EDITORIAL 24.11.09

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Editorial

month november 24, edition 000358, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

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THE PIONEER

1. A DEMEANING LEAK
2. BETRAYING DESPERATION
3. PUERILE MARATHI CHAUVINISM - SANDHYA JAIN
4. LEARN TO BE GREEN FROM INDIA - SUDHANSU R DAS
5. OF SAINTS AND SINNERS - PREMEN ADDY
6. NAUSEOUS MUMBLINGS
7. NOT ONLY STALLED, BUT KILLED TOO - BARRY RUBIN
8. AFGHAN ROAD BUILDER'S DREAM REACHES DEAD END - TODD PITMAN

TIMES OF INDIA

1. DAMNING REPORT
2. DON'T SUGAR COAT
3. THE FEELING'S MUTUAL - N D BATRA
4. THIS DEBATE IS IRRELEVANT
5. NEED TO LOOK BEYOND CAPITALISM - AMRITH LAL
6. ELIXIR OF LIFE - NARENDRA NAIR
7. HAND OF GALL - JAY BHATTACHARJEE

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO
2. AN ENDURING AFFAIR
3. AN INVISIBLE WORLD - RAMACHANDRA GUHA
4. 100 roadblocks - P.p. wangchuk
5. End of downturn - India Inc is hiring again - Kamayani Singh

INDIAN EXPRESS

1. GHOSTS OF WINTERS PAST
2. AFTER NALBARI
3. ONE PER CENT LOGIC
4. FIXING THE FRAME - PALLAVI SINGH
5. TRACKING A POWER SHIFT - EJAZ HAIDER
6. FOUR DOWN, MORE TO GO - SHAIBAL GUPTA
7. THE INSCRUTABLE CHINESE
8. THE PRICE OF PEACE - YUBARAJ GHIMIRE
9. PAST IMPERFECT - SHAILAJA BAJPAI

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. VISA POWER
2. FORWARD ON MARKET
3. THIS TIME, ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS - VIRAL V ACHARYA
4. I-BANKING'S INDIAN MOMENT - SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE
5. THE SEARCH FOR BETTER PRICE DISCOVERY - AKASH JOSHI

THE HINDU

1. TABLE THE LIBERHAN REPORT
2. EU'S POLITICAL INCOHERENCE
3. ELEVENTH PLAN AND HEALTH CARE  - P.S. APPU
4. THE MUMBAI ATTACKS AND INDO-U.S. RELATIONS  - C. CHRISTINE FAIR  
5. 'GREEN' ELECTRICITY FOR BIHAR VILLAGES - N. GOPAL RAJ

THE ASIAN AGE

1. MANMOHAN AT WHITE HOUSE
2. EQUALITY STALEMATE - JAYATI GHOSH
3. APEC AND CHINDIA - SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN
4. SACHIN, SHIV SENA AND SOME HOME TRUTHS - GOVIND TALWALKAR

DNA

1. I AM PROUD TO BE A MAHARASHTRIAN
2. RANJONA BANERJI 
3. NO DISTANT THUNDER
4. RUFFLED FEATHERS
5. SEEKING ANSWERS - PRAKASH BELAWADI
6. FEELING THE HEAT - YOGI AGGARWAL
7. SARI ISN'T GOING THE KIMONO WAY - MADHU JAIN  

THE TRIBUNE

1. FRAGILE PEACE IN ASSAM
2. DIALOGUE IN WASHINGTON
3. UNWANTED DAUGHTERS
4. THE 'MILLIONS' BEHIND BJP - BY J. SRI RAMAN
5. A visit to the zoo - by Rajan Kashyap
6. THE CHINESE OFFENSIVE - BY VIJAY SANGHVI
7. HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS OVER RWANDA - BY DANIEL HOWDEN
8. DELHI DURBAR

THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

1. GRUESOME KILLING
2. CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
3. WITHOUT EVEN THE THREE R'S - DN BEZBORUAH
4. GURU TEGH BAHADUR AND HIS SUPREME SACRIFICE - L P SINGH

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. CHEQUE OUT
2. TACKLE MOUNTING TAX ARREARS
3. JUDICIAL ARCHAEOLOGY
4. CLIMATE CHANGE: GETTING IT RIGHT - ARVIND PANAGARIYA
5. WATCH YOUR BACK
6. DIFFERENT STROKES
7. BHAVAN HUNTING
8. LIBERHAN FLOOR EFFECT
9. THE LUXURY ON TOP OF A CLIFF - MUKUL SHARMA

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. MANMOHAN AT WHITE HOUSE
2. SMASHING VICTORY BY SACHIN OVER SENA - BY GOVIND TALWALKAR
3. PHANTOM OF WALL STREET STALKS OBAMA TEAM  - BY PAUL KRUGMAN
4. EQUALITY STALEMATE  - BY JAYATI GHOSH
5. APEC AND CHINDIA  - BY SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN
6. HOW WWII WASN'T WON - BY DAVID P. COLLEY

the statesman

1. GATEWAY CAMP
2. LAKSHMAN REKHA 
3. WORTH A TRY
4. GOOD EARTH UP FOR GRABS~I - BY BIBEKANANDA RAY
5. A NEW METHOD TO SCREEN SLEEP DISORDERS AT HOME

THE TELEGRAPH

1. LONG WAIT
2. DIRTILY YOURS
3. A QUESTION OF STATUS
4. TAPAN RAYCHAUDHURI - MALVIKA SINGH
5. WHY THE PULSE RATE IS SO HIGH
6. WITH A BIT OF HELP FROM THE SKY
7. SHOCK AND AWE

DECCAN HERALD

1. SUGAR POLITICS
2. LACK OF WILL
3. A PERSIAN ROMANCE - BY M K BHADRAKUMAR
4. THE RELEVANCE OF HIND SWARAJ - BY SUDHANSHU RANJAN
5. SALAAM BOMBAY! - BY SUDHA MADHAVAN

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. PRINCIPLE & PRAGMATISM
2. TERRA INCOGNITA: WHERE IS THE BANALITY OF THE JEWS? - SETH J. FRANTZMAN
3. ENCOUNTERING PEACE: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT 'ECONOMIC PEACE' - GERSHON BASKIN
4. NO HOLDS BARRED: 'BORING' CAN BE A FATAL FLAW - SHMULEY BOTEACH
5. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BELONGS TO PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS ALIKE
6. AMNON RUBINSTEIN
7. FOR GOD - OR COUNTRY? - STEWART WEISS

HAARETZ

1. ACT AND BE HEARD
2. HOW WE BECAME A NIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS - BY YOEL MARCUS
3. AN INJUSTICE TO INMATES - BY NEHEMIA SHTRASLER
4. AT THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS - BY SHAHAR ILAN
5. THE ONLY FEMALE CANDIDATE - BY MERAV MICHAELI

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. ALBANY'S 'ETHICS' ON TRIAL
2. TURKEY AND THE KURDS
3. NO 'NO MORE WILDERNESS'
4. TODAY IHOP, TOMORROW THE WORLD - BY FRANCIS X. CLINES
5. SIGNS OF HOPE - BY BOB HERBERT
6. THE VALUES QUESTION - BY DAVID BROOKS
7. A MOVEABLE FAST - BY ELYSSA EAST

I.THE NEWS

1. ORDINANCES AND PARLIAMENT
2. LISTEN INDIA!
3. ON THE RUN
4. THE FAUX UMBRAGE OF 'CORRUPTION' - MOSHARRAF ZAIDI
5. A TURNAROUND CAN HAPPEN - DR ASHFAQUE H KHAN
6. ISLAMIA COLLEGE AT 100 - PART II AZIZ AKHMAD
7. LIFE AS AN ACRONYM - CHRIS CORK
8. WHERE'S THE COUNTER - TERROR STRATEGY? - MUSHAHID HUSSAIN
9. RULE BY THIEVES - MIR JAMILUR RAHMAN

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. MAGNIFICENT ROLL OUT OF JF-17
2. TOO EARLY CALL FOR MID-TERM ELECTIONS
3. PAK'S PLACE IN ASIA'S PROJECTED GROWTH
4. WHITHER DELECTABLE ART OF READING? - KHALID SALEEM
5. PLIGHT OF SIKHS IN INDIA - FATIMA SYED
6. MANMOHAN SINGH VISITS US - ALI SUKHANVER
7. PAK MUST TALK TOUGH WITH AMERICA - SHAIMA SUMAYA
8. NOVEMBER AND DEATH..! - ROBERT CLEMENTS

THE INDEPENDENT

1. GOING GREEN
2. AIR POLLUTION
3. A GIFT CALLED LOVE...!
4. REHABILITATION OF BEGGARS - SYED MUAMMAD SHAMEEM
5. SRI LANKAN DREAMS - DR TERRY LACEY
6. COMPASSION IN ISLAM - ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

THE HIMALAYAN

1. CONFIDENCE BOOSTER
2. MONKEYS DO WELL
3. HDI THOUGHTS SOME BETTER OFF THAN OTHERS - KAMAL RAJ DHUNGEL
4. NC REVIVAL HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL FOR ACHARYA
5. DIABETES CALLS FOR SERIOUSNESS - DINA SHRESTHA

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. FOR TEMPORARY READ PERMANENT
2. THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PREMIER
3. WHATEVER THE GENDER, ALL MARRIAGES SHOULD BE EQUAL
4. A MATURING CITY MINES ITS FOUNDATIONS FOR MEANING

THE GURDIAN

1. IN PRAISE OF… SUBURBIA
2. CUMBRIA FLOODS: UNPREDICTABLE BUT NOT UNFORESEEABLE
3. US HEALTHCARE REFORM: ASSAULT AND BATTERY

THE KOREA HERALD

1. STATE INTERFERENCE
2. HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY
3. GLOBAL IMBALANCES CALL FOR DEBATE ON GLOBAL FISCAL SYSTEM - ANDREW SHENG

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. THE STATE OF CRIMINAL AFFAIRS
2. NEXT STEP TOWARD BUDGET
3. AN ABLE, NONPOLITICAL CIVIL SERVICE - BY HUGH CORTAZZI
4. WHERE GOES PALESTINE AS ABBAS WITHDRAWS? - BY DAOUD KUTTAB

THE JAKARTA POST

1. THE TRAP OF LEGAL FORMALITIES AND LEGAL RHETORIC
2. MOHAMAD MOVA, AL `AFGHANI
3. TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE — BUT STILL ...
4. HAJ: A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS OF SWEAT AND BLOOD - KHAIRIL AZHAR
5. SHOULD FARMERS BE SENT BACK TO SCHOOL? - MUKHAMAD NAJIB
6. RI, THE PARLIAMENT OF WORLD RELIGIONS AND CLIMATE CHANGE - MURRAY CLAPHAM

CHINA DAILY

1. MONOPOLY SOES' DUTY
2. PRUDENCE IN NEW PRACTICE
3. DISTRIBUTE MEDICAL SERVICE EVENLY
4. PATRIOTISM NOT TO BE REDUCED TO SLOGANS

THE MOSCOW TIMES

1. THE TRIUMPH OF THE POWERLESS - BY MICHAEL MEYER
2. CLEANING UP THE MEDIA GARBAGE  - BY WILLIAM DUNKERLEY
3. A MODERNIZATION LESSON: RUSSIA IS NOT CHINA - BY VLADIMIR RYZHKOV

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THE PIONEER

EDIT DESK

A DEMEANING LEAK

ABSURDITY DIMINISHES LIBERHAN'S REPORT

That the report of the Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice MS Liberhan, a former judge of the Supreme Court who spent 17 years trying to figure out who is to blame for the demolition of the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, should have surfaced in the media before being tabled in Parliament does not entirely come as a surprise. Rajiv Gandhi's Government was forced to table the Thakkar Commission of Inquiry's report, which came to the astounding conclusion that the "needle of suspicion pointed at RK Dhawan" while trying to unravel the conspiracy behind Mrs Indira Gandhi's assassination, after its contents appeared in newspapers. Similarly, despite the best efforts of the United Front Government to suppress the findings of the Jain Commission of Inquiry, which dealt with Rajiv Gandhi's killing by a LTTE suicide bomber, they were leaked to the media. That, however, does not detract from the fact that such leaks and plants, apart from abridging Parliament's privilege, severely compromise the findings of a Commission of Inquiry and thus defeat the purpose behind what is supposed to be an unbiased probe. So also with Mr Liberhan's conclusions which should have been the subject of parliamentary debate rather than media speculation. There are supposed to be two copies of the report — one with Mr Liberhan and the other with the Ministry of Home Affairs — which was submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 30. Mr Liberhan, we are told, is apoplectic with rage that the fruit of his 17 years of labour should have been reduced to a front page headline in one newspaper. The Home Minister insists that North Block is not to blame. There is no reason to disbelieve either, but in the absence of the original document surfacing in a legitimate manner and its contents contradicting what are purported to be extracts from it, we cannot but presume that the report has been leaked by someone somewhere, and that person owes an explanation to the nation. The sanctity of a Commission of Inquiry has been demeaned and the legitimacy of its report stands diminished.

It could, of course, be argued that the credibility of the Liberhan Commission's report, indeed that of Mr Liberhan himself, would in any event have been reduced to tatters if what it says is as absurd and outlandish as what has been reported and is no different from the Thakkar Commission's ridiculous conclusion that the "needle of suspicion" points at Mr RK Dhawan. It is astounding that after 17 years of inquiry Mr Liberhan should have come to the conclusion that Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee is "culpable of leading the country to the brink of communal discord" although he had no role in the demolition of the disputed structure. It is as fanciful as Mr Liberhan's reported view that Mr Vajpayee's absence during the demolition was pre-planned: "It was obvious some leaders were kept out to preserve secular credentials." Such bunkum is born of a delusional mind. No less stunning is Mr Liberhan's reported clean chit to then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao who, if anything, is as guilty as those kar sevaks who pulled down the disputed structure — his indecision and prevarication only worsened what was clearly a tense situation with emotions running high in the weeks before the eventful day. If truth be told, the nation could do without such tremendous waste of taxpayers' money if after 17 years all we get to hear is a cockamamie tale.

 

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THE PIONEER

BETRAYING DESPERATION

TIME RIPE FOR EXTERMINATING ULFA MENACE

The twin bomb explosions that rocked Nilbari township of lower Assam on Sunday morning have an underlying political message that must be read correctly. First, that the bombings — which killed seven people and injured at least 55 — took place in Nilbari is itself politically significant. Nilbari was once an ULFA bastion. But over the years the separatist outfit has lost its foothold there. With security agencies holding the ULFA responsible for Sunday's carnage, it is possible that Nilbari was chosen as the target to reaffirm the group's operational capabilities ahead of its 'protest day' on November 27 — the day the group was outlawed in 1990. It is true that of late the ULFA has been facing an existential crisis. The group's leaders who had taken refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh have been facing a lot of heat following that country's crackdown on them. In fact, recently Dhaka handed over two top ULFA leaders, Sashadhar Choudhury and Chitraban Hazarika, to New Delhi. There is no doubt that the Bangladeshi efforts are bearing fruit and the ULFA leadership is finding it more and more difficult to operate from Bangladeshi soil. On the other hand, over the last few years, the separatist group has also witnessed factionalism among its ranks. As a result, a moderate faction of the ULFA has emerged that has modified the group's erstwhile goal of a separate state to significant autonomy for Assam within the Indian framework. Besides, it is also a fact that many ULFA cadre have surrendered, depleting the organisation's effective strength.

Given these circumstances, the ULFA increasingly finds itself in a situation wherein it needs to re-invigorate its organisational structure and political agenda to remain relevant. And it is in this context that Sunday's attack needs to be seen. It is also in this context that ULFA commander Paresh Baruah's move to China becomes a matter of concern. Certain 'strategists' in China have been vocal in propounding the theory that India should be broken up into several small, independent states with the help of separatist forces to neutralise the country's strategic depth and potential. The ULFA could prove to be a useful tool towards fulfilling this Chinese aim. With China's backing, the outfit could create a situation in Assam not unlike the kind we face in Maoist-hit areas of the country. This is something that we must guard against. The ULFA cannot be allowed to regain its dissipating strength. New Delhi must capitalise on the fact that we now have a friendly Government in Dhaka and take the fight to the separatist organisation. It should make it clear that the only choice that the ULFA cadre have is to either lay down their arms and surrender or face total extermination. This brooks no further delay.

 

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            THE PIONEER

COLUMN

PUERILE MARATHI CHAUVINISM

SANDHYA JAIN

Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has clearly lost the plot. His irate but innately vacuous tirade against cricket superstar Sachin Tendulkar has not only failed to bolster his shaky status as regional satrap, but reflects sadly upon how far the Sena has drifted from its avowed goal of protecting Hindus from the physical predations of hostile forces.

By indulging in puerile Marathi chauvinism to surpass nephew Raj Thackeray, who has dented the political stature of nominated Sena heir, Mr Uddhav, Mr Bal Thackeray has diminished a cause and a community held in high esteem. Unless speedy course correction is undertaken, the rising generation of Shiv Sainiks will believe that lumpenisation alone is the party goal and strategy.

Worse, the senior Thackeray will be making the same grievous error made by the Asom Gana Parishad, which allowed a nationalist sentiment to oust illegal Bangladeshi settlers from the State to degenerate into narrow regional chauvinism. The AGP refused to accommodate Bengali Hindus and Bangla Hindu refugees within the movement, with the result that it failed to achieve any objectives while in power, and was easily sidelined thereafter.

The Shiv Sena, Mr Thackeray should remember, is not named after the great god Shiva, and need not behave like wild ganas. It was inspired by the great Maratha warrior Shivaji, who fashioned a Hindu kingdom amid a sea of Islamic sultanates, and rejuvenated India's ancient civilisational ethos in the adverse circumstances of the 17th century. Shivaji struck a mortal blow at the Mughal Empire by challenging Aurangzeb, and established political agency for the beleaguered Hindu community.

Shivaji proved that Hindus had a sense of 'Hindu' identity (and were not, and are not, an imagined community, as secular historians desperately seek to establish). Kashi Vishwanath temple was razed in 1669; Krishna Janmabhoomi temple was converted into a mosque in 1670. The contemporary poet Bhushan quit the Mughal capital in 1671 and came to Shivaji's kingdom where he composed Shiv Bhooshan, a biography which clearly states the king wanted to set up a Hindu Pad Padshahi.

 

As the aging Thackeray ponders his loss of political splendour, he would do well to enlarge his currently puny canvass to the mega dimensions of the original Maratha sardeshmukh. Shivaji strove consciously for power as an instrument for the resurrection of dharma (righteousness), and termed his quest as "Hindavi Swarajya," a word with geographical and spiritual-cultural connotations. When in his teens in 1645 CE, he began administering his father's estate under a personalised seal of authority in Sanskrit, a hint that he envisaged independence and adhered to the Hindu tradition. A 1646 CE letter to Dadaji Naras Prabhu refers to an oath that Shivaji, Prabhu, and others took in the presence of the deity at Rayareshwar, to establish 'Hindavi Swarajya'.

The Peshwa, in contrast, accepted the Persian script under the influence of a Muslim courtesan, and narrow-mindedly refused to convert her to Hindu dharma despite her keenness to embrace the faith. As a result, the Marathas bowed to the Mughal emperor when they reached Delhi and missed a historic opportunity to re-establish Hindu rule; a classic case of muscle without mind, power without political sense! The rest is history.

It is pertinent that Shivaji was deeply influenced by Swami Ramdas, who exhorted the people to rise against oppression and hinted in Dasbodh that Shivaji was an avatar who had come to restore dharma. Perhaps Shiv Sena's greatest failing is that it has no known connections with Hindu preceptors. When the 'secular' Congress' aspiring Chief Minister Ashok Chavan could invite Satya Sai Baba to his official residence and worship him, the absence of a spiritual mentor in the Sena pantheon is jarring.

Devoid of spiritual content, Shiv Sena is in danger of becoming as arid as the Tamil Dravidian parties; indeed, it may already be as culturally barren. This is sad, because only a few centuries ago some of the most powerful bhakti saints — Jnaneshwar, Namdev, Eknath, Tukaram, Ramdas — hailed from Maratha country. Guru Gobind Singh's foremost disciple, Banda Bahadur, who fought valiantly on behalf of the oppressed in Punjab, rose from this land. All these men devoted their lives to defend religious and cultural freedom at times of immense danger.

Shiv Sena's raison d'être was to defend Hindu society from the Muslim underworld, and resist its creeping hold over the economy and polity of the nation's financial capital. For decades the muscular Sainiks created their own brand equity; I remember that in my childhood days, if communal riots anywhere in the country threatened to get out of hand, one stern warning from Mr Bal Thackeray was enough to bring tempers down within 24 hours. The Sainiks never moved out of Mumbai in those days, yet Mr Thackeray was widely perceived as the 'sword arm' of the Hindu community. He has come a long way downhill since then.

Ironically, Bihar's poor but enterprising labourers, most of who happen to be Hindus, are legitimate recipients of Mr Thackeray's affection and political protection, and his best bet against the strident regional chauvinism of nephew Raj. Such a stance would also have suited the quiescent personality of his son Uddhav. But he fell into the shrillness trap, and was soundly rebuffed by the rest of India.

Besides, Biharis are more sinned against, than sinners. Decades of political depravity and administrative corruption and sloth have rendered the State unlivable. As a result, all enterprising Biharis, from students to farm labour, trot off at the first opportunity towards cities and villages in other parts of the country where they survive by their own efforts. It is pertinent that Biharis are not noisy guests; they are hard working and disciplined, and deeply attached to their spiritual and cultural traditions.

In recent years, north India has suddenly become aware of the Chhat Puja, where the rising and setting sun is worshipped for six days after Diwali, in gratitude for its light, warmth and intimate association with agriculture. This is a profound symbolism, and Sena opposition to the public profession of Hindu faith in the land where Bal Gangadhar Tilak roused a sleeping nation with the public celebration of the Ganapati Mahotsav was both irrational and counter-intuitive. Mr Thackeray must understand that all Indian natal traditions are part of a civilisational continuum and represent its intrinsic unity.

 

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THE PIONEER

COLUMN

LEARN TO BE GREEN FROM INDIA

SUDHANSU R DAS

The vision of development is so blurred with greed that there is little hope of anything concrete emerging out of the soon-to-be-held climate summit in Copenhagen. Nonetheless, India has the opportunity to showcase its vibrant natural sector economy, which is the path to sustainable development.

India is divided into 20 agro-ecological regions and 60 sub-regions that support all kinds of crops. The country produces 11 per cent of the world's vegetables and 15 per cent of its fruits. India also accounts for 10.78 per cent of the world's flora. It has the largest variety of livestocks with 26 cattle breeds, 40 sheep breeds, 20 goat breeds and 18 types of farmed poultry birds. Plus, with a coastline measuring 850 km and 14 major rivers to boast of, India has all the basic tools for a robust economy based on the natural sector.

More than 15 crore Indians visit places of pilgrimage every year. This is the source of a host of economic activities. Travel agencies, hotels, restaurants, the health sector as a whole, as well as those trading in religious artifacts, handicrafts, etc, benefit immensely from pilgrimages For example, the Tirupathi Devasthanam in Tirumala requires more than 20 tonnes of flowers every day during the peak season.

Hundreds of forest products are available in Indian forests. To highlight how valuable this is to the Indian economy, it would be worthwhile to note that the export of natural honey and related processed products has increased from Rs 60.92 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 93.30 crore in 2007-08.

According to Millennium Eco-system Assessment eco-system services sustain and fulfil human life in big way. There are altogether as many as 32 such services in the entire Himalayan region. The Export Promotion Council of Handicrafts has set an export target of Rs 25,000 crore per annum by 2010 accruing from such eco-system services. The Kalahandi region of Orissa has a well-knit natural sector economy based on tourism, forestry, agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and craft making. More than 87 per cent of the people here grow exotic variety of paddy, maize, millets, jowar, jute, vegetables, chilli, etc.

All of this is evidence of the fact that preserving and enhancing the natural sector not only helps fight global warming and climate change but also make sound economic sense. In fact, India should lead the way in this regard and help spread the message to the rest of the world.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

OF SAINTS AND SINNERS

BARACK OBAMA'S APPEAL TO CHINA TO PLAY PEACEMAKER BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN IS A CONTINUING PARADOX, WHERE DEMOCRACIES ASSERT THEIR RECTITUDE IN OCTAVES AND TREBLES TO FRIEND AND FOE ALIKE, YET BED DOWN WITH REGIMES WHOSE CLAIM TO OUR ATTENTION IS THEIR CRIMINAL PERFORMANCE AND INTENT

PREMEN ADDY

The first anniversary of 26/11 beckons, the nightmare few Indians are likely ever to forget. But the Pakistani masterminds and their jihadi compatriots proclaim a chilling message through their state of truculent denial. The preacher Zaid Hamid, whose following within Pakistan swells by the day, claims on CD and television, that the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last year were the handiwork of India and Zionists, aided and abetted by the Mossad. A kindred spirit, Israr Ahmed, an Urdu columnist, interprets the Holocaust as "divine punishment," and argues for the extermination of the Jews.

A senior Obama Administration official, in a conversation with US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, referred to the Hizb ur-Tahrir penetration of the Pakistani military in fulfillment of its goal to establish the universal Caliphate. Exclaimed the exasperated official: "Where do these (Pakistani) guys get socialised and exposed to Islamic evangelism and the fundamentalism narrative?" he asked. He answered his own question: "In services every Friday for Army officers, and at corps and unit meetings where they are addressed by senior commanders and clerics."

'At sixes and sevens' is how a recent Financial Times editorial described Washington's Afghan policy. On India, it would appear, it is a witches brew, with US President Barack Obama, in Beijing, appealing to China to play peacemaker between India and Pakistan! The strain of being the world's 'most powerful man' presiding over the destiny of the 'sole superpower' is clearly telling. Disordered fantasy is driving a fevered mind.

A continuing paradox, you might say without putting too fine a point on it, where democracies assert their rectitude in octaves and trebles to friend and foe alike, yet bed down with regimes whose claim to our attention is their criminal performance and intent.

Taking the argument a step further, I see in this Pakistan-inspired terror against India a primordial impulse to maim and destroy an object of the purest hate: A continuing response to Mahatma Gandhi's praxis of reconciliation and compassion bred in love for all humankind. It in no way diminishes Gandhi's towering greatness to recognise that his encounter with the pre-partition All India Muslim League and its Qaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah was a dialogue of the deaf, that the more desperate the Mahatma's pleas for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood, the more virulent was the response. Truth is that his message was and is relevant for societies with a capacity for introspection whence comes the seeds of redemption. Thus Gandhian self-discovery and achievement occurred in South Africa and India, which became the inspiration for Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in the US.

Pakistan and everything that went into its creation was Gandhi's failure. He was economical with the truth when he placed responsibility for the Moplah violence in Kerala, arising from the Khilafat movement, on the British; he compromised his own high moral principles when he advised the Jews in Palestine to accept the overlordship of their Arab neighbours rather than struggle for an independent state of their own; and he was foolish in the extreme when he recommended that the Jewish community resist Adolf Hitler's Nazi hordes with non-violence even if meant their eventual extermination.

It is conceivable that Gandhi's failure lay in his incomprehension of evil, of a nihilism so profoundly understood by Dostoyevsky. Hitler's partner in crimes against humanity, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, said: "War is to men what motherhood is to women." It encapsulates Fascism's first principle, one shared by Islamism. Hitler told Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary and leading appeaser, that he would have shot Gandhi were he in the shoes of the British Viceroy of India. Jihadis would surely have done likewise if the Mahatma had come among them.

This being the case, a just war has an honourable place in human history, never more so than in the blighted 20th century when the Nazi scourge threatened for a while to extinguish all civilization. Western Europe was subjugated by the Wehrmacht in weeks; France surrendered and then turned collaborator with its Vichy regime.

That left the Eurasian landmass of the Soviet Union, Europe's only real hope, remarked David Lloyd George, one of the greatest of British Prime Ministers, who had presided over his country's fortunes in the decisive stage of World War first. The USSR came through its terrifying experience scarred but unbowed. Here speaketh Winston Churchill to the UK Parliament in 1944, every line razor sharp: "The advance of their (Soviet) Armies from Stalingrad to the Dneister river, with vanguards reaching towards the Pruth, a distance of 900 miles, accomplished in a single year, constitutes the greatest cause of Hitler's undoing....not only have the Hun invaders been driven from the lands they had ravaged, but the guts of the German army have been largely torn out by Russian valour and generalship. The people of all the Russias have been fortunate in finding in their supreme ordeal of agony a warrior leader, Marshal Stalin, whose authority enabled him to combine and control the movements of armies numbered by many millions upon a front of nearly 2,000 miles."

Warts and all, including gulags and repression, the Stalin revival in Russia is in full swing. His wrongs were undoubtedly great, but his leadership in the 'Great Patriotic War' was greater still; and for this much can, and has, been forgiven. When Joseph Stalin started off in the Kremlin, it was a Russia of the plough; he left the country a nuclear superpower, said Churchill.

The late Nahum Goldman, patriarch and President of the World Jewish Congress for decades, in one of his last statements, told how in response to an appeal by him and Chaim Weizmann, carried to Moscow by Czech President Benes, Stalin answered: " We know what the Jews suffered during the war and we will do our best to repair it." Against expectations, the USSR voted for the creation of the State of Israel and supplied it with badly needed arms and equipment in its War of Independence in 1948.

The Stalinist state serves no purpose today in Russia or anywhere else. However, it was the Russia bequeathed by Stalin that nurtured Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, the same who withdrew Soviet troops from East Germany and its Communist-ruled neighbours without a shot being fired. A grateful German Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, acknowledged warmly that without him German unification would have remained a pipedream.

 

It was the iconic democrat Margaret Thatcher who fought steadfastly to keep Germany divided in the interests of British statecraft. She refused to receive the Dalai Lama in London even as her Government conferred an honourary knighthood on the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu. Allowing for circumstance and context moral relativism is a safer measure in assessing human achievement or failure than a moral absolute.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NAUSEOUS MUMBLINGS

'MODERN' PAKISTANIS FAIL TO CONDEMN TALIBAN

Recently I was fortunate enough to be a part of an excellent 10-minute news video prepared by the New York Times' reporter, Adam Ellick. Tastefully called 'Tuning out the Taliban,' the video has created the right buzz amongst young middle-class Pakistanis.

Adam treats his report as a way to understand why many educated, westernised and modern Pakistani pop/rock stars and their fans are all gung-ho about anti-Americanism in their songs and beliefs but at the same time keeping quiet about matters such as religious extremism, terrorism and the Taliban.

The funny thing is, this is happening even when there are disturbingly tangible and physical examples of the ubiquitous carnage and mayhem being caused by so-called jihadis; whereas conspiratorial notions such as the ever-present explanation of a 'foreign hand' — mainly the idea of an unholy alliance of America, India and Israel out to destroy Pakistan and Islam — remains to be a largely unsubstantiated and somewhat air-headed perception.

According to my own experience as a journalist covering the Pakistan music scene in the 1990s, it is never a good idea to encourage pop musicians to start making political statements. As an idea it can be exciting and relevant, but since much of the modern pop music scene in Pakistan originates from middle-class settings, one can thus expect nothing more than self-righteous droning and quasi-reactionary drawing-room demagoguery usually found in the urban bourgeoisie and petty-bourgeois sections of society.

Surveys and studies of these two classes in Pakistan show them to be two of the most conservative, with a history of economically and politically backing assorted military dictators (especially Gen Zia-ul-Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf). Of course, there have been clear exceptions in this context, but it is also true that over the years the overall conservatism of these classes has seen certain sections from within become both supporters and financiers of the more extreme strains of Islamic thought.

There have been recorded cases against many petty-bourgeois shop-owners and traders of financing jihadi organisations; whereas many sections among the more 'modern' bourgeois class have largely exhibited their own version of extreme beliefs by passionately patronising (as supporters and clients), a number of Islamic televangelists and drawing-room preachers whose number has grown two-fold from 1990 onwards.

Consequently, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of young men and women from the middle-class now preferring to adorn beards and hijabs, and taking religious rituals a lot more seriously (compared to the situation till the late-1970s). But this class still constitutes a large number of westernised youth as well.

However, compared to their more socially conservative class contemporaries — who have been seen to follow Right-wing groups from the Jamat-e-Islami, to defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba to Sunni Tehreek and the Tableeghi Jamaat and individuals such as Mr Israr Ahmed, Ms Farhat Hashmi and Mr Zakir Naik — the more 'modern' lot in this respect have not exactly fallen to the left as a reaction (like they did between the 1950s and the early-1970s). Instead, in spite of whole-heartedly embracing the economic, aesthetic and cultural fruits of secularism, they have retained their classes' inherent political conservatism.

Adam Ellick's interviews with former rock star and animated TV personality, Ali Azmat, and bubblegum-rock poster boy, Ali Noor, are the cases in point. Both hail from modern, middle-class settings and represent the more westernised sections of Pakistani bourgeoisie. In spite of mimicking the aesthetic, cultural and linguistic strains of Western pop culture, both refused to see any contradiction whatsoever in conveniently attacking 'Western imperialism' as the reason behind the terror attacks in Pakistan.

Azmat is seen in a T-shirt and shorts, with an expensive Apple laptop by his side, sitting in a room decorated like an arty version of an American college dude's bachelor pad, and the following is what he had to say: "It (suicide bombing) is the agenda of neocons to de-Islamise Pakistan…"

 

In his astute and recently acquired wisdom (mainly inspired by Azmat's newfound guru, celebrated conspiracy theorist Zaid Hamid), the Taliban are not behind the bombings of girls' schools, but "foreign forces (CIA, R&AW and Mossad)", are to be blamed! Where else but in Pakistan can one find a hip rock star with a lucrative history of being proudly sponsored by various Western multinationals, also become a shameless apologist of men who in the name of faith not only blow themselves up in public, but are also known to have used three-to-six-year-old children for the same deed.

Then, in the same documentary, we see yet another scion of the increasingly warped Pakistani bourgeoisie, Ali Noor, the long-haired, guitar-slinging lead vocalist of Noorie. Amidst terrifying and tragic footage of blown up cars, shops and body limbs, he announces that "the Taliban only constitute a tiny problem". While spouting this profound insight, Noor gestures the "tiny" part of his grand statement with his hand and you wonder, shouldn't that gesture be explaining the size of his brain? Is this symptomatic of mere delusion, or of some unprecedented form of collective psychosis?

The writer is one of the most popular Pakistani columnists. Courtesy: Dawn.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NOT ONLY STALLED, BUT KILLED TOO

OBAMA'S WEST ASIA POLICY HAS DESTROYED ANY CHANCE NOT ONLY FOR PROGRESS ON THE ISRAEL-PALESTINIAN FRONT BUT ALSO REVIVING TALKS. HE HAS GUARANTEED A DEAD PEACE PROCESS FOR HIS TENURE

BARRY RUBIN

The Obama Administration keeps making big mistakes that have a devastating effect on its own goals and interests. What is most amazing of all is how little understood are the implications of its actions. Already, however, the current US policy has destroyed any chance not only for progress on the Israel-Palestinian front but even holding talks at all.

Let's review the situation and then discuss the latest missteps.

Israel announced in 1993, at the time of Israel signing the Oslo Accord with the PLO, that it viewed construction on existing settlements as completely in line with the agreement. The Palestinians, during the ensuing 16 years, never made this a big issue. The US Government, while it can say it opposed this, was pretty quiet about it and never did anything.

Then US President Barack Obama came to office and made the construction issue the centerpiece of his West Asia policy, sometimes it has appeared to be the keystone of his whole foreign policy. It may appear an exaggeration but often it seems as if the Administration believes that if Israel stopped building 3,000 apartments all the region's problems would go away.

So far, the Administration has wasted almost 10 months in this pursuit. First, it shouted at Israel as if it were some servant to do it fast or else. Then when Israel didn't, the Administration realised that perhaps Israel should get something in exchange for the concession. So it went to Arab states and asked — presuming, wrongly, that they are desperate for a peace agreement — for some compromise but got nothing.

In fact, the Obama Administration had destroyed its own policy because, as a result, the Palestinian Authority refused to come to negotiations until there was a complete freeze. How could it be less hardline than the President?

But there was a solution, sort of. Israel agreed to stop all construction once the apartments currently being built are finished. Israel said this didn't apply to Jerusalem.

The US accepted the deal, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exulting about what a huge concession Israel was making. Aside from everything else, the US Government knew how big a risk Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was taking with his coalition.

So what happened? The PA couldn't stand to see Israel being praised and doesn't want to negotiate peace any way. So it threw a temper tantrum: Riots in Jerusalem, threats by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to resign, refusal to go to negotiations with Israel, and clamour for a unilateral declaration of independence.

The hubbub about a unilateral declaration of independence was almost universally described in the media as arising from Palestinian frustration. Not at all. It is based on their core strategy: Why make compromise peace with Israel when you can just claim everything you want, ensuring the door is kept open for a future struggle to wipe Israel off the map entirely?

What did the Administration do? It backed down on everything except the independence bid! Having made a deal with Israel, having gotten Mr Netanyahu to take an enormous risk, it then pulled the rug out from under him. Now it said: Well, maybe it wasn't such a great deal after all.

Those who always advocate Israeli concessions as the solution should take note. Once again, we've seen that a concession doesn't lead to a concession by the other side or progress. It just produces a demand for more concessions without giving any real credit to the last one.

The latest act in the drama is that after an announcement of a plan to build apartments in the Gilo section of Jerusalem — which is quite within the US-Israel deal — the Administration complained bitterly, showing not only that it wouldn't respect agreement others made with predecessors but it wouldn't even respect the agreements it made itself.

Mr Obama complained that the Gilo construction complicates Administration efforts to relaunch peace talks, makes it harder to achieve peace and embitters the Palestinians.

Funny, he never said this about: PA incitement to terrorism; failure to punish terrorists; negotiations with Hamas despite its hardline positions, genocidal goals, antisemitic views, and terrorist acts; refusal to return to talks with Israel despite Mr Obama's express request to do so; breaking its promise on not to be a sponsor of using the Goldstone report to punish Israel; and other such actions. Each of these is more dangerous than the Gilo construction.

Moreover, having sabotaged negotiations by highlighting the construction-on-settlements issue, the Administration has now escalated it even higher: No construction in Jerusalem is the minimum demand. Of course, Arab states and the PA will echo this, refusing all talks unless that happens. And since Israel won't stop building in Jerusalem and the Arab side won't back down, Mr Obama has just guaranteed a dead peace process for his entire term in office. In fact, he's probably ensured no comprehensive negotiations will take place.

The writer is director of the GLORIA Centre, Tel Aviv, and editor of the MERIA Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle-East.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

AFGHAN ROAD BUILDER'S DREAM REACHES DEAD END

THE CONSTRUCTION OF A HIGHWAY CONNECTING MAJOR CITIES HAS BEEN SPIKED BY REPEATED WARS, WRITES TODD PITMAN

Khalid Khan stares through the dusty window pane, down across the rooftops of the capital, and wonders if they really know where he lives.

Once on the front lines of the international effort to rebuild Afghanistan, the black-bearded contractor now sits idle — cross-legged and quiet on the floor of the small hilltop home he shares with another family after he had to sell his own.

"They called again this morning," he says of the kidnappers who once held him hostage at the bottom of a well, repeatedly threatening to execute him. "They said, 'We're watching you. Do you know what we can do to you?'"

Mr Khan was contracted to build one of the final links of a $ 2.5 billion highway that circles this mountainous country, linking a massive road network to Kabul like arteries around a heart. It is one of the most important reconstruction projects launched here since the US invaded to oust the Taliban in 2001.

The soft-spoken 30-year-old had hoped to make a tidy profit. But after more than a year of work and two months of captivity, he is deep in debt, traumatised, and lucky to be alive.

And the road is still not done.

Mr Khan's story underscores the tremendous obstacles the international community faces rebuilding in an active war zone, revealing how even the best-intentioned development plans can be sidelined without security. Mr Khan's ordeal also shows how risky it is for Afghans willing to take part in that effort, and how little help there is for them when things go wrong.

"Multiply him by 1,000, and you'll understand why the entire reconstruction effort in Afghanistan is getting so bogged down," says Mr Craig Steffensen, Afghanistan director of the Asian Development Bank, which is funding the final stretch of the so-called Ring Road.

Building a highway to connect Afghanistan's major cities has been a dream of developers for decades, one born half a century ago when this Islamic nation was ruled by a king.

The Ring Road fell into disrepair through repeated wars, and the northern sections were never built. After 2001, rebuilding it became a centerpiece of the international development operation.

The US Agency for International Development estimates two-thirds of Afghanistan's people live within its path. The Government believes it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, boost trade, and pave the way for schools, hospitals and cheaper goods to serve isolated villages. Once complete, the asphalt will become a 21st century Silk Road, joining markets in Afghanistan to Central Asia, China and the Persian Gulf.

Today, nearly 90 per cent of the 2,227-kilometre (1,384-mile) highway is done.

Much of the road, though, has become a front line — a two-lane gauntlet running through some of the most dangerous terrain in the country.

Hundreds have died building it. Countless more have died travelling on it: Blown up by bombs, beheaded at illegal checkpoints by guerrillas who see the road as a conveyor of supplies and spies for the international coalition.

When the sun goes down, Afghans say, the Taliban own it.

On paper, Mr Khan's task was easy: Lay the foundation of a six kilometre (3.7-mile) stretch of the road between two small northwestern villages called Ghormach and Douabi.

Mr Khan was a subcontractor for China Railways Corp, which was contracted by the Asian Development Bank. He expected to be paid around $ 400,000 and make a profit of $ 20,000-30,000 after expenses.

The job began in August 2008, and immediately became arduous: It entailed cutting through rocky hills and destroying abandoned homes to transform barely existent goat paths into a gravel highway.

AP

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TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

DAMNING REPORT

 

The Liberhan Commission report, which was leaked before being tabled in Parliament, has indicted top-rung BJP leaders for their role in the Babri masjid demolition on December 6, 1992. The one-man commission, appointed just 10 days after the Babri demolition, was asked to enquire into the sequence of events that led to the destruction of the mosque. It took nearly 17 years the longest taken by any commission in independent India and 48 extensions to submit its 900-page report to the prime minister earlier this year. Given the sensitive nature of the topic it was to be expected that the commission would take its time. But the inordinately long time taken by former judge, M S Liberhan, has taken some shine off the report.

Now that the findings are out, the top leadership of the sangh parivar has plenty to answer for. From media reports on the Liberhan report it appears that BJP's top rung, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, were fully aware of the demolition plans. The indictment of former PM Vajpayee is particularly significant since he was seen as the liberal face of the parivar. The report further says that BJP's top brass were "tools in the hands of the RSS". Liberhan is scathing in his assessment of the role of Kalyan Singh, who was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the Babri demolition happened. The report says Kalyan had full knowledge of the plans but forced his administration into "ineffectiveness". Even though several years have passed since the demolition, those indicted by the commission must face courts of law.

The commission has, however, given a clean chit to the Narasimha Rao government at the Centre on the grounds that it could have acted only on the UP governor's recommendation. But the report does not fully exonerate the Rao government saying it was caught unprepared. Muslim leaders haven't been spared as the report says that organisations such as the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee were self-serving and did not represent their constituents.

The first reaction of the BJP to the report has been to raise questions about how it was leaked and express shock at the findings. The larger question, however, is that of the BJP's complicity in the Babri demolition. The party would do well to distance itself from those who have been indicted. While the hysteria around Babri masjid might have helped whip up support for the BJP in the 1990s, it does not any longer excite voters except committed party supporters.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

DON'T SUGAR COAT

 

Last week, we had evidence yet again of why sugar is dubbed a 'political' commodity in India. A central ordinance had earlier supplanted the statutory minimum price (SMP) on sugarcane procurement with a fair and remunerative price (FRP) of Rs 130 per quintal. State governments fixing a higher state advised price (SAP) were told to shoulder the extra cost. In retaliation, angry cane-growers jammed Delhi's streets and opposition MPs disrupted Parliament. A rattled UPA modified the ordinance: sugar mills, not state governments, would pick up the tab for the difference between FRP and SAP.

Inarguably, the sugar sector displays price-linked unevenness: some states follow SAP and others SMP. Cane growers' incomes and millers input costs and profits vary considerably across the country. But while delinking pricing from state-level patronage politics is desirable, policy change by fiat is bad strategy in a sector as complex and combustible as sugar. States pitched the disincentive on SAP as anti-federalism and anti-farmer while cane farmers rejected a lower price compared to both SAP and the Rs 140 per quintal paid by millers last year. Complicating matters, UP farmers have demanded Rs 280 per quintal, arguing that sugar prices have doubled this year. Several mills in west UP remain locked down on the issue.

A minimum price or FRP serves a purpose in that it shields farmers' incomes and incentivises targeted agricultural productivity. Unfortunately, administered prices as a tool of patronage politics run the risk of reaching distortionary levels. In such circumstances, mills paying higher cane prices per quintal means higher retail prices, affecting consumers. Conversely, in bumper years, mills will chafe at any floor price that ignore changed demand-supply realities. High support prices also have a role in promoting certain activities at the cost of others. Consider farmers' partiality towards and wheat growing at the cost of pulses and oilseeds.

Sugar prices are rising precipitously, increasing the pain of high food inflation. Imports, as always, are only a temporary price softening option. The political class must plan long-term sectoral reform. Local level interdependence of cane-growers and mills creates near-monopolies on both sides. Any impasse when they are at loggerheads has wider ramifications. Problems are compounded with vast political stakes in the sector take Maharashtra's cooperatives and government interfering at every step, be it production, pricing or fixing open market sugar sale through monthly release quotas. The industry has been appealing against political nannying and for price decontrol. We should gear the sugar economy to market-determined prices, with a minimum price acting as the farmer's safety net.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

TOP ARTICLE

THE FEELING'S MUTUAL

N D BATRA

 

Today, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits the White House, he will face the diplomatic challenge of his lifetime. Seeking reaffirmation of the warm relations that began with Bill Clinton and saw an upsurge during the times of George W Bush will be a Himalayan task to accomplish. Especially after President Barack Obama's China visit during which he acquiesced to Beijing's hegemonic ambitions in Asia. But what better way to warm up the dinner conversation than to avow the shared values about which Obama reminded his stone-deaf Chinese audience: "These core principles, freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights." And who could better embody these universal values than a Sikh gentleman politician from India!

It is important not to forget that the United States is more than the White House; that political power is decentralised and distributed; that Congress matters; that Republicans are not dead; and that there will be time to rectify the misguided statement in the Obama-Hu Jintao joint communique that China has a role to play in South Asia. The declaration sounds ridiculous considering that China is afraid of meeting with a humble Buddhist monk.

Let's think about the positives. US perception of India is changing for the better, thanks to the mature and savvy ways India has been managing its internal and external affairs. For example: the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attack; keeping up economic growth despite the global financial crisis; the India-China verbal pyrotechnics arising out of China's flagrant territorial claims and the Dalai Lama visit to Arunachal Pradesh; and the contribution to Afghanistan's reconstruction in spite of chaotic conditions. India is viewed as stable and open, and an attractive place to do business. US goodwill towards India is undiminished, in spite of the Obama administration's effort to up-end its relations with China. Few Americans want China to play any role in Afghanistan and Pakistan, contrary to what Obama told his bankers in Beijing.

In contrast, most Americans do believe that the US has an abiding interest in India's gradual but steady rise as an economic and diplomatic power. Asia is too important to be left to a single country to exercise hegemony, as the recent Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand also acknowledged. The forecast that India would become a responsible economic power was not ignored at the summit. Braving the recession with the prospect of 6.5-7 per cent growth in the current fiscal year has rekindled hopes that 8 to 10 per cent economic growth in the future is achievable.

Looking at the phenomenal economic rise of China and, consequently, Japan's efforts at repositioning itself in light of new realities, it is all the more important for the US to establish a long-term cooperative relationship with India. It also must be understood that for most Indians America's attractiveness is genuine and is based upon its dynamic culture and values. American culture is perceived as a culture of open minds and open roads that lead to the free marketplace of goods and ideas. It is a culture of optimism that holds the prospect of expanding human possibilities. Americans fervently believe that global poverty can be eliminated and sickness can be cured. The Clinton Global Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, are built on the faith that the human condition can and must be improved. India shares these universal values.

Americans fondly hope that, as China keeps growing, it would open itself to other cultural influences including free expression and democracy and, therefore, US-China interdependence is good for keeping the peace. Scholars like Joseph Nye of Harvard argue that a country can become attractive by engaging other people rather than isolating them. So if trade with China and rising prosperity have rechannelled the Chinese people's energies and given them new hopes and global dreams, a similar policy might work for other countries too. What is needed most is investment in regional and global networks for economic interdependence, rather the assertion of military power. In this respect, American civil society and its universities are far more persuasive in presenting the US to other people than anything the government can do.

Brand America too makes the US attractive. When an American apparel maker opens a factory in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Indonesia, it spreads feelings of goodness among the people. Extremists cannot stop Indonesians or Bangladeshis, for example, from improving their economic condition by making themselves smart for foreign direct investment. Therefore, bonding American national interests with other nations' strategic interests is the key to the management of regional conflicts for which India can offer the US a great partnership.

The impact of joint exercise of India-US smart power will be felt across central Asia, ASEAN and beyond the Indian Ocean a topic of great interest for Prime Minister Singh and President Obama to explore when they break bread in the White House.

The writer is professor, communications and diplomacy, Norwich University, US.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

TIMES VIEW

THIS DEBATE IS IRRELEVANT

 

Here we go again. Ever since the credit crisis at the end of 2007 morphed into a full-blown financial debacle with the demise of Lehman Brothers in September last year, some commentators have seized on it as ultimate proof that Karl Marx was right, after all, and that capitalism is doomed to failure. Mankind's only saving grace is socialism, and the sooner world economy is restructured to a communist framework, the better off we'll be. Representatives at the 11th meeting of the communist and workers' parties in New Delhi made a declaration to precisely that effect on Sunday.

 

Such an argument is particularly galling, coming as it does 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism as any kind of alternative to a capitalist system because of people's revolutions within its fold. Over the past couple of years, the capitalist system has certainly faced its share of challenges. But unlike what over-enthusiastic commentators would have us believe, the system is not near collapse. Indeed, the way the world is recovering from the crisis is proof positive that capitalism, as a system, is flexible enough to absorb the shocks dealt out by circumstance and to adapt itself to accommodate the interests of as many groups as possible.

Many of the newfound supporters of socialism mistakenly believe that John Maynard Keynes, whose particular brand of economics has made a comeback since the financial crisis began, was a socialist. Keynes is the man who rescued capitalism by injecting it with a sense of social responsibility. It is also an unalterable fact that several of Eastern Europe's formerly communist nations were mired in poverty until freed from the shackles of socialism. India and China, among other Asian nations, have made tremendous strides in reducing absolute poverty over the last two decades by embracing market reforms. Capitalism's demise has been greatly exaggerated. Indeed, each crisis makes it more resilient, because this is a system that can learn from its mistakes. Socialism might seem attractive now, 20 years after it stopped being a viable alternative, but most would agree that life under that system was rather less bearable than life is today.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

COUNTER VIEW

NEED TO LOOK BEYOND CAPITALISM

AMRITH LAL

 

Why are we debating whether socialism has a future 20 years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and immature assertions that predicted the end of history and ideology? Why is there a revival of interest in socialist thinkers across the world? The answer is simple. Capitalism failed to match the claim that it can address the social, political and economic concerns of people. The recent economic crisis has left poor people poorer even in the developed world. It is least surprising that market economy has become the god that failed for many people.

The search for alternatives to market economy is inescapable. This doesn't mean a return or revival of the models of crony state capitalism that existed under communist regimes in the USSR and East Europe. It is regressive to revive dead models but the sentiment behind the quest for an egalitarian social order could be retrieved. People are increasingly sceptical of capitalism not merely because of recent market failures but because they realise the limits of a politico-economic system that is driven by greed and competition. Human greed can't be the engine of progress. An economic system that needs to promote conspicuous consumption is not sustainable. In fact, such a system is a threat to the survival of this planet. As often said, there is enough to satisfy everyone's needs in this world, but not enough to satisfy everyone's greed. Technology can't always provide solutions to human greed. Capitalism can't accept limits to growth and profits. That will lead to systemic crises in capitalist economies, which they try to overcome by hunting for new markets and predatory accumulation of resources. This leads to social strife and wars.

The way forward is to build societies that manage resources both labour and capital in a harmonious way. That's possible only if the two categories complement each other and are focused towards the collective good of the society and not the private interests of a few individuals. The alternative may sound utopian, but what is human life without utopias to pursue?

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

FIZZY DRINKS

ELIXIR OF LIFE

NARENDRA NAIR

 

He was the man everyone looked up to. Six feet two inches in height and three feet from shoulder to shoulder, the looks of Gregory Peck, the voice of Amitabh Bachchan when he smiled, women swooned. He did an hour's tennis each day, rode, swam and played golf. Those who, of either sex, had managed to see his abdomen, declared it to be an eight pack and a lady once insisted that it was a ten pack. If true, it would rewrite anatomy of the rectus-abdominis. A gushing young woman once said that he had made the sea part at the Gateway of India by merely looking at it hard. He strode down the street like it belonged to him and with the looks of a movie star, he could have had any role for the asking. In fact, he spent a goodish amount of time fending off movie producers from his door. He drove a Lexus and a BMW and lived alone in a penthouse. Some said he had climbed Everest thrice; others said he had sailed down the Amazon and it was generally agreed that he had more planes than Mallya and was richer than Lakshmi Mittal. His general knowledge was encyclopaedic and in the circles he moved he was the only one who could pronounce and spell antidisestablishmentarianism without fracturing a syllable. He could talk as easily of Pareto distribution as of the intricacies of uranium enrichment, aviation mechanics, and the Karmarkar algorithm. He discussed the Mughal era or the Upanishads with equal ease. He danced like Fred Astaire and loved pre-dinner cocktails. He maintained that any potable liquid other than alcohol was for women.

And yet, this God-like Superman was recently discovered drinking our tongues burn with embarrassment to say this milk from a bottle labelled e-Moo! The impact was the same as if Sachin Tendulkar had been seen playing cricket with a ping-pong ball. But faith was restored quickly, when we learned the truth. Fizzy, carbonated milk had been launched in the United States for school students there some months ago. He had imported some, to try out cocktails combining the carbonated milk with white rum, gin and kahlua. What the school students did with carbonated milk no one was sure, except burp maybe, but speaking for himself, he declared he found that milk and alcohol was the shortest route to nirvana.

 

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TIMES OF INDIA

SUBVERSE

HAND OF GALL

JAY BHATTACHARJEE

 

A serious student of football once wrote: "There is football and then there is life." Not without reason. Global news was quite dull last Wednesday, when a single incident, spanning about 25 seconds, created such controversy that politics and war gave way to sports on newspaper front pages. The power of this sport was demonstrated once again when almost all countries (including our cricket-infested nation) found themselves debating Thierry Henry's tainted goal that led to France's win over Ireland and the latter's exit from next year's World Cup in South Africa.

The debate wove together a number of themes and covered issues that have been discussed for ages. When Henry, in the dying moments of the game, handled the ball near the Irish goal twice and then passed it on to his colleague Gallas to head it into the Irish net, he possibly started a controversy that may lead to one of the most profound changes in the laws of the game. More important, he ignited an exchange of ideas with very serious connotations.

The first (and less intense) topic thrown up is that of the finality of the referee's decisions in any football match, as the current rules of FIFA, the sport's governing authority, stipulate. There are also related laws that do not allow for video replays to adjudge the validity of a referee's diktat. In other words, the referee is the final arbiter, and there are neither jurors nor appellate courts to oversee what the men in black do when they judge a particular game.

Certain other issues are much more critical, all relating to the importance of fairplay in sports. Should participation in sports (particularly at professional levels) have an underlying moral framework? Kipling, that old colonial and imperialist rogue, had some saving graces, including a few fine poems. The one relevant here is about the "great player" when he comes to write against "your name": "He writes not that you won or lost but how you played the game."

This is the fundamental choice Henry faced in the seconds after he committed the offence. The honourable and decent thing to do, as many commentators have said, was for him to have walked up to the referee and admitted there and then that he had handled the ball. Clearly, the Swedish referee, who had not seen the Frenchman's infraction, would have been the key person to take a decision Henry's role would have been over and he would have walked into history as a man of honour and a true sportsman. For centuries, mothers would have told their children about this act of gentlemanliness, much like the story about George Washington's commitment to truth.

There are many precedents. Arsene Wenger, Arsenal's coach, under whom Henry played for years, became a legend 10 years ago when he felt that one of his team's goals was illegitimate. Although the Gunners won the match, Wenger asked for a replay and the authorities complied. In tennis, there is Mats Wilander's exemplary gesture in the semi-finals at Roland-Garros in 1982. When his opponent's shot was ruled out at match point, the Swede told the umpire that it was in and the point should be replayed. Finally, there's French history. At the Battle of Fontenoy, the French general graciously invited his English opponent to fire the opening salvos of the encounter. The French went on to win the battle.

The British print media has been at its vituperative best about their rivals across the Channel. The "Hand of Gaul" has been the leitmotiv of Fleet Street's volleys against the French. Fortunately, the latter's exemplary comportment has not fuelled the fire of prejudice. Eighty-two per cent of the 'Gauls' have, in nationwide polls, unequivocally condemned their captain's act. Raja Rammohun Roy, en route to England in 1831 to present the Suttee Petition, insisted on being carried to a neighbouring French ship that was "flying the flag of liberty and equality". He would have been delighted with the present lot.

The writer is a corporate analyst.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO

 

The United States remains the essential country in India's global power trajectory. Only the sole superpower could secure an exemption from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It remains the primary source of overseas capital and technology for India's economy. Its array of military technologies are necessary for India's post-26/11 security needs. And it's the preferred land of deal-making for Indian private corporations and the favoured home for Indian immigrants. And because it takes democracy seriously, the US is one great power that does not perceive the rise of India as a strategic threat.

 

These are only some of the reasons why India's most important bilateral relationship is unquestioningly the one it has with the United States. Pakistan is also important, but in an almost wholly negative sense. However, there is an inevitable mismatch. India is not the overriding concern of United States's foreign policy and, during this time of economic crisis, foreign policy is not even the overriding concern of President Barack Obama. Which is why any expectation of path-breaking developments in the relationship during India's first genuine engagement with President Obama should be quashed. But by hosting Prime

 

Minister Manmohan Singh and indicating his intention to reciprocate so early in his presidency, the US President seems to be trying to say: I want to do business but my hands are full, so bear with me.

 

Nonetheless, Washington needs to be conscious that the present bonhomie between India and the United States is only a few years old and is far from institutionalised. India continues to face major barriers in accessing dual-use technologies. The two countries struggle to coordinate their policies on Afghanistan-Pakistan and, as was recently shown, China. Mr Obama has many specific policy areas where he hopes to work closely with India, including climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and terrorism. Inevitably, there will be friction on such complex issues, which will and can be ignored if there seems to be a larger forward movement between the two countries. The Obama administration needs to outline a larger vision for the Indo-US relationship. Time has been too short for it to come out with a vision at this summit but hopefully one will emerge by the time of the next one. New Delhi should not be a passive player in all this: though its foreign policy bureaucracy will creak with the effort, it should start coming up with its own ideas regarding India's most important relationship.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

AN ENDURING AFFAIR

 

There's no place to hide anymore. The verdict is out: Delhi's brigade of Lucky Singhs is a disaster. Instead of stealing expensive cars that zip across Delhi roads — and occasionally on pavements at night — they are targeting the humble jalopy of the common man, the Maruti-800. Delhi Police statistics show one out of every three cars stolen in the capital is an 800. That's not all, the thieves, who we imagine are true believers of the 'be Indian, steal Indian' policy, seem to love cars that come out of the Maruti stable. Of the 3,000 cars stolen in 2009, 1,700 were from the Gurgaon-based auto giant. Of these, 650 were 800s because they have — no prizes for guessing — great resale value.

 

There are some other advantages that make the little ones so steal-worthy. They are easy to unlock, their sheer numbers make them difficult to trace and, of course, Delhi's proximity to the badlands of Uttar Pradesh. Once your white Maruti-800, the Plain Jane of the automobile industry, crosses the border, it is taken to a chop shop where the best of India's forgers give it a makeover and new papers. They are then sold to new owners while you take a step back to board those crowded Delhi Transport Corporation  buses again.

 

Since buying (no matter how much your spouse is rooting for it) a new expensive car might be daunting in an economic slowdown, there are only two ways to ensure the jalopy doesn't get stolen. A vibrant colour — keep the aesthetics in mind though — and a sturdy lock.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

AN INVISIBLE WORLD

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

 

Every Indian city has a road named after Mahatma Gandhi, each presenting in its own way a mocking thumbs-down to the Mahatma's legacy. The M.G. Road of my home town, Bangalore, is a celebration of consumerism, with its array of shop-windows advertising the most expensive goods in India. In other cities, government offices are housed on their M.G. Road, where work — or laze — politicians and officials consumed by power and corruption.

 

The Mahatma stood, among other things, for non-possession, integrity and non-violence. The M.G. Road of Imphal chooses to violate the last tenet, demanding that citizens negotiate pickets of heavily armed jawans every few metres. When I visited Manipur last year, I was staying at a lodge on M.G. Road, from where I watched a boy aged not more than ten clasp the hand of his even littler sister as he walked her past the pickets on their way to school. He was terribly tense, as the urgency by which he guided his sibling along the barricades made manifest. Back in Bangalore, for my own son and his younger sister the everyday act of going to school has been wholly relaxed, and mostly enjoyable — and yet, in this other state of our shared Union, it was fraught with fear.

 

Exactly five years ago, in November 2004, the Prime Minister visited Manipur. He had come in response to a massive popular protest against army excesses, among them the brutalisation of women. After meeting a cross-section of the population he agreed to vacate the historic Kangla Fort of armed detachments, and to 'sympathetically consider' the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), under which the security forces are given wide powers to arrest without warrant and to shoot without provocation.

 

The opposition to the AFSPA in Manipur is near-unanimous. However, by the nature and duration of her protest one individual has made her opposition distinctive. This is Irom Sharmila, a young woman who in November 2001 began an indefinite fast for the repeal of the Act. (The immediate provocation was the killing, by the Assam Rifles, of ten bystanders at a village bus-stop.) Arrested for 'attempted suicide', she continues her fast in her hospital-cum-jail, where she does yoga, and reads religious texts, political memoirs, and folk-tales. As her biographer Deepti Priya Mehrotra points out, while the law accuses her of fasting-unto-death, Sharmila is better seen as 'fasting unto life, to remove a brutal law that allows the murder of innocent people'.

 

On his return to New Delhi from Manipur, the PM set up a committee to report on whether the AFSPA should be scrapped. Headed by a respected former judge of the Supreme Court, the committee's members included a highly decorated general and a very knowledgeable journalist. The committee's report is based on visits to several states, and conversations with a wide spectrum of public opinion. It makes for fascinating reading. The entire text is up on the Web; here, however, a few excerpts must suffice.

 

The committee found that 'the dominant view-point expressed by a large number of organisations/individuals was that the Act is undemocratic, harsh and discriminatory. It is applicable only to the North-eastern states and, therefore, discriminates against the people of the region. Under the protection provided by the Act, several illegal killings, torture, molestations, rapes and extortions have taken place particularly since the Act does not provide for or create a machinery which provides protection against the excesses committed by armed forces/paramilitary forces… The Act should, therefore, be repealed.'

 

The committee agreed, recommending that AFSPA be taken off the statute books. It noted that with the insertion of suitable provisions in the existing Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (ULP), the security needs of the state would be served without impinging on the human rights of its citizens. The ULP Act, it pointed out, permitted swift deployment of the army to combat terrorism, while simultaneously ensuring that those arrested would be handed over to the police and provided legal protection.

 

In making its recommendations, the committee also offered this astute assessment of the popular discontent in the state: '[A]gitations such as those in Manipur and elsewhere are merely the symptoms of a malaise, which goes much deeper. The recurring phenomena of one agitation after another over various issues and the fact that public sentiments can be roused so easily and frequently to unleash unrest, confrontation and violence also points to deep-rooted causes which are often not addressed. Unless the core issues are tackled, any issue or non-issue may continue to trigger another upsurge or agitation.'

 

When I was in Imphal, I was driven to the Kangla Fort by a respected professor of economics. As he took me through the various shrines and memorials, he wondered when — or if — the PM would match the removal of the Assam Rifles from Kangla with a repeal of the AFSPA. Only that, he felt, would signal that the Government of India treated the residents of Manipur as full and equal citizens. As the professor put it, 'if you love a people, do so wholly — not half-heartedly'.

 

The AFSPA was first enacted in parts of Manipur in 1960. Even from a narrow security point of view it does not seem to have worked, for the discontent and the violence have only escalated in the decades it has been in operation. It is past time that it is done away with. A generous deadline for its repeal might be November 2010 — before the 10th anniversary of Irom Sharmila's fast, which, as matters presently stand, may be the only thing Gandhian about the whole state of Manipur.

