EDITORIAL 21.06.10

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Editorial

month june 21, edition 000545 , collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

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

For ENGLISH  EDITORIAL  http://editorialsamarth.blogspot.com

THE PIONEER

1. NOT IN JD(U)'S INTEREST
2. GOOD NEWS FROM OZ
3. SORDID TALE OF EVIL INTEREST - BALBIR PUNJ
4. CONGRESS SHOULD JUST SAY SORRY - M RATAN
5. FRIENDSHIP THAT BINDS - RAJIV BHATIA
6. PAKISTAN'S SORROW - NADEEM F PARACHA
7. 38 years after Bloody Sunday - Gwynne Dyer
8. NATO OASIS FOR AFGHAN DRUGLORDS - ELENA PUSTOVOYTOVA

MAIL TODAY

1. NITISH MUST COUNT ON HIS GOOD WORK NOT GIMMICKRY
2. PARTIES LEFT RED IN THE FACE
3. HE CAN BE SURE IT WILL BE A CROWN OF THORNS - BY MAHESH RANGARAJAN
4. POWER & POLITICS - PRABHU CHAWLA
5. BJP TARGETS CONG IN UP WITH POSTERS - BY PIYUSH SRIVASTAVA IN LUCKNOW
6. THE JOSTLE FOR THE THIRD EC SLOT BEGINS
7. RAISINA  TATTLE

THE TIMES OF INDIA

1. SPEAK UP
2. GREENER FUTURE
3. A NEW DEAL FOR YOUTH - SRIJANA MITRA
4. 'MOST DALIT STUDENTS LACK ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON EDUCATION'
5. MULES & STUBBORN FOOLS - HARISH BHAT

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. FIRST THE BILL, THEN THE WILL
2. NOT BEYOND THE PAL
3. BJP NEEDS ALL THE ALLIES IT CAN GET - PANKAJ VOHRA
4. SUPER POWER - COLONIAL HANGOVERS -  R A G H AV B A H L

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

1. THE GERMANS TOO?
2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
3. TALK IS CHEAP
4. THE BATTLE FOR PAKISTAN - C. RAJA MOHAN
5. MUNICIPAL MUSINGS - YOGINDER K. ALAGH
6. THE FURORE IN KARACHI - MURTAZA RAZVI
7. THE FUN OF SIMPLY BEING A FAN - ADITYA IYER
8. TURKEY'S INNER STRUGGLE  
9. PAINTING BY NUMBERS - M VEERAPPA MOILY

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. THE DEBATE ON REGULATION
2. ENTER THE DISTORTIONS
3. GOODWILL HUNTING, CHINA STYLE - DHIRAJ NAYYAR
4. THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AT G-20 - YOGINDER K ALAGH
5. BRIDGING THE IFRS GAAP - SANJAY AGARWAL

THE HINDU

1. MONSOON DRAMA
2. WHAT FUTURE FOR JARAWAS?
3. RUSSIA AND THE KYRGYZSTAN CRISIS - VLADIMIR RADYUHIN
4. CIVIL LIABILITY FOR NUCLEAR CLAIMS BILL, 2010: IS LIFE CHEAP IN INDIA? - ARJUN MAKHIJANI
5. BAGHDAD NIGHTS GLITTER, BEHIND THE SHATTERPROOF GLASS - ANTHONY SHADID
6. IN ERITREA, THE YOUNG DREAM TO LEAVE - JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
7. HOW THE HINDU COVERED THE 1984 BHOPAL CALAMITY

THE ASIAN AGE

1. WHY JUST ANDERSON... WHAT ABOUT THE REST?
2. AN OPPORTUNITY LOST - DILIP LAHIRI

DNA

1. BY PUBLIC DEMAND
2. TEENAGED REBELS
3. IS WANT OF NATIONAL PRIDE HOLDING INDIA BACK? - ABHAY VAIDYA
4. HOW TO BE REALLY SELFISH - SUDHIR KAKAR 

THE TRIBUNE

1. DEMEANING POLLS
2. RUNAWAY CORRUPTION
3. MORE TO MIRCHPUR
4. LEADERSHIP CRISIS HITS POLICE - BY V.K. KAPOOR
5. OXYMORON OF ADMISSION - BY ASHOK KUMAR YADAV
6. DARK CLOUDS OVER CHINA - BY ABHISHEK GOENKA
7. CASTE IN CENSUS MUST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE - BY BUTA SINGH
8. CHATTERATI - BY DEVI CHERIAN

MUMBAI MIRROR

1. MAKING RAVANS ON TELEVISION - NALIN MEHTA

BUSINESS STANDARD

2. BROTHERHOOD BENEFITS
3. SAVING SAVINGS
4. RETROSPECTIVE RTI - SANJAYA BARU
5. GIVE US A BREAK, MR PAREKH - SUNIL JAIN
6. THE DEFINING ISSUE
7. PREPARE FOR MASSIVE INVESTMENTS IN THE 12TH PLAN

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. POWER PUNCH
2. GET BACK THE SWISS STASH
3. ALLIES, NOT CHUMS
4. BEWARE, 2010 IS NOT 2004! - CHETAN AHYA
5. KRIS GOPALAKRISHNAN - JOEA SCARIA
6. WHOSE 'INTEREST' IS IT, ANYWAY? - MYTHILI BHUSNURMATH
7. LET GO, OPEN UP; RECEIVE BENEFITS - K VIJAYARAGHAVAN

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. WHY JUST ANDERSON... WHAT ABOUT THE REST?
2. AN OPPORTUNITY LOST - BY DILIP LAHIRI
3. POLITICISING PENURY
4. GOWDA CHANGES MIND, ARJUN DOESN'T
5. THE HIGHEST TRUTH, RELATIVE EXPERIENCE - BY SWAMI TEJOMAYANANDA
6. LEGISLATING LOVE - BY BY MAUREEN DOWD

THE STATESMAN

1. THE KNIFE OF STALIN
2. DELUSORY TRUMPETING
3. CHIMES ODDLY WITH REALITY
4. HUMANS WILL BE EXTINCT IN 100 YEARS: SCIENTIST         

THE TELEGRAPH

1. EASY WAY OUT
2. DONE IT AGAIN
3. EYE ON THE MAIN CHANCE - ASHOK MITRA
4. THE LONG WAIT FOR JUSTICE - GWYNNE DYER

DECCAN HERALD

1. BODY SHOP
2. FLAWED REPORT
3. POLITICAL ECONOMY OF A TRAGEDY - M J AKBAR
4. SOUTH AFRICAN FREEDOM'S BLARING HORN - BY ROGER COHEN, NYT
5. TEACHING LESSONS - BY VINITHA KRISHNAMURTHY

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. A FLOATING SYMBOL OF FAILURE
2. THE REGION: OBAMA'S FAILED POPULARITY STRATEGY - BY BARRY RUBIN
3. REALITY CHECK: NETANYAHU'S WEAKNESS, OUR DIME - BY JEFF BARAK
4. THE TURKEY VS IRAN FLOTILLA RACE - BY MEIR JAVEDANFAR
5. GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, PERSECUTION IN ISRAEL  - BY ADAM MUSA
6. THE SLEDGEHAMMER APPROACH - BY SHIRA LEIBOWITZ SCHMIDT
7. FROM THE FUTURE OF ZIONISM TO A NEAR-VIOLENT BRAWL - BY JACOB WYTWORNIK AND LIAM GETREU

HAARETZ

1. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM / OPEN SEASON  - BY AVIRAMA GOLAN
2. CLIPPED WINGS - BY ZE'EV SEGAL
3. TAKING IN ORDER TO GIVE- BY SHAHAR ILAN
4. GRANDPA BIBI'S RESPONSIBILITY - BY AKIVA ELDAR
5. 25 LOST COMMUNITIES  - BY KARNI ELDAD
6. AND WHAT OF ALL THE OTHER DEATHS?  - BY AMIRA HASS

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TIMING
2. 'NATIONAL MISSION'
3. THE GENOME, 10 YEARS LATER
4. ARTS FOR LONG ISLAND'S SAKE - BY LAWRENCE DOWNES
5. NOW AND LATER - BY PAUL KRUGMAN
6. THE AGONY OF THE LIBERALS - BY ROSS DOUTHAT

USA TODAY

1. OUR VIEW ON DRUG ADDICTION: DOCTORS ABET GROWING ABUSE OF PAIN MEDICATION
2. OPPOSING VIEW ON DRUG ADDICTION: DON'T MAKE US 'PAIN POLICE' - BY ANGELA GARDNER
3. ARE SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGING RELIGION? - BY HENRY G. BRINTON
4. HOW U.S. CAN LAUNCH A MANUFACTURING RENAISSANCE - BY ANDREW N. LIVERIS

TIMES FREE PRESS

1. SOON: CHOKING ON BIG BUCKS
2. BETTER THAN A BOYCOTT
3. SCHOOLS ARE OUT, BUT . . .
4. MORE BRIBES FOR DOING 'THE BASICS'
5. IGNORING THE OBVIOUS
6. YOUR TAX $$ TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

1. FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - TIME TO TALK ABOUT A NATIONAL
2. TURKS, SERBS AND ARABS….. - BARÇIN YİNANÇ
3. HOLLAND: CONFUSED AND DIVIDED - JOOST LAGENDİJK
4. ACCOUNTING FOR SUCCESS - BAN KI-MOON
5. FOR SOUTH AFRICA, THE VUVUZELAS BLOW - EMRE DELİVELİ
6. KEEPING THE BALANCE - ARIANA FERENTINOU
7. CAN EUROPE TRUST TURKEY WHEN IT COMES TO ENERGY SECURITY? - BORUT GRGIC
8. 'DROWNED IN BLOOD' - YUSUF KANLI

TEHRAN TIMES

1. TALIBAN AREN'T CREDIBLE SOURCES - BY FARHAN BOKHARI

I.THE NEWS

2. THE CASH BOMBER
3. THE RULING MINDSET
4. CORE NO MORE
5. ECONOMY: THE WAY FORWARD - HUMAYUN AKHTAR KHAN
6. MANAGEMENT MORONICS - SHAKIR HUSAIN
7. UNITY, COOPERATION AND DISUNITY - DR A Q KHAN
8. DUMB AND DUMBER - CHRIS CORK
9. WHO OWNS AFGHANISTAN'S RICHES? - AIJAZ ZAKA SYED
10. DON'T RESURRECT THE BACKCHANNEL - SIF EZDI

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. GILANI'S TIMELY WARNING TO WORLD COMMUNITY
2. IF BB WAS ALIVE TODAY?
3. HAND GRENADES ATTACK IN KARACHI COURT
4. CARE FOR A CUPPA? - KHALID SALEEM
5. COLLAPSING STATE INSTITUTIONS - ALI ASHRAF KHAN
6. WELL ORCHESTRATED DEFAMING CAMPAIGN - DR RAJA MUHAMMAD KHAN
7. A HOPE OF BETTER TOMORROW - SHAMIM AHMAD
8. STOP WORRYING & LOVE THE WORLD - DEEPAK CHOPRA

THE INDEPENDENT

1. TRAGIC ROAD ACCIDENTS
2. UNDERNOURISHED CHILDREN
3. HOLDING A TAINTED HAND..!
4. WHAT TO DO WITH SPURIOUS DRUGS - AVIK SENGUPTA
5. BUDGET NOT PEOPLE'S WELFARE ORIENTED - O H KABIR

THE AUSTRALIAN

1. THIS CRY FOR HELP MUST BE HEARD
2. PENRITH A POINTER TO THE FATE OF DO-NOTHING LABOR
3. MACKLIN'S GREAT MORAL REFORM

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. PENRITH SHOWS TSUNAMI ON WAY
2. DEPTHS OF DENIAL
3. BUYING INFLUENCE AT THE EXPENSE OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

THE GUARDIAN

1. PRINCE CHARLES, DISGUSTED OF WINDSOR
2. IN PRAISE OF … THE MIDDLE
3. THE EMERGENCY BUDGET: FAIR SHARES OF A BIG BILL

THE GAZETTE

1. WE NEED JUSTICE, NOT GRANDSTANDING

THE MOSCOW TIMES

1. BUILDING MOSCOW SO THEY WILL COME  - BY KIM ISKYAN
2. IN NEED OF 6-YEAR PLANS - BY RICHARD LOURIE
3. SOUTH OSSETIA LOOKING MUCH LIKE A FAILED STATE  - BY MATTHEW COLLIN

THE KOREA TIMES

1. 'PILOT KILLERS'
2. STILL TOO EARLY
3. CAN EMERGING MARKETS SAVE WORLD ECONOMY? - BY MOHAMED A. EL-ERIAN AND MICHAEL SPENCE
4. HOW CAN US GET ITS MOJO BACK? - BY ANN MCFEATTERS

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. PARTIES CIRCLE CONSUMPTION TAX
2. INDONESIA MOVING TO REDUCE FOREST LOSS, WARMING EMISSIONS
3. BY MICHAEL RICHARDSON
4. JANUS-FACED RUSSIA HIDING ITS SNARLS FROM THE WEST

THE JAKARTA POST

1. UNITED COLORS
2. BETWEEN FREE SEX AND LOCAL WISDOM - KHAIRIL AZHAR
3. RISING PROSPECT OF INDONESIAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - CYRILLUS HARINOWO HADIWERDOYO
4. IT'S MORE THAN ABOUT RICE AND COOKING OIL - YANSEN, QUEENSLAND

CHINA DAILY

1. CURRENCY FLOAT
2. DRUG PRICES
3. DEBATE: CHINESE ECONOMY - MARK WILLIAMS
4. JOIN HANDS TO SAVE NATURE - BY FENG ZHAOKUI (CHINA DAILY)

THE HIMALAYAN

1. REMITTANCE CONCERNS
2. NO CHILD'S PLAY
3. AIRCRAFT PURCHASE: NAC'S DILEMMA - SUGAT RATNA KANSAKAR
4. TOPIC: IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS
5. SHAKTEE POUDEYAL
6. BLOG SURF:STATISTICS
7. CREDOS:BRING CHANGE YOURSELF—VRAJENDRA RIJAL

 DAILY MIRROR

1. WHY FLYING DEFENDERS, AFTER LTTE?
2. JVP TAKES THE DIFFICULT PATH TO THE NORTH

 

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

NOT IN JD(U)'S INTEREST

RETURNING GUJARAT'S AID UNFORTUNATE

It is unfortunate that Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (U) leader Nitish Kumar should have taken the extreme step of returning to the Gujarat Government the money it had contributed for relief work during the devastating Kosi floods a couple of years ago. That contribution of Rs 5 crore, by itself not a big amount, was a genuine gesture of solidarity and was meant to convey the message that the people of Gujarat stood by their brothers and sisters of Bihar in their hour of ordeal. Indeed, Gujaratis, who have not forgotten how others came to their aid during the devastating earthquake of 2001, collected large quantities of relief material that was sent to Bihar in special trains and distributed among the victims of the unprecedented flood. In all fairness, it must be said that the people of Bihar had accepted that assistance gracefully, as is only natural. Yet, Mr Kumar has thought it fit to snub Gujaratis — for that is what returning the money amounts to — out of sheer pique and cussedness over something as trifle as an advertisement that appeared in Patna's newspapers during the recent BJP National Executive meeting in that city, mentioning, among other things, how Gujarat had stood by Bihar at its moment of crisis. Mr Kumar is also offended by the visual in another advertisement which shows him holding hands with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a photograph that dates back to an NDA rally during the 2009 general election. Apparently he believes that such portrayal of camaraderie between him and Mr Modi is not good for his 'secular' image.

 

Mr Nitish Kumar's reaction to the advertisements — his angry utterances before the media even while the BJP's National Executive was in session caused more than discomfort and disquiet — and his subsequent action of returning the money which Gujarat had contributed for flood relief raise three points that merit comment. First, as a senior and astute politician whose party has been an ally of the BJP for nearly a decade-and-a-half, perhaps Mr Kumar should have been more circumspect. Second, it is a pity that he should have allowed himself to be pushed into reacting in this manner by a self-serving media which was cynically trying to manufacture a story out of nothing during an otherwise staid National Executive meeting. Third, it is doubtful whether the people of Bihar endorse Mr Kumar's decision to return the money that was contributed by not Mr Modi but by the people of Gujarat: Indians see themselves as an extended family that comes together when times are tough. There is, of course, the other issue of Mr Kumar not wanting to be seen in close proximity with Mr Modi. That's unacceptable because if the JD(U) can join hands with the BJP, there is no reason why Mr Modi should be treated as politically untouchable. Muslim voters in Bihar, or for that matter elsewhere, would not be persuaded by such vacuous 'secularism'.

The BJP must desist from any impetuous response. It is neither in the party's nor in the NDA's interest to allow this unseemly episode to degenerate into a tit-for-tat slanging match. With Assembly election scheduled for later this year, the BJP should focus on keeping its alliance with the JD(U) intact and winning as many seats as possible to strengthen its position in the State. It would be a shame if the entirely uncalled for spat were to allow discredited politicians like Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav to make political capital and secure electoral advantage over his rivals. That would harm the BJP — and the JD(U) too.

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

GOOD NEWS FROM OZ

POLICE TRACK DOWN INDIAN'S KILLERS

At long last there is some good news from Down Under. Two teenagers have been arrested by Victoria Police and charged with the gruesome murder of Nitin Garg, a 21-year-old Indian student, on January 2 this year. Nitin Garg, who worked at a fast food outlet to supplement his resources, was brutally stabbed while walking through a park on his way to his work place late in the evening. He managed to stagger to the fast food outlet, where he collapsed and was rushed to hospital. Unfortunately, he died before doctors could do anything to save him. It was a tragic story by itself, but what made Nitin Garg's death particularly shocking was the fact that it came in the wake of a series of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne which appeared to be racist in nature and evoked images of the past when racism was integral to Australian policy. Understandably, there was outrage across India, and the Government had to respond by using harsh language to remind the Australian authorities of their responsibility towards foreigners studying in that country. The dip in India-Australia relations, though undesirable, was inevitable, although to its credit the Australian Government went out of the way to assuage hurt sentiments in India and to reiterate its commitment towards ensuring the safety and security of Indian students. Of course, it was in Australia's interest to do so: Not only do foreign students fetch huge revenues for Australian universities but no law-abiding progressive society can afford to be perceived as being lenient towards racist violence.

Thankfully, the attacks have ceased and it would seem that Australia has kept its promise to step up vigilance and crack down on offenders. Last week's arrests should serve to further strengthen this view. Perhaps much of the bitterness that followed the attacks on Indian students could have been avoided if Victoria Police had shown greater sensitivity and not been brusque to the point of being offensive in its initial statements. It is nobody's case that urban crime is unique to Australia; that would be a ridiculous suggestion, not least because India's cities, like those elsewhere, witness varying degree of a variety of crimes. But what Indians wanted to hear during those days of repeated attacks on Indian students was missing from statements emanating from Australia. It required the intervention of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his senior colleagues to calm public opinion here and restore confidence in the Australian Government. It may be added that the Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi was not helpful in this task: His insensitive and sweeping comments only served to raise hackles. Hopefully, India-Australia relations will not face similar strains in the future.

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

SORDID TALE OF EVIL INTEREST

BALBIR PUNJ

It is now well established that the critical command for the fast track release of Warren Anderson, among the prime accused in the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, came from none other than then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Anderson, listed as prime accused in the case that was decided two weeks ago — 26 years after the world's worst industrial disaster left at least 15,000 people dead and over two lakhs maimed for the rest of their lives — was chairman of Union Carbide Corp, the US-based parent company of Union Carbide India Ltd from whose pesticides factory in Bhopal lethal gas had leaked on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, with catastrophic consequences.

Former Madhya Pradesh Government functionaries in Bhopal, the surviving Secretary who was part of the crisis management team set up by the State administration, the then Collector of Bhopal and even the pilot who flew the official aircraft that was used for transporting Anderson from Bhopal to Delhi to enable his immediate exit from the country, have all spoken to the media and provided revealing details of what happened on that day.

Subsequently, other senior officials of the Government of India, including the then Foreign Secretary, have spoken on the issue. Going by the sum and substance of what they have had to say, it is clear that the orders not to detain Anderson and provide him with safe passage came from Rajiv Gandhi and were implemented by then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and senior Congress leader Arjun Singh.

The Congress and its 'secular' allies continue to target Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the 2002 post-Godhra violence. But the death toll in that violence is nothing compared to the number of lives lost in the Union Carbide disaster. In fact, the number of people who died in the Bhopal tragedy was many times more than those who died in Gujarat in 2002. claimed over six times that figure in deaths. At least two lakh people have been maimed for life or are suffering from one or another ailment on account of the lethal gas leak. Many of them have died in the past 26 years. There was little that could have been done to save their lives by way of medical aid alone. These thousands must also be added to the toll. Then there are hundreds of abortions and physically deformed babies owing to the effects of the gas that leaked from the Union Carbide factory.

Where is the pack of human rights activists that has been working overtime to haul Mr
Modi over the coals for the past eight years? Will they force the Congress to stand up and accept liability for the deaths and injuries to so many innocent men, women and children and for letting the guilty go free? What has the Congress got to say in its defence for the inadequate relief and rehabilitation measures and that its State Government could not even prepare a list of victims?

On December 6, 1984, Rajiv Gandhi was in Madhya Pradesh addressing an election rally. There is no record of his visiting the survivors of the disaster. If those who have recalled events of the time are correct, he was more eager to get Anderson, who had been arrested on arrival in Bhopal, out on bail, and is believed to have conveyed this to Mr Singh. Where was all the purported sympathy for the poor and the suffering masses that is attributed to Rajiv Gandhi by the Congress?

Mr Singh's silence barring his cryptic comment that he "did not have any locus standi in the matter", his party colleague Digvijay Singh's rushing to the media with his version of events and the Congress spokespersons' calibrated move to absolve the party and its departed leader of all responsibility fall into a pattern if we were to juxtapose the sequence of events with what declassified CIA documents have revealed about the brief arrest and prompt release of Anderson. Union Carbide Corp at that time was a top American corporate entity representing the country's prowess in the field of heavy chemicals.

The CIA documents are there for anyone to peruse as they have now been placed in the public domain. The media has carried excerpts from them. The CIA documents show that Anderson was released not because the US President pressurised Rajiv Gandhi to do so but because there was apprehension in his Government that any action against Union Carbide at the corporate level would jeopardise American investment that was just beginning to flow into the country.

The Congress reaction in 1984 to protect projected American investment inflow even at the expense of helping a criminal escape the clutches of Indian law is not a one-time affair. An analysis of the rule of Congress-led Governments over the decades since the 1980s expose this uncalled-for sensitivity to perceptions regarding what business and Governments in the US would think of Indian policies.

Even in Mrs Indira Gandhi's tenure, this trend was evident. In the 1980s, Mrs Gandhi overruled the proposal of HN Sethna, then chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, to ignore US protests and try thorium derivatives in the Tarapur nuclear facility along with spent uranium that would make India independent of imported uranium required as fuel for the atomic power plant. Under Rajiv Gandhi, India agreed to humiliating conditions to get access to an American super-computer. Though the Janata Party Government that came to power in 1977 had booted Coca-Cola and IBM out of the country, they returned with the 1991 economic reforms. Pepsi arrived, followed by Coke, the god of all soft drinks and America's calling card. The Indian soft drinks industry just closed shop. The UPA Government's eagerness to strike a civil nuclear deal with the US is recent history.

But there is more to 1984 than the Bhopal gas tragedy. To the list of the victims of the gas tragedy should be added the number of Sikhs who died in the October 31-November 4 carnage following Mrs Gandhi's assassination. The cases against at least some of the perpetrators of the carnage — all Congress leaders — have been dragging in the courts for years.

In case of the Union Carbide disaster, the judiciary took 26 years to determine punishment for the guilty. The 1984 carnage of Sikhs during the Congress regime is still in the courts. Will the secularists' brigade show the spine to fight for justice for these victims with the same determination that it has demonstrated about the Gujarat violence?

-- punjbalbir@gmail.com

 

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

CONGRESS SHOULD JUST SAY SORRY

M RATAN

This refers to the editorial "A conspiracy unfolds" (June 17). In the face of a growing pile of disclosures by responsible and authoritative sources on the alleged collusion of the then Congress Government at the Centre headed by Rajiv Gandhi in the release and exit of Union Carbide's then chairman Warren Anderson from India, Congress spokespersons continue to tie themselves up in knots in a ridiculous attempt at denial.

Under a relentless onslaught by television news channel anchors, reinforced by the latest evidence of a British journalist representing Financial Times who covered the Bhopal disaster, the US Embassy's then acting head's statement on the agreement on Mr Anderson's safe passage to and from India and a BBC television clip on the Union Carbide chairman's visit to North Block and his "Bye, Bye, thank you, India" remarks, the Congress spokesman, Mr Manish Tewari, clearly failed in his attempt to convince anyone with his assertion that it was a "systemic" failure or that the latest statements of the British correspondent and the acting head of the US mission in New Delhi were pure "conjecture".

By acknowledging the blunders of the Rajiv Gandhi regime, the Congress could have deflected public anger by explaining the tragic circumstances under which the young, inexperienced Rajiv Gandhi came to power. The immediate aftermath of the assassination of Mrs Indira Gandhi was the horrendous massacre of Sikhs in Delhi and other places in November followed within a month by the world's worst industrial disaster. It was the worst of times for any administration to have dealt with.

Understandably, our rookie Prime Minister, who was also the External Affairs Minister, was overwhelmed by events. Given that Mahatma Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi's own grandfather Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru made grave mistakes in the Khilafat movement, the Partition parleys and the Sino-Indian conflict of 1962, Rajiv Gandhi's compromise vis-à-vis Anderson and the Bhopal tragedy could have been treated with a measure of forgiveness. By saying sorry and enhancing compensation for the victims of the Bhopal tragedy, the Congress can still redeem a measure of its lost stature.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

FRIENDSHIP THAT BINDS

INDIA SHOULD FOCUS ON RELATIONS WITH NEIGHBOURS OTHER THAN PAKISTAN TOO. THE RECENT VISIT OF PRESIDENT MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA, A YEAR AFTER THE DECIMATION OF THE LTTE, HAS OFFERED AN OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE INDIA-SRI LANKA RELATIONS TO A NEW LEVEL OF ENHANCED COOPERATION

RAJIV BHATIA

Sri Lanka may be one of our smaller neighbours, but it has played a disproportionately larger role in India's foreign policy. The degree of positive change in India-Sri Lanka relations, especially in the wake of the state visit by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, needs to be evaluated in a dispassionate manner.A two-fold criterion recommends itself.

First, most space in India's narrative on neighbourhood policy has traditionally been consumed by Pakistan, leaving very little room for others except in times of crisis. Of late, this seems to be changing as it is realised that relations with important neighbours such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are witnessing a transformation of long-term significance.

Second, in order to appreciate the change, it is essential to recall how difficult and complex the relations with Sri Lanka were during the 1980s and early 1990s. Under both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi Governments, India followed a muscular approach in order to safeguard the interests of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka, which culminated in the India-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987 and the induction of the IPKF. India's policy did not succeed largely due to the LTTE's resistance and Colombo's steadfast refusal to accept the stand of the Big Brother. This was perhaps at the back of President Rajapaksa's mind when he suggested recently to an Indian interviewer that India should look at Sri Lanka as its "little sister."

During the 1990s, I helped Foreign Secretaries JN Dixit and (later) K Srinivasan in managing relations with several neighbours, including Sri Lanka. This was the time when memories of the IPKF debacle were very fresh; hence the focus was on normalising relations. President Ranasinghe Premadasa's penchant for undertaking frequent trips to India, ostensibly to visit Buddhist sites but also to hold dialogue in New Delhi, was

fully encouraged and utilised by both sides. Investments made then and later seem now to be paying off.

There was in those days a widely shared view in the strategic community that Sri Lanka's central problem — the Tamil question — would be resolved only after the Prabhakaran-led LTTE was vanquished. This finally came about in May 2009. Almost on the first anniversary of the historic victory, the Sri Lankan President came calling. Both the timing and the outcome of the visit were important, demonstrating how closely the two countries have worked together in recent years.

The LTTE may have gone, but the Tamil question remains. In the immediate term, rehabilitation of internally displaced persons continues to demand attention. Colombo has faced criticism on account of delays and inadequate arrangements. Its claim that only 50,000 out of 3,00,000 refugees are in camps, has been disputed. It was, therefore, a deft move on part of Mr Rajapaksa to meet with a delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu, talking to them candidly and assuring them that rehabilitation would be expedited. Now that India has decided to step up its assistance for this cause, quicker progress should be expected.

The more serious issue is the devolution of powers to the northern and eastern regions within the framework of a united and unitary state. A close reading of the joint declaration indicates the distinct possibility of a gap between the two Governments. Our PM stressed the need for "a meaningful devolution package" which builds on the 13th Amendment and creates conditions for "a lasting political settlement". On the other hand, the Sri Lankan President spoke of his determination to evolve a political settlement "acceptable to all communities". He also shared his ideas on conducting "a broader dialogue with all parties involved".

In effect, he was reminding New Delhi that, apart from the Tamil minority community, there was the Sinhala majority community whose concerns would have to be factored in. Reconciliation would be a challenge, especially as diversity of views and interests exists in both communities. Clearly, both countries would have to do their own balancing acts: For Colombo, it involves the majority and min ority groups; for New Delhi, the balancing would be between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

 

A major gain of the visit was to deepen the bilateral relationship through "greater economic integration, enhancing connectivity and other linkages and closer development cooperation". Decisions were taken to upgrade the railway infrastructure with India's credit assistance amounting to $800 million as well as to rehabilitate the Palay airport and the Kankesanthurai harbour. In addition, a joint venture in thermal power sector with Indian assistance of $ 200 million and starting a feasibility study for inter-connection of electricity of the two countries were significant steps.

Economic relations have been progressing well, with bilateral trade having crossed the $ 2 billion mark in 2009 and FDI having reached $ 500 million. But much more needs to be done to ensure expansion and diversification. The decision to move towards "a more comprehensive framework of economic cooperation" is noteworthy, but in view of continuing Sri Lankan concerns, India Inc will need to identify new opportunities and leverage them, guided by mutual benefit.

Defence cooperation represents an important dimension. Discussions resulted in a joint decision to enhance high level military exchanges and training programmes and to institute an annual dialogue on defence matters. On countering terrorism and India's case for the permanent membership of UN Security Council, Sri Lanka is firmly on our side. Seven agreements were signed during the visit.

Policy-makers and managers of the bilateral relationship should, however, consider two important suggestions. First, both sides need to work more aggressively to augment people-to-people links in the fields of culture, education, tourism and the civil society.

Second, the 'China factor' remains relevant. On return from his "highly successful" visit to India, Mr Rajapaksa received the Chinese Vice-Premier, which was followed by signing of a package of six agreements. Whether it was a planned signal or showed poor timing needs to be probed.Nevertheless, confident of our substantial gains and while remaining watchful, India should now focus on effective implementation and consolidation.

A retired Ambassador, the writer has handled relations with Sri Lanka in the Ministry of External Affairs.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

PAKISTAN'S SORROW

ISLAMISM AS IDEOLOGY CAN ONLY CAUSE HARM

NADEEM F PARACHA

A consensus across various academic and intellectual circles now states that violent entities such as the Pakistani Taliban and assorted sectarian organisations are the pitfalls of policies pursued by the state through its intelligence agencies to safeguard Pakistan's 'strategic' and ideological interests.

The supposed ideology was constructed by the ruling establishment many years after the painful birth of Pakistan. It has since been used by the state apparatus, political parties and media men to justify the patronisation and formation of brutal reactive outfits and groups. But whose ideology is it anyway? Pakistan seemed to have had a simple answer till about 1956. This answer, it seems, did not suit the political and economic interests of the early Pakistani ruling elite.

Till about the late-1960s it was normal to suggest that Pakistan was carved as a country for Muslims of the sub-continent who were largely seen (by Jinnah and his comrades in the Muslim League), as a distinct cultural set of Indians whose political, economic and cultural distinctiveness might have been compromised in a post-colonial 'Hindu-dominated' set-up. As Jinnah went about explaining his vision of Pakistan, there was no doubt whatsoever in the historical validity of the notion that he imagined the new country as a cultural haven for Muslims of the sub-continent where the state and politics would remain separate.

The state was to be driven by modern democracy that incorporated the egalitarian concepts of Islam such as charity, equality and inter-faith tolerance. According to Prof Ayesha Jalal, Jinnah's view of Islamic activism in the sub-continent was akin to his understanding it as a phenomenon that "derided the false and dangerous religious frenzy which had confused Indian politics and the zealots who were harming the national cause".

However, Jinnah's death in 1948 reduced his Muslim League (from being a dynamic organisation of visionary action) to a rag-tag group of self-serving politicians. It became a pale reflection of its pre-independence past. Gone too was the party's ability to bring into policy Jinnah's modernist Muslim vision. The idea got increasingly muddled and shouted down by the once anti-Pakistan Islamic forces, who now started flexing their muscles in the face of a disintegrating Muslim League, and the erosion of the ideal that its leader stood for.

The Jamaat-e-Islami went on a rampage in 1953 in Lahore, hungrily overseeing the country's first major anti-Ahmadi riots. Of course, by now the famous speech by Jinnah in which he underlined the idea of religious freedom in the new country was conveniently forgotten as the ruling elite grappled confusingly with the crises of its own creation. Eventually, it capitulated to the demands of the handful of vocal Islamist leaders by officially declaring the country an 'Islamic Republic'. It was classic ostrich behaviour; the sort a number of Pakistani leaders continue to demonstrate whenever faced with the question of Pakistan and its relationship to political Islam.

Misunderstanding Islamist activism as mere emotionalism, the ruling elite gave the Islamists a bone to play with, without bothering to explain to the rest of the people exactly what an Islamic republic really meant in the Pakistani context — a country buzzing with a number of ethnicities, minority religions and distinct Muslim sects. A democratic order should have been a natural answer to the state's crisis. But for Islamists, democracy meant the emergence of ethnic and religious plurality that would encourage secular politics and further undermine the notion of the new-found Islam-centric Pakistani nationhood.

Many years and follies later, and in the midst of unprecedented violence being perpetrated in the name of Islam, Pakistanis today stand more confused and flabbergasted than ever before. The seeds of ideological schizophrenia that the 1956 Constitution sowed followed by the disastrous doings of the Gen Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship in the 1980s. These have now grown into a wicked tree that only bears delusions and denials as fruit.

As Islamic parties and reactionary journalists continue to use the flimsy historical narrative of Pakistan's Islamic republicanism, consciously burying the harrowing truth behind the chaos the so-called 'Islamic ideology of Pakistan' has managed to create, whole new generations grow up lapping up this synthetic narrative. While it has continued to alienate not only the religious minorities — Muslim and non-Muslim — it has also stoked intolerance among the very vocal and assertive, puritan Muslims.

A recent example is the way many puritan Islamic groups have reacted to the conservative Nawaz Sharif's statement sympathising with the plight of the Ahmadis. Also, one of Pakistan's outstanding, moderate Islamic scholars, Mr Javed Ahmed Ghamdi, has had to fly out of the country into a self-imposed exile. According to an executive producer at a popular Urdu-language TV channel, Mr Ghamdi was facing a number of threats from certain puritan and violent Islamic groups.

His sin? He stood out as a mainstream Sunni Muslim scholar who banked on reason and an interpretive take on the Quran, eschewing the myopic literalism of the puritan groups that espouse a violent, political view of Islam.

The writer is among the most popular Pakistani columnists. He writes for Dawn. Courtesy: Dawn.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

38 years after Bloody Sunday

Gwynne Dyer

The British inquiry into the massacre that shocked the world has brought a closure of sorts to the victims' kin. Will other countries take a cue from this?

In the aftermath of the bloody events on the aid ship Mavi Marmara, where nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos on 31 May, Israeli has set up a judicial inquiry into the affair. Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who chose the members of the inquiry, has already described the victims as "violent Turkish terror extremists" on a "ship of hate", some people doubt that the investigation will be impartial.

On 15 June, the second inquiry into 'Bloody Sunday' in the Northern Irish city of Derry, where 14 civil rights marchers were killed by British paratroops on 30 January, 1972, delivered its report. The first people to see it were the relatives of the victims. On the whole, they seemed satisfied.

The British inquiry was chaired by Lord Saville, a former High Court judge. Since the inquiry involved the British Army, the other two members were senior judges from New Zealand and Canada, not from Britain. And the Saville inquiry's report was utterly damning.

It said that none of the casualties had guns, and that there were "no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing." The paratroops gave no warnings before they started shooting, and a number of soldiers afterwards "knowingly put forward false accounts in order to seek to justify their firing."

The report also said bluntly that the soldiers had lost their self-control, "forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training, and failing to satisfy themselves that they had identified targets posing a threat of causing death or serious injury…There was a serious and widespread loss of fire discipline." Neither their commanders nor the British Government wanted to kill innocent people, but they were to blame for it nevertheless.

If a similarly impartial tribunal inquired into the events that occurred aboard the Gaza-bound aid ship last month, it would probably come to identical conclusions. We know enough about confrontations where none of the soldiers or police die, but lots of the rioters do, to understand the psychology and crowd dynamics of it.

That impartial inquiry would probably conclude that there was a "serious and widespread loss of fire discipline" among the Israeli commandos (five of the nine dead civilians were shot in the back or the back of the head). It would also probably find that few if any of the activists had lethal weapons, or acted in ways that justified killing them.

All of this may well come to pass in Israel — in 2048, 38 years from now. Because that is how long it took the British Government to get from the Widgery report, the original whitewash that was produced only months after the Bloody Sunday massacre, to the Saville report.

Lord Chief Justice Widgery's report in 1972 was a shameless cover-up that blamed the victims: "There is a strong suspicion that some (of the dead and wounded) had been firing weapons or handling bombs in the course of the afternoon." And, of course, it exonerated the soldiers: "There is no reason to suppose that the soldiers would have opened fire if they had not been fired upon first."

Those lies stood for 38 years, which is why the first people to be shown Lord Saville's report this week were the victims' families. It won't bring the dead back to life, but it is a reckoning of sorts. The British Government is a slow learner, but it does learn.

Israel has appointed ex-Supreme Court judge Mr Yaakov Tirkel, retired Israeli army officer Mr Amos Horev, and Mr Shabbtai Rosen, an Israeli professor of international law, to the current inquiry, but the only two foreign members are observers who have no vote, so this will probably be Israel's Widgery report. There may be an Israeli version of the Saville report eventually, but not this year or next.

Sovereignty means never having to say you're sorry. Or at least not for a long, long while.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NATO OASIS FOR AFGHAN DRUGLORDS

THE US INVASION HAS BRED FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS FOR AFGHANISTAN'S ILLICIT OPIUM BUSINESS, SAYS ELENA PUSTOVOYTOVA

The parts of the world hit hardest by the best-known Afghan business — the drug business — are Europe, Russia, and Iran, which absorb some 80 per cent of the drugs produced in Afghanistan. Currently the country is responsible for 90 per cent of the global narcotics output. Russia's drug control agency chief Mr V Ivanov outlined the situation at the international forum, Drug Production in Afghanistan: A Challenge for the International Community.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan bred unprecedentedly favourable conditions for the country's drug business which is currently flourishing in the Nato-controlled oasis. While the Taliban used to ban poppy cultivation, the Western coalition brought unchecked freedom to Afghanistan, the result being that the opium production in the country has grown by a factor of more than 40 over the past decade.

To justify its inaction, the US claims that for the Afghan farmers poppy cultivation is the only way to make a living. In practice, the justification translates into ever greater licence for various drug lords who amass fantastic riches at the cost of the lives of Russian and European young people. Allegedly out of compassion for the disadvantaged Afghans, the US and its allies have turned Afghanistan into a giant drug factory. It has to be realised that at the moment countering the US presence in Afghanistan and fighting the global treat posed by the drug business mean roughly the same.

"We cannot defeat the evil alone — efforts have to be made by the international community, by all the interested countries," said Afghan Counter-Narcotics Minister Mr Zarar Ahmad Moqbel. It is clear which countries are interested and just as clear that the US is not one of them. Opium from Afghanistan does not reach the US, unlike the drugs from Columbia where Washington — evidently unconcerned about the well-being of Latin Americans — is ready to wipe out coca fields by bomb strikes. The US would rather not do the same in Afghanistan and leave it to Russia and Europe to face the consequences...

Currently Afghanistan supplies twice the amount of drugs the whole world produced a decade ago. Most of the cultivation takes place in the Kandahar and Helmand provinces. In 2010, Afghanistan also became the champion in the production of hashish — this year the corresponding crop totaled some 3,000 tons. It is easy to guess where the drugs will land as the shortest supply routes run north, via Central Asia to Russia. The spread of drug consumption and addiction in Russia ranks among the most serious threats to its national security. It is an open secret that Afghanistan has a completely transparent border with Central Asian republics, most of the drug traffickers arrested in Russia being their citizens. Last week two policemen were injured in Moscow during an anti-narcotics raid against a group of ethnic Tajiks who put up resistance and attacked the policemen with knives and iron rods.

Russia is the country with the world's third largest group of drug addicts (after Afghanistan and Iran). A decade ago, Russia officially counted 369,000 drug addicts; by 2009 the figure topped five lakh. The reality is even more frightening than the healthcare statistics reflects — tentatively, 2-2.5 million Russians are drug addicts, the people thrown out of normal life. It is a significant dimension of the problem that some 20 per cent of the drug addicts in Russia are schoolchildren, roughly 60 per cent are aged between 16 and 30, and 20 per cent are people over 30. Russia's drug control agency estimates that narcotics kill around 1,00,000 people across the world every year.

The plan for joint struggle against the drug threat addressed at the forum to the Western coalition occupying Afghanistan included seven points: Countering the threat posed by the drug production in Afghanistan should be given the same priority as maintaining peace and international security, at least two million jobs must be created in Afghanistan considering that currently on the order of three million Afghans are cultivating drug crops, poppy crops in Afghanistan must be ruthlessly eradicated, the UN should compile a blacklist of land owners renting out fields for poppy cultivation, Nato forces deployed in Afghanistan must actively eradicate drug crops, intelligence agencies should step up cooperation and regularly swap the pertinent data, Russia and the Western coalition countries should jointly train Afghan anti-drug forces.

Elena Pustovoytova is a political scientist and a Strategic Culture Foundation expert

 

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

NITISH MUST COUNT ON HIS GOOD WORK NOT GIMMICKRY

 

GIMMICKRY is something even the better of our politicians cannot avoid taking recourse to every now and then. Why else would Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar go to the extreme length of returning the money that Narendra Modi's Gujarat government had donated for the Kosi flood victims? Also, Kumar's pompous claim before the media that the people of Bihar did not need help from any source to take care of their needs is simply not true and, in any case, at odds with his longstanding complaint about the Union government having been niggardly in allocation of funds for the rehabilitation of the flood victims.

 

The whole episode triggered by the appearance of an advertisement that showed Kumar and Modi holding hands reeked a little of grandstanding on the Bihar CM's part. It is difficult to avoid the impression that Kumar took umbrage to the advertisement that appeared on the eve of the Bharatiya Janata Party's national executive meet in Patna merely to send a message about his secular credentials to the electorate in Bihar that goes to the polls later this year.

 

If Kumar's regime has not been tainted by communal colour due to the presence of the BJP in the coalition government, the credit for this must go to the secular Kumar. But if the chief minister has tried to carry all sections of the population along in the development exercise, the people, especially the minorities, must have already become aware of this fact over his considerably long tenure.

 

Kumar doubts the intelligence of the voters if he thinks that his very public stance on the advertisement issue will decide which way the minorities vote.

 

Kumar mustn't forget that while he has every right to distance himself from Modi, his government in Bihar is still propped up by Modi's party. There has been talk in the past of Kumar's Janata Dal ( United) severing ties with the BJP but the political situation in Bihar is such that Kumar can return to power later this year only with the support of his coalition partner.

 

The Bihar chief minister's stature may have seen the BJP playing second fiddle to the JD( U) in the state government, but Kumar can fool no one by trying to convey the impression that he has little to do with the party.

 

No doubt, like every politician, Kumar would like to have his cake and eat it too. But, the seasoned politician that he is, he must realise that it is not easy to do that.

 

PARTIES LEFT RED IN THE FACE

 

PREDICTABLY, in this era of lax party discipline, party bosses in the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were subjected to humiliation by their MLAs in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Rajasthan. Fortunately for them, this did not make any substantive difference to the outcome, except in unruly Jharkhand where the BJP candidate Ajay Maroo was defeated, and Orissa where the third Biju Janata Dal candidate won in a more comfortable manner than he should have.

 

The BJP did manage to keep its honour intact in Rajasthan where it successfully kept its flock together and ensured the victory of Ram Jethmalani against a moneybags Independent supported by the Congress, Santosh Bagrodia.

 

Indeed, it is the Congress which has been embarrassed in Rajasthan when an estimated 17 of its MLAs cast their second preference votes for BJP candidates, defying the party whip. Fortunately, the results were finalised on the basis of the first preference votes and so there was no need to count the second preference votes.

 

Bihar, too, was hit by cross voting when BJP legislator Banwari Ram and three BSP legislators, including Sita Sundari, admitted to voting for Rashtriya Janata Dal's Ram Kirpal Yadav despite party whips.

 

This put an end to the expectations of BG Uday, a Bangalore- based carpetbagger and realtor. The RJD, in turn, has expelled two of its legislators — Rajesh Kumar Singh and Pappu Yadav for voting for the ruling Janata Dal ( United). In any case, there has been no significant change in the balance of power in the Rajya Sabha.

 

The Congress won just three seats out of 17 in the elections. This means that the party remains in a minority with a total of 74 MPs in the 250- member Upper House. This may crimp its plan to push legislations such as the nuclear liability or communal violence bills.

 

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MAIL TODAY

HE CAN BE SURE IT WILL BE A CROWN OF THORNS

BY MAHESH RANGARAJAN

 

SO MUCH has been said and written about Rahul Gandhi turning 40 that it must seem little else is left. Yet the landscapes of the future remain unknown to anyone but the crystal ball gazer. This is even more so in the case of a country as vast, varied and rich in diversity as ours.

 

What is indeed possible is to look not ahead as a fortune- teller might but backwards as a historian must. How successions are decided and what has transpired about those who got the chance, is known.

 

But it is possible to stop and reflect on the past that it might better illumine the paths that take us into the unknown that lies ahead. All did not change because of who became Congress president or Prime Minister but much did flow from how the choice was made.

 

The most telling intervention on the issue of succession was made not by the founder of the most significant clan in Indian politics, Motilal Nehru. It is well known that it was Mahatma Gandhi who was to write in August of 1929, " The crown must be worn by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru". But what he then said or rather wrote was equally telling. It shows why he was not a mere leader of men and women but one who could give what those younger than him had lacked till he came along: a vocation. " Older men", said Gandhi ji , " should yield with grace what will be taken by force if they do not read the signs of the times." There has all along been a strong criticism of his choice not just in 1929 but in 1938 when he opposed Bose and in the 1940s when he made an even more telling remark. When he was gone, he stated emphatically, it was Jawaharlal who would, " speak my language".

 

Nehru

 

BUT it was not due to Nehru being in his own words " a truant and errant child" that he chose him. He was fully aware of how " vast and radical" a gap lay between them. Unlike Mahatma Gandhi, the younger man did not have an aversion to textile mills and modern machines.

 

But the Congress if it had to evolve needed someone who could " read the signs of the times". In a telling comment, the scholar- journalist Rajmohan Gandhi likened Nehru to a younger son and Patel the brother. When the torch would pass it would be the son and not the brother who would have to step forward.

 

It is important that the succession to Nehru himself was looming large on the horizon in the early 1960s. Ambassador B. K. Nehru who received him in Washington found him a pale shadow of his former self. Only later did the diplomat realise what a strain that long distance travel must have been on the now septuagenarian Premier.

 

But it was the aftermath of the Chinese attack that brought the collective leadership of the Congress to the fore. More than any other single individual in its post independence past, it was the new Congress president Kamaraj Nadar who tilted the scales not once but twice.

 

Shankar's Weekly had a cartoon of the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu playing the piano while the Congress men and women played musical chairs.

 

It was this logic that led to the resignation of key figures such as Morarji Desai from the government, paving the way for the man waiting in the wings.

 

Minister without Portfolio, Lal Bahadur Shastri was to return to the cabinet unlike his peers. When he became PM, no less than the brilliant Vijayalakshmi Pandit openly excoriated him in the House.

 

Yet, she had the grace at a later date to praise his leadership.

 

Succession

 

YET he took the first steps to ease the shortage of consumer goods, shifting the emphasis to light industry and most critically, inducting the man who would be the architect of the Green Revolution into the place that mattered: the Ministry of Agriculture. If Kamaraj was the architect of succession, it was Shastri's choice of C Subramanian that would be epochal.

 

Shastri's demise was sudden but the struggle for succession broke out even before his cremation. In a sensational interview to a newsman, Morarji Desai said, " My hat is in the ring", a miscalculation that was to cost him dear.

 

Yet, it was a historic contest. It was the last time that a ruling party in India allowed a free vote among its elected Members of Parliament for a leader.

 

Indira Gandhi backed by Kamaraj won.

 

It may have been a coincidence but the Congress party split within four years of this date.

 

It is this as much as the projection of Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency as the ' youth leader' that was a turning point in its history. So all- pervasive was this aversion to election that even the Janata party that came to power in March 1977 preferred to leave the choice to two wise veterans, JP and Acharya Kripalani.

 

Be that as it may, election by acclamation was not an old Congress tradition.

 

It came to be one after 1969, when the party split. Fearful that leadership contests would let loose divisions, the party preferred to paper over cracks. The monolith was born before the Emergency.

 

This detour through history matters more than it otherwise would because of the man who gives voice to the absence of inner party democracy: Rahul Gandhi.

 

As general secretary, he shows the impatience of the young with the older order.

 

Family

 

UNLIKE his late father who was the first ( and so far the only) Indian to succeed a parent as Congress President and Prime Minister, he has had a longer tutelage in politics. He has been witness to violence that has claimed two lives in his family alone.

 

And he has seen the party reduced to a pale shadow of its former self, dust itself off and revise radically its strategies in order to return to office and power.

 

But Rahul Gandhi is right on one count. Access to political office at least in major political parties is eased if not assured for those who are from political families. Prof. André Beteille observed that the family is an invasive presence in public institutions. That is true but how will it be prised apart? Whatever strategy works, open and fair elections have to be a part and parcel of them.

The hold of a family is more recent on the Congress than many suppose. For nine decades of its existence till 1975, no less, there was no system of projecting a younger family member. Posts were open to those with the talent, drive and energy. Lineage did help but it did not clinch matters.

 

Congress has had a long tradition of a strong leader at the helm. But it allowed for diversity and debate, even open elections for the leadership of the legislative party, not once but twice. It has two traditions of debate and deference, and Rahul Gandhi will soon have to choose which one he prefers.

 

His own hold on the top may be secure due to the intervening decades. But which tradition he adopts is crucial.

 

Once again as in the past, the Congress is close to crossing a Rubicon. It may look like roses but as Gandhiji warned Nehru, a crown it is, but one all of thorns

 

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MAIL TODAY

EDITORIAL

POWER & POLITICS

PRABHU CHAWLA

 

FLY AND MIGHTY

DESPITE being Prime Minister of the world's largest democracy for more than six years now, Manmohan Singh is yet to make the transition from economist to politician.

But there is no doubt that he has taken several important steps on his way to becoming an international statesman. Global leaders have been fulsome in their praise for the manner in which his government steered the economy at a time when most developed countries were reeling under the worst economic downturn in over 40 years.

 

At the last G- 20 meeting in the United States, Barack Obama led the tributes, hailing the Prime Minister as a " visionary and a marvel". Of course he doesn't get, nor does he expect, such praise back home, where Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and the many senior ministers take care of the rough and tumble of domestic politics. The contrasting images could not have been more stark and that perhaps explains why Manmohan is devoting a disproportionate amount of time to international diplomacy as compared to domestic issues. So what does Manmohan really want? My hunch is that by the time he finally demits office at the end of the current term, he wants to leave a mark on two issues that are dearest to him: Indo- Pak relations and India's deserved seat on the high table that is the United Nations Security Council ( UNSC).

 

The first has always been on blow- hotblow- cold mode. When things go from bad to worse, symbolic initiatives are taken.

 

The visits of P. Chidambaram later this month for the SAARC interior ministers' meeting in Islamabad and foreign minister S. M. Krishna to Pakistan in July are to be seen in this context.

 

But it is the UNSC seat that Manmohan eyes as the prize catch and he is leaving nothing to chance. From President Pratibha Patil who recently toured China, to vice- president Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and many sundry ministers, they are all flying around the world to seek support for India's bid.

 

It may be a coincidence that two retired IFS officers are now presiding officers of the two houses of Parliament. But it is no coincidence that the combination has been chosen to champion India's cause. The tours undertaken by the two since UPA2 came to power over a year ago gives us an indication.

 

The Lok Sabha speaker has been to New York, Rome, Geneva, Hungary, Luxembourg and Bhutan as head of parliamentary delegations where she tapped her hosts to support India. Ansari has been even more active. He has been to Kuwait, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with the same objective. Back home, Ansari has been in touch with many heads of states and governments whom he knows personally.

 

In Delhi, he has also been meeting the local heads of the foreign missions in the presence of the secretary concerned in the foreign office.

 

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee travels to the United States next week and is taking with him a large contingent from among the titans of industry who are scheduled to take their minds off business matters for a while to indulge in matters of diplomacy with their American counterparts.

 

That apart, the government has launched a new offensive in economic diplomacy with commerce minister Anand Sharma leading from the front.

 

With the post- meltdown scenario still worrisome and much of Europe caught in a fresh financial crisis, the Middle east, Africa, Latin American and the CIS countries are the places where India is seeking increased trade and investments. The commerce ministry recently did a road show in Dubai in which most of the top 100 companies in India participated, and I am told it was such a big hit that the ministry is now planning more such road shows in the months to come.

 

India will almost certainly become a non- permanent member and chairperson of the UNSC for 2011- 12, for which elections will be held this October after the two other candidate countries, Thailand and Kazakhstan, withdrew and India's candidature was endorsed by the Asian group.

 

Chinese president Hu Jintao told Pratibha Patil last month that Beijing was committed to India's bid for a non- permanent seat in the UNSC for 2011- 12 and there was hope that this would lead to Chinese backing for a permanent seat.

 

If the government can win that, Manmohan will leave office knowing that he deserves greater credit than he has got.

 

 

THE JOSTLE FOR THE THIRD EC SLOT BEGINS

 

CHIEF Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla is due to retire next month and the UPA government has a tough task filling the vacancy, considering that there is a torrent of names being forwarded to the powers that be. Until T. N. Seshan came along in 1990 and started a badly needed clean- up of the electoral system, the office of the CEC was just like any other constitutional office. Since then, it has acquired a higher profile and is now among the most coveted jobs.

 

While S. Y. Quraishi, the Haryana cadre IAS officer who joined as a commissioner in 2006, will take over as the new CEC, V. S. Sampath, a 1973- batch IAS officer of the Andhra cadre, will remain commissioner.

 

There is much speculation about who will fill the third slot and regional and gender pressures are being mounted on the Congress leadership, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and law minister Veerappa Moily.

 

Among the front- runners are finance secretary Ashok Chawla and agriculture secretary T. Nanda Kumar, while an officer from the North East is said to be a dark horse.

 

But there is an influential section in the UPA which feels that it is time for a woman to be appointed to the high constitutional office.

If this opinion prevails, the choice could be between Shanta Sheela Nair, a former home secretary of Tamil Nadu and currently secretary in the ministry of mines, and Sushma Nath, expenditure secretary.

 

As UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi has helped smash several glass ceilings by giving the country its first woman president as well as the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha. If Sonia puts her might behind either Nair or Nath, the Election Commission, considered to be the last of the male bastions, may fall and get its first woman commissioner. If that happens, in about four years time, the country will have its first woman CEC.

 

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MAIL TODAY

 

BJP TARGETS CONG IN UP WITH POSTERS

BY PIYUSH SRIVASTAVA IN LUCKNOW

 

THE CONGRESS party's comeback in Uttar Pradesh politics has not only given the BSP and the Samajwadi arty something to think about, but also made the BJP edgy.The party's recent poster antics targeting Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's 40th birthday shows howseriously the BJP has taken the rise of the Congress in the politically crucial state.

 

Party workers were seen on Saturday putting up posters in eastern Uttar Pradesh linking the Congress with the BJP's pet issues — Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and terrorism.

 

One such bizarre poster read: " Whose son- in- law is Afzal Guru who had attacked Parliament?" And the reply below read: " The Congress Party." There were slogans on terrorism, which read: " The five terrorist sons of the Congress — terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorism in Punjab, terrorism of LTTE, terrorism of Naxals and terrorism of ULFA." Putting the onus on the Congress, the poster further read: " The Congress must answer." BJP vice- president and state leader Vinay Katiyar featured prominently alongside the writings. Though Katiyar has denied his hand in the poster campaign, it is unlikely that publicity materials targeting the Congress would have been released without his involvement.

 

Apparently, the party's poster outburst had twin objectives.

 

First, attack the Gandhi They were released on Rahul's birthday scion and draw people towards its ' Janata Jago rally' ( public wake- up rally) in Ambedkar Nagar on June 25. Second, it is a show of strength by Katiyar within the BJP. For the record, Rahul had launched a fresh round of attack against the Mayawati government from the same area on April 14.

 

BJP insiders claim this was part of a desperate move by Katiyar and former party president Rajnath Singh to " show their strength and importance" to current party president Nitin Gadkari.

 

" They want to kill two birds with one stone. It is a show of strength planned by Rajnath and Katiyar. They have not invited Gadkari and are in favour of going soft against chief minister Mayawati and attack the Congress only," a senior BJP leader said.

 

Subodh Srivastava, UPCC chief spokesperson, has his own theory.

 

" The Congress is attacking the misrule of the Mayawati government. So the BJP has launched a campaign against the Congress to save the chief minister. After losing all hope in the state, the BJP has become the BSP's Bteam," Srivastava said.

 

piyush.srivastava@mailtoday.in

 

RAISINA  TATTLE

FANCY THAT

FOLLOWING the Bengal civic polls, the political stock of Mamata Banerjee have gone up several fold.

 

Rebel JD ( United) leader and Independent Lok Sabha member Digvijay Sinh of Banka has been seen in Banerjee's company.

 

The buzz is that the Trinamool Congress may field many candidates in Bihar where assembly polls are due later this year. In return, there is a possibility that Banerjee would push for Digvijay's induction in the Union council of ministers.

 

The Banka politician fancies himself as a minister of state in the external affairs ministry — a post he has held in the past. Moreover, after Shashi Tharoor's exit, there is a vacancy in the ministry.

 

Aerial route

 

IS THE way to the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) through air journeys? First Jaswant Singh travelled with L. K. Advani to attend Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's funeral paving the way for his homecoming.

 

Now Sadhvi Uma Bharti has travelled with former BJP chief Rajnath Singh and Advani. Will Uma, too, take the aerial route to the BJP?

 

Crying foul

 

AICC general secretary B. K. Hari Prasad and Janata Dal ( Secular)' s Danish Ali have been exchanging SMSes lamenting the " blatant use of resources" during the recently held Rajya Sabha polls in Karnataka.

 

It so happened that Prasad was initially tipped as the Congress- JD ( S) common candidate, but former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda suddenly decided to oppose him.

 

In a letter to Sonia Gandhi, Gowda suggested that the Congress should support Ali. By the time the voting took place, many JD ( S) MLAs had hoisted industrialist Vijay Mallya to victory.

 

Litchi diplomacy

 

HERE'S some good news for the Congress- led UPA government.

 

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee have patched up.

 

The rapprochement is said to have taken place at Mukherjee's behest.

 

As a sign of goodwill, the finance minister, who is also the Bengal state Congress chief, sent a box of " litchis" to her. In return, Banerjee sent loads of " mudi" — puffed rice flakes known for its nutritious value.

 

US warns of Iran sanctions

impact on Pak gas

 

Reuters

 

PAKISTAN should be wary of committing to an Iran- Pakistan natural gas pipeline because anticipated American sanctions on Iran could hit Pakistani companies, the US special representative to the region said on Sunday.

 

While sympathetic to Pakistan's energy needs, the US special representative to the region, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters that new legislation, which targets Iran's energy sector, is being drafted in the US Congress and that Pakistan should wait and see.

 

" Pakistan has an obvious, major energy problem and we are sympathetic to that, but regarding a specific project, legislation is being prepared that may apply to the project," he said, referring to the pipeline. " We caution the Pakistanis not to over- commit themselves until we know the legislation." US Senator Joseph Lieberman said last week he expects Congress to finish shortly legislation tightening US sanctions on Iran that will include provisions affecting the supply of refined petroleum products to Tehran, and add to sanctions on its financial sector.

 

Lieberman, an independent, is a member of a House- Senate committee of negotiators working on final details of the bill and said it could pass by July 4.

 

The $ 7.6 billion natural gas pipeline deal, signed in March, doesn't directly deal with refined petroleum products and was hailed in both Iran and Pakistan as highly beneficial.

 

The US has so far been muted in its criticism of the deal. But the legislation could be comprehensive enough to have major implications for Pakistani companies, Holbrooke said.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 EDIT PAGE

SPEAK UP

 

With the Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani currently in China to discuss defence cooperation and with the official statements that have been emerging from Beijing in recent months regarding its plans to establish two civilian nuclear reactors in Pakistan some manner of nuclear deal between China and Pakistan now seems inevitable. Washington has bestirred itself, objecting to the deal, but it may be too little, too late. And as far as New Delhi goes, it has thus far been adroit enough in dealing with the issue, conveying its concerns clearly to Beijing, but in a measured manner. Of as great concern as the establishment of the reactor is what the upcoming deal says about Beijing's policies. If, after the beginning of a rapprochement after tense exchanges over the past year or so, Beijing gives short shrift to New Delhi's security concerns, it does not bode well for future dialogue.

As it stands, there is little chance that the deal can be put on hold. The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is meeting in a few days and the issue is likely to be taken up there, with Beijing's stand being that the details of the deal were worked out prior to its joining the NSG in 2004 and thus are not bound by NSG strictures. But the issue will hinge more on geopolitical realities than technicalities. Washington may have objected to the deal but that is about the extent of what it is likely to do. When it comes down to it, it is unlikely to antagonise Beijing too much, given their economic co-dependency and the need for its cooperation on Iran and North Korea.

That the deal is likely to go through, however, does not mean that New Delhi should not continue to make its concerns abundantly clear. The US-India nuclear deal may have established a precedent of sorts but there is no real equivalence here. For one, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) guidelines and safeguards built into the US-India deal do a far better job of addressing proliferation concerns. Second, Pakistan's poor proliferation record and its turbulent internal security environment do not do much to inspire confidence.

The NSG does not have legal authority as such; therefore, its strictures forbidding trade in nuclear materials between NPT member and non-member states cannot be enforced. But if enough noise is made about the entire issue, it might compel Beijing to work better safeguards and IAEA oversight into the deal at least. That is something New Delhi can and must work towards.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 EDIT PAGE

GREENER FUTURE

 

Buildings commercial, industrial and residential account for about 40 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Governments everywhere are exploring ways to tackle this. The task involves incorporating energy-efficient measures in various aspects of construction. To ensure India doesn't lag behind, the prime minister's council on climate change cleared the Urban Habitat Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. This will make it mandatory for new office buildings to conform to energy-saving codes in three years' time. Since only 700 buildings have so far implemented these norms, it's clear all builders won't voluntarily go green. This is not surprising, since many tend to flout even basic fire safety norms. The Centre's decision will require states to amend municipal bye-laws to qualify for JNNURM funds.

India's construction industry is growing at an annual rate of over 30 per cent. For this growth to be sustainable, energy-efficiency is a must. This is all the more so given inadequate power and water resources in the country. Though initial investment is high, green buildings mean substantial savings in energy in the long run. Green design norms including use of right materials, appropriate orientation, insulation and shading can help conserve up to 50 per cent of buildings' energy costs. As a developing country, India needs to create urban infrastructure using precious resources in energy-efficient ways. It's already ahead of Australia and close behind the US in adopting green building designs, with future opportunities to export green-building technologies. Finally, the process of certifying green buildings mustn't turn into a regulatory maze that creates scope for corruption. To help the green building initiative, cut the red tape.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDIT PAGE

A NEW DEAL FOR YOUTH

SRIJANA MITRA

 

Rahul Gandhi's birthday, which went by last Saturday, will be followed by organisational elections within the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). Both events are significant for young Indians. Youth had all but abjured 'politics' completely, following the tumult of the 1980s and the temptations of the 1990s.

These decades brought political assassinations with shameful scandals, corruption scams with messy manipulations of caste and creed, the confusions of global citizenship fuelled by wealth and mobility, alongside ideas of Indian citizenship, tolerant and accommodating, taking heavy blows. A medieval mosque was torn down to make a sacred temple, the names of beloved cities changed and citizens were often hunted by manic but precise mobs, bearing lists of names, addresses and the blessings of politicians.

'Politics' came to represent a sphere of terrible murkiness for the average Indian youth. The word 'politician' represented a figure of greed and ruthlessness while 'politics' symbolised gross manipulations for power with violence, perpetrated via mobs directed by political leaders. Many young Indians stopped following political news, preferring to sink into the comforts of consumption and the thrills of aspiration instead of wrangling with the daily disappointments of what politics produced.

Rahul changed this scenario. Amazingly for someone who holds the country's most famous political surname, by reaching out through talent hunts, membership drives and student meetings, he managed to make many young Indians believe in politics as a realm that could extend beyond the narrowness of nepotism. He persuaded young Indians to imagine politics as a sphere that could offer decency, development and discourse as opposed to dadagiri, sleaze and manipulation. He even managed to induce young Indians to think of politics as a career option which would use their capacities as individuals, not deploy them as mobs for sycophancy and violence. Considering the backdrop, this is a rather extraordinary achievement.

While accomplishing this turnabout in public perceptions, Rahul demonstrated his understanding of the importance of symbolism in politics, combined with a sharp awareness of local realities. His visits to Dalit homes and meals, his stays at peasant huts, his travels by train and his distaste for obsequiousness have managed to permeate the consciousness of young Indians, nestling there amidst images and senses of cappucinos, cricket and visas, the internet and malls, work, traffic, power cuts, mobiles, gyms, family, credit rating and dating.

In representing India to the world and vice-versa too, Rahul displayed confidence. When David Miliband, foreign secretary of the previous Labour government in Britain, visited India in 2009, Rahul took him to rural Uttar Pradesh, making the dapper David spend a night in a cold village hut, observing the mists spreading over the vast, flat land as well as the telecommunications linking such villages to the world. When the Indo-US nuclear Bill came up for its stormy passage through Parliament, Rahul argued for it with a conviction that mirrored the belief many young Indians hold, of India's capacity to withstand foreign domination and negotiate the best for itself on the global stage.

It is now important for Rahul to ensure his message does not become overwhelmed by mediums alone. The substance to his work, based in communities and confidence, should emerge clearly and consistently; an example is his raising the case of Kalawati, a Vidarbha villager who would benefit from the electricity produced by nuclear energy. There were reports thereafter of Kalawati seeking to stand in local elections but being browbeaten by unnamed groups to withdraw. Rahul's team needs to follow up on such instances and make sure the issues of access and development his work highlights reach ideal ends instead of becoming loose and vaguely-disturbing threads.

Another strategy that needs consistent follow-through is Rahul's encouragement of activists arising from genuine political engagement. The young leader should continue supporting the political rise of Real Young Turks as opposed to Privileged Young Jerks who even accept lynch mob diktats to protect their own seats.

This June, Rahul turned a youthful 40, and the Indian electorate should also celebrate its own maturity. Although he has been the most refreshing arrival on the political block since decades, the Indian media has not displayed an obsession with Rahul's private life. This relates to the lack of public demand for details of politicians' personal lives. Despite everything, the Indian electorate believes politicians are public functionaries appointed to develop the nation and, unless their private lives grossly hamper public interest, there is little need to probe. This wisdom stands in marked contrast to the tabloid investigations and feverish readership of the West.

Rahul appears to appreciate these aspects of the Indian public. Perhaps this appreciation drives his desire to institutionalise an identity card system for Youth Congress members, beginning with the IYC elections. The massive undertaking emphasises system and order, recognising the distinct identity of each member, treating activists as individuals, not a mob.

It is a strange irony that the 'people's prince' is today encouraging the people to challenge established ideas and shake up set notions about politics and politicians. Following the New Deal slowly emerging between Rahul and the young electorate of India, as both mature and progress and learning what this politician truly stands for grows increasingly intriguing and essential.

The writer is a social anthropologist.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

INERVIEWS

'MOST DALIT STUDENTS LACK ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON EDUCATION'

 

Anoop Kumar , a Dalit social worker from Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh, started Insight, a Dalit student magazine, in 2004 with friends. Insight Foundation, with a grant from Ford Foundation, has now launched a telephone helpline (09999484249) and a portal (www.scststudents.org) for Dalit students. Kumar, 33, spoke to Shreya Roy Chowdhury:

What are the problems faced by Dalit students?

I was first exposed to the problems of caste at an engineering college in Kanpur. Dalit students were marked as weak students who didn't deserve to be there. The students lost confidence and there was no support system to help them. On my first day a professor said, 'those from SC/ST background need to work hard. Mayawati will not mark you, i will'.

 

When you enter higher education, your name is displayed under the schedule caste category and that becomes your identity. Caste abuse is very open, very blatant. Friend circles are formed based on a common background - fluency in English, dress-sense, food habits, caste and class. Dalit students are not articulate. They shy away from approaching others. We know they'd want to know our last names, where we come from, the merit number, which category we took admission under. We want to avoid those questions; we don't want to get identified. The upper castes do both the harassing and the complaining. They can have your opinion about reservation but a comment is taken personally.

You get information about education from social circles, family etc. But i'm the first in my family to come to Delhi. Most Dalit students have a similar background.

When and why was Insight started?

I came to Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2001 for a master's degree. I was already reading Ambedkar, Phule. I realised that what i thought of as a personal matter was a much bigger problem and that there's been an entire movement against it. I wanted to be a part of that movement. I found myself in a very different environment in JNU. In the politicised atmosphere there, you have space to say and do things. It had the kind of environment we lacked in small towns. I was groomed at the United Dalit Student Forum, which was active but without a platform for interaction. I wanted something concrete; a process by which a student is exposed to Dalit studies and issues and where a student can contribute. In 2004, i started Insight.

What was the response?

We started getting a lot of queries from other universities and within a year Insight was reaching 50 universities. We got articles from different parts of the country. We were creating space for ourselves within the system. That was lacking in the Dalit movement.

Tell us about the Helpline.

It was launched on May 27 (2010) and is funded by a Ford Foundation grant. Most of the information on education is available online, but most Dalit students lack access to internet. But they have access to mobiles and telephones. We target students from smaller towns who want admission in elite institutions like Delhi University, JNU, medical or other professional colleges. The idea is to provide information in Hindi and English about admission, courses, scholarships and also career counselling. Our national network has more than 1,000 Dalit and Adivasi student and faculty members. We also have a group of about 100 teachers and professionals who have volunteered to mentor aspirants.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDIT PAGE

MULES & STUBBORN FOOLS

HARISH BHAT

 

Until recently, my encounters with mules were largely non-existent. Over the years, i have met many humans whose pronounced mulish tendencies have caused me great frustration and anguish. But i knew very little about the real animal, except that it is a cross-breed between a female horse and a male ass (feminists may consider this a redundant expression, since in their lexicon every male is some kind of ass anyway).

Last month i finally met a mule at close quarters during a visit to Uttarkashi. My wife, teenage daughter and i were returning from the riverside ghats in this small Himalayan town. We were walking down a narrow path along the river Bhagirathi, enjoying a splendid view of the mountains and glacier-fed waters. Suddenly, we noticed that our path was blocked by a mule.

At first sight, it appeared to be a gentle mule, bobbing its head slightly, engrossed in eating bramble. Its jaws were munching hungrily, eyes closed in bliss. Sometimes it shook its ears and swished its tail. Yet, it soon became abundantly clear that this mule was in the early stages of its meal, hence would not budge at all. We waved our hands and said "Shoo" many times, but it ignored us and continued to block our path. We contemplated jumping over it, but better sense prevailed as soon my daughter observed how dangerous the kick of a mule could be.

A local Garhwali man walking down the same route with a bag of vegetables attempted a resolution of this deadlock. He gave the mule a gentle push, then a firm shove, yet it did not move an inch. In fact, immediately thereafter, the animal began giving us hostile stares and baring its ugly teeth. We backed away but the man was made of sterner stuff. He stepped down to the riverbed, picked up a clump of grass and threw it at the mule, also shouting a few local swearwords simultaneously. I must confess that i encouraged his effort by declaring that this animal was a stubborn fool. The attack took the mule by surprise. It jumped with a start and fell completely on its backside with a thud, legs waving wildly in the air.

However, within a moment, the mule had picked itself up, its legs fine. It now focused its efforts on the perpetrator of the assault. He took to his feet, dropping his bag in haste. When we last saw them, the mule was chasing the man down the pebble banks, and we are yet to know how precisely that unfortunate episode ended. I felt relieved that the mule had spared me, but in hindsight this was a premature conclusion.

On the brighter side, the path was now open and we walked ahead, but not before a heavily ash-covered mendicant who had seen the entire episode warned us in a grave tone. "If you cause a mule to fall down, it brings a fall from the heights and great pain within", he said cryptically. "You must undertake a small penance and i can organise everything for you." We had been advised to steer clear of these pseudo-religious types trying to make a quick buck, so we turned a deaf ear and hurried away.

The next day, the mendicant's prophesy came true and a far more significant point was also made as i went walking down the dark Uttarkashi hills after dinner. Typical of strong and adventurous men, i had obstinately refused my wife's requests that i should not venture out into unfamiliar mountain territory at night. I slipped on a loose rock, fell and twisted my ankle completely, shooting spasms causing great pain. As i sat down in distress and contemplated a few bedridden days ahead, i imagined i saw our mule in the distance. "Who's the stubborn fool out here ?" I thought i heard it guffaw and say.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

OURTAKE

FIRST THE BILL, THEN THE WILL

THE DRAFT LAW ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT COULD MAKE THE WORKPLACE SAFER FOR WOMEN.

Locker room talk, personal remarks and unsolicited advances will all get the official stamp of disapproval if the draft bill on sexual harassment is passed by the Cabinet next month. This comes 13 years after the Supreme Court framed the Vishaka guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace. The draft bill based on these guidelines has been around since 2001 — an alternative one was framed in 2004 — but so far, few employers have complied with even the minimum requirement of having a workplace committee to look into women employees' grievances. The draft now also covers the unorganised sector where women workers have been most vulnerable as well as students.

The fact that there are safeguards against false complaints will make it more acceptable all round. It is worrying that even government institutions have so far been tardy in setting up committees to look into cases of harassment despite the Supreme Court ruling that their word would be final. This suggests that employers don't treat this as a priority. The challenge will be to make the bill effective in the unorganised sector. Many units in this sector aren't even registered, have casual labour and operate beyond the purview of the law. A woman who is harassed in the agricultural sector isn't likely to have recourse to a committee that can address her complaints. The main stumbling block in this very welcome bill is the lack of awareness of its existence in a majority of workplaces. A concerted effort must be made to make women aware that the law is on their side when they face sexual abuse at the workplace.

The other problem is that men, who are generally the harassers, don't view lewd remarks or improper suggestions as harmful or demeaning to a woman's dignity. The attitude is that 'boys will be boys' and that this goes with the territory. In an age when more women are rising to supervisory positions in the workplace, it might also be worthwhile to ensure that sexual harassment isn't viewed through a gender-specific prism. But these flaws will get ironed out in due course of time. The positive aspect is that the law recognises sexual harassment as a crime against women and has taken measures to make the workplace safer for them. Once the bill is passed, it's

crucial that a mechanism is evolved to ensure that its provisions are complied with. Otherwise, like so many well-meaning legislations aimed at empowering women, this too will remain on paper.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE PUNDIT

NOT BEYOND THE PAL

The fictional American ranter-in-chief Archie Bunker was prophetic when he said, "I got a lotta friends. Some o' them I don't even hardly know." In a world where everything is up for sale, friendship is the latest on the shelf. If you're feeling in need of someone to yammer to who won't give you advice that you don't want, Rentafriend.com is just a click away.

To many of us who cherish the lifelong bonds we have nurtured with our buddies, this may seem gross. But, this could just be the answer in a world pressed for time.

