EDITORIAL 23.06.10

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Editorial

month june 23, edition 000547 , collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

 

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

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THE PIONEER

1. NOT AT INDIA'S EXPENSE
2. BLOWBACK IN KERALA
3. BRIDGING THE TRUST DEFICIT - ASHOK K MEHTA
4. IT'S IN MUTUAL INTEREST - MANOJ PARASHAR
5. IS IT RECOVERY OR RELAPSE? - ESWAR PRASAD
6. BABBAR KHALSA FLOURISHED UNCHECKED - B RAMAN
7. AMERICA'S DOOMED-TO-FAIL SOLUTION - BARRY RUBIN

MAIL TODAY

1. LIBERIA INCIDENT BETRAYS THE PAK ARMY'S PSYCHE
2. CAN'T ESCAPE MARKET LOGIC
3. ONCE AGAIN TO PAK WITH HOPE - BY MANOJ JOSHI
4. GET READY FOR A LITMUS TEST ON TELANGANA - A SRINIVASA RAO
5. A STRANGE LOGIC
6. NEW CHEAP TAXIS SOON - BY MAIL TODAY BUREAU IN NEW DELHI

THE TIMES OF INDIA

1. GLIMMER OF HOPE
2. GIVE THIS CURRENCY
3. TERMS OF RE-ENGAGEMENT - MINHAZ MERCHANT
4. 'INTERNATIONAL PASSENGERS CAN EXPECT BUDGET PRICES'
5. DISHONOUR KILLINGS - JUG SURAIYA

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. A SLAP FOR THE KHAPS
2. DOUBLE DEUTSCHE TO US
3. POLITICAL PLAYTHINGS - ASHOK MALIK
4. REJIG THE POWER STRUCTURE - ASHISH KOTHARI
5. THE GENDER TRAP -  SYEDA HAMEED

 THE INDIAN EXPRESS

1. NOT PESA ALONE
2. AFLOAT AT LAST
3. CASTE IN THE RIGHT MOULD - D.L. SHETH
4. A YEAR, A MONTH, A DAY - SUHASINI HAIDAR
5. REACTING TO THE REACTORS - K. SUBRAHMANYAM
6. KRISHNA'S KOREA - C. RAJA MOHAN
7. FINDING A FIX FOR FOOD SECURITY - ASHOK KHEMKA
8. PARTY PLANNING

 THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. UNCAGING PORTS
2. ANATOMY OF M-BANKING
3. HOW ABOUT THIRTY RUPEES TO A DOLLAR - BIBEK DEBROY
4. IT'S NOT TIME YET FOR A SUPER REGULATOR - MADAN SABNAVIS
5. TWEAK NORMS FOR ULIPS - SAIKAT NEOGI

THE HINDU

1. DON'T LOSE SLEEP OVER CHASHMA
2. FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND REGULATION
3. MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION IN NEPAL - MENAKA GURUSWAMY
4. BUILDING TRUST, ONE STEP AT A TIME - SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN
5. DISABILITY AND CENSUS OF 2011 .- KAMAL BAKSHI
6. THE INDUS SCRIPT AND THE WILD ASS - ASKO PARPOLA
7. 'STEPPING INTO AN OIL INDUSTRY NIGHTMARE' - DAVID SHUKMAN

THE ASIAN AGE

1. GOM ON BHOPAL: A LOT MORE TO BE DONE
2. MANIPUR BESIEGED - INDER MALHOTRA
3. STREETS ECHO THE CULTURE OF A CITY - JAYANT V. NARLIKAR

DNA

1. RIP VAN WINKLE ACT
2. ROCKY ALLIANCES BJP AND JD(U)
3. BUNTY AND BABLI IN BEIJING AND BANDRA - VENKATESAN VEMBU
4. POINTER TO NEXT TRAGEDY - YOGI AGGARWAL

THE TRIBUNE

1. A GOOD BEGINNING
2. INDO-PAK TALKS
3. CHINA LIFTS THE PEG
4. THE NEGLECTED INFANTRY - BY MAJ-GEN ASHOK K. MEHTA (RETD)
5. PRAY, AND LET GOD WORRY - BY GEETANJALI GAYATRI
6. PUNJAB POWER SCENARIO LIGHTS UP - JANGVEER SINGH
7. NOW SHORTAGE IN HIMACHAL - RAKESH LOHUMI
8. NO FRETTING IN HARYANA - GEETANJALI GAYATRI

MUMBAI MIRROR

1. OUR ADOLESCENT AUDIENCE

BUSINESS STANDARD

1. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
2. SAVE AMUL, INDIA'S PRIDE
3. THE G20 AND 'CHERMANY' - ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN
4. LET'S BUILD A FEW CHANDIGARHS - SUBIR ROY
5. HAVE FUN OR TRAIN NON-STOP!
6. TRUE DRIVER OF INDIA-US PARTNERSHIP

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. SOME COMPENSATION, FINALLY
2. WATERSHED REFORMS...
3. HAVE FUN OR TRAIN NON-STOP!
4. TRUE DRIVER OF INDIA-US PARTNERSHIP
5. SHOULD INTEREST RATES BE RAISED NOW?
6. CHILD UNDERNUTRITION UNDERESTIMATED? - R GAIHA, R JHA & V S KULKARNI
7. ALL ABOUT FAITH AND FEET - VITHALC NADKARNI

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. GOM ON BHOPAL: A LOT MORE TO BE DONE1
2. MANIPUR BESIEGED - BY INDER MALHOTRA
3. MARADONA: WORLD CUP'S 'LOOSE VUVUZELA' - BY ROGER COHEN
4. STREETS ECHO THE CULTURE OF A CITY - BY JAYANT V. NARLIKAR
5. REPENT AND TRY TO REFORM - BY J.S. NEKI
6. BLOW UP THE WELL - BY CHRISTOPHER BROWNFIELD

THE STATESMAN

1. NO ABSOLUTION
2. NOTHING TO CELEBRATE
3. TOUCHING GESTURE
4. TOWARDS A NEW LEFT - BY BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA
5. IF BP CAN, WHY CAN'T DOW OR CHEVRON?
6. WHEN YOU JUST CAN'T SWITCH OFF
7. 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

THE TELEGRAPH

1. YUAN RISE
2. UNQUIET FRONT
3. DEALING WITH THE PAST  - K.P. NAYAR
4. FOR THE VICTIMS - SEKHAR RAHA

DECCAN HERALD

1. POLLUTER MUST PAY
2. FREE SUU KYI
3. LIVING IN THE PAST - BY BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA
4. TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE GLOBAL ECONOMY - BY SUPACHAI PANITCHPAKDI
5. THE HORROR FLICKS - BY LASYA SHASHIMOHAN

THE JERUSALEM POST

1. SHAS'S DISMAL SILENCE
2. PALESTINIANS NEED TO LOOK FORWARD, NOT BACKWARD - BY RAY HANANIA
3. WHO'S MISUNDERSTANDING KYRGYZSTAN'S PROBLEMS? - BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN
4. LION'S DEN: THE LEFT'S NEW ENEMY: 'EMPIRE' - BY DANIEL PIPES
5. IN MY OWN WRITE: THOSE WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER - BY JUDY MONTAGU
6. BETWEEN PRINCIPLE AND PERIL - BY AMIEL UNGAR

HAARETZ

1. THE CAUSES OF DISTRUST
2. IS ISRAEL BECOMING A BANANA REPUBLIC? - BY MOSHE ARENS
3. THE NATIONAL EDUCATOR - BY AVIRAMA GOLAN
4. TO NEUTRALIZE - BY AMIRA HASS
5. WE NEED A CONSTITUTION - BY MORDECHAI KREMNITZER

THE NEW YORK TIMES

1. THE PRESIDENT AND HIS GENERAL
2. CUTTING OFF THE UNEMPLOYED
3. ABOUT THOSE PREMIUMS
4. THRUSH'S SONG - BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG
5. SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE - BY MAUREEN DOWD
6. WHAT'S SECOND PRIZE? - BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
7. JUDGING MCCHRYSTAL'S WAR - BY MAX BOOT
8. THE OTHER TRUMAN DOCTRINE - BY ROBERT DALLEK
9. WHAT WOULD LINCOLN DO? - BY DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

USA TODAY

1. OUR VIEW ON 'RUNAWAY GENERAL': TEAM MCCHRYSTAL'S TRASH TALK LEAVES OBAMA IN A QUANDARY
2. ANOTHER VIEW ON 'RUNAWAY GENERAL': DON'T FIRE MCCHRYSTAL - BY MICHAEL O'HANLON
3. COURT CHILLS FREE SPEECH
4. REAGAN, OBAMA AND DEJA VU -BY ROSS K. BAKER
5. IS TIME REALLY MONEY? FOR THESE MILLIONAIRES, YES. - BY LAURA VANDERKAM

TIMES FREE PRESS

1. A WRONG-HEADED RULING
2. GROWING RISK FROM RADIATION
3. OUR SHOCKING NATIONAL DEBT
4. WILD ESTIMATES ON 'STIMULUS' EFFECT
5. ARIZONA SUED FOR DEFENDING ITSELF
6. IS AIDING TERRORISTS 'TREASON'?

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

1. FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - SELÇUK: A WARRIOR WHO WENT OUT FIGHTING
2. LITTLE COMES OUT OF THE 'STATE SUMMIT' - CENGİZ ÇANDAR
3. PASSENGERS WANT FREE-OF-CHARGE FOOD
4. UĞUR CEBECİ
5. GIVE THEM MORE INITIATIVE INSTEAD OF STATE OF EMERGENCY - MEHMET ALİ BİRAND
6. CAN THE SYMBOLS OF NAZISM AND JUDAISM BE CONSIDERED EQUAL? - SEDAT ERGİN
7. EQUILIBRIUM - A LONG HOT SUMMER - BURAK BEKDIL
8. THE STARS ARE NOT SHINING YET - JOOST LAGENDIJK
9. DISCUSSIONS - YUSUF KANLI

TEHRAN TIMES

1. WEST CAN OFFER TURKEY A PROPER SEAT - BY PHILIP STEPHENS

I.THE NEWS

1. TAKING DICTATION
2. AT IT AGAIN
3. ON THE UP?
4. INDO-PAK BORDER: THE ROAD NOT YET TAKEN - VAZIRA FAZILA-YACOOBALI
5. BUSINESS AS USUAL - SHAHID KARDAR
6. SICK WHITE ELEPHANTS - AYAZ AHMAD
7. THE BALOCH REALITY - ASHRAF JEHANGIR QAZI
8. TURKEY TURNS EAST - RIZWAN ASGHAR
9. FROM MUSLIM TO ISLAMIC SCHOOLS - QUANTUM NOTE

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. PRESIDENT EMITS FIRE
2. GILANI'S PRAGMATIC STANCE ON KBD
3. WAY BB'S BIRTHDAY WAS CELEBRATED
4. SECURING PAK-IRAN-AFGHAN FUTURE - GEN MIRZA ASLAM BEG
5. BB'S LEGACY OF RECONCILIATION LIVES ON! - FAIZ AL-NAJDI
6. OBAMA'S ORDEALS - DR S M RAHMAN
7. A BUFFER OR CLIENT STATE! - ABDUL BAQI
8. AMERICA'S NEW COWBOY DIPLOMACY - LIONEL BEEHNER

THE INDEPENDENT

1. RMG FACTORIES CLOSED
2. BUET CLOSURE
3. ALONE WITH YOURSELF..!
4. WILL JUTE GET BACK ITS LOST GLORY? - TAREQUL ISLAM MUNNA
5. QUALITY ENHANCEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION - MOHAMMAD AKHTARUZZAMAN

THE AUSTRALIAN

1. THINKING ABOUT HER GENERATION
2. STANDING FIRM IN AFGHANISTAN
3. BIG REFORM AT TELSTRA, BUT WILL IT WORK?

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. WE'RE THERE BECAUSE...
2. NO ESCAPING DEMOCRACY'S MESS
3. AFGHAN COMMITMENT NEEDS GREATER SCRUTINY
4. ISRAEL DELIVERS SOME RELIEF FOR GAZA

THE GUARDIAN

1. WELFARE SPENDING: SOAKING THE POOR
2. BUDGET 2010: GEORGE OSBORNE'S NATIONAL GAMBLE

THE GAZETTE

1. WORLD NEEDS RESTRAINT, NOT MORE STIMULUS

THE MOSCOW TIMES

1. OIL SPILL IS BP'S CHERNOBYL - BY YULIA LATYNINA
2. GOING FROM STATE CAPITALISM TO PRAGMATISM - BY ANDERS ASLUND
3. REVIVING THE OSCE  - BY DENIS MACSHANE

THE KOREA TIMES

1. LET'S NOT FORGET
2. GROUP OF 16
3. AMBUSH INTERVIEWS ANGER CONGRESS - BY DALE MCFEATTERS
4. TRAPPED IN EUROLAND - BY TAKATOSHI ITO
5. 2010 NEARS HALFWAY POINT

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. STRATEGIC DETAILS OF GROWTH
2. PRAYER FOR PEACE IN OKINAWA
3. AMERICA'S CHINA POLICY FLOP - BY BRAHMA CHELLANEY
4. THE BEAUTIFUL GAME HAS AN UGLY BLEMISH - BY ANDREI S. MARKOVITS AND LARS RENSMANN
5. CHINA NEEDS A SERVICE-SECTOR REVOLUTION - BY BARRY EICHENGREEN
6. A HUNDRED WELTPOLITIKS - BY JASWANT SINGH

THE JAKARTA POST

1. IT'S EVERYONE'S POLITICAL RIGHT
2. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: STATEMENT FROM COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MINISTER
3. THE NATION'S AMBIVALENT ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX - AL MAKIN, YOGYAKARTA
4. PKS AIMING TO BE A MODERN ISLAMIC PARTY - DONNY SYOFYAN
5. PORK BARREL' IS UNDEMOCRATIC, CORRUPT-MINDED - IWAN GUNAWAN

CHINA DAILY

1. BUDDING DREAMS
2. EDUCATION REFORM
3. PROTECT RIGHTS
4. TOMB RAIDERS AND DESTRUCTION OF HISTORY - BY MAGNUS FISKESJO (CHINA DAILY)
5. TIME US GAVE THE YUAN A BREAK - BY XU LI (CHINA DAILY)

THE HIMALAYAN

1. FUTILE PARLEYS
2. THANK THE RAIN
3. THE BARGAIN TOUCH - NEELU SUBEDI

DAILY MIRROR

1. VIGILANCE, THE PRICE OF PEACE
2. CHALLENGES FOR MINISTERS OF EDUCATION  

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

NOT AT INDIA'S EXPENSE

SCRAP 1989 DEAL, MAKE DOW PAY

As was expected, the Congress, operating on the twin-assumption that public memory is terribly short and money can not only buy silence but also convert opponents into supporters, has sought to put the lid on la affaire Warren Anderson rather than risk any further damaging revelations about the party's collusion with Union Carbide Corp and Rajiv Gandhi's role in letting the American fugitive from Indian law escape unpunished despite the enormity of the crime committed in Bhopal 26 years ago. The Group of Ministers headed by Minister for Home Affairs P Chidambaram has proposed a Rs 1,500-crore package, apart from reopening of cases and appealing against the Bhopal District Court judgement of June 7. The re-initiation of legal proceedings, of course, is no more than an eyewash; it is anybody's guess as to whether the Supreme Court would be willing to review and set aside its own judgement that diluted the charges against the prime accused, including Anderson, thus making a mockery of the criminal justice system in the country. But since fresh pay-outs to the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster require only administrative approval, it is entirely possible that the Government will go ahead with the proposal, according to which an enhanced compensation of Rs 10 lakh for each of the dead will be paid to the next of kin; Rs 5 lakh will be paid to every permanently disabled person and Rs 1 lakh to every temporarily disabled person; and, Rs 2 lakh to each of those stricken by cancer and other serious ailments caused by the toxic gas that leaked from Union Carbide's pesticides factory in Bhopal on the night of December 2-3, 1984.

Since the compensation paid to the victims under the agreement reached between the Union Government and Union Carbide in 1989 was far too little and too late, it would be unfair to grudge them the enhanced pay-outs. That's the least that can be done to lessen the burden of their misery and ameliorate the suffering inflicted on them by Union Carbide which wilfully neglected safety measures at the hazardous factory and saved money by reducing expenses on routine maintenance of equipment and tanks meant to store lethal chemicals. But, and this needs to be stated unambiguously, it is morally, if not also legally, wrong to make India's over-burdened tax-payers carry the can for an offence committed by a greedy American multinational corporation known for unethical business practices. The Congress will no doubt claim credit for the enhanced compensation, but the bill for the largesse will be paid by the people of India and not those responsible for the shocking mass-murder: This is neither just nor fair, but a farce that will only serve to compound the appalling miscarriage of justice.

If the Congress is sincere about atoning for its sins of omission and commission, it must take three decisive steps. First, it must adopt the principle, expounded by the US, that the polluter must pay. Second, the flawed $ 470 million 'settlement' between the Government and Union Carbide should be scrapped through a resolution of Parliament. It was an iniquitous deal and must be rendered invalid. Third, every effort should be made to make Dow Chemicals, the new owners of Union Carbide's assets, to shoulder the liabilities of 1984. Last, though not least, only the deserving should be the beneficiaries of the new compensation package — it shouldn't become a free-for-all tax-payer funded campaign to promote the Congress's electoral interests. Anything less than this is unacceptable.

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

BLOWBACK IN KERALA

VOTE-BANKS WON'T ENCASH CONGRESS CHEQUES

Kerala is perhaps the only State — among those preparing for Assembly polls next year — where the Congress is hoping to score an impressive victory. But notwithstanding the hopes of the high command, the party's chances are getting weaker by the day in this southern State as community-based outfits, which represent significant voting blocs, are bidding farewell to it. The announcement of the Nair Service Society on Tuesday that it is no longer desirous of the Congress's company has come as a shock for the party. The Congress can realistically believe that the Left is set to face its worst-ever defeat in West Bengal but the party that leads the UPA will not be the winner; that honour shall go to the Trinamool Congress. The situation in Tamil Nadu is not much different. Even if the AIADMK of Ms J Jayalalithaa fails to make a comeback, it will be to the advantage of the DMK of Mr M Karunanidhi, who at the moment is busy playing the 'Tamil card'. The World Tamil Conference which begins in Coimbatore on Wednesday is clearly aimed at positioning the DMK as the protector of Tamil identity. As things stand now, the CPI(M)-led ruling LDF in Kerala is sure to lose the Assembly election though not due to the Opposition's anti-Government campaigns but because of the Left's own infighting, anti-people policies and administrative failures. A UDF victory is almost sure next May, but the Congress, as the leader of this front, is unlikely to have much to feel ecstatic about, nor can anybody predict the margin of the victory.

The NSS, the umbrella organisation of Kerala's Nairs who constitute more than 14 per cent of the State's population, has made it clear that it does not even want to talk with the Congress. The Congress's relationship with the NSS snapped last year when the high command parachuted Mr Shashi Tharoor — an 'alien' Nair as far as the NSS is concerned — into Thiruvananthapuram constituency as party candidate instead of State Congress chief Ramesh Chennithala, much to the dislike of the Kerala PCC and the Nairs. When PJ Joseph, a Minister in the LDF Government and a long-time ally of the Left, merged his Kerala Congress group with that of Mr KM Mani, a constituent of the UDF, it effectively became a union of almost the entire Christian community in the State. The Congress objected to the merger, saying that no additional Assembly seats would be allocated to that party, but Mr Mani has chosen to ignore these barbs. With the Muslim League claiming influence over majority of the Muslims and the Mani-Joseph Kerala Congress holding sway over the Church, the Congress in Kerala is set to become weaker. In a sense, the Congress's vote-bank politics has begun to boomerang.

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

BRIDGING THE TRUST DEFICIT

ASHOK K MEHTA

Trust deficit is the new term echoing in Track II. At a recent Afghanistan-Pakistan-India trilateral dialogue, the deficit of trust was palpable. Not only is it deeply embedded in India-Pakistan relations, it is also currently even more starkly manifest between Afghanistan and Pakistan. An Afghan Minister said that as long as Pakistan considers the Afghan Taliban as a strategic asset and provides sanctuaries to them trust deficit will remain the core issue between them. Security is the burning issue, noted another Afghan participant, but surprisingly it finds no mention in the Joint Declaration on Next Steps of Afghanistan-Pakistan Comprehensive Cooperation of March 2010.

Without Pakistan's cooperation peace will elude Afghanistan. As a Sri Lanka-type military solution is unthinkable in Afghanistan, Reconciliation and Reintegration with the Taliban is deemed essential for American troops to begin thinning out by July 2011. This, too, does not seem feasible without Pakistan's help, as was evident from the ISI rudely interrupting the secret peace talks between President Hamid Karzai's Government and the No 2 in the Quetta Shura, Mullah Abdul Ghani Biradar, who was made to disappear.

The three-day grand Peace Jirgah of 1,600 delegates held earlier this month in Kabul, which was briefly interrupted by suicide-bombers, produced 16 recommendations chiefly about establishing peace by reconciling with "our opponents". Mr Karzai does not refer to the Taliban as terrorists but "our southern brothers". As a goodwill gesture prior to the Jirgah and against the advice of his intelligence chief, Mr Karzai released a few high-grade Taliban who promptly rejoined the resistance. Mr Karzai consulted all the political parties in Pakistan with the Awami National Party in North -West Frontier Province renamed as Khyber Pakhtunwa) sending a delegation to Kabul.

The Jirgah approved the formation of a high level commission at provincial and district levels to make peace with the Taliban. The Jirgah's recommendations are to be presented at the Kabul conference on July 20 for ratification.

A majority of the Afghans are united in their conviction that while reintegration of Taliban foot soldiers is possible, reconciliation with the top rung leadership is nearly impossible as they will not negotiate. Their reasons are that the Taliban are fighting the Afghan constitution, want foreign forces to leave and most of all believe they are winning the war with time on their side.

The 16-point Kabul declaration following the Jirgah was a shrewd act of public diplomacy — a message for the Taliban, the Kabul Government, Afghan- istan's neighbours and the international community that Afghans are committed to holding parliamentary elections in September 2010, respecting human rights and democratic values.

Some Afghans feel that the West is trying to sub-contract Afghanistan to Pakistan and the last thing they want is the return of the Taliban. While Soviet troops in Afghanistan were regarded as occupation forces, Western military presence is welcome and is not regarded as cause of insurgency. The Taliban, we were reminded, predated the arrival of US-led Nato forces. The Jirgah, in fact, asked for a long-term commitment from the foreign forces.

The Afghans emphatically refer to the 'external factors' which will neither allow R&R nor permit easing of tensions astride the Durand Line. Every day, 30,000 people cross the border along which Pakistan has 245 border posts and Afghanistan 42. The level of distrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan is so high that the US has interposed itself in the trilateral border commission. Officers have been located at joint intelligence centres at Kandahar, Quetta and Peshawar. Yet, when it comes to operations on both sides of the border, there is no coordinated hammer-and-anvil strategy to prevent the Taliban from crossing over.

The Taliban — whether it is Afghanistan, Pakistan or India-oriented — is variously labelled as a demolition squad, a band of thugs and anarchists (Pakistan's Interior Minister, Rahman Malik calls them 'Zaliman') whose aim is to dismantle Governments in Afghanistan and Pakistan to establish Islamic states. They may be targeting different objectives but are focussed on the overall aim of returning the region to the Stone Ages. While all the Taliban are operationally interlinked, victim countries have no common security architecture to fight them.

The Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism, which India and Pakistan explored unsuccessfully, has been buried. The Pakistan military establishment which determines cross-border operational strategy is still obsessed with strategic depth on the East and West. Almost everyone at the 'trialogue' called the concept of strategic depth as flawed but privately Pakistanis do confide that their Army considers strategic depth as important as their nuclear arsenal. The segmented approach to fighting the Taliban arises from this strategic calculation — employing Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan and LeT/Jaish-e-Mohammed in Jammu & Kashmir and India. It is unlikely that this policy will alter anytime soon.

Afghans complain that their soil is being used for a proxy war between India and Pakistan. The Pakistani Army has frequently used the argument which is supported by US Generals that resolution of Kashmir, India scaling down its activities in Afghanistan and barring Indian Army from training Afghan security forces will allow Pakistan's security forces in the west to fight with greater strength and vigour. The numerous attacks against Indian interests in Afghanistan, including the three against its Embassy in Kabul, Afghans say, were masterminded by the ISI and outsourced to the Haqqani network and the LeT.

Afghans want India and Pakistan to resolve their differences so that energy and resources wasted in cancelling each other can be better invested in socio-economic development and stability in Afghanistan. Cooperation rather than confrontation in Afghanistan has been a pressing new item for discussion in the composite dialogue, predating Balochistan and water.

Trilateral conversations between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the primary victims of Talibani terrorism, are restricted to Track II and show little promise of being converted into any meaningful counter-terrorism mechanism. The three have previously cooperated in the construction of the mausoleum of Frontier Gandhi, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Why not a Mahatma Gandhi-Mohammad Ali Jinnah hospital in Kabul to make a fresh start in trilateral cooperation ?

The key to stability in Afghanistan lies with the Pakistani Army and the ISI. Till these two institutions are cut to size by the people of Pakistan, the trust deficit between India and Pakistan and Afghanistan and Pakistan will prevail and undermine the stability of the region.

 

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THE PIONEER

EDITS

IT'S IN MUTUAL INTEREST

MANOJ PARASHAR

This refers to the article, "Friendship that binds" by Rajiv Bhatia (June 21). Though Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent visit to India is significant in many ways, the issues of post-war resettlement of displaced Tamils and growing Chinese presence in Sri Lanka will soon play a major role in the bilateral relations of the two neighbours. On its part, Sri Lanka needs to address both issues honestly. It is sad that even a year after the decimation of the LTTE, the Sri Lankan Government has no clear post-war plan for Tamil-dominated areas.

A large number of Tamils displaced during the civil war are still living in refugee camps. Despite an unprecedented victory in the parliamentary elections with 60 per cent mandate from voters, Mr Rajapaksa is yet to tackle Sinhala chauvinists whose anti-Tamil belligerence remains an obstacle in the devolution of power to the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

While entirely undesirable and uncalled for, the delay in addressing Tamil concerns continues to breed discontent among India's Tamils as is evident from often violent protests in Tamil Nadu. Though the LTTE leadership has been eliminated, its supporters are active among the Tamil diaspora around the world. Since these elements are bent upon creating trouble for Sri Lanka in foreign lands, Colombo needs New Delhi's support to neutralise their influence. It is also true that in absence of India's helping hand, Sri Lanka might face censure from the US and the International Monetary Fund over alleged violation of human rights.

China's increasing influence in the neighbourhood is of great concern to India. Beijing's growing interest in Colombo's affairs is aimed at establishing more than a naval base at Hambantota. Keeping this in view, India has sought the permission of the Sri Lankan Government to open a Deputy High Commissioner's office in Kandy and a consulate in Hambantota. Sri Lanka must understand that it is India and not China that can help safeguard its strategic interests owing to the former's geopolitical advantage.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

IS IT RECOVERY OR RELAPSE?

ON JUNE 26, THE GROUP OF 20 WILL MEET IN TORONTO, WHICH IS THE FOURTH TIME THEY WILL CONVENE SINCE THE START OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS. AT LAST SEPTEMBER'S G-20 SUMMIT IN PITTSBURGH, LEADERS WERE OPTIMISTIC AND CONFIDENT THAT THE WORST OF THE CRISIS WAS BEHIND THEM AND THAT THE WORLD ECONOMY WAS ON THE PATH TOWARD RECOVERY. BUT IS THE WORST REALLY BEHIND US?

ESWAR PRASAD

The world economy took a pounding during the financial crisis. Just as it was finding its feet, the European debt crisis rocked it back on its heels. Despite all the warnings of doom, the world economy has, in fact, been quietly mending itself. The economic picture looks far better now than it did a year ago although some rough patches lie ahead.

The recovery has been supported by an extraordinary amount of fiscal and monetary stimulus. The major challenge for G-20 leaders is to design and time the exit from these stimulus measures in a manner that doesn't stall the recovery but helps secure medium-term fiscal and financial stability.

The new Brookings-Financial Times TIGER (Tracking Indexes for the Global Economic Recovery) takes the pulse of the world economy and individual G-20 economies. It is a composite measure that combines information from indicators of real economic activity (GDP, employment, industrial production, trade), financial indicators (stock market indices, stock market capitalisation and, for emerging markets, bond spreads relative to US Treasuries) and indicators of business and consumer confidence.

The composite indices reveal five dominant themes. First, the global economy turned the corner by mid-2009 and has strengthened gradually since then. Growth rates of many indicators rebounded strongly after plunging into negative territory during 2008. These high growth rates are starting from a lower base and there is still a lot of ground to make up before the indicators are back at their pre-crisis levels.

For instance, growth rates of industrial production in many G-20 economies are now higher than before the crisis but, because growth rates fell sharply during 2008, the levels of industrial production are still below pre-crisis levels. Still, the recovery has clearly gathered momentum. Some indicators such as global trade are already at or slightly above their pre-crisis levels.

Second, the recovery has been uneven. Growth rates of industrial production and trade volumes have recovered strongly, while the recovery in GDP and employment has been modest at best.

Third, the performance of world financial markets outpaced that of key macro variables in 2009. In recent months, however, financial markets have dipped, partly because they have been rattled by the problems in Europe. This could signal difficult times ahead or might be just a temporary pullback from an earlier surge of unfounded optimism.

Fourth, confidence measures have regained some of the ground they lost during the worst of the crisis. Business confidence is still rising gradually but consumer confidence in advanced economies has been stuck in a rut in recent months. Resurgent business confidence is a positive sign as it could boost investment.

And finally, emerging markets felt the effects of the global crisis later than the advanced economies and have also recovered more sharply, with particularly strong recoveries in China and India. So far in 2010, emerging markets are still barreling their way to a strong performance despite the problems that have beset advanced economies. Perhaps, in a long-term structural sense, they are becoming less dependent on advanced economies.

We are certainly not out of the woods yet and a number of risks could well stall the recovery, which is far from entrenched or robust. Weak consumer confidence and minimal employment growth could dampen the recovery if they translate into tepid growth in private consumption. Rising inflationary pressures in some emerging markets may lead to a tightening of monetary policies that would tone down growth in those economies.

Financial markets in many advanced economies are still in perilous shape, with the European debt crisis creating concerns that some European banks have significant exposure to sovereign debt of countries in dire fiscal straits. In other advanced economies such as the UK and the US, uncertainty about the impending changes to the regulatory landscape and the macro environment are causing financial institutions to conserve capital and limit credit growth. This could hold back both investment and private consumption growth.

Rising levels of debt in the advanced economies pose serious risks of macroeconomic and financial stability. According to the IMF, the median ratio of gross public debt to GDP for advanced economies has risen from 44 per cent in 2007 to 71 per cent in 2010, and is likely to rise to 76 per cent by 2015. The corresponding numbers for emerging markets for those three years are 32 per cent, 39 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively. These high and rising debt levels of advanced economies will soak up a lot of world savings, reduce global potential output growth, and create a risk of inflationary spirals in the future.

There is also a risk of resurgent global imbalances, with many features of the world economy resembling the situation in 2006-07. Large and rising Government budget deficits in the US and many other advanced economies, along with low rates of private saving, are likely to lead to an expansion of current account deficits in these countries. Despite its rising deficits, however, the US dollar's position as a safe haven currency has been strengthened by the problems in Europe, leading to large capital inflows and low interest rates in the US.
The combination of low interest rates in the US and weak growth prospects of other advanced economies has led to a surge of private capital inflows to dynamic emerging economies, which are intervening heavily in foreign exchange markets in order to moderate currency appreciation. The resulting buildup of foreign exchange reserves is being recycled in the form of official purchases of the US Treasuries, thereby perpetuating imbalances.While emerging markets have grown strongly, they are not large enough to become drivers of world consumption growth. In tandem with the continued export dependence of China, as well as large advanced economies like Germany and Japan, this portends significant trade tensions in the years ahead, particularly if employment growth remains weak in the US and other major economies.

There is a deep tension now between measures to sustain the recovery and measures to bring public deficits and other byproducts of stimulus under control. G-20 leaders, especially those of advanced economies, need to display at least half as much alacrity in designing exit policies as they did in aggressively using fiscal and monetary stimulus to pull their economies back from the brink of cataclysm during the crisis.