 

Ramachandra Guha is a historian and the author of India After Gandhi

 

The views expressed by the author are personal

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

100 roadblocks

P.p. wangchuk

 

100 Roadblocks — Unlocked through the Words of Lord Krishna, is a book that attempts to make one see one's follies. It says the root cause of all the problems that mankind suffers from is due to lack of proper spiritual knowledge.

 

The book, authored by Ajit Kumar Bishnoi and Anil Kumar Jha, identifies 100 problems that afflict mankind and then tries to give solutions as given in the Bhagawad Gita, through Lord Krishna.

 

The authors give their solution through appropriate stories for each issue. And the topics discussed, among others, are arrogance, cowardice, ego, greed, hatred, illusion, jealousy, lust, obstinacy, partiality, selfishness and superstition.

 

Take, for instance, the problem of illusion that most of us suffer from. A story is told of a Bollywood actor whose only aim in life was to be a 'hero'.

 

He amassed wealth enough to turn himself into a producer so that he could become the hero with young girls as heroines. He never came to terms with the reality. No need to say, he had nothing but disappointments in life.

 

How to come out of this problem? First of all, one must know what causes illusion.

 

The authors give 10 reasons: lack of spiritual knowledge, poor training during childhood, attachment, lust, faulty goals, bad company, lack of proper guidance, absence of spiritual consciousness and improper desires and jealousy.

 

Once one knows what causes illusion, the remedies stand out clear.

 

The authors give a 10-point solution too.

 

One such solution says one should read and understand the Gita and should practise it in day-to-day life.
The Gita, the authors say, could be a one-point solution centre. "We have cited many verses of the Gita that give solutions to various problems."

 

Once one thoroughly understands the Gita, one can hope to walk on the spiritual path provided one controls one's mind with strong willpower and keeps away from the itch to progress in the external world.

 

One's aim should be clear and pointed towards an inward journey that leads to ultimate realisation.

 

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

End of downturn - India Inc is hiring again

RECRUITMENT HAS resumed in IT and real estate, but firms are treading cautiously while ramping up their numbers

Kamayani Singh

 

kamayani.singh@hindustantimes.com For nine years, Devesh Upadhyaya saw hisjobplacementfirm,Noida-basediQuest Consultants, grow from strength to strength.

 

Then came the economic slowdown, whose symptoms were the collapse of iconicnameslikeBearStearnsandLehman Brothers in the US.

 

Companies didn't want to hire anymore, several of Upadhyaya's clients delayedpayments,hisrevenuewentdown 35-40 per cent and he had to downsize, reducing the number of his recruiters from 120 to 70.

 

However, for the first time in a year, hiring is looking up across sectors such as information technology, pharmaceuticals and real estate, among others.

 

Upadhyaya's firm has begun to reap the benefits of the upturn in hiring.

 

TheeconomicslowdowninIndiaover the past one year caused a hiring freeze in several companies, and downsizing.
However,inthepastfewmonths,recruitmentseemstohavepickedupacrossseveral sectors, with the economy expected to grow at more than 6 per cent in 200910, and industry growing 9.1 per cent in September 2009.

 

Advanced economies of the West are coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

 

"Weseemtobegettingbacktothegood olddays," saidUpadhyaya,director,iQuest.

 

"SinceSeptemberthisyearhiringhas increased by 30 per cent at iQuest (over August 2009) and in October we had to hire20recruiterstodealwiththeincrease in workload."

 

Job portal naukri.com's monthly "jobspeakindex"forSeptembershowedthat hiring activity increased by 4.1 per cent in September over August. The report says that ITES (information technology enabled services)/BPO and real estate companiesshowedmostpromiseandtheir hiring grew by 18.3 per cent and 36.8 per cent, respectively, over August.

 

"ThegoodnewsisthattheITandBPO sectors, which are big employers especially at entry and junior levels, seem to be in positive territory after a long time," said Hitesh Oberoi, chief operating officer, Info Edge, the company that owns naukri.com.

 

"Hiring in some sectors such as IT, ITESandpharmaceuticalshasincreased by30-40percentinthelast7-8months," said Pramod Thilakan, executive director, Executive Recruiters' Association.
"They are recruiting freshers as well as mid-level executives."

 

Once key sectors such as IT recover, the services industry and retail too will start looking up, said Thilkan.

 

AmericanglobalstaffingfirmManpower in its employment outlook report for the October-December2009quarterhassaid that India has the best hiring prospects out of 35 countries surveyed. The report looks at the hiring plans of the recruiters across various industries.

 

IndianstaffingfirmTeamLeaseServices in its employment outlook report for the July-September quarter had predicted an improvement in India's net employmentoutlookforthefirsttimeinoneyear. ThefirminitsOctober-Decemberreport predicts India's net employment outlook and net business outlook will be brighter in coming months for almost all sectors except retail, the media and FMCG.

 

"The outlook is positive and demand is certainly increasing," said Manish Sabharwal,chairman,TeamLease."Other than healthcare, insurance and hospitality, there is a lot of activity happening in private education too."

 

Industry leaders claim that they are consideringhiringforthefirsttimesince the economy went into a slowdown.

 

"Ourlateralhiringhadtakenahitduring the downturn, slowing down by 87 percentbetweenOctoberandDecember 2008," said Anita Gupta, vice-president (human resources, India), Aricent, an American technology and services company.

 

"Butwearehiringnow.Wehavealready hired1,000peopleandbyMarch2010we plantoaddanother500-700toourworkforce."

 

Many companies had to put their recruitments on hold not only because they were downsizing but also because they saw several of their projects getting delayed due to the downturn.

 

India's leadingretailerPantaloonRetail had to postpone its plans to start new stores because it didn't get some of the properties in time because of the slowdown in the real estate industry.

 

"Thisyearweplantoaddaround4millionsquarefeetofspacetoourstoresand accordinglyaround4,000frontdeskjobs plus whatever other hires are required willbedone,"saidAtulTakle,spokesperson, Pantaloon Retail, India.

 

However,therecruitmentsarefarfrom robust yet.

 

"Thoughhiringhasincreased,itisstill cautiousanditwillbeanothersixmonths before it picks up pace," said Sabharwal.
"ConsumptioninIndiahasimprovedbut exports,whicharelinkedtotherecovery of foreign markets, will take time to pick up."

 

Most companies are trying to keep in mind the hard lessons they learnt from theeconomicslowdownandarealsotrying to introduce some changes in the hiring procedure.

 

"The meltdown taught us to have a hardre-lookatallexistingprocesseswith a view to optimising or clubbing certain activities," said Navin M. Raheja, chairmanandmanagingdirectorofrealestate company Raheja Developers.

 

OneofthechangesAricenthasbrought about in its recruitment procedure is to do only 10 per cent of the hiring, against the earlier 30-40 per cent, through job placement consultants.

 

"Only for senior positions with strict job specifications do we now turn to outside consultants," said Gupta. "We have started using online communities such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Orkut to find talent."

"Once big, western economies begin recovering they will outsource more functions to India, perhaps more than the pre-recession levels," said Thilakan.

 

"That will lead to the real hiring boom in India."

 

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

GHOSTS OF WINTERS PAST

 

The past is never dead. It isn't even past." The BJP would agree that William Faulkner got that one right, as it contemplates its reaction to the Liberhan Commission's revelations. The commission, which has been probing the "sequence of events leading, and all facts and circumstances relating, to the occurrences at Ram Janma- bhoomi-Babri Masjid complex" is obviously a live bomb for the BJP. Dragging on for 17 years, with over 4000 sittings, it was unclear when it would ever amount to a real accounting for the events of December 6, 1992. And now, in a moment when the BJP is most brittle, dealing with its own ideological drift, it is faced with its own original sin.

 

Where will the party go now? Will it choose to decisively exorcise the incident and look within to forge a responsible and intellectually vigorous conservatism, or will it decide to play it both ways, which has been its undoing? Babri Masjid and its aftermath have scarred the country for years after, and split Indian politics along the seams — for the BJP's allies and antagonists, it remained the single defining factor for years. For all too long, the party has tried to finesse the system — speaking in a moderate, mature voice to govern and returning to its rabble-rousing roots when it thought that would prove politically useful. Now, faced with this long-ago issue at a time when India and Indian politics have decisively moved on, the BJP has a stark choice. Will it disavow its bigoted base and become a pivot for centre-right coalitions, or will it fall back on the angry, polarising politics that once propelled it to power?

 

So, in a sense, the BJP has two options — it can choose to finally achieve closure by working through the Babri Masjid trauma and finally finding a new political vocabulary; or it can cynically use this occasion to galvanise its saffron "core". The Liberhan report has front-paged an issue left behind by our recent politics, reminded the country of the party's fire-breathing history at a time when it is in the throes of an identity crisis. Perhaps, if the BJP's long internal huddle has convinced it that galvanising the freaks and fanatics in its cadres is the best way forward, then this report could not have come at a better time.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

AFTER NALBARI

 

From all available evidence, the United Liberation Front of Asom is on its weakest wicket since its foundation almost 30 years ago. The battle for a "sovereign" Assam has charted its three-decade-long path through much blood, abductions and disappearances, and is perceptively almost over. Yet, ULFA — the most malevolent and lethal of Assam's once multiple militant outfits — still lingers and retains the ability to strike every now and then to remind us of its existence.

 

Sunday's twin blasts at Nalbari, in which at least six people were killed and dozens injured and which the state government has blamed on ULFA despite the outfit's denial of responsibility, may be just the latest case in point.

 

ULFA has been practically decimated. Most of its top leaders are in jail, some are missing, and one has retired. Only Arabinda Rajkhowa, Paresh Barua and Raju Barua are around. Rajkhowa is believed to be still in Bangladesh while Paresh Barua is suspected to be in China. Part of the reason for ULFA running aground recently has been the Bangladesh government's crackdown on militant groups, with two senior leaders handed over to India just last week. Having shifted its main base to Burma, with Sheikh Hasina perhaps evoking memories of Bhutan in 2003, the outfit is now, as claimed by the Assam chief minister, trying to move to China. The Indian government, for long urging ULFA to lay down arms and join mainstream politics, has offered safe passage to Rajkhowa and Barua and its willingness to talk on condition that ULFA renounce violence. Although the outfit is unlikely to accept the precondition, the offer and the conditions must stay.

 

Assam, however, is also a pro-longed political failure. One reason why militants have sustained themselves — marking Assam out as a persistent target for smouldering "causes" — has been its vote-bank politics. With Bangladesh's help, ULFA is perhaps moribund. But as long as Barua and Rajkhowa are not brought to book, the outfit will continue to strike. The government should not only configure strategy to go that last, long mile against ULFA, but must also recast Assam's politics.

 

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

ONE PER CENT LOGIC

 

In a move reminiscent of the glory days of the licence raj, the government has imposed a visa limit on high-skilled foreign labour working on Indian projects. For every one foreigner that a company wants, it could have to hire 100 Indians. The move to limit high-skilled labour comes soon after the ban on visas for semi-skilled and unskilled labour, and is possibly motivated by concerns of Chinese labour entering Indian markets.

 

Whatever be the rationale, there are many problems with the current move. The first is the arbitrariness of the ratio, one that seems to be pulled out of thin air. What does a company do if it employs only 50 workers, but needs a skilled foreigner? Should it go for an expansion plan merely to fit the visa criteria? The move could impact Indian industry, without providing a compelling rationale to do so. The second problem is one of hypocrisy. India's high-skilled expatriates send back valuable foreign exchange, become one-person ambassadors, and some return to contribute to the Indian economy. The arbitrary limit set by the US on H1-B visas shows why such immigration paranoia is self-defeating. So the argument is with Indian visas for high-skilled foreigners. The quota imposed is arbitrary, bad for business as well as hypocritical.

 

Foreign workers working on Indian infrastructure projects is a politically fraught issue. The context is obvious: should not jobs go to local labour? The garden-variety protectionism that governments respond with is to ban foreign labour, or limit it, which is precisely what the Centre's 1:100 ratio is. The other response is to provide training and education to local labour, so that they can compete with the best. But that long road isn't half as much fun as limits and licences, quick-fix bureaucratic solutions far removed from ground reality.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

FIXING THE FRAME

PALLAVI SINGH

 

The demand for reform of the civil service entrance examination has always provided a subject for passionate debate, right from its inclusion in one of the first resolutions of the Indian National Congress in 1885. Changes in the recruitment pattern have represented hard-won struggles by the nationalists before Independence (the exam to the Covenanted Civil Service began to be held in India as late as 1922) and a consistent attempt in the direction of engaging the most capable minds in running the administration since 1947. It is a chequered record, to say the least.

 

With more than four lakh applicants for the preliminary stage of the Civil Services Examination this year, UPSC Chairman D.P. Agarwal's announcement at the Inaugural UPSC Foundation Day Lecture regarding changes in the preliminary testing pattern has already added to the current buzz surrounding the exam. Change, it seems, is in the air. On the face of it, it sounds near revolutionary to provide a level playing field to aspirants by replacing the objective-type preliminary test (which includes one common general studies paper and an optional subject of one's choice) with a civil service aptitude test. It was the Alagh Committee Report in 2001 that had favoured testing candidates in a common rather than an optional subject and the Hota Committee in 2004 had favoured introducing aptitude and leadership tests for selection. The current two-stage examination structure, on the other hand, is a legacy of the Kothari Committee report in 1976 following which the preliminary exam was introduced in 1979 as a simple screening device to "weed out non-serious aspirants and to bring them down to a manageable number."

 

Amidst all this talk of reform, the commission continues to be resolute in its refusal to address the questions regarding the secrecy surrounding the preliminary results. And even the best recruitment pattern in the world will not survive the inefficiency that comes with a refusal to make public the standards by which a candidate is judged. The commission has consistently stonewalled attempts to reveal the cut-off required to clear the examination as well as the model answers to the various question papers. Citing Section 8 of the RTI Act, the commission has bafflingly reasoned that not only will the disclosure of the said information not serve any public interest but that it will "irreparably undermine the integrity, strength and efficacy of the competitive public examination system." (The Commission's appeal against the Delhi HC judgment directing it to reveal the above-mentioned information is pending with the Supreme Court). It goes on to argue that the "unpredictability of the methodology of testing is an inherent feature of any system of testing in a competitive exam."

 

This "unpredictability", which it cites primarily as a means of thwarting the attempts of various coaching institutes to "reverse engineer" from the model answers and the cut-off to load the exam against the "serious candidate", comes at a huge price. While it cannot be argued that this pattern has completely blocked talent from seeping into the system, it has clearly not aided a barrage of talent in making the cut either. And isn't that the final touchstone for pronouncing upon the efficacy of this system?

 

In frantically trying to outwit the coaching institutes, the UPSC has gone on upping the level of "unpredictability" in the exam, for instance, it introduced negative marking in the preliminary exam in 2007. Anybody even remotely familiar with the examination will agree that the Civil Services Examination may be found wanting on many counts, but not being difficult or unpredictable enough is hardly one of them. The problem clearly lies elsewhere and the commission needs to figure out where.

 

Lack of transparency would be a reasonable guess. Moreover, should the institution responsible for recruiting the future administrators of the country hide behind a shadowy notion of "public interest" to evade accountability?

 

It's also a point worth pondering how there are cases of "serious" candidates making the cut right up till the interview stage and failing to even clear the preliminary in their next shot at the exam. One would be forgiven in mistaking the commission's zeal for "unpredictability" for a largely arbitrary, trial and error method of selection.

 

If well begun is half done, the UPSC needs to address the other basic issues that plague the exam.

 

pallavi.singh@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

TRACKING A POWER SHIFT

EJAZ HAIDER

 

The primer says lying is awful; it also says corruption is bad. Primers are about the Garden of Eden before the forbidden fruit was eaten. Life is more complex when it is lived and wickedly complex when lived in very large, multi-interest groups. That's what Reinhold Niebuhr theorised about in his Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics.

 

The debate in Pakistan about the National Reconciliation Ordinance — the device which former General-President Pervez Musharraf employed to streamline the transition to the next political phase and make way for the return of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari by clearing them of any legal cases — takes the primer approach. The deep irony though is that those who are using the NRO stick to beat President Zardari, and by extension the PPP, are doing it for complex and not very ethical motives!

 

The primer is in the hands of those who know life is complex and wicked. Their invocation of simplicity, that corruption must be punished, is therefore suspect.

 

That Zardari doesn't have a past that inspires confidence in him or his leadership is a statement of the obvious. Neither has governance since he took over as president been up to the mark. This is not to say that there are no achievements. In fact, stitching together a deal on the National Finance Commission Award among the federating units is a feat.

 

But when a government must be pulled down it makes sense to pick up what is not good rather than what is; and the task becomes easier when the list of what is not good is way longer than what is.

 

Moreover, it helps if the government is stupid enough to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, as happened with the Kerry-Lugar controversy. In today's Pakistan where the camera follows every move right into the loo, governments can't afford to lose the initiative. In the case of KL kill-bill, the government had been warned much earlier in the game by observers that the language would become a problem. But it did nothing to start a debate on the issue and the detractors struck just when it was preparing to drink to victory.

 

The NRO was even easier to exploit: it was put in place by the "hated" Musharraf; it allowed the "ill-reputed" Zardari to return and become the president and perpetrate the Musharraf-ian system; it prevented Zardari from restoring the chief justice of Pakistan, known for his judicial activism; it serves, as the argument goes, to legitimise corruption; it discriminates in favour of a class; the "new" Pakistan cannot afford to have the dagger of such device embedded in its body politic.

 

The PMLN and the media got into the game, choreographed, as observers have noted, by the establishment, a term bandied about but never fully defined. For the PMLN it was easy. Most cases cleared under the NRO were instituted during Nawaz Sharif's time which is why now that the list is out, the PMLN and its then-allied parties have come out of the exercise smelling like roses. The PPP and the MQM look like the villains and, given there are only 34 politicos in a list upwards of 8000, the bureaucracy looks the worst.

 

All this done to isolate and kick out Zardari. Regardless of the man's weaknesses, and there are many, the issue really is this: the combination of political parties, sections of the media and the shadowy establishment is not doing this to cure Pakistan of corruption but to get Zardari.

 

While that does not take away the imperative of having a clean system, it does force any discerning observer to sit back and determine the consequences of this campaign. The PPP, despite shooting itself in the foot repeatedly, remains the only party with a federal presence. Even the PMLN, today the most popular party, cannot claim that position. What would happen to the federation if the party is damaged?

 

In the heat of the moment, when the primer is made to look supreme and complexities are deliberately set aside, no one is prepared to ask or answer this question and, ironically, the media least of all.

 

Allied with this question is another one: is there need to address the issue of corruption in a way that is more institutionally streamlined and less politically motivated? The simple answer is yes. The more difficult part is how to go about it. Some jurists have pointed to this and stressed the need to revisit the badly framed National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, incidentally another device discriminating against a class.

 

Doing so of course requires non-partisan, juridical work. The fulminations against the NRO are a function of political partisanship. The PPP tried to push it through parliament but sensing trouble decided not to; sensible but belated. Its actions were by then determined to be politically motivated and Zardari-specific. There are already petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the NRO. Everyone in Pakistan knows how they would be adjudicated upon. Legal and moral simplicity would trump political complexities.

 

So, is Zardari on his way out? Not necessarily. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has conducted himself well in being a bridge between the presidency and the rest. Zardari has understood that he needs to relinquish power in favour of his prime minister who remains his subordinate within the party. That is how it should have been from the word go. For the PPP to stay strong, Zardari should have let Gilani be the centre of gravity of the government.

 

Much now would depend on how Sharif plays his cards. The positive signal from him is that he has realised that with Zardari out, he would not be in. Minus one could then be minus two or even three. The talk about the Bangladesh model, a long-duration caretaker government of technocrats supported by the military and with the judiciary entrusted with cleansing the system, scares every politico. Sharif's latest statement that he would not support any minus-one formula reflects that.

 

Even so, the two major parties need to stitch their differences fast. Some people say the joker in the pack is the SC which could take up the issue of Zardari's qualification to be president. The key issue in this case is whether the NRO was valid only for a total period of four months or until four months from the SC's decision on July 31.

 

The SC has given very conflicting views on this but its earlier short order seemed to suggest that all PCO ordinances would be valid till July 31 plus four months. This becomes important because all benefits extended to Zardari are post-original four-month period.

 

If this comes to pass it could be a game-changer. The caveat is that there are precedents by the SC that if qualification for office has not been challenged at the original forum (returning officer or the election commission), it cannot be taken up subsequently at another legal forum.

 

Be that as it may, if the get-Zardari campaign does succeed through the invocation of a primer-based approach to moral outrage against corruption, there could be serious political ramifications.

 

The writer is consulting editor at 'The Friday Times', Lahore (express@expressindia.com )

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

FOUR DOWN, MORE TO GO

SHAIBAL GUPTA

 

Nitish Kumar's fourth year in office has been dramatic, but somewhat traumatic as well. After a dream run for more than three years and a resounding victory in the 2009 parliamentary election, it was time for him to institutionalise certain political principles. During his short tenure in Bihar, he brought about several innovations in governance and political management, but his announcement to break from "sibling-centric" politics just before the by-elections of eighteen assembly seats sent alarm signals through the party machine.

 

Unlike in other by-elections since 2005, the NDA faced severe reverses in the 2009 assembly by-elections. Since tickets were denied to a spouse and a son of two MPs, indicating the possibility of non-sibling-centric policy getting the final stamp of approval, many established political functionaries in the NDA feared that the trend will imply the end of their political career. So the daggers were out and, through a systematic strategy, NDA's official candidates were defeated to jettison a principle which ran counter to the basic principles of parliamentary democracy.

 

Right now, it is a difficult proposition to create a political space outside "sibling-centric" politics in India. When Rajasekhara Reddy, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister, was killed in a helicopter crash, there was an almost typhoonic campaign among the legislatures to install his son Jagan in the chief-ministerial chair. The track record of the Nehru-Gandhi family is part of the folklore of 'sibling-centric' politics in India. If the succession of political office remains within the confine of a family, in the next couple of years, just about 100 families will rule the entire country. Even the rudimentary party structure that now exists will possibly get liquidated, to be replaced by dynasties.

 

Once the benefits of individual accumulation on the basis of public office gets extended to within the family, the accumulation of huge financial resources by a single hand, later by a single family, becomes powerful enough to replace the party machine with a family or a dynasty. In India, huge political families have emerged, who not only command resources but also unprecedented political clout. If recent elections are any indicators, money is the single most important factor in deciding the complexion of politics. In the recently held election in Maharastra and Haryana, it was indeed a battle between second generations of siblings. Even the CPM was afflicted with this malaise. In the recently held by-election in West Bengal, after the demise of popular minister Subhash Chakravoty, his wife Ramola Chakravorty was fielded as a replacement. In this backdrop, Nitish Kumar's effort to try a different line was a difficult proposition. However, the by-election reverses did not deter him. Members of Parliament who promoted their own relations were expelled, and he tried to carve a different niche within the party. This effort found parallels in the rest of the country. In the recently held by-elections, in the Firozabad Parliamentary constituency (in UP) or in the Belgachhia Purba Assembly election (in West Bengal), the spouses of both the previous incumbents were defeated.

 

During his tenure, apart from building the state, Nitish Kumar has also made some authentic moves for inclusion of the socially marginalised in governance. Another move he was contemplating related to land management in Bihar. The constitution of the Land Reform Commission was a step in that direction. The by-election reverses were attributed to positive discriminations for the marginalised and the intention of the government to implement the Land Reform Commission.

 

The beneficiaries of"sibling-centric" politics had deftly diverted attention to ensure that land management does not take place in the state. In the "permanent settled" states, economic management is not possible without updating land records. The cadastral survey in the state was done way back in 1904, and ultimately published in 1912. Without updating mutation cases, civil cases accumulate, leading to criminal incidents. In the process, the entire machinery of the state is stressed. The Left Front government in West Bengal is likely to fall like a house of cards in the next Assembly election, even though they had ensured economic empowerment by ensuring the rights of the "bargadars" (tenants). In Bihar, economic inclusion will be permanent only with proper tenurial management. In West Bengal, although land management has changed, the elite is not ready to give political space. Bihar, on the other hand, is not ready to give land-related economic space to the marginalised, although some political space has been assured to them. A feudal economy cannot get integrated with the national or international economy. The battle in Bihar is difficult, but it is not insurmountable.

 

The writer is member secretary, Asian Development Research Institute, Patna

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE INSCRUTABLE CHINESE

 

President Obama stood at a "town hall" meeting in Shanghai, fielding questions from eager Chinese students, an American leader demonstrating the give-and-take of democracy to a nation under one-party rule. Except that the students were mainly members of the Communist Youth League, hand-picked by the Chinese Communist Party, and the first question set the tone: "What measures will you take to deepen this close relationship between cities of the United States and China?"

 

All in all, the "town hall" exemplified the sort of stagecraft that the Chinese seem to specialise in — managed in a way that is so obvious as to be condescending, but still successful at stifling dissent.

 

The moment reminded me of why I decided, three years ago, to centre my second spy novel, The Ghost War, on a conflict between the United States and China.

 

For novelists, China's rise is pure gold. The Communist Party's opacity and its passion to control China's image have had the opposite effect: they feed Western fears of China's intentions, and dare Western thriller writers to invent disaster.

 

Never mind that so far the Chinese have not projected military power outside of East Asia, that they prefer to compete mainly by accumulating dollars by the trillion. Military power grows from economic strength, and military analysts do not doubt that the People's Republic could one day become a full-bore competitor to the United States, offering its protection to all manner of governments throughout the Persian Gulf and Africa.

 

For journalists, could is a blank page. But novelists exist to fill that space. So, in 2006, after outlining my book, I procured a tourist visa (I doubted the regime would welcome any working spy novelist, let alone one whose day job was being a business reporter for The New York Times), and went off to China.

 

The trip was fascinating. I'd been to the People's Republic in 1988, before the protests in Tiananmen Square forced China's rulers to liberalise their economic policies. I vaguely remembered a grey Communist country, with empty stores and note-pad sized currency. No more. On Beijing's giant avenues, cars and buses crowded out bicycles. Giant skyscrapers towered above Guangzhou and Shanghai. Even Xian, in the interior, was bustling and prosperous.

 

But I can't pretend that I left China with a better understanding of the machinations at the top of the Communist Party. Those doors stayed closed to me, as they do to nearly all Westerners.

 

Journalists and spies find such obfuscation frustrating; they are reduced to reading between the lines of official statements and guessing at the shifting alliances and ideologies of the middle-aged men who run China. Facts are hard to come by.

 

But the opacity that maddens reporters is manna for novelists, and the novelist in me had a fine time imagining what might be happening behind closed doors in Beijing. What if a hard-line Chinese general wanted to take control of the People's Republic? Could he manoeuvre China and the United States into a clash, a limited war, to grab control?

 

I did have a few facts to work with. Military analysts and the Pentagon say China has sharply increased its military spending in the last decade (though it remains far less than the $680 billion the United States will spend this year). The People's Liberation Army Navy (yes, that's its name) has been developing submarines and super-fast torpedoes whose only logical targets are American naval vessels. Beijing is trying to build ties all over the world, especially with resource-rich nations in Africa. And China has deep national scars from the quasi-colonialism it faced during the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

Are old resentments and a shifting balance of power enough to push nuclear-armed powers to the brink of war? In the real world, probably not. In a spy novel, absolutely.

 

Readers sometimes comment on the realism of my novels. But I don't aspire to realism. I want, instead, the illusion of realism — a little like the way the Chinese government cares little about the reality of public consent, so long as it has the appearance of consent.

 

If I can conjure an image of the meetings of the Politburo Standing Committee that seems accurate to you the reader, I've succeeded. After all, Hu Jintao — the general secretary of the committee — is unlikely to complain. (If only he would. What publicity that would be!) To steal an old joke: If a bear is chasing both of us, I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you.

 

And so I and other spy novelists can only hope that the Chinese, and the rest of the world's authoritarian regimes, stick with their stage-managed town halls, Internet censorship, and jailings of mouthy dissidents. During the 1990s, we had reason to worry: democracy seemed to be spreading globally, international tensions fading. Now, though, those dark days are behind us, and we can get back to imagining the worst without fear of contradiction.

 

Bad for the world, I suppose. Lucky for us.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE PRICE OF PEACE

YUBARAJ GHIMIRE

 

G.P. Koirala returned to Kathmandu on November 22 after successful medical treatment in Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore, where he was for a week. The treatment cost the state around 30 million rupees, and Koirala's daughter Sujata — deputy prime minister and his attendant — is already being criticised for the lavish life she spent there at the state's expense. She has been criticised for living in a costly hotel suite, and hiring a limousine. Yet the nation will condone all that if the elder Koirala, known for his lust for power, takes the initiative to break the political deadlock. From his hospital bed in Singapore, he could summon Prachanda, chairman of the UnifiedCommunist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M), and warn that there would be no one to protect the Maoists if they do not heed his words. Prachanda is utterly discredited and all the trust that Nepalis and perhaps the international community had pinned on him, now stands dissipated.

 

Prachanda does not stand a chance of recapturing power as parliamentary numbers stand at odds with his ambition. And G.P. Koirala is equally unpopular, and totally rejected by the party.Yet the two have a meeting point. Both need to get Madhav Nepal out, to explore their future in politics.

 

A day before Koirala landed in Kathmandu, Prachanda, in deference to Koirala's suggestion, announced that his party would let the budget pass. Continued obstruction of the House for three months by the Maoists had not only stalled all legislative business, but also brought the country to a standstill. Ministers and government servants, including security agencies, had stopped getting their salaries. This only reinforced the image of Maoist 'villainy' and the government's 'hopelessness', in the eyes of the bureaucracy.

 

As someone who brokered the truce, G.P. Koirala will now again try to claim that he alone can ensure that the peace process remains on track and that the constitution is written within the stipulated deadline of May 2010.

 

Prachanda, who calls the Madhav Nepal government a 'puppet of the south', has extracted an assurance from Koirala that he would lead the campaign for the PM's ouster once the budget is adopted. Koirala has always been able to dislodge any government he wanted — for which he will go any distance — in the past.

 

But politics in Nepal now is not just about having a prime minister replaced. It involves far trickier questions like how to 'correct' the wrong that President Rambaran Yadav committed while reinstating army chief R. Katawal within hours of his being sacked by Prachanda. Corrections of that mistake in Parliament, or the president publicly admitting that it was a constitutional error are the rigid pre-conditions that Maoists have put forward, with all the 22 other parties opposed to this move.

 

Prime Minister Madhav Nepal and the entire central committee, as well as the parliamentary party of Koirala's Nepali Congress oppose the president's action being debated in the House. President Yadav has refused to admit any lapse on his part. Confronted with such inflexible postures, it will be hard for G.P. Koirala to manipulate the situation in pursuit of his political ambition.

 

In the midst of all these, the third anniversary of the comprehensive peace agreement (signed on Nov 21, 2006) almost went unnoticed. The Maoists' renewed call for a month-long agitation came the same day, signalling that they are not obliged to carry the peace process further. The cost of the agitation is heavy — paralysis of the government, stalled developmental activities and fragmentation of politics.

The party has announced a new phase of month-long agitation that includes entering Singha-Durbar, the central secretariat , and symbolically occupying the seat of power. And as a matter of political tactic, the Maoists are ready to use a willing Koirala as a 'pawn' in their hand.

 

The Maoist success in replacing who they call 'India's puppet' with their own, however, will not in any way mean smooth sailing of the peace and constitution-making process. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal lacks both firmness and clarity of vision. His delivery has remained poor, he has compromised too much. He elevated Sujata Koirala as Deputy Prime Minister on G.P. Koirala's instructions although the entire Nepali Congress was opposed to it. Of late, he has refused to take any action against Minister of State Karima Begum after she slapped a district administration chief in full public view. Nepal did not want to displease the party that Minister Begum belongs to, as that will render the government more fragile.

 

Moreover, he has not endorsed his defence minister's proposal that the Nepal army be supplied with arms and ammunition, and around 9,000 vacancies filled up. In fact, the Maoists and the United Nations Mission to Nepal (UNMIN) have put pressure on the prime minister not to do all this as that might imperil the peace process. The security forces are demoralised, and any agitation by the Maoists is therefore likely to go unstopped by the security forces.

 

What could be a better opportunity for Maoists and GPK to strike a deal when PM is so weak and unclear about what the government should be doing? Yet the consequences of the change would not be better in any way. The political parties will be more fragmented, and the promised consensus — at least till the time of constitution making — will be the biggest casualty.

 

yubaraj.ghimire@expressindia.com

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

PAST IMPERFECT

SHAILAJA BAJPAI

 

We were baying for blood, just over a year ago. Many people were in the mood for a public lynching as protests against television news coverage of the Mumbai attacks filled the print and online media, and conversation everywhere. The government threatened to take action, the chastened news channels beat a strategic retreat, promised to be more careful in the future and although we have not forgotten their excesses, we have learnt, perhaps, not to believe everything they say. Haven't we?

 

With no major terrorist attack in the last 365 days, the news channels' resolve has not been tested, either. Live coverage of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's death, however, indicated that TV news still tends to fly with a story before being grounded in facts. That's where it needs the government help, late in coming when YSR's chopper went missing. So, one November later, we still don't know how TV news would cover another 26/11 situation — and that's a worry. Meanwhile, the government has made a preemptive strike by asking TV news to handle with care the first anniversary of the attacks. Thus far, we haven't seen too much of the burning Taj — seared already in our memories from last year's coverage.

 

Instead, Monday morning's screen was filled with images we didn't see at the time: young men clambering onto of Babri Masjid and hacking it to death. The Indian Express report on the Liberhan Commission's findings was the news of the moment and footage of the demolition was played and replayed and replayed. Makes you wonder if TV news has learnt anything from Mumbai 26/11.

 

Visited Pati Patni aur Woh (NDTV Imagine), last week and was unpleasantly surprised to see that nothing has changed since the previous encounter. The pati and patni are bringing up 'woh' and in the process wrecking their nerves and their relationships. There's Rakhi Sawant tearing into whatever's left of her Swayamvara and there's Elesh soothing her in Canadian English which only angers her further since she cannot comprehend him. And the 'wohs' are having a wail of a time: crying is not just an occupational hazard for these babies, it's a full time occupation. Stroll across to the Bigg Boss (Colors) home and behold full-grown men weeping like 'wohs', only, since they are much bigger, they cry that much more. And, insist on speaking simultaneously. So Rohit Verma and Bakhtiyar Irani took turns to howl and holler at the same time, creating the most unholy, soppy row. "I hate myself in this house!" howls Verma, "I hate everyone in this house!" hollers back Bakhtiyar (or words to that effect). Talk about jugalbandis. Much rather watch and listen to the one on Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Maha Challenge (Zee) between the teams representing Bengal and Punjab. That was music to the ears; this an earful. Why doesn't Big Boss's adult population grow up and stop behaving like crybabies?

 

Over at Perfect Bride (Star Plus), we're down to the final three weeks and juror Shekhar Suman, for one, is filling the empty spaces between potential goon, sorry, groom and wife, with stifled yawns. It's that boring. Rumpa and Hitesh are still deciding where to get married (in the studio?), Rajbir and Priyanka are still insisting they'll marry only when his family agrees that "Priyanka nahin to koi nahin" and every girl's best friend Vivek is trying to romance Amrita Rao with about as much spark as an extinguished match stick. Yawn is right. Bharti Singh tries to shake Shekhar awake with laughter but there's little remotely amusing about watching her slap a lollipop onto her tongue. Malaika Arora tried to smile — and failed. Meanwhile, the girls moon and swoon over the prospects of perfect husbands, perfect weddings and perfectly-ever-after marriages. Perhaps Suman is yawning because he is awake to the fact that there's nothing perfect about any of it at all.

shailaja.bajpai@expressindia.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

 VISA POWER

Perhaps some will see this as a sign of having arrived on the global stage, that India is now flexing its muscles on the visa issue. We only see this as a regressive move. The government has declared that only one highly-skilled foreign professional will be permitted for every 100 local or Indian labourers. This declaration comes after months of to-and-fro on the question of visas for Chinese workers in India. There are two points that need to be made in response to India's new visa declarations. First, they completely undermine the validity of our long-standing plaints against the Americans and others, who have been stingy about letting in well-qualified Indians through their borders. Second, their protectionist stand harms Indian industry as much as it disheartens the foreign workers. Before getting into the nitty-gritty of these two arguments, let's take a quick stock of how—especially in a recessionary environment—India is far from being alone in speaking visa issues in tongues. Take China itself. How does it get around, say, the Japanese ban on international labour? Its workers circumvent official barriers by filing for visas as trainees or apprentices. China has also moved to issue 'separate' visas to Indian passport holders from Jammu and Kashmir, and Arunachal Pradesh. India has obviously not taken to this procedure kindly, asking how China would take to India issuing Tibetans a visa stamped differently from the one issued to the rest of Chinese visitors.

 

On the question of H-1B visas, which have provided both Silicon Valley and Wall Street with key human resources, India has repeatedly complained about the anti-immigration sentiment in Washington. Such complaints reached freshly higher pitches with the Obama administration dictating that companies receiving federal bailouts had to prove that they tried to recruit American workers before they gave away jobs to foreigners. Our IT companies led from the front in complaining how such policies would impact their business. Their complaint was echoed on US shores, too, by affected companies. Is the new Indian policy any different? Actually, it isn't, which is why our industry is complaining, too. The power sector is especially hard hit. As Bharat Singh Solanki, Union minister of state for power, told the upper house in a written reply, the new visa policy may mean that power projects being built by Chinese companies in India will be delayed in the face of shortage of engineers. The Himachal Pradesh CM has come forward to say how new visa clampdowns will hinder road development in his state. Many other infrastructure projects will suffer as India hardens its immigration policies against the Chinese. We can't argue that China is more liberal, or even the US. But why must we follow in the footsteps of those who have essentially mishandled the issue? Why not spearhead a liberal approach to human capital?

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

FORWARD ON MARKET

It's good to see that the financial sector is back on the radar of the UPA government, at least if the renewed interest in merging the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with Sebi is an indicator. If not RBI, then at least the finance ministry has not abandoned the important recommendations made by both the Raghuram Rajan Committee and the Percy Mistry Committee on financial sector reforms—extending Sebi's turf was a key recommendation of these reports. Still, it will hardly be easy for the cabinet secretary to forge a consensus on this between the finance ministry and the ministry of consumer affairs, which is the parent ministry of the FMC that regulates commodities derivatives markets. Even in the past, the ministry of consumer affairs, under the charge of Sharad Pawar—a political heavyweight in the UPA—has resisted proposals to merge FMC with Sebi.

 

That is actually the heart of the problem with the way FMC functions—it is not an independent regulator in the Sebi mould and more often than not, obeys the policy diktats of its parent ministry. Note the ease with which the government prevailed on FMC to ban futures in key commodities like wheat earlier this year. The move to ban futures was motivated by narrow political considerations and was shown to have no impact on lowering commodity prices. Futures are an excellent way to discover prices, and they are not responsible for inflation. The FMC, either on its own or because of pressure from the ministry of consumer affairs, has refused to acknowledge this sound economic logic. Contrast this with Sebi's role in the most difficult period of the crisis—the Indian markets regulator was one of the few which refused outright to ban short selling, and rightly so. But that's not the only reason to bring commodities derivatives trading into Sebi's fold. It makes regulatory sense to have a single regulator for all derivatives markets—equity, debt, commodities and currency. A unified system will help monitor systemic risk better. Of course, RBI is not going to let go of its role in regulating currency derivatives markets without a turf battle. But in the aftermath of the kind of crisis we saw last year, the last thing an economy needs is turf battles between key regulators—that slows potential crisis-mitigating responses. As we begin to further liberalise finance over the next few years, it is crucial to have the right regulatory structures in place. It's time that the government bites the bullet and hands over more regulatory powers to Sebi from FMC and RBI to begin with.

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

THIS TIME, ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

VIRAL V ACHARYA

 

As finance appears to get back on its feet, the same question is back: Can we rely on markets? I contend that markets have been reasonably efficient, but only within poor regulatory constraints. Until we improve the regulatory perimeter within which markets operate, we will not be able to generate stable economic growth.

 

Most of the leverage built by financial firms between 2004 and 2007 was either done through regulatory arbitrage or was the result of lax regulation. Commercial banks added over $700 billion to their off-balance-sheet leverage by providing under-capitalised guarantees to structured purpose vehicles (conduits) that themselves had hardly any capital. Regulators allowed this, even though a similar leverage game brought down Enron. Once the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) lifted its 'net capitalisation rule' in 2004, investment banks ramped up their exposure to sub-prime mortgages. In no time these banks drove up their debt-to-equity ratios from 22:1 to 33:1.

 

Markets could be deemed inefficient in all this if they had the relevant information, but made a mistake in not using it. But many activities through which the financial sector built up leverage, such as conduits and over-the-counter exposures, were not visible to investors. In contrast, these activities were—or should have been—visible to regulators.

 

The low price of credit risk of financials until 2007, coinciding with the rising path of their leverage, implied that the hidden trajectory of expected taxpayer losses was exploding. Put simply, profits were being privatised and risks socialised. It was regulation, not markets, that allowed this to happen.

 

Regulation is supposed to fix market failures. But regulation also reduces market discipline. Thus, when regulators deem a bank well-capitalised, the onus is on regulators that this be right. Markets may not have the incentive to gather this information, nor possess the details of regulatory supervision that led to such an assessment. Conversely, when regulation allows itself to be arbitraged, the financial sector becomes more opaque, exposing markets to unexpected outcomes.

 

When such adverse outcomes materialised in the first eight months of 2007, market learned fairly quickly. By then, Countrywide had fallen, Bear Stearns had to bail out hedge funds invested in the US subprime assets, and indices tracking such assets were declining day by day. When BNP Paribas declared on August 8 that there was no market for subprime assets in its hedge funds, it became clear to investors that the entire financial sector had made a one-way bet on the economy. Investors realised that the seemingly well-capitalised financial institutions were in fact significantly more levered, no matter what their regulatory capitals looked like.

 

Since that day of rude awakening, markets have given hell to weak players and rewarded strong ones. Financials with the worst balance sheets have fallen, and the next in line have been punished severely. In fact, only the relatively stringent 'stress tests' conducted earlier this year have restored markets' confidence in regulatory endorsements of financial stability.

 

Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, acknowledged that he 'made a mistake' in trusting that free markets could regulate themselves. The underlying assumption is itself questionable. The financial sector—so heavily regulated and partly guaranteed since 1930's—is not exactly a free market, is it?

 

Recently, the G20 also blamed the 'reckless excesses' of the banking sector for the mess we are in. While there might be a grain of truth to this, there is also a sense in which these excesses are consistent with the efficiency of markets. If government guarantees are offered gratis to the private sector, competition leads to their fullest exploitation. If regulators legitimise the shadow banking world, then profit-maximising bankers avoid capital requirements through off-balance-sheet transactions. If money is being thrown at insolvent firms without any strings attached, these firms procrastinate on capital issuances and continue paying bonuses and dividends.

 

Hence, compared to 1930's, the current job of rewriting regulation is tougher. We need to address regulatory failures in addition to market failures. Will we restrict the scope of government-sponsored enterprises? Will we stop rebating deposit insurance premiums to banks in good times? Will we bring capital requirements of off-balance-sheet activities in line with on-balance-sheet ones? Will central bank lines of credit be made contingent on solvency criteria, like the private lines of credit? And will regulatory supervision be held accountable by requiring that they produce public reports on the strengths and weaknesses of banks they invigilate?

 

To attribute this crisis to a failure of efficient markets is to miss its most important lesson: That poor regulation, with its incentive and information distortions, can also destabilise markets.

 

The author is a professor of finance at New York University's Stern School of Business

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

I-BANKING'S INDIAN MOMENT

SUBHOMOY BHATTACHARJEE

A most exciting opportunity for the Indian financial sector has opened up through the government's recently announced disinvestment programme. As the disinvestment department of the finance ministry taps the market for listed and unlisted companies, there will be a huge business opportunity for the financial sector, of the kind that has not happened at all in India.

 

This is going to be a fantastic learning curve for the investment banking business in financial institutions. Investment banking has been the engine that has driven the pace of developments in the financial sector, on Wall Street, London, and at Hong Kong. The government of India, it would seem, has set off the key changes in the financial sector in the most comprehensive way through this step. Sure, the ministry and RBI have to begin to clear up the rules for the bond, currency and derivatives markets, but those will only create the framework for the markets to operate. The demand to make the most of them will come from the disinvestment plan.

 

Just to put that in context, it was the disinvestment plan of the early 2000s that made all the capital market arms of the Indian banks come up. They were all born in that dawn and, of course, the reason was to take advantage of several business opportunities that the government was planning to hand out to them. Just as a couple of decades earlier, the government went in for large-scale public sector projects, the IDBI, IFCI and even the original ICICI were born to bring project appraisal technology into the banking business of India.

 

One of the top guns of the investment banking fraternity told me how big the experience from the disinvestment deals from the early part of this decade really was. One of the deals that netted the finance ministry a lot of money was the VSNL one. The Tata group has always felt they were charged a stiff price for the company, while none of the subsequent efforts of a combative Parliament to find holes in the disinvestment plan ever included VSNL. That meant the deal was one of the best executed ones.

 

Yet this deal almost fell through. At the time it was being navigated there was one investment banking arm of a global brokerage firm, which fell foul of the Indian government in the stock market scam of 2000. The firm actually walked out of the negotiations about a couple of days before the bids were to be opened. The lead Indian entity that was working with them on the deal was SBI.

 

The Indian government naturally asked it to fill in the breach. It wasn't a vote of confidence, but just that there was no way to change horses midstream. SBI officials cranked their contacts through their offices overseas, did the calculations for the bid prices all over again as the foreign company had departed with their due diligence results in their pocket, and finally came up with the price that has stood, as I said, beyond scrutiny.

 

This is not a tale on good banks and bad banks or the merits of foreign and desi business practices. What the banker told me was the extent of the fast response that SBI had to undertake. He was sure this was one hell of a learning experience. Obviously, these have stood the bank in good stead in subsequent big-ticket deals like Vodafone or even Corus.

 

It had to happen this way. There is nothing surprising that this business—the life of the Wall Street—even if frayed now, never really came close to the boardrooms of the Indian financial sector. There was simply no big demand from the domestic market for it. As a result, when the big boys of the Indian manufacturing sector began to explore partners, do mergers or buyouts, they had to rely on the global players. Of course, there was also the issue of who had the ability to write the big cheques—the Indian banking sector did not have the ticket size to match.

 

But now is the opportunity. Here, it will also be necessary for the government to show a degree of confidence in the domestic community. Very few of the capital market arms from the crop of the nineties are now left standing since business dried out in the intervening years. It is easier now to select them as the leads in the syndicate, and in turn rely on them to repackage the risks to others. The government should clearly stop bringing favourites from the banking sector to join the party instead. Those will not be equipped to handle this business, whereas those who are, would be deprived of the scale that's so critical in delivering on price and returns for the government, and both classes of investors, retail and institutional. It would thus be a terrific coming of age for some really solid investment bankers from the domestic industry. In turn, it would create the demand to use the new financial markets the government seems keen now to develop. Obviously a very useful combination.

 

subhomoy.bhattacharjee@expressindia.com

 

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FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE SEARCH FOR BETTER PRICE DISCOVERY

AKASH JOSHI

The decision by the capital market regulator Sebi to allow qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) to bid for a higher price on the follow-on public offers (FPO), and not stick to a price band, is definitely welcome. This is said to be an experimental move to check the responses before implementing the same for initial public offers (IPOs).

 

Under the new system, QIBs can bid any amount that they deem appropriate for the offer on the higher side and not be limited to a price band. This will allow them to get the shares they want, and promoters will get a better price for their offer. However, implementation on the IPO market would need to be done faster as the action on QIB is higher there.

 

Several IPOs that have hit the market have been subject to a high instance of QIB over-subscription. The retail side of subscriptions has been low and the QIBs have been gobbling up issues, thereby depicting high demand that can be milked.

 

However, it is also worth noting that the high demand has also been coming through due to the fact that QIBs need to shell out only 10% on application for IPOs and the rest has to be made after allotment, unlike the retail investors who must provide the full amount. Many QIBs, especially some Indian banks, have been using this route for quick gains. After gaining allotment, these QIBs have been cashing out on listing day and dampening the listing day gains for several retail investors.

 

When Sebi's auctioning mechanism kicks in, several of the QIBs that are looking for quick gains would be sidelined and the actual demand for good paper would surface. Many merchant bankers reckon that this would take away the 'quick buck' institutions, leaving the most serious ones to determine the real price. The flip side, however, is that the grey market will get a benchmark and the higher biddable price could well decide the premium. To make this truly transparent, Sebi must also look at increasing the upfront payment portion demanded of QIBs. This will set the pace for real time price discovery, especially when combined with the reduction in the IPO issue and allotment data, which the chairman has mentioned already.

 

akash.joshi@expressindia.com

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

TABLE THE LIBERHAN REPORT

 

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the "purported" contents of the Liberhan Commission report leaked to a newspaper and a television channel. From what has been reported, variously and even contradictorily in respect of some key details, Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan's main findings are as follows. The destruction of the Babri Masjid, far from being "spontaneous," as bigwigs of the Bharatiya Janata Party have claimed, was systematically planned, "tailor-made" - as revealed by the mode of assault, the small number of kar sevaks (with faces hidden) assigned to the job of demolition, the easy availability of the instruments of destruction, and other preparations onsite. A whole range of sangh parivar organisations under the hegemony of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well as the Shiv Sena were involved. All this is well known and it is only the detail, the nuances, and the specifics of the evidence presented on the actual perpetrators and the enablers of the vile and barbaric act that will be of fresh interest. Several second-rung BJP leaders have reportedly been indicted by the Liberhan Commission. But what about the role of the top-rung BJP leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi? This part of the Commission's report probably has the most political punch. The judge has reportedly held them culpable in the matter of creating communal discord, for being party to the fateful decisions, and for lacking the capacity to stand up to the RSS, which used them as pliable "tools." It is not clear what the Commission's verdict is on the role of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government, under whose watch the demolition took place. At the very least, it was a dishonourable and tragic role.

 

The BJP's petulant allegation that the government "selectively" leaked the report will find few takers, especially when one considers the question of motivation. Why would the government leak the report to the news media at a time when that would pose a real risk of upstaging a high-stake visit by the Prime Minister to Washington? But then the leak occurred because the government sat on the findings of an exercise that took more than 16 years to discover and establish "the sequence of events leading, and all facts and circumstances relating" to the demolition of the Babri Masjid by communal vandals on December 6, 1992. The habit of withholding from Parliament and the public the findings of expensive Commissions of Inquiry, which lack teeth in any case, until `action taken' reports are readied by a slow-moving bureaucracy is indefensible. It devalues the whole exercise, aggravates the already indefensible delays, and serves up plenty of opportunity for motivated campaigns, speculation, and leaks. The news media in the present case, The Indian Express and NDTV 24x7, certainly cannot be faulted for doing their best to penetrate the veil of secrecy and get the essential findings out. This role is demonstrably in the cause of truth-discovery, and serious journalists and editors are not going to be deterred by sanctimonious cries of `breach of parliamentary privilege.' The crime, which resulted in communal violence on a large scale, may have taken place close to 17 years ago but truthdiscovery is a pre-requisite for the process of healing wounds and social reconciliation. Learning the right lesson from this episode, the Congress-led government owes it to the nation to table the Liberhan Commission report immediately.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

EU'S POLITICAL INCOHERENCE

 

After weeks of wrangling, the European Union has appointed Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as its first permanent President of the European Council, and a former British junior Minister, Baroness Ashton, as its first High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Both are little known outside their countries and the run-up to their appointments was nothing if not ill-tempered. When German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed Mr. Van Rompuy above Tony Blair, Polish Prime Minster Donald Tusk accused them of doing a deal over the heads of other EU members. Other disagreements were equally unedifying. Eastern European states were against Western European ones, smaller states against bigger ones, and nationalists against EU federalists. Somehow, a decision was finally reached at a dinner the holder of the current rotating EU presidency, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, hosted in Brussels on November 19.

 

Both the process and the outcome reveal unaddressed internal EU problems. The secrecy, as one British newspaper notes, makes the Vatican look transparent. Secondly, the only elected EU body, the European Parliament, has been excluded. Thirdly, few member countries want heavyweights for the EU's non-rotating presidency and the foreign affairs job. The whole episode suggests that on major issues the member states still see the Union in intergovernmental and not supranational terms. The EU's undoubted weight in trade and economic matters cannot compensate for its lack of a single and clear voice in the world's main international spaces.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

ELEVENTH PLAN AND HEALTH CARE

THE ELEVENTH PLAN, WHOSE CENTRAL THEME IS 'INCLUSIVE GROWTH,' HAS SUBSTANTIALLY STEPPED UP THE ALLOCATION FOR HEALTH.

P.S. APPU

 

The role of health care in economic development has received increasing attention in recent years. There is a general agreement that economic growth is not merely a function of incremental capital-output ratio. Investment in man — enhanced allocation for education, imparting skills and health care — plays a significant role in fostering economic growth. It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that the Eleventh Five-Year Plan, whose central theme is 'In clusive Growth,' has substantially stepped up the allocation for health. The Plan document presents a well-conceived, comprehensive programme for the sector. According to the Prime Minister, the aim is to provide broad-based health care in rural areas through the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

 

HEALTH CARE IN A SHAMBLES

While the proposed structure for providing health care is adequate and commendable, what is in place at present is thoroughly disappointing. The Plan document itself bemoans: "The public health care system in many States is in [a] shambles. Extreme inequalities and disparities persist both in terms of access to health care as well as health outcome." (The Eleventh Plan: Vol. II, page 61, para 3.1.16.) The Plan deplores the critical shortage of health personnel, particularly doctors and nurses, poor working conditions and inadequate incentives, and the low utilisation of the meagre facilities in government hospitals. Government hospitals at all levels present a picture of neglect and decline.

 

I shall deal with two major problems: shortage of doctors for rural service; and the desperate state of medical education.

 

HEALTH CARE AFTER INDEPENDENCE

Before independence, medical facilities in rural India were rudimentary. The Community Development Block pattern of rural development launched in the 1950s was the harbinger of modern health care in rural areas. According to the approved model, every block was to have a Primary Health Centre (PHC) with 10 beds at the block headquarters and three sub-centres at carefully selected locations. The sanctioned staff for a PHC consisted of two doctors, one Lady Health Visitor and two Sanitary Inspectors. One post of Auxiliary Health Worker and two posts of Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives were sanctioned for each sub-centre. A doctor was required to visit each sub-centre twice a week. I was the Collector of Darbhanga in north Bihar from mid-1958 to the end of 1960. During my tenure, out of the 44 blocks sanctioned for the district, only 37 had become operational. Some 25 blocks had one doctor each and the rest none. Most posts of Lady Health Visitors and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives were vacant.

 

As chance would have it, I became Bihar's Health Secretary in July 1962 and stayed on in the post for nearly five years. The total number of blocks in Bihar was about 600. In spite of my best efforts, very few blocks had the full complement of doctors and paramedical staff. During the severe drought of 1965-66, it was only by resorting to draconian measures that we could ensure that all blocks had at least one doctor. Most doctors had an urban background and were reluctant to go to rural areas lacking in modern amenities. There has been no significant improvement in the situation during the last four decades. According to the data given in the Eleventh Plan, there is a shortage of 5,801 doctors in PHCs and a shortfall of 4,681 specialists in Community Health Centres (CHCs).

 

The Eleventh Plan presents a well thought-out and comprehensive structure for health care in rural areas. The important features of the set-up are:

— 1.75 lakh sub-centres each with two Auxiliary Nurse Midwives at one sub-centre for each panchayat (five or six villages).

— 30,000 PHCs at one for a group of four or five sub-centres. Each PHC will have one Lady Health Visitor and three staff nurses. There will also be an AYUSH physician. (AYUSH is acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy).

— 6500 CHCs each with 30-50 beds. The staff will include seven specialists and nine staff nurses.

— 1800 taluk or sub-divisional hospitals and 600 district hospitals will be fully equipped to provide quality health service.

When this structure is in position, and if it functions reasonably well, we can expect a significant improvement in the quality of medical care in rural India. There will, of course, be an enormous increase in the number of medical graduates, postgraduates and nurses needed to operate the system. The baffling question is how to find the number of personnel needed to fill the vacancies and new posts.

It should be possible to recruit adequate number of doctors and persuade them to stay in the field if the three suggestions given below are adopted and strictly enforced.

— After internship, every medical graduate should be required to work for a minimum of two years in rural areas before he is granted the MBBS degree.

— Only those who have completed three years of rural service should be admitted to any postgraduate course, including the Diplomate of the National Board.

— Every postgraduate student should serve for one year as a specialist in a CHC or sub-divisional hospital before he is awarded the degree or a diploma.

These proposals are not entirely new. Assam has already made rural service compulsory for medical graduates. Some medical colleges have been encouraging fresh graduates to opt for rural service for short periods. The implementation of the proposals, of course, calls for resolute political will. The rationale for making these seemingly harsh suggestions is this. Despite the recent increase in fee, medical education is heavily subsidised by the state. It is manifestly just and fair to stipulate that those who receive medical education should serve the rural society for a short period. Incidentally, the young graduates will benefit a great deal by getting an opportunity to improve their clinical skill. There should, of course, be substantial improvement in the salary of doctors and the amenities available to them.

 

SHAMEFUL STATE

The proliferation of sub-standard, under-staffed and ill-equipped private medical colleges in recent years is an unmitigated menace. A few institutions like the CMC, Vellore; St. John's, Bangalore; and the Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, are among the country's best. But many private colleges lack basic facilities and are run as profit centres for garnering huge amounts as capitation fee. I hear that the present capitation fee for an MBBS seat is Rs. 35 lakh-50 lakh and for a postgraduate seat above Rs.60 lakh. For a discipline like Radiology, the amount could exceed Rs. 1 crore!

 

Some 15 years ago, a relative of mine had to pay only Rs. 2 lakh through a bank draft and Rs. 2 lakh in cash to get his son admitted to a postgraduate course. The Indian Medical Council has laid down arduous norms in respect of faculty, hospital beds, equipment and so on. Apparently, there is some laxity in the enforcement of the norms. I have heard that while a well-equipped college may run into difficulties, substandard institutions manage to pass muster. I have also heard of cases in which retired teachers and other doctors with postgraduate qualification are shown as visiting faculty for short periods during an inspection by Medical Council teams. No civilised country, not even a soft state like India, can allow such a scandalous state of affairs to continue. It is time the government took resolute action to stem the rot.

 

SOME RESERVATIONS

The Prime Minister in the Foreword and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in the Preface have highlighted the positive role the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana will play in providing health care to the population below the poverty line. I have serious doubts about the benefits that will actually accrue to the rural poor from health insurance and the option to go to private hospitals. As I have not personally observed the working of the scheme, I would leave it to experts familiar with field conditions to evaluate the Yojana.

Another controversial matter is Public Private Partnership (PPP) in providing health care. I do not share the optimism expressed in the Plan document about the role of private institutions in providing health care in rural India. Nor do I agree with the Commission's enthusiasm about the role of corporate health care and the benefits flowing from the expansion of medical tourism. These issues deserve to be dealt with by more knowledgeable persons.

 

I shall conclude reiterating that health care in rural India and school education throughout the country should squarely be the concern of the government. Private initiative can certainly supplement the government's efforts in these fields, but that will benefit only the affluent.

 

(P.S. Appu is a former Chief Secretary of Bihar and former Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. He can be reached at: psappu@hotmail.com)

 

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THE HINDU

THE MUMBAI ATTACKS AND INDO-U.S. RELATIONS

THE LASHKAR AND OTHER SO-CALLED "KASHMIRI" GROUPS ARE NOT JUST INDIA'S PROBLEM; RATHER, THEY ARE THE PROBLEM OF THE ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

C. CHRISTINE FAIR

 

India and the United States have more or less agreed on a desired end-state for Pakistan: a stable, democratic, civilian-controlled state at peace with itself and with its neighbours and with a commitment to preventing further nuclear proliferation.

 

However, Washington and New Delhi have seldom agreed on the best means of encouraging this end-state. Since the 1950s, Indian leadership has been discomfited by Washington's practice of cajoling Pakistani cooperation for a variety of initiatives with pecuniary appeasements and conventional military assistance, training and sales.

 

For many years after 9/11, New Delhi rightly chided Washington for its singular focus upon Pakistan's cooperation in fighting the Al-Qaeda and, after 2007, the Afghan Taliban while doing very little to persuade Pakistan to cease and desist from employing militants to prosecute Pakistan's foreign policies throughout India. India (likely correctly) believed that Washington tended to view the so-called "Kashmiri groups" as India's problem. At times those groups also threatened key U.S. security interests. The Jaish attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 precipitated a year-long Indo-Pakistan military crisis, which adversely affected U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and engagement of Pakistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. Throughout the standoff, U.S. officials worried about the outbreak of war and the possibility of inadvertent or deliberate nuclear use. In other words, Washington cared about the so-called "Kashmiri groups" only if they directly threatened U.S. interests whereas India's primary security threat centred upon those groups.

 

Both countries, it seemed, were fighting their own wars on terror, even if in parallel. Arguably, the Lashkar-e-Taiba's audacious 11/26 attack in Mumbai catalysed a convergence of thought about the threat posed by all groups operating in and from Pakistan and has fostered important cooperation and coordination on how best to deal with the menace in Delhi and Washington among other global capitals.

 

Lashkar-e-Taiba is a peculiar — and intractable — case for all parties concerned. Of all of the Pakistan-based groups, it is widely believed to be the most closely leashed to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI). Unlike the hordes of Deobandi militants — such as the Pakistan and Afghan Taliban, the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Sipah-e-Sahaba-e-Pakistan among others — the Lashkar-e-Taiba had never targeted the Pakistani state or international targets within Pakistan.

 

The Lashkar had even publicly declared war on the "Brahmanic-Talmudic-Crusader" alliance from the late 1980s. Indeed, it was widely agreed that it could operate against international targets. However, its efforts to prosecute this agenda had been limited. For example, Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives were found in Iraq, Australia, Bangladesh, among other venues and they had been targeting U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan perhaps as early as 2007. However, compared with the scale of the resources it devoted to India, the Lashkar's inaction against the West was notable. This author presumed that its restraint was due, in part, to its ties to the ISI. Presumably, as long as Rawalpindi valued in some measure its relationship with Washington, such operational restrictions would remain in place notwithstanding the Lashkar's well-known vitriolic stated aims.

 

During the Presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Barack Obama promised to continue bombing targets in Pakistan's tribal areas using drones and insisted that Pakistan — not Iraq — was the epicentre for global terrorism. After years of providing billions in military assistance and operational reimbursements to the Pakistan army with no accountability, Mr. Obama promised a different relationship with Pakistan. A Lashkar attack deliberately targeting American and western civilians within a few weeks of Mr. Obama's presidential victory seemed so unthinkable within these changed political contexts that this author initially incorrectly presumed that the attack was executed by the Jaish-e-Mohammad or an indigenised Indian cell cultivated by the Lashkar. By the first day of the siege, though, it was apparent that the attack was indeed directly authored by the Lashkar. The only question that remained was whether it had been sanctioned by the ISI and if so, from what level. Those questions persist.

 

Retrospectively, it is clear the Mumbai assault served — successfully — several possible strategic goals for Rawalpindi if not Islamabad as well. First, it exacerbated tensions between India and Pakistan and disrupted the ongoing peace process. Notwithstanding the views of prominent American journalists, this author remains dubious that the Pakistan army would ever want a rapprochement with India given that the security competition with India legitimises its sweeping role in running the state. The ensuing rupture in India-Pakistan relations may have re-energised an enervated Pakistan army that loathed Musharraf's various policies.

 

Second, the anticipated military response from India afforded Pakistan a convenient opportunity to move forces to the east from the west, where it was engaging the Pakistani Taliban in what was, at that time, a deeply unpopular war. In April 2008, one Pakistani officer had remarked to this author that it was a bad time to be in the Pakistan army because he had joined to kill Indians not Pakistanis. The tensions that followed the attack on Mumbai resuscitated the relevance of Pakistan's conventional conflict amidst international insistence that the army invest in equipment and training, as well as doctrinal reorientation, for counterinsurgency operations. The attack demonstrated — to the military and intelligence organisations — that attacking India remains a central ambition of their organisations and gave a fillip to those militants who were impatient with Pakistan's post-9/11 "moderated jihad" strategy.

 

CHANGED DYNAMICS

However, this attack — like other Pakistani misadventures — has changed regional and international dynamics ultimately to Pakistan's disadvantage. First, Pakistan's inaction towards the Lashkar and its front organisation Jamaat-ul-Dawa rent asunder any doubts about Pakistan's commitment to retaining the organisation as a strategic reserve to do the state's bidding in the region.

 

Second, whereas the Lashkar was previously a "niche specialty" within the U.S. government, it is now a major concern across nearly every policy, law enforcement, intelligence and military agency. The attack — like 9/11 — lent increased urgency to deepening U.S.-India cooperation centred upon joint law enforcement and counterterrorism concerns. While less "sexy" than military-to-military engagements, this kind of coordination is vital to securing both nations against terrorists threats.