Take a close look at your friends. You have to spend large parts of your life listening to their troubles, picking up their pieces when they fall apart, have the mandatory bonding sessions every week and, worse, find it hard to shake them off when you've outgrown them. Rentafriend gets rid of all this because when you pay the pal, you call the tune.

If you are looking for someone to stand by you through thick and thin, then maybe you'll have to shell out a bit more. If you still think we are being cynical, here's another scenario for you. You have planned a day out with your best friend. You'd like to get your teeth into a kebab or two while your refined friend wants health food. You want to see a romantic tearjerker but your friend wants to see an Estonian documentary.

When you've rented a pal, the pal pretty much likes what you like. For those paying criminal charges to psychoanalysts, the hired friend might be a cheaper option. Rented friends will not be able to steal your spouse/partner because they won't be around long enough. And you can forget their birthdays without getting the cold shoulder for months afterwards. Come on, aren't you just a little tempted at the thought of friendship without strings? If you're known by the company you keep, at least ensure that for a few dollars, you get it right.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

BETWEEN US

BJP NEEDS ALL THE ALLIES IT CAN GET

PANKAJ VOHRA

The speculation about the future relationship between the BJP and its ally, the Janata Dal (United) continues to make news after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar publicly snubbed the saffron brigade following the publication of his picture alongside that of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. While many analysts feel this was the first step taken by Nitish Kumar to sever his party's association with the BJP, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav has reiterated that the two parties continue to be allies. The advertisements in Patna newspapers on the day of the BJP National Executive meeting had upset Nitish since being pictured alongside Modi would have irked his Muslim votebank.

This is something the Bihar CM cannot afford with the state going to the polls in October. He made his displeasure felt cancelling the dinner he was to host for the BJP National Executive members sparking off speculation about their future relationship. He has since returned Rs 5 crore given by the Gujarat government for the Kosi flood relief work.

Sharad Yadav is a pragmatic politician and knows that if the BJP and the JD(U) part ways, Lalu Yadav's RJD will be the biggest beneficiary. The break-up of the alliance will hurt not only the BJP but also the JD(U) even if Nitish feels that he can win the elections on his own on the strength of his popularity among the backward castes, particularly his own community of Kurmis.

If the JD(U) goes it alone, the upper castes will favour the BJP and the media support, which had helped the Bihar CM achieve an almost iconic status, will be diluted. The BJP, on its own, will lose many seats that it can win only with the support of the JD(U).

The Congress could have exploited the issue but it seems that it has spoilt its chances by replacing a Bhumihar president Anil Sharma with Mehboob Ali Kaiser, a weak Muslim face. In addition, it has assigned Mukul Wasnik the task of overseeing the strategy to target the Dalit votes. Wasnik is not an acceptable Dalit face for the state. The party would have done better by having an upper caste leader as the president and someone like Beni Prasad Verma from UP, a Kurmi as the party in-charge.

There is also another dimension to the Nitish-Modi face-off. Both leaders are among those who can be projected as the NDA's prime ministerial candidate in 2014. Nitish's claim will be very strong if he leads the alliance to a victory in the assembly elections. Sushma Swaraj, as the leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha should be an automatic choice for the post

though Modi's supporters who have no love lost for her feel that the Gujarat CM will make a better candidate. In the unpleasantness between the allies in Patna, Modi showed signs of immaturity while addressing a public rally in which he praised deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi and other party colleagues and pointedly omitted

Nitish Kumar's name from the state government's highlights. He would have emerged on a stronger wicket had he complimented his counterpart for the achievements.

The BJP, as a senior partner in the national alliance with parties like the JD(U), has to understand that without the support of regional outfits, it cannot return to power at the Centre. Even at the peak of its glory under an acceptable leader like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP could never go beyond 182 seats in the Lok Sabha. It is hard to imagine that any other leader can improve on that. Therefore, if the saffron brigade wants to be a serious player at the national level, it would do well to keep its alliance partners happy. Between us.

pvohra@hindustantimes.com

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

SUPER POWER - COLONIAL HANGOVERS

Has China's more turbulent British colonial history and India's more `civilising' one given the former the edge over the latter in the 21st century? THE BRITISH WOULD OFTEN POMPOUSLY DESCRIBE THEIR RULE AS ONE WHICH `CIVILISED' INDIA; IT HAS TO BE ADMITTED THAT THEY `ADOPTED' INDIA AS A SUBORDINATE STATE, TRANSFERRING SEVERAL INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHS

 R A G H AV B A H L

 

On December 31, 1600, a group of London businessmen banded together to create a quaintly named company, Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies. A royal charter gave it all privileges of trading in that part of Asia. Little did these gentlemen realise that their British East India Company (known better under this popular shorthand) would unleash a dynamic whose reverberations would ripple across the world 300 years later.

The Company became the common womb from which two stepchildren, British India and colonial China, sprang to become non-identical Asian twins.

There were few buyers for British broadcloth and other European goods in Asia, but large buyers in Europe for tea, silk and porcelain from the East. In China, the Company ran into another problem; Chinese traders were unwilling to sell unless they were paid in silver. British merchants had to move with devil's speed to plug this one-sided drain of gold and silver. They devised an elaborately devious plot to trade opium at auctions in Calcutta, mix it with tobacco, smuggle it across the seas into China, and finally use these illicit earnings to pay for Chinese exotica.

 

Since opium imports were banned in China, Emperor Daoguang sent a polite but firm protest to Queen Victoria.
Unfortunately, the letter was whisked midway and it never reached the Queen; history may have been different if an informed Queen had clamped down on the British East India Company's illegal intentions. In 1839, after a decade of abort- ed anti-opium campaigns, the Chinese monarch ran out of patience. He confiscated and destroyed 20,000 chests of ill- gotten opium and detained an entire foreign community.

 

The events escalated into the world's first drug war -- the First Opium War (1839-42) – between the Qing dynasty and the British East India Company. The Chinese were pummelled into submission and forced to sign the first of many unequal treaties which rankle ordinary citizens to this day. The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing granted an indemnity of 21 million dollars to the Company and opened the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai to opium imports.

 

Ultimately, the burden of humiliations became too heavy to carry for the Qing rulers; led by Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese Revolution of 1911 put paid to the monarchy.

 

Surprisingly, the British East India Company authored an utterly different edition of colonial rule in India. Perhaps the two situations were not comparable to begin with. In China, one dynasty was ruling over the entire country, and several colonial powers vied to carve the `single' melon on offer. India's situation was a mirror image of this: Britain was the single colonial power, but India was carved up into hundreds of intrigue-ridden, weak `kingdoms'. It was a lush but unguard- ed orchard of ripe `cherries', easy to sweep away into a tidy political basket.

 

The British East India Company rapidly expanded, pluck- ing more `cherries', annexing territories and small princely states. In the 1830s, Macaulay created a new charter for the British East India Company which completely transformed India's legal edifice. An all-India legislative council replaced regional legislatures. Law-making powers were taken away from the provincial governments in Bengal, Bombay and Madras Presidencies. One set of laws and courts were estab- lished for everybody. In his other task, Macaulay's famous Minute on Education (1835) brought English out of its impe- rial closet; with one stroke of his powerful pen, he made English the official language of India and the medium of instruction in all educational institutions.

 

By 1882, over 60 per cent of the primary schools were teach- ing the Queen's language. English was called the `milk of tigress', creating a new energy and opportunity for the natives.

Even the Indian National Congress, which led India to inde- pendence, conducted most of its proceedings in English!

 

Over the Himalayas, the Chinese Civil War broke out in 1927 -- Mao Zedong's Communists orchestrated the Long March, a military revolt against Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang Nationalists. The Japanese army jumped into this cauldron in 1937; ultimately, Chiang's Kuomintang was defeated; Chiang fled to modern Taiwan, politically separating it from main- land China. l- Thus it came about that China's and India's destinies con- e verged, for a fleeting moment in history, in the late 1940s. The d British parliament passed the Indian Independence Act, 1947, d and royal assent was granted to free India from colonial rule al on August 15, 1947. Barely over two years later, on October 1, 2 1949, Mao founded the People's Republic of China at a mas- s sive rally in Beijing.

y, But history's tangential moment was all too brief. China became a totalitarian State. India became a parliamentary y democracy. Once again, these ancient civilisations -- the non- e identical twins -- were flung irretrievably apart. The British would often pompously describe their rule as one which n `civilised' India; it has to be admitted that they `adopted' India e as a subordinate State, transferring several institutional a, strengths.
al On the other hand, China's colonial history was far more 's turbulent under several rapacious rulers, without a similar le `institutional osmosis'. But could this also explain China's of stout confidence and India's self-doubt? Did centuries of wars d- and strife make China's leaders tougher, more martial, big- y ger risk-takers? As against this, have the `civilising' niceties of British domination made India's leaders more timid and k- less confident? As the British themselves would say, it's worth ly a thought, old chap!

 

e d Raghav Bahl is founder and editor of Network18. He will be d writing his column, Superpower, once a month.

 

y His book Superpower: The Amazing Race Between d China's Hare and India's Tortoise (Penguin Allen Lane), b- will be published in August s The views expressed by the author are personal

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

THE GERMANS TOO?

 

There is a heightened drama to penalty shots in football that other sports are understandably eager to appropriate. But recall the sudden death that an India-Pakistan match in the inaugural Twenty20 world championships in 2007 went to, and you can see why the magic is not so easily imported. Having tied in normal time, the two teams had to nominate players to hit the stumps by turn. And while the contest was nailbitingly tense, it was just a game of chance, not football's hyper-focus that tests even the viewer's concentration. And since then T20 has found other ways of settling a tie.

 

But even by World Cup football's rich record of penalty drama, last week's spectacle of a German player missing a penalty against Serbia was a moment for the record books. A German, Lukas Podolski, had failed to net a penalty in regular time at the World Cup for the first time in 36 years. Let's be clear what we are discussing here. Germans are the masters of efficiency, and it is to their accomplishment analysts have looked these past weeks as they rolled in the advice to footballers — especially, it has to be said, the penalty-phobic English. A penalty in football, some point out, is as close as it gets to testing a player's capacity to put himself "in the zone" — that state of total concentration untouched by thoughts on what the repurcussions of how it goes may be. It's essentially a mind game.

 

German footballers are not meant to lose it from here. But the fact that Podolski did what he did — and that, unlike 36 years ago, his teammates did not efficiently rise to the occasion and pull off a victory anyway — may be a heartening sign. Could it be that the Germans have finally succumbed to the globalisation of the game?

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

 

China's central bank said on Saturday that it would allow China's currency — officially known as the renminbi, but denominated as the yuan — to become "more flexible", ending its 23-month-long peg to the dollar, in which the yuan's value closely tracked that of the dollar. The peg was introduced mainly to aid that country's huge export sector deal with the global slowdown; the reason given for ending it was that the economy has "improved". That and subsequent statements did, however, rule out the one-time revaluation that many worldwide were urging and expecting: they announced no timeframe for implementation, and said both that the daily limits on currency trading would stay, and that the yuan should remain "stable" because there was "no basis" for a sharp appreciation — something most economists disagree with. (The last time a peg to the dollar was abandoned, five years ago, the yuan appreciated 21 per cent in the three years that followed.)

 

Critics of China's currency policy are far from assuaged. US legislators might still move on attempts to censure Chinese firms, even though the White House issued a statement calling it a "constructive" move. And while it has been persuasively argued that international pressure on Chinese authorities will only get their back up, making ending their intervention in currency markets less likely, the timing of this step — just before the G-20 is due to meet — is significant.

 

China's decision-makers have long been admired by some for their speed and their policy common-sense. Yet the yuan debate demonstrates there are limits to their action — limits perhaps to their willingness to displease interest groups, or even limits to their ability to push through the acceptance of policy change at higher levels, much like problems we occasionally face in India. It is clear, however, that most in authority in that country recognise the perilous consequences of a currency undervalued by perhaps a third: an economy too geared to export, in which proper domestic markets are not allowed to develop, leaving it dangerously subject to the vagaries of external demand. China will hopefully translate this statement into real action, for its own sake, sooner rather than later.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

TALK IS CHEAP

 

The British Home Office denied a visa to self-styled "Islamic scholar" Zakir Naik, who runs the Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation and Peace TV, calling his behaviour "unacceptable". Wielding an exclusion order, British Home Secretary Theresa May added that "coming to the UK is a privilege not a right, and I am not willing to allow those who might not be conducive to the public good to enter." However, by disallowing Naik from delivering his lecture in Birmingham, Britain has simply made him a cause and handed him a megaphone, ensuring that his voice is amplified on blogs, social networks and other forums where disenfranchised and angry Muslims gather.

 

This is not to say that Zakir Naik's televangelism is not entirely free of objectionable or sometimes plain ridiculous content. Indeed, many have joined issue with his analysis of 9/11 and the roots of terrorism, as too his view of gender rights. But this is exactly what makes the British invocation of a provision to secure public order mystifying. Naik is simply one corner in a larger field, and his ideas have been debated, endorsed or demolished, as the case may be, on very public platforms. In fact, he has been solidly and eloquently taken on in these very pages by liberals like Javed Anand. Islamic authorities, including the Darul Uloom Deoband, have issued fatwas against his preachings. And it must be noted that Naik himself has energetically participated in this back-and-forth on panels along with figures like Shah Rukh Khan, on television.

 

Words must be fought with words alone, not clumsy state action. Such provocation is inevitable in the complex, variegated democracies we live in — in both India and Britain, we could bump up against people whose positions worry us, and we are free to debate, mercilessly mock, or ignore that opinion. But to declare it unsayable is highly dangerous. Salman Rushdie, who has himself been singed by such logic, has warned Britain of the danger of walling off religious matters, saying that "the defence of free speech begins at the point when people say something you can't stand." Zakir Naik talks of ideas that some might abhor, but some others take all too seriously. Not permitting open discourse is to constrict the free play of disagreeement and disputation.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE BATTLE FOR PAKISTAN

C. RAJA MOHAN

 

As India seeks to re-launch its dialogue with Pakistan this week, Delhi must come to terms with the enduring geographic significance of our special neighbour to the west and the unfolding contest for the control of its territory and political soul.

 

China's decision to expand its nuclear cooperation with Pakistan in defiance of the international norms and the American reluctance to vigorously challenge it, underline the unique value of the Pakistan army for Beijing and Washington.

 

Further, the many challenges of our time — the changing relationship between a China that believes in its own unstoppable rise and a United States that is brooding about its relative decline, the spread of nuclear weapons, and the challenge of violent religious extremism — all come together in Pakistan.

 

The American and Chinese stakes in the relationship with the Pakistan army headquarters in Rawalpindi are high and rising amidst the expectations of a rapid political evolution in the Af-Pak theatre in the near future and gathering confrontation between Iran and the West. Whichever great power can shape the politics of the territories along and across the Indus that the Pakistan army holds will gain a decisive influence over the developments in the subcontinent, inner Asia and the Persian Gulf and the orientation of violent religious extremism.

 

India's problem with the Sino-Pak nuclear deal is not that it might add to the strength of Pakistan's atomic arsenal. The Pakistan army is well on its way to rapidly expand the size and sophistication of its nuclear deterrent. India's difficulties do not lie in the numbers of Pakistani nuclear weapons or the kind of delivery systems it has; they are rooted in the fact that the Pakistan army has used the constraining effects of its nuclear deterrent on India to pursue a sub-conventional war that Delhi is yet to find effective ways to cope with.

 

The Sino-Pak nuclear deal is only in part about the non-binding guidelines of the Nuclear Suppliers Group that Beijing has chosen to disregard. Beijing has bet, correctly, that Washington has no stomach to challenge it and the rest of the international community will simply give in after a bit of grumbling. The technical discussion of the Sino-Pak deal, if there is one, at the NSG meetings this week in New Zealand could mask the strategic nature of China's nuclear partnership with Pakistan.

 

Beijing well understood the strategic consequences of the Subcontinent's Partition and the perennial value of Pakistan as a trip-wire against India's great power ambitions. It is no surprise then China went to such extraordinary lengths — including the supply of a nuclear weapon design that had already been tested — to help Pakistan acquire an atomic arsenal.

 

Worse still, some in Delhi would argue that without a Chinese backed nuclear deterrent, the Pakistan army would not have dared to sustain the provocative support to anti-India terror groups. Ever since India and the United States announced the civil nuclear initiative in July 2005, Beijing has signaled that it will either prevent the grant of a special exemption to India from the global nuclear rules of the global nuclear order or will try and win Pakistan a similar concession.

 

South Block's challenge is not about stopping the sale of Chinese reactors to Pakistan. It is about finding ways to address the source of the problem — Beijing's belief that it needs to contain India in South Asia and that its support to Rawalpindi has no costs in Delhi.

 

If Delhi cannot get Beijing to redo its sums on the subcontinent, there will be a lot more than civilian nuclear technology flowing from China into Pakistan. China's capacities today to strengthen Pakistan are larger than ever before. As a consequence, Beijing's ability to leverage its Pakistan connection in dealing with the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and India is also growing. Amidst the prospects of American withdrawal from Afghanistan, Beijing probably senses a defining moment at hand in South-west Asia and values the alliance with Pakistan army to enhance Chinese weight in this pivotal region.

 

India is aware that China's interests in Pakistan are enduring and strategic, while American focus on Pakistan is transient. Not surprisingly the Pakistan army complains that Washington uses it when necessary and discards when inconvenient; in contrast, Rawalpindi never stops celebrating its "all weather partnership" with Beijing.

 

Instead of objecting to the Sino-Pak partnership, India must begin a frank dialogue with China on the future of Pakistan and Beijing's oft-stated fears of a possible Indian hegemony over the subcontinent. While addressing China's genuine concerns and offering to work with it in stabilising Pakistan, Delhi must leave Beijing in no doubt that India will do all it can to prevent or undermine outcomes in the north-western subcontinent that are inimical to its interests.

 

To change the policies of Beijing and Washington towards Rawal-pindi, India must necessarily intensify its own outreach to Pakistan — its army, civilian government and the full spectrum of political forces across the border. Delhi's main objective should be to try and alter the internal and external environment of Pakistan in order to change the cost-benefit calculus of its army which has acquired a long-term lease on one of the world's most important pieces of geopolitical real estate.

 

This in turn means developing a serious dialogue with both Beijing and Washington on the future of Pakistan and on how India might contribute to it. In the past, India has tended to deal with Pakistan, China and the United States separately and on a strictly bilateral basis. The time has come for Delhi to turn that approach on its head and get a grip on the interconnections among its ties with Rawalpindi, Beijing and Washington.

 

raja.mohan@expressindia.com

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

MUNICIPAL MUSINGS

YOGINDER K. ALAGH

 

Large Indian cities are doing reasonably well. Ahmedabad, where I stay, has been voted one of the ten most attractive towns in India and once the adjoining panchayats became a part of the municipal corporation, it's a great place for a morning walk. The same is true for many other metropolises work might take you to. But I go to smaller towns, when the economics fraternity calls me; I travel to rural areas in Maharashtra, UP and Punjab, to name a few places where my work carries me. Invariably some of the small towns I stay in, were a few years ago, large villages whether Kim, Rahata, or a taluka place between Lucknow and Barabanki.

 

They have grown from a population of around 20,000 to 1 lakh or more. The growth is usually around the industrialisation of a metro or a large town, or agro processing/marketing, as in Surat, Nashik, Ahmednagar or central UP. The household size is not large, for there is a large migrant population. The migrants are happy, for even with a little skill they would get around Rs 300 a day, in post-NREGA India. So are the local traders, well-off farmer families, the college principal — for everyone loves prosperity and rising capital values.

 

But life is bad. There is no public water supply. In fact in most such places, even in the "good" local hotel, it is quite common for muck to come in the bathroom tap that's fed from groundwater. There is a networked input-output system; there is no drainage and open defecation is common. Housing is coming up apace and the BOD — a polite name for shit — goes back in the open plots and percolates through in time. It is sometimes pumped back into the aquifer. Apart from the traders and farmers the local doctors are also obviously happy. If you raise these issues you are considered grumpy.

 

The Eleventh Plan has a very sage sentence on the "coverage of urban population with water supply facilities had not been very impressive". Ahem. It is also unhappy on sanitation and, living up to the planners' reputation for being practical, gives some statistics to show that the smaller a town is the worse off it is. They say that in 1994 there was an accelerated water supply programme for small towns.

 

The plan now is in a PPP mode. There does not seem anything special seen for small towns. I suspect what is called the viability gap is much larger there. Everybody is so happy making money for the first time in their civilisational history that I am not quite clear who will lead the PPP brigade. Where is the water going to come from anyway? Land use planning in the sense that transport and other infrastructure should be built up where it is possible, and habitations around it — is infra dig, being relegated to "socialist mindsets". In some of the towns I went to and raised these questions asking for initiatives (PPPs), I get a mouthful: "You know sir, the real problem is that those who come from outside are not interested. When they come they say they are vegetarians and don't drink, but soon spoil our culture."

 

The problem is in a sense getting more acute. This column has argued that urbanisation has moved much faster than anticipated: 1.1 million persons in Gujarat, for example, live in places which have all the characteristics of towns in 2001, but are not declared as such. This was happening slowly; now it is an avalanche. It is of some importance that we anticipate the movement of workers from villages to cities. The process may not be benign as I want it to be, but it should at least not be cruel. I am an unrepentant admirer of NREGA and food security, but when that poor mother comes to a small town with her girl child she must have the conditions where what she gets from the food she earns go to her vitals.

 

There is the environmental angle too, but we can't push too many things at one time. Suffice it to say that many of the lakes and rivers which gave towns small and big, water for drinking and sanitation are now drains, as the pollution guys tell us every year with frightening data. And like me if you love to go to the backwaters at least every odd year, here is what Dr S. Anbumani and his gang at the Indira Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research have to tell us on the cytogenetic damage in "fishes" inhabiting the backwaters of Kalpakkam: "DNA damage due to chronic low dose exposures to chemicals and other environmental mutagens through erythrocyte cytome assay." They too have the

 

Bengali failing of saying that the plural of fish is fishes, but don't say they did not warn us.

 

The writer, a former Union minister, is chairman, Institute of Rural Management, Anand

 

express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE FURORE IN KARACHI

MURTAZA RAZVI

 

When anonymous graffiti appears on the walls of Karachi, it's a sign of bad things to come. This started happening some two months ago. Walls across the city were chalked with warnings that read: "Karachi belongs to us. We will not let you 'occupy' it"; "Get out or we the people of Karachi will throw you out". No one was addressed by name, nor was the warning signed off by anyone. Then came the chorus of protests by rival politicians who

 

accused one another of patronising gangs of drug dealers and land grabbers. Then came targeted killings.

 

Accusations by rival political and religious parties fly in every direction as the spate of targeted killings haunts Karachi once again. Dozens belonging to ethnic and sectarian groups have been gunned down in the preceding weeks, sparking protests here and there, but no one has been apprehended, let alone brought to justice. The government's response has only been administrative: impose the notorious colonial-era Section 144 to bar a gathering of more than four persons at a given spot to thwart a protest.

 

And just the day after the Sindh home minister announced the measure, on Tuesday, Sunni Tehrik — a Sunni-supremacist group whose leaders have been victims of targeted killing and whom others accuse of involvement in the same crime — took out a massive protest rally in Karachi. The event passed off peacefully because the government buckled; instead of being confrontational, it arranged police and army rangers to escort the angry marchers, ostensibly protecting them against an attack from a rival group.

 

That's how seriously Section 144 can be enforced in Karachi. The same is the case with the ban on pillion ride on two-wheelers or indeed that on extremist outfits. Interior Minister Rehman Malik flew into Karachi to show how seriously Islamabad was viewing the violence in the city and he too just ended up warning the extremist groups in words to the effect: "If you re-emerge under a new name, we'll ban you again!" (Gee, that really scared them.) The warning was sounded more to appease the PPP's shaky coalition partner, the MQM, rather than as a means to do anything concrete to address the

 

issue.

 

Pakistan's economic hub, Karachi has long been the scene of turf wars between all and sundry to establish their "writ" as against their rival's or the government's. Urdu-speaking Mohajirs fight the Pashto-speaking Pathans and Sindhi/ Balochi-speaking old-time natives; Sunnis clash with Shias and followers of Sunni Barelvi sect fight their rivals of the Deobandi sect.

 

Then there are fissures among the ruling coalition parties: MQM accuses the PPP and the ANP of targeted killings, and vice versa. Karachi's free for all to fight their battles — endlessly, it seems.

 

It is a city that does not take kindly to any highhandedness on the part of the law enforcement agencies. The police can come under attack if they are seen as being rigorous in enforcing the law; the government is not taken seriously and a ban imposed on just about anything is flouted with complete impunity; here traffic jams are caused because drivers often do not observe the red light in rush hours and the police dare not book the violators for fear of a backlash. Any individual or a number of citizens could be found armed, most illegally, at any random check anywhere if one were to be carried out. The law enforcers do what the rest of the citizens are forced to do: fend for themselves.

 

The tragedy is that it is not only the so-called extremist elements that are out to kill their ideological rivals. Mainstream political and religious parties are equally guilty of maintaining their killer squads of sorts or patronising gangs of hired hit men. Behind it all lies a high level of social intolerance in general; more so among those with any power at their disposal. Abuse of power and corruption and utter disregard for the law further erode the moral fabric. Throw in the lack of authority and accountability, and you get the lethal mix that can really plague Karachi, a city of multiple cultural, religious and linguistic identities.

 

The PPP-led government's decision to wind up the city district government system that General Musharraf had given to Karachi, and which the MQM presided over through public representation, has left Karachi more rudderless. While the city government was popular and seen as doing a good job, the PPP could never hope to control such a local government through the vote and thus it had to be dismantled. Unfortunately, Pakistan has a bad precedent in this area. Every elected government has sought to erode and dismantle local government institutions while every dictator has reinvented and strengthened this grassroots level democratic institution.

 

For a politically volatile mega-city like Karachi, a strong, representative local government may be the only answer. Coercive and ad hoc administrative measures such as the imposition of Section 144 or giving extra powers to law

 

enforcement agencies can only breed more unrest.

 

The writer is an editor with 'Dawn', Karachi

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE FUN OF SIMPLY BEING A FAN

ADITYA IYER

 

Watch the most famous (or infamous) penalty-kick of all time, and the minute details tend to stand out. Roberto Baggio places the ball slowly, with meticulous precision. The crowds blur into the background and the ambient sounds go mute. The Italian takes a deep breath, as he follows every wave of Claudio Taffarel's movement from the periphery of his vision, but his complete concentration stays within the circumference of the 28 inch sphere. The run-up is carefully calculated, every step anxious to strike the back of the net, before his right foot chooses the direction of ultimate glory. Baggio even manages to guess the correct side — to the right of the Brazilian goal-keeper — before he watches the ball sail high over the crossbar, in disbelief.

 

Watching a replay of the 1994 World Cup final, as Baggio slumps in despiar, it is impossible for a viewer to not take sides unless s/he is clinically dead. The moment regularly features in the various "top five football moments" and "greatest sporting moments of the twentieth century" lists , but as it unfolded live on the black and white television screen back in the summer of '94, the image was powerful enough to make us feel empathy, while giving many of us an identity. The bond was drafted almost instantly. At the fragile age of nine, I was bestowed a title of utmost importance, that of being an Italy fan.

 

A little more than fourteen years have passed since the day Baggio's demeanour begged for forgiveness after his gaffe led to Brazil winning the 1994 World Cup. Like me, millions around the world pardoned the striker, and most had remote or absolutely no connection with his team or the foot-shaped European country.

 

But what makes us identify with a sport that has little or no grounding in our own country? The answer lies in the fact that football isn't burdened and restricted to complicated rules and regulations like many other sports, neither does it cost a substantial amount of money to play the game. With 202 countries registered with the governing body FIFA, football has the uncanny knack of transcending all borders. For some, watching sport has always been a recreation, something to do while having plenty of time to kill. For others, scores and statistics possess their very existence. But football has never been so banal. It is neither a game obsessed with numbers nor a leisurely pastime; its primitive instincts make it a lot more universal. As John Lanchester, a British journalist, wrote: "Golf writing is about playing

 

golf; cricket writing is about cricket and baseball writing about baseball;

 

but most football writing is about being a fan."

 

Football fans in our country are also resigned to the fact that the Indian national anthem is not bound to play in a World Cup match anytime in the near future(although India did qualify for the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, but pulled out of the tournament). While only 32 countries are represented at each World Cup, and with our country of birth never within the realms of qualifying, adopting one of the participating states as our own is the next best choice. In the quest for the elusive fan status, we beg, borrow and steal from the great football nations.

 

The Brazilians — with their much hyped liquid style of football — are by far the most popular side in the world, and it is no different in India. Major portions of West Bengal and Kerala — our footballing powerhouses — watch in a trance-like state, pledging their unconditional support. Goa swears by its former colonisers, Portugal, while the metropolitans of Mumbai and Delhi lend their support to west European countries such as England and Spain, whose club football is a major attraction on weekends. The collective "we" is used when these teams are discussed in public.

 

Rinus Michels, also known as "the General," coach of the Dutch team that narrowly lost to Germany in the 1974 final, famously said, "Football is war." Two US defence strategists even suggested in the Armed Forces Journal in 2003 that soccer, with its "dispersed and decentralised leadership and autonomous units capable of individual acts", was the paradigm for twenty-first century war.

 

On the night of 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France, my hometown of Mumbai lay in a semi war-zone. The Shiv Sena had brought the city to a standstill by burning taxis and buses, after one of their statues was allegedly dishonoured, which led to widespread riots. The silence and the tension was shattered, when a large group of football fans stormed Shivaji Park — the home of the statue and the cradle of cricket — a little after midnight. "Forza Azzurri," they screamed and chanted in unison. Italy had attained salvation by winning the World Cup in penalty shoot-outs. And somewhere in Mumbai, another nine-year old began worshipping a country he had never visited.

 

aditya.iyer@expressindia.com

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

TURKEY'S INNER STRUGGLE

 

I leave Istanbul with four questions that Turks asked me echoing in my head. One: Do you think we are seeing the death of the West and the rise of new world powers in the East? Two: Tom, it was great talking to you this morning, but would you mind not quoting me by name? I'm afraid the government will retaliate against me, my newspaper or my business if you do. Three: Is it true, as Prime Minister Erdogan believes, that Israel is behind the attacks by the Kurdish terrorist group PKK on Turkey? Four: Do you really think Obama can punish Turkey for voting against the US at the UN on Iran sanctions? After all, America needs Turkey more than Turkey needs America.

 

The question about the death of the West is really about the rise of Turkey, which is actually a wonderful story. The Turks wanted to get into the European Union and were rebuffed, but I'm not sure Turkish businessmen even care today. The EU feels dead next to Turkey, which last year was right behind India and China among the fastest-growing economies in the world — just under 7 per cent — and was the fastest-growing economy in Europe.

 

Americans have tended to look at Turkey as a bridge or a base — either a cultural bridge that connects the West and the Muslim world, or as our base (Incirlik Air Base) that serves as the main US supply hub for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Turks see themselves differently."Turkey is not a bridge. It's a centre," explained Muzaffer Senel, an international relations researcher at Istanbul Sehir University.

 

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Turkey has become the centre of its own economic space, stretching from southern Russia, all through the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and down through Iraq, Syria, Iran and the Middle East. So Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees himself as the leader of a rising economic powerhouse of 70 million people who is entitled to play an independent geopolitical role — hence his UN vote against sanctioning Iran. But how Turkey rises really matters — and Erdogan definitely has some troubling Hugo Chávez-Vladimir Putin tendencies. I've never visited a democracy where more people whom I interviewed asked me not to quote them by name for fear of retribution by Erdogan's circle — in the form of lawsuits, tax investigations or being shut out of government contracts. The media here is rampantly self-censored. Moreover, Erdogan has evolved from just railing against Israel's attacks on Hamas in Gaza to spouting conspiracy theories — like the insane notion that Israel is backing the PKK terrorists — as a way of consolidating his political base among conservative Muslims.

 

Is there anything the US can do? My advice: Avoid a public confrontation that Erdogan can exploit to build more support, draw US redlines in private and let Turkish democrats take the lead. Turkey is full of energy and hormones, and is trying to figure out its new identity. There is an inner struggle between those who would like to see Turkey more aligned with the Islamic world and values and those who want it to remain more secular, Western and pluralistic. Who defines Turkey will determine a lot about whether we end up in a war of civilisations.

 

This struggle is for Turks, and they are on it. Only two weeks before the Gaza flotilla incident, a leading poll showed Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP, trailing his main opposition for the first time since the AKP came to office in 2002.

 

That is surely one reason Erdogan openly took sides with one of the most radical forces in the region, Hamas — to re-energise his political base. But did he overplay his hand? Up to now, Erdogan has been very cunning, treating his opponents like frogs in a pail, always just gradually turning up the heat so they never quite knew they were boiling. But now they know. The secular and moderate Muslim forces in Turkey are alarmed; the moderate Arab regimes are alarmed; the Americans are alarmed. The fight for Turkey's soul is about to be joined in a much more vigorous way.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

PAINTING BY NUMBERS

M VEERAPPA MOILY

 

While Western economies struggle to come to grips with the problems at hand, emerging market economies, particularly those from the Asian region, continue to move ahead at a robust pace.

 

The years 2008 and 2009 were tumultuous for global trade. The simmering sub-prime crisis in the US in 2007, which triggered the global financial crisis in September 2008 spread its tentacles, leading to a full-blown global recession resulting in an unprecedented fall in global trade. World trade volume (goods and services) grew by only 2.8 per cent in 2008 compared to 7.3 per cent in 2007, with trade growth tumbling down month after month from September 2008 onwards.

 

The deepening world recession had profound impact on world output and trade, with growth of world output and trade volume of goods and services falling to (-) 0.8 and (-) 12.3 per cent respectively in 2009 according to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) January 2010.

 

The crisis seems largely to have petered out in the second half of 2009 and beginning of 2010 with global trade recovering from the troughs and the appearance of green shoots, and the IMF in April even projecting a better-than-expected growth in world trade volume of 7.0 per cent and 6.1 per cent for 2010 and 2011 respectively, which is also a reflection of the higher-than-expected world output growth projections of 4.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent in 2010 and 2011 respectively. India and China have weathered the crisis with great dexterity and spearheaded the recovery. Recently, there seems to be signs of slowdown in China, but India's growth is surging ahead.

 

India's greater integration with the world economy was reflected by the trade openness indicator, the merchandise trade to GDP, which increased from 20.0 percent of GDP in 2001-02, to 34.2 in 2006-07 and further to 40 percent of GDP in 2008-09. If services trade is included, the increase is higher at 52.4 percent of GDP in 2008-09 from 26.4 percent of GDP in 2001-02, reflecting greater degree of openness.

 

The Indian economy is estimated to have grown by 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 following a growth of 9.2 per cent in 2007-08. The global financial crisis led to a slowdown in the Indian economy with quarterly growth at around 6 per cent in the third and fourth quarters of 2008-09 and the first quarter of the current fiscal. According to the revised estimates, GDP at factor cost at constant (2004-05) prices in the year 2009-10 has grown by 7.4 per cent, (as against 7.2 per cent in the advance estimates) over the quick estimates of 2008-09. Growth in 2008-09 was 6.7 per cent (quick estimates).

 

The growth rate in Q4 2009-10 GDP, estimated at 8.6 per cent, (as against the growth rate of 5.8 per cent in Q4 2008-09) shows the momentum in growth recovery. The runaway growth in capital goods, as per the IIP, during the second half (H2) of 2009-10 (in excess of 30 per cent year-on-year) indicated that the investment activity is gaining momentum.

 

Exports during April 2010 registered a growth rate of 36.2 per cent over April 2009. Exports witnessed a positive growth from November 2009 onwards, and for the month of February and March 2010, it registered a high growth of 34.8 per cent and 54.1 per cent respectively. Imports during April 2010 registered a high growth rate of 43.3 per cent compared to April 2009. Import growth in December 2009, January 2010 and February 2010 was 27.2, 35.5 and 66.4 per cent respectively. In March 2010, imports grew by 67.1 per cent over March 2009.

 

Judged by the rates of savings and investment, India is now completely a part of the world's fast-growing economies. In 2008-09 gross domestic savings as a percentage of GDP were 32.5 per cent and gross domestic capital formation was 34.9 per cent. Since these indicators are some of the strongest correlates of growth and do not fluctuate wildly, they speak very well for India's medium-term growth prospects. As the demographic dividend begins to pay off in India, with the working age-group population rising disproportionately over the next two decades, the savings rate is likely to rise further.

 

In the medium term it is reasonable to expect that the economy will go back to the robust growth path of around 9 per cent. Indian exports have recorded impressive growth since November 2009. Further, infrastructure services, including railway transport, power, telecommunications and, recently but to a lesser extent, civil aviation, have shown a remarkable turnaround since the second quarter of 2009-10. The favourable capital market conditions with improvement in

 

capital flows and business sentiments, as per the RBI's business expectations survey, are also

 

encouraging.

 

The services sector (financial and non-financial) has attracted highest FDI inflows of 21 per cent of total FDI inflows. Computer software and hardware, telecommunication and housing and real estate accounted for nearly 8-9 per cent of total FDI inflows respectively. Increasing foreign institutional investment shows the growing confidence of investors in India. FII investment was US$ 20.3 billion in 2007-08, declined to US$ (-) 15.0 billion in 2008-09 due to global financial crisis and recession. However in 2009-10, it bounced back to US$ 29.0 billion.

 

Given the way our savings and investment rates are moving, we are sure that we will cross over to double digit growth rates in the next four to five years and in the process, surpass China as the world's fastest growing economy.

 

In the last four years, FDI flows have totaled almost US$ 130 billion. 2006-07 (US$ 23 bn), 2007-08 (US$ 34.8 bn), 2008-09 (US$ 35.1 bn), 2009-10 (US$ 34.2 bn). Portfolio investment too have moved up from US$ 7 bn in 2006-07 to US$ 32 bn in 2009-10. The country's exposure to toxic assets is almost nil. Indian banks and financial institutions are robust with strong prudential norms.

 

The writer is Union minister for law, justice and company affairs

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

THE DEBATE ON REGULATION

 

UK's new chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, announced a major overhaul of the financial regulatory apparatus last week. Significantly, the body responsible for regulation of the financial sector, Financial Services Authority (FSA), is to be abolished with most of its powers transferred to the Bank of England. Interestingly, like in the US, there will be a new agency to deal with consumer protection, presumably to curb predatory lending practices, which many believe form the core of the subprime crisis. More broadly, this overhaul in the UK reverses Gordon Brown's celebrated separation of financial regulatory powers from the central bank in 1997. The UK model, where the central bank focused solely on monetary policy, while another independent agency was responsible for regulation, was a role model for many countries and was considered best practice in mainstream economics. Now the overhauled UK system will more closely resemble India's, where RBI not only sets monetary policy but also regulates vast tracts of the financial system. Is this reason for RBI to feel completely vindicated about the role it has played in regulating the financial sector? The simple answer is no.

 

For one, it is not at all clear whether a central bank with greater powers will be in a better position to identify a potential crisis than an independent agency. Sure, the FSA failed to see many signs of crisis, but the US regulatory system, where the Fed has always had more regulatory powers, also failed to see the crisis coming. RBI, of course, does not even fit into this larger debate. The Indian financial system is safe because RBI doesn't allow extensive financial liberalisation. And while this autarkic approach to finance may keep us safe, it also imposes a heavy cost—the Indian financial system is unable to deliver the kind of cheap finance that is necessary to power the real sector and the economy into double-digit growth. The real debate in India ought to be about how to take financial sector reform forward. In theory, this can happen even if regulation remains in the domain of RBI. But in practice, RBI has seemed reluctant to let competition even in plain vanilla banking flourish, leave aside the more complex domain of securitised assets and derivatives. The overhaul of regulatory structures in the US and the UK do, of course, provides valuable blueprints on how financial reform and regulation can be appropriately combined. But the same should not be used as an excuse to keep the Indian financial system closed for the foreseeable future.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ENTER THE DISTORTIONS

 

The UPA government has been a reluctant reformer in both its first and second innings. As we have argued in these columns, India needs a dose of significant economic reforms, in product markets, in labour markets and in land markets, if growth has to touch double digits. But there is one crucial area of reform where it seemed that the government may achieve some success—tax reform. Now, even that is looking uncertain. The revised version of the direct taxes code (DTC) dilutes the original draft and allows a number of exemptions in response to pressure from special interests. The government's surrender to vested interests on DTC is a missed opportunity for lower tax rates, greater compliance and more revenue for the government, all at the same time. But that is only the DTC. The other half of tax reform lies in the overhaul of an unnecessarily complicated and cascading structure of indirect taxes. Unfortunately, as reported by The Indian Express on Friday, the government is veering around to a less than optimal compromise on the issue of a single goods and services tax (GST) regime as well.

 

An ideal GST regime would involve only one rate of tax (divided, of course, into Centre and state components), at a rate that is reasonable and not too high. The entire purpose of the GST is to increase compliance and that will not happen unless the rate is reasonable. The importance of one rate stems from the fact that two rates will encourage lobbying and rent seeking, with various interests trying to get their products and services included in the lower rate category. Now, it seems that the government is ready to accept two rates—one for standard goods and services and another for 'essential' goods and services. Worse, states have put pressure on the government to consider granting exemptions from GST to commodities like fuel and alcohol. Once a precedent is set for exemptions, any number of commodities will seek to be put outside the ambit of the GST under some pretext or the other. States also continue to pressure the Centre to have a rate higher than the 12% recommended by the Finance Commission. That will defeat the purpose of GST. The Centre must, even at this stage, resist demands from vested interests. This is likely to be the only opportunity to overhaul taxes completely for a long time. The government cannot afford to distort it.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

GOODWILL HUNTING, CHINA STYLE

DHIRAJ NAYYAR

 

The brilliance of China's often underrated soft power diplomacy was in full display in Athens last week. On the very day that Standard and Poor's downgraded Greece's sovereign debt rating to junk, a clear vote of no confidence, China's Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang signed at least 14 different agreements across sectors like shipping, telecommunications and tourism, committing billions of dollars of Chinese investment in Europe's most stricken economy. For good measure, the Chinese Vice-Premier added an explicit vote of confidence from the world's fastest growing major economy when he said, "I am convinced that Greece can overcome its current economic difficulties."

 

Will China's intervention help solve Greece's debt crisis? Only to the limited extent that this investment will eventually boost growth. In the short term, however, Greece's fate remains dependent on EU and IMF aid and its own ability to cut government spending. But what

 

China's commitment to invest billions of euros does is to earn it a lot of goodwill in Greece. Compared with the many tough conditionalities that accompany IMF and EU aid, China's investment has no-strings attached. It puts China firmly into the 'good guys' category, while the EU and IMF—the real saviours—are seen as the villains.

 

Needless to say, China is not doing this as charity for Greece. Getting a foothold for Chinese firms in Greece opens up for them a vast market across Eastern Europe. The timing is what is important; in the midst of a crisis, Chinese firms will get a bargain price. The more intangible goodwill factor is not unimportant either—when the Chinese company Cosco took over the management of cargo at Greece's largest port of Piraeus last year, the local unions opposed it strongly. Now, they are welcoming the additional investment committed by Cosco at a time of dire crisis. The goodwill thus garnered by China's commitments now both in the government and with public opinion, will smoothen out the path for future Chinese investment as well. Incidentally, as icing on the goodwill cake, China announced that it would import significant amounts of Greek olive oil.

 

China's intervention in Greece fits into the broader pattern of the way it is expanding its footprint globally. The government is very conscious of the fact that China's rise is viewed with suspicion in large parts of the world. The top leadership of the Chinese government doesn't usually miss an opportunity to downplay China's global ambitions. At an Asian security summit in Istanbul earlier this month, state councillor Dai Bingguo had clearly stated that China will never seek to be a superpower or hegemon. A realistic interpretation of such statements is that China does not intend to use its military prowess to expand influence in the world. It doesn't even want to be seen as aggressively expanding its economic interests at a significant cost to other countries. Rather, as its intervention in Greece shows, and indeed its continued foray into Africa indicates, China will be ruthless in accessing new markets, but it would like to project itself as a 'benefactor' rather than a 'predator'.

 

In Africa, China has committed to building infrastructure—roads and schools—while exploiting natural resources. That wins goodwill with public opinion. Also, unlike Western powers, Chinese investment usually comes with few strings attached for governments—China never bothers about whether a country is democratic and whether it respects human rights or whether its rulers are corrupt. That gets it goodwill with Africa's most powerful politicians.

 

And if soft power, backed by China's vast surpluses and foreign exchange reserves, can bring so much access and goodwill, there is little need to project hard power ambitions for the moment.

 

Ironically enough, India, the world's second fastest growing major economy, whose comparative advantage vis-à-vis China ought to be in soft power hasn't been quite as successful in acquiring similar influence across the globe. To be fair, India has two constraints that China does not.

 

For one, India's foreign exchange reserves, solid as they are, are made up largely of foreign portfolio flows that can reverse easily. China's reserves are earned through exports and foreign direct investment. That makes a difference in terms of ability to spend those reserves.

 

Second, Indian firms are not as closely aligned to government interests as their Chinese counterparts are. Indian firms have made their forays abroad but independent of what the government may or may not have wanted. Unfortunately, many Indian firms went overseas in boomtime rather than waiting for the bust to buy out companies cheap like their Chinese counterparts are now doing.

 

Despite these constraints, there is certainly a case for Indian diplomacy—with cooperation from Indian industry—to leverage India's relative economic strength to garner influence and goodwill in different parts of the world. India's foreign policy establishment in the ministry of external affairs, though, tends to be singularly focused on a more traditional view of power and influence, obsessing about security and border issues most of the time. The Africa and Eastern Europe desks, for example, would not command the same prestige as the Americas, West Europe, Pakistan and China desks. That needs to change if India wants to catch up with China in extending its influence to those corners of the world that are looking for powerful 'benefactors'.

 

dhiraj.nayyar@expressindia.com

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AT G-20

YOGINDER K ALAGH

 

The laudable Leaders' 20 (L20) initiative, promoted by former Canadian PM Paul Martin, was started but never matured to his original design. He persisted and Russia and the UK announced an invite to India and China. On this subject, in my work, I talked about nations using concentric circles of influence as strategy and methods—developed by Rajiv Gandhi—to pursue their objectives. It must be recognised that the G8-plus is one such method and must be strengthened.

 

However, there are two riders. The first is that the networks currently available are not strong enough to bring global ideas to the fore in a business-like manner such that the G8-plus can address them; and the WTO is not discussed as an alternative in any meaningful way. Second, although an initiative for self-help groups was taken in 2005, it leaves out most of the big financing reform issues, both globally and in national policies on empowerment of organisations for the poor, for rural development and agricultural growth. The energy initiative also fell short. China engaged, but was sceptical. India was also sceptical. Our Prime Minister said that India was there to solve problems, not petition, but that the structure of the forum did not provide for it. At present, the force of Brazil in opening up world markets is not fully unleashed. Mexico occupies a strategic position geographically but also as a bridge to the OECD. South Africa and its revolutionary concepts of egalitarian change do not get a hearing.

 

In terms of the great global debates, Indira Gandhi's Stockholm Conference on 'poverty is polluting' was written by Pitamber Pant of the Planning Commission. India's pioneering stand at the Budapest First Population Conference linking population policy with development, the precursor to the UNDP's MDGs, was crafted by Sukhomoy Chakravarti of the Planning Commission. But I am told that the Perspective Planning Division that did all the thinking has shrunk to a non-entity. Delhi's think-tanks, living off consultancy contracts from foreign capital, contribute little that is original. The Chambers of Commerce are essential but don't really go beyond the interest groups they represent. The government is perfectly entitled to honour NRI economists who toe its line, but in the global bazaar we also need to develop and market our own experience and strengths. It was not the CIA or Goldman Sachs reports, which first said that India is, in PPP terms, the fourth largest economy of the world, but some of us and John Kirton, a Canadian economist.

 

In writing for Reforming from the Top: A Leaders' 20 Summit, the global think-tank CIGI's pioneering book for the presence of the third world in the G8, I was not being facetious in saying that in addition to the 'sherpas' you also need the 'coolies', recognised by Anne Marie Slaughter, advisor to the US President, Andy Cooper, Colin Bradford and Ramesh Thakur. Arguing for energy, water and trade from the Indian perspective, the main point was that the language of the other has to be understood. India is ideally placed to explain and advocate this language.

 

The pursuit of our national interest abroad has to be a part of a larger campaign of our designs for the globe.

 

The nuclear debate put India on top but the not-so-good part was the erosion of the bipartisan aspect of its foreign policy that gave it grandeur. This column had always targeted critics and asked them to take the larger view of history but was obviously not convincing enough; although it is strange for Marxists to be critical of technological frontiers for the larger good. The G20 debate in the world is again on that grand scale but as India shrinks inwards and lets bureaucrats call the shots, its voice may also shrink.

 

For India, I argue that the decade before the setting up of the G20 saw major changes in India's perception of its role. While strangely unnoticed in the world then, it started growing fast and defined, in a more concrete sense, its interest as a growing power. These experiences conditioned India's responses in global forums. In the G20, multilateralism is the way for India to define its destiny, if the goal of pursuing concentric circles of influence is to be met. This defines India's position in the WTO, where it won the intellectual debate, in showing that gradualism won't work on energy, water, MDGs, democratic governance and financial collateral for removing poverty through energising institutions to back up local initiatives. Later this month, we need to show that our time has arrived.

 

The author is a former Union minister

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

BRIDGING THE IFRS GAAP

SANJAY AGARWAL

 

There are significant differences, both in terms of accounting principles as well as additional disclosure requirements, between IFRS and the Indian GAAP. The disclosures are expected to improve the quality of financial information. Although there are a host of disclosure requirements under IFRS, the focus is on key disclosures relating to financial instruments as envisaged under IFRS 7. IFRS 7 requires an entity to disclose information—market and liquidity risk—that enables the users to evaluate the nature and extent of risk, given the firm's current exposure to financial instruments.

 

Most enterprises in India are exposed to foreign currency risk and interest rate risk, which fluctuate over time. Such entities are required to disclose the effect of a reasonable expected variation in the foreign exchange rate or interest rates for domestic/foreign currency borrowings. Internal preparation to put into place a system for obtaining the desired data to facilitate the disclosure is required. This may become quite critical for large entities that are highly geared or have significant exposures to foreign currencies and active treasury operations. Generally, entities hedge their foreign currency and interest rate risks through derivative products. This poses an additional challenge as the entity will have to ask the dealer, with whom the derivative is contracted, for the impact of the sensitivity test on these products.

 

In addition, an entity is also required to disclose how it manages its significant risks, e.g. credit, liquidity or capital. Therefore, it is imperative for an entity to have an approved risk management policy that deals with monitoring debt-equity, managing liquidity risk to overcome impediments in meeting short-term and long-term obligations.

 

Furthermore, IFRS 7 also requires the disclosure of fair value of each financial instrument beside its carrying value, hence providing better information on financial instruments to their users. This entails determination of fair value of each component at every balance sheet date. There is no doubt that IFRS would catapult India, Indian entities and its finance and accounting professionals to much greater heights. Given that it is a new subject with a host of new requirements that corporate India was ignorant of, only proper planning, laying down a detailed conversion plan and putting the required systems in place, will ensure a smooth convergence with IFRS.

 

The author is a senior professional in Ernst & Young Global

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

MONSOON DRAMA

 

it has been a ghastly summer. Temperatures soared in March and April, and May too was exceptionally hot. Heat waves swept through large swathes of the country and claimed many lives. Besides, the summer rains were below par. There was much relief when the India Meteorological Department announced that the cooling rains of the monsoon had reached Kerala on March 31. The monsoon's progress thereafter was tardy for several days. Matters were not helped by the powerful Cyclone Phet that sprang forth in the Arabian Sea. But the monsoon then bestirred itself and resumed its march across the country. That its advance has not matched the idealised 'normal' depicted in meteorological maps should not be a cause for concern. It must be remembered that the vast bands of rain-bearing clouds wend their way north in fits and starts. Over half the country has already received normal or excess rainfall, and nationwide rainfall currently shows a deficit of just three per cent. However, the monsoon is said to be entering a weak phase and its further progress could be temporarily slowed.

 

It is a far cry from last year when the monsoon ended in a severe drought. Then things went wrong from the start and the rainfall in June was close to half of what it ought to have been. Scientists say that the surface waters of the Bay of Bengal being warmer than the equatorial Indian Ocean is crucial for the advance of the monsoon. Last year that was not the case and the June rains suffered as a result. This year, on the other hand, the temperature difference is favourable for the monsoon. Last year, the coup de grace was delivered by an El Nino, a warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that generally retards the monsoon. Consequently, both August and September rains were badly affected. The El Nino has dissipated and many models are now predicting the likelihood of a switch in the coming months to a La Nina, El Nino's cool sibling that is good for the monsoon. The eastern equatorial Pacific has already begun displaying below-average temperatures. Climate models have responded to this change and are indicating plentiful rains in the months ahead. Even if that prediction is correct, it does not mean that all parts of the country will uniformly get such rain. Inevitably, as happens in any monsoon, some places and regions will get too little and others too much. Nevertheless, the current outlook for the country as a whole is in favour of a good monsoon. Just recently, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee declared that the Indian economy could achieve a growth rate of 8.5 per cent this year if the monsoon played its part. The monsoon, it seems, is inclined to oblige.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

WHAT FUTURE FOR JARAWAS?

 

The human safaris promoted by some tour operators in the Andaman Islands — offering their customers a glimpse of the Jarawa tribal community — are not only an outrageous insult to human dignity. They are also a symptom of the larger problems facing the 300-odd members of this indigenous community. For hundreds of thousands of years, the tribe lived life on its own terms, hunting and gathering food within the boundaries of its pristine forest home. Despite the coming and going of the Europeans and then the settlers from mainland India, the creation of a Reserve in the 1950s, and the construction of the Andamans Trunk Road cutting through their homeland in the 1970s, the Jarawas maintained a hostile distance from outsiders until 1997. Since then, their interactions with settlers and tourists have had a mixed bag of consequences, which include two measles epidemics, and encounters with curious tourists doling out food and snapping photographs. Many NGOs feel the damage can be limited if the government follows the Supreme Court of India's 2002 order to close down the Road. While this could mean a serious inconvenience to a few thousand settlers, the very survival of the indigenous peoples may lie in the balance. In any case, the development of a water transport infrastructure may be better for an island system lying in an earthquake-prone area than a highway. The administration must also intervene actively to protect the Reserve against illegal coastal incursions by poachers and hunters.

 

The wider question of what the future of this tribal community should look like — and more importantly, who should determine that future — has few easy answers. In an earlier era, it was simple enough to say that the Jarawas must be left strictly alone, and construct the dubious safety of a Reserve around their lands. But if they foray out of the forests on their own, if they do not want to be left alone, the isolation paradigm holds no relevance any more. However, any attempt to 'civilise' the Jarawas, or yank them into the modern era, is fraught with danger. Other indigenous tribes on the Islands have already been wiped out, largely due to diseases caught from outsiders. This year has already seen the death of the last Great Andamanese speakers of the Bo and Khora tribal languages. The tribes who remain, including the Jarawa, hover on the brink of extinction. A dossier on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands released by UNESCO last month suggests that self-determination by the Jarawas must be the ultimate aim, "to help them negotiate with a rapidly changing, predatory world that exists around them." This is a world that has tourists ogling at them as if they were on a wildlife sanctuary.

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

RUSSIA AND THE KYRGYZSTAN CRISIS

THE CRISIS HAS PUT TO THE TEST RUSSIA'S ABILITY TO GUARANTEE STABILITY IN THE MOST TROUBLE-PRONE REGION OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION.

VLADIMIR RADYUHIN

 

Last week's large-scale communal violence in Kyrgyzstan has pushed the impoverished Central Asian state to the brink of collapse and put to the test Russia's ability to project power and guarantee stability in the most trouble-prone region of the former Soviet Union.

 

Bloody clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in the south of the country were reportedly triggered by a brawl between two groups of young people in a local café on June 10, and they spread like fire across the region. However, evidence suggests that violence was deliberately provoked and stage-managed. Organised gangs riding jeeps and armoured vehicles looted and set on fire houses and shops in Uzbek neighbourhoods and killed their residents. They also targeted Kyrgyz residents to set the two ethnic groups against each other.

 

The provisional government of Kyrgyzstan accused the family of the ousted President, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, of organising and financing the riots in the south — its base and stronghold. Mr. Bakiyev has denied any role but in a tapped telephone conversation, posted on YouTube in mid-May, two members of his family discussed plans to provoke inter-ethnic clashes to bring down the government.

 

A United Nations spokesman, too, said there was evidence indicating that the violence began with five simultaneous attacks in Osh by armed men wearing masks. Authorities say organised crime groups, especially those involved in Afghan drug trade, played an active role in the unrest.

 

Four days of rioting left an estimated 2,000 people dead and some 4,00,000 displaced, of whom about 1,00,000 fled to neighbouring Uzbekistan. Seventy per cent of the buildings in Osh, second largest city of Kyrgyzstan with a population of 2,50,000 people, were torched.

 

When the fighting broke out, interim President Roza Otunbayeva desperately appealed to Russia to send troops to help her quell the violence. The plea posed a dilemma to Moscow — to intervene or not to intervene. When its interests in Northern Caucasus came under military attack from Georgia two years ago, Russia struck back without hesitation, thrashing the Georgian army and dramatically reinforcing its positions in the region.

 

Many expected Moscow to respond with the same resolve to the crisis in Kyrgyztan, where it has a military base and which is its ally in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a defence bloc of seven former Soviet states, which also unites Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. However, Moscow acted with extreme caution, redirecting the request to CSTO, where Russia holds rotating presidency. A relatively low-level meeting of the member-states' national security secretaries deferred the question of sending peacekeepers, recommending instead the supply of helicopters, trucks and other equipment to Kyrgyz law-enforcement agencies.

 

Simultaneously, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a battalion of paratroops to reinforce the garrison at the Russian airbase in Kyrgyzstan. Moscow thus held the door open for intervention if the situation deteriorated.

 

The Kremlin has good reasons to be wary of getting drawn into the Kyrgyz crisis. To begin with, Russia lacks a legal basis for intervening in Kyrgyzstan in contrast to the situation in North Caucasus, where it had a peacekeeping mandate from the United Nations and the post-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States. Theoretically, it could do so under a CSTO mandate but the legal basis for the bloc's intervention in an internal conflict is shaky. In recent years, Russia has sought to expand CSTO capabilities through the creation of a standing rapid reaction force that could perform peacekeeping missions, but this is still a work in progress. Russia's Central Asian partners in CSTO would hate to create a precedent for interfering in the internal affairs of a member-state.

 

Another problem is the absence of a legitimate government in Kyrgyzstan. The provisional government headed by Ms. Otunbayeva is a motley assortment of opposition leaders who came to power in a bloody popular revolt that toppled President Bakiyev in early April. They made a big mistake, disbanding Parliament, the last remaining legitimate institution. The ethnic violence may now derail their plans to legitimise their standing by holding a referendum on a new Constitution on June 27, to be followed by new parliamentary elections in October as hundreds of thousands of Uzbek refugees remain displaced. The crisis showed that the interim government does not command much authority, with police and the army initially refusing to execute its orders to enforce curfew and open fire at the rioting mobs. Moreover, elements of the military took part in assaults on Uzbeks.

 

The Ferghana Valley, where the violence occurred, is a tinderbox of ethnic conflicts. The borders of the three Central Asian states — Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — that converge in the fertile valley were arbitrarily drawn by Joseph Stalin more than 80 years ago. Thus, the historical Uzbek cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad ended up in Kyrgyzstan. According to various estimates, there are between 7,00,000 and 10,00,000 Uzbek residents in the 5.5-million strong Kyrgyzstan, but in the Ferghana Valley they form the dominant and fastest growing ethnic group, prompting Kyrgyz fears of another Kosovo in the valley. Kyrgyz residents resent the fact that their enterprising Uzbek compatriots dominate the local economy, while the Uzbek community complains of discrimination in official jobs and language rights.

 

In June 1990, ethnic tensions in Osh erupted into Kyrgyz-Uzbek clashes over land and water sharing that claimed hundreds of lives before Moscow sent troops to restore order. At that time, Kyrgyzstan was still part of the Soviet Union. Sending Russian troops to Kyrgyzstan today could stir up a hornets' nest of rivalries and hostilities in the region.

 

The former Soviet Central Asia is teeming with smouldering conflicts and disputes over territory and resources. Tajikistan claims the Uzbek cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, and Uzbekistan has territorial disputes with Kazakhstan. Tensions are running high over sharing of river water between upstream Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan — which are keen on building more hydropower projects — and downstream Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which need water to irrigate their crops. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan fight for the role of a regional superpower and are apprehensive of Russia getting militarily involved in the Kyrgyz crisis.

 

After four days of anti-Uzbek pogrom, the fighting in the Kyrgyz south died down, partly because the majority of Uzbek residents fled their homes and partly because the Kyrgyz security forces finally got their act together. But the calm is shaky and violence can erupt anytime.

 

The mass slaughter of Uzbeks was probably just the first act of a bloody drama unfolding in the heart of Central Asia. Even if the worst case scenario of civil war is avoided, the government in Bishkek in the north will find it hard to control the Uzbek-dominated Ferghana Valley, 600 km to the south and separated by the high Tian Shan Mountains. Uzbekistan, craving to become a regional superpower, may see this as an opportunity.

 

Instability may also spur a revival of jihadism in the region. In 1999 and 2000, when the Taliban was still in power in Afghanistan, Islamist guerrillas infiltrated the mountainous region of southern Kyrgyzstan using it as a staging ground for attacks in Uzbekistan. Mr. Medvedev warned in an interview that Islamist extremists could grab power in Kyrgyzstan if the government failed to gain control. "When people lose faith in the ability of the civil authorities to bring law and order … we can end up with a Kyrgyzstan that would develop along the Afghan scenario, the Afghan scenario of the Taliban period," the Russian leader said.

 

While nobody has a ready recipe for stabilising Kyrgyzstan, all eyes are on Russia. China has voiced grave concern over the Kyrgyz violence but made it clear that it leaves the job of dealing with it to Russia-led CSTO, voicing "appreciation" of the bloc's decision to re-equip the Kyrgyz security forces. The United States, which has a key transit centre in Kyrgyzstan running supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, denied reports that it could unilaterally or jointly with Russia send troops to Kyrgyzstan. The U.S. burnt its fingers when it helped to stage the "tulip revolution" there in 2005, which set in train the events that led to the mayhem last week. This time, Washington urges a collective response with Moscow. "We are not in any way framing this as a zero-sum game," a senior U.S. administration official explained at the height of the Kyrgyz crisis. "On the contrary, we are very closely coordinating our actions with Moscow."

 

Is the "reset" in U.S.-Russia relations extending to the former Soviet space? If this is indeed so, the U.N. Security Council may give CSTO a peacekeeping mandate in Kyrgyzstan if the crisis deepens. But Russia will anyway have to play the leading role, because Kyrgyzstan is its zone of responsibility. As a Moscow-based foreign policy analyst said, "If Moscow does not find a way to respond to challenges such as Kyrgyzstan, any later claims it might make to a special role in the region will be unconvincing."

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

CIVIL LIABILITY FOR NUCLEAR CLAIMS BILL, 2010: IS LIFE CHEAP IN INDIA?

THE BILL SHOULD BE AMENDED TO INCLUDE AN EXPLICIT PROVISION THAT SAYS THERE WOULD BE NO OPERATOR LIABILITY CAP, AND THAT AN INITIAL PAYMENT OF $20 BILLION (ABOUT RS. 92,000 CRORES) WOULD HAVE TO BE PUT IN ESCROW IN A WORST CASE ACCIDENT.

ARJUN MAKHIJANI

 

Before the Indian Parliament votes on limiting the liability of nuclear operators due to accidents, it should carefully consider the much higher limits that the United States has set for itself — about $11 billion per incident industry maximum (under the Price-Anderson Act). The liability of the operator of the plant would be just Rs. 500 crores, about $110 million, which is just one per cent of the U.S. limit, and about $450 million per accident. The proposed law allows an adjustment of this upwards or downwards to a possible lower limit of just Rs. 300 crores, or about $65 million. But more than that, Parliament should consider that the actual damages could be far greater than the U.S. liability limit.

 

A 1997 study by the U.S. government's own Brookhaven National Laboratory, on Long Island, New York, found that the severe spent fuel pool accidents could result in damages from somewhat under $1 billion of up to $566 billion, depending on a how full and hot the pool is at the time of the accident and the intensity of the postulated fire. The high-end figure would amount to over $700 billion in 2009 dollars. Vast amounts of land — up to about 7,000 square kilometres in the worst case — would have to be condemned. Large numbers of people would have to be evacuated. Further, the maximum estimated monetary damages do not take into account some critical elements. For instance, the Brookhaven amount does not include excess cancer deaths, estimated to range from 1,500 to more than 100,000. Worst case nuclear reactor accident cancers and condemned area were estimated to be generally comparable to the upper end of the spent fuel accident estimates. ( R.J. Travis, R.E. Davis, E.J. Grove, M.A. Azarm, A Safety and Regulatory Assessment of Generic BWR and PWR Permanently Shutdown Nuclear Power Plants, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1997 (NUREG/CR-6451). See Tables 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3.)

 

Both the U.S. and Indian governments seem to be secure in the idea that such a severe nuclear power plant disaster is so unlikely that it can be disregarded. For instance, that is the response of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission in response to the Brookhaven study. Like the proposed Indian bill, the United States government is supposed to cover the excess damages above the corporate limit. Yet, neither country has any practical financial provision to cover damages in anything like the amount of estimated damages.

 

The ongoing disaster of the petroleum volcano caused by blowout of the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico should provide a sobering object lesson. Thinking that does not consider high-consequence but low-probability events borders on folly. BP also considered an uncontrolled blowout to be very low probability. As it turns out, BP, as one of the world's largest corporations, can provide the tens of billions of dollars of damages. But no nuclear company in the United States has the financial muscle to compensate a significant fraction of the maximum officially estimated damages.

 

India would be ignoring its own tragic history of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, still unfolding with the health and lives of tens of thousands of people ruined, as well the ghastly BP drama that has reduced the United States to a heap of frustration in the face of a powerful oil industry. The Price-Anderson Act in the United States limiting liability to $11 billion is bad enough. But the Civil Liability Nuclear Claims Bill of 2010 is much worse for two reasons. First, $110 million cap for the operator, or even higher $450 million total cap, would not cover even one-tenth of one paisa per rupee of damage in a worst case accident. Second, by setting a liability limit that is so far below even the unsatisfactory U.S. level, the Indian government would be proclaiming its agreement with the lamentable long-held imperialist view that "life is cheap in India."

 

The bill should be amended to include an explicit provision that says there would be no operator liability cap, and that an initial payment of $20 billion (about Rs. 92,000 crores) would have to be put in escrow in a worst case accident. That is approximately the arrangement that BP has agreed to (with no cap) in the United States in the case of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. Worst case nuclear accident damages are likely to be more severe and long-lasting. If the Civil Liability Nuclear Claims Bill of 2010 it is not amended as above, it should be withdrawn; if it is not withdrawn, it should be soundly defeated.

 

( Arjun Makhijani is President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, Takoma Park, Maryland, U.S. Email: arjun@ieer.org)

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

BAGHDAD NIGHTS GLITTER, BEHIND THE SHATTERPROOF GLASS

THE CITY SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE. TEENAGERS DO WHEELIES ON THEIR MOTORCYCLES DOWN BUSY STREETS, AND RESTAURANTS STAY OPEN TILL MIDNIGHT.

ANTHONY SHADID

 

However loudly you protest, you still have to check your gun at the restaurant's door. (Customers take valet tickets in return.) Guards in tight jeans and tighter shirts patrol the entrance, toting that ubiquitous paraphernalia of authority here: a walkie-talkie. Even cavalier guests cast leery glances down the road for a car that could be rigged with a bomb.

 

Antoine al-Hage, capitalism's equivalent of a soldier of fortune, smiles at it all — the danger, the risk and, of course, the payoff of bringing nightlife to Iraq.

 

"Where there's war," he said, "there's lots of money."

 

A slew of new restaurants have opened in Baghdad this year, from Tomorrow and Tool al-Lail to Toast and City Chief, offering a respite for a city spectacularly bereft of nighttime destinations. All have evolved to the conditions of contemporary Baghdad, a city that teases with hints of the ordinary but remains a barricaded warren of blast walls and barbed wire. Namely, nearly all boast of having thick shatterproof glass.

 

But there is a special buzz about al-Hage's establishment, which opened last month. The question often heard around town these days is this: "Oh, that Lebanese restaurant, have you seen it?"

 

The Lebanese Club is part Beirut, part Dubai, part Miami lounge circa Scarface, without the cocaine. "A classy place," al-Hage says, and though there is a suggestion of maternal praise in his estimation, he is right that the club has no peer in Baghdad, in its scale, ambition or, most certainly, decor.

 

Red, golds and browns accent the chrome, leather, glass and faux alligator skin on the columns. The marble came from Lebanon, the parquet from Dubai and the furniture from Indonesia. A big-screen television is fastened to two-story windows that open to a triple-decked patio. There, patrons gaze on a view of the Tigris that was once the preserve of the palaces for Saddam Hussein's wife and brother-in-law.

 

At night, al-Hage mingles among the clubgoers, ever the host.

 

"I prefer to speak French, myself,'' he volunteered.

 

Al-Hage, who is Lebanese, proudly so, exudes a somewhat self-conscious panache that celebrates shatara — the Arabic word for cunning and guile with a hint of deception. (An example of shatara once overheard in Beirut: "I'm not going to cheat you," a landlord told a prospective tenant. "Well, I am going to cheat you, but not a lot.") He also has a knack for making money wherever he goes, however failed the state may be.

 

One of the Iraqi partners in the club, Jumaa al-Musawi, seemed to appreciate al-Hage's verve. The restaurant, he worried rightfully, was a hazardous adventure, but he said it was worth trying.

 

Compare that to al-Hage's take. "There's too much money here," he exclaimed. "Too much! Really a lot!"

 

Al-Hage, 51, is the most updated version of an old Lebanese story, that of a diaspora known for its willingness to follow commerce where it leads. Simply put, for a decade, he has trailed America's imperial pursuits. After helping build an airport in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, he stopped in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. For six years, he has come into and out of Iraq, where so many fortunes were made, via the American government, in construction and services. "Wherever the Americans are, we are," he said.

 

Then he smiled, flirtatiously. "Next," he said, "we're looking to go to Iran."

 

It cost $2.5 million to build the Lebanese Club, and its investors, Iraqi and Lebanese, suspect they can make their money back in a year. Even on a weekday night, the place is doing brisk business, as al-Hage manages to direct a staff of 150, 25 of them Lebanese. (The Lebanese chef earns the highest salary, $72,000, all expenses paid.)

 

"Take your time," someone told him, as he rushed from task to task."I will take. Don't worry," came his retort.

 

His cell phone rang, he bellowed into it.

 

"There's no electricity?'' he asked someone calling from his house, darkened by yet another power failure. "No electricity? Why? Send someone down to go check the breaker."

 

He complains about the hassles of exit visas — essentially, permission required for any visitor to leave Iraq _ and the temperatures (the forecast for Sunday was 114 degrees). The neighbourhood, he reluctantly admits, is too conservative to allow alcohol here. But for a man who says he works 17 hours a day, al-Hage manages to retain, and flaunt, his charm.

 

"Bonjour!" he shouted to six newly arrived Lebanese employees. He turned to an assistant. "See if they want something to eat! See if they want something to drink!"

 

Playing on speakers was an oldie from the Egyptian singer Abdel-Halim Hafez. "It's a long journey," the song went, "and in it, I'm a stranger."

 

Baghdad these days seems to crave a respite from dreary years of curfews, when locales shut down before nightfall and streets were deserted by dark. There is still a sense of crisis here, months having passed since the election in March with no new government in sight.

 

Resilient

 

But ever resilient, the city shows signs of life. Teenagers do wheelies on their motorcycles down busy streets, and restaurants stay open till midnight. "Frere Jacques" played from a toy ride at one. Fish swam in the fountain at another.

 

By far, the fanciest cars — the Toyota Land Cruisers, Jeep Commanders and Hummers — are parked outside the Lebanese Club.

 

Since the club opened May 27, the ambassadors of France and Lebanon have dined here. So has the government spokesman, as well as the governor of Baghdad, the head of the committee charged with purging Baathists from the government and the national security minister. Some have even avoided the VIP room, with an annex for bodyguards, to mingle with the clientele.

 

"Baghdad is changing," said Amir Razzaq, drawing deep on a water pipe near the big-screen TV. "It's really changed. Now if they would only form a government." — New York Times News Service

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

IN ERITREA, THE YOUNG DREAM TO LEAVE

JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

 

Long before he learned to dunk on warped wooden backboards, Awet Eyob nursed a dream: to play basketball in America. He is 6 foot 8, built like an oak tree and seems to have mastered a behind—the—back dribble and crisp passes from the corner of his eye. But one big problem stood in his way: his homeland, Eritrea, an isolated, secretive nation in the Horn of Africa that is refusing to let its young people leave.

 

Eritrea, which fought its way to independence nearly 20 years ago, is ruled by hard-as-nails former guerrilla fighters who have held firm to their revolutionary Marxist policies and who demand that all young people work for the government, sometimes until their 40s. Anyone who tries to buck this national program, according to human rights groups, is subject to cruelly inventive tortures.

 

So this January, in great secrecy, Awet gathered four pairs of boxers, two pairs of socks, his high school transcript, his Air Jordans and some cash to pay a gang of human traffickers (or coyotes, as he calls them).

 

"I remember that first call," he said. "The coyote said: 'Hello, this is Sunshine.' I answered, 'This is Thunder.'"

 

Awet, 20, who is now living in Amman, Jordan, is the embodiment of Eritrea's lost generation. This tiny country is spawning more refugees per capita than just about anywhere else in the world, according to U.N. statistics, and most of them are young men, and often the country's most promising ones at that.

 

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says that hundreds of thousands of people have fled Eritrea in recent years — the total population is less than 5 million — and nearly every day, 100 new Eritreans risk their lives to cross into Sudan, which is hardly a Shangri-La.

 

Some of these defections have been hard to miss. In December, the entire Eritrean national soccer team absconded to Kenya during a tournament. In 2004, some Eritrean refugees being sent home from Libya were so desperate not to return that they hijacked the plane.

 

Awet was lucky. Dressed in an extra, extra large gallebeyah (a long flowing gown common in the Muslim world), he sneaked through Sudan and then on to Kenya and Dubai. He is now camped out in the basement of an American family's home in Amman, Jordan, doing push-ups, working on his jump shot, playing on a Wii set with the family's children and trying to get into an American college or prep school.

 

A big reason why he has gotten this far is Matthew Smith, a gregarious, athletic American diplomat who befriended Awet a couple years ago on a basketball court in Asmara, Eritrea's capital, where Smith was working. Smith was impressed by the young man's game, but more than that, he was moved by Awet's burning ambition to break out of his hermetically sealed world.

 

"He wanted more and I could relate to that," said Smith, whose father was a taxi driver in Brooklyn. "Who would've ever thought the kid of a cabby and nanny could be a diplomat?"

 

Smith matched up Awet with an American basketball coach in Amman who is now training him.

 

"His skills were better than I expected," said the coach, Robert Taylor, who was sitting next to Awet on a stack of exercise mats in a high school gym. "No offence, Awet, but Eritrea isn't exactly known for its basketball."

 

If Eritrea is especially well-known for anything these days, it is for being a troublemaker in a very volatile neighbourhood. The nation has been accused of invading Djibouti in 2008 and fuelling chaos in Somalia by arming insurgent groups, prompting sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.

 

But Eritrea has a proud history, fighting a grueling 30-year guerrilla war to break away from Ethiopia.

 

Awet's name, in fact, means victory. He was born at home, by candlelight, in February 1990, on the eve of independence, right after a legendary battle. He was always big. He was selected to play for the national basketball team when he was 15, and earned the nickname King A. By Eritrean standards, he had an enviable life, with a wealthy merchant father, good grades, a touch of fame and several pairs of $100 Nikes.

 

But Dan Franch, his high school literature teacher, could tell Awet was not happy. "I knew he wanted to leave, and I didn't blame him," Franch said. "This place is becoming inert. You encourage students to apply to college overseas but their chances of going are one in a gazillion."