 

 Eswar Prasad holds the New Century Chair in International Economics at Brookings. He is the Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy at Cornell University and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was previously head of the Financial Studies Division and the China Division at the IMF. Excerpted from Recovery or Relapse: The Role of the G20 in the Global Economy, published by Brookings to coincide with the G20 meeting on June 26 in Toronto.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

BABBAR KHALSA FLOURISHED UNCHECKED

RED TAPE HELD BACK CANADIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE INVESTIGATORS FROM OBTAINING REQUISITE PERMISSION FOR SURVEILLANCE AND ELECTRONIC INTERCEPTION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS OF BABBAR KHALSA CHIEF TALWINDER SINGH PARMAR

B RAMAN

In 2006, the Canadian Government appointed a Commission of Inquiry headed by former Supreme Court Justice John Major to investigate the blowing up of Air India Flight 182, Kanishka, mid-air on June 23, 1985. The explosion was caused by a bomb planted in a piece of unaccompanied baggage by Khalistanis belonging to Babbar Khalsa, headed by the late Talwinder Singh Parmar of Vancouver, Canada.

The report of the Commission was released on June 17, 2010. The Commission has found that a "cascading series of errors" by the Government of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service allowed the terrorist attack to take place. The following is the second instalment of relevant extracts from the report:

Despite its awareness of the threat and of the identity of the potential protagonists who might carry it out, the CSIS appears to have obtained little important new information of its own about the Sikh extremist threat or about the Babbar Khalsa or about Parmar from the fall of 1984 through to March of 1985. The major reason for this gap lay in the state of the warrant approvals process that had been put in place by the CSIS Act in June 1984.

On the ground, CSIS British Columbia investigators were aware of the urgent nature of the threat from Sikh extremism and of the inadequacy of their information resources to deal with it. They simply had no information sources of their own and had been totally unsuccessful in recruiting sources within a Sikh community that was somewhat insular and vulnerable to intimidation by the extremists. They soon concluded that they needed surveillance and electronic intercepts in order to be able to understand and respond to the increasing threat.

The institutional response to the request to approve a warrant to intercept Parmar's communications demonstrates a fixation with form over substance and, despite protestations to the contrary at the time and subsequently, suggests a lack of appreciation of the reality of the threat.

The civilianisation of the CSIS was in part a reaction to the RCMP Security Service excesses in its investigation of the Front de Libération du Québec (the "FLQ") and extremist Quebec Separatists. Under the RCMP Security Service, while electronic intercepts had required approval, the process was informal, simply requiring a request to the Solicitor General, the Minister responsible for the RCMP (and later also for CSIS). With the creation of the CSIS, as one of the means to protect civil liberties from unjustifiable intrusion by or on behalf of Government, a new system of judicial supervision of certain intelligence operations was instituted, including a requirement for judicial approval for intercepting private communications. This new protocol was to apply prospectively but also was intended to cover existing intercepts that had been approved by the Minister.

There was an explicit requirement that existing intercepts had to be reviewed internally and approved by the Solicitor General and then by a judge of the Federal Court, all within six months of the coming into force of the CSIS Act, i.e. by January 1985.

When added to the considerable stresses and strains that accompanied the rushed transition to CSIS from the RCMP Security Service, it was entirely foreseeable that this warrant conversion process would be the source of added pressure and potential misadventure. The foreseeability of the problems that might be caused by the requirement to devote considerable resources to the conversion process should have called for added care and attention to ensure that the process would be capable of meeting new needs that would arise and not just of preserving existing arrangements. Instead, the response of the CSIS was to prioritise existing warrants and to defer new applications, with the exception of only those deemed most urgent. As CSIS understandably would want to avoid disrupting existing investigations, in theory, this process could be considered a sensible policy; in practice, its effectiveness depended on the Service's ability to respect the new needs that were more urgent.

The evidence before the Commission indicates that, despite the priority afforded to the warrant conversion process, it was possible to secure a warrant in an extremely short timeline to respond to a perceived urgent priority, as occurred in an area other than the threat of Sikh extremism. The protracted wait for the processing of the Parmar warrant application either demonstrates an unthinking application of the concept of priority of existing warrants or, more likely, reflects the lack of appreciation of the true urgency of the threat of Sikh extremism.

Despite certification by the existing chain of command in BC as well as by the Headquarters counterterrorism hierarchy, and despite increasingly pointed memoranda from the front lines in BC, the application for the Parmar warrant lay dormant for months while the conversion process went forward. Then, after proceeding through multiple steps in the complicated, and still in flux, approval process, it was further delayed for an additional month by what turned out to be an irrelevant issue raised by the Minister's Office. Although the final steps leading up to the submission of the warrant to, and approval by, the Federal Court proceeded relatively quickly, the total time from the request for a warrant to the date of approval was over five months. This lengthy delay was entirely disproportionate to the heightened threat and the demonstrated lack of intelligence sources available to respond to it.

The subsequent course of the BC investigation confirms the theme of inadequate resourcing and indicates that execution on the ground was not sufficient for the seriousness of the threat being dealt with. Eventually the BC investigators did get approval both for electronic intercepts and for physical surveillance coverage on Parmar. As will be seen, the story of neither effort is particularly edifying.

-- To be continued

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

AMERICA'S DOOMED-TO-FAIL SOLUTION

OBAMA'S LET-GAZA-PROSPER STRATEGY IS UNLIKELY TO SUCCEED IN A SOCIETY CONTROLLED BY GUNS AND PAY-OFFS

BARRY RUBIN

True, this might have worked to some extent in Soviet bloc Central Europe and even to some extent in China but the Middle East doesn't fit that model. Here we see the inability of people so smart that they cannot understand other societies are really different to visualise an ideological dictatorship at the peak of its power and quite ready to murder people:

Consider:

·  The regime decides who does or doesn't do business on the basis of loyalty, pay-offs, and giving its officials a big cut. So if you want to make money, perhaps you better not trouble the guys with guns or challenge the status quo. Incidentally, this is how Middle East societies have kept the independent middle class at bay and is one reason why there isn't much democracy.

 

·  With "politics in command," as Mao Zedong put it, the business sector, and indeed the living standards of the masses, are subordinated to the struggle. If Hamas wants to launch a war against Israel it isn't going to worry about the damage to infrastructure, as we have already seen.

Everywhere in the world, the common people may just want the "same thing," a bigger refrigerator, a car, and better education for their children. The thing about dictatorships, however, is that nobody asks them their opinion and instead to some extent shapes their opinion through ideology, force, and indoctrination.

 

·  No opposition parties are permitted to function in the Gaza Strip and those individuals too active on behalf of Fatah are periodically arrested, lightly tortured, and inhibited from acting.

 

·  Fatah folk spend a good bit of their time trying to prove they are just as militant, or more so, in fighting Israel and the West as their Hamas rivals.

 

·  Hamas people really believe that the deity is on their side, that their enemies are satanic, and that victory is inevitable. If you want to get some sense of the intensity of this passion, take an Ivy League professor's view of the Tea Party people and multiply it by ten. Except that in Hamas there is willingness to torture, maim and kill, along with the belief in divine guidance. (This space left blank so you can insert a suitable joke.)

 

·  There aren't elections in the Gaza Strip so if you get a majority what difference does it make? To quote Mao again, in this case political power really does come out of a barrel of a gun.

And if you still aren't persuaded, just consider how successful the strategy of promote business, build prosperity, and raise living standards as the road to democracy plus moderation has worked in such places as Islamist Iran, Syria, and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

By the way, if you take the middle initial of the last US president, "W," and that of the current US president, "H," you get the initials for White House. Coincidence? Or perhaps the basis for a new Middle East peace plan!

 Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs Journal.

Concluded

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MAIL TODAY

COMMENT

LIBERIA INCIDENT BETRAYS THE PAK ARMY'S PSYCHE

 

' PEACEKEEPING' was clearly not on the mind of Pakistani army's Lieutenant Murad when he opened fire on a CRPF camp in Liberia. It is unprofessional, if not criminal, on the part of the officer that he exported the Indo- Pak hostilities while on a peacekeeping operation. He has harmed the credibility of the Pakistani army, which is the largest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations. Though Pakistani army officials have dismissed Lieutenant Murad as being " mentally imbalanced", the fact that Indians were the object of his ire is probably a consequence of the virulently anti- India indoctrination of the Pakistani army.

 

Hostility to India has always been the raison d'être of the Pakistani army, which, in General Parvez Kayani's own words, is " India centric". In fact the army has used hostility to India to maintain its hold over Pakistani society and polity. The anti- India discourse is not just political but is also infused with emotive religious and cultural rhetoric. This indoctrination is visible in ' Pakistan studies' textbooks that emphasise concepts like jihad and antagonism towards non- Muslims serves to promote an obscurantist viewpoint. This indoctrination is most deeply rooted in the armed forces.

 

At the root of the Pakistani army's grandiose anti- India rhetoric lies its inherent insecurity given the natural asymmetry between the two countries. Lieutenant Murad's trigger- happy adventure, which was accompanied by religious war- cries, is clearly a manifestation of this pathology. For its own sake and for the sake of the people of Pakistan, the Pakistani army should put an end to these discourses of hate that will eventually wreak havoc on Pakistan itself.

 

CAN'T ESCAPE MARKET LOGIC

SPECULATION that former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin could be paid an annual salary of Rs 10 crore — or about Rs 84 lakh a month — if he is hired to head the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has evoked anger in several quarters especially in the public sector ( PSU) fraternity. By all accounts, and not merely by PSU standards, this is a very large sum. The contrast is starker when compared with present chief executive Kuldeep Goyal's annual salary of Rs 12 lakh.

 

However, if we expect our PSUs to be handled professionally, we cannot expect their top executives to be paid peanuts. The second PSU pay revision committee, headed by retired Supreme Court judge M. Jagannadha Rao had recommended performance- linked pay for PSU employees which formed the basis for substantial salary hikes for public sector bosses. But, none of these honchos are being paid even close to what is being talked about in connection with Mr Sarin.

 

BSNL is a huge public sector enterprise with around three lakh employees and an annual turnover of over Rs 35,000 crore. But, it is unable to push up profits. This is good reason to introduce new business tactics and take on board top professionals. If good money is what will get them in to show results — when rival firms in the private sector are doing the same — then, so be it.

 

HAND OF GOD STRIKES ONCE

BRAZILIAN footballer Luis Fabiano who scored a goal against Ivory Coast on Sunday after the ball twice touched his hand may have been honest enough to admit the truth later, but his logic that a bit of doubt was needed to make the goal beautiful, is nothing but semantic jugglery. He probably hopes that his goal will come to be assigned a place similar to Diego Maradona's ' Hand of God' goal against England at the Mexico World Cup in 1986.

 

This is wishful thinking. What was permitted to one of the greatest footballers the game has seen is unlikely to be allowed to a lesser player. Then, the quarter- final match between Argentina and England in the 1986 World Cup was played just four years after the Falklands War and so Maradona's brace in that match was sweet revenge for his country. This was also the match in which Maradona scored what has been regarded as one of the greatest goals in football's history. Most importantly, since that infamous goal may have played a role in Argentina eventually lifting the World Cup is why the current Argentine coach can rightfully claim that there has been only one Hand of God goal.

 

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MAIL TODAY

ONCE AGAIN TO PAK WITH HOPE

BY MANOJ JOSHI

 

THREE days from now, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will visit Islamabad to attend a meeting of the home ministers of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation countries.

 

As the tough talking Home Minister, Chidambaram has been the face of India's counter- terror response since the terrible Mumbai attack of November 2008.

 

The big question is whether he will forge an independent second track in dealing with Islamabad, or he will be content to be an adjunct to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Track- I process. Mr Chidambaram knows well, as was evident in the case of the 76 police personnel killed by Maoists in April, that with power comes an enormous amount of responsibility.

 

He would have to answer for any major terrorist strike on Indian soil. The Prime Minister, on the other hand, has the luxury of taking the high road, talk of " trust deficits" and history.

 

In their own way, both engagements are important and necessary. Security constitutes an enormously important element of our relationship with Pakistan.

 

It is useful to have the minister directly involved in managing it dealing with his counterpart in Pakistan. With Prime Ministerial summits, there are always huge expectations which, in our current circumstances, cannot be met. Yet there is need for high- level practical relations between the two countries.

 

Reality

 

You may argue that there is a world of difference between the authority of the union home minister of India and his Pakistani counterpart, Rehman Malik, who is actually hanging on to office with the help of a presidential pardon. But we can only work with the tools in hand. Authority in Pakistan is fragmented, notwithstanding the efforts being made to strengthen the hands of Parliament and the Prime Minister through the 18th Amendment to the constitution. There will be many who will argue that there is little point engaging with Islamabad in the present climate of enervation there.

 

But the issue is whether India needs Pakistan more than they need us. I would argue that it is India that needs Pakistan more because of the latter's ability to destabilise our country and distract us from the task of economic growth and allround development. This imposes a bigger challenge on us to craft our policies in such a manner that we can overcome the obvious problems and try and obtain positive outcomes.

 

Of course, this is easier said than done.

 

As it is, the discourse seems to be stuck in Islamabad's point of view at the level of India's demand for Pakistan to root out the perpetrators of the Mumbai carnage.

 

From the Indian point of view it seems stuck at Islamabad's insistence that the two countries resume the composite dialogue.

 

Ironically, composite dialogue was an Indian device aimed at ensuring that the subject of the India- Pakistan dialogue is not confined to Kashmir, and only Kashmir.

Chidambaram's visit is in itself a build up to the visit of External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna later in July. A positive outcome of the Home Minister's visit could set the stage for a successful visit by Mr Krishna, which could lead to a full- fledged resumption of the Indo- Pakistan dialogue process.

 

That may be the official scenario, but reality is bound to intrude.

 

One problem is that in the last five years, the ground situation has changed dramatically in Pakistan. India, on the other hand, has witnessed great change, but on a largely evolutionary track. In 2009, according to a recent RAND Corporation study, there was a 48 per cent increase in attacks in Pakistan over the 2008 levels.

 

Further, these attacks have become more complex. Thus the April attack on the US consulate in Peshawar used a truck bomb, machine guns and rocket launchers.

 

More alarming has been emergence of a kind of Terror Central in North Waziristan where a conglomeration of groups are sharing personnel, knowledge and facilities to mount or plan complex attacks not only in Pakistan, but in countries like the United States and India.

 

The Rand study also acknowledges that using militant groups is woven into the DNA of Pakistani policy since independence and that this is in turn gets public support because it is linked to " historical and social milieus of jihad, which has long been viewed as a legitimate mode of conflict." Nuclear weapons have, if anything, strengthened this tendency.

 

Army

While we may be progressing in beginning with a Home Minister- level dialogue, we have yet to hear from the Pakistan Army. Over the last couple of years there have been aborted efforts to get the armed forces of the two sides to interact with one another. That has yet to happen. Though such an engagement appears to be a positive thing, were it to take place, there are question marks about what it can achieve considering the enormous asymmetry between the role of the Army in the Pakistani system and its limited role in India.

 

India's aim has to be to alter Pakistan's strategic behaviour. This is, given the situation, an enormous exercise. Yet, we have barely scratched the surface of the problem.

 

In the meantime, things are going from bad to worse in Pakistan. In 2007, Pakistan was listed 12 in a Failed States Index brought out by the Foreign Policy magazine, in 2010, it has gone up two notches to rank No 10; Somalia is number one on the list and Afghanistan number six. The irony is that despite this, Islamabad is gambling that its proxies will soon " win" in Afghanistan. All that this " victory" will achieve, perhaps, is that both countries will move a notch or two towards Somalia's status.

 

Yet, the Prime Minister is right in saying that Pakistan is a neighbour and we have no options but to try and improve relations with it. But whatever be the strategic imperative for them to resolve their problems and come closer to each other, it is the tactical problems that compel attention. Nothing is more compelling for most Indians today than the need to prevent the recurrence of a Mumbai- type attack. Yet, when you look at the record, it is impossible not to come away with the conclusion that Islamabad has done precious little.

 

Mumbai

 

It is not a matter of dealing with the big issues like Hafiz Muhammad Saeed's status, but the provision of information about the people who planned and directed the Mumbai attack. We know that there is a huge trust deficit between the two countries.

But this is a deficit arising from the willful actions of Islamabad. But it most certainly cannot be surmounted by pretending that the problem does not exist, that it will be overcome with the passage of time or that New Delhi must pander to some Pakistani fantasy about India's activities in Balochistan and Afghanistan.

 

The Mumbai attack has become something like the October 1962 Chinese attack on India— a watershed event that has seeped deep into the public consciousness.

 

Indeed, this is not something that just the Pakistan government needs to address, but the denizens of the South Block as well.

 

Mr Chidambaram's sojourn in Islamabad suggests one way that this can be done— through practically addressing the problem, rather than garbing it in diplomatese like " trust deficit". We can only hope that it will yield the outcomes we have been waiting for. But don't bank on it. This is a long haul.

 

manoj.joshi@mailtoday.in

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MAIL TODAY

DECCAN BUZZ

A SRINIVASA RAO

 

 

GET READY FOR A LITMUS TEST ON TELANGANA

IT IS election time again in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. On Monday, The Election Commission announced the schedule for by- elections to 10 assembly seats in the region. They are to be held on July 27. The byelections were necessitated due to the resignation of 10 MLAs of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and one each from the Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in February to put pressure on the Centre for granting statehood to the Telangana region.

 

However, the EC announced the schedule only for 10 seats, as the election petitions for two other seats— Siricilla and Vemulawada in Karimnagar district — are pending in the court.

 

The by- elections have evoked a lot of curiosity among political observers, for they are being considered a sort of referendum on the Telangana issue. It is a litmus test for the TRS in particular, which has put the Telangana issue at the forefront by going in for the byelections.

 

The TRS has to win back all its seats at any cost and even if it loses a couple of seats, it will give scope for prounited Andhra leaders to proclaim that there is no Telangana sentiment.

 

Moreover, the committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna, constituted to look into the Telangana demand, is already in the final stages of consultation with all the stakeholders.

 

A negative result for the TRS in the by- elections is likely to influence the decisions of the committee. Keeping this in mind, the TRS, through various Telangana outfits including the Joint Action Committee of political organisations and student groups, made desperate attempts to pressurise the Congress and the TDP not to field candidates in the byelections and see that the candidates who had resigned get elected unanimously. Even other Telangana protagonists like Nizamabad MP Madhu Yashki of the Congress and Palakurthi MLA Errabelli Dayakar Rao of the TDP tried to prevail upon their respective parties to withdraw from the contest, stating that the people of Telangana would not vote for anybody except the resigned candidates.

 

However, the Congress high command firmly decided that the party should contest the by- elections, since staying away would send the wrong signal to the people in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions that it had succumbed to the Telangana demand. And with the Congress deciding to field its candidates, the TDP has also thrown its hat in the ring. Both the parties have apparently realised that they have nothing to lose by contesting the polls.

 

If they win even a couple of seats, it would strengthen their base in the region. And if they lose, they can claim that they had not lost anything, as the seats originally belonged to the TRS and the BJP. Now, the TRS is worried about retaining all its seats.

 

With K Chandrashekhar Rao's appeal to the Congress and the TDP to withdraw falling on deaf ears, his supporters are now threatening the two parties of dire consequences if they contested the elections. Telangana JAC chairman M Kodandaram called upon the people of the constituencies not to allow the Congress and TDP candidates to enter the villages for campaigning.

 

And some student groups from the Osmania University have threatened violent attacks on such candidates.

The state police also fear a lot of violence during the electioneering.

 

They have asked the Centre to deploy 80 companies of paramilitary forces to maintain peace during the by- elections.

 

Director General of Police RR Girish Kumar warned that strict action would be taken against those creating trouble during the by- elections.

 

The police are gearing up to face any eventuality during the electioneering.

 

QUAINT TRIBUTE TO THE DEPARTED

WHAT'S in a name, one might ask. But the naming of districts in Andhra Pradesh after departed political leaders has been a trend in the state.

 

The Rosaiah government's decision last week to rename Kadapa district as YSR district, after the former chief minister, who died in a helicopter crash on September 2 last year, has triggered similar demands from different parts of the state. However, there is a stiff resistance to the renaming of Kadapa.

 

Senior TDP leader K Yerran Naidu said that if Kadapa district could be named after YSR, then the government should also consider renaming of Srikakulam district after freedom fighter Gowthu Lachanna and Vizianagaram district after its erstwhile ruler PVG Raju. Then, there have also been demands for naming Guntur district after veteran socialist leader late NG Ranga, Krishna district after former chief minister NT Rama Rao, East Godavari district after revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Seetharama Raju and Adilabad district after tribal hero Komuram Bheem.

 

In the past, Ongole district was renamed as Prakasam district after former chief minister of the state Tantuguri Prakasam Panthulu and more recently, Nellore district was renamed as Potti Sriramulu district, after the person who starved himself to death for the separation of Andhra from Madras presidency. And three decades ago, Ranga Reddy district, named after freedom fighter KV Ranga Reddy, was carved out of Hyderabad.

 

Who knows, all the 23 districts in Andhra Pradesh might get named after some leader or the other in the years to come.

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MAIL TODAY

RAISINA TATTLE

A STRANGE LOGIC

 

THE re- focus on the Bhopal gas tragedy seems to have brought everyone together. Many human rights activists working for the survivors in the Madhya Pradesh capital have called on senior Union ministers and Opposition leaders to lobby for support.

 

During a recent interaction, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, was said to have sought to categorise the list of the dead on the basis of religious identities.

 

Probably realising that she was treading on a thorny path, she hastened to add that she was seeking the information to emphasise the point that death, particularly during calamities, has " utter disregard for religious characteristics". Anyone convinced?

 

WHAT'S THE SCORE?

NOWthat the football fever is on, some Congress leaders were heard taking an inhouse stock of selfgoal specialists. AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and Union environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh emerged on the top in this count.

 

Diggy Raja, however, beat Jairam for consecutively scoring two self- goals on the Maoist issue and then giving a clean chit to Arjun Singh on Warren Anderson's release. Jairam has been rated as the master of the foot- inmouth disease. His statement from China on India's foreign strategy is considered the ' gem' of a same- side goal.

 

Then comes Satyavrat Chaturvedi, who recently made intemperate remarks against ally leader Sharad Pawar and also Arjun Singh.

 

The surprise entry is Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit for blaming Shivraj Patil for the delay in the hanging of Afzal Guru.

 

The former home minister- turnedgovernor, who is not known as a quick thinker, played safe, refused to come to his own defence and politely declined to comment.

 

FACING THE HEAT

UTTARAKHAND'S leader of the Opposition, Harak Singh Rawat, is in a spot.

 

The Congress high command has ordered an internal probe to investigate if the party leader is indeed guilty of any wrongdoing. It has been alleged that Rawat had grabbed the land of a member of the minority community.

 

The matter relates to 2003 when Rawat was revenue minister under N. D. Tiwari. The state's minorities commission is making sure that the heat is turned on Rawat.

 

WAITING FOR RAHUL

THE BJP- JD ( U) feud has enthused the team of Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan. The duo wants the Congress to join a grand alliance to defeat Nitish Kumar and the BJP. The Congress is, however, less than enthusiastic in joining hands with the two. Senior Congress leaders are waiting for AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to return from abroad to take a call on the matter.

Auto ride costly but

NEW CHEAP TAXIS SOON

BY MAIL TODAY BUREAU IN NEW DELHI

 

YOU will have to pay up to 35 per cent more to travel in an auto in Delhi, according to the revised fare the state government announced on Tuesday.

 

" The base fare has been raised from Rs 10 for the first kilometre to Rs 19 for the first two, while for every subsequent kilometre travellers will have to pay Rs 6.50 as against the current fare of Rs 4.50," transport minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said.

 

The black- and- yellow coloured taxis that currently charge Rs 15 for the first kilometre and Rs 8.50 for every subsequent kilometre will now take Rs 20 for the first kilometre and Rs 11 for every subsequent kilometre, Lovely added.

 

The new fares will be enforced from Thursday, a transport official said.

 

Fares of radio taxis that charge Rs 15 per kilometre and bus fares remain unchanged.

 

Lovely said now that the fares had been increased, transport officials will go hard on auto drivers who don't travel by meter, refuse to take passengers or overcharge.

 

" We are setting up a call centre where travellers can complain about errant drivers. The operating permits of those found to be flouting rules will be cancelled," he said.

 

According to transport officials, the government has made it mandatory for auto drivers to install global positioning systems ( GPS) in their vehicles as a monitoring mechanism.

 

Lovely said that the government had earlier decided to raise the existing fare of Rs 4.50 for every kilometre after the first to just Rs 6, but eventually raised it to Rs 6.50 to factor in the cost of installing and maintaining GPS devices.

 

" The systems will have to be installed within six months.

 

Those who fail to do so will lose their operating permits," Lovely said.

 

The government plans to link the GPS devices to a transport call centre through a central server, making it easy to locate an auto and direct it to any traveller who calls for a vehicle, a transport official revealed.

 

Auto drivers, however, are unwilling to foot the bill for the GPS device that costs Rs 15,000 and requires Rs 1,500 every month for maintenance.

 

Rajendra Soni of the Delhi Autorickshaw Sangh said: " We will install the device if it helps commuters but the government should finance it." The good news for commuters is that they will soon also have the option of travelling in taxis at almost the same fare as that of autos.

 

Lovely said a flat rate of Rs 10 per km had been fixed for a new taxi service that will be run by private as well as individual operators.

 

He added that only vehicles having engine power in the range of 700 cc to 1,000 cc will be allowed for the service.

 

" Vehicles in this range include Maruti Omni, Alto and Wagon R. The process of issuing licences for the service has already begun. We want to launch it in five to six months," Lovely said.

 

AUTO FARES TO SHOOT UP IN MUMBAI ALSO

PTI

HOURS after 80,000 taxis and a lakh autos went off the roads in Mumbai on Tuesday demanding a fare hike, the Maharashtra government announced that it has proposed to hike auto fares by Rs 2.

 

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority ( MMRTA) is expected to announce a formal decision in the backdrop of the recent CNG price hike.

 

" We have proposed basic fare hike from Rs 9 to Rs 11 and Rs 5 to Rs 6.50 for every subsequent kilometre," transport minister Radhakrishna Vikhe- Patil said.

 

" The decision is expected tomorrow ( Wednesday)," a transport official said.

 

Auto unions are demanding that the minimum fare be increased by Rs 6 and Rs 8 for every subsequent kilometre.

 

Terming the strike as illegal, Vikhe- Patil said it should be called off before talks can be held.

 

He was speaking after a meeting of the sub- committee, appointed by the state government, with the auto unions and transport officials.

 

Nitesh Rane, whose Swabhiman Sanghatana gave the call for strike, announced it was being called off following the government proposal.

 

On taxi fare hike, Vikhe- Patil said the MMRTA would convene a meeting this week and take a decision.

 

The taxi union is asking for a hike in the minimum fare of black- and- yellow taxis from Rs 14 to Rs 16.

 

There were clashes between rival union members over claiming credit for the hike.

 

Some union members and mediapersons were roughed up outside the RTO office in Bandra where the meeting was held.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 EDIT PAGE

GLIMMER OF HOPE

 

Twenty-six years after the Bhopal gas tragedy there is finally a flicker of justice. That the Group of Ministers (GoM) tasked with re-evaluating the horrific industrial disaster has come out with fresh recommendations on compensation to the victims, decontamination of the gas plant site and legal measures to ensure that those guilty get their just desserts is welcome. Better late, as they say, than never.

The recommendations are that the next of kin of those who perished on that dreadful night in December 1984 will be provided with a compensation amount of Rs 10 lakh, those with permanent disabilities can hope to receive Rs 5 lakh, while those with lesser injuries and patients of cancer and renal problems will get Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively. These amounts, though significantly enhanced from paltry sums that were offered earlier, would still need to be disbursed properly. Plus, the government would do well to re-evaluate the classification of victims. According to its estimates 5,300 people died due to the poisonous gas leak, disregarding the thousands more who perished in the aftermath.

Although the prescriptions of the GoM are on the whole positive, there is reason to be sceptical on certain fronts. For example, the government plans to force Dow Chemicals ^ the company that bought over Union Carbide -- to foot the bill. While it should vigorously pursue this course, establishing liability at this late stage is easier said than done. Similarly, even though it is commendable that the GoM has recommended that legal measures be looked at to reverse the 1996 Supreme Court ruling that diluted the charges against the operators of the gas plant, it is improbable that the US authorities will agree to extradite former Union Carbide boss, 91-year-old Warren Anderson, on filing of a fresh extradition request by the government.

Given the parsimony in compensating victims over the last 26 years, the proposal to set up a Rs 100 crore memorial at the site of the toxic gas plant is extravagant and unnecessary. Instead, the government should focus on cleaning up and decontaminating the gas plant site and ensure that the systemic shortcomings that brought us to this pass are quickly mitigated. In this regard, it can work out a comprehensive industrial disaster legislation that fixes culpability and provides for a transparent mechanism for disbursement of compensation money. Significant deterrents need to be in place to avoid a repeat of a tragedy like Bhopal.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 EDIT PAGE

GIVE THIS CURRENCY

 

Last weekend, China okayed a more flexible exchange rate for the yuan. This Monday's surge of the yuan to the highest point against the dollar since 2005 seemed to suggest the surprise move wasn't just a bid to dodge multilateral pressure at the upcoming G20 summit. By China's own admission though, currency recalibration will be modest and gradual. Even so, it's welcome. It signals that China wants to be viewed as a team player on the multilateral stage. Its policy shift fits with a crucial G20-backed rebalancing effort that requires the US to trim debt-fuelled consumption and China to commit to greater domestic demand-led growth. A skewed G2 equation at the core of global economic imbalances -- America spends, borrows and imports; China saves, lends and exports -- has long needed correcting. Key to this process is China's undertaking of currency reform.

For its booming growth to be sustainable, China needs to boost consumer spending. With the country's market opening up more to foreign products, Chinese businesses would gain by becoming more globally competitive in the long run. Besides, the post-Lehman crisis has exposed the risks of depending too heavily on export-fuelled expansion, with countries like China, Japan and Germany waking up to the need to make structural changes. By manipulating its currency, China has been risking a protectionist backlash from affected nations, particularly the US. The trade wars that could result wouldn't be in China's interest. Where India's concerned, exporters of products from textiles to engineering goods don't want to be priced out unfairly from huge markets like America and Europe. Their hopes are up. But much depends on how far China's actually willing to go with currency appreciation. The world will have to wait and watch.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

EDIT PAGE

TERMS OF RE-ENGAGEMENT

MINHAZ MERCHANT

 

To turn a metaphor around, what can't be endured must be cured. Trust is the key curative ingredient in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's nuanced strategy of structured re-engagement with Pakistan. And yet the meetings between home minister P Chidambaram and external affairs minister S M Krishna with their Pakistani counterparts on June 26 and July 15 respectively mark a fundamental shift in the balance of diplomatic power between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan's decades-long attempt to acquire parity with India is over. Despite the Pakistani army's braggadocio, its deployment of over 1,00,000 troops in the recently renamed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region (formerly known as the North West Frontier Province) has significantly weakened both its fighting capabilities on the LoC and its morale. The economic disparity between the two countries is growing. India's GDP is now nearly 10 times Pakistan's. Power shortages are crippling industry and everyday life in Pakistan. The entire country generates a mere 11,800 MW of electricity per day on average (Maharashtra alone generates more) and faces a daily shortfall of nearly 4,000 MW.

While the inevitably long drawn out appeal process against the death sentence given to Mohammed Ajmal Kasab will continue to cause public disquiet in India, the arrest of failed New York bomber Faisal Shahzad has seriously weakened Pakistan's ability to run with the Taliban hares and hunt with the American hounds. Washington has woken up.

The prime minister's strategy of re-engaging Pakistan couldn't be better timed for three other reasons. One, the eighteenth constitutional amendment has given Pakistan's National Assembly greater parliamentary power than it has had since the time of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in the early 1970s. General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani may still be the power behind the throne but on the throne sits a significantly empowered prime minister.

Two, ISI-created terror groups in north Waziristan led by Sirajuddin Haqqani are being relentlessly pursued by the US following the interrogation of Shahzad. Washington is forcing Islamabad to dismember Pakistan's "strategic terror assets" designed by Rawalpindi GHQ to remote control a Talibanised Afghanistan after the Americans leave. That strategy now lies in tatters.

Three, India's conventional military strength is being quietly burnished. The Indian navy has already commissioned an advanced stealth ship (INS Shivalik) and two more stealths (INS Satpura and INS Sahyadri) are expected to enter service next year. The navy has begun a two-year sea trial of INS Arihant, its first indigenously built ATV nuclear submarine, and will have a fleet of six by 2020. A nuclear-tipped supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos, is under classified development and will join the Agni-III whose range is 5,000 km. The navy's aircraft carrier (INS Vikramaditya) and nuclear submarines, supplemented by land-based and air-fired missiles, form a deadly triad of offensive military capability.

