EDITORIAL 27.04.10

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Editorial

month april 27, edition 000492, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

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THE PIONEER

1. POLITICAL ESPIONAGE
2. PANDERING TO MUSLIMS
3. THE TOWERS OF ILIUM - SANDHYA JAIN
4. DICTATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY - PRIYADARSI DUTTA
5. ILYAS KASHMIRI AGAIN? - SHASHI SHEKHAR
6. OBAMA HAS IT ALL WRONG - DANIEL PIPES
7. CYPRUS REMAINS A DIVIDED STATE - GWYNNE DYER
8. NEW START OVERLOOKS CRUCIAL WEAPONS - VLADIMIR YEVSEYEV

MAIL TODAY

1. LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT NEEDED FOR INTEL AGENCIES
2. A CLEANER IPL?
3. PUNJAB ASSEMBLY FIASCO
4. WE CAN DO WITHOUT HER MORAL CERTIFICATES - BY JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA
5. DECCAN BUZZ - A SRINIVASA RAO

THE TIMES OF INDIA

1. PLAY BY THE RULES
2. BOXES, LITTLE BOXES
3. DON'T STOP REACHING OUT
4. A WAY OF CORPORATE LIFE
5. RUFINA FERNANDES
6. THE SCIENTIST HAS A POINT - ANIL THAKKAR
7. CAR-MA CHAMELEONS - VIVEK ATRAY

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. FOR WHOM THE DHOL TOLLS
2. HOW TO SAVE A GOOD THING
3. LITTLE ANTI-GREEN MEN
4. LOST THEIR APPETITE - SITARAM YECHURY

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

1. SACHS DIFFERENCE
2. IN THE HAYSTACK?
3. WEIGHING A VOTE
4. INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT - K. SUBRAHMANYAM
5. FRAMED BY MIRCHPUR - VIPIN PUBBY
6. 'TERRORISM WILL NOT PREVENT PEOPLE FROM TRAVELLING TO INDIA OR ELSEWHERE'

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. AFTER IPL 3
2. COUNTING RAJA'S COST
3. CATCHING UP WITH MERRY BANKERS - MEGHNAD DESAI
4. WHY RAISING FDI LIMITS ISN'T ENOUGH - SHOBHANA SUBRAMANIAN
5. SPINNING A YARN ON COTTON EXPORTS - SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

THE HINDU

1. WILL THIS MONSOON BE NORMAL?
2. NO HANDING OVER OF KASAB
3. CREATING WEALTH WITHOUT JUSTICE - K.S. JACOB
4. HOW AN AMERICAN "IMPORT" IS SHAKING UP U.K. POLITICS - HASAN SUROOR
5. FREE SPECTACLES SCHEME TO BOOST LEARNING - HENRIETTA THOMPSON
6. FICTION FINDS ITS VILLAINS IN THE VATICAN - MARK LAWSON

THE ASIAN AGE

1. CLEANING UP THE MESS OVER IPL
2. JUSTICE: DIVINE VS HUMAN
3. CAUTION: COBALT
4. 'WHO 33% GOES TO IS A CHOICE'
5. IPL'S BELLYACHE

DNA

1. NOT LALIT MODI ALONE
2. A BETTER REGULATOR
3. A JPC ON TAX HAVENS - R VAIDYANATHAN
4. WASHING AWAY THE SINS OF MAKING MONEY - RANJONA BANERJI

THE TRIBUNE

1. RELIEF FOR AMARINDER
2. OUT ON A LIMB
3. TAPPING TROUBLE
4. INTENSIFYING US-IRAN TUSSLE - BY HARSH V. PANT
5. ONCE UPON A TIME
6. INDIAN POLITICIANS' LEAGUE - RUCHIKA KHANNA
7. THE GENTLEMEN'S GAME - WANKHEDE PUNCH

 MUMBAI MERROR

1. WHY BCCI MUST SURVIVE MODI

BUSINESS STANDARD

2. A SUITABLE SCAPEGOAT
3. DON'T BELIEVE IT YET
4. DANCING WITH THE DRAGON - AJIT RANADE
5. PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF - A K BHATTACHARYA
6. KHANDEKAR: TIME TO CHANGE YOUR NEWSPAPER - VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR
7. GUERRILLAS IN THE MIST - NILANJANA S ROY
8. NEW ROLES FOR FISCAL POLICY?- ALOK SHEEL
9. INDIA, PAKISTAN AND SAARC - SANJAYA BARU

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. CARAT AND SHTICK
2. EXIT LALIT MODI
3. PRIVACY AS A PUBLIC GOOD
4. THROUGH THE THIRD EYE
5. FOOD COUPONS: THE WAY FORWARD?
6. SWIMMING WITHOUT A SINKING FEELING -  MUKUL SHARMA
7. WE NEED TO FOCUS ON SPEEDY RAMP UP OF CLOUD SERVICES HERE: MICROSOFT - WRITANKAR MUKHERJEE
8. "SOUTH AFRICA HAS A WELL REGULATED AND DEVELOPED BANKING SECTOR" - SHEETAL SRIVASTAVA
9. IT-ITES WILL GROSS $225 BN BY 2020: NASSCOM CHAIRMAN - HARSIMRAN JULKA
10. OUR GROUP'S PHILOSOPHY IS TO REWARD SHAREHOLDERS: JAYPEE GROUP - ARUN KUMAR

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. CHECK POOR STANDARDS OF MOODY'S & CO. - BY PAUL KRUGMAN
2. CLEANING UP THE MESS OVER IPL
3. IPL'S BELLYACHE - BY PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA
4. JUSTICE: DIVINE VS HUMAN - BY J.S. NEKI
5. WHO 33% GOES TO IS A CHOICE'

THE STATESMAN

1. FILTH FLOWS ON…
2. THAI SOUP
3. POLICING THE POLICE
4. REQUIEM FOR A REPORT - DEBRAJ BHATTACHARYA
5. DOUBLESPEAK ON POVERTY IN BENGAL - BISWADEB CHATTERJEE
6. NEED FOR DISASTER CONTINGENCY PLANS - ANJALI SHARMA

THE TELEGRAPH

1. HIGH NOISE
2. WASTE LAND
3. DIFFICULT GAME - BRIJESH D. JAYAL
4. THANK GOD FOR THE SUBCONTINENT
5. HISS OF THE UNIVERSE
6. BUILDING BLOCKS

DECCAN HERALD

1. PUNISH THE GUILTY
2. DEN OF CORRUPTION
3. BACKING THE RIGHT HORSE - BY M K BHADRAKUMAR
4. HAPPY DRINK - BY SNEHLATHA BALIGA
5. BT CROPS CAN BE SAFER ALTERNATIVE TO PESTICIDES - BY MEENU PADMANABHAN & TAMDING WANGDI

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. REJECTING THE BURKA
2. MAKING THE TAL LAW WORK
3. EVEN A POPE NEEDS FRIENDS - BY SHMULEY BOTEACH
4. THE OPERA HOUSE OF THE NEGEV - BY DAVID NEWMAN
5. CITY OF PEACE - BY GERSHON BASKIN
6. OUR WORLD: BARRELING ON, REGARDLESS - BY CAROLINE GLICK
7. HOT DATES BETTER THAN A BIG BONUS - BY DAVID BLANCHFLOWER
8. UNCHARTERED WATERS - BY RICHARD MILLET
9. THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF APARTHEID? - BY SAMER LIBDEH

HAARETZ

1. THE RECYCLING REVOLUTION
2. HIT THE RICH AND SAVE THE ECONOMY - BY NEHEMIA SHTRASLER
3. UNDERMINING DETERRENCE - BY REUVEN PEDATZUR
4. GAZA IS THE FUEL FOR MUSLIM WORLD'S ANTI-ISRAEL STRUGGLE - BY HAGGAI ALON
5. THE SECULAR STATE - BY BENNY PERL

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. VIEW OF THE SUN
2. LISTEN TO THE FAMILIES
3. TRIBAL GENES AND A FAIR SETTLEMENT
4. A DANGEROUS SQUABBLE
5. MEET THE REAL VILLAIN OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS - BY BETHANY MCLEAN
6. A BETTER CHANCE AT JUSTICE FOR ABUSE VICTIMS - BY LAWRENCE LESSIG
7. THE GOLDMAN DRAMA - BY DAVID BROOKS

USA TODAY

1. Our view on your health: What can be done to shake Americans' salt habit?
2. OPPOSING VIEW: CONSUMERS DESERVE BETTER - BY MORTON SATIN
3. OBAMA ISN'T RADICAL. HIS PARTY IS. - BY MICHAEL MEDVED
4. ARIZONA'S DRASTIC IMMIGRATION STAND - BY DEWAYNE WICKHAM

TIMES FREE PRESS

1. IN DISTRICT 7: LARRY HENRY
2. LESSONS LEARNED FROM TORNADOES
3. CONSTITUTION UPHELD, BARELY
4. TERRIBLE TORNADOES
5. WE ARE BEING INVADED!
6. LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS, LOCAL CONTROL
7. RARE CASE INVOLVING BOY SCOUTS

TEHRAN TIMES

1. HUNGER AS A FORM OF VIOLENCE - BY ALBERTO MORLACHETTI

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

2. FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - CHIEF PROSECUTOR IS INVESTIGATING WHAT?
3. MEASURES MUST BE ADEQUATE - ERDOĞAN ALKİN
4. WHY DO I OPPOSE THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES? - CÜNEYT ÜLSEVER
5. GLASS NOT FULLY EMPTY IN TURKISH-ARMENIAN TIES - SEMIH İDİZ
6. THE SEARCH FOR A RESERVE CURRENCY - GREGORY R. COPLEYFOR
7. THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM PROPOSAL OF THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT: THE RETURN OF MAJORITY IMPOSITION - ANDREW ARATO
8. THE PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM AND THE JUDICIARY - RIZA TÜRMEN
9. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT APRIL 24? - MEHMET ALİ BİRAND
10. INDECENT OFFER… - YUSUF KANLI

I.THE NEWS

1. LEGAL TUSSLE
2. PRICING POWER
3. MYSTERY FOREVER
4. THE KIDNAPPED - RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI
5. 'MEGAWATT LAUNDERING'- S KHALID HUSAIN
6. LITTLE TO CELEBRATE - PART II ASIF EZDI
7. BELATED BUT CORRECTED - DR ASHFAQUE H KHAN
8. A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT? - DR MALEEHA LODHI
9. TOWARDS COLLISION – MIR JAMILUR RAHMAN

 PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. MQM COMES OUT WITH POWERFUL SLOGANS
2. PML-Q TO COME OUT WITH 19TH AMENDMENT
3. GOVT TAKES SOME INTEREST IN WATER ISSUE
4. MERE CONSERVATION WON'T DO, MR PM - M ASHRAF MIRZA
5. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE - SHAIMA SUMAYA
6. JUSTICE INCHES CLOSER TO VIOLENCE IN INDIA - LYDIA POLGREEN
7. IS AMERICA PLAYING DOUBLE GAME? - MOHAMMAD JAMIL
8. ELECTRICITY NIGHTMARE & LAUGHING MINISTER - SAEED QURESHI

 

THE INDEPENDENT

1. SWINE FLU CASUALTY
2. COORDINATION NEEDED
3. HOMESICK FOR CHENNAI..!
4. ANATOLY DOBRYNIN AND GEOMETRY OF DIPLOMACY - DR M S HAQ
5. THE LIMITS OF CHINA'S CHARM OFFENSIVE - JONATHAN HOLSLAG
6. DEMOCRACY IN REVERSE OR JURISTOCRACY? - MONOWAR HUSSAIN BADRUDDUZA

THE AUSTRALIAN

1. A BETTER DEAL FOR INVESTORS
2. RENT TAX: THE DEBATE AUSTRALIA HAS TO HAVE
3. OUR MASTER OF VERSE
4. RUDD REVENGE ON ALP AGENDA
5. NRL SALARY CAPS WILL LEAD TO TALENT EXODUS
6. BAD NEWSPOLL CONFIRMS O'FARRELL IS THE ISSUE
7. FOOLS TO THE NORTH, DUNDERHEADS TO THE SOUTH
8. CANBERRA TRIES TO PLUCK MINING STATES' GOLDEN GOOSE

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. NO NEWS WOULD BE GOOD NEWS
2. FOREIGN SCAPEGOAT IN HOUSING

THE GUARDIAN

1. IN PRAISE OF … WELCOME TO LAGOS
2. EDUCATION: COMPETING SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
3. HUNG PARLIAMENT: NICK CLEGG'S FATEFUL CHOICE

DAILY EXPRESS

1. ON MOTHER KELLY'S NEW DOORSTEP - AN ELITE STATE SCHOOL
2. ANOTHER STICK FOR EUROPE TO BEAT OUR COUNTRY WITH

THE GAZETTE

1. BANK TAX IS DEAD, BUT WHAT COMES NEXT? 
2. BAD ADVICE FROM A POLLSTER

THE KOREA TIMES

1. MOURNING FOR SAILORS
2. PROSECUTION OF PROSECUTORS
3. ON ROAD TO POST-CRISIS GROWTH - BY MICHAEL SPENCE
4. NATO SHOULD KEEP NUKES - BY DALE MCFEATTERS

THE KOREA HERALD

1. ETHNIC RESTAURANTS
2. CORRUPTION CHAIN
3. NATIONAL MOURNING
4. JAPAN ELECTION MORE THAN POPULARITY CONTEST
5. THAI POLICE FAIL TO UPHOLD LAW AND ORDER
6. NEW DATA SHOWS CLIMATE CHANGING QUICKLY
7. IT IS ABOUT TIME TO PANIC.
8. TURNING POINT IN U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS
9. IRAQ'S POLITICS UNSETTLED
10. NEW DATA SHOWS CLIMATE CHANGING QUICKLY
11. IT IS ABOUT TIME TO PANIC.

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. HATOYAMA'S FATE TIED TO FUTENMA - BY KEVIN RAFFERTY
2. DEMOCRACY A MYTH IN IRAN
3. NEW SANCTIONS WILL ONLY BOLSTER HARDLINERS - BY CESAR CHELALA

THE JAKARTA POST

1. TAPPING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
2. RI'S CAPITAL INFLOW AND THE DOWNSIDE RISKS THAT FOLLOW - PUTERA SATRIA SAMBIJANTORO
3. GREATER RI-NEW ZEALAND COOPERATION - ALAN KOZIARSKI
4. TACKLING ILLEGAL LOGGING - AHMAD MARYUDI

CHINA DAILY

1. A RESOUNDING VOTE
2. INFLATIONARY WORRIES
3. GAPS IN WHO WE STRIVE TO BE
4. DICHOTOMY OF GOVT & PEOPLE'S INCOME - BY CHEN ZHIWU (CHINA DAILY)
5. AMEND LAW TO PREVENT FORCED DEMOLITIONS - BY ERIC SOMMER (CHINA DAILY)
6. TETHERING THE HOUSING BUBBLE - BY ZUO XIAOLEI (CHINA DAILY)
7. DON'T FORGET 'THE FORGOTTEN PHASE' IN YUSHU - BY GRAHAM MEADOWS & MICHAEL DUNFORD (CHINA DAILY)

DAILY MIRROR

1. EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
2. PROMOTING TOURISM IN SOUTH ASIA
3. INDIA MATTERS: THE NEED FOR CEPA - By Dr. Rohan Samarajiva
4. THE FIRST POSTWAR CABINET: MINISTERS MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE

THE MOSCOW TIMES

1. STABILITY AT ALL COSTS - BY ALEXEI PANKIN
2. RUSSIA GETS DUPED AGAIN - BY ALEXANDER GOLTS
3. NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR AFFAIR WITH IRAN - BY YURIKO KOIKE

THE HIMALAYAN

1. STRIKE TOO MUCH
2. UMBRELLA ACT: BACKWARD STEPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION - MANA PRASAD WAGLEY
3. TOPICS: PUBLIC SPEAKING CAN BE IMPROVED - KHILENDRA BASNYAT
4. BLOG SURF: SOLAR BATH - VOICES.GARDENWEB
5. CREDOS: RIGHT PRACTICE — II  - SHUNRYU SUZUKI 

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

POLITICAL ESPIONAGE

CONGRESS RESORTS TO DIRTY TRICKS

T he Union Minister for Home Affairs is right when he says that the National Technical Research Organisation, better known as NTRO, is an authorised "technical organisation" of the Government of India which was set up on the basis of a Group of Ministers' recommendation. But what he has left unsaid in his statement in the Lok Sabha needs to be stated unambiguously: The NTRO was set up to provide real-time, actionable 'techint' — or technical intelligence — to deal with terrorism, organised crime and similar grave offences that impinge on national security. At no stage was the NTRO conceived as an instrument of the state to snoop on politicians or individuals to gather political intelligence or information that could compromise a person's privacy and liberty. Yet, this is precisely what the NTRO stands accused of today with damning details surfacing in the media about how its state-of-the-art equipment, mounted on roving vehicles, has been used to tap and tape telephone conversations of senior politicians, including CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, NCP leader Sharad Pawar and, amazingly, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh. The tapping of telephones, it has been revealed, is not of recent vintage, but has been going on since the Congress-led UPA Government came to power. It is anybody's guess as to how many politicians' telephone conversations have been thus taped. Mr P Chidambaram has sought to gloss over the charges levelled by a justifiably incandescent Opposition, but that does not necessarily put a lid on the scandal.

 

Given the Congress's penchant for misusing agencies of the state for political purposes and the party's long tradition of seeking to weaken the Opposition by resorting to dirty tricks, among them the tapping of telephones, and gathering 'political intelligence' through various means, including deploying IB agents for the task, it is not entirely surprising that the NTRO and its snooping devices should have been used in such a manner. What strengthens this perception is Mr Chidambaram's assertion that "no telephone tapping or eavesdropping on political leaders was authorised by the Government". He has, interestingly, not denied that telephone tapping and eavesdropping have taken place, which would mean they have been done without Government's authorisation. Are we then to assume that the directive came from somewhere else, an authority that wields greater clout and more power than even the Prime Minister without formally being a part of the Government which Mr Manmohan Singh heads and were issued to NTRO spooks directly? In which event, the nation has the right to know who issued the directive. Was it done bypassing those authorised to sanction tapping of telephones and those who are charged with oversight of electronic snooping? Or was an intermediary used?

The law governing tapping of telephones is quite strict in this country with adequate oversight provisions, as it should be in a democracy. The problem, however, is not with the law but its gross violation. In any other democracy if such shocking details of abuse of state power by the ruling party were to come to light, the Government would have been teetering by now. Tragically, in this wondrous land of ours, the Government will just brazen it out. Meanwhile, as NTRO occupies itself with picking up political chatter, the chatter of terrorists will go untapped. Little wonder that we are starved of real-time, actionable intelligence.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

PANDERING TO MUSLIMS

OBAMA AVOIDS G-WORD TO PLEASE M-WORLD

With each passing day US President Barack Hussein Obama's presidential election campaign that had captured the imagination of people around the world lies exposed as nothing more than a bunch of carefully crafted lies. For, Mr Obama has either shelved or gone back on most of his election promises. The confidence with which he had announced the coming of a new American regime that would do away with the old way of doing business with global partners has long faded, and it is now pretty much clear that the Obama Administration represents nothing but old wine in new bottle. This was once again evident last Saturday when Mr Obama, to mark the anniversary of the Armenian genocide in 1915, chose to omit the 'G-word' from his statement. This is congruent with his statement issued on the same day last year but starkly inconsistent with his election promise of fully recognising the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. It appears that Mr Obama's peace initiatives to effect a thaw in relations between Turkey and Armenia and Washington's bilateral relations with Ankara — a Nato ally — are the reasons why the American President has not delivered on this particular promise. Indeed, last month, the Obama Administration had strongly urged the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee to not go ahead with a vote that would condemn the 1915 Armenian massacre as genocide. The House Committee withstood the pressure and narrowly passed the vote. But the fallout of the same turned out to be embarrassing for Mr Obama as Turkey briefly recalled its Ambassador to the US in response.

Turkey's valued participating in Nato and the fact that the country provides a key strategic foothold to the Americans in West Asia might have dissuaded Mr Obama from terming the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide. Yet, it cannot be denied that the Obama Administration seems to be on a massive friendship drive to win friends within the Muslim world. The strategy would have been a sound one had it not been applied blindly. For, in the process, the people that are being offered the "hand of friendship" — to borrow a phrase from Mr Obama's Cairo University speech last year — are the ones whose interests are aligned with groups that have vowed to impose a new world order through jihad. Whether it is Turkey, Pakistan or Afghanistan, there is credible evidence to suggest that the Americans are taking a more lenient view of those who till yesterday were described as 'radicals' and 'security threats'. Perhaps this explains why all of a sudden there is a desire in Washington to talk to the Taliban and be more patient with Pakistan and its so-called war against terrorism. Mr Obama, it seems, relishes Muslim appeasement more than we can imagine.

 

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

THE TOWERS OF ILIUM

SANDHYA JAIN

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss… -- Christopher Marlowe

Ms Sunanda Pushkar's memorable encounter with the former Minister of State for External Affairs has seriously dented Mr Shashi Tharoor's political career even as she has withdrawn, leaving behind the embers of an imploding Indian Premier League. It seems difficult to conceive how modern India's most original and successful international show can go on.

Yet Tharoorgate affords an opportunity to revisit the dangers posed by India's dangerous open-door policy towards foreign nationals; the ill-heeded warning by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav against hasty introduction of the women's reservation Bill; and the non-transparency of people in public life.

When Congress gave the Thiruvananthapuram ticket to the wannabe UN Secretary-General in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, there was no hint that he was seeking divorce from his Canadian wife Christa Giles. She was conspicuous by her absence during the campaign, but one assumed she was keeping a low profile to avoid a 'foreign spouse' controversy.

Mr Tharoor was in office for nearly 10 months when the storm unleashed by then IPL commissioner Lalit Modi's tweet revealed that the Minister is (was?) engaged to Ms Sunanda Pushkar, also a Canadian citizen, and currently employed in Dubai. It seems likely that Mr Tharoor met her when serving in the Dubai-based investment firm, Afras Ventures, and remained in touch via nearly 14 trips to the city during his brief stint in South Block.

It is possible she followed him to Delhi with a plan to make him 'mentor' of an IPL franchise in lieu of handsome free 'sweat' equity for his future wife. Dubai is also where Mr Tharoor met Mr Jacob Joseph, who became his OSD and whose father reputedly owns a hefty stake in Afras. It is unknown if Afras founder NK Radhakrishnan has officially invested in the Kochi IPL franchise that is technically owned by an entity called Rendezvous Sports World.

Neither Ms Pushkar nor Mr Tharoor seem likely candidates for conceiving and executing such a grand strategy to put together one of the costliest IPL franchises ($ 333.33 million), that too, in a State like Kerala where sporting facilities are poor and the known sponsors are mainly non-Malayalis! Unlike Reliance Industries, Sahara Group or India Cements, both lack wealth of the kind that permits a grand personal investment. Hence, given the Income Tax Department's probe into alleged benami transactions funding IPL across the spectrum, it seems reasonable to suppose they have much to hide.

As Mr Chandan Mitra has pointed out in "When the umpire becomes batsman" ('The Cuttin Ed', April 18), it strains credulity to believe that unknown businessmen or a suspended Maharashtra transport official could invest over Rs 1,000 crore and outbid a consortium led by the Ahmedabad-based Adani Group. More tasteless was the attempt to implicate Gujarat's Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Given Mr Tharoor's frequent visits to Dubai and his deputing Mr Jacob Joseph to attend official meetings in connection with IPL's Kochi franchise, there is a clear case for invoking the Prevention of Corruption Act to examine his conduct in office.

Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of the BJP, has said that Mr Tharoor's conduct was not merely improper, but a clear criminal offence under Section 13 (when a public servant abuses his office and obtains for himself or for any other person, any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage) and Section 20 (any gratification other than the legal remuneration by a public servant either in his own name or for any other person creates a legal presumption of criminal misconduct). The Shashi-Jacob-Sunanda trio certainly needs grilling.

What baffled observers, however, was his mesmeric hold on 10 Janpath and 7 Race Course Road, which made both authorities visibly reluctant to hasten his exit. Whispers circulated that Mr Tharoor obliged the ruling party by fiddling names listed in the Volcker Report on beneficiaries of Saddam Hussain's oil-for-food programme mandated by the UN. Mr D Raja of the CPI wondered why the Congress leadership chose to project him as India's candidate for the UN Secretary-General's post, for which he was too junior, being merely communications chief at the UN and not in any policy-making department. That is why he was not taken seriously in any world capital. With the Congress unable or unwilling to defend him in Parliament, the leadership reluctantly asked him to go.

Meanwhile, Ms Pushkar's Canadian citizenship and Dubai residence points to a disturbing internationalisation (read dilution) of Indian identity. Unless we put in place stringent laws to inhibit politicians, civil servants and officers of the armed forces from undue intimacy with foreign nationals, we will seriously prejudice our national security, and political and economic interests. The current scandal concerning a naval officer involved in the Gorshkov submarine negotiations with Russia, and Tharoor-gate, are just instances of the perils that face a society that is excessively open to adventurers at its top echelons.

It is pertinent that at the height of the controversy, in a last ditch effort to salvage the reputation and position of her fiancé, Ms Pushkar suddenly decided to relinquish her Rs 70-crore equity in the franchise. This happened immediately after Dubai-based Ashish Mehta surfaced as her lawyer, raising eyebrows amongst the cognoscenti as he happens to be attorney to Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. By an interesting coincidence, when Mr Lalit Modi recently visited Dubai for an ICC meeting, he accepted the hospitality of Sheikh Maktoum rather than stay in a hotel with other delegates.

Finally, the Sunanda Pushkar episode is a grim warning of the kind of women most likely to appear in Parliament if the women's reservation Bill becomes law — locally rootless, but with national and international 'corporate' contacts and an ability to 'fix' things.

This is precisely what Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav meant when he said women who arrived under the Bill would be the kind who got "whistled at". He meant they would be 'friends' of powerful men, who would clog the system with private agendas. So shallow is media discourse in this country that he was shouted out of court; it is time Indian politics ended the unholy alliance of business and politics.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

DICTATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY

PRIYADARSI DUTTA

An emphatic electoral victory to complement the military victory against the LTTE. Indeed, a grand success story was scripted by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's United People's Freedom Alliance in the recently concluded parliamentary election. By winning 144 seats in the 225-seat Sri Lankan Parliament, it finished marginally short of securing two-thirds majority. But can the latest election ensure ethnic peace when in Jaffna not even 10 per cent voted?

Ironically, it is 'unified', 'direct' democracy that has devastated Sri Lanka. The Tamils were in the vanguard of public life during British rule. Their demand for a 50:50 formula (half the seats to Sinhalese, half to Tamils, Moors, Europeans and Burghers combined) at the time of Sri Lanka's independence in 1948 was overruled by the British.

In post-independence Sri Lanka, Tamils have had to put up with Sinhalese majoritarianism. Unlike Indian Tamils, the Tamils of Sri Lanka never had the privilege of federalism. Article 2 of the Sri Lankan Constitution makes the country a unitary state; Articles 5 makes its 24 districts mere administrative units. Federalism, as articulated by SJV Chelvanayakam, has been at the heart of Tamil politics since 1956 until the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976.

Freedom for Sri Lanka came through reforms debated in the State Council, the oldest legislative assembly in Asia, and not through a freedom struggle. Until 1920, the Tamils had as many seats in the Council as the Sinhalese. But thereafter Sinhalese domination began and Tamil seats were greatly reduced. The Hindu Organ observed in an editorial on September 28, 1922: "Swaraj or representative Government is undoubtedly an excellent thing... But experience of the last elections (1921) under the new reforms and proceedings of the Sinhalese leaders of the Congress have shown that Swaraj in Ceylon in the present state of affairs would be Swaraj of one community with all other communities subordinate to it".

Are not Ananda Coomaraswamy's words — "Democracy, understood politically as the tyranny of the majority, is no more congenial to liberty than autocracy" — still relevant for our times?

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

ILYAS KASHMIRI AGAIN?

THE US TERROR ADVISORY, THE HEIGHTENED JIHADI ACTIVITY ON INTERNET, THE BLASTS AT CHINNASWAMY STADIUM AND HAFIZ SAEED'S SHARPENED RHETORIC ARE ENOUGH TO COMPEL THE OPPOSITION TO HOLD THE GOVERNMENT'S FEET TO THE FIRE OF TERRORISM AND STOP IT FROM BEING TRICKED INTO A SHARM EL-SHEIKH TYPE TANGLE IN THIMPU

SHASHI SHEKHAR

The apparent lull in jihadi terror activity in the hinterland was broken with blasts at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore during the IPL match last week. While investigations into the incident are still on, new details have been revealed on the Karnataka connections of the Indian Mujahideen cell reportedly behind the Pune blast. While the motive behind the Bangalore stadium blasts are unclear, it was interesting to note that Asia Times Online saw in it a possible role of the 313 Brigade's Ilyas Kashmiri who has also in recent times been described as the chief of Al Qaeda's shadow army Lashkar al-Zil. There have also been multiple reports of another purported letter written by Ilyas Kashmiri calling for suicide attacks inside India. These reports come at the same time as the United States issued a terror advisory mentioning six specific areas in New Delhi with popular markets as potential targets.

It must be noted in the run-up to the November 26, 2008 fidayeen attacks on Mumbai, there was heightened YouTube activity by the Indian Mujahideen. Interestingly, March 2010 seems to bear a similarity to October 2008 in the Indian Mujahideen activity on YouTube. Two new Youtube channels surfaced during the month of March with jihadi content. The first Youtube channel bore a name identifying itself with Hafiz Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa'h, the parent organisation of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba. The channel carried six jihadi videos. One of the videos featured visuals from the 26/11 attacks with intriguing images of Hafiz Saeed and Mr Bal Thackeray interspersed. The 26/11 visuals incidentally were sourced from a public account on the popular photo sharing site Flickr. The account itself belongs to a Mumbai-based fashion photographer.

The second Youtube channel was far more direct in its identification with Indian Mujahideen in both its name and in its usage of digital images used in Indian Mujahideen e-mails of 2008. This channel opened during March and carried about 50-odd videos. Most of the videos carried clips from Indian news channels featuring the Indian Mujahideen. Interspersed within these videos was one video with specific claims of responsibility for multiple attacks going as far back as 2003 while citing them as revenge for the 2002 Gujarat riots. It was also interesting to note Gujarat being spelled as the Pakistani-origin Gujrat. A new addition to the jihadi lexicon is the phrase of "Lions of Allah" that finds multiple mentions on this channel.

YouTube was not the only video-sharing site witnessing increased Lashkar activity. Praveen Swami writing in The Hindu alerts us to the Jamaat-ud-Dawa'h Facebook page. Further analysis of this Facebook page reveals that it was started the same week as the heightened JuD activity in Paskistan-occupied Kashmir and in Islamabad when Abdul Makki issued his now infamous threat to Delhi, Pune and Kanpur. The Facebook page leads to a rather personal website of a 22-year-old Pakistani male with overt sympathies for Jamaat-ud-Dawa'h. While it is unclear if the Facebook page has official sanction, it clearly seems to be an attempt at mainstreaming the JuD.

This mainstreaming of JuD finds an oblique reference in a piece written by Syed Saleem Shahzad in the Asia Times couple of weeks back. According to Shahzad, the Pakistani military is considering reviving Right-wing Islamic parties as a counter force to regional political parties in the NWFP area.

Meanwhile, it's a season for recorded audios and videos from both sides of the jihadi divide in Pakistan. First, a purported Hafiz Saeed speech to be delivered at seminar in Srinagar organised by a fringe group was disrupted by the Jammu & Kashmir Police. The seminar was to also have JeM's Masood Azhar over telephone. Second a five-part video confession has surfaced on the Asia Times Online from former spy Khaled Khwaja who was reported kidnapped back in March. In the video Khaled Khwaja indicts Hafiz Saeed's Lashkar and Masood Azhar's Jaish for being stooges of the ISI, apart from detailing his role in the 2007 Lal Masjid incident.

Between Saeed's attempts to draw attention to the water issue with rhetoric of sacrifices to be made for the Kashmir cause and Khawaja's video confessions seeking to undermine Saeed's credibility, an interesting dynamic is playing out across Pakistan's jihadi faultlines.

The terror advisory, the heightened jihadi activity on social networking sites and the sharpened rhetoric from Hafiz Saeed should be taken as a leading indicator of impending terror attacks on India. These leading indicators come at the same time as renewed talk of "Limited Dialogue" between Indian and Pakistan at the SAARC summit in Thimpu. As Pakistan seeks to extract revenge with new dossiers, it is unfortunate that the Opposition of the nation remains distracted with non-issues like IPL. The Opposition's failure to hold the Government's feet to the fire of Pakistan has resulted in the UPA fearing no political costs in walking itself into a second Sharm el-Sheikh in Thimpu.

The writer, an expert on security affairs, tracks terrorism in South Asia.

 

THE PIONEER

OPED

OBAMA HAS IT ALL WRONG

PICKING A FIGHT WITH ISRAEL WILL NOT PRODUCE NEGOTIATIONS

DANIEL PIPES

Things are not always as simple as they seem; the current crisis in US-Israel relations has a silver lining. Four observations, all derived from historical patterns, prompt this conclusion:

First, the 'peace process' is in actuality a 'war process'. Diplomatic negotiations through the 1990s led to a parade of Israeli retreats that had the perverse effect of turning the middling-bad situation of 1993 into the awful one of 2000. Painful Israeli concessions, we now know, stimulate not reciprocal Palestinian goodwill but rather irredentism, ambition, fury, and violence.

Second, Israeli concessions to the Arabs are effectively forever while relations with Washington fluctuate. Once the Israelis left south Lebanon and Gaza, they did so for good, as would be the case with the Golan Heights or eastern Jerusalem. Undoing these steps would be prohibitively costly. In contrast, US-Israel tensions depend on personalities and circumstances, so they go up and down and the stakes are relatively lower. Each President or Prime Minister can refute his predecessor's views and tone. Problems can be repaired quickly.

More broadly, the US-Israel bond has strengths that go far beyond politicians and issues of the moment. Nothing on earth resembles this bilateral, "the most special" of special relationships and "the family relationship of international politics." Like any family tie, it has high points (Israel ranks second, behind only the US, in number of companies listed on NASDAQ) and low ones (the Jonathan Pollard espionage affair continues to rankle a quarter century after it broke). The tie has a unique intensity when it comes to strategic cooperation, economic connections, intellectual ties, shared values, United Nations voting records, religious commonalities, and even mutual interference in each other's internal affairs.

From Israel's perspective, then, political relations with the Arabs are freighted but those with Washington have a lightness and flexibility.

Third, when Israeli leaders enjoy strong, trusting relations with Washington, they give more to the Arabs. Golda Meir made concessions to Richard Nixon, Menachem Begin to Mr Jimmy Carter, Yitzhak Rabin, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mr Ehud Barak to Mr Bill Clinton, and Mr Ariel Sharon to Mr George W Bush.

Conversely, mistrust of Washington tightens Israelis and closes the willingness to take chances. That was the case with Mr George HW Bush and is even more so with Mr Barack Obama. The current unease began even before Mr Obama reached the Oval Office, given his public association with prominent Israel-haters (eg, Ali Abunimah, Mr Rashid Khalidi, Mr Edward Said, Mr Jeremiah Wright). Relations degenerated in March, when his administration simulated outrage on the 9th over an announcement of routine construction work in Jerusalem, followed by a brutal telephone call from the Secretary of State on the 12th and a tense White House summit meeting on the 23rd.

To make matters worse, the Obama Administration figure most identified with maintaining good US-Israel relations, Mr Dennis Ross, was anonymously accused by a colleague on March 28 of being "far more sensitive to Netanyahu's coalition politics than to US interests." A prominent foreign policy analyst used this to raise questions about Mr Ross having a "dual loyalty" to Israel, impugning Mr Ross' policy advice.

These ugly and virtually unprecedented tensions have had a predictable effect on the Israeli public, making it mistrustful of Mr Obama, resistant to US pressure, while inspiring usually squabbling politicians to work together to resist his policies.

Fourth, US-Israel tensions increase Palestinian intransigence and demands. Israel in bad standing empowers their leaders; and if the tensions arise from US pressure for concessions to the Palestinians, the latter sit back and enjoy the show. This happened in mid-2009, when Mr Mahmoud Abbas instructed Americans what to extract from Jerusalem. Conversely, when US-Israel relations flourish, Palestinian leaders feel pressure to meet Israelis, pretend to negotiate, and sign documents.

Combining these four presumptions results in a counterintuitive conclusion: Strong US-Israel ties induce irreversible Israeli mistakes. Poor US-Israel ties abort this process. Mr Obama may expect that picking a fight with Israel will produce negotiations but it will have the opposite effect. He may think he is approaching a diplomatic breakthrough but, in fact, he is rendering that less likely. Those who fear more "war process" can thus take some solace in the administration's blunders.

The complexity of US-Israel relations leaves much room for paradox and inadvertency. A look beyond a worrisome turn of events suggests that good may come of it.

The writer is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

CYPRUS REMAINS A DIVIDED STATE

THE OUTCOME OF THE RECENT POLL IN THE TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS MEANS THAT THE STATUS QUO WILL BECOME PERMANENT BUT THE BROADER STRATEGIC REALITIES WILL START TO CHANGE

GWYNNE DYER

The real problem in Cyprus is not that the status quo is unsustainable," said Mr Phedon Nicolaides of the European Institute of Public Administration in an article in the Cyprus Mail last September. "On the contrary, it is that it's virtually impossible to move away from the (status quo)."

He didn't need the word "virtually". The outcome of the recent election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus means that the status quo that has prevailed on the divided island for the past 36 years will become permanent — but it also means that the broader strategic realities in the region will start to change. The changes will not be to the long-term advantage of the Greek-ruled Republic of Cyprus.

Most of Cyprus's people have spoken Greek for three thousand years, but there has also been a Turkish-speaking minority since the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century. The seeds of inter-communal conflict were already there under Ottoman and British imperial rule, but they only grew into a full-scale confrontation when the EOKA guerrilla movement launched its campaign to drive the British out in the 1950s.

Unfortunately, EOKA was not actually seeking independence, which the Turkish minority on the island and Turkey itself would have accepted. Its goal was 'enosis', union with Greece, although the Greek mainland was 800 km to the west and the Turkish coast was only 75 km away. Neither the Turkish-Cypriots nor Ankara would accept that, and the Turkish-Cypriots began to arm themselves too.

Turkey, Greece and Britain were all much more concerned about the Soviet threat in the region, however, so in 1960 they imposed a deal on Cyprus that gave the island independence as a binational republic. The Turkish-speaking minority got 30 per cent of the seats in Parliament and a veto on any changes in the Constitution.

Britain, Greece and Turkey all guaranteed the settlement, but it only lasted three years, mainly because EOKA remained a strong force in the island and was still determined on 'enosis'. Fighting broke out in 1963, and the Turkish-Cypriots were driven into enclaves that were effectively besieged by Greek-Cypriot forces.

The United Nations sent in a peace-keeping force that froze the situation for the next 11 years, but in 1974 the Greek military junta sponsored a bloody military coup in Cyprus. The elected Government was replaced by a band of former EOKA fighters who promised to unify the island with Greece, and Turkey called on Britain (which still had military bases in Cyprus) to fulfill its duty as guarantor and intervene.

When Britain refused, the Turks invaded. 150,000 Greek-Cypriots fled or were driven south before the advancing Turkish forces, while 50,000 Turkish-Cypriots living in the south sought safety behind the Turkish lines. When the fighting ended, all the Turkish-Cypriots were in the north, and all the Greek-Cypriots were in the south.

The Greek-Cypriots had brought disaster upon themselves by ignoring strategic realities and bidding too high, and that pattern has continued down to the present. A UN-backed proposal to reunify the island as a federal republic (with a limited right of return for the refugees) was supported by the Turkish-Cypriots but rejected by the Greek-Cypriots in parallel referendums in 2004.

On April 18 Mr Dervis Eroglu, who opposes reunification, was elected President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and for all practical purposes the long story reached its end. The island will remain permanently divided along the current lines, although it may be many years before other countries acknowledge that fact by formally recognising the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

This fact will have far-reaching consequences, for it means that Turkey will never join the EU. Without a settlement in Cyprus, the Greek veto on Turkish membership is permanent — but Greece's leverage over Turkey will vanish once Ankara abandons its quest to join the EU.

There is no reason to believe that the present Turkish Government would do anything to disturb the status quo in Cyprus. Perhaps no Turkish Government ever will. But Turkey is re-emerging as the dominant regional power after a century-long gap: Greece is no match for it, and the EU is not a military organisation.

Greek-Cypriots may believe that their own EU membership is an adequate guarantee of their security, but it is not. In a future where Turkey is no longer constrained by the prospect of EU membership, their security will depend mainly on Turkish goodwill.

The writer is an independent journalist based in London.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NEW START OVERLOOKS CRUCIAL WEAPONS

BESIDES SEA-LAUNCHED CRUISE MISSILES, TREATY IGNORES MANY OTHER WMDS, WRITES VLADIMIR YEVSEYEV

The new START bilateral nuclear arms reduction agreement between Russia and the United States was signed by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama on April 8, in Prague, the Czech Republic.

The well-balanced document highlights the commitment of Moscow and Washington to continue resetting bilateral relations. The agreement also heeds Russian national interests.

At the same time, the treaty does not cover high-precision sea-launched cruise missiles, which can acquire strategic capabilities in certain conditions.

What did the parties gain from the treaty, and what did it overlook?

First of all, Moscow can deploy ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile systems with multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle warheads.

The deployment of RS-24 Yars (SS-X-29) ICBM systems will make it possible to compensate for the gradual reduction in the number of previously manufactured RS-20 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) heavy-class and RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) medium-class missiles.

The treaty places no curbs on the development of ground-based ICBMs and allows Russia to deploy new heavy-class and medium-class ICBMs.

Second, US inspectors will finally leave Votkinsk Plant State Production Association, an engineering and ballistic missile production company based in Votkinsk, which manufactures up-to-date strategic and theater-level missiles and implements R&D projects under the RSM-56 Bulava (SS-NX-30) submarine-launched ballistic missile programme.

Any foreign presence in Votkinsk is undesirable because the city is the mainstay of the national missile potential.

Third, both parties will exchange telemetric information on a voluntary and mutual basis. The relevant exchange mechanism is still unclear because the US has stopped manufacturing new ground-based ICBMs long ago and conducts few ballistic-missile tests.

Although it is possible to exchange telemetric information of prototype Russian offensive systems and US defensive systems, Washington is not prepared for such transparency levels yet.

Fourth, Russia would have had to reduce the number of strategic delivery vehicles, no matter what, because it is unable to extend their service life all the time. The situation was aggravated by insufficient missile procurement volumes and by several abortive Bulava-30 test launches. For a long time the Russian Defence Ministry annually bought 6-7 RT-2UTTKh Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle B) single-warhead ICBMs.

Under the new rules, Moscow has only 608 deployed strategic delivery vehicles with 1,915 nuclear warheads. Consequently, Russia already meets the treaty's launch vehicle ceilings and can easily reduce the number of warheads down to required levels. At the same time, Moscow can retain numerous operationally inactive stockpiled nuclear warheads that will give it an edge over such nuclear powers as France, the United Kingdom or China.

But we should not think that the US is voluntarily reducing the number of its launch vehicles. This reduction is largely made possible by their adaption to conventional warheads. Notably, four refitted Ohio class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines already carry Tomahawk conventional SLCMs. Strategic bombers are also being refitted in a similar manner. This makes it possible to expand the tremendous US non-nuclear high-precision weapons potential.

This process will continue under the new treaty because the 14 US ballistic missile submarines carry 336 SLBMs. Moreover, the US has 450 Minuteman-3 (LGM-30G) ICBMs and at least 60 nuclear-capable strategic bombers. Previously, 200 bombers were listed in this category. This makes up for 846 strategic delivery vehicles, exceeding maximum delivery vehicle ceilings.

 

It should be noted that America's conventional high-precision weapons have a serious destabilising potential. For instance, conventional Tomahawk SLCMs have a maximum range of 1,300 km, whereas nuclear-tipped Tomahawks have a maximum range of 2,500 km. They can therefore be classed among medium-range missiles in terms of this parameter. Four Ohio class submarines, as well as Los Angeles nuclear-powered fast attack submarines, Seawolf class and Virginia class attack submarines, Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyers and Ticonderoga class missile cruisers are equipped with such cruise missiles.

Although they can carry about 6,600 cruise missiles, US Navy warships have between 2,800 and 3,600 Tomahawk cruise missiles of various modified versions. Tomahawk launchers are also used to fire anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles.

The writer is Scientific Secretary of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Coordinating Council for Prognostication.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

LEGISLATIVE OVERSIGHT NEEDED FOR INTEL AGENCIES

 

UNION Home Minister P Chidambaram said the only thing a democratic government could have said about tapping the phones of fellow politicians— that the records show that no phone tapping of political leaders was " authorised" by the government. For obvious reasons under no circumstances would a government admit that it could actually authorise such an action.

 

Mr Chidambaram's assertion that intelligence agencies functioned within the law, and were fully accountable to the government would have been easier to accept had he told us precisely what the government did to ensure this was so. Most democratic countries have an inspector- general or ombudsman to ensure that such agencies, which have wide powers of covert surveillance, keep within the bounds of the law. Further, there is almost always a system of political oversight over the departments, a process in which senior figures of the Opposition are also involved.

 

In the absence of either measure, we can take the government's words only at facevalue.

 

The record of agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation shows that their default mode is to be the political handmaiden of the government of the day.

 

The Opposition, too, must ask itself whether it has been as vigilant of people's rights as it claims to be. It has permitted the passage of draconian legislation such as the Information Technology Act of 2008 ( notified last October) which allows government sweeping powers to block internet content and legalises phone tapping, allegedly in a controlled environment.

 

Whether or not we can get to the bottom of this episode remains to be seen. However, this is a good opportunity for the Opposition to insist that the government put in place some real checks on the powers that they have given to security agencies on the issue.

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

A CLEANER IPL?

 

THE Board of Control for Cricket in India ( BCCI) has replaced Indian Premier League ( IPL) chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi with Chirayu Amin, a long- time cricket administrator and businessman.

 

Does this mean that the BCCI will suddenly transform itself into a best- practices organisation? Unlikely. The BCCI has always been opaque, and to expect it to open up its doors to financial and moral scrutiny is something we need to hope for, rather than expect.

 

Yet, this is the perfect opportunity for the BCCI— and its sub- committee, the IPL— to reclaim positive mindspace among cricket fans, advertisers and the general public.

 

There is so much dirt flying around with allegations and counter- allegations between BCCI president Shashank Manohar and Mr Modi that it is almost impossible that a true picture would emerge soon. Or ever.

 

The IPL is now the world's most lucrative cricketing tournament, and its popularity has soared since its first edition in 2008. It may be a purist's nightmare, but it is also true that IPL brings in the big bucks and a great deal of entertainment.

 

Mr Manohar says that the IPL will now give equal importance to commerce and ethics. We certainly hope this will be so.

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

PUNJAB ASSEMBLY FIASCO

 

THE Supreme Court is right to quash the Punjab Assembly's expulsion of former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for his alleged involvement in the Amritsar land allotment scam. The verdict makes it clear that a state legislature does not have the power to deprive a former chief minister of his House membership for executive decisions taken during his tenure, even if there are grounds to suspect that he may have bent rules. It also sets right the anomalous situation where a CM of a state during the term of its 12th Assembly saw himself being punished by the 13th.

 

The move had set a dangerous precedent.

 

We could have every other government expelling the CM of its predecessor on some pretext. The court has also pointed out that no ' breach of privilege' was made out against Mr Singh for the Assembly to exercise its power under Article 194( 3) of the Constitution.

 

If Mr Singh has done something wrong it is for the criminal justice system to punish him, as also the people who sent him as their representative to the legislature.

 

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MAIL TODAY

     COLUMN

WE CAN DO WITHOUT HER MORAL CERTIFICATES

BY JYOTIRMAYA SHARMA

 

There is much in Arundhati Roy's writings and pronouncements that I have little difficulty, at least with certain qualifications, in accepting. I agree that Indian democracy is far from perfect. I agree that successive regimes in India, at the Centre and at the level of the states, have short- changed vast sections of Indian people, mostly the poor and the marginalised. I think that the continuation of outfits like the Salwa Judum is an abomination and no civilised society ought to tolerate such vigilante groups.

 

I am with Roy when she says that the lifestyles and livelihood of the adivasis is under grave threat in the name of harebrained ideas of progress and development.

 

I also agree that P. Chidambaram is a disaster as Home Minister and has scant political sense and no vision, the proverbial man without qualities. At the same time, I dislike Roy's illusions of certainty, her self- righteousness, her inability to go beyond self- serving monologues and her prophetic tone.

 

Apologist

 

Arundhati Roy's essays remind me of two people. Their length and their tone of moral certitude remind me of Arun Shourie, the journalist. He landed ultimately in the BJP and now endorses every crime and misdemeanour of the BJP, including the 2002 post- Godhra riots and Narendra Modi's role during that period. The second person that Roy's writings remind me of is Carl Schmitt.

 

Those unfamiliar with Schmitt would do well to remember that he was Hitler's apologist, who wrote tracts that

supported the Nazi regime. He found liberal democracy and parliamentarianism impotent and mediocre ways of organiaing human societies. But even today, he is studied seriously for suggesting that in the age of technology, the only political relationship that is feasible is the one between friend and foe. The political for him lies in identifying the enemy and eliminating the enemy. There is, therefore, always an in- group and an outgroup, those who belong and those who do not.

 

While Roy might use the word " fascist" as a term of abuse, she is hardly aware that she, perhaps

unconsciously, shares much with one of the most articulate and thoughtful apologists of the Nazi regime.

 

In romanticising the naxals and justifying their violence, she is merely a victim of a philosophy that designates virtue and moral superiority to one section of the population and delineates the rest as morally and ethically compromised. It would be perfectly right to say that the naxals imitate the criminality of the state ( a phrase paraphrased from Marx, no less), but to justify violence as a legitimate means of redressal of grievances is plainly silly.

 

Justification

 

Roy justifies naxal violence by adding emotive elements on to the question of naxal violence. Hunger and the loneliness of the forests in her eyes justifies this brand of violence. Let us take the question of hunger first. The assumption implicit in Roy's argument is that once people are understanding, but because she is incapable of holding a conversation with anyone other than those that agree with her.

 

This instinct has two sources. The first comes from the fear that she will lose her identity if she ceased to be marginal. Her marginality is her advertisement, and excess of anything, as Lenin's Russia taught us, is advertisement. The second is a degree of Platonism, where politics is seen as a relentless tutorial in the hands of a few chosen wise men and women.

 

These wise men and women, it is assumed, have seen the Light and have truth and God on their side. Everyone

else lives under a veil of ignorance, incapable of perceiving their true interests and what is good for society as a whole.

 

The reason why Roy finds Gandhi to be pious humbug stems from the above reasons.

 

Gandhi, with all his faults, did not divide the world into friend and foe. He did not believe in winning wars

quickly and expeditiously. If delay in getting justice be the price to pay for simple ideas of decency and civility,

Gandhi was patient enough to wait, sacrifice and endure, rather than let the wild beasts of the forest rule our

world. Aurobindo Ghosh asked Devdas Gandhi what the Mahatma would have done in the face of an adversary

like Hitler, who was different from the imperial, but fundamentally liberal, British rule. Gandhi thought it would

be right for millions to happily die in the gas chambers than compromise on ideas of civility and decency.

 

Gandhi

 

Roy finds Gandhi redundant because his politics depended on a certain degree of theatricality and the presence of an audience, something denied to the naxals and the tribals. This is right in a way, since even Roy, the city- dwelling champion of those in the forest, has to invoke Gandhi in order to be heard in order to carry off her own piece of theatre. She obviously knows that the modern Indian state has nothing to do with either Gandhian ideas or with Gandhian methods.

 

Had she said Manmohan Singh is pious humbug or Sonia Gandhi is pious humbug, foreign newspapers would

hardly have reproduced her article in their pages. Both Mont Blanc and Arundhati Roy need Gandhi, after all, to sell their products.

 

Having said this, Roy is " right" that Gandhi has little to say about the plight of the naxals and tribals, and even

much less about the mining sharks and the marauding multinationals active in India.

 

But he also did not have much to say about the cell phone, the ipod and cybercrime.

 

In sharp contrast, Roy is better placed in having a view about all things known and unknown.

 

She suffers from no degree of doubt, has little sense of irony and no humour. Along with the BJP and certain strands of the loony Left, she has opened her own National Bureau of Moral Certification.

 

We now await the founding of her autonomous republic, where the heart will always be full, but the mind empty.

 

The writer teaches politics at the University of Hyderabad

 

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MAIL TODAY

     COLUMN

DECCAN BUZZ

A SRINIVASA RAO

 

ROSAIAH COMES OUT OF YSR'S SHADOW

LAST week, the Andhra Pradesh government led by K Rosaiah took two crucial decisions: first, it increased the power tariff for industrial and commercial sectors, fetching around Rs 3,000 crore to the state exchequer; second, it slashed the number of seats meant for students from rural areas in the three Indian Institutes of Information Technology ( IIITs) by 50 per cent, which would reduce the burden on the state exchequer by Rs 300 crore.

 

These are very bold decisions and one must admit that Rosaiah has taken calculated risks.

 

Though he has been claiming in every meeting that he would continue, in letter and spirit, the populist schemes

promised by YSR such as free power supply to farmers, rice at Rs 2 per kg, pensions, reimbursement of scholarships to students etc., he has been feeling the burden of the crippled situation of the state finances. Having been the finance minister of the state for several decades, he knows that implementation of such populist schemes would have serious consequences for the state exchequer. At the same time, he cannot withdraw the schemes as it would have severe political repercussions.

 

A few days ago, the Planning Commission, during a meeting with state government officials, took serious note of the financial implications of YSR's populist schemes and suggested that the government deal with the schemes on their merit.

 

Rosaiah began doing exactly that. He examined the welfare and developmental programmes initiated by YSR and instructed officials to focus on only those schemes which required immediate attention. For instance, under the Jalayagnam project, a flagship programme of the YSR government, he asked the officials to release funds to only those irrigation projects which could be completed within the scheduled time.

 

Secondly, he indefinitely deferred YSR's twin pre- poll promises of increasing the monthly quota of subsidised rice from 20 kg to 30 kg per family and raising the duration of free power supply to agriculture from seven hours to nine hours per day. Instead, he ordered weeding out of bogus ration cards on the pretext that it was essential to implementing the rice quota hike. It is said that there is also a plan to regulate the free power supply to farmers and restrict it only to the poorest among them, so as to check indiscriminate agricultural power consumption. Y et another promise of YSR, that is to reimburse the college fees of students from weaker sections, has also taken a backseat because of the huge financial burden. The recent cut in the number of seats in IIITs from 6,000 to 3,000 is also aimed at reducing this burden. Being a shrewed politician, Rosaiah does not want to take the entire blame on himself. At every cabinet meeting, he impresses upon his Cabinet colleagues that they have a collective responsibility for all these decisions. He involves the ministers in examining every decision and makes them responsible for implementing it. As a result, the ministers are compelled to defend Rosaiah's decisions, stating that they were inevitable due to the precarious financial position of the state.

 

However, Rosaiah's detractors within the Congress led by Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, are highly critical of these decisions. Jagan has just concluded a whirlwind tour of the West Godavari and Kadapa districts, invoking the spirit of his father, the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, and indirectly attacking the Rosaiah government for dumping YSR's schemes one after the other.

 

And Jagan has taken a vow that he would bring back the golden era of his father sooner or later.

PLEASANT SURPRISE FROM MIM

For those who have seen only aggressive and rabble- rousing public representatives of Majlis- e- Ittehadul Muslimeen ( MIM), the political party of Muslims in Hyderabad, the nomination of Syed Amin- ul- Hasan Jafri for the ensuing Legislative Council elections has come as a welcome change.

 

Jafri, who has nearly 38 years of journalistic experience, having worked with prominent media houses including Deccan Chronicle, Newstime, Rediff. com, Reuters, AFP, is considered a liberal Muslim intellectual and a walking encyclopedia of state politics. Though he has a long association with political parties by virtue of being a journalist, he has never evinced interest in politics and always maintained a lowprofile even in his writings.

 

So, it is but natural that Jafri's entry into politics, particularly from the MIM, has raised many eyebrows. It is for the first time since its inception six decades ago that the MIM has fielded a non- political person for the Legislative Council. However, Jafri has been sort of a political advisor to MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, giving him intellectual inputs on various issues to be raised in the Assembly and Parliament.

 

Perhaps thats why he was chosen for the MLC seat. " By fielding Jafri for the Council seat, we want to acknowledge the fact the society needs not just politicians but intellectuals as well," said Owaisi. One hopes that Jafri would bring a welcome relief from the aggressive and communal politics of the MIM.

 

JOURNALISTS ON A COLLISION COURSE WITH GOVERNMENT

MEDIA persons in the state are fuming and fretting at Chief Minister K Rosaiah these days. Reason: the Chief Minister appointed senior IPS officer P S R Anjayeulu as Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada, much against the demands of the Press Council of India.

 

The PCI conducted a detailed inquiry into the high- handed behaviour of the police led by Anjaneyulu, who was then a Joint Commissioner of Police in Hyderabad, against media persons covering the police atrocities in Osmania University in February during the Telangana agitation. The PCI, in its recommendations sent to the Chief Secretary, wanted disciplinary action to be taken against three top cops, including Anjaneyulu, Mahesh Chandra Laddha and K Ramachandra, who had indiscriminately beaten up the journalists and damaged their equipment and vehicles. It also recommended that these officers should not be given any key postings.

 

But within a week of the PCI submitting its report, Rosaiah promoted Anjaneyulu to the rank of DIG and posted him as the Vijayawada Police Commissioner. This angered journalists, who, under the auspices of the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists, protested against the appointment. They also reminded that the High Court had severely indicted Anjaneyulu. But Rosaiah bluntly said that he was not bound by the PCI recommendations and would go by the rules. The journalists are now gearing up for a big fight with the government.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 COMMENT

PLAY BY THE RULES

 

This IPL is going to be remembered as much for off-the-field action as the actual cricket itself. Nothing summed that up better than the suspension of IPL chairman Lalit Modi, universally credited for putting together the tournament, even as its final was on. On Monday, the IPL governing council, without the presence of Modi, unanimously appointed Chirayu Amin, head of the Baroda Cricket Association, interim chairman of the league. The council has also slapped 22 charges of impropriety against Modi, including accepting kickbacks while assigning the telecast rights to IPL matches.

The BCCI has taken this drastic action in the wake of the ugly controversies surrounding the IPL, beginning with allegations that the bidding for the latest franchisees was rigged. But the way it has gone about it leaves much to be desired. For one, it seems Modi is being made the scapegoat whereas logically the IPL governing council should collectively be answerable to charges of impropriety. Two, it's not just Modi who faces conflict of interest issues; there are others in the IPL governing council in the same boat. Three, why did the BCCI wait so long before getting its act together?

At present, the board's chief administrative officer has been entrusted the job of looking into the records and documents of the IPL. But if there is to be real transparency, an inquiry must be conducted by people from outside the BCCI. The implications of the IPL mess, which has claimed a Union minister, go much beyond cricket. The income tax authorities have begun conducting raids to seize documents related to the bidding process and other financial transactions of the IPL. As some have suggested, lessons could be learned from the Satyam example where an independent body was set up to go into the company's financial impropriety. For IPL, too, a regulatory body comprising people with impeccable credentials, including former cricketers, could be set up to probe the various allegations. This would be a better alternative than a parliamentary probe, which could end up taking too much time and, besides, spare the politicians.

The IPL controversy involves too much money and far too many people for it to be left to the BCCI alone. In a short span of three years, the IPL is being rated as one of the richest sporting leagues in the world. If the IPL brand is to regain its credibility, the BCCI must ensure that the clean-up is thorough and the functioning of cricket bodies becomes more transparent. Only then will it restore the confidence of investors and millions of cricket fans.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 COMMENT

BOXES, LITTLE BOXES

 

It's a unique way of narrating a nation in numbers. But does the census give a correct picture of India? Or, is it an exercise where we are forced to limit ourselves in predetermined categories? Take the case of religion. The census records the religious identity of all Indian citizens. It is assumed that each citizen firmly believes in one religion and holds allegiance only to that religion. It discounts the possibility that there may be people who derive their faith from multiple religious sources which, in fact, is not so unusual in India. There is no space for an atheist or an agnostic in the scheme of the census. It is time the census makes provision for all these categories of people to record their beliefs.

It is presumptuous on the part of the state to slot citizens into predetermined religious selves discounting the fact that faith is a fluid concept and keeps evolving. The faithful don't always respect the boundaries the state or the clergy draws to differentiate between different faiths. The state must respect the syncretism that the faithful uphold. Allow a person to be enumerated as Mohammedan-Hindu, as some communities used to be described in the past, or as a follower of Christ and of Krishna, if she wishes so. Separate categories could also be conceived for religion by birth and religion by belief. There is nothing exotic or unusual about this demand because many Indic traditions have evolved by drawing from different fountains of faith and by sharing texts and tenets. There are, of course, puritans who oppose such collaborative exercises in the search for Truth. By refusing to admit syncretic categories of faith, the census, inadvertently, contributes to the consolidation of religious communities as favoured by conservative sections within them.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 EDITORIAL

DON'T STOP REACHING OUT

 

We're not alone, suggests celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking. The universe has 100 billion galaxies, so it's logical to expect life to exist out there. True. Given that a single galaxy contains hundreds of millions of stars, we can scarcely cling to an inflexible belief in earth's monopoly on life. But it's harder to support Hawking's idea that we earthlings shouldn't try to contact extraterrestrials. Human nature, he argues, is a clue that visitors from outer space may be hostile. If men have fought, looted and plundered down history, aliens too may be resource-seeking raiders. We should, therefore, lie low rather than court devastation by encountering space nomads on possible missions of inter-galactic conquest and colonization.

Hawking's position is deeply problematic. Pursuit of knowledge is science's defining core. This quest bears risks that can't always be pre-assessed. Abiding optimism is yet the basis of the scientific enterprise, not fear that paralyses. Science means pushing frontiers from particle physics to space probes and space may not even be the final frontier. Also, seeing everything in their own image is a peculiar and dangerous proclivity humans need to overcome. To believe extraterrestrials will be a mirror image of man that too of his darker side is to lean on an anthropocentrism that has no scientific basis.

If anything, the earth's biodiversity itself suggests the universe may bear life in multifarious forms. And even if intelligent aliens exist and do resemble us, it's hubris to think they couldn't have superior social organisations or moral systems based on civilized values like non-violence and harmony. Why should they necessarily be evil rather than good? The point is simple. Aliens may come with fangs bared. Or they may come in peace. If we being true to the best in the human spirit don't reach out to them, we'll never know, will we?

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

A WAY OF CORPORATE LIFE

RUFINA FERNANDES

 

The ministry of corporate affairs released a document, Corporate Social Responsibility Voluntary Guidelines 2009, sometime ago. In a nutshell, this document urges corporate India to voluntarily adopt CSR so that statutory regulations may not be imposed, something the present government seems reluctant to do. It also suggests that this stance could be revisited in a year's time to review the scenario based on the response received

rom various industries.

In essence, the document was a positive, forward-thinking move by the government as is evident from its view that CSR must not be seen as philanthropy and, in fact, needs to be stated in writing and merged with core business vision and goals. It further stated the need to set goals and metrics to measure performance in this area, set in place independent audits of the same, and to communicate CSR activities and spends to internal and external stakeholders.

The core elements of the paper are somewhat open-ended relating to stakeholder rights, human rights, ethical functioning, environment and social and inclusive development. On the other hand, the implementation mechanisms are more focused and structured. Partnerships with NGOs, knowledge sharing between firms and collaboration are the three main thrusts in terms of implementation of CSR-related activities.

Some important recommendations are that companies must commit and dedicate a certain percentage of profits to CSR and those that do not do so ought to communicate to their shareholders their reason for so abstaining. It is further suggested that companies should try to actively influence their supply chain in this matter. The document suggests that companies should network with peers, exchange information on CSR and collaborate amongst themselves and relevant civil society organisations where necessary.

These guidelines are explicitly voluntary. However, it is mentioned that unless the industry response and action are swift and positive, the government may consider making the same mandatory. Two aspects come immediately to mind when faced with such a scenario. One, since governments are influenced by the needs of the corporate community, new laws that constrain corporate behaviour are only likely to be established if they align with (or at least do not undermine) competitive opportunities for the major market players. A case in point is the reaction of industries to the talk of affirmative action.

Second, no matter how comprehensive rules and regulations are, they are ineffective unless regularly monitored to ensure compliance. For credible monitoring systems, there has to be transparency and independence, both of which must by their very nature be voluntary for the most part.

While the government must realise that its role should essentially remain that of a facilitator, the corporate sector must realise that organisations can successfully and profitably address all three elements of the 'triple bottom line' and, in doing so, become innovative. Management, innovation and sustainability research is increasingly demonstrating that sustainability can open doors to new business models and engage new markets. This has to be done by strengthening links with supply chains, and engaging with local communities, governments, NGOs and even competitors as laid down by the government document.

While India Inc has been progressive about CSR, not all companies have active engagements in this area and it is unlikely that all will, at least not voluntarily. However, the number of companies that have made public commitments to environmental protection, social justice and equity as well as economic development is increasingly on the rise and continues to grow. This trend will be reinforced if shareholders and other stakeholders support and reward companies that conduct their operations in the spirit of sustainability.

A question that comes to mind at this point is whether stakeholders such as customers and civil society have power and influence over corporate India in this matter. The answer is no. In India, customers do not judge companies based on CSR activities but on brand equity. As such, domestic consumer consciousness in relation to cleaner technologies, community development, diversity policies, etc, is non-existent.

Further, the role of civil society in this area as compared to its influence and lobby in the West is limited. While there have been instances of civil society organisations influencing industries, these have been few and far between. Also, these have had more to do with the negative consequences of a company or an industry's actions (such as pollution control or infant food) rather than a push to constructive work. With estimates of close to two million NGOs in the country, it is imperative that the sector organises itself to act as an independent auditor advising and informing corporate India about its performance and lags.

The emerging global reality for businesses is that CSR can no longer be viewed as an optional project, but has to be seen as an intrinsic part of business, a way of life. The CSR guidelines are more likely to succeed because they have a basis on industry consensus and dialogue, and this is something the government will do well to keep in mind.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

THE SCIENTIST HAS A POINT

ANIL THAKKAR

 

When one of the world's leading cosmologists delivers his considered opinion on something intrinsically connected to his area of expertise, it pays to sit up and pay attention. The first part of Stephen Hawking's argument that somewhere in the universe, alien life is certain to exist is really not problematic at all. True, we have found no concrete evidence of this, but this proves nothing except our extremely limited capabilities. To believe that in a universe with trillions of stars, life has evolved on just one planet would be an act of monstrous, misguided anthropocentrism. And that leads to the second part of Hawking's argument. If we have not been able to effectively explore even our solar system, what makes us so eager to find life on other planets, and is it reasonable to search for it? The answers, in order, are 'misguided optimism' and 'no'.

For once, ironically, Hollywood might be right on this issue. While the numerous alien invasion movies it has churned out over the decades might be over the top and entirely lacking in coherence in many instances, their basic premise holds true what reason do we have for assuming that any alien life we come into contact with will be well disposed to us? If we do find more developed alien life forms or they find us they are far more likely to perceive us as alien elements in their environment and react accordingly. And if they have technical capabilities more advanced than humanity, it could be curtains for us.

As Hawking says, we need only look at ourselves to realise the likelihood of such a scenario. Our history is littered with the bones of conquered peoples. In any contact between two alien groups, uncertainty and resultant hostility are always likely to be the dominant factors, with the more powerful group trying to exploit the weaker.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

CAR-MA CHAMELEONS

VIVEK ATRAY

 

Not too many people have been able to master the art of parking a car in our busy cities. In recent times, with cars having gotten bigger, and egos bigger still, the task has become next to impossible. In earlier days, while planning the day, one did not have to factor in the extra time it would take to deposit one's car in a comfortable slot. Nowadays, in some cases, you could arrive at a meeting 20 minutes late simply on account of parking woes.

The number of vehicles on our roads has boomed so significantly that finding appropriate parking spaces for all of them is a humungous job. Certain other extraneous influences have also contributed to creating this unhappy situation for motorists. To start with, some big-car owners have the tendency to be in a tearing hurry while parking their monsters, and so position their cars at angles that take away at least three slots. These couldn't-

care-less gentlemen can safely be labelled as 'spoil-sports'.

Then there are the 'obstructionists': those who park their four-wheelers behind those already parked, thereby getting an earful when they finally return from their shopping, for having delayed the poor occupants of the blocked vehicle, and having made them miss the beginning of a movie, or whatever.

Next up, there are the 'novice-parkers': drivers who just do not know how to manoeuvre their cars into the narrow spaces available, thus holding up those behind them inordinately, and ultimately having to seek an expert's help to do the needful.

Even worse are the 'snatchers'. They are those who, though well aware that a vehicle-owner is politely awaiting the exit of another car, rush their machines into the vacant area in a flash, thereby turning the well-mannered driver of the waiting car into a fist-pumping angry young (or old) man.

The 'extremists' are those who park their cars so close to others that the neighbours cannot enter their own vehicles without acting like contortionists and wriggling through the narrowest of angles in order to get in. There are also the 'day-spenders': those couples who view parking slots as places to spend a day cosily, and who do not emerge from their cars at all, having found the ideal setting for their discussions, or for other activities.

I myself fall in an entirely different category, that of the 'parchi-loser'. It is quite a mystery to me how i manage, without fail, to lose the small slip that parking-lot attendants hand over to me. Try as i might, keeping it safely in my wallet or in my shirt-pocket or elsewhere, i can never find it when it is time to leave. Luckily for me, the other occupants of my car normally do not look like car-thieves or the attendant in question would never allow us to exit. A recent incident amply highlighted the travails of the modern-day car-owner. Here's what happened. One worthy found a car positioned right behind his own, and having no time to lose, he decided to try to push the offending object away. He prayed that it was in neutral gear and, happily, it was. Having discovered amazing reserves of strength and having managed to get the other car to move sufficiently away from his, he discovered to his horror that it had hit a mini-slope, and wouldn't stop! The resultant thud, bang and crash were heard many a mile away. Soon enough our friend had not one but two offended vehicle-owners to deal with. There was much pushing around thereafter, but it did not involve the cars.

 

Our man made a pledge that day. He decided never to use his car again, and to depend only on public transport. After all, he reckoned, the best place to park the car was at home.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

FOR WHOM THE DHOL TOLLS

 

British general elections, at the best of times, tend to be cheerless affairs: not only are the candidates themselves drab (none more so than the dour Scotsman, Gordon Brown), but the very silence of the process can be a bit deafening to anyone used to the theatre of Indian campaigns.

A series of three American-style pre-election television debates was meant to spice up things. But theatre? Let's just say it resembles a three-hour-long serious British play full of 'dramatic pauses.'

Pitting Labour's Brown against David Cameron of the Conservative party and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, the debates have something of ritual British tidiness about them. The three candidates wear dark suits with single-colour ties, though a different colour on each appearance.

There are three television channels, and they take turns to air the debates. And, in an elaborate game of musical chairs, each candidate gets to stand in the centre of the stage at least once. Perhaps it is all meant to symbolise the widely-expected hung parliament.

And so it came as a welcome relief when Labour called reporters recently to cover an impromptu visit by Foreign Secretary David Miliband to the Guru Singh Sabha gurudwara in Southall, the largest Sikh temple outside India. Welcomed by a phalanx of residents of the world's most famous Indian diaspora neighbourhood, the minister tied a bright orange patka on his head before being escorted in by local MP Virendra Sharma.

This is another time-tested ritual of the British election campaign, perhaps borrowed from India — minister makes his way to a South Asian neighbourhood, visits places of worship and tucks into a plate of hot curry; local MP gets to show off the important visitor; minister trundles off back to Whitehall, happily assured of Asian votes.

But the great thing about this process is that it brings a tiny bit of noise and colour into the campaign. As Miliband left the gurudwara, having taken its delicious langar, a group of Punjabi dhol players appeared from nowhere and struck up a boisterous rhythm.

And infectious it was too. Now all of a sudden, members of Miliband's team (also in orange patkas) were walking in a strange and bouncy gait — somewhere halfway between the full-on Bhangra dance and a diffident shake of the leg.

Sharma was beaming, skipping in order to keep up with the tall Miliband who strode youthfully at the head of the joyous group.

The young Punjabi dhol players led the procession, dancing and bounding their way past smiling shopkeepers as the familiar theatre of an Indian campaign briefly roused a corner of suburban London.

In the last few days before polling, loudspeakers will give the campaign the ultimate Indian touch — clearly, a carefully calibrated raising of pitch (and volume).

"But we're always careful when entering non-Indian streets," said Southall Labour veteran Ranjit Dheer. "They don't like too much noise there."

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

HOW TO SAVE A GOOD THING

 

Through Sunday night, India's most talked about reality show, the Indian Premier League, was temporarily eclipsed by India's most popular sporting event, the Indian Premier League. The final match itself was an extraordinary affair, played between one team led by India's favourite sportsman Sachin Tendulkar and the other, led by the Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Even purists, unable to stomach the Twenty20 format of the game — and for whom the IPL has been a tossed salad of top-class cricketers and those of the more garden variety — had to recognise that the tournament in its third chapter has been an unstoppable juggernaut. For seven straight weeks, the imagination of a nation with the attention span of a humming bird's wing flaps was hooked to the sporting spectacle. That despite the off-the-field din about malpractices and shady deals, the noisy sports festival managed to reach a fitting climax with the IPL trophy being lofted by the Chennai Super Kings is a testament to how successful the tournament has been.

Which is exactly why the IPL needs to be saved. Some would say that since April 11, when Lalit Modi decided to turn the tournament into a stadium-sized battle of egos, the IPL brand was destroyed. The fact that the IPL has been battered by charges and countercharges of corruption and wheeling-dealings cannot be doubted. Mr Modi's sheer talent to create and firm up a $4 billion-plus industry cannot hide the fact that something equally gargantuan and unsavoury in its business practices has come out in the public domain. This thick patina of sleaze must be removed.

While the media, hungry to fill up every incremental gap in a developing story, has been feeding off leaks and allegations, at the core of the issue lies the need to keep the IPL baby and throw out the muddy bathwater. This can be done only by having a transparent IPL in place, where the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) cleans its stables, if for nothing else, but to make a very successful sporting brand not become synonymous with corporate thievery and shenanigans. It was evident on Sunday night, when players including Tendulkar and Dhoni spoke about the success of the IPL and how they look forward to next year's tournament, how much of a success the IPL has been. It's wrong to think that the tournament's survival depends on under-the-table deals. Make it a fully transparent, professional body and everyone can reap the rewards of one of the biggest mega-events in the world without being having to be tarnished by muck.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

LITTLE ANTI-GREEN MEN

 

Picture this scenario. You're pottering around your house minding your own business when suddenly there's a flash of coloured lights on your balcony. From a flying saucer-like object, out step little scaly men, their heads wobbling on green stem-like necks. "Take us to your leader," they say. Do you engage them in banter, invite them in for a gin and tonic or direct them to Lalit Modi for a possible inter-galactic IPL series? None of the above if you were to take astrophysicist Stephen Hawking's advice seriously.

Professor Hawking says that instead of scanning the skies hoping that some alien life form will contact you, please don't have stars in your eyes about what could exist in the swirling galaxies light years away. Avoid all contact with ETs. They are likely to be predators who may raid the Earth for its resources. The poor man seems to think that this will frighten us Earthlings. But we don't need any scaly number from Andromeda to come around and loot and plunder. Why, we could teach them a lesson or two in the subject of the scorched earth policy on vital resources. Hawking also thinks that a visit from some supernova could be risky. Clearly, the aliens he has in mind have not been to some of our inner city areas where some of the sights would be enough for an automatic gender change in any alien.

If the aliens are indeed predators, we have sent them enough signals that they would be quite at home here. Look how efficiently we have used up our forests, sucked dry our clean water bodies, gently fouled the air and stuffed our faces with transfats. We have nothing to fear. So, to the professor we say, we're not all that keen to have more plunderers in our midst, we are doing a good job ourselves. But if they decide to drop in, they might be shopping for spares to get back up into the black hole if we have our way.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

LOST THEIR APPETITE

SITARAM YECHURY

 

Minutes after the Indian Premier League 3 final match ended, IPL chief Lalit Modi was suspended from his post. So far, the scandalous exposures of a massive scam appear only to be the tip of the iceberg. Parliament continues to be rocked by the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate this scam. The IPL is turning out to be a savage expression of 'crony capitalism'. The prime minister, on several occasions, had decried that India can ill-afford 'crony capitalism'. His sincerity will be tested on this score by the government's acceptance, or otherwise, of constituting a JPC.

Meanwhile, various parts of the country are today experiencing a nationwide hartal called by 13 Left and secular Opposition parties protesting against the relentless rise in the prices of all essential commodities. The contrast between the IPL and below poverty line (BPL) India cannot be more stark. The people's mounting anger at their economic hardships continues with the inflation rate that stands at 9.89 per cent. It is way ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's revised target of 8.5 per cent. Worse is the fact that food inflation stands at 17.22 per cent.

There is a newfound euphoria regarding the so-called 'recovery' of the Indian economy overcoming global recession. This is based on the fact that the index of industrial production (IIP) grew at 17.6 per cent in December 2009, 16.7 per cent in January 2010 and 15.1 per cent in February.

Notwithstanding the low base of last year due to global recession, these may appear to be healthy rates of growth. There is, however, a very important fact hidden behind these aggregate figures. Within this high IIP growth rate is the fact that consumer durables (automobiles, refrigerators, TVs, etc) grew by 29.9 per cent while consumer non-durables (mainly food and other articles of daily consumption) grew by a mere 2.3 per cent. This is for the month of February 2010. For the year 2009-10, the average growth of consumer non-durables was just 1.6 per cent as compared to 25.75 per cent for consumer durables.

It is universally accepted that the consumption of non-durable items is driven by low and middle income consumers, who spend a bulk of their money on food and not so much on consumer durables. The credit rating agency, Information and Credit Rating Agency (Icra), states in its latest report that "inflation has affected the purchasing power of the lower income group, especially food inflation, and that is reflecting in the deceleration of growth in the consumer non-durables sector". This clearly shows that the vast majority of the people continue to suffer due to this relentless rise in the prices of essential commodities.

Under these circumstances, it was widely expected that the UPA 2 government would use the much tom-tommed National Food Security Act as its new mascot.  Perhaps, the absence of the Left's pressure (unlike UPA 1 where this pressure led to the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is preventing this government from implementing its own election pledges: "The Indian National Congress pledges to enact a Right to Food law that guarantees access to sufficient food for all people, particularly the most vulnerable sections of society."

Echoing this, the president, in her first address to the joint Parliament session after the UPA 2 government came to power, said: "My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all." The draft of such an Act that's currently circulating neither guarantees 'access' nor does it provide 'sufficient food'. There is very little for 'all' people and nothing for the 'most vulnerable sections'. The National Advisory Council, recently resurrected under Sonia Gandhi's leadership, seems to have prevailed to ensure 35 kg of foodgrains per BPL family per month as against the initially proposed 25 kg.

UPA 2, however, is failing to reach a consensus on the very number of BPL families that exist. The Planning Commission currently estimates it at 65.2 million. However, the Suresh Tendulkar Committee, appointed by the Planning Commission, estimates the BPL population as 83.2 million. In contrast, the number of BPL cards issued by state governments totals 108.68 million. Clearly, if food security is to be seen in the limited scope of providing only foodgrains, even then they should reach at least 108.68 million people. The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector has estimated that at least 77 per cent of our population survives on less than Rs 20 a day. This may be the closest approximation of 'Real India'. Food security in its complete sense, however, must embrace nutrition security — apart from other aspects determining the quality of life.

Given the Indian reality of an unacceptably high maternal mortality and child malnutrition— at 46 per cent (twice the rate in sub-Saharan Africa) — nothing short of a universal public distribution system (PDS) would be sufficient to change the situation. Every adult resident — not family — of the country must be covered by the PDS with entitlements of 14 kg of cereals per month at Rs 2 per kg, 1.5 kg of pulses at Rs 20 per kg and 800 gms of cooking oil at Rs 35 per kg with children getting half the entitlements. Also, ration cards should be made in the name of the female head of the household. The National Food Security Act must contain these entitlements if the aim is to assure food security for all. If thousands of crores of rupees can be made to feed the IPL, then, surely, resources can — and must — be found to guarantee food security for BPL India.

Sitaram Yechury is CPI(M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP The views expressed by the author are personal 

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Man proposes; nature disposes. We are seldom more vulnerable than when we feel insulated. The miracle of modern flight protected us from gravity, atmosphere, culture, geography. It made everywhere feel local, interchangeable. Nature interjects, and we encounter -- tragically for many -- the reality of thousands of miles of sepa- ration. We discover that we have not escaped from the phys- ical world after all.

Complex, connected societies are more resilient than sim- ple ones -- up to a point. During the east African droughts of the early 1990s, I saw at first hand what anthropologists and economists have long predicted: those people who had the fewest trading partners were hit hardest. Connectivity provided people with insurance: the wider the geographical area they could draw food from, the less they were hurt by a regional famine.

But beyond a certain level, connectivity becomes a hazard.
The longer and more complex the lines of communication and the more dependent we become on production and business elsewhere, the greater the potential for disruption. This is one of the lessons of the banking crisis. Impoverished mortgage defaulters in the United States -- the butterfly's wing over the Atlantic -- almost broke the glob- al economy. If the Eyjafjallajökull volcano -- by no means a mon- ster -- keeps retching, it could, in these fragile times, produce the same effect.

We have several such vulner- abilities. The most catastrophic would be an unexpected solar storm -- which causes a surge of direct current down our elec- tricity grids, taking out the trans- formers. It could happen in sec- onds; the damage and collapse would take years to reverse, if we ever recovered.

As New Scientist points out, an event like this would knacker most of the systems which keep us alive. It would take out water treatment plants and pumping stations. It would paralyse oil pumping and delivery, which would quickly bring down food supplies. It would clobber hospitals, financial systems and just about every kind of business -- even the manufacturers of can- dles and paraffin lamps. Emergency generators would function only until the oil ran out. Burnt-out transformers cannot be repaired; they must be replaced. Over the past year I've sent freedom of information (FoI) requests to electricity transmit- ters and distributors, asking them what contingency plans they have made, and whether they have stockpiled transformers to replace any destroyed by a solar storm. I haven't got to the end of it yet, but the early results suggest that they haven't.

There's a similar lack of planning for the possibility that global supplies of oil might soon peak, then go into decline.
My FoI requests to the British government reveal that it has made no contingency plans. The issue remains the preserve of beardy lentil-eaters such as, er, the US joint forces com- mand. Its latest report on possible future conflicts maintains that "a severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity".

It suggests that "by 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10m barrels per day". A global oil shortage would soon expose the weaknesses of our complex economic systems. As the cultural anthropologist Joseph Tainter has shown, their dependence on high energy use is one of the factors that makes complex societies vulnerable to collapse.

His work has helped to overturn the old assumption that social complexity is a response to surplus energy. Instead, he proposes, complexity drives higher energy production. While complexity solves many problems -- such as reliance on an exclusively local and therefore vulnerable food supply -- it's subject to diminishing returns. In extreme cases, the cost of maintaining such systems causes them to collapse.

Tainter gives the example of the western Roman empire.
In the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the emperors Diocletian and Constantine sought to rebuild their diminished territories: "The strategy of the later Roman empire was to respond to a near-fatal challenge in the third century by increasing the size, complexity, power, and costliness of... the government and its army. ... The benefit/cost ratio of imperial government declined.
In the end the western Roman empire could no longer afford the problem of its own existence." The empire was ruined by the taxes and levies on manpower Diocletian and Constantine imposed to sustain their massive system. Tainter contrasts this with the strategies of the Byzantine empire from the 7th century onwards. Weakened by plague and re-invasion, the government responded with a programme of systematic sim- plification. Instead of maintaining and paying its army, it grant- ed soldiers land in return for hereditary military service: from then on they had to carry their own costs. It reduced the size and complexity of the administration and left people to fend for themselves. The empire survived and expanded.

A similar process is taking place in Britain today: a simplifi- cation of government in response to crisis. But while the pub- lic sector is being pared down, both government and private enterprise seek to increase the size and complexity of the rest of the economy. If the financial crisis were the only constraint we faced, this might be a sensible strategy. But the energy costs, environmental impacts and vulnerability to disruption of our super-specialised society have surely already reached the point at which they outweigh the benefits of increasing complexity.

For the third time in two years we've discovered that fly- ing is one of the weakest links in our overstretched system.
In 2008, the rising cost of fuel drove several airlines out of business. The recession compounded the damage; the volcano might ruin several more. Energy-hungry, weather-dependent, easily disrupted, a large aviation industry is one of the hard- est sectors for any society to sustain, especially one beginning to encounter a series of crises. The greater our dependence on flying, the more vulnerable we are likely to become.

The state of global oil supplies, the industry's social and environmental costs and its extreme vulnerability mean that current levels of flying -- let alone the growth the government anticipates -- cannot be maintained indefinitely. We have a choice. We can start decommissioning this industry while there is time and find ways of living happily with less of it. Or we can sit and wait for physical reality to simplify the system by more brutal means.

The Guardian

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

SACHS DIFFERENCE

 

It may appear unfair that Goldman Sachs, the giant investment bank, has become a catch-all for the world's new contempt for Wall Street, and international finance in general. After all, they survived, and even prospered. But two things militate against sympathy for Goldman. First, prospering partly because their major competitors collapsed. And second, there's the fear that some of that prosperity — and survival — came because they profited off insider knowledge that the securities they sold were doomed to tank in value. And so they're the focus of the US Senate's bipartisan anger, and of endless jokes.

 

Goldman's indictment in the US for fraud — for not telling investors that some of the securities they were selling were "designed to fail" — comes at an intriguing time.

 

Not just because it was the same week that the bank paid out over $5 billion in bonuses ("to its fraud division", as one comic helpfully explained) but because this week, as Goldman's bosses testify on Capitol Hill and everyone is leaking their internal e-mails, a new financial regulation bill comes up before the US Senate. The bill includes tougher regulation of complex securities — derivatives — and sets up a new consumer protection agency; it also, for now, provides for an industry-financed fund meant to streamline the winding down of banks, but that might be taken out in response to Republican pressure.

 

These provisions, however, are being questioned anew in light of what Goldman is accused of doing. If the allegations are true, goes this line of argument, how could they have been prevented by regulation — without, that is, over-regulating the sector? Or should new law focus on ending fraud at the expense of fixing systemic problems in the West — oversized banks, insufficient leverage and liquidity requirements, and tax loopholes? Perhaps the most telling accusation — that the US is over-regulating by focusing on rules that, as we in India know, can always be circumvented by smart people, instead of on "principles-based regulation", the preferred method elsewhere, including the UK. But principles-based regulation would require that regulators not be "captured" by those they intend to regulate. As another comic pointed out: "Why are government employees filing a civil suit against Goldman Sachs? That's just going to be embarrassing in a few years when they all go back to work at Goldman Sachs."

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

 

IN THE HAYSTACK?

 

After allegations that conversations of key political figures were tapped, the opposition has, expectedly, raised hell. L.K. Advani wrote an eloquent blogpost comparing this to Emergency-style repression, and arguing for strong protective legislation to check such surveillance. Now, the opposition is agitating for a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the issue.

 

This comes close on the heels of a demand for another JPC, to probe the IPL-BCCI tangle. JPCs, put together from both Houses to investigate matters of highest national importance, are rare affairs. Though they are widely perceived as the last word in rigour and impartiality, there have only been four such instances — over the Bofors scandal, over the two stock market scams in 1992 and 2001, over the cola-pesticides row in 2003. In a climate where national investigation and enforcement authorities are considered manipulable, JPCs are advocated for a neutral scrutiny. But, as the Bofors case shows, there is no guarantee that the JPC's verdict should be the last word on a politically flammable issue. As investigation goes, whether on phone tapping or the IPL, surely it is better to rely on organisations with the skills, the training and the explicit responsibility to hunt for wrongdoing.

 

Parliament, of course, reserves the right to weigh in on any matter it sees to be of concern. But the way the two Houses have been paralysed by serial demands for a JPC, a rarely used instrument and one that has never really been seen to have delivered adequate results, is cause for disquiet. Given that the clock is ticking on this Budget Session of Parliament and that many important bills are pending, the opposition would inspire more confidence if they facilitated discussion in the House on issues agitating them, instead of forcing repeat adjournments. Parliament is a forum where the executive is held to account. By reflexively falling upon a constant refrain — that too on a demand that has uncertain utility — opposition MPs fail to show the inventiveness needed to keep the big conversations moving in our legislatures.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

WEIGHING A VOTE

 

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg is not auctioning his party yet, though he may hold the key to the next UK government. LibDem grievances against the current electoral system run deep. The first-past-the-post system (the Westminster model India too employs) — apparently heavily biased towards Labour and which the pre-David Cameron Conservative Party had been even more loath to alter — could produce an outcome where Labour gets the least votes, and yet takes charge in the House of Commons by winning most seats; with a hung parliament a mere impediment. The LibDem vote is evenly distributed; Labour's heavily concentrated in urban and industrial constituencies; and the Tories get their goodies from the shires. As long as the character of most constituencies didn't change, the fight was concentrated in the "marginals", with parties vying for the few floating constituencies.