 

On the surface, life for young Eritreans does not look so bad. Asmara is littered with chrome—lined Art Deco cafes where young people sip cappuccinos and munch on pizza. But many young people complain (quietly) of being chained to dead-end government jobs. By law, mandatory national service is supposed to last 18 months. In reality, it is often indefinite, and few can get permits to exit the country until they are done serving. The government justifies this because of a highly militarized, unresolved border dispute with its neighbour, Ethiopia, nearly 20 times its size.

 

Awet says he probably will not see his parents for years because now that he has escaped, it will be dangerous to go back home.

 

At night, when he cannot sleep, he takes out a tiny prayer book his mother gave him — the cover is literally the size of a postage stamp — and thinks of her. Or he stretches out on a single bed with his feet nearly dangling off, listening to rap songs on his MP3 player and nurturing his dream.

 

"I used to dream about the money and the cars and the girls," he sings. "But now I see, because I'm sitting on top of the world." — New York Times News Service

 

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THE HINDU

READERS' EDITOR : ONLINE & OFF LINE

HOW THE HINDU COVERED THE 1984 BHOPAL CALAMITY

 

With a former Chairman of Union Carbide India Limited, Keshub Mahindra, and seven others convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment by a trial court, the 26-year-old Bhopal tragedy case has reached a new stage.

 

The long wait for the families of thousands of victims who were either killed or seriously injured by toxic gas that leaked from the Union Carbide's chemical pesticide plant has not brought justice to these people, most of who are poor. This is a heart-rending case of justice delayed, justice denied. The subject therefore is back in the arena of public discussion.

 

Moves are on to take the issue to higher courts, either in India or the United States or both. Meanwhile questions are being raised and discussed over the whereabouts of Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson, the principal accused in the case and a proclaimed absconder. A hot question raised is who facilitated the escape of Anderson who visited Bhopal a couple of days after the disaster after being assured of "safe passage." He was arrested along with a few other executives of Union Carbide but freed and allowed to return to the United States.

 

The main issue

 

The key issue, as it often happens, is being sidetracked: it is the accountability and culpability of those in Bhopal and New Delhi who made the critical decisions preceding and following the calamity.

 

Going back to the archives of The Hindu to discover how a newspaper of record covered the Bhopal tragedy, poring over 26-year-old files, was an enlightening and moving experience. Readers below the age of 40 may benefit from this because most of them could not have read the news and analysis published in the first week of December 1984.

 

The first report on the tragedy, headlined "350 killed as poisonous gas leaks from Bhopal plant," was the lead story on page 1 of the issue dated December 4, 1984.

 

The opening paragraph reads: "At least 350 persons were killed and 2,000 badly affected when they inhaled poisonous gas, which leaked from an insecticide plant of the multinational Union Carbide company here early today." The 1,500-word story, compiled with Press Trust of India and United Press of India reports as input, said that 20,000 people were treated at hospitals. The factory was ordered closed after methyl isocyanate, stored in an underground tank of the plant located near the railway station, began leaking some time after midnight.

 

According to first reports, 2,00,000 people in Bhopal (25 per cent of the city's population) inhaled the killer gas and it affected them one way or another. The gas had spread over a 40 sq.km. area and caught the sleeping population unawares.

 

The lead story provides comprehensive information related to the calamity — the treatment of the injured at different hospitals, the arrival of the Central Bureau of Investigation team, the house arrest of five senior officers of Union Carbide, the appointment of an enquiry committee, and the disruption of traffic. All that is expected in a report on a calamity is there in the report.

 

But although informative, the first report somehow fails to convey the enormity of the event, possibly because it looks like a patchwork of agency items. The supportive box has a lot of information on methyl isocyanate. A front page report carried an announcement that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had released Rs. 40 lakh for rehabilitation of the affected people.

 

The December 5 issue of The Hindu gives more information on the reasons and factors behind the tragedy and also cautions against the threat from a number of chemical units. It reveals that Union Carbide had stopped production of lethal gas worldwide. The lead story in the issue by a staffer revises the estimated death toll upwards to 1,000.

 

The leader, "The Bhopal tragedy", adds to the value of the paper's comprehensive coverage. It leaves nothing unsaid. However, it ought to be mentioned that pictorial coverage of the calamity was quite inadequate. There were only three photographs in all: one, Rajiv Gandhi consoling the victims, the second, a photograph of an injured family, and the third, a picture of the chemical factory.

 

Shocking failure

 

Characterising the "horrendous" tragedy as "the worst environmental disaster in history" and emphasising that treating the injured, rehabilitating them, and providing relief to the affected families was the immediate priority, the editorial was both comprehensive and precise. It honed in on "the fact that the highly toxic methyl isocyanate continued to leak for nearly an hour and turned the neighbourhood into a virtual gas chamber, made it clear that there had been an inexcusable failure to discharge the responsibility on the part of those engaged in an inherently hazardous activity."

 

The editorial noted that the State Government, which had been entrusted with the task of inspection and enforcement of regulations and of ensuring safety in factory operations, could not escape blame. It pointed out that it would be a worthwhile exercise for the State and Central teams engaged in examining the safety standards in the factory "to find out if these matched the safety standards built into a similar plant of the company in the United States" and whether the maintenance and operations were sound.

 

The leader made a pointed reference to the accident at a nuclear power plant in Three Mile Island in the United States, where, in contrast to the Bhopal case, "the safety systems came into play to prevent a major disaster and loss of lives." This led to a re-examination of the design, operations, and safety features in nuclear stations across the world and, as a result, the dangers associated with nuclear power plants have been drastically reduced. (The Three Mile Island accident, which occurred in March 1979, was the most serious in the commercial nuclear power plant operating history of the United States, though it did not cause any loss of life or injury.)

 

The editorial drew a lesson from this: "The Bhopal tragedy should trigger such an evaluation in the chemical industry, particularly where highly toxic and hazardous materials are involved."

 

It questioned the wisdom of building such industries in thickly populated areas. It called for "a close look at the regulations covering the production, handling and use of dangerous chemicals" and demanded that "in a matter affecting the lives and the health of the people, no slackness and no compromise should be allowed on such considerations as cost." The editorial concluded by stressing "the need for greater awareness and alert among the people" while sounding a caution against "allowing a hysteria to be built up against the chemical industry or any other."

 

The estimates of the death toll were rising by the day: from the 350 of December 4 to 2,500 by December 8. The Hindu's coverage picked up after December 6, with more staff journalists deployed to broaden and deepen the coverage of the calamity.

 

Insightful articles

 

Within a week, long reports and insightful articles began to appear from staff journalists, including veteran Political Correspondent G.K. Reddy and Washington Correspondent R. Chakrapani. These articles covered various aspects relevant to the calamity such as neutralisation of the poisonous gas, payment of compensation, legal initiatives, and the filing of cases seeking compensation in Indian and U.S. courts.

 

After verifying the details with his unmatched insider sources, G.K. Reddy reconstructed the arrest and release of Warren Anderson in Bhopal on December 7, 1984, which has become highly controversial now. In his report, "Union Carbide chief arrested and released" (December 8, 1984), he noted: "After the Central Government's intervention, it was stated that Mr. Anderson and others were only taken into protective custody and lodged in the company's guest house to save them from mob violence."

 

He interposed this comment: "But the arrest and release of Mr. Anderson, despite safe conduct assurances given to him, indicated the deplorable lack of coordination between the Central and State Governments." The Hindu's chief political correspondent offered this surmise: "It is quite possible that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was not aware of the safe conduct assurance given to Mr. Anderson before he left the U.S. for India, since the Prime Minister had been away from Delhi campaigning in different States. So his Principal Secretary, Dr. P.C. Alexander, brought the facts to his notice today [December 7, 1984] while he was still in Madhya Pradesh, before the Centre intervened to secure Mr. Anderson's release and arrange for his flight to Delhi later tonight [December 7 night]".

 

Can there be a better example of fair, factual, and sober coverage of a calamity and the responses to it?

 

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

WHY JUST ANDERSON... WHAT ABOUT THE REST?

 

The proceedings of the Empowered Group of Ministers does not inspire much confidence that the lakhs of victims of the catastrophic Bhopal gas leak will get justice. In fact, it almost seems as if a second betrayal is on the cards. There are reports that the EGoM wants the Madhya Pradesh government to bury and clean up the toxic waste. This is shocking at a time when, following a petition in the high court, a technical subcommittee of the task force for removal of toxic waste has placed the onus on Dow Chemicals USA, which bought Union Carbide in 2001. It said Dow should take the entire toxic waste to the US for remediation.

While compensation and the rehabilitation of victims are important, it is equally necessary that all those in Union Carbide India Ltd who were responsible for this outrage be brought to book. Warren Anderson is not the only culprit who has gone scot-free. It is important to bring Warren Womar, who was UCIL's works manager, as well as Robert Kennedy, who succeeded Mr Anderson as chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, to stand trial in India. Mr Womar had shut down the Bhopal plant's refrigeration system — used to cool the methyl isocyanate (MIC) — in 1982, two years before disaster struck. The only time he used to switch on the refrigeration was when this extremely volatile and noxious chemical MIC was being transferred into the scevin pot for preparing the pesticide. The operation manual, on the other hand, clearly mandates that MIC should be kept below freezing point at all times. When the disaster took place, there was no safety system in place. Mr Kennedy took key decisions on to the plant's design, and he was aware that its safety system was substandard.
The CBI, in a chargesheet filed in December 1987, had said it wanted to investigate the American officials involved as well as inspect UCC's pesticide plant at Institute in West Virgina. It wanted to demonstrate that UCC had used double standards: that the Bhopal plant had inferior safety systems. The CBI team, accompanied by a leading scientist, went to the US in November 1988, but was told by the US justice department to first obtain permission from West Virginia state. The state authorities did not permit the visit. The justice department later granted permission, but it was too late. Coincidentally, on that day — February 14, 1989 — suddenly there was a Supreme Court-assisted $470 million compensation settlement between UCC and the Indian government. One of its conditions was quashing of all criminal cases, and due to this the inspection could not be carried out. The settlement — which incidentally was less than one-sixth of the $3 billion that the Indian government had initially demanded — was not the issue before the court. The issue was the Rs 350-crore interim relief granted by Bhopal's chief metropolitan magistrate, challenged by UCIL in the high court, which reduced it to Rs 250 crores, which in turn was challenged by both the Union of India and UCIL in the Supreme Court. This betrayal of Bhopal's victims by both the Indian government and the US multinational must now be undone by the EGoM.

Equally urgent is for the EGoM to get Dow Chemicals to accept responsibility for cleaning up the Bhopal plant and its surrounding area, or to get out of our country. Dow bought UCC in February 2001 and it cannot be released from its liability. Both the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti and the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan had in February 2001 asked the Bhopal magistrate to serve notice on Dow to appear on behalf of UCC in the ongoing criminal case. The magistrate's notice was, however, stayed by the MP high court in Jabalpur in January 2005, and Dow managed to get away. Instances of betrayal and scuttle in favour of the American company are too many to mention here, but now it is up to the EGoM to undo these and ensure real justice is delivered to the victims of Bhopal, who have had to wait far too long.

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

AN OPPORTUNITY LOST

DILIP LAHIRI

 

The Eighth Review Conference (Revcon) of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at New York narrowly eked out a victory from the jaws of defeat before it closed recently. Cheerleaders have been busy extolling this success which, however, consisted of little more than producing a 28-page declaration which marked no real advance over past positions.

But it would not be fair to sniff at even this. It was felt that a show of unity would at least start the process of rehabilitating the NPT. The breakout of North Korea and the defiance of Iran were seen as demonstrations of the impotence of the NPT. The last Revcon in 2005 had collapsed without an agreed statement due to Egypt's outrage at the failure to move forward on its West Asia nuclear-arms-free zone proposal and developing nations' anger at the United States for refusing to reaffirm disarmament pledges made in 1995 and 2000.
A repeat of the 2005 collapse would simply not do. Neither the nuclear weapon states (NWS) nor non-nuclear weapons states (NNWS) were prepared to be held responsible for another breakdown.

Another factor working in favour of the 2010 Revcon was the considerable goodwill for US President Barack Obama on the nuclear issue, and the widespread feeling that he needed a successful NPT Review to encourage him to travel further along the road to the vision of a nuclear weapon free world that he had laid out in his Prague speech in April 2009.

Under the NPT transfers of nuclear materials and technologies to NNWS were to be confined solely to "peaceful purposes" under a system of agreed safeguards and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In return, Article VI of the NPT requires that the five nuclear-weapon states should pursue nuclear disarmament negotiations in good faith with the ultimate goal of "general and complete disarmament".

 

Dissatisfaction of NNWS at the persistent refusal of NWS to live up to their side of the nuclear bargain progressively sharpened acrimony.

An innovation of the 2010 Revcon was to separate the final declaration into two parts — the first a review of the operation of the NPT, which was merely noted, and the second, the conclusions and recommendations for follow-on action, which was adopted by consensus. While this made for a tedious document, it allowed steam to be let off by reflecting stronger positions in the preambular review, while more measured formulations which could command consensus were used in the operative part.

On nuclear disarmament, the NWS dug in their heels against any new commitments. Russia, France and Pakistan made clear that they saw a role for nuclear weapons well beyond deterrence.The NNWS were not able to extract a clear endorsement of working towards a nuclear weapons convention to outlaw nuclear weapons, as has been done for chemical and biological weapons. But the price the NWS had to pay for their hard-nosed attitude was inability to obtain endorsement of additional IAEA safeguards protocols, the crown jewels of the IAEA for targeting undeclared nuclear facilities, as the new minimum standard for nuclear trade.
There was also no agreement, as many NPT ideologues had hoped, on measures to hobble NPT members like North Korea from bolting from their NPT obligations under the withdrawal clause after benefiting from nuclear transfers as NNWS under the NPT. Instead of these central issues, the major focus of attention was on the concept of a nuclear weapons-free zone in West Asia, based on the unrealistic hope that this could constrain Israel to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and join the NPT as NNWS.

The idea had been proposed by Egypt in 1995 and became one of the essential parts of the deal to extend the NPT indefinitely. But the US has prevented any progress on this for the last 15 years. To its consternation this time, Israel found that the US did not block the proposal to hold a conference in 2012 on setting up the zone, and to appoint a facilitator. In addition, Israel was criticised by name for not being a party to the NPT, and for not placing its nuclear activities under international inspection. The US has since tried to placate Israel by pulling back from full endorsement of the conference proposal. So the Egyptian-led move may well turn out to be a pyrrhic victory.

Iran scored a diplomatic victory by getting off without being mentioned by name for non-compliance with IAEA safeguards. The reason was that Iran was prepared to wreck the conference on this issue, while the US and others were not. The Brazil-Turkey deal with Iran, which is attracting increasing support, has also blindsided the "Iran Six" and thrown the US off balance.

The importance of securing the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and starting negotiations on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) was strongly emphasised at the Revcon. There was considerable frustration at Pakistan single-handedly holding up the start of negotiations on a FMCT in the Conference on Disarmament (CD).

Today only Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are outside the NPT. Without being physically present, the shadow of these " outlier" countries hovered like Banco's ghost over the Revcon. NPT members are at their wit's end on how to deal with them. Israel was sought to be pressurised with the West Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. North Korea was roundly condemned and told it could never be designated a NWS. India and Pakistan are asked to join the NPT as NNWS in the preambular review but interestingly not mentioned in the operative conclusions and recommendations.

There have been periodic suggestions from international nuclear experts to recognise reality by co-opting non-NPT states with nuclear weapons through a separate protocol, with treatment akin to NWS without necessarily designating them as such. There is considerable resentment at the preferential treatment handed out to India, expressed most loudly by Iran.

The India-US civilian nuclear agreement and the endorsement of its provisions by the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the IAEA have brought India back into the international nuclear mainstream. Our civilian and strategic nuclear programme are now hardly affected by the NPT, with whose overall objectives India actually agrees. The regret is that the improved environment for nuclear disarmament was not utilised to make genuine progress at the Revcon.

 

Dilip Lahiri is a former ambassador to France

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

BY PUBLIC DEMAND

 

The public outrage over the shockingly inadequate punishment handed out to some of those responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 has finally forced the government to sit up and take notice. After the initial shock was over, Bhopal appeared to have shifted to the backwaters of our public consciousness and was ignored as events overtook us.

 

In the interim, the number of victims has grown distressingly large and the compensation deal worked out by the government with Union Carbide has been exposed as shamefully small.

It is evident that without this sort of public pressure, our governments are slow to respond. Protected for years by a small middle class, a disinterested wealthy upper sliver of society and a large, ignorant and backward population, our rulers, leaders and public servants, have become arrogant and complacent.

 

A changing world, growing economic wealth and an information explosion has however made democracy a more answerable form of government. As Indians become aware of their rights, freed from the feudal mindset of the past, questions are being asked and answers demanded.

The confusion within the Congress party at the anger which it has faced for its apparent neglect of the gas victims, of the easy passage offered to Union Carbide with a minuscule compensation deal and the release of its chairman Warren Anderson demonstrates just how difficult political parties and government find this new form of participatory democracy.

Opposition parties are pressured by the same compulsions of their political rivals and cannot therefore fulfil their primary role.

The alacrity with which a Group of Ministers (GoM) has been organised to re-look at compensation and its disbursal, to hold Union Carbide responsible and re-consider prosecution of then chairman Anderson shows just how shaken the UPA government at the Centre is by public opinion.

As the GoM deliberates on its course of action, it could look to the $20 billion escrow account set up by BP following pressure put on it by US president Barack Obama over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. One of the many problems post-Bhopal is that the company was let off lightly on the presumption made then that India was a poor country and compensation was decided on that basis. That is in question now.

 

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DNA

TEENAGED REBELS

 

The alarm and dissent expressed by India's representative, Hardeep Singh Puri, at the United Nation on Maoist-affected areas as zones of armed conflict in a special report of the secretary-general's office is perhaps justified on legal grounds. Puri told the UN Security Council that it does not conform to the strict definitions of international law.

The alacrity was necessary before UN peace-keeping forces are dispatched to Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. But the heart of the matter in the report prepared by RathikaCoomaraswamy for the secretary general's office is the recruitment of children into the militia groups. She said that she was not looking at legal definitions but there was information about children being pressed into these militias.

The UN report need not be accepted on its face value. There are enough inaccuracies and even exaggeration in many of them. There is enough reason to be skeptical about much of what these reports might have to say. But there is need to sit up and take note of this particular issue and check out whether it is true, or partially true. It is a fact that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam, the terror group in Sri Lanka, had used child soldiers. And so do many of the rebel armies in central Africa. So, it is very much possible that the Maoists are recruiting teenagers from the villages in tribal belts to serve in the armed groups.

Puri had also informed the UN that the Indian government was addressing the issue. Is it? There is a need to know all about it. It is surprising that the government never let this bit of information into the public domain in the country, and it is not clear what action it is taking to protect children. In the tribal belts, adolescent boys and girls are considered young adults and they are allowed to take part in the community activities.

 

It is also learnt that these adolescents are not just part of the Maoist groups, but that they are also recruited by counter-insurgency groups like the Salwa Judum, backed by the security forces. The fact that strict definitions of under-aged youngsters do not count in the rural hinterland has to be reckoned with.

It does not however mean that it ceases to be an issue for that reason. If young people between the ages of 14 and 19 are being drawn into the vortex of violence by the Maoists as well as the security forces, then there is a crying need to address the problem appropriately and effectively.

 

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DNA

COMMENT

IS WANT OF NATIONAL PRIDE HOLDING INDIA BACK?

ABHAY VAIDYA

 

The absence of a sense of national pride with the resolve that I will do my job to the best of my ability, come what may, is perhaps at the root of what's holding India back in the comity of nations.

 

Our penchant to blame politicians for all their shortcomings is one part of the story. The larger blame lies with each of the 300 million well-fed, well-educated Indians, who will demand benefits but not deliver to their fullest ability. Whether serving in the government, the public or the private sector, they will blame the "system" for all the ills.

All the law and order agencies, utility services and government administrative services where licences, ration cards, domicile and other certificates are issued, collectively make the "system" where harassment of the public and non-performance of duty is the norm.

If you compare India with the developed Western world and East Asian countries, you'll find that a genuine spirit of service and national pride is missing in Indians. What exist in its place are false notions of superiority. We become unstoppable when we speak of our ancient civilisation. 

The system is made up of the common man — the public "servant" (who sees himself more as lord and master), the bank clerk, the telephone operator and officials in any capacity — public or private. It will change for the better only when these common elements become conscious of national pride.

The way the red carpet was rolled out for the then Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson in the aftermath of the Bhopal gas tragedy is not just a prime example of our sense of inferiority before the white man, but also a systemic failure. Had the system worked, at every stage, the chief secretary and all his deputies would have cited procedures and advised the CM and the PM that Anderson cannot be released "because of the system".  

Realistically speaking, the India of 1984 was very different and backward and what was also missing was the shrill television journalism of today which would have made life hell for Anderson, Arjun Singh and Rajiv Gandhi.

Arresting celebrities for misdemeanours such as traffic violations — leave aside graver crimes — is a common occurrence in the US because even the lowest police official there takes pride in his work.

In that sense, a janitor (disparagingly called a  jamadar), who self-admires a toilet block that he's cleaned to perfection, has done more for the country than all the high-caste IAS bureaucrats and others who plead helplessness in bringing change in their spheres of influence.

A girlfriend who recently returned from China says that when offered a tip, the courteous cabbie there indicated that all he had done was his duty and the tip was unnecessary. My worst sight of "extracting" tips was at the Sahar International Airport's rest room, two decades ago, where attendants had removed toilet paper rolls and were handing them to foreigners for a tip of one dollar.

In Bangkok, a pleasant hotel employee was seen removing bags one after the other from the tourist bus, unmindful of the torrential rains. He had his job to be done and there was no time to wait for the rains to subside.

Each monsoon, the same spots and the same arteries in our metros get water-logged. It's the same blame game of why the storm water drains were not cleaned.  There are obviously isolated examples in all our cities, of people who inspire us by going out of their way to make a difference.

Fixing our system needs to be given paramount importance, because that's what's holding India back. The policies are fine but they don't work because a spirit of service and a sense of national pride which ought to shine in every Indian are missing.

 

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DNA

MAIN ARITCLE

HOW TO BE REALLY SELFISH

SUDHIR KAKAR 

 

Some months ago, listening to a talk by the Dalai Lama, I was struck by one of his remarks: "Paying attention to one's own needs is a producer of suffering; cherishing others (is) a giver of happiness." His emphasis on acting solely out of concern for others rather than from self-interest stayed with me because altruism has had a troubled place in the reigning climate of modern thought. 

Economic theory, based on the premise of homo economicus — economic man — acting rationally out of self-interest and selfishly, is uneasy with altruistic behaviour while the influential notion of  the 'selfish gene' in biology has been commonly misunderstood to mean that selfishness is essential to evolutionary success. Much of modern psychotherapy, too, believes that a 'healthy narcissism' is essential for mental health, maintaining that a person can love others only if he first loves himself.

Was the Dalai Lama, I wondered, like all religious-spiritual sages, talking about human nature as it should be and not as it is? Mahatma Gandhi, too, had considered altruism "a test of true spirituality. All our prayers, fastings and observances are empty nothing so long as we do not feel a live kinship with all life." Were they both talking of the few spiritually evolved people and not us ordinary mortals who rarely take off the armour of self-centredness that encases us?

Yet, further exploration and reflection convinced me that this dichotomy between egotism and altruism is false. It seems that doing good to others is doing good to yourself. Altruism and narcissism are not in conflict but complementary; indeed, they are inextricable, the former being a significant contributor to the raising of an individual's self-esteem.

This advocacy of altruism is not an ideological stance, underlined only by the authority of great souls or wise sayings which may or may not be true, but very much a matter of empirical fact. And here I am not only talking of psychological well-being and happiness, which some may consider as vague categories, but of concrete, physical health. The benefits of altruistic, helping behaviour are so large that they even show up in improved health and longer lifespans.

In a large, longitudinal study from the US, those who reported giving more help and support to spouses, friends and relatives went on to live longer than those who gave less, whereas the amount of help that people reported receiving showed no relationship to their longevity. In other words, it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. Since this particular study also studied the effect of specific altruistic actions, it might be of interest to give some details regarding these.

As we all know, aspirin is often prescribed as a preventive to those at risk of heart attack. However, helping another person has a five-fold greater positive effect on longevity than the ingestion of aspirin. Just to listen to another person is twice as good as aspirin for one's survival.

Indeed, recent research in social neurosciences suggests that empathy, and helping behaviour that is motivated by empathy, may be wired into our brains. Witnessing the pain of a stranger activates a similar 'pain network' in our brains, the so-called 'mirror neurons', although in contrast to women this empathy reaction almost disappears in men (society's designated 'punishers') if the stranger is perceived to be a 'bad' person.  To witness good deeds — altruistic behaviour — gives rise to feelings of elation (some call them religious feelings), that are physiologically related to the rewarding release of the hormone oxytocin.

In an ingenuous experiment, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt gathered 45 nursing mothers with their infants in a psychological laboratory where half were shown videos depicting altruistic behaviour while the others watched comedy videos. Almost half the mothers who were shown the morally uplifting video showed increased milk flow, or nursed their babies after watching the video, while only a very few mothers did so after watching the comedians. The first group also turned towards their babies more, touching them and clasping them to their breasts. Haidt comments: "The effect was one of the biggest I ever saw."

Other experiments demonstrate the presence of altruistic behaviour in children as young as 18 months and even in two- to three-year-old chimpanzees that spontaneously help a familiar adult who appears in some distress.

In other words, acting on the Golden Rule, 'Do unto others what you would have them do unto you', present in various forms in all the world's religions, may not only be vital for an individual's spiritual progress but also for his physical health and psychological happiness. The Dalai Lama's remark, then, is not only a moral exhortation but an empirical truth, an evolutionary reality rather than a utopian dream.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

DEMEANING POLLS

NEED TO PROTECT RAJYA SABHA'S SANCTITY

 

Biennial elections for 55 Rajya Sabha seats from 13 states and the by-election for one seat from Rajasthan were fiercely contested. Compared with their colleagues in the Lok Sabha, those in the House of Elders are considered different in style and substance. But the manner in which political parties conducted themselves in the Rajya Sabha elections this time leaves much to be desired. According to the National Election Watch (NEW), despite most leaders' concern about the increasing influence of crime and money in the elections, the trend continued in the Rajya Sabha polls too. Even for this House, where elections are indirect and a candidate does not have to go to the public, political parties have nominated candidates with criminal antecedents and high asset value. In all, 15 elected MPs have criminal records and 80 per cent of the new members are crorepatis, according to a NEW survey.

 

The BJP has suspended three of its MLAs from Orissa, Jharkhand and Bihar for cross-voting or abstention in the elections. In Rajasthan, it has urged the Election Commission to disqualify 17 Congress MLAs on the ground that they had defied their party whip and voted for BJP candidates. However, the BJP's own conduct in Rajasthan was questionable. As many as 79 of its MLAs were herded into a resort near Jaipur over fears that cross-voting could harm its candidate, Mr Ram Jethmalani's prospects. Hijacking of MLAs to prevent poaching, restricted so far during confidence vote in the states, has now been extended to the Rajya Sabha elections. Mr Jethmalani has won the election. Liquor baron Vijay Mallya from Karnataka entered the fray with the backing of 27 JD (S) MLAs and an Independent. He won after the BJP transferred all its 120 second preference votes. Similarly, Alchemist Chairman, K.D. Singh, who hails from Chandigarh, got elected from Jharkhand.

 

The Rajya Sabha is a legislative chamber of elders to examine and revise legislation; to project and safeguard the states' interests; and to deliberate on issues where greater and diverse experience is brought to bear. It can play its mandated role only if all members do their homework and participate in parliamentary work. Sadly, serious debate on burning issues has become a casualty in Parliament because of the members' excessive indulgence in politics. This kind of attitude will have to change for the better.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

RUNAWAY CORRUPTION

WHERE IS RAILWAYS HEADED?

 

The more things change, the more they remain the same, it seems. In November last, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered the removal of the chiefs of all 20 railway recruitment boards following complaints that the tests had been rigged in favour of candidates belonging to a particular state. Yet, this Friday, the Railway Ministry had to suspend S.M.Sharma, the Mumbai Recruitment Board Chairman, after his son was arrested by the CBI in a recruitment scam whose very scale takes one's breath away. The kingpin of the scam was a former Additional Divisional Railway Manager of Raipur, A.K. Jagannatham, at present CEO of the Hassan-Mangalore Railway Development Corporation. The gang in connivance with officials of the Mumbai recruitment board charged Rs 3.5 lakh from each candidate for leaking out the paper of the examinations for posts of assistant loco pilot and assistant station master.

 

It was apparently a well-oiled operation, with agents all over the country. The aspirants were asked to pay huge amounts of money and deposit their original certificates with Jagannatham. Since 444 certificates have already been recovered, there are reasons to suspect that the scam may be worth more than Rs 20 crore. There is need to find out if equally fishy things were happening in other recruitment boards also.

 

It is not only a case of gross corruption but also of public safety. One can well imagine how dependable and professional the candidates who become assistant loco pilots and assistant station masters on the basis of rigged examinations would be. There is need for a thorough overhaul of the recruitment process in the railways. It has become imperative to put in place a mechanism for centralised monitoring of the process. Even that will help only if the central authorities themselves are strictly above board. There are allegations that there has been gross violation of rules in regularisation of the services of contract workers of the Metro Railway in Kolkata, with many of the recent posts having gone exclusively to supporters of the Trinamool Congress or the Congress.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

MORE TO MIRCHPUR

PROBE PANELS DO NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE

 

ON the face of it, the Haryana government's move to appoint a one-man inquiry commission to look into the incident at Mirchpur is innocuous enough. But it would have carried far more conviction if the government had constituted it immediately after the carnage on April 21 and not waited two long months before doing so. During this period, after all, administrative inquiries have been done and several fact-finding missions have already submitted their reports. Even the Supreme Court of India has directed two lawyers to independently inquire into the sequence of events and report to the apex court. One more judicial inquiry, therefore, would either indicate that the state government itself is not satisfied with reports submitted by the district officials or it could be conscious of a deepening credibility gap, necessitating the appointment of a retired high court judge to go through the motions all over again.

 

What is also suspect are the terms of reference. The inquiry commission is entrusted with the task of going into the circumstances leading to the death of a polio-stricken girl and her father and identifying people responsible for the loss of life and property. Most importantly, the commission is also to consider the steps taken by the state government and the compensation paid to the affected families. If the terms of reference look comic, the state government has only itself to blame. It dragged its feet for 48 hours after 35 Dalit houses were torched and destroyed and 50 more houses ransacked. It was goaded into arresting 29 of the 43 named accused only after the victims refused to cremate the bodies of the father and daughter, who had been burnt alive. Action was taken against the SHO of Narnaund and a Naib-Tehsildar for dereliction of duty only after sustained public pressure. And it has taken no action against senior district officials even after it was pointed out that the FIRs had not properly mentioned the sub-sections of the SC & ST ( Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which might enable the accused to get away lightly.

 

What was needed far more urgently was a swift investigation by a Special Investigating Team because of the Dalits' lack of faith in the local police. What was also necessary is the constitution of a fast-track court to deal with the case on a day-to-day basis.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

ARTICLE

LEADERSHIP CRISIS HITS POLICE

TIME TO INTRODUCE PERFORMANCE REVIEW

BY V.K. KAPOOR

 

The police today have to handle problems which are more complex than ever before. From the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack to the Maoist killings at Dantewada to the derailment of trains, the battlefield has not only expanded considerably but has also become multi-dimensional.

 

The world is constantly and rapidly changing, but the policeman is stuck in the first gear. Sucked into the unstable security environment, he is out of sync with the fast moving events. He makes mere noise, but no impact.  Increasing resentment among the people owing to his dissatisfactory performance, unimaginative and uninspiring leadership, clinging to outmoded views, lack of openness and low self-esteem make the Indian policeman a bad joke of society.

 

The Police Act of 1861 has remained unchanged. There is a crisis of leadership in the police. The situation has worsened with many senior police officers cooling their heels in jails. An IGP is undergoing life imprisonment in the Shivani murder case. In the Ruchika molestation case, a DGP is in jail. Another IGP is facing serious charges of molestation. Some time back a DGP-level officer was caught red-handed taking a bribe. Another DGP went to jail for a fake encounter.

 

Recently an STF chief and his team were caught on camera extorting money from a businessman. Mumbai encounter specialists are in jail for having links with the underworld. In Gujrat, senior IPS officers like Vanzara are facing trial for false encounters. The malady is getting widespread. The police is fast acquiring the dark hues of the underworld. How can the public and the juniors in the police department have respect for such police officers? The land mafia is finding in the police a valuable ally. 

 

The officers playing the leading role lack the ability to motivate and inspire the force. The result is a multiple-personality disorder. The psychosomatic manifestation is cynicism, diluted loyalty and total loss of respect for seniors. An ordinary cop in the street is adrift in the whirlpool of differing views. He ultimately finds succour in the arms of a small-time "neta", a goon or a local godfather. The leaders have a flat-footed approach and are hardly aware of the mood of the force and the ground reality. The police department in most states is fast becoming a malfunctioning machine for which there are no spare parts.

 

There is a big communication gap between the cop on the beat and his superiors. A similar situation exists between the police and society at large. What is missing in trust, which cannot be fabricated in an ad-hoc manner. Sincerity cannot be faked for long. Effective two-way communication demands that we easily understand what both sides intend to say. They must learn to speak the language of logic. Decisions are made with little awareness of the situation. The relationship in the police is not task-focused but personality-focused. Subordinates are not bound to perform but to please their superiors. Achievements are not measured by the criteria of contribution and performance. This leads to frustration and a listless approach to duty.

 

The police do not function in a political or social vacuum. Policing is a part of the national ethos. Honest and well-meaning people get an honest and well-meaning police.

 

Ben Whitaker remarked, "The public uses the police as a scapegoat for its neurotic attitude towards crime. Janus-like, we have always turned two faces towards a policeman. We expect him to be human and yet inhuman. We ask him to administer law and yet ask him to waive it. We resent him when he enforces a law in our own case, yet demand his dismissal when he does not elsewhere. We offer him bribe, yet denounce his corruption."

 

One of the hallmarks of effective police leadership is the translation of positive intentions into tangible results. The law of diminishing returns says that the longer you wait to implement a new idea or strategy, the less enthusiasm you will have for it. Leadership is not about popularity. It is about integrity. It is not about power. It is about purpose. Effective leadership is persuasion, not domination. A skilled leader creates a cohesive and mission-oriented team. Leadership is the recognition of spiritual maturity, proven character and the reputation you have developed.

 

There is a difference between a boss and a leader. A boss depends on authority, but a leader depends on goodwill. A boss inspires fear, but a leader inspires enthusiasm. A leader says "we", but a boss says "I". A boss fixes the blame, but a leader fixes the breakdown. The police have more bosses than leaders. There is no such thing as an unmotivated cop; it is only an unmotivated employee. Police bosses are the cause for more fury and frustration than productivity. They rarely inspire. For senior policemen, taking care of the interests of the politician in power is more important than anything else.

 

Drastic steps are called for to make the police deliver the goods. There should be a performance review after 20 or 25 years of service in the IPS. Those not up to the mark should not be given promotion. They should be retired. Around 90 per cent of the IPS officers do not go on Central deputation. They like to live in the comfort of their home cadre and cultivate politicians. Officers with flexible morals and scruples suit the politicians in power. The more flexible and spineless the officers are, the  better it is for the political bosses.

 

As long as we have the police as a state subject, the maladies of policing will continue. The best solution will be to make the police a Union subject. The police should be free from political shackles. There is too much government and too little governance; too much talk and too little action; too many laws and too little justice.

 

Those in the leadership role will have to straddle the extremes, incorporating the skills of a generalist and a specialist, a visionary and an operational man with a human touch. The changing scenario demands re-definition of old concepts.

 

The writer is a former Additional DGP, Haryana. He is currently training the Delhi police for the coming Commonwealth Games

 

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THE  TRIBUNE

MIDDLE

OXYMORON OF ADMISSION

BY ASHOK KUMAR YADAV

 

ONE of my chums once asked for my objective opinion about a particular school before applying there for his son's admission. He maintained that he had carried out an elaborate survey about various boarding schools but found them all extremely average, with amazing dullness. His only choice ultimately zeroed down to this school, continued Markanday.

 

I was over-run by the linguistic paradox of the English language. It is perhaps the only language where two words even with contradictory meaning can be used concurrently — Oxymoron, to be precise.

 

The school management is very meticulous, admits only a small crowd in each class. According to his exact estimate, it was the least expensive public school in the region.

 

We decided to visit the campus one Sunday morning with families before dark sunshine. Having clearly misunderstood me, he invaded my residence in his Mercedes, which was fully empty. En route, to our utter dismay, we found the traffic on Pinjore-Parwanoo stretch pretty ugly, which appeared to be an organised mess created by traffic cops. They were behaving in a seriously funny manner. We tried to trace the officer, but he was found missing. Forced to act naturally, the only option was to fall in line, and keep crawling at a snail's pace.

 

Driving on serpentine hilly roads with sharp curves was a real test of dynamic equilibrium. I felt proud of my negotiating skills, not shying from forward retreats at times. I knew, even an ounce of negligence could turn simply awesome.

 

The headmaster emerged out of his busy leisure to satiate our queries. The students were rehearsing for the annual event. There was, nevertheless, deafening silence that ruled the environs. A few innocent truants who were regularly irregular had been lined up to uncurl their eccentricities.

 

The bursar confided an open secret that the students were kept engaged throughout the day. It was amazing to see the gleaming students wearing glossy smiles on their sleeves.

 

Luckily, my son and daughter and Markanday's son were among eight out of 50-odd aspirants from seven States, who cleared the written test. It was the parents' turn thereafter for an absorbing interview. Eventually the admission was confirmed. Original copies of certificates were deposited.

 

When we finally dropped our children in the hostel, the moment turned bitter sweet, bitter because of separation and sweet because of re-styling of their career in a reputed institute, in sharp contrast to my own alma mater, TCS Convent (Tappar Chakk School) in Bawal.

 

As we parted, we were falling like living dead. We were screaming silently, as we waded back. In our homes which used to bustle with noise, silence whistled. With lots of time at our disposal, we felt happily re-married, re-inventing our old matrimonial contours. You dare not challenge the statement as a true lie or false truth! ?

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

DARK CLOUDS OVER CHINA

BEWARE OF A REAL ESTATE BUBBLE

BY ABHISHEK GOENKA

 

IT has been one globe economically, a global village, for decades now. The war among major economies is no longer fought on the seas, or on land with massive armies, but in boardrooms and markets. That China is a communist state politically is no longer a concern. The competition is economic, for instance, whether China's semi-capitalistic economy, having already surpassed the great France and Germany, will soon surpass the Japanese to become the second largest economy behind the United States of America.

 

The concern in the U.S. is not which country has the largest navy or nuclear arsenal, but whether China, Japan and the oil exporting nations will continue to buy U.S. treasuries, and hold the dollars in their central bank reserves, happy to be the largest foreign holders of U.S. debt issues. The global village aspect and their economic dependence on each other can be seen in the way global economies enter and exit recessions and depressions together, and see their stock markets enter and exit bull and bear markets together.

 

It is not shocking that the economic worries blowing over Europe this year have circled the globe, including the emerging markets. Chilly winds blowing in China haven't attracted as much attention yet, but may soon turn into unforgiving storms.

 

 

China's economy has been growing at an astounding pace for years, which has not escaped the attention of global investors. China's stock market gained 500% from its low in 2005 to its high in late 2007. It then plunged 74% in the global bear market of 2007-2009. And it subsequently surged up 109% in the new bull market (while the U.S. market gained 'only' 82% to its recent peak).

 

However, there hasn't been much recognition that the Chinese shares have declined around 28%, officially into another bear market, even as its economy remains one of the strongest. Stock markets typically look ahead six to eight months and react now to what they expect economies to be six to eight months in the future. Is China's stock market forecasting trouble ahead for the Chinese economic system?

 

That's a relevant question given how important China's booming economy has been to the still fragile global economic recoveries. Prosperous Chinese consumers are consuming in the exports of other countries at such a fast pace that China's imports at the end of March were 65% higher than a year ago (China's had the largest trade deficit in over six years.)

 

So, what seems to be the potential problem that has had the Chinese stocks unable to stand since July 2009, well before the debt crisis in Europe popped up?

 

It is probable that the real estate in China has developed a bubble, and the stock markets very well know what bursting real estate bubbles do to economies. Real estate prices in the Dragon's land have been rising sharply for several years and soared at a record pace in March, up an average of almost 12%, but more than 50% in some overheated cities, from a year earlier.

 

Their government is obviously worried, and trying to let the air out of the balloon in a very controlled manner. It has raised the amount of reserves its banking system must hold, thus discouraging excessive lending, raised mortgage rates and the size of required down-payments. Most dramatically it is now requiring 35-40% down payments on second homes in an effort to stop the rampant 'flipping' of realty for fast profits by speculators.

 

We have also seen lately that large global investors like BlackRock, the mammoth New York mutual fund group, and Boston's State Street Global Advisers, are among the sellers of Chinese stocks, BlackRock indicating it believes China's economic growth has peaked, that the efforts of the Chinese government to cool off its realty will have a negative effect on the overall Chinese economy.

 

The yield spread on $ 350 million of 13.5 per cent notes sold by Shenzhen-based Kaisa last month widened most of the nine issues, expanding to 16.52 percentage points from 11.07 percentage points. China property developers paid coupons as high as 14 per cent to issue dollar debt this year, compared with an average 9.2 per cent for other companies in Asia and 6.2 per cent for U.S. property companies. On average, Chinese property companies are paying a 10.875 per cent coupon.

 

A booming realty market has an amazing effect on economies, creating jobs and business for all manner of supporting industries across all spectrums like producers of construction, electrical, and plumbing materials, furniture and appliance manufacturers etc. Letting air out of the real estate bubble in China is definitely crucial, but it surely raises a lot of questions on China's overall economy, which is now more than important to fragile global economic recoveries.

 

China's situation at present quite resembles the Japanese situation in the late 1980s, when the authorities, reacting to the export slump due to the upward revaluation of the yen after the 1985 Plaza Accord, adopted a very low interest rate regime in order to boost domestic demand — and thereby created the conditions that led to an economic bubble. The question arises whether the Chinese economy, and its realty market in particular, is at risk for a similar asset bubble.

 

Additionally, over the last 14 years, China's economy has grown a whopping eight-fold, to $ 4.9 trillion, and it has quickly soared to become the world's third-largest economy. During the same period, the U.S. economy has only doubled in size. As far as currencies are concerned, the dramatic outperformance of the Chinese economy relative to the U.S. economy would normally be reflected in a much stronger Chinese currency.

 

But China controls the value of its currency. They allowed it to strengthen only 18 per cent during those 14 years — a mere drop in the bucket, keeping the advantage squarely in China's court. Moreover, since the financial crisis and global recession kicked in two years ago, China has returned to a peg against the dollar, artificially keeping its goods cheap for a weaker U.S. consumer and undercutting its export-centric competitors. Here's the problem: The global trade imbalance driven by China's cheap currency is a recipe for more frequent boom and bust cycles.

 

The economic tornados in the great Europe are more than enough potential problems to keep global investors busy, but the economic clouds potentially forming on the Great Wall of China also need to be carefully watched, which could ultimately slowdown the growth rate to 7-8 per cent.

 

Are the great bulls listening?

The writer is the CEO of India Forex Advisors

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

CASTE IN CENSUS MUST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

BY BUTA SINGH

 

Whether the census operations for the year 2011 should reflect the caste of India's citizens is hotly debated. Political parties, NGOs, social organisations and professional experts are airing their respective viewpoints through all channels of the media. A complete mess has been created over the issue. At the same time Parliament has failed to give any direction over the issue.

 

Ultimately, the Union Cabinet has constituted a Group of Ministers to ascertain a way out and bring before Parliament the decision of the Government of India for an appropriate solution of the problem. The Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and the backward classes have been provided special rights, privileges and concessions in about a dozen Articles which are included in the Constitution of India.

 

The Preamble of the Indian Constitution describes the resolve of the people of India in bold letters to provide for and secure to all Indian citizens justice, liberty,equality and fraternity. It was with these high ideals of universal human society to be established in India that the Constitution was drafted by Dr Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar and approved by the Constituent Assembly in 1950.

 

At the same time the framers of our Constitution realised that certain communities and castes were suffering from extreme social, educational and economic backwardness arising out of the age-old practice of untouchability and other factors such as primitive agricultural practices, lack of infrastructure facilities and geographical isolation. Hence, the need for special consideration and safeguarding their interests for the accelerated socio-economic development of these communities which were notified as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes as per provisions contained in Clause I of Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution, respectively.

 

With a view to providing safeguards against the exploitation of the SCs and the STs, as they were grossly handicapped in getting their reasonable share in elected offices, government jobs and educational institutions, it was considered necessary to follow a policy of reservations in their favour to ensure their equitable participation in governance.

 

For the effective implementation of various safeguards provided in the Constitution for the SCs and the STs, various other protective legislation and safeguards are provided under Article 46 which is meant for promoting the educational and economic interests of these castes and tribes with a view to ensuring social justice to them.

 

Article 17 of the Constitution of India is aimed at removing untouchability attached to the castes which are listed as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes under the President of India's order, in the year 1955 its practice was made an offence punishable by law known as the Atrocities Act of 1989.

 

The said Act also provides for special courts at the district and state levels, including monitoring machinery, which were constituted by every state government.

 

Article 23 of the Constitution of India provides for a ban on trafficking in human beings, including beggars.

 

Article 25 (2) of the Constitution of India ensures that all Hindu religious institutions are thrown open to all people without the consideration of caste.

Articles 15(4), 16-4(i), 16-4(A), 330, 332, 334 and 335 of the Constitution of India provide that all these rights are to be implemented in India keeping in view the percentage of the population of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

 

There is no way to find out the real percentage of their population without mentioning the caste in the census operation. The non-mention of caste in the national census will mean denying them their fundamental rights enshrined in our Constitution. I, therefore, caution the Government of India against entertaining any suggestion made by the political parties against the inclusion of caste in the census operations of the year 2011. Only strict implementation of this provision will meet the ends of social justice.

 

The writer is a former Home Minister of India

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

CHATTERATI
TAX RELIEF FOR ARTISTS

BY DEVI CHERIAN

 

The fashion frat is over the moon as the Mumbai High Court has ruled that designers are entitled to an income tax exemption given to other artists. Tarun Tahiliani was the most jubilant as he won his long-drawn battle against the Income Tax Department seeking relief.

 

Tarun is, of course, now a hero in the fashion industry. The designers feel that he has proved that designers have the same stature as artists. Rohit Bal, the king of fashion, has just got back from hospital after a heart attack. He hosted a party at his restaurant Veda in Connaught Place for his friends to appreciate Tarun's hard work and the tax gift to designers.

 

Tarun and Rohit Bal feel that showcasing their talent abroad is a legitimate means of carrying forward Indian culture and at the same time helps swell the foreign exchange coffers of the nation. Our designers are today appreciated in the West even as India is the flavour of the moment. A Rohit Bal ordinary T-shirt in Selfridges, London, can now cost you up to Rs 20,000 and wedding lehengas from our top designers can cost you up to Rs 10 lakh abroad. But all this has left most of the industry still in the cold.

 

ANDERSON BUDDIES ALL

Anderson, the Bhopal tragedy culprit, we all now know was flown in a government plane and set free immediately. Was this a responsible act? Personal friendships of businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats can go far above the law. Anderson's coffers at the time were open for politicians and the bureaucracy. His seven-star company guesthouse was often used by men in power. He funded charities run by politicians. Ruling politicians enjoyed his hospitality on holidays in America. So the use of official machinery to free a murderer was actually a return of past favours. Right after the tragedy, Rajiv Gandhi visited Bhopal and said in a speech that 'action' would be taken. Within five minutes Arjun Singh turned the word 'action' into 'compensation' and said that 'compensation' would be given. Unfortunately, the state government eventually made sure that there was neither 'action' nor 'compensation'.

 

Congressmen in Delhi carry cuttings of old newspapers where all this has been quoted. Everybody has come off badly in the aftermath of the tragedy; the government of the day, the investigating agencies and the judiciary. Will 93-year-old Anderson's extradition now heal the wounds of Bhopal? Why don't we concentrate on giving a larger compensation package for the remaining victims and ensure it is properly disbursed and then make tighter laws to prevent future Bhopals from happening.

 

LICENCE FOR A HIGH

Delhi-ites are cheering – cheers for the new licences to smaller eateries to serve beer and wine. Specialised eating places other than the five stars have always been a major draw for those celebrating high life. Today the true literate like to shun the more obvious five-star culture simply because it is so predictable. While hotels too have been forced to upgrade their dining facilities, the thrill of seeking the 'dice' is a gourmet's delight.

 

Now with the booze licences, 'sada Dilliwalas' will be able to indulge themselves fully. Will drunken driving and brawls explode as a result? Unlikely, say those who insist that Delhi must host Commonwealth Games like a global, grown-up city.

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MUMBAI MIRROR

VIEWS

MAKING RAVANS ON TELEVISION

DESPITE BEING ONE OF THE FEW DEVELOPED TV MARKETS, INDIA DOESN'T HAVE AN OVERARCHING REGULATORY BODY TO OVERSEE BROADCASTING ISSUES

NALIN MEHTA

 

 What is wrong with Indian television? The day before the India-Pakistan game, one news channel ran a blaring day-long promo with the headline, 'Lanka mein Ravan vadh' with Dhoni being depicted as Ram and Shahid Afridi as a 10-headed Pakistani monster. All right, George Orwell once argued that sport is 'war minus the shooting' but really, is this kind of mythological imagery acceptable as serious news? In a week when the Foreign Secretary goes to Islamabad for talks and the Home Minister will follow for another meeting, the stereotyping is a reminder of how juvenile some of our television news coverage can be.

The late foreign secretary J N Dixit once argued that the vast gulf between India and Pakistan came home to him one day when at a Pakistani host's dinner table, the child of the house ran in shouting "Hindustani kutta, kutta, Hindustani kutta'. His hosts were terribly embarrassed but the child was only repeating what he had read in his school textbooks. On this side of the border, maybe we don't have such textbooks but we do have a television industry with few controls and the propensity to produce all kinds of mindless programming in pursuit of TRP ratings. The Afridi as Ravan imagery can be dismissed as a bad joke but imagine the message it leaves for any children watching.

There is a deeper structural problem here. Part of it is that any discussion of broadcast reform in India gets stuck between two poles: the controlling impulses of a state always looking to turn the clock back and take back lost control and the need to maintain the independence of news television. For all its flaws, the creation of the Indian satellite news industry has been a landmark struggle unparalleled in the history of global news and the fear has always been that any attempt at regulation risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yet, some kind of a real watchdog there must be. In a different context, the untamed impulses of Wall Street's bankers that led to the global economic crisis are an example of what unbridled laissez faire can lead to.

Fifteen years after the landmark Supreme Court judgment that freed the airwaves, India remains the most unregulated television market in the world and while this suits the owners and the editors in their no-holds barred quest for revenues, the need for an unbiased oversight body comprising all stakeholders is being felt more than ever. What we have in the form of oversight today in news television is tall promises of selfregulation that are given with seeming sincerity but always fall prey to the weekly tyranny of ratings.
   Partly because of the unique manner in which the satellite television industry grew in its initial years as an illegal medium, there is still no overarching regulatory body to oversee broadcasting issues. There is no Indian equivalent of the American Federal Communication Commission and Indian broadcasting remains highly unregulated, stuck within a confusing maze of overlapping controls. For instance, India is one of the few developed TV markets with no cross-media ownership laws.

 In a sense, Indian television has continued to operate in a legal framework that is more akin to that utterly untranslatable North Indian word: jugaad. Jaipal Reddy's Broadcasting Bill of 1997 was based on British law after studying the broadcasting systems of six countries-USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Australia - and sought to create a new legal structure for broadcasting but disappeared into oblivion when the Gujral government fell. Priyaranjan Dasmunshi's draconian version of such a Bill is now on the backburner. Since the 1995 Cable Networks Regulation Act (which has limited uses), Parliament has only managed to pass one major broadcasting-related bill – the 2007 Act on mandatory sharing of sports feeds. And that only passed because of the immense drawing power of cricket.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has periodically tried to fill the regulatory vacuum with draft legislation and summary executive directives/notifications, most of these designed to assert its control. It has consistently tried to put the genie of broadcasting back into the bottle, even if the current dispensation in the Ministry appears relatively more benign.

War, they say should never be left to the generals alone. Television, similarly, is perhaps too pervasive an influence to be left entirely to the judgment of the industry alone. Otherwise Afridi will continue to turn into Ravan on TV.

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******************************************************************************************BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

BROTHERHOOD BENEFITS

AMBANI FAMILY TRUCE UNLOCKS RIL GROWTH POTENTIAL

 

Reignited fraternal ties, it seems, form the basis of Mukesh Ambani's dream to build an "ignited corporation". This underlying fact comes through very clearly from the growth strategy spelt out by Mr Ambani at the annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). "Think Growth" and "Think Transformation" while thinking of Reliance, said the backdrop to the stage where Mr Ambani posed for photographs. The growth that the elder Mr Ambani seeks now comes at least in significant part from business areas that had been given away, through a non-compete agreement, to younger brother Anil Ambani. The recent rapprochement between the brothers will enable the cash-rich elder brother to seek growth through investment in areas like power and telecommunication. In both sectors, the synergies are significant. The win-win deal between the brothers is based on the acknowledgment of the fact that the elder's cash will now be available to the younger Mr Ambani's plans and possibilities. The latter needs liquidity, the former needs growth opportunity.

 

The potential for synergy and growth also exists in areas like retailing where the elder Mr Ambani did not do very well in the past but can now benefit from the experience of the younger Mr Ambani, who has a proven track record in the retail business. The bottom line, however, is that while Mukesh Ambani has plenty of investible resources and needs new avenues for growth to deploy these resources, Anil Ambani needs the cash to grow his businesses. This is the kind of portfolio rebalancing that the shareholders of both brothers will be happy about. Perhaps there is some nervousness among shareholders that the rapprochement is not yet complete and irreversible. Which is probably why the stock market reacted with some concern when the younger Mr Ambani failed to show up at the AGM.

 

Mukesh Ambani, however, had good reasons for offering an upbeat assessment of his company's future prospects. Both in power and telecom, RIL can find new growth opportunities. It remains to be seen if RIL is equally lucky in retail having so far failed to make an impact. The elder Mr Ambani's strengths thus far have been in manufacturing and infrastructure, not so in services. It is the younger Mr Ambani who has done well in the services sector. What is clear, however, is that the coming together of the two quarrelling brothers can help not just their respective families but also their shareholders and, it seems, all the stakeholders. While the new brotherly bonhomie and the optimism about new growth prospects for the family's businesses give a whole new meaning to the concept of "inclusive growth", the Ambani brothers must pay equal attention to the challenge of the other contemporary buzzword — good governance. More so because if the two companies truly join forces, there could be the risk of excessive concentration of market power within one family. Given the size of the family's businesses, and the share of their market capitalisation in national income, it is imperative for India's future development that RIL and ADAG also acquire a sterling reputation for good governance. Mukesh Ambani's decision to borrow a term from former President A P J Abdul Kalam (Ignited Minds) suggests that his growth strategy is based on "unleashing the power within" — the book's sub-title. The new unity within the family, it seems, is expected at least in part to unleash this internal power, to the benefit of the shareholder.

 

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

SAVING SAVINGS

RBI'S WELCOME MOVE TO DEREGULATE INTEREST RATES

BUSINESS STANDARD / NEW DELHI JUNE 21, 2010, 0:59 IST

 

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been taking one step after another to protect the interest of the savings classes. Some weeks ago, it changed the formula for calculating the savings bank interest rate. Till March 31, 2010, the interest on savings bank accounts was paid on the minimum balance held between the 10th and 30th/31st of every month. With effect from April, 1, 2010, the effective rate of interest in savings bank accounts, under a new methodology, is calculated on a daily balance basis, instead of on the lowest available balance. Last week, RBI took yet another step by canvassing the idea that savings bank account interest rates be deregulated. The existing regime of a fixed rate for savings bank accounts, with the present rate being 3.5 per cent, has outlived its purpose. Indeed, the savings bank interest rate is the only rate in the banking system where an administered price still prevails. At a time when rates are likely to go north, there should be no concern that deregulation would drive down rates. Rather, there may be some concern in banks that competition will drive them up. The central bank should give flexibility to individual banks so that those that wish to adopt intermediate strategies of offering a minimum rate of interest up to a certain level of deposit and higher rates for larger deposits are allowed to do so. The existing system is based on discontinuity between current, savings and fixed deposits. This need not remain so. A current account can graduate into a savings account if account holders maintain some fixed minimum balance. That minimum deposit would earn a rate of interest that could rise as the fixed amount rises. Through such flexible methodologies banks can manage costs and make savings more or less attractive.

 

On the other hand, to deal with the problem of excessively low rates that might come to prevail when rates in general are on the decline, RBI can always specify a floor rate. This would protect small savers, senior citizens and other vulnerable sections from a precipitous fall in returns from a savings account. Indeed, as a transitional measure, deregulation can be accompanied by the specification of a minimum rate. India has a good story to tell on household savings and deregulation of rates can only further boost the overall savings rate. What deregulation will also do is to enable banks to come forward with new savings products meant for different segments of the household and micro enterprises savings market. Thus, rate deregulation can act as a spur to increased sophistication of personal banking.

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

SANJAYA BARU: RETROSPECTIVE RTI

CONFLICTING RECOLLECTIONS ON BHOPAL TRAGEDY HIGHLIGHT NEED TO MAKE OLD GOVERNMENT PAPERS PUBLIC

SANJAYA BARU

 

I was on the last unaffected train out of Bhopal that night, or so I was told. It was the Dakshni Express from Hyderabad to Delhi. There was nothing unusual at the station and next day in Delhi, I went through an entire working day unaware of that night's news. It was not the age of 24x7 television or mobile phones. News came to most Indians through the 9 pm broadcast.

 

In the days and the weeks following, and for months, the gas leak tragedy at Union Carbide's Bhopal plant was among the most important news stories of the time. It is, therefore, not surprising that so many people remember so vividly the events of that time. Even 85-year-old retired civil servants seem to have fairly good memory of what happened.

 

Yet, one cannot depend on memory alone for facts. Any modern government in this information age and knowledge-based economy should be able to marshal facts, figures and a record of decision-making based on documents and documentation available to it.

 

It is, therefore, in the fitness of things that the Cabinet Secretariat, the Prime Minister's Office and other wings of the government have unlocked almirahs, opened files and looked through records to find out who said what to whom and when in that tragic winter of 1984.

 

This information should be in the public domain so that there is informed public discourse on the rights and wrongs of the actions and the decisions taken by various functionaries of government, at the state and central levels.

 

Why should public opinion today be based on hearsay or selective memory? There is no need for anyone to worry about someone being made a scapegoat. There is no need for anyone to blackmail another with unpublished information. India is a modern democracy, not a banana republic. Let facts speak for themselves. People have a right to information!

 

Indeed. One of the great pro-people achievements of the government of the United Progressive Alliance is the Right to Information Act. Of course it is understandable that access to contemporaneous data on decision-making within government is subject to some limitations under the Act. Of course it is understandable that one has to file a petition seeking specific information for such contemporaneous information.

 

But, why cannot citizens have freer, if not free, access to information from the past. Most modern democracies have a 30-year rule. At the end of 30 years, a large part of government files get declassified. Barring what is still regarded as "secret" in the interests of "national security", most government papers become available to the public.

 

Such access has not only spurred scholarship and good research but has also contributed to more informed public discourse on government policy and national affairs. An informed nation is an empowered nation. It is also a wiser nation.

 

George Santayana has often been quoted as saying something like this: "If we do not learn from the mistakes of history, we are doomed to repeat them." The idea perhaps draws on Hegel's less hopeful view: "What experience and history teach is this — that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it."

 

It is in acknowledgment of such wisdom, and in recognition of the limitations of memory recall of retired government officials, and appreciating the importance of an informed analysis of government policy and decision-making that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh once observed, at a function where he released former Foreign Secretary Jagat Mehta's book Negotiating for India (Penguin, 2006):

 

"I am aware that serious scholarship in India on government policy is hampered by a lack of access to official documents. Several eminent scholars have mentioned this to me. In other democracies, after a specified period, scholars and researchers are given access to official papers. This has encouraged professional study of contemporary history and policy-making. In the absence of a policy on making government files publicly available, the best records we have of policy-making and thinking at the highest levels in government are to be found in personal memoirs of distinguished men and women in public life. I, therefore, welcome Jagat's contribution to our understanding of the major events in our recent history.

 

"However, I do hope that we do not have to depend only on memory and personal notes for a record of policy-making. I think the time has come for us to have at least a 50-year rule, if not a 30-year rule, that allows scholars and researchers free access to declassified official papers. I would like to have this issue examined so that we can take an early and informed decision. In the long run, this will make it possible for us to draw appropriate lessons from the past and make effective decisions for the future."(Available at pmindia.nic.in)

 

This was the prime minister in April 2006. The matter was examined in government. I have no idea what advice the prime minister was given by his officialdom and by his party, but no steps have been taken to make this prime ministerial wish come true. The time has come for the government to act on it.

 

The Bhopal gas tragedy was not the last industrial accident in India. India is a nation of death by accident — the country's roads, railways, fire accident-prone buildings, slums, public places and so on are all death traps. So, many from lowly municipal officials to larger-than-life politicians are culpable for this state of neglect.

 

Perhaps an honest and public review of how past accidents were handled will help handle future ones better.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

GIVE US A BREAK, MR PAREKH

IF THE BHOPAL JUDGMENT RESULTS IN INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS/CEOS/PLANT MANAGERS WAKING UP TO THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES, THAT CAN ONLY BE A GOOD THING

SUNIL JAIN

 

Ever since the Bhopal court gave a two-year sentence to those involved in the Bhopal gas tragedy, there has been a quiet chorus of support built up for the then Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) Chairman Keshub Mahindra in the form of newspaper editorials/articles — the latest to join this is the highly-respected HDFC Chief Deepak Parekh (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business-India-Business/Govt-shouldnt-hound-independent-directors/articleshow/6060691.cms). The broad points made by him, as well as various others, are easily summarised: 

 

   Mr Mahindra was the non-executive chairman of Union Carbide India and so couldn't really be held responsible since he had no day-to-day dealings with the company. 

  If he was held responsible as a director, surely the same should have applied to various government nominees on the company's board. 

  If you hound independent directors, people will never want to become independent directors; you may even find it difficult to get a CEO or a factory manager for chemical companies manufacturing hazardous materials... "The CEO of UCIL at the time of the accident was less than one year old in the company. When the site was selected, when the plant was put up there, when the designs were made, when the start-up trials happened, he had nothing to do with it... But the CEO has been indicted." 

  The chairman and CEO of BP were not arrested, instead a $20 billion fund was set up to clean up the environmental damage. Why does India need to arrest Keshub Mahindra?

 

Mr Parekh's arguments sound logical, but a few important points need to be made, apart from the fact that Indian company law does not distinguish between executive and non-executive directors — that's something the courts have done from time to time, as in the case of not prosecuting independent directors for bounced cheques.

 

One, the sheer scale of the tragedy in Bhopal makes it clear the case is very different from the ones involving bounced cheques (Nimesh Kampani and Nagarjuna Finance) that Mr Parekh referred to or even corporate frauds (Satyam) where the highly qualified independent directors were caught napping.

 

Two, if you read Justice Ahmadi's amazing "even assuming that it was a defective plant..." judgment that dramatically reduced the charges under which Mr Mahindra could be prosecuted, you'll see the kind of things that were happening were something even a non-executive chairman should have known about. And if he didn't, he had no business being there. The gas was known to be dangerous, so very strict procedures were laid down for how it was to be stored — at what temperature, what pressure, and so on. None of this was being done, possibly since the plant was to be dismantled and shipped out — the tanks were not pressurised, the refrigeration was not working, and a whole lot more. There is little to suggest that either Mr Mahindra or his colleagues even asked about these basic issues of safety — if they had, the correspondence would have formed part of the Ahmadi judgment. And this despite the history of accidents in this very plant.

 

Three, and this is linked to the previous point, there is no evidence that, with a few exceptions, independent directors have fulfilled their primary task of protecting the public interest. So, why make it mandatory to have such directors on any company's board? The so-called independent directors who get fees, fame and favours surely cannot be allowed to wash their hand of anything wrong the company does. If these directors offer great advice to the company or help give it strategic direction, why not hire them as advisers? Hiring marquee directors gives the public the impression that they are supervising the company — that's how several NBFCs have in the past raised hundreds of crores of rupees on the strength of their independent directors who later claimed no responsibility when the NBFCs ran off — while they're doing nothing of the sort. As for Mr Parekh's point about the judgment being unfair to the CEO of UCIL since he had been hired long after the design of the plant had been finalised, the obvious question is: Who is then responsible for anything? The designers will say the problem lay in the storage tank not being pressurised and the gas not being stored at zero degree Celsius!

 

Finally, the comparison with BP is inappropriate for a variety of reasons. For starters, there has not been a single human death in the BP case versus 15,000 or so in Bhopal, and a lot more affected by the gas — if there were any human casualties due to the BP oil spill, the story would have been very different. Second, whatever you might say about BP, perhaps due to US President Barack Obama's kick-ass stance, it has said it will do the clean-up and will pay all legitimate claims for damages, hence the $20 billion fund. In contrast, Union Carbide Corporation to date accepts no responsibility (see http://www.bhopal.com/faq.htm on its website). Even 25 years after the tragedy, it insists that there were no design flaws or any problems in the way the plant was run, and that the tragedy was an act of sabotage and the government of India knew who the saboteur was but refused to take any action; it says it never owned the plant, and that this was owned by UCIL, which was an Indian company, in which it owned just over half the stock (much is made on the website of the fact that the Indian public and financial institutions owned the rest), and that this stock was sold off to McLeod Russell in 1994. Operation wash-hands-of complete!

 

If the Bhopal judgment, contrary to Mr Parekh's fears, results in independent directors and CEOs/plant managers waking up to their responsibilities, that can only be a good thing.

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

IS SPECULATION GOD'S WORK?

SPECULATORS MAY PROVIDE MARKET LIQUIDITY, BUT THEIR ACTIVITIES ARE NOT IN LONG-TERM SOCIETAL INTEREST

A V RAJWADE

God must be idle these days as far as financial markets are concerned since there are so many people doing his work! Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, claimed recently that his firm is doing God's work — it is incidental that Goldman has been sued by US regulators for cheating his clients. (Goldman Sachs itself earns 80 per cent of its profit from trading — a euphemism for speculation.) This reminds me of the title of an article by Paul Murphy (Financial Times, March 13), "The truth about speculators: they are doing God's work". Clearly, the French president and the German chancellor were not only foolish, but anti-Christ, when they called on the European Commission to ban naked short-selling of sovereign bonds and trading in credit default swaps which curb speculation!

To be sure, speculators do play a role in creating liquid markets. Other players like hedgers, arbitrageurs and long-term investors are not enough to create continuous market liquidity and prices. Also, speculators sometimes play an important role in "arbitraging" away the difference between current prices and true values by selling or shorting an over-priced asset, or buying an undervalued one. This, obviously, does not happen always. Indeed, more often than not, they become trend followers rather than value players. One basic law of economics is: higher price of an asset — a share, or a dollar in currency market, etc. — should reduce its demand. This law holds good if the transaction is between the producer and the consumer: a rise in price of onions will surely reduce the demand for the vegetable from a housewife.

But this is rarely true in the case of a speculator as he looks upon onions as an "asset class", and is willing to buy them in the hope of a further increase in price. (In a more innocent age, such people were called hoarders). In their case, a price rise often increases demand, creating, for a time, a "virtuous" circle — higher price, higher demand, still higher price, still higher demand… virtuous of course for the speculator. The so-called "carry trade" is a good example of this. In any case, as Keynes said a long time ago, even otherwise it is better for one's reputation to be wrong in the company of others than be a contrarian! Therefore, to quote him again, "We devote our intelligences to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be." As for buying undervalued assets and selling overpriced ones to arbitrage the difference between price and value, and between different but similar assets within the same class, hedge funds were originally doing this. But, as Keynes said, "Markets can be 'irrational' for a lot longer than you can be solvent." LTCM and Amaranth, the hedge funds, found this to their huge embarrassment. Therefore, such an activity requires a long time horizon and low leverage. It is more "investment" than it is "speculation". The basic difference is to buy an asset for long-term returns, or for selling it at a higher price as soon as possible with no value addition.

I have two basic objections to considering speculation as "God's work". For one thing, unlike every other wealthy person who contributes to society by creating employment and producing goods and services, the speculator's value to society is often negligible. Yes, sometimes their activities do correct asset prices, and they provide market liquidity which is presumably in the long-term interest of the economy. Too often, however, speculation is "rent seeking". The other impact of speculative profits is to make society believe that "the path to riches lies in buying and selling pieces of paper rather than in making things" (Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times, May 16). As Keynes argued, "Speculators… may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation". Surely, not in the long-term societal interest, let alone being God's work!

Strikes in China

Is it a mere coincidence that a spate of strikes and hefty pay rises have been reported from China in the weeks preceding the G20 Summit? One doubts. In a way, this takes some pressure off China to raise the value of its currency — as does its rise against the euro in parallel with the dollar's as cost rises push up the value of the currency in "real" terms. That the wage rises were/are needed is another matter. The share of wages in China's GDP had not gone up despite very fast growth of the economy. The wage rises may also help increase domestic consumption and hence reduce current account surpluses. To be sure, the surplus as a percentage of GDP has halved over the last two years — during the global recession. But exports grew almost 50 per cent in May, and the politically sensitive US deficit has stopped falling and may well start growing again despite US exports to China recording 20 per cent growth. The softness in consumer spending in the US also has implications for growth and job creation; and creates political pressure to find somebody, preferably a foreigner, to blame! China is obviously a prime candidate.

avrajwade@gmail.com  

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

THE DEFINING ISSUE

INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS TO BE DEFINED TO MAKE POLICY INTERVENTIONS MEANINGFUL AS WE PREPARE FOR MASSIVE INVESTMENTS IN THE 12TH PLAN

VINAYAK CHATTERJEE

Why, you may well ask, do we need to define infrastructure at all? Well, a practical definition is required for the following seven reasons:

One, it is an umbrella word that is being loosely used to describe multifarious economic activities.

Two, serious financial interventions with public policy overtones are regularly being crafted. Examples include viability gap funding, easier norms for bank lending, insurance and pension funds being cajoled in this direction, infra-bonds, separate class of infra-NBFCs, and multi-billion dollar funds.

Three, taxation issues and tax breaks are designed to encourage activities.

Four, the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, 2009, provides for the sovereign acquiring 100 per cent land under "eminent domain" for the purpose of developing infrastructure.

Five, the nation measures its performance in terms of the GCFI (gross capital formation in infrastructure) as a per cent of GDP as well as in absolute numbers. We must know what it is that we are measuring.

Six, various bodies from the apex Prime Minister's Infrastructure Committee to state-level infrastructure boards must know their playing field.

Seven, the move towards a new legislative architecture to create truly independent regulatory authorities for infrastructure supposes that we know what we desire to regulate.(See table)

Attempts to define "infrastructure" use one or more combinations of the following characteristics:

(i)Essential inputs to the economic system

(ii)One-time lumpiness of investment; or high sunk cost

(iii)Natural monopoly

(iv)Non-tradability of output

(v)Economic versus financial return — the "externalities" argument

(vi)High asset specificity

(vii)Non-rivalry (up to congestion limits) in consumption

(viii)Network character

(ix)Content versus carriage

(x)Large land agglomeration projects with trunk-infra requirements

(xi)Public versus private goods

Pure economic theory has the ability to confuse and obfuscate, and practitioners will have to slice through the warm fuzz of theory to arrive at practical, workable definitions.

Here are some suggestions for our policymakers to think about.

A single unified definition of infrastructure should not be attempted. It is neither desirable, nor useful. Rather, the Indian reality suggests having five clusters as below:

Core infrastructure

This includes transportation (roads, railways, airports, sea-ports, inland waterways) and energy (generation, transmission, distribution).

Urban infrastructure

Water, sanitation, sewerage, urban-transport, city-energy distribution, transport terminals, warehousing and logistics parks fall under this category..

Rural infrastructure

This would include irrigation, roads, energy, cold chains, mandis and drinking water.

Land-intensive
Special economic zones (SEZs), industrial parks, new townships, industrial cluster development, IT parks, domestic economic zones, logistics and warehouse parks, and industrial corridors are a part of this kind of infrastructure.

Social infrastructure

Healthcare, education, leisure and entertainment, retail, tourism, housing, exhibition and convention centres, hospitality, IT, and telecom would fall under this category.

Public policy may be designed in such a way that each cluster is addressed in a different manner for providing support in line with specific requirements. Performance-monitoring cluster by cluster would also be more revealing and relevant.

Three clarifications are also in order.

First is universal intermediates. There is a school of economic thinkers who argue that infrastructure should be defined broadly to include"'essential inputs to the economic system". This argument would see plants and installations that produce coal, steel, cement, fertiliser, petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, (with possibly other minerals) included as infrastructure. Such "universal intermediates" should be left out of any infrastructure definition.

Second is carriage versus content. Water is content. But a water pipeline is carriage. Oil is content but an oil pipeline is carriage. A port is carriage, but a ship is content. A road is carriage, but trucks are content. There are many representations to the government where "content" businesses want to be defined as infrastructure. Here again, attempts to define infrastructure should stop at carriage and not include elements clearly in the content domain.

Finally, operations & maintenance (O&Ms) along with asset creation. Currently, much of the nation's focus is on asset creation. But, infrastructure is as much about making assets work smoothly as it is about meeting expected service delivery standards. Making infrastructure assets 'work' is the responsibility of operations and maintenance (O&M) companies. Dredging regularly is as important as building a new port. Maintaining stretches of roads and highways as well as collecting toll are as important as building a road. Running the water supply system of a city is as important as laying the pipelines and pumping stations. Therefore, infrastructure O&M activities must also be added to the definition of infrastructure.

With the run-up to $1,000-billion investment in the 12th Plan, the defining moment is now!

The author is chairman of Feedback Ventures Views expressed are personal

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

POWER PUNCH

RIL IN POWER, BROADBAND IS GOOD NEWS

 

THE most significant take away from the much-awaited Reliance Industries' (RIL) annual general meeting (AGM), the first since the Ambani brothers buried the hatchet, is chairman Mukesh Ambani's decision to participate in the whole value chain of the power business, spanning generation, transmission and distribution. 'Power is a natural and synergistic extension for RIL and it would be one of the growth engines for the company, the elder of the Ambani brothers told shareholders in Mumbai on Friday. Given that formerly estranged but now patched-up brother Anil Ambani is already in the power business, it might be tempting to read this a challenge to the latter. But that would be both hasty and incorrect. Our power deficit is so huge — estimated at 25,000 mw in 2008 — that there will be space for any number of new players. With energy a key input for India to make the leap from emerging to developed economy status, demand for power will long outstrip supply. And if RIL is able to bring its phenomenal execution capabilities to a sector that is 'crying out for transformational mega initiatives,' it could be a win-win for the company and the country. Much like General Motor's iconic head of yesteryears, Charlie Wilson's oft-quoted remark, 'For years I thought what was good for our country was good for GM and vice versa'. Energy shortfall has been our Achilles heel and there is no reason why we should not catch up with our Eastern neighbour to whom we have long played second-fiddle.
   No less significant is the commitment to spearhead the broadband revolution, another area where our market penetration (1%) compares poorly with most developed countries (60%). The asset-light, partnership-heavy approach in Infocomm services, following acquisition of a 95% stake in Infotel Broadband Services, should help the company create a nationwide network of next-generation wireless broadband services. Whether RIL will realise its vision of a much larger opportunity here than in voice telephony in 2001 remains to be seen. But if it does, it will once again be good news for the country. Either way, now that energy will not be frittered away in fraternal quarrels, shareholders can look forward to a more rosy future.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

GET BACK THE SWISS STASH

NOW THAT US HAS SHOWN THE WAY

 

THE Swiss parliament has supported a tax treaty with the US to end a damaging tax case against UBS, the largest Swiss bank by assets. This is a prudent move as it paves the way for Swiss tax authorities to disclose details of 4,450 UBS clients suspected to have hidden money from the US Internal Revenue Service. The US is, however, not the first country to compel Switzerland to part with 'confidential' information. Germany and France had also earlier forced Berne to do so. India should also step up pressure on Switzerland to disclose details of Indians who have stashed away money in numbered accounts. It should get Switzerland to exchange information with alacrity, though Swiss authorities have not been forthcoming in this regard. Germany, for instance, has shared information on names of Indians with accounts in LGT, a bank in Liechtenstein. Income-tax authorities only had to support their notices with proof. For years, Switzerland has taken shelter behind banking secrecy laws, making it impossible for foreign governments to pursue suspected tax evaders. This cannot continue. Berne promised to end banking secrecy after the G-20 turned the heat on tax havens last year. The OECD too is keeping a close watch on non-compliant jurisdictions.