 

Third, the proximity of the Lashkar to the ISI, along with continued revelations about ISI assistance to the Afghan Taliban, remind the United States and others that the Pakistan government continues to fight a selective war on terror, while preserving those militant groups that service the state's foreign policy goals.

 

This has catalysed widespread cynicism about Pakistan's role and the logic of continued U.S. military and financial support to Pakistan in the name of counter-terror cooperation. Cynics, with evermore ammunition, ask how Pakistan can be a partner in fighting terrorism when it continues to rely upon terrorism outside of its borders? Moreover, the Mumbai attack, coming upon the heels of dozens of others in India, has motivated the Indian government to once again commit to fortifying India's internal security.

 

The savage four-day assault — streamed in real time into living rooms around the world — forged a consensus that did not previously exist about the kind of threat that all Pakistan-based militant groups posed to the international community. Whether India and her partners will be able to develop the necessary collective tools to temper the threat posed by the Lashkar and its fellow travellers remain to be seen. However, India is no longer alone in this sanguinary struggle. The Lashkar and other so-called "Kashmiri" groups are not just India's problem; rather, they are the problem of the entire international community which in the wake of Mumbai has embraced this challenge.

 

(C. Christine Fair is Assistant Professor at Georgetown University.)

 

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THE HINDU

'GREEN' ELECTRICITY FOR BIHAR VILLAGES

 A SIMPLE AND STRICTLY LOCAL POWER GENERATION SYSTEM HAS PROVED THAT RURAL INDIAN COMMUNITIES ARE WILLING AND ABLE TO PAY FOR RELIABLE ELECTRICITY.

N. GOPAL RAJ

 

Some seven years ago, two young men, chums from their days at boarding school, chatted over the Internet about what they might do for villages in their home state of Bihar. The company they went on to create has begun establishing small power plants driven by gases from rice husk, a widely available agricultural waste. There are big plans for the future.

 

From the very beginning, "we wanted decentralised production," said Gyanesh Pandey, an electrical engineer who worked for the semiconductor industry in the U.S. at the time and returned to India two years back.

 

With a small power generation system, the distribution network could be simple and strictly local. This would keep costs down, which was essential for their venture to be financially sustainable.

 

They were clear too that they wanted to use an environmentally friendly form of energy, he said, speaking to this correspondent about the early discussions with his friend Ratnesh Yadav. (Later, another friend from his college days, Manoj Sinha, a microprocessor designer in the U.S., joined them.)

 

Wind would not produce electricity throughout the year. A few years were spent examining the possibilities of using organic solar cells and biofuels. But neither met their requirements.

 

Biomass was the only option left, remarked Mr. Pandey. In villages, no form of biomass was left unutilised. Rice husk was the one thing that the farming communities did not use. "So we decided to use rice husk."

 

The system they engineered does not burn rice husk but heats it up instead. A clean-burning mix of gases is produced that drive an engine. The engine turns a generator that produces electricity.

 

Gasification is a very well-understood technology, he said. The gasifier could be made in a local workshop. A cheap engine was bought from a company in Agra and suitably modified.

 

In the early hours on Independence Day in 2007, the first such plant began to produce electricity.

 

Husk Power Systems, the company they established, now has 16 plants in place. Each plant generates between 35 kilowatts and 100 kilowatts of electricity. The power is being supplied to about 60 villages at present.

 

"AWESOME" RECEPTION

Public reception has been "awesome," he observed. As soon as a plant was put up, requests for connections came from people in the neighbourhood. "We don't have to worry about the market .... or convince anybody about it."

 

"It is pretty hard to make economical electricity at a very small level," remarked Charles 'Chip' Ransler, an American whose previous experience was setting up a software firm. He too was roped in and is now the company's Chief Strategy Officer.

 

But that is just what had been achieved, he pointed out. By using electricity supplied by the company, people could cut their costs on alternate forms of energy, such as kerosene, by as much as 50 per cent. Reliability of supply was another factor that attracted customers.

For the most part, the company was providing electricity in villages that were not connected to the power grid. The plants operated for only six to 12 hours a day, depending on local demand, he added.

 

The waste left after gasification too can be used. It was good manure and could also be burnt, said Mr. Pandey. Besides, it was rich in silica and could be sold to the cement industry.

 

Shell Foundation was impressed with the company's performance and recently decided to provide a second round of funding for scaling up operations. The Foundation is an independent charity established by the oil and energy giant, Shell Group, and focuses on enterprise-based solutions to global poverty and environmental challenges.

 

"Husk Power Systems is using unique technology and processes to tackle the rural energy deficit in India in an environmentally and commercially sustainable way," said Simon Desjardins, an analyst with the Shell Foundation, in a press release.

 

More than 40 per cent of the country's population, living in approximately 1,25,000 villages, had no access to reliable electricity. Existing energy options in rural communities, such as diesel generator sets and kerosene lanterns, were polluting, prohibitively expensive, and logistically difficult to disseminate. Even those villages that did have access to electricity were often subject to frequent power cuts and shortages in power supply. This directly impeded their economic development.

 

This company was proving that rural Indian communities were willing and able to pay for reliable electricity and that Bihar represented a viable market in which to deliver modern energy services, he added. Each of its plants becomes operationally profitable within six months of starting.

 

Husk Power Systems wants to install 50 to 70 plants next year. It has an ambitious plan to have 2,014 plants up and running by the year 2014. The company would then be able to supply electricity to about one crore customers in over 4,000 villages, according to Mr. Pandey.

 

"Seems doable at this point," he said cheerily.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

 EDITORIAL

MANMOHAN AT WHITE HOUSE

 

The first state dinner that US President Barack Obama will host at the White House is for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night. This is as far as diplomatic niceties go in respect of a country with which the United States may desire long-term convivial relations provided there are no side-edges being thrown up in any other sphere. No longer the hyperpower it once was, with two simultaneous wars and suffocating recession having taken their toll, the US is beholden to China for virtually underwriting its gargantuan debt. The evidence so far suggests that Washington also thinks it must steadfastly remain on the right side of Islamabad even if the Pakistani government and its military run circles around the Americans on the issue of fighting terrorism. These circumstances have appeared so far to frame the Obama administration's thinking - and its dilemmas - in respect of its India interactions. The bilateral civil nuclear issue, which looked like a completed project under Mr Obama's predecessor, appears to still need serious tweaking before an agreement on reprocessing procedures, said to be on the anvil, can be signed. As for India, long before a half-century of mistrust with America dissolved under President George W. Bush, there was already a healthy informal social relationship going, thanks in substantial measure to the Indian diaspora in the United States, and the soft power India exuded centring on its democracy and responsible international conduct. It will only now become clear if the momentum imparted to India-US ties under the Bush leadership was a one-off foray into the friendship lane or there exists a deeper mutual basis for the ties to be nurtured and reinforced.

 

Dr Manmohan Singh is already in the US for his three-day engagement with Mr Obama in the course of which close to a dozen agreements are said to await signature. The personality of India's discussions with the US in the coming days, and the prognosis for the medium term, will of course be guided by areas such as the economy, trade and finance. But if the political vibes are less than fulsome, a fly in the ointment is likely to remain. In Japan and Saudi Arabia recently, President Obama bowed deeply to please his hosts. His body language will no doubt be watched when he meets his Indian guest.

 

The CIA director was in India on the eve of Dr Singh's visit to the US. Presumably this points to greater cooperation in the technical aspects of counter-terrorism such as information-sharing, an area in which the two sides were already engaged. In India, greater focus is then likely to devolve on sealing the gap in the understanding on civil nuclear energy cooperation. Any further lingering of the issue is apt to raise questions here. Kashmir and Afghanistan are both related to Pakistan and terrorism directed against this country from its western neighbour. If the American side proves difficult to persuade that its Afghanistan policy is in no manner undercut by India's dealings with Pakistan, political ties between New Delhi and Washington will remain in the incubator. Even if President Obama prefers to stay with the balancing act, people all round will watch for signals that he privileges the circle of democracies.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

 EDITORIAL

EQUALITY STALEMATE

JAYATI GHOSH

 

The United Nations Conference on Women was held nearly 15 years ago in Beijing, China. This was an extraordinary moment in the history of the international women's movements as well as women workers around the world, with unprecedented mobilisation of feminist policymakers, activists and academics in the international political arena, both prior to the conference and subsequently. The two-part conference, referred to as Beijing Platform and the Call for Action, were to guide policy-making and provide ideas and mobilising principles to women's groups and representatives of civil society who were concerned with the empowerment of women.

 

It is intriguing, if somewhat depressing, to note how relevant the Beijing Platform remains today. Not only the goals and mission statement, but even the analysis seems eerily contemporary. For example, it was noted that "widespread economic recession, as well as political instability in some regions, has been responsible for setting back development goals in many countries. Recent international economic developments have had in many cases a disproportionate impact on women and children, the majority of whom live in developing countries. Economic recession in many developed and developing countries, as well as ongoing restructuring in countries with economies in transition, have had a disproportionately negative impact on women's employment. Women often have no choice but to take employment that lacks long-term job security or involves dangerous working conditions, to work in unprotected home-based production or to be unemployed. Many women enter the labour market in under-remunerated and undervalued jobs, seeking to improve their household income; others decide to migrate for the same purpose. Without any reduction in their other responsibilities, this has increased the total burden of work for women".

 

It is a sad commentary on implementation if all of these points that were made then can be made with equal validity today, despite a relatively prolonged global economic boom with much greater international integration in the intervening period. Exactly because it is still so relevant, almost all of the points made in the Call for Action can be usefully drawn upon in the current context to drive a more equitable, gender-sensitive and sustainable pattern of growth. But this in turn points to a deeper problem: if all governments have officially accepted the Beijing Platform, and have supposedly undertaken steps in conformity with it, why has the progress on this front been so halting, slow and so easily reversed by factors such as economic crisis, war or violence?

 

There are several reasons for this less-than-satisfactory outcome. The most important reason is that the Beijing Platform, both implicitly and explicitly, was based on a different model of growth and development than the paradigm that has dominated national and international policy-making in recent decades. The Platform both called for and relied upon a model of economic growth that is egalitarian, inclusive, participatory, people-centered, sustainable in terms of the environment, accountable and based on a rights-based approach to much public service delivery.

 

This is very different from the unequal, market-led model that has underpinned recent growth. This was based on short-term profit maximising as the primary motivation, leading to biases in consumption, production, distribution and aspirations, simply could not be sustained. So the policy proposals in the Beijing document could not be achieved because wider economic and political processes were operating to push the economy and society in the opposite direction. To take a few examples, achieving better conditions of employment and remuneration for women's work is obviously much more difficult when overall employment is on the decline, or when (even during a boom) employment expansion is based on strong competitive pressures that operate to suppress wages. Improving the lot of women cultivators is next to impossible when there is a widespread agrarian crisis. Eliminating the exploitation of the girl child through paid or bonded labour or even trafficking cannot be done if the material conditions of their households are so dire that there seem to be no feasible alternatives. And so on.

 

The Beijing Platform called for and required the creation and strengthening of health and education systems that are rights-based, universal and inclusive, emphasising accessibility, affordability and adaptability. However, the broad thrust of health and education policies has been to move to more commercialised and market-driven provision of both education and health services — including the introduction of user fees or minimal efforts to reduce the hidden costs of accessing health and education.

 

The Call for Action directly challenged many vested interests, power equations at all levels and entrenched patriarchal attitudes, so it was never going to be easy to push through in terms of actual interventions. There are deeply entrenched male biases in government, health, education, urban planning systems, international trade regimes, and approaches to the development of technology. As a result, much implementation has remained at the token or symbolic level. Governments have set up committees or institutional arrangements that meet the preliminary requirements, but often have not gone beyond that to transform policies in effective ways.

 

There are not enough forums or a range of civil society processes to hold policymakers at all levels accountable. This is compounded by the perception in some developing countries that gender awareness is a luxury associated with higher levels of per capita income.

 

All this has been associated with an erosion of the real content of many of the levers of change identified at Beijing — gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting, improved access to credit and education for women. These have been interpreted formalistically, or with minimum cost. Instead of financial inclusion, the focus was on microcredit; instead of universal quality education, para-schooling; instead of universal quality health services through the life cycle, underpaid village para-health workers.

 

So the Beijing Platform is more relevant than ever, but it has to be combined with very different economic policies, globally and nationally.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPED

APEC AND CHINDIA

SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

 

As the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders' Summit concluded in Singapore last week, several observers are still examining the continued relevance of Apec as a multilateral institution which brings the regional players of the Asia-Pacific region together in an economic forum. With the growth of multilateral institutional processes such as the East Asia Summit and the more broad-based groupings like the Group of Twenty (G20), which clearly include the global players that are driving the world economy today, the Apec seems to be labouring on, with crucial members of the region even missing from the organisation. Thus, even as the meetings are concluded, its relevance comes sharply into focus, especially given the distinction between substance and rhetoric which seems to be plaguing most institutional mechanisms in the region.

 

When Apec was started in 1989, it began as an economic grouping within the Asia-Pacific region to promote trade and strengthen the region's economic cooperation. By the early Nineties, the push towards regional economic integration was evident in Europe and North America. The initial effort came from Japan to consolidate an Asian version of a free trade area, which was followed by Australia pushing the logic of an economic and trade grouping that would link Asia to the Pacific rim. In fact, the proposal of Mahathir Mohammed in 1992 for the formation of an East Asia Economic Grouping (EAEG) met with resistance because it excluded the US, Australia and New Zealand. This was opposed on the claims that it was an attempt to form a "yen block". Apec in its initial years was poised to take off but failed to make a critical impact as time went by.

 

In terms of the economic activities of the globe today, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than half the global economy. With the two largest growing economies of China and India within this region, it also has nearly 40 per cent of the global population. Given these factors, the two predominant Asian giants carry the weight of the region's share of the economic activity.

 

The challenges to Apec actually emerged in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, when it was unable to provide answers to the crisis that gripped the region and left several economies completely shattered. Another factor was that it was affected by the impasse over trade liberalisation issues. Also in 1997, it adopted a moratorium on the inclusion of new members for a 10-year period. This was again extended in 2007 when Australia was the chair. As the chair of the Apec moves to Japan next year, the problems of accommodating new members is likely to plague the outcome of the 2010 meetings.

 

In fact, last week's Apec leaders' meeting in Singapore remained inconclusive on the issue of re-opening the membership to several other countries that are currently waiting in the wings. India too is one of the countries that is yet to be admitted into the Apec. Interestingly, India is one of the four largest economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Along with the US, China and Japan, India is one of the four largest economies and its exclusion from the Apec remains a factor that provides the Apec a lopsided platform which does not include a key player in the region. There is a view, however, that the Western players prefer to keep India out of the Apec since its inclusion would tilt the balance of power within the grouping totally to the Asian context.

 

Another issue is that the inclusion of both China and India in Apec will bring together the two Asian giants. The China-India rise, which has been often termed as the Chindia factor, is likely to witness both cooperation and competition within the region. But given their common interests in the region, the two countries need to look for opportunities where they can play complementary roles. Moreover, the relations towards other countries within the region needs to be reigned into focus — taking into consideration their own foreign policy goals, rather than being contingent upon each other. However, this should not be a factor to deter India's entry because there are already common platforms on which these two are together, like the G20 and the East Asia Summit, to name a few.

 

For India too, the inclusion into Apec will be important. First, it is geographically within the region, even though some consider it to be on the rim of the Asia-Pacific region. Second, especially considering that its linkage to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is significantly growing in economic and political terms, it will remain a crucial player in the regional calculus. Moreover, the pace of reform in India will get a further impetus from its membership within Apec, leading to greater liberalisation measures within our own economy.

 

While there have been delays in including new members, the move towards the furtherance of what is being called the Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP is receiving an impetus. TPP currently links four countries — Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei. A combination of both developing and developed countries, the TPP membership may even expand to include the Vietnam, US, Australia and Peru. With the broadening of this initiative there will be a wider Asia-Pacific grouping, while still leaving out several other key players like China and India from the TPP. The interesting factor is that while these initiatives seem to be coughing up several multilateral economic groupings which combine different groups of states, in terms of agendas there is a stark similarity.

 

Finally, one of the significant issues that led to the origins of the Apec was the issue of promoting free trade. In the aftermath of the 1997 crisis, the targeted free trade agreements within the region suffered a setback in terms of delays and implementation. The 2002 agreement towards achieving the China-Asean free trade was signed and is to go into force from January 2010. The India-Asean free trade agreement in goods is also concluded, however it keeps nearly 490 items on the negative list, with five very important items on the list for a longer period of time. The global recession over the past year has also hit the economies in the region. Much of the rebound that one sees today is from the fiscal stimulus package given by the governments. In the aftermath of last year's global financial crisis and recession, there is no doubt that the levels of protectionism is likely to increase in order to protect some segments of the domestic economy. Given this factor, the push forward by the Apec to promote free trade may not be as ambitious as the last week's meetings claim.

 

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

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

COLUMN

SACHIN, SHIV SENA AND SOME HOME TRUTHS

GOVIND TALWALKAR

 

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar is considered a legend. Though a great batsman, he occasionally also takes to bowling. His 20th anniversary in international cricket was celebrated on a different pitch and the Shiv Sena was clean bowled on the first ball.

 

When asked what has been his motivation and what Maharashtra meant to him, Sachin affirmed that while he was proud to be a Maharashtrian, he personally felt that he was an Indian first and that Mumbai belongs to India. (This is a natural stand taken by any rational being, including me). This statement was a terrific blow to the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

 

Sachin echoed the real feelings of the majority of people of Maharashtra who have kept the Shiv Sena away from power for the last 10 years, and the recently-concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections was no exception.

 

The love and fame earned by Sachin is a strong deterrent against any linguistic chauvinists who indulge in vandalism. That is why Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray only "asked" Sachin to stick to cricket and not indulge in politics.

 

But the fact is that language does not belong in the realm of politics. It is political parties like the Shiv Sena and the MNS that have made "Maharashtra for Marathi" a political issue and are thriving on it.

 

Seeing people's reaction to Sachin's statement, Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan rushed to congratulate him with the aim of gaining some political mileage. Mr Chavan said that Sachin's statement would help unite India. It would be better if Mr Chavan unites his own party and remembers that his party — right from the days of V.P. Naik — directly or indirectly helped the Shiv Sena. And in this it was followed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In the recently-concluded Assembly elections, the Congress and the NCP helped MNS candidates to undercut not just the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine but also each other.

 

The Shiv Sena and the MNS' indentity rests on real and imaginary grievances. First the Shiv Sena targeted the South Indians. After it accepted the Hindutva agenda, it turned against Muslims. Now the MNS is targeting North Indians and the Shiv Sena has joined the bandwagon. Both have created an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty in the state, which, if left unchecked, will scare away investors, just as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) managed to do in West Bengal.

 

After the formation of the Maharashtra state, there was no cause for the violent agitational politics. Any political party could approach the voters and, if accepted, govern the state. But the Shiv Sena preferred the violent path and was unable to build anything. In this it was helped by the fact that successive Congress ministries neglected development of the state. Under them urban decay and rural poverty grew and the Congressmen made almost all the local bodies the preserves of some families. Growing unemployment along with the blocking of political avenues by a few families created a large dispossessed class which first turned towards the Shiv Sena and now to the MNS.

 

Over the years, the Marathi-speaking population has decreased in Mumbai. There was a time when Girgaum had a sizeable Maharashtrian population. But in the last quarter of the last century they have migrated to the suburbs. All their dwellings were taken over by non-Maharashtrians and today garage and jewellery shops thrive there.

 

The great Bombay textile strike left more than 150,000 workers unemployed. The textile industry in Mumbai has largely disappeared and mill land has been converted into malls and commercial complexes. As Marathi-speaking people were never in business or industry in a significant way, businessmen from Gujarat, Punjab and other states took over these complexes.

 

This is not a recent phenomenon. Never in the history of the city have Maharashtrians played a dominant role in industrial and business growth. Even their numbers in the managerial sector were not impressive. That was the reason why S.K. Patil, who presided over the state Congress for a long time, had few Maharashtrian supporters and relied heavily on the Gujaratis.

 

However, Maharashtrians had significant presence in the medical and legal professions. They set up some world-class educational institutions and their achievements in the field of mathematics and science are well recognised. Though there were several Marathi scholars and historians, when it came to funding most had to depend on the Gujaratis and Parsis.

 

Before Independence, Shikshan Prasarak Mandali in Pune started two colleges in the suburbs for which donations were received from Ram Narayan Ruia and Andilal Potdar — neither belonged to the state of Maharashtra.

 

As this trend continued, Maharashtrians were left behind in the new industrial and business climate, creating a large discontented class. As successive state governments failed to address these problems, the Shiv Sena took advantage and played on the sentiments of the Marathi-speaking people. As Acharya Vinoba Bhave once said, Maharashtrians generally have a tendency to glorify the past. The Shiv Sena used this as a fertile ground. However, in the present situation this has proved fruitless.

 

That is why the BJP and the Shiv Sena are now sailing in the same boat. Soon the MNS will join them. The BJP has almost been taken over by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — a sure path to oblivion. Lord Ram refused to rescue the BJP and the great Shivaji Maharaj has shunned the Shiv Sena.

 

However, the Marathi-speaking people have no cause for despondency. The new generation of Kirloskars and Kalayanis has shown their skill and competence. In several parts of rural Maharashtra, cooperative banks, sugar factories and other businesses are running successfully.

 

Recently, many wineries have also sprung up, some of which even export their products. Horticulture is a field which has large potential. If warehousing and marketing problems are solved, a window of opportunity would open.

 

The young men and women who have entered these industries are the hope of the future. They are educated, some have undergone training in foreign countries, and all very confidently approach the foreign markets and negotiate deals. The new generation, which has started enterprises, scrupulously avoids politics, thus ensuring that their enterprises do not meet the fate of some of the sugar cooperatives and banks. This is encouraging.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

I AM PROUD TO BE A MAHARASHTRIAN

RANJONA BANERJI 

 

I'm not sure it is fair to make a connection, but in the run up to the first anniversary of the November 26 terror attacks on Mumbai, does it not seem a tad incredible that we should have spent so much time fighting over what are, essentially, non-issues? Sachin Tendulkar gave the country's unity, always under supposed threat these days, a great boost with his pithy reminder that we are all Indians first and that Mumbai belongs to India. It is hard to imagine how anyone can take exception to this remark. And yet, the Shiv Sena came out all guns blaring. Sadly for them, the guns turned out to be shooting blanks.

While the party has not given up — 'what's so great about Sachin as a Maharashtrian' is its latest provocative foray into foolishness — there has to be an underlying feeling that Tendulkar has had the last word for now on the Marathi manoos issue. People can be facetious and say that the Sena has been pathologically opposed to the people with the surname' Tendulkar', since the late great playwright Vijay Tendulkar was a common target. Or that it has never really respected Marathi icons. Bal Thackeray's ill-considered remarks about the much respected and loved writer, the late PL Deshpande, in the 1990s saw Marathi society rising as one in outrage and Thackeray had to backtrack.

Of course there is no rule that says that even if you are in love with the idea of some regional "asmita" or the other, you cannot criticise people who belong to the same ethnic origin. For instance, in spite of being of ethnic Bengali origin, I am not a great fan of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose but am a tremendous admirer of Rabindranath Tagore. So what? But nor am I a huge believer in Bengali asmita. I feel that we should be strong enough to withstand attacks or we are not worthy of our regional parochialism. And I will, even when in the capital city of West Bengal, alternate between Kolkata and Calcutta depending on my mood. Again, so what?

This insistence on ethnic superiority surely has its limitations. It is no greater to be a Tamilian than it is to be a Gujarati — or conversely it is great to be all of them — so finally we all equal each other out. Walking too far down this road leads you slam bang into racism. How great are we if we cannot look beyond our state of origin? Frogs in a well or tadpoles in a pond? Little fish dreaming of being little fish forever?

Yes, there are issues of heritage which needs to be preserved. But this back and forth over whether Sachin is more or less Maharashtrian than Lokmanya Tilak is not helping the cause of preserving Maharashtra's many great legacies. Yes, there are issues of historic discrimination where race or origin becomes significant. But even here, the attempt has to be to solve the problem of discrimination, not to keep harping on the origin at all possible times and in every possible context. By doing that, you trivialise the importance of the problem and focus attention away from solutions.

Sadly, the Sena's current obsession with Marathi-ness has not helped the national image of Maharashtra at all. Instead, it has made a laughing stock out of a state for no fault of the people of the state and it has also put the rest of the country's back up. All Maharashtrians do not want to be part of this controversy which is becoming ridiculous and making them all look ridiculous. In fact, this also applies to people like me who, whatever the ethnic origins, are proud to be Maharashtrians. Now, we are needlessly explaining ourselves to people elsewhere.

The other question that is brought up at these times is of what to make of Maharashtrians who have emigrated to other countries. Once you open that door, the argument of pride, asmita, identity, country, love, state, origin, blows through the roof. A good time to deracinate ourselves, perhaps.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

NO DISTANT THUNDER

 

Assam has been simmering and sputtering for years now and Sunday's twin blasts in which eight were killed and 55 injured is only a clear and loud reminder that insurgency is an everyday fact of life in the state. The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) may deny its involvement as claimed by the police, but the issue goes deeper than that. The state is racked by violence and the Ulfa is spearheading it. Despite opposition from the All Assam Students Union (Aasu) which had led the popular protest movement in the early 1980s, and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which rode to power on the success of Aasu in late '80s, the Ulfa continue to disrupt and derail life in the state. The ruling Congress party and civil society groups are in the process of negotiating peace with the Ulfa. It shows the extremist group is deriving some kind of legitimacy though parties across the spectrum in the state are ostensibly opposing the politics of violence.

The state remains vulnerable because terrorist groups, including the Ulfa, are able to strike at will and the state government is not fully equipped to face the situation. That Ulfa leaders have used bases in neighbouring Bangladesh, Myanmar, and could have now moved to China, as surmised by chief minister Tarun Gogoi, demands a counter-terrorism strategy that is different from the one used against the Naxalites and the jihadi groups. It is clear that neither state nor the central governments have paid much attention to the issue. There is a certain laxity in tackling the challenge. As a consequence, lives of innocent people have been lost over the years, economic development is hampered because of the presence of armed groups and civilian stability is steadily eroded. This is an intolerable situation in any part of the country and it is all the more serious and dangerous when it happens to be a border state like Assam.

It is a known fact that the Northeast has never figured prominently enough on the national agenda. It has remained a region on the margins. The sense of helplessness and alienation felt by the common people in this region is deeper than imagined. A bomb blast and loss of life and property in Assam and other north-eastern states cannot be seen as something happening in a far off place. Violence in Assam is as grave as violence in Mumbai and Delhi, Bangalore and Varanasi. It is not distant thunder.

 

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DNA

COLUMN

RUFFLED FEATHERS

 

The commotion in both Houses of Parliament on Monday morning over details of the conclusions of the Liberhan commission report — set up to probe the circumstances that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and which had submitted its report earlier this year after 16 years — in a national newspaper has had its intended effect. There were loud protests and Parliament was adjourned for the day. 
The Bharatiya Janata Party's leaders were suitably outraged that the commission has, according to the newspaper, indicted former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee along with other top leaders of the party for the sequence of events that led to the demolition. Union home minister P Chidambaram was coy in asserting that the only copy of the report was in his personal possession and that no journalist has access to it. The government is yet to table the report in Parliament.

Whatever the truth about the newspaper's scoop, it is public knowledge that the BJP and organisations like the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal and the Shiv Sena had taken to the streets and indulged in violence over the Babri Masjid, and that BJP leader LK Advani's Somnath to Ayodhya rath yatra in 1990 had triggered communal riots and social turbulence in its wake.

Vajpayee had kept himself aloof though he did not explicitly dissociate himself from the agitation whatever his private views. As a matter of fact, he spoke about it on his party's behalf in the debate in Parliament immediately after the demolition. The commission's purported conclusion of his involvement — however indirect — is not exactly insightful. Liberhan has apparently said that then prime minister Narasimha Rao is not to blame. The passivity of the Rao government under the pretext of constitutional propriety lacked credibility. If these are the conclusions of the report, then it is both platitudinous and partisan.

The country has travelled a long distance — politically, economically and socially — since 1992. Even if the wounds of the demolition and the subsequent riots remain — and have yet to see judicial redressal — the Ayodhya controversy no longer has resonance in people's minds in 2009. The Liberhan report has its place in the archive, of immense interest to the historian of contemporary India. It can have no political sting in its tale.

 

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DNA

SEEKING ANSWERS

PRAKASH BELAWADI

 

The KSRTC bus station at Majestic will soon be temporarily shifted — for three years only — to make way for Namma Metro central station, says Transport Minister R Ashok on Day 1. Not so soon, but in phases, he adds, on Day 2. Not BMTC anyway, he clarifies on Day 3. But is there a plan at all?

 

About four years ago, the government of the day announced a master plan to build a 45-floor wonder of the world: an Inter-Modal Transit Centre (IMTC) at Majestic. According to that plan, the existing Kempegowda bus station, comprising both city and interstate transport centres, were to be completely demolished for the Rs650-crore IMTC.

 

IMTC, as the nerve centre of city commute, would integrate KSRTC, BMTC and Namma Metro services, and the splendorous building would house malls, theatres and food courts, all this amidst great landscaping. The bulk of the transport action was meant to be underground. The great ambition was to provide access to every system of transport to all commuters coming in and going out of the city. Is that plan still on? Then, does the minister know what he is talking about, really? Read on.

 

The IMTC, announced in 2005, was to be constructed as a public-private partnership (PPP) venture, on a build-own-operate-transfer basis. The KSRTC management of the then-regime had other details on it:  a majority of the 2,700 KSRTC services were to be entirely moved out to the satellite terminal stations along the city outskirts (not makeshift). In fact, the then-managing director of the organisation was reported to have clearly put a number on it: not more than 1,000 trips from IMTC. The peripheral stations were to be linked by coach services.

 

It is not that the plan itself is bad. It does make sense if one has been subject to the horrendous traffic jams around Majestic and along the arterial roads leading to it, especially during the exodus on the eve of major holidays. Why should hundreds of buses and thousands of other vehicles that carry thousands of travellers to connect to these outstation buses crawl in and out of the city's centre? The station already services close to a million BMTC commuters.

 

 The KSRTC management of the time addressed the question. It sought land from BDA on all major state and national highways to build the peripheral stations. It made plans on map to accommodate parking for 5,000 cars and 10,000 two-wheelers at IMTC. Even a helipad! And so was the existing 42-acre station, standing on the historic Dharmambudi tank, which once supplied to the city of Bangalore, to become one integrated transit complex framed in two magnificent twin towers, running six floors or so underground.

 

But is the minister talking of the same plan? What is the three-year shift? Why the lack of clarity, or if one may

ask, the secrecy? Because it seems the government, which has more troubles from family and friends than its political foes, would like to work its commercial interests into full fait accompli before the activists mess up the plans with agitations, RTI applications and writ petitions. The planned IMTC, with big private participation, will be used to 'leverage' the commercial potential of Majestic.

 

When the minister talks of 'makeshift bus stands' at Balekai Mandi, Mysore Lamps or Shantinagar, he appears to be telling less than he knows. Makeshift? What about the proposed 10-acre bus station at NGEF on Old Madras Road? And the 5-acre one at Peenya?

 

Here is a detail mined (if the government will allow use of the word) from the archives: "…KSRTC will hand over 27 acres to BMRCL in three stages by KSRTC. After construction, the BMRCL will retain the 7 acres for the station, and return control of the rest to KSRTC. In exchange, BMRCL will give KSRTC 9.5 acres elsewhere in the city, 7.5 of which will be in Peenya." The minister himself is quoted as saying: "…two depots will be shifted in the first phase in the next month. In the second phase, 1,100 buses will be shifted to other stations." What will KSRTC precisely do with the reclaimed land?

 

The government and BMTC management have maintained through the confused communication that BMTC will continue its local schedules from the existing location. To ask a direct question: Is that a fact, Mr Minister? Have you not yourself suggested the possibility that BMTC may have to be demolished too? What is the new location for a million-passenger hub? My guess, sir, is Shantinagar, where too, this poor government needs to earn revenue by 'leveraging' commercial potential.

 

 We are told that bidders, including Larsen & Toubro, have given their proposals for IMTC. Will the government let us know who won, and share the details with the million affected stakeholders? Why can't this government come clean on land, ever?

 

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DNA

FEELING THE HEAT

YOGI AGGARWAL / DNA

 

At the heart of the concern about climate change is a lurking catastrophe. There is scientific consensus on this. The authoritative Stern Review on Climate Change, notes, "An overwhelming body of scientific evidence now clearly indicates that climate change is a serious and urgent issue," requiring collective international action.

The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 and the Bali action plan in 2007 had laid down a road map of collective action, requiring the advanced developed countries, who have been the greatest polluters historically, to make cuts of 40 per cent in their carbon emissions by 2020. Unfortunately they are now trying to wriggle out of this, making a treaty at Copenhagen next month impossible.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its latest report says that based on field observations of variables like retreating glaciers, melting Artic ice, and changing surface temperatures,  "warming is likely to be in the range 2°C to 4.5°C with a best estimate of about 3°C."

The future catastrophe though only beginning is already visible — cyclones or hurricanes of unprecedented intensity such Katrina which hit New Orleans in 2005, heat waves such as that over Europe in 2003 that killed hundreds of people, or fierce rain downpours as that over Mumbai in 2005. These "once in a century" events are going to get more frequent and intense.

Worse is to follow. A two or three degree rise in global temperature does not sound like much, certainly not something to worry about. But even before the 2°C threshold, widely accepted as inevitable, major climactic shifts will happen. Drought will stalk a third of the earth's land. Among the areas affected would be western United States, the Mediterranean, the Amazon basin, northern China, and the northwest of the Indian subcontinent including all of Pakistan.

In some other parts of the subcontinent, rainfall would increase, mainly in short intense bursts, leading to more flooding. At the same time Himalayan glaciers would begin to melt, leading initially to more water in the snow-fed rivers of northern India, but later to the rivers drying up for much of the year. Agricultural production would collapse.

The Arctic meltdown would begin as temperatures at high northern latitudes rise much faster than average, coral reefs like the Great Barrier Reef off Australia would fail and the greater acidity of the oceans as they absorb more carbon dioxide would destroy living organisms like plankton, vital to the marine food chain, cutting the fish catch.

Above a two degree rise, several 'tipping points' will begin to take place. Rainfall over the Amazon forests falls sharply, and the peat below the forest surface, now wet, becomes a tinderbox as it dries up. Forest fires such as those that ravaged Indonesia in 1997 will destroy large parts of the forest and pump more CO2 into the atmosphere, pushing up global warming. The Amazon turns into a desert

 

As the temperature rises to 3°C, another tipping point occurs in the Arctic tundra in Siberia and northern Canada as the permafrost melts. This would release enormous amounts of methane, 20 times stronger than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, presently locked into the permafrost. This would further push up global temperatures sharply.

Meanwhile, rising sea levels would mean that coastal cities like Mumbai and New York have to be protected from flooding by building large and expensive sea walls. Large parts of low lying countries like Bangladesh would be submerged leading to mass migration into India. At the same time drought will force people from their homes in Pakistan into its larger neighbour.

The most frightening possibility may begin to take place as the world crosses the 4°C   threshold. Locked in at the ocean depths are vast amounts of methane hydrates, kept frozen by the low temperatures and high pressures there. Once the warming of the surface ocean begins to penetrate the depths after several decades, there is the chance of these turning into gas, rising to explode on the ocean surface.

The end of the Permian age 251 million years ago was accompanied by a mass extinction when 95 per cent of all life forms perished. It was an age of high temperatures, when the poles were free of ice, storms of staggering ferocity ranged over the earth and the sea level was 75 metres higher than now. As the world warmed up, the methane hydrates lurking in the ocean depths were released with a violent force, leading to a runaway rise in world temperature.

As we cross the 2°C threshold, we enter an uncertain era where greenhouse gases are no longer dependent on the choices we make. It's a threshold we cross only at our own peril.

 

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DNA

SARI ISN'T GOING THE KIMONO WAY

MADHU JAIN  

 

Just the other day my sister was walking down the stairs of Cottage Industries in New Delhi. Walking up were two middle-aged women who had NRI written all over them: comfortable walking shoes, big hand bags, yesteryear's kurtis and an expression of bemused confusion. The two stopped when they saw her. Sorry, make that saw her wine-coloured tussar silk sari. They didn't quite say: "Oh, my God you are wearing a sari!!" but did use words to that effect. The two were visiting from Europe and were shocked by the absence of saris on the streets of Delhi.

It was almost as if they had perchance happened upon the Holy Grail: "Can we feel the silk," asked one of them. I imagine my sister, Nina Puri, mustn't have been too surprised by their eager-beaver interest in what she was wearing. A fortnight earlier coming out of the British Library in London, she encountered a similar reaction to her sari from a young Brit-desi. Obviously, saris are getting to be a rare species of apparel, even in the diaspora. There are times when you can't spot even one in the desi shopping heaven, Oxford Street.

The sari isn't quite going the kimono way. But it seems to change its status often. I use the word status the way millions now use it on Facebook — the latest public confessional — to describe their state of being at that precise moment. The versatile drape — "five and a half yards of pure mischief" as fashion designer Suneet Varma once memorably described this unstitched apparel sari to me — has been leading something of a see-saw existence.

Until fairly recently, the sari had been banished to the realm of behenji-dom. It even began to be pushed to the sidelines in Bollywood, beginning with the millennium. If at all actors Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra wore saris, they were more like costumes, basically wedding wear. For younger women a sari reeked of convention; it was the very antithesis of modernity.

For a growing number of older women the sari became the antithesis of freedom; it chained them to the past. Not only did they feel more emancipated in pants and dresses, they also saw themselves as more cosmopolitan in western attire.

The 'status' of a sari has changed yet again. Ever since Hollywood actresses and international celebrities have been flirting with saris (Madonna, Elizabeth Hurley, Posh Beckham, Goldie Hawn, Gisele Bundchen, and most recently, Jessica Simpson) have worn them with elan, the sari has reclaimed its 'cool' status in the rule books of our fashionistas. Certainly, the fact that Gianni Versace and Galliano had adapted the sari was not lost on them.

The sari is also being sexed-up in the homeland, for the Bright Young Things. Actually, it's the blouse that has undergone the more radical metamorphosis. "An accessory of differentiation", as the ever-quotable Varma describes it, the sari blouse allows a woman to express her personality: bold, coy or orthodox. And yes, flaunt her oomph factor.

So, in came the designer halter necks, Chinese collar blouses, corset blouses, embroidered or lace blouses, blouses encrusted with crystals or pearls, off-shoulder blouses. Backless blouses started escorting the sari. And then came the ultimate show stopper — the absent blouse. The photograph of Gisele Bundchen in a green sari, unaccompanied by a blouse recently graced the cover of a fashion magazine.

I suppose it is back to the future. Before the Victorians imposed their moral code in India, women in many communities didn't wear blouses. As for the sexy sari: Can anything better Raj Kapoor's iconic wet sari scenes or Smita Patil frolicking in the rain with Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halal?

As for aunties like me, the sari is forever: It reveals but it can also conceal as much as you want.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

FRAGILE PEACE IN ASSAM

ULFA'S SOURCES OF FUNDS MUST BE CUT OFF

 

Sunday's serial blasts in Assam are a grim reminder of the fragile peace in the troubled state. The prompt denial of any responsibility by the United Liberated Front of Assam (ULFA) carries little conviction because the Front had denied its role in the Dhemaji blasts too but confessed to it later. The blasts now in Nalbari also assume significance in view of the peace talks initiated between New Delhi and ULFA. While the Government of India has appointed a retired director of the Intelligence Bureau , Mr P.C. Haldar, as the interlocutor, a delegation of the People's Committee for Peace Initiative in Assam (PCPIA) is in the national capital to prepare the ground for talks. The blasts could be a signal from ULFA that it retains its ability to strike; or alternatively these could be the handiwork of hardliners, who are opposed to a dialogue, to derail the initiative.

 

Given this background, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's statement that ULFA is trying to shift its base to China is certainly a matter of concern. For over two decades, ULFA militants have operated from the safe haven of Bangladesh. But ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia, arrested in Dhaka in 1997 and released by the authorities in 2005, was never handed over to India in the absence of an extradition treaty between the two countries. The whereabouts of ULFA chairman Arabindo Rajkhowa, the so-called "commander-in-chief" Paresh Barua and his deputy Raju Barua are also unknown although the present Bangladesh government is believed to have pushed two other ULFA leaders, "finance secretary" Chitrabon Hazarika and "foreign secretary" Sasadhar Choudhury, into the arms of the Indian Border Security Force earlier this month. India has had trouble dealing with ULFA bases in both Bangladesh and Myanmar. Any attempt by the ULFA brass to shift to China, therefore, must be foiled.

 

With Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina scheduled to visit New Delhi next month, the two countries will hopefully be able to forge a mechanism for seeking deportation of individuals and a legal framework for the transfer of convicts and terrorists. At the same time, while ULFA's terror tactics should not come in the way of peace talks, a crackdown on ULFA, efforts to isolate the hardliners and cut off their sources of funding must continue.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

DIALOGUE IN WASHINGTON

US MUST AID SWITCH TO NON-CARBON ENERGY FORMS

 

WITH the Copenhagen summit on climate change round the corner, it is natural that the upcoming high-level Indo-US talks in Washington will strive to find some common ground on contentious issues relating to it. The projected Indian stand linking the issue of climate change commitments to the case for greater US cooperation on the supply of nuclear power assumes significance in the wake of tardy American action on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal after the departure of Mr George Bush as President. Indeed, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to tell President Obama in talks slated for Tuesday that if the US expects India to fulfil the expectations on speedy steps to reduce carbon emissions, its energy security needs would have to be addressed, to enable it to make the shift from carbon-based sources. This is legitimate considering that it was US recklessness in carbon emissions over the years that has brought the world to the brink of disaster. It is only by augmenting energy security and making a strategic shift from carbon-based energy sources to newer ones, including nuclear energy, that India can optimise the benefit of a departure from carbon-based industrialisation.

 

Consistent with India's stand that developing countries can only take voluntary actions and not binding ones in meeting carbon emission reduction targets, India has shown willingness to take steps out of a sense of deep responsibility. India's earnestness is borne out by the fact that it is contemplating legislation to meet specific emission cut performance targets in sectors such as power, transport, industry, agriculture, building and forestry. Indeed, we need to take actions on climate change because it affects our people's lives. It is but fair that even as developing countries are moving to meet the targets, the US and other developed countries must do their bit by offering finance and technology to meet these goals.

 

Copenhagen is just two weeks away. It is imperative, therefore, that efforts be stepped up for a meaningful global agreement at the summit. An Indo-US meeting of minds would go a long way in moving towards that goal.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

UNWANTED DAUGHTERS

HARYANA MUST FIGHT GENDER BIAS

 

HARYANA, which has one of the worst sex ratios in the country, has more cause for concern. The sex ratio has declined in 12 districts, the Chief Minister's home district being one of them. More disheartening is the fact that even in some districts like Mahendergarh, which had shown positive trends, the sex ratio has dwindled. Clearly, the message — don't kill unborn daughters — has fallen on deaf ears and government policies seem to have made little headway in changing the medieval mindset that prefers sons to daughters.

 

In both Punjab and Haryana, son-crazed people not only continue to nurse deep-rooted prejudices against the female child but also find diabolical ways to snuff out their lives even before they are born. There have been reports of NRI couples, who get sex-specific tests done abroad, aborting the female foetus in Punjab. In Haryana, the proximity to the national Capital has made medical termination of unwanted female foetuses much easier. Significantly, areas closest to Delhi have an abysmal sex ratio. The Haryana government's claim that it has been making serious efforts to reverse the sex ratio has proved to be hollow. The role of the district administrations and the ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife) has been unsatisfactory. Efforts by individuals like 12-year-old girl Ishita Uppal and Shyam Sunder of Bhiwani and campaigns by NGOs like the Centre for Social Research are welcome, but not enough.

 

The Delhi government must come down heavily upon the clinics where unborn daughters are killed without batting an eyelid. However, the state government cannot pass the buck and should tighten the noose around mobile clinics as well as break the tout-doctor nexus that facilitates the abominable practice of female foeticide. A multi-pronged approach with the active involvement of NGOs can help dent attitudes that devalue daughters. A state that boasts of high per capita income cannot afford to have a dubious record on gender issues. Already, signs of social upheaval are being witnessed in the gender imbalanced state where daughters are not allowed to be born and brides are in short supply.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

THE 'MILLIONS' BEHIND BJP

PRICE OF YEDDY-REDDY PEACE IN KARNATAKA

BY J. SRI RAMAN

 

Millions stand behind me", says the caption. The famous poster of the early thirties by German photomontage artist John Heartfield connects the Fuhrer to corporate capital. It shows Hitler delivering his Nazi salute, with the hand bent over the shoulder, and receiving a backhand donation from a giant figure behind representing Big Business, dominated then by the Krupps.

 

Mt. Bokanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa and the Bellary brothers, of course, are far less known than Adolf Hitler and the Krupps respectively. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the big-money backers of his regime are tied by the same bond of millions that is no synonym of the soapbox orator's "masses".

 

Mr Yeddyurappa has just survived a challenge from the Reddy brothers (as they are also known) and saved his rudely shaken throne as the Chief Minister of India's southern State of Karnataka. But he has not done so before providing yet another abject proof of whom the far right really represents despite its apparent priority for an agenda of fanaticism and ultra-nationalism.

 

It is, of course, not only the far right anywhere, or the BJP's camp alone in this country that has these firm bonds with corporate patrons and puppeteers. So do several others. India's Parliament has witnessed a debate between two parties — the ruling Congress and the opposition Samajwadi Party — taking sides in another corporate sibling rivalry, between the Ambani brothers. Even bit players in electoral politics, like regional parties, have their big-buck benefactors.

 

But there is an important difference. What sets apart the business partnership of the far right is the nature of the return benefit sought and secured. The fund-givers, in this case, are not asking only for direct favours of the kind political parties and forces can dispense, especially if in power. They are even more interested in far-right campaigners creating a political ambiance, in which their ill-gotten fortunes won't be a major public issue. A "temple" issue of the BJP's type, for example, can help tycoons by keeping some inconvenient taxation issues away from the headlines.

 

The financial patrons of the far right, of course, expect it to pay attention to their problems of excess. But they expect it even more to divert popular attention away from the diverse socio-economic problems of their creation. They make no secret of the returns they seek from their political investment. The far right can exercise political power, but without interfering with its freedom of profiteering. The Bellary brothers have made this clear beyond doubt to the BJP.

 

The brothers — Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy and legislator G. Somashekhara Reddy — control what has been described as a mining mafia worth Rs. 300 billion. Allegedly including an illegal segment, the Reddy operations in the otherwise backward district of Bellary set new profit records since 2003 when the Chinese started importing iron ore from here on a huge scale in preparation for the Beijing Olympics of 2008. Thus it was that the brothers acquired the financial clout that eventually gave them the state BJP on a platter.

 

The same year as the Bejing Games came a big political break for the party. In the last week of May 2008 came the results of the Assembly elections in Karnataka, giving the far right its first ever regime in South India. A hiccup preceded the victory, though, and the Reddys helped the party make history. The trends reported on the television showed that the BJP would have to draw on the support of Independent legislators to form the new government.

 

The Bellary brothers set out for Bangalore, the state's capital, and were to buy up the required legislative support. This was in addition to their money power winning the mandate for the BJP in 37 of the 117 seats out of a total of 224 in the Assembly.

 

If the BJP and the Chief Minister thought they had compensated the mining kings with a couple of Cabinet posts, they were to learn a costly lesson. The Bellary brothers were soon to conclude that they had struck a bad bargain. They did not like to be given less importance in the Cabinet than Rural Development Minister Shobha Karandlajy, an Yeddyurappa favourite. And they deemed the government's proposal for an additional tax of Rs 1,000 per truckload of iron ore as nothing short of a declaration of war on them. They joined the war when the Chief Minister ordered the transfer from Bellary of officers suspected to be loyal to the brothers.

 

The Reddys raised the standard of revolt in the last week of October, demanding the removal and replacement of the Chief Minister who had incurred their displeasure. Both factions descended soon on New Delhi, forcing an already beleaguered BJP leadership to put on a brave face and pretend to find a political solution. The farce went on for days even as parts of Karnataka went under floods. Relief operations awaited a resolution of the political crisis, as none of the BJP top brass denied the priority of the need to save the sinking Yeddyurappa regime.

 

It all ended in an unabashed capitulation to the Reddys, after a bout of crying on a TV channel by the Chief Minister. He hated, he said in a hoarse voice, to compromise for the sake of his "chair" but had to do so "for the sake of the state". He stays on in power, but only after agreeing to abandon the minister the Reddys disapprove of, the idea of transfers unhelpful to them, and, of course, the tax proposal. The brothers, meanwhile, have told their supporters that this is only the "intermission" in the blockbuster they have been watching.

 

The spectators, however, have not been confined to Karnataka. The whole country has been a horrified witness to this latest scene in the long and sordid drama of the BJP's internal dissensions ever since its debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. The struggle between the Chief Minister and its challengers has shed lurid light on a less recognised dimension of the party's ever-deepening crisis. It is a dimension from which an abstractly political analysis of the crisis can no longer divert public attention.

 

The Karnataka episode has come as an expose of the claim that the BJP is going back to a golden age of ideology under the guidance of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the patriarch of the "parivar" or the far-right "family". The mantra of "cultural nationalism" is proving no match for the "millions" behind the BJP and its band.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

A visit to the zoo

by Rajan Kashyap

 

SHOPPING!" voted the females. The mothers, daughters and assorted aunts and grandaunts were unanimous.

 

"Who'll manage the children?" protested Uncle R.

 

The debate was becoming heated. The males in the large extended family were determined to watch on television a cricket match scheduled that very day. The fairer members were equally adamant to carry forward their well-planned shopping spree. Both the warring parties appealed to the Eldest Member to exercise his casting vote.

 

Solomon like in wisdom, the patriarch adroitly defused the crisis. "I delegate my total authority to our Youngest Member", he declared. "What will you have, Zehn?" he queried the two year old, "Toys in the market, or popcorn and cartoons at home?"

 

Now Zehn's vocabulary was as yet limited to just a few sounds and syllables, but in her response that day she was firm, immediate and decisive. "Bow-wow!" exclaimed Zehn, pointing at our bedraggled family dog. The Eldest Member was quick to translate for us the lisp of his great-grand daughter, fully 90 years junior in age. "It's the zoo that she wants to visit. Now stand and deliver."

 

The Eldest Member's pincer movement left both parties dissatisfied. I likened their discomfiture to the picture of troubled matrimony drawn by Professor Higgins in his memorable lines in Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, "So rather than do either we do something else that neither likes at all". The women were disconsolate. The men folk sulked too.

 

The only enthusiasts for the spectacle of fauna were the Eldest Member, and the Youngest Member. The Elder was fascinated by the large cats. One of the highlights for him was when our bar-protected van traversed the safari route for lions. And when he came within touching distance of the majestic royal Bengal tiger his day was made. The Younger was unmoved by the ferocity of the big cats. Even the terrifying open jaws of the crocodiles left her cold. What took her fancy was the brilliant plumage of the exotic parakeets. And she pranced with excitement at the antics of the monkeys.

 

Similar "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" must have inspired the English poet William Wordsworth. At our mundane level, little Zehn's ebullience, along with the zest of the Eldest Member seemed suddenly to break the ice for our glum company of zoo visitors. Members of two generations, the young, and the not so young, had been scoffing the sojourn as an enforced afternoon ordeal. In a matter of moments, a peculiar realisation dawned. Here, they discovered, was some unique live entertainment, as Generation One and Generation Four savoured the moment.

 

The spectacle of uninhibited enjoyment was infectious. Forgotten all at once was the missed market opportunity, and Team India's performance on the cricket field. And so they all joined the merry show.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

THE CHINESE OFFENSIVE

BEIJING AND WASHINGTON HAVE TO PLAY FAIR

BY VIJAY SANGHVI

 

CHINA is holding the world economy to ransom by maintaining its policy of a weak yuan in relation to dollar and resisting all pressures to appreciate its currency. By its weak yuan, China is gaining access to almost every country market for its manufactured goods and is able to maintain a favourable trade balance with them.

 

Its economic policy can be better understood in political terms than through the myriad of economic statistical data. Its foreign trade is also enabling China to maintain a low unemployment rate.

 

Over several weeks now, the US dollar has depreciated against the two major currencies, euro and yen. Even Indian rupee has seen gains over past few weeks. In normal circumstances, it would have been a welcome development as it should have forced a realisation to the United States to come to grips with its ever-increasing but unsustainable trade deficit.

 

However, China is insistent on maintaining links of its currency with the dollar at an undervalued parity. It poses a threat to the world economy. Such a relationship would not allow the world economy to overcome its recent recessionary trends though it does help immensely China to maintain a high level of its export to disadvantage of countries looking forward to the revival of US markets.

 

The Mexican crisis of peso valuation in 1994 had signaled for a revaluation of the dollar. However, America did put it off for 15 years. In fact, many economists and most politicians in the US relished thought of a strong dollar due to their arrogant belief in themselves.. The short gain that it received after the crisis of the Asian Tigers in 1997 made the thought even more popular with Americans even though it was a perfect prescription for inflicting long-term damage to its economy.

 

It also brought the current global crisis as a consequence to the worst melt down of the American economy since the depression of 1930. The foundations of its banking systems and financial institutions were rudely shaken.

 

The overvalued dollar was responsible for damages caused by over-spending on imports, jobs out-sourcing and investments in countries with undervalued currencies. No wonder, the American capital flowed more to China during the last two decades than to any other country as the Chinese economy appeared to be on the rise.

 

The flexible and mobile production networks in the global markets exchange rates affect more than foreign trades. Naturally, it affects the production and the direction of flow of capital.

 

Indeed, America and China were helping each other by maintaining the strong dollar policy by the US and the

weak yuan stance by China. It resulted in unprecedented rise in the Chinese surplus and reserves with the US from US$ 83 billion in 2001 to US$ 258 billion in next six years.

 

The China surplus was today 75 per cent of the trade deficit of the US without oil imports taken into account. The unintended benefit that flowed from it made China the largest recipient of foreign capital investment in these years and mostly from America. It also became a favoured destination for the outsourcing of production by American giants.

 

As Canadian author John Ralston Saul pointed out in his book On the Equilibrium, the US found an advantage in the Chinese reserves remaining parked with America as it was able to use it as its capital. It was unsolicited savings in the American possession with China showing no intention of making an immediate demand for it.

 

As the trade imbalance was unsustainable, it did cause a fall in the value of dollar in relation to the European

currencies and also in relation to other countries that held better prospects of economic growth like India. As China refused to allow its yuan to appreciate or rather pegged it down artificially, it created a pattern for global imbalances, claims the noted scholar Thomas Palley. By refusing to change value of its currency, China did not allow the US to effect any reduction in its trade deficit with China. Meanwhile, China was also taking advantage of forcing itself into other markets as well and also displacing others from the US markets.

 

The economic policy was actually serving the political cause of China and was also maintaining the high rate of employment at home due to its increasing manufacturing. At the same time, China is fostering a situation that would not allow other countries to overcome their own recessions.

 

For obscure political reasons, especially by refusal of the Americans to get rid of their cold war mentality and their arrogance as reflected in the belief of strong dollar, the Americans refused to confront China with hard reality of the world trends and force China to bring the value of its currency to the levels of reality.

 

In the weakened economic conditions in the US, the American administration was on even weaker grounds to force China to come to terms feels Thomas Palley, a fellow with the American Centre for Investments who had maintained a watch of the relations between China and American for more than two decades.

 

China has also taken a posture of advising the US to spend less and save more. On its side, the US insists that

China save less and spend more. Thus the grey area is limited and there were no hard rules or even desire to intrude in to each other's territory.

 

Their putting off the issue to the other day is also helped by the silence maintained by other countries who

believe that they would stand to benefit if the US and China keep the issue lingering and without solution. It would weaken the dollar which is to their advantage. It would escalate the trade deficit between the US and China that again would benefit them.

 

None was willing to consider that their complacency of the 15 years had brought the world crisis and it would be difficult even for them to limp out if they silently watch the lingering between the US and China on this vital issue. Both have to play fair for the rest of the world. The continued economic crisis would affect them in a long term.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

HUMAN RIGHTS CONCERNS OVER RWANDA

BY DANIEL HOWDEN

 

RWANDA is set to succeed in its bid to join the Commonwealth this week despite serious concerns over its human rights record. A summit of Commonwealth heads of government in Trinidad and Tobago will add the central African nation to its 53 current members, despite its failure to meet entry requirements. "There is consensus on Rwanda", a senior African negotiator told The Independent.

 

The decision has been greeted with dismay by NGOs, while the author of a major report on Rwanda's candidacy said it was clear evidence that the Commonwealth "could not care less about human rights".

 

Professor Yash Pal Ghai, a Kenyan-born expert in constitutional law and author of an independent report for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) said: "From the very beginning, the governments of the Commonwealth had decided they wanted Rwanda in. The secretary general, Britain and Uganda have all been pushing for that outcome."

 

Supporters of the bid have argued that entry into the club would encourage Kigali to raise its standards, but critics counter that it will "lower the group's average" and make it harder to take actions against states n such as Fiji, currently suspended for refusing to call elections n that trangress in future.

 

"The Commonwealth stands for very little if it doesn't stand for human rights and democracy," said Tom Porteous, head of Human Rights Watch in London. "Admitting Rwanda will make it harder for the Commonwealth to project itself as a credible promoter of these values."

 

Rwanda, a former German colony, which later came under a Belgian mandate from the League of Nations, applied in 2007 to join the voluntary association of mainly English-speaking former British colonies. That move followed the breakdown in relations between Kigali and France as both countries traded accusations over events in the build-up to the 1994 genocide.

 

Applicant countries are meant to have some historical or constitutional link with the Commonwealth, although the grouping made an exception for the former Portuguese colony Mozambique in 1995.

 

In its bid, which has been strongly backed by Britain, Australia and Uganda, Rwanda has argued that it should be judged on how far it has come since 1994 rather than against a global standard. "There is room to improve, but no country is 100 per cent perfect," Foreign Minister Rosemary Museminali said. "Rwanda should be looked at in the context of where it's come from." President Paul Kagame, whose Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front took power in the country after routing the Hutu militias responsible for the massacres, has succeeded in modernising the country's image. The administration has a reputation for efficiency and has attracted strong international support including substantial foreign aid from the UK and US in particular.

 

However, the CHRI's report paints a portrait of a very different Rwanda. "The Rwandan government has excellent public-relations machinery. Its leaders are astute, and effectively play upon the conscience of the world," it states.

 

The report details a country in which democracy, freedom of speech, the press and human rights are undermined or violently abused, in which courts fail to meet international standards, and a country which has invaded its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, four times since 1994. Professor Ghai draws attention to the laws against "genocide ideology", prohibiting the raising of doubts about the extent of the killing of Tutsis in 1994 or any discussion of retaliatory killings of Hutus. Censorship is prevalent, according to the report, and the government has a record of shutting down independent media and harassing journalists.

 

It concludes that Rwanda's constitution is used as a "facade" to hide "the repressive nature of the regime" and backs claims that Rwanda is essentially an "an army with a state". Kigali reacted furiously to the accusations, saying the claims had "absolutely no basis".

 

Rwanda has trumpeted its Commonwealth credentials with the switch from French to English instruction in schools last year, and won acclaim for low levels of corruption and high health and education spending. Rwanda's former ambassador to the UN, Gideon Kayinamura, has boasted that other countries could learn from its democracy "where as many as 56 per cent of its MPs are women". Its membership bid is strongly backed by Tony Blair who works as an unpaid adviser on governance.

 

Suspicions persist that, beyond talk of deepening trade and improving cultural ties, Commonwealth diplomats are tempted by the prospect of cementing such a public defection from the Francophone world. "This British-French rivalry is a batty reason," declared Professor Ghai, who said diplomats responded with "glee and pleasure" at Rwandan membership.

 

 By arrangement with The Independent

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

DELHI DURBAR

AMAR UNHAPPY WITH MULAYAM?

 

Samajwadi Party spokesman and general secretary Amar Singh's meeting with BJP leader L.K. Advani has raised eyebrows in political circles. As is his wont, Amar made it more enigmatic by underlining the proximity between the SP and BJP. That may or may not be the case. But Amar Singh is visibly unhappy with Mulayam Singh Yadav because he feels he is not defending him with the old fervour when others in the SP attack him and blame him for its downward slide.

 

The SP held a function in Lucknow to felicitate their latest Hindi mascot Abu Asim Azmi. Azmi was flanked by Amar and Mulayam. While Mulayam was bending across Azmi to speak to Amar, the SP spokesman pointedly kept looking the other side. Yet, Mulayam was literally bending backwards to please Amar. One wonders what Mulayam secrets are locked in Amar's cupboard!

 

Like fathers, like sons

 

The turbulence that marked the start of winter session of Parliament last week did not come from the old warhorses alone. At the forefront of the uproar fuelled by the government's jinxed sugarcane pricing ordinance were fathers and sons alike, mainly from Uttar Pradesh where the political temperatures have been soaring like never before. On the one hand, you had the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh decrying the ordinance with equal vocal support from his first-time MP son Jayant Chaudhary. And on the other, you had the Samajwadi bandwagon led by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh. As decibel levels rose, one wondered how Jayant, a passout from the London School of Economics, adapted so fast to the exigencies of politics.

 

As for Akhilesh, his aggressive support for the anti-farmer ordinance appeared normal, not only for political reasons but also for the fact that the Yadav scion loves to call himself an agriculturist. In fact, his Lok Sabha profile describes him in two words — agriculturist and engineer.

 

Surprise guests

 

US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer's press conference last week on the eve of the Prime Minister's visit to Washington saw an interesting American guest seated amongst journalists. The room at the Roosevelt House in the US Embassy where the high-profile event was organised was packed with scribes as well as lensmen vying for space to cover the high-profile event. Suddenly a tall man, who must have been in his eighties, walked into the room and occupied one of the chairs.

 

Just when everyone was looking at him curiously, the US envoy entered the room and announced that his father was also seated among the journos. He also drew everyone's attention towards two American women seated in the room, who were mistaken for the embassy staff by the scribes. They were the ambassador's mother and his wife. Roemer's parents were in India on a holiday. This obviously was an opportunity for them to see how their son performs before the foreign media.

 

Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Aditi Tandon and Ashok Tuteja

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

GRUESOME KILLING

 

After a brief lull, twin blasts in the heart of Nalbari town in the morning of November 22 once again proved that the law and order situation in Assam is still not fully under control and the Government must augment the law and order machinery to deal with militants involved in such heinous crimes. Though the identity of the militants involved in the blasts is yet to be ascertained, police and security forces suspected involvement of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the incident, while, on the other hand, one senior member of the outfit reportedly denied the outfit's involvement in the blast. The police and security forces should launch a thorough probe into the incident to trace out the culprits involved in killing of innocents by planting explosives in public places. The incident also highlighted the failure on the part of the police to prevent such killing of innocents as the blasts took place very near the Nalbari police station. Of course, it is not possible for the police to check each and every person moving around in any place, but there should have been intelligence inputs. The incident also raised doubts on whether the police and security forces became complacent after the ULFA kept a low profile for the last few months. Another disturbing aspect of the whole incident was that most of the casualties took place in the second blast and this proved that the administration is not yet geared up to deal with such incidents. The administration should have prevented gathering of people at the site of the first blast and that could have saved a number of lives. But unfortunately, that was not done and the people who gathered at the site of the first blast became the unfortunate victims when the second explosion took place.

Meanwhile, the blasts occurred at a time when there have been fresh initiatives to bring the ULFA to the negotiation table will definitely jeopardize the peace process. After the recent arrests of two senior leaders of the ULFA- Foreign Secretary Sasha Choudhury and Finance Secretary Chitraban Hazarika, there have been demands that the Government should take advantage of the situation to bring the ULFA to the negotiation table for a political solution of the problem and the blasts will definitely have an adverse effect on the move to resume the peace process. Moreover, a delegation of the People's Committee for Peace Initiatives in Assam (PCPIA), an umbrella body of 28 different organizations of the State left for New Delhi on November 22 to put pressure on the Government of India to resume the peace process but if the involvement of the ULFA in the blasts is proved, the Government will be forced to adopt a tougher stand against the outfit and the possibility of talks in near future will be jeopardized. 

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS

 

That children continue to remain a most marginalized section of the populace even after six decades of the country's independence is a blot on governance. Over the decades, laws have been enacted and huge amounts of funds spent but the plight of a vast multitude of our children makes a mockery of all the interventions made so far. A plethora of ills such as lack of access to education and health care, child labour, trafficking, etc., continue to afflict children. The problems of the child start right with its birth – something testified to by the alarmingly high incidence of underweight babies in India. A large segment of the children population cannot access education, a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. The scourge of child labour is as pervasive as ever, with millions of deprived children toiling everyday to eke out a living, often under sub-human and hazardous conditions. Child trafficking, too, continues to be widespread. The grim reality is that notwithstanding some interventions at government and non-government level, the condition of the child has not shown much improvement. The innocence of childhood is being sacrificed at the altar of poverty, hunger, disease and exploitation. True progress will be a mirage under such appalling conditions.