The prime minister is a pacifist but knows that to win the peace you must first possess the means to win a war. He now has those means and they immeasurably strengthen his negotiating position. But while talks with Pakistan are necessary, they must serve one clear purpose: a permanent end to state-sponsored terrorism by Pakistan. From this will emerge a modus vivendi on Kashmir and water, closer economic cooperation, stronger trade ties, easier travel and more people-to-people contact.

The Indian home minister's mandate at the SAARC home ministers' summit beginning in Islamabad on June 26 is to carry the prime minister's dual strategy forward. The first part of that strategy is to narrow the trust deficit with Pakistan's civilian government through purposeful re-engagement between the two countries' home and foreign ministers. The second part of the strategy is to assess whether the Pakistani army's adversarial mindset has changed significantly.

The influence of General Kayani, whose tenure ends on November 29 and may not be extended, is waning as Pakistani civil society, a reinvigorated judiciary and the democratically elected government reassert themselves. Washington no longer trusts him, especially after Shahzad's handlers were traced back to the ISI. New economic and geopolitical realities have shrunk the ambitions of even the hawks within the ISI who have long made a profitable living out of Pakistan's adversarial relationship with India.

Chidambaram's iron fist may be clothed in velvet as he meets Pakistan's leaders in Islamabad this weekend but he will leave them in no doubt about India's intent: peace is a prize to be won for the entire subcontinent. It is a prize necessary for India to pursue its expanding global agenda without being distracted by a renegade neighbour. And it is necessary for Pakistan so that it can extricate itself from decades of misguided military adventurism and state-sponsored terrorism that have cost so many innocent lives.

Talking to, and trusting, Pakistan is vital for long-term peace in the subcontinent. But peace, like any other prize worth winning, carries collateral obligations. It is, for instance, the constitutional obligation of a government to protect its citizens and, in the event of a terrorist attack against them, bring the perpetrators to book. The prime minister, as his government re-engages Pakistan across a raft of issues, must honour that principal obligation by ensuring that terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and Dawood Ibrahim are brought swiftly to justice.

The writer is chairman of a media group and an author.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

INTERVIEW

'INTERNATIONAL PASSENGERS CAN EXPECT BUDGET PRICES'

SPICEJET, WHICH HAS A NEW OWNER IN KALANITHI MARAN, HEAD OF THE SUN TV, WILL BE INDIA'S FIRST LOW COST CARRIER (LCC) TO GO INTERNATIONAL IN AUGUST THIS YEAR. SPICEJET CEO SANJAY AGGARWAL SPEAKS TO SHOBHA JOHN:

Why is the airline going international?

Going international was not an emotional decision for us. We want to better utilise our planes. These operations will be an extension of our domestic services. The delay in launch was because we got permission to fly to only three countries -- Bangladesh, Nepal and Maldives. But we want to launch from Sri Lanka first as it will take us just 45 days to put things in place. But the government has concerns about overcapacity, which we have addressed.

Can passengers expect low-cost tickets internationally?

SpiceJet has the lowest ticket price in terms of cost per km and we should be able to leverage that advantage here too. Our costs will anyway be less. Just take sales tax on aviation turbine fuel, which is a major expense of our domestic operations. This would be nil internationally. So yes, passengers can expect budget prices.

Why isn't SpiceJet flying to lucrative Gulf routes?

Many Gulf carriers such as Emirates, Etihad and Air Arabia are already flying to many places in India. They have deep pockets and are fiercely competitive. As an LCC with thin margins, we don't want to take them head on now. We would like to explore West Asia later though.

SpiceJet hasn't had a head of operations for over a year now. This would surely have affected the working of the airline.

We haven't been able to find suitable candidates to go with our youthful image. Presently, I am looking after matters and we are doing fine.

Why then are pilots leaving your airline?

They are leaving for better opportunities and this is no more or less than it is in other airlines.

What is SpiceJet doing to induct more Indian captains?

We are on a good training spree and upgraded 14 first officers last month to captains. Even then, it'll take us two years to be completely free of expats.

Indian carriers have to complete five years of domestic operations before they can fly international, while foreign airlines have no such stipulation. Is that fair?

No. Foreign carriers have taken over Indian skies. If we and Indigo had been given permission to fly international earlier, airlines like Air Asia wouldn't have made it big in India. These norms should be relaxed to two years. We should have a level playing field.

How did SpiceJet break even despite recession?

Recession was an opportunity for us to better ourselves. From January 2009 till March 2010, we didn't take a single plane delivery. Instead, we utilised our planes harder and filled them better. We focused on costs, services and training. With demand back now, we are hiring.

You have a new owner with deep pockets.

This development should have a positive impact on the company. Our investors are very optimistic and have expressed the same to us.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

BLOGS

DISHONOUR KILLINGS

JUG SURAIYA

 

Romeo must die. And so must Juliet, if she and her star-crossed lover happen to belong to different castes -- or to the same gotra -- and decide to get married. So-called 'honour killings' have become a macabre trend: a new incident is reported almost every day in some part of north India.

 

What is the reason behind this new killer epidemic? It's often remarked that though India has only one official time zone -- Indian Standard Time -- in actual fact different mental time frames -- often a century or more apart -- jostle each other and, not infrequently, collide headlong with fatal results. Increasingly rapid urbanisation is one of the main factors involved. Not only are more and more people -- particularly younger people -- moving into towns and cities in search of livelihood, but urban areas, under the strain of migrant populations, are expanding to swallow up what was once the rural hinterland. The result is often not just a physical but a massive cultural dislocation in which traditional norms and taboos are inevitably challenged or broken. Equally inevitably, there is a backlash in which the self-appointed custodians of a community's moral and social codes -- in this case the khap panchayats -- take it upon themselves to punish those who transgress such codes.

 

Most, if not all, of these traditional codes relate to caste, particularly when it comes to marriage. Inter-caste marriage is widely seen -- and not just by the newly urbanised or semi-urbanised -- as a cultural pollutant that defiles the caste purity not just of the immediate families involved but of the entirety of the two communities concerned. However, with urbanisation -- and the relatively greater economic emancipation of women that often, thought not always, comes in its wake -- these age-old caste barriers are becoming increasingly porous, or irrelevant. Unlike in villages and rural areas where caste is your unalterable destiny, in the melting pot of urban India, the contours of caste are less rigidly defined. Your gram panchayat certainly knows your caste and expects you to behave accordingly; your BPO employer and your call centre colleagues may well be ignorant, or indifferent, about your caste, leaving you free to marry or to socialise with whoever you will.

 

This is the source of the conflict that leads to the murder of inter-caste couples, the revenge of tradition against the heresy of modernism. How is it to be combated, and potential victims protected from such atrocities? The first thing is to stop calling such despicable acts 'honour' killings: there is nothing whatsoever honourable about them; if anything, they bring dishonour to the perpetrators and to our society as a whole for allowing such crimes to take place. These 'dishonourable' killings are premeditated murder, and ought to be treated as such by law enforcers.

 

Deplorably, thanks to vote-bank politics, a number of politicians, including the current CM of Haryana, have taken a supportive view of the khap panchayat's ban on same-gotra marriages. If same-gotra marriages are 'incestuous', as the khaps insist they are, shouldn't by the extension of this logic inter-caste marriages be preferable to same-caste marriage to prevent inbreeding?

 

The Supreme Court has taken the lead by issuing a notice to the Centre and to eight northern states, including Haryana, to explain what steps they have taken to prevent caste- and gotra-related murders. Social activists, in Haryana and elsewhere, are raising awareness about the issue through PILs, street theatre and other means.

 

Perhaps what is needed is organised mass marriages, conducted under government auspices, where irrespective of caste or gotra, nuptials can be solemnised by the mutual consent of couples and the blessings of a truly secular state.

 

Such a state could not promise that marriages are made in heaven. But it could guarantee that caste-controversial marriages can be made in a sarkari haven.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

OURTAKE

A SLAP FOR THE KHAPS

It would seem that the abomination called khap panchayats are headed by individuals who could rival Gregor Mendel, given the way they are able to predict genetic flaws in same caste marriages up to seven generations. The Supreme Court has made it clear that it has no time for the bizarre excuses to murder young people who dare to oppose the khaps and marry a partner of their choosing.

The latest Wild West version of justice is the killing of a couple four years after their inter-caste marriage, ostensibly by the girl's brother. The seven states where these so-called honour killings are prevalent have been directed by the apex court to demonstrate their responses to this regressive social trend. The court should also set a deadline for this as further delays will mean the deaths of more innocent people.

That these self-appointed custodians of morality have no fear of the law is seen from the manner in which they proudly proclaim their determination to put 'offenders' to death in full view of television cameras.

Apart from one court verdict awarding life to five people found guilty of murdering a married couple from the same gotra in March, the killers have got away for want of effective prosecution and lack of evidence and witnesses. This cavalier attitude on the part of the law has emboldened the Torquemada-like justice dispensers to include same village marriages in their lengthening list of taboos.

The khap advocates had earlier tried to get the government to amend the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 to include a ban on same gotra marriages. The government wisely refused to cave in to pressure. The same, however, cannot be said for several elected representatives who have directly or indirectly signaled their approval of khap justice on the grounds that these panchayats are traditional bodies devoted to community service. And, these are people bound by the Constitution to serve the people. Mercifully, the law has been unequivocal in its condemnation of this barbarism and this is reflected in the Supreme Court's latest directive.

Of course, there must be efforts to change social attitudes. That many couples are willing to risk death to marry a person of their own choice shows that the society increasingly does not accept this medieval morality.

But it is only when the khaps understand that murder under the law is just that, whatsoever be their perverted logic, that the real fight against these backward elements will be joined. The first step in this is to ensure that the police keep aside personal prejudice and do their duty to protect young couples and politicians at least refrain from making half-baked statements with an eye to votes.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE PUNDIT

DOUBLE DEUTSCHE TO US

Better late than never. The West Bengal government, known for its penchant for kicking a ball in pastures green to the chagrin of non-playing agriculturalists, has a cunning plan this World Cup season.

To be organised by the Bengal police, the Left Front-government is planning to start a bona fide football tournament in 'Maoist-infested' Lalgarh, with youngsters from three Maoist-affected districts of the state participating. And that's not all. The plan is to send the best player of the tournament to be trained by German club Bayern Munich in, you guessed it, Munich.

Since TV reality shows like Indian Idol, which have done their bit to bring youngsters from disaffected areas like Kashmir and the North-east into the mainstream, have not proved enticing enough for Bengal, this football tournament could do the trick to wean proto-Maoists away from the revolution.

Director General of Police Bhupinder Singh stated that these football matches involving youngsters from Maoist-dominated areas of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia will be essentially to "separate the common people from the ultras' influence". How this will manage to exclude young Maoist sympathisers with great football skills is yet to be worked out.

The best player will, according to plans, be sent by the state government, at its expense, to Germany. Before you start saying, "Mein Gott!" remember that Bayern Munich wanted to set up a football complex in Burdwan district some time ago.

Rather intriguingly though, Singh stated that "after the matches, the participants will be served a meal," adding that "food is one of the reasons that took the youth towards the Maoists". Yes, sauerkraut, schnitzel and wiener for the revolution with a little vintage Baader Meinhof beer on the side.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

EDITS

POLITICAL PLAYTHINGS

ASHOK MALIK

Later this week Home Minister P. Chidambaram visits Pakistan. He is likely to discuss terror investigations with Islamabad and seek help on specific cases, such as those related to the Mumbai attacks of 26/11. In the past few days, there has been a bit of confusion between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Home Ministry on the issue of Muhammad Arif Qasmani and whether or not India should press for his questioning. Who is Arif Qasmani? On June 29, 2009, the United Nations Security Council al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee added him to the list of individuals subjected to "assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo". The UN document said Qasmani was born in 1944 and lived on Tipu Sultan Road in Karachi. He was described as the "chief coordinator" of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) "dealings with outside organisations".

In particular, Qasmani was accused of having "worked with LeT to facilitate terrorist attacks… [including] the February 2007 Samjhauta Express bombing in Panipat, India". The dossier was long. Qasmani was charged with using money received from Dawood Ibrahim to "facilitate the July 2006 train bombing in Mumbai", and with providing logistical support to al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, including helping them escape from Afghanistan after 9/11.

There is zero doubt in New Delhi that Qasmani is a dangerous man. However, will Chidambaram add him to the list of those Indian investigators want to interrogate in the matter of the Samjhauta Express attack? On February 18, 2007, the train that unites India and Pakistan was bombed shortly after it left Delhi and as it was passing Panipat (Haryana), killing about 70 people.

Why then are Indian internal security officials almost underplaying the Qasmani angle? Why is there no guarantee Chidambaram will seek access to Qasmani?

The clues lie in May 2010, when the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the media that, "The link between the Mecca Masjid, Samjhauta and Ajmer blasts is that the bombs had the same arming devices." In recent weeks, authorities in New Delhi as well as the states have linked four terror attacks: Mecca Masjid (Hyderabad, 2007), Ajmer Sharif (2007), Malegaon (Maharashtra, 2008) and the Samjhauta Express. Apparently suitcase locks used for triggering explosions on the Samjhauta train resembled tin bombs used in Hyderabad and Ajmer.

All these attacks have been attributed to Hindu extremist groups. They have been traced to a network that includes Lieutenant Colonel S.P. Purohit, the military intelligence officer believed to be a key organiser of a Hindu militia. If this is true, Hindu terrorism has emerged as a clear and present danger. It may not be as lethal as Islamist terrorism for the moment, but the need to combat it is non-negotiable. If Purohit actually murdered citizens who, as an army officer, he was duty-bound to protect, frankly he is worse than a terrorist.

Yet, if this gang is responsible for the Samjhauta carnage, then what did Qasmani do and why is his name still on that UN sanctions list? Presumably the Security Council acted against him after inputs from various sources, including the Indian government. If so, doesn't somebody in the CBI, or in the Indian government, need to clarify and perhaps update the UN?

That question disguises a more compelling problem. Despite the efforts of Chidambaram, India's battle against terrorism remains trapped in the amateurism of state police forces and easy manipulation by politicians. After each terror attack, the police is under intense pressure to 'do something'. What follows is a flurry of activity and sombre but ultimately empty media leaks. The investigating officer is sometimes more worried about what his home minister in the individual state thinks of him than cracking the conspiracy. As such, the motivations, obsessions and politics of the provincial minister overwhelm India's battle against terrorism. They influence the course of the investigation.

This has created a ridiculous situation. In 2007, Hyderabad police was quick to blame Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (HuJI) for the Mecca Masjid attack and arrested many local Muslim youth. Today, it is Abhinav Bharat that is blamed and the Muslim youth have been declared innocent. In both instances, media leaks have trotted out 'incontrovertible evidence', as if the police always has 'proof' and jargon to prove anything against anybody. In Rajasthan, the needle of suspicion changed direction when the BJP was voted out in 2008 and the Congress elected.

Without going into who is right and who is wrong — bluntly, it is increasingly impossible to tell — this destroys credibility. It shows India's internal security apparatus in a very poor light.

Most egregious is the case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, killed in an encounter in November 2005. The operation that neutralised him involved the police forces of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. It had the concurrence and passive participation of federal agencies. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) had in its possession wire taps that established Sohrabuddin talking to Dawood and agreeing to take delivery of an arms consignment in Kerala.

Nevertheless, today the Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh governments are looking the other way. The IB has been silenced. The CBI is attempting to present Sohrabuddin not as a terror auxiliary but an ordinary criminal running an extortion racket in cahoots with Gujarat police officers and ministers. Like Qasmani, Sohrabuddin has become a political plaything. It's disturbing.

Ashok Malik is a Delhi-based political commentator. The views expressed by the author are personal.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

REJIG THE POWER STRUCTURE

MINISTRIES MUST DELEGATE POWERS TO GRASSROOTS AGENCIES TO SAFEGUARD FORESTLAND THE RELEVANT MINISTRIES MUST FACILITATE GRASSROOTS PROCESSES OF DECENTRALISED FOREST MANAGEMENT USING THE MANDATE PROVIDED BY THE NEW LAWS. THEY SHOULD HELP BUILD CAPACITY WHERE IT DOES NOT EXIST

ASHISH KOTHARI

 

The government's selective amnesia is astonishing. When the minister of rural development and panchayati raj (MoRDPR) and the minister of state for environment and forests (MoEF) announced a `new initiative on pan- chayats and forests' on May 19, they appeared to have for- gotten about the legislative developments that their own government recently introduced.

 

The `new initiative' proposes actions that democratise forest management, by bringing relevant functions under the purview of panchayat institutions in keeping with the 73rd Constitutional amendment (1993), and the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (Pesa) Act 1996. The latter is applicable to Schedule V areas (predominantly tribal). It's a progressive move, much needed to break the bureaucracy's stranglehold on forest and protected area governance. However, the initiative falls short of what is mandated by the two new laws, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 (in short, Forest Rights Act or FRA) and the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act (WLPA) 2006.

Here's how: The initiative states that in areas under Pesa, gram sabhas/panchayats, not the district forest officer, should control Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs). In the rest, JFMCs should have `organic linkages' with the panchayat bodies.

 

The FRA already empowers gram sabhas to set up for- est protection committees to manage and conserve forests claimed by them as community forest resources under Section 3(1)i. These would eventually replace JFMCs. It's possible that in some cases gram sabhas might convert JFMCs, their own forest protection committees or myriad other community conservation institutions into forest com- mittees under FRA. But it is entirely the gram sabhas' pre- rogative. It's another matter that forest departments in most states, fearing loss of power, are resisting such a move.

It's this reluctance and obstruction that the two ministries should tackle with the ministry of tribal affairs (MoTA).

 

The MoRDPR/MoEF initiative says that there will be prior consultation with panchayats in matters of relocation and declaration of sanctuaries, with respect to the Wild Life Act (WLPA). However, this ignores the fact that for relocation, both the WLPA and the FRA now require gram sabha consent, not merely consultation. Moreover, areas within existing or proposed protected areas (sanctuaries and national parks) can be claimed as community forests, and eventually this may force governance changes towards co-management or community-based management (as, inci- dentally, is happening across the world).

 

The MoRDPR/MoEF initiative talks of harmonising the Indian Forest Act, the Forest Conservation Act and Pesa.

Good. But why leave out the FRA? Especially given that the MoEF has itself, with the MoTA, set up a committee to recommend what policy changes are needed in forest gov- ernance, to implement the FRA.

 

The MoRDPR/MoEF initiative says that "issues such as definition and ownership of minor forest produce" would be "sorted out shortly". Ownership of MFP was given to villages in Schedule V areas by Pesa in 1996, but never implemented; it is again given in the form of rights of usage and management, under FRA. Yes, some aspects of defi- nition do need to be sorted out, especially for instance where states like Maharashtra are trying to remove bamboo from the list of MFP. But more important is to work out how the ownership and rights will be exercised, in ways that bene- fit local people and ensure conservation -- issues that remain unexplained by the MoRDPR/MoEF note.

 

The note also states that "JFMCs are the only partici- patory institutions in place for implementing forestry pro- grammes". This is outright wrong. There are thousands of self-initiated forest protection committees in at least a dozen states in India, working with or without help from NGOs and government agencies. MoEF has itself funded a study on some of these, published in 2009. It is strange that the note mentions all the laws relevant to forests and people, except the FRA. Surely, this cannot be a mere mistake, or a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Is it because Pesa, having been rendered toothless by state governments, does not threat- en the entrenched power of the bureaucracy, whereas the FRA, backed by rising grassroots mobilisation, does?

 

What these and other relevant ministries need to do is facilitate grassroots processes of decentralised forest man- agement, using the mandate provided by the new laws.

They should help build capacity where it does not exist, strengthen innovative institutions of cooperation between gram sabhas, tribal village councils, government depart- ments, and larger landscape bodies, help monitor the ground situation to ensure conservation is taking place and the really needy are benefiting from forest use. Above all, these ministries need to go all out to change bureaucratic mind- set that want to hold on to power. This cannot be done by continuing to promote iniquitous institutions like JFMCs, and ignoring legislative changes that herald in more equitable arrangements.

 

Ashish Kothari is with Kalpavriksha, Pune The views expressed by the author are personal

The government's selective amnesia is astonishing. When the minister of rural development and panchayati raj (MoRDPR) and the minister of state for environment and forests (MoEF) announced a `new initiative on pan- chayats and forests' on May 19, they appeared to have for- gotten about the legislative developments that their own government recently introduced.

 

The `new initiative' proposes actions that democratise forest management, by bringing relevant functions under the purview of panchayat institutions in keeping with the 73rd Constitutional amendment (1993), and the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (Pesa) Act 1996. The latter is applicable to Schedule V areas (predominantly tribal). It's a progressive move, much needed to break the bureaucracy's stranglehold on forest and protected area governance. However, the initiative falls short of what is mandated by the two new laws, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 (in short, Forest Rights Act or FRA) and the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act (WLPA) 2006.

Here's how: The initiative states that in areas under Pesa, gram sabhas/panchayats, not the district forest officer, should control Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs). In the rest, JFMCs should have `organic linkages' with the panchayat bodies.

 

The FRA already empowers gram sabhas to set up for- est protection committees to manage and conserve forests claimed by them as community forest resources under Section 3(1)i. These would eventually replace JFMCs. It's possible that in some cases gram sabhas might convert JFMCs, their own forest protection committees or myriad other community conservation institutions into forest com- mittees under FRA. But it is entirely the gram sabhas' pre- rogative. It's another matter that forest departments in most states, fearing loss of power, are resisting such a move.

It's this reluctance and obstruction that the two ministries should tackle with the ministry of tribal affairs (MoTA).

 

The MoRDPR/MoEF initiative says that there will be prior consultation with panchayats in matters of relocation and declaration of sanctuaries, with respect to the Wild Life Act (WLPA). However, this ignores the fact that for relocation, both the WLPA and the FRA now require gram sabha consent, not merely consultation. Moreover, areas within existing or proposed protected areas (sanctuaries and national parks) can be claimed as community forests, and eventually this may force governance changes towards co-management or community-based management (as, inci- dentally, is happening across the world).

 

The MoRDPR/MoEF initiative talks of harmonising the Indian Forest Act, the Forest Conservation Act and Pesa.

Good. But why leave out the FRA? Especially given that the MoEF has itself, with the MoTA, set up a committee to recommend what policy changes are needed in forest gov- ernance, to implement the FRA.

 

The MoRDPR/MoEF initiative says that "issues such as definition and ownership of minor forest produce" would be "sorted out shortly". Ownership of MFP was given to villages in Schedule V areas by Pesa in 1996, but never implemented; it is again given in the form of rights of usage and management, under FRA. Yes, some aspects of defi- nition do need to be sorted out, especially for instance where states like Maharashtra are trying to remove bamboo from the list of MFP. But more important is to work out how the ownership and rights will be exercised, in ways that bene- fit local people and ensure conservation -- issues that remain unexplained by the MoRDPR/MoEF note.

 

The note also states that "JFMCs are the only partici- patory institutions in place for implementing forestry pro- grammes". This is outright wrong. There are thousands of self-initiated forest protection committees in at least a dozen states in India, working with or without help from NGOs and government agencies. MoEF has itself funded a study on some of these, published in 2009. It is strange that the note mentions all the laws relevant to forests and people, except the FRA. Surely, this cannot be a mere mistake, or a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Is it because Pesa, having been rendered toothless by state governments, does not threat- en the entrenched power of the bureaucracy, whereas the FRA, backed by rising grassroots mobilisation, does?

 

What these and other relevant ministries need to do is facilitate grassroots processes of decentralised forest man- agement, using the mandate provided by the new laws.

They should help build capacity where it does not exist, strengthen innovative institutions of cooperation between gram sabhas, tribal village councils, government depart- ments, and larger landscape bodies, help monitor the ground situation to ensure conservation is taking place and the really needy are benefiting from forest use. Above all, these ministries need to go all out to change bureaucratic mind- set that want to hold on to power. This cannot be done by continuing to promote iniquitous institutions like JFMCs, and ignoring legislative changes that herald in more equitable arrangements.

 

Ashish Kothari is with Kalpavriksha, Pune The views expressed by the author are personal

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE GENDER TRAP

 SYEDA HAMEED

 

The contemporary image of societal mores vis-à-vis the Indian woman, as portrayed in Prakash Jha's film Rajneeti, is a deeply disturbing experience. Its layered and complex patriarchal narrative is woven around gender and politics. It is, to my mind, the most power- ful and problematic comment on societal mores regarding gender, where the four main women characters move within a vortex of vio- lence, attempting to hold a mirror to our times.

 

There is Mamta, the idealistic child of the leader of the biggest political party who has rejected her father's politics, but is eventually forced to give up her first-born -- conceived out of wedlock -- to marry into the right politi- cal family. Then there is Indu, the only child of a business magnate, who is also forced into a marriage of political convenience, despite her one-sided passion for her husband's younger brother, Samar. There is the woman political worker who, in the hope of a party ticket, allows herself to be subjected to sadomasochistic sex with the party leader's heir appar- ent -- the same man Indu is later forced to marry. Finally there is Samar's American girlfriend, Sarah, who walks right into the muck of Indian politics. She is perhaps the only woman in the film who breathes and feels like a normal human being, mak- ing her revulsion apparent, despite her love for Samar.

 

Does this film indeed mirror the times or is it a Dracula tale? The women who are tossed, teased, tasted and twisted by politics onscreen are characters of a drama we see unfold in the media everyday -- women who are killed for honour by their lovers or families; victims of acid attacks and revenge rape. The film shows a society as it is, complete with its depravity.

 

If art indeed mirrors life, then, despite all the efforts of the State and civil society, the dawn for women's dignity is yet to arrive. What should one make of the fact that the only image of dignity in the film is a woman from an alien land? The question to be asked by all thinking Indians is: what status do they accord to gen- der? Jha has given us a lot to mull over.

 

Syeda Hameed is a writer and Member, Planning Commission The views expressed by the author

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

NOT PESA ALONE

 

In line with its "development offensive" in Naxal-affected areas, the Centre signals that it would get cracking on the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, in order to get recalcitrant states to grant tribals complete rights over minor forest produce. Enacted in 1996, PESA was a giant structural shift meant to empower gram sabhas (vis-a-vis panchayat representatives and state civil servants) to take the helm and protect community resources which include forest produce and water bodies, be consulted on land acquisition, mining projects, etc, and have the decisive say in all development projects intended for them.

 

Despite its clear need in Maoist-affected tribal areas, the act has been cheerfully disregarded. States rely on their own agencies which exclusively collect and trade such produce, and refuse to hike prices. The unspoken hope is that dismantling these systems would undo the grip of the contractors who buy the forest produce from tribals, and thus snip off the steady funds supply to Naxalites. Fifty per cent of forest revenues and two-thirds of forest exports come from such produce, which includes bamboo, sal seeds, tendu leaves, etc. Not only would the pay-offs to powerful intermediaries end, this would personally enrich forest dwellers and give them greater economic stakes in their land. It could give them real choices.

 

That's a fine plan, but the record is not encouraging. After all, PESA has been around for more than a decade, but it has been persistently undercut by the states. Its own assumptions have worked against it — gram sabhas are amorphous entities, not operational bodies, and are as vulnerable to manipulation and pressure. Many of these entitlements are unexercisable, and what's more, there are already strong and pointed laws to give tribals greater control and livelihood rights. The Forest Rights Act already gives them full rights to

 

minor forest produce. Yes, deepening and widening PESA entitlements is the way to go, but that may be about as empty as saying that it must aim to give greater power to the powerless.

 

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

AFLOAT AT LAST

 

Trade is the surest indicator of the importance the seas retain. Even a rudimentary study of the volume and percentage of global trade carried on via maritime routes will unambiguously emphasise the need for using the seas and, in order to do so, putting in place all necessary infrastructure. And where seaborne trade is concerned, that infrastructure begins with the port, and encompasses shipbuilding, manpower training and so on. The decision to convert the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust into a public sector undertaking is the right stepping stone to the eventual corporatisation of all major port trusts. At present, India has only one corporatised port — Ennore — out of 12 major ports, the remaining 11 of which are governed by port trusts, while the 187 non-major ports (many of which however are not functional) too contribute to

 

India's maritime trade. Given the Indian shipping sector's potential to fuel growth and the quantum of global maritime trade, clearly that is too little infrastructure, compounded by the lack of skilled manpower.

 

However, the problem is not merely one of tangible lacks. The infrastructure that exists — and that which will be built — will have to be efficiently managed. Therefore, corporatisation is a move to a better administrative model which will facilitate greater autonomy and profitability for individual ports. The practice of the Tariff

 

Authority for Major Ports imposing restrictive tariffs on port trusts (under the Major Port Trusts Act 1963) and thereby shooting up port charges is an anachronism that will not help the ambitious National Maritime Development Programme which aims at modernisation and expansion of Indian ports through the public-private partnership model. Without significant capacity expansion (targeted for a 1,200 million tonne enhancement by 2012) on the one hand and a port's freedom to fix tariffs and compete with other ports on the other, India will fail to profitably leverage its 7,500 km-plus coastline and the largest merchant fleet among developing nations (which nevertheless is a negligible fraction of the global fleet).

 

Corporatisation of major port trusts into PSUs is therefore just a beginning, which must go all the way and see increasing investment of and management by private capital, whereby Indian ports can in future operate in a less protective and immensely more competitive environment. Along with expediting the NMDP, the need is to simultaneously develop shipbuilding and skills training. An integrated approach to ports, shipping and the inland waterways will see a manifold increase in India's share of the global shipping tonnage and consequent benefits to the economy.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

CASTE IN THE RIGHT MOULD

D.L. SHETH

 

As the debate on caste enumeration has intensified, no one finds it any longer necessary to give or seek clarification as to how, and in what precise terms, caste returns are to be introduced in the 2011 census. It is widely assumed that it is going to be on the lines of the 1931 census: the caste of every Indian is to be recorded and graded. This is despite the fact that caste

 

today is unrecognisably different from caste in 1931, and it cannot be described or known in terms the British devised in the censuses they held, or by the tenets of social

 

anthropology they applied. Also, the purpose of enumeration today is radically different from that of the British rulers. As such, the idea of an universal caste census — that is, docketing every Indian by caste — is not just impractical, but against the spirit of the Constitution.

 

Yet, such an absurd proposal which is not feasible and least desirable is being seriously discussed on public forums and is not negated by the government. Perhaps the idea is to buy time, keeping the debate in a state of confusion while a group of ministers pushes it on the back-burner. But it is not inconceivable that the idea of the government and of OBC leaders really is enumeration of every Indian by caste. If that happens it would be the saddest day for Indian democracy.

 

It is not difficult to anticipate some long-term consequences such a comprehensive caste census might create. First, it would permanently put caste identity over all other identities. Second, it would legitimise subjugation of individuals to the authority of caste and to its hegemonic, often mafia-like, leadership. Third, it would severely undermine social and cultural identification of people with non-caste socio-economic and cultural categories such as the middle class — which is the emerging and enlarging identity for a growing number of Indians. Fourth, it would permanently reduce India to a democracy of communities rather than make it a democracy of free citizens, voluntarily associating with collectivities representing their political, cultural or economic choice.

 

It is therefore important that the issue of introducing caste in the census is grounded in the policy discourse, and issues of implementation taken into account.

 

First, the Constitution provides for reservations as well as dispensing of other benefits to OBCs where they are not (already) adequately represented. Unlike for SCs and STs the constitutional requirement is adequacy and not proportionality of their presence in jobs and educational seats. This has enabled a fair assumption that their representation in the legislatures does not require any constitutional or legal provision, for their huge numbers in the population would ensure their electoral and other political representations. Yet, the constitutional requirement of assessing adequacy of representation cannot be satisfactorily met until reliable information about their caste/ community-wise numbers (in the population and in jobs) is officially available.

 

Second, an OBC-caste census is eminently feasible. Unfortunately it is not widely known that this issue has been empirically resolved and specific groups — castes and communities from every religious denomination (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian) — of the OBCs have been identified through procedures recommended by the Constitution and elaborated by the law courts. The lists of the OBC communities have been Centrally streamlined and reconciled with the states lists by commissions appointed for the purpose. All that is involved here is that a census investigator be officially supplied with a list of identified OBC castes in a region — as is the case with the SC/ ST lists — against which he/ she can record the respondent's caste.

Third, making the numbers officially available for the already identified and listed groups would put an end to what is today an open-ended politics of contentions about entry into the OBC category and for escalating claims to different types and extents of benefits by those inside the category. The politics of the '80s and '90s largely thrived on such a state of semi-institutionalised and unevenly implemented policy. The result is: a large part of benefits have been cornered by a few, politically powerful and socially influential OBC groups who virtually have blocked benefits from going down to a large number of smaller, poorer and powerless OBC communities.

 

Thus seen, the idea of "including caste in the census" should strictly be confined to OBC enumeration — required for the limited objective of just and proper implementation of the prevailing policy. But if the decision is postponed, or altogether avoided, it is likely to push what is perhaps a politically manageable policy issue today into a vortex of politics — a politics that might give a new lease of life to the dying politics of the '80s and '90s.

