concludes: "By issuing a fatwa barring its followers singing Vande Mataram, the mullah is chopping off his community away from its own ancestral right. Thankfully, the members of the community have better sense. These mullahs no more represent or call the shots in the community. It is time for them to realise their irrelevance or for the community to show them their place. A Muslim becomes a better Muslim when he owns and belongs to the land of his birth".

 

GLACIER SAVIOURS

A news item in the RSS journal, titled "Massive plantation is essential to save the glaciers in Uttarakhand: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar," says: "Noted spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar Guruji expressed concern over the depleting glaciers in Uttarakhand. He said local people should be involved in the crusade to save the environment. 'I was in Manila recently. People there complained me that they faced floods since glaciers are shrinking in India ( Himalayas ). What we need today to save our glaciers like Gangotri and Yamunotri in Uttarakhand is massive plantation,' he said. Sri Sri Ravishankar was addressing a gathering of distinguished persons at the chief minister's residence in Dehradun. During the interaction, Chief Minister Dr Nishank apprised Sri Sri Ravishankar of Char Dham, Hemkund Sahib and Piran Kaliyar, where lots of religious tourists come every year. In a bid to motivate people to cultivate medicinal products, the state government has prepared a detailed plan. Recently Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev expressed his desire to buy Rs 1500 crore medicinal plants per year from local farmers".

 

The news item adds: "The chief minister said Sri Sri's blessing for state residents would send a good message among the masses. Dr Nishank said ensuring immaculate arrangements for the forthcoming Maha Kumbh Mela is being accorded top priority by the state government. He also spoke at length regarding abundance of herbal plants in Uttarakhand, stating that a proposal to procure herbal plants worth 1500 crore rupees per annum from local farmers was put forth by Baba Ramdev recently that would augment job opportunities in the state. Prominent persons and officials present on the occasion included Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor, Forest Minister Bishan Singh Chufal, Tourism Minister Madan Kaushik, MLAs Ganesh Joshi, Kuldeep Singh, Parliamentary Secretary Premchand Aggarwal, Planning Com¬mission Vice Chairman Manohar Kant Dhyani, organisation secretary general of state BJP Naresh Bansal and others".

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

HIGHER THAN THE WALL

KUNAL PRADHAN

 

At a Thai restaurant in Islamabad, after the first day's play in the final Test in 2004, Rahul Dravid politely declined to stay for dessert, saying he needed to sleep because he had to bat the "whole day tomorrow". Not early, not in the morning; the whole day.

 

It led to a few involuntary sniggers at the dinner table, but Dravid had chosen his words carefully. Ten not out overnight, he was unbeaten on 134 when stumps were drawn the following evening. And then, for good measure, he batted almost the whole of the next day as well, finishing on a career-best 270. It wasn't the most attractive knock, and not nearly his most fluent — in fact, at 12 hours and 20 minutes it was the longest innings by an Indian player ever — but Dravid had ensured, almost single-handedly, that India won their first Test series in Pakistan.

 

Adelaide, Kolkata, Leeds, Kingston — he will be remembered when, years from now, people talk about what had happened in those cities at the turn of the century. For, scratch a famous Indian victory, and you will uncover a Dravid gem underneath.

 

Through his career, he has been associated with hard, unwavering grit with a bat in his hands and soft, natural refinement off the field of play. It's been hard to pick between the great batsman and the perfect gentleman. But, as the French philosopher Voltaire said, "The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out." So, while Dravid invoked deep admiration and steadfast affection, he did not immediately move fans as much as some of his more naturally attractive peers from this generation of astonishing batsmen.

 

Perhaps history will judge his true place in Indian cricket, and put him higher than the fifth or sixth place he occupies on the list of most experts. Perhaps history alone will finally realise that "The Wall" is too simplistic a nickname for a batsman of his ilk.

 

I've always believed that Dravid's famous sobriquet is completely misplaced. As a batsman, he is skillful and prudent, with far more character than a block of brick and mortar. Maybe, at times, he stood firmly like a defensive barrier. But they weren't necessarily his best moments. There were more occasions when he attacked the very heart of the opposition. "The Wall" barely begins to describe him, so how can it sum him up?

 

There was a time when Dravid was in grave danger of being consumed by his own quest for technical perfection. Former Australian captain Ian Chappell once said he needed to be told that matches were won not by hours but by runs or wickets.

 

In those days, when he did manage to get a big score, he was invariably overshadowed by a colleague. Right from his debut 95 at Lord's in 1996 (when Ganguly cracked 131) to the 148 at Headingley in 2002 (when Tendulkar trumped him with a 193). But at The Oval in the following Test, Dravid smashed a flawless 217. The next highest score was Tendulkar's 54. The spell was broken, and there was no looking back after that.

 

This week, seven years later, there were glimpses of the Dravid we know so well in his 177 at Ahmedabad. But the innings was different because it seemed to have the fluency that usually comes only with abandon. Beaten by Dammika Prasad midway through his knock, he hammered the next ball down the ground for four. The Dravid of old would've never done that — he would've scarcely scored a run for the next few minutes, cross with himself for the momentary lapse of concentration.

Treated unkindly by the national selectors with his sudden inclusion and abrupt exclusion from the one-day team in recent weeks, one might say it was Dravid's way of showing he should not be trifled with. But, knowing him, that was perhaps the last thing on his mind. He is too clever a student of the art of batting to let anything come in the way of the next ball, next over, next session.

 

Dravid fell early on the second morning of the Test, having already made a statement with his most entertaining century since Adelaide 2003 — removing not just the scars of the recent one-day snub but also, to an extent, of his only modestly successful stint as captain that ended suddenly in 2007.

 

The innings was significant for all those reasons. But, situationally speaking, there was nothing new. India was in trouble, and Dravid, its great No 3, batted the whole day again.

 

kunal.pradhan@expressindia.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

SMALL SAVINGS ARE BIG SAVING

This is one surge in economic numbers that will evoke mixed reactions. The sudden rise in small savings inflows this financial year—the net inflows are at Rs 10,997 crore in the first six months—is a significant turnaround from the previous financial year. To some extent, an increase this financial year was more likely in any case. Last year was a year of crisis and people cashed in on their small savings instead of increasing them. But even the government, as reported by FE on Wednesday, was pleasantly surprised by the extent of the increase this financial year. Clearly, this is a solid indicator of economic recovery taking firm root, particularly in smaller towns and rural areas, which are the biggest contributors to small savings schemes. This seems to fit in with other trends, which also indicate that the economy has overcome its liquidity problems of the last financial year. This upsurge will, however, not return savings to their peak levels of 37.7% in 2007-08. The PM's EAC has forecast savings in this financial year to be just under 35%. That is an impressive rate so soon after such a major crisis of confidence.

 

One of the other important reasons (other than the recovery) for the upsurge in small savings is the steady fall in bank deposit rates. Interest on bank term deposits fell to a two-year low of 7% in August. In comparison, the return on the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF) is 8%, plus tax incentives. Unsurprisingly, savers are opting for the higher return. And that's also why there is mixed reaction to the rise in small savings numbers. Banks, in particular, are unhappy at the prospect of small savings offering higher returns than deposits. Banks have consistently been arguing that the small savings rate acts as a floor on deposit rates. And as a result, it acts as a firm floor on lending rates as well. This argument does not, however, carry enough weight to be taken seriously at the policy level. Bank deposit rates should fall further to enable lending rates to be much lower than they are right now. Consumers and investors are simply not taking up bank finance because it's too expensive. Banks have to get their pricing right. In any case, there is no evidence that small savings schemes are drawing a significant number of savers away from deposits. In fact, a majority of those who invest in small savings schemes, especially from rural areas, have no access to bank accounts in any case. Small savings thus end up acting as an agent of financial inclusion and work complementary to bank deposits. And from a macroeconomic perspective, we need as many new savers to join the financial system as possible, through banks or small savings schemes.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

WINTER OF REFORM?

Even before Parliament's winter session has begun, Opposition parties are saying they will bring an adjournment motion against the Centre's new sugarcane pricing policy. Put together other scandals like the Madhu Koda affair or alleged irregularities in spectrum allotment and you have the guarantee of a stormy session. These are genuine issues and a legislative debate concerning them is, of course, welcome. But certain critical Bills are also expected to be tabled during the session, and it will be very unfortunate if these fail to pass for want of time. A stormy session is one thing, and one that goes completely off track, another. Opposition from within the UPA-II coalition has already taken a toll on Bills like the one involving land acquisition, which is unlikely to be passed this time around. The National Food Security Bill has fallen victim to the dispute over the size of the BPL population, and a resource crunch. Then there are Bills that have lapsed because they couldn't be introduced in the last session. For example, there is the Judges Inquiry Bill, 2006. Last time around, the law minister had decided not to introduce it after MPs protested. Since then, the Supreme Court and high court judges have declared they will disclose assets voluntarily. But we are still awaiting legislation enhancing the efficiency and credibility of justice delivery.

 

The month-long winter session can really push the reform agenda forward and reinvigorate economic sentiment by passing relevant legislation. For example, there is the Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority Bill, which has even enjoyed the BJP's public support, and which seeks to both bring foreign direct investment into the pension sector and give the interim regulator statutory powers to develop a new pension system for even the unorganised sector. Then there is the Insurance Bill that will raise the foreign direct investment cap in insurance firms to 49%, from the existing 26%. There is also a set of Bills relating to the State Bank of India group, whose concerns include reducing government shareholding. An amendment Bill to the Mines & Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957, would introduce competitive bidding for allocation of coal blocks—parliamentarians should prioritise passing this over disrupting proceedings to protest against the Koda scandal. On education, equal opportunity, women's reservation et al, there are matters that Parliament needs to resolve. If, instead of moving forward on multiple fronts, tooth and nail remonstrations over one issue or the other dominate the session, that will be unfortunate indeed.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

DON'T RELY ON PROVIDENCE FOR PENSION

MANISH SABHARWAL

 

Most employees with a Provident Fund account don't realise that 35% of their contribution is diverted to the horrible Employee Pension Scheme (EPS). This scheme was opposed by employers and unions when it was introduced in 1992 on grounds of sustainability, transparency, governance and returns. However, it was upheld by the Supreme Court based on assurances of the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). Interestingly, the government rejected a pension plan proposed for civil servants by the Bhattacharya Committee similar to EPS—with the same birth defect of defining both benefits and contribution—on grounds of sustainability and affordability.

 

Our worst fears about EPS have now come true: EPFO has unilaterally and substantially reduced benefits under EPS by crimping return of capital, abolishing commutation and increasing pre-retirement penalties. The new rules abolish Para 13, which provided three options for return of capital: a) If the employee opted for 90% of original pension (having given up 10%), then the return of capital was 100 times the original monthly pension; b) if the employee opted for 90% of original pension (i.e. gave up 10%), then the widow got 80% of the original pension for her life and on her death or re-marriage, the nominee got 90 times the original monthly pension as return of capital; and c) if the employee opted to get a fixed monthly pension of 87.5% of the original pension for a period for 20 years, on completion of 20 years, he would get 100 times the original pension. Following this no pension would be paid.

 

The changes also delete Para 12A around commutation; this removed the option by which an employee could opt for two-thirds of the original pension as reduced pension, and the balance one-third could be commuted and paid as 100 times the one-third as a lump sum. The most damaging change is to Para 12(7), which has changed the 3% penalty per year for early withdrawal before 58 years; for example, if you opted for pension 2 years ahead of the age of 58, the reduction was 3% x 2 = 6%. This 3% has now been changed to 4%.

 

I only include these details because they are being gift-wrapped by EPFO as a fine-tuning of the scheme. But nobody should doubt that these represent a broken promise; a unilateral and substantial reduction in future benefits promised for past contributions already made.

 

The more dangerous problem is that most experts believe that even these modifications are not enough to move EPS to sustainability and it will need either higher contributions or lower benefits. Increasing contributions is difficult; employees do not contribute, employer contributions to the Provident Fund and EPS are defined, and the government has no obligation or willingness till it fills up the hole (as reflected by the prudent decision of the ministry of finance to reject an EPFO request for a government bailout).

 

EPFO has lost touch with its mission and no longer acts in the best interest of its members. It has become self-referential, arrogant and most importantly, dangerous. It does not have clients but hostages (so it can get away with charging 454 basis points to manage a government securities mutual fund). Its dual regulatory and administrative role means that it is both the umpire and the player (so it can suppress competition by denying permission for new exempt PF trust formation). Its goofy service means that participants give up begging for their money (so about 50% of its accounts are dormant with unclaimed money). Its lack of transparency and consistency (definition of wages, treatment of employees above the salary of Rs 6,500, etc) creates opportunities for corruption. It has broken the linkage between interest earned and interest credited (only by a highly questionable reclassification accounting treatment of liabilities and assets).

 

But instead of being punished or held accountable, EPFO is being rewarded with a bigger kingdom—its mandate has been expanded to cover employers with more than 10 employees (lowered from the earlier 20 employees). There are also rumbles that EPFO proposed to raise its salary coverage limit to Rs 10,000 per month (from the current Rs 6,500). This expansion is built on the false and flawed assumption that benefits are over and above salary. Corporate India has moved to a CTC (cost-to-company) model in which all benefits are included in a number. Any fatwa to raise PF contributions does not increase CTC but reduces take home salary.

 

At the well-organised annual Invest India Pension conference in Delhi earlier this month, the agenda, speakers and attendees clearly symbolised the progress in civil service and individual pensions. And the absolute lack of progress in employer pensions. But pension reforms are like ice cream: the more you wait, the more it melts.

 

We must scrap EPS before the hole becomes unmanageable because tweaking will not overcome a birth defect. We must create competition by allowing employers to pay their Provident Fund contribution to the New Pension Scheme (NPS). And we must legislate that EPFO cannot pay investment returns it has not made. Otherwise we must get ready to write a bigger cheque to EPFO than we did for US64.

 

The author is chairman, TeamLease Services

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

ADS ARE FINDING THEIR ONLINE FEET

NIKHIL PAHWA

The Mobile advertising world received a significant shot in the arm last week with Google announcing plans to acquire mobile advertising network AdMob for $750 million. Advertising networks are largely an Internet phenomenon: with the medium able to support a seemingly unlimited number of publishers, and advertising networks and provide advertisers with a consolidated large inventory. Much of this advertising is 'blind' because advertisers often don't know where their inventory is being served. The mobile advertising network space has been struggling for a while now, and showed little sign of perceptible growth until the launch of the iPhone, which gave a lifeline to mobile advertising.

 

Google has been eying the mobile advertising space with intent now, and the Android phone is taking on juggernaut proportions. Last quarter, Google reported a 30% quarter-over- quarter growth in mobile searches. As one of the largest mobile advertising networks in the world, with a presence in 64 countries, AdMob brings to Google immediate scale in display advertising as well as ads on applications that next-gen phones like the iPhone, Nokia N97 and a number of Android phones have made popular. For AdMob, the top ten devices in the US for September 2009 included five with touchscreens, six with Wi-Fi capabilities, and six with application stores, with higher mobile usage than their share of handsets sold. Android accounted for 17% of smartphone traffic in the US in September 2009 on the AdMob network, up from 13% in August 2009, with HTC Dream (G1) as the number three and the HTC Magic as the number 10 device in September 2009.

 

In case of the iPhone, much of the traffic came from applications. AdMob's revenues are not known, so whether they were bought for their 'success' in a struggling mobile advertising space or their potential, is yet to be ascertained. AdMob's publisher network comprises over 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications. According to its latest report, the monthly ad requests "increased 6.3 times over the past 2 years from 1.6 billion in September 2007 to 10.2 billion in September 2009." India is AdMob's number two market, albeit a fraction of what it serves in the US. To put things in context, also take into account the thinning barrier between the Internet and the Mobile Internet, and the fact that Google—a juggernaut, particularly with the Android—has put in considerable resources to address the potential of the mobile space: it's gone from one device, one carrier, one country to 12 devices, 32 carriers, 26 countries in less than a year. With 18-20 Android expected to be out by the end of this year, and many more next year, it seems increasingly difficult for the iPhone and Nokia to keep up.

 

The initial challenge for Google and AdMob is one of integrating quickly. That'll serve as something of a lull as companies like Meridian Media and India's InMobi figure out ways of competing with the Google-AdMob combine. Google's acquisition of AdMob works as something of a validation for the space, but there is still a lot to be done in terms of building the mobile advertising ecosystem.

 

There have been concerns around the effectiveness of mobile advertising: the mobile has a screen size that is much smaller than a desktop, and each pixel matters that much more. Google itself recently said it's not quite sure of how to serve ads on its popular Gmail application, because it doesn't want ads to get in the way of user experience. But display advertising is far more visible and evident on a mobile screen, and users do tend to notice it more. Viewing links on a mobile device tends to be sequential: you scroll down a page. In comparison, viewing a screen on a desktop is far more cumbersome, since users are processing inputs from a larger screen in parallel, taking in both horizontal and vertical inputs; that's a scenario for 'Banner Blindness'. Thus, the impact of an advertisement on a mobile device is far greater. Add to that the additional input that mobile devices receive, in terms of the location of the individual through triangulation of mobile signals from cellular towers. The context, the personalisation and location specific details allow serving more relevant ads.

 

However, identifying conversions is also an issue on a mobile. If I'm near a McDonalds and served an ad around lunch time, identifying a restaurant location close to mine, I'll just walk in. How does McDonalds identify that the walk-in has been generated by the mobile advertisement? That's a problem that mobile advertising is yet to solve, and much of the ads are for content or commerce, similar to the way advertising evolved on the Internet. For Google, mobile advertising will also be limited by the paucity of mobile landing pages, essentially homepages for mobile advertisers. How many businesses in India currently have mobile-ready Web sites?

 

The author is the editor of MediaNama.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

ADDING VALUE TO DTH

SUDIPTA DATTA

The direct-to-home industry in India is growing fast but the numbers are not quite adding up to revenues for the players—not yet. Every player will tell you that India's DTH market is small and that's why the potential for growth is immense. According to entertainment industry estimates, India's TV viewership is the second largest in the world, with the country adding 14 million new TVs a year. Of the 130 million TV households we already have, 97 million are cable & satellite (C&S) homes and growing at 25-30% annually.

 

The DTH players together boast a market share of 14-15 million subscribers, and the subscriber base is likely to swell to 35-40 million by 2012. But a number of issues, from unsustainable pricing models, low margins, high taxes, are making it a huge struggle for the players. The average return-per-user from DTH subscribers varies from Rs 150-200. If a package costs Rs 100, a DTH player has to pay 10% to the government, 40-60% to the broadcaster and has only 30% to tackle costs, which include transponder costs (Rs 80 lakh a year), infrastructure, advertising, marketing, distribution and acquiring new technology costs. And yet, a DTH player cannot raise prices too, not for the basic package at least, because the industry hasn't yet got the volumes.

 

One way out is to allow DTH players to launch more value-added services—we have seen some of it happening, but Indian consumers are price conscious and revenues from other streams (pay-per-view, advertising) may not be enough to cut back losses, at this initial stage of growth. All this, at a time when cable TV—first off the block to get 100-odd channels in Indian homes—is cleaning up its act too, digitalising, beaming local content, improving quality. Though DTH has been growing on two parameters—quality of service and signal quality—and has seen subscribers flocking to the platform, fact is all the players are bleeding and are unlikely to break even soon. The Trai is looking into DTH players' demands, particularly a more rational tax structure, so that the nascent industry can shape up.

 

sudipta.datta@expressindia.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

REPORT CARD

This paper* discusses domestic politics around climate change in India as an entry point to understanding India's role in global climate negotiations:

 

I suggest there is broad agreement within India on three issues: India is being unfairly labelled a 'major emitter'; India has a considerable ongoing development burden; and India is already moving in the right direction on climate mitigation. However, on each of these issues there is a healthy under-current of domestic debate. Moreover, broad agreement on this perspective does not translate to strategic unanimity. Instead, I suggest there are three divergent positions within India: growth-first stonewallers, progressive realists, and progressive internationalists. For a renewed Indian climate politics, the two progressive groups will have to join forces. However, this will require stronger signals of good faith from the international community. This tour of Indian climate politics in the context of global negotiations suggests that almost two decades after negotiations began, cleavages in perception along North-South lines continue to stymie agreement. Economic competitiveness has now joined environmental integrity as the dominating metaphor for many industrialised countries. Fairness, understood in terms of historical and per capita emissions, continues to be an important benchmark for India, and perhaps for other developing countries, too. Agreement on the details of a climate deal, in all probability, will require further narrowing of these persistent differences in framing of the climate problem.

 

Navroz K Dubash; Toward a Progressive Indian & Global Climate Politics; Centre for Policy Research Climate Initiative, Working Paper 2009/1 (September)

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

SHAKING HANDS WITH CLENCHED FIST

 

"You cannot shake hands," Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said famously in a 1982 interview, "with a clenched fist." Ever since he took office, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has been quietly working to un-clench the hands of Jammu Kashmiri secessionists and secure the support of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference for a peace deal. The Hindu recently broke news of a second round of secret meetings with key Hurriyat leaders, a sign that Mr. Chidambaram's initiative is making some headway. Secret diplomacy is a key weapon, sometimes an effective one, in the arsenal of states seeking to solve intractable conflicts. However, New Delhi's covert search for peace in Jammu and Kashmir has a less than luminous record. Despite two decades of sustained contact with various groups of secessionists, the results have been disappointing. As People's Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti has pointed out, a purely covert engagement involves the risk that any agreement arrived at will be perceived to be a 'sell-out.'

 

The secret talks are intended to prepare the ground for a public engagement. But there is a major problem. The Hurriyat wants Kashmir's Islamist patriarch, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, as well as Pakistan and its jihadist allies, to endorse the dialogue. Islamabad, beset by internal crises, is in no position to agree to anything domestic Islamists can attack as capitulation to India. Mr. Geelani has rejected talks on ideological grounds. Past peace efforts floundered on the same rock. Little came, for example, of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani's 2004 meeting with the Hurriyat. Pakistan rejected the process because it would have undermined its leverage in J&K. For his part, Mr. Geelani walked out of the Hurriyat before the talks. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to address the problem by authorising secret talks with Islamabad even as he met with Hurriyat leaders in September 2005. Diplomats Satinder Lambah and Tariq Aziz agreed on the broad contours of a solution. By 2006, however, it became clear that a beleaguered Pervez Musharraf was in no position to deliver on the five agreed principles. The Hurriyat, for its part, failed to come up with an agenda for talks. Dr. Singh then changed tack: he called a conference, involving all major parties in J&K, in an effort to build consensus on the way forward. The secessionists, unsurprisingly, resiled from promises to participate. Mr. Chidambaram evidently hopes his renewed engagement will break the impasse. Some influential voices in the policy establishment are believed to be sceptical about the chances of success. Both Mr. Chidambaram and Hurriyat president Mirwaiz Umar Farooq must be applauded for giving peace a chance. Given the complexities of the endeavour, there can be no guarantee of success — nor should one be sought. But the time has come to conduct the dialogue in the clear light of day.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

MAKE PICTURES SPEAK

 

If the objective is to persuade tobacco users to quit the self-destructive habit and to deter new users, emotive pictorial warnings alongside printed text on all tobacco products can be highly effective. The World Health Organisation recommends the deployment of "shocking" pictures that bring out the harsh realities of tobacco use. Evidence from several countries indicates that pictures that graphically depict the adverse health effects have the greatest impact. For instance, 67 per cent of smokers in Brazil and New Zealand and 44 per cent in Canada and Thailand wanted to give up the habit after pictorial warnings were introduced. In fact, a greater percentage of smokers wanted to see more information about the harmful effects of tobacco on the products, as a 2006 survey of ten countries revealed. Some countries are using innovative methods to enhance the effectiveness of the warnings. Brazil, for instance, is drawing from research on emotion to maximise negative emotional arousal; and Chile is using testimonial warnings from people who have suffered from tobacco use. The Indian government might not share the same enthusiasm, but it should do something radical about the set of pictorial warnings that will come out in 2010.

 

Consider the three pictorial warnings in current use: a scorpion, diseased lungs, and an X-ray of the lungs! This might be used in a case study of how not to communicate. The images confuse; they also mislead. Further, reducing the warning size to 20 per cent in principal display areas of cigarette packets is inexplicable. Pictures break linguistic barriers and can effectively communicate key messages to people deprived of education. The current month-long campaign on television and radio by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shows how shocking pictures and tales of people suffering from oral cancer can effectively convey the vital message on the dangers of tobacco chewing. This intelligent campaign costs the exchequer a mere Rs.5 crore but spreading the same message through pictorial warnings will cost virtually nothing. Given the constant and intrusive impact on users, pictorial warnings on all tobacco products are the key to spreading the message. The government must put the public interest first and not succumb to industry pressure on a life-or-death matter.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

THE GAINS FROM MASKING REALITY

HOW CAN A MEDIA HAWKING EDITORIAL SPACE TO POLITICIANS AND THEIR PARTIES FOR PERSONAL USE, CAPTURE THE REALITY FOR ITS READERS AND ANALYSE IT WITH SENSITIVITY AND HONESTY?

MRINAL PANDE

 

To most of the smart whiz-kid managers planning to reinvent the print media as a lucrative multi-language business, the small-town market today is by and large an autonomous phenomenon, somewhat constrained by politics but not reducible to it. This theory has the genius of appearing to bow humbly before the reciprocal issue of how the vernacular media affect and shape local society and vice versa, while actually planning to straddle it, whip in hand.

 

The vernacular media establishment needs to watch out for such perfect-sounding inventions that never actually do what their labels claim, like diet pills or hair restoring substances. Attractive as the managerial dreams may look, the Hindi media themselves have so far not negotiated on their own terms the actual relationship between the uppity new investor and the class-specific vernacular readership. They lack a specific and clear system that can effectively firewall editorial in case the deal goes sour after an initial positive showing.

 

Many recent steps redefining news and its dissemination in the newspapers were taken hastily after bypassing the editorial department. They may have introduced lethal and invisible viruses within the system that may corrode and finally kill the newspaper. The vernacular media may be feeling cocky, having pulled themselves out of physical poverty under their own steam, but they have yet to learn how to deal firmly and decisively with another kind of poverty — that of the professional, ethical kind.

 

One is not being paranoid here. Not too long ago, some major dailies introduced a devilishly cunning scheme of offering what was innocently labelled 'Ad for Equity.' This met with loud applause from many managerial bosses all over. But before long the realty, aviation and automobile sectors went into a tailspin, and the scheme left the companies that had adopted it red-faced and holding bags of (economy class) air tickets, empty flats, unsold cars and so on.

 

A little later, during some of the Assembly elections in 2008, the local editions of several multi-edition Hindi dailies started displaying laudatory and frequently contradictory news items on their front pages about specific candidates contesting from the respective areas. With zero news value, none of these items merited such display, but through the election period the front pages and op-ed pages of some dailies continued to carry the mug-shots of particular candidates, even predicting a record win for him or her.

 

The dailies may or may not have collected some Rs.200 crore with this little duplicitous exercise in psephology, but a new idea of what has now come to be called 'political advertising' was planted across the country, triggering a trend. And soon one heard that the marketing and media marketing managers at several media houses were getting 'creatives' prepared about what was on offer, in time for the general elections. Several party functionaries who manned party 'war rooms' during the period, when quizzed, confessed to having been shown 'impressive' PowerPoint presentations by major newspapers, and in turn professing an interest in the offerings.

 

The hard copy version of one such offering made on behalf of one Hindi daily published from a rich western Indian State blatantly delineates the phenomenon. The script claims that some 36 Lok Sabha seats in two major cities in the State, including the State capital and the surrounding areas, were 'feeded' by the daily. The proposal then lays down a clear sequential map of activities it can spearhead to promote the party or individual candidates, quoting prices. At the local level it addresses the candidate, his or her supporters and well-wishers, the district-level party office, the local MLA or MLC or corporator, other local political leaders, the local advertising agency and the guardian Minister of the ruling party. At the State level it is the State political party office, Cabinet Minister and State-level political leaders, businessmen and industrialists and a State-level advertising agency. At the national level it addresses the central offices of political parties (media cells), national-level political leaders and Central Ministers from the State.

 

The working modalities include putting in place dedicated teams each day, comprising political or city reporters and correspondents, sub-editors, area advertisement managers and area sales managers, to do the needful. Fifteen days' general coverage is priced at Rs.20 lakh, while seven days of exclusive coverage is pegged at Rs.25 lakh. Along with this, specially prepared four-page supplements in colour, exclusive interviews, positive views of the voters, positive editorial analysis, "only positive coverage" and "no negative publicity of opposition candidate or party," and extra copies of the newspaper on payment basis, are on offer — at a price, of course. There is flexibility in making the payment: 50 per cent can be paid in cash and 50 per cent by cheque. The last frame in the presentation, ironically titled The Way Ahead, suggests that the daily would be willing to offer publicity on 'other occasions' also, apart from the election-time offer.

 

What a complex trade! Vernacular media readers are getting younger and more volatile and more demanding. But they mostly sit in small towns where an elegant bank with an ATM stands in the middle of shanties and huts with TV antennae, where after leaving the railway station or the airport one almost always plunges into the darkness of a grim, squalid, pot-holed road, where in the marketplace besides the glittering shop windows with Dior watches and Mont Blanc pens, the unlit windows of local shops lie empty. Private capital that has arrived in small towns, piggy-back riding the Hindi dailies, has only built shining sanctuaries for the rich. The Hindi readership has neither the means nor the intention to develop the rest of the city or 'cusbah'. Its children cling to dreams of escaping to a big city and making it big there.

 

How can a media hawking inviolable editorial space to politicians and their parties for personal use during elections, capture this reality for its readers and analyse it with any degree of sensitivity or honesty? To read many marketing-driven Hindi dailies today is increasingly like entering a mind with multiple personality disorders, where endless, fierce and frantic discussions continue over everything from Beijing's beastliness to Bt brinjal and Raj Babbar, next to cloyingly hagiographic accounts of how Rahul 'Baba' alone led his party to triumph in the byelections. Actually there are too many people now in the industry whose answer to the question, "what are the media for?" is, "to make money."

 

Certainly there is nothing wrong in a restructuring of the industry, making it more productive and vibrant. The Janata Party government began the process and the BJP and the Congress have all continued to support this process. The government-controlled audiovisual media were certainly too big and lumbering and arrogant and were easily pushed to the margins by the leaner and more efficient private players. But why have the hugely successful Hindi print media that have always been in private hands and quite free professionally, begun to trivialise their own base and con their readership for piffling short-term gains? If this trend continues, the readers will react, and the next round of closures will have more serious implications, not just for those who will lose their jobs but also for the readers' understanding of where they live and how their reality is inviolable and a part of the nation's reality.

 

Hindi newspapers inspired by the capitulation of their big brothers in the media business may dent the case for

India's vernacular press, but cannot demolish it. When it does its job, a professionally run vernacular paper, funded jointly by advertising and paid-for-circulation, remains the best bet as a scrutineer of democracy and the best guard for the inviolable reality of our public spaces.

 

 

(Mrinal Pande is a senior Hindi journalist and writer. This is the second of a two-part article. The first part was published yesterday.)

 

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THE HINDU

AN ACTION PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

ONLY A PROCESS OF REVERSE MIGRATION BASED ON THE GANDHIAN MODEL CAN SAVE INDIA'S CITIES, AND ALSO RURAL INDIA.

MOHAN DHARIA

 

A report prepared by the United Nations Development Programme reveals that in India's big cities more than 40 per cent of the people live in slums. Some of them have reasonable levels of income, but cannot afford other housing. For many reasons including the population load, slums are unhygienic. It is high time the root causes of unplanned and ugly urbanisation, and the destruction of rural life, are identified.

 

More than 40 per cent of Indians live in the urban areas and less than 60 per cent in the villages — and this dichotomy is growing. Even basic amenities such as water, streets, drainage, electricity, educational or medical facilities, and playgrounds are often not available.

 

On the eve of Independence, Kolkata and Mumbai were the only Indian cities with a population of more than a million. In 1980, the number of such cities was hardly 10. At that time, as the Union Minister for Planning this writer had insisted that without provision of adequate water, sufficient area for the construction of houses and infrastructure facilities, no city should be allowed to have a population of more than a million. But this was ridiculed. During the last 30 years, the craze for urbanisation under the garb of "growth" has spawned unplanned, ugly and congested cities in India. The only solution is to de-congest the cities, for instance Mumbai, moving out mills that make cotton, edible oil, vanaspati and so on that are dependent on raw materials coming from the rural areas, and stop any further influx into the cities. Simultaneously, population growth should be checked.

 

Satellite cities and towns where the raw materials are available should be created. These should be planned with facilities for housing, education and health. Commercial, industrial, educational and entertainment complexes should be built, surrounded by a green belt that is up to 2 km in breadth.

 

London witnessed such an experiment after the Second World War. The London Municipal Corporation succeeded in voluntarily moving out 15 lakh people to new modern satellite cities.

 

It is necessary to explore the basic cause of the influx from the rural areas. For want of employment opportunities, medical and educational facilities and infrastructure such as roads and communication in the rural areas, people prefer to come to the cities, particularly in search of employment.

 

Along with unplanned urbanisation, rural life is being destroyed. To prevent migration, the villages should be enriched. The 6,00,000 villages in the country should become self-reliant and have adequate employment opportunities, educational facilities, medical services, communication facilities and roads. They should become green and clean.

 

This may appear to be a dream. The organisation named Vanarai has sought successfully to prevent the influx into the cities. In fact, several families have returned from city slums to their own villages as these had become self-reliant. Only such a process of reverse migration based on the Gandhian model can save our cities, and also rural India.

 

Our land, water, cattle wealth, forests, the 7,000-km coastline, vast biomass resources, the bright sun, and species including medicinal plants are India's real strength. Ever since Independence, these natural resources have remained under-developed. By effectively developing them, it has become possible for Vanarai to achieve reverse migration.

Water is the key issue for any sort of development process. India gets a significant quantity of water from rain or the melting of Himalayan ice. Despite investing thousands of crores of rupees on major, medium or minor dams, India has not been able to harvest even 10 per cent of the water that is available. It is possible to conserve every drop of rainwater that falls, take adequate care of drinking water and still make water available for protective or seasonal irrigation through a scientific watershed management programme.

 

WASTED LANDS NOT WASTELANDS

Nearly half of India's geographical area of 32.8 million square km is degraded land or wasteland. These are not wastelands but wasted lands. It is possible to make them productive with modern technology and scientific micro-watershed management. It is also possible to increase productivity. Compared to India's rate of about 2,000 kg a hectare, countries such as China have a productivity of the order of 4,000 kg a ha. In some other countries this varies from 5,000 kg to 6,000 kg a ha. India has huge cattle wealth: there is one animal for every two persons. Here again productivity is low with respect to milk, wool, mutton, eggs and so on. There is tremendous scope to increase yields. Fisheries in inland water reservoirs and along the 7,000-km seashore holds significant potential. Efforts are needed to boost fisheries on a much wider, scientific scale.

 

Though 22 per cent of the land in India belongs to the Forest Department, nearly half of the forest land has no green cover. Similar is the case with natural resources including biomass and solar, wind and wave power. By developing natural resources, villages could be made self-reliant. And better basic education with contemporary computer literacy and medical facilities could be provided.

 

In villages like Gawadewadi near Pune, Varandh in the Konkan and Zari in Marathwada, Vanarai has achieved reverse migration. Many families have returned to their villages. They now earn better incomes and have a better quality of life in an environment-friendly atmosphere.

 

With due respect, this author disagrees with the opinion of many eminent scientists that India will suffer scarcity of water and food as a result of global warming. All natural resources including manpower in India can be fully developed. There is adequate drinking water and food in India. There cannot be any scarcity. On the contrary, India has the potential to feed other countries also to some extent.

 

The decongestion of cities by the creation of environment-friendly satellite cities, enrichment of villages and reverse migration are the means to save the urban areas and rebuild a clean and green rural India. This calls for vision, determination, unity and resolve on the part of all people.

 

(Mohan Dharia is a former Union Minister and a former Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. He is the founder-chairman of the Confederation of NGOs in Rural India, and president of the Vanarai Foundation. E-mail: vanaraitrust@rediffmail.com)

 

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THE HINDU

THE "M" FACTOR IN BRITISH POLITICS

HASAN SUROOR

 

If there was a modern-day British version of the Faustian pact it would probably resemble the deal that the ruling party of the day (whether Labour or Conservative) does with Rupert Murdoch who owns some of the country's most powerful media outlets including Sky TV, The Times, The Sunday Times, the News of the World and — most important of them all — the sensation-mongering Sun. As the country's largest-selling newspaper which both reflects and presumes to shape white working class opinion it is seen by political parties as a useful ally to have while chasing "grassroots" votes.

 

In the run-up to every general election it has become a ritual for Labour and the Tories to try and outdo each other in courting the Sun — willing, Faust-like, to mortgage their soul to get its support. On the eve of 1997 elections, Tony Blair famously flew half way round the world to meet Mr. Murdoch to seek his blessings. And, lo and behold, within days the Sun was shining on him —switching support from the Tories to New Labour enabling the paper, later, to claim credit for the party's landslide victory.

 

In return for its backing, Mr. Blair effectively hypothecated his government's policies to the Murdoch press. Much of his Europe agenda, especially the decision to drop the election pledge of a referendum on joining the euro, was driven by his deal with Mr. Murdoch. The Sun's signature was writ large on many of Mr. Blair's domestic policies as well, notably his tough (and often) abusive rhetoric on immigration and Muslim extremism. It is widely believed that even the decision to invade Iraq was first cleared with Mr. Murdoch.

 

In addition, the Murdoch newspapers were pampered by feeding them with exclusive stories with the Sun memorably "scooping," in 2004, the report of the Hutton inquiry into BBC's allegation that Downing Street "sexed up" intelligence to justify invasion of Iraq. (The inquiry absolved the government of any wrongdoing and heavily criticised the BBC.) There was a joke at the time that if the Pope and the Sun's then political editor Trevor Kavanagh were both waiting to see Mr. Blair, he would first ask for Mr. Kavanagh to be sent in!

 

Twelve years later, in the run-up to another crucial election, the Sun has done a 180-degree turn and switched its support back to the Tories after their leader David Cameron persistently wooed Mr. Murdoch. The ditching of Labour has been followed by a series of highly personal attacks on Prime Minister Gordon Brown, including cheap shots at his poor eyesight which has badly affected handwriting. Through much of last week, the Sun's front-page was dominated by Mr. Brown's "error-strewn" letter to the mother of a young soldier killed in Afghanistan. In the end, though, the attacks became so crude that the paper's own loyal readers turned against it forcing it to admit that it mis-read the public mood.

 

Downing Street tried to play down a private telephone conversation between Mr. Brown and Mr. Murdoch over the row but, ironically, ended up confirming what one commentator described as the "successive [British] Prime Ministers' …worst-kept dirty little secret" — namely that they keep in regular touch with Mr. Murdoch. Offering an unintended glimpse of Downing Street's cosy relationship with the media magnate an official spokesman said: "He has regular communications with Rupert Murdoch… There is nothing unusual in the Prime Minister talking to Rupert Murdoch."

 

Meanwhile, there is much speculation about what the Sun has been promised by Tories in return for its support.

The Murdoch empire's wish-list was publicly laid out in a widely discussed speech recently by Mr. Murdoch's son James, Chairman and Chief Executive of his News Corporation. It included curbs on BBC's expansion and licence fee (BBC, you see, is Sky's main competitor); abolition of the media regular Ofcom; and a more friendly regime for pay channels such as Sky.

On all these counts, the Tories' response has been "yes, yes, and yes" with Mr. Cameron promising to freeze the BBC's licence fee, cut Ofcom down to size and abolish unnecessary regulation. Having been there and done it themselves, Labour ministers know what they are talking about when they talk of a "deal" between the Tories and the Sun.

 

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson who — with Mr. Blair and his spin doctor Alastair Campbell — was instrumental in getting the Sun to back New Labour in 1997 must have had his party's own experience in mind when he told BBC: "What the Sun can do for the Conservatives during the election is one part of the contract and, presumably, what the Conservatives can do for the News International (the Murdoch company which owns the Sun) if they are elected is the other side of the bargain."

 

EXAGGERATED CLAIMS

Critics say that politicians — too lazy to try and connect directly with the people — have allowed themselves to fall for the Sun's grossly exaggerated claims about its influence on voters. They point out that in 1997, New Labour was in such a strong position that it would have won anyway, even if the Sun had opposed it. This time, too, the wind had been blowing in the Tories' favour long before the Sun declared its support.

 

The fact is that it is the Sun which, sensing the public mood, has the habit of attaching itself to the potential winner. Perhaps it would have been easier to call its bluff had it not been part of the larger Murdoch media monopoly which has enough nuisance value to make life of any government difficult. And that's the secret of the power of "Murdoch factor" in British politics.

 

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THE HINDU

THE STRANGE DEATH OF ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING

SMALLER, SMARTER COMPANIES ARE SIMPLY OUT-COMPETING ILLEGAL FILESHARING.

VICTOR KEEGAN

 

Stand by for the death of illegal music downloads. It is already gathering pace, being one of the fastest growing — or contracting — activities on the web. It is not happening because of the music industry's rough justice (such as suing customers); nor because of new penalties for people caught downloading illegally — though doubtless they will claim credit.

 

It is happening because of an explosion of new companies offering tracks free, legally, without having to go to peer-to-peer sites and thereby avoiding the risk of getting bogus tracks or viruses. People are flocking to them simply because it is a much easier way of listening to music. None of these sites were started by the music industry, which has diverted energies, until recently, into propping up the ancient regime instead of preparing for the digital revolution. Virtually all of the payments systems for digital music — from iTunes to Nokia's Comes With Music (http://bit.ly/vicmus1) — have come from outside the music industry. What a wasted opportunity.

 

Two of the newbies, Spotify.com and We7.com, alone have gained at least 5 million new users in their first year, mainly people who previously downloaded illegally. They use so called "freemium" business models offering streamed tracks for free if you accept an advert or for nothing if you take out a monthly subscription. We7, a London company which is web-based, gets a lot of traffic from people who don't know it's there — they have found it by typing the name of a track into a search engine. This model could have a bright future as long as the music industry doesn't snuff it out by extracting too much income from licences from each track, something that hinders scaling and worries Spotify and We7. Steve Purdham, CEO of We7, points out that different music services are popping up based on the context in which they operate. He calls his service "better than free" because it is easier than downloading illegally. Other music services launched or in the pipeline include Rdio.com from the founders of Skype, Virgin Media, Sky Songs (http://bit.ly/vicmus2) and mog.com, which plans a $5 a month inclusive service. The moral is simple. We are not thieves, but if a supermarket leaves its doors open and shuts down the tills, it should be unsurprised if people help themselves. The music industry lets illegal downloading thrive because it didn't provide an easy, affordable way to pay. That was left to Apple's iTunes, the likes of Last.fm and now a new generation of sites, which offer music at prices that reflect more fully the near-zero cost of distribution. While the music industry was lamenting that users wouldn't pay for tracks, the same people were paying up to $5 a pop for ringtones on their phones. Why? Because phones have an easy payments system.

 

The music industry still complains of a billion illegal downloads every year, but has yet to prove that any significant economic damage is inflicted on it. This is partly because lots of those who have — and will continue to — illegally download wouldn't be buying them anyway and may not be listening to many of those they do download. It is often easier just to listen to the radio or internet radio (where you can tune into a track playing at that moment anywhere in the world). And some of the heaviest downloaders are the biggest buyers of new music. While the music industry has been complaining — successfully — to the government and the EU Commission that illegal downloads are destroying it, something rather curious has been happening. Are you ready for it? This year is the most successful in the U.K.'s history for singles sales. More than 117m have been sold — comfortably beating the previous record of 115.1m, set in 2008. And this is with Christmas to come. Yet the industry is still belly-aching about illegal downloads. I rest their case.

 © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009

 

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THE HINDU

NEW REALITIES FOR ANCIENT TIMBUKTU

THE AL-QAEDA HAS MOUNTED A STRING OF ATTACKS IN THE ISLAMIC MAGHREB AND THERE IS TALK OF THEM MOVING INTO SOUTHERN SAHARA.

ANDREW HARDING

 

I was standing in a blinding white patch of desert about four hours' drive west of Timbuktu. The air was shimmering appropriately in the heat. The camels were drifting by in their leisurely manner. It all felt suitably remote. Then my mobile phone rang.

 

Modern Mali is a contradictory sort of place. Crumbling mud houses with satellite dishes on the roof. Turbaned Tuareg tribesmen, texting. The small town of Timbuktu sits just above the sluggish brown Niger River, and just below the Sahara desert.

 

To stare out across the dusty rooftops towards the endless dunes, and the silence that rises from them is to feel somehow like you're in the middle of an ocean, rather than a continent. The streets here are made of sand and rubbish. There's one local doctor. No sewage system, and on the western edge of town, Colonel Gaddafi is busy having a rather grand hotel built. Officially this is one of the poorest places on Earth. But it doesn't quite feel that way. There's a quiet pride here — a sense that Timbuktu has not entirely lost touch with its ancient, glorious past, when these same streets were packed with university students, and the first dehydrated European explorers had not yet crossed the desert.

 

SMUGGLING ROUTES

Today, the salt caravans still arrive here from the mines to the north, just like they've done for centuries. A hundred or more camels take three weeks to lurch between oases from the mines of Taoudenni, four huge slabs of crystallised salt strapped to each animal. The miners spend the milder six months of the year scratching the surface of an ancient sea-bed with homemade axes. They live in salt huts, drink salt water, and die young.

 

Near the market in Timbuktu, I met a salt trader called Boujima Handak. He's 49, but looked about 70. Boujima told me he'd been waiting for a month for his latest consignment from the mines. Trouble with the camels? I asked. No, he said. The gearbox had broken. Lorries have started to make the round trip to the mines. They do it in a quarter of the time. In a few short years they've taken over about half the trade.

 

As a young man, Boujima once came so close to dying of thirst in the desert that he had to kill a camel and drink the water still trapped in its body. He shook his head and smiled at the memory. These days the lorry drivers carry satellite phones for emergencies. And now of course, it's not just lorries criss-crossing the Sahara. Smugglers use four-wheel-drives to carry guns, drugs and people to and from Algeria and the Mediterranean coast. The same smugglers' routes are now used by Islamic militants — mostly Algerians at the moment. They hide in the desert, do a little training and increasingly, it seems, try to earn money from kidnapping. As a result the American government is strongly urging its citizens to stay clear of the whole of northern Mali, including Timbuktu. The British government says the town is OK, but not the desert.

 

'CONTAINABLE THREAT'

I had lunch the other day at the house of a local police colonel. The governor of Timbuktu and the imam of the town's stunning 13th century mosque were also invited. The three men argued respectfully about whether or not it would be a good thing if oil were to be discovered in Mali.

Colonel Ascofare, a rather grand 61-year-old, seemed to settle the matter. "It would be a disaster," he declared thoughtfully. "Name me one African country that has benefited from oil. It ruins them. In Nigeria, the petrol costs more than it does here."

As for the terrorism threat, Col. Ascofare nearly choked on his lamb stew. It was, all the men agreed, ridiculous, wildly exaggerated, and very bad for business. The general view here is that the extremists, apparently now signed-up members of the al-Qaeda franchise, are a minor, containable threat. They did assassinate an army officer in Timbuktu in June, but most people think that was something to do with money and internal score-settling. Besides, most of the attacks have taken place in neighbouring countries, or at least deep in the desert.

 

Unsurprisingly though, the tourism industry has been badly hit. The Americans are staying away and numbers are down by nearly half on last year. Halis, our guide and translator, shrugged and tinkered with his blue turban. He was born in the desert. He's not sure when or where. Over the years he has built up a successful tourism business, traded in salt, married an American woman, and stayed put here in Timbuktu.

 

Last night, we all went out by camel to sleep in the desert. After dark, the sky fills up with an almost ridiculous number of stars. Halis passed round some tumblers of mint tea. "When I am away from this place," he said with earnestness, "I think about the desert and I cry."

 

© BBC News/Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

 EDITORIAL

JUST STAND FIRM WITH US, CHINA

 

US President Barack Obama's solicitousness of his Chinese hosts should cause no surprise. Equally, no Indian outrage is called for on account of condescending references in the US-China joint statement to the situation in South Asia. However, insofar as supercilious mention is made in that document of India-Pakistan relations in the context of Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be expected to set the record straight when he meets Mr Obama in Washington in a few days' time. But there is no call to froth at the mouth. We need to understand that the Americans are being extra nice to the Chinese because they need China at this juncture. This by no means suggests that remarks of a general nature made in the joint statement are likely to be converted into an operational script by either side. Much that has gone into the statement appears intended to make the Chinese chuffed — no more than that. It's all about dressy drollness, in a sense.

 

Mr Obama's return visit to Beijing ought to be viewed in the light of the changing balance of forces in the world. America can no longer be said to be a hyperpower. Being engaged in two wars simultaneously in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken a toll of its treasure and morale, and the crippling year-long recession from which it is just emerging has debilitated it. So the US is now only a weakened superpower, although still the only one to answer to that description. China, on the other hand, has emerged more or less unscathed from the recession. It has the money to contribute to help the revival of other economies and the credentials to be at the high table that may frame the post-downturn new financial order, if such a move seriously gets underway. But perhaps more than any of this, the Chinese have bailed out the debt-ridden American economy by purchasing one trillion dollars worth of US government bonds.

 

More, Mr Obama calculates that if he is to emerge as a genuinely new-look President — marking out the contrast with his predecessor, and achieve this when he is roughly mid-way through his term — he might need to harness Chinese diplomatic clout in turning the clock back with Iran and North Korea. Both are key objectives for Washington. In the event, Beijing wants payback by way of being treated as the new Moscow as far as appearances go. The US is happy to flatter China's vanity. This costs little.

 

In time, Washington will learn that China can't deliver politically. It doubtless carries clout with Pakistan and North Korea, states that are not deemed normal. But if Beijing helps Washington meet its requirements in these theatres, it may have little political leverage left with the America in this part of the world. As for Iran and Afghanistan, the Chinese are not quite in a position to swing the mood in these countries. Beijing's presumed influence over them is overstated. So, what about Kashmir, then? The Chinese and the Americans need to be informed they are out of jurisdiction, and that they parrot the position of Pakistan, which is not acceptable. Washington will need reminding that all actions carry a price tag. In 1998, President Bill Clinton, then leading a far stronger America, had slammed India on the nuclear and Kashmir questions while visiting China. He was angry with the Indian nuclear tests. But India just looked America in the eye. It was sure of its ground. Dr Manmohan Singh must convey the same élan.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

 EDITORIAL

LEGISLATOR HAAZIR HO!

VOTERS MUST HAVE POWER TO RECALL

SOMNATH CHATTERJEE

 

The recent incident in the Maharashtra Assembly where an aggressive physical effort was made to stop a legislator from taking oath in Hindi was a deliberate attack on the Constitution. We are all free to speak in our mother tongue and take oath in any of the languages included in the Constitution. Seeking to prevent someone from doing that in a place like the state legislature, and that too by physical intervention, was an action that amounted to devaluing the Constitution, which the legislators are supposed to protect.

 

Legislators seem to forget that there is more to winning elections than just enjoying the perquisites. They have a duty towards the Constitution, the nation and the people. The least they can do is to behave properly inside the House. But they are aware that once elected practically nothing can shake them from their position. This is one of the reasons why they begin behaving in a manner highly unbecoming of them.

 

In such a situation, or even otherwise, if a legislator is not seen doing his/her job properly, people should have the right to recall the MLA or MP they elected. I have been saying this for a long time but nobody seems to be in a mood to change the existing law.

 

As it is, the electorate chooses one or another candidate nominated by political parties. So, people practically have no choice. But with the right to recall becoming available, they will have some power that they can exercise on those they elect. Moreover, there are rules for impeaching the President and the vice-president. The legislators can bring no-confidence motions against the government and even against the Speaker. But the legislators, once they are elected, cannot be touched until the next election. Of course, there are rules for expulsion but there are limitations to that. Besides, if a legislator is expelled, the people of his/her constituency are ultimately going to suffer if a replacement is not envisaged.

 

The right to recall has been implemented in various countries — the United States, Canada, Switzerland and some Scandinavian countries, besides a few others. Doubts might be raised over the workability of the system as vested interests may engineer campaigns for recalling a certain legislator by manipulating the popular opinion. To check that, certain safeguards would have to be introduced in the law itself.

 

In the existing systems in the countries indicated above, a certain minimum percentage of people —from every segment of the constituency — should be in favour of recalling the candidate. Without this the process cannot be initiated. But the final question is whether the legislators themselves are willing to let go whatever advantages they feel they have in the current set-up.

 

Somnath Chatterjee is a former Lok Sabha Speaker

***

 

It's a good idea, but it won't work

 

The idea of right to recall is a good and romantic idea which is not applicable in our current system.

 

To begin with, our system does not leave scope for recall. We have a "first past the post" system and more than one thousand political parties. In such a scenario, a candidate is often elected by a minority of votes. This could be as little as five or seven per cent of the total votes cast, not to speak of the total number of registered votes in his constituency.

This would suggest that something like 95 per cent of voters were against the winning candidate. By definition, the right to recall involves a certain minimum percentage of people saying that they are not in favour of a certain candidate continuing in office.