As underscored by the UNICEF in the 20th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, education holds the key to addressing many of the ills plaguing the child. Child labour and lack of access to education form a vicious cycle and it is futile to treat the problems in isolation. While poverty and illiteracy are often cited as the main factors behind child labour, the fact is that awareness and motivation can play a big role in eradicating this malaise. The time has come for the policy-makers and the society at large to discard their pre-conceived notion that it is normal for the poor to work – a perception so deeply ingrained in our mindsets that it tends to throttle any innovative thinking. A major cause of the failure of our governments to contain child labour has been the customary tendency to address it solely from the economic perspective – that child labour is an issue of survival. Poverty-alleviation schemes apart, a sustained motivation campaign targeting the parents can create the much-needed awareness about the difference that education can make to the lives of their wards. Improving the living conditions of women should also be an integral part of any strategy aimed at protecting children's rights. The skewed gender ratio, high maternal mortality rate, etc., need to be addressed urgently, as child welfare is intrinsically linked to woman empowerment.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

WITHOUT EVEN THE THREE R'S

DN BEZBORUAH

 

For a long time people in Assam had sensed that there was something seriously wrong with our education – at all levels – but they had not been able to put a finger on where the problem was. The main visible fallout of this was the exodus of college students outside the State mainly to the metropolitan cities excluding Kolkata for some reason. But there were other visible fallouts as well. People were beginning to notice that the percentage of successful candidates at the HSLC examinations had started dwindling to absurdly low levels in total defiance of the normal distribution curve; that the number of school drop-outs had increased to alarming levels; and that there was very little that the majority of the school children learnt of the three R's – reading, writing and 'rithmetic. (This is a malaise that persists till much later in life with almost everyone in Assam. They are averse to writing even a small application, and almost none of them can remember how many lakhs make a million.) But we were not prepared to lose any sleep over what we thought was a minor issue.

A few days ago, the real state of education in Assam (especially in the rural schools) exploded on all of us through a study undertaken by the Dainik Janambhumi. This study bared the diabolic role of the teachers in actually sabotaging education through their callous neglect of the schools they worked in, of their students and their duties to society as teachers. Today, we do not need to remain in any doubt about the principal factor that has brought about the total destruction of the education system in the State. The teachers – especially of our rural schools – are almost entirely responsible for the rapid downfall of educational standards in the State. The Janambhumi study reveals how headmasters of rural middle schools sometimes do not attend their schools at all and often do not know what the curriculum is like. There is a headmaster who has been building his own house for months together and has remained absent from school during that period. There is another who conducts school for an hour from 10 a.m. and winds up the school day at 11 a.m. to return home after just an hour's work. There are others who get the morning school assembly conducted by outsiders or by the local social welfare society. If this is the scenario in respect of headmasters, things get even worse where teachers are concerned. There is no dearth of teachers who come to school at their whims and fancies. There are teachers who do not attend school for days on end but regularly come to collect their salaries. There are teachers who regularly come late and leave early. There are others who come to school but do not teach. The acts of indiscipline and impropriety are endless, and yet one does not hear of any headmaster enforcing discipline or punishing an errant teacher by even suspending him/her. This is not to suggest that there are no exceptions. It is because there are exceptions that the school system still works somehow in the State. But the exceptions are getting fewer, and the intimidation of the good, the meritorious, the dedicated and the dutiful by the majority of teachers who want their salaries but not their duties and responsibilities seems to be picking up momentum every day.

There is perhaps a need for getting down to a very simple statement of what education should do for the individual and for society for a better appreciation of what we should be expecting from the system called education and from teachers. I shall get down to this by and by, but before that it is necessary establish the linkages between no teaching, inadequate teaching or bad teaching and the kind of examination results that we get. In a country that is obsessed with examination results, there is always a sense of shock and frustration over the results of the HSLC Examination of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam since the percentage of successful candidates has been as low as 26 per cent in certain years. People have often asked me whether this kind of a result is possible anywhere in the world. The more pertinent question should be whether such a result ought to be possible. After all, given the mischief, a certain level of incompetence, a certain degree of unintended sabotage and the political will of destroyers any kind of aberration or negative outcome or damage is possible in our society. But as someone trained in Educational Evaluation, I can only say that such tragedies ought not to happen. There is no society on earth where everyone is exceptionally bright or very dull. So, where the teaching-learning situation is normal and where the examinations are both valid and reliable the results of performance at examinations will be spread out in a bell-shaped curve or what is commonly known as a normal distribution curve, with the largest frequency concentrated around the median and the very poor and very bright being distributed to the left and right extremes of the curve respectively. Hence, where the teaching-learning situation is normal, the results of the examinees at any examination are likely to be spread out along the contours of the normal distribution curve, with about 85 per cent passing the examination. Such a distribution also presupposes that the examinees have been tested only on what they have been taught.

Other things remaining the same, if we change just one variable, the results become quite predictable. Let a batch of students be improperly taught or not taught at all, and we shall have disastrous results because we shall have a situation of the students being tested on what they have not been taught. This drastically alters the normal distribution curve because we are now trying to apply it to a situation that is not normal. So one can easily imagine the kind of disaster that we shall have on our hands when two variables are changed. When, in addition to testing what has not been taught, we have an examination that is neither valid nor reliable, we have the most terribly skewed results. Skewed results are manifest in the normal distribution curve being distorted and bent in one direction or the other. When only 26 per cent of the examinees pass, the curve is brutally distorted by being pushed to the left.

In the situation of utter lawlessness prevailing in the rural middle schools of Assam, we have school children being tested on what they have not been taught and we have very defective examinations that are neither valid nor reliable. The result is a very predictable disaster. Add to this other negative elements like untrained or unqualified teachers, and we have total chaos. We also have a situation where teachers remain unpaid for years together. They have families to support, and they will naturally work where they are paid. This is a major cause of absenteeism among teachers. They cannot attend schools where they are not paid since they have to work elsewhere to earn an income to feed their families.

 

However, even apart from these factors that affect our rural schools more than the urban ones, we have attitudes that affect education in the entire country at all levels. Stated very simply, education is a process that is supposed to bring about desirable behavioural changes in the human being. But as the nation gets more and more corrupted, the very notions of what are "desirable behavioural changes" are likely to undergo changes. People will prefer their progeny to be street smart rather than people with abiding and worthwhile humanistic values. But there is the other more familiar objective of education – of elevating the individual to a better human being -- that will continue to motivate people. However, regardless of these conflicts and pushes and pulls the quality of Indian education at all levels will have to be determined by the right attitudes. I have always maintained that the tragedy of Indian education is that we have confused the process with the product and the ritual with the result. For the quality of Indian education to change at all levels we shall have to give up our obsession with mere rituals and get down to the brass tacks of what is best for our conditions.

The Constitution of India had stated the resolve to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of the Constitution, free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. Later on, an amendment to the Constitution even made the right to education a fundamental right. Quite obviously we were not thinking of just a ritual when these initiatives were mooted. The nation cannot now lean back and pretend that this farcical ritual we now have in our rural schools was the education we were talking about.

 

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THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

GURU TEGH BAHADUR AND HIS SUPREME SACRIFICE

L P SINGH

 

Guru Tegh Bahadur was born on April 1, 1621 at Guru Ke Mahal, Amritsar. He was the youngest son of Guru Hargobind Sahib. His mother's name was Mata Nanaki. For the first nine years of his childhood, he enjoyed the company of his father at Amritsar. Right from the beginning, he has a saintly disposition, fearless attitude, bravery in actions, deep insight on all subjects and a mind detached from worldy affairs. His initial education progressed under the watchful eyes of Guru Hargobind Sahib. Besides religious and spiritual philosophy, he was trained in the use of weapons and also became an adept horseman.

In 1630, Guru Tegh Bahadur accompanied his father from Amritsar to Kartarpur. In 1634, he married (Mata) Gujri, daughter of Lal Chand, a resident of Kartarpur (Jalandhar). He participated in the fourth battle fought at Kartarpur and showed great valour and skill with the sword. After the battle his father left for Kiratpur Sahib, directing his young son to go over to his maternal grand parents at Bakala along with his wife and mother and reside there. At Bakala, he started meditating on nam wholeheartedly besides fulfilling all his obligations of a family man. His family life was very simple and peaceful.

On March 30, 1664, Guru Harkrishan expired at Delhi leaving explict instructions that the rightful owner of the Gurgadhi was residing at Bakala. Since no specific person was named Guru this prompted many fraudulent claimants to Guruship to head for Bakala and establish their camps to deceive people. Dhir Mal was most vociferous of all of them. Many people were getting duped. Finally a devout Sikh Guru Makhan Shah Lubana, a resident of Jhelum district came to Bakala along with five hundred gold coins of Dasvandh. He saw many claimants. He visited all and placed two gold coins before each of them one by one and realised that all of them were cheaters and deceivers. At last he went to the residence of Guru Tegh Bahadur and placed two gold coins in front of him. Seeing this, the Guru reminded him that he owed five hundred gold coins to his Guru and not just two. Makhan Shah Lubana was so much pleased that he climbed up the roof of the house and started shouting Guru Ladho Re, Guru Ladho Re meaning I have found the true Guru.

ln 1665, the respected Guru accompanied by Makhan Shah came to Amritsar to visit the holy shrine of Harmandir Sahib. The priest incharge thought that Guru's prolonged stay there would cause substantial monetary loss to them. So they locked up the precincts of Harmandir Sahib and left. Guru Tegh Bahadur kept waiting outside on a platform but after a long wait when no one turned up he paid his obeisance from outside and left for village Wallah. The people of Wallah village served him well.

At that time Aurangzeb's attitude towards Hindus was becoming very harsh and tyrannical. The Guru left for eastern part of the country to spread Sikhism as well as advise Hindus to have patience and courage to fight the king's order. From Anandpur Sahib, he reached Sabo Ki Talwandi via Ghanauli, Ropar, Moolewal. He spent Dasvandh money on digging of wells and providing other facilities to the people enroute.

Sher Khan, a Moghul chief started converting Hindus of Kashmir by force and use of coercive measures. Some Pandits escaped and reached Anandpur Sahib to complain to the Guru. The Guru offered all conceivable help to the helpless people and even decided to put his life at stake for their cause. Guru Tegh Bahadur visited Kiratpur, Lakhan Majra, Rohtak and finally reached Agra. His visit to these placed provided solace to the petrified population. He preached the axiom of "Have no fear and impose no fear" on anyone. Trust in one God and do the right. His personal contacts with the masses imbibed the people with a new spirit to face the impending danger at the hands of Aurangzeb. The king received the news at Hasan Abdal. He immediately ordered Guru's arrest at Agra. The Guru had only five of his devout Sikhs accompanying him at that time. They were Bhai Mati Das, Bhai Dayala, Bhai Gurditta, Bhai Jaita and Bhai Sati Das. Guru Tegh Bahadur was brought to Delhi from Agra after his arrest for further action by the king.

ln order to create a fear of death in Guru's mind the royal executioners sawed Bhai Matai Das into two halves right in front of him. Thereafter Bhai Dayala was put into a boiling cauldron while Bhai Sati Das was set on fire alive after wrapping him around with cotton wool. After all these events, the Guru was beheaded on November 11, 1675 at Chandani Chowk, Delhi. The executioner was Jalaudin from Samana who cut off the head of the reverend Guru with the blow of his sword.

Bhai Jaita had worked out a plan to dispose off the Guru's body. He had Bhai Udho and Bhai Lakhi Shah to help him. At a prearranged time, Bhai Lakhi Shah passed through Chandni Chowk with his bullock carts loaded with lime and clay. Bhai Udho was in the disguise of a Muslim and waiting nearby. He picked up the body of the Guru and loaded it into one of the carts. Lakhi Shah took the body to his house in village Rakab Ganj about three miles from the execution site. He placed the body in the middle and arranged all his furniture and wood articles around it and set the house on fire. Gurdwara Rakab Ganj is now located there.

In the confusion at Chandni Chowk, Bhai Jaita picked up Guru's head, wrapped it in a blanket and set out hurriedly towards Anandpur Sahib. Bhai Udho joined him enroute. Both reached the camp of Guru Gobind Singh and placed the head of Guru Tegh Bahadur before him. The place where Sri Tegh Bahadur was beheaded at Delhi had Gurdwara Sis Ganj constructed in his memorial. The head was cremated by Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur Sahib where there is a Gurdwara ncalled Sis Ganj.

(Published on the occasion of 334th Swahid Divas of ninth Sikh Guru). 

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

CHEQUE OUT

 

Those oversized championship or prize cheques triumphantly flanked by winners for photo-ops as well as its humbler banknote-sized avatar may soon be a thing of the past, if Britain has any say in the matter.

While nothing can convey the impression of elegant affluence as aptly as the signing of a cheque with an expensive fountain pen, evidence suggests its popularity has been waning.

So, bankers on a panel of Britain's payments council are expected to vote next month on a recommendation to the government to abolish cheques and, instead, focus on more economical modes such as electronic transfers and cash cards.

Already, as leading retailers gave a thumbs down to cheques, from July 2011, cheque payments will no longer be guaranteed in the UK though people can still write them and businesses can accept them. It does cost more to process them, since cheques have been around for three centuries, they cannot be phased out by 2018 without a battle or two.

The move has already been attacked on the grounds that a significant number of people are more comfortable with cheques than with electronic options, and many agencies like pension funds and income-tax departments use them too.

While reducing payment options may cut down cases of fraud, they raise questions of safety, given theft of credit cards and hacking into online accounts. In India, of course, the crackdown on cheques has already begun, albeit in a far less publicised, and organised, way.

Chequebooks are simply becoming more difficult to obtain, with many banks often pleading unavailability. This, despite the fact that a plethora of transactions are still conducted via cheques. Till electronic methods become more accessible, reliable and easy to use for Indian consumers, chequebooks are unlikely to be signed off on just yet.

Besides, we have to think of an alternative to oversized cheques for photo-ops first.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

 

TACKLE MOUNTING TAX ARREARS

 

It is welcome that the government has notified the rules for the dispute resolution panel promised by the Budget for speedy resolution of tax disputes of foreign companies.

This comes on the heels of the revelation that tax arrears have reached a staggering Rs 2 lakh crore at the end of September 2009, of which Rs 1.85 lakh crore is difficult to recover as the amount is tied up in legal cases.

Clearly, we need action to clear up the existing mess, and also a system overhaul to prevent build-up of arrears, which are nothing but disputed tax claims, for the most part.

Lack of clarity in tax laws pushes taxpayers to challenge assessment orders, thereby delaying legitimate dues to the exchequer. Tax rules should be simple and clear cut if the government wants to lower tax arrears.

Ambiguity results in varying interpretations and breeds litigation. The direct taxes code attempts to remove ambiguity in many tax provisions and promote voluntary compliance. A tax evader should not be let off the hook. But it is unfair to burden a taxpayer with a liability that is not due under the tax law. Tax officers should not make high-pitched assessments in their zeal to meet collection targets.

The exercise could be frivolous. Recovery of outstanding dues becomes tough when cases are pending in the courts or assets are inadequate for recovery.

Litigation and tax arrears are a matter of concern. The National Tax Tribunal (NTT), to hear appeals from the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, is yet to take off.

But once set up, it will help minimise pendencies in the high court. A quasi judicial body to give advance rulings on the tax liability of a transaction to residents would also help. Today, such a facility of advance rulings is available for non-residents.

The time limit of nine months for the dispute resolution panel to dispose a reference and the binding nature of the direction on tax authorities will speed up dispute settlement.

A similar mechanism should be extended to domestic companies as well, as recommended in the direct taxes code. Clear tax rules coupled with a low tax rate, sans any exemptions, is the mantra for voluntary compliance.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

JUDICIAL ARCHAEOLOGY

 

The BJP's umbrage over media reports of the Justice Liberhan Commission's findings is laughable. They are outraged over procedure: how did the report find its way to the press before the hon'ble members of Parliament have had a chance to see it?

This matters less to India's polity than the substance of the commission's report, which finds the entire top leadership of the Sangh Parivar culpable for demolition of the Babri mosque at Ayodhya, not sparing even the most moderate of the lot, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The Liberhan Commission's putative findings raise three questions. One, anti-national conduct in bringing about a deep communal divide in the country and culpability for such conduct; two, the propriety of the commission's report finding its way to the press before being tabled in Parliament; and, three, the gross delay in the submission of its report by the commission. All three merit serious attention.

That the Babri mosque was demolished and did not crumble under its own or the kar sevaks' weight is well known. Equally well-known is the nationwide campaign carried out by the Sangh Parivar on the slogan, mandir wohin banayenge! (we'll build the temple there itself, the there being where the mosque stood), which was an undisguised call to demolish the mosque.

It took extreme disingenuousness for anyone to seriously believe that the BJP leadership distributed sweets and hugged one another after the demolition of the mosque in pain and in shock. That the demolition of the mosque considerably eroded the minority community's faith in the Indian Republic's secular character is also well known.

The only purpose served by the commission's findings would be that these well-known facts would now be official.

Parliamentary privilege is one of the most over-rated institutions of democracy. The Fourth Estate is called thus only because it mediates information between the people and the state. The people have primacy, not their representatives. If important information is leaked to select groups, that would be breach of privilege.

But making information available directly to the people through the media is no more a crime than Satyagraha is. As for judicial delay — the commission took 17 years and 48 extensions to state the obvious — it leaves justice to be a matter of interpretation by historians, without operative import.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

 

CLIMATE CHANGE: GETTING IT RIGHT

ARVIND PANAGARIYA

 

According to Gresham's Law, bad money drives out good. In debate on complex policy issues, ideas sometimes suffer the same fate as money. The debate on climate change offers a good example. Many specious ideas have come to occupy public policy space. These must be exposed and clarity restored, as done below.

Idea 1

Meaningful mitigation is not possible without China and India accepting mitigation obligations. The US Congress has adopted this position and many commentators based in Europe and the US embrace it. Two arguments are offered in its support.

First, China and India are such large emitters that without their participation, mitigation effort will fall short of the necessary. Second, unless these countries accept emission caps, developed-country carbon-intensive industries will simply migrate to them with no net reductions in emissions.

The fallacy in the first argument is that India is a small emitter and not in the same league as China. Whereas the latter accounts for 21% of global emissions, India's share is only 4%. In per-capita terms, India ranks a low 37th.

The fallacy in the second argument is that empirical evidence contradicts the hypothesis that absent emission caps in China and India developed-country dirty industries would migrate to them. Even the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates such migration to have at best a tiny effect.

Idea 2

India risks being isolated in Copenhagen unless it agrees to accept mitigation obligations as per US demands. This is the most treacherous assertion. As a preliminary matter, it is not clear why disagreement with the US should automatically translate into isolation, especially when there exist good justifications for India's position.

The fact that more than two-thirds of the humanity is on the same side as India and that Europeans do not necessarily share the US view should matter as well. China, whose current position is not drastically different from that of India, does not see itself as being isolated either.

Therefore, this idea can appeal to only those who view India as a tiny Latin American country unable to assert against the US rather than a rising global power.

A separate point is that sometimes isolation may better serve the national interest than acquiescence. Should India have given up its right to Kashmir just because the opposite stance translated into its isolation in the Security Council for four long decades?

Idea 3

India did not create the global warming problem; therefore, it has no responsibility to help solve it. This is a popular argument with left-wing commentators in India. It is based on the observation that India has contributed only 2% of the existing stock of carbon in the environment.

The problem with the argument is two-fold. First, India is currently emitting proportionately more than in the past and its share is rising. Second, and more importantly, India cannot ignore global warming because the expected cost to it in terms of increased frequency and severity of extreme events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and cyclones is high.

You do not refuse to treat a wound just because someone else inflicted it on you. True, accepting mitigation targets in the next two or three decades would not serve well the country's interests since it will undermine its fight against poverty. But once this objective is achieved, India must do what it can to combat global warming.

Indeed, even in the interim, it must continue its efforts at reforestation, reduced indoor pollution and regulation of urban pollution, which are consistent with its immediate development goals.

Idea 4

Developed countries cannot be held responsible for the environmental damage their past emissions have done. The reason given is that at the time these emissions occurred, the countries did not know that their actions would lead to global warming.

Philosophically, the argument is flawed: just because those committing acts of cruelty against dalits two centuries ago did not know they were harming the future generations of the latter does not mean no affirmative action is called for today!

The practice of tort laws in the US also allows for retroactive compensation. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, popularly known as the Superfund Act, imposed retroactive fines on the firms responsible for dumping toxic waste at several sites as far back as the 1920s. The revenues so collected were then used to clean up the sites.

Fallacy 5

India can cap its emissions without sacrificing its growth and poverty alleviation objectives. While not asserted explicitly, the undercurrents of this argument could be felt in the statements Hillary Clinton made during her visit to India. While urging India to embrace mitigation targets, she simultaneously stated that the US "will not do anything that would limit India's economic progress".

In reality, as distinguished economist Gunnar Eskeland of Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration points out, mitigation is a highly costly activity. This high cost is the principal reason why developed countries have done so little to-date to mitigate.

Eskeland argues that genuine progress in mitigation requires massive R&D investments in the development of green sources of energy and mitigation technologies. Even the talk of access to technology is not meaningful when the real problem is the absence rather than diffusion of such technology.

Given the lumpy and highly risky nature of R&D investments in this area, private sector has been hesitant. This is why the proposal by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati for the creation of a large fund through contributions by developed countries as compensation for past emissions assumes special importance.

Contributing countries can use the proceeds from this fund to finance research on green sources of energy and mitigation technologies. Because rich-country firms will be the beneficiaries of such financing, the creation of the fund is likely to be politically acceptable. At the same time, given that research will be publicly funded, its fruits could be shared by all, including developing countries.

(The author is a professor at Columbia University)

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WATCH YOUR BACK

 

CPI-M and CPI leaders may be busy hosting a 'Communist International' sans Kremlin patronage. But closer home, many comrades are wondering how united is West Bengal's Left Front in these Mamata days. They say West Bengal Socialist Party's Kironmoy Nanda seeking an early poll may be just a tip of the iceberg.

Comrades are sniffing around to know whether there is more to Mamata Banerjee putting Deepa Dasmunsi in her place in Forward Bloc's surprise victory from a Congress den. Further, not many are sure whether RSP will not do a Kerala-like splitting act before Assembly polls. Only CPI seems to be the 'optionless' firm ally of Big Brother.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

DIFFERENT STROKES

 

Talking about the cane farmers, there was more to it than the western UP kisans bringing the Capital to a halt, opposition shutting down Parliament and Congress' unconvincing acrobatics riding the 'Rahul effect'.

The really colourful shows were in front of TV cameras. So, we saw the socialist in Amar Singh vowing to fight the UPA regime to the finish for being "pro-rich and pro-capitalist"! We also heard the 'fire-brand farmer leader' Anuradha Chaudhury threatening to unleash ground fury on the UPA regime.

Then the father-son duo of Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhury did a convincing live demo of how they have not, yet, fully lost their political teeth by biting into sugarcane.

Yet, the credit for this unity show goes to two people: Mamata Banerjee who drove the Left into a corner with an equally-desperate BJP and Dimple Yadav who has helped Mulayam Singh rediscover long-lost Ajitji in these testing times.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

BHAVAN HUNTING

 

With the government resuming governors' appointments, chronic Congress aspirants have turned edgy. Fellow Maharashtrian D Y Patil making it to Tripura has not fully dashed Shivraj Patil's lingering hopes of 10 Janpath de-freezing him after 'co-victims' of Mumbai terror attack, Vilasrao Deshmukh and R R Patel, made their comeback.

The Patil camp thinks Madhya Pradesh or West Bengal Raj Bhavan would be ideal for him. Assam leader Santosh Mohan Deb, in no man's land after his Lok Sabha poll defeat, is actively lobbying for a ticket to the Punjab Raj Bhavan.

As the Left waits to see off Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the governor they asked for before they got to know him up close and personal, Mamata Banerjee and West Bengal Congress want a Muslim leader to head for poll-bound Kolkata.

Mohsina Kidwai has some more time to complete her Rajya Sabha term. Yet, left leaders can't stop monitoring her movements these days.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

LIBERHAN FLOOR EFFECT

 

The timing of the Liberhan Commission revelation has had a telling floor effect. The first two days of Parliament session saw vociferous opposition, united from the Left to the Right on the sugarcane farmers' plight. The government was finding this 'unity' tricky given its lack of numbers in the Rajya Sabha.

No sooner had some opposition players started reminiscing about how a combined opposition had cornered the Rajiv Gandhi regime than the Liberhan report emerged from the locker.

So, every opposition party demanded that the government table the full report, but nobody, except Shiv Sena, would join the BJP members — whose leaders have been reportedly indicted by Liberhan panel to storm the well of the House.

Not just Mulayam and the leftists, even NDA's own JD(U) MPs looked the other way when BJP camp prompted them for a combined 'well show'. The road from total unity to 'splendid isolation' can be a very short one in the twists and turns of politics.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE LUXURY ON TOP OF A CLIFF

MUKUL SHARMA

 

A deeply troubled adolescent eagle returned to its nest one evening and asked his father, "Dad, is it true that we should follow our bliss?" The elder eagle, with years of inexperience behind him, sighed and replied, "Only conscious creatures have the luxury to indulge in such thoughts. We, on the other hand, who have no idea that we're living and neither any notion when death overtakes us, possess more pressing priorities. We follow our hunger. Therefore, go out tomorrow as usual and practice killing field rodents and baby rabbits and, after a few seasons, look for a female eagle. End of story."

The mother, who was almost dozing off by then, turned and said, "I don't know why you bother. That kid's goofy in the head."

Years later, after both his parents had dropped out of the sky, the young eagle had become an extremely proficient predator. He could swoop effortlessly down on small furry animals and with his honed claws and beak, rip them to shreds.

Also, by this time, he had found a mate who bore him many clutches of mindless eagles who never returned to the nest and asked him anything in the evening except for more space to sleep. But what no one knew was that he still remained deeply troubled. Times when he was really frustrated, he would mutter to himself, "But what if I'm conscious? Would I have the luxury then?"

"Not necessarily," said the Wise One. He was a mythical eagle who lived alone in an old eyrie atop a steep cliff face many flights away from where the others of his kind dwelt and who our young eagle in desperation had one day forsaken his eagle ways to seek out.

"Just because your father said something to you once doesn't make it false. Nor does your constant dwelling on it."

"What makes things true then?" queried our hero. "Or, more to the point, should I be following my bliss instead of simply hunting and mating and not knowing if I'm alive or dead?" The Wise One looked away into the horizon in silence and spoke after a long time.

"I could have told you," he said, "that hunting and mating was indeed your bliss, but you seemed to have heeded your father a little too literally and followed your hunger. In which case, you now have the rare honour of being the next Wise One atop this lonely but conscious cliff, your only bliss from now on. Happy, goof?" Saying that, he went to the edge of the precipice and dropped out of the sky.

 

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

MANMOHAN AT WHITE HOUSE

 

The first state dinner that the US President, Mr Barack Obama, will host at the White House is for India's Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Tuesday night. This is as far as diplomatic niceties go in respect of a country with which the United States may desire long-term convivial relations provided there are no side-edges being thrown up in any other sphere. No longer the hyperpower it once was, with two simultaneous wars and suffocating recession having taken their toll, the US is beholden to China for virtually underwriting its gargantuan debt. The evidence so far suggests that Washington also thinks it must steadfastly remain on the right side of Islamabad even if the Pakistani government and its military run circles around the Americans on the issue of fighting terrorism. These circumstances have appeared so far to frame the Obama administration's thinking — and its dilemmas — in respect of its India interactions. The bilateral civil nuclear issue, which looked like a completed project under Mr Obama's predecessor, appears to still need serious tweaking before an agreement on reprocessing procedures, said to be on the anvil, can be signed. As for India, long before a half-century of mistrust with America dissolved under President George W. Bush, there was already a healthy informal social relationship going, thanks in substantial measure to the Indian diaspora in the United States, and the soft power India exuded centring on its democracy and responsible international conduct. It will only now become clear if the momentum imparted to India-US ties under the Bush leadership was a one-off foray into the friendship lane or there exists a deeper mutual basis for the ties to be nurtured and reinforced. Dr Manmohan Singh is already in the US for his three-day engagement with Mr Obama in the course of which close to a dozen agreements are said to await signature. The personality of India's discussions with the US in the coming days, and the prognosis for the medium term, will of course be guided by areas such as the economy, trade and finance. But if the political vibes are less than fulsome, a fly in the ointment is likely to remain. In Japan and Saudi Arabia recently, President Obama bowed deeply to please his hosts. His body language will no doubt be watched when he meets his Indian guest. The CIA director was in India on the eve of Dr Singh's visit to the US. Presumably this points to greater cooperation in the technical aspects of counter-terrorism such as information-sharing, an area in which the two sides were already engaged. In India, greater focus is then likely to devolve on sealing the gap in the understanding on civil nuclear energy cooperation. Any further lingering of the issue is apt to raise questions here. Kashmir and Afghanistan are both related to Pakistan and terrorism directed against this country from its western neighbour. If the American side proves difficult to persuade that its Afghanistan policy is in no manner undercut by India's dealings with Pakistan, political ties between New Delhi and Washington will remain in the incubator. Even if President Obama prefers to stay with the balancing act, people all round will watch for signals that he privileges the circle of democracies.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

SMASHING VICTORY BY SACHIN OVER SENA

BY GOVIND TALWALKAR

 

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar is considered a legend. Though a great batsman, he occasionally also takes to bowling. His 20th anniversary in international cricket was celebrated on a different pitch and the Shiv Sena was clean bowled on the first ball.

 

When asked what has been his motivation and what Maharashtra meant to him, Sachin affirmed that while he was proud to be a Maharashtrian, he personally felt that he was an Indian first and that Mumbai belongs to India. (This is a natural stand taken by any rational being, including me). This statement was a terrific blow to the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

 

Sachin echoed the real feelings of the majority of people of Maharashtra who have kept the Shiv Sena away from power for the last 10 years, and the recently-concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections was no exception.

 

The love and fame earned by Sachin is a strong deterrent against any linguistic chauvinists who indulge in vandalism. That is why Shiv Sena supremo Mr Bal Thackeray only "asked" Sachin to stick to cricket and not indulge in politics.

 

But the fact is that language does not belong in the realm of politics. It is political parties like the Shiv Sena and the MNS that have made "Maharashtra for Marathi" a political issue and are thriving on it.

 

Seeing people's reaction to Sachin's statement, the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Chavan, rushed to congratulate him with the aim of gaining some political mileage. Mr Chavan said that Sachin's statement would help unite India. It would be better if Mr Chavan unites his own party and remembers that his party — right from the days of V.P. Naik — directly or indirectly helped the Shiv Sena. And in this it was followed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In the recently-concluded Assembly elections, the Congress and the NCP helped MNS candidates to undercut not just the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine but also each other.

 

The Shiv Sena and the MNS' identity rests on real and imaginary grievances. First the Shiv Sena targeted the South Indians. After it accepted the Hindutva agenda, it turned against Muslims. Now the MNS is targeting North Indians and the Shiv Sena has joined the bandwagon. Both have created an atmosphere of terror and uncertainty in the state, which, if left unchecked, will scare away investors, just as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) managed to do in West Bengal.

 

After the formation of the Maharashtra state, there was no cause for the violent agitational politics. Any political party could approach the voters and, if accepted, govern the state. But the Shiv Sena preferred the violent path and was unable to build anything. In this it was helped by the fact that successive Congress ministries neglected development of the state. Under them urban decay and rural poverty grew and the Congressmen made almost all the local bodies the preserves of some families. Growing unemployment along with the blocking of political avenues by a few families created a large dispossessed class which first turned towards the Shiv Sena and now to the MNS.

 

Over the years, Marathi-speaking population has decreased in Mumbai. There was a time when Girgaum had a sizeable Maharashtrian population. But in the last quarter of the century they have migrated to the suburbs. All their dwellings were taken over by non-Maharashtrians and today garage and jewellery shops thrive there.

The great Bombay textile strike left more than 150,000 workers unemployed. Textile industry in Mumbai has largely disappeared and the mill land has been converted into malls and commercial complexes. As Marathi-speaking people were never in the business or industry in a significant way, businessmen from Gujarat, Punjab and other states took over these complexes.

 

This is not a recent phenomenon. Never in the history of the city have Maharashtrians played a dominant role in the industrial and business growth. Even their numbers in the managerial sector were not impressive. That was the reason why Mr S.K. Patil, who presided over the state Congress for a long time, had few Maharashtrian supporters and relied heavily on the Gujaratis.

 

However, Maharashtrians had significant presence in the medical and legal professions. They set up some world-class educational institutions and their achievements in the field of mathematics and science are well recognised. Though there were several Marathi scholars and historians, but when it came to funding most had to depend on the Gujaratis and Parsis.

 

Before Independence, Shikshan Prasarak Mandali in Pune started two colleges in the suburbs for which donations were received from Ram Narayan Ruia and Andilal Potdar — neither belonged to the state of Maharashtra.

 

As this trend continued, Maharashtrians were left behind in new industrial and business climate, creating a large discontented class. As successive state governments failed to address these problems, the Shiv Sena took advantage and played on the sentiments of the Marathi-speaking people. As Acharya Vinoba Bhave once said, Maharashtrians generally have a tendency to glorify the past. The Shiv Sena used this as a fertile ground. However, in the present situation this has proved fruitless.

 

That is why the BJP and the Shiv Sena are now sailing in the same boat. Soon the MNS will join them. The BJP has almost been taken over by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — a sure path to oblivion. Lord Ram refused to rescue the BJP and the great Shivaji Maharaj has shunned the Shiv Sena.

 

However, the Marathi-speaking people have no cause for despondency. The new generation of Kirloskars and Kalayanis has shown their skill and competence. In several parts of rural Maharashtra, cooperative banks, sugar factories and other businesses are running successfully.

 

Recently, many wineries have also sprung up, some of which even export their products. Horticulture is a field which has large potential. If warehousing and marketing problems are solved, a window of opportunity would open.

 

Young men and women who have entered these industries are the hope of the future. They are educated, some have undergone training in foreign countries, and all very confidently approach the foreign markets and negotiate deals. The new generation which has started enterprises, scrupulously avoids politics, thus ensuring that their enterprises do not meet the fate of some of the sugar cooperatives and banks. This is encouraging.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

PHANTOM OF WALL STREET STALKS OBAMA TEAM

BY PAUL KRUGMAN

 

A funny thing happened on the way to a new New Deal. A year ago, the only thing the Americans had to fear was fear itself; today, the reigning doctrine in Washington appears to be "Be afraid. Be very afraid".

 

What happened? To be sure, "centrists" in the US Senate have hobbled efforts to rescue the economy. But the evidence suggests that in addition to facing political opposition, the US President, Mr Barack Obama, and his inner circle have been intimidated by scare stories from Wall Street.

 

Consider the contrast between what Mr Obama's advisers were saying on the eve of his inauguration, and what he himself is saying now.

 

In December 2008 Lawrence Summers, soon to become the administration's highest-ranking economist, called for decisive action. "Many experts", he warned, "believe that unemployment could reach 10 per cent by the end of next year". In the face of that prospect, he continued, "doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much".

 

Ten months later unemployment reached 10.2 per cent, suggesting that despite his warning the administration hadn't done enough to create jobs. You might have expected, then, a determination to do more.

 

But in a recent interview with Fox News, the President sounded diffident and nervous about his economic policy. He spoke vaguely about possible tax incentives for job creation. But "it is important though to recognise", he went on, "that if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the US economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession".

 

What? Huh?

 

Most economists I talk to believe that the big risk to recovery comes from the inadequacy of government efforts: the stimulus was too small, and it will fade out next year, while high unemployment is undermining both consumer and business confidence.

 

Now, it's politically difficult for the Obama administration to enact a full-scale second stimulus. Still, he should be trying to push through as much aid to the economy as possible. And remember, Mr Obama has the bully pulpit; it's his job to persuade America to do what needs to be done.

 

Instead, however, Mr Obama is lending his voice to those who say that we can't create more jobs. And a report on Politico.com suggests that deficit reduction, not job creation, will be the centrepiece of his first State of the Union address. What happened?

 

It took me a while to puzzle this out. But the concerns Mr Obama expressed become comprehensible if you suppose that he's getting his views, directly or indirectly, from Wall Street.

 

Ever since the Great Recession began economic analysts at some (not all) major Wall Street firms have warned that efforts to fight the slump will produce even worse economic evils. In particular, they say, never mind the current ability of the US government to borrow long-term at remarkably low interest rates — any day now, budget deficits will lead to a collapse in investor confidence, and rates will soar.

 

And it's this latter claim that Mr Obama echoed in that Fox News interview. Is he right to be worried?

 

Well, spikes in long-term interest rates have happened in the past, most famously in 1994. But in 1994 the US economy was adding 300,000 jobs a month, and the US Federal Reserve was steadily raising short-term rates. It's hard to see why anything similar should happen now, with the economy still bleeding jobs and the Fed Reserve showing no desire to raise rates anytime soon.

 

A better model, I'd argue, is Japan in the 1990s, which ran persistent large budget deficits, but also had a persistently depressed economy — and saw long-term interest rates fall almost steadily. There's a good chance that officials are being terrorised by a phantom menace — a threat that exists only in their minds.

 

And shouldn't we consider the source? As far as I can tell, the analysts now warning about soaring interest rates tend to be the same people who insisted, months after the Great Recession began, that the biggest threat facing the economy was inflation. And let's not forget that Wall Street — which somehow failed to recognise the biggest housing bubble in history — has a less than stellar record at predicting market behaviour.

 

Still, let's grant that there is some risk that doing more about double-digit unemployment would undermine confidence in the bond markets. This risk must be set against the certainty of mass suffering if we don't do more — and the possibility, as I said, of a collapse of confidence among ordinary workers and businesses.

 

And Mr Summers was right the first time: in the face of the greatest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, it's much riskier to do too little than it is to do too much. It's sad, and unfortunate, that the administration appears to have lost sight of that truth.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

EQUALITY STALEMATE

BY JAYATI GHOSH

 

The United Nations Conference on Women was held nearly 15 years ago in Beijing, China. This was an extraordinary moment in the history of the international women's movements as well as women workers around the world, with unprecedented mobilisation of feminist policymakers, activists and academics in the international political arena, both prior to the conference and subsequently. The two-part conference, referred to as Beijing Platform and the Call for Action, were to guide policy-making and provide ideas and mobilising principles to women's groups and representatives of civil society who were concerned with the empowerment of women.

 

It is intriguing, if somewhat depressing, to note how relevant the Beijing Platform remains today. Not only the goals and mission statement, but even the analysis seems eerily contemporary. For example, it was noted that "widespread economic recession, as well as political instability in some regions, has been responsible for setting back development goals in many countries. Recent international economic developments have had in many cases a disproportionate impact on women and children, the majority of whom live in developing countries. Economic recession in many developed and developing countries, as well as ongoing restructuring in countries with economies in transition, have had a disproportionately negative impact on women's employment. Women often have no choice but to take employment that lacks long-term job security or involves dangerous working conditions, to work in unprotected home-based production or to be unemployed. Many women enter the labour market in under-remunerated and undervalued jobs, seeking to improve their household income; others decide to migrate for the same purpose. Without any reduction in their other responsibilities, this has increased the total burden of work for women".

 

It is a sad commentary on implementation if all of these points that were made then can be made with equal validity today, despite a relatively prolonged global economic boom with much greater international integration in the intervening period. Exactly because it is still so relevant, almost all of the points made in the Call for Action can be usefully drawn upon in the current context to drive a more equitable, gender-sensitive and sustainable pattern of growth. But this in turn points to a deeper problem: if all governments have officially accepted the Beijing Platform, and have supposedly undertaken steps in conformity with it, why has the progress on this front been so halting, slow and so easily reversed by factors such as economic crisis, war or violence?

 

There are several reasons for this less-than-satisfactory outcome. The most important reason is that the Beijing Platform, both implicitly and explicitly, was based on a different model of growth and development than the paradigm that has dominated national and international policy-making in recent decades. The Platform both called for and relied upon a model of economic growth that is egalitarian, inclusive, participatory, people-centered, sustainable in terms of the environment, accountable and based on a rights-based approach to much public service delivery.

 

This is very different from the unequal, market-led model that has underpinned recent growth. This was based on short-term profit maximising as the primary motivation, leading to biases in consumption, production, distribution and aspirations, simply could not be sustained. So the policy proposals in the Beijing document could not be achieved because wider economic and political processes were operating to push the economy and society in the opposite direction. To take a few examples, achieving better conditions of employment and remuneration for women's work is obviously much more difficult when overall employment is on the decline, or when (even during a boom) employment expansion is based on strong competitive pressures that operate to suppress wages. Improving the lot of women cultivators is next to impossible when there is a widespread agrarian crisis. Eliminating the exploitation of the girl child through paid or bonded labour or even trafficking cannot be done if the material conditions of their households are so dire that there seem to be no feasible alternatives. And so on.

 

The Beijing Platform called for and required the creation and strengthening of health and education systems that are rights-based, universal and inclusive, emphasising accessibility, affordability and adaptability. However, the broad thrust of health and education policies has been to move to more commercialised and market-driven provision of both education and health services — including the introduction of user fees or minimal efforts to reduce the hidden costs of accessing health and education.

 

The Call for Action directly challenged many vested interests, power equations at all levels and entrenched patriarchal attitudes, so it was never going to be easy to push through in terms of actual interventions. There are deeply entrenched male biases in government, health, education, urban planning systems, international trade regimes, and approaches to the development of technology. As a result, much implementation has remained at the token or symbolic level. Governments have set up committees or institutional arrangements that meet the preliminary requirements, but often have not gone beyond that to transform policies in effective ways.

 

There are not enough forums or a range of civil society processes to hold policymakers at all levels accountable. This is compounded by the perception in some developing countries that gender awareness is a luxury associated with higher levels of per capita income.

 

All this has been associated with an erosion of the real content of many of the levers of change identified at Beijing — gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting, improved access to credit and education for women. These have been interpreted formalistically, or with minimum cost. Instead of financial inclusion, the focus was on microcredit; instead of universal quality education, para-schooling; instead of universal quality health services through the life cycle, underpaid village para-health workers.

 

So the Beijing Platform is more relevant than ever, but it has to be combined with very different economic policies, globally and nationally.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

APEC AND CHINDIA

BY SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

 

As the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Leaders' Summit concluded in Singapore last week, several observers are still examining the continued relevance of Apec as a multilateral institution which brings the regional players of the Asia-Pacific region together in an economic forum. With the growth of multilateral institutional processes such as the East Asia Summit and the more broad-based groupings like the Group of Twenty (G20), which clearly include the global players that are driving the world economy today, the Apec seems to be labouring on, with crucial members of the region even missing from the organisation. Thus, even as the meetings are concluded, its relevance comes sharply into focus, especially given the distinction between substance and rhetoric which seems to be plaguing most institutional mechanisms in the region.

 

When Apec was started in 1989, it began as an economic grouping within the Asia-Pacific region to promote trade and strengthen the region's economic cooperation. By the early Nineties, the push towards regional economic integration was evident in Europe and North America. The initial effort came from Japan to consolidate an Asian version of a free trade area, which was followed by Australia pushing the logic of an economic and trade grouping that would link Asia to the Pacific rim. In fact, the proposal of Mahathir Mohammed in 1992 for the formation of an East Asia Economic Grouping (EAEG) met with resistance because it excluded the US, Australia and New Zealand. This was opposed on the claims that it was an attempt to form a "yen block". Apec in its initial years was poised to take off but failed to make a critical impact as time went by.

 

In terms of the economic activities of the globe today, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than half the global economy. With the two largest growing economies of China and India within this region, it also has nearly 40 per cent of the global population. Given these factors, the two predominant Asian giants carry the weight of the region's share of the economic activity.

 

The challenges to Apec actually emerged in the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, when it was unable to provide answers to the crisis that gripped the region and left several economies completely shattered. Another factor was that it was affected by the impasse over trade liberalisation issues. Also in 1997, it adopted a moratorium on the inclusion of new members for a 10-year period. This was again extended in 2007 when Australia was the chair. As the chair of the Apec moves to Japan next year, the problems of accommodating new members is likely to plague the outcome of the 2010 meetings.

 

In fact, last week's Apec leaders' meeting in Singapore remained inconclusive on the issue of re-opening the membership to several other countries that are currently waiting in the wings. India too is one of the countries that is yet to be admitted into the Apec. Interestingly, India is one of the four largest economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Along with the US, China and Japan, India is one of the four largest economies and its exclusion from the Apec remains a factor that provides the Apec a lopsided platform which does not include a key player in the region. There is a view, however, that the Western players prefer to keep India out of the Apec since its inclusion would tilt the balance of power within the grouping totally to the Asian context.

 

Another issue is that the inclusion of both China and India in Apec will bring together the two Asian giants. The China-India rise, which has been often termed as the Chindia factor, is likely to witness both cooperation and competition within the region. But given their common interests in the region, the two countries need to look for opportunities where they can play complementary roles. Moreover, the relations towards other countries within the region needs to be reigned into focus — taking into consideration their own foreign policy goals, rather than being contingent upon each other. However, this should not be a factor to deter India's entry because there are already common platforms on which these two are together, like the G20 and the East Asia Summit, to name a few.

 

For India too, the inclusion into Apec will be important. First, it is geographically within the region, even though some consider it to be on the rim of the Asia-Pacific region. Second, especially considering that its linkage to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is significantly growing in economic and political terms, it will remain a crucial player in the regional calculus. Moreover, the pace of reform in India will get a further impetus from its membership within Apec, leading to greater liberalisation measures within our own economy.

 

While there have been delays in including new members, the move towards the furtherance of what is being called the Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP is receiving an impetus. TPP currently links four countries — Singapore, New Zealand, Chile and Brunei. A combination of both developing and developed countries, the TPP membership may even expand to include the Vietnam, US, Australia and Peru. With the broadening of this initiative there will be a wider Asia-Pacific grouping, while still leaving out several other key players like China and India from the TPP. The interesting factor is that while these initiatives seem to be coughing up several multilateral economic groupings which combine different groups of states, in terms of agendas there is a stark similarity.

 

Finally, one of the significant issues that led to the origins of the Apec was the issue of promoting free trade. In the aftermath of the 1997 crisis, the targeted free trade agreements within the region suffered a setback in terms of delays and implementation. The 2002 agreement towards achieving the China-Asean free trade was signed and is to go into force from January 2010. The India-Asean free trade agreement in goods is also concluded, however it keeps nearly 490 items on the negative list, with five very important items on the list for a longer period of time. The global recession over the past year has also hit the economies in the region. Much of the rebound that one sees today is from the fiscal stimulus package given by the governments. In the aftermath of last year's global financial crisis and recession, there is no doubt that the levels of protectionism is likely to increase in order to protect some segments of the domestic economy. Given this factor, the push forward by the Apec to promote free trade may not be as ambitious as the last week's meetings claim.

 

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

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

HOW WWII WASN'T WON

BY DAVID P. COLLEY

 

Easton, Pennsylvania

 

SIXTY-FIVE years ago, in November 1944, the war in Europe was at a stalemate. A resurgent Wehrmacht had halted the Allied armies along Germany's borders after its headlong retreat across northern France following D-Day. From Holland to France, the front was static — yet thousands of Allied soldiers continued to die in futile battles to reach the Rhine River.

 

One Allied Army, however, was still on the move. The Sixth Army Group reached the Rhine at Strasbourg, France, on November 24, and its commander, Lt. Gen. Jacob L. Devers, looked across its muddy waters into Germany. His force, made up of the United States Seventh and French First Armies, 3,50,000 men, had landed August 15 near Marseille — an invasion largely overlooked by history but regarded at the time as "the second D-Day" — and advanced through southern France to Strasbourg. No other Allied Army had yet reached the Rhine, not even hard-charging George Patton's.

 

Devers dispatched scouts over the river. "There's nobody in those pillboxes over there", a soldier reported. Defences on the German side of the upper Rhine were unmanned and the enemy was unprepared for a cross-river attack, which could unhinge the Germans' southern front and possibly lead to the collapse of the entire line from Holland to Switzerland.

 

The Sixth Army Group had assembled bridging equipment, amphibious trucks and assault boats. Seven crossing sites along the upper Rhine were evaluated and intelligence gathered. The Seventh Army could cross north of Strasbourg at Rastatt, Germany, advance north along the Rhine Valley to Karlsruhe, and swing west to come in behind the German First Army, which was blocking Patton's Third Army in Lorraine. The enemy would face annihilation, and the Third and Seventh Armies could break loose and drive into Germany. The war might end quickly.

 

Devers never crossed. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander, visited Devers's headquarters that day and ordered him instead to stay on the Rhine's west bank and attack enemy positions in northern Alsace. Devers was stunned. "We had a clean breakthrough", he wrote in his diary. "By driving hard, I feel that we could have accomplished our mission". Instead the war of attrition continued, giving the Germans a chance to counter-attack three weeks later in what became known as the Battle of the Bulge, which cost 80,000 American dead and wounded.

 

Garrison Davidson, then Devers's engineering officer and later a superintendent of West Point, believed Devers's attack would have succeeded and pre-empted the Bulge, writing, "I have often wondered what might have happened had Ike had the audacity to take a calculated risk, as General Patton would have". Patton wrote in his diary that he also believed Eisenhower had missed a great opportunity; the Seventh Army's commander, Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch, felt the same way.

 

Why did Eisenhower refuse to allow Devers to cross? Eisenhower disliked Devers — a prim teetotaler who

rubbed many gruff Army commanders the wrong way — and refused to include him among the generals fighting in northern France. Devers was appointed to lead the southern invasion by the Army Chief Of Staff, George Marshall. Eisenhower would likely have fired Devers once the Sixth Army Group fell under his command in September 1944, but Devers had powerful patrons in Marshall and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

 

Eisenhower was also a cautious, some would say indecisive, commander who favoured a "broad front" strategy with all Allied armies moving in tandem on a solid front. His military objective was Germany's main industrial area to the north, the Ruhr. Devers was operating too far south to help that effort.

 

True, the Germans knew the Ruhr was vital to them and fiercely defended it. But, as we know from several of their generals' post-war memoirs, what they really feared was an incursion across the Rhine, which would have been a military catastrophe and a devastating symbolic blow to the German people.

 

The Rhine wasn't crossed until March 1945. Had Eisenhower let Devers make his attack, we might now be celebrating the 65th anniversary of a cross-Rhine attack that quickly ended the war in Europe. Instead, we will soon mark the anniversary of the costliest battle in American history, the Battle of the Bulge.

 

David P. Colley is the author of Decision at Strasbourg: Ike's Strategic Mistake to Halt the Sixth Army Group at the Rhine in 1944.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

GATEWAY CAMP

ONE OUTRAGE REVEALS OTHERS

INDIGNATION ran rife over the Gateway of India being used as a camp by a squad of the Maharashtra State Reserve Police Force deployed to protect the revered Taj hotel in the wake of 26/11. Noting the passion aroused among Mumbaikars the local police forced their counterparts to move out. Fair enough: though it is matter of some concern that the action was initiated only after the media drew attention to the misuse of that heritage structure. The Gateway is far from isolated, thousands flock around it every day, did nobody in authority notice the security personnel living there? The indifference of the SRPF personnel to history and heritage is actually matched by the indifference of the many others who lose no opportunity to project their city, and Mumbaikars, as a cut above the rest of the country. Maybe if the inscription on that edifice had been in Marathi the chauvinistic elements that have converted the "Great Bombay Dream" into a nightmare might have got activated. Or was it that they were so focused on trying to redirect Sachin Tendulkar's focus from cricket to pathetic parochialism that they ignored the desecration of one of their city's landmarks.

While there can be no excusing the police, that "Gateway camp" is in some ways understandable. It actually serves to open the door on a reality that has conveniently been overlooked ~ the living conditions to which our policemen are condemned. It is not just the Gateway: in every city, the Capital most prominently, security personnel are forced to make do with the minimum facilities as they set up camps in the vicinity of institutions or the homes of the VIPs they are required to protect. Nobody, not their superior officers nor the people they are serving care a hoot. Why, one VIP did not let them draw water from his home ~ his caste sensibilities were offended. How they live through heat, rain, mosquitoes and cold, what they eat, where they bathe etc does not raise even a query. Yet they are expected to be alert, efficient, committed, brave. Such heedlessness is even more outrageous than the shelter-seeking under the Gateway. If ministers and MPs cared to take a glance at the camp near the aam-janata parking lot in Parliament they might be amazed at what the police manage to deliver.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

LAKSHMAN REKHA 

CM MUST WALK THE TALK

THE West Bengal government's image has doubtless suffered a further dent at a critical juncture for the ruling party. The showpiece Haldia Petrochemicals Limited has been shut down indefinitely by Citu-affiliated workers. The Chief Minister's call for a crackdown on the strikers, ironically coinciding with Sunday's "development review meeting" in East Midnapore, might mirror his professed opposition to militant trade unionism. But when it comes to tangible action, his administration appears to be pretty much helpless. The strike by itself confirms that the party leadership is yet to rein in the likes of Lakshman Seth, whose renewed bout of muscle-flexing follows his defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and still more crucially the mortal setback in Nandigram. Is he intent on recovering his lost base? Has he been bolstered by a section of the party? It devolves on the leadership to draw the lakshman rekha for a local satrap who perceives Haldia to be his fiefdom, and one who has proved to be an embarrassing disaster both electorally and in terms of the new economic policy. Work on the Supermax project has already come to a halt, and misgivings that HPL stands to lose Rs 10 crore a day should the strike continue are not wholly unfounded. A fluid political scenario has already rendered uncertain the investment climate; a strike at HPL can only deter the investor further and at a stage when the chemical hub project in neighbouring Nayachar is said to have registered a measure of progress.
Seth appears to be setting the terms of engagement on behalf of the workers on contract. And with the thoroughly unreasonable demand for a 120 per cent increase in salaries. The former MP has ensured that not a single employee enters the HPL complex and rival unions have clashed with poster shafts, leading to police action. His nuisance value is confirmed, and developments in Haldia over the weekend make a mockery of all that the Chief Minister has striven to achieve, alas without success. Seth, it bears recall, is at the root of the bloody strife over land acquisition in Nandigram. In the interests of the government, the party must ensure that the strike is called off and Seth shown his place. Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee must walk the talk.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

WORTH A TRY

NEVER TOO LATE TO PUSH FOR PEACE IN ASSAM 

WITH no militant outfit as yet claiming responsibility for the burning of 12 oil-laden tankers in Assam's Jorhat district on 17 November, the latest series of blasts on 22 November in Nalbari reads as a double-header to a monsters' ball. Notorious for such acts of sabotage and subversion, the Ulfa's involvement in the previous incident was suspected. But the anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Boroland headed by Ranjan Daimary, which of late has been widening its area of influence, could be as likely a candidate. Since no one knows for sure, the 17 November incident should have been seen as a warning of more mayhem being in the pipeline. It is long past the time for the Assam government to keep sitting on its hands. The relative lull in Ulfa's murderous activities over the past few months should not be taken as a sign of weakness. It has the capacity to regroup and consolidate, which it amply demonstrated by setting up bases in Bhutan after Operation Rhino in 1991. And since the December 2003 Royal Bhutan Army crackdown, it has been showing signs of resurrection. Ulfa's "finance secretary" Chittabon Hazarika and "foreign secretary" Sashadhar Choudhury, who were apprehended early this month while "trying to sneak" into India from Bangladesh and who are now in police custody, have revealed that not only does the Ulfa have crores of rupees, it has also established bases in China and that its self-styled commander-in-chief Paresh Barua is busy shopping for weapons from that northern neighbour's arms manufacturers. One does not need an expert on terrorism to point out the obvious.
With Bangladesh now showing a conciliatory gesture in not allowing Indian insurgents to use its soil for anti-India activities, the situation is fast changing, and Delhi must take advantage. Left to their own and having played into the ISI's hands, Ulfa chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa and Paresh Barua are unable to take the first step but there is no denying they are the best prospects for peace. Perhaps an initiative with the help of Ulfa leaders now in jail will be worth the gamble to stop the duo from playing bull in a china shop.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

GOOD EARTH UP FOR GRABS~I

SHORTCOMINGS IN THE LAWS ON ACQUISITION

BY BIBEKANANDA RAY

IN the face of Mamata Banerjee's objections, the two draft bills on land acquisition and resettlement and rehabilitation have been referred by the UPA government to a standing committee of the Ministry of Rural Development. Had they been passed in the form drafted, she might have been accused of betraying those for whom she had fought in Singur and Nandigram. 

The Acquisition Bill seeks to amend the 1894 Act. The Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill seeks to make the National Rehabilitation Policy of 2007 statutory. The Acquisition Bill, drafted in 2007 and circulated to the MPs in the last session of the 14th Lok Sabha, was returned by the Rajya Sabha, following criticism mainly by the Left MPs. 

While the two Bills are scheduled to be presented in the current session of Parliament, no convincing answers are yet available to three most crucial questions. (i) How much and what kind of land could be acquired, now and in the future? (ii) Will ruthless acquisition of arable land jeopardize food security? (iii) Will acquisition further reduce the country's forest cover, already far below the National Forest Policy target of one-third of the geographical area?

This article attempts to answer these questions on the basis of data gleaned from the Statistical Abstract: India (2005-2006), published by the Central Statistical Organisation available on the Internet. No data pertaining to 2008 is available.

MERE TENANTS

Till 1824, there was no policy or law that governed acquisition. In ancient India, the king merely issued a directive. The first legal move to acquire land for public purposes was the promulgation of Regulation I of 1824 Bengal Code. It empowered the government "to obtain, at a fair valuation, land or other immovable property, required for laying rail tracks and building Defence establishments, like the Fort William". It was thrice amended, in 1857, 1861 and 1863, and repealed by the first Land Acquisition Act of 1870, which was replaced 24 years later by the Act of 1894 which applies to the whole country, except Jammu & Kashmir.

By a 1963 amendment, the West Bengal government secured the rights of bargadars (sharecroppers) to compensation for the loss of the land they tilled but did not own. Subsequently, it introduced a series of amendments to facilitate the projects of Calcutta Improvement Trust and Howrah Improvement Trust. Legally, the land is permanently owned by Governors of States and Union Territories. The owners are mere tenants; acquisition is the State termination of that tenancy.

With some 21 amendments, the Act of 1894 served both the Central and state governments well for over a century. The first UPA government (2004-09) received public complaints against some state governments that were trying to acquire arable land to set up Special Economic Zones. Section 17 empowers the government to acquire virtually 'any land', citing 'urgent public purpose', just 15 days after the gazette notification. In the mid-1990s, this section was invoked in West Bengal to acquire fertile land in Rajarhat-Gopalpur in North 24-Parganas district, the area where New Town is now coming up. Many other states made acquisitions under this Section to deny the owners the right to judicial redress.

The 1824 Regulation, the 1870 and 1894 Acts and amendments before and after Independence did not provide for obtaining the consent of the affected. And this was made a major issue by Mamata Banerjee in Singur. The draft bill has no such provision either. The Supreme Court has made the seeking of consent mandatory.
When BC Roy acquired thousands of hectares to set up heavy and medium industries in Durgapur, Asansol, and Kalyani, there was no resistance from the owners, tillers or the Opposition parties, as witnessed in Singur and Nandigram. A possible reason was that generally barren, waste, and fallow land was acquired.

There are a number of flaws in the two draft Bills. Aside from Mamata Banerjee, the shortcomings have been highlighted by both the Right and Left politicians and several state governments. They have demanded a higher compensation and proper rehabilitation of the affected, who live on and off the land. The compensation is often much less than the prevalent price. For registration of bought or sold land, the government charges stamp duty on its own valuation which is much higher than the amount of compensation. Why can't compensation for acquisition be paid at this rate of official valuation?

The R & R Bill envisages compensation at the rate of 60 per cent of the market-value, or the floor area rate (whichever is higher) for normal acquisition and 75 per cent of the same for urgent acquisition. It has proposed a Land Acquisition Disputes Settlement Authority for each State, which the affected owners can approach. Besides allotment of land in lieu of the acquired land to the extent possible, the Bill recommends employment of at least one person from each affected family. When land is acquired, the owner not only loses it forever but also misses a recurrent income from crops, seeds and by-products. Acquisition should, therefore, provide for a recurrent income to the owners, either lumpsum or in the form of free shares, if an industry is built upon it by the government or a private company.

The Left Front's industrial policy of 1998 provided for the latter but was never demanded from private investors. Had it been demanded from the Tatas for their small car project in Singur and if they had complied, the government would have been able to take the wind out of Mamata Banerjee's sails. No acquisition law has ever provided for compensating the loss of common property resources like pastures, forests, wasteland, dumping and threshing grounds, village ponds, rivers, river-banks and char land on which the rural poor depend for fuel, fodder and food.

The bone of contention is the acquiring authority. The bill envisages that if a private company buys 70 per cent of its requirement directly from owners, the government can acquire the remaining 30 per cent. This is not acceptable to Miss Banerjee and the Left parties except the RSP. They suspect a quid pro quo in such deals. The 1894 Act empowers the government to acquire land for a company, but although this provision has been dropped from the draft Bill, acquisition has been permitted for joint ventures (with the government) and associations of unregistered investors, real estate promoters who, critics allege, can turn out to be land mafia, as happened in Vedic Village. They argue that if the government has no role in the acquisition, the private players will call the shots. Attracted by monetary gains, the owners will even sell fertile land and collectively endanger food security. Mamata Banerjee has demanded that the Bill prohibit forcible acquisition, provide for return or 'buy back' of unutilised acquired land and totally exempt farm land. Acquisition should be confined to non-arable land only.

MAIN DEMAND

THE 1894 Act did not exempt land tilled by tribals from acquisition. Out of nearly 60 million owners and tillers, displaced by acquisitions between 1954 and 2004, about one-fifth belonged to the Scheduled Tribes; the Centre admits that only 28 per cent of them have been rehabilitated. The Bill on the anvil should incorporate the relevant sections of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 and of the Scheduled Tribes & Other Traditional Forest-Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2007,. Under these Acts, the government has restored to the tribal population the ownership, collection, processing, trade and marketing of minor forest products. In 1997 the Supreme Court also ruled out the acquisition of tribal land and forests.
The Bill should address the core recommendations of the 2007 National Rehabilitation Policy under which both acquisition and displacement should be minimum. Selection of the land to be acquired should not be left to the discretion of a scrutiny committee, as in the draft Bill, but made statutory.

No acquisition bill or amendments provided for the return of acquired land if it was not used or acquired in excess. This was the main demand of the opposition's movement in Singur. The Supreme Court has also ruled that land acquired in the public interest has to be used for that purpose only; if it is not, it has to be used for some other purpose of public interest, failing which the land has to be auctioned and proceeds used for public utility. Tamil Nadu has enacted legislation for the return of unused acquired land to the original owner. The Land Acquisition Bill should set a time-limit for the utilisation of acquired land. Highly fertile multi-crop land should be out of bounds from acquisition in order to preserve food security.

(To be concluded)

The writer is a retired member of the IndianInformation Service

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

A NEW METHOD TO SCREEN SLEEP DISORDERS AT HOME

 

London, 23 Nov: Finnish researchers have developed a new method that would help people screen their sleeping pattern at home and analyse snoring sounds and other sleep abnormalities.

The method, HomeSleep, enables screening of sleep disorders by using a microphone connected to a PC and a wireless microphone to record and analyse snoring sounds. "People can record their sleep all through the night," said lead researcher Dr Vaino Virtanen from Tampere University of Technology in Finland. While recording snoring, the microphone is placed as close to the sleeper's mouth and neck as possible. Restless legs and movements are detected by fixing the device to a pyjama leg or placing it under the sheets. Dr Tapani Salmi, a sleep specialist said, "the recording is performed at home using a minimally invasive device, which results in natural and undisturbed sleep." PTI

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

LONG WAIT

 

Bangladesh's national memory has always had two deep wounds — the genocide suffered during its liberation war and the assassination of the founder of the new nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The trial of Rahman's killers, therefore, became a symbol of the nation's attempts to redefine its identity. That it took the country 34 years to get a judicial verdict on the assassination shows how difficult that process has been. At one level, the delayed justice reflected the nation's political divide. It was left to Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Rahman's daughter and currently the country's prime minister, to push for the punishment of the assassins. An indemnity ordinance issued immediately after the killing in August, 1975, blocked any trial of the case. Ms Wajed revoked that ordinance after coming to power for the first time in 2001 and began the trial. But her successor, Begum Khaleda Zia, showed no interest in pursuing it. Ms Wajed's keenness to see her father's killers punished is much more than a family affair. The killing scarred the new nation deeply and the fact that the killers were not punished left the wound festering. It is, after all, no ordinary case of crime and punishment. Justice delayed in this case is worse than justice denied. It is ultimately a matter of the nation's ability and willingness to come to terms with its brief history.