   India has done well to renegotiate its tax treaty with Switzerland. It should ensure that Switzerland adopts the OECD rules on exchange of information in the revised treaty, without a rider. This will enable India to make inquiries in individual cases if tax evasion is suspected. The undisclosed deposits of Indians are estimated at over $1.47 trillion in Swiss banks alone. This is not small change. It is roughly the size of our GDP. The government, unfortunately, has not been resolute in tracking and demanding more information on these accounts from the Swiss. Taxing a slice of the unaccounted money would bolster revenues to meet the government's expenditure. It will also send a strong signal that tax-dodgers cannot hide behind Swiss banking secrecy laws any longer.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

ALLIES, NOT CHUMS

THE NITISH-MODI SPAT

 

THE vagaries and needs of Indian electoral politics, as we all know, can make the worst of bickering foes suddenly behave like polite characters. And, equally, allies might suddenly turn truant. Take the spat between Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. Now, the Janata Dal United (JD-U) and the BJP have been partners for long. But the publication in Bihar's newspapers of a picture of the two together has been enough to turn the whole thing into a farce. Nitish Kumar's reasons for being so upset with the publication of the advertisement showing him holding hands with Narendra Modi is supposedly the concern that it would affect the voting patterns in the assembly elections due later this year. Never mind the fact that their dalliance was on even during times of acute communal polarisation and violence. A photo of the two CMS together apparently is much more inflammatory. Appearances, after all, matter quite a lot in our politics. It is not necessary whether one actually does a particular thing. One must simply not be seen to be doing it. Thus, there was brouhaha from the JD (U) over the issue of being seen in the company of a man often called the Hindutva posterboy. Modi too, while attending the BJP's national executive meet in Patna, took a few digs about having helped the local people during the Kosi floods. Which, in turn was enough to make the Nitish regime return the Rs 5-odd crore that had been sent from Gujarat as aid.

Moral standards suddenly seem to peak in such situations. Quite like the JD (U) talking about a breach of etiquette by the BJP. And members of the latter party speaking of showing the smaller ally its due place so that the saffron party's "self-respect" is not compromised. So, is all this mere posturing? Or is the JD (U) actually saying it will continue to keep company with the BJP while not agreeing to some of its core beliefs, and shunning one its star leaders? That's the subtlety. A new spin on the idea of a marriage of convenience. Some unions don't need consummation!

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

BEWARE, 2010 IS NOT 2004!

WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT, IT APPEARS THAT UNLIKE THE DEVELOPED WORLD, INDIA REALLY DID NOT NEED THE KIND OF PUSH TO AGGREGATE DEMAND THROUGH LOOSE FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES, SAYS CHETAN AHYA

 

INDIA remains the best structural growth story in the region. The sharp pace of recovery reflects the strength of India's domestic demand-oriented model, which remains the best in the region. Low goods exports to GDP ratio of 15.5% (as of 2008) meant that the damage from global trade collapse was minimal in India. More importantly, for India, capital inflows linkages are more important than the goods exports. A quick turnaround in global risk appetite from April 2009 has played an important role in the pace of recovery. Growth momentum has remained strong beyond the initial period (F2009) of payback from weak growth during credit crisis

In fact, with the benefit of hindsight, it appears that unlike the developed world, India really did not need the kind of push to aggregate demand through loose fiscal and monetary policies. Preelection spending, wage hike for government employees and credit crisis related stimulus meant that consolidated national expenditure to GDP shot up by close to four percetage points between F2008 and F2010. In the context of actual trend in global growth and domestic demand in India having surprised on the upside, the withdrawal of stimulus has been very slow so far. After cutting repo rate by 425 basis points from the peak of 9% between September 2008 and April 2009, the RBI has lifted it up by only 50 basis points.

   Although, the central government will report a reduction in fiscal deficit in F2011, this has been largely supported by one-off receipt items like telecom license fees and divestments. The expenditure to GDP (including off-budget oil subsidy) will remain closer to the peak in F2011 and the aggregate demand push remains intact. Timely reversal in monetary and fiscal policies will not take away the momentum of private sector growth but a delayed exit will increase the risks of transient spike up in inflation rate and widen the current account deficit to vulnerable levels.

 A comparison to the 2004 rate hike cycle looks like the policymakers have been lifting policy rates at the same pace as they did in the initial phase of 2004 cycle. However, not only the growth acceleration has been at a much quicker pace this time but also the starting point of policy rates is much lower in the current cycle. Indeed, the fiscal policy exit was faster in 2004 cycle as the government was already cutting expenditure to GDP before the RBI started lifting policy rates. There are some key differences in this cycle versus 2004 cycle.

First, the capacity utilisation levels are different: Unlike in the previous cycle, when the recovery in growth gradually allowed adequate time for the private corporate sector to initiate capex plans, in the current cycle, the recovery in growth has been sharp and the business investment cycle was hit badly. Although, over the last few months investment has picked up, but for this work-inprogress to turn into commissioned capacity it could take about 12-15 months. As a result, the transition from low capacity to close to full capacity utilisation has occurred in a much shorter period.

Second, WPI inflation pressures may be similar but underlying consumer price pressures are different: The WPI inflation trend appears to be largely similar compared with that in 2004 cycle. Although, in this cycle the headline inflation has been higher than last cycle because of food, the fact that food prices have been persistently higher now for many months, the risk of this weighing on generalised inflation expectations is high as food forms a very large proportion of household consumption. Even food prices were to moderate, the high level of non-food WPI inflation (at 8.8% in May 2010) when capacity utilisation is becoming tight means that risk if generalised consumer price inflation pressures building up quickly is much higher in this cycle versus 2004.

THIRD, current account balance — deficit vs surplus: In 2004, when inflation had reached 8.5% y-o-y in August, IP growth had accelerated to 9% y-o-y during the quarter ended September 2004. The current account was in surplus of 2.9% of GDP (4-quarter trailing as of June-04) as a starting point. This large current account surplus is also an additional indicator reflecting that aggregate demand was low relative to capacity. During the 12-months, ending March 2010 the current account deficit has already widened to 3% of GDP as per our estimate.

Fourth, banking sector liquidity condition: Like in 2004 cycle, in the initial phase of recovery while bank loan growth is accelerating, deposit growth is indeed decelerating. However, the banking system loan-deposit ratio is already high at 71.1% as of May 2010. Considering that statutory liquidity ratio is 25% and cash reserve ratio is 6%, loan-deposit ratio is close to the levels where major rise in credit growth will result in significant tightening in interbank liquidity. In December 2004, the banking loan-deposit ratio was low at 62.5%. Over the next 3-4 months, bank credit growth can accelerate to 25% yo-y, while deposit growth will remain low in the range of 16-17% y-o-y, unless the RBI lifts policy rates at a faster pace.

 

 Fifth, asset prices: Another factor different from 2004 cycle is the trend in asset prices. Asset prices were subdued for a prolonged period of time until mid-2004. In this cycle, asset prices have remained closer to the peak after dip during the credit-crisis period.

 

 Bottom line: Considering that over the last few months the pace of policy support reversal has been slower than warranted, the upside risks to GDP growth and corporate earnings in the near-term has increased. However, at the same time the investors should watch out for rising inflation expectations and widening current account deficit in the near term. Any decline in capital inflows or a sharp rise in oil above $100/bbl would cause exchange rate depreciation — only adding to inflation pressure. Moreover, the size of the current account deficit will decide the shock to the domestic cost of capital in the event of the sudden stop in capital inflows. A big shock can hurt the domestic private investment cycle and corporate confidence, which the government appears to be aiming to boost right now.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

ET I N T E R A CT I V E

KRIS GOPALAKRISHNAN

 

'INDIAN IT'S GLOBAL REACH NATURAL'

JOEA SCARIA

 

WHEN he is not engrossed in strategising for his $ 4.8 billion company, Infosys CEO and MD Kris Gopalakrishnan keenly watches India's technology companies take centrestage in the global IT sweepstakes. And when he is doing neither, he ideates for improving the quality of university students or chalks out plans for the overall economic development of the South in his capacity as the chairman of CII's southern regional council. He holds forth on all these areas from his hometown, Thiruvananthapuram.

For all the noise that Indian technology companies have been making for well over a decade, the visibility and presence on the global stage are finally being acknowledged. "It's no more a case of Indian IT companies being seen as local companies with big turnovers, but global players in the true sense of the word", says Infy's CEO and MD. And that includes his company, for sure.

  "You can see a distinct trend of companies extending their footprints across the globe. And these are primarily because of two reasons: Firstly, there is the need to support clients and their businesses in languages other than English, for which a single-location operation will not suffice.

  "And secondly, there is the need to take advantage of time-zone differences. We are, after all, talking about 24X7 services and no company can afford to offer any less in a globally competitive arena".

 For Infosys, that global mantra is quite evident. "The company has full-fledged operations out of the Philippines, China, Poland, Czech Republic, Mexico and Brazil, and consultancy offices in 40 countries. It is all about multiple delivery capabilities in multiple locations", says Gopalakrishnan. A closer look at those locations reveals that it is a winning mix of locations that feature different languages and cost-effective operations.
   So then, why doesn't any major IT products evolve out of the Indian IT landscape, even as the industry thrives on the services conveyor belt? Being Indian IT sector's veritable spokesperson across the globe, Gopalakrishnan is well prepared to answer that one. "It is not that we are nowhere in the product sweepstakes. Look at two Kerala companies, IBS and SunTec, the former a global IT product brand in the transportation and logistics domain, and the latter a reputed name in the billing and payments area", says he, underlining his point about Indian tech companies, even those in the product domain, taking on a global stature in their outlook and being more than equal to their peers anywhere in the world.

 On the product front, he is bullish about Infosys' own banking product, Finacle. "It is one of the top three core banking solution products in Europe, and across developing countries and Asia-Pacific, and we have crossed $200 million in billings for Finacle in 2009-10. That is 3% of our business turnover and the products prospects are very good". There are also product solutions that are licensed to clients. "There are 'point solutions', for instance, that are a boon to many retailers. Often, there are operators who have multiple products and multiple vendors and they seldom have a comprehensive supply chain visibility. We see some of these clients becoming big over time, benefiting both of us".

 Gopalakrishnan knows only too well the difficult path for IT products to turn successful in the global arena. "Finacle is 23 years old", he says, making it almost as old as Infosys itself. What is imperative is that companies like SunTec, which operates in the billing solutions domain with an emphasis on the financial services sector, and Infosys itself, will have to keep pace with market and regulatory requirements, as they target to serve clients in different geographies.

 The exciting prospect of Indian IT turning a global brand has one serious flaw line, though: "A skill sets-gap is prevalent across the jobseeking spectrum in the country, that can be a drag on the industry itself. When poorlytrained students emerge from university, it puts additional cost on the IT sector by way of training, and thereby affects the industry's overall competency". The CII's southern region, headed by Gopalakrishnan himself, has commissioned studies on the issue, and made recommendations to state governments about the need to tackle the skills-gap dilemma. If that can be addressed, it should be sunshine times across international geographies for Indian IT companies, particularly in the backdrop of Nasscom projecting a 16% growth for the BPO sector this year. Infosys, too, will then be dishing out "flat world business secrets from a flat world company", as its home page suggests.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

FI NANSTREET

WHOSE 'INTEREST' IS IT, ANYWAY?

MYTHILI BHUSNURMATH

 

 NO, I am not thinking of raising interest rates now. There will be inflationary pressure till July, but this time I am not altering interest rates.' That the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), D Subbarao, speaking? No! That was finance minister Pranab Mukherjee speaking in Patna after data showed wholesale price inflation clock a record 19-month high of 10.16% for May 2010.

 

 But what is the FM doing talking about interest rates? Isn't that the RBI's domain? That is how it is in all mature economies; the finance minister is responsible for the government's fiscal policy — read, taxation and spending public money — while the central bank is responsible for monetary policy — read, interest rates.
   In fact the unwritten rule that the FM does not voice an opinion on interest rates (or exchange rates) is so deeply ingrained in mature economies that few would dare ask the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer or the US Treasury Secretary about interest rates.

 

 Sure, we are not as yet a mature economy. But aren't we aspiring to join the club? So why is anyone asking the FM about interest rates. More importantly, why is he answering something that is technically out-ofbounds for him and would not have elicited a response from FMs elsewhere in the world?

 

There could be two explanations. One could say, 'Ah, this is India, where no one, least of all ministers, has the time (or the inclination) for niceties.' Recall how more than one minister has held forth on issues outside his domain. So we had Digvijay Singh pontificating on the home minister's handling of Naxals, Jairam Ramesh on government policy on Chinese companies and Shashi Tharoor on visa rules. So the FM does not lack company in speaking out of turn.

 

 But there is another explanation; one that is closer to the mark! This is that for all the talk about the RBI being the monetary policy authority and setting interest rates, in truth, it is pretty much the government that calls the shots. Unlike the Bank of Japan or the Bank of England the RBI has never been independent; not even on paper.

Sure, the crisis has destroyed some of the myth of 'independent' central banks; but at least they enjoy operational independence.

The RBI, in contrast, does not have operational independence. Governors can, at best, counsel the government. If the minister of the day does not like that counsel the governor can persist, but ultimately it is the minister who calls the shots. That is the ground reality so Mr Mukherjee, perhaps, saw no need to beat about the bush on interest rates.

 

Indeed the shadow of the fisc over monetary policy often creates dissonance in policy formulation; as was seen during the tenure of the previous RBI governor and the erstwhile FM. And though there is no obvious rift between the present governor and the FM, it is apparent to any one who cares to read between the lines that the central bank and the government do not quite see eye to eye on the pace and timing of the exit. The bank would like to move faster towards 'normalisation' while the government, wary of what a higher rate of interest might do to growth, would like the party to continue.

 

Yet there is no way real interest rates can remain negative (as at present) without causing the economy to over-heat and stoke inflation. Mathematical models may have lost their relevance (save as a rough guide) but a simple calculation of appropriate policy interest rate using the Taylor Rule shows interest rates are way below what they should be. And have been so for a while.

 

 Which is why last week's inflation number does not come as a surprise. It has been apparent for a while that the RBI is dangerously behind the curve. Part of the reason could be that it was not able to convince the government of the need to tighten earlier and faster. But as the officially designated monetary policy authority, the bank's first responsibility (despite its numerous objectives) is to ensure price stability, even if it means ruffling the government's feathers!

 

 Just as the bank's 'obduracy' in the days before the crisis stood the country in good stead, there are times when the bank needs to stand firm. It knows, better than most, that monetary policy is a notoriously imprecise tool. It acts with a long lag, especially in the Indian scenario where financial markets are fragmented; we still have administered interest rates in some sectors and interest rates on government debt, that sets the floor for all other borrowing, is not exactly freely-determined by market forces.

 

 Hence the bank has to be proactive rather than reactive. It has to go that extra length compared to central banks elsewhere because of the peculiarities of our situation. But it has failed to do so. The end result is higherthan-warranted inflation.

 

 As a result we now have the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of inflation, year-on-year, not only among the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) but also among all major emerging markets, baring Pakistan, Venezuela and Egypt. The bank must take the rap for that.

 

An unwritten rule in mature economies is that the FM does not voice an opinion on interest rates (or exchange rates)
In India, in contrast, the FM has no such compunctions as the government often interferes in the RBI's domain
In such a scenario the bank must stand its ground & oppose the government, especially if it is to ensure price stability

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

CO S M I C U P LI N K

 

LET GO, OPEN UP; RECEIVE BENEFITS

K VIJAYARAGHAVAN

 

CECIL Frances Alexander's poem is a reminder to be open and receptive to blessings, which abound all over. Unwittingly or unknowingly though, one could easily be shut out from these, while with the needed receptivity and awareness, immense benefits could be had, as if for the asking.

 How then does one go about attaining this objective? Certain guidelines could be useful in this regard.
 Unwind and 'let go'. Comprehend the vastness and infinity of the cosmic creations. Feel thus the freedom from self-centredness. Regard for things and people around, the 'twice-blest' virtues of compassion (karuna, to use Patanjali's expression) and delight (mudita) in the sublime, which would naturally follow, would enable you to apply the spirit of the Biblical injunction (Philippians: 4, 6) commencing, "Be careful in nothing…" Experience thus release from grudges, withholds and needless anxieties, which verily are impediments to all progress.
   Obtain thus also that healthy imperviousness (upekshana) to all the "dreary intercourse of daily life", and get the needed 'space' for awareness, focus, receptivity and other supporting virtues to enter and take root. Instinctive awareness of even lack of awareness and feeling that joy in awareness of your own awareness would neutralise not only the recently inflicted stresses within, but also those accumulated over the years. Obtain thus the attendant benefits, leading to more and more rewards for life and light — a virtuous cycle.

 

In this new found state, be sensitised to soothing and healing vibrations which have always been there. The rivers would, as if, commence to run and birds to sing, with a lilting message. Even the act of taking a shower, feeling the waters washing down the stains without and those within too, would now be accompanied by delight and hilarity. Feel this in all activities — even those prosaic and routine ones, including even conjugal bliss and all healthful sensual involvements also.

Enhanced clarity, focus and intelligence, which would follow, would thus awaken the 'new you', marked by order, poise, effectiveness, creativity and capacity for sustained, useful and hard work. After all, this is the ultimate goal of all spirituality. Letting go, unwinding, opening up, being aware and attentive — these, thus, are the doorways to ultimate self-realisation!

 

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

WHY JUST ANDERSON... WHAT ABOUT THE REST?

The proceedings of the Empowered Group of Ministers do not inspire much confidence that the lakhs of victims of the catastrophic Bhopal gas leak will get justice. In fact, it almost seems as if a second betrayal is on the cards. There are reports that the EGoM wants the Madhya Pradesh government to bury and clean up the toxic waste. This is shocking at a time when, following a petition in the high court, a technical subcommittee of the task force for removal of toxic waste has placed the onus on Dow Chemicals USA, which bought Union Carbide in 2001. It said Dow should take the entire toxic waste to the US for remediation.
While compensation and the rehabilitation of victims are important, it is equally necessary that all those in Union Carbide India Ltd who were responsible for this outrage be brought to book. Warren Anderson is not the only culprit who has gone scot-free. It is important to bring Warren Womar, who was UCIL's works manager, as well as Robert Kennedy, who succeeded Mr Anderson as chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, to stand trial in India. Mr Womar had shut down the Bhopal plant's refrigeration system — used to cool the methyl isocyanate (MIC) — in 1982, two years before disaster struck. The only time he used to switch on the refrigeration was when this extremely volatile and noxious chemical MIC was being transferred into the scevin pot for preparing the pesticide. The operation manual, on the other hand, clearly mandates that MIC should be kept below freezing point at all times. When the disaster took place, there was no safety system in place. Mr Kennedy took key decisions on to the plant's design, and he was aware that its safety system was substandard.
The CBI, in a chargesheet filed in December 1987, had said it wanted to investigate the American officials involved as well as inspect UCC's pesticide plant at Institute in West Virgina. It wanted to demonstrate that UCC had used double standards: that the Bhopal plant had inferior safety systems. The CBI team, accompanied by a leading scientist, went to the US in November 1988, but was told by the US justice department to first obtain permission from West Virginia state.

The state authorities did not permit the visit. The justice department later granted permission, but it was too late. Coincidentally, on that day — February 14, 1989 — suddenly there was a Supreme Court-assisted $470 million compensation settlement between UCC and the Indian government. One of its conditions was quashing of all criminal cases, and due to this the inspection could not be carried out. The settlement — which incidentally was less than one-sixth of the $3 billion that the Indian government had initially demanded — was not the issue before the court. The issue was the Rs 350-crore interim relief granted by Bhopal's chief metropolitan magistrate, challenged by UCIL in the high court, which reduced it to Rs 250 crores, which in turn was challenged by both the Union of India and UCIL in the Supreme Court. This betrayal of Bhopal's victims by both the Indian government and the US multinational must now be undone by the EGoM.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

AN OPPORTUNITY LOST

BY DILIP LAHIRI

The Eighth Review Conference (Revcon) of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) at New York narrowly eked out a victory from the jaws of defeat before it closed recently. Cheerleaders have been busy extolling this success which, however, consisted of little more than producing a 28-page declaration which marked no real advance over past positions.

But it would not be fair to sniff at even this. It was felt that a show of unity would at least start the process of rehabilitating the NPT. The breakout of North Korea and the defiance of Iran were seen as demonstrations of the impotence of the NPT. The last Revcon in 2005 had collapsed without an agreed statement due to Egypt's outrage at the failure to move forward on its West Asia nuclear-arms-free zone proposal and developing nations' anger at the United States for refusing to reaffirm disarmament pledges made in 1995 and 2000.

A repeat of the 2005 collapse would simply not do. Neither the nuclear weapon states (NWS) nor non-nuclear weapons states (NNWS) were prepared to be held responsible for another breakdown.

Another factor working in favour of the 2010 Revcon was the considerable goodwill for US President Barack Obama on the nuclear issue, and the widespread feeling that he needed a successful NPT Review to encourage him to travel further along the road to the vision of a nuclear weapon free world that he had laid out in his Prague speech in April 2009.

Under the NPT transfers of nuclear materials and technologies to NNWS were to be confined solely to "peaceful purposes" under a system of agreed safeguards and inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In return, Article VI of the NPT requires that the five nuclear-weapon states should pursue nuclear disarmament negotiations in good faith with the ultimate goal of "general and complete disarmament". Dissatisfaction of NNWS at the persistent refusal of NWS to live up to their side of the nuclear bargain progressively sharpened acrimony.

An innovation of the 2010 Revcon was to separate the final declaration into two parts — the first a review of the operation of the NPT, which was merely noted, and the second, the conclusions and recommendations for follow-on action, which was adopted by consensus. While this made for a tedious document, it allowed steam to be let off by reflecting stronger positions in the preambular review, while more measured formulations which could command consensus were used in the operative part.

On nuclear disarmament, the NWS dug in their heels against any new commitments. Russia, France and Pakistan made clear that they saw a role for nuclear weapons well beyond deterrence.The NNWS were not able to extract a clear endorsement of working towards a nuclear weapons convention to outlaw nuclear weapons, as has been done for chemical and biological weapons. But the price the NWS had to pay for their hard-nosed attitude was inability to obtain endorsement of additional IAEA safeguards protocols, the crown jewels of the IAEA for targeting undeclared nuclear facilities, as the new minimum standard for nuclear trade.

There was also no agreement, as many NPT ideologues had hoped, on measures to hobble NPT members like North Korea from bolting from their NPT obligations under the withdrawal clause after benefiting from nuclear transfers as NNWS under the NPT. Instead of these central issues, the major focus of attention was on the concept of a nuclear weapons-free zone in West Asia, based on the unrealistic hope that this could constrain Israel to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and join the NPT as NNWS.

The idea had been proposed by Egypt in 1995 and became one of the essential parts of the deal to extend the NPT indefinitely. But the US has prevented any progress on this for the last 15 years. To its consternation this time, Israel found that the US did not block the proposal to hold a conference in 2012 on setting up the zone, and to appoint a facilitator. In addition, Israel was criticised by name for not being a party to the NPT, and for not placing its nuclear activities under international inspection. The US has since tried to placate Israel by pulling back from full endorsement of the conference proposal. So the Egyptian-led move may well turn out to be a pyrrhic victory.

Iran scored a diplomatic victory by getting off without being mentioned by name for non-compliance with IAEA safeguards. The reason was that Iran was prepared to wreck the conference on this issue, while the US and others were not. The Brazil-Turkey deal with Iran, which is attracting increasing support, has also blindsided the "Iran Six" and thrown the US off balance.

The importance of securing the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and starting negotiations on the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) was strongly emphasised at the Revcon. There was considerable frustration at Pakistan single-handedly holding up the start of negotiations on a FMCT in the Conference on Disarmament (CD).

Today only Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea are outside the NPT. Without being physically present, the shadow of these " outlier" countries hovered like Banco's ghost over the Revcon. NPT members are at their wit's end on how to deal with them. Israel was sought to be pressurised with the West Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. North Korea was roundly condemned and told it could never be designated a NWS. India and Pakistan are asked to join the NPT as NNWS in the preambular review but interestingly not mentioned in the operative conclusions and recommendations.

There have been periodic suggestions from international nuclear experts to recognise reality by co-opting non-NPT states with nuclear weapons through a separate protocol, with treatment akin to NWS without necessarily designating them as such. There is considerable resentment at the preferential treatment handed out to India, expressed most loudly by Iran.

The India-US civilian nuclear agreement and the endorsement of its provisions by the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the IAEA have brought India back into the international nuclear mainstream. Our civilian and strategic nuclear programme are now hardly affected by the NPT, with whose overall objectives India actually agrees. The regret is that the improved environment for nuclear disarmament was not utilised to make genuine progress at the Revcon.

- Dilip Lahiri is a former ambassador to France

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

POLITICISING PENURY

This is with reference to the report Nitish snubs Modi, returns Rs 5cr aid, June 20. Mr Nitish Kumar's returning of the aid extended by the Gujarat Chief Minister smacks of arrogance. Leaders should not play politics with the lives of the needy. All well-meaning people in the country, including political parties, must not support such behaviour of Mr Kumar. It is not Mr Modi's money, it is the succour extended by the Gujarat people for their suffering Bihari brethren. Mr Kumar's ploy to gain the Muslim vote by snubbing Mr Modi, seems foolhardy.
S.S Ravi

Hyderabad

Mr Nitish Kumar's gesture in returning the flood relief extended by Mr Modi gives an impression that political parties are gearing up for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Bihar. Mr Kumar has done the right thing to protect his secular credentials. He has timed his move well and should totally wean his JD (U) party away from the BJP and ally with a secular outfit like the Congress to fight the Assembly polls.

Sushil Pradhan

Secunderabad

The cartoon by Sudhir Tailang exposes the real intentions of Mr Nitish Kumar in returning the Rs 5 crore cheque sent by Mr Modi. Mr Sudhir has proved that a talented cartoonist can expose the vote bank politics of politicians by drawing just a few lines.

Routu Jagadeeswararao

Visakhapatnam

SAVE THE CHILD

This has reference to the editorial Spare the rod and save the child, June 20. The old dictum, Spare the rod and spoil the child has outlived its utility. Thanks to the media, today's generation of children is extremely intelligent and sensitive to their surroundings. Insensitive teachers are responsible for the deaths of children who commit suicide unable to bear the insult inflicted by teachers.

Rajasri
Hyderabad

MORAL CORRUPTION

This is with reference to the report Arjun puts Anderson issue in Centre court, June 20. Passing the buck is the favourite pastime of our politicians. Through its irresponsible behaviour, the Centre is rubbing salt into the sore wounds of the Bhopal gas victims. Our society has become so morally corrupt that politicians are raising an accusing finger at one another on the issue, relegating the grave tragedy into a blame game.

Shalini Sahay

Hyderabad

PROMOTE PPP POLICY

This has reference to the report AP wakes up to save Gods' abodes after Srikalahasti, June 20. Following the recent collapse of the Rajagopuram at Srikalahasti, the poor structural stability of various temples has gained significance. The state should come up a with a public-private partnership (PPP) policy for maintenance of temples, old and new.

Laxman Rao

Secunderabad

INDIANS MAKING MARK

The Indian community has certainly come a long way in the last 50 years in the United States, Record number of Indians in US polls, June 20. It is nice to know that the Indian community has a voice in the US and, hopefully, the benefits of which will be felt in our country. India has certainly arrived and these new-age politicians could well be our strong common ground with America.

Amarinder
Secunderabad

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

GOWDA CHANGES MIND, ARJUN DOESN'T

Has Mayawati's administration fallen 'sick'?

The Mayawati administration in Uttar Pradesh seems to be facing serious health problems if the findings of a group of NGOs are to be believed.

They recently organised a series of blood donation camps on the Blood Donors' Day in Lucknow and invited senior IAS and IPS officers to inaugurate them by donating blood themselves.

However, more than 20 officers claimed that they were suffering from diabetes and hence could not donate blood, and five excused themselves by saying that they had thyroid problems.

The rest said that they were under medical treatment for various ailments and not in a position to donate blood. Only two officers agreed to be a part of this noble drive. It is a wonder how the chief minister manages with such a "sick" bureaucracy.

Arjun's enigmatic silence

Only silence has emanated from the 17 Akbar Road residence of the veteran Congress leader, Mr Arjun Singh, who has come under direct attack from his partymen and the media for allowing Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson leave in 1984.

Though the electronic media has been camping outside his house after the verdict was delivered in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, Mr Singh has proved to be elusive.

But mediapersons are hopeful and OB vans of several channels have been parked permanently outside the residence of the former Union minister though he hasn't assured anyone of any soundbites on the issue.

The only result of the stakeout has been that the mediapersons have become friendly with the security guards at his residence. It does not look likely that it would yield anything else.

The show must go on

As the controversial screening of Prakash Jha's film Raajneeti showed, BJP leaders have a passion for Hindi films. During the earlier BJP government in Rajasthan, the then Chief Minister, Ms Vasundhara Raje, used to organise a film show with dinner on last day of the Assembly session for all MLAs. Not only MLAs and ministers, journalists also participated in such events.

This practice started a new tradition in Rajasthan politics of marking the end of every Assembly session with "entertainment".

A Muslim scholar recalls that Congress MLAs did not even bother to boycott the screening of Lakshya and dinner at the elite Entertainment Paradise in Jaipur in 2004 even when minorities were being attacked by the Hindutva brigade. The only person who is not amused with the practice is the present Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Gehlot, who says it gives the wrong message to the people. But a saffron leader quipped: "The show must go on".

Capitalism vs Socialism

With the JD(S) chief, Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, supporting the liquor baron, Mr Vijay Mallya, in the Rajya Sabha elections, old-time Gowda loyalist Mr Danish Ali, who was initially promised the seat, has reason to feel jilted.

Mr Gowda had even proposed Mr Ali's name to the Congress. But the Congress rejected the proposal, saying that the party had already fielded a minority candidate, Mr Oscar Fernandes.

Following this, Mr Gowda changed his mind and had decided to support Mr Mallya. This did not go down well with Mr Ali. When asked what went wrong, he quipped: "Capitalism has defeated socialism".

A raid in time

The recovery of Rs 14 crores allegedly belonging to R.H. Khan, a deputy director of the social welfare department, by the CBI has gladdened senior IAS officers of Assam.

Mr Khan, a junior officer (now languishing in jail), was a VIP. He was given six PSOs for his security and on many occasions when IAS officers were asked to travel by car, he got a place in helicopters with ministers and governors. He also used to decide the transfer and postings of senior officials.

Senior bureaucrats, mostly IAS and IPS officers, who felt slighted by all this and were biding their time, feel victorious after the raid.

They say privately that this was a lesson for the state government that was ignoring IAS and IPS officers and siding with junior officials to use them to siphon off public money.

Trouble seems eternal for Nityananda

Troubles seem to dog Nityananda, the Bengaluru-based godman, filmed inflagrante delicto with a Tamil actress and jailed for his antics.

Once out of the cooler, he decided to perform a Panchagni Tapasya Yagya to refurbish his image. The ritual is meant to wash off five sins, including visiting a prostitute, adultery and acts of perversion. But instead of using clarified butter aka ghee as is the custom, the swami chose kerosene, of all things.

His disciples sent off photographs of the swami performing the yagya to the media and they showed the sacrificial fire being kept up with kerosene! That too, blue kerosene, meant only for BPL ration card-holders.

The authorities immediately raided the ashram and confiscated the 180 litres of fuel. The ashram defended itself by saying that the kerosene had been donated by a loyal follower.

Mahabharat against Maoists

THE Chhattisgarh urban development minister, Mr Rajesh Munat has taken a leaf out of the Mahabharat to tackle the growing Maoist menace in the state.

Much in the same manner as the great warrior Arjun sought the help of Shikhandi (a eunuch) to vanquish the greatest warrior of Mahabharat — Bhisma — Mr Munat recently turned to the third sex for their blessings to crush the Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh.

Addressing the local Kinnar Samaj (eunuchs' society) at Raipur, the minister sought their blessings and good wishes in winning the war against the marauding Naxals. The minister also doled out largesse to them, including a housing complex for members of the society. Said one of Mr Munat's detractors sarcastically: "Finally the state government found a potent weapon to deal with the ultras".

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

THE HIGHEST TRUTH, RELATIVE EXPERIENCE

BY SWAMI TEJOMAYANANDA

In Gita, Sri Krishna explains to Arjuna two perspectives on his problem: the highest truth and that of relative experience. Lord Krishna repeatedly tells Arjuna to only be concerned with that which is the imperishable and true.

That alone by which all this is pervaded is imperishable, because no one can destroy that immutable reality (II:17).

The imperishable reality is the essence that supports the entire world. And this reality is pure existence; in fact it is our own existence. The Vedas proclaim Tat Tvam Asi "That thou Art!"

Therefore, do not grieve over anything perishable. Why cry over the inevitable? A wise parent said to a child who was crying over a burst balloon, "When we bought it for you we knew that it would burst". Similarly things like milk, medicines, and even machines have a limited life and become useless after that time. It is the same for this physical body, but the self is eternal.

The Sanskrit word deha (body) comes from the root dih meaning "that which is elastic, which is subject to expansion and contraction". Therefore, keep in mind that this body which may expand if you eat too much, or shrink if you fast, or even change size as you grow older does not belong to the self, which is beyond the modifications of the relative world.

Arjuna, the young prince, now begins to reason with Lord Krishna and he wants to know why he should become an agent of destruction if everything eventually perishes anyway. Surely he will incur sin by killing! Lord Krishna can see that Arjuna has not fully understood the teaching. Arjuna still considers himself to be the doer; the one acting in this world! Lord Krishna continues his teaching by saying: "There are those who consider this atman, the self, as the killer, or the doer of action; others think that it is killed. Neither knows the truth. For the self neither kills nor is killed" (II:19).

Arjuna felt he would be the cause of destruction, that he would incur sin. Thus, he was grieving over it. Lord Krishna says that this sense of "doership" that we all have is the product of ignorance. Doership superimposed on the real results in our identification with the body equipment. It is something like wanting to be the driver of a car. So in order to gain the status of a driver, there has to be the action of driving. We have to have a vehicle. First we have to sit in the vehicle and identify with it. We have to establish an association or relationship with the car. But that is not all. We may sit in the car as though posing for a photograph and never drive. To be a driver, we have to relate to the car and then act to move it in the direction that we want it to go.
Through this objective example we see that in order to have doership we must have the body (the sense organs and organs of action), the mind and intellect. Then we must identify with these and think: "I am this body", or "I am this mind and intellect". It is then that we will have the sense of doership.

— Swami Tejomayananda, head ofChinmaya Mission Worldwide, is an orator, poet, singer, composer and storyteller. To find out more about Chinmaya Mission and Swamiji, visit www.chinmayamission.com [1].
© Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

LEGISLATING LOVE

BY BY MAUREEN DOWD

SAN FRANCISCO

Everything about the climax of the legal quest to overturn California's ban on gay marriage was appropriately cinematic — even the month best to imagine two men atop a wedding cake or two women walking down the aisle.

"It may be appropriate that the case is coming to closing argument now", Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said with a twinkle. "June is, after all, the month for weddings."

The Federal District Court trial that seems tailored for a made-for-TV movie features the remarkable odd-couple pairing of two lawyers who have already been depicted in a made-for-TV movie, Recount, about their rivalry in another historic trial, Bush vs Gore. The conservative Ted Olson now prides himself on being "an honorary lesbian", and the liberal David Boies now prides himself on upbraiding US President Barack Obama for not pushing to give gays the same shot at marital bliss — and misery — that people like the President's parents got when inter-racial marriage was legalised.

Officiating from on high was the dapper and quirky, silver-haired, silver-tongued, silver-goateed Judge Walker, who would have been played in a 40s movie by Clifton Webb. The anti-Ito, Judge Walker moved the trial along without preening for the media, asking thought-provoking and occasionally droll questions of lawyers for both sides. Walker is something of a character who invites magicians to perform at the annual court conference and who once made a mail thief wear a sign that said: "I have stolen mail. This is my punishment". Heightening the dramatic possibilities, he is also, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, gay himself, which might give Prop 8 proponents ammunition to claim bias if he rules against them.

Chad Griffin, the gay former Clinton aide who is the strategic mastermind of the legal battle against Prop 8, is handsome, boyish and clever, right out of central casting with hip glasses and sharp suits.

In his two-hours-plus closing argument Wednesday, Charles Cooper, the slim, white-haired lawyer arguing against same-sex marriage, evoked the Paul Newman character in The Verdict, a man who was out of his depth against a superior legal team.

But Paul Newman was able to lift it in time to save his case. Cooper appeared not to have his heart in his endgame. He didn't even stay for the Q. and A. part of the news conference after court on Wednesday. Like he had somewhere more important to be in the middle of the afternoon following arguments on a landmark case?

His close was so lame that if you didn't know better, you'd think he was trying to throw the case. Maybe he was shaken by the fact that some of the defence witnesses had bailed, intimidated by the Boies deposition process. Another defence witness, David Blankenhorn, the president of the Institute for American Values, a group that studies marriage and families, inexplicably ended up helping the plaintiffs when he said that heterosexual couples have been busy "deinstitutionalising" the institution of marriage, and that adoptive parents are as good as natural parents. He also said that "we will be more American on the day we permit same-sex marriage" and give gays human dignity.

Cooper failed to reflect the fervour of the anti-gay-marriage proponents who frothed in 2008, direly warning that marital parity would cause moral damage, hurting children, helping the devil and destroying civilisation.

He tepidly offered an apocalyptic warning: "Without the marital relationship, Your Honour, society would come to an end". He blamed "irresponsible procreation" — even though heterosexuals are the more likely perpetrators.

At one point, Cooper was pressed by the judge, who said, "I don't mean to be flip", but went on to ask the lawyer what testimony in the case supports the proposition that the object of marriage is procreation.

Cooper said he didn't need evidence of that point, surprising the judge, and argued that, even if that was wrong, Judge Walker should uphold the law because the people of California had voted for the same-sex-marriage ban.

Walker seemed bemused, as he did through much of Cooper's stumbling close. "But the state doesn't withhold the right to marriage to people who are unable to produce children of their own", the judge said. "Are you suggesting the state should?" Cooper said no, failing to offer any compelling argument for discriminating against same-sex couples.

Olson was at the top of his game as he concluded the case and got a standing ovation from those watching the proceedings onscreen in the overflow room.

"And I submit, at the end of the day", he said, "'I don't know' and 'I don't have to put any evidence', with all due respect to Mr Cooper, does not cut it. It does not cut it when you are taking away the constitutional rights, basic human rights, and human decency from a large group of individuals".

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

THE KNIFE OF STALIN

 

CHINA is one of the last two States in the world strictly adhering to the Marxist theory while engaged in a seemingly wild capitalist path ('with Chinese characteristics' of course). But for the past 60 years, the Communist Party of China continues to rule supreme over the Middle Kingdom.

From time to time, China watchers have predicted the ideological and economic collapse of the Chinese empire, but despite many prophesies, Beijing continues its 'peaceful rise' and will soon reach the Number 2 economic slot behind the United States of America.

Chinese rulers are, however, anguished about the future of the Communist Dynasty. They are aware that, in the past, Heaven has withdrawn its Mandate to many dynasties, bringing disasters, famines, floods or earthquakes to different parts of the Empire and dethronement for the Emperors. This is why the State Council ordered in June 2006 an eight-episode TV research entitled Preparing For Danger in Times of Safety ~ Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. The project was given to no less than the Academy of Social Sciences, the prime government think-tank.

Later the party members were requested to watch the series and carefully study and 'discuss' the conclusions offered by the Chinese President himself. Hu Jintao affirmed: "There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin's knife and Gorbachev's open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism."

Party & the Republic

IN China, the party is the foundation stone of the People's Republic; if one day the party collapses, the apparatchiks in Beijing believe that chaos can only prevail. Arthur Waldron in a paper entitled Chinese Analyses of Soviet Failure: The Party in the China Brief of the Jamestown Foundation quotes from the film: "The message is that the Soviet party failed because it gave up the dictatorship of the proletariat, ceased to practice democratic centralism, criticised Stalin, was beguiled by Western concepts such as democracy, and also tripped up by Western propaganda and other operations."

Indeed, the film praised Lenin's theory, i.e. the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party. "After the victory of the October Revolution, Lenin led the Bolshevik Party in implementing the War Communism and the New Economic Policy, and conducted a painstaking exploration on how to build socialism in under-developed countries such as Russia," but also Stalin's work.

Though acknowledging the 'excesses' of Stalin, it states that his realisations will remain in history: "As time goes by, when we brush off the dust of history, people feel more than ever that Stalin's errors should never tarnish his position as a great Marxist and a proletarian revolutionary in history."

But then came the destroyer of the party.

On 14 February 1956, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) was held in Moscow. At night, the delegates were suddenly summoned back to the Kremlin by Khrushchev, the first secretary of the Central Committee, who presented the famous 'secret' report entitled On Personal Worship and its Consequences. The Chinese film says: "In the secret report, Khrushchev exaggerated Stalin's errors and expressed sharp criticism of Stalin. After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the Soviet Union launched a nationwide campaign criticising Stalin."

This was the beginning of the end. The party was condemned to death; as Mao Zedong said, "The CPSU had lost the knife of Stalin".

Without a knife, the Soviet Union could not survive. The script explains: "Young people in the CPSU grew up under Khrushchev's ideological influence [after the 20th Congress] …They were unfamiliar with the party's revolutionary tradition, and lacked firm beliefs in socialism. They were later known as the 'the babies born at the 20th Congress'. After the mid-80s of the 20th century, it was exactly these people who became the backbone that disintegrated the CPSU and buried the socialist system".

In the early 1990's, Gorbachev put the last nail in the coffin of the Soviet Union and the party. The film regretted: "A party that Lenin personally created; a party that led the Russian working class in overthrowing the reactionary rule of Tsarist Russia and successfully established the first socialist state under the dictatorship of the proletariat; a party that resisted the armed intervention of 14 countries and successfully defended the fruit of the revolution; a party that defeated Nazi Germany in the great patriotic war, and made great contributions to victory in World War II; a party that has made brilliant achievements in socialist development and was the first to send satellites into space; why, after 74 years in power, did it actually lose its ruling position?".

The lessons are crucial for China. Deng Xiaoping who wore the emperors' mantle after Mao's death knew it only too well. He set up an "open policy" at the end of 1978 as the only way to save the party. He knew that by opening the door to foreign businesses, he was offering the Chinese people the "glory of becoming rich". He could thus pacify the masses' frustrations after the Cultural Revolution and this, without encroaching on the supremacy of the party.

In the early 1980's, one leader could have been a Chinese Khrushchev; it was Hu Yaobang, the then Secretary-General of the CCP. When Deng realised the danger of democratic 'opening', Hu was quickly tackled from within the Politburo and sidelined.

Tiananmen Square

WHEN Hu died in April 1989, students gathered spontaneously at Tiananmen Square to mourn his demise. What started as an expression of grief, quickly turned into the massive pro-democracy demonstration. Tens of thousands occupied Tiananmen Square till the fateful night of June 3-4, 1989. The knife had to save the party. Deng decided to send in the tanks and massacre the students.

When one looks at the last 20 years of the history of the People's Republic of China, the 'knife'  has been the party's instrument for keeping its predominant position. Take the unrest in Tibet in March-April 2008. Beijing could have tried to understand the motivations behind the protests (it is what several Chinese think-tanks suggested), but the leadership decided to use disproportionate force and not take any chance.

The knife was again used in Xinjiang in July 2009 for the same reason; were the party to show weakness, it may have been wiped out   from "minorities' areas", so the leadership analyses. In the film, Gorbachev is criticised: "…to reform the party's guiding ideology according to the 'humane, democratic socialist' theory is to use the old theories of Western social democratic parties to replace the party's Marxist theoretical basis."
Beijing believes that this destroyed the Soviet Union. The present leadership does not want to fall in the same trap. It is the reason why the brutal regime of North Korea will continue to be supported, even at the cost of Beijing's image as a responsible world power. Today, Beijing confronts a serious dilemma: should it support the proletariat striking in several car factories in China or should the knife be used?

Without taking a clear position on the strike, The People's Daily recently stated: "The time has come to narrow the gulf between rich and poor which is stifling consumer demand". A few days earlier, Premier Wen Jiabao called on officials to take greater  care of migrant workers. The party has never walked on a tighter rope. The crucial question is, how long can the 'harmonious society' advocated by Hu Jintao, use a knife to survive? 

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

DELUSORY TRUMPETING

CHIMES ODDLY WITH REALITY

THIS is further confirmation of the existential dilemma. The government of West Bengal only deludes itself when it claims that the poor and the minorities are being provided with grossly "distorted" information about what it calls the "government's activities". The target group will firm up its impressions on the basis  of what has been achieved or empirical evidence, to borrow the terminology of social scientists. It isn't a matter of subjective reflection. In an exercise aimed at enlightening a critical segment of the populace, the state is set to go on a publicity overdrive. As reported in this newspaper, it will be launched  at a huge cost that has not been specified presumably because it is a non-budgetary expenditure. Misgivings that the "folders and booklets" ~ to be distributed free ~ might contain more fiction than fact are not wholly unfounded. And the PR blitz a year before the Assembly election is unlikely to help the government recover lost ground. It is scarcely a substitute for concrete action, of which there is little or nothing to boast of.  One facet of public policy that will be highlighted is the distribution of pattas that is said to have benefited 30 lakh people. That touching concern for ma-mati-manush was manifest largely in East Midnapore and Hooghly, and only after Nandigram and Singur imploded. The increase in the number of  madrasa students ~ from 3,000 in 1978 to 45 lakh in 2010 ~ is also being touted as an achievement. The short point is that this is only an index of the burgeoning  population and also, of course, the demographic change over the past three decades. Not that the course structure has changed; it remains fundamentalist despite the Chief Minister's repeated appeals for an updated syllabi.  

Above all, this belated anxiety to be forthcoming chimes oddly with the marked reluctance to disseminate and part with data under the Right To Information Act. Five years after the legislation was passed by Parliament, information on the perceived uplift will now readily be provided to suit the interests of the ruling party. And the task has been entrusted to the information department, under the Chief Minister's belt since 1977. The state information commission, formed under the Central legislation, gets further marginalised. This calculated trumpeting is unlikely to convince civil society, let alone the "poor and the minorities". It is the aam aadmi who is the best judge of what the government  perceives to be its "achievements". To fall back on folders and booklets only underscores the sense of desperation.

PROGRESS ON POSCO

WILL BENGAL DERIVE A LESSON?

IT is an achievement of the Orissa government as much as of agitators and with a lesson to be derived by counterparts of both entities in West Bengal. Five years after the state signed the MoU with the South Korean steel giant, Posco, the stalemate has ended with last Thursday's survey of the project area. The site, at Dhinkia in Jagatsinghpur district, has been the nerve centre of the agitation over land acquisition. It redounds to the credit of the government, the political Opposition and the Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) that they were able to reach a consensus on the survey as an essential prelude to the entry of the investor. Indeed, the ice was broken on 15 May when the Balitutha approach bridge was cleared of agitators. The concerted initiative, if delayed by five years, reaffirms that development cannot be stalled indefinitely by the Opposition and with destructive implications for the administration. Indeed, this is the first time in five years that the political initiative has been taken by the ruling BJD and the CPI, pre-eminently AB Bardhan, to break the deadlock. It is Bengal's misfortune that no such seriousness of purpose was manifest in 2007-08. Far from a palatable consensus on industrialisation, a bullheaded Chief Minister had to contend with a rampaging tigress. The experience in Orissa illustrates that political opposition to development is uniquely Bengal. Small wonder why the administration in Bhubaneswar has fared commendably in attracting investment.
The contours of Naveen Patnaik's agreement with the PPSS suggest that both sides were willing to reach a halfway house. The agitators acceded to the Chief Minister's request to allow district officials to conduct the survey. As a quid pro quo, Mr Patnaik has agreed to visit the site to acquaint himself with the ground reality that has provoked a five-year movement. The other concession is not to deploy the police during the survey. In contrast, one recalls how Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had stayed away from Singur and Nandigram for as long as he could; at any rate, till the worst was over. The indicators are now fairly positive. Hopefully, the agitators of Jagatsinghpur will call off their movement though the planned diversion of 3,000 acres of forest cover is likely to remain a thorny issue.

 
TREASURE TROVE

THE REDISCOVERY OF AFGHANISTAN

AFGHANISTAN has hit a pot of gold in a turbulent phase of its history. Such fortuitous developments shape the course of nations as do wars and militant strife. In a quirky reversal of roles, America, engaged in international policing for close to a decade, has discovered untapped mineral deposits worth $1 trillion in the volatile country that the Western world dismisses as a failed state. The surveys, conducted jointly by the Pentagon and the US Geological Survey, have yielded data that has been greeted with collective jaw-dropping by the rest of the world. What must remain an open question for sometime yet is whether the impoverished people ~ their patience sorely tried through years of turbulent strife ~ stand to benefit soon. Suffice it to hope that a country plagued by conflict and superpower intervention might yet emerge as one of the world's most thriving mining centres. And chiefly for lithium, an ingredient used for such totems of post-modern communication as laptops and Blackberries. Ghazni, for instance, is said to have the potential of Bolivia which boasts half of the world's lithium reserves. However "stunning the potential", as General David Petraeus, the US commander in overall charge of the Afghan war, described it, developing the mining sector will be no easy task. For one, the country's infrastructure has been shattered over the past decade, ever since George Bush resolved to "smoke out" Osama bin Laden from the caves. For another, its industrial potential has been undercut by the booming opium trade that generates billions of dollars. An intensive mining exercise is imperative if only to gauge the actual economic potential of the deposits. Till then the country may just be sitting on its treasures, as it did until the recent disclosure by the Pentagon. The battlefield scenario is doubtless another impediment.
The discovery will almost inevitably spur the "Great Game" for access to energy resources, with China as the key player. The unstated motive of the Anglo-American strategy may even be open to conjecture, and not wholly unfounded. Just as Iraq was invaded with an eye on oil reserves, so too might the average Afghan fear that Western powers are aiming at the underground treasures. That suspicion could be strengthened in view of the Pentagon's role in the discovery and the subsequent preparation of "mineral memos". In the net, the finding is bound to steel the Taliban resolve to protect the wealth of Afghanistan.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

HUMANS WILL BE EXTINCT IN 100 YEARS: SCIENTIST    

 

London, 20 JunE: An Australian scientist, who helped eradicate smallpox from the world, has created a new sensation by predicting that the human race will be extinct within the next 100 years.

Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has claimed that the human race will be unable to survive a population explosion and "unbridled consumption". "Homo sapiens will become extinct, perhaps within 100 years," Prof. Fenner said. "A lot of other animals will, too."
"It's an irreversible situation. I think it's too late. I try not to express that because people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off." He said that since humans have entered an unofficial scientific period known as the Anthropocene ~ the time since industrialisation ~ we have had an effect on the planet that rivals any ice age or comet impact, the Daily Mail reported. Prof Fenner also blames the onset of climate change for the human race's imminent demise.

He said: "Climate change is just at the very beginning. But we're seeing remarkable changes in the weather already.

"We'll undergo the same fate as the people on Easter Island... The Aborigines showed that without science and the production of carbon dioxide and global warming, they could survive for 40,000 or 50,000 years. But the world can't. The human species is likely to go the same way as many of the species that we've seen disappear." Prof Fenner, 95, has won awards for his work in helping eradicate the variola virus that causes smallpox and has written or co-written 22 books.PTI

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EASY WAY OUT

 

Soon after trading on stock markets ceased on June 4, the finance ministry made an announcement that public limited companies would have to raise the share of the public in their equity to 25 per cent over the next five years, at least five per cent each year. Translated into English, the reasons for the decision are three. First, the ministry thinks that greater dispersal of equity will lead to more stock market transactions; that will make the market more capable of absorbing large transactions and prices less volatile. Second, more trading will lead to "fairer" prices, meaning prices which are somehow more consistent with all available information. Finally, a larger number of shareholders will make price manipulation more difficult. The punishment for not complying with the ministry's diktat will be delisting.

 

As is usual with official commands, this one also has its escape clauses. Suppose that after a company has complied, it finds that its public holding has fallen below the floor. That is nothing to worry about; it can take a year to raise the holding to 25 per cent again. If, therefore, a crafty operator related to a promoter wants to manipulate prices, he should arrange to reduce the public float; he will then have a year to complete his manipulations. And companies whose initial public offer is over Rs 4,000 crore do not have to comply immediately. They can issue 10 per cent to the public, and then raise the public share by five per cent each year until it reaches 25 per cent. A third escape clause is unstated. If the share of the public falls below 25 per cent, nothing will happen immediately. Stock exchanges may write to the company asking for an explanation; the department of company affairs may issue a dire threat to the company. Then the company chairman can write an abject letter of apology giving plausible reasons for the default; when the manipulation is over, the company can comply with the rule again.

 

However, the biggest loophole in the rule is that public holding remains undefined. A negative definition is imaginable; for example, holdings of promoters or qualified institutional investors would not be deemed public holdings. If a promoter wants to increase public holding, all he will have to do is to find some friends and well-wishers whom the government considers public. So if the government is serious, it should manipulate the definition of the public. It should create a new genre of public mutual funds which cannot hold more than one per cent of a company's shares, invest more than one per cent of their assets in a company, or sell more than one per cent of their equity to a single investor. Alternatively, it should create a new genre of company in which promoters' and QIIs' holdings are always kept below 40 per cent.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

DONE IT AGAIN

 

The shift is imperceptible in terms of numbers, but so important that it should be celebrated every time. Shampa Bauri, a young teenager studying in the government school for rescued child labourers in Purulia, West Bengal, has said 'no' to marriage. In order to convince her parents, she had the support of her teachers, peers and the local labour officer. History is beginning to repeat itself in a surprisingly pleasant way. In Purulia alone, one girl after another has been refusing to get married before 18, insisting that they will complete their studies. Rebelling against their parents has taken courage and conviction. A little earlier, there was Ahalya Kumar, digging her heels in the way Shampa has done, although these girls come from the poorest of families and have to contribute to the family's sparse earnings. Their courage and confidence can be properly admired only with that background in mind.

 

Undoubtedly, the government's role in Purulia in educating the girls in the newly-established schools for child labourers has been remarkably positive. The government is also being helped in this sphere by the Unicef. This has given Purulia a head start, and girls like Rekha Kalindi and Afsana Khatun have become role models for other girls from similar backgrounds. Some of them, whether 12, or 13, or 14 years of age, have got together as child activists to encourage others like themselves to resist early marriage. But girls elsewhere are becoming vocal too. Padma Ruidas in Bankura, taken out of school to work as domestic help in a neighbour's house, calmly wiped the vermilion off her forehead as soon as the police arrived at her marriage venue following her call for help. Superstition is losing its hold over the girls of a new generation, whose earliest lessons in horror, as Padma, Ahalya or Rekha have said, come from the fate of their older sisters — married, miserable and sometimes producing "dead babies" long before they are 18.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

EYE ON THE MAIN CHANCE

INDIA'S PROSPEROUS CLASSES JUST WANT TO GET RICHER

ASHOK MITRA

 

The Japanese island of Okinawa was occupied by the United States of America's troops towards the tail end of World War II. The Americans set up a major marine base there. The marines, an integral element of the conquering power, romped all over the island. Apart from plundering prize fish hauled in from the East China Sea by hard-working fishing folk, their particular target was nubile girls, with whom they misbehaved with impunity. The Japanese authorities, defeated in war, shell-shocked by the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and with an economy struggling to get back on its feet, had to lump the indignities.

 

The US decided to transfer the sovereignty of Okinawa back to Japan in 1972, but with a catch: the marine base at Okinawa was to stay. The nightmarish days of the islanders therefore did not end. Young girls continued to be annoyed by the marines. Resentment against the marines built up; bit by bit; it turned into no less than a mass upsurge, initially centred in Okinawa but gradually sweeping across all of Japan. The Liberal Democratic Part of japan, which had ruled the country uninterruptedly since General MacArthur's departure, was however keen to play down the problem. Industrial oligarchs who dominated the party knew which side their bread was buttered; it would not do to pick a quarrel with the US on the skimpy issue of the occasional raping of fetching damsels by bored marines. The American's were, after all, Japan's most important trade partners.

 

The attitude of the national government added to the frustration of Okinawans even as it irked a wide cross section of democratic-minded people in mainland Japan. The frequency of incidents of skirmish between the marines and the local population kept multiplying. Several rape cases were filed in the civil courts against the American ratings, but dispute regarding the jurisdiction over inmates of a foreign military base proved intractable.

 

The long reign of the LDP came to an end last year in the country when the Democratic Party of Japan vanquished it in the polls. Two factors were at work to render possible what till then had been considered impossible: economic woes brought about by the global recession and, equally important, the DPJ's pledge to close the American naval base in Okinawa. This pledge touched an emotional chord in huge sections of the electorate. It was almost a vote for the liberation of Okinawa.

 

The DPJ has had limited success in its battle against recession; the unemployment rate is still disturbingly high, but exports have slowly picked up. Getting rid of the American base in Okinawa has turned out to be a different story. Japan is, if no longer the second, at least the third largest industrial economy in the world; it is a valued member of the elite G-8 group of nations, its clout in both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund is much greater than that of China or India, it has never strayed in international discourse away from toeing the American line. And yet, on the demand for removing the US naval base in Okinawa, neither its economic prowess nor its formal political sovereignty has been of any avail. At the height of the anti-draft agitation in the 1960s, American youth, reluctant to go to Vietnam, would rent the sky with the full-throated chant, "Hell, no,/ We won't go." The US response to the notice served on them by the new Japanese administration to quit Okinawa has been identical: no, the United States will not oblige; Okinawa may be Japanese territory, Japan may be a fully independent and an economically powerful nation, the Americans could not care less; never mind the electoral verdict of the Japanese people, Okinawa will remain an American naval base, maybe for eternity, just like the one at Guantanamo in communist Cuba.

 

It has been a terrible loss of face for the Japanese people. Their sovereignty, they have realized, is putty clay in the hands of the world's mightiest power. Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the DPJ and the prime minister who had entered office with such pride and confidence last year, has resigned, acknowledging failure to keep his pledge.

 

The Okinawa episode has obviously wider implications. Is a sovereign nation not entitled to have the fullest ambit of authority over its own territory, or is that too subject to American benediction? Globalized India has of late entered into a strategic alliance with the US. Indians, bathing in the luxury of a number of economic windfalls globalization and proximity to the US have gifted, are loving every moment of it. Are they, however, ready to admit that there could be issues in international involvement which go beyond crass economic gains? For instance, should not the Okinawa affair, leading to the fall of a country's prime minister and raising disturbing questions on the limits of sovereignty of a formally independent and economically advanced country be a matter of some concern for Indians too? The treatment meted out to Japan by the US ought to send a shiver down the spine of other countries which have agreed, or are being pressurized into agreeing, to the setting up of American military bases purportedly for fighting more effectively the war against 'global terror'. India, everybody knows, is in this context already on the American radar. Indian indifference to studying the implications of the Okinawa affair cannot, therefore, be alarmingly baffling. A small item tucked in an obscure corner of the newspaper, that is all. No ponderous editorial article, no agitated discussion on the television channels, silence on the part of politicians and political parties, the urban literati who get worked up on such themes as environmental pollution and animal rights are mum. The shape of the argument appears to be as follows: Okinawa does not directly — and immediately — concern us; we may be global citizens, we are however a choosy lot, we are global only to the extent our own economic interests — and that too, short-term interests — are involved; the philosophy that coming events cast their shadow before does not detain us.

 

The same attitude is revealed with regard to the Israeli attack on a Turkish flotilla carrying food and medicine for Palestinians blockaded in the Gaza strip for weeks on end. This atrocious act, causing an unknown number of deaths, has evoked anger across the continents. But apart from a small official press note issued in New Delhi regretting the excesses committed by the Israeli navy, there has been hardly a flutter in India. What Israel has done may be a heinous crime, but we better keep quiet, we have struck some profitable defence deals with Israel, why jeopardize those? The Indian media have by and large gone along with this official view. Some sections of the press have actually poked fun at the protest rallies the Left parties organized against the Israeli government.

 

Or consider the attitude of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The Asiad is a miniature, Asian version of the Olympics, which is being held this year in Beijing; countries in the continent compete in various events. Cricket has been included for the first time; every other cricket-playing country in the continent is participating, but not India. The BCCI will instead send the Indian team elsewhere, pursuant to its commitments to the International Cricket Council. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh too are members of the ICC, but they have no trouble accommodating participation in the Asiad in their schedule. India is different: for its cricket team and those who guide it Asiad has no attraction. Following Olympic rules, it offers only some junk medals, no hard cash in the manner of the bonanza of the ICC fixtures.

 

The Indian establishment —and its mainstay, the upper and upper middle classes — have globalized themselves, but only to the extent it helps them to gather pelf. And they know whom to pick as global friends. Multinational corporations with bases in the US — in the genre of the Union Carbide Corporation — are loaded with money, several windows of opportunity to amass extra wealth will open up if these corporations decide to invest in India. So go easy on the Bhopal calamity, no foolish talk of trying to extradite Warren Anderson; 15,000 and some more had perished at the altar of Union Carbide, but they were poor people, their deaths do not matter, the prospect of getting rich and still richer, in case foreign investors come gushing in, does. The nuclear liability bill, ruling out criminal liability of foreign suppliers and trivializing the extent of civil liability, is drafted with similar lofty thoughts in mind. Globalized India has its eye only on the main chance.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

THE LONG WAIT FOR JUSTICE

GWYNNE DYER

 

In the aftermath of the bloody events on the aid ship, Mavi Marmara, where nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed by Israeli commandos on May 31, Israel has set up a judicial inquiry into the affair. Since the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who chose the members of the inquiry, has already described the victims as "violent Turkish terror extremists" on a "ship of hate", some people doubt that the investigation will be impartial.

 

On June 15, the second inquiry into "Bloody Sunday" in the Northern Irish city of Derry, where 14 civil rights marchers were killed by British paratroops on January 30, 1972, delivered its report. The first people to see it were the relatives of the victims. On the whole, they seemed satisfied. The British inquiry was chaired by Lord Saville, a former high court judge. Since the inquiry involved the British army, the other two members were senior judges from New Zealand and Canada, not from Britain. And the Saville inquiry's report was utterly damning.

 

It said that none of the casualties had guns, and that the paratroops gave no warning before they started shooting, and a number of soldiers afterwards "knowingly put forward false accounts in order... to justify their firing". The report also said bluntly that the soldiers had lost their self-control, "forgetting or ignoring their instructions and training, and failing to satisfy themselves that they had identified targets posing a threat... There was a serious and widespread loss of fire discipline". Neither their commanders nor the British authorities wanted to kill innocent people, but they were to blame for it nevertheless.

 

Bitter truth

 

If a similarly impartial tribunal inquired into the events that occurred aboard the Gaza-bound aid ship last month, it would probably come to identical conclusions. We know enough about confrontations where none of the soldiers or police dies, but lots of the demonstrators/rioters do, to understand the psychology and the crowd dynamics of it. That impartial inquiry would probably conclude that there was a "loss of fire discipline" among the Israeli commandos. It would also probably find that few, if any, of the activists had weapons, or acted in ways that justified killing them.

 

All of this may come to pass in Israel — in 2048, 38 years from now. Because that is how long it took the British government to get from the Widgery report, which was produced only months after the "Bloody Sunday" massacre, to the Saville report. Lord Chief Justice Widgery's report in 1972 was a shameless cover-up that blamed the victims: "There is a strong suspicion that some (of the dead and wounded) had been firing weapons or handling bombs." And, of course, it exonerated the soldiers.

 

Those lies stood for 38 years, which is why the first people to be shown Saville's report this week were the victims' families. It won't bring the dead back to life, but it is a reckoning of sorts. The British government is a slow learner, but it does learn.

 

Israel has appointed ex-supreme court judge Yaakov Tirkel, retired Israeli army officer Amos Horev, and Shabtai Rosen, an Israeli professor of international law, to the current inquiry, but the only two foreign members are observers who have no vote, so this will probably be Israel's Widgery report. There may be an Israeli version of the Saville report eventually.

 

Who knows? By 2041, only 38 years late, the United States of America may even hold an inquiry into the "loss of fire discipline" by US paratroops in Falluja in 2003; the massacre of Sunni Arab youths sparked off the Iraqi resistance to the American occupation of Iraq. But not yet. Sovereignty means never having to say you're sorry. Or at least not for a long, long while.

 

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

FIRST EDIT

BODY SHOP

'INDIA SHOULD ACT DECISIVELY TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM.'

 

A US state department ranking of countries' performance in addressing the problem of human trafficking has put India on a Tier Two Watch list. This means that India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. It is the seventh year in a row that India figures in this list. India has been described as a source, destination and transit country for trafficking. Many in the country are likely to respond defensively to the poor ranking. They will argue that the ranking by the US government is motivated and aimed at embarrassing or pressuring India, that the US should not meddle on India's domestic issues, that human trafficking exists in the US too and so on. However, it is not the US alone that is pointing to the seriousness of India's trafficking problem. Last year a report brought out by the National Commission for Women (NCW) said that at least half of the 612 districts in the country are affected by trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation, with around 2.4 per cent of the total female population in the 15-35 age group in the country affected by commercial sexual exploitation. UN agencies have been routinely calling on India to act decisively on trafficking.

'Human trafficking' is slavery. It condemns its victims to extreme suffering and a lifetime of exploitation. A woman or child who is trafficked into the sex trade for instance is forced to pay a major part of her earnings to the brothel owner. Even if she is rescued, rarely is she accepted back into her family or society. Lacking the means of survival, she feels compelled to go back to the sex trade. Not acting to halt this exploitation is unconscionable.

India has anti-trafficking laws but rarely are these implemented. Children who are bonded labourers are rescued once in a while and brothels are raided sometimes. But convictions of those behind the trade are rare. It is well known that trafficking rackets are patronised by the rich and the powerful, including politicians and police. This is a multi-billion dollar global business — the third largest illicit industry in the world. It requires concerted effort by all countries to dismantle this industry.Instead of turning defensive over international censure of its enormous trafficking problem, India should act decisively to address the problem. Denying the severity of the problem will not make it go away.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

SECOND EDIT

FLAWED REPORT

'OFFICIAL INQUESTS, WHEREVER HELD, ARE DILATORY EXERCISES.'

 

One important fact about the inquiry by a retired Canadian Supreme Court judge John Major, into the explosion aboard the Air India Kanishka flight over the Irish Sea in June 1985, is that the report has come 25 years after the incident. As many as 329 Indians had died in the bombing, which was one of the major acts by Khalistani terrorists. A delay of 25 years in arriving at some conclusions about the tragic incident takes away something from the value of the report. It was an official Canadian investigation and the lesson perhaps is that official investigations, wherever they are held, are dilatory exercises. Justice M S Liberhan, who probed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, did a quicker job in India.

The findings of the commission also have a familiar ring. Major has indicted the Canadian government of the day and the country's security establishment for their many lapses and incompetence which led to the terrorist action. The failures are, in fact, universal. Both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service had prior information about the conspiracy. Both failed to act because there was no co-ordination among them. The commission found that "a cascading series of errors contributed to our police and security forces failing to stop the bombing". It has also found that the country's security system had not learnt many lessons from the 'atrocity' and is perhaps as disorganised even now as it was then.

The Indian government had received some criticism after the Kanishka bombing. But to be fair to the government, it could not have done anything to prevent it. The bomb was made in Canada, and the bombers were based there. The onus was on the Canadian government to bring the culprits to justice. That has not been done. Only one person, a mechanic who assembled the bomb components in British Columbia, has been convicted for the conspiracy and the crime. Two others who were charged for murder and conspiracy were acquitted by the British Columbia Supreme Court for lack of evidence. That means that the crime still remains unsolved. The commission has called for the creation of an independent body to recommend appropriate ex-gratia payment to the bereaved families of the crash victims and for distribution of the relief amount. The moot question is whether that is any relief after 25 years. Bhopal has other names, though less toxic.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

MAIN ARTICLE

POLITICAL ECONOMY OF A TRAGEDY

PEACE ON SALE IN BHOPAL?

M J AKBAR

'Does the plan panel have a secret account for emergencies like a sudden outburst of public opinion?'

 

Here are answers to the questions you no longer have to ask. First: how long would deputy chairman of the planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, protégé of the prime minister, ranking leader of the World Bank Alumni Association and senior advocate of multinational corporate interests, have taken to send Rs 983 crore to Union Carbide or Dow Chemicals if Bhopal's workers had killed the plant, rather than the other way around? My guess is 983 seconds. Ahluwalia would have probably sent the funds by wire.

The Madhya Pradesh government made a request for Rs 983 crore as additional compensation for the rehabilitation of gas victims. Ahluwalia could not find the money in 2008. When, in 2010, public anger at 26 years of injustice — not from Carbide, or Dow Chemical, but from Indian courts and brazenly insensitive Delhi governments — reached a crescendo, Ahluwalia discovered the money in 983 seconds, and released it quietly, a few hours before the first meeting of that desperate vote-saving device called the Group of Ministers.

Why was there no money two years ago and why is there money today?

Money was never the problem; Ahluwalia and his masters simply did not care for the gas victims. They were far more worried about the health of Dow Chemical, which was threatening to teach India a lesson for not eliminating any hope for liability payment from the company that had bought Carbide. Gas victims do not participate in discussions between India and American industry.  They can't speak English, and don't live in Lutyens bungalows, so how would they understand the exchange rate between Delhi and Wall Street?

Does the Union government have Rs 1,000 crore lying around in petty cash, which an upwardly mobile bureaucrat can pick up whenever he chooses to? Or does the Planning Commission have a secret account for emergencies like a sudden outburst of public opinion?

Officially, no: all expenditures must go through due process and find a claim on the national budget. But there is lots of moolah available from diversion; if you can't dip your hand into the holy Ganga, there is always a quiet tributary teeming with fish. Each year, many departments cannot actually spend their allocated money and therefore return unspent portions. The minorities ministry has been notorious for finding ways in which it can avoid expenditure. In any case, a Union government can always find money if it wants to.

Why did the Madhya Pradesh government wait 24 years before it asked for Rs 983 crore? Why not in the first 983 days? Or in the next thousand days? Why wait for over 8,000 days?

Primary motivation

The snail-pace of the system is the easy, but bogus, answer. Over the last quarter century, Congress and BJP have shared power in Madhya Pradesh for about an equal number of years. They have offered a range of chief ministers from the charismatic to the useful to the voluble to the forgettable. Irrespective of their comparative merits, each CM has  been motivated by one primary desire, re-election. That is the basic propulsion machine of our democracy, as indeed of any other democracy. The great tragedy of Bhopal is that it never became a game-changer in electoral politics, either in India or in the state, and so politicians simply did not care enough about the consequences of their indifference or malice.

A decisive general election was held within four weeks of Bhopal, but the mood of the voter in 1984 was shaped  by the martyrdom of Indira Gandhi and the youthful promise held out by Rajiv Gandhi. Congress won every seat in MP, and very nearly every seat in most of the country. Five years later, it was Bofors, to be followed by Mandal and Ram Mandir. Life moved on. Bhopal's dead, as happens so often, became a vague memory, a cause limited to activists rather than national purpose. It has taken 26 years for Bhopal to enter the political narrative, which is why Opposition parties are reactivating their comatose limbs, and government is discovering money that it could not find for a quarter century.

Will Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hold Ahluwalia, or anyone else, accountable?

No.

Why?

The UPA government and its fulcrum, the Congress, believes that this is only another passing storm, albeit one of unsuspected turbulence. They can see the storm becoming a gale, with a couple of tornados hidden within the chaos. They have probably allotted private codenames: Tornado Digvijay, Gale Rasgotra, Storm Narasimha, and perhaps even Irritating Disturbance Singhvi. Hurricane Arjun (Force 4) is still to break, although, if it follows traditional patterns, it will veer and dissipate before hitting landfall. By the summer of 2011, Congress hopes, Bhopal will return to that old backburner, and a general election will still be a thousand days away.

It must be praying that Rs 983 crore will buy at least 983 days of peace.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

IN PERSPECTIVE

SOUTH AFRICAN FREEDOM'S BLARING HORN

BY ROGER COHEN, NYT

People have unrealistic expectations. You don't erase the effects of a half-century of apart-heid in a generation.

 

When assessing nations, there are statistics and then there are the intangibles. Inflation and unemployment don't tell you much about patriotism, optimism and the sense of shared identity that make or break societies. South Africa is a case in point.

I spent part of my childhood in a South Africa that marked my imagination because it combined light and shadow as no other place: a succession of sunlit afternoons in gardens of avocado trees and jacaranda punctuated — as you drove from one barbecue ('braai') to the next — by glimpses of ragged blacks being herded into police vans.

"I supposed they don't have their passes," some relative would mutter and the mind of a London-born child of South African parents would wrestle with what that meant.

Gradually the white supremacist apartheid system came into focus. It was about denial — of skills to blacks, of mobility to blacks, of a living wage to blacks, of the very humanity of blacks. In the mind of the Afrikaner, with its Biblical justifications for oppression masquerading as separateness, the black majority was good only to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water" — if that.

This South Africa of my youth saw the world as 'anti-TWOL' — a silly acronym for a so-called traditional way of life. Among these 'traditions' was branding inter-racial sex a crime. Cataclysm always loomed. The imagined bloody end of an unsustainable system was not the subject of small talk but a lurking spectre.

Breaking away

And here we are, two decades after Nelson Mandela walked out of captivity, in a South Africa hosting the most-watched sporting event on earth, the World Cup, and doing so in a spirit of unity that has blacks and whites alike draped in flags, blaring on the plastic horns known as vuvuzelas, and rooting for the 'Bafana Bafana' — the boys.

The team is mediocre. South Africa will probably become the first host nation ever to fail to qualify for the second round. That would be sad but in the end immaterial. This particular World Cup is political. It is an affirmation of a nation's miraculous healing, of African dignity, and of a continent that deserves better than those tired images of violence and disease.

"The country is going to the dogs," — I still hear it as I heard it long ago in different guise. What did I say about statistics? There are plenty of them.

This is still a country where only 60 per cent of dwellings have flush toilets, where an estimated 6 million people are HIV positive, and where unemployment runs at 25 per cent. High walls — and 3,00,000 private security guards — testify to high murder rates.

 

To all of which I say: People have unrealistic expectations. They want to fast-forward life as if it were a gadget. You don't erase the effects of a half-century of apartheid in a generation. 'Non-racialism' — President Jacob Zuma's commitment — is not the state in which South Africa lives, any more than the US does.
Still, what I see is grandeur: a country of 49 million people, 38.7 million of them black, 4.5 million of them white, the rest mixed-race or Asian, that has held together and shunned Zimbabwean unraveling or Congolese implosion. Do not underestimate the South African achievement.

I sat in a packed stadium in the capital, Pretoria, as a vuvuzela crescendo greeted the Bafana and a white woman led 11 black kids onto the pitch. The horns fell silent for the Uruguayan national anthem. When South Africa lost 0-3, the response was dignified, peaceful: the intangibles of nationhood.

Let's talk vuvuzela for a moment. Players have complained. Facebook pages are dedicated to banning it. Ear plugs are selling briskly among European fans. Intolerable horns! This is actually Africa. The horn sounds to summon. From the kudu horn made from the spiral-horned antler to the plastic horn is not such a great distance.

The vuvuzela carries powerful symbolism. Rugby, the traditional sporting stronghold of the white Afrikaner, has shunned it. Soccer, dominated by blacks, has embraced it. Yet today Afrikaners flock into black Soweto to watch rugby and whites and blacks both carry their vuvuzelas into World Cup games. I'm sorry, French players will have to suffer their headaches: these are not minor political miracles.