 

In our system, clearly, that situation becomes a reality the moment a candidate gets elected since the winner often represents a very small per cent of the votes cast. Going by this logic, a large number of candidates would be fit cases for being recalled. In other words, the "representative legitimacy" of our elected candidates is often seriously in doubt.

 

Another reason which makes this idea less than practical is the fact that we have very large constituencies. This leaves huge scope for variations and manipulations. We must remember that while we imported the "first past the post system" from Britain, we have not been able to evolve a two-party system which, if implemented, would have made the idea of right to recall more amenable for implementation. A two-party system is almost a must for the right to recall being effective on the ground. The winner in this system does not suffer from low votes.

 

There could be two solutions to the problem of legislators either not performing as per people's expectations or resorting to activities like the one seen recently in the Maharashtra Assembly. Either we change the Constitution and follow the United Kingdom model or of other European countries. Else, we must be more honest and show more integrity in our conduct.

 

If vested interests are involved, no system will work properly. In the case of office of profit bill, for instance, the rules were changed with retrospective effect from 1959 to allow certain individuals carrying on with their public offices along with other positions of profit.

 

If we begin re-adjusting the laws in such a manner, then any system we introduce will be fraught with the risk of being manipulated.

 

Also, the right to recall, by its very nature, functions better in smaller democracies or in places where constituencies are smaller in size.

 

Subhash Kashyap is former secretary-general, Lok Sabha

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPED

MINORITY REPORT

BY NITISH SENGUPTA

 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's castigation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on October 29 for their audacity in appointing an interlocutor for the India and Pakistan dispute over Kashmir was very timely and appropriate. The OIC does not seem to understand that India is a country with a Muslim population of over 151 million, the third-largest Muslim community in the world after Indonesia and Bangladesh, and that Pakistan, a country with a much smaller Muslim population, does not really have any locus standi as far as Kashmir is concerned.

 

To project India's case on the Kashmir issue, one needn't go into the history of Kashmir. Just citing the previous United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's announcement several years ago that the UN resolutions of 1949-50 on Kashmir are not valid in today's context, is enough. For some strange, unexplained reason, the Indian foreign office has not made use of this extremely significant statement.

 

In this connection one has to painfully admit that in the last two decades India has failed to counter Pakistan's propaganda in some of the orthodox Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and been unable to project itself as the home of 151 million Muslims. Public opinion about India in most Muslim countries, except maybe Indonesia, Turkey and Bangladesh, has become a victim of Pakistan's propaganda which day in and day out spreads the canard that Muslims in India are persecuted, and that their rights and privileges are seriously curtailed. Unfortunately, this is also the general belief of a number of Pakistanis. It was not so always, but has unfortunately become so in the past two decades, especially from the time of Zia-ul-Haq and his anti-Indian tirade.

 

India needs to seriously counter this vicious propaganda and project the truth. Public opinion in orthodox Muslim countries must be won over and Pakistan's bluff called. How one misses an Arab leader like Saddam Hussein at such a time; he was a strong supporter of India on all issues, including Kashmir.

 

One also needs to remember that in 1971 a very important geo-political change took place in the subcontinent. Bangladesh, with a large Muslim population, seceded from Pakistan after an armed struggle and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Thus, Pakistan lost its moral claim of being the champion of Muslims in the subcontinent under the legacy of the 1947 Partition. So how can Pakistan then claim any moral right to Jammu and Kashmir vis-à-vis India?

 

Since 1947 there have been four armed clashes between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. In 1971, the Pakistan Army was decisively beaten, both on the western and eastern fronts. But not only did India not press her advantage at the bilateral discussion at Shimla in 1972, it also agreed to return 93,000 prisoners of war and all territory seized from Pakistan without any conditions. This remains a unique event in world history. The correct quid pro quo would have been for Pakistan to give up all claims to Kashmir, or at least agreeing to the ceasefire line or the Line of Control between the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. But, in its generosity, the Indian government did not press these points and decided to trust Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Thereafter, Pakistan did not raise the Kashmir issue for two decades.

 

It was during the National Democratic Alliance regime that India allowed Pervez Musharraf, on a visit to India, to raise the Kashmir issue after recognising him as Pakistan's President. Kashmir returned to the discussion table once again, that too at a time when Pakistan was sending terrorists to India, not only from Pakistan but also from Chechnya, Afghanistan and Sudan.

Kashmir was already in turmoil, 1989 onwards, as a result of political mishandling by successive governments in New Delhi. Terrorism had gained new ground and had a clear-cut agenda of ethnic cleansing, in the course of which the Pandit community was by and large compelled to leave the Valley. Mufti Muhammad Sayeed's period as Union home minister was particularly bad, and it was complicated further by George Fernandes serving as minister for Kashmir affairs, the two working at cross purposes.

 

India needs to do a great deal in her external publicity programme, especially to counter Pakistan's propaganda on the condition of Muslims in India. If some of the utterances by the captured "jihadis" are any guide, it is clear that they genuinely believe that the condition of Muslims in India is pitiable, that they are constantly persecuted, harassed and humiliated. While there are deeply unfortunate and shameful events like the Babri Masjid demolition, followed by the Mumbai riots of 1992 and the riots in Gujarat in 2002, these are exceptions, not the rule. Most Indian Muslims would agree that barring these, they live a life of dignity like all Indians. That they have equal rights and freedoms — political, social and religious. One need not go into the statistically-flawed and politically-prejudiced Sachar Commission report which sought to determine the status of Muslims in India only with reference to the number of jobs they hold in the government vis-à-vis the upper classes among Hindus, excluding the dalits.

 

The fact is that Muslims have made a remarkable mark in India, especially in businesses and professions. Nothing illustrates this better than Bollywood where they occupy a dominant position, as superstars, technicians and musicians. It is time some of our prominent Indian Muslims take the initiative in counteracting Pakistan's propaganda, and project the truth. A special responsibility rests on the Bollywood community. If some of them, say like the Khan trio, do some plain speaking, especially directed at Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, one can expect these countries to change their attitudes towards India considerably. One recalls the televised tête-à-tête that the late actor Feroze Khan had with Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan — he criticised Pakistani society, praised India, and said that he was longing to return to India to live an honourable life as a free citizen.

 

A lot of responsibility rests with progressive Indian Muslims, intellectuals, artists and politicians as well to disseminate the truth: that India has a large Muslim population of 151 million, and that Indian Muslims, therefore, have a natural interest in seeing that Jammu and Kashmir remains in India. It is only by conscious reorientation of India's PR machinery abroad that we can influence public opinion in some Muslim countries. Once this is done, it will surely be reflected in organisations like the OIC.

 

Nitish Sengupta, an academic and an author, is a former Member of Parliament and a former secretary to the Government of India

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPED

I BELIEVE IN PUJAS

NIKHIL DWIVEDI

 

God to me is happiness and peace of mind. I feel whatever I do gets noticed by God. It is like a relationship between a father and son. When I do something good, I can feel Him smiling at me. When I do something bad, I know He wants to punish me for it. I feel His presence everywhere. Be it smiles, tears, happiness or loneliness, He is watching all our emotions.

 

I am not superstitious, but I do believe in performing pujas on special occasions. I feel He bestows His blessings if we perform a puja before starting anything new in life.

 

He is the supreme power and you don't need to follow a particular religion to communicate with Him. God and religion are completely different entities. I'm a firm believer in karma. Whatever happens in our life is because of our good or bad deeds. I believe in the Gayatri Mantra. Whenever I feel scared or lonely I recite Gayatri Mantra at least thrice and feel confident and happy from within.

 

I don't pray everyday or fast, but I feel the presence of God around me all the time. I believe whatever happens, happens for good.

 

(As told to Shruti Badyal)

 

Nikhil Dwivedi is a Bollywood actor

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

COLUMN

LEBANON: A TWO-ACT TRAGEDY IN WEST ASIA

BY S. NIHAL SINGH

 

If Lebanon is the weathervane of the Middle East (what we call West Asia), does the formation of a government after five months of post-election wrangling portend a hopeful sign despite the gloom induced by President Barack Obama's failure to move Israel? Hazarding a guess in a region littered with landmines is a risky business, but the Opposition Hezbollah movement's agreement to join the government of Saad Hariri and accepting two Cabinet berths, is an indication that the Opposition is prepared to mark time while it awaits what the future brings.

 

By seeking to tackle the seminal Israeli-Palestinian confrontation head-on at the beginning of his term, President Obama's rude rebuff by Israel on freezing settlements has essentially resulted in an impasse. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has had to offer resignation from the Palestinian Authority because he was placed in an impossible situation. The pretence of a peace process that has not existed for years rings hollow. And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to draw attention away from the consequences of snubbing his benefactor and protector by casting around for a lifeline from Syria on the occupied Golan Heights.

 

Lebanon has always been buffeted by its neighbours and more distant powers as they settle scores among themselves. The Hezbollah movement was born out of Israel's invasion of the country in the 80s, and the 34-day Israeli offensive in 2006 flattening south Lebanon, resulting in 1,000 Lebanese deaths, mostly of civilians, led to a stalemate and made heroes of the movement. Arabs have always lost the wars they have fought with Israel, and for a supposedly ragtag guerrilla movement to fight the mighty Israeli war machine to a standstill was a signal achievement.

 

One consequence of the 2006 war was that Hezbollah secured a veto over government decisions in Beirut. And the five months of wrangling to form a national unity government by Mr Hariri was really a struggle over the terms Hezbollah would agree to coexist with the pro-US and pro-Saudi March 14 alliance, named after the Cedar revolution, for the time being. Mr Hariri's father Rafiq, the long-time Prime Minister and father of rebuilding Beirut on the ruins of the 1975-90 civil war, was assassinated in 2005 leading to the marshalling of pro and anti-Syrian demonstrations. The latter won, Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon after 29 years and son Hariri's alliance of Sunni Muslims and Maronite Christians won 71 seats to the Opposition's 57. Hezbollah was allied with the Shia Amal movement and the Christian faction led by former General Michel Aoun.

 

Government positions are carefully parcelled out to the different factions based on religious persuasion. The President must be a Maronite Christian and the process of honing in on Michel Suleiman, the former Chief of Army staff, took much time. The Prime Minister is a Sunni Muslim, the Speaker of the National Assembly is a Shia. The percentages have been shuffled once in favour of Sunni Muslims to reflect the changing demography, but nobody is talking about another exercise in apportioning power by downgrading Christians further because the issue is too explosive.

 

The tragedy of the Middle East, being played out every day, is marked by two Lebanese events, the suicidal 15-year civil war and the murder of Rafiq Hariri. The latter led to the crystallisation of two opposing forces, the pro-Western and status quo movement and the Hezbollah seeking a new regional order, and a United Nations investigation into the assassination, culminating in the hearings at The Hague. In fact, the court's order to release four pro-Syrian generals because of insufficient evidence is a morale boost for Damascus, widely blamed in Lebanon for the Rafiq killing.

Indeed, the assassination of Rafiq Hariri was a body blow at Lebanon for a weighty reason. A self-made billionaire, he was close to Saudi Arabia and had the credibility and heft to marshal substantial funds for rebuilding Beirut. The gleaming and modern city centre, which I saw during my last visit, is a monument to a unique leader. It was his vision to restore Beirut to its pre-civil war glory of the acclaimed Paris of the East. And before the last turmoil caused by the Israeli invasion, Lebanon was returning to find favour with Arab potentates and common folk for its spectacular charms of sea and mountains.

 

How Lebanon's latest attempt at unity will work depends, in large part, on regional currents. Despite Syria's withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, it continues to exercise considerable influence on Lebanese affairs. Both Syria and Iran support Hezbollah in different ways although the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has developed a cult following in the Arab world after frustrating the aims of the Israeli military offensive of 2006.

 

In a sense, Israel is now fighting with its back to the wall because it simply cannot afford publicly to insult the US President and prosper in the region. Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad has thrown a morsel in the French way in seeking a greater French role in the region. But it is unlikely that Damascus will fall for the Israeli bait of negotiations without preconditions, without securing all of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

 

How Prime Minister Saad Hariri steers Lebanon through these treacherous waters remains to be seen, but much will depend upon the future American role. The Obama administration has now to rebuild its regional strategy between the ruins of its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and foundering hopes on a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme. Both the US and Israel have been seeking to wean away Syria from Iran without paying the price of Israel leaving the occupied Golan Heights. Despite its domestic turmoil, Tehran feels it is sitting pretty, with the majority Shias in command in neighbouring Iraq and the failure of President Obama's charm offensive in Israel, in the latter case the tail wagging the dog.

 

Left alone, Lebanon can reclaim its lost glory as a tourist haven for repressed Arab societies. But that is a precious condition the country cannot aspire to. The best Mr Hariri can achieve is to balance opposing forces in a manner that leaves him some room to take his nation forward. Lebanon can never be a Switzerland because the Middle East is not Europe.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

LIVING LONGER

 

Bangalore: Is it possible to live longer with a positive outlook? American researchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University have found that it is. Their study was made up of 660 participants aged 50 and above found that individuals with a positive outlook lived up to 7.5 years longer than those who did not.

 

A positive attitude will not only help in enhancing the quality of your life, but also the length of it. Don't just exist. Live.

 

Dr Herbert Benson, an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School, says that positive thinking can bring about biochemical, molecular and physiological changes in the body that help treat stressful conditions.

 

You'll notice that positive people are healthier. This is because their attitude increases the white blood cell count in their body, boosting their immune system to battle infection and disease. Negative thinkers, on the other hand, are skirting with danger as they risk themselves to a host of diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease, depression, high blood pressure and diabetes. Gloomy people have cells that age comparatively rapidly as well.

 

Another recent research by the Women's Health Initiative shows that women with a positive attitude had 14% less chances of dying of any disease, and 9% lower chances of getting heart disease. They also had a higher chance of living longer than pessimistic women.

 

One can develop a positive attitude by making a conscious effort. We ourselves determine and choose our attitudes. If we choose a positive one to herald our lives, we enjoy unlimited success, vitality, energy, fantastic relationships, love for everything around, and above all, we become an inspiring figure. Positive people are like magnets. They are potential leaders and motivators. Positivism is contagious.

 

We often tend to negatively interpret others' action or inaction; instead try and interpret them positively. Some have a belief system that the world is out to get them. Start with positive assumptions. If someone didn't return your call, it doesn't imply that they care less. Maybe it just skipped their busy mind.

 

Many a time, we get disappointed when we do things for others, and find that they aren't grateful or don't reciprocate. Do something because you want to give a little bit of yourself and not because you want something in return.

Ramesh Menon is a journalist and corporate trainer.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

PLAYING IT SAFE

 

The inner churning in the Bharatiya Janata Party since the loss of the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year has thrown up a number of startling events – expulsions, mini-revolts, interventions — but very little, it appears, of the much promised "introspection". The general dissatisfaction with both party president Rajnath Singh and party leader LK Advani, who is also leader of Opposition, remained, especially after Vasundhara Raje was forced to step down as leader of the BJP legislature party in Rajasthan after she lost the assembly elections this year.

Finally, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh was forced to step in and Mohan Bhagwat not only managed to quell the dissidence for now but also indicated that a new party president who did not belong to the expected list, would have to be found. Nitin Gadkari then is the surprise name doing the rounds. From Maharashtra's Vidarbha district, he is a low key leader who is known for his organisational skills and made some name for himself as urban development minister when the Shiv Sena-BJP were in power in the state. It was not easy for him to emerge out of the shadow of the Pramod Mahajan-Gopinath Munde clique which ran Maharashtra.

It shows that in spite of Gadkari  having no national presence and being unable to steer the party to victory in Maharashtra, the party found itself in a position where they had to pick someone like him. They could not go with the usual suspects like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu because most of them had already played their hands and were too deeply involved in the top level politicking going on.

Bhagwat's solution was to find someone outside Delhi. A leader like Narendra Modi is too precious in Gujarat at this time, given that it is the one state where the BJP is still somewhat secure. Gadkari then is a non-controversial politician with some track record but little national presence, a bland choice to tone down the hysteria. He is also reputed to beaccommodating and practical.

The BJP may try to put up a brave public face but the fact remains that the RSS has made it obvious who is pulling the strings. All the losers in this round will be back in the ring once they stop licking their wounds. The party may have found an anodyne answer; the question is whether it will be enough.

 

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DNA

COLUMN

COPENHAGEN CAPERS

 

The Copenhagen climate summit to be held in the Danish capital in the second week of December seems to be heading for a crash landing, with both the developed and developing countries unable to reach an agreement. Danish prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has suggested a politically and not a legally binding agreement.

Stalemate at Copenhagen would not mean the end of the world, but it means that even on issues where there is a consensus — everyone who counts in the poor as well as rich countries is agreed that there is a climate crisis which cannot be ignored — the willingness to work together is missing.

While this is to be decried, there is no wishing away the harsh reality that political leaders do not have the support of their people to take major decisions. This is so because not enough has been done to educate the general public. What the green activists have managed to do is to place the climate issue on the global agenda. The next step lies with the politicians to take it to the people.

The poor countries argue that the rich countries which have been the main polluters should help the others with financial aid and technology to change to green technologies and achieve curbs on carbon emissions. The rich want the rest of the world, especially emerging economies like China and India, to share the burden of transiting to an international green regime.

US president Barack Obama's statement that even the politically binding agreement to be reached at Copenhagen should become immediately operative does not sound convincing. The leaders of the world it would seem are not able to look beyond their political compulsions. This is not to deny or decry them.

 

The harsh truth is that there is a fear in both rich and poor countries that curbs on carbon emissions would mean curbs on economic growth. This triggers the fear in the rich countries that they would lose their affluence, and in the poor countries that they can never leave their poverty behind.

What the leaders and their army of scientific advisers will have to do is to find a way to explain that an environment-friendly economic growth would create more jobs and not less and that it is ensures sustainable development. The issue of climate has to be turned into one of economic wellbeing, which is understood by all rather than an intangible apocalypse. Once the people understand the issue, the politicians will fall in line.

 

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DNA

CRACK THE LANGUAGE CODE

E RAGHAVAN

 

In the early 1980s, the then leader of the Congress parliamentary party CM Stephen had circulated a note at one of his frequent press conferences. The note, in English, caused a reporter of a Hindi paper to politely suggest to Stephen that he should consider preparing such notes in the national language. "Sure", he said without batting an eyelid. "It will be in Malayalam next time". His remark unsettled the Hindi proponent who did not know how to react.

The Congress leader did not follow through with his promise and those of us who covered that beat had the benefit of reading the stuff the party put out in English. But the issue that the journalist raised then, and the way different leaders react to that kind of a suggestion, still leaves the question — what is our national language? — unsettled. The answer can be varied depending on whether you are a Hindiwala or not.

For those who come from the Hindi heartland, Hindi, of course, is the national language even though, for the rest of us, it is only an official language. English, with which they may at best have a working familiarity, is a global language, not national, even if it is also an official language. Languages other than Hindi are local, not national again.

And that is why language as an issue has continued to remain in focus from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. It gains some currency and concern once in a while, like when members of the MNS in the Maharashtra Assembly caused a ruckus over another member taking the oath in Hindi and not Marathi.

While in Maharashtra the issue has acquired another dimension — the dignity of the Marathi manoos — language has become a symbol of sub- regionalism in non-Hindi states to such an extent that the line between regionalism and parochialism is blurring. Whatever the dictionary meaning of these two words, the first represents a broader positive characteristic of pride in the language, culture and ethos of the region, while the latter, parochialism, is seen as being narrow and prejudiced. Often, there is quite a bit of confusion between the two and of late the prejudiced version, as was evident in Maharashtra, has come to represent sub-regionalism. Even Sachin Tendulkar was upbraided by ageing Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb for claiming that he is a proud Maharashtrian, but an Indian first, and that Mumbai belonged to the country, not just Maharashtra.

Quite apart from fringe political parties and forces that thrive on the distinction between the local and the non-local, social activists and writers in local languages too seem to see language as the visible face of that sub-regionalism. That is why even a demand for jobs for locals takes on a linguistic hue, though there may be no question of cultural identity involved in those jobs.

The MNSs of the world are definitely wrong. There is no question about that; but their side of the story deserves some consideration too. In Bangalore, for instance, you can find non-locals, who are not temporary migrants but have made this their home, in many cases for more than a decade, not only managing to get along without a knowledge of the local language but actually taking pride in their inability to do so. Try that in Chennai or Trivandrum: you will find that you simply cannot get along even for a few weeks.

In Bangalore, like in Mumbai, the resentment against non-locals for their disinclination, even refusal, to integrate with the local cultural ethos, seen first in whether they try to learn Kannada or not, may become sharper.

A large part of this problem is economic. The locals seem to nurse a grievance that the non-locals have somehow cornered all the economic advantages the city offers; better jobs and better living standards. That is a perception more than reality. It is becoming a bit of reality because even low end jobs — masonry and carpentry — are increasingly taken over by those from the Hindi heartland. Those who need such services in fact prefer north Indian labour because they seem to have a relatively better work ethic and they are certainly less expensive.

This trend is quite contrary to what one witnessed in the first four decades after the country achieved its independence. In those decades it was usually the high-end and highly skilled jobs that drew migrants from all over the country to the city. Post liberalisation, when the labour market for knowledge workers exploded in the city and drew migrants in lakhs, no one complained because other services that supported the knowledge industry grew in the same proportion and offered opportunities for the less skilled at the lower end of the market.

Competition in this space and the reluctance of migrants to merge with the local landscape compounds the problem. The solution lies in those who make the city their home at least making an attempt to adapt to the local milieu. The most obvious is to learn a bit more than asking the locals to swalpa adjust maadi.

 

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DNA

PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF

  

When the high priests have lost their sanctity and seminaries multiply without vision, it is time for a reformation in the temples of healing.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) is the oldest autonomous professional regulatory body in India, established by Act of Parliament in 1934. It is authorised to regulate the selection, training and certification of our future physicians and their competence and ethical behaviour when they become our care givers. But when we are told, for example, that an Indian woman is ten times more likely to die in childbirth than her counterpart in China, or 16 times more than in Russia, we cannot help wondering how well the MCI is fulfilling this regulatory authority.

A critical look at the MCI, and its siblings: At present, we have separate regulatory bodies for each of the health related professions such as medicine, nursing, and allied health sciences. They have gone their separate ways sometimes pulling in different, if not opposite, directions. The result is the present gross imbalance in the development of human resources among the different health professions. There is little synergy among these professions in resolving the health care crisis in the country. 

The rampant illegal payments for admission to private colleges of these professions continue to shock the public. Behind it, there are recurrent allegations of lapses in the initial recognition and continued oversight of new colleges. Our primary and secondary level health centres languish due to shortage or default of doctors and other health professionals, which is greatly responsible for the maternal mortality mentioned above. There is severe shortage of medical specialists as well. MCI has been so remiss in disciplining the profession that this once noble profession had to be brought under the Consumer Protection Act. Suffice it to say that there has been progressive loss of confidence in the efficiency, integrity, sagacity and social commitment of the MCI and the other councils. 

It is in this context that UPA government has made a radical proposal for replacing these councils with an "overarching" National Council for Human Resources in Health (NCHRH). We all have good reason to take a close look at this proposal. The legitimate concerns of individual professions are to be safeguarded by having separate sections under the National Council for each of the professions.

The other major change is the proposal to do away with the present jumbo sized inefficient councils, mainly made up of elected representatives from each profession. The sad truth is that these revered and so-called noble professions have failed in self-regulation. So it is proposed that the National Council is made up of just five members nominated by an appropriate collegium. 

In the present proposals, the government can give directions to the National Council only where national policy is involved. This safeguards the autonomy and independence of the regulatory body. There is a welcome emphasis on all-India standardisation of qualifications and accreditation through national exit examinations. In order to overcome the severe shortage of specialists, a pattern of specialist training similar to that in the US is proposed.

The way forward: These proposals are not perfect. But they can be built upon to bring about a well-conceived reformation. To avoid undue concentration of power and ensure a wide range of necessary expertise, the proposed five member NCHRH could be enlarged to seven or nine full time members. Apart from educational and professional expertise and organisational competence, a sound reputation for incorruptibility must be a basic requirement for the selection.

Traditionally professional councils are set up to promote the welfare and progress of the concerned professions and professional education to that end, along with professional propriety. But in the case of the health professions and sciences, the very raison d'etre for privileging them in a special way is their crucial importance to the health and well-being of the public. So the proposed NCHRH must include persons with proven track record in two hitherto neglected areas: advocacy for the interests of patients and promotion of a universally accessible and effective health care system. 

One singular failure of the present proposals is in perpetuating the bankrupt system for self-disciplining of the professionals, through elected boards from among themselves. The new disciplinary bodies must be so constituted that they will impartially and firmly discipline the professionals in matters of incompetence, negligence and unethical practices, all of which we encounter in our daily lives.

It is inevitable that such a startling restructuring of a venerable edifice will be firmly resisted by privileged interests. But the piteous state of the nation's healthcare demands a thorough reform of the regulation of health related professions.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

LIMITS OF POWER

EACH ORGAN OF STATE HAS A MARKED ROLE

 

THE Supreme Court has a ticklish issue on its plate. Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly of the Supreme Court have ruled that a Constitution Bench should examine whether courts can frame laws to address pressing social problems. While hearing a petition of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who questioned a September 2006 apex court order for implementation of the J.M. Lyngdoh Committee recommendations on reforming students' union elections, the judges raised three questions of vital constitutional importance. These are, the separation of powers of the different organs of the state under the Indian Constitution; the validity of judicial legislation and, if it is at all permissible, its limits; and the validity of and limits of judicial activism and the need for judicial restraint. These issues have in the past divided the highest court as brought out by a Tribune debate — Judges vs Judges — last year.

 

Over the years, the courts have issued directions on important issues ranging from introducing CNG buses in New Delhi to tackling sexual harassment at workplaces. In Visakha vs State of Rajasthan (1997), the apex court has issued various directives and ruled that these will be treated as a law under Article 141 of the Constitution until Parliament enacts a law on the subject. Though this remains a law today and Parliament is yet to act, the question remains: whether the court can convert itself into an "interim Parliament" and make law until Parliament enacts a law on the subject.

 

Significantly, the doctrine of separation of powers is integral to the Constitution. It is a concept that is fundamental to the idea of a popular democracy which functions on the basis of this doctrine among the three organs of the state — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary with their respective fields clearly delineated. Problems arise if any one organ oversteps its limits. As Parliament (or the state legislatures) is the chief repository of people's will, its members alone can enact laws to govern the nation (or the state). While the judiciary can punish those violating these laws and even quash bad laws, the question has arisen whether it can also frame laws. If the legislature and the executive have failed in their areas of operation, an over-powering judiciary is not the solution as this would erode the principle of the separation of powers. Many judgements of the Supreme Court have in the past, particularly on economic and social questions, have extended the reach of the judiciary, making things uncomfortable for the politicians who constitute the legislature. Often Parliament vs judiciary issues have marked their relationship over the years. Since many questions have come to the fore, let the Constitution Bench examine them and interpret the Constitution.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

A MATTER OF CONCERN

OBAMA HAS GIVEN AWAY A LOT ON S. ASIA

 

India has reason to be angry and disappointed by US President Barack Obama's outrageous granting of a monitoring role to China in South Asia, particularly between India and Pakistan, during his official visit to Beijing. If, as is being speculated, it was Chinese concessions on North Korean and Iranian nuclear issues that impelled the US to give China a role in the region, it nevertheless goes against Indian interests which necessitated a strong New Delhi reaction. India has consistently opposed any third-party intervention in Indo-Pakistan relations and it is appropriate that the official spokesperson has reiterated that a third-country role cannot be envisaged. The joint statement issued by President Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao also provides for a bigger role for China in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This too cannot but rankle India considering that this country has been at the receiving end of a dangerous China-Pak nexus for long. If the Chinese are allowed to have their way they would undermine the authority of the Karzai regime in Kabul and could be more in tune with Pakistani interests. It is difficult to imagine that the US would be so gullible as to overturn its own well-thought-out position.

 

President Obama's new stand on an enhanced Chinese role in the South Asian region flies in the face of the views that US foreign policy experts have held for long that the US would not acquiesce in a future Chinese hegemony in the region. The edifice of a strong Indo-US strategic relationship in a way has somewhat got undermined by the outcome of the Obama visit to Beijing. It is yet too early to surmise that the US has abandoned its time-tested policy but the signs emerging from the Beijing summit are hardly reassuring for India.

 

With the forthcoming Obama-Manmohan Singh meeting in Washington, it is to be hoped that the US would allay Indian concerns against a greater role for China in South Asia which could prove dangerous for the region and the world.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

HIGHLY CORRUPT

INDIA HAS A ROTTEN REPUTATION

 

IT is a matter of shame for India that it still continues to be perceived as "highly corrupt" by global experts and business surveys. Transparency International has ranked it 84th among the 180 countries surveyed on a composite index drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys. Its score is a lowly 3.4, below other developing economies like Brazil (3.7) and China (3.6). If it tries to draw solace from the fact that Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka have fared even worse, it should do a reality check and remember that the neighbouring Bhutan has a much better image with a score of 5.0. Nor is it any consolation that in the previous year, its score was 3.5. It should have improved much faster.

 

So, what is the reason behind this stigma? Simple. Corruption is indeed the order of the day. Its public officials and politicians have worked hard to spoil the image of the country. The malady has seeped so far upwards that the agencies supposed to keep a check on corruption seem to have thrown up their hands in despair out of sheer helplessness. With big fish having a free run, even the small fries feel encouraged to devise means to escape the net and the country continues to go in the direction of those like Haiti, Iraq, Myanmar and Somalia instead of clean states like New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore.

 

Some think that since the foreign direct investment is still pouring in, one should not be too bothered about what the rest of the world thinks about us. What is totally forgotten is that the money comes in only because India is perceived as a developing country from where good returns on the investment can be obtained. The inflow would have been far higher if only it did not have such a unsavoury reputation. An emerging economic power of the 21st century India cannot afford to carry the baggage of this kind of reputation.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

PRICE RISE IS ALARMING

ENSURE FOOD ITEMS AT REASONABLE RATES

BY JAYSHREE SENGUPTA

 

FOOD prices are going up sharply as anyone doing daily shopping for the household must know. All agricultural goods and allied semi-processed food items have shot up by 20 per cent in the last one month. Apparently, there is going to be no relief from the situation in the near future, and the government is awaiting the rabi crop which it expects to be good. More supply will be ensured by three to four months. Meanwhile, the price rise may continue.

 

Clearly, the rise in food prices, especially those of wheat, rice and sugar, shows that agricultural growth has been lower than expected. It is now well established that there has been a marked shortfall in the kharif crop and there has been a fall in the production of rice, wheat and sugarcane. In foodgrains alone, the shortfall has been 18 per cent. There has also been a lack of contingency planning regarding rice imports to cushion the price rise, especially for the vulnerable sections.

 

Support prices were raised in the last season and the Centre also fixed higher open market price for wheat and that is why the market prices are up so much today. Even if imports had been timely, there would still have been a rise in foodgrain prices, but since there has not been a substantial increase in the supply of wheat, rice and other essential food items, prices are climbing up every week.

 

With food prices being so high, it is not only hard on the average household budget but it also means that the

average household will be spending less on other consumer items. It would mean that the demand for industrial goods would stagnate or decline. The recent spurt in industrial growth in September may be good news, but consumer demand has to grow to sustain it. Industrial growth would also depend on export growth, which for the 12th consecutive month, has been falling. There has been hope among exporters that garments and textile exports would pick up but the latest news of corporate bankruptcies in the US has dampened that expectation because it is likely to affect the demand for Indian consumer goods. Even China is facing slack domestic demand because people, after having lost their jobs due to the global crisis, have started saving more when they have got back their jobs and spend less on consumer goods. The rise in the savings rate is not considered a good omen for the continuation of high industrial growth even in China.

 

All over the world people are saving more and spending less, especially in the western countries. In India, many companies are sitting on mountains of cash and are withholding investment because they are not sure whether to invest in capacity expansion or not. And due to the global crisis there are fewer opportunities for investing abroad. In addition, they are neither sure about future export trends nor of domestic demand expansion. Credit offtake from banks has dropped to single digit levels after 12 years and is a sure sign that demand is not picking up. Inflation will make people hold back their spending on non-food items of expenditure like white goods and other consumer durables.

 

Private investment, which is extremely important for high GDP growth, is thus likely to stagnate for sometime. The present crisis will come to a head if to control inflation the Reserve Bank of India raises interest rates which would result in a sudden shrinkage in investment prospects of private industry. The growth rate is bound to suffer as the investment pace slows down and if we add to it the slowdown in agricultural growth by as much as 6 per cent, it would be more realistic to hope for 5 per cent GDP growth rate for India.

 

The "aam admi" or the ordinary person, meanwhile, will have to live on the hope that the inflationary spiral of food prices would come down within three or four months. Some emergency measures that would assure the supply of essential food items at reasonable prices to low income groups would have to be taken by the government. This would add to the government's expenditure, which has been bloated after the stimulus package.

 

The world is now depending on various stimulus packages to prevent economies from collapsing. It will be quite a disaster to withdraw the Indian stimulus package. In fact, it would have to be enhanced in areas where armed conflict is taking place, especially in job creation and social infrastructure. In this context, the extension of NREGA in the Naxalite-infested areas would yield high dividends.

 

The government has pledged austerity and is trying hard to reduce the fiscal deficit because a long-term rise in

fiscal deficit is unsustainable and will lead to an inflationary spiral. It is contemplating withdrawal of some subsidies which again may lead to a price rise in the case of cooking gas and petrol.

 

In any case, the government will have to keep up the spending and create infrastructure and give jobs to people who have been affected by the global crisis. For continuing industrialisation in the countryside, investment in infrastructure is badly needed. This is because the driver of high growth in the past has been the service sector, which has been adversely affected by the global financial crisis. Not only has the outsourcing industry been affected but also the hospitality, airlines, media and transport sectors. Idle capacity, unemployment and huge losses are a regular feature of the service sector industries. To catch up with China, the industrial sector has to be nurtured and for it to be able to produce in a competitive manner, infrastructure has to be improved. The government also has little policy option regarding looking after the welfare of the lower income groups of the population.

 

And even though the Indian population, which is below the poverty line, has been decreasing over the years, in terms of absolute numbers it is huge and much higher than China's. For increasing the welfare of the common man and woman, the main item of concern should be food prices as their nutrition depends upon it. Most importantly, children should not be malnourished.

 

How can an average income earner, say of Rs 3000 a month feed his children in urban India? Even dal is beyond the reach of many. The children who are malnourished will grow up deformed and deficient in many ways and would not be able to reach their full brain potential. They will grow to be a fatigued and diseased labour force, which will again put India at a huge disadvantage against China's well-fed and well-trained labour force. All other things can wait but not food, which again poses an important question about priority. Shouldn't the government act immediately and bring about relief in the lives of the low-income people?

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

CYCLING IN CHICAGO

BY RAJNISH WATTAS

 

THE last time I rode a bicycle  was about 35 years ago as a college student. That is not counting the occasional, impulsive jaunts on the dhobi's or the mali's rickety, old bike. Those  sturdy work  horses in black steel of those times hardly ever underwent any changes in their basic design in the days of my youth.

 

And now while holidaying in Chicago the cycle of life seems to have caught up. On my evening strolls to the nearby   bike trail along Lake Michigan, is the place where the whole of Chicago seems to be descending on. Far from the automobile corrupted nation; it looks more like a nation on bike and roll!

 

Bikes are easily available on hire with different deals, and they come in all shapes and models ranging from the basic stuff for the shaky beginner like me to mountain bikes with an array of confusing gears to 'quadruped' bikes for two or four. There are even special bikes for parents who want to tag a baby carriage to their paddle machines. The bikers in varied groups whiz past you, like birds on a flight or glide gently like the sail boats that dot the expanse of blue waters of the lake — savouring the  joy of wind-whipped movement, with the forces of nature in complete freedom and abandon.

 

Then finally one day I get sucked in. "How much do you charge for an hour?" I ask the young student on a summer job managing the bike rental kiosk. "Only $10  an hour Sir, feels great … why don't you try one?" Why don't I, haven't done it in 30 years, I hesitatingly think to myself. "But you never forget it  ...there,  try our 'comfort' bike!" And there I am, shakily perched atop a bike which has paddle breaks instead of the hand ones to which I'm used to, but the bike girl won't take a no, and just launches me on with a big push. And seconds later, I'm on a roll, windswept, speeding and slowing with the undulations of the bike trail, turning and manoeuvring my way through  other bikers with a tinkle!

 

Memories of an era gone by come racing. A time when I was at school and we would race back on the cycles to reach home fast after school or battle the wind to reach in time for the first bell. But there was always time to stop to help out a classmate — especially a pretty girl — if there was a puncture or the chain got derailed, which was  not such a coincidence, always!

 

And now I hear a tinkle  again. Thank you Chicago

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

LEFT PARTIES MUST CORRECT THEIR MISTAKES, SAYS BARDHAN

 

How do senior communist leaders view the serious reversal their parties have suffered in West Bengal and beyond that how do they view the future the left parties now face? Those are the twin issues Karan Thapar discussed with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India A.B. Bardhan. Excerpts from the interview:

 

Q: Let me start with a simple question: how devastating a blow have the left parties suffered in Bengal as a result of the Lok Sabha elections in May and the recent by-elections earlier this month?

A: They had a very serious setback, in fact the entire left movement suffered a set back. The CPI-M in the meanwhile had become the leading partner of the left front and in fact the defeat was a grim reminder of what went wrong with the left front.

What started as something against the left front government has now become generally an anti-left and anti-communist movement. That is I think a very dangerous trend.

 

Q: How do you interpret what happened? Is this a vote for Mamata Banerjee or as you have suggested a moment ago is this a vote against the left?

A: I don't think that is an endorsement of Mamata Banerjee's policies or programs because what they are is not known to the people as yet and I am not sure she knows that herself. It is a vote against the left, against the performance of the left front, against what they should not have done or what they have done.

 

Q: Many people are today commenting that it looks increasingly unlikely that the left parties can win in 2011.

A: No I don't want to be a prophet of doom; I think you will see that when the left front turns around, if mistakes are corrected, if there is a realisation that what was wrong needs to be corrected, if one realises that one's lifestyle, one's behaviour with people, one's arrogance is to be given up, people will still be behind the left because the left had a programme and the left had done a lot of good things in West Bengal. So that is the reason they were there for three decades.

 

Q: Let's then talk about what has brought the left parties to this dismal situation. One of the ministers has publicly talked about nepotism and corruption. Has that played a role?

A:  Yes it has, indeed, played a role and that cannot be denied but then one must be clear about the dimensions of the corruption. Corruption that is there for you to see in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh or that you see in the Centre, that is not the type of corruption which is there. (In Bengal) the corruption has become more widespread, particularly among the lower ranks and the middle ranks.

 

Q: But those very top leaders of the CPM in whom you say you have faith are the ones who have been blind to their local and middle level leaders increasingly being corrupt?

A: Why should I (only) blame their blindness? I am saying that we also should have brought it to their notice.

 

Q: To what extent, in addition to corruption and nepotism, has arrogance become a problem, both the arrogance of Power as well as overconfidence?

A: It is arrogance which is more important rather than corruption. Corruption, as you say, or as I am saying, is retail and not wholesale. You can't put it you see in hundreds or thousands of crore.

 

Q: People may be fed up and it may be too late to even correct?

A: It is never too late to correct. You see I have been in democratic politics, politics where in six months things can change. Let me give you an instance because people are talking too much about it. In one seat in Kerala we lost by 16,000 votes in the assembly elections. During the parliament election it went up to 19,000 but this time there was a by-election there and it came down to 4,500.

 

Q:  Except that the difference is in Kerala the Left has a history of winning and losing and the corruption and the arrogance are missing. In Bengal, after 32 years, there is no challenge of defeat that you ever faced before.

A: That is what I think went into everyone's head. Those at the top may have been able to resist it but it is very difficult for people at the lower levels.

 

Q: After the May general election, when the left parties did very badly in Bengal and you were actually surprised by the extent to which your seats had fallen, the CPI formally suggested to the CPM that the left front government should resign and seek a fresh mandate. Today many others are saying the same thing. But in May when you proposed this what response did you get?

A: Formally I did not propose any such thing. I do not think you can say that I formally proposed it… I did suggest but then, you see, that was not the same thing…I didn't insist on that and I don't insist on it now.

 

Q: In May this was an informal suggestion that the Left front government should resign and seek a mandate. Not a formal suggestion. Today many people, ministers of the same government, are saying it publicly. What is your view today?

A: You are emphasizing too much on that suggestion and by repeating it you are making it as a fact. It is not so. So many things are spoken like that. Accha hoga aagar badal dhe. That does not mean that it is a very serious suggestion. I do not think I have made it (that way). Today I do not make it at all because I think now, for instance, to prepone the elections, now to resign, that would mean like running away from the battlefield and I do not want to resign now. Now I will face it. Now I want to battle it out. I might have lost but please note that there are constituencies in which I have got 50,000, 60,000, 80,000 votes. Those are not negligible votes. I hope to increase them.

 

Q: So today to call an early election would be like running away from the battlefield?

A: Yes. That is the next heading that will be given in the papers and that is the next thing that you will be speaking in the media.

 

Q: So, in other words, the position of the left parties in Bengal is a bit like an athlete who knows that he may not win the race, chances are that he won't win the race, but he has to continue to the finish otherwise it will be like cutting and running.

A: But you know many times such athletes succeed. And they succeed many times.

 

Q: Those are golden stories but most of the time those athletes don't win but they get respect for finishing.

A: I am not talking about only the respect. But they also sometimes win and I want to tell you communists are capable of that.

 

Q: That capability depends entirely upon large sections of the CPM, not just the leadership, realising what has gone wrong and acting to put it right. A big if is there.

A: Yes that is what is meant by a party. I might be good but if my party and my party ranks are not good then there is no point in me being good.

 

Q: I want to try and understand what you have said. In May it was an informal suggestion said as a way of speaking. But today you are against an early election because as you said it will look like running away.

A: And I want to fight.

 

Q: You want to fight?

A: Yes. I want to retrieve the situation and I want to fight.

Q: Let me then end by asking you a simple question: what do you believe will be the future that faces the left front government in Bengal between today and 2011 when the elections have to happen. In the next 18 months what do you think is going to happen?

A: We will establish closer links with the people, we will try to regain their confidence, we will take up their problems, we will try to put up certain issues which have been neglected.

 

Q: Give me an example of the sort of issues that have been neglected which you will now take up?

A: People might think that we have become wiser after the event, but I always say it is better to become wiser after the event then not to become wise at all.

 

Q: So in a sense, the future of the left parties and whatever chance or hope they have of re-winning power in 2011, depends very largely on this?

A: It does depend, not only on the general behaviour and approach towards the people, but also the way you reforge the links with you people again.

 

Q: And Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has to make sure that his government does it?

A: Don't write off the government.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

COOPERATE TO COMBAT TERRORISM

BY MIKE SMITH

 

SOUTH ASIA has probably suffered more than any other region in the world from the dreadful scourge of terrorism. People, whose lives and those of their friends and relatives, are irrevocably changed in an instant when a suicide bomber blows up a vehicle in a crowded market place or bus station, struggle to understand why there are groups that want to bring so much pain to innocent civilians. There are too many examples to recall them all.

 

A year ago the world witnessed the horrific attacks in Mumbai, watching helplessly as gunmen rampaged through hotels and the city's train station. Sri Lanka has suffered for decades from acts of terrorism, and time will tell if the government's military response and its implementation of necessary confidence-building measures will be adequate to finally put an end to violence.

 

And the international community living in the region is not immune to terror either. Just last month the offices of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Islamabad were hit by a suicide bomber while in Afghanistan five UN staffers were killed in a guesthouse and again we in the UN family were forced to mourn colleagues who were simply in these places to do their job.

 

These are just the spectacular examples of violence that has permeated the region. And yet, law enforcement personnel in South Asia, who serve on the frontlines in implementing counter-terrorism measures, have very limited opportunities to interact at an operational level with their counterparts in the region.

 

Funding, explosives and technical know-how, all critical elements of a terrorist attack, flow too easily across borders. Those who fight terrorism in the region need to be able to collaborate with their counterparts in other countries if they are to have any hope of disrupting an attack and capturing those who plan it.

 

There is also lack of a common vision in the region for confronting terrorism in a manner that fully incorporates respect for the rule of law, human rights and human dignity, thereby increasing the chance for success in the long term.

 

In an effort to remedy these shortfalls, the United Nations, in association with the Government of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), organised a meeting (8-10 November) that brought together working-level law enforcement experts of the region.

 

Police officers and prosecutors from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – along with observers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) – met for three days in Dhaka, sharing their experiences and lessons they learnt in fighting the very real threat of terrorism.

 

The regional workshop gave them an opportunity to enhance their counter-terrorism capacities by discussing the role of the police and prosecution services in combating terrorism and the challenges they face in leading effective investigations and prosecutions. Part of the discussion focussed on the way in which a counter-terrorism approach based on sound legal procedures and respect for the rule of law can strengthen international cooperation, making it more likely that terrorists will be properly brought to justice.

 

Of course one meeting, even a successful one like this, achieves little on its own. What will truly drive progress in combating terrorism is a sustained commitment on the part of governments to enact legislation, to build institutional structures and operational mechanisms that can make front-line law enforcement officers and prosecutors effective.

 

What is also critical is an effort by all governments to overcome mutual distrust and political difference sufficiently to allow their agencies to cooperate so they can all better address the common enemy – the terrorist groups.

 

Courtesy: UN Information Centre, New Delhi

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

SILLY POINT

 

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has queered his own political pitch by hurling a bouncer at Sachin Tendulkar in an editorial in Sena mouthpiece Saamna, over Sachin's recent "Mumbai is for all" statement. During an interaction with media, Sachin also said he is an Indian first although he's extremely proud of his Maharashtrian roots. What he said should be echoed by every Indian. It's a simple and correct viewpoint which otherwise should not raise any eyebrow and can only be applauded. Yet, Thackeray has a massive problem because the statement has hit where it hurts him the most. It has gone against the narrow agenda of Shiv Sena and also Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) which they have been pursuing in the name of upholding the cause of Maharashtrians. Expectedly, people from all walks of life have hit Thackeray's bouncer for a six and defended Sachin – not merely because they love him but because the very spirit of what Sachin said is unassailable. No one would have batted for Sachin simply because he's the greatest icon, had he said something wrong. Sachin plays for India, and takes enormous pride in the fact that he represents his country. Twenty years on, he still cherishes the moment when he first donned the India cap as a blushing 16-year-old. Obviously, to him India comes first. After 26/11 attacks too, Sachin had said it was an attack on India, not Mumbai. The recent statement also had a similar patriotic spirit. All these reflect his broad way of thinking and big heart to rise above narrowness and geographical boundaries. By reacting against his statement, Thackeray has only 'played on' and it is he who seems to have lost whatever was left with him.

Without a doubt, Thackeray has used his criticism to project his party as the real champion of the cause of 'Marathi manoos'. It's also a reflection of his frustration at the rapid crumbling of his political ground following the emergence of MNS, which has made a huge total out of its tirade against migrants from other States, especially North Indians. MNS has eaten away a large chunk of Sena's vote base, which resulted in the poor score by the latter in the parliamentary and Assembly polls. Ironically, the same Balasaheb who compares Raj Thackeray with Jinnah and accuses his nephew of trying to divide Marathis, seems to be in competition with him to show who is a bigger champion of the Marathi chauvinism. His attack on Sachin was influenced by this one-upmanship. Parties like Shiv Sena or MNS cannot discount the fact that every Indian citizen is free to go anywhere in the country, and that Mumbai, despite the fact that it's the capital of Maharashtra, is the country's commercial capital to which migration of people from other areas is natural. In the end, such bigotry is bound to be rejected by the civil society and can never have a broad support base for long, although it may have temporary gains. While the patriotic fervour in Sachin's statement has strengthened India's unity, Thackeray's comments have indeed left him isolated on a sticky wicket.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FIRE SERVICE

 

Always to respond first in crisis, be it natural or man-made disasters, this important organization has not got the due which it so rightly deserves. A number of constraints, be it shortage of equipments or adequate manpower have been hindering its development. But in spite of it this organization has been rendering a yeoman's service for over the past 50 years. The State Fire Service Organization has time and again displayed its capabilities at the time of crisis. The dedicated personnel of the organization have saved a number of lives and property in its 50 long years of existence. But the irony is that the authorities in the helm of affairs have not taken adequate steps to modernize this vital sector. The State is yet to be fully covered by the Fire Service Organization. There should be one fire station in every 10 kilometres in urban areas while there should be one in every 50 kilometres in the rural areas. The state comes no where near it. In fact the State requires over 1,400 fire stations to perform its duty in the best possible manner. Along with it the fire stations need the latest fire fighting equipment and other tools to give tooth to their rescue act. The seismic threat in the region has made it imperative that the Fire Service Organization is on their toes.

Considering the spurt in instances of natural and man-made disasters, now the authorities are planning to initiate a host of measures to upgrade this important organization. Plans are afoot to attach five companies of the State Disaster Response Force with the State Fire Service Organization. The Government is also considering attaching fire tenders to police stations in rural areas. By 2020, the Government intends to set up 250 fire and emergency service stations with around 5,000 personnel in service. The plans unless translated into reality won't mean anything. Instead of chalking up grandiose plans the Government should make funds available to the organization on a priority basis so that it can prepare itself to tackle the ever rising challenges. The vacant posts should be filled up immediately. Mock drills need to be carried on at regular intervals to hone the skills of the fire fighters. To serve the people better at the time of grave crisis the fire fighters do need the support of the society. The people should remember that they should cooperate with the dedicated team of fire fighters at the time of crisis instead of venting their ire at the first responder of crisis.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

PEACE PROSPECTS IN ASSAM

SHIBDAS BHATTACHARJEE

 

The surrender of two top ULFA leaders before the Border Security Force (BSF) was seen as a major success for the security forces that are in operation not because of this particular incident but because of its significant implication. In fact, this brought to the light once again that the ULFA has been divided into two factions – one led by 'c-in-c' Paresh Baruah, who is and against peace talks with the Government of India, and the other comprising top leader of the outfit like Sashadhar Choudhury and Chitrabon Hazarika who are in favour of peace talks. Intelligence agencies said Bangladesh security agencies recently raided some hideouts of the leaders of the outfit, prompting the cadres to flee. Internal clashes among ULFA cadres is also said to have forced some ultras to flee. This particular incident was also important considering the fact that the new Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina had assured New Delhi of all support and cooperation to evict Indian separatists, if any from Bangladesh soil. ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia is under detention in Dhaka after his arrest in 1997. Though Chetia, arrested on charges of entering the country without passport and possessing satellite phone, completed his jail term in 2005, he is in detention due to the absence of any extradition agreement between the two countries despite New Delhi's formal appeals to hand him over for trial in India.

Now fresh overtures to bring the banned outfit for direct peace talks are apparently in response to the negative feedback from ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa in his communique to writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami, convener of the People's Consultative Group (PCG). Rajkhowa's letter to Goswami reiterated ULFA's three major demands. These include the topic of sovereignty on the agenda for talks, the release of five jailed leaders to facilitate in-house consultations before coming for direct talks and the announcement of information about the "status of some senior ULFA functionaries who went missing during Bhutan's military offensive in December 2003. Although New Delhi is understood to be reluctant to take the risk of releasing five jailed ULFA leaders before receiving a "direct and clear communication" from the outfit about its commitment to peace, it is being suggested that the Government could facilitate "prior consultation" between ULFA's underground leadership and their jailed comrades. Notwithstanding the apparent deadlock in the peace process between the Centre and ULFA, Dispur is "hopeful" of the efforts initiated, among others, particularly of the positive approach of the arrested or surrendered leaders of the banned outfit including the No 28 battalion. On the other hand, people of this State believe that the derailed peace process will be brought on the track by discarding the rigid stand adopted by the two sides for the greater interests of the State.

But unfortunately in the wake of repeated serial blasts, engineered by ULFA in Assam and increased militant activity the Centre had to decide to withdraw its militant surrender policy and go after the Bangladesh based underground groups after the Lok Sabha elections. Visiting Assam a day after the Gauwhati serial blasts made clear that the government policy on militant surrender was not working. They pointed fingers at the Army for routinely encouraging such surrenders. It was only then decided that both the Army and the State police should go after the militant groups particularly ULFA after the Lok Sabha elections and withdraw the policy of surrender. Three groups - ULFA in Assam, NSCN (I-M) in Tirap-Changlang sector in Arunachal Pradesh and Dima Halam Daoga (Jewel faction) in North Cachar Hill district—were active in the North East. The trio was briefed on the support given by pan-Islamic groups to ULFA in Bangladesh as well as the growing influence of the Pakistani intelligence agencies.