 

OBC enumeration might, however, radically change the nature of OBC politics that we see today.

 

First, a formidable vested interest is at play in not allowing any public debate, let alone implementation, of the exit policy (from reservation). The policy should have been implemented by 2003, as was required by the Supreme Court judgment in the Indira Sawhney case. But politics prevailed over the policy and the task set by the apex court for the government remains unrealised till today. But now, if the listed OBC communities in every state are enumerated and the figures are analysed in correlation to other socio-economic and educational data obtained through the census, it will at once become evident which communities among them can no longer be counted as backward.

 

Second, dissemination of such new information will inevitably create political awareness among the lower rungs of the OBCs about the unjust implementation of the policy by which only a section of the OBCs have benefited. Such change in perceptions might privilege the discourse of rights and justice over the one that has degenerated today into viewing backwardness unidimensionally as a permanent condition of some castes and development as a property intrinsic to others.

 

Third, the census data can lend strong political content to the otherwise known fact that the dominant OBC communities are no longer embedded in backwardness, thanks to their increasing participation in development processes, but more particularly the structural divisions and differentiations within each of them where unity is not underwritten by sharing poverty or their members exhibiting a common social outlook. In fact, with overall development and reduction of poverty in the country, the structural linkages between caste and backwardness are increasingly becoming weaker, in different degrees, for all communities. The issue therefore is not whether, but for how long, the old politics will survive in the changed reality.

 

All this, if the census data on the OBCs are collected in the first place and then analysed, presented and used for the purpose of just and efficient implementation of the prevailing policy — that is, to make benefits travel down to the "last OBC", while continually creaming off the upper layers. Such policy will remain relevant till the systemic connection of caste to backward-ness is randomised and its social-structural basis is thinned down.

 

The writer is at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

express@expressindia.com

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

A YEAR, A MONTH, A DAY

SUHASINI HAIDAR

 

A year and nearly a month to the day — and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa marked "Victory day" last Friday with the island's biggest military parade ever. It wasn't just a year without the LTTE that the president had to be proud of; the parade down Colombo's Galle Face came days after very successful talks with both India and China.

 

In Delhi his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resulted in several assurances: he signed seven agreements worth thousands of crores; commitments to rebuild rail-lines, the airport, a harbour, a stadium and a cultural centre in Jaffna. Within hours of returning to Colombo, Rajapaksa received Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang — and signed six agreements detailing cooperation in technology, industry, information technology and construction, and taking forward the 550 million dollar Hambantota port project.

 

Amidst the cheer though, Rajapaksa has also had to face some tough questions. First, in New Delhi, India made its concerns over rehabilitating Tamil IDPs (internally displaced persons) clear. And then from the UN, that is set to announce a panel to inquire into human rights complaints in Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa has angrily denied the human rights allegations and responded to questions over rehabilitating Tamil IDPs with a promise that the remaining 54,000 people still registered as living in the camps would be sent home in the next 3-6 months. But shutting down the camps can only be the beginning. The promise of justice to Tamils, devolution of power to the region, holding provincial elections and the full implementation of the 13th amendment to the constitution are all promises that must be kept if the dreaded terror group is to be denied a chance to regroup. Rajapaksa himself seems aware of that danger. He appointed an eight-member "Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation" to recommend measures to ensure "that there will be no recurrence of such a situation."

 

Several separate and seemingly insignificant events in the past few weeks should tell the government there is little time to rest on military or electoral laurels. The first occurred in Philadelphia, USA, at a conference of the new "transnational government of Tamil Eelam" (TGTE) — representatives of the Tamil diaspora in nine Western countries. According to the TGTE's website they began proceedings on Prabhakaran's death anniversary, with pledges to keep his dream of Eelam alive.

 

Later in the month, Tamil nationalist groups were able to force one of India's most powerful film families, the Bachchans, to cancel their trip to Sri Lanka for the IIFA film awards. Days later, Indian security agencies sat up with a start after train tracks in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram were blasted, possibly by LTTE supporters. Three suspected Tigers were arrested on Sunday. In Malaysia, Interior Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has now warned that the LTTE's new leadership is using that country as shelter and a logistics base. None of these events individually, and even taken together, signifies much by way of the Tigers' resurgence; but they are warning flags that must have been marked by the Sri Lankan government as it tries to script a success in its efforts.

 

It need not look too far for examples of how it could go wrong. The fall of Kabul in November 2001 was welcomed by all in Afghanistan except the defeated Taliban. Within weeks more than 60 countries had pledged more than 15 billion dollars for the reconstruction effort, towards the promise of a new Afghanistan. With each passing month that promise faded. Eight years later (and despite 38 billion dollars in American financial assistance alone) only 2 per cent of Kabul has round-the-clock electricity and access to clean water is the lowest in the world, at 22 per cent. As a result, just two years after the fall of Kabul, some were beginning to predict the resurgence of the Taliban. Eight years later, international forces battle a fully re-strengthened Taliban force, and the Karzai government's Jirga discusses making peace with the very men they once swore to protect their people from.

 

While the situations in Sri Lanka a year after the LTTE and post-Taliban Afghanistan are far from comparable, the common lesson is that time and goodwill run out very quickly. It should also be remembered that the Sri Lankan army didn't win its war against the LTTE on its own. India's moral and naval blockade ensured LTTE fighters were starved off supplies as well as escape routes; the US and Canada's financial strictures turned off the terror-funding tap.

 

It will take a similarly consistent and consolidated international and domestic commitment to keep the peace and win justice for the people in the island's North and East. For as so many other nations that have battled insurgents claiming to fight injustice have found: the absence of violence is never peace, merely the presence of an opportunity for it.

 

The writer is deputy foreign editor, CNN-IBN

 

express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

REACTING TO THE REACTORS

K. SUBRAHMANYAM

 

The real issue before the forthcoming NSG meeting is getting increasingly obfuscated. It is sought to be portrayed as China building two more reactors in Pakistan getting around the NSG guidelines, and Pakistan claiming a kind of parity with India's exceptionalism, but this is a superficial view. If Pakistan gets two more power reactors under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that alone should not worry India and the international community. The more reactors are built in Punjab, the more vulnerable Pakistan will become to retaliatory strikes to their threatened India-specific first strike. Progressively, this posture will lose credibility. India wants Pakistan, which is short on energy, to develop economically. Therefore, the additional Chinese reactors by themselves cannot be an issue.

 

The real issue is the following. According to US nuclear scientists Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman who wrote The Nuclear Express, Deng Xiaoping took a decision to proliferate to selected Marxist and Islamic countries in the early '80s including Pakistan, North Korea and Iran. Dr A.Q. Khan's revelations have disclosed the entire saga of Chinese proliferation to Pakistan and the US looking away as a price for Islamabad's support to the jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. These disclosures stand vindicated as the Pakistani judiciary has exonerated Khan of all wrongdoing. It stands to reason that the Chinese proliferation to Pakistan and proliferation by both countries to Iran were deliberate state-led acts. All subsequent Pakistani proliferation attempts to Iran and Libya were state-sanctioned, and Khan was acting with full approval of successive governments and army chiefs in Pakistan. One of the mysteries about Khan not discussed in the Western media is his CIA link. Former Dutch Prime Minister Dr.Rudd Lubbers has revealed on more than one occasion, including at a conference in the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, that the Dutch authorities that detained Khan twice in 1975 and 1986 had to set him free on CIA's intervention.

 

Reed and Stillman maintain, after elaborate discussions with the Chinese nuclear establishment, that the 35th Chinese nuclear test at Lop Nor on May 26, 1990 tested a Pakistani-assembled Chinese-designed fission weapon (Chicom-4, the design of which was recovered from the cargo destined to Libya on board the ship BBC China in October 2003, wrapped in the bag of Khan's Islamabad dry-cleaner). It is a remarkable and under-analysed coincidence that Robert Gates, as the deputy national security advisor, led a team to Islamabad just a few days before the test. It is admitted that he discussed the nuclear issue with General Aslam Beg and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan. It is not known whether they discussed the impending Pakistani test in China.

 

The non-proliferation community welcomed China, with this ongoing proliferation record, as a nuclear weapon state into the non-proliferation Treaty(NPT) in 1992. Though it is argued by some Chinese academics that China's proliferation took place before it joined the NPT, and that it abides by the treaty ever since, China was caught red-handed supplying crucial ring magnets to Pakistan in 1995. The US accepted the totally implausible story that the supply was without the knowledge of China's central authorities. The NPT community and the NSG kept mum.

 

China managed to insert a clause aimed at India into the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty draft, totally in violation of the Vienna Convention on Treaties, that the treaty would enter into force only when India which was totally opposed to the treaty, signed and ratified it. This was a challenge to India's sovereignty. The NPT community went along with China, flouting international conventions.When China joined the NSG in 2004, it had indicated a commitment of only two power reactors to Pakistan. Now China claims an unnotified right of grandfathering two more reactors. Meanwhile the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has reported using the plutonium from the Khushab research reactors. Pakistan has already exceeded India's nuclear arsenal and in coming years, is likely to exceed India's arsenal manifold. Western analysts, who are not familiar with the strategy of credible minimum deterrent, talk of an impending arms race between Pakistan and India.The real issue they overlook is the Pakistani nuclear arsenal's destabilising effect on West Asia and the strategic gain for China from that phenomenon.

 

On June 7 this year, The Washington Post disclosed that a former CIA officer who managed intelligence reports

on Saudi Arabia has sent an uncleared manuscript to Congressional offices claiming that China supplied nuclear

missiles to the kingdom early in the George W. Bush administration." I believe the People's Republic of China delivered a turnkey nuclear ballistic missile system to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the course of several years beginning no later than December 2003," writes Jonathan Scherck in a self-published book, Patriot Lost. It may be recalled that in the 1980s, even as China was proliferating muclear weapons to Pakistan, they sold CSS-2 long range missiles to Saudi Arabia. Since Saudi Arabia was financing the Pakistani nuclear programme it was a logical inference that when Saudi missiles needed warheads they would come from Pakistan. By the same logic the additional plutonium warheads under production in Pakistan are likely to find their vectors in Chinese-supplied missiles in Saudi Arabia. Shia Iran finds itself confronted on two sides by Sunni nuclear-armed powers. Iran has an experience of weapons of mass destruction (chemical weapon) by its Sunni leadership (Saddam Hussein). They face millennium-old Sunni hostility, al-Qaeda and its associates patronised by the Pakistan army regularly target Shias even while praying in mosques. Western analysts are right to worry about an arms race in West Asia. But the origins lie not in Iranian proliferation, but in Chinese-Pakistani proliferation. Iran is only trying to protect itself. The arms race is already on.

 

The Chinese are believed to be providing Iran with missile technology. They have supplied Saudi Arabia missiles. They are now attempting to sustain Pakistan's plutonium warhead production under the cover of supplying two more power reactors.What does China gain out of this? They get oil and oil exploration rights on a preferential basis from Iran which relies on China for lightening its sanctions burden and for missile technology. It gets oil from Saudi Arabia.for exchange of missiles. It will use Pakistan and the Pakistani army to make the US and NATO position in Af-Pak area unsustainable and to bring Afghanistan, with its $ 3 trillion of newly discovered mineral riches under its control. It may convert Gwadar into a homeport for its nuclear submarines in the Indian Ocean as suggested by some Pakistani naval officers. The core issue before the NSG is whether they will allow China to get away with it.

 

The writer is a senior defence analyst

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

KRISHNA'S KOREA

C. RAJA MOHAN

 

Long years ago, Mao Zedong compared China's relationship with Korea to that between "lips and teeth". Beijing has never left any one in doubt that it would secure, at any cost, its vital interests in the Korean peninsula that is tied so closely to China.

 

Whether it involved confronting the United States in a war in the early 1950s or its on-going indulgence of the North Korean regime's bad behaviour, China has been determined to prevent any harm to its rather sensitive "lips" in the Korean peninsula.

 

No wonder then that the external affairs minister S. M. Krishna's visit to Seoul last week got a bit of Beijing's attention. Just as South Block takes note of every major Chinese move in its periphery in the subcontinent and the Indian Ocean, Beijing does monitor the Indian diplomatic forays in its East Asian frontyard.

 

And it is not often that Indian leaders travel to Korea and they rarely talk high politics. While India's economic relationship with South Korea has significantly expanded in the last two decades, political relations have tended to lag. It is only after Delhi invited the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to be the chief guest of this year's Republic day celebrations that a new dynamic between the two has begun to shape up.

 

Krishna's task last week in Seoul was to start turning the words in the bilateral declaration on strategic partnership issued during President Lee's visit into concrete steps. As elsewhere these days civil nuclear cooperation was high on Krishna's agenda in South Korea, which has one of the world's most advanced civilian nuclear power programmes.

 

The Korean companies surprised the world last December year when they won a US$ 40 billion contract for building power reactors in the United Arab Emirates against stiff competition from French and American-Japanese reactor builders.

 

Krishna has also sought to expand Delhi's collaboration with Seoul on space technology. He invited South Korea, which has embarked on an ambitious space programme of its own, to join the Indian expedition to the moon with Chandrayaan-2.

 

He has also invited Seoul to pool its naval resources with India in promoting maritime security. As major importers of oil, both South Korea and India have a strong stake in protecting the sea lines of communication between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. The coast guards of the two countries conduct an occasional joint exercise and this could be extended to the navies. As India seeks to expand its domestic defence industrial base, the advanced sectors of the Korean industry can make a major contribution.

 

An early visit to South Korea by the defence minister A. K. Antony could help turn the many natural complementarities between the two nations in the security sector into mutually beneficial and long-term cooperation.

 

Eastward, Ho!

 

If Krishna was focused on bringing Korea into the ambit of India's Look East policy, our navy has just completed one of its frequent deployments to the South China Sea that began in 2000. During a month long deployment, an Indian naval contingent of four ships made port calls at a number of countries including Vietnam, The Philippines, Brunei, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

 

As the flotilla returned home, the Indian navy deployed four Dornier aircraft in Singapore for four days to conduct co-ordinated reconnaissance in the strategic waters of the region that link the Pacific Ocean with the Indian.

 

The naval foray comes at a time when there is growing concern in the region at the assertiveness of the PLA navy and Beijing's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea.

 

Indian Ocean

 

Meanwhile, the expanding Chinese maritime profile in the Western Indian Ocean is driving India to pay more attention to the region. The Chinese President Hu Jintao had visited Mozambique and The Seychelles in 2007 and Mauritius in 2009 as part of two very impressive and consequential trips to Africa.

 

Delhi is now stepping up its own engagement of Mozambique and the two island states that straddle across the southern SLOCs of the Indian Ocean. India already has significant naval engagement with these states.

 

India hosted Seychelles President James Michel earlier this month. Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna is now traveling to Mauritius and Mozambique early next month with a brief stopover in Seychelles.

 

Krishna's focused trips to critical regions of interest to India — Central Asia, East Asia, and Western Indian Ocean — suggests the external affairs minister has begun to hit his stride.

 

raja.mohan@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

FINDING A FIX FOR FOOD SECURITY

ASHOK KHEMKA

 

Furious debates among policymakers about the proposed national food security law largely revolve around its financial repercussions. The Planning Commission is finally coming around to accepting the Tendulkar Committee's estimates of 37.2 per cent BPL population or 8.5 crore BPL households. The fiscal burden in implementing the food security law for 37.5 per cent BPL population, with each household being

 

provided 35 kg food grains, is estimated to be Rs 40,400 crore. The present food subsidy to FCI is Rs 60,000 crore.

 

To better understand the implications of the food security law, states can be broadly categorised into food deficit/ net food importing states and food surplus/ net food exporting states. While some of the net food importing states such as Bihar have demanded the subsidy in cash as food coupons to the BPL households rather than in kind, the primary interest of the net food exporting states like Punjab and Haryana is to safeguard farmers' interests in terms of remunerative prices for their produce at the time of harvest. So the interests of the food surplus states lie in maintaining the status quo, i.e., doling out food subsidy in kind rather than in cash. These two conflicting interests need to be reconciled in any efficient implementation of the Right to Food law. This is best implemented if genuine public-private competition is introduced in the mandis at the time of procurement of the foodgrains from the farmer-producers and also at the point of distribution to the consumers. As of today, Food Corporation of India (FCI) is the key statutory implementing agency for both procurement and distribution and here lies the reason for the bottomless pit of national food subsidy. For more effective implementation of the food security law, the distribution function needs to be hived off, with the aim of encouraging public-private competition in both, and also to introduce the element of consumer choice to increase her net welfare.

 

To address the needs of 8.5 crore BPL households with the present food subsidy budget of Rs 60,000 crores, the average food subsidy per BPL household works out to be Rs 7,060 per annum. This translates to a subsidy of Rs 16.80 per kg of foodgrain for a monthly foodgrain allocation of 35 kg. This level of subsidy is adequate if the average market price of foodgrains is Rs 20 per kg or less. No wonder Nitish Kumar, CM of a net food importing state, wants the food subsidy to be doled out in cash as food coupons. This gives the power of choice to the BPL household to choose in the market between the PDS shop and the private retail shops.

 

However, the concerns of net food exporting states like Punjab, Haryana, UP, AP and MP in protecting the interests of the producer-farmers is not addressed without state intervention at the time of arrivals in the mandis. State intervention is necessary to ensure minimum support prices for the produce. How can this be achieved with the same level of budgetary support if cash or food coupons are distributed to the BPL consumers? I recommend that BPL households be given a choice in the form of food coupons entitling them to the monthly quota of food grains at Rs 3 or Rs 2 (under Antyodaya Anna Yojna Scheme) from the PDS shop or in case she does not find value for money in the PDS shop, she can choose to encash the food coupon at a private retail shop, who in turn would be reimbursed from the nearest authorised post office or bank. At Re1 per kg of budgetary support for procurement function to feed the 8.5 crore BPL population at 35 kg per month, the procurement agency of the government would need an annual budgetary grant of Rs 3,570 crore. If it is assumed that a support of Rs 3 per kg is adequate to the procurement agency for it to ensure that the prices of the produce do not fall below the minimum support prices, an annual budgetary support of Rs 10,710 crores would be sufficient to procure the required annual quantity of 35.7 million tonnes of food grains for the BPL households. This budgetary support to its own procurement agency would ensure the supply of food grains to every corner of the country through the PDS shops, ensuring competition in both procurement and distribution operations. The balance budgetary support of Rs 49,300 crores may be kept as distribution subsidy, translating to an annual entitlement of food coupons worth Rs 5,800 per BPL household or a support level of Rs 13.80 per kg of food grain. This support would be adequate if the average market prices are Rs 17 per kg or less. With the distribution agency of the government honouring the food coupons at the price of Rs 3 per kg, the consumer would encash the food coupons at the private outlet only if she gets better value for money.

 

In effect, the distribution and procurement agencies of the government survive in the marketplace on their own strength. The consumer would get greater choice, better quality and competitive prices. Enabling encashment of food coupons at private retail outlets would bring greater competition at the time of procurement in the food surplus states too. However, the bottomline for any successful food security legislation lies in separating the procurement and distribution arms of FCI and freeing them of bureaucratic and ministerial control. The bottom of the pyramid can become a source of rapid econo-mic change and the key is to treat poor people with respect, as consumers.

 

The writer is an IAS officer. Views expressed are personal.

 

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

PARTY PLANNING

 

Preparing to hold an extended Central Committee meet in August to formulate the party's broad political line and devising the tactics for next year's assembly elections, the CPM has hinted at its game plan with regard to West Bengal.

 

That the CPM is hoping for a rupture in Congress-Trinamool Congress ties is known, but the question is whether the comrades would move closer to the Congress to irk Mamata Banerjee and force a split.

 

In an article in party mouthpiece People's Democracy, General Secretary Prakash Karat says "the forces which are ranged against the Left Front are not going to be united permanently." He stresses that with the adoption of "correct tactics" and the single-minded resolve to go to the people, the situation can be turned around. He also holds both the party and the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government responsible for the electoral setbacks. The alienation of some sections of the people, he points out, cannot be attributed to the functioning of the Left Front government alone. "The causes of such alienation lie in the political sphere and also in the organisational shortcomings and weaknesses of the party." "The steps that are being taken to overcome the shortcomings and reforge the links with the people are, therefore, to be taken up in the three spheres — governmental, political and organisational which are interlinked," he says.

 

The Iran interest

 

The CPM wants the Manmohan Singh government to strengthen its relations with Iran notwithstanding the fresh sanctions imposed on Tehran by the United Nations.

 

The lead editorial in People's Democracy says although India had gone on record that it does not think sanctions are the way to tackle the problem, the Manmohan Singh government

 

had fallen in line with the US whenever Iran was targeted in the IAEA.

 

"It is the IAEA resolution which opened the way for sanctions by the Security Council.

 

The US keeps patting India on the back for this stance." The CPM nudges the UPA to "realise that India's true interest lies in strengthening relations with Iran and extending our economic and trade ties especially in the energy sector."

 

Fraying coalition

At a time when the BJP-JD(U) ties in Bihar have come under strain, the CPI has come out in praise of Nitish Kumar. An article in party mouthpiece New Age says a section of the JD(U) — read Sharad Yadav — and the BJP are in league to cut the chief minister to size.

 

It says that while Nitish used the poster issue for moving away from the BJP, but it was "astonishing" to see that Yadav came forward immediately to assert that there is nothing wrong with the coalition and that relations with the BJP remained cordial. In this context, the article also mentions the contrary views expressed by Yadav and Nitish on the women's reservation bill. "The BJP may have won over Yadav but he is himself losing control over the organisation that is fighting for space with the rising popularity of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has proved himself to be the man of action and of good administration after decades of mismanagement by the earlier rulers of the state," it says. The article adds that Nitish is cutting off from the saffron parivar in the hope of garnering minority votes, with his record of "good rule" in the last five years.

 

Compiled by Manoj C.G.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

UNCAGING PORTS

 

Against a global benchmark of less than 24 hours, which ports like Rotterdam and Singapore take to load and unload ships, the spectacle of consignments to India's numero uno port—Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT)—getting blocked for months is a normal phenomenon. The situation, incomprehensible in any major international port, has become quite run-of-the-mill for the Indian ones. With each passing year, the delay in the plan to corporatise all major ports, starting with JNPT, has become monumental but corporatisation is urgently necessary to change the way they are currently managed. Hopefully, a fresh exercise would not meet the same fate as the aborted attempt in the late nineties when the ministry of surface transport and the Asian Development Bank used the expertise of consultancy groups to prepare the guidelines on corporatisation of ports and even introduced the Major Port Trust Amendment Bill in 2001, which lapsed following the dissolution of the thirteenth Lok Sabha. In fact, though the union budget for 2001-02 proposed the corporatisation of the JNPT, the government later developed cold feet and decided to first evaluate the performance of the Ennore Port, India's first corporatised port that began operations in 2002, before proceeding with any substantial changes in the institutional framework. So the port trusts survived the reform attempts and have continued to operate with an umbrella objective of serving public interests rather than maximising revenues or improving profits. Improving the operational efficiencies of the ports has, therefore, ranked way down in the list of priorities. And attempts to reform the institutional structure governing ports have floundered time and again because of the resistance of labour groups and also because of the bureaucracy, as any substantial change would mean a dilution of their control over the port operations.

 

Of the twelve major ports that come under the Major Port Trusts Act of 1963, eleven are governed by trusts. These consist of motley representatives of the central and state governments, shipping lines, railways, and labour unions and other groups, slowing down the process of decision-making as there is often a conflict of interests between the diverse groups. Also the port trusts have to usually take the concurrence of the government before making decisions, especially those involving larger financial commitments. The delay has also made the users adept at creating short cuts, which themselves are major obstacles to corporatisation—which is expected to steer a way out of the mess. The transformation will give the ports a greater degree of autonomy from the government and help them muster more resources from the market, reducing their dependence on budgetary support. A board-managed enterprise can also attract more professional expertise and even facilitate disinvestments. But such radical changes in the institutional framework will require amendments to the Major Port Trusts Act of 1963 as a first step and the government should not delay spelling out the details on the proposed changes in the legislation.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ANATOMY OF M-BANKING

 

Soon after mobile penetration started evolving into a big success story in India, policymakers voiced recognition of the fact that mobile telephony could become an important medium for achieving financial inclusion in the country. But many a regulatory hiccup has kept this movement from gathering momentum. Prospects of such hiccups getting smoothened gathered weight this week, with Trai and RBI reaching an understanding over how mobile banking would be regulated in India. Interconnection issues will be dealt with by Trai, while RBI will watch over banking aspects. At a time when Ulips are caught in a regulatory crossfire between Sebi and Irda, telecom operators would be grateful that they won't suffer similar travails. Notwithstanding this neat regulatory division, problems remain with the way in which the bank-led model has been preferred to the one led by mobile operators. Global success stories of mobile banking delivering financial inclusion across under-banked populations have derived, after all, from the latter model rather than the former. RBI considers the bank-led model safer. And it is indeed the case that if mobile banking is to truly take off, security measures will need to be stepped up and consumer data will need to be provided greater protection than is available at present. The bottom line, however, is the extent of our ambitions. Even the RBI governor has conceded that the mobile operator-led model helps accelerate financial inclusion.

 

An inter-ministerial group set up to establish a framework for delivering financial services via mobiles put things more strongly: "The choice is not whether to embrace change or resist it. The choice is whether to drive change with a plan or be overtaken by it without one." We have seen the government plan for change in various ways, whether via RBI increasing the daily ceiling for banking transactions through mobile phones or with the latest clarification on regulatory roles. But there is an important difference between allowing a scaling up of operations for existing bank customers—who can deposit, withdraw and transfer cash or simply check their account balance or pay their bills over the phone—and extending financial services to the unbanked population. If RBI and the government keep the bulwark up for the bank-led model for too long, they won't be doing mobile banking any favours.

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

HOW ABOUT THIRTY RUPEES TO A DOLLAR

BIBEK DEBROY

 

So far, all that China has done is relax the yuan's peg to the dollar. It is still pegged, but to a basket, and not exclusively to the dollar. At one level, dismantling the dollar peg signifies that the worst of the global financial crisis is over, since the dollar peg was introduced in 2008 to cushion Chinese exporters from those effects. We are back to the basket peg of 2005. China has consistently faced criticism because of undervaluation of its currency and this has been linked to its large trade account surpluses. The timing of the announcement is not a coincidence. It reduces flak at the G-20 meeting, suggests China is flexible and for what it is worth, underlines the need for reforming global financial institutions and architecture. The Chinese dilemma isn't different from India's. It is the quantum that is different. Undervaluation is good for exports, especially if exports are low down the value chain and price-sensitive. But if the exchange rate is left to the markets, currency will appreciate and there can be tensions between what trade (or current) account ostensibly requires and what capital inflows do. So, as a central bank buys foreign exchange to prevent appreciation; it increases liquidity and has an adverse effect on inflation because imports become more expensive.

 

Following the announcement, the yuan has appreciated against the dollar and a lot is being made of this flexibility in currency regimes. Apart from China being seen to be more 'sensible', handling inflation now becomes easier. Exporters focus on efficiency and become more competitive. Instead of depending on exports alone, one looks for endogenous sources of growth. In principle, this is fine. Ceteris paribus, it is good news for India. When India and China compete in similar export markets, and that competition is based on price, our exports become cheaper. And this argument can be extended to bilateral trade, where our current export basket is so narrow that a negative balance on merchandise trade is inevitable. However, one should be careful with such blanket pronouncements. Value of the yuan won't be determined in the market. All that has happened is a transition from a dollar peg to a basket peg. Even if there is more flexibility, there will be central bank intervention. As far as one can make out, there will still be a band with a narrow daily range and an attempt to delink medium-term trends from what is perceived to be 'volatility', an attempt not unfamiliar in India.

 

Apart from G-20, China wished to fend off flak because exchange rate determination was a thorn in US-China trade negotiations. There is no denying that the yuan has become a bit more flexible. But, given China's manufacturing engine, it is doubtful that the balance of trade surpluses with other countries will disappear. They may become a bit less. Consequently, it is hardly the case that protectionism (there is no other word for it) in developed countries will disappear. Instead of exchange rates, we will move on to standards, anti-dumping, anti-subsidy investigations and labour and environmental standards. Several instruments are available. Given China's size (economy and exports) and strengths in manufacturing, it has been more of a target than India. It is not that India has not been targeted; targeting has primarily been restricted to services, particularly IT. Apparently, China is going to confront an ageing population soon and we will continue to have a demographic dividend window until 2040. Suggestions float around that by 2020 (or earlier if some government sources are to be believed), India's GDP growth will overtake China's. For that to happen, both manufacturing and exports have to take off on a larger scale than before.

 

If this optimistic scenario emerges, India will face protectionism. When an economy does well, one can't prevent exchange rate appreciation. Most people vaguely remember the first Bric (Goldman Sachs) report. They don't remember roughly one-third of that explosive (especially beyond 2020) increase in per capita incomes (expressed in US dollars) came from currency appreciation. In other words, we had better learn to live with an appreciating rupee and more flexible exchange rate management. It is a myth that the rupee's value is market-determined today. But that myth has to increasingly become a reality. At one time, not so far in the distant past, RBI evidently had a band of sorts. And medium-term appreciation was allowed, after de-linking volatility from secular trends, assuming one can de-link the two. It was also believed (no doubt wrongly) that this 'permitted' appreciation amounted to 10 paise a month, against the dollar. Imparting certainty to exchange rates and cushioning volatility also encourages exporters and importers not to hedge. This can't be desirable either and much of this new uncertainty among traders is because certainty (which shouldn't have been there in the first place) has disappeared. It is good to think of an exchange rate of 30 rupees to a dollar, time period unspecified.

 

The author is a noted economist

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

IT'S NOT TIME YET FOR A SUPER REGULATOR

MADAN SABNAVIS

 

The financial crisis has engendered some new thought processes in the UK. The abolition of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has been hyped into a Cameron-Brown spat, as the FSA was groomed to a position of power by the earlier government, which George Osborne has abolished, or rather reduced to the status of a subsidiary of the Bank of England. Others say that it was a punishment for its failure to tackle the crisis and foresee the Northern Rock Bank crisis. These are stories that may not be germane to us in India, but closing down a regulator brings to the forefront some ideological issues.

 

Britain tried to follow the single regulator model for markets, which is also under consideration in India, albeit at a stage where the concept of a super regulator is being debated. This is of consequence because our financial system has a plethora of regulators. There is RBI for banking, Sebi for capital markets, Irda for insurance, PFRDA for pensions, Nabard for agricultural finance, FMC for commodity futures trading, Sidbi for SME finance, NHB for housing finance, and multiple APMCs for spot trading in farm products. With different ministries involved, there has been talk of whether there should be convergence to one super regulator. Needless to say, there are ubiquitous pros and cons on both sides.

 

The British story sort of vindicates the view that a single regulator cannot work well and, therefore, there is a case for having separate specialised regulators for each market. The FSA used to control all financial services, exchanges, firms, small businesses and even high net worth individuals, who had a dotted line reporting. There is also a strong case for separate regulators when markets have to be developed as is the case with, say, pensions, insurance, commodities, etc.

 

But then there are turf wars across ministries and regulators as players span across different regulators. Banks today are not just commercial banks but have housing, capital markets and insurance divisions. The latest case of Ulips involving Sebi and Irda has been settled for the time being; but the conflict between, say, the FMC and Sebi remains, where players like mutual funds and FIIs are not allowed in the commodity space, as there are separate regulators and Acts guiding each. The Acts are old, with the FCRA (commodities) dating to 1952 and SCRA (securities) to 1956. One has to tread carefully to ensure that risk does not flow from one sector to another. With such a complexity of markets and regulators, it appears that there is need for specialisation or else management will become a problem. But a larger number of regulators resulting in regulatory overlap tends to slow things down.

 

The other interesting takeaway is the responsibility of the regulator for failure. It may not be true that the FSA has been relegated to a secondary position because of the failure of Northern Rock. If that were so, then the same has to be applied to the Federal Reserve, since it is largely agreed that Alan Greenspan was responsible for the crisis by allowing such a bubble to build up. Clearly, regulators cannot be closed down for failure, as that would make them even more cautious and retrogressive in their overall approach. But the regulator should distance itself from the regulated, or else the former will have to shoulder direct responsibility in case of a systemic failure.

 

The other issue that is being discussed is the need to break up big banks. Grapevine has it that HSBC and Standard Chartered are already thinking of getting themselves registered in Asia. Again, while this may be an emotional economic outburst against the background of the crisis, it is relevant to us. In India, the talk has always been about consolidation on grounds of gaining critical economic size as well as tackling issues of capital for expansion. The so-called Godzilla syndrome permeated banks' thinking in the last decade, where they looked at one another for possible consolidation stories. However, given the domination of the public sector banks, it was more a case of the private banks looking at one another. Ultimately though, in most cases, consolidation has been more on account of loss of interest of the promoter or shaky financial positions, necessitating mergers.