The other day I was talking to a distant relative, an economist named Andrew Levy. He said: "I don't fear for my life, and that's the miracle of South Africa. I say hello to a black in the street and he'll say hello to me in a friendly way. I know I might get killed in the course of a robbery, not because I'm white, not because they hate me, but because there's poverty. I'm a patriot in the end. I love this country's beauty. And when I see the unity and good will the World Cup has created, I believe we can succeed."

IHT

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DECCAN HERALD

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

TEACHING LESSONS

BY VINITHA KRISHNAMURTHY

Everybody in school wanted to do well for Miss June's sake.

 

Every June at the start of the new academic year, a mixed bag of children congregate at school. The confused, anxious and scared faces of some younger ones in new, oversized uniforms always remind me of my childhood new-school fears. As a five-year old I thought school was miles away from home, located in a different suburb of the Bombay of the 70s. The building was huge, classrooms packed with students from that neighbourhood.
The only attraction was our standard 2 class teacher, Miss June, who everybody thought was the most wonderful lady around. She wore a friendly smile, red lipstick, minis and high heels. When she had her shoulder-length hair fashionably permed, we simply gawked in admiration. I don't remember her ever raising her voice. She taught everything except art, music and PT and everybody wanted to do well for Miss June's sake.

In contrast, Miss Irene whose bark was supposedly worse than her bite, taught English in standard 5. Actually her gentle sarcasm served to correct silly mistakes. And our class of 60 talkative tweens sat in pin-drop silence when she read out the chapter on Nancy's death from 'Oliver Twist'. I simply had to excel for 'Miss Irene's sake'.

Sometime ago, nostalgia made me look up the school website. I couldn't find a list of teaching staff and presumed that such a huge school must have too high a turnover for the website to keep track. Then, out of curiosity I clicked on the link for photographs of the staff. And there they were, smiling at me... Miss June's hemline has come down to below her knee and Miss Irene looks a little thinner.

If they are still there after almost three and a half decades they couldn't have been more than 21 years old when they taught us. After graduation both must have walked into the closest neighbourhood school to teach. They probably acquired the mandatory BEd on the way. Or maybe they just learned on the job that, love of the subject and good teaching notwithstanding, children do best if they idolise their teacher.

`          

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

A FLOATING SYMBOL OF FAILURE

Samar Alhaj, a Lebanese lawyer and female activist with ties to Hizbullah, proposes transforming women into "the new secret weapon" against Israel.

That's why, says Alhaj, the ship Mariam – named after the Virgin Mary – which is slated to set sail from Lebanon to challenge Israel's naval blockade on Gaza, is making room for ladies only.

"We are [all] women in order not to give the thieving enemy [Israel] an excuse to use arms against the ship," Alhaj told a local Israeli Arab-language radio station at the weekend. "The [Zionist] entity…will be defeated by women that will come on the boat…We don't have Scud missiles or any other missiles and you will see what they will do to us."

UNITED BY their hatred for Israel, Sunni, Shi'ite and Christian women from Lebanon, the US, France, Britain, Japan, Kuwait and Egypt hope to present a particularly thorny challenge to Israel's predominantly male naval force, who will have to contend with a boat full of "the gentler sex" on the open sea resolved to force their way into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Alhaj and her colleagues know that video footage of almost any rough physical contact between IDF forces and the women would cause further enormous damage to Israel's already much-battered image.

Though it has the trappings of a feminist endeavor, this new flotilla could not be farther removed from the egalitarian ideals of feminism. According to the Guardian, the organizers, which include Hizbullah, rejected a request by Haifa Wehbe, a Miss Lebanon runner- up and popular singer, to join. Wehbe's "nudity, degradation and immodest dress" would "damage the reputations of all Arab and European women on board," Hizbullah sources reportedly said.

For those uninitiated into a culture of honor killings and face veils, it is not immediately clear how Wehbe's participation could damage the reputations of her fellow sea-goers. But apparently, for Hizbullah, even Israelbashing takes a backseat to misogynistic religious extremism.

PERHAPS THE banning of Wehbe also has something to do with the cover song of her popular album Baddi Eesh [I want to Live], released after the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, which is about "freedom, considered to be the most basic of human rights," according to an explanation provided online.

Wehbe's song was a reflection of the hopes of the hundreds of thousands (perhaps over a million) of Lebanese who took to the streets in protest against Syria's stranglehold on Lebanon through its security forces and through Hizbullah, its Iranian-backed proxy.

Known as the Cedar Revolution, the spontaneous grassroots uprising led to the resignation of Omar Karami's pro-Syrian government and Syria's effective withdrawal from Lebanon in April 2005, just two months after Hariri's assassination, which, it was said, was perpetrated by Syria. It seemed for a short time that Lebanon would be the first Arab country in the Middle East to embrace a liberal democracy.

But the freedom from Syria's influence was short-lived.

In the wake of the Second Lebanon War, Hizbullah has reasserted its control. Wehbe, in Lebanon's best political tradition of knowing when to change sides, has publicly praised Hizbullah for protecting Lebanon from Israel's aggression.

It should come as no surprise that Alhaj, who is cynically exploiting female vulnerability to delegitimize Israel, has ties to Hizbullah. Her husband was one of four high-ranking military figures arrested under suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Hariri. After being jailed for four years, he was released due to a lack of evidence.

On May 22 the Alhajs – husband and wife – met with Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who has recently called on Lebanese to break Israel's blockade by sending flotillas to Gaza.

Lebanon might still prevent the Mariam from attempting to break the Gaza blockade. The Arab daily Al-Hayat quoted Lebanese sources at the weekend who said it was illegal for a vessel leaving Lebanon to dock in an Israelicontrolled port.

Hopefully, Lebanese officials will regain their senses and stop the ship. Then the very idea of dispatching the Mariam will merely remain another symptom of the tragic failure of Lebanon's Cedar Revolution.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

 

THE REGION: OBAMA'S FAILED POPULARITY STRATEGY

BY BARRY RUBIN

 

In a cost-benefit analysis of the administration's apologetic foreign policy posture, the costs to the US far outweigh the expected benefits.

In critiquing the Obama administration, I don't mean to suggest that it has no reason for wanting to please Arabs and Muslims. It is, after all, one of its highest (sometimes seemingly the highest) priorities. Unfortunately, in practice, this approach has often meant flattering the more extremist forces in those groups and giving short shrift to the more moderate among them.

This strategy isn't a conspiracy; it just doesn't correspond with the realities of the region.

The main factors inspiring this effort in terms of foreign policy – in contrast to ideological premises about America itself – are as follows: 1. The hope that Arab governments will help the US extricate itself from Iraq and ensure there is a stable regime there that is friendly to America.

Leaving aside US efforts within Iraq, there is no visible payoff on this issue.

Even relatively moderate (Sunni-led) Arab states are keeping the (Shi'ite- and Kurdish- led) Iraqi regime at arms' length while still favoring Sunni rebels. Syria continues to back Sunni terrorists in every way and if their effectiveness is declining, that's not due to Syrian moderation but to US and Iraqi defensive efforts.

So there is no particular dividend that the Obama administration's policy has gained for the US in Iraq, or Afghanistan for that matter.

2. The hope that Arab governments will help the US against Iran, especially in trying to stop Teheran from getting nuclear weapons and, if that fails, containing Iran.

Clearly, some effort is needed here to assure basing rights. Yet here, too, the policy makes little difference. Arab regimes need US protection against Iran and want American weapons for themselves.

No matter what the US says or does, Arab state policies (except for pro-Iran Syria) remain the same: In private, they hope that Iran will somehow be prevented from getting nuclear weapons; in public, they say little and do less.

At the same time, though, Arab states are also intimidated by Iran (especially given their perception that the Obama administration is weak), and worried about internal subversive forces and their rivals portraying them as lapdogs of the West. They also know that nationalist and religious sentiments run high, in part because these same governments have long encouraged them.

Thus, their help will be limited no matter how much Obama tries to persuade them that he is a nice guy, sorry for the past and not too close to Israel.

3. The hope that if sufficiently soothed, flattered and appeased, Arabs and Muslims are less likely to join or support anti- American terrorist groups. Here, no doubt there is some limited success, very limited.

Al-Qaida has been weakened more by US offensive actions and, in some cases, regime repression than a pro-American shift by the population.

People join revolutionary Islamist groups for a variety of reasons but basically because they want the transformation of their own societies by an Islamist revolution. Anti-Americanism is a very secondary factor for the vast majority of these recruits. The key point is that they are against their own governments and accept an Islamist interpretation of the world.

 

4. The hope that the US can stay out of crises, including Israeli-Palestinian, the struggle over power in Lebanon, the intervention of Syria and Iran backing terrorists in Iraq, of Pakistan backing terrorists in India and others. Obama succeeds in avoiding such entanglement, but the cost is that there are victories for revolutionary Islamists (Hamas entrenches itself in the Gaza Strip; Syria recaptures control over Lebanon; Hizbullah becomes stronger; Iran and Syria can intervene in Iraq and kill Americans there without cost; moderate regimes lose faith in America; etc.). The failure to impose costs on radical states, the openness to engaging Islamists, the posture of weakness and apology makes the radicals more aggressive and confident.

5. There is also some domestic advantage for Obama, who can argue that he has made America (or at least himself) popular and reversed the armed engagements and anti-Americanism that developed during his predecessor's administration.

AND YET even here, the last fortress of the claim that current US policy makes sense is under assault. According to the latest Pew poll, Arab and Muslim positive views of the US are down. In Egypt, the numbers are even lower than during the administration of George W. Bush. The attitudes toward Obama himself are also extremely low.

 

This is true not only in the Arab world, but also in Pakistan, where the administration has poured in billions and given virtually uncritical support to a regime that is not all that helpful in fighting anti-American terrorists and eager to help anti-Indian ones. Just 17 percent have a positive view of the US, and only 8% of Obama himself. He's even less popular than is America as a whole.

And what effect has Obama had in trying to prove the US isn't really a leader but just one of the guys? The number of people in the world who think that the US is multilateral has gone up only six points, from 26% to 32%. Among those who support the administration, there is an assumption that the whole strategy of apology, empathy, the Cairo speech, the Istanbul speech, the distancing from Israel, the redefinition of the "war on terror" into a narrow "war on al-Qaida" has brought benefits. Yet it is rather difficult to define precisely what those benefits have been.

The costs of this policy are much easier to measure.

A key element in this strategy has been to distance the US from Israel and to bring it closer to Iran, Syria and Islamist groups. Ironically, this has also meant in practice a reduction of support for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, pro-Western forces in Lebanon and all the other Arabs who want US protection against the radicals. Perhaps, then, if even the popularity strategy has failed the US should think of a strategy based on such traditional diplomatic concepts as credibility through strength, support for allies, imposing prices on enemies and showing real leadership.

The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of Middle East Review of International Affairs and Turkish Studies. He blogs at www.rubinreports.blogspot.com

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

COLUMN

REALITY CHECK: NETANYAHU'S WEAKNESS, OUR DIME

BY JEFF BARAK

If the PM couldn't even issue a statement of support for the rule of law in the face of the petty Emmanuel standoff, the chances of his standing up to the haredi parties on issues that really affect their way of life are slim indeed.

Seeing the photograph of the haredi father from Emmanuel tenderly saying good-bye to his children before making his triumphant entry to prison last week didn't bring tears to my eyes. Having had to say good-bye to my children on a regular basis as I left for reserve duty for up to a month at a time, I don't regard a two-week stateenforced absence from the family home as an overwhelming tragedy on a par with czarist or Bolshevik persecution.

Who knows, just as I found my reserve army duty as a chance to mix with people outside my normal social circle, perhaps the 35 haredi men will find their incarceration in a low-level security prison an opportunity to expand their cultural horizons. But probably not, and that's a shame.

 

Very little good has come out of the High Court's decision to jail the men, and a little social mixing between these haredi fathers and the secular inmates would at least begin to open up lines of communication between two very different segments of the population.

It's important to remember that despite the mass demonstrations, minute-by-minute media coverage and front-page photographs, last week's jailing of the Emmanuel parents is not a watershed in Israeli democracy. It is more a classic example of two sides scampering up a tree without checking whether the ladder is still there when they need to climb down.

As the dust settles, the haredim have gained nothing except a certain amount of self-satisfaction by challenging the High Court, while the court needlessly allowed itself to be dragged into petty arm-twisting. It's a shame that on Sunday the High Court failed to revoke the mothers' prison sentences, postponing their decision for another couple of days and thereby allowing the issue to continue festering.

THE REALLY important court decision came a few days before the "martyrdom" of the Emmanuel parents: the High Court's ruling that the provision of state stipends to married yeshiva students – but not to university students – violates the principle of equality stipulated in the budget foundation law.

The ruling took a shocking a 10 years to deliver but clearly stated that the present economic discrimination in favor of married yeshiva students who receive income should be abolished in the name of equality. As Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch wrote: "The need for income support is identical whether the student is enrolled at an institution of higher education... or a married student at a kollel."

Given that the state decided to abolish these stipends 10 years ago for university students, there is no reason that married yeshiva students alone should continue to enjoy a state subsidy.

Not surprisingly, Shas leader Eli Yishai has vowed to use the Knesset to override the court, hyperbolically claiming "the High Court ruling is a blow to the spiritual status quo of the nation of Israel" rather seeing it for what it is: a blow to the pockets of family heads who prefer to live off charity and state handouts than dirty their hands with a day's honest work.

TAKING THE issue to the Knesset is no idle threat on Yishai's part. Like all bullies, he is scared of stronger partners, as seen by his failure to challenge the Ashkenazi haredi establishment over the anti-Sephardi discrimination (the very raison d'être of Shas' establishment!) in Emmanuel, but is quick to smell weakness in others.

 

And as we all know, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is good at talking tough before quickly capitulating. We've seen it in his relationship with US President Barack Obama, with the changes in the Gaza Strip blockade policy and, throughout his two terms as premier, in his relationship with the haredi parties.

Netanyahu the economist knows that Israel's survival is predicated on a healthy economy in which all sectors of the population contribute. A situation in which an increasingly large number of young men fail to join the labor force because they have neither the skills needed in a modern economy due to their "studying" in an educational system that places no value on secular knowledge, nor the incentive to work because of the easy availability of state handouts, is unsustainable.

But Bibi the politician has tied his mast to the whims of the haredi parties. There is no guarantee that he will put the greater good of the country before the narrow interests of Shas and United Torah Judaism when the Knesset votes on the next economic arrangements bill, the supplementary legislation that accompanies the state budget, and a way round is found to continue keeping married haredi men out of the labor market. For if the prime minister couldn't even find it within himself to issue a fulsome statement of support of the High Court and the rule of law in the face of the petty Emmanuel standoff, then the chances of his standing up to the haredi parties on an issue that really does affect their way of life are slim indeed. And the rest of the country will have to pay for Netanyahu's weakness.

The writer is a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

OPED

THE TURKEY VS IRAN FLOTILLA RACE

BY MEIR JAVEDANFAR

To Iran, the Turkish flotilla was not an attack on the Israeli blockade of Gaza, but first and foremost an assault on its influence in the Strip. If you ask an Iranian to state the first thing that springs to mind on hearing the name Farid al-Din Hadad Adel, the likely reply will be (if the person has heard of him) that he's the son of former parliament speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel. And if you ask what else, then that he's the grandson of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. There's a good chance no one will describe him as one of Iran's best-known journalists, because, in reality, he's not.

So when Hadad Adel junior decided to write an op-ed for the Jahan News Web site (affiliated with Iran's main intelligence agency, VAVAK) in February, in which he predicted that another war may be about to be launched against Iran, not many people took notice. Nor did they pay much attention to his view on which country is most likely to be the perpetrator:

 

"If we view the option of war as a possibility, we have to pay attention to the conduit for the imposition of such a war. Where is the country which has the suitable human resources? Which country can hope for the entry of its European and American friends into the arena of war, if it enters into war against us? Will NATO be considered as the supporter of our future enemy or the Arab League? The answer is clear. Turkey is the only option for the advancement of the West's ambitions."

Iran's relations with Turkey were in fact improving greatly at the time the piece was published. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had visited Teheran on October 28, in what was a very successful visit during which he met Iran's supreme leader as well as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These factors, plus Hadad Adel's reputation as someone who received his post as head of the political council of the popular Hamshahri Javan magazine (Hamshahri for Youth) because of his family connections and not his skill set, led many to dismiss Hadad Adel's controversial prognosis.

But actually, he may have had a point.

While some in the West are worried about a new Iran-Turkey alliance being formed, they should also be aware that despite the seemingly close relations between the two, there are people in Iran who view Turkey with suspicion. Turkey may be a friend of today, but to the Islamic Republic, it's the rival of tomorrow.

THE EVIDENCE is there for all to see.

The Iranian government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on support for Hamas. However, these days, the most popular foreign flag in Gaza is that of Turkey, not Iran. People are naming their children Erdogan (and no one seems to be calling their child Ahmadinejad).

To some Iranians, the Turkish flotilla shouldn't be interpreted as an attack on the Israeli blockade of Gaza, but first and foremost as an assault on their influence in Gaza. Iran's efforts to send its own flotilla are testimony to that. Its main goal is not to help Palestinians who are suffering the consequences of the blockade – that's maybe a second or third consideration.

Its number one goal is actually to save its standing and influence in Gaza vis-a-vis the Turks, and to improve its image in the Islamic world as the defender of the Islamic cause.

It's the same with Syria. For years, Iran has been trying to capture the Syrian market. Iranian officials have reportedly been greasing the palms of corrupt Syrian oligarchs such as Rami Makhlouf and the Assad family with bribes. They were also investing in the country when it was considered a pariah and no one else would invest there. This was especially true after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Now the Turks have arrived, and with their free trade agreement are penetrating the Syrian economy and grabbing market share from Iran. The fact that both countries share a land border (unlike with Iran) makes Turkey an even more attractive destination.

Erdogan's recent policies suggest that he's on the path toward making Turkey the leader of the Islamic world, especially in the Middle East – something Iran has been trying to do for the past 32 years. This reality is ultimately going to see the two countries compete and clash over spheres of influence.

Between them, Turkey has a bigger and more advanced economy. Its relations with the US and EU are far better than those of Iran. So are its relations with Sunni countries as well as Shi'ite ones. As a consequence, improving relations with Turkey offers much better prospects and returns for many Middle Eastern countries and groups.

And although they won't break off relations with Iran, the increasing presence of Turkey is likely to come at a high cost for Teheran.

Iranian leaders will soon be looking for some kind of competitive advantage.

With their economy in tatters and their country more isolated than before, becoming a nuclear-armed country is likely to be the most attractive and convenient means for Iran's supreme leader to gain an edge over the Turks.

The writer is an Iranian-Israeli Middle East analyst and the coauthor of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. This article was first published on www.the-diplomat.com

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, PERSECUTION IN ISRAEL

BY ADAM MUSA

I am no criminal, no infiltrator and no immigrant worker. The truth is that I am a refugee, escaping death in my country and looking for a safe place.

Talkbacks (7)

 

In writing this article, I am not using my real name because I live here in Israel as a refugee and revealing my identity may put my family and I at risk.

My family left behind in Darfur lives in refugee camps, and if it is known that I am here, the Janjaweed [a blanket term to describe armed men in Darfur and the rest of Sudan] and the Sudanese government will find them and they will be in grave danger.

Another reason for not using my real name is because it would risk my status here. I have a threemonth temporary visa, and my refugee status has not been determined yet. Since my status is unclear, I do not know what the implications of revealing my whereabouts would be and I can't afford to take the risks.

The authorities do not recognize me, as well as most others in similar situations in Israel as refugees. I was never questioned about the reasons I came here – I was never given the opportunity to prove who I am and get refugee status. Instead, I was given the temporary visa that allows me to stay three months at a time, but not a formal and clear status that would allow me to feel safe. The current situation, in which I need to repeatedly renew the visa that grants me nothing other than being able to stay here, is unsustainable: It does not allow me to have a stable job, no education prospects, no health care or any other rights granted to refugees. These opportunities would enable me to rebuild my life.

It is a very difficult, frustrating situation. Sometimes I am able to find a job, but most places don't allow people with this kind of visa to work. The authorities treat us not like refugees escaping danger and death, but like criminals and infiltrators or like people who came here for work. It seems that they could not care less about our welfare.

The local community, on the other hand, seems to understand that we are, indeed, refugees and accepts our situation. But, by labeling all foreigners as immigrant workers, I sense that the authorities are trying to set Israelis against us, as a threat to their work places and homes, and I deeply regret that. Without the ability to work steadily, many of my friends are at risk of becoming homeless, roaming the streets of southern Tel Aviv like criminals, becoming exactly what the local community members fear and being pushed there due to government negligence.

I am no criminal, no infiltrator and no immigrant worker. The truth is that I am a refugee, looking for a safe place. This situation was forced upon me, and I escaped Darfur because my life was in danger.

I still suffer from the genocide happening in Darfur. Back home, my family is always at risk and many people are dying. I will not die here, but I worry about the most basic needs like finding food and shelter.

At least in Darfur the UN provides the people with food. Here, we must fend for ourselves with whatever meager means we have.

I would like to be able to think of the future, to think of ways to help my community in Darfur. Not having formal refugee status puts me in a dangerous situation should I speak publicly about the horrors happening there.

I am a man seeking asylum here and should have all the rights that are accorded to people fleeing their countries for fear for their lives. Sunday was World Refugee Day and I'd like to take this opportunity to remind the authorities that being a refugee is not a choice. By next year, I hope to be able to go back home and not need to be called a refugee.

The writer has been in Israel since 2008.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

OPED

THE SLEDGEHAMMER APPROACH

BY SHIRA LEIBOWITZ SCHMIDT

In imprisoning dozens of parents, High Court justices have done nothing to improve Sephardi-Ashkenazi relations. Instead of promoting peace, they advanced acrimony.

 

Talkbacks (1)

As I observed the 20,000 haredim who demonstrated in Bnei Brak and 100,000 in Jerusalem on June 17 against the High Court ruling to send several parents of girls from a school in Emmanuel to jail for contempt of court, I ruminated on the Amish sect in Wisconsin and a ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1972.

That year, Jonas Yoder was fined $5 for not following Wisconsin's compulsory secondary education laws, but the US Supreme Court overturned the decision in Wisconsin vs. Yoder, finding that the benefits of universal education do not trump the First Amendment.

The court affirmed the parents' right to educate their children. But here the High Court did the opposite: The justices denied this right to parents in Emmanuel, fined them and on Thursday began to imprison them for a fortnight.

The court and the secular media have painted the new hassidic track in the Emmanuel school as the work of modern-day segregationists.

In reality, three of the men now imprisoned for contempt are themselves Sephardim. Advocate Mordechai Bass was commissioned to investigate by the Ministry of Education, and determined that no parent, Ashkenazi or Sephardi, who wanted to register for the hassidic track, and was willing to comply with its stricter religious standards, was turned down.

"If there is no refusal," he wrote, "where is the discrimination?" This is clearly not a case of racial or ethnic segregation. In a conversation I had with the principal of the Beit Ya'acov school, she explained that it had two tracks: the Slonim Hassidic track with a stringent religious code had roughly 30 percent Sephardi girls, and the more lenient track, which had one quarter Ashkenazim.

Her own son is imprisoned as her granddaughters chose the stricter hassidic track.

When the court intervened some months ago and meddled with the twotrack arrangement, the parents felt the level of religious observance had been compromised and sent their girls elsewhere.

The draconian long arm of the law then forbid them to send their daughters to any other school or even home school them, lest they be held in contempt of court.

LAST WEEK, as the demonstration in Bnei Brak got under way, a line of adorable girls clad in white Shabbat blouses, whose parents soon went to prison, stood next to me. I chatted with them, and observed the close camaraderie among the Sephardi and Ashkenazi girls in the hassidic track.

Their teacher held a collection of "letters to our parents" that the girls had written. They were soon invited to the porch of a first-floor apartment, "front row center" seats from which to watch the rally for their freedom of education.

Familiarity with the history of the small Slonim Hassidic court might have helped avoid this brouhaha.

It would have taken the justices five minutes of Internet browsing to learn that Slonimer Hassidim were among the first true Zionists. Their founding rebbe sent his grandsons to establish a presence in the Land of Israel in 1873 – a decade before what is officially called the First Aliya. A second group came with Rabbi Shalom Noah Barzovsky, the father of the current rebbe, in 1935. Thus Slonim was able to rebuild after most of its hassidim were slaughtered in the Holocaust – and it did so primarily through education.

Slonim educational institutions are open to all who agree to abide by their school by-laws. This information about Slonim Hassidut is accessible to all; it's not rocket science. With some research the justices could have avoided wielding a sledgehammer on a small and formerly fragile hassidic group. That may account for most of the sympathy other religious Jews felt for the beleaguered parents.

It is an injustice that the name of Slonimer Hassidim has been mistakenly associated with "segregation." On Thursday, the Sephardi leader Rabbi Moshe Ben-Moshe led a group from Netanya. In explaining to a nonreligious interviewer why he joined the rally, Rabbi Moshe said, "Today the court is interfering in haredi education, and forcing the Emmanuel parents to send their children to a school not of their liking. I am here so that tomorrow the court won't force you to send your children to a school not of your liking."

THERE IS no question that prejudice among Ashkenazim toward Sephardim is a problem in Israeli society.

But the severity of it is clearly decreasing and will continue to do so, usually not by government or court fiat. It is manifestly not the major problem in Emmanuel's small Beit Ya'acov elementary school. If the justices felt compelled to focus on this issue, perhaps they could have started closer to home. There is currently one justice who is identifiably of Middle Eastern descent, out of 17 on the Supreme Court. Since 1948, there have been dozens of Ashkenazi justices – and some four Sephardim.

The justices did not choose one of the many alternative ways to skin this delicate cat.

Rabbi Eliahu Biton, one of the several Sephardi fathers from Emmanuel, whose daughter Dassy was in the hassidic track of the school, addressed the demonstration in Bnei Brak before going to prison. He repeated what his young son had said accusingly to Dassy when he had complained to his sister, "It's all your fault, Dassy, that Daddy is going to prison."

Biton said that he smiled and corrected the boy. "It's not Dassy's fault.

It's her honor and privilege to be the reason I am going to prison."

The writer has engineering degrees from Stanford University and the Technion, and currently works as a translator of rabbinic Holocaust memoirs. Rabbi Ya'acov Menken, director of Project Genesis, contributed to this op-ed.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

OPED

FROM THE FUTURE OF ZIONISM TO A NEAR-VIOLENT BRAWL

BY JACOB WYTWORNIK AND LIAM GETREU

 

Chaos as World Zionist Congress passes settlement resolution.

This past World Zionist Congress, the 36th, honoring Theodor Herzl's 150th birthday, was the first we have ever attended. We both grew up in Zionist youth movements in Australia and developed strong Jewish and Zionist identities and passions for activism.

We went to Jewish day schools and learned about the Jewish people, its spirit and its mission, and understood our responsibilities as a people, and as individuals.

We spent time in Israel, far away from our families, and in a two-way process we both gained knowledge and experience from living here.

There are so many things that bring us together, no matter your flavor of Zionism; and the proof of this is the World Zionist Congress.

For the leadership of the Jewish world to come together to celebrate our efforts and reset our dreams for the next four years is a great display of our achievements.

For the young and old, religious and secular, Left and Right, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, to all sit in a giant hall and discuss the future of the Zionist movement should be a beautiful moment of Jewish harmony.

It is true that we discuss controversial matters – perhaps those that cause the greatest divides between factions – but on Thursday that discussion unnecessarily descended into anarchy.

Both sides of the aisle engaged in a style of debate that would have disappointed Herzl and the other great leaders of our movement.

After hours of debating and voting on Zionist education, aliya and youth leadership, the question of the US-Israel relationship was raised, and the possibility of the World Zionist Organization calling for a total freeze on construction in the territories. This controversial vote prompted the right-wing bloc to storm the stage and denounce the body as undemocratic.

It was unfortunate to see that the Left responded in kind, with dozens of people on stage yelling, screaming and name-calling. Microphones were snatched, the stage was exploited for partisan bickering, and it seemed as though the next step would involve punches being thrown. The entire plenary had descended into chaos; it was hardly what either of us had expected from our first congress.

IN AUSTRALIA we teach youth group members the value of vigorous debate and healthy disagreement.

Seminars bring all the youth movements together to exchange ideas on various matters and nothing could be more beneficial. It gets heated, sure, but never is a slur made or a member moved by anger to leave his chair.

The session before us was disastrous. We grew up discussing these issues, of settlements and conversions, and know that all the delegates would have too, but is this what the World Zionist Congress had come to? We decided we had to act. If the steering committees and presidents could not call for calm, perhaps the reasonable voices of two young Australians could take the stage and restore order. We came up, pleaded with our elders to let us speak for a minute, and finally took the stage.

We pleaded for calm and highlighted the similarities between us, that what unites us is greater than what divides us and that we require a balance between civility in discussions and fervid ideological debate. It is integral for our Zionist movement to come together and realize this behavior is not the way to continue our important work. Thankfully, we were met with voracious applause and then, mostly, calm.

The truth is the strength we gain from our unity is immeasurable. It was that impetus that led the two of us to make a stand and call for a pause in the proceedings to assess our behavior.

We both grew up on opposite sides of the coin – one a secular lefty from Habonim Dror, the other from Bnei Akiva and on the center- right – and it was exactly these differences that brought us together .

For us to be able to hold vastly different views on the settlements, on the role of religion in the Jewish state and on how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian question, but to still understand that we both seek the best for our people and for our state is a powerful statement on the strength of our movements.

Indeed, the impassioned debate within our communities and within the congress is one of the greatest assets we have. Certainly, those who seek to destroy us have nothing of the sort, but no debate should near violence.

We call on an increasingly divided Jewish world to continue debating and exchanging ideas, for that is essential. It is what makes our people, and our state, so resilient and so strong.

Most importantly perhaps, we implore leaders from around the world to reach out and expose more people of our generation to the possibilities of involvement and activism that so many of us are crying out for.

More than a hundred of the youth delegates met throughout the congress to discuss how we can take more responsibility for Zionism in Israel and throughout the Diaspora. It is essential that those calls are heeded and translated into seats at the table and a real voice in the Zionist movement.

Without understanding, and without the inclusion of the strong youth leadership already at its disposal, the Jewish people, and the State of Israel, will lose the next generation. We are ready to take the baton and start sprinting. In the world we live in, we don't believe we can afford not to.

Jacob Wytwornik is a new immigrant, originally from Melbourne, and represented Mizrahi at the World Zionist Congress. Liam Getreu, also from Melbourne, is chairman of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, which he represented at the congress.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM / OPEN SEASON

THE ABUSE OF MODERATES AND THEIR CHILDREN IN THE NATIONAL RELIGIOUS CAMP'S EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES IS RARELY NOTICED BY THE SECULAR PUBLIC, BUT IT IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE AGGRESSIVE.

BY AVIRAMA GOLAN

 

It is hard not to be impressed by the determination of the Knesset Education Committee's members. Last week, they focused on enemies of Zionism in academia and demanded that the education minister punish suspect lecturers. And this week, they deserve a grade of "excellent" for creativity: In a real stroke of genius, they drew a parallel between two principals, Ram Cohen and Ze'ev Dagani, and the Islamic Movement. And to top it off, they did so during a hasty discussion on "the limits of freedom of expression in the education system," with the minister present.

 

Strange. Last Wednesday, the committee announced only that it was calling Dagani and Cohen in for a meeting. Apparently, they are the only principals in the education system who have an opinion - or at least who express it. But then, on Thursday morning, urgent motions by four concerned MKs were suddenly added to the agenda. These motions argued that "the Islamic Movement is penetrating Arab schools and promoting hatred of Israel, and all this with state funding."

 

Committee chairman MK Zevulun Orlev and his friends would never dream of holding a similar investigation into the state religious schools. Yet there, too, far removed from state supervision, the system encourages an extremist religious ideology.

 

But even putting aside the debate over whether these educators stay within the reasonable bounds of freedom of expression, or verge on incitement (for instance, some heads of hesder yeshivas, which combine Torah study with army service, have urged their students to disobey orders from army officers ), one question still remains: Is the state supposed to finance semi-private schools that nurture such forms of education?

 

Orlev and his friends would certainly respond that "they are not against the state," but moderate rabbis and educators think differently. In their view, some of these schools are raising a new generation of "national religious non-Zionists," who reject the secular state and, until the Temple is rebuilt, are prepared to do anything to destroy it. The abuse of moderates and their children in the national religious camp's educational institutes is rarely noticed by the secular public, but it is becoming more and more aggressive.

 

And we have yet to say a word about the independent ultra-Orthodox schools, or about a deputy education minister who publicly comes out against the state's laws, or about the fact that the Islamic Movement's greatest opponents come from the Arab community itself. For years, they warned that the state's neglect was empowering the fanatic religious alternative. So who is Orlev, one of the leaders of the system that created this distortion, complaining about?

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

CLIPPED WINGS

A COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING THE GAZA FLOTILLA RAID HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN A MANDATE TO INVESTIGATE THE GOVERNMENT'S PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTEMPT TO BREACH ITS NAVAL BLOCKADE.

BY ZE'EV SEGAL

 

The Turkel Committee that is investigating the handling of last month's Gaza-bound flotilla - otherwise known as the "independent public committee" - convened last week for a preparatory meeting. The committee is a kind of Israeli council of sages whose purposes are to examine whether the naval blockade and the way it was enforced were compatible with international law, and to placate the world, especially the United States.

 

But the two foreign observers who will grace the made-in-Israel committee - who have no right to vote or to sign off on the report - will not be enough to convince anyone that the committee is of sufficient stature to obviate the need for an international commission of inquiry, or to ensure that the U.S. will oppose an international inquiry.

 

The government, according to its own press statement, established the committee "in consultation with the justice minister and the attorney general." The statement does not say their advice on how to proceed was accepted, but simply that they were consulted.

 

The prime minister, justice minister and their advisers carefully chose the committee's members, who for some reason do not include anyone with clear expertise in the specific relevant fields, such as international maritime law or the laws of war. Only one committee member, Prof. Shabtai Rosenne, has expertise in international law at all. The committee was intentionally chosen to conduct a quiet and not overly energetic investigation into the legality of the naval blockade and its enforcement, while being mindful of outward appearances.

 

The committee is "independent" in the sense that its members are not connected to the Prime Minister's Office or the defense establishment. But that is far from the true independence conferred by being able to use the full range of investigative powers provided for by law. In Israel, such authority is reserved for a state commission of inquiry operating under the Commissions of Inquiry Law. Such a commission has full investigative powers, and its members are appointed by the Supreme Court president, which underlines its absolute independence.

 

Nevertheless, a similar arrangement exists for governmental inquiry committees, whose members are appointed by a cabinet minister or ministers in accordance with the Government Law. That law allows the cabinet to give such a panel full investigative powers if it is headed by a retired judge. The cabinet indeed gave such powers to the Winograd Committee, which examined the Second Lebanon War, after then-prime minister Ehud Olmert carefully chose its members.

 

But this latest public committee is neither a state commission of inquiry nor a governmental inquiry committee. It is no more than a forum of people whose wings have been clipped, and it is entirely dependent on the goodwill of the prime minister, cabinet ministers and other officials who will be called to testify before it and submit documentation.

 

The cabinet's decision allowed the committee to decide whether its meetings will be open or closed to the public. However, the decision stated categorically that the committee may not hold open hearings on matters that could endanger Israel's security or foreign relations. Thus should the committee make the correct decision and open most of its sessions to the public, it might anger the government, which in turn might retaliate by reducing its level of cooperation with the inquiry.

 

The committee's chairman, retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel, distinguished himself in the past by rulings that supported almost total freedom of expression and viewed the press as the public's agent in procuring and disseminating information. Now, he will be expected to protect the public's right to know - a right without which the committee would be pointless.

 

The public committee was not given a mandate to investigate issues such as the nature of the government's preparations for a possible attempt to breach the naval blockade. On the other hand, several state commissions of inquiry, such as the Agranat Commission and the Kahan Commission, pushed the boundaries of their authority and examined whatever they thought was necessary to clarify the big picture. A public committee could do the same, and it is doubtful that the government would try to stop it.

 

Indeed, it is hard to see how the committee could examine the military circumstances that resulted in the naval blockade - which it has been charged to do - and issue a well-crafted, credible report on the subject without looking at the wider picture.

 

If the committee, as its chairman has promised, presents a sharp, clear picture in the reasonably near future as to what happened and what should have happened, it will turn the tables on its creators and become more than a council of sages. The public will then see that the panel's members are still vigorous, even if two of them are much older than the mandatory retirement age for judges, which is 70.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

TAKING IN ORDER TO GIVE

ABOLISHING GUARANTEED INCOME ALLOWANCES FOR HAREDIM WILL INCREASE THE WORKFORCE AND CAUSE A DRAMATIC DECREASE IN THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX COMMUNITY'S POVERTY LEVEL.

BY SHAHAR ILAN

 

Though the ultra-Orthodox clash with the Supreme Court erupted over the Immanuel school segregation case, the court's really important ruling last week was its abolishment, as of the end of 2010, of welfare payments for married yeshiva students. As Haaretz reported back in 1998, these income maintenance payments constitute a key component of the benefits this community receives.

 

It is doubtful that there has ever been a worse investment in the Israeli economy than the NIS 135 million budgeted for this purpose. Not only did this money help 11,000 men study in yeshiva instead of going to work, but it also created a situation in which it was not worth it for either them or their wives to work, because that would entail the loss of the allowance. In other words, more than this money has boosted incomes, it has served to perpetuate poverty and sabotage Israel's gross national product.

 

Contrary to the bombast of Haredi propagandists, their "society of scholars" is not a historic Jewish tradition. All through history, Jewish society has been one in which a majority that worked and earned a living funded a minority of Torah scholars. Today's ultra-Orthodox society of scholars, which numbers 100,000 yeshiva students, could have evolved only in a modern welfare state that provides benefit payments. The more the Haredi community has grown, however, the more impossible it has become for taxpayers to bear the burden of supporting them.

 

The petition for abolishing the guaranteed income allowances - submitted in 2000 by the leader of Jerusalem's secular community, the late Ornan Yekutieli - made a clear statement: We can no longer fund the Haredim who shirk working for a living. The Supreme Court's decision to hand down its judgment only 10 years later, at the height of a public debate over the grave damage that the society of scholars is causing the Israeli economy, also sent a clear message to the Haredi leadership: This far and no further.

 

Members of the Haredi community like to boast of the social change it has undergone in recent years: Thousands, they say, are learning trades and going to work. Therefore, Haredi spokesmen argue, there is no need for pressure; it would even be counterproductive. But the truth is that all this is far from enough. According to even the most optimistic statistics, only 45 percent of Haredi men work, and most researchers put the figure at less than 40 percent. Furthermore, any such change is the result of the cuts in child allowances and yeshiva subsidies made by then-finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2003.

 

An insufficiently well-known fact is that two years after Netanyahu's cuts, the poverty rate in the Haredi community began to go down: When people go to work, whether they want to or are forced to, they become less poor. The abolitiont of guaranteed income allowances for Haredim at the end of this year can thus be expected to cause a rapid rise in the number of workers, and in its wake, a dramatic decrease in the community's poverty level - on condition, of course, that Netanyahu does not cave in and hock the economy's future in exchange for short-term coalition quiet.

 

But the money that is saved should not be taken from the Haredim. Instead, it should be invested in vocational training for yeshiva students, in job creation, in small-business loans, and in salaries for more Haredi soldiers, including in the career army. It should be invested in a Haredi national service program in emergency services like the fire department, the Magen David Adom ambulance service and the police. It should be invested in rescuing Haredi society from poverty and creating a situation in which many fewer Haredim will need guaranteed income allowances. It is doubtful that there could be a better investment than this for the Israeli economy.

 

The writer is vice president of research and information for Hiddush - For Religious Freedom and Equality.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

GRANDPA BIBI'S RESPONSIBILITY

AN ISRAELI LEADER WHO GIVES UP ON PROGRESS IN THE NEGOTIATIONS TOWARD A TWO-STATE SOLUTION IS DOOMING HIS GRANDCHILDREN, AND PERHAPS HIS CHILDREN TOO, TO A BINATIONAL, ONE-STATE SOLUTION.

BY AKIVA ELDAR

 

At times, when I'm watching my little grandchildren, my thoughts turn to Grandpa Bibi. Doesn't Shmuel's grandfather also wonder what kind of country our generation will bequeath to theirs? Grandchildren turn the future from a mere political, social or economic concept into concrete reality, replete with responsibility. Doesn't Benjamin Netanyahu ask himself what he is doing to ensure that his grandson will raise his children in a Jewish and democratic state? Is it possible that this man, who has taken upon himself for the second time supreme responsibility for the fate of the Zionist dream, believes that time and his own inactivity are working for the good of future generations?

 

The dramatic speech Netanyahu delivered last July at Bar-Ilan University elicited hopes that he had begun to free himself of the shackles of the past and to overcome the fears of his revisionist father. He addressed the Palestinians as neighbors, not enemies, calling on them "to give our young generation a better place to live" and to act together to advance the two-state solution, each state with its own flag and government. He placed the partition of the land at the center of his political vision.

 

The leader of the right spoke of the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state as a Zionist interest, and not as a forced response to external pressure.

 

In the year that has passed since that "historic" speech, no Israeli or Palestinian child, including the infant Shmuel, has been born into a better world. Negotiations over the two-state solution have devolved into small-time haggling over neighborhoods in the West Bank and buildings in East Jerusalem.

 

Instead of discussing the 2002 Arab peace initiative, which is gradually fading away, the government occupies itself with shopping lists of Gazans. Most of the time and energy of the decision makers is devoted to putting out fires in international relations. Not only doesn't the government advance a solution to the conflict, it is not even managing it correctly and preserving the status quo.

 

Any child who has ever ridden a bicycle knows that if you stop pedaling you fall flat on your face. An Israeli leader who gives up on progress in the negotiations toward a two-state solution is dooming his grandchildren, and perhaps his children too, to a binational, one-state solution. This is no longer the nightmare scenario of lunatic-fringe leftists who have lost their faith in the god of the status quo. Moshe Arens, Netanyahu's first political patron, who appointed him deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. in 1982, argues that the only realistic alternative to partition is extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and giving Israeli citizenship to the Palestinian residents.

 

Although all of the official documents Israel has signed declare that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank form a single entity, Arens has unilaterally erased the 1.5 million Gazans from the demographic equation. But even if his forecast proves correct, when the time comes for Shmuel to enlist in the armed forces of "Isratine" (Muammar Gadhafi's term) most of his age group will be followers of Allah and Mohammed, his prophet, or believers in the supremacy of halakha over the law of the land, or supporters of an apartheid government of isolated pariahs.

 

He will live, along with the grandchildren of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, if they remain here, in a state torn between fanatical Muslims and fanatical religious Jews. Sooner, rather than later, they will be an absolute majority and no Supreme Court will be able to intervene in the education of future generations of the enemies of progress and democracy.

 

You don't believe me? In Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, Jews who believe in the sovereignty of the Knesset are already in the minority.

 

Since the Bar-Ilan speech, Shimon Peres has been telling all guests to the Presidential Residence, albeit a little more hesitantly recently, that Netanyahu understands the dimensions of the "historical responsibility" that he bears. This is no mere inflated cliche: His actions and derelictions in coming months will affect Israel beyond 2010. When Grandpa Bibi plays with little Shmuel, he should know that his survival games are an irresponsible gamble on the fate of today's grandchildren.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

25 LOST COMMUNITIES

CITIZENS WHO BUILT MODEL COMMUNITIES WOKE ONE DAY TO A NIGHTMARE THAT HAS STILL NOT ENDED: EXPULSION, DESTRUCTION, UNEMPLOYMENT, REFUGEEHOOD.

BY KARNI ELDAD

 

The state commission of inquiry that investigated the treatment of those uprooted from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank told us what we already knew: The evicted settlers were treated reprehensibly. The commission lambasted the governments led by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. Citizens whom the commission's report described as "the salt of the earth" - who, through hard work, built model communities in which unemployment was almost nil; who created innovative and successful agricultural enterprises, most of whose products were for export; and whose sons joined elite army units - woke one day to a nightmare that has still not ended: expulsion, destruction, unemployment, refugeehood.

 

How much evil, and how much stupidity, it took to leave the refugees in their plight! Bureaucratic obstacles were piled up before them. Problems not of their making suddenly became theirs. Why?! Why not ease their way, remove every pebble from their path, so that they could emerge from the terrible trauma of being evicted by their own army? Why continue making things difficult for them? Had those governments wanted to, they could have taken care of every one of those refugees. This is the moral obligation of the evictor, assuming he still has any morality left: not to rest until there really is a solution for every settler.

 

My husband, Shlomo Bashan, spent most of his life in Gaza's Gush Katif settlements. He was expelled from his home at age 25. Since there was no solution for every settler - neither in the long term nor in the short term - my love, who a day earlier had lived in a house, surrounded by family, friends and memories, was forced to live for a month and a half in the lobby of a hotel. Because no one cared.

 

After a month and a half, he was thrown out of the hotel by an Armenian employee. When my husband asked him how he, who had suffered the worst of all - who has no country and is the quintessential refugee - could evict another person, the Armenian said: All this is true. But I have a home and a bed to sleep in. You, who have a country and an army, were expelled by them. Now go.

 

Most of those who supported the disengagement have already changed their minds. The majority of the public sees that the expulsion did not solve the security problem. The proofs are last year's war in Gaza and the missiles that fly over the fence. Nor did it improve our international position: The proofs are the Gaza-bound flotillas and the anti-Semitic media atmosphere that spurs them on. So why did they destroy 25 communities and turn their residents into refugees? Why did they humiliate them so? Could it simply be because they hate settlers?

 

I have an old phone book of the West Bank and Gaza. I still use it sometimes. At those times I try not to turn, accidentally, to the pages of Kfar Darom, Neveh Dekalim, Ganei Tal, Rafiah Yam, Morag, Netzer Hazani, Bedolah, Gadid, Homesh, Sa-Nur, Netzarim, Alei Sinai, or any of the communities that were wiped out, whose residents were scattered and are now "refugees in their own country," to quote Justice Eliyahu Mazza.

 

Each of those pages in the phone book is terrible evidence of a community that used to be a living community, with houses and gardens and playgrounds, where mothers would meet in the afternoons to chat, and where on Shabbat, everyone would dress up and go to synagogue. But that community is no longer. Twenty-five such communities are no longer. And if you dial one of those numbers, there will be no one there to answer.

 

But somewhere in Gaza, the telephone will ring. And that ringing is the memory that lives on in the wounded hearts of those 8,500 refugees who are living among us.

 

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HAARETZ

EDITORIAL

AND WHAT OF ALL THE OTHER DEATHS?

THE DECISION TO INDICT STAFF SGT. S. FOR KILLING TWO WOMEN DURING CAST LEAD HAS CAUSED A STIR. BUT HIS LAWYER WILL RIGHTLY ASK, 'WHY HIM, AND NOT ALL THE OTHERS WHO KILLED CIVILIANS?'

BY AMIRA HASS

 

Why was Staff Sgt. S., out of all the Israel Defense Forces' soldiers and officers, chosen to stand trial for killing two women in the Gaza Strip on January 4, 2009, the first day of Israel's ground incursion there? The IDF killed 34 armed men that same day. Was S. chosen because he was the only one who killed civilians?

 

Should his lawyer argue that he is being scapegoated, he can safely rely on the following statistics: The IDF also killed 80 other civilians that day - by close-range shooting, artillery fire, aerial fire and naval fire. Among them were six women and 29 children under the age of 16. Just go to B'Tselem's website and read the list: a 7-year-old boy, a 1-year-old girl, another 1-year-old girl, a 3-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl.

 

B'Tselem is careful to differentiate between Palestinians who "took part in the hostilities" and Palestinians who "did not take part in the hostilities." Its list of fatalities states: "Farah Amar Fuad al-Hilu, 1-year-old resident of Gaza City, killed on 04.01.2009 in Gaza City, by live ammunition. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed while she fled from her house with her family after her grandfather (Fuad al-Hilu, 62 ) was shot by soldiers who entered the house." The grandfather also did not participate in hostilities.

 

Or perhaps S. was chosen because Riyeh Abu Hajaj, 64, and Majda Abu Hajaj, 37, a mother and daughter, were the only ones killed while carrying a white flag that January 4? No. Matar, 17, and Mohammed, 16, were also killed. They were shot from an IDF position in a nearby house as they pushed a cart carrying the wounded and dead of the Abu Halima family, who were hit by a white phosphorous bomb that penetrated their home in northern Beit Lahiya. Five members of the family were killed on the spot, including a 1-year-old girl. Another young woman would die of her injuries a few weeks later.

 

The news that Staff Sgt. S. would stand trial created something of a stir - for a day. The military advocate general was praised. So was B'Tselem, and rightly so, for giving the army testimony about the Abu Hajaj killings that its field investigators, Palestinian residents of Gaza, had gathered. Palestinian organizations gathered similar material, while Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both published detailed reports about slain civilians. Everything is accessible on their websites. But we in Israel do not believe the gentiles, so let us focus only on B'Tselem.

 

B'Tselem also gave the army dozens of statements about the killing of other civilians who "did not take part in the hostilities." So why was Staff Sgt. S. chosen, rather than any of the others? Did someone from his unit violate the code of solidarity among soldiers for the sake of a higher code? This is indeed most likely to happen in the ground forces: All the witnesses who spoke to Breaking the Silence activists - i.e., those who were shaken by something that happened - came from the ground troops; they were the ones who saw the destruction, and the human beings, with their own eyes.

 

"The amount of destruction there was incomprehensible," said one soldier. "You go through the neighborhoods there and you can't identify anything. No stone is left unturned. You see rows of fields, hothouses, orchards, and it's all in ruins. Everything is completely destroyed. You see a pink room with a poster of Barbie, and a shell that went through a meter and a half below it."

 

But the breakdown of casualties shows that those killed by direct fire - where the soldier who shoots sees those he is shooting with his own eyes - are a tiny minority. At the request of Haaretz, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza analyzed the breakdown of casualties according to the type of fire. It found that 80 were killed by rifle fire, 13 by machine guns and 134 by artillery fire. It is unclear whether the 11 killed by flechette shells (shells filled with metal darts ) are or are not included in the latter figure.

 

Undoubtedly, these are estimates, with margins of error. Around 1,400 Palestinians were killed in Operation Cast Lead; at least 1,000 - most of them civilians - were killed from the air, by bombs dropped from planes or missiles fired from other airborne vehicles. To the soldiers responsible for the launches, they looked like characters prancing around on a computer screen.

 

B'Tselem and Haaretz, as well as the gentile organizations that need not be considered, all documented incidents of aerial killing. The IDF acknowledged two errors (the killing of 22 members of the a-Diya family in Zeitun with a single bomb, and the killing of seven people who were removing oxygen tanks from a metalworking shop, which on the computer screens looked like Grad missiles ).

 

"One characteristic of the recent IDF attack on Gaza is the large number of families that lost many members at one stroke, most of them in their homes, during Israeli bombings: Ba'alousha, Bannar, Sultan, Abu Halima, Salha, Barbakh, Shurrab, Abu Eisha, Ghayan, al-Najjar, Abed-Rabo, Azzam, Jebara, El Astel, Haddad, Quran, Nasser, al-Alul, Dib, Samouni," Haaretz wrote in February 2009. Are there no sergeants involved in those cases who ought to be investigated? Or is it that in these cases, an investigation would have to target people of higher rank than a mere staff sergeant?

 

The disclosure that Staff Sgt. S. will be tried created something of a stir. The military advocate general won praise. But S.'s attorney will rightly ask: Out of all the testimonies and reports, he is the only one you found?

 

And what of the commanders' attitudes, as described by those interviewed by Breaking the Silence: "When the company commander and the battalion commander tell you 'yalla, shoot,' soldiers will not restrain themselves. They wait for this day - to have the fun of shooting and feeling the power in your hands." What of the battalion commander's speech "the night before the ground incursion": "He said that it's not going to be easy. He defined the goals of the operation: 2,000 dead terrorists."

 

And if this was the operation's objective, perhaps we should investigate the supreme commander - Defense Minister Ehud Barak - about the gap between the objective and the result?

 

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******************************************************************************************THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TIMING

 

Congress has vowed to get tough with financial companies. But not so tough that members won't eagerly solicit and accept their campaign contributions. While the House and Senate have been wrestling over financial reform legislation, members of the relevant committees have found time to conduct more than 800 fund-raising events.

 

The tawdry symbiosis is so routine that some members are crying foul about a preliminary investigation by the House's new independent ethics watchdog. The Office of Congressional Ethics has sent out letters seeking information from heavyweight financial industry and business lobbyists with V.I.P. ties to the Capitol to figure out who may have offered what to whom and got what in the pending financial reform legislation.

 

It is too early to tell what will come of it, but it is already enlightening that seven lawmakers who proclaim their innocence were blithe enough to hold fund-raisers within 48 hours of a big vote last year on reform, netting donations from finance-industry check writers.

 

Not all lawmakers are so dense about avoiding at least the appearance of quid pro quo. Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, whose members excel at reaping donations, has canceled three fund-raisers as Congress considers final approval of Wall Street reforms. "I thought it was a mistake to have financial industry-related fund-raisers while this bill was being considered," he told The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

 

Ethics rules allow lawmakers to raise money from industries they oversee in committee roles, yet blanch at embarrassing timing. Tom DeLay, when he was House majority leader, was admonished for being brazen enough to host a fund-raiser for energy lobbyists on the eve of a critical energy-bill vote. This "created the appearance that donors were being provided with special access," members of the House ethics committee declared.

 

Ah, the appearance of things in the Capitol: Take the money, but not too close to the vote. It's still the stuff of fantasy to imagine publicly financed election campaigns that keep politicians and moneyed interests apart.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

'NATIONAL MISSION'

 

To anyone watching the oil spew into the Gulf of Mexico, the argument for curbing this country's appetite for fossil fuels could not be clearer. President Obama was right last week when he called on America to unify behind a "national mission" to find alternative energy sources, sharply reduce its dependence on oil and cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

 

We were disappointed, however, that Mr. Obama's address failed to insist that the best way to do all of these things is to establish a broadly based, economywide cap-and-trade system that would put a price on carbon emissions. He opened the door far too wide to alternative policies that aren't real alternatives — and to more stalling.

 

A House bill approved last year would set up such a system. Action in the Senate has been delayed for months, as Republicans, and some Democrats, have argued without any real proof that capping and pricing carbon emissions would cripple the economy by driving up the cost of energy.

 

On Wednesday, Democratic leaders, who have promised to bring an energy bill to the Senate floor after the Fourth of July recess but are nowhere near agreement on what should be in it, will troop down to the White House. This time, Mr. Obama must stress, explicitly and emphatically, that a conventional energy bill will not do — and that attaching real costs to older, dirtier fuels now dumped free of charge into the atmosphere is the surest way to persuade American industry to develop cleaner fuels.

 

Mr. Obama also needs to push back a lot harder against critics who claim, wrongly, that such an approach will raise electricity and fuel prices to unacceptable levels.

 

A new analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency shows that the most ambitious bill before the Senate, sponsored by John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman, would cost American households at most an additional $150 a year. That does not seem too high a price to pay for helping to avoid dangerous climate change. A simpler if less ambitious carbon cap proposal offered by Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, is designed to cost consumers even less, and is worthy of attention.

 

There are other honorable bills out there that have much to recommend them but fall short because they do not include mandatory greenhouse gas reductions or a price signal. A measure sponsored by Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, would require utilities to generate 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2021.

 

A bill from Indiana's Richard Lugar (one of the few Republicans to have stepped forward with genuinely positive ideas) seeks tighter fuel economy standards for cars and stricter efficiency standards for buildings — two huge sources of carbon emissions.

Those are good ideas that should be part of a comprehensive bill. By themselves they are not enough to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels or combat the dangers of climate change.

The politics won't be easy. Some big oil and power companies will push back hard, as will nearly all Republicans and many Rust Belt Democrats. But Americans are rightly outraged by the spill in the gulf. This is clearly the moment for President Obama and Senate leaders to deliver a tough and ambitious energy bill capable of protecting the environment and the nation's security.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE GENOME, 10 YEARS LATER

 

On June 26, 2000, two scientific teams announced at the White House that they had deciphered virtually the entire human genome, a prodigious feat that involved determining the exact sequence of chemical units in human genetic material. An enthusiastic President Clinton predicted a revolution in "the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of most, if not all, human diseases."

 

Now, 10 years later, a sobering realization has set in. Decoding the genome has led to stunning advances in scientific knowledge and DNA-processing technologies but it has done relatively little to improve medical treatments or human health.

 

To be fair, many scientists at the time were warning that it would be a long, slow slog to reap clinical benefits.

 

And there have been some important advances, such as powerful new drugs for a few cancers and genetic tests that can predict whether people with breast cancer need chemotherapy. But the original hope that close study of the genome would identify mutations or variants that cause diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's and heart ailments — and generate treatments for them — has given way to realization that the causes of most diseases are enormously complex and not easily traced to a simple mutation or two.

 

The difficulties were made clear in articles by Nicholas Wade and Andrew Pollack in The Times this month. One recent study found that some 100 genetic variants that had been statistically linked to heart disease had no value in predicting who would get the disease among 19,000 women who had been followed for 12 years. The old-fashioned method of taking a family history was a better guide. Meanwhile, the drug industry has yet to find the cornucopia of new drugs once predicted and is bogged down in a surfeit of information about potential targets for their medicines.

 

In the long run, it seems likely that the genomic revolution will pay off. But no one can be sure. Even if the genetic roots of some major diseases are identified, there is no guarantee that treatments can be found. The task facing science and industry in coming decades is as at least as challenging as the original deciphering of the human genome.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE SUBURBAN LIFE

ARTS FOR LONG ISLAND'S SAKE

BY LAWRENCE DOWNES

 

Between them, Michael Rothbard and Victor Skolnick gave Long Islanders 30 years of evenings out that did not involve the multiplex or mall. Mr. Rothbard (live music) and Mr. Skolnick (art-house movies) were founding fathers of independent suburban culture, providing the offbeat, international, avant-garde, funky, cult, vintage, classic or just old.

 

Mr. Rothbard, a co-founder of the Inter-Media Art Center, died last year at age 63. Mr. Skolnick, who ran the Cinema Arts Center, died this month at age 81. The men were not related or affiliated. But they had a lot in common: their enterprises were small, low-key, nonprofit, sometimes in the worst way. Theirs were family businesses. Mr. Rothbard and his partner, Kathie Bodily, collaborated on arts projects before becoming impresarios of a crumbling vaudeville house in Huntington. Mr. Skolnick ran his movie house, also in Huntington, with his partner, Charlotte Sky, and their son, Dylan.

 

Huntington is a village that is not too snooty, not too sprawling, not too small. It has street life, artists and musicians. But it doesn't have Mr. Rothbard's theater anymore, which closed a few months before he died. There are other live theaters on Long Island, but hardly any that book the kinds of acts he did: Al Di Meola, Richie Havens, Livingston Taylor, Phoebe Snow. You could draw paying audiences with names like these, but he and Ms. Bodily got tired of the constant struggle.

 

Mr. Skolnick had more luck with his still-thriving movie house. He packed the place on weekend nights, and roamed it like a party host — holding up the show until he finished telling you about the movie you were about to see, and whatever else flitted across his mind.

 

It's strange to think of a place as affluent and educated as Long Island, home to 2.9 million, more populous than Chicago, relying so heavily on a few dreamers to keep its independent cultural scene alive. It is sad to think that two of its best dreamers are now gone. LAWRENCE DOWNES

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

THE SUBURBAN LIFE

ARTS FOR LONG ISLAND'S SAKE

BY LAWRENCE DOWNES

 

Between them, Michael Rothbard and Victor Skolnick gave Long Islanders 30 years of evenings out that did not involve the multiplex or mall. Mr. Rothbard (live music) and Mr. Skolnick (art-house movies) were founding fathers of independent suburban culture, providing the offbeat, international, avant-garde, funky, cult, vintage, classic or just old.

 

Mr. Rothbard, a co-founder of the Inter-Media Art Center, died last year at age 63. Mr. Skolnick, who ran the Cinema Arts Center, died this month at age 81. The men were not related or affiliated. But they had a lot in common: their enterprises were small, low-key, nonprofit, sometimes in the worst way. Theirs were family businesses. Mr. Rothbard and his partner, Kathie Bodily, collaborated on arts projects before becoming impresarios of a crumbling vaudeville house in Huntington. Mr. Skolnick ran his movie house, also in Huntington, with his partner, Charlotte Sky, and their son, Dylan.

 

Huntington is a village that is not too snooty, not too sprawling, not too small. It has street life, artists and musicians. But it doesn't have Mr. Rothbard's theater anymore, which closed a few months before he died. There are other live theaters on Long Island, but hardly any that book the kinds of acts he did: Al Di Meola, Richie Havens, Livingston Taylor, Phoebe Snow. You could draw paying audiences with names like these, but he and Ms. Bodily got tired of the constant struggle.

 

Mr. Skolnick had more luck with his still-thriving movie house. He packed the place on weekend nights, and roamed it like a party host — holding up the show until he finished telling you about the movie you were about to see, and whatever else flitted across his mind.

 

It's strange to think of a place as affluent and educated as Long Island, home to 2.9 million, more populous than Chicago, relying so heavily on a few dreamers to keep its independent cultural scene alive. It is sad to think that two of its best dreamers are now gone. LAWRENCE DOWNES

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

NOW AND LATER

BY PAUL KRUGMAN

 

Spend now, while the economy remains depressed; save later, once it has recovered. How hard is that to understand?

 

Very hard, if the current state of political debate is any indication. All around the world, politicians seem determined to do the reverse. They're eager to shortchange the economy when it needs help, even as they balk at dealing with long-run budget problems.

 

But maybe a clear explanation of the issues can change some minds. So let's talk about the long and the short of budget deficits. I'll focus on the U.S. position, but a similar story can be told for other nations.

 

At the moment, as you may have noticed, the U.S. government is running a large budget deficit. Much of this deficit, however, is the result of the ongoing economic crisis, which has depressed revenues and required extraordinary expenditures to rescue the financial system. As the crisis abates, things will improve. The Congressional Budget Office, in its analysis of President Obama's budget proposals, predicts that economic recovery will reduce the annual budget deficit from about 10 percent of G.D.P. this year to about 4 percent of G.D.P. in 2014.

 

Unfortunately, that's not enough. Even if the government's annual borrowing were to stabilize at 4 percent of G.D.P., its total debt would continue to grow faster than its revenues. Furthermore, the budget office predicts that after bottoming out in 2014, the deficit will start rising again, largely because of rising health care costs.

 

So America has a long-run budget problem. Dealing with this problem will require, first and foremost, a real effort to bring health costs under control — without that, nothing will work. It will also require finding additional revenues and/or spending cuts. As an economic matter, this shouldn't be hard — in particular, a modest value-added tax, say at a 5 percent rate, would go a long way toward closing the gap, while leaving overall U.S. taxes among the lowest in the advanced world.

 

But if we need to raise taxes and cut spending eventually, shouldn't we start now? No, we shouldn't.

 

Right now, we have a severely depressed economy — and that depressed economy is inflicting long-run damage. Every year that goes by with extremely high unemployment increases the chance that many of the long-term unemployed will never come back to the work force, and become a permanent underclass. Every year that there are five times as many people seeking work as there are job openings means that hundreds of thousands of Americans graduating from school are denied the chance to get started on their working lives. And with each passing month we drift closer to a Japanese-style deflationary trap.

 

Penny-pinching at a time like this isn't just cruel; it endangers the nation's future. And it doesn't even do much to reduce our future debt burden, because stinting on spending now threatens the economic recovery, and with it the hope for rising revenues.

 

So now is not the time for fiscal austerity. How will we know when that time has come? The answer is that the budget deficit should become a priority when, and only when, the Federal Reserve has regained some traction over the economy, so that it can offset the negative effects of tax increases and spending cuts by reducing interest rates.

Currently, the Fed can't do that, because the interest rates it can control are near zero, and can't go any lower. Eventually, however, as unemployment falls — probably when it goes below 7 percent or less — the Fed will want to raise rates to head off possible inflation. At that point we can make a deal: the government starts cutting back, and the Fed holds off on rate hikes so that these cutbacks don't tip the economy back into a slump.

 

But the time for such a deal is a long way off — probably two years or more. The responsible thing, then, is to spend now, while planning to save later.

 

As I said, many politicians seem determined to do the reverse. Many members of Congress, in particular, oppose aid to the long-term unemployed, let alone to hard-pressed state and local governments, on the grounds that we can't afford it. In so doing, they are undermining spending at a time when we really need it, and endangering the recovery. Yet efforts to control health costs were met with cries of "death panels."

 

And some of the most vocal deficit scolds in Congress are working hard to reduce taxes for the handful of lucky Americans who are heirs to multimillion-dollar estates. This would do nothing for the economy now, but it would reduce revenues by billions of dollars a year, permanently.

 

But some politicians must be sincere about being fiscally responsible. And to them I say, please get your timing right. Yes, we need to fix our long-run budget problems — but not by refusing to help our economy in its hour of need.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

THE AGONY OF THE LIBERALS

BY ROSS DOUTHAT

 

They doubted him during the health care debate. They second-guessed his Afghanistan policy. They've fretted over his coziness with Wall Street and his comfort with executive power.

 

But now is the summer of their discontent. From MSNBC to "The Daily Show," from The Huffington Post to the halls of Congress, movement liberals have had just about enough of Barack Obama.

 

The catalyst was last week's lackluster Oval Office address, but the real complaints run deeper. Many liberals look at this White House and see a presidency adrift — unable to respond effectively to the crisis in the gulf, incapable of rallying the country to great tasks like the quest for clean energy, and unwilling to do what it takes to jump-start the economy.

 

American liberalism has always had a reputation for fractiousness and frantic self-critique. But even by those standards, the current bout of anguish over the Obama presidency seems bizarrely disproportionate.

 

This is the same Barack Obama, after all, who shepherded universal health care, the dream of liberals since the days of Harry Truman (if not Thomas Paine), through several near-death experiences and finally into law. It's the same Obama who staked the fate of the American economy on a $787 billion exercise in Keynesian pump-priming. It's the same Obama who has done more to advance liberal priorities than any president since Lyndon Johnson.

 

Yet many on the left are talking as if he's no better for liberalism than Bill Clinton circa 1996 — another compromiser, another triangulator and another disappointment.

 

At work in this liberal panic are two intellectual vices, and one legitimate fear. The first vice is the worship of presidential power: the belief that any problem, any crisis, can be swiftly solved by a strong government, and particularly a strong executive. A gushing oil well, a recalcitrant Congress, a public that's grown weary of grand ambitions — all of these challenges could be mastered, Obama's leftward critics seem to imagine, if only he were bolder or angrier, or maybe just more determined.

 

This vice isn't confined to liberals: you can see it at work when foreign policy hawks suggest that mere presidential "toughness" is the key to undoing Iran's clerical regime, or disarming North Korea. But it runs deepest among progressives. When Rachel Maddow fantasized last week about how Obama should simply dictate energy legislation to a submissive Congress, she was unconsciously echoing midcentury liberal theoreticians of the presidency like Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who often wrote as if a Franklin Roosevelt or a John F. Kennedy could run the country by fiat. (They couldn't.)

 

The second vice is an overweening faith in theory. It's now conventional wisdom among Obama's liberal critics that the White House has been insufficiently ambitious about deficit spending. The economy is stuck in neutral, they argue, because Obama didn't push last year's recovery act up over a trillion dollars, and hasn't pressed hard enough for a second major stimulus.

 

Technically, they could be right — but only in the same way that it's possible that the Iraq War would have been a ringing success if only we'd invaded with a million extra soldiers. The theory is unfalsifiable because the policy course is imaginary. Maybe in some parallel universe there's a Congress that would be willing to borrow and spend trillions in stimulus dollars, despite record deficits, if that's what liberal economists said the situation required. But not in this one.

 

Yet the liberal drumbeat continues. As Tyler Cowen wrote last week: "advocates of fiscal stimulus make it sound as simple as solving an undergraduate homework problem and ... sometimes genuinely do not realize how much the rest of the world, including politicians, views them as simply being very convinced by their own theory." Nor do they acknowledge how much risk those same politicians have already taken on (with the first stimulus, the health care bill, and much else besides) in the name of theoretical propositions, while reaping little for their efforts save an ever-grimmer fiscal picture.

 

But it's here, with the looming fiscal crisis, that the more legitimate liberal fear comes in. Liberals had hoped that Obama's election marked the beginning of a long progressive era — a new New Deal, a greater Great Society. Instead, from the West Coast to Western Europe, the welfare state is in crisis everywhere they look. The future suddenly seems to belong to austerity and retrenchment — and even, perhaps, to conservatism.

 

In this environment, the rage against Obama for not doing more, now, faster, becomes at least somewhat understandable. It's not that he hasn't done a great deal for liberals during his 18 months in office. It's that liberalism itself may be running out of time.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OUR VIEW ON DRUG ADDICTION: DOCTORS ABET GROWING ABUSE OF PAIN MEDICATION

 

Leslie Cooper started down the road to addiction a decade ago, when doctors prescribed strong painkillers after a particularly tough surgery. More surgeries followed. And more prescription pain pills.

Cooper didn't have to ply dark alleys to feed her addiction. She just went to several doctors and ultimately to the "pain-management clinics" that dot southern Ohio around Portsmouth, where she grew up. Last Oct. 2, she traveled two hours to fill a prescription at a Columbus pharmacy, one that has since been raided by authorities. By the next morning, Cooper, 34, was dead.

 

In her system, the medical examiner found a lethal mix: the muscle relaxer Soma, the anti-depressant Xanax and two painkillers, oxycodone and oxymorphone, according to a Columbus Dispatch report about the growing abuse of prescription drugs and the clinics that feed it.

 

Abuse of such medications is the "nation's fastest-growing drug problem," says Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy — a fact that is measurable in both emergency rooms and morgues.

 

A federal report released last week found that ER visits for misused prescription and over-the-counter drugs are now as common as visits for the use of illegal drugs. In 2008, the misuse of pain relievers — including oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone — led to about 305,000 ER visits, more than double the number in 2004.

 

From 1997 to 2002, while deaths from heroin and morphine decreased, fatalities from certain painkillers nearly doubled in 28 metropolitan areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

 

The problem is not easily addressed, in part because the patients involved really need pain relief, at least initially. Because "prescriptions are written by physicians" people see the drugs as safe, even if misused, says Barbara Krantz, a physician and CEO of the Hanley Center, a drug treatment center in West Palm Beach. So ethical, upstanding doctors unwittingly contribute to the problem. They can caution their patients, but they generally don't know whether the patients are being supplied by multiple doctors.

 

Meanwhile, in less ethical corners of the profession, some doctors have become the equivalent of pushers, particularly at shady pain-management clinics. In Florida, which has become a magnet for pill mills, six people a day died from prescription drug overdoses in 2008.

 

Part of the solution lies in making it easier to shut down pain clinics that operate on the ethical fringes. A new law signed in Florida this month moves in that direction. Ohio is considering one.

 

But legitimate doctors have far more sway. On the simplest level, they can learn to recognize the signs of abuse. More important, they can make better use of prescription monitoring databases that operate in 34 states. Pharmacies are required to report every filled prescription to those databases, but no state requires doctors to check before writing prescriptions. In some states, fewer than a third of physicians bother, defeating the purpose.

 

Doctors argue that checking takes precious time away from patients or turns them into "pain police," as an ER physician argues below. Maybe so.

 

Nonetheless, there's more value to checking. At the very least, doctors won't end up contributing to the problem. And at best, they might persuade patients such as Leslie Cooper to seek treatment and in so doing save their lives.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OPPOSING VIEW ON DRUG ADDICTION: DON'T MAKE US 'PAIN POLICE'

BY ANGELA GARDNER

 

Emergency physicians have a primary obligation to treat emergencies, including pain. In fact, the duty to treat pain is so important that regulatory agencies score hospitals on their treatment of painful conditions. Emergency physicians should not be forced to become the "pain police," mandated to search for a patient's prescription history.

 

The patient-physician relationship is sacrosanct, demanding candor and trust. In the emergency department, trust is built in nanoseconds because patients and doctors do not have prior relationships. Knowing that any pain prescription will be entered into a large, public database might prevent patients from being truthful, or in the worst case, from seeking needed care.

 

Additionally, mandating that a physician search a database before writing a prescription will add to an overload of tasks keeping us from our patients. Even a minute per patient adds up.

 

The extra burden of interacting with a database will only add to the delay most patients experience in our overburdened and overstressed emergency care system.

 

The Government Accountability Office reported last year that patients who need to be seen in one-to-14 minutes are now waiting an average of 37 minutes to be seen.

 

A 2008 study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine tried to determine whether a "formal departmental drug-seeker policy" and database would significantly decrease the number of prescription drugs given to patients deemed to be drug seekers.

 

The study concluded that "the development of a formal 'drug seeker' policy and a readily available secure drug-seeker database did not significantly decrease the dispensing of narcotics to drug-seeking patients."

 

As an emergency physician, I can assure you that the drug abusers who use the emergency room simply to get a prescription drug fix represent a micropopulation of the 120 million patients who seek emergency care every year in the USA.

 

With emergency departments continuing to close because of uncompensated care, legislation and funding would be better used to shore up the nation's safety net.

 

Put bluntly, if legislators have money to spend, they should spend it where it will do the most good for our patients, and that is not on drug databases.

 

Angela Gardner, an ER doctor in Dallas, is president of the American College of Emergency Physicians

 

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USA TODAY

COLUMNISTS' VOICES

 

ARE SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGING RELIGION?

BY HENRY G. BRINTON

 

Internet users are complaining that the privacy settings on Facebook are confusing, and lawmakers are questioning Google about its gathering of e-mail and other personal data from Wi-Fi residential networks. The boundary between private and public information is becoming murkier every day, a blurring that is perhaps inevitable in the world of online surfing and social networking.

 

But how about religious communities? The boundaries are shifting there as well, because of a growing emphasis in congregations on honest and open sharing in small groups.

 

Vibrant churches today have Bible studies and support groups for every demographic, and congregational vitality is found in the relationships that develop among people in these groups. I am pushing my own church in this direction, after spending a sabbatical studying Christian hospitality while visiting congregations that are skilled at welcoming and including people.

 

"In the search for personal spiritual fulfillment," says Eugene Taylor Sutton, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, "nothing can replace the joy and lasting value of sharing one's faith journey in person with another human being."

 

When's God time?

 

But I have to wonder: Is this trend a threat to privacy? Churches, synagogues, temples and mosques have long been places where people can escape from the world and have an encounter with God. They have literally been "sanctuaries," holy places — not centers for social life or group therapy. I had a member who expressed this desire to me by saying, "I come to church to commune with my God." If congregations become like Facebook, with little privacy or confidentiality, our culture is going to lose the sanctuaries that have been sacred escapes for thousands of years.

 

They are already disappearing. My Presbyterian colleague Adam McHugh, author of the book Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in An Extroverted Culture, describes the experience of walking into an average evangelical church as "walking into a non-alcoholic cocktail party." Quiet reverence is gone, and in its place is a chatty, mingling informality, "where words flow like wine."

 

McHugh admires the religious convictions of evangelical churches, and understands the value of sharing struggles and spiritual insights in small groups. But he considers himself to be an introvert and knows the difficulty that community life can pose. "Introverts are not necessarily shy or misanthropic," he says, "but we find our energy in solitude, often listen more than we speak, may prefer to observe more than we engage in the middle, and we may connect with God most deeply in silence."

 

Problems arise when open sharing and participation in small groups become badges of faithfulness. "If you are not comfortable with those things," says McHugh, "then you end up feeling spiritually inadequate or marginalized."

 

So where can a person go to connect with God in silence? Churches that practice contemplative prayer — which includes chanting, controlled breathing, or silent concentration — can help people to become centered on God in a private and personal way. "Deep personal relationships require something that we seldom acknowledge: time spent in the presence of the other doing nothing particularly useful," says Monsignor Bill Parent of St. Peter's Catholic Church in Waldorf, Md. "Contemplative prayer is ultimately time spent in the presence of God doing nothing useful, which is another way of saying that it is a necessary part of developing a deep personal relationship with God."

 

The inner peace that comes from prayer and meditation is one reason that Buddhism is growing in the United States. According to the 2008 Pew Forum's U.S Religious Landscape Survey, Buddhism has climbed to the third most practiced religion in America, right behind Christianity and Judaism. American Buddhism's growth is occurring predominantly through the conversion of native-born Americans, not Asians, with the largest group of Buddhists — 40% — being members of Generation X, ages 30 to 49.