 

Therefore, even as all parties talk of some electoral reform, Clegg has made commitment to his blueprint for proportional representation mandatory for his support. But what he's calling for is the Single Transferable Vote, not the strict Dutch proportional representation, while Labour's been harping on Alternative Vote, so that "every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents". Officially, the Tories go as far as "equal value" for each vote by reducing discrepancies in electorate sizes.

 

The British electorate has changed, with old class-based party loyalties disappearing and votes becoming more fluid, altering the democratic dynamics. Thus it's argued that the mismatch between parliamentary power and political reality must go. Under a more proportional system, some say, the Tories would have had fewer seats in 1979, and Britain would have had a more diluted Thatcherism. But even LibDems perhaps fear a fully proportional system — which, while introducing full-scale coalition politics could make the same almost unworkable, as the experience of Holland and (constituency-less) Israel shows. This is an epic, Westminster-changing UK election — one India, especially, would do well to observe closely. What's uncontested is that some form of fairer representation is necessary.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT

K. SUBRAHMANYAM

 

Communication intelligence is the acquisition of a communication between two parties without their knowledge by a third party which may have a stake in that communication. Rama as a king going out at night to listen to what his subjects had to say about his rule and his overhearing a dhobi slandering Sita about her captivity by Ravana was a case of communication intelligence. Arabian Nights has stories of sultans going round the streets to listen in stealth to the opinions of citizens. According to Chanakya, a ruler must keep in touch with the views of his subjects through his spies overhearing the subjects' uninhibited conversation among themselves.

 

The modern history of communication intelligence starts with the Boer War where the British used radios for communication for the first time. An outstanding achievement of communication interception was when in 1917 the British intercepted and published the Zimmermann telegram from the Imperial German Foreign Minister to their Mexican ambassador asking the Mexican president to join Germany in the forthcoming war with the US. The publication of the telegram compelled the US to enter the war on the side of Britain and its allies.

 

Just before the outbreak of World War II, the German cryptographic machine fell into British hands. The British were able to break the German code and read all German radio signals. It was kept such a top secret that when information was available in advance that Coventry was going to be bombed heavily, Churchill refused to pass on the warning on the ground that safeguarding the secrecy of codebreaking was more crucial for winning the war. Similarly, Japanese codes were also broken by the US ahead of the outbreak of war with Japan and President Roosevelt and General George Marshall knew about the Japanese decision to declare war before the Japanese ambassador handed the declaration. Their communication to Pearl Harbour authorities did not reach in time. When candidate Tom Dewey was about to make it an election issue in the 1944 presidential election Marshall persuaded him from doing so in the name of national security. The victory of the allies in World War II was to a significant extent due to their outstanding success in communication intelligence.

 

Consequently, the US and UK have kept up their signal intelligence cooperation ever since. They have also the cooperation of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They have a shared communication intelligence system called ECHELON. Its capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax and data traffic, according to a December 16, 2005 article in The New York Times. Some critics claim the system is being used not only to search for terrorist plots, drug dealers' plans, and political and diplomatic intelligence but also for large-scale commercial theft, international economic espionage and invasion of privacy.

 

Since World War II, both in the US and the UK, intelligence agencies concluded an agreement with telephone and telegraph companies that all overseas communications would be made available to them. This has worked so far and the issue of privacy had not become an issue in those countries. It was by monitoring one of the overseas cables that the assassin of Martin Luther King was apprehended. In the US, the National Security Agency is today the biggest intelligence organisation. The NSA was created by legislation in 1952 and was tasked to acquire foreign intelligence while the FBI was to monitor internal communication intelligence under strict supervision of the courts. After 9/11, it was found that because of compartmentalisation intelligence that should have been shared was not done resulting in the intelligence failure. Thus, a Director of National Intelligence has been created to coordinate all intelligence agencies. The NSA has an arrangement with all US computer manufacturers that they will not sell any equipment which will give an encryption capability that cannot be decrypted by the organisation in a short period.

 

In India, signal intelligence was done by the Intelligence Bureau in a rudimentary form up to 1963, when the army established the Signals Intelligence Directorate in the aftermath of the 1962 war. When R&AW was established it developed a wing for signal intelligence. In spite of its meagre resources, its outstanding achievement was the taping of the telephone conversation of General Musharraf in Beijing and his chief of general staff, General Aziz, in Islamabad during the Kargil war exposing the Pakistani army's role. The Kargil Committee emphasised the role of signal intelligence for national security and recommended a separate dedicated intelligence organisation for the purpose of the country putting in its optimum effort. This was accepted by the group of ministers of the NDA government and the National Technical Research Organisation was established in 2004 and the R&AW section dealing with signal intelligence was the core around which the new organisation was developed. Its most spectacular achievement was recording the conversation between the 26/11 terrorists and their handlers in Pakistan. Without that signal intelligence neither India nor the US could have nailed the Pakistani lies and compelled Pakistan to acknowledge the origin of the terrorists in Pakistan.

 

As in all organisations at the stage of incipient development there are turf battles and seniority and promotion grievances in the NTRO too. Disgruntled people would leak information, as in this case, partly correct and partly distorted. Just now there is a case of an NSA person undergoing trial in the US for sharing information with the media. The NTRO's role requires it to monitor specific communication links as well as carrying out general sweeps which would reveal new security targets which will have to be focussed on. Such general sweeps may record telephone conversations of innocent, law-abiding citizens. Abuse of the facility to snoop on political opponents is in the same category as abusing the police or administration for political purposes. The common man is as much interested in preventing the abuse of privacy as he is in eliminating the abuse of the police and administration by our politicians or of parliamentary procedures. Terrorists, military establishments of potentially hostile countries, drugs and arms smugglers, money launderers, organised crime bosses and their political and bureaucratic contacts would like to weaken this valuable tool of intelligence.

 

Mature democracies have found an optimum between the imperative of signal intelligence in this information age and the norms of privacy and civil liberty. But mature democracies do not also abuse their police, administration and parliamentary procedures. Can we expect our parliamentarians to achieve an all-party consensus on the norms for use of signal intelligence when they are unable to do so in ensuring the smooth, unhindered and dignified conduct of our parliamentary proceedings?

 

The writer is a senior defence analyst

 

express@expressindia.com

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

FRAMED BY MIRCHPUR

VIPIN PUBBY

 

Haryana is one of the fastest growing states of the country — at 9 per cent, compared to the national average of 7.2 per cent and way ahead of Punjab (of which it was a part till 1966), stagnating at 6.7 per cent. It ranks among the top in agriculture production and has a sound industrial and infrastructure base. The state has to its credit several path-breaking initiatives relating to the welfare of women and girl-children, from free education for girls up to the college level and 33 per cent reservation for women in teachers' jobs. Its innovative steps for pensioners and other welfare measures have been adopted by other states.

 

However, it has an unenviable track record as far as law and order is concerned, increasingly associated with reports of honour killings, diktats by khap panchayats (geographical or gotra-based self-elected bodies), inter-caste clashes, industrial unrest, highway robberies, rapes and gang wars. Of late, the credibility of the state police has also taken a beating. Apart from convicted former DGP S.P.S. Rathore and former IGP R.K. Sharma, several police officers have been facing serious charges. A rape victim committed suicide outside the office of the DGP because she was not heard despite repeated efforts. Another such victim took her life outside the office of an IGP who had also refused to provide her justice. Its Special Task Force (STF), comprising handpicked police personnel, was recently disbanded as it was caught running an extortion racket.

 

That its intelligence wing is either dysfunctional or inefficient is evident from the recent Jat-Dalit clash in Mirchpur village in Hisar district. There was a stand-off between the communities for two days but no step was taken to defuse the situation. The decision to suspend the SHO concerned after the violence claimed the life of a polio-stricken girl and her father was too late, and it will, most likely, not be long before he is reinstated.

 

Recently, there has been a spurt in incidents that reassert the khaps' clout. This is partly due to the fact that panchayat elections are on the anvil next month and none of the political parties wants to take on the mini-khaps and lose their votebanks in the villages. Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who survived a scare in the assembly elections last year, is grappling with the question of his government's survival. Confining himself to the line that "law would take its own course", Hooda has shown no political will to take on those who play havoc with the rule of law. His rival, Om Prakash Chautala, is no better. He has, in fact, demanded an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to ban intra-gotra marriages with a clear eye on placating the khaps.

 

Khap panchayat leaders, meanwhile, assert that there is not one instance where khaps have ordered the killing of a couple. The chief of the powerful Meham khap, Randhir Singh, says that they stand for brotherhood and age-old tradition. The khaps do not favour violence but it is the family members of the affected parties who indulge in it for their izzat, he asserts. But it is evident that the khaps provide tacit support to such acts. In a recent incident, a court official was lynched to death by a mob when he had gone to execute court orders. All that the police had been doing is registering cases against unidentified persons who remain unidentified and subsequently the cases fall flat.

 

Shockingly, despite such a poor track record and lack of political will to take on those making a mockery of law and human rights, the state does not have a human rights commission. Even neighbouring Punjab has a vibrant commission which takes suo motu notice of such violations and directs the government to take action. The victims can, at best, approach the National Human Rights Commission but few have the knowledge or means to knock on its door. Haryana politicians do not seem to realise that all the gains made by the state in other fields can come to nought if they do not control the downward slide of the law and order situation in the state.

 

vipin.pubby@expressindia.com

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

'TERRORISM WILL NOT PREVENT PEOPLE FROM TRAVELLING TO INDIA OR ELSEWHERE'

 

The Oberoi-Trident, Mumbai, which was completely destroyed in the 26/11 attack, reopened its doors to the public on Saturday. In this Walk the Talk with The Indian Express Editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta, PRS Oberoi, Chairman and CEO, The Oberoi Group, spoke about the renovation, setting high standards, the Oberoi hotels in the pipeline and why he will never retire

 

Shekhar Gupta: Welcome to Walk the Talk. It's a great feeling. This was the hotel that was in the global media just a year-and-a-half ago in very unfortunate circumstances.

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, this hotel was unfortunately completely destroyed.

 

Shekhar Gupta: This was the battlefield.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes. They put bombs here. And a lot of grenades. They broke everything. They wanted to kill as many people and do as much damage as they could.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Where were you when you heard of this and what came to your mind?

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, I was living in the hotel that day but I had gone to North Bombay for a function. While I was there, I was told there had been an attack. First they thought it was a gang war. Half an hour later, they said it was a terrorist attack. I didn't know what to make of it. When I came and saw what they had done two days later, it was a shock. I was practically in tears. I didn't how long it would take to restore the hotel. It has been completely rebuilt now. Everything, except the structure, is new. I must give credit to our people. They worked very hard to get it to this standard. Eventually what matters is the customers.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Do you think the terror attack changes the business of travel forever?

 

PRS Oberoi: No. For instance, people used to be irritated when they were frisked at the airports. I remember they felt it was unnecessary. Now, in so far as hotels or other buildings are concerned, people want to feel secure. They are willing to be frisked.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Looking back, could there have been anything with this hotel that could have avoided this?

 

PRS Oberoi: I don't think so. The way they entered the hotel, shooting and killing people, I don't think anything could have... Our staff behaved wonderfully. They were very brave. From the two restaurants in the Trident, they evacuated over 200 people—through the kitchen, through the ballroom and into the Inox theatre.

 

Shekhar Gupta: That was a brave thing to do.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes. And a lot of them came back into the hotel to save guests.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Did it also worry you that this might affect people coming to India?

 

PRS Oberoi: Well it did. For the first year, people were refusing to come to South Bombay. They used to go to

North Bombay. I think it was a psychological thing. The sea is next door.

 

Shekhar Gupta: At the time, I met a lot of travellers from overseas who had stayed at the Trident and they said, 'I came back within a week because I have faith. I have faith in India and I have faith in the Indian service industry'.

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, I think there were very few of those.

 

Shekhar Gupta: So what was the most worrying thing that somebody said to you—your guests, your friends...?

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, nobody really said anything. They were very curious after the first month—they wanted to know when the hotel would reopen.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Did you let anyone come and look at what was going on?

 

PRS Oberoi: No. Very few people saw it. It was horrific. This whole atrium was black with soot. Everything was broken. There was a lot of water damage. I saw blood where someone was shot.

 

Shekhar Gupta: You've now rebuilt it. A restaurant where many people were killed has been renamed Fenix, which is very symbolic.

 

PRS Oberoi: I think it's a good name. It wasn't my choice. The president of the Oberoi Hotels and Resorts, Liam Lambert, chose it.

 

Shekhar Gupta: It's a good name. In fact it is the only reminder. This and the plaque on the other side mentioning the names of your staff who died unfortunately in that attack. These are the two reminders of what happened.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes.

 

Shekhar Gupta: More than five years ago, on Walk the Talk, you talked about the problems—the bad state of our airports, the shortage of airline seats coming to India and going out, visa problems, shortage of hotels. Many of those problems have miraculously got solved in the past five years. But a new one has come—security and terrorism.

 

PRS Oberoi: Terrorism is everywhere today. Wherever you travel, you are not 100 per cent safe. So I don't think that will prevent people from travelling to India or elsewhere.

 

Shekhar Gupta: What are hotels doing to give people a new sense of security?

 

PRS Oberoi: I think most hotels have done whatever they can. For instance, we have 50 people in security. Some of them are armed. Earlier we weren't allowed to have armed people. We have many more cameras now—I can't tell you how many for obvious reasons. We have very good fire protection. It was so good that when the attack happened, the whole hotel was full of water because the attackers had forced some of our staff to light fires. They poured liquor on table cloths and napkins and set them on fire.

 

Shekhar Gupta: The business has changed. There are many more hotels in Mumbai—and all over India—now than before. So the competition is much greater.

 

PRS Oberoi: I think competition is better for the industry. It is better for tourism. People have a choice. With our GDP growth at 8 per cent or more, I hope that in the future, more people will be travelling to India. Tourists are still not travelling. Visas are still a big complaint.

 

Shekhar Gupta: The last time we talked, you talked of the past. You said that anytime you talked of opening a hotel, someone in the government would say it's a waste, rooms will be lying empty. You said that if you had half a chance, you would rebuild the Delhi Oberoi.

 

PRS Oberoi: When we built our hotels in Jaipur, Udaipur, the 'vilas' hotels... When the Jaipur hotel was six months from opening, I was in London. I asked Sonny Iqbal to do a little survey, talk to people who travel to India, businessmen, travel agents, airline people and ask them how we will fare against our competitor. Because we were building a very special hotel. He said one of our competitors, with poor service and poor staff, had a very good image. That worried me. So I said, we can't call it the Oberoi Jaipur because people will think it's a multi-storied hotel like Delhi or Bombay. Somebody came up with the name Rajvilas. We named our new hotels Oberoi Rajvilas, Oberoi Udaivilas, etc. Our future hotels, I think, will all be of that standard. Since Rajvilas and Udaivilas were built, our competitor's hotels have improved considerably. So we have done a service to the country.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Well, you have always set the standard. Is that something your father taught you or something you learned over time?

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, I lived in hotels till I was over 40. We didn't have a home till 1973. Hotels are in our blood. And quality, of course. My father said to me, you should build hotels that are amongst the best in the world. We achieved it.

 

Shekhar Gupta: He read all the guest comments himself even well into his 90s.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes. And I do too. When I meet friends I ask them what was wrong in the hotel. They are surprised. I say, don't be embarrassed, you pay good money to stay or eat in a hotel.

 

Shekhar Gupta: So what was it that was bad once and that you had to fix?

 

PRS Oberoi: Room service is one. People expect breakfast served on time in their rooms. Businessmen, particularly.

 

Shekhar Gupta: I remember a time when smoking was not such a bad thing and I think you had a law that in a lobby or a restaurant, no guest should be allowed to light a cigarette by himself. Somebody should reach out...

 

PRS Oberoi: And always with a match, never with a lighter. I'm old-fashioned.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Between you and your father, you cover 150 years. Did you have arguments with him?

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, we did have discussions. Some arguments. For instance, he wanted this hotel to be known as the annexe of Oberoi Towers. And I said, it's got a new lobby, new restaurants, it's a new, much superior hotel. Eventually I won. He was a very good father. He was more a friend than a father. We once had a discussion about whether we should install computers or TV sets. This is maybe 25-30 years ago. And he said, everybody is saying we should have TV sets. I said computers would help us a lot. He succumbed. I think we were the first company to computerise. We got TV sets later.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Tell us about the arguments you have with your son, nephew and your top management teams.

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, we have arguments about what is good interior design and what is not. Usually I prevail.

 

Shekhar Gupta: So what is next? You are building hotel after hotel. You are renovating them. Your face lights up when you talk about them.

 

PRS Oberoi: The next hotel will open up in Gurgaon. Then we have the Dubai opening. We are working on a hotel in Morocco. An Oberoi is under construction in Hyderabad. So we are quite busy. We have four-five Trident openings.

 

Shekhar Gupta: You think your children and your management team will be able to maintain the same quality?

 

PRS Oberoi: I hope so. People understand quality in our company. When people ask me what my biggest asset is, my answer invariably is people. I spend a lot of time on people.

 

Shekhar Gupta: At 81, you look fitter than most people your age. What is it? Is it work? Is it a state of mind? What keeps the Oberois going?

 

PRS Oberoi: If you work and you like your work, it keeps you younger. I never intend to retire. I will work as long as I can.

 

Shekhar Gupta: The other thing in your business is that you tend to work with young people all the time.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes. We have a very young team. I think the average age of our managers must be 35.

 

Shekhar Gupta: And now they have a reputation. Wherever you go, you find somebody from the Oberoi. Even Al Burj in Dubai is full of former Oberoi people.

 

PRS Oberoi: We are proud of that. When people want to leave, they come to me. I always like to see them before they leave. I try and advise them that if they are bettering their lives, I have no quarrel with it. Some people go and start their own businesses. And some of them come back in senior positions because they've had experience. They've travelled.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Now with globalisation, just like your people get jobs overseas, do you also hire a lot of expats?

 

PRS Oberoi: Not too many. We probably have .1 per cent expats in the company.

 

Shekhar Gupta: If there is something you want to tell the government—because we still get very few tourists—what would it be? What is the next thing to do?

 

PRS Oberoi: I think we have to do something about visas. Most people don't know that till 1982 you didn't need a visa to travel to India. There were only two countries that needed you to get a visa those days—South Africa and Rhodesia.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Israel as well.

 

PRS Oberoi: About Israel, I don't remember. You can go to Sri Lanka without a visa. You can go to Thailand. And it doesn't always work in reciprocity.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Visa is one thing. What else?

 

PRS Oberoi: I think infrastructure, generally. Power and water are becoming a big problem.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Are you recycling water in your hotel? Fully?

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes, of course, everywhere. We use all the water for our gardens. We don't let it go waste.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Are you water-harvesting in your new buildings? Because the new trend seems to be green hotels. ITC has built one in Bangalore.

 

PRS Oberoi: Not only that, we are very conscious of power. In our rooms, for example—the new rooms in this hotel—there is only 500 watts of power.

 

Shekhar Gupta: That is because you've used LCD.

 

PRS Oberoi: We've used the latest technology. New bulbs for lighting, for example. I think we have to be very conscious of the environment. And our guests want to know what we are doing. They are becoming very conscious. So if you are not being environmentally friendly, they frown upon it.

 

Shekhar Gupta: You've seen history being made. In your business you have made history. What do you predict for your industry in the next 20 years? What will be the next big cutting edge changes now?

 

PRS Oberoi: I think we haven't scratched the surface of the industry. After all, we are over a billion people. People say there are more hotel rooms in Las Vegas than in the whole of India. And they say that about Beijing. We need hotels of all categories—one star, two star, three star, four star and quality hotels.

 

Shekhar Gupta: The quality budget hotel could be the symbol of growing India.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes. Indians are travelling more now. They have to travel if there is more business, if our growth is as anticipated.

 

Shekhar Gupta: So do you also need more schools and colleges to teach and train more hotel personnel?

 

PRS Oberoi: Well, it does not take that long to teach. We have our own school, as you know.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Yes. But this could be the next big job.

 

PRS Oberoi: Yes. I think many people don't understand that this industry could be one of the biggest employers in the country, or in any country. Tourism is. It's not just people working in hotels, there are the taxi drivers, chauffeurs, shopkeepers...

 

Shekhar Gupta: I know at one point you offered to rebuild the toilets at the Delhi airport. You don't have to do that now.

 

PRS Oberoi: Now we don't have to do that. Thank God. I think industry and the government have to work together. Without cooperation you can't progress.

 

Shekhar Gupta: You said you will not tire and retire, but have you thought through succession?

 

PRS Oberoi: I think the Oberoi Hotels and Resorts are an institute. It's no longer a family company. So things will fall into place as time goes by.

 

Shekhar Gupta: Every couple of years there are rumours of a bid on the company—about ITC and other trying to acquire shares.

 

PRS Oberoi: I can assure you we won't lose control as long as I'm around. I can't say what will happen after that.

 

Shekhar Gupta: All we hope for is that this hotel remains the benchmark of quality, hospitality and safety in the years to come. Biki, it's been wonderful chatting with you.

 

PRS Oberoi: Thank you.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

AFTER IPL 3

 

The curtains finally came down on IPL 3 at Mumbai's DY Patil stadium on Sunday evening. The end of the cricket-end of things was swiftly followed by the suspension of IPL chairman & commissioner, Lalit Modi, and his replacement with Chirayu Amin, who, apart from being a vice-president of BCCI, also presides over the Baroda Cricket Association and is the chairman & managing director of Alembic, a mid-sized pharma business. It now falls upon Chirayu Amin to initiate the clean-up act, at the business-end of things, in the IPL. But one has to wonder whether a BCCI insider will be able to clean up a mess that goes to the heart of the way in which the BCCI itself is run. Remember, the IPL is simply an offshoot of the BCCI. And just as IPL lacked transparency and failed to follow even the most basic norms of corporate governance, so does the BCCI. There are plenty of links between high officials of the BCCI and the mess in IPL—to take just one example, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan also owns an IPL franchise, in fact the winners of IPL 3, Chennai Super Kings. The solution, of course, isn't to nationalise the BCCI or the IPL as some have suggested, but instead to corporatise it. BCCI and IPL could do with less politics and more professionalism.

 

It is easy to forget that despite some evidence of murky business dealings, the IPL has been a great success as a product, lapped up by consumers, advertisers and indeed players themselves. Just as the BCCI, under the earlier leadership of Jagmohan Dalmiya, put Indian cricket on the world stage for the first time, the IPL, conceptualised by Lalit Modi under Sharad Pawar's mentorship, has taken Indian cricket to a whole new level. Who would have imagined just five years ago that the world's best players would come in droves to play in an Indian cricket league? In the final analysis, it is the game (played by the world's finest players) that attracts the audience and, therefore, commercial interest. That is certainly worth preserving. It is less clear how important the elements of glamour and glitz thrown in by the organisers are in sustaining a top sports league. Sports leagues elsewhere in the world survive and thrive on the merit of the sport and its players, not on the support of film stars or the presence of high-profile owners. Indian cricket needs professional managers who can run a clean and efficient business. The popularity of the game of cricket will take care of the rest.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

COUNTING RAJA'S COST

 

India's 3G spectrum auctions kicked off after much controversy and many delays on April 9, and they are proving to be a major success. The department of telecom had fixed a base price of Rs 3,500 crore for a pan-India 3G spectrum. As against this base price, provisional bids for the 3G spectrum had more than doubled on Friday and have gone on increasing since. This represents a bumper revenue harvest for the government. Let's grant that this is also one of the last of the world's great 3G auctions, which means India has delayed coming into the game more than most countries. Still, the auction's success—attracting industry leaders ranging from Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular to Vodafone Essar, Tata Teleservices and Aircel—affirms the attraction of the Indian mobile phone market, which is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. But, as The Financial Express reported yesterday, all the 3G euphoria puts the spotlight inexorably back on the mess that was made with the 2G spectrum in 2008. Instead of being auctioned, licences were doled out on a questionable first-come first-served basis. All that the government got was a measly Rs 1,651 crore per licence. This was despite the fact that a) the Sensex was roaring louder then and mobile operators would have shelled out monies more generously; b) unlike in the 3G case, 2G spectrum equipment and networks would not have required higher capex and this too would have recommended more aggressive bidding; c) the Indian market is much more driven by voice than data, which again suggests higher premium for 2G than 3G services.

 

All of this is to say, in short, that we cannot just put A Raja's shenanigans on the backburner. Of course, the CBI as well as the CAG and the CVC are pursuing allegations that the lack of competitive bidding combined with the selling of 2G licences at a nominal rate fixed in 2001 were on account of illegitimate collusion. But while we await the conclusion of enquiries into how Raja may have played an integral role in duping the taxpayer via the 2G route, he has not been helping the 3G cause either. Whether by way of arguing shortage of spectrum blamed on the defence ministry or by way of disagreeing with the finance ministry on the reserve prices, Raja has lately made his presence felt by impeding rather than expediting the 3G auction. Let's remember that if things had gone as scheduled, this auction would have been wrapped up last year. As work on 4G spectrum now gets underway, can India afford to leave Raja in charge?

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

CATCHING UP WITH MERRY BANKERS

MEGHNAD DESAI

 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just opened a case for fraud against Goldman Sachs. The case concerns a complex instrument, known as a Consolidated Debt Obligation (CDO), which Goldman Sachs put together. A CDO is a collection of equitised sub-prime mortgages. The allegation is that Goldman was put up to this by John Paulson, a well-known hedge fund manager. At that time in early 2007, the sub-prime mortgage market was still bullish and banks across the world were keen to get a piece of the action. Paulson was later credited with being the one person who foresaw the coming collapse and shorted the market making $1 billion.

 

The contention of the SEC is that it was John Paulson who had selected the assets that went into the CDO, which Goldman sold to its customers. Technically, Goldman asked another agency ACA to select and 'ratify' the contents of the CDO. When the sub-prime market collapsed, many banks lost money. On this CDO, Goldman itself lost $100 million, while ACA lost $900 million, for which ABN-AMRO (now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland) accepted liability.

 

If it can be proved that Paulson had chosen the assets and Goldman knew as of then that Paulson was shorting the sub-prime market assets, then legally Goldman should have warned the purchasers of the CDO that Paulson was playing against it. The SEC has not cited Paulson in the case but only Goldman.

 

Bankers are not popular and Goldman has had bad press for a long time. It is fast growing, brash and it makes a lot of money—roughly $3 billion in the first quarter of 2010. In the US, Obama has raised the stake against the Wall Street and Congress is debating a complex piece of legislation regulating the financial sector. Still, I cannot see the case the SEC is trying to make. Goldman was selling an instrument that was well known in the market for some years. The buyers were not innocent small savers but sophisticated banks who should have taken their own view of which way the sub-prime mortgage market was heading. In 2007, it was very eccentric to think that the sub-prime market would tank. Paulson is guilty of being one step ahead of the rest and taking a contrary position.

 

It is a puzzle that when economics is being accused of telling everyone that markets are perfect and that everyone has identical expectations (which is why we are told the markets collapsed), the SEC is punishing Goldman for not foreseeing that it was wrong. With hindsight Paulson set everyone up, perhaps. But that is only with hindsight. SEC seems to have jumped the gun and tried to make political capital out of the unpopularity of Goldman. My own hunch as a non-lawyer is that Goldman will win the case. By not including Paulson in the list of accused, SEC has given the game away. The issue is not whether the large profits made by banks are moral but whether the particular sale was fraudulent. Even terrorists deserve a fair hearing and so do successful bankers.

 

What is much more likely is that some form of Tobin tax will now become a reality. When James Tobin, the Nobel Laureate from Yale proposed it in the early 1970's he was trying to curb speculation in foreign exchange markets, which had just become liberated from the old Bretton Woods arrangement of the Dollar-Exchange Standard. Many NGOs got very enthusiastic as their collective mouths began watering at how much money could be collected through such a tax. But there were many cogent objections against it, especially about reducing liquidity in forex markets. Now 40 years on, we have had a crisis. Banks not only collapsed but also had to be rescued at taxpayers' expense. (I was and continue to be against all bank rescues. Banks should be allowed to fail.) So it is legitimate that taxpayers who have bailed out banks do something to prevent it from happening again and if that is not possible (banks will fail again sure as eggs is eggs) at least collect money as insurance.

 

So we are to have a financial activities tax. This will be in addition to taxes on bankers' bonuses. I cannot say that I terribly mind. Banks will find some way to pass it on to their customers and all will go on as before. The recovery in the profits of large multinational banks is breathtakingly fast and many governments who bought equity while bailing out these banks stand to make profits. Money does grow on trees. Let us plant a few more.

 

The author is a prominent economist and Labour peer

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

WHY RAISING FDI LIMITS ISN'T ENOUGH

SHOBHANA SUBRAMANIAN

 

There's news that the government may allow FDI of up to 51% in multi-brand retailing other than primary goods (food, groceries and vegetables). This is good news but access to better furniture or toys doesn't really help the common man too much. What he needs is food that's cheaper and of good quality. Of course, newspaper reports do talk of the government being keen to permit FDI in the retail of foodgrain as well as other essential commodities to create a network that is parallel to the public distribution system. In his Budget speech, the FM referred to a statement made by the Prime Minister, who said: "We need greater competition and therefore, need to take a firm view on opening up of the retail trade."

 

Taking a cue from that, the FM observed that it would help bring down the considerable differences between farm gate prices, wholesale prices and retail prices. "This is certainly a step in the right direction and I would like to see the concrete measures that the government intends to take in this regard," he said, elaborating that this is a key element of propelling agricultural growth related to the reduction in wastages as well as in the operations of existing food supply chains in the country.

 

The minister is spot on; FDI needs to be allowed into the food and grocery space. But, simply allowing FDI into retail will not do the trick. Organised retailers must be allowed to buy from the farm gate and not be compelled to pick up their stocks from the mandis where price discovery is not really scientific.

 

While retailers will benefit when buying directly from the farmer as they can buy fruits and vegetables at costs that are lower by about 10%, they also need to fork out money to store and transport these perishables across the country to their outlets. But buyers will have greater control over the quality of the crop and that means the product will have a longer shelf life and therefore, less will be wasted. It's a win-win situation because farmers too can realise good prices if they deliver the right quality, and once they are assured of regular orders, their incomes will become secure. Also, better cold storage facilities will result in lower wastage, so prices could actually fall. The less the wastage, the easier it will be for the government to maintain the buffer crop that it understandably wants to.

 

What foreign retailers, who team up with Indian companies, can bring to the table is expertise in the area of supply chain management, and of course, much-needed capital. Already, retailers like the Aditya Birla Group are buying about a fourth of their requirements in Maharashtra directly from the farmers. But in many other states, it has been far more difficult for the retailers to reach the farmer; for obvious reasons, the middlemen have made it difficult for them to get to the farm gate. That's where the central government will need to step in and ensure that all states implement their respective APMC (agricultural produce marketing committee) Acts. A study by Icrier in 2008 found that farmers are much better off selling directly to organised retailers rather than to intermediaries or to the mandis—because their profits are as much as 60% higher. That's a big number in itself.

 

While Icrier found no evidence of a decline in 'overall employment in the unorganised sector as a result of the entry of organised retailers', it's fine if the government wants to restrict the outlets of these joint ventures to cities with a minimum population of one million. However, the government needs to be reasonable when it comes to laying down the rules for the minimum built-up area that stores should occupy. With real estate costs being what they are, the stores cannot be profitable if they are very large. That's one reason organised retailers in the country haven't exactly been raking it in and even the biggest of them all is believed to have written off large sums. Smaller players are struggling to get their act together; Subhiksha has been wound up while Vishal Retail is struggling to survive. The Future Group's chain of KB Fair Price shops will become Ebitda-positive only after restructuring the business. Even those with a headstart, like Shoppers Stop or the Future Group, don't really make much money yet. Some of them experimented with too many formats simultaneously and have been forced to exit some of them. In a business with wafer-thin margins, it's hard to be profitable without scale. The cost of rolling out a store can be anywhere between Rs 1,000-2,000 per sq ft, depending on the location and the format. Although backed by big business houses, organised retail could do with more capital and that's where FDI will help. Consulting firm McKinsey has said organised retail could create 1.6 million jobs in the next five years. So the money will be well worth it.

 

shobhana.subramanian@expressindia.com

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

SPINNING A YARN ON COTTON EXPORTS

SANJEEB MUKHERJEE

 

Within days of imposing a hefty Rs 2,500 per tonne export duty on cotton, the government suspended pre-shipment registration of new cotton exports and also of cotton wastes. Ostensibly, both the measures, announced in a span of less than a month, are meant to bring down soaring cotton prices.

 

Existing contracts, however, might not be impacted as the suspension of registration does not apply to them, but it is a big dampener for fresh exports since sellers would now be wary of entering into any sort of contractual agreements with their regular buyers. And even if they do, the new price would have to be higher since it has to take into account the export duty. In other words, cotton exports, from one of the world's largest producers, have been stalled for now.

 

Cotton prices in the domestic markets rose by almost 54% last year, pushing up textile prices by as much as 50%. And it was the group of local textile makers who were demanding restriction on cotton exports, on the grounds that rising raw material cost was hurting their margins. Raw cotton, which was selling at around Rs 22,000 per candy of 356 kg each around October 2009, soared to almost Rs 28,300 per candy in recent weeks. Almost 8 million bales of cotton (1 bale equals 170 kg) have been registered for shipment since October 2009, of which 6.1 million bales have already been shipped.

 

But is only export demand fuelling the rally in cotton prices? A recent US department of agriculture report said domestic cotton consumption in 2010-11 in India is projected to rise by 4.6% to 20.1 million bales, largely because of a strong demand from the local textile industry. And with production hovering around 29-31 million bales, rising domestic consumption, rather than exports, is putting pressure on prices.

 

In any case, why should the government listen only to the textile manufacturers' lobby? It is after all in the aam cotton farmer's interest to get the best price for his produce. Banning exports will harm the farmer constituency the most.

sanjeeb.mukherjee@expressindia.com

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

WILL THIS MONSOON BE NORMAL?

 

This year's south-west monsoon will be normal, says the India Meteorological Department in a forecast issued recently. But that is also what the IMD predicted last April for the 2009 monsoon, which then turned out to be a severe drought. This time the odds favour the IMD forecast being correct. Atmospheric scientists usually define a normal monsoon as one where the nationwide rainfall from June to September is within 10 per cent of the long period average for the season; a rainfall deficit of more than 10 per cent is taken as a drought. By that definition, the south-west monsoon has been normal 70 per cent of the time over the last 130-odd years. There has been a drought in only about 16 per cent of the years. There have been droughts in two successive years on just three occasions. Moreover, thus far whenever a drought involved a rainfall deficit of 20 per cent or more, as happened last year, the subsequent monsoon has invariably been normal.

 

India was the first country in the world to embark on operational seasonal forecasting. The first such forecast for the south-west monsoon was issued over a century ago, on June 4, 1886, drawing on the inverse relationship between Himalayan snow cover and monsoon rainfall. Since then, for its operational seasonal forecasts, the IMD has relied on various empirical models that took into account statistical relationships between various atmospheric and oceanic parameters and the monsoon. But published research that looked at the forecasts issued from 1932 to 2004 came to a dispiriting conclusion. There has not been, the scientists noted, "any improvement over the years, in spite of the continuing attempts to revise the operational models based on rigorous and objective statistical methods." Besides, the IMD has not been able to predict a drought in its seasonal forecasts. Now, the Ministry of Earth Sciences has proposed launching a National Mission on Monsoon that will seek to develop reliable dynamical models for seasonal forecasting of the rainy season. Such models try to reproduce the complex interplay of processes that go on in the ocean and the atmosphere. The existing dynamical models, developed principally in the U.S, Europe, and Japan, have been good at forecasting the progress of the monsoon a few days in advance and shown considerable skill at predictions for up to 10 days. But they perform poorly in seasonal forecasts and fail to accurately reproduce the monsoon's year-to-year variability. Improving the models will require better understanding of the monsoon's links with processes that happen elsewhere. Then the models must be suitably modified to incorporate the new knowledge. All this is going to take both time and effort. But such an undertaking could offer the best hope for better seasonal forecasts.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

NO HANDING OVER OF KASAB

 

There is no question of India agreeing to Pakistan's demand for custody of Ajmal Amir Kasab for testifying against the seven Lashkar-e-Taiba men being tried in a Rawalpindi court for involvement in the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Of the 10 men who carried out the three-day attack, Kasab was the only one captured alive. His "admission of guilt" statement to the Mumbai court that tried him has provided many details of the LeT involvement in the attack, even though he later denied all of it. The court will pronounce its verdict on May 3. Given the legal position and also the known links between the LeT and Pakistan intelligence agencies, there is no question of India acceding to Pakistan's demand. While Islamabad did take some unprecedented steps in the wake of the Mumbai attacks leading to the indictment and the ongoing trial, it has subsequently failed to show sincerity in dealing with the LeT and other anti-India militant groups. Instead, the government has given a long leash to the Jamat-ud-dawa, the charity front of LeT, and its leader Hafiz Saeed.

 

Even if we assume that the custody demand is not a ploy by Pakistan to shift the blame on New Delhi for its inaction against the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack, and is born of a legal tight corner for the prosecution in the Rawalpindi court, there are ways of getting around it. The demand for Kasab can be traced back to a defence argument that his confessional statement was not admissible in a Pakistan court. In response, the prosecution sought to make him a party to the Pakistani trial — asking the court to declare him a fugitive and declaring its intention of seeking an Interpol "red corner" notice for him. In addition to Kasab's custody, Pakistan has asked for the magistrates and police officials who recorded Kasab's statements to testify before the Rawalpindi court. Since the Pakistani authorities have repeatedly said that their own investigation has yielded sufficient evidence to obtain convictions against the seven accused, this legal tangle over Kasab, if that is what it is, should not have arisen. But if the case needs strengthening, both sides should be able to agree that as provided by the law, the magistrates who took down Kasab's statements can provide the required testimony — in writing, as the law allows, rather than in person. The Law Ministries on both sides should be able to handle the required procedures. The demand for Kasab must not be allowed to become a new source of hostile rhetoric between the two countries.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

CREATING WEALTH WITHOUT JUSTICE

UNBRIDLED CAPITALISM, WHILE CREATING WEALTH, ALSO RESULTS IN INCREDIBLE INEQUITY CALLING FOR REGULATORY CONTROLS TO ENSURE SOCIAL JUSTICE.

K.S. JACOB

 

India has been in the news for its robust economic performance and for growth despite the recent global recession. The recent Indian Premier League suggests unbelievable investor confidence and provides great advertising opportunities, fantastic revenue, world-class sport, extraordinary entertainment, phenomenal television ratings and immense customer satisfaction. Yet, the incredible indices of development in India mask the inequity in the country and the human cost of the nation's progress. For millions of Indians hunger is routine, malnutrition rife, employment insecure, social security non-existent, health care expensive, and livelihoods under threat. The vibrant economy, "the shining India," is restricted to the upper classes, while the majority in Bharat eke out a meagre existence on the margins.

 

Indices of wealth and development: The gross domestic product (GDP), the indicator of economic growth, is employed to assess the wealth of nations and the well-being of societies. However, its adequacy to evaluate the human condition or the welfare of nations has been questioned. An increase in GDP reflects economic growth but does not take into consideration its sustainability, life expectancy, health and education of people nor its impact on the environment. An example of its biased assessment is that misfortunes for some, due to natural disasters and wars, also mean economic opportunity and wealth for construction, pharmaceutical and defence industries and an increase in the index.

 

The Human Development Index (HDI) was conceptualised to focus on people-centred measures and policies, rather than on national incomes. The HDI employs life expectancy at birth, adult literacy and enrolment ratios and a measure of the GDP per capita to evaluate human health and longevity, knowledge and education and standards of living. While the HDI does provide a bigger picture when compared to the GDP, it has also been criticised for not capturing the complexity of the human situation.

 

Inequity in plenty: The Gini quotient is a measure of inequality of income and wealth. The mapping of this parameter shows that many countries with high GDPs also have a high Gini index, suggesting that the measure of economic growth hides gross inequity and high human costs within countries. Recent attempts at evaluating human well-being use varied indicators such as environmental impact, government debt, diversity of species, etc. Bhutan has suggested happiness as an indicator of national well-being. Measures like the Net National Product take into account the depletion of human capital. However, the use of a single index to reflect well-being does not make these new attempts superior, only different. Nevertheless, most people will agree that any such measure should move beyond economics and economists; the debate must involve diverse stakeholders and the indicator(s) ought to express the multifaceted nature of human well-being.

 

Capitalism and greed: The failure of communism, despite its ideals of a fairer society, to increase wealth resulted in its demise. Many nations now place their faith in capitalism and governments choose it as the strategy to create wealth for their people. The spectacular economic growth seen in Brazil, China and India after the liberalisation of their economies is proof of its enormous potential and success. However, the global banking crisis and the economic recession have left many bewildered. The debates tend to focus on free market operations and forces, their efficiency and their ability for self correction. Issues of justice, integrity and honesty are rarely elaborated to highlight the failure of the global banking system. The apologists of the system continue to justify the success of capitalism and argue that the recent crisis was a blip. Their arguments betray an ideological bias with the assumptions that an unregulated market is fair and competent, and that the exercise of private greed will be in the larger public interest. Few recognise the bi-directional relationship between capitalism and greed; each reinforces the other. Surely, a more honest conceptualisation of the conflicts of interest among the rich and powerful players who have benefited from the system, their biases and ideology is needed; the focus on the wealth created should also highlight the resultant gross inequity.

 

Inherent talent or inherited advantage: Capitalism results in the creation of wealth. The supporters of the system argue that the "American dream" can be achieved by hard work, diligence and resourcefulness and can be replicated across the globe. They believe that the system rewards hard work and talent. However, even a cursory examination of the assets of and disparity across peoples suggests that those who succeed have inherited advantages and favourable playing fields, compared to those who did not. The focus on apparent merit does not take into account the different histories, the varied physical environment, the divergent contexts and the grossly dissimilar opportunities. The many economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and western financial institutions, driven by ideology rather than by reality, have resulted in further enslavement of many developing economies.

 

The Indian context: The economic liberalisation and globalisation have resulted in massive and sustained growth in the Indian economy. Yet, an examination of the Human Development Index suggests that the country is poor on this measure. The trickle-down effect of development, talked about in theory, has little actual impact on the poor. The rights of the poor are probably more important than the rights of the rich who drive development. Economic policies should be clearly preceded by a careful assessment of their impact on the population, their lives and livelihoods. Care must be taken to ensure that regulations proposed by our legislatures and upheld by the judiciary are not pro-rich and at the cost of the rights of the poor.

 

The need for regulation: Ancient wisdom argues that, under normal circumstances, the rich will get richer and

the poor, poorer. Civilised societies will necessarily have to employ different standards to achieve an egalitarian social order. Such democratic ideals imply the use of regulation to curb the excesses of "laissez-faire" capitalism with its penchant for minimal controls. For example, the practice of forcibly acquiring agricultural and forest land, displacing the poor and tribal folk with the loss of their livelihood and culture is too big a sacrifice from these people in return for commitment of a fraction of the wealth of corporate houses in order to increase the GDP. "Progress and development" are high sounding clichés from capitalists and often spell the destruction of older forms of social existence. There is a need to foreground justice and equity, the basic precepts of enlightened nations. Without level playing fields and affirmative action, inequity will persist and increase, resulting in injustice to the vast majority of people who are without capital.

 

Law and justice: It is generally believed that the theory of justice drives the practice of law. In reality, legal

practice constantly engages with theory and re-equips it. It cites theory in specific contexts and provides perspectives, transforming and even re-making it. The demand for justice brings a case before the law; this claim puts the law under the scanner. Justice, then, renews the law and makes it contemporary; it extends its reach and re-interprets it. The demand for justice is never fully met, suggesting that the law needs to constantly keep up with the mandate for justice. The requirements of the context and the call of justice create the necessity for citing of the law in relation to the questions before it. Law-makers and the judiciary may opt to close the call of justice and renew the rule of the law in relation to the new question. Alternatively, they may take up the challenge and re-think, re-make, and cite the law, as best as they can, in ways that measure up to the call of justice. India needs to revitalise its statutes and transform its courts of law into courts of justice.

 

Much of the debate on the creation of wealth employs a private language, replete with insider jargon. A refusal to comply with the unstated rules in such circles often results non-compliant voices being frozen out of professional circuits. These operations produce papers for academics, assignments for bureaucrats, policies for governments, wealth for capitalists and stories for the media, but they often discount the bigger picture that should dominate the discourse. The inequity is ignored, the discrimination disregarded, the ideology justified and injustice normalised. India should not only focus on economic growth but regulate its markets and economy with equity and integrity to provide justice for all its people.

 

( Professor K.S. Jacob is on the faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore.)

 

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THE HINDU

HOW AN AMERICAN "IMPORT" IS SHAKING UP U.K. POLITICS

BRITAIN'S FIRST TELEVISION DEBATES IN THE RUN-UP TO THE GENERAL ELECTION HAVE TRANSFORMED THE TRADITIONAL TWO-HORSE RACE INTO AN ELECTRIFYING THREE-WAY CONTEST.

HASAN SUROOR

 

For years, British politicians derided televised election debates as a vulgar American "import" which the mother of parliamentary democracy could well do without. The whole idea, they said sniffily, smacked too much of presidential-style electioneering with its stress on razzmatazz rather than substance. Even Tony Blair, embarrassingly starry-eyed about anything American, was against it arguing that it made no sense in a system which already provided for direct contact between voters and their leaders.

 

The real reason, of course, was the fear of venturing into uncharted territory — a fear fuelled by scare stories from across the pond about how even the most sure-footed politician could blow his/her chances in an unguarded "moment of madness" in front of TV cameras. George W. Bush Sr.'s defeat in the 1992 elections is memorably attributed to just such a moment when he was caught looking at his watch during a debate with Bill Clinton, a gesture which was taken as a sign of his indifference to voters.

 

So, let's acknowledge, it was rather courageous of Gordon Brown, especially given his reputation for caution, and David Cameron, his Tory rival, to offer themselves as guinea-pigs in Britain's first television debates in the run-up to next week's general election. But, even so, one doubts, whether they really recognised the risk they were taking. Indeed, with hindsight, they must be kicking themselves for it.

 

For, the two debates held so far (the third and the last is due this week) have been a disaster for both leaders with Nick Clegg, the relatively inexperienced and unknown head of the Liberal Democrat party, running away with all the prizes. Relishing the role of the plucky outsider, he was able, on both occasions, to label Messrs Brown and Cameron (and by extension Labour and the Tories) as the two sides of the same "old" establishment with nothing new to offer while portraying himself and his party as the "change" that Britain needed.

 

Mr. Clegg's dramatic "victory" has turned him into a political star overnight. In the media, he is being hailed as the new pin-up boy of British politics. And his party (once derisively dismissed as consisting of a bunch of muesli-eating, sandal-wearing day-dreamers) is now seen as the only credible show in town while Labour and the Tories are struggling to make sense of the "Cleggmania" sweeping the country.

 

"Has the whole world turned yellow?" a Tory candidate asked, alluding to Lib Dems' party colour, as she looked at the post-debate polls.

 

Such has been the impact of the debates that all bets are now off and, for the first time in more than 30 years, the traditional two-horse race for power between Labour and the Tories has transformed into an electrifying three-way contest. Lib Dems are now neck-and-neck with the Tories and Labour in the third place.

 

It is a "historic" surge for Lib Dems, as The Economist noted, and even if they are not able to sustain the bounce until the polling day it is now looking increasingly unlikely that either Labour or the Tories — depending on who emerges as the single largest party — will be able to form a government without their support.

 

Because of the quirks of Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system, Lib Dems will always trail behind the

other two parties in terms of seats even if they dramatically increase their share of the national vote. But, on present showing, they can hope to win enough seats to be able not only to dictate the complexion of the next government but also to do it on their own terms. They have already made known their shopping list: it includes key Cabinet posts and radical electoral reforms that would pave the way for an end to the current system that they say works against smaller parties. And, in a sign of the times, both Labour and the Tories have indicated that they are willing to consider.

 

Coming back to the debates, it is not really surprising that Mr. Clegg should have done well (outsiders with no baggage and nothing to lose invariably do); nor was Mr. Brown's stuttering performance exactly unexpected given his lack of articulation and charisma. What was unexpected was Mr. Cameron's lack-lustre performance.

 

With his media-savvy image and reputation for supposedly possessing the best presentation skills in Westminster, the debates looked tailor-made for him. In the event, though, he simply crumbled under pressure and was particularly pathetic in the first debate, failing to impress either on style or substance.

 

Mr. Clegg, on the other hand, won on both — and in both debates. Even the much-ridiculed Mr. Brown was able to deliver a few soggy punches, mostly on economy. But, the man, tipped to be the hero, simply failed to get going. This has led to a whispering campaign within his own party putting him under huge pressure to raise his game in the next debate on Thursday.

 

Meanwhile, back in America, they are apparently not even aware that Britain is going to the polls — and couldn't care less judging from the following from New Statesman's Washington correspondent:

 

"I have yet to see a single piece of U.S. television news coverage of the British election, even when the three leaders adopted yet another piece of Americana by staging the first U.S.-style televised debate on 15 April."

 

Famous American insularity? Or just sheer indifference towards the Brits?

 

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THE HINDU

FREE SPECTACLES SCHEME TO BOOST LEARNING

EVOLVED AFTER A MEXICAN OPTICS COMPANY DISCOVERED THAT STUDENTS' EYESIGHT WAS HAVING A DRASTIC IMPACT ON THEIR MARKS.

HENRIETTA THOMPSON

 

Two years ago, Yves Behar helped prove that a laptop could, with a little imagination, be stripped back to its basics and sold for just $100. Since then, more than one million portable computers based on his practical design have been distributed in developing countries as part of the One Laptop Per Child programme.

 

Now the California-based designer has turned his skills to an even more ubiquitous piece of kit: the humble spectacles.

 

He became involved after a Mexican optics company, Augen, discovered that students' eyesight — especially in the country's poorer states — was having a drastic impact on their marks.

 

Research showed that 11 per cent of children were not learning simply because they could not read blackboards or books. The company found that in schools in states such as Morelos, Sonora and Chiapas up to 70 per cent of pupils needed glasses. Augen teamed up with the Mexican government to launch a programme along the lines of Mr. Behar's OLPC, called See Well to Learn Better. The plan is to provide 400,000 free pairs of glasses every year.

 

The problem was the cost, which is where Mr. Behar came in. But he did not want to compromise on quality, strength or style. "Similar to the OLPC philosophy, I want to design products that are suited to the children's specific needs, life and environment," he said.

 

Children everywhere are among the fussiest consumers on the planet, so the frames also had to be wearable.

 

The incredibly light and almost unbreakable glasses are made from advanced plastics and have a two-part design — giving children the option to mix and match colours and shapes when they choose their frames. This allows an extra dimension of individual expression, and easy assembly of the lenses inside the frame without costly heating processes.

 

The glasses are to be distributed by optometrists, who will travel to the schools, test the children, and then place the order with the factory.

 

Augen and Mr. Behar are now looking at expanding the programme to other countries. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

 

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THE HINDU

FICTION FINDS ITS VILLAINS IN THE VATICAN

FROM THE FACETIOUS BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE MEMO WRITERS TO PRESCIENT NOVELISTS, THE POPE AND CATHOLICISM HAVE BECOME THE EVIL FORCE OF CHOICE.

MARK LAWSON

 

* Three of the most read authors at the start of the 21st century find themselves in opposition to the Pope
* Novelists pick up hints of potential developments at a time when they are too abstract for journalism and too frightening for politics

 

The weekend's leaked British Foreign Office memo means that Catholic clergy and Vatican officials will continue to find that newspapers make for painful reading. And for the next few years they should probably be nervous of the bookshop: the scandal over the protection of paedophile priests will inspire a lot of volumes. Indeed, long before this horrible saga of abuse and denial claimed international headlines, it had already spawned a significant literature. The writers of popular fiction stand revealed as preachers and prophets.

 

Three of the most powerful fictional franchises of the last decade are Dan Brown's trilogy about Harvard

cryptologist Robert Langdon; Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter septet. And, oddly, all three forest-clearing phenomena are explicitly or implicitly opposed to the Roman Catholic Church.

 

In Mr. Brown's Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, Langdon tackles baddies in the Vatican. And, although many readers were unaware of Mr. Pullman's dogmatic under-structure until he began to spell it out in Dawkinsesque interviews, the Magisterium, the evil empire in his best-known trio, took its name from a historical term for Catholicism.

 

J.K. Rowling's conflict with the bishops is more tangential. In creating a fantasy around a necromantic academy, she was not intentionally going for Rome, but Pope Benedict went for her. And, as a result of this, three of the most read authors at the start of the 21st century found themselves in opposition to the Pope — a cultural position that, amid the scandals of clerical pederasty, looks strikingly prescient.

 

In retrospect, the plot lines are startlingly specific. In The Da Vinci Code, Rome is attempting to cover up facts (a secret, indeed, involving sex) that, if widely known, will destroy papal authority. In Mr. Pullman's trilogy the central characters, most at threat from the Magisterium, are children. It also now seems rather unfortunate that Ms Rowling's episcopal critics accused her of polluting the minds of the young.

 

Such prescience in mainstream fiction was, in one sense, predictable. Writers are licensed to have society's dreams and nightmares. In 1818 Mary Shelley, in Frankenstein, anticipated the malign possibilities of science before the benign ones had really got going. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells went to the moon long before NASA. Some novels by Wells can also be seen now to foreshadow the First World War, just as Chekhov's plays apprehended the fall of the Russian aristocracy, and a number of American novelists (including Tom Clancy and Charles McCarry) previewed the shape and nature of the Islamist attacks on the U.S., even to the extent of plane bombs being flown into national landmarks.

 

Such stories are not prophetic in any mystical sense. Novelists and playwrights pick up hints from philosophy, spying or science of potential future developments at a time when they are too abstract for journalism and too frightening for politics. So the last decade's literary demonisation of Catholicism is another example of the nostrils of novelists twitching at a smell in the air. Mr. Brown had the practical problem of beginning his career as a thriller writer just as the traditional villains of 20th-century beach reads — the Soviets — had imploded. In locating a replacement, he selected one of the few surviving structures that exercised global influence through rigid central control and had an institutional tendency to secrecy. Yet, though logical, this substitution is ironic because the Catholic Church, through Pope John Paul II, had been instrumental in the opposition to Kremlin-led communism.

 

These books, though, draw on a general liberal hostility to Catholicism (because of its opposition to abortion rights and alleged misogyny) and, in the works of Mr. Brown and Mr. Pullman, the Vatican may also be a surrogate for other disgusts.

 

In his most recent novel, The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown gives a character a speech listing the good points of the Catholic Church: presumably a response to lobbying from angry readers. But he should keep quiet. His prescience in predicting a future enemy is the only thing likely to get him compared to Chekhov. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

CLEANING UP THE MESS OVER IPL

 

In less than 10 years, Indian cricket faces its second big crisis. Match-fixing and its many ramifications that dogged the sport since the turn of the century had only recently begun to fade. With the welter of allegations erupting around the Indian Premier League and the man who ran it for its first three years, Lalit Modi, there is a sense of deja vu. The ouster of the IPL's self-appointed commissioner and the many charges that have now been laid at his door since the fateful day he first Tweeted an allegation about the companion of then junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor will almost inevitably lead to a shakeout in the way the IPL is run in the future. More important, it will bring back to life the many real fears that surfaced in the wake of la affaire Hansie Cronje. This then is the real crisis that faces the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), now desperately seeking to contain the fallout from what was a clear lack of oversight — financial and administrative — on its part when it came to Mr Modi's functioning. To pin all the blame on one man would be a travesty of justice — there was after all a governing council of 13 other men who were supposed to have run the IPL — but at the moment, it would appear that all ills have been laid at the door of Mr Modi alone. The charges are many, and varied. They range from allegations of rigging franchise bids to irregularities over the sale of broadcast and Internet rights to concealing paperwork detailing franchise ownership and instances of crony capitalism and insider dealing. Clearly, the BCCI is aware of the dangers these developments pose to its hot new — and extremely lucrative — baby and, on a wider scale, to the image of cricket itself. For better or worse, India today is a world powerhouse in the sport and the IPL mess has wider implications for cricket as a whole. Little wonder then that BCCI president Shashank Manohar on Monday stressed that ethics and transparency were even more important than protecting the integrity of the IPL alone, and added that Mr Modi's manner of functioning had "brought a bad name to the administration of cricket and the game itself". Already, the taxman has become involved given the complexity and density of transactions that have been woven around the lucrative league, and relevant documents have gone missing, adding further fuel to an already raging fire.

In an attempt to start clearing out the Augean stables, the BCCI on Monday said former India captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri had been asked to organise the IPL's fourth season next year. Much more must be done if the mandarins of Indian cricket are to convince an increasingly-sceptical nation that they are serious about cleaning up the IPL. For his part, Mr Modi has promised to clear his name of the many accusations made against him, launching his first salvo at the IPL-3 post-final prize distribution ceremony late on Sunday night where he made the point that if any rules had been broken, he would bear the full responsibility. That is exactly what the board's bosses are hoping will happen. In all this, cricket itself has been forced to take a back seat, much as it had to for much of IPL-3, with the focus more on glitz, glamour and post-match parties, which were also turned into money-making opportunities by the eagle-eyed Mr Modi. With so much muck washing about, those who prize cricket purely for the sake of the sport will be hoping that clarity, and sanity, is restored soon.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

JUSTICE: DIVINE VS HUMAN

 

Human justice originally was simply vengeful — demanding "eye for an eye". Several modifications gradually came to soften its intent, but almost all of them have been criticised for they also cramped the perspective of justice. Distributive justice, proportional justice, retributive justice, criminal justice, environmental justice, social justice and so on — none of these represent justice holistically. For example, the concept of distributive justice, also called equitable justice, has been contested on the ground that justice and equality are not necessarily co-extensive.

Despite best intentions and formal vows to uphold its ideals, human justice has often faltered. It is subject to error — it has been said that human justice is blind, and "deaf and dumb as a wooden leg". It has also been proclaimed that "extreme justice is often unjust" and that "there are times when justice brings harm with it".
Justice can also be marred by corrupt practices. Guru Nanak had this to say about the state of justice during his time:

Judges administer justice in the name of God

That they chant Oh! rosaries;

But they accept bribe and block justice.

He had courage even to chastise kings:

Even the king administers justice only if his palm is greased.

Public leaders are required to help enforcement of justice. But they are not always chaste people. Guru Angad

ev remarked:

The troublemaker is made the leader

And the liar is given an honourable seat.

This is how humans corrupt the instruments of justice. There are vagaries also in people's expectations from

ustice.
One sows seeds of poison, but demands ambrosial nectar,

Behold, what kind of justice is that!

Divine justice, by contrast, is not only incorruptible but also error proof. The Gurus have termed it as sach niaon or justice of truth. Guru Ram Das says:

You yourself are true, O Lord, and true is your justice.

Why then should we fear anything?

He also employs another term for Divine Justice, that is dharam niaon or justice of rectitude, and offers

estimony that:

Superb is the greatness of the Lord

For his justice is entirely rectitudinous.

Love, power and justice have been considered ontologically inseparable, but while human justice operates mainly through power, Divine Justice operates through love, simply because God is love.

According to Sikh cosmogony, God's eons-old samadhi got interrupted when his love became intensely desirous of its own expression. Hence it was that God, in order to dole out his love and grace,
Created the great expanse.

Then, as love, He pervaded that expanse, his creation. Hence, says Guru Gobind Singh:
Here, there and everywhere, He abides as love.

He administers His justice through his all-pervasive love, and his justice is co-extensive with his will.

That alone is true justice which pleases the will of the Lord.

 

And this justice is not occasional or temporal, it abides through eternity. Within his home, there is justice ever and for ever. It is not blind like human justice, but ever vigilant. He knows us all from within.

The inner-knower, the searcher of hearts knows.

Without our speaking, He understands...

No one is as great knower as the Lord,

So his justice is always righteous.

Our body is the field of action, in it what we plant that we harvest.

 

Mercy and forgiveness are the instruments of His love. From the human point of view, mercy and justice are considered antithetical. Mercy operates through attachment while justice operates through detachment. But in Divine Justice, no such antipathy operates. Mercy is also just, so too forgiveness. Kabir says:
Where forgiveness is, there is God himself.

Not that He does not punish.

He honours the righteous and chastises the sinners.

He defeats the sinners and saves his humble devotees. But He never punishes without cause:

Why should we burn with anxiety

When the Lord does not punish without cause?

Moreover, even when He punishes, His intent hardly appears to be really punitive; it rather appears to be reformative. Often what man considers as punishment is instead His grace. Martydom, looked at superficially, appears to be like capital punishment. In effect, a martyr establishes that his moral ideals are higher, and dearer to him, than his life. Thus a martyr reforms and saves multitudes whom he inspires by his atonement. Likewise, what we consider as reward may really be a curse. Monetary and material gifts are, in the human context, considered as rewards for these are given in return for what appears to be admirable action. However, when such gifts lead to arrogance, as they often do, then they cause moral degradation and become a curse.
In brief, human justice is occasional and often based on inadequate enquiry, doubtful evidence, arbitrary laws, questionable law-enforcers and whims of the judges even if they are honest. It often errs or even fails. By contrast, Divine Justice is not occasional but prevails permanently, is based on the infallable personal knowledge of the ever vigilant Lord whose justice works with His unquestionable love and mercy. It never errs, never fails; though often forgives for considerations that He himself knows.

 

J.S. Neki, a psychiatrist of international repute, was director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. He also received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his contribution to Punjabi verse. Currently he is Professor of Eminence in Religious Studies at Punjabi University, Patiala.

J.S. Neki

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

CAUTION: COBALT

 

Cobalt may be a lovely colour in the paintbox. But "Cobalt 60", the radioactive isotope that made it to a scrap dealer's shop in Mayapuri, west Delhi, earlier this month, leaving nearly 10 persons seriously ill, is a sign of the insecure times we live in.

More than a fortnight after the incident, we are no wiser about the source of the radioactive scrap. Scientists investigating the presence of the radiation source say that the likelihood of the detected Cobalt 60 being of indigenous origin is pretty slim. They assert that it most probably came as part of the industrial waste imported from abroad. However, we don't know, as of now, from where or who imported it. Nor do we have any details about its journey from its source to the Mayapuri scrap mart.

What we do know: swadeshi or videshi, the radioactive scrap wreaked havoc. Even if it is not local, as the scientists tell us, it made it through the customs. This means that one government agency is not to blame, but another is. The moot point: the condition of some of those suffering from exposure to the Cobalt 60 and admitted to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is worsening.

Today, Mayapuri, the industrial area dotted with hundreds of tiny scrap-metal shops, is shrouded in fear. Official investigations, using "tele-detectors", have led to the detection of 11 sources of radioactive Cobalt 60 from the Mayapuri scrap yard. More shop-by-shop searches are on the cards. As a result, Cobalt 60 has blasted its way into public consciousness in India.

That the episode is a telling commentary on our glaringly inadequate mechanism to monitor the movement of such hazardous radioactive waste is obvious. But more than a fortnight after the first detection, it is time to highlight some key issues: when scrap metal is one of the most widely traded international commodities, a better monitoring apparatus in countries like India has to be complemented by better enforcement of export laws in the developed world where much of the hazardous stuff originates. An Indian trader importing scrap needs to obtain a certificate from the exporting country stating that the consignment is free from radioactive material. But since the exporting country is keen on getting rid of such stuff, the scrutiny is less than stringent. Also, there is a desperate need for not only an outraged but a better-informed public — both at home and in countries sending out radioactive scrap.

"Half Life, Radioactive Waste in India", a report brought out by environmental NGO Toxics Link last year, provides useful context. In 2008, for example, France's Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) found that the elevator buttons used by Otis Elevator Co. and supplied by French company Mafelec were using materials sourced from an Indian supplier. The buttons had traces of Cobalt 60. The incident came to light when 20 French workers who had handled these buttons were believed to have been exposed to radiation. The contamination posed no threat but ASN raised the alert level as a precautionary measure.

Subsequent investigations by India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board tracked the Indian companies which had supplied the products that had been contaminated with Cobalt 60. The contaminated radioactive scrap was tracked to a foundry in Maharashtra which recycles scrap purchased from dealers who import scrap from Europe and the United States and sell to various steel companies in India.

The Toxics Link report said the experts believed that Cobalt 60 could have come from different countries which supply scrap metal to Indian firms for recycling.

Despite such a precedent, and despite the continuing influx of scrap from abroad, India has had no real policy to deal with what is called "orphan radioactive sources". These are radioactive sources that are outside regulatory control.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog, there are two main types of radioactive material that may be found in scrap metal. First, radioactively contaminated material that may have been lost from, or never was, under regulatory control. Second, material contaminated with radioactivity in a number of ways, the most likely being from the demolition or decommissioning of a nuclear installation or other facilities that had used radioactive material.

How to protect people from radioactive material that can end up at junk and scrap yards was the subject of discussion at an international conference on Control and Management of Inadvertent Radioactive Material in Scrap Metal in Spain last year. Expert recommendations included harmonising the world's regulatory approaches to radiation safety, based on IAEA safety standards. Another suggestion was to provide better guidance to regulators, scrap dealers, and metal recycling industries on how to deal with problems when they occur.

In the last three years the IAEA is reported to have become aware of around 500 radiation incidents, about 150 of which were related to scrap metal or contaminated goods or materials.

It is vital that all Indian ports are equipped to detect radiation. But, side by side, there is an equal need to upgrade the capacity of workers in the recycling industry. The safety protocol for waste-handlers, now being drafted by the National Disaster Response Force, needs to be accorded top priority.

At a time when India and other developing countries are importing growing amounts of scrap metal, partly to help meet rising domestic demand for steel, the Mayapuri episode offers a valuable lesson. No matter how lucrative the trade is, strict enforcement of rules to keep out the dirty and dangerous stuff, like Cobalt 60, is a must. We need to know what exactly is coming in through our borders and we need to have the resources and equipment to keep out the stuff that puts lives at risk. Anything short of this will lead to more Mayapuris.

Patralekha Chatterjee writes on development issues in India and emerging economies and can be reached at

patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Patralekha Chatterjee

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

'WHO 33% GOES TO IS A CHOICE'

 

Girija Vyas, the National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson, wants consensus between all parties on the Women's Reservation Bill. Though there was bickering and division over the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Ms Vyas thinks that once the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha all parties will turn a new leaf and India will become a "complete democracy". In an interview to Syed Asim Ali, the NCW chairperson also talks about her plans to tackle cases of domestic violence against Indian women in foreign countries and honour killings.

Q. The government appears to have gone slow on the Women's Reservation Bill after getting it passed in the Rajya Sabha amidst tumultuous scenes. Is your party having second thoughts on 33 per cent reservation for women?

A. I don't know where the question of second thoughts is coming from? The Congress Party has always stood for 33 per cent Women's Reservation Bill and it is because of the party's commitment to the principle behind the bill that it was pushed despite the hue and cry. The bill is not just about 33 per cent reservation for women; several of its provisions will have far-reaching impact on the Indian political scenario in the future.
We have had two major meetings on our next step and though it's too early to comment, I can tell you that the bill will pave a new way ahead.

When the bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha, for the first time in recent years both the leading political parties of India, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stood together. The BJP gave its full support to the bill; even the Left supported the bill though many of their allied partners were opposing it. This kind of unity is being seen as an initiative to check the influence of small and regional parties in national politics.

Q. Will the Congress introduce the bill in the remaining part of the Budget session. Or will it again go into cold storage?
A. Frankly, the right person to answer this question is the chief spokesperson of the Congress Party. What I can say as a member of the party is that there is no question of the bill going into cold storage. I can proudly add that the bill was passed despite huge opposition. We heard comments like "only the rich upper class women will be benefited by the bill and that is why some parties are demanding quota within quota". Despite such attacks we stood by the bill. So there is no way the Congress will forget the bill.

Q. Does this mean that you are in favour of the idea of quota within quota?

A. No, not at all. I am not in favour of sub-quotas. When the Women's Reservation Bill becomes a a reality, it can be used by political institutions to empower women belonging to minority communities. I think the whole idea of 33 per cent reservation for women will open a new chapter and take us to new possibilities.

Q. But why shouldn't there be a sub-quota for dalit women, for women belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and Muslim women?

A. I don't want to comment on what other leaders have said or proposed. But I think that 33 per cent reservation is sizeable enough to empower all women. Without using sub-quotas, parties can use the 33 per cent reservation to bring in women of religious and ethnic minorities into the mainstream. I would conclude this answer by saying that while the bill is capable of empowering all women, dalit and Muslim, it depends entirely on party leaders which women they chose to represent their parties.

Q. Why can't parties have a quota for women to contest Lok Sabha and Assembly polls to ensure greater representation in Parliament and state legislatures?

A. I strongly believe that reservation for women can be used effectively to empower women in minority and other backward communities. It is the duty of party leaders to bring women of marginalised sections into the mainstream by utilising provisions of the bill.

Q. We have recently had several shocking cases of honour killings in rural areas, particularly Punjab and Haryana. In such instances does the NCW have adequate powers to take action against those guilty of killing or harassing innocent girls and boys?

A. There is a need to understand the issue at the ground level. We have to investigate and see how the panchayats, or khaps, are paving the way for such barbaric actions. There is need for more involvement of the civil society in areas that are prone to honour killings. We need people who can influence panchayat decisions and at the same time educate people in areas where such cases are taking place. We have had a few meetings and soon steps will be taken.

Q. What steps are you are planning?

A. More civil society involvement and NCW officials working in rural areas to curb such barbaric and cruel activities.

Q. There are also numerous instances of Sikh girls being forcibly married off to non-resident Indians. There have also been cases where girls have been killed when they have dared to go against their family's wishes. Can the NCW step in to stop these forcible marriages?

A. See, in the cases of NRI marriages, sometimes women are forced and sometimes they are duped into such marriages. However, in most such cases women are financially dependent on their in-laws and that is why they keep enduring domestic violence. There have been cases where Indian women living in foreign countries and facing domestic violence have not been able to sue their in-laws only because they don't have money. To find a solution to this problem we are planning to keep two lawyers each in the Indian consulates of countries like the United States, England and Canada. These lawyers will take up cases of domestic violence against Indian women. I am sure this step will be a big relief for Indian women abroad.

 

Q&A Girija Vyas

           

THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

IPL'S BELLYACHE

 

That the Indian Premier League (IPL) had a murky underbelly was not exactly an official secret. Yet when Lalit Modi's tweet sparked off a chain of circumstances that led to the resignation of Shashi Tharoor, and Mr Modi's eventual suspension — and which may still claim more victims — few could have imagined the manner in which the nexus between politics, business, sports and entertainment would get exposed in a heady cocktail of sleaze and scandal. Even as this story plays itself out with daily disclosures of dubious deeds, almost a decade after tales of betting and match-fixing had tarnished the reputations of many cricket stalwarts, one can only hope that henceforth some transparency would mark the affairs of a game that obsesses millions of young people in this country and across the world.

Who remembers Garfield Sobers and Anju Mahendru? Cricket and cinema always had a connection. But when a third "C" — cash — is added, the combination is a sure-fire route to a fourth "C", corruption.
That Mr Modi was not exactly an exemplar of probity and corporate social responsibility was known to many, and they were not just insiders. More than a year ago, in March 2009, Alam Srinivas and T.R. Vivek wrote a 200-page book that was titled IPL Cricket & Commerce: An Inside Story (Roli Books). The February 16, 2009, issue of Outlook carried a cover story with a headline that read: "The Curious Case of Lalit Modi".
Did Mr Modi realise that he would open a can of worms when he sent his infamous tweet about the ownership pattern of the Kochi franchisee and the sweat equity that was proposed for Sunanda Pushkar? Did the leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party, notably Union minister for agriculture, food and consumer affairs Sharad Pawar and civil aviation minister Praful Patel, anticipate that the business links of their family members would consequently be scrutinised through the microscope of the media? After Mr Tharoor and Mr Modi, who will be the next fall guy?

The $4 billion IPL tournament was touted by its cheerleaders — not the busty blondes from Central Asia and other parts of the world — as a shining example of the maturing of the post-liberalisation economy of the country, and a successful brand promoted by India Inc. that was coping better than the corporate sectors in most recession-hit Western nations. The problem was that the glittering IPL edifice was built on a foundation of money routed through a complex web of companies, many of them registered in tax havens, and was excessively dependent on the munificence of influential politicians who control sports bodies that are registered as non-profit-making societies but are flush with funds obtained from the public at large. The most notable example of such an organisation is, of course, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
That various government agencies should be providing tax concessions and subsidies to the cash-rich BCCI is nothing short of a crime in a country where the latest official estimates indicate that more than one out of three people live below the poverty line. Why should the BCCI and the IPL be eligible for the kind of tax breaks that it has received so far? How much longer should the BCCI be allowed to operate in a brazenly non-transparent manner? Should the most-affluent of sporting bodies in the country be allowed to function like a closed club where only the privileged few are permitted entry? These are rhetorical questions for the answers are all too obvious.

The fact that IPL match tickets have been sold for Rs 40,000 per person with an all-night party in a five-star hotel thrown in for good measure, is a manifestation of the kind of conspicuous consumption that the elite in India has acquired notoriety for. Is this really the kind of "brand" or "business" that makes us hold our heads high in the comity of nations?

The Income-Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate that oversees foreign currency transactions, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (all of which come under the ministry of finance) as well as the Intelligence Bureau (which comes under the home ministry) have been providing detailed reports on a daily basis to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, even when he was in Brasilia. Official investigators were initially focused on the Kochi affair and then switched their attention to Mr Modi and his associates. The Central Bureau of Investigation may soon be asked to jump into the fray.

However, at least one investigator confided to this correspondent in private that he and his team were unsure about how deep they should dig, about how the compulsions of coalition politics would play themselves out.
The Congress may now find it easier to keep its ally in Maharashtra on a tighter leash. After facing flak for his inability to control food inflation in general, and sugar prices in particular, the agriculture minister and his protégé, the civil aviation minister, may find themselves more on the defensive — or, to use a more apt analogy, on the backfoot.

Yes, the IPL has graduated to have becoming the fourth largest sporting event of its kind in the world. But the filth that has been flung around has hardly enhanced India's image across the globe. Who knows? Being an incorrigible optimist, one might be tempted to believe that some good may even come out of this muck-raking, more than what took place in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal. Mohammed Azharuddin is a Congress Lok Sabha member of Parliament. Mr Modi could now actively consider a career in politics.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

NOT LALIT MODI ALONE

 

The ouster of Lalit Modi from his posts in the Indian Premier League is hardly a surprise — not even perhaps to the very defiant Modi. But surely this move is not enough to clean the Aegean stable that is apparently the IPL. Modi has been suspended on 22 accounts of impropriety, but the problem seems to be much larger than the alleged transgressions of one man.

 

The way the public trial has been conducted has been akin to a lynchmob, working on suspicions rather than looking for proof. In an unfortunate sense, this hysteria will suit those who run cricket in this country because it masks their own sins of omission and commission.

 

It has been unclear from the beginning why exactly the IPL governing council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India allowed Modi so much operational freedom. Therefore, the entire culpability cannot rest with him. Because of the money involved in cricket in India, many powerful people want a piece of the pie. Impropriety is not the sin of one man alone.

 

Questions have to be raised about how the people who run cricket are selected and about the strong political involvement in cricket administration. But this does not require a joint parliamentary committee, which may only compound the problem. While this cleansing is going on, we need to consider the voice of the cricketer as well. While it can be said that many big ticket players — Gavaskar, Shastri and Pataudi being a few of them — are already part of the cricket administration, perhaps a wider consultative body is needed.

 

The entry of big money into cricket has been a boon in many ways. As a result India has got a stronger voice in the cricketing world. The success of the IPL is testament to that. But the enormous amounts of money generated has not been matched by any regulatory methods and, in the absence of corporate governance, ethics and social responsibility, the lure of the lucre appears to have become the chief driving force.

 

Better control, accounting practices and transparency are the need of the hour. The BCCI and the IPL must be treated like all other corporate entities which are accountable to the laws of the land. The BCCI has a greater responsibility — it is also accountable to the ideals of cricket and to the people of India. It is a custodian of the sport and not its owner. That should be reason for it to clean up its act and restore cricket's glory.

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

A BETTER REGULATOR

 

The Medical Council of India never lived up to the standards expected of a regulatory body. It is not surprising that Anbumani Ramadoss, health minister in the earlier UPA government, wanted to abolish it. He had his motives for concentrating all decision-making in his own hands and that of his ministry. But there were enough reasons for him to make a case against the ineffective and incompetent MCI.

 

The charge that the regulatory body of medical colleges and the medical profession in the country are also corrupt can now be added to the list of complaints against it. The arrest of MCI president Ketan Desai, caught accepting a bribe of Rs20 million from representatives of a private medical college and hospital, serves as the proverbial last nail in the coffin.

 

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has responded promptly by setting up a three-member committee to look into the episode while the Central Bureau of Investigation, which has uncovered Desai accepting the bribe, will continue with its probe. It is quite evident that the MCI is not an exemplary body and this can be inferred from the many medical institutions that exist in the country which are under-equipped and under-staffed, but which continue to charge exorbitant fees from students.

 

Medical education, as much else in the country, continues to be hobbled. The MCI has not been able to do what it has been mandated to — the role of a watchdog. It is but a step from laxity to outright corruption as has been proved through Desai's arrest.

 

The MCI's low moral fibre becomes an issue when there is so much talk about toning up higher and professional education in India. There is the simultaneous recognition that standards can only be maintained through a transparent regulatory framework. The rot in the MCI is symptomatic of the many things that are wrong in the educational system in the country. A root and branch reform of the MCI and other regulatory bodies like the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) is a must to make the educational system both competitive and qualitative.

 

There is no escaping the fact that governments and politicians at the helm would not be of much help setting things right. It will be necessary for medical professionals in the country to give the issue the serious attention it needs. There has to be a guild of professionals which should serve as an apex body. The MCI has to go but it cannot be replaced by a government-appointed body.

 

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DNA

A JPC ON TAX HAVENS

R VAIDYANATHAN

 

The Indian Premier League (IPL) did not start with Sunanda Pushkar. It has been around for more than three years. The relationship between IPL franchises and tax havens is not something new. But the investigative hounds were unleashed after the exit of minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor.

 

Initial findings by the finance ministry's department of revenue — which has the income tax wing and the enforcement directorate under it — suggests that many IPL franchises had routed their money through tax havens.

 

The World Sports Group (WSG) has reportedly told officials that Multi Screen Media (MSM) did pay $80 million as "facilitation fees" for the IPL's telecast rights. The money was apparently transferred to the Virgin Islands. The structure of the Jaipur franchise is intriguing. JIPL is a 100% owned subsidiary of EM Sporting Holdings Ltd, Mauritius, which has made investments in JIPL.

 

The Mauritius holding company is again a joint venture between: Tresco International Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands; Emerging Media (IPL) Ltd, UK; Blue Water Estate Ltd, Hong Kong; and Kuki Investments Ltd, the Bahamas. These centres are among the tax havens under the scrutiny of the Indian government.

 

A detailed report in DNA (April 24, 2010) suggests that 18 benami firms may own stakes in IPL and most of it from tax havens like the Virgin Islands, Cyprus and Mauritius.

 

The information is not surprising given the promiscuous attitude of our elite towards illegal funds and the laxity of our own rulers. We can consider some recent events.

 

The ministry of finance, in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court (SC) in the case of Ram Jethmalani versus Union of India (on black money in tax havens; May 2009) says that the tax demand on one Hassan Ali of Pune is Rs71,849.59 crore. It also says that he and his wife were operating accounts with UBS of Switzerland. It is interesting to note that Hassan Ali Khan is out on bail in a fake passport case.

 

But disclosing the list of defaulters in the Rajya Sabha on August 4, 2009, minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam said in a written reply that Khan topped the list of tax defaulters with outstanding arrears of more than Rs50,000 crore.

 

But wait — more curious things happen! As per budget 2010-11, the income tax due from individuals (both disputed and undisputed) is a much low sum of Rs49,176 crore. (Annexure10: Tax revenue raised but not realised — under Rule 6 of the FRBM Rules 2004).

 

Obviously, someone in the finance ministry has missed out on Khan and his associate. The finance minister seems to categorically assert (interview in The Week, March 14, 2010) that the government has recovered its tax dues from Khan.

 

Unfortunately, this cannot be true, as the revised estimates for 2009-10 do not reflect the same. Rs50,000 crore or Rs70,000 crore is too large a sum to be lost even in the government of India's budget.

 

In 2009, there was a list made available by the German finance ministry regarding Indians holding illegal funds

in a Liechtenstein bank. Unfortunately, the public do not know the status of that enquiry. There were reports that 38 out of 135 foreign venture capital investors registered with Sebi are Mauritius-based, having the same address, phone and fax numbers; these were not fully in compliance with Sebi's norms of scrutiny.

 

When the former chief minister of Jharkhand, Madhu Koda, was investigated by the enforcement directorate, it

was reported that funds in various tax havens were partly used to buy mines in Liberia. In the case of the spectrum scandal, it was reported that the companies were fronted by other groups registered in tax havens.

 

The president in her joint address to Parliament in February stated that her government will initiate action to get back money stashed abroad. Prime minister Manmohan Singh said in the Lok Sabha (March 5, 2010) that India will take every possible measure to ensure the return of ill-gotten money stashed in tax havens abroad. The finance minister, taking a tough stand on various tax havens, said at a seminar on transfer pricing that tax havens not only eroded a country's revenue, but were also a cause of concern from a national security point of view.

 

So the time has come for the government to constitute a joint parliamentary committee on tax havens. The home minister is the appropriate person to take the initiative in this issue. He will understand that while the Maoists are working to destroy our republic from below, the tax havens are destroying our republic from above.

 

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DNA

WASHING AWAY THE SINS OF MAKING MONEY

RANJONA BANERJI

 

Wilfred Owen's very moving First World War poem Dulce Et Decorum Est questions the old adage that it is beautiful and good to die for your country. Owen was one of the celebrated British war poets who died very young in the war. Love for your country is a peculiar thing and as much as it does great good, it can also be dangerous. Which is why, said the great man, patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

 

But this is not about patriotism and its many conditions and definitions. This is about cricket. Now that the Indian Premier League is over — although the fascinating hoopla surrounding it continues — we will be thrown straight into the jaws of jingoism with the World T20 championship.

 

Already, we saw signs of it during the IPL itself as several television talking heads started jabbering about how the IPL was about the country, about how all they wanted was for Indian players and teams captained by Indian captains to win and how IPL had done great damage to the image of cricket which would all be sorted out once the Indian players played for the "country" in the World T20 championship. Indeed. (These are Indians generously paid by television channels as experts and analysts, well aware that a league is based on cities and that each team is made up of a mix of Indian and foreign players who are picked up in auctions.)

 

But how about the fact that cricket is not played for the "country". It is played for the sport of it. And for money. Cricketers are paid by private bodies to play against one another. Yes, in these international fixtures, they play under the name of the country they come from but the State, the government, has little to do with them. (Hockey players play for their "country" and we all know how interested we are in them, pretend breast-beating about the demise of Indian hockey aside.)

 

Yet, we pretend. We cannot seem to accept that there is no shame in playing a sport for money. The day of amateurs in sport is long over. Even in the Olympics, once an amateur's domain (and before that of course, a war-like event), big stars and performers make big endorsement money. So what? No one else is expected to work for free and even soldiers are paid — perhaps not enough, but that's another matter — what could be called guilt money to fight and possibly die on our behalf.

 

But the minute talk of cricketers and money begins, we start to get hypocritical and sanctimonious. They are after all professional entertainers and they deserve to be rewarded for their skills and compensated for their effort. Playing cricket is not an act of charity and these days, even those who work in the social sector are compensated for their efforts.

 

If a parallel can be made to the arts, no one expects painters, dancers and writers to work for free. As if, had they hopefully been starving, they would have produced better work. The idea of the malnourished painter producing works of genius belongs to legend. The modern ethos is that work — even intellectual and artistic work — must be paid for. We are at that interesting crossroads in our society when we are moving away from a restricted, pseudo-socialist past to a capitalist era.

 

Most times we applaud our economic success but whenever there is a crisis, we tend to retreat to our comfort zone of hypocrisy. Part of the problem could be our own guilt with the amount of money we make, while we are well aware of the continuing plight of the starving millions. Cricketers become an easy target and we pull out these presumably unbeatable shibboleths like "country" to bolster our arguments. How about it's just beautiful and good to play and leave the country out of it?

 

But then, perhaps, if our sports stars gave back more to society and shared their incredible wealth — as international sportspersons do — then we might be less judgmental. Next, let's target all those fat cat businessmen and ask them to give back more. Now that will be fun and an entertaining sport of another kind.

 

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

RELIEF FOR AMARINDER

SC REDEFINES ASSEMBLY'S POWER OF EXPULSION

 

WITH the Supreme Court Constitution Bench quashing the peremptory expulsion of former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh from the State Assembly for "breach of privilege", the Congress leader has scored a major victory. A five-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan ruled on Monday that the State Assembly had no power to expel him for the "executive action" taken by him. Capt Singh was expelled from the House on September 3, 2008, after a resolution was passed on the basis of the report of a special committee appointed by the House to look into the Amritsar land scam. The report had alleged that Capt Amarinder Singh had granted illegal exemption to certain developers, thus causing a loss of several crores of rupees to the state exchequer. Calling his expulsion as arbitrary, whimsical and unconstitutional, Capt Singh had argued that the Assembly had no powers under "breach of privilege" to expel a former Chief Minister or Minister as long as the alleged act "does not have any nexus with the House".

 

Significantly, the Bench has ruled that the Assembly had acted "erroneously" as the alleged act of irregularities was committed during the 12th Assembly session whereas the 13th Assembly had expelled him. Admitting Capt Singh's petition, it disapproved of the House's action and cautioned that if such a practice was upheld, it would open a Pandora's box as every time a new party assumes power, it would sit over the executive decisions of the previous regime and expel the former Chief Minister or a Minister from the House under the garb of "breach of privilege". Thus, the apex court has not only redefined a State Assembly's power of expulsion under Article 194 but also cautioned against its misuse by the government of the day.

 

Capt Singh didn't get justice during the hearing of the case as the apex court had rejected his appeal for a stay on his expulsion. The Bench has restored his seat which was declared "vacant" by the 13th Assembly. Though he may draw comfort from Monday's ruling, the Bench has said that quashing the expulsion would in no way interfere with the ongoing criminal probe against him. He has to clear his name in the Ludhiana City Centre scam and the assets case too and thus he has a long battle ahead. For now, however, Capt Amarinder Singh stands vindicated and his political fortunes could well be on the upswing.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

OUT ON A LIMB

EVEN MODI SHOULD GET A FAIR TRIAL

 

LATE on Sunday night when Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians were battling it out in a thrilling final of the Indian Premier League III, BCCI bosses were engaged in an equally crucial meeting of their own. Well past midnight, they suspended IPL commissioner Lalit Modi on 22 charges of impropriety and issued him a show-cause notice. While Modi, who is facing charges ranging from financial irregularities to rigging bids, proxy holdings to kickbacks in broadcast deal, is very much answerable for all the allegations, the cloak-and-dagger way the order was passed presented him with a chance to wear a martyr's halo for no reason. Now he can claim with some justification that he was suspended to prevent him from rebutting the charges against him in person. Perhaps he made mistakes; but even he needs to be given a fair trial. The midnight coup in which he was suspended should have been avoided.

 

May be the BCCI was rattled because Modi had decided to attend and chair the IPL Governing Council meeting on Monday morning. Indeed, that should have been the right forum to nail him, but that was not to be. He now has 15 days to reply to the show-cause notice and can be depended upon to name names. Here is hoping that the authorities would be as prompt in probing these allegations as they were in putting income tax sleuths on his trail as soon as he picked a fight with the then Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.

 

Apparently, there are lots of skeletons in the IPL cupboard. Now that the cleaning operation has started, it must be taken to its logical conclusion. Nobody should be persecuted just because he is rich and powerful. At the same time, nobody should escape just because he is rich and powerful and politically well-connected. There are reasons to believe that some top politicians were party to the unholy goings-on in the IPL. It is time cricket – rather every sport – is rescued from their dangerous tentacles. The IPL had some undesirable elements perhaps. That does not mean that the IPL itself should be banished.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

TAPPING TROUBLE

GOVERNMENT ON A STICKY WICKET

 

HOME Minister P. Chidambaram's statement in Parliament that the Union government did not authorise any phone tapping notwithstanding, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, already on the back foot because of the IPL scam, price rise and other issues, is now virtually against the ropes in Parliament in the face of the united onslaught of the Opposition. What has emerged from the din that has surrounded the issue is that the phones of various VIPs, political leaders, even UPA allies, were tapped by intelligence agencies, even though Mr Chidambaram has categorically denied that the government had ordered the phones to be tapped. The issue forced three adjournments of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The MPs were not satisfied by the Home Minister's statement and are demanding a probe by a joint parliamentary committee.

 

The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), an intelligence agency constituted to combat terrorism, obviously has the expertise and the equipment to tap cell phones at will. NTRO has been implicated in the media expose, though there is no confirmation that it is involved. Antiquated laws like the Telegraph Act govern the monitoring of communications in India, although a Supreme Court judgement in 1996 gave more guidelines. It is unfortunate that the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 passed through Parliament without debate. This is the Act that deals with electronic communications and it is now obvious that the MPs want to take a closer look at the powers that the government has for interception, monitoring and blocking of electronic communications. The country needs to have the laws, as well as proper oversight, checks and balances to ensure that intelligence agencies are used only for legitimate purposes.