 

We have to think harder now on issues of a super-regulator and whether there would really be any value addition. The current system has worked reasonably well and brought about development, at the cost of 'time' perhaps. So regulators should definitely not be closed down for failure.

 

Finally, there seems to be some merit in not getting carried away with consolidation and a case for better supervision and risk management when it does take place to eschew the build-up of a crisis.

 

The author is chief economist, CARE ratings. These are his personal views

 

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

TWEAK NORMS FOR ULIPS

SAIKAT NEOGI

 

Now that the spat between market regulator Sebi and insurance regulator Irda over unit-linked insurance plans (Ulips) has been put to rest by the presidential ordinance last week, it is important that the latter comes out with transparent guidelines on the commission that the insurance companies will pay to their agents and raise the lock-in period of the products.

 

As the current insurance act does not permit a company to pay a commission in the later years, it does not attract agents to continue the policy for a long period of time. Despite the fact that insurance products must be seen as long-term contracts, agents often promote them as three-year products. Distributors of Ulips charge a hefty front-loaded commission of as much as 40% on the premium for the first year and around 20% in the second year.

 

Insurance companies will now have to rework their products so that investors look at Ulips as a long-term investment and not surrender before maturity. The insurer, instead of charging high costs in the first few years, can recover its cost over the longer term and moderate agent commissions. So, going ahead, the viability of an insurance company will depend on the persistence of the products.

 

Most importantly, insurance companies will have to ensure that the lock-in period for Ulips be raised from the current three-year period to five years as it is done for bank deposits that are eligible for income tax benefit under Section 80C. This will attract serious long-term investors to put money into the product. Also by limiting the risk cover—mandatory risk cover is five times the annual premium—Ulips may not be meeting the actual level of insurance cover required by individuals. This needs to change.

 

Analysts fear that with the ordinance, agents will now sell Ulips more aggressively as there is no incentive for distributors to sell mutual funds to retail investors. In fact, after the Sebi ban on entry load for mutual funds from August last year, distributors are finding it difficult to mobilise fresh retail investment and some 70,000 strong distributors have raised their concern at various forums. Insurance companies, too, will also have to go for nation-wide investors' education programme to gain back the confidence of retail investors after the public spat between the two regulators.

 

saikat.neogi@expressindia.com

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

DON'T LOSE SLEEP OVER CHASHMA

 

"Who am I to interfere with what goes on between the United States and Pakistan? That's a matter for these two countries to consider," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responded in April 2010. He had been asked, in a Washington press conference, whether India objected to Pakistan and the U.S. reaching a deal on civil nuclear cooperation. The same logic should now apply to reports that China is planning to supply two additional safeguarded nuclear reactors to Pakistan. For those who still look at the region through 'hyphenated' lenses, what is good for Pakistan must necessarily be bad for India. But the reality is not so Manichean. The rules of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, of which China is a member, prohibit reactor sales to countries that do not have full-scope safeguards. By claiming its proposed export of the Chashma-3 and 4 pressurised water reactors forms part of an earlier agreement with Pakistan that predates its membership of the NSG, Beijing denies the sale would violate the guidelines of the 46-nation cartel. Other NSG members dispute that, pointing to China's 2004 declaration limiting its 'grandfathering' obligations to just the equipment and fuel for Chashma-1 and 2. How this dispute is settled depends on the balance of power within the cartel. India is not a member, and its response should be guided not by non-proliferation theology or anti-Pakistani prejudice but by a careful assessment of what impact the two additional safeguarded reactors would have on Pakistan's strategic programme. The answer is: not a lot.

 

Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal consists mainly of weapons manufactured from highly enriched uranium produced by centrifuges at Kahuta. The unsafeguarded Khushab pressurised heavy water reactor offers additionality along the plutonium route. Since all the current and future PWRs at Chashma will be under IAEA safeguards, there is no fear of any leakage from there to a weapons programme. One could, of course, argue that new reactors indirectly boost the weapons programme by freeing up uranium for exclusive military use. But this argument is true for the external supply of any power source, nuclear or conventional. Chashma-3 and 4 may allow Pakistan to forgo the need to produce electricity from any future reactor it builds and allow it to be run in weapons mode. But an imported coal-fired thermal station would allow the same degree of fungibility. In short, there is no need for India to lose sleep over Chashma. If it is worried about Pakistan's growing stocks of bomb-making material, it should push for the conclusion of a verifiable Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty on a priority basis. Agitating against the sale makes no sense from a diplomatic or strategic point of view.

 

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

FINANCIAL INCLUSION AND REGULATION

 

The case for financial inclusion, which means providing financial services to the vast sections of the population not covered by the formal banking system, is very strong. In India, it implies providing access to a bank account backed by deposit insurance, access to affordable credit and the payments system. For a number of reasons, it is the banks rather than the non-bank intermediaries that should take the lead. The financial agencies operating in the unbanked areas of rural India have not been equal to the task and in any case they offer a limited range of activities compared to banks. If financial intermediaries have to deliver affordable services, they need to scale up and use technology for which they require large capital. It stands to reason that lenders and investors will repose greater trust when the entity is regulated. And when it comes to credibility, banks score because they are tightly regulated. Recent experiences in India and elsewhere also show that regulation and financial inclusion far from working at cross purposes can go hand in hand. In fact, a number of inclusive practices have been fostered by the regulator, the Reserve Bank of India.

 

Priority sector lending mandated by the central bank has financial inclusion as one of its objectives. Licensing laws have been tweaked to persuade banks to open branches in remote areas. Since access to a bank deposit is considered a public good, the RBI has directed all banks to open "no-frills" accounts, characterised by low minimum balances and charges, but limited facilities. To further improve the access, the RBI has licensed business correspondents and other agents to undertake branchless banking. Newer regulatory guidelines, especially the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, have stood in the way of financial inclusion because low-income earners and migrants rarely have acceptable identity papers. While the KYC rules have been relaxed selectively, the issue is yet to be fully addressed. Over the medium term, it is hoped, banks will rely on the Unique Identification Numbers (UID) to comply with the KYC rules. Technology is critical for the spread of banking among masses because it carries the promise of reducing transaction costs. By leveraging Indian strengths in mobile telephony with the UID, the reach of banks can be increased manifold. Yet technology has to be harnessed in a way that will benefit all types of customers. The benefits of inclusion will be nullified if technology creates a wall between the customer and the bank

 

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION IN NEPAL

NEPAL'S POLITICAL ELITES NEED TO RECOGNISE THE HISTORICAL TERMS OF REFERENCE OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. THEY NEED TO SET ASIDE THEIR PERSONAL QUEST FOR POWER, AND FOCUS ON COMING TO A SHARED UNDERSTANDING OF THE IDEA OF THEIR COUNTRY.

MENAKA GURUSWAMY

 

On May 28, 2010, shortly before the appointed midnight hour, Nepal came precariously close to the non-extension of its two-year old Constituent Assembly. After 12 years of bitter, armed conflict that claimed about 13,000 lives, the Constituent Assembly played a crucial role in bringing the erstwhile 'rebel' combatants, the CPN (Maoist) party, into the mainstream politico-legal framework, following a carefully negotiated Comprehensive Peace Agreement and fresh elections. Constituent Assemblies, whose function is to draft Constitutions, have the ability to bring together former combatants within a framework, forcing them to arrive at a common understanding of the founding principles of a nation.

 

Interestingly, elections at the end of the conflict saw the Maoist party emerge as the largest political party, and therefore the single-largest drafting unit in the Constituent Assembly with 246 seats of around 600 seats. The other two major political parties — the Nepali Congress, and the CPN (United-Marxist-Leninist) — had a little over 100 seats each. The remaining seats were divided among 20 political parties. Significantly, the CPN (Maoists) did not have a simple majority or, better still, a two-thirds majority unlike other historical change-makers — the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa or the Indian National Congress (INC) at the time of independence, which in their times were in a position to draft a Constitution owing to their overwhelming strength in the Constituent Assemblies. Perhaps, they were less distracted by other political quests, and more focussed on drafting their nation's founding document.

 

Furthermore, in Nepal, India casts a giant shadow over all political activities, formulations and moves. India's foreign policy is oriented towards a position which apparently locates its national interest as being compromised by the single largest political party of Nepal either forming the government or shaping the country's Constitution. The CPN (Maoist) also made some less than astute moves, with its Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal — Prachanda's questionably-timed visits to China.

 

On that fateful day, as the midnight hour approached, some members of the Constituent Assembly did manage to rise above party politics. Amid swirling rumours of a possible Emergency being declared upon non-extension, I saw the women members of the house — whether they were Maoists or belonged to the Nepali Congress, the UML or other parties — cross party lines, and come together and commence a two-hour chant asking for the Constituent Assembly to be extended. This while their younger male colleagues, who were not involved in the power-plays of their seniors outside the house, sat and watched silently.

 

Finally the 'big three' political parties arrived at a three-point programme — comprising a commitment to the peace process, a one-year extension for the Constituent Assembly and, finally, the resignation of the current 'compromise' Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the UML. And so, 20 minutes before midnight of May 28, 2010, the process of extending the Constituent Assembly commenced which would culminate in a vote to resuscitate the faltering house.

 

Political gamesmanship and formulas for a 'consensus' government, a code for who will really be Prime Minister, is the major concern of influential politicians in Nepal. The drafting of the Constitution doesn't quite seem to consume them as much as one hoped it would. Constitution-making itself is precariously positioned, in terms of disagreement over constitutional choices. Choices that shape the political and legal fabric of a nation, such as the form of government, presidential or parliamentary, and even the basis of the federal state — whether the federal units should be based on ethnicity or region — are in question. Other significant areas where convergence is needed include the appointment of judges and the nature and number of fundamental rights.

 

The Constituent Assembly's thematic subject committee reports which came to their conclusion on the basis of a majority vote, usually reflected the CPN (Maoist) position. For instance, in the context of the form of government, the Committee report on the Determination of the Forms of Governance of the State provided that all powers be concentrated in the President. The President is to be the head of state, the government and the military; and will be elected by popular election for a five-year term. This version of a strong presidential system, while suiting the ideology of a tightly regimented cadre-based party, is often at odds with the needs of a fledgling multi-ethnic democracy. A parliamentary system, with the space that it provides for the voices and narratives of all ethnicities and for regional diversity to manifest through a multi-party system, might be wiser. Alternatively, a convergence could be arrived at via a popularly elected Prime Minister in a parliamentary style democracy.

 

Another area of concern is the method of appointing judges. The Judicial Committee report provides that the head of state, on the 'recommendation' of the 'Federal Legislative Special Judicial Committee' (comprising the Vice-Chairman of the Federal Legislature, the Law Minister, and nine members from the Legislature), shall appoint the Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court. Similar structures are in place at the other levels of the court system. Judges of the Supreme Court are to have a term of four years and are to retire at 65. Another cause of anxiety is that the powers of the Federal Judicial Committee astonishingly include interpretation of the Constitution. All of this disrupts the separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. This in tandem with a strong President structurally locates all power in the executive.

 

Finally, the Committee for Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles has provided for around 30 enforceable and justiciable rights. This includes the fundamental right to food, housing, employment and social security. While in principle, all nations must prioritise such guarantees, in terms of law and jurisprudence, creating fundamental rights that the state cannot implement due to financial considerations implies that the drafters inadvertently compromise the absolute mandate of such a category of rights. It is preferable to have a few generic fundamental rights, for instance the right to life, and within it progressively create jurisprudence that includes for instance the right to food that a state can afford to actively implement.

 

Back in the political arena, the former monarch, Gyanendra Shah, who was stripped of all power when Nepal abolished the monarchy, has been spotted in public with increasing frequency. Amidst the game of musical chairs for the Prime Minister's seat being played by all the major, and now even some minor, political parties, the obstinate terms of engagement of India and the coy appearances of a deposed despotic monarch in the business of making a Constitution and, therefore, a new nation, languishes. Nepal's political elites need to recognise the historical terms of reference of the Constituent Assembly. They need to set aside their personal quest for power, and focus on coming to a shared understanding of the idea of their country, and draft its character through a Constitution.

 

(The writer practises law at the Supreme Court of India.)

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

BUILDING TRUST, ONE STEP AT A TIME

INDIA SHOULD STRIVE FOR FUNCTIONAL COOPERATION WITH PAKISTAN ON THE MUMBAI TERROR TRIAL. AS THE 'FRONT CHANNEL' PICKS UP SPEED, SO WILL THE 'BACK CHANNEL'.

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN

 

1. From the open-ended, maximalist demand of a complete shut down of terrorist infrastructure, the Manmohan Singh government is today looking for incremental progress across a range of vectors
2. The 'make borders irrelevant' approach is the only game in town and sooner or later all stakeholders in Pakistan will have to be reconciled to it

 

The visits to Islamabad this week by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Home Minister P. Chidambaram will provide India and Pakistan with the opportunity of erecting the scaffolding for a dialogue process that could eventually allow the two countries to make substantial progress on their core concerns.

 

India's position on the necessity of dialogue has held steady since the 'Thimphu thaw' in April, suggesting all relevant political and institutional stakeholders are on board. The foreign secretary's speech to the Afghanistan-India-Pakistan 'trialogue' on June 13 has added greater clarity and depth, especially on the question of trust-building. Terrorism continues to be the main obstacle but the Indian analysis of the interplay between terror, Pakistan's internal political dynamics and diplomacy is much more nuanced and sophisticated today than it was a year ago.

 

From the open-ended, maximalist demand of a complete shut down of terrorist infrastructure, the Manmohan Singh government is today looking for incremental progress across a range of vectors. The trial of the Lashkar-e-Taiba men accused by Pakistan of masterminding the November 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai is the most important of these. But India would also like to see forward movement on humanitarian issues, as well as on the cross-border and cross-Line of Control confidence building measures agreed by the two sides in recent years. Ms Rao's remarkable speech also flagged another metric, crucial to the fate of any dialogue process: "We also have to reaffirm the progress made through complex negotiations and dialogue through patient and unsung effort whether in the composite dialogue or back channel diplomacy, during this period."

 

It was necessary for the foreign secretary to reiterate this point because neither the civilian government in Pakistan nor the post-Musharraf military establishment has so far shown a willingness to embrace the conceptual headway made by Islamabad and New Delhi between 2004 and 2008 on the Kashmir issue. The Peoples' Party government is perhaps wary of accepting the legacy of a dictator, and General Kayani — who may have silently gritted his teeth when Musharraf pushed his 'out of the box' formula on Kashmir with his top commanders — thinks he has better cards to play today.

 

The truth is that there are no other cards. The 'make borders irrelevant' approach is the only game in town and sooner or later all stakeholders in Pakistan will have to be reconciled to it. While Ms Rao did the right thing by flagging the importance of the back channel, India has to be patient and give the politicians and generals the time and space they need to reinvent the wheel. There is also merit in Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi's remark that the back channel cannot make headway if the front channel is stuck. If trust is required to move the front channel again, the amount of trust needed to work the back channel is much greater.

 

At a recent Track-II meeting of the Pugwash group in Islamabad, Pakistani and Indian analysts and former officials had an animated discussion on terrorism, Afghanistan, water, Kashmir and the nuclear issue. While the two sides disagreed and argued on virtually every subject, the discussions on terrorism produced some clarity. The Pakistani side spoke of the legal difficulties in handling terrorism cases, noting that the high-profile trials of terrorists involved in the bombing of the Marriot hotel in Islamabad and the assassination of the Surgeon-General had unfortunately ended in acquittals. A well-regarded criminal lawyer from Lahore spoke of the difficulties surrounding the trial of the LeT men accused of attacking Mumbai and made a plea for better coordination between the Pakistani and Indian authorities in that case.

 

The Indian side responded by noting that the fight against terror was only partially a legal one. And that what is needed is a demonstration of political will, something that is lacking in Islamabad's feeble attempts to rein in anti-India terror groups. The Pakistani participants acknowledged this, but argued that their government was weak and couldn't afford to open up too many fronts at the same time. This, too, was disputed by the Indians. At the same time, there was general agreement that the legal case against the 26/11 accused had taken on a significance of its own, that the fragile dialogue process might not survive an acquittal and that, therefore, some coordinated effort needs to put in by both governments to ensure the best possible legal case is mounted against them.

 

Should meet frequently

 

In this context, one question Ms Rao and Mr. Chidambaram should seriously examine as they prepare themselves for their visit is whether the endless and somewhat gladiatorial exchange of 'dossiers' with Pakistan is the most efficient way of going about prosecuting terrorists accused of perpetrating a heinous cross-border crime. Granted, there is a trust deficit. But if, instead of exchanging thick manila envelopes, the officials who work on these dossiers were to meet frequently, this may well provide for more efficient if not effective interaction.

 

India has bad memories of the short-lived Joint Anti-Terror Mechanism and is not in favour of its revival. But functional cooperation between the investigators who have probed the Mumbai attack case on both sides will help Pakistani prosecutors make a rock solid case against Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and the other LeT men now standing trial in a Rawalpindi anti-terror court. Depending on how that process works, more structured interaction between India's National Investigation Agency and Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency should also be considered. This would be one concrete way in which the two sides try to build up a degree of trust.

 

Second, Pakistan will have to make every possible effort to keep in check provocateurs like Hafiz Saeed of the LeT and tamp down on terrorist infiltration from its territory across the Line of Control.

 

The third source of building trust is for India and Pakistan to prioritise humanitarian issues, especially the plight of juveniles and fishermen who end up spending a long time in each other's jails for crossing the border illegally because of the absence of proper diplomatic mechanisms. Activating the joint judicial commission to deal with the speedy release and exchange of prisoners who have finished serving their sentences is also an urgent necessity. Deepening existing cross-LoC CBMs, especially those relating to trade, should also be taken up immediately.

 

Fourth, the two sides should ensure that foreign secretary- and/or joint secretary-level discussions take place

every month to resolve pressing concerns. Meetings at the official level must be held regardless of the state of bilateral relations and would be in addition to whatever formal dialogue structure emerges to address issues and disputes over Kashmir, Siachen, water or any other issue.

 

The goal of the upcoming round of talks as well as those between the two foreign ministers in July should be to prepare for the adoption of a structured, interim engagement process. Later this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will have an opportunity to meet again with his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September. If India is gracious enough to invite Yusuf Raza Gilani to attend the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October, that would provide another occasion for the two leaders to take stock of the relationship and settle on an appropriate dialogue structure. The problem of getting Pakistan back on track as far as the 'soft borders' solution to Kashmir is concerned would still remain, of course. One proposal Prime Minister Singh could make at that juncture to demonstrate the benefit of cross-LoC arrangements would be for India and Pakistan to examine whether a single project on the Kishenganga-Jhelum-Neelum with traded electricity might be a better option than building rival hydroelectric projects.

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

DISABILITY AND CENSUS OF 2011 .

COUNTING THE "INVISIBLE" CHILDREN OF MOTHER INDIA.

KAMAL BAKSHI

 

While the current focus of political debate is on 'caste and census,' there is another important aspect that deserves attention. This concerns disability.

 

For decades after our independence, there was no effort to actually count how many of us have any disability. There were estimates- informed or otherwise- but no factual figures. All our government's plans and budgets, rules and regulations, proclamations and posturing were built upon shaky foundations. A new Ministry was created, staffed and has been operating for several decades on that basis. It seemed to suit every one, except the millions who were thus rendered 'invisible'.

 

This lasted for 54 years. But, despite their 'invisibility,' the disabled and the NGOs dealing with disability made progress on the ground.

 

Let me illustrate with an example. There was no government or non-government organisation looking after the needs of children with cerebral palsy, till a young mother of a child with cerebral palsy set up the very first Spastics Society of India, Mumbai (now known as ADAPT-Able Disabled All People Together)) in 1972. The handful of children included her own daughter. Dr. Mithu Alur, our Chairperson, had thus created a unique institution, offering all facilities under one roof, including diagnosis, physiotherapy, physical aids, schooling, parental counselling, etc. Over time, these services also came to include research, teachers training, admission of older children in "normal" schools and colleges, job-oriented training and placements and so on. This model is now replicated in 18 States. Almost all the organisers have themselves been trained at Mumbai. These NGOs operate independently, while forming a Regional Alliance, constantly coordinating, cooperating and learning from one another.

 

During preparations for the Census of 2001, several NGOs (including us) approached the Census Commission with the request that they should also count the disabled in our country. Obvious arguments were put forward. Approaches were also made through the concerned departments of the Government. Unfortunately, nothing worked; we were simply told that the disabled could not be included. The NGOs were persistent; the matter was taken to the political level. Eventually, it was decided that the Census would include, for the very first time, a counting of the disabled.

 

However, this historic decision was taken at a very late stage, in the face of consistent opposition by the Census Establishment. Perhaps, their subsequent actions were reluctant and grudging. Perhaps, there was not enough time for the necessary preparations. It is also possible that, despite their best efforts, framing of appropriate questions, their translation into the required languages, training of the enumerators etc. left much to be desired. For all these reasons, the results of the Census 2001 were deeply disappointing for the disability movement.

 

For example, the Census of 2001 concluded that there were only 2.13 % or 21 million Indians with any kind of disability. This was a fraction of the estimates by most experts. This has since been amply proved by a World Bank report of 2007.

 

This report was "prepared at the request of the Government of India". In fact, it acknowledges "the guidance of officials of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, guidance provided by an inter-ministerial Technical Advisory Group set up for the work by MOSJE and consisting of representatives from the Ministries of Health, Labour, Human Resource Development and Rural development, as well as an NGO representative." Similarly, it acknowledges the help of officials in several States including Rajasthan, Karnataka, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In short, the World Bank Team had the full backing and support of the Government of India and many State governments.

 

The report is entitled 'People with Disabilities in India: From Commitments to Outcomes'. It concludes:

 

"While estimates vary, there is growing evidence that people with disabilities comprise between 4 and 8 per cent of the India population (around 40-90 million individuals)"

 

Obviously, there is a vast difference between 2.13 per cent or 21 million 'counted' by the Census of India, and 4-8 per cent or 40-90 million estimated by the World Bank team.

 

Several NGOs, including ADAPT, have been interacting with the Census Commission, individually or in groups. The Commissioner, Dr. C. Chandramauli, has been positive and open-minded. In a recent letter to him, based on our own experience, and consultations with our regional partners and other experts, we have made a number of recommendations. These take into account the Commission's constraints of space and format, the work already done, and recommendations made by others in the disability movement, like a Delhi-based group which had also held wide consultations. For example, along with the Delhi group, we have endorsed the inclusion of four types of disability in seeing, hearing, speech and movement, repeated from the 2001 census. We have also endorsed the recommended inclusion of Multiple Disability and Mental Retardation. But, since the latter expression is no longer used, we propose "Remembering and Concentration" instead. Thus, there is already an agreement on the types of disability.

 

Equally important is the framing of questions under each type. Questions must be activity related; these must also be relevant to our circumstances; only then can these elicit accurate responses. For example, the question suggested by us on speech is: "Do you have difficulty in speaking in your usual language?" The latter language is included because, in the course of a research study with UNICEF involving 31,000 children, we had found that children who had migrated out of their home states had a linguistic problem, which may be reflected as a speech problem. We have also submitted Hindi translations of these easy-to- understand questions to demonstrate that similar translations in other languages could be equally easy and understandable.

 

Contrary to speculations, there is thus a growing meeting of minds between the Census Commission, on the one hand, and several sections of the disability movement, on the other. Thus, we can hope that the Census of 2011 will finally be able to give us a correct count of the disabled in our country, making them truly visible.

 

( A former ambassador, Kamal Bakshi is Vice-Chairperson of ADAPT, Mumbai.)

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

THE INDUS SCRIPT AND THE WILD ASS

FURTHER DISCOVERIES IN THE RESEARCH ON THE INDUS SCRIPT.

ASKO PARPOLA

 

In a paper to be presented at the World Classical Tamil Conference, I am going to discuss recent developments in my study of the Indus script. In the book Deciphering the Indus Script (Cambridge 1994), I interpreted the 'fish' sign as Proto-Dravidian * miin 'fish' = * miin 'star', and its compounds with preceding signs as names of heavenly bodies attested in Old Tamil. One newly deciphered sign depicts "a hoofed animal's hind leg." It occurs once before the plain 'fish' sign. Old Tamil taaL 'leg' has a Toda cognate meaning "thigh of animal's hind leg" and denotes a star in PuRam 395. The 'hind leg' sign once precedes a sign that depicts the wild ass. Is the reading taaL '(hind) leg' meaningful in this context?

 

Just one Indus seal has the wild ass as its iconographic motif; it was excavated in 2009 at Kanmer in the Kutch, next to the only wild ass sanctuary in South Asia. Bones of wild ass come from Harappan sites in Baluchistan, the Indus Valley and Gujarat; the salt deserts of this very area have always been the habitat of the wild ass. Bones or depictions of the domestic horse and the donkey are not found in South Asia before 1600 BCE.

 

Tamil kaZutai or "donkey" has cognates in Malayalam, Kota, Toda, Kannada, Kodagu, Tulu, Telugu, Kolami, Naiki, Parji, Gondi and Kuwi. Bhadriraju Krishnamurti reconstructs * kaZ-ut-ay and asserts that Proto-Dravidian speakers knew of the donkey. More probably * kaZutay meant 'wild ass' in Harappan Dravidian, and the term was transferred to the similar-looking donkey when this newcomer came to South Asia from the west through the Indus Valley. Rigvedic gardabha - 'donkey' has no cognates in Iranian; it is a Dravidian loan word with the added Indo-Iranian animal name suffix - bha-. I explain * kaZutay as 'kicker of the salt desert', from * kaZ(i) / * kaLLar 'saline soil' and * utay 'to kick'. The wild ass lives in the salt desert and is a vicious kicker.

 

There is a Hindu myth explicitly associated with the wild ass, the Dhenukavadha of Harivamsa 57. Krishna and Balarama came to a palmyra forest occupied by the fierce ass demon Dhenuka and its herd. Wanting to drink the juice of ripe palm fruits, Balarama shook the trees. Hearing the sound of falling fruits, the enraged ass demon rushed to the spot. Seeing Balarama beneath a wine palm, as if holding the tree as his banner, the wicked ass bit Balarama and started kicking him hard with its hind legs. Balarama seized the ass by those hind legs and flung it to the top of a palm. The ass fell down with its neck and back broken and died. Dhenuka's retinue met with the same fate, and the ground became covered with dead asses and fallen palm fruits. The palm forest, horrible when terrorised by the asses, impossible for humans to live in, difficult to cross, and with a great extent and salty soil ( iriNa), now became a lovely place.

 

The description of the palm forest as a salt desert confirms that wild asses are meant. The palm tree, Sanskrit taala from Proto-Dravidian * taaZ, is prominent in the myth and its earliest sculptural representations. The wine palm is associated with the wild ass, which inhabits the palm forest and finally falls down from the top of the palm like its ripe fruits. The wine palm is connected also with the ass' killer (his successor as the god of its drink), Balarama, whose addiction to toddy is "an essential part of his character."

 

The myth also refers to the palm emblem on Balarama's banner ( tâla-dhvaja). In the Rigveda, Indra is invited to drink Soma like a thirsty wild ass ( gaura) drinks in a pond of salty soil ( iriNa). In Kutch today, such ponds are called taalaab. This Persian word comes from Indo-Aryan taala 'pond', from Proto-Dravidian * taaZ 'low place, depression.' Like the camel, the wild ass can quickly drink an enormous amount of water, becoming through homophony the prototypal toddy-drinker. Further homophones of taaZ connect the wild ass with the ebb of tide and its mythical cause, the mare-faced demon of the netherworld who drinks the whole ocean.

Conclusion: taaL (from * taaZ, preserved in Old Kannada) '(hind) leg, stem of tree' (whence taaZ 'tree with a prominent stem' > 'wine palm') is in many ways connected with the wild ass.

 

( The author, who will be the first recipient of the Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi Classical Tamil Award, is Professor Emeritus of Indology, Institute of World Cultures, University of Helsinki.)

 

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THE HINDU

OPED

'STEPPING INTO AN OIL INDUSTRY NIGHTMARE'

DAVID SHUKMAN

 

Behind the bland facade of a BP office block in the outskirts of Houston, Texas, I step into an oil industry nightmare: the headquarters for a battle being fought on a distant seabed. Along the corridors, signs point the way to the company's "crisis centre."

 

Originally designed to provide back-up space to cope with hurricanes, it is now hosting a desperate effort to tackle the first leak to erupt beneath a mile of ocean.

 

For a giant of a company, these are tense, threatening times. In fact, one of the first sights to catch my eye inside the centre was a notice offering counselling and massages for stress. Some 500 people — mostly engineers — work in here in round-the-clock shifts, and they are doing their best to avoid being distracted by the storm of criticism, lawsuits, bills and allegations raging outside.

 

Of the multiple crises afflicting the company, their attention is focused on the struggle to tame and then kill the "wild well" gushing beyond human reach in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

'Unthinkable sight'

 

In one of the few visits allowed to the media, we are led into a series of rooms where different teams focus on different parts of the fight.

 

The largest is one running the containment operation — each of the vessels collecting oil from the leak is managed by a team here.

 

One group is from a rival oil firm, Chevron, because one of their ships is being leased to BP and it is easier not to train new people to direct it. For a highly competitive industry, this would normally be an unthinkable sight.

 

A neighbouring room acts as a marine traffic control centre. Having as many as 20 ships and rigs crowded into a small patch of sea above the leak carries risks. And across a hall lies BP's equivalent of mission control — a darkened room in which one wall carries projected images from the 12 remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) on the ocean floor.

 

Before we enter, we are asked to be as quiet as possible. The place is wired for instant communications with the ships handling the robots. The staff, faces cast in the blue-ish light of the screens, are in charge of the only means by which the leak can be contained; only robots can operate at the extreme depths involved.

 

Will all this succeed? Amid the exhaustion and strain, there is an air of confidence that more oil will gradually be captured and that ultimately the relief wells will block the leak. But not immediately. A centre intended for the sudden, short-lived threat of a hurricane is likely to be busy for some time to come.

 

— © BBC News/Distributed by the New York Times Syndicate

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

GOM ON BHOPAL: A LOT MORE TO BE DONE

 

From all available indications, it appears the action plan suggested by the Group of Ministers to secure justice for the victims of Bhopal might be less than adequate. Had the GoM done its homework properly and gone into the voluminous documentation of the victims' betrayal by the administration and the judiciary, it could have issued a comprehensive roadmap to tackle all aspects of the Bhopal gas disaster. It might not be too late even now for the Prime Minister to place the GoM's recommendations before an all-party committee, as well as the organisations fighting on behalf of the victims for the past quarter century, before it is put up before the Union Cabinet on Friday. This might help ensure that justice is done in full measure. Acting on this half-baked plan would only perpetuate the injustice, and a futile effort to convince people that the government was doing something! The much-hyped Rs 1,300-crore package for the victims is just peanuts — if you consider the 1989 value of the dollar, this amounts to just Rs 350 crores. Trying to get back Warren Anderson, then chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, is undoubtedly welcome, but what about other individuals who too were responsible? The CBI was stopped in its criminal investigation of UCC officials like Warren Womar, whose criminal neglect of the operations manual might have led to the gas leak? Bhopal's chief judicial magistrate had issued a letter rogatory in July 1988 for the CBI to interrogate these officials, but this was later scuttled by the Centre. The GoM's recommendation that the Indian Council of Medical Research undertake a study on the health impact of the gas tragedy over the next 15 years is also welcome, but isn't it a cruel joke on the victims? The same ICMR and its officials showed criminal negligence by callously discontinuing medical research on the disaster way back in 1994. The NGOs working for the Bhopal victims managed to get the Supreme Court to issue an order in 2004 setting up an advisory committee on medical research under the aegis of the ICMR, but that too eventually proved a dud because of the disinterest shown by those who then headed the outfit. Should not these individuals be taken to task as well?

Most inexplicable of all was the GoM's attempts to deal with Dow Chemicals, the American company that eventually acquired Union Carbide Corporation, with velvet gloves. This was unbecoming of a country of India's standing, indeed of any sovereign state. The Prime Minister would do well to seek further expert legal advice on this aspect, rather than simply go by the ministerial panel's recommendation. It is also a bit alarming that the GoM has placed the onus for cleaning up the disaster site on the Madhya Pradesh government. This is a bit like US President Barack Obama asking the governor of Louisiana to clean up the colossal BP oil spill mess in the Gulf of Mexico! Neither the state government nor indeed the Government of India has the technical knowhow to handle chemical toxic waste of this nature. There is technology for remediation available in the West that can separate the chemical from the soil and the groundwater. In August 2006, the technical subcommittee of the task force for removal of toxic waste had said the entire toxic waste should be transported to the US for appropriate remediation. This has been done before in the case of Hindustan Lever, which transported 290 tonnes of contaminated mercury waste from HLL's thermometer factory at Kodaikanal to the US for remediation under the principle of "polluter pays." In Bhopal, however, this principle was shamelessly forgotten by the then state government and its pollution board.