 

Faith as trust

 

Religious vitality requires a balancing act between private contemplation and public conversation, and both practices require the establishment of trust. Without trust, there can be no deepening of a personal relationship with God, nor can there be an enrichment of relationships with other people. This is true regardless of whether the connections are made through Facebook or through a congregational small group. Once broken, trust is very difficult to regain — a lesson being learned now by Internet companies accused of misusing private information, and churches facing accusations of sexual abuse.

 

The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther defined faith as trust, not as assent to a particular set of doctrines or church practices, and his insight impacted Christianity throughout the world. It is time for us to rediscover this, and to recognize the danger of opening up our lives to people — or to a higher power — whom we don't know very well or haven't come to trust. Just as it is dangerous to reveal private information on the Internet, it is self-destructive to open up in congregational small groups that are not trustworthy. And while prayer is an activity that does not trigger privacy concerns, it will be of limited value without a personal willingness to put trust in God.

 

"Balance is key," says McHugh. "Open, honest relationships with people you trust are hugely significant, but so are opportunities to worship in quiet and to listen for God's voice. Churches that have structures and programs that support both values — since we all have both introverted and extroverted elements to our personalities — I think will be the most successful."

 

In order to continue to grow, Facebook and Google are going to have to show good faith to their members, and prove that they are trustworthy. And so will congregations that want to thrive in an increasingly networked world.

 

Henry G. Brinton is pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia and author of an upcoming book on Christian hospitality.

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USA TODAY

COLUMNISTS' VOICES

HOW U.S. CAN LAUNCH A MANUFACTURING RENAISSANCE

BY ANDREW N. LIVERIS

 

The latest jobs data showed weak private-sector growth — only 41,000 in May, far below expectations and a plunge from March and April. Manufacturers added an encouraging 29,000 of those. But without a national strategy, many lost manufacturing jobs are gone for good.

 

To rejuvenate the economic base, allow industry to compete successfully again and re-grow jobs, the U.S. should launch an "advanced manufacturing plan."

 

Since 1990, the U.S. has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs — almost 20%. With these jobs went American leadership in many sectors, new research and development and too often, whole communities. These losses made America far more vulnerable to the current recession.

 

Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million people in the U.S. and 6 million in related fields. No other sector performs more R&D, drives more innovation, exports as much or contributes more to our nation's economy.

 

How do we launch a manufacturing renaissance in America that will create meaningful, well-paying jobs and win in global competition?

 

We should look beyond today's recession and recognize that stimulus should favor investment over transfer payments, and focus on:

 

•New infrastructure that leverages private investment in plant and equipment, and modernizes our nation's communication networks, electric grids and air, sea and land transportation systems. This will extend the lifespan of the nation's infrastructure, boost domestic manufacturing and improve the quality of life of every American.

 

•R&D that's cutting edge. The experiences of competing countries demonstrate that R&D investment leads to greater economic growth, worker productivity and higher standards of living. We have begun to make progress. At Dow, for example, we are stepping up our partnership with the government in this call to action.

 

With Vice President Biden on Monday, I am laying the cornerstone on a breakthrough lithium ion battery factory — Dow Kokam — supported by recent federal grants. To increase advanced manufacturing, the U.S. needs to reinforce R&D spending.

 

•Education that leads the world. The U.S. needs to enhance student skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, where we widely lag global competition. In the past, STEM education and workforce training was a key U.S. strength, underpinning its manufacturing leadership.

 

Dow and other major U.S. corporations must work with the administration to co-invest in American infrastructure, R&D and education. Beyond establishing areas for long-term investment, the Advanced Manufacturing Plan should also address some obstacles to growth:

 

•A "pro-trade" policy that creates a "level playing field" with limited tariffs and barriers to entry. The U.S. should adopt pending trade agreements such as Doha, which ensure that same treatment with key foreign partners — reciprocal market access to enable free and fair American participation. Competing countries are negotiating easier market access for their manufacturers, at the expense of American operations.

 

•An alternative energy strategy that will secure the abundant energy that industry needs to stay competitive. Energy is the lifeblood of U.S. manufacturing, but we have no comprehensive policy to support it. We should become far more efficient in its use, seek lower carbon alternatives and, with proper safeguards, expand traditional supply.

 

•Regulatory reform is required for U.S. manufacturing, especially as concerns the environment. Regulation is necessary, but smart regulation isn't always practiced. All too often, we see rules that bog down product innovation or that lack a solid scientific basis.

 

•U.S. tax policy should support manufacturing, not militate against it. Our corporate taxes rank second highest among countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and are only going up. The House's jobs bill will raise taxes $80 billion on U.S.-based corporations and small employers. Next year, taxes will rise on capital gains, dividends and small businesses. Also, the U.S., unlike every other major OECD economy, taxes on a worldwide, not territorial, basis. And our tax credits on R&D investment rank 23rd among the major OECD countries.

 

•Reform in civil justice is needed to support advanced manufacturing and end lawsuit abuse. In the U.S., unlike other OECD countries, plaintiffs' lawyers unduly burden corporations with demands for compensation disproportionate to their client's injuries, or even when there's no injury.

 

America needs an integrated and strategic approach that will incentivize manufacturers to create the jobs of the future. The patchwork of incentives launched to address the recession has not turbo-charged the private sector growth engine of the world's largest economy. Many more permanent private-sector jobs are needed quickly. We face deep-rooted economic and policy headwinds that discourage good private job formation. These can be addressed through an "advanced manufacturing plan," if the U.S. is ever to prevail in global competition. We are playing with our children's future because if America gives up on manufacturing, we are surrendering their future to others.

 

We can either have the future we choose, or settle for the future we allowed.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

SOON: CHOKING ON BIG BUCKS

 

When the conservative Supreme Court majority delivered a bitterly contested 5-4 ruling in January that overturned long precedents and freed corporations and other large organizations to spend freely in candidate elections, Americans broadly -- and justifiably -- criticized the court for fully opening the floodgates of vested-interest spending in America's political process. It seemed then that both political parties would at least support legislation to require corporate and vested-interest sponsors of advertising, including unions and myriad advocacy groups, to disclose their financing of political ads.

 

Such thinking, alas, has been thoroughly punctured by the opposition in the House and Senate, where Republicans apparently smell rich opportunity for turning even more corporate and special-interest bucks to their campaign benefit.

 

Two chief opponents of a disclosure requirement -- the National Rifle Association and the United States Chamber of Commerce -- vehemently oppose the proposed, largely Democratic House bill, which has gained just two Republican supporters. The bill would require disclosure of the five top sponsors of any political-candidate ad financed by corporate or advocacy groups.

 

That's not an unreasonable or onerous requirement. Political parties and candidates already have to confirm their sponsorship of candidate ads. But just as expected, it is the deep-pocket organizations that Americans fear would corrupt democracy if given the right to spend freely on candidate elections that are now opposed to the disclosure requirement.

 

And just as predictably, their lackey lawmakers -- in this case, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate -- are carrying water for them, as usual. NRA opposition is so adamant that Democratic sponsors of what is called the DISCLOSE act agreed, in the search for bipartisan sponsors, to allow an exemption in the bill that would exclude groups that fit the NRA's profile. The exclusion would exempt nonprofit groups from compliance with the law if they have existed for more than 10 years, have more than 1 million members, with some in every state, and receive no more than 15 percent of their financing from corporations or unions.

 

Allowing that exclusion to the NRA, and presumably other groups, like AARP, has ignited opposition among Democratic members of Congress who want a clean bill that applies across the board. Ironically, it has also given Republican opponents, including House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, the opportunity to feign a higher reason for their criticism of the bill: the appearance of privileged exclusions.

 

Rep. Boehner, for example, said last week that the way Democrats "carved out some people and left others under the law again clearly violates the Constitution and violates what the court made clear that Congress should not do."

 

Indeed, there should be no exemptions, though Mr. Boehner and his GOP supporters of corporate spending would find other reasons to oppose the bill if the exemptions were eliminated. The fact that sponsors of the bill have allowed them in, however, has soured key Democrats to the current bill, as well.

 

As a result, Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled the bill from a scheduled vote last Friday. With opposition in the Senate even if a clean bill could pass the House, its fate now appears uncertain. Competition to get other issues on the calendar for a floor vote, and Republican opposition in the S enate, may kill the opportunity to squeeze the bill through Congress in time to require dis-closure of special interest spending in the November elections.

 

That doesn't bode well for fair elections this fall. A public outcry might prompt passage of the bill, but there's no force to energize an effective outcry. And it's hard to imagine the bill's opponents giving space for a bill that would make behind-the-scenes lobbyists and big spenders disclose their connection to ads designed to sway voters to their interests.

 

If Democrats don't fight for passage of the DISCLOSE act, voters will not get the disclosure they deserve. We will instead get the full effect of the civic damage that our reactionary Supreme Court has wrongly shoved down the throat of our democracy. Rather like the Gulf oil spill, the question will become whether our political eco-system can survive the looming cash-spill damage.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

BETTER THAN A BOYCOTT

 

According to the latest government estimates, BP may be spilling 60,000 barrels -- or 2.52 million gallons -- of oil every day in the Gulf, and possibly more. As Americans get their minds around that mind-boggling figure and the resulting damage, the more many are avoiding buying gas at stations under the BP banner.

 

The impulse to boycott BP stations is understandable. Some drivers feel that buying gasoline from a station with the BP logo supports the company, when they really want to send a message of condemnation for the spill and the reckless BP operations that caused it. So sales at BP stations are down 20 percent.

 

Ironically, such a boycott mainly hurts the thousands of business owners who have bought their stations from BP. In fact, BP decided several years ago to shed its stations and focus on drilling and refining. It now owns barely a handful of the 11,000 stations that operate under its logo. Most are owned by businesses -- some large, some family-owned.

 

Thus BP gains little, if anything, from most of these stations. Their owners may or may not carry gasoline that comes from BP wells, or that has been refined, stored or treated by BP. Most gasoline, for example, comes from refineries where gasoline is made from oil delivered to them by a range of oil companies. And BP may -- or may not -- add its brand of additives to the gasoline that is delivered to gasoline stations from massive refineries.

 

On the other hand, motorists who buy their oil at other independent or chain-store service stations, The New York Times business page has reported, may well be buying gasoline that comes directly from BP.

 

For that reason, there is divided opinion among environmental advocacy groups on the merit of supporting a boycott of BP. Public Citizen has urged a boycott, for example, and Greenpeace has not.

 

In reality, BP is probably no more responsible than other oil companies for flawed industry practices around the world. In African and South American nations that allow drilling, other big oil companies -- Exxon, Chevron, Shell, for example -- have all created spills and environmental damage somewhere.

 

The best retaliation against Big Oil may be simply to use less -- by driving more efficient cars, and by using carpools, public transportation, bicycles and walking. That would be healthier, cheaper and more constructive all around.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

SCHOOLS ARE OUT, BUT . . .

IT'S "THAT TIME OF YEAR." SCHOOLS ARE OUT.

 

And if there are any people more excited about it than the students, they are the teachers.

 

But the local officials who must decide about taxes and appropriations for our schools have no vacation. They have the job of planning ahead for next year.

 

Aside from police and fire protection for the general safety of our people, there is no higher priority for most citizens than assuring good educational opportunities for our children.

 

That is very important. And it is very expensive. Schools require a big share of our local tax money.

 

While we have many student achievers, many able teachers, many supportive parents boosting their beloved children, and a desire on the part of all to have good school results, there is a nagging feeling that some children aren't getting as good results as we wish they would.

 

We live in an increasingly challenging, competitive, complex society. There is no substitute for a good education for each young person to "get ahead," to be self-supporting, to make progress, and to have a satisfying and rewarding way of life.

 

There is no easy way.

 

Intellectually energetic students, good and dedicated teachers, sound courses of essential studies, adequate funding and more are necessary parts of "the basics."

 

The only thing more expensive than assuring we have good school results is failure of some of our children.

 

Final report cards for this year have come. Some students have graduated into "real life." But for others, planning will continue, because summer will swiftly pass. And challenges will persist.

 

All Americans appreciate the "can-do" ideal. We all want "success." We want it especially for our children. But there is no "magic wand" for success. Many theories have been applied to education over the years. But "the basics" -- and hard work -- remain the key to real progress.

 

Yes, we need money. Yes, we need good teachers. Yes, we need student effort and parental support.

 

Not having a successful combination of all those things -- and more -- may be the most expensive waste of all.

 

Schools are out. But getting ready to make the most of future opportunities should never end.

 

There is no substitute for effort -- personal and financial. There is nothing more costly than failure.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

MORE BRIBES FOR DOING 'THE BASICS'

 

A few years back, New York City started offering some students and their parents what amounted to bribes for doing things such as attending school regularly, passing exams or going to the dentist. The average family in the program got more than $3,000 a year. But the bribes did little to improve student performance. New York finally scrapped the program.

 

Alas, that expensive silliness was not confined to the Big Apple.

 

In Philadelphia, some patients participated in a "lottery" to encourage them to take their medication. They could win up to $100 per day just for being sure to take their medicine.

 

The theory was that the "winnings" would help patients avoid more serious medical problems resulting from the failure to take prescribed medicines. Not surprisingly, some patients did become more diligent about adhering to their prescription regimens during the six-month lottery -- and enjoyed the extra cash.

 

But we should be wary of offering such "benefits" for doing "the basics," because that can have unintended consequences. As one health expert told The New York Times, "Will others think, 'If I behave like a potential non-complier, I'll get money for taking medication'? And once you start paying people to take medication, when do you stop paying them?"

 

If you create an incentive for conscientious patients to stop taking their own medicines in order to qualify for a "bonus," how much "savings" will there really be?

 

Getting a handle on health care costs is a worthy goal -- but that goal should be pursued by sensible means, not by bribery.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

IGNORING THE OBVIOUS

 

At the ugly heart of the ongoing economic crisis are government-created mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So the fact that they are untouched in the financial overhaul Congress is considering suggests lawmakers are not very serious about "reforms" that supposedly will prevent a new meltdown.

 

When the housing market was booming, the mortgage giants relaxed standards for borrowers in the name of "affordable housing" and "fairness." Borrowers were given much larger mortgages, at adjustable rates, than they were likely to be able to repay. When rates started adjusting upward, many lost their homes. "Fairness" and "affordable housing" had led to "bankruptcy," and the people those relaxed lending standards were supposed to help were harmed the most.

 

But the country as a whole suffered, too, as the housing market collapsed. Many people who continued paying their mortgages found their houses were suddenly worth far less.

 

That certainly did not square with Democrats' insistence a few years earlier that there should be more federal efforts to promote "affordable housing." Back in 2003, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., declared, "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not in a crisis. ... The more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see -- I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially -- ... but the more pressure there is there, then the less I think we see in terms of affordable housing."

 

Yet now, even when it is clear that Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's policies were disastrous, Congress is going to reform many aspects of the financial system except Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Instead, they will continue getting taxpayer bailouts, which so far total $145 billion.

 

So, do you think Congress is serious about getting to the root of what caused the economic crisis? Or is it just expanding its power?

 

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Providing a gift of life

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

YOUR TAX $$ TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD

 

Do you like the thought that abortion provider Planned Parenthood has spent nearly $700 million in federal tax dollars over the past eight years?

 

That was the finding in a recent report by Congress' Government Accountability Office. All told, so-called "family planning" organizations got nearly $1 billion from U.S. taxpayers in that period.

 

While it is illegal for Planned Parenthood and the other groups to use that money directly to kill babies through abortion, that is really just a technicality. When Congress sends tax dollars to Planned Parenthood to perform its other functions besides abortions, that automatically allows it to free up its other revenue sources to perform abortions. So the distinction between "abortion money" and "non-abortion money" is practically meaningless.

 

The GAO report "helps track the offsets that we know are taking place at these organizations," a staff member for one member of Congress who demanded the report told The Houston Chronicle.

 

American taxpayers should neither directly nor indirectly have to subsidize abortion, a procedure that many Americans consider to be the unjustified taking of an innocent unborn life.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - TIME TO TALK ABOUT A NATIONAL ANTI-TERROR POLICY

 

Saturday was the bloodiest day in two years for the Turkish military, as an attack killing 11 troops came just 14 hours after the military said it was expecting more terrorist activities.

 

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, already declared the end of its unilateral ceasefire May 31. And existing political and military resources are unfortunately far from being able to protect the country's soldiers and citizens from terrorist attacks.

 

That is why we, at the Daily News, while sharing with all our hearts the pain felt by the victims' families and friends, and indeed by the entire country, call on all responsible civil, military and other related officials to initiate substantial talks on how to build a unified policy against terrorism.

 

It is time to analyze past mistakes without turning them into political quarrels, as our politicians are very much used to doing. It is time to forget our political differences and focus on creating synthesis in responding to the challenges.

 

It is not time to point the finger at some "unidentified" foreign circles that might be behind the PKK attacks. Instead it is time to seek more foreign cooperation in the fight against terrorism, through our foreign policy.

 

It is not time for the opposition to use these attacks and the public's emotional response as tools in its struggle against the government. It should rather help keep up the morale of society through responsible statements and offer its own contribution to the efforts to solve the problem.

 

It is not time for some circles in the media to hazily put the blame on what they call the "global Ergenekon" plot. It is no secret that the PKK has been backed by some countries in the past, but the situation today is different. It is time to orient all our energy toward producing a comprehensive strategy in the fight against terror.

 

Where to start?

 

We believe the ones who should take the lead are our current political leaders. The leaders of the political parties represented in Parliament should come together to discuss the terror in the country that threatens all of our lives. If they do not do this, we should expect President Abdullah Gül to take the initiative to organize a large-scale meeting, a meeting that should bring about a process whereby we can reach a common goal.

 

A recent survey on Turkish society strikingly showed that the nation is divided into two on almost all crucial issues. The Kurdish issue is no different. Politicians and officials should be aware that fueling this division will bring nothing but more fallen soldiers, more tears and more pain. It is time to move to change the fate of this country.

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

TURKS, SERBS AND ARABS…..

BARÇIN YİNANÇ

 

While chatting with a Serbian colleague before attending a press conference by the Gazprom CEO, I told her that I found many similarities between Serbs and Turks. We tend to avoid seeing the mistakes we commit and instead put the blame on the outside world. I was surprised when she told me that a Turkish TV series broadcasted by Fox TV in Serbia, which is owned by a Greek company, has become a big success in the country. "Serbs watch it and say 'look how Turks are like us," she said. At one stage another Turkish series was also a hit in Greece. Can you imagine? Turkish series, made specifically for Turkish audiences, can appeal both to those living in the Middle East and the Balkans. That in itself shows the cultural diversity of Turkey.

 

Yet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's vision seems to be limited solely to the Arab world. "A Turk cannot do without an Arab," Erdoğan said, adding that "We are like meat and bones with the Arabs." While talking about the improving relations with the Arab world, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek asked, "Why should we not go back to our roots?" I did not know that Turks' roots lay in the Arab world.

 

I can understand up to a certain point criticisms voiced by the current Justice and Development Party, or AKP, of the previous government's indifference to the Arab world. Yes, at one stage we turned our back to the Middle East. But the examples given by the Prime Minister to show what he thinks of Turkish "disdain" of the Arabs goes beyond rational thinking. He criticized Turks for naming their dogs "Arab."

 

The dog in the garden owned by my neighbors in my previous house was named "Arab" for the simple reason that he was black. My uncle, who is in his mid 80's, and who has been living in the United States for more than half of his life, uses old Turkish. He used to call African-Americans "Arabs." That there is a misconception that equates "black" with "Arab" should change - and is in fact changing - can't be contested. I am not an expert on languages. But I do not believe that equating "Arab" with "black" stems from a negative connotation about Arabs in general.

 

My cat's name is Bekir. It's a common male name. According to the rationale of the prime minister, I must hate all people carrying the name Bekir. But most people have pets because they love animals. Why would someone name something it likes with a name that supposedly carries a negative connotation?

 

The only explanation I have for the Prime Minister's comment is that for certain sects in Islam, dogs are not liked. And this again proves that the prime minister's main reference in life is "religion."

 

The AKP circles' main explanation of its engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the human tragedy suffered by the Palestinian people. If it was the case, then the government would not have remained indifferent to human suffering in Kyrgyzstan. Is it because Uzbeks and Kyrgyz do not pray five times a day?

 

I believe Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu disclosed the real reason behind the government's policy by saying, "Jerusalem will one day become a capital, and we shall all one day pray in Mescid-i Aksa."

 

The AKP is no longer talking about the Palestinian problem, but about the problem in Gaza. While advocating the rights of Hamas, no one is talking about the Palestinian Authority, or PA. Is it due to the secular nature of the PA? Is Hamas' radicalism more appealing to the AKP?

 

If the main reference of the AKP is not religion, but a genuine desire to see the Palestinian suffering end, then it is high time to see Israel as not the sole cause of the problem. The government should tell the PA that the days when the actions of its leadership were not questioned are over. They should end the corruption that has cost them the trust of their people. The government should then turn to Hamas and say: "Look I have even dared to come to a point of breaking my ties with Israel. It is high time for you to curb your radicalism and accept the existence of Israel." And it should direct at least one-fifth of the criticisms that it voiced against Israel to the disunified Arab world. Even if it is the case that the AKP has lost all hope about the Arab world and the PA, it just can't solve the Palestinian problem with waging a war with Israel and supporting Hamas.

 

One last word on the Arab world. The reaction among the Arab societies towards the AKP should be carefully examined. If crowds are going to the streets to praise Turkey's stands, it is not so much they are thrilled with the idea that Turkey will lead the Arab world to solve the Palestinian problem. They are doing it to show their reaction to the hypocrisy of their government. They can't go to the streets of Cairo, chanting slogans against Mubarek. They know well that the answer will be violent oppression of protests. But they all know well that Mubarek can't order his security forces to act against those changing slogans for Erdoğan.

 

Some radicals within Arab society might genuinely applaud Erdoğan, as they might see in him a real brother in arms. But I believe there are others who do so because it is a way to show their reaction to their rulers. What makes me say that is the popularity of Turkish TV series in Arab societies. Those series are not reflecting Turkey dominated by radical tendencies. They reflect a society that has a lifestyle that keeps religion in the private domain and avoids putting religion as a main reference of life.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

HOLLAND: CONFUSED AND DIVIDED

JOOST LAGENDİJK

 

Ten days ago, national elections were held in the Netherlands. The result that got by far the most attention in Turkey and all over the world was the success of the extreme right Freedom Party, headed by populist politician Geert Wilders. Against the hopes and expectations of many observers, including your columnist, the party did better than the polls indicated and got 15 percent of the votes, more than doubling their result in the last elections.

 

Almost 1.5 million Dutch citizens felt attracted by a party that is known for its strong anti-Islamism, its nationalist and anti-European rhetoric and its populist opposition to all established parties. Since last week, the soul-searching in the Netherlands has moved to a higher gear. The key questions are: How is it possible that so many people voted for this party and how to deal now with this reality? Should they be given a chance in government or can the Netherlands, in the middle of an economic crisis, not afford to have a party in power that many consider to be undemocratic and that will damage the country's image abroad?

 

First a few remarks on the election results. Since the elections of 2002, we know that there is a part of the electorate of around 20 percent that is extremely unhappy with all the main parties and that is willing to vote for a populist party that positions itself outside the system. In 2002 it was the party of the charismatic Pim Fortuyn, killed just before the elections, that managed to attract these votes. Four years later, after the Fortuyn party made a mess out of it, most of these floating votes went to a left populist party and to the Wilders party that had just started.

 

This time around, the Freedom Party was the only alternative for those voters who wanted to cast a protest vote. In other words, we are confronted with a phenomenon that has been there for some time and that will, most probably, not disappear soon. These are citizens that are basically angry with the world. They do not feel represented by the political elite, they feel insecure amidst the global economic turmoil and they blame the presence of Muslim migrants for the changes in their neighborhood they do not like. They are afraid of what might happen next and long back for a past that was mono-cultural and that could be protected against outside forces by a strong national government. This is not a specific Dutch situation. We can see this combination of fear and anger being expressed at the ballot box in other parts of Western Europe as well. It happened in France with Le Pen, in Austria with Haider, in Belgium with the strong performance of Flemish nationalists and in Denmark where an anti-migration party has been supporting a minority government for years now.

 

How to deal with these parties? Many different strategies have been tried. In Belgium all other parties refused to cooperate in government with them and, looking at the election results of last weekend, this strategy was successful because the extremists lost out to a more moderate version of Flemish nationalism. In Austria they tried the opposite by taking them on board, hoping that would strongly diminish their populist appeal. It worked in the short run to get Haider out, but today we are faced with two extreme right parties that got almost 25 percent of the votes.

 

After one week of coalition negotiations in the Netherlands, it seems there is no big appetite to have the Wilders' party in power. Most probably we will have either a combination of the three classic center parties or a four party coalition including the progressive liberals and the Greens. Whatever the outcome, Mr. Wilders will remain a powerful reminder that Dutch society is confused and divided about its future.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

ACCOUNTING FOR SUCCESS

BAN KI-MOON

 

Next week, the leaders of the world's largest economies will gather in Canada. Many of the questions on the summit table echo concerns around kitchen tables everywhere.

 

Will the troubles in the Eurozone plunge the world into a double-dip recession? Can the upswing in emerging markets offset the slide elsewhere?

 

Are we finally emerging, like survivors of a hurricane, to assess the extent of the damage and the needs of our neighbors? Or are we standing in the eye of the storm?

 

In a very real sense, the answers to all these questions depend on us – and how we manage the world economy over the coming period.

 

One encouraging sign is that there is a growing recognition among leaders of the need for increased

accountability.

 

Now more than ever, we must be accountable to the most vulnerable.

 

The moral argument is clear. After all, those least responsible for the global economic meltdown have paid the highest price – in lost jobs, higher costs of living, growing community tensions as families struggle to make ends meet.

 

But the economic rationale is equally compelling. Like never before, global economic recovery depends on growth in developing countries. Those who have been hit the hardest are also our best hope for driving prosperity in the future.

 

Despite substantial stimulus efforts in many countries, the evidence shows that these have not always "trickled down" to meet the immediate needs of the poorest and most vulnerable.

 

We are seeing the greatest dynamism in the emerging economies, but also the greatest pain. Far too many are left on the sidelines.

 

In developing regions, many workers have been pushed into vulnerable employment. The ranks of the global unemployed have grown by 34 million, and another 215 million women and men have become working poor. And, for the first time in history, more than one billion people are going hungry worldwide.

 

A recovery is not meaningful if people only learn about it in the newspaper. Working women and men need to see it in their own lives and livelihoods.

 

Simply put: A real recovery must reach the real economy.

 

As we look ahead, what does accountability mean in practical terms for people?

 

First, we must be accountable on delivering quality jobs. The global jobs crisis is slowing the recovery as well as progress towards reducing poverty in developing countries. It is time to focus on human development and decent work, particularly common sense investments in green jobs. Quite simply, economic recovery can't be sustainable without job recovery.

 

Second, we must be accountable to those hardest hit by the crisis, especially women. Throughout the world, women are the social cement that holds families and communities together. One of the most effective investments we can make is maternal and child health. The leaders' meeting in Canada can support our global effort to adopt and resource a global action plan on women's and children's health.

 

Third, we must be accountable for our promises. The world's leading economies have committed to double development aid to Africa and boost progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. More resources can transform lives and whole societies.

 

We know what works: investing in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; delivering on commitments made last year to guarantee food security and help small farmers increase productivity and access markets through supporting national plans; ensuring that every child has access to primary education.

 

I recently visited a Millennium Village Project in Malawi and saw for myself how targeted, integrated investments in health, education, and technology can spur dramatic growth. Just three years ago, many in the village were on the verge of starvation. Today, they are selling surplus grain in markets throughout the region.

 

Smart investments create jobs and opportunities that spread far and wide.

 

Economic uncertainty cannot be an excuse to slow down these efforts. It is a reason to speed them up.

 

In an era of austerity, we must be wise with limited resources. Accountability is not charity. It is central to a coordinated global recovery plan.

 

Focusing on the needs of the most vulnerable can spur economic growth today and lay the foundation for a more sustainable and prosperous tomorrow.

 

In our interconnected global economy, it turns out that being accountable around the world is also smart accounting back home.

 

* Ban Ki-moon is the Secretary-General of the United Nations

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

FOR SOUTH AFRICA, THE VUVUZELAS BLOW

EMRE DELİVELİ

 

emre.deliveli@gmail.com

 

If it were not for the instrument from hell and a very disappointing World Cup, I might have never got to look into South Africa's economy and its currency, the rand.

 

Originally developed to kill time during boring spells and mentally shut off the vuvuzela noise in World Cup matches, my most recent pastime began to turn rather interesting when I discovered a fascinating relationship: Since the Lehman collapse, the lira-rand exchange rate has been correlated with the VIX index, a measure of the implied volatility of U.S. stock options, often touted as the markets' fear gauge. One of my favorite economics one-liners is correlation is not causation, but when you dig a little bit deeper (but not as deep as Bilica), even more interesting facts emerge about these two currencies and economies.

 

Most notable is the difference in trade structure between the two economies. South Africa is a major commodity exporter, with 60 percent of the country's exports (making up 12 percent of GDP) in commodities. Moreover, a significant part of its commodity exports, such as the platinum group and iron core, is used in industrial products and thus move in tandem with the global growth cycle. While the rising price of gold in bouts of risk aversion would somewhat counterbalance, it too is surprisingly cyclical.

 

Turkey, on the other hand, is a significant commodity importer, with oil accounting for more than 10 percent of the country's imports. According to a back-of-the-envelope calculation Turkey economists know by heart, a one-dollar fall in oil prices improves Turkey's current account by about $400 million. The different role of commodities in the two countries' trade bill means that any movement in commodity prices would push their balance of payments in exactly opposite directions. Given continuing fiscal worries and questions over a double dip recession, both of which could send commodity prices lower, the lira looks better-placed than the rand.

 

Foreign positioning seems to work in the lira's favor as well. For one thing, according to Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, or EPFR, a company that collects data on fund flows, real money investors are still overweight in emerging markets despite some selling during the past month. But both EPFR data and banks' recent polls with their real money clients show that such funds are underweight-Turkey, whereas they are in a more or less neutral position in South Africa.

 

The relative position of real money funds is reflected in bond markets. Whereas the South African market has seen significant inflows over the past year, inflows into Turkish bonds have been more muted. It is therefore natural to expect the lira to be more resilient in bouts of sell-off, and that is exactly what has happened recently. Despite the bleak global outlook, foreign investors bought net 1.5 billion liras of bonds in May, increasing their share in the total bond portfolio to 10.8 percent. Unsurprisingly, South Africa's balance of payments is more dependent on portfolio flows, making the rand vulnerable to outflows associated with global risk aversion and volatility.

 

This is not to say that the lira is shining. As I have argued many times, it seems to be overvalued in almost all measures such as the external financing outlook, internal and external equilibrium dynamics, its long-run real trend, or even the Economist's Big Mac index. But I have found at least one currency it is sure to pound, at least in times of risk aversion, as it manages to come on top in this tale of two currencies or two-country beauty contest.

 

By the way, according to the Hear the World Foundation, extended exposure to the vuvuzela can lead to permanent hearing loss.

 

Emre Deliveli is a freelance consultant and columnist for Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review and Forbes as well as a contributor to Roubini Global Economics. Read his economics blog at http://emredeliveli.blogspot.com

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

KEEPING THE BALANCE

ARIANA FERENTINOU

 

One day at the end of October of 1989 - it must have been the 30th - I was standing inside one of the recording studios of the BBC, Bush House in London. In front of me a British studio manager was trying to control the sound coming out from a chaotic console. In front of him, behind the glass separation, two Turkish radio journalists from the BBC Turkish Section were broadcasting live. There was a lot of commotion in the room where I was standing. Two or three Turkish production assistants, all girls, were trying desperately to connect outside contributors to the studio via telephone lines. There was a lot of tension as it was the first mega-radio production of the Turks in the BBC.

 

Commentators from Turkey – I can remember Sami Kohen, even Cengiz Candar were kept on line from Turkey to be connected to the studio. Those were the days of lower technology but probably higher professional fervor. Benni Ammar, a brilliant Arab Jewish journalist, then heading one of the large departments of the BBC, who was there, suddenly turned to me and asked: "Do you know what Başbakan means in Turkish?" "No, I said." "Prime minister," he said, and explained that "baş" means 'head." And he went on to ask: "Do you know what Cumhurbaşkanı means?" "No," I replied. "President. Turgut Ozal is becoming Cumhurbaşkanı. Write it down. This is very important moment for the region."

 

My knowledge of Turkish was non-existent then, and I did not pay too much attention at Benny's prophetic speculation. During those days, I was more interested in the serious changes in the political scene in Greece after the dramatic fall of the Andreas Papandreou government, his near fatal illness and his stormy private life, which was feeding rich material for the British cartoonists. It was later on that I understood why I should have noted down that date. It was the 31st of October 1989. Turgut Ozal had just been elected as the prime minister of Turkey for the second time. A few days later, on the 9th of November, the Grand National Assembly had elected him as the eighth president of the Turkish republic.

 

That was a period when Turkey had entered or re-entered the world stage after the dark coup years of the 80s: the British media - as well as the world media - suddenly began to focus on this funny-looking, short, charming man who was talking about a "new era" in Turkish foreign policy. They were mesmerized with him rediscovering the roots of the Turks in the Turkic republics of Central Asia, who themselves had just entering the world stage after the end of their domination by the "evil empire." In that ever-smiling mustached bespectacled man the British media were analyzing the "new role" of an Islamic yet secular Turkey, which could fill in the political and cultural void left after the collapse of the Soviet doctrine. And they were debating about the extent of the potential expansionist policies by Turkey to the north and to the east. I remember that several Greek analysts pointing out of a possible "new Ottoman style expansionist policy that would pose a serious threat to Greece and Cyprus." It was in the period of Özal that the idea that a Turkey by enhancing its ties with its Turkic (Islamic) brothers to the East could be a stronger regional power and dictate its own terms to Europe. Furthermore, it could be a stronger partner with the U.S.

 

When I moved to Turkey at the end of the 90s, I realized that the policy of "looking to our brothers in the north and east" was never really absent from the political discourse in Turkey. It was used several times by subsequent prime ministers as Tansu Ciller, Mesut Yilmaz and Bulent Ecevit whenever Turkey was cornered by the West or wanted something from the East. If my memory is not failing, was it not Ecevit who had first called the treatment of Palestinians by the Israelis "genocide!" Resorting to our "Muslim brothers in the East and our Turkic brothers everywhere" and "develop our traditional regional power base" has been a diplomatic framework used at least in the last two decades in Turkey.

 

So I am perplexed when I watch the surprise or even fear with which today's commentators are seeing the foreign policy of the present Turkish government as a phenomenon of virginal generation perceived by the present Turkish foreign minister. Prof. Davutoglu's - another charming smiling bespectacled mustached Turkish politician - extensive treatise on "diplomatic depth" has puzzled the neighbors of Turkey, especially in the West. They are reading in the Turkish prime minister's recent tough talk against Israel, Davutoglu's strong theoretical influence.

 

I think the discussion that should take place at the moment is not whether Turkey is changing its political fabric - and foreign policy - under an Islamic rooted government. Speaking specifically about diplomacy, it may be more appropriate to look at what is happening in Turkey lately - including the ups and downs of its diplomatic projects - as an issue of management or mismanagement of a policy whose main framework has remained the same at least since the time of Özal. It is a policy based on keeping sensitive regional, cultural, economic, political balances, staying a bit on the East and a bit on the West, but trying not to tilt too much on any side. Because, as it happened in the case of Özal's "Turkic policies," Turkey failed to materialize its vision of the great power because it over-stretched itself and appeared "too eager."

 

Turkey's fate seems to be to keep balances. In an interesting way it is like the geography of Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul which has been trying all through its history to balance between two continents and at least two world views

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

CAN EUROPE TRUST TURKEY WHEN IT COMES TO ENERGY SECURITY?

BORUT GRGIC

 

Turkey is becoming a major energy hub, with pipelines from Russia and the Caspian basin crisscrossing the country. The two notable projects are the Blue Stream gas line, which brings Russian gas to Turkey, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil line, which brings Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan's oil to the Turkish Mediterranean coast and from there on to the world market.

 

New projects are underway that are impressive in both their volume and their value, and which can strengthen Turkey's role as a regional energy hub. These include the Nabucco gas pipeline that will connect Europe to the Caspian, the Blue Stream 2 with Russia, and the TGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy) inter-connector.

 

In addition to the pipelines, Turkey is also thinking nuclear. Its first project in this regard is already underway, supported by Russian know-how.

 

The strategy is good and the set-up is attractive. But can Turkey pull it off?

 

One thing is for sure: Last week's meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, after which Putin announced a suspension of the Blue Stream 2 project, is not the way to go.

 

Several aspects of Putin's announcement are curious. Behind the Blue Stream 2 project is Israel's energy market, which according to the Russian PM has enough domestic sources to provide for its growing electricity demand. The analysis is suspicious since just weeks ago Moscow indicated it was keen to enter the Israeli gas market. And the timing is also interesting, since the decision came just days after Israel's attack on the Turkish flotilla off the coast of Gaza.

 

The Turkish political establishment reacted with outrage to Israel's attack, and Erdoğan demanded a public apology from the Israelis and an independent investigation into the attacks. They have thus far refused to do either.

 

Did Erdoğan convince his Russian counterpart to use energy as a pressure tool on Israel in exchange for Turkey's first nuclear project going to the Russians?

 

The Southern energy corridor, a project designed to enhance Europe's energy security by diversifying the supply of natural gas away from Russia and Algeria, will pass through Turkey and connect to the Caspian. The principal pipeline of the Southern corridor project is the Nabucco gas line, which will cost more than 10 billion euros to construct with a volume capacity of over 30 billion cubic meters. This is not an extraordinary volume from the perspective of added energy value to the total European energy mix, but it will significantly alter the gas markets in Turkey, southeast Europe and central Europe, which today almost exclusively depend on gas imports from Russia.

 

However, in order for the Southern energy corridor to matter and add value to European energy security, it needs to offer Europe direct access to the producers of natural gas. In the first phase this would be Azerbaijan, maybe later Turkmenistan and someday possibly Iran. This also means that the buyer and supplier should have a safe and secure transit route, which means transit states cannot interfere with supplies to feed their political appetites. Transit agreement and transit fees need to be negotiated in a transparent manner, and should be respected and enforced.

 

Nobody will win if Turkey becomes another Ukraine. In this case, Europe will look for ways to bypass Turkey in order to get to the Caspian gas, or it may bypass Caspian gas altogether in favor of renewable energy. The producers may decide to sell their gas to the east and north, rather than to the west. Turkmenistan already sells its gas to China, and it could sell more. China will buy whatever it can get its hands on. Azerbaijan can also send its gas to China, through a Trans-Caspian line to Turkmenistan. It can sell it to Iran or Russia, or build a liquefied natural gas facility in Georgia and sell the gas on the sport market.

 

Natural gas is an attractive energy source, and it can become a major part of Europe's future energy mix. If Europe is to meet its 20/20/20 targets, it will have to substitute out coal, and using natural gas is the cleaner alternative. A gas option is also safer and cheaper than nuclear power.

 

Russia has tried to play politics with energy for years now, bullying Europe and the former Soviet Republics only to have the latter seek alternative solutions. The end result: Georgia and Azerbaijan no longer buy natural gas from Russia, and Europe is looking for alternative solutions to under-buying gas from Russia. The loser is Moscow. If Turkey wants to collect attractive transit fees, it has to leave politics on the sideline and offer a secure transit of Caspian gas to Europe.

 

* Borut Grgic is the founder of the Trans-Caspian initiative and a senior advisor for the Trans-Caspian project at the European Policy Center

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

'DROWNED IN BLOOD'

YUSUF KANLI

 

Mothers would no longer shed tears for their fallen sons the prime minister was saying proudly around this time last year in the aftermath of the ambiguous "Beautiful days are coming" declaration of the president of the country. Sunday was Fathers' Day. Mothers and fathers were shedding tears again while the summit of the state convened in the eastern city of Van behind caskets carrying the remains of nine of the 11 sons fallen in an ambush on a military outpost in the remote Şemdinli town, close to the Turkish border with Iran and Iraq, early Saturday morning by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, terrorist gang.

 

Since the president delivered that good news that beautiful days are coming and ever since the government declared its revolving initiative ostensibly aimed at bringing an end to the Kurdish problem of the country more than 150 Turkish soldiers or village guards were fallen, several hundreds wounded in PKK attacks. The initiative, the content of which was neither known when it was declared nor when it faded away partly in the dust and storm created with the Habur "welcoming" in October for the returning not-so-criminal yet unrepentant PKK members and partly with the intensified smoke of the PKK guns fired. In view that only this weekend 12 and in the last few weeks over 50 beloved sons fell victim to the bullets fired by the separatist terrorist gang, it might be said that the initiative, which started as a Kurdish one, became a democratic one and eventually transformed into a "national unity and brotherhood project," was drowned in the blood of the fallen sons.

 

Yet, as if the past weekend's ambush on the Şemdinli military outpost by some 250 PKK terrorists was not a byproduct of the intelligence deficiency resulting from the grounding of the Israeli-made Herron unmanned spacecraft after Israeli engineers training Turkish technicians to fly them abruptly left Turkey citing "security concerns" because of the latest Israeli-Turkish spat over the murder by Israel of nine Turkish nationals when a Turkish-led Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla bloodily intercepted by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean, the prime minister was claiming on the one hand that the PKK has become a "terrorism contractor" and thus implying that the gang was used by some foreign countries, while on the other hand was continuing his rhetoric that such attacks and the escalation of violence would not divert Turkey from its goal of growth and becoming a strong and respected state and that such "treacherous attacks" would not destroy "our brotherhood and unity."

 

Indeed, a written statement issued by the premier hours after the news of the deadly attack reached his Istanbul residence had underlined that the government was determined to continue the "Peace and brotherhood project" because the increase in PKK violence reflected the group's efforts to sabotage the economic, social and democratic development process in the country.

 

Bashing Israel and the US will not help

 

Though Turkey has never officially accused Israel or the United States of supporting the PKK, Turkish official sources often complain privately that "elements" in the U.S. presence in Iraq have been supportive of the PKK or the Israelis, particularly through "retired" officers and Mossad agents who have been training the terrorists. Now, since hiring of PKK as a terrorism contractor to be used against Turkey would be a cause for war, and if Turkey is not willing to engage in a real military confrontation with Israel or with the United States, it is of course absurd to imply that the PKK might be "contracted" by either of them. The prime minister must provide clarity on what he indeed wanted to say.

 

Obviously, the prime minister was reluctant to concede that irrespective of how he described it, the ambiguous "opening" of the government could not produce anything but a weakening in the Turkish military's fight against terrorism on the one hand and increased expectations both in the PKK and in the ethnic Kurdish population of the country – making it even more difficult to resolve the Kurdish problem, which anyhow has been a hot potato since the August 1984 start of the separatist gang. The failure of the government to provide some meat to its "opening" and convince not only the ethnic Kurds that some of their key complaints would be eradicated, but more so the ethnic Turks of this country that the Kurdish problem would be eradicated and terrorism would be marginalized, if not totally eradicated, without compromising the national and territorial integrity of Turkey is indeed the reason behind the "opening's" getting "drowned in blood."

 

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TEHRAN TIMES

 PERSPECTIVE

TALIBAN AREN'T CREDIBLE SOURCES

BY FARHAN BOKHARI

 

A scathing report recently claimed there was strong evidence of links between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban, in a damning indictment of the Pakistani intelligence in destabilizing Afghanistan.

 

These alleged links have frequently been the focus of reports. However, the fact that the most recent report was published by the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) suggests that it deserves a close reading, as it could provide insights into the future of a country that is at the centre of global security interests.

However, a close reading reveals the lack of credible research behind the report. It appears to have been based almost entirely on interviews with past and present Taliban leaders, who once ruled Afghanistan but were forced from power by a U.S.-led invasion after the New York terrorist attacks of 2001.

Intelligence services operate in a shady world, and the ISI is no exception. In the 1980s, with the backing of the U.S., the ISI systematically sought to encourage mujahideen resistance to Soviet Union troops who had occupied Afghanistan. The ISI's involvement was a major factor in former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's decision to cut his losses and withdraw his troops.

In the past decade, the ISI has been devoted to supporting the Pakistani state's campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who operate against the country's interests. As a result, many of the ISI's former friends are now its foes -- and some have been involved in attacking its offices in Pakistan.

Any hasty conclusion suggesting that the ISI is operating out of step with the Pakistani state at least deserves a rigorous assessment before being accepted as reality.

A fundamental flaw with the LSE report is the narrow nature of its research methodology. A report condemning the ISI that fails to at least ask the Pakistani government for its view on the matter, if not the ISI itself, can only be termed one-sided.

The fact that the researchers depended mainly on Taliban sources to reach their conclusions raises additional questions about this report. Given that the Taliban are in a military confrontation with Pakistan, they can hardly pass neutral comment on its intelligence services. The Taliban have an obvious incentive to seek to drive a wedge between Pakistan and its western partners by claiming that the ISI maintains links to militants.

Given that the Afghanistan-Pakistan region is riven by conflict, the focus should be on overcoming differences between Pakistan and its western partners. In addition to the lack of trust on military and security matters, there are other pressing problems.

For a broad spectrum of Pakistanis today, the failure of forums such as the so-called Friends of Democratic Pakistan to translate promises of disbursing more than US$5 billion in assistance into reality only fuels already heightened anti-western sentiment.

A meaningful discussion on how Pakistan's role in Afghanistan could translate into wider gains for all concerned should now take place. This should include a far more comprehensive look at a variety of issues, rather than a narrow focus on a barely defined security framework.

The allegations and insinuations that emerge from questionable research will only sour the atmosphere and give Pakistanis additional reasons to question the legitimacy of the country's support for the western agenda in Afghanistan.

(Source: Gulf News)

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 I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE CASH BOMBER

 

That intrepid upholder of all things lawful Law Minister Babar Awan recently embarked on a mission to bomb the lawyers of southern Punjab into submission. Chartering an aircraft from the PAF — at who knows what expense — he loaded himself and two colleagues plus several heavy bundles and flew south to Multan. As they thundered through the skies they looked at the bundles in the cargo-bay. Soon they would rain down their contents on members of the Supreme Court Bar Association and their perilous mission, known only by its codename 'Operation Bribery' would be over and the lawyers of southern Punjab would be safely in the government's pocket, courtesy of the fact that they had been beaten into submission by Bomber Babar and his bundles of deadly cash. The reason for Bomber Babar and his chums undertaking this life-and-death mission lies in the tension that exists between the lawyer community and the government over the little matter of the non-implementation of the NRO verdict and a variety of other irritations of a legal nature. The government, employing its traditional ingenuity when it comes to the solution of any problem bigger than 'what tie shall I wear today' decides that the best solution is to bomb the lawyers with bundles of cash and stun them into pliability and a little line-toeing. As a part of this cunning stunt a smokescreen was deployed which involved 'interaction with the media' and an address to the Multan Bar Association plus the inauguration of a Sui gas project. While all this was going on, Bomber Babar's associates were whacking lawyers around the head with weighty wads of rupees. Coming around for a second bomb-run the boys dropped a salvo of legal advisory opportunities for government departments and finished off with several bunker-busters aimed at the various welfare funds operated by the local bar associations.

Dress it up how you like, hedge about with euphemisms until you meet yourself coming the other way, but when examined in the cold light of day this is naked bribery, blatant corruption and most assuredly a misuse of public funds. Similar missions have been flown to Quetta (Rs72 million dropped) and the Pakistan Bar Council (Rs30 million) and a miserly ten million was deposited on the female lawyers as well as small change amounting to a mere million for PBC staff. Bomber Babar turned for home, mission accomplished.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

THE RULING MINDSET

 

An appalling insight into the mindset of those who rule us was given by Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira on Friday. He advised poor families to hand their unwanted children over to Baitul Maal instead of killing them. His comment was made in the wake of several publicised suicides associated with poverty, and he further commented that federal and provincial governments could not control poverty or unemployment. Taking his first point first it might have displayed a little more sensitivity had he talked of the wisdom of poor people limiting the size of their family and of the benefits of birth-spacing. Simply telling the poor to offload their unwanted, unfed offspring into a government bucket, there to grow up in even more misery than they were likely to endure in their birth family, merely adds insult to injury. Clearly Mr Kaira has no thought for social or cultural change, instead his government has funded 'Pakistan Sweet Homes' in 15 cities to house children who are orphaned. The definition of an orphan is a child that has lost both its parents, not the one as commonly assumed here, and an orphan is not a child surplus to requirements.

Kaira's second point that governments are not responsible for the control of poverty or unemployment simply beggars belief. Governments everywhere very much control – or attempt to control — levels of both. If that is his understanding of how government works it says very little for the quality of those in power today and the depth of their intellect – or lack of it. Both his comments and his remarks to the effect that suicides happen elsewhere in the world as well reflect the feudal paradigm, where the status quo is to be preserved at all costs and the poor kept poor because if they were otherwise they might get ideas above their station. So rather than killing their offspring the poor are offered the option of decanting them into the hands of the government; which will educate to them to a level which ensures their continued poverty and then recycle them back into society, to live in poverty. A masterstroke, Mr Kaira.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

CORE NO MORE

 

The demise of the core committee of the Pakistan People's Party is welcome news. This 'kitchen cabinet' was short-lived and rightly so as it usurped what little there was preserving the modesty of democracy within the PPP. Quite what was in the minds of those – including the president – who set it up is beyond understanding. Did they fondly imagine that the masses would take this latest expression of exclusivity to their collective bosom and welcome it as the best thing since…well…the last time that dynastic politics trampled roughshod over democratic process? Was there a belief that this would somehow not be noticed by a media that is nothing if not feral and rapacious? 'Not at all' is the answer to both questions. The rank-and-file membership of the PPP were justifiably outraged that a small coterie of Zardari loyalists had cut them out of the loop, and they felt isolated and aggrieved. The media in all its formats was quick to condemn what looked like an unhealthy concentration of power and decision making; and across the political spectrum generally there was a sense that this was not the right way forward no matter who one voted for.

It is perhaps significant that such was the depth of anger at this move that the government's business managers killed off the core group, recognising that it was a liability. Significant also that the upper echelons of power are not impervious to public sentiment and pressure. However, we should not be so naive as to imagine that the death of the core committee is the end of rule by coterie. The PPP government is unpopular, the president personally even more so. Like the PML-N it is dynastic and inward-looking with real power concentrated in very few hands. It is under those circumstances that small power-elites flourish, getting ever smaller as they see their popularity wane and ever more desperate to hold on to power, particularly 'family power' at the top of the tree. The core committee may be a thing of the past but it is a sure bet that its offspring will be meeting quietly somewhere – so quietly that we may never hear about it.

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

ECONOMY: THE WAY FORWARD

HUMAYUN AKHTAR KHAN

Pakistan's economic performance will depend both on the future policies of the government and the global economic recovery. The economy today is under considerable pressure due to breakdown in delivery of public utilities, huge increases in prices of essential items, unemployment and poverty. The level of government borrowing is rising. Foreign investment, both domestic and foreign, continues to fall. A low tax to GDP ratio remains a problem. Growth is not rising due to inadequate revenue generation and less than anticipated aid inflows. The economy grew by a provisional 4.1 per cent in fiscal 2010. If the previous year's growth rate of 2 per cent had not been revised to 1.2 per cent, the growth rate would have been 3.1 per cent. The target GDP growth rate of 4.5 per cent for next fiscal is difficult to achieve as no improvements are expected in the manufacturing as well as the public sector development sectors. Governance problems, worsening law and order situation and widespread corruption further bleaken the prospects of future growth.

Any improvement in fiscal and external imbalances so far has been a consequence of expenditure cutting – primarily development expenditure and subsidies – and economic slow down, rather than improvement in underlying economic fundamentals. External assistance rather then domestic resources has been another source of improvement in fiscal indicators. Pakistan is in a peculiar situation where fiscal deficit is high, debt is increasing rapidly, growth is minimal and unemployment on the rise. This clearly means that money we are borrowing is being used on non-productive expenditure.

The government has been unable to communicate that VAT is just a modified form of sales tax, which has been in existence in Pakistan for the last 20 years. All the challenges that were faced in the implementation of the sales tax regime -documentation, exemptions, refunds – still remain. Because of lack of consensus in the business community and political parties, it would be very difficult for the government to impose VAT on October 1st 2010. The FBR will face revenue shortfall in fiscal year 2010. All major tax heads have recorded shortfalls in achieving targets. Consequently, next year's target of Rs1,667 billion would be a huge challenge. Despite promises by the government of freezing the current expenditure in the last three budgets, current spending continues to rise.

One area which has shown improvement is the current account deficit which is expected to be around 2.8 per cent of the GDP. The improvement is primarily due to imports contraction, better exports, increase in workers remittances and the US Coalition Reimbursement Funds. At the same time the surplus in the financial account has declined considerably due to fall in FDI, portfolio investment and loan inflows. Therefore the financing of the current account deficit will continue to rely on new debt.

The rapid reduction in the fiscal deficit proposed by the IMF should no longer be our objective as it will keep the growth rate low and increase unemployment and poverty. Government should set a somewhat higher fiscal deficit of around 5per cent of GDP and use the additional fiscal space towards PSDP to generate growth. This is required as the manufacturing sector is not expected to grow due to the prevailing economic conditions. If Pakistan remains committed to the original programme agreed to with the IMF, it will have to further cut development spending. China and India already are stimulating their economies to facilitate recovery. NATO countries should be asked to reschedule our debt as they did after 9/11 in order for us to have more fiscal space. We have paid a huge price of $43 billion in losses due to war on terror, besides destruction of innumerable families who lost their loved ones.

The losses in the public sector enterprises have reached almost Rs250 billion. The quasi-fiscal activity of the government outside the budget has contributed to build-up of circular debt in the energy and agriculture commodity sectors, as a result of which costs for all borrowers in the economy have increased. Government has to reduce such activities and seriously consider privatizing loss making public sector enterprises.

The better than expected growth in the large-scale manufacturing sector was made possible by un-utilized capacities rather than new investments. Therefore, despite continuing energy shortages, law and order and financial constraints the LSM was able to respond. However, the non-performing loans have doubled in the last year. The government should seek lines of credit for the private sector projects from International financial institutions through Pakistani banks. Such loans were available in the 80s and 90s and contributed to considerable growth in the private sector. After the bankruptcy of all the DFIs in Pakistan, no project financing is available. The commercial banks offer only short term financing. These banks should be encouraged to offer long term, fixed rate, project financing to the private sector. Banks have become more risk averse as a result of poor performance of the private sector and also because more attractive terms are being offered by the public sector. If manufacturing has to grow, ample credit should be available, interest rates should come down and delivery of reliable energy supply be ascertained. Credit can only be made available if the government and public sector borrowing is reduced from the banking system.

A significant chunk of the PSDP depends on external assistance, the non-availability of which forces the government to drastically reduce it. In the last three fiscal years the government has had to resort to large cutbacks in PSDP bringing it to a low level of less than three per cent of the GDP. Cutting development spending is not a sustainable way to reduce the deficit. Also the public sector development programme in Pakistan is wasteful, inefficient and slow. It should be totally overhauled.

A major factor in controlling food inflation would be enhancing agriculture productivity. The current policy of crop support prices should be changed by policies where returns to farmers are linked to better yields. Focus should be on value added agriculture like fruits, vegetables, flowers and livestock. Value added agriculture is more perishable so cold chains are required from farms to markets and to airports. All crops should have price floors and ceilings, keeping in mind international subsidies and the prices of domestic agriculture in-puts and out-puts. These floors and ceilings must be announced well ahead of the cropping season and maintained by the government through market interventions. Existing example is the cotton crop price mechanism.

Research institutions should be developed in agriculture sector for crops, fruits, vegetables and livestock through public private partnership where state-of-the-art research should be pursued. Provincial agricultural departments must be strengthened. Support to the small farmers is essential, both financially and technologically. This again could be done through public private partnership providing services like seeds, fertilizer, rental tractors and bulldozers and consultancy with respect to modern agriculture techniques.

These policies can increase the growth rate which is critical for producing jobs and reducing poverty, without affecting fiscal stability.

The writer, a former federal minister, is secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q. Email: hua khan@gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

MANAGEMENT MORONICS

HIT AND RUN

SHAKIR HUSAIN

If Pakistan was a corporation listed on a stock market anywhere in the world, its stock would have been getting viciously hammered for the past two years. Not because of security concerns. Not because the fundamentals of the corporation had changed. And not because of terrorism. The stock would get hammered because of bad management. A lot of investors in the world buy or sell stock in corporations because of the management and the potential that management has to add to the bottom line. For instance, if Steve Jobs were to leave Apple Inc. suddenly Apple stock would take a nose dive. This is because of the inherent belief that Apple investors have that Mr. Jobs is a genius – which he is. The management team of Pakistan Inc leave a lot to be desired in every way.

Unfortunately for the 180 million people who live in Pakistan Inc, our executive leadership under the stewardship of Prime Minister Raza Gilani cannot see beyond the next general elections. Politicians usually cannot. It is even more unfortunate that the civil servants whose job it is to ensure that Pakistan Inc's long-term goals are not derailed by the short-sighted politicians have proved to be just about as competent as a team of gerbils playing with a banana. To be fair there are competent officers in the civil services – that is, those who are interested in the job beyond scoring a four-wheel drives, perks, plots and more. But these sorry few are sidelined by their insecure superiors and shipped off to inconsequential posts where they cannot make an iota of a difference. Ultimately frustrated these officers leave the civil service for a more prosperous career in the private sector. Without a solid upper and middle management, the State is where it is.

By 2050 Pakistan's population is set to double to 360 million men, women, and children. I don't know whether I am more scared of this number or the fact that no one in Pakistan Inc has devised any sort of strategic plan to provide for this gargantuan population. If you look at the fundamentals of Pakistan Inc they are solid when it comes to raw materials - one of the highest wheat productions in the world, one of the most significant coal reserves in the world, one of the highest fresh water reserves in the world etc. But what are we doing with these raw materials? Almost nothing is the answer. Take our energy production mix for example. The gnomes in the Ministry of Power over the past two decades have ensured that Pakistan has the highest furnace oil thermal power generation ratios in the world. With oil prices where they are in this day and age this has translated into one of the most expensive places to consume electricity. Which is turn makes our industrial production costs much higher than our regional and international competitors. If the same gnomes would have demonstrated some lateral thinking skills and invested in hydro projects along with promoting alternative energy like wind and solar; Pakistan's energy situation could have been very different. But then with no furnace oil to be bought in the billions of dollars would there have been any room for kickbacks? And this is the tragedy of Pakistan Inc. There is no dearth of ideas, entrepreneurship, or capital – yet bureaucratic and political incompetency mars the entire landscape.

Every time I hear a politician speak about how our young people are our "assets" and how that particular government is going to change their lives forever I want to wretch violently. My urge to wretch is based on the fact that our young people are this nations' most valuable assets yet the money spent on there is under two per cent of the national budget. More is spent on fancy cars and keeping an entire segment of society in style whereas that segments contribution to the nation is negligible. Essentially, money in being spent on a business unit which is parasitic to the entire enterprise. In the real world such a business unit would be sold or shut down. So the next time you see a fancy car with Government of Pakistan number plates think about two things. The first is that you have helped to pay for that car with your taxes and the second is that how many students could have gone to university or school with the same money.

Another pressing problem for Pakistan Inc is that its operating costs are much higher than the revenues. And this is not a new problem. It's a problem we have been facing since the inception of this business enterprise. In the real world Pakistan Inc would have shut down were it not for foreign assistance from states and international agencies in the form of loans, grants, and pure handouts. Not much has changed because the people who have wealth in this country do not feel obligated to pay their taxes. This starts at the top of our leadership chain. With very few exceptions the legislators of this country cannot explain where they obtained their wealth, nor can they demonstrate that they have been honest taxpayers; yet for some reason the same folks seem to have the gall to ask the rest of the country to pay their taxes. And this is going to be the straw which breaks the proverbial camel's back. Because Pakistan Inc doesn't have any cash in the bank it cannot provide essential services to its citizens. Within this vacuum non-State actors have built up breathing room for themselves by providing these same services. If Pakistan Inc wants its stock price to rebound we are going to need imagination, skill, and an immensely talented management team which can make the difficult decisions and see them through. Incompetence, greed, and good old stupidity just isn't going to cut it anymore.

The writer lives in Karachi and can be found at www. twitter.com/shakirhusain

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

UNITY, COOPERATION AND DISUNITY

RANDOM THOUGHTS

DR A Q KHAN

The three words unity, cooperation and disunity look so simple but their importance is realised at crucial times. In all societies and nations, great emphasis is laid on unity and cooperation

The Quaid-e-Azam was like a superhuman and the Almighty had bestowed on him the wisdom of Khizar (AS). Though he never claimed to be a religious scholar, all his actions were in accordance with the golden rules of Islam. His slogan "Unity, faith and discipline" reflected the essence of the Islamic code of conduct. The very first word of this slogan emphasises the dire need for unity, not among the countrymen but also amongst Muslims.

There is the story of a wise old man who gave each of his sons a stick and asked them to break it, which they all managed to do. Then he placed all the already broken sticks together in a bundle and again asked them to break them. None of them succeeded. He then told them that the young men were like the sticks–individually they were vulnerable, but nobody could harm them when they were united.

The British, who were known as clever and cunning colonialists, made it a cardinal point of their foreign policy to "divide and rule." Using this policy, they managed to occupy a large part of the world. Instigating locals against locals, they inflicted untold miseries upon the people and thus managed to rule for hundreds of years.

This practice extended from Australia to India to Africa and all the way to America. In our subcontinent they created provincialism and communalism and, by dividing the nation, they managed to rule such a large population with only a few thousand people.

Clever rulers are aware of the strength of a unified nation and they keep them engaged in sports, trivial conflicts, bogus fears of foreign threats, etc., so that the people remain united and do not find time to critically analyse the rulers' wrongdoings. The Indians are very good at this. They are always warning of so-called threats from China and Pakistan. In the olden days, kings used to hold tournaments and competitions of all kinds to keep the people busy and their fighting skills sharp.

In nature we see many animals staying in herds, flocks, etc., for safety. For them this is a God-given instinct for survival. In this way, wild dogs, hyenas, wild buffalos, etc., manage to keep even lions at bay. When a lion sees a few buffalos charging together, it runs for its life.

Sincere, honest rulers always strive to keep the nation united. They look after the needs and comforts of their people and do not allow anything to create disunity. Before the advent of Islam, the Arab nation was divided into tribes which were perpetually at war with each other. After embracing Islam, they became a strong, united nation, competing with each other in areas of hospitality, charity, good deeds, etc. Within a very short span of time they had managed to conquer other powerful nations and ruled from Spain to Central Asia. This was all a direct result of exemplary and unflinching unity. Once they again started infighting, the whole empire fell apart. They were dislodged from Spain, the Mongols occupied all the Central Asian states up to Iraq and later the Western powers occupied all the Islamic countries. Only Turkey managed to survive within its own borders, thanks to the leadership of Mustafa Kamal Pasha.

Even in our own less educated communities we find many proverbs about unity, e.g. "Char haath dushman per bhari." "Ek se ek miley to raaee bansakti he perbat." Karl Marx was fully aware of the importance of unity and expressed this by saying that people were the greatest force. Mao Zedong held the same views and said that if there was ever a nuclear war, the last person on the planet would be a Chinese. Cunning people and vested interests always consider unity of the people to be a threat to their interests. They cause disruption through pressure, blackmail, incentives, etc., and exploit the masses by these methods. However, in the (very) long run, such nefarious tactics usually fail. We saw it happen in the Philippines, in Iran and, most recently, in Kyrgyzstan.

In a speech to the British parliament on Feb 2, 1835, Lord Maculay said: "I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country unless we break the backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, the native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."

Within 50 years they managed to achieve it. Various sources have reported Winston Churchill to have said about this same rich, proud nation just before partition: "Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. I hate Indians. They are beastly people with a beastly religion. Anything multiplied by zero is zero indeed." He was also reported to have said: "These rascals, rogues and freebooters will tax everything, including water and air." How right he was is evident today in India, and more so in Pakistan.

The British policy of divide and rule was later adopted by the Russians in Central Asia and they occupied the whole area and destroyed its cultural and educational heritage. What we in our region need most, beside good governance, is unity and discipline. The strength of public unity has been demonstrated in Iran and Kyrgyzstan. The flood of a unified nation can sweep away the ruling elite.

George Washington ensured that his soldiers had enough food as, according to him, patriotism did not grow on empty stomachs. Similarly, to expect our hungry, jobless masses, troubled by shortages of sugar, flour, electricity, gas, etc., to have eternal patience and not to protest while they sit and slowly starve, is asking too much. The revolution, though not visible to rulers, is just around the corner. The keg full of dynamite is there. All that is required is one small match (in the form of a good leader/orator) to make it explode. The 18th Amendment alone will not stop the flood of anger and dissatisfaction of the common man. May Allah help Pakistan and its masses. Ameen.

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

DUMB AND DUMBER

CHRIS CORK

It was whilst watching what was supposed to be a serious debate on the state of the nation on a private TV channel last week that I saw just how far standards had slipped in broadcast journalism. Perhaps before I go any further I will make it clear that there is some good – very good – TV current affairs material broadcast, but a lot of it is plain dreadful.

The show I was watching was in Urdu, and whilst my Urdu is far from fluent I can follow most conversations. The content of the debate need not concern us and suffice to say it was about dams – but the behaviour of the participants should. It was clear that the anchor had lost whatever control he had in the first place and the 'guests' had him pinned to the backdrop looking like a rabbit transfixed in the headlights of an onrushing car.

There were two men and a woman on the panel and they yelled and shouted at one another as if they were on a street corner – which is all very well if you are on a street corner but perhaps not the best way to comport yourself in front of the viewing public. But then I thought a bit more deeply about what I was looking at – which was street-corner politics but transferred to a TV studio. These were people who felt no constraint by virtue of being 'on the telly'. They interacted as they do in real life. In real life, sans cameras and producer and anchor, if they disagree they bellow and yell, interrupt, wave shoes and hurl insults at one another.

Then I considered the audience, and came to the conclusion that those watching would have expected the panellists to behave like this because that is how politicians behave; certainly at the grassroots and not infrequently in the various parliamentary chambers.

The sense of outrage that those of us in the chattering classes may feel or express is not mirrored by the majority of the viewing public. I took a quick and unscientific survey within my own household. Nobody thought that the people on the TV were doing anything that was inappropriate, and they were happy to see their elected representatives scrapping like cats in an alley.

Suitably chastened, I went back to channel hopping and noticed something else. Again this is purely subjective but it did seem that where political chat shows were in English in whole or part, things were rather more decorous; whilst those exclusively in vernacular languages were something of a free-for-all.

If all of this sounds like a call for a return to the days of a single channel and dull-as-ditchwater TV – it isn't. I celebrate the diversity of channels we have nowadays – but lament the narrowness of their content and quality of their production values.

This is of course a youthful industry, and in global terms Pakistan TV is little more than a toddler – but my worry is that much of it is getting frozen in toddler-hood and not moving past the stage where it is considered de-rigueur to fling one's toys around the playpen in order to make a point.

Perhaps part of the problem is that there are just too many channels; and allied to that there is not that much by way of material to go around and everybody is fishing in the same small pool of 'guests' – and there is as yet very little indigenous pure 'entertainment TV' beyond a few leaden soaps. But please -we've dumbed down far enough, let's not get any dumber.

The writer is a British social worker settled in Pakistan. Email:manticore73 @gmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

WHO OWNS AFGHANISTAN'S RICHES?

AIJAZ ZAKA SYED

A New York Times report has confirmed what many have long suspected: That Afghanistan, like Iraq, is sitting on the vast reserves of rich mineral resources and precious metals and that the invasion and occupation of the country has nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks or Shaikh Osama.

The untapped mineral deposits that include huge quantities of iron, gold, copper, cobalt and critical industrial metals such as lithium are said to be so huge and so rich that the war plagued and long exploited Afghanistan could change forever, emerging as one of the most important and affluent mining centres in the world.

So much so an internal Pentagon memo suggests that the Central Asian country could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," a precious raw material used in the making of batteries for laptops and mobile phones.

The findings are based on a survey carried out by the US Geological Survey, Pentagon and the Afghan government. However, it is not the US that has discovered this limitless treasure that Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command, agrees offers "stunning potential."

The survey was carried out on the basis of some old charts and data collected by Afghan engineers and Soviet mining experts.

Clearly, the Russians had been aware all along of the mineral jackpot that the dirt poor, underdeveloped Afghanistan had been sitting on when they invaded the country in 1979.

The Russian bear however had to beat it after years of disastrous occupation and a debilitating war. They not just had to fly by night with all their plans to plunder Afghanistan but the disaster changed Russia forever.

It's a great irony of history that it is not America's military might, its fancy weapons or its state of the art Star wars programme but the rudimentary, rustic weapons and legendary bravery of the Afghans that brought down the Soviet giant, changing the course of history forever.

And it's an even greater irony that the US has drawn no lessons from the fate of the evil empire, as Ronald Reagan would call it. Uncle Sam has rushed headlong, eyes wide shut, to dig himself deep into the Afghan quagmire not long after the humiliating retreat of the Russian bear.

After the 9/11 strikes when our friend George W Bush was preparing to "shock and awe" Afghanistan, promising a "new crusade" of 'With Us or Against Us,' some solitary voices around the world dared to suggest Afghanistan was being invaded because of its rich natural resources.

Some of them went to the extent of questioning the official version on the 9/11 attacks, implying they had been part of a vast conspiracy involving US intelligence agencies, neocons and Zionists to invade and take over the resources of Muslim countries.

At the time, those conspiracy theories sounded like the loony tunes of a feverish, overactive imagination even to me. Given the shocking poverty and backwardness of Afghanistan, the idea sounded totally bizarre.

I am not so sure any more though. Especially after the absurd lengths to which the US has gone and the kind of outlandish excuses it invented to invade Iraq, the world's largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia.

And remember, before Iraq it was Iran. If the Iranians, one of the most cultured and civilized people anywhere, distrust and despise the Americans, British and virtually all of the West from the depths of their hearts, there are enough reasons for it.

In fact, there's a long history of conspiracies, manipulation and old fashioned exploitation by big powers against Iran.

From playing petty games with the last Shah of Iran to deposing his defiant father to sending mercenaries to bring down Prime Minister Dr Mosaddeq, the Middle East's first elected leader, they have tried every trick in the book to cheat Iranian people out of the rich resources God has gifted them.

The fun hasn't stopped even with the fall of Shah and the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The continuing UN sanctions and the talk of "action" against Tehran, driven by you know who, only rub salt into the deep wounds on Iranian psyche. No wonder the nuclear programme has become an issue of national prestige for most Iranians, even to those ostensibly opposed to the ayatollahs.

Of course, this long saga of colonial exploitation has not been limited to the Middle East. This game is as old as the history of Western colonialism itself. From Africa to India to the Far East, it's the same story of exploitation everywhere. It'd be no exaggeration to suggest that the West's breathtaking march to industrial and scientific progress has been fuelled and driven by the riches of the so-called Third world.

It's become fashionable for Western wonks to rile against crushing poverty, endemic corruption and misrule in much of Africa. But who created this mess in the first place in a continent that is a vast, big mine of incredible riches? Who colonised, ruled and exploited Africa at gunpoint for over four centuries? In fact, who has ruled and exploited much of the world over the past few centuries, plundering it to fill their own coffers?

India, the jewel in the crown, was denuded and robbed of all its beauty and brilliance by the time the last British viceroy flew into the empire's sunset. Kohinoor, the legendary diamond in Queen Elizabeth's crown mined from Golconda, is the ultimate testament to our colonial masters' insatiable craving.

 

You would forgive and forget it all if it had been a mere page from a hoary, long forgotten history. But it's not. This game of exploitation is still a living, breathing reality. Western colonialism may be dead but the mindset is very much alive in one form or the other. Players may have changed but policies haven't. Yesterday, it was the East India Company. Today, it's Uncle Sam's trigger-happy boys or mighty multinational corporations.

However, the Americans may have the deadliest arms known to man and infinite resources at their disposal. History, geography and time, however, are on the other side. This is a war Afghans have never lost. Not in the past, not now. Especially not now when they have to protect their national resources. Afghanistan's riches belong to its people, not to the coalition of the willing.

The writer is opinion editor of the Khaleej Times. Email: aijaz@khaleejtimes.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

DON'T RESURRECT THE BACKCHANNEL

SIF EZDI

 

The writer is a former member of the Pakistan Foreign Service.

This week the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India will be holding talks in Islamabad as a follow-up to the meeting of their prime ministers last April in Thimphu, where they agreed to take steps for the resumption of the bilateral dialogue suspended by Delhi after the Bombay attacks. The secretary-level talks are to prepare the ground for a meeting of the foreign ministers in mid-July, when if all goes well a resumption of the structured dialogue would be announced.

One week before the secretary-level meeting, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao gave a talk before a Delhi foreign policy forum to set the stage for the upcoming discussions from the Indian perspective. The speech was couched in the stilted bureaucratic jargon of India's foreign policy mandarins and was laced with pious platitudes.

The Indian foreign secretary spoke pompously of India's "vision" of its relations with Pakistan. She complained that while India had over the years sought to spell out a broad vision of its relationship with Pakistan, it had not been easy for Pakistan to define the kind of relationship it wanted with India. As if to help Pakistan overcome this difficulty, she counselled that Pakistan should learn to live with the "asymmetries in our sizes and capabilities" (i. e. with India's growing military muscle) and "shed its insecurities" on this count.

What Nirupama Rao seemed to forget, as do other most Indian policy-makers and "strategic" thinkers, is that after the nuclear tests of 1998, India's overwhelming conventional military superiority has been largely neutralised and cannot be held up to impose hegemony in the region. Yet, Indian leaders are reluctant to face this unpalatable reality. As the US journal Arms Control Today wrote, "Indian military planners foolishly believe they can engage in and win a limited conventional conflict without triggering a nuclear exchange." The main problem which plagues the region is not, as Rao declared, Pakistan's inability to learn to live with India's military prowess, but with India's inability to come to terms with the post-nuclear strategic realities in South Asia.

Rao also reaffirmed India's professed wish to seek a stable, peaceful and prosperous Pakistan, a refrain that recurs increasingly in Indian official statements. Its purpose is not so much to reassure Pakistan, as to signal the benign attitude of an aspiring global power towards its smaller neighbours, even one with a record of being "uppity."

The main significance of Rao's speech however lies in the fact that it was the first official confirmation by India of what has long been known to every analyst of South Asian affairs: that India's main purpose in agreeing to resume the dialogue with Pakistan is to resurrect the backchannel diplomacy on Kashmir. At the Islamabad talks this week, the Indian delegation will no doubt make plenty of noise about terrorism emanating from Pakistan and make the usual demands that Pakistan should take effective steps to stop terrorism originating from its soil.

But for the India side the main purpose of the talks between the foreign secretaries this week and between the foreign ministers next month will be to find a way to the resumption of the backchannel dialogue on Kashmir. The route to this goal, Delhi knows, lies through the resumption of the suspended "front channel." It is therefore hardly surprising that in her speech Rao spoke in highly positive tones of the results achieved in the Composite Dialogue and in the backchannel.

Unlike Musharraf and Kasuri, who have spoken publicly, enthusiastically and in considerable detail on these talks, Indian leaders and officials have been quite reticent. Rao's speech was the clearest statement by an Indian official so far on India's goals in the backchannel diplomacy. There was a "common understanding," she said, that boundaries would not be redrawn. Instead, the two sides could work towards making them irrelevant by facilitating trade and movement of people across LoC. She called for building on the progress achieved and for creative solutions. For decades, India refused to talk about Kashmir settlement, arguing that the state was an integral part of India and that the only thing to be discussed was Pakistani interference. Now, Delhi is not only ready but keen to talk about a Kashmir solution. This remarkable shift has been made possible by Musharraf's reversal of Pakistan's traditional stand based on UN Security Council resolutions.

If Kashmir was for Pakistan the core issue of its bilateral relations with India, on which progress in other areas depended, the resurrection of the backchannel is at present the foremost Indian priority vis-à-vis Pakistan. In fact, the language used by Indian officials for a Kashmir solution – making borders irrelevant, finding a creative solution and giving greater autonomy (or self-government) to the state – is hardly distinguishable from that hich was employed by Musharraf and Kasuri.