 

Phone tapping is a serious breach of privacy and should only be used on legally sanctioned targets for specific reasons. Governments have had to pay a high price for phone tapping, when used for political reasons. A silver lining to this controversy is that the spotlight on the issue may pave the way for closer scrutiny of measures taken for the security of the nation, and to ensure the privacy of ordinary citizens of the county.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

INTENSIFYING US-IRAN TUSSLE

INDIA FACES MAJOR DIPLOMATIC CHALLENGE

BY HARSH V. PANT

 

THE fact that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to write a secret memo to warn White House officials that the US does not have an effective long- term policy for dealing with Iran's sustained march towards nuclear weapons capability underlines the confusion that surrounds the Obama Administration's attempts to deal with Iran. After extending his hand of friendship and getting spurned by the Iranian mullahs, Barack Obama is now quietly back to where George W. Bush was when he left office. America's Iran policy is once again getting militarised after Obama's Iran policy seems to have gone nowhere. Rather than latching on to Obama's friendly overtures as the US had hoped for, the Iranian theocracy is now at its jingoistic best. While celebrating Iran's march to nuclear capability, the authorities in Tehran have been coming down heavily on their opponents, jailing a large number of them and executing a few to send a message.

 

The Obama Administration, of course, has nothing to say on the domestic developments in Iran. It had hoped that by keeping quiet on the internal political troubles in Tehran, it would be able to get Iranian cooperation on the nuclear question. But Iran has rejected all Western overtures on the nuclear issue and things are rapidly coming to a boil. Despite its protestations to the contrary, Iran appears particularly intent on maintaining an independent capability to enrich uranium and seems to have decided to test how far it can push the West. Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, has informed the agency setting out the plan to begin enriching its stockpile to 20 per cent purity after President Ahmadinejad personally ordered his atomic scientists to begin the process.

 

It remains far from clear that Iran has the capability to enrich fuel to the level ordered by the Iranian President, who is apparently seeking to increase pressure on the West to reopen negotiations on providing fuel for the medical reactor on terms more favourable to Tehran. Until now, Iran has never enriched significant quantities of fuel beyond the level needed in ordinary nuclear reactors, part of its argument that its programme is for peaceful purposes. But any effort to produce 20 per cent enriched uranium would put the country in a position to produce highly enriched uranium - at the 90 per cent level used for weapons - in a comparatively short time.

 

The US is seeking global consensus for sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, so far without much success. China and Russia continue to hold out on their support. They have no real incentive to cooperate with the West on this issue. US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton had gone to the extent of publicly warning Beijing of significant trouble if Iran's nuclear programme was not tackled by the international community immediately. But China's oil interests in Iran remain significant, preventing it from supporting additional sanctions on Tehran. Beijing has argued that pressure for tighter sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme could block the chances of a diplomatic settlement to the dispute. The much-hyped Nuclear Security Summit failed to evolve any consensus among major powers on sanctions against Iran.

 

Meanwhile, the US is ratcheting up military pressure on Iran and its policy now seems to be gearing up for a possible military challenge in the Gulf. It is speeding up the deployment of anti-missile defences in the Gulf not only to put pressure on Iran but also to ward off a growing perception that Iran is rapidly emerging as the most powerful entity in the regional balance of power. Several countries in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, are talking of these defence systems from the US. This is part of a larger arms build-up in the region whereby the US has sold more than $25 billion worth of arms.

 

The US is helping the Saudis to triple the size of their 10,000-strong protection force, conducting large-scale joint exercises with Arab militaries and sharing extensive intelligence on Iran. Though this military build-up began under Bush, the Obama Administration has expanded it to include the deployment of Aegis ships equipped with missile interceptors to help defend Europe and US forces against Iranian rockets.

 

The US wants to demonstrate its resolve to Tehran as well as allay concerns among its Gulf allies that it will be there to support them in case Iran becomes aggressive. The credibility of the US had suffered when Obama had seemed to be reaching out to Iran early in his term at the expense of traditional American allies in the region. Now the US is trying to rectify those perceptions. There is, of course, another element in the US thinking and it is to reassure Israel that America will take the steps necessary to counter Iran, and that Tel Aviv should desist from undertaking any unilateral military strike.

 

For the US, a lot is at stake in the evolving strategic environment in West Asia. Seven years after the US invaded Iraq, in part to transform West Asia, Iran is ascendant while many see an America in retreat and the Arab states awash in sectarian currents that many blame the US for exacerbating. Iran, meanwhile, has deepened its relationship with Palestinian Islamic groups, assuming a financial role once filled by Arab Gulf states. In Lebanon and Iraq, Iran is fighting proxy battles against the US with funds, arms and ideology. Reminiscent of the heady days of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran is today exerting power and influence in the strategic vacuum created by the overthrow of the Iranian foes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

 

Facing these realities, the US is back to good old-fashioned balance of power politics in the region. Across the region, the Shia-Sunni divide is increasing at a menacing pace, with the potential to destabilise the entire region. The rise of Iran is seen as symptomatic of Shia resurgence, to the discomfiture of Sunni regimes in the region. As a consequence, the US is hoping that Iran's rise will provide a single, agreed enemy that can serve as the organising point of reference of policies throughout the region.

 

As the endgame nears in US-Iran confrontation, India will be confronted with difficult diplomatic choices. India has significant stakes in the strategic stability in the Gulf. The crisis between the US and Iran is not going to get resolved merely because India wants a peaceful resolution of the Iranian problem. Therefore, it is imperative that India starts re-assessing its options and thinking clearly as to what it can do to maintain the balance of power in the region, so crucial for Indian interests.

 

The writer teaches at King's College, London.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

ONCE UPON A TIME

 

OURS was a generation that grew up on stories narrated by mothers and grandmothers. Stories that were sometimes sad, sometimes funny but invariably with a moral. In joint families, a system that, alas, has all but disappeared, ones aunts, uncles, sisters, cousins, maids et al too were often repositories of innumerable tales, fables, myths and legend. As children we would huddle around them and their words would cast a spell on us transporting us to lands unknown.

 

A whole new world of daring warriors and crusaders from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the like unfolded before us as did the wisdom of the Panchatantra through their narration. Tales of courage and valour, honour and pride, betrayal and deceit, beauty and character stimulated our imagination and fuelled fantasy.

 

In school to there would always be one or two teachers who would excel in the art of story telling. Many were the evenings spent listening to them with rapt attention as they recreated the world of fairies, tiny dwarfs and little imps, of ferocious giants and fire-spitting dragons, fierce ogres and demons, of swashbuckling knights and fair maidens. In the end, good had to prevail over evil and truth triumphed.

 

Ours was the age of romanticism and high adventure, sensitivity and perception. It was not as if we were bereft of reason and rationale. It was something else. I think it was that we believed as children, in magic and that yes, there was a "Once upon a time."

 

The present times, because of the advent of hi-tech, have snatched away from those wideeyed tiny-tots their gift of incredulous wonder. Gone is their ability to indulge in flights of fancy and to dream of an Alice in Wonderland or Alladin and his Magic Lamp. The Pied Piper of Hammylin or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Or the awesome escapades of Hanuman and the pranks of Krishana and his cowherd companions of Brindaban.

 

In the here and now everything has been reduced to laptops, ipods, ipads, internet, google, youtube, Cisco, Oracle, it's endless. Who has the time to take these toddlers on these fascinating journeys into the enchanting world of the real, the unreal and the make-believe!

 

I wonder why we have stopped talking to our children and listening to their prater. Our history, our culture, our folk and all that is our heritage is so rich, vibrant and colourful. Yet we allow them to be possessed by the television, electronic and computer generated games. No longer bedtime stories or lullabies. Sagas of heroes, monarchs, patriots, scholars, soldiers, bards, all but consigned to oblivion.

 

Theodre H. White in his remarkably well-researched book "In Search of History" writes about President John F. Kennedy of America never tiring of listening to the lines from Camelot, the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, "Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot". Every child is entitled to his or her Camelot, to their dreams, even those less privileged.

 

Prince and pauper, sinner and saint, jester and clown, it is the circle of life in many hues and in the realm of perhaps the real, maybe the unreal. We live on hope. One day fortune will surely smile on those who keep faith. Miracles do happen. Magic is there. And of course, believe you me, there always was a "Once upon a time".

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

INDIAN POLITICIANS' LEAGUE

RUCHIKA KHANNA

 

Politicians are again under the scanner for their role in the IPL. The complex web of intrigue and investment, slush funds and tax havens could not have survived without the patronage of politicians. While the IPL is under a cloud, the Bombay High Court has struck the right note. Is there a conflict of interest if a serving minister remains an active member of a sports body, it has asked.

 

MONEY laundering, betting and 'ayyashi'. Underworld connections and use of black money. Deals aimed at tax evasion , international monetary deals and foreign exchange violations. Silent ownerships and match-fixing. Manipulating contracts in favour of cronies. The range of allegations clouding the Indian Premier League is truly mind boggling.

 

Eyebrows were raised at the marketing gimmicks this year. Deals were signed with cinema halls to screen IPL matches live. It was a win-win situation because late night shows in multiplexes rarely attract a full house. The rates were high and everybody seemed happy.

 

Even the fines imposed on captains for slow over-rate were astronomical. According to media reports, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar were fined Rs 10 lakhs. How much money were the players being paid ?

 

What was even more brazen is the cocky claim that the IPL had no tax liability since it was a part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which is registered as a charitable organisation devoted to promoting cricket in the country. It was public knowledge that the IPL had earned a revenue of over Rs 600 crore in the first season itself ---websites and periodicals and business papers were falling over each other to hail IPL and Modi for beating the recession.

 

But the Finance ministry and its regulatory bodies, the Enforcement Directorate, the CBDT, the Registrar of Companies, seemed strangely silent. The CBDT now claims it raised questions last year and sent notices. But the agencies clearly had no 'political mandate' to go after the IPL.

 

That is where politics comes in. Whether it is business or industry, educational institution or entertainment, trust or a cooperative-without blessings from politicians, nothing really works. But the Finance Minister has now assured the Parliament that no wrong-doer would be spared. And the agencies have quickly gone into an over-drive, raiding offices, interrogating people, sending notices and summons.

 

The whiff of a political witch-hunt is undeniable. TV channels and the media openly speculated that the ruling dispensation is out to corner Sharad Pawar, who is considered ambitious and having the capacity to embarrass the UPA government. By putting his protégé Lalit Modi on the mat, heat could be turned on him.

 

While nothing has emerged so far to directly link Pawar to the murky deals of the IPL, he still appeared vulnerable because of his son-in-law. Sadanand Sule, it was leaked, had stakes in a company which negotiated the revised telecast rights of the IPL. Pawar's daughter, Supriya, was quoted as saying that her family had 'nothing to do with the IPL' but the dirt stuck. Following the leaks she shifted position and explained that the stakes were inherited by her husband and that too way back in the early nineties.

]

The selective leaks do suggest a sinister pattern of the establishment hitting out at political rivals. The onus is clearly on the finance minister to table in Parliament a preliminary report detailing the findings. It remains to be seen if this is done before the Parliament is adjourned, in the first week of May, till the winter.

 

Even the Bombay High Court has queered the pitch. On Monday it asked the Maharashtra state government to file its reply by May 5 on a substantive question of law. Is there a conflict of interest, it asked, if a serving minister also serves the BCCI ? Can ministers hold office even in charitable organisations ?

 

There are other politicians ( see box) whose roles have come under a scanner. Many more seem to have escaped scrutiny. With the kind of incestuous relationship politics has with business and industry in this country, it would be a wonder if the murky deals being alleged in the IPL do not lead to politicians.

 

Even the success of the IPL is being credited to politicians. How did all the 55 matches start on time ? How did the flights maintain their schedules ? How is it that power never went off during the IPL matches ? How much money did the state governments pay for security and other arrangements ? How is it that the bureaucrats in so many states went out of their way to ensure that glitches do not mar the event ?

 

OWNERSHIP

 

Do politicians have silent stakes in Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab ? Despite denials by Shilpa Shetty, Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta, CBDT sources claim that investigations are on to find out if some of these franchises sent money overseas through hawala. Sources of funds used in the auction of these teams in 2008 are being traced to find the involvement of companies registered in safe havens like Mauritius or Cayman islands.

 

"We do not know the entire structure by which money came to India, and we have to establish how money laundering took place. The facilitation payment running into millions of US Dollars could actually be a commission," claimed a member of the CBDT.

 

It remains to be seen if the opposition in Parliament mellows on its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate into the IPL. It has been suggested that while official agencies are competent to carry out the inquiry and report to Parliament, the JPC should turn its attention to money stashed in tax havens and in Swiss banks.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

THE GENTLEMEN'S GAME

WANKHEDE PUNCH

 

Before Sharad Pawar, the closest a Maharashtrian politician came to shaking up the cricketing establishment was S K Wankhede, a former Speaker in the state assembly. As President of the BCCI, he locked horns with the hallowed Cricket Club of India over share of tickets during matches. When the CCI refused to oblige him, he simply got the state government to allot land and built a new stadium in just six months flat in the mid-1970s. The stadium was named after Wankhede himself, possibly as a tribute to his ability to mobilise funds and cement in an era of shortages.

 

PAWAR PLAY

While supporters of Pawar are seen to be doing well in the field of cricket, his opponents have been brought to grief. Dnyaneshwar Agashe from the Mumbai Cricket Association was supposed to vote at the BCCI election in which Pawar was defeated. Agashe was delayed as the train he had taken to Kolkata did not reach on time and failed to cast his vote. People thought he did it deliberately. Shortly afterwards he found his business ruined. Cases were filed against him by the home ministry in the state controlled by the NCP because of which Agashe was put behind bars. He died allegedly because medical assistance was denied to him while in jail.

 

GAVASKAR'S MISSIVE

Sunil Gavaskar, the Indian legend who is also Vishwanath's brother-in-law, wrote shortly before the KSCA election in 2007, "The result of the election will tell you whether the voters want those who have played cricket at the highest level to run the game in their state, or those who profess to be interested in the game but are actually there only for the increased profile that it will bring. So, if Gundappa Vishwanath doesn't become the president of the KSCA and his opponent, who has never probably held a bat in his life wins, then that will be a good indication of what those who run grassroots cricket want". Vishwanath lost.

 

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MUMBAI MERROR

EDITORIAL

WHY BCCI MUST SURVIVE MODI

HOWEVER BAD THE CRICKET BOARD IS, THE ALTERNATIVES ARE TOO SCARY TO CONSIDER

 

Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a conventional thing to happen to him," actor John Barrymore, who was fighting cirrhosis, famously said on May 29, 1942. A few minutes later, he passed away.

 Lalit Modi's tweet on Sunday afternoon ("As normal practice after GC we will schedule a press conferance (sic) at noon tomorrow") was similarly unprophetic. He was sacked that night with his promise unfulfilled. At least it wasn't the last tweet of his life, just the last as IPL chairman.

 Modi is neither the most innocent nor the most conventional victim of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the white elephant many of us have spent our entire careers fighting. But he could end up as just another casualty in a long list of power-brokers who thought they'd become larger than the intangible pillars that hold up the giant BCCI edifice. The way the board closed ranks last week was classic, like it has done many times before, and better than anyone else does.

However, by taking a moral high road to justify this mandatory weeding, the BCCI has left itself open to severe criticism. If Modi was actually removed for lack of transparency, kickbacks and family ties with the IPL franchises, the board must explain why it allowed him to run riot for three years, and why it still lets the biggest conflict of interest – secretary N Srinivasan is the owner of Chennai Super Kings – continue. Without this the action against Modi can't be seen as part of a genuine cleansing, and the raging IPL storm still has the capacity to blow away the BCCI – edifice and all. Which (it's hard for me to finish this sentence after slamming the board for years) will be disastrous for cricket in India.

 For all the crimes that columnists such as I have held the cricket board guilty of, the events of the last three years have been proof enough that the BCCI needs to survive for Indian cricket to have a bright future. Simply because the alternatives are too scary to consider.

On one side there are politicians and bureaucrats such as Suresh Kalmadi and KPS Gill, who turn everything they touch into ash. With them at the helm, it's only a matter of time before India fights with Zimbabwe for a place on the Test circuit.

   On the other side are corporate houses, which have tasted blood after the IPL's success and will be more than happy to take control of everything, milk the sport dry, and move on. If they're in charge, cricket will be reduced to a money-spinning slugfest in which genuine batsmen will be considered old-school, and captains will take orders from consultants.

One could argue that the BCCI, too, has a history of businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats – M A Chidambaram, M Chinnaswamy, S K Wankhede, Scindia, Bindra, Dungarpur, Muthiah, Dalmiya, – and that many of them are still involved in various capacities. But these administrators, the board's old guard, did not harm cricket as terminally over the years as other games in India were destroyed by their federations. Despite individual interests, petty corruptions and shady deals, at some level these guys still loved the sport, and still did things for its betterment.

 It wasn't easy to find it, but there was some good in their intentions right through. This trait was again displayed last week by Shashank Manohar – an archetype of the old guard: earthy, conventional, firm – when he put his foot down to oust Modi despite the threat of exposure and pressure from patriarch Sharad Pawar.
   But Manohar stopped halfway by not accepting the board's mistake of allowing cricket to be put at risk, by not announcing a complete shake-up, and by not asking Srinivasan to make a choice between his team and his office. Already, Modi has threatened to hit back through his latest tweet: "I am still chairman of IPL. Just suspended. Wait – we have just begun." The board will have to go the whole hog to ensure these are no more than famous last words.

 

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EDITORIAL

A SUITABLE SCAPEGOAT

MODI'S DEPARTURE NOT ENOUGH; A FULL CLEAN-UP REQUIRED

So the bad guy at the Indian Premier League (IPL) is out, an interim chief has taken over in place of the disgraced but still defiant Lalit Modi, an interim management team has been put in place to look after IPL's fourth season, another team has been put in place to examine the records (some of which are said to be missing) and Mr Modi's culpability, and to deal with all queries from investigating agencies, like the income tax department. In all probability, a new management team with a professional CEO will be appointed and, in much the same way that a company is run, this team will report to the IPL governing council. In other words, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is promising the country that Mr Modi was an aberration and, from now on, IPL will be run by the book.

This promise should be taken with a pinch of salt. Too much has come out for there to be any credibility to the thesis that Mr Modi had been playing a solo game for three years. If the investigation and clean-up are to be credible, they must be seen as shielding no one. It is by no means certain that BCCI-IPL can deliver such an exercise, so there is a good case for an external agency stepping in. It would also be a good idea if the government were to make public what its investigation arms and "survey" teams have found by way of tax evasion, foreign exchange violations and the like.

The source of the IPL problem is manifestly BCCI-run as it is by politicians, ex-bureaucrats and sundry folks with their thumbs in the pie even as they declare in unison "What a good boy am I!". The web of interlocking interests, marked by conflicts of interest, lax governance and opaque deal-making, has to be shredded if India is to get the cricket administration it deserves. Getting the government to take it over, as some have suggested, is a terrible idea. And yet, BCCI cannot be allowed to make pots of money through a government-mandated monopoly, and yet be accountable to no one but itself. A good way to start cutting through the maze would be to declare that such sports monopolies with tax-free status are automatically covered under the law on the right to information; this will ensure a level of transparency and accountability that has been missing so far. A parallel step should be to declare that all posts in such bodies are by definition offices of profit, so that no parliamentarian controls these organisations. It is evident today, for instance, that the UPA government's parliamentary arithmetic has led to both Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel being treated with kid gloves, and quite differently from Shashi Tharoor, for instance.

Finally, the new people who have been put in charge of IPL need to ensure that this cricket extravaganza loses none of its lustre. The tournament has given a massive opportunity for dozens of players to showcase their abilities and become household names, and it has brought the best global players to play before Indian audiences for several weeks every year. These will contribute to the popularity of the sport and help build new depth in India's cricket talent. For that, if nothing else, even an unlamented Lalit Modi deserves congratulations; he has done more for Indian cricket than many of the worthies who continue to occupy BCCI's seats of authority.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

DON'T BELIEVE IT YET

THE FORECAST OF A NORMAL MONSOON DOES NOT DELIVER ONE

The Met forecast that this year's monsoon is going to be "normal" will provide reassurance to many, since the country has just come through a drought year. But the reliability of the Met office's long-range monsoon predictions has been so poor that fingers should continue to be crossed. Bear in mind that met officials failed to predict the droughts of 2002, 2004 and 2009. Last year, the Met's first-stage long-range rainfall projection was 96 per cent of normal rainfall. An updated forecast of 93 per cent precipitation, made after the onset of the monsoon in June, also turned out to be too optimistic. The unprecedented step of revisiting the forecast in August, when the monsoon season was already more than half way through, resulted in an anticipated rainfall figure of 87 per cent. In the event, actual rainfall was just 77 per cent of normal. So, when the same Met people forecast 98 per cent of normal precipitation this year, bear in mind this track record.

The truth is that the forecasting ability of the Met department has shown little or no improvement over decades. As much has been acknowledged by the weather scientists themselves in some of the research papers published in recent years. The only bright spot was a brief period, between 1988 and 1993, when the Met generated fairly accurate long-range forecasts by using a 16-parameteric power regression model. That model too proved unreliable subsequently, and had to be discarded after it failed to give any indication of the 2002 drought, which saw a 19 per cent deficiency in rainfall, against the Met prophecy of it being 1 per cent above normal. Since then the Met has been tinkering with various monsoon prediction models. The model used for generating this year's rainfall prediction of 98 per cent is the same five-parameteric statistical model that was used last year. Introduced in 2007, this model has already erred twice. What confidence can such a record inspire?

 The Met department has invested in strengthening its data-collection infrastructure, instrumentation and forecasting techniques after the 2002 drought. It now possesses a fairly dense network of satellite-based automatic rain gauge stations for online monitoring, an augmented network of upper air observations, an intensive infrastructure of S-band Doppler radars for complete coverage of coastal areas and more C-band storm detection radars, besides, of course, better computing facilities for faster data processing. Failure after all this points to plain incompetence.

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

AJIT RANADE: DANCING WITH THE DRAGON

FIXED EXCHANGE RATES, ARTIFICIAL PRICING OF INPUTS, BARRIERS TO ITS MARKETS — INDIA MUST LEARN FROM CHINA

AJIT RANADE

The economic news from China is habitually "inflectionary", conveying frequently a dramatic break from the past. Just when you thought that the output numbers are unrealistically high, there comes another series which is even higher. For many years, the official growth GDP target has been around 8 per cent, with officials sheepishly admitting to double-digit growth post facto. This year's growth too will cross 11 per cent while the rest of the world is still wobbly. Consider more recent news. The exporting juggernaut, whose trade surplus has been as high as 7 per cent of its GDP, is now reporting a trade deficit for the first time in six years. Imports have been surging at a pace of 85 per cent, with cooper and oil imports alone clocking 130 per cent in March. This data also reflects import inflation, but clearly the export behemoth is now a giant sucking sound for imports too. In automobiles, China has replaced the US as the biggest car maker.

This was supposed to happen only in 2020, not now. Last year, when car production in the US fell drastically, Chinese auto makers grew at 45 per cent, further accelerating to 72 per cent in March. During the pre-crisis super-cycle years, Chinese consumption accounted for more than half the world's production of aluminium, copper, cement, coal and iron ore. Those pre-crisis shares continue to go higher, and even prices threaten to go back to pre-crisis levels. So, even as China's export markets are yet to recover, its domestic consumption is stepping in, indicating a much overdue rebalancing. While China slowly switches its GDP composition toward domestic consumption rather than exports, it no longer wants to be a price-taker in the world. Its size as consumer and producer is large enough for it to try and tilt the terms of trade to its advantage. Thus, in energy markets, it is actively securing oilfields in Africa, in addition to stockpiling at home. The most recent example of Niger shows that a military coup and overthrow of a detested dictator does not alter the diplomatic leverage of China.

 Indeed, it may enhance, thanks to its deep pockets as buyer and willing investor in infrastructure. In metals too, China has its own metal exchange in Shanghai, where price discovery is often different from the more liquid and historically entrenched London Metal Exchange.

Prices of many metals can be as much as 20 per cent cheaper in Shanghai. But that does not mean that arbitrageurs can buy cheap in Shanghai and sell dear in London. Export restrictions, a clever VAT rebate and elaborate regulations ensure that only downstream and value-added domestic producers can access that cheap metal in China, while the rest of the world has to contend with much higher price of raw materials. In iron ore, where it is a major consumer, China has caused the global giants to buckle and abandon annual contracts, and switch to more frequent quarterly adjustments. The arrest of senior Rio Tinto executives was also seen as indirect arm twisting into either allowing Chinalco a stake in Rio or else a guarantee to lower priced ore (Rio Tinto sells $10 billion worth of ore to China). The most long-lasting strategic manipulation has been of the currency, which remains significantly undervalued (but more about this below).

Till the developed economies collapsed in the wake of the financial crisis, China depended on them both as consumer markets and also as source of foreign direct investments. If there is one country which could use leverage to browbeat China into behaving less strategically (i.e. accepting market forces), it is the US. The US and China have an uneasy equilibrium relationship, not unlike a Sumo wrestler lock. For the past decade, it was the interlocking of a large trade deficit and large surplus of the respective countries. Under President Barack Obama, there have been plenty of reasons for this relation to sour. These include Tibet (Dalai Lama), Taiwan (US arms sale against Chinese wishes), Google (freedom of speech), Iran (Chinese refusal to support sanctions), environment, trade and, of course, currency protectionism. Despite these thorns, the US has been reluctant to discipline its Sumo wrestling partner. Despite plenty of evidence, the US did not use its domestic legislative power to label China a currency manipulator. On its part ,China owns more than $1 trillion of US bonds, which are financing the huge US fiscal deficit. But it still can't credibly threaten to dump these bonds, for what else will it buy? The Sumo embrace thus continues.

The Dragon's strategic behaviour holds lessons for India as well. Firstly, on currency. We must avoid excessive overvaluation, now that the chances of yuan revaluation are slim. Secondly, we must recognise (like the Chinese) that exports create jobs, imports don't.

Thirdly, the scope for using cheaper imports to curb inflation is limited, since energy prices are anyway not a pass through.

China is India's biggest trading partner, but the composition of that trade is very skewed, implying long-term strategic disadvantage for India. Indeed, China recently replaced India as Bangladesh's biggest trading partner, a fact which should cause grave concern. Are China's low-cost producers with access to low-cost Shanghai metal and artificially low-priced energy enjoying unfair advantage? Indian power sector players don't enjoy symmetric access to China, as do their Chinese counterparts to Indian markets, a fact publicly lamented by the likes of L&T and Bhel. No wonder that the WTO has denied China full membership market-economy status. But this handicap has not deterred China from employing wily, non-market methods in exploiting world trade.

India and China together have about 11 per cent of world's GDP, but only China seems to be using its clout which comes with size. It is time India too adopted some Dragon dancing steps to match its 1.5 trillion dollar status.

The author is Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group. Views expressed are personal

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF

IF THE MEDICAL COUNCIL OF INDIA VIOLATES EVERY KNOWN CODE OF CONDUCT, THE GOVT HAS NO OPTION BUT TO STEP IN

A K BHATTACHARYA

On February 12, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad sent out a letter to all deans and principals of medical and dental colleges situated in different parts of the country. In retrospect, it did appear to be an unusual letter from a minister.

 In that letter, the minister said that it had come to his notice that some persons claiming to be close to him were approaching medical as well as dental colleges with the promise that they could ensure approval or recognition of their colleges for both under-graduation and post-graduation courses for the 2010-11 academic year. The apparent purpose behind the minister's move to send out the letter was to inform them "categorically" that he had not authorised any individual or organisation to approach any medical and dental college on his behalf for such permissions.

The letter contained another interesting directive. It asked the medical and dental colleges to call the minister on his phone, or inform him through a fax letter or e-mail him (the letter listed the minister's phone numbers and his personal e-mail address) if anybody approached them on his behalf or on behalf of the Medical Council of India (MCI) or the Dental Council of India. There was even an assurance of necessary action from the minister against those approaching these colleges with such unusual offers.

Finally, the minister's letter reiterated his desire to maintain absolute transparency in the functioning of his ministry. A warning followed. "If any college authority entertains such middlemen or brokers, it will be viewed seriously and I would not hesitate to take stringent and stern action, including withdrawal of the recognition and debarring from admitting a new batch of students for a year or two," the letter warned.

It is not clear what response the minister's letter may have evoked from the medical and dental colleges. However, its significance must have dawned on everybody last Thursday, when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the president of the Medical Council of India (MCI), Dr Ketan Desai, in a Rs 2-crore bribery case. In addition to the MCI president, the CBI also arrested three more persons, all of whom were alleged to be middlemen from a medical college based in Patiala. The CBI case rested on its finding that the MCI president had granted permission to a medical college to start admissions in violation of existing rules in return for monetary considerations.

Did the minister have an inkling of the financial malpractices that afflicted the system of granting permissions to medical and dental colleges for starting operations? It would certainly appear so if the February 12 letter from Azad is any indication. If the minister was aware of such malpractices, several questions arise. It was clear from his letter that he knew that his name was being used to secure irregular clearances for medical and dental colleges. If he knew that his name was being misused, was a simple letter warning the medical and dental colleges enough? Or was it simply a convenient ploy to keep his own name out of a potential scandal? It would be interesting to know what concrete steps the minister for health and family welfare took to cleanse the corrupt system, apart from warning the medical and dental colleges.

It might be argued that the CBI action against the middlemen from the Patiala medical college and the MCI president was the outcome of a ministerial initiative only. And his letter (which was put up on the ministry's website and given due publicity by his staff in March this year) to the medical and dental colleges was part of the same ministerial strategy. However, several weeks lapsed between February 12 and April 22. Did the minister wait for an opportune moment for some middlemen to fall into the trap and vindicate the stand he took in his letter? Why didn't he use the intervening period to clean up the system and put in place checks and balances to prevent such malpractices from taking place?

Yet another disturbing development pertains to the manner in which the health and family welfare minister responded to the CBI action last Thursday. Immediately after the CBI arrests on April 22, Azad said the government had no plan to remove Ketan Desai as MCI president as the Council was an elected body and it was up to the Council to take such a decision. "The government can neither elect nor remove the MCI president," Azad had said. This may be the correct position. But surely the government cannot remain a passive bystander if the country's medical and dental colleges are run by a regulatory body in violation of all known codes of conduct and good governance. Sending out letters of warning is not enough. Ministers must also initiate steps to fix the problems in the system.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

KHANDEKAR: TIME TO CHANGE YOUR NEWSPAPER

VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR

Would you eat your favourite brand of noodles if you knew it had a chemical that is carcinogenic? You would probably change your brand immediately.

Last year you voted for your local MP because your favourite newspaper did lots of stories about how he had done a great job. What if you came to know that those articles in the paper were actually paid for by the candidate and that he was a fraud? Can you change him?

 What if you came to know that the Rs 10 lakh you spent on an MBA degree for your son was a waste. The ranking of institutes by the magazine you went by was paid for. The institute was not half as good as it was made out to be. Can you take your son out of it?

If you would not accept adulteration in what you eat or drink or use for personal hygiene, why would you accept it in your media brand. Both have equally disastrous consequences.

Yet there is no way knowing which newspaper or news channel is carrying paid news or adulterated content and which isn't. There is no rating, no sign that indicates this. In fact, till recently, there was no evidence that this was happening.

Then came the Lok Sabha elections of 2009. In the run up to the elections, some of India's best-known newspapers and news channels (English and language) were alleged to have charged money from candidates for coverage. Following complaints, the Press Council of India (PCI) appointed a sub-committee. Its draft report, which will be finalised this week, documents more than a hundred examples of paid news based on the evidence within newspapers and news channels and from interviews with politicians of all hues. Almost every media brand accused has denied any wrong-doing.

The draft, which I have read, is weak on documentary evidence. But if you know how the news business operates, then there is enough to show that there has been large-scale, institutionalised hanky panky.

This, as co-author of the report Paranjoy Guha Thakurta puts it, "is fraud at three levels". One, it is hoodwinking the reader. In most newspapers and news channels, there is a clear differentiation between advertising and editorial content. If you read a supplement or an article praising a bank or a company that is paid for, it is usually marked as "Media Marketing Initiative", or "Advertorial". Globally, that is a valid way of selling space. But in this case, the whole value of the coverage and the premium paid for it depend on the reader's belief that this is news.

Two, the money comes to the media company in cash, so shareholders and income tax authorities lose.

Three, it flouts the Election Commission norms which limit publicity expenditure, because candidates don't show it as such.

Most publishers and news broadcasters are sanguine about the whole thing. The going belief is that at the end of the day, even if readers came to know, they wouldn't care. Maybe they don't. But what if they don't even know the extent to which this is happening. From the movie you see to the fridge you buy to the holiday you take, newspapers and news channels influence everything. If readers knew the full extent of the fraud, they would react.

And for that it is critical that media brands that don't sell their editorial, and there are dozens of those, get together to shame the brands doing it. How about a Michelin-style rating or badge. "This paper does not carry paid content in any hidden form," a simple disclaimer made loudly and proudly. And a rating either from the PCI or any other non-governmental body, say a consulting firm that audits ethics, just like it audits corporate social responsibility programmes. Why not make that the gold standard of media brands. Think of it as the J D Power rating of credibility, albeit in another context.

The bottom line is that people break rules and benefit because there is a silent majority of people who follow them.

Why then not turn the tables on the rule-breakers and create a premium for brands that don't compromise? It benefits consumers and could actually turn out to be a profitable way of dealing with a mucky situation.

Vanitakohli@hotmail.com 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

NILANJANA S ROY: GUERRILLAS IN THE MIST

NILANJANA S ROY

At the height of the first Naxal movement, reflections of the revolution could be seen in the works of writers from Kerala, Bengal, Andhra and other "affected" states. Some romanced the gun, some romanced the revolutionaries; some were fiercely anguished works that are still read, if only in the college library.

It is unwise to expect the conflicts of the day to draw an immediate response from writers, but the Maoist conflict in India over the last few years has begun to leave its mark on writing in English. You may or may not be among the ranks of Naipaul believers, but give him credit for his sharp instincts.

 In 2004, four years before Red Sun, Sudeep Chakravarti's non-fiction exploration of Salwa Judum and the Maoists, was published, Naipaul came out with Magic Seeds, in which his protagonist Willie Chandran joins a revolutionary movement in India. Like C P Surendran's 2006 Iron Harvest, Magic Seeds illustrates the pitfalls of writing about revolution. Ideological debates seldom make for strong plot points, and it requires the cynical eye of a Graham Greene to turn calls to the barricades into good writing. Naipaul flourished his own brand of cynicism: "Murders of class enemies — which now meant only peasants with a little too much land — were required now, to balance the successes of the police." But if Iron Harvest was imbued with an excess of revolutionary fervour and disillusionment, Magic Seeds exuded listlessness.

Perhaps non-fiction will be the more useful form for this insurgency, or conflict. Before Arundhati Roy walked with the comrades, Jason Motlagh did a prescient piece that reflected his unease with the aims and the violence of the present-day Maoists. In 2001, journalist Satnam had travelled to Bastar to meet the comrades; his deeply sympathetic account was published in 2003 in Punjabi. Jangalnama: Travels in A Maoist Guerrilla Zone (Penguin) has just been published in English, and it's both interesting and dated.

Satnam is blunt about the fact that his sympathies lie with the Maoists, and in many parts, Jangalnama reads like a paean to the simplicity and openness of tribal life — with a nod to the considerable economic hardships. "The laws of Manu have not influenced their lives," he observes, joining in with the 18-hour marches, the collective song sessions, the basic meals of rice with pumpkin gravy. There is much understanding and sympathy here — in fact, the parallels between Satnam's journey and Roy's more recent journey are startling — but no questioning of violence, and little reflection on the lives of the children whose co-option into the movement as young guerrillas is essentially choiceless. Jangalnama is interesting as a historical curiosity, but Satnam's romanticising becomes a barrier. The great revolutionary novel or account of this decade is yet to be written.

RIP, Alan Sillitoe

"A sure qualification for turning into a writer is to grow up with a divided personality…" Alan Sillitoe, who died this week at the age of 82, wrote in his biography, Life Without Armour. It's a pity the book is out-of-print, because it remains a remarkably honest account by one of Britain's Angry Young Men.

Sillitoe's life was brutal; his father was a vicious drunk, his mother sent him — briefly — to an institution for the mentally challenged because they provided free porridge and daily meals, and he led a working man's life for years before making his bones as a writer. But this is really a reader's biography: pages and pages taken up by lists of what he was reading, the early discovery of the Williams and Biggles books, the comforts of the public library. He was a voracious reader, despite his father knocking books out of the young Alan's hands.

Sillitoe wrote a great deal more than most realise, but the book we all remember is iconic: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. It marked a point in British writing when stories about "us" and "them" were being written by "them", for perhaps the first time in the 20th century. The protagonist discovers his talent for cross-country running while in a Borstal prison, realises both a genuine passion for running and his contempt for the governor who wants him to win a specific race. Instead of mourning Sillitoe, read Long Distance Runner again: "Cunning is what counts in this life, and even that you've got to use in the slyest way you can; I'm telling you straight: they're cunning, and I'm cunning. If only 'them' and 'us' had the same ideas, we'd get on like a house on fire, but they don't see eye to eye with us and we don't see eye to eye with them, so that's how it stands and how it will always stand."

nilanjanasroy@gmail.com 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

NEW ROLES FOR FISCAL POLICY?

THE RECENT FINANCIAL CRISIS HAS CROWNED FISCAL POLICY AS THE MACRO-ECONOMIC POLICY TOOL OF LAST RESORT

ALOK SHEEL

 

The recent financial and economic (crisis) has underscored the limits of monetary policy, and endowed fiscal policy, severely mauled several years ago by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, with the new-found halo of macro-economic tool of last resort. What is less prominently underscored, however, is that beyond restoring growth, the crisis has also defined entirely new spheres for fiscal policy, such as financial stability and correcting global imbalances. These new roles would make fiscal exit, already complicated by the confluence of rising (crisis related) cyclical and (ageing related) structural deficits, even harder. They also compound the difficulties of keeping public debt, including contingent liabilities in the form of effective public guarantees, within sustainable levels.

Some emerging markets had no doubt been using fiscal policy as part of their overall strategy to counter the destabilising impact of large capital inflows. Financial stability, however, has traditionally been addressed through regulation that ensured transparency, avoided conflicts of interest through firewalls, protected consumer and shareholder rights, ensured liquid and competitive markets, put limits on leverage, and mandated adequate capital buffers to avoid liquidity traps and provision for losses, etcetera. The recent crisis has now underscored how fragile and procyclical financial markets can be and, with several financial institutions being considered too systemically important to be allowed to fail, taxpayers' money and guarantees are likely to be used to bail out what are essentially public utilities.

One way of addressing the issue is to break up financial institutions too large to fail, and raise capital buffers, including fee-based contributions by financial institutions to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-type insurance bodies that can resolve individual failures. The international consensus, at least in advanced economies, however, appears to be veering in the direction of taxing the financial sector to recover, and provide for future, public bailouts in the belief that, consequential moral hazards notwithstanding, these are eventually unavoidable. The underlying belief is that it is neither desirable nor practicable to break up big financial institutions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lent its considerable authority and influence to this viewpoint. These taxes may initially be a new source of revenue but have the potential of distorting markets, fuelling new public expenditures and subjecting taxpayers to greater risks in the long run.

Despite the fact that the global economy has rarely been balanced, and current account imbalances reflect developmental, demographic and cultural asymmetries across nation states, the recent crisis has painted global imbalances as the fall guy whose disciplining is essential to reduce future risks to the global economy. Reducing global imbalances has become the subject of a raging debate amongst economists, in financial daily OpEds and within the G20.

Unfortunately, the debate has focussed excessively on economies with the biggest current account imbalances and the role of pegged exchange rates. Simplistic solutions like tweaking the dollar-yen exchange rate under the Plaza Accord did little to reduce Japan's current account balance. Neither did the appreciation of the Chinese yuan post-2005 diminish China's. Since a disproportionate share of China's exports involves processing of imported goods, Chinese exports are likely to be less affected by currency appreciation that would only make imports cheaper. Moreover, in the absence of other adjustments, the US may simply end up importing similar but costlier goods from other countries less competitive and productive than China, but more competitive and productive than the US. Even countries with floating exchange rates, such as Germany and Japan, have significant external imbalances, and there are imbalances even within the eurozone. Indeed, given the vast differences in productivity between Germany on the one hand and Southern Europe on the other, an appreciation of the euro could actually worsen current account imbalances of the latter.

External imbalances simply mirror domestic savings and investment imbalances, and can ultimately be adjusted only through changes in domestic consumption and investment patterns. While public policy can influence both, consumption patterns are largely cultural and behavioural in nature, whereas investment responds more to economic opportunities and policies. Thus, the loose monetary policy in the noughties in the US fuelled an asset-based consumption boom, while similarly low real interest rates fuelled an investment boom in China. US households are increasing their savings to repair their asset price-inflated balance sheets, but this is being partly offset by rising public sector government dis-savings as the government tries to compensate for the fall in private demand to stimulate growth, and takes on the liabilities of the over-leveraged financial sector. While changes in monetary policy may be required to prevent a relapse into overconsumption through future asset price booms, short-term interest rates may be too blunt a policy instrument for this, as there is likely to be collateral damage to investment and growth. Over the medium to long term, beyond reducing government's own deficit, fiscal policy may be required to dampen private consumption, as the current US debate on the introduction of a new value added tax indicates.

In surplus countries, on the other hand, either government expenditures would need to rise, or taxes lowered, to increase consumption. The jury, however, is still out debating whether such policy changes would induce the behavioural changes necessary to reduce savings and enhance consumption, especially since these would need to counter the logic of demographic transition and cultural preferences. Japan's burgeoning fiscal deficits have not resolved external imbalances. Would putting extra money in the hands of a Swabian housewife induce her to spend more or save more? Would increased government expenditure on social security nets in China induce Chinese households to collectively spend more of their current income even as dependency and poverty ratios fall? If fiscal adjustments simultaneously enhance fiscal deficits, as is likely although theoretically not necessary, there would be the additional pitfall of ricardian equivalence, as consumers may simply save more to offset higher taxes in future.

Ironically, despite being discredited for contributing to economic crises in the recent past, and question marks on its efficacy, since monetary policy has also been found wanting, the recent crisis has not only crowned fiscal policy as the macro-economic policy tool of last resort, but is also resurrecting it for new functions to address financial stability and global imbalances. This could bring fiscal policy under increasing pressure not only in deficit countries, where it is already an issue, but also in surplus countries, where it is presently not an issue. While the tool itself may be robust, policy-makers would need to use the tool adroitly, especially since there could be conflicting objectives at the best of times. Moreover, experience indicates that fiscal policy tends to get emasculated by the political minefield it has to necessarily navigate. Going forward, this does not bode well for either inflation or interest rates.

The author is a civil servant.The views expressed are personal

BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

SANJAYA BARU: INDIA, PAKISTAN AND SAARC

MANMOHAN SINGH AND YUSUF RAZA GILANI HOLD THE KEY TO SOUTH ASIA'S PROGRESS

SANJAYA BARU

Manmohan Singh and Yusuf Raza Gilani hold the key to South Asia's progress

The world is convinced that the 21st century will be Asia's century. The only question is whether it will be only East Asia's century or South Asia's as well.

China's great moderniser Deng Xiaoping famously told the late Rajiv Gandhi that "the 21st century can only be the Asian century if India and China combine to make it so". Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can well tell his Pakistani counterpart this week that the only way South Asia can become a vibrant element of the new Asian century is if India and Pakistan combine to make it so.

As leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) meet later this week in Bhutan, they must all ask themselves where this important part of Asia is headed, even as Asia to our East moves relentlessly forward.

Do any of Saarc's members have a future that can be truly independent of their South Asian identity? Hardly. Can Pakistan hope to be part of a dynamic and rising Asia without resolving its problems at home and with India? Impossible. Can India sustain high growth for long, like China, without a more cooperative relationship with its neighbours, including Pakistan? Unlikely.

At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, South Asia stands once again at a cross roads. It can go forward, along with the more dynamic economies of East Asia, and emerge as the second engine of global growth by the middle of the century, or it can remain in a low-level equilibrium of poverty, conflict and perpetual instability.

If there are any political leaders or strategic analysts in any of the South Asian countries who think that their country can break loose from the neighbourhood and have a rosy future irrespective of what happens in the region, they live in a world of make believe.

The region has had such leaders before. Many in Pakistan thought they could delink from South Asia and attach themselves to the richer Arab and Islamic world to their west. Some in India thought New Delhi too can delink itself from its neighbourhood and "Look East" for prosperity. South Asia's smaller countries also had fanciful notions of their individual autonomy. Some, like the Maoists in Nepal and the Sinhala chauvinists in Sri Lanka, still see a future for themselves independent of the "Mother Continent".

The saner lot, even in Pakistan, recognise that what geography and economics propose, mere politics cannot dispose.

If Saarc has to be revived and made a more dynamic regional organisation, then India and Pakistan must get their act together. Both countries have huge internal problems and there are constituencies for peace in both countries, just as there are constituencies for exporting domestic problems across the border in both. Pakistan has used terror to thwart India's progress, but the elephant moves on at a handsome pace of 8 per cent and more, even as Pakistan has slowed down to 2-3 per cent growth in recent years.

The last few years have, however, shown that the two neighbours owe it to their own people and their region as a whole to amicably resolve their differences, if each of the two countries and the region as a whole have to move forward.

The starting point of any meaningful dialogue between India and Pakistan is for the two to recognise each other's concerns. Pakistan must demonstrate much greater understanding of India's concerns about cross-border terrorism and the need to convince Indian public opinion about its sincerity in dealing with the planners and perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai and several other terrorist attacks.

Equally, India must address Pakistan's genuine fears about river water utilisation and deal convincingly with the issue of Kashmir. Pakistan must rid itself of baseless fears about Indian attempts to destabilise it because any destabilisation of Pakistan can only hurt India even more.

The dialogue between Dr Singh and former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf began with the mutual acknowledgment of these realities and each other's concerns. It reached a critical point of mutual agreement when President Musharraf got dethroned.

It appears Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani is fighting shy of picking up the threads from where President Musharraf had left them off. Much water has flown down the Indus and US President Barack Obama's AfPak policy has muddied the waters. It has certainly encouraged Pakistan to overplay its hand.

Dr Singh should remind his counterpart that despite all the money the US is pouring into Pakistan, its economy is in doldrums, with mounting debt, 3 per cent growth and 9 per cent inflation. Pakistan has itself become a victim of the jihadi terrorism and internal conflict.

If realism on Pakistan's part implies getting a reality check on India's relative size and success, realism on India's part implies coming to terms with Pakistan's power to be a spoiler. Dr Singh and Mr Musharraf came around to getting a balanced and correct view of each other's strengths and weaknesses. They worked out a realistic modus vivendi. Mr Gilani and his friends in the Pakistan army must catch up and get real.

A realistic and pragmatic leadership in the region is one which tries to resolve cross-border issues so that domestic problems can be handled better. The challenge for every Saarc government is at home and unless domestic problems are tackled, the region will not progress or congeal.

India and Pakistan bear a special responsibility to revitalise Saarc as the region's biggest nations. The India-Pakistan quarrel has made Saarc non-functional. A resolution of the disputes between the two is vital to the region's development.

It was in April 2005 that Dr Singh and Mr Musharraf began writing a new chapter in South Asian history. April 2010 would be a good month to get that project back on track.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

CARAT AND SHTICK

 

Marilyn Monroe knew what she was talking about when she crooned, Men grow cold as girls grow old /And we all lose our charms in the end/ But square-cut or pear-shaped/ These rocks don't lose their shape / Diamonds are a girl's best friend!" No wonder Naomi Campbell viciously knocked over a mediaperson's camera when asked about the rock she was allegedly presented by the discredited former Liberian ruler Charles Taylor.

Blood diamond or not, she is unlikely to chuck it out (if she does have it) as the world's biggest supplier of the gemstone, De Beers, has warned this week that stocks may soon run out. The company virtuously added that it plans to cut production "to extend the life of its mines". That's a new one, because back in 2008 when sales of luxury items fell to a four-year low in the biggest diamond market, the US, diamond producers had couched a rollback decision in rather more pragmatic terms — cut supply to support prices. So Russia cut its output of rough diamonds, and De Beers shut down its Botwana mines sporadically in 2009 and ended the year with a net loss.

Only, till last year, no one was really in the mood to listen to diamond woes. Given that no new major diamond deposits have been found in the last 20 years, the finite stock story may indeed have a cent of truth if not a carat.

Yet, the two monopoly players — De Beers and Russia's ZAO Alrosa — cannot be too reluctant to reduce output again for analysts are already predicting this could now see diamond prices rising 5% annually for the next five years.

The "buy it while it lasts" gambit should also impel believers in Monroe's Doctrine to sprint to the nearest jewellery store to corner their soonto-be-priceless nugget of history. More so, customers in fast-growing India and China. After all the industry survives on an Elizabeth Taylor-Sushmita-Sen-like yearning for handy best friends...

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

EXIT LALIT MODI

 

The Board for Control of Cricket in India has shown the grand impresario of the Indian Premier League the door. With this move, it hopes the controversy over IPL would settle down, too. It should not. The entire IPL act needs to be cleaned up.

Indians love cricket and that love serves as the basis for a whole lot of commercial activity spanning advertising, broadcast rights, event management, merchandising, etc. Completely underhand measures have been adopted by some, closely linked to IPL organisers and their cronies, to corner as large a share of the revenue generated by these activities as possible, in the entire organisation of the League. And the BCCI cannot disclaim responsibility.

Let us not forget that the IPL got a monopoly on league cricket in India because BCCI got the international cricket body to disqualify players who took part in the Indian Cricket League, a league experiment that took off without BCCI's sponsorship. Now, this was armtwisting and an exercise in monopoly, and against the principles of competition, blocking free entry into the market for commercial cricket. BCCI owns, benefits from and supports IPL. So whatever IPL did had the implicit or explicit support of BCCI, which comprises leading politicians and businessmen (and suffers some people associated with the game as well, to be fair to the body).

The chargesheet against Modi is revealing, including as it does rigged bids for team franchises, payoffs for securing telecast lights, misappropriation of funds, non-disclosure of interests in teams, and so on. These are damning charges. But how did Modi manage to get away with all these till his tweet against Shashi Tharoor?

Cricket lovers deserve better. The League they love to watch must be rid of sleaze. Team ownership should become transparent, as also the allotment of franchises. Above all, integrity of the game of cricket must remain shielded from the shadow of suspicion, not to speak of the grime of match fixing scandal. So far, the BCCI has failed in its supervisory responsibility. Who's holding the political maestros of BCCI to account?

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

PRIVACY AS A PUBLIC GOOD

 

It is indeed welcome that the government has categorically stated that it has not authorised any tapping of the phones of political leaders. Neither had its immediate predecessor, Home Minister Chidambaram assured Parliament on Monday.

However, this does not mean that political leaders are not subjected to eavesdropping; rather, if any eavesdropping happens, it is unauthorised. News reports suggest the availability of sophisticated equipment that would allow just about anyone to monitor calls from phones within a short range, without the involvement of the telecom service provider. The service provider gets involved when it gets a written request from designated functionaries of the government.

However, without official sanction, without the telecom operator's knowledge, people can eavesdrop on conversations. This is a scary proposition. Commercial intelligence could be at risk. Personal privacy is at stake. Terrorists could listen in on the security establishment's plans. Intelligence agencies could run unauthorised operations, to serve the interests of the party and politicians in power. Worse, unscrupulous spooks could run their own rackets with confidential information obtained through unauthorised eavesdropping.

We need more than a strong statement from the government to ward off these possibilities. We need strong laws to protect privacy, and technological capability to detect unauthorised hacking into telecom networks. And we need the will to stop misuse of the official machinery. This is the obverse of the obvious need to use signal intelligence for national security.

A public good is one whose provision to one person does not reduce its availability to another, and from whose provision it is not possible to exclude anyone. Law and order is a classic example. Privacy, too, fits the bill. If it is not sufficiently part of the law, the statute should be strengthened. We expect from the Opposition cooperation to create legal and institutional capability to safeguard privacy, not holier-than-thou belligerence.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

THROUGH THE THIRD EYE

 

Yet another phone-tapping allegation is playing out along expected lines, there is an interesting sub-text to the tale. The BJP camp feels terribly let down because none of its top leaders figured in the 'tapped list'. Party supporters see in this a deliberate design to make it evident their leaders don't 'pose a threat' for the regime.

This prompted the Congress camp to recall how Sonia Gandhi `figured prominently in the list of tapped leaders during the NDA regime. But supporters of Prakash Karat are feeling relieved to find his name in the list as an acknowledgement of his importance and a sort of consolation prize after the ill-fated toppling bid on the UPA-I.

While the Mulayam Singh fans feel less embarrassed since Mayawati too failed to make it to the list, the Lalu Yadav camp is livid as arch-rival Nitish Kumar stars in the episode even after RJD chief 'withdrew' support to UPA-II. On his part, Digvijay Singh says the BJP regime in MP was all along tapping his phone. A twist in the tale?

SELECTIVE STRIKES

Lalu Yadav and Mulayam Singh insisted on raking up the IPL issue in Lok Sabha even while being part of Opposition protests over `phone tapping. Outside LS, some RJD MPs aired their ire over the way IPL controversy 'is being drowned in the tapping din'. They see a Congress-BJP conspiracy to provide cover-fire for the UPA and BJP leaders, caught in the cricket mess.

The other sides claim the Yadav duo's Ban IPL posturing is meant as an attention-seeking exercise of those who have invested heavily in the IPL ring. But the BJP camp is intrigued by Yashwant Sinha seeking the resignation of Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel even when the party chose to be ambivalent on their cases. The conspiratorial BJP campers point out Sinha's 'etough stand' coincided with Lalit Modi publicising an email from Arun Jaitley, endorsing Sashank Manohar's opposition to Modi's 'desire' to bare details of all stakeholders in teams. It's a `no-compromise fight vs selective strikes.

MUGHAL REMINDER

Away in Kerala, tales of the Mughal durbar attend a political succession war. As part of positioning before the Congress organisational polls, K Karunakaran loyalists met at his residence to discuss the leadership's 'undelivered promises'.

While his daughter Padmaja attended the meet, the leader chose to tactically stay away. The post-meeting resolution said 'Padmaja, as the political heir of Karunakaran', has been authorised to take up future issues. Prompt was the repartee from Karunakaran's son Muraleedharan, the in-house rival of Padmaja. Maintaining that his father is capable of choosing his own heir, Muraleedharan said everybody should remember how shortlived was the reign of Aurangzeb who captured the Mughal throne by imprisoning father Shah Jahan.

There was mention of Shah Jahan's favourite daughter Jehanara and the fate she met eventually. In politics, the unsaid part matters too.

HAND-TIED CM

After many unsuccessful attempts, AP Chief Minister Rosaiah finally met Sonia Gandhi recently. A relieved CM then told reporters about his plans for an 'imminent cabinet expansion' so that he could tighten his grip on the post-YSR party.

Within days, YSR's son Jagan Mohan Reddy launched his 'rath yatra' showcasing his 'popularity'. His message to the CM was clear: "drop YSR loyalists from the cabinet at your own peril." With the tricky Rajya Sabha poll and civic election next month, the high command decided not to risk factional tension now. So, the CM's cabinet rejig plan has now hit an air-pocket.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

FOOD COUPONS: THE WAY FORWARD?

 

The government seems to be considering a new system to replace the present system of targeted public distribution system (TPDS) with food coupons or direct cash transfer. The ills that plague the present TPDS are well-known and well-documented.

The two national surveys, one by Programme Evaluation Organisation of the Planning Commission and the other by ORG-Marg, both at the instance of the Union government, have identified the major problem areas in the present system. These can be summarised as follows:

Exclusion errors: Families who deserve to be in the BPL list are excluded,

Inclusion errors: Families who are not eligible are included,

Ghost cards: Ration cards in the name of fictitious/non-existent families,

Leakage at fair price shop: Simply stated, the quantum of food grain leaked/stolen by transporters/shopkeepers, and Unacceptable quality: Complaints of quality sometimes due to the replacement of procured stocks by lower quality at various levels.

Does the proposed system of food coupons address these deficiencies? The system of food coupons cannot address the issues of exclusion and inclusion errors since these emerge from the process of identification. Who would not like to be included in the BPL list, especially when many goodies flow from the welfare state, be it subsidised health care or an Indira Awas?

The chances, therefore, are that the errors in identification will remain. Add to this the arguments for increasing the scope (read: size) of the BPL list (Tendulkar committee, Saxena committee et al). Ghost cards, however, could be minimised if the payment systems are designed properly.

The food coupons can effectively break the hegemony of the present set of fair-price shopkeepers, who, over a period, have developed vested interests and have also managed to gain substantial political clout. In fact, most of the ills of the present system can be attributed to the patronage in allocating fair price shops.

To be fair to these shopkeepers, the commission they get is so low that they are compelled to resort to malpractices, which over a period of time has become a habit driven mostly by greed. The resistance faced by the government of Chhattisgarh in moving to a new system of shops is ample testimony to this.

The first step in the food coupon system, therefore, has to be the closure of all existing fair price shops - they can continue to be normal grocery shops if they wish - in the area and giving a choice to the coupon holders to buy their food grain from any 'designated' grocery shop in the region. I use the word designated because the payment mechanism for the proposed coupons will need financial oversight. If there are too many choices, managing the accounts could be problematic. Ideally, the coupon holder in a ward/area could be given an option to purchase her food grain from a set of identified grocery shops - not less than three and not more than five - every month. The coupons shall carry a fixed value - the value will have to change at least every year to take care of inflation - and the shopkeeper permitted to encash these coupons from designated bank branch(es) in the locality. The coupons should also have a validity period to allow the shopkeepers to deliver food grain every month. The success of the scheme will depend on a caveat that there will not be any scrutiny of the items purchased by the family as long as the coupon has been used in the designated shop and during the month for which it is authorised.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

SWIMMING WITHOUT A SINKING FEELING

MUKUL SHARMA

Stanley Baldwin, sometime Prime Minister of the UK, once said, 'I am one of those who would sink with faith than swim without it'. It's a much-quoted and well-received sound bite because of the mesmerising quality of its words that seem to be saying something pithily perfect - if not extremely profound - about the nature of belief.

Parents, preachers, teachers and those of a more orthodox disposition are usually fond of citing it as some kind of a we told-you-so guiding principle that ought to be followed if one is not to flounder in the unforgiving deep waters of life during a later stage of regret.

Yet, when you come down to it, all it actually means is we should definitely believe in something even if it turns out to be totally wrong. And we're not talking here about those who are resolute in their religion or God because much greater people than a lot of us have swum with their faith through martyrdoms, crucifixions, burnings at the stake and genocide without ever sinking into the tiniest fragment of unbelief.

The question about being wrong never entered their heads. Or to paraphrase the poet Ralph Hodgson, to them, some things had to be believed to be seen. Instead, wefre talking about those who at the drop of a loved onefs death have immediately abdicated all their faith. Obviously, they had been swimming without it for a while.But to accept any faith in general as an unfalsifiable construct is to court disaster.

The history of politics, science and the cultures we live in has been full of rebels with causes who, while they had their grand moments of heroics at one time, have become ludicrous as their faiths turned out to be laughable in hindsight.

The builders of the Titanic, for instance, come to mind. They had such faith that their ship was unsinkable till it sank beneath their wisdom on its maiden voyage that not enough lifeboats had been provided, resulting in the greatly unnecessary number of deaths that occurred.

However, while misplaced faith is indeed laughable, and regrettably so sometimes, any journey - whether accomplished by mechanical movement or existing only in the mind - is also ludicrous without belief buttressing that progression. As mentioned here earlier in another context, the whole point is not where we are going . which is beside the point really - but, rather, why we're going there at all which matters.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WE NEED TO FOCUS ON SPEEDY RAMP UP OF CLOUD SERVICES HERE: MICROSOFT

WRITANKAR MUKHERJEE

 

As Microsoft evolves into a cloud computing services company, it's betting big on India. The software behemoth is thrilled about the huge business potential of cloud computing in India, and is open to even investing in a data centre. In an exclusive interview to ET, Microsoft COO B Kevin Turner shared insights about how the company is transforming itself, what it means for businesses and consumers, and how the strategy will pan out in India. Excerpts:

 

Please give us a sense of Microsoft's cloud computing strategy and its plans to transform itself as an organisation?
The global macro economic financial crisis, which we went through in the past 18 months, drove us to step back and see whether we are looking at the market in terms of market transition and emergence of latest technology. This was vital since we can then place our R&D bets accordingly. It became apparent to us that this is the time to go full throttle on cloud services. So, we are now transitioning and transforming the company into a cloud services company in all facets of our business.

This year, Microsoft will invest around $9.5 billion in R&D, which is nearly $3 billion more than the next closest tech company. The largest share of this will be used in the cloud services space. Over 70% of our developers are working on cloud services today and by 2011, almost 90% of them will work on cloud services. As a part of the transformation, we are looking at the market in two different ways — consumer cloud services and commercial cloud services.

How much potential do you see in India for cloud services?

In India, cloud services provide an excellent opportunity. We think emerging markets like India have a huge advantage over matured markets as they can skip a lot of legacy applications and investments. India can go straight to cloud services. In fact, we need to scale up fast enough in India to live up to the demand. In the past 2-3 months, we launched our Business Productivity Online Suite and the Azure platform in India. While the former has more than 3,500 Indian customers, over 3,500 applications have already been developed in India on Azure. The momentum is really beginning to take-off in India.

Any plans to collaborate with Indian companies in this regard?

We have a great relationship with the large Indian system integrators and cloud services is on their mind as it is in the mind of their customers. It's a unique opportunity we have, and we will look at ways to deepen those partnerships. We have entered into interesting partnerships with telcos like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and BSNL in the past 6-9 months. In India, there are some four million small businesses, of which only 1.8 million have at least one PC and only 3 lakh of them have a network of any sort. Cloud services allows flexible payment model like 'pay as you go', for which there is a huge pent up demand in India. But, won't the 'pay as you go' model eat into the revenues you get from outright software sales?

Most of the big companies will have a hybrid model — they will have some level of on-premise software that will provide outright sale revenue and some level of cloud services. However, small businesses may rely completely on cloud services. This changes the dynamics of when you get paid for the software. It is no doubt a different economic model as compared to upfront payment for the software. But clearly, the economic model is not a consideration on whether we go into cloud services or not. What is important is whether it supports our three-string approach to connect the PC, mobile device and TV with cloud computing as we transition ourselves. We think it is a natural transition for us.

Please elaborate on consumer and commercial cloud services.

In consumer cloud services, we already have a fairly impressive inventory. There are some 369 million hotmail accounts which are active, 600 million people utilise our MSN home page, about 500 million people have signed up for Windows Live and 20 million people have joined the paid service for Xbox Live. The Bing searches up to 3 billion queries a month. These assets are very important to us, and we are going to keep investing on consumer cloud services in a big way.

We also plan to bridge the PC, the mobile phone and the TV with cloud services to connect a person's digital lifestyle and digital workstyle. For example, the same Word document or Excel sheet will be available across all the three devices. And, in commercial cloud services, we think about it in business customer terms. Microsoft Office is a big productivity tool and with the ensuing 2010 release, we are going to take this to the cloud.

The 2010 version of our collaboration tool SharePoint, which is the fastest growing product in the history of Microsoft, is now in cloud. People wanted a development platform and we have our Windows Azure and SQL Azure in the cloud. These are available in India as well. As these 2010 products come to market, we will be market leaders in the commercial space by a substantial margin. So, it's a huge market transition that Microsoft is betting on.

Are there any plans to invest in data centres for cloud computing in India?

It can indeed happen. It will depend on the demand for the service. Right now, we have six big data centres — two in Americas, two in Europe, and two in the Asia-Pacific. Going forward, we will set up data centres in markets where we see good demand. In terms of R&D, we have our second-largest development centre outside the US in India. We will continue to hire and invest in our development centre in India as the development work will contribute significantly in our cloud services transformation.

Microsoft, last year, rolled out exclusive brand stores in the US. Are there any plans to launch them in India?
I am optimistic about taking the Microsoft stores outside US, including India. The early signs in the US are good and clearly we will scale it up globally. However, we are yet to finalise our plans.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

"SOUTH AFRICA HAS A WELL REGULATED AND DEVELOPED BANKING SECTOR"

SHEETAL SRIVASTAVA

CEO AND COUNTRY MANAGER, FIRSTRAND BANK INDIA, IN A CHAT WITH ET, GIVES AN OVERVIEW OF THE BANKING SECTOR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

How has the relationship between South Africa and India strengthened over the years?

The relationship has strengthened in leaps and bounds over the last few years. Various industry bodies like CII, IMC and South Africa/India CEO's forum have been very proactive to promote cross-border trade and investment between the two countries. By setting ambitious trade and investment targets, Indian business no doubt sees South Africa as a new frontier and is searching for opportunities that are principally driven by commodities.

Can you give an overview of the banking sector in South Africa?

South Africa has a well regulated and developed banking sector. Recently, the South African banking sector was announced as the 5th best regulated in the world. There is a wide range of product sophistication in the Corporate and Investment Banking as well as Commercial and Consumer Banking segments.

What opportunities do you foresee in the banking sector in India?

Although the Indian banking sector is well developed and competitive it offers many exciting opportunities for players who are committed to the country. As the Indian economy emerges even further, the need for the financing of infrastructure development and cross-border trade and investment will be massive. Banks who can figure out ways and means of servicing the bottom of the pyramid will be the winners.

What kind of changes do you foresee in this sector in future and how should the overall management strategy shape up?

The banking sector will continue to be highly regulated and extremely competitive. However, there will be an increasing role for foreign banks due to high credit growth on the back of a booming economy. There will also be a definite increase in profitable microfinance and allied activities in India.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

IT-ITES WILL GROSS $225 BN BY 2020: NASSCOM CHAIRMAN

HARSIMRAN JULKA

 

Accenture's India MD, Harsh Manglik, who manages the company's 47,000 employees in the country, has now been now given the additional responsibility of giving direction to the 2.3 million- strong Indian IT industry. In his first interview after being appointed as Nasscom chairman last week, the IIT-Kanpur alumnus and IT industry veteran talks about the future of the $60-billion sector and the challenges ahead. Excerpts:

What's your immediate agenda on taking over as Nasscom chairman?

My agenda as Nasscom chairman would be to see that all challenges in the path of the $60-billion ITBPO industry are removed. We should be on track to become a $225-billion industry by 2020. On a mean rate, we are sure to touch at least $175 billion, provided everything goes well.

In 1999, Nasscom had predicted that the IT industry will gross $50 billion by 2009. The industry performed on target, last year. My effort will also be to see that domain skills are acquired along with scale. I am honored and take it as an opportunity that will make an impact.

Is there any hope that the over 35%-40 % growth era will return ?

The growth curve is never a straight line. That is a reality of life and we have to accept it. But considering a large number of conditions in the world market, our view at Nasscom is that for the next 10 years, the industry should be able to grow at a CAGR of 25% year on year.

Last year, we saw large scale layoffs by IT firms. Will Nasscom advocate a labour policy or encourage unionisation in the industry?

HR issues are best solves by companies themselves. Nasscom will never favour intrusive legislation on this front. When an industry achieves a critical mass, these issues are automatically evened out. And I think the IT industry has achieved that mass.

In the last 10 years, the majority of net new jobs in urban areas have emerged as a result of the IT industry . Secondary jobs like security guards, catering, transportation have also benefited. A tinkering with the existing laws may block that flow.

What are the imminent roadblocks in the path of industry's growth? Is it time for companies to start paying taxes?

Infrastructure and power are the basic issues. Almost 45% companies in the IT sector produce their own power which is an additional cost. After all, it's not only about competing within companies but now countries are also competing for the same business. We need to make sure that India does not lag behind in any regard.

Small companies which cannot afford SEZs should be given tax benefits. On the supply side there are so many challenges. India is the youngest country in the world. But population is no longer a hindrance. We have to put their aspirations where their dreams are and that is possible with the right kind of education.

The supply gap is also a factor of quality of education . Will Nasscom intervene to change the curriculum taught in engineering colleges?

My belief is that Nasscom should not be seen as specifying the curriculum in the country. Instead, greater autonomy should be given to colleges to let them try out new ideas. We should not be prescriptive . India already has the raw material (in terms of talent) we just have to retool them.

We should have more schools of higher learning and make them specialised. For instance, universities like Caltech, Harvard and Berkeley in US are very different from each other but they are all highly revered.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

OUR GROUP'S PHILOSOPHY IS TO REWARD SHAREHOLDERS: JAYPEE GROUP

ARUN KUMAR

 

The Jaypee Group plans to raise around Rs 2,350 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) of infrastructure subsidiary Jaypee Infratech. The company is raising Rs 1,650 crore through fresh issue of shares at a price band of Rs 102-117 per share. In addition, the parent company, Jaiprakash Associates, is divesting six crore equity shares through offer for sale at the same price. In an exclusive interview with ET, group founder Jaiprakash Gaur said the IPO will help in funding the ongoing 165 KM Yamuna Expressway project and unlock the shareholders' value. Excerpts:

Jaypee Infratech, with 6,175 acre of land, is developing five integrated townships between Noida and Agra. Would you describe it as an infrastructure company or a real estate company?

This is an infrastructure company. We were awarded the expressway and land was given as part of the project. Being an infrastructure player, the company was given 10-year tax holiday. At the same time, we have large parcels of land along the expressway.

We have started developing the first parcel in Noida and will start developing other parcels in the course of this year. This is probably a unique business model, in which infrastructure and real estate are the core business areas. In the Noida project, we are going to develop approximately 80 million sq ft. Of this, we have only sold 21 million sq ft with saleable value of approximately Rs 6,300 crore.

As a substantial part of the expressway is completed, what is the purpose of raising funds?

 

The expressway project entails a capital expenditure of Rs 9,739 crore. Of this, we have already spent Rs 6,250 crore from promoters' contribution, internal accruals and long-term debt from banks. Our intent is to enter the market after completing more than half of the project so that investors have complete visibility in terms of its completion.

This is in line with our group's philosophy. We have never entered the market at the planning stage of the project even in other areas. The project is being financed through promoter equity contribution of Rs 1,250 crore, internal accruals of Rs 955 crore. And we have a tied-up debt of Rs 6,000 crore, of which Rs 4,044 crore has already been disbursed. Proceeds from the fresh issue will be used for completing the expressway.

 

Isn't the proposed price band of Rs 102-117 per share on the higher side in the current market conditions, especially when many real estate and infrastructure companies have lined up their IPOs?

On the contrary, the price is on the lower side. Our group's philosophy is to reward shareholders. Given the inherent strength of the company, in terms of prime land bank and the expressway, which is in advanced stage of implementation, the merchant bankers have priced the issue conservatively. A discount of up to 5% to the issue price, which will be decided through book-building process, shall be offered to retail investors.

When will the expressway be completed?

The project will be completed by March 2011.

In 2011-12, when the expressway will be ready, what percentage of revenues will come from toll business?

Since, we are in the middle of the IPO, I cannot give any financial projection.

In FY10, what was Jaypee Infratech's revenue and profit?

The full year figures have not been announced. In the first three quarters ended December 2009, it has reported a net profit of Rs 399 crore and a turnover of Rs 533 crore.

 

(BCCL, the publisher of this newspaper, has a pre-IPO holding of 0.082% in Jaypee Infratech)

 

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

CHECK POOR STANDARDS OF MOODY'S & CO.

BY PAUL KRUGMAN

Let's hear it for the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Its work on the financial crisis is increasingly looking like the 21st-century version of the Pecora hearings, which helped usher in New Deal-era financial regulation. In the past few days scandalous Wall Street email messages released by the subcommittee have made headlines.

That's the good news. The bad news is that most of the headlines were about the wrong emails. When Goldman Sachs employees bragged about the money they had made by shorting the housing market, it was ugly, but that didn't amount to wrongdoing.

No, the email messages you should be focusing on are the ones from employees at the credit rating agencies, which bestowed AAA ratings on hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of dubious assets, nearly all of which have since turned out to be toxic waste. And no, that's not hyperbole: of AAA-rated subprime-mortgage-backed securities issued in 2006, 93 per cent — 93 per cent! — have now been downgraded to junk status.

What those emails reveal is a deeply corrupt system. And it's a system that financial reform, as currently proposed, wouldn't fix.

The rating agencies began as market researchers, selling assessments of corporate debt to people considering whether to buy that debt. Eventually, however, they morphed into something quite different: companies that were hired by the people selling debt to give that debt a seal of approval.

Those seals of approval came to play a central role in our whole financial system, especially for institutional investors like pension funds, which would buy your bonds if and only if they received that coveted AAA rating.

It was a system that looked dignified and respectable on the surface. Yet it produced huge conflicts of interest. Issuers of debt — which increasingly meant Wall Street firms selling securities they created by slicing and dicing claims on things like subprime mortgages — could choose among several rating agencies. So they could direct their business to whichever agency was most likely to give a favourable verdict, and threaten to pull business from an agency that tried too hard to do its job. It's all too obvious, in retrospect, how this could have corrupted the process.

And it did. The Senate subcommittee has focused its investigations on the two biggest credit rating agencies, Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P); what it has found confirms our worst suspicions. In one email message, an S&P employee explains that a meeting is necessary to "discuss adjusting criteria" for assessing housing-backed securities "because of the ongoing threat of losing deals". Another message complains of having to use resources "to massage the sub-prime and alt-A numbers to preserve market share". Clearly, the rating agencies skewed their assessments to please their clients.

These skewed assessments, in turn, helped the financial system take on far more risk than it could safely handle. Paul McCulley of Pimco, the bond investor (who coined the term "shadow banks" for the unregulated institutions at the heart of the crisis), recently described it this way: "explosive growth of shadow banking was about the invisible hand having a party, a non-regulated drinking party, with rating agencies handing out fake IDs".

So what can be done to keep it from happening again?

The bill now before the Senate tries to do something about the rating agencies, but all in all it's pretty weak on the subject. The only provision that might have teeth is one that would make it easier to sue rating agencies if they engaged in "knowing or reckless failure" to do the right thing. But that surely isn't enough, given the money at stake — and the fact that Wall Street can afford to hire very, very good lawyers.

What we really need is a fundamental change in the raters' incentives. We can't go back to the days when rating agencies made their money by selling big books of statistics; information flows too freely in the Internet age, so nobody would buy the books. Yet something must be done to end the fundamentally corrupt nature of the issuer-pays system.

An example of what might work is a proposal by Matthew Richardson and Lawrence White of New York University. They suggest a system in which firms issuing bonds continue paying rating agencies to assess those bonds — but in which the Securities and Exchange Commission, not the issuing firm, determines which rating agency gets the business.

I'm not wedded to that particular proposal. But doing nothing isn't an option. It's comforting to pretend that the financial crisis was caused by nothing more than honest errors. But it wasn't; it was, in large part, the result of a corrupt system. And the rating agencies were a big part of that corruption.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

CLEANING UP THE MESS OVER IPL

In less than 10 years, Indian cricket faces its second big crisis. Match-fixing and its many ramifications that dogged the sport since the turn of the century had only recently begun to fade. With the welter of allegations erupting around the Indian Premier League and the man who ran it for its first three years, Lalit Modi, there is a sense of deja vu. The ouster of the IPL's self-appointed commissioner and the many charges that have now been laid at his door since the fateful day he first Tweeted an allegation about the companion of then junior foreign minister Mr Shashi Tharoor will almost inevitably lead to a shakeout in the way the IPL is run in the future. More important, it will bring back to life the many real fears that surfaced in the wake of la affaire Hansie Cronje. This then is the real crisis that faces the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), now desperately seeking to contain the fallout from what was a clear lack of oversight — financial and administrative — on its part when it came to Mr Modi's functioning. To pin all the blame on one man would be a travesty of justice — there was after all a governing council of 13 other men who were supposed to have run the IPL — but at the moment, it would appear that all ills have been laid at the door of Mr Modi alone. The charges are many, and varied. They range from allegations of rigging franchise bids to irregularities over the sale of broadcast and Internet rights to concealing paperwork detailing franchise ownership and instances of crony capitalism and insider dealing. Clearly, the BCCI is aware of the dangers these developments pose to its hot new — and extremely lucrative — baby and, on a wider scale, to the image of cricket itself. For better or worse, India today is a world powerhouse in the sport and the IPL mess has wider implications for cricket as a whole. Little wonder then that BCCI president Mr Shashank Manohar on Monday stressed that ethics and transparency were even more important than protecting the integrity of the IPL alone, and added that Mr Modi's manner of functioning had "brought a bad name to the administration of cricket and the game itself". Already, the taxman has become involved given the complexity and density of transactions that have been woven around the lucrative league, and relevant documents have gone missing, adding further fuel to an already raging fire. In an attempt to start clearing out the Augean stables, the BCCI on Monday said former India captains Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri had been asked to organise the IPL's fourth season next year. Much more must be done if the mandarins of Indian cricket are to convince an increasingly-sceptical nation that they are serious about cleaning up the IPL. For his part, Mr Modi has promised to clear his name of the many accusations made against him, launching his first salvo at the IPL-3 post-final prize distribution ceremony on Sunday where he made the point that if any rules had been broken, he would bear the full responsibility. That is exactly what the board's bosses are hoping will happen. In all this, cricket itself has been forced to take a back seat, much as it had to for much of IPL-3, with the focus more on glitz, glamour and post-match parties, which were turned into money-making opportunities by Mr Modi. With so much muck washing about, those who prize cricket purely for the sake of the sport will be hoping that clarity, and sanity, is restored soon.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

IPL'S BELLYACHE

BY PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA

That the Indian Premier League (IPL) had a murky underbelly was not exactly an official secret. Yet when Mr Lalit Modi's tweet sparked off a chain of circumstances that led to the resignation of Mr Shashi Tharoor, and Mr Modi's eventual suspension — and which may still claim more victims — few could have imagined the manner in which the nexus between politics, business, sports and entertainment would get exposed in a heady cocktail of sleaze and scandal. Even as this story plays itself out with daily disclosures of dubious deeds, almost a decade after tales of betting and match-fixing had tarnished the reputations of many cricket stalwarts, one can only hope that henceforth some transparency would mark the affairs of a game that obsesses millions of young people in this country and across the world.

Who remembers Garfield Sobers and Anju Mahendru? Cricket and cinema always had a connection. But when a third "C" — cash — is added, the combination is a sure-fire route to a fourth "C", corruption.
That Mr Modi was not exactly an exemplar of probity and corporate social responsibility was known to many, and they were not just insiders. More than a year ago, in March 2009, Alam Srinivas and T.R. Vivek wrote a 200-page book that was titled IPL Cricket & Commerce: An Inside Story (Roli Books). The February 16, 2009, issue of Outlook carried a cover story with a headline that read: "The Curious Case of Lalit Modi".
Did Mr Modi realise that he would open a can of worms when he sent his infamous tweet about the ownership pattern of the Kochi franchisee and the sweat equity that was proposed for Ms Sunanda Pushkar? Did the leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party, notably the Union minister for agriculture, food and consumer affairs, Mr Sharad Pawar and the civil aviation minister, Mr Praful Patel, anticipate that the business links of their family members would consequently be scrutinised through the microscope of the media? After Mr Tharoor and Mr Modi, who will be the next fall guy?

The $4 billion IPL tournament was touted by its cheerleaders — not the busty blondes from Central Asia and other parts of the world — as a shining example of the maturing of the post-liberalisation economy of the country, and a successful brand promoted by India Inc. that was coping better than the corporate sectors in most recession-hit Western nations. The problem was that the glittering IPL edifice was built on a foundation of money routed through a complex web of companies, many of them registered in tax havens, and was excessively dependent on the munificence of influential politicians who control sports bodies that are registered as non-profit-making societies but are flush with funds obtained from the public at large. The most notable example of such an organisation is, of course, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
That various government agencies should be providing tax concessions and subsidies to the cash-rich BCCI is nothing short of a crime in a country where the latest official estimates indicate that more than one out of three people live below the poverty line. Why should the BCCI and the IPL be eligible for the kind of tax breaks that it has received so far? How much longer should the BCCI be allowed to operate in a brazenly non-transparent manner? Should the most-affluent of sporting bodies in the country be allowed to function like a closed club where only the privileged few are permitted entry? These are rhetorical questions for the answers are all too obvious.

The fact that IPL match tickets have been sold for Rs 40,000 per person with an all-night party in a five-star hotel thrown in for good measure, is a manifestation of the kind of conspicuous consumption that the elite in India has acquired notoriety for. Is this really the kind of "brand" or "business" that makes us hold our heads high in the comity of nations?

The Income-Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate that oversees foreign currency transactions, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (all of which come under the ministry of finance) as well as the Intelligence Bureau (which comes under the home ministry) have been providing detailed reports on a daily basis to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, even when he was in Brasilia. Official investigators were initially focused on the Kochi affair and then switched their attention to Mr Modi and his associates. The Central Bureau of Investigation may soon be asked to jump into the fray.

However, at least one investigator confided to this correspondent in private that he and his team were unsure about how deep they should dig, about how the compulsions of coalition politics would play themselves out.
The Congress may now find it easier to keep its ally in Maharashtra on a tighter leash. After facing flak for his inability to control food inflation in general, and sugar prices in particular, the agriculture minister and his protégé, the civil aviation minister, may find themselves more on the defensive — or, to use a more apt analogy, on the backfoot.

Yes, the IPL has graduated to have become the fourth largest sporting event of its kind in the world. But the filth that has been flung around has hardly enhanced India's image across the globe. Who knows? Being an incorrigible optimist, one might be tempted to believe that some good may even come out of this muck-raking, more than what took place in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal. Mohammed Azharuddin is a Congress Lok Sabha member of Parliament. Mr Modi could now actively consider a career in politics.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

Justice: Divine vs human

By By J.S. Neki

Apr 27 2010

Human justice originally was simply vengeful — demanding "eye for an eye". Several modifications gradually came to soften its intent, but almost all of them have been criticised for they also cramped the perspective of justice. Distributive justice, proportional justice, retributive justice, criminal justice, environmental justice, social justice and so on — none of these represent justice holistically. For example, the concept of distributive justice, also called equitable justice, has been contested on the ground that justice and equality are not necessarily co-extensive.

Despite best intentions and formal vows to uphold its ideals, human justice has often faltered. It is subject to error — it has been said that human justice is blind, and "deaf and dumb as a wooden leg". It has also been proclaimed that "extreme justice is often unjust" and that "there are times when justice brings harm with it".

Justice can also be marred by corrupt practices. Guru Nanak had this to say about the state of justice during his time:

Judges administer justice in the name of God

That they chant Oh! rosaries;

But they accept bribe and block justice.

He had courage even to chastise kings:

Even the king administers justice only if his palm is greased.

— J.S. Neki, a psychiatrist of international repute, was director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. He also received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his contribution to Punjabi verse. Currently he is Professor of Eminence in Religious Studies at Punjabi University, Patiala.

Public leaders are required to help enforcement of justice. But they are not always chaste people. Guru Angad Dev remarked:

The troublemaker is made the leader

And the liar is given an honourable seat.

This is how humans corrupt the instruments of justice. There are vagaries also in people's expectations from justice.

One sows seeds of poison, but demands ambrosial nectar,Behold, what kind of justice is that!

Divine justice, by contrast, is not only incorruptible but also error proof. The Gurus have termed it as sach niaon or justice of truth. Guru Ram Das says:

You yourself are true, O Lord, and true is your justice.

Why then should we fear anything?

He also employs another term for Divine Justice, that is dharam niaon or justice of rectitude, and offers testimony that:

Superb is the greatness of the Lord

For his justice is entirely rectitudinous.

Love, power and justice have been considered ontologically inseparable, but while human justice operates mainly through power, Divine Justice operates through love, simply because God is love.

According to Sikh cosmogony, God's eons-old samadhi got interrupted when his love became intensely desirous of its own expression. Hence it was that

God, in order to dole out his love and grace,

Created the great expanse.

Then, as love, He pervaded that expanse, his creation. Hence, says Guru Gobind Singh:

Here, there and everywhere, He abides as love.

He administers His justice through his all-pervasive love, and his justice is co-extensive with his will.
That alone is true justice which pleases the will of the Lord.

And this justice is not occasional or temporal, it abides through eternity. Within his home, there is justice ever and for ever. It is not blind like human justice, but ever vigilant. He knows us all from within.
The inner-knower, the searcher of hearts knows.

Without our speaking, He understands...

No one is as great knower as the Lord,

So his justice is always righteous.

Our body is the field of action, in it what we plant that we harvest.

Mercy and forgiveness are the instruments of His love. From the human point of view, mercy and justice are considered antithetical. Mercy operates through attachment while justice operates through detachment. But in Divine Justice, no such antipathy operates. Mercy is also just, so too forgiveness. Kabir says:
Where forgiveness is, there is God himself.

Not that He does not punish.

He honours the righteous and chastises the sinners.

He defeats the sinners and saves his humble devotees. But He never punishes without cause:
Why should we burn with anxiety

When the Lord does not punish without cause?

Moreover, even when He punishes, His intent hardly appears to be really punitive; it rather appears to be reformative. Often what man considers as punishment is instead His grace. Martydom, looked at superficially, appears to be like capital punishment. In effect, a martyr establishes that his moral ideals are higher, and dearer to him, than his life. Thus a martyr reforms and saves multitudes whom he inspires by his atonement. Likewise, what we consider as reward may really be a curse. Monetary and material gifts are, in the human context, considered as rewards for these are given in return for what appears to be admirable action. However, when such gifts lead to arrogance, as they often do, then they cause moral degradation and become a curse.
In brief, human justice is occasional and often based on inadequate enquiry, doubtful evidence, arbitrary laws, questionable law-enforcers and whims of the judges even if they are honest. It often errs or even fails. By contrast, Divine Justice is not occasional but prevails permanently, is based on the infallable personal knowledge of the ever vigilant Lord whose justice works with His unquestionable love and mercy. It never errs, never fails; though often forgives for considerations that He himself knows.

 J.S. Neki, a psychiatrist of international repute, was director of PGIMER, Chandigarh. He also received the Sahitya Akademi Award for his contribution to Punjabi verse. Currently he is Professor of Eminence in Religious Studies at Punjabi University, Patiala.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

WHO 33% GOES TO IS A CHOICE'

Girija Vyas, the National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson, wants consensus between all parties on theWomen's Reservation Bill. Though there was bickering and division over the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Ms Vyas thinks that once the bill is passed in the Lok Sabha all parties will turn a new leaf and India will become a "complete democracy". In an interview to Syed Asim Ali, the NCW chairperson also talks about her plans to tackle cases of domestic violence against Indian women in foreign countries and honour killings.

Q. The government appears to have gone slow on the Women's Reservation Bill after getting it passed in the Rajya Sabha amidst tumultuous scenes. Is your party having second thoughts on 33 per cent reservation for women?

A. I don't know where the question of second thoughts is coming from? The Congress Party has always stood for 33 per cent Women's Reservation Bill and it is because of the party's commitment to the principle behind the bill that it was pushed despite the hue and cry. The bill is not just about 33 per cent reservation for women; several of its provisions will have far-reaching impact on the Indian political scenario in the future.
We have had two major meetings on our next step and though it's too early to comment, I can tell you that the bill will pave a new way ahead.

When the bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha, for the first time in recent years both the leading political parties of India, the Congress and BJP, stood together. The BJP gave its full support to the bill; even the Left supported the bill though many of their allied partners were opposing it. This kind of unity is being seen as an initiative to check the influence of small and regional parties in national politics.

Q. Will the Congress introduce the bill in the remaining part of the Budget session. Or will it again go into cold storage?
A. Frankly, the right person to answer this question is the chief spokesperson of the Congress Party. What I can say as a member of the party is that there is no question of the bill going into cold storage. I can proudly add that the bill was passed despite huge opposition. We heard comments like "only the rich upper class women will be benefited by the bill and that is why some parties are demanding quota within quota". Despite such attacks we stood by the bill. So there is no way the Congress will forget the bill.

Q. Does this mean that you are in favour of the idea of quota within quota?

A. No, not at all. I am not in favour of sub-quotas. When the Women's Reservation Bill becomes a a reality, it can be used by political institutions to empower women belonging to minority communities. I think the whole idea of 33 per cent reservation for women will open a new chapter and take us to new possibilities.

Q. But why shouldn't there be a sub-quota for dalit women, for women belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and Muslim women?
A. I don't want to comment on what other leaders have said or proposed. But I think that 33 per cent reservation is sizeable enough to empower all women. Without using sub-quotas, parties can use the 33 per cent reservation to bring in women of religious and ethnic minorities into the mainstream. I would conclude this answer by saying that while the bill is capable of empowering all women, dalit and Muslim, it depends entirely on party leaders which women they chose to represent their parties.
Q. Why can't parties have a quota for women to contest Lok Sabha and Assembly polls to ensure greater representation in Parliament and state legislatures?

A. I strongly believe that reservation for women can be used effectively to empower women in minority and other backward communities. It is the duty of party leaders to bring women of marginalised sections into the mainstream by utilising provisions of the bill.

Q. We have recently had several shocking cases of honour killings in rural areas, particularly Punjab and Haryana. In such instances does the NCW have adequate powers to take action against those guilty of killing or harassing innocent girls and boys?

A. There is a need to understand the issue at the ground level. We have to investigate and see how the panchayats, or khaps, are paving the way for such barbaric actions. There is need for more involvement of the civil society in areas that are prone to honour killings. We need people who can influence panchayat decisions and at the same time educate people in areas where such cases are taking place. We have had a few meetings and soon steps will be taken.