 

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

MANIPUR BESIEGED

INDER MALHOTRA

 

As should have been anticipated, the "temporary" withdrawal by the Naga Students Federation (NSF) of the horrendous 10-week blockade of Manipur has meant no relief to the long-suffering people of the state numbering more than two million. Of the two reasons for this, the foreseeable one is the refusal so far of Manipur's own Nagas, organised under the banner of the All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), to accept the decision of the NSF that represents the people of Nagaland. Hopefully, the efforts to persuade ANSAM to see reason would succeed soon. But then a sudden new hurdle to the free flow of traffic along the beleaguered National Highway 39 has cropped up.

The truckers in the region have gone on strike because they want protection from "extortion" by multiple groups of "extremists", to say nothing of bribes demanded by government officials. Because they have been subjected to this tyranny for decades, their demand cannot be called unreasonable. Yet, a quick solution to this problem, even an interim one, has to be found so that the people deprived of food, life-saving drugs, petrol, cooking gas and other essential supplies can revert to a semblance of normal life.

However, even if the truckers agree to resume work, the woes of Manipur would not end. For, the withdrawal of the agitation by two rival sets of students would be temporary in every sense of the word and subject to revocation at any moment. Moreover, and no less importantly, the underlying reasons for the bitter hostility and consequent conflict between Manipur and Nagaland, on the one hand, and between Manipur tribes, including Kukis and Nagas, living in state's hill districts and the majority population of Meities residing in the Imphal Valley, on the other, are so bewilderingly complex that they are practically insoluble. These will be discussed to the extent possible presently. First, we must face squarely the paramount cause why not just Manipur but the entire Northeast has been reduced to such a perilous state.

It is the stark failure of the Indian state to do its elementary duty in the chronically troubled region — a failure that is chronic but has attracted attention only during the current crisis in Manipur. As the current rage and revelations about the Bhopal gas tragedy 25 years ago shows, nothing like good governance exists anywhere in this country, irrespective of which party is in power either at the Centre or in the states. At its best governance everywhere in India is perfunctory, even shoddy. Otherwise, no one in Bhopal would have allowed a highly congested cluster of housing to come up around the factory producing a highly dangerous and poisonous gas. Or callously ignored repeated warnings about the world's worst industrial accident waiting to happen. The horror of horrors is that all governments, Central and state, have let the toxic waste lie around the disused Bhopal factory for more than a quarter of a century, without anyone being called to account.

However, the misfortune of the Northeast is that it is denied even the kind of bad and blundering governance that prevails in, say, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Baroda, Barabanki or Burdwan. Just look back at the enormity of what has gone on in relation to Manipur since April 11 and it becomes distressingly clear that the Indian state has virtually washed its hands off the area. The monstrosity of Manipur siege had gone on for full two months before the Union home ministry took the trouble to announce that it would send Central forces to clear the lifeline to Manipur. It did nothing of the sort, of course, because by that time leaders of the NSF had arrived in Delhi to meet the Prime Minister. They condescended to lift the blockade temporarily. They even delivered on their promise but to no avail because of the stand-off between the two Naga student outfits.

Of the various factors behind the abdication of all governmental responsibility in the seven sisters of Northeast India the most lamentable is New Delhi's penchant to look upon the region as a "far-away land of which we know so little and care even less". This approach is compounded by the vague notion that all north-eastern states are alike while the reality is that each state is different from the other six. Indeed, almost each of these states has a diversity of ethnicities within its borders. This should explain the ferocity of the disputes between Manipur and Nagaland because the latter's demand for Greater Nagaland embracing the Kuki and Naga districts of Manipur. That, in turn, should explain why the Manipur government barred the Nagaland leader, T. Muivah (who is engaged in protracted negotiations with the Central government to "settle" the Naga issue) from visiting his ancestral village that lies in Manipur. This was the beginning of the Manipur blockade. But ANSAM has no sympathy for Muivah. It wants Manipur besieged because the Meiti-dominated state government has ordered elections in autonomous districts without any consensus on either the timing of the poll or the law under which it is to be held.

Secondly, the Indian state and society have conspired to establish the principle that whoever has a grievance, actual or imaginary, has a right to burn trains, uproot railway lines, torch buses and block thoroughfares with impunity. However, in the heartland this happens only for a few days at a time. It goes on in the periphery for months even though in this part of India, the few highways constitute the people's lifeline.
Since nothing is more contagious than bad example, the unspeakable khap Jats of Haryana have threatened to besiege Delhi if the law on Hindu marriages is not changed in accordance with their wishes immediately. Would they be shown the same tolerance as that to the vandals blockading Manipur?
Finally, we have got used to listening to long lectures on human rights of even the murderers of innocent citizens. Do lakhs and lakhs of law-abiding citizens have no human or fundamental right to lead a normal and peaceful life, to be able to move around freely and to get their food and other necessaries at normal, not astronomical, prices?

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

STREETS ECHO THE CULTURE OF A CITY

JAYANT V. NARLIKAR

 

I am writing this article sitting in my office in Cambridge, England. Last year the University of Cambridge celebrated its 800th anniversary. For our institutions in India, the first landmark to celebrate is the decennial. For us, today to imagine an educational institution maintaining continuous existence over eight centuries is very hard, although in the distant past, our own country could boast of the universities of Takshashila and Nalanda which had flourished for several centuries.

A long life for a university is creditable if it has produced distinguished alumni. Walking through this (still small) town one comes across roads named after Tennyson, Chaucer, Barrow, Newton, Herschel, Adams, etc. These names leave you in no doubt that a veritable cultural "Who's Who" is in place here. Traditionally, Cambridge is known for the sciences and Oxford (referred to as "the other place" by Cambridge alumni) for the humanities; although both universities have produced distinguished exceptions to this rule.

By and large the cultural heritage of a city is reflected in how its streets are named. Take Delhi for example. Its major streets are named after kings and emperors of the past and their standard bearers of today, the politicians. I am not a historian, but as a layman my perception of Delhi is of a city obsessed with power and one-upmanship. It is as if everybody who aspires to be anybody, has to be aware of his or her standing. If X,Y, Z are three rising rungs in a hierarchy, then according to some hidden or explicit protocol, a person on rung X cannot talk to one on rung Z without the knowledge and consent of the person on Y.

This may be necessary in a service like the Army or administration where the internal discipline counts for a lot. But I get dismayed when I see this atmosphere in a scientific institution. Science progresses more through arguments and controversies than through yesmanship. It is a field where freshness and independence of thinking has helped. And these traits are more common amongst younger rather than older scientists. But if a hierarchy-based protocol prevents the juniors from opening their minds to the seniors, the quality of research in the institution is bound to suffer.

I encountered an interesting and illuminating example in the following episode. I had called on the director of a leading laboratory with a request for allotment of some lecture rooms for holding a national meet of astronomers. The deputy director had gone over the details with me and we had come to the conclusion that for holding plenary sessions none of the lecture theatres would be adequate as their capacity of 120 just fell short of the typical attendance of 135 that we expected at these sessions. The deputy director therefore suggested that I request the director to make the 300-seater auditorium available.

When we met the director and I broached the subject, he immediately said: "But why do you need the auditorium? The bigger lecture theatres should be adequate". He turned to the deputy director for concurrence, adding that "I think the capacity is 140 if we add a few chairs on the side". Now the deputy director was in difficulty. He knew for sure that there was no way that the capacity of the lecture theatres could be increased by as much as the director had asserted. Yet how could he contradict his boss? So he muttered something like "Very good sir... I think we will somehow manage". The director beamed, well satisfied that he had solved a problem that his subordinates could not handle. Later when the meeting did take place, the inadequacy of the lecture rooms was realised and the plenary session had to be shifted to the auditorium. The last minute change caused the inevitable confusion that could have been avoided if the deputy director had been bold enough to contradict his superior. Science, they say, runs on facts; but here was the second seniormost scientist in the institution unwilling to tell his boss that he had got his facts wrong.

I find that Mumbai has the image of a city of commerce. The "money god" must bless you if you are to do well here. This despite the fact that Mumbai had one of the three oldest universities of British India, has eminent research institutes like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, has a record of encouraging Marathi theatre, etc. Kolkata does convey to me the image of a cultural city just as Bengaluru is for information technology.
Again, the streets of the city may hold clues as to its culture.

The readers may form their own opinion as to whether the city they know supports science and technology through research and development, whether it encourages the performing arts, provides opportunities for artists to display their talents, hosts literary meets or whether it regales in political manoeuvres or delights in its bureaucratic structure. For that will determine its culture.

In the present age of transition many cities are losing their special touch as old heritage gives way to malls and multi-storey buildings. We need to take guidance from the cities of Europe. They have managed to combine the old with the new in a very successful way. We, on the other hand, are very ruthless with the old: from a short term commercial point of view we destroy our heritage and take delight in having got the most cash out of the transaction. This way our much boasted heritage will remain only on paper, as some of the existing past photographs of our cities.

 

Jayant V. Narlikar is a professor emiritus at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune University Campus, and a renowned astrophysicist

 

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DNA

EDITORIAL

RIP VAN WINKLE ACT

 

The group of ministers (GoM) dealing with the resuscitated Bhopal gas leak tragedy of December, 1984 went about its job as though it was working on a blank slate and there was no previous history. It was literally the Rip Van Winkle act, the Appalachian folk tale of Washington Irving in which the idler-hero goes to sleep for 20 years and returns to find everything changed. In the case of the government of India and the GoM it is as though that the world has been standing still these 25 years.

 

It has announced enhanced monetary compensation to the victims: Rs10 lakh to relatives of the dead. Rs5 lakh to those who have been incapacitated and Rs2 lakh for those temporarily hurt. Of course, the detail was hidden away that whatever the money the victims had received by way of compensation earlier will be deducted from the fresh compensation.

 

Then it turned to the issue of cleaning up of the toxic waste at the Carbide site that has remained there for the last 25 years without taking cognisance of the changes in ownership of the UCIL. Union Carbide had sold off its shares in the Indian unit to an Indian company in 1994 with the permission of the Supreme Court. The UCIL site has been taken over by the Madhya Pradesh government in 1998. It has suggested that global tenders should be floated for the clean-up of the site and it has allocated Rs300 crore for the purpose.

 

The third major decision was to explore the extradition of former Carbide CEO, Warren Anderson, pretending to be unaware of the out-of-court settlement that Union Carbide and the government of India agreed to in 1987 by which Carbide paid US$470 million in compensation and in turn the government freed the American company of its civil and criminal liability. Of course, it was much later that the Supreme Court had allowed for the revival of criminal liability.

 

The Carbide case is extraordinarily messy in every which way. But in true bureaucratic fashion the GoM ignored the tangled aspects instead of disentangling it. The speed at which the course of action has been charted out is quite dazzling without the caveat that this comes after 25 years, of which Congress has been in power at the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh for 15 years.

 

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DNA

ROCKY ALLIANCES BJP AND JD(U)

 

The face off between the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party — allies in the National Democratic Alliance — is getting curiouser and curiouser. Together, these two parties successfully wrested Bihar from the stranglehold of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar as chief minister has become something of a poster-boy for sound development and good governance.

 

But now it appears that Kumar would like to fly it alone in Bihar. He has taken on his alliance partner on the issue that is closest to their core — Hindutva. It started with his rage at people publicly thanking Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi for helping Bihar after the Kosi floods. Kumar's fury — which his party members and the BJP, both tried to appease — led to him returning Rs5 crore to Gujarat.

 

This is a significant insult. Earlier, Kumar had stated that he did not want Modi to campaign in his state for fear of losing the minority vote. Now he has reiterated that demand and added Varun Gandhi's name to the list, Gandhi having made a name for himself with some controversial speeches during the last general elections.

 

The question is whether Kumar is making a play to go for it alone in Bihar or whether someone just has to call

his bluff. Would Kumar create a battle with the BJP if he did not have confidence in his own ability? Would he do it if he still felt that the alliance was beneficial to him in Bihar?

 

Whether this ploy will work out or not remains to be seen but it is evident that Kumar feels that continued association with the BJP — and especially with its icons like Modi and Gandhi — is harmful to his chances in Bihar and would hand an advantage to his old rival, Lalu Prasad Yadav.

 

If Kumar's behaviour and anger with a senior alliance partner was not extraordinary enough, there is the matter of the BJP's reaction to Kumar. The party has been scrambling for solutions and has held a number of meetings but not managed to sort out the problem. This is not the first time that an ally has suddenly realised that Hindutva is a stumbling block — it happened earlier with the Trinamool Congress and the Telugu Desam Party, to name just two. The BJP is truly stuck between a rock and a hard place. It needs allies to win elections but it also gets its ideological identity from Hindutva. How can it choose between the two?

 

However, a choice it seems will have to be made. The BJP is slowly but surely finding itself at a crossroads and so far, it has not shown that it has the mettle to make a choice.

 

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DNA

COLUMN

BUNTY AND BABLI IN BEIJING AND BANDRA

 VENKATESAN VEMBU

 

The writer Mark Twain recommended travel as an antidote to "prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness". Stirring out of one's comfort zone and interacting with other cultures, he believed, would help shape "broad, wholesome, charitable" views of men and things. 

As more and more Indians venture out on a foreign strand and see how the 'other half' lives, it raises the hope that they might return home with a finer appreciation of the Hegelian Other and, inversely, gain a better understanding of their own place in the world. 

It appears, however, from some recent accounts of Indian travellers abroad — and of foreigners coming to 'Incredible India' — that that hope rests on infirm foundation. Two recent narratives in this space, both by first-time Indian travellers to our trans-Himalayan neighbour China, are illustrative. 

One dealt in merciless details with the wild range of eating options at Beijing's famed snack streets. And although, to his eternal credit, the narrator himself appeared to have been low on food inhibition and combined an open mind with an open mouth, the entire tone of his first-person gastronomic account appeared calculated to appeal to the 'Eew-yuck, these Chinese will eat anything' factor. 

The other was, again, a first-person account of a couple who were so charmed by a group of English-speaking Chinese youngsters in Beijing that they allowed themselves to be conned into coughing up a disproportionately large amount of money for a tea ceremony. 

Beijing's street snacks readily lend themselves to exoticising, but they are also something of a cliche. Dwelling excessively on them contributes little beyond reinforcing Chinese culinary stereotypes, in the same way that pictures of traffic-blocking cows lolling on Indian streets — which so turn on foreign visitors and TV camera crews — are no more than a lazy visual metaphor for an India where, presumably, anything goes. It is only when travellers can frame these visual stereotypes in a larger perspective that they will have taken the first step on the 1,000-mile journey towards a keener appreciation of other cultures.  

Likewise, the realisation that there are enterprising Bunty-and-Babli con-artists in Beijing wouldn't have come as a shock if the defrauded couple had done the rudimentary research on tourist traps to avoid. The 'tea ceremony' rip-off is the oldest trick in the game, and is an adequately well-documented alert in travel guides. 

If you're sufficiently clueless, you can just as easily be gypped in Bandra as in Beijing. There are just as many tourist alerts for foreign travellers to India, and a reading of their chronicling of their experiences is enough to establish that when it comes to playing artful Bunty-and-Babli con-games, Indians yield to no other nationality on grounds of sheer enterprise. 

Chinese people themselves aren't immune to the enterprising trickery of their home-grown con-artists, and just earlier this week, Beijing police dismantled — I kid you not — a fake ATM machine that had been used to illegally gather card data and PIN codes for unsuspecting customers. 

And somewhat more bizarrely, recently a Hong Kong property developer successfully sold a '68th floor' apartment in a 46-storey complex for a world-record sq-ft price to new-rich mainland Chinese buyers who, venturing away from their cocoon, hadn't evidently acquainted themselves with the Bunty-and-Babli schemes that operate in Hong Kong. 

Should we therefore not travel out of the comfort zones of our minds? Perhaps Mark Twain was a trifle naive: perhaps, as poet Maya Angelou noted, travel cannot prevent bigotry. But there's still the hope that she nursed: that by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

 

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DNA

MAIN ARITCLE

POINTER TO NEXT TRAGEDY

YOGI AGGARWAL

 

It takes one tragedy to point to the possibility of another. Thus the day those responsible for the greatest man-made industrial disaster in history were let off with light sentences, the government was forced to reconsider its proposal on its ridiculously low cap on the liability in case of an accident at a nuclear power reactor.

The two are connected. The scale of those killed by the poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) on the night of December 2-3, 1984, in Bhopal is unprecedented. Some 3,000-plus people died that night and another 15,000-20,000 in the subsequent months. Tens of thousands of others had to live in pain, crippled by failing lungs, a damaged nervous system and eyes, and women giving birth to deformed babies.

If the two most serious nuclear accidents to date — at Three Mile Island in 1979 in the US, and Chernobyl in the then USSR in 1986 — did not claim as many lives, it was only because they were located in sparsely populated areas and not near a crowded bustee in a city.

It is roughly estimated that the total number of deaths from cancers near Chernobyl may reach 4,000 and 600,000 people were, at the  most, exposed to radiation. The accident and the measures taken to deal with its consequences have cost the Soviet Union — and later Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine — over a $100 billion. Today, social benefits are paid to about seven million people who are considered to have been affected in some way by the Chernobyl accident.

While there were a few deaths after the Three Mile Island (TMI) reactor meltdown, because of speedy evacuation of people from the locality, the subsequent clean-up of the plant and the surrounding area cost only $975 million. More importantly, the accident added the final nail to the coffin of the US nuclear industry. After TMI, no US nuclear plant has been authorised to begin construction.

After the Bhopal gas disaster, the Indian government filed claims of $3.3 billion against Union Carbide as compensation for those killed and the roughly two lakh people whose health had been badly damaged by the MIC. Union Carbide agreed to pay $470million in an out-of-court settlement.

Even this small amount was not fully utilised. The compensation paid by the government to those dead or seriously injured was pathetic and Rs1,000 crore is expected to be left over after the claims settled so far. The area around the plant is still contaminated with dangerous chemicals, the ground water is not safe, and insufficient attention has been given to treating those still suffering.

After the court judgment sentenced seven senior Union Carbide executives to two years in prison, the Central and state governments have been squabbling among themselves about who will handle the cleanup and apportioning blame to score political points. During my two visits to Bhopal in 1984 and 1999, I found the bureaucratic and business elite of the city callous about the sufferings of the poor who were hit most by the gas leak. Many wanted to grab the relief for themselves.  

There is no reason to believe that it will be any different in case the proposed Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill is passed in its present form. To limit the damages payable by companies running nuclear plants to Rs500 crore, or a little more than $100 million, is a joke, considering that just the cost of a clean-up at Three Mile Island was nearly 10 times as much and the Chernobyl nuclear accident's cost to the countries concerned was a thousand times as much. Even the minimal amount paid as compensation in Bhopal was five times as much.

It is especially worrying that the bill is a result of US pressure. Unlike France and Japan, the United States has not built any nuclear reactors for over three decades. Their technology is untested for new reactors. The costs of damage, lives lost and maimed, and the clean up of radiation will be high.

Despite our rushing in to embrace the technology, we must not forget the risks. Casualties from radiation are bound to be high in a country of India's population density. The problem of nuclear waste and its disposal is also critical. Such waste will be dangerously radioactive for tens of thousands of  years, nearly a hundred times as long as the chemicals contaminating the ground in Bhopal.

 

Compare this with the 5,000 years since the first cities came to be built and 13,000 years since the dawn of agriculture. It takes unbounded optimism to bet our future on a technology that poses such a risk of poisoning future generations.

At the very least we can ensure that the costs to power producers and insurance companies of accidental failure are so high that they will be careful in putting safety systems in place. Otherwise we risk an accident many times worse than that at Bhopal.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

A GOOD BEGINNING

CENTRE, MP MUST HELP BHOPAL VICTIMS GENEROUSLY

 

It is good that the Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas tragedy submitted its report to the Prime Minister on Monday. As the Union Cabinet will examine it at a special meeting on June 25, it has not been made public. Nonetheless, among the key issues the GoM discussed in its report were relief for and rehabilitation of the families of the victims of the gas leak 25 years ago. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said that while the GoM's immediate focus was on providing relief to the affected families, it has also dealt with pursuing Warren Anderson's extradition, the legal options available to the government, the remediation (clean-up) issues and health-related matters. However, the Rs 1500-crore compensation package recommended by the GoM for the victims and their kin is too little, too late.

 

If the Union Cabinet clears it, the kin of those dead will get Rs 10 lakh, those with permanent disability Rs 5 lakh and those with partial disability Rs 3 lakh. But then, this amount will get reduced further because the money they had received earlier will be deducted from the fresh amount. Many families have lost their bread-earners while many others have been maimed or seriously injured. As it is a tragedy unprecedented in its scale and magnitude, the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government should consider their plight generously and do justice.

 

Equally serious is the question of making those responsible for the tragedy culpable. The GoM is apparently silent about it. The victims' association and the Opposition leaders have rued that the GoM has not fixed accountability on anyone at any stage — be it on extraditing Warren Anderson to India or other officials responsible for the accident. Nor did the GoM spell out an action plan to seek a review of the Supreme Court ruling that diluted the charges against seven company officials who are now out on bail with a minor punishment of two-year sentence. How can the leak of 40 tonnes of methyl isocynate on the night of December 2-3, 1984, from the UCC plant that claimed as many as 15,000 lives be treated like an ordinary road accident? The ends of justice will be met only if all those responsible are given exemplary punishment for the world's major industrial disaster. And nobody should be allowed to go scot-free. Only then will the punishment so awarded act as a deterrent.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

INDO-PAK TALKS

LOOKING FOR SMALL BUT SUBSTANTIAL STEPS

 

Indo-Pak talks, slated in Islamabad later this week, will start off with the huge advantage of not having any baggage of expectations. The distrust between the two countries is already so high that neither side would be expecting a major breakthrough in bilateral relations. Indeed, the deliberations already threaten to follow old patterns when Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram meets his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik. Indian concerns over cross-border terrorism, infiltration, ceasefire violation, drug trafficking, fake currency, etc, will predictably be taken up while Pakistan will expectedly question the role of India's Research & Analysis Wing ( RAW), alleged human rights violations in Kashmir and disputes over the sharing of river waters. Both sides, however, seem to be 'cautiously optimistic' about the coming dialogue. The Indian delegation claims to be in an exploratory, and not accusatory, mode on the eve of its departure and Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir is on record as saying that Pakistan is not interested in a 'cosmetic engagement' with India. There is no harm, therefore, in keeping one's fingers crossed.

 

Indeed, there is a discernible thaw in their relationship after the two Prime Ministers met at Thimphu earlier this year on the sidelines of SAARC. The two sides now seem increasingly keen to talk about trade rather than terror, although sharing of 'intelligence' and countering terror will be high on the agenda when both sides meet. Mr Chidambaram is known to be business-like and he can be trusted to convey Indian concerns in as diplomatic a language as possible. With the Indian Foreign Secretary, Ms Nirupama Rao, also slated to hold talks with her counterpart over confidence-building measures and people-to-people contacts, etc, the revival of a joint anti-terror mechanism and more concessions for cross-border trade appear in the realms of possibility.

 

Even as the two sides grapple over the bottlenecks to peace and stability, time is running out for both. With the US pullout from Afghanistan being merely a matter of time, India and Pakistan both will get singed if they fail to cooperate and work for a stable and peaceful region. Under the circumstances, even token gestures like the grant of the 'Most Favoured Nation' status, to India, which merely means there would be no discrimination in trade practices, setting up universities or hospitals and the exchange of students and academics will go a long way to reduce the trust-deficit between the two countries. 

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

CHINA LIFTS THE PEG

SAYS CHEERS TO G20

 

Global stocks and commodities zoomed on Monday as China let its currency, pegged at 6.83 against the dollar since 2008, rise. The yuan made the biggest single-day gain since its last revaluation in 2005. China is widely seen as getting an unfair advantage in global exports by not letting its currency appreciate. Now when the People's Bank of China loosened its control on the yuan, the rest of the world welcomed it. A stronger yuan would make imported goods cheaper for the Chinese, nudging them to buy more of foreign goods, thus boosting growth in the developed world, battered by European debt woes and grappling with the recovery.

 

The US, hit by a severe trade imbalance in favour of China, is toying with legislation to penalise Beijing for undermining its exports. Leaders of developed countries are expected to use the G20 summit in Canada (June 26-27) to pin China down. And Bejing's announcement over the weekend to ease currency swaps is cleverly timed and meant to fend off global criticism. Few would take China's sudden turnaround seriously unless the yuan is allowed to find a realistic level against the dollar over a period of time. China unified the exchange rate in 1994, then tweaked it in 2005 and has not allowed the yuan to move up since 2008. Monday's cheer was short-lived as it became known that China's central bank had set the yuan's trading range at Friday's level.

 

India is among the countries that have suffered as cheap Chinese goods swamped global markets in the recent past. The under-valued yuan has unfairly driven down prices of Chinese products, making it difficult for countries to compete with the rising Asian giant. Even during recession, China's exports stood at $1.2 trillion in 2009 against India's 168 billion. Recession-hit countries are expected to press for a free float of the yuan at the G20 summit. How China dodges the issue will be watched with interest.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

ARTICLE

THE NEGLECTED INFANTRY

BUT IT HAS WON MAXIMUM GALLANTRY AWARDS

BY MAJ-GEN ASHOK K. MEHTA (RETD)

 

Although the infantry is called the king and the queen of the battlefield, it is treated as a jack of all trades. Despite being the key combat arm, it is lowest on the priority list of modernisation even as it is involved 24x7 in counter-insurgency operations, stretching from Jammu and Kashmir to the North-East and with an increasing probability of joining the counter-Naxalite drive.

 

Why has the infantry been neglected when it has bagged 80 per cent of all gallantry awards and taken 75 per cent of casualties? Former Army Chief Gen S. Padmanabhan used to say that the Indian Army was fighting a Kargil every 14 months, meaning 517 infantry soldiers were being lost in that period. Why is this insensitivity to casualties and its lagging behind in modernisation? The truth is that the infantry has been taken for granted while modernisation has focused on tanks, guns and aircraft.

 

Conceptually, marginalisation of the infantry happened when after the Gulf war, strategic thinking veered round to the belief that wars were winnable from the air. In 1991, the Gulf war lasted 42 days, and 38 of these were fought from the air. In 1995, the Bosnia campaign was 17 days' long without any land offensive. The Kosovo war in 1999 was fought for 78 days and entirely from the air. But Afghanistan broke the myth of supremacy of air power. Of the 76-day war, 65 of these were air operations, followed by an 11-day land offensive. The 20-day Iraq war, on the other hand, was entirely a land operation without any preparatory air campaign. The ongoing Afghanistan war is a classic infantry operation.

 

In this period, the Indian experience was very different: from fighting proxy wars in J&K and the North-East to vacating Pakistani aggression in Kargil, these operations were infantry-focussed and handicapped by constraints like minimum force — no use of heavy weapons — and strategic restraint of maintaining the sanctity of the LoC. No other infantry in the world is tasked to combat asymmetrical challenges without the use of the artillery and the air force. Add cumbersome combat gear, substandard weapons and inadequate equipment — it is a wonder how the infantryman does so much with so little.

 

There is yet another handicap. India's policy is one of merely containing insurgency — keeping the lid on instead of catalysing a political solution. Kashmir is the best example of the military having created the best conditions for a political solution but the government failing to capitalise on it.

 

India has not fought a conventional war since 1971 and is not likely to do in the near future. Low-intensity conflict will be the primary challenge of the future. The blame for the neglect of the infantry must be put on successive Army Chiefs, most of whom were from the infantry. Ironically, the Chiefs from other arms did more to advance the case of infantry modernisation than those from the infantry. It was only after Kargil that holes in the infantry inventory began being plugged through fast-track acquisitions. This deviation in the interest of war preparedness was ultimately trumped by probity, leaving behind the Coffingate scandal and a former Defence Minister and Navy Chief being investigated for fraud.

 

Tinkering began with modernisation, started in the 1990s, to replace World War-II vintage equipment. In 1991, the Review of Combat Echelons was largely an exercise on paper, followed by incorporating lessons from Kargil in 1999. The first serious modernisation attempt was made in 2003 but with a paltry sum of Rs 30 million to provide new weapons, better communications and surveillance, increased mobility and night-fighting capability. Reducing the battle-load of soldiers, improved combat kit projects were undertaken in 2004. Units still struggle with the outdated INSAS rifle and have not found replacement for World War-II sten machine carbine, for example, and battle loads, especially at high altitudes, are still very heavy.

 

By 2005, the outlines of the F INSAS — future infantry soldier as a system — were conceptualised, leading next year to sharing the concept with corporates in the Army-industry partnership conference in 2006. Integral to Infantry Vision-2020 was this statement, "To field in battle by 2020, infantry soldiers, who can read the battle environment instantly and respond either individually or as a tactical team with speed, precision, lethality and agility, exploiting optimally all the supporting combat components."

 

F INSAS envisages a man-machine mix of five sub-systems. The weapon sub-system is to be a family of robust reliable and modular weapon system to include four variants — carbine/micro-assault rifle, assault rifle and light machine gun complimented with an integrated site featuring thermal imagery, laser pointers and range finders.

 

The helmet sub-system will have a head-up display, integrated with the soldier's personal computer and other sensors. The personal computer will be attachable to the backpack frame and connected to personal radio and GPS. The radio sub-system will enable soldiers to receive and transmit voice and data signals. The protective clothing will vary for terrain and extreme climate and will include mine protection boots and smart vests with physiological monitoring systems.

 

By 2012 the Army expects to field the first version of F INSAS based on available technology. The Infantry Directorate's F INSAS project team has studied the modernisation programmes of 20 countries which has helped in refining its project definition. But a lot of work has still to be done.

 

Why the F INSAS project took four years to move from Sena Bhavan to South Block is a mystery, explained by insiders as turbulence in the Infantry Directorate. F INSAS was approved by the then Army Chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor, only in January 2009. F INSAS is at the request for information stage before the General Staff Qualitative Requirement is made. It is extremely unlikely that the first version of F INSAS can be fielded by 2012. The delay by current reckoning could be by three to five years, going by the pace of acquisitions — make or buy. The programme will inevitably encounter the DRDO's tall promises.

 

Officers in the Army are paranoid about probity and say no one is prepared to take chances when weapons acquisition has become a game of political vendetta. Almost everyone at Army Headquarters is agreed that funding is not the problem; it is how to spend it on time. General Staff Qualitative Requirement makers must get the balance among technology, practical application and cost right based on the Indian experience without aping Western infantry models. Levels of sophistry and technology must be commensurate with what soldiers can master without becoming slaves to equipment.

 

A former Nato commander told a conference recently: "This business of fielding the infantry in multi-mission, multi-role, on digital and network-centric battlefields is great. But for Pete's sake, our soldiers are being blown up by IEDs in Afghanistan. Let's fight this war before preparing for the next…"

 

Gen James Mattis, the Marine Corps Commander, told American soldiers last month that human interface is the most important item, "we don't want things that take geniuses on the battlefield to operate, and, therefore, need to create systems, organisations and equipment that don't need a master's degree in maths to operate." India's F INSAS General Staff Qualitative Requirement must remember this.

 

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THE  TRIBUNE

MIDDLE

PRAY, AND LET GOD WORRY

BY GEETANJALI GAYATRI

 

EVER wondered how atheists survive? I often do because, since childhood, I have relied on God heavily to bail me out of tight spots I have landed myself into, turned to Him for support in times of weakness and, very often, folded my hands, closed my eyes and asked Him for whatever I want, for myself and for those dear to me.

 

And, whenever I do so, I can't help thinking who the atheists look up to when the going gets tough, when hope ebbs and pain peaks and when there is no alternative to looking heavenward for succor. For, it's usually then that miracles have happened for me. In fact, my life is a story of such miracles, big and small.

 

As a child, there were numerous occasions when I prayed to God with a little more reverence during the morning assembly at school. This usually happened when I forgot a notebook or had unfinished homework. I knew God kept His word when the teacher didn't show up or was too preoccupied to take the class. As I grew up, my belief in Him became stauncher. He, too, never let me down, underlining my faith by manifesting Himself in more ways than one.

 

A few months after my daughter was born, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. As the doctors prepared for surgery, they asked us to say our goodbyes, warning us that she may not survive the surgery.

 

I said my last prayer before she was wheeled into the operation theatre. I told God that it was almost unfair to take away my daughter's grandmother even before my little one had started school. I implored, "You can't be unjust if you love me."

 

When the doctor emerged smiling, I knew a miracle had touched me. My mother recovered and even saw my daughter go to school.