Musharraf's principal motive was to win international (principally American) backing and legitimacy for his regime. Steve Coll, an American journalist who has written knowledgably on the backchannel, has expressed the view that Musharraf shifted Pakistan's stand on Kashmir also because he "wanted to be celebrated at international events as a peacemaker." He wanted Oslo to pay attention to him, Coll said last year in an allusion to the Norwegian Nobel Committee which selects the laureate for the Peace Prize. Since his ouster from power, Musharraf has been largely silent on the backchannel. But not Kasuri.

In touting the benefits of Musharraf's four-point formula, Kasuri has been claiming that the settlement that the military regime was negotiating with Delhi would have met two priority concerns of the Kashmiris: the withdrawal of the Indian forces; and a greater measure of self-government. Kasuri seems to miss two important points. First, that a withdrawal of forces by India would be easily reversible, while a signing away of the right to self-determination would be an irreversible and permanent step. Second, that the Kashmiri freedom struggle has been not for autonomy but for azadi. Kasuri has also claimed that the solution that was being negotiated in the backchannel would have been open to review after 15 years. This too is a fallacy. A settlement that has been in place for such a long period acquires a force and legitimacy that virtually rules out any major alteration.

Indian officials claim that in Pakistan the only opposition to the backchannel formula comes from the country's army chief. This is a deliberate misrepresentation designed to give the impression that the elected government, the political parties and the public in general are in favour.

What is much more important than opinion in Pakistan is that within occupied Kashmir itself, the movement for azadi has continuously been gaining in strength over the years, especially among the younger generation, despite the ruthless measures adopted by the Indian government to suppress it. The ordinary Kashmiri has not been won over by Delhi's promises of lavish expenditure on the state or by India's standing offer of greater autonomy. The deal that Musharraf was negotiating and which Delhi wants resurrected would be a complete negation of the aspirations of the Kashmiri people. It would sanctify India's illegal occupation of the state and delegitimise the freedom struggle of the Kashmiris. There is everything in it for India and little for the Kashmiris.

Our civilian Government initially reacted enthusiastically to Manmohan Singh's proposal to continue the backchannel diplomacy from the point it had reached under the Musharraf regime. But more recently, there have been mixed signals. Because Zardari banks so much on American backing to stay in office, Washington's support for the backchannel has been an important consideration for the Government. On the one hand, it appointed a new special envoy last September for the dialogue; and on the other, Foreign Minister Qureshi declared in March this year that Pakistan was reverting to its old stand on Kashmir. This ambivalence must end and the Government should declare in unmistakeable terms that it is against reviving the backchannel.

Email: asifezdi@yahoo.com

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

GILANI'S TIMELY WARNING TO WORLD COMMUNITY

 

PRIME Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has conveyed Pakistan serious concern over failure of the international community in honouring pledges made at the Friends of Democratic Pakistan(FoDP) meeting in Tokyo pointing out that delay in fulfilling their commitments has further accentuated the economic and energy crises in the country and the extremists are taking advantage of the situation. The Prime Minister did not mince words while expressing his disgust over international response to Pakistan's needs during meeting with Special US Envoy Richard Holbrooke on Saturday.

While Pakistan is in the forefront in the fight against international terrorism and in recognition of its sufferings, commitments were made to extend financial assistance to enable it to meet its financial and defence needs. But the reality is that nothing significant has been done to honour the pledges. According to rough estimates Pakistan's economy has suffered a loss of around $ 60 billion but except for the United States which has committed $ 7.5 billion for five years under Kerry-Lugar-Berman Bill, none of the other developed countries has come to its help. Even the European countries that are facing the problem of terrorism and urging Pakistan to do more to eliminate the menace are just making hollow statements. The EU continues to deny Pakistan's request for greater market access to enable the domestic industry to increase production and create employment opportunities for the youth who are turning to the extremists for lack of jobs. The war on terror has created law and order problem in Pakistan and the investors are shy to come with the result that the economy is on the downslide. Energy crisis is adding to the woes of the industrialists and the domestic consumers but international community is least interested to help Pakistan overcome these problems. During their meetings with Holbrooke the President and the Prime Minister have rightly expressed their resentment over this attitude of international community and we are sure that the Special Envoy would work for persuading his country, the European Union and other donor countries to honour their pledges. We believe that it is time that Pakistan must tell NATO and others that enough is enough and it is no more in a position to meet expenses in the war on terror. If they consider Pakistan as a partner, it should be treated like that, provided necessary financial and military assistance and given access to American and European Markets so as to reduce burden on our budget and improve the economic condition of our people.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

IF BB WAS ALIVE TODAY?

 

THOUGH Shaheed Benazir Bhutto during her two tenures as Prime Minister of Pakistan had attracted criticism from her opponents but the fact remains that she was the most charismatic and popular leader in Pakistan and in the international community. Born on June 21,1953 she was the first of four children of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and following the foot steps and philosophy of her father, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto emerged as a mature leader in the last three decades enjoying respectability and recognition at the global level.

She was the only politician in Pakistan, whose power was based on the people of Pakistan and she could invoke passions in the streets that no other politician except her father could. Though her Governments were dismissed twice, yet during the two short stints, she worked tirelessly to put Pakistan on the path of development. Her drive to harness the power of the private sector for growth brought Pakistan into one of the ten emerging markets in the world, and gave it the surplus energy that we survive on today. She wanted Pakistan to be a welfare state, a model of social democracy, with social nets for the poor and a strong market economy that provided jobs and raised a middle class. She was committed to democracy, to moderate, centrist values, tolerance, a role for women and well being of the poor masses. She helped create a new identity for Pakistan, as a place where women could become Prime Minister. As Prime Minister of Pakistan she had left deep footprints on the political scene. Through her farsightedness Bhutto made an indelible mark not just in her home country but on the world political scene, both for her gender and her outspoken insistence on the need for Pakistan to remake itself into an Islamic liberal welfare state. With the passage of time she had developed a definite way out for Pakistan and we are quite confident that today the country would have been out of the crises, it is facing, had she not been assassinated in the tragic incident. If she had the chance to become Prime Minister of Pakistan for the 3rd time, she would have steered the country's ship out of the troubled waters in view of her God gifted capabilities. Today would have been a genuine day of celebrations and joy if Benazir Bhutto had been alive.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

HAND GRENADES ATTACK IN KARACHI COURT

 

THE incident in Karachi city courts on Saturday where six armed men got four of their accomplices freed from police custody after attack on security personnel with hand grenades once again reminds us about the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan in general and Karachi in particular. The four men were being tried among other cases for the suicide attack on Ashura procession in December last year that killed more than 40 people.

We have been repeatedly reminding the authorities in these columns about the worsening law and order situation and pointing out that police is gradually becoming in effective due to lack of training and necessary gadgets to deal with the menace of terrorism and other criminal incidents. The attack reportedly by Jundullah group in Karachi courts is a proof that the hard core militants can go to any extent to achieve their objectives and there is dire need to devise proper strategies to cope with such situations. In another incident in Quetta, Inspector Abdul Wahab, an investigation Incharge was shot dead on Saturday. Police has become so hapless that in a Jirga in Jacobabad, a peace agreement was brokered between Police and dacoits and Police has been asked to pay a compensation of Rs 1.7 million for killing of two dacoits in an encounter. These three incidents show that the system is crumbling, law breakers are taking the upper hand and our police force has become a lame duck having no will and capacity to challenge the outlaws and no one at the top appears to be concerned over this deterioration in the situation.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

CARE FOR A CUPPA?

FRIENDLY FIRE

KHALID SALEEM

 

In this era of constant real and virtual U-turns, when conspiracy theories are being bandied about in public much like dirty linen, one is sorely tempted to change the subject and talk of other (more pleasant?) matters. For instance, how about ignoring world affairs and dwelling on, say, the poor man's beverage? Seriously though, has the reader given a wee bit of thought to tea (with or without sugar) lately? Or - to put it another way – after imbibing the umpteenth cup of tea (sweetened or unsweetened, depending on current financial situation), has the reader cared to ask himself, why? Or, for that matter, why not? Here, let one hasten to explain, one has no ulterior motives one way or the other. As will be clear anon, one's innocent aim is merely to encourage the spirit of inquiry!

Tea, let it be said, is not indigenous to our land. And yet we hold it in awe as if it were a fetish. Have we ever deigned to ask ourselves, why? The British, it may be argued with reason, too are in a similar situation. But, then, the British are prone to treat tea as an institution! For them, there is a time for 'tea' and this hour is sacred. Not for them to demean the coveted beverage by imbibing it at all odd hours during the day or night, as our fellow country people do.

Tea drinking has a long history behind it. It dates back to times immemorial. One recalls reading of ancient Chinese drinking tea on ceremonial occasions in dainty little cups. Japanese of old, one is told, were equally fond of the beverage. One has heard so much of the much-heralded Japanese tea ceremony. One may even go back further in time and assume that the pre-historic cave-men - and cave-women no doubt - imbibed some sort of hot brew in their caves, of a cold winter evening.

Tea has always held a fascination for writers of all genres. William Cowper calls it "The cup that cheers". Samuel Pepys, in his famous diary for 1660 records, "I did send for a cup of tea (a China drink) of which I never had drank before". Presumably, he made it a habit to drink it subsequently. J. B. Priestly opined, "Our trouble is that we drink too much tea". Even Lewis Carol could not resist the temptation of including the Mad Hatter's tea party in his "Alice in Wonderland".

Rivers of tea have flowed through the kettle spouts since. And, one reports with some regret, things have not changed for the better. Has the reader noticed how things invariably appear to change for the worse? Why cannot they change for the better, for a change? But, that is another story. Coming back to our topic of today, the cup of tea is no longer a mere drink; it has become something of a ritual. As a matter of fact, it may hardly be an exaggeration to say that the cup of tea has become the biggest single influence on our lives today.

Writers drink endless cups to get their ideas. Pessimists drown their grief in it. Associations are formed and broken over endless cups of tea. Nothing can take place without it having been first 'discussed over a cup of tea'. Meetings begin and end with cups of tea. (Not to mention people who consider 'meeting' as synonymous with 'tea'). Having tea at certain fashionable places has become a symbol of status. And if the gentle reader is getting a bit sick of the subject, one may venture the opinion that it is not everyone's 'cup of tea'.

But seriously, it is about time notice was taken of the fact that we as a nation have become addicts to this beverage. Over the past couple of decades or so, we have gone through what may aptly be described as the Revolution of the Tea-Cup (not to be confused with storm in a teacup, of which the reader may be quite familiar). But in this case, given our well-known penchant for one- up-man-ship, we are quite unique. A not inconsiderable number of people are of the opinion that it was the British colonialists who introduced tea to the sub-continent. This observation would appear to be true only in part.

Our region with its centuries old link with China via the Silk Route surely had access to Chinese tea much before the advent of British colonialism. But tea as we know it today was definitely introduced by the British colonialists. With its financial interest in the tea gardens spread all over the British Empire, the colonial administration cleverly manipulated a campaign to introduce tea into the sub-continental homes. A vast indoctrination exercise was launched, more or less on the lines of psychological warfare. Our elders talked of the rather cryptic slogan "In hot weather, a hot cup of tea cools you down"(Garmion mein garam chai thandak pohnchati hai}, which the British tea companies in India appear to have utilized with devastating effect.

And yet, despite all their commercial tricks, when that "nation of shopkeepers" finally quit the sub-continent, their campaign to make the people dependent on tea had achieved, at best, only partial success. While the Anglophiles and the town babus took to tea like ducklings to water, our sturdy rural folk (the overwhelming majority) stuck manfully to their traditional values and their traditional beverages. It was left to our post-independence masters to finally break down that resistance. The irony was that after independence Pakistan was separated from most of the major tea-producing areas and after the traumatic events of 1971 we produced no tea at all. Despite all that, tea quickly became the universal, all pervasive, beverage in this country. Be it the office, the hearth or the tilling field, it is ever the cup of tea that changes hands as a mark of hospitality!

One wonders if anyone in the Land of the Pure gives a wee thought to where the tea comes from and, more importantly, what it costs the national kitty. Statistics kindly provided by a friend show that the value of our imports of tea from five countries touches the figure of over a billion dollars, give or take a few millions! Makes one wonder, if it is worth it! Before our tea-lovers start sharpening their knives, allow one to explain that one is not advocating that we give up taking tea altogether. But, could we not make a beginning by taking it in moderation? Our office babus could perhaps set an example by restricting their daily intake to two cups. Or, perhaps, all of us could chip in by resolving to have one cup of tea less in a day.

Habits die hard, though. A habit like tea drinking will hardly be easy to give up. Besides, for the poor folk, having a cup of tea is perhaps the only luxury within their reach. Take that away and what do you give them in return? Does give one food for thought, that. Come to think of it, the problem of tea drinking is much too entrenched and too widespread to yield to a quick-fix solution. Nonetheless a bit of brainstorming never did anyone any harm. The pity is that how else can brainstorming sessions go through except over endless cups of tea? And that, as they say, brings us back to square one!

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

COLLAPSING STATE INSTITUTIONS

ALI ASHRAF KHAN

 

The Pakistani State from the very beginning in 1947 has remained fragile. Born as a result of a cesarean the partition of British India gave birth to a new State which did not have any infrastructure and less experience from the years of British rule. The British left the subcontinent and many of the Muslim bureaucrats opted to stay in India. The frenzy of the partition days with all the killings, the refugee movement were the midwife of Pakistan. That is why under the pressure of a hostile India the Pakistan Army as the best organized institution of the newly born State took over political functions which normally would not have happened.

The second reason for the Pakistani State to remain fragile even after decades of existence is the fact that the political leadership of Pakistan comes from feudal and tribal families who are by their very character undemocratic, autocratic and least interested in something that is called common good.

Negligence of the national interest of Pakistan started right from the early years of Pakistan's existence when PM Suhrawardy signed the so-called "communication agreement" with the Americans during his tenure thus ceding away territory to the US from where they could install their spying station at Badebair close to Peshawar. When acting Foreign Minister of Pakistan in the 60s wished to visit the establishment of the US he was told that he could not enter the compound and inspect it but would be welcome only in the cafeteria for a briefing. When American U2 was shot down by Russians. Pakistan was given an ultimatum to revoke this agreement or face the consequences.

It is one of the several achievements of Ayub Khan that in a bid to safeguard national interest he revoked the communication agreement unilaterally and resisted all pressure and blackmail from the Americans to revise his decision. Another blunder certifying the mounting negligence of the government and institutions was the story of the disaster of the Tarbela Dam, the largest earth-filled dam, under Bhutto in the seventies. The tender for the construction against the usual procedure was given to a consortium of three countries which made it impossible to include the country of origins warranty for the proper execution of the project into the contract, this would not be the case when 3 countries are involved in a contract. The consortium called TJV worked under supervision of American consultants "TAMS" then started messing it all up. Instead of putting the foundation on a base of solid rock as required in the project design, they just left it floating. When several of the gates that had been ordered and delivered from Switzerland got choked and did not open on the day of inauguration the power of the water uprooted the whole set-up and the concrete of the foundation burst and reservoir developed cracks. It had to be filled up with loads and loads of cement which as a consequence reduced the capacity of the reservoir by almost half. There was nothing that could be done later and may be this was the reason why all future governments refused to go into hydel power generation projects but preferred thermal power creation.

Under Bhutto destruction of existing institutions reached a new height. That could be observed when in the 1970s the government of Z A Bhutto nationalized the not only economically healthy banks and industrial units but also well functioning educational institutions and messed up the bureaucracy. Since then whatsoever little legacy of the British system had been there was finished and done away with replaced by ill-prepared, inapt and corrupt cronies of the new feudal establishment. Though of course the long years of military rule did undermine whatsoever institution building was there in Pakistan, the main job of ruining governance was done by the "democratically elected" civilian governments themselves.

These days we are witnessing the latest chapter of their history when our democratic government consisting mainly of beneficiaries of the NRO in a bid to generate public support for War against Terror were facilitated to return from self exile and cronies of the newly emerged Zardari/Bhutto clan are taking another onslaught at the judiciary by refusing to implement the verdict of the Supreme Court regarding the NRO. The same government has brought the country back under the control of the IMF which is now prescribing the medicine for an underdeveloped economy which is suffering from lack of political and economic vision. Their own hand made yarn crisis has destroyed value added garments industry because of allowing free export of cotton yarn, missing control led to sugar crisis and soaring sugar prices because of hoarding of sugar by sugar barons who are in the government or allied with it, lack of power and water, environmental hazards and lack of security for the lives and properties not only of the industrialists but of everybody residing in Pakistan became risky. The ministries fail to produce viable policies because the ministers are incapable and the bureaucrats irresponsible and corrupt.

In two years of government neither could there be produced a relief plan for agriculture which has failed to achieve all set targets this year excluding cotton only, nor for the textile sector. The latest example is that after a long period of waiting- newly introduced educational policy which made switching for public schools from Urdu to English mandatory and which has produced a massive drop out of students mainly in the backward and rural areas who lose confidence in a school which is teaching things they can not understand using books which are much too complicated and have no relevance in their everyday lives. The police and the security forces like the rangers in Karachi are incapable to prevent repeated sprees of target killings in the city while in Punjab they are torturing people in detention or gang rape them for weeks on end instead of providing security and rule of law. Kidnapping for ransom in a popular sport and people tell you whatsoever happens don't involve the police because then you have to pay to them also.

This is the situation while the prices for petrol, bijli and food items are soaring and the heat wave is sweeping across the country as a reward or punishment. With water short in supply and the gap between energy supply and demand increasing by the day there is not much to look forward to in this democratic and Islamic republic of Pakistan. The latest highlight then was the utterance of the information secretary of the PPP who announced that poor Hazrat Umar had to appear in front of the court because he had only the Holy Quran and was not blessed with a constitution like our government has; a constitution which outlaws the Quran and allows them to escape justice in a constitutional way. But all this is not enough. The 18th amendment which was produced after two long years of waiting and which should have done away with the aberrations of the 17th amendment only has not done that; it wanted more. By this "more" we have now a new name for NWFP and subsequently turmoil in Hazara with street riots and demonstrations and killings reaching out till Karachi demanding a new province. The Seraiki nationalists accordingly have also woken up from their slumber and demand the same. Instead of solving one problem by one stroke of the pen this parliament has managed to create three others!! This is topped only by the farce

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

WELL ORCHESTRATED DEFAMING CAMPAIGN

DR RAJA MUHAMMAD KHAN

 

The allegations are baseless," Pakistan and its security setup, perhaps thought this brief, succinct, and patent elucidation enough in response to the 22 pages, Matt Waldman's research report on, "The Sun in the Sky: The relationship between Pakistan's ISI and Afghan Insurgents," published by Crisis States Research Centre of London School of Economics (LSE) on June 13, 2010. While recognizing the fact the Taliban in Afghanistan is a reality, the report reveals that ISI indeed guides them in their strategic planning, decision making and even in the implementation phases of the insurgency. So much so that, the author is self-assured in claiming that starting from the training, the funding, arming, and even logistical support provided to Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network, is accomplished by this Pakistani intelligence agency. The astonishing research also reveals that, apart from the intelligence setup, President Zardari, otherwise considered to be a pro-US and Pro-West, has given assurances to the Taliban for Pakistani assistance.

US and NATO troops are embattling these insurgent Taliban ever since the former invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, following the incident of 9/11. To their hard-luck, these foreign forces could not subdue the resistance put up by Afghan Taliban and masses in spite of having superior weaponry and despotic tactics. Rather their tyrannical acts further fuelled the insurgency in that country. After having analysed, the consecutive failure of US and NATO troops, and their counter-productive results, Afghan President Mr. Hamid Karazai, decided to launch reconciliatory efforts to integrate the Taliban into the main stream of Afghan society and the Government. The process had the US backing and even met initial success too. Therefore, the issuance of this report at this critical juncture, once the reconciliation process is underway between Afghan Government and Taliban insurgents seems to have ill intentions. Since Pakistan, as a brotherly Islamic and neighbourly country is helping the Afghan Government in the process, therefore, is linked with the Taliban.

Pakistan indeed, believes that peace in this war-torn country; Afghanistan is a key to its own internal stability, therefore, decided to encourage and helped the Afghan Government to negotiate with the Taliban; the main insurgent group. In this connection, the statement of Pakistani Army Chief, General Ashfaq Pervaz is on record that; "Pakistan cannot wish anything for Afghanistan which it cannot wish for itself". There are similar sentiments of the civilian leadership and the people of Pakistan regarding Afghanistan. After many misperceptions, the Afghan President has been very realistic during his visit of Pakistan on March 11, 2010, once he said that, "No country has ever showed more hospitality to Afghanistan than Pakistan". Declaring Pakistan and Afghanistan as the "twin brothers," President Karzai further said that the "destiny, grieves and happiness of both the countries are shared." On this occasion, Pakistani Prime Minister Gilani, assured the visiting President that, Pakistan would enhance its cooperation with Afghanistan to eliminate the terrorism, and bilateral ties between the two countries would be enhanced further. Similar assurances and guarantees were promised during the visit of President Zardari to Afghanistan and in his meet with President Karazai in Washington.

The report primarily focussed on the insurgent activities of Afghan Taliban under the Mullah Omar and the Jalaluddin Haqqani network, both allegedly supported by ISI. The very basis of the report by Watt Waldman, are erroneous that after 1971, disintegration, Pakistan started mobilizing and relying on Islamic groups to avert the threat from India. The fact of the matter is that creation of Islamists through Islamization and enhancement of Maddrassah culture are the outcome of US and Western efforts to counter the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1980s. This has nothing to do with the defence of Pakistan. The paper indeed failed to identify the fact that, indeed, it was United States which concentrated the then Mujahedeen from all over the world all Pak-Afghan border to defeat and disintegrate the former USSR. CIA, the premier US intelligence agency, indeed, did all this.

The report betrays the readers by making reference of the US Congressional Research Service (CRS), that Pakistani intelligence agencies are aware of the Taliban leadership and maintains its active links with it. Such allegations are always made once US and West aim to pressurize Pakistan for the implementation of its own agenda. The malicious nature of the report could be well imagined from the fact that Afghan Taliban are forced to obey the Pakistani intelligence agencies because their families are in Pakistan. Whereas, a large number of Afghan leadership had their residences in Pakistan. Even President Karazai had stayed in Pakistan for a long duration and still owns a house in Pakistan.

In his research work, the author himself remained unsure, whether the interviewees; some former Taliban leaders and some current Taliban commanders in various parts of the Afghanistan are the genuine ones or presented by their intermediaries as a fake lot. The argument is further augmented by the fact that, if a researcher, who indeed was an official representative of UK Government, could find that real leadership of Taliban why cannot over 150,000 large US and NATO forces; whose UK troops are also part of, could trace them. This is not the end; there is a huge network of the CIA, FBI, MI-6, RAW and Mossad operative in and around Afghanistan. Why did they fail to trace them and taken them to the task, instead of killing the innocent Afghans, once they are busy in undertaking their religious and social ceremonies?

There is a misperception that Pakistan is maintaining its links with the Taliban in order to use them as a strategic force at the hours of need. The fact remains that Pakistani security forces, its strategic arsenals are enough to defend the country, and it has never depended on such like forces. The West and U.S indeed used them against the former Soviet Union to accomplish their own agendas. Rather Pakistani security forces are combating them all along the Pak-Afghan border and in other parts of the country, especially the FATA since 2003. Furthermore, Pakistan neither desires to use Afghan soil as its strategic depth nor has intention to use the Taliban (Afghan or Pakistani Taliban) as its strategic strength. All that Pakistan, its security forces and intelligence agencies desire is the durable peace, stability, and unity among various Afghan factions.

The Western media, think tanks and authors like Matt Waldman, must realize that Pakistan and Afghanistan are two neighbourly Islamic countries. Both countries share a lot in terms of their culture, history, traditions, and even common origin. Destined into two independent countries, they cannot be estranged spiritually and ideologically. This is evident from the fact the during Soviet invasion, over 3.5 million Afghan refugees (later rose to 5 million) were sheltered by their brethrens in Pakistan. Still Pakistan is housing over 2.5 Afghan refugees. The Sun in the Sky indeed is that, People of Pakistan and Afghanistan have indissoluble relationship. Therefore, such malevolent reports would not dent the mutual relationship of Pa

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

A HOPE OF BETTER TOMORROW

SHAMIM AHMAD

 

After remaining sick of growing number of problems relating to terrorism, inflation, energy, poverty, unemployment and lawlessness etc., the nation is now in search of a better tomorrow through the progressive, peaceful and stable Pakistan wherein every person has the right of equal opportunity to enjoy economic freedom, social justice and promotion in every field of life without any discriminatory treatment. Similarly, the minority and majority are free to follow their respective faith as a citizen of State with protection of their lives, properties and worship places. Since inception, it has been the ardent desire of every nation to achieve this cherished goal to live with prestige and honour on the surface of earth. The progressive nations of the present age are touching the heights of success for containing their policies in this direction for the betterment of the people.

This was the main reason involved behind the creation of Pakistan for which our elders saw a dream and rendered a lot of sacrifices of men and material to achieve this reality. While addressing the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, the Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah stated about this fact as: "If we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor. You are free to go to your temples, mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan".

It is matter of great misfortunate that after passage of 63 years the dream of our forefathers could not be materialized due to major involvement of military rule, mutual differences, religious intolerances, disturbances, strikes and oral claims in the politics of our country. Consequently, Pakistan is now standing at a critical stage of its history where it is facing a number of challenges at its internal and external fronts to defence its national integrity and solidarity. These challenges are creating great hurdles in the way of establishing peaceful atmosphere, economic progress, prosperity and stability of the country in the absence of their proper solution. These are the major drawbacks of our country, which did not allow to improve the entire condition of the people so far.

Besides, the sitting rulers always wanted the masses to render sacrifices to face the difficult times instead of reducing their luxurious expenditure and adopting simple living to make up the deficiency of financial hardships of the country. The people have received a bitter experience of this practice in the name of poor-friendly budget for 2010-11 wherein no any relief has been given to mitigate the miseries of the people who are already facing the problem of unannounced and prolonged load shedding of electricity and passing tough times under the unbearable burden of inflation in every sector of human needs. Instead of reducing their difficulties, the tariffs of gas and electricity have been increased heavily.

The people are considering themselves incapable of bearing this rising trend of inflation, which will further lead to major disarray in their daily lives. It is an well-established fact that a vast majority of people are unable to manage two times meal in this state of affairs. Similarly, the mounting expenditure of education, health, construction and housing is going beyond their reach day by day. The series of terrorism has played a great havoc in the country by destroying the public and private properties and causing loss to the innocent human lives not only at the common and security places but also in the worship areas of minority and majority.

The people are greatly afraid of these horrible deeds, particularly when they travel from one place to another. The terrorists are badly damaging the image of Pakistan in particular and the Islam in general all over the world under their particular agenda. Whereas Islam highly condemns these inhuman deeds being an universal religion of peace, love, equality and justice etc. Islam declares that the assassination of a person is the assassination of entire humanity. Being a responsible nation, Pakistan is trying its best efforts to maintain regional and global peace by discouraging the act of terrorism at every forum. It is the responsibility of the world community to extend its due cooperation to Pakistan in eradicating terrorism from the region by winning the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Terrorism has also put an adverse impact on our national economy through slow pace of local and foreign investment, closure of major industrial units and incapability of facing tough competition of Pakistani goods in international market due to higher cost of production. According to Pakistan Security Report-2009, the economy of Pakistan has received a huge financial loss of US$ 35 billion in the anti-terror campaign so far. The culture of corruption, nepotism and favourism has taken a big place in our society due to which efficient and young qualified persons are roaming in the streets in search of a job. The frustrated and unemployed persons are seeking justice from the rulers to achieve their due status in the society.

The people gave a clear verdict in favour of the present government not only to say see off the dictatorial role of Pervez Musharraf but also to seek solution of these problems. However, the people have not yet gained the benefit of their struggle for restoration of democracy in the country. Unfortunately, the sense of deprivation is increasing day by day among them.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

STOP WORRYING & LOVE THE WORLD

VIEWS FROM ABROAD

DEEPAK CHOPRA

 

We live in times when it seems like a duty to be worried. Two wars, global warming, an out of control oil spill. More than anytime I can remember, people are uniformly glum about the future prospects of the planet. If you aren't worrying, you feel that somehow you aren't doing your part. Worry is nothing to be glib about. In some situations it is inescapable. In a crisis when you are uncertain about the future, the mind begins to obsess as a way to gain a sense of control over events that are uncontrollable. But revolving a host of worst case scenarios as you lie awake at night isn't really a solution. May I give some good reasons for not worrying?

Worry is a form of pain, and pain doesn't make people change. Worry is chronic anxiety, one of the least productive of all emotions. Worry is like mental smog. It keeps you from seeing clearly. People who create real change aren't worriers. They are the exact opposite.

If you take a step back, you can see that worrying is a form of self-inflicted pain. For many people the pain is a mild mental martyrdom — they feel that to worry makes you a better person than if you don't worry. It's true that the kind of person who never worries about others may be selfish, callous, and indifferent. But you aren't making up for such people by putting yourself in pain.

Other worriers believe that being anxious will force them to change, but psychologists know that pain isn't a good motivator. If it were, the millions who worry about their weight would all be slim. When somebody punishes you, do you feel motivated to change? No, and worry, being a form of self-punishment, is just as useless. If anything, it becomes a habit that clings stubbornly to the mind and refuses to change. You can't think clearly while you are worrying. Worry takes up energy and occupies the space where productive thoughts could enter. Like smog, it limits visibility. The reason for this is both psychological and biological. Psychologically, fear is convincing because it is such a powerful emotion, yet what it wants to convince you of — that everything is bad, hopeless, and doomed — is rarely correct. Biologically, worry activates stress hormones that throw the brain into a state of low-level arousal to fight or flee. This arousal is temporary, and is soon followed by exhaustion and apathy. So when you worry, your brain isn't in the best shape to consider what to do.

Finally, the kind of people who lead the way to real solutions aren't worriers. They have looked at a bad situation, felt the pain, and moved on to creative answers. Right now a lab somewhere is developing algae and bacteria that will consume greenhouse gases and metabolise the oil that dirties the surface of every ocean. Someone else is working around the clock to develop alternatives to fossil fuels. Others have taken on the role of job creators, micro financiers in the developing world, and green activists.

Their motivation is something better than worry. It can be pure love of the planet, which all of us share. It might also be what's called intrinsic motivation, which is the desire to master a field and to do as good a job as possible. They may have a specific passion or suddenly see a solution that no one else has. Free market incentives also enter the mix. Far, far down on the list is worry. Such people wouldn't be human if they didn't feel anxious about the state of things, yet they have taken steps to wipe out their anxiety in a productive way.

So the message isn't a callous "What, me worry?" It's more like, "I know what it's like to worry, but I've moved on." Let anxiety be your past. Let a renewal of love for this beautiful world be your guide in the future.
 San Francisco Chronicle

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

TRAGIC ROAD ACCIDENTS

 

The tragic road accidentt owing to head-on collision between a microbus and a truck, on the Dinajpur-Dhaka highway which left five killed, among them two senior doctors, and nine others injured, is yet another reminder that road safety remains a distant dream. On Saturday last a mother and her daughter were crushed under the wheels of a bus on the Dinajpur-Phulbari highway.

Add to this 865 people killed and 619 injured in 972 road accidents in the first four months of this year. The capital alone saw 94 people killed and 55 injured during the same period. If this is an index of our safety standards, we have to admit that we have come to a miserable pass where reckless driving by incompetent people remains the crux of the problem. A World Bank report also confirms drivers' irresponsibility and incompetence. Another study carried out by two researchers of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) shows a 43 per cent increase in the number of accidents and 400 per cent rise in fatalities between 1982 and 2000. These figures since then are likely to go up even further.

Quite naturally, we can understand how unmanageable the roads and vehicles are becoming with every passing day. No one seems to be in control of the roads and the men behind the wheels. This explains why the annual fatality rate here is 85.6 per 10,000 vehicles which poorly compares even with the 47.7 and 62.7 per 10,000 in Nepal and Myanmar respectively. In developed countries this rate is only 3. 

An attempt was made way back in 1995 when the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) was established, which subsequently was rechristened as Road Safety Cell (RSC) in 2001. That too apparently failed to produce any tangible results. Endemic corruption and non-committal attitudes of the authorities are at the root of the problem. Operation of buses, trucks and other vehicles by unskilled and not adequately trained drivers and helpers are largely responsible for increased accidents. When traffic regulation is conspicuous only by its non-implementation, one knows that the problem lies with the very agency that is supposed to be in charge. We suggest that there should be a special task force to look into this matter so that no more deaths take place due to careless driving.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

UNDERNOURISHED CHILDREN

 

Nutrition scientists have disclosed a dismal picture of child health in the country. They have found that 50 per cent of children below 5 years of age are malnourished. The cause of malnutrition, however, is due not only to poverty but also to the lack of knowledge about food value. Even some of the food items poor parents can manage are rich in protein and minerals. But their lack of awareness deprive their children and themselves of the benefit of those items. The traditional way of processing foods also partly destroys the nutrition value of their meals.

 Not many people know - or if they know, they fail to make use of their knowledge - that a variety of green leaves, arum and pulses are rich in protein and minerals. Some of these items are available for free in rural areas. The idea that meat, chicken and fish are good foods and make people healthy should be supplemented by realistic ideas of dietary practice. Education of simple food science for primary students should be complemented by a course on food science for elders at the grassroots level. This is urgent because 50 per cent malnourished children of a nation will contribute to an unhealthy and ineffective manpower with adverse consequences.

Statistics have shown that children of the areas which lack communication facilities such as coastal areas, haors and chars are worst sufferers of nutrition. The government can now put emphasis on introduction of nutrition programmes in such areas. Non-government organisations (NGOs), can as well participate in such programmes aimed at improving the situation.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

HOLDING A TAINTED HAND..!

 

There seems to be a bit of a spat going on between Bihar CM Nitin and good ole Narendra Modi, with the Bihar chief minister finally returning the 5 crores which Modi had sent a year or two back for relief work.
I'm not particularly fond of Mr Modi, but I decided to do an imaginary interview with Nitin, "Sir was this cheque given as a gift to you?"

"Not to me, to the people of Bihar!"

"And you are returning the cheque?"

"He has insulted me!"

"So you will then be giving the people of Bihar your own personal cheque right sir?"

"A personal cheque? Why should I give my personal cheque?"

"You mean sir the people in your state are so rich, so well off, that they do not need 5 crores? I guess you don't have any poor people sir?"

"Of course I do!"

"And do you know what 5 crores, even what you would call a measly sum would do for your people? Let us see sir, do you have a calculator? Okay, 5 crores is 5 hundred lakhs isn't it?"

"I don't know what you are doing!"

"Be patient Mr Chief Minister, even I was never good at mathematics, now according to my calculation, with 5 crores you would be able to give 50,000 people a sum of 1000 rupees!"

"One thousand rupees?"

"Have you ever asked 50,000 people in your state whether they would refuse 1000 rupees?"

"No!"
"That one thousand rupees sir, would be able to get many of them food for the whole month, some of them to repair their huts in the rains, maybe pay the fees of their child or even children. It would have helped 50,000 people sir!"

"We will manage!"

"We?"

"Yes my state will manage!"

"I don't think it has anything to do with your state Mr Chief Minister, it was you who didn't like the photo in which you are holding Mr Modi's hand up in the sky!"

"Yes, I didn't! It was terrible, I felt so ashamed to see it in my papers!"

"But you did hold his hand that way, it wasn't a morphed picture?"

"That was under different circumstances!"

"Your problem Mr Chief Minister for holding his tainted hand under any circumstances, and since you felt that picture would now make you lose votes, you made a dramatic move of returning his 5 crores!"

"Yes!"

"So you pay Mr Nitin! You give 50,000 people who have lost a thousand rupees each, the same amount from your personal fund!"

"But…"

"No buts sir, we are too poor a people to pay for your weak moments of holding a tainted hand..!"

—bobsbanter@gmail.com   

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

POST EDITORIAL

 

WHAT TO DO WITH SPURIOUS DRUGS

AVIK SENGUPTA

 

New investigations reveal an estimated US $150 million worth of spurious drugs are posing a risk to public health in Bangladesh. In its annual testing of 5,000 drug samples this year, the Public Health and Drug Testing Laboratory (PHDTL) detected as many as 300 drugs that are either counterfeit or of very poor quality. Significantly, these include many popular antibiotics and lifesaving drugs. Jolted into action, the health ministry's Drug Administration authorities have launched a drive against illegal and fake drug vendors in the country. Preliminary findings reveal that Bangladesh has a whopping 80,000 unlicensed drugstores.
Drug administration officials express their helplessness in combating the menace. "There are so many illegal operators that we cannot cope. Our 25 branches across the country are staffed with just 40 drug superintendents and inspectors. We act when we get specific complaints. But this set up is hopelessly inadequate," they explain. They also point out that smuggled drugs are the biggest threat, as this is a grey area which is totally unmonitored. In the absence of quality controls, any dishonest importer can smuggle in fake drugs at a takeaway price and sell them at a higher price. The rampant growth of contraband drugs is blamed on the poor quality of health services and cutthroat competition between drug manufacturers.

Worse, the acute shortage of doctors and clinics in rural areas forces patients to purchase off-the-counter drugs sans a prescription. This helps fake drug vendors to thrive. A large percentage of patients also travel to neighbouring India for treatment, returning with prescriptions of Indian drugs. To cater to them, dozens of unauthorised pharmaceutical establishments have mushroomed on the Bangladesh border. These units either smuggle in Indian drugs or manufacture fake ones that threaten the lives of thousands of patients, experts observe. Although doctors warn these drugs could be causing deaths, no survey has so far been conducted to assess their negative impact on public health. Recently, the Drug Testing Laboratory found that a popular drug used for strokes and brain hemorrhages -  Cavinton - was being marketed minus its main chemical ingredients. "It is obvious that patients who used this counterfeit drug have either died or suffered an ordeal," they say. Ironically as the Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Industries Association remarks, "The presence of fake and illegal drugs in Bangladesh is itself surprising because we manufacture over 96 per cent of our requirements and even export drugs."

The value of fake and contraband drugs flooding the market is estimated to be between US $100 million and $150 million. These drugs are produced in hundreds of fly-by-night drug factories functioning along the borders of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China and Thailand. Paradoxically though, the Chemist and Druggist Association points out, the pharmaceutical industry is Bangladesh's second largest foreign exchange earner, boasting exports to 52 countries. The industry comprises over 800 drug-manufacturing companies, 230 of which manufacture allopathic drugs, 255 producing traditional herbal drugs, 300 engaged in the manufacture of modern herbal drugs and 80 homeopathic drug producing outlets.

It alleges that apart from some three dozen leading allopathic drug manufacturers, the rest are involved in the production of fake and low quality drugs. The forum terms this cannibalistic marketing of competing companies. "Due to its high returns, businessmen with no commitment to health services have started investing in the pharmaceutical sector. Their companies thrive on faking popular brands and manufacturing drugs sans authentic ingredients. The low prices help their drugs to sell," it says. Many companies manufacture fake post-operative antibiotics like cephradine and hydrocortisone. Fungus-coated saline fluids and used syringes are also commonly found. In addition, most drug manufacturers lack suitable storage facilities and enclose tablets and capsules in such low quality foil that it is impossible for them to retain their potency. Health ministry says the local pharmaceutical industry meets nearly 96 per cent of the country's drug demands. According to the ministry, it has ordered a crackdown on illegal drug networks in the country. "We are preparing to sue some 15 illegal and fake drug vendors in the capital Dhaka. We are currently inspecting other towns and cities as well," said the ministry.

 

If the above facts are real, no doubt that counterfeit drugs are a public menace in Bangladesh. They are mostly ineffective and can cause grievous injury or even death. The existence of spurious drugs in Bangladesh is well known, although not the precise extent. The Government has yet not decided to bring in legislation to hand out serious penalty to those who manufacture or sell spurious drugs that cause grievous injury or death. Several newspapers have long opposed capital punishment but the point is that stern penalties are a necessary but insufficient condition for putting an end to the spurious drug industry. The present system has serious shortcomings that need to be overcome before any tangible results can be seen. The top priority must be to strengthen the drug control machinery and enforce the law. The fact that not a single prosecution has resulted in life imprisonment since the Drugs Act was amended shows that legislation alone does not suffice.
According to the WHO, counterfeit medicine is "one which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source. Counterfeiting can apply to both branded and generic products and counterfeit products may include products with the correct ingredients or with the wrong ingredients, with insufficient active ingredients or with fake packaging." In the past, bogus pills used to be blank replicas of the originals. But counterfeiters nowadays often add other active ingredients, such as mild pain relievers such as acetaminophen into pills that might make patients temporarily feel better. This was the case with fake Tamiflu seized from UK pharmacies in 2007. In 2004, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) discovered counterfeits ARVs on markets in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) containing anti-depressants and muscle relaxants. The addition of false active ingredients to counterfeit pharmaceuticals alarms health professionals. More worrisome is the substitution of real active ingredients with potentially life-threatening chemicals. The antifreeze component diethylene glycol has been used in place of glycerine in cough medicines, killing hundreds of people in Nigeria, Panama and Bangladesh in recent years.

Although the Government shares the responsibility for keeping a check on spurious drugs, the pharmaceutical industry cannot disown responsibility. The weakest link here is the distribution network. No amount of policing by the Government will help unless the companies beef up their distribution networks. While some manufacturers have their own clearing and forwarding agents to handle certain drugs, the need for a well established distribution network for all drugs cannot be ignored. Educating wholesalers and retailers to identify spurious drugs is another suggestion; this is a challenging task as the packaging is close to perfect and even experts find it difficult to tell the genuine from the fake. One of the ways to beat the counterfeiters is to use advanced packing technology. This will become a reality only if the government makes it mandatory for at least antibiotics and life saving drugs.

Consumers have a crucial role to play in arresting the proliferation of spurious drugs. Being the least equipped to tell genuine from spurious drugs, they should be advised to buy drugs only from reputed and well-established chemists. Insisting on bills with the batch number of medicines clearly mentioned, staying clear of chemists who sell drugs at a discounted price, and destroying used containers bearing the manufacturer's name indelibly marked are simple ways of ensuring that the drugs being bought are genuine. Consumers need to be wary of doctors themselves providing drugs rather than prescriptions. Finally, drug testing carried out by some public service organizations enjoying wide consumer acceptance will go a long way in supplementing the government's efforts. Educating the public on the circulation of spurious drugs and the dangers they pose should be high on the agenda of the government, the pharmaceutical industry, and the media.

(The writer is a Canada-based contributor of The Independent)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

POST EDITORIAL

BUDGET NOT PEOPLE'S WELFARE ORIENTED

O H KABIR

 

After our independence our first national budget for the financial year 1972-1973 presented by then Finance Minister Tajuddinn Ahmed amounted to Taka 786 crore only. Today in 2010-2011 fiscal, our national budget stands at Tk. 1,32,170 crore. Is it not a colossal, ambitious and challenging budget?

We would request our learned Finance Minister A M A Muhith kindly to let us know what steps he has taken in the light of his budget for the year 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 to fulfill the pledge of the Awami League government for 'Din Badaler Pala' and Digital Bangladesh 2021?

Since Awami League government came into power after winning a massive election victory we do no find any 'Din Badaler Pala' - Charter of Change, any Digital Bangladesh. Instead we find ourselves in the mist of 'As it is, where it is' of the past rule of BNP Government followed by Caretaker Government some years ago. In some cases the sufferings and hardships of the common people have increased. The rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer.

The income, salary and luxury of the rich and affluent persons, political leaders of the government and opposition, bureaucrats, industrialists, traders and contractors have increased.

They are spending more and more money on construction and renovation of their new and old houses, purchasing cars, air-conditioners, electric generators, IPS, many luxurious items, visiting foreign countries and what not.

Whereas the poor and middle class people are struck with price hike of essential goods, commodities and services, their housing, education and medical expenses of their children and family members, acute shortage of electricity and load shedding problems.

We understand that our government is contemplating and undertaking many giant development projects like Padma Bridge, underground railway, expressway, flyovers, widening Chittagong-Dhaka highway and so and so forth. We however feel that our most important and immediate requirement is adequate supply of electricity and total avoidance of load shedding.

This problem should be solved by our government on topmost priority basis considering our colossal financial losses in trade, commerce, industry, education of our children, office works, etc.
We are disappointed and shocked that we could not watch/listen to the full text of budget speech of our Finance Minister AKA Muhith in our Jatiya Sangsad over TV and Radio due to electricity failure and frequent load shedding. We are also missing World Cup, South Africa 2010 because of same reasons. Not a single capital of any country in Europe, Asia or Africa suffers so ruthlessly and heavily as Dhaka is undergoing electricity failure and load shedding for days together, months and years together.

Through our annual budget announcement we come to know main income and expenditure on various subjects and head of account but we fail to know the expenditures on foreign tours of our ministers, MPS and bureaucrats, payments of their electricity and telephone bills, purchase of cars, government expenditure on P.O.L, repair and maintenance of government vehicles, payment of honourarium, overtime and entertainment, official and state functions and celebrations and so and so forth.

We need accountability and transparency in all our  government expenditures, ban on misuse of wanton expenditure from public exchequer, stoppage of illegal toll collection, bribe and corruption in the name of 'Din Badaler Pala', Digital Bangladesh and a prosperous, happy and peaceful Bangladesh.

We demand that our national budget must be realistic, practical and people's welfare oriented.

 

 

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

THIS CRY FOR HELP MUST BE HEARD

 

ANOTHER day, another demonstration of how the Rudd government erroneously assumes the most complex policy problems are easily fixed. Last week, the government announced that the body to oversee federal funding of the proposed local hospital networks would not go ahead. Yesterday, we learned that John Mendoza, chairman of the National Advisory Council on Mental Health, had resigned in protest against Canberra's inadequate interest in and funding for mental illness. That Dr Mendoza is departing as the government spends ever more on mental health demonstrates that money alone is not the issue, that as with the school building program, planning and management of how the sum is spent matters as much.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon can point to programs such as Better Access, which funds general practitioners and psychologists, social workers and occupational practitioners to provide mental health programs for patients. Measured by consultations the scheme is an enormous success, running at something like four times its original budget of $500 million, and last month the government backed away from measures to contain its costs. It is unreasonable to dismiss the scheme as help for the "worried well" - putting a price on pain of any kind is never easy. But it does not help people with serious pyschiatric illness, or even reach large numbers of vulnerable young people and men, groups at the greatest risk of self-harm. Despite all the evidence that leaving seriously mentally ill people to cope in the community with outpatient services does not work, Australia is still closing psychiatric hospital beds.Last year, there were just 2100, for all of Australia. And the extra $174 million Canberra committed to mental health as part of the hospital reform package was mainly directed to depression and youth support services, instead of severe pyschotic illness.

This all occurred despite Canberra and the states agreeing to make mental health a priority at COAG in 2006. Perhaps ministers assume mental health, especially for the young, can be ignored. Perhaps, as with so many issues in health, the two levels of government think they can blame the other for inaction. But every time a teenager commits suicide, parents across the country wonder where was the help that family needed. It's a good question, one that Dr Mendoza demands governments answer.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

PENRITH A POINTER TO THE FATE OF DO-NOTHING LABOR

THAT the Labor government of NSW lost the Penrith by-election on Saturday was no surprise but the record swing will stagger party strategists as they prepare for coming state- and federal - elections. Labor's primary vote in the heartland seat halved to 24 per cent with the Liberal candidate winning over 50 per cent of first preferences, on an 18 per cent primary vote improvement. That the Liberals only need an 8 per cent increase across the state to win the general election next March demonstrates how much trouble Premier Kristina Keneally and her colleagues in Canberra are in. Certainly Labor argues specific circumstances are the cause of the defeat. At a state level, Ms Keneally says the cause of the loss was local, that voters were upset with former member for Penrith Karyn Paluzzano, who lied to the state's corruption commission. Yesterday, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said the by election was fought on state issues and had no consequences for Canberra.

They are both less spinning than twisting in the wind. For Labor Party powerbrokers in NSW, the result demonstrates the electorate has made up its mind it wants a change of government, that dumping former premier Nathan Rees for Ms Keneally in December did not work. This result was worse than the 23 per cent swing against Labor in the September 2008 Ryde by-election, held in the aftermath of the party removing Morris Iemma as premier over his plan to privatise the power system. While the voters like Ms Keneally, they loathe the party she leads. Understandably so. Labor has been in power for 15 years and its last significant achievement was the Sydney Olympics. Since then it has failed to reduce either long hospital queues or the travel time of Sydney commuters. And the ministry long since abandoned interest in the electorate, governing for its pay masters in the public sector unions. The electricity workers led the charge against privatising power and Ms Keneally did not dare sell off the failing ferry system, lest it upset overpaid employees. Nor has she stopped the scandals. Two ministers, David Campbell and Ian Macdonald, plus Ms Paluzzano, have all been forced to resign on the Premier's watch. The size of the swing in this election goes way beyond the voters of Penrith deciding it is time for a change - it was a judgment on a government they consider incompetent.

This is very bad news for Kevin Rudd. Certainly his government is young and scandal-free, but this is not enough to save it from accusations of inertia and incompetence. That Mr Rudd has not delivered much will only encourage NSW voters to decide do-nothing Labor has let them down at every level. The Prime Minister has tried to put as much distance as possible between himself and Ms Keneally, demonstrated by his ignoring her at a press conference in March but, other than looking rude, this accomplished nothing. Perhaps some NSW voters are thinking of taking out their frustration with Ms Keneally on the Prime Minister if he goes to the polls first. But a bigger risk for Mr Rudd could occur if many more voters concluded that on the evidence of the past three years federal Labor, like the comrades in Sydney, will accomplish little, regardless of how long it is in power.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

MACKLIN'S GREAT MORAL REFORM

THE idea of a fair go runs deep in the Australian DNA, and Families Minister Jenny Macklin is acting in accord with our core belief in helping those in need, with legislation to extend welfare quarantining to nominated disadvantaged areas across the country. This is a step all Australians should endorse, and the opposition is right to support a practical measure to protect the most disadvantaged Australians, children of parents who use pensions payments to feed their addictions rather than their families. Ms Macklin's plan extends a scheme started in the Northern Territory as part of the Howard government's intervention in remote indigenous communities. Welfare quarantining restricts what people can spend benefits on: food and clothing for children qualify, alcohol and drugs do not. It requires parents to demonstrate they are caring for their kids, and there is no reason why it should apply only to indigenous Australians in the bush.

Inevitably, the scheme has critics. It was understandably unpopular in the Territory from the start among people who felt unfairly stigmatised. Others used to drinking their families welfare benefits away did not like it much either. And the indigenous rights industry argued that it was racially discriminatory because it applied only to indigenous Australians. But now Ms Macklin has addressed the discriminating issue, welfare quarantining critics can only argue that it should not apply to anybody.

Nonsense. While mentally competent adults can destroy their own lives if they like, they have no right to ruin the futures of children in their care. If it comes to a choice between adults who have had a chance in life and young people who have not, there are no prizes for guessing whose needs tax-paying Australians will want to prevail. Nor is there anything unique about the approach. The US food stamps system uses a debit card that cannot pay for hot food or alcohol without causing controversy. Ms Macklin's program will be a shock, in some cases a harsh one, to welfare recipients but overall it is a practical program to help those in greatest need.

By giving money, no questions asked, to people whose cruel or chaotic lifestyles mean they leave children in their care to fend for themselves, we are complicit in a great injustice. Ms Macklin is right to end it.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

PENRITH SHOWS TSUNAMI ON WAY

 

PENRITH has spoken with a crystalline, unmissable clarity. Before the poll, the Premier, Kristina Keneally, warned of a possible 30 per cent swing against the government. Some commentators said she was exaggerating - trying to ensure a smaller swing would seem somehow not too bad. But in some booths the swing against Labor was more than 30 per cent, and overall it was such that one in four voters switched allegiances - a record in NSW by-elections, according to the analyst Antony Green. True, byelections often magnify swings against the incumbent party. But half this swing would still be a disaster. Byelection or not, for Labor this result is an utter rout.

 

Keneally's tactic has been to stay well away during the campaign so as not to be visibly associated with the disaster. It will not work. She is a fresh face, probably the best Labor has to offer. But she carries all Labor's baggage; it is too much to bear for someone expected to turn the party's fortunes around.

 

Penrith for Labor in 2010 is what Bass was for Gough Whitlam in 1975, and Bass Hill for Barrie Unsworth in 1986. It is a straw in the wind - but one wind blown so far and so fast by the wind of public opinion that it has reached cyclone force.

 

Can Labor do anything to turn things around? We believe not. It has shown with the budget - responsible and safe, certainly, but limited in its promise and performance by circumstances of Labor's own making - that it has nothing new to offer on the positive side.

 

On the negative, it might try attacks on Barry O'Farrell and the Coalition. But who would believe them? O'Farrell might be unexciting, but his great, unmatchable virtue at present is that he is not Labor. His best asset is the electorate's hope he may be able to do things Labor cannot: privatise the power industry; fix public transport; even, perhaps, rejig the bureaucracy so its separate parts are all putting state, rather than departmental, interests first. Move NSW forward, in short, by managing it well.

 

Despite Coalition spin, Saturday's vote was focused on state issues. Kevin Rudd will be hoping, fingers tightly crossed, that voters distinguish between state and federal elections. But the electoral tsunami that is rising over Labor's NSW branch will surely send some big waves his way. At the next state election Labor will be on trial over its competence. Can the Prime Minister claim that his federal government has shown much of that quality lately?

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

DEPTHS OF DENIAL

LAST week's US congressional show trial of BP's chief executive provided vicarious thrills for those who blame the company for the continuing catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. But it is governments, not oil companies, who set the rules under which drilling takes place.

The current crisis seems far away, but as the Herald has reported, up to eight rigs of the same semi-submersible type as the one that exploded in the gulf on April 20 are exploring for gas and oil in Australian waters. As the world consumes more oil and reserves dwindle, pressure to exploit more marginal deposits at the bottom of the seas intensifies. Any accident at such depths is far more difficult to rectify. BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling below 1500 metres when the explosion occurred. Since then, up to 60,000 barrels of oil a day have continued pouring into the gulf. The Obama administration has imposed a moratorium on drilling below 500 feet (152 metres) for six months while authorities assess the causes of the disaster and whether drilling at such depths is safe.

In Australia, the Rudd government has announced the creation of a national regulator some time in the future, but that is an inadequate response. When a commercial aircraft develops a technical fault, airlines worldwide ground similar planes until safety checks are undertaken. But when an offshore drilling rig explodes, unleashing the world's worst oil spill, we get business as usual with some soothing words about streamlining regulations in future. Offshore drilling may be a remote activity, but its potential to cause massive environmental and financial losses is before our eyes.

Chevron has been drilling at similar depths off Western Australia and a number of other companies have been allowed to drill to about 1000 metres. Last August, when the West Atlas rig blew out in only 77 metres of water in the Timor Sea, it still took 75 days to plug the Montara oil well.

The public deserves to know more about what is going on in waters under Australian jurisdiction. Could such a spill occur there, especially at extraordinary depths or in otherwise vulnerable environments where spills are harder to stop? If so, is our current technology capable of preventing environmental damage on the unprecedented scale now occurring in the United States? If not, what are we doing about it?

Providing answers to these questions is the least we can expect from a government that until recently was trumpeting its environmental credentials.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

BUYING INFLUENCE AT THE EXPENSE OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE

POLITICAL DONATIONS WILL ALWAYS AROUSE SUSPICION.

POLITICAL parties are also businesses: they have to be. But is it the business of politicians to solicit and accept substantial donations to party funds, especially when such gifts could be seen as potential buying-of-influence - or, to put it bluntly, a form of bribery in hope of future services rendered? Such conclusions, while perhaps simplistic, are inevitably drawn whenever or wherever the subject of party politics and corporate largesse arises.

Last Saturday, The Age published details of some of the donations received by the Labor Party in Victoria during its decade in government from builders and property developers. Of the millions of dollars given over the years, generous amounts have come from such powerful business interests as Grocon ($108,490 donated between 1999 and 2009), the Walker Corporation ($180,000 over the same period) and Becton ($283,797); in addition, the party coffers have been swollen by myriad donations from smaller individual groups. It would be almost understandable if these were unsolicited donations, but, as some individual developers confirmed to The Age, the Labor Party makes annual phone calls to their offices, in effect saying it's that time of year again. Although the developers say there is no pressure on them to give money, such reminders must carry at least some inherent sense of obligation.

At the same time, the ALP's state fund-raising arm, Progressive Business, has raised considerable revenue from its continuing series of special social events: last year, it earned $1.6 million. The next Progressive Business event, a ''Canberra meets Spring Street'' dinner at the Sofitel Melbourne on August 4, is described in an official letter as ''the ideal platform for business and government leaders to interact and build dialogue''. Special guests and/or table hosts include prominent state and federal cabinet members. While such events might be conducted with ''high standards and strict probity arrangements'', and while some events have been revamped or scrapped - possibly more in the light of forthcoming federal and state elections than any sense of honour on the part of the Victorian ALP - there is still an undercurrent of potential ethical dangers and public unease that isn't as easy to modify or mollify.

The abiding problem - be it initiating fund-raising from within the party or encouraging it from without - is one and the same: they question probity and undermine public confidence. As Saturday's report indicated, it won't be known if any of the developers behind the dozens of planning decisions fast-tracked by the state government in the past 15 months, in response to the global financial crisis, were donors to the state ALP - under federal law, donations made this financial year cannot be made public until February. Even so, the party is required only to disclose donations of more than $11,500.

An intriguing aspect of The Age's report was the inability of the major donors to justify their motives in anything other than the most general terms. One corporate spokesman said, in effect, that his company liked to participate in the political process, '' … developing working relationships with various levels of government and maintaining a bipartisan political donations program''. Pure, to be sure, but disingenuous, too. Of greater substance, though, was the wish of one large donor who said all such donations should be banned in lieu of funding from the public purse.

This view is backed by former Labor MP and governance academic Ken Coghill, who says restrictions or bans would be the only effective way to restore confidence in the political system. For example, a New South Wales Parliament report on public funding of election campaigns, tabled in March, recommends a cap of $2000 a year on individual or business donations to political parties. It is a sensible and practical suggestion, but unlikely, in the current political climate, to become law.

In truth, political fund-raising is not the prerogative of one particular party, but pervades the Australian political system. In Victoria, it is worth remembering that the opposition, which continues to receive large donations from developers, will not commit to any changes in the funding system. On a national basis, and unlike Labor, the Liberal and National parties receive substantial funding from tobacco companies: between July 2008 and June 2009 alone, British American Tobacco donated $14,000 to the Coalition.

The Age's consistent view is a healthy democracy demands financial support of political parties must be transparent and accountable. Otherwise, the system will always be prone to suspicion.

Source: The Age

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

PRINCE CHARLES, DISGUSTED OF WINDSOR

 

By meddling in the Chelsea barracks affair, the heir to the British throne has made himself an issue, weakening his own credibility and possibly that of the monarchy as a whole

 

There are two easily exaggerated ways of interpreting the Prince of Wales's role in the Chelsea barracks development row – and then there's the truth. But the truth is bad enough.

 

Exaggeration number one is to pretend that nothing of any consequence happened when the heir to the British throne lobbied the Qatari royal family against a Richard Rogers design for a major London development he disliked and then became embroiled in detailed negotiations which included further lobbying to outflank the planning process. Prince Charles's defenders claim the activities, which have been revealed in emails in a high court case, are legitimate campaigning that anyone who feels strongly about such developments might undertake. Such an intervention, though, is hardly an everyday matter – as the prince's anxiety to avoid publicity about the affair underscores. All of us may have the right to make objections to developments we dislike. But a royal objector is infinitely more equal than others.

 

Equally exaggerated, though, is the pretence that this is the thin end of a large constitutional wedge. This argument casts the prince as an incorrigible interventionist whose concerns about Richard Rogers's architecture, though serious enough in themselves, are an outrider for an extensive conservative agenda which would be given fuller rein if and when the prince ascends the throne. If the prince has no intention of living within the planning rules on the Chelsea barracks while he is heir, goes the argument, think what he might get up to when, unlike most elderly Disgusteds of Windsor, the full prerogative monarchical powers of the late 17th century constitutional settlement are conferred upon him. The problem with this argument is that he simply wouldn't dare. But, if he did, he wouldn't last five minutes.

 

So is there no problem in the Chelsea barracks affair beyond the fact – undoubtedly an irksome one to those involved – of a titled reactionary interfering in the cityscape and by doing so putting some developers out of pocket? Actually, no, even though this intervention in the London built environment is hardly a small one, or the first of its kind.

 

The larger issue is that the prince is a meddler. This doesn't mean (probably) that he is keen to press his friend David Cameron to cut this or that project, appoint this or that minister or amend this or that bill, let alone that he regards the prospect of a Labour government as utterly ghastly, although he probably does. The problem is that he has made himself an issue. Whether this merely weakens his own credibility or that of the monarchy as a whole, it is further evidence of someone who is simply not well fitted to the role in which fortune has cast him.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

IN PRAISE OF … THE MIDDLE

 

We may be at the centre of worrying times, but the summer solstice reminds us the midpoint is something to be cherished

 

Middle-brow, middle-aged, mediocre. A memorable insult to conjure up a sense of the overfamiliar and half worn-out. But is the middle really so bad? After the uncertainty of setting out, the middle is a time when you can begin to relax – when, with much of the hard slog over, you can look forward to a satisfying conclusion. You know the ropes, and all that is left is to savour the experience. Today is the very middle of summer and, after a pinched, shivering start, the year has ripened into something warmer and more generous. Despite the prospect of better weather here, many Britons will be heading to the sparkling Mediterranean (although maybe not those bits in the eurozone, given the strength of the single currency), which was for the Romans at the "middle of the earth", and is, for Arabs, "the white sea in the middle". Some middles have terrible reputations: the middle ages were a time when life was nasty, brutish and short; the Middle East is a volatile and unhappy place. But these are horrible oversimplifications, as any historian will vouch. And though we may now be in the middle of worrying times, the blind panic of banks collapsing like dominoes is behind us (we hope); we have an inkling of the economic pain to come, and can steel ourselves for it. Life expectancy in the UK is now a record average of 79.9 years. True middle age, then, starts at 39.95. If you're anywhere near that, you should stop worrying about getting older and enjoy what might be the very best part: the middle.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

THE EMERGENCY BUDGET: FAIR SHARES OF A BIG BILL

 

A running theme of the coalition has been that the pain of spending cuts will be shared. Tomorrow's budget gives George Osborne a chance to show what that promise is worth

 

"We are all in this together," George Osborne told Andrew Marr yesterday morning – for the umpteenth time. A running theme of the Lib-Con coalition has been that, in the historic round of spending cuts and tax rises to come, the pain will be shared fairly. Tomorrow's budget gives the government a chance to show what that promise is worth. But how should we judge the fairness of the budget?

 

Two big points must be made at the outset, on the timing and the broad outline of any fiscal restraint. First, it is obviously bad economics and unfair to slash spending or jack up taxes at a time when the UK and the world economy still has one foot in recession. There is a real danger of a repeat of 1937, the year that policymakers decided the slump was over and began tightening the screws – only to send the economy back into depression. Barack Obama was spot on in his warning to international leaders last Friday that "we must ... learn from the consequential mistakes of the past when stimulus was too quickly withdrawn". This debate is not about airy economic concepts; it involves the loss of jobs and the destruction of businesses. On its first swing of the axe – the £6bn of cuts announced in May – the new government shredded the Future Jobs Fund, an excellent Labour initiative to help young people into work. The result of that and other moves, estimates eminent labour economist Danny Blanchflower, will be to sling another quarter of a million young people on the dole queue by this time next year. The private sector is far too beleaguered to hire them.

 

Timing aside, a chancellor committed to reducing borrowing as fairly as possible would consider all the options available: extending the period over which the deficit is to be cut (whatever Mr Osborne says, the Treasury won't turn into a pumpkin if it works to an eight-year timeframe, rather than five), cutting spending, raising tax, stimulating growth and a smidgen of inflation. Most governments only get out of a hole this large by pulling all these levers; yet the Conservatives – out of a dogmatic insistence that the state is too big (without providing a means by which "too big" might be measured) – harp on about spending cuts. The Tories campaigned in this election to bring down borrowing by £4 of cuts for every £1 of higher taxes, while the fairer Lib Dem austerity plan involved £2.50 of cuts for £1 of tax rises. The Lib Dem promise has been a casualty of the coalition, but the party was on the right side of the argument: cuts in public services hurt those at the bottom of the pile first and most. If "progressive austerity" is to amount to anything more than a hollow phrase, tax rises on those best able to bear them must take precedence over slashing the welfare state. We could begin by lifting income tax. As the Progressive Economics Panel reminds us in a paper today, a 3p rise on basic and higher rate taxpayers would bring in £15bn a year. That would go a long way to plugging the deficit – and Mr Osborne could promise it is only temporary.

But this lot are not likely to go in for such fair measures. Instead, prepare yourself for yet another raid on benefit payments (as if New Labour had not done enough of that already) – and for VAT to go up to 20%, starting in the January sales. Both measures will hurt the poorest most, and Mr Osborne should compensate them for the VAT rise with increased benefits. The other big test will be whether he brings capital gains tax up from 18% to 40%. A levy paid by the richest and used by many to dodge the higher income taxes, the new chancellor must close this loophole – no ifs, no buts, no fudge. Finally, he should bring in a meaningful levy on the banks, and commit to work with other European governments on an international tax on financial transactions. Mr Osborne can show tomorrow that he is more than a public-spending axeman. The big question is whether he will take that chance.

 

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THE GAZETTE

WE NEED JUSTICE, NOT GRANDSTANDING

Last week, in an unseemly piece of grandstanding, the House of Commons rushed through an abridged version of a bill to restrict access to pardons for criminal offences. The ostensible reason for the haste was to prevent Karla Homolka getting a pardon when she becomes eligible to apply for one, early next month.

 

 But if there is a problem with Canada's rules for granting pardons -something that has yet to be convincingly demonstrated -it has nothing to do with Homolka.

 

MPs, who have not exactly covered themselves in glory these last months, were eager to endorse the anti-Homolka sentiments still naturally prevalent across the country. But the chance of Homolka actually being given a pardon next year seems to us so slight that this "action" in Parliament amounts to mere theatre.

 

Canadians remember that the real reason Homolka can even apply for a pardon is rooted in the spectacular investigative failure that allowed her to plead guilty to manslaughter. Nearly 20 years ago, she was allowed to plea-bargain her way to a 12-year sentence in the sex slayings of two Ontario schoolgirls.

 

Homolka's husband Paul Bernardo, also convicted in the killings, was found guilty of first-degree murder and will not be eligible for parole for many years. In fact, at the end of his mandatory 25-year sentence, he might well be declared a dangerous offender. A pardon is unimaginable for him, as it should have been for Homolka.

 

If Parliament wants to act in the public interest, it should redraft legislation to be sure evidence is made public in bail hearings or preliminary inquiries. The extraordinary secrecy around the Crown's negotiations with Homolka in the 1990s meant the public knew nothing of the lenient sentence she was given in return for pleading guilty to manslaughter. Videotaped evidence discovered after her agreement with the prosecution showed her active involvement in the girls' fate.

 

It was only after Parliament failed to get upset over former junior hockey coach Graham James's 2007 pardon that the Conservative government invoked the potential horror of Homolka's being granted a pardon. James, who had been convicted of sexual assault, was discovered this year in Mexico, a country with no registry for sex offenders. Canadian authorities are still investigating allegations by former NHL star Theoren Fleury that James sexually abused him.

 

It's not clear what changing Canada's rules on pardons would achieve in the case of James, either. Under Canada's current laws, a person pardoned for certain sexual offences will still have his or her name flagged in the Canadian Police Information Centre. Nothing prevents a foreign jurisdiction from asking about convictions on sexual offences. In James's case, just Googling his name would have done the trick.

 

If there is a substantive problem with pardons, it should be fixed. But Homolka and James are nothing but lightning rods, held up to score cheap political points.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

BUILDING MOSCOW SO THEY WILL COME

BY KIM ISKYAN

 

During his speech Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, President Dmitry Medvedev focused in part on the idea of developing Moscow into an international financial center. This has emerged as a key component of the president's broader program to modernize the country's economy.

 

Efforts to improve the investment environment are to be lauded and encouraged, but Moscow has a long way to go  before it could be called a global financial center. In a March study of global financial centers commissioned by the City of London that assessed the competitiveness of financial centers around the world, Moscow was ranked No. 68 out of 75.

 

From such a low base, Moscow should be able to improve its prospects and position. Very modest progress in strengthening property and ownership rights, improving corporate governance, cutting red tape and fighting corruption would be the best place to start. Any movement on legislation to limit insider trading and price manipulation and to adopt laws on exchanges, clearing and a central depository, would also boost Moscow's ranking. Encouragingly, the Russian government appears eager to draw upon international experience to do it right.

 

The appointment of Alexander Voloshin, the former chief of staff in the administrations of Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, as head of a financial center coordination group is a sign that the Kremlin means business. Voloshin has extensive experience with managing politicized processes and has a solid reputation for getting things done.

 

But if bright ideas and a bit of determination were all it took, Russia would have already become a large Switzerland. Upgrading Moscow's financial sector infrastructure to the level of dozens of other would-be global financial centers won't be enough. What happens if they build a financial center, but companies and investors don't come?

 

The danger is that the government will try to impose its international financial center concept on Russian companies and investors, which could do much more harm than good. For example, publicly traded Russian issuers are currently subject to ceilings on the percentage of shares that are allowed to trade on foreign exchanges as American Depositary Receipts. Russian authorities could at some stage reduce this cap in an effort to force Russian companies to tap local markets. On fixed income markets, the authorities could enact measures to limit Eurobond issuances abroad, thereby giving Russian companies that are trying to raise capital no other option but to tap local markets.

 

The likely result of these kinds of efforts would be to deter the very capital the Russian government is trying to woo. Both international and domestic investors would shy away from an artificial market. As a result, the cost of raising capital in the new Russian financial center would skyrocket, as would-be issuers chase a smaller pool of capital. Companies listed only on Russian markets would trade at even larger valuation discounts than similar companies on freer markets. In an effort to circumvent domestic issuance rules, some companies could elect to establish a legal domicile outside of Russia to gain more complete access to foreign capital. This would erode the country's corporate tax base.

 

Similarly, talk of making the ruble the main legal tender of Russia's international financial center could deter investors, many of whom would likely shy away from trading in a market where they are forced to trade in a particular currency. Meanwhile, the regulatory philosophy of turning Moscow into an international financial center has yet to be defined. Since their inception, Moscow's capital markets have been trying to edge closer to global standards of transparency, market operations and professionalism. Alleged share manipulation and insider trading may benefit a few market participants, but they are obviously not a selling point for a global financial center.

 

To succeed, Medvedev needs to push through a much stricter and sounder set of financial rules and regulations. This will guide the attitudes and approaches of regulators operating in the future financial center as well as potential participants. A consistent and strong message from Medvedev is essential. Moscow's financial center effort could initially be better directed toward an intermediate goal of becoming a regional financial hub that can draw capital and investors from other countries of the former Soviet Union. During his speech Friday, Medvedev for the first time spoke of Moscow as potentially occupying this role. To this end, the recent announcement that Russian exchanges will soon be able to trade bonds of other former Soviet states is a step in the right direction.

 

Russia's investment environment may well benefit from some of the reforms being discussed as part of the global financial center project. But investors will want to see a solid track record over an extended period proving that Moscow is a stable, effective and reliable financial center before they place any faith in a new investment regime.

 

Moscow has a chance to make a great leap forward. It's critical to get the international financial center plan right.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

IN NEED OF 6-YEAR PLANS

BY RICHARD LOURIE

 

The ripples from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have reached the Kremlin. President Dmitry Medvedev said: "After such accidents, people will definitely direct their intellectual potential toward creating alternative sources of energy. And they will create them, rest assured." In other words, the oil spill threatens not only to put BP out of business, but Russia as well.

 

In Medvedev's vision of things, Russia is confronted with a stark choice: modernize or perish. In some sense, his words are echoes of U.S. President Barack Obama's Oval Office speech of June 15. The oil addicts have to change their ways and so do the pushers.

 

But to create what Medvedev calls a "highly technological economy" takes time. How much time does Russia need? And, more important, how much time does it have?

 

We live in an age of contagion. Sentiments — especially panic — travel at the same electronic speed as information and capital. The fates of nations pivot with breathtaking swiftness. On the same day as Greek bonds were reclassified as "junk," $1 trillion worth of mineral wealth was revealed to lay beneath the surface of Afghanistan. Suddenly Europe looks shaky, while desolate Afghanistan has a future.

 

Since situations can change with such alarming speed, an ideal leader is one who can respond with the appropriate combination of deliberation and dispatch. Former U.S. President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney are obvious examples of leaders who reacted too quickly without good information, whereas Obama creates the impression of someone who ponders too much when he should be quicker off the mark. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Medvedev reacted too quickly in Georgia but bided their time intelligently last week when the Kyrgyz provisional government called for Russian military intervention.

 

To create that "highly technological economy" requires long-term planning and intelligent investment. Education becomes vital to national security. Meanwhile, Russia's cadre of excellent teachers is dwindling, and it is not clear how replacements will be found when there's more money, prestige and security in other professions.

 

There are no quick fixes to the problem. Solutions can't be imported, but Russia has some time. If the country is going to be based on a "power vertical," that vertical must also assume some of the responsibilities that come with power. To some degree, the Soviet vertical did just that. The Soviet Union produced plenty of good scientists and plenty of good teachers to train subsequent generations. In an open letter to Medvedev earlier this year, 400 scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences warned: "If young people are not brought into science in the next five-to-seven year period, plans to create an innovative economy can be forgotten." Let's call "five to seven" six.

What Russia needs now are six-year plans. A six-year plan will, of course, coincide with the new length of the presidential term. A presidential candidate will run not on vague promises and rousing rhetoric but on a specific set of programs designed to avert the doom Medvedev foresees and even recapture some measure of national greatness. That six-year plan will, at the end of a leader's term, serve as a measure of his achievement or failure.

But the country needs reforms that change society. Producing a high-tech economy is not enough. Otherwise, the result may be no more than a modernized Russia where you can pay bribes with your cell phone.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

SOUTH OSSETIA LOOKING MUCH LIKE A FAILED STATE

BY MATTHEW COLLIN

 

A recent claim that Russia is building a sophisticated radar surveillance station somewhere in South Ossetia remains unconfirmed, but it indicates how little is known about the territory that was the focus of the Georgia-Russia war almost two years ago. Despite being recognized by Moscow as an independent state after the war, South Ossetia still has no autonomous means of survival. According to some observers, its population could now be as low as 20,000 after the Georgians who used to live in what was once an ethnically mixed area were forced to flee during and after the war.

 

A report published earlier this month by the International Crisis Group paints a gloomy picture of life in this tiny, isolated region. Post-war reconstruction efforts funded by the Kremlin have rehabilitated official buildings and schools, but most private homes that were damaged in the war have remained untouched amid claims that renovation funds have been embezzled by local officials. As a result, some South Ossetians are living in empty train cars.

 

Moreover, the agricultural sector is failing, and this fertile but backward region can't fulfill its own demand. Industry is virtually nonexistent, and even the black economy has suffered since the war. Medical services and education remain poor. Anyone who questions the authorities risks being labeled a traitor.

 

The official view from Georgia is that South Ossetia is an occupied territory and ruled by a Russian-imposed puppet regime headed by Eduard Kokoity, a former wrestling champion. Most Georgians agree with this view and retain a strong emotional attachment to the region, hoping that someday their Ossetian "brothers" will realize their mistake and reunite with the historic motherland.

 

But even before Georgia sent its tanks into Tskhinvali in August 2008, many Ossetians despised the Tbilisi government because of previous botched attempts to reassert control. As the Russian military continues to entrench itself in South Ossetia, a return to Georgian rule becomes less likely with each passing day.

 

In fact, the Russian army appears to be the only thing that is thriving in South Ossetia, the International Crisis Group report suggests, pointing to a potential future as bleak as the present: "Both local and Russian analysts agree that if the local economy does not develop, the region will in effect turn into a Russian garrison."

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

'PILOT KILLERS'

TIME TO FIND REPLACEMENT FOR AGING F-5 JETS

Three F-5 fighter jets have crashed this year alone, claiming the lives of five pilots. On Friday, an F-5F jet went down off the nation's east coast, less than an hour after taking off from an airbase in the port city of Gangneung, 237 kilometers east of Seoul. The tragedy took place while the pilots were returning from routine training.