Q. What steps are you are planning?

A. More civil society involvement and NCW officials working in rural areas to curb such barbaric and cruel activities.

Q. There are also numerous instances of Sikh girls being forcibly married off to non-resident Indians. There have also been cases where girls have been killed when they have dared to go against their family's wishes. Can the NCW step in to stop these forcible marriages?

A. To find a solution to this problem we are planning to keep two lawyers each in the Indian consulates of countries.

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

FILTH FLOWS ON…

IPL CLEAN-UP A DISTANT DREAM 

 

A FORTNIGHT down the gutter and there is little to suggest that an honest cleansing of the obscenely-rich Indian Premier League is on the cards. So numerous and varied are the allegations, innuendo, threats and muck-raking doing the rounds that it has become obvious that sinister forces have been at work: and that there could be more of the same in the coming weeks. Dumping Lalit Modi ~ not that anybody, except the man himself, favours his continuance ~ is no panacea, and unravelling the sordid strands of the scandal now exposed would appear beyond the supposedly remedial measures that the BCCI has announced. In fact the Board's meeting, and the information it made available, was a poor attempt to whitewash its' letting Modi run amok, yet sent out a clear signal that it saw little need for major in-house reform. That it will await Modi's response to its five-point charge-sheet (not 22) before proceeding further ~ it will drop the matter if he comes up with a convincing counter-punch ~ indicates it is aware that its action might prove legally infirm. Logic, not any kind of support for Modi, would therefore raise queries if the Monday meeting was called in haste, the minutes-after-midnight suspension order was playing to non-cricketing galleries. For everybody has a right to be heard before being condemned. The denial of political interests at play rang hollow. As hollow as the BCCI chief's claim that the IPL governing-council was unaware of Modi's manipulations, or that it could not have been expected to monitor the alleged skullduggery. 

In the light of that argument, whatever steps the BCCI took on Monday appear for "show" only, and given Modi's capacity to play tough (dirty?) there could be more bouncers ahead. Regretfully, the manner in which the Income-Tax authorities used the media ~ and some news organisations thrive on slander ~ to leak spicy information that it has yet to substantiate lends weight to the argument that the IPL was being targeted for extraneous factors: if there is no follow-up action under the various financial laws what a fraud would have been played on aam aadmi. Clearly there is need for a comprehensive expert probe ~ not a JPC, parliamentarians have vested interests ~ since even the manner in which in-house issues are being dealt with in a personality-driven manner will not satisfy. Even as the knives were being sharpened on Sunday night hundreds of thousands across the globe were treated to pure thrill. The fans, and the players who make T20 what it is (to hell with academic purists) to the masses, deserve better. Crooks and cricket cannot co-exist.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

THAI SOUP

GETS INCREASINGLY PUNGENT 

 

THE crisis has deepened in Thailand with its Prime Minister turning down the Red Shirts' compromise offer after weeks of furious strife. The concession advanced by former PM Thaksin Shinawatra's stormtroopers was a fairly reasonable halfway house intended to defuse the situation in Bangkok, indeed the turmoil that has caused 26 deaths and thrown the country's economy and tourism off the rails. Specifically, they had agreed to the dissolution of parliament and the holding of fresh elections within 30 days instead of immediately as demanded hitherto. On the part of the Red Shirts, this marked a distinct softening of stand. But by rejecting that offer ~ crucially in the company of the army chief ~ Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Prime Minister without a mandate, has made it explicit that he is loath to give up power, however constitutionally spurious his authority. Attitudes have stiffened on both sides with the Red Shirts promptly announcing that they would be pulling out of the negotiations. With tension mounting over the weekend, the military appears to be Mr Abhisit's major support base. The siege of the capital is bound to intensify. A comprehensive and generally agreeable solution seems unlikely in the forseeable future. Suffice it to register that the Thai government has lost  control over events on the streets of Bangkok. 

Mr Abhisit lacks credibility, let alone legitimacy. His government  assumed power under military pressure through a parliamentary vote after disputed court rulings ousted two elected pro-Thaksin governments. And for close to two months, governance has been reduced to a state of suspended animation. It is becoming increasingly obvious to the world that nothing short of dissolution of parliament and fresh elections will restore a semblance of order. And the tension, the violence and the defiance of the state of emergency shall persist until there is a dramatic transformation of the scenario. However tenuous his claim to authority, his government owes the country a measure of normality. Electoral democracy is in danger both in Thailand and Myanmar, its neighbour to the north. The second is firmly in the grip of the military junta. Mr Abhisit's televised address on Sunday made  it visually apparent that Thailand may be under army control by proxy.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

POLICING THE POLICE

FIRST PUT THE FUNDAMENTALS IN PLACE 

 

Before expressing pious hopes of thanas being monitored by a non-political organisation so as to escape from political pressures, leaders of the West Bengal Police Association need to explain why men in uniform in this state have to form a trade union. They have disgraced themselves not only by dancing to the tune of leaders but by betraying the trust of citizens who need the police in an emergency. More than protecting the rights of people, who expect law enforcement authorities to act on occasions such as the recent road accident in Kolkata that saw a hospital being vandalised or to register FIRs without checking political connections of complainants, the police have resorted to the unique measure of unionising themselves to look for benefits like other classes of government staff. That would not have been as much of a concern had it not meant guarding against the prospects of disciplinary action for offences ranging from petty bribes from truck drivers and pavement vendors to conniving with criminals. All this calls for a massive cleansing operation. The association produces the red herring of a non-political body to protect all its skeletons while pretending to free itself from political clutches. Even if the association's intentions are honest, it would seem impractical to go out in search of thousands of "non-political'' citizens to be attached to thanas. Unless they remain decorative names ~ allowing business to go on as usual ~ even the most respected citizens are liable to run into a political storm the moment they choose to act with the firmness required. The chief minister had broached the idea of thana committees and local football tournaments to make his force people-friendly. Nothing worked because cosmetic measures cannot take the place of sustained reforms when the Marxists have institutionalised the system of the police taking orders even from local leaders. It is ridiculous to now suggest that the police will act only on the basis of written orders routed through the board. This is a pathetic abdication of responsibility and, given the manner in which the administration works, a recipe for disaster. If the police are honest about cutting loose from political influence, they cannot shy away from immediate, independent and purposeful action. Where the fundamentals are not in place, a monitoring agency may look like another escape route for incompetence.

 

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

REQUIEM FOR A REPORT

BENGAL'S QUIET BURIAL OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT DATA

DEBRAJ BHATTACHARYA

 

LET us all observe a minute's silence. The West Bengal Human Development Report has met with a quiet death under mysterious circumstances. May its soul rest in peace.

 

Why mourn the demise of a report? The reason is that the state Human Development Report is the only source of finding out in an objective manner how the common people of West Bengal are living their lives and whether or not they are getting the minimum requirement of a dignified life. Globally, every year, the United Nations brings out the Human Development Report, which explains how each country is doing in terms of the Human Development Indices. However, it is not possible to understand from the global report how a particular state in India is performing. Hence the significance of the state level Human Development Report.
Yet this rather untimely death of the report is definitely somewhat of a puzzle and one that calls for an investigation. In 2004, when the first West Bengal Human Development Report was published as the outcome of a joint project of the UNDP, the Planning Commission and the Government of West Bengal, the document was profusely praised. It even won an award from the UN. It was a reasonably balanced account of the present state of West Bengal's human development. Even today the report is one of the best sources of knowing how the common man in West Bengal was faring at the turn of the century.

Somewhat biased

IT was divided into chapters on land reform, people's participation through the panchayati raj, the material conditions of the people, employment trends, health and nutrition, education, human security, issues related to the environment and problems of specific regions. It presented a comprehensive picture of the condition of the citizens of the state. The narrative chapters were backed by an impressive set of tables and maps which gave a vivid statistical picture. The common reader had no difficulty in comprehending the data.
My own opinion on the report is that it was somewhat biased in favour of the Left Front government but was nonetheless an outstanding achievement. Each of the districts was ranked in terms of indices on health, income and education as well as in terms of a composite Human Development Index. Kolkata predictably stood first, while Purulia was mentioned in the last rung.

What the report brought out for the first time in terms of scientific data was that development in West Bengal has been dangerously uneven with the bulk of the progress restricted to the districts surrounding Kolkata. The chapter on land reform, while lauding the achievements of the state, demonstrates that recording of bargadars indicated a dramatic upswing in the immediate aftermath of the Left Front's coming to power ~ between 1978 and 1981.  Thereafter, it declined no less dramatically, and there was once again a very sharp variation in terms of the districts. In other words, land reform was not uniformly impressive in all the districts.
The chapter on panchayati raj lauded the experience of decentralisation in the state and showed that the lower castes had come to power in the local governments. In terms of income, the report carries a chapter on material conditions. West Bengal was ranked ninth in India although the state has done impressively in terms of reduction of poverty. However, it noted that average consumption was still quite low and there were "pockets of particular concern and deprivation." While the state has recorded  impressive growth in rural unemployment, the report noted, there was a disconcerting increase in educated unemployment. Factory employment has been stagnant since the 1980s. No wonder there are so many hawkers around.

No answer

After being complimented for bringing out the report, one would have expected the publication of the West Bengal Human Development Report to be a regular event like the publication of the global report. This would have had a strong impact on policy, development debates and perhaps even in political discourse. Imagine a Human Development Report coming out in 2010 and the debates in the next Assembly elections revolving around it. In a state where political debates are more often than not characterized by shrill rhetoric rather than objective analysis of facts, the HDR could have ushered in a paradigm shift. If the indicators had improved, the Left Front could have quoted the figures as its achievement, and effectively trashed the Opposition criticism  once and for all. On the other hand, if the data showed a negative turn, the Opposition could have used it to its advantage. In other words, the debates could have taken place on the basis of scientifically accepted data rather than a loud display of demagogic skills.

What happened after 2004 is a story of faulty planning at the state as well as at the national level. The UNDP, the Planning Commission and the state governments decided to scrap the state-wise reports and go in for district-wise HDRs. The task proved to be too ambitious and didn't yield the expected results. In West Bengal, the HDRs for only three districts are now available. They are of no use if one were to ascertain whether or not the state has improved in terms of Human Development Indices since 2004. Was the decision to shift from state HDR to district HDR a result of poor planning or was it a shrewd move to ensure that the true picture remains hidden from the public? The answer shall forever lie hidden in the darkness of the corridors of power.
The writer is with the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

DOUBLESPEAK ON POVERTY IN BENGAL

THE CPI-M ACCEPTS THE CENTRE'S ESTIMATES AND ADVICE WHILE ACCEPTING MONEY BUT CRITICISES THE CENTRE'S POLICIES USING ITS OWN DATA WHEN THE CENTRE DEMANDS ACCOUNTS OF EXPENDITURE, SAYS BISWADEB CHATTERJEE

 

It is good that the CPI-M, by questioning the accuracy of poverty estimates at the national level, has raised the issue of the impact of economic reforms countrywide. The Centre, relying on Planning Commission data, is desperate to show that economic reforms have reduced poverty to imply that the majority of the people have been benefited by the private sector-led economic reforms in which the Centre has lowered its investment in agriculture and fertiliser subsidy, dismantled the public distribution system, devastated farm lands by allowing SEZs and, most important, allowed itself to leave its commanding role to private and even foreign agents.
The latest Planning Commission estimates for 2004-05, based on the 61st Round NSSO report, put national poverty incidence at 27.5 per cent, implying that 30.17 crore in the country live below the poverty line. It is 28.3 per cent for rural areas and 25.7 per cent for urban areas. But these contrast with a number of studies giving an alarming picture of poverty, hunger and food insecurity. The most important is the Arjun Sengupta Committee (NCEUS) report which says that 77 per cent cannot spend even Rs 20 a day. It indicates massive poverty in the country as per the World Bank norm of earning $1.25 a day as the global poverty line.
The Bank's criterion claims that 45.6 crore Indians or 42 per cent of the population are poor. Besides, while the Saxena Committee, appointed by the ministry of rural development to supervise social sector schemes during the 11th Plan, estimates that 50 per cent of Indians are BPL, the Tendulkar Committee, appointed by the government to rectify the much criticised Planning Commission estimates, finds it is 37.2 per cent. This is corroborated by the Global Hunger Index, 2008 prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute which shows that India has close to 35 crore  (almost 30 per cent of the total and equal to the  population of Germany, France and the UK) who are food insecure (not sure about their next meal). Debates are going on as to which estimate will embarrass the government the least when it claims that economic reforms have reduced poverty.

Obviously, the Empowered Group of Ministers on implementing the newly introduced Food Security Act giving 25 kg of cereals at Rs 3 a kg to BPL families in a month has accepted the Tendulkar Committee estimate and decided to begin the scheme for 10 crore poor people initially. One reason for the low poverty estimate by the Planning Commission is that it derives the poverty line from needed expenditure to meet minimum calorie intake which was estimated to be Rs 368 and Rs 559 per person per month for rural and urban areas respectively. While the  Saxena Committee also considered calorie intake as the basis for deriving the poverty line, the Tendulkar Committee modified it by including spending on food, education, health and clothing. In fact, economic reform has widened the disparity among people as, during the decade 1993-94 to 2004-05, the segment of people spending Rs 12.5-20 a day, classified as the most vulnerable group, increased from 46 crore to 60 crore. All this vindicates the NCEUS's study. So the CPI-M's objection to the official poverty estimates is timely and justified.

But the CPI-M has caused a problem for itself at the state level. If the Planning Commission's national level poverty measures are underestimated, how can its state-level estimates be accurate? Those must be underestimated and, in this sense, the latest Planning Commission estimate of West Bengal's poverty at 24.5 per cent is questionable. Similarly, its associated rural poverty estimate of 28.6 per cent and urban poverty estimate of 14.8 per cent are dubious. In the state assembly on 18 March, Professor Asish Banerjee, a Trinamul Congress MLA, taking part in the debate on the Governor's inaugural speech for the budget session, had stated that the state has a much larger incidence of poverty since all the districts barring Kolkata were sufficiently poor to be considered fit to introduce the NREGP which gives 100 days' work to unemployed youth since 2008-09.
I had the opportunity to hear him from the public gallery. Citing estimates of the National Institute of Rural Development, he said that while the five districts adjacent to Kolkata had poverty ratios ranging between 20 to 40 per cent, the other 13 districts had the same between 40 to 60 per cent. The latter group includes all the six districts of North Bengal. He mentioned that the institute had pegged West Bengal's rural poverty at 31 per cent and urban poverty at 16 per cent. Even if the Planning Commission's estimates of poverty are accepted, he maintained, it cannot bring glory to West Bengal because the state lies behind 20 other states among 29 states of the country. Professor Banerjee mentioned Planning Commission figures to say that the state has been reeling under massive unemployment — rising at the annual rate of 14 per cent, the second largest in the country after Kerala. With 26.6 per cent of rural unemployment and 24.0 per cent of urban employment, West Bengal ranked second and fifth, respectively, among the 16 major states.
All this angered the chief minister who stood up to reply and rubbished all the information provided by Professor Banerjee. Instead of the expected discussion on the gloomy economic scenario, he scolded the opposition member for presenting such "stories" sticking to official poverty estimates.

Thus the CPI-M utilises central agencies' data on poverty for its own purposes. Sometimes it discards them while at other times it accepts them for political gain.  This has been its practice for the last three decades. It accepts the Centre's figures and advice while accepting money but criticises the Centre's policies using its own data when the Centre demands accounts of expenditure. It confuses people as well as policy makers.
Professor Asim Dasgupta, the state's finance minister, has led this campaign for the CPI-M for more than two decades. The annual budget speech has been his chief weapon. In fact, he is used to treating the assembly like his class and the MLAs, particularly of opposition parties, as his students. In the name of his annual budget speech, he "teaches" them different economic problems of the country and the Centre's role and responsibilities, hiding, to the best of his abilities, the grave economic situation in his own state. He never mentions West Bengal's high indebtedness, rural poverty, rural and educated unemployment, sickness and closure of SSI units, the school dropout rate and the sluggish infrastructure, particularly in road transport and rural electrification. He always uses rhetoric with own data which are far from real.

This year's budget speech on 22 March was no exception. Only one example from this year's budget speech will suffice. He mentioned that out of 37,910 villages in the state, electricity has reached 37,755 villages . This means 60 per cent usage of generation capacity. Even if the figure is correct, there is a wide gap between reaching and availability of electricity as our daily experience of power cuts proves.

The writer is associate professor of economics, Durgapur Government College

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

NEED FOR DISASTER CONTINGENCY PLANS

ANJALI SHARMA

 

Special Representative for Disaster Reduction Margareta Wahlström said that the eruption of a volcano in Iceland, which grounded flights in Europe for one week, has exposed the world's vulnerability to such disruptive events and underscored the need for global plans to minimise  fallouts in the future.

"We only realise how disruptive hazards can be when they have already happened," said Wahlström. She noted that even as air travel was starting to pick up again, thousands of passengers continued to be affected, and the threat of further eruptions meant even more delays were possible.

The UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction called on European governments to integrate volcano risk into their air travel policies and legislation. The agency is endeavouring to ensure greater coordination between authorities and scientists through Hyogo Framework for Action, a 10-year plan to make the world safer from disasters triggered by natural hazards adopted by 168 governments in 2005. "This situation demonstrates that it is important to have international and regional contingency plans, in addition to local or national ones, to assess volcano risks,"  Wahlström stressed.

Thai clashes: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced concern over the ongoing political standoff in Thailand, where several dozen people have died in clashes between anti-government protesters and police on the streets in Bangkok, according to UN spokesman Martin Nesirky. "The Secretary-General is very concerned about the continuing stand-off and tensions in Thailand, and the potential for this to escalate," he told reporters in New York.

According to media reports, three people died and many were injured in Bangkok after a series of explosions linked to the political tensions. Mr Ban "appeals to both the protesters and the Thai authorities to avoid further violence and loss of life and to work to resolve the situation peacefully, through dialogue. This is a moment requiring restraint on all sides", he said.

Protecting earth: The Secretary-General stressed the need to respect and care for the earth, and noted that safeguarding the environment would impact efforts to achieve development goals and ensuring the health and well-being of its inhabitants. Environmental sustainability is one of eight Millennium Development Goals that world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

"Without a sustainable environmental base, we will have little hope of attaining our objectives for reducing poverty and hunger and improving health and human well-being," he stated in a message on International Mother Earth Day. He stressed that the Earth is under pressure. "We are making progressively unreasonable demands on her, and she is showing the strain."

Lebanon: Mr Ban Ki-moon has warned that the presence of armed militias pose a threat to Lebanon and the region, despite major progress in strengthening Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. "The existence of armed groups outside government control is a fundamental anomaly that stands against the democratic aspirations of Lebanon and threatens domestic peace. It is also an obstacle to the prosperity and welfare that the Lebanese people deserve," he wrote in his latest report to the Security Council on the implementation of resolution 1559.

It was adopted by the Council in 2004 after concern over high tensions within Lebanon. It called for free and fair elections, an end to foreign interference and the disbanding of all militias.

Gaza blockade: Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East John Ging said in a news conference that recent easing of Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods into Gaza was welcome but infinitesimal when compared to the needs of the 1.5 million Palestinians living. He told reporters in New York that "it is a drop in the bucket".

"A drop in the bucket, of course, is not a half-full glass," he said of Israel's agreement to allow in some supplies of clothing, wood and aluminium, the latter needed for a prime UN objective rebuilding UNRWA schools devastated by Israel's military offensive against Gaza's Hamas authorities.

Mr Ging noted that a conference in Sharm el-Sheikh put a price tag of $4.5 billion on the reconstruction and recovery of Gaza. UNRWA cannot cater to the thousands of children with the right to education under UN resolutions as refugees, he stressed. Gazans are "demanding of us to accommodate their children in our schools.

 

They have not been allowed to build a school in Gaza for three years," he added.
Israel imposed its blockade for what it called security reasons after Hamas, which does not recognise Israel's right to exist, ousted the Fatah movement in the Strip in 2007.

Asia-Pacific jobs: The International labour agency and the government of Australia have signed a partnership agreement to support jobs for people in Asia and the Pacific region. "This reinforces our bond with Australia and our strong common commitment to the Global Jobs Pact,, said María Angélica Ducci on behalf of Juan Somavia, Director-General of ILO.

The five-year partnership agreement will provide $13.9 million in the first two years, according to a press release issued by the agency. The funds will go to ILO initiatives, such as the Better Work Programme, designed in 2006 to improve labour standards and competitiveness, and is being piloted in Jordan, Lesotho and Vietnam. The funding will support labour law reform, a Pacific growth and employment plan, youth employment in Timor-Leste, green jobs and labour migration governance.

Human trafficking: An independent UN human rights expert commended Egypt's efforts to combat human trafficking, while highlighting several challenges that need to be tackled, including a lack of awareness about the full extent of the problem and an absence of accurate data. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children, presented her preliminary findings at a news conference in Cairo as she concluded her 11-day mission to the country.

The absence of accurate data on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, which has made it impossible to measure the magnitude of the scourge in Egypt, is among her "issues of immediate concern", according to a statement issued today. Ms Ezeilo, who visited Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm el-Sheikh during the mission, added that the forms and manifestation of trafficking in persons are not well understood and there is a "general lack of awareness and knowledge" about the problem.

"There is a growing trend of sexual and economic exploitation of young Egyptian girls by their families and brokers, who execute marriages that are also popularly known as 'seasonal or temporary' marriage," the statement noted. "These types of marriages sometimes provide a smokescreen for providing sexual services to foreign men."

Common forms of trafficking in Egypt also include child labour, domestic servitude and other forms of sexual exploitation and prostitution. Although the country has been described as a transit country for trafficking, it may also be a source and a destination country, said the statement.

Asylum applications: The world refugee agency has urged Australia to look for alternatives for detained asylum-seekers arrive by boat who pose no health or security risk to the public, after the government announced it will reopen a remote facility. The Australian government said it would temporarily freeze asylum applications from Afghans and Sri Lankans arriving by boat, and that it would reopen the remote Curtin Air Base in the north-west to house them.

Over 1,800 asylum-seekers have arrived in Australia by boat since 2010, mostly from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, the agency reported.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

HIGH NOISE

 

Democracy signifies the right to debate and discuss. The right to protest, also a part of democracy, follows from a failure of discussion. In Indian democracy, unfortunately, the right to protest precedes the right to discuss and debate. Take the functioning of the Lok Sabha in its current session, known in parliamentary parlance as the budget session. In this session, the Union budget, which was presented to Parliament at the end of February, is supposed to be discussed threadbare, and then the finance bill is supposed to be passed. Thus the budget session enables the government of the day to proceed according to the budget that it has presented to the elected representatives of the people. But in this budget session, up to the time of writing, the budget has not been discussed by the members of the Lok Sabha. Issues of great pitch and moment like a junior minister's involvement with a cricket team, the allegations of corruption within the Indian Premier League, the phone-tapping of politicians and so on have occupied the attention of the members of parliament. Precious hours in Parliament have been spent in shouting and protesting against a variety of subjects, but the one theme that was missing was the one that ought to be the focus of debates in the budget session. This speaks volumes about the MPs' sense of priorities.

 

It has often been said that the real strength of Indian democracy is its demographic depth: millions of people have the right to vote. As a result of this, people who previously had no access to State power and to governance are getting elected to the Lok Sabha and even becoming ministers. A deepening of the right to vote and a broadening of the gateway to political power does not necessarily signify the robustness of a democracy. The ability to discuss and debate, which is the essence of democratic governance, is disappearing from the Indian polity and its institutions. Parliament is the principal sufferer of this process. High decibel levels and disruption are more heard and seen on the floor of the house than reasoned discussion. Yet this is not the reason that people elect their representatives to the Lok Sabha. The aim is to give to the country the best available form of governance. But issues of governance have taken a back seat in the deliberations of Parliament. In fact, it will be no exaggeration to suggest that deliberation has yielded place to protest.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

WASTE LAND

 

Patience is a virtue, unless it is a Calcuttan's patience. Another day wasted for most people in the city, as in the

state, is just part of routine. Almost as though it is ordained by nature, like a cyclone or flood. The point, of course, is that it is not a cyclone or a flood that is stopping work and movement, but a group of political parties led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in protest against the rise in prices. It is an all-India bandh, predicted to be fully effective only in West Bengal. Besides, the Trinamul Congress, in headlong opposition with the Left Front, has a lot of points to prove in that same unhappy state. The citizens of West Bengal are not only patient to the point of inertia, but they are also used to great expectations of unpleasant excitement. But so deep-seated is the culture of protest through the stoppage of work that the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), along with a few other parties, has called a bandh on this same day, without supporting the CPI(M)-led bandh. The issue, though, is that of rising prices. This one — a mental microscope may distinguish it from the CPI(M)-led bandh — accuses the Left Front of not having used its powers as a state government to correct the price-rise. But the day of work stoppage is the same, the logic of that being closer to that of the world beyond Alice's rabbit-hole than anything in the unexciting workaday world. This mind-boggling imbroglio is made still more amazing by the fact that the SUCI(C) is the Trinamul Congress's electoral partner. The latter is committed to opposing the Left-led bandh; how is it going to separate the wheat from the chaff?

 

All of this could have been just an exhausting joke, had it not meant the wastage of another day of work, another prolonged violation of civic rights, further hours of harassment for the acutely ill and those who tend them, another empty day for the daily wage-earner. It may be relevant from the point of view of man-hours and productive energy wasted to recall that the week preceding the bandh has been one of protests, dharnas and processions campaigning for municipal election candidates, holding up traffic and commuters for hours on end. Not a single party is innocent. In this city of protests, it is ironic that the citizens have not found a way to protest against protests. Maybe they do not want to. That is when patience becomes a vice.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

 

 

DIFFICULT GAME

INDIA MUST PROTECT ITS INTERESTS WHEN THE US EXITS AFGHANISTAN

BRIJESH D. JAYAL

 

The last but one week of March saw major events involving the immediate neighbourhood, the impact of which will undoubtedly have profound strategic implications for India. Even before the Pakistan foreign minister's delegation that included both General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the army chief, and Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the Inter-Services Intelligence chief, had left the shores of Pakistan for a much heralded strategic dialogue with the United States of America, the US ambassador in Pakistan stated that a US-Pakistan civil nuclear deal on the lines of the Indo-US deal could be discussed. This was followed by an interview to Pakistan television by the secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in which her body language clearly conveyed a message to the people of Pakistan that the US needed Pakistan badly.

 

Closer home, the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, was on a formal visit to China where he was given the red carpet treatment. He followed this up with a visit to Tehran, where he participated in the first festival of the international day of Nauroz, attended by some 25 heads of State or senior representatives of countries. Aware that it was his country's future that would form the centrepiece of the US-Pakistan dialogue in Washington, Karzai's travels also had a message.

 

The Indian foreign minister's absence at the Tehran ceremony after having been invited by his counterpart was because the Iran government shifted invitation dates once, followed by a second time. Clearly, our foreign minister got the hint and mercifully declined. Iran was conveying its own message regarding India's earlier voting in favour of the International Atomic Energy Agency's censure of Iran.

 

Considering that we have a vital stake in what shape the future of Afghanistan takes, one wondered what message India had for those attempting to shape this future in Washington. Judging by the nation's infatuation with the Narendra Modi-Amitabh Bachchan tamasha, there was none. Those in the corridors of the State department no doubt got the message and drew their own conclusions.

 

In all fairness, the US has never pretended to be sensitive to our security concerns if they clashed with its national interests. That is why it was not the least apologetic about denying our agencies access to David Headley, who is the self-confessed mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Although that situation has changed since, it can be asked whether the US would have taken kindly to being denied access to Ajmal Kasab, the lone survivor of the Mumbai attackers. Would India have had the courage to deny it access? Since Headley has named serving Pakistan army officers as responsible for planning and executing the Mumbai carnage, the least India expected was a US censure of Pakistani military and intelligence establishments, if not out of conviction then at least out of form.

 

Instead, it appears that praise was showered on General Kayani and the Pakistan army for their efforts on the AfPak front and commitments extracted that the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban and al Qaida — all organizations targeting the US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan — would be tackled. No such assurance was considered necessary for Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Haqqani network, both of which are considered Pakistani strategic assets to target India. This in spite of their also featuring on the US president's list of those to be dismantled and defeated. Aware of these double standards and so to appease Indian sentiment, the US promptly announced the conclusion of the nuclear reprocessing agreement with India, hailing it as further consolidation of a strategic partnership.

 

The US is well on its way towards working out its exit from Afghanistan, and has decided that this needs the support and cooperation of the Pakistan military and intelligence agencies. How this strategy will impact the regional security scene is difficult to tell, but one thing is certain. Unless India is willing to work out a strategy to safeguard its interests and not outsource this to the US or anyone else, it may well be the biggest loser in this game.

 

Since every bit of action in Washington and in the neighbourhood would have a profound and long-lasting effect on India's internal and external security, one had expected the nation to be treated to loads of informed news and discussion in both the print and electronic media. Instead what we got was Modi mania peppered with Bachchan drama.

 

It is not this writer's intention to join political issues or defend the person of Narendra Modi who, as an elected representative from Gujarat and holding the constitutional post of chief minister, must abide by the law of the land and face the consequences. But surely, like every citizen, he must be presumed innocent until proven guilty and surely a constitutional authority needs more respect than to be subject to sustained media trial?

 

The issue that concerns one is the inability to separate the personality of an individual holding a constitutional post from the dignity and sanctity of the post itself and, by extension, the equation of the person rather than the position with the State. Some years ago, Modi, as chief minister of Gujarat, in which constitutional post he would carry a red Indian diplomatic passport, was denied a visa by the US authorities. Denial of a visa to an Indian diplomatic passport holder was a rebuff to the Indian State. The Central government should have strongly reacted to this slight to an Indian diplomatic passport holder. That it failed to do so and in fact relished Modi's discomfiture speaks poorly of our national pride. Perhaps a counter-question would make the point. Would the US have tolerated such a slight at Indian hands to one of its diplomatic passport holders?

 

Similarly, to target Amitabh Bachchan because he is promoting Modi, when he is promoting Gujarat and its tourism potential, is to target the people of the state and, by extension, the people of India. Is it the case of Modi-baiters that all government functionaries acting on his orders or on his behalf are to be boycotted or their actions considered illegitimate? Such denigration of constitutional posts has other serious ramifications. What would this writer have done today had he been the air force commander of the region that encompasses Gujarat, in which capacity there are occasions to either call on the chief minister or attend formal functions presided over by him? This writer in his time, and as part of protocol, has done precisely this in Gandhinagar, Jaipur, Mumbai and all capitals of the northeastern states. But those were times when, in the words of Rabindranath Tagore, the clear stream of reason had not lost its way in the dreary desert of dead habit.

 

There is grave danger that today regional commanders with the Gujarat area under their command would rather duck these protocol obligations. If they do they will have conveyed a poor message to the people of Gujarat, to all their formations located within the state and indeed all uniformed people belonging to the state. Before any further damage is done to the constitutional fabric of the country, the prime minister and leaders of all political parties need to draw clear red lines beyond which petty politics must bow at the altar of national interest.

 

That a person holding a constitutional post is being investigated as per the law of the land speaks volumes for our justice system. But the system fails us by delaying justice. Rather than milk the delay to derive political mileage, our lawmakers would do well to institute laws to ensure that such cases are completed within stipulated time frames, and that during their pendency, the individual concerned steps down from the constitutional post. Whilst this may appear to infringe on individual rights of presumption of innocence until proven guilty, in the larger interest of the sanctity of constitutional posts, the price is well worth paying. Today, we have undermined the authority of the post of a chief minister by putting an incumbent on media trial. This is an indirect affront to the people who have, through a democratic process, elected their chief minister, and to his authority to govern. We are treading on very thin ice.

 

This brings us to the media, which of late have been in the news in the context of paid media reporting prior to the last elections with some electronic media channels reportedly offering paid news packages to political parties. A cynic could well conclude that the hype in the media over the Modi-Bachchan issue was to camouflage the far more serious ramifications for our future security that were unfolding in Washington under the patronage of our avowed strategic partner, the US. In this age of information warfare and commercialization, one wonders if such cynicism amounts to letting imagination run wild.

 

The author is a retired air marshal of the Indian Air Force

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

THANK GOD FOR THE SUBCONTINENT

 

The Heathrow Airport, gateway to the next Olympics, can perhaps learn a lesson or two from South Asia, writes Jonathan Todhunter

 

I forgot that we are living in the United Kingdom of Delayed Maintenance. Also that we are at the entry gate to the most sophisticated city in the world (London, in case you asked). Well, "We apologize" seems to be the mantra of this State. So as I got into Terminal 1 at Heathrow to go to Geneva, there was the usual loudspeaker apologizing for various things, and I didn't immediately get it, because it seems that this is what they do here in the airports and railways of England. There is a whole loudspeaker system set up to apologize for what is not working, and to warn you, every five minutes — in case it hadn't occurred to you already — against taking things from strangers to carry to your destination, or against leaving your bag unattended.

 

Slowly, the truth dawned on me. I discovered that the whole communications and computer system of the airport was down, not to be restored till somebody could come and fix it. When I started looking at the signs for the flights, they just said, "We apologize; no information available." I didn't get it, until I walked around to several boards and saw the same notice. Of course, in such situations, you look around for someone who will help you. But in this age of saving money on personnel, and "We apologize because we are short-staffed" notices, you simply cannot expect to speak to a human being. And this, of course, was London, not to be confused with Accra or Mumbai. I am talking of Heathrow Airport, gateway to the next Olympics. So, no signs, and nobody around. Nobody knew when any flight was leaving or from what terminal it was leaving. We were just apologized to endlessly and reminded to stay next to the luggage and not to talk to strangers. That's it!

 

Eventually, a really bright spark, who came from the subcontinent, and thank god for that, worked out, maybe from the subcontinent's experience, that a large piece of paper and a walkie-talkie would do the trick. So we had a whole takeover of the airport by Hindi or Pushtun, I cannot tell the difference, language doesn't run that exotic with me. A lady from the subcontinent was putting up the boarding gates and the supposed schedules on a huge piece of paper with a marker pen, in two colours even, and holding it up for the mob of hundreds to see. Ergo, the eponymous 'people' more or less got to their gate, thanks to the experience and down-to-earth practicality of the subcontinent. History doesn't relate when the computer system started working again, and people got to see their gates and departure times, and we got back to the 20th century in the next Olympic capital of the world.

 

Of course, from this capital there had been a lot of huffing and puffing and harrumphing in high places as to whether China.... yes, China, would be capable of staging the Olympics. I wonder whether there is some concern in Beijing now as to whether London can do that as well. Maybe, with some help from the subcontinent, it will make it. Heaven forbid that the subcontinent gets the Olympics — "they haven't done anything since the Raj, old boy, Poona is just not what it was" — at least, that was what I heard in the drawing rooms of the great establishment. Thank god they came here to save us from ourselves, and so we can buy the newspaper and a bottle of milk in the morning at the humble corner store, and maybe, to take over the workings of the great Heathrow Airport when our United Kingdom of Delayed Maintenance is yet again in a fix.

 

So that was Heathrow. But I did make an observation on the late departure, where the time needed to fill the plane is critical. We have the luxury of placed seating on the great historic national airlines, but what does that do? It triples the boarding time, as everyone fusses around trying to find their precious seat number. If you fly Ryanair or easyJet, the seats just fill up in a third of the time. That is perhaps why we are now getting to pay more for Ryanair and easyJet, because they are on time and reliable, and especially because they seem concerned about being on time and reliable, and the old airlines don't seem to care too much, any one of them. Wake up, you great historic airlines, the low cost airlines are overtaking your fares too, because they do what airlines should do. They are easy to book, they fly you efficiently on time to your destination. Their coverage of Europe has liberated millions of people from Aberdeen to Cairo, and they are taking over, yes, because of the price, but also because they do a better job.

 

Then we had the Swiss problem. It snowed in Zürich on this particular morning, and so all flights to Zürich were late. Naturally, your correspondent here was trying to save money on easyJet, a full 20 euros, and flying Swiss. But, of course, it didn't go directly to Geneva, it went through Zürich, otherwise it would probably have cost twice. So after an hour's delay, we were late, and I was pushed into another flight. That's fine, but 300 other people were pushed too, and the line to change the tickets was at least 3 hours long, with five, yes five, desks to handle everyone. Now Switerland works like the fabled cuckoo clock, but they can't handle something different like this. Perhaps they too should get some help from the subcontinent on how to handle emergencies. Indeed, such problems are encountered daily on the subcontinent and handled with zest and determination. When such an event occurs, the crowd is immediately surrounded by an army of hucksters, facilitators, baggagewallahs, experts on every aspect of your travelling life, and somehow the problem gets resolved in amusing and interesting ways.

 

Ryanair and easyJet would have just left you there and saved the bother. Without a baggagewallah or a problem-solver, it is better in the end. However, this was Switzerland, and I decided to I bale myself out, pulled the cord, and walked to find a train to Geneva. What a luxury, but it cost as much as the return ticket to London.

 

So here I am in Val d'Isère recovering, thanking god that we have got some solid citizens from the subcontinent over here to save us from ourselves, our pomposity, our smugness about the rest of the world, and our tragic inability to maintain anything.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

HISS OF THE UNIVERSE

BUILDING BLOCKS

 

March 30 was a great day for particle physics

 

Geneva, March 30, 2010. Beams of protons circling around in opposite directions collided at 7 tetraelectronvolt in the Large Hadron Collider at 13.06 Geneva time — a historic moment. Never before has man reached such energy levels in the history of science. The whole world is rejoicing, and the scientific world is jubilant. It is not only a unique achievement but has also opened up a thousand windows to new concepts and ideas till now shrouded in the darkest preserve of nature.

 

There was no dearth of anxious moments. Beams started circling the night before without colliding — suddenly around 7 a.m. there was no beam. Something went disastrously wrong. The proton simply refused to be pushed around. After some clever tricks, at around 10.30 a.m. on March 30, the beam came up again.

 

Higgs Boson; dark matter; what can be the source of dark energy; do supersymmetric particles exist — these fundamental questions are going to be addressed at the LHC. Further, when the two nuclei will go into colliding mode, we shall have a glimpse of the universe through the lens of mini bang, a microsecond after the Big Bang.

 

Technologically, the LHC is a marvel. It is the hottest place in the universe (a million times the temperature of the interior of the sun) as well as the coldest (a couple of degrees Kelvin), even colder than the microwave background radiation encompassing the entire cosmos. It is the hiss of the universe, the remanence of its creation in a Big Bang and therefore, the hiss of the expanding universe. Already, the data coming out of the colliding protons are overflowing the computers at the detectors: Alice, CMS, Atlas, LHCb.

 

The invention of grid computing system, which networks all the computers in Tiers 1 and 2 around the world, has been so fantastic that immediately after March 30, the facility has been fully operational. The Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Calcutta, and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics are members of Tier 2.

 

The fundamental questions that have bothered man are going to be examined critically: why is there matter and not antimatter? Is it possible for all forces to be grandly unified? What is the origin of mass? Indeed, when the nuclei collide in near future and (hopefully) create a plasma of quarks and gluons (the fundamental building blocks of nature), we shall have much deeper insight into the nature of strong interaction that binds neutrons and protons inside the atomic nucleus.

 

Guido Tonelli, the spokesperson of the CMS experiment says, "We'll address soon some of the major puzzles of modern physics." A collaboration spokesperson, Fabiola Gianotti, says, "LHC experiments are propelled into a vast region to explore and the hunt begins for dark matter, new forces even new dimensions." In the Alice detector, VECC, Calcutta, and SINP have made major contributions in terms of Photon Multiplicity Detector and the 'Manas' chip of the dimuon spectrometer. We are jubilant to have already collected the newest data that man has ever seen. The director-general of Cern, Rolf Heuer, said, "It is a great day to be a particle physicist".

 

Cern will run the LHC for 18-24 months with the objective of delivering enough data to make significant advances across a range of physics channels. As soon as it has re-discovered the known Standard Model particles, a necessary precursor to looking for new physics, the LHC experiment will start the systematic search for the Higgs Boson. With the amount of data expected, called one inverse femtobarn by physicists, the combined analysis of Atlas and CMS will be able to explore a wide mass range.

"The LHC has a real chance over the next two years of discovering supersymmetric particles", explained Heuer, "giving insights into the composition of about a quarter of the Universe. Over 2,000 graduate students are eagerly awaiting data from the LHC experiments."

 

A moment has come when the young can make their mark and become famous for more than 15 minutes. The world will not be same again. The LHC will take man up to a different height.

 

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

EDITORIAL

PUNISH THE GUILTY

"PHONE-TAPPING IS AN INTRUSION INTO CITIZENS' PRIVACY."

 

 

Home minister P Chidambaram's bland denial of any government role in the tapping of political leaders' telephones does not answer all the questions raised by reports of intelligence agencies' surveillance of personal communications.  The minister's statement in parliament on Monday is in fact not a complete denial. He has only denied authorisation by the government of the reported activities of an intelligence outfit which pried into the telephone lines of leaders like Sharad Pawar, Prakash Karat and Nitish Kumar. He has even kept a window open by saying that the government is ready to thoroughly investigate the charge if there is evidence. That is as good as saying that if the telephone tapping has taken place, the government has not ordered it. But government sanction is not the issue; it is whether it has taken place, with or without  authorisation. If a government agency has done it, the government is responsible for the action. Period.

Reports had suggested that an intelligence outfit called the National Technical Research Organisation, which was formed after the Kargil war to monitor security threats, had regularly eavesdropped on the conversations of political leaders. All electronic communications, not just phone calls, may be under surveillance. This is an intrusion into the citizens' privacy and a violation of their fundamental rights. Governments have been tempted to use intelligence agencies for political purposes. Tapping of phones had come to light during the Emergency and later during Ramakrishna Hegde's chiefministership in Karnataka. In an open and democratic society such violation of rights and misuse of intelligence machinery for political ends are absolutely unacceptable.

Laws governing surveillance of individuals' communications are not strong in the country, even though the issue has come into the public realm a number of times. The guidelines issued by the supreme court on telephone tapping are not effective. There may be a case for strengthening the laws but the technology is growing so fast it is easy to find loopholes in the law. The issue is one of attitude, of respect for others and commitment to the rights of people and to fair play in politics. No one will grudge the state's power to enter people's lives to ensure national security. But it cannot be misused, and if there is misuse, those responsible for it should not be spared. Chidambaram's statement was not reassuring and has not removed all apprehensions of the Big Brother's presence in our lives.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

DEN OF CORRUPTION

 "MEDICAL COUN-CIL OF INDIA NEEDS A COMP-LETE REVAMP."

 

 

The arrest of the Medical Council of India president Ketan Desai last week has again drawn attention to the faulty functioning of the body and many irregularities in it. Desai has been charged with  accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore for granting recognition to a medical college in Punjab. This is said to be only the tip of the iceberg. When corruption in the IPL seems to be the flavour of the day, the MCI  seems to have done worse. The CBI, according to reports, expects to recover about Rs 2,500 crore in cash, 1,500 kg of gold and other properties from him. He has controlled the MCI for many years. Raids and corruption charges are not new to him either. Desai was forced to step down as MCI president in 2001 following a Delhi high court order which held him guilty of corruption and misuse of office. But he staged a comeback last year and is now even president of the World Medical Association.

The MCI has a major role in the country's medical education and  in setting standards for the profession. It approves and grants affiliation to medical colleges, and has to ensure uniform academic standards. But it has often been called a den of corruption. Desai is said to have accepted Rs 25-30 crore and more for an approval. Apart from the MCI team, he had formed a personal contingent of about 20 inspectors to visit colleges. Not only has the MCI failed in its functions but it has helped malpractices like capitation fee to grow. Almost every decision and activity had a corrupt dimension. Desai has recently been trying to extract money for approval of the new rural medical courses planned by the government.

Desai would not have been operating alone. During the investigation names of others in the MCI and the health ministry have come up. Connections in politics and business are also sure to follow. Major reforms are needed in the MCI and the health ministry if medical education has to be improved. Some time ago it was found that membership of the MCI was not representative and in violation of the rules, there were as many nominated members as there were elected ones. The present raid and investigation should not end up as a flash in the pan and should lead to lasting reforms.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

BACKING THE RIGHT HORSE

BY M K BHADRAKUMAR

Clearly, New Delhi should focus on economic and political rather than any military engagement in Afghanistan.

 

 

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai's arrival in New Delhi on Monday can be seen as of a piece with the 'new thinking' in the Indian foreign policy in the recent months. The revival of the traditional ties with Russia, the inclination to move away from futile finger-pointing towards meaningful interaction with China, signs of course correction on Iran — tendencies that seemed tentative are indeed gaining traction and assuming a purposive direction in diplomacy.

The timing and estimations behind New Delhi's invitation to Karzai merit attention. No doubt, the Afghan situation is nearing a turning point. The foreign minister level meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) held in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, on Friday officially set in motion a process to roll back the alliance's operations in Afghanistan.

While this would be a natural process and not a 'run for the exit,' as Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen put it, the political reality is that the western allies have reached agreement on basic guidelines for commencing the hand-over of responsibility for security to the Afghan forces on a case-by-case basis within this year.

 

"I expect that we will start handing over responsibility to the Afghans this year", Rasmussen said. "Today, we took an important decision to help make that happen. We agreed the approach we will take to transition." Karzai will have the opportunity to 'tweak' the alliance's approach.

These measured steps of 'Afghanisation' ought to prompt Delhi to contemplate what role India can play. Clearly, Delhi should focus on economic and political rather than military engagement in Afghanistan to bolster long term security in that country and in the region. Indian can train Afghan specialists in various fields, provide training and equipment to the Afghan army and cooperate in a range of counter-terrorism and counter-narcotic activities.

The question of any military deployment should firmly remain excluded from the consideration zone despite India's vast experience in peacekeeping operations. Entanglement in potentially exhausting military missions abroad needs to be avoided. Below that threshold, diplomatic ingenuity and creative thinking would lie in figuring out how economic expansion can be the key element of India's security strategy in Afghanistan.

Secondly, Karzai's visit is an occasion to refine our thinking apropos the 'reintegration' and reconciliation strategy towards the Taliban. To be sure, Delhi has come a long way in the direction of recognising that any Afghan settlement to be durable needs to be inclusive and Afghan-led and the international community cannot be prescriptive in what is quintessentially a fratricidal war.

Plural character

The Afghan leader's reconciliation strategy aims at forming a broad-based, representative government that affirms the country's plural character. Delhi should not only empathise with Karzai's strategy but should extend whole-hearted support to it politically.

There is a growing awareness in Washington that instead of berating Karzai — and at times even undercutting him — the US should learn to work with him. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton made this clear during a press availability in Tallinn on Friday, pointing out that "President Karzai has one of the most difficult jobs in the world, balancing the internal forces inside Afghanistan, balancing the neighbourhood and all of the regional powers that surround Afghanistan."
If these helpful words translate as US policy, all is not lost in Afghanistan. Especially so, as regards the prospects of the jirga or tribal assembly, which Karzai hopes to convene in Kabul.

Exactly 20 years ago in May 1990, the then Afghan President Najibullah convened a Loya Jirga in Kabul with a similar lofty aspiration of reconciliation and power-sharing. It remains a blot on the international community that it failed to seize the historic occasion and give Najibullah a fair chance. That failure pushed Afghanistan into the vortex of violence and anarchy and made it a revolving door of terrorism.

History shouldn't repeat itself. India should do all it can to buttress the feeling in the regional capitals that the sinews of the government in Kabul must be strengthened. This should be done bilaterally at the government-to-government level and amply supplemented through regional and international forums.

India must raise its voice at the upcoming international conference in Kabul. India must strive to contribute to the deliberations of the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation scheduled to be held in Tashkent in June. External Affairs Minister S M Krishna's visit to Tehran in mid-May provides fresh opportunity to pick up the threads of the moribund Iranian offer to work together on issues affecting war and peace in Afghanistan.

A fundamental mistake India made in 2001 was to hitch its Afghan policy with the US' 'war on terror.' Alas, Delhi rolled back its diverse contacts with Afghan groups.

Ironically, to quote Clinton, "I've met with a number of the ministers of the current (Afghan) government, and they're very impressive… I would invite attention to the accomplishments of a number of them who have revolutionised the way business is done." In the most recent years, in contrast, Indian diplomacy went into slumber. Hardly any Afghan leader visits the Indian capital.

(The writer is a former diplomat)

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

HAPPY DRINK

SIFT THROUGH YOUR KITCHEN SPICES AND MAKE YOUR OWN DRINK.

BY SNEHLATHA BALIGA

 

Summer time and cool drinks go together. The 'thanda' drink is relished as much by guests who drop in for a chat as by family members. But for most home-makers coping with the summer thirst is just a hop to the super market to load their fridges with fancy, caffeinated drinks. This year, for a change, sift through your kitchen spices and make your own drink for reasons of health, novelty, variety and taste.
Here are some innovative ideas that are easy on the pockets too.

Ragi drink: Ragi is calcium rich and has good protein content. It is not only nutritious but soothing and cooling too.     

Take two tea spoonful of ragi powder, mix with water and boil for a few minutes, stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Allow it to cool. Add enough normal water to make it thin. Mince a piece of onion and mix it. Add some curd, salt and chopped coriander. Keep the drink cool and serve it in tall glasses.

A sweeter variation of this could be had by soaking a few dates in hot water, grinding them to a paste and mixing it with the ragi drink. Honey and jaggery are other choices to sweeten purees, coriander and mint juices.
Tamarind-jaggery drink: Tamarind is a good antidote for sun strokes, while jaggery is an instant energy booster that peps you up from the heat. Heat a lemon-sized lump of jaggery along with two strands of tamarind till the jaggery dissolves. When cool, mash the tamarind, strain the liquid, add salt and jeera powder. The drink is ready.

Spicy dal water: Dals are full of proteins and other nutrients.  Turn the water in which dal is cooked into a delectable drink.     Boil dal water with a piece of onion and two to three flakes of garlic. When cooked, mash the onion and garlic well, strain the water, cool it. Spice it with lemon, jeera powder, hing and pepper.
Green tea: It is rich in folic acid niacin, vitamin C, polyphenols, etc. It has antioxidant properties that fight cholesterol, carcinogens and cell mutations, raises immunity (half tea spoon for one cup). Keep covered for a while, strain, add lemon juice and honey. Serve cold or hot.

Barley water: Barley is one of the first cereals to be discovered. It is said that kidney and urinary problems are less among communities that consume barley in plenty. Its bland Taste puts off many. But spicing it with lemon juice, jeera powder, etc and adding sugar and salt makes it tasty. Boil a few grains of barley in water till the grains puff up and are soft like cooked rice. Strain the water, cool it, and add lemon juice, sugar, salt, etc and serve.

Rice ganji with salt and ghee: Rice consists of the three constituents of food viz fats, carbohydrates and proteins. The water in which it is cooked deserves to be put to use and is a good thirst quencher. Add a pinch of salt and a drop of ghee to the water you get after draining the cooked rice. If it is preferred cool then add only salt because ghee solidifies when cooled.

It's time to use your imagination to breeze through this summer and make your guests and family members also happy!

 

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DECCAN HERALD

EDITORIAL

BT CROPS CAN BE SAFER ALTERNATIVE TO PESTICIDES

BY MEENU PADMANABHAN & TAMDING WANGDI

Bt crops never claim to boost yield, but they kill insects that eat the plant thereby reducing crop losses.

 

 

A brinjal farmer can be hesitant to consume his own crop. The pest — brinjal fruit borer — can damage up to 70 per cent of his harvest and he resorts to multiple types of pesticide sprays during a single crop cycle in a desperate attempt to control it. Bt brinjal was expected to be a solution to this problem.

Scientists had engineered these plants to produce an insecticidal protein originally made by the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringeinsis (Bt). Bt has been used to control crop pests since 1920s. Bt microbial products have more than 40 years history of safe use especially in organic farming. In the case of Bt brinjal, instead of spraying the protein, the plant was genetically modified (GM) to make the protein. The Bt protein is only toxic to specific insects that include the brinjal fruit borer which is killed upon consuming the brinjal, thereby protecting the plant. Bt thus serves as an effective and environmentally friendly substitute to using deadly chemical pesticides.

Conflicting information

The scepticism over GMs appears to have stemmed from conflicting information from the media, scientific organisations and advocacy groups. Bt poses health risks is a false alarm. Safety studies conducted by independent regulatory committees from many countries including UK, EU, Russia, USA, Canada, Japan and South Africa, found no risk of Bt protein on human health. There is broad scientific consensus that Bt protein is not an allergen, is quickly broken down in the digestive system and shows no toxic effects on animal health. However, it must be noted that no food, whether conventional, organic or GM can be certified as 100 per cent safe.

On the other hand what has been proved clearly are the health hazards of insecticides. WHO records show that 18,000 farmers die from extreme pesticide poisoning every year.

It is argued that Bt crops do not raise productivity and so are giving false hope to farmers. Bt crops never claim to boost yield, but they kill insects that eat the plant thereby reducing crop losses. On an average at least 40 per cent of brinjal produce in India can be lost by insect infestation. Multi-state field trials in India have shown that yield of undamaged fruits from Bt brinjal was double that of non-Bt plants. From a practical perspective this does mean an increase in productivity.

A valid concern among environmentalists is that non-pest insects like the Monarch butterfly could become innocent victims when they feed on Bt crops. However an exhaustive analysis of 42 independent field studies showed that more non-target insects were killed by insecticides than by GM crops.

The effect of GM crops on reducing bio-diversity has been another concern. Ever since humans started practicing agriculture, more than 10,000 years ago, we have always been purposeful in propagating varieties of plants that were the most useful to us leading to a decline in local biodiversity. The green revolution introduced high yielding hybrid crops that unfortunately also led to the loss in diversity of many local cereals and legumes.

This is not a feature unique to GM crops and does happen with conventional plants. Being aware of this, it is important to do all that we can to preserve wild relatives of important plants. For instance national gene banks can serve as great repositories of native species.

By 2006, 250 million acres of land were being cultivated by 10 million farmers in 22 countries. Majority of these farmers are in the US, where up to 80 per cent of the processed food contains ingredients from a GM crop. Last year China approved the bio-safety of Bt rice commercialising the most important food crop in the world. Argentina, Brazil and Canada are the other main producers of GM crops.

The concern of the Indian farmer on the long-term impacts of GM crop technology still remains a valid point. Genetic engineering has opened up ways on altering organisms that was previously thought to be impossible. With great power comes great responsibility and it is wise to proceed with caution.

It is important to exercise caution when it comes to new technologies; however we should not hold GM crops and products to standards not required for food or feed produced by conventional technologies. The UN estimates that in developing countries, food production must be raised by almost 100 per cent between 2007 and 2050. This would put undeniable pressure to get maximum food output from the available arable land. Genetic engineering is not the magic bullet that can take on this challenging task but it is definitely one of the weapons in the arsenal.

(The writers are post-doctoral researchers in the US)

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

REJECTING THE BURKA

 

The burka can't be permitted under the freedom of religious expression, just as full nudity can't.

The burka ban debate raging in Europe has made it to Israel. MK Marina Solodkin (Kadima) announced this week her intention to initiate a bill that would prohibit the wearing of a full-body and face covering for women. Solodkin said that her bill would not differentiate between Muslims and Jews.

 

The burka is most commonly tied to Islam. It is worn in more extremist Muslim traditions as part of a conscientious adherence to hijab – the Islamic requirement to dress and behave modestly in public. But in recent years a zealot sect of haredi women, numbering perhaps a dozen or two, has also adopted the burka as part of their understanding of tzniut – Judaism's modesty requirements. The most prominent member of this splinter group, who became known as the "Taliban lady," was charged with sexually abusing her children.

Solodkin, inspired by a recent anti-burka campaign launched by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, argues that the burka is an attack on the dignity of women. We agree.

Whether there are in Israel enough burka-wearing women to justify devoting the energy and resources needed to legally discourage the phenomenon is unclear. But in principle, a strong argument can be made for banning the burka and what it represents.

First, the custom is misogynistic. The aim of covering a woman from head to toe is to blot out her feminine presence in the public domain; to turn her into a nonentity that cannot express her desires and her thoughts; to deny basic human interaction. Religious freedom, like any other right, is granted on condition that it is not exploited for destructive goals, such as the subjugation of women.

Muslim women who say they choose to wear the burka might argue that they are no more a product of male domination than anorexic western women vainly striving to meet men's prurient demands for a perfect body. But while the objectification of women is wrong, it cannot be compared to the brutal erasing of their very presence. The burka deviates so radically from accepted Western norms that it cannot be permitted under the pretext of freedom of religious expression, just as full nudity can't. That's why the vast majority of moderate Muslims oppose the burka.

The burka also undermines social cohesion. Women who wear the burka in Western countries send out a strongly anti-integrationist message. It is part of a wider rejection of Western values by radical Islamists who insist on full communal autonomy and the official recognition of Sharia law, including the imposition of the niqab (full veiling of the female face), and sometimes the right to perform female genital mutilation.

In Britain, for instance, this total lack of willingness to integrate on the part of some Muslims has become an obstacle to the formal learning of English, has heightened inter-communal tensions, and has reinforced the ghettoization of Asian Muslims into separate enclaves with high unemployment and increased social alienation.

Finally, the burka can be a security or crime risk: It hides the identity of a potential terrorist or criminal.

FOR THESE reasons, lawmakers in several European countries, including Holland, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Italy and France are pondering anti-burka legislation. In January, Denmark decided to restrict niqab in public institutions.

Those who support such legislation realize that an easygoing multiculturalism works only when there are basic shared values and a willingness to integrate. But European multiculturalism has deteriorated into rudderless moral relativism and a pusillanimous reluctance to criticize radical Islamic customs for fear of being branded an Islamofascist.

Sadly, some Jewish leaders, such as Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow and leader of the Conference of European Rabbis, have helped foster such unfounded fears. "Sixty-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz," wrote Goldschmidt in the New York Times in February, in an op-ed opposing the idea of bans on the burka, "Europeans can permit themselves to be squeamish about how things start and how things, if left unabated, can end." As a rabbi, he added, "I am made uncomfortable when any religious expression is restricted, not only my own."

Goldschmidt has got it wrong. Europeans have a right to feel uncomfortable. But not, as Goldschmidt argues, because Europeans are being too hard on Muslims. Rather, because they are being too soft.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

MAKING THE TAL LAW WORK

 

 

A decade ago this month the Tal Committee, tasked with getting yeshiva students into IDF ranks or national service and, eventually, into the workforce, presented its report to the Knesset.

The centerpiece recommendation, later ratified by the Knesset as part of the Tal Law, was to give yeshiva students aged 22 the option to take a one-year leave of absence, without facing immediate conscription, during which they could learn a trade or work. After that year was over, they could either return to the yeshiva, or perform a minimal military stint (four months with reserve duty) or national service (one full year) before being free to embark on a career.

Before the Tal Law, yeshiva students who stopped studying full-time were immediately conscripted.

But unpreparedness on the part of the IDF and the national service authorities, coupled with yeshiva heads' opposition, led state representatives to admit to the Supreme Court in 2005 that the law,  passed in 2002, had failed. Just 3 percent (1,432) of the haredi males who had deferred military service had chosen to even consider the options offered by the law, and only 74 had actually enlisted.

In May 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the Tal Law's inherent discrimination against secular Israelis, who are obligated by law to do three years of IDF service, could not be justified, considering the low haredi turnout. But the court gave the state a year and a half to improve its implementation.

In July 2007, the Knesset voted to extend the Tal Law to 2012, while in parallel creating a national service directorship that placed haredi young men in non-profit organizations – primarily in ones that served the haredi community. The IDF also opened haredi-friendly "Shahar" service tracks.

This led to modest improvements. In 2009, a total of 2,000 haredi young men, previously enrolled in yeshivot, opted to either serve in the IDF or do national service. The rise from just 400 the previous year was substantial; still, these men represented just 3.5% of the total number with military deferrals.

NEW DATA presented last week to a Knesset oversight team headed by MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima) prove that much more needs to be done to encourage yeshiva students to become economically productive members of society.

In April 2000, when former judge Zvi Tal presented his committee's recommendations to the Knesset, there were 31,000 yeshiva students ages 18 to 41 who had received deferrals from the IDF. Today there are an unprecedented 60,000.

For the first time in Israel's history, there are more than 100,000 men who devote their days to the study of the Talmud, Halacha, Jewish philosophy and various homiletic rabbinic literature. About 70,000 married men receive annual state-funded stipends of NIS 10,000, and 33,000 unmarried young men receive about NIS 5,700 a year. The total annual yeshiva budget is about NIS 1 billion.

The present situation is not only discriminatory, it threatens to unravel the delicate fabric of Israeli society. The haredi population is soaring. Currently, 48% of elementary school students are either haredi or Arab and, as highlighted in these columns before, that is set to rise to 78% by 2040.

Unlike religious Zionists, the haredi population chooses to interpret Jewish tradition and texts as incompatible with, if not downright hostile to Zionism. Half (5,500) of the annual potential male IDF draftees who legally skirt military service are haredim, resulting in a breakdown of the "army of the people" ethos and a dearth of able-bodied soldiers.

As for the economic burden, in 2008, 65% percent of the male haredi population aged 35 to 54 did not work and had no intention of looking for work, a rise of 200% over the past three decades. To support these men and their dependent families, average per-capita welfare allowances have increased five-fold in real terms since 1970, while Israeli living standards, as reflected in per-capita GDP, have only doubled.

The situation is untenable. The same segment of male Israeli society that works also dedicates at least three years to IDF service, while being forced to pay higher taxes for welfare transfers to another segment that does neither.

The 2009 Tal figures show a step in the right direction – achieved via a greater stress on appropriate tracks to draw more haredim into the IDF and into national service, promoted via interaction with the haredi community itself. But more is urgently required.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

EVEN A POPE NEEDS FRIENDS

BY SHMULEY BOTEACH

 

 

Since the announcement of my upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict many of my Jewish friends have expressed disappointment. "They blamed the pedophile-priest scandal on Jews, and compared the attacks on the Church to anti-Semitism. How could you, Shmuley?" "The pope was in the Hitler Youth and wants to make Pope Pius XII, who never even condemned the Holocaust, a saint." "The Church has *always been anti-Semitic; you're being used."

Come now. Jewish insularity is the ultimate obstacle to the dissemination of Jewish values, while Jewish contempt for the non-Jewish world because of its past immorality and Jew-hatred is itself immoral and hateful. Pope Benedict is being kicked in nearly every part of the world. But I as a Jew do not forget that for all his failures in properly handing the abomination of pedophile priests, Benedict has been a great friend to the Jewish community, visiting an unprecedented three synagogues in four years, as well as the State of Israel. And who benefits by seeing a mighty Church fall? The millions of orphans it tends to? The schools it runs? The hope its priests give the poor, especially in the Third World?

I have been one of Pope Pius XII's foremost critics. But Benedict is not Pius, and before we holler for his demise let's recall that as the cardinal secretary of state he did more to extend the Church's hand in friendship to other peoples and faiths than nearly anyone who preceded him.

There is much in Jewish law and tradition that could bring healing to the Church, beginning with the Jewish laws of sexual seclusion. In Judaism a man and woman who are not married are not allowed to be in a locked room together. When I was rabbi to Michael Jackson, I took this law and applied it to his special circumstances. I told him the only way he could rehabilitate his reputation after the pedophile accusations was to simply forswear ever being alone with a child. I even grabbed Michael's shoulders and made him promise me he would never seclude himself with a child not his own. And for the two years for which we were close, he stuck to the script. When he and I launched our initiative to help children, the focus was on working with parents to make their kids a top priority, rather than with the kids themselves.

It wasn't until he stupidly disregarded this simple advice and decided to share a bed – however platonically – with a young child and then brag about it on TV that he was arrested, and so began the inexorable decline that ended in his death a few years later.

THE CHURCH should embrace the same straightforward rule. No priest should be allowed to be alone with a child. Period. If a priest needs to speak to a child alone, the door must never be locked and there must always be the possibility that they can be intruded upon. If they walk in a park, it cannot be one that is empty. This way we'll know that any priest who breaks the guidelines will be punished, whether or not he abuses a child. It would significantly curb the potential for child molestation, and might even discourage pedophiles from entering the priesthood.

But more importantly, it's time for Jews and Catholics to work together to promote new values in America. While our country is gripped by an epidemic of materialism and an orgy of greed, the only values religion seems to talk about is its opposition to gay marriage and abortion. But this emphasis on the negative is not going to create much that is positive. We need values that promote family, strengthen marriage, inspire selflessness in children and advance the cause of a purposeful life – one less obsessed with money and status.

This is why I wish to suggest to the pope that the Catholic Church get behind our "Turn Friday Night into Family Night" initiative – the push for a global family-dinner night. Imagine if all the world's families – Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, agnostic – sat down every Friday night and embraced the "Triple Two." Parents giving their children two uninterrupted hours every Friday night, inviting two guests to teach the children about hospitality and discussing two important subjects rather than a movie or celebrity gossip. Friday night could be the one evening that unites all. It's sacred already to Jews and Muslims. Up until the Second Vatican Council it was a night on which Catholics were forbidden to eat meat. And for the nonreligious it's the beginning of the weekend. If a family gets together on Friday night, chances are it will do more stuff together on Saturday and Sunday.

This is the right time for a global family-dinner night. The pedophile-priest scandal has reinforced the conclusion of some that the Church is an old boys' club that at best makes concessions to the weakness of human nature by allowing men and women to marry; the ideal, however, is celibacy and childlessness.

The Church must return to its previous posture as a champion of the family, and what better way than to require that all Catholic families worldwide do as Jesus' did?

Put the worldly stuff away on Friday night and consecrate it as an evening of holy togetherness.

The writer is founder of This World: The Values Network. His book, Renewal, will be published by Basic Books on May 14.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

THE OPERA HOUSE OF THE NEGEV

BY DAVID NEWMAN

 

 

In his book Imagining Zion, Prof. Ilan Troen discusses some of the pre-state dreams of the early pioneers which never materialized. One of these was the construction of an opera house in Afula. Today, almost 80 years later, the idea of a major opera house in Afula probably seems even more far-fetched than it did then.

But many opera houses in Afula have been built during the past 50 years –  although they are not called opera houses, nor are they in Afula. One of them, as unimaginable at the time it was created as was the idea of the opera house, celebrates its 40th anniversary tomorrow. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will commemorate 40 years since the first classes were held in the then-remote and isolated town of Beersheba, far from the centers of culture and literacy in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

It started under the auspices of senior professors at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, but during the relatively short period of 40 years has established its own international status, partly drawing on its location as the university of the desert. BGU has developed an international reputation for its research into arid regions, the efficient use of water, exporting its expertise from the desert campus of Sde Boker to other desert regions from China to Africa.

For 16 of those 40 years, the university became associated with one man – professor (now minister) Avishay Braverman. Arriving at a university which was still surrounded by a broken wire fence and a campus which had more open and desolate spaces than buildings, Braverman succeeded, in his brash and independent way, in creating a campus which has become second to none in its environment, its diverse academic programs and its international status. Like or dislike the man, his boots have proven to be almost impossible to fill since his departure. Vision and academic leadership have largely been replaced by managers for whom the slogans "efficiency" and "balance sheets" have become more important.

The fact that Braverman's replacement as president, Prof. Rivka Carmi, is the country's first female university leader, is an important social statement which needs to be copied by many other public institutions – gender equality in practice and not just as a politically correct slogan.

THE NATURE of tomorrow's festivity is not a conference or a gathering of scholars. It is a festive parade through the streets of Beersheba, aimed at highlighting the links between the university and the community. BGU prides itself as the most socially aware university in the country, with a wide range of programs which reach out to the local population – the poor neighborhoods of Beersheba and the surrounding development towns, as well as the local Beduin communities. This is particularly noticeable in such departments as social work and education, or through the Center for Beduin Studies – training and empowering social workers and teachers from the local communities who, it is hoped, will then return to their communities to pass on their knowledge.

BGU also has a high percentage of its students engaged in the Perach program, where students work with children from disadvantaged backgrounds, in return for which part of their tuition is covered. Many of the students, a large percentage of whom come from other areas, reside in apartment blocks close to the university while some of the more enterprising have opened small restaurants and bars in these areas.

 

But what you see from here is not always the same as what you see from there. For most residents of these neighborhoods, the campus remains a gated and fenced-in community which, with the exception of the many menial laborers who work there, is only seen from their apartment windows or from the bus.

The plan to construct a library of the Negev, which would have served the local community as much as the students and faculty, was – along with the intention to create the country's fifth law school – scrapped some years ago due to the changing financial climate.

BGU has also become a major center for social and political debate. The Ben-Gurion Research Institute at the Sde Boker campus is a focus for research into the changing political values and institutions of the state since the pre-independence period. By contrast, the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in the sociology, politics and Middle Eastern departments, has become a place where many of the traditional state ideologies and myths are questioned, engaging a more critical and global generation of students.

The Humanities Faculty also hosts the country's leading department of Hebrew and Israeli literature, including such authors as Amos Oz, Haim Beer and Nissim Calderon among its staff, while the university's only Israel Prize recipient, Prof. Gerald Blidstein, a world expert on Maimonides, reflects the immense contribution of BGU in shaping the cultural and philosophical agenda of the country.

The generation of university founders, the fresh young doctoral students of the late 1960s and early 1970s, are now retiring. The leadership of the university is gradually being taken over by younger and more globally orientated scholars, while the retirees (budget cuts allowing) are being replaced by fresh young faculty who will shape the next 40 years. If, during the next four decades, the university has half as much impact on the region and the country's public and social agenda as it has in the past four, the opera house of the Negev will have emerged as much more than just a dream.

The writer was elected as the next Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Ben-Gurion University on Monday. He is professor of political geography at the university and editor of the International Journal of Geopolitics.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

CITY OF PEACE

BY GERSHON BASKIN

 

 

Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The connection of the Jewish people to its holy city is undisputable. Every place you dig, you touch Jewish roots. Our prayers and scriptures are filled with yearnings for Jerusalem, and reinforce our historic and religious links to the city. We turn to Jerusalem in prayer three times a day and recall it during our most important rites of passage.

Israel, the nation-state of the Jewish people, could have no other capital. I, who immigrated to Israel more than three decades ago – an Israeli by choice, as I call myself – have brought three children into the world in Jerusalem. I would choose to live in no other city. Jerusalem is my home.

I love to drive by the Old City. I love to wander through its narrow streets and alleys, with its quarters reminding us of the centrality of this place to civilizations gone by. We recognize that the three monotheistic religions view Jerusalem as a sacred city. Billions of people around the world have Jerusalem in their consciousness, and many have physical symbols of this awareness in their homes, churches, mosques and, of course, synagogues.

Jerusalem is also the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both sides claim national rights in and to the city.Between 1948 and 1967 the city was physically divided by barbed wire and walls. The Jordanian annexation of east Jerusalem was illegal by international law and was not recognized by the international community. In June 1967 the physical boundaries were removed, but the city remained deeply divided, as it is today. Israel annexed east Jerusalem and declared the city its united and eternal capital. The annexation was illegal by international law and was not recognized by the international community. There is not one country which recognizes even west Jerusalem as the capital. Not one country has its embassy in Jerusalem.

From 1948 until 1967, Jews were denied the right to go to their most holy places in the Old City. Since the Oslo process began in 1993, Palestinians have been denied free access to their holy places in Jerusalem, as the city has been separated from the rest of the West Bank.

AFTER 1967 Israel enlarged the land area of Jerusalem and began a massive settlement-building drive, surrounding all the Palestinian neighborhoods of the expanded city. A ring of Jewish settlements from Ramot in the north to Gilo in the south surrounds east Jerusalem. A road network was created that links the Jewish neighborhoods to each other and to west Jerusalem, leaving the Palestinian neighborhoods as disconnected islands. Israeli-Jewish Jerusalem experienced rapid development and modernization, while Palestinian Jerusalem has regressed into underdeveloped, depressed urban slums interspersed with spots of unplanned independent growth launched by private initiatives. There has been no urban planning and development-oriented growth for Palestinians in Jerusalem since 1967.

When an Israeli Jerusalemite and a Palestinian Jerusalemite describe their city, it is as if they are speaking about two different urban spaces. We all share common symbols such as the Old City or the Temple Mount, but we give them different names, and those symbols carry very different connotations. Jerusalem is the most segregated city in the world. There are no common places; every building is either Israeli or Palestinian, and Israelis and Palestinians do not live in the same space.

Palestinians have never recognized Israel's rights to east Jerusalem; they have never participated in the democratic process offered to them by the system we all inherited from the British, which enables noncitizen residents of a municipality to participate in municipal elections and run for office. Palestinians have boycotted those elections for 43 years.

AFTER THE first intifada and through the beginning of the Oslo process, Palestinians saw the development of their national institutions in Jerusalem, Orient House being the most significant. With the Oslo process, however, Jerusalem was cut off from the Palestinians as their economic and political center through the Law for the Implementation of the Oslo Agreement. Since Jerusalem is defined as a "permanent-status issue" to be negotiated, the Palestinians unsuspectingly agreed that their Palestinian Authority would not be able to function in east Jerusalem.

The law passed to enable the government to implement various aspects of the Oslo agreement was used cynically to close down Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, despite promises by Shimon Peres and despite Israeli obligations under the Road Map to reopen Palestinian institutions in east Jerusalem.

The law of unintended consequences has had two significant negative impacts on Jerusalem for Israel. The removal of the direct influence of the PA has created a power vacuum. Governmental, municipal and national institutions, including the police, do not sufficiently function in Palestinian Jerusalem.

As a result, others have filled the vacuum. The most prominent are Hamas and Hizb al-Tahrir – the party of liberation, a radical Islamic group. While the PA has done a remarkable job in the past two years of shrinking the influence of political Islamic groups in the West Bank, under Israel's (non)watch and (non)authority those groups are thriving in east Jerusalem.

Additionally, in constructing the separation wall in Jerusalem, which primarily separates Palestinians from Palestinians, more than 30,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites who left the city because of housing shortages have returned for fear that they might lose their residence rights.

TODAY, JERUSALEM is an unimportant, underdeveloped capital city of little international consequence. It is a city which falls way too short of its amazing potential. In many respects it is hardly a capital of an important country. At times it seems like a suburb of a city that doesn't even exist.

Yet Jerusalem's potential is bewildering. Jerusalem could be the most important place in the world in demonstrating that humanity could actually celebrate the diversity of three faiths that reside side by side and cherish it. The Muslim world will have guardianship over the Haram al-Sharif (the Temple Mount), while Jews will have guardianship over the Western Wall. Respecting the sanctity of the entire compound, we will all agree not to dig, tunnel, construct or damage what is on top or what is beneath.

Imagine that area E-1 – the controversial plan to develop a land bridge of Jewish homes between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim, cutting the West Bank in half – became the diplomatic quarter of Jerusalem, with embassies and diplomats' living quarters being developed. Jerusalem could be a city where some 200 nations have their embassies that serve two countries. Imagine the tens of thousands of internationals who would be making it their home. Imagine the potential of Jerusalem becoming a real city of peace, where tens of millions visit, where Jewish, Muslim and Christian pilgrims come to celebrate their faith. Imagine Jerusalem the recognized capital of the State of Israel.

This is all possible. Jerusalem will become the city of peace and the capital of the State of Israel, but only after it is also recognized as the capital of Palestine. Jerusalem's true unity will only come through its political division. Jerusalem, with two sovereigns, will be an open city demonstrating the human ability for creativity, ingenuity and the spirit of understanding, compassion and true sanctity.

The writer is the co-CEO of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (www.ipcri.org) and an elected member of the leadership of the Green Movement political party.

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

OUR WORLD: BARRELING ON, REGARDLESS

BY CAROLINE GLICK

 

 

If safeguarding international security is the chief aim of US President Barack Obama's foreign policy, then at some point he can be expected to change course in the Middle East. For today, Obama faces the wreckage of every aspect of his Middle East policies. And largely as a consequence of his policies, the region moves ever closer to war.

In Iraq, Obama's pledge to withdraw all combat forces from the country by the summer has emboldened the various forces vying for control of the country to set it ablaze once more.

In Afghanistan, Obama's surge and leave policy has left would-be US allies hedging their bets, at best. And it has caused the US's NATO partners to question the purpose of their deployment in that country.

Then there is Iran. Last week's report by The New York Times that this January Defense Secretary Robert Gates penned a memo to National Security Advisor James Jones warning that the Obama administration has no effective policy for dealing with Iran's nuclear weapons program exposed the bitter truth that in the face of the most acute foreign policy problem they face, Obama and his crew are out to lunch.

Gates's attempt to mitigate the story's impact by claiming that actually, the White House is weighing all its options only made things worse. Even before the ink on his correction note was dry, his Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy was telling reporters in Singapore that the military option, "is not on the table in the near term."

Iran for its part continues to escalate its menacing behavior. Last week its naval forces reportedly interdicted a French ship and an Italian ship navigating through the Straits of Hormuz.

President Shimon Peres's announcement last week that Syria has transferred Scud missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon was a sharp warning that Iran and its underlings are diligently preparing for war with Israel. It also demonstrated that the Obama administration's attempts to use diplomacy to coddle Syria away from Iran have failed completely.

Administration officials' statements in the wake of Peres's bombshell make clear that Syria's bellicose actions have not caused the US President to reconsider his failed policy. Obama's advisers responded to the news by irrelevantly boasting that their policy of "engagement" enabled them to bring the matter up with their Syrian interlocutors three times before Peres's announcement and once more after he made the statement.

AND THAT'S not nearly the end of it. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last week, soon the Obama administration will expand its dialogue with Syria by returning the US ambassador to Damascus for the first time since Syrian President Bashar Assad ordered the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri five years ago. That is, Obama has chosen to respond to Syria's open brinkmanship by rewarding Assad with newfound legitimacy and panache.

And that's still not the worst of it. What is worst is that Obama's advisers openly admit that they have no idea why Syria remains a rogue state despite their happy talk. As one administration official told Foreign Policy, understanding why Syria – Iran's Arab client state – is acting like Iran's Arab client state is, "the million dollar question." "We do not understand Syrian intentions. No one does, and until we get to that question we can never get to the root of the problem," the official told the magazine.

But while they wait for the Oracle at Damascus to decode itself, they are content to continue wooing Assad as he provokes war.

Then there are the Palestinians. After rejecting Obama's envoy George Mitchell's latest plea to conduct indirect negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas explained that Obama's own statements have convinced the Palestinians that there is nothing to negotiate about.

As he put it, "Since you, Mr. President, and you, the members of the American administration, believe in [the urgent need for a Palestinian state] it is your duty to call for the steps in order to reach the solution and impose the solution. Impose it. But don't tell me it's a vital national strategic American interest... and then not do anything."

Finally there is Israel. In the same week that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen refused to rule out the possibility that the US will shoot down Israeli jets en route to attack Iran's nuclear installations, and Obama again blamed Israel for the deaths of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jim Jones tried to reassure Jewish Democrats that despite the administration's hostile actions and statements, it is not hostile to Israel.

Jones's speech was part of a very public outreach plan the administration adopted last week in the face of a groundswell of American Jewish anger at Obama for his adversarial posture towards Israel. Given that American Jews have been the Democratic Party's most secure voting bloc since 1932, recent polls showing that the majority of American Jews oppose Obama's treatment of Israel are a political earthquake.

According to a Quinnipiac poll published last week, a whopping 67 percent of American Jews disapprove of Obama's handling of the situation between Israel and the Palestinians. A poll of American Jews taken by John McLaughlin earlier this month showed that a plurality of American Jews would consider voting for a candidate other than Obama in the next presidential elections.

And on Israel, American Jewish disapproval of Obama is fully consonant with the views of the general public. As the Quinnipiac poll shows, only 35 percent of Americans approve of his treatment of Israel.

Jones's speech before the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy was a friendly affair. He waxed on dreamily about how wonderful the US's alliance with Israel is and how much Obama values Israel. And the crowd rewarded him with a standing ovation.

But the substance of his speech made absolutely clear that while Obama and his advisors are concerned that for the first time in 80 years a significant number of American Jews may abandon the Democratic Party, they are unwilling to pay even the slightest substantive price to keep the Jews loyal to their party.

After he finished his declarations of love and his joke about crafty Jewish businessmen in Afghanistan, Jones made clear that the Obama administration continues to view Israel's refusal to surrender more land to the Palestinians as the key reason its efforts to convince Iran to give up its nuclear program, the Syrians to quit the Iranian axis, the Palestinians and the Lebanese to quit the terror racket and the Iraqis and the Afghans to behave like Americans have all failed.

As he put it, "One of the ways that Iran exerts influence in the Middle East is by exploiting the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. Iran uses the conflict to keep others in the region on the defensive and to try to limit its own isolation. Ending this conflict, achieving peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and establishing a sovereign Palestinian state would therefore take such an evocative issue away from Iran, Hizbullah, and Hamas."

JONES, OBAMA and the rest of their gang must have been asleep when the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and the rest of the Arabs told them that Iran is unrelated to the Palestinian issue and that it must be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons regardless of the status of Israeli-Palestinian relations. This after all has been the main message communicated to Obama and his advisers since January 2009 by every Sunni-majority state in the region as well as by many Iraqi Shiites.

They must have been at the golf course when their generals in Iraq and Afghanistan warned them about Iran providing weapons and training to irregular forces killing US servicemen.

The fact that even as he faced a Jewish audience, Jones couldn't resist the temptation to repeat the central fallacy at the root of the administration's failed policies in the Middle East makes clear that the Obama administration fundamentally does not care that the American people as a whole and the American Jewish community specifically oppose its policies. It will continue to push its policies in the face of that opposition no matter what. And if American Jews want to leave the party, well, they shouldn't slam the door on their way out.

 

The Obama administration's treatment of New York Senator Charles Schumer this week is case in point. Schumer has been one of Obama's most loyal supporters. If as expected Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid loses his reelection bid in November, Schumer is in line to replace him as the Democratic leader in the Senate.

Yet this week, responding to what has likely been an enormous outcry from his constituents, Schumer blasted Obama for his shabby and dangerous treatment of Israel. Rather than respond graciously to Schumer's criticism, Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed it sneeringly saying, "I don't think that it's a stretch to say we don't agree with what Senator Schumer said in those remarks."

In his interview last week with Channel 2, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he has no doubt that if Obama wishes to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons he is capable of doing so. As he put it, "Barack Obama demonstrated his determination with regard to issues he felt were important, and his determination was quite impressive. I think President Obama can show that same determination with regard to Iran."

No doubt Netanyahu is correct. Moreover, the politics of such a move would make sense for him. Whereas Obama's decision to ram the nationalization of the US healthcare industry through Congress against the wishes of the American public caused his personal ratings and those of his party to plummet, were Obama to decide to take on Iran, he would win the overwhelming support of the American public. Indeed, a determined and successful bid by Obama to block Iran's nuclear aspirations could potentially block what is currently looking like a midterm election catastrophe for his party in November.

But as Gates's memo about Iran, Clinton's announcement that the administration will go ahead with its plan to dispatch an ambassador to Damascus, Mitchell's latest failure with the Palestinians, Jones's newest accusation against Israel, and the US's strategic incoherence in Iraq and Afghanistan all show, mere politics are irrelevant to Obama. It doesn't bother him that his most loyal supporters abandoning him. It doesn't matter that his policies have endangered the Middle East and the world as a whole.

Obama's refusal to acknowledge his own failures make clear that his goal is different than that of his predecessors. He is here to transform America's place in the world, not to safeguard the world. And he will move ahead with his transformative change even if it means abetting war. He will push on with his transformative change even if it means that Iran becomes a nuclear power. And he will push on even if it means that US forces are forced to leave Afghanistan and Iraq in defeat.

caroline@carolineglick.com

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

HOT DATES BETTER THAN A BIG BONUS

BY DAVID BLANCHFLOWER

 

Money buys you reasonable amount of happiness, but maybe not as much as sex.

 

Money buys you a reasonable amount of happiness, but maybe not as much as sex.

Sure, those with higher incomes are healthier and happier than those with lower incomes. But for the typical individual, a doubling of salary makes a lot less difference than life events like marriage or unemployment. A hot date is likely to make you happier than a few thousand dollars extra in bonus. There really is some evidence in this.

A few years ago, my colleague Andrew Oswald and I found that to "compensate" for the loss in happiness of a major life event, such as being widowed or a marital separation, it would be necessary to provide the average individual with $100,000 in extra income a year, or more than double his income.

We can also use these data to calculate the money value of sex. On average, the amount of happiness bought by going from sex less than once a month to at least once a month is roughly equivalent to about $40,000 of annual income. Sex brings a lot of happiness, but diminishing returns from sex does set in after that. Some is a lot better than none.

IN THE most recent survey data from the General Social Survey, conducted in 2008 by the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago, the typical adult American reported having sexual intercourse two to three times a month (among people younger than 40, the median amount of sex is once a week).

About 6 percent of the population reported having sex at least four times a week. Forty percent of American women older than 40 say they didn't have sexual intercourse in the previous year. The figure for men is 21%. These celibate folks are especially unhappy.

There is evidence that sex has disproportionately strong effects on the happiness of highly educated people. Highly educated females have fewer sexual partners. The number of sex partners men have is uncorrelated with their level of education. Money buys neither more sexual partners nor more sex for men or women. People with one sex partner over the preceding year are happier than those with multiple partners.

Even with the iPad, the Blackberry and portable GPS devices that tell you how long your shot is to the flag, Americans are no happier today than they were in the 1970s. We know this from the answers to questions posed in the General Social Survey.

Respondents are asked "taken all together, how would you say things are these days – would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?"

In 1972, 30% of respondents said they were "very happy." When the question was asked in the 2008 survey, 30% of respondents also said they were "very happy." The obvious concern is that such qualitative responses tell you little or nothing about an individual's level of well-being. It does seem, though, that they do say something. There is a large body of evidence now that shows these reports are strongly correlated with objective characteristics such as unemployment and ill health, as well as assessments of the person's happiness by friends, family members and spouses.

Happy people have a lower risk of coronary heart disease and lower blood pressure; they even heal faster from injuries. Happy people are demonstrably different from less happy people on skin-resistance measures of response to stress and electroencephalogram measures of prefrontal brain activity.

Interestingly, in these surveys women report having higher levels of happiness than men, but the gap has narrowed sharply over time. Women's happiness has fallen while men's has barely changed.

A similar story is found in the health data where women are now more subject to stress-related illnesses related to work than they were in the past. Hence, the feminist movement has made women more equal, but less happy.

Harvard University's Erzo Luttmer has shown that an increase of 10%, say, in neighbors' earnings, or a 10% decrease in one's own income, have roughly the same negative effect on well-being. My happiness rises if I get a new BMW but doesn't if my neighbors also get one. Here, neighborhood should be thought of broadly as any relevant comparator group, including colleagues and friends.

A couple of hot dates will probably do more for your sense of well-being than a higher bonus. Money isn't everything. Go and raise your happiness. Do it for the good of the country. – Bloomberg News

The writer, a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, is professor of economics at Dartmouth College and the University of Stirling.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

UNCHARTERED WATERS

BY RICHARD MILLET

 

With less than two weeks to go to the British general election, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being used to manipulate the electorate in some crucial voting districts containing disproportionately high Jewish or Muslim populations.

Even before the announcement of the May 6 election, the rhetoric had been vicious. Accusations of "Jewish" political financing and Israel pulling the strings behind Britain's electoral scenes have been hitting the headlines.

Martin Linton, a Labor MP, recently gave a talk in Parliament to the Friends of Al-Aksa and spoke of Israel's "long tentacles" that fund British election campaigns and which are trying to buy a Conservative victory in this one. Linton said that he failed to appreciate the Nazi-era symbolism of the Jewish octopus controlling the world with its long tentacles and apologized, but he stands by his thesis of "Israelis and pro-Israelis trying to buy a Conservative victory."

At the same meeting Gerald Kaufman, a Jewish Labor MP, spoke of Lord Ashcroft owning one part of the Conservative Party and right-wing Jewish millionaires owning the other part.

These are, of course, unfounded and defamatory accusations that paint many British Jews as being more loyal to Israel than to Britain. Labor has deselected neither Linton nor Kaufman.

Such alleged funding has not, so far, proved a good investment, however, with David Cameron, the Conservative leader, recently making reference to "occupied east Jerusalem."

Until very recently, the third party, the Liberal Democrats, were only in the late teens in the opinion polls and their leader, Nick Clegg, was relatively unknown, but British politics has been turned on its head over the past 11 days since our first televised leaders' debate.

 

Clegg's poll ratings have now soared into the low 30s, putting his party on par with the Conservatives, who just days ago were favorites to win an outright majority, and ahead of Labor, which has governed since 1997.

The Liberal Democrats will still come way back in third place on May 6 but could increase their intake of MPs substantially, making them the kingmakers courted by Labor and the Conservatives.

This likelihood of a hung Parliament could bring with it the electoral reform that the Liberal Democrats might demand for supporting Labor. Traditional Conservative and Labor domination of British politics will end should proportional representation take over.

IRONICALLY, IT was David Cameron who challenged Gordon Brown to televised debates, but it is Clegg who has outperformed. The last of the three debates will be broadcast this Thursday.

These unchartered waters in British politics should concern Israel. Clegg has already called for a ban on the sale of arms to Israel and his party contains many vociferously anti-Israel politicians, including Sir Menzies Campbell, Sarah Teather, Chris Davies and Baroness Jenny Tonge.

A hung Parliament could result in Clegg as deputy prime minister, or another Liberal Democrat as foreign secretary, in return for their supporting either Labor or the Conservatives should neither win an outright majority on May 6. Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat shadow foreign secretary, is chairman of the Liberal Democrats Friends of Palestine.