However, it is a reality now that the ULFA lost its popular support as the years progressed since its inception in 1979. In fact the people of the State are really fed up with the decade long violence and' bloodshed which have virtually cut the State from the mainstream of development. It is true that due to the negligence of the Centre as well as the State government, Assam could never make full use of its resources which is a matter of great disappointment for the people. But this cannot legitimise any kind of violent activity of killing innocent people and destroying public property. Moreover, it brought the burden of more expenditure, namely security expenditure which has been an excuse of the State government's non-performance for a long time. On the other hand, the people of Assam no longer think ULFA's demand for sovereignty justified because it is a reality that Assam cannot have a separate identity remaining outside the federal structure of the country. So the people who earlier laid much store on ULFA's battle, realized their folly and gave up to believe the idea that there can be no alternative to peaceful democratic process if the State really wants to progress. It has already changed its political idiom, and talks about joining the mainstream, swimming with other States which left it behind over the years when it grappled with insurgency and military operations. Moreover, as the years went by. ULFA lost its umbrella like character which gave birth to various other insurgent outfits, mainly on sectional basis. This was indeed a new development which made ULFA's status in the State weaker. In fact, the rise of Bodo militant outfits changed the atmosphere of insurgency as through their subversive activities they soon became the centre of importance for both New Delhi and Dispur.

It is quite obvious that both the Government of India and the ULFA have come a long way and it is time to adopt flexible attitude to create a new hope for a peaceful and negotiated settlement. But no one at the present juncture can give any surety that peace will be restored in the State after settlement of the ULFA problem. There is no surety that terrorist activities in the State can be prevented completely after this because the terrorist activities not only in Assam but in the other parts of the north eastern region are related to cross-border terrorism from both Pakistan and Bangladesh. In fact, terrorism in India is no longer Kashmir-centric as the main objectives of the agencies that want to spread violence and make bloodshed in the country seem to adopt the policy to include as much area as possible in their terror net. The Government of India is very much aware of the fact that Bangladeshi immigration has not only changed the demographic structure of the northeastern region but put forward a threat to the internal security of the region. India's soft attitude towards Bangladesh has not changed yet. It is really unfortunate that the issues of much concern for India that are related to the anti-India policies of Bangladesh have become political issues in our country to be utilised for poll prospect. On the other hand, the issue of militancy is always related to the issue of development, particularly job orientation. The despondency of the millions of unemployed in the State is a matter of great concern because it may initiate a new phase of terror. The government should give top priority to this issue and make sincere efforts to solve this problem. Only this can brighten the peace prospects and defeat the evil design to keep Assam a backward State.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY

DR MAINA SARMA

 

The present age is described by many as the age of uncertainty and confusion. Many of us are uncertain about so many things around us. We are uncertain about the best form of government, about the best economic and social system; about what things are right and what things are wrong. We seem to be confused whether people are better behaved today than they were at the time of our forefathers and so on and so forth. This spirit shows itself not only in the actual state of public affairs but also in the general attitude towards fundamental values in personal and social life. Scientist like Max Planck says that these symptoms mark the beginning of a great renaissance, but there are others who see in them the tidings of a downfall to which our civilization is destined. At any rate, this seems to be a transitional age, and is full of danger as well as promise, rich in possibilities. The times of certainty are also the times of stagnation. When we know what to think we cease to think. Evidently, it is a time for reflective thinking, and this is just what philosophy is. No dates, formulas or rules need be memorized. Without relying on unnecessary jargon and technicalities, philosophy lands us into central, profound areas of human concern. The only important prerequisite is an enquiring mind. Philosophical questions grow out of a kind of thinking that we do when we ask ourselves whether something we believe or accept is reasonable to believe or accept.

The idea of philosophy as a rational questioning of our beliefs is as old as human civilization itself. It is developed above all from Socrates in the Athens in the fifth century B.C. He entered into dialogue which was his preferred way of doing philosophy and numbed those he talked to, because his object was, atleast in the first instance to show that they did not know what they thought they did. With the ultimate aim of obtaining knowledge, philosophy challenges and makes people realize that what they take for granted is not necessarily true.

The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very uncertainty and critical attitude. There is not a straight answer to the questions of philosophy. Philosophers like Socrates do not rush into saying that they know this or that –they step back and think about things. But here a skeptical worry surfaces. Is philosophy for that very reason does not matter? Philosophy matters a lot to make us aware of the importance of some questions, to examine all the approaches to them, and to keep alive that speculative interest in the universe which is apt to be killed by confining ourselves to definitely ascertainable knowledge.

There is no more important exercise of human rationality than philosophical reasoning. It can reach to the foundations of our beliefs, thoughts and expose them for what they are, solid and shaky, good or bad. A belief whose reasons have been examined deeply enough to reach the level of philosophical questioning rests on a firmer foundation than one that has been examined less thoroughly. This makes philosophy knocking at everyone's door though this does not mean that everyone should become a professional philosopher. Every human being, befitting the name, wants assurance that our beliefs are well grounded.

None can thus escape philosophy once they start questioning themselves, their assumptions, beliefs and practices. The question as to whether one shall or shall not enter upon the domain of philosophy was settled long ago by Aristotle when he said, "Whether we will philosophize or whether we won't philosophize, we must philosophize." Consciously or unconsciously everyone frames for himself a theory of the relation of the individual to the universe and on his attitude to that question his whole life and conduct, public and private depends. In the present time, philosophy cannot afford to be packed off to the sidelines of intellectual life.It must regain its place in the heart of our life making us aware of our goals, the reasons for pursuing them, and giving us consistency in their pursuit. It has to help us to match our reasoning to the reality confronting us. This cannot be possible without a rigorous examination even of the things we take most for granted. T he man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the habitual beliefs of his age and from convictions which have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions and unfamiliar possibilities enlarging our thoughts are contemptuously rejected. As soon as we begin to philosophize, a new horizon of possibilities opens up enriching our intellectual imagination and removing the somewhat arrogant dogmatism which closes the mind against speculation.

Philosophy as a way of sharpening our thinking is a cleansing act, an act of purifying the intellect. By imposing its strict demand for consistency, philosophy tightens up our standards of knowledge guiding us in concrete real life situations. It is because of this, educationists favour introductory classes in philosophy even for those whose primary intentions are to study other subjects. The pencil needs to be sharpened before it can write with sufficient care about other topics. Philosophy as a critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value, provides the kind of insight, the most concretely needed thing of the present time. An engineer today whose knowledge is restricted only to technical matters of engineering, or a physician whose competence extends only to the subject matter of medical training, is ill-prepared to understand even the basic problems that face his profession. There is thus a demand for a new ethical, legal, economic and political wisdom, a new wisdom in the affairs of government which can prove as an useful antidote to the arrogance produced by dwelling on the apparent progress of the society in the fields of science, economics etc. If we are truly to love wisdom (the word "philos" in Greek means the love of wisdom), we cannot afford to live in a world of illusion. Our anguished time will cry aloud for new visions. If by philosophy we mean the search for wisdom, the appraisement of values, and careful logical analysis of concepts, it seems to be just what the world needs now for the preservation of the life of humanity.

                                                         
(Published on the occasion of World Philosophy Day)

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

A LESSON FROM SAMSUNG

 

Samsung's decision to locate its new airconditioning plant in Chennai, closing factories in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, bears a telling lesson: tax breaks play a limited role in location of industry and efficient infrastructure, skilled manpower, connectivity to sea ports and airports and ease of doing business matter more.

The Centre should end area-based tax exemptions given to the hill states in the coming fiscal year, though these states and companies that have set up shop in these states could clamour for a further extension. Smooth transition to a goods and services tax regime requires removal of tax exemptions. The Centre could grant special states special subsidies though, to help them compete on social and physical infrastructure.

Tax exemptions are distortionary and lead to inefficient resource allocation. Tamil Nadu has been a draw for global automakers such as Hyundai, Ford, BMW and Nissan and component manufacturers, sans exemptions and giveaways from the Centre. Last year, the government withdrew duty exemptions to industrial units engaged only in peripheral activities (including repacking and relabelling) in HP and Uttarakhand to curb rampant misuse of exemptions. Companies were also directed to file returns every quarter to assess the impact of exemptions on industrial development. A welcome step, though the spinoffs of tax incentives to the economy cannot be easily quantified.

The largesse comes at a price. Area-based exemption to the North-East, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir cost the government over Rs 10,000 crore in FY09 against Rs 8,000 crore in FY08. For long, the Centre has signalled its intention to withdraw these incentives. But it has buckled under pressure to extend them. The exemptions in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh were to end in March 2007. But these states got a reprieve, with the Centre giving a three-year extension.

With an end-date set, there is no logic for continuing the benefit, especially with the economy showing clear signs of revival. The north-eastern states and Jammu and Kashmir get a special dispensation and the exemptions are in the form of refunds. Moreover, they are also open-ended with no end-date being set for them. The policy of open-ended exemptions must go.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

UNFAIR COMPETITION

 

The government is reportedly toying with the idea of restricting the mandate of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to sectors where it would not come in conflict with an existing sectoral regulator. That is a ridiculous idea, and the government should not waste time on it.

The proposal has been floated by some powerful people, including those in sectoral regulators, and are keen to protect their fief and perhaps even enlarge it. Competition matters should not be decided by sectoral regulators, but mainly and solely by the CCI. This does not mean we are suggesting that the CCI should be converted into a super-regulator.

Rather, decision-making would be better informed and sound if the CCI draws upon the understanding, expertise and opinion of the sector regulators such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on specific issues concerning the industry when it presides over a case of M&A or violation of fair play.

Even as that be the case, the CCI should be strengthened to incorporate multi-disciplinary expertise that will enable it to act independently (not necessarily autonomously) to consider the impact of inter-play of market forces on society at large. Sector regulators would tend to take a myopic and, perhaps ill-informed, view on such issues.

In any case, the mandate of the sector regulators includes tariff setting, ensuring high standards of service and protecting the health of the sector. This is enshrined in the constitution of regulators such as Trai and the State Electricity Commission. In sectors such as telecom, even the ministry sets conditions for allowing consolidation; and Trai has recently questioned the need for many of these restrictions.

Clearly, attempts are underway to thwart CCI from playing its stated role. The government would be better advised to foil such moves by announcing a timeline for notification of merger control provisions of the Act (Sections 5 & 6), continuing with its October 14 Ordinance for immediate winding up of MRTP Commission and transferring undecided cases to Competition Appellate Tribunal and National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in a move to strengthen the competition panel.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

 

BOW-RACK OBA-MAO

 

The 44th US president's willingness to get along with all people is, say his critics, being carried to extremes. Photographs of President Obama bowing to Emperor Akihito during the recent state visit to Japan have irked conservative Americans.

While the president's aides say Mr Obama was just observing protocol, conservative critics say other American heads of state in Tokyo have not bowed to anyone. Some Americans wonder why their president should at all bow to the Japanese emperor who would have been their emperor if Nippon had won the war which started with the attack on Pearl Harbor!

They also remember that after the US won World War-II, it was General Douglas Macarthur who helped modernise Japan by moderating the concept of the divinity of the emperor. A columnist on Fox TV, with whom the Obama Administration has had a running feud, has stated that the 44th president had also bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. The president's aides then said that the much-taller Obama was not bowing but stooping to shake the hand of the ailing Saudi king.

US attitudes to royalty have to a certain extent been reflected in a two-line poem which a Chicago gangster in a Wodehouse novel recites while glaring into his beer in a British pub: "I don't care if he wears a crown/He can't keep kicking my dog around."

Obama, of course, has always been more popular elsewhere in the world than in the US. One factor could be that the rest of the world compares him favourably with his predecessor who invaded Iraq under the pretext of pre-empting the use of weapons of mass destruction that simply did not exist. So much so that during the ongoing visit to China, a CNN correspondent shot a picture of a shop selling T-shirts where the 44th US president was shown wearing a Red Army uniform above a caption saying, "Serve the people, says Oba-Mao"!

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

CRY FREEDOM IS SOUND MUSIC

MANOJ NAIR

 

The transition of the music culture from disc to disk is a fascinating one. Music as we heard it has taken leave and has been replaced by music as we rip it. You listen to it on your desktop, laptop, iPod, etc. CDs are finding it difficult to vacate shelf space of stores as there aren't many takers for them, as music files in for listeners on the www.

Nobody had seen the revolution coming in when MP3 files surfaced in the mid-nineties. They, particularly the recording industry, had not imagined what was to hit them. The recording industry was asking for it when it began promoting boy bands, creating an abyss in the process for other forms of pop music.

As the recording industry and radio stations began blindly promoting bands like Backstreet Boys and Blue, other talented artists had to back out and look for some backing elsewhere to get their music heard.
That was when Napster made its entry to set off the tumultuous transformation. Its model of picking hitherto unheard-of groups and bands came for free and travelled between hard disks, infuriating the recording industry that had no empathy for MP3.

Soon, an animated pink pig began making the rounds of inboxes. Netizens picked the link, making oink.cd one of the most popular peer-to-peer sharing site with around 1,80,000 members. But Oink could not grunt for long and the website had to be shut down in 2007, its founder 24-year-old Alan Ellis was arrested as part of an Interpol operation.

"I don't sell music to people, I just direct them to it. If somebody wants to illegally download music, they are going to do it whether my site is there or not," Ellis told a newspaper. Which is very much true because the popularity of BitTorrent, a download software, began climbing up bit by bit in places like India where several international albums are not released.

A diffident record industry fails to recognise the merit in Ellis' defence because what we know as the business of music is moving far from the business of producing music that was about selling CDs in plastic cases. According to musician David Byrne, that's not bad news for music, and it's certainly not bad news for musicians.

The internet is not just changing the way music is sold, it is also changing the way music is made. Take the case of DJ Shadow who used a combination of mediums and methods to compose strange and sundry, but elaborate, pieces that crisscrossed between mood and meter in symphonic coordination. Yet another revolution. This was when music began to be made from loops of unconnected samples of different instruments often picked from the internet, throwing open the doors to yet another debate: is the use of samples infringing copyright?

"Music history is one of creative borrowing," says Greg Kot in his book, Ripped: How the wired generation revolutionised music. To prove his point, he quotes musician Steve Earle, "Good songwriters borrow, great ones steal." His statement was confirmed by the current darling of the sample generation, Danger Mouse, who dared to make his now seminal The Grey Album popular by spreading his samplings on the web. His success includes some chartbusting numbers via collaborations with Gorillaz, a UK band with fictitious members.

With such an onslaught of independence on the internet, the record industry doesn't stand a prayer. And in the process of democratising the world of music, these free musicians and their fans are using music as part of the social fabric. It is gaining a kind of social currency as it streams from hard disk to hard disk with varied thought process, ideas and ideologies working in loops.

The fans who had turned into gatekeepers of music were now turning out multiple versions of the same song. The big alteration in the ecosystem was initiated by Beck's three versions of the same album, Guerro. One, the original studio version; the second, another containing remixes of songs from the original by other artists and a third, which was a revelation, contained different versions of the songs remixed by fans.

Purists may moan that the end of physicality of things has strangled two other art forms associated with music: album cover art and sleeve notes. In one stroke, they say, the net generation has sung the dirge of both visual art and the literature linked to albums. Oil may return to canvas and words to paper as the transition is making sound music for artists and fans. The recording industry, however, is facing the chant of change or die.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF ASIA'S RISE

JANMEJAYA SINHA

 

For at least a decade now, the world has been preparing for the emergence of Asia. Many have dubbed the 21 century as Asia's and many countries in the continent are working to make this true. On a review of some basic economic statistics, the shift in world economic power over the next 10 years will be stark. By 2013, the EU, Asia and the US will be equal-sized economic blocks contributing roughly 25% of global GDP. In contrast, in 2000, EU formed 32%, the US 28% and Asia 20% of global GDP. By 2020, China, Japan and India will be with the US and Germany at the top five economies of the world. Together, the three Asian countries will form 27% of global GDP. What is even more significant will be the accompanying shift in consumption patterns.

Today, 5% of the world's consumers — or, the US population — provide $10 trillion of global consumption. All of Asia, with about 45% of the world's population, adds up to only $7 trillion. But by 2020, Asia will consume $21 trillion of global produce, 140% of the US at that time, which will be consuming $15 trillion.

Thus, over the next 10 years, Asia will consume $15 trillion more than it does today, much more than three times the $5 trillion that the US will add over the same period. This will be a dramatic shift in global consumption patterns that can be ignored by companies at their own peril. The population dynamic will, if anything, only make this impulse stronger: Asia's average age will rise from 29 to 32 in the next 10 years while it will go from 40 to 43 in Europe and 37 to 38 in the US.

There have always been strong companies in Asia, even today, if you sort through billion-dollar-revenue companies globally and correct them for double holding of some groups, you find about 12,500 companies of which 3,500 are from Asia. This share is bound to rise in the next 10 years. In fact, as Boston Consulting Group's research on the top 100 companies from rapidly-developing economies (RDE) has shown, more than 70% of these companies are emerging from Asia. Given the rapid growth of Asian economies, this is not surprising.

As illustration, India had about 25 billion-dollar companies in 2000 and today, the figure has grown almost seven times to about 160. This growth is accompanied by an increase in its importance on vital issues for the planet's survival. Today, while carbon emissions per head are really low in Asia, it is still the largest contributor to carbon emissions with the fastest growth rate. The demand for safe water by populations emerging out of extreme poverty and deprivation in many countries has not been met and will be the most critical shortage it will need to tackle in the years ahead.

Yet, Asia as a continent or a region is large, diverse, spatially spread, and at different levels of maturity. The idea of Asia has been slow to develop for itself despite the attempts of some regional groupings such as Asean and Saarc. The relations between many countries are soiled by bitter histories and the maturity that wealth brings in such discourse is largely lacking. On balance, the debates between countries with similar histories in Europe is much more mature and balanced. There is much jingoism and a poor appreciation of common purpose for the planet and, in fact, for the region itself. Asia, for good reason, till now has seen itself at the fringe of the global economy and has been focused quite substantially on selling to the American consumer and competing with one another to do so.

If you look at trade patterns, over time the share of inter-Asian trade has risen from 31% in 1990 to 45% in 2008. This is a very large number already and will grow even further in the coming years. The popular psyche still suffers from a colonial hang up and within the region itself, each country has a need for respect which suggests a fundamental immaturity or a lack of real self-confidence in its dealing with each other. This could work in the old world order as all of Asia fought each other to capture the American consumer, in the era that is coming upon us, where the consumer will be Asia itself — will the old ways work?

Asian economies and political leaders have to get ready to bear the heavy responsibility of global leadership. This is a big challenge because there is such great poverty, old enmities, disputed borders and a history of great economic competition. To begin with, there is a need for enhanced regional collaboration based on enlightened self-interest and a recognition of the medium-term imperatives. This is important for Asia's own development. If you dig deeper into EU and the US as a block, one is a unified country and the other is a fairly well-integrated community with a common currency and free factor flows within the region.

I believe there is a need for a new idea of Asia: one that is less jingoistic, with a better understanding of common purpose and with some statesmanship from the bigger countries. China, Japan and India will need to show a leadership that will have to at least acknowledge that their power might be frightening to their neighbours. A new paradigm will need to be evolved in how they deal with each other. A common vocabulary developed to discuss issues on which there is a large agreement and a rhetoric that is less threatening and more cooperative on issues on which there is less agreement. This is going to be a long journey given the national trade-offs between liberty and economic progress that have been made in different countries and which are now institutionalised.

Japan and India have democratic systems that have often caused gridlock and slow agreement on economic policy. China with growing affluence will need to find ways to open its political system over time. Business leaders and the population at large have the most to gain from the emerging Asia. They need to coax the political leadership and the media into a less strident vocabulary for discussion. Asia needs it and, in fact, so does the world. Asia has to rise to the leadership challenge that its destiny provides it in the 21 century.

(The author is chairman (Asia Pacific) of The Boston Consulting Group. Views are personal.)

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

BRING INNOCENCE INTO YOUR LIFE

PARAMAHAMSA NITHYANANDA

 

Innocence means purity of the inner space, not being affected by thoughts, our engraved memories. Even if you are not expressing your emotions like anger, greed and lust, if they are present in your inner space, you are not as yet a total and innocent person. Socially, you may be pure.

On the other hand, if you express your anger, lust and greed but nothing touches your inner space and you live like an innocent child, then be very clear, you are a pure being.

If you watch children, their eyes will be filled with wonder and freshness all the time. They don't hold any opinion about anything. They are ready to receive. Their readiness is expressed in their glowing eyes. We lose this glow as we grow older. Our knowledge might increase tremendously, but this knowledge should not dull us in any way.

If you just look at life without any opinions or fixed ideas, then you are like an empty teacup into which brewed tea can be poured. You receive because you hold nothing, because you are empty. Then you never lose your enthusiasm. You are never bored. You are like a child, innocent and fresh.

A young girl was writing something on a piece of paper. Her father asked her what it was.

She said, 'I am writing a letter.'

He asked, 'To whom?'

'To me,' she replied.

'What does the letter say?' he asked. She replied, 'How do I know? I have not mailed it and I have not received it yet!'

There is so much freshness behind innocence. Life becomes an unfolding mystery every moment with it. Mind is the culprit, which typecasts life. The mind constantly wants life on its own specific terms. Innocence embraces life with life's own terms. But the mind does not allow life to find a gateway to enter with its mysteries. With innocence, life is welcomed to share its mysteries.

If you watch children's eyes, they will be clear and empty and innocent. This is why they are in bliss. As you grow up, your eyes become filled with knowledge. Then you may have sight, but not insight; because you see through your eyes filled with opinions, judgments and beliefs. It is filtered and clouded. You see through the filter of your beliefs and conditioned memories. There is nothing new to learn from what you see because it becomes a repetition of your past memories. The learning is missed.

Try to see with empty eyes. Then everything you see goes deep and causes fresh insight. Life becomes an eternally unfolding mystery. The very nature of your questioning changes. You retain your innocence. Be Blissful!

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

EROSION OF BRAND HALO IS NOT THE CASE

 

Much has been written about and is still being written about the tariff wars in Telecom industry in recent weeks. Importantly often the discussion starts to engage the notion of brands. At its simplest Brand is a promise to the customer of a quality of service with meaningful differentiated dimensions ahead of a generic or commodity version of the same. Brands will have a place as long as that differential exists and commands a premium.

While engaging on a discussion connecting pricing and brand stature one must also consider the industry. In some industries the price comes down over time as an inherent feature. Take consumer electronics for instance. The price of say a computer with certain specifications or a TV with certain specifications comes down over time. It does not mean that this industry is losing its halo or its brands are.

In the telecom industry, prices have been coming down since the industry's inception. Various factors have played a role – rapid growth of scale, emergence of innovative business models, and more recently hyper competition. If you were to accept the reduction of price table as a barometer of brand halo or stature then you would reach the conclusion that brand halos have been eroding in this industry for a decade. But one look at amount of media coverage not just for the companies and the industry, but the ranking of brands themselves in various lists across publications will tell you this is not the case.

And finally let's not forget what the consumers at large are paying for. The collective revenue share of top 3 brands is higher than it was a year ago. To me the halo or Brand Stature as I prefer to call it is very much intact. Of course one cannot take it for granted and must continue to nurture it.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

INTERESTS OF CONSUMERS HAVE LONG BEEN IGNORED

 

In the telecom world, the interests of consumers have long been ignored by the big players. Clearly, not doing customer-centric tariff innovations hurts the customers. In keeping with the Tata's commitment we've clearly taken the lead in putting consumers' interests first; and as the numbers show, customers love it! To consider the interest of consumers as being counter productive to that of service providers is in itself fairly myopic.

Radical innovations and breakthroughs would not have happened if companies had continued to look at market share and not mindshare e.g. allowing buyers to return goods bought with no questions asked. History bears testimony to the impact that these measures have had, in the long run in driving acceptance, penetration and adoption of these brands.

Customers always reward innovation. Brands that fail to innovate and excite consumers lose mindshare, market share and relevance. A brand is not a static entity. It is a dynamic reflection of customer preference and must consistently be relevant to consumers to earn their loyalty. You have to constantly reinvent and innovate to deliver true customer delight. We wanted to engage and delight customers -- and our pay per second and pay per call plans have done just that.

With 'number portability' round the corner, it is pertinent to touch upon another key aspect of loyalty. Most of the so-called loyalty programs are based on the premise of "take & give", i.e. take from customers - by way of spend, and give some of it back in terms of reward. Such loyalty is actually fairly transactional and has no exit barriers, once the points have been redeemed. On the other hand, when brands start to stand up for the customers and deliver on customer centric value, they operate on "give & get", i.e. give better value to customers, who then reward these brands through favorable behavior.

This loyalty is true loyalty. It is emotional, more enduring, and indeed profitable in the long run.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

HAS TELCO TARIFF WAR HURT BIG BRANDS?

 

Interests of consumers have long been ignored

In the telecom world, the interests of consumers have long been ignored by the big players. Clearly, not doing customer-centric tariff innovations hurts the customers.

 

In keeping with the Tata's commitment we've clearly taken the lead in putting consumers' interests first; and as the numbers show, customers love it! To consider the interest of consumers as being counter productive to that of service providers is in itself fairly myopic.

Radical innovations and breakthroughs would not have happened if companies had continued to look at market share and not mindshare e.g. allowing buyers to return goods bought with no questions asked. History bears testimony to the impact that these measures have had, in the long run in driving acceptance, penetration and adoption of these brands.

Customers always reward innovation. Brands that fail to innovate and excite consumers lose mindshare, market share and relevance. A brand is not a static entity. It is a dynamic reflection of customer preference and must consistently be relevant to consumers to earn their loyalty. You have to constantly reinvent and innovate to deliver true customer delight. We wanted to engage and delight customers -- and our pay per second and pay per call plans have done just that.

With 'number portability' round the corner, it is pertinent to touch upon another key aspect of loyalty. Most of the so-called loyalty programs are based on the premise of "take & give", i.e. take from customers - by way of spend, and give some of it back in terms of reward. Such loyalty is actually fairly transactional and has no exit barriers, once the points have been redeemed. On the other hand, when brands start to stand up for the customers and deliver on customer centric value, they operate on "give & get", i.e. give better value to customers, who then reward these brands through favorable behavior.

This loyalty is true loyalty. It is emotional, more enduring, and indeed profitable in the long run

 

 

Erosion of brand halo is not the case

Much has been written about and is still being written about the tariff wars in Telecom industry in recent weeks. Importantly often the discussion starts to engage the notion of brands. At its simplest Brand is a promise to the customer of a quality of service with meaningful differentiated dimensions ahead of a generic or commodity version of the same. Brands will have a place as long as that differential exists and commands a premium.

While engaging on a discussion connecting pricing and brand stature one must also consider the industry. In ome industries the price comes down over time as an inherent feature.

Take consumer electronics for instance. The price of say a computer with certain specifications or a TV with certain specifications comes down over time. It does not mean that this industry is losing its halo or its brands are.

In the telecom industry, prices have been coming down since the industry's inception. Various factors have played a role – rapid growth of scale, emergence of innovative business models, and more recently hyper competition. If you were to accept the reduction of price table as a barometer of brand halo or stature then you would reach the conclusion that brand halos have been eroding in this industry for a decade. But one look at amount of media coverage not just for the companies and the industry, but the ranking of brands themselves in various lists across publications will tell you this is not the case.

And finally let's not forget what the consumers at large are paying for. The collective revenue share of top 3 brands is higher than it was a year ago. To me the halo or Brand Stature as I prefer to call it is very much intact. Of course one cannot take it for granted and must continue to nurture it.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

NO SLOWDOWN IN SILVER DEMAND

NIDHI NATH SRINIVAS

 

We have always believed silver spoons, silver coins and silver tongues are desirable. Now that gold is hot-makingly expensive, is cheaper cousin silver a better deal? And what's all this talk about digital cameras hitting silver prices? ET helps you join the dots.

Silver is easier to figure if you see it as a market with two intertwining strands. Its demand, supply and prices each have two independent dynamics at work. The dichotomy and influence of these strands on each other makes this market no place for old men.

Consider supply. The world gets silver from silver mines, and what governments and people sell. In 2008, supply crossed 28,500 tonnes. Silver mines accelerate production when prices are attractive. People and governments too sell their family silver when prices are attractive. When prices plummeted after the financial crisis last year, scrap sales plummeted too. But the world also gets a huge quantity of silver as a by-product of lead, zinc, copper and gold mines. As these mines are focused on the price of their primary metal, they continue to produce silver irrespective of its price signals. Put together, you can never bet silver supply will directly respond to price.

There is a similar dichotomy at work in demand as well. On the one hand, silver is bought as a precious metal to hedge against inflation, currency fluctuations and general economic malaise. So whenever there is fear and panic in the market, people gravitate towards silver. On the other hand, silver is simply another raw material used by factories in making everything from camera films to jewellery, electronics, batteries, hi-tech clothing and radio frequency tags.

Actually half the silver sold is consumed like this. When factories slow down, as they did in the last one year, silver's demand drops too. So demand for silver is a see-saw between its avatar as a precious metal and its day job as an industrial metal. The global recession which wrote off silver's industrial consumption also re-ignited its bullion demand.

How money flows into silver is an equally motley mix. Investors — these could be households, wealthy individuals, exchange traded funds and institutions — believe silver is a store of value and buy it in the form of paper, coins and bars. Ignoring silver's physical demand-supply fundamentals, they trade in silver the way they would gold and closely track the price relationship between the two.

A few far-sighted investors are not bothered about the gold-silver connection. Instead, they are putting their faith in silver's physical demand-supply fundamentals. Though demand for silver to make photography films has sharply dropped in the age of digital cameras, these investors believe supply would not keep pace with total industrial demand in the coming years. While a lot of above-ground silver would continue to re-enter the production cycle each year, investors are hopeful the world will find new commercial uses to suck it out too.

The punters, however, believe silver is simply a shorter route to profit than gold. They speculate on short term price movements on commodity exchanges and use both long and short instruments to gain exposure to silver price. Punters know that in terms of value, the physical gold market is much bigger than silver. Being smaller makes the silver market less liquid and more susceptible to volatility. In short, it is perfect for getting over-the-top money if you have the courage to bet on it. The combined motives and trading strategies of investors and speculators keep the silver market full of frenetic activity.

Where does that leave you? With two choices obviously! You could put your faith in silver as a precious metal and hope its value will rise in line with gold. Or you could see it as just another metal that sometimes even moves in tandem with copper and is currently plagued by lack lustre physical consumption. One thing is certain. Both ways will bring you plenty of edge-of-the-seat excitement.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

SHARING SPECTRUM: IMPROVING TELECOM SERVICES REQUIRE PROACTIVE PLANNING

JAIDEEP MISHRA

 

There's welcome loud thinking of late on matters telecom, and Trai, the regulator, has put out a consultation paper on policy design for the radio frequency spectrum so essential for mobile telephony. The paper mentions that in August, the national telecom subscriber numbers added up to 456 million, mostly wireless connections of course. It projects a billion-plus subscriber base within five years. Hence the need for proactive policy on spectrum, so as to manage the huge addition of subscriber numbers likely in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, mobile operators in India have been complaining of severe "spectrum shortage," for years. It does not help that in the 15 years we have had wireless services here, there's been administrative allocation of spectrum, in fits and starts, and not exactly transparently either. Anyway, India is now the fastest growing telecom market, and what's required is a forward-looking spectrum policy to boost spectral efficiency and innovation across the board.

The Trai paper does posit the idea of spectrum trading and attendant sharing of the vital resource. What's surely required is real-time secondary market activity for proper spectrum management, to better accommodate the fast-growing volume of telecom traffic in the cards. Back to back, the policy change would encourage the design of novel handsets and telecom equipment especially meant for co-operative sharing of spectrum. With pathbreaking policy, the telecom sector here as a whole could emerge as the most innovative anywhere.

The current policy is to mandate exclusive licensing of a specific block of spectrum for different operators, as has generally been the case the world over. However, the fact remains that with exclusive access to spectrum, some cellular capacity would always sit idle when the calls underway require less than full capacity, as happens more than 98% of the time in mobile operations. Also, except in metro-service areas of dense usage, spectral resources are more likely to be deployed sub-optimally. Hence the scope for real-time sharing.

The experts point out that it has been well demonstrated that dividing a particular block of spectrum into separate exclusive tranches comprehensively reduces the amount of traffic read cellular phone calls per minute. It is true that licensing began in the early days of wireless devices to see to it that, say, a radio broadcaster or other spectrum users could carryout transmission sans interference. But new technological developments do allow real-time sharing of spectrum without compromising on service quality. Unlicensed spectrum (such as in WiFi networks) already allow a degree of local spectral sharing, but the quality of service available and its reliability cannot always be guaranteed.

The paper throws up several questions about the rationale and logistics for trading and sharing of spectrum. Is trading required for spectrum consolidation? How precisely should the trade take place and at what price? Further, what ought to be the criteria to permit sharing?

Now the prevailing practice has been to levy an upfront spectrum usage fee and an annual share based on the amount of spectral resources "held". Going forward, it should be possible to work out incentive fees for improved efficiency in spectrum usage. The objective should be to better manage the supply and demand of spectrum, and also encourage the shift to more spectrally efficient equipment, and generally speaking, policy induce less congestion and better quality in the network.

But in parallel, what's necessary is real-time sharing and trading of spectrum as a matter of policy, to ease constraints and routine spectral bottlenecks. After all, commercially viable technologies have evolved in recent years, for real-time secondary markets in spectrum. The widely used global positioning system (GPS) technology, with which devices can workout their location, can be also used for the purpose of trading and sharing. Using GPS, it is possible for a licensee to use the location information to estimate when any two devices might interfere.

The result can then be used to give the green signal–in split second accuracy–to a secondary device to transmit voice or data, so as to phenomenally increase radio-frequency reuse. The experts visualise other technological possibilities for spectrum share in real-time. For instance, software radio makes it possible for telecom devices to 'jump' from one frequency band to other with speed, in search of better quality. So if a secondary device is not getting the desired quality of service in any particular band, it can always jump search. There are still other emerging technological possibilities for trading and sharing of spectrum. The new internet payment systems can enable and fastforward change as well. Which is all the more reason for the policy change.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

'MY FILMS ARE ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE, HENCE THEY ARE DOCU-FEATURES'

ASHOKE NAG

 

White Pine Pictures' president and founder, Peter Raymont, has produced and directed over 100 documentary films and series. He has received over 35 awards. Raymont is also executive producer of the hit CBC drama series, The Border, currently in production on its third season. Seasons one and two are now airing across Europe and have been licensed to ION in the US. Raymont lives in Toronto, Ontario. He was in Kolkata for the 15th Kolkata Film Festival and gave an exclusive interview to ET.

Is there support for film making in Canada?

Yes, there is support for the arts in Canada. That's quite unique. But, there is a perception in the audiences that films have to be entertaining. I'm an activist. Entertainment is not my first priority. Art should be like a hammer. The government of Canada has brought me to Kolkata Film Festival. That's a proof of the support it extends.

How difficult is it for a film maker like you who makes a different genre of documentary films?

In any case it is difficult to show Canadian films in Canada. Everything has been taken over by Hollywood. But, there are theatres which screen documentaries of this nature. They are getting into these theatres. And, that's happening in Canada, in the US and across Europe. We are also churning out digital prints, which are more convenient for exhibiting.

Why haven't you made feature films at all?

Actually, my documentaries have the length of a feature film. They span 80-90 minutes. They are feature length without known actors. The actors are real people who are in them. There is great drama in ordinary people's lives. You can't make something as dramatic and compelling, for instance, as the happenings in Rwanda or Chile. These feature docus can help you make a living. In fact, my production company, White Pine Pictures, has 20 employees.

 

Which film school did you graduate from and when did you make your first film?

I graduated from Queen's University, Ontario with film studies and politics. I made my first film as a 19-year-old and joined the National Film Board as editor. The NFB was started by John Grierson, the documentary film maker who inspired me. Grierson made his first documentaries in Scotland and England. He believed that political action can change things. I grew up in the 60s and during the Vietnam War, I was a teenager. The atmosphere was politically very active. Many, in my generation, became writers, journalists, film makers or social activists. I was drawn to films. I enjoyed making films. I saw it as a tool for social change rather than an entertainment media. My films are about social change.

Which film directors, other than Grierson, do you admire?

Robert Flaherty, the American documentary film maker, Fred Wiseman and Donald Britain of Canada. I was also inspired by the vision of Kazan, Godard and Stanley Kubrick.

Have you watched Indian directors?

I have watched and admired (Satyajit) Ray's films. They are very human and personal. It was an important experience for me in film school. In fact, I met him in Toronto when I was in film school. Ray was speaking at a Canadian university. I rented Ray's Trilogy and watched them again on the plane on my flight to Calcutta. I found them so human, powerful and emotional still. They stand the test of time.

Ray has also made a few documentaries.

I wish I could see some of them. I think Ray's feature films, too, have a documentary sensibility. All his films also end with hope. I have also seen the films directed by Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta. She lives in Toronto.

What are you working on now?

I'm making a film now about the international criminal court in the Hague. The central character is the chief prosecutor of the court, who is an Argentinian. I am shooting in Congo in Africa, at the UN in New York and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It's about the new world order and international justice. There is crime everywhere. It's also there in India and Africa. You can and should be tried and taken to court.

You travel a lot to make your films. You must have shot in many places by now.

I have made docus in various places. In recent years, I've also shot in Greece, Sydney and Melbourne.

Sometimes, you must be taking a lot of risk in venturing into the sort of themes you do.

I won't say it's devoid of risk. But, I have to handle it smartly.

Is there censorship in Canada?

There's no censorship in Canada.

Is it relatively difficult for younger film makers to raise funds for making films now?

That's true. They face a lot of difficulty. There are so many who graduate from film school. The job avenues are relatively limited. Only the best succeed. There are many documentary film makers whose productions are made through my company.

Do you also feel bogged down occasionally?

I like to keep going. I also made a drama series on TV called the Border. It deals with happenings on the US-Canada border. Smuggling, terrorism..... I would love to make a documentary on Calcutta and India.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

BORN-AGAIN CSE TO DOUBLE ITS TURNOVER

ANURADHA HIMATSINGKA

 

Two years since it was demutualised, the Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) has declared a dividend of 700% for its shareholders for the year ended March 31, 2009. In recent months, the exchange has taken several initiatives to galvanise trading operations. And there is a lot more in store as ET found out in a freewheeling chat with CSE chairman Udayan Bose.

Has the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approved CSE's proposal to trade on NSE's cash and derivative segment?

Sebi has approved the NSE membership registration of CSE's subsidiary — CSE Capital Markets (CCML). CCML's trading rights will allow CSE member brokers to trade on NSE's cash and futures and options (F&O) segment as sub brokers. This will not only give thousands of small CSE brokers another national platform to trade on apart from the existing BSE platform but will also boost CSE's revenues.

Is the Sebi approval for CCML's membership registration different from CSE's agreement with the BSE which allows member brokers to trade on the latter's platform?

Unlike our agreement with BSE which allows member brokers to issue contract notes, CCML's trading rights will not allow our member brokers to issue contract notes. If we need to bring both the agreements at par, we will have to enter into an agreement with NSE to avail its trading platform under Section 13 of the Securities Contract & Regulation Act (SCRA), enabling CSE member to issue their own contract notes.

Have you been able to resolve some of CSE's land-related problems?

We have been able to settle the contentious land issue. According to an agreement with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), we will retain some three acres of land adjacent to ITC Sonar on the Eastern Metropolitan (EM) bypass. This land will be in addition to five acres in New Town-Rajarhat allotted to the exchange by West Bengal government for Rs 5 crore per acre. We are thinking of setting up a CSE Tower in Rajarhat and relocate to the new building. The tower is expected to house it all — from forex to nascent insurance schemes and from bonds to innovative deposits under one roof. We will have a city office as well, but we may renovate the city premises and probably give it on lease. We have not taken a decision on the use of the EM Bypass property.

What initiatives have been taken by the new management over the past one year to vitalise the exchange?
CSE's risk management system has been strengthened and the margins rationalised. It has also made the risk management on CSE-BSE segment much stronger in collaboration with BSE team. The exchange recently introduced a listing amnesty scheme, which gave companies an opportunity to update their compliance with the exchange without attracting penalty to woo back companies to the exchange. The listing amnesty scheme will be valid till December 31, 2009. We are also offering intranet trading facilities to our member brokers.

What are the future plans of the exchange?

Going forward, the focus will be to boost CSE's turnover in the near future. From the time I took over in December 2007 when the exchange's turnover was around Rs 25 crore a month, it has now jumped to Rs 525 crore a month. We want to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore a month in the next six months. We also intend to revamp the C-STAR platform by upgrading the C-STAR software in the near future. Of a total of 877 registered members, only 100 odd members are currently active. The request for surrendering membership has come to naught. In fact, CSE has started receiving requests from inactive members to activate their terminals and start business.

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

NO HURRY TO CHANGE TRADE TIMINGS: NSE

ASHWIN J PUNNEN

 

Ever since the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) allowed stock exchanges to extend trade timings, market players have been wondering whether the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will go ahead and change the timings. Ravi Narain, MD of NSE, the largest exchange in the country, in an interview with ET Now, said that NSE is not in a hurry to change the timings, instead wait for a consensus to emerge among market participants.

The market is quite curious to know what is going to be the NSE's stand on extending the trade time. Are you going to change trade timings?

The proposal to change the market timings came from the market itself, where it was felt that there is a need to capture global cues which may impact prices here. But there are some serious concerns now. One concern is about the facility to transfer money for the margins purpose within the banking system, especially from upcountry investors. The second concern is about the back-office system of small brokers. The other issue is the problem faced by mutual funds to calculate their NAVs. These are legitimate issues that need to be looked upon before we extend the timings.

Have you started getting responses from market participants as well as other exchanges?

The process will start soon. We have already started talking to other exchanges on this issue. Some segments of the market are interested in having longer hours, but the bulk of the market seems to be in retaining current timings. We will wait for the consensus to emerge; it is not as if the decision has to be taken immediately. There is no tearing hurry, nothing is happening tomorrow morning. If the market feels that there is serious issue over extending trade hours, then why would exchanges change the timings? Ultimately, exchanges are for the benefit of the market. If the market feels that this move is of benefit then we will do it, but if the market feels that there is a serious concern, then we would respond accordingly.

Sebi has recently approved guidelines for an SME exchange. When will NSE launch the new platform?

We have started applying our mind to the guidelines and framework put out by Sebi. We are trying to understand the space better before we start the work. As of now, we are not ready. But soon we will start the work on launching the separate trading platform that will help smaller companies raise capital from the market.

Norms for IDRs are in existence for sometime, but we have not seen any IDR listing. What is the issue there?
The first IDR listing will be the hardest one. There is a very real possibility of the first IDR happening in the near future. My sense is that when the first IDR is done, and then there will be a spate of IDR listings. I am quite optimistic. I think, initial round of IDRs is likely to be from large global companies looking for visibility and statement presence in India rather than capital raising programme. There are some enquiries from companies looking to raise funds, but my sense is that real enquires will start after the first IDR listing.

Do you think the recent decision to allow exchange system for selling mutual fund products will help increase the reach of the MF industry?

It's a great initiative. Anything, which adds to the distribution clout of the mutual fund industry, will help both the industry and investors. Here is a ready and tested distribution platform for mutual funds to reaching out to investors. And I am sure, the mutual fund industry will benefit immensely, as they could penetrating to every part of the country and serve investors better.

Sebi has given flexibility for exchanges to change the expiry date for F&O contracts. Is there any plan to change the expiry date?

We are very comfortable with the current expire date and there is no plans to change it. And the feedback back we have received from our trading members is that there is no need for a change of the present expiry date for F&O contracts. So, there is no reason for us to make any changes there.

 

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

JUST STAND FIRM WITH US, CHINA

 

The US President, Mr Barack Obama's solicitousness of his Chinese hosts should cause no surprise. Equally, no Indian outrage is called for on account of condescending references in the US-China joint statement to the situation in South Asia. However, insofar as supercilious mention is made in that document of India-Pakistan relations in the context of Kashmir, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, will be expected to set the record straight when he meets Mr Obama in Washington in a few days' time. But there is no call to froth at the mouth. We need to understand that the Americans are being extra nice to the Chinese because they need China at this juncture. This by no means suggests that remarks of a general nature made in the joint statement are likely to be converted into an operational script by either side. Much that has gone into the statement appears intended to make the Chinese chuffed — no more than that. It's all about dressy drollness, in a sense. Mr Obama's return visit to Beijing ought to be viewed in the light of the changing balance of forces in the world. America can no longer be said to be a hyperpower. Being engaged in two wars simultaneously in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken a toll of its treasure and morale, and the crippling year-long recession from which it is just emerging has debilitated it. So the US is now only a weakened superpower, although still the only one to answer to that description. China, on the other hand, has emerged more or less unscathed from the recession. It has the money to contribute to help the revival of other economies and the credentials to be at the high table that may frame the post-downturn new financial order, if such a move seriously gets underway. But perhaps more than any of this, the Chinese have bailed out the debt-ridden American economy by purchasing one trillion dollars worth of US government bonds. More, Mr Obama calculates that if he is to emerge as a genuinely new-look President — marking out the contrast with his predecessor, and achieve this when he is roughly mid-way through his term — he might need to harness Chinese diplomatic clout in turning the clock back with Iran and North Korea. Both are key objectives for Washington. In the event, Beijing wants payback by way of being treated as the new Moscow as far as appearances go. The US is happy to flatter China's vanity. This costs little. In time, Washington will learn that China can't deliver politically. It doubtless carries clout with Pakistan and North Korea, states that are not deemed normal. But if Beijing helps Washington meet its requirements in these theatres, it may have little political leverage left with the America in this part of the world. As for Iran and Afghanistan, the Chinese are not quite in a position to swing the mood in these countries. Beijing's presumed influence over them is overstated. So, what about Kashmir, then? The Chinese and the Americans need to be informed they are out of jurisdiction, and that they parrot the position of Pakistan, which is not acceptable. Washington will need reminding that all actions carry a price tag.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

AMERICANS LIVING IN A FOOL'S PARADISE?

BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

 

If you follow the debate around the energy/climate bills working through Congress you will notice that the drill-baby-drill opponents of this legislation are now making two claims. One is that the globe has been cooling lately, not warming, and the other is that America simply can't afford any kind of cap-and-trade/carbon tax.

 

But here is what they also surely believe, but are not saying: They believe the world is going to face a mass plague, like the Black Death, that will wipe out 2.5 billion people sometime between now and 2050. They believe it is much better for America that the world be dependent on oil for energy — a commodity largely controlled by countries that hate us and can only go up in price as demand increases — rather than on clean power technologies that are controlled by us and only go down in price as demand increases. And, finally, they believe that people in the developing world are very happy being poor — just give them a little running water and electricity and they'll be fine. They'll never want to live like us.

 

Yes, the opponents of any tax on carbon to stimulate alternatives to oil must believe all these things because that is the only way their arguments make any sense. Let me explain why by first explaining how I look at this issue.

 

I am a clean-energy hawk. Green for me is not just about recycling garbage but about renewing America. That is why I have been saying "green is the new red, white and blue".

 

My argument is simple: I think climate change is real. You don't? That's your business. But there are two other huge trends barrelling down on us with energy implications that you simply can't deny. And the way to renew America is for us to take the lead and invent the technologies to address these problems.

 

The first is that the world is getting crowded. According to the 2006 United Nations population report, "The world population will likely increase by 2.5 billion... passing from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050. This increase is equivalent to the total size of the world population in 1950, and it will be absorbed mostly by the less developed regions, whose population is projected to rise from 5.4 billion in 2007 to 7.9 billion in 2050".

 

The energy, climate, water and pollution implications of adding another 2.5 billion mouths to feed, clothe, house and transport will be staggering. And this is coming, unless, as the deniers apparently believe, a global pandemic or a mass outbreak of abstinence will freeze world population — forever.

 

Now, add one more thing. The world keeps getting flatter — more and more people can now see how we live, aspire to our lifestyle and even take our jobs so they can live how we live. So not only are we adding 2.5 billion people by 2050, but many more will live like "Americans" — with American-size homes, American-size cars, eating American-size Big Macs.

 

"What happens when developing nations with soaring vehicle populations get tens of millions of petroleum-powered cars at the same time as the global economy recovers and there's no large global oil supply overhang?" asks Felix Kramer, the electric car expert who advocates electrifying the US auto fleet and increasingly powering it with renewable energy sources. What happens, of course, is that the price of oil goes through the roof — unless we develop alternatives. The petro-dictators in Iran, Venezuela and Russia hope we don't. They would only get

 

richer.

So either the opponents of a serious energy/climate bill with a price on carbon don't care about our being addicted to oil and dependent on petro-dictators forever or they really believe that we will not be adding 2.5 billion more people who want to live like us, so the price of oil won't go up very far and, therefore, we shouldn't raise taxes to stimulate clean, renewable alternatives and energy efficiency.

Green hawks believe otherwise. We believe that in a world getting warmer and more crowded with more "Americans", the next great global industry is going to be ET, or energy technology based on clean power and energy efficiency. It has to be. And we believe that the country that invents and deploys the most ET will enjoy the most economic security, energy security, national security, innovative companies and global respect. And we believe that country must be America. If not, our children will never enjoy the standard of living we did. And we believe the best way to launch ET is to set a fixed, long-term price on carbon — combine it with the Obama team's impressive stimulus for green-tech — and then let the free market and innovation do the rest.

 

So, as I said, you don't believe in global warming? You're wrong, but I'll let you enjoy it until your beach house gets washed away. But if you also don't believe the world is getting more crowded with more aspiring Americans — and that ignoring that will play to the strength of our worst enemies, while responding to it with clean energy will play to the strength of our best technologies — then you're wilfully blind, and you're hurting America's future to boot.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

LEBANON: A TWO-ACT TRAGEDY IN WEST ASIA

BY S. NIHAL SINGH

 

If Lebanon is the weathervane of the Middle East (what we call West Asia), does the formation of a government after five months of post-election wrangling portend a hopeful sign despite the gloom induced by the President, Mr Barack Obama's failure to move Israel? Hazarding a guess in a region littered with landmines is a risky business, but the Opposition Hezbollah movement's agreement to join the government of Saad Hariri and accepting two Cabinet berths, is an indication that the Opposition is prepared to mark time while it awaits what the future brings.

 

By seeking to tackle the seminal Israeli-Palestinian confrontation head-on at the beginning of his term, President Obama's rude rebuff by Israel on freezing settlements has essentially resulted in an impasse. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has had to offer resignation from the Palestinian Authority because he was placed in an impossible situation. The pretence of a peace process that has not existed for years rings hollow. And Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to draw attention away from the consequences of snubbing his benefactor and protector by casting around for a lifeline from Syria on the occupied Golan Heights.

 

Lebanon has always been buffeted by its neighbours and more distant powers as they settle scores among themselves. The Hezbollah movement was born out of Israel's invasion of the country in the 80s, and the 34-day Israeli offensive in 2006 flattening south Lebanon, resulting in 1,000 Lebanese deaths, mostly of civilians, led to a stalemate and made heroes of the movement. Arabs have always lost the wars they have fought with Israel, and for a supposedly ragtag guerrilla movement to fight the mighty Israeli war machine to a standstill was a signal achievement.

 

One consequence of the 2006 war was that Hezbollah secured a veto over government decisions in Beirut. And the five months of wrangling to form a national unity government by Mr Hariri was really a struggle over the terms Hezbollah would agree to coexist with the pro-US and pro-Saudi March 14 alliance, named after the Cedar revolution, for the time being. Mr Hariri's father Rafiq, the long-time Prime Minister and father of rebuilding Beirut on the ruins of the 1975-90 civil war, was assassinated in 2005 leading to the marshalling of pro and anti-Syrian demonstrations. The latter won, Syrian troops withdrew from Lebanon after 29 years and son Hariri's alliance of Sunni Muslims and Maronite Christians won 71 seats to the Opposition's 57. Hezbollah was allied with the Shia Amal movement and the Christian faction led by former General Michel Aoun.

 

Government positions are carefully parcelled out to the different factions based on religious persuasion. The President must be a Maronite Christian and the process of honing in on Michel Suleiman, the former Chief of Army staff, took much time. The Prime Minister is a Sunni Muslim, the Speaker of the National Assembly is a Shia. The percentages have been shuffled once in favour of Sunni Muslims to reflect the changing demography, but nobody is talking about another exercise in apportioning power by downgrading Christians.

 

The tragedy of the Middle East, being played out every day, is marked by two Lebanese events, the suicidal 15-year civil war and the murder of Rafiq Hariri. The latter led to the crystallisation of two opposing forces, the pro-Western and status quo movement and the Hezbollah seeking a new regional order, and a United Nations investigation into the assassination, culminating in the hearings at The Hague. In fact, the court's order to release four pro-Syrian generals because of insufficient evidence is a morale boost for Damascus, widely blamed in Lebanon for the Rafiq killing.

 

Indeed, the assassination of Rafiq Hariri was a body blow at Lebanon for a weighty reason. A self-made billionaire, he was close to Saudi Arabia and had the credibility and heft to marshal substantial funds for rebuilding Beirut. The gleaming and modern city centre, which I saw during my last visit, is a monument to a unique leader. It was his vision to restore Beirut to its pre-civil war glory of the acclaimed Paris of the East. And before the last turmoil caused by the Israeli invasion, Lebanon was returning to find favour with Arab potentates and common folk for its spectacular charms of sea and mountains.

 

How Lebanon's latest attempt at unity will work depends, in large part, on regional currents. Despite Syria's withdrawal of troops from Lebanon, it continues to exercise considerable influence on Lebanese affairs. Both Syria and Iran support Hezbollah in different ways although the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has developed a cult following in the Arab world after frustrating the aims of the Israeli military offensive of 2006.