 

It has been argued sometimes that the trial would reopen old wounds and harm, rather than help, national reconciliation. This was a specious argument, which sought to cover up attempts to protect the killers. Bangladesh needed to see Rahman's killers punished so that democracy and the rule of law could take roots there. True, the sharp political divide between Ms Wajed's Bangladesh Awami League and Ms Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party calls for serious moves for national reconciliation. The divide has claimed huge social and economic costs in a desperately poor country. Punishing Rahman's killers can be the beginning of a new determination to renew the nation's democratic aspirations. It can also be crucial to the new challenges that the country faces. Rebuilding the economy and bridging the social divide remain Ms Wajed's major challenges. But far more important is what the country faces from destabilizing forces such as Islamist terrorism. Fighting these forces successfully is crucial to the country's future as a democracy.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

DIRTILY YOURS

 

The idea of a Nobel Prize for filth — awarded for the advancement of disgust, rather than peace, literature or physics — would alarm the Swedes. But India's minister for environment and forests lives and works in a less squeamish part of the world, where such things can be imagined with less effort. He has publicly declared that Indian cities would win the Nobel for filth hands down: "Our cities are the dirtiest cities of the world." Jairam Ramesh was not pronouncing a statistically proven truth, but expressing an impressionistic consensus. There is no point in being patriotic and touchy about something so self-evident. It is the combined failure of governance and right-acting citizenship that makes Indian cities what they are. Civic authorities and governments are made up of the same sort of people who live in the cities and towns and make them dirty. So misgovernance in, say, domestic waste management and a general lack of civic sense cannot be kept apart from each other: each informs the other. The official excuse for inefficiency and corruption in these matters is, of course, poverty, over-population and migration. But if the poor and the homeless generate filth in Indian cities and refuse to remain out of sight and smell, then the thing to do is to get to the bottom of why their lives lack shelter, water, sanitation and drainage. One is then brought back to the question of administration and governance.

 

To breathe toxic air, to walk past mountains of garbage, to be cooped up in a fatally unclean hospital ward, to attend classes in a dirty campus, to use filthy public toilets are taken as a matter of course in Indian urban and suburban life. As long as a certain culturally specific notion of personal space and the purity of one's own being are not violated, the condition of public spaces is a matter of collective unconcern for ordinary as well as important Indians. Colonial rule did not make much of a difference to these double standards, so it might be unrealistic to expect modernity, with its globalized and liberalized lifestyle, to suddenly bring about what imperial hygiene and civility could not achieve. In Calcutta, lethargy, corruption, politicking and filth are part of the same cultural tradition. So its mayor — who is better at being social than being mayoral — would perhaps not mind the honour and the excitement of going up to receive urban India's very own Nobel.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

A QUESTION OF STATUS

QUANTITY CANNOT BE QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

TAPAN RAYCHAUDHURI

 

There is a new excitement in the air concerning higher education. It has been decided by the powers that be, warmly supported by the academic community, that turning selected colleges into universities will open the gates to a Valhalla of knowledge. A commission entrusted with the qualitative improvement of higher education has recommended that on top of some 350 universities and/or equivalent institutions, another 1,500 will be created by upgrading colleges to the university status. Our very highly educated and highly intelligent prime minister has decided to open 14 world class new universities. This brief article is meant to examine the viability and implications of such proposals.

 

In the days prior to the primacy of political correctness, C.D. Deshmukh, then chairman of the University Grants Commission, made a projection of the number of colleges and universities we would need in some 20 years based on an assessment of our future economic and social needs. He concluded that either we would need to create a given number of new universities or get the required number of graduates from a certain university then universally recognized as by far the worst of the lot. Now, of course, we know that all Indian universities are equal, only Jawaharlal Nehru University being equal to Harvard and Oxbridge. Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shamed be he who thinks evil of it).

 

We have had umpteen committees and commissions looking into the state of higher education in our country. They have looked into everything except the content and quality of education received by our graduates and holders of higher degrees. A similar enquiry led by Amartya Sen into the state of elementary education in a selected area of West Bengal has established that after four years of elementary education a very high proportion of students remains illiterate. No wonder, because in quite a few institutions the education dispensed consists in the students being asked to go home after their names have been called. I suggest a similar study be undertaken on the basis of random sampling to establish what actually our graduates and MAs have learned after three to five years spent in the worship of the Goddess of Learning in the numerous temples we have set up for the purpose.

 

I have not undertaken such an exercise, but have some idea as to the likely findings based on qualitative, and necessarily impressionistic, evidence. Over the years, I have lectured to students and teachers in most universities of West Bengal and quite a few in other parts of India. My evidence partly derives from the experience of such contacts.

 

There is one basic determinant of the quality of our higher education. Since Independence, there has been one welcome change in the way we dispense education: vernaculars have become the medium of instruction even at the highest level. This is entirely desirable so long as the students do not lose their access to the higher levels of knowledge. I do not know of any Indian language in which there is adequate number of books or journals providing access to the ongoing developments in knowledge at the highest level. No one has disputed the truth of this proposition, except one highly placed ass with whom I had the misfortune of lunching. But this was in the happy days of Bharatiya Janata Party rule. And it is beyond dispute that, except in a few institutions, students do not have enough knowledge of any world language (in our case English) to allow them the necessary access to the advanced literature in their subject. This means that the education of our MAs and honours graduates, except in the case of a small percentage of them belonging to some elite institutions, consists in memorizing lecture notes. The quality of the said notes determines the quality of our higher education. The truth or otherwise of this statement can be very easily tested by using the method of sample survey.

 

Assuming my hypothesis to be true, and I should be very happy if it turns out to be false, what exactly do we gain by multiplying further the number of universities at a very heavy cost to the nation? If, as I suggest, our institutions are spreading mainly non-knowledge (for how else would we describe education based almost exclusively on lecture notes?), is it really worthwhile to increase their number? If we want more people with degrees that are worth very little in terms of the knowledge acquired, this target could be more inexpensively attained through open universities and correspondence courses and the savings expended on improving the quality of our primary education. After all, it is more important for our nation to have a higher level of real, not nominal, literacy rather than an inflation in the number of graduates. There are always ways of improving the quality of our higher education, but that is not the subject matter of this article. I focus simply on one issue — whether by further multiplying the number of universities we are doing any good to our educational system.

 

My particular concern here is with the new initiative to confer the status of universities on selected colleges. One assumption behind it seems to be that colleges that, perhaps after a glorious past, are now suffering in quality will regain their old excellence if turned into universities. The logic underlying this assumption is incredibly bizarre. Spelt out, it would imply that institutions which are mediocre or worse today will become centres of excellence tomorrow by virtue of having university status conferred on them. It is well to remember that in the golden tomorrow, the people running these institutions will continue to do so still. If they are sought to be replaced by allegedly abler people, the seat of learning will be converted into a battleground for power. If, on the other hand, the old guard are allowed to remain in power they will ensure that the newcomers do not excel in any way. Such, indeed, is the way of all flesh as is well-known to all but the most doggedly optimistic among us.

 

On the other hand, the logic behind conferring university status on a particular college may well be a recognition of its excellence, and making that excellence available for the service to a higher level of learning. If this is so, I suggest some very simple tests to ensure the validity of the judgment. First, since we are, these days, so enamoured of American academic practices, let us take anonymously the opinion of students about the quality of teaching and make a high mark a sine qua non of the relevant decision. Secondly, since these institutions will be expected to contribute to knowledge, let us have surveys of the amount of quality research they have produced in the last ten years — in terms of scholarly books (reviewed in authoritative journals), refereed articles and theses done under their supervision. Thirdly, a quiet survey of library books issued to students and teachers in an average year. Of course both may have borrowed or bought books to supplement what is available in their college libraries and an enquiry into this aspect of the pursuit of knowledge would be indeed worthwhile.

 

I mention this because of my experience of an extremely negative example. During a visit of enquiry into the state of education in 1967, I found in a college in Rajasthan with a brilliantly equipped library that neither students nor teachers had borrowed a single volume in course of the entire year. The students, incidentally, proudly acknowledged their total ignorance of the English language. This was at the high tide of the Angrezi Hatao movement.

 

My point is very simple. There is no point in increasing the supply of higher education without first finding out the real content of the education we are dispensing. And there is even less point in promoting institutions to a status higher than their present one without making sure that they are worthy of the promotion. And I humbly appeal to our prime minister to consider whether 14 new universities of an exceptionally high standard can be created simply by the fiat of one's will. Would it not be better to try and improve the existing ones instead of creating a herd of new sacred cows? Unesco recently produced a list of 100 top universities of the world. Not one of them is an Indian university — not even JNU with its aura of supra-terrestrial excellence.

The author is former professor of modern Indian history at the University of Oxford

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

IN THE ROGUES' GALLERY

MALA FIDE - MALVIKA SINGH

 

The cold has started to set in, and rumour has it that because of changes in climate patterns, Delhi will witness an unprecedented cold winter this year, with temperatures dropping to below zero degrees. When that happens, the power supply will become erratic, and the atmosphere will be further polluted with the smoke of rubber burning at every roadside, as people huddle around the fire to keep themselves warm. Within the thick walls of Parliament, snug in the warmth of a building well-conceived and constructed, the elected representatives of our young democracy continue to adjourn the House with predictable regularity, instead of working for the delivery of essential goods and services to those outside the walls of privilege.

 

For the Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai, breaking into the offices of the IBN network and beating up journalists seem to be the top priority in their scheme of social work and selfless commitment to Maharashtrian nationalism. The cosmopolitan ethos of the Bombay of my youth has been diluted into that of a parochial little 'town' where the local leadership is desperate to shut out Indians from other parts of India. This only happens when there is a profound sense of insecurity vis-à -vis the rest of the nation, or when people believe that they are not competent enough to compete and would, therefore, like to keep quality skills, ability for hard work and intellectual activities at bay.

 

To allow this kind of blatant abuse of the law of the land to flood the public space is nothing short of criminal. And when governments fail to bring in the corrective through strong and urgent action, the result is frightfully undignified. Watching Ashok Chavan on television, promising to bring the culprits to book, makes one wonder whether the charade will continue this time too. Or will he, as the chief minister, rise out of the mire that is Mumbai and, even at the cost of betraying his hitherto 'exploitative' political class, ensure stern and definite action, regardless of the consequences and the constant threat of a backlash? Will he be the first to set the blurred lines straight and draw the lakshman rekha of appropriate, honest, clean and lawful behaviour?

 

MORE QUERIES

Will the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party oldies, used to playing one horror against the other that creates impossible-to-handle monsters on whose back they then climb and ride for short-term gains, abruptly and decisively discard their failed, manipulative strategies and reform the politics of Maharashtra, in this particular instance?

 

Bhindranwale was one such 'creation', and Raj Thackeray is being seen as the new boy on that block! The chatterati in that city, along with the few well-heeled who wanted to make an impact on India by entering the political fray to cleanse a corroded system, seem to have lost their voices on this recent issue. They are not seen on television channels and are definitely not sitting in dharnas, leading peaceful civil disobedience movements in front of Bal Thackeray's home or office. In contrast, the chief minister has been very vocal and comes across the footlights as being genuine in his anger at the happenings. Will civil society in Mumbai, as a start, address this peculiar, irrational and unconstitutional premise of the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena that Maharashtra is for Maharashtrians and the rest are second-class citizens?

 

As a symbolic gesture, all non-Maharashtrians in Mumbai could cease work, completely and wholly, for one week. Then cut all resources from the Centre to the state. Maharashtra will stand still and begin to crumble. When confronted with this stark reality, all Indians in Maharashtra will rethink their allegiances and the definition of 'Marathi nationalism' in 2009.

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

WHY THE PULSE RATE IS SO HIGH

 

The fate of wheat and pulses raises questions about the wisdom of liberalizing the financial markets at this moment, writes Dipankar Bose

 

One of the stories of Sherlock Holmes narrates an incident in which a racehorse was stolen while a dog was on guard and the stable door remained locked. Holmes wondered, "Why didn't the dog bark?" The answer was simple. The stable door was opened by none other than the trainer himself. Something similar has been happening in our dear motherland.

 

High food inflation is no longer news in India. Over almost the last four years, it has quite often been in double digits. But now the prices of essential food items have reached such proportions that a deeper probe is necessary. A case study of wheat and pulses provides the answer.

 

The production of wheat was at 68.6 metric tonnes in 2004-05, it rose to 69.5 mt in 2005-06 and to 75.8 mt in 2006-07. Procurement by the government was at 16.8 mt in 2004-05, which fell to 14.8 mt in 2005-06 and to 9.8 mt in 2006-07. Thus, wheat production did not fall but procurement was drastically cut to reduce the storage cost. The Centre also gave a huge transport subsidy to private traders to sell wheat abroad from its stocks.

 

The twin measures succeeded in bringing down the public stock of wheat to just 1.8 mt on April 1, 2006. On July 1, 2006, the wheat stock was at around 10 mt as against the norm of 17.2 mt, while its wholesale price was 8.46 per cent above the previous year's. The sharp drop in procurement, which had nothing to do with the demand-supply conditions, gave traders a golden chance to buy the wheat offered cheap by small farmers right after the harvest, and to go for large-scale hoarding. The buyers included multinational corporations such as ITC Limited and Cargill India.

 

As private hoarding continued, wheat prices began to soar and reached Rs 1,800 per quintal by end-October, 2006, from Rs 1,100 in end-March in Delhi. Again, it is the traders and the rich farmers who gained by such price hikes. Because only they can afford the large warehouses and get the backing of institutional credit, both of which are denied their poorer cousins. The large farmers gained even more as the government went on raising the procurement price rather extravagantly till 2009.

 

Pulses present the opposite case in the sense that the market is perpetually in short supply. Decades of stagnant acreage (20-23 million hectares) and low yield (500-600 kilograms per hectare) have led to stagnant production (13-14.5 million tonnes) and, consequently, a sharp fall in per capita availability owing to a rise in population. Fifty years back, in 1958-59, the per capita availability of pulses was 27.3 kgs, and now it is at 12.7 kgs. Even these figures hide its extremely skewed consumption pattern because of its high price and the grinding poverty of the masses. They can hardly afford pulses, their only source of protein.

 

Between January and June 2006, the wholesale price index for pulses went up by nearly 80 per cent. Urad had a jump of Rs 500 per quintal in Chennai around June 22, 2006. Such exorbitant price hikes within such short periods can only be explained by large-scale hoarding and speculation because the demand-supply situation cannot change so quickly. By end-June 2006, the Centre reduced the customs duty on wheat from 50 per cent to five per cent, and that on pulses from 10 per cent to nil, and decided to import about four mt of wheat. But the decisions came four months too late. In late August, 2006, the states were empowered to restrict the stock of wheat and pulses. Immediately, the futures dropped in the commodity exchanges, confirming the speculative rise earlier.

The sharp rise in the prices of wheat and pulses, and also the fact that they were being hoarded, were well-known in the trade by February 2006. Yet, precious little was done till the prices sky-rocketed in June. In the process, the grain-sharks made a killing. Hoarding of foodgrains is nothing new. It happens every year. But, from early 2006, the scale of hoarding has become formidable, which explains the continuing steep rise in cereals.

 

This brings us to the question of speculative funding. Thanks to financial liberalization, the concomitant of globalization, money from any source can go to any market in search of profit, in reality. The financial markets abroad and at home are such that it is well-nigh impossible to trace the circuitous route of the speculative funds from their sources to their final destinations through the various kinds of deals.

 

Hedge funds control more than $1.3 trillion globally — more than double the figure six years back. Even if a minuscule fraction of such funding enters the Indian grain trade on top of the domestic speculative funding, then even god cannot save us.

 

Earlier, such fund flows were limited mostly to stocks and real estate. But from late 2005, these funds seem to have entered the foodgrains market as well, causing havoc for the masses. If these people, numbering millions, were to spend less for their food, they could have replaced their torn dhotis, saris or old cycles earlier than usual, which in turn would have raised the industrial growth rate, the present day god, via a rise in aggregate demand.

 

Liberalizing the grains market without strengthening the production-distribution base is a recipe for disaster as it is. We have gone further with wholesale financial liberalization in an economy which had already been flooded with black money.

 

The million-dollar question now is, is it judicious for a nation which cannot boast an enviable record in money management to embrace financial liberalization so closely? The number of scams we have had since the 'reforms' began bear testimony to this.

 

After such knowledge, what forgiveness?

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

WITH A BIT OF HELP FROM THE SKY

PRUDENT AND SELECTIVE USE OF AERIAL FIREPOWER CAN PUT AN END TO THE MAOIST THREAT

SHOCK AND AWE

 

India has used its air force's firepower in conjunction with the army with telling, if not decisive, effect in the past. The serious situations, bordering on armed revolt, incursion and secession, in the Northeast and in Jammu and Kashmir merited such a strategy. The political decisions must have been difficult to take. What must have helped was that after a certain stage the army was doing the bulk of the fighting and the situations had turned into quasi-wars. Moreover, time was running out.

 

Once the political decisions were taken, the go-aheads given and the overall guidelines spelt out, the air force and the army were left pretty much to do their own joint planning and execution. Air force firepower was used most astutely to avoid unnecessary collateral damage. I state this from first-hand experience, observation and knowledge.

 

Not using the air force's firepower at the time, to my mind, would have been disastrous. Merely using the Indian Air Force in logistics, communication, surveillance and casualty evacuation wasn't paying dividends. As it was revealed once peace and order were restored, aerial firepower could not have been used more opportunely. Airpower, along with the army's ground action, possibly shortened the conflict and nipped in the bud what was rapidly turning into a serious challenge to India's integrity. In a way, it also served as a punishing lesson to the then and future separatists, without estranging the populace.

 

The Maoist menace of today is vastly different, both in character and content as also in its origins and geographical areas of operation. The nature and extent of media coverage, too, have changed since the insurrections of the 1960s. However, revisiting those air operations and then carefully extrapolating all that information to the Maoist problem may be useful given the current debate on the possible use of airpower. Repeated denunciations of the use of airpower without the benefit of hindsight could well embolden the Maoist cadre.

 

Air force firepower has unique elements of surprise, speed, devastation as well as a psychological impact. Be it the insurgencies and incursions of the 1960s or the Kargil operation in 1999, it has been in the very nature of aerial firepower to strike awe and fear into the hearts of highly motivated opponents. It lends itself eminently for prudent and selective use in anti-Maoist operations.

 

Taking a hasty public stand against the use of air firepower in keeping with the rhetoric of human rights organizations would be an ill-advised step. One wonders whether the question of human rights violation arises at all, given the fact that such groups have repeatedly shown utter contempt for the lives of government employees and police personnel. Those who think routine security measures or development initiatives alone will deliver the results are seriously mistaken.

 

Aerial firepower and the political processes that aim to address the crucial socio-economic issues underlying the Maoist movement are not mutually exclusive. It is also not my suggestion that the stick precede the carrot. Often, there may not be enough time but there will always be enough space for the two approaches to be mixed judiciously. If the Maoist ideologues are convinced that such a two-track approach is indeed being adopted, it may not end the insurgency by itself but such a measure will arguably hasten the end of the bloodshed.

Satish Inamdar (The author is a former vice-chief of the IAF and former member of the UPSC)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

SUGAR POLITICS

''PRICING OF SUGARCANE HAS ALWAYS BEEN DISTORTED.''

 

The reversal of the sugarcane pricing policy, which had been announced by the Central government through an ordinance last month, was not unexpected. A policy that hurt the interests of farmers in states which account for the highest sugarcane acreage and production could not be defended, even if it had many good points. Therefore, the government had to beat a retreat and drop a section from the ordinance which would have denied the farmers the rightful price in some situations.

The new policy was good to the extent that it sought to bring about uniformity in cane prices. It also sought to address the problem of state governments announcing State Advised Prices (SAP) over and above the Centre's Statutory Minimum Price(SMP), resulting in price increases of sugar. The idea of a fair and remunerative price (FRP), that was introduced, made it obligatory for states that  fixed a higher price to pay for it. But since this was not possible, only the sugar mills would have gained. In UP the FRP is about Rs 130 while the SAP is 160. Now the difference between the two has to be paid by the mills.

The pricing of sugarcane has always been distorted because of the politicisation of the industry. The problem becomes acute in times of shortage like this year, when production is expected to be about 7.5 million tonnes short of demand. The acreage is less because three successive years of good crop has put a cap on prices and on farmers' income. But it was wrong to allow only the sugar mills to gain from the shortage in output and the high prices of the commodity.  Sugar policy should ideally take into consideration the interests three main groups – cane growers, mills and consumers. Very often the policy is seen favouring one or the other, depending on the existing circumstances and political considerations. This is not the ideal situation for a country which is the highest consumer and the second largest producer of sugar in the world.

 

The government has only solved a political problem, and the solution is temporary. Excessive regulation has prevented reforms in the industry. It may not be possible to decontrol the industry at one go. If the regulation is done by an independent body and not by governments, the pricing process, which is often the most problematic, will be fairer and more rational. That should be the goal for the government.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

LACK OF WILL

''THE WORLD MAY HAVE TO LOOK BEYOND COPENHAGEN.''

It is now almost certain that the climate change meeting at Copenhagen next month will not produce a final agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The message from the recent Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit is that the world may have to look beyond Copenhagen for a consensus and the meeting next month will at best result in a statement of intentions. These intentions might also be couched in such general terms that they may not even serve as a good road map. That is the import of the statement of Danish Prime Minister Lars Rasmussen, who will chair the Copenhagen meet, that we need to expect only a political declaration there.

The bilateral expression of support for a comprehensive deal, made during US President Barack Obama's visit to China, does not change this scenario. Both countries, which are key players in climate change negotiations, and other important participants like Russia and Canada had all agreed at the APEC meet that enough preparations had not been made for a successful outcome at Copenhagen, though discussions are being held for many years. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that there are significant areas of disagreement which cannot be sorted out in the next three weeks.

The US too has said that it is not ready for the deal because an enabling legislation is still stuck in the US Congress. The legal hurdle is symptomatic of the continuing US refusal to accept binding caps on emissions without such targets being set for developing countries. The expectation that the Obama administration has a different approach to climate change has not been supported by actions and policies. European countries, which had once accepted the principle of differentiated responsibility, have shown signs of dithering, as seen at last fortnight's EU summit. There is also no progress on the proposals for funding developing countries' efforts at mitigation and transfer of clean technologies.

According to present indications another summit is being planned to be held in Bonn or Mexico City next year, which may take forward whatever decisions are taken at Copenhagen. But there cannot be any substantial progress unless there is a major change of attitude and policies on the part of the developed countries.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

A PERSIAN ROMANCE

IRAN IS AN IDEAL PARTNER FOR INDIA TO BREAK OUT OF REGIONAL ISOLATION REGARDING THE AFGHAN PROBLEM.

BY M K BHADRAKUMAR

India-Iran political exchanges always had a relative quality and an intrinsic value. The visit by the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to New Delhi last Monday was no exception. The United States always watches with an eagle's eye Delhi's minutest transactions with Tehran. The fact that Mottaki's visit was scheduled a week ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's departure for Washington carried some political symbolism. And it hasn't gone unnoticed.

While speaking in the US House of Representatives last Wednesday on a resolution welcoming Dr. Singh ("a man who is one in a billion" for America), Republican Congressman Gary Ackerman, who twice co-chaired the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, reiterated: "There are, as to be expected, differences between us (US and India). Some of them, and I would note particularly the issue of Iran, are very serious... I believe we can work through our differences."

The US pressure - often engineered by the powerful Israeli lobby in the Congress - is on display. The US is averse to other countries striding ahead until it can normalise with Iran. Period. Iran is the last remaining frontier in energy and Washington is determined to calibrate Iran's entry into the world market.

THIN ON GROUND

The Indian elite kept a balance - neither unduly challenging the US interests nor overlooking Iran's immense importance. In substance, though, India-Iran relationship remains thin on the ground, below potential. The pattern got broken under the UPA-I while it desperately wrapped up the nuclear deal with the US. Meanwhile, of course, unseen and unspoken, many sorts of vested interests inevitably developed as India began purchasing massive quantities of weapons from Israel ,short-circuiting open tendering procedure.

Suffice it to say, therefore, that the big question as Mottaki came and left last week is whether UPA-II will fare any better? There is reason for optimism, but also for keeping fingers crossed.

First, the need of circumspection. The primacy attached to the 'strategic partnership' with the US cannot easily change. This is for a variety of reasons - big corporate interests, great-power ambitions, geopolitics of South Asia, China's rise, and last but not the least, the strong social kinships of the diaspora in north America. Frankly, for the Indian elite, the US remains the metropolis while Iran seems mofussil.

Besides, the ties with Israel are going from strength to strength. We readily launched more than one Israeli spy satellite but ignored an Iranian request. All the same, there are stirrings. The US strategy to isolate Iran has failed and an engagement of Iran has commenced. Delhi needs to catch up with the US-Iran thaw. Iran heads the Non-Aligned Movement and its influence in the Middle East has increased.

However, the most important factor is that the US has not only failed to recognise India's primacy in the Indian Ocean region but also attributes centrality to Pakistan in regional policies. Furthermore, the Barack Obama administration's view of China and proclivity towards bringing it as partner to tackle the issues of regional security and stability of South Asia has a sobering effect on the Indian strategic mindset.

Clearly, the world order is not going back to the 19th century paradigm of the 'balance of forces,' where India would be a key 'balancer.' Obama's speech in Tokyo on the Asia-Pacific omitted any reference whatsoever to India as a regional power of consequence.

A gravitation, inevitably, may have begun in the Indian thinking, towards searching out atrophied but time-tested relationships and to 'modernise' them. The traffic from Delhi to Moscow has noticeably increased. One presidential visit, two prime ministerial visits and visits by the foreign minister and defence minister - that is indeed heavy traffic between two capitals for a 6-month period.

INTRINSIC CONTENT

 To sum up, Mottaki's visit needs to be understood against a complex and evolving backdrop. But it is not devoid of intrinsic content, either. India has still not said 'nyet' to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project. True, aside from the unpredictability of India-Pakistan ties, the project is now caught up in a political bind. When the government sets a 'friendly' price for the gas produced in the Godavari basin, how can it import Iranian gas at world market price? Some answer must be found.

Of course, a strong case can be made for cooperation with Iran over the Afghan problem. Iran is an ideal partner for India to break out of regional isolation regarding the Afghan problem. The two countries have not only no clash of interests, there are also signs of a meaningful relationship developing for exchange of intelligence relating to the activities of extremists and terrorists in the region. Both India and Iran have become 'collateral victims' of the chaos in the 'AfPak' belt.

However, the real litmus test lies in our political leadership's foresight - and grit - to advance the gas pipeline project. No doubt, the project can provide a much-needed underpinning of regional stability.

In the present transformative period, most serious regional powers are searching for creative ideas for geopolitical positioning in anticipation rather than do nit-picking. Look at Turkey or Brazil.

If Singh embarks on a visit to Tehran in February, it should provide the occasion for a trilateral with Iran and Pakistan to seal the pipeline project and for a profound exchange of views on the range of issues affecting regional stability.

(The writer is a former diplomat.)

 

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE RELEVANCE OF HIND SWARAJ

THE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENT TO THE REALISATION OF TRUE SWARAJ WAS THE 'WESTERN CIVILISATION'.

BY SUDHANSHU RANJAN

 

Very little has been written in the mainstream media on 'Hind Swaraj' (Indian Home Rule), the famed book of Mahatma Gandhi in its centenary year though it can be of much use today to resolve the present crisis bedevilling the nation. It is his first book written between Nov 13 and Nov 22, 1909 on board the ship while returning from London to South Africa, and hence called 'the sermon on the sea' also.  It is simply amazing that such a great work, rated as one of the greatest ever. Gandhi did not have any amanuensis, but he wrote continuously. So much so, that when his right hand was exhausted, he went on with his left hand. The book, which encapsulates his concept of swaraj and the means to achieve it, has become all the more relevant today when the country is undergoing a sort of convulsion due to the offensive launched by the Naxalites and the State against each other and the effectiveness of the parliamentary system is being questioned so openly.

The purpose of Gandhi's visit was to enlist support for the satyagraha movement that he was leading in South Africa. He held dialogue with Indian students studying there, and was appalled to find that they all were convinced about the legitimacy and effectiveness of violence as a means for achieving swaraj.

Gandhi was deeply disturbed by his talks with Savarkar. The latter was immensely influenced by Joseph Mazzini. He felt that Mazzini unified Italy by fighting the alien power through secret societies. Arms were obtained for these societies from neighbouring countries and their members were sent to various countries for getting trained in warfare. Savarkar openly called upon the youth to fight with arms to liberate their motherland.

Gandhi was also upset to observe that for the youth swaraj meant nothing more than the transfer of the reins of power from the British to the Indians. They had no complaint against the system introduced by the foreign power. Gandhi felt that such a country would not be Hindustan but Englishtan.

According to him, the biggest impediment to the realisation of true swaraj was the 'modern western civilisation' which gave primacy to physical and material comforts of man at the cost of moral and spiritual progress. For him, swaraj meant swa + raj.

He explained: "Real home rule is self-rule or self-control." And, non-violence was the only means to attain it. He wrote, "If India adopted the doctrine of love as an active part of her religion and introduced it in her politics, Swaraj would descend upon India from heaven."

his is the religion of love which is badly needed in today's strife-torn world. After reading the book, John Middleton Murry commented that "the kindling of a vast and consuming flame of Christian love" was the only way to save the western civilization.

Gandhi's doctrine

However, Gandhi's doctrine of non-violence was not fully accepted by his own party. In 1939, when the World War broke out, he wanted the Indian National Congress to adopt non-violence as its principle but the Congress accepted it only as a policy and rejected it as a principle.

Rejecting his idea of swaraj, Nehru wrote that the Congress had never accepted it: "A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment."

Gandhi's description of the British parliament as a sterile woman and even a prostitute has been hotly debated ever since he used the term. When Mahadevbhai suggested to him to change these words, he said that the expression may be changed, but his feelings remained the same.

He called it a sterile woman because it lacks creativity and works only under pressure. And he likened it to prostitute because it works under the control of ministers who go on changing, sometimes even overnight. How true! It's a common knowledge how the legislature is controlled by the executive. Now, could we learn anything from him?

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

SALAAM BOMBAY!

IN MUMBAI, YOU GO OUT FOR A STROLL AND YOU ARE SWEPT AWAY IN THE TIDE OF THINGS.

BY SUDHA MADHAVAN

As we are yet again reminded of the horror of 26/11, it's time to remember why Bombay or Mumbai as it is now called, is so special and will always be. No matter how inclined you are to judging it harshly with the usual indictments of 'too congested', 'too crowded', 'too fast paced' etc. Mumbai warms your heart like an urchin with the melting eyes and a trusting smile whom you want to pick up and hug.

You walk the streets and you belong. You go out for a stroll and you are swept away in the tide of things happening around you. People  are busy walking on the sea face, the Marine drive (with its enchanting 'Queen's Necklace') chatting, greeting each other, shopping, jogging, eating or … standing in queues for the latest movie! Roadside eateries, coffee shops, hotels are all brimming over with clientele.

The bhutta wallah, the bhelpuri guy, the 'go gola' chap (the modernised version of Kala Khatta and other coloured ice candy!), the van man with the herbal juices, the Frankie vendor, the man selling the enticing cone of hot peanuts are all doing brisk business. And aren't their hands full!

Mumbai facililitates fun. 'Go live your life', it says, 'I am there! Not to worry!' Can one ignore such an appeal?

Walking down on Diwali eve into the little galli behind the famous Hill Road in Bandra (with the Bollywood stars' homes just a stones throw away) I discover a whole new world. Not a mall, nor a departmental store in sight. I breathe a sigh of relief.  I look around me at the rows upon rows of cubby hole shops jostling with each other for attention. You have to step with careful focus or you might walk into the shop next to the one that you intend to.

There is loud music playing, twinkling fairy lights dance to the light breeze, the sweet shops are spilling over with freshly made 'Mithai', clothes shops are choc a bloc, even the innerwear  shop has its share of clientele ( this fellow surprises me with his linguistic skills as he does quick acrobatic switches between Hindi, Marathi, English, Urdu and to top it all Tamil.)

I  stand with my mouth agape taking in the sheer energy and laughter and chatter.

On my way back home I remain thoughtful both due to the immeasurable joy that I have experienced and the several questions that have emerged as to whether we do any justice at all to this other world, richly deserving in some of the opportunities which we so casually take for granted.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

PRINCIPLE & PRAGMATISM

 

Yesterday, according to the Hebrew calendar, marked David Ben-Gurion's 36th yahrzeit. A founding father of Israel and its first prime minister, he died on December 1, 1973 at 87.

 

In considering the lessons to be drawn from Ben-Gurion's life, one involves his quest for the right balance between ideology and pragmatism. His admirers argue that Ben-Gurion was wise to jettison ideological consistency in the name of creating and consolidating the Zionist enterprise.

 

He was a socialist, though Marxist dialectics took a back seat to his Zionist pragmatism: settling the land and promoting aliya. Doggedly single-minded, he acquiesced to majority rule, but was no pluralist. He ruled his party and saw to it that it ruled the Histadrut, the Jewish Agency and the government. Ben-Gurion expected absolute allegiance to the cause in the way that he defined it.

 

HIS CRITICS on the Zionist Right, followers of the classically liberal ideologue Ze'ev Jabotinsky, denounced Ben-Gurion's willingness, by 1937, to accept an independent Jewish state in a small part of Palestine, when by Divine right, historical association and international treaty the Jews deserved all of Eretz Yisrael. The Jabotinsky people did not understand how Ben-Gurion could cooperate with the British while their White Paper barred the doors of Palestine to Jewish refugees. Nor could they forgive his June 1948 decision to sink the Irgun arms ship Altalena, carrying desperately needed weapons, to hammer home the point that the future state would have one unified command and he would be the commander-in-chief.

 

He was uncompromising not in his ideology, but in his pragmatism. He insisted on unity, seeing fragmentation as an obstacle to achieving Jewish independence. In a 1944 speech, he declared, "Anyone who questions the ultimate authority of the nation as a whole… undermines its dynamic potential." He personified that ultimate authority.

 

Ben-Gurion sought Arab assent for Zionism by holding talks with Mussa al-Alami, a pre-state Palestinian leader. He assured the Cambridge-educated Alami that his people would materially benefit by recognizing Jewish rights to Eretz Yisrael and agreeing to live in peace. But when Alami replied that the Arabs would rather see the country remain a wasteland for another 100 years than share it with the Jews, Ben-Gurion concluded that war was inevitable.

 

He speculated - somewhat optimistically, it turns out - that once the Arabs were decisively defeated and had witnessed the Jews developing the country, they might "possibly acquiesce in a Jewish Eretz Israel."

 

In the final analysis, Ben-Gurion believed that statecraft was the art of the possible, that ideology was something to be overcome if it stood in the way of pragmatism, that gradualism could deliver the very same outcomes as an all-or-nothing approach.

 

Where he also did not waver was in his philosophical commitment to the Zionist goal. He was faithful to a Jewish revolution "against destiny, against the unique destiny of a unique people." The Jews, he argued, were distinguished by their refusal - from Hadrian to Hitler - to surrender to historic destiny. For him, the meaning of Zionism was to teach the Jewish people that "non-surrender" was not enough: "We must master our fate; we must take our destiny into our own hands" by creating a state.

 

OF COURSE, if Ben-Gurion's legacy makes the case for setting aside the ideal for the practical, there is no shortage of contemporary politicians for whom "pragmatism" is nothing but a fig leaf for careerism, sloppy intellectual thinking, or even nefarious motives.

 

Take the particularly blatant example of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

 

He is supposedly a Christian ("I preach the word of Jesus Christ") and a leftist, but he has pretentiously embraced two Muslim religious reactionaries. His dalliance with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is well-known, but his defense of Ilich Ramirez - aka Carlos the Jackal, a convert to Islam and a believer in the path of Osama bin Laden - is only now getting attention. Chavez's favorite anti-Semitic newspaper, Vea, is lobbying to have Ramirez transferred from France, where he is serving a life term, to Venezuela.

 

Historians will argue about the legacy of principled leaders who chose pragmatism over ideological consistency. But we do not have to wait for history's judgement to label as "wicked" the demagogue who cobbles together an incoherent platform of Marxism, Jew-hatred, Israel-bashing and populism.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

TERRA INCOGNITA: WHERE IS THE BANALITY OF THE JEWS?

SETH J. FRANTZMAN

 

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall reminds us once again of the theory of the "banality of evil." It is important to explore the way in which contemporary thought views the actions of the East Germans and their Nazi forebears as "banal" and yet many of those who see their actions as dull, tend to judge the IDF harshly.

 

A discussion of the subject should begin with celebrated filmmaker and Israeli intellectual Eyal Sivan.

 

Sivan is primarily famous for The Specialist, a 1999 film about Adolph Eichmann. Sivan's main themes in his work have been that Israel has created a national Holocaust cult; that Israelis are capable of becoming more and more like Nazis in their dealing with the Palestinians and that Eichmann, one of the greatest Nazi organizers of mass murder, was "banal" or dull, therefore merely part of a system, and not particularly evil.

 

Sivan's work follows in the footsteps of philosopher Hannah Arendt, a German-born Jew who had an affair with the Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger before fleeing to New York in 1941. She resumed the affair after the war, defended her philosopher-partner at his trial and then defended Eichmann's "banality" in her famous book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963).

 

Both Arendt and Sivan are well-known, respected intellectuals whose ideas influence contemporary views on the Holocaust.

 

Many have challenged Sivan and Arendt by trying to prove that Eichmann was far from banal; that he was a crusading individual, a unique person who excelled at his work and was thus evil, not merely part of a larger bureaucratic "machine" that was Nazism.

 

But perhaps the question shouldn't be whether Eichmann was banal, but whether the Jews are banal.

 

Arendt blamed the Jews for their deaths, claiming that the Judenrat and their part in Nazi bureaucracy was a driver of the Holocaust. For Arendt, the culprits were the far-from-banal Jewish collaborators, not the Nazis who ran the thing.

 

For Sivan, the Nazis are also colorless banal fools, the Jews are the culprits, in this case the Zionist regime for daring to memorialize the Holocaust and for supposedly erasing the Palestinian memory of the "nakba" of 1948 and continuing to suppress Palestine.

 

ALL OF this leads us back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. During anniversary celebrations to mark the event, groups of European activists, along with their Israeli and Palestinian friends, staged an especially violent and loud protest at the security barrier near Nil'in in the West Bank, the site of a weekly anti-fence protest. They wanted to connect Israel's wall with the Berlin Wall. The New York Times obliged them with a photo captioned "this wall still stands".

 

How is the Arendt-Sivan philosophy of banality connected to the fall of the Berlin Wall?

 

Many who write about the East German regime and its Stasi secret police tend to portray the soldiers who manned its wall as banal. When they obeyed the "shoot to kill" orders against those trying to flee the East, they are inevitably excused.

 

A program on the National Geographic channel claimed they had to 'wrestle with demons' and it must have been "terrible" for them to shoot their own people. One feels the shooter was as much the victim as those he shot.

 

But for all the wrestling and inner struggle of the East German border guards, one might have forgotten that they carried out criminal orders. And yet with the fall of the Berlin Wall, none of the leaders of the Stasi were put on trial. Banality triumphed. The system in East Germany was bad; no individual had committed any crimes.

 

The reunification of Europe was replete with such amnesties for murderers. With the exception of a few cases, most of the Communist criminals were forgotten. The idea was, as in South Africa, Spain after Franco and Northern Ireland, that bygones should be bygones. No show trials. No revenge.

 

And yet the same European judicial system that forgets the Communist and Franco past is the one, in Belgium, Spain and the UK, that allows itself to investigate IDF "war crimes" in Gaza.

 

How did it come to be that a judicial system in the UK that can't investigate Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland,

when the British paratroops shot 14 people dead in 1972, can investigate far-away Israel? England waited 30 years to convene an inquiry into Bloody Sunday; Israel is expected to do so tomorrow morning.

 

The central theme that runs all the way through is that the Jews, as a people, are not perceived as banal. As such they are perceived as individually evil when they do things that are perceived as wrong.

 

A Jewish IDF soldier who commits a crime while on duty is not having some sort of internal moral wrestling match; he is especially inclined to do bad. His crime is part of a system that is portrayed as uniquely evil.

 

When statistics showed that the IDF has almost no instances of military rape, an MA student at Hebrew University, supported by influential faculty, penned a thesis arguing that Israeli soldiers aren't raping Arab women because of the IDF's "racist" nature. The thesis was feted because even in Israel people are convinced that Jewish actions are so uniquely evil, that even inaction (for example, not raping) comes from a pernicious instinct.

 

The problem is an absence of banality.

 

Philosophers, intellectuals and commoners alike have turned the most satanic regimes into banal bureaucracies, with soul-searching SS men and border guards. The least they could do is use the same standards when judging the IDF.

 

The writer is a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

ENCOUNTERING PEACE: GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT 'ECONOMIC PEACE'

GERSHON BASKIN

 

More than 10 months have passed since President Barack Obama entered the White House and seven months since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took over the reins in Jerusalem and there is still no peace process worth mentioning.

 

Netanyahu campaigned on the slogan of "economic peace" and boasted that he would help the Palestinians build their state from the bottom up by strengthening their economy and thereby "giving them something to lose," so that they will not revert back to violence.

 

In August, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad presented his own plan for Palestinian state-building, under the title: "Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State." This 38-page document is full of detailed plans for developing the institutions of the Palestinian state, though it has almost no reference at all to how the Fayyad government plans to end the occupation. The plan also speaks about a future Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem but makes no reference at all to building any of the governmental infrastructure necessary to run a capital city in Jerusalem.

 

From an Israeli point of view, most of the Fayyad plan should be warmly welcomed. For years, Israel has complained that the Palestinians don't take responsibility for themselves. Israel has said over and over again that they should learn from the Israeli pre-state days of Ben-Gurion. By the time Israel was declared, the entire infrastructure for statehood was in place.

 

This is precisely what Fayyad is doing - with great success. The Palestinian Authority under Fayyad's practical and determined approach is launching new projects every week. A lot of attention is being placed on the legal structure - modernizing and harmonizing laws, building a functioning legal and court system, and jump-starting the economy.

 

Corruption has been removed from the way the Palestinian Authority conducts its business. Great attention is being paid to effective tax collection. Fayyad's plans and his performance are gaining wide public support. The results speak for themselves.

 

The entire international community is warmly embracing the Palestinian prime minister's work, but only Israel seems to not fully appreciate what is being planned and achieved.

 

Netanyahu understands that there must be a political peace process, but he is not convinced that there is a possibility of really moving forward on permanent-status issues. He is convinced, at least according to what he says, that the economic peace plans can be advanced. If this is true, there are things that Netanyahu can do and should do that will have a real impact on the ground and also signal that political dimensions of peace making can be part of the progress on the ground, even without negotiations.

 

Netanyahu and Barak have removed many key checkpoints all around the West Bank, but hundreds of roadblocks still exist; these should come down now as well. Open the roads and allow free movement - it is the key for any economic development.

 

The Palestinian Authority security forces are engaged in counter-terror activities and not only restoring law and order or traffic control. The Fayyad government relates to issues of security as a Palestinian interest and has succeeded in changing the security discourse from "providing security to Israel" which was seen as collaboration with the occupation, to "developing mutual security" which means that in order for Israel to have security, Palestine must have security too.

 

IN PRACTICE, this means that the IDF should cease its incursions into areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The "Cinderella law" which requires Palestinian security forces to be off the streets after midnight and allows the IDF to enter whenever and wherever its wants, should now be eliminated, unless the IDF has specific and real-time intelligence information that terror activities are taking place.

 

Since the intelligence cooperation between the sides has been renewed, the IDF must understand that every time they enter into areas where the Palestinian forces are in charge, the Palestinian forces lose credibility in the eyes of their own people.

 

It is also time to reclassify Area B - the village areas that are under Palestinian civil control but are really under Israeli military control. All of these areas should be made Area A - transferred to full Palestinian control.

 

Sixty percent of the West Bank is Area C - under full Israeli control. No serious development project or infrastructure project can take place without using lands in Area C. Even projects that are physically located in Area B must be approved by the Israeli military and the Civil Administration in the West Bank, because the infrastructures would go through Area C.

 

Israel should approve Palestinian requests to build new cities in the West Bank. This can only be done in Area C - there are no land reserves anywhere else. Imagine two cities like Modi'in being built there; it would really propel the economy, offer real opportunities for investment and create thousands of jobs.

 

If Israel were wise, it would also encourage the Palestinian Authority and the international community to offer housing grants and loans to enable Palestinian refugees in Lebanon the opportunity of moving to the new cities.

 

Palestinian refugees have always said that the "right of return" is an individual right and not a collective right (meaning that the Palestinian leadership cannot negotiate it away). The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should be offered the opportunity to transform their own "right of return to their homes" to the "right of return to their homeland."

 

New, planned communities with proper infrastructure, schools, parks and commercial centers would offer all Palestinians the chance for a higher quality life, especially for those who are suffering the most - the refugees in the camps of Lebanon.

 

Another massive infrastructure project that should be started immediately that would have a huge impact, not only on the economy, but on the political process, is the physical link between the West Bank and Gaza. The choices for this are between a land route, a sunken road, a bridge, a tunnel or a combination of those.

 

Israeli security experts have always preferred the tunnel, for obvious reasons. The tunnel would also require the least amount of Israeli bureaucratic input and intervention. The route is about 40 kilometers and the cost would be at least $1 billion.

 

It is clear that the tunnel or the link would not become operational until there is a change of the political regime in Gaza, but there is no reason to wait until that time to begin this massive infrastructure project. Not only will it bring in huge amounts of capital investment and create many jobs, it also will bring the "light at the end of the tunnel" much closer to the Palestinians in Gaza.

 

Even if the official negotiations don't begin and we only have "economic peace" plans to advance, these plans would have significant positive political dimensions to them. There is no reason why Netanyahu should not adopt these and others steps that will have a serious impact and demonstrate that Israel is interested in seeing a viable and successful Palestinian state as a good neighbor.

 

The writer is the co-CEO of IPCRI, the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (www.ipcri.org) and a leader of the Green Movement political party.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

NO HOLDS BARRED: 'BORING' CAN BE A FATAL FLAW

SHMULEY BOTEACH

 

For the first time in his presidency, Barack Obama has, according to a Gallup poll, fallen below a 50 percent approval rating. It's not hard to see why.

 

No, it's not because he's spending too much money. There seem to be many Americans who want him to boost social programs. Less so is it because people perceive him as accomplishing little, because if he pulls off health care reform that would be a big thing indeed.

 

No, the principal reason Obama, who became president by electrifying the electorate, has fallen to earth is that he has become boring.

 

Can anyone recall any important line the president has uttered since assuming office, or a single dazzling speech? And lest we make the mistake of believing the president has become boring because his speeches are not up to par, let me be clear that I think the boredom is only partially related to failure to excite with inspired oratory.

 

Rather, the twin factors behind the president's monotony are ubiquitousness and perfection.

 

This president does not seem to understand the power of mystery. At any given time, he is in China, Japan, Egypt, in the Rose Garden, at the UN, on your television screen, and on your radio. He does not believe in holding back. The net result has been to make him all too available and utterly ordinary.

 

The same is true of his propensity to prostrate himself - quite literally - in front of world leaders like the Saudi king and the Japanese emperor. The issue is not that he belittles his office but that he comes across as a supplicant.

 

What is it about the US president that propels him to seek others' approval at every turn? And why can he not pace himself so that something of him is left in reserve, making people want more later?

 

MUCH MORE importantly, however, the president has become boring because he is way too perfect.

 

Last week I convened the first International Conference on Jewish Values. It featured many of Judaism's foremost living personalities, including Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Michael Steinhardt, Joseph Telushkin, Richard Joel, Alan Dershowitz, and Dennis Prager (full video of the entire conference is available at Shmuley.com). The last, and most important, of the seven universal Jewish values we focused on was struggle.

 

Where most of the world believes in perfection, Jews believe in struggle.

 

Jesus was perfect, as was Muhammad. Any insinuation as to Jesus even getting lonely and requiring the love of a woman, as Dan Brown suggested in The Da Vinci Code, would greatly offend the sensibilities of Christian brothers and sisters. And an insinuation that Muhammad had any faults - even if the suggestion is made in a humorous cartoon - can and has lead to riots in cities around the world.

 

But it's not just religions that make the mistake of promoting perfection. I remember as a young American boy being taught that George Washington never told a lie and that Abraham Lincoln walked miles to return a single penny.

 

But the Jewish Bible has not a single perfect person. All are flawed. Abraham demonstrates a lack of faith, Jacob favors one of his children, and Moses often complains and then refuses to perfectly carry out G-d's instructions - for which he is denied entry into the promised land. David, the father of the Messiah, is so riddled with flaws that he must live through the open rebellion of his beloved Absalom.

 

So if these people were so imperfect, why do we look up to them as heroes?

 

The answer, of course, is that Judaism has no time for perfection. Perfect people are monolithic, predictable, often judgmental, and, worst of all, boring. That's the main reason why Americans did not develop a populist passion for books about the founding fathers until about 20 years ago, when authors finally started writing the truth about how complex and flawed these men who had been sold to us as statues actually were.

 

Joseph Ellis wrote American Sphinx and shared with us, in vivid detail, the fact of Jefferson's slaveholding and his sexual relationship with Sally Hemmings. In His Excellency, Ellis reveals George Washington's uncompromising ambition for wealth and social status. And in Lincoln's Melancholy Joshua Wolf Shenk reveals the great president as a man so suicidal that his friends often feared leaving him unattended.

 

SO WHY do we revere these men if they were less than perfect? Because the truly righteous man is not he who never sins but rather he who, amid a predilection to narcissism and selfishness, battles his nature to live a virtuous life. The truly great man is not he who slays dragons but he who battles his inner demons, he who struggles with himself to improve and ennoble his character.

 

Israel means "he who wrestles with God." It was the name of Jacob who wrestled with a brother who sought to kill him and a father-in-law who sought to enslave him. Most of all, he wrestled with an angel, a symbol of his earthly and Godly nature locked in battle for ascendancy.

 

I would personally choose the man who has wrestled and struggled any day over the trust-fund baby who has never struggled. Those whom have been given gifts often lack empathy and risk becoming conventional and uni-dimensional.

 

Which brings us back to Barack Obama, a man raised without a father who had to wrestle with major challenges in order to succeed. So why does he insist on coming across as perfect? Why will he not leave the Teleprompter and give an off-the-cuff speech in which he can showcase his humanity? Why does he take such long pauses in responding to all questions to ensure that only perfection stems from his lips? And why is everything in this White House a perfectly calibrated photo-op?

 

Sure, during the presidential campaign America may have wanted a Messiah figure. They saw messy wars and a collapsing economy and wanted a savior. But as president they want someone real, someone who struggles like them.

 

Even in the worst moments of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, President Bill Clinton's poll numbers never dipped below 50%. Most Americans saw a flawed man and identified with his lack of perfection.

 

Barack Obama is far more disciplined for such unfortunate choices and I respect him for it. But don't be afraid to show us, Mr. President that, as in the title of George Stephanopoulos's book about President Clinton, that you also are All Too Human.

 

The writer, founder of This World: The Values Network, is author most recently of The Blessing of Enough and The Michael Jackson Tapes.

 

www.shmuley.com

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BELONGS TO PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS ALIKE

AMNON RUBINSTEIN

 

According to a recent report in Ha'aretz, students at Tel Aviv University are complaining bitterly about leftist professors. The students are said to be hurt by the professors' positions, "but are afraid to express contrary views, lest this harm their grades."

 

So wrote Prof. Nira Hativa, head of the university's center for advancement of teaching. She added that in many end-of-year feedback forms, students complained about professors who "attack the state of Israel, the IDF, the Zionist movement and even worse than that."

 

She also added that the complaints allege that "Leftist professors, as distinct from rightist ones, feel absolutely free to express their political views, even when there is no relevance whatsoever to the subject they teach."

 

The head of the university's student union tells of similar student complaints, and the talkbacks to this news item - whatever their credibility - also told about students who are afraid to argue with such professors.

 

THIS NEWS item did not surprise me. A small group of anti-Zionist, anti-Israel faculty members has turned Tel Aviv University into a podium from which to broadcast their political propaganda.

 

Two notable instances: a group of 30 professors signed a pro-Iranian petition last year warning against Israeli and American designs and "adventurism" against the Islamic Republic, without even mentioning its president's threat to wipe Israel off the map and his Holocaust-denying outbursts.

 

The second example was a conference held by the Tel Aviv Law School in which the subject was the alleged mistreatment of "political prisoners" (i.e. convicted Palestinian terrorists) that invited, as guest speaker, a released prisoner sentenced to 27 years in jail for throwing a bomb into a Jewish civilian bus.

 

This is not academic freedom. This is using academic podiums to deliver Israel-bashing propaganda.

 

When I taught at Columbia University, I could see how TAU guest professors would stoke the flames of anti-Israel rhetoric; one of them insisted that the university show the film Jenin, Jenin, which charges Israel with perpetrating a famously imaginary massacre.

 

The usual defense of these TAU excesses is that all professors are entitled to academic freedom. This is inherently true in principle. Academic freedom, a special niche of the freedom of speech principle enshrined in Israeli law, should incorporate marginal and iconoclastic views. This is especially true in a society like Israel which suffers from a constant state of emergency and stress.

 

But academic freedom, like all human rights, is not unlimited. Austrian and German courts rightly decided that Holocaust denial is not protected speech; Jean Paul Sartre went further, believing that all anti-Semitic expressions are unprotected by the right to freedom of speech.

 

A call to boycott Israel, such as was made by a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University's political science department, is certainly unprotected, in a similar way to the Supreme Court's ruling that a party which seeks the destruction of Israel cannot run in the Knesset elections.

 

But there is one further point: academics cannot seek shelter behind their much-touted freedom, while denying the students' right to express their own opinions. If what is alleged in Ha'aretz is true, then these TAU professors are violating the law.

 

Article 5 of the Student's Rights Law states this explicitly: "Every student has the freedom to express his views and opinions as to the contents of the syllabus and the values incorporated therein."

 

In other words, the students, too, have a measure of academic freedom. If the allegations made by the students - probably mainly in TAU's social sciences departments - are true, the university is violating the students' lawful rights.

 

The writer is a professor of law at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a former education minister and Knesset member, as well as the recipient of the 2006 Israel Prize in Law.

 

www.amnonrubinstein.org.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

FOR GOD - OR COUNTRY?

STEWART WEISS

 

The phrase "dual loyalty" is generally used to refer to Western Jews who must decide whether they support Israel, or the foreign country in which they reside.

 

But now, this same dilemma is occurring among our IDF soldiers, who increasingly are being asked to choose between the immutability of military orders, and their sacred religious obligations.

 

This is by no means a new phenomenon. There has always been a tug-of-war between the requirements of war and Halacha.

 

Observant soldiers, particularly in combat roles, face, early on, situations that present a clash of values: Is it permissible to violate the Shabbat - by riding in a vehicle, using a walkie-talkie, or missing prayers - while in the field? What if there is no time to don tefillin, or no succa to eat in on Succot? To what extent should one risk his life to extract a slain fellow soldier so he may be properly buried?

 

These and other potential conflicts have been researched by leading rabbis and written up in army manuals that are made readily available for observant recruits.

 

But now another flashpoint has developed; one that not only affects the individual chayal, but threatens the unity of the entire military structure: Can - or should - a soldier participate in the evacuation of a Jewish settlement, resulting in Israeli land being ceded to the Palestinians; or should the soldier refuse his orders on religious grounds?

 

This problem has become infinitely more acute since the 2005 disengagement - when Israeli soldiers participated in the eviction of the Jewish residents of Gaza - and is coming to a head over fears that the present government, under intense American pressure, may evacuate as many as 63 more Jewish communities in the West Bank and Jordan Valley.

 

Already, several soldiers have been jailed for holding up signs signaling their refusal to be part of such an action, and many more have gone on record - even before their induction - as saying they will decline, if asked, to be part of such a mission.

 

THE ARGUMENTS on both sides of this Gordian knot are powerful and persuasive. On the one hand, as part of its "purity of arms" policy, Israel has always allowed for conscientious objection to actions judged to be immoral or illegal. As a people who know all too well what atrocities can happen when soldiers "just follow orders," and we respect the right of individual soldiers to refuse to participate in extreme measures which they deem ethically unconscionable.

 

Torah law may be interpreted by some to allow ceding land for the purpose of saving lives, but the bitter experience of Gaza - where land turned over to the Palestinians immediately became a terrorist base from which to fire missiles at our civilians - may certainly militate against any further withdrawals.

 

Furthermore, many of these soldiers are graduates of religious establishments whose leading rabbis have been outspoken in their condemnation of dismantling settlements. Thus the soldiers must now make a painful choice between adhering to the command of their revered rabbi, or that of their company commander.

On the other hand, refusing to follow orders has serious ramifications. First and foremost, it can undermine the entire system of discipline upon which any army depends. Reacting without question or hesitation to the directives of qualified commanders not only maintains ranks, it saves lives.

 

Army officers like to recount the story of IDF soldiers who captured an Egyptian tank in the Yom Kippur War. They were riding the tank back towards Israeli lines when an Israeli tank approached, unaware that the tank in front of them held their own comrades. The Israeli tank prepared to shell the Egyptian one, until at the last second the command came over the radio to hold their fire. It took every bit of discipline to follow that order - which seemingly put their own lives at risk - but it saved their fellow soldiers' lives.

 

Refusing orders is very slippery slope. Today, a soldier refuses to evacuate a settlement. Tomorrow - also on moral grounds - another soldier refuses to defend that settlement. The next day, a brigade questions its mission over enemy skies. Soon, the whole chain of command is jeopardized.

 

Perhaps most crucially, we are not a banana republic or South American dictatorship where the government is controlled by the army, where the generals tell the presidents what to do. The opposite is true; the military is an obedient wing of the elected government, which - hopefully - reflects the will of the people. The Knesset decides on issues of war and peace, evacuation or expansion of settlements, and the army carries out the orders. Any other scenario would be deadly for democracy.

 

BUT, HAVING said that, the government must not only be right, it must be smart, too. It should do everything possible to avoid a crisis of conscience. It should, whenever possible, use means other than soldiers to wage domestic battles. It should take into account the background and sensibilities of its members, and deal mildly, not mercilessly, with those who voice legitimate concerns about their orders.

 

After all, we automatically excuse the majority of Arabs from serving in the IDF, on the premise that fighting against their brethren would pose for them an impossible dilemma. Why can we not show a bit of the same compassion for our own Jewish soldiers?

 

At the same time, our brave young men and women in uniform must also be smart. They should honor their convictions, if that is their decision, but in a humble, rather than haughty manner. No signs or screaming, no slogans or soliciting of fellow recruits. Just a staunch adherence to what they believe in their hearts to be right, and a stoic willingness to pay the price for taking that stand.

 

The Israeli army has always been "the great equalizer" in our nation, united across ethnic, age and gender lines in defense of the entire citizenry. It has always been the one, incorruptible institution that rises above petty politics to form a protective wall against our many enemies.

 

But for that to continue to happen, we are all going to have to step away from the mirror and see the bigger picture.

 

The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra'anana.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

ACT AND BE HEARD

 

Reports of significant progress toward a deal for exchanging Gilad Shalit for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have multiplied recently. All these reports, however, come from foreign sources whose credibility is uncertain. Israelis have received only the slightest of hints from the local media. Behind the delicate term "blackout" stands some serious censorship.

Perhaps it is best to conduct the negotiations, especially in their final stages, in secret to prevent the chorus of naysayers from paralyzing the government and halting a deal. But the details that have leaked out and the vigorous rumor mill surrounding the issue keep that scenario from happening, and the potential damage caused by secrecy is great.

In any case, it seems that a large majority of Israelis - if not cabinet members - are willing, three and a half years after Shalit's capture, to set free even the most heinous of murderers to end Shalit's suffering.

 

Precisely for this reason it is unclear why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the few other ministers privy to the details refrain from disclosing the data without which public debate on the subject is pointless. The information is likely to be made public shortly, perhaps even during the two days when petitions against the exchange may be submitted to the High Court of Justice.

One can understand censoring intelligence, planning and the operational details of a military action to secure the release of a kidnap victim. And the censorship of news items based on intelligence reports should not be condemned. But it's difficult to accept comprehensive censorship whose purpose - or at least its result - is to influence the public's position on a deal.

Maybe Hamas favors excessive censorship. Maybe the German mediator requested the blackout; he seeks to achieve a specific goal and has no responsibility for the larger context of punishing murderers, deterring future abductions and allaying fears that the released prisoners will resume their terror activities.

The Israeli public carries a burden and responsibility. It must not settle for faits accompli. It must hear, know and make a considered decision before action is taken.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

HOW WE BECAME A NIGHT UNTO THE NATIONS

BY YOEL MARCUS

 

 

The first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is the one who said Israel should be a light unto the nations. The great powers, who didn't lift a finger to destroy the death camps during World War II, were not only sympathetic to Israel's establishment, but admired its valor in repulsing the Arab states' onslaught.

Renowned foreign journalists came here and wrote glowing reports about this war of David against Goliath, about the young immigrants who were taken from the boat straight to the battlefield, about the Jewish volunteers who arrived to help establish this state that was fighting for its life. They also described the hatred of the Arabs, who in their stupidity refused to reach peace agreements with Israel. Because of this, the Rhodes armistice agreements awarded Israel far more territory than the UN did in its resolution of November 29, 1947.

The second wave of admiration for Israel stemmed from the speed with which it defeated the Arab armies in the 1967 war. The Six-Day War is taught in military academies worldwide, and the international media once again described the campaign as a war of David against Goliath. Israel proved that it was in no danger of being destroyed, desite what its fund-raisers in America liked to claim.

 

But admiration for Israel's strength gradually turned into resentment over the side effects of the prolonged occupation. Don't speak Hebrew in public places overseas, tourists to Europe are warned today. Indeed, the days when someone could ask what language we were speaking and we would answer "Hebrew" with pride are long gone.

Israel's military might and its unrestrained use of this might have turned the David-versus-Goliath analogy into an asset for the Palestinians. Israel is no longer described as at risk of being destroyed, but as a strong country, aggressive and domineering, as Charles de Gaulle once said. President Shimon Peres was recently greeted by angry demonstrations in Argentina and Brazil. Many countries boycott Israeli products, and Israeli lecturers on college campuses throughout the West endure catcalls. During Ehud Olmert's recent lecture tour of the United States, he was greeted almost everywhere he went with cries such as "child killers!"

Of greatest concern is what is happening on American campuses, which are slowly becoming pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. That is dangerous because this is where America's future leaders are bred. But our opponents are not motivated by anti-Semitism, as our political hacks like to claim. If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, then anti-Semitism is the last refuge of the occupier.

Control over the territories is also taking a heavy toll on Israelis' conduct. On one hand, there is the increasingly brutal treatment of the Palestinians; on the other, there are growing doubts among our soldiers about whether to carry out missions to evacuate settlers. Today, no one is interested in how we became embroiled in the 1967 war, how we survived the Yom Kippur War by the skin of our teeth or how, despite peace with Egypt and Jordan, Palestinian terror continued, producing intifada after intifada.

From a light unto the nations, Israel has become a maligned and ostracized nation. The UN Security Council doesn't condemn Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for announcing his intention to destroy Israel, but Israel, which has been fighting for its life for six decades, has become the most denounced and criticized country on the face of the globe.

Ever since Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, officers in the Israel Defense Forces have been at risk every time they land in an international airport.

Former defense minister Moshe Arens said last week that while a civilian defense minister is preferable to a military one, that doesn't mean every idiot is capable of being defense minister. Though Arens named no names, Amir Peretz took offense. But on the other hand, a former IDF chief of staff such as the current defense minister, who views military overreaction as the solution to the state's problems, is not necessarily the ideal man for the job, either. It is not for nothing that the United States bars retired senior generals and admirals from serving as secretary of defense for 10 years after leaving the service.

Before sticking our noses into the problem of Iran's nuclear program, which is a source of international concern, it would be preferable for our government to discuss how we got to where we are - no longer a light unto the nations - and what needs to be done to stop the freefall in our international image before it's too late.

 

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

AN INJUSTICE TO INMATES

BY NEHEMIA SHTRASLER

 

Haim Glick has no peace of mind. The moment he heard the High Court of Justice ruling blocking privately run prisons, he felt a great injustice had been done to prisoners here and to Israel as a whole. "It's a populist decision," he said angrily.

 

Glick, director general of Bar-Ilan University, knows whereof he speaks as former deputy Israel Prison Service commissioner and a leading figure behind the privatization effort, who wrote the tender and was responsible for overseeing the project down to the smallest detail.

"We wrote the tender over two years," he told Haaretz. "We consulted with many officials, traveled the world and learned from others." A privately run prison is hardly an Israeli innovation; such facilities exist in many democracies, including the United States, France and Britain.

 

Nonetheless, it seems Israel succeeded in fixing some flaws. "My condition for the Finance Ministry was that on anything related to the work of prison guards, I would have veto rights. And they agreed," Glick said. "That's why it cost so much for the Finance Ministry, because we didn't cut back on anything. In the Prison Service, I established 38 teams, which translated Prison Service instructions into a contract, so the franchisee would serve the public interest. The tender contains thousands of clauses, so how can someone say it harms human dignity and freedom?"