ON THE ground, the Liberal Democrats' approach to Israel often depends on the ethnic or religious makeup of voters in a particular voting district. Take two neighboring voting districts in London.

Holborn and St. Pancras has a disproportionately high Bangladeshi community and the leaflets of the Liberal Democrat candidate scream "Stop Arming Israel." My father received a polite, hand-delivered, letter from her that didn't mention this, but that might be because he has a mezuza on his door.

Hampstead and Kilburn is more disproportionately Jewish and so the leaflets are more pro-Israel with pictures of the Liberal Democrat candidate's recent visit to Israel, Hebrew writing included.

Then there is the Muslim Public Affairs Committee. MPAC's Web site asks "is your MP a Zionist?" and then goes on to list 36 MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates that it deems "Zionist." The main qualification is being affiliated to a Friends of Israel group of one of the three main political parties.

In 2005 Lorna Fitzsimons, now head of British Israel Communications and Research Center, lost her seat as a Labor MP due to MPAC. The 2006 Report of the All Parliamentary Committee into Anti-Semitism found that MPAC, to help unseat Fitzsimons, distributed leaflets stating "she had done nothing to help the Palestinians because she was a Jewish member of the Labor Friends of Israel."

Fitzsimons is not Jewish. Sadly, in the current campaign, death threats against some "Zionist" candidates have already been reported.

With election day almost here, Jewish and Muslim voters can expect their sensitivities to be unashamedly manipulated right up to the ballot box to propel a political candidate into Parliament, or to reduce his chances.

The writer is a London-based freelance journalist, studying for a master's degree in Near and Middle Eastern studies at SOAS. He blogs at  www.richardmillett.wordpress.com.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM OF APARTHEID?

BY SAMER LIBDEH

The rise of radical tribal-based nationalism is leading to increased provocative measures being taken against neighboring countries as well as citizens from other ethnic backgrounds.

 

In its recently published survey, Freedom House concluded that Jordan is not a "free" country. This startling finding raises serious doubts over the Hashemite regime's commitment to modernize and build a moderate, peaceful and democratic society.

Jordan is in the midst of a full-scale political and economic crisis due to the King Abdullah II's inability or unwillingness to build a modern democratic system. Indeed, contrary to the king's public pronouncements regarding his commitment to political and economic reform, it is clear that the Hashemite regime's long-term strategy is to acquire permanent status as an "emerging democracy," without the need to actually deliver on its public commitments for political reform.

In spite of the $6 billion in economic aid that Jordan has received from the US since 1991, the Hashemite regime has been unable to transform the fortunes of the ailing Jordanian economy. Indeed in 2010, Jordan's deficit doubled to 9 percent of gross domestic product and led to a steep rise in public debt to a staggering $13 billion, or 60% of GDP. Due to the failure and obvious shortcomings of the government's economic reform program, the king feared that Jordanian nationalists would try to capitalize on widespread public frustration and discontent by applying increased pressure on his fragile regime. In 2009, he dissolved parliament in a thinly disguised attempt to quash any political opposition to his regime.

TRADITIONALLY, JORDANIAN tribes have supported the Hashemite regime, as long as they have benefited from economic patronage from the state. However, when this economic support was subsequently withdrawn – due to the mismanagement of the economy, the tribes considered this a breach of the unwritten agreement it had in place with the state. Consequently, the king has sought to counter this potential conflict with the tribes by maintaining "ethnic cohesion" inside the security/military establishment. This has had the added benefit of enabling the regime to collaborate with the US Army in training troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and, most recently, in Yemen. It has also allowed the regime to secure US military aid.

As a consequence of the above policy, the king has failed to integrate the urban Palestinian-Jordanian majority into the security/military structure. Instead, the king has adopted his grandfather's 1920s policy by appointing Bani Sakher as the major tribe in control of Jordan's security affairs. The heads of military, public security as well as the minister of interior now belong to a single tribe that fought other tribes on behalf of the Hashemites before the creation of the Arab Legion.

This policy has exacerbated ethnic tension within the kingdom, and the adoption of a policy of apartheid, clearly demonstrated by the withdrawal of the Jordanian citizenship of more than 2,700 Palestinian-Jordanian citizens. This clearly creates additional challenges for any potential resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and signals a willingness by the Jordanian nationalists to adopt hostile measures against Palestinians and Israelis.

The lack of ethnic diversity in the security establishment has raised concerns that the king may be losing legitimacy in Jordan. Accordingly, the Hashemites are reestablishing kinship ties as a way to preserve his influence in security-related decisions.

But this policy has also put the lives of Jordanians, Americans and even Afghanis at risk. The Khost attack on seven CIA officers last January in Afghanistan was the direct result of the misguided appointment of Prince Ali bin Zeid as the Jordanian case officer, who seemingly failed to convince the Jordanian al-Qaida bomber to cooperate with Jordanian intelligence.

Due to the obvious differences in their social, economic, cultural and ethnic background, the prince was unable to establish and build a relationship of trust with the Jordanian bomber, which would lead to a successful operation. Apparently, the royal family was hungry for a historical victory against al-Qaida, and perhaps huge financial rewards from the US.

AS TRIBALISM flourishes, freedom within Jordanian society will gradually erode. This has led to a weakening of state control that has already resulted in chaos and anarchy erupting in major rural towns. Almost five citizens are killed in Jordan on a weekly basis as a consequence of tribal clashes. The security forces have been unable to maintain order; fortunately, local sheikhs have stepped in to prevent further disturbances.

This is a further example of a weakened state, unable to control actors or impose the rule of law within its own borders – returning back to the Transjordanian norms that characterized the society prior to the establishment of the kingdom. Consequently, the tribes are becoming an increasingly important and active force within the state, which has been greatly assisted with the widespread availability of weapons to citizens.

 

Jordan's domestic policies are inconsistent with what is needed to achieve regional stability – vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict. Apparently, the effect of rising tribal-based nationalism is that it is eating into the cohesive force of citizenship and its institutional manifestations. Accompanied by the weakening structure of the state, the emergence of violent non-state actors is becoming evident. The rise of radical Transjordanian nationalism is leading to increased provocative measures being taken against, and engendering hostility toward, neighboring countries – as well as Jordanian citizens from other ethnic backgrounds.

Perhaps it is time for the international community to revise its policies toward the kingdom – taking into consideration its recent adoption of a policy of apartheid and the lack of political and economic reform within the kingdom.

The writer is a policy analyst and senior fellow at the Center for Liberty in the Middle East.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE RECYCLING REVOLUTION

 

Israel still lags behind Europe and North America in every facet of waste management. Instead of recycling waste or using it to produce energy, Israel deals with its garbage mainly by burying it, thereby both squandering its land reserves and creating environmental hazards. But the cabinet's decision on Sunday to endorse a package recycling bill, drafted by the Environmental Protection Ministry, could generate a substantial improvement in Israel's quality of life.

According to the bill, package manufacturers would be obliged to send packaging waste to recycling. The recycling rate is slated to reach 60 percent within four years, thus preventing the burial of a sizable portion of this waste. Since the manufacturers have already agreed to the legislation in principle, it has a good chance of being passed swiftly by the Knesset.

Implementing the packaging law is but the first step toward a comprehensive waste management policy. The second step, also being promoted by the Environmental Protection Ministry, is to create a waste-collection system that enables every household to sort its waste into dry (cardboard, paper and plastic) and wet (mainly food leftovers) and place them in separate bins. This will provide the recycling industry with better-quality raw material.

 

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The cabinet's support for the bill will also presumably entail organizational and budgetary aid for the recycling system. Among other things, this means allocating money from a "clean fund" managed by the Environmental Protection Ministry to set up facilities for sorting, recycling and producing energy from waste. Today, this fund is financed by a tax collected at landfills, with the goal of making waste recycling more worthwhile.

The cabinet must ensure that the recycling legislation it is promoting indeed makes manufacturers responsible for collecting, transporting and disposing of the waste.

It will thereby avoid repeating the mistake made in the bottle deposit law, which enabled manufacturers to set up an independent corporation. This exempted them from direct responsibility and made it difficult to meet recycling targets.

The public also bears a weighty responsibility. To help create a clean environment, people must invest effort in sorting their waste. The state can ensure the accessibility of bins and sorting facilities, but every household will have to practice environmental responsibility to ensure the cleanliness of public spaces and a real improvement in our quality of life.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

HIT THE RICH AND SAVE THE ECONOMY

BY NEHEMIA SHTRASLER

 

There's no argument that all limits have been breached and greed has overcome top executives. No one can deny that a monthly salary of one million shekels is insane and unjustified. Nobody is worth NIS 33,000 a day.

Neither can there be any argument that this reality must be changed, because it reflects a manifest breakdown of the market. A truly competitive market would never reach sums like this. Perhaps there is an executive, or even two, who merit this kind of excessive wage, but we don't have dozens of such geniuses, and certainly not hundreds.

Inflated salaries at the top have a disastrous social effect. When gaps in earnings are so vast, society is torn apart and its potency is diminished - and the motivation to work sinks. It's hard to see the CEO making in one month what a manual laborer earns in ten years. All of this, however, does not mean that the bill proposed by Knesset members Shelly Yachimovich and Haim Katz is worthy of support. It is a particularly bad bill, pure populism, and could cause severe damage to the economy.

 

There isn't another country in the world, except North Korea and Cuba, that puts a cap on salaries, and there's a good reason for this; even though many other countries have a similar problem of executives taking home enormous salaries, they don't have legislators dragging the level of public discourse to so low a level just to get their names into the headlines. Across the entire globe, there is nobody who can determine exactly what a CEO should earn. Why should the maximal salary be precisely 50 times the minimum? Perhaps it should be 10 times greater, or 100 times? In the Soviet Union they did know what everyone should earn - in the end everyone was dirt poor, unless they were Communist Party members, and the method that Yachimovich favors collapsed.

The moment a CEO's salary is set by politicians we will no longer be able to compete and improve. Company owners won't be able to attract a successful CEO from another company - after all, he's already earning the maximum, say NIS 200,000 a month. What will the proprietors of a small bank do if they want to lure the CEO of a bigger bank? And how will the emigration of top executives be prevented?

Nevertheless, something can be done about the problem. First it must be understood that gigantic wage packets were the method invented by owners of controlling shares in public corporations who wanted to rob the other shareholders. They made themselves chairmen of the board, and so that they could take millions for themselves, they had to pay similar sums to their salaried CEO's. That is how the norm of crazy salaries at the top evolved.

Therefore, the Securities Authority should bar controlling shareholders in public companies from taking more than nominal sums as salaries. Inflated salaries come at the expense of distribution of a fair dividend to shareholders.

The second stage in solving the problem is to build up independent and courageous boards of directors in public companies, comprised of people who do not depend on the controlling shareholders. The appointment of associates, relatives, buddies or just cowards should be prohibited, and only gutsy professionals who are capable of standing up to the owners should be allowed to serve on boards. Because if they do not do their job properly and divide up millions any which way, the law should make it possible to sue them for negligence and they would have to compensate shareholders out of their own pockets.

Another problem in the executive earnings sphere is the annual bonus, which often leads to the taking of enormous risks. This is because a bonus paid in a good year (2007, for example) does not become a fine in a bad year (like, say, 2009). The bonus system must therefore be altered, and based on long-term results.

The problem of inflated salaries also springs from the excessive power enjoyed by the 20 families that control the big conglomerates. Their potency in the marketplace is huge, so they can pay huge salaries without sustaining too much damage to their profits. They should be dealt with by the method already practiced in the United States: enabling shareholders to vote by mail at general meetings, taxing dividends that subsidiaries pay their parent companies and a ban on the setting off of profits between component companies within conglomerates.

That way, it won't be worthwhile any longer to hang on to conglomerates. They will gradually fade away, economic power will be decentralized and salaries will subside to a normal level.

There are things that can and should be done. There are solutions. But Yachimovich and Katz are not looking for genuine solutions. They are looking for headlines, of which they have already received a great deal.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

UNDERMINING DETERRENCE

BY REUVEN PEDATZUR

The defense establishment has missed a chance to abandon a mistaken home front defense policy dating from the eve of the first Gulf War and adopt a different, saner one. In October 1990, on the eve of America's assault on Iraq, a special ministerial committee decided to distribute gas masks to every resident of the country. The decision was the result of a vicious circle that began with a series of frightening scenarios painted by the leaders of the defense establishment, with the energetic encouragement of then foreign minister David Levy. The frightened public responded with pressure of its own, and this led to the decision to distribute gas masks in an effort to calm it.

This was a mistake, because the signal it sent to Saddam Hussein was that Israel had relinquished one of the central elements of its defense doctrine: deterrence.

Even though Syria and Egypt have had chemical weapons since the 1970s, successive governments decided, and rightly, not to distribute gas masks to civilians. Instead, they based their policy against this threat on the credibility of Israeli deterrence. And it worked. Even when the Egyptian and Syrian armies found themselves in very difficult situations during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, their leaders refrained from using chemical weapons, fearing a harsh Israeli response. And it was a mistake to assume two decades ago that Saddam would behave differently.

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The gas masks were distributed, and Saddam Hussein, as expected, was afraid to use missiles with chemical warheads. But Israel's deterrence was undermined. Later, when Saddam's son-in-law, General Ali, defected to Jordan, he was asked why the Iraqis did not use chemical weapons against Israel. The officer responsible for Iraq's chemical arsenal said that they were worried about a nuclear response from Israel.

Nevertheless, the lesson was not learned: In 2003, on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq, the Israel Defense Forces ordered civilians to prepare their gas masks for use in case of a chemical weapons attack - an order that cost the taxpayers NIS 1 billion.

Three years ago, a decision was made to collect the gas masks from Israeli homes in order to refurbish them. That was an opportunity to adopt a different policy and revert to basing our defensive doctrine against the threat of chemical attack on deterrence.

Instead, the government again decided to distribute gas masks to every Israeli. Not only was the distribution slated to take over three years and cost more than NIS 1 billion, but it was nonsensical to begin with - because the relevant chemical threat comes from the missiles in Syria's arsenal, and in the future, perhaps also from rockets held by Hezbollah.

Against Syria, experience shows that Israel's deterrence is sufficient: It is doubtful that the Syrians would dare make use of chemical weapons, as they know Israel's response would exact a heavy price.

Deterrence would also presumably work against Hezbollah should that organization acquire chemical weapons. Hezbollah realizes that Israel's response to a chemical attack would be to raze of all of Lebanon's infrastructure and strike strategic targets throughout the country, and not only those linked to Hezbollah. In view of Hezbollah's aims, and its role in Lebanon's political system, its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, cannot allow himself to bring about Lebanon's destruction. While the group may fire rockets with conventional warheads, against these, gas masks are useless anyway.

In any event, the presence of gas masks at home will not help if the home front suffers a surprise attack, since anyone who is caught outside his home will not be able to return to put on the mask. The flight time of rockets from Lebanon to northern Israel is too short. And it cannot be assumed that henceforth, every Israeli will go everywhere, all the time, with a gas mask in hand.

Therefore, it would be more appropriate to store the gas masks in central storage facilities and distribute them to the population only if the regional situation changes drastically and it becomes clear that deterrence does not provide a sufficient response. That is not the case at this time, nor does this seem likely to change in the foreseeable future. This also goes for Iran, where it is doubtful that the leadership would risk a decisive Israeli response.

But when politicians are incapable of demonstrating responsibility and civic courage, preferring instead to make populist decisions, what are a few billion shekels and damage to the credibility of our deterrence? And anyway, what would the Home Front Command do if it did not supervise and manage the distribution of gas masks?

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

GAZA IS THE FUEL FOR MUSLIM WORLD'S ANTI-ISRAEL STRUGGLE

BY HAGGAI ALON

 

The events of the past few days have created two illusions. One is that Israel and the United States are equal; the other is that the problem is Jerusalem. These illusions are dangerous for Israel, in that they create a dangerous diplomatic perception and self-image.

The United States is a superpower; it is doubtful whether Israel is even a regional power. And the problem is not Jerusalem, or even the holy places, but Gaza. Finally, it is in Israel's best interest that the Quartet's decision to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state within two years not be implemented unilaterally.

Gaza is Israel's big problem. Because of the political, security and civic failure of the disengagement, the road to a solution of the problem of Gaza runs through Ramallah and Jerusalem. In Ramallah, it is in the hands of one man - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But Benjamin Netanyahu's government refuses to accept that fact. So Abbas is preparing a surprise for it in the form of a "no-partner" declaration.

 

American bayonets will not bring Abbas back to Gaza, and the Israel Defense Forces certainly will not. He will resume ruling in Gaza - just as he proved, to the chagrin of many in the defense establishment, that he could in the West Bank - on the shoulders of the Arab world, and perhaps also of a joint NATO-Arab force. Such a force would first establish itself in the West Bank, after the IDF evacuates that territory, and at the border crossings with Jordan in the Jordan Valley.

In this way, without negotiation and without the need to explain why there are no negotiations, Abbas could dispel the charges that he is a "pet Palestinian" and get around his domestic problem with his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

Gaza is the fuel for the anti-Israel struggle. It is the symbol of that struggle throughout the Arab and Muslim world, even among those who live in Western countries. And it is up to us to uproot the anti-Israel cells the flourish there. Gaza's hunger is the fuel of the struggle. We must dry up this fuel. It is not a tool for getting Gilad Shalit back, or for toppling Hamas.

Perhaps we acted like a responsible power in Haiti, and we deserve praise for that. But in the Middle East, it would be best for us to simply behave as a responsible country. For its own security, and to protect its own interests, Israel must seek negotiations that will deal with the issues of borders and security as a single unit, with the involvement of a multilateral Arab military force and with major involvement by NATO.

Not so long ago, such a formula would have drawn disparagement from the security establishment and even accusations of "internationalizing" the conflict - that is, forfeiting Israel's security. When senior reserve officers raised the idea of such a force as part of a solution to the problem of Gaza's northern border, both during the serious clashes that preceded the disengagement and thereafter, they received chilly telephone calls from "the establishment." Meanwhile, the American force in Sinai was ignored, as was the high quality of the UN force on the Syrian border, and the fact that while the IDF is not satisfied with UNIFIL's performance in Lebanon in the wake of UN Resolution 1701, no one has come up with a better solution.

The defense establishment is beginning to understand that it is better to redeploy. We need the world, including the Arab world. Several think tanks are thoroughly studying the insertion of a force of this type.

The road to the Arab world will require Israel to treat itself like a country that is not a world power and not one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, but rather a regional or a local power. It was that road that led to Israel's previous victories. We must not give it up. We are getting closer to a situation in which if we do not act, Abbas will invoke his no-partner thesis.

The writer was a political adviser in the Defense Ministry, responsible for the Palestinians' "fabric of life"

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

THE SECULAR STATE

BY BENNY PERL

 

Believing and observant Jews harbor a question about God: Why did the Lord of the Universe redeem his own people through a secular state. Wouldn't it be better to have a little more Yiddishkeit around here? It is a difficult question. But affairs such as Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and his bones, or the discrimination against Sephardi girls at a school in Immanuel, provide a good answer. After all, even the strictest Haredim occasionally raise an eyebrow and ask, what's going on here?

It must be stated, clearly and simply: The system of halakhic ruling and spiritual leadership, that was designed to provide a solution for isolated communities, must undergo a deep, prolonged process to render it capable of both fully preserving its identity and providing answers within a broad framework of government.

This is about more than esoteric problems such as ancient graves or segregation in a school system. It is about the management of the country's values. A good example can be found in "The Status of Minorities in the Jewish State: Halakhic Aspects," a position paper by Eliezer Hadad published recently by the Israel Democracy Institute. This enlightening work surveys references by halakhic scholars to minorities living in the Jewish state.

 

Notwithstanding Hadad's consolatory summary, anyone who looks at the range of opinions and the nature of the deliberations can only be thankful that the state is still secular. I write this with great sorrow, because to me halakha is the essence of Jewish existence. But were the secular rein to slacken and the debate be based only on the scriptural sources, as is the norm for the interpretation of Jewish law, we would very quickly be doing ourselves much of the evils that our enemies did to us. The Jewish state would thus become a horrifying historical joke. All of our past claims of discrimination, humiliation, inequality and racism would become the claims of the minorities who live among us.

A few halakhic adjudicators take the path of cleaving to the simple meaning of the written word, ignoring the fact that halakha is supposed to define reality, to give meaning to the concrete issues before us. This path, when combined with a nationalist or political outlook, could lead rabbis into a serious discussion of whether it is permissible to kill a gentile. These rabbis overlook the fact that there are also halakhic rulings permitting the killing of nonobservant Jews or the beating of women for failing to wash their husbands' feet.

No rabbinic authority would rule, as did the Rambam (Moses Maimonides), that it is permissible to kill someone for being secular. But when it comes to minorities they seize on the most simplistic interpretation of halakha as if it were precious treasure, finding more than ample support for very odd and violent viewpoints.

I presented this argument for the necessity of a secular governmental mechanism to a Haredi man. Why beat around the bush, he responded, it is simply a good thing that they didn't give us the state. Would you want the hole state to look like Bnei Brak?

But he was wrong, the problem is not one of sanitation and town planning, the main problem has to do with the attitude toward fixing society. While the sages of the Talmud paid a great deal of attention to rules aimed at fostering social harmony and repairing the world, today's halakha is slow and cautious. Feminist ideas, critical theories, philosophies of liberty and equality, human rights - they are reality. Do the great rabbinical authorities seek to ignore it, or to relate to it?

They are not wrong to be cautious, but for now it's a good thing that the Knesset is not discussing whether members of minorities can be killed; it's a good thing that we have a secular state.

Rabbi Benny Perl is head of the Bar-Ilan Arts and Sciences Yeshiva High School in Tel Aviv and a member of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel board of directors.

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******************************************************************************************THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

VIEW OF THE SUN

 

There has always been something miraculous about transmissions from space — those thin datastreams trickling toward Earth from research spacecraft. Over the years, the transmissions have grown more and more robust, richer in information, giving us dazzling and detailed panoramas of Saturn's moons and rings and the surface of Mars. But there has never really been anything like the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Launched in mid-February, it is shipping a torrent of data our way from its orbit above the Sun.

 

Last week, the Goddard Space Flight Center took the craft online, releasing the first videos and still images it shot. The quality of these images is extraordinary, 10 times the resolution of high-definition television, according to NASA.

 

We have seen the surface of the Sun before, but never with this clarity. Every 10 seconds, the satellite

photographs the solar disk in eight different wavelengths, and what emerges — even in these earliest images — is both stirring and disorienting. The Sun is the most constant object in our lives, but what we see in these videos is a livid, roiling star, mottled and seething on every wavelength. It is a thing of intense, disturbing beauty.

 

The Solar Dynamics Observatory follows on the work of other important solar projects, including the Solar and

Heliographic Observatory and the twin satellites of the project known as Stereo, for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, which has its own iPhone app. For the next five years and more, this new satellite will be studying the patterns of solar energy that affect life on Earth, like the solar storm that lit up the aurora borealis in the past few weeks and can disrupt navigation and communications. And, in a sense, it creates a new solar effect, which is the ability of humans to peer directly into the most familiar of stars and realize how alien it is.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

LISTEN TO THE FAMILIES

 

There are two tragic anniversaries this month. It is 11 years since two Colorado students gunned down 12 of their fellow classmates and one teacher at Columbine High School and three years since 32 students and faculty members were gunned down at Virginia Tech.

 

Those horrors haven't slowed the gun lobby's relentless push to weaken the nation's already far too weak gun laws — or Congress's eagerness to do the gun lobby's bidding. Last week, House Democrats had to pull back legislation that would have finally given the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress because of amendments tacked on to the bill that would have gutted local gun laws.

 

The only bright spot in all of this is that gun victims' families and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a bipartisan group co-led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, are fighting back. They have begun a campaign to get Congress to close the loophole that has allowed criminals, troubled teens and the mentally ill to evade federal background checks and purchase weapons from unlicensed private dealers at weekend gun shows.

 

The Columbine shooters used four high-powered weapons obtained by a friend, no questions asked, from "hobbyist" gun-show dealers. These shows are a leading source of illegally trafficked guns — a large number of guns recovered in crimes come from states that do not require background checks at gun shows.

 

Senators Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Dianne Feinstein of California, all Democrats, have introduced a bill that would close the loophole nationally. It now has 17 sponsors. Shamefully missing from the list are Senator Mark Udall of Colorado and Senators James Webb and Mark Warner of Virginia.

 

In a newspaper ad last week, Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was murdered at Columbine, called on Senator Udall to sponsor the legislation. Relatives of victims and a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre took out their own ad.

 

"Every day in the United States, 35 people are murdered with guns — that's a Virginia Tech-sized massacre every single day," they wrote in an open letter to the two senators from Virginia. "We have seen firsthand the incredible toll that gaps in the federal background check system have on public safety, and we live with the personal toll every single day of our lives."

 

The mayors' group also ran TV ads last week, pressing the three senators, and several others, to support the bill. In the House, meanwhile, three Virginia representatives have circulated a letter seeking co-sponsors for their pending Gun Show Loophole Closing Act.

 

Before any more tragedies happen, lawmakers need to stop listening to the gun lobby and start listening to their constituents. Mr. Udall? Mr. Warner? Mr. Webb?

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

TRIBAL GENES AND A FAIR SETTLEMENT

 

A bitter seven-year legal struggle between an impoverished Indian tribe and scientists at Arizona State University reached a reasonable settlement when the university's regents agreed to pay $700,000 and to collaborate on other forms of assistance dealing with health, education and economic development. Left unresolved was the underlying question of how scientists can best obtain "informed consent" from patients whose education and command of English may be limited.

 

As described by Amy Harmon in recent Times articles, the struggle pitted a tiny tribe living deep inside the Grand Canyon, the Havasupai Indians, against Arizona State researchers who started drawing blood samples for genetic studies two decades ago. The researchers had been asked to help the Indians cope with a devastatingly high rate of diabetes that led to amputations and forced many Indians to leave the canyon for dialysis.

 

The researchers did look for gene variants that might cause diabetes, but also for genes linked to other conditions as well. The Indians, who stumbled onto this research years later, took offense at studies of schizophrenia and inbreeding, which they thought cast a bad light on the tribe. They also deplored research suggesting that their tribe's ancestors had come to North America from Asia and had not originated in the Grand Canyon as their traditional myths contended.

 

Members of the tribe say they thought the research was aimed solely at diabetes, but the scientists clearly had broader goals in mind from the start, including research on schizophrenia. More than 200 tribal members signed a consent form stating that their blood could be used to "study the causes of behavioral/medical disorders." That seems broad enough to cover almost all of the studies undertaken — except the analysis of the tribe's migration route from Asia to this continent.

 

In settling the case, after spending $1.7 million fighting it, the university's regents said they had "long wanted to remedy the wrong that was done." For the future, it seems important that scientists make certain that any consent is truly informed and that they describe any research likely to offend the donors with great clarity, not bury it in vague language like "behavioral/medical disorders." No scientists can foresee all the research pathways that might open up over a span of years, but if they keep the donors reasonably informed they can probably head off bitterness and litigation.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

A DANGEROUS SQUABBLE

 

Among the Senate's most important tasks this year are fashioning a rational, humane immigration policy and a rational, comprehensive energy policy to address climate change and oil dependency. Unless Lindsey Graham and Harry Reid can patch up a needless feud, the Senate could end up doing neither. That would be a terrible outcome, since nobody knows what the appetite for either task will be after the November elections.

 

A rapprochement may require White House intervention. Late last week, Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader,

hinted that he might bring up immigration reform before an energy bill. Mr. Graham went ballistic.

 

The South Carolina Republican has been working on a bipartisan energy bill for months, and had been led to believe by the White House that it had priority. He also supports immigration reform, but angrily charged that

putting it first was nothing more than a "cynical political ploy" to help Mr. Reid win Hispanic votes in his home state of Nevada.

 

Mr. Reid fired back, insinuating that Mr. Graham was abandoning the energy bill under pressure from the Republican leadership. (He's gotten heat in his home state for supporting both bills and having them sidetracked would, by the way, lower the temperature.)

 

Trading insults gets the country nowhere. The energy bill is vital. But Congress must respond to Arizona's xenophobic new law, which threatens to turn legal immigrants, even citizens, into targets of the police for merely looking Hispanic.

 

Mr. Reid knows that Washington's failure to enact national immigration reform has left the country open to that kind of mischief. So he must deal with that as well as other complex issues like energy, financial reform and a new Supreme Court vacancy.

 

Mr. Graham is feeling a bit fragile. Virtually alone among Republicans, he has worked not only for climate

change legislation but for immigration reform, and has helped the White House on other issues as well; he was

also the only Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to support Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. For his pains, he has suffered a steady hammering from the Republican leadership and conservative voters.

 

Truth is, Mr. Reid and Mr. Graham need each other. And there is no reason this has to be a zero-sum game.

 

The energy bill so laboriously drafted by Mr. Graham and Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman is ready to be presented to the relevant committees. Indeed, it was to have been unveiled on Monday until Mr. Graham pulled out. Immigration reform is not that far along, but aides to Mr. Graham and Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, are said to be toiling away on a draft.

 

What's important now is to get both back on track. The time left until people run back home to campaign for re-election is dwindling fast

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

MEET THE REAL VILLAIN OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

BY BETHANY MCLEAN

 

TODAY, we will have the pleasure of watching outraged members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations fire questions at a half-dozen executives from Goldman Sachs. The firm first attracted anger for its return to making billions, and paying its employees millions, right after the financial crisis. And since the Securities and Exchange Commission this month charged Goldman with fraud over an investment tied to subprime mortgages, politicians have turned the firm into the arch-villain of the economic collapse.

 

But the transaction at the heart of the S.E.C.'s complaint is a microcosm of the entire credit crisis. That is, there are no good guys here. It's dishonest and ultimately dangerous to pretend that Goldman is the only bad actor. And the worst actor of all is the one leading the charge against Goldman: our government.

 

Each of the supposed victims here was, at best, a willing accomplice. Let's start with those who bet that the investment in question, Abacus 2007-AC1, would be profitable for them: a bond insurer called ACA Capital Holdings and a German bank named IKB Deutsche Industriebank. These companies allegedly didn't know that Goldman, in exchange for $15 million in fees, had allowed a client, the hedge fund manager John Paulson, to help design the investment in order to improve the odds that it would fail.

 

But there was nothing hindering ACA's ability to see that mortgages sold to people who probably couldn't pay weren't great investments. Meanwhile, the company's insurance arm was covering as many subprime mortgages as it could to increase its own short-term profits. In some ways, the ACA story is the A.I.G. story: The company thought it had found free money — and basically bankrupted itself.

 

Similarly, the German bank advertised itself as a sophisticated investor, but didn't seem to have bothered to analyze the subprime-backed bonds it was buying. The bank just relied on the AAA rating and, not surprisingly, pretty much bankrupted itself, too.

 

Which brings us to the rating agencies that stamped over 75 percent of Goldman's Abacus securities with that AAA rating, meaning the securities were supposed to be as safe as United States Treasury bonds. They did the same to billions of dollars worth of equally appalling securities backed by subprime mortgages at other firms. Without the cravenness of the rating agencies, there would have been no Abacus, and no subprime mortgage crisis.

 

None of this excuses Goldman. Whether the transaction was legal or not, there's a difference between what's legal and what's right. Goldman, where I worked at a junior level from 1992 to 1995, has always held itself up as a firm that adheres to a higher standard. "Integrity and honesty are at the heart of our business" is one of Goldman's 14 principles. There is no way to square this principle with the accusation that Goldman did not tell a customer who didn't want to lose money — the very definition of a buyer of AAA-rated securities — that the investment it was selling had been rigged to amplify the chances that it would, yes, lose money.

 

Transactions like this one open up a window into modern finance, and the view is downright ugly. This deal didn't build a house, finance a world-changing invention or create any jobs. It was just a zero-sum game that transferred wealth from what Wall Street calls "dumb money" (often those who manage the public's funds) to a hedge fund. It certainly belies what Lloyd Blankfein, the firm's chief executive, told me last fall: "What's good for Goldman Sachs is good for America." Could the scary truth be that, at best, the success of one has nothing to do with the success of the other?

 

Yet, in the end, it comes down to this: Goldman Sachs, ACA Capital, IKB Deutsche Industriebank and even the rating agencies never had any duty to protect us from their greed. There was one entity that did — our government.

 

But it was the purported regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision, that used their power not to protect, but rather to prevent predatory lending laws. The Federal Reserve, which could have cracked down on lending practices at any time, did next to nothing, thereby putting us at risk as both consumers and taxpayers. All of these regulators, along with the S.E.C., failed to look at the bad loans that were moving through the nation's banking system, even though there were plentiful warnings about them.

 

More important, it was Congress that sat by idly as consumer advocates warned that people were getting loans they'd never be able to pay back. It was Congress that refused to regulate derivatives, despite ample evidence dating back to 1994 of the dangers they posed. It was Congress that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment and commercial banking, yet failed to update the fraying regulatory system.

 

It was Congress that spread the politically convenient gospel of home ownership, despite data and testimony showing that much of what was going on had little to do with putting people in homes. And it's Congress that has been either unwilling or unable to put in place rules that have a shot at making things better. The financial crisis began almost three years ago and it's still not clear if we'll have meaningful new legislation. In fact, Senate Republicans on Monday voted to block floor debate on the latest attempt at a reform bill.

 

Come to think about it, shouldn't Congress have its turn on the hot seat as well? Seeing Goldman executives get their comeuppance may make us all feel better in the short term. But today's spectacle shouldn't provide our government with a convenient way to deflect the blame it so richly deserves.

 

Bethany McLean, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair, is writing a book about the financial crisis with Joe Nocera of The Times

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

A BETTER CHANCE AT JUSTICE FOR ABUSE VICTIMS

BY LAWRENCE LESSIG

 

LAST week, Pope Benedict XVI told victims of sexual abuse by priests in Malta that the Catholic Church was doing all it could to investigate abuse accusations and find ways to safeguard children in the future. With the pope's pledge, and the resignation in recent days of three European bishops involved in the sex abuse scandal, it might appear that the church is finally taking responsibility for failing to protect children against molesters for hundreds of years.

 

But the church is not doing everything in its power to help victims. In fact, it is worsening the sins of the past by taking a leading role in preventing abused children from getting the compensation they need to help remedy past abuse.

 

I saw this behavior firsthand when I represented a victim of child sexual abuse in a case brought against a nonsectarian private school in New Jersey. The trial court in that case had held that a state statute immunizing charities against negligence also protected the school even if its employees acted "willfully, wantonly, recklessly, indifferently — even criminally."

 

I volunteered to help appeal that ruling of absolute immunity, and get it reversed. On the other side were

lawyers for the insurance company that would have paid the bill if the school had been found liable. Their position was completely understandable: An insurance company has an obligation to its shareholders.

 

What was truly astonishing was the appearance of the New Jersey Catholic Conference in the case. As its Web site explains, the conference "represents the Catholic bishops of New Jersey on matters of public policy," because "the Catholic Church calls for a different kind of political engagement: one shaped by the moral convictions of well-formed consciences and focused on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable."

 

Yet the "well-formed consciences" of the conference had not entered the case on behalf of the weak and the vulnerable. The Catholic Conference had filed a brief in support of the insurance company, to defend a rule that would have left institutions — like the church — immune from responsibility even if employees "criminally" protected an abuser.

 

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled against the insurers in 2006. But representatives of the Catholic Church have continued their work against the "weak and the vulnerable" here in New York. New York has one of the nation's most restrictive statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse, requiring victims to sue within five years of turning 18, whether or not they have recognized the psychological harm caused to them by their abuse.

 

Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Queens Democrat, has introduced a bill to give victims another five years to seek compensation, plus a one-year window for victims blocked by the old limitations to now bring suit. That legislation has passed the Assembly three times, yet the Senate has refused to consider it. It has now been reintroduced into the Assembly.

 

At the core of the opposition to this bill is heavy lobbying by the New York Catholic Conference; according to published reports, the conference has hired top-dollar lobbyists to kill the bill. At least one bishop is reported to have threatened to close schools and parishes in legislators' districts if they vote for the bill. And as Marci Hamilton, a law professor at Cardozo University, has written, bishops "publicly rail against statute of limitation reform as though it were the equivalent of mandatory abortion."

 

If the New York Catholic Conference stops this reform, it will achieve three things. First, it will protect its own wealth. Second, it will assure that potentially thousands of victims who have been abused by priests will have no opportunity for compensation. And third, it will help preserve a system of irresponsibility that makes it too easy to ignore child sexual abuse, because the costs of ignoring it are lower in New York than in most other states.

 

If Pope Benedict and the church want redemption for the crimes of Catholic priests, there must continue to be confessions of those past sins. But just as important, the church must look at what it is doing today and end its campaign to block the weak and the vulnerable from receiving help to deal with the consequences of criminal sexual abuse.

 

Lawrence Lessig is a law professor and the director of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE GOLDMAN DRAMA

BY DAVID BROOKS

 

Between 1997 and 2006, consumers, lenders and builders created a housing bubble, and pretty much the entire establishment missed it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the people who regulate them missed it. The big commercial banks and the people who regulate them missed it. The Federal Reserve missed it, as did the ratings agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the political class in general.

 

It's easy to see why this happened. People who make it into the establishment work and play well with others. They are part of the same overlapping social networks, and inevitably begin to perceive the world in similar, conventional ways. They thrive in institutions where people are not rewarded for being cantankerous intellectual bomb-throwers.

 

Outside the establishment herd, on the other hand, there were contrarians who understood the bubble (which was the easy part) and who figured out how to take counteraction (which was hard). Michael Burry worked at a small hedge fund in Northern California. John Paulson ran an obscure fund in New York. Eventually, there were even a few traders at the big investment banks who also foresaw the imminent collapse. One of them was "Fabulous" Fabrice Tourre of Goldman Sachs.

 

If this were a Hollywood movie, the prescient outsiders would be good-looking, just and true, and we could all root for them as they outfoxed the smug establishment. But this is real life, so things are more complicated. According to Gregory Zuckerman's book, "The Greatest Trade Ever," Burry was a solitary small-time operator far away. Paulson was cold and diffident.

 

And as for Fabulous Fab, he seems to be the product of the current amoral Wall Street culture in which impersonal trading is more important than personal service to clients, and in which any product you can sell to some poor sucker is deemed to be admirable and O.K.

 

In this drama, in other words, the establishment was pleasant, respectable and stupid, while the contrarians were smart but hard to love, and sometimes sleazy.

 

This week the drama comes to Washington in two different ways. First, as is traditional in our culture, the elected leaders of the clueless establishment have summoned the leaders of Goldman Sachs to a hearing so they can have a post-hoc televised conniption fit on the amorality of Wall Street.

 

This spectacle presents Goldman with an interesting public relations choice. The firm can claim to be dumb but decent, like the rest of the establishment, and emphasize the times it lost money. Or it can present itself as smart and sleazy, and emphasize the times it made money at the expense of its clients. Goldman seems to have chosen dumb but decent, which is probably the smart narrative to get back in the establishment's good graces, even if it is less accurate.

 

The second big event in Washington this week is the jostling over a financial reform bill. One might have thought that one of the lessons of this episode was that establishments are prone to groupthink, and that it would be smart to decentralize authority in order to head off future bubbles.

 

Both N. Gregory Mankiw of Harvard and Sebastian Mallaby of the Council on Foreign Relations have been promoting a way to do this: Force the big financial institutions to issue bonds that would be converted into equity when a regulator deems them to have insufficient capital. Thousands of traders would buy and sell these bonds as a way to measure and reinforce the stability of the firms.

 

But, alas, we are living in the great age of centralization. Some Democrats regard federal commissions with the same sort of awe and wonder that I feel while watching LeBron James and Alex Ovechkin.

 

The premise of the current financial regulatory reform is that the establishment missed the last bubble and, therefore, more power should be vested in the establishment to foresee and prevent the next one.

 

If you take this as your premise, the Democratic bill is fine and reasonable. It would force derivative trading out into the open. It would create a structure so the government could break down failing firms in an orderly manner. But the bill doesn't solve the basic epistemic problem, which is that members of the establishment herd are always the last to know when something unexpected happens.

 

If this were a movie, everybody would learn the obvious lessons. The folks in the big investment banks would learn that it's valuable to have an ethical culture, in which traders' behavior is restricted by something other than the desire to find the next sucker. The folks in Washington would learn that centralized decision-making is often unimaginative decision-making, and that decentralized markets are often better at anticipating the future.

 

But, again, this is not a Hollywood movie. Those lessons are not being learned. I can't wait for the sequel.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

Our view on your health: What can be done to shake Americans' salt habit?

 

We all need some salt in our diet. But there can be too much of a good thing. And right now, Americans are consuming a lot more sodium than they need — an average of 3,400 milligrams daily when the recommended maximum is 2,300 milligrams.

 

That excessive sodium can lead to high blood pressure, which is associated with strokes, kidney damage and congestive heart failure. In fact, a report released last week by the Institute of Medicine, the independent health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, estimated that reducing sodium intake could prevent 100,000 deaths a year and save $18 billion in medical costs.

 

Less noticed but just as important is the fact that salt is also a major contributor to the obesity crisis. That's because food makers recognize that combining salt with sugar and fat creates a multilayered cocktail, both tangy and sweet, that leaves taste buds craving more.

 

These intense flavor combinations can trigger a response in the brain so pleasurable that many people, seeking to recreate the experience, become trapped in a cycle of craving and overeating. Not to mention that salt makes people thirstier for calorie-laden soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, which is why bars put out all those free snacks.

 

The extra sodium in our diets isn't coming from sprinkling the salt shaker too generously. Instead, 77% of our intake is from prepared and processed foods. Food makers use it as both a preservative and as a taste enhancer — and apply it abundantly. Consider the amount of sodium per serving in these products: Kraft's Catalina dressing (380 milligrams), Progresso's New England Clam Chowder (890 milligrams) and DiGiorno's Supreme pizza (990 milligrams). The result is a climate where even an informed consumer has trouble eating a diet that isn't loaded with salt.

 

So what's the answer?

 

For some foods, there isn't a good one. In cheese and bread, for instance, it's hard to reduce sodium content without severely compromising taste and texture. But even in those cases, better disclosure could help consumers keep track of their sodium intake. The Food and Drug Administration is working on front-of-package nutritional labeling that would both be clearer and more prominent than current back labels. In restaurants, meanwhile, fast food is notoriously salty, and the new federal health care law helps by requiring chains to post their menus' nutritional content.

 

The FDA is also working with food manufacturers to achieve voluntary sodium reductions. In recent years,

some companies, including Campbell's Soup and Hormel Foods, have reduced sodium in some of their products. Others have announced plans to do so.

 

But as long as salt promotes excessive eating, and consumers' tastes are conditioned to prefer products with

high sodium content, food sellers have an incentive to pack food with it. That's why the IOM is recommending that the FDA set legal limits for sodium content in foods, implemented gradually so taste buds can adjust.

 

Given the nation's obesity epidemic, such a move might eventually be needed, but a collaborative approach is preferable. If that effort falls short, however, blatant warning labels on foods with unneeded salt content are an option.

 

The trick is to give people the means to protect themselves without dictating their choices. The USA would be a healthier nation, however, if fewer people said "pass the salt" and more said "pass up the salt."

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OPPOSING VIEW: CONSUMERS DESERVE BETTER

BY MORTON SATIN

 

When salt, an essential nutrient, is significantly reduced, the population's response is mixed. About 30% experience a minor drop in blood pressure, about 20% experience a slight increase and the rest experience no change at all. So any policy that treats the population as a homogeneous mass is discriminatory because we all react differently.

 

On top of that, women around the world consume 800-1,500 milligrams less sodium per day than men do. In the U.S., women consume 1,200mg less sodium per day than men do. Because we all eat from the same food supply, if you reduce sodium in all food, will women end up at greater risk of hyponatremia because they naturally consume far less sodium than men?

 

Hyponatremia is a serious condition that can reduce cognition, increase the risk of diabetes and result in loss of balance in the elderly. Pregnant women on low-salt diets give birth to low weight babies that have a lifelong increased salt appetite. Several peer-reviewed publications indicate that congestive heart failure patients placed on low-salt diets die, or are readmitted to hospitals, far more frequently than those not placed on low-salt diets.

 

There is far more in the scientific literature on salt and human health than is under consideration by the Institute of Medicine and the Food and Drug Administration, which is why the Salt Institute has repeatedly asked the secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out a large clinical trial to determine the actual impact of salt reduction on population health outcomes. Because there are no historical records of consuming the low salt levels recommended by the IOM, compelling the entire population to consume these levels effectively would place everyone into the largest clinical trial ever carried out, without our knowledge or consent.

 

The FDA would have done the public a better service if it had focused on promoting a fully balanced diet, rather than on a silver bullet that the scientific evidence does not fully support.

 

Italians eat much more salt than we do, but they have among the best cardiovascular figures in the world because they eat a balanced diet with far more vegetables and fruits. Here, our consumption of vegetables has dropped because we don't spend enough time promoting their benefits. Consumers deserve better treatment.

 

Morton Satin is director of technical and regulatory affairs for the Salt Institute.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OBAMA ISN'T RADICAL. HIS PARTY IS.

BY MICHAEL MEDVED

 

Before Republicans lock themselves into a strategy of portraying President Obama as an out-of-the-mainstream radical, they should confront an uncomfortable challenge: Can they name a single policy this administration has pursued that would have been unthinkable for Hillary Clinton?

 

It's a potent question because so many conservatives during the campaign endorsed the idea that Hillary represented the moderate, more acceptable Democratic alternative to Obama's extremism.

 

After John McCain secured the Republican nomination, Rush Limbaugh famously launched Operation Chaos, urging Republicans to change their registration to vote for Hillary in Democratic primaries. Ann Coulter openly endorsed Clinton over McCain, suggesting she'd make a stronger commander in chief. Whatever doubts other Republicans harbored about then-Sen. Clinton, few questioned her position at the center of her party and the mainstream of American politics.

 

It therefore seems odd, even to this anti-administration conservative, to argue that Obama governs as an extremist (the "most radical president in American history," according to Newt Gingrich) when he pushes the same initiatives that Hillary or any other Democrat would have championed. When it comes to health care reform, the failed Clinton program of 1993 (universally known as "HillaryCare") was an even more sweeping and bureaucratic expansion of intrusive government power than Obama's legislation of 2010. The pork-laden stimulus package, the cap-and-trade proposals and out-of-control government spending all resemble strikingly similar proposals that Clinton advanced in her presidential campaign.

 

A familiar Cabinet

 

As secretary of State, her support for the Obama agenda has been enthusiastic rather than merely dutiful. Concerning the president's ambitious push toward disarmament, Clinton penned an enthusiastic piece for Britain's Guardian newspaper that appeared with the gushing headline, "Our giant step towards a world free from nuclear danger."

 

In terms of major appointments, it's also difficult to see that Obama's selections count as more extreme or polarizing than the likely choices of any potential Democratic president. Would a President Hillary Clinton have drawn the line at any of the current Cabinet-level aides? Those appointments include two veteran Republicans (at Defense and Transportation), two highly decorated generals (as national security adviser and secretary of Veterans Affairs), and popular governors and senators from conservative states (Kansas, Iowa, Arizona and Colorado). The most outspoken leftist in the entire Obama Cabinet, Attorney General Eric Holder, is a Clinton administration veteran (as deputy attorney general), as is controversial chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (one of Bill Clinton's senior advisers).

 

If there's scant difference between Obama and the Clintons in terms of policies or personnel, how did President Bill Clinton earn such a strong reputation as a pragmatic centrist while Obama strikes so many observers as a leftist ideologue?

 

The contrast owes more to circumstance than to substance. After the GOP took control of both houses of Congress in the conservative tidal wave of 1994, the Clintons fought for political survival with the strategy of "triangulation" — positioning the White House as an independent "third force" between squabbling Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Only after Gingrich became speaker of the House did President Clinton make his cynical declaration that "the era of Big Government is over."

 

If Republicans repeat their achievements of 1994 and claim one or both legislative chambers in 2010, it's likely that Obama will try to follow Clinton's example. But when your own party holds all levers of power, it's tough to triangulate and to distance yourself from your own eager loyalists.

 

While the news media have fixated on the near-unanimous Republican opposition to the president's programs, they've overlooked the lock-step support he has received from Democrats. Every single Democratic member of the U.S. Senate initially voted for Obama's health care reform, as did more than 85% of Democrats in the House. This is almost the same percentage of members of his own party who tell pollsters that they approve of the president's job performance.

 

It's the party, not the man

Republicans would fare better if they criticized the unyielding extremism of the Democratic Party as a whole rather than focusing on the president as a singular example of fanaticism. Conservatives overstate their case and undermine their own momentum with shaky claims that the ideological perspective of the White House qualifies as "unprecedented," "Marxist," "shocking" or "radical." His critics could rightly identify the president and his henchmen as conventional, Big Government, borrow-and-spend liberals — a designation that most voters understand (and dislike). He has aroused determined GOP opposition not because he seeks to lead the nation in unexplored and perilous new directions, but because he seeks to restore the misguided welfare state priorities that characterized his party, and failed, for decades.

 

Republicans can agree that the president threatens to push the country in precisely the wrong direction. But the best argument against the faction that dominates both White House and Congress isn't that Obama is too radical or daring, but that he's too typical of an exhausted, discredited and tired approach. Instead of the exciting, unifying new departures he promised, he delivers only the hyperpartisan nostrums of the traditional Big Government party and seems perversely determined to repeat its past mistakes.

 

Syndicated talk radio host Michael Medvedis a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and author of The 5 Big Lies About American Business.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

ARIZONA'S DRASTIC IMMIGRATION STAND

BY DEWAYNE WICKHAM

 

Though it has been settled law since the Civil War ended that a state cannot secede from the union, Arizona's extreme action suggests it imagines it can.

 

Given this existential loophole, Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill that unilaterally gives her state the power to enforce federal immigration law and mandates that people who cross its borders carry an identity card acceptable to Arizona. The law defines this as an Arizona driver's license, identity card, tribal identification, or any federal, state or local government ID issued after a person proved he's a legal resident of the U.S. Anyone caught in the Grand Canyon State without one of these IDs will be subject to up to six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. The law takes effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns.

 

Arizona's law ostensibly targets "alien(s)" who are "unlawfully present in the United States." But there's little doubt it will be used disproportionately against Hispanics, who are 30% of the state's population. "We cannot sacrifice our safety to the murderous greed of drug cartels," Brewer said at the bill signing ceremony. "We cannot stand idly by as drop houses, kidnappings and violence compromise our quality of life. We cannot delay while the destruction happening south of our international border creeps its way north," she said in an apparent reference to the drug war raging in Mexico.

 

But the law doesn't target drug dealers so much as it stigmatizes Arizona's large Mexican population. "The way it's tailored is very clear. You're looking for brown-skinned individuals. ... It's people coming across the border illegally and they're talking mostly about Mexicans," Santa Cruz County sheriff Tony Estrada told Tucson TV station KGUN9.

 

Keeping people from illegally entering this country isn't a bad idea. But Arizona's law is an "ends justify the means" attempt that enjoys widespread support among its voters. According to a Rasmussen poll, while 53% of the state's likely voters think enforcement of the law will potentially violate the civil rights of some U.S. citizens, 70% support it anyway. The law is backed by 84% of Republicans, 51% of Democrats and 69% of unaffiliated voters.

 

There are, fortunately, some pockets of resistance. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a Democrat, has threatened to file suit against the new law. Interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, a Republican, tried to talk Brewer into vetoing the immigration bill.More than a 1,000 Phoenix high school students, who used Twitter and Facebook to organize, walked out of class and marched to the state capitol to protest the measure a day before Brewer signed it Friday.

 

But it will be left to the federal government to counter Arizona's immigration witch hunt. The Obama administration can do this by refusing to take custody of any non-violent illegal immigrants whom local police charge with " misdemeanor trespassing" — the immigration offense the new law creates.Faced with a $3 billion budget deficit, Brewer is pushing a controversial 1-cent sales tax increase that will be on the state's ballot on May 18. If illegal immigrants are left in the state's custody, Arizona will have to bear the financial cost of its decision to usurp the federal government's authority to legislate immigration laws.

 

While such a stance isn't likely to produce a surrender like the one at Appomattox Court House that ended the Civil War, it could force Arizona's governor and lawmakers to end their legislative insurrection.

 

DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

IN DISTRICT 7: LARRY HENRY

 

County Commissioner Larry Henry has served two terms as the representative for District 7, so he has several advantages going into the May 4 Republican primary against challenger Gordon Anderson: He has a decent record, a richer campaign treasury and far more name recognition. With those advantages, he probably will win. If Mr. Anderson could get his platform before the district's voters, however, the race could be tighter.

 

We believe Mr. Henry has done a relatively good job on the commission, but the commission as a whole has not fairly represented the county's constituents in the areas of tax equity and education. Mr. Henry is vulnerable on both issues, and Mr. Anderson wants to hold him to account on the former.

 

Mr. Anderson, an enrollment consultant and manager for Unum Insurance Co., wants county government to eliminate the double taxation that residents who live in municipalities pay for fire, police, roads and sewer infrastructure.

 

Most residents in the county's 10 municipalities, who comprise just over 70 percent of the county's population, pay for these services in their municipalities through their own municipal property taxes. But the county government, Mr. Anderson rightly points out, uses its countywide property tax revenue, which every property owner in the entire county pays, to finance such urban services just for the 30 percent of the county residents who live in the unincorporated areas.

 

He correctly believes that unfair tax subsidy from municipal county taxpayers to unincorporated residents for their urban services should be eliminated. This page has argued that point for years, but county commissioners remain immune to it. They will not establish a two-tier tax system and require unincorporated county residents to foot the whole bill for their county-provided urban services, and give the county's municipal residents the tax break they deserve.

 

Mr. Henry has been as lax about this as every other commissioner, even though his District 7's 12 precincts include seven in municipalities (six districts are in Chattanooga; one is Collegedale). Those voters deserve a county tax break on the money the county spends on urban services in unincorporated areas.

 

Both Mr. Henry and Mr. Anderson oppose annexation by the city without a referendum from residents of areas to be annexed. We think they're both wrong on that issue, which state law already governs. The urban growth boundaries that guide annexation were logically fixed a decade ago, under state law, through the countywide growth plan. Residents who live closely adjacent to the city's borders largely base their livelihoods and lifestyles on the infrastructure provided by municipalities, but they don't pay a fair share of taxes for it, which furthers the tax inequity imposed on municipal residents.

 

Both candidates also say they favor stronger education and support for schools, but neither would say they would vote to raise taxes to actually support schools. Never mind that the state compounds the school systems funding problems, solely for Hamilton County schools, by refusing to provide the additional $12 million that the BEP funding formula stipulates for Hamilton County.

 

The candidates do disagree on implementation of a tax freeze for seniors. We agree with Mr. Henry's thoughtful opposition to that plan. Freezing rates for seniors would unfairly shift property-tax burdens to all other taxpayers, many of whom struggle as much some seniors to pay taxes. The state, moreover, already provides property tax breaks to low-income seniors.

 

Mr. Henry is more reticent than Mr. Anderson on the pace of consolidation of city and county services where that would improve efficiency and reduce duplication of services. The incumbent, however, does support a more considered plan for infrastructure development to accommodate the pending growth related to the Volkswagen auto plant. He also favors some land use planning to assure adequate green space, parks and a greenway for the East Brainerd/Ooltewah area as that growth ensues.

 

On balance, Mr. Henry's experience on the County Commission gives him a clear advantage in knowledge of the issues that now face the county relating to growth and infrastructure. We recommend his election.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

LESSONS LEARNED FROM TORNADOES

 

The intersection of Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama is not in Tornado Alley, but it is still a frequent target of the often deadly force of nature. Residents of the region were reminded of that late Saturday and early Sunday when twisters touched down in the dark. There were no deaths in our vicinity in the wake of the storms, but many injuries and major damage were reported.

 

Those who heeded early warnings and safely weathered the winds are fortunate. Tornadoes produced by the same weather system that brought twisters to this area killed 12 people and caused immense destruction elsewhere across the South.

 

U.S. Weather Service teams were visiting sites in Alabama and Georgia on Monday to assess damage and to gather additional data about the number, duration and paths of the tornadoes. Final reports won't be available for a time, but initial indications are that at least four tornadoes that caused non-life threatening injuries to several dozen people in the area reached the ground.

 

Though official designations can change as additional information is gathered, three of the four Saturday tornadoes currently are categorized as EF-3, with winds of 135-165 mph. Tornadoes of that strength cause extensive damage to roofs and walls of structures and snap large hardwood trees at their base. Winds in the higher EF-3 range can peel bark off trees. There's ample evidence of destruction commensurate with an EF-3 rating in nearby Dekalb County in Alabama.

 

In Mount Vernon, in the extreme southeast part of the county, winds estimated to be 150 mph almost completely leveled McNutt Memorial United Methodist Church. Some tombstones in a nearby cemetery were knocked down as well, as the tornado, estimated to be between a fourth-to-a-half-mile wide traveled about 7.3 miles on the ground. A Weather Service meteorologist categorized that tornado as the strongest of the quartet to hit the region.

 

Another tornado with winds estimated at 140 mph and three-fourths of a mile wide damaged hundreds of buildings in the Albertville-Geraldine area. A third with the same estimated wind speed heavily damaged a trailer park in Mentone. Recovery efforts continued Monday in all three areas.

 

Across the Alabama-Georgia border in Chattooga County, an EF-1 tornado with winds estimated at 105 mph overturned planes and damaged two hangers at an airport northwest of Summerville and flattened barns and carports and damaged roofs elsewhere in the county.

 

Much of that and debris from the other tornadoes will be cleaned up fairly quickly, but it will take longer for individuals directly affected by the storms to adapt to the sudden changes in their lives.

 

Still, there are lessons to be learned in the storms' aftermath. Area residents again have been reminded that while no community is ever completely immune to the devastation that a tornado can spawn, proper preparation and prompt response to warnings can and often do save lives.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

CONSTITUTION UPHELD, BARELY

 

By a strange turn of events, the Second Amendment right to bear arms has been used to uphold the Constitution's rule that only the states -- not the District of Columbia -- may have voting members in the House

of Representatives.

 

Here is what happened: The U.S. Senate voted last year to grant Washington, D.C., a voting member in the House, despite the Constitution's clear provision that the House "shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States." Because D.C. is not a state, the Senate's action was unconstitutional.

 

But also included in the Senate bill that passed was a provision to restore Second Amendment rights to the District of Columbia, where strict gun control is practiced (and where crime nevertheless remains extremely high).

 

Fast-forwarding to the present, the House has been debating its own legislation to grant Washington a voting member in the House, and that version also included language restoring Second Amendment rights in the district.

 

That left liberal Democrats with a choice they did not like: They wanted to vote for the bill, because they knew that a House member from Washington would be an automatic pro-Democrat vote. But they objected to the Second Amendment rights that the legislation would have restored.

 

In the end, their hostility to the right to bear arms proved stronger than their desire for an extra House vote, so they have now pulled the House bill without voting on it.

 

We believe it is wrong to link two totally unrelated issues in one piece of legislation. But it is good that the Constitution's clear statement limiting voting members of the House of Representatives to representatives elected from the states has been upheld.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

TERRIBLE TORNADOES

 

Tennessee fortunately has been spared the worst ravages of countless terrible tornadoes that have struck our neighbors in Georgia, Alabama and particularly Mississippi in recent days.

 

Storms, sometimes miles wide and many miles long, have caused losses of life, destruction of homes and businesses, uprooted trees and toppled cars, and created other destruction and distress south of us.

 

There is little defense against tornadoes, except to seek storm cellars or other sheltered places. The forces of nature are tremendous, as air masses powered by varied temperatures have swept indiscriminately at speeds of hundreds of miles an hour in unpredictable areas.

 

We are reminded shockingly of the powers of nature and mankind's limits in dealing with them. We are saddened by the loss of lives and property, as we anxiously watch weather patterns in this season.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

WE ARE BEING INVADED!

 

Many countries of Europe have suffered massive invasions over many years, with terrible consequences. What would we in the United States do if we were invaded?

 

In considering such a thing, we may think of an "invading army." Fortunately, we do not suffer such a problem. But we are being invaded!

 

Many millions of people -- we really don't know how many -- have invaded our country illegally, with more coming! Fortunately, the invaders are not in a foreign army. Most just want American jobs. But some are dangerous criminals.

 

We should guard our borders. That's a federal government responsibility, and it is also a particular responsibility of border states. But we are failing.

 

Arizona has passed a tough law against illegal invaders. Arizona guesstimates it alone has 460,000 illegals in its borders. But Arizona's efforts to deal with the serious problem have stirred hostile reactions not only from the illegal invaders, but also from some Americans.

 

We certainly do not want anyone, illegal or not, to be mistreated in our country. But we should not accept invasion by millions of illegals, either.

 

Many illegals come seeking jobs. Some perform welcome labor. But there are many negatives, too. Illegals cost American citizens and create danger.

 

Is it "wrong" or "misguided" or "unreasonable" for us to have laws limiting immigration -- and enforce them? We have a serious invasion problem -- and we are not facing it effectively. And it's getting worse.

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS, LOCAL CONTROL

 

Georgia lawmakers have passed a bill to let the governor remove members of local school boards in Georgia in certain cases.

 

We do not doubt that sometimes there may be some poorly performing board members in school districts, not only in Georgia but in every state. And it is understandable there may be a sound desire to remove them.

 

But there should be extreme caution about delegating to any non-local official -- such as the governor -- the power to overturn the will of local voters or local officials.

 

Think about it this way: Voters in Chattanooga and Hamilton County would not want Tennessee's governor to have the power to remove members of our local school board. Decisions about them should be made by local voters.

 

The same principle involving voters' wishes should also prevail in Georgia and elsewhere. If any board member commits an act that deserves actual impeachment and removal, there should be due process to handle that.

 

Are some local officials sometimes inefficient and unwise? Yes, and that is unfortunate. But it is best to let local voters make decisions to remove bad local officials at the ballot box, rather than grant that authority to other elected officials.

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TIMES FREE PRESS

EDITORIAL

RARE CASE INVOLVING BOY SCOUTS

 

The Boy Scouts of America is one of our nation's finest youth organizations. It helps build good character and self-confidence, and provides wholesome good times for millions of our young people, as many Chattanooga-area people can attest.

 

But when millions of boys are led by many thousands of volunteer male leaders, it is possible for a "bad apple" to show up now and then.

 

Such a rare case occurred in Portland, Ore., years ago. And now a jury has ruled the national organization was negligent in allowing one former assistant scoutmaster to interact with Scouts after he had admitted in 1983 to having molested 17 boys.

 

It's sickening that anything improper occurred. Constant care should be applied to avoid having any such unfortunate situations develop anywhere. But some intolerable cases may occur in any kind of group, in schools or clubs or even churches. There should always be leadership watchfulness to prevent any impropriety, and to deal with it immediately if wrong does occur.

 

It is shocking that a jury in Portland ordered the national Boy Scouts of America organization to pay $18.5 million in punitive damages to a man who was sexually abused in the 1980s by the former assistant scoutmaster.

 

This rare case should alert all of us to be sure that only proper relationships prevail wherever young boys and girls are under adult leaders in any group or personal situations.

 

Fortunately, millions of fine youths and many thousands of admirable leaders work together properly and beneficially for our children, with bad situations being very unusual.

 

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TEHRAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

HUNGER AS A FORM OF VIOLENCE

BY ALBERTO MORLACHETTI

 

The forms of violence recognized by the social collective are inscribed in a judicial and police reality that identifies them as transgressions to the penal law and justifies repression as a tribute to security; these matters are amplified by TV news reports and their replicas are destined to shock the population.

However, there are other forms of oppression -- such as hunger -- which a certain part of our social imagination does not recognize as violence or crime and that is why these do not come up in social commentaries. But hunger is a crime.

Children and youths -- at least the vast majority of them -- live the present as if they were heirs to a defeat. They suffer the effects of multiple marginalization: they do not enjoy the first fruits of harvests and there is no space for them in city neighborhoods or institutions, and schools -- which are the privileged social organizers -- move further and further away from children's daily problems, causing more to drop out.

Alturo Jauretche would leave his legacy: "Schools did not continue life, but opened a daily parenthesis in it. Children's empiricism, their vital knowledge acquired at home and from the environment, all of that was a despicable contribution".

The March 14 issue of the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion stated that the president of Consudec (Council of Higher Education) had warned: "On the outskirts of Buenos Aires there are about 800,000 children, aged 8 to 17, who do not go to school." From what terrible cliffs do those little souls -- intact of urgency -- fall headlong?

This leads us to think that if life and the condition of life were the most precious nuclei in our set of values, we would not only burst with outrage before robberies and kidnappings but also before the lack of nutrients in our children, who become fragments and die in forsaken corners. The problem is that this affects the security of life and not the security of goods.

(Originally published in Spanish in the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion on March 20, 2010; translated into English by the website www.pelotadetrapo.org.ar.)

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

 

FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - CHIEF PROSECUTOR IS INVESTIGATING WHAT?

 

We believe the progress Turkey has made in recent years toward embracing contemporary standards of free expression is both remarkable and laudable. That there have been notable exceptions in this trend, not least among which is the infamous "Doğan tax case" that we continue to endure, is disheartening. But the trend, in general, toward the norms of the European Union is what counts.

 

The partial reforms of statutes related to this is part of the progress, as is the evolution of decision-making in the judiciary as evidenced by the number of acquittals under the notorious Article 301.

 

We would include the government's Kurdish initiative in our citation of progress and of course the launch of Kurdish-language broadcasting last year. We would include the opening of faculties of linguistic study of Kurdish dialects and other languages.

 

While we have taken issue with some elements of pending constitutional reform, the dimensions that strengthen standards of protection for free speech and expression enjoy our full support. Yes, proposals to clip romantic scenes from Turkish soap operas we have found regressive and we have said so. We also believe the continuing ban on the video-sharing site YouTube to be laughable both for its lack of enforceability and its intent.

 

But as in most matters of policy-making we seek to be realistic. "It takes five days to get to Rome," counsels an old Turkish proverb and we do not endeavor to rush the march toward democracy in ways that might strain its realization.

 

But then along comes a chink in the glass that serves to shatter the entire pane. Three siblings, Kubilay, Hüseyin and Fatma Duman, compose a song. It is about the fact that they can't find a job. Neither could they find a studio or a producer. But their efforts led them to the social networking site Facebook. After it was uploaded, their amateur ditty netted some 300,000 hits. One line, an apparent reference to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, goes: "You consoled us like babies and now you are pricking us with needles."

 

And then, as we noted yesterday, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor concluded this might constitute an insult to Erdoğan, a crime under Turkish law. Prosecutors even went to the trouble of tracking down the three suspected musical criminals via their computer IP addresses. The trio was detained for questioning and now may face formal charges.

 

If an insult has been committed, it is only to the intelligence of the citizens of Turkey. Pursuit of such an investigation is a waste of public resources, an imposition upon the justice system and an embarrassment to anyone seeking greater democracy in Turkey.The prosecutors should get back to real criminal justice. Maybe if so, the Duman trio can get to some real music and find a real studio and producer.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

MEASURES MUST BE ADEQUATE

ERDOĞAN ALKİN

 

The United States and some countries in Europe implemented timely measures to end the crisis in a short period. Some others hesitated to take action immediately, and are now facing serious problems. There are both good and bad examples during the last century. President Franklin Roosevelt has implemented a "New Deal" policy, which meant state intervention in the markets to solve the huge unemployment problem during the 1929 crisis.

 

Prime Minister Margeret Thatcher revitalized the British economy after a long period of stagnation. President Ronald Reagan lifted the morale of the American people who were paralyzed by both economic and political problems. These are good examples.

 

However there are also bad examples. Nowadays nobody wants to remember the Nixon, Ford and Carter eras. Who wants to live again in years before Thatcher settled down in 10 Downing St.? There are of course good and bad examples also in other countries, but Roosevelt, Thatcher and Reagan not only saved their countries from deeply-rooted problems, they also have shown the world the importance of timely implementation of necessary measures that must be taken courageously without taking political consequences into consideration. Turkey's Jan. 24, 1980, measures, and its quick and effective intervention in the money and foreign exchange markets during the 1994 and 2001 crises must also be remembered as good examples.

 

During the recent crisis, Turkey implemented some measures in the form of a compact package almost without delay. Obviously, such a package would not be like those that were adopted in rich countries. After all Turkey does not have the same financial resources as they have. The lacking element during the implementation was neglecting to emphasize the importance of the social and economic problems that the crisis might create (for instance, rising unemployment and further deterioration in income distribution). It is not wise to expect satisfactory results from a modest package. It was well known beforehand that unemployment would rise to record levels and growth for the year would also reach a record level, though in the negative direction this time. In spite of the positive performance of the economy in the fourth quarter of 2009, overall growth rate for last year was minus 4.7 percent.

 

Understanding well people's reactions to economic and social problems such as unemployment and poverty, the governments in rich countries put these issues on top of their agenda. This was equally as important as the size of the packages that have been put into implementation. However, in some countries, for instance in Turkey, political issues took precedence over economic and social problems.

 

Now it is time to discuss another very important issue. The initial efforts to induce total demand in rich countries were not very successful. Nor did efforts to salvage some selected companies. After examining all these results it is necessary to think about alternatives for Turkey. For instance, to support certain sectors and certain firms in these sectors might not be considered as a waste of limited financial resources. The survival of these firms for a period might contribute solving unemployment and under-capacity problems. Obviously, the question comes to mind about whether this support would be able to guarantee the expected, satisfactory results. The answer is that the probability of the survival of these firms is greater than the probability of their closing down if such a support is not provided.

 

To summarize, the course of action to be adopted by Turkey is limited by budgetary constrains. The feasibility of the measures considered by the government should be discussed openly in a realistic manner. Otherwise, when the end of the crisis is announced merrily everywhere else, different problems might begin to emerge in Turkey. In addition, early or timely elections must not be an excuse not to solve these problems, at least this time.

 

ealkin@iticu.edu.tr

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHY DO I OPPOSE THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES?

CÜNEYT ÜLSEVER

 

As others do, I oppose to three amendment proposals in the constitutional change package. I will try to summarize my objections. First of all, let's begin with what's not included in the text:

 

1) Articles 250, 251 and 252 of the law of criminal procedure tie all investigations to a single judge's decision, yet the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, parliamentary deputies benefit from immunities.

 

2) The government's insistence on the "Kurdish initiative" seeks for constitutional amendments for more freedoms but doesn't include a single line on any of the "initiatives," the Kurdish initiative in particular, such as a definition of citizenship or the right to receive an education in one's mother tongue.

 

3) Despite the Venice Commission's warning, the national election threshold is still kept at 3 percent!

 

As for my other specific objections to the package:

 

1) The drafts that claim to be a remedy for the 1982 military coup Constitution contrarily increase the authorities of the president, which is one of the most criticized articles in the charter. I think Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan makes preparations for a "presidential system" of his own.

 

2) The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, or HSYK, is the essence of judicial independence. Membership of the justice minister and his/her undersecretary to the board, which was made possible with the 1982 Constitution, is being kept in the amendment package. But the European Judges Councils and the Venice Commission's reports do allow chairmanship of neither the minister nor the undersecretary to the board. The European Commission's experts as well suggest the removal of membership for the minister and the undersecretary from the HSYK. A new sentence is appended in the package reading, "Administration and representation of the board chair (the justice minister). In other words, control of the HSYK supervising judges belongs to the executive body. The justice minister decides whether to launch investigations against judges and prosecutors, so the HSYK cannot run a probe against judges and prosecutors if they are among the favorites of the minister.

 

3) The Constitutional Court consists of 17 members, three of whom are selected by Parliament, according to absolute majority principle. The remaining 14 are appointed by the president, four of whom are appointed directly. Three members who are supposed to be nominated by the Higher Education Council, or YÖK, which is under the government's control, in addition to four members who are directly appointment by the president and three members who are selected by Parliament obviously share the same line of thought with the government. Therefore, at least 10 of 17 members will be "close" to the government, and that is being assured by the constitutional amendment package.

]

4) According to the draft, political parties having groups in Parliament will form a commission including five members from each party. And the commission will decide whether or not to file a closure suit against a party. For that absolute majority, two-thirds of total votes are needed. For instance, we have four parties in Parliament today. So the commission will consist of 20 (four times five) members. And in order to file a suit 14 (two-thirds) votes are needed! If the draft is approved - if the said political party has a parliamentary group, then its five members will vote against. In other words, five votes in the pocket. Considering the current stand, 14 of the remaining 15 votes (14 out of a total 20) should vote against the said party in order to file a closure suit! If the alleged party manages to gain two votes from other parties, it will be on the safe side. So, you go figure out how valuable these two votes are!

 

As I wrote before, if the above articles are amended, the Constitution will be a "self service charter"!

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

GLASS NOT FULLY EMPTY IN TURKISH-ARMENIAN TIES

SEMIH İDİZ

 

Another "April 24" has come and gone with all its suffering, accusations, counter accusations and cross-vilifications. In the meantime, ugly scenes took place in Yerevan and Beirut, where Turkish flags and effigies of Turkish leaders were burned by hard-liners. It did not take long for hard-liner Turks to reciprocate, and the next day Armenian flags were burned in Istanbul, which also frequently witnesses the burning of Israeli, American and Chinese flags, to name but a few.

 

Looking at all this, it is clear that the proverbial "glass" is not yet "half full" in terms of reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian nations. But neither can it be said to be totally empty. This year there were unprecedented developments that cracked the hard shell of hatred between the two peoples. These can be expected to continue.

 

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, for example, had kind words for President Abdullah Gül in his speech, in which he explained to his nation why Yerevan was only suspending the Turkish-Armenian protocols and not annulling them. He also thanked those Turkish intellectuals who have started to openly share the pain of the Armenian people.

 

It was noteworthy in this respect that two commemorative events took place in Istanbul on April 24 to sympathize with Armenians who suffered in 1915. The numbers of those attending were not great perhaps. But one of the organizations was the Human Rights Association, or IHD, which is well known and has branches all over Turkey. The other was by a group of intellectuals comprising academics, journalists, lawyers and businessmen etc., including some who are household names around Turkey.

 

These events were preceded by heated debates on television, where things never pronounced before concerning 1915 were said and where the term "genocide" was used without qualifiers, such as "so called" or "alleged." Put another way, the infamous "article 301" of the penal code holds no sway over this debate anymore despite the existence of overzealous nationalist prosecutors.

 

In the meantime, one of the most notable articles in the mainstream Turkish press on the topic came from Hasan Cemal of Milliyet.

 

"Some may call it deportation, some a tragedy, some may say genocide, while some may refer to the great disaster. But you cannot deny it." Cemal said going on to indicate he shares the suffering of the Armenian people. What makes Cemal's words important is that he is the grandson of the infamous Cemal Pasha who was implicated in the mass deportations of the Armenians in 1915.

 

Last year Cemal, while in Armenia, also met the grandson of the killer of his grandfather, who was gunned down by a vengeance-seeking Armenian nationalist in Tbilisi in July 1922. The meeting was later described by witnesses as "a civilized and highly emotional event."

 

There was also something new in President Obama's April 24 statement this year. Of course, he displeased Armenians because he did not use the term "genocide," but his remarks and the concrete number he used for Armenian losses in 1915 were sufficient to show what he believes happened then.

 

But what was new in his statement was that he thanked Turks who had saved Armenians in 1915, a dimension of the whole issue that is not dwelled on in any great length when this subject is debated.

 

Even the great Austrian writer Franz Werfel acknowledges this important fact in his masterpiece "40 Days on Musa Dagh." Those who have read this amazing piece of work know one of the "righteous" characters in the novel is a certain "Rifat Bereket Agha" from Antakya, who actually existed in real life.

 

Meanwhile, Turkish papers have become abound with human interest stories about Armenians. Contacts are increasing between Turkish and Armenian citizen groups, professional organizations and academicians. In addition to this, Turkish reporters are traveling both to Armenia and places like Beirut, where Armenians live in large numbers and are reporting on what they hear and see.

 

These reports indicate clearly that Armenians will never forget what happened to them in 1915, and no one has a right to expect this from them. But they also indicate a very lively curiosity about Turkey, as well as certain nostalgia, which is normal given that Turks and Armenians have much in common culturally.

 

So the proverbial glass is not yet half full by a long shot. But the developments of the past two years, including the two protocols signed by the foreign ministers in Zurich, have galvanized something between the two nations that did not exist before.

 

Hard-liners on both sides will try and nip this in the bud, of course. But many seeds have been and are being sowed presently. And anyone who works in a garden knows no matter how inhospitable the soil may be, some seeds will insist on growing.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE SEARCH FOR A RESERVE CURRENCY

GREGORY R. COPLEYFOR

 

Currency, like all forms of abstract value, is based on trust. And trust itself is based on experience, and the repetitive demonstration of fidelity, whether positive or negative. At present, the U.S. dollar, which had experienced a gradual rise during the 20th Century to the position gained well into the Cold War of being the

 

trading world's reserve currency. It had the mass, in terms of volumes of available currency; it had the backing of an indisputably wealthy national asset base to move away from the gold standard; it had stable governmental backing.

 

All of that is evaporating. Not, in absolute terms, as far as the mass of currency available, because that has dramatically expanded in recent years, and particularly during the past year of the administration of Barack Obama. Not in the underlying asset valuation of the U.S. economy, but it has begun to erode as the productive capability of the U.S. to extract that value diminishes due to excess governmental interference and anti-business practices. It is far to say that other countries, from Nigeria to Russia, have vast untapped

 

underlying asset value. That they did not create global reserve currencies from their naira and ruble was due to governance failures.

 

However, as we are witnessing, good governance as an essential component of currency value and the trust in that currency, can transform overnight, just as we witnessed the post-World War II collapse of sterling, and, now, the shakiness of trust in the dollar. The age of the dollar as the global reserve currency is not yet over, but it is threatened, and the trend toward a flight from the dollar (despite occasional returns to it) is evident. At present, however, the dollar is shored up because in many respects there is nothing of its stature ready to replace it. This leads to the essential question: Are we entering a period in which we may have no global reserve currency?

 

China has been searching for safe-havens for its holdings of foreign earnings. The U.S. dollar has slipped in its esteem, with some short-term benefits, perhaps for U.S. exports, but with perilous long-term consequences. As a result, and whilst attempting to preserve the intrinsic value of its currency holdings, China has been gradually scaling back its holdings in U.S. currencies or dollar-denominated instruments.

 

Where can China go with its hoard? It looked at euro investments, at Canadian and Australian dollar holdings, and so on. The Australian and Canadian economic bases - at just under $1 trillion GDP for Australia, and about $1.4 trillion GDP for Canada - are insufficiently large to hold much in the way of Chinese investments. Nonetheless, these economies have benefited from the China dilemma. The euro, however, is, like the U.S. dollar, suffering from a loss of credibility, and unless some profound action is taken it may dramatically diminish in credibility, severely hampering the loose structure of the European Union.

 

We are, then, faced with a situation in which we may find a world without a standby currency, when, for a period after World War II, it had a couple: the U.S. dollar and the pound sterling. It could have had more - the German mark and the Japanese yen - of the parent states of those currencies had been in a position to build a global base of trust. Now we are left in territory unfamiliar to all those now living, other than for the interregna of the World Wars.

 

What are some options?

India, with a GDP equivalent to only about $1 trillion is not in the running. China in 2007 already had a GDP of $3.2 trillion, and had, by that time done to India what India itself did in competitive terms to Pakistan over the past decade or so. The Indo-Pak strategic competition ended in India's economic triumph. The Indo-Chinastrategic competition may well have also already been decided by China's true "great leap forward": the one it took when it embraced capitalism and not the one avowed by Chairman Mao Zedong.

 

So can China move toward creating the yuan as a global reserve currency?

 

Not yet. Chian is hampered by a lack of transparent governance and a lack of market-determined tradability for its currency. And this in turn means that it has not yet, and cannot yet, gain global trust in its currency. That does not mean that it is not a tradable currency; it is, but with reservations.

 

China, at present, cannot afford to move toward total economic or political transparency. It is a structure, arguably a mix between a federal and confederal and excessively centrist systems, which is in flux, much of it the flux of growth. This is inherently unstable, and the Chinese leadership wisely will not tamper with the formula merely for the sake of providing the U.S. with the economic satisfaction of lowering the exchange rate for the yuan or providing the world with the satisfaction of a new reserve trading currency.

 

The international community may be able to muster some credibility to resume greater reliance on the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, created in 1969 to reflect "baskets of currencies", but this mechanism of the Bretton Woods accords remains clumsy. Still, SDRs continue to exist and may be the standby for a period. Some private institutions are also issuing trading certificates, but these would also take a lot of growth in backing and credibility to have any merit. And that leaves the old standby, gold, as a major standard of measure, albeit a difficult one. Physical trade in gold is not practicable for modern transaction scales; paper based on gold is, as yet, lacking in trust and a credible set of issuing authorities.

 

What this all means is the prospect that major trade will gradually become more bilateral in nature, based on very real mutual trust in each other's currencies or goods. This will be a significant limiting factor in trade, and will make bilateral balances of greater interest than in the past when trade balances of a bilateral nature "washed out" in the great mixing bowl of the global banking system.

 

This situation, too, will severely impact investment in research and development of a global nature. It will, without doubt, also lead us back into an era of greater nationalism and national competition.

 

This abridged article is taken from oilprice.com which focuses on Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy, Metals, Oil Prices and Geopolitics.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM PROPOSAL OF THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT: THE RETURN OF MAJORITY IMPOSITION

ANDREW ARATO

 

The package of constitutional reforms just recently offered to the Grand National Assembly by the Turkish government seems highly attractive in many respects. It is the whole that should be rejected by liberals and democrats in and outside of Turkey.

 

After the 2008 decision of the Turkish Constitutional Court invalidating amendments to articles 10 and 42 of the Turkish constitutions, the so-called headscarf amendments, and the refusal of the same Court to dissolve the AKP (Justice and Development Party), the Government led by that party had three choices. The first, indicated by the Court's return to the language of the original constituent power, was entirely unrealistic and to me and most Turks undesirable, namely to sponsor a program of revolutionary transformation where the constitutional regime of 1982 would be replaced outside its own rules of change. The point of the conservative Court even raising this idea was merely logical and rhetorical. When it was said that certain kinds of changes, as the alteration of the eternity clauses, namely articles 1-3 of Constitution, as entrenched by art. 4, would require a return to the original constituent power, and thus by implication would be a revolution, the point was to indicate all the more strongly what could not be done through ordinary amendments. Yet, to tell the Turkish people that they must stage a revolution if they wish to make an entirely new constitution was, to say the least, unfortunate and in fact erroneous. Nevertheless, in a toned down version, the same type of rupture was actually recommended by the noted constitutional scholar Serap Yazici in a recent book where she claimed that a democratically elected assembly need not be bound by either the eternity clauses nor even the procedures indicated by article 175, the amendment rule of the Turkish Constitution. While she was very right in suggesting that the highly undemocratic 10% threshold in elections should be abandoned, we can still be grateful that the AKP has never imagined that it could take the road of explicit legal rupture in constitution making. As I told a meeting last December in Istanbul: I do not want to be in this country when anyone tries this method!

 

The second option was to return to a consensual form of constitution making, a method, also hinted at by the Constitutional Court in the same 2008 decision, that could have led to the creation of a package that all Turkish political forces could identify with to some extent. Such a solution would also mean that perforce there could not be 110 deputies to apply to the Court for a review of the amendments or of the new constitution. This was the position I represented in the debates. My idea was to draw the non-parliamentary parties into a consultative assembly (a "convention") elected by straight proportional representation without a cut-off, that would present an initial draft for a civilian constitution to a new Grand National Assembly still structured by the (otherwise undesirable) undemocratic 10% threshold. In any case, the AKP government never showed any interest in any consensual alternative, including a return to the parliamentary All Party Accord Commissions of yesterday (that is prior to 2002).

 

What the AKP government has chosen instead is a return to the method of majority imposition, which has been its method in constitutional politics since the 2007 crisis over the presidency. Of course the Constitutional Court did allow (in spite of the leading narrative about the quorum affair) that imposition in 2007 by opening the way to a referendum that would predictably enact the election of the president of the republic in national referenda. But since that time, the Court has stood in the way of a repeat performance as indicated in 2008 with its headscarf amendment decisions. These seemed to renew the activist jurisprudence of the 1970s when constitutional amendments were repeatedly reviewed, a jurisprudence that by the way was very much disliked by the military and tried to block it at several junctions including the new wording of art. 175 of the 1982 Constitution. Given the evolving nature of Turkish politics, such a renewed role for the Court was not the appearance of a juristocracy, but the establishment of at least one check and balance in an increasingly monolithic system desperately in the need of it. Those democrats who in that context attacked the Court for historically understandable reasons were nevertheless fighting the battle of yesterday, failing to see the very possible if not inevitable dangers of tomorrow.

 

But let's forget predictions for the moment. What is clear is that the AKP government is following the pattern of other populist and especially authoritarian leaders and governments in attacking the supreme or constitutional courts that stand in their way. On the democratic side, Franklin Roosevelt, and Indira Gandhi come to mind; on the undemocratic one Peron, Fujimori and Chavez. But whether democratic or not, the attacks are always wrong headed. Their logic, whatever the specific intentions of the leading protagonists, is the establishment of the kind of monolithic power that no government should have. Indira Gandhi aimed at a social revolution much needed in India, but we should recall that she became the lord of a destructive period of emergency rule in the 1970s, after weakening the Court temporarily, almost destroying Indian democracy. And even Roosevelt, the creator of the American welfare state, as deficient as it still is today, was also the jail master of 140,000 Japanese Americans, mostly citizens, which was an entirely unnecessarily act allowed by a cowed Supreme Court in Korematsu v. the U.S., a case whose dissenting opinions today are far more significant than the controlling opinion itself. What all these leaders, including in earlier periods the Turkish military, and now the AKP have in common is that they have seen Court decisions interfering with their constitutional and political plans. Instead of modifying their plans, they chose to move in various ways to transform the membership of constitutional courts or greatly limit their jurisdiction or both so the same thing could not happen again. On the basis of the record, we can say that only in non-democratic countries or in countries where democracy is lost can such a project fully succeed.

 

There is no question whatsoever that the Court re-organization plan and the related project revising party closings are the only things really important in the present context in the AKP government's proposal. Within a new and properly negotiated constitution, even these provisions may be unobjectionable and even desirable. But here is my thesis. When the cart is put before the horse, as it already was in the case of the headscarf amendments, the new amendment package stands very much in the way of properly negotiating such a consensual, civilian constitution.

 

It does not much improve things that the package has many random features anticipating elements of a future better constitution. Liberal and progressive in themselves, here their purpose is entirely instrumental. Yes it is a good idea to promote affirmative action, collective bargaining and abolish an amnesty for the perpetrators of the bloody coup of 1980 even if the statute of limitations will not be thereby overcome. But the very randomness of the provisions indicates that they are included to attract various constituencies: above all liberal democratic opinion in Turkey and abroad, and of course the voters in a projected referendum. Obviously, the AKP is not expecting to have the 2/3 parliamentary votes to pass the package, but with presidential agreement 3/5 are enough, under article 175, to go to a referendum.

 

So what is wrong with the essence of the plan, i.e. the planned judicial re-organization and party closing schemes? Even this is a complex matter, and here I must forego a complex analysis. The ex European deputy, always friendly to the AKP, Joost Lagendijk is certainly right: provisions like this are to be found in democratic countries, while Turkey's existing rules very much need revision. But what may be good as part of a whole liberal democratic constitution as in the European countries he is thinking of may not have the same meaning when enacted in context of a constitutional crisis and especially during a struggle between the government and the Court. And, what may be good and fair in one democratic setting may be unfair and authoritarian in another. One could indeed put together quite an authoritarian system by choosing some particular mix of regulations from various liberal democratic states.

 

In Turkey the issue is very particular, however. If I am not very wrong on this, the implication of the amendment is that the present Constitutional Court that stands in the way of the current government would be entirely replaced relatively soon, at the latest by the end of the next electoral cycle. Moreover, what is proposed would, in the current electoral situation, give a party with a great parliamentary majority – namely the AKP (based nota bene on less than 50% of the votes) – in the case of judicial re-organization, a very large degree though not absolute control over the memberships of the highest Courts. It would also give it near immunity in relation to any future prospect of being closed as a party. Admittedly, both of these goals are sought in ways to avoid the appearance of any overkill. What is highly likely is that the combination of presidential and parliamentary choice would give the majority party enough judges from the beginning of the regulation, but still in the current parliamentary cycle, when 6 new judges would be added according to a provisional article (#19), 4 former substitute members and two elected by parliament ultimately by the majority. This makes it likely from the moment of the amendment entering into force that, in light of the 2/3 thresholds required, no Constitutional Court would judge any of the government's future amendments unconstitutional, nor would it rule the party itself worthy of being closed. And that is the whole point here.

 

I am no fan of party closings at all in spite of their German and Spanish pedigrees, except perhaps in the most extreme cases of parties with militias that aim at the violent overthrow of a constitution. Even the disastrous current election in my native Hungary does not entirely shake this conviction. Thus I do not think that the new method of party closing, involving parliamentary participation by 5 members of each parliamentary group and a 2/3 rule to indict a party involves a move in a bad direction, if party closings are to be kept at all. I note only that the DTP (Democratic Society Party organizing independently elected Kurdish deputies) might not have been protected by this rule given the ambivalence of the AKP and the very likely possibility that its representatives would split their votes. Thus the DTP would have been at the mercy of the governing party entirely. Also new left wing parties would be in trouble as well given the fact that Turkey, unusually, has a parliament with three conservative parties but no center left. The obvious issue is that the criteria of party closings and the adoption of the so-called Venice guidelines that would greatly limit them is not touched upon by the new amendment. On the other hand, the immunity of a dominant party from party closing would now be triply guaranteed: by the form of judicial appointments, the old 3/5 decision rule of the Constitutional Court in these matters would now be raised to 2/3 of those present, and now by the establishment of a parliamentary screen that would require in the case of parliaments containing four parties large enough to have parliamentary groups (as in this electoral cycle) that three out of four (2 out of 4 is less than 2/3!) indict a fourth such party in a case of prospective closing to be then tried by the Constitutional Court. And most absurdly, when there are two such parties (as in the previous parliamentary cycle between 2002 and 2007) deputies of a party would have to vote to indict their own organization and allow the beginning of a process in the Court, forgetting the matter that the new Court would already be packed in their favor. Here we move from the highly unlikely to the literally and doubly impossible.