 

In a sense, Israel is now fighting with its back to the wall because it simply cannot afford publicly to insult the US President and prosper in the region. Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad has thrown a morsel in the French way in seeking a greater French role in the region. But it is unlikely that Damascus will fall for the Israeli bait of negotiations without preconditions, without securing all of the Golan Heights.

How the Prime Minister, Mr Saad Hariri, steers Lebanon through these treacherous waters remains to be seen, but much will depend upon the future American role. The Obama administration has now to rebuild its regional strategy between the ruins of its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and foundering hopes on a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme. Both the US and Israel have been seeking to wean away Syria from Iran without paying the price of Israel leaving the occupied Golan Heights. Despite its domestic turmoil, Tehran feels it is sitting pretty, with the majority Shias in command in neighbouring Iraq and the failure of President Obama's charm offensive in Israel, in the latter case the tail wagging the dog.

 

Left alone, Lebanon can reclaim its lost glory as a tourist haven for repressed Arab societies. But that is a precious condition the country cannot aspire to. The best Mr Hariri can achieve is to balance opposing forces in a manner that leaves him some room to take his nation forward. Lebanon can never be a Switzerland because the Middle East is not Europe.

 

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

LEGISLATOR HAAZIR HO!

 

The recent incident in the Maharashtra Assembly where an aggressive physical effort was made to stop a legislator from taking oath in Hindi was a deliberate attack on the Constitution. We are all free to speak in our mother tongue and take oath in any of the languages included in the Constitution. Seeking to prevent someone from doing that in a place like the state legislature, and that too by physical intervention, was an action that amounted to devaluing the Constitution, which the legislators are supposed to protect.

 

Legislators seem to forget that there is more to winning elections than just enjoying the perquisites. They have a duty towards the Constitution, the nation and the people. The least they can do is to behave properly inside the House. But they are aware that once elected practically nothing can shake them from their position. In such a situation, or even otherwise, if a legislator is not seen doing his job properly, people should have the right to recall the MLA or MP they elected.

 

As it is, the electorate chooses one or another candidate nominated by political parties. So, people practically have no choice. But with the right to recall becoming available, they will have some power that they can exercise on those they elect. Moreover, there are rules for impeaching the President and the vice-president. The legislators can bring no-confidence motions against the government and even against the Speaker. But the legislators, once they are elected, cannot be touched until the next election. Of course, there are rules for expulsion but there are limitations to that. Be-sides, if a legislator is expelled, the people of his constituency are ultimately going to suffer if a replacement is not envisaged.

 

The right to recall has been implemented in various countries — the United States, Canada, Switz-erland and some Scandinavian countries, besides a few others. In the existing systems in the countries indicated above, a certain minimum percentage of people —from every segment of the constituency — should be in favour of recalling the candidate. Without this the process cannot be initiated. But the final question is whether the legislators themselves are willing to let go whatever advantages they feel they have in the current set-up.

 

Somnath Chatterjee is a former Lok Sabha Speaker

 

It's a good idea, but it won't work
The idea of right to recall is a good and romantic idea which is not applicable in our current system. To begin with, our system does not leave scope for recall. We have a "first past the post" system and more than one thousand political parties. In such a scenario, a candidate is often elected by a minority of votes. This could be as little as five or seven per cent of the total votes cast, not to speak of the total number of registered votes in his constituency.

 

This would suggest that something like 95 per cent of voters were against the winning candidate. By definition, the right to recall involves a certain minimum percentage of people saying that they are not in favour of a certain candidate continuing in office. In our system, clearly, that situation becomes a reality the moment a candidate gets elected since the winner often represents a very small per cent of the votes cast. Going by this logic, a large number of candi-dates would be fit cases for being recalled. In other words, the "representative legitimacy" of our elected candidates is often seriously in doubt.

 

 

Another reason which makes this idea less than practical is the fact that we have very large consti-tuencies. This leaves huge scope for variations and mani-pulations. We must remember that while we imported the "first past the post system" from Britain, we have not been able to evolve a two party system which, if implemented, would have made the idea of right to recall more amenable for implement-ation. There could be two solutions to the problem of legislators either not performing as per people's expectations or resorting to activities like the one seen recently in the Maharashtra Assembly. Either we change the Constitution and follow the United Kingdom model or of other Europe-an countries. Else, we must be more honest and show more integrity in our conduct. If vested interests are involved, no system will work properly. In the case of office of profit bill, for instance, the rules were changed with retro-spective effect from 1959 to allow certain indi-viduals carrying on with their public offices along with other positions of profit. If we begin re-adjusting the laws in such a manner, then any system we introduce will be fraught with the risk of being manipulated.

 

Subhash Kashyap,Former secretary-general, Lok Sabha

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

MINORITY REPORT

BY NITISH SENGUPTA

 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's castigation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on October 29 for their audacity in appointing an interlocutor for the India and Pakistan dispute over Kashmir was very timely and appropriate. The OIC does not seem to understand that India is a country with a Muslim population of over 151 million, the third-largest Muslim community in the world after Indonesia and Bangladesh, and that Pakistan, a country with a much smaller Muslim population, does not really have any locus standi as far as Kashmir is concerned.

 

To project India's case on the Kashmir issue, one needn't go into the history of Kashmir. Just citing the previous United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's announcement several years ago that the UN resolutions of 1949-50 on Kashmir are not valid in today's context, is enough. For some strange, unexplained reason, the Indian foreign office has not made use of this extremely significant statement.

 

In this connection one has to painfully admit that in the last two decades India has failed to counter Pakistan's propaganda in some of the orthodox Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and been unable to project itself as the home of 151 million Muslims. Public opinion about India in most Muslim countries, except maybe Indonesia, Turkey and Bangladesh, has become a victim of Pakistan's propaganda which day in and day out spreads the canard that Muslims in India are persecuted, and that their rights and privileges are seriously curtailed. Unfortunately, this is also the general belief of a number of Pakistanis. It was not so always, but has unfortunately become so in the past two decades, especially from the time of Zia-ul-Haq and his anti-Indian tirade.

 

India needs to seriously counter this vicious propaganda and project the truth. Public opinion in orthodox Muslim countries must be won over and Pakistan's bluff called. How one misses an Arab leader like Saddam Hussein at such a time; he was a strong supporter of India on all issues, including Kashmir.

 

One also needs to remember that in 1971 a very important geo-political change took place in the subcontinent. Bangladesh, with a large Muslim population, seceded from Pakistan after an armed struggle and became the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Thus, Pakistan lost its moral claim of being the champion of Muslims in the subcontinent under the legacy of the 1947 Partition. So how can Pakistan then claim any moral right to Jammu and Kashmir vis-à-vis India?

 

Since 1947 there have been four armed clashes between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. In 1971, the Pakistan Army was decisively beaten, both on the western and eastern fronts. But not only did India not press her advantage at the bilateral discussion at Shimla in 1972, it also agreed to return 93,000 prisoners of war and all territory seized from Pakistan without any conditions. This remains a unique event in world history. The correct quid pro quo would have been for Pakistan to give up all claims to Kashmir, or at least agreeing to the ceasefire line or the Line of Control between the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. But, in its generosity, the Indian government did not press these points and decided to trust Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Thereafter, Pakistan did not raise the Kashmir issue for two decades.

 

It was during the National Democratic Alliance regime that India allowed Pervez Musharraf, on a visit to India, to raise the Kashmir issue after recognising him as Pakistan's President. Kashmir returned to the discussion table once again, that too at a time when Pakistan was sending terrorists to India, not only from Pakistan but also from Chechnya, Afghanistan and Sudan.

 

Kashmir was already in turmoil, 1989 onwards, as a result of political mishandling by successive governments in New Delhi. Terrorism had gained new ground and had a clear-cut agenda of ethnic cleansing, in the course of which the Pandit community was by and large compelled to leave the Valley. Mufti Muhammad Sayeed's period as Union home minister was particularly bad, and it was complicated further by George Fernandes serving as minister for Kashmir affairs, the two working at cross purposes.

 

India needs to do a great deal in her external publicity programme, especially to counter Pakistan's propaganda on the condition of Muslims in India. If some of the utterances by the captured "jihadis" are any guide, it is clear that they genuinely believe that the condition of Muslims in India is pitiable, that they are constantly persecuted, harassed and humiliated. While there are deeply unfortunate and shameful events like the Babri Masjid demolition, followed by the Mumbai riots of 1992 and the riots in Gujarat in 2002, these are exceptions, not the rule. Most Indian Muslims would agree that barring these, they live a life of dignity like all Indians. That they have equal rights and freedoms — political, social and religious. One need not go into the statistically-flawed and politically-prejudiced Sachar Commission report which sought to determine the status of Muslims in India only with reference to the number of jobs they hold in the government vis-à-vis the upper classes among Hindus, excluding the dalits.

 

The fact is that Muslims have made a remarkable mark in India, especially in businesses and professions. Nothing illustrates this better than Bollywood where they occupy a dominant position, as superstars, technicians and musicians. It is time some of our prominent Indian Muslims take the initiative in counteracting Pakistan's propaganda, and project the truth. A special responsibility rests on the Bollywood community. If some of them, say like the Khan trio, do some plain speaking, especially directed at Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, one can expect these countries to change their attitudes towards India considerably. One recalls the televised tête-à-tête that the late actor Feroze Khan had with Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan — he criticised Pakistani society, praised India, and said that he was longing to return to India to live an honourable life as a free citizen.

 

A lot of responsibility rests with progressive Indian Muslims, intellectuals, artists and politicians as well to disseminate the truth: that India has a large Muslim population of 151 million, and that Indian Muslims, therefore, have a natural interest in seeing that Jammu and Kashmir remains in India. It is only by conscious reorientation of India's PR machinery abroad that we can influence public opinion in some Muslim countries. Once this is done, it will surely be reflected in organisations like the OIC.

 

Nitish Sengupta, an academic and an author, is a former Member of Parliament and a former secretary to the Government of India

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

AN EVERYDAY AMERICAN GIRL

BY MAUREEN DOWD

 

Of course, the subtitle of Sarah Palin's book is An American Life. Because she is the lovely avatar of real Americans — ordinary, hard-working, God-fearing, common-sense, good, real Americans.

 

If you are not living an American life, you are, to use a Palin coinage, living "bass-ackwards".

 

Palin is so determinedly American that when she went into labour with Willow on the Fourth of July while kayaking on Memory Lake in Wasilla, she writes, "I so wanted a patriotic baby that I paddled as hard as I could to speed up the contractions, but she held out until the next day."

 

I approached reading her book with trepidation, worried I might learn that I am not a real American, dang it, just another dreaded, jaded "enlightened elite".

 

I was born and live in Washington, DC, after all. Now you'd think that this would be a rather patriotic city to call home, but Palin paints it as a cross between Sodom and Dante's Fifth Circle.

 

Here is what the former Alaska governor censoriously writes about "shenanigans" in two capital cities: "Politically, Juneau always had a reputation for being a lot like Animal House: drinking and bowling, drunken brawls, countless affairs, and garden variety lunchtime trysts. It's been known at times to be like a frat house filled with freshmen away from their parents for the very first time. At other times, the capital city's underside was even darker: clandestine political liaisons and secret meetings, unethical deeds and downright illegal acts."

 

She concludes: "In short, it was a lot like Washington, DC." Indeed, Sarah explains that the reason she wanted to join the McCain campaign was because she and Todd could contribute something rare and special: "We are everyday Americans. We felt our very normalcy, our status as ordinary Americans," she writes, "could be a much-needed fresh breeze blowing into Washington, DC."

 

It is also real hard to be a real, ordinary, hard-working American if you are part of "what used to be called 'mainstream' national media," as Sarah scornfully writes. "The time has come to acknowledge that it is counterfeit objectivity the liberal media try to sell consumers," she says. "A period in the great American experiment has passed."

 

I was beginning to panic. I pored over the book to see if there was anything that I shared in common with this apotheosis of traditional American values.

 

We both had what Palin calls "a love of the written word" and we both won Veterans of Foreign Wars writing contests as children.

 

We both read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Animal Farm. We both came from families that loved Ronald Reagan, drove Ramblers and watched The Lawrence Welk Show and The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights.

 

Palin's father offered to let her hold some moose eyes. My dad came from Ireland, where they ate sheep eyes soup.

 

Sarah and I both banged on the upright piano in the living room and twirled around to The Sound of Music.

 

We both grew up loving Hershey's bars and bacon and steak. As Sarah explains her carnivore philosophy: "I always remind people from outside our state that there's plenty of room for all Alaska's animals — right next to the mashed potatoes."

 

She hunted moose, and I hunted for Bullwinkle on TV.

 

We both belonged to the scouts, were baby sitters and kept diaries. (Of course, I was writing about making Jiffy Pop, and she, stacking firewood.)

 

We both now have stressful lives where we sometimes, as she puts it, want "a wife" to organise things. And we

both went through an Ann Taylor period before discovering Dolce & Gabbana at consignment shops. I can empathise with Palin, bless her heart, when she observes: "After a while some of the giddy gets knocked right out of you."

 

I must be somewhat American because I agreed with Palin that she was undercut by Nicolle Wallace, one of the

aides sent by John McCain to do the My Fair Lady makeover.

 

Wallace had had a contract at CBS News and was determined to get the big interview for Katie Couric, even if it meant leading the lamb to slaughter, telling Palin that "the Perky One", as Palin called Couric, was insecure (presumably because of her low ratings) and that she would do a short-and-sweet chat about balancing motherhood and a career.

 

But Palin should have been smart enough to know that Couric has had a reputation for decades for being a tough interviewer, and that she wasn't going to whiff on a chance like that. And despite Palin's all-American paranoia, it is common practice to ask presidential candidates what they read.

 

I also agree with Palin that the McCain high command should not have barred the Palin kids, including media darling Piper, from the stage the night of McCain's concession speech. Nobody puts Piper in a corner.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

COPENHAGEN TRANSIT

UPSHOT OF THE APEC SUMMIT

 

THE fanfare may not lead to a momentous agreement on climate change, and Copenhagen may turn out to be a dress rehearsal, after all. If the trend of the discussions at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is any indication, the meeting in December will at the most yield a tentative roadmap, subject to a formal enunciation at yet another summit in Mexico City next year or later still. Barack Obama and the rest of the great and the good appear to have reconciled themselves to the fact that the thorny issues relating to climate change will have to be shelved for a "final deal". The conference in Copenhagen, therefore, is likely to produce nothing more substantial than a statement of intent, at least finetuned at the high table of summitry. The leaders would hate to concede that as a failure; but considering the hope aroused most importantly at the level of the developing nations, at least an essay towards a solution was widely expected. The upshot of the Asia-Pacific summit is clear enough: any agreement on environment will be a two-stage endeavour. Even if the contours are outlined in Copenhagen, it will be some time before the world can expect a comprehensive agreement on greenhouse gas emissions. Even before the leaders gather in Denmark, they have managed to send out the message that the negotiations will be no more than a much-vaunted diplomatic discourse.

The Danish Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, summed up the attitude when he remarked at the conclusion of the Apec conference that insufficient progress had been made between the main players to make a final pact possible next month. A decidedly discouraging statement from the leader who will chair the conference in December. He at least expects a binding political agreement, iterating the commitment of the 191 countries to a comprehensive deal that will succeed the Kyoto protocol on emissions. The goalposts on the reduction of emissions shall remain to be sorted out. Environmental groups, most importantly in the developing countries, are quite justifiably disheartened with the outlook. The opportunity may slip in Copenhagen. It may slip yet again in Mexico City next year or even later in some other part of the world. Though climate change tops the agenda of the Obama-Hu talks in Beijing, the USA and China may remain as the unknown quantities for sometime yet. Copenhagen is almost certain to place the matter in suspended animation. Of legwork, there has been little; and of progress there seems little hope.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

OVERBLOWN BOW

BETRAYS IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE

BOWING is to the Japanese what a namaste with folded hands is to Indians or a handshake (maybe a peck on the cheek too) is in western cultural norms ~ an accepted form of greeting. Perhaps a bit more respectful, but certainly it does not equate with kneeling or curtseying before royalty. In short, bowing is far from the display of deference that some in the United States are making it out to be in slamming Barack Obama for following traditional local custom when meeting Emperor Akihito a few days ago. So pricked has been the American bubble of superiority that TV channels have re-run that footage several times over. "I don't know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan, but it's not appropriate for an American President to bow to a foreign one" said one political pundit, while another declared, "Its ugly, I don't want to see it. We don't defer to kings or emperors". Such criticism might find much resonance across that country, but for the rest of the world it serves to highlight customary American ignorance of the social mores of others, and worse, an inherent arrogance to ridicule them.

That needless uproar cannot be seen in isolation. For in so many spheres do the Americans deem their way of life streets ahead of others. It is that attitude that prevents US troops from joining UN forces unless the commanders are American, insisting their flag flies from a taller mast. Manifestations of that arrogance were seen in Vietnam when villages were set ablaze, vast swathes of forest and farmland were destroyed by "agent orange" because foliage facilitated Vietcong movement. A story that runs through My Lai, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, one that has been articulated through the desecration of Holy Books and what have you. The image of the Ugly American keeps popping up every now and then. Even though the USA is fast losing its claim to be a superpower ~ its economy is tottering, its social fabric is in tatters, and the god-almighty dollar no longer reigns supreme. Not even does its military muscle dominate: witness Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama's realisation of changed realities does not seem to have permeated American thinking, else the present controversy would never have arisen. Maybe not every American flaunts that "attitude", far too many do.

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

RURAL CONFESSIONS

CRUEL COMMENT ON LACK OF GOVERNANCE

THIS is confession time for the Left Front. Smaller partners are making brave statements about the rapidly declining relevance of a ruling coalition that has been battered in successive elections, now forced into silence. In a sense Alimuddin Street has no control over its own ministers. Evidence of this had come from Abdul Rezzak Mollah after the Vedic Village scam. Now after years of the Left Front's tall claims about the success of its decentralised administration reflected in the functioning of panchayats, the minister in charge of the department acknowledges that the rural bodies are dens of corruption with huge sums of Central funds remaining unused or getting diverted and most development schemes suffering from lack of transparency and accountability. One reason for Mr Anisur Rahman's disarming candour at an all-party meeting could be the fact that power has changed hands in large parts of rural Bengal after recent elections and this is one way in which he can bail his party out. If that is so, it is opportunism at its worst. No one would be convinced that the evils of neglect, incompetence, nepotism on political lines and misuse of development funds are of recent origin. The Left has much to answer for not only in areas like Lalgarh where sheer despair has paved the way for Maoist-inspired unrest but also in specific matters like preparation of BPL lists which have been tainted by political interference.

Never has a government been so lacking in credibility. Five months after the Chief Minister visited areas in South 24-Parganas hit by cyclone and pledged Rs 50 crore for house building, the bulk of the money remains unspent because Writers' Buildings has been flooded with allegedly fake applications. It is difficult to explain why it has taken so long to scrutinise the applications. That a measly one-tenth of the sanctioned funds has been spent after five months of Aila is a cruel comment on the kind of governance Bengal has. To that extent, the distribution of foodgrain under a central package may run into more hurdles because the state finds it impossible to produce credible BPL and APL lists. The question is whether the Left feels that there is enough time till 2011 to make amends or whether it has been paralysed by the electoral disasters. If the dithering causes governance to take a back seat, the state industries minister's firm rejection of demands for advancing the assembly poll sounds all the more pathetic.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

BIRDS TALK TO SIGNAL PREDATORS!

 

LONDON, 18 NOV: Birds are more clever than you thought ~ the avians can talk out of the corner of their mouths in a bid to scare off predators, says a new study.

An international team, led by the University of California, has carried out the study and found that birds can direct their voices towards the potential threat, even if they are at a right angle to them.
In fact, the "remarkable sophistication" of their call helps the birds to signal to the predator that they should leave their area.

In their study, researchers found that two small American songbirds, the house finch and the yellow rumped warbler, could pull off the trick. ;PTI

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

MIDDLE EAST DOLDRUMS

AMIDST THE FALTERING US INITIATIVES

SALMAN HAIDAR

 

MR Barack Obama came to the Presidency with two striking diplomatic initiatives in hand, one for Afghanistan, the other for the Middle East. Both, especially the latter, are problems that appear virtually insoluble, so to be resolved do something decisive about them was bold and stirring, fittingly ambitious tasks for a new President bent on change. Special envoys were appointed to each of the regions, weighty figures with proven records as peacemakers, and much was expected of them. Mr Obama's initiatives were warmly welcomed, not least in the regions concerned, and US diplomacy has been very active in pursuing the goals outlined by the President. But despite all the effort, and notwithstanding some small gains, the results have been disappointing. Harsh regional realities have re-surfaced and have kept intact the barriers that Mr Obama sought to remove. It is not Washington that has been able to call the tune but local personalities, and the US initiatives now seem to be faltering.

In the Middle East the hope was that a determined push by the USA would at last get the stalled peace process under way. A slight shift of approach, a righting of the balance between Arabs and Israel, was implied in the fresh initiative of Mr Obama. Broadly, the idea in successive peace plans over the years is for Israel to trade land for peace and security. This would require withdrawal to its 1967 borders in exchange for full Arab recognition and readiness for normal relations. Pragmatic ways of dealing with the vexed question of the refugees and their right to return would have to be found. A two-state solution for Palestine would be an essential part of the package, combining Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza into a sovereign entity with its capital in East Jerusalem. Each of these issues has a long and troubled history and cannot be simply decided at a stroke, but this is the path that has to be traversed towards a final settlement.

 

DISCOURAGING SIGNS

Despite the sustained effort over the last few months, the signs have been discouraging. The USA has pushed hard without being able to achieve anything significant. Under its hardline Prime Minister Mr Netanyahu, who came to office a few weeks after Mr Obama, Israel has backed away from making the initial moves that could open the way to a purposeful negotiation. The immediate sticking point is the matter of the Israeli settlements in Palestine. Mr Obama himself, speaking at the UN to considerable Arab acclaim, had called for a complete halt as a first step. But this has not been accepted by the Israeli government. A scaled down programme is the best it has been ready to offer, under which fresh settlements would be kept in abeyance but the substantial building activity already sanctioned would continue; nor is East Jerusalem within the ambit of these measures.
Secretary of State Mrs Clinton was in Israel just a few days ago, on her latest visit to the region, but she was unable to persuade the Israeli authorities to fall in line. In these circumstances, the comprehensive high level Arab-Israel talks, which were hoped for, have had to be set aside for the present. Instead, during the Secretary of State's visit Israel came out with the alternative of holding lower level discussions on a few specific issues. The idea was to build up more slowly to a full-fledged exchange on basic questions, when the situation became conducive. In the course of a meeting with Arab leaders Mrs Clinton commended this approach even though it represents a considerable climbdown from the initial US demand. Not surprisingly, her Arab interlocutors were skeptical and showed little readiness to take this course. Indeed, there have been comments to the effect that in this important matter, the USA had been outfaced by Israel, though perhaps it would be more correct to say that this has been a harsh exposition of the shape of local realities.

To add to the complications, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestine Administration has found it necessary to announce that the lack of progress in the peace process has compelled him to resign from his post. He is regarded as a moderate and a peacemaker and enjoys wide international backing, including from the USA, which has urged him to remain in office and withdraw his decision. Groups of his supporters have demonstrated in his favour and asked him to remain. On more than one occasion in the past he has made similar threats to leave, in frustration at lack of progress towards peace, but has been persuaded to stay on. So there are many overlapping factors to take into account and it is not clear what shape Mr Abbas's decision will take in the near future. But yet his readiness to quit cannot be helpful to the hoped for peace process and has added to the general sense of pessimism.

GOLDSTONE REPORT

THE atmosphere in the Middle East has also worsened as a result of the Goldstone Report on Gaza. Justice Goldstone is a respected jurist from South Africa who headed a fact-finding mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate international human rights and humanitarian law violations related to the Gaza war. The report, which was published on 15 September, has been very critical of both sides, but especially of Israel for deliberate attacks on civilian targets. Although that country and its partisans have been very critical of the report and have said it is badly flawed and biased, its credibility has not been damaged and the extensive evidence gathered by the team backs up its conclusions. The report calls for both Israel and Hamas to conduct credible investigations of their responsibility for violations of law during the conflict, and asks the UN Security Council to set up a team of experts to monitor this process. This recommendation has been endorsed by the General Assembly but faces strong opposition from the USA and Israel when it comes to pursuing it in the Security Council. How the situation at the UN works out remains to be seen but this is a factor that makes it seem less likely that the parties will be able to sit together across a negotiating table anytime soon.
In India, we are now accustomed to coming up with a quiet response to Middle East events. The days of our passionate engagement in matters of war and peace in that region, and of the rights and wrongs of situations, seem far behind us. Yet we would do well to come up with more convincing responses than the sotto voce remarks of our spokespersons. Our own public, and our aspirations to a weightier international role, need no less.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

TOKEN UNIVERSITY

 

The chief minister of West Bengal moves in mysterious ways. In the first half of 2007, the government of West Bengal, at the behest of the chief minister, appointed a committee of experts to look into the question of granting autonomy to Presidency College. The experts recommended that the college should not be granted autonomy, and should remain under the aegis of the Calcutta University. Now the chief minister has welcomed a proposal put forward by the governing body of Presidency College to make it a university and steps are being initiated to implement this proposal. The logical question is: what has happened in the last two-and-a-half years for this dramatic reversal of views? There is no answer forthcoming from the government. Within the college very little has changed between 2007 and now. Thus the shift in the government's position remains something of a mystery. Unless the chief minister wants to see the granting of university status to Presidency College as his departing gift to his alma mater.

 

The matter of making Presidency College into a university has been in the air since 1972. The argument then was that the college was a centre for academic excellence and had been so for some time. Its dependence on Calcutta University had become a hindrance to the pursuit of excellence for a number of reasons and therefore it should be freed from this shackle and made into an autonomous institution, if not a university. From 1972, this proposal has had no takers and the situation in the college, thanks to the policies of the Left Front government, has gone from bad to worse. The Left Front government has destroyed Presidency College as a centre for academic excellence. The present proposal, welcomed by the chief minister, is an attempt to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted. In principle, the proposal to make the college a university is welcome. But in practical terms, if the college is to retrieve its position as a centre for excellence, it has to be rebuilt de nuovo, especially in the spheres of recruitment of faculty and mode of teaching. The faculty should be selected by independent experts and should be qualified to teach honours and MA classes; classroom lectures should be backed by a tutorial system as it once was in Presidency College. The mere granting of university status will do nothing to restore the lost reputation of Presidency College.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

WILFUL EXIT

 

The Indian woman's free will is an elusive entity. The Supreme Court has ruled that a wife who walks out of her matrimonial home "willingly" is not entitled to maintenance. At least, that is what the court has ruled in one specific instance, upholding the ruling of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that denied maintenance to a woman who had left her husband and had filed a complaint against him for demanding dowry. She had moved court asking for divorce on the ground of cruelty, while her husband had filed a petition for the restitution of conjugal rights. This was in 1998. Five years later, the court dismissed her plea for legal separation. No doubt the court in its wisdom had found that her husband was not cruel and that she should have responded to the direction to return to him. She had also left her children behind. It is to be assumed that the husband's petition for her return and the fact that she had left her children behind had nothing to do with the dismissal of her plea. This is important, because a general application of the principle behind the court's ruling may pose a grave danger to women forced to leave their husband's homes without even their children. When this woman applied for divorce and maintenance a year later on the ground that she was living separately, the divorce was granted but not the maintenance.

 

There are numerous instances in which women fear for their lives in their in-laws' homes, but have no certainty of food and shelter outside it. In many such cases, the woman leaves home, even if she has to leave her children behind, hoping to somehow bring them out if and when she finds a secure shelter. While the act of walking out is technically "willing", the result of an independent and possibly secret thought process, can this will be described as "free"? The convolutions of the law, the right of the husband to demand the restitution of conjugal rights — given the dangerous psychology of violent men who desire the presence of their most favourite victims — and the cultural baggage a mother trails, incarcerate women within numberless invisible walls. Of course, all this does not mean that women do not try to manipulate the law or exploit their husbands. Such realities merely indicate the care with which the law must step when a woman petitions for maintenance after "walking out" of her marital home.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

FROM DREAM TO REALITY

BENGAL'S CRISIS HIDES IN IT THE POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE

N.K. SINGH

 

This newspaper recently hosted its annual debate on whether a resurgent Bengal was an impossible dream. Not surprisingly, the verdict of the 600-odd listeners went against the motion. This has as much to do with tangible societal gains as with an enveloping sense of crisis which embeds enormous opportunities. The glorious past of Bengal needs no persuasion. It was integrated with the rest of the world through trade and interchange of knowledge. Ironically, much of Bengal's glory dimmed post-Independence, and for a good three decades the state remained in the shadows, for reasons complex and mostly man-made.

 

The current low-level equilibrium emanates from a combination of failed policies and promises, the inability to attract talent and capital, together with a growing sense of despondency. The restlessness for change to a new economic and political order has gripped the psyche of West Bengalis. The growing disconnect between the urban and the rural and rising inequality add to the unease and to the quest for rapid change. However, an objective assessment must be cognizant of multiple spheres.

 

First, the problems of Bengal are generally not atypical of the problems of India: primarily about how to create employment, improve efficacy and the quality of the public delivery system, minimize corruption, create an environment which fosters innovation and enable the realization of demographic dividends. To overcome the vested lobbies, it is necessary to redo our rules and regulations, particularly regarding labour and manufacturing, in creating high growth, high employment and a more egalitarian social order. And to change mindsets in tune with contemporary challenges. A lot of issues that are being argued against Bengal are equally true of India, be it issues of human development, governance or corruption. Bengal mirrors India's problems as India mirrors Bengal's problems.

 

Second, the other issue that needs specific mention is that life is bigger than mere gross domestic product numbers. Growth and outcome cannot be measured merely by changes in the GDP numbers. The expensive costumes of Carla Bruni, the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, or what Paris Hilton secures from the exclusive designers, Louis Vuitton or Chanel, may have added to the GDP numbers of France but has not contributed to the index of French happiness.

 

That is why President Sarkozy appointed a commission comprising two Nobel laureates, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, who, in their report, pointed out that the outcome of growth cannot be measured by quantifiable numbers alone but through a broader index of happiness. This inter alia implies a cohesiveness of society, levels of tolerance, communal harmony and the social mobility of the population. No one can make the accusation that the societal evolution of Bengal has been based on narrow, regional chauvinistic lines. These are not variables that can be quantified and captured by GDP numbers.

 

Third, on growth rates, from 1970 to 1980, Bengal grew at 3.2 per cent compared to the Indian average of 3.1 per cent; between 1980 and 1991, Bengal grew at 4.2 per cent compared to India at 5.6 per cent, a notch lower. But, then, consider the next 20 years — from 1990 to 2001, West Bengal grew over 6.7 per cent, whereas India lagged behind at 5.7 per cent. Similarly, between 1993-94 and 2004-05, Bengal's growth at 8.55 per cent was well over India's average growth of 6.8 per cent. True, it is only in the post-2004 period that growth rates in Bengal have been somewhat slower than India's growth rates, which shot up exponentially during this period. On other parameters, for instance, health and education, it has made significant progress. On education, the state ranked second and seventh in the categories of construction of classrooms and appointment of teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Similarly, in the percentage of children between Class III-V who can read, it ranks eighth among the states, while in arithmetic it ranked second. Regarding health, Bengal, with its infant mortality rate of 37 per cent, is well below the national average of 55 per cent; in child mortality rates, 12.2 per cent against the Indian average of 18.4 per cent, and in mortality under five, at 59.6 per cent compared to the all-India average of 74 per cent.

 

In land reforms, it has made important strides,being the only state which distributes land to landless peasants more than it acquires. On decentralization and the panchayati raj, it is a trailblazer, having initiated action on devolution to local institutions many years prior to the constitutional amendment that empowered the rest of India.

 

Fourth, the word 'resurgent' implies 'to rise again'. The ingredients for such a rise in Bengal are available, provided we can build on these ingredients in the demographic differential of the population of the state and the geographic contours of its territory. Growth in India has largely been an urban coastal story. Although Bengal's population is largely rural, it is urbanizing faster than the rest of India. We all know the geography of Bengal, and that in addition to coastlines it has rich inland waterways which can help not only in transport but also in faster integration with peripheral economies.

 

If Bengal is able to overcome the current disputes in land reforms and find rural consensus in alternative land use, it can regain its position as the most industrialized state that it was in the Sixties and even up to the 1980s, when it produced more than 10 per cent of the country's industrial output. It is true that the backbone of industrialization lies not so much in large industries, but in thousands of medium- and small-scale ones. These can become a manufacturing hub providing meaningful employment to the young, and also alternative economic activity to those currently occupied in agriculture. Indeed, this would require a new set of laws relating to labour, manufacturing, urbanization and, above all, a vastly improved rural connectivity. But the problem is the potential of Bengal to become the manufacturing hub of India and to provide its economy with what economists call India's missing middle. Having achieved success in education and considering its past reputation as a knowledge and culture centre, it can emerge as a new knowledge hub, and by providing greater autonomy to institutions for higher learning it can attract the best and brightest across India for learning, research and teaching. No one needs to be persuaded that Calcutta and Bengal have an awesome history in knowledge leadership, and can transcend others in becoming once again a global centre of excellence in education. These can be trigger-points and catalysts for re-igniting the growth momentum.

 

Fifth, the ingredients for a renaissance movement may not still be in sight, but resurgence in the etymology of the word was repeatedly used from 1768 onwards "to imply one who rises again". And Tucker, for the first time, mentioned "we who are alive shall be caught in the clouds together with the resurgence". Resurgence is to repeat and to do what has been achieved. For the reasons cited above, the stage is set for Bengal to be resurgent once again. Consider a January 2009 report of the World Bank entitled, "The Investment Climate in 16 Indian States", which ranks West Bengal as a decent sixth among the major states of India in terms of business climate. Equally impressive is the fact that Bengal ranks higher than some of the hitherto leading states like Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Maharashtra in having a better investment climate. According to the report, the variables that impact business climate in which Bengal is above the national average are infrastructure, institutions, cost of power, tax administration, availability of technology, proximity to customers, transparency, trade financing and availability of inputs. This goes to show that, notwithstanding the recent controversies on land acquisition, Bengal still offers better investment opportunities compared to many other states, and one can see the bright spots.

 

Yes, one has to accept that we all perceive a sense of crisis. The ongoing violence in rural areas, the conflict between Maoists and cadre- based Leftist parties, failed industrialization, broken promises by the Videocon Group, the walkout by the Tatas, rising unemployment, increasing anarchy — are clear signs of crisis. There is no denying the fact that Bengal is at a crossroads. This is because, on the one hand, economic opportunities are enormous if the transition is successful and orderly. The price of failure, on the other hand, is inordinately high. And yet, because there is change in the air and because the foundation has already been laid, the prospect of a resurgence is much brighter than at any time in the past. The present crisis embeds in itself the opportunity of change. India cannot prosper without a prosperous Bengal. And a prosperous Bengal will make for a prosperous India.

 

THE AUTHOR IS A MEMBER OF THE RAJYA SABHA

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

STILL THE SAME

DIPANKAR BOSE

 

More than a year has passed since the world was rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Stock markets crashed and credit stopped all over the globe. Employment dropped sharply, first in finance, then in the real sectors. Predictably, the advanced economies (where the crisis originated) have somewhat absorbed the shock while the weaker ones, such as Russia, Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece are still paying a high price. And Asia has been suffering a steep fall in exports.

 

Going by the criterion of credit flow or revival of the markets, the world economy has come a long way, though quite unevenly. The human suffering in the weaker economies is still very high, and people have been left without much hope for an early revival. In terms of employment or wage rates, even the advanced countries fare poorly. Take the United States of America, which has registered a growth of 3.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, thanks to a $787 billion stimulus package. This, of course, is no mean achievement considering the colossal scale of the crisis. Yet, the unemployment rate was 9.8 per cent in September, and it is still rising while wages are falling all over because of the weaker bargaining position of labour. Since December 2007, 6.9 millions have lost their jobs, and if the young people joining the army of job-seekers are taken into account, the total comes to about 9 million.

 

The rich and the mighty take good care of the law, as a rule, before embarking on any project. The US has not been an exception to this general rule. The Great Depression produced a number of safeguards against excessive speculation, epitomized by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which debarred the use of commercial bank deposits by investment banks, thereby protecting household savings from the clutches of speculation.

 

OLD GAME

These lessons were forgotten over the next 50 years, and the safeguards began to be dismantled with the enactment of the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act in 1982 by President Reagan. Finally, in 1999, the Glass-Steagall Act was annulled under President Clinton, paving the way for a complete deregulation of the financial market. Thus, both the Republicans and the Democrats had contributed to the genesis of the meltdown.

 

The irony is that those who caused it, whether in the government or in finance, on either side of the Atlantic, are not paying for it. Thanks to the massive stimulus packages, more of which have been spent on bailing out the banks rather than on infrastructure and thereby on job creation, finance has begun to play its old game of lavishly rewarding the bank executives for delivering big short-term profits but not punishing them even if bigger losses are suffered later. This automatically encourages high risk-taking, the bane of the system. Thus, one of the most important factors that generated the crisis has returned. And it is perfectly legal because the law has remained the same. Neither has the Glass-Steagall Act been reinstated nor has the Garn-St. Germain Act been annulled. Only the Federal Reserve has been given more power to oversee the financial institutions. So, everything depends on who controls the Fed.It seems that the finance-industry complex is using President Obama's charisma and message of 'hope' to fool the American people and to continue with its old game. And so the seeds of another crisis are being sown.

Any change in law would need the Congress's approval. And herein lies the rub. Let alone a change in law, even getting another stimulus package passed by the Congress would be difficult for Obama, given the opposition of almost all the Republicans and the conservative Democrats. And all this, because the political-economic power structure has not altered despite the worst financial recession in the last 60 years.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

OPED

NEW EXPERIMENTS TO CURE AN OLD MALAISE

Higher education may not be a priority with the Maharashtra government, but new reforms are changing university administration in the state, writes B. Venkatesh Kumar

 

An Indian born US citizen, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, having won a Nobel prize, has brought immense happiness to us as a nation, and in particular to the academic community. That the Nobel laureate was an undergraduate student at one of India's leading state universities — Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda — is even more gratifying. In fact, our state universities have always been home to some of the most outstanding students who have come to occupy positions of high professional and academic standing in later life.

 

While good students are still persuaded to go to the state universities for higher education, sadly their numbers are fast declining. The abysmal state of affairs in these universities is a cause for great concern. With the newer Central universities coming in, and with many other universities — world-class, private, foreign — in the pipeline (if Kapil Sibal has his way), a serious challenge is going to be posed to existing state universities.

 

Not only will the new universities attract good quality students, but they will, even more so, attract many good quality faculty from the state universities. These faculty members will move for a variety of reasons — and foremost among these will be the freedom to pursue intellectual pursuits without getting bogged down by the archaic governance structure that impedes the functioning of state universities. Monetary and other professional benefits, post the recommendations of the sixth pay commission, would also add to the reasons in some ways, but will not be the sole criterion.

 

This is not to say that all Central universities attract good quality students and faculty. For a variety of reasons, barring some really well-known and well-established Central universities, a number of them are still struggling to attract the very best. In some cases, Central universities (especially in the northeastern region) have not been able to attract a mix of pan-Indian and academically engaging students or a bright faculty because of their remote locations and lack of proper infrastructure and medical facilities.

 

On the contrary, one would find, even today, that there is still some attraction left in the state universities. A lot of students from rural and mofussil areas, and even from the Northeast, continue to come to state universities located in urban areas.

 

Therefore, while too much attention is being focused on Central universities in terms of expansion and liberal funding, it is equally important that some of India's leading state universities, which have had a legacy of imparting liberal education and of developing an atmosphere for intellectual pursuit, should be revived.

 

While some serious efforts have been made by the human resource development ministry, along with the University Grants Commission and the Planning Commission, to help state universities in a variety of ways, unfortunately, most state universities continue to suffer. In fact, the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, in his 150th anniversary address at the University of Mumbai aptly summarized the current state of affairs: "Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair. We need better facilities, more and better teachers, a flexible approach to curriculum development to make it more relevant, more effective pedagogical and learning methods and more meaningful evaluation systems. The quality of governance of many state educational institutions is a cause for concern. I am concerned that in many States, university appointments, including that of Vice-Chancellors, have been politicized and have become subject to caste and communal considerations. There are complaints of favouritism and corruption. This is not as it should be. We should free university appointments from unnecessary interventions on the part of governments and must promote autonomy and accountability. I urge states to pay greater attention to this aspect. After all, a dysfunctional education system can only produce dysfunctional future citizens!"

 

One of the urgent ways in which state universities can be revived is by addressing the most important issue of the governance of universities. This issue has been raised and addressed in the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission and, subsequently, in the Yash Pal committee's report as well. In spite of these issues being deliberated, the efforts towards such reforms that have been undertaken by the state governments are found wanting.

 

However, Maharashtra is an example that many states could usefully emulate. But for that to happen you require enlightened governors who are also sensitive to the changes taking place in the realm of higher education at the national level. The governor of Maharashtra, S.C. Jamir, in his capacity as chancellor of universities, has played a landmark role in institutionalizing a process of governance through which the standards of selecting a vice-chancellor have been raised enormously. This has been made possible with the support of the state cabinet through which the Maharashtra Universities Act 1994 was amended, and a new process has been put in place — this despite the fact that higher education does not figure anywhere as a priority for the Maharashtra government.

 

The new process is a huge improvement over the previous one. It institutionalizes a system in which there are definite timelines for completing the process of selecting vice-chancellors. It also delineates clearly the persons of eminence who will be a part of the search committee. A cursory look at the names of the chairpersons of the search committees in case of the universities of Mumbai (André Béteille), Pune (B.N. Srikrishna), Kolhapur (Yoginder K. Alagh) and Nashik (N.R. Madhava Menon), for which the process of selecting vice-chancellors has commenced, reveals that the level of the search process has been clearly raised. In addition, members of the search committees also include existing directors of the Indian institutes of technology and the Indian institutes of management. Further, the search committee will be assisted by a nodal officer identified by the chairperson or an external member who will provide all administrative and logistic support to the search committee. This nodal officer will be from the institute with which the chairperson or the external member is associated. This is an additional, but extraordinary, step as it will truly insulate the process of selection from the state government, the governor's secretariat and the concerned university, as well as minimize the interference of interested parties.

 

The intentions are clearly visible and seem to be geared at selecting the best. In addition to these initiatives, reforming the composition of the syndicate, academic council and senate is equally important. Together, these changes will set the benchmark for maintaining high standards in the overall governance of universities. One hopes that other states, as well as the mandarins in Shastri Bhavan, are taking note of these momentous changes happening in a state that is known to encourage education barons.

 

The author, a former political scientist with the University of Mumbai, is currently a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

SHOCKING LAPSES

"THE HEADLEY SAGA SHOWS LOOPHOLES IN SECURITY."

 

Investigations into the activities of American Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley and his Canadian accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana have revealed shocking details of the ease with which foreigners with terrorist links are able to enter and operate in India. Reports in the media have drawn attention to the way in which Headley struck up friendships with people, whose social standing provided his activities with cover. He stayed in top hotels and apartments and travelled widely across India on reconnaissance missions. And he was able to do so without providing vital personal details in forms filled at hotels or registering at the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO), as required under visa rules.

  But more shocking than the duo's activities in India is the manner in which Indian authorities violated rules and facilitated their operations in the country. Rana and his wife were issued multiple entry visas under the discretion of the consulate general in Chicago in clear violation of rules that require their visa application to be cleared by the Union home ministry. They were exempted from having to register with the local police as Pakistani citizens travelling in India are required to. Headley and Rana seem to have befriended prominent personalities too like Rahul Bhatt, son of film director Mahesh Bhatt, and other members of the film fraternity. It raises serious questions on the role that Indian officials and ordinary citizens are playing, unwittingly or otherwise, in ignoring basic security issues.

If it were not for the FBI's arrest of the duo in Chicago, Indian intelligence and security agencies would have remained in the dark about their well-established network. The Headley-Rana saga indicates that serious loopholes remain in India's intelligence gathering and security apparatus. It is well known that people with influence or the right contacts can get away with almost anything in this country, including brazen violation of rules that apply to ordinary people. It is this culture that Headley and Rana exploited to the hilt to play the roles they did in terrorist attacks in India. This culture of rules not applying to people with influence and money must end if our security measures against terrorism should be water-tight.  Funds allocated for internal security for 2009-2010 have been raised substantially. But this will be of little use, if terrorists can get their friends in various positions of power to facilitate their activities in this country.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

RIGHT REVIEW

"JUDICIAL ACTIVISM CALLS FOR A HARD, SECOND LOOK."

The decision by a two-judge bench of the supreme court to refer to a Constitution bench some questions about the judiciary's power to in effect lay down legislation to deal with social issues that are raised before it shows that a recent judicial trend which has received much public attention has now engaged the attention of the court itself. The matter arose when the court was examining a verdict given by another bench in 2006 which had directed the implementation of the J M Lyngdoh committee's recommendations on college and university union elections.  The bench has felt that the earlier bench should have referred the report to parliament for necessary legislation or to the universities for necessary action. In many other cases also the courts have created laws and invited favourable or adverse comments depending on the popular appeal of the views expressed by them.
But encroachments by the courts into the domain of the legislature are a violation of the constitutional scheme of parliamentary democracy. A clear separation of powers between the judiciary, the legislature and the executive is vital for the health of the system. If the legislature fails in its ordained function of creating laws that is no reason for the judiciary to step into the vacuum. The failure of the legislature has to be addressed and remedied by the people who elect it. The judiciary can only interpret the laws created by the legislature and punish those who violate it. The problem is that sometimes interpretation creates a new law. Even where interpretation is not involved, as in the case of the report cited by the bench, courts take it upon themselves the responsibility to reform society. This is clearly beyond the brief of the judiciary.

 Therefore what goes by the name of judicial activism does call for a hard look. Courts will have to be responsive to society, and the judiciary and its perspectives have to evolve with the times. But the judiciary should only function within the broad parameters of the Constitution. It is not when the organs of the state blur into one another but when they are distinctive, mutually supporting and complementary that they produce a system of checks and balances. Therefore the supreme court has done well to turn the searchlight on itself and explore the limits of its powers.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE US-CHINA TANGO

THE POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC FOOTPRINT OF A RISING CHINA ACROSS THE WORLD, TESTIFY TO ITS MAMMOTH SHARE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.

BY ALKA ACHARYA

 

US President Richard Nixon had described his visit to China in February 1971 as the 'week that changed the world'. Echoes of that sentiment appeared to resonate in the background when Hu Jintao hosted Barack Obama in Beijing during the latter's first visit to Asia this week. And as both leaders delivered their separate statements to the world media and issued their first joint statement, which left no critical issue of our times untouched, there appeared to be very little doubt that this is indeed the most important bilateral relationship on the international stage today.

The coming decades may well assess this admittedly high on symbolism meeting, as yet another historic turning point in the changing dynamics of post-Soviet world order. To be sure, the yin and yang of containment and engagement that characterises America's China policy palpably lurked in the background. There is however no gainsaying the general and specific milieu in which the visit between the 'troubled superpower and the coming megapower' has taken place.

DECISIVE ROLE

The enlarging political and strategic footprint of a rising China across the world, no less than its colossal carbon footprint, testifying to its mammoth share in the global economy, has ensured that it will play a decisive role in any emerging power equation in the coming decades.

 Equally, the immediate context of the ongoing global financial crisis, and Obama's appreciation of China's supportive role in that regard, underscored the increasing interdependence and interconnectedness between the first and third largest economies – as also the other countries of the world. It is also not difficult to comprehend the rationale behind Obama's declaration that he had no intention of containing China's rise, and that in an interconnected world, "power is no longer a zero-sum game."

Obama arrived in China after 'bowing' to the Japanese monarchs and conveying a renewed American commitment to redressing economic imbalances at the APEC Summit meeting in Singapore.

He was well aware of the general skepticism regarding US 'protectionist' policies over the past year, as also the fact that China has been considerably more appreciated and lauded during this time. Chinese leaders are equally cognisant of the new US administration's attempt at recasting the American role in the Asia and Pacific.
There is however a major difference. Across the broad swathe of Asia, from Central Asia at one end to the Pacific at the other, China's role is rapidly transforming from not just a driver, but shaper of agendas – economic, political and increasingly security/strategic.

 Obama's appropriate acknowledgement of these shifts—for which he is being pilloried back home—has ensured that even as the US rebuilds and revitalises its traditional alliances, they will now have to work in tandem with the Chinese.

It was only to be expected therefore that befitting their status, the substance of bilateral discussions between Presidents and Hu comprised just about every issue of bilateral and global concern - from regional hotspots Iran and North Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the complex threats from global terrorism, from shouldering the responsibilities for dealing with climate change to tackling what is seen as a looming world food crisis.

 On the bilateral front, discussions revolved around the irritants arising out of trade disputes involving a range of products to revaluing the yuan, to questions on Tibet, the Dalai Lama, human rights and religion. Obama in fact did place on record the US desire to see the negotiations between Beijing and the representatives of the Dalai Lama begun at the earliest.

They agreed to give greater focus to their Strategic Economic Dialogue and Beijing has also agreed to a new round of dialogue on 'rights' issues with the US early in 2010. That will probably be Obama's reply – howsoever unsatisfactory – to domestic criticism of his refusal to meet the Dalai Lama before his visit to Beijing. 

POSSIBLE OUTRAGE

Any possible outrage in India arising out of the reference to South Asia in the joint statement and Obama's acknowledgement of China's potentially useful mediatory role in India-Pak relations, needs to be tempered by a hard reality check with regard to the entirely different nature of the Sino-US strategic importance compared to the Indo-US strategic ties.

South Asia is well on its way to being acknowledged as the hub of global terrorism and will, not surprisingly, figure in the discussions of two global powers of the day, especially if one of them is a neighbour to this hot spot. Equally, Obama will undoubtedly be informed by the Indian prime minister when he visits the US shortly, that given China's 'special' relationship with Pakistan and their rather suspicious conventional military and nuclear cooperation, India will not countenance any such mediation, if indeed it is being conceived. And China for its part will have to ponder on the implications of what will certainly be seen in India as Sino-US collusion on South Asia, for the Sino-Indian strategic partnership.

Harmonious India-China ties are crucial for the realisation of the Asian century. Analysts speculate that a rising India will make the triangular US-China-India relationship also of no mean importance in the reshaping international relations. That may well be so – but it is merely a scenario – and more importantly, a scenario which critically hinges on India's rise materialising decisively over the next decade or so.

(The writer is an associate professor at school of international studies, JNU)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

MISSING LINKS IN PPP FOR EDUCATION

THE NEW MODEL IS EXPECTED TO MEET AT LEAST SOME OF THE NEEDS OF QUALITY EDUCATION.

BY M R NARAYANA

 

 India's public school education is provided through a network of primary, upper primary and secondary (including higher secondary) institutions run by the Central and state governments, and rural and urban local bodies.

 

These institutions are owned, managed and financed through budgetary resources. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and mid-day meal programme are the most popular national programmes in school education. 

Public sector is most dominant at lower levels of education as it is responsible for almost 90 per cent of primary, 72 per cent of upper primary, and 42 per cent of secondary education.

Given wider and freer access with instructional and non-instructional incentives and subsidies, public sector will have to be the essential source of school education, especially for the rural poor and other vulnerable and marginalised sections of society. This underlines the needs for strengthening public school education to accomplish the objectives and targets of 'inclusive growth' under the on-going 11th Five Year Plan.

Most recently, the Union ministry of human resources development has come up with new national policy proposals on strengthening public school education through public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements. it has important implications for the future ownership, management and financing of public education system and deserves informed public debate by all stakeholders.

EXISTING MODEL

Private education sector (comprising aided and unaided institutions) is widely appreciated for its complementary and supplementary contributions by building physical infrastructure and provisioning of services in both rural and urban areas. Aided schools are governed by grants-in-aid policy of the state governments as in Karnataka. In general, aid is limited to expenditure on salary and wages. Admission and fee structure are regulated by the government in aided schools. In fact, an aided school can be considered as a standard model of existing PPP in Indian school education.    

In essence, the new proposals are aimed at private financing of infrastructure facilities (e.g., office buildings and classrooms, water, sanitation and power), support services (e.g., ICT for teaching-learning activities, labs, transport and food), and education services (e.g. recruitment but not appointment of teachers and staff) in the existing and/or new public schools.

Financing and management of these facilities and services may be bundled or unbundled. Options are open for the government to provide land on long term lease basis. Private costs are proposed to be paid by the government on unit cost or per student basis. If a plausible model of PPP is BOOT (build, operate, own and transfer), then the government may claim the ultimate ownership of all assets created.  

The new proposals mainly aim at different methods of cost-sharing between public and private sectors. They seem to have been heavily drawn from PPP models for economic infrastructure, such as, roads and highways, bridges, power and telecommunications. They are built on cardinal principles of corporate governance in terms of resource efficiency, accountability for performance; risk sharing, quality monitoring and flexibility.

However, reality demands that social infrastructure like public school education and economic infrastructure like pubic road construction are inherently different and cannot be equated for privitisation purposes.
New proposals implicitly neglect the critical issues relating to cost recovery, except for payment of private costs by the government though budgetary resources or through cross-subsidisation by allowing private sector to charge differential fee to the management quota students. This implies that students and parents would not be burdened with any additional costs in schools under PPP. In a way, this needs to be a guarantee clause in all the new proposals. Otherwise, access, affordability and equity objectives of public school education would be questionable and cannot be ensured. 