Glick said the franchisee faced a list of 70 violations for which it would be fined when tender specifications were not met. There is no private prison in the world with similar conditions, he said. "The concessionaire can be fined for an endless number of reasons, from the finding of a certain amount of drugs to inmates committing suicide."

But who is doing the checking, I insinuated. The franchisee may not report the discovery of drugs. "We determined that throughout the day there would be a shadow team that would walk around the facility," he answered. "They would be uniformed guards under the authority of the Prison Service. Alongside the commander of the private prison, for example, there would be a shadow commander with the rank of deputy warden, etc. That's 13 supervisors for 13 senior prison positions, while in most of the world, it's common to have only one supervisor."

As for the court ruling that a private prison could harm human dignity and freedom, Glick was ready with figures: "Open the state comptroller's 1980 report. The average space per prisoner was 2.8 square meters. Almost 30 years have passed, and the average space today is 3.2 square meters. That is an 'improvement' of 40 square centimeters, which is even below the norm set by the Prison Service itself. However, in a privatized prison, each inmate would have 5.7 square meters of space, and that's just one example of many." He noted that a special monitoring team, headed by a retired judge, would file annual reports to the Knesset Interior Committee.

"In terms of prison conditions and rehabilitation potential," Glick said, "it's doubtful whether there is a similar facility anywhere in the world."

The project aimed to create competition for the Prison Service in running prisons and raising standards at all facilities, said Glick. He added that the British prison commissioner told him that if a private facility was better for the inmate, we should learn, as they did in England. They see privatized prisons as engendering healthy competition.

The law that was passed, he said, doesn't allow an additional private facility to be built before the end of a 10-year trial, "so why didn't they at least allow that trial?" The law allowing the creation of private prisons was passed in March 2004. A year later, a petition was filed against the project. If the High Court was indeed concerned about human dignity, it could have released a ruling within six months. But the proceedings were handled abominably slowly, without considering the damage done to all those related to the project, particularly prisoners living in crowded conditions. A privatized prison had been ready to take them in for seven months."

The last deliberation on the petition was held in July 2007, and the ruling was handed down two and a half years later. In other words, the jail took three years to be built, but deliberations took four and a half years. That's not excessive? Is no harm done to human dignity when the tax payer is forced to pay massive compensation to those who built the prison?

 

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

AT THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS

BY SHAHAR ILAN

 

The chapter on Israel in the U.S. State Department's 2009 Report on International Religious Freedom, issued in October, presents Israel in an embarrassing light - as one of the 30 countries "where violations of religious freedom have been noteworthy." According to the Americans, Israel is more similar to Russia or Turkey than it is to Saudi Arabia or Iran, but that's small comfort.

The report addresses at length the fact that one-quarter of students in the Jewish school system in Israel do not study general subjects such as English, mathematics and the sciences, and will thus find it difficult to enter the labor market. Like most Israelis, the Americans do not draw the correct conclusions: The difficult situation of today is just a promo - if the current trend continues things will get much worse here.

According to studies carried out by economist Eli Berman of the University of California, San Diego, Israel's ultra-Orthodox population doubles every 16 years. Thirteen percent of Israelis who are eligible for the draft each year "enlist" in yeshivas. The Israel Defense Forces predicts that in 10 years one in every four 18-year-olds will evade service by studying in a yeshiva. For a long time now the problem has gone beyond discrimination; we are on the brink of a problem of national security.

 

According to researchers of the Israel 2028 project, headed by Eli Hurvitz and David Brodet, barring a significant change to the fertility rate in the Haredi community, the ultra-Orthodox will represent more than one-fifth of Israel's Jewish population in 2028.

 

A new forecast by Gilad Malach, a researcher at the Metzilah Center for Zionist, Jewish, Liberal and Humanist Thought, finds that if the annual rate of natural increase among Haredim stays at 5 percent, by 2050 they will comprise 37 percent of Israeli Jews - assuming that non-Haredim will want to remain here to support them. This is not science fiction. It's exactly what occurred in Jerusalem in the past generation.

Why are we talking about the ultra-Orthodox birthrate? And why is it a problem? Because when it comes to the economy and national defense, Israeli society is supporting the Haredim. This was difficult but doable in the 1980s, when the Haredim were only 4 percent of the population. It is impossible now, when they are about 10 percent.

It is liable to bring down Israel's economy and society in 20 years, turning Israel into a third-world country with an atrophied economy and increasing disrespect for human rights. In the most pessimistic scenarios it could lead to a partition of the state, or to civil war. It has happened in other places. It could happen here.

The solution is not for the ultra-Orthodox to stop being ultra-Orthodox, but rather for them to start working and serving in the army, to integrate into mainstream society like Haredim in London or New York. But the Haredi leaders lack the necessary vision, fail to understand the scope of the national threat and do everything in their power to maintain the status quo under which the men in the community do not work.

Since the Haredi community will not change voluntarily, there is no option but to make some tough decisions: The introduction of English, math and science studies must become a condition for receiving state school funding, and quotas must be set for the number of yeshiva students exempted from the draft. The cut in child allowances and other government support a few years ago increased Haredi participation in the workforce, but not sufficiently. For that to happen, assistance to large families must be made conditional on joining the labor market.

These decisions must be made immediately, for two reasons. First, because if they are delayed for a decade it could be too late to prevent the plunge into the abyss. Second, because the political power of the Haredim is increasing, and any delay will make it harder to legislate these decisions, which are critical for the state and the Haredim themselves.

The writer is vice president of research and information for Hiddush - For Religious Freedom and Equality.

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 HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE ONLY FEMALE CANDIDATE

BY MERAV MICHAELI

 

The saga over the appointment of the next attorney general has already been labeled "complex." Complex? What's complex about it? It's clear what the government must do. It simply needs to do what it committed to do in Clause 6-C of the law for the equal rights for women - when filling positions in state bodies, it must favor women in place of men with similar qualifications.

The committee for selecting the attorney general - which itself contained not a single woman, some say in violation of the law - is now considering four candidates: three men and one woman. Each meets the requirements of an attorney general, and each received three votes from the panel. Therefore, according to both the equal-rights law and the Supreme Court, the government must choose a woman. Simple indeed.

The panel was unable to decide between the candidates, so presumably it believes they are all equally fit for the job. This is exactly where the principle of fair representation comes into play. "The burden to prove that under the given circumstances of a given situation it was not possible to appoint a woman falls on the appointing minister. This burden is not light - to carry it, the appointed minister must show that he has examined the possibility of appointing an appropriate candidate, but that given the circumstances it was impossible to do so," said justice Eliahu Mazza.

 

But it is possible to do so, particularly when the candidate is head and shoulders above her peers. Prof. Daphne Barak-Erez is a jurist respected in the most hallowed courts of law in Israel and the world. Her past is spotless, she has no conflicts or enemies, and she is not connected to wealth or power. And here is a classic gender problem - her very lack of such links leaves her with the smallest chance of getting the job because she has no friends in high places to look out for her.

The headlines predict that attorney Yehuda Weinstein, who has represented several politicians suspected of criminal activity, will be selected instead of Barak-Erez. But an expertise in criminal law is not the only criterion for choosing an attorney general, and the greatest attorney generals - Aharon Barak, Yitzhak Zamir, Elyakim Rubinstein and Menachem Mazuz - did not have such an expertise.

Yedidia Stern also seems to have good odds of being chosen, though he is not an expert on criminal law and doesn't have the experience in public, administrative and constitutional law that Barak-Erez does.

"The active obligation falls first and foremost on the prime minister," Justice Edmond Levy recently wrote at the High Court in annulling the appointment of the head of a corporation based on the violation of the principle of fair representation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who for months has been unwilling to appoint a director of his bureau's office for the advancement of women, could benefit tremendously from appointing a woman attorney general. It would be a clean appointment, with no downside, opponents or intrigues, and the right thing to do from a legal, ethical and societal perspective. It would also mark his first nod to an electorate that hardly comes easily to him (women), one that would suddenly become far more favorably disposed toward him.

"It's a shame that there was a need for a public petition to instruct the government on the application of Clause 6-C of the law for equal rights for women, and for the appointment of ministry director-generals," wrote Justice Dalia Dorner in 2002. It's a shame that a public petition is needed to choose an attorney general in the second Netanyahu administration. The prime minister can now do the simple thing - the right, just and easy thing: Choose Prof. Barak-Erez, the only female candidate for attorney general.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

ALBANY'S 'ETHICS' ON TRIAL

 

Former State Senator Joseph Bruno, who dominated Albany politics for more than a dozen years, is fighting federal charges that he deprived citizens of "the intangible right of honest services." Mr. Bruno is arguing that he did nothing unusual and broke no laws during those years when he controlled or influenced billions of dollars in state spending — and made millions on the side as a consultant for private companies.

 

If Mr. Bruno broke no laws — something a jury will probably decide very soon — that would only confirm what many other New Yorkers have long thought: the problem is not what's illegal in Albany but what's legal.

 

The solution is clear: far-reaching laws that make it clear that public service is not the same as self service.

 

It would tighten rules on conflicts of interest for the state's part-time legislators — creating, for instance, an independent ethics panel to monitor the Legislature. It would forbid the lawmakers from using public resources to enhance their private businesses, even indirectly. Serious ethics legislation should also require legislators to declare, publicly and clearly, where they get their private money. If they are paid for legal or consulting work, they must reveal their lists of clients. To oversee these changes, the Legislature should set up an independent commission to monitor legislative behavior.

 

Mr. Bruno's trial has opened the window on some of Albany's sleaziest routines and the easy fixes:

 

• The posh office of the Senate majority leader served as a venue for Mr. Bruno's multimillion-dollar consulting businesses. Witnesses testified that, in 2004, he brought state officials to his Senate suite to hear the sales pitch of a software salesman. What he and the salesman failed to tell those visitors was that the senator would earn a 10 percent commission on any sales.

 

Lawyers once on the taxpayers' payroll testified that they had helped draft his contracts and offered legal advice to his consulting clients. His Senate secretary worked on private and public matters at the same time.

 

If that kind of self-enrichment with public resources is not against the law, it should be.

 

• Every year, legislators are required to file statements about outside income to the Legislative Ethics Commission. These forms are useless, and the ethics commission apparently doesn't even check whether they are correct. Very little detail is required, and it is deleted before the forms are made public.

 

Even so, Kenneth Riddett, a top Senate lawyer in the Bruno days, testified that he had advised Mr. Bruno and other senators to hand-deliver the annual ethics statements. The reason, he admitted, was "concerns with federal mail fraud statutes, to be honest with you."

 

As long as legislators are part time, they must be required to give the public details about their clients and where and how they make any money on the side.

 

• Prosecutors have also charged that unions invested their pension money in a company employing Mr. Bruno while Mr. Bruno helped unions get better pensions with the state. Another friend of Bruno, Jared Abbruzzese, paid the senator handsome consulting fees while he was seeking state contracts. The senator found ways around a gift ban for legislators by selling Mr. Abbruzzese a "virtually worthless" horse for $80,000.

The dissection of Mr. Bruno's deals raises other questions. Where were the four attorneys general during the period when the give-to-get was going on right upstairs? What happened to the Albany district attorney, David Soares, who promised to go after the scandals in the State Capitol? It took the federal authorities to pursue Mr. Bruno. State law and its enforcers have too often allowed ethics in Albany to be optional.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

TURKEY AND THE KURDS

 

In a show of courage and good sense, Turkey's government has announced a plan to grant long-denied rights to its Kurdish minority, and, it is hoped, finally end an insurgency that has cost more than 40,000 lives.

 

Kurds compose as much as 20 percent of Turkey's population, yet for decades the government banned their political parties and denied them the most basic cultural rights, including the right to use their own language. This mistreatment helped fuel Kurdish demands for independence and two decades of bloody attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or P.K.K.

 

Although some 12,000 militants are still hiding in northern Iraq along the Turkish border, the P.K.K. has been steadily losing popular support. The new initiative is designed as further pressure and incentive for the group to disband. Last year, Parliament legalized private Kurdish language courses and created the first public television channel in Kurdish. New regulation lets Kurdish prisoners speak to visitors in their native language.

 

Parliament is now debating an initiative that would allow the Kurdish language to be used in all broadcast media and political campaigns. It would restore Kurdish names to thousands of towns that were given Turkish ones. And it would establish an independent committee to fight discrimination and investigate torture allegations.

 

There are other trends that are very worrisome, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempts to shut down independent news media. But Mr. Erdogan has shown sound leadership with his plan for the Kurds, despite fierce opposition from nationalist politicians. For Turkey to fulfill its potential as a secular Muslim democracy, he will have to keep battling the nationalists and others to make additional political and economic reforms, without sacrificing free political debate.

 

The United States and other Western countries that have long pushed Turkey to become more democratic should encourage Mr. Erdogan to keep pressing ahead. Most important, Europe must finally make clear that if Turkey bolsters its democracy and respects the rights of its minorities, it will be welcome in the European Union.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

NO 'NO MORE WILDERNESS'

 

In 2003, Gale Norton, then the secretary of the interior, and Michael Leavitt, then the governor of Utah, struck a deal that removed federal protections from about 2.6 million acres of public land in Utah that the Clinton administration had designated as potential wilderness. At the same time, Ms. Norton disavowed her department's longstanding authority to identify, study and recommend new areas for wilderness protection.

 

This "no more wilderness" policy, as it came to be known, exposed huge swaths of federal land throughout the Rocky Mountain West to oil and gas drilling and other commercial uses.

 

President Obama's interior secretary, Ken Salazar, has reversed many of the Bush administration's damaging environmental policies. Maddeningly, however, the "no more wilderness" policy is still in place. It is past time for Mr. Salazar to renounce it.

 

Representative Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from upstate New York, and 89 other House members have written to Mr. Salazar urging him to reject the Norton-Leavitt arrangement — a back-room deal with no standing in law — and restore interim protections for the land in Utah until Congress can decide whether to protect the area permanently. (Mr. Hinchey has introduced a bill — the Red Rock Wilderness Act — that would confer wilderness protections on those acres, plus about 7 million more.)

 

More broadly, they want Mr. Salazar to reject the destructive philosophy underlying the Norton-Leavitt arrangement by reasserting the interior secretary's responsibility to help protect America's fragile landscapes from oil and gas leasing, off-road vehicle use and mining.

 

Under the law, only Congress can designate permanent wilderness — areas where all commercial activity is prohibited. But Congress also authorized the Interior Department to periodically inventory federal lands to identify those with "wilderness characteristics" and to give them interim protections until Congress can make the final decision. These areas are known as wilderness study areas.

 

It is this authority that Ms. Norton said she did not want and that Mr. Salazar should promptly reclaim.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

TODAY IHOP, TOMORROW THE WORLD

BY FRANCIS X. CLINES

 

Senator Charles Schumer of New York — undefeated in 35 years of electoral contests — is well known for championing his New York City constituents, from cut-rate ferry fares for Staten Island residents to his care and coddling of Wall Street. But he's not all about downstate. Upstate, there's the signature Schumer obsession with maple syrup — his resolve to make New York nothing less than the Saudi Arabia of syrup.

 

Job creation for maple tappers has been his overlooked high-agenda item as Mr. Schumer maps a campaign to tap every available upstate maple tree — about 289 million of them. The senator's goal is to surpass Quebec as the world's leading producer. "Unleash the untapped potential," Senator Schumer exhorts in repeated press releases. Strive for "a sweet victory" he preaches in his personal Monday visits to upstate hamlets.

 

Fulfilling those dreams might prove sticky. For one thing, Quebec, with a mere 100 million trees, produces 85 percent of the world's maple syrup, while New York, with three times the forestation, lags badly. Its 1.5 million taps is a trickle against the 40 million oozing lucratively each spring in Canada.

 

His problem is too many of New York's maples — 7 out of 10 — are on private property and a lot of owners seem to prefer getting their syrup from the supermarket rather than their own backyard. Undaunted, the senator has written a federal grant proposal so any state (how many maples are in Kansas?) can encourage land owners to let maple tappers onto their property to join the global competition.

 

Senator Schumer's resolve was evident in a flapjack flap he encouraged earlier this year after noticing that a new International House of Pancakes restaurant in Vermont is offering customers local maple syrup (for 99 cents extra) for those who sensibly prefer it to the usual corn syrup colored to look like maple stuff.

 

The senator didn't waste a New York minute in writing to IHOP executives. He rather sweetly proposed that New York pancake and waffle gourmands also be offered "their own delicious product" at the state's IHOPs. Think of the boon in the global syrup race, he stressed. Senator Schumer eagerly awaits a reply, hardly missing the forest for the trees.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

SIGNS OF HOPE

BY BOB HERBERT

 

Detroit

I came to Detroit and its environs, the seat of America's glorious industrial past, to see if I could get a glimpse of the future. Is the economic, social and physical deterioration that has caused so much misery in the Motor City a sign of what's in store for larger and larger segments of the United States?

 

Or are there new industries waiting in the wings — some of them right here in the Detroit metropolitan area — with new jobs and bright new prospects for whole new generations of American dreamers?

 

I found real reason to hope when a gentleman named Stan Ovshinsky took me on a tour of a remarkably quiet and pristine manufacturing plant in Auburn Hills, which is about 30 miles north of Detroit and is home to Chrysler's headquarters. What is being produced in the plant is potentially revolutionary. A machine about the length of a football field runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, turning out mile after mile after mile of thin, flexible solar energy material, from which solar panels can be sliced and shaped.

 

You want new industry in the United States, with astonishing technological advances, new mass production techniques and jobs, jobs, jobs? Try energy.

 

Mr. Ovshinsky knows as much or more about the development and production of alternative energy as anyone on the planet. He developed the technology and designed the production method that made it possible to produce solar material "by the mile." When he proposed the idea years ago, based on the science of amorphous materials, which he invented, he was ridiculed.

 

But the thin-film photovoltaic solar panel was just one of his revolutionary ideas. He invented the nickel metal hydride battery that is in virtually all hybrid vehicles on the road today. And when I pulled into the parking lot outside his office in Bloomfield Hills, he promptly installed me in the driver's seat of a hydrogen hybrid prototype — a car in which the gasoline tank had been replaced with a safe solid-state hydrogen storage system invented by Mr. Ovshinsky.

 

Within minutes, I was driving along a highway in a car that produced zero pollution. No carbon footprint whatsoever. How's that for a wave of the future?

 

The point is that these (and many more) brilliant, innovative technologies are here. They are real, tangible. They exist. What's needed now is the will to develop policies that will vastly expand these advances and radically reduce their costs. The United States should be leading the world in the creation of whole new energy technologies and industries, instead of allowing the forces of the old carbon-based industries — coal, oil, gasoline-powered vehicles — to stand obstinately in the way of real progress.

 

"Now," Mr. Ovshinsky told me, "is when we have to build the new industries of the future." He has always been driven by the desire to use science and technology to solve the real-world problems of real people, and that has meant creating employment and stopping the pollution of the planet. He and his late wife, Iris, formed a company (to become known as Energy Conversion Devices) in Detroit in 1960 with the idea of using their considerable talents, as he put it, "to do good, to change the world."

 

After nearly a half-century of revolutionary innovations with the company, Mr. Ovshinsky retired two years ago to focus his attention on the difficult and time-consuming effort to make solar energy economically competitive with coal and oil. "I know solar energy can't live up to its possibilities unless it's a hell of a lot cheaper," he said.

 

He believes he has assembled a team that, with sustained, intense work under his direction — and if sufficient funding can be secured — will bring the price of solar power below that of coal and oil within a few years.

 

What's weird is that this man, with such a stellar track record of innovation on products and processes crucial to the economic and environmental health of the U.S., gets such little attention and so little support from American policy makers. In addition to his work with batteries, photovoltaics and hydrogen fuel cells, his inventions have helped open the door to flat-screen televisions, new forms of computer memory and on and on.

 

So when Stan Ovshinsky tells us that we should be putting our chips on hybrid and electric vehicles, and that solar and hydrogen power can be the cornerstone of an industrial renaissance in the U.S. as well as a cleaner planet, we should be listening very, very closely.

 

As oil defined the 20th century, new forms of energy will define the 21st. The U.S. has the opportunity, the

intellectual resources and the expertise to lead the world in the development of clean energy. What we've lacked so far has been the courage, the will, to make it happen.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

THE VALUES QUESTION

BY DAVID BROOKS

 

It's easy to get lost in the weeds when talking about health care reform. But, like all great public issues, the health care debate is fundamentally a debate about values. It's a debate about what kind of country we want America to be.

 

During the first many decades of this nation's existence, the United States was a wide-open, dynamic country with a rapidly expanding economy. It was also a country that tolerated a large amount of cruelty and pain — poor people living in misery, workers suffering from exploitation.

 

Over the years, Americans decided they wanted a little more safety and security. This is what happens as nations grow wealthier; they use money to buy civilization.

 

Occasionally, our ancestors found themselves in a sweet spot. They could pass legislation that brought security but without a cost to vitality. But adults know that this situation is rare. In the real world, there's usually a trade-off. The unregulated market wants to direct capital to the productive and the young. Welfare policies usually direct resources to the vulnerable and the elderly. Most social welfare legislation, even successful legislation, siphons money from the former to the latter.

 

Early in this health care reform process, many of us thought we were in that magical sweet spot. We could extend coverage to the uninsured but also improve the system overall to lower costs. That is, we thought it would be possible to reduce the suffering of the vulnerable while simultaneously squeezing money out of the wasteful system and freeing it up for more productive uses.

 

That's what the management gurus call a win-win.

 

It hasn't worked out that way. The bills before Congress would almost certainly ease the anxiety of the uninsured, those who watch with terror as their child or spouse grows ill, who face bankruptcy and ruin.

 

And the bills would probably do it without damaging the care the rest of us receive. In every place where reforms have been tried — from Massachusetts to Switzerland — people come to cherish their new benefits. The new plans become politically untouchable.

 

But, alas, there would be trade-offs. Instead of reducing costs, the bills in Congress would probably raise them. They would mean that more of the nation's wealth would be siphoned off from productive uses and shifted into a still wasteful health care system.

 

The authors of these bills have tried to foster efficiencies. The Senate bill would initiate several interesting experiments designed to make the system more effective — giving doctors incentives to collaborate, rewarding hospitals that provide quality care at lower cost. It's possible that some of these experiments will bloom into potent systemic reforms.

 

But the general view among independent health care economists is that these changes will not fundamentally bend the cost curve. The system after reform will look as it does today, only bigger and more expensive.

 

As Jeffrey S. Flier, dean of the Harvard Medical School, wrote in The Wall Street Journal last week, "In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it."

 

Rather than pushing all of the new costs onto future generations, as past governments have done, the Democrats have admirably agreed to raise taxes. Over the next generation, the tax increases in the various bills could funnel trillions of dollars from the general economy into the medical system.

 

Moreover, the current estimates almost certainly understate the share of the nation's wealth that will have to be shifted. In these bills, the present Congress pledges that future Congresses will impose painful measures to cut Medicare payments and impose efficiencies. Future Congresses rarely live up to these pledges. Somebody screams "Rationing!" and there is a bipartisan rush to kill even the most tepid cost-saving measure. After all, if the current Congress, with pride of authorship, couldn't reduce costs, why should we expect that future Congresses will?

 

The bottom line is that we face a brutal choice.

 

Reform would make us a more decent society, but also a less vibrant one. It would ease the anxiety of millions

at the cost of future growth. It would heal a wound in the social fabric while piling another expensive and untouchable promise on top of the many such promises we've already made. America would be a less youthful, ragged and unforgiving nation, and a more middle-aged, civilized and sedate one.

 

We all have to decide what we want at this moment in history, vitality or security. We can debate this or that provision, but where we come down will depend on that moral preference. Don't get stupefied by technical details. This debate is about values.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

A MOVEABLE FAST

BY ELYSSA EAST

 

"IT'S Thanksgiving — time to put our feedbags on," my family likes to say as we elbow for room next to the Pilgrim and Puritan ghosts the holiday summons to our table. Our colonial forebears probably would not disapprove of our having second and third helpings of sweet potatoes and stuffing, or even rushing off to watch football after the meal — the Pilgrims themselves played lots of games at that first Thanksgiving in 1621. But I imagine they would find fault with our binge for another reason: it is not accompanied by a fast.

 

To the Pilgrims and Puritans, the community-wide fast, or "day of public humiliation and prayer," and the thanksgiving feast, or day of "public thanksgiving and praise," were equal halves of the same ritual. But the fast was not merely a justification for a community-wide gorging. Both customs were important components of a religious rite that served to pacify an angry God who was believed to punish entire communities for the sins of the few with starvation, "excessive rains from the bottles of heaven," epidemics, crop infestations, the Indian wars and other hardships.

 

According to the 19th-century historian William DeLoss Love, the New England colonies celebrated as many as nine such "special public days" a year from 1620 to 1700. And as the Puritans were masters of self-denial, days of abstention outnumbered thanksgivings two to one. Fasting, Cotton Mather wrote, "kept the wheel of prayer in continual motion."

 

Pleas for rain during spells of drought were the most common reason for fasting. But Puritans also fasted whenever a comet, an evil portent, appeared in the sky; at the start of the Salem witch trials; and throughout the various colonial Indian wars (Mather preached that the horrors in King Philip's War, against the Wampanoag Indians, had been sent by God to chastise colonists for the sin of wig wearing).

 

Thanksgivings were celebrated at the end of these and other hardships and in honor of such auspicious events as the "dissipation of the pirates," the succession of English kings and safe ocean crossings of ships bearing colonists and much needed supplies. Yet these feasts all began with fasts and hours of prayer, during which ministers praised God's goodness and railed against the sin of gluttony. (Once, after eating too much, John Winthrop, the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, fretted that his flesh had "waxed wanton" and begged God to "revive" him.) Intemperance was believed to go against the very idea of gratitude. Of course, people did often overindulge at these thanksgivings. But then additional fast days often immediately followed.

 

Puritans believed that expressions of thanks to God for their good fortune helped keep his future punishments at bay — a point that does not detract from the genuine appreciation they felt at privations' end. Nonetheless, participation was mandatory. In 1696, William Veazie of Boston was pilloried for plowing on Thanksgiving Day.

 

It was in the late 1660s that the New England colonies began holding an "Annual Provincial Thanksgiving." The holiday we celebrate today is a remnant of this harvest feast, which was theologically counterbalanced by an annual spring fast around the time of planting to ask God's good favor for the year. Yet fasting and praying also immediately preceded the harvest Thanksgiving. In 1690, in Massachusetts the feast itself was postponed, though not the fasting, out of extraordinary concern that the meal would inspire too much "carnal confidence."

 

As life in the New World wilderness got easier, the New England colonies gradually began holding only their annual spring fast and fall harvest feast. Even after Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863, Massachusetts continued to celebrate its spring day of abstention for 31 more years.

 

In the nearly 400 years since the first Thanksgiving, the holiday has come to mirror our transformation into a nation of gross overconsumption, but the New England colonists never intended for Thanksgiving to be a day of gluttony. They dished up restraint along with gratitude as a shared main course. What mattered most was not the feast itself, but the gathering together in thanks and praise for life's most humble gifts. Perhaps this holiday season we could benefit from restoring a proper Thanksgiving balance between forbearance and indulgence.

 

Elyssa East is the author of the forthcoming "Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town."

                

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 I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

ORDINANCES AND PARLIAMENT

 

As we approach the November 28 deadline set by the Supreme Court, after which 37 ordinances promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf may lapse, the federal law minister has said some of them will be re-promulgated. This comes from a government that has spoken on more than one occasion about the supremacy of parliament. The SC had sought parliamentary sanction for the ordinances that representatives believed should be made into law, rather than further use of presidential ordinances. At least 31 of the 37 ordinances had been placed before the National Assembly. None was approved – or rejected. Most failed to move beyond the committee stage. Parliament, an institution on which large sums of public money are spent annually, needs to be effective. If it is not, questions will inevitably arise as to why it exists in the first place. Our representatives have a special duty to strengthen democracy by demonstrating that they are capable of performing their function with responsibility and interest.

The government has set aside some controversial measures of the Musharraf era, including ordinances limiting media freedoms. But there are others that need to be retained, such as those that set up the Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), the NADRA ordinance and that putting in place the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP). Despite alleged irregularities, ERRA remains involved with various projects in the quake-hit areas. The projects need to be completed without disruption. The same holds true for NADRA. The suspicions that powerful cartels are lobbying for the demise of the CCP so that they can push up prices without hindrance makes it all the more imperative that the government act in the interests of ordinary people by protecting this body. Other ordinances and their impact require discussion and debate. It is unfortunate that this has not happened. The failure to generate such debate in the National Assembly and bring a vote on these issues only adds to the perceptions of the government's ineffectiveness and inability to keep the wheels of state running smoothly along.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LISTEN INDIA!

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is currently about to experience American hospitality of the type associated with a full-blown state visit. Wearily true to form he is using the occasion to deliver unhelpful and negative statements about Pakistan that drip oil on the fires that burn between us. 'We are not fully committed to Afghanistan' and 'Pakistan has nothing to fear from India'. With the greatest of brotherly respect Mr Singh, we have a considerable amount to fear from India. You are the bear growling at our backdoor, the fox that eyes our chickens and the Very Big Brother with a military stick that we know we would have difficulty countering were push to come to shove. You have regional superpower aspirations that we cannot match and the ear of the only other established superpower that cultivates you for its own interests. But wait… do you not also have the same problems of poverty as we do? The same threats to natural resources posed by global warming? No shortage of armed uprisings within your own borders? Are there not religious and sectarian atrocities reported on a daily basis and is there not an outbreak of witch-killing in your rural hinterlands that sees widowed women regularly hacked to death?

You are no less flawed than we are and yet it is we who are always seemingly 'not doing enough' and we who are the exporters of terrorism. Are you innocent, India? Free of stain and guilt? Have you never sent agents across our borders, sought to foment discontent and division where you saw opportunity or profit? Have you never done that to us, India? Have you not moved in on Afghanistan yourself as a significant donor, created diplomatic missions and sought to influence the Afghan government? And do we really use terror as an instrument of state policy – or is it that in geopolitical terms it is currently flavour-of-the-month to present Pakistan as a bubbling pot of wickedness? We have our faults and we are often poor at acknowledging them, but we are not the only baddies in this game, India. Yes, we would prefer peace if only because wars are expensive and often fail to solve problems. But peace is ill-served by a ritualised thrashing of a favourite scapegoat. So if it's peace you seek, Manmohan Singh, find a different way of saying so. Believe us – we'll listen if you do.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

ON THE RUN

 

As militants from South Waziristan remain on the run, the military is now reported to be moving in after them into the Kurram Agency and more parts of Bajaur. There has also been movement by troops in the Bara tehsil of the Khyber Agency, which lies adjacent to Peshawar, after militants blew up a girls' school. Meanwhile the COAS, on his latest visit to Mingora, has stressed that troops will not pull out of the area until the security situation is back to normal. It appears that as a result of the Pakistan army's more determined initiative the ring around the militants is closing. Soon, we hope, they will have fewer and fewer places to run to, although cooperation with Kabul is also required to impede flight across the border.

The 'stop and start' aspect of military operations we have seen in the past has been missing this time round. For this we must all say a quick prayer of gratitude. It seems that the military has finally realized that there is no option but to go after the militants with all the resolve and force that can be mustered up. It has persisted in this tactic despite the inevitable loss of many soldiers. The hope that we could see an end to the bombings and other acts of terrorism that have in recent days devastated Peshawar rises with every news item about military action and the expansion of the ongoing operation. But amidst optimism, we should also remember that the time will come when we will also need to hunt down militants further afield. Much has been written about bases in southern Punjab. We hear too of leaders who may be based in Quetta, or Karachi or elsewhere. Once the fighting finally ends in the tribal areas, there will be an urgent need for the government, the civil administration and the military to sit down together and plan how best to go after them, so that the full dividends of defeating militancy can come our way.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE FAUX UMBRAGE OF 'CORRUPTION'

MOSHARRAF ZAIDI

The 2007 Annual Report for the National Accountability Bureau is the most recent that can be found at the NAB website. On page "V" of this report, you will find a list of staff members of the NAB titled "Leadership." Not surprisingly, the philosophy of Pakistan's philosopher-warrior king at the time, Gen Pervez Musharraf, shines radiantly through the names.

Eight of the 12 names are preceded by a mighty title of an officer rank in the Pakistani military. Military men made up the vast majority of Musharraf's trusted accomplices in the business of stealing Pakistani sovereignty from the people, and mutilating its Constitution. If you ask an officer, he will tell you why this was the case. (In fact, if you know an officer, you must make it a point to ask.) He will tell you it is because the military is Pakistan's cleanest institution.

Perhaps that is true. And perhaps Pakistan's lawyers are all men of valour that stand for the rule of law, and nothing less. And perhaps Pakistan's judges are also all without equal in integrity and honesty.

 

Under the current corruption laws and regulations, I suppose we will never truly know. Because under the current definition, if you are a member, past or present, of the military or the judiciary, you are virtually immune from being prosecuted for corruption.

The only thieving scumbags that it is worth prosecuting in Pakistan are those enablers of military and judicial theft that work in the private sector, that are members of Pakistan's civil services, and that call themselves politicians.

Sometimes, in our land of conspiracy theories, the facts should be allowed to speak for themselves.

"From the beginning of the current military government in 1999 through March 2005, the NAB prosecuted 368 cases of high-level corruption. Of these prosecutions, 173 cases involved politicians and only 13 involved former armed forces personnel, even though serving and retired military officers head several public-sector enterprises and hold more than 1,000 positions in the civil service."

That is an excerpt from the 2006 "Countries at the Crossroads" report on Pakistan by the Washington-based Freedom House.

But, of course, since it is based in Washington DC, Freedom House may not represent a viable source. After all, like the Kerry Lugar Bill, the Starbucks on K Street, and the Washington Redskins, most things in Washington DC are part of the conspiracy to make Pakistanis seem like bad people.

But what about Pakistani politicians' own commitments?

Section B, Article 24 of the "Charter of Democracy"--that idealistic claptrap that the PPP signed in partnership with Pakistan's other opposition parties at the time--states:

"All military and judicial officers will be required to file annual assets and income declarations like parliamentarians to make them accountable to the public."

Once again, it seems abundantly clear that a massive opportunity to right a ship that was all wrong for so, so long, was wasted by the PPP's mindless negligence of its own promises.

Of course, part of the reason the government never wanted to touch corruption was because this very day was what it feared. After all, when you construct a core advisory team full of allegedly unscrupulous thieves and charlatans, you should be scared. President Asif Ali Zardari's political choices are a reflection of his own political skills. Among the Farooq Naeks, the Salman Faruqis, the Rehman Maliks, the Fauzia Wahabs, and the Husain Haqqanis, he chose a group that could help the Bhutto-Zardari enterprise flourish in terms of transactions, rents and spin, but not one that could help it politically.

This government of the people took its own legitimacy all too seriously. Perhaps it felt its legitimacy afforded it irrational and suicidal public policy. Pakistan was already teetering under the burden of the failures of eight disastrous years without democratic governance when the PPP got the chance to form a government. But it is the PPP's own failures to manage public expectations and to actually do the work governments are supposed to do, that have created the current environment.

Success on any of the major national issues would perhaps have bought this government more stability than it enjoys. But we have to wonder how much stability it deserves, after watching more than eighteen months of disastrous performance, from national security, law and order, service delivery to jobs creation, fiscal responsibility and monetary common sense.

The answer is, it deserves a lot more than it will get. The national mistrust of President Zardari and his advisory corps is not necessarily misplaced. But our impatience with democracy certainly is. This is a time for real politicians and democrats to stand up and be counted. Stupidly, almost as if on cue, the obdurate and unlearning Imran Khan calls for mid-term elections, while most wisely (no matter what feelings are bottled up in Lahore), Mian Nawaz Sharif urges more patience, and much caution.

The NRO list hullabaloo is yet more manufactured and faux umbrage. We should be clear about what the NRO represents. It represents a list of alleged thieves, swindlers and all-round scumbags that has been edited twice. Sometimes, as not enough editors will admit, the real story is in the edits.

The first edit was the selective morality edit of an illegitimate military government. Gen Pervez Musharraf may once have wanted really clean government, but he was ultimately interested in the survival of his own government; clean, dusty or downright filthy, it really did not matter. So while his National Accountability Bureau chased down bureaucrats and politicians with selective amnesia and selective zeal, it made a conscious decision not to pursue cases against members of the military, or members of the judiciary. At least on the latter account, I am sure the General came to rue his decision.

The second edit was the selective nature of the NRO itself, as it did not include every pending case against politicians, but was instead deliberately directed towards enabling the participation of the PPP and the MQM in national politics.

An NRO list worth getting worked up about would need to be littered with as many military officer prefixes as the cushiest jobs in Pakistan's public sector were littered with during the eight years of enlightened moderation and selective accountability of Gen Musharraf's rule.

But we are not about to see such a list anytime soon. Nor are we about to see any meaningful convictions or prosecutions in this country. Because it was not just the selection of targets by Gen Musharraf that was flawed. Like everything else during those dark years, the technical processing of cases was uniformly flawed. Why? Because PMA Kakul does not train young men to be prosecutors.

The NAB and Gen Musharraf's twisted integrity drive (other than the short period of time it was run by Gen Muhammad Amjad) was not just politically biased. It was technically incompetent. And none of this should surprise us. The NAB's impure intentions and its technical unfitness are only more of the same in a Pakistan hose resilience beggars belief.

The writer advises governments, donors and NGOs on public policy. He can be reached through his website www.mosharrafzaidi.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

A TURNAROUND CAN HAPPEN

DR ASHFAQUE H KHAN

Pakistan's economy has maintained a solid pace of expansion during the first seven years (2000-07) of the current decade. The economy grew at an average rate of 5.6 per cent and 7 per cent per annum during 2000-2007 and 2002-2007 respectively and thus positioned itself as one of the four fastest growing economies in the Asian region along with China, India and Vietnam.

Such achievements must be viewed at the backdrop of many epoch-making events that took place on the national and international economic scene during the period. These include: an unprecedented draught causing serious damage to agriculture; 9/11 changing the world altogether; the events of December 13, 2001 leading to the amassing of troops by India on Pakistan's borders; the war in Iraq and subsequent developments thereafter causing oil prices to rise from $30 to $147 per barrel; the earthquake on October 8, 2005 causing extensive damage to infrastructure and loss of lives; and the sacking of the chief justice of the Supreme Court (SC) on March 9, 2007, thus sowing the seeds of political instability.

Despite all this, Pakistan's economy continued to gain traction and its economic fundamentals improved during the period. Strong economic growth resulted in a decline in unemployment; the country's debt burden was reduced by one-half; double-digit growth in exports and imports achieved; foreign exchange reserves crossed $16 billion; stability in exchange rate maintained; and foreign investment reached over $8 billion.

The present government took charge of the state of affairs on March 31, 2008 after the February 18 elections last year. It inherited a foreign exchange reserve of $13.3 billion; exchange rate at Rs62.76 per US dollar; stock market index at 15,125 and market capitalisation of Rs4,623 billion or $73.7 billion; and inflation at 14.1 per cent. While the government inherited a reasonably sound economy, it also inherited serious challenges that include oil price at over $100 per barrel and massive deterioration in both budget and current account deficits caused by policy inaction of the previous governments on one hand, and rising oil and commodity prices on the other.

The challenges required prudent handling of the economy. On the contrary, the government was clueless in addressing economic challenges and started lurching from one crisis to another. For a fair span of time, there were no ministers of finance, commerce, and petroleum. While there was no full-time finance minister, the government continued to change finance secretaries in almost every quarter, showing its flippant attitude towards addressing economic challenges.

The ministry of finance was ready with $4 billion transactions for which the kick-off meeting was scheduled to be held on April 23, 2008. The transactions were to be completed and money transferred to Pakistan by June 30, 2008. These transactions were cancelled on April 20, 2008. Who ordered the cancellation?

Imprudent or lack of economic management along with the cancellation of $4 billion transactions caused a serious crisis of confidence. The development partners lost confidence in the government's economic management ability. The market reacted to these developments adversely and the country started losing foreign exchange reserves, rupee came under severe pressure, stock market nose-dived and flight of capital set in. Pakistan had no option but to return to the IMF to save itself from default.

With political instability and weak governance already damaging the government, the Kerry-Lugar Bill (KLB) and National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) have further added fuel to the fire. All kinds of speculations about the future of the government are floating.

Is economic turn-around still possible? The answer is yes provided that the current state of uncertainty is resolved at the earliest. A rejuvenated prime minister must be seen as taking charge of the state of affairs and bringing the economy on the radar screen. He must exhibit commitment to reform and pursue sound economic policies. He must devote substantial quality time to economic matters. He must have confidence in his economic team that must have the capacity to prepare, implement, monitor and prioritise its home-grown economic reform agenda, and align the country's macroeconomic policies with poverty reduction strategy. The government must strengthen the social safety net programme to protect the poor and vulnerable sections of the society from adjustment costs.

The prime minister must get briefings on various aspects of the economy on weekly basis, take notes from the presentation and compare them with subsequent presentations. He must take note of the lack of progress and reprimand the ministry. In subsequent meetings with other ministries, everyone will then make it a point to show some progress and by the end of the year, we may see some real progress.

The prime minister must meet the leadership of the private sector every two months and make an effort to resolve their issues. Such meetings would revive investors' confidence.

Turning around the economy requires strong, sincere and visionary leadership, committed to make a change. The right policies and right people for the job are required for an economic turnaround. If we keep Pakistan's interest supreme and stay the course, I am positive that we can turn around the economy.

The writer is dean and professor at NUST Business School, Islamabad. Email: ahkhan@ nims.edu.pk

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

ISLAMIA COLLEGE AT 100

PART II

AZIZ AKHMAD

Islamia College Peshawar is planning to celebrate its first centenary sometime in the next couple of years. Its Alumni Association will soon decide when to celebrate and what else to do on the occasion. They have already started soliciting ideas. At least, the Islamabad Chapter has.

Here are my two cents.

 

An educated person, compared to a less educated or uneducated one, is more aware of the world around him/her, is willing to entertain new ideas, has the ability to think critically, analyse different viewpoints, and express his/her opinions coherently and effectively. All these qualities are best developed during the early years in life. Some of them can be learnt from textbooks, but mostly they come from interaction with good teachers and fellow students, from dialogue and discussion, and from general reading. Reading broadens one's mind, expands a person's horizons and sensitises him/her to different cultures and civilisations.

This can be achieved only when the college provides an enabling environment where students can express themselves freely, where teachers act as catalysts --not deterrents -- for open and frank discussion of different issues and ideas.

Brick-and-mortar buildings are essential for any learning institution, but what goes on inside those buildings is critical for good education. Remember, what Iqbal said?

Jahan-e-taza ki afkar-e-taza say hai numood

Keh sang-o-khisht say hotay nahin jahaan paida

(New knowledge and discoveries grow out of fresh ideas

Stones and bricks do not produce fresh discoveries.)

We do not tire of quoting the Hadith: "Seek knowledge, even if you have to go to China." Imagine, what would a person find in China If he went there from Saudi Arabia, say, 1400 years ago? Certainly not Arabic. Nor any knowledge of his own religion. On the contrary, he would possibly learn Chinese, know something about Confucianism and about a totally different civilisation. In the process he might also pass on some of his own knowledge to the Chinese. This is how knowledge proliferates. "The more knowledge we share, the more knowledge grows."

The point I am trying to make is that the primary purpose of education is to broaden one's mind, not to narrow it.

This is what the early Abbasids did in the 8th and 9th centuries in Baghdad. Khalifa Abdullah al-Mamoon set up a Darul Hikmah and allowed the translation of Greek knowledge into Arabic. He brought scholars from all over to translate Greek books. The Arabs, through these translations, became familiar with Aristotle and other Greek philosophers, mathematician and scientist, and then proceeded to add value to that knowledge and came with their own theories and discoveries, which then travelled to Spain. In Spain, the Arabic works, further translated into Latin, went to Western Europe. Thus Europe discovered Aristotle and other Greek philosophy and sciences through the Arabs. This was the Arabs' period of Enlightenment, their golden age of science and philosophy, which produced luminaries like Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Haithem, Ibn Hayyan, Bu Ali Sena (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes).

Now, look at what we have done to our educational institutions.

Until the early 1970s, at Islamia College Peshawar, like other schools and colleges in the country, Persian was taught as one of the languages. Not any more. We discarded Persian in favour of Arabic. Why can't we have both? After all, Persian is the language of neighbouring Iran, and is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan (where it is called Dari). It is also spoken in Tajikistan. Urdu literature, particularly poetry, has substantial Persian content. In fact, we should be including more languages in our language classes, rather than reducing them.

Many senior alumni of Islamia College would remember from their school days that we studied history in schools, including English history, from the Tudors to the East India Company; we also studied Chandra Gupta Mauria, Buddha and Ashoka. None of us became a lesser Muslim by studying these; rather, we became more knowledgeable. I am not sure if any of that is taught today.

It is not easy to change curricula in Pakistan. But we can encourage reading and writing and free exchange of ideas among teachers and students. Reading would open their minds to new ideas, it would introduce them to new people and cultures; it would increase their vocabulary and thus help them express themselves more coherently and effectively, both orally and in writing.

To this end, specifically, I would recommend that Islamia College alumni create an endowment that generates a couple of hundred thousand rupees a year. This amount should be used to establish an annual award that should go to the best writer of an essay, a short story or a poem, in English, Urdu and Pashto. We could name these prizes after any person, who has done something remarkable for the college or society in general. The award should be substantial enough to attract a large number of students to the activity of reading and writing.

Let us also start an annual journal, professionally produced, which should publish the top three or more writings of the contesting students in each category. Along with these essays and stories, we should invite the alumni to write their personal stories and articles on other subjects of general interest but in the field of the writer's specialisation: e.g., water, energy, health, education, the environment.

In my last article about the college, I had mentioned Dean Sahib in some detail. I received several messages from "old students" remembering Dean Sahib and sharing some of their stories about him. A few, however, pointed out why I had left out H M Close. Well, I left him out, and several others, because of space constraints. Otherwise, who wouldn't remember H M Close? Mr Close lived in Hardinge Hostel just above our room. Although he was a professor of English, he was more known for introducing students to social work and adventure. When I think of him, I always see him in my mind's eye riding his bicycle, in his white shirt, khaki trousers clamped at the ankles. During Ramazan he would always fast from Sehri to Iftar along with the students, regularly go to his church on Sundays, riding his bike from college to wherever his church was in the Cantonment, five miles one way.

Another professor I remember was Qazi Inayatullah, from Gujrat, who taught us English essays. He was a stickler for pronunciation. He would enunciate each syllable of the word clearly and forcefully, in his roaring voice, while chewing paan at the same time.

We can write about them all in our annual journal. This would also motivate the current crop of teachers to try to be memorable.

Lastly, and this is for the college administration. Make a good, user-friendly website for the college. Websites are meant to help, not to confuse. A good website is like a book with an index, where one can easily find the information by looking up the index first and then going directly to information, which should be written in plain and simple language. High-flown language and clichés leave the reader clueless. The current websites of the college are difficult to navigate, have inconsistent spellings osf names and are poorly written. Even worse, they are not updated. And, if you provide a contact email address, someone should respond. Currently no one does.

The bottom line is, let's make Islamia College, once again, a liberal arts college that it was meant to be, teaching social and physical sciences and humanities and languages.

(Concluded)

The writer is currently based in Philadelphia. Email: azizakhmad @gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LIFE AS AN ACRONYM

CHRIS CORK

It was only recently that I discovered that we -- as in the family unit I am most intimately a part of -- live our lives as an acronym, moreover one that is recently coined and currently in vogue (some acronyms have a short shelf life and it remains to be seen if this one will survive.) We are LATs. We are Living Apart Together. I discovered this while scanning the social and showbiz pages of an English-language paper. They were carrying a piece on the dysfunctional lives of assorted ditzy celebs that flitted around the world with little attention to the traditional dyadic structure of family life. Children got adopted almost willy-nilly, family size and shape seemed determined by where on the scale of celebrity one was -- with A-listers having the pick of the international crop of unwanted babies willing to suffer the indignity of being called 'Packet' or 'Bungle' or any other quirky name that the adoptive parent believes adds individuality -- but in reality adds up to a life-time of cringing embarrassment for the unfortunate child. The oh-so-boringly traditional ideas of getting assessed to see if the prospective adopters were actually the right kind of people to be given the life-time care of a child were out of the window. Likewise, any consideration of the lifestyle of the rich and famous, and whether it was really a good idea to have peripatetic parents who lived a life in the public eye as good adoption material. I looked at the tales on offer…and then had one of those 'ouch' moments that said I had seen myself and my family through another lens.

Those celebs we all love to gawp and scoff at for their follies and foibles were not a million miles removed from where I and my own family live our lives. We have been married for almost 15 years, have no natural children of our own but are parent to a 21-year-old young woman who started life as a street-child in Karachi and who is deaf and dumb; and a two-and-a-half year old girl who we adopted from within our extended family here in Pakistan. We live most of our lives continents apart as my wife has a good job with a pension attached in the UK and I look after the Pakistani end of the family by caring for my elderly father-in-law -- and my work is all here and not back in England. Did we plan it this way when we set out on the path of married life? No we did not, but then it was never going to be a conventional marriage anyway. There were the age and the cultural differences, not to mention matters of faith -- she believes and I don't. But it worked from the outset, not without its ups and downs. Still, it seems durable enough for all that.

And, having laid our own lives alongside the celebrity template and found surprising similarities, I did that to many of the families I know here, who are most certainly not rich and famous, nor are they educated or multicultural. They are for the most part ordinary families who are LATs by force of circumstance rather than by choice. They are the families where the earning hands are out of the country, in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Malaysia or one of the European countries. They come together perhaps even less frequently than do we, and some I know spend years apart. The absent partner may not be out of the country -- but they may as well be for those who have fled the countryside for daily-wage jobs in the cities, with wives back in the villages caring for the children and the elders. There are not just a handful of people living like this; there are millions. Here and across the subcontinent there are LATs everywhere adapting to a world that has reshaped the family and how it lives its life. Life as a LAT is changing the role of women in society, and children are learning that Dad is not always on hand for advice and guidance. For some, the experience is a living nightmare, a ripping apart of traditional bonds. For others it is a liberating experience, empowering in ways they never believed possible or desirable. A female acquaintance living in Karachi had recently entered LAT-hood, albeit temporarily. For her, it was at first lonely and frightening but it was also -- and quite quickly -- the creation of space to do other things or do the same things differently.

Right now, we are having 'together time' and the house is full of noises that were not there before, voices that were far way or faces that were on a video Skype call are today in the next room, across the pillow or out in the garden. We catch up fast because the connection was never cut between us, only stretched thin. Other lives from other places bump up against one another, and there will always be 'gaps' as our lives no longer overlap all day every day. Perhaps this is what makes our LAT-hood different to that of others. We choose to do it this way. We have moved past the idea of 'one another' as property -- I do not 'own' my wife in any sense nor she me, but this does not lessen our sense of commitment or partnership, nor lessen our care for the two children in our stewardship. The oldest will soon be making a life of her own, setting up a business doing bridal make-up and hairdressing for the huge Asian community in our home city in the UK. The youngest -- we have decided that we will not put her into the Pakistani education system so she goes to nursery in England, speaks the outline of three languages and will grow up to be a woman in a world where LATs may have been replaced by another acronym. And my wife and I? Well we have decided to be GOTs…and when time and circumstance allow, we will Grow Old Together.

 

The writer is a freelancer and management consultant. Email: manticore73 @gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHERE'S THE COUNTER-TERROR STRATEGY?

MUSHAHID HUSSAIN

The writer is a senator and senior political analyst.

An interesting dynamic seems to be developing in today's Pakistan. There is an inverse relationship between the success of Pakistan's counter-insurgency and the failure of the country's counter-terrorism. Clearly, since the beginning of the military offensive in April, the militants are on the run but, concurrently, they have run amok by striking Pakistan's urban population at a time and target of their own choosing.

The government is reduced to expressing impotent rage, with the usual condemnation, compensation and commissioning an inquiry whose findings have never seen the light of day. There is now little doubt that Pakistan has no effective or workable counter-terror strategy. If we had one, it probably lies buried, tucked away in the locked files of officialdom.

Pakistan today is witnessing the worst type of terrorism in its history. Never before have people borne the brunt of such a vicious cycle of violence directed at innocent civilians. Terrorism needs to be treated as the county's foremost national security problem, not just as a local police issue of law and order. It is the single biggest source of destabilisation of the state.

Three kinds of failures are evident. First, barring a couple of instances, there is a marked inability of Intelligence to anticipate possible acts of terrorism. Second, investigation of terror acts is generally carried out in a haphazard, non-professional and casual manner. Third, there is a visible absence of coordination within the government.

Take the case of two of the biggest terror strikes in 2009, both of which were predicted in advance and the predictions published in the print media. The attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers and the attempted storming of the GHQ had the hallmarks of the audacious Mumbai attacks. The Punjab CID had forewarned about these two attacks with considerable precision.

 

What is worse is that, instead of accepting an obvious failure, the government has resorted to an ostrich-like approach, taking refuge in ridiculous bureaucratic arguments. For instance, whenever Peshawar or Lahore is attacked, the federal government says "that's a provincial issue since it pertains to law and order." Not to be left behind, the provincial governments explain their helplessness by saying since "this is an international conspiracy; hence, it is a foreign policy issue." Then there is the favourite form of denial: refusal to accept that the killing of innocent children, women and men can be the work of any Muslim or Pakistani!

That's not surprising, as there has been a national state of denial on this issue for the past couple of decades. Terrorism and extremism in Pakistan predate 9/11, fallouts from regional conflicts, combined with a growing homespun problem of terrorism and extremism. But the political will to take tough decisions or seek out-of-the box solutions, requiring reinventing the bureaucracy, were lacking.

A recent illustration of this absence of political will aptly reflect official priorities. In October 2008, when the president went to China, a decision was taken to buy Chinese security scanners (able to scan trucks and other big vehicles), with the Chinese offering an immediate soft loan. A year later, no implementation of that decision is in sight, although such sophisticated security technology is imperative in the light of the clear and present danger faced by Pakistanis. What good has the 17th Amendment done to a "powerful" president who can't even implement his own decision regarding the life and property of the people? There may be a state of emergency regarding terrorism, but there is certainly no sense of urgency amongst officialdom.

Counter-terrorism is no rocket science that a country like Pakistan, with a modern state apparatus, cannot cope or contain. Since the government still seems to be at a loss on countering terrorism, a few suggestions are in order on what can be done to face Pakistan's number one challenge.

On the intelligence front, there is need for clarity and coordination. There is just no substitute for an efficient local police effort in garnering information, pursuing investigative leads and tracking the sources of terror. This has been the missing link in Pakistan's failure to fashion an effective approach–the police and its provincial intelligence wings, the Special Branch and CID, need to be modernised and beefed up.

While the battle for the soul of Pakistan is being fought, with the nation solidly behind the country's defenders, the most important ingredient in any such campaign is still missing, namely, the people. The campaign against terrorism remains confined to the VIP sector only – government leaders, the international community, the military brass – with no popular involvement. The kind of mobilisation that can be done through the media is just not there, and the government is dithering, acting like a "fire brigade," dousing flames and doing damage control.

A media-awareness campaign needs to be launched to provide safety guidelines to the public and a hotline made operational where people can give tips, information or even suggestions that are then translated into policy. Those who have helped the government or the security forces invariably end up being victims, especially in FATA, where many have been killed along with their families as a form of "retaliation" for support to the government effort. A Pakistani version of the Witness Protection Programme also needs to be in place, to prevent such recurring tragedies.

We see a number of religious scholars and clerics speaking up in television programmes, but there has been no concerted effort to collectively mobilise such experts. They should be brought together on one platform so that they can present a united front for a fatwa rejecting killing of the innocent and suicide bombings. This would immensely help in swaying public opinion to oppose such un-Islamic acts.

An abiding failure has been the inability to prosecute those responsible for such crimes. This is largely on account of poor police investigation, the absence of modern forensic and DNA laboratories, as well as a justice system where judges fear for their lives and those of their families should they go through the gamut of trial and conviction. Italy found an innovative way to ensure the security of judges trying mafia dons – their identity was hidden and when they appeared in courtrooms, established within maximum-security prisons, they masked their faces.

There is a need for a maximum-security prison where only terrorists are kept in isolation – a place, for instance, like the Attock Fort, and that could also be used as a courtroom to try them. Definitely, a more productive utilisation of that dreaded fortress than incarcerating political prisoners.

The popular support on this issue has more to do with the inhuman actions of the terrorists, especially the killing spree of the past few months. It is high time the government realised that this battle is too big to be fought and won by an individual, a party, a government or the army alone. It has to be an organised, well-thought-out national effort requiring sustenance from the people. Let it not be said that the sacrifices of Pakistan's soldiers and civilians were in vain simply because the ruling elite was too busy pursuing their petty personal interests.

The people of Pakistan deserve better; at the minimum, an expectation that the government perform its core duty of protecting their lives and property, an area where the government performance has been one vast failure.

There is still time for the government to wake up from its slumber and get cracking on forging a doable counter-terror strategy, which would be a force multiplier for the ongoing counter-insurgency campaign.

 

Email: mushahid.hussain@gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

RULE BY THIEVES

MIR JAMILUR RAHMAN

It matters little whether a country is ruled by democracy, military dictatorship or an oligarchy; they are all susceptible to political corruption. Whether rich or poor, no country is immune from it. Topping the list of corruption is bribery, followed by patronage, nepotism, cronyism and embezzlement. Worldwide, bribery is estimated to involve over one trillion dollars annually.

It has been argued that non-democratic rules have been the cause of corruption in Pakistan. Others say it is low wages that force such people as policemen and employees of lower courts to replenish their incomes by bribes. But we are not talking about bribe to a police or revenue official, which is pittance compared to kickbacks earned in the purchase of submarines and on the award of government licences and contracts.

Pakistan has been taking action against corrupt politicians and bureaucrats since independence. Various laws were introduced by successive governments to stamp out corruption. Many politicians were retired from politics and many bureaucrats were sacked. But exactly the opposite happened. Corruption kept on rising with every anti-corruption law. Thieves kept ruling us, whether it was under democracy or dictatorship.

Democracy is often blamed for fostering corruption. Undoubtedly, corruption plays a central role in politics. However, the rules of dictators have shown that as far as corruption is concerned, democracy and dictatorship always had close bonds. Dictator Musharraf, in order to remain president, wrote off billions through the NRO, currently the most hated term in Pakistan.

Mahatma Gandhi did not accept the notion that democracy and corruption are inseparable. He said: "Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today."

Some leaders have shown resentment to corruption stories in the media, which they have accused of sensationalism. The disclosure by the government of 8,041 NRO beneficiaries has silenced those who were pressing the prime minister to curb the media. The politicians do not realise that a free media is not a bane but an insurance against bad governance.

A free media will remain preoccupied with corruption because news of financial scandals and scams sells like hotcakes. The media understands people's fascination with prominent personalities shown in embarrassing situations. It would not be doing its duty if it did not expose corruption. In this context, Prime Minister Gilani has acted most democratically by ordering the opening of the NRO Pandora's Box.

Mr Gilani should make a concrete beginning to stamp out corruption. He should set up a commission to determine the causes of the rampant corruption and what the government and civil society could do to reduce its incidence. He should make the freedom-of-information law more effective and accessible. It will bring transparency in government actions and strengthen democracy.

What can corruption do to society? Back in 1896, US painter Elihu Vedder, who is best known for his 55 illustrations for Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, made this insightful observation about corruption: "Corruption poses a serious development challenge. In the political realm, it undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative bodies reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking; corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. At the same time, corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance."

Email: mirjrahman @hotmail.com

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MAGNIFICENT ROLL OUT OF JF-17

 

THE skies of Pakistan witnessed one of the most fascinating and thrilling events in the history of the country as the first indigenously co-produced (with China) multi-role fighter aircraft rolled out at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Kamra on Monday. The successful production and flight of the modern and sophisticated aircraft, which is comparable to most of the state-of-the-art fighters in possession of other countries has aptly been described as PAF's gift to the nation and a symbol of Pak-China friendship.

This is indeed a milestone in the defence production arena for a variety of reasons. The development comes at a time when the nation is confronted with internal and external challenges of unprecedented magnitude and the captivated flight of the JF-17, manufactured locally with the Chinese collaboration, has lifted the otherwise sagging morale of the people. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has rightly pointed out that it was not a meagre achievement by any standards, as it launches Pakistan into an elite club of nations that posses the capability of manufacturing fighter aircraft. Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman has summed up the achievement by describing it as triumph of the will of the nation. It is a step towards achieving our cherished dream of strengthening the national security through indigenisation and building the country's aviation related industries. This leap forward in much-needed self-reliance in defence would provide Pakistan Air Force, to some extent, deterrent capability and the experience gained through its development would open up new avenues of boosting the country's air defence. The project for indigenous co-production of the high-tech JF-17 thunder aircraft has been there for years and the successive chiefs of the PAF made their contributions to it but the credit goes to the incumbent Chief Rao Qamar Suleman who accorded it the required priority to ensure its fast-track completion. The nation also salutes PAF engineers and technicians who worked hard to make its production possible despite many odds. On this occasion, the nation also expresses its gratitude to the time-tested friend of the country — China — of which strategic support helped realize this dream. We are confident that it would join hands in other areas of the defence production as well as both of them face similar long-term threats to their respective security.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

TOO EARLY CALL FOR MID-TERM ELECTIONS

 

CHAIRMAN Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan occasionally comes out with ideas perceived to be bold and he has launched another one as a way out of the existing political quagmire. Addressing a news conference in Lahore on Sunday, he demanded holding of mid-term elections so that the new elected Government could neutrally pursue the cases of corrupt people named in the list of NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) beneficiaries.

There can be no two opinions that cases of all those who benefited from NRO should be investigated in a fair and transparent manner and the looted national wealth recovered from them. The issue has dented the credibility and image of the present Government as first it tried to get legal validation for the controversial ordinance and now, instead of presenting themselves for accountability, the beneficiaries, many of whom are holding important positions in the regime, are trying to camouflage their misdeeds through a flurry of statements and denials. The issue of NRO or corruption has become over-politicised but still we believe there is room for addressing it while keeping the existing set-up intact. We have repeatedly been emphasizing in these columns that every elected Government should be allowed to complete its constitutionally mandated five-year term. Democratic process has suffered a lot due to frequent interruptions and, therefore, all stakeholders should make efforts to consolidate the process. Secondly, we have seen that the security situation has deteriorated to such an extent that it was not possible for the Election Commission to hold bye-elections even in two constituencies. In this backdrop, how can we afford nationwide elections when there is extraordinary situation in the NWFP, enemies are fully active in Balochistan as well and terrorists are targeting people everywhere. However, while discouraging calls for mid-term polls, we would also urge the Prime Minister to start giving thought to steps for improving governance, introducing transparency, promoting merit, rooting out growing corruption and resolving day-to-day problems of the masses.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PAK'S PLACE IN ASIA'S PROJECTED GROWTH

 

AS the world economies are slowly coming out of recession, economists are of the opinion that Asia being the first region to come out of the slow-down, will be the nucleus of future economic growth. In the given scenario, it is important that countries of the region including Pakistan adopt appropriate and far-reaching policies to attain higher growth and are not left behind.

Realizing the opportunities for future economic development, business leaders in the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised a two-day Conclave in Colombo at which the Sri Lankan Prime Minister emphasised the need for greater interaction among the business community as the South Asian region has great potential for trade and investment. Leader of the 60-member strong Pakistani delegation Iftikhar A Malik said that it was an appropriate time to build new business alliances across the region and abroad. We share the optimism expressed at the Conclave as SAARC region has a great potential to grow because it has the required human and natural resources. However question arises where Pakistan stands in the emerging scenario. We don't want to paint a dismal picture but indicators are that our economy is not picking up at a pace as is being witnessed in other countries. The leadership appears to be more involved in temporary nature issues and petty politics rather than giving a vision and strategy where Pakistan would stand in the next 10 to 20 years. While energy shortage is the major impediment, the growth prospects of the economy are also hampered by an investment climate full of security concerns and corruption. The need of the hour is that our economic advisors and officials should carefully design and implement long-term pro-growth liberal economic and financial policies. Undertaking a liberal mix of reforms secures high sustainable growth and prosperity, provided that the financial sectors have safeguards to address the onset of severe shocks from external sources. Therefore we plead that the political leadership must arrive at a consensus about the future economic policies including implementation of mega projects to get the country out of crisis and put it on the path of economic recovery and development.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

WHITHER DELECTABLE ART OF READING?

KHALID SALEEM

Mercifully the last of the Harry Potter tomes came out some time back. As was to be expected it was devoured by an expectant multitude. And, needless to add, with it came the usual hype that has surrounded the advent of all new chronicles of the escapades of the lovable young wizard. Harry Potter mania became something of a phenomenon. Hats off to Ms. Rowling for the way she has veered the new generation towards reading her books. Before the advent of Harry Potter, people had all but given up on the art of reading especially those among the younger generation. And then the Harry Potter tomes popped out of nowhere and created an instant following that has shown no sign of tapering off – among young and old alike. As an aside, it may be mentioned that it has not done so badly for the finances of the author either. Each tome that has been published sold literally millions of copies around the world in several language versions. Ms. Rowling has, as a consequence, been catapulted from the status of near pauper into the exclusive list of the richest women in the world. But that is another story.