 

But that's all the time God gave us — just as much as I had asked him for. A couple of months of after my daughter joined school, my mother's cancer reoccurred. The doctor said she only had a few months.

 

I decided to make one last-ditch effort to please God, thought of my selfishness for a moment and dismissed it, convincing myself, "I'm selfish, that's why I'm human".

 

In my prayers, I told Him I was keeping my mother's Monday fasts for 16 weeks to please Him. The 16 fasts ended in the last week of June. On the Sunday before the seventeenth Monday dawned, my mother passed away.

 

My deadline had ended. God had kept my faith yet again. These are only a few instances which have strengthened my faith in God and I owe much of this to my mother.

 

Even as a 10-year-old, I remember my mother reading out and explaining the abridged English version of the Bhagwad Gita even as I yawned through the 20-minute session. I got my own Christopher Isherwood copy as soon as she thought my faith had been crystalised.

 

I have carried forward this tradition by occasionally reading aloud a chapter from that Gita to my daughter since she turned four. Surprisingly, she enjoys it though she doesn't understand much.

 

Today, as my mother's fourth death anniversary nears, I know she's still with me, in the pages of the Gita she gave to me. Her God is now mine, and my daughter's as well. Every night, in our prayers, we turn all our worries to Him, knowing He's going to be awake all night, realising fully that humans, sometimes, may fail us, God never will. As for the atheists, like one of them admits, everything is usually taken care of between "coincidence and convenience". For everything else, there is God!

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

PUNJAB POWER SCENARIO LIGHTS UP

JANGVEER SINGH

 

DEMAND FOR POWER IS GROWING AS INCOMES RISE AND GOVERNMENTS STRUGGLE TO

KEEP UP THE SUPPLY. THIS SEASON HARYANA HAS DONE WELL, WHILE PUNJAB'S USUALLY DISMAL POWER SCENE HAS ACTUALLY IMPROVED. HIMCHAL PRADESH, WHICH USED TO BE POWER SURPLUS, HAS STARTED GOING DOWNHILL. A TRIBUNE TEAM SURVEY

 

SMS jokes on the power situation in Punjab started in April this year. People rightly dreaded facing the scorching summer heat with power cuts starting in March itself. A typical joke ran like this "Sukhbir Badal's latest slogan - No if, no but, sirf power cut".

 

It is June-end now and surprisingly power cuts are limited despite the fact that the state is caught up in a severe heat wave. Politics and restructuring of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) are partly responsible for the change as well as the person who is the butt of the 'power jokes' - Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

 

Politicians in Punjab feel power can make or break a government. The Akalis have all along put their faith in the free power facility extended to the farming community to pull through. However the virtual bankruptcy of the former PSEB which had accumulated losses of Rs 10,000 crore and an outstanding loan of Rs 16,000 crore forced the government not only to withdraw the free power facility but also restructure the power utility.

 

While farmers now have to pay a nominal rate of Rs 50 per bhp monthly for their tubewell connections, the new power utility Transco is going in for a major overhaul of the transmission system in the state. The new electricity utilities - Powercom and Transco -- have access to more funds now with the PSEB's assets being revalued.

 

A Rs 650 crore project, which has been taken up post-restructuring six weeks back, will see immediate deloading of seven 220 kv stations and 35 sub stations of 66 kv before the start of the paddy transplantation season. More power will be supplied through high-tension lines and most metres will be outside residences in a phased manner, all of which are part of a project started by the Deputy CM to audit energy and cut losses.

 

These measures, accompanied by steep power purchase of Rs 1,093 crore in the next few months, are expected to improve power availability in the state. The government expects to provide six to eight hours of power for the agriculture sector during the paddy season, keeping domestic cuts to a low of two to three hours every day and ensuring there is not more than one compulsory weekly off for the industrial sector.

 

Into the fourth year of its government, the SAD-BJP combine may well see the commissioning of the 540-mega watt Goindwal plant only during its tenure. Sterlite has delayed work on the 1,980 mw Talwandi Sabo project while the 2,640-mw Gidderbaha project is still to take off as finalization of coal linkages have been delayed. The 1320 mw Rajpura plant has only recently been awarded to Larsen and Toubro following a re-tendering process. This means Punjab will still have to wait for another three years to realise its goals on the power front.

 

Though efforts to strengthen the transmission system are likely to help, the government needs to invest in the power sector itself also rather than being dependent on private players only. It could invest in thermal stations at the pitheads in Bihar and Jharkhand besides investing in central projects to ensure it has a continuous access to reasonably priced power that it can use to fulfill its social commitments in the future also. 

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

NOW SHORTAGE IN HIMACHAL

RAKESH LOHUMI

 

With hydroelectric projects of 6,485 MW already commissioned, 6,341 MW under execution, 3,526 MW at the pre-implementation stage and another 5,651 MW under allotment Himachal Pradesh is on way to becoming the power house of the country. Yet the tiny hill state is not in a comfortable position and faces a shortage of power, thanks to the wrong policies of the government and its utter failure to carry out any sort of reforms in the over-staffed and highly inefficient state power utility even after implementation of the Electricity Act 2003.

 

A shortfall during the lean winter months, when the generation declines to almost 25 percent due to low discharge, has been a common feature. However, this year for the first time the state faced a shortage even during summer, forcing the state power utility to impose restrictions on industrial consumers. A decade ago the state was selling 1,100 to 1,200 mu (million units) of surplus power and the net inter-state sales exceeded 800 mu but this year there will be net deficit of 316 mu. The winter deficit has been projected at 816 mu of which 250 mu will be met by banking during summer and another 250 mu by contra-banking during winter.

 

The situation is not likely to ease at least for the next two years even though additional capacity of 600 MW will be added with the commissioning of Allain Duhangan, Malana-II, Budhil, Chamera-III and some mini and micro hydroelectric projects during the current financial year. The state will get only 12 percent free power as royalty from these project. The mega 1000 MW Karcham Wangtoo project is also fast nearing completion but it will provide relief to the neighbouring Punjab which has signed an agreement for the purchase of power at Rs 3 per unit.

 

The self-defeating policy of successive governments to allow power-guzzling arc and induction furnace-based steel units has led to a situation where the state utility is forced to purchase power every year at exorbitant prices and supply it at almost half the cost. The BJP made it a big issue during the Congress regime in 2003 and alleged corruption but , intriguingly, after coming to power it sanctioned many more such units even though power was not available, plunging the state in deeper environmental and financial mess.

 

The focus has been on allotment of projects to the private sector and the government is least bothered about their time-bound execution and providing requisite the transmission system. The transmission corporation has virtually remained non-functional because of the failure of the government to unbundle the board ,which itself could not spend more than 10 percent of the funds approved by the SERC for expanding the transmission network over the past three years.

 

As a result, projects are coming up without a transmission system being in place. While big companies executing Allain Duhungan and Karcham Wangtu had the resources to build their own lines, the small developers are a worried lot. With an identified potential of 23,000 MW to be harnessed about 850 big and small projects, mostly located in far-flung pockets, transmission infrastructure should have been the first priority. Even the "unbundling" of the board will not help much as bulk of the transmission assets are not being transferred to the state transmission utility under the model finalised by the government. Delay in unbundling has ruined the board which has accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 263 crore and running an overdraft of over Rs 700 crore.

 

Worse, despite the shortag,e the government has allowed the private companies to sell power outside undermining the state's long-term economic interests. The revenue from the power sector has increased from Rs 49 crore to Rs 1300 crore over the past six years but the government has not invested much in the power sector. It is the only state which has not gone for long-term agreements to meet the winter shortfall and it was among the last to approach the Centre for a proportionate share in various Ultra Mega Power Projects (UMPP) and as a result got 145 MW. The state could get some relief from power shortage only after 800 MW Kol Dam, 1350 MW Parbati and 412 MW Rampur project, which will come only in the 11th plan, only if the government scrupulously shuns power intensive units, reviews those in the pipeline and secures the right of refusal in private sector projects.

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

 

NO FRETTING IN HARYANA

GEETANJALI GAYATRI

 

Power, no matter how much of it is available, is always in short supply. Though a tad better than its "big brother" Punjab, Haryana is no exception to the rule this summer as the mercury continues to rise and there is no sign of the rain even as the paddy sowing season is nearly knocking at the door.

 

The widening gap between the rising demand and the inadequate supply from the state's own resources has forced the government to explore "greener pastures" to bail them out of all-weather peak-time blues.

 

If the summer heat's fury has meant a lot of sweat for the 50 lakh-odd consumers of the two power utilities, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam, as these invariably end up "over-loaded", the supply seems inadequate to handle the winter's bone-rattling chill too. So, there's never just enough for everybody.

 

While this year, too, the department has managed power with "outside help", it is at pains to explain that it won't be a summer the farmers, the residents and the industry, faced with unscheduled long-duration power cuts, fret and fume over.

 

In Haryana, so far, the demand has been hovering around 4,200 MW on an average. This very demand has shot up to 5,000 MW-mark as the sowing of paddy gathers pace.

 

In comparison, the state is chipping in with a mere 1,500 MW which will go up to about 2,000 MW once the units of power plants, shut down for repair, become functional. However, from all its sources pooled together, the department has put together a supply of nearly 4,500 MW which includes the purchase made especially to cater to the forthcoming paddy season.

 

The Power Department seems optimistic about its arrangements for the summer season, promising less sweat and more power to its consumers if all goes well. Against a supply of 16 hours to the industry, four hours to agriculture, 12 hours to the rural domestic consumers and 20 hours to the urban domestic consumers, the utilities claim to have given more than the hours fixed for supply in the weeks gone by.

 

While the supply to the agriculture sector has been increased to eight hours, putting an additional burden of about 1,000 MW to meet this requirement, the utilities are hopeful of being able to tide over the difficult period with the purchase agreements already in place to further augment the supply in the next three months.

The Managing Director, UHBVN, Arun Kumar, explains that the Power Department carried out an assessment of the demand and supply for the paddy season from June to September and identified the gaps in demand.

 

Based on the report, banking arrangements have been made with Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal , Orrisa , Assam and Kerala. While the Department has organised itself for the peak season, a number of units of various power projects will be commissioned over the next two years, taking the state towards self-sufficiency.

 

Giving details, the Power Secretary, Madhusudan Prasad, said, "The second unit of the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Project, Kheddar, will be synchronised on coal in the second week of June, the first unit of the Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project, Jhajjar, is slated to be commissioned in September this year while the second and third units will start generation in January and March next year. This is on a sharing basis between Haryana and Delhi. Then, the two units of the Mahatma Gandhi Super Thermal Power Plant, Jhajjar, will be commissioned in December 2011 and April 2012 respectively."

 

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MUMBAI MIRROR

VIEWS

OUR ADOLESCENT AUDIENCE

IN THIS SEASON OF DISCONTENT, IT IS ABOUT TIME INDIANS CELEBRATED RELEVANT, ADULT FILMS EVEN IF IT TAKES SOME SEX TO SERVE THEM UP

 

Half the year has passed us, and it is a time those of us in the movie review business may well call the season of discontent. Here we annually lament just how very bleak the year in film is looking, how film-makers we revere have let us down and how the rest of the year seems to hold no promise whatsoever. It's a painful refrain, and going on about how it only gets worse every year – and it does – makes one sound decidedly decrepit.
 Still, this is my first missive in this fresh new space and we ought mark the occasion by focussing on the positives. Indeed, 10 has been quite the dud thus far, bad eggs clearly outweighing the omelette-worthy. In fact, there have been all of two good films in these six months, two very impressive releases worthy of not just critical plaudits and hyperbolic encomiums, but also films that satisfy the bums-on-seats situation. Yes, these two are crowdpleasing works of brilliance, insight and humour but – and herein lies the fascinating rub – they are also both tremendously adult films.

 Abhishek Chaubey's Ishqiya plays with language in a manner both severely profane and casually profound, uses its music better than any film has in the last two decades, and gives us a femme fatale the likes of whom we haven't seen since… well, since folks like Guru Dutt and Vijay Anand – directors who could genuinely think Noir instead of xeroxing a scene and calling it a homage – passed on. It is a sharp, highly nuanced film that offers many a pleasure, not least of which is a glimpse into the Gorakhpur world of S&M roleplay.
   Dibakar Banerjee's Love Sex Aur Dhokha, meanwhile, breaks the rules and goes deliciously raw, and finally gives us a modern Hindi film edgy enough to celebrate. This is the first film that successfully surfs the New Wave we've been dreaming of awhile, a film about voyeurism that fills you with joy, makes you laugh, sickens you and reels you in. It bludgeons you with the truth, unpalatable and seamy, and the cast of newcomers shines even as the Delhi-lovin' director strikes again. And hard.

So what on earth does this mean? How are we suddenly making relevant, powerful, adult films while consummately bungling up everything else, from romantic fluff to farce to, literally, bloody epics? And audiences, flying in the face of conventional trade-punditry, are heralding these bold, sexy, important films while forgoing (most) mainstream buffoonery. Last year's Dev D cracked the dam, and now the deluge seems upon us.

It is quite incredible that two such mature films can flourish and receive unanimous acclaim, and this tiny phase of triumph must be seized upon before the multistarrers stultify the crowds again. Bollywood needs to relentlessly assault the viewers with genuine originality instead of letting it remain a flash in the pan.
 And if it takes some sex to bring them in, serve it up, by all means. Too long has our cinema ignored adults for the sake of family – well, I say leave the kids to Pixar and forge ahead with the grown-up stuff. Now is the time to push buttons, envelopes, boundaries. Get audiences hooked to piping hot awesomeness and they'll be back for more. Because right now, they seem pretty darned famished.

 

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EDITORIAL

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

GOM'S VIEWS A MIX OF HUMANISM, PRAGMATISM AND POLITICS

 

The Group of Ministers (GoM) that re-examined the legal, human and environmental issues pertaining to the infamous gas leak tragedy at the Bhopal unit of Union Carbide Limited in December 1984, has put together a mix of recommendations shaped by the government's humanism, pragmatism and extant political considerations. If the same decisions had been taken two decades ago, things would not have come to this pass. No single governmental functionary or business executive can be held responsible for the long and unfortunate delay in what is now being proposed to be done. Successive governments were not adequately sensitive to the cries of the victims and their survivors. Far too often did government officials and corporations take a legalistic view rather than a humane view, or indeed a political view. The political space vacated by mainstream political parties was filled by civil society activists who have kept the candle burning. A combination of circumstances, both domestic (like the insensitive comments of the minister for environment and forests about the toxicity of the premises) and external (like the US government's response to the oil spill) ignited a new passion that forced the government to re-examine its earlier positions. Regrettably, however, a large part of the renewed public debate has been excessively politicised, with both the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party seeking cheap political gains, and a lynch-mob mentality overtaking reasoned discourse on the options available today given the various legal and other developments over the past two decades.

 

The GoM should be complimented for sorting out issues and prioritising compensation. The government's first and most important responsibility is to the victims of the disaster and their survivors. Their health and livelihood needs must be first addressed. Second, the government must ensure that the factory premises and surrounding areas are cleaned up and rid of any traces of toxicity. Both these are the equal responsibility of the state and the central government. Third, the government must get the corporate entity involved, Dow Chemicals under the circumstances, to accept its moral, if not legal, responsibility and share the financial burden of what is now proposed. The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has shown its willingness to do something, the BJP government in the state must also do its job. Both parties owe it to the people to stop scoring cheap political points against each other. Finally, the government must re-examine the legal case against those responsible for the accident and close the case once and for all. The focus on the culpability of individuals like Keshub Mahindra and Warren Andersen has become excessively politicised. Too many causes, ranging from Luddite anti-industrialism to left-wing anti-Americanism, have sought to climb on the bandwagon of public anger against governmental and corporate insensitivity. The GoM's reasoned and balanced statement has restored sanity to the debate. The government must now complete the task at hand, so that the people of Bhopal can get on with their lives and India can return to the business of building modern industries.

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

SAVE AMUL, INDIA'S PRIDE

MD'S RESIGNATION OVER POLITICAL INTERFERENCE BODES ILL

 

The abrupt resignation of B M Vyas, managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand, several months before his term was to expire, signals a storm brewing over one of the most successful business experiments that India can truly call her own. On the face of it, there is nothing amiss in Mr Vyas laying down the mantle, which he has been carrying for over a decade, and particularly when he has reached 60, the usual age of superannuation in India. There is also no reason to believe that GCMMF is devoid of a second-rung leadership and Mr Vyas is personally indispensable. Hence a properly planned succession should have been already in the works. But this is not how events have unfolded. The provocation for Mr Vyas to put in his papers is apparently the Gujarat government decision to appoint state auditors for GCMMF instead of picking one from the panel of private auditors maintained by the cooperative. This act of the state government appears to be mischievous as there are no serious charges of financial irregularities floating around in the public space. Thus, political interference, or the threat of it, is what appears to have prompted Mr Vyas to throw in the towel. The GCMMF board is made up of political bigwigs of different hues but a government move to destabilise something so closely linked to Gujarat's pride as the Amul story cannot have been allowed to happen without a nod and a wink from the highest authority.

 

Parts of GCMMF's present woes go back to the stubborn refusal of its visionary leader V Kurien to undertake proper succession planning and, instead, over-staying his welcome well into his eighties. The legendary father of India's white revolution succeeded because he was able to function as a visionary manager without political interference in a cooperative setup, thus combining the best of professional management and stakeholder ownership. The lack of political interference enabled the Anand-type cooperatives to succeed when others didn't. Plus, the absence of a need to keep outside shareholders happy enabled GCMMF and its constituents to cock a snook at competing private dairies. However, Dr Kurien weakened the organisation he created by sticking to the saddle and not handing over the reins in a professional manner to the highly regarded Amrita Patel. The subsequent differences between GCMMF and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), that Dr Patel has led with distinction, have left an avoidable trail of problems that have hurt the pride and performance of both the institutions. Mr Vyas, who succeeded Dr Kurien and operated with his mentor's autonomy, has had the distinction of successfully introducing new value-added products like ice cream and not rely entirely on the sale of liquid milk. This helped GCMMF take on the challenge posed by NDDB and Mother Dairy. While GCMMF perfected the model in one state, NDDB secured the mandate to take the model national. If both the siblings created by Dr Kurien start to go downhill, then that would be a national tragedy which must be avoided at all cost.

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN: THE G20 AND 'CHERMANY'

THE GROUPING HAS INFLUENCED CHINA, BUT GERMANY WILL BE MORE DIFFICULT

ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN

Of all the major couplings that have gained prominence — Jairam Ramesh's "Chindia", Niall Ferguson's "Chimerica", and Martin Wolf's "Chermany" — it is very much the latter that is in the spotlight.

The announcement over the week-end by China to introduce greater exchange rate flexibility is unambiguously good news, provided, of course, that intent is followed up with some actual upward movement of the renminbi. Domestic economic imperatives, and specifically the role of currency appreciation in dampening overheating, have been widely credited as having influenced China's decision. But there is a mystery here. China's competitiveness was getting eroded by two sources: domestic wages and prices which are rising faster than in partner countries, and by the decline of the euro which, combined with China's peg to the dollar, was causing the renminbi to rise in trade-weighted terms. So, why is China, so wedded to the mercantilist export growth model, changing its policies to further aggravate the decline in competitiveness, especially when the global recovery is still looking shaky?

 This puzzle, of course, means that China deserves extra credit for its act of responsible international citizenship, for making its contribution to global re-balancing. From India's perspective, renminbi flexibility will help in two ways: Indian tradable goods industries will get some relief, and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can now deal with inflationary pressures more effectively, without the additional burden of worrying about the competitiveness consequences of further monetary tightening.

Beyond India, what broader lessons might one draw from China's policy change? The first and heartening lesson is that the G20 worked. It worked by allowing the renminbi to be converted from a bilateral US-China matter (on which little progress had been made for many years) to one in which a broader set of countries had a stake. The brave public pronouncements by the Brazilian central bank and India's RBI earlier this year reinforced this "multilateralisation" of China's currency undervaluation and helped play a constructive role.

True, the United States and its Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner played their cards skillfully, privately chiding and cajoling China without allowing the negativity to spill into the public domain. It is also true that recent sabre-rattling by the US Congress to impose trade measures against Chinese exports may have played a role in persuading China. But that cannot be a decisive explanation because the US Congress has sabre-rattled in the past, often louder, without much impact on China.

Multilateralising the currency issue had two positive effects. It forced China to confront the weight of a broader swath of international public opinion and hence to take more seriously the international consequences of its currency policy. And it also made the politics of changing policy less difficult for China, which can portray the currency move not as a caving in to bilateral US pressure but as responding to the wider international community. That the announcement came a week before the next G20 summit is telling.

The euphoria of crisis-induced cooperation was giving way to cynicism about the G20's ability to induce similar cooperation during "normal" times, when self-interest asserts itself with a vengeance. But the Chinese action is a welcome jolt to that cynicism. Regardless of what happens at the G20 Summit in Toronto over this weekend, the grouping can already count the change in China's currency policy as its victory.

The second implication relates to the "Chermany" coupling. With China having made its contribution, or announced its contribution, to global re-balancing, it is time to demand the same of Germany, which is the other large surplus country in the world economy. Germany has just received a steroidal boost of competitiveness with the decline of the euro. Where China was an intentional mercantilist, Germany has become an accidental mercantilist: "its" currency has declined because the weak economies of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland also share that currency. The irony is that a strong Germany benefited from being yoked to the weak PIIGS. Its current account surplus will now increase even further, aggravating the global imbalance problem.

How has Germany responded? As it always does: by embracing fiscal consolidation. It has indulged its instinct for rectitude that is etched into its collective DNA at the expense of its international responsibilities.

Some have excused this action on the grounds that the tightening involved would be small and back-loaded. But this misses the key point. Germany's action has the wrong sign: it should be expanding demand, not just for the sake of global re-balancing but to provide some growth impetus to its dire southern European neighbours. But it is doing the opposite.

So, one interesting question going forward is this: Will Germany be amenable to international persuasion? The short answer probably is no. Germany could well prove to be an even more difficult partner than China has been for a number of reasons. For one, any signs of outside pressure will lead Europe to rally behind Germany. But the more difficult obstacle will be ideological.

It was easy to rail against mercantilism which, regardless of its intellectual pedigree, has doubtful moral connotations: mercantilism involves doing well but at someone else's expense. Fiscal consolidation, on the other hand, has the aura of moral correctness and virtue. Fiscal consolidation serves to protect future generations. That the consequences of book-balancing will inflict pain and suffering on the current generation only lends it additional virtue as Keynes pointed out. How much more unselfish can a society get? It is a virtuous rejoinder to Groucho Marx's question: "Why should I do anything for posterity? Has posterity ever done anything for me?"

The battle to get Germany to shed its visceral need to always balance the books will, therefore, pit the reckless, today's appetite-slakers against the prudent, deferred gratificationists, the far-sighted custodians of tomorrow, of the future, of our children. Articulated this way, as it increasingly is, this contest is turning out to be no contest at all. The Keynesians are losing comprehensively. And because of that, Germany-bashing is unlikely to yield the success, albeit delayed and minimal, that international pressure on China has.

So, as the travelling road-show that is now the G20 moves to Toronto, the intriguing thought that arises is this: Can the G20, which has had a useful role in averting a global catastrophe in managing to influence a policy change in China, also have a role in getting a G7 country to shed its basic but neighbour-unfriendly instincts? If so, the world will really have changed. For the better.

The author is senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and Center for Global Development

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

LET'S BUILD A FEW CHANDIGARHS

IF YOU CAN FIND THE SPACE TO BUILD A CITY FOR A MILLION, THEN PLANNED SEQUENCING AND INCENTIVES CAN CHANGE GEOGRAPHY IN FIVE YEARS

SUBIR ROY

All thought of meeting the urban challenge before the country — creating the equivalent of 10 new Mumbais to accommodate 250 million in the next 20 years — is centred on growing existing urban spaces incrementally. But retrofitting urban centres so that they can both grow and be more livable is an almost insurmountable task. The country has neither the governance wherewithal nor the resources needed. Despite this, the one option that is almost instinctively discounted is greenfield cities. Chandigarh remains the only new independent city of any consequence built in independent India. Not only is the vision needed to dream new cities gone, getting the land has emerged as an almost impossible hurdle in the last few years.

 But technological progress in the last 15 years gives some hope. Today, geographical information system technology has captured an incredible amount of digital manipulable data on not just what is on the ground but even under it. To this can be added the software that makes possible overlay analysis, superimposing one map on another. Armed with these two tools, it becomes surprisingly easy and cheap to do the following:

First leave out all the forests, populated areas and intensively cultivated tracks. You are then left with either barren or single-cropped, rainfed, thinly populated areas where subsistence farmers will, if anything, be happy to hand over their land in exchange for a share in a new productive venture. Now look underground to see where there are deep aquifers to meet future water needs. And finally see which of these areas are within 50 km or so of either a railway line or a highway.

From this exercise you can select a handful of contiguous areas, each of 5,000 acres or more, which can become the locations for greenfield cities housing a million each, born out of the confidence and capabilities that 9 per cent growth and newly acquired technological prowess have created. Why 5,000 acres? A minimum critical mass is needed for people to be able to live, work and entertain themselves without having to go out to meet these needs. Conversations with builders suggest that with this much of development in one location, it will be possible to amortise the cost of infrastructure within a very attractive per-square-foot real estate price, enabled by land bought cheaply from marginal farmers. All that the government will need to do is provide a high-speed rail or road link.

Then follow two steps — one easy but the other almost insurmountable. The easy bit is creating a hype over these future cities so as to fire people's imagination. Just as a Frenchman, Le Corbusier, designed Chandigarh, India can invite some of the best architects in the world to design some of these cities. In recent years, there is a global trend for cities to get cross-border talent to design their new distinctive public buildings, the main Olympic stadium in Beijing being among the most recent. Who will not want to live in an affordable, beautiful new city with better quality of life than available anywhere else in the country, provided you get there all that you take for granted in a city?

Here comes the catch. Builders say populating such a city, selling or even renting most of the space created, will take too long in the sense that the payback period will stretch to 10 years or more, making the project unviable. The dilemma is three-fold. You need a big enough development for it to be mixed-use and self-contained; you cannot do it incrementally — expecting people to move in and wait for the hospital to come up once there are enough patients, and selling or even renting millions of square feet of space in one go become almost impossible. See how DLF abandoned two large projects — Dankuni in West Bengal, because the government could not deliver land, and Bidadi near Bangalore, because the property market went bust. If you assume that 50 per cent of the space in a city goes for common areas like roads, parks and water works, a 5,000-acre development means having to sell well over 100 million sq ft. If this seems daunting, remember that over the next 20 years, the country's urban population will be growing on average at the rate of a million a month.

Offices and their employees can move in once local transport, hospitals, schools and shops are there. The precursor of any large development is a tent city. With these come a minimum of transport, health care and retail (shops) services. The construction people who build such projects go there because of incentives. These have to be factored in.

Builders say it will be particularly difficult to sell space to a school or a hospital. So, we may have to amend our earlier statement that the government need only pay for the rail or road spur linking the new city to civilisation. The government may have to heavily subsidise the real estate cost of schools and hospitals. The "gap-filling approach", now used for national highway projects, will have to be adopted.

The challenge is to get the first 20 per cent of people to come in, almost at one go. Once that happens, the rest can follow. The incentive to move into such a city will be the cost of acquiring a superior quality of life at a highly affordable price. My sense is that if you can find the space to build a city for a million with enough water and a proper rail or road link, then planned sequencing and incentives can change geography in five years. The benefits of that will accrue for the next hundred or more.

subirkroy@gmail.com

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

SOME COMPENSATION, FINALLY

BUT DON'T IMPOSE A PRIORI CAPS

 

THE recommendation of a Rs 1,500-crore package for victims of the Bhopal gas carnage by the group of ministers (GOM), while being an implicit admission that justice, including adequate compensation, has been delayed and, so far, denied, is nonetheless welcome. The GOM, which was set up after a Bhopal court recently handed out light sentences to a handful of accused in the 1984 disaster, causing widespread outrage, has sought to address some of the key issues. These include more compensation for the affected people, cleaning up the site and pursuing Dow Chemicals to bear the costs. It is now critical to remember that this compensation must be fairly and justly handed out. There is, for example, huge variance between the number of dead (whose kin will now get Rs 10 lakh as compensation) according to government figures and those put out by activists and other groups. A capping of such figures by the government would mean rubbing salt on the wounds of many of the victims and their families. There is the valid argument that false claims should be prevented. But, equally, there would be many cases where it can be clearly established that a death or a disability or illness occurred directly as a result of the gas leak and attendant exposure. A mechanism, perhaps even a fresh survey of the victims and creating unique Ids of all those compensated, must be established to sort out genuine claims from any fraudulent ones.

 So far, it has been a shoddy story of people accountable for one of the world's worst industrial disasters evading justice, the victims enduring inhuman suffering, and the site of the accident continuing to poison lives and the land. Equally shrouded in infamy has been the government's response till now, and the failure of the judicial process to deliver any remedy. The recent court ruling has now linked industrial safety and accountability to senior management and officials. But chasing Dow for compensation or seeking the extradition of officials may yet be a long, torturous legal affair. For now, given that the government has taken a step to address the issue of compensation, it must implement it in the fullest possible measure. The victims of December 3, 1984, Bhopal, and their descendants have been left to fend for themselves far too long.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WATERSHED REFORMS...

...NEEDED TO TACKLE THE CRISIS

 

 THE steady progress of the monsoons ought to refocus policy attention on India's deeply stressed water economy. There are fast rising demands on water resources generally, together with poorly governed supply systems, with the result that overall balances are precarious. What is worse, there's increasingly reckless mining of groundwater, and aquifer depletion is concentrated in many of the most populated and economically significant areas. Now, we have a highly seasonal pattern of rainfall — about half the precipitation falls in just 15 days. And yet our water storage infrastructure is woefully inadequate, barely enough for 30 days of rainfall, compared to 900 days in the major river basins abroad. Hence the vital need to shore up rainwater harvesting and tank irrigation, and have in place a proactive policy for sustainable water usage. In tandem, the way ahead is to augment public irrigation and water supply services with participatory management, transparency and reasonable user charges. Yet the notion that supply-side solutions would take care of the problem may not gel with the facts and ground realities.

 Consider, for instance, the fact of excessive groundwater drawal and rapidly falling water tables. Over the last two decades, as much as 84% of total addition to the net irrigated area has been groundwater linked. Also, groundwater now provides for over 70% of the irrigated area and about 80% of domestic needs. Already, as many as 15% of aquifers are in a critical condition, and the mavens say the figure would rise to 60% over the next two decades without remedial policy action. Hence the pressing need for dramatic transformation in the way water services are provided for households, agriculture and industry. The policy emphasis must be on entitlements, sustainability and accountability, including provision of water supply by cooperatives and via public-private partnerships. In parallel, we do need to refurbish the large stock of dilapidated water infrastructure and also boost investment for surface water supplies. Groundwater extraction needs to be linked to recharge. The growing crisis in the water sector needs a groundswell of policy initiatives.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

HAVE FUN OR TRAIN NON-STOP!

HOW TO WIN THE WORLD CUP

 

 BOREDOM has been identified as a key factor behind England's apathetic performance in the ongoing football World Cup. When England disappointed in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, critics attributed it to players having too much of a good time in the company of what the British tabloids call WAGS (wives and girlfriends). Critics now say England's no-nonsense current manager Fabio Capello has gone to the other extreme by creating a bootcamp culture at the training centre in South Africa. Winger Joe Cole, who was not played in England's first two drawn games against the lower-ranked USA and Algeria, was quoted as saying that "you can't suck the fun out of football." Striker Wayne Rooney, who has so far failed to live up to expectations, was a tad more subtle when he described the daily routine as "breakfast, training, lunch, bed, dinner, bed". Rooney added, "there are only so many games of darts and snooker you can play."

 With England registering just two points and having to win their last group-game against Slovenia on Wednesday to make it to the second round, English fans are not prepared to accept any excuses from their team, which bookies rated just a fortnight ago as the third favourite to win the World Cup after Spain and Brazil. An angry fan lashed out on BBC correspondent Phil McNulty's blog that "when many of the team earn over £100,000 a week, you simply can't defend this performance." Another fan advised Rooney to get inspired by reading books about Pele or about England's World Cup winning team of 1966! England's only consolation is that traditional rival, France, is faring even worse. With French striker Anelka being sent back home after abusing the manager and with the team then refusing to train, the British tabloid Sun has headlined this as 'French Revolution Two'!