PPP model has gained credence because of lack of adequate public resources to meet the growing needs of quality school education.  At the same time, no new proposal would free the government from financing school education. Thus, a stronger proposal is needed to justify the different methods of PPP by way of estimation of their relative public costs and benefits including cost savings. This needs financial database on private education to be newly created in India as well as in Karnataka. 

Privitisation is becoming more global in India. Higher education is being opened up for global investments and competition. GATS in education under the WTO may not include school education.

 

(The writer is professor of economics, ISEC, Bangalore)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

'HING' BRINGS THE ZING

HOW COULD HE HAVE OVERLOOKED THE ART OF CREATING DISTINCTIVE TASTE?

BY AMBUJA NARAYAN

 

He could reach out to the nook and corner of the world, cut and paste any information at the click of the mouse. He assumed that he was in total command with his skills, time and of course, money.

However, at the end of the day, he would feel as helpless as a trapped mouse, staring at the screen, sliding his mom's 'saambar' recipe up and down. His gastronomic growling wouldn't allow him to concentrate on his work anymore.

Ever so often he had attempted to work out a palatable fare for his dinner, adhering to his mom's instructions step by step but wondering  why it was not the same as his mom's consistent quality. Something was  missing. The thought made him more homesick. Occasional visits to the nearest India eatery only left a big whole in his pocket paying for the ubiquitous saambar in dollars thereby increasing his craving for mom's preparations.
During his weekly international tele talks with his family, his mom's enquiries about his culinary accidents just left lumps in his throat. Nevertheless, he boasted about his expertise in salads, anaemic looking rasams, pathetic bhelpuri etc. But he wouldn't admit the total disaster with his saambar preparation. What could be the reason? His computer didn't figure out a solution. Not even the Google search. Days rolled by…

'Eureka!'- suddenly mom's kitchen scene flashed in his mind. That was her finishing act of 'voggarane' over the prepared 'Huli.' That's it, he exclaimed jumping with joy. His nostrils flared up. Rubbing his palms vigorously he reached out to prepare the 'vagar or chonk.' How could he have overlooked the tampering of dishes which is the  science and art of creating distinctive taste which leaves one drooling for more? 

To achieve this a certain measure of oil has to be heated to the correct level in that special ladle made for 'tadka.' Mustard or other spices have to crack just right and 'hing' either in powder form or tiny bits have to be thrown in to sizzle and the whole foaming thing has to be poured over the ready product. Instantly the aroma would be irreristable creating the hunger pangs. 

Why hadn't his mother not specified this fine art of 'voggarane?' Was it taken for granted or did she want him to decipher it by trial and error? Anyway, he knew now. If you want some zing in your saambar do not forget the hing he told himself. Ferula Assafoetida will bring zing to your diet and has medicinal properties too. That's it my boy. Enjoy the saambar!

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

WRONG ON WATER

 

Noisy populist politicians have won the day and the citizenry appears delighted. Resorting to strident rhetoric, MKs from assorted parties join a zealous crusade to eliminate the much-maligned drought levy. Concerted media campaigns and demagogic distortion helped portray the levy as a brutal tax. Great glee has, consequently, been engendered now that the monster appears slain.

 

Yet too few have given any consideration to its substitute - draconian hikes in water prices for everyone, without exception.

 

It is hard to believe that so many folks fell for what started out as a PR maneuver by several shortsighted parliamentarians and has turned into a costly folly for every household in the land. A progressive moderate levy has been replaced by a regressive drastic price rise imposed via the back door, with no one watching or objecting.

 

Much was unwise and unworkable in the now-shelved drought levy. It hinged on the number of residents per dwelling and lumbered the local authorities with the bureaucratic chore of collecting data and collecting payment. Yet other than the technical awkwardness of the model, the basic idea was sound.

 

There's no denying that this country is parched. Our last ultra-wet winter was in 1991-2. The past six winters were so dry that Lake Kinneret is shriveling up. Water desalination is scandalously behind schedule.

 

The drought levy was designed to discourage waste, while still offering basic water allocations per person at minimal cost. Beyond that allowance, prices were to go up according to the number of inhabitants per housing unit.

 

Thus inordinate water use would essentially be fined. This is socially just and makes sense, even if the entire scheme was complicated and cumbersome.

 

Yet recent none-too-impressive rainfall sufficed to lend the impression that the water shortage was over. This was abetted by tendentious news reports, including one about a Pardess Hanna man sent a NIS 9,000 bill. It so happens that he cultivates a lavish, extensive garden. But the implication was that any average family is liable to be required to shell out as much.

 

THE GOVERNMENT succumbed rather dramatically to the campaign. Perhaps it had good reason to do so. In place of the drought levy, after all, the Treasury has secured a more promising revenue source.

 

We have been spared the drought levy which would have cost standard households a paltry monthly amount at most, whereas its brunt would have been borne by the super-rich with private swimming pools and vast lawns.

 

Instead, a dual-phase water price increase will be instituted. A 25% price rise is slated for January, followed by another 15% increase in June 2010. An additional unspecified "minor" increase is due in January 2011.

 

Thus, by roughly this time next year, we are sure to pay nearly twice as much as we do now for our water - from the first drop, regardless of the sort and size of household we maintain.

 

So far this has provoked barely a squawk, apparently because the populace is still elated about ridding itself of

 

the comparatively insignificant drought levy. The Treasury has been quick to explain that there is no choice but to charge us much more for our water because of the need to construct more desalination plants.

 

But this argument is disingenuous. We anyway pay high taxes, which, we are told, are always at least partly earmarked to bankroll large-scale national development projects. Desalination plants are precisely the sort of projects for which we pay. There is no justification to double-tax us and charge again for the same projects, this time via the price of the most elementary and vital commodity of all.

 

Moreover, no amount of desalination will do away with the need to impose discipline on the way we consume water. Desalination is an energy-guzzling process which comes at a hefty price. Responsible conservation will never become superfluous in our arid region. Paying incrementally more for higher water use is one way to educate the public that squandering is costly.

 

Politicians who championed the greater good, even at the expense of personal popularity, wouldn't have hesitated to say these things. But most of ours evidently lack such principles.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

FUNDAMENTALY FREUND: IT'S ANNEXATION TIME

MICHAEL FREUND

 

Flu season may be upon us, but it appears that Mahmoud Abbas has come down with a far more serious ailment. Based on his peculiar behavior of late, the Palestinian leader is clearly suffering from political schizophrenia.

 

Just a few weeks after threatening to resign from his post as chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas has now indicated that he intends to pursue a unilateral declaration of statehood.

 

"The Palestinian leadership calls on the world to support this step," said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Monday, as Abbas left for Egypt before heading off on a tour of South America to drum up international backing for the move.

 

And so, the man who barely a month ago was ready to throw in the towel has now decided to throw down the gauntlet. First he vows to sail off into retirement, and then he tries to crown himself president of an independent state, in the process tossing aside any chance of a negotiated peace.

 

Abbas's volatile and unstable behavior should put to rest once and for all the notion that he is a viable partner with whom Israel can reach a lasting agreement. Despite being 74 years old, he still hasn't decided what he wants to be when he grows up, let alone figured out where he is going.

 

But the chairman's volatility is more than just a quirky personality issue or an unruly psychological phenomenon. It is a potent and dangerous reminder of the ease with which the Palestinians can generate international pressure on Israel in an attempt to squeeze out further concessions.

 

Indeed, the Palestinian leader's zigzag has had the effect of casting the spotlight sharply on the contentious issue of the fate of Judea and Samaria. If Abbas succeeds in winning United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, it will further upgrade the perceived illegality of the settlements to an entirely new level in the eyes of the world.

 

Furthermore, it will mark the end of the peace process as we know it, which has been predicated on the basic assumption that the two sides would negotiate the final outcome with each other rather than predetermine it.

 

Abbas's attempt to vault towards statehood on his own, with utter disregard for Israel and its position, is a sure enough sign that he wishes to bury any chance of returning to talks.

 

For far too long, Israel has been overly vulnerable to such machinations and games. By leaving the status of Judea and Samaria open for discussion, the Jewish state has given the Palestinians too much leeway for mischief-making and malice, which they have only been more than happy to exploit.

 

In light of Abbas's latest charade, it is clear that Israel needs to put an end
to this farce, once and for all.

 

We need to send a clear message to our foes, one that will put them on the defensive and strengthen Israel's hand. And there is no better place to start than with our own unilateral measures, chief among them the annexation of all the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

OVER THE past 16 years, nothing has been gained by keeping the settlements issue on the table. Nor has dangling the possibility of expelling masses of Jews from their homes along the lines of Gush Katif brought the Palestinians any closer to making a deal.

 

Instead, it has only served to whet the Palestinian appetite for more land, and subjected hundreds of thousands of Israelis to intolerable uncertainty regarding their future.

 

Hence, Israel should move ahead with steps to formally and legally incorporate all of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria into the Jewish state. This will serve as a tangible and reasonable response to the Palestinian attempts to circumvent the bilateral negotiating process.

 

More importantly, it will at last delineate the Israeli stance on the final disposition of these communities. This will effectively close off the troublesome debate within Israeli society over the future of the settlements, which has bred so much division and disunity, and ultimately enable us to present a more unified stance vis-à-vis the rest of the world.

 

In recent days, a number of leading Israeli politicians have thankfully begun to voice such proposals. The talented and articulate environment minister, Gilad Erdan of the Likud, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that if the Palestinians adopt a unilateral stance, then Israel should also consider "passing a law to annex some of the settlements."

 

Likewise, Likud MK Danny Danon called for annexing all of Judea and Samaria with the exception of the Arab-inhabited cities.

 

Of course, annexation should not merely be viewed as a tit-for-tat response to unilateral Palestinian moves, for that casts it in a negative light, presenting it as merely a punitive or retaliatory measure.

 

In reality, annexation is justified for the simple reason that this land belongs to us, and to nobody else. The act of asserting Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria would mark the closing of a historic circle, reviving our formal dominion over these areas after an interlude of nearly 2,000 years.

 

These areas are ours by Divine right, and we should not shy away from asserting as much. The Palestinians do not hesitate to invoke their beliefs, so why on earth should we? Just think how refreshing it would be to hear an Israeli leader stand up and declare this most elementary of truths to the world: that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel because the God of Israel said so.

 

Who knows - maybe if we finally stand on principle and start affirming our faith, then perhaps we will at last begin to earn the respect and support that we so rightly deserve.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

WASHINGTON WATCH: VOTE FOR ME, I'M A LOSER

DOUGLAS BLOOMFIELD

 

Vote for us because we're a bunch of losers. It's hardly a winning slogan for a president and party seeking reelection, but it pretty well sums up the platform of the on-again, off-again candidacy of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

 

Elections he called for January have been postponed indefinitely, and he has threatened to pull a Sarah Palin and resign early, but the conventional wisdom says he's bluffing.

 

That's because if he quits early, the presidency goes to his arch Hamas foes. Parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik, a senior Hamas figure released in June from an Israeli prison, would become the new president with the advantage of incumbency when elections are held. It will also mean that Israel, the United States and major European countries won't deal with the PA because Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, honor past PA agreements and renounce violence.

 

Contrary to most media reports, it appears Abbas didn't rule out running for a second four-year term but actually said, "I do not want to run." Sounds like, "Please twist my arm." Abbas is a weak leader of whom it was once said he couldn't deliver a pizza, much less a peace agreement. And that's part of his dilemma. His message to voters is statehood through a negotiated two-state solution and peaceful coexistence, while Hamas says armed resistance by the Islamists, not negotiations, has driven the Zionists out of Lebanon and Gaza and is the only way to end the hated occupation.

 

Abbas has no dramatic peace achievements to offer voters or even non-dramatic ones, since he steadfastly refuses to sit down with the Israelis until they agree to a total settlement freeze, return to the pre-1967 borders and resumption of talks where they left off with the previous Israeli government.

 

ABBAS'S THREAT to leave office along with threats to bypass negotiations and unilaterally declare statehood are a heavy-handed attempt at shock treatment by a leader ready to blame everyone else for the lack of progress toward peace.

 

Abbas has a plethora of excuses: Washington's refusal to force Israel to accept the total settlement freeze, Israel's unwillingness to pick up where talks halted with the previous government, Hamas's rejection of the Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal with Fatah, and disappointing support for the PA from the Arab world.

 

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly tossed cold water on talk of the statehood declaration, saying it "has to be achieved through negotiation" with Israel. Hamas, for its part, had a separate objection: If you're going to declare statehood, it told Abbas, make sure it covers everything from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, eliminating Israel.

 

Israel responded with threats of unilateral action of its own, including annexation of big chunks of the West Bank and a halt in the transfer of taxes collected for the PA.

 

The US Congress can be expected to respond with a cutoff in all aid and other restrictions of its own.

 

Abbas wants to resuscitate a comatose peace process - but only on Palestinian terms.

 

In addition to forcing an Israeli settlement freeze, Abbas wants Obama to propose a detailed American peace plan.

 

He also is seeking a large-scale release of prisoners held by Israel, but that could help Hamas more than Abbas because Hamas has what Israel wants, Gilad Schalit, and Binyamin Netanyahu would have to make his deal with Hamas, which would then reap credit for the swap.

 

That poses a dilemma for Netanyahu, who wants to be the one who brought Schalit home, but he doesn't want to do anything that will benefit Hamas.

 

ABBAS CRAWLED out on a limb with Obama in demanding a total settlement freeze; Israel refused and Obama climbed back down. If Abbas refuses to follow, he has no negotiations to point to, but if he does he loses face among voters who will see him as weak and caving in to Israel even before the talks can begin.

 

However, Abbas is not without some bragging rights. He can remind voters that the West Bank, unlike Gaza, has a healthy and growing economy, no domination by Islamic extremists, improved security cooperation with Israel and growing international stature. Nonetheless, he presides over a weak, dysfunctional and deeply divided Palestinian Authority.

 

Abbas may blame Obama for raising expectations and Netanyahu for not meeting them, but his biggest problem is at home. The Palestinian national movement is bitterly divided between those who want to build a secular national state alongside Israel and those who want to destroy Israel and establish an Islamic republic from the sea to the river.

 

The stagnation is also a problem for President Obama, who made relaunching the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and building momentum toward a conflict-ending agreement a top foreign policy goal for the first year of his presidency. But unless there is a dramatic breakthrough in the next three weeks, his trip to Oslo (an ironic locale in this case) to accept his Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 will be a disappointing one.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

CANDIDLY SPEAKING: VIGILANCE WANTED, APPLY WITHIN

ISI LEIBLER

 

Neither right- nor left-wing organizations can guarantee total immunity against infiltration by fanatics and extremists. Their real test of moral integrity can be determined by the degree to which they isolate, condemn and purge such elements from their ranks.

 

It is thus wrong to blame the Labor Party for spawning far-left Israeli defamers of the Jewish state. These extremists were in fact deviants from a social democratic movement which made a formative contribution to the foundation of the state, despite having today sadly degenerated into a caricature of its former glory.

 

Those who besmirch Labor Zionists may be unaware that our founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, ferociously and ruthlessly purged extremists from his party, Mapai, which dominated Israel in its formative years. Ben-Gurion and other Labor leaders would never have tolerated those who today defame the IDF and pave the way for the global criminalization of Israel and the odious Goldstone Report. Nor would they have buried their heads in the sand and ignored the academics in our midst who have the gall to exploit universities as launching pads to defame and delegitimize the state and even call for global international boycotts of their own institutions. Ironically, Labor was far more effective in dealing with renegades and the mad Left than Likud under whose regime the post-Zionists emerged from the closet and bloomed.

 

Since the tragic assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, some of the far-left radicals have developed a penchant for accusing communities on the Right with collective responsibility for the crimes of individual extremists. They have been especially inclined to vent their spleen on their prime adversaries, religious Zionists, whose uninhibited patriotism and devotion to the state is manifested by the inordinately large proportion of their youngsters serving as role models in IDF combat units.

 

In the hyper-emotional climate of Israeli politics and religious fervor, it is not entirely surprising that a number of criminals motivated by extremism did indeed emerge from this sector. I have written previously about the danger posed by a handful of radical rabbis who endorsed the right to violently resist government decrees which they determined clashed with the will of the Almighty. These extremist zealots were condemned by responsible rabbinical and religious Zionist political leaders. But in retrospect, they should have been dealt with more ruthlessly.

 

NEVERTHELESS, it is outrageous to stigmatize the entire religious Zionist community for crimes committed by a few individuals, many of whom had no relationship with religious Zionism. For example, the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein may have been "observant." But he had no ties to religious Zionism and was simply a lone demented killer who probably unraveled after absorbing the radiant hatred from Arabs surrounding him.

 

On the other hand, prior to perpetrating his evil deed, Yigal Amir, Rabin's loathsome assassin, on the surface displayed all the positive characteristics of a religious Zionist role model. Had he not misunderstood or been influenced by the hysterical ravings of a few zealots or extremist rabbis, he may never have been transformed into a murderer.

 

After the assassination of Rabin, the religious Zionist movement relentlessly purged extremists from its ranks. However in the wake of the trauma of the Gaza disengagement, new wild extremist fringe groups emerged. Some sought to break away from the state, alleging it had betrayed them, identified with anti-Zionist haredim and refused to serve in the IDF. To this day, we still hear about unhinged rabbis babbling about killing non-Jews. Regrettably they are sometimes dismissed as madmen rather than prosecuted.

 

But renegade rabbis had no bearing on the sick and demented alleged serial murderer Ya'acov Teitel, whom religious Zionists and the settlers are falsely accused of having nurtured. The truth is that Teitel already had a shady record before arriving here from America and was simply an insane lone killer who even proclaimed that God would be happy with his depraved actions.

 

OF LATE, groups on the far Left have intensified campaigns primarily directed towards discrediting and defaming settlers and religious Zionists under the guise of commemorating the memory of Rabin.

 

As one who was privileged to know Rabin, I consider it nauseating to observe post-Zionists and extremists who detested Rabin now abusing his memory in order to promote their policies and attempt to silence their opponents.

 

Rabin's "gamble" with the Oslo Accords proved to have been a disastrous failure. But he was a consummate Zionist and few would deny that his sole motivation throughout his political life was to promote peace and the wellbeing of the nation. He would have despised and regarded with utter contempt many of those on the far Left who today claim to be promoting his legacy.

 

Admittedly, prior to his assassination, in the course of the bitter political debate, Rabin developed a love-hate relationship with the settlers and when condemned by them occasionally responded by employing vulgar language. But I vividly recollect a particular conversation in which he virtually predicted the Baruch Goldstein scenario by warning about uncontrollable extremist fanatics but accompanied these remarks with words of love and admiration for religious Zionists whom he regarded as amongst the most dedicated patriots in the land.

 

Needless to say, stereotyping or extending collective guilt to an entire community for the crimes of individuals is despicable, irrespective of whether it applies to religious Zionists, settlers, haredim, Russians, Ethiopians or any minority.

 

Only a few months ago, after a shocking case of child abuse in the haredi community, there were efforts to falsely stigmatize all haredim as child abusers. There were also irresponsible media outbursts trying to collectively bracket Russian olim with the alleged brutal slayings by Dimitry Kirilik.

 

As Jews we should be especially sensitive to such pernicious practices. Since time immemorial, highlighting the criminality of an individual Jew in order to defame entire Jewish communities was a central feature of anti-Semitic incitement. It is thus rather sickening in our time to see Jews using similar techniques against Jews.

 

In these difficult times we must strongly condemn the stigmatization of any group and also remain vigilant against any manifestations of extremism or incitement whether from the Right or the Left. That also applies especially within the religious arena in which the explosive fusion of nationalist extremism combined with zealotry has the potential of being transformed into the most brutal forms of violence and mayhem.

 

In this regard, the silence and failure of mainstream rabbis to condemn insubordination and refusal to obey orders by a handful of religious soldiers under the influence of a few radical spiritual leaders is highly disconcerting.

 

ileibler@netvision.net.il

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

A WHEELLESS CART BEFORE A LAME HORSE

ZALMAN SHOVAL

 

One should never underestimate the propensity of the Palestinians for shooting themselves in the foot, to wit, the situation Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has put himself in with regard to the peace process. True, this may not have been entirely his fault - mixed signals from abroad also had something to do with it, but Abbas seems to be bent on doing everything to get himself into an even deeper hole by adopting ever more intransigent positions. Then there was his zigzagging on the Goldstone Report, after first having asked Israel during the Gaza war to "smash" Hamas.

 

Now someone has come up with the idea of unilaterally declaring Palestinian statehood. Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayad had earlier broached the idea of building up Palestinian governance - a plausible concept in itself - but what the Palestinian functionaries around Abbas intend now is something completely different, amounting to putting a wheelless cart before a lame horse.

 

They had tried it before; back in 1999 Yasser Arafat, who as a result of the Oslo agreement was back in the country, announced that the Palestinians would forthwith declare their independence - only to be quickly disabused of this idea when the US and most of the Europeans made it clear to him that the declaration would not be recognized by the international community.

 

In the present case, there will probably be a replay of this scenario, there being indications that neither the US nor most members of the European community as well as others would legitimize a unilateral declaration by according it recognition. Even the support of Russia and China is in doubt, given that the former has not recognized the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, and that the latter is facing the threat in its own backyard of the Muslim community in Xinjiang declaring independence.

 

Someone should have explained to Abbas that this plan would in effect annul all past agreements including those which had granted legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority as part of the Oslo agreement. Also, any unilateral act regarding borders and territory could immediately trigger parallel annexations in the territories on the part of the State of Israel. In essence, a unilateral declaration of statehood would be in violation of international law and might be deemed an act of aggression, giving Israel the right to act in response, militarily or otherwise.

 

SO WHY does the official Palestinian leadership still threaten to go ahead with an act which so obviously goes against its own interests? It could be to pave the way towards a new wave of violence, as Arafat had planned and acted upon after the failure of the Camp David conference. But there may also be another, more immediate reason, namely, to bring about the elimination of UN Security Council Resolution 242. This resolution, which is the only agreed basis for all the agreements and initiatives to bring about a settlement of the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, including the Palestinians (and of course, Syria), also determined that Israel was not required to withdraw from all the territories it holds as a result of repulsing Arab aggression in 1967, and that furthermore, future borders should be based on considerations of security. In other words, the dividing line between a future Palestinian state and Israel would not necessarily be commensurate with the former temporary armistice line called the "Green Line."

 

This then, as senior PLO and Fatah official Yasser Abd Rabbo has confirmed, is their real and immediate agenda: get the Security Council of the UN to adopt a resolution to say that the future Palestinian border would be the Green Line - thus, in effect, replacing Resolution 242 and making the latter null and void. Israel's diplomacy thus has its job cut out for it in coming months, but one trusts that the US and others too are aware of the Palestinian stratagems and that they will not lend a hand to an initiative which would seriously exacerbate the political situation in the Middle East and return any chance of peace to square one.

 

The writer is the former Israel Ambassador to the US, and currently heads the Prime Minister's forum of US-Israel Relations.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

DIVIDED LOYALTY IN THE IDF

 

The hesder yeshiva soldiers (a unit combining army service with religious studies) who have demonstrated against evacuating West Bank outposts and squatters won praise and generous funding from nationalist rabbis. The protesters claim that the government, which gives the army illegal orders, is to blame for their insubordination. They say they are rebelling because they cannot act contrary to their conscience.

These arguments are nothing but a cover for blatant political activity within the Israel Defense Forces, led by radical rabbis outside of it, some of whom openly flout the rule of law. The revolt reflects a serious problem concerning divided loyalty in the army.

The insubordinate soldiers compare themselves to conscientious left-wing dissenters such as colonel Eli Geva, who refused to carry out an order he saw as blatantly immoral during the first Lebanon war. The comparison is fallacious. Left-wing dissension was and remains controversial even among those who oppose the occupation. Most left-wing conscientious objectors act on their own accord, and when they serve their sentence in military prison nobody sends them consolation prizes.

 

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In contrast, the hesder yeshiva students are organized in homogenous, separatist groups within their army units and frequently seek their rabbis' advice. They involve their rabbis with kashrut and other religious issues, as well as with issues pertaining to military activities. The protests against evacuation in the Nachshon and Shimshon battalions demonstrate the explosive potential of this organization, whose fragile balance could be disrupted by any political decision.

The rabbis' radicalization prompted the former head of the IDF's personnel directorate, Brig. Gen. Elazar Stern, to try to revoke the arrangement between the IDF and the hesder yeshivas and send their soldiers to regular IDF units. The defense minister at the time, Shaul Mofaz, shelved the idea amid objections from the right. Now the IDF is paying the price for that mistake.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that dissent in the IDF will destroy the state, but neither he nor Defense Minister Ehud Barak or Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi seem resolved to stop the drift.

Before the IDF becomes a phalangist army that will destroy democracy, it must make it clear to the hesder soldiers that they have only one commander and must obey every order - unless it is blatantly illegal. Otherwise the government may once again have to consider dismantling the hesder yeshivas.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT AG

BY ARI SHAVIT

 

For once, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have done what they are being paid to do. There can be no doubt about it: If Tzipi Livni had won the last election, the one calling the shots in the legal system would be Haim Ramon. With Livni's backing, Ramon would have split the functions of the attorney general and neutered the position. A Livni-Ramon government would perhaps have spoken a little more clearly about a Palestinian state, but it also would have made the Jewish state one where politicians and oligarchs have their way with the law.

By jointly deciding not to divide the roles of the country's top law enforcement official between a legal adviser to the government and a prosecutor general, Netanyahu and Barak have proved that they are loyal to the rule of law. For the first time since forming their government, they can boast of making a true contribution to Israeli democracy.

This battle, however, was only the first. If the soon-to-be-named new attorney general is a lackey of Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, the results could be grave. A powerful AG who thinks like Neeman and his predecessor Daniel Friedmann could undermine the legal system from within. He could serve as a Trojan horse and open wide the system's gates to its would-be wreckers, bringing down the walls in myriad ways. An attorney general who does Neeman's bidding (or Ramon's, or Friedmann's) would make Netanyahu go down in history as the prime minister on whose watch the legal system collapsed.

 

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Unlike many other figures in Israeli politics, Netanyahu is fundamentally a democrat. His education in the United States taught him to respect the law and play by the rules of the game. The trouble is, he doesn't always have the courage to pay the price of defending his values. Therefore, the coming weeks will be a trial period for him as well. Netanyahu has done the right thing as far as the institution of attorney general is concerned - now he must follow suit when it comes to filling the post.

The current list of candidates is not promising. Only two or three of the 11 named by the search committee are worthy, and not one is a jurist of outstanding stature. Among this lackluster lineup, there is no new Aharon Barak or future Menachem Mazuz. The first step is therefore to reopen the list, ask Meir Shamgar and Aharon Barak, both former attorney generals and Supreme Court presidents, as well as top private lawyers, to recommend an appropriate eminent jurist for the position. Non-routine action is required to let this very sensitive selection process come up with a person with rare capabilities and impeccable integrity, a jurist head and shoulders above the rest whose professional authority and ethics are unimpeachable.

If this happens, Netanyahu will notch up a significant achievement: He will have rescued the rule of law by ensuring the selection of a strong and top-quality attorney general. When he faces the voters in the next elections, no one will be able to deny that Netanyahu has stemmed the tide of corruption. This achievement may mean that Neeman will resign, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will make threatening sounds, and various interested parties will launch an assault on the prime minister. But to cope with these challenges, Netanyahu could tie the appointment of the new AG to the establishment of a government commission to examine the problems of Israeli governance in depth.

There is an objective need for such a commission. The claim that judicial activism has rendered governments incapable of doing their job properly is not baseless. But in recent years this reasonable argument has been used as a cover-up by people out to weaken the rule of law. If Netanyahu can show the Friedmann camp that he is ready to tackle the issue of governance seriously while rejecting its abusive exploitation, his chances are good for enjoying the best of both worlds.

After years of tribal warfare between the Friedmannites and the defenders of the rule of law, perhaps the time has come for conciliation and dialogue. If Netanyahu indeed bolsters the independence of the judicial system, it will be possible to deliberate on the issue with the necessary patience and ensure that the government can govern as it should.

 

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

WHY HAS THE LEFT IN ISRAEL VANISHED?

BY YITZHAK LAOR

 

The threats uttered against a possible Palestinian declaration of independence by our leaders Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman and Ehud Barak let the Israeli sanctimony (usually tedious and belabored) drop to the floor for a moment, like a woman's slip. It exposed the ugly skeleton of force that gives only us freedom of speech - we're permitted, you're forbidden. We are allowed to reiterate Israel's Declaration of Independence over and over. You are not allowed to do so with yours.

The simplest explanation for our privileges, and one that is becoming increasingly significant, is the religious one - the land is ours, from God, not theirs, so we're allowed to declare independence or harm civilians. The simplest explanation offered by secular people of those privileges is force - we're strong. These two explanations are the axis of consensus. In the name of this consensus, the military rabbis and officers in the Israel Defense Forces, equipped with equal amounts of hysteria, set out to incite the units on their way to kill in Gaza.

And the left? In this spiritual context no left - which can only exist in a discourse of equality - can have air to breathe. So when the ethos "shut your mouth because we'll punish you" rules everywhere, Peace Now was bound to disappear and be reduced to paid ads in the newspaper, with no foot soldiers. Meretz was bound to evaporate, and Labor's doves were bound to crumble. This left insisted on clinging to the consensus, treating the conflict with the Palestinians as a war in defense of the state rather than as a massive policing of an occupied nation with tanks and F-16s.

 

In short, this left vanished because it was afraid to call a spade a spade - a colonial war. Gradually, tens of thousands of left-wingers altered their positions. They continued to sing " Song for Peace," came to terms with "large settlement blocs" and said "no more violence." Their government plundered water and land, and they knew nothing about it. They told the Palestinians to "lay down your arms" and denounced soldiers who refused to serve in the territories as though they had betrayed them.

Throughout the 42 years of occupation, those moderate peace movements hardly made any contacts with the Palestinians. The Palestinians, for their part, did not always help, at least not during the first two decades of the occupation. But in that estrangement and in the peace camp's clear preference to be on "the Israeli people's side," the left vaporized between one military operation and the next. It supported the IDF, sighed over the situation and waited for the Americans to make order in the region.

Every now and then dovish Israeli leaders cooperated a little with the Palestinian leaders in the territories; the Geneva Initiative, for example. But it was always accompanied by derision and moral preaching. Yossi Sarid's "look for me" was the most concise summary of this connection. It said, you need us, we don't need you.

There was one difference between the left-wingers hiding at home (they don't even come to the Yitzhak Rabin memorial rally anymore) and the Barak-Netanyahu consensus. The first believed in the two-state solution, while Israel's leaders always thought in terms of subordination - the Jordanian option, autonomy, or turning the Palestinian state into a dummy state, a subordinate in the shekel zone, existing precariously among Israeli-ruled settlements. A state with no economy or sovereignty.

This is why right-wing leaders who suddenly discover the need for "two states" - Ariel Sharon, Tzipi Livni, Shaul Mofaz and of course Netanyahu - haven't really come a long way. Their aim was and remains to fritter away Palestinian independence into something doomed to continuous crisis, one that the IDF could easily solve. "Two states" was intended mainly for Israel's image in the world.

But Israel, as the Israeli left sees it, now needs the Palestinians' obstinacy more than anything. It needs their readiness to mark borders between the occupied territories and the State of Israel and to fight for those borders with protests, demonstrations, passive resistance and appeals to the international community.

Like the heroic stand of many South African whites in support of the African National Congress, a unilateral declaration of Palestinian independence gives the Israeli left a chance to finally launch a struggle with the Palestinians against Israel's politics of force, for the sake of our normal life.

 

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

ERADICATING POLITICIZATION

BY ISRAEL HAREL

 

In a conversation with young people from my community, Ofra, shortly before the uprooting from Gush Katif, I told them: The soldiers among you must obey your commanders' orders. In a conflict between the dictates of your heart and those of authorized state institutions, you are obligated to obey the dictates of the state. If you refuse an order, your conscience may be assuaged, but by doing so you are liable to cause the disintegration of the Israel Defense Forces.

The disintegration of the army, I added, is liable to lead, God forbid, to the disintegration of the State of Israel, to the failure of the modern-day return to Zion. It is quite doubtful that the Jewish nation will get another opportunity to establish a state; it certainly won't be given to us. Without the continued existence of the Jewish state, I emphasized, there is also grave doubt as to the continued existence of the Jewish people. Only in a Jewish state, I told them, even the utterly secular don't assimilate, and maintaining the continued existence of the Jewish people may be the greatest challenge of your generation.

The gist of those comments expressed the collective ideology of religious Zionism on the eve of - and during - the evacuation. That's why there was no mass refusal of orders, and why most opponents of the plan did not engage in extended mass protests to prevent it, as they could have done.

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Many saw the decisions to carry out the uprooting as having been reached through coercion, deception and fraud, and viewed the justice system and media as having jumped on the bandwagon for purely political reasons. Yet responsibility for the future of the state took precedence among the opponents of the evacuation.

Deep fissures have developed in religious Zionist ideology over the past five years. There has been a crisis of confidence between many of the young people who were convinced to obey state orders and those who did the convincing. Some of the best kids have interpreted their leaders' feelings of responsibility as collaboration with a corrupt regime, on a political and moral level.

The recent anti-evacuation protests by soldiers from the Shimshon and Nachshon battalions reflect this sense of injury. The protests were partly directed against yeshiva heads, Yesha Council leaders and right-wing parties - which the demonstrators say hasten to condemn them but don't do enough to keep the army from acting against civilians, despite having the political power to do so.

The prime minister is right to say that refusing orders "will bring about the collapse of the state," though the Shimshon and Nachshon soldiers didn't refuse orders, they protested. And the situation begs his response that the government will do everything to eradicate the phenomenon.

But if that "everything" results in the necessary act of ending the army's relationship with the two hesder yeshivas in question and putting the protesters in military prison, as well as the damaging act of ejecting the protesters from the ranks of the combat soldiers - damaging because some of the true heroes of the Second Lebanon War were among the protesters against the evacuation - the detriments of eradicating the phenomenon will outweigh its benefits.

When the soldiers are convinced that they are pawns in the defense minister's struggle for political survival, as in the Nachshon Battalion incident near Negohot, no military prison sentence will eradicate the protest. On the contrary, it will only spread further. Let us hope that the IDF knows this.

Although the protest phenomenon has support from combat soldiers in other units too, it can still be prevented. The main method of prevention is something soldiers, politicians, the media and the justice system all agree on: depoliticizing the IDF. The protesting corporals and sergeants have only a marginal role in that politicization. The parties primarily responsible for this - the same ones responsible for setting the army against civilians - are the prime minister and the defense minister.

 

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

SA'AR'S OFFICERS

BY NA'AMA SHEFFI

 

Since his appointment, Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar has been trying to change the way the winds blow in the country's schools, by ending both the weakness that tempts students to act out and the lenience that has lowered educational standards. This approach is like a refreshing splash of cold water in the face of the battered school system.

But now Sa'ar is pushing a new project for high school students: You're finishing school and being drafted into the army, he tells them, so go ahead and take up the challenge of combat service. He aims to foster education that eschews pampering and whining, so he sees nothing wrong with mobilizing uniformed officers to bring that message right into the schools, the very center for the cultivation of the modern, humanist spirit.

Uniforms are a fixture in Israel's landscape, and are also seen in other countries' educational institutions. On American campuses, for example, the authorities allow military recruiters to speak to students and distribute information about signing up in exchange for tuition and a certain degree of prestige. In Israel, where one law makes military service compulsory and other laws exempt large groups within the population, it is not easy to persuade teens. To that end, Sa'ar's forces will deploy in high schools with the objective of instilling into the teachers a sense of duty to spur their students to volunteer for combat units.

 

The 270 officers assigned to the mission will restore the spirit of the 1950s, when soldier-teachers were recruited and came to the aid of the state by helping to socialize the children of new immigrants by teaching them the language and customs of the natives.

Such spirits of the past are not necessarily a bad thing. The question is when to revive them and why. The flagrant individualism that characterizes Israel indeed calls for strengthening the link between society and individuals. But society can be made more coherent without passing through the army induction center. If it's a lack of patriotism that is bothering Sa'ar, then it's best to start with firm foundations. Teach preschoolers rich, proper Hebrew so they can correct their parents, whose language has been deteriorating for decades. Let schoolchildren learn that knowledge is first of all a matter of learning to use common sense, and to bolster it by reading and studying. And let's replace the most prevalent physical activities - switching channels and surfing the Internet to copy homework assignments - with sports, music and agriculture, which were part of the curriculum before the gods of English and mathematics took on monstrous proportions.

Let high school students be required to help those who need it: They could tutor children who have difficulty in school and whose parents are too busy earning a living to help them and can't afford babysitters, tutors or extracurricular activities. They could help old people carry their groceries home, or schedule medical appointments, or even clean their homes.

Sa'ar would achieve his goal: Action, not whining, would prevail in the schools and Israelis would all be mutually responsible once more. He may even get a bonus. A contribution of this kind could be a fine complement to the combat service he so ardently wishes to promote. It could be applied to those communities whose members are exempted from military service - Arabs, the ultra-Orthodox and religious women. Involving them in community service would delight every taxpayer.

There will always be volunteers for combat units, each person for his own reason: a personal spirit of volunteerism, an ideological attitude, immigrants wanting to be part of society or just our local Rambos. There will be uniforms in Israeli society for many years to come. There will be education only if it is fostered.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

MR. OBAMA'S TASK

 

There is no doubt that the prospects for success in Afghanistan are so bleak right now because former President George W. Bush failed for seven long years to invest the necessary troops, resources or attention to the war. But it is now President Obama's war, and the American people are waiting for him to explain his goals and his strategy.

 

Mr. Obama was right to conduct a sober, systematic review of his options. We all know what happens when a president sends tens of thousands of Americans to war based on flawed information, gut reactions and gauzy notions of success. But the political reality is that the longer Mr. Obama waits, the more indecisive he seems and the more constrained his options appear.

 

It has been more than eight months since Mr. Obama first announced his strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, warning Americans that, for them, the border between the two — where Taliban and Qaeda forces have found safe haven — is "the most dangerous place in the world." And it has been more than a month since his top general in Afghanistan asked for 40,000 more troops, warning that "failure to gain the initiative" over the next year could make it impossible to defeat the Taliban.

 

•Americans are deeply anxious about the war. As the debate among his advisers has dragged on, and became increasingly public, many are asking whether the conflict is necessary or already a lost cause. Democratic leaders are among the loudest questioners.

It has become a cliché in Washington that there are only bad choices in Afghanistan. But it seems clear that this is not the time for a precipitous withdrawal, nor can the United States cling to the status quo while the Taliban gains ever more territory and more power. To move forward, Mr. Obama needs to explain the stakes for this country, the extent of the military commitment, the likely cost in lives and treasure and his definition of success.

 

Mr. Bush failed to do all of that in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

America's allies, many of whom are looking for a way out, also need to hear why their troops should continue

to risk their lives. There is no chance in Afghanistan unless President Hamid Karzai separates himself from his corrupt associates and Pakistan's leaders step up their fight against the Taliban and other extremists.

 

Mr. Obama said on Wednesday that he would soon provide "a lot of clarity" on his Afghanistan strategy. These are some of the things the world needs to hear.

 

WHAT ARE THE STAKES? We agreed with the president in August when he described Afghanistan as a war of necessity. In a speech, he warned that if the Taliban insurgency were left unchecked it "will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people."

 

Since then, some of his top advisers have raised doubts about the urgency and even the necessity of the war. The national security adviser, Gen. James Jones, said in October that there were "less than 100" Qaeda members operating in Afghanistan without bases or the "ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies." He said he didn't "foresee the return of the Taliban" and that the "next step in this is the sanctuaries" in Pakistan.

 

Vice President Joseph Biden has been even more insistent that the real front is across the border and that attacking extremists on both sides could be better accomplished with a lighter footprint in Afghanistan and Predator strikes and special operations raids. Other officials argue that the Taliban may have learned a lesson and might be open to a deal that barred Al Qaeda from its territory.

 

Mr. Obama needs to address these arguments — to say whether he still considers fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to be central to American security and why. Does he still believe a Taliban victory in Afghanistan would mean a "larger safe haven" for Al Qaeda? And how does he see the relationship between the war in Afghanistan and efforts to hold off extremists in a nuclear-armed Pakistan? If the Taliban were to win in Afghanistan, would they be less or more likely to threaten Pakistan?

 

In March, Mr. Obama warned that, for Afghans, a "return to Taliban rule would condemn their country to brutal governance, international isolation, a paralyzed economy and the denial of basic human rights," especially to women and girls. We need to hear whether he still believes Americans have a duty to stop that.

 

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE WAR? In March, President Obama said his goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future." He also argued that bullets and bombs would not be enough to drive the Taliban back. In Afghanistan, American forces and a surge of civilian advisers must "advance security, opportunity and justice" for the Afghan people, "not just in Kabul, but from the bottom up in the provinces."

 

Given that, no one in the White House should have been surprised when Mr. Obama's chosen commander, Gen.

Stanley McChrystal, came back with an ambitious counterinsurgency plan, although his request for 40,000 more troops was clearly higher than Mr. Obama and his aides had wanted to hear.

 

If Mr. Obama no longer believes that a counterinsurgency is necessary or feasible, or if he wants to set less-ambitious goals (there has been talk of securing a smaller number of cities while speeding up training of the Afghan Army), then the American people need to hear why he changed his mind and how he intends to move forward.

 

Mr. Obama will also have to address his vice president's proposal. We share Mr. Biden's anxiety that a larger American military presence might alienate more Afghans than it wins over. But we are also skeptical that a war against Al Qaeda can be fought from a distance. Drones and commandos still need bases, and Pakistan is not likely to provide them. They need "actionable" intelligence, which could dry up with fewer American troops on the Afghan side of the border.

 

ARE THERE CREDIBLE PARTNERS? There is almost no chance of holding off the Taliban (or plotting an eventual American withdrawal) without a minimally credible Afghan government and security forces.

 

The Taliban's medieval ideas and brutality are anathema to most Afghans. We see that in the courage of the Afghan families who defy the Taliban by sending their daughters to school. But the corruption of the Karzai government, and its failure to provide the most basic services and security, have caused many of its citizens to decide that they have no choice but to submit to the Taliban.

 

Even after his supporters were caught trying to steal the election, Mr. Karzai remains shamelessly, insultingly undaunted. Mr. Obama must make clear to both Mr. Karzai and the American people the sweeping changes required to build a credible Afghan government. If there are other, better partners, competent cabinet members or provincial officials, then Americans need to hear how Mr. Obama plans to empower them.

 

Mr. Obama should be candid about his administration's halting progress. In March, he pledged to send "agricultural specialists and educators, engineers and lawyers" across Afghanistan to relieve the burden on American troops and help the government "serve its people." There are disturbing reports that the situation on the ground is so dangerous that many of these advisers cannot leave Kabul. It was chilling to read in The Times last week that when the ambassador in Kabul asked for additional civilian staff, the State Department turned down some of his requests because of budget constraints and a decision to cap the number at 1,000.

 

There will never be enough American troops on the ground to defeat the Taliban or provide security for Afghans. Mr. Obama must explain his plans for building a minimally functional Afghan Army and police force. More trainers are needed, but as The Times reported earlier this month, even that is no guarantee of success. According to reviews by American officials, the effort has been hobbled by a high dropout rate for recruits, "a lack of competent and professional" Afghan leadership "at all levels," widespread illiteracy and corruption.

 

• WHAT WILL IT COST? Mr. Bush cynically tried to cover up the heavy costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars and cooked the financial books with repeated "supplemental" financing requests. Mr. Obama has done far better and needs to continue to tell the truth.

 

The human cost will continue to rise if the number of forces rises. Mr. Obama should also acknowledge the cost in military readiness and the stress of repeated deployments on troops and their families. On the financial side, the Pentagon has already spent more than $150 billion on the war. While estimates are difficult, analysts say that for every 10,000 additional troops deployed, the annual cost will rise by at least another $10 billion. Americans need to hear how those costs will be met, even though the choices — raising taxes, cutting spending or more borrowing — are unappealing in a time of recession and high deficits.

 

IS THERE A WAY OUT? Finally, Mr. Obama promised on Wednesday to outline an "endgame." Given Afghanistan's desperate state, we are skeptical that he can lay out a firm timetable for withdrawal. But there are certainly benchmarks that he can offer. (Mr. Obama promised that in March, but the nation has yet to hear an accounting.)

 

There must be a way to measure progress or failure. Americans need to know the war will not go on forever.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

INDIVIDUALISM, IDENTITY AND BICYCLES IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG

 

PALO ALTO, Calif.

On the hour they come, great clouds of cyclists pulsing between classes along the street called Serra Mall — the main axis of Stanford University — like so many slowly charged particles in a physics experiment.

 

Campus is flat enough — and large enough — and the weather so brilliant that nearly everyone cycles. And whoever all these cyclists are, as individuals, their individuality is burnished by the bikes they ride and by the way they ride them. It's as though the bikes are only partly transportation, as though they were really machines for differentiation.

 

And what aids the differencing is that few people wear helmets, and everyone is wearing ordinary clothes — none of the sleek and gaudy costumes you see on cyclists pumping through the peninsular hills and whistling down Sand Hill Road to the Caltrain station. They are themselves on wheels.

 

There is a deeply pleasing randomness about the campus cyclists, as though one morning university officials had assigned a bicycle to every member of the Stanford community, come as you are, without considering for a moment matters of fit — or fitness.

 

Some riders are clearly adepts, like the ones riding fixies — fixed, single-gear bikes. There goes one now — zooming past on yellow-walled tires, riding fully upright, texting with both hands on his iPhone as he goes.

 

But all around him there are cyclists riding à la 8 years old, prey to the wobbling clutches of gravity, prone to every distorting posture a bicycle can inflict. One pedals past with his saddle tipped up so far that he rides slipping backward, hanging onto the handlebar to keep from falling into the rear wheel. One rides high-kneed, spilling all the energy as he pedals.

 

A cluster of young women comes along, one with streamers flying from her hand-grips, all with handlebars high and seats low, knees gesticulating as they go. One tugs at her hem as she rides. One rides in heels and pinions a cellphone between her shoulder and her ear.

 

The women are only accidentally riding together, and, suddenly, through the group — nearly dispersing it — pedals a subcluster of young women on mountain bikes, agile, balanced, weight forward, utterly at home on two wheels. Behind them rides a young man wearing a King Tut headdress, glistening in the sun, churning furiously in a gear too low.

 

And everyone — everyone — is a hostage to gravity, adding to their burden by carrying distended bags of every description. The champion is a woman who cycles past wearing a golf bag like a quiver across her back.

 

Truly, we are the only species so discontented with our natural gaits, so ambitious to exceed a foot-pace. It all puts me in mind of Thomas Jefferson, on the subject of walking and horses and their deleterious effect on human exercise.

 

"I doubt," he wrote, "whether we have not lost more than we have gained, by the use of this animal."

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY

BY NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

 

Critics storm that health care reform is "a cruel hoax and a delusion." Ads in 100 newspapers thunder that reform would mean "the beginning of socialized medicine."

 

The Wall Street Journal's editorial page predicts that the legislation will lead to "deteriorating service." Business groups warn that Washington bureaucrats will invade "the privacy of the examination room," that we are on the road to rationed care and that patients will lose the "freedom to choose their own doctor."

 

All dire — but also wrong. Those forecasts date not from this year, but from the battle over Medicare in the early 1960s. I pulled them from newspaper archives and other accounts.

 

Yet this year those same accusations are being recycled in an attempt to discredit the health reform proposals now before Congress. The heirs of those who opposed Medicare are conjuring the same bogymen — only this time they claim to be protecting Medicare.

 

Indeed, these same arguments we hear today against health reform were used even earlier, to attack President Franklin Roosevelt's call for Social Security. It was denounced as a socialist program that would compete with private insurers and add to Americans' tax burden so as to kill jobs.

 

Daniel Reed, a Republican representative from New York, predicted that with Social Security, Americans would come to feel "the lash of the dictator." Senator Daniel Hastings, a Delaware Republican, declared that Social Security would "end the progress of a great country."

 

John Taber, a Republican representative from New York, went further and said of Social Security: "Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought here so insidiously designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers."

 

In hindsight, it seems a bit ridiculous, doesn't it? Social Security passed, and the republic survived.

 

Similar, ferocious hyperbole was unleashed on the proposal for Medicare. President John Kennedy and later President Lyndon Johnson pushed for a government health program for the elderly, but conservatives bitterly denounced the proposal as socialism, as a plan for bureaucrats to make medical decisions, as a means to ration health care.

 

The American Medical Association was vehement, with Dr. Donovan Ward, the head of the A.M.A. in 1965, declaring that "a deterioration in the quality of care is inescapable." The president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons went further and suggested that for doctors to cooperate with Medicare would be "complicity in evil."

 

The Wall Street Journal warned darkly in editorials in 1965 that Medicare amounted to "politicking with a nation's health." It quoted a British surgeon as saying that in Britain, government health care was "crumbling to utter ruin" and suggested that the United States might be heading in the same direction.

 

"The basic concerns and arguments were the same" in 1935 against Social Security, in 1965 against Medicare, and today against universal coverage, said Nancy J. Altman, author of "The Battle for Social Security," a history of the program. (The quotes against Social Security above were taken from that book.)

 

These days, the critics of Medicare have come around because it manifestly works. Life expectancy for people who have reached the age of 65 has risen significantly. America is no longer shamed by elderly Americans suffering for lack of medical care.

 

Yet although America's elderly are now cared for, our children are not. A Johns Hopkins study found that hospitalized children who are uninsured are 60 percent more likely to die than those with insurance, presumably because they are less likely to get preventive care and to be taken to the doctor when sick. The study suggested that every year some 1,000 children may die as a consequence of lacking health insurance.

 

Why is it broadly accepted that the elderly should have universal health care, while it's immensely controversial to seek universal coverage for children? What's the difference — except that health care for children is far cheaper?

 

Granted, there are problems in the House and Senate bills — in particular, they falter on cost-containment. In the same way, there were many specific flaws in the Social Security and Medicare legislation, but, in retrospect, it's also clear that they were major advances for our nation.

 

It's now broadly apparent that those who opposed Social Security in 1935 and Medicare in 1965 were wrong in their fears and tried to obstruct a historical tide. This year, the fate of health care will come down to a handful of members of Congress, including Senators Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu. If they flinch and health reform fails, they'll be letting down their country at a crucial juncture. They'll be on the wrong side of history.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

THE BREAST BROUHAHA

BY GAIL COLLINS

 

Everyone has been trying to come up with a good nickname for the 10 years we're concluding next month. Terror Era really sounds like too much of a downer. How about the Decade of Medical Backtracking?

 

Somewhere between the reports that Pap smears and tests for prostate cancer aren't all they were cracked up to be and the news that a high fiber diet doesn't do anything to prevent cancer, the health establishment began looking decidedly nonomniscient. Then this week, a federal task force reported that most women don't need annual mammograms.

 

Even more fascinating, they suggested that doctors stop telling their female patients to self-examine their breasts for lumps.

 

If you happen to be a woman, particularly a somewhat obsessive woman, this is huge news. The to-do list just got one item shorter. Now if dentists would just decide to withdraw the flossing directive, we may have enough additional spare time to learn Spanish.

 

The task report said that the jury is still out on whether doctors should do the examinations themselves, but my general impression is that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force feels that younger women should not let anybody near their breasts unless the plan is to have sex.

 

The report triggered two immediate and inevitable responses. Doctors and patients began an animated discussion. And Republicans declared it was all a Democratic plot.

 

"I mean, let the rationing begin. This is what happens when bureaucrats make your health care decisions," said Representative David Camp, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.

 

Representative Camp is definitely on to something. Whatever happens, we do not want the government conducting any studies on whether current health practices actually do any good. Let this continue and soon you will not be able to get your hands on a good leech when you need one.

 

There is no possible political advantage in coming out against medical testing, so the Obama administration scurried away from the report. The task force did not consider the matter of cost, but, of course, people like Representative Camp depicted it as the first step toward rationing. The current position of the Republican Party seems to be that it is not possible to spend too much money on medicine. Party on.

 

(Has anybody noticed that the people who darkly warn about government bureaucrats forcing insurance companies to cut back our coverage appear to be the same ones who just voted to force insurance companies to stop covering abortions? Where's the sanctity of the marketplace when we really need it?)

 

Every rational American wants qualified experts to keep re-examining current medical practices. The only thing that bothers me about the mammogram report is all the emphasis on the "anxiety" that might follow a false-positive. We live in a time when we are constantly being reminded that a fellow plane passenger might be trying to smuggle explosives in his sneakers. We can manage anxiety.

 

I am going out on a limb to say that the real problem with a test that creates a lot of false-positive results is that it leads to a lot of other medical procedures, some involving hospitals. Unless you are genuinely sick, there is no more dangerous place to be hanging around than a hospital.

 

I had breast cancer back in 2000, and I am trying to come up with a way that I can use that experience to shed some light on these new findings. I have never believed that everything happens for a reason. But I do feel very strongly that everything happens so that it can be turned into a column.