What is of direct import here is that, over the past several years, one has inexplicably gone through the ritual of spending good money on the purchase of the Harry Potter tomes as they came out one after the other and, what is more, actually laboriously wading through the text – all the six hundred and some odd pages of each – and feeling none the worse for it. Despite going through this ordeal, one continues to be at a loss to quite put one's finger on the secret behind the phenomenal success of these volumes. There is, of course, the fact that the world of wizardry conjured up by Ms. Rowling does afford a path of escapism to those living in our topsy-turvy world, beset as it is with pestilences such as globalization and the like. The positive fall out of the phenomenon, of course, is that the general interest generated appears to have revived the lost art of reading that had lately – and regrettably - been sacrificed at the altar of the so-called technological progress.

Not so very long ago (it may be recalled), reading a good book represented a singular pleasure most people looked forward to. Every now and then, the film version of a popular book would come to the silver screen. Having read and enjoyed the book, one invariably went out to see the film with certain misgivings. More often than not the print version came out the winner in one's perception; i.e. the visual presentation in the film hardly ever matched the word picture of the written version. The art of (good) writing was, in a word, supreme. Alas, things then perceptibly changed for the worse, as they invariably do. It came to pass that people lost the inclination to read books. Reading as an art had lost out to the television. Instead of reading the book people preferred to wait for the film or television version to appear. Then, for some odd reason, it appeared that people did not have the time any more! The number of those who went to the bother of reading the original, even in an abridged version, shrank to an infinitesimal minority. It was akin to the passing away of an era. Enter the Information Technology; and the very goal posts were repositioned. The inevitable result was further havoc. The practice of leisurely reading – or good writing, for that matter – went out the window. Gone were the days when a person went through the exercise of purchasing a good book (or, if he/she lacked the means, drawing it out of a library), reading it at leisure, savouring it and - if it lived up to its promise - reading it a second or even a third time. Come to think of it, the real flavour of a good book could be absorbed only on the second or the third reading. Regrettably, this practice did not survive the shock of the technological revolution. What a 'reader' resorts to in the post IT era is to ingest the substance of the book through the shortcut of the computer and then move on to greener pastures. The modern generation has little time or inclination to savour a book, much less go for a second or third reading.

Another of the mores that has been badly mauled by the information revolution is the delectable art of letter writing. Corresponding with one's near and dear ones had its own special pleasure. The practice of expressing oneself in a longish, leisurely written, letter had a character all its own. One could, if one wished, pour one's heart and soul into such a missive. The sentiments that unfolded in such correspondence were meant for the eyes of the recipient alone and this is what gave power and facility to the pen of the writer. And, what have things come to now? Feverish telephone conversations, hastily scribbled notes and terse, impersonal messages (in inane jargon, mind you) via the inter-net or cell phones are the order of the day. Letters as part of literature may well be thing of the past, never to return. The wonderful world of literature is the loser in the bargain.

The overall effect of the technological revolution in general and Information Technology in particular has been to sap the flavour out of man's life. The edifice is still there. It may even look more glamorous than before, but the substance is sadly lacking. The computer, true to its genius, is fast dehumanizing the human being. Man is getting closer and closer to becoming an adjunct to the machine, rather than the other way around. The technology buffs may argue, and with reason, that this is the price that has to be paid for progress; that in order for mankind to move forward, personal sacrifice is necessary. One can argue back that a line has to be drawn at some point. One needs to pause and ponder before the point of no return is reached. Because once one takes the decisive step across the divide, there will be no turning back. There is prudence in not starting anything that one cannot stop.

The feverish pace of the technological revolution leaves one a bit dazed. Being expected to keep up with the machine is a trifle too much to ask. One may be old-fashioned, but one is somewhat reluctant to let go of the little pleasures that make life worth living. All in all, one should be thankful that people are again turning to reading even if the books happen to be of the Harry Potter genre. One has no hesitation in confessing to the persuasion that reading a good book remains one of those little pleasures that make life worth living. More power, one says, to Harry Potter and his merry band of wizards. And thank goodness for small mercies!

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PLIGHT OF SIKHS IN INDIA

FATIMA SYED

Recently, leaders of Sikh organizations such as Khalsa Action Committee, Dal Khalsa, Punjab Human Rights Organization, Shiromani Panthic Council and Shiromani Akali Dal appealed to United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to intervene immediately to bring justice to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. They said, "Sikhs have been left with no choice. We are citizens of India and India is a member of UN. As India has failed to protect our rights and human dignity it is time for the UN to get involved and unless it intervened, human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration would be seriously damaged".

Raja Janak was an ancient king of India. His Guru or spiritual guider was a wise man called 'Asht-Bakar'. Raja Janak once asked his Guru, "If you wish to wipe out a race, how this can be achieved"? His Guru replied to the ruler, "In order to wipe out a race you need to do three things. Firstly, you need to attack their young generation and kill them off. This will make sure that they are weakened and will not grow as a nation to gain further strength. Secondly, you need to destroy their history and distort their culture. A community without a history and language is finished. And thirdly, you need to attack the heat beat of the community, the central focus point, through which you will destroy their morale and dignity. By doing all three things you will eventually terminate a whole race".

Indian government used the same technique to purge Sikh identity and merge them into Hinduism. Since independence Sikhs remained mistrusted and are being discriminated and treated as aliens. Of the major threats to Sikhism is that Hinduism wants to engulf it in its fold as it has already done the same to Buddhism and Jainism. The movement of annihilation of the minorities is going on in India with complete support of Indian government. The theological principles, the articles of faith, the way of life, rites and rituals etc of the Sikhs are altogether different from those of the Hindus. In Sikhism every one has the equal right whereas Hindus believe in caste system. Sikhism does not have a clergy class as it considers this as a gateway to corruption. According to Sikh's Holy book Guru Granth Sahib, "All the people have one base". (Guru Granth Sahib P.83).In Hinduism, the worship of idols of the mythological gods and goddesses has great importance, but Sikhism rejects it altogether and prohibits it. "Those who worship stones are ignorant and foolish". (Guru Granth Sahib p. 556)

Nehru and Gandhi, urging the Sikhs to join India, made a commitment that no constitution of India would be framed unless it was acceptable to the Sikhs. Even the Indian constitution farmed and adopted in 1950, did not recognize Sikhs as a separate identity and considers them Hindus with long hair. Due to this the Sikh representatives had rejected and refused to give their assent to it. In 2005 the Indian Supreme Court, said, " if the argument for recognising every religious group within the broad Hindu religion as separate religious minority was accepted and such tendencies were encouraged, 'the whole country, which is already under class and social conflicts due to various divisive forces, will further face divisions on the basis of religious diversities. A claim by one group of citizens would lead to a similar claim by another group and conflict and strife would ensue."

The Hindus burnt the Sikh religious literature several times and committed the acts of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the Gurdwaras on the behest of government. To quote a few instances from history, in 1983, the State Reserve Police and the Central Reserve Police were directed by the government to attack Gurdwaras on the slightest pretext. During the year, Gurdwara Sahib Sisganj, Delhi, Gurdwara Imli Sahib, Indore, Gurdwara Sahib, Churu, Rajasthan, Gurdwara Sahib Chandokalan, Haryana and Gurdwara Sahib, Chowk Mehta, Amritsar were attacked. In June 1984, on the orders of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Golden Temple and 37 other Gurdwaras were attacked by all sections of the Indian Armed Forces and other security agencies, killing thousands of Sikhs, desecrating the holy premises, vandalizing heritage records and artifacts. During the attack on Golden Temple, the Sikh Reference Library was vandalized by the Indian Armed Forces and the looted material has not been returned to this day. After the attack on Golden Temple, Baat Cheet the Indian Army Gazette No. 153, 1984 published, "Any knowledge of Amritdharis, who are dangerous people and pledged to commit murders, arson and acts of terrorism, should immediately be brought the notice of authorities. These people might appear harmless from outside but they are basically committed to terrorism. In the interest of all of us their identity and whereabouts must always be disclosed". In November, 1984, Sikhs were attacked in 87 towns and cities in 'secular' India. According to estimates by human rights organizations at least 10,000 Sikhs were virtually butchered or burnt alive. Officially, 3,700 Sikhs were killed in a matter of 48 hours. More than 200,000 Sikhs rendered homeless. More than 358 Gurdwaras were desecrated and destroyed. Justifying this official pogrom against the Sikhs, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi shamelessly proclaimed, "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes." Since 1986, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been debarred from officially entering Punjab for documenting human rights violations. This ban still continues.

Apart from above mentioned atrocities, efforts were made from time to time to undermine Punjabi language and to damage the economy of Punjab, especially Sikhs. For instance, the Punjab and Sind Bank was understood to be the bank of Sikhs and Punjabis, when the bank reached the zenith of its glory, in 1980, the bank was nationalized and brought under the direct control of the government of India.

Sikhs faced racial discrimination even in the Indian Armed Forces. In 1971 the Defence Ministry under Jagjivan Ram, took a policy decision, to recruit army personnel on the basis of population rather than merit. Due to which the percentage of Sikh participation in the Indian Armed Forces was gradually reduced to a meager 2 percent. Similarly, the government compelled Sikh officers, both in the Defence and Civil services to renounce their Sikh identity (i.e. Kesh and Kirpan) if they desired promotions and possible retention in their services. Repressive laws were introduced to harm Sikh community. In 1987, the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 was passed. This act not only violated all norms of criminal jurisprudence but also Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Consequently, thousands of Sikh youth were detained, tortured, and killed both in Panjab and in other Indian states. In 1988, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi introduced the 59th amendment to the constitution of India, withdrawing the right to life of the people of Punjab and enabling more discriminatory laws against Punjab. In 1991, Brigadier Sinha of the Indian Army publicly declared that the only way to subvert the culture of the Sikhs was to rape and humiliates Sikh women.

On 6 September, 1995, human rights activist, Jaswant Singh Khalra, who had unearthed gross human rights abuses in the district of Amritsar about individuals who had disappeared involuntarily was tortured and killed extrajudicially. On 20 March 2000, coinciding with the visit of US President, Bill Clinton, 35 young Sikhs were killed in Chittisingpura, Kashmir by state vigilantes. This has been proved without doubt but the state has not taken any action so far. In the year 2007, while the blasphemous activities of Sirsa dera chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim have been allowed to continue, in complete violation of legal provisions, sedition charges have been foisted against Sikh leaders. The Indian Supreme Court called the Indian government's murders of Sikhs "worse than genocide." According to a report by the Movement against State Repression (MASR), 52,268 Sikhs are being held as political prisoners in India without charge or trial. Twenty-five years after the massacre of thousands of Sikhs in India the country's government has failed to bring to justice those responsible.

That's why the Sikh community is asking UN for help. Indian rulers should understand one thing that persecution can not annihilate the Sikhs and they will never become Hindus even if they are denied their due rights. There is a need that Indian government must respect the minority rights and stop its brutalities and atrocities against them. Otherwise the saying of Franklin D. Roosevelt that "No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities" would come true of India.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MANMOHAN SINGH VISITS US

ALI SUKHANVER

USA is losing its War on Terror in Afghanistan; now it is the talk of the town that. Different analysts are suggesting to the US authorities to think of the ways of getting out of the blazing hell of Afghanistan. It is also in the air that the Taliban would never let the Americans go out of their land alive. They want American pouring out their resources aimlessly into the unfathomable sea of Afghanistan. They know very well that the invasion in Afghanistan is costing a lot to America and it is going to prove an unbearable burden on the American economy. But in spite of all these suggestions, all indications and all warnings, the US authorities are never trying to understand the background of this grim scenario.

Still there is time to think over the reasons behind this failure. Why billions of dollars and sacrifices of hundreds of young American soldiers, are going waste in Afghanistan? The situation could have been much better and easily controllable if America had alone tried to invade Afghanistan without bringing a large and huge congregation of 'hired troops' with it. Though, in that situation, it would have been as much impossible and out of reach as it is now, to make Afghanistan a US colony, but the ratio of losses might have been lesser than it is now. Another important point behind the US failure in Afghanistan is the Indian involvement in the Afghan territory. According to the authentic reports India is taking full advantage of the American invasion in Afghanistan. In the guise of a supporter of USA, India is trying to exploit the situation in her own favour and benefit. Afghanistan has become a gate way to Pakistan for Indian terrorist activities. So many times the Government of Pakistan has made complaints to the United Nations and other authorities that India is supporting the terrorists in Swat and Waziristan by providing them with arms and ammunitions, terrorists in the garb of Taliban are on hand bringing a bad name to the Taliban and on the other hand destroying the whole social fiber of Pakistan.. So many times the security forces have discovered Indian Make weapons from the terrorists.

But unfortunately no one is ready to listen to what Pakistan has been saying since long. It is due to Indian help to Taliban that all efforts of Pakistan are going waste against the growing terrorism in the region.. Indians are locked at punishing Pakistan with out realizing implications of helping Taliban. This double game played by India is putting US in a more complicated situation. Even some of the US think tanks are of the opinion that America must put a check on the Indian activities in Afghanistan if it wants to achieve its desired ambitions. They are arguing against the US policy of making India a regional boss. By doing undue favors to India, The USA is depriving itself of the probable Muslim support through out the world and particularly in America. In fact India is dreaming of becoming the substitute of America in case the latter plans to exit from Afghanistan. Here the question arises; will the people of Afghanistan accept India as their godfather in case America quits from their country; they will surely not. The Afghanis are very much fundamental and staunch in their creed and religious ideology. They can never welcome any one having a past history of crushing the Muslims and Islam. In that case the result would be another war; Indo-Afghan war; another huge blood shed and a whole sale massacre. The people of this region shall never forget and spare America for such a blunder.

The Indian Premier, Dr Manmohan Singh visits America in November 2009, essentially to finalize on Civil Nuclear deal and for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. In case Mr. Man Mohan Singh succeeds in his all his efforts in this regard, the next scene would not be very much pleasing and comforting for the Obama administration. By doing pacts with India, the USA will be certainly inviting a new trouble. The civil or any type of nuclear deal with India will case a flagrant heart burning to China. As it is in the media; India and China have been on the verge of a war for the last many months. Making India strong and supporting her with nuclear deals means efforts of weakening China. By supporting India, the USA shall be bringing up another enemy in the region, in shape of China.

The US authorities have been ignoring another fact that India had been supporting the Russian Invasion in Afghanistan three decades back. That time it was Pakistan who stood with America at that crucial time and used all its sources in throwing the USSR out of Afghanistan. Under what law one can support ones past enemy and weaken an all time trust worthy friend. This approach is even against the law of nature. America must keep in mind that the Hindus are the followers of Chanakya, whose philosophy is; say some thing else and do some thing else. Indian religious beliefs, Psychology and habits are totally different from the Christians. As far as the common people of Pakistan are concerned, they are happy over the new strengthening bonds of love and friendship between America and India. They think that the Americans are not trustworthy. In their opinion, it is an American tradition to betray a friend when he or she is of no more use to them. They did same to Pakistan and so would they do to the Indians. Whosoever had them as their friend, always remained a loser.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PAK MUST TALK TOUGH WITH AMERICA

SHAIMA SUMAYA

Like every week, Pakistan is going through the motions, the situation with the country seems unchangeable, and one has to accept the good developments with the bad. The statement by the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday stated that China hopes for a gradual improvement in the relations between India and Pakistan. As long as it is good for the stability of the region, China will support the relevant moves. This was an encouraging statement coming from the most powerful neighbour and country in South Asia and as always it was highly diplomatic.

It was being highly debated what stance both the US and China would take on the India-US nuclear agreement during the visit of the US president Barack Obama to China, which ended on Wednesday. China has stated that the India-US nuclear agreement was discussed at Presidential level and has asserted that the dispute on the land boundary was not brought in conversation during US president Barack Obama's visit. The above mentioned and various other issues decide the situation in the region and how China, India and Pakistan relate to each other. The three countries accept that they have serious issues with each other and at the same time make a commitment to making South Asia stable and peaceful. The three countries also assert their sovereignty and their individual importance in the region. Pakistan has done the same lately. Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani on Wednesday addressed a parade and said that Pakistan came into being on the basis of two nation ideology and the State would not allow anyone to wrongly interpret the religion. He said that Pakistan would achieve its entire goal and the armed forces will restore the Quaid's Pakistan. The army chief reminded the enemy not to underestimate the security forces in Pakistan and quoted the recent success in Swat operation as an example.

He promised success in operation 'Rah-e-Nijat' and said that it is clear that the country is passing through tough challenges and is facing an adventurous neighbour but Pakistani forces are well prepared to go to any length for the sovereignty and protection of the motherland. General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani was clearly indicating India as an 'adventurous neighbour' and after recent statements made by the Prime Minister and the Interior Minister now the Chief of the Army Staff has started openly blaming India for intervening in State affairs and taking measures that compromise Pakistan's security and sovereignty. Nevertheless Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani made India aware that Pakistan is fully capable to accept all challenges it faces from it. On that note, the entire nation should wish the Pakistan Army to achieve all its goals for the security and protection of the country. What is inevitable for the Pakistan Army is success in operation 'Rah-e-Nijat'. But peace and security in Pakistan is conditional to the events in Afghanistan. The former policy of the Pakistan Army was to bomb the targeted area for weeks and send thousands of troops after heavy bombing, 30,000 troops were sent in one instance. However the enemy always dispersed and regrouped as a result of which the security forces lost hundreds in fighting. The Pakistan Army tried to form alliances with local tribes that kept swaggering. Also the foreign troops across the border in Afghanistan are not doing enough to make sure the objectives of Pakistani military operations are achieved. The enemy always regroups across the border; the Uzbeks are fleeing into Afghanistan and the north while Mehsuds take cover wherever they find it. After making full use of their sanctuary, the enemy retaliates against the security forces with full force.

What is more disturbing that the US is indicating its subsequent withdrawal from Afghanistan. With the job not even half-done, Pakistan will become isolated in a very difficult situation just like it was in 1989 after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. Afghanistan became a seriously troubled and unruly area and this problem manifested itself to the event of 9/11. With this constant regrouping of the enemy and uncertainty that follows several questions are raised. Can the Pakistan Army hold and retain captured territory? What will become of the area once the troops withdraw? Will the tribal leaders follow through on their word? What is going to be the situation in Afghanistan and its porous border with Pakistan? How will the above factors affect the internal security of Pakistan? What will be the future intentions of unfriendly countries such as India? Pakistan is now in vicious cycle and its future events rely heavily with what happens in Afghanistan. Also Pakistan believes that this 'do more' pressure from the US under the current circumstances is highly unfair. Whether the war Pakistan is fighting at present is an internal war or is it enthrusted upon it is irrelevant as Pakistan has committed itself to fighting and winning it.

The Taliban are seriously recruiting fighters from Punjab. One by one, recruits from Pakistan's Punjab heartland make the seven-hour drive to Waziristan, where they would pull up to TTP offices and camps where they are provided with arms and training. There is nothing going on to stop this trafficking of fighters. And the Taliban are taking lives not caring whether the victims are from the security forces or if they are civilians. So the question is what stance should Pakistan take in this situation? Pakistan should state categorically to the United States that this is as much their war as it is Pakistan's. And that the US should be as much responsible to the progress it is making on the ground as Pakistan is. The US should pledge more troops at this sensitive hour rather than having intentions of subsequent withdrawal. If Pakistan holds a passive stance on this issue, then the end result will be that an unstable Afghanistan will swallow Pakistan whole. Pakistan must talk tough with the US and make them face the music.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

NOVEMBER AND DEATH..!

ROBERT CLEMENTS

There's a morbid mood all around, with most newspapers talking only about 26/11 and the carnage at the Taj last year. Somehow talk of death is very depressing, so today without taking away from the seriousness of the tragedy I'm going to try and move your hearts and minds away from the gravity of death into some lighthearted banter on the same subject:

Three friends die in a car crash and find themselves up before a jury about the life they lived on earth, "Before we decide what to do with you," says the chief juror, "We want to ask you three a question, " When you are lying dead and friends and relatives are mourning you, what would you like them to say about you?"

The first friend a doctor says, "I would like them to say he was a good doctor and a great family man!" The second friend says, "I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and a wonderful college professor!"

The jury looks at the third man who says, "I would like them to say, "look he's moving!" Oh yes wouldn't we all love to hear that? And here's one I repeated to my doctor wife last evening and had her in splits: In a hospital in the ICU patients always died in the same bed at 11 am on every Sunday morning regardless of what they were suffering from. Some held crosses and prayer books to ward off evil influences, while the less superstitious had video records to capture every moment on tape.

At the eleventh hour the door to the ward slowly opened, then a cleaner came in, disconnected the life support system and plugged in his vacuum cleaner!

For the cleaner it was just another plug point right? And here's another: There's a knock at the Pearly Gates, and when the angel in charge looks out, he sees a man waiting to come in, he is about to open the Gates when the man disappears! A short time later there's the same knock, the angel frowns and is about to let him in when the man disappears again. The angel decides to go inside and is just about to leave when the knock happens again and he sees the same man at the Gates. "Are you playing games?" asks the angel sternly.

"No," says the harried man, "They're trying to resuscitate me down on earth!" Well that's all the humour for today, but even as you smile and move away from this page, maybe in the same spirit and mood t'would be good to whisper a prayer to the One who kept you and your family safe last year, a prayer of thanksgiving that you and your loved ones are alive and safe and well..!

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

GOING GREEN

 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has directed the concerned authorities to clean up the rivers. This is highly commendable as to a large extent the country's well-being depends on the state of its rivers. But over the years as Bangladesh, like most developing countries, feverishly pursued its ambition of industrial development the pristine character of Nature, including the rivers, was lost. This has caused manifold problems including deterioration of water quality, destruction of bio-diversity and loss of navigability. The government's latest decision may change the scene in the days to come.  

The challenges for an environment-friendly plan are manifold. The level of awareness among people about protecting bio-diversity, for instance, is pretty low and the technology for such development is also expensive. In only a few cases can economic development and environmental protection go hand-in-hand. For instance, the sand extraction from the riverbeds should be an ideal case for a "win-win" situation between greed and green. But then there are other things too, which need to be done to protect the environment because of its many implications. The country's river system is a good example. Bangladesh is the world's largest active delta and if the geological and environmental factors are not taken into account in the perspective plans, any development effort could be counter-productive. Unplanned sand mining, for example, accelerates river erosion. Therefore, it is desirable that this be done in a planned way. Keeping the rivers clean is desirable not only from a hygienic point of view but also from its commercial potential - from fisheries to urban water supply.
In the Copenhagen Climate summit, scheduled for December 18, this year, the issue of financing eco-friendly development will be a major issue. It will also try to find easier ways to transfer relevant technology to developing countries like Bangladesh. Hopefully, we will take advantage of the prevailing global mood to gain maximum leverage in the expected international accord that is expected at next month's summit. If we cannot do that we will be missing the chance of a lifetime.  

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

AIR POLLUTION

 

Thousands of people in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, are dying prematurely because of air pollution, say health experts. An estimated 15,000 premature deaths, as well as several million cases of pulmonary, respiratory and neurological illness are attributed to poor air quality in Dhaka, according to the Air Quality Management Project (AQMP) funded by the government and the World Bank.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said vehicular air pollution is a major cause of respiratory distress in urban Bangladesh. According to the National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital (NIDCH), nearly seven million people in Bangladesh suffer from asthma; more than half of them children. Cases of children suffering from bronchitis and chronic coughs have also shot up in recent years as children breathe more air, relative to their lung size than adults. The Department of Environment (DoE) said the density of airborne particulate matter reaches 463 micrograms per cubic metre (mcm) in the city during the dry season from December to March - the highest level in the world.

Outdoor air pollution is not the only problem however and the WHO says indoor air pollution also takes its toll with more than 46,000 people, mostly children under five, dying of acute lower respiratory infections in Bangladesh each year. The risk of diseases like pneumonia, asthma, low birth weight, cardiovascular failure and tuberculosis among children doubles due to indoor air pollution. But as more than 92 per cent of households use solid biofuel for cooking purposes, they release toxic substances like carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and high levels of harmful particulate matter into poorly ventilated kitchens. The level of particulate matter inside a kitchen using solid biofuel is 30 to 35 times more than the WHO standard causing some four per cent of all diseases in Bangladesh.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

A GIFT CALLED LOVE...!

 

They sat together on the rocks and watched the waves come in. She felt his arms around her and felt safe and secure. "Thank you God!" she whispered, "For giving me somebody who loves me so much and who I love so very much too!" She heard the soothing sound of the waters and she nuzzled closer into his muscular arms. The gentle lulling sounds of the waves must have made her doze off for a few minutes but she was suddenly all alert: She felt his arms, they were not around her. His hands had left her shoulders and were slowly tracing a circle around her neck. She felt herself stirring with desire and turned to him. His hands were now like roaming tentacles and she felt passion in his movements. He tried to lay her down on the rocks.

 "No!" she said gently, "No!"

 "Why not?" he asked a little too roughly, "We're going to be married, it's okay!"

 "When we're married it'll be okay!" she said with a smile.  "I thought you loved me," he said, his passion unabated.  "Very much!" she said, "I had a dream just now when I dozed off. I dreamt I was outside my body and that I was walking towards it. My body was like a temple. Like a house of God!"
 "Yes," he said slightly disinterested. "There were lights inside my body and the lights shone out for all the world to see."

 "See what?" he asked with a smile "See that God was dwelling inside the temple!"

 "Inside your body?" he asked incredulously.  "Strange isn't it?" she asked looking at him with a smile. "But I saw my body was the temple of God and that He was living in me." The waves from the sea gently splashed against the rocks and there was a silence between the two young lovers. "If God dwells in your body," he said slowly, "Then it is a holy place!"

 "If God dwells in my body," she said, "I need to keep myself holy!"

He looked at her and slowly put his arms around her again. She felt his strength and sureness and also the fact that he had understood. "He dwells in you too," she said with a smile.  "I know," he said and looked at her with eyes of love.  "We need to keep ourselves pure and holy for God to continue abiding in us," she said, "I wonder though, why I dreamt there were lights in my body?"

 "Lights for others to see God in you!" he said simply. They watched the sea as it gently kissed the rocks and they felt their eyes on each other. They turned to each other and their faces grew close in love as their lips touched each other. "Strange," he murmured, "I love you so much more now that I do not lust for your body!"
 "Our bodies are God's holy temple," she whispered as she held him close and thanked God for a gift called love.
bobsbanter@gmail.com

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

REHABILITATION OF BEGGARS

SYED MUAMMAD SHAMEEM

 

After the disquieting traffic system, the most upsetting sights and situations on the roads are the persistent pestering by beggars. They are often obstructing our way, harassing our movement and causing a very unpleasant encounter. The troubling bunch of beggars keep surrounding the private cars while stopped at the traffic lights, knocking the windows, running along with the vehicle and nagging doggedly for money until the time they are appeased or one is able to escape from the inextricable situation. One can find beggars bothering people while walking on the walkways and streets, in the markets; while stepping out of one's residence and, to the commuters' plight, people are encountering beggars in almost every public places. Furthermore this gang of derelict and destitute people is posing another significant hazard or hindrance on the streets of Bangladesh, posing risk of accidents, taxing the traffic system as well as the environment in its entirety.

Despite the fact of our poor socio-economic conditions, the very presence of beggars in the streets exposes us in a base state that is quite disgraceful for a nation. It speaks about a very poor economic management bedevilled with unemployment, poverty, social inequality and above all depicting a very deplorable and dishonourable culture and governance. Thus is obviously portraying us as a poor, ill-fed and ill-governed nation to the discredit and disrepute of the government and the people as a whole.

Begging is endemic and commonplace in Bangladesh increasing daily and has become habitual and a brisk business for the pauper and the poor with idle and criminal strains. Begging is following a vicious cycle, visibly beggars in the streets allure the impoverished, and the destitute enticing more and more people into begging and much worryingly and alarmingly, some begging circles are operated by a vicious circle in major cities.
While talking about beggars it is appropriate to describe them in their true characteristics, conditions and circumstances that lead to the trait of shame and indignity. Undoubtedly, begging is a cursed habit. Begging degrades self-respect, morality and makes people lose their human and social values. It plausibly exposes people to crimes and criminal and anti-social activities. You will find some beggars who are deeply impoverished, ending up embracing begging for their very subsistence survival.

Some being unemployed resort to this practice to survive their pathetic life, while others are desperate and ignobly engaged in this practice as a profession singly or involved with organised gang of beggars (OGB) like the organised criminal gangs (OCG) mostly run by some criminal thugs. They mostly organise and use poor handicapped, injured or burned victims from slums for begging. The more outrageous thugs are heard of mutilating young children for this profession by abducting small children or babies from across the country through heinous rackets. In another dimension one will invariably find some able women or young girls begging by carrying babies to invoke sympathy for money being despicably idle and unwilling to work. There might be many more horrendous and horrific details on the facts and factors leading to begging and beggars predicaments if we could conduct an official research on it. Whatever are the underlying circumstances, begging is surely a very shameful and immoral act, is a very ignoble practice, a curse for a nation, a visible and tangible indicator of poverty and a manifest failure by the government and the people with power, authority and responsibility in addressing the issue with care, sympathy and social accountability.

We obviously encounter beggars in other parts of the poor world but not in such a disgraceful and disgusting manner and magnitude. No doubt the size of the population, degree of poverty, dimension of social insecurity and the unabated scale of unemployment are the major attributive causes of these conditions. But given the extreme situation should it be such intensely disturbing and distressing affecting our everyday life at home and reputation worldwide against the backdrop of so many government agencies, NGOs, charities and other national and international philanthropic and donor organisations working on the improvement of the conditions and quality of life and engaged on the poverty alleviation activities and initiatives?!

In reality none could ever take any pragmatic steps to rehabilitate the beggars or work to stop the phenomenon of increasing beggars instead the agencies are exploiting the conditions of poverty, demonstrating their good gimmicks of benign activity for the good of the humanity and ostentatiously projecting some statistical achievements on the poverty alleviation to get the donations at the cost of our tarnished images in the outside world and literally doing little to change the real situation. My fellow countrymen will agree to the feeling of being extremely dishonoured to see how our country is projected and portrayed in foreign media and TV channels when we make any news or while we are depicted as a nation in any international events and incidents, national and natural calamities or in any country presentations/ documentary films. What pride can we have when we are representing our nation in any overseas meetings, seminars, workshops or international conferences? For the patriotic and sensible citizen the humiliation should be haunting to drive us to improve our festering conditions. We are proud to be independent but on the flip side to our disillusionment we are born to be beggars?! Every child is born with a substantial debt! Begging started since our birth and for about last 38 years our governments are persistently and habitually begging for donations and soft loans form donor countries or financial institutions and to the detriment of our leaders' false pride, foul mouth, fake promises and failed efforts we are never self-sufficient!

One would agree to consider the issue of beggars as another core national issue that needs to be addressed in immediate terms within the broad terms of poverty alleviation.

The government has another important task to prove its performance on its "good governance." It should embark on a project of the beggars' control and rehabilitation programme to rid the nation from the harassment and humiliation caused by beggars on the roads and to ensure job or food for the deprived and disenchanted people. It is heartening to note that this government recently (01 Nov 09), for the first time, placed the draft PRSP in parliament for discussion before adoption as a development strategy for the coming two fiscal years - 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. The government is looking to introduce the five-year plan from 2011-12 too.
The PRSP was prepared by the caretaker government and the sitting government is remodelling it according to their outlook. The draft PRSP states the principal goal of the Bangladesh government's economic policy is to reduce poverty so as to gradually lift the vast majority of the people above the poverty line and improve the quality of life for the average citizen with continued development of home-grown poverty reduction strategies (PRSs) along with operational plans suited to the particular circumstances and needs of Bangladesh. The PRSP has included Employment, Nutrition, Quality Education, Local Governance, Maternal Health, Sanitation and Safe Water, Criminal Justice, Monitoring, etcetera in their agenda for the strategies derived from a long-term vision of a poverty-free society. But the paper did not surely take into consideration the specific issue of beggars that should merit a very special place in their agenda.

I would suggest there is still time to ponder and include a specific strategy for the "removal and rehabilitation" of beggars from the streets of Bangladesh within the broad perspective of PRSP. That is the government should have a strategy for the "removal and rehabilitation of beggars" in its five year development plan involving and supporting NGOs and private initiatives towards this specific area that demands a very caring and systematic approach. 

As far as the private sector is concerned, my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters can still do a lot for the deprived and disadvantaged by helping the hapless and penniless people who recourse to humiliating begging for their very subsistence. We can still do a lot to ameliorate the condition of the crippled, old and poor people who cannot afford to continue life and make a living. The fortunate well-off Muslim brothers, who can afford, by the blessing of Allah, may take the leadership to organise Zakat foundations through raising Zakat money from their peers and fellow Muslims to support a comprehensive initiative for extending human hand to the beggars across the country. They could emulate different NGOs to conduct research and surveys to identify real deserving impoverished, old and handicapped beggars to bring them into the prop-net of humanitarian help and to rehabilitate the beggars with food, home, healthcare supports and more importantly ensuring employment in productivity-enhancing and diversifying agriculture including fisheries, poultry, dairy and agro-processing sectors, rural and urban services, unskilled labours as well as less skilled handicrafts and cottage industries and also in skilled manufacturing industries like ready-made garments sectors. I believe if the rich only contribute their 2.5 per cent Zakats from their earnings they can create wholesome money to help a million for minimum subsistence without any recourse to donation from any overseas patrons or organisations. And if majority of people could participate in this solemn duty ordained by almighty Allah there would not have been any beggars to sight in the locality. If we donate 2.5 per cent of our wealth and money Inshallah we would be able to alleviate poverty. If that would be the reality it would certainly be difficult to find any poor languishing in the land of Bangladesh and begging to assuage their hunger due to the nation failing to feed them. I would say that the contribution of 2.5 per cent Zakat by all the eligible Muslims of Bangladesh would serve as an example of a great poverty alleviation programme.

In conclusion, against the backdrop of about 40 per cent of the nation remaining below the poverty line, dauntingly high aggregate poverty rates, persistent pockets of extreme poverty and rising concern on inequality, I would like to reiterate with the vision of PRSP Bangladesh that has already embarked on a journey of transformation, we should address the key challenges for an egalitarian society, free of poverty, inequality, free of beggars, harassment and anxiety. It is a challenge which demands active, intelligent and innovative engagement from all, governments, development agencies, private sector, NGOs, community organisations, media, academia, and above all, from the religious, philanthropic and patriotic people of Bangladesh. The engagement is not just for policy planning, it is as importantly an engagement for results and solutions and ultimately an engagement to help, support and protect those of ours are in extreme need and for all of us to live in a harmonious society with protection, prosperity, peace and dignity.

 

(The writer is a retired Major of Bangladesh Army and can be reached at
Shameem155@gmail.com)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

SRI LANKAN DREAMS

DR TERRY LACEY

 

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should be focusing on his Presidential inauguration after resounding election victories placed him firmly as captain of the ship of state for a second five years.  Instead he and his close ally Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have to figure out what to do with 255 Sri Lankans stuck on a dirty little boat in the port of Merak, near the historic volcano of Krakatoa.

For this is the stuff of modern international politics, that the poor, untidy, unwashed and sometimes frightened masses, aspiring to a way of life as advertised on television, refuse to just lie down and die in poverty, misery or oppression, but insist on getting into little boats to sail from West Africa to Spain, or from Sri Lanka to Australia.

So here are 255 of them, all from Sri Lanka, with one lavatory, cleaning their teeth and washing from little plastic bottles of water on this stinking little boat, and none of us know what to call them. Are they illegal economic migrants, refugees or asylum seekers? So we call them boat people and wait to find out their status. Alex, a Sri Lankan on the boat quoted by The Jakarta Post (20.10.09) started with the best line of argument, " We will face the death penalty if we return to Sri Lanka."

But immediately followed this up with a slight political slip, "We don't want to live in Indonesia because it already has problems related to poverty and natural disasters."

If this is what the know-it-all barrack room lawyer said, then who the hell does he think he is? What gives him the privilege to pick and chose destinations and insult the people who are now forced to help him? Why not give free airline tickets and jobs to poverty-stricken peasants from Bangladesh, or weary warriors from Waziristan? Many years ago when I was studying why Jamaicans seemed to like shooting at each other, my Sri Lankan supervisor at the University of the West Indies, one Archie Singham, told me a story of Sri Lanka that like an elephant, I would never forget.

One day a crowded train stopped in the middle of nowhere.  An elephant sat on the railway line. The passengers divided between those who thought the elephant was sacred and could not be moved and those who wanted it out of the way. The two groups of passengers got so mad with each other that they had a riot. There was so much commotion that the elephant got up and walked away.

Why does the human race show such genius at not being able to live together? How will we ever muster the energy to stop climate change from destroying the planet we share if we are so busy fighting each other all the time? And why should a Sri Lankan barrack room lawyer on a small boat in Indonesia, with less bargaining power than a bothersome bat, make speeches to us about which destination he prefers, except Indonesia, where he is sadly located? Perhaps  he does not know there are 1.6 million migrants mostly from Pakistan and Bangladesh in the UK, and that between 60 to 70 per cent of their children are raised in poverty in the land of their dreams. Would it not be better to show compassion for the human condition by striving together to solve the problems of conflict and poverty, by fighting for development instead of fighting each other and by doing so wherever we confront racism, prejudice and communal hatred? There is no need to go to Australia to find racists. The real problems are where you find them. And have to be solved where they are. And if Sri Lanka is not yet safe and offering future security and opportunities for all Sri Lankans after this dreadful civil war, then make it so, or risk another.

(The writer, a development economist in Jakarta writes on modernisation in the Muslim world, investment and trade relations with the EU and Islamic banking).

 

[© Copyright Cooperation for Development (Europe) www.c4d-info.org]

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

COMPASSION IN ISLAM

ASGHAR ALI ENGINEER

 

Earlier this month, religious scholars and leaders from around the globe drafted a 'Charter of Compassion', and floated it on the Internet for all to sign up to.

According to them, "Compassion should be the plinth of religions."

Prominent among the leaders who have affirmed the charter are Karen Armstrong, Egypt's Grand Mufti Sheikh Ali Goma and the Dalai Lama. The charter calls for restoring compassion to the centre of morality and religion and ensuring that youth are given accurate information about other traditions, religions and cultures to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity and to cultivate an informed empathy.
The charter underlines that the principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religions, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves. I would like to discuss this centrality of compassion from an Islamic standpoint. The Quran repeatedly describes Allah as Compassionate and Merciful and so those who worship Allah have to be merciful and compassionate; else what is the use of worshipping a Being whose values we do not follow?

It is known to every Muslim that he/she has to begin any work with incantation of Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim (I begin in the name of Allah who is Compassionate and Merciful). Are then compassion and mercy not at the centre of Islam? But it is highly unfortunate that Islam today is known more for 'jihad' in the hands of those who kill and maim than mercy and compassion. Who is responsible for this?

Is Islam responsible for the acts of such Muslims? A handful of those indulging in terrorism today actually use Islam in their pursuit of power. Today it is Buddhism, which is known for compassion, rather than Islam. It is true that in Buddhism also compassion is a central value but so it is in Islam. Why then has Islam never been known for compassion in its entire history?

It is known only for jihad. The reason is, unlike Buddhism, Islam got associated with power right from the beginning. Islam appeared among Arab tribesmen among whom violence was rampant. Islam, therefore, made peace and compassion central values so that Arabs could give up violence and make peace and compassion as part of their day-to-day conduct. However, human history shows ideals do not become real and it is reality, which prevails over ideals, and the Arabs were no exception to this rule.

It is precisely for this reason that we see so much bloodshed in Islamic history during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods and Hajjaj, among Umayyads, and Saffah among the Abbasids, went down in history as oppressors.

This continued throughout Islamic history. Jihad, which never meant waging war in the Quranic terminology, was used by rulers for war and bloodshed.

It is high time this kind of jihad, which has got a new lease of life with terrorists in action, was corrected and once again compassion assumed centrality, as in Quranic values. It should get the much-needed priority. Not that no one ever understood this Quranic message. The Sufis did and kept themselves apart from power struggle among different dynasties and groups. They emphasised peace, love and compassion rather than power. They emphasised the spiritual over the material. Sufis like Ibn Arabi and Maulana Rum made love central to Islamic ethics and Muslim masses always followed them.

However, Muslim ruling classes always emphasised rituals on the one hand and jihad on the other so that their oppressive and exploitative rule was accepted. Oppression (zulm) is the greatest evil according to Quranic ethics; yet, it became commonplace in Islamic history and there were ulema who came out with a doctrine that, to avoid anarchy, even a zalim ruler (oppressor) must be obeyed if he enforces salah (prayer).
This was a great setback to Quranic ethics. Salah is not an end but means to an end but now salah became an end in itself. Dr Iqbal had rightly pointed out in his Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam that religion in its higher form is neither dogma nor rituals. However, all of us who greatly appreciate Iqbal's poetry never give a thought to such statements of Iqbal. Today, thanks to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, 'Islam' has been reduced to killing innocent people to gain power and wealth. There should be strong opposition and all sources encouraging such bloodbath must stop. Though it is late but even now ulema from the Islamic world must come out strongly in opposition to such gross misuse of Islam today. The ulema should also draw up a charter of ethics and give it wide publicity to alienate the terrorists from Muslim masses. To remain silent in the face of such horrific killings is to be part of it.

 

(The writer is an Islamic scholar who heads the Centre for Study of Secularism & Society, Mumbai.)

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

CONFIDENCE BOOSTER

The Maoists have allowed the House to resume business for three days so that the fiscal budget could be passed. They have been obstructing the proceedings of the House for the most part of six months demanding that they be

allowed to discuss the President's "unconstitutional" move to reinstate the then Army Chief. However, this gives some amount of breathing space for at one time it was even feared that the government would be unable to pay even the salaries of the government employees or fund the various development projects, some in urgent need of financing. Ironically, had the Maoists not let the budget to be passed then their own ex-combatants in the various cantonments would not have been able to get their stipend from the government. By allowing the parliament to function for three days, the budget imbroglio has been averted. Meanwhile, how can the Maoists justify the continued obstruction of the House when the stipulated time for making the new constitution of the country is only six months away? The Maoists as the single largest party should act more responsibly by permitting the House to function to conduct its normal business.

Another matter of concern is that despite marathon sessions of negotiations the leaders of particularly the major three parties have failed to reach an agreement on implementing the commitments made in the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA). The numerous rounds of inconclusive talks have fed the rumours that there would be a change of guards in the government. Thus, there was speculation rife that something was in the offing when the Maoist chairman Prachanda made a hasty trip to Singapore to meet the ailing Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala. Apparently, there was no discussion on this matter and the talks between the two leaders were confined to let the parliament pass the budget and make efforts to set up a high-level political mechanism so that the impending political problems could be resolved by doing away with the impasse that is taking the country into a quagmire from which it would be difficult to extricate itself.

Now with the return of Koirala from Singapore, all attention is riveted on him, and the other top leaders of the parties to see if they will be able to reach a consensus without which it would be impossible to achieve the goals of the peace process. This is the time for the leaders to rise above partisan interests. So that the imbroglio can be resolved, the proposed high-level political mechanism could prove useful for the decisions would be made at the highest level such as on what type of "middle-path" would be adopted to make the future political passage smooth. The adoption of the "middle-path" could see an outlet since this would mean the forsaking of the unreasonable demands such as the much touted "civilian supremacy" that has for long been the refrain of the Maoist party. In conclusion, let better sense prevail for the political parties to adhere to the CPA line that lays emphasis on the consensus mode which has in recent times been relegated to the back benches.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

MONKEYS DO WELL

The simians, our supposedly distant cousins, always tend to be in the news. As the monkeys reflect the environmental health in some ways, they are looked upon with reverence as well as concern. To learn that the number of the primates is on a steady climb comes as relief to those working for their protection. They may not be endangered as some other wild animals like tigers and rhinos are, but they have a crucial relation with the ecology. That their numbers have increased, according to studies conducted over the years, ought to be welcomed. Of course, the primates had been in the headlines earlier all because they had been exported for medical research. That episode seems to have come to an end, thankfully.

Disturb the ecology and we have a heady mixture of disaster as is being seen in recent years. However, it has been ancient wisdom that has made simians the favourites in the various temples of the country including that of Pashupatinath and Swoyambhu in the Kathmandu Valley. It also goes to show how the wild animals and the humans can co-exist. But, the crucial task is the conservation of the habitats of the flora and fauna that speak of the pristine glory of Nepal.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

HDI THOUGHTS SOME BETTER OFF THAN OTHERS

KAMAL RAJ DHUNGEL

The historical background of each caste and ethnicity generally originated from the respective occupation that the people were involved in besides agriculture. Brahmins performed the rituals and were categorized as priests while Chhetris were responsible for smooth functioning of nation and therefore recruited in the army. Likewise, Dalits on the so called lower end were divided into three categories- tailors, goldsmiths, and cobblers. Newars were the businessmen importing and exporting goods. Later on, Sherpas whose livelihood primarily depended on breeding livestock got involved in tourism and climbing mountains and further in business of selling Himalayan herbs, livestock, woolen products such as sweaters, mufflers, rugs and carpets and even exporting them. People of other ethnic groups were involved in various other professions.

The categorization according to occupation created a huge void between the castes resulting in the haves and have nots. Chhetris held political power exercising control over the state's resources, Shahs and Ranas ruled the country for years where Brahmins remained as priests of the rulers. On the other hand, the so called lower group especially the Dalits was excluded from the fruits of opportunities. The feudal character of political system further facilitated very few with opportunities and access to state property. Only the elites of different castes and ethnic groups enjoyed the opportunities as well as power at the local level. This resulted in skewed distribution ofresources and opportunities resulting in economic supremacy of the rulers.

With this background, people have revolted several times against the then political system as in people's movements-1990 and 2006. The latter resulted in the country becoming a federal republic. Today, the country is in transition heading towards preparing a constitution of the federal republic that is supposed to be by the people and for the people. Several ethnic groups have raised their respective voices demanding equal access to power and opportunities. But, why is it relevant to study the disparity caused due to caste and ethnicity? Recently, UNDP published Nepal Human Development Report 2008 which estimates the human development index (HDI) by caste and ethnicity. It is the composite average index of literacy, longevity and income per head.

Its value ranges from 0 to 1 in which 1 indicates the high human development. Based on the value, one can examine the situation of human development associated with caste and ethnic groups.

Undoubtedly, Brahmins, Chhetris and Newars hold top ranks, and hold first, second and third position with respect to HDI. Terai Brahmins and Chhetris are at the top with HDI 0.625 followed by Newars and hill Brahmins with HDI of 0.616 and 0.612 respectively. Brahmin Chhetris occupy the fourth place with HDI index of 0.552. Hill Chhetris are in fifth position with HDI of 0.514. This indicates that Brahmins, Chhetris and Newars are in a better position because the HDI of these groups is above the national average as the HDI for Nepal is 0.509. It indicates that the human development of Chhetris, Brahmins and Newars outpace the human development of other castes.

But, looking at the human development by ethnicity, Janajatis and Dalits have HDI index of below the national average. Hill Janajatis (0.507) are better than the Terai Janajatis (0.470). Hill Dalits are in last position with HDI of 0.449 whereas the HDI for all Janajati is 0.494.The main reason behind this is their caste based occupation that discouraged them to attend school. Two decades ago, I happened to visit several Gurung villages of western development region. By tradition, they are recruited by British Army irrespective of their education. In this backdrop, villagers demanded a school in their villages. Boys get recruited at a tender age that undermined the importance of educating children. This tendency was common in Rai villages of eastern

development region also. But the case of Dalits is

different. Their low social status remains a curse. So their children are not allowed to attend schools let alone making them aware of the importance of education. This has made them backward and poor.

Again, the question remains unanswered as to why the Brahmins are in the top position? Occupationally and traditionally, they belong to the priest class that compelled them to join schools either in Banaras or at home, and continue their profession as their forefathers did. In fact, it is true that Brahmins such as Pandey, Dixit, Lohani were the priests of the Ranas and the Shahs. Similarly, other Brahmins were involved in the same occupation providing their services as priests to local feudal as priests that led to a better return. If Brahmins had been eligible for recruitment in the Nepali, Indian and British armies in earlier times, they would without doubt be in the same condition with respect to human development as are other groups of people.

Dr. Dhungel is Associate Professor, Central Department of Economics, TU

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

NC REVIVAL HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL FOR ACHARYA

 

Narahari Acharya, a senior Nepali Congress leader, has held ministerial portfolio in the past. Known for his squeaky clean image, he is an avid follower of democratic norms, and has the potential to lead the party, which has been beset with internal problems, in the near future. The 56-yr-old leader spoke to Prakash Acharya of The Himalayan Times at his residence in Chundevi in the capital on wide-ranging issues. Excerpts from the interview:

How do see the future of our country?

Nepal can definitely be transformed into a welfare and prosperous state. I'm hopeful that it'll make rapid strides over the next few years. However, the political forces ought to put in place a strong democratic system. Besides, all parties should adhere to democratic norms. The NC being the largest party, with an abiding faith in democratic values, will not only play a prominent role but also help other parties to fall in line. Our immediate task should be to change the NC's work culture. I'm optimistic that a revamped NC would play an historic role in the days to come.

Your party is beset with various internal problems. How do you say that the NC will undergo a transformation, and lead all democratic campaigns in the future?

Akin to the state of the nation, the NC, too, is on the verge of transformation. The Mahasamiti meeting has already set the ball rolling to bring about palpable changes in the organisational structure. The difference in approach will be evident in the upcoming General Convention (GC), which will be held in March. Once our house is in order, we'll able to lead all national campaigns that will foster the democratic spirit. Our party is only credible and able political force. But, we can only carry out onerous task of nation-building after internal issues are settled for once and all. Preparations are on in full swing to realise our cherished goal.

What's the significance of the 12th GC?

This time around, it won't be a regular GC. The conclave will be an ideal forum to address national agendas, and make our party play the role of a guardian angel to establish true democratic spirit. A new leadership will also come into force on the occasion. We've undergone a lot of ups and downs in recent times. The GC will help to correct the intra-party imbalances.

What are the major problems in the NC? Who do you think are responsible for weakening the party?

The NC has been pleading for accountability and democracy for the past 60 years. However, our intention got diluted, thanks to incompetent party leadership. Our leaders refused to take responsibility for the gradual decline, which peaked after the last year's Constituent Assembly results — triggering a serious in-house moral crisis. Though we've a strong ideology, lack of effective implementation of our policies and programmes has been the bane. The 12th GC will assess and evaluate all these issues. At the end of the day, the responsibility rests, well and truly, with the party president and office-bearers.

Why has the NC been unable to develop credible and competent leadership among the newer
generation?
The party leadership has ignored the newer generation for long. Consequently, we failed to reach out to our supporters and sympathisers, eroding our base among the masses.

How do you assess the role of main opposition Unified-CPN-Maoist?

Though UCPN-Maoist emerged as the single largest party in the CA polls, it failed to take other political forces into confidence. The Maoists have been busy paying heed to their vested interests. No wonder, it's losing credibility both at home and abroad. They failed to lead the coalition government, and now want to reclaim power again. But the entire process of renunciation and renewed demand is unclear. Their statements ring hollow and contradictory. The birth and growth of the party is evident enough that it wants to use democracy as a strategic tool to grab state power. The Maoists will be on the wane unless they follow a democratic path. Our biggest challenge will be to make them embrace democracy.

The UCPN-Maoist has established itself as most influential party. But you're predicting its decline. How can that be possible?

The Maoists received a lot of national and international support on the basis of their good showing in the CA elections. Scratch the surface, and the grim reality emerges. They sought vote while agreeing to comply with the Comprehensive Peace Accord. But, now they're showing their true colours. Turning a blind eye to the law, they continue to encourage impunity. The Maoists have breached people's trust reposed in them. How can it be the single largest party if it is playing ducks and drakes with popular mandate?

You were the only competitor to NC president Girija Prasad Koirala in the 11th GC. Will you vie for the post this time around as well?

I'm planning to give it a crack again. Earlier, I had received 14 per cent of vote even though the tide was against me. I feel I'm on stronger wicket now since there is a clamour for able and transparent leadership. I possess these attributes. Besides, I'm being encouraged to contest by a large section of leaders and workers. I sincerely hope that the best candidate will emerge winner in the 12th GC.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

DIABETES CALLS FOR SERIOUSNESS

DINA SHRESTHA

Diabetes is one of the most commonly encountered diseases in our lives these days. World wide 246 million people are estimated to have diabetes today. This number shouldn't really be surprising because inevitably we all have at least one family member or a friend who has been affected by this disease. Lack of understanding for the disease and its adverse affect it is faced with the most casual attitude. Given its silent and laid back character, it is mostly unattended to until it's had its detrimental affects on our health. These affects occur mostly after 5-10 years of uncontrolled high blood sugar.

Putting down the facts bluntly, patients with Diabetes Mellitus are 5 times more prone to kidney diseases and that is the reason why diabetes is the leading cause for renal failure meaning kidney damage. It leads to patients depending on dialysis or kidney transplant. Next, diabetics are at a 6 times higher risk for stroke and have a 2-4 times higher risk for heart attacks. Adding to stroke and heart attacks which together are known as macro vascular complications is peripheral vascular disease which affects the blood flow to lower limbs making diabetics unbelievably 20 times more prone to lower limb amputations.

The list of complications continues with retinopathy which I feel is very much neglected in diabetics. The awareness about the complications of the eyes is rather low. One usually presumes that because his vision is still good and there has been no deterioration in the acuity and that naturally their eyes are not affected. What diabetics need to know and realize is that diabetes affects the blood vessels of the eyes and that it is usually asymptomatic in the initial stages which is when it is treatable or reversible, and, diabetes is in fact the leading cause for new cases of blindness.

 

Having said that I hope readers now realize why doctors are working so hard and always emphasizing on tight sugar control in spite of they being asymptomatic. Denial to accept early treatment predisposes patients to complications in the future.

Ignorance is no longer a bliss, and I hope we all unite for diabetes in the global campaign "Diabetes education and prevention".

 

r. Shrestha is Consultant Endocrinologist at Norvic International Hospital

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

FOR TEMPORARY READ PERMANENT

 

THE Rudd Government's aviation white paper is expected to suggest that Richmond RAAF base be used as a temporary commercial airport for Sydney while the search for a permanent second airport site continues. The appropriate response to this is surely gales of laughter. In Sydney, as everyone knows, when it comes to planning, temporary means permanent. If Richmond is once used as a second commercial airport, it will stay that way. That may be no bad thing, of course - although the site is relatively constrained by nearby development - but it is as well to have no illusions about it. After more than 60 years of attempts to find a second airport site for the city, Sydney residents know that politics, not planning principles or common sense, guides decisions on airports.

 

Richmond has been considered twice before as a site for a second airport - in 1969 and 1977 - and was passed over on both occasions. But there are reasons why it may be back in the aviation planners' sights. A comparison with the third runway at Sydney Airport shows why. The last major attempt to build a second airport was the Hawke government's 1986 decision to go ahead with Badgerys Creek. The decision was announced, land bought, and work started. Then it became clear that the project would be vastly more expensive than the quicker option - the third runway at the existing airport, where terminals, transport connections and service facilities already existed.

 

If cost is one political constraint, the objections of local residents are another. An existing airport makes the decision easier. If residents are used to hearing aircraft overhead - as Richmond's are - a few more flights, the decision-makers believe, will not matter. That was another reason the third runway decision (loud though the protests were) was easier than building at Badgerys Creek, surrounded by tranquil marginal seats. It is why, once Richmond is chosen, it is a safe bet that it will stay chosen, whatever the politicians promise. The third runway, too, was sold to the public as a short-term stop-gap until Badgerys Creek was ready.

 

The federal Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, whose seat lies under one Sydney Airport flight path, has emphasised that the white paper on aviation, due out next month, will not name a site for the second airport. The first reaction to that might be to ask: why not? Isn't that its job? But on second thoughts, if Richmond is the temporary solution, there will be no need for a permanent second airport for another century or two. Yet again, major Sydney infrastructure will have been developed by stealth.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PREMIER

 

SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S Premier, Mike Rann, has rejected the accusations levelled at him by a woman claiming to be his former lover, Michelle Chantelois. In an unusual twist to the old tale (politician has sex with younger woman, who sells her story to the media), Mr Rann was not even married at the time of the alleged affair, although he was involved with Sasha Carruozzo, who is now his wife. Late yesterday, after a few non-denial denials, he was suddenly defiant, telling reporters he would sue Channel Seven for airing the allegations. But is it any of our business? Do South Australian voters really have any need or right to know the sexual history of their long-serving Premier? Surely not.

 

True, everyone - except those involved - loves a political sex scandal. Whenever news breaks of an illicit affair, it's inevitably the headline act in politics' three-ring circus, and a ratings bonanza. A binge of collective schadenfreude, fake moralising and glasshouse stone-throwing is followed with a sympathetic backlash of support to the powerful man in question, and, as surely, a public crucifixion of the less powerful woman involved. One way to get voters paying attention to politicians.

 

In other Anglo-Saxon countries, the errant (male) politician fronts the media, his humiliated, grim-faced wife by his side, while he confesses to the public, apologises and asks forgiveness. Overseas it ruins careers. In this country, it's less likely to. That's a good thing. The private lives of politicians may be slightly more public than those of others, but they are, or should be, still private.

 

That's not to say such teacup storms don't have political impact - female voters in particular may be less inclined to vote for a politician who may have lied to his wife. It seems likely Rann has also lost the vote of Rick Phillips, Chantelois's estranged husband, who hit him with a rolled-up magazine.

 

Politicians may not live the sort of spotless, monastic life we imagine we'd prefer of them, but who cares? Short of some clumsy denials, it's hard to see what Rann has done wrong. It may be titillating for a TV audience, but the alleged affair is unlikely to mean the end of his political career. In the absence of any proof of malpractice or corruption, it absolutely should not. As the South Australian Labor politician Nick Bolkus put it, the public has heard the disputed fact that Rann had sex before he was married. Not exactly a front-page splash.

 

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

WHATEVER THE GENDER, ALL MARRIAGES SHOULD BE EQUAL

IT IS TIME TO END LEGAL DISCRIMINATION AGAINST GAYS AND LESBIANS.

 

SPAIN has done it. So have Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and South Africa. All these nations have legalised same-sex marriage, without evident undermining of heterosexual marriage and the family relationships based upon it. And in Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany and New Zealand, where the law allows same-sex civil unions or registered partnerships, there hasn't been any shredding of the social fabric, either. Yet Australia, which likes to see itself as a tolerant, pluralist society, has not been able to go as far as deeply Catholic Spain in removing remaining forms of institutionalised discrimination against gay and lesbian people.

 

In Victoria at the weekend, the ALP state conference carried a motion calling on the Federal Government to amend the Marriage Act to provide ''equal access to marriage, regardless of the gender of either partner''. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier John Brumby are resolutely opposed to taking such a step, although Victoria allows same-sex and de facto couples to register their relationships and the Federal Government has legislated to remove discrimination against same-sex couples in tax, health, welfare, aged care and superannuation entitlements.

 

That these reforms were a matter of justice has been accepted across the political spectrum, but neither government has been able to explain why justice does not also require changing the law on marriage. Attempts to do so have usually got no further than evasive descriptions of the existing order of things: ''Marriage is … between a man and a woman,'' Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in a television interview this year. ''This is an issue that we've got to deal with in contemporary society with all of our history, hundreds of years of history in Australia and in Western culture about what marriage means.''

 

The question dodged by this sort of comment is what marriage should mean now. Of course society's shared understanding of marriage has changed over time, but recognising that to be so simply amounts to saying that marriage is a human institution. Marriage law once enshrined the inequality of men and women by giving husbands greater rights than their wives. That era is past, because the law was altered in response to social changes wrought by the movement for gender equality. Attitudes to same-sex relationships have also changed markedly in the past half-century, with the consequence that those in these relationships are able to live openly. Why, then, are they denied the right to declare and celebrate their union in a legally binding ceremony, just as heterosexual couples do?

 

The usual conservative response to this question is that granting legal equality to heterosexual and same-sex partnerships would undermine the former, which deserve their privileged status because they are inherently connected with child-bearing and child-raising. The children being happily raised by same-sex couples are living refutations of this claim, whether or not opponents of a change in the law are willing to acknowledge this.

 

The real resistance surely goes deeper, and was alluded to in Ms Gillard's elliptical remarks. The dominant religious traditions in Western societies have regarded marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, and it is adherents of this specifically religious understanding of marriage who are the strongest opponents of a change in the law. They are certainly entitled to hold this view, but in a pluralist society it should not automatically prevail - especially when polls suggest it is no longer a majority view.

 

There is an alternative to the comprehensive change called for by the Victorian ALP. The ACT has again legislated to allow same-sex couples to celebrate civil unions in a legally recognised ceremony, and Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says he is confident that this time the law will not be overriden by the Rudd Government. Mr Stanhope's assurance is based on legal advice that if the status of civil union is restricted to same-sex couples, the ACT law cannot contravene the federal Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. If this legal stratagem prevails, however, it will have the paradoxical effect of creating two classes of legally recognised domestic partnership, but with the M-word and its popular connotation of full union available only to one. That would be progress, no doubt, but not equality.

Source: The Age

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

A MATURING CITY MINES ITS FOUNDATIONS FOR MEANING

 

IN A land whose first inhabitants' ancestry goes back at least 10,000 generations, archaeological explorations of Melbourne's past, all of half-a-dozen generations' worth, may at first seem almost quaint. Lake Mungo yielded evidence of an Aboriginal presence 40,000 years ago; the city is only 174 years old. Indeed, not that long ago, many Melburnians looked to ''Mother England'' to answer questions about their forebears. Today, enough history has unfolded that archaeology is coming into its own in the city. To go beyond living memory and find out who and what made Melbourne, we literally dig into the foundations of our history. Hundreds of projects are registered each year.

 

The latest high-profile dig is at the car park site of the former German Garden created next to the Royal Exhibition Building for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition. The discovery of the footings of a kiosk and garden pathways will enable the garden to be re-created next to Victoria's only World Heritage-listed building. The dig has also found large amounts of shells discarded by Melburnians who consumed oysters not with champagne but as a cheaper meat than mutton or beef. Other major digs have included the brewery site on Swanston and Bouverie streets, one of the first neighbourhoods of Melbourne, which showed a shift in drinking habits from hard liquor to beer after the 1860s, and the Casselden Place project, which brought to life the ''Little Lon'' slum as a surprisingly diverse community of working-class homes, brothels and opium dens.

 

As archaeology reveals more about the making of Melbourne, the work enables Melburnians to deepen their sense of place by connecting them to the world of their forebears. This city of immigrants might even gain a better grasp of the depth of the bond between Aboriginal Australians and the land of their ancestors.

 

Source: The Age

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF… SUBURBIA

 

"Squeezed between an almighty concrete cinema complex at one end and a giant intersection at the other, Cricklewood was no kind of place. It was not a place a man came to die. It was a place a man came in order to go other places via the A41." Ouch. To make matters worse, that stinging description of a London suburb comes from a local girl. Double ouch. What Zadie Smith sets out in the opening of White Teeth is the classic case against suburbia: it is everywhere and nowhere, with no features worthy of redemption or even remark. It is the home of Charles Pooter – or Kevin Spacey, dying a slow death among the picket fences of American Beauty.

 

Yet suburbia is where 84% of Britons live – and it is far too various to merit the stereotypes. Suburbia was invented in Britain and, as a new exhibition at the London transport museum illustrates, it was created amid high ambition and posters inciting commuters to Come Out to Live. Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Bournville were both designed according to high ideals: no pubs, but greenery and self-improvement. The vaulting ambition has died away, but that still does not mean the 'burbs cliches are true. Too white? Run that by the French Africans in the Parisian banlieue. Mere dormitory towns? Silicon Valley is one giant suburb. Uncreative? Ask Hanif Kureishi or David Bowie, Bromley boys both. Paul Barker remarks in a new book that "for most people, most of the time, suburbia is as good as it gets". And, mostly, it is good enough.

 

 

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

CUMBRIA FLOODS: UNPREDICTABLE BUT NOT UNFORESEEABLE

 

Even at the best of times, it is hard to predict the future. To forecast an unprecedented flood is harder still, and to protect effectively against such a flood hardest of all. Yet the serious flood damage in Cockermouth and other parts of Cumbria over the past few days ought nevertheless to be a wake-up call to Britain. We could be much better at calculating flood risk than we are and we should give the task of proactive flood defence far higher priority than we do.

 

Britain has a very long history of floods and, over the centuries, Cumbria has suffered more than its share of them. In recent years climate change has added to the long existing threat, in Cumbria as elsewhere, as well as greatly heightening the public's awareness of the danger. Four years ago Carlisle was inundated, again in the winter months. Since then there have been other bad floods in many parts of the country, from the south-west of England to, only a few weeks ago, the north-east of Scotland. So why has Cumbria now been hit by a flood that, in yesterday's words of the environment secretary Hilary Benn, was so "utterly devastating"?