 

Note again, it is not the amendment package that is itself the problem, and especially most of its attractive parts, but a potential two-step strategy of which it may become the first step. The question is what would happen when the constitution will be changed as the result of this first step, namely after the passing of the amendment package. Since its purpose given the events of the last three turbulent years is to remove fundamental impediments in face of governmental constitution making, we have a right to expect governmental constitution making to proceed without impediments from the moment of approval in a referendum. Without consensus constraining impediments, such constitution making need not be in any significant respect consensual, though various forms of democratic window dressing may be provided.

 

So Turks are likely to get, after the passing of the current amendment package, a flood of new constitutional amendments and perhaps the passing of a new constitution. The only question is what would be the character of the constitutional innovations of that second stage, and in my view this cannot be predicted on the basis of looking at the provisions of the first stage that were needed to get the main features passed. In that case, would the, on the whole, quite acceptable Ozbudun constitution of 2008 provide the needed clues? Not necessarily. That constitution was also offered in the midst of all the existing constraints. And these were: a constitution with three "eternal" clauses (as entrenched by a fourth, itself logically also "eternal"), a Constitutional Court taking its stand on these clauses and capable of reviewing amendments, and indeed dissolving a party like the AKP. The constraint of the existing Court enforces the constraint of the eternal clauses. Without it there is no enforcement. With these constraints gone, the AKP will not be able to say to its militants, its hard liners: "Boys (indeed not girls!) we cannot do all we wish to do, you and I in our hearts, because there are all these constraints…"So what can be done? The engineering of the package is very clever, as I already said. It disarms liberal opponents and helps passage in a referendum. Moreover, in light of the practice of European referenda (unfortunately and undemocratically!), and in the explicit wording of article 175 ("The Turkish Grand National Assembly, in adopting the laws related to the Constitutional amendment, shall also decide on which provisions shall be submitted to referendum together and which shall be submitted individually") it is not illegal to create packages of this type, to pass even a complete constitution as a single amendment act. The very same procedure, however, also presents some vulnerabilities. Even if not in the referendum, where the impact of each clause has been carefully calibrated in advance, in parliament it is possible that enough parts will run into intense opposition so that that threshold of 110 deputies needed to have standing in the case of amendment review at the Constitutional Court can be met. The CHP (Republican People's Party) today does not dispose over, as it is well known, these 110 votes as it did still in 2008. The fact that the package includes such heterogeneous elements may make it easier for it to get allies. Even if for understandable reasons, after the disastrous decision of the Constitutional Court on the DTP in 2009, Kurdish deputies of the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) – who alas need constitutional protections most of all, and don't really get it in the new party closing proposal – will not be among them.

 

Moreover, the fact that the reform project is a single amendment package must mean that even if a part of the proposal is unconstitutional the whole amendment package is also unconstitutional and cannot go to the referendum. By not enumerating the project in terms of single amendments, the framers make it easier for the Court to invalidate the whole, though of course parliament could always re-pass the parts the Court did not find objectionable. Whether they would wish to do so, if the major parts on judicial appointments are knocked out, is very questionable. It is these parts that must be challenged because a Court that loses its independence cannot guard articles 1, 2, and 3 in the face of derogation.

 

In a phone interview with the New York Times, professor Özbudun, supporting the package, was asked why more has not been done by the government planners (apparently he was not among them or advising them?) to liberalize and democratize the Turkish constitution. His answer is that "deep in their hearts" the AKP government would have done more, but because of their fear of the opposition and the Court, this is all they dared to do. The experience in 2008 indicates the opposite. Then instead of negotiating a civilian constitution in a process where the Özbudun's draft could have been one among many proposals, they tried to push through what apparently was really in their hearts, or at least amendments dear to their special constituency. I fear that is also the case now, even if they package what is truly important to them in a heterogeneous and unrelated set of important things dear to a variety of interests, most of them quite legitimate. But I do agree: if they get away with this, the government may indeed get a chance to show Turks what is really deep in their hearts, and that is rarely a good thing to find out in the case of any movement or government. That is the basic liberal insight. In this case too, I am afraid the result may not be as beautiful as many of my liberal friends currently seem to believe. Liberation from military tutelage has been a slow and painful process, yes it is not yet over, but it should not expose Turkey to even the possibility of another authoritarianism that could become an equal threat to both liberalism and democracy.

 

 Andrew Arato is Professor in Political and Social Theory at the New School in New York and is author of Constitution Making Under Occupation: The Politics of Imposed Revolution in Iraq (2009).

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM AND THE JUDICIARY

RIZA TÜRMEN

 

"We want to remove imbalances between the appointed and the elected… High judiciary has no accountability… Perhaps, the presidential system should be on Turkey's agenda again. Parliament could be more effective. But this is not the case at the moment. There are 411 votes but a group of the appointed blocks the decision," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said.

 

As understood, Mr. Prime Minister's real problem is with the judiciary. He thinks the presidential system will solve this once and for all.

 

This is not true, however. Although high judiciary judges in the United States are appointed by the president, the appointments need to be approved by Congress. Therefore, presidents prefer to appoint judges who are more acceptable by the Congress instead of their own candidates. Besides, judges for the high judiciary are selected for lifetime. Since there is no issue of appointment in this case, judges are free from being sympathetic to presidents. (In the new constitutional amendment package "those who are at the end of tenure may be re-elected" statement is protected. However, considering the fact that 14 out of 17 members of the Constitutional Court will be appointed by the president, the above statement will cause trouble when it comes to the independence of the judiciary.)

 

The Constitutional Court in U.S. limits the presidential authority while preventing the dominance of the judiciary. Most American presidents complain about the Constitutional Court. President Franklin Roosevelt was angry at the Constitutional Court for squashing the "New Deal" laws and threatened the court with increasing the number of "nine wise men" to 15 and filling vacancies with fellow judges who thought alike. However, he failed. If we look at the constitutional amendment package submitted by the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in Turkey, we should admit that Erdoğan is more courageous than Roosvelt.

 

The executive, judiciary and the legislative branches are authorized by laws. There is no ranking among the three. Therefore, saying, "I am the elected but the judiciary is the appointed. How could the appointed block me?" contradicts the fundamentals of the separation of forces principle.

 

In constitutional democracies, the judiciary, based upon the authority granted by laws, supervises executive and legislative bodies. The executive and the legislative are obliged to use their authority in line with the law. The judiciary determines if the executive and the legislative remain within the boundaries of the law. If there is a difference of interpretation between the government and the Constitutional Court regarding the details of the judicial supervision, the court's interpretation is essential. In the countries where the judiciary transfers its authorities to the executive, such as Turkey, judicial supervision becomes awfully important.

 

Today, judges not only apply national judicial norms but also international ones. And that expands the judiciary's authority and reinforces its control over the executive and the legislative bodies.

 

An important aspect of the judiciary is to protect the minority's rights and freedoms against the majority. In democracies, minorities are as important as the majority. For that, however, the high judiciary should not necessarily consist of pro-government judges. So, a political party winning an election doesn't mean the same party's absolute control over the judiciary. This is the imminent danger of the AKP's constitutional package, however. A constitutional court of which at least 10 members of the 17 share the same line with the AKP cannot act like a balancing factor against political power and cannot protect the minority.

 

If it is a democratic regime, the judiciary can be left to the absolute control of the government neither in a presidential system nor in any other system. If the disturbance felt through the judicial supervision is one of the reasons for a presidential system, the constitutional amendment package happens to remove this reason.

 

Mr. Rıza Türmen is a columnist for the daily Milliyet in which this piece appeared Monday. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT APRIL 24?

MEHMET ALİ BİRAND

 

Will it always be like this? I'm tired of this. All of Turkey has first talked about what decision will be made in the U.S. Congress regarding the genocide issue and then which two words will come out of President Obama's mouth. Columns have been written and discussions made on TV.

 

The administration has spent an enormous effort and energy over this for the past six months. The prime minister has made international visits. And we experienced weeks full of unnecessary correspondence and statements harming relations with the United States.

 

Many of us hoped that the genocide issue for at least some time would be off of our agendas due to these protocols.

 

The protocol process

It didn't happen. Never mind who ever made a mistake at what point, fact is that this process has not been managed well. The impression in the international public is that Erdoğan after signing the agreement has backed up due to great pressure from the Azerbaijani and started insisting too much on the Karabahk pre-condition that has lead the protocols to get stuck in a swamp.

 

Let's not forget that perception of the public is more trustworthy than the reality. This is how we arrived at this point. We all are sick and tired. And the ones to gain from this situation were the Armenians. They reminded the genocide issue to the entire world putting it back on the agenda and what's even better is they froze the protocols without cancelling them despite pressure from Washington, Paris and Moscow.

 

This means despite them being the victim they have placed themselves in a position where they will make up a bill to put on their table without being on different terms with them.

 

And we remained in a position in which we seem cranky and spoiling the game in which we drive relations into a difficult position.

 

What will happen next year?

This year passed. Now I'm sure, we'll say, "Let's see what tomorrow brings" and forget about it. We'll get busy with other things like the Constitution, referendum and general elections. Months will pass in no time and before we know one year will pass. What will happen on April 24th of next year? Will we experience the same? Don't we pity this country?

 

And besides, let's not forget, if we don't change this course, then one day (2015 the latest) the White House will announce genocide. For, we may ignore it as much as we want, but in the conscience of the public genocide has been real and we have already been judged. Turkey won't be able to use its strategic importance to continue pressuring Washington any longer. The only way for now to get rid of this situation without formally accepting genocide is to find a formula to revive and implement the protocols that are frozen for now.

 

I don't know if you are to convince the Azerbaijanis or pressure them. Aliyev does not seem to be happy about the situation today. For, Baku seems to be the party running from this dispute. But, whatever anyone says, there is no other way out of this genocide issue other than these protocols. And what's even more important is that they change Turkey's general attitude. Hasan Cemal said it correctly. Is it a bad thing to share the sorrow of the Armenians? We know how to share sorrow. We can show them that we understand their feelings.

 

We can only get rid of this genocide stain by creating a difference in our general attitude. And the person to do it easily is Erdoğan. Otherwise, same time next year we'll spent time talking about the same subject again. See you next April 24th.

 

Prime minister should go to Athens with Bartholomeos

Hakan Çelik made an extremely rational, constructive and communicative proposition to the prime minister last week. I do agree with him. Let me tell you why. The prime minister will make an historical visit to Athens on May 14 and 15. This visit is extremely important for the relationship between Turkey and Greece and will give start for a new period. It will be a trip that has not been made in many years and mutual goodwill shall prevail.

 

Just imagine he will take with him 10 ministers of the Turkish Republic and sign agreements in many respects. Maybe for the first time in history instead of settling any disputes they will talk about enhancing our friendship. I've been following Turkish-Greek relations for 40 years now but never witnessed an atmosphere like this. In such a positive atmosphere it would be a great gesture for the prime minister to take Patrik Bartholomeos with him on his delegation.

 

Imagine the aircraft of the Turkish Prime Minister landing on the Athens International Airport and Erdoğan leaving the aircraft in front of hundreds of TV cameras together with religious leader of the Orthodox world, Patriarch Bartholomeos. There couldn't be any more sensational image on an international arena than this.

 

It would be so rich in messages transmitted and it would create such a great communication impact that is unimaginable.

 

This event is not just about winning the Greek people's heart it also means embracing the Orthodox world. And can you imagine Erdoğan announcing the reopening of the Halki Seminary during the same trip?

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

INDECENT OFFER…

YUSUF KANLI

 

Turkey's Constitution clearly underlines that if the main opposition party, a sufficient amount of deputies, the president or a court takes legislation to the Constitutional Court with a demand for its annulment on grounds of incompatibility with the constitution, the high court examines the complaint. It then decides whether or not to process it and, if compliant, checks the incompatibility claim both for procedure as well as content and makes a final decision on the issue, which cannot be appealed.

 

As regards constitutional amendments, however, the high court can make an evaluation only on procedural aspects, namely whether the changes were made in accordance with the sufficient majority, voted twice in Parliament and such. However, through its decisions over time, the high court has made compatibility with the first three articles – which cannot be amended and amendment of which cannot even be suggested – and particularly article 2, which defines Turkey as "a democratic, secular and social state governed by the rule of law; bearing in mind the concepts of public peace, national solidarity and justice; respecting human rights; loyal to the nationalism of Atatürk, and based on the fundamental tenets set forth in the Preamble" as within the scope of "procedural examination."

 

The high court, through its own decisions, has thus created precedence, with which it has the power to check the compatibility of constitutional amendments with the first three constitutional articles, which are considered as the founding pillars of the Turkish republic. Only three years ago, the court annulled a constitutional amendment package by the AKP, together with the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, to allow headscarves in universities. The court annulled them on grounds of attempting to go around article 2 and later used that verdict in the closure case against the AKP as evidence of it becoming a focus of anti-secular activities. The high court at the time reiterated in all clarity that checking the compliance of amendments with the founding pillars of the Republic is a "procedural examination."

 

It has been a constant complaint by the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, administration that the

high court has no such power, has taken over the duty of the legislative, has enhanced its jurisdiction and should examine constitutional amendments only from procedural aspects. The AKP's opponents defend that conformity with the main pillars of the Republic is indeed a procedural examination, as the high court indeed has been checking whether such a proposal could indeed be made under those articles.

 

In the present case, it might not be easy for opponents of the constitutional amendment push of the AKP to claim the ruling party was participating in efforts to go around the secularism principle. Yet, the catch word is in the last part of article 2, which states clearly that Turkey is a state "based on the fundamental tenets set forth in the preamble" of the Constitution.

 

The Constitution is quite clear, and the AKP is indeed aware that the changes it wanted to achieve in the structure and powers of the high courts – which the opposition and many others feared would increase government's influence, if not direct control, of the high courts – might be considered by the Constitutional Court as "procedural incompatibility" with the "founding pillars" of the Republic and invalidate the amendments even if approved in a national referendum.

 

The latest offer from Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin to the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP – that his government and party were ready to divide the amendment package and separate the contentious articles related to the structure and duties of the high courts and the one regarding party closures from the so-called "sugar coating" articles, should the CHP agree to vote in favor of the amendments and not demand an annulment from the high court – was therefore a rather indecent proposal, emanating from the awareness that the contentious articles indeed contradicted the "separation of powers" principle and might be annulled by the high court. Ergin's indecent offer to the CHP is indeed a confession by the AKP that it indeed is aware that the package contradicts the principle of separation of powers.

 

Furthermore, as the recent public opinion poll by the SONAR company demonstrated, support for the AKP has dipped to an all-time low (around 28.5 percent), and in a referendum, which might be turned into a national vote of confidence for the AKP government, the ruling party might face a humiliating defeat.

 

The AKP is in a panic.

 

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 I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LEGAL TUSSLE

 

Senior lawyers are locked in disagreement on whether the Supreme Court can strike down the 18th Amendment or other legislation introduced by parliament. The debate revolves around the question if the amendment alters the basic nature of the Constitution. This is something for the country's legal heavyweights to thrash out. No doubt many key arguments will be heard over the coming days as the country's highest court takes up the matter and the key issue of the mechanism put in place by parliament for the appointment of the superior judiciary. But the matter raises new concerns of a tussle among institutions. This is something the country simply cannot afford. We desperately need a period of calm to create confidence, and the kind of environment that can allow for economic growth. This is simply not possible when there is turmoil and a constant sense of uncertainty. We have lived amidst this for far too long. The detrimental effects as far as investment or the political development we search for are visible everywhere.

At the same time it is of course important that constitutional matters are settled. Without a working basic law, on which there is a broad consensus, it is impossible to get very far. It is also imperative that all institutions see this law as just, fair and balanced. The multiple petitions moved against the 18th Amendment make it plain that this is not the case at present. The petitions have indeed come from many different quarters and suggest there is very real concern over some clauses included in the amendment. We must hope the matter can be settled with goodwill. It is imperative that our institutions learn to work harmoniously together. Their failure to do so in the past has led to many of the problems we face today as a nation. It is important that we, at all costs, avoid stumbling into a still bigger quagmire of difficulties. Warnings continue to come in that this could happen. We have also seen calls made that are inherently immature, such as those that state the apex court's verdict will not be abided by. Such illogical assertions from politicians serve no purpose. They simply add heat to a situation in which, more than anything else, we need calm, so that things remain on an even keel and we can avoid trouble in the future.

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

PRICING POWER

 

The reduction in the price of fuel means, in theory at least, that it should be possible to reduce the cost of the power tariff for consumers. Some experts say that this reduction could be as much as 65 paisa a unit – an amount that would bring relief within many households where there is strain involved in the effort to make ends meet. As things stand today, this means almost every home in the country. The rapid surge we have seen in the price of power over the past two years has after all affected not just the very poor. The middle class, the salaried, even the relatively affluent have all suffered in one way or the other. In many households corners that never existed in the first place have been cut.

It seems unlikely that this state of affairs will change in the near future. While theoretically a reduction in the bills sent out to people everywhere in the country is possible we know that in fact this will not happen. The reality of the IMF-dictated terms is now becoming plain. Indeed the IMF is set to demand a further cut in power subsidies that the government has vowed to resist at least until loadshedding is decreased. Practically speaking we do not know if this will be possible. We have seen a repeated caving in to demands made by the IMF. To some extent this is inevitable. Warnings had come in as soon as the package was agreed on in 2008. But the government must also realise it should find ways to give top-most priority to the interests of people. A failure on this score can lead to many disasters. The task of the people who represent them is to find a way to ease their burden. The benefit of falling fuel costs must then be passed on so that we can stop the spiral towards greater despondency and desperation that we see everywhere today.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

MYSTERY FOREVER

 

The question of who killed Benazir Bhutto resounds across the country just as powerfully as it did in the troubled days of December 2007 that followed her death. The UN report and the flurry of activity that we have seen since then have revived interest in the issue and all the mysteries that surround it. The need to get to the bottom of what happened that December day at Liaquat Bagh and who plotted the chain of events we saw unfold is acute. But can the three-man commission formed by the prime minister to probe the killing make any genuine headway? The fact after all is that over two years after Benazir died, under a government of her own party, we still do not know where the truth lies.

There is some doubt over what purpose the new commission is intended to serve. This is all the more so given that it focuses essentially on only one aspect of the killing: the hosing away of evidence and the orders given in this regard by the former head of Military Intelligence. Certainly, this angle needs to be investigated. The involvement of a senior military officer in the matter and his intervention are unusual. But the probe needs to take up other matters as well. Some of the issues raised by the UN report raise doubts as to the role of people within the PPP. Members of the party itself demand these persons be investigated. Unless this happens the commission set up will serve no real purpose. It will be seen as yet another cosmetic effort to solve a mystery. Many believe key figures who now control the PPP do not want this at all. The question is why and what the motives are of those who would prefer the assassination of Benazir to forever remain a mystery with the facts shut away in dusty files.

 

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I. THE NEWS

THE KIDNAPPED

RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI

There is no doubt that North Waziristan is dangerous territory. It is a major sanctuary of local and foreign militants espousing diverse causes. No other place in the world has been subjected to so many missile strikes by drones in such a short period of time. Its reputation as a lawless place was reinforced when last month the so-called Punjabi Taliban kidnapped two former Pakistani military spies and a British journalist accompanying them.

Over-confidence and naivety led the two former ISI officers, Colonel (R) Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam, and Squadron Leader (R) Khalid Khwaja, to venture into North Waziristan and provide an opportunity to one of the many militant groups operating there to have them kidnapped.

Nobody could have advised them to travel to North Waziristan to interview militant commanders for a documentary that Assad Qureshi, a British journalist of Pakistani origin, was making. Two former MNAs, PML-N's Javed Ibrahim Paracha from Kohat and JUI's Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz from Karak, were the last people that they met and interviewed before heading for North Waziristan and both reportedly advised them not to undertake the risky trip. Paracha and Shah Abdul Aziz have had contacts with the militants and they would have known the risks for outsiders travelling to North Waziristan where the government presence is weak.

Col Imam and Khwaja must have felt that the militants posed no threat to them due to their past association with jihadi and Taliban groups. The name of Usman Punjabi has been mentioned as someone with whom Khwaja was in touch before heading for North Waziristan. It was a trap and now they are paying the price for their poor judgement. Times have changed and a new generation of militants has emerged that is suspicious of anyone linked to the Pakistan Army or the ISI. They have now taken on the Pakistani state and the military for siding with the US in the 'war on terror'. Besides, they would have known that Col Imam and Khwaja sympathised with the Afghan Taliban for fighting against foreign occupying forces and had little sympathy for the Pakistani Taliban who were killing their own soldiers and policemen and were exploding bombs in cities.

Though there are reports that Khwaja had undertaken an earlier trip to North Waziristan on a mission that is unclear, his March 2010 visit was clearly aimed at assisting journalist Qureshi to make a documentary on the militants. In fact, Khwaja had contacted many people including this writer for a possible interview. As Khwaja explained to this scribe, he wanted this documentary to be objective as he felt all other documentaries and stories about the Taliban were one-sided. For Qureshi, it must have been an opportunity of a lifetime to gain access to the world of militants. Journalists do take risks to cover important events and Qureshi, in this case, must have felt reassured in the company of Khwaja and Col Imam.

This certainly was Khwaja's idea to travel to North Waziristan and he seems to have persuaded Col Imam to come along with him. There is no evidence that the two were on a mission to mediate between the military and the militants even though in his second video-tape Khwaja is made to say by his captors that he was sent by the Pakistan Army to North Waziristan to seek safe passage for the troops caught in the conflict against the militants. This isn't quite right as there is no real conflict in North Waziristan at this stage and the peace accord between the military and the local militants led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur is working. The security forces maintain a strong presence in North Waziristan, but no operation is presently being carried out by the military against the militants. There have been occasional clashes between the two sides and a recent incident near Khattay Killay village on the Miramshah-Dattakhel road claimed the lives of eight soldiers, two children and an unspecified number of militants. Both sides, however, have managed to keep the situation under control by reiterating their resolve to abide by the peace deal.

In fact, the military or the ISI doesn't need the services of outsiders to establish contacts with the militants. This job is better performed by local tribal elders and clerics who know the area and the people and their language and customs. On occasions, the tribal elders and clerics along with the Afghan Taliban have mediated between the two sides and succeeded in arranging ceasefires, peace accords and prisoners' swap.

There cannot be any doubt that Khwaja under duress was forced to make sweeping statements in the video-tape. He confessed to being an ISI and CIA agent and accepted his guilt for luring the Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz to escape from the besieged mosque wearing a woman's veil and then getting him arrested. He is prompted to say that certain jihadi commanders such as Fazlur Rahman Khalil, Masood Azhar and Abdullah Shah Mazhar and militant organisations including Jaish-e-Mohammad, Jamiatul Mujahideen, Harkatul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al Badr were still operating as ISI's proxies and were allowed to collect funds in Pakistan. This clearly reflects the rift between the jihadi groups. It seems the militant groups angry with the military are trying to settle scores by using the kidnapped Khwaja to say things in the video against the ISI. The Punjabi Taliban seem to dislike Khwaja because no such video of Col Imam has emerged in which he is made to say unsavoury things about the ISI.

The demands made by the group in return for the release of Khwaja, Col Imam and Qureshi also came as a surprise. Calling itself Asian Tigers, the Punjabi militants demanded release of three Afghan Taliban leaders Abdul Ghani Biradar, Abdul Kabir and Mansoor Dadullah held by Pakistani intelligence agencies. According to most accounts, Kabir hasn't been captured. Mansoor Dadullah, who was captured two years ago by Pakistani authorities in an injured condition after a clash in Balochistan, is no longer part of the Afghan Taliban movement as he suspected the involvement of some Taliban commanders in the assassination of his elder brother, Dadullah Akhund, in a NATO raid in Helmand province. The Pakistan government is unlikely to free Biradar or Mansoor Dadullah to seek release of the two retired military officers. The British government also has said nothing about its kidnapped citizen, Qureshi. The so-called Asian Tigers group surely knows this and it could eventually agree to take ransom money and release the three men.

This incident highlighted the complexity of the North Waziristan situation. The Punjabi Taliban and other groups are able to operate there with help from local militants. Hafiz Gul Bahadur wants outside militants to get out of North Waziristan as their presence could force Pakistan's security forces to take action against them. He appears helpless to expel the Mahsud militants who took refuge with their allies in North Waziristan after escaping the military operation in South Waziristan.

The US pressure on Pakistan Army to move into North Waziristan in a big way is mounting as it is keen that foreign militants, particularly the Haqqani network, is denied the use of Pakistani space for launching attacks in Afghanistan. Eventually, the Pakistani military would have to do something about North Waziristan to deny its use as a sanctuary for militants. For now, though, this cannot happen as 150,000 soldiers are still busy fighting a difficult battle in the tribal areas and trying to stabilise the situation in places like Swat. There seems to be shortage of troops and resources even to rid Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions of militants or maintain a sustained presence in South Waziristan. The battle for North Waziristan would have to wait. And even if it is won there is no guarantee that militancy would be overcome to win durable peace.

The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar. Email: rahim yusufzai@yahoo.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

'MEGAWATT LAUNDERING'

S KHALID HUSAIN

Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the minister responsible for providing electricity to the country, had once promised that there would be no load-shedding after Dec 31, 2009. Recently there was an all-parties meeting, called and presided over by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, to think of new ways of "megawatt laundering." Such affirmations are telling proof of incoherent governance. As for the meeting itself, it should have been held a long time back, when the crisis was seen as coming, and not now, when it is upon us. "Megawatt laundering" is borrowed from "money-laundering," and who would understand money-laundering better than the PPP with the NRO, the Swiss cases and all the rest staring it in the face?

Purists would say 'megawatt laundering' is not the right term for the decision to rob 'Peter', or Karachi, of 300 megawatts to pay 'Paul', or the north. Robbery, they would say, is robbery, and not 'laundering'. When anyone, such as the present rulers, who are perceived as robbing the poor to enrich the rich, take to robbing one poor, to pay another poor, it will make the one poor, poorer and angrier, and not make the other any richer, or happier. The credibility problem is one of the government's main weak points. People just cannot accept anything it says, or does, on overcoming the power shortage, Mr Ashraf's pledge has come to symbolise all that is wrong with the government.

Venezuela is faced with an electricity shortage not unlike that of Pakistan. The government of President Hugo Chavez, however, is seen by Venezuelans to be battling the problem with determination, including a plan to purchase power from Cuba via undersea cables. Meanwhile, it is intelligently managing load-shedding which is unavoidable. At the same time, the government has formed thousands of neighbourhood groups which are going door to door to raise awareness of ways to economise on energy consumption. The Venezuelan government established its seriousness of purpose by requiring the electricity minister to resign when the load-shedding schedule did not work well enough. There is discontent, protests and criticism in Venezuela too, but since people see action underway to overcome the crisis, there is no despair, as in Pakistan, no feeling of hopelessness.

The government must announce short-, medium- and long-term plans to overcome the power shortage. The medium- and long-term plans can include utilisation of Thar coal, work on the future use of solar and wind power, and new dams.

The PPP has been in office long enough for it to have an intelligible plan. Is there one in existence? Except for longwinded, pointless harangues on TV chat shows, no PPP spokesperson has said, yes: here is the plan, this is how we aim to end the power shortage. Without doubt, implementation of the proposed measures is going to be a hard slog, but, given seriousness of purpose and the will to act, Pakistan could see the plan through to completion, amending, updating and aligning it with changing conditions as the plan progresses through its stages.

Of course, the authors of the plan would have to be individuals who are identifiable, credible and aboveboard. Such individuals are not hard to find within the country and from the Pakistani diaspora. There is no shortage of Pakistani expertise in this field. There is, however, a dreadful shortage of people in power who are able to recognise, and to value, such expertise better than they patronise flatterers and timeservers.

If Thar coal is to be part of the power-generation plan, it must be in the plan for genuine, clearly defined and evaluated reasons, and not for use as a tantalising but illusory solution to the country's power problems. If the government is serious about Thar coal, it should come out with clear and definitive answers to the questions in people's minds, such as: Is mining Thar coal physically possible? Is it qualitatively suitable as fuel for power plants? Are the costs and logistics of coal-fired plants in Thar realistic?

One ray of hope in this regard is a well regarded Pakistani corporation's interest in power generation through plants fired by Thar coal. If this corporation, which has successfully diversified into wholly unrelated fields and has, so far, shown positive results, decided to go in for power plants using Thar coal, its very involvement in the effort would be more a matter of comfort than any number of words or government-proposed solutions.

Here Mr Salman Farooqi comes in. Mr Farooqi, who is kingpin in President Zardari's covey of advisers, can perhaps better explain the half-day hullabaloo on PTV, over which he presided, many years ago.

This was during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure as prime minister. A Hong Kong coal tycoon was introduced on PTV, with a lot of fanfare, as an investor in the proposed plan for the use of Thar coal for firing power plants. The plants were not only to end the power problem in Pakistan but in addition make thousands of spare megawatts available for export.

It turned out, however, that the PPP government, and Farooq Leghari--then the country's president who had apparently set up the coal tycoon's meeting with the prime minister herself--had not understood the intent of the guest from Hong Kong. The tycoon's interest did lie in coal-fired power plants, but only if they were fired by imported coal--to be supplied by him. Thar coal figured nowhere in this. But all this was a matter of detail, because the PPP government of the day got its PR mileage out of the televised burlesque.

The writer is a former corporate executive. Email: husainsk@cyber.net.pk

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

LITTLE TO CELEBRATE

PART II

ASIF EZDI

The Concurrent List was inserted in the Government of India Act of 1935 – on which, incidentally, our two democratically adopted constitutions of 1956 and 1973 are modelled – mainly to avoid too rigid a distribution of powers between the federation and the states. It consisted of three kinds of subjects: (a) the most important laws on which it was felt advisable to preserve countrywide uniformity; (b) matters extending beyond one province which could best be regulated at the federal level; and (c) subjects on which giving a lead to provinces was considered important, as in the case of labour legislation. The first and second of these three principles have now been accepted even in the 18th Amendment, though only as an afterthought and to a very limited extent.

Thus, under the new Article 142 (b), both the federal parliament and the provincial assemblies will have the power, despite the abolition of the Concurrent List, to make laws with respect to criminal law, criminal procedure and evidence. This is, in effect, a mini concurrent list. Moreover, under Article 143, the federal law on these subjects will prevail over a provincial law. Evidently, the authors of the 18th Amendment recognised grudgingly that these were matters on which uniformity of law was the supreme consideration. It is therefore quite odd that in his article, Azeem Daultana has tried to make a case for "devolving" the subject of criminal law to the provinces. He is either unaware that it has been kept as a concurrent subject or disagrees with this decision. He owes an explanation to your readers.

Regarding marriage and divorce laws, Daultana maintains that since they are based on Islamic precedents, provinces will not have much freedom to change them. That is not as simple as he would like us to believe. Suppose one province passes a law removing restrictions on a Muslim male having four wives or declaring that a divorce becomes effective on the pronouncement of talaq three times without the intervening period of three months as laid down in the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance. If either of the spouses is from a different province, there could be legal complications. This is not a small matter as Daultana seems to think.

To argue for the retention of the Concurrent List does not mean that every single item on that list should have been retained. It means only that every single item should have been considered on its merits for retention and that federal and provincial ministries dealing with these subjects should have been consulted before the decision was taken. This was not done because the two largest parties in the country had committed themselves in the Charter of Democracy to the deletion of the list and they were not prepared to take a fresh look at the issue in a rational manner.

But the committee did recognise that a wholesale scrapping of the Concurrent List would be a mistake. So, besides creating a mini concurrent list of three subjects, the 18th Amendment transferred four concurrent subjects to the federal list and added international treaties and international arbitration as a new federal subject. Fortunately, one of the items rescued from the defunct Concurrent List and transferred to the federal list is electricity. This will save NEPRA from the guillotine. Otherwise, there would have been no nationwide regulations for the generation and transmission of electricity and no national agency to enforce them.

But while the committee did the right thing by accepting that electricity must be regulated at the federal level, it did not follow the same logic with regard to several other subjects, like drugs and medicines and environmental protection, which also need to be regulated by a single agency under uniform standards and rules. So far, the control and pricing of drugs and medicines has been done under a single federal law (Drugs Act of 1976) by a single authority.

This will change now and in due course there will be five sets of rules enforced by five different agencies. A drug whose use is prohibited or restricted in one province may be freely available in another. Even in the US, where states' rights are jealously guarded, there is a single authority, the Food and Drug Administration, to control the production and sale of medicines. Similarly, there is a single environmental protection policy and agency in the US. But in Pakistan there will in future be five different policies and five agencies to enforce it.

Those who try to defend the abolition of the Concurrent List concede that there will be difficulties, but contend that these difficulties will be relatively minor and that the damage can be limited. This is clearly the wrong approach. A far better course of action would have been to avoid damage in the first place. This could have been done by retaining the Concurrent List, possibly an abridged one, but giving the provinces final control over the subjects on that list. Before the passage of the 18th Amendment, the federal law always prevailed over a provincial law. All that needed to be done to meet the provinces' demand for greater autonomy, which is completely justified, was to stipulate that if a provincial assembly wished, a federal law on a concurrent subject would not apply to the province, or would apply only with modifications.

Besides the abolition of the Concurrent List, the 18th Amendment also has made many other ill-conceived changes in the country's constitutional edifice, all designed to benefit the ruling clique at the expense of the rights of the citizen. The most obnoxious of these relate to disqualifications for holding elective office, the jettisoning of the requirement of elections for party posts, the empowerment of party heads to throw out dissenting members of the legislatures, the extended ordinance-making powers of the government and the highly politicised procedure for appointments to the superior judiciary.

The new Article 63 opens the door wider for the election of those who have committed crimes. It does so in two ways. First, it removes the bar on the election of those who have been convicted of being absconders and those sentenced to less than two years' imprisonment. Second, those who have been sentenced to imprisonment of two years or more or dismissed from government service will in future be disqualified only for five years, instead of their lifetime, as was the case earlier. Purely as a hypothetical example, if someone is found guilty of having stashed $65 million of laundered money in Swiss bank accounts, he will be free to run for election as president or prime minister five years later.

When Qazi Anwar last month reportedly alleged that our parliament was filled with thieves, smugglers and jaalsaz elements (fraudsters), he was roundly taken to task by our members of parliament for having allegedly committed a breach of their privilege. But after the parliament's adoption of the new Article 63, which amounts to extending a welcome to criminals in the august houses, and the decision by the PPP co-chairman who sits in the Presidency to award party tickets to those who allegedly acquired fake degrees, our honourable lawmakers will have no grounds for complaint against the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

 

Qazi Anwar's reported remarks were in any case probably misunderstood by the distinguished members of parliament. He could not possibly have meant that there were petty thieves sitting in parliament. As everyone knows, those who commit petty crimes have no chance of getting elected to our legislative bodies. Sometimes they are lynched even before the police get them.

(To be continued)

The writer is a former member of the Pakistan Foreign Service. Email: asifezdi @yahoo.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

BELATED BUT CORRECTED

DR ASHFAQUE H KHAN

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani announced some short-term measures to conserve electricity as finalised by the participants of the two-day energy summit. The four-pronged measures included immediate, short-term, medium- and long-term solutions to address the worsening energy situation in the country. These measures, if implemented properly, can reduce the unscheduled load-shedding by 30 per cent. The immediate measures include: five-day working week; closure of business by 8:00 pm; 50 per cent reduction of power lights in government buildings; all street lights to be halved; power to billboards, neon signs and commercial decorative lights to be cut off; staggered weekly holidays for industrial units will release about 300 mmcfd of gas supply to power plants; marriage halls will be allowed to operate for only three hours, etc. These measures will save, as announced, some 1500MW of electricity.

The short-term measures would add 300MW of electricity to the system while by the end of the year, 1300MW would be added by making ten IPPs operational by providing them fuel. In order to resolve the circular debt issue the government would release Rs116 billion which would enable the IPPs to utilise their excess capacity and add electricity to the system. The government also intends to add 605MW in the system through the rental power projects.

These measures, though belated, are steps in the right direction and if implemented properly, will not only save power and hence reduce load-shedding but will also reduce fuel import with positive implications for balance of payments. Such measures were badly needed to conserve power and reduce fuel import bill. It is in this perspective that I had proposed a series of measures in the ECC meeting held on July 1, 2008 in Karachi under the chairmanship of the prime minister. While I was presenting measures to conserve fuel and power in the larger interest of the economy of Pakistan, the prime minister was smiling sarcastically as if I was speaking Greek. Several federal secretaries attending the meeting noted with concern the attitude of the prime minister. Two of them later asked me to continue to present these measures in every forum as these were the only short-term solutions. They said to me, "Today the prime minister is smiling sarcastically; tomorrow there will be tears in his eyes and he will be doing the same things that you proposed in the ECC meeting." How correct was the observation of those two federal secretaries. After almost two years, the prime minister announced almost the measures that I had presented in the ECC.

Following the advice of those secretaries I continued to present the case before the Daily Economic Monitoring Committee headed by Mr Naveed Qamar. The committee assigned me the responsibility to suggest measures for fuel and power conservation. The ministry of petroleum and natural resources were asked to produce gas load management formula. These measures were discussed in the committee several times but unfortunately no actions were taken.

The large-scale riots and demonstration in different parts of the country on account of unscheduled, massive load-shedding forced the government to take measures. Had the prime minister taken the measures which were suggested on July 1, 2008 in Karachi seriously, the country would have avoided such riots and demonstrations and the government would not have lost its popularity. Hence, it is better late than never.

Let me say a few words on the current power crisis. The current total installed capacity is about 20,000MW. The production of electricity is approximately 75 per cent of the installed capacity in any given time. Some installed capacity (25 per cent) is always used as reserve. Thus, the country can produce 15,000MW at any time. The demand on the other hand is also 15,000MW but the production is ranging between 10,000 to 10,500MW, leading to a gap of 4500– 5000MW. Thus, if the country could produce at its capacity, there would not be any shortfall and hence no load-shedding.

But then why there is a large-scale load-shedding going on in the country? A variety of factors are responsible for the massive load-shedding. First, PEPCO can produce 6000MW of electricity from hydel but due to shortage of water in reservoir it produces slightly above 2200MW. With the rise in temperature snow will melt on the mountain and water will flow into the reservoir leading to the increase in the generation of electricity through hydel.

The non-availability of adequate gas for power generation has also forced many IPPs to produce electricity less than their capacity. If the government ensures gas supply, (it has been announced by the Prime Minister) the power supply will improve by 950MW. There are some IPPs who have closed their operations either for security reasons or for lack of fuel. If their issues are resolved, some 300MW power can be added to the system.

The issue of circular debt has also played an important role in creating shortage of electricity. The prime minister has announced that the government will release Rs116 billion to settle this issue once and for all. This will also increase the supply of electricity to the system. Thus the current crisis in power sector is the result of less water available in the reservoirs; non-availability of adequate gas for power sector, security environment and circular debt. These issues are not insurmountable and hence the shortfall in power can be minimised. One thing is crystal clear. The capacity to meet the power demand does exist in the country. Resolving the above-mentioned issues can reduce load-shedding significantly.

The writer is director general and dean at NUST Business School, Islamabad. Email: ahkhan@nbs.edu.pk

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

A SUMMER OF DISCONTENT?

DR MALEEHA LODHI

The writer is a former envoy to the US and the UK, and a former editor of The News.

The enactment of the 18th Constitutional Amendment has deservedly earned the country's political parties, especially the ruling People's Party, much credit. But this accomplishment has been accompanied by controversy over a number of issues.

In doing away with the constitutional obligation to hold internal elections the amendment has struck a blow to party democracy. A related provision has evoked criticism that party leaders can now effectively suspend the fundamental right of parliamentary members to vote according to their conscience. The renaming of the North West Frontier Province has stirred long simmering ethnic tensions and sparked opposition from people in Hazara, with demonstrations continuing there.

The amendment's provision on judicial appointments has been challenged in the Supreme Court in what some see as an impending clash between the executive and the judiciary. A debate has also been ignited about the authority of the court to review the amendment if it changes the basic structure of the Constitution.

Despite this, the consensus forged among disparate political forces on the rebalancing of powers between the president and prime minister, and between the centre and the provinces, is a significant political development that ought to restore constitutional equilibrium in line with popular expectations.

The achievement has generated a mood of triumphalism in the government. But this needs to be tempered by the recognition that it is governance by which people will judge the ruling coalition, not by how power relations are reordered. Forging agreement over power relations within the political system is one thing, its actual operation quite another.

It is not clear in this regard whether the government has figured out the full implications of a decentralised polity with a weaker centre. An implementation committee has been announced whose first task should be to understand the ramifications of the provincial autonomy provisions and ascertain whether supporting legislation will be required and what changes will have to be made in the rules of business.

Meanwhile, the PPP-led coalition needs to address itself more purposefully to governance than it has done so far. The ambiguous power arrangement in place in the past two years contributed to a dysfunctional government. With the previous imbalances removed by the 18th Amendment there is now an opportunity to set a new course. The first test of this will be if and how Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani reshapes the cabinet. Will he be able to replace cronyism with merit and match need by capability?

The most important test will be whether the momentum created by the redefined constitutional arrangement is used to deliver effective governance. So far reactive governance has been in evidence, rather than a policy approach driven by a sense of urgency and fashioned by a clear vision. Governance has largely taken the form of ad hoc, piecemeal and inchoate responses to the unprecedented challenges that the country faces. Often the government has acted to deal with the crisis of the moment rather than prevent problems from exploding in its face.

Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that it has taken two years and the eruption of protests against power outages for the government to unveil a strategy of energy conservation to deal with the growing power crisis. While necessary, this is obviously not sufficient as a policy response. Energy saving has to be part of a credible overall strategy that focuses on how to get the existing power generating capacity going – by addressing the circular debt issue.

Today there is social or political ferment across the country with diverse factors driving this in different provinces. There are daily demonstrations against power outages in cities across Punjab and towns in Sindh. Targeted killings and attacks on settlers persist in Balochistan, signifying the tip of a dangerous iceberg. And in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa tensions continue to flare up in the wake of the renaming controversy.

The PPP administration confronts the challenge of governance in this environment of rising social discontent in which a dithering approach is no longer tenable. People in urban Punjab and rural Sindh have been taking to the streets against the crushing burden of load shedding. Public frustration has been exacerbated by the erratic and uneven pattern of power outages, which are seen to have imposed a greater burden on some rather than others.

Absent, as this street restiveness has built up, has been the calming or reassuring hand of leadership. This is also exhibited in the lack of public engagement by governmental leaders to assuage people's anxieties. Whether the measures announced to manage load-shedding and distribute the burden more "rationally" can take the edge off rising public discontent is yet to be seen. Already the threat of non-compliance looms. Traders across the country have been defying the early closure order and vowed to keep markets open. The MQM has expressed misgivings over the effects of the decisions on Karachi.

Meanwhile, as the protest demonstrations have spread ordinary citizens have been joined by traders, even transporters in several Punjab cities. The pattern of unrest so far indicates three worrying trends. One, more urban groups have been joining the protests. Demonstrations are having a domino effect in encouraging diverse groups to articulate a range of grievances.

Two, none of the political parties seem to have shown the capacity to manage or control the angry, tire-burning crowds of youth. This was exemplified by the two-day riots in Bara Kahu (Islamabad) when protestors were also able to reverse the rise in transport fares. And, three, the protests are increasingly assuming ethnic overtones, and spurring the demand for the creation of new provinces – Saraiki, Hazara.

In what can be a long hot summer of outbursts of public anger over the rising burdens of a fraught and precarious economic situation, there is a clear and present danger that these can become unmanageable. The risk is greater if the government fails to act in a manner commensurate with the urgency and seriousness of the situation.

Nor can outside help, that the government banks on all the time, address a potential summer of discontent. The chronic official tendency to look for external bailouts has served to defer or deflect from efforts that the government needs to make itself. The costs of delayed actions are too obvious to merit elaboration.

The government needs to replace its fitful, fire fighting mode of governance by a coherent approach that guides its response to pressing issues. Muddling through in a context of social unrest and dire economic conditions will only compound the myriad problems at hand.

Whether managing the economy, addressing the energy crisis or dealing with security issues, the government needs a systematic and sustained approach that inspires public confidence that problems are being addressed instead of taking patchy actions dictated by the exigencies of the moment.

Already the gap between challenge and response and between rule and governance has accentuated public doubts about the government's ability to manage growing public disaffection.

The prerequisite for effective governance at a minimum involves three things. First, an implementable vision or overarching strategy to guide specific policy actions. Second, organising for this mission by positioning competent people in the right places. And, third, a capacity to motivate and mobilise people behind the goals set so that policy measures can be enforced and complied with.

Understanding the interplay between challenge, opportunity and risk is integral to matching strategy to situation. The 18th Constitutional Amendment offers an opportunity to Prime Minister Gilani to chart a new course and start dealing with festering problems before they produce more spasms of public anger. Inability to do this will mean that the country will continue to drift in an increasingly charged environment, lacking direction and the means to meet urgent challenges.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

TOWARDS COLLISION

MIR JAMILUR RAHMAN

Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Ahsan Iqbal, leaders of the PPP and the PML-N respectively, have predicted that heavens will fall if the Supreme Court tries to interpret the 18th Amendment. The thrust of their message is that the Supreme Court should not mess with parliament because the latter is supreme as it represents the 170 million people of the country.

The stance taken by both politicians implies that the verdict of parliament cannot be questioned by the Supreme Court, which is a non-representative body. Mr Ahsan Iqbal went to the extent of saying that, on the question of interpretation of the 18th Amendment, his party would only accept the decision of parliament. He foresees collision between parliament and the Supreme Court. However, his party-leader, Mian Nawaz Sharif, has tried to make amends by stating that the judiciary is as respectable as parliament.

What if there was a clash between the Supreme Court and parliament? The losers would be the ruling class and not the people. The rulers would lose their VIP status and their fat salaries and swelling perks. Our MNAs are the highest paid (salary plus perks) public servants in Pakistan. They get these emoluments working an hour a day on average. On the other hand, the common people have nothing to lose. Whoever wins or loses the condition of the majority of the people who live in poverty is not going to change.

The claim that we are a democracy seems incorrect in the present situation. How can we be a democracy when most laws are made by the law ministry and not by parliament? Last week, immediately after the adjournment of the National Assembly, 12 laws (ordinances) were promulgated in one day. What is the need of having 345 highly-paid MNAs if they cannot perform their primary duty of law-making? The ministry of law under the able guidance of Dr Babar Awan is performing the law-making tasks very efficiently. Why elect 345 representatives to make laws when this can be done by thirty-odd officers of the law ministry?

The PPP and the PML-N are speaking with one voice against the Supreme Court. This is an extraordinary development, which nobody could have foreseen a few months ago.

Thanks to President Zardari, the champion of consensus politics, all small and big parties are paying homage to him for making the 18th Amendment possible. The PML-N will also join the 'homage queue' once some important compromises have been achieved to ease Nawaz Sharif's entry into parliament

Aitzaz Ahsan has warned that the very existence of an independent judiciary will be at stake if the Supreme Court gets involved in interpreting the 18th Amendment. Ahsan Iqbal is asking the SC to accept the verdict of parliament as final. Both have alluded to the secret hand, Ahsan Iqbal more explicitly. He said, "In fact, there was a force, which was upset because of the creation of two powerful institutions, parliament and the judiciary." For obvious reasons, Mr Ahsan Iqbal dares not say who the secret hand belongs to.

Aitzaz Ahsan and Ahsan Iqbal know very well that the chief justice cannot be intimidated by press statements and idiotic threats. Hardly any political leader could have withstood the threats handed out personally by the chief of army staff to the chief justice in the presence of other high and mighty of the state. Since then, the chief justice has developed a strong immunity to threats.

Email: mirjrahman@hotmail .com

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MQM COMES OUT WITH POWERFUL SLOGANS

 

THE MQM, which was hitherto restricted mostly to urban Sindh, has demonstrated its political muscle in the Punjab by organising mammoth public gatherings simultaneously at three important cities of the Province — Lahore, Rawalpindi and Multan. These largely attended public meetings were addressed by the founder of the Party Altaf Bhai, who raised powerful slogans that would surely attract attention of the masses in the Punjab.

MQM is known for arranging huge rallies and public meetings in Karachi and Hyderabad but for the first time it replicated the exercise in three cities of the Punjab, conveying a vivid impression that the Party has effectively entered into the politics of the country's largest Province that plays crucial role in national affairs. By successfully doing so, the Party has not only demonstrated its organisational capacity and capability in Punjab but also sent a strong message that its message is receiving attention in the Punjab. And this augurs well for feudal dominated politics of the Province and hopefully the MQM factor would bring fresh air to the otherwise traditional political structure. It is all the more significant that Altaf Hussain has touched upon the hearts of the people of the Punjab by dilating upon issues that are very relevant to the situation in the province. His expression of resolve to break the vicious cycle of feudalism is in line with his passion to do something to get rid of the 'oppressive' hold of the feudals in some areas of the country where 'subjects' are devoid of basic human rights, get ignominious treatment and even private jails are maintained to punish those who do not follow feudal agenda. It is also known that many influential people do not allow ordinary people to get proper education or enter into politics. As against this, the MQM does the politics of the people, awards tickets to ordinary workers and lays stress on social development. Feudalism has socio-economic progress and hindered efforts to project Pakistan's image as a civilised country. As for water issues, though the MQM chief has not made any direct commitment to support the construction of Kalabagh Dam, which can immensely boost water availability for irrigation and mitigate sufferings of the people who are crying because of crippling load-shedding but the proposal of the party that an All Parties Conference (APC) should be convened to sort out the issue is a good omen. We believe that water is an issue of life and death for Pakistan and the history will not forgive the PPP for taking a unilateral and whimsical decision of discarding the plan for construction of this dam. The raising of this issue shows that the MQM has its fingers on the pulse of the Punjab. In any case, we welcome MQM in the Punjab and in our view its entry into the Province would have stabilising effect on the otherwise hackneyed politics of the Provinces.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PML-Q TO COME OUT WITH 19TH AMENDMENT

 

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has announced that his Party would table the 19th amendment in the Constitution as they have reservations on some clauses of the 18th Amendment. The Party is well within its right to move any Amendment for improvement and there should be no opposition to it from any quarter as democracy must be forward-looking.

It appears that the PML-Q has done its homework to move the amendments on the basis of inputs from legal luminaries and scholars of the likes of Wasim Sajjad and Mushahid Hussain Syed. No doubt the passage of the 18th Amendment with the consensus of all political parties was a historic achievement of the Government and Parliament but legal experts, members of the civil society and people in Hazara have expressed their resentment and concerns over some of the amendments. These include the renaming of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, absolving political parties of holding intra-party elections, appointment of judicial commission and provincial autonomy. Another important issue that perhaps could not attract the attention of the Committee was the colonial era status of FATA which must have been changed and made a Province or given internal autonomy on the pattern of Gilgit-Baltistan. To suggest that more needs to be done is not to detract from the achievements of the Government, Parliament and the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms. Improvement and streamlining the constitution should remain a process rather than a one time exercise as country's democratic system can only go forward if its structural defects in governance are addressed first. We hope the PML-Q in addition to moving the amendments in Parliament, would also raise their rationale at various forums to elicit public opinion and muster support. Also time would naturally be required to garner support of Parliament for additional amendments. The nation has breathed a sigh of relief after the adoption of the 18th Amendment which is a proof of maturity in our politics and what is required is immediate implementation of the amendments and removing the shortcomings that remain in the constitution in due course of time.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

GOVT TAKES SOME INTEREST IN WATER ISSUE

 

THERE are two latest developments, which indicate that the PPP Government has started realising the importance of the water issue for the future of the country. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has proposed that South Asia, which was water stressed region, should develop a region-wide approach to effectively tackle water issues. And in a related development, Pakistan has warned India that it would go to the World Bank for arbitration over violation of the Indus Basin Treaty by New Delhi in respect of Kishanganga project.

Pakistan is facing a severe water shortage and according to a World Bank report, the country is fast moving from being a "water stressed country to a water scarce country", mainly due to its high population growth, and water is becoming the key development issue. Among the 25 most populous countries in 2009, South Africa, Egypt and Pakistan were the most water-limited nations and that is why there have been references about water wars in South Asia. Apart from our failure to develop the required number of water storage facilities, the stealing of Pakistan's share of water under the Indus Basin Treaty is also to be blamed for the alarming situation that is fast emerging in the country. The Foreign Secretary has talked about regional cooperation to address the issues of glacier melting, watershed management and pollution but we believe that water disputes should also be discussed at the forum of SAARC. This is because not only Pakistan but also the other countries like Bangladesh are also victim of India's water aggression and this has the potential of triggering conflicts in the region. Similarly, as India is not willing to resolve issues pertaining to violation of Indus Basin Treaty, there is an urgent need to seek intervention of the World Bank before it is too late to do so. Pakistan currently has the water storage for thirty days as against 120 days for India and 900 days for Colorado River System in the US and, therefore, we should move ahead swiftly to build water reservoirs. This is vitally important because according to experts building of a dam could add four to five per cent to the GDP of the country.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

MERE CONSERVATION WON'T DO, MR PM

M ASHRAF MIRZA

 

The Government has developed a tendency of responding to the pressing public demands after street agitation and loss of life and destruction of state and private property. Whether it is judges' restoration or the energy crisis, it has been seen that the government wakes up to the issues only after countrywide protest demonstrations by the people. It neither visualizes public hardships nor does it act timely to mitigate hardships of the people. It waits till patience of the people is exhausted and they are compelled to come out to the streets. Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani's initiative to convene the National Energy Conference to formulate strategy to conserve electricity has also come only after people protests against power outages has started taking ugly shape across the country. He has acted following protest demonstrations by the industrialists, shopkeepers, small and medium enterprise workers and common citizens amidst burning of tyres and blocking of highways and roads.

The power shortage is not a new issue, it had existed right on the day Mr Gilani assumed the office of the Prime Minister about two years ago. And ironically, the period of two years has lapsed with Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf's repeatedly broken promises of overcoming the power shortage on one schedule or the other. He was so 'embarrassed' with his own broken promises that at one stage he opted not to give timeframe for ending the load shedding. Another ploy used by the government to hoodwink the masses was that President Zardari would take 'notice' of the electricity shortage, the government would release funds to the IPPs on his 'directive', the power generation would gain momentum and the public agony is eased to some extent and for a brief time. The people witnessed this process again and again over the period of the PPP rule. The government failed to comprehend the problem in its right perspective and to take necessary steps to handle the situation at the right time. It could not see beyond the RPPs. And the tragedy is that these power producers have not generated even a single unit of electricity despite payment of hefty funds to them in advance. There are reports of alleged irregularities in the RPP deals.

The two day energy conference held in Islamabad under Prime Minister Gilani's chairmanship and attended by the Chief Ministers of the four provinces as well as the Federal Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervez Ashraf along with the related paraphernalia has drawn a strategy and formulated a plan to conserve about 33 per cent of electricity to ease the power shortage in the country.

Measures to give effect to the plan include five day working week for government offices, closure of shopping centres by eight pm, 50 per cent cut down of lights in the Presidency as well as Prime Minister, Governors and Chief Ministers Houses, reduction of marriage halls functioning to three hours, shut down of neon signs and billboards etc. It's hoped that these measures will be implemented honestly and effectively and will not be circumvented for any expediency whatsoever. It's also hoped that the shopkeepers, marriage halls and owners of neon signs and billboards will extend willing cooperation to tackle the problem of power outages. Announcing these measures at a news conference, Mr Gilani revealed that Rs 116 billion will be paid to PEPCO by June this year to put the power generation wheel back on track by easing the circular debt crisis. It was also decided that the amount of electricity supplied to KESC from the national grid will be reduced from 650 MW to 350 MW. The remaining 300MW will be generated by using oil.

Ironically, the energy conference has confined itself primarily to the conservation of electricity. It has regrettably failed to take up the issue of power crisis from the front and the imperative need of boosting power generation has not received its due attention. IPPs or RPPs are certainly not the answer to Pakistan 's energy crisis. These are, in fact, white elephants that are eating up Pakistan 's resources more and more with every passing day. The nation is already facing serious difficulties in catering to IPPs' oil needs, which is amply evident from the conference decision to provide Rs 116 billion to retire the circular debt. The issue of staggering escalation in oil prices was neither given due importance at the time of entering into agreement with the IPPs, nor has been attached any significance during finalization of accords with the RPPs. With increasing prices of oil in the international market, the commitments with the IPPs and RPPs are bound to become a perpetual mounting burden on the national exchequer with the passage of time. These white elephants may start generation in next couple of years, but the cost that the nation will pay for it will be colossal. The people will have to pay it through their nose due to the escalation in the cost of electricity. It's disgusting that the people of Pakistan have to endure hardships on this count due to the insensitivity of the successive governments including the PPP regime. The present government is also yet to take any real remedial measures.

Hydel, coal-based generation and nuclear power are cheap sources of electricity, but there is hardly any such project at hand. The present government has also not taken the construction of hydel power projects seriously like its predecessor dispensations especially that of Gen Pervez Musharraf. Kalabagh dam has virtually been shelved and Bhasha dam is yet to take off. Initiation of work on the construction of any other water reservoir is also seemingly not on the anvil during the tenure of the present government. The coal-based power generation appears to be a dream to come true despite the fact that Pakistan has the fifth largest coal reserves in the world. Accords with China for establishment of coal based generation units are seemingly in doldrums. The civil nuclear facility is also a distant hope since the United States is seemingly not yet in a mood to give its nod to Pakistan 's demand for a deal similar to that it signed with India . There is, therefore, hardly any hope of relief for the people of Pakistan on account of electricity charges. It's high time that drastic steps are taken to reduce line losses of electricity, which are highest in Pakistan worldwide. Kunda system needs to be curbed with iron hand irrespective of the political bearing.

It's criminal neglect on the part of the Sindh government since others are paying only to feed the parasites in Karachi . Tribal people should also be made to pay the electricity bills. Interestingly, Mr Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf parried the question pertaining to the provision of free electricity to power companies' employees. Raja Ashraf, however, revealed that 30 to 40 units are allowed to an employee. If this figure of exemption is multiplied by the number of employees, the loss emerges as gigantic. Why should power companies' employees including those drawing lucrative perks and salaries be given special exemption when even a cobbler sitting on the street has to pay the electricity bill. It's also abhorring that the government is raising power rates indiscriminately and arbitrarily on the pretext of IMF demands in utter disregard to the purchasing power of the vast majority of the consumers and increasing unemployment due to the closure of the industrial units ow

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

SHAIMA SUMAYA

 

The President of Pakistan on 19th April, 2010 signed the Eighteenth Amendment Bill which consists of an amazing 102 changes in the country's constitution. The task of the Constitutional Committee represented all political parties and headed by Raza Rabbani is thus complete. Pakistan is now a parliamentary State in which power holders and stakeholders are the country's parliamentarians. This revolution is not similar to the English Civil Wars in which Oliver Cromwell who later became Lord Protector of England became a regicide by executing King Charles I and restoring parliament by making it supreme by abolishing monarchy in England.

This experiment was not long lasting, as history is witness that England could not live without its monarchy. An England with a supreme parliament came full circle and realized that monarchy was "essential" for England and that England simply could not function without it. Coercive power is never liked yet it is essential, and this essential power that decides and shapes history. Every party was a part of the Constitutional Committee and there was a piece in the pie for everyone. Not to mention that Mian Nawaz Sharif can run for Prime Minister for the third time. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani is now the "Man-In charge" and he said on Friday that the amendment in the constitution has determined the responsibilities of institutions and paved way for provincial autonomy. The Constitution is a piece of paper at the end of day; it is what the parliamentarians do at the end of the day that matters.

A man who is in the line of fire nowadays is the former President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf. He has become quite used to this position; recent one being that the UN report investigating former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination has fingered Musharraf as the person whose actions resulted in the former's untimely death. This time is strange as Musharraf is planning to re-enter political life and the way things are going the man has been left with no choice. Musharraf tried to be a formidable leader, he tried to bring together bureaucracy, political leadership and the military in Pakistan, he tried to revive Pakistan's dead economy so much so that his Prime Minister was Shaukat Aziz, a dynamic personality and banker, he tried to rid Pakistan of terrorism which is in a nuclear tension zone-in the process he came hard upon several parties.

The result marred in the Lal Masjid massacre. He tried to reason with the judiciary and a former two-time Prime Minister. The result the judiciary revolted against the President and the Prime Minister who he reached a truce with through the NRO was executed. Benazir Bhutto had not even run the election when she started to play politician to an agreement she reached with the President of Pakistan. Her murder created a reaction against Musharraf and eventually the revolting and rebellious judiciary of Pakistan declared the NRO null and void putting the present government in a troubled predicament. Musharraf tried to reason with the US, Europe, China and India and created good private and public relations. One person Musharraf could never reason with was Mian Muhammad

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

JUSTICE INCHES CLOSER TO VIOLENCE IN INDIA

VIEWS FROM ABROAD

LYDIA POLGREEN

 

On Oct. 31, 1984, two Sikh bodyguards gunned down Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in her garden. In the three harrowing days that followed, more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed by enraged mobs seeking to avenge her death. Enraged mobs also destroyed buildings belonging to Sikh merchants in New Delhi. Eighteen years later, 58 people, most of them Hindu pilgrims, died in an inferno on a train in Gujarat, in western India. The fire was blamed on Muslims, and within days 1,000 Muslims were butchered in widespread riots. These two spasms of horrific sectarian bloodletting have stood as direct challenges to India's status as a democratic, secular State governed by the rule of law. In both instances, senior officials of the party in power were accused of looking the other way or, in some cases, even orchestrating the bloodshed. In both cases, a mere handful of the killers were ever convicted. In both cases, the political fortunes of politicians' accused of fomenting the violence flourished in the aftermath.

But that pattern of official impunity may be changing. In the past month, two senior politicians have found themselves in the cross hairs of legal action that could, after all these years, force them to face accusations that they egged on killers in the two mass killings. A former member of Parliament for the governing Congress Party, and a chief minister and one-time rising star of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party says hope is rising that India might at last be ready to face up to some of its darkest moments and deliver justice for crimes that undermined the core of its national identity.

 

The changes that wrought this turn of events are not sudden or obvious; in India they rarely are. But analysts, lawyers and human rights advocates here say there has been a slow, inexorable drift toward demanding justice for these crimes. Relentless news media coverage, international embarrassment over allegations of human rights abuses and increasingly activist courts have conspired to advance long-stalled investigations of high-ranking officials. "Something has shifted," said H. S. Phoolka, a lawyer who has been working for two decades to prosecute the killers in the anti-Sikh violence that followed Mrs. Gandhi's death. "No longer will it go down in history that such a large-scale massacre happened and nobody paid a price. People realise that if it is not checked, then nobody is safe."

Sajjan Kumar, a former senior Congress Party official member and former government minister, is currently facing trial on charges that he led mobs that slaughtered Sikhs in 1984. He has denied any wrongdoing, and is not accused of killing anyone himself, but witnesses say that he and other Congress Party officials incited hordes of people who rampaged through the streets of the capital, setting upon any Sikh they could find. Late last month, the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, was grilled for 10 hours by a special team appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the 2002 riots. Human rights groups say he allowed, or even encouraged, Hindu mobs to tear through Muslim neighbourhoods, leaving more than 1,000 dead. Mr. Modi and his supporters say the charge that he encouraged rioters is ludicrous. But the fact that either official has even been questioned represents a major step toward justice, said Teesta Setalvad, an activist who has been working to bring the organisers of the Gujarat riots to trial. "People finally realise that it is important to prosecute crimes of this magnitude," she said. "You must acknowledge some among your community have committed a heinous crime and get justice for it."

Governments in New Delhi have been reluctant to even acknowledge, much less punish, acts of mass violence. There is no grand memorial, for instance, to the hundreds of thousands of victims of the bloodletting between Hindus and Muslims that broke out when British India was split in two in 1947. Regarding the violence in 1984 and 2002, the government created endless blue-ribbon panels to produce doorstop-thick reports on each episode, but none have produced convictions or even administrative sanctions against the most senior of the accused. Indeed, mass killings have been treated as the kind of regrettable but ultimately understandable tragedies that are inevitable in a diverse nation.

When asked about the killings in the streets of New Delhi shortly after his mother was assassinated, Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her as prime minister, gave an answer whose meaning is still debated. "When a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little," he said. Similarly, when Mr. Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, was asked about the killings of Muslims in 2002, he responded with a verbal shrug, paraphrasing Newton's law of action and reaction. Many accuse him of inviting the violence by insisting that the bodies of the train victims be brought into Ahmedabad, Gujarat's already-tense capital, for a day of mourning. In both cases the police either stood by or actively helped the rioters, according to multiple investigations by commissions and government panels. Victims say they are hopeful that political leaders may soon pay a price for the killings.

"We have waited a long time for this," said Nirpreet Kaur, who was 16 years old when she saw her father, a prosperous Sikh taxi stand owner, torched and beaten to death by a mob in the 1984 riots. "Whenever riots happen, they happen with the help of government. But until today, nobody has got justice." Even as cases proceed, victims and their advocates say they have little faith that the most powerful will face justice. Timid courts, Mr. Phoolka said, have pitched in by allowing endless delays. Jam-packed dockets mean that a continuance ensures a delay of at least six months. In this manner the years float by, the accused remain out on bail and the victims wait.

But the Gujarat riots served as a wake-up call, many here say, a reminder that the failure to punish those who carried out the 1984 riots reinforces a culture of impunity. Making the same mistake in Gujarat would cement that message as unmistakable truth. "It is a big blot on our country," said R. Singh Chatwal, an activist for the victims of the anti-Sikh riots. "We made a lot of sacrifices for our independence. This cannot stand if we are to live up to our ideals." — The New York Times

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

IS AMERICA PLAYING DOUBLE GAME?

NEWS & VIEWS

MOHAMMAD JAMIL

 

There has been ebb and flow in relations between Pakistan and the US during the last six decades. In 1950s, Pakistan was an ally of the US and the West. On 1st May 1960, American spy plan had taken off from Budaber (near Peshawar), which was shot down in Moscow. Soviet Union had warned Pakistan of dire consequences, and it was after that incident that Soviet Union starting using veto or threatened to use veto on any resolution that harmed Pakistan and benefited India.

Pakistan however felt twice betrayed by its allies during two wars with India in 1965 and 1971, when they had not only stopped military aid but also economic aid. People of Pakistan were shocked to know that according to the terms of agreements and pacts, they would only help in case of communist aggression. But India was for all practical purposes in the Soviet camp, and an ally of communism should have been considered as enemy of the West. Anyhow, after one year of President Obama in office, Pakistan started having the impression that the US government would stop being unfair to Pakistan.

After India expressed its concerns over America's seemingly acceptance of Pakistan's role in Afghanistan, America, with a view to appeasing India, conveyed an impression that it was not oblivious to India's interests in the war-torn country. US ambassador to India Tim Roemer said: "India's role in Afghanistan was critical, and that he would be traveling to Afghanistan to see Indian projects first-hand, meet Indian ambassador Jayant Prasad and get a better idea of what India wants to achieve in Afghanistan". India has reportedly spent over $1.3 billion in development projects all over Afghanistan, and it is on this basis Indian leadership says that it has high stakes in Afghanistan. But the fact of the matter is that India would like to see an India-friendly government in Afghanistan to surround Pakistan from the western border and continue its efforts to destabilize Pakistan. The question is whether the US is playing a double game.

On one hand, members of Obama administration assure Pakistan that it will address Pakistan's concerns about excessive Indian presence in Afghanistan, and on the other hand it is reassuring India through its ambassador in India that the US not only appreciates the role India has played, but would also like to give India a greater role in Afghanistan. "India's role has been a great success. The US is looking for additional role for India in Afghanistan. It may include civil services and anti-corruption projects," US ambassador Tim Roemer told reporters in New Delhi. According to an Indian media report, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told President Obama during his visit to the US that India would not give up its interests in Afghanistan, which were crucial for its security, and that it was there to ensure that Afghanistan makes the slow but sure transition to a more moderate state. In fact, the instability in Afghanistan is due to Indian and other neighbours' efforts to advance their interests,

Meanwhile, India has increased its propaganda and lobbying against Pakistan army getting sophisticated weapons from the US, which reportedly are being turned against India. Tim Roemer said that the US took these allegations seriously and Pakistan could face a range of actions including sanctions. "There are allegations of misuse of weapons given to Pakistan for other purposes. We will investigate it, Congress will take the issue seriously," he said. The question is whether US ambassador has the mandate to say all these things, and give categorical statwements? Is he issuing statements at the behest of the Obama administration or it is diplomatic talk just to pacify India, because its leadership was disturbed over the change of American policy towards Pakistan. Anyhow, it is unwarranted for US ambassador in India to convey an impression that there is truth in Indian allegations against Pakistan.

Since the time members of Obama administration issued statements acknowledging Pakistan's role and offered to increase economic and military aid, Indian leadership was unnerved and had started blackmailing American leadership. America may have some designs to use India against China as a countervailing force, but it should not ditch its old allies like Pakistan and should not take decision that would further exacerbate the balance in South Asia. America should also remember that during the Cold War era, the US had wanted India to join the American camp against its crusade against Communism but India had opted to join the Soviet camp though it kept its posture of a non-aligned country. In 1962, India tried to flex muscles against China when Chinese forces moved into the disputed territory and occupied thousands of square miles. The US saw this an opportunity to offer India military and economic aid to India, which India accepted. India also benefited from former Soviet Union's 'ideological differences' with China, as Soviet Union did not like to see China to emerge as a force to reckon with. It therefore gave massive military aid to India. America also continued to give substantial aid to India with the hope that one day India will come on board.

Anyhow, it was after disintegration of Soviet Union that India felt out of place, and it was during former president Bill Clinton's tenure that the world witnessed a paradigm shift in the foreign policy of the US. Since then India enjoyed American support and former president George W Bush took the strategic relationship with India to new heights. President Barack Obama also followed suit for some time and gave importance to India over Pakistan. But when the US Generals saw that India was playing a spoiler's role, and if Pakistan's concerns were not addressed, America would not be able to win the war in Afghanistan, they strongly suggested Obama administration to right the wrong done to Pakistan due to American policy. They in fact persuaded Washington to reduce India's role in Afghanistan to assuage Pakistan's fears and concerns. Since London Conference on Afghanistan, a perception gained currency that the US and the West have accepted the reality that Pakistan can play a crucial role in the stability of Afghanistan.

Before the 47-nation summit on nuclear risk, India's lobbyists had tried hard to raise concerns over Pakistani nukes' security but President Obama had negated their efforts with his statement that Pak nukes are safe and secure. But India is unhappy with the US, and India has given overtures of looking towards Russia or elsewhere for its military needs and even nuclear technology agreements. In fact, some orders for submarines and other equipment have been placed on Russia. Anyhow, efforts are in the offing to limit the damage to relations between India and the US.

Recently, the US and India have formally launched high level economic partnership talks recently, and meeting between US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had hailed the project as "a milestone" that would add a "new dimension" to ties between the world's largest and fourth largest economies. The new US-India Economic and Financial Partnership was announced last November by US President Barack Obama during a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington. Considering the outcome of his visit to the US as lackluster, India had started cutting deals with Russia, France and others. We hope that members of Obama administration understand Indian blackmailing tactics and would not be taken in by India's ruses and subterfuges.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

 

ELECTRICITY NIGHTMARE & LAUGHING MINISTER

COLUMN FROM DALLAS

SAEED QURESHI

 

Have you seen Pakistan's minister of water and power in a jolly, upbeat mood during the Energy Conference? In his once in a century sermon, while absolving the government of overcoming the acute energy shortage, he instead has exhorted the hard pressed Pakistani to use electricity for fewer hours. Already the people can barely get electricity for 6 hours. The chaos resulting from power shortage is unrelenting and assuming horrendous proportions. The kind of measures announced by the freakish Minister of Water and Power are childish and ruinous for the society especially for the business and industry that are already in deep trouble.

It is like putting the cart before the horse. The government's approach towards resolving this vital problem is cosmetic and would aggravate the chaos and turmoil that is driving the people to the level of insanity. Electricity is an indispensible necessity for human beings. From cooking to running a huge mill it is the electricity that is needed. If the government asks people to close their businesses by the sunset and go home which are also dark due to incessant power outrages and shaky voltage, the mayhem is bound to take place. The minister of power should stop combing his creamy, shampooed black colored hair, discard wearing custom tailored suites and abandon putting up a smile on his face as if all was well with the state of Pakistan. Instead he should dress himself in rags as a token of lamentation for the woes of the dispossessed people. Is he unmindful that the citizens of Pakistan are in a state of complete paralysis and undergoing unspeakable suffering due to the short supply of electricity?

Instead that the government should tackle this challenge on war footing, it is demanding of the people to bear with the devastating, debilitating and crippling load shedding that has taken away their peace of mind. The whole Pakistan is in a state of protest and crowds of bedevelled citizens are expressing their anger and frustration by denouncing the government. It is a calamity that was never seen in Pakistan before. Even a conjurer or a moron knows that the real panacea of this festering problem is not to force less use of electricity upon people but to increase its output in the shortest possible time. The problem is that the ruling junta views all nations building project from the angle of self profiteering out of the deals that they would enter into with power producers. The pressure or the urgency that is evident from the woeful plight of the Pakistanis necessitates the generation of power within weeks if not days. The situation is being allowed to slip from bad to worse so that the rental power houses are accepted by the people without any uproar.

Like rubbing salt to injury, the government stalwarts make contrdictaory, confusing and false claims to rid country of load shedding in a specified period of time which never happens. They tag more power in grid stations with the flow of water into dams. Now this is an argument and a hope that is outright sham and nonsensical. By the time the dams are filled up to the required level of water, the harried people should keep suffering, the industrial units should work by intervals and the commercial activities should be curtailed. To survive without electricity for 18-20 hours in this sizzling season is nothing short of a rigorous punishment for the people for no crime. Can one think of living even one minute without electricity in these times when several countries are surplus in electric power production?

Now the argument is valid that those who opposed Kalabagh Dam did it with mala fide intentions knowing well in advance that the country was going to suffer from power shortage in the future. These are the same people who got their piece of humble pie via 18th amendment. They are gloating over their triumph for getting an ethnic name of the province but would sleep over the anguish of the people without electricity for better part of the day. Had they been favorably disposed towards larger interest of the country, they should not have opposed the Kalabagh Dam in the first instance. Secondly if the government in power wanted to meet their long standing demand by renaming the NWFP province, these guys in return should have been asked to agree to the construction of Kalabagh Dam. The provincial grudge and the hidden rancor against Pakistan came in the way of completing this vital dam that would have saved the people from this ongoing malady and affliction of colossal order.

I have been personally concerned with the appalling civic situation in Pakistan. I have voluminously written to various successive governments in Pakistan to devise a compressive and long term plan for modernizing the deteriorating and antiquated civic system in Pakistan. There has been no marked improvement over the municipal system established by the British before the partition: the same open drains and manual system of cleaning the toilets and streets. The working of the local bodies and municipalities is infested with corruption and inefficacies and lack of vision to solve such human problems as providing water, disposing of sewerage, building roads, running public transportation and adopting modern techniques to sweep roads and public places. This is called bad governance.

At the same time I have been impressing upon the governments both at center and in provinces to foresee and preempt the crisis that would erupt due to water and power shortage. I have sent to them concrete and well researched plans how to conserve water and generate electricity without much hassle and expense. The response has been formal, lukewarm and evasive to such well meaning offers. I came to the conclusion that the leaders, who come to power through a flawed and easy to manipulate system, either do not possess the perception to modernize Pakistan by way of latest and abundant utilities and social services or intentionally ignore their responsibilities to serve the country. Whatever the reasons, the abysmal state of affairs is before us. The whole country is debilitated and the people going hysterical.

For a change the offer to streamline the civic mess is being renewed once again from this forum. Those of my readers who can read through this column must convey it to the higher authorities, that there is person from Pakistan now residing in America who has a profound pain and concern for his countrymen and has some very viable plans to harness the energy and water resources, without much cost and labor. Pakistan needs to radicalize, from top to bottom, the governance of cities and provinces. The western countries and specifically American during its early stages after independence faced the similar soci- civic problems. They solved these problems with prudence and diligence and by adopting such city management systems that changed the complexion of urban and rural life now bustling with comforts and bounteous civic services.

The governments in Pakistan must be mindful about the rapidly growing population and further breakdown of the facilities that are already fast depleting. If cities are not governed with farsightednss and far reaching civic plans and if the institutions like railways are not modernized and systemized, the society would plunge into a complete civic anarchy. A gubernatorial national reconstruction effort is imperative to arrest the population explosion that is outpacing and devouring the existing facilities at a much faster pace than at what these are being created. Pakistan is fast turning into a slum due to blind, myopic, incoherent and haphazard plans and policies in regard to governance. Pakistan can take a cue from the western countries as to how they embarked upon civic order and injected sanity, established respect for law and created a city system that runs so efficiently and smoothly. If we can implement, let us say, the American city and county system by a fraction we can make a big breakthrough in easing the lives of citizens in Pakistan. Who is going to take up this cudgel? And if someone like me offers his services would the myopic bureaucrats, fond of cumbersome rules, listen to such calls coming out of sheer concern and patriotism for one's own people and country of origin?

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

SWINE FLU CASUALTY

 

The HIN1 virus, popularly known as swine flu, the first "pandemic" of the 21st century, has once again claimed a woman's life in the country. Experts at the government's epidemiological research center were of the opinion that the attending doctors had failed to provide service on time and that it was largely because of "ignorance" of the government warning. This is a serious charge and coming from authoritative sources it carries a lot of weight.

Negligence by doctors is a common charge but there is no track record of anybody being prosecuted here. In other countries, particularly in the United States, such incidents of negligence by doctors can be subject to stern legal action. Legal experts say it is because of the lack of adequate consumer protection laws that no physician can be prosecuted here. But this is the first time that a government official having expertise on the subject is complaining about the 'ignorance' of doctors. But there is no legal process in motion yet.

Regulating the fast burgeoning private sector in health services has been a major challenge, so far. The private sector has brought in many innovations in service delivery and vast improvements in services to an underserved population. But the principal charges against it are that it is "elitist" and almost totally unregulated. This has to change. And the only way to do so is by establishing strong regulatory organizations. As of now, even the self-regulatory bodies like medical and dental councils are almost non-functional. And beyond that there is nothing.
The government has been toying with the idea of a consumer protection law for quite a while but it will need some time before it proves to be an effective deterrent. For the moment the nation will have to remain confined to media activism to project their grievances. This is far from being a desirable state of affairs but that is the best we have been able to manage so far. One has to admit that this is a very poor substitute for legal action but it does have some moral impact and hopefully, in the long-term, it may lead to judicial activism. 

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

COORDINATION NEEDED

 

If, no less a person than State Minister for Forest and Environment Dr Hasan Mahmud says, funds allotted for protecting the environment are being misused, we have no option but to believe him. If it is due to the lack of coordination among the different ministries, surely he is the right person to initiate necessary steps to right the wrong? All that needs to be done is to make one body responsible for coordinating various programmes. That is perhaps the hint he gave when he said that it was possible to properly use the funds if the ministries worked together.

As the struggle for saving the environment has come to be seen as the biggest impediment to economic growth, we must follow this up with single-minded devotion and design coordinated programmes that will protect it from further misuse. No longer can we demonstrate our lack of understanding about what the environment means to us. Until now we have only understood how to exploit our resources. We have refused to understand how to protect them. Although protests against environmental degradation will grow, so will efforts to flout environmental concerns partly because environmental organisations have not been up to the challenge.
With the demand for food, shelter, medicare, education and ultimate employment of millions of people on the increase, it is natural for governments to respond first with an effort to increase economic growth. But at the same time, a World Watch Institute report published in 2007 told us that all is not well with the world as rising global economic indicators have only been achieved at the cost of the environment. Such reports can no longer be ignored because any increased exploitation of natural resources may endanger life on earth. Unless we can all pull together to save what little is left, we shall find ourselves going nowhere very fast.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

HOMESICK FOR CHENNAI..!

 

"..Union chemicals and fertilizers minister, M.K. Alagiri, has been criticized in Parliament for his flying off to Chennai, his hometown, every third day…" Times of India, April 26th Poor Minister! Can't blame him for leaving Delhi, where he really shouldn't be, and visiting Chennai nearly every other day, I mean I'm sure it's better doing what you know best, in where you are most comfortable than doing something you don't know much about: What I mean is what really does the poor political leader know about chemicals and fertilizers?
"Sir the farmers are asking what fertilizer they should use this year?"

 

"Fertilizer?"

"Yes sir! So that there crops will grow strong and tall!"

"Ah they want their crops to grow strong and tall is it? Then tell them to pour lots of water, lots and lots of water, lots and lots and lots of water! Is there any other work?"

"No sir!"

"Okay then take me to the airport, I am going to Chennai!"

And the next day, the good minister returns, looking happy and relaxed, "I have never worked so hard in my life! I worked hard at my masala dosa in the morning, masala dosa in the afternoon and…."

"Masala dosa in the evening sir?"

"No evening it was sada dosa!"

 

"Sir about the chemicals we have to import!"

"Import? Ah yes import right? Use the ship!"

"Ship sir?"

"I am wrong? Then use the plane, okay use both the ship and plane, I will sign the papers saying they can use both the ship and plane for their imports, tell the press, chemical minister gives permission for both ship and plane for chemical imports!"

"Sir!"
"Wait, wait don't interrupt, I am booking my ticket!"

"Ticket sir?"

"Yes, yes, I have work in Chennai!"

Like I said earlier, poor Minister! Can't blame him for leaving Delhi, where he really shouldn't be and visiting Chennai nearly every other day, I mean I'm sure it's better doing what you know best, in where you are most comfortable than doing something you don't know much about: Right?

Right! Because let me tell you working on a masala dosa, morning, afternoon and a sada dosa at night is not something every Delhiwalla would be comfortable doing, right? Right..!

Before I close, let's keep poor Alagari and his dosas aside and ponder for a moment on how many of our esteemed ministers know their ministries by now, or, do they all catch up on their 'work' in their visits to their hometowns?
—bobsbanter@gmail.com

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

ANATOLY DOBRYNIN AND GEOMETRY OF DIPLOMACY

DR M S HAQ

 

Syed Muazzem Ali - a former ambassador and Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, a TV talk show discussant, and a newspaper columnist - has recently written an article titled: "Anatoly Dobrynin - Passing away of a legendary diplomat of the twentieth century". Mr. Ali reportedly met Ambassador Dobrynin and his wife Irina when the former was posted at Bangladesh embassy in Washington, USA.

Mr. Ali's article highlighted, among other things, Dobrynin's contributions to cold war era diplomacy, and the outcome that had facilitated developments such as a peaceful resolution of Cuban crisis. Further, the article dealt with, in a brief manner - though, Dobrynin's involvement in the era negotiations ranging from the Vietnam war, to US-Soviet Summit meetings, to strategic arms control negotiations, to Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, to Bangladesh's Liberation war, and to others as applicable.
It appears from Muazzem's article: Dobrynin had good working relations with, and direct access to, a total of six US presidents -- Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan -- and a total six Soviet leaders -- Khrushchev, Kosygin, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev. Ambassador Dobrynin was an engineer turned diplomat but the cause, the effect and the causality pertaining to his entry into Russian foreign ministry, save and except those that could be attributable to his MA degree in history and communication skills in English - are apparently unknown, to a greater extent, to concerned people of world.
The article - as I see it prima-facie and at this point in time - is, among other things, interesting, thought provoking and lesson bearing. It could be inter alia a good piece for those who will be interested in, and willing to, evaluate efficacy of diplomacy practiced by the cold war era diplomats such as Anatoly Dobrynin against the backdrop of challenges and opportunities associated with present day diplomacy - essentially, in search of, for instance, best practices in pertinent areas.   

       
A number of good things - about Anatoly Dobrynin and his work - have been written in the article. I believe the time is ripe now for world people to explore further, among other things, known unknowns of Mr. Dobrynin's profile and work during the cold war era. In that respect, a few of the questions that came to my mind have been presented below.

I. How best or quickest or otherwise, as applicable - outcomes of Anatoly's apparently successful diplomacy (used in an average sense) has contributed to the eventual fall of Soviet Union in his presence as, for example, an advisor to the president of USSR?   

II. How did he - during his work with the government of USSR - manage access to, and working relationship with, six US presidents and six Soviet leaders in a reportedly meaningful and result-oriented manner, all through the watchful presence of the era actors such as KGB and CIA?
III. Did he, in the course of his work and among other things, become a double agent - working for both CIA and KGB at the same time or over a variety of time periods or otherwise, as applicable?
IV. Was Anatoly an architect of unipolarism (I would like to call it in that way) or an implementer of unipolar strategies or otherwise, as applicable - whether by choice or not?

V. Was he recruited primarily as a KGB agent for use by Russian foreign ministry or as a CIA agent by the US state department through Russian contacts or otherwise, as applicable for purposes such as and as appropriate development and promotion of intelligence agency supported diplomacy during the cold war era?
The bottom line is: real stories behind attracting opportunities and harnessing those opportunities by Anatoly Dobrynin - culminating in for instance a good number of significant achievements in areas of diplomacy during his life time - are perhaps products of truth behind the present day popular truth.
In light of above and other considerations, it now appears challenges, as well as opportunities associated with diplomacy are on the rise against the backdrop of for example an increasingly uncertain, progressively reintegrating and ever competitive universe. A few of them have been presented below:
A. Efforts towards harnessing growing borderless opportunities via arts and sciences of diplomacy - in pursuits of say bringing about sustained improvements in comparative, competitive and other advantages of poor countries, in particular - are being marginalised, in varying degrees, though, by for example political uncertainties, capacity related problems, reluctance to change for better and environmental dynamics (used in a wider sense), all pertaining to pertinent areas of concerned countries.

B. The domain of collective diplomacy is yet to be harnessed in a full and meaningful manner for per capita benefits of all concerned at local, global and other levels. It implies inter alia failures of collective will and efforts towards sustaining and promoting collective diplomacy are being instrumental in slowing down the pace of liberation of diplomacy from isolation in pertinent areas. The present day outcome of SAARC is one of the examples.

C. Failure of concerned governments in inter alia: incorporating relevant national priorities via national consensus, as required though, in foreign policies of respective countries; and following through those priorities for results, outcomes and impacts as planned.

D. Failures associated with privatisation of relevant components of diplomacy. Also, failures associated with public-private partnership in relevant areas of diplomacy. 
E. The use of diplomacy as escape goats for purposes say prolongation of disputes or elongation of ramifications of disputes or otherwise, as applicable.

F. A limited use of science-driven diplomacy when it comes to disputes that are connected with or ancillary to or otherwise, as applicable - technologies such as nuke weapons.

G. I believe diplomacy-loyalty formulas (I would like to call them in that way) are, in a deeper operations sense, undergoing changes on a continuous basis. It implies inter alia diplomacy factors are proportional, directly and inversely, to loyalty factors and vice-versa when it comes to, for example, the supply side of diplomacy in pertinent areas - in relation to time, space and other variables though, and with the constant K. One of the challenges here is: the decoding of behaviours of human genes at say sub-atomic levels is yet to become a reality in the universe. The good news is: Gene mechanics - one of my present day brain children - could be instrumental in inter alia decoding above behaviours in future.

It is expected: truth behind the truth of Anatoly's success stories will be revealed at the soonest enabling the people to explore additional dimensions of diplomacy in pursuits of say enriching the domain of diplomacy as whole. It is also expected: retiring diplomats of, for example, Bangladesh will be required to prepare individually - during say the LPR period - a booklet of 75 pages (maximum), reflecting on inter alia as to how best and quickest Bangladesh could improve diplomacy in the future against the backdrop of their respective insights, expertise and experiences in pertinent areas.

In such an event: the preparation of booklet shall be a compulsory part of national service by concerned diplomats; the booklet shall be printed and published by the foreign ministry at its costs; it shall be sold at the cost price by the government to all interested buyers including inter alia students, teachers and researchers.
The last word: consider this article as, among other things, a check list for purposes of improving the geometry of diplomacy leading eventually to implementation of resultant measures, as feasible, for making theories and practices of diplomacy more competitive, more result-oriented and less uncertainty prone (to mention a few) for the well-being of all stakeholders including inter alia the hungry, the poor, the women and the disadvantaged. It is expected upcoming SAARC meeting will inter alia set an example of collective diplomacy in pertinent areas. God bless.

 

(The writer is a freelance  contributor.)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

THE LIMITS OF CHINA'S CHARM OFFENSIVE

JONATHAN HOLSLAG

 

To many people in the West, China seems to have gone from a country that keeps a cool head and maintains a low profile, in Deng Xiaoping's formulation, to one that loves a good international bust-up. Putting an Australian mining executive behind bars for ten years, squeezing out Google, keeping the European Union at bay for an important dialogue, and letting a mid-level official wag his finger at US President Barack Obama at the Copenhagen Climate summit is not, after all, the best way to convince partners of your constructive intentions.