The accident occurred after two F-5F jets crashed into a mountain near Gangneung in March, killing three pilots who were also on a training mission. It might not be seen as a surprise, given that 11 F-5 jets have crashed since 2000. These planes had better have their name changed to the ``killers of pilots."

How can the Air Force ensure an airtight defense system as the fighters continue to go down during training missions? First of all, the military authorities should go all-out to find what went wrong with the jets. In most plane crashes, bad weather conditions, poor maintenance or pilot error are usually blamed.

The repeated crashes raise a question: Should the Air Force keep operating the F-5s or replace them with safer fighters with more sophisticated technology and better performances? It seems that the nation cannot decommission the aging jets due partly to a lack of budget.

But, doing nothing, with the high risk of crashes, would be far costlier, taking into account the human sacrifice and the porous air defense network. The latest crash comes not long after a North Korean submarine's torpedo attack on the South Korean frigate Cheonan that killed 46 sailors near the tense maritime border with the North in the Yellow Sea on March 26.

The military is now under criticism for a lack of discipline and negligence in preventing the worst peacetime naval tragedy and managing the crisis after the enemy attack. The role of the armed forces is to maintain preparedness to thwart any attempt by the nation's enemies to infiltrate its territories. The military cannot maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula without doing its best to ensure its vigilance and watertight postures.

In this regard, the Air Force must overhaul its capability to defend the skies from potential enemy attacks. It deployed the ageing supersonic F-5 jets, developed by Northrop of the U.S., between 1982 and 1986. This means that it is time to find replacement for the fighters whose life span averages 30 years.

Now, the government should speed up the process of developing its own prototype fighter plane so that it can substitute the outdated F-5 jets which account for 35 percent of the nation's total 480 fighters. We hope that there will be no more crashes.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

STILL TOO EARLY

DON'T EASE ANTI-SPECULATION REGULATIONS NOW

The Lee Myung-bak administration should not give the wrong signal to the sluggish property market by floating the idea of softening real estate-related regulations. Policymakers may easily yield to temptation to take market-boosting measures to prevent property prices from falling further by stimulating transactions of homes.

However, they must keep in mind that it is still too premature to ease or lift some of the regulations that were put in place to fight rampant property speculation well before the 2008 global economic crisis. The housing market has been in the doldrums since the subsequent worldwide recession. Needless to say, the slumping market has an adverse effect on the nation's efforts for economic recovery.

But, what's more important is that the government should keep the regulations in order to avoid a repeat of property speculation that had erupted during the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration. Officials had better not forget that Koreans are second to none as far as real estate speculation is concerned.

It is not to say President Lee's economic team should turn a deaf ear to the fact that construction firms, especially small- and medium contractors, are now suffering a setback due to the depressed housing market. No one can deny that the building sector plays an important part in the economy. It is also necessary to inject fresh air into this industry to help speed up growth recovery.

But the real problem is that once the regulations are relaxed, the nation is feared to be haunted again by the specter of speculation. In conclusion, it is not the right time to ease regulations on mortgage loans by raising a cap on the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio or the debt-to-income (DTI) ratio.

The DTI ratio is designed to prevent homebuyers from getting bank loans beyond their repayment capacity. The LTV ratio is also aimed at putting a cap on homeowners' outstanding debt in proportion to the market value of their property. These two measures are effective tools to make it harder for individuals to recklessly purchase homes with bank loans.

Considering the present situations, it would be impossible to boost property transactions if the authorities raise the cap on the DTI or LTV ratios. The embedded cause of the property market downturn is attributed to the fact that more and more people are delaying the purchase of apartments and houses because they believe home prices will decline further.

Another problem is that construction companies have rushed to build apartments, riding the wave of property speculation. The number of unsold homes is now estimated at around 110,000 across the country. The building firms should be held responsible for their risky business operations.

That's why the authorities should first push for drastic restructuring of the reeling construction sector. A potential crash of the property market could drive not only indebted homeowners but also financially-troubled builders to the brink of bankruptcy that would shatter the banking system and the economy. Policymakers should take more fundamental measures to prevent such a catastrophe from becoming a reality.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

COLUMN

CAN EMERGING MARKETS SAVE WORLD ECONOMY?

BY MOHAMED A. EL-ERIAN AND MICHAEL SPENCE

MILAN ― Over the past two years, industrial countries have experienced bouts of severe financial instability. Currently, they are wrestling with widening sovereign-debt problems and high unemployment.

Yet emerging economies, once considered much more vulnerable, have been remarkably resilient. With growth returning to pre-2008 breakout levels, the performance of China, India, and Brazil is an important engine of expansion for today's global economy.

High growth and financial stability in emerging economies are helping to facilitate the massive adjustment facing industrial countries. But that growth has significant longer-term implications. If the current pattern is sustained, the global economy will be permanently transformed.

Specifically, not much more than a decade is needed for the share of global GDP generated by developing economies to pass the 50 percent mark when measured in market prices.

So it is important to know whether this breakout growth phase is sustainable. The answer comes in two parts. One depends on emerging economies' ability to manage their own success; the other relates to the extent to which the global economy can accommodate this success. The answer to the first question is reassuring; the answer to the second is not.

While still able to exploit the scope for catch-up growth, emerging economies must undertake continuous, rapid, and at times difficult structural change, along with a parallel process of reform and institution building.

In recent years, the systemically important countries have established an impressive track record of adapting pragmatically and flexibly. This is likely to continue.

With government policy remaining on course, we should expect a gradual strengthening of endogenous domestic growth drivers in emerging economies, anchored by an expanding middle class. Combined with higher trade among them, the future of emerging economies is one of reduced dependence on industrial-country demand, though not a complete decoupling.

Distribution as well as growth matter. Emerging economies still need to manage better their growing domestic tensions, which reflect rising income inequality and uneven access to basic services.

A failure on this front would derail their strengthening domestic and regional growth dynamics. This is better understood today, with distributional aspects of growth strategy being firmly placed on emerging countries' policy agendas.

While emerging economies can deal with the economic slowdown in industrial countries, the financial-sector transmission mechanism is more challenging.

Today's low interest-rate environment is causing a flood of financial flows to emerging economies, raising the risk of inflation and asset bubbles. The hiccups in Western banks have served to disrupt the availability of trade credits, and, if amplified, could destabilize local banks.

 

These risks are real. Fortunately, several emerging economies continue to have cushions and shock absorbers. Having entered the 2008-2009 crisis with sound initial conditions (including large international reserves, budget and balance-of-payments surpluses, and highly capitalized banks), they are nowhere near exhausting their fiscal and financial flexibility ― and hence their capacity to respond to future shocks.

Overall, emerging economies are well placed to continue to navigate successfully a world rendered unstable by crises in industrial countries. Yet, again, the decoupling is not complete.

A favorable outcome also requires industrial countries' ability and willingness to accommodate the growing size and prominence of emerging economies. The risks here are significant, pointing to a wide range of potential problems.

The flow of knowledge, finance, and technology that underpins sustained high growth rates in emerging economies is closely linked to an open, rule-based, and globalized economy.

Yet this global construct comes under pressure in an environment in which advanced countries have stubbornly high unemployment and bouts of financial volatility. The location of growth in the global economy comes to be seen as a zero-sum game, leading to suboptimal reactions.

As a result, the continued openness of industrial-country markets cannot be taken for granted. Political and policy narratives are becoming more domestic and narrow, while the international agenda and the pursuit of collective common global interests are having greater difficulty being heard.

These challenges will grow in the years ahead. And then there is the issue of global institutions and governance.

Managing a growing and increasingly complex set of transnational connections is an even bigger challenge in a multi-speed world that is being turned upside down. Such a world requires better global governance, as well as overdue institutional reforms that give emerging economies proper voice and representation in international institutions.

In the absence of such changes, the global economy may bounce from one crisis to another without a firm hand on the rudder to establish an overall sense of direction. The result is what economists call ``Nash equilibria," or a series of suboptimal and only quasi-cooperative outcomes.

Where does all this leave us?

Emerging economies will be called on to play an even larger role in a multi-speed global economy characterized by protracted rehabilitation of over-extended balance sheets in industrial countries. Left to their own devices, they are up to the task. But they do not operate in a vacuum.

Emerging economies' ability to provide the growth lubrication that facilitates adjustment in industrial countries is also a function of the latter countries' willingness to accommodate tectonic shifts in the operation and governance of the global economy. Let us hope that these global issues receive the attention they require.

Mohamed A. El-Erian is CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO and author of When Markets Collide. Michael Spence is Nobel Laureate in Economics (2001), chairman of the Commission on Growth and Development, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and, from September 1, professor of economics at NYU's Stern School of Business. 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/spence13.mp3.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

COLUMN

HOW CAN US GET ITS MOJO BACK?

BY ANN MCFEATTERS

 

Scripps Howard News Service

America needs to get her mojo back. When BP CEO Tony Hayward told Congress the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster shouldn't have happened but insisted that two months later BP still doesn't know exactly why it happened, it was hard to stomach. It seems clear the giant company cut corners and put profits ahead of safety and reliability, a conclusion even other oil company executives have reached. BP's safety record, including a Texas refinery explosion and an Alaska spill, is abysmal (760 violations in five years).

But Hayward, a Ph.D. geologist, said, he can't yet pass judgment on drilling decisions his company made that led to the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. And the federal government paper-stamped everything BP did and did not do.

Our country is proud of its can-do, competitive spirit, technological know-how and refusal to be cowed by challenges. That pride is becoming less justifiable:

― The United States now ranks only eighth in innovation compared with other industrialized countries.

― There are deep-water oil and gas wells all over the world. Nobody seems to know how quickly to cap spills such as the Gulf disaster. Except for getting a minimum of $20 billion from BP after the fact for Gulf victims, the government has looked helpless.

― We haven't developed adequate alternatives to fossil fuels because we haven't made safe, renewable energy a priority.

― President Obama keeps citing going to the moon as evidence we can do anything, but for all practical purposes he has cancelled the space program and not replaced it with the national passion for another mission, such as renewable energy. We must commit to a plan.

― We refuse to admit that climate change is a serious issue and that this nation needs to lead a global response. We have stop the denial and lead. ― We no longer are the leading world manufacturer of some of the top technological advances we developed. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, famously known as the only Nobel Laureate in the Cabinet, says the United States is falling behind in the race for clean, renewable energy and risks losing its prominence in high-tech manufacturing.

For example, Evergreen Solar Inc. received $58 million in federal funds to open a factory in Massachusetts to build silicon wafers and cells and assemble solar panels. A year later, assembly of the solar panels was moved to China where it costs less.

We need to rethink where we are going. Fast. For example, every year our universities graduate some of the best and brightest students from around the globe. Instead of offering them visas to stay and use their brains and expertise here, we send them all home. That should stop.

We spend far less on research and development than we should and don't give the right tax incentives to the right companies. We should readjust our priorities.

Our best and brightest students are as bright as ever. But the middle-range of students is less prepared, less educated and less challenged than a generation ago, especially in science and math. Education reform, such as merit pay for teachers and tougher standards, is absolutely essential.

The nation's manufacturers offer these suggestions to getting our mojo back: Strengthen the work force, lead by example, make innovation easier, maintain a strong manufacturing base, improve the payback in profit and be consistent in tax policies and benefits.

I'd add another issue ― make certain the regulators who are supposed to oversee the technology practiced by the private sector are experienced and knowledgeable so they are legitimate regulators, not in thrall to the regulated industry. But that doesn't mean adding layers of senseless red tape.

We have the money to do all this if we stop spending precious tax dollars foolishly ― tax breaks for corporations such as BP, wars we never should have started in countries we should not be in, ridiculous bureaucracy.

If we don't address these issues, we're dead in the water.

Scripps Howard columnist Ann McFeatters has covered the White House and national politics since 1986. She can be reached at mcfeatters@nationalpress.com. The article was distributed by Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

PARTIES CIRCLE CONSUMPTION TAX

 

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the No. 1 opposition Liberal Democratic Party have announced their manifestos for the July 11 Upper House election. Noteworthy is the DPJ's mention of the possibility of raising the consumption tax as a way to rebuild state finances.

 

After Mr. Ichiro Ozawa became DPJ head in 2006, the party avoided discussing the consumption tax. Even after Mr. Yukio Hatoyama became party chief, the DPJ's manifesto for the Aug. 30 Lower House election did not mention the issue.

 

Now the DPJ says it will start discussions with other parties on drastic reform of the tax system, which will include a possible raise of the consumption tax. This is a departure from the days of the Hatoyama administration, which used to say that it and the DPJ would not discuss the consumption tax issue during the current four-year term of the Lower House.

 

As the population grays, social welfare spending is expected to increase more than ¥1 trillion a year. Raising the consumption tax is believed to be the easiest way to cope with the situation. A one-percentage-point increase in the tax rate is expected to bring in additional revenue of ¥2 trillion to ¥2.5 trillion.

 

To reduce reliance on bond issuance, the DPJ says that revenue sources for new policy measures must come, in principle, from a reduction in the budget for existing policy measures or from an increase in revenues. The DPJ says that bond issuance for fiscal 2011 will not exceed that in fiscal 2010. The party also promises to strive to halve the primary balance budget deficit by fiscal 2015 from the fiscal 2010 level and to erase the primary balance deficit by fiscal 2020. The primary balance is the difference between revenues (excluding borrowings) and spending (excluding debt service costs).

 

The LDP is more specific about the consumption tax. It calls for raising the tax from the current 5 percent to 10 percent in the near future. To reduce the burden on low-income people, it proposes using a lower rate for foods.

 

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that by the end of fiscal 2010, his government will write a proposal to reform the consumption tax, which will mention a future rate and include measures to lighten the burden on low-income people. He also said he will use a 10 percent rate as a reference in considering the issue, but that it is difficult at the moment to say when the raise will happen.

 

It now seems as if the DPJ and the LDP were competing in a race to raise the consumption tax. Both parties must pay serious attention to the possibility that raising the consumption tax could slow down the economy, thus leading to a decrease in the overall tax revenues. It is welcome sign that both parties are considering ways to reduce the impact of a consumption tax raise on low-income people. The parties should not forget the need to increase the progressiveness of the income tax as a means of distributing income more fairly.

 

Concentrating attention on raising the consumption tax risks distracting politicians from efforts to reduce government waste. The Kan administration must realize that the Government Revitalization Unit's scrutiny of budget requests of government ministries and agencies and the projects of nonprofit public service corporate bodies receiving public money has not yet been completed. The government must examine whether the unit's recommendations are faithfully implemented and whether the unit has covered enough problem areas. The government must make serious efforts to cut government waste by strictly examining special account budgets hidden from the public's attention. Without reduction or abolition of these budgets, it will be impossible to fully erase government waste.

 

To help economic growth, the DPJ calls for a review of the corporate tax, while the LDP advocates cutting the effective corporate tax rate from around 40 percent currently to 20 percent. Both parties must show convincing evidence that a corporate tax cut will increase Japan's competitiveness and employment.

 

The DPJ's new manifesto has dropped the phrase "from concrete to humans," the catchphrase of the Hatoyama administration. Its references to the idea of lawmakers taking the initiative in policy development are scant. The party also gave up its earlier promise of doubling the monthly child allowance from the current ¥13,000 to ¥26,000.

 

It now says that additional funds will be used for such purposes as improving day-care services for children, reducing medical cost burdens for children, making school lunches free and covering the costs of vaccination. Given the financial constraints, this is a rational approach.

 

The DPJ must make clear that it will make the child allowance a permanent program as an expression of the philosophy that all of society should help support child-rearing families. Since the child allowance will not increase, it also must fully discuss what to do about the special spouse tax deduction, the abolition of which will mean a cut in income for many households.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

OPED

INDONESIA MOVING TO REDUCE FOREST LOSS, WARMING EMISSIONS

BY MICHAEL RICHARDSON

 

SINGAPORE — Recent developments in curbing high levels of forest loss around the world, particularly in the tropics, are promising. They are significant because deforestation, including the clearing of trees from peat swamps in Southeast Asia, is the biggest source of global warming emissions from human activity after fossil fuel burning.

 

Indonesia has the eighth-largest forest area on the planet and half the global total of tropical peatland. It is the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases from deforestation.

 

So Indonesia's announcement last month that starting next January it will place a two-year moratorium on new permits to clear natural forests and peatlands is a potentially important advance in a program backed by Japan to help developing countries protect forests and slow global warming.

 

In fact, advocates of the United Nations-backed forest preservation scheme, known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), argue that it is the fastest and cheapest way to cut greenhouse emissions.

 

Indonesian officials say they will honor existing forest concessions but use the moratorium to get plantation companies to expand on 6 million hectares of degraded land that was once covered by trees but is now unproductive.

 

In return for Indonesia's suspension of forest-clearing permits and other reforms to improve land management and make it more sustainable, Norway has announced that it would provide $1 billion to fund the program. It will mirror similar schemes in Brazil and other major tropical forest nations in South America, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific.

 

A group of developed nations, including Australia, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United States, have separately pledged more than $4 billion to pay for REDD and set up a monitoring agency to coordinate the various programs and prevent duplication and waste.

 

All this sounds good on paper. But implementing forest conservation schemes poses many challenges. Indonesia illustrates the scale of the challenge in making REDD effective.

 

For a start, how do you ensure that the money paid to cut emissions actually does so and that the benefits flow down to local communities and small farmers that are intended beneficiaries of the scheme?

 

Some Indonesian officials would like the deal with Norway to be expanded from payments of a fixed sum per ton of CO2 emissions verifiably reduced through forest preservation, to rewards for efforts to expand forest cover by tree planting.

 

In January, Indonesia announced that it planned to plant 21 million hectares with trees to absorb and store CO2 from the atmosphere. This would help achieve President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions by 26 percent relative to business-as-usual levels by 2020, or as much as 41 percent with the help of international partners.

 

At the time, environmentalists expressed concern that enlarging forest cover in Indonesia would focus on planting commercial timber and oil palm plantations, which they blame for much of the primary forest burning, clearance and peatland drainage that has taken place. (Peatland is formed as plants rot in water-saturated areas. By some measures, it stores nearly 450 billion tons of carbon worldwide, substantially more than the 290 billion tons held in forests.)

 

Apart from the power of vested commercial interests, widespread corruption and the increasing decentralization in Indonesia in recent years also make it difficult for REDD to work well. Just last month, Indonesia's anti-graft commission announced that it was investigating corruption in the forestry sector that had cost the state more than $100 billion.

 

The commission's deputy chairman Mohammad Jasin said as many as 470 companies might be involved in various abuses of forest permits, including logging without replanting and avoiding tax payments: "Those with power take advantage of weak forestry regulations, and local government officials who are supposed to supervise the forests take bribes from plantation companies."

 

A forestry ministry official explained that a "big percentage" of companies given permission to use forest resources had broken laws designed to limit damage to the environment and protect Indonesia's rich biodiversity. "Many of these permits were issued by local governments, not the ministry," the official added. "The permit holders illegally cleared land for plantation and mining activities and carried out illegal logging."

 

Still, the rate of deforestation in Indonesia has reportedly slowed in recent years, although it is still expected to reach nearly 1.2 million hectares this year. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reported in March that Asia had moved from having a net loss of forest cover in the 1990s to having a net gain in the five years to 2005, primarily due to large-scale tree planting in China.

 

However, the FAO found that global deforestation, driven mainly by conversion of forests to agricultural land, continued at "an alarmingly high rate" of about 13 million hectares per year.

 

Several months earlier, a group of leading specialists scaled back the commonly used estimate of deforestation's contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. They said it was now about 15 percent, including peat degradation, not 20 percent. But they cautioned that this was a relative decline due to fossil fuel emissions rising faster than deforestation emissions.

 

More than one-third of all forests are classed as primary or old-growth, meaning they contain native species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities. These are the most commercially valuable targets for logging and the FAO survey showed that the rapid decrease in primary forest reported in the 1990s continued from 2000 to 2005.

 

Whether REDD programs can overcome serious obstacles and bring tree loss under control in the primary forests of Indonesia and other tropical forest-rich nations will be a key test governance reform.

 

Michael Richardson is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of South East Asian Studies in Singapore.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

OPED

JANUS-FACED RUSSIA HIDING ITS SNARLS FROM THE WEST

 

Diplomats in many corners of the world are puzzled by what appears to be a fundamental shift in Russia's foreign policies in recent months, from a strategy based on threat and intimidation to one of a low profile seeking friendship, especially with Western countries. Their consensus, however, is that this shift is only temporary and that Moscow will sooner or later return to its old tactics.

 

The first sign of such apparent change was noted in the aftermath of a tragic airplane crash that occurred on Russian soil April 10, killing Polish President Lech Kaczyinski and a number of other high government officials of Poland. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin personally led a special committee to investigate the cause of the crash, and accompanied Kaczyinski's body back to Warsaw.

 

The Polish population, who have been historically critical of Russia, are said to have been deeply moved by the presence of President Dmitry Medvedev at the state funeral for their late president while the leaders of many other countries were prevented from attending the ceremony by the Icelandic volcano, which disrupted air traffic across Europe.

 

One Polish government official said Medvedev's attendance seemed unbelievable in light of the earlier threat that if Poland agreed to the deployment of a U.S.-led missile defense system in its territory, Russia would counter by installing missiles along the border.

 

Poland is not the only country to which Moscow has sent messages of reconciliation. In April, Russia lost no time promising financial aid to the transition government of Kyrgyzstan under Roza Obunbayeva, after civil unrest had forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the country. In so doing, Moscow made no mention of the existence of a U.S. military base in that country even though the regime change offered a golden opportunity for Russia to seek its closure.

 

Diplomatic experts were also surprised by Russia's attitude at a summit meeting of the "BRIC" nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China in Brazil on April 16, at which Russia dropped its previous slogan of setting up a new international monetary system to challenge the current U.S.-dollar based system.

 

At its top-level meeting with Ukraine on April 21, Moscow offered to reduce the price of natural gas in exchange for Kiev's agreement to let the Russian Black Sea Fleet use Ukrainian port facilities for another 25 years.

 

On April 27, President Medvedev visited Norway and the two countries agreed on drawing a demarcation line between their respective continental shelves in a manner that gives each side the same area. Even Norwegian diplomats were puzzled as to why Moscow suddenly softened its attitude.

 

Perhaps the most symbolic event reflecting changes in Russia's basic diplomatic attitude was the military parade held in Moscow's Red Square on May 9 to commemorate Victory in Europe Day. For the first time, some 200 troops from the United States, Britain and France marched with their Russian counterparts in front of Lenin's Mausoleum.

 

One answer as to why Russia has been making these and other conciliatory gestures is that Moscow, at least for now, does not see any need to continue a confrontational attitude toward the West at a time when American influence is dwindling in the former Soviet sphere of influence and former Soviet republics and when Western European nations, hit by serious economic slumps, have suspended efforts to expand NATO's sphere of influence further east.

 

It would be a mistake, however, to jump to the conclusion that Moscow has abandoned its diplomacy of threat and intimidation for good. There are two factors to indicate that the apparent change to "friendly diplomacy" will last no more than a year or so.

 

The first, according to diplomatic sources, is the U.S. midterm congressional elections this fall. Russia believes that, after the elections, President Barack Obama will no longer be able to work on "resetting" relations between Washington and Moscow. In anticipation of this, the Russian leadership is looking for an opportunity to establish "more equitable" U.S.-Russia relations, in which Russia takes the lead.

 

The other factor is the election of the members of the State Duma, or the lower house of the Federal Assembly, late next year and the Russian presidential election in two years. Before these elections, the government must prove to citizens that the Russian economy is recovering. Prime Minister Putin's goal of making Russia among the five top economic powers will require at least a 6 percent annual growth rate. Therefore, Moscow is seeking economic cooperation with as many countries as possible.

 

In April, Medvedev became the first Russian head of state to visit Argentina, where he discussed construction of nuclear power stations and diversification of bilateral trade.

 

On the other hand, the government is faced with the need to inspire patriotism among citizens, because a "peace

diplomacy" will not win large numbers of votes held by "Siloviki" officials in the security and military services. One Russian government source predicts that Moscow will return to its traditional diplomacy of threat and intimidation against Washington, after Obama becomes a "lame duck president."

 

Another important factor is that Russia is turning its smiling face only toward the U.S. and its allies in the West, while giving the cold shoulder to its eastern neighbors, particularly Japan and China. An expert in Russian affairs observes that the present detente between Moscow and Washington is reminiscent of the two countries' working together to fight international terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

 

Chinese President Hu Jintao showed his displeasure with this situation when he watched the military parade of the Russian, American, British and French troops in Red Square.

 

Russia's attitude toward Japan might even grow tougher than toward China. For example, with the backing of the Kremlin, the Russian Federal Assembly is working to revive "Victory over Japan Day," which had been abolished following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 

This is an abridged translation of an article from the June issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering Japanese political, social and economic scenes.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

UNITED COLORS

 

Pessimists would find it difficult to deny the latest maneuver by the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to open its doors to non-Muslims and court the West is a major leap forward.

 

Many more would also cherish the metamorphosis of a party once associated with Islamic conservatism, and a source of fear among pro-democracy and non-Muslim minority groups. Over the past few years the PKS has made a lot of changes to woo public sympathy, including nominating non-Muslim legislative candidates in regions where Muslims are the minority.

 

To mark its transformation, the party launched in 2008 a white paper detailing its struggle for a civil society that embraced moderation in the country and its aim to promote Islamic values, rather than an Islamic state.

 

The party, however, enjoyed only a slight increase in the number of votes in the 2009 legislative elections despite all-out efforts to rebrand its conservative image. The party won 57 House of Representatives seats in the latest polls, up from 45 in the previous elections in 2004, thanks in part to a persistent campaign for clean government.

 

The achievement was indeed extraordinary given the fact that the PKS, then the Justice Party (PK), was a tiny party when debuting in the 1999 elections. The 2009 polls saw the PKS rank fourth.

 

Now it is aiming higher, having set a target of finishing among the top three in the 2014 elections. It is very understandable if the party finds it necessary to broaden its political base and reach out to groups other than Muslim voters.

 

If the target is met, the PKS will edge out one of the three nationalist parties that currently dominate the country's political landscape: the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

 

No Islamic-based party has ever won the elections in Muslim-majority Indonesia since the first polls in 1955, which only underlines the genuine characteristics of the nation as a pluralist, tolerant and open society.

 

The PKS must be well aware of the real politics – which gives no room for Islamic state ideals – that it is willing to shed its image as an exclusive Islamist entity and follow in the footsteps of nationalist-oriented parties in promoting the founding fathers' dream of a nation state where diversity is not only respected but also celebrated.

 

Here lie the challenges facing the PKS, as the public wishes to see that the changes it boasts of are translated into actions, which may be as simple as acknowledging non-Muslims on their religious holidays.

 

A tougher test for the PKS will concern the recent surge in demand for formalization of Islam through the enforcement of sharia-based ordinances in many regions. The bylaws, drafted and passed only to woo Muslim voters, are a blatant breach of the Constitution and the multi-religious characteristic of the country, but the public has never heard the PKS question or criticize them.

 

Religious harmony is another long-standing debate the PKS has barely helped solve as evident in the well-preserved regulation on building permit for places of worship. There have been reports of protests and sometimes attacks on places of worship being built by minority religious groups, but the PKS, like other parties, has opted to remain silent.

 

It is almost impossible to expect the PKS to revolutionize its founding principles, in which Islam is deemed the integrating factor for a multi-faceted nation. It is unlikely too that we will see the changes the party is promoting take root in a matter of days or months.

 

Time will tell whether the PKS will emerge as a full-fledged pluralist party, which protects and preserves the united colors of Indonesia.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

BETWEEN FREE SEX AND LOCAL WISDOM

KHAIRIL AZHAR

 

What were the reasons that American law prohibits whoever is less than 18 years old to be involved in a porn movie or any other form of pornography? Why do some "official" porn sites always ask their users whether they are "adults" if they'd like to access the sites? Is it merely a problem of a given law? Aren't there any standing values — which are related to the advantages or disadvantages for individuals and their society — that legally underlie effective articles of a law?

 

Why do most people condemn pedophilia or rape or incest or any other perverted sexual actions and agree that they are unacceptable and therefore should be strictly prohibited legally? Why don't sound people accept child-prostitution while most can't accept prostitution in general?

 

If you are a parent, can you accept it if your 13-year-old daughter gets pregnant and should risk her life for an abortion or giving birth? Or, in the context of most common Indonesian society, could you imagine how she will be psychologically abused among her friends, relatives and neighbors?

 

Some might think that it is naïve for me to ask these questions. Or, I might be assumed to be conservative with a less tolerant mind. So far, after analyzing some facts and experiences, it's definitely something worth talking about and is in accord with today's apprehension such as how pornography haunts Indonesia's "unique" society.

 

Indonesia, for example, was exceptionally founded with religions officially guaranteed to exist. It was assumed

based on the fact that religious life in any form was inseparable from the people. Umar Kayam (1932-2002), an

Indonesian sociologist and cultural figure, as well as Tan Malaka (1894-1949), an Indonesian founding father and a Marxist, called religions "the driving force" of Indonesian society and that their positions were potent and therefore should be well respected.

 

In this sense, the teaching of religion, regardless of their origins, have been implanted in society and have become the corner stones in many aspects of the people's life. Thus, when some of the teachings are challenged by the presence of new distinct values, there will be conflicts inevitably and they will interfere with society's construction as a whole. Any individuals who try to accept the new values and challenge the old ones will be likely to experience a cultural rupture, a condition of anomie, or become alienated from certain groups.

 

And the current issue on sex or pornography should be placed from this point of view. A commercial with explicit sexual exposure might be common in some countries or societies, but it's absolutely not in Indonesia. Women with bare chests, if it is to be categorized as a sexual exposure, are common in some places, including in certain villages in Bali, but not in many other regions. In certain communities, such as the community that plays Reog — a traditional art performance — homosexuality is common while in most other Indonesian communities it is strictly prohibited. There are differences and we should respect them.

 

Also, from this point of view, freedom of expression should not be placed in conflicting position against the right of others to enjoy what so far they have enjoyed. Unfortunately, however, the rights of the others may constrain the freedom of someone if they'd like to exist in a community.

 

The point here is that any parties should respect any consensus in the society. In the case of publishing adult content or everything related to it, for example — regardless of the debate on the definition of how a content is categorized adult or non-adult — as long as it causes social unrest, which is known through the responses of some or more people in the society, it should be immediately coped with by the hands of the society or the state. Until the official and legal decision is enacted, the content should not be published.

 

Too conservative, some might think. But I can say that if liberalism teaches tolerance, this is the more correct meaning of tolerance. The way stability is built and maintained in liberal countries is different in some aspects from the way it is here in Indonesia. Indonesia has a form of tolerance which in most pivotal and useful parts is actually congruent with any other meanings of tolerance. We only need to wear the right spectacles, as an old proverb says, "dimana bumi dipijak, di sana langit dijunjung," or follow the norms wherever you are.

 

Therefore, it is no need for Indonesians to copy and paste the others' values if they are unnecessary or even destructive. Freesex is common in many countries, for example, but I guarantee, that most people in the world admire the concept of sex as something sacral; that natural sexual intercourse between a husband and a wife is an ideal and most wanted; that it is the safest form of sex ever. In this sense, sex is a matter of love and trust.

 

 If then some or many Indonesians have chosen a different point of view, they should respect the wisdom held by most of the people. The existence of the values might be disturbing for many but they have to realize that they function in the already existing society since it leans itself on them.

 

That's why restricting adult content in any forms and ways makes sense for Indonesian society. It's the best choice sociologically. Yet, this choice does not mean that violence in any form is allowed, since it is entirely an act of traversing an astray for a good deed.

 

Khairil Azhar

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

RISING PROSPECT OF INDONESIAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

CYRILLUS HARINOWO HADIWERDOYO

 

Johnny Darmawan is certainly not an ordinary man. Being the CEO of Toyota Astra Motor, he certainly has a full grasp of what is happening in the automotive industry and the way forward.

 

His company enjoys the largest market share in the industry that makes him the ultimate representative of the Indonesian car manufacturing industry. He frequently speaks on behalf of the Indonesian Car Manufacturing Association.

 

For 2010, Darmawan initially predicted that the Indonesian domestic car sales may reach 550,000 units, a number deemed optimistic when it was first stated at the end of 2009. At that time, the industry had just been bruised from a steep fall in its sales from 607,000 units in 2008 to 486,000 in 2009, an almost 20 percent drop.

 

It is no surprise that the industry has been deemed quite optimistic in saying that there would be a partial rebound in domestic sales compared to the 2008 record. But since then the domestic market has been moving very briskly.

 

In the first five months of the year, the Indonesian car sales already reached a level of around 300,000 units.

 

In fact, the last three months the sales hovered to more than 60,000 units every month. It is no surprise therefore that Darmawan finally revised upward the Indonesian car sales prediction in 2010 from 550,000 units to 650,000, an almost 20 percent upward revision in one year's time.

 

Where is the way forward? Recently there was an interesting article in the Financial Times about the rise of the Brazilian car industry. It was stated that the Brazilian car industry was becoming the fourth largest industry in the world in 2010, overtaking Germany.

 

Having recovered from the crisis at the end of the 90s, the Brazilian car industry quickly covered ground and made a quick rebound. What was the result?

 

The car sales have increased sharply from almost 1.5 million units in 2000 to more than 3 million in 2009. A twofold increase in 10 years time is certainly a miraculous come back for the industry.

 

Quite different to the aerospace industry in which Brazil boasted its icon Embraer Aerospace Industry, which has positioned itself as the third largest aircraft producer after Boeing and Airbus (the rank may be reversed), the Brazilian car industry was crowded by various foreign names such as Fiat, Volkswagen, General Motors, Ford, Toyota and many others.

 

Fiat, being the first ranked car producers in Brazil with its popular Pinto and Fiesta brand, has produced more cars in Brazil than in its headquarters in Italy.

 

Volkswagen, ranked number two in Brazil, is also churning many products in the country. General Motors and Ford are the two North American car industries that so far have to admit defeats to the European car manufacturers in its backyard.

 

The Brazilian success story in its car industrial development may provide some lessons to the Indonesian car industry on the way the Indonesian industry will lead. Looking back to the past, the Indonesian car industry also experienced a "roller coaster" like development.

 

Sometimes the sales increased very sharply while on other occasion it experienced a steep drop. The development is far from being linier. However, looking at a longer perspective, the Indonesian car industry has continued to grow, in fact to grow very rapidly.

 

As mentioned earlier, in 2008, the Indonesian car industry has made record breaking sales of more than 600,000 units.

 

In addition, the Indonesian industry also actively sold its products to overseas markets. While the data are quite scanty, inferring from the BPS (Central Statistics Agency), we can predict that the Indonesian car exports (both in the form of Completely Built Up, Completely Knocked Down or in the form of components) may reach around 300,000 units.

 

Thus both the domestic and export car sales have almost touched the psychological level of 1 million cars annually. If that number is achieved, we may have to celebrate it as one milestone for the Indonesian car industry.

 

Just like what has been achieved by the Brazilian car industry in 2000, we may have approached that level in the not-too-distant future, 10 years behind Brazil.

 

Recently, Hino truck manufacturers has just expanded its truck production capacity from 10,000 units annually to 35,000 in Indonesia. This event marked the optimism of the company on the prospect of Indonesia. In different occasion Johnny Darmawan also stated that Toyota Indonesia will have to increase its Fortuner production to cater the Middle East and the Philippines market this year.

 

"I continue to believe that the Indonesian lead in this rank will sustain.This will make Indonesia the country with the strongest car industry in ASEAN.  "

The demand for domestic sales as well as for export markets for Fortuner has been quite strong recently. Volkswagen officials have also stated that they will build a factory in Indonesia in 2012 for a full car manufacturing while this year they will start assembling its MPV, Touran, in cooperation with Indomobil.

One Korean car manufacturer is also in the process of deciding whether to put its factory in Indonesia or in Vietnam. Again, this shows the optimism of the global car manufacturers on the prospect of the Indonesian car industry.

In the mean time, the mathematics of demography has shown its magic in the last few months.

 

Indonesia has always stood at the third rank of the ASEAN car industry. However, in the last four months, Indonesian car sales have started to exceed its counterparts in Thailand and Malaysia.

 

As displayed in my previous articles, the number of the Indonesian people that belongs to the middle class is larger than the entire Malaysian population.

 

Similarly, 30 percent of the Indonesian population, slightly larger than the entire Thailand population, has a greater average income than the entire Thailand population. Therefore, that demographic picture and the distribution of income will eventually be reflected in the cars demand.

 

I continue to believe that the Indonesian lead in this rank will sustain and in fact the gap will widen in the next few years. This will make Indonesia the country with the strongest car industry in ASEAN.

 

I have predicted earlier that the Indonesian domestic car sales in 2010 will be in the range of 610,000 to 650,000 units. With the performance of the last five months, that target may be exceeded as long as the economic environment does not change significantly.

 

While I share the optimism of Johnny Darmawan for a 650,000-unit domestic car sales prediction for 2010, I will not be surprised if the car sales this year may reach higher than 700,000 units.

 

In the long-term prospect, Indonesia may hit its first million annual car sales in the next two to three years. With the pattern depicted by the Brazilian car industry, we may have 2 million sales in the next 10 years.

 

This prospect will be the center of attention of the global car manufacturers. For those who have been in the country, they will certainly prepare to expand. For those who are still outside, they will have to think about when to penetrate.

The writer is an economist.

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

IT'S MORE THAN ABOUT RICE AND COOKING OIL

YANSEN, QUEENSLAND

 

During the environmental expo in Jakarta early this June, Vice President Boediono asked whether "biodiversity loss could affect rice or cooking oil production" (The Jakarta Post, June 5).

 

This is probably a question for many. In the middle of a huge wave of campaigns on biodiversity, a very basic question like this could become a significant obstacle in raising people's awareness on the importance of species diversity.

 

We just observed World Environmental Day on June 5, which highlighted the diversity of species on Earth that play crucial roles in the future of this planet.

 

Last month, on May 22, an International Day for Biological Diversity was also celebrated. The UN declared this year as the International Year of Biodiversity, and the conference of parties on the Convention of Biological Diversity will be conducted in October in Nagoya, Japan.

 

But again, what does biodiversity mean for ordinary people? People's understanding and awareness are very important aspects in conserving biodiversity.

 

As the Vice President said, in order to encourage public participation, the government is forced to use simple and clear language that can be understood by the people.

 

Practical benefits of preserving biodiversity are then chosen as a way to communicate the idea to the community.

 

However, should only practical reasons, such as the relationship between biodiversity and what we eat, be used to convince people?

 

It is true that practical benefits are a strong reason as to why we must conserve diverse species on earth. Biodiversity provides a range of dietary and medicinal needs for humans.

 

Most parts of our clothes, houses and many others are derived from biodiversity components. We need to conserve native plants, for example, in case those plants can provide superior genetic traits that can be isolated for diseases or drought resistance in domesticated plants. Native plants or animals might also contain substances that can be used as medicine sources.

 

However, only emphasizing on practical benefits could be tricky. There should be many biodiversity components that have a lack of or unknown direct benefits.

 

"The loss of a certain species may mean a lot for the ecosystem and its components. Many tropical species are very sensitive to moisture changes."

People may ask why it is needed to conserve tigers in their habitat when many wild tigers attacked villagers. There are so far no practical outcomes of conserving tigers.

 

Putting conservation reasons only based on pragmatic point of view in fact has put conservation in danger. People are becoming lack of appreciation to the intrinsic values of biodiversity.

 

This is actually what is happening in this country. If a certain species does not have direct practical advantage, people are thinking about another direct outcome, i.e. how those diverse species could earn money. Consequently, illegal hunting and trading of biodiversity become commonplace.

 

Raising people's understanding and awareness about natural diversity by explaining its practical aspects is absolutely not wrong. However, it is not right if only based on that perspective.

 

Actually, as a nation we have been trying to explain every aspects of our life with a pragmatic paradigm.

 

In education, for example, we implant in our children's minds that schools are mainly for practical purposes, to get a job.

 

It is absolutely right, however, that this interpretation could downgrade the essence of education itself, which is self-development.

 

As a result, we become narrow minded. What happens then when they get nothing with an educational degree, they would do anything, even resort to bribery, in order to get a job. The same thing occurs in many other aspects of our life in this country.

 

There is an integrated living system on earth where every component interconnects each other. The change of behavior of an ecosystem component could signify the change of the ecosystem.

 

Then, people may understand why it is important, for example, to conserve tigers. As tigers are part of the ecosystem, their attacks on a village may mean changes in the ecosystem landscape.

 

The habitat alteration has created problems for those tigers to survive in their ecosystems. It could also be important for us since that is probably a sign of environmental destruction, which could end up with ecological disasters.

 

The loss of a certain species may mean a lot for the ecosystem and its components, including humans. Many tropical species, such as lichens and epiphytic plants, are very sensitive to moisture changes.

 

A decreasing number of these species is again a great symptom of landscape changes. The loss of biodiversity in urban areas, such as some insect species, may indicate temperature alteration.

 

It may relate to devastation of green areas in the city. Higher temperature could also be influenced by air pollution levels. This may be a sign that the environmental condition is also unhealthy for humans; thus, we need to create more green areas and decrease pollution levels.

 

Protecting biodiversity needs a long term perspective. It is not only significant for us, but also important for the future of the next generations.

 

We of course need practical reasons to raise people's awareness on the importance of biodiversity; but, it is not enough. It must also be highlighted that conserving biodiversity is morally imperative, since other creatures also have the right to occupy earth.

 

Protecting biodiversity also means sustainability and avoiding over exploitation of natural resources. Protected diverse species also gives way for knowledge to develop.

 

Humans do not only need a physical development, but also a psychological growth. Nature could partly provide this psychological need. Educating people about biodiversity is about appreciating the nature around us, which either directly or indirectly affects us.

 

Yes it is correct that conserving biological diversity is related to our food, but that is not all of it. Protecting biodiversity is more than about rice and cooking oil.

 

The writer is an ecologist at the University of Bengkulu and an Australian Leadership Awards fellow.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

CURRENCY FLOAT

 

China's decision to make its currency, the renminbi, more flexible, speaks volumes about its determination to speed vital changes to its growth model in order to ensure sustainable development.

 

Many world leaders have been quick to welcome the exchange rate pliancy as a constructive step that will promote balanced global economic recovery.

 

However, if they cannot make good use of the coming G20 summit to press ahead with the much-needed overhaul of the global financial system, the international community will soon find to its disappointment that its leaders look only for red herrings, rather than real solutions, at a time when true leadership is badly needed.

 

The People's Bank of China issued a statement Saturday saying the time was ripe to proceed with the reform of the renminbi exchange rate regime and increase the Chinese currency's exchange rate flexibility given the strong economic rebound at home and the gradual recovery abroad.

 

Domestically, by allowing the renminbi exchange rate to reflect market supply and demand with reference to a basket of currencies, Chinese policymakers have sent a clear signal that the country cannot wait any longer to shift away from its heavy dependence on exports for growth.

 

It will definitely not be easy for Chinese exporters hit by the double whammy of weak global demand and rising domestic labor costs to adapt to a stronger Chinese currency.

 

Yet, the country's need to pursue consumer-led growth has made it more compelling for its currency to strengthen, which can increase the buying power of its consumers and help curb inflation by reducing the cost of imported goods.

 

China's decision to make the yuan more flexible in a controlled and gradual manner is a laudable first-step in rebalancing growth keeping in mind the country's long-term development agenda.

 

However, for a stronger renminbi to work its magic and significantly boost domestic consumption, Chinese policymakers should understand that the country's widening income disparity must also be properly addressed.

 

Internationally, it remains unclear whether the latest move will significantly rebalance the global trade picture as some people have predicted.

 

The international community may have yet to fully appreciate the contribution China made to mitigate the worst global financial crisis in more than half a decade by maintaining the stability of its currency exchange rate against the US dollar.

 

As the Chinese currency starts becoming more supple, it will soon become apparent that making the exchange rate the scapegoat for, or the solution to, the current global crisis, is not going to work.

 

G20 leaders have so far given outsize emphasis to finding an easy way out of the crisis. Will they show flexibility at this week's meeting to do an about-face on global financial reforms? That remains to be seen.

 

They must at least now realize that it is time to stop tinkering at the edges of an out-dated international financial system that has increasingly failed to safeguard the value of currencies worldwide.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

DRUG PRICES

 

The success of healthcare reform will largely depend on whether a recent hike in the prices of those drugs deemed fundamental medication is checked on time.

 

The new list is being touted as a major reform initiative, as the drug prices on the list are supposed to be decided by the State, in which case they will likely guarantee lower medical bills for patients.

 

However, it has been reported that the prices of dozens of listed drugs have been increased manifold - some by as much as 90 percent - in recent months.

 

It is quite obvious that this price hike is meant to force the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) into accepting the higher-than-reasonable rates so that manufacturers and suppliers can maximize their margins.

 

The NDRC and relevant local government departments need some time to check the cost of listed drugs before their retail prices can be determined. Drug manufacturers have utilized this time lag to hike returns.

 

It will certainly be a disaster if the relevant government departments accept the current higher rates while fixing the retail prices of these drugs. If so, some drugs may become more expensive than prior to the reform push.

 

The NDRC has assured that the prices of listed drugs are being checked and investigations are being conducted to ascertain the actual cost of these listed drugs.

 

It is no secret that distributors and medical representatives bribe hospitals and doctors in order to get them to prescribe their medicines over those of other manufacturers.

 

In light of this, making more transparent the bidding process for purchase of medicines and reducing the number of distributors have become extremely important.

 

This will greatly reduce the number of medicine suppliers and salespeople in between, thus lowering its cost.

 

It will also plug the loophole through which drug suppliers funnel supplies directly to hospitals by offering bribes to those in charge of drug procurement.

 

However hard the job will be, governments at all levels must work systematically and with rigor to arrive at the right cost of a particular drug.

 

The entire process needs to be overhauled to beef up the healthcare network. The concerned authorities must do that immediately, not only to ensure speedy implementation of the healthcare reform, but also in the interests of patients.

 

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CHINA DAILY

OPED

DEBATE: CHINESE ECONOMY

WILL CHINA BE ABLE TO CONTINUE ITS FAST ECONOMIC GROWTH? AN ECONOMIST AND A PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BOTH SAY THERE ARE MANY CHALLENGES AHEAD.

MARK WILLIAMS

 

System in need of changed climate

 

The financial crisis has left many reputations looking rather tattered. China's policymakers are among a small group who have emerged with their standing enhanced. Acting boldly and swiftly, they not only insulated China's economy from the worst of the turmoil elsewhere, but also helped stabilize conditions in the rest of the world.

 

The clearest evidence of the boost China has given the world is the fall in China's trade surplus, which this year will probably be down by a third from its pre-crisis peak. The surplus fell because imports held up better than exports during the global slowdown thanks to the government's loan-fuelled stimulus. Another way of putting that is to say that China became a net source of demand for the rest of the world.

 

A key question now, for China and the global economy, is how sustainable this will be. The recovery in the US and Europe still looks fragile and the world will be in need of any source of demand it can find in the years ahead. Unfortunately, there are good reasons to think that the fall in China's surplus will be reversed soon unless the government is able to push through significant structural changes.

 

This is because the source of strength in Chinese imports has been a policy-induced surge in investment. Already strong before the crisis, investment accounted for close to half of all spending in China's economy last year. Some of the investment may encourage more consumption spending - for example better roads and railways could boost domestic tourism. But the main effect will be to raise the volume of goods produced by China's factories.

 

If there is no equivalent increase in domestic consumption, this added supply of goods will be exported or, failing that, contribute to a build-up in excess capacity and a subsequent investment slowdown. In other words, the recent fall in the trade surplus notwithstanding, China faces either slower growth or the reappearance of a big surplus unless consumption growth accelerates. Neither would be a palatable outcome.

 

The optimistic view is that, as China puts recent difficulties behind it, the government can focus in earnest on the policy changes needed to support faster growth in consumption. This probably requires raising the share of national income being paid to households. In turn, this demands faster wage growth and job creation. But bringing about such structural reform will be easier said than done. Despite headline-grabbing increases in the last few weeks, wages still account for a smaller share of China's income than a couple of years ago.

 

 

Indeed, the share of national income going to households has been falling for well over a decade. One of the most effective means of boosting job growth would be to encourage the proliferation of small and medium-sized businesses.

 

But such steps are likely to be resisted by the large State-owned enterprises that currently enjoy monopolies. With only a little over two years left in office, it is unclear whether the current government has the authority to challenge those that benefit from the status quo.

 

Underlining the difficulties the government faces, we cannot simply assume that consumption will continue expanding at a steady pace in the absence of significant reform. Household spending has held up remarkably well over the last two years. But this is at least partly due to government policy support for purchases of cars and domestic appliances. The government now promises to keep such schemes running to the end of next year, but their impact already seems to be starting to fade.

 

The upshot is that while China has emerged from the global economic crisis in a far stronger position than most other economies and with confidence in the capacity of its policymakers riding high, it faces significant challenges in sustaining rapid growth in the years ahead.

 

Perhaps the worst outcome would be a sharp resurgence in the trade surplus which would be seen as sucking demand from an already demand-starved world and, rightly or wrongly, could trigger a protectionist response. China won great praise for doing its share to prevent the global economy from sliding into depression 18 months ago. It will have to demonstrate great leadership to sustain that reputation in the years ahead.

 

The author is senior China economist at Capital Economics, one of the world's leading independent macroeconomic consultancies.

 

Pang Zhongying

 

Economic weather getting stormy

 

Some Western observers are unrealistically optimistic about China's economic growth in the post-global economic crisis era, and have concluded with geopolitical implications that "the world power is further shifting East". These arguments on China's economic and political perspective are improper and irresponsible, and if governments in Western countries endorse them they may end up misjudging China's strategic position.

 

China has indeed experienced fast economic growth during the past three decades. But its superb performance doesn't necessarily mean a "trouble-free" future because it is unlikely to sustain that growth momentum. In fact, its economic growth faces tremendous challenges both at home and abroad.

 

At home, hundreds of millions of Chinese still work for low wages. They may have powered China's economic development, but they can hardly meet all their needs and prepare their next generation for a better future. More than anyone else, it is they who deserve higher wages. Indeed, some of them have already started demanding higher pay. With more and more workers set to follow their example, labor cost is set to rise across the country.

 

The country's irrational income distribution system is widening the gap between the rich and the poor further. To let more workers share the fruits of economic growth and maintain social stability, the authorities have intensified their efforts to adjust the income distribution system, so that a greater part of the national income flows to the workers.

 

China achieved an unprecedented growth rate because it had huge amounts of natural resources to fuel its reform and opening up. But by the end of the last century and beginning of this century, China had begun facing a shortage of natural resources. Slowly, China has become a resource-poor country in terms of per capita share of resources.

 

Added to that is the challenge of environmental degradation and climate change. It's highly unlikely that China will enjoy fast economic growth rate without checking its environmental deterioration.

 

In fact, Chinese leaders realized the country's disadvantage in resources and its fragile ecosystem even before the global financial crisis. That's why at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China they decided to make "economic growth pattern transformation" a serious strategic task. China's sustainable development depends on whether it can persist with its "scientific development" and "economic restructuring".

 

On the overseas front, China's largest markets have been the US and the European Union (EU), the world's two major economies. But in the post-crisis era, the US can hardly continue to drive China's growth. The Barack Obama administration has made it clear to major exporting countries that the US is unwilling to become "the ultimate consumer" again and Washington has been complaining of "global economic imbalance" and trying to counterbalance this by exerting pressure on its trade partners. The US is trying to not only expedite the yuan's revaluation, but also stimulate its domestic demand, and even devise a fresh industrial strategy.

 

Similarly, the crisis in the eurozone is changing the EU's role as "the ultimate consumer". And because of the resultant competition trade frictions between the EU and China have increased.

 

The robust growth momentum of the world economy and the Chinese market both over the past two decades brought out the best in each other, forming a virtuous circle. The world economy prospered after the Cold War largely because its growth potential was realized by global marketization, new techniques, such as the Internet, and booming financial markets. The collapse of the Soviet Union and China's reform and opening up powered globalization, making it the most powerful economic driving force. China has been a major contributor to the fast growing world economy for the past 20 years, with the majority profit of many of the world's top multinationals coming from the Chinese market.

 

But the world economy has now entered a phase of slow growth and there are indications that the period may last long. This scenario adds to China difficulties in restructuring its economic strategy in the next five years (12th Five-Year Plan period). And a possible economic slowdown in China will leave a less powerful engine for the world economy. China has been part of a major part of the globalization process, and the relationship between China and the rest of the world embodies "one honors all and one dams all", that is, "interdependence", as claimed by some US experts. So it is unlikely that China can outshine others if the world economy gets into trouble and the global power balance shifts. Because of the internal and external factors China, in fact, faces more severe challenges than the West, and is likely to do so in the near future.

 

The author is professor of international relations at Renmin University of China.

 

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CHINA DAILY

OPED

JOIN HANDS TO SAVE NATURE

BY FENG ZHAOKUI (CHINA DAILY)

 

China and Japan need to strengthen joint efforts to protect the environment and work toward energy conservation

 

Deepening exchanges between China and Japan have presented brighter prospects for cooperation between Asia's two largest economies in the fields of energy conservation and environmental protection.

 

Ever since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy, it has attached utmost importance to environmental protection in the course of its economic growth.

 

It has also actively cooperated with Japan and other developed countries to bring home advanced technologies and expertise related to environmental protection.

 

Japan kicked off cooperation with China on environment projects in the late 1980s as part of an official

development assistance (ODA) program to its less-developed neighbor.

 

The two countries jointly funded the establishment of the Sino-Japanese center on environmental protection in

1996, which is now a research agency directly under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

 

Supported by Japanese yen loans, Chongqing, Dalian and Guiyang launched a campaign in 1998 to develop themselves into model cities for Sino-Japanese environment cooperation. They have now shown remarkable progress in trimming air pollution levels.

 

Since 2001, loans aimed at helping China curb desertification, soil erosion, promoting afforestation programs and improving public health have formed about 70 percent of China-bound Japanese yen loans.

 

With Japanese aid, an environment information network has also been set up across 100 Chinese cities.

 

Japan's ODA to China consists of Japanese yen loans, gratis fund assistance and technological cooperation with the country.

 

The quantum of yen loans, however, started declining since 2002. The Japanese government announced in 2008 that it would stop all new yen loans to China.

 

Japan also cut off its gratis fund assistance, the other component of its ODA to China, at the end of 2006.

 

Currently, technological cooperation with China, which has been retained as part of the ODA, is playing a key role in pushing forward environmental cooperation between the two countries.

 

The Sino-Japanese center on environmental protection, jointly funded by the two nations, launched in 2008 a plan to promote the development of a cyclical economy.

 

As with bilateral relations, environmental cooperation between China and Japan has also encountered ups and downs over the years.

 

From 2001 to 2006, Sino-Japanese relations got stuck in the so-called "politically cold and economically hot" state.

 

During this period, Tokyo drastically cut down its ODA to China, the main funding source for bilateral environmental cooperation.

 

As a result, bilateral cooperation on environmental issues also dipped considerably. This began to change once leaders of both nations reached agreement in October 2006 to establish strategic reciprocity.

 

Following the milestone deal, the foreign ministers of both sides signed a joint declaration to further strengthen bilateral environment cooperation during Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan in April 2007.

 

This was an important document that mapped out bilateral cooperation on environment after a 10-year hiatus. During Premier Wen's visit, another joint declaration was also signed between the two countries on bilateral cooperation in the realm of energy.

 

This momentum was further consolidated when the then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda paid a visit to China in December 2007, during which a joint communiqu was inked on pushing forward bilateral cooperation in the sphere of environment and energy, and a joint declaration issued on bilateral scientific and technological cooperation on climate change.

 

The signing of the two documents were concrete steps taken by the two neighbors towards implementing the accord they reached in April the same year.

 

In May 2008, leaders of the two countries once again signed a joint declaration on joint efforts to deal with climate change, in which the two countries put bilateral environment cooperation at the forefront in tackling the global environment crisis.

 

As a result of improved Sino-Japanese ties, the governments of China and Japan have paid increasing attention to bilateral cooperation on environment projects. However, the two countries should further deepen cooperation in this aspect as global climate change, as well as such regional environmental issues, loom large.

 

To more effectively tackle impending environmental threats, China and Japan should set up a joint environment foundation as some scholars have proposed, which will aid bilateral cooperation on environmental issues.

 

Bilateral cooperation on environmental issues should also be extended to neighboring countries and regions, such as Mongolia and Central Asia, to enhance regional capability to deal with ever-worsening desertification, sandstorms and other pressing environmental concerns.

 

Given that Japan has accumulated rich experience and nurtured skilled professionals in environmental protection since the end of World War II, China should try to employ Japanese experts to work for some of its small and medium-size enterprises, local cities and rural areas that are hard hit by environmental pollution. This will help them learn professional skills.

 

In addition to bilateral cooperation and coordination in the international arena, China and Japan should also try to include bilateral environmental cooperation into efforts to tackle energy issues given that environmental deterioration is partly attributed to the use of traditional fossil fuels.

 

As neighbors, China and Japan have shared interests as far as the environment is concerned. Large-scale cooperation in this field is not only in their own people's interests but also contributes to global efforts to deal with the problem of climate change.

 

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

REMITTANCE CONCERNS

People going overseas for employment have been on the rise since November last year, after the
free fall due to the economic recession of the west, yet the remittances received till the third quarter of the fiscal year 2009/2010 reflect a worrying marked decline. As per reports, outbound migration for employment has been on the upswing for the past six months with Jestha (mid-May to mid-June) only accounting for a record 31,636 individuals. This has somewhat made the experts sit up and take notice, namely the Nepal Rastra Bank, the central bank of Nepal. If one were to peruse through the statistics, the country had received around Rs 209 billion as remittances in the fiscal year 2008/2009, but even with the increased foreign job seekers flying out the amount received for the first nine months of the current fiscal year stands at Rs 164 billion. The catch in the discrepancy is that the figures tallied are what flows in through the formal channel. The financial experts have raised the suspicion that at least 30 to 35 per cent of the remittances find their way into the country through non-banking channels like the hundi. This may be the reason why the remittance growth rate has come down to 10 per cent of what had been 40 per cent in the last fiscal year. The glaring remittance decline is being looked upon with concern as it is impinging on the economy, because it will have a negative impact on the Balance of Payment (BoP) scene.

The worry that emerges is that the seeming loss of faith of many remitters from abroad on the banking sector is also being felt on the foreign currency reserve, and the possibility is that the problem of the liquidity crunch may be partly blamed on the slowdown in remittances. Moreover, remittances contribute almost 23.6 per cent to the GDP while 30 per cent of the population depend on them for their sustenance. The remittance receivers may not be feeling the pinch but for the government it means the loss of incoming foreign currency with its ramifications on the BoP. Therefore, remittances has rightly been referred to as the lifeline of the economy.

To tackle the reduction of the remittance to the country through the banking channels, the government needs to go for managing strategies to create awareness among the foreign workers sending money to their families. But, awareness alone cannot resolve the problem, there has to be some sort of incentives for utilizing the banking channels for remittances. It has to be remembered that the use of non-banking channels do not make the remittance transparent thereby it does not come to the notice of the government. This means that the incentives to be given has to outweigh the use of channels like the hundi. Now, this needs to be given full thought as ours is a remittance-fuelled economy and even a little fluctuation in the minus side can wreak havoc on the economy, to a certain extent, as is presumed to be happening for the last several months. It is high time that specific studies were made on practical ground realities—not on mere speculations—to prepare grounds whereby the optimum amount of remittance comes through the formal channels like registered banks and financial institutions.

 

NO CHILD'S PLAY

Video game parlours are mushrooming by leaps and bounds. Moreover, it has been found that many of these parlours have slot machines for gambling. Unfortunately, these are encouraging the schoolchildren to indulge in gambling when they should be studying in schools. Thus, the police raids on a dozen or so video game parlours Saturday in a bid to nab those encouraging the children to gamble should be taken positively. The police have not only arrested those running such establishments but also seized logistics from them. The public for long have been complaining about what were taking place in the video game parlours that were enticing the schoolchildren to gamble.

No action had been taken against the unscrupulous video game parlour operators despite knowing about this racket. The police should be constantly monitoring the activities of such parlours to see to it that they are providing only healthy entertainment for the schoolchildren. The police action taken to arrest the video game parlour operators fleecing the schoolchildren should serve as a warning.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

AIRCRAFT PURCHASE: NAC'S DILEMMA

SUGAT RATNA KANSAKAR

 

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), with a history of 52 years, had faced quite a few ups and downs in the past. About eighteen months back, NAC did hit the media headlines with the announcement of an ambitious fleet expansion programme and did bring excitement to all concerned, especially tourism industry, by near-future-vision of taking our national flag carrier even to New York and Australia. Many raised eyebrows and few policy-makers, bureaucrats and intellectuals with unnecessarily high degree of pessimism criticized NAC management for raising the hopes of the people in a "no-hope-country".

In tune with the expectations of the public at large, NAC management, therefore, intentionally adopted a "paradigm-shift" approach to expedite this highly publicized aircraft purchase process. It seems this approach of getting development work done on war-footing is being misrepresented and misunderstood by many. The result is the present fiasco and deadlock like situation, which is delaying this "ambitious" project, which is "the" only life-saving medicine for NAC. It must be emphasized here that NAC selected the lowest priced offer of Airbus among only two responsive offers, and NAC can easily prove beyond doubt that this fully transparent decision is totally impartial.

As to the contention that management improvement should precede fleet expansion, common sense dictates that even with improved management matching European and Japanese standard, NAC's revenue will increase only marginally, as the two aircraft are already utilized to maximum permissible limit and seat factor reaching 73.3% in the international sector in spite of cut-throat competition. Moreover, unlike other 35 state enterprises, NAC is already competing directly with global giants like Thai Airlines, Silk Air, Qatar Air, Jet Air and it will be doing injustice to NAC workforce if one concludes that those 35 enterprises have better workforce than NAC, as NAC is still in fairly good financial health.

Regarding the process followed by NAC, it could be proven that not a single major fundamental principle or criteria stipulated in the Public Procurement Act 2063 is compromised. On the contrary, in the month of April 2009, NAC's financial rule was amended to make sure that it is in tune with the Act. In fact, earlier financial rule allowed management to directly negotiate with any aircraft manufacturer and sign the contract agreement without any competitive bidding. It is to be noted that all of the existing three dozens state-owned-enterprises have their own financial rules, which allow them to deviate from Public Procurement Act 2063 to a certain extent. NAC cannot be made an exception.

NAC has stipulated the provision of lock-up-money in the financial rule itself and, accordingly, even a separate budget is allocated in the current fiscal year 2066/67 budget of NAC. As the lock-up-money concept is never used in any other kinds of procurement, it is understandable that many were shocked and surprised at payment of US$750,000 before signing the contract agreement. In fact, both Boeing and Airbus companies have indicated in their sealed offers the compulsory requirement of lock-up-money and it is a universally accepted norm in aviation industry. The NAC management and entire workforce are, therefore, totally frustrated, as the public debate is zooming more into US$0.75 million lock-up-money rather than focusing on NAC's estimated revenue increase from existing US$75 to about US$170 million in three years after the acquisition of first new aircraft. The other extensively debated issue is the funding for aircraft purchase. In all aircraft purchase deals done by NAC in the past five decades, overseas funding was always adopted. This time also initially NAC talked with both Boeing and Airbus assuming that they will help in external funding. Only sometime in the month of March 2009, the idea of getting loan from Employees Provident Fund (EPF) was considered. This prompted NAC to actively pursue for government guarantee to get Rs.10 billion from EPF. Two successive governments gave explicit assurance that government shall give guarantee to buy two "big" aircraft for NAC. Even the concerned Act was amended to facilitate guarantee by government. Obviously, assuming that EPF loan is a sure-shot affair, NAC went ahead with all activities on war-footing to ensure timely delivery of aircraft before NTY 2011 event, which, ironically, happened to be a prestigious campaign launched by none other than NAC's sole owner the Government of Nepal (GoN).

The bottom line is that NAC wanted to move fast to increase production capacity by acquiring new aircraft so as to increase its' market share in the Rs. 60 billion annual business. And to add spice to NTY 2011 event, NAC did move at jet speed until the act of paying lock-up-money to book slots for two aircraft. The semi-final act of signing contract agreement and final act of landing of one brand new shining aircraft at Tribhuvan International Airport are yet to materialize.

Kansakar is Executive Chairman, NAC

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

TOPIC: IN SEARCH OF HAPPINESS

SHAKTEE POUDEYAL

 

Have you ever tried catching a butterfly? It perches nimbly on a flower, gently folding and unfolding its wings while you approach it noiselessly from behind and, just when you think you have caught it, it flies away—a transient flash of colorful wings, enticing yet mostly unreachable. Well, that's what happiness is like. The more you chase it, the more elusive it gets. At the risk of mouthing an oft-repeated (but little heeded!) cliché, I will say that happiness comes from within. In fact, sought outside one's being, it is akin to a mirage— you just don't seem to attain it! You, and you alone, have the power to make yourself as happy as you wish to be! Truly an awesome thought?

So, how can you be happy?

By not trying too hard, for starters! By lightening up a little and overlooking minor setbacks and hiccups instead of treating each of them as a major disaster. The world gives a hoot whether you smile or frown—so why not increase our face value by smiling? If you can only learn to laugh at some things, the scenario would not seem so grim all the time! Actually, I wasn't too sure that I could do it but my mother made it sound quite easy—so I decided to give it a try. Once I had resolves to find my happiness in day-to-day events and activities, I realized that there are indeed several other ways to make oneself happy. If you can train yourself—via meditation, positive thinking, or whatever— to find inner peace and calm, then you will attain happiness far more easily than others. It involves making peace with yourself, accepting who you are and not worrying about or fighting unknown or unseen demons.

No doubt, it is tough, but I believe it is worth trying. And, above all, count your blessing—it will immediately put your heart in the right place and fill your soul with humility and gratitude for all the things you have, things which you need to be thankful for but have only taken for granted so far. And, even if things are not as hunky-dory as you'd like them to be, be grateful for the fact that you are at least alive to know that they are not. Would you rather be dead? Think about it. All these are but small ways of achieving happiness, but they can boost your self-worth which, in turn, can motivate you to go beyond your best in your life and in your relationship, that is a reward worth vying for.

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THE HIMALAYAN

BLOG SURF:STATISTICS

 

digitaljournal.com

 

How many cups of coffee a day? 4.3 if you are a Scandinavian. People with Viking blood are the world's biggest coffee drinkers. Oddly, people from South American coffee producing countries drink the least coffee: 0.8 cups a day. Yanks drink 1.8 cuppas. An odd statistics is that coffee producing Latin American countries average less than one cup of coffee a day. Worldwide, Europeans drink the most coffee and non European countries the least. But the coffee intake of Americans and Canadians is at similar levels as that of the Europeans.

Research into these numbers stretches from 2002 to 2006. It was carried out on behalf of the Dutch statistics office Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS). The Dutch population's coffee addiction has declined since 1996, CBS reports. Since 1996, Dutch people's caffeine intake has been reduced by 13 per cent. Currently your average Dutchman drinks 3.2 cups of coffee a day. That amounts to 6.9 kilos of ground coffee per person a year (2006

average).

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THE HIMALAYAN

CREDOS:BRING CHANGE YOURSELF—V

RAJENDRA RIJAL

 

We should not waste our time in earthly enjoyment alone, but move ahead in the spiritual path. Meditation is an inner journey which will help us calm our mind and keep it focused to be positive, creative and settled in peace within ourselves.

There are three main paths propounded by Lord Shree Krishn a in the Bhagwad Gita. They are Gyana (the path of knowledge), Karma (the path of action) and Bhakti (the path of devotion).

To improve our knowledge, the study of the scriptures is very essential. We have to read the holy books like the Gita, Vedas and Ramayana to uplift our moral values and have a single pointed attention to gain valuable wisdom. Lord Shree Krishna has said in the Gita that meditation is greater than knowledge. Therefore, we have to meditate to acquire the highest level of perfection in our life.

The path of action without any personsl interest is true Karmayoga, therefore, let us always think of the larger interest of mankind while performing our actions. This way we can bring a remarkable change in our life and others too.The easiest way is the path of devotion. It is total surrender at the lotus feet of Lord Shree Krishna. Our source of inspiration is Almighty Lord Shree Krishna. Lord Shree Krishna in the Bhagawad Gita inspired the bewildered Arjuna to fight the battle of life with self confidence, patience, determination and devotion. Once we submit ourselves at the holy feet of Lord Shree Krishna, he will guide us to the right path.

Devotion and submission is required by the devotee to bring total change in their life. Lord Shree Krishna will transform our lives to a safe, secure, and peaceful destination. kindly protect us from evil thoughts, bad company, and bring a total change in our life. (Concluded)

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

WHY FLYING DEFENDERS, AFTER LTTE?

IT CERTAINLY HAS BECOME A MAJOR NATIONAL CONCERN.

 

While Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa moved to prune the security of VIPs after the  war, light flashing VIP vehicles and defenders that come on the wrong side of the road continue to give headaches to millions of motorists and pedestrians in the country.

 

As to why the ordinary people in this country should tolerate a politician who is coming from the wrong side of the road with strobe lights, especially in the night, to go for a cocktail or a dinner is a question that everybody is asking today.

 

Who would bother to kill these politicians in this post-LTTE era? How come their cocktails and dinners are anymore important than the tasks of the ordinary people – who must be returning home after a hard day's work or picking up a child after an evening tuition class.

 

One thought the end of war would mark the end of this egoist practice by the politicians. Yet the incessant horn blaring and flashing of strobe lights continue. All this is just to help a politician to make it on time to an event after setting off late. The reason behind the delay could range from a late arrival by the wife's hairstylist to a new shirt that arrived a little too late than he expected. So forget the people on the road, here he goes at neck breaking speed creating chaos along the road. The other mortals on the road are expected to make way for them at any cost even if that means driving into a drain.

 

And most politicians do not need a delay to create that walking pandal like image on the road.

 

Ok let's say the President in this country needs some space on the road because a delay by him could create 'national delays'. Also still there are some concerns about his security. Granted. However one cannot see the logic behind any other VIP flashing strobe lights and creating havoc on the road on a daily basis.

 

It was barely two days ago that a flying defender of a Deputy Minister crashed into two trucks in Dambulla. Imagine the plight of a pedestrian or a motorcyclist if hit by that  defender. It would have been quite a task to assemble the body parts of such a victim.

 

It was the war that saw the introduction of the mass retinue and defender culture. The move was aimed at protecting the politicians from the LTTE attacks.

 

Today it is practiced to massage the inflated egos of politicians. It goes without saying that if they go without the light flashing, horn blaring security vehicles no one would even notice them.

There should be a mass movement to take these traffic-law flouting politicians to task.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

OPINION

 

 

JVP TAKES THE DIFFICULT PATH TO THE NORTH

 

Some of the recent activities of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) towards the Tamil people have made  many wonder  whether the former rebels have  changed. The party branded as Sinhala nationalists by foreign media voiced recently for citizenship to the   Sri Lankan refugees now living in Tamil Nadu.They received representations from the relatives of those who had gone missing during the war between the security forces and the LTTE and some days ago met the people resettled after being displaced during the war.

The Daily Mirror last Wednesday carried on its front page an interesting photograph of JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe helping the children to read sitting on a mat somewhere in Wanni. Before that in May Tamil newspapers carried JVP's foremost Tamil leader Ramalingam Chandrasekar receiving letters from the relatives of people who disappeared during the war in the Wanni, at a meeting held in Narayanaguru Hall in Grandpass, Colombo.

Later Chandrasekar, an MP and the Deputy Chairman of Committees of the last Parliament, was subjected to questioning by two intelligence arms of security forces, apparently for touching upon a sensitive issue which is associated with human rights for which international pressure is mounting to  have a probe on.

On January 26, the day on which the last Presidential Election was held, JVP Propaganda Secretary and parliamentarian Vijitha Herath was detained along with several of his supporters at a checkpoint in Vavuniya when they were about to cross that point to enter into the areas in Wanni, where arrangements were said to have been made for the internally displaced people to cast their vote.

It goes without saying that these incidents would have somewhat changed the attitude of the Tamil people towards the JVP .The facial expressions of the relatives of the northern missing persons seen in the papers manifested some sort of hope and trust, maybe born out of their despair.

The new turn of trend in JVP activities with respect to the  Tamils might have provoked speculations among political circles that the party that survived two bloody crackdown by the governments led by the two main political parties, is attempting  to find solace in the support of the Tamils following the humiliating serial defeats at the  recent local and national elections. 

Also, it is surmisable that the leaders of the JVP are attempting to fill the leadership gap created by the physical decimation of the LTTE leaders by the security forces last year and also the ideological gap that might have been created with the loss of hope on a  separate Tamil state that had been inculcated by the many secessionist groups and parties, especially by the LTTE.

There maybe room for national politics in place of secessionist or communal politics among Tamils, if approached in a manner that would respect and recognize their language, culture and other rights. Because they were driven into more and more communal politics and, as an extension of it, into the secessionist politics during the first three decades after the Independence, owing to the economic, social, cultural and political alienation by the two main political parties, apart from the communal appeals by the Tamil leadership during the same period.

However, it is a tricky path to tread by any national political party with Sinhala leadership willing to solicit Tamils' support, as all other south based political parties are craving to exploit such situations by way of branding it  as a party supportive of the secessionist cause. For instance,  the two main parties have accused each other for selling out the country to the Tamils when  one or the other  in power took some initiative to solve the ethnic the problem, by giving various  concessions or recognitions to the Tamils.

The JVP too was accused for "attempting to sell out the country" when it campaigned for the "right of the nation to self-determination" in the late seventies and early eighties. On the other hand the vacillation in JVP's stand on the ethnic issue might make it difficult and take time for them to win over the Tamil people. It was a party that drew nationalism into its blood through the umbilical cord from N. Shanmugadasan's Stalinist Communist Party (China Wing) in the sixties. The Lion flag could be seen fluttering on the open stages that had been erected for JVP public meetings before their 1971 insurrection and the "class" or the lecture titled "Indian Expansionism" that was tutored by the JVP area leaders to the new members during the same period had a racist flavour.

However, after being severely censured by  opponents the JVP leaders, while in prison after the said insurrection, amended their indoctrinating lectures and literature in a manner that the Marxist theory of internationalism was replaced by  nationalism. They went to the extent of recognizing the Marxist- Leninist theory of "right of the nations to self- determination" or the right of a nation to secede from another.  Lionel Bopage, a prominent leader and the General Secretary of the JVP during its peak in  the early eighties compiled a highly theoretical book "Jathika Getaluwata Marxwadi Wigrahayak" (A Marxist analysis on the national question) during his detention after the 1971 insurrection, which recognized the Tamil people's right to secede, while advising them not to break away from the Sinhalese. He argued that although Tamils have the right to form a separate state within Sri Lanka it is advisable not to do so, as the larger the countries are the more would be the opportunities for development and prosperity. Instead he proposed self rule or autonomous areas run by Tamils under the central Government.

During the 1982 Presidential Election in which JVP founder leader Rohan Wijeweera was also a candidate, JVP's stance on the ethnic problem had been a highly controversial issue. They opposed the Tamil Eelam concept, while the Lion flag had vanished from their platforms. The other leftist parties which by then had been supportive of not only the theory of self-determination (right to secede), but also the implementation of it, branded the JVP as a racist party, in the light of its advice to the Tamils not to secede. At the same time, the two main parties equated JVP's recognition of "right of the nations to self-determination" with the support to carve out a separate state within Sri Lanka.

However, when the party was facing a survival problem after it was proscribed by the JR Jayawardene Government in 1983 , it discarded the self-determination theory and reverted to the pre-1971 stance. Wijeweera while in hiding in 1985 published a book titled "Eelam Prashnayata wisandum" (Solutions to the Eelam issue) identifying the contemporary fight for a separate Tamil state with the invasions of Sri Lanka by the ancient Chola rulers from South India.

Apparently in line with that the party was later highly critical of the ceasefire and peace talks with the LTTE in 2002, the Tamil Tigers' proposal to an interim administration, ISGA in 2003 and the Government-LTTE joint mechanism for rehabilitation of tsunami affected areas in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces, the P-TOMS in 2005. It was the JVP and the JHU that brought about a pro-war psyche in the country and pushed the Government towards the war.

All in all, the Tamil media had portrayed the JVP as a Sinhala racist party before the conclusion of the war. It is against that backdrop that the JVP is going to the north. It is ironic that the Tamil mindset is closer to the two main parties whose rule, according to Tamils themselves, pushed them to take to arms, than to the JVP.

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