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

TRUE DRIVER OF INDIA-US PARTNERSHIP

WHILE THE GOVERNMENTS CAN MAKE CONTRIBUTIONS IN AREAS OF MUTUAL INTEREST, THE BULK OF THE LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WILL BE BUILT ON BUSINESS AND INDIVIDUAL CONTACTS OUTSIDE OF THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR, SAYS ARVIND PANAGARIYA

 

FOLLOWING the conclusion of the first India-US strategic dialogue, commentators in the Indian press have nearly uniformly expressed frustration with the lack of action under the Obama administration. To judge whether this dissatisfaction is grounded in reality, we must first ask whether each country has enough reason to invest in a close relationship with the other in the first place.

From the Indian perspective, there seem to be sufficient reasons for an affirmative answer. Accounting for almost a quarter of the world's GDP, the United States is by far the largest economy in the world. It is also the only super power on the globe and likely to remain so in the foreseeable future. It is a democracy that values other democracies. And, finally, it is by far the largest single recipient of India exports of goods and services. If we seek rising economic prosperity and increasing voice in the world affairs, America is a good bet.
   An affirmative answer seems less clear-cut from the US perspective, at least on the surface. True, India is by far the world's largest democracy. But this cannot be a game changer by itself since it has been true for the last 60 years. At $1.25 trillion, Indian economy is just a little more than 2% of the world economy. Globally, it ranks a low 11th in terms of the economic size, ranking behind China and Brazil. Above all, India accounts for less than 2% of the US exports and imports.

 Seen in this context, the puzzle is not why the Obama administration is not doing more to promote ties with India but how India has come to command so much attention on the global stage. The main explanation of this puzzle lies in where the United States sees India going in the next 15 to 20 years.

 In the last seven years, India has grown 11-12% per year in real dollars. Based on the current dynamism in the economy, high and rising savings rate, a young population that is expected to grow younger and the past experiences of countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and China, India can be reasonably expected to sustain a 10% growth in real dollars over the next 15 years. This would turn the country into a $5 trillion economy catapult it into the fourth, if not third, position worldwide, behind only the US, China and Japan. No forward-looking nation — least of all the US — would ignore an economy with such potential.

 But this is not the only factor working in favour of a partnership with India. American perceptions of India are also shaped by the vast numbers of highly successful Indians — a large majority of them first-generation immigrants — that they see around them. While the presence of Indians in the US is not new, their phenomenal success is. In the last 15 years, their influence in the tech and finance industries and higher education has grown as that of no other single group. A year ago, when microprocessor giant Intel decided to put its employees in its TV commercials, the first person it chose was Ajay Bhatt, the inventor of the USB port who had received his first engineering degree in the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. And to ensure that his Indian origins are not lost upon the viewers, it replaced the real Bhatt by an even more Indian-looking moustached actor!

COMPLEMENTING this feature is the presence of 100,000 students from India on the US campuses. The US leadership recognises that these are not any 100,000 students. Instead, they are among the brightest young men and women anywhere who would be among the movers and shakers of tomorrow around the globe. And this flow is likely to continue. Therefore, as a country that looks ahead, the US has plenty of good reasons to seek a longterm partnership with India.

 

Therefore, it is no surprise that during the first India-US strategic dialogue, the US took great pains to counteract the impression that it lacked enthusiasm for India in any way. The secretary of state Hillary Clinton warmly wrote in the Times of India about what this partnership meant to her and President Obama did the unusual by dropping in on the reception at the state department in honour of the visiting Indian external affairs minister S M Krishna.

 

How do we then explain the continuing frustration among the commentators in the Indian press? The answer perhaps is that outside of the highly complex security area, there is very little beyond the atmospherics that the governments can do to promote partnerships. Even commentators who deplore the US for failing to match its words with action and exhort it to move beyond symbolism do not offer a concrete set of actions they would like the latter to take. Demands for the removal of certain export controls and access to or extradition of David Headley, which find frequent mentions, do not make a coherent agenda.

While the governments can make some contribution in areas of mutual interest such as research in agriculture and clean energy, cooperation in science and technology and higher education and possibly dialogue on trade and climate change issues, the bulk of the long-term relationship will be built on business-to-business and individualto-individual contacts outside of the government sector, as has been the case to-date. The outsourcing relationship between the two countries did not have its origins in any US government decision to promote it. Nor did the American investors in India or Indian investors in America end up in their respective destinations because their governments placed them there. While continuing dialogue has signalling value, the ultimate key to achieving a true partnership remains sustained rapid growth that turns India into a $5 trillion economy in no more than 15 years.

 

 (The author is a professor at Columbia University and Non-resident Senior    Fellow at the Brookings Institution)

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

FAC E—O F F

SHOULD INTEREST RATES BE RAISED NOW?

AMIT MITRA

SECRETARY GENERAL FICCI

NO, INVESTMENTS WILL BE CHOKED

THE decision to hike, or not to hike the interest rate at this juncture must depend not only on the tools of the 'science' of economics, but also on the art of 'intuition', bordering on wisdom. The hard data, both global and domestic, does not provide auniform and reliable story. The data offers contraindications and a risk prone future. This is why we argue, based partly on insights from the Ficci research, that there is a formidable danger in initiating an interest rate hike, here and now.

 

The global recovery is at a watershed. US unemployment rate in May stood at 9.3% and EU unemployment rate was at 9.7% in April. And then, there is Damocles' sword of an EU financial crisis, post the Greece imbroglio. Even India's own recovery, based purely on the index of industrial production (IIP) data, has undertones of statistical aberrations.

 

 An interest rate hike at a time when the industry is struggling to return to a high growth trajectory will adversely impact investments. Although we recognise the implications of a delayed exit, the cost associated with exiting prematurely, could prove costlier.

 

The IIP has seen some meaningful increase only since October 2009. It rose for the seventh straight month in April at 17.6%, fuelled by the uncanny growth in the capital goods sector which is due to the 'base effect'. This could moderate from June onwards.

 

The manufacturing sector is also facing supply constraints as is evident from the rise in prices of certain basic raw materials and industrial inputs. Therefore, fostering investment to generate supply is critical now and a hike in interest rate could choke off its potential.

 

There is also a threat of a liquidity squeeze arising out of 3G payment obligations, advance tax payments, combined with a European crisis which could slow down liquidity inflow through global sources. Given these imponderables, a spike in borrowing cost could put India's expansion mode on a back foot. We can only hope that the RBI will combine economic analysis with its intuitive powers to arrive at a wise decision

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

GU EST COLU M N

 

CHILD UNDERNUTRITION UNDERESTIMATED?

R GAIHA, R JHA & V S KULKARNI

 

POVERTY is multi-dimensional and money-metric indicators such as minimum income or expenditure cannot adequately capture all these dimensions. Attention has therefore shifted to other indicators such as health status that relate more closely to basic capabilities of individuals. As Amartya Sen has reminded us, the correspondence between basic capabilities (e.g., to live a healthy and productive life) and level of income is typically weak. It is, therefore, not surprising that welfare indicators including income/expenditure, health and education reflect a diverse pattern in India. While most indicators have continued to improve, social progress has followed diverse patterns, ranging from accelerated progress in some fields to slowdown and even regression in others. Specifically, a composite index of undernutrition of children under five years is about 60% — or, six out of 10 children are undernourished — tells a grim story of how 'nasty, brutish and short' their lives aretells a grim story of how 'nasty, brutish and short' their lives are, as sketched below.

 

The most commonly used anthropometric measures are stunting (low height for age), wasting (low weight for height) and underweight ((low weight for age). Stunting is an indicator of chronic undernutrition, attributable to prolonged food deprivation, and/or disease or illness; wasting is an indicator of acute undernutrition, caused by more recent food deprivation or illness; underweight is an indicator of both acute and chronic undernutrition. Children whose measurements fall below a certain threshold of the reference population, based on recent WHO standards, are considered undernourished: stunted, wasted or underweight.

 

An important feature of these indicators is the overlap between them: some children who are stunted will also have wasting and/or be underweight; those who have wasting will also be stunted or and/or underweight. So there is a need for a more comprehensive measure of child undernutrition. Such a measure is implemented in Gaiha, R, R Jha and Vani S Kulkarni (2010) 'Child Undernutrition in India', Canberra, Australian National University, mimeo.

 

 Following Peter Svedberg, who has done important work on child undernutrition in India, a new aggregate indicator is constructed that encompasses all undernourished children, be they wasted and/or stunted and /or underweight. This is the composite index of anthropometric failure (CIAF).

 

The accompanying table points to more pervasive anthropometric failure in terms of the CIAF relative to conventional indicators of being underweight, stunted or wasted. The CIAF is about 59% (or, 6 out of 10 children are undernourished). Among the subcategories, stunting and underweight, and stunting alone account for well over half of the CIAF. Children who fail in all three dimensions (simultaneously wasted, stunted and underweight) account for a non-negligible share (13.5%). The underweight alone account for the lowest share (about 6%).

 

 Recent evidence suggests that children suffering from more than one anthropometric failure are more susceptible to infectious diseases (e.g., diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection) than those suffering from no failure or just one failure. Worse, these diseases are associated with high risks of child mortality. Our analysis confirms that, except for wasted and underweight and stunted only, in all other cases the prevalence of diarrhoea was higher than in the reference group of no failure. In fact, the highest prevalence rate was among children who were simultaneously stunted and underweight, and those who were wasted, underweight and stunted.

Our analysis of determinants of CIAF yields some new insights. Briefly, the larger the number of five-year old children, the greater is the competition for food and health care, and the higher is the undernutrition. Maternal education reduces it, as it is linked to better child care and healthier diets. Quality of kitchen —whether it has a vent — contributes to more hygienic living conditions. Above all, the higher the income, the lower is child undernutrition. Somewhat surprising is the significant role of food prices in child undernutrition, as changes in relative prices induce substitutions between food commodities and in nutrient intake. Of particular significance, therefore, are prices of sugar, eggs and vegetables. While the price of milk is also positively related to undernutrition, the effect is not so robust. Lowering these prices is thus likely to contribute significantly to reduction in undernutrition. As food price stabilisation continues to elude policymakers, an option is to ensure better distribution of food through the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Another priority is awareness building for hygienic living while female literacy grows. Although NREGS has contributed to livelihood expansion, problems abound in targeting the poorest.

 

Thus, a wide range of interventions is necessary that transcend income growth acceleration to ameliorate child undernutrition.

 (Raghav Gaiha is at MIT & University of Delhi, Raghbendra Jha is at Australian National University and Vani S Kulkarni is at Yale University)

 

Six out of 10 children under six years are undernourished, cuttting their life span
Lowering prices of sugar, vegetables and eggs will reduce undernutrition Else, the government should ensure better distribution of food through ICDS

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

CO S M I C U P LI N K

ALL ABOUT FAITH AND FEET

VITHALC NADKARNI

 

IT'S more than just an ad. The three-minute 'Write the future' film, first shown during last month's European Club Final, captures that moment of truth when colours, but not colour, suddenly matter; when headlines get written from a single pass or strike which brings abject misery or triumphal exultation to entire nations — as, for instance, when Spain loses to Switzerland — when the world's collective imagination gets hijacked by a sport turned into secular religion.

 

But this phenomenon emerged only recently. As a blogger notes, the days following World War II had "great masses of people who considered the game to be a pre-historic pastime, a sporting brontosaurus on its way to extinction". Their image of football was of "socially disenfranchised men passing through creaking turnstiles and standing on crumbling terraces beneath dishwater grey skies when players (had) bad haircuts, bad shorts and bad prospects".

 

Then the great makeover happened. Overnight, the world as we know changed as the pop prophet Bono promised it would. The medium became the message only to rewrite the world's TRP history. Football became "a post-modern religion," as the late Catalan writer, Manuel Varquez Montalban wrote, "one that was perfectly in tune with the commercial needs of mankind, intrinsically linked to business and consumerism. Its cathedrals were stadiums, its gods footballers, its faithful the millions of fans, who not only participated in this ritual every matchday, but practised their faith on a daily basis, thinking about and reflecting on the deeds of their gods."

But it would not be prudent to push that image further: because you might end up with a 'Hand of Clod' sort of self-goal that had British tabloids in a tizzy. For all that euphoria, the transcendence provided by football, alas, is only temporary. Of course, it embodies a 'kinetic beauty (which David Foster Wallace said "was not the goal of competitive sport"). So what does Prophet Bono mean when he says, "One game changes everything"? The Mbombela Statium (which literally means 'many people in a small space') that cost $137 million to build will host only four games, a total of six hours of the beautiful game. After that which of the professional teams would return to patronise it? Still, one should be grateful for small mercies. We shouldn't blame the game for our sins.Ke Nako!

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

GOM ON BHOPAL: A LOT MORE TO BE DONE1

From all available indications, it appears the action plan suggested by the Group of Ministers to secure justice for the victims of Bhopal might be less than adequate. Had the GoM done its homework properly and gone into the voluminous documentation of the victims' betrayal by the administration and the judiciary, it could have issued a comprehensive roadmap to tackle all aspects of the Bhopal gas disaster. It might not be too late even now for the Prime Minister to place the GoM's recommendations before an all-party committee, as well as the organisations fighting on behalf of the victims for the past quarter century, before it is put up before the Union Cabinet on Friday. This might help ensure that justice is done in full measure. Acting on this half-baked plan would only perpetuate the injustice, and a futile effort to convince people that the government was doing something! The much-hyped Rs 1,300-crore package for the victims is just peanuts — if you consider the 1989 value of the dollar, this amounts to just Rs 350 crores. Trying to get back Warren Anderson, then chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, is undoubtedly welcome, but what about other individuals who too were responsible? The CBI was stopped in its criminal investigation of UCC officials like Warren Womar, whose criminal neglect of the operations manual might have led to the gas leak? Bhopal's chief judicial magistrate had issued a letter rogatory in July 1988 for the CBI to interrogate these officials, but this was later scuttled by the Centre. The GoM's recommendation that the Indian Council of Medical Research undertake a study on the health impact of the gas tragedy over the next 15 years is also welcome, but isn't it a cruel joke on the victims? Most inexplicable of all was the GoM's attempts to deal with Dow Chemicals, the American company that eventually acquired Union Carbide Corporation, with velvet gloves. This was unbecoming of a country of India's standing, indeed of any sovereign state. The Prime Minister would do well to seek further expert legal advice on this aspect, rather than simply go by the ministerial panel's recommendation. It is also a bit alarming that the GoM has placed the onus for cleaning up the disaster site on the Madhya Pradesh government. This is a bit like US President Barack Obama asking the governor of Louisiana to clean up the colossal BP oil spill mess in the Gulf of Mexico! Neither the state government nor indeed the Government of India has the technical knowhow to handle chemical toxic waste of this nature. In August 2006, the technical subcommittee of the task force for removal of toxic waste had said the entire toxic waste should be transported to the US for appropriate remediation. This has been done before in the case of Hindustan Lever, which transported 290 tonnes of contaminated mercury waste from HLL's thermometer factory at Kodaikanal to the US for remediation under the principle of "polluter pays." In Bhopal, however, this principle was shamelessly forgotten by the then state government and its pollution board.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

MANIPUR BESIEGED

BY INDER MALHOTRA

As should have been anticipated, the "temporary" withdrawal by the Naga Students Federation (NSF) of the horrendous 10-week blockade of Manipur has meant no relief to the long-suffering people of the state numbering more than two million. Of the two reasons for this, the foreseeable one is the refusal so far of Manipur's own Nagas, organised under the banner of the All Naga Students Association Manipur (ANSAM), to accept the decision of the NSF that represents the people of Nagaland. Hopefully, the efforts to persuade ANSAM to see reason would succeed soon. But then a sudden new hurdle to the free flow of traffic along the beleaguered National Highway 39 has cropped up.

The truckers in the region have gone on strike because they want protection from "extortion" by multiple groups of "extremists", to say nothing of bribes demanded by government officials. Because they have been subjected to this tyranny for decades, their demand cannot be called unreasonable. Yet, a quick solution to this problem, even an interim one, has to be found so that the people deprived of food, life-saving drugs, petrol, cooking gas and other essential supplies can revert to a semblance of normal life.

However, even if the truckers agree to resume work, the woes of Manipur would not end. For, the withdrawal of the agitation by two rival sets of students would be temporary in every sense of the word and subject to revocation at any moment. Moreover, and no less importantly, the underlying reasons for the bitter hostility and consequent conflict between Manipur and Nagaland, on the one hand, and between Manipur tribes, including Kukis and Nagas, living in state's hill districts and the majority population of Meities residing in the Imphal Valley, on the other, are so bewilderingly complex that they are practically insoluble. These will be discussed to the extent possible presently. First, we must face squarely the paramount cause why not just Manipur but the entire Northeast has been reduced to such a perilous state.

It is the stark failure of the Indian state to do its elementary duty in the chronically troubled region — a failure that is chronic but has attracted attention only during the current crisis in Manipur. As the current rage and revelations about the Bhopal gas tragedy 25 years ago shows, nothing like good governance exists anywhere in this country, irrespective of which party is in power either at the Centre or in the states. At its best governance everywhere in India is perfunctory, even shoddy. Otherwise, no one in Bhopal would have allowed a highly congested cluster of housing to come up around the factory producing a highly dangerous and poisonous gas. Or callously ignored repeated warnings about the world's worst industrial accident waiting to happen. The horror of horrors is that all governments, Central and state, have let the toxic waste lie around the disused Bhopal factory for more than a quarter of a century, without anyone being called to account.

However, the misfortune of the Northeast is that it is denied even the kind of bad and blundering governance that prevails in, say, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Baroda, Barabanki or Burdwan. Just look back at the enormity of what has gone on in relation to Manipur since April 11 and it becomes distressingly clear that the Indian state has virtually washed its hands off the area. The monstrosity of Manipur siege had gone on for full two months before the Union home ministry took the trouble to announce that it would send Central forces to clear the lifeline to Manipur. It did nothing of the sort, of course, because by that time leaders of the NSF had arrived in Delhi to meet the Prime Minister. They condescended to lift the blockade temporarily. They even delivered on their promise but to no avail because of the stand-off between the two Naga student outfits.

Of the various factors behind the abdication of all governmental responsibility in the seven sisters of Northeast India the most lamentable is New Delhi's penchant to look upon the region as a "far-away land of which we know so little and care even less". This approach is compounded by the vague notion that all north-eastern states are alike while the reality is that each state is different from the other six. Indeed, almost each of these states has a diversity of ethnicities within its borders. This should explain the ferocity of the disputes between Manipur and Nagaland because the latter's demand for Greater Nagaland embracing the Kuki and Naga districts of Manipur. That, in turn, should explain why the Manipur government barred the Nagaland leader, T. Muivah (who is engaged in protracted negotiations with the Central government to "settle" the Naga issue) from visiting his ancestral village that lies in Manipur. This was the beginning of the Manipur blockade. But ANSAM has no sympathy for Muivah. It wants Manipur besieged because the Meiti-dominated state government has ordered elections in autonomous districts without any consensus on either the timing of the poll or the law under which it is to be held.

Secondly, the Indian state and society have conspired to establish the principle that whoever has a grievance, actual or imaginary, has a right to burn trains, uproot railway lines, torch buses and block thoroughfares with impunity. However, in the heartland this happens only for a few days at a time. It goes on in the periphery for months even though in this part of India, the few highways constitute the people's lifeline.

Since nothing is more contagious than bad example, the unspeakable khap Jats of Haryana have threatened to besiege Delhi if the law on Hindu marriages is not changed in accordance with their wishes immediately. Would they be shown the same tolerance as that to the vandals blockading Manipur?

Finally, we have got used to listening to long lectures on human rights of even the murderers of innocent citizens. Do lakhs and lakhs of law-abiding citizens have no human or fundamental right to lead a normal and peaceful life, to be able to move around freely and to get their food and other necessaries at normal, not astronomical, prices?

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

MARADONA: WORLD CUP'S 'LOOSE VUVUZELA'

BY ROGER COHEN

JOHANNESBURG

They're calling him the World Cup's "loose vuvuzela". They're swooning as he spreads the love, jumping into his players' arms like some cuddly bear with diamond earrings and no neck.

They can't get enough of his deadpan quotes, as when he responds to a question about his kiss-and-hug management style by saying he still prefers women, specifically his girlfriend "Veronica who is blonde and 31".

At 49, Diego Armando Maradona is neither blonde nor 31. But he is Mr Unscripted in the age of spin, the Hugo Chávez of global soccer. As coach of an outrageously talented Argentine team, one thrown together in the image of his own extravagant skills, Maradona is having a good World Cup.

To genius much is permitted. And so it should be.

The contrast with some of Maradona's more pinched rivals, including the French coach Raymond Domenech and the England manager Fabio Capello, could not be more extreme. Domenech wears the expression of a man who'd rather be reading Foucault as "Les Bleus" implode and then take to the barricades in open mutiny.

As for Capello, he's imposed a regimen so strict that his players, deprived of their WAGs (wives and girlfriends), look vaguely unhinged. Many European prisons allow conjugal visits; not Capello. Wayne Rooney has gone on a walkabout. The body language of the English players suggests dead men walking.

England right now is to football what the vuvuzela is to music: one note going nowhere.

I've had my doubts about Capello since he stripped John Terry of the English captaincy earlier this year because he had an affair. For an Italian, that seemed a little rich. Discipline is all very well, but Terry's a leader and would have led. England doesn't do the barricades, but insurrection is close.

So here we are, 10 days into the first African World Cup, a power-shift event. And it's proving a nice illustration of the effectiveness of asymmetrical warfare.

Traditional powers with the big guns are struggling: Italy, France, England — even Germany and Spain. The insurgents — Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovenia, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico — are pulling off deadly ambushes (and for once the gutsy Americans are not targets.) Switzerland, in its 1-0 defeat of Spain, proved unpredictable for the first time in history. The cuckoos lost their clocks.

Even North Korea, with zero fans — Kim Jong-ii would not allow them out of his police state — showed surprising tenacity until their Portuguese debacle. They've been using a public gym ("Virgin Active" in Eco Park) to train because they could not afford a facility.

Sorry, they do have 100 "fans", a platoon of Chinese nationals hired by Pyongyang and not available for interview. In the realm of the bizarre, this outfit runs Maradona close.

But the Argentine coach — who tried more than 100 players during the qualifying rounds — wins. He's already told Pelé to "go back to the museum". He's dismissed the UEFA president, Michel Platini, as a know-all (before mumbling an apology).

In shiny suit and shiny brogues, he prowls the demarcated pitch-side area during matches, kicking imaginary balls, looking every inch the caged coach. When it's over he plants a kiss on each player. No Foucault for him, no training manual, no teleprompter, no quote masseur. He'll go with the wisdom of the Buenos Aires shanties.

I said genius. Maradona had it. His "goal of the century" in the 1986 quarter-final against England, when he weaved past six players, lives in memory, as does his "Hand of God" effort in the same game. Both were outrageous. His battles against drugs and obesity since retirement have been as public as they were painful. Like his country, which has every gift but often squandered them as it meandered through the 20th century, he's veered this way and that.

But passion never left him. Maradona knows there's no ballet without a prima ballerina.

In the age of the smothering midfield — using not one but two defensive midfield players is the new, new thing here — Maradona is having none of it. He's playing a winger of silky skills, Angel Di María, the rampaging Carlos Tévez, and that clinical poacher, Gonzalo Higuaín. Above all, in his own No 10 shirt, he has a fellow genius, and fellow little guy (at all of 5-foot-7), the 22-year-old Lionel Messi.

Messi's destruction of South Korea in Argentina's 4-1 victory did not include a goal of his own (Higuaín got three) but included everything else in a footballer's repertoire: dinked passes of breathtaking subtlety, mazy dribbles, swerving crosses, staggering ball control at speed, and 360-degree vision of the pitch. Maradona has rightly told Messi to play wherever he likes.

The beautiful game has traditionally been Brazil's preserve. But Dunga, the Brazilian coach, is one of those two-holding-midfielder guys. He's Mr Dour to Argentina's Mr Drama. Still, Brazil must samba and in Robinho and the awakening Kaká, there have been flashes. An epic battle looms. Brazil may have the discipline Argentina lacks in the breach.

For now, however, the loose vuvuzela approach has trumped WAG control. Score one for the little guys and for unscripted living.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

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STREETS ECHO THE CULTURE OF A CITY

BY JAYANT V. NARLIKAR

I am writing this article sitting in my office in Cambridge, England. Last year the University of Cambridge celebrated its 800th anniversary. For our institutions in India, the first landmark to celebrate is the decennial. For us, today to imagine an educational institution maintaining continuous existence over eight centuries is very hard, although in the distant past, our own country could boast of the universities of Takshashila and Nalanda which had flourished for several centuries.

A long life for a university is creditable if it has produced distinguished alumni. Walking through this (still small) town one comes across roads named after Tennyson, Chaucer, Barrow, Newton, Herschel, Adams, etc.

These names leave you in no doubt that a veritable cultural "Who's Who" is in place here. Traditionally, Cambridge is known for the sciences and Oxford (referred to as "the other place" by Cambridge alumni) for the humanities; although both universities have produced distinguished exceptions to this rule.

By and large the cultural heritage of a city is reflected in how its streets are named. Take Delhi for example. Its major streets are named after kings and emperors of the past and their standard bearers of today, the politicians.

I am not a historian, but as a layman my perception of Delhi is of a city obsessed with power and one-upmanship. It is as if everybody who aspires to be anybody, has to be aware of his or her standing. If X,Y, Z are three rising rungs in a hierarchy, then according to some hidden or explicit protocol, a person on rung X cannot talk to one on rung Z without the knowledge and consent of the person on Y.

This may be necessary in a service like the Army or administration where the internal discipline counts for a lot. But I get dismayed when I see this atmosphere in a scientific institution. Science progresses more through arguments and controversies than through yesmanship.

It is a field where freshness and independence of thinking has helped. And these traits are more common amongst younger rather than older scientists. But if a hierarchy-based protocol prevents the juniors from opening their minds to the seniors, the quality of research in the institution is bound to suffer.

I encountered an interesting and illuminating example in the following episode. I had called on the director of a leading laboratory with a request for allotment of some lecture rooms for holding a national meet of astronomers. The deputy director had gone over the details with me and we had come to the conclusion that for holding plenary sessions none of the lecture theatres would be adequate as their capacity of 120 just fell short of the typical attendance of 135 that we expected at these sessions. The deputy director therefore suggested that I request the director to make the 300-seater auditorium available.

When we met the director and I broached the subject, he immediately said: "But why do you need the auditorium? The bigger lecture theatres should be adequate". He turned to the deputy director for concurrence, adding that "I think the capacity is 140 if we add a few chairs on the side". Now the deputy director was in difficulty.

He knew for sure that there was no way that the capacity of the lecture theatres could be increased by as much as the director had asserted. Yet how could he contradict his boss? So he muttered something like "Very good sir... I think we will somehow manage". The director beamed, well satisfied that he had solved a problem that his subordinates could not handle. Later when the meeting did take place, the inadequacy of the lecture rooms was realised and the plenary session had to be shifted to the auditorium. The last minute change caused the inevitable confusion that could have been avoided if the deputy director had been bold enough to contradict his superior. Science, they say, runs on facts; but here was the second seniormost scientist in the institution unwilling to tell his boss that he had got his facts wrong.

I find that Mumbai has the image of a city of commerce. The "money god" must bless you if you are to do well here. This despite the fact that Mumbai had one of the three oldest universities of British India, has eminent research institutes like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, has a record of encouraging Marathi theatre, etc. Kolkata does convey to me the image of a cultural city just as Bengaluru is for information technology.

Again, the streets of the city may hold clues as to its culture.

The readers may form their own opinion as to whether the city they know supports science and technology through research and development, whether it encourages the performing arts, provides opportunities for artists to display their talents, hosts literary meets or whether it regales in political manoeuvres or delights in its bureaucratic structure. For that will determine its culture.

In the present age of transition many cities are losing their special touch as old heritage gives way to malls and multi-storey buildings. We need to take guidance from the cities of Europe. They have managed to combine the old with the new in a very successful way.

We, on the other hand, are very ruthless with the old: from a short term commercial point of view we destroy our heritage and take delight in having got the most cash out of the transaction. This way our much boasted heritage will remain only on paper, as some of the existing past photographs of our cities.

Jayant V. Narlikar is a professor emiritus atInter-University Centre for Astronomy andAstrophysics, Pune University Campus, and a renowned astrophysicist

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

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REPENT AND TRY TO REFORM

BY J.S. NEKI

Repentance is the after-fever that the mind suffers following an immoral or tabooed act. It is regret of, and acknowledgement, that one has done wrong and is accompanied by sorrow and contrition. It is connected with a sense of sin or transgression of the moral order.

One type of repentance relates to what wrong one has done — as exemplified by the following lines of Mira Bai:

Had I known that falling in love causes misery,

With the beat of a drum I would have declared all over the town:

Beware! No one should fall in love.

There is also another kind of repentance — of not having done what was required to be done:

The fool knows not and loves the dream he has,

And forsakes the joys of (the Lord's) dominions.

Thus his life gets wasted in worldly trifles.

This kind of repentance is often called remorse.
Repentance has a number of phases. At first, a feeling of regret arises. One remembers the wrongs one has done, and that makes him unhappy. Keerat, the Guru's minstrel, set into verse such sad remembrances in the following words:

I am overflowing with sins and demerits; I have no virtue at all.

I abandoned the ambrosial nectar, and took poison instead.

Attached to maya I am deluded; I loved my children and spouse alone.

And then prays for redemption saying:

O Guru Ramdas, pray, save me by keeping me in your custody.

Such a phase of repentance might also arise if sensual enjoyments dry up and yield no joy any longer, or cause pain instead. One is then gripped by deprivational sadness.

After the phase of regret, starts one of mental restlessness. Then one tends to cry out of remorse over whatever evil he had indulged in. He might then take a solemn vow never to repeat his misdemeanour. That indicates a change of attitude.

There are wide inter-religious differences in the quality and intensity of repentance depending on what is considered as the origin of evil. In the Christian faith, for example, the source of evil is the tempter Satan. In Sikh theology, God Himself is considered the author of good as well as evil. Surprised by this Sikh concept, a Christian would exclaim, "How can God be the author of evil?" However, a little open-mindedness can resolve the paradox. The omnipotent Christian God could have exterminated the rebellious Satan, if He wanted to. But He didn't. Isn't He Himself then responsible for the presence of evil in the world? Apart from blaming Satan for tempting him, a Christian might also blame himself for getting tempted. That often leads to a biting sense of guilt and an excruciating sense of repentance. A Sikh on the other hand would invoke God to divert his mind from evil and blessingly lead him towards salvation.

In Christianity, the painful sense of guilt has led to provision of penitentiary ceremonials including confessional which is considered a sacrament. The Sikh scripture has no room for any such ritual. Not that a devout Christian would not pray to God for help, but he very much also depends on the performance of penitentiary sacraments. The reformation that repentance brings about has a number of aspects as well. The intellectual aspect concerns change in man's concept about God, about evil and about himself. Earlier, he might have thought that he is autonomous, therefore he can do whatever he may wish. One may also deny that God watches. He would have little compunction in doing evil if he can conceal his acts from public glance. He would regret and repent only on account of sad consequences of his acts. Or he might have got some clue to God's Omniscience and that awakens him towards moral fidelity.

One then resolves to reform, change his attitude, and alter or repair his motives. He also has impulsion to seek forgiveness for his past actions.

Repentance, thus, includes self-criticism, realisation of moral transgression, remorse thereof, and a resolve to reform, seeking God's help for his reformation.

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

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

BLOW UP THE WELL

BY CHRISTOPHER BROWNFIELD

Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, made an astounding admission before US Congress last week: after nearly two months of failure, the company and the Coast Guard have no further plans to plug the Macondo oil well leaking into the Gulf. Instead, the goal is merely to contain the leak until a relief well comes online, a process that could take months.

With tens of thousands of barrels of oil leaking from the well each day, this absence of a backup plan highlights a lack of leadership, resources and expertise on the part of the Coast Guard, which from the beginning was compelled to give BP complete control over the leaking wellhead.

Instead, US President Barack Obama needs to create a new command structure that places responsibility for plugging the leak with the Navy, the only organisation in the world that can muster the necessary team. Then the Navy needs to demolish the well.

The Coast Guard, of course, should continue to play a role. But it should focus on what it can do well, like containing the oil already in the Gulf and protecting the coast with oil booms and skimmers. It should also use this crisis to establish permanent collaborations with other maritime forces around the globe, particularly those that can get to a disaster area quickly.

But control of the well itself should fall to the Navy — it alone has the resources to stop the flow. For starters, the Office of Naval Research controls numerous vehicles like Alvin, the famed submersible used to locate the Titanic. Had such submersibles been deployed earlier, we could have gotten real-time information about the wellhead, instead of waiting for BP to release critical details.

The Navy also commands explosives experts who have vast knowledge of underwater demolitions. And it has some of the world's finest underwater engineers at Naval Reactors, the secretive programme that is responsible for designing nuclear reactors for nuclear submarines. With the help of scientists in our national weapons laboratories and experts from private companies, these engineers can be