 

Whatever the moral would be, I don't think it helps Representative Camp's argument. I had mammograms every year like clockwork, and I had just gotten a clean bill of health from my latest one when I found a lump on my left breast while watching a rerun of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," multitasker that I am.

 

It turned out to be cancer, of a fairly low-grade variety. My oncologist felt strongly that it never would have developed if I hadn't taken estrogen replacement therapy — another one of the medical marvels that has now been consigned to the Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time category.

 

So, in summary, the cutting-edge of medical thinking of the 1990s may have induced my cancer, and then the universally recommended testing protocol failed to detect it.

 

Nevertheless, everything seemed to work out fine, except that I had to have radiation while I was covering the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. In retrospect, it is possible that my attitude toward the Bush-Cheney ticket was colored by the fact that I was thinking a lot about mortal danger at the time.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

THE SENATE'S HEALTH CARE CALCULATIONS

BY ANDREW GELMAN, NATE SILVER AND DANIEL LEE

 

CRITICS of the health care reform plan often refer to it derisively as "ObamaCare." On the policy merits, this is highly questionable: the White House has taken a hands-off approach toward the legislation that recently passed in the House and the Senate version that Harry Reid unveiled on Wednesday. But when it comes to politics, "ObamaCare" could hardly be more apt: lawmakers' support for or opposition to reform generally has less to do with the views of their constituents and more to do with the issue of presidential popularity.

 

Consider, for instance, the 39 Democrats who voted against the bill in the House, which approved the health care bill by a margin of 220 to 215. According to data compiled by The New York Times, 31 of the 39 Democratic naysayers hail from districts that John McCain won last November. Although the upper chamber has a reputation for being less rigidly constrained by near-term political considerations, odds are that the same calculus will prevail in the Senate.

 

We've crunched some poll numbers in order to relate senators' positions on the bill to public opinion in their home states. First, we rated each of the 100 senators from 1 to 5, based on their public statements and their committee votes on the health care initiative, with 1 meaning completely opposed (like Jim DeMint of South Carolina) and 5 meaning completely supporting the bill (like Barbara Boxer of California).

 

We then compared these scores against several statistical indicators that would presumably affect lawmakers' positions, including their party affiliations and the rate of uninsurance in their home states. We also looked at polling data from the National Annenberg Election Surveys, which asked voters in each state: "Providing health insurance for people who do not already have it — should the federal government spend more on it, the same as now, less, or no money at all?" (The Annenberg data are from 2000 and 2004; 2008 data have yet to be released.)

 

But the relationship between state-level opinion and senators' positions on health care disappears once we introduce another variable — Mr. Obama's margin of victory in each state in 2008. This holds whether or not we take into account a senator's political party.

 

For instance, Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who has been a less-than-strong supporter of the present health care bill, recently told The Times, "I am responsible to the people of Arkansas, and that is where I will take my direction." But where does she look for her cue? Hers is a poor state whose voters support health care subsidies six percentage points more than the national average. On the other hand, Mr. Obama got just 40 percent of the vote there.

 

Likewise, in Louisiana, where the Annenberg surveys showed health care reform to be popular but where Mr. Obama is not, the Democrats are not assured of Mary Landrieu's vote.

 

There are exceptions to the pattern: Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, a state that Mr. Obama lost by 13 points but whose voters remain economically liberal and show high levels of support for health care reform, has been one of the most vocal supporters of the bill.

 

Using a statistical method called multilevel regression and post-stratification, we also mapped opinion on health care, breaking down voters by age, family income and state. We're used to thinking about red states and blue states, but the geographic variation is dwarfed by the demographic patterns: younger, lower-income Americans strongly support increased government spending on health care, while elderly and well-off Americans are much less supportive of the idea. But in general, senators seems to be less interested in what their constituents, old and young, rich and poor, might think about health care, and more interested in how they feel about President Obama.

 

This may actually be good news for the Democrats. Although the Annenberg surveys had shown health care subsidies to be quite popular — they had 67 percent support nationally in 2000 and 73 percent support in 2004 — that was back when they were a mere abstraction, and before voters might have been considering how to pay for them. Nowadays, President Obama enjoys higher approval ratings — in the low to mid-50s, according to most polls — than do the Democrats' health care reform plans, which are mired in the mid-40s in most surveys. Conditions being what they are, Democrats would rather have a referendum on the president than one on the health care bill itself.

 

Still, what these numbers seem to reflect is a series of missed connections. On the one hand, there is a disconnect between Mr. Obama and the electorate: the president — who had popularity ratings in the 60s when the health care debate began — has generally stayed in the background during health care negotiations, leaving the unpopular Congress to be the public face of the bill.

 

On the other hand, there is a disconnect between the electorate and the 535 members of Congress, who seem to be so fixated on Mr. Obama's standing in their states that they've paid little attention to what their constituents might want — or need.

 

Andrew Gelman is a professor of statistics and political science at Columbia. Nate Silver is the founder of the Web site FiveThirtyEight.com. Daniel Lee is a research associate at the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia.

 

This piece has been updated.

 

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

 

Correction: November 19, 2009 A chart accompanying this Op-Ed article mislabeled a category. The second line of maps reflects the support of Americans ages 30 to 44, not ages 30 to 34.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

HAVE WORK, WILL TRAVEL

BY AYDEN FABIEN FÉRDELINE

 

Whistler, Canada

 

I HAVE always been ambitious and adventurous, someone with a zest for life who more than anything wants to see the world. And because I hold an Australian passport, I've been able to do just that, because I can travel on Working Holiday visas — a benefit that young Americans should envy.

 

Australia has reciprocal agreements with 26 governments that allow its young citizens (usually those under the age of 30) to work temporarily in each other's countries, almost always without having to arrange employment sponsorship in advance. I've traveled from Asia to Europe to the Americas with these visas, and applying for one for Canada, where I'm now working, took me only a few minutes.

 

Working Holiday programs were created to foster youth mobility, but they also encourage the exchange of cultural values. Participants serve as ambassadors for their home country and gain a greater appreciation for their host. And participants, like any tourists, contribute to the economy; Working Holiday travelers spend about $1.2 billion annually in Australia.

 

The United States, to its detriment, has no similarly accessible working holiday program for its citizens, except some small pilot exchanges with Australia, New Zealand and South Korea that have onerous application processes. Why doesn't it follow Australia's lead, and expand the program?

 

Immigration issues stir strong emotions in the United States, and further opening American borders to temporary labor, especially during a recession, would understandably be met with resistance. But although participants overwhelmingly enjoy their time abroad — and recommend the experience to family, friends and anyone with time to listen to their adventures — few seek permanent residency. Most also take jobs in restaurants or hotels, in positions that tend to be occupied by young workers. Since the visas are reciprocal, these Americans are the very people who would be able to travel and land jobs abroad with similar ease.

 

I owe a great many adventures to this program and I've gained an appreciation for the differences that make us human. When I hear the French stereotyped as snobby, for example, I know better. When I worked in France, the people I met were warm and welcoming, despite my mediocre language skills.

 

The United States could gain some similar good will by making it easier for Americans to work abroad, and by opening its doors to the world's young.

 

Ayden Fabien Férdeline works for the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort.

 

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 I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

CRYPTOGRAMS

 

Decoding the various messages that come out of Afghanistan or those that are given to Afghanistan by its well-wishers is an arcane artform. The latest message has been delivered by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, while speaking at a meeting of the NATO parliamentary assembly in Edinburgh. Miliband is a frequent visitor to the region and presumably has a 'feel' for its complex politics. That said, one wonders who he has in mind when he says that ending the war in Afghanistan is going to need 'senior Taliban figures' sitting in government. Military action, he says, must be accompanied by a 'political surge'. Presumably this does not mean flooding the country with yet more politicians in the hope that by sheer force of numbers they are somehow going to 'make a difference'. He seems to be under the impression that the majority of the Taliban may be persuaded to stop fighting, but how he has determined that they are peace-loving pastoralists at heart who would happily lay down the Kalashnikov and pick up the hoe is not clear.

The 'top Taliban' in Afghanistan are driven and motivated ideologues with years of fighting under their belts. They are unlikely to join any government that does not reflect their vision. Miliband talked of 'reintegration' and of the insurgency starting to 'fray and crumble'. The insurgency shows no sign of fraying or crumbling and although the Taliban are under pressure there is little or no indication that they are about to pack up and go home. In one of his more lucid moments Miliband acknowledged that the task was going to be far from straightforward – but pointed out that enemies of a past era are now in government together and that could happen with today's adversaries. Former Taliban, he said, are now in government and that at least is true – but the government is monstrously corrupt, weak at the centre and barely functional outside greater Kabul. How long it will last is anybody's guess. He probably had little choice but to say what he did, yet viewed from our end of the telescope his statement appears to bear little resemblance to what we understand ground realities to be. He concluded by delivering his own version of the 'Pakistan must do more' mantra by calling for more support for Pakistan to 'squeeze the life' out of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Messages are tailored to audiences and Miliband's audience in Edinburgh got what it wanted to hear. Decoding it for local consumption suggests a reality-disconnect that bodes ill for all of us.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

IDPS AND WINTER

 

As winter sets in over Waziristan, the over 300,000 people reported by the UN to have fled the area have now begun to move beyond the neighbouring districts of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, where they have so far been based. With little prospect of being able to return to abandoned homes till after the snows melt away, IDPs are headed to larger cities in search of work to sustain them over this period. Some say they are also fearful of clashes breaking out in D I Khan, where persons from rival tribes have all sought shelter. It is also clear that the IDPs from South Waziristan have not received the level of help offered to those from Swat. Requests from international humanitarian agencies to be permitted to work with the IDPs have been turned down by authorities on the grounds of security.

These concerns are valid, but as a consequence men, women and children who have played no part in militancy suffer. Even the International Committee of the Red Cross, known internationally as a body that is neutral, has been prevented from visiting the conflict zone or even areas where IDPs are based. With the advent of winter certain to impose a prolonged period of displacement, it is vital that the situation be reviewed. Ensuring that the people of Waziristan receive adequate support goes beyond immediate humanitarian needs of the old, the sick, the very young or the vulnerable. Wining the trust of these people is of utmost importance and this could prove a vital factor in the future to ensure that victory in Waziristan over the militants is sustained and indeed built upon to guarantee the future of the territory.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE RAPE REGISTER

 

Rape is a crime universally condemned, yet it remains a crime where the offences committed far outweigh the number of actual cases that occur -- and by far outweighs the number successfully prosecuted. In Pakistan rape occurs against a cultural background of shame and dishonour, and reporting levels and successful prosecutions are both low and depressingly small. The figures for rape reported in this newspaper covering the 24-month period between 2007-9 are put at 7,546, or an average of 314 per month. This is a figure derived from analysis of reports in newspapers as well as figures provided by law-enforcement agencies. This figure appears to be trending upwards in 2008 across the country.

Shocking as the figures are, they almost certainly represent an under-reporting of incidents where rape has occurred -- but we also have to view the figures through the prism of the difference between 'incidence' and 'incidents'. Pakistan is moving into what is known as a 'climate of disclosure' in relation to the spectrum of sexual offences. This means that more and more offences are being reported, as those against whom the offences are committed are increasingly confident about coming forward to report the crime. As the trend towards disclosure increases, so will the number of reported incidents, which does not mean that the median incidence of rape and other sexual crimes within the population are themselves increasing – just that they are more often reported when they happen. One of the drivers behind the creation of the climate of disclosure is the media, both print and electronic, which is increasingly challenging the cultural taboos against the reporting of sexual offences, and providing a platform for those against whom sexual offences are committed to both present their case and bring pressure on unwilling 'authorities' to prosecute where before they would have sought to sweep the matter under the carpet. Paradoxically, it is good news that we are seeing more reports of rape than was historically the case – we would be even more encouraged to see a parallel rise in the successful prosecution of this most heinous of crimes.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LEAVE AFGHANISTAN ALONE

ZAFAR HILALY

Nobody, it seems, is prepared to leave Afghanistan alone or allow the Afghans to determine their own form of government, or who should lead them. They refuse, as Benazir Bhutto advised, "to let the dust settle in Afghanistan where it will." Instead, Afghanistan's neighbours, and many who are not, prefer to impose their own proxies and back them up with funds and weapons.

Some, like Pakistan, actually sent troops in plain clothes to help their favourite Afghans and make no bones about their eagerness to install a pro-Pakistan government in Afghanistan. America sent a whole army to keep the Taliban/Al Qaeda at bay and ensure that the Tajiks retain a disproportionate amount of power. In doing so America re-animated the Afghan civil war, re-armed the militias and used Afghanistan as a workshop for a new model of hegemony, defined by minimalism and the use of proxies, which it then exported to Iraq.

India, having persuaded itself that Afghanistan was vital for its global ambitions and eager at the opportunity provided to needle Pakistan and outflank it, has spent more than a billion dollars in propping up Karzai. It has also deployed a nest of spooks to keep him safe.

Not to be outdone Iran too has been consolidating relations with its allies in Afghanistan, the Hazaras, and supporting anti-Taliban parties like that of Ismail Khan, conducting incursions and nursing anti-American militants in the refugee camps in Iran. Needless to say where there is Iran there will be Saudi Arabia trying to offset Iranian influence. Saudi support of jihadi groups and the Taliban is well known. However, its major contribution to Afghan woes, and ironically her own, has been the Saudi creed of Wahhabism that Arab proselytisers of the ideology, under the Saudi national Osama bin Laden, are preaching to such devastating effect in Afghanistan and now also Pakistan.

Although their interference in Afghanistan achieved nothing, not security, law, justice, economic development, or the creation of a viable Afghan state but rather further dislocation of the diverse communities that make up Afghan society, these countries seem unwilling to learn from their mistakes. In Pakistan's case this became evident when Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi cautioned Obama's national security adviser, General Jones, against the US withdrawing from Afghanistan without putting in place a broad-based government because of the serious repercussions on Pakistan's security. Qureshi should have known better. It suggests that Pakistan is up to its old tricks of installing a pliable regime in Kabul something that is well beyond its capability and would amount to the kiss of death for such a regime with proud Afghans.

It defies imagination how the Americans can broker anything as complex as a power-sharing agreement between bitterly divided Afghan groups while itself warring against a key component of the future regime. Besides, the Taliban are not interested in sharing power or participating in a government acceptable to the Americans. They are confident that they can defeat the Northern Alliance. They also believe that the Americans will be departing and having failed to worst the Taliban on the battlefield can hardly expect a contrary outcome on the conference table. Hence, the Taliban feel under no pressure to relent in their demand for a complete and unconditional withdrawal of all allied forces; which is the only worthwhile contribution that the US can make to eventual peace in Afghanistan. Of course, when and if the Taliban fail to defeat their local opponents or are fought to a standstill in the war that will follow an American departure, a broad-based government may emerge but only in due course and in the Afghan way, which is as it should be.

Actually, Foreign Minister Qureshi's plea to Gen Jones about installing a broad-based government in Kabul was reminiscent of the meddling mind- set that propelled Pakistan to participate in the Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union and become enmeshed in the Afghan imbroglio. To extricate ourselves from it, a decade or so later, we had to drop the mujahideen as an ally and adopt the Taliban. Subsequently, in 2001, we took yet another U-turn from the Taliban to the Americans. All of which should have convinced even a novice like Qureshi how ephemeral alliances are and how ill-advised it is to take sides in the heterogeneous melting pot of tribes, affiliations, interests, loyalties and religions that comprise Afghanistan.

Illustrative of the difficulty in deciphering correctly what transpires in Afghanistan, where different groups stand in relation to each other, and how they are likely to interact is the example of the Pakistani Taliban and their Afghan counterparts. Many assume that they are on the same page when, in fact, they are poles apart and conflict between them has often led to bloody encounters. Similarly, those who believed that the Taliban and the Pakistani establishment were natural allies must have been surprised when it became evident that nothing could be further from the truth and that the Taliban were as contemptuously unmindful of Pakistan's interests and counsel as of any other country. The Taliban emerged powerful not because they were helped or trained by Pakistan in the art of war and politics but rather because of their mastery over the Pakhtun milieu. Moreover, the rise of Islamism in Afghanistan was the result of the interplay of domestic and international factors and not love of Islam inculcated into the minds of the Taliban by Pakistan. All that Pakistan's identification with the Taliban did was to earn Pakistan a bad name and the enmity of the other ethnic groups in Afghanistan who hated the Taliban for the internal colonialism they practised on non-Pakhtuns.

And if the foreign minister is worried that in case of a hurried American departure from Afghanistan the wrath of the Afghan Taliban will descend on Pakistan then that fear too is misplaced. The Afghan Taliban have enough on their plate in Afghanistan to add to it by taking on Pakistan, as their spokesman said a week ago. In fact, by staying on in Afghanistan America is only reinforcing the xenophobia that has always set the Afghans apart from other subcontinentals, while providing Islamic militancy a fertile recruiting ground for the Taliban cause. Actually, the American presence in Afghanistan and America's unpopularity among Pakistanis has only served to divide Pakistan and lent the cause of the Taliban righteousness and legitimacy in the eyes of Pakistanis that it does not deserve.

America's assistance, valuable, reassuring and welcome as it might appear, is merely prolonging the day when the Pakistanis will have to confront and overcome the challenge posed by the extremists by dint of their own efforts. The battle against extremism is intrinsically our domestic affair. To win we will not only have to eradicate domestic extremists from all spheres of life but also overcome the sluggish pace of political, economic and social progress. For this task competent and strong leadership will be required and the army's effort will have to be augmented by civilian security structures and better intelligence-gathering. Success or failure lies in our hands and not in the complexion of any future regime in Afghanistan or even whether America chooses to stay or leave though the chances of success will increase immeasurably if America does leave and confines its help to funding, appropriate weaponry and economic assistance to offset the costs of the war. If that were to happen our war would become that of America, and not vice versa, which many alas still feel is the case today.

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: charles123it@hotmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

IT'S THE STUPIDITY, STUPID

ZAFAR KHALID FAROOQ

Whilst it is common to hear, or read, the unenlightened ramblings of various 'experts' in the media these days, it's strange to find examples of anti-intellectualism in a bookshop. One would hope that these establishments would attract people interested in expanding their minds and developing critical thinking. But, not so in Pakistan.

I was in Liberty Books when I spied a comment card nestling inside the Perspex comment box. The angry opinion read as follows: "'Mother of God' by Miri Rubin. I don't think that this book should be sold or displayed in a prestigious store like yours. You have a social responsibility."

Yes, they do have a social (and financial) responsibility to sell books. What could be so odious about this book that it could produce such an angry tirade, I wondered? So I did what any normal person would do, I immediately asked for a copy of the book. Sadly, it had sold out. However, a quick Google search showed that this book was a history of the perceptions of Mary, mother of Jesus, in European societies from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, and how these perceptions varied from country to country. Different countries used the role of Mary in differing ways to make sense of a range of human experience -- virginity, motherhood, family life, poverty and humility. What aspects these societies focused on in their representation of Mary, in turn, reflected the broader concerns of that society.

It sounded like a serious and interesting work. So what could have caused someone to question the book store's social responsibility for carrying it? In fact, wasn't it being socially responsible by offering this book for public consumption? Then it struck me. It was the title: Mother of God. That had been the objection. They had simply disliked the association of mother with God. Now you and I may not believe that Mary was the mother of God, and probably the Jewish sounding author, Miri Rubin, doesn't believe she is either, but that's not the point. This was a serious historical study of the continuing evolution of Mary in those Christian societies where they consider her the mother of God.

Would it be fair for a western bookshop to ban a biography on the Prophet (PBUH) called The Last Prophet? Of course not. Muslims would be rightly angry. So too would many non-Muslims be upset, for they would be interested in a scholarly work on the Prophet (PBUH). So why do we Muslims demand tolerance and plurality of beliefs when it comes to the west, but become intolerant when it comes to our societies?

Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise to see this reaction in a bookshop. After all, we are a nation that kowtows to the ignorant and plain stupid. Yes, let's revel in our ignorance. We are a nation where our city centres are inundated with jewelry and clothes shops, but lack a single decent Urdu bookshop. We are a nation whose middle class, although in possession of a disposable income, will only have one book in their house -- and that too on a very high shelf, and often unread. Bigotry prospers over intellectual rigour, innuendo over fact, and conspiracy theory over credible reporting.

After all we have become a nation where a national newspaper can endanger the life of a Wall Street Journal journalist, Matthew Rosenberg, by claiming that he is an Israeli agent, an American agent, and a contractor for Blackwater. Either he is a busy man, or this is bunkum. The report in the newspaper provided no credible sources.

We are a nation that unquestionably swallows the unsubstantiated rants of Zaid Hamid, Ahmed Quraishi and their ilk. Zaid Hamid sees the world through a Zionist prism, while I advise you to check out ahmedquraishi.com to check out the quality of his 'photo journalism'.

We are a nation where pop stars like Ali Azmat believe that "we know for a fact that all this turbulation (not a world, Ali) in Pakistan it's not us, but outside hand" and who says that the Taliban is not responsible for blowing up 200 girls schools, but it's the work of an unidentified foreign hand. Show me the evidence, Ali? Where are the 'facts' you talk about?

Ironically, it is these very people who hark back the loudest, and bemoan the most, the loss of the Islamic world's glory days -- when Muslims were pioneers at the forefront of scientific, architectural, astronomical, and mathematical advances in the world. But you only can be pioneers when using knowledge, reason, logic and a factually supporting argument. The Taj Mahal was not built on a conspiracy theory or by obtaining a forged website doctoral degree. Yet, we listen to and follow the stupid?

Please note, I am not talking about education here. The stupid are often so called 'educated' people. Nor am I attacking right-wing commentators, per se. There are some who use the supporting evidence to reach a conclusion that could be described as right wing, which is perfectly acceptable. No, I am attacking those who make accusations using the flimsiest evidence, that's if they provide evidence at all, to back their claims. A mere cursory look at the 'proof' and it quickly disintegrates upon inspection. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, indeed.

How's this for a conspiracy theory: Perhaps, the Jews, Americans and Indians are funding all these cranks, right-wing conspiracy theorists, hyper nationalist and loonies that populate the airwaves in Pakistan. By listening to their claptrap and proportioning blame to hidden hands, the Pakistani people remain in perpetual denial about the encroaching problems in their country, therefore causing further erosion of the state. Maybe, THIS IS the evil Zionist, Capitalist, Hindu plot to destroy Pakistan. They are keeping us dumb and stupid. Pappu yaar, have you thought about that?

Email: zkfarooq@gmail.com and www.zafarkhalidfarooq.blogspot.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LOOKING BEYOND THE NRO

IKRAM SEHGAL

Democracy is a vital ingredient for the integrity and sovereignty of a country. The practitioners of democracy in Pakistan sometimes defy description under its camouflage. In a very blatantly shameful act, a committee of the National Assembly (NA) dominated by PPP members had recommended the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) for "consideration" by the full house. The amendments made would have made Pakistan a safe haven for criminals. Does it take a nuclear scientist to guess why we have slipped in the corruption index compiled by the well-respected Transparency International? While one may well ask why and who was behind this abomination, the loud and vociferous public outcry made discretion the better part of shamelessness, friend and foe alike scurried to notify the presidency that they could not support the NRO in parliament and it was subsequently withdrawn. On November 28, 2009, all cases registered against the beneficiaries of NRO will stand revived.

When the NRO was enacted on October 19, 2007, I had written, "Blanket amnesty on political grounds is certainly an instrument for national reconciliation but only individual pardons are given for corruption. There is not a single instance in history of blanket amnesty for corruption. If the SC rules otherwise, it will be a first, and under "the doctrine of fantasy." Instead of testing the Supreme Court's credibility, one appeals to Pervez Musharraf to revoke the blunder of enacting the NRO and consign this dark document to the dustbin of history.

To quote my article further, "the superior judiciary has a very crucial role to play in securing the rule of law in Pakistan, loss of faith in the judicial system being a very potent breeding ground for vigilantes. Accountability in a civilised society assumes utmost importance as well as the transparency and integrity of the process thereof. If Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (and his "activist" colleagues) fail, vigilantes of the Taliban will appear to take justice in their own hands, sooner rather than later. We are already seeing this in the tribal areas and some areas of the north-west." Musharraf sowed the wind with the NRO in 2007, and our soldiers are reaping the whirlwind in Swat and FATA in 2009 with their blood.

The NRO device foisted on us by Pervez Musharraf to elongate his own rule was disastrous. It negated all the good work done by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). In a follow-up article, on April 10, 2008, entitled 'Black will remain black', I wrote, "Pervez Musharraf's primary agenda on taking over absolute power was fighting corruption. NAB was universally welcomed by both the intelligentsia and the masses in Pakistan. Corruption and nepotism had been so pervasive that many in our society had given up hope of curbing this evil, and despaired whether those who thrived because of these two twin-headed monsters would ever be brought to book. From a standing start, NAB not only fought corruption fairly successfully, bringing credible evidence to bear to send a number of accused people to prison and recover enormous amounts of looted money. This blackest of black laws negates the very basis of Pervez Musharraf's presence with respect to his original agenda. The NRO has set the country back many years." The great frustration in Pakistan was recounted in my article of October 19, 2008, "Misuse of public office for personal gain has turned on its head honest livelihood as the basis for civilised society. Hundreds and thousands of retired personnel who earned an honest livelihood and are living in a pitiable state on meager pensions now openly lament their failure to avail the opportunity to make money when they could have. Their virtual penury is a living symbol to our present and future generations that honesty does not pay. As a useful anti-corruption mechanism, NAB must be persevered with, albeit in a different name and with more public confidence in its even-handedness and purpose. Accountability should not be lost to the people of Pakistan. White can become grey and then black, black may well be whitened to become grey, it cannot become white. Black will remain black!"

Many of us were ready to live with known Zardari indiscretions. After all, he had suffered long incarceration and democracy had given him a heavy mandate. Would he repeat the mistakes he had made in his younger years? We were wrong! There is a difference between a second lieutenant in the army who is supposed to be 'blind, deaf and dumb' and the president who is not.

Asif Zardari should have listened to the advice given in my article on April 10, 2008: "Many returnees will be able to clear their name, indeed many went into self-exile not because they were guilty but to escape NAB's prosecution and incarceration and the persecution and public humiliation that goes with it. NAB was not always right; some were victimised wrongly. Many lived lives in penury abroad, eking out a meagre existence or living on someone's dole. Those who remained long years in self-exile need to be rehabilitated and it is right that Asif Zardari seeks to rehabilitate them. But it is wrong that those who were known to be corrupt be given high office, the perception to the hapless millions is their welfare and contentment is far less important than those being put into the governance structure to rule over their lives. Asif Zardari must put into balance this equation. He must not throw it all away by becoming hostage to the loyalty factor. He has already lost the public perception about sincerity of his motives. Asif Zardari needs to immediately replace those who cannot stand the acid test of integrity in public opinion. It is not only for his good but that of the nation."

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, are the rumours of the demise of the Zardari presidency greatly exaggerated? The recent PPP-CEC meeting was a study in obfuscation, the NRO has become a major millstone around good governance that Asif Zardari must come to terms with, sooner than later. While the president remains legally beyond the ambit of the NRO, Zardari's thumbing of the nose at those who want his cronies taken to task undermines the moral authority of the presidency. This will happen, provided that Asif Zardari understands the meaning of 'morality' and that it matters for the office of the head of state. Nobody wants democracy in Pakistan to be derailed but the blatantly shameless corrupt taking refuge under the NRO must be brought to book, or at the very least cease holding public office and be separated from influencing public policy and functions. If that does not happen almost immediately, one must reluctantly start looking beyond the Zardari presidency, Mark Twain notwithstanding.

 

The writer is a defence and political analyst. Email: isehgal@pathfinder9.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHO WILL SAVE PAKISTAN?

SARDAR MUMTAZ ALI BHUTTO

While the entire focus is on the game of musical chairs being played by Zardari and Nawaz Sharif and the question being asked is "When will Zardari quit?"

The Zardari-Sharif game is easy to comprehend: Zardari, of course, has no desire to vacate the house on the hill and has devised a strategy of paying out the rope a little when the pull gets too strong in the tug-of-war for power. First of all, it was reconciliation, through which Zardari appeased the opposition and, beyond his wildest dreams, got the top job while others too received huge shares of power. Consequently, there are 90 federal ministers and advisers, compared to less than 20 during the tenure of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, each of them costing people Rs100,000 per day. Then we have the repeated agreements at Bhurban, Islamabad, Dubai and London to restore the judges, but Zardari relented only in the face of the long march. However, he did manage to get a few months' reprieve out of the wrangle. Recently there has been the matter of the NRO and finally the surrender on that too, which has again bought Zardari another respite until the fate of the cases against him and his fellow travellers are decided by the courts. But there is more salvation in reserve, such as the repeal of the 17th Amendment, Article 58 (2) (b) and the implementation of the Charter of Democracy. These should be worth a few more months in the Presidency.

On the other hand, it suits Nawaz Sharif to have Zardari there until such time as the restriction on a third prime ministerial term is removed. It serves his purpose to have a vulnerable and defeated president who melts under pressure. Besides, his brother is the chief minister of Punjab, which is the true power base of Pakistan and for which reason there is no compulsion to rush things.

So all is hunky-dory with the major players in the political field, but what is the fate of the nation?

Apart from the other grave crises faced by Pakistan, a bloody civil war rages on in the north with no end in sight, as a consequence of which the scourge of terrorism/suicide attacks engulf the whole country. Police headquarters, mosques, hospitals and educational institutions, even the GHQ, have become targets. Consecutive corrupt and incompetent governments have created a serious imbalance which has made the federation unworkable with the smaller provinces clamouring for economic and political freedom. Shahi Jirgas in Balochistan have already declared that the province is not a part of Pakistan. They have even taken their case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Separatist movements in Sindh are stronger than ever before with the weak and useless Sindh government absolutely unequal to the task of governance. The MQM has evolved a parallel authority that ignores the Sindh government and goes its own way, as in the matter of the restoration of the commissioners' system in Sindh proposed by the government and rejected by the MQM.

As for Punjab, if there was any doubt about its being the true repository of state power, it was emphatically removed by the long march, even though it had to be aborted. Islamabad now treads softly in Punjab, as evidenced by the muzzling of the governor who was obviously put there to throw a spanner in the works.

Thus, what we should be preoccupied with is how to save Pakistan and provide immediate relief to the vanquished masses rather than Zardari's fate. Both military rule and the so-called democracy that we have seen so far have failed miserably. In particular, the role of the National and Provincial Assemblies is deplorable. They have always been used by the governments of the day for their own purposes and, with each member costing Rs500,000 per month, have become an unnecessary burden on the exchequer. Never before has this been more visible than today. Lack of governmental control and direction has made the concept of Pakistan nebulous and its foundations shaky. What is urgently required here and now is a leader who rises above the storm and steers the ship of state to secure moorings. What we need is a capable man of vision, honour and intellect who is also a born leader. In fact, we need a Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, but what we have instead is a man leading a terrified existence, deeply ensconced in the highly guarded and fortified presidential palace who, even though he is the supreme commander of the armed forces, does not come out and visit the victims of the war and the soldiers at the front. If a man like George Bush could visit the troops in an explosive place like Iraq, where shoes were thrown at him, surely there is no justification for Zardari to hide.

The writer is chairman of the Sindh National Front.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

STATE BEHIND SHADOWS

KAMILA HYAT

The demand by French parliamentarians that allegations by a newspaper regarding the payment of $4.3 million to Asif Ali Zardari and other Pakistanis in kickbacks from a 1994 submarine sale to Pakistan be investigated opens up many possibilities.

The insinuations that stem from that deal take the case well beyond the league of other major scandals involving defence deals, such as that which surfaced in the 80s, linking the then Indian prime minister Rajeev Gandhi to massive kickbacks paid out by the Swedish firm, Bofors. Such bribery of course takes place around the world. However, the Pakistan case appears to be unique. French investigators say Pakistanis, displeased with the failure to pay all the money promised as kickbacks, may have had a hand in the 2002 suicide bombing that killed 14 people, including 11 French naval engineers working on the submarines.

The attack was one of the earliest by a suicide bomber in the country where such means of mass murder were virtually unknown till after 2001. It remains, to this day, an attack which killed the largest number of westerners. The killing was at the time blamed on groups linked to Al Qaeda, and two members of a jihadi organisation were indeed found guilty by a lower court in Sindh but were acquitted by the provincial high court due to lack of evidence. In France, since this summer, investigators have been looking into the possibility that Pakistani intelligence officials were behind the bombing -- which they think might have been intended to send out a message to Paris. The kickback payments were stopped after a change in the French government and in 2000, France moved for international conventions that banned kickbacks to be put in place. French officials who back this theory say the logic of the attack would have been similar to traditional mafia hits on those who fail to pay back debts: to make an example of someone who is seen as unlikely to pay up, and thereby send a message to others, even while officially being able to point the finger at someone else.

In President Zardari's, defence it must be said that in 2002, he was indeed in jail. As his spokesman has said, while denying the story, it is hard to see how he could have been behind the attack carried out at a time when General Pervez Musharraf was at the height of his power. The French president -- Nicolas Sarkozy -- a minister at the time the submarine deal was signed, has also denied the story though there is a suspicion this is tied in to his attempts to alter France's independent investigation system rather than any genuine knowledge about the events of 2002. It is also apparent that the story, coming as an anti-Zardari campaign gains momentum, has been played up. The Pakistan government has ordered a new investigation into the attack, though it is hard to believe that much credible evidence will emerge from it.

There are a number of important implications in the whole sordid business. The links between elements in the intelligence agencies and the militants have only recently been broken, as the military takes on the Taliban. The attack on the GHQ a few weeks ago and more recently on the ISI office in Peshawar is an outcome of this breakdown in a long relationship. But if elements other than the militants are capable of organising suicide attacks, more questions arise as to the nature of our state and the shadowy network that links groups within it, creating a labyrinth that makes it extremely difficult to distinguish truth from fiction.

The existence of outfits that mirror the working of militants or that incorporate them in their own efforts is relevant to other cases of terrorism too. The 2007 murder of Benazir Bhutto remains a mystery. We are, almost two years after it took place, no closer than before to solving what happened though the killing has had a huge impact on our political system, badly weakening it and the democratic set ups that stem from it. The status of Pakistan's own probe into the death is unknown. Certainly it has faded rather unexpectedly into the background given that Benazir Bhutto's own party is in power. A UN investigation -- for what it is worth -- continues. There are many who suspect that Baitullah Mehsud, the man named as having plotted the murder, indeed had little to do with it. We know the assassination was meticulously planned, involving bombers and multiple sharp-shooters. It is possible that the extremist shield was used to provide cover to other killers.

This has happened in the case of other deaths -- including that of Major General Faisal Alvi, killed by unknown gunmen in 2008. In April this year, a former military official admitted to the murder – claiming he had carried it out in revenge for the death in Afghanistan of his brother, a militant. But other suspicions linger on, with some reports suggesting the flamboyant Alvi could have been preparing to expose links between elements in the intelligence agencies, the Taliban and other extremist outfits. There is no way of knowing if there is any truth in this.

The possibilities are quite obviously limitless. Extremists could be used to cover up other crimes, committed for completely different motives, and to deflect blame from their true perpetrators. Even petty criminals seem to be able to resort to this. In 2008, a businessman in Bhakkar 'hired' a young suicide bomber to target a rival and staged an attack that killed 20 people. The motive was initially believed to be sectarian. If ordinary murderers can hide behind militancy, it is obvious that more powerful elements can do so too.

In the state we have created, it is hard to know what is mirage and what reality. The intelligence agencies that manipulate so much of what happens are a factor in this. The French submarine story suggests suicide bombings may not always involve extremists; the origins of such attacks may have been different. The games played are dangerous ones. They continue today, and they will indeed not come to an end until we can find a way of more effectively controlling our agencies, limiting their size and bringing them under some kind of centralised command within a state that is not run from secret locations scattered across its territory but only by the institutions constitutionally assigned to do so.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LIVING BEYOND MEANS

TAYYAB SIDDIQUI

In a recent report on Pakistan's economy, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has warned that Pakistan is living beyond its means. This report is timely and the government must respond to this wake-up call before it's too late. ADB has suggested a number of measures to stabilise the economy, the major one being a drastic reduction in non-development expenditure.

A look at the current situation -- political, economic and administrative -- fills your heart with dread. The need to restore confidence between the government and the state machinery has never been so urgent. Those in power and charged with the task of addressing the problems of poverty, power and water shortages, and fuel and food supplies remain indifferent to public woes. The state infrastructure is becoming increasingly weak with the declining writ of the government. Those at the helm are accused of corruption and blatant nepotism.

The nation had welcomed the restoration of democracy with the hope that their representatives would measure up to their expectations. Instead of working towards basic needs and public issues, they have remained engaged in seeking political favours and improving their own fortunes. Each of the 342 MNAs that constitute parliament cost the national exchequer Rs3.2 million per annum. The cabinet, the largest in Pakistan's history, has also failed the test. The MNAs receive Rs20 million for each fiscal year ostensibly as annual development funds, but in fact, this is a form of political bribery.

The presidency and PM secretariat cost the nation Rs120 million and Rs320 million respectively. The presidency has a staff of 761 and the PM secretariat has 1,005, including 180 household servants on its payroll. The reports of an extravagant style of living at the state's expense borders on criminality. It is reported that Zardari, during his last visit to London, stayed in a hotel where 16,000 pounds were paid for a night's stay.

Also, over the last six months, Rs80 million have been wasted in the prime minister's foreign visits.

The ministers have not been left behind. Interior Minister Rehman, on his 11 foreign visits spent Rs7.3 million on very specious grounds. The national stock of Pakistan abroad has never been so low. The reports of Amnesty International on violations of human rights and Transparency International, probing the integrity among leaders and bureaucracy, are a source of great shame for the citizens.

The country, ranked 126 in the Human Development Index, is is under a debt of $50 billion. On the domestic front, the ever deteriorating law and order situation with vicious violence and acts of terror stalking the country invites the ridicule of the international community. The way the government capitulated to the sugar barons, who in open defiance of government orders and Supreme Court instructions made fortunes creating an artificial crisis, is open encouragement for others to follow suit.

The people's dreams have been shattered and expectations frustrated. The faith and confidence of people in democracy is fast dissipating at the multiple crises facing Pakistan and the lack of capacity and concern to control these conditions. Our leaders must read the writing on the wall.

The writer is a former ambassador. Email: m.tayyab.siddiqui @gmail.com

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN FIGHTING TERROR

 

CONTRARY to apprehensions expressed by different circles and quarters, Pakistan Army has achieved miraculous successes in its fight against militants in the hitherto dreaded South Waziristan Agency, which was being portrayed by the Western world as the epicentre of terrorism. According to latest reports, the security forces have been successful in capturing most of Taliban's bases in the Agency and are consolidating their positions in the regained areas. Army has also asserted that it knows the hideouts of the Taliban leadership and would grab them soon.

These were not mere hollow claims as reporters too were taken to the South Waziristan on Tuesday to see for themselves the breakthrough achieved by the military in its operation "Rah-e-Nijat", launched on October 17. The operation has not only led to clearance of the strongholds of militants but also 500 of them were killed in the offensive in which 70 soldiers were martyred. The speed with which the armed forces have proceeded in South Waziristan has baffled many especially the Western media but a minute analysis of the whole situation would reveal that the success was achieved through meticulous planning and great sacrifices. Pakistan Army was under great pressure to go for action in South Waziristan for the last one year but it initiated the action only after doing the necessary homework. Supply routes to the area were sealed and hard targets softened to a great extent through precision bombings for weeks. There can be no two opinions that the remaining militants and their leadership have either dispersed to other neighbouring areas or fled to Afghanistan and they would continue to offer resistance through guerrilla tactics. However, the fact remains that they have lost the areas that served as their headquarters where they had heavily fortified bases, training camps, ammunition dumps and communication network. It will, therefore, be difficult for them to put up the kind of organized resistance they had been presenting for the last many months. It is, however, very important and pertinent to consolidate gains on a long-term basis and take the necessary administrative, political, social and economic initiatives in the area to bring about the much-talked-about change in the mindset. We hope that the Government has the exist strategy and the will to implement it in letter and in spirit.

 

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

US, CHINA CAN HELP IMPROVE INDO-PAK TIES

 

US President has asked China to help improve relations between Pakistan and India for peace and stability in the region. The joint statement issued after talks between President Obama and President Hu Jintao in Beijing stated that the two countries have agreed to work together to bring about stable and peaceful relations in all of South Asia.

The joint statement is very encouraging and indicates the desire of the two big powers that they would work together and use their influence to bring the two South Asian rivals at the negotiating table and encourage them for the resolution of the contentious issues. Pakistan has been emphasising the need for resumption of composite dialogue which was suspended by India after the regrettable incident of Mumbai terrorist attack. Diplomatic observers say that several countries have been urging New Delhi that it has no alternative to resumption of dialogue with Islamabad, sooner the better, to deal with the menace of terrorism and create an enabling environment to move ahead for resolution of disputes that have bedevilled relations between them. Former US President Bill, who has time and again volunteered to help India and Pakistan resolve the issue of Kashmir, speaking at a Conference in Chicago in October 2009 counselled India that improving relations with Pakistan is key to New Delhi to enhance its international stature and achieve development at home. Chinese leadership too has been urging both the countries for talks as that is the way to remove misunderstandings and resolve contentious issues. Now that a strong and clear message has been sent to New Delhi by the two major powers, we hope the Indian leadership would give a second thought to its belligerent stance and adopt the path of improving relations with Pakistan. We hope that the Indian Prime Minister would receive a similar advice from President Obama during his forthcoming visit to the United States. Resolution of lingering disputes including Kashmir would help build trust and enable the two countries to divert more resources for the amelioration of the lot of poverty stricken masses and eliminate the menace of terrorism for the greater good of South Asia and the World.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

GROWING CORRUPTION

 

UNFORTUNATELY Pakistan ranks 42nd among the world's most corrupt countries in the latest report issued by the Transparency International. This confirms the widely held perception that corruption was on the rise during the PPP tenure as last year the country's ranking was forty-seven.

What TI has revealed is known to almost everyone in the country, as there have been consistent reports in the media about rampant corruption from top to the bottom. We have been hearing about different scandals involving important political leaders and high officials including those surrounding Rental Power Plants, shortage and price hike of sugar, shortage of wheat flour and its smuggling, award of contracts and appointment of people against lucrative posts. It is all the more shocking that those at the helm of affairs seem to be not interested in improvement of the situation. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani boasts of merit and transparency but nothing of the sort is visible in transaction of the government business. Instead, an impression is gaining ground both at home and abroad that the Government is patronizing corruption as was evident from its eagerness to validate corruption by giving legal cover to NRO but thanks to the pressure of public opinion the conspiracy was foiled. Shady characters with dubious background have been imposed in various institutions and departments who have no other agenda but to mint money. Pakistan badly needs investment to support its falling economy but instead of providing incentives to the prospective investors they are being scared away by greedy officials and decision makers. The Prime Minister has constituted a committee headed by Finance Minister to look into the causes that led to downgrading of the country on TI's scale but we believe the causes are fully known and what we need is action on the part of the Government. We hope the Government would pay attention to the recommendation of the Chairman Pakistan chapter of TI about serious efforts to apply rules and regulations across the board.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

OPERATION WAZIRISTAN: AN OVERVIEW

BILAL ZUBAIR

After successful military campaign, Rah-e-Rast, against the Taliban insurgents in Swat, Operation Rah-e-Nijat in eastern South Waziristan area is underway. Some 28,000 troops are battling against against 10,000-15,000 hardcore militants including over 1,500 Uzbek and Arab militants. It is the fourth military offensive against the South Waziristan militants since 2004, the previous three didn't come up with the desired results and peace agreements were reached in the end.The recent surge of suicide bombings in Pakistan's urban settlements, armed assaults on police training camps and an attack on the army headquarters became rationale to stem terrorists' main sanctuaries in South Waziristan. Nearly all investigations into the recent terrorist attacks pointed out the links of these terrorist plots planned or supported from the Waziristan area. There is no ambiguity whatsoever in the minds of political and military leadership that only way to impede the growth of terrorism is offensive against the safe havens of the Tehrik-e-Taliban now led by Hakimullah Mehsud. Moreover, all the segments of society have rejected terrorism and public opinion is in favor of dealing with militants firmly.

The rugged mountainous region of South Waziristan would never be an easy sail. Our ground forces have faced stiff resistance during gaining control of Taliban main holds including Makeen and Sararogha. Still the battle is not over by any means. During a recent joint press conference the military spokesperson and Information Minister were not able to provide a particular timeframe of the operation underway. It means that our ground forces will have to remain in this area until the logical conclusion of the campaign is once achieved. There would certainly be some perception and plans in the mind of strategist to how to go on with this campaign, however, the results and implications of this battle are far-reaching and diverse. First of all this battle would not be ending in South Waziristan area alone and might go beyond. In a recent interview US secretary of state Hillary Clinton US wants Pakistan to continue this operation in the North Waziristan. Taliban in South have been subdued, not vanquished and they are believed to flee and gather in North Waziristan, Orakzai Agency and even Baluchistan. However, an immediate operation in North Waziristan is not on cards as the agreement with the militants in the North is still intact.

Pakistan on the other hand would continue face pressure from Americans to expand the scope of operation in the adjacent areas. Secondly, this operation coincides with the timing when US president Barak Obama is due to unveil his new Afghan policy in which he is expected to send about 40,000 additional troops. This could hoist the Taliban infiltration into Pakistani areas whereas Pakistan has repeatedly shown its apprehensions to US leadership to consult them before finalizing this increase. Moreover, the US has yet to give any encouraging reply to Pakistan's proposal of increasing pickets and fencing the Afghan side of the border.

The US strategist concern about the growing causality rate of their soldiers cannot mitigate by shifting pressure on Pakistan to do more and only make a troop increase on their part. Thirdly, there is a growing belief in Pakistan that some neighboring countries are also forwarding their agenda by supporting the Taliaban insurgents and fighting a proxy war in the tribal belt. Pakistani concerns need to be answer by the western powers and the government should take the matter to the international community at an appropriate forum such as UN Security Council. Proofs show that the foreign involvement in terms of finances and material have been provided to militants from the foreign soil. In the recent past, some of our high officials repeatedly pointed out that the late Baitullah Mehsud who was killed in a US drone attack on August 5, had been backed by the foreign powers. Pakistan has found concrete evidence of India's involvement in militancy in South Waziristan and Balochistan. Indian arms and ammunition, literature, medical equipment and medicines had been recovered during operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan. This involvement shows Indian abetment to growing insurgency in Pakistan. Pakistani leadership should take up this matter to an appropriate forum and realize the Americans the implication of such course.

US have also other responsibilities to take care of. To support Pakistan in its campaign Americans have to ensure that the after the reelection of President Hamid Karazai the problems such as corruption, law and order and drugs trafficking be contained. Taliban have been main profiteers from the weakness of the Afghan government. More afghan troops are needed to be trained and civil administration be strengthen in this regard. The legitimacy of Afghan government is crucial to gain the confidence of masses and fight against terrorism. The US desire for the success of Waziristan operation in facts lies in subduing Taliban in Afghanistan and successful of Afghan government.

Still the US wants Pakistan to do more on their part. They have repeatedly ask Pakistan to continue this operation until the Taliban are wipe out of the area altogether and don't want Pakistan to get into agreements with Taliban elements. However, Pakistan had to gain support and tacit understanding with anti Taliban elements for the success of this operation. Before starting operation in South Waziristan, government was able to secure the support of some regional militants to remain neutral during the course of war. Understanding was reached with Taliban renegades Maulvi Nazir, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Siraj Haqqani to stay out of the current fight in parts of South Waziristan controlled by the Pakistani Taliban. They also allowed the army to move through their own lands unimpeded, giving the military additional fronts from which to attack the Taliban. This understanding has given our ground troops much needed support in their success against the militants. Support of the local population and tribes is also imperative for the success of this war against militancy. The war cannot be won if the locals show indifference towards the need for combating Taliban and their infrastructure.

Without winning the hearts of the people, the military's victory will only be temporary as military cannot have presence in the area indefinitely in such big numbers. Another feature of operation Rah-e-Nijat is the displacement of more than 250,000 civilians living in different camps mostly in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank. There is no remedy for the suffering of these people until the war ends in their home town. According to Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan financial requirement to assist IDPs stands at $680 million and could exceed beyond. In the impending winter this could trigger humanitarian crisis. Moreover, the issue of militants disguise with IDPs is major concern for the security agencies. Despite registration at different registration centers there is fair chance that militants under the disguise of IDPs could penetrate into the urban settlements. The recent bombings particularly in Peshawar could have a link with the migration of militants under the cover of IDPs in the settled areas.

Pakistan has sacrificed huge losses in terms of men and material. According to the Pakistan-US Business Council report 2009, Pakistan has suffered $35 billion directly or indirectly in this war and this figure would further exceed. Nevertheless, there is no turning point in this campaign unless the militancy could be nip in the bud in all its manifestation. Military solution may not be lasting one and perhaps some middle path could answer the growing militancy. That would be our commitment to address the root cause that is deprivation and socio-economic injustice.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

FOREIGN POLICY IN REGIONAL CONTEXT

SYEDA HIRA NAQVI

Stated by broadly speaking, foreign policy is that of having achieved the perfect beauty associated and attributed with walk and talk, negotiations and reconciliation, however simple or complex, upon which the quarter concerned, can be discussed and debated. It is that the framework of prevalent accords and treaties through pen and paper as to justify the universal proverb "pen is mightier than the sword, rushing to break the ice". Bearing in mind every state has her own social political cultural, geographical, theological social and ground realities, traditional norms and taboos that from the foreign policies as per need and necessity of the hour and day. Keeping in view, all the policies are the sources for the internal peace and prosperity, integrity and solidarity, stability and unity, for the betterment and enhancement, advancement and development of the country. In this reference and context, we can say and say surely "Friends are not our Masters" on the other hand all the map roads are having great and grand effects on the external world, however, jurisdiction of the national policy originates from the internal problems occurring from the time to time. It is but welfare of the people and public from the individual to international affairs, the matter of the self-preservation in the first law of Nature upon which the foreign policy is based on. Here, I limit this topic to foreign policy of Pakistan.

Pakistan's emergence as a state coincided with an earlier historical watershed. Political imperatives arising from the manner of our birth as a country resulted in our region becoming one of the most conflicts prone in the world. Despite UN resolutions on Kashmir, that dispute rooted in India's reluctance to come to terms with his partition of the subcontinent, led to conflict and confrontation. With India constantly threatening our survival on the basis of its superior strength we felt obliged to join the western alliance, since the option appeared to offer the only hope of receiving military and economic aid vital to our security, later when India managed to receive western military aid by precipitating a conflict with China, Pakistan realized the need for a more balanced foreign policy, rather than rely exclusively on the west. The resulted in improving relations with china and Soviet Union. When the western powers banned the supply of weapons during the Indo-Pakistan conflict of 1965, Pakistan was able to secure arms from china for national defence.

Despite the acquisitions of arms from abroad, we still had to devote a high proportion of our own limited resources to armaments. Consequently, almost from the beginning we relied heavily on foreign assistance and loans to finance our development a task rendered considerably harder by an exploding population. From its early years, Pakistan became identified with the strengthening of the UN system. A Pakistani presided over the first UN conference on trade and development (UNCTAD) in 1964, and the first conference of Non Nuclear States is held in 1969 at Pakistan's initiatives. Pakistan backed the UN role in peace keeping from the beginning and was a major contributor forces for this purpose over the years. So far as multilateral issues of general interest to the developing countries are concerned, Pakistan was not averse to working together with India. The last proxy war of the cold war in Afghanistan, following the Soviet occupation of that country enhanced our international image as we resolutely backed the struggle of the Afghan people despite threats from Moscow and New Delhi. The very year the soviet forces were compelled to with draw from Afghanistan, i.e. 1989 also marked the end of the cold war. Almost immediately, the perceptions of the western powers appeared to undergo total information. With communism eliminated as the main threat to western world, analysts in the US and European began to look at the globe. A secound trend was to prevent the proliferation of sophisticated weapons which could challenge the west at a time its public opinion was pressing from cutting down its inflated military arsenals. The US seemed inclined to go a step further, that Pakistan might be dubbed "terrorist state" for helping the indigenous movement inside Kashmir. It took three years of negotiation to secure a faired appreciation of Pakistan's position. The Clinton administration's stance, both on Kashmir and the unjust consequences of the pressed law, represents a considerable change which reflects the success of our diplomacy in part, through it also shows a more realistic perception of India's long-term politics and goals in the region. This brief assessment of our foreign policy over the past half a century places our key existing relationships in historical context. We may now identify the main features of the emerging global order to which our foreign policy has to adjust over the coming years in a manner best suited to serve our interests. The contours of the new world that is taking shape would be determined by following trends and realties.