Nor is it reassuring to recall that China, up to now, has been stubbornly watering down sanctions on Iran, investing in major offensive military systems, and pillorying Western leaders for irresponsible financial policies and protectionism.

But the point in reciting this litany is not so much to highlight China's wayward behaviour as it is to demonstrate the dilemma in which the country finds itself: if it behaves like a normal power, the world will forget the many hundreds of millions of people that it still needs to pull out of poverty.

The Chinese leadership seems to be aware of this dilemma and is not, in fact, eager to be dragged into fierce competition with the West or its neighbors. During the recent National People's Congress, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed that China should not punch above its weight, and that the People's Republic still needs stability if it is to become a society that offers a decent life to all of its citizens.

In recognition of this, China has stepped up its efforts to mend fences. President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington was a clear attempt to de-escalate tensions with the US over American arms sales to Taiwan, the renminbi's exchange rate, and Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama. China will likely go to great lengths to foster a more positive attitude among the dozens of European leaders visiting this year's World Expo in Shanghai.

At a lower level, too, China has unleashed an impressive charm offensive. State broadcaster CCTV will launch a worldwide program to explain the Chinese position on international affairs. In Brussels and Washington, one gets the impression that the mission of China's diplomats nowadays is to meet and charm everyone. Hardly a week passes without the Chinese ambassador giving eloquent speeches for different audiences.
Indeed, in Brussels, events are organized for members of the European Parliament, the business community, and even high school students. Chinese diplomats now maintain closer relations with think tanks than their European counterparts do, and are praised for their constructive contribution to the public debate.

But charm will not make up for lack of progress at the official level. It is unlikely that cajoling Western elites will mitigate the deep-seated uncertainty in the US and Europe about China's rise. And economic stagnation in the West will inevitably exacerbate distrust vis-a-vis the rising power as the relative gains from trade diminish and defensive and even protectionist policies likely follow - no matter how much China smiles at the world.
China needs a mature strategic dialogue, particularly with the EU. This will not rescue the partnership, but at least it could help define common interests, identify policy options, and create the conditions to achieve results.
Interests, not comradeship, should guide policies. One can have the most visible business summits possible, but if Western companies do not gain greater access to the Chinese market, or if they feel threatened by heavily subsidised state-owned enterprises, relations will continue to sour. We can stage round-table after round-table to discuss the importance of our relations with China, but if issues like Iran, Africa, or other trouble spots are not managed better, the West will inevitably consider China a security threat.

Cultivating high expectations without progress could even be dangerous. In the short term, it would reduce the sense of urgency among decision-makers to get serious about translating ambitions into deeds.

In the long run, the growing expectation gap would aggravate the inevitable setbacks, and political leaders who championed closer relations could even be replaced by hard-liners.

The crash will come if things go on like this, Otto von Bismarck wrote in the nineteenth century. We ought to do all we can to weaken the bad feeling, which has been called out through our growth to the position of a real great power.

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

DEMOCRACY IN REVERSE OR JURISTOCRACY?

MONOWAR HUSSAIN BADRUDDUZA

 

How befitting is it for a Presiding Judge of the High Court of Bangladesh (having writ/bail jurisdiction) to have an open public meeting in London with senior party leaders (of governing party) and its affiliates? How can a sitting Judge of the powerful Bench of the High Court attend public meeting? How consistent is it with his profession where impartiality is a precondition?

If you listen carefully to the debates in London among the Bangladeshi Diaspora or political observers in Bangladesh, it does not take long before you realise how concepts are loutishly emptied of their essence or made to contain the opposite of what they normally signify.  You will be surprised to see, for instance, how a political tradition that has adopted the most fascist policies and rhetoric can shamelessly advertise itself as "democratic" or "party for change."

You will be amazed to observe how groups trumpeting the concept of "national unity and integrity" are sending tremors cracking the country with their strict chauvinist rhetoric, in the name of 'liberating party' that they market in the loudest form. In this country some groups have the bad habit of claiming to be the opposite of what they really are.

Perhaps it would be better if we read in reverse what they say. For instance, they always want to be known as democratic, but what they do in practice is nothing but acting as the flagship of fascism.

They talk about national unity and integrity, but you always see them adding fuel to the fire of polarising the nation with pro and anti liberation (the issue was already concluded by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman), and you are inclined to think, by yourself, "This should be a country in reverse."

If you happen to listen to those who call themselves "secular," you will soon find out that what they advocate as secularism is the opposite of secularism in its universally accepted form. It will not work if you try to explain to them what the universally accepted definition of secularism is because they will not understand it.
For them, an ideal secularism consists of warding off the religion from the public sphere, suppressing religious beliefs and, if possible, eliminating all religious visibilities. It is worth remembering that in the history of Bangladesh, a fringe group of ex-communists are in charge of very important ministries; in normal circumstances they would have never dreamt of running a big departmental shop let alone ministries.

Their conception of secularism is like a religion for themselves. It does not even follow the most simplistic definition of "the complete separation of religious affairs from state affairs."

In the light of their repressive and extremely tabooed ideology, to which they stick as if it were religious doctrine, they seek to completely exclude from the public sphere what is religious, but they still think it is acceptable and even mandatory for the state to meddle with what is religious as extensively and tyrannically as possible.

So you will not believe your eyes, seeing that what they do is to market the ordinary despotism tainted with fascism as secularism. In a nutshell, if you are searching for a country where those who violate the principle of secularism in the gravest way pretend to be the ultra-secularists, then you are in the right place. Yes, the strange country you are looking for is my beloved motherland Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, finding examples of how Bangladesh can be defined as a country in reverse has become considerably easier in recent days. Have a casual look at the developments related to the annulment of 5th amendment (through that AL was rehabilitated or able to restart), recent hanging of people involved in the political killing of BKSAL leader and former prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family members, in probe and arguments raised in this context as well as the war crimes initiative.

Or you may study the process of normalisation efforts with Hill tracts terrorists or how the 7th constitutional amendment is being debated, as well as impotency in stopping the Tipaimukh dam… You will be bewildered to witness how the concepts of democracy, despotism, dictatorship, judicial independence, freedom, the rule of law, etc., are emptied of their essence, but come to be used to achieve the reverse of what they purport.  

(The writer can be contacted at:monowar_b@hotmail.com)

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

A BETTER DEAL FOR INVESTORS

NEW FINANCIAL PLANNING REFORMS CUT CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

FINANCIAL Services Minister Chris Bowen is to be commended for putting the interests of investors ahead of financial advisers and investment products. While the parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services stopped short of recommending a ban on commissions for financial planners, Mr Bowen, wisely, rejected such a kid gloves approach. His decision to ban commissions for products sold by financial planners after July 2012 should result in investors receiving impartial, better-quality advice and create greater transparency in an industry where many clients have found that performance has fallen far short of expectations and hype.

The overhaul of the financial services sector was prompted by public anger about the collapses of Storm, Opes Prime and Westpoint in which thousands of mum and dad investors lost their nest eggs. While investors in more successful companies and products have fared better, many people have been dismayed to discover that the advice of their financial planners was tainted by conflicts of interest and the commissions offered. One of the most important reforms to be enacted by Mr Bowen will be a new law requiring financial advisers to put the interests of their clients ahead of their own pockets, or suffer penalties. As the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia chief executive Pauline Vamos points out, the changes separate products' sale and advice and that can only be a good thing.

While it is impossible to eliminate greed and the failure of ethics through legislation, Mr Bowen's changes will improve protection for investors by providing greater transparency in how advisers are paid and strengthening regulators' powers to act against unscrupulous operators. The adage "caveat emptor" will remain applicable, however. Investors should educate themselves as much as possible about investments and markets before committing hard-earned money.

It is a concern that the need for clients to pay fees for financial advice could exclude poorer people from such services. Mr Bowen has raised the prospect of lower-income clients striking deals with financial advisers to keep advice affordable. But safeguards would need to protect investors from advisers' potential conflicts of interest.

It remains to be seen what impact the banning of kickbacks and commissions will have on national savings, including superannuation. Some industry estimates suggest the impact could amount to an extra $150 billion in investors' accounts over a decade. While industry superannuation funds have outperformed retail funds by an average 1.8 per cent a year over the past decade, one of the problems with current financial planning rules is that planners have had little reason to direct clients to industry funds because such funds do not pay commissions.Far from ushering in a nanny state as the Association of Financial Advisers claims, the reforms should improve the operation of the free market. Forced to put their clients' interests first and without conflicts of interest leading them to base advice on factors other than merit, planners will be more likely to direct clients to the best-performing superannuation and investment funds. This, in turn, should give fund managers extra incentives to strive to improve long-term returns in order to retain and increase their client bases, leaving investors the winners.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

RENT TAX: THE DEBATE AUSTRALIA HAS TO HAVE

THE RUDD GOVERNMENT IS RIGHT TO LOOK AT A RESOURCES TAX

MINING is a risky, $83 billion export business that must be protected from sudden changes in government policy or crippling tax regimes. It is also Australia's future. These two realities must drive the debate on whether we should introduce a resources rent tax. If, as expected, the Rudd government backs an RRT when the Henry tax report is released next Sunday, Australia will begin a complex discussion about how to ensure long-term investment in a sector responsible for more than one-third of our exports, as well as securing an appropriate payment for resources owned by the Australian people.

This is not about fleecing the international conglomerates whose operations here create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. Nor is it about returning to the narrow political arguments of the old Left who demonised mining and argued for protection of an uncompetitive manufacturing sector. Rather it acknowledges our competitive advantage lies in minerals and that politicians who fail to capture a realistic slice of that mining wealth for taxpayers are missing the great economic opportunity of the next 50 years. Mineral exports to China helped save our economy these past couple of years and future prosperity rests heavily on this sector.

The intellectual case for a RRT to replace state-based royalties is quickly made. A single tax would be more efficient to collect and would be based, not on volume of minerals extracted, but on super profits or rents. Regular profits would continue to be subject to company tax, and only those profits deemed to be rent, that is, profit not needed as an incentive for production, would face the RRT. In essence, a mining company would pay a price for access to finite resources. The tax would be collected by Canberra and distributed, like the GST, to states. In practice, Canberra will battle to convince the big mining states of Queensland and Western Australia to forgo royalties they control. For now, the Rudd government appears ready for any new tax to sit alongside state royalties. But there are strong arguments for moving to a single tax - a streamlining that would hold some appeal to miners, especially if linked to lower company tax. This arm wrestle with the states would drag in broader questions of state rights and the extent to which resource-rich regions should subsidise the rest of the country.

Also crucial is determining a tax rate that does not deter investment. Mining companies may warn that they will take their capital elsewhere, but Australia should remember it is a stable, modern democracy with a strong economy and educated workers. We will remain attractive to investors so long as we set a tax regime that is not punitive and an implementation schedule that recognises the sector's long development timeframes.

Ultimately, the test of whether to use an RRT to capture a bigger share of the resources boom will be what happens to the revenue and the extent to which it allows for a reduced, and thus more competitive, company tax rate. There is a case for using any mining windfall to pay down national debt. But the real objective for an RRT should be to secure the long-term economic and tax reforms that will ensure Australia's current prosperity is not squandered.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

OUR MASTER OF VERSE

PETER PORTER'S WORK WAS BOTH ACCESSIBLE AND SOPHISTICATED

AUSTRALIA has lost one of its great poets. But so, too, has the world. Peter Porter, dead at 81 from cancer, had an international reputation and was recognised as one of the most distinguished poets working in Britain, where he had lived for almost 60 years. The Brisbane-born writer who grew up in a family where no one read books, built a formidable career as a poet from soon after his arrival in London in 1951. Porter never grew rich from his work, but poetry and reviewing provided his income from about the age of 40. He stayed in London, according to David Malouf, in part because he could not have survived financially in Australia. Porter did not enjoy the profile in Australia of other expatriates such as Clive James or Germaine Greer, but in more recent decades his visits back home helped increase the local audience for his work. He will be widely remembered thanks to several brilliant conversations with Clive James that have been broadcast and rebroadcast on Radio National in recent years. In those humorous and erudite discussions, the two talked about books, writing and their passion for both.

Porter was an internationalist but his demeanour was unfailingly Australian. Self-deprecating was the adjective often applied to this culturally sophisticated poet who was yet able to command a general literary audience.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

RUDD REVENGE ON ALP AGENDA

KEVIN RUDD HAS MADE MISTAKES AS PRIME MINISTER BUT, IN TERMS OF HIS SECURITY OF TENURE, NONE HAS BEEN GREATER THAN HIS FAILURE AT CRITICAL TIMES TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH HIS LABOR COLLEAGUES.

Last week John Brumby and Kristina Keneally gave him a glimpse of what could happen if they reciprocated in kind.

They could have delivered a potentially fatal blow to his prime ministership, but they stopped short and compromised on critical elements of the health plan, partly because of their own needs but also because of tribal fidelity. They were not about to land the killer blow so close to an election. Had the circumstances been reversed, would Rudd have hesitated? Based on his previous performance, probably not for a heartbeat.

Senior Labor figures in Victoria and NSW have not forgotten, and will never forgive, Rudd's failure to treat colleagues with respect. They will exact their revenge at another time. You can count on it.

In Victoria they nominate two instances when Rudd neglected to pay even lip service to men revered in the Labor Party, and point to a third and very telling insight into his management style.

In April 2008, he failed to attend the funeral of former ALP senator and federal minister John Button. While almost every other living Labor luminary bid farewell to a favourite son, Rudd had more pressing business. Like a star-struck ageing groupie, clutching a teddy bear, he visited actor Cate Blanchett, who had just given birth to her third child.

A few months later, Labor luminaries gathered once again to farewell another Victorian, Robert Ray, who was retiring from the Senate. Once again Rudd was a no-show. "It confirmed people's view that he doesn't have empathy with the party culture," one Labor insider said recently.

Ray has privately observed that Rudd's actions show he is not simpatico with Labor traditions or culture and lacks political nous. For Ray, there can be no greater sin than to treat so lightly the responsibilities of Labor leadership. "You have to understand. He is going to be leader of the Labor Party," Ray told me years ago when discussing the merits of a leadership contender and the importance of the job to which he aspired. For Ray, at some deep level, party leadership carries more weight than the prime ministership.

Ray had a right to be aggrieved by Rudd's no-show at his farewell, especially as Rudd's website diary listed no public engagements that day. The next day he addressed an elite talkfest in Queensland.

Ray, a numbers man almost without peer, had camped out in Rudd's Canberra office through most of the 2007 election campaign, then acted as his counsellor when he was choosing his ministry. Ray ran Victoria's version of the Right with a bit more finesse than Graham Richardson did in NSW, and went in to bat for the Left's Martin Ferguson.

The story goes that Rudd was planning to drop Ferguson from the ministry. Ray urged him not to do so because he believed an aggrieved Ferguson on the back bench would cause considerable grief for the Prime Minister.

The third example highlights Rudd's nascent contempt for most of the people who work for him and occurred days after his stunning election win. Staff who had gathered for a briefing on their responsibilities were told their Great Leader would address them. They were all on a high after the victory, but their excitement soon turned to dismay.

They didn't get a version of the true believers speech; instead, Rudd had one clear message: if any of their bosses stuffed up, it would be on their heads. They were the ones who would pay the price.

He told them they would be given their lines every day and their job was to ensure they and their bosses stuck to the script. They were not to put a foot out of line. Or else. No mistakes or deviations would be tolerated. Thank you and good night.

Oh and the f-word, which Rudd loves dropping almost as much as the c-word, featured prominently in his little lecture.

Old hands who had worked for previous Labor administrations didn't hang around for very long after that. One referred to him not by name but as "the megalomaniac from Queensland".

What was obvious even then was that Rudd had little or no appreciation of the moment, much less the concept of collective responsibility. And from what has been revealed since, especially with the insulation debacle, no concept either of the need for leaders to step up and shoulder the blame even when the mistakes are theirs.

Turning up later for a patsy interview, or when the news has moved on to something else, falls a long way short of what makes leaders great. Or even loved in their own ranks.

It is rare to hear staff speak so disparagingly of a leader, even privately. They respect them too much or fear them too much, or are too devoted to the wider cause. Then again, it is rare to have a leader who behaves so badly with staff and those who serve and protect him.

Another example. A few weeks ago, Rudd called a meeting of the cabinet's National Security Committee. The most powerful federal bureaucrats, defence chiefs, diplomats and police gathered and waited for the Prime Minister. And waited and waited. Finally, after three hours, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's new head Dennis Richardson decided he couldn't wait any longer and stalked off. Oh, and Richardson also used the f-word to express his displeasure.

Keneally, who looks as if she would gasp aloud if anyone dropped the f-word in her presence, has proved to be a much cooler operator.

Rudd treated her with contempt at their first encounter because that is the way he dealt with her two predecessors, Morris Iemma and Nathan Rees. He quickly realised that mauling fawns in public was a really bad idea and she has played him beautifully ever since.

One suspects if Ms Bambi and Mr Brumby could have held out and forced Rudd into a humiliating backdown on the GST clawback and hurt him without damaging the government, they would have exacted their revenge there and then.

If they had, Rudd would have been irreparably damaged and Labor's chances of re-election considerably diminished.

They could not risk that. Not now. That is a dish to be served up ice-cold after the election.

Niki Savva is the author of So Greek, Confessions of a Conservative Leftie.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

NRL SALARY CAPS WILL LEAD TO TALENT EXODUS

THE widespread rorting of the salary cap in National Rugby League culminating in the stripping of the championship successes since 2005 of the Melbourne Storm, and denial of championship points to the team in the 2010 season, is yet another example of the corruption, economic harm, and the collapse of governance principles that result from unenforced pro-competition laws in Australia.

Some years ago, the Federal Court declared that the player draft adopted by the NRL was anti-competitive, but NRL players never challenged the salary cap provisions that I presume are equally anti-competitive. Is the regulator, the ACCC, going to do something about it?

What is the rationale for the salary cap? It is to equalise the competition between teams because a) the salary cap actually achieves this aim, and b) that fan interest is maximised by closer and less predictable contests. The salary cap is necessary to stop the best-endowed clubs in the sport's heartland from dominating the championships.

With practically every team suspected of salary cap breaches and the Canterbury Bulldogs found guilty of serious breaches in 2002, this is a rule that the NRL honours more in the breach than in effective enforcement. That is, at least until now.

Perhaps the most telling argument against the salary cap is that fans, far from wanting artificially equalised outcomes, seem willing to pay more for a home-team advantage. Willingness to pay for match tickets peaks when the probability of the home team winning is about twice that of the visiting team. Attendance at the Reds rugby union games in Brisbane recently has ballooned because of their winning streak and open style of play, as they have beaten the top teams in the Super 14 on their home ground.

It is notable that no sport that has pretensions to be a world game, whether it is rugby union, cricket, soccer, or even golf, has imposed a seriously enforced salary cap. The lifting of "amateurism" or "sham-amateurism" in rugby union has immeasurably improved the game. A new type of cricketing contest in India is raising player payments and shifting talent to India.

Outcomes are often one-sided, but rarely do rich, populous nations end up winning. For example, New Zealand's All Blacks have a winning record of 72 per cent in international contests since 1903. Their record of wins against England is 78 per cent, despite having less than 8 per cent of the population. All Black success has in no way diminished their crowd appeal. The Australian win rate of 56 per cent against England in cricket in 209 matches, 1877-2001, has turned neither Australia nor England away from cricket. Brazil, a poor country with limited resources, has won 76 per cent of its World Cup matches in soccer without any lessening of interest in the world's number-one game.

It is no accident that codes that have come to dominate world sport have adopted good governance rules that encourage talent and professionalism, while eschewing salary caps.

Who gains from salary caps? The two biggest winners from the NRL's salary cap are rugby union and AFL. Talent has been leaking away from NRL to union (and possibly even the AFL) and overseas because of the salary cap. Eventually, such caps deprive fans of watching the most talented players in the game.

The crippling penalties imposed on the Storm are so high because the league claims that the probability of detection is low and enforcement cost high. It is a pity that there was a complete absence of economic reasoning when the NRL first imposed the salary cap in its present form.

The devastation of the Storm benefits only the AFL and the new union franchise, the Rebels, in Victoria. What team in their right mind would take on a dominant code such as AFL in Victoria while promising only mediocrity to fans willing to switch codes?

Any league that tries to strictly enforce a salary cap is heading down the path to self-destruction, as it deprives fans of the best talent. The invitation extended to would-be fans is to watch dull, uninteresting matches knowing that the outstanding players will probably leave the game!

The chairman of the Storm and board members have been roundly criticised for signing-off on a flawed set of financial accounts in violation of good corporate governance rules, not to mention possible legal breaches.

Did the board know that the accounts lied, or should they have known? If, as was likely the case, club survival depended on violating salary cap rules, should the board act in the interests of the club to whom they owe allegiance, or in terms of their own reputations and legal obligations?

It is hard to give a clear answer to this conundrum. The point being that the NRL should not put boards in impossible positions by adopting rules that must either ultimately destroy the league or be honoured more in the breach. The Nelsonian blind eye is the right strategy for organisations lumbered with bad rules, failing their public abandonment.

The former chief executive of NSWRL, John Quayle, has proposed a return to the original salary cap rules. These rules excluded long-time players that have come through the ranks. Its purpose was to encourage clubs to develop new talent themselves.

If the salary cap is not abandoned, the NRL should allow exceptions like this. Under present rules, clubs such as the Storm that succeed in developing talent gain little. Since clubs developing exceptional players must accommodate these within the cap, other clubs will bid away the most prodigious home-grown talent.

It is a shame to see self-destructive actions by the NRL destroying the careers of talented league stars. Surprisingly, the league continues to have an imitator in President Barack Obama, who aims to cap chief executive pay at $500,000. While his pay strictures commence with bailed-out firms, his popularist desire to penalise talented managers extends beyond these recipients. What if he engineers the US equivalent of the Storm meltdown, but on a much larger scale? The prospect is scary but Australia might pick up talented US managers in the same way that rugby union does.

Peter L. Swan is professor of finance at the Australian School of Business, UNSW.

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

BAD NEWSPOLL CONFIRMS O'FARRELL IS THE ISSUE

THE Newspoll published in The Australian today is bad news for NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell. While the Liberal National parties are comfortably ahead with a 10-point lead on a two-party preferred basis, the poll confirms mounting concern within the Liberal Party about O'Farrell's appeal as leader. Kristina Keneally now has a 15-point lead as better premier. Using the 12-month countdown to the state election in March next year, O'Farrell responded to persistent criticism that he was in policy free-fall by detailing a raft of Coalition reform promises.

But what is missing from O'Farrell's campaign armory is quality, not quantity.

How could there by any shortage of suggestions to improve a state that has been run into the gutter by successive Labor administrations? But, in the face of this O'Farrell's dissatisfaction rating has increased by 4 per cent.

The problem for O'Farrell is that there is no sharp edge to his campaign strategy.

He needs to seize on one key issue that resonates across the electorate, such as the upsurge in urban violence, to drive his policy manifesto.

Of course street violence, particularly that associated with drugs and late-night hotel trading, is not a problem exclusive to Sydney, but it cannot be seen simply as part of a big city environment. A tough stand on law and order would not only improve the quality of life in Sydney and the rest of NSW but enhance the state's appeal as a tourist attraction. O'Farrell would have to stand up to criticism that this was zero tolerance, but a greater police presence would restore morale inside the force and confidence within the community.

And the flow-through effects of an initiative such as this can be justifiably projected as a significant part of the opposition's plan to re-establish the state's credibility and prepare NSW for the urban impact of Australia's forecast population explosion, which would see Sydney expand to seven million residents by 2050.

Putting aside law and order, there is growing concern among senior Liberals that instead of the opposition's policy agenda cutting through to the electorate O'Farrell has become the issue.

"Apart from demonstrating his bad judgment in opposing league tables in schools and the sale of the state's electricity-generating capacity, what does Barry stand for?" one senior Liberal tells The Australian.

NSW is in such a mess and the Labor government is so on the nose that it is hard to believe the conservatives won't win the election next March.

But the Coalition is going to need a clear mandate of at least five to 10 seats to give it the courage and ability to take the tough measures needed to get the state back on its feet while providing a protective buffer for the following election.

It is the same sort of challenge that confronted Jeff Kennett when he led the Coalition to victory in Victoria in 1992.

O'Farrell needs to win 12 seats to secure government. But Liberal sources fear the Greens could pick up two seats and Labor could cut a deal with the independents, leaving O'Farrell short of an outright majority. This has given rise again to speculation within the Liberal Party about a possible leadership change before the next election.

Today's Newspoll and opinion polling during the next few months, particularly on the personal ratings of O'Farrell and Keneally will be critical. Speculation is already mounting that former federal opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull will be urged to run for the safe state Liberal seat of Vaucluse as a prelude to a leadership spill.

This strategy was originally promoted by NSW right-wing powerbroker Bill Heffernan in 2007 after the then state opposition leader and now retiring member for Vaucluse, Peter Debnam, lost what many regarded as an unloseable election.

If Turnbull is not a candidate and Liberal powerbrokers decide to dump O'Farrell, they would probably turn to popular young shadow treasurer Michael Baird or even Robert Stokes, a respected lawyer who is the member for the Sydney seat of Pittwater.

Up to now, O'Farrell's critics have been reluctant to push for a change in leadership with the election less than a year away.

Instead they are likely to press him to initiate discussions with the independents, in particular Legislative Assembly Speaker and member for Northern Tablelands Richard Torbay, to counter any deal between members of this group and Labor if there is a tight election result.

"There is a lot of complacency within the Liberal Party about an election walkover but don't rule out a hung parliament," one of O'Farrell's party critics told The Australian.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

FOOLS TO THE NORTH, DUNDERHEADS TO THE SOUTH

THIS IS A REMINDER. WELL, NO IT'S NOT, IT IS MORE THAN THAT.

It is a sharp jab to the likes of Phil Gould up north and passionate but thick-headed Victorians down south that the villain in this Melbourne Storm scandal is not the NRL boss David Gallop. Nor is it salary cap scrooge Ian Schubert.

The only people who are to be criticised over Storm's five-year sting that corrupted the NRL competition are those Storm officials who deliberately acted outside the salary cap rules. No doubt the two investigations that start today into the Storm's business practices will identify who did what. They are the ones who deserve our scorn. What these investigations will not find is that Gallop or Schubert played any part in duping the competition and paying players over the salary cap.

So Gould and his like and the loyal but brain-dead Victorians should look elsewhere as they weep about the state of the NRL.

That is not to say Gould has not delighted us with his logic. After Gallop's administration - with the full support of Storm owners News Ltd (publisher of The Australian) and the other 15 clubs - took all of Melbourne's points this season and ruled that it could not accrue any for the rest of the season, took away two premierships and three minor titles, after they fined the club $500,000 and demanded the return of $1.1 million in prizemoney, Gould demanded that the NRL find a "can-do" management style. That is breathtaking, Phil.

The response in Victoria to the Storm's corruption and consequent punishment has been a telling illustration that rugby league has cut a niche into the state's sporting psyche much deeper and broader than most believed. Sunday night's game drew a tram short of 24,000 people and no doubt helped drive the players' trouncing of the Warriors. It would be most reassuring to Gallop and News Ltd, owner of Storm, and something to rejoice had it come in different circumstances. Nonetheless, the story has driven the AFL off the front and back pages for a run of four days. Not even soccer's World Cup in June is likely to do that.

Over the weekend of Anzac Day AFL matches, the most prominent issue on the pre-match radio shows was not Sydney, Collingwood, Brisbane or Geelong, but the Storm.

The morning after the story broke last Thursday, SEN, Melbourne's 24-hour sports station found the dominant theme was the Storm. On the morning show from nine o'clock through to noon, the dominant topic was the Storm. So much so that the first hour - historically devoted to the AFL round of matches coming up - did not take one AFL call but was overrun with Storm supporters. In that hour the station received more than 500 text messages, all addressing not the AFL but the Storm's crushing penalties.

Again yesterday, the overriding topic on talkback was the Storm. Even on a public holiday morning and after an AFL round in which previously unbeaten sides Brisbane and St Kilda suffered their first losses, everybody wanted to talk about the Storm.

The central issues in Victoria and for the Goulds of the world up north are, one, that the NRL is resisting any push for the Storm to take a range of salary cuts to fit under the cap; two, no matter what it does it cannot earn any points for the rest of the season, and finally that the Storm developed these players and therefore are entitled to keep them. It is the thinking of simple minds.

The reason the salary cap is in place is to maintain as even a competition as possible and stop one or two wealthy clubs buying the best players in the land year after year. Without the cap, the poorer clubs would become chronically weak and sooner rather than later curl up and die.

The only method that allowed the Storm to collect such a talented team was to deliberately work outside and around the salary cap rules. So the present Storm squad has been collected illegally. Even if the players took pay cuts and squeezed in under the salary cap, every other club would be disadvantaged because they had no opportunity to recruit a similar strength team.

Under such circumstances it is only fair the Storm cannot accrue points for this season. Only when the team is broken up by strict application of the salary cap should it be allowed to compete for points.

And that won't happen until next year at the earliest.

The NRL erred in 2002 when it allowed the Bulldogs, big-time salary cap rorters, to remain together by taking pay cuts.

A team that was marshalled outside game's rules proceeded to just miss the grand final in 2003 and won the premiership in 2004. Rorting the cap was rewarded. The NRL has learnt from such a lenient approach.

It is irrelevant that the Storm turned some of its players into elite league athletes. What is germane is what happened once they became stars. It is what the Storm did to retain them that is central to this argument. And we know that was to cheat the competition.

It is hypocritical to argue that the Storm has nothing to play for. Coach Craig Bellamy and his players have been adamant that a determination to retain their integrity and dignity will be force enough. Sunday night's win might be the first chapter in one of the great sport stories. A group of players who refused to bow.

When the Bulldogs were stripped of 37 points in 2002 people hardly drenched talkback radio with the unfairness of it all. No, Gould has got this wrong because he lacks a proper understanding of the purpose of the salary cap, tangled up with what appears an irrational dislike of the NRL and its boss. As for the Victorians, well, they might love their Storm more than they understand right from wrong.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

CANBERRA TRIES TO PLUCK MINING STATES' GOLDEN GOOSE

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF KEVIN RUDD'S HOSPITALS DEAL, KEN HENRY'S TAX REVIEW AND THE WEST AUSTRALIAN MINING BOOM IS CONFLATING INTO A GREAT AUSTRALIAN STRUGGLE OVER FISCAL FEDERALISM.

Australia's wealth is being increasingly generated in resource-rich WA and Queensland. But, with its history of secessionist pressure, WA resists the Henry review's mooted 40 per cent federal resource rent tax, which would redistribute its mining bonanza to help fund the healthcare and retirement costs of the more populous southeastern states.

That's also why the west is holding out from Rudd's deal to take 30 per cent of its GST money to make Canberra the dominant funder of ballooning hospital costs. And for Premier Colin Barnett, Henry's federal impost would be an unacceptable "tax on WA".

The flashpoints began with February's release of the new Commonwealth Grants Commission's formula for carving up $45 billion of GST money between the states. This reported that "equalising" the states' fiscal capacity had been "radically transformed" by Australia's China-fuelled mining boom.

The results shocked WA. It won from a bigger weight given to the infrastructure needs of fast-growing states. But it was whacked by the shortening of the grants commission's assessment period from five years to three years. This gave more weight to the peak of the pre-crisis boom.

This produced what the commission called an "unprecedented" strengthening of WA and Queensland's assessed revenue-raising capacity.

These two states account for 74 per cent of onshore mining production. WA's per capita mining royalties exceed $1400, nearly four times the national average, and provide 30 per cent of its budget revenue.

Barnett already has been forced by his Nationals coalition partner to commit 25 per cent of these royalties to his state's regions. But, under the long Australian tradition of "horizontal fiscal equalisation", his mining bonanza is also siphoned to the other states through the GST redistribution.

WA now keeps only 68c of its per capita GST dollar. While the overall GST pool is growing, WA's share will actually fall by $222 million, or nearly $100 a person, next year. It is $1.5bn a year worse off than if the GST were divvied equally per capita, Barnett complains. He wants a floor of 75c in the GST dollar for WA.

After being "done over" by the grants commission, Barnett is not about to let Rudd take another third of the west's GST to finance Canberra's bureaucratic hospitals takeover. "We'd be down to about 30c in the dollar," he says. John Howard's state growth tax would become effectively "redundant" for WA.

At the same time, WA's "immobile" iron ore and other mineral deposits are in the cross-hairs of the Treasury secretary's tax review, to be released on Sunday.

One of Henry's key thrusts is that taxing "mobile" capital merely drives business investment offshore, undercutting economic growth and ultimately workers' wages. But the trade-off for cutting the 30 per cent company tax rate is higher taxes on immobile assets, such as our increasingly valuable rocks in the ground.

Taxpayers have not been getting enough of the mining company "rents" or super-profits being generated by the China-fuelled surge in iron ore and coal prices.

So Henry has signalled a federal resource rent tax to replace state mining royalties.

It would build on the Hawke government's 40 per cent offshore petroleum rent tax inspired by Ross Garnaut's 1970s analysis and facilitated by the commonwealth's constitutional powers.

Henry argues that the "complex array" of state mining royalties, mostly based on mining production rather than profits, are less efficient than a profits-based resource rent tax. The Treasury secretary's personal conviction that our non-renewable resources are under-taxed stretches back to his childhood. He says that Canberra is better placed than the competing states to negotiate a resources rent tax with global mining companies; a federal tax would create less "sovereign risk" than more changeable state royalties; and the states' royalties discourage marginal mining development by taxing production even if profits are minimal.

In contrast, a resource rent tax supposedly would not reduce mining development incentives. The flagged 40 per cent tax would hit profits only above a risk-weighted investment hurdle rate (5 per cent above the long-term government bond rate for the petroleum resource rent tax). Henry further has floated the idea that this could finance a Norwegian-style sovereign wealth fund to generate income when the mining boom ends and provide another instrument for managing Australia's business cycle. The Australian Industry Group, whose director Heather Ridout sits on the Henry review, says such a fund could invest budget surpluses offshore to reduce the mining boom pressures that are driving the dollar higher.

Get it? A resource rent tax on mining could be used not only to fund the soaring national health budget but also to ease the competitive squeeze on eastern states' manufacturing.

But, as Henry also notes, allocating the revenue from a federal takeover of state mining royalties is "really tricky".

Barnett confirms it. "If the federal government starts to impose a tax on the mining industry it effectively becomes a tax on Western Australia," he said yesterday. WA would not give up sovereign ownership of its mineral resources, which it would continue to sell at existing royalty rates.

Canberra wanted control of all states' GST revenue. Now it sought to to "control our resources industry and basically close Western Australia down".

The Weekend Australian reported that the Rudd government might impose a resource rent tax on top of existing state royalties. But the Minerals Council retorted that this would impose an extra layer of of mining tax from a review that was supposed to streamline the system.

So the Henry review will spark a huge debate over Australia's new mining bonanza. Should economic development and workers be encouraged to flow more to the states or regions where this wealth is sourced? Or should it be deliberately spread more to the rest of the nation? Is the fat minerals goose just hissing from getting some of its feathers plucked? Or could this really kill its golden egg?

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

NO NEWS WOULD BE GOOD NEWS

THE Melbourne Storm swept the Warriors aside on Sunday. On the field, for a team playing for pride and nothing else, the issues are clear. Not so off the field, where things get only murkier. The emergence of more detail about how the Storm ran its long program of deception to break the National Rugby League's salary cap raises questions about how the club and the game have been managed. The information, and claims from those inside the sport, turn the focus inevitably onto the NRL itself, and onto News Ltd, which owns not only the Storm, but half the NRL competition and half of Fox Sports, the game's broadcaster.

As the Herald reported yesterday, the Storm's financial structure is unique. The club itself receives income in its own right almost solely from members' ticket sales - amounting to about $1.3 million. The rest of the club's finances - about $17 million - are looked after by a separate company, Valimanda, a subsidiary of News Limited, which subcontracts the task of running the footballing franchise to the club. Valimanda and the Storm have three directors in common. There is nothing at all wrong in any of that. But News Ltd has thus far said it was deceived about what the club was doing. It needs to make clear, however, whether its subordinate operations with such close financial involvement were similarly deceived, and if so, how. It seems extraordinary that an arrangement tying each of the three organisations so closely together could allow salary cap breaches to go unnoticed.

The former Storm chief executive Brian Waldron has implied News Ltd and NRL executives may have questions to answer. League fans will want to know did News Ltd management try to find out whether the rumours flying around rugby league circles about the Storm were true? It would have been tempting not to, so as not to jeopardise the Storm's attractive winning form. There is no suggestion News Ltd connived at the salary cap breach once it knew of it, but the company should explain why it took so long to find what many had clearly long suspected.

News Ltd has rightly been seeking to reduce its direct involvement in managing both league and the Storm. That will not be possible in the immediate future. The Storm, indeed, may need the company's backing for years because of the damage it has suffered. But the Storm fiasco shows News Ltd should end its conflict of interest and drop its control of league, for its own good, and the good of the game.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

Foreign scapegoat in housing

OUR politicians have a dim view of Australians and our prejudices. The latest evidence of this is the Rudd government decision last week reversing last year's cautious relaxation of foreign investment controls relating to real estate.

This is before the federal Treasury's Foreign Investment Review Board completes its study of whether any recent rush of speculative foreign money has poured into Australian property, and so raising prices and making it harder for young families to cross the threshold into home ownership. Rather, it is based on anecdotal evidence - surveys of dubious methodology among real estate agents - and a lot of tabloid journalism of both the print and broadcast variety about how hordes of cashed-up foreigners, Chinese to be precise, are buying prime properties at whim. It makes good current affairs television: an Asian buyer making the winning bid at the auction in front of a nice house; even better if he or she is reticent about the purchase or not so articulate in English.

Before giving way to this tabloid tide, clearing a red-flag issue from the election agenda, our ministers and officials were arguing that the recent rule change, allowing temporary residents such as students to buy property, was not adding much to the property boom. Parents cannot be blamed, however, from turning to the option when foreign students face paying $200 a week for a shared bedroom near their campus.

The idea that this is linked to the Chinese property bubble doesn't bear much scrutiny. China has indeed been in a buying frenzy fuelled by easy credit, with the present-day equivalent of the 1929 shoeshine boy or lift attendant on Wall Street buying an apartment. But part of the Chinese bubble is based on speculation, not unrealistic, about a revaluation of the yuan. China is sucking in speculative money, not spreading it out. At the high end, a few wealthy, politically connected types may be tapping easy credit from Chinese banks to buy their mansion or penthouse. But in most cases these would be people with an Australian passport or permanent residency entitling them to buy property under the system that has operated since the Hawke-Keating era.

Now we're promised a new government hotline so we can dob in a foreign real estate cheat. The new foreign investment rules try to direct foreign property investment into the sectors that should have incentives for domestic buyers and investors, too: new housing (as opposed to existing dwellings) and undeveloped land. We always did employ the Chinaman to do the heavy lifting.

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF … WELCOME TO LAGOS

THE STARS OF THIS WORLD DO NOT WALLOW IN SELF-REVELATION, BUT ARE ORDINARY, RESOURCEFUL PEOPLE WHO GET BY

The scheduling has done this documentary series no favours. Welcome to Lagos has coincided each Thursday night with an event, the TV debate between the three party leaders, which has not only turned this election on its head, but which may have changed politics in this country forever. If you can ignore history being made on the other side, a treat awaits you on BBC2. The producer Will Anderson has spent four months in the least salubrious spots of Lagos, one of Africa's mega-cities - the main dump Olusosun, Makoko a floating slum, and the beach which is home to squatters. Thankfully, he was not on a quest for yet another extreme environment. Nor was he out to produce another derivative of Slumdog Millionaire. The stars of this world do not wallow in self-revelation, but are ordinary, resourceful people who get by. Meet Joseph, who burns the PVC coating off copper wire by night and proclaims that his business is just like the stock market. The price of metals he sells fluctuates with the price of the dollar. In fact, he goes on, the only difference between him and city slickers are suits, ties and fine shoes. One can think of a few others, as he leads you back to his one room apartment, but there is no cause for hand-wringing. No hearts bleed in this series, except those of the cattle slaughtered in the market. Nor is anyone pretending that life in the dump or the floating slum is another other than it is. If you can see it on iplayer, do. Otherwise this series is worth, dare one say it , a repeat.

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

EDUCATION: COMPETING SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

WITH THE CASH RUNNING DRY, MILKING MORE OUT OF THE SCHOOLS WE HAVE GOT IS A BETTER PRIORITY THAN BUILDING NEW ONES

From Thatcher to Major, and from Blair to Brown, the most heated arguments about education have turned on the question of choice. The election of 2010 is no different, but this time it is hard to concentrate on the debate, because of the distracting background din of the steel being sharpened for the savage years ahead. The row over fees for state nurseries which has now beset the Conservatives is a more instructive guide to what the next few years have in stall than any of the choice agendas we are being asked to choose from.

The Conservatives' Michael Gove has long argued the best way to raise standards in general – and most particularly in deprived places – is to enable disgruntled parents to walk away from failing local authorities and establish schools of their own. Regarded by Mr Gove as a natural extension of Tony Blair's academy programme, the plan is inspired by an 18-year old experiment in Sweden. And, until recently, the most pertinent questions related to the Swedish evidence. Initially positive signs have recently been overshadowed by the nation slipping down the educational league, and growing fears that gains in its free schools may have come at the expense of other institutions. As the scale of the post-election retrenchment becomes clearer, however, the really big question is the one acutely posed yesterday by a top Conservative councillor. Although Kent's leader, Paul Carter, later "clarified" that he supported the party line, his query about where the cash will come from still demands an answer.

To be fair to the Tories, they have never disguised that money would have to follow pupils out of old schools and into the new ones. Their difficulty is that they established this line during the era in which the argument was about how best to distribute public largesse; they must now defend it in circumstances where they are not able to preclude real-terms cuts in classroom spending. Whatever the eventual effect on standards if bad schools were driven from business, there will be a protracted interim during which one school's gain will be another school's pain. Likewise, there are doubts about what sorts of new schools can be built. Mr Gove highlights Mossbourne Academy in East London as an example, but where it is housed in a multi-million pound Richard Rogers development, new schools created in the next few years are likely to be crammed into office blocks.

Labour's alternative, allowing parents to turf out failing school managers, is less eye-catching; the Liberal Democrat option, finding funds for poor pupils by trimming tax credits, is more controversial. But with the cash running dry, milking more out of the schools we have got is a better priority than building new ones.

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

HUNG PARLIAMENT: NICK CLEGG'S FATEFUL CHOICE

THE LIB DEM LEADER NEEDS TO TELL US IF THE TORY SPURNING OF ELECTORAL REFORM WOULD BE A DEAL BREAKER OR NOT

Disraeli famously said that England does not love coalitions. Not the British way of doing things, harrumphed Ed Balls (later retracting a little) last week. Would paralyse the country, warned George Osborne yesterday. Pause to ask British voters, however, and they still seem pretty relaxed about the whole idea of a hung parliament. A weekend YouGov poll found more people supported an election outcome in which the Liberal Democrats hold the balance of power than supported any of the parties on their own. Maybe that's not exactly proof of a national love of coalitions, but it certainly isn't proof of fear and loathing either.

All of which highlights the increasingly fiercely debated question about the Liberal Democrats: with whom? Nick Clegg went into the election intending to keep the issue at arms' length. His formulaic answer was that the Lib Dems would accept the right of the party with the "strongest mandate". Whether that meant a mandate in terms of national vote share or of Westminster seats was left unclear. With the Lib Dems continuing to poll strongly and the prospects of a hung parliament rising, however, the question is beginning to bite harder. At the weekend, Mr Clegg tightened up his answer in three ways: first by saying that a party which has both most votes and most seats is entitled to support (though the meaning of such support was left unclear); second by specifically ruling out Lib Dem support for Labour under Gordon Brown if Labour finishes third in the popular vote (note the wriggle room there); and third by making more clear than before that a deal on electoral reform is an "unavoidable" part of any post-6 May pact with either party.

Such remarks have sent a frisson of uncertainty through many who have been thinking of casting their lot for the Lib Dems. Mr Clegg's recent surge of support has opened the marvellous possibility that the result on 6 May could finally generate the proportional representation reform moment that has been building in British politics since the unfair February 1974 election. The excitement about such a moment is palpable, above all among the Lib Dems' own activists but also among voters — and readers — on the non-partisan centre-left whose disillusion with Labour has brought them increasingly into the Lib Dem net. Yet in his weekend interviews Mr Clegg has seemed to hint that he prefers to parlay these votes for influence with David Cameron's more strongly mandated Conservatives rather than with Mr Brown's Labour. Since Tory MPs are overwhelmingly hostile to electoral reform — and David Cameron yesterday explicitly ruled out a referendum on the subject — Mr Clegg's apparent greater readiness to negotiate with the Tories has given a kind of electric shock to many supporters of reform.

In any hung parliament, it is right for all the parties to talk to each other about cooperating within the constraints the voters have imposed. Yes, these are complex equations involving many issues, some impossible to predict. But not all are unpredictable. Tough questions, answerable now, apply to all leaders, not just Mr Clegg. Mr Brown, for example, should say if he would feel mandated to lead a government if Labour finishes third in votes. Both he and Mr Cameron have also managed to avoid talking about the cuts and tax changes they might want within weeks, though the Tory leader was pretty definite yesterday that he is an enemy of electoral reform. Mr Clegg needs to tell us if the Tory spurning of electoral reform would be a deal breaker or not. He also needs to say whether the Lib Dems would be a moderating influence in any talks with the Tories about fiscal tightening, or whether — as the party's current support for tax cuts and against tax rises implies — they favour even more extreme cuts than the other parties. There are great causes to win in a hung parliament. But there are great causes to lose too. All the parties must be more open with the voters before the deal is closed.

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DAILY EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ON MOTHER KELLY'S NEW DOORSTEP - AN ELITE STATE SCHOOL

WHEN the former Labour education secretary Ruth Kelly removed her son from his state primary school and sent him to a private one better able to help him with his special needs, her party rounded on her.

 

Her colleague Ian Gibson spoke for many when he branded her decision "a slap in the face for the teachers and pupils in the school the child has been taken out of". 

 

It was left to Tory leader David Cameron to defend her.  "People should recognise that politicians like everyone else are parents first and will act in the best interests of their  children," he said. 

 

Since that row, in 2007, Ms Kelly has continued to put her family first. It has just been revealed that her eldest daughter is attending the most sought-after maintained Catholic girls' school in London. The child's two younger sisters will follow under the sibling rule. Some 93 per cent of pupils at the school get five good GCSEs including maths and English. 

 

Almost 60 per cent of grades are A and A*. So in due course mother Kelly's daughters will stand a pretty good chance of getting into Oxbridge, especially as our top universities have been set ambitious Government targets for the percentage of entrants they must seek from the state sector. 

NOT THAT the Kelly girls or their classmates will be particularly representative of that sector. The school's Ofsted report notes that: "The proportion of students eligible for free school meals is below average... The proportion of girls with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is lower than average." 

 

Moreover, Ms Kelly became the legal owner of a £1.8million house near to the school in West London just a day after ceasing to be an MP earlier this month. This means her son will be particularly well placed to enter one of the much sought after state-funded Catholic boys' schools in the area, including The London Oratory which educated the older Blair boys and also has a "below  average" number of pupils on free school meals. 

 

No doubt the £32,000 "resettlement grant" with which Ms Kelly left the Commons despite stepping down voluntarily at the age of 41 (the first £30,000 was tax free) will have consider- ably helped towards the hefty stamp duty bill on her new home. And she was able to sell her constituency home up in Bolton for an £81,000 profit too. 

 

So it has all turned out nice for the Kelly family. I wonder if, in her new life as a West London yummy mummy, Ms Kelly will ever spare a thought for the countless parents without the resources or know-how needed to play the system so brilliantly. 

 

Back in 2005, she told a conference: "For too long, access to some schools has only been open to those who could afford to buy an expensive house next to a good school, while the rest were told to accept what they'd been given." 

 

Mr Cameron was correct to assert the right of politicians to do the best for their children. But that is only half the story. The question Ms Kelly and many other Labour politicians must answer is why they have not made the sort of education they choose for their own children available to children from less privileged families. 

 

Labour figures from Tony Blair to Harriet Harman and even that Left-wing firebrand Diane Abbott all excused their own children the type of Local Education Authority "bog standard" comprehensive their party has imposed on the majority of British families. 

 

Blair took the route of faith schools that were beyond LEA control, Harman chose a grammar school in Kent for one of her sons, while Abbott sent her boy to a £10,000 a year fee- paying school, a decision that even she admitted was "intellectually incoherent". 

 

THE TREND is continuing. David Miliband sends his oldest boy to an oversubscribed Church of England school even though he is an atheist and there is a secular school closer to his home. All of these politicians and countless more besides have taken choices that mean their own children's peer group and the educational ethos they are subjected to is more akin to those at private schools than at typical comprehensives. So you would think they would feel honour bound to support the extension of such advantages to all families. Not a bit of it. 

 

Only the Conservatives propose to break open LEA monopolies and allow independent providers to open new schools that offer a rigorous academic education to children from modest backgrounds. Under Tory plans, parents will find schools competing for their children rather than vice versa. Parents will not need the spending power to either buy a home in the catchment areas of the best state schools or to go private in order to be sure their child can fulfil his potential. 

 

Yesterday Schools Secretary Ed Balls spent the day rubbishing these proposals, claiming they could mean that disadvantaged pupils miss out. They already do, Mr Balls. Since the demise of grammar schools it is harder than ever for a child from a non-moneyed background to make it to the top of British society. 

 

Mr Balls should know that. His father, Professor Michael Balls, led the campaign to close down every grammar school in Norfolk before sending him to a private, selective school. It is debatable whether Prof Balls or Ms Kelly has behaved in the more ruthless manner. But if the exercise of parental choice was the best way forward for them, to deny it to children with less fortunate beginnings is nothing less than an act of cold-hearted cruelty. 

  

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DAILY EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ANOTHER STICK FOR EUROPE TO BEAT OUR COUNTRY WITH

PARENTS have the right and indeed the responsibility to impose discipline on their children.

But equally the state has a legitimate role in protecting children at risk of neglect or abuse by adults who are supposed to be caring for them. 

 

So any civilised society will wish to enshrine laws that tell people how far they are allowed to go in the matter of corporal punishment of badly behaved children. While a smack on the leg or hand is still regarded by most people  as being within the proper bounds of parental discretion, more serious physical punishment is increasingly considered unacceptable. 

 

The correct place for a society to decide on appropriate limits is its national parliament. For an international body such as the Council of Europe to try and dictate British law on this issue is outrageous. 

 

The Council's deputy secretary, Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, says "prohibiting all corporal punishment is a legal imperative" and bemoans the fact that "the traditional parent-child relationship in the UK is one of authority and state intervention into family affairs is still not welcome". 

In making this intervention what  Ms Boer-Buquicchio is really decrying  is Britain's right to make its own laws according to its own social traditions. 

 

Whatever position one holds in the smacking debate in this country, the message to this lady and her compartment of the European gravy train should be the same: stay out of our business. 

 

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THE GAZETTE

BANK TAX IS DEAD, BUT WHAT COMES NEXT? 

In the U.S. and many other countries, bankers have a real image problem these days. But Canadian bankers, in their blandly discreet way, have not had to worry about the rotten fruit flying around the heads of their counterparts elsewhere.

The reasons for this are well-known: Tightly-regulated and also perhaps somewhat stuffy by nature, Canadian banks generally shunned the dangerous investment roller-coaster rides which ended so badly elsewhere. The sturdiness of our banks during the global financial crisis was a source of solace - and some smugness - for Canadians.

Now Canadians can take new pride in the news that our government was a leader in turning aside the half-baked notion of a tax on banks.

The whole world takes an earnest interest, these days, in bank regulation. In some countries there's downright vindictiveness about bank profits and pay. So it was hardly surprising that the G-20, the club of "systemically important industrialized and developing economies," has been talking about a tax on banks, to build up a bailout fund for the next crisis like the recent one. The strongest support has come from governments whose taxpayers got hit the hardest to prop up banks; a tax on profits and executive pay would be a vote-getter these days in Britain, France, Germany, the United States. Even the International Monetary Fund, which is old enough to know better, has been on the bank-tax bandwagon.

The G-20 abandoned the idea, at its meeting last week, largely because Canada refused to have anything to do with the measure. Canada's firm "no" along with similar answers from Australia and Japan soon won over some fence-sitters such as Brazil and Switzerland. The meeting's closing communiqué didn't mention the idea.

Bravo, then, to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, who stood against the idea. Good riddance to it. Who would have collected such a tax? Set the rate? Administered the money? Decided who would pay? Wouldn't such a tax weaken banks? Wouldn't banks move to countries without the tax? And in any case, would not such a fund make another crisis more likely, not less, by reducing concern about a new crisis? We won't mourn this idea.

However, this result leaves a vital question unanswered: If not a bank tax, then what? What happens the next time big banks get in trouble, as Lehman Brothers and the Royal Bank of Scotland did? How can we change "too big to fail" into "too strong to fail"?

Work on international bank regulation and standards has been going on for a long time (it's known in banker-speak at "the Basel process") but with new urgency recently. The G-20, whose leaders meet in this country in June, is considering other ways to stiffen the regulatory corset, without squeezing capitalist flexibility to death.

Putting aside traditional Canadian diffidence, we're happy to say that Canada has a fine proposal on this subject. Julie Dickson, Canada's superintendent of financial institutions, has with support from Flaherty and Carney, endorsed "embedded contingent capital." This opaque term means essentially that banks would be required to issue special bonds which, in a banking crisis, would automatically be converted to equity. Debt, with interest due, would become shares, perhaps without dividends, giving banks extra money when they need it.

"Investors in bank bonds," Dickson recently wrote of this idea, "would now have a real incentive to monitor and restrain risky bank behaviour, to avoid heavy losses from conversion to equity." Also shareholders would have a new reason to restrain the bank's risky practices, since conversion of the bonds to equity would dilute their control.

How elegant: regulation by alert self-interest, not by the clumsy hand of government. This is an idea that deserves serious attention around the world.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

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THE GAZETTE

BAD ADVICE FROM A POLLSTER

 

Ekos Research president Frank Graves, the pollster used regularly by the CBC, is also a close advisor to the Liberal Party of Canada. This appears to violate a CBC policy but we're a little more concerned, frankly, with the advice Graves is giving the Liberals.

Last week Graves was quoted by Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin as saying that he told the Liberals "that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don't like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin."

To his credit Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has not endorsed this approach, and now that Graves has spilled the beans we imagine the Liberals will want to distance themselves from him. But imagine the fuss if some Conservative pollster had been quoted the same way. We can envision the CBC's breathless reports about "secret Conservative plotting to divide Canadians," etc. etc.

The CBC should invite Graves to take his advice south, or anywhere far away.

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

MOURNING FOR SAILORS

WASTE NO EFFORT TO FIND CAUSE OF SINKING

It is beyond description to figure out how much pain and grief the nation's worst peacetime naval disaster has brought to the families of the 46 killed and missing sailors. It has taken one month to initiate the funeral process since the ill-fated Navy frigate Cheonan broke in half and sank after an unexplained explosion in the Yellow Sea.

As the Lee Myung-bak administration declared a five-day national mourning period until the funeral Thursday, it's time to pay tribute to the victims. The sailors should be recognized for their service for the nation and dedication to defending the freedom of the people against infiltrators. Thus, all South Koreans must not forget them for their deeds forever.

The government has decided to posthumously promote all the sailors by one rank and award them the Hwarang Cordon of the Order of Military Merit in honor of their patriotism. However, the promotion and the citation can never be a sufficient reward for their sacrifice. Therefore, the authorities are required to do more to pay respect to the victims' souls and take care of their distraught families.

As is often the case with many previous military disasters, people used to soon forget what happened. But the sinking of the 1,200-ton warship should not be a thing to be driven into oblivion. If the vessel proves to be destroyed by an enemy attack, the government plans to treat the deceased sailors as those who were killed in action. And it is necessary to draw a painful but valuable lesson from the incident in order to prevent a recurrence of such a tragedy.

Survivors of the ship blast and other people might think that they owed the victims too much because of a failure to protect and rescue them from the mishap. In this sense, the nation has to make the utmost efforts to prove their sacrifice to be not in vain but for the survival of the nation. All the people need to try to pay off the price the dead seamen paid to serve in the military.

For now, what's most pressing is to make a thorough investigation to find exactly what triggered the incident and who was behind it. After retrieving another half of the split sunken ship on Sunday, the authorities tentatively concluded that there must have been an underwater explosion. Investigators said the sinking was apparently caused by an air bubble shockwave resulting from the blast of a torpedo or a sea mine underneath the vessel.

There are growing suspicions about North Korea's involvement in the case. But it is too early to point a finger at the military regime. Politicians, officials and citizens should refrain from barking up the wrong tree before presenting strong evidence proving who pulled the strings. It is also important to gauge what action to take against those found responsible for the fatal disaster.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

PROSECUTION OF PROSECUTORS

INQUIRY MUST LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED

A committee to investigate public prosecutors who have allegedly received bribes and sexual entertainment will begin its activities Tuesday. If the results of previous self-reform drives are any guide, however, this will also likely end up as much ado about nothing. And those familiar with the legal circle are not exactly holding their breath this time, either.

To begin with, the public does not seem to pin much hope on a Seoul National University professor named to head the nine-member investigation panel. ``Those on the inquiry list were once my beloved students and their friends,'' said Sung Nak-in. ``Prosecutors are also humans like everyone else. So I ask you not to harbor too much antagonism against them.'' Professor Sung, who is running for the SNU's presidency, holds the first meeting of the fact-finding panel four days after his appointment due to his campaign schedule.

All this explains why skeptics think the upcoming inquiry is just another case of an old saying, ``You cannot scratch your own back,'' despite the naming of an ``outsider'' to its top post.

President Lee Myung-bak was right when he made his first comment on this issue Monday, saying, ``They must thoroughly investigate the case and take institutional steps to supplement the system to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.'' But the President was wrong when he added, ``The prosecution should reform its habitual irregularities on its own,'' for it has long been proven that the job cannot be done by prosecutors themselves.

The fundamental problem of the prosecution is that the law enforcement institution has too much power by monopolizing all the rights concerning legal punishment, and too few agencies or mechanisms to check that power. It would be rather strange if an omnipotent group like this does not turn arrogant and corrupt. Whatever public prosecutors do wrong, no one but other prosecutors ― their colleagues in other words ― can punish them, which they do only rarely, and in most cases the problematic prosecutors have only to quit their jobs and start anew as lawyers.

So any institutional solution must start with dissolving the monopoly of rights at least for prosecution and investigation by dividing them among different agencies.

Until the separation of the monopoly takes firm root, the nation will need to introduce an independent counsel or an agency exclusively responsible for investigating corruption by ranking, powerful officials, including public prosecutors, preferably under the direct control of the Presidential Office or the National Assembly as the people's representative.

In pushing for this reform, President Lee is advised to seek cooperation more from the opposition party rather than from the governing party with the latter being more likely to want to use the prosecution for political purposes. The tragedy of the late President Roh Moo-hyun shows the prosecution can always turn against its former boss once the political wind changes direction.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

ON ROAD TO POST-CRISIS GROWTH

BY MICHAEL SPENCE

MILAN ― It is about 18 months since the financial crisis hit, and 12 months since the panic started to recede, with asset prices stabilizing and beginning to turn up. Although recovery in advanced countries remains fragile, developing countries appear to have weathered the storm.

Growth in China and India is bouncing back toward pre-crisis levels, Brazil's growth is rising after a sharp dip, and developing-country trade is rebounding from depressed levels.

Reasons for this remarkable resilience abound, and they offer guidance for advanced and developing countries alike. As the crisis struck, capital flowed out of developing countries to shore up damaged balance sheets in advanced countries.

Credit tightened sharply. But rapid responses by developing-country central banks, in collaboration with relatively healthy domestic banks, prevented a severe credit freeze.

Moreover, the reserves built up over the preceding decade were, in many cases, used to offset some of the capital outflows.

Bank balance sheets had been strengthened after the 1997-1998 financial crisis, and were unencumbered by the overvalued securitized assets and complex derivative securities that caused much of the damage to advanced-country financial institutions.

Leverage was lower in several sectors. Financial institutions ― and, more importantly, households ― held less debt relative to assets and income.

In advanced economies, the main mechanisms for transmitting balance-sheet damage to the real economy were credit rationing and reduced consumption due to loss of net worth in households. Both factors were more muted in developing economies.

Of course, rapid declines in asset values had an impact for a few months, but, with less leverage, the impact on net worth was lower and domestic consumption less vulnerable. In sum, the crisis originated in a balance-sheet shock, to which exposure was simply lower in developing countries.

All developing countries witnessed a huge fall-off in trade ― much larger than the declines in income and output. Trade bounced back relatively quickly in the second half of 2009, though this partly reflected the extraordinarily low base.

But the immediate effect was mitigated to some extent by a sharp depreciation of almost all the currencies caused by the capital outflows.

The exception was China, where the renminbi held steady against the dollar, causing an initial appreciation against almost every other currency.

That configuration has largely reversed in the past nine months as international capital flows, driven by investment opportunities and returns, return to a more normal pattern. It is likely that China will shortly resume its pre-crisis policy of managed appreciation.

To be sure, developing countries differed ― often markedly ― in their capacity for fiscal stimulus to counter the loss of external demand. Nevertheless, many were capable of at least some countercyclical measures without destabilizing their public finances.

Although the resilience in emerging markets, their rapid and effective policy responses, and speedy recoveries are encouraging signs for the global economy, instability in the advanced economies and the relatively unregulated financial system remain a cause for concern.

Re-regulation and international efforts to coordinate policy responses may eventually reduce the potential for instability, but will require the work to be finished and tested before real confidence is generated. In the meantime, a somewhat conservative and defensive posture is warranted.

This means that developing countries are likely to retain substantial domestic ownership of their domestic financial institutions.

Securitization (and shadow banking) will be kept simple and proceed at a measured pace as a new legal and regulatory framework is built and tested. Complex securities that are hard to value will be sharply limited as a matter of policy.

Moreover, because dependence on foreign finance creates clear vulnerabilities, developing countries will seek to fund investment mainly from domestic savings, thereby limiting the size of their current-account deficits.

And, because there is no strategic reason to run large surpluses, with an excess of savings over investment, maintaining reasonable balance on the current account appears to be the preferred course. In any case, limiting financial interdependence is the prudent strategy and the likely outcome.

Nevertheless, the basic pillar of sustained high growth has been leveraging the global economy's knowledge and demand. That remains valid.

So, while a strong likelihood of diminished growth in advanced countries for an extended period means that an outward-oriented strategy may produce less-than-spectacular results for developing countries, alternative strategies are worse.

Indeed, worries about rising protectionism in a low-growth environment are on target. Larger developing countries must assume an expanded role in unwinding the protectionist measures that came with their expanded use of the public purse, and reestablish forward motion.

This is particularly important for poorer and smaller developing countries in which domestic consumption and investment is a poor substitute for global demand.

At the same time, a renewed emphasis on maximizing the domestic market's potential to drive growth and structural diversification ― though clearly higher in the larger, higher-income developing economies ― is a useful lesson of the crisis.

Those developing countries that maintain a stable macroeconomic environment, a countercyclical mindset, and steady progress on governance, education, and infrastructure will thrive.

Advanced-country growth may be diminished for a time, but the compensating factors that have emerged represent the most important lesson of the crisis.

Developing countries' internal trade is expanding with their economic size, and the large ones are restoring growth rapidly.

 

Indeed, China, far from being thrown off course by the crisis, is entering a middle-income transition that over time will create considerable space in labor-intensive manufacturing and services, as the country evolves structurally and exits from these sectors.

Michael Spence was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001. An expanded treatment of the lessons and challenges of the financial crisis can be found in ``Post-Crisis Growth in Developing Countries: A Special Report of the Commission on Growth and Development on the Implications of the 2008 Financial Crisis." For more stories, visit Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org). For a podcast of this commentary in English, please use this link: http://media.blubrry.com/ps/media.libsyn.com/media/ps/spence10.mp3.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

NATO SHOULD KEEP NUKES

BY DALE MCFEATTERS

Scripps Howard News Service

Five NATO nations ― Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Luxembourg ― are pressing the U.S. to pull its remaining nuclear weapons out of Europe.

By Cold War standards, it's a small arsenal, only 150 to 250 tactical weapons ― short-range missiles and bombs. And there is a certain expense for NATO in securing and maintaining these aging stocks.

Other NATO nations, Turkey and especially the members who were former Soviet satellites, see those weapons and their membership in the alliance as a guarantor of their freedom and a deterrent against Russian bullying.

At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton politely and correctly said no to the idea of our withdrawing the weapons.

She didn't close the door entirely, saying any cuts in the arsenal would depend on Russia making cuts in its own tactical arsenal and pulling back the remaining weapons from its borders with NATO nations.

There's no point in NATO dismantling the arsenal unless the alliance gets something in return. In any case, the Russians have typically refused to negotiate over tactical nukes and, given the glacial pace of arms reduction talks between the U.S. and Russia, any such agreement would be a long way off.

As long as Iran's nuclear intentions are unclear and the mullahs remain bellicose, it's an argument for retaining a nuclear capability in Europe, even if only a tactical one.

The arsenal is also an insurance policy pending the time it takes for new strategic capabilities to come on line ― a truly effective missile defense system and the ability to deploy project Prompt Global Strike, a generation of super-explosive conventional weapons with the reported capability of hitting any point on the globe in under an hour.

Having nuclear weapons in Europe is more than just a placeholder; it establishes the U.S.'s and the alliance's right to have them there. Although it is fading from memory, there were tremendous protests by Western European peace groups against the Reagan administration's decision to deploy Pershing and cruise missiles to Europe.

Given that Western Europe is considerably more pacifist now than then, once nuclear weapons are removed it would be politically and diplomatically difficult to reintroduce them, almost regardless of any external threat.

Finally, as Clinton reminded the ministers, NATO is a defensive military alliance and, ``We should recognize that as long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance." It has to be capable of fighting a war so it doesn't have to.

Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer of Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

 

ETHNIC RESTAURANTS

 

It is pleasant to see ethnic restaurants sprouting up in cities across the country these days -- a sign of the "globalization" of our society. With more than one million foreigners in the country, it is natural that Korean and foreign entrepreneurs open businesses to cater to the needs of the immigrant population. Besides, millions of Koreans who traveled abroad and developed taste in exotic foods want to renew their culinary adventure back home.

Following early leads by the Indian and Thai restaurants, Vietnamese noodle houses have appeared in almost every "food court" in major shopping centers and amusement areas, vying with pasta houses and localized Chinese and Japanese eateries. Newly joining in the culinary war are Mexican taco stores, Brazilian barbecue houses and Arabian restaurants as visitors from Latin America and the Middle East increase.

While we are anxious to promote the globalization of Korean food, an adequate environment should be provided for the ethnic food business here. But things do not seem to be going well in terms of approving visas and business registration for foreign chefs.

Complaints are heard from local and foreign restaurateurs who experience difficulties in inviting chefs from overseas as the immigration office allows it only for establishments designated as "tourist restaurants." Beyond this, the officials in charge set the condition of at least five years' job experience for the applicant -- although that requirement is sometimes dropped.

Some ethnic restaurant operators face another problem under tax office regulations: Any foreigner starting a business here needs to have a Korean national guarantee his or her tax payments. It may be from bureaucratic concern about the absence of assets to be seized in case of tax default, but it could be taken as an unfair form of discrimination against foreigners as there is no such requirement for Koreans.

 

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

CORRUPTION CHAIN

 

The Board of Audit and Inspection has announced its latest findings of corruption involving the heads of local autonomous units -- counties, cities and districts in metropolitan cities -- asking for criminal investigation of 32 local officials. Now we wonder how the many members of law enforcement organizations responsible for those localities have failed to take action until inspectors from Seoul looked into district accounts and interviewed officials and residents.

Another question is why the local media and civic groups have been quiet about these improprieties which the BAI revealed were widely rumored among residents. Our questions are partly answered by the fact that there is a tight and effective chain of corruption in the nation's local communities. President Lee Myung-bak has vowed to fight what he called "indigenous corruption" as one of the major goals of his administration. Recent disclosures must have again convinced him of the colossal task he is faced with.

The government watchdog's report included the case of a county head in South Chungcheong Province who is accused of receiving a villa worth over 300 million won from a local construction businessman for whom the county office awarded several public work projects. Another case involves the mayor of Yeongyang County, North Gyeongsang Province, who is alleged to have awarded 27 official projects to one construction company and received 250 million won in return.

The BAI report and recent prosecution disclosures revealed numerous graft cases involving local construction companies over the awarding of public construction projects, such as roads, public buildings and facilities for community-level festivals. Mayoral corruption also includes hiring new officials or giving them promotion in return for money. Ahead of the local elections in early June, there were quite a few cases of candidates trying to bribe party officials to win nomination.

The depth of corruption at the local levels poses as a threat to grassroots democracy. Too much power is given to local chiefs while there are insufficient mechanisms of oversight in the close-knit civil society. Most local newspapers are owned by businessmen with construction who also represent some of influential civic groups. Whistleblowing is suppressed by the connections of friends and relatives. Criminal prosecution starts slowly, only after things become everyone's knowledge.

Individual integrity of administrators is the only solution to the widespread corruption in our local communities. The upcoming local elections should be the chance to root out the bad apples. Courageous exposures should be made to prevent corrupt candidates from winning party nomination. Before that, more conscientious and able people need to run for election if we are to progress democratically.

 

**************************************

 

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

 

NATIONAL MOURNING

 

The nation is in the five-day mourning period for the 46 crewmembers of the naval craft Cheonan, which sank in the West Sea while on a patrol mission off the coast of North Korea. Mourners from all walks of life are joining the long queues in front of altars in Seoul Plaza, the warship's home port in Pyeongtaek where a joint funeral will be held tomorrow, and major naval commands in Busan, Jinhae and Mokpo.

In the hearts of the people paying tribute to the fallen heroes at sea, there must be two conflicting emotions. One is the resolve to make whoever is responsible for the tragedy pay dearly. The other is the determination to maintain the peace on the Korean Peninsula by strengthening the nation's security posture and thus preventing the renewal of war that could cause a death toll hundreds or thousands times bigger.

By now, the cause of the destruction of the Cheonan has almost been established through initial examination of the stern and bow parts salvaged from the seabed on April 15 and Saturday, respectively. The possibility of an internal explosion, collision with a reef or a fatigue fracture was dismissed. A joint civilian-military investigation team concluded that an underwater explosion set off by a sea mine or a heavy torpedo resulted in the 1,200-ton ship breaking in two on the night of March 26.

There were no signs that a naval weapon such as a torpedo had penetrated the hull and exploded inside, and there were no signs of fire either inside the bow or stern. It is therefore surmised that a torpedo or a mine caused a contactless underwater impact or a "bubble jet" without directly hitting the warship, according to officials.

What remains to be done in the investigation is closer inspection of the two parts of the ship in a drydock and the collection of fragments of any weapon used in the attack from the seabed where the Cheonan went down. With the participation of international experts from the United States and Sweden, the inquiry could take up to a month to reach a conclusion.

"The Republic of Korea will never forget your honorable sacrifice," President Lee Myung-bak wrote in the visitors' book at the Seoul Plaza altar after looking at each of the 46 pictures of the sailors. "We will not retreat after this incident but will march forward," he vowed. How he will lead the nation in the march forward will be a difficult choice, even if indisputable evidence points to North Korea as the culprit.

A government task force, consisting mainly of Foreign Ministry officials, is known to have worked on countermeasures for all possible results of the investigation. Officials only reveal diplomatic options, such as submitting the case of military provocation to the U.N. Security Council, seeking the support of China, Russia and Japan in any condemnatory action. Steps will be taken to bolster the joint and combined defense system with the United States.

At the moment, government authorities have not revealed any options outside the diplomatic arena. But the government and the military should be ready to take proper action as soon as the investigation comes to a conclusion. Even before that, the defense along the maritime border of the Northern Limit Line should be visibly strengthened to convince North Koreans that the possibility of negotiations for any change to the demarcation in the sea has been completely closed because of the March 26 incident.

 

We have to demonstrate to them that we are strong enough to protect peace on the peninsula and in the waters around it.

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THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

JAPAN ELECTION MORE THAN POPULARITY CONTEST

 

Yoichi Masuzoe, a former Japanese health, welfare and labor minister, on Friday launched a new party, Shinto Kaikaku (literally "new party for reform"). In opinions polls, the former Liberal Democratic Party member was most preferred option for prime minister from among a list of politicians. The six-member party obviously depends on Masuzoe's popularity. But there is no guarantee that this factor alone will bring success in the coming Upper House election.

While a member of the LDP, Masuzoe repeatedly criticized the party leadership, headed by former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki. His repeated criticisms, which were not backed by positive moves on his part to strengthen the party, alienated many LDP politicians and led some of them to call on the party leadership to issue him "advice to leave the party." Apparently Masuzoe had no choice but to do so.

Although Masuzoe must have wanted to establish a new party in the true sense of the word, Shinto Kaikaku is not, by legal technicality, a new party. It was created by changing the name of Kaikaku Club (Japan Renaissance Party), a minor opposition party. Masuzoe, two other defectors from the LDP and three from Kaikaku Club formed the new party. There is no avoiding the impression that the new party's formation was somewhat rushed. There was no indication that Masuzoe and Kaikaku Club members had previously seriously discussed ideological or policy matters.

Masuzoe accuses the Democratic Party of Japan of "pursuing excessively socialistic policies" and says that his party will build a Japan in which "autonomous individuals" will play active roles. As one of its main policies, the party calls for halving the number of Diet members. But it fails to explain how the reduction of the number of Diet members will promote democracy and enhance politics' ability to solve society's various problems.

Masuzoe's departure from the LDP, although expected, is a blow to the party. The No. 1 opposition party must study in earnest what people really need and work out policies to respond to those needs.

The Japan Times, April 27

 

**************************************

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

THAI POLICE FAIL TO UPHOLD LAW AND ORDER

 

The Thai police are doing nothing to maintain law and order, shaming themselves and the country

The yellow shirts yesterday called for the imposition of martial law to end the mass anti-government protests by the rival reds. The yellow shirts, formally known as the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), have threatened to take matters into their own hands "to protect the country" if the authorities continue to drag their feet and do nothing about the thousands of anti-government reds who have been clogging the streets of Bangkok and placing the financial and commercial districts in a chokehold.

Twenty-six people have died and almost 1,000 injured in the capital this month in Thailand's bloodiest civil unrest in nearly two decades. There was also a grenade attack late on Sunday, injuring 11 people at the house of former Premier Banharn Silpa-archa.

The end is nowhere in sight. Some have blamed the lack of political willingness on the part of all stakeholders to make the needed concessions. Others think that as long as Thaksin Shinawatra is still at the helm of the reds and his ultimate goal is to get his money back and be pardoned for his crimes, the necessary common ground will never be discovered. The absence of an end game to this political crisis has given rise to the idea of bringing the armed forces into the picture. The PAD's call for the imposition of martial law is, unfortunately, gaining momentum.

While the frustrations of the PAD and the country's people is understandable, martial law is not the answer. At the least, we need to exhaust other options before we even consider bringing in martial law. Perhaps we could start with the police and their mandate to uphold law and order. Sad to say, Thailand's finest have not been doing their duty. Of late, the police have appeared to be more concerned with their own interests than that of the country. One reading of their incompetence or unwillingness to take matters seriously has to do with their concern that they will some day have to serve under the very people they might be arresting.

This might explain the foot-dragging displayed at various stand-offs. In some cases, such as at the Pathum Thani stand-off over this past weekend, there were reports claiming the police and the reds were colluding.

The police had informed the reds about their own movements, and the reds acted accordingly, setting up roadblocks and detaining the police until further notice.

And so, as things stand, the country is coming closer to the point where law and order is being torn down. In such situations, stakeholders tend to take matters into their own hands. Already we have seen reds setting up their own checkpoints, hijacking military vehicles and violating the rights of ordinary people.

In the name of what they say are righteous politics, these red militias violate other people's rights. A female physician from Udon Thani, Dr. Duangdao Dungnamsawang, has filed a complaint with the police over a Sunday evening incident when about 200 reds tried to search her in the middle of the night. The excuse was that her licence plate was a Bangkok one. One wonders if filing such a complaint with the police will do any good at all. But then again, we must stay the course and help ensure that the system works.

The failure to uphold law and order reflects badly on the police. One wonders what has happened to their pride, their sense of dignity. Surely there is an understanding that their actions, or lack thereof, have political implications. But if the street protesters, regardless of colour, are permitted to take matters into their own hands, then Thailand is heading towards a civil war.

There are times when the police are a source of comfort to ordinary people. This isn't the case anymore. Don't be surprised if the idea of dissolving the entire police force takes off. At the least the country could work from a clean slate.

The Nation, April 27

***************************************

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

THAI POLICE FAIL TO UPHOLD LAW AND ORDER

 

The Thai police are doing nothing to maintain law and order, shaming themselves and the country

The yellow shirts yesterday called for the imposition of martial law to end the mass anti-government protests by the rival reds. The yellow shirts, formally known as the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), have threatened to take matters into their own hands "to protect the country" if the authorities continue to drag their feet and do nothing about the thousands of anti-government reds who have been clogging the streets of Bangkok and placing the financial and commercial districts in a chokehold.

Twenty-six people have died and almost 1,000 injured in the capital this month in Thailand's bloodiest civil unrest in nearly two decades. There was also a grenade attack late on Sunday, injuring 11 people at the house of former Premier Banharn Silpa-archa.

The end is nowhere in sight. Some have blamed the lack of political willingness on the part of all stakeholders to make the needed concessions. Others think that as long as Thaksin Shinawatra is still at the helm of the reds and his ultimate goal is to get his money back and be pardoned for his crimes, the necessary common ground will never be discovered. The absence of an end game to this political crisis has given rise to the idea of bringing the armed forces into the picture. The PAD's call for the imposition of martial law is, unfortunately, gaining momentum.

While the frustrations of the PAD and the country's people is understandable, martial law is not the answer. At the least, we need to exhaust other options before we even consider bringing in martial law. Perhaps we could start with the police and their mandate to uphold law and order. Sad to say, Thailand's finest have not been doing their duty. Of late, the police have appeared to be more concerned with their own interests than that of the country. One reading of their incompetence or unwillingness to take matters seriously has to do with their concern that they will some day have to serve under the very people they might be arresting.

This might explain the foot-dragging displayed at various stand-offs. In some cases, such as at the Pathum Thani stand-off over this past weekend, there were reports claiming the police and the reds were colluding.

The police had informed the reds about their own movements, and the reds acted accordingly, setting up roadblocks and detaining the police until further notice.

And so, as things stand, the country is coming closer to the point where law and order is being torn down. In such situations, stakeholders tend to take matters into their own hands. Already we have seen reds setting up their own checkpoints, hijacking military vehicles and violating the rights of ordinary people.

In the name of what they say are righteous politics, these red militias violate other people's rights. A female physician from Udon Thani, Dr. Duangdao Dungnamsawang, has filed a complaint with the police over a Sunday evening incident when about 200 reds tried to search her in the middle of the night. The excuse was that her licence plate was a Bangkok one. One wonders if filing such a complaint with the police will do any good at all. But then again, we must stay the course and help ensure that the system works.

The failure to uphold law and order reflects badly on the police. One wonders what has happened to their pride, their sense of dignity. Surely there is an understanding that their actions, or lack thereof, have political implications. But if the street protesters, regardless of colour, are permitted to take matters into their own hands, then Thailand is heading towards a civil war.

There are times when the police are a source of comfort to ordinary people. This isn't the case anymore. Don't be surprised if the idea of dissolving the entire police force takes off. At the least the country could work from a clean slate.

The Nation, April 27

***************************************

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

NEW DATA SHOWS CLIMATE CHANGING QUICKLY

IT IS ABOUT TIME TO PANIC.

According to the NASA data, we have just experienced the hottest 12-month period in more than 100 years, which means that the last 12 months have been the hottest in at least the past 1,000 years.

What does this mean? Well, if global temperatures continue to rise at the rate that they have risen for the past generation, then the world of 2100 will see a world 2.2 degrees Celsius hotter than the world of the 1970s. New York will get the climate of Washington. Los Angeles will get the climate of Tijuana.

But global warming might accelerate, especially if China, India and other industrializing powers continue to increase the amount of carbon dioxide they pour out. Perhaps the world by 2100 will be 5.5 degrees hotter than the world of the 1970s. That would give Washington the climate of Miami and Los Angeles the climate of Cabo San Lucas.

And we might get lucky. We might learn that the climate is in fact immensely stable on the upside. Even though past ice ages have ended quickly with very rapid warming, perhaps there are factors in the Earth's biosphere that allow it to soak up excess carbon dioxide quickly, like a sponge, and perhaps the world of 2100 will not be much warmer than the world of today. Or perhaps we will discover magical new energy technologies that are actually cheaper than our current technologies and will be rapidly adopted without the governments of the world lifting a finger to take action.

But that is not the prudent way to bet. The prudent thing to do is to plan, and to hedge: to plan for the most likely case, and to hedge by taking precautions -- insurance -- against the worst case. The world was supposed to plan how to deal with our global warming future at Kyoto. And then the world was supposed to plan for how to deal with our global warming future at Copenhagen. It did not do so.

So what do we do now?

Let us start with our global institutions. It is a fact that global warming is not likely to be a total human catastrophe here in California during the next 100 years. We will mourn the losses of our glaciers and our snowpack. We will lament the extinction of the polar bear, the coral reefs and the giant sequoias. We will be distressed at the transformation of California's Central Valley into the north Mojave Desert. But many San Franciscans really won't mind having the climate of Los Angeles. And many Angelenos will not be greatly distressed to have the climate of Tijuana. We will probably move a few miles north and relocate economic activity to get out of the paths of hurricanes and droughts. We will turn down our heaters and turn up our air conditioners. We will live our lives. It will be expensive for us to simply adapt, and it would be cheaper over the next century to deal with the problem. But here in California, there's little question we will be able to adapt without immediate human catastrophe for the next century.

That's not the case for Asia. China, India and their neighbors will soon have 3 billion peasants farming in the great river valleys of Asia. They depend on regular monsoon rains in the valleys and water flows down the channels of the Indus, the Ganges, the Mekong, the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers. Global climate change means that there will either be more precipitation in the valleys and feeding the rivers -- or much less. If there is more, millions will die in floods, and the dwelling and working places of hundreds of millions will simply be washed away. The 3 billion are not rich enough to abandon their land and move away. They are also not rich enough to protect themselves. If there is much less water, hundreds of millions will die in famine and drought. Again, the peasant farming populations of Asia are not rich enough to abandon their land and move away. And they are also not rich enough to bring icebergs up from the Antarctic and pipe the water uphill from the sea to their farms.

The peasant farming populations are not rich enough to simply adapt. So the first thing we need to do is to beg the rulers of China and India to understand their nations' long-term interest.

But even if China and India understand and join the North Atlantic and the island nations of the Pacific in understanding the immensity of the long-run problem, that will not be enough. In the current international forum, China and India are simply two out of 150 nations, and consensus is required. That is just too big a body with too many conflicting interests.

So the second thing we need to do is change the forum. We need a climate council made up of the seven governments that have the biggest power to influence the climate and the most at stake: the United States and the European Union, along with Japan, China, India, Indonesia and Brazil. Once the council has agreed to a treaty, it should be enforced by using aggressive and substantial trade sanctions against outsider countries that do not want to come up to the mark.

Utopian? Yes. Impractical? Probably. But what is the practical and realistic alternative that it would be better to push for?

J. Bradford DeLong is a professor of economics at U.C. Berkeley and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. -- Ed.

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)

By J. Bradford DeLong

Los Angeles Times

***************************************

 

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

TURNING POINT IN U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS

 

Leaders or representatives from 47 countries recently attended the nuclear security summit in Washington. By holding a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barrack Obama and delivering an important speech at the summit, President Hu Jintao highlighted China's positive image for people across the globe and helped reverse the deterioration of U.S.-China relations.

Hu's visit to Washington will help lead the bilateral relations toward a positive direction. Although some disputes continue between the two countries, Hu's visit to Washington will no doubt contribute to lowering U.S. hostility toward China.

Earlier, the rapid increase in GDP had stimulated some Chinese diplomats to take blind pride in dealing with their foreign counterparts. Now, it is time to rethink whether it is necessary to adhere to the well-established principle of keeping a low profile in handling Sino-American relations.

China's GDP will soon become the second largest in the world. Who is the greatest beneficiary from the pursuance of this principle over the past three decades? Needless to say, it is China.

Now, China is just halfway through its course of "peaceful rise." In the foreseeable future, the United States will remain the No. 1 power in the world. Two decades from now, who will become the greatest beneficiary if China, as the biggest developing country, is able to maintain stable relations with Washington? Obviously, the answer is China.

In his opening statement at the summit, Obama pointed out that in today's world, the world has reduced the risk of a nuclear war between big powers, but the threat of nuclear terrorist assaults is increasing. He is right. Terrorists can penetrate all places throughout the world without leaving a trace.

It is difficult for all major powers, especially the United States, to detect and prevent them from launching assaults including sudden attacks with "dirty bombs" as weapons. As such, the whole world faces the most serious security challenge.

Such a strategic assessment prompted Obama to convene the nuclear security summit as well as his earlier initiative of "a world free of nuclear weapons." Preoccupied by this assessment, he has spared no effort to promote the campaign of countering nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

To fight nuclear terrorism, the summit focused on establishing an international nuclear security mechanism. The United States and many countries face the threat of nuclear terrorism. China is no exception.

In case the East Turkistan separatists consider the timing is mature to intensify conflicts with Beijing, they will no doubt take whatever means necessary to penetrate nuclear facilities or acquire "dirty bombs." Moreover, the large-scale construction of nuclear power plants in China introduces more security challenges. China will be in the peak period of building such plants in the next two decades.

The ongoing construction of such plants scattered in coastal areas would expose the nation to threat. A terrorist attack on even one plant would result in consequences more serious than that of detonating a nuclear bomb over a city. Taking this into account, Beijing has adopted various measures to strengthen nuclear security in recent years.

As a positive response from China to the international community, Hu Jintao made the decision to attend the summit, which reflects that Beijing and Washington actually are sharing common interests by making joint efforts to establish a global mechanism for countering nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

This action indicates that Beijing regards nuclear terrorist assaults as a huge threat to national security interests and it hopes to strengthen international cooperation to limit or even eliminate this type of threat.

Also, this decision has indeed enabled China to avert a head-on collision with the United States and helped reverse a deterioration of U.S.-China relations. Based on this, we can suppose that Beijing is able to conduct strategic adjustment at a critical moment and formulate appropriate foreign policies.

Xue Litai is a research associate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. -- Ed.

(Asia News Network)

By Xue Litai  (China Daily)

 

***************************************

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

IRAQ'S POLITICS UNSETTLED

 

BAGHDAD -- In the lobby of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry hangs a large poster with photos of 42 men and women killed when a truck bomb exploded outside their offices in August.

The ministry buildings have been fully rebuilt -- unlike the Finance Ministry, which was blown up on the same day -- by the effective foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari. But Zebari told me, "Iraq is still not out of danger, is still not a normal country."

That aptly sums up the situation here as a recount begins of the Baghdad votes in the March elections. The ballots have been challenged by the party of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who disputes a count that gave a (mostly Sunni) bloc called Iraqiya a narrow edge over his (mostly Shiite) bloc. The election produced such fragmented results, with no bloc gaining a majority, that most doubt a government will be formed before fall.

The security situation has dramatically improved since the days of civil war. As I toured Baghdad, I saw busy markets, women walking without long, black abayas -- some even without headscarves -- and streets full of traffic. The Iraqi police and army man checkpoints, and U.S. soldiers are nowhere to be seen.

Yet, as the United States prepares to pull out all combat forces and reduce troop levels to 50,000 by August, Iraqis worry about a security vacuum -- and a political vacuum.

 

"If we don't get it right in the next couple of months, if Iraqiya feels cheated," Zebari worried, "we could go back to violence, and the country could be split."

Although U.S. and Iraqi forces killed three key leaders of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia last week, Zebari believes Sunni extremists will keep trying to reignite sectarian warfare. He said the country was recently alerted that terrorists might fly an aircraft into a holy Shiite shrine.

For anyone who saw Baghdad at its worst, there are grounds to hope the country will muddle through this period. When I asked Gen. Ray Odierno, the U.S. commander in Iraq, for his prediction, he said, "I think there's still within the population (some desire) for retribution, but nowhere near the level of 2006-07. The population is tired of it, and the (Iraqi) army is becoming more professional."

"If we leave by 2011," said Odierno, referring to the date set by the U.S.-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement, "the minimum capability we've given (Iraqi forces) won't let anyone fill the security vacuum."

Yet he, too, has concerns about the potential political vacuum as Iraqis struggle to develop their version of a democratic system. Neighboring Iran and Saudi Arabia, among others, are eager to exert influence -- not necessarily for good.

In the coming years, Iraq will be a weak state, with legal and electoral systems that encourage voting by sect rather than competence. The impasse over forming a government shows how hard it will be to reform that system.

"Our attempt to cross the sectarian border and to broaden our political base failed," said Sadiq al-Rikabi, a key political adviser to Prime Minister Maliki. He blames pressure from Saudi Arabia for preventing Sunni groups from joining Maliki's State of Law party.

Now, he says, Iraqi politicians have to deal with reality: "The outcome of the election pushed us to a sectarian base: Shia in two blocs, Sunnis in one bloc, Kurds in one bloc." Any government must contain all three groups, he contends. He added that Maliki's party is willing to "make a deal" with the "main representatives" of all blocs "to share in ruling the country and particularly in different positions in government."