 

The easy answer is that Thursday's phenomenal rain, spates and floods were, as Mr Benn himself said at the time, a once-in-a-millenium meteorological event against whose consequences no community could wholly protect itself. Yet it was only the degree, not the fact, of the floods that was astonishing. Over the years effective river engineering work has been done to protect upstream Lake District communities from devastating floods. Less has been done downstream, though there is greater awareness of the threat. The fact is that Cockermouth could have been better protected than it was.

 

The immediate response to the floods has been impressive, heroic even. Rescue efforts, agency co-ordination, and the initial clean-up have worked well. The community spirit has been outstanding. Yet for all the progress in preparing for flood emergencies, not enough has been done to protect vulnerable places such as Cockermouth in the first place. River channels are not deep enough, river banks not high enough, bridges not well enough designed and drains inadequate. There are Cockermouths waiting to happen elsewhere. We have to be proactive as well as reactive.

 

It is useful that Mr Benn's flood and water management bill is already on the Commons agenda. The lessons of the Cumbrian floods should be incorporated and the bill passed as a priority, before the election. But better rules and co-ordination, though important, will not protect future Cockermouths. For that we need engineering and building programmes and real investment in flood defences that can better protect lives and livelihoods in the first place.

 

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THE GURDIAN

EDITORIAL

US HEALTHCARE REFORM: ASSAULT AND BATTERY

 

The White House called the vote in the Senate historic. And yet within hours of the move to begin a full debate on healthcare legislation, the delicate patchwork of political deals that led to the vote began to unravel. Senators, whose votes were crucial to avoid a Republican filibuster, peeled off into the television studios to vent their grievances: Joseph Lieberman was troubled by the cost, Ben Nelson by big government, Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln by the inclusion of a new government-run insurance program. Note that this has already been the subject of substantial compromise. The bill proposed by Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, gives states the right to opt out of the so-called public option. But neither this compromise, nor a $300m boost to Medicaid for Ms Landrieu's state of Louisiana, went far enough. Some of these senators say they would only support a bill that requires states to opt into a public plan, limiting its federal reach.

 

And that is how the woeful passage of this legislation has gone. One compromise from supporters of healthcare reform has only redoubled demands for another. The same standards of give and take are not demanded of their opponents. Anti-abortion democrats and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops sensed an opportunity to push back the status quo by demanding language that would prevent millions from buying insurance that covers abortion, even if they used their own money. This goes beyond an existing amendment banning the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions in government programmes.

 

Opponents of healthcare reform are right to say the government would have to bear the large costs of expanding Medicaid and subsidising insurance for those on lower and middle incomes. It is not clear how President Barack Obama will be able to cut premiums, reduce costs and not add to the federal deficit – each a campaign promise. But opponents are wrong not to admit that the government is already footing the bill of spiralling health costs, which happens every time the uninsured turn up in hospital for treatment they could have got outside. They are wrong too, to gloss over the fact that wholesale prices for prescription drugs have risen by 9% in the last year, in what appears to be a pre-emptive move by the industry to get their price increases in now, before prices are forced down by the reforms.

 

But perhaps the boldest deceit is perpetrated by opponents of big government. For generations they have argued that when governments take on tasks better performed by markets, they are bound to fail, because bureaucrats are by nature inefficient. Whenever they step in between consumer and provider, it ends in grief, the argument goes. A recent recommendation from a government-appointed panel which questioned the effectiveness of mammograms for women in their 40s was pounced upon as an example of how "government-run" healthcare decisions would be made – even though scepticism over the procedure is not new and comes from doctors, not bureaucrats. Healthcare reform would make mammography more, not less, accessible. But when it comes to the creation of a government-run alternative to private insurance schemes, the fear is not that big government would be too inefficient but that it would be only too effective at undercutting the market. Which is it?

 

Weeks of fighting lie ahead, at the end of which the reform could look very different. It is not clear how much more battering the public option will take. Mr Obama has returned from a tour of Asia to find his poll numbers slipping further, and Democrats nervous about the fight they face in elections next year. Republicans sense a real chance to weaken this presidency before it has time to get going. This will not encourage legislative boldness, let alone radical change, and yet that is precisely what the US healthcare system needs.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

STATE INTERFERENCE

 

The best policy for the government in its media relations is non-interference. This universally accepted principle in a democratic society is being compromised in the Culture Ministry's recent decision to limit the distribution of government advertisements to newspapers that comply with the process of circulation auditing by the Korean Audit Bureau of Circulations.

 

The ministry which is responsible for media policy had earlier in May announced a set of measures to link government ads to the adoption of the ABC's circulation audits - without proper consultation with media companies. Last week, the ministry again unilaterally notified newspapers of its schedule to implement the new policy at the beginning of 2010.

 

Member companies of the Korea Newspapers Association, including The Korea Herald, clarified their position that they are ready to cooperate in the circulation auditing by the ABC, which they acknowledged was "necessary for reasonable and scientific distribution of advertisements" in media outlets. However, they warned that linking government ads to the implementation of the ABC system could be construed as an attempt to secure a means of controlling the media.

 

The government's direct interference in the circulation auditing process is regrettable. The implementation of auditing should be left up to media companies and the ABC, a private organization consisting of advertisers, advertising agencies and newspaper publishers. Holding a substantial amount of advertisements in its hands, the government is trying to impose a unilaterally set schedule for circulation auditing.

 

Prior to the ABC measure, thorough preparatory steps are necessary in order to make the auditing correctly defines the true readership status of participating newspapers. One point of emphasis was the need to establish the comprehensive concept of "audience" that combines the readers of online editions and multiple readers of the same issues at offices and at home. Surveys of reader profiles are vitally important.

 

We are of the opinion that simple comparison of the numbers of printed and subscribed issues could cause inappropriate competition, giving an edge to papers with strong capital power. Premature ABC auditing with government ads as a means of inducement is certain to touch off costly sales promotion campaigns and newspapers would be forced to face more difficult financial situations.

 

At the moment, we are not convinced of the capability of the ABC staff in conducting circulation auditing in a fair manner. The Korea Newspapers Association believes that at least three more years are necessary for the ABC to secure enough manpower and technical capabilities to administer the auditing. In the case of the Japan ABC, formed in the early 1950s, it had a 16-year preparatory period before it began actual auditing of newspaper circulations in 1973.

 

Another matter of concern is the past history of the government using the circulation data compiled by the ABC in 2002 for extensive tax investigations of newspapers. Publishers are justifiably worried about possible repetition of such regrettable practice of government interference in the media business.

 

The government is advised against using its advertisements in trying to advance the ABC's auditing. ABC audits should be conducted in the most transparent manner, free copies should be effectively excluded from circulation counts and an acceptable auditing road map should be established between the ABC and publishers.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

HUMAN RIGHTS ENVOY

 

The U.S. Senate has confirmed the appointment of Robert King, a former staff member at the House Foreign Relations Committee, as special envoy for North Korean human rights issues. With the position, which was established by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 and was reauthorized last year, Amb. King will monitor the human rights situation in the North and seek to help refugees from the country.

 

President Barack Obama's appointment of the special envoy and the legislation of the special law on North Korean human rights issues five years ago reflect the United States' adherence to the universal values of human rights, which, in the words of the new envoy, "is an essential part of who the American people are." King vowed to promote increased respect for human rights in North Korea and to seek independent sources of information about human rights conditions there in cooperation with governmental and nongovernmental organizations in the region.

 

While we welcome King's appointment and are inspired by his dedication to his new job, we are reminded of the frustration of his immediate predecessor, Jay Lefkowitz. In his final report earlier this year, Lefkowitz regretted that the number of North Korean refugees who settled in the United States remained small - 93 to be exact over the five-year period. He complained of "lengthy and cumbersome" screening process at U.S. diplomatic posts in East Asia.

 

King must already know how sensitive his job will be, particularly in the face of unsatisfactory cooperation of U.S. overseas missions in helping North Korean refugees. According to Lefkowitz, organizations and individuals aiding the refugees in transit seldom approach U.S. diplomatic posts because they are certain to turn them away or refer them to the UNHCR office, which can be of little help, especially in China.

 

King said he would "seek effective ways" to assist North Korean refugees. But we are afraid he would soon realize he was facing another formidable wall if he tried to persuade the Chinese not to forcibly return North Korean refugees. We do not have to mention a third wall in Pyongyang which is built on total denial of human rights. Still, the new U.S. special envoy on North Korean human rights issues should be confident of strong support and expectations from the people on this side of the peninsula and the many humanitarian workers elsewhere.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

GLOBAL IMBALANCES CALL FOR DEBATE ON GLOBAL FISCAL SYSTEM

ANDREW SHENG

 

The Group of 20 has improved the legitimacy of global governance, but "what to do" is confused by turf battles over who bears the loss and who to control. It will be useful to be reminded that the present fiscal trend of rising expenditure increases and tax cuts to rebuild excess consumption funded by excess leverage, despite limited global resources, is just a race to another crisis.

 

The world is caught in a collective action trap. The gaming nature of nation-states and private sector behavior are such that there is the tendency of a race to the bottom. No country is able to tighten monetary policy alone for fear of inviting hot money that negates that policy. No country is able to tighten financial regulation for fear of business migrating to other financial centers. No country is able to raise taxation for fear of massive tax arbitrage.

 

In hindsight, global imbalances were caused by the violation of the Triffin dilemma writ large. The Triffin dilemma states that the reserve currency central bank faces the dilemma of running monetary policy that is inconsistent with domestic needs. When the reserve currency country has excess consumption, its central bank should be running tighter monetary policy, but in a world of free capital flows, the efficacy of monetary policy is weakened. The trouble is that when all four reserve currency central banks are faced with rising fiscal deficits and massive financial engineering that pumped hidden leverage into the system, the systemically important countries collectively generated a global credit bubble that can only be financed by lower and lower interest rates.

 

The reality is that we now have a global economy without global monetary policy, global financial regulation and global fiscal system.

 

In other words, excess consumption that ultimately feeds into global warming can only be controlled by hard budget constraints - current taxation, not future taxation. We are reminded of the effects of global climate change by recent typhoons, floods, earthquakes and droughts, as well as the estimate that biodiversity loss could cause as much as $2-5 trillion annually when the total cost of the current financial crisis is less than $4 trillion.

 

Advocates of global governance reform suggest that the current problems can be solved through a global currency or a global financial regulator. They forgot that the pre-condition for global government action is a global fiscal system. The euro system has demonstrated unequivocally that a single currency cannot function without some form of fiscal compensation for those who suffer regionally from the consequences of monetary policy that may not suit local conditions. We cannot agree on a global fiscal system because so far all taxation is local.

But Lord Adair Turner of the U.K. Financial Services Authority has shown the way. Since the financial sector has become the "perpetual prosperity machine" with massive moral hazard, Lord Turner is right in thinking that a "Tobin tax," or a turnover tax, is the first step in global fiscal reform.

 

A turnover tax offers many merits. First, it is a user-pay tax that is less regressive than other forms of taxation.

It is akin to a gambling tax on socially negative activities.

 

Second, a turnover tax can be countercyclical, being increased or decreased depending on the level of speculative fever in the markets. When the risk of a bubble collapse rises, the tax rate can be increased to fund safety nets in the event of a crisis. It complements capital adequacy tools.

 

Third, a turnover tax can finance global public goods that currently have no other forms of financing.

Fourth, a turnover tax will reduce profits of financial institutions and hence their capacity to pay excessive bonuses that promote too much risk-taking at the expense of society.

 

Fifth, the turnover tax collection system will generate data on financial transactions will help regulators monitor excessive speculation, market manipulation and insider trading that currently plagues effective global financial market supervision.

 

Of course the financial sector would object to any form of new tax. But those who prosper by public subsidy in the form of deposit guarantee and enjoy higher profits at public risk deserve to pay some tax. Those who argue for frictionless finance have created a windmill spinning at supersonic speed that fractured the whole financial structure. A minimal turnover tax will stop infinite financial derivative layering that creates complexity, opacity and potential for systemic risks.

 

Just how much can governments raise from a turnover tax? Based on BIS Triennial Survey data in 2007, global annual value of foreign exchange turnover was roughly $800 trillion. Add another $101 trillion stock market trading based on the World Federation of Exchanges statistics would give total annual financial trading, excluding bonds and other over-the-counter transactions, of roughly $900 trillion. Using a turnover tax of 0.005 percent would yield $45 billion, roughly the aid pledged to Africa of $50 billion annually.

 

Global public goods are currently funded by equity (voting quota for Bretton Wood institutions) or by direct national grants. These are not sustainable. We need a global tax to fund global public goods.

 

But for a turnover tax to work, it is vital that G20 agrees for all countries to impose a single, uniform rate of say, 0.005 percent to avoid a race to the bottom from the onset. This would put into place the module of fiscal standardisation and tax mechanism that improves conditions for future coordination in monetary policy and financial regulation. The tax can be collected at the national level based on buyer-pay. The tax collected could be credited to a global fund, with a formula that would allow national governments to use part of the proceeds to resolve domestic crisis problems.

 

A global turnover tax can fund non-controversial global public goods, such as Education for All initiatives, before moving to tackle other more controversial areas, such as funding to tackle climate change.

 

Global problems are global tragedy of the commons. We cannot build a global fiscal system to tackle global problems overnight, but we must begin the debate.

 

Andrew Sheng is author of "From Asian to Global Financial Crisis," published by Cambridge University Press and an adjunct pProfessor at University of Tsinghua, Beijing and University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. - Ed.

 

(Asia News Network)

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE STATE OF CRIMINAL AFFAIRS

 

According to the National Police Agency's 2009 white paper on crime, the police recognized 1,818,374 crimes, excluding traffic accidents, in 2008. The figure is 4.8 percent less than in 2007, and has fallen six years in a row.

 

A total of 36,153 people were killed or injured in those crimes, about 3,000 less than in 2007. The police recognized 1,297 cases of murder in 2008 — an 8.2 percent rise from the previous year and the first rise in five years — and identified or arrested suspects in 95.4 percent of those cases.

 

Overall public safety is improving, the white paper said, but crimes like theft may be on the rise due to economic hardship.

 

The number of people either identified as suspects or arrested in 2008 was 340,100. The white paper notes that of those arrested, about 140,000 (or 41.5 percent) had a history of previous arrests.

 

The white paper's figures on recidivism are revealing. The NPA carried out follow-up studies of people who, in initial trials in Tokyo or Kanagawa Prefecture in 2004, were given suspended sentences for theft (691 people) or offences involving stimulant drugs (519 people). Of the first group, 19 percent of those put on probation reoffended and were convicted, compared with 23.9 percent of those freed without probation. Of the stimulant drug offenders, 27.8 percent of those put on probation reoffended and were convicted, compared with 24.4 percent of those freed without probation.

 

It is safe to assume that putting criminals under the watch and guidance of probation officers will help deter recidivism. Between 1962 and 1964, more than 20 percent of people given suspended sentences were put on probation. But the rate was 9.5 percent in 2003, and fell to 8.8 percent in 2006 and 2007.

 

There appears to be a shortage of voluntary probation officers. A Justice Ministry panel pointed out in June 2006 that although each year some 60,000 people were put on probation, there were less than 50,000 voluntary probation officers and only about 1,100 people working at probation offices. The government should implement policies to support and increase the number of voluntary probation officers.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

NEXT STEP TOWARD BUDGET

 

The waste-cutting panel of the Hatoyama administration's Government Revitalization Unit has finished its first round of work and now moves on to the second round. In the work completed, the panel reviewed funding allocations for some 240 projects included in the fiscal 2010 budgetary requests, which top ¥95 trillion in total, and managed to cut expenditure by some ¥450 billion. It also called for funds set up by independent administrative agencies and surpluses in special accounts, which total some ¥900 billion, to be returned to state coffers.

 

The review of each project saw panel members, including Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers and experts from the private sector, spend about an hour listening to and questioning relevant officials. Projects were divided into categories, such as "abolish," "reduce," "freeze" and "conclusion postponed."

 

While the panel's work was praised for bringing transparency to the budgeting process, the relatively short time

spent on examining each project attracted criticism, as did the panel's style — dubbed by some people as "a sort of public execution" due to some panel members' superior attitude toward project officials. But since tax revenue in fiscal 2009 and 2010 is expected to be less than ¥38 trillion and ¥40 trillion respectively, panel members should continue to closely scrutinize funding requests.

 

But decisions by the panel are not final. Its reviews are to be followed by negotiations between the Finance Ministry and Cabinet members. This process should also be transparent.

 

The government must do its utmost to eliminate waste and increase efficiency, but it should assess certain projects with a long-term view towards rectifying the gap between rich and poor and strengthening the economy. Careful political judgment will be required in such areas as grants in aid from the central government to local governments, remuneration for medical institutions and spending for U.S. forces in Japan. The government should also pay due attention to preventing a second economic dip. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's leadership will be tested.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

AN ABLE, NONPOLITICAL CIVIL SERVICE

BY HUGH CORTAZZI

 

LONDON — In Britain and Japan, civil servants are supposed to be nonpolitical and to give unbiased advice. But their independence is threatened by some politicians who want posts to be filled by what Margaret Thatcher used to call "one of us" — people who share the same aspirations as the governing party. They advocate that our countries should move closer toward the American system, where the higher posts of an administration are filled by people chosen according to political affiliation rather than by merit.

 

Until 1855 in Britain, civil servants were recruited through a system of patronage. This was reformed as a result of the Northcote-Trevelyan report of 1854, which provided that civil servants were to be appointed on merit through open competition. The core values of civil servants were to be integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality (including political impartiality).

 

In Britain ministers are answerable to Parliament. Decisions are taken by ministers and implemented by the civil service. As politicians are subject to short-term political pressures, it falls to the civil service to maintain the public interest. To do this they must be politically neutral and have pecuniary and moral integrity. On the whole the system has worked reasonably well.

 

But the system has come under increasing pressure. Labour party governments have begun to rely on political advisers who claim that their function is to explain government policies not only to civil servants but also to the general public. Some ministers would like to put civil servants under these advisers, thus intervening in the flow of impartial advice to ministers.

 

Prime Minister Tony Blair frequently complained about what he saw as dilatoriness in implementing government policies by civil servants. He didn't always understand that administration, like politics, is the art of the possible. Management consultants charging high fees were brought in to recommend structural and operational changes for the civil service. Numerous advisory quangos, whose members were appointed not on merit but by party relationships, were set up to take over the responsibilities of government departments.

 

Most senior positions in the civil service were opened up to competition from the private sector and established civil servants were encouraged to seek posts in the private sector. Ministers have sometimes tried to bypass their civil servants and publicly criticized their own officials rather than accept responsibility. More and more often, conflicting targets are set up without any real understanding of the problems involved in achieving these targets.

 

Ministers often ignore the old adage "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Their call for more and more "diversity" seems to mean allocating posts to ethnic minorities, gays and single parents. (The head of administration in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office now has the absurd title of Director General for Change and Diversity!) All of these steps have tended to undermine the morale and the independence of the civil service.

 

The British government has reiterated its commitment to a nonpolitical civil service, but there is skepticism about the sincerity of this commitment. The Conservative opposition also pays lip service to an independent civil service, yet plans to institute management and supervisory boards for each department of state, filled with businessmen ignorant of the problems of the departments for which they will be responsible.

 

Japan has had one of the ablest central government bureaucracies in the world. Its recruits have come from the best universities and its ethos was traditionally one of hard work and integrity. Only in the last two decades have there been signs of declining standards. Politicians have been partly responsible for this. Like their British counterparts, they have been too ready to criticize their civil servants rather than accept their own responsibility.

 

Few ministers ever stayed in their jobs more than a year and thus had little time to learn the problems of their departments since, until recently, there also have been few assistant ministers. Ministers also, probably correctly, assumed that their civil servants would tie up all details of particular policies with the relevant Liberal Democratic Party committee chairman and influential LDP members.

 

Civil servants also kept in close touch with the industries for which they were responsible through the amakudari system. This system, now so widely condemned, had merits. It ensured that able civil servants could use their talents in business while leaving promotion prospects for ambitious juniors. But it did lead in some cases to relationships that were too cozy and invited corrupt practices.

 

The new Democratic Party of Japan-led government has declared its intention of further strengthening the powers of ministers while reducing those of the bureaucracy. It is important for the future of good government in Japan that the process of reform is carefully managed. Ministers need the cooperation of their civil servants and should recognize that bullying will be counterproductive.

 

Makiko Tanaka, by her rough treatment of officials in the Foreign Ministry, harmed morale in the service and its reputation abroad. Everywhere there are understandable calls for better supervision of expenses but this applies as much to politicians as to civil servants.

 

If corruption is to be avoided and faithful service ensured, civil servants need competitive and reasonable terms of service that include adequate pensions and opportunities to go on working beyond the normal age of retirement.

 

As some British politicians behave arrogantly and inconsiderately from time to time, civil servants must develop resilience and learn how to cope. Few British bureaucrats go into politics, perhaps because they have seen too much of politicians.

 

Japanese politicians also can be insensitive and demanding, especially when abroad, but more Japanese civil servants seem ready to go into politics.

 

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

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

WHERE GOES PALESTINE AS ABBAS WITHDRAWS?

BY DAOUD KUTTAB

 

RAMALLAH, West Bank — A political leader's decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, President Mahmoud Abbas' withdrawal from the Jan. 24 presidential election has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine — not because of a reluctance to mention possible successors, but because the presidency of the Palestinian Authority has become irrelevant.

 

Abbas' withdrawal comes at a time when Palestinian frustration with the political process has rendered suspect the entire rationale behind the PA, established in the mid-1990s, following the Oslo Accords.

 

The main component of the PLO's agreement with Israel was a five-year interim period during which negotiations were expected to lead to an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

 

Sixteen years later, it has become clear that the Israelis have made no effort to come to terms with Palestinian national aspirations — and that no effective effort has been made to convince them. The number of illegal Jewish settlers in Palestinian areas has doubled, leaving Palestinians increasingly convinced that negotiations are a waste of time.

 

Many recall the preferred strategy of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: "I would have conducted negotiations on autonomy for 10 years, and in the meantime we would have reached a half-million people in the West Bank."

 

Initially, the five-year interim agreement called for the election of a Palestinian Legislative Council and an executive leader whom the Israelis wanted to call a "chairman," spurning the word "president." Because Arabic makes no distinction between chairman and president, the Israelis accepted use of the Arabic word in the official English text.

 

Palestinian refugees in exile and other Palestinians of the diaspora were not allowed to vote. East Jerusalem Palestinians could vote only at the post office or at booths outside the city limits.

 

Abbas' withdrawal merely confirms the obvious. Another such election in the near future, including the one set for January, is unlikely to occur, mainly owing to the continuing rift between the PLO and Hamas, which controls Gaza.

 

Hamas participated in the 2006 legislative elections, which followed Israel's military withdrawal from Gaza. But for years Hamas and other radical Palestinian groups have rejected the Oslo process, on the grounds that free elections under Israeli occupation would be absurd. Hamas has the power to stymie the vote and has indicated that it would do so.

 

Moreover, Abbas has not given up his positions as head of the PLO and leader of its biggest faction, Fatah, which remains in control in the West Bank. Abbas cannot resign from his post for the foreseeable future, lest the Hamas-backed speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council take over. At the same time, no PLO official is likely to seek the presidency without Abbas' approval, which he will withhold until a new mechanism for ending the occupation is found.

 

The PLO will likely gain much from Abbas' decision, because it de-emphasizes the status of the PA president and raises the profile of his post as chairman of the PLO's executive committee. That shift, in turn, clears the way for a generational change in leadership — and, more importantly, a transition to post-Oslo politics.

 

The PLO's old guard — men like Yasser Arafat and Abbas, who led the liberation organization from exile and returned home with the Oslo Accords — dominated the Palestinian political landscape up to now. After they depart the scene, Palestinian leaders who were born under occupation and spent time in Israeli prisons will most likely fill the vacuum.

 

The most prominent such figure is Marwan Barghouti, leader of the student movement at Birzeit University in the 1980s and one of the main organizers of the First Intifada, resulting in his deportation by Israel in the late 1980s. In 2002, he was arrested and sentenced to a long prison term on charges that he led the Second Intifada (begun two years earlier) and ordered some military attacks.

 

Despite being imprisoned, Barghouti was recently elected to Fatah's central council, and a number of others who spent time in Israeli prisons will join him. One is Jibril Rajoub, imprisoned for 19 years and deported in the First Intifada, only to return to lead one of the security services after the PA was established. Another is Mahmoud Dahlan, also an ex-prisoner and former security official, although the loss of Gaza to Hamas, for which many Palestinians hold him partly responsible, has dimmed his leadership prospects.

 

Finally, there is Nasser al-Qudwa, the former PLO representative at the United Nations. Qudwa is a dark-horse candidate to succeed Abbas — a possible compromise figure who has never been directly involved in security or military activities. For many Palestinians, Qudwa, a soft-spoken, multilingual nationalist (and Arafat's nephew), presents an acceptable face for Palestine locally and internationally.

 

The coming months will reveal whether we are witnessing the dawn of the post-Oslo era in Palestinian politics, and whether a new leader, with new supporters, will be required to revive the Palestinian cause.

 

Whoever emerges on top will have to present an effective strategy to end four decades of military occupation and bring about a truly independent state that a majority of Palestinians can embrace.

 

Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former professor of journalism at Princeton University. © 2009 Project Syndicate. (www.project-syndicate.org)

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

THE TRAP OF LEGAL FORMALITIES AND LEGAL RHETORIC

MOHAMAD MOVA, AL `AFGHANI

 

Had enough of legal rhetoric? The case involving the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputies seems to be the culminating point of the escalating distrust toward our legal system.

 

It appears, however, the word trust has no meaning for those in power. They keep reiterating the same old legal jargon and quoting legal provisions over again. Although the public eye are becoming disinterested.

 

Indeed, the law is an independent and a self-referential system. Within its system, a law is valid if it is conferred by higher rules or affirmed by rules at the same level.

 

"A sense of justice", "common sense", or "conscience" is considered irrelevant by some lawyers because these concepts exist outside the positive law.

 

We heard the news of shoe-shining boys aged 10-16 years old, detained in state penitentiary for tossing coins at the airport. Ask law enforcers about it and they will refer you to Article 303 of the Criminal Code on gambling - not "conscience".

 

The media also recently reported how an old woman was punished because she stole a few cacao fruits in Central Java.

 

We heard the news about the lady who complained about the health service she received. Her doctors and the police initially claimed for defamation under ordinary criminal code but the prosecutors added the Law on Information and Electronic Transaction, which renders her a few weeks in jail. The superiors of the prosecutors at that time defended her subordinates and suggest that such "creativity" and responsiveness should not have been criticized, but appreciated.

 

The presidential spokesman at that time reacted and said law enforcers should have paid attention to the people's "sense of justice". Well, within this positivistic construct, a "sense of justice" is irrelevant.

 

Had this been traditional society, without any sophisticated legal institution, the parties would have sat together to settle their case over the campfire with gifts or offerings to deities in order to restore the cosmic balance.

 

But of course, modern societies have no time for these rituals. Instead, we opt to create hundreds of thousands of regulations and settle our cases in a "civilized" way with court proceedings. The law was initially created to serve justice. But now, it seems we have been alienated from our own creation - the modern law, disconnecting us from justice.

 

The law works pretty much like spiritualism or religion - it has some mythological and symbolic elements. We may ridicule traditional societies for their rituals, but we are not much different from them in terms of symbolism.

 

Consider this. The law has a constitution, religion has scripture. Religion has a shrine, the law has a court. Religion has clerics and shamans, the law has judges - and indeed, both wear robes and people are required to stand up as they enter their rooms as a sign of respect. A trial is like a ritual. The judges sit at benches as priests lead a sermon.

 

Religion tells us about heaven and so does the law.

 

Open the Constitution and we shall find "paradise": prosperity, welfare, world peace, freedom, equality and justice for all. Read a court's decision and it says: "For the sake of justice based on the one supreme God". Judges, prosecutors, the police and lawyers work to interpret the law, as much as clerics work to interpret holy text. We have "faith" in the law because it promises to deliver these heavenly concepts.

 

One member of the House of Representative's Commission III states the law has nothing to do with common sense. This is incorrect. History has proven this for so long. The Nazi law, which sought to exterminate Jewish people, the apartheid laws, the laws which forbade women to vote, the laws which regulated the sale and purchase of slaves and many other laws were "legal" during their time. But because they contradicted common sense and justice, they were toppled.

 

The law, albeit independent and self-referential, is also a communicative system. It connects ideas of common sense, justice, equality and conscience among others, translating it into its language.

 

It is not easy to do this as the more complex the law, the less transparent and accessible it becomes for lay people. Indeed, with the rise of legal complexities, there is the danger of being lost in translation. The effect is what we call the "miscarriage" of justice. Thus, enforcing the law requires wit, strong morality and wisdom.

 

As such, law enforcers quoting legal jargon without any connection to law's ideals are like shamans citing spells, only to discover they have lost their magical powers, because people they talk to find it difficult to trust what they say. There is a risk that people will no longer be citizens when their faith in the law erodes. The risk is that they will slowly turn into a mob.

 

The writer is the founder of Center for Law Information.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE — BUT STILL ...

 

 "Huh?" was the initial reaction of many Indonesians upon hearing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's long-awaited announcements regarding the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Bank Century bailout scandal controversies.

 

However, a closer look at the transcript of his long-winded address late Monday revealed his conclusion on the prosecution of the KPK deputies:

 

"A better solution and option … would be that the police and prosecutors do not take this case to court …. but instead immediately undertake corrective measures [within] the police, Attorney General's Office and the KPK."  

 

Though protests and shouts of disappointment followed the President's address, at the end of the day Yudhoyono seemed to have regained the guts to defy his own men's demands to follow their agenda.

 

Eventually the President did try to allay the disappointment and even anger of people who wanted him to stop the criminalization the two KPK deputies.

 

Did the President make a half-hearted decision? Was the mild-sounding suggestion "of a better solution" too little, too late?  Let's give him a chance.

 

On Monday evening, Yudhoyono stopped short of  bowing to public demand to stop the criminalization of the two KPK deputies — Police Ins. Gen. (ret) Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M.Hamzah — insisting that stopping investigations and prosecutions was beyond his authority.  

 

The public widely expected Yudhoyono to sack National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, whether their imminent dismissal would be part of the "internal reforms" he recommended, is far from clear.

 

We believe that as long as these two senior state officials — and their trusted aides who had no shame in publicly acting as if their decisions were always absolutely right and the public was wrong — are in charge of such strategic positions, we have little hope in the government's war against corruption. Citing legal reasons, some senior police officers and senior prosecutors made statements that could be perceived as belittling the President as the democratically elected leader of this country.

 

But again, let us give Yudhoyono the opportunity to regain his own people's trust, which he himself has severely damaged purely because he was not able to get rid of people around him whose vested interests were, or would be, harmed by the KPK. Yudhoyono was entrusted by 60 percent of more than 120 million voters to lead this nation until 2014, and to fulfill his promise to eradicate the country's most chronic disease: corruption. He deserves more time.

 

We also welcome Yudhoyono's promise to allow law enforcers to thoroughly investigate the Bank Century bailout scandal, which cost the state Rp 6.7 trillion (US$716 million). He strongly denied rumors that he, his family or his Democratic Party had benefitted from the bank bailout.

 

The Democratic Party changed position on Monday and supported the House of Representatives' ongoing inquiry into the scandal. We need to remind Yudhoyono again that if he fails to realize his promise to punish anyone responsible for the massive criminal loss of public funds he will lose any remaining shred of public trust.

 

The President will only have himself to blame if the bullet-proof trust he enjoyed during his first five-year term, as proved by his landslide victory in the July presidential election, never returns to its former glory. People still have high expectations of the President. They deserve concrete evidence that he is a true anticorruption warrior, as he likes to assert before national and international audiences.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

HAJ: A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS OF SWEAT AND BLOOD

KHAIRIL AZHAR

 

All Muslims wish to go to Mecca to perform haj as required in the Koran. And every year Indonesia sends the largest number of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, because the Saudi Arabia government allocates 1 percent of the total Muslim population for each country, or 210,000 participants, for this year.

 

As the government charges about Rp 33 million (US$3,350) each, this year's the total payment from pilgrims is about Rp 2.8 trillion. A huge amount for sure.

 

If we use the hitungan dagang (business calculation), like many Minangkabau traders in Tanah Abang Market say, the haj travel bureaus together with the Ministry of Religious Affairs will at least get one third as profit.

 

The pilgrims, of course, will spend more than Rp 33 million. One to three months before their departure, there are series of practices, or training conducted by the travel bureaus or related agencies.

 

Before and after performing the haj, the participants should donate more money for certain ceremonial and charitable activities.

 

And don't forget, they should also provide their relatives, neighbors and colleagues with gifts from Tanah Suci, the Holy Land. Overall, each participant may spend about Rp 50 million.

 

It's a very costly spiritual journey.

 

One of my close friends, who often became the guide for Indonesian pilgrims, revealed that he made much money every time the season came.

 

His father, who ran the haj business, could afford to build a nice house and his family enjoyed an easy life. And my friend told me that he was really motivated to learn Arabic and Islam at a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) because he wanted to work for his family business.

 

He said in the haj business he profited in two ways: Reward from God as well as the reward (wealth) from running the business.

 

The officials at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, especially those who work at the Ministry's directorate general for haj affairs, may also share my friend's view.

 

It is a lucrative business and the office is often regarded as lahan basah (a financially profitable division). Once you are there, you will prosper, the officials there often say.

 

And they are not alone, surely. The fact that one corrupt bureaucracy is correlated with other corrupt ones has been known for long time in relation to the haj management. We can clearly see how all the elements from beginning to end are monopolized.

 

Take a look at how the ministry manages accommodation. Almost everything is fraudulent: the arrival, the catering, the hotels, transportation, guides, and communication.

 

The government is very lucky, because many Indonesians are used to being patient and passive. And we can trace this "luck" back to two or three centuries ago.

 

As retold by Marcel Willox (1997), when it was recorded before the nineteenth century, Indonesians risked their lives and wealth and everything for the haj.

 

They will tend to remain passive even though they have to sacrifice themselves here or there, because they deeply believe that their death is never a waste. As their intention is declared before they leave, they are already indoctrinated for the eternal life.

 

But will this kind of business that exploits the belief and willingness of the people carry on like this? Are not there any alternatives to make it fairer and therefore less exploitative?

 

First of all, since the rules of the game are typically bureaucratic, and therefore strengthen the corrupt practices, the chance for change is slim. So, there should be an initiative from the lawmakers to review or amend the 2008 law on the haj management.

 

The management of the haj should be required to be more transparent and accountable, especially before the public.

 

There should be reliable and standardized procedures and operations that the public can trust. The law should ascertain that there is no more aji mumpung (taking advantage) or yang penting jalan (just go ahead).

 

Second, there should be independent institution(s) filled with independent people which are legally continuously supervising, assisting and auditing the management of the haj in all its aspects.

 

And it is the government itself, the President at best, that should establish it since it is under the executive's scope of work. The existence of this institution will enable the checks and balances process in the handling of the haj.

 

The writer is a teacher at Lazuardi GIS, Jakarta.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

SHOULD FARMERS BE SENT BACK TO SCHOOL?

MUKHAMAD NAJIB

 

President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono has appointed Suswono from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as agriculture minister to replace Anton Apriyantono, also from the PKS. By appointing a minister towing the same party line, expect continued improvement in the development of Indonesian agriculture.

 

Important targets to be achieved by the Agriculture Ministry, as revealed by Suswono, are how to ensure food security and sustainable food self-sufficiency. The key factor for the successful implementation of those targets is to increase agricultural productivity.

 

Increased productivity has become a necessity given that the challenges facing Indonesian agriculture are quite hard. In the food sector, for instance, Indonesia faces growing demand due to an increasing population and rapid economic growth, but also has to deal with the reality that some of the factors of production are declining, such as the amount of land and the number of farmers.

 

If we consider the increasingly open market at the regional and global level, the challenges in Indonesian agriculture will be even greater.

 

Liberalization and globalization mean that Indonesian farmers face greater opportunities to sell their products in the broadening market.

 

However, they must also compete more rigorously with foreign products, and those who can manage their farms in a market-oriented way will be in the best position to take advantage of opportunities to earn more money.

 

Agricultural productivity is influenced by various factors, such as availability of fertile land, of water, of fertilizer, of equipment and agricultural technology.

 

Farmers' skills are strongly linked with their level of education and experience. Currently, 70 to 80 percent of farmers in Indonesia only have an elementary education.

 

This is certainly related to the ability of farmers to plan well and to solve problems. Nowadays, the problems

facing farmers are more complex than ever, so it follows that the abilities and skills of farmers should also be improved.

 

Former agriculture minister Anton developed a program to educate farmers' children. Of course this is a part of human investment that is very important in agricultural development.

 

Through this program, the children of farmers are expected to be able to access higher education, and after graduation they are expected to return to their villages to develop agriculture there.

 

With better competency, young generations of Indonesian farmers can contribute more toward increasing agriculture productivity.

 

Unfortunately, investment in agricultural education does not necessarily correlate to improved agricultural productivity.

 

In some countries, such as India, for instance, the education level has not had a significant influence on increased productivity. This occurs when a new generation of farmers (farmers' children) grow disenchanted about working in the agricultural sector.

 

When the education level of these children rises, they grow less interested in working in the sector.

 

This reality can be understood given the image of agriculture in developing countries as a backwater sector. Farmers are considered to lead unsatisfying lives.

In this context, agricultural schools thus have less of an impact on agricultural productivity improvement, due to many of its graduates being reluctant to work in the agricultural sector. What is happening in India is also

experienced by Indonesia, where farmers' children who go to school tend to leave the farm after graduating.

 

The backwater image of the agricultural sector comes about because agriculture in developing countries, including Indonesia, is generally not considered a business.

 

Farmers work their land on a strictly subsistence basis. In addition, the mind-set of Indonesian farmers is still production-oriented rather than business-oriented or market-oriented.

 

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS, 2008) shows 90 percent of Indonesian farmers are subsistence farmers with very little land. The land they farm is insufficient for the economies of scale that can generate healthy profits.

 

We are now in a situation where prospective farmers sent to school do not "know the way back", while existing farmers lack competence. The presence of agricultural extension workers is helpful enough in the process of transformation of knowledge and skills of farmers.

 

Given the difficulty of attracting the children of farmers, who are better educated, to come back to the agricultural sector, the government may need to consider sending current farmers "back to school" so that they have the ability to manage their farms as promising and profitable businesses.

 

The writer is a lecturer at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo, and secretary of the Indonesian Agricultural Science Association (IASA)-Japan.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

RI, THE PARLIAMENT OF WORLD RELIGIONS AND CLIMATE CHANGE

MURRAY CLAPHAM

 

Simultaneously this December two major international conferences are taking place. One The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference where the world's political leaders meet focusing on our external environment and the serious challenges posed by global warming.

The other occurring on Indonesia's doorstep sees Melbourne hosting 8000 people at a meeting of the Parliament of World Religions with a focus on man's inner environment in the face of humanities multiple challenges in an increasingly interdependent world.

 

That these two events take place at the same time may seem a coincidence but the link between spirit and soul and the environment or atmosphere has always been acknowledged.

 

The holy books, prophets, great art and plain common sense are all evidence of this connection. While the last 400 years has seen this link somewhat blurred by elements of science and its focus on the mind and materialism, this like climate, is changing.

 

Simply using the lens of etymology we see most of the established languages attesting to the earlier strength of the link.

 

Greek, Latin, Hebrew and others had similar words for spirit and breath, soul and air. Closer to home Sanskrit which had a role in the development of Bahasa Indonesia had a word *Atman' which is the root for the English word atmosphere.

 

The word *Atman' has multiple meanings, air, breath and soul.

 

I have no doubt that among the hundreds of indigenous languages of Indonesia this same connection can be found. The parallel exists in many of the Native American Indian languages.

 

The Copenhagen conference has received much attention in the Indonesian media, rightly so as Indonesia is home to one of the world's critical lungs, the threatened tropical rainforests.

 

The Parliament of World Religions (PWR) on the other hand has been conspicuously absent from news reporting in Indonesia, despite the fact that Indonesia has a multi-faith constitution and the world's largest Muslim population.

 

Although certain to have some Indonesia representation its unlikely that many will attend.

 

The PWR is the world's largest inter-faith gathering held only once in every five years. The parliament, open to all will consist of many of the world's religious, spiritual and indigenous leaders together with men and women of all ages from around the world.

 

Their aim is to cultivate harmony amongst the world's religious and spiritual communities. The week long gathering commencing on the 3rd of December will feature 500 different events, including lectures, dialogues, workshops, performances and exhibitions.

 

The theme of this years parliament is "Make a World of Difference" "Hearing each other and Healing the earth".

 

In addition to the climate change issue, key topics to be discussed in an open forum include, sharing wisdom in the search for inner peace, creating social cohesion in the pursuit of justice, reconciliation with indigenous people and overcoming poverty in a patriarchal world.

 

This historic event aims to be a festival of Unity in Diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika), Indonesia's national motto. One is led to wonder if the parliament which has never met in Asia might one day meet here in Indonesia.

 

This multi-faith nation with it's strong spiritual underpinnings and tradition of synthesis accommodation, understanding of spiritual diversity and the individual's unique ability and right to receive grace has the potential to lead the development of a new paradigm in facing the spiritual crisis that besets this world.

 

Recent events here and the impact of inter-religious conflicts in other countries have eroded some of Indonesia's leverage in this sphere. Much as the destruction of rainforest's constrains Indonesia's influence and ability to play a major part in the climate change debate.

 

It's not too late however for Indonesia has just re-elected a president with an enlarged mandate obviously keen to see Indonesia playing an important part on the world stage.

 

These two major international issues climate change & religious harmony obviously present Indonesia, the president and people with an exciting opportunity.

 

Well thought out constructive policies in both these areas would gain much domestic support and see Indonesia's international profile considerably enhanced. It will need vision, expertise and serious commitment.

 

There are numerous reasons for Indonesia, to host the World Parliament of Religions.

 

A strong Indonesian participation in Melbourne would be a good start. For more information on the Parliament of World Religions please visit www.parliamentofreligions.org

 

The write, a former Australian diplomat stationed in Jakarta, is Ambassador for the World Parliament of Religions.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

MONOPOLY SOES' DUTY

 

The juxtaposition of severe natural gas shortages in an increasing number of southwestern and central cities and louder pleas by providers for raising gas prices has led many to believe that the country's two monopoly gas providers, China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) and China National Petroleum Corporation, are exerting pressure for a price rise.

 

Both deny the suggestion and claim that part of the gas supply to the southern cities has to be diverted to northern cities that have been hit by unexpected snowstorms. Maybe they are right, but not exactly. Sinopec's pipeline to supply natural gas from Sichuan province to eastern provinces was originally expected to be completed by the end of this year, but price agreements are still to be signed with local gas retailers.

 

Insiders from both the gas and oil giants reveal that gas companies are not keen on expanding production or developing new gas fields unless prices are raised to what they say are reasonable levels. Maybe the early snowstorms in the north have provided both giants with an opportunity to exert pressure on the National Development and Reform Commission for a rise in natural gas prices.

 

The coincidence of a severe short supply of oil or electricity in some provinces and the request from monopoly providers for price rises in previous years remind people of similar ways State-owned enterprises (SOEs) use to press for price rise. That the rise in prices for power, oil or gas were always in the wake of such severe shortages is another sign that such short supply of gas may be part of the conspiracy by monopoly SOEs to pressure the central government for higher prices.

 

It is not rare for these monopoly SOEs to complain that they have suffered losses because of unreasonably low prices of their products. Yet, it is not a secret that the average pay for employees in these firms is much higher than that in many private firms or other SOEs. As a result, such complaints have always been interpreted as a tactful way of asking for price rises.

 

As is known, we hardly know the real cost of such products as gas, electricity and water because of a lack of transparency at these monopoly SOE providers. But they are not supposed to pursue too high a profit by making their products prohibitively expensive since they were founded by the State with money from taxpayers.

 

They are given monopoly positions by the State for providing what private businesses cannot provide - services or products for reasonably inexpensive prices as a form of welfare.

 

It is definitely wrong for them to use their privileged positions to seek as high a profit as possible like private firms without any regard for the social responsibility they have the obligation to shoulder. It is ridiculous for the government to lose control of the SOEs that should come to its aid when necessary.

 

It is high time that an investigation is conducted into the shortage, and monopoly SOEs are regulated and supervised to operate the way they are supposed to.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

PRUDENCE IN NEW PRACTICE

 

There was quite a stir when the performance reports of six of the 21 delegates representing the city of Hengyang at the people's congress of Hunan province were published by the local media.

 

We have heard about lawmakers appealing for and delivering reports on how they carried out their duties as people's representatives. But most of the time, they have been isolated cases based on individual decisions. There have been initiatives to institutionalize the practice but progress has been negligible.

 

The Hengyang case made a sensation because it is more of a collective effort - six were involved. No doubt that is progress, and we applaud it.

 

Even as we find this inspiring, we cannot but help wonder why they did not take it one step further and make the good start better. Why only six, instead of all the 21? To our understanding, by endorsing the publication of those six reports, the local legislature appreciates the idea that elected people's representatives have an obligation to report to those who voted for them and they are thus supposed to represent. We know all 21 reported on their performance to the standing committee of the people's congress of Hengyang. Then if making public those reports through the local media is the way to report to their broader constituency, the local public, there should have been all the 21.

 

After reading the six published reports, people would be even more interested in what the rest 15 have to say about their past year. The conspicuous absence, however, might have them guessing why. Was it because they had nothing to say, or were they shy of what they did, or were they simply not worth reporting? Whatever the case, the public has a right to know.

 

Again, we have no intention of blaming anyone. We are, indeed, full of admiration for the Hengyang legislature. It has taken a courageous step many of its counterparts elsewhere in the country have been hesitating to take. Given the clarification that it has been pressing ahead "orderly" in accordance with law, we would rather believe this is a sign of prudence in popularizing a new practice.

 

What we would like the decision-makers in Hengyang to know is that they have started a worthy cause, and that nothing would go wrong in making it universal. After seeing local governments reporting to local legislatures, society needs to see people's representatives report to their constituencies. That is the ultimate approach to demonstrate and enhance the legitimacy of our design of representative democracy.

 

Procedure-wise, the Hengyang case would have been a perfect precedent had we seen all the 21 reports in the local media, though we find huge room for improvement in the reports published.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

DISTRIBUTE MEDICAL SERVICE EVENLY

 

Renji Hospital, affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University's (SJTU) School of Medicine, recently took an experimental step toward introducing private capital in a controversial ownership reform.

 

In a move aimed at pursuing development, the old-brand III-A hospital, the highest grade in China's hospital rating, is said to have sold to private investors 50 percent of the shares in its West Branch, which is located in Shanghai's Huangpu district. At the same time, the State ownership of the hospital's East Branch remains intact.

 

Under the new ownership, Renji Hospital's West Branch will be run as a high-end hospital governed by a CEO reporting to a board of directors. As a for-profit hospital, the branch will no longer serve as a contracted hospital for public healthcare insurance schemes. Also, patients' medical bills are expected to be three times more than the current standard.

 

The news that a previously State-run hospital will transform one of its two branches into a healthcare provider serving rich people has indeed created waves in the domestic media. Some opponents argue that the transformation of a State-run hospital into a joint-stock one goes against the "public service" ethos of public medical institutions.

 

In China, many people mistakenly equate the "public service" character of the healthcare sector to public ownership of healthcare providers, insisting the long-established monopolistic position of public hospitals should be further consolidated. This is in stark contrast to the fact that hardly any attention has been paid to the development of private hospitals in the past decades.

 

So it is no surprise that the "survival space" of private hospitals has constantly been squeezed, and some local authorities have even taken measures to push them to the brink of closure.

 

However, public providers fail to deliver the widely-expected "public services". In some rural, mountainous and outlying regions, people have no access to even basic medical services given the small number of public healthcare providers, let alone specialized care from the poorly-equipped hospitals.

 

The underlying factor for this should be attributed to government efforts to maintain the dominant status of public hospitals in large cities. For a long time, big hospitals, especially in big cities, have enjoyed an absolute advantage over their counterparts in rural and outlying areas in being awarded public inputs. At the same time, medical workers in under-funded hospitals have tried to move to big cities and economically developed regions to get higher pay.

 

So well-equipped public hospitals in big cities are in a far better position to attract more patients. As a result, these hospitals have become more and more crowded, and have more excuse to seek more public funding. Consequently, a non-benign circle has emerged: Big public hospitals in big cities become more powerful, attractive and crowded while grassroots providers, especially those in underdeveloped rural areas, deteriorate due to the paucity of public funding.

 

The main reason for the excessive concentration of the country's public health resources in economically-developed cities and regions does not lie in insufficiency of government inputs, but in the authorities' restrictions on the healthcare sector's access to private capital. Undoubtedly, the suspension of such long-erected barriers is expected to attract private capital in economically-developed coastal regions and large- and medium-sized cities, enabling various kinds of medical facilities to be set up in line with market demand. This will help free more government finances for less developed rural, border and other areas that desperately need these precious resources.

 

The government should invest less public resources in the regions attractive to private capital. Instead, it should channel more of its limited resources to areas plagued by insufficiency of private capital. It is the government's responsibility to complement market insufficiency and correct market malfunctioning. Relaxing long-established restrictions on private capital access to public hospitals will serve the development of private hospitals and other private providers. It will also contribute to a more reasonable allocation of public resources and equitable and fair development of the healthcare sector. The institutional environment that sets obstacles in the way of the development of private hospitals has turned out to be one of the fundamental reasons for the uneven distribution of the country's medical service system and the lack of expected "public services".

 

Therefore, removing the largest obstacle to the development of private medical institutions and getting rid of assorted rigid regulations and stipulations is where the country's long-awaited medical system reform should move. In this regard, Renji Hospital offers a new approach for its counterparts to follow.

 

The author is a professor with the School of Government Management under Peking University.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

PATRIOTISM NOT TO BE REDUCED TO SLOGANS

 

Right next to our office building on 43rd Street in Manhattan is a place where people call themselves the Midtown Mob. Its red gate is often closed.

 

Once it's open, the scene inside this Midtown branch of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is stunning. Although a big fire engine takes center stage in the small space, what's most striking is a flag with all the names of firefighters who died during the rescue operation of September 11. Photos, clothing and other memorabilia commemorate the heroes once part of the Midtown Mob.

 

The solemn atmosphere draws the attention of passersby; some tourists visit the place and chat with the firefighters there.

 

Many blocks south of Ground Zero in Downtown, flowers are often laid by civilians in front of a wall monument honoring firefighters whose lives were cut short by their heroic deeds during that terrorist attack.

 

Only recently, New York City had a spectacular Veterans Day parade lasting several hours. Not only Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson were present, many of the thousands of people watching along Fifth Avenue were shouting "Thank you" and "thank you for your service" to the marching soldiers and veterans.

 

Men, women and children, and dozens of high school marching teams and bands, were no less impressive for their huge enthusiasm. Most of Fifth Avenue was blocked that day for the iconic annual parade.

 

All these reminded me of this year's HBO movie Taking Chance, starring Kevin Bacon.

 

Marine Lt. Colonel Mike Strobl, played by Bacon, volunteers to escort the body of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps back to his hometown in Wyoming. The movie shows the exceptional care and concern throughout the long journey for the dignity and honor of the soldier who died in Iraq.

 

The soldier's body is cleaned and prepared for the burial with great attention. The badge is washed like new, the brass polished till shiny, and the Marines' blue uniform well tended.

 

The scenes driving to the burial site in Dubois, Wyoming, are probably the most moving, with a long procession of cars and trucks following the hearse.

 

I used to think that patriotism was only taught and promoted intensely in China. But from Hollywood movies to the Veterans Day parade to the Midtown Mob next door, I sense the strong feeling of patriotism among ordinary American people.

 

Their patriotism and the deep respect and honor to those who have served the country could be a good lesson for many Chinese who don't seem to understand the true meaning of patriotism despite the numerous campaigns in the past decades.

 

From time to time, heart-breaking news emerges of how certain martyrs' mausoleums have been used as a car parking lot in Wuhan of Hubei, leased to a bear farmer in Yunnan, relocated to a desolate mountain to give way to a construction project in Liaoning or not attended to by anyone for too long.

While everyone in my childhood days 30-40 years ago longed to be a hero, the way heroes are treated here and there these days calls for our deep reflection. A nation that does not honor its heroes is in for a great crisis.

 

However, under the glossy surface, there are also huge problems in the US. A recent New York Times article said about one-third of all adult homeless men are veterans. And obviously there is a lot to be fixed despite those street parades, Hollywood movies and a new best-selling New York T-shirt with the sign of FDNY.

 

For China, maybe we can think of a national holiday celebrating the martyrs and people who served the country. Education in patriotism should definitely be reformed to touch people's hearts, instead of repeating some hollow slogans time and again.

 

E-mail: chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE TRIUMPH OF THE POWERLESS

BY MICHAEL MEYER

 

It was early June 1989. Vaclav Havel had been released from jail only days before, yet he was full of what now seems an almost prophetic certainty. Thousands of his countrymen had written letters petitioning for his release at a time when declaring solidarity with Czechoslovakia's most famous dissident was a clear and dangerous act of civil disobedience.

 

"We Czechs are finally finding our courage," he said, as if sensing the people's new readiness to confront the guardians of their Communist police state. "Sooner or later, they will make a mistake, perhaps by beating up some people. Then 40,000 people will fill Wenceslas Square!"

 

Four months later, one week after people power brought down the Berlin Wall, revolution came to Prague. Students organized a small rally in the old Vysehrad cemetery, the burial grounds of composers Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak in a fortress overlooking the city. As they marched toward Wenceslas Square, bearing candles, riot police cut them off, and many men, women and children were brutally beaten.

 

Those who fell were kicked and clubbed where they lay. The night of Nov. 17 — "Black Friday" as it quickly came to be known — set Czechoslovakia alight. The next day, thousands of Czechs turned out in the streets. As Havel had foreseen, his job (and that of the small circle of dissidents surrounding him) would then be to fan that spark, stoke the fire and guide it.

 

Twenty years later, we can only marvel at how brilliantly they performed. Prague was 1989's happiest revolution, a delirium of good feelings. The Velvet Revolution was sheer theater, a geopolitical spectacular that unfolded in vignettes, scenes and acts, with cameo appearances by famous faces from the past, including Prague Spring reformer Alexander Dubcek and U.S. singer Joan Baez.

 

Dissidents just released from jail and eminent emigres suddenly returned home. The main stage was Prague, impossibly beautiful, impossibly romantic, the city of a hundred spires, tawny ochre houses and churches, shifting late afternoon light, moonlight on the Vltava.

 

The audience, of course, was the world. We watched it happen on television. We saw the people, assembled in Wenceslas Square, hundreds of thousands of them, jingling their keys and ringing hand bells in their good-humored farewell to communism: "Your time is up." It was so pure, so clean. It was the climax of the story, a turning point in history, cliche transmuted into truth.

 

We knew our heroes would win. Everyone swept up by it felt young again, as though the world had suddenly, mysteriously, euphorically been made new. Disney could not have worked a more seductive transformation. Here were our children, taking to the streets. Here were our children, bloodied and beaten. Here were our children, finally, victorious.

 

It helped that this revolution could be counted in days, a miracle of compression. Once confronted, the Communists almost ran from power. Its denouement came on Dec. 29, the day Havel became a free Czechoslovakia's new president.

 

For me, the decisive moment was on Day 11, on Nov. 28. Half a million people had gathered in Prague's Letna Park to hear Havel speak. To this day, I can hardly remember it without tears. As Havel finished, a light snow began to fall, and as if on cue his listeners took their places. One by one, in single file, hand-in-hand, they began to march toward Wenceslas Square, more than a mile and a half away, following a rickety horse-drawn cart bedecked with the wings of angels.

 

It was so very gentle, so strong and irresistible. Slowly, the procession wound its way along paths through Letna's woods, now covered in white. Slowly, it snaked down the medieval streets behind Prague Castle and into the square in front of the president's palace. There were no chants, no cheers and no hints of confrontation. Just the unbroken line of people, holding hands and passing silently in the white darkness, the line looping back and forth outside the forbidding gates.

 

From the castle, the line wound down the steep hills of Mala Strana, past the great Baroque cathedral, its ornate spires lighted in the snowy night, down Mostecka Street with its cafes and restaurants, across the shimmering Vltava at Charles Bridge, with its 400-year-old statues of Czech kings and religious saviors and through the narrow streets of the Old Town. The line of people finally made its way to Wenceslas Square, where I watched three policemen join the procession, their caps set at jaunty angles, dancing along in tall black leather boots.

 

Still the procession came, weaving through the snow, everyone swinging their arms, skipping, happy, joyous. The first of the marchers had reached the square. The last still waited patiently in the park. Hand-in-hand, they bisected the city and drew a line. Here,  the people stood on one side, and their oppressors stood on the other. This was the moment. Everyone had to choose.

 

From high above the city, I looked out at these people dancing through the streets. Prague lay away in the distance, lighted and luminous in the snow. Never in my life have I seen anything so beautiful. I doubt I ever will again.

 

Michael Meyer, Newsweek's bureau chief for Eastern Europe in 1989, is the author of "The Year That Changed the World." © Project Syndicate

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

CLEANING UP THE MEDIA GARBAGE

BY WILLIAM DUNKERLEY

 

President Dmitry Medvedev should start his modernization program by taking a hard look at the sorrowful state of the media in the country. Russia's media are awash in a corrupt culture of paid-for news stories — propaganda masquerading as news. Few news outlets are free to tell the whole truth. Instead, they are subjugated by those who put money into the loss-making media companies in return for an opportunity to color the news in their own favor. They constitute a pluralistic but conscripted press, hardly a free press.

 

Articles are paid for not only by businesspeople, but by mayors, governors and natural resource monopolies controlled by the state. The government is clearly a big part of the problem.

 

With little free press, it is difficult for the electorate to make informed choices during elections, and the people are deprived of the aid of a Fourth Estate in exercising vigilance over their government.

 

Medvedev says he wants to make developing information technology a national priority. But without first normalizing the media sector, that sparkling new technology may succumb to the old garbage-in, garbage-out phenomenon.   

 

Medvedev also says he wants to institute zero tolerance for corruption. Yet he seems willing to leave the nation's most conspicuous center of corruption — the media — to continue with business as usual.

 

It's hard to imagine that Medvedev's hope for a better Russia will ever be realized if he doesn't address the issue of media corruption. I'd like to offer him a simple, two-step prescription for turning things around:

 

Step 1: Get the government out of the media business. It may be debatable whether there is anything fundamentally wrong with government media ownership. Nonetheless, it looks bad and plays into the hands of those who use it to tarnish Russia's image internationally. Government ownership in the media sector sends an ominous signal, as well, to legitimate entrepreneurs who might like to get into the media business. The government's role in the well-documented corrupt business culture that dominates the media also casts a dark shadow upon Medvedev's vision of a less corrupt future for Russia.

 

Step 2: Clean up the other corruption in the media. When a consumer buys a bag of potatoes, he doesn't want to find that the bag is also full of garbage. Similarly, when Russians watch news broadcasts, they deserve not to have the news intermixed with disguised propaganda.

 

In reality, the disguise isn't fooling anyone. Any Russian can spot phony news. Not only do Russians recognize paid-for news stories. They also despise it. They know that the media are not serving the needs and interests of the people.

 

Many Russians have been quietly irate over this for years. They would rather see a return to censorship than a continuation of the current nonsense. That would seem to be an important mandate for change. And clearly cleaning up the corruption would be a more productive choice than reimposing censorship. The Russian Media Fund, a private sector initiative, has even developed a plan that the administration can use to bring about the change.

 

Paid-for news content makes Russia's media a megaphone for corruption. Kicking off an anti-corruption campaign with the media sector will touch every citizen and every segment of commerce. That would be a strong start.

 

William Dunkerley is a media business analyst and consultant specializing in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

A MODERNIZATION LESSON: RUSSIA IS NOT CHINA

BY VLADIMIR RYZHKOV

 

Russia's ruling elite are dazzled by China's success. China, which will have 8 percent growth in 2009, has quickly become the third-largest economy in the world. Moscow finds not only the economic success of its eastern neighbor increasingly attractive, but its political system as well.

 

In October, United Russia held a two-day seminar with their comrades from the Communist Party of China — a master class of sorts to allow Moscow to glean information and know-how from Beijing's authoritarian political and economic model. Even while Moscow continues its rhetoric about its adherence to democracy and a European course, Russia's leaders are actually looking more toward the East to find political legitimacy and arguments to justify their seemingly endless autocratic hold on power. They believe that China's "authoritarian modernization" is an excellent model for Russia. Beijing has accomplished modernization from the top down, while giving its citizens very few democratic rights and freedoms. Kremlin ideologues and propagandists are increasingly heard saying, "China is developing successfully without any democracy whatsoever, so why can't we?"

 

On the surface, the political systems in China and Russia have much in common. In both countries, leaders do not rely on elections to legitimize their authority. China does not have nationwide elections at all, and its parliament is formed through a multistage appointment of representatives from each locality, which is controlled by the Communist Party. In Russia, elections are held, but they are not competitive, open or fair. Election results are predetermined through a series of political and administrative maneuvers by the ruling party.

 

The so-called multiparty systems in Russia and China are a sham. The dominant parties are United Russia and the Communist Party of China. The "opposition parties" are permitted to hold an insignificant number of seats in parliament, but they have no real influence on the political process.

 

Both countries have strict limitations on freedoms of the press and speech, and television is very carefully controlled. Internet access is highly restricted in China, although less so in Russia. Both China's Communist Party and the Kremlin have actively functioning propaganda machines with huge resources. The parliaments of both countries are largely decorative, rubber-stamp bodies that dutifully fulfill the leaders' orders. Moreover, both have siloviki power verticals and loyal, dependent court systems.

 

Despite all of those similarities, Russia's economic output has dropped dramatically in 2008-09, and its attempts to modernize over the past nine years have gone nowhere, while the Chinese economy has shown amazing efficiency and growth year after year, including during the crisis. As a result, authoritarian governments around the world, including in Russia, are in awe of China and justify limiting constitutional rights and freedoms with the argument that Chinese-style autocracy appears to be more effective than Western democracy.

 

But upon closer inspection, it is clear that the Chinese model is not suitable for Russia — not only economically, as President Dmitry Medvedev correctly pointed out recently, but politically as well. On a superficial level, Chinese and Russian authoritarianism may look similar, but in reality the two differ greatly:

 

• China is run by the Communist Party, while Russia is run by a bureaucracy. The Chinese politburo consists primarily of party secretaries and not high-ranking officials. Chinese governors are not the chief executives of their provinces but subordinates to regional party secretaries. The state machinery as a whole stands lower on the pecking order: it is subordinated to the party apparatus. Everything is just the opposite in Russia: Kremlin and White House officials stand over the State Duma, United Russia and the media. In short, Russia's political leadership has been replaced by a bureaucratic one, and this is the reason the number of bureaucrats and the role of the state in the economy has increased exponentially since Vladimir Putin came to power.

 

• In China, the government is much more separate from business. Unlike in Russia, not a single Chinese leader sits on the board of directors of a state-owned company. Moreover, China treats nepotism as a grave criminal offense. A Chinese official convicted of doing business through friends or relatives would receive a severe sentence or even executed. In Russia, where most bureaucrats think nothing of combining government duties with business, this conflict of interest is par for the course. Imagine if Mayor Yury Luzhkov were the mayor of Shanghai. According to Chinese laws, he and his wife, Yelena Baturina, president of Inteko, which receives large construction contracts from City Hall, would surely have been executed long ago and their family holdings confiscated by the state.

 

• China wages a serious battle against corruption, whereas Russia is just going through the motions. Chinese bureaucrats are subjected to constant supervision to track what automobiles they own, where they live and how their relatives are employed. Prison cells are filled with former Politburo members, ministers, governors and the heads of state oil companies. Dozens of high-ranking officials were executed for taking kickbacks when allocating road-construction contracts. In Russia, officials steal as much as they can with complete impunity. In Transparency International's 2009 survey for corruption, China was ranked No. 79, while Russia fared much worse — it was No. 146.

 

• China has been able to modernize successfully because business has been free to operate without interference from political forces or abuse by bureaucrats. For 30 years, China has conducted a policy of openness, attracting foreign investments, maintaining a high level of competition in the market, defending ownership rights and the integrity of contracts. In Russia, private business is choked by monopolization, heavy state control in key sectors, a lack of transparency, poor private property protection and rampant corruption. Russia is probably the world's best example of how "bureaucratic capitalism" stunts private business.

 

If United Russia members really understood the true nature of the Chinese political model, they wouldn't be so captivated by it. If, by chance, they — along with ministers, governors and mayors — were suddenly transplanted into analogous positions in China, they would immediately be given life sentences for corruption, and their expensive foreign villas, luxury cars and fat bank accounts would be confiscated. Under the Chinese criminal code, they would also be subject to the death penalty. That is why I would advise United Russia to forget once and for all about the Chinese model. The consequences for their livelihood are too dangerous. Perhaps they should be instead looking at a more corruption-friendly model — for example, in Nigeria.

 

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a State Duma deputy from 1993 to 2007, hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

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