The emergence of China to a greater global and regional role is executed to challenge the UN-US hegemonic goals. While developing significant economic relations with the US, China has reacted strongly to also keep in view, the role which the economic giants, namely Japan and Europe, can play in our economic resurgence. Within the regional context as per foreign policy, primacy and preference must go our neighbors. The special contours associate and attributed with each. India is main threat as per current and critical Mumbai incident. At this critical and crucial juncture both countries were already face to face, but now they are eye to eye. If the both countries as they are traditionally an agonists and badly rivals beaming on the borders. It means foreign policy fails to reconciliation under the banner of negotiations only China is our reliable friend while Iran has also been though our perceptions have diverged out the strife inside Afghanistan where the restoration of peace is equally for both. There are our brothers in faith in West and Central Asia, our bilateral relations acquire greater contents if we try to improve the working ways of SAARC and ECO and OIC, and nothing more beyond that possibly for that very reason, we must keep in mind. "Neither friend nor foes are permanent" but the interest of the country are important. To justify the same slogan, we have to quote the T.S. Eliot's Saying "Good Poets steal, bad poets borrow" It means, we should adopt the good contents from different countries and states and try to avoid the bad ones which are not up to mark and merit. In this context, we can say and say surely, we should not borrow the dictated policy as the same as western please. The western give an umbrella when the weather is sunshine and take it back when the weather is rainy we have to rely on our own force. Fall of Dacca is more sufficient for the burden of proof and paper. The most important changes need to be introduced in the instruments of diplomacy bearing in mind the Islamic behest and religion mythology to strengthen the noble cause and Kashmir on Washington's containment policies that are evident over Taiwan and Tibet. Kashmir problem, to this day is like a festering wound and has so far defied all effects for its solution.

The problem has compelled the two states to allocate the huge budgets for defence which has been adversely affecting the development plans on both sides of the divide of late, efforts for the pollution of this entangled problem have been increased ten fold and the peoples on both sides of the great divide, are hoping against hope, that at last some solution will be found out, if however, these efforts not fruitful, both the countries will be doomed to remain at logger heads and engulfed in hopeless all-round crisis. It may be thought that there is some thing wrong and confusion in the bottom of foreign policy. We live in the arena of the age and era when left is not on the left, the right is not on the right side, and centre is not in the middle, Things have gone much further and farther in more recent times. Foreign policy cutter soliloquy "To be or no to be" and nothing more beyond that and all the efforts are dashed to ground.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

UNDERSTANDING THE ROOT CAUSE

DR SYED JAVED HUSSAIN

Muslims are being stereotyped by Americans as terrorists or terrorists in the making. Nothing can be far from the truth. However, the unfortunate incidents like the Fort Hood, Texas do more to cement the mindset than to create doubts in the minds of an ordinary American regarding his/her new found conviction. The accused shooter, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is the product as well as the victim of the same gross ideological corruption. Muslim scholars on the other hand are so resigned to the fate that they take no more pain to take masses into confidence than calling such acts of terrorism as unislamic. Whereas, they are needed to go beyond.

How can we convince a public which is showered with bullets and is blown into pieces by heretics like Nidal Hasan who have a claim on Islam and do this in the name of God? Urgency of the problem is that we cannot ignore the American public. Due to its unique position in the world we need America on our side to fight off the menace of terrorism and even to rid the lands to Islam from this sweltering cancer. Even though most terrorist organizations in the lands of Islam are the direct result of American policies for Muslim countries which at times turn out to be exclusive and highly injudicious, this is not the whole truth. Fault lies with the ideology that promotes violence to gain power and perks, to increase its following by hook or by rook. You can give any name to this ideology though, it can't be called Islamic. Most violent offshoot groups follow highly traditional interpretation of Islam and are the product of Wahabi and Deobandi schools of thoughts. That will be tantamount to stereotyping yet another community.

However, it enables us to understand that terrorism has not come into being because of the US unpalatable policies in the world. The ideology that gives birth to such violence had already existed even before America was born. Taliban in Afghanistan did not pick war with America . They were already at war with the real futuristic, progressive and enlightened Islam long before America stepped in and directed their wrath on itself. Al-Qaeda is the offshoot of Taliban mentality that has focused on hurting the US interests as well as those of American friends'. This still, however, is not the whole truth. Dig deeper. Wahabi extremists, fired with proselytizing spirit found a new responsibility with newly found petro-dollar riches. They were suddenly called upon by God to spread their interpretation of truth; all means justified. They found a Messiah in Zia ul Haq, political father of Nawaz Sharief and the most unscrupulously lying military dictator who was removed violently in plane sabotage in 1988. Pseudo charity organizations were allowed to flow in the money from the Middle East under the pretext of helping the poor.

However, most of the money was spent in establishing Madarass (religious schools) with full board facilities so that young children from poor families could be enlisted and brain washed. Statistics are horrifying, there are currently 17000 Madarass in Pakistan , out of them 12000 belong to Deobandi/Wahabi school of thought. Other five thousands are divided among Sunni school of thought 3500, Ahle-Hadith, 380 and Shia 90. Petro-dollar from the Gulf and the Middle East entered Pakistan for only promoting Wahabi/Deobandi school of thought. They have captured the Muslim youths brainwashing them right form the very tender age: no wonder they willingly blow themselves up for Heaven and Seventy Lasses. It still falls short of the whole truth.

A tremendous revision of syllabi is also required so that it is brought in line with the requirements of the modern age: in order that, the Madarass graduates are enabled to land jobs in fair competition with the graduates from the public institutions. America has a responsibility to share. First it should influence its Wahabi/Deobandi friends in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf to stop patronizing only Wahabi/Deobandi Ulema and Madarass in Pakistan . If money is to be sent for any altruistic purpose it should be channeled through government agencies. Secondly, the US should trust and involve Pakistan in its efforts to bring peace in Afghanistan

Regarding civilian help there is no alternative to using government channels even for America . Pakistan need to wake up now for an equitable relationship with the US at all levels to ensure peace at home and abroad. According to newspaper reports Gen. James L. Jones, Obama's national security adviser, at the beginning of this week brought a letter for President, Asif Ali Zardari emphasizing that 'the new American strategy would work only if Pakistan broadened its fight beyond the militants attacking its cities and security forces and went after the groups that use havens in Pakistan for plotting and carrying out attacks against American troops in Afghanistan, as well as support networks for Al-Qaeda.' The contents of the letter, if proved, signify nothing but the total ignorance or complete disregard to Pakistan 's efforts and sacrifices in fighting the terrorists in South Wazirastan, Swat, Bajaur, Malakand and other FANA, FATA areas. What a friend we have for a fight that seems interminable!

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

INTRUSION THROUGH THE AIR

MAHMOOD HUSSAIN

At a recent meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting the Director General, Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) Murtaza Solangi said that Voice of America programmes are broadcast by his organisation under an agreement. He said that PBC Peshawar broadcasts VOA programmes for four hours a day while 11 FM channels air its programmes for one hour daily. Solangi who is said to be a friend of President Asif Ali Zardari had never been an employee of PBC nor hails from any ministry. He is however a former employee of Voice of America and now part of Pakistan government and chief executive of a sensitive organisation like PBC. A board of directors nominated by the government of Pakistan runs the organisation he heads.

It is strange that the PBC board had resolved to hand over its airwaves over the sensitive tribal belt and other areas of NWFP to the Americans. In addition to using PBC transmitters, the American are also broadcasting for the area through satellite whose signals are far better and clear than PBC. Under the deal, VOA will use PBC equipment and transmitters in Peshawar, Islamabad, and Lahore to distribute VOA material in Pashto and Urdu on medium and FM waves. The federal cabinet has ratified the agreement between PBC and the VOA. Which will force millions of people in all parts of Pakistan to listen to the VOA's popular news and information programmes as signals of other PBC stations are not stronger enough in many areas.

So the VOA would enjoy easy access to the Pakistani population in addition to BBC radiating from the island of Masirah in the Gulf. Whole of Pakistan especially the tribal areas in the north and Balochistan are currently going through a critical stage. The broadcast from Peshawar are especially sensitive because their target areas cover the Federally Administered Tribal Areas where an open war is going on between the armed forces of Pakistan and the militants that include a sizeable number of foreigners. Being the state run medium great responsibility rests with PBC. Can the organisation enjoy the luxury to lease out its transmitters to an alien broadcasting network is a big question that needs answer from Solangi and those at the helm of affairs at the ministry of information and broadcasting. Right from its inception on the 14th of August 1947, the track record of PBC or Radio Pakistan, its sign call, had been excellent. On each and every difficult occasion despite limited resources, the editors, producers and engineers of Radio Pakistan had stood to the test of time. They had informed and educated the masses and grabbed their attention through standard entertainment programmes thus creating a sense of confidence amongst the masses. In the post partition period, when the greatest migration of the history took place in the sub-continent in the aftermath of large scale anti Muslim riots in India, Radio Pakistan was the only medium that had created a sense of confidence and a ray of hope amongst the people.

With only three low powered medium wave transmitters, two in West Pakistan at Lahore and Peshawar and one in East Pakistan at Dacca the then Pakistan Broadcasting Service (later renamed as Radio Pakistan) having resources almost nil not only discharge its professional obligations but also created confidence and a sense of belongings among the people. In the later years radio Pakistan did well during the 1965 and 1971 conflicts with India and on other occasions.

In our tribal belt, you can hardly catch the signals of PTV News, the state run channel, but even then it was deemed appropriate to give VOA three transmitters to unleash US propaganda inside this small patch of Pakistan. The deal to lease out PBC transmitters to VOA is bound to generate anger when the government is yet to fully recover from accusations of a sell-out on the Kerry-Lugar Act. In fact PBC is short of frequencies to take its own population into confidence that is being diverted towards foreign media. In 2006, the United States set up a transmitter in Afghanistan for the radio broadcast of US political and military propaganda in that occupied country. Four years later, this propaganda moves to Pakistan. The irony is that Pakistan, which disputes unverified US claims that terrorist camps exist deep inside Pakistan in Quetta and Muridke, will now be allowing a US government financed propaganda arm to say as much using transmitters owned by the Government of Pakistan and directed at Pakistani citizens. Two US propaganda radio channels, Deewa Radio in Pashto and Urdu-language program Radio Aap Ki Dunyaa will now reach more parts of Pakistan with stronger signals.

Since there are major differences of opinion between Islamabad and Washington over how to manage America's floundering Afghanistan occupation, it is yet to be seen how the Pakistani government will tolerate if the two foreign propaganda radio channels aired material that contradicts official Pakistani position. It should be remembered that Deewa Radio and Radio Aap Ki Dunyaa are part of the US government's information warfare effort targeting certain regions where US has strategic interest.

The writer is former Controller News and Current Affairs, Radio Pakistan.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

NEW STATE MINISTRIES..!

ROBERT CLEMENTS

With so many MLA's in every state vying for ministerial berths after every election, there is a need to increase the number of such ministries and thus ensure a smooth functioning of the cabinet. Here are my humble suggestions on the new ministers we could include:

State Defense Minister: There is an immediate need for a defense minister in each state, his job to make provocative and inflammatory statements to the defense ministers of neighbouring states about border issues, language problems, sharing of river waters, etc. This would include a weekly trip to the border to make violent eyeball contact and lewd gestures with his counterpart cheered on by his supporters and people.

Bandhs and Riots Minister: Since more and more time is spent outside on the streets organizing demonstrations and bandhs, a special ministry could be created for such. The minister to be given immediate access to local quarries to organize stones and rubble to throw on buses and shops! The state would also sponsor the said minister with a bullet proof vest of better quality than those worn by the police to protect him from being hit by stones thrown by his own volunteers. Banking Minister: This post to be given to a trustworthy MLA, his job being to make quick flights between India and Switzerland to bank money made by his hardworking fellow ministers. Strong arms and shoulders would be needed to carry heavy suitcases into bank vaults and up and down the ramps of aircraft.

The minister would also need a good head for numbers to remember secret account details opened for his cabinet colleagues. Dubbing Minister: This will be an important ministry; in which the minister would examine all interviews given by his colleagues, all statements made to the press, erase unwanted lines and dub necessary lies before anything went on air or into print: The minister to be trained by the censor board before taking this appointment.

Bollywood Minister: His or her job would be to see that fellow ministers were given ample opportunities during their term to mix with film folk, even get their sons, daughters and even themselves plum roles in future movies or maybe just an evening or few hours past evening with an upcoming starlet.

These are just a few of my suggestions and I am sure there are many more ministries that can be created to allow our distinguished leaders, cars with beacons, gun toting body guards, and unlimited spending money from the crores we shower them with just to be our political bosses..!

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

BETTER CPI RANKING

 

Bangladesh's progressive improvement in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of the Transparency International since 2006, after topping the list of the most corrupt countries in the world, rings out a welcome note. Also, as one of the nine best performers this year, its move three notches up the order, deserves special mention. If the trend continues, we can hope it will cross the crucial margin of a score of 3, which is used as a tag for countries where corruption is pervasive. Viewed from this point, we can realise that despite the latest score, there is a long way to go. Unless we have a score of 5 under our belt, we cannot say it is a cause for celebration. Our aim should be even higher and painstakingly we must embark on rooting out the pervasive evil called corruption from administration and society.

Sure enough, the roles played by the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), the Election Commission (EC) earlier and the continuation of the institutional reform have a lot to do in improving the ranking of Bangladesh in the CPI. Now all we know is that further institutional reform complemented by strengthening of quasi-judicial bodies like the EC and the ACC along with an effective and reformed judiciary system can help curb corrupt practices in administration and elsewhere. Already the amendment to the Public Procurement Regulations (PPR) has come under criticism and rightly so. When transparency should be the benchmark of administration, allowing any doubt to hinder the process will not help the cause.

There are other vexing issues like the lawmakers' interest in the affairs of local government, which may have bad impacts on the image of the country. All the good work in the areas of land registration and other measures aimed at streamlining the process of governance will suffer if these small and avoidable drags on the whole system cannot be done away with. The incumbent government, according to popular opinion, has been moving on the right track except perhaps in a few areas leaving room for corrupt practices. Plugging such holes should be a priority agenda if we are serious about coming clean on the corruption issue.   

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

OBAMA'S CHINA TRIP

 

As President Obama winds up his two-and-a-half days' maiden trip to China, analysts are busy assessing its impact on the political and economic scenario of the world. The president's aides forcefully say that it has created an "atmosphere of mutual confidence and cooperation", which will usher in a huge improvement in China-America relationship to cope with the fast changing realities of the 21st century. Critics, however, point to the president's failure to extract any concession from China that may lead to accelerated growth in the United States.

The prevailing wisdom in the United States is that a freely floating yuan - the Chinese currency - will lead to better trade balance and hence better economic times for the US. But apparently the Chinese were not willing to discuss the matter. The only major agreement during the visit was on voluntary carbon emission. We "agreed to work toward a successful outcome in Copenhagen," said an elated Obama following his talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Indeed, analysts the world over remarked that the visit underscored China's growing importance on the global stage. Currently, China is the world's fastest growing economy while the United States is just coming out of a deep recession. Already China is the largest creditor of the US, which owes it one trillion US dollar.  

Obama did not get the kind of adulation in China that he got in Europe although a town-hall-style meeting was arranged with students in Shanghai, China's industrial capital. Many of the issues that are dear to American hearts like civil liberty, human rights, nuclearisation of Iran and North Korea had to be brushed under the carpet, considering Chinese sensitivities. It was a visit, the first of its kind, as some commentators viewed, on "Chinese terms."

 It is feared if Obama fails to extract some concessions from his Asian trip, he may have difficulties in working through his agenda at home. For the first time in history the United States is facing the challenge of engaging a non-Western culture for its economic progress. The way the president does it will define the future of his country and much of the world.    

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

ABIDE WITH ME...!

ROBERT CLEMENTS

 

The invitation from the Navy for their Navy Week's just arrived and as I look at it I remember it was on the lawns of Navy House, two years ago that I was introduced to the Admiral. "Thank you for the wonderful piece you wrote on the navy," he'd said and I smiled. But it is not so much the admiral's words I remember today, what lingers is the navy band playing Abide With Me, as the sun set that evening. I had hummed along with tears in my eyes, the first verse:

"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide,
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide;
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, Lord abide with me."
And then the trumpeters on top of the Gateway had joined in and I sang softly with them my favourite verse:
"I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but thy grace can foil the tempters power?
Who like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine Lord, Abide with me."

 

No it was not the band or Navy I recollect today, it's the awesomeness of a song that is sung and played throughout the world, everywhere, all the time, and was even a favourite hymn of Gandhiji. And yet the hymn had been written by a man who was disappointed and dejected: Henry Francis Lyte had walked into his study, his heart sad and burdened. He was an old man now, near the end of his journey, tired and ill. The doctor had told him he had only a few months to live. Suddenly a verse fell open in front of him: 'Abide with us; for it is toward evening and the day is far spent.' All at once he was no longer old and tired. Suddenly he was not sad and burdened, no longer discouraged. Words sang through his mind and he put them on paper; and in less than an hour he had written one of the most beautiful and inspiring hymns of all time: A hymn that is known and loved all over the world-has given comfort and courage to millions. When the famous nurse Edith Cavell, went down before a German firing squad, she whispered the words of, "Abide With Me." And smiled as the bullets hit her, knowing her Lord was abiding with her as she died. When the ship, R.M.S. Stella was sinking with one hundred and five victims during the Second World War, a woman, one of the noble identified, stood on the bridge and sang the hymn until the others were singing along with her. They went down with no fear in their hearts as they clasped the hand of God, abiding with them! As I remembered God who has stood by me through thick and thin

 

"I start singing another verse of that famous song:
I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless..."
bobsbanter@gmail.com

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

IMPROVING OUR ROAD COMMUNICATION PLAN

MAJOR SYED MUAMMAD SHAMEEM, (RETD)

 

Infrastructural development is an aspect that needs our focus towards solution of the city's traffic gridlocks in immediate terms alongside the gradual withdrawal of rickshaws. For example the defining of the existing bus stoppages with visible marking of its approach and exit and, with discrete and dedicated bays for buses like UK (London) and other developed countries, organising which really does not require much effort at present context but the will to do it. Likewise wide walker-friendly walkways to be constructed all along city streets merged with roads keeping no space between roads and pavements to avoid dirtying the roads with mud and ditches that fester every now and then and that allow the contractors and vested parties to exploit the situations for making more money to the commuters miseries. Certain regulatory measures like the relocation of commercial areas, schools, clinics away from residential areas, preventing building of further markets in residential areas, ensuring strict observance of existing building codes and space ratios as well as making of more pragmatic regulations on space utilisation ratios for building spaces, internal roads, parking spaces, open spaces, water areas are a must for residential areas that are constructed by real estate developers.

Consequently, there is need for ensuring strict compliance of the regulations that are mandatory and have to be implemented with immediate effect. The government could mull over making multi-story parking in critical commercial and residential areas to ease traffic system in immediate terms and also impose on the developers to have multi-story parking facility in specific real estates that demand such vertical space. With regard to STP (Strategic Transport Plan), it is quite heartening to note that the government is contemplating for quite sometime to make underground tube railways, elevated expressways and/or metro-rails integrated with needed underpass, overpass or flyovers in major cities to improve the situation but to the public frustration nothing has been moved or materialised yet but only confined to papers. The STP seems apparently ambitious, time consuming (should take about 10 years to complete) and expensive for us but has become essential in long terms for Dhaka city at least, being densely populated and with no space spared on the surface to deal with the surge of traffic, people and development bonanza of real estates. Construction of elevated expressways or metro-rails obviously will be a viable option connecting airports, rail stations, commercial hubs, international hotels, major markets and residential areas. If we could afford underground tube railways and MRTs (Mass Rapid Transit) like UK and Singapore for Dhaka city that would help us having the most fast and reliable communications systems with no noticeable traffic jams and almost zero accident probability making it also appreciated to be a pragmatic option in long terms. Though this sounds quite ambitious, if we really think of any long term solution we have to resort to an ideal communication system like Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore.

I wonder why our leaders and fellow leading businessmen, intellectuals and elites do not see the heaven that can be felt on the roads in the foreign countries they visit compared to the hell they prefer to endure at home. I wonder why our fellow politicians, ministers and bureaucrats can be so blissfully unaware of the traffic systems and roads and highways of ours against developing countries they visit so frequently! Despite the fact of our leaders' extensive experience on first class environment and infrastructural marvels of overseas countries they visit, why are they not moved to remove the hazards and hell they find on our roads? Do they really love to live in unplanned cities of concrete slums not caring for a clean, green and organised environment? Then why are they so desperate to send their children to overseas countries and prefer to let them stay in abroad?
Don't they think about our children those who languish in their derelict motherland? What kind of patriotism do they preach to our children? Don't they feel ashamed to be leaders and elites of the country, whose development they are not expediting? They should note how most of the businessmen are going ahead with development at a healthy pace. May be its difficult on their part to realize while they are in power as they can afford many elite forces to clear, shield and guide their way to their destinations and may be they ply the thoroughfares ensconced in their air conditioned vehicles and blinkered by their tinted glasses with their flying flags whizzing proudly. Do they really understand that these phenomena of VIP passages are also another cause of severe jams in Dhaka? On the contrary when our leaders were in opposition and they were frequently found shouting and sweating in the streets. But visibly we can see what actually happens when they have the opportunity to grab the power, how the majority of them forget everything they pledged and blatantly remain engrossed in plundering national resources and pursuing agendas, not much geared for the country's benefit - as our power paucity is a clear example. Incidentally, it was the AL who when last in power began power production which the next governments so grossly neglected.   

To contemplate on a sound road communications system one would agree that a revamping, reconstructing and redesigning of our road infrastructure is a precondition to smooth communication, transportation and access to all areas across the country conducive to industrial and agricultural advancement. As far as the highways are concerned it must be evaluated by its inadequacy and connectivity, the pressure of traffic in it, the hazards and threats on it, and the violations of the rules on it. The highways must be given its proper entity consisting of two-way roads comprising four lanes on each side with dividers. Government must ensure movement of all markets away from highways as quite heartening to note such initiatives already taken at many places in Dhaka-Chittagong highways. And for rickshaws, carts, cycles, animals, pedestrians and any non-motorised vehicles there must be separate localised and feeder roads to ply to avoid interference with the highways like the freeways, expressways or motorways in developed countries.

The highways need to have more connectivity with exit and entrance approaches to bypass any area, obstructions, accidents or trouble and to facilitate smooth entry and re-entry for maintaining uninterrupted flow of traffic instead of choking in one place for endless hours. A comprehensive and simultaneous road infrastructure and urban plans is suggested to be carried out by expert urban and transport planners to design an integrated schematic traffic system in cities for all types of traffics, its routes, stoppages and connectivity in different lines and destinations including pavements and other passenger and transport facilities and a well coordinated countrywide roads and highways network taking into considerations all practical accompanying issues and design factors on the hazards, threats and existing road conditions to maintain uninterrupted flow of traffic as an extension of the existing STP, DTP and whatever other urban/transport plans are is in the mind and hand of the government. Given the gridlock situation, perceiving the proven predicaments of traffic system in its entirety, we the people in persecution would plead for the government to be honestly driven by their true pledge and patriotism to address the issues that have been thoroughly and exhaustively mentioned. It is necessary to make the action plans and chase immediate implementation of the plans of enforcement of the traffic rules and regulations and maintenance of order on the roads of Bangladesh. And likewise there needs to be meetings with communication, public works, local government and all other relevant ministries and agencies to make plans of maintaining the roads and the public facilities in immediate terms. And next the government could make the short, mid and long term plans devotedly delving into the details of issues with the prudence and tenacity which the nation needs and the people's woe warrants.

To conclude, I would like to utter the slogan-"traffic police first and traffic discipline foremost" as the first step towards any solution to traffic system. The experts may easily calculate as to how much man-hours and money is wasted in numerical terms but can anyone really quantify as to how much anxiety, stress and trauma is caused by the inextricable state that haunts us everyday? Imagine the impact on you (Allah forbid) if your near and dear ones are seriously ill or injured and are caught up in the traffic jams and more tragically dies in ambulance or in transports trapped in the gridlock with no space to move! I fervently believe and truly trust that if the government ardently engages itself in honest, sincere, uncompromising and unconditional efforts to discipline the traffic police and the traffic system, we would see a definite change that would earn the admiration and love of every single citizen, would give them the first ever tangible ground to earn their credibility to govern, to prove their patriotic parlance and the opportunity to demonstrate their strength and capability to pass the acid test "the test of governance" that few government has yet passed.

(The writer, a former Major, Bangladesh Army, can be reached atShameem155@gmail.com)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

AFRICA'S HUNGRY MOUTHS TELL GRIM STORY

VICTIMS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

TAREQUL ISLAM MUNNA

 

Standing amidst a group of scrawny fellow Ethiopian farmers, Tuke Shika points to the scorching sun when asked why his food reserves have dwindled this year.

 

"The weather has changed, it's not as it used to be before," he laments. "The rains are increasingly erratic, and we are getting less and less yields."

In Loke, 350 kilometres (215 miles) south of Addis Ababa, massive expanses of land that were once lush with healthy maize stalks are now replaced with burnt out twigs, despite rains recently flushing the sun-blasted district.
With his food silos diminishing by half from the 50 quintals of maize he reaped last year, Tuke is one of the more than 2,000 people in the area facing food shortage. "People here are suffering with their livestock dying, and more and more children succumbing to malnutrition," he adds.

Experts say east Africa is facing one of its worst droughts in decades with over 23 million people facing starvation, with climate change further compounding the dire picture.

"We had poor belg (February to May) rains and El Nino has also affected the meher season (June to September)," said Ted Chaiban, UNICEF's country representative in Ethiopia. "We are facing a challenging situation when it comes to food security for the start of 2010," he added.
Twenty-five years after a scathing famine killed a million people in the Horn of Africa nation, Ethiopia announced last month that more than six million required food relief out of a population of about 80 million.

 

The government appealed for 159,000 tonnes of food aid worth 121 million dollars to feed its hungry population.

Official figures also indicate that nearly 80,000 children under five are suffering from acute malnutrition and that nine million dollars is required for moderately malnourished children and women.

Although none of Ethiopia's six national droughts since 1984 has been as devastating, aid groups say the grim prospects of food shortages will linger for years to come due to the climate change.

Average temperatures in Ethiopia are predicted to rise by 3.9 degrees Celsius by 2080, Oxfam said, making drought "the norm, hitting the region in up to three in every four years in the next 25 years."

Ethiopia's case is worsened by its very geographical setting, with a majority of the population living in areas situated about 2,000 metres above sea level. "Nearly half of Ethiopia is mountainous," Tewolde Berhan Gebre-Egziabher, head of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency, said in a recent conference on climate change.

"Ninety percent of us live on these mountains and since our presence changes the delicate components of the environment into vulnerability, our land has been degrading fast ... and our lives with it," he added.

Most farmers here also lack the knowledge of effective farming practices, while a dearth of modern technology and irrigation curbs their ability to mitigate negative effects. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is holding a summit on food security in Rome next week and world leaders will gather again in Copenhagen next month, with the aim of achieving a global pact on slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

Africa is demanding that billions of dollars be paid to the continent in compensation by carbon-intensive rich nations. African countries also demand that industrialised nations take measures to limit global warming to two degrees celsius and cut emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020.

Yet, several experts have expressed doubts over achieving a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen. Tuke, who dropped out of school at 6th grade, says the world no longer has the luxury of not acting. "The situation is getting worse with people around the world suffering," he says.

"They have to find some results. They have to act by giving money to the affected people and find ways to whatever they are doing that has worsened the problem."

 

(The writer is Journalist, Columnist and Conservator, Wildlife and Environment.)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

CONCEPT OF JUSTICE IN ISLAM

ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

 

(From previous issue)

It is true that treatment of women in Muslim societies is far from desirable and gives impression as if Islam robs women of all their rights. It is true that in our patriarchal society Muslim men have never conceded Qur'anic rights to their women folk and the shari'ah formulations were also heavily influenced by the Arab customary laws as well as feudal values which were patriarchal.

Thus the original spirit of justice in the Qur'an was seriously injured in the shari'ah formulations. And it is not only in respect of gender justice but in other areas too Qur'anic spirit of justice suffered seriously in actual historical practices. After the death of the Holy Prophet when Islam spread to other non-Arab societies with advanced feudal civilisations and monarchical societies, Islamic practices began to imbibe un-Qur'anic practices and the spirit of justice was totally lost.

Once Umayyad's introduced monarchy in the name of Khilafat, there was no looking back and ruler began to be nominated by the preceding ruler making it a dynastic rule.

Not only this dynastic rule brought all feudal values and now what the khalifa ruled became justice and shari'ah rules were observed only in respect of ibadat (acts of worship), no more in respect of social and political justice. Dynastic wars, wars of succession in the same dynasty like among non-Muslims became the rule and bloodshed, torture of political opponents, revenge and everything Qur'an had condemned were resorted to. Justice, mercy, compassion, suppression of anger and greed all were thrown to the winds. So much so that 'ulama began to rule in order to avoid anarchy that any ruler who establishes prayer must be obeyed.
This was totally against the Qur'anic concept of a just society and establishment of a just society was the sine qua non of Qur'an. In human affairs scriptural injunctions are totally ignored and followed only in respect of ritual practices, which pertain to the other world. As far as these worldly affairs are concerned they are determined by interests rather than scriptural pronouncements. It is very unfortunate that Islamic countries are so immersed in feudal values that even in 21st century social and political justice remain a distant goal. There is not so much as political democracy and freedom of conscience which is requirement of Qur'an (2:256) and is often quoted by Muslim 'ulama as well as Muslim intellectuals. What Islam means to Muslims even today are essentially ritual practices, nothing more. What is needed today is to expand notion of social justice as incorporated in Qur'anic teachings and all those laws which are being recommended or enforced in keeping with the notions of justice, must be accepted. The UN Charter of Human Rights, for example must be accepted by all Muslim countries as it is based on human dignity which is equally fundamental to Qur'anic view (17:70)
Similarly, the notion of gender justice must be further expanded in respect of all gender laws and shari'ah formulations in Islamic societies. The notion of justice is often influenced by the prevailing social mores and ethos. Today notions of social, economic and gender justice have greatly expanded and in today's society justice can be said to have been done only when these expanded notions are incorporated in the prevailing laws. What was thought to be just until yesterday does not necessarily thought to be just in today's society.
The medieval notions of justice had to be discarded. The Qur'anic notion of justice can best be served only by rethinking medieval practices and notions of justice.

There is wrong notion among orthodox Muslims that any reform or rethinking in laws thought to be just cannot be rethought. Divine injunctions and human interpretations cannot be equated in the way it is being done in Muslim societies.

Divine pronouncements are far beyond narrow human limitations and can and must be rethought with fundamental change in what we can call social paradigms.

Social paradigms have undergone great changes and hence expanded notions of contemporary society which helps usher in better quality of life must be accepted. No one can challenge the fact that Qur'an gave humanity notion of absolute justice and comprehension of notion of absolute justice is always limited by social conditions and a true believer has to engage with society to keep expanding notions of justice.

To engage with ones unjust social structures and make constant efforts to make life richer and more liveable in terms of justice and human dignity is true jihad.

It should be duty of every Muslim to wage this jihad through his/her intellectual exertions. A life spent in this jihad would be the truest Islamic life.

 

[Concluded]

(Centre for Study of Society and Secularism)

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

WHEN KRISHNA MET TRISHNA

TWO LIVES, 20 DOCTORS AND AN UPLIFTING STORY OF HOPE.

 

THE 32-hour marathon surgery to separate conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna may not seize the record for the longest yet performed in Australia - Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital says several previous operations have passed the 30-hour threshold - but it was unusually complex and has seized the public imagination in a way medical procedures rarely do.

 

The implications of the successful separation for the Bangladeshi orphans are as profound, and yet also as simple, as life-changing surgery can ever be. Once roused from their induced comas, the twins, who have been together for every moment of their near three-year lives, will soon be able to set eyes on each other directly for the first time without the need for a mirror.

 

There are many difficulties ahead, but so far the only tears have been ones of joy and relief. Asked if there were tears in the theatre, one member of the 20-strong operating team revealed she cried only after she had got into her car to go home.

 

We hear a lot about the health system's problems, but the determination shown by the hospital, the medical team, the Children's First Foundation that first brought the pair to Australia and, of course, the tiny patients themselves shows what can be done when we have the will to succeed.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

PREPARING THE GROUND FOR SECOND-TERM REFORM

LESSONS FOR THE PM IN THE HAWKE AND KEATING GOVERNMENTS.

 

KEVIN Rudd is in a fortunate position. He has a commanding lead in opinion polls as Australia emerges more quickly and strongly from the global financial crisis than most experts, including those in his own Treasury, predicted. With up to a year until the next federal election and an opposition in disarray, he has the luxury of looking beyond immediate political imperatives and laying the ground work for reform in his second term of government. The long period of fiscal stringency required to pay down the government's deficit should be a catalyst for change. Well managed, the re-emerging China boom offers Australia the opportunity of a new era of prosperity. Without a clear agenda, the coming years could see Australia held back by production and export bottlenecks, exacerbated by a more rigid industrial relations systems, labour shortages and the burden of the Carbon Price Reduction Scheme.

 

First however, the Rudd government has to decide what it really stands for. Is it a post-political, managerial government constrained by the demands of rent-seekers, including the trade unions? Or does it aspire to be a reforming government in the Hawke-Keating tradition, with a clear sense of where the world is heading and Australia's place in it? The jury is out, but the lessons from Australia's recent history are instructive.

 

The first 24 months of the Hawke government, in which it floated the dollar and issued 16 licences to foreign banks, were two of the most dramatic years of economic reform in the past quarter-century. It was the start of a period of reform that radically changed Australia. The balance of payments and dollar crisis of Bob Hawke's second term led to the dismantling of import protection, the privatisation of government enterprises and the freeing up of the labour market.

 

A prime minister looking for a blueprint for reform would do well to study the Hawke and Keating governments and the nation bequeathed by John Howard. It would quickly become apparent that to describe Mr Howard's Australia as "brutopia", as the Prime Minister did in a November 2006 essay attacking "the ruthless logic of the market", is a serious misreading of the high-taxing, high-spending Howard years in which constituents were bought off with government largesse. Yet in policies from health and education to industrial relations, the Howard government was driven by a consistent philosophy - the principle of choice.

 

After two years, the Rudd government is yet to shape its own narrative. Its tenure, so far, has been dominated by the global financial crisis, to which it responded swiftly and effectively. In most other respects, however, Mr Rudd has so far led a government of appeasement, ruled by compromise. From re-regulating the labour market to motor industry protection, book imports and the CPRS, he has tried to balance the competing interests of Left and Right while consistently protecting the interests of unions and paying only lip service to business and growth.

 

In part, this stems from the government's pedigree, grounded in three states - Queensland, where an agrarian socialist mindset has long pervaded both sides of politics; the NSW Right of the Labor Party, whose economic management brought inertia to Australia's largest city and state; and the Victorian Left of the ALP. Both the NSW Right and Industry Minister Kim Carr's Victorian Socialist Left played pivotal roles in delivering the leadership to Mr Rudd. It is to these competing constituencies that Mr Rudd is beholden, and it is becoming harder and harder as time goes on to disguise the internal policy contractions that flow from trying to be all things to all factions.

 

At the risk of stating the obvious, Mr Rudd was not elected to be Australia's first federal premier. Yet he has found it difficult to shake off his background as a senior Queensland bureaucrat, while Wayne Swan still wears the badge of an ALP state secretary. Both men must learn to rise above the parish pump mindset that drives state news cycles and learn from mistakes such as the petrol watch and grocery watch schemes, which were bad policy created to pretend that they could do something about either set of prices.

 

If Mr Rudd is looking for a lesson from state Labor politics, it should be this one: those who live by the 24-hour media cycle also die by it. Bob Carr, whose style of government in NSW is mirrored, in many ways, by the Rudd team, retired after 10 years as premier leaving as a legacy an underperforming state in serious financial difficulties, lacking essential infrastructure and services and beholden to public-sector unions. We shudder when we hear former Carr staffers and now lobbyists Hawker-Britton brag about last week's books indecision by the federal government.

 

As he lays the groundwork for a second term, Mr Rudd must learn the discipline of fiscal restraint. The inevitable consequence of the stimulus spend will be an extended period of public-sector austerity not seen since the early stages of the Howard-Costello government. The government must be prepared to spend some its political capital to prune unnecessary spending in preparation for next year's budget.

 

Meanwhile, the Henry tax review is shaping up as a major test of the government's mettle. The inevitable demands to use the Henry review to redistribute wealth must be treated cautiously. Instead, the government must seize the chance to create a simpler, more competitive tax system, lowering business taxation and fostering an enterprise culture. Just as Paul Keating showed how economically rational principles could be married to social democratic values, Mr Rudd can adopt Mr Henry's idea that a lower tax burden on capital investment would benefit the working class by giving them more productive tools. He should review Australia's corporate tax rate, which, at 30 per cent, is at the higher end of the international scale, as other nations have moved to cut their rates to bolster their appeal to international investors. And he must pare back the tax/welfare churn that became so entrenched under the Howard government.

 

It will take political courage to embrace tax reform, but by doing so a second-term Rudd government would prepare the ground for wider reform process in areas it has talked about but is yet to act upon - competition policy, redressing indigenous disadvantage, building productive infrastructure, labour market productivity and the streamlining of federal and state responsibilities through the Council of Australian Governments.

 

Adjusting to a carbon-constrained future requires no less discipline if Australia is to maintain and improve living standards.

 

In going about the mammoth task ahead, the government needs to bring hard-heads on board and must avoid further politicising the economic debate. Rather than treating them like ideological enemies, Mr Rudd needs to embrace economists such as Reserve Bank of Australia board member Warwick McKibbin, who questioned the size and scope of the government's fiscal stimulus program. Mr Rudd would also do himself a favour by tapping the expertise of veterans of the Hawke era such as Ross Garnaut and Craig Emerson, who understand the importance of reform as part of a Labor narrative.

 

One thing is certain. Poor decisions this side of the next election will come back to haunt whichever government wins. Given current polls suggesting he will be returned, Mr Rudd has every reason to look to the future now.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

 

SBY - AND WHY NOT

 

THE Federal Opposition is claiming that the cancellation of the planned visit by the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, constitutes an ''extraordinary slap in the face'' for the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and Australia. That is overblown. However, pretending that the bilateral relationship has not been tested by recent events, as the Government has sought to do, is disingenuous at best. Ministers' attempts to play down the perceived snub from Yudhoyono have been amateurish, feats of magical thinking to match their insistence that the Tamils on the Oceanic Viking were offered no special deal.

 

The official Indonesian explanation is reasonable, to an extent: the President has serious domestic problems, and problems which go right to the heart of his credibility as a clean-government crusader. These include the scandal surrounding the Corruption Eradication Commission, and the investigation into the bail-out of Bank Century. The first, which has consumed Indonesia's media for weeks and sparked almost daily protests in Jakarta, has senior police and prosecutors accused of leading a conspiracy to frame members of the commission. Police are refusing to drop charges against the commissioners, despite public outrage over wiretap evidence of a set-up.

 

The second, in which a key donor to Yudhoyono's party was reportedly able to withdraw funds from the supposedly frozen Bank Century after its collapse, may prove even more damaging to a President who promised to end corruption. He is under strong public pressure to implement this week's recommendations of his special fact-finding team that investigated both scandals. It would also not play well domestically for Yudhoyono, who has just spent six days out of the country visiting Malaysia and Singapore for APEC, to be seen ducking overseas again during this crisis.

 

That said, if the Indonesians honestly were not sending a message to Australia with the cancellation, then Yudhoyono should reschedule his visit quickly. The long and embarrassing stand-off with the asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking has undeniably brought tensions to the relationship. It is particularly likely to do lasting damage to future co-operation on people-smuggling and refugee issues.

 

Indonesia wants to deter boat arrivals as much as Australia does, and it quite reasonably has little inclination to do Australia's dirty work or be seen to be deferring to its rich neighbour. Meanwhile, both countries are left with a problem that is not going away, and with no framework for tackling it.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

OLYMPIC COUCH POTATOES

 

BEWARE anyone who seeks to win an argument by branding their opponents as ''un-Australian''. And so it is with John Coates, the president of the Australian Olympic Committee, who reacted with something close to hysteria this week to a recommendation that taxpayer money be directed more towards mass participation sports than Olympic sports. Coates sought to frame the suggestion as an insult to all past Olympic medal winners and, no less, an affront to our ''national identity''. But national identity is, and should always be, a malleable thing. Clinging to national myths about our identity can divorce us from facing up to the truth of who we actually are.

 

The truth is, far from the bronzed athletic youth of our forebears, Australia is increasingly a nation of overweight and obese people. Just as we have been climbing up the Olympic medal tally, recovering from the embarrassment of winning no gold medals in Montreal in 1976, so too have we been climbing up the obesity tally. According to the OECD, Australia comes fifth in the obesity list, with one in five Australians considered obese. In 1980 fewer than one in 10 Australians were obese. So while we do indeed revel in our Olympic achievements, we do so from the safety of our lounge rooms. We are a nation of sports-loving couch potatoes.

 

So the Future of Australian Sport report produced for the Rudd Government by a BHP Billiton board member, David Crawford, is a welcome contribution to a long overdue debate about our relationship with sport. What sort of sport-loving nation do we want to be? One that enjoys watching the achievements of elite sportspeople, or one which encourages all Australians to be joiners, willing to give it a go, even if we fall spectacularly on our faces? In his push for more money to be spent on Olympians, Coates ends up sounding something like a crazed soccer mum, refusing to let the kids enjoy having a kick around on the field, insisting it is all about winning.

 

But sports funding is not an either/or proposition. The Government can maintain current spending on Olympic sports while boosting spending on other programs which encourage greater participation in popular sports, particularly by children. One of the report's more intriguing proposals is for a tax deduction for money spent by parents on children's sports programs. This could arguably prove revenue-neutral by reducing the drain on government coffers in future from obesity-related illnesses like diabetes.

 

Now there's something we can all cheer for.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

TWINS SHINE A LIGHT ON PROGRESS

 

WHILE newly separated twins Krishna and Trishna face a critical battle in the aftermath of their marathon 30-hour surgery, there's cause for a collective sigh of relief, as well as a reflective pause.

 

The twins' long journey to individual beds, of which the separation surgery was the most dramatic and most difficult part, is a testament to the world-class expertise of their medical team. The doctors at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital have already held their collective breath over the outcome of four risky operations, culminating in a 20-hour session to separate the twins' shared blood vessels. Earlier this year a life-threatening infection prompted the removal of inflatable tissue expanders that had been placed in the twins' heads to encourage the growth of new skin. In August the expanders were put in again and this time all went well. The separation surgery itself was predicted to take five or six hours- a big underestimate, as it happened.

 

It is a rather poignant coincidence that the twins' operation took place in the same week as the official apology to the Forgotten Australians, being those who endured heartbreak and abuse in orphanages and other institutions. While the apology has prompted an outpouring of grief and the retelling of dark chapters from the nation's past, it has also highlighted how far society has progressed in only a few decades.

 

Australia has become a child-centred society, placing the highest premium on nurturing the young, regardless of the lottery of birth. A 2004 Senate inquiry learnt that as late as the 1970s, children were used as human guinea pigs in medical research trials. On Tuesday Melbourne University vice-chancellor Glyn Davis distributed an apology for that institution's use of orphans ''as subjects'' in vaccination trials for whooping cough, influenza and polio.

 

And so there's a certain poetic justice to the medical fraternity's efforts this week on behalf of the orphaned twins and to the deep public concern for the girls' welfare. But coupled with this is the sobering realisation of how wide the gap remains between the now-enlightened West and those parts of the developing world stunted by poverty and social injustice. To begin with, conjoined twins are a rarity in the developed world because of better and more accessible health care and screening in pregnancy. And clearly the twins' poor Bangladeshi family lacked the support needed to care for them- a predicament Western parents are less likely to face.

 

The twins had been rapidly deteriorating in a Dhaka orphanage before two Australian volunteers saw them and realised their only hope was to obtain treatment overseas. The developing world still has a multitude of sick, neglected and ''forgotten'' children.

 

Of course, Trishna and Krishna are individuals, and not symbols of wider truths. They are loved by carers and guardians both here and at home who longed to see them thrive apart rather than die conjoined. We share their hopes.

 

Source: The Age

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

SPORT MEANS MORE THAN MEDALS

 

DON Bradman, Herb Elliott, Dawn Fraser, Ron Barassi, Cathy Freeman, Shane Warne, Ian Thorpe, and both Gary Abletts: it is an arbitrary list, easily expanded, but sufficient reminder that most of Australia's folk heroes have been sporting ones. Some have been larrikins, too, gaining reputations for belligerently revelling in the national ethos off the field almost as often as they displayed individual prowess on it. And those whose sports allowed them to compete at an international level, especially in great global gatherings such as the Olympic Games, gave a nation that is not always sure of its place in the world the sense, however fleeting, of standing shoulder to shoulder with the best of the best.

 

Politicians have nurtured that sense, most notably via the funds allocated to the Australian Institute of Sport since 1976, when a failure to win a single gold medal in the Montreal Olympics was deemed a national disgrace. This emphasis on elite sport has rarely been publicly questioned, but this week federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis released the recommendations of the Independent Sport Report, which call for a radical change in the way sport is publicly subsidised.

 

The report, prepared by a panel chaired by businessman David Crawford, rejects the Australian Olympic Committee's demand for an extra $109 million to ensure Australia finishes among the top five nations in the 2012 Olympics. Instead of allocating funds as though national worth can be measured by a medal tally every four years, the report says, governments should emphasise sports with high participation levels, to better integrate sports and health policy. Funding should be directed, Mr Crawford said, to ''those sports which capture the country's imagination and represent its spirit and culture'', especially swimming, tennis, cricket, cycling, the football codes, netball, golf, hockey, basketball, surfing and surf lifesaving.

 

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates responded swiftly and aggressively, invoking the form of condemnation used by all who want an issue expunged from the list of acceptable topics of debate: the Crawford recommendations, Mr Coates said, were un-Australian. It was an astonishing thing to say about a report that recommends maintaining the existing level of funding for elite sport and contemplates Australia ranking among the top 10, rather than the top five, of more than 200 countries that are expected to compete in London in 2012.

 

The Crawford report is obviously vulnerable to criticism by those who suspect its motives: all five of its members are associated with team sports and three of them have AFL connections. It is true, too, that most of the sports it wishes to promote are professional at their own elite levels, and the beneficiaries of hefty cash flows from television contracts and gate attendances. Recognising these things to be true, however, does not undermine the case the report makes.

 

Australians will celebrate any gold medal won in 2012, even if it is in a sport they never think of between Olympics and even if it is won by someone they have not previously heard of and might never hear of again. Nor can anyone begrudge individual athletes their success. But, as the report notes, the present system funds such success at the rate of $15 million per gold medal. The nation's self-esteem is surely neither so low nor so brittle as to require this level of investment, and it is money that in some instances could be more wisely spent. A shift to funding high-participation sports at grassroots levels might not result in the same surge of collective euphoria every four years, but it would contribute in a more sustained fashion to national wellbeing.

 

Source: The Age

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

QUEEN'S SPEECH II: A TIN EAR ON POLITICAL REFORM

 

Five interesting speeches were given in parliament yesterday. Four of them – those by the Queen herself, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Charles Clarke – all had something to say about the need for political and constitutional reform in the United Kingdom. Only one of them had nothing to say at all about these subjects. The exception, depressingly, was Gordon Brown.

 

No politician who is truly in touch with the concerns of the British electorate can be in doubt that the two biggest political issues in the public mind today remain Britain's broken banks and Britain's broken politics. Mr Brown is happy to talk about the former, and rightly so. But he seems to have no grasp of the scale and importance of public disaffection with MPs and the political system. On all this he still seems consistently and woefully off the pace.

 

Sure, Mr Brown can sometimes say a few of the right things on reforming politics when he has to. At the Labour conference this autumn, he promised to give voters the right to recall a corrupt MP. He committed himself to a referendum on the alternative vote system in parliamentary elections. And he pledged to make the House of Lords accountable and democratic.

 

These pledges were fine as far as they went, which was not very far. But at least Mr Brown made them. Seven weeks on, however, he seems to have lost whatever interest in reform he may briefly have felt it necessary to affect earlier in the year. True, the Queen's speech contained a pledge to take the carried-over constitutional reform bill on to the statute book and to publish draft – but only draft – plans for further Lords reform. But neither the Queen's speech nor the prime minister's contained anything with any sense of urgency. Mr Brown said not one word that responded directly to the expenses crisis, or to the wider arguments about political reform that were triggered by it. No one listening to the prime minister would have had a clue there has ever been a problem. Nothing on expenses. Nothing on political funding. Nothing on strengthening the power of MPs. Nothing on the electoral system. Compared with Messrs Cameron, Clegg and Clarke, Mr Brown has a tin ear about reform.

 

Over its 12 years in office, Labour has a substantial if piecemeal record on political and constitutional reform. This week, though, was a missed opportunity. The Westminster system badly needs mending. There is also an appetite for wider proactive change – as yesterday's Welsh devolution reform proposals illustrated. Parliament has a duty – and a self-interest – to respond. With only months to the election, no one expects Mr Brown to launch a constitutional big bang. But we need something much better than yesterday's feeble whimper.

 

 

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF… THE WOW FACTOR AT THE MOVIES

 

2012

Production year: 2009

Country: USA

Cert (UK): 12A

Runtime: 157 mins

Directors: Roland Emmerich

 

Cast: Amanda Peet, Chin Han, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Jimi Mistry, John Cusack, Liam James, Morgan Lily, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Tom McCarthy, Woody Harrelson

 

In 1895, Thomas Edison produced an 18-second historical movie called The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots that lives on in cinema history for its special effects: it depicted nothing other than Mary's beheading. Why make the film any longer? All anyone needed to see was the rolling head, not the back story. This, in essence, is the story of the early days of cinema, when producers believed their first duty was to amaze audiences with images of experiences they could never have had: how else to account for the 1900 short How It Feels To Be Run Over, which shows a car driving at a fixed camera. The very purpose of these films was to shock people, to provide a jolt of adrenalin greater than anything everyday life could bring; plot, art and acting were secondary. Ever since, the "wow factor" has been the one thing that sets the movies apart from all other art forms – only on film can the impossible be made real and animate before our eyes. The makers of the current blockbuster movie, 2012, understand that perfectly. Here is a film that, for all its artistic inadequacies, leaves the viewer wide-eyed with amazement: "How did they make the world end?" The trite answer is: with computers. But so overwhelming is what's happening on screen that one is left reeling like the earliest film-goers seeing Mary's head roll across the screen. The only shame is that, these days, it costs $200m to generate the thrills that a canny director could once produce with a dummy, a pair of scissors and a few dollars.

 

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

QUEEN'S SPEECH I: JAW-JAW AND LAW-LAW

 

A final chance to write the script from high office, and a first chance to set the tone for the election campaign, yesterday's Queen's speech was an important moment, even though many of the measures announced may never pass into law. Gordon Brown's words for Her Majesty were of course chiefly designed to restore his fading chances of re-election, something the opinion polls suggest will be hard to pull off. But the speech nonetheless framed the coming political choice and – should it fail in its primary purpose – it will instead have chiselled an epitaph on the tomb of the New Labour years.

 

Yesterday's pomp, pageantry and political knock-about underlined how much about Britain the government has left unchanged. The legislative agenda, however, was distinctly its own. There were fewer populist crackdowns than during the Blair years, and a tight focus on public services. New entitlements for the young at school and the old needing care were promised, as was legal enshrinement of the goal to abolish child poverty. Taken together with new NHS rights – to be enacted under legislation that got royal assent last week – the plans represents a rhetorical reaffirmation of the role of the state. And in theory, a small number of legal rights could facilitate the abolition of a large number of meddlesome targets. The nagging doubt is whether all the warm words connect in any way with reality.

 

For all of the worthy welfarist ambitions in question require real money, rather than legislative statements of resolve. The obvious charge against Mr Brown is that, having spent all the cash, he is now reduced to passing new laws to assert that he would like to spend even more. Should any of the new laws have real bite, they will do so by ringfencing particular elements of expenditure, something that could require unnecessarily savage cuts elsewhere. New rights to free care or good teaching are all very well, but the unspoken implication for legal aid, council housing or any other service could yet provide a nasty sting to the tale.

 

All of this lent some force to David Cameron's central line of attack in the Commons yesterday – that the administration is now behaving less like a government than an irresponsible opposition. But insisting that they could out-tough the government over its economically illiterate plan to write a rigid timetable for fiscal tightening into the law, the Conservatives failed to convince that they would discharge power any more responsibly. And having bravely led the charge for an aspirational climate change bill, the Tories cannot now credibly object to the principle of extending the same approach into other areas – such as poverty – where they also claim to share Labour's objectives.

 

Just as with the climate change law, the child poverty bill will not truly guarantee that targets are met, but would strengthen the accountability of ministers in relation to them. If the Conservatives kill the measure, then – by Mr Brown's reckoning – they will be exposed for plotting to shift the goalposts, forcing them to come clean with the public. Such politicking may fail to play out as planned, not least because the country does not keep track of every Westminster filibuster in the way the prime minister sometimes seems to imagine. He is, however, right to believe that writing social policies into the law can prolong their life – Aneurin Bevan's health service might easily have been eroded by inches over the decades had he not taken the precaution to set out his principles so clearly in the statute book.

So for all the pitfalls, and despite the obvious truth that what governments do is more important than what laws they write, codifying a few carefully framed social objectives could make sense. Mr Brown used yesterday to remind the country about what Labour would like to do. But with only a few dozen parliamentary days left before the election, few of its ambitions will end up being written into the law of the land.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

NOT TOO AMBITIOUS

 

The government said that come 2020 it would voluntarily cut greenhouse gas emissions by 4 percent from 2005 levels. This is equivalent to a 30 percent reduction on the business-as-usual projection for 2020.