Many observers believe that all the big blocs will ultimately have a role in the government, with ministries parceled out by sect. This may prevent strife, but it will also ensure ineffective government.

Yet if vote challenges multiply, the process will drag on; it's hard to foresee how the blocs will agree on a prime minister. Maliki has many political enemies, yet Rikabi insists State of Law will not -- as many predict -- abandon his candidacy. Every other name raised seems far less likely than his.

In the end, it may take U.S. mediation to resolve the impasse. So far, the U.S. Embassy has firmly rebuffed the idea it would play such a role. "If we're serious about sovereignty, we have to let them be sovereign," said a senior U.S. official. "And we mean it."

Foreign Minister Zebari insists Americans can't stay aloof. "Watching this unfold without any guidance is very dangerous," he said. "Withdrawal (of troops) is one thing, but a hands-off approach is something else. There must be help to fill the (political) vacuum." I think he will be proven correct.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. -- Ed.
( McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)

By Trudy RubinThe Philadelphia Inquirer

 

***************************************

THE KOREA HERALD

EDITORIAL

NEW DATA SHOWS CLIMATE CHANGING QUICKLY

IT IS ABOUT TIME TO PANIC.

According to the NASA data, we have just experienced the hottest 12-month period in more than 100 years, which means that the last 12 months have been the hottest in at least the past 1,000 years.

What does this mean? Well, if global temperatures continue to rise at the rate that they have risen for the past generation, then the world of 2100 will see a world 2.2 degrees Celsius hotter than the world of the 1970s. New York will get the climate of Washington. Los Angeles will get the climate of Tijuana.

But global warming might accelerate, especially if China, India and other industrializing powers continue to increase the amount of carbon dioxide they pour out. Perhaps the world by 2100 will be 5.5 degrees hotter than the world of the 1970s. That would give Washington the climate of Miami and Los Angeles the climate of Cabo San Lucas.

And we might get lucky. We might learn that the climate is in fact immensely stable on the upside. Even though past ice ages have ended quickly with very rapid warming, perhaps there are factors in the Earth's biosphere that allow it to soak up excess carbon dioxide quickly, like a sponge, and perhaps the world of 2100 will not be much warmer than the world of today. Or perhaps we will discover magical new energy technologies that are actually cheaper than our current technologies and will be rapidly adopted without the governments of the world lifting a finger to take action.

But that is not the prudent way to bet. The prudent thing to do is to plan, and to hedge: to plan for the most likely case, and to hedge by taking precautions -- insurance -- against the worst case. The world was supposed to plan how to deal with our global warming future at Kyoto. And then the world was supposed to plan for how to deal with our global warming future at Copenhagen. It did not do so.

So what do we do now?

Let us start with our global institutions. It is a fact that global warming is not likely to be a total human catastrophe here in California during the next 100 years. We will mourn the losses of our glaciers and our snowpack. We will lament the extinction of the polar bear, the coral reefs and the giant sequoias. We will be distressed at the transformation of California's Central Valley into the north Mojave Desert. But many San Franciscans really won't mind having the climate of Los Angeles. And many Angelenos will not be greatly distressed to have the climate of Tijuana. We will probably move a few miles north and relocate economic activity to get out of the paths of hurricanes and droughts. We will turn down our heaters and turn up our air conditioners. We will live our lives. It will be expensive for us to simply adapt, and it would be cheaper over the next century to deal with the problem. But here in California, there's little question we will be able to adapt without immediate human catastrophe for the next century.

That's not the case for Asia. China, India and their neighbors will soon have 3 billion peasants farming in the great river valleys of Asia. They depend on regular monsoon rains in the valleys and water flows down the channels of the Indus, the Ganges, the Mekong, the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers. Global climate change means that there will either be more precipitation in the valleys and feeding the rivers -- or much less. If there is more, millions will die in floods, and the dwelling and working places of hundreds of millions will simply be washed away. The 3 billion are not rich enough to abandon their land and move away. They are also not rich enough to protect themselves. If there is much less water, hundreds of millions will die in famine and drought. Again, the peasant farming populations of Asia are not rich enough to abandon their land and move away. And they are also not rich enough to bring icebergs up from the Antarctic and pipe the water uphill from the sea to their farms.

The peasant farming populations are not rich enough to simply adapt. So the first thing we need to do is to beg the rulers of China and India to understand their nations' long-term interest.

But even if China and India understand and join the North Atlantic and the island nations of the Pacific in understanding the immensity of the long-run problem, that will not be enough. In the current international forum, China and India are simply two out of 150 nations, and consensus is required. That is just too big a body with too many conflicting interests.

So the second thing we need to do is change the forum. We need a climate council made up of the seven governments that have the biggest power to influence the climate and the most at stake: the United States and the European Union, along with Japan, China, India, Indonesia and Brazil. Once the council has agreed to a treaty, it should be enforced by using aggressive and substantial trade sanctions against outsider countries that do not want to come up to the mark.

Utopian? Yes. Impractical? Probably. But what is the practical and realistic alternative that it would be better to push for?

J. Bradford DeLong is a professor of economics at U.C. Berkeley and a research associate at the National Bureau of

conomic Research. -- Ed.

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)By J. Bradford DeLongLos Angeles Times

 

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

HATOYAMA'S FATE TIED TO FUTENMA

BY KEVIN RAFFERTY

 

HONG KONG — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama chose to use his 10 minutes with President Obama at a working dinner during the recent nuclear summit trying in vain to bend the president's ear on the increasingly vexing question of the relocation of U.S. military base facilities in Japan. He did this rather than use the time to bring Japan's moral advantage to bear on nuclear security, which was supposedly why he was in Washington. Several months into office and with plummeting popularity, it is time for Hatoyama to question his own political priorities.

 

While the prime minister was away, Japan's defense forces got their own view of a side issue of the argument about U.S. bases — a display of strength by 10 Chinese warships passing between Okinawa and Miyakojima. China's exercise was perfectly legal since the vessels were in international waters, but it was a clear message about Beijing's increasing military muscle.

 

Hatoyama came to power with the declared but undefined aim of reasserting Japan's authority in the relationship with the United States, in which Tokyo has been a very junior partner, protected by the American nuclear umbrella but paying for it by way of $2 billion a year and the presence of 47,000 U.S. troops — plus the occasional but considerable hazards of military machines that crash and soldiers who misbehave.

 

Ironically, the only thing on which everyone is agreed is that it is time for the Americans to close the Marine Corps' busy Futenma air station on Okinawa Island. A modern urban area has sprung up around the base and any major accident there could incite strong anti-American sentiment. The deal made in 2006, which took Tokyo and Washington 15 years to negotiate, was to close Futenma, send 8,000 of the marines to Guam and the rest to a new facility located elsewhere on Okinawa Island. Japan is to pay more than 60 percent of the $10 billion relocation costs.

 

The Hatoyama government is neither radical nor anti-U.S.; nor is the man himself. But they seem determined to prove the old proverb that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. They started "negotiations" with neither a vision of the destination nor a road map to get there. I put the word "negotiations" in quotation marks because Washington has hardly been involved yet in serious discussions, except to repeat that while it thinks the 2006 agreement is the best plan, it is prepared to listen to suggestions.

 

Hatoyama has been ditherer-in-chief in internal discussions on the Japanese side. Rather than asserting himself as a leader with a plan or an orchestrator of smooth and sensible discussions, he has allowed a dangerous profusion of voices to sway the arguments, some with little concern for political, military or practical reality.

 

Inside the government the smaller parties have sought to dictate terms. The leader of one minor party, who has a tiny following, would like U.S. troops out of Okinawa and Japan altogether. Government members have spent time and money exploring Okinawa, Guam and other stretches of the Pacific to see where they could send the U.S. troops. They got no takers, with Guam pointedly saying that it could not accommodate more than the 8,000 marines it has agreed to take once the Futenma closure is complete.

 

Outside the government, Hatoyama has given voice to a chorus of NIMBY — not in my backyard — demands. The government encouraged this by backing one candidate for mayor of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, the small city intended to be host for the relocated Futenma. The candidate stood — and won — on the platform of saying "No" to the Americans. His success, and Hatoyama's acceptance that his victory would make it difficult to build the new base in Nago, has simply encouraged other districts inside and outside Okinawa to assert that they will see the removed base anywhere except in their backyard.

 

The governor of Okinawa recently repeated his demands that the U.S. troops should be relocated outside Okinawa and is planning a rally of 100,000 Okinawans to make this clear. Plenty of people sympathize with Okinawa, which hosts more than 50 percent of American troops in Japan and has long memories of the savagery of World War II. About 200,000 Okinawan civilians were killed, many of them forced to commit suicide by the Imperial Japanese Army. Japan and Okinawa bases are ideally located in terms of short flying and sailing time from potential flashpoints, such as Taiwan and the Korean peninsula.

 

Some exasperated Americans are saying that maybe it is time for the U.S. to leave Japan to its own devices, grumbling that the treaty between the U.S. and Japan commits America to coming to Japan's aid but not vice versa. They join leftist Americans and Japanese who say that the era of colonial military rule should be over.

 

But this is a non-starter, not least because of the signal to North Korea, and indeed to China, of Americans being kicked out or retiring hurt from a major potential nuclear theater. At the very least Japan would have to fill the vacuum of the departing Americans with troops of its own — which would spark fears in Asia of revamped Japanese militarism. It would be a brave Japanese leader who could resist going nuclear if the Americans depart. The other factor is whether financially hard-pressed Japan could afford its own troop buildup.

 

Having noted all this, Hatoyama could have chosen the more constructive approach of asking the U.S. to consider consolidating and improving existing bases, with emphasis on those outside Okinawa; questioning how many troops America really needs in Japan, especially given that some of the bases are staging-posts for deployment in Afghanistan and elsewhere; and asking if the demand for a new marine facility was really necessary, or whether it stems from rivalry between the Marines and other U.S. troops.

 

This would not have excited the headlines. But it could have yielded fruitful discussions in light of President Obama's own thoughts on the nuclear challenge.

 

If Japan wants to play a useful international role, it should be working on its unique moral advantage as atomic victim and raising questions to Obama and China about the use and abuse of military power. It would give the Hatoyama government a chance of becoming a substantial international partner. Instead, some of his own senior party members are speculating that if Hatoyama fails to strike a deal on Futenma, he could soon be joining Japan's long procession of ex-prime ministers.

 

What a waste of an election victory that would be, when Japan has pressing economic problems waiting for a solution. And what a waste of Japan's unique moral advantage.

 

Kevin Rafferty is author of "Inside Japan's Powerhouses," a study of Japan Inc. and internationalization.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

DEMOCRACY A MYTH IN IRAN

 

The government in Iran has announced that it has banned the country's two remaining official opposition parties. With this move, the prospect of political change through elections is over — Iran no longer has a legal opposition. This completes the consolidation of power in the hands of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

The Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organization were banned after leaders from the parties were sentenced to prison. Mr. Mohsen Mirdamadi and Mr. Davood Soleimani of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and Mr. Mostafa Tajzadeh of the Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organization were found guilty of illegal assembly, conspiring against national security and propagating falsehoods against the state.

 

The men had excellent revolutionary pedigrees. They were among the militants who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 53 Americans hostage for more than a year. But they grew disillusioned with the Islamic Revolution and called for more civil liberties and a relaxation of the Shiite religious authorities' grip on their country. In last year's election, they backed challengers to Mr. Ahmadinejad.

 

In addition, the government announced that it was banning the newspaper, Bahar, an outlet for reformers, which had only begun publication three months ago when a similarly inclined newspaper was closed. Behar was accused of spreading doubts about the outcome of last summer's elections.

 

The defendants had been arrested soon after the protests that followed that ballot. The decision to sentence them was, for many, just a matter of time. But the move could signal the beginning of yet another crackdown in Iran, one designed to ensure that the anniversary of the ballot does not trigger another round of protests.

 

One thing is sure: The decision confirms that talk of democracy in Iran is empty rhetoric.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

NEW SANCTIONS WILL ONLY BOLSTER HARDLINERS

BY CESAR CHELALA

 

If past experience with authoritarian regimes is any guide, new sanctions on Iran will not succeed in curbing its nuclear power development and will, instead, strengthen the hardliners in government. Much more can be gained by improving the relationship between U.S. and Iranian citizens.

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's despotic behavior is not in itself enough to initiate a war against Iran that may have tragic consequences for the region and for the whole world. Despite Ahmadinejad's rantings against Israel, Iranian leaders know that an attack against that country would be suicidal, unleashing terrible reprisals from Israel and the United States.

 

There is widespread suspicion that if Iran came to possess a nuclear bomb, it could initiate an arms race in the Middle East. However, what is now an open secret — Israel's possession of nuclear weapons — has not ignited such a race. Since threats of punitive action against Iran are not weakening its nuclear ambitions, it is time to try a different approach.

 

Iranians insist that portraying them as a warmongering nation does not respond to historical precedent. They point out that the U.S. was responsible for overthrowing a constitutionally elected government in their country, and that it supported Iraq President Saddam Hussein's invasion of their country while Israel provided arms to Iran. In addition, Iranians claim that the U.S. and other Western countries supplied Hussein with chemical and biological weapons that caused hundreds of thousands of Iranian civilian deaths.

 

U.S. President Barack Obama has repeatedly stated the danger represented by nuclear weapons falling into terrorists' hands, thus suggesting the need to curb Iran's nuclear development. However, Pakistan is a far more serious danger in that regard, since it has a very unstable government and al-Qaida is already present in that country.

 

It is a common experience that many times countries behave like people. If a person is threatened and coerced by an infinitely more powerful adversary, the only way for that person to react is to become more fearful and find extreme ways of defending itself against that menace.

 

Three decades of sanctions against Iran have proved to be ineffective. Why are they going to be effective now, when the Iranian regime is more determined than ever to pursue its own road to nuclear development?

 

Sanctions will also not stop the Iranian regime's abuse of its own people. As Dursun Peksen, a political science professor and an expert on economic sanctions has written: "My research into the effect sanctions have on human rights conditions in authoritarian regimes shows that more abuses typically occur with sanctions in place and that the number of abuses is greater when sanctions on those regimes are more extensive."

 

According to Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, who was the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, foreign governments that want to support the democratic movement in Iran should adopt a policy of active neutrality. As he recently stated: "Sanctions will be counterproductive because the threat of international crisis is the Iranian regime's only remaining resource for legitimizing its despotic power."

 

Also, for sanctions to succeed they have to be part of a broad international effort. In that regard, the possibilities for Russia and China's support are very slim, since to do so would harm their own considerable economic interests in that country. Iraq's president has already spoken against sanctions to its Iranian neighbors and Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva has stated that isolating Iran is counterproductive.

 

History has shown that demonizing people only fosters hate between countries. We fear what we know but we fear even more what we don't know. Parallel to efforts on the diplomatic front, dialogue between both countries should be actively fostered through an exchange of artists, scientists, writers and religious figures. It would be a logical next step in brokering peace in that troubled region.

 

Dr. Cesar Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award, writes extensively on human rights and foreign affairs.

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

TAPPING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

 

The five-day World Geothermal Congress in Bali beginning Monday is surely a good opportunity for Indonesia to attract investment to tap its huge geothermal power under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other environmental initiatives oriented toward reducing green house gas emissions.

 

Geothermal energy is considered one of the best alternative sources of clean energy to diversify Indonesia's energy mix, which still relies mainly on fossil fuels. Cases for development are wider than the fact that the country is home to an estimated 28,000 megawatts (MW) in extractable geothermal power, equivalent to 12 billion barrels of oil.

 

First of all, geothermal energy addresses global warming as it is clean, renewable and exacts low and stable electricity-transmission costs. Its price is not highly volatile as coal and other fossil fuels. Moreover, around 14,000 MW of potential energy can be found in Sumatra, 9,000 MW in Java and Bali, and 2,000 MW in Sulawesi.

 

These regions  make up the largest concentration of consumers.

 

This sector, largely neglected until four years ago, has only developed 1,200 MW and has now risen to the top of energy development programs. That capacity is a mere 3 percent of the state electricity company PT PLN's total output, with 36 percent still fired by oil fuels, 33 percent by coal, and 15 percent each by hydro and natural gas.

 

Geothermal energy is designed to account for 48 percent or 4,700 MW of the second-phase 10,000 MW power generation capacity to be built within the next five years with a total investment of US$17.5 billion. The target seems to be quite a tall order, especially because development is expected to be entirely funded by the private sector.

 

The government has significantly improved the regulatory framework for geothermal development. Most important of the new rules is a recent regulation that caps the price of geothermal energy at 9.7 US cents per kilowatt per hour.

 

This pricing factor is crucial because geothermal development, due to the heavy up-front investment it requires, depends mainly on long-term price security and sales contracts. For example, the development of one megawatt of geothermal generation costs around $2.5 million, as opposed to $1.3 million for the same amount of energy generated by a coal-fired plant. But the initial high cost of a geothermal plant is offset by its low, long-term operating (including maintenance) costs.     

 

The main challenge now is to educate regional administrations and help build institutional capacity regarding geothermal as a major source of clean, renewable energy because under the 2003 Geothermal Law they are the "owners" of geothermal resources and are thus supposed to be responsible for awarding concession agreements under tender.

 

Another area of great concern to potential investors is the fact that the tender for geothermal exploration is not directly related to the price of electricity to be bought by PLN, which is the country's only power company.

 

However, PLN will no longer hold a monopoly on power when the new electricity law, enacted last September, comes into effect later this year. The new legislation breaks up the PLN grip on the power sector and allows private investors and regional administration-owned companies to not only generate but also transmit, distribute and sell electricity to consumers under a government-controlled pricing system.

 

These provisions are relevant for a geothermal energy sector that has a specific character in that, contrary to coal and oil, which are transportable and exportable, geothermal energy requires power generation on site.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

RI'S CAPITAL INFLOW AND THE DOWNSIDE RISKS THAT FOLLOW

PUTERA SATRIA SAMBIJANTORO

 

You are simply not a savvy foreign investor if, given the current global econo-mic situation, you overlook Indonesia as a place to invest your money.

 

In the past you used to have well-developed and industrialized countries on the table as your priority to invest because they tended to be more secure compared to developing countries.

 

But while the US' economic recovery is still beset with various obscurities, and European's economic stability is disrupted by the debt-troubled PIGS economies (Portugal, Ireland/Italy, Greece, Spain), currently you may want to wait a little longer before you can be finally sure of investing your money there again.

 

This is the moment when you should start to notice that in the east, several emerging Asian economies can be considered as less risky places to invest as they are trouble-free and withstand the global financial crisis better than developed economies.

 

Indonesia is one of those economies, recording an impressive 4.5 percent economic growth during the crisis and has seen significant upgrading of its investment grade rating because of its imposing economic performance.

 

Besides, its economy is bolstered with political stability, violence-free democracy and its huge domestic market.

 

In the midst of the financial storm, which has left most economic frameworks in the world shattered, what Indonesia's economy boasts

 

in its disposal will surely make you and your fellow investor friends turn heads.

 

Indeed, money is flowing in. The rise of demand for one country's investments theoretically leads to a higher demand for the currency of the country itself, and the unusually strong rupiah these days, which has surged to a 30-month-high level to almost Rp 9,000 per US dollar, is a clear reflection of the rising number of foreign investors who have crammed the Indonesia's market.

 

The problem is when someone has too much money in their hands because it can engender more convoluted quandaries than they previously expected.

 

 While many perceive the improvement of Indonesia's image in the eyes of foreign investors as a good thing for Indonesia, policymakers should be wary about the long-run corollaries that can possibly occur when Indonesia is inundated with too much capital inflow.

 

The most important thing to bear in mind is that the stronger-than-ever rupiah at the moment, unfortunately, may not make all Indonesians better-off.

 

For instance, just ask Indonesian exporters who surely have been monitoring the rapid rise of rupiah in recent weeks with deep anxiety.  

 

In fact, the rupiah — whose rate moves in an unpredictable fashion, appreciating swiftly in such a short period as we have seen in recent weeks — will be a huge blow for them as Indonesian goods will be more expensive overseas and could eventually damage Indonesia's exports as a whole.

 

Yet because of the excess amount of capital outflow, another problem, inflationary pressure, is also lurking behind the shadows.

 

Too much capital inflow can stimulate a considerable rise in money supply and, eventually, inflation. The government could welcome capital inflow to the country, but if inflation's presence in the economy goes unnoticed and largely ignored, inflation could nibble our economic growth and disrupt our economic development.

 

If it is already too little and too late and the inflation has soared, Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chair, can be asked about how hard and costly it was when he tried to trim down the inflation rate during his tenure.

 

In addition to the spat over the unusually strong rupiah and the looming threat of inflation, it is also worth noting that the increasing demand for Indonesia's investment has led to yet another problem: The current swell of the price for Indonesian shares and assets has risen to such an abnormal level, which has instigated concern on whether an economic bubble is just around the corner.

 

For many economists, the most feared weapon that an economic bubble possesses inside its arsenal is its ability to swell and burst almost any time and in such an impulsive way — and very often, when it truly bursts, it generates a devastating repercussion. The burst of the housing bubble in mid 2008 in the US, in fact, was deemed by many as the key trigger to the worst financial crisis that Americans have seen in almost a century.

 

And economists hate to deal with economic bubbles very much, knowing the fact that the term that economists are keen to pay heed to the most is always "stability". An economic bubble, in contrast, has always been notorious for its "volatility".

 

An economic bubble may possibly emerge because of the fact that the largest share of Indonesia's massive capital inflow these days, unfortunately, is dominated by short-term investment or hot money.

 

It is an "easy-come, easy-go" investment. When those investors with their hot-money find more attractive countries to invest in, they will simply cash in their chips, pulling their investments out from Indonesia, which will cause the once-soaring price of investments and assets to suddenly freefall.

 

With such ominous threat from the burst of investments and assets bubble, economists' fear of Indonesia's excessive number of capital inflows is indeed understandable.

 

Some may rejoice in current news about the massive number of new investors that deluge the country, the insurgence of the rupiah, or the soaring stocks prices in recent weeks; but when we look at the other side of the prism, they actually also leave economists and policymakers in a conundrum.

 

This is basically because failing to solve this excessive capital inflow problem in the short-run may likely lead to bigger problems in the economy, which will require higher sterilization costs in the future and impede the long-term plan of Indonesia's economic expansion.

 

What seems to be good can also be the opposite – just like the dilemma faced by Indonesia because of its excessive amount of capital inflow. It seems positive for Indonesia's economy, but in actual fact, hides perilous threats underneath.

 

The most im-portant thing is that a strong rupiah at the moment, unfortunately, may not make all Indonesians better-off.

The writer is a student at the University of Indonesia's School of  Economics.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

GREATER RI-NEW ZEALAND COOPERATION

ALAN KOZIARSKI

 

Indonesia and New Zealand have been economic and trade partners for so long that there is no more significant partner for New Zealand in this region. Indonesia was New Zealand's seventh largest export market for the year ending June 2009 and for the same period trade between the two countries was worth over US$1.5 billion FOB. Indonesia is New Zealand's largest trading partner in ASEAN.

 

The New Zealand and Indonesian markets are complementary and largely non-competitive. New Zealand primarily imports petroleum products and some manufactured goods from Indonesia; in return, Indonesian consumers enjoy New Zealand primary produce, such as beef and dairy products.

 

In many cases, New Zealand provides the raw materials for Indonesian manufacturers of, for example, confectionery, processed dairy products and meat dishes. New Zealand companies are also exploring the potential for substantial investments and partnerships between the two countries in other sectors such as agriculture, education and healthcare, while Indonesian companies are showing an increasing interest in investing in New Zealand.

 

Clean energy development holds the potential to be another viable sector for an investment partnership between the two nations.  

 

New Zealand sits in the southern Pacific Ocean, while Indonesia lies in the tropics: Both countries have considerably different environments. We share, however, one important geographical aspect: Both of us are situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, among the world's most active volcanic zones. We are thus are both blessed with abundant geothermal energy resources.  

 

Indonesia has an enormous amount to gain from exploiting geothermal power. By some estimates, Indonesia has the world's largest geothermal power development potential, at around 28,100 megawatts (MW). Currently approximately 1,100MW of this is being utilized, with plans to develop another 3,000MW in the next four years.

 

New Zealand began developing geothermal power in the 1950s, and currently enjoys geothermal generation of around 800MW. With a strong national commitment to sustainable energy, there are plans to increase this to around 2,000MW by 2020.

 

In New Zealand, geothermal energy is currently the second-most used renewable fuel for electricity generation, after hydropower. And with government's aim to generate 90 percent of its electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2025, research, exploration and infrastructure investments into geothermal energy development in New Zealand are expected to rise further.   

 

New Zealand remains at the forefront of aspects of geothermal research and development. For example, scientists at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Science are developing three dimensional modeling technology that will allow geologists to precisely model geothermal resources underground.

 

New Zealand has the largest single direct use application for industrial purposes at a large pulp plant in Kawerau, near the center of New Zealand's North Island, with forest products being one of New Zealand's primary industries.  In the last two years, major power plants have been commissioned with the latest one on the Rotokawa field, also in the central North Island, being the largest single geothermal power turbine in the world generating just over 140MW.

 

Fully developed, the geothermal energy reserves of Indonesia could power the entire archipelago, while enabling the country to reduce greenhouse emissions and its dependence on fossil fuels. Geothermal is less damaging to the environment, and will provide reliable energy that is most cost effective in the long-term.  

 

With these developments in mind, now is an opportune time for the two countries to deepen their collaboration and share expertise.  Indonesia and New Zealand can learn from each others' experience in this field, particularly geothermal research and exploration, technology, and in power generation. Indeed, many Indonesian geothermal experts received training at the University of Auckland's world-leading Geothermal Institute, and there are further opportunities for Indonesian students in this field.

 

In fact, New Zealand engineers, working with New Zealand Government Development grants and their Indonesian partners, developed Indonesia's first geothermal power plant, in Kamojang. New Zealanders have been involved in Indonesia's geothermal industry ever since, and most recently, our engineers helped develop Wayang Windu II, a geothermal plant near Pangalengan in West Java. As you read this, New Zealand geothermal practitioners will be meeting with their Indonesian counterparts at the World Geothermal Congress in Bali, the largest gathering of geothermal expertise of its kind in the world.

 

The opportunity for further collaboration in Indonesia is immense. Given the challenge both countries, and indeed the world, face from climate change and the carbon emissions that cause it, the level of interest in clean energy sources is higher than it's ever been. Geothermal has a natural place in the solution to this great challenge, and Indonesia and New Zealand are natural partners in harnessing the geothermal power both countries have in abundance.

 

The writer is New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's Regional Director for South and Southeast Asia.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

TACKLING ILLEGAL LOGGING

AHMAD MARYUDI

 

Illegal logging has long been identified as a prominent forest problem with detrimental impacts — ecologically, socially and economically.

 

It is now targeted by the Judicial Mafia Taskforce amid numerous controversial verdicts favoring the suspects (The Jakarta Post, April 19, 2010: "Taskforce sets sights on illegal logging mafia allegations", also April 8, 2010: "SBY orders taskforce to tackle illegal logging").

 

To tackle illegal logging, investigating those alleged to have been involved in the judicial process favoring the suspects is important.

 

The process nonetheless occurs after the damage has been done. Problems of illegal logging are extensive in that the country's forest systems cannot effectively prevent illegal logging.

 

A closer look on "forest processes", which might have contributed to favoring illegal activities, is
therefore not less imperative than the former.

 

By definition, there are two forms of illegal logging. People might need not further explanation on timber poaching by unauthorized loggers, but they might raise their eyebrows knowing that illegal logging, as a matter of fact in our country, is often wrapped in legal processes that hence cannot easily be detected.

 

In general, management plans are set in place to ensure how much and where timber can be legally logged from the forests, but they are often abused.

 

For instance, some logging activities occur outside the approved compartments, or the actual harvest is beyond the set limits.

 

A prominent example is illegal logging by Adelin Lis' companies, which were granted legal forest utilization licenses.

 

His forest management companies were found to be logging trees in protected areas in Mandailing and Batang Gadis National Park of North Sumatra, which both restrict logging activity.

 

As reports suggest, despite only securing an annual harvest limit of 50,000 cubic meters, its downstream industry processed nearly 1 million cubic meters.

 

In most cases, violence on the management plans should not be hard to detect nonetheless. It then becomes difficult to track down when the annual harvest limits are set and officially approved by forest authorities beyond the capacity of the forests to regenerate themselves.

 

It is not uncommon that forest officials conspire with forest companies to raise the harvest bars, allowing the companies to harvest more, of course illegally.

 

Technically, they are those who are appointed to check whether the management plans are sound enough, but field inspections are often insufficient, if not non-existent. Reports also suggest that legal harvest licenses are "on-sale" to undertake in illegal activities.

 

The message here is again that tackling down on illegal logging should also touch the governance system of the Forest Ministry. Models of licenses and approvals might not be best anymore.

 

Being objective, too many requirements and pre-conditions incurred to forest companies, on the one hand, create hospitable environments for corrupt officials to benefit from circumstances in which forest companies are no wish to comply with.

 

On the other hand, being burdened with formal and informal fees, the forest managers are likely to compensate to more harvests from the forests.

 

This becomes a vicious circle and all contributes to persistent illegal logging in the country.

 

There is an increasingly apparent need of simplified, but of course effective, surveillance systems on forest companies.

 

Approaches on independent assessments, which have been recently implemented, generate a glimpse of enthusiasm and optimism, but indeed have no guarantee as well.

 

Recently, the Forestry Ministry has exercised the implementation of regular inventory systems imposed on forest companies to monitor the forest condition from time to time.

 

It is an innovative experiment, but as said, this will burden the forest companies more.

 

Hence, this innovation should be followed with the removal of some overlapping, and ineffective requirements

to limit people's desire for compensation from the forests.

 

It is perhaps well-worth for forest companies practicing wise forest operation and management to experiment with incentive-based approaches.

 

The incentives can vary from having reduced financial obligations on harvesting timber from forests to a simpler bureaucracy processes, which certainly leads to lower management costs.  Such lowered financial burdens should draw interest from managers.

 

The writer is a lecturer at the Forestry Faculty, Gadjah Mada University.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

A RESOUNDING VOTE

 

When the World Bank elevated the voting power of China, it reflected two things: Its recognition of the nation's role in the developing world and the changing economic landscape in the world.

 

On Sunday, bank members voted to place China's voting power in the organization behind the United States and Japan. The country's stake in the bank climbed from 2.8 percent to 4.4 percent.

 

The decision comes amid increasing calls, especially from developing nations, to give developing and emerging economies more say and participation in the global financial framework.

 

The move is a significant step toward equitable voting power between developing and developed bank members. The developing world will have a bigger voice in promoting global development. It will also have a positive impact on global financial system reform.

 

Developing economies such as China's have been increasingly looked upon as one of the main forces behind the global economic recovery. Their eye-catching economic growth also paved the way for the building of a multipolar world. The international community must come to terms with this reality and adjust how major financial frameworks are governed.

 

China's rising influence in the World Bank means it will have a bigger role in promoting the equitable and balanced development of the world. The country will have more chances to share its experiences and practices in alleviating poverty within the framework of the World Bank.

 

A recent report from the bank indicates that the global financial turmoil pushed 64 million people into abject poverty last year. Given that China has made many achievements in eradicating poverty, we have reasons to believe the country will contribute more to global efforts on poverty reduction.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

INFLATIONARY WORRIES

POLICYMAKERS BETTER PREPARE FOR A GOOD FIGHT TO PREVENT RAMPANT INFLATION.

 

That was the gist of a report by the People's Bank of China last Friday. It recognized that the economy was off to a good start this year but it also underlined how important it was to stabilize general price levels.

 

The focus on price gains shows that legislators are indeed mindful of inflationary pressures despite the fact that inflation was not as high as expected in the first quarter.

 

 Furthermore, Zhou Xiaochuan, China's central bank governor, urged last Saturday for developing nations that are rapidly growing to prevent the accumulation of asset bubbles. He also said that they should be cautious in planning their exits from stimulus measures.

 

His calls certainly apply to the Chinese economy, which expanded by 11.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth rate in nearly three years. And to the surprise of most observers, the country has also managed to keep inflation under control, with consumer price inflation dipping to 2.4 percent in March from 2.7 percent in February.

 

With the country's benchmark deposit interest rates at 2.25 percent, many used to believe that a steady climb in consumer inflation will trigger immediate interest rate hikes. Now, the economy's healthy start coupled with its tempered inflation has calmed any urgency for interest rate hikes.

 

Still, that doesn't mean that the flood of cheap credit that China has used to stave off the global recession will not have consequences.

 

The uncertainty of the global economy has made it difficult for Chinese policymakers to tighten the flow of credit quickly. But the inflationary danger of excessively high liquidity will increase significantly if China further delays its exit from stimulus measures.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

GAPS IN WHO WE STRIVE TO BE

 

Firefighters, soldiers in the People's Liberation Army and farmers may be the most trustworthy workers in China, but they certainly are not the most desired.

 

A Monday poll in the Reader's Digest magazine said that people trust these three types of workers more than any other. This is no surprise since firefighters and PLA soldiers rush to where they are needed, as we all saw in the recent rescue operations in the Yushu and Wenchuan earthquakes.

 

Farmers are trustworthy because farming is not that sophisticated. They don't need to cheat or play any trick in fulfilling their work.

 

What is ironic is that none of the three are among the list of occupations that are most pursued by jobseekers. Five of the most popular professions are psychiatrists, software engineers, tourist guides, professional designers and gold investment analysts. All are well-paid jobs.

 

As a matter of fact, they are not as popular as government employees. Examinations for civil servants attract more than a million applicants each year; it's quite common for several hundred applicants to compete for just one spot. People realize that working in government departments gives them the chance of climbing up the social and financial ladder and to enjoy privileges incomparable anywhere else.

 

The poll by Reader's Digest shows a gap between what we want to get from others and what we can do for others. Much needs to be done to narrow this gap although it's unrealistic that the gap will ever go away.

 

In light of this dilemma, maybe people should follow the code of conduct laid down by Confucius: "Don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you".

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

DICHOTOMY OF GOVT & PEOPLE'S INCOME

BY CHEN ZHIWU (CHINA DAILY)

 

This year's Government Work Report shows China's GDP reached 33.5 trillion yuan ($4.9 trillion) in 2009, up 8.7 percent from 2008. The fiscal (budget) revenue topped 6.85 trillion yuan (just over $1 trillion), up 11.7 percent. And the urban per capita disposable income was 17,170 yuan ($2,515), an increase of 9.8 percent, while the rural per capita net income was 5,153 yuan ($754.9), up 8.3 percent.

 

China's 2009 fiscal revenue of 6.85 trillion yuan was equal to the year's total disposable income of 400 million urban residents. It was equal to the entire net income of 1.33 billion farmers, too. The budget revenue, however, does not include the 1.5 trillion yuan ($189 billion) income from land transfer, let alone the profits of the innumerable State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the income accrued from selling State-owned assets (SOAs).

 

The country's fiscal revenue in 2008 was equivalent to the income of 390 million urban residents or the net income of 1.29 billion farmers that year. In contrast, the revenue in 2002 was equal to the income of 250 million urban residents or 760 million farmers, and the 1996 revenue was equal to the income of 150 million urban residents, or 380 million farmers.

 

 From the statistics, we see that since 1995, the basic distribution layout of national income between the government and civilians has not changed. Instead, it has continued to increase for the government - even during 2008 and 2009 when the economy suffered because of the global financial crisis. The growth rate of fiscal revenue has been higher than the GDP and residents' income growth, which is inconsistent with the 17th Congress of the Communist Party of China's objective to adjust the income distribution structure.

 

So, why has China's fiscal revenue kept soaring despite the impact of the global financial crisis?

 

First, the government's control over SOAs and land is responsible for the lower private share of the national income. The difficulty China faces in boosting domestic demand is related with State ownership of enterprises and assets and the role the government plays in the economy. In a society where the majority of the property (including land) is owned by the State - irrespective of how much profit SOEs make or how much land prices appreciate - ordinary people cannot share the income from assets because most of it goes to the government.

 

Second, the income level of Chinese people is low - relatively lower than their counterparts in other countries. But the tax rate is not. Because of the lack of a sound social security network, unemployment insurance, social welfare projects, and inadequate expenditure on healthcare and education most Chinese have to save money for emergencies and are thus left with little money to spend.

 

Third, Tsinghua University professor Qin Hui has said that China's rapid development during the past three decades has benefited from its "advantage in low human rights". That workers rights and interests will be infringed upon if labor unions or other self-organized institutions cannot help them get their due sounds like a reasonable argument.ourth, China's tax collection and fiscal expenditure are not examined by the National People's Congress (NPC), and that plays a role in keeping people's income low. To solve these problems and transform China's growth pattern, we have no choice but to carry out fundamental institutional reform: Promote democracy, implement tax reduction and tax reimbursement policies, and break the monopoly of SOEs.For that, the government's fiscal budget should be first supervised. Neither the NPC nor the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference has been able to curb the government's power to impose taxes and or reduce the fiscal budget. Effective supervision could prevent excessive government funds from becoming "hardware" investment, and guide more government spending toward programs such as medical care, social security and basic education in order to improve people's lives.Second, public hearings and media discussions should be held before adding new taxes or raising existing tax rates. If the government's power to impose taxes is not curbed, people's income growth cannot synchronize with GDP growth, and the government's share in the national income will continue to increase.Third, SOAs should be truly "shared by all the people". State-owned land and other resources and SOEs' assets make the assets owned by governments at various levels nearly three-fourths of the total social wealth. For the vast majority, who cannot share the gains brought about by the appreciation of SOAs and profits of the SOEs, wages are the only source of income. And the growth rate of wages has always been lower than that of the GDP.Finally, unless the appreciation of SOAs and the profits made from them is included in the consumption budget of ordinary people, there will not be enough wealth to promote China's private consumption. This is why despite the decade-long call to increase domestic demand and transform the economic growth pattern the proportion of private consumption in GDP has declined instead of rising.How can the economic growth pattern change in a society in which the people are poor even if the state is rich?The author is a professor of economics at Yale University.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

AMEND LAW TO PREVENT FORCED DEMOLITIONS

BY ERIC SOMMER (CHINA DAILY)

 

A market has two sides. On the one hand, it promotes innovation, hardwork and the desire to fulfill the needs of the public on a profit basis. On the other, because of the private profit motive it engenders, it creates a desire among people to possess wealth without working, generates hunger for money even if human needs are met, and gives rise to callous disregard for human rights and even life itself.

 

Both of these aspects can be seen at work in China's real estate market. On the upside, a majority of Chinese people live a better life and enjoy better housing than 20 or 30 years ago. On the downside, China's real estate market has created serious problems for the country.

 

Sky-high housing prices in many cities - fueled by non-resident apartment owners' speculation of making huge profits - have made apartments beyond the reach of ordinary people.

 

Even more serious are the actions of some greedy real estate developers. Aided by corrupt local officials, these developers sometimes expropriate land and demolish houses of ordinary farmers and urban residents through questionable and even illegal means. Worse still, demolition squads have either beaten some people to death while razing their homes forcibly or caused others to commit suicide for failing to protect their property.

 

Recently, a demolition squad killed a homeowner at Xintai in Hebei province. Before that, a 91-year-old man and his son in his 60s burned themselves to death in protest against the forcible demolition of their home. Last month, a woman in her 70s was buried alive when demolishers razed her house.

 

Sichuan province, where the tragic trend started with the self-immolation of a woman in November, was back at the center of the demolition controversy a couple of days ago. A farmer burned himself to death in Emei city while seven others suffered serious burns after they tried to commit suicide in protest against forcible land expropriation and low compensation.

 

These land expropriations and demolitions almost always take place with the active or tacit support of local officials.

 

Under China's law, governments have the right to acquire property or land-use rights in "public interest" after paying fair compensation. This right means governments can expropriate a person's property even if he or she does not agree to it. Such a right is generally called "eminent domain" and is part of the legal code of many countries.

 

But in some developed countries such as Canada, the government expropriates homes and land only to build public facilities such as roads, subway lines and government buildings. But in China, the legal concept of "public good" is so wide that it encourages local governments to expropriate land and buildings and offer them to private parties to build apartment or office buildings, shopping malls and other structures from which they can make huge profits.This is too wide a concept of eminent domain or "public good". It gives open invitation to local officials to abuse the rights of ordinary people by expropriating their homes or land to satiate the hunger for profit of developers and other realty-related businesspeople.By acquiring land and buildings, the officials may be seeking to increase local GDP. Or, corruption may be prompting them to help money-hungry real estate companies evict homeowners. In both the cases, it's ordinary people who suffer.To stop all this, the central government needs to amend some of its laws. The amended law should explicitly prohibit the expropriation of land or homes to further the economic interest of private parties. In other words, the law needs to limit acquisition of land and homes only for building new or expanding existing roads, schools, subways, government buildings and other essential public structures. Acquisition of land and houses to help private parties make money must be banned, and violators should be severely punished. Free consent of homeowners and land users must be the only basis on which land or homes can be expropriated.The central government released the draft on new "Regulations for Expropriation and Compensation for Houses on State-owned Land" on Jan 29 to solicit public comment. The draft includes proposed regulations that guarantee better control on expropriations and demolitions, and a narrower definition of "public interest" for land expropriation in urban areas.But the draft does not rule out expropriation for commercial purposes.It does not address expropriation of land and houses in rural areas, either. Nor does it have any provision of unishing local officials who violate the rules.The government proposals are a step in the right direction but need to go further. Every person should have the right to accept or reject transferring his/her land-use rights when real estate developers or their agents approach them. Any other arrangement is likely to create a highly unequal relationship in which powerful private companies and local officials can all-too-easily abuse people's rights to make profit.The author is a Canadian teacher in China

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

TETHERING THE HOUSING BUBBLE

BY ZUO XIAOLEI (CHINA DAILY)

 

The economy may have gotten off to a great start in the first quarter and inflation may have been tempered, but let's not forget that China is still facing a huge challenge: Slowing down soaring real estate prices and making sure the housing bubble lands softly.

 

Make no mistake about it, the housing bubble is real, contrary to what many critics have said recently. So if the economy is to develop effectively and distinctly from its old growth model, housing market problems must be rectified.

 

One angle to tackle first is the abnormal increase in the supply of money. This is exactly what the central authorities have been working intensively on in recent weeks after making the distinction between speculative investments in properties and payments for the purpose of living in a home.

 

Last year's currency supply propelled the hikes in housing prices. It should be noted that local governments are still impulsively investing to boost their local economies. To do so, they need a greater supply of currency. But this in turn fuels price hikes and builds up pressure on inflation. A greater currency supply will make it difficult to manage inflation.

 

The State Council, China's Cabinet, recently has been calling for greater management on liquidity. Quantity management tools, deposit reserve ratio and open market operations (including 3-year central bank bills) would be used interchangeably to control liquidity. For any overheated investment sector, an adjustment in credit line might be a necessary regulation measure.

 

Recently, the government introduced new regulation policies. Fortunately, they are all well-targeted, especially through its aim of expanding the construction of affordable homes and giving incentives for homeowners to actually live in their homes instead of using them as investment tools. It still remains to be seen if the policies are effectively implemented but if they are, the real estate bubble will diminish in size and land safely.

 

The real estate market is obviously a key factor to stable economic growth this year. Last year, households used 80 percent of their incomes to pay down their average monthly mortgage. This is 60 percent higher than the domestic security line, the most glaring proof that a bubble exists.Unfortunately, in the long run, housing prices will continue to rise and short-term hikes in prices regardless of increasing income levels means that a bubble is looming.What's even more ominous is that the ever-inflating bubble might lead to a crisis. A collapse of the real estate market in Japan pushed its economy into a "lost decade". In Thailand, the high rate of real estate vacancy put 58 banks into bankruptcy in one day, triggering the Asian financial crisis. When Dubai's housing bubble burst, it nearly made the United Arab Emirates bankrupt twice over. The United States' subprime mortgage crisis caused an unprecedented global economic crisis. These crises caution us that countries, regardless of their size or development level, all have experienced housing market fiascoes.We cannot ignore our real estate bubble. We should pay attention to the bubbles that grew in the aforementioned countries and how they burst after prices rose for two or three consecutive years. If China's realty market follows the rising trend in 2009 for two or three years, its economy will be at a huge risk.So what's to be done? Aside from controlling the supply of currency, the country's goal of developing real estate should be based on home ownership, no matter how scarce land resources currently are. Currently China's real estate market is an investment market and that has changed how houses are used today and distorted prices. Once investment becomes the main purpose of the real estate market, there is no telling where housing prices will go.In addition, given that most investment funds are mainly from banks rather than money from individuals, housing prices will be propelled by bank loans, enlarging the moneymaking effect of investment and generating a cycle of price hikes. Of course, land auctions by local governments further intensify this momentum.The central government has tried to create new policy to calm the real estate market, but why had policy adjustments resulted in even higher prices? First, the policies were not clearly targeted. They in fact drove up prices. Second, the policies were not strictly implemented.The most recent government measures in curbing credit loans to purchases of second and third homes, on the other hand, have achieved initial results in the market. But their eventual effects will depend on how they are carried out.The author is the chief economist of Yinhe Securities.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

DON'T FORGET 'THE FORGOTTEN PHASE' IN YUSHU

BY GRAHAM MEADOWS & MICHAEL DUNFORD (CHINA DAILY)

 

This does not seem to be the moment to dwell on Yushu's future. With rescuers still searching for survivors, the wounded being carried to hospitals, and dazed families living in emergency tents, China's authorities have enough on their hands. Yet, as difficult as it is, planners in China are having to do just that as they seek to answer the question: "What must be done to get the earthquake zone back to normal?"

 

This question provides a strong link between Yushu and Wenchuan, which is approaching the second anniversary of its devastating earthquake. Work is still continuing in Wenchuan to rebuild people's lives and, if possible, improve their social and economic prospects.

 

The signs from Wenchuan are positive for Yushu. Yushu is still living through what experts call the search and rescue phase of its disaster. Saving lives is the highest priority. Soon, it will enter the reconstruction phase, in which priorities shift to rebuilding houses, schools, hospitals and infrastructure that have been destroyed or damaged. Already the first signs of reconstruction are evident with the re-opening of the school for orphans.

 

Reconstruction has been the priority in Wenchuan for nearly two years. At first China set a limit of three years for completing this phase of the post-disaster work. Then it set for itself an even more stringent two-year deadline.

 

Now Wenchuan is moving into the third phase, the phase in which the social and economic livelihoods of the people in the affected area are re-established. Studies of previous disasters in other parts of the world show that this is often the forgotten phase. It is forgotten because it is at this stage that the work of disaster reconstruction changes its nature, resembling the more general task of economic and social development. The immediate need for reconstruction has been met and in many ways "things are back to normal" - or nearly.

 

And yet this appearance of normality is deceptive. Studies of disasters and their aftermath in many countries show that damage is greater in poor areas. Reconstruction can also leave the victims facing high levels of indebtedness, making continued socio-economic development vital to protect people from future natural disasters. Better-off people can afford better houses, or can move out of the most dangerous places, or can buy insurance. Those with a better income can do a number of things to make themselves less vulnerable to disasters.

 

A study of the aftermath of Japan's Hanjin-Awaji earthquake in 1995 gives some idea of what can happen in the forgotten phase. The economic livelihoods of the people in the earthquake zone improved rapidly in the two years after the disaster as the reconstruction efforts created employment. But then reconstruction tailed off, and so did employment. The income of the survivors began to decline, falling beneath pre-disaster levels. Only after 11 years did the incomes of the survivors reach their pre-disaster levels - by which time the rest of Japan had grown by another 17.5 percent. This left the disaster area even poorer than when the earthquake occurred.

 

The experience of Hanjin-Awaji confirms that the period when reconstruction is completed is of vital importance. If policy-makers conclude that the disaster zone is now back to normal and reduce their efforts, they will - without intending to - greatly increase the vulnerability of the survivors. If, on the other hand, they realize a lot must still be achieved, they can press on from the strong base created by the reconstruction effort, creating socio-economic opportunities for people in the disaster area.

 

Later, when Yushu's rescue phase is in the past, the area will be able to draw solace from the knowledge that the forgotten phase is not being forgotten in Wenchuan. China's authorities clearly understand that recovery requires more than reconstruction. They are maintaining their efforts to stimulate and consolidate Wenchuan's economic position, understanding it is the best way to mitigate the risk of any future disaster in the area.

 

The rescue phase in Yushu should be helped by the lessons learned in Wenchuan. When Yushu reaches what has, in the past, been the forgotten phase of recovery, it will again be helped by the experience that China is gaining in Wenchuan.

 

It is small comfort at this moment, but it will be helpful two years from now.

 

Graham Meadows is a special advisor to the European Commission and Michael Dunford is a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. They are both doing research in China on earthquake reconstruction.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

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EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

 

A change of ministry name alone would not help erase the murky, immediate past of a ministry. However one hopes that External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris would inject some semblance of sanity to the place which was run more like a private property of a crounger during the last couple of years. Prof. Peiris who is known for his benign, quiet, scholarly ways lacks that right degree of gentle aggressiveness which is mandatory to get demands met. In fact he is better known for his too accommodating ways. Still given his knowledge and experience in international politics there's no match for him for the job in the present Cabinet.

 

While the new External Affairs Minister is busy hobnobbing with his counterparts in SAARC countries, in Thimpu one may say that the task he is entrusted with as the External Affairs Minister – striking the right balance between the East and the West – is going to be quite a tightrope walk for the pro-West minister.

 

G.L. Peiris's appointment comes at a time of transition. It was made at a time when Sri Lanka was pleading with the EU for the GSP plus concession while at the same time openly displaying its strong allegiance to east. It looks that Sri Lanka has completed its full cycle of diplomacy – from soft pro-East of Bandaranaike to non-aligned of Mrs. Bandaranaike, to pro-US under J.R. Jayewardena to the pro-East under Mahinda Rajapaksa.

 

Prof. Peiris who was a former Rhodes Scholar of Oxford and also a fellow at both University of Cambridge and London therefore has to now reconcile his traditional loyalties with the political realities. His role as a peace interlocutor of the UNF government and his too co-operative nature with the LTTE in fact ruffled a few feathers even among the UNF ranks. A hardcore federalist Prof. Peiris displayed a great degree of adaptability after he crossed over to the UPFA which stood for a unitary state.

 

The aplomb with which he switched policy loyalty makes one feel that he would display the same degree of compliance when it comes to foreign policy. While President Rajapaksa has been commended for picking Prof. Peiris as his External Affairs minister the reality is that there's so much more to be done in order to make sure that Sri Lanka has a vibrant foreign policy. Clearing the missions of political stooges is one such mandatory step.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

 

 

PROMOTING TOURISM IN SOUTH ASIA

 

South Asia is home to a solid one-third of the world's population.Some of the best brains that run the world have South Asian roots or lineage. The region is home to the highest and the second highest mountain peaks of the world (Everest and K2). Most of the world's qualitywater resources are in the region with the river systems originating from the Himalayas. Some of world's best ocean resources (coral reefs of Maldives), beaches (Coxes Bazaar), and mangrove areas (Sunderbans) are located in the region. Its biodiversity is unmatched (Sinharaja, Chitwan).

 

Home to marvels such as the Taj Mahal, Ajanta, Sigiriya, Timpu, and Taxila, the heritage and cultures of the region date back thousands of years. For centuries, the region has been a hotspot for seafaring nations looking for spices and other riches. It was the playground of several colonial powers, and is now home to almost all of the world's religions. The cuisine of the region is exquisite, and its people are friendly and warm. The South Asian region has the key ingredients to delight its visitors. Yet, with some 400 million people remaining below the poverty line and 71 million people affected by violence or its threat, most of South Asia remains conflict ridden. Poverty, health, child, and gender-related issues are pulling down the region's image. In 2007, the South Asian region received less than 1.1 percent (9.7 million) of the 898 million visitors from around the world (UN World Tourism Organization 2008). In comparison, Europe received 53.5 percent of the global arrivals, and the Asian region, including East and Southeast Asia, received 19.3 percent. The volume of arrivals to the Asia Pacific region more than doubled between 2000 and 2007, from 85 million to 198 million (UNESCAP 2008). Within this growth scenario, regrettably, most of South Asia saw only marginal growth, with the exceptions of some signifi-cant growth to India and Maldives.

 

For several decades now, the region has promoted tourism. As far back as the early 1980s, the World Tourism Organization (now UNWTO) set up a Secretariat in Colombo for South Asian Tourism Promotion and attempted to promote the region. This initiative failed because of inadequat support and interest from the individual nations' state tourism organizations. In the 1990s, the SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) began a Nepal-based initiative to promote tourism to the region. A special tourism committee was formed and several rounds of meetings were held. A promotional tagline "Magic That Is South Asia" was coined, and talk of a regional tourism year was initiated. It was thought that tourism would improve if private sector business and tourism stakeholders took the lead in moving regional tourism initiatives forward. Several South Asian tourism business and trade markets  have been held since the 1990s.

 

On the formal intergovernmental sphere, tourism occupies an important position. The official Web site of the SAARC Secretariat presents tourism  as follows:

 

The SAARC Leaders have always recognized the importance of tourism and emphasized the need to take measures for promoting tourism in the region. During the Second Summit, the Leaders underscored that concrete stepsshould be taken to facilitate tourism in the region. Tourism has been an important dimension of most of the subsequent Summits. At the Twelfth Summit held in Islamabad in January 2004, the Leaders were of the view that development of tourism within South Asia could bring economic,

 

social and cultural dividends. There is a need for increasing cooperation to jointly promote tourism with South Asia as well as to promote South Asiaas a tourism destination, inter alia, by improved air links, they stated in the Declaration. To achieve this and to commemorate the twentieth year of the establishment of SAARC, the year 2005 was designated by the Leaders as "South Asia Tourism Year." Member States were required to individually and jointly organize special events to celebrate it.

 

On the formal action front, the site reports the following:

 

The Working Group on Tourism was established by the Council of Ministers during its Twenty-fourth Session held in Islamabad in January 2004. This was done after a comprehensive review of the SAARC Integrated Programme of Action by the Standing Committee at its Fourth Special Session held in Kathmandu in August 2003. This intergovernmental process will compliment the endeavors by SAARC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Tourism Council, thus ensuring public–private partnership for the promotion of tourism.

 

The First Meeting of the Working Group on Tourism was held in Colombo on 16–17 August 2004. In addition to the SAARC Member States and representatives of the SAARC Secretariat, representatives of the SCCI Tourism Council and the ASEAN Secretariat also attended the Meeting. Besides reviewing the implementation of programme of activities relevant to its mandate, the Working Group made a number of recommendations for promotion of tourism in the SAARC region, for example, printing of a SAARC Travel Guide, production of a documentary movie on tourism in SAARC, promotion of sustainable development of Eco-Tourism, Cultural Tourism and Nature Tourism, collaboration in HRD in tourism sector by having programmes for exchange of teachers, students, teaching modules and materials, Promoting Cooperation in the fi eld of tourism with other relevant regional and international tourism organizations. It also proposed a number of activities to celebrate the South Asia Tourism Year–2005 in a befitting manner. When comparing the progress made on the ground and by otherregional tourism initiatives that began much later than SAARC—such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Pacifi c Tourism Commission, European Union (EU) Tourism, and the Mekong Tourism Initiative—progress must be classified, at best, as wanting.

 

With the backdrop of the frustration of SAARC's underperformance, in 1997, a separate initiative was undertaken by several governments of the South Asian region, titled the South Asian Growth Quadrangle, consisting of Bangladesh; Bhutan;  the north, east, and north-east states of India; and Nepal. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) supported the initiative under the South Asian Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) programme, which includes a tourism component. This is an ongoing program me within the South Asian development framework of the ADB.

 

In addition, also in 1997, another initiative was created to link some of SAARC's countries with Myanmar and Thailand, as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation  (BIMSTEC), to take advantage of the historical link and turning them into economic opportunities. Named BIMSTEC to represent Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand Economic Cooperation, it set up a Tourism Working Group and has conducted several rounds of meetings, but to date, it has not achieved much progress. Since 2005, the ADB has supported this initiative as well.

 

South Asia can indeed be described as a dichotomy. Although it has not lived up to expectations as a regional grouping, at the individual country level, tourism development in SAARC presents several unique models, containing some successful best practices.

 

Bhutan has presented a model of tourism development, in which its operations are based on the model of a kinked demand curve (Sen 2004)to create a premium value for the destination. Bhutan limits access to a few tens of thousands of tourists each year at a premium charge, placing the per capita yield from one tourist at a high level. Bhutan has a business model aimed at conserving its heritage, culture, and natural resources. This model is in keeping with its unique development indicator of "Gross National Happiness," in contrast to the conventional development measurement of gross national product.

Maldives, known today as one of the most successful island destinations in the world, works on a business model of establishing strong partnerships with foreign investors and tour operators. Beginning with investments from Sri Lankan conglomerates in the early 1980s (still accounting for about 20 percent of all hotel rooms), Maldives Tourism, offering the "sunny side of life" as its positioning platform is driven by some of the best international and regional brand names in the island tourism business.

 

Nepal is an example of a pioneering brand of unique community based tourism initiative. With its early model of the Annapurna Tourism Development Project8 and the Bhakthipur Conservation Project9 of the 1980s, Nepal introduced a good tourism operational model, offering its unique nature and heritage conservation, community benefit, and sustainable funding features.

 

Sri Lanka is addressing the challenge of global warming and climate change faced by all nations of the world. It has extended its conventional position as a tourist destination of a treasured island with a warm people offering nature, culture, and adventure to include an extensive green cover. Through its Tourism Earth Lung initiative it is working toward being a carbon-neutral destination by 2018.

 

 Extract from the World Bank Report on Promoting Economic Cooperation in South Asia.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

 

 

 

 

INDIA MATTERS: THE NEED FOR CEPA

By Dr. Rohan Samarajiva

 

The second Rajapaksa term has begun.  New beginnings carry with them new hopes:  hope for fresh starts and hope for course corrections. Politics after all is about the sustenance of hope.

 

So we look for signs of hope on the all-important question of Sri Lanka's relationship with India.  The relationship has many dimensions, ranging from the strategic and political to the economic.  Given the stated economic emphasis of the second term and comparative advantages of the writer, the focus of this article will be on the economy.

 

Signs of hope

In countries with conventional approaches to Cabinet government, the first place to look for hope is in the composition of the new Cabinet: who is in charge of the subject of external trade?  This being Sri Lanka, which has a unique approach to Cabinet government, the answer is not simple.

 

There is a Minister of Internal Trade, but not a Minister of External Trade, or of generic commerce.  In the previous government, the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India was the responsibility of Professor G.L. Pieris, then Minister in charge of export development and external trade.  He failed to provide the necessary leadership and counter the opposition of the then Minister of Highways, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, with the result that the CEPA was not signed as scheduled in 2007.   Is G.L. Pieris, now Minister of Foreign Affairs, still in charge?  Or is this one of the portfolios reserved the second installment of five Ministers to be appointed?  Or is this among the many subjects retained by the President?  So the Cabinet tea leaves are ambiguous.

 

But the on-paper Cabinet does not play that important a role in Sri Lanka.  The President, in the words of George W. Bush, is the Decider.  He decided in 2007 to postpone a decision, and he will decide on the key aspects of the economic relationship with India during his second term. Perhaps the right questions are whose advice he will take and who he will assign to the task outside the Cabinet structure.  The greatest success of the first Rajapaksa term was the successful management of the strategic relationship with India that made possible the decapitation of the LTTE.  The two people the President assigned to that task were Basil Rajapaksa, current Minister of Economic Development (a new, vast and undefined portfolio), and Lalith Weeratunge, continuing as Secretary to the President.  Perhaps these two individuals will now take on the task of managing the economic relationship as well as they did the strategic. 

 

 FTA to CEPA

 Sri Lanka was the first country to have a working bilateral trade agreement covering goods with India.  We would have been the second to have a working agreement with India that covered services and investment in addition to goods, if not for the government's retreat.  The late Highways Minister was uninformed when he opposed the CEPA, as were the few but vociferous opponents who advised him.  There was little debate on the subject.   Some of the misconceptions propagated by the opponents were:

 

n    Stopping the CEPA would help to resolve the problems experienced with Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India, operational since 2000 n    Increased deficits in the past few years under the FTA are bad n    Sri Lanka's failure to increase exports to India, especially with regards to our main goods exports, tea and apparel, were entirely the fault of India n    Liberalization of services trade with India was harmful to Sri Lanka   There were problems with the FTA in its first decade.  Nature's Secret succeeded in Bangladesh and not in India.  Munchee is an extremely successful company, but was frustrated by court cases in Tamil Nadu.  The vanaspati episode was the nadir of the FTA's first decade.  Here, legal-on-paper actions by certain Indian investors to exploit the low duties offered by the FTA by setting up factories in Sri Lanka to export into India were blocked by the Indian authorities.

 

There also have been great successes.  Colombo Dockyards has succeeded in winning multiple government tenders, difficult to do if the Indians were intent on harming Sri Lankan exports.  The "Amante" brand of lingerie marketed by MAS saw a 150 percent growth in 2009.  A Nielson survey rated it as the Indian "Product of the Year" for 2009.

 

This is no evidence of a uniform pattern of big brotherly bad behavior.  What the facts suggest is the value of working together to resolve problems, including through the formal dispute settlement provisions that were not included in the FTA, but are included in the CEPA draft.    The least informed of the criticisms was the claim that rising imports from India were bad for Sri Lanka and evidence of the failure of the FTA.  One of the reasons why Indian exports increased was the import of petroleum products by Lanka IOC.  Another was the substitution of cheap Indian two-wheelers for the Japanese imports of yesteryear.  It is silly to claim that obtaining cheaper products from one market instead of another is bad.  What is sad is that those who should know better, including economists, make this absurd argument.

 

It is true that there were caps on tea and apparel exports into India from Sri Lanka, both being items that both countries exported.  In an ideal world, this would not be.  But the CEPA and preceding negotiations relaxed the conditions of the cap placed by India.  But the most recent evidence points to an earlier lack of interest by Sri Lankan apparel exporters as a contributory factor.  There was a 40 percent increase in apparel exports in 2009 over 2008 despite overall Sri Lankan exports to India declining by more than 28 percent in that recessionary year.  As GSP Plus came under threat, our exporters began to see the merit of the enormous market right next door.  Unlike GSP Plus, trade with India is not conditional on human rights and other extraneous matters.  The certainty afforded by real trade agreements, multilateral or bilateral, is the main reason why Sri Lanka should forthwith sign the CEPA.

 

CEPA and the hub strategy

 Without the CEPA, the government is unlikely to succeed with the five-hub strategy that is the centerpiece of the Mahinda Chintana- Idiri Dekma.  Currently, Colombo has regional shipping and aviation hubs, though much potential remains unrealized.  Indeed, much has to be done quickly if the present hub status is to be retained in the face of rapid developments in the region.   The CEPA negotiations saw the Indian bureaucracy formally recognizing Colombo as a regional transportation hub for the southern sub-continental region.  This was a major advance from the earlier Indian policy positions that sought to substitute Indian ports for Colombo.  CEPA is a necessary condition of locking in the changed attitudes.  It is essential to consolidating the container port in Colombo, before or in addition to making Hambantota a refueling station.     Analysis of the viability of Sri Lanka, a decidedly energy-deficit country, becoming an energy hub shows that the prospects for Sri Lanka becoming an energy hub and Hambantota becoming a ship refueling station are intertwined.  Unless there is a refinery in Hambantota it is unlikely that it can attract even a small portion of the expected 10000 ships a year (this is more than double the number attracted to all Sri Lanka ports now).   A refinery just for bunkering will not make sense.  What will make sense is a very large refinery that can exploit the economies of scale of current technologies.    The success of the transportation and energy hub plans, at least, rests on good relations with India.  This could, arguably, be achieved through good personal relations exemplified by the family friendships that the Bandaranaikes used to claim with the Nehru-Gandhi family.  But, at least in international affairs, there is value to legal agreements, especially now that ruling family relationships have declined in importance.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

 

 

 

THE FIRST POSTWAR CABINET: MINISTERS MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE

 

An election weary people, after a brief respite enjoying the traditional  national New Year have now returned once again to take up the routine task of living amidst serious doubts as to whether their life patterns will change. Concerned once again in the  mundane regularities  of rushing for work in the  available crowded  buses and trains tpople have scarcely the time or energy to think about political scenario.Often  victims of the conductors  warped sense of humour he is invited to enter the bus .Then when inside the overcrowded bus he is urged to move forward  or backward, depending on the conductor's whims and fancies and the location of the exit door.

 

The citizen now commuter crushed amidst the sweaty crowd has scarcely any time to think of the political party candidate who came asking for his vote and has now been elected on a devious PR system .His single hope is that his life and that of his family will receive at least some benefit from the much proclaimed manifesto.

 

 Occasionally, now that the euphoria unleashed by  political parties has lessened, many  citizens   wonder whether the General election which manifested such peculiar contradictions  as inter party rivalry, less reconciliation and greater   violence , character assassinations and mud slinging would now, since ,regardless of the victory of individuals, the victory of the government political party has been ensured would  bring about the much hyped development,equitable  employment opportunities and economic well being. What was of greater concern to the people was not in the watching  of political party representatives taking their oath in Parliament but  how large the Cabinet would be ( since it had been often proclaimed that the jumbo Cabinet would be pruned down) the names of the newly appointed Ministers and their portfolios.

 

The President in his all powerful wisdom and pleasure has decided to appoint a 38 member cabinet with an equal number of deputy Ministers  (However chances are that in the next few days a few more cabinet ministers will be appointed since for instance presently Media has no Cabinet Minister though a deputy has been named and Mr. Thondaman appears to be debating what subjects he wants to handle!) Certain Ministries have been bifurcated , others have newer subjects attached to them , while certain others are essentially all compassing new Ministries , for instance that of Economic  Development can stretch its powerful tentacles  to interfere in any Ministry which it considers is not operating according to its plan of development.

 

Ministers of the earlier cabinet have all been given new Ministries and certain Ministers have been  appointed as deputies. Perhaps there  has been heartburn among some of the ministers who had been removed from ministries that they considered as theirs by right  and used all privileges and perks with scant regard to the demands of propriety. Others must be extremely happy that their earlier ministries have been changed  for now they would not be burdened by having to make promises they cannot keep.

 

The allocated subjects of the bifurcated ministries have not yet been defined, for instance while the defence Ministry would handle the UDA, one wonders where  the other sectors  which fell under the purview the earlier  UDA such as shanty upliftment programmes  and Boards such the Land Reclamation  etc would fall into . Will they be allocated to other  Ministries.

 

It is  certainly   imperative  that  a list of relevant subjects handled by each ministry is prepared not only for the  benefit of the Ministers but also for the public to know the functions each relevant ministry handles. There appears to be yet a certain overlapping of subjects entrusted to the different Ministries and one really wonders whether for a small country like Sri Lanka struggling to achieve the much promised economic goals so many ministries are needed , for instance there is a ministry for State Resources and Enterprises Development , and another  for Small Enterprises Development. It appears that except for definitive subjects such as Health, Education , Foreign affairs and a few others , the Ministry  covering economic development will have a bearing on the activities of most other Ministries.

 

Strangely enough with so much agitation by women's groups for  a greater percentage of women representation in Parliament we find that no woman has been appointed as the Minister or Deputy Minister of Child Development and Women's affairs. True enough, the Minister appointed to this position is one whose integrity and commitment to work  cannot be challenged yet it does appear that the unique concern of women for their own betterment has not been recognized in that neither the Minister nor the Deputy minister is a woman. Perhaps the powers that are. believed that a man would do a better  job of work!!

 

Since now. except for a few, most of the Ministers have been appointed and it is up to them to commence their work. The people tired of the antics of ministers who in successive governments spent considerable amounts searching for the most luxurious buildings to house their Ministries and then spent millions to refurbish the offices. wish that sanity and discipline will prevail and the present Cabinet will try to accommodate  their ministries in those already housing them or in the alternate get accommodation  in other government institutions where excess space is available.

 

Furthermore we also hope that Ministers will not seek unnecessary publicity to show them taking office or being welcomed by the officials of a Ministry. After all as a nation we are rather weary of elections and we are already exhausted merely thinking that soon  under ministerial pressure   every newspaper or TV station will follow ministers taking office. Left to themselves most media organizations would have better and more interesting facts to highlight!

 

Further we would remind the ministers that it is up to them to ensure the transparency and accountability of their ministry .They must not imagine that even though they may have a deputy minister of media who has had the reputation of using strong arm tactics to brow beat his opponents that they can bask in his well publicized actions and act  just as they will , after all  things are not constant and even their ministerial positions are subject to change.

 

The people sincerely hope that the Ministers in this new cabinet -the first post war cabinet will act in a dedicated, responsible and accountable manner and bring about the much awaited changes  without waiting for a media camera to follow them, to bring  the promised development that the people have been waiting for so long . 

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

STABILITY AT ALL COSTS

BY ALEXEI PANKIN

 

At a plenary session of the Communist Party's Central Committee on April 23, 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, who had just been elected as general secretary, spoke of the need for serious reforms to Soviet society, coining a word that would soon become legendary — perestroika.

 

Two weeks ago, VTsIOM published the results of a study on the current political mood in Russia. It turns out that 72 percent of those asked preferred "stability, even if achieving it would involve some violations of democratic principles and restrictions on personal freedoms." Only 16 percent of respondents expressed a preference for democracy.

 

During Gorbachev's first years in office, Soviet citizens euphorically supported him after they endured 18 years of Leonid Brezhnev's gerontocracy and stagnation. Strangely enough, Russians have once again embraced the values of the Brezhnev era. According to the VTsIOM survey, respondents primarily understood "order" to mean political and economic stability and a social safety net for the population. That is, they want the same things that Brezhnev introduced after Nikita Khrushchev's reckless leadership and after Josef Stalin's brutal reign.

 

Is it true that for the sake of order and stability Russians are against change? Do they really suffer from an anti-democratic phobia? I heard one answer at a recent Moscow conference of independent regional newspaper editors. They were discussing the March 2008 mayoral elections in Kachkanar, a city in the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals.

 

Lyudmila Lapteva, editor of the Kachkanarsky Chetverg newspaper, said: "We are lucky that the new mayor is a decent person. He could have turned out to be a real bastard." You might think that her remarks were directed at a mayor who was imposed on the people by the ruling party. Nothing of the sort. It is a simple scenario: The 40,000 residents of Kachkanar are completely dependent on the local mining plant owned by the Evraz Group, the country's second-largest steelmaker. The plant put forward its own candidate who, according to Lapteva, was worthy in all respects. But his campaign had so many dirty political and administrative methods that the people turned against him. The Kachkanarsky Chetverg newspaper led that popular protest. As a result and contrary to all expectations, the opposition candidate won the election. A "color revolution" of sorts had taken place in a small company town.

 

Other independent publishers attending the conference asked Lapteva whether it had been wise to oppose a plant on which the welfare of the town depended. She answered that the mayor did not purge the old administration and did not lock horns with the plant. On the contrary, he has been looking for ways to reach agreements with the other side despite the fact that they have not yet come to terms with their political defeat. The "color revolutionary" turned out to be a deeply conservative individual.

 

During the perestroika years, this would be analogous to Boris Yeltsin's election as president of the Russian Republic in June 1991, six months before the Soviet Union collapsed. Yeltsin was also voted into office on a wave of popular protest, but he, in contrast to the Kachkanar mayor, plunged the country into ruin and chaos.

 

Ever since Yeltsin, Russians seeking change have started to fear what might happen if they express their own free will. And who can blame them?

 

Alexei Pankin is editor of IFRA-GIPP Magazine for publishing business professionals.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

RUSSIA GETS DUPED AGAIN

BY ALEXANDER GOLTS

 

The Duke of Wellington used to say some victories are worse than defeat. I suspect that President Dmitry Medvedev's "brilliant diplomatic victory" in Kharkiv on behalf of Russia's Black Sea Fleet will in reality create very serious problems for Russia in the future.

 

After inflating gas prices for Ukraine a few months ago, Moscow has now graciously agreed to reduce them by 30 percent in exchange for Kiev's agreement to extend the lease on the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol through 2042. The Kremlin thereby resolved an important strategic problem. Only a few years ago, the Black Sea Fleet, which is virtually locked in by the Bosporus, seemed like a deadweight and a throwback to the Cold War era. But the increasingly unstable situation in the Caucasus and Russia's war with Georgia in 2008 have given the Black Sea Fleet a new meaning. It gives Russia the ability to deploy its forces rapidly into a region where crises are most likely to develop. In addition, the Kremlin believes that keeping the Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea symbolizes Russia's continuing influence over Ukraine.  

 

Russian leaders have been burned more than once by the rulers of former Soviet republics who promised Moscow military and political perks in exchange for financial assistance. That happened with the now-dethroned Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who received more than $500 million from Moscow in return for his promise to close the U.S. military base at Manas, located just outside of Bishkek. Bakiyev announced he would close down the U.S. base, but several months later, it turned out that the base was still operating; it was simply renamed as a "transit center."

 

It has been the same story with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has repeatedly found ways to exploit the militaristic rhetoric of Russian leaders. As soon as Moscow raised the alarm of a military threat from NATO, the Belarussian leader immediately began beating his chest and shouting that his country would do everything it could to repel a U.S. or NATO attack on Russia. Obviously, in the midst of this generous display of "Slavic brotherhood" and solidarity, it would have been inappropriate for Moscow to haggle with Minsk over such a petty and mundane issue as the price for Russian oil and gas.

 

 But when the Kremlin nevertheless has raised that question, Lukashenko switches from a warm "Slavic brother" to a nasty blackmailer, threatening to  kill key joint defense and economic projects that are of strategic importance to the Kremlin. In this way, he once refused for some months to sign an agreement with Moscow for the creation of a collective rapid reaction force.

 

Mindful of how they got burned by Bakiyev and Lukashenko, Medvedev and Putin decided not to fall in the same trap with Yanukovych. But this is exactly what happened. With the lower gas prices to take effect immediately, Ukraine can now save roughly $4 billion annually, whereas the lease extension will only take effect only after the current agreement expires in 2017.

 

At the same time, Ukrainian opposition parties have made it clear that once they come to power, they will annul the agreement. On one hand, Ukrainian law affirms the country's neutral status and clearly prohibits the presence of any foreign military presence. At the same time, however, so-called "transitional articles" of Ukraine's constitution state that "the use of existing military bases on Ukrainian territory for the temporary presence of foreign military forces is permissible on a lease basis in a manner determined by the international treaties of Ukraine ratified by the Verkhovna Rada." This means that the fate of Russia's Black Sea Fleet will depend directly on the next Ukrainian president's political leanings and how the leader chooses to interpret the law.

 

At the same time, Yanukovych has already made the Kremlin a hostage to his hold on power — and he has been in office for only two months. Now Moscow has a deeply vested interest in seeing that Yanukovych or another member of the Party of the Regions remains in power right up through 2042. And the $4 billion per year in gas discounts that Russia has already promised Ukraine could turn out to small potatoes compared with the sums Yanukovych could demand from Russia in the years ahead, knowing that he has the upper hand in the relationship.

Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR AFFAIR WITH IRAN

BY YURIKO KOIKE

 

Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev signed the New START agreement in Prague three weeks ago, and on May 3 the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference will open in New York. These examples of nuclear arms reductions and nonproliferation are good news for everyone, everywhere. But neither the New START nor the upcoming nonproliferation conference will have much impact on today's most perilous threat: the nuclear honeymoon between an Iran determined to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity and a North Korea willing to sell Iran much of that capacity for hard currency.

 

Today, more than 6,000 North Koreans work in Iran and neighboring areas of the Middle East. Many are engaged in construction and the apparel business as low-wage workers. But in Iran and Syria, there are also a growing number of specialist workers. Indeed, when Israel attacked a nuclear facility in Syria in September 2007, it was revealed that North Koreans were involved in developing the site in cooperation with the Syria National Technical Research Center.

 

Most North Koreans living in Iran are engaged in activities on behalf of the Korean Workers' Party. Their mission is to propagandize the party's ideology in the Islamic Republic. The daily life of these Koreans is constrained within a small community where the party exercises total control over all personal exchanges.

 

Some of these workers are directed by North Korea's embassy in Tehran, which is primarily concerned with acting as a party watchdog over fellow citizens stationed in Iran. North Korean diplomatic attaches are required to conduct weekly and monthly self-criticism sessions. Those seen as having failed to follow party dictates in an appropriate way face severe recrimination.

 

In 2002, it was estimated that more than 120 North Korean nationals were working at more than 10 locations across Iran that were relevant to missile or nuclear development. While North Koreans who work in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar or Kuwait are basically cheap labor, the missile and nuclear business conducted by North Koreans in Iran serves as a cash cow, providing Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il's regime with a pile of hard currency while forging a virtual anti-U.S. alliance. By enhancing nuclear proliferation and the transfer of essential nuclear and related technologies to the Middle East's most radical regime, Kim hopes to shape radical Islamic fundamentalism as a bastion of pro-North Korean feeling.

 

Until 2009, North Korea had been responsible for the export of missiles and missile technologies to Iran through the dummy companies managed by "Office 99." All such transactions have been conducted under the direct orders of Kim.

 

This is how it works: The Second Economic Committee, which is under the command of the party's central leadership, manufactures missiles with the help of North Korea's Second Academy of Natural Sciences. Companies under the control of Office 99 export the missiles to Iran. The foreign currency earned by the export of missiles and nuclear or other weapons goes either directly into Kim's pocket or is used to fund further nuclear development.

 

Following the nuclear test conducted by North Korea in 2009, the United Nations imposed sanctions on Kim's regime through Security Council Resolution 1874, which shut down the flow of foreign currency into North Korea. The irony is that the sanctions have made Iran an even more important partner for North Korea than it was before. So the nuclear relationship has been hardened, not disrupted, by sanctions.

 

According to high-level internal Workers' Party documents brought to Japan by North Korean informants, a new front apparatus, the Lyongaksan General Trading Corporation, was created in 2010. This organization, it appears, is now intended to play the central role in managing the export of missile and nuclear technologies to Iran.

 

Of course, this is simply a new wrinkle on an old practice: North Korea has regularly used dummy companies to export missiles. Names, addresses and phone numbers for such companies are all nonexistent, as has been proved by the documents found when the UN confiscated illegally exported weapons under Resolution 1874.

 

So desperate is North Korea's financial position that in December, the Ministry of People's Security suspended the domestic use of foreign currency. Violations are punishable by death. Such a harsh measure suggests that even though the sanctions have hardened North Korea's desire to export nuclear weapons and technology to Iran, the process is becoming more difficult and the regime is losing its key mechanism to earn foreign currency.

 

Kim will seek to maintain the relationship with Iran no matter what. If this trade is to be halted, China — through whose territory most shipments to and from North Korea pass — will need to play a more responsible role. But, given the scope of the Iranian-North Korean nuclear relationship, Asia's democracies must start to think seriously about cooperating on regional missile defense in the way that NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has urged NATO and Russia to cooperate. When the stakes are so high, the response must be creative and bold.

 

Yuriko Koike, a former Japanese minister of defense and national security adviser, is a member of the opposition in Japan's Diet. © Project Syndicate

 

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

STRIKE TOO MUCH

Private schools remained shut for the second day running Monday throughout the country after the indefinite strike call by the All Nepal National Independent Students' Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) to protest the hike in school fees. As things stand now with none of the contending sides backing down the stalemate looks like continuing for some time now. So that a compromise can be arrived at the involvement of the government in the negotiations to sort out the differences could prove to be crucial. After the strikers vandalized school buses and offices the Private and Boarding Schools Organization of Nepal and Nepal PABSON closed the schools citing security reasons. Because of this about 8,000 schools countrywide have been affected and over 15 lakh students have been deprived of their right to study. This is indeed a very sorry situation, particularly as the students' right to education has been violated. Even if the raise in the school fees had been unjust, the ANNISU-R should not have taken such a drastic step as closure of the schools. Incidentally, the accounts sections of the private schools had been padlocked by them for sometime now.

This is not the first time the private schools have been targeted and closed. This has happened many times in the past. The reason for the closures has mainly been the hike in the school fees which are taken as unreasonable. It is alleged that some of the schools take fees under certain headings, but in reality they do not provide the facilities as mentioned in the fees. It is not only the student unions that have been closing the schools. It has also been found that the private school associations have also been shutting down the schools with demands of their own. The consequences are tragic for it is playing with the lives of the students who are the future pillars of the country. These days the schools do not open for many days, and it is a wonder that the schools manage to complete the courses. As a result of closures, such as a recent one, have played havoc with the academic calendar.

Meanwhile, international bodies have expressed concern about the closure of schools in the country and the National Human Rights Commission

has urged the political parties and the government to create a congenial environment so that the private schools can function without hindrances. However, now with most of the attention riveted on May 1 when the Maoists are expected to hold supposedly peaceful demonstrations, the talks to open the schools do not seem to be a priority matter. As a matter of fact, that the closure of the schools is taking place at this time could be more than a coincidence. Against this backdrop, the guardians sincerely hope that all the stakeholders will resolve the issues that have resulted in the closure of the schools as soon as possible. The schools may have a point in that they need more money to pay their teachers, but this is not enough. On the other hand, those responsible for closing the schools should not politicize the issues, but rather they should opt for talks to settle all the grievances.

 

COUNT DOWN

The target has been set to provide affordable treatment and protection to all the people who are vulnerable to malaria by the end of 2010. If we are to meet the target now then we have to hurry things up because just about eight months remain to meet the target. In any case, Malaria is proving to be a life threatening disease. According to WHO

 

estimates as many as 20 to 30 million are infected by malaria every year and some 100,000 die of this disease. So by all accounts this disease has proved to be very dangerous. Therefore, more long-lasting insecticidal nets need to be distributed to the most vulnerable who happen to pregnant women, among other preventive measures.

In the meantime, filling holes with mud around residences where water accumulate and serve as potential breeding places for mosquitoes can prove to be effective in preventing the disease to a large extent. Meanwhile, the health workers in particular should work overtime to ensure that medical treatment reaches those afflicted with malaria at the same time putting in extra efforts to prevent the disease by raising awareness. In this manner it could be possible to virtually end malarial deaths by 2010.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

UMBRELLA ACT: BACKWARD STEPS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

MANA PRASAD WAGLEY

Every country depends upon its human resources for development. Nepal alone cannot be an exception. That is why the provision of higher education must relate with the universal knowledge and skills integrated and/or linked with the local ones. Nepal, specifically, has been suffering in higher education simply because we do not have higher education policies. There is only one policy one can find in development reports or MTEF or other documents that the main purpose of higher education is "to produce competent human resources". No documents tell us the requirement of human resources in any sector. Universities are providing higher education in such a way that 'convocating the students' is their only job.

Management and science colleges are mushrooming. Universities seem to be competing on providing affiliations. Do they know what kind of human resources our country needs in management and science? Has the government made any projection plans through its high level National Planning Commission? Has there been any homework to produce graduates based on the need? The answer is 'no' in all cases. With these evidences people will easily know that higher education is haywire in Nepal.

Instead of concentrating on these major issues, the government is busy preparing a bill on higher education (Umbrella Act) to govern all the universities in Nepal. The question is "do they have policies to prepare the Act?" How can National Planning Commission have its interest in the Act without policies? Should not it be the function of UGC instead of NPC? Talking to the UGC it is known that they are not consulted while preparing for the Act. That raises another question who should lead higher education in Nepal? Is it the NPC or the MOE or the UGC or any other agency?

In the new bill, prepared by the MOE with directions from the NPC, there are several anomalies which will not help promote higher education in Nepal. The new bill envisages a "Coordination Council" headed by the Prime Minister with its secretariat at the MOE. The council gives room to every sector but UGC (to be named as Higher Education commission after the bill is passed by the parliament). After its name change from UGC to HEC the present UGC will lose all its autonomy. The major role of the UGC has been limited to recommendatory role. The anomaly is the HEC has to get approval for almost all major activities it conducts from the council, but it has no room in the council. How can HEC function to carry out the decisions made by others? Is not this the hegemony of the council which can order HEC to function? Another anomaly is that the council is headed by the Prime Minister. Every one of us is aware that the PM has not been able to give his time in other councils where he is the chairman nor has he been able, as chancellor, to give ample time even to conduct the senate meetings of the universities. Then how can one expect his contribution in this council.

Nepal has adopted multi-university concept from the past two decades. Will it be possible for PM to become Chancellor of all universities? That is the main reason why academicians need to be put in such positions who have capabilities of resource identification and mobilization for the development of the universities. The bill prefers President or Prime Minister or head of the local government as chancellors which is again in line of bureaucracy and not in academics.

The existing Act of all universities will be dissolved after this bill is passed and the universities will lose their current autonomy. Universities are not allowed to directly contact the government, and they have to go through MOE. On the one hand the bill has abolished the provision of Pro-chancellor (Minister of Education is the pro-chancellor of all the universities at present) and on the other the vice chancellors are required to go through the Minister of Education to contact the government. This has made the universities puppets of the MOE.

The other issue is that the government has asked the parliament to send the bills related with Mid-Western, Far-Western and Agriculture and Forest Science universities which were discussed in the parliament recently and the members have already put revision agenda on them.

If the government was not keen on those universities why they were discussed in the parliament killing valuable time of the people's representatives? This demonstrates that the government is not knowledgeable of what it is doing in higher education in Nepal. In other words the government, specifically the MOE, does not have any idea which bill to prioritize for what and when.

There is no use of Umbrella Act rather the government should open avenues to the well running universities and academies to become more autonomous and prove themselves as centre of excellence. The NPC and MOE should think policies that will help govern higher education in Nepal even after the country is divided into several provincial states tomorrow.

(Dr. Wagley is an educationist)

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

TOPICS: PUBLIC SPEAKING CAN BE IMPROVED

KHILENDRA BASNYAT

There are only a few people, who can speak well in front of crowds. For the rest, public speaking (PS) is an inevitable challenge that has to be faced and conquered.

A survey in the United States found that PS is the second most fear among adults. Actually, while standing in front of the public, preparations can fly right out of the window. Terror can leave even the best prepared speakers with a blank mind, a dry mouth and a roomful of starring eyes.

In fact, PS is an art, which attracts the people at large. Many persons, especially politicians, are endowed with such art. Some of them can speak before the public for many hours at a stretch without drinking even a drop of water, and the people also listen to them attentively. Among others, the selection of words and sentences plays a significant role in making PS as effective as attractive. Generally, both the words and sentences should be as short as possible so that the people can understand easily what the speaker says. The speaker should have profound knowledge about the topic that s/he is going to speak before the public. Not only this, s/he should wear clothes, thinking about the status of the majority of the audience.

No doubt, PS provides an opportunity to speak in front of the people before having to conduct presentations in the business world. But there are many events that can strike even the most confident speaker's hearts.

Sometimes a psychological placebo can make the difference between a stuttering and a monotonous speech. Wearing a lucky shirt or pant performing a pre-speech mental ritual can soothe speakers' nerves. Moreover, pops or visual ads will give speakers' hands something to do and help shift the audiences faces gaze away from the speakers' ones.

Forgetfulness is one of the impediments to good PS. This is why a speaker can do beforehand to make remembering the speech easier. Any speaker, who has made public speech and felt numb and panicky, has possibly had the same thought "why did not I practice more?" Actually, s/he should practice in front of a mirror until s/he feels s/he is speaking in his/her sleep. Since calm breathing can make remembering easier, it is better to take a few deep breaths before starting a speech and try to concentrate on speaking clearly and slowly.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

BLOG SURF: SOLAR BATH

VOICES.GARDENWEB

As our weather begins to cool down the opportunity to encourage birds into our gardens increases. Food becomesscarce, predators become hungrier and, in some parts, water becomes too cold and freezes over. Fortunately, that's not a problem here in our temperate climate but during the middle of winter any outdoor water will become bitterly cold.

So, you've gone and built your garden bird feeder to attract the wild birds scavenging for seed but have you contemplated their water source?

You probably already have a garden bird bath strategically located enticing them to wash and play but upon closer inspection the water is so cold your testing finger becomes numb the moment it hits the surface.

Not only will it not tempt the birds in for a splash, chances are they won't even try and avail themselves of the facilities for a drink either.

The only option is to create a heated bird bath - yes, it is possible.

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

CREDOS: RIGHT PRACTICE — II

SHUNRYU SUZUKI

This is the right understanding. So when we take this posture it symbolizes this truth. When I have the left foot on the right side of my body, and the right foot on the left side of my body, I do not know which is which. So either may be the left or the right side.The most important thing in taking the zazen posture is to keep your spine straight. Your ears and your shoulders should be on one line. Relax your shoulders, and push up towards the ceiling with the back of your head. And you should pull your chin in. When your chin is tilted up, you have no strength in your posture; you are probably dreaming.

Also to gain strength in your posture, press your diaphragm down towards your hara, or lower abdomen. This will help you maintain your physical and mental balance. When you try to keep this posture, at first you may find some difficulty breathing naturally, but when you get accustomed to it you will be able to breathe naturally and deeply. Your hands should form the "cosmic mudra." If you put your left hand on top of your right, middle joints of your middle fingers together, and touch your thumbs lightly together (as if you held a piece of paper between them), your hands will make a beautiful oval. You should keep this universal mudra with great care, as if you were holding something very precious in your hand. Your hands should be held against your body, with your thumbs at about the height of your navel. Hold your arms freely and easily, and slightly away from your body, as if you held an egg under each arm without breaking it. You should not be tilted sideways, backwards, or forwards. You should be sitting straight up as if you were supporting the sky with your head.

This is not just form or breathing. It expresses the key point of Buddhism

 

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