 

Since last year, the government had been considering three options: an 8 percent increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the 2005 levels, a freeze at 2005 levels and a four percent reduction. Thirty percent is the upper end of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal for developing countries set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

 

Despite concerns from the business sector that such a goal may hurt Korean industries, President Lee Myung-bak is said to have been adamant in his push for the 30 percent reduction. After all, low-carbon green growth is the administration's mantra.

 

Lee hailed the Cabinet meeting that decided on the greenhouse gas emissions goal as a "historic meeting" and said that the country's international standing and national pride would be enhanced by the government's "ambitious target."

 

As Lee pointed out, the government has kept its promise to announce an emissions target within the year. He is right that the emissions target of 30 percent reduction on BAU projection for 2020 is the highest recommended for developing countries. He is also right that it is a voluntary move - Korea is not subjected to mandatory carbon emissions reduction under the current Kyoto Protocol because it was categorized as a developing country.

 

However, the 30 percent reduction goal is disappointing because it is the recommended reduction for developing countries. Korea is an OECD member state and it has pledged to play a leading role in the G20 grouping as a mediator between developed countries and developing countries. Using these standards - and the government often cites these as Korea's achievements - Korea is no longer the developing country it once was.

 

Hence, it is a bit of a curiosity that Lee should call the move to set a 30 percent reduction as "an advanced nation-type change in thought." Such characterization would have been more appropriate for a more aggressive reduction goal. The European Union which earlier this year announced that it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent of 1990 levels by 2020, recently said it would push for a 30 percent reduction to encourage other countries that are dragging their feet, including the United States, to commit to a number before next month's Copenhagen meeting. The Hatoyama administration in Japan announced a 25 percent reduction from 1990 levels. Brazil said that it would cut at least 36 percent off the BAU levels by 2020 while Indonesia announced that it would cut emissions to 26 percent to 41 percent below BAU.

 

Businesses are rightly concerned that the emissions cut goal will have a negative impact on Korean companies' international competitiveness. With the country's export sector heavily reliant on industries that use a lot of energy, the country's economy will be affected as well.

 

To mitigate the short-term negative impact on businesses, the government said that it will initially focus on reducing carbon emissions in transportation and building sectors, where there is vast room for improvement.

 

With the overall goal in place, the government will work out a detailed plan for greenhouse gas emissions reduction in the coming months. The 30 percent reduction goal is not terribly impressive. The least the government can do now is ensure that that goal is met. To do this, it needs to present a feasible plan and persuade everyone why the emissions cut is necessary for the future of the country.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

MORE TO AFGHANISTAN?

 

The government may set up an independent Provincial Reconstruction Team in Parwan Province when it dispatches reconstruction workers and soldiers to Afghanistan next year.

 

Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan Tuesday said that Parwan was thought to be the most "suitable area," explaining that the area, close to the Bagram U.S. airbase, was relatively safe.

 

The government last month announced that it would increase the number of civilian aid workers in Afghanistan to at least 130. About 300 soldiers would also be dispatched to protect the workers, it said.

 

However, Yu gave an indication that the size of the Korean contingency could be subject to change, saying that the security risks and the necessary military presence need to be assessed after the location of the PRT is decided.

 

A fact-finding mission returned from Afghanistan Tuesday and the government will decide on the final details of the dispatch after consultations with the fact-finding team, the Defense Ministry and the Korea International Cooperation Agency. They will discuss the location of the dispatch, the number of civilian workers, troops and police to be sent, and the scope of their activity. A Korea Institute for Defense Analyses study commissioned by the Defense Ministry said as many as 2,000 troops would be required to protect an independent PRT.

 

There are reports now that the Korean PRT could total around 500. The security conditions in Afghanistan warrant possible air evacuation of the Korean team should the security condition deteriorate, and this would require the presence of military transport helicopters as well.

 

It now appears that the government's original announcement of dispatching some 300 troops was an underestimate. Public sentiment is largely against redeploying troops in Afghanistan - 23 South Korean aid workers were kidnapped and two of them killed by the Taliban in the summer of 2007; Korean troops pulled out at the end of that year. Wary of that sentiment, the government may have been compelled to keep the dispatch to the minimum.

 

However, the reality is that Afghanistan is not a safe place and that troops will be required to protect civilian workers. The reality is also that the troops may also have to engage in exchange of fire or full-scale combat to protect the civilians.

 

The government should be upfront about the risks involved in dispatching civilians and troops to Afghanistan. It should also prepare fully for possible attacks on Koreans dispatched there. If this means committing more soldiers, the government should tell people so.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

WOMEN TO FURTHER EUROPEAN DREAM: ROBINSON, LAGARDE

JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN

 

LAUSANNE - I was born in 1945. My grandfather was a German Jew. Fortunately, none of my immediate family perished in the Holocaust. But its shadow hung over me throughout my formative years. When I began, in my teens, to meet with German contemporaries, there was an initial reticence and discomfort. But we talked and talked and talked. There was no attempt to hide the past, but there was a burning desire to make a different future. It followed that I became an ardent Europhile.

 

Two decades ago, the Berlin Wall was torn asunder by jubilant crowds. Today, 10 former communist nations are fully integrated members of the European Union. Were my father to reappear suddenly and I told him that Lithuania was a member state, he would stare in disbelief and wonder what I was smoking.

 

The sad news, however, is that as the structure of the European Union (for example, the single market and the single currency) has been put in place, the spirit of unity has died. The European "project" has become an exercise of unalloyed cynicism. The most depressing illustration of this has been the handling of the "European Constitution" and the Lisbon Treaty, and the totally unedifying means by which the European president, a key part of the Lisbon Treaty, is being selected.

 

The good news is that Tony Blair's candidacy seems to have been ditched. The reasons for his inappropriateness for the post are too numerous to mention - the single word "Iraq" should suffice. It would have been an act of supreme cynicism and hypocrisy, even by European standards, had he been selected.

 

The bad news is that the other candidates allegedly being considered - all current or mainly former heads of government - are as inspiring as cold porridge. The implications of what we are currently witnessing could be enormous. As impressive as Europe's history has been since the Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community in 1957, by no means should it be assumed that the European Union has become permanent.

 

Indeed, on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, no less a Euro-luminary than Jacques Delors expressed the fear that the European Union could "unravel"; Germany's former foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, expressed similar sentiments in an interview on the BBC in early 2009.

 

While such an outcome may be improbable, it would be complacent folly to dismiss the possibility. No institution, society, or civilization can survive purely on autopilot. History, after all, is replete with "rise-and-fall" stories.

 

So who the EU president will be matters a lot. What is needed is someone of impeccable integrity and the capacity to inspire - and especially to engage Europe's young people.

 

I see only two possible candidates that could meet these qualities: former Irish President Mary Robinson and French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. I have not excluded men a priori in this exercise, but none occurred to me, and in any case the EU establishment has too many middle-aged white men as it is.

 

Although the differences between Robinson and Lagarde are many, both would be excellent choices. Robinson may be the more inspirational candidate in light of the projects with which she has been involved since leaving office: chair of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, honorary president of Oxfam International, chair of the International Institute for Environment and Development, chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, and founder of the Ethical Globalization Initiative.

 

Lagarde has other strengths. She is an accomplished professional, having been chair of one of the world's largest law firms and ranked by Forbes in 2008 as the 14th most powerful woman in the world. Thus, she has had two brilliant careers - in business and in politics - and has enormous charisma.

 

Both women therefore represent very different choices as leaders and potential role models. Moreover, Robinson, born in 1944, is a 20th-century person. The presidency of the EU would mark the twilight of her career. Lagarde, at 53, is considerably younger.

 

Reviving the European dream, however, requires not just the choice of an individual. There has to be a cause. And this is where a key question hangs over Lagarde: How does she feel about Turkey's membership in the European Union? Her boss, Nicolas Sarkozy, is vehemently opposed, but Sarkozy (who cannot speak English and is computer illiterate) can hardly be described as a 21st-century role model. Lagarde, by contrast, seems to be a global Renaissance woman, but her views on Turkey's EU membership could disprove that image.

 

Perhaps the greatest challenge for Europe in the 21st century is to bring down the walls between its non-Muslim and Muslim communities. This applies not only to Muslim citizens in the European Union, but also to those in the Balkans - notably Bosnia, Kosovo, and Albania - in the former Soviet Union, and especially in Turkey.

 

This cannot be accomplished overnight. But the process that was initiated has since stalled. Incorporating Turkey - and eventually other majority Muslim European countries - into the EU is the European dream of the 21st century. Getting the right president in 2010 would be an important step in this journey. Robinson or Lagarde could be the inspiring leaders that the European Union needs to make this dream a reality.

 

Jean-Pierre Lehmann is founding director of the Evian Group and a professor of International Political Economy at the International Institute for Management Development. - Ed.

 

(Project Syndicate)

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

PREVENTING CHILD ABUSE

 

Since 2004, November has been designated the month when central and local governments and nongovernmental organizations campaign for prevention of child abuse. Extending support at the local community level will be important to help parents as well as children.

 

The police investigated 157 cases of child abuse in the first half of this year, 3.1 percent fewer than a year before, and took action against 165 people, the same number as a year before. Eleven children died of abuse, a drop of 62.1 percent.

 

But the situation is more severe than the figures suggest. In fiscal 2008, child consultation centers nationwide were contacted with regard to 42,664 cases of child abuse — a record number. It is believed the number of actual cases is several times that.

 

A welfare ministry survey shows that 78 children died of abuse from Jan. 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008. If the children who were killed or were forced to kill themselves by parents who committed suicide are included, the number climbs to 142. An association of child consultation centers says about 2 percent of abused children were at risk of losing their lives. Both the public and private sectors need to seriously tackle the problem.

 

Attention should be paid to the fact that more than half of those who commit child abuse are the natural mothers of the victims. It is reported that various factors such as economic difficulties, unstable employment, stress of a mother-child household, isolation from neighbors and a bad relationship with a husband are contributing factors in a mother's abuse of her children. Many abusive mothers often lack knowledge about how to raise children.

 

The association says that about 30 percent of parents who committed serious child abuse wanted some form of help. Budgetary measures are needed to provide improved child welfare facilities and more child welfare specialists. Support measures to help parents become economically stable and establish contacts with neighbors are indispensable. A 24-hour telephone service (0570-064-000), which opened Oct. 1 and automatically refers a caller to the nearest child consultation center, is expected to be of great help.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

TEMPERED ECONOMIC OPTIMISM

 

Japan's economy has expanded for the second straight quarter, but optimism may not be warranted. Although real gross domestic product for July-September grew 1.2 percent from the previous quarter or at an annualized rate of 4.8 percent — the largest rise since the 5.7 percent annualized growth for January-March 2007 — it may be too early too consider the recovery self-sustainable.

 

The 0.7 percent quarterly rise in consumer spending, which accounts for about 60 percent of Japan's GDP, was supported by tax cuts on low-emission cars and a reward program for purchasing environment-friendly consumer electronics — steps taken by the previous administration. An array of stimulus efforts like these is losing steam as the funds run out.

 

Capital investment grew 1.6 percent — the first increase in six quarters. And the mining and industrial production index in September rose 2.1 percent from August — the seventh straight monthly rise.

 

Exports for July-September increased 6.4 percent from the previous quarter, mainly because of more exports to Asia, including China. But overseas demand pushed the July-September GDP up only 0.4 percent as imports increased. Domestic demand drove the GDP up 0.8 percent — the first positive contribution in six quarters.

 

Housing investment for July-September dropped 7.7 percent from the previous quarter. Although the unemployment rate in October was down 0.2 percentage point from September at 5.3 percent, many companies are reluctant to increase employment. The domestic demand deflator, an indicator of price trends, dropped 2.6 percent in the July-September quarter from a year before — the largest drop in more than 50 years — raising fears that Japan is heading into deflation. Winter bonuses are forecast to fall between 7.4 percent and 13.8 percent from last year.

 

The government should promptly adopt and execute a second fiscal 2009 supplementary budget, said to be worth ¥2.7 trillion. As tax revenue will be less than previously anticipated, clever and effective measures must be devised to stimulate demand.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

WRONG WAY TO HALT WARMING

BY DAVID HOWELL

 

Here's a surprise. The countries with the best stories to tell at the forthcoming U.N. Copenhagen conference on climate change will probably be the ones that have not signed up to carbon-reducing targets at all, or have only signed up very recently. It could be China, the United States, India and Japan that are making far the best progress in genuinely cutting carbon emissions and adopting greener life and work styles.

 

This is because many of the policymakers and lofty statespersons who attend events like Copenhagen have lost touch with the real springs of human progress. They have forgotten that ambitious promises by politicians convince ever fewer in a skeptical world and that the real drivers are changes in actual behavior at every level, from the home to the factory to the office and in every aspect of daily life.

 

These changes come about because people and businesses have actual incentives to make them and see positive, immediate and profitable advantage in pursuing them.

 

In the world of targets and promises it is different. The political leaders and their advisers who make them, especially about distant dates like 2050, or even 2020, a decade from now, will mostly be long gone by the time their targets come up and are seen to have been missed.

 

The idea that passing laws to make them compulsory, for years ahead, is doubly absurd. Yet this is what Britain has done and other governments are being urged to do. By contrast, individual householders, companies and organizations calculate the immediate advantages in going green, in developing new green products and in pushing ahead at the cutting edge of technology, driven by hard incentives, with perhaps a touch of idealism.

 

The situation in Japan is especially ironic, since this is a nation in which people are already working at every level to save energy, increase efficiency and cut carbon intensity. The drivers for this behavior change are visible, immediate and already in place. The Japanese performance is world class and widely acknowledged as such, because it starts at the grass roots.

 

Yet along comes a declaration from Japan's new government that there must be a target — a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Target-obsessed campaigners and politicians have criticized this target. They want to announce even bigger ones. It makes them feel really good.

 

Yet the Japanese figure will not make the lightest difference to an already creditable performance in curbing the energy required for every unit of production and curbing the carbon- intensity of all energy used. It already makes economic sense to behave this way, as well as sense in terms of Japan's energy security. If anything, targets will confuse the issue. They are simply not needed.

 

Another good example of this delusion and confusion comes from Lord Browne, the former head of BP. This industrial leader rightly warns against the sheer unreality of announcing carbon targets 40 years ahead. But he nevertheless insists that we need all sorts of medium-term targets, national targets and industry-wide targets for poorer countries.

 

There is a serious misreading of human psychology here. It seems that when fashion-conscious politicians and commentators address green and climate issues, their feet leave the ground of reality. Their only wish becomes the desire to satisfy the clamor for carbon targets.

Latest surveys in the United Kingdom confirm that less than half the population are impressed by appeals and targets coming from their leaders to change their lifestyles and save the planet. On the other hand there is almost universal support for any products and methods that will cut energy and fuel bills. Shrewd manufacturers will recognize this and see where the market lies. They do not need implausible long-term targets to make them do what is obviously in their own interest anyway.

 

The issue boils down to one of technology versus "targetry." The central policy aim must be to ensure that around family breakfast tables, in boardrooms, in well-run office blocks and in enlightened science laboratories and centers, the best and wisest minds are incentivized to turn to innovative ways of cutting energy intensity and carbon intensity.

 

In other words the advantages of using less electricity and other fuels, and drawing power from greener energy sources, need to be clear and obvious to all. That applies as much to the poorest countries as to the richest.

 

Consumers and enterprises are already acting this way in many countries not because remote national or international targets have been announced, but because it pays people to act and because a cleaner green world is what people now want along with fresh water supplies, safer surroundings and a more harmonious and secure existence.

 

Declarations may flow from Copenhagen, along with dramatic negotiations, hard bargaining and triumphant announcements of global deals and promises. Green crusaders will demand ever bigger figures.

 

But it is at the grass roots, and at much humbler levels, where the real changes in behavior will decide whether a lower carbon, greener world can be achieved. The enterprises that seize and exploit these opportunities, and the governments that calmly create the right framework of encouragement for them to do so, will show us which nations in the 21st century are going to prosper and make the best contribution to humankind.

 

Those targets can be packed away or framed and hung on office walls. The real action is going to be elsewhere.

 

David Howell is a former British Cabinet minister and former chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. He is now a member of the House of Lords.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

OBAMA'S VIETNAM SYNDROME

BY JONATHAN SCHELL

 

NEW HAVEN — There can be no military resolution to the war in Afghanistan, only a political one. Writing that sentence almost makes me faint with boredom. As U.S. President Barack Obama ponders what to do about the war, who wants to repeat a point that's been made thousands of times? Is there anyone on Earth who does not know that a guerrilla war cannot be won without winning the "hearts and minds" of the people? The American public has known this since its defeat in Vietnam.

 

Americans are accustomed to thinking that their country's bitter experience in Vietnam taught certain lessons that became cautionary principles. But historical documents recently made available reveal something much stranger. Most of those lessons were in fact known — though not publicly admitted — before the United States escalated the war in Vietnam.

 

That difference is important. If the Vietnam disaster was launched in full awareness of the "lessons," why should those lessons be any more effective this time? It would seem that some other lessons are needed.

 

Why did President Lyndon Johnson's administration steer the U.S. into a war that looked like a lost cause even to its own officials? One possible explanation is that Johnson was thoroughly frightened by America's right wing. Urged by Sen. Mike Mansfield to withdraw from Vietnam, he replied that he did not want another "China in Vietnam."

 

His national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy, fueled Johnson's fears. In a memo of 1964, he wrote that "the political damage to Truman and Acheson from the fall of China arose because most Americans came to believe that we could and should have done more than we did to prevent it. This is exactly what would happen now if we should be seen to be the first to quit in Saigon." In another memo, Bundy argued that neutrality would be viewed by "all anticommunist Vietnamese" as a "betrayal," thus angering a U.S. domestic constituency powerful enough "to lose us an election."

 

Did Johnson's advisers push the country into a disastrous war in order to win an election — or, to be more exact, to avoid losing one? Johnson, Bundy, and the others of course believed the "domino" theory, which says that one country "falling" to communism would cause others to fall. But that theory meshed with suspicious ease with the perceived domestic political need for the president to appear "tough" — to avoid appearing "less of a hawk than your more respectable opponents," as Bundy later put it.

 

What is uncanny about the current debate about Afghanistan is the degree to which it displays continuity with the Vietnam debates, and the Obama administration knows it.

 

To most Americans, Vietnam taught one big lesson: "Don't do it again!" But, to the U.S. military, Vietnam taught a host of little lessons, adding up to "Do it better!"

 

Indeed, the military has in effect militarized the arguments of the peace movement of the 1960s. If hearts and minds are the key, be nice to local people. If civilian casualties are a problem, cut them to a minimum. If corruption is losing the client government support, "pressure" it to be honest, as Obama did in recent comments following Afghan President Hamid Karzai's fraud-ridden re-election.

 

The domestic political lessons of Vietnam have also been transmitted down to the present. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972, proposed to end the war, which by then was unpopular, yet lost the election in a landslide. That electoral loss seemed to confirm Johnson's earlier fears: those who pull out of wars lose elections. That lesson instilled in the Democratic Party a bone-deep fear of "McGovernism" that continues to this day.

 

There is unmistakable continuity between Joseph McCarthy's attacks on President Harry Truman's administration for "losing" China — and for supposed "appeasement" and even "treason" — and former Bush administration members Dick Cheney and Karl Rove's refrains assailing Obama for opposing the Iraq war, not to mention Republic vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's charge during the election campaign that Obama had been "palling around with terrorists."

 

It is no secret that Obama's support for the war in Afghanistan, which he has called "necessary for the defense of our people," served as protection against charges of weakness over his policy of withdrawing from Iraq. So the politics of the Vietnam dilemma has been handed down to Obama virtually intact. Now as then, the issue is whether the U.S. is able to fail in a war without becoming unhinged.

 

Does the American body politic have a reverse gear? Does it know how to cut losses? Is it capable of learning from experience? Or must it plunge over every cliff that it approaches?

 

At the heart of these questions is another: must liberals and moderates always bow down before the crazy right over national security? What is the source of this rightwing veto over presidents, congressmen and public opinion? Whoever can answer these questions will have discovered one of the keys to a half-century of American history — and the forces that, even now, bear down on Obama over Afghanistan.

 

Recently, Obama paid a nighttime visit to Dover Air Force base to view the return of the remains of 16 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The event was minutely choreographed. Obama saluted in slow motion, in unison with four uniformed soldiers, then walked in step with them past the van that had just received the remains from the cargo plane that had brought them home.

 

No one spoke. Had Obama become caught in the military's somber spell? Or was his presence a silent public vow, as he makes his decisions, to keep his mind fixed on matters of life and death, rather than on the next election?

 

Obama's actions in Afghanistan will provide the answer.

 

Jonathan Schell is a fellow at The Nation Institute and teaches a course on the nuclear dilemma at Yale University. He is the author of "The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger." © 2009 Project Syndicate

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

THE ROLE MODEL FOR POLITICIANS: ADM. NELSON

C.G. MOGHE

 

Could it be that the ghost of the long dead Admiral Nelson is ruling the current global political scene? How else can one explain the current fashion of world political leaders to turn a Nelsonic blind eye to what every one can see but the powerful politicians?

 

Admiral Nelson, in the midst of an attack on Copenhagen Harbor (when he was not yet the chief of the British Navy), was asked to retreat, because his bosses were unsure of the outcome of the attack.

 

The communication, as was the technology available some 300 years ago, was through flags, hoisted atop of the mast of the naval-chief's ship. Admiral Nelson, who had lost an eye in a previous battle, merrily continued the attack, claiming that his (blind) eye did not see the message to retreat. Since he ended up winning the battle, all was well, but the incident spawned the term "Nelson's eye", which now seems to have become fashionable again.

 

At least that seems to be the explanation to many of the current bewildering global developments.

 

Just a few days ago, the Afghan Independent Election Commission allowed Hamid Karzai to continue as the president of Afghanistan for a further five-year term, despite inconclusive presidential elections (where extensive fraud was suspected) and washed-out runoff voting.

 

The world leaders were happy to collectively turn Nelson's (blind) eye to the whole episode and were ready to rejoice "continued support for the anti-Taliban campaign" arising out of the "re-election" instead of insisting on "democratically elected leadership" and declaring the current leadership as illegitimate (as was the fate of many other countries or their rulers) for continuing the aid programs. The overall effect was a waste of some US$300 million, for an "election", which Afghanistan would be getting back in aid in some form or the other anyway.

 

Admiral Nelson also seems to be active in another part of Asia. In Myanmar, political detainee Aung San Suu Kyi had her house arrest extended by another 18 months in August after a bizarre incident in which a US national swam uninvited to her lakeside home.

 

A court in Myanmar justified the extension of the detention because apparently she was late in reporting the man to the "authorities" in Myanmar, effectively making Suu Kyi a non-entity for the next elections in Myanmar planned in 2010.

 

The world is happy turning Nelson's eye to the whole affair of the trumped up extended detention of Suu Kyi, without the Myanmar Junta facing any effective reprisal from any world leader.

 

Admiral Nelson as the role model also seems to be popular in other continents. The all powerful Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), while successful in ferreting out a number of cases of Corporate Wrong Doing in US, totally failed to spot the activities of Bernie Madoff (causing billion of dollars in losses to a wide spectrum of savvy investors) and yet even after he was arrested there were no reports of heads having rolled at the SEC.

 

None of the aggressive and ambitious bankers, pushing subprime loans and saddling the world with trillions of dollars of misery, have ever been charged with any wrongdoing.

 

Massive government bailout support under the guise of "protecting the system", has become the norm not only in the US, but also in Germany, the UK and other European countries, with no attempt to eradicate "irrational exuberance" the basic cause of the current global financial mess. On a larger scale, the all powerful US government seems to have turned Nelson's eye towards the fast snowballing debt mountain and consequent threat to the greenback itself.

 

Although the British failed to create a base in Indonesia (except for a few years in early 19th century) despite successfully colonizing a vast part of the world, the second term President of Indonesia also seems to be having chosen Admiral Nelson as his role model, at least for now.

 

When the Indonesian Police accused two deputy chairmen from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Rianto, of taking bribes from corruption suspect Anggoro Widjojo, so that he could flee abroad, the actions backfired and revealed an alleged police plot to frame and weaken the KPK.

 

The President's successful re-lection was at least partially because of the clean image he established as a result of several successful investigations by the KPK, which no doubt generated a lot of enmity for the KPK.

 

Mounting public pressure and street protests following the justified or unjustified arrest of the two KPK deputy chairmen, also lead to bizarre charges and counter charges being hurled, making it appear that anyone who was anyone was involved in trying to manipulate the system, without it being clear who was framing whom and under whose patronage.

 

The President, turning a convenient Nelson's eye specifically to the details of the plot and generally to the whole mess, extricated himself by appointing a team to look into the case. The British Empire is forgotten; will Admiral Nelson, a major builder of the empire, make a come back, if not in form, at least in style?

 

The writer has over 35 years of experience covering several industries, including financial services in Hong Kong and Indonesia.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

CONFRONTING THE THREAT OF UNCIVIL SOCIETY IN SE ASIA

TAN SEE SENG

 

One of the most pressing concerns for civil society in Southeast Asia today is the contraction of democratic space in state-society relations. This contraction has come about as a direct consequence not only of the effects of contemporary terrorism on civil society, but equally of efforts by regional governments at addressing terrorism and the conditions that enable it. The pressures stem from at least two fronts.

 

From the bottom-up, the region has been experiencing a growing politicization - a "deprivatization" if you will - of religious faith in general and of religious extremism in particular. In a sense, this rejuvenated link between piety and politics is a logical outgrowth of the broader trend of democratization that has taken hold, in varying degrees, in the region as a whole.

 

As predominantly postcolonial societies long defined by an enforced social conservatism and political authoritarianism in their formative years, recent periods of democratic transition have spawned a proliferation of voices and movements, including faith-based ones, in various domestic societies in the region.

 

While few if any would deny religion its rightful place at the table of civil society, concern has arisen over the indubitable link between religiously-inspired ideas of violent extremism and acts of extremist violence.

 

From the top-down, Southeast Asian governments have done either of two things, or both. On one hand, secular states have taken their natural circumspection of civil society a couple of steps further by upping their surveillance of particular religious communities, deploying internal security laws in the pursuit and capture of miscreants, and, as in the shootout that killed Noordin M. Top in Solo, Central Java, the application of "kinetic" approaches (that is, paramilitary force and tactics) to combating terrorism.

 

Such measures have their place in any comprehensive counterterrorism strategy, although instances of their gross misappropriation abound in the region, as was the case of the mail-fisted policy of former Thai premier, Thaksin Shinawatra, toward the Malay-Muslim provinces of southern Thailand.

 

On the other hand, in majority Muslim states, religious organs of the state have contributed occasionally to fomenting religious anger. As controversies such as the case involving Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad have shown, religious elements both official and nonofficial have joined in the politics of "scapegoating" against Western targets, fairly or otherwise.

 

This has in no small measure added to their populations' distrust of and hostility toward the West. Furthermore, the imperative of winning the Muslim vote has led some governments to "out-Islamize" their political opposition and to prove their religious credentials through upping the ante in religious discourse, vigorous enforcement of religious laws and codes, and the like.

 

Thanks to such vicious brinkmanship from below and above, civil society in Southeast Asia is at best a tenuous and ambivalent space whose existence cannot be taken for granted. As a consequence of the growth of religious narratives and practices that celebrate extremist dispositions at the expense of alternatives, and the equally draconian statist measures adopted in response, an already narrow democratic space has become narrower, considerably and alarmingly so.

 

Nevertheless, any hope that Southeast Asian civil society will, sooner than later, become active participants in counterterrorism, not least in the ways envisaged by the strategy, is premature at this stage. Despite the inroads made by civil society in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, it is clear that Southeast Asian governments as a whole remain skeptical toward the former.

 

At the recent ASEAN Summit in Cha-am, Thailand, for example, it was apparent that most regional governments are, generally speaking, still loath to dealing with civil society elements - even as the summit host, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, reminded his fellow leaders of their collective pledge, made at the 2003 summit, to build a "people-centered" ASEAN Community.

 

But as this discussion has implied, the challenge for civil society in Southeast Asia today is not just about negotiating an "autonomous realm of everyday life" apart from the state, not least when the state continues to play a vital role in the social and economic life of some Southeast Asian countries.

 

It equally has to do with the accommodation of protest counter-cultures with their at times radical alternatives, as well as the transformation of toxic narratives and practices that render society uncivil. Nor can civil society be about delimiting a secular space apart from religious influences, certainly not so for a region where the great religions of the world continue to thrive, more often for good than ill.

 

Well beyond just the specific requirements of counterterrorism, civil society must necessarily be a civilizing process which, as the Jewish-German sociologist Norbert Elias has put it, aims to remove violence from everyday life. Without this, no society can truly be civil, no matter its democratic credentials.

 

This article is published in conjunction with the international workshop on terrorism which will be held by Nahdlatul Ulama and the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation in Jakarta on Nov. 18-19, 2009.

 

The writer is head of research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), an element of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. The views expressed here are his alone and do not reflect the views of the IDSS and/or RSIS.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

ASEAN AND THE CAMBODIA-THAILAND ROW

HUALA ADOLF

 

The row between Cambodia and Thailand has been worsening recently. The decision of the Cambodia government to appoint former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra as its personal and economic advisor appears to be a clear case of interfering in Thai internal affairs.

 

The situation between the two countries is rather sensitive. Besides this row, the border dispute between the two countries is still fragile, while the long dispute over Preah Vihear Temple is still in limbo.

 

ASEAN has, for some time, been paying closer attention to the relationship between these countries. The recent call from ASEAN to both countries to end the row over the appointment of Thaksin has been met with reluctance from both countries. Given the scope of the dispute, this row is a test case for ASEAN.

 

ASEAN was set up to handle tension, disputes and conflicts in the region. Any conflict that emerges between or among members is solved by way of musyawarah mufakat, or negotiation and mutually agreed settlements, the terms recognized by all ASEAN leaders.

 

This step involves respecting the integrity and independence of each member country and strongly upholding the principle of non interference.

 

Over time, the way disputes have been resolved has gradually improved. This improvement, however, still

reflects the spirit of musyawarah mufakat.

 

The present row is not only sensitive, but also somewhat political. The situation is heavily colored and is also exacerbated by other disputes, in particular the ongoing border dispute.

 

Since the row is political, it is therefore necessary to see whether the dispute settlement mecha-nism available under ASEAN is appropriate.

 

The use of legal mechanism, through negotiation or diplomacy, is therefore the best possible solution.

 

The regional conflicts taking place in most parts of the world have been successfully resolved by negotiation between concerned parties. The Latin American crisis in 2008 is an important example of the successful settlement of regional disputes.

 

The dispute between Columbia and Ecuador was negotiated in a summit hosted by the Dominican Republic.

 

What ASEAN could do to resolve the current dispute could be to not only call on the parties to end the conflict, but provide a concrete resolution, such as providing support or facilitating a meeting or summit between the two parties.

 

ASEAN's efforts, of course, will not succeed without the good faith of the parties and their genuine intention to end the crisis. Thailand on the other should refrain from using force or the threat of using force. On the other hand, Cambodia should take into account the sensitivity of the "Thaksin Shinawatra" issue in the eyes of the Thai people.

 

 

The writer is the lecturer in international law at the University of Padjadjaran's School of Law in Bandung.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

CRACK OPEN THE BANK SCANDAL

 

Attempts to shed light on the controversial bailout of a private bank got a minor boost Tuesday after legislators asked a plenary session to set up a special inquiry committee.

 

The massive bailout of Bank Century has baffled the public. How could the government bail out an ailing middle-sized bank to the tune of Rp 6.76 trillion (US$700 million), more than 10 times the initial figure of Rp 632 billion.

 

The people have been kept in the dark about how their money was spent in the case that first surfaced late last year.

 

The petition for the inquiry will still be submitted to the House of Representatives' consultative committee before it can be endorsed at another plenary session.

 

The reading out of the petition almost failed since House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party and who was not present at the session, was against it.

 

The fact that the Democratic Party is the only one in the House opposed to any inquiry into the bank is indicative of the government's stance.

 

The supersized bailout is closely linked to attempts to undermine the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). A hearing at the Constitutional Court last week revealed an alleged plot by the National Police and the Attorney General's Office to frame KPK leaders.

 

One reason was that a top police general had been wiretapped by the KPK allegedly asking for a fee to salvage a client's deposit in the ailing bank.

 

The attack on the antigraft body has been largely seen as retaliation by the two top law enforcement institutions, whose unscrupulous leaders have not been spared by the KPK.

 

It is ironic if the very success of the KPK in clamping down on corrupt officials should see their wings trimmed, particularly because the KPK was set up in 2004 to make up for the police and the AGO's failure to fight graft.

 

The new House members face an uphill task if the President's response to the report submitted by the fact-finding report on Tuesday is anything to go by.

 

The President will only respond to it next week, more than a month after the KPK got embroiled in the legal battle with the police and the AGO. The President had delayed the submission of the report pending a powwow with the National Police chief, the attorney general and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief – an act that has raised many eyebrows.

 

The small victory at the House has reignited the people's hopes about the controversial bailout being resolved, particularly because earlier hearings have gone against the people's sense of justice. The House members were overtly sympathetic to the police and the AGO in their recent hearings, although it was becoming clear that the two institutions had been involved in trying to frame the KPK.

 

The House members who started their five-year term last month have a golden opportunity to prove they are true representatives of the people and to clean up the tainted image of the House. The KPK found at least one-third of the House's previous members were involved in numerous cases of bribery.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

MANAGE DONATIONS WELL

 

Any waste of donated money or materials constitutes an abuse of the benevolence of the donors. And it is unforgivable.

 

A report on medicine and medical materials left unused in a makeshift hospital in suburban Beijing's Changping district six years after the hospital was shut down has brought this issue to the surface. The materials were donated by enterprises and people from all walks of life for the fight against SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

 

With Beijing reeling under the epidemic, the relief materials donated were worth more than 70 million yuan ($10.2 million) in the city. Of them, materials worth 15 million yuan were left unused, and some of them are now unusable.

 

It is obvious that there is much to be desired on how donated relief materials are managed in a way that can be used where they should be in a most efficient manner.

 

As far as legislation is concerned, we only have a law on Red Cross societies and a law on donations for public benefit. They have only very general stipulations about the management of donated materials and money.

 

How to make the best use of every penny to benefit the aid receiver is no small matter after the earthquake in Sichuan last year greatly raised Chinese people's awareness of charity.

 

Letting donors know that the money and material they have donated have been put to best use in relieving victims of their problems is the best way to encourage more to participate in charity activities.

 

After the earthquake last May, some individuals and enterprises transported relief materials to the quake-devastated areas but could find no one to receive them. As a result, they had to dump the materials by the roadside. And whether the donations match the needs of the victims is also an issue that needs to be addressed. This happened after the earthquake when medicines or materials transported to the quake areas were not what the disaster-stricken people most urgently needed.The health bureau chief in Sichuan province made an urgent call to donors days after the earthquake that random donation of medicine or medical equipment may lead to waste if they were not what the victims needed.

 

All these problems send the message that well-organized relief work is badly needed. It is not only with government departments at various levels, but also non-governmental organizations. We also need legal codes to stipulate detailed procedures for the management of donated materials and money.The country's laws on charity and donations are in the making. Those who are drafting the two laws need to investigate existing problems and at the same time learn from the experience of other countries that have done a good job in this regard.Hopefully, the problems exposed can be food for thought in the building of a desirable mechanism for the management and distribution of donated relief materials and money.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

LESSONS ON EDUCATION

 

It was like the elephant in the room which no-one was willing to talk about, that is, until former vice-minister of education Wei Jue spoke out: Many of the proposals and motions on education tabled at the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were bewildering to the education authorities.

 

We know that. As do many others. We know the composition of the two all-important entities where representatives of educational circles are few, and those who consider education as a science are even rarer. We are not at all surprised if some of their proposals confuse and astound.

 

The more revealing part of Wei's observation is this: One reason for the education departments' embarrassment was they "did not take themselves seriously".

 

This may sound self-contradictory - with all the hoopla surrounding the thundering drumbeats of education reforms, how come the country's education administrators have belittled themselves? We, too, have difficulty believing public officials in this country would knowingly diminish their own importance. So, if we are not getting Wei wrong, she meant those charged with national education have not taken their responsibility seriously.

 

Education has been treated as a business, or just another sector of public administration, but hardly ever as a scientific undertaking that requires undivided attention and respect for the laws of its own.

 

Our entire national education system, from primary schools to colleges, needs a reshuffle to keep up with the times. That might well be the only point on which a truly broad consensus has been built. Differences on how reforms are to be implemented are nothing to be afraid of, as long as they are rooted in, and based on, reason and rationality.

 

The last thing we want to see is treating institutions of learning as cash cows, or as extensions of the administrative machinery. But that is exactly what we have witnessed over the years. We cannot expect otherwise when those in charge of education are career bureaucrats who know or care little about the way national education should be managed.

 

We have seen colleges merged, enlarged and renamed in the recent past. But except for a dramatic rise in enrollment, little has changed.

 

Much of the criticism has been targeted at the bureaucratization of education but reform in that direction is on the horizon.

 

Wei says the only way out for Chinese national education is to treat it as a science.

 

We are with her on that.

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

CHINA OFFERS NEW GROWTH PATTERN

 

I visited Zambia, Ethiopia and Ghana in September and had the opportunity to interact with government officials, academic circles, NGOs and the media about Sino-African relations. I had the vivid impression that most of the African hosts hold positive opinions about the continent's relations with China, although they do not doubt the Asian country's intention to exploit rich natural resources as part of its engagement in the vast African land.

 

Unlike Western countries, whose activities in Africa over the past half a century have been mainly dominated by unreserved attempts to snatch more natural resources, China, they believe, has also done a lot of infrastructure building. China's spectacular development in the past decades, according to them, should serve as clinching evidence that African countries should no longer regard the "European or US model" as the panacea to solve their problems in the process of economic and social development.

 

Theoretically, no country should excessively depend on outside elements to extricate itself from poverty and achieve development. But African countries' resolve to break away from the "Western model" bears clear testimony to their utter disappointment and dissatisfaction toward their failure to free themselves from impoverishment under the promised support of European and US aid and their markets.

 

It is unfair to deny Western countries' development assistance to the continent in the past decades. Rough statistics show that African countries have received more than $300 billion worth of aid since 1970, mostly from developed Western nations and international financial organizations dominated by them.

 

But now it boils down to the question: Why did this considerable assistance fail to produce tangible effects in helping extricate African countries out of poverty and boost their long-anticipated development? Not long ago, Dambisa Moyo, an Oxford- and Harvard-educated Zambian scholar who once worked for the World Bank, authored a book trying to offer an answer to this question. In the book, titled Dead Aid, which has generated heated debate, she lashes out at the Western aid policy toward Africa and its role in widening the gap between the rich and the poor. She insisted that African countries should learn from Asia, China in particular, in developing local economies and praised China's large-scale infrastructure and investment in the continent during the past few years.

 

Western countries have never relented on demands that African nations push for so-called "good governance" and improve human rights conditions in the process of offering economic assistance. Since the end of the Cold War, Western countries led by the US have made unremitting efforts to draw Africa into the Western capitalist system and to peddle their political and economic models to African countries. Aid has even been linked to whether African countries adopt the "multi-party democracy" political system.

 

In contrast, China's aid to Africa is free of any "ideological element". It is China's consistent stance that aid is based on non-intervention in African countries' internal affairs and its respect for the recipients' choice of their own development paths. China has never attached any preconditions for its aid. The Chinese share with African people painful memories of their colonial and semi-colonial past, and both are confronted with unprecedented challenges in the their pursuit of development.

 

The great success China has achieved since its adoption of the reform and opening-up initiative is not a result of blind duplication of Western political and economic models. Instead, it is the outcome of the country's endless efforts to oppose Western intervention and its persistence in exploring a development path suitable for its own national conditions. China believes African countries and Africans know their own national conditions better than others and thus are certain to find a suitable development path. China has oriented its relationship with Africa not as one between benefactor and beneficiary, but as a new South-South cooperative relationship based on equality and mutual benefit, mutual respect, and the pursuit of joint development.

 

China's efforts to strengthen economic and trade cooperation, help with large-scale infrastructure construction, and initiatives to improve living conditions and alleviate poverty nail the lie of some Western politicians and NGOs that the country supports some "failed" and "rogue" states in Africa and obstructs the West's self-proclaimed campaigns for development of democracy and human rights, and eradication of corruption.

 

"China is doing a much better job than Western capitalists in responding to market demands in Africa", the Senegalese president said in newspaper article carried last year.

 

At a recent international symposium co-sponsored by the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China and the OECD's Development Assistance Committee in Beijing, participants were unanimous that China's remarkable poverty reduction and its outstanding development indisputably demonstrate that a backward developing nation can reduce poverty and achieve economic development through its own efforts.

 

China should share its experiences with other developing nations, including African states. Its close economic and trade cooperation with Africa in the past decade serves as an important component of its efforts to help African countries achieve the UN-drafted Millennium Development Goals.

 

The author is a researcher with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

DIMINISHING ROLE OF US ROLE MODEL

 

One way to summarize China's 30 years of reform and opening up is to say that China has been learning from the outside world, particularly from the US.

 

Over the past 30 years, English, as a business language, has become popular within the Chinese business community, and references to English acronyms, such as LBO, ABS, MBS, CPI and PPI, are frequently used in the Chinese news media, as well as in conference rooms across the country.

 

Over the past 30 years, the influence of the Anglo-Saxon legal system has also left its footprints across the development of the Chinese legal system.

 

Over the past 30 years, "mainstream" neo-liberalism and financial innovation, as first developed in the US, have had a far-reaching impact on the development of China's market economy, especially financial markets.

 

The call to "move closer to the world" can be better characterized as "looking to the US". In effect, the US has been a mentor, or at least an "example", in the development of China's market economy over the past 30 years. The Chinese in turn, looked up to the US in awe like a student looking up to a teacher with reverence and adoration.

 

I can still recall the US criticism of China in the 1990s, demonizing China's failure to launch asset-backed securitization, and China's failure to provide a practicable legal framework for asset-backed securitization.

 

Nor have we forgotten how, during their visits to China, the many US officials who called on the government to reduce its national savings in an attempt to indoctrinate the Chinese with the idea of excess consumption.

 

The image of this US mentor has been significantly tarnished in the wake of the financial crisis which is now poised to threaten global economic growth.

 

While the Chinese were dipping their hands in the Internet business, the bursting of the Internet bubble in the US sent ripples through its high-tech sector, showing the Chinese how the US virtual economy was "unreal".

 

While the Chinese were talking about the superiority of the US accounting system, the surfacing of the "Enron"

scandal showed us that even US companies "cooked" their books.

 

While we were designing financial derivative products for several Chinese banks, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which to me is one of the apparently few forefathers of globalization with "Brothers" in its name (my former employer, Coudert Brothers which was founded 150 years ago, was already bankrupt, and Solomon Brothers was acquired), turned our reverence into dismay, and we came to truly understand the term "Nothing is Impossible".

 

Only last year we felt the quakes of the financial tsunami. The across-the-board collapse of the four giant investment banks made us disappointed with the US financial system. The Chinese are wondering how the US could act so disappointingly when we are in need of a role model for financial reforms.

 

Unfortunately, the pain only seems to increase with the uncovering of the Madoff ponzi scheme.

When we think that the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has helped build a clean administration and business community, our belief is challenged with the discovery of the Pfizer scandal involving promotion of drugs for unapproved use and the Control Components Inc scandal.

 

The Bush administration's unilateralist arrogance also put the US in a confrontational position with the rest of the world, including its traditional allies. High (and maybe unrealistic) expectations are now put on the administration of Barack Obama, the first African-American president in US history. However, Obama's visit to China may not be seen as the triumphal arrival of a savant professor and mentor, and still fewer will be the lessons that he could possibly give to the business community. Rather, the Chinese are more than ever wondering whether they should still look to the US as a role model for economic development.

 

The author is a partner of Jones Day, and adjunct professor of Peking University Law School.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

TERRORISM ON THE ROADS

BY GEORGE ROBERTSON

 

As a former NATO secretary-general, I am familiar with the cold calculus of potential body counts applied in assessing threats to national security. But I'm still taken aback by our collective failure to face up to one of the gravest and most preventable security risks facing people across the world — the risk of death and disability on the world's roads.

 

This year 1.3 million people will die on the world's roads. About 40 times this number will be seriously injured. The vast majority of these deaths and injuries — 90 percent of the total — will occur in developing countries. In most of the world's poorest countries "death by traffic" is a bigger killer than major diseases. Road injuries kill more children aged 5 to 14 in poor countries than malaria or AIDS. And they are the single biggest killer of 15- to 29-year-olds. The threats associated with roads massively outweigh those posed by terrorism. Each day, road accidents cause a loss of life equivalent to 10 jumbo jet crashes.

 

In Russia, 33,308 people died in road accidents in 2007, or more than 91 per day, according to the World Health Organization's "Global Status Report on Road Safety." In addition, 292,206 were injured. Thus, the death rate on Russia's roads was more than 25 fatalities per 100,000, about double the U.S. rate of 13.9 and five times higher than in Britain, which has 5.4 and one of the best safety records in Europe. The WHO report also found that an extremely high percentage of victims on the roads — 36 percent — were pedestrians.

 

Had someone shown me the body count numbers when I was at NATO, I would have assumed that I was looking at the impact of a high-intensity civil conflict. I might have anticipated campaigns for humanitarian intervention. Yet for the most part, governments and aid agencies turn a blind eye.

 

It is easy to understand why road safety does not make headlines. With the international agenda dominated by the global challenges of climate change and recovery from the financial crisis, roads appear of peripheral concern — a subject for a convention of civil engineers maybe, not a world summit. That is precisely the thinking that has brought us to where we are now.

 

On Thursday, governments from around the world will gather in Moscow for the first-ever global ministerial conference on road safety. They have an opportunity to tackle head-on a humanitarian crisis that is destroying lives on a vast scale, undermining progress in poverty reduction, crippling health systems and holding back economic growth. For millions of vulnerable children, the outcome of the Moscow summit is — quite literally — a matter of life or death.

 

The future looks bleak. While road deaths are falling in rich countries, they are spiraling in the developing world. Current projections point to fatalities doubling by 2030, with an estimated 2.4 million losing their lives.

 

There is something deeply disturbing about the international response to road traffic injuries. When lives are threatened by the H1NI flu pandemic, governments issue crisis prevention policies — and rightly so. Yet an epidemic that sends a quarter of a million young people to an early grave each year barely registers on the radar screen of world leaders.

 

Why the neglect? One of the main fallacies is that road injuries are the collateral damage of development itself — an inevitable consequence of investment in transport infrastructure and the growing demand for vehicles.

 

This type of thoughtless fatalism costs lives. There are few unknowns with road injuries. The causes and the simple preventative cures are well known. Tens of thousands of children die each year because major highways are routed between their homes, often in informal slums, and schools. Try to imagine sending your 7-year-old off on a daily journey that involves negotiating a six-lane highway. The solution: build protected overpasses and regulate road design to avoid human settlements.

 

The major killers are easy to identify. Roads that don't separate pedestrians from vehicles, failure to enforce laws on speeding and drunk driving, and the wearing of seat belts and helmets are recurrent themes. Tried and tested interventions demonstrate what is possible. Rwanda for example, has been more successful than most of its neighbors in tackling the road traffic crisis through stricter enforcement of vehicle standards and speed limits.

 

Road crashes typically cost developing countries from 1 percent to 3 percent of gross domestic product each year, undermining national prosperity and job creation. The question that finance ministers should ask is not whether road safety is affordable, but whether they can afford not to act.

 

The Moscow summit could chart a new course by pressing the United Nations to adopt a Decade of Action for Road Safety aiming to halve the projected increase in the forecast level of road fatalities by 2020. The goal could save 5 million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries.

 

International development agencies like the World Bank should ensure that road safety assessments become a standard for future funding decisions. More developing country governments should draw up national plans for cutting road deaths supported by a $300 million international action plan, as proposed by the Make Roads Safe campaign.

 

Above all, the Moscow summit provides an opportunity to rethink the links between transport policy and development. We need to reject the business model that measures a nation's economic progress in terms of kilometers of roads while turning a blind eye to avoidable human suffering. And we need to put road safety at the heart of the international development agenda.

 

Former NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

GORBACHEV IS THE LAST 20TH-CENTURY WILSONIAN

BY FYODOR LUKYANOV

 

I first met former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in person in 1992 during a round-table discussion. Several months earlier, he stepped down from power. We all expected that Gorbachev, now freed from the burden of authority, would tell us what he was prohibited from saying earlier: the truth about events leading to the end of communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he only spoke of the very things we had already grown so tired of hearing in recent years — of perfecting socialism and of the lost opportunity to preserve the renewed union.

 

The crowd gradually thinned as people lost interest, and I unexpectedly found myself alone with Gorbachev. Our conversation never touched on anything weighty, but from Gorbachev emanated a powerful charisma that seemed to envelop me. I still remember how it was ­impossible to avoid falling under his spell.

 

Seventeen years later, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I once again met with Gorbachev, this time intent on learning his views of those epochal events two decades ago.

 

I did not hear anything fundamentally new during our two-hour talk, but I think I learned the secret of his charisma. Gorbachev has a strong and healthy inner core. He was then, and is now, convinced of the correctness of his actions. It is not a merely intellectual conviction, but a moral one. Gorbachev did not have a transition strategy at the time, but he had an understanding of what was right and what was wrong, what actions were morally acceptable and which were not. The real mystery is how he retained his strong sense of values even while rising through the ranks of the Communist Party. However it happened, that moral force makes a strong impression, even if his views now seem out of touch with reality.

 

Gorbachev continues to admire Lenin and considers him a model politician — bold and full of conviction, yet flexible and capable of making major tactical shifts. He sees Lenin as the supreme innovator and Stalin as the ultimate tyrant.

 

Had a person with Gorbachev's views and values rose to power in the 1960s — when the Soviet Union had more diversified economic potential and the public had not yet become so thoroughly cynical — maybe he would have had a chance to turn the country toward something more productive. But Gorbachev inherited a society that was no longer capable of reforming itself. True, he does not believe that himself. Gorbachev continues to blame just one person for all that happened — former President Boris Yeltsin. His anger is strong and very personal. He refuses to acknowledge that the Soviet economy was in shambles. Gorbachev still maintains that he lost not an economic battle, but a political one, and that if Yeltsin had not stabbed him in the back he could have overcome all the other obstacles in his path.

 

Gorbachev's attitude toward the West differs from that of both his two immediate successors. The post-Soviet Russian stance has fluctuated between early Yeltsin-era toadyism and the defiant self-assertion of Vladimir Putin. The roots of both feelings can be found in a lack of self-confidence. Gorbachev did not suffer from that problem, nor does he now, despite his own political misfortunes and fall from power. He has retained a sense of personal dignity. He is also dumbfounded when he sees how the former Soviet satellites and Baltic states so eagerly handed over to Washington and Brussels the very sovereignty they had fought so hard to obtain from Moscow, even though it was Gorbachev who started this process by revoking the Brezhnev Doctrine.

 

Most Russians believe that the West reneged on its verbal promise not to expand NATO. According to Gorbachev, the accession of the newly unified Germany into NATO — the only expansion of that alliance discussed at the time — was not part of a separate deal, but part of an overall restructuring of Europe and the world. But those plans could not be carried out once the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

 

Gorbachev's plan was to convert the end of the Cold War — a unique confrontation that never degenerated into a direct clash — into a "joint venture" of sorts between two superpowers. But that never happened because, as it turned out, the Soviet ship, with Gorbachev as captain, sank.

 

Today, Moscow has once again become fixated on the idea of having a buffer zone along its borders. And that approach to ensuring national security is perfectly reasonable if you assume that it's "every man for himself." Gorbachev has a different approach — that of an integral and indivisible security architecture. It is no coincidence that he frequently quotes former U.S. President John F. Kennedy: "There can either be peace for everyone, or for no one."

 

What Russians considered and still consider as Gorbachev's naivete or even worse, his treason, is in fact a very conscious political idealism — one in which he, surprisingly, still has not lost faith. Gorbachev was the last Wilsonian of the 20th century. Like former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, Gorbachev believed in "new thinking" in the name of global harmony. Having conceived the League of Nations, ­Wilson could not convince his own ­countrymen to support the concept, and that organization entered history as a symbol of helplessness. But that idea outlived its author and was finally deemed successful when the United Nations was created in 1945. The UN served as a stabilizing force in global affairs until the end of the Cold War, and it will probably regain this role in the future.

 

The world of the 21st century has not lived up to the expectations of Gorbachev or of those who, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, proclaimed themselves the victors. Meanwhile, the new world order has not taken shape — at least not as it was envisioned by Gorbachev or by former U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. Like Wilson before him, Gorbachev witnessed the failure of his attempts to overcome superpower egoism for the sake of the common good.

 

Gorbachev's and Wilson's idealism remain milestones on the path toward progress. But the regularity with which politics chews up and spits out the latest idealist and then continues on with business as usual leads me to doubt whether any progress has been achieved at all.

 

Fyodor Lukyanov is editor of Russia in Global Affairs.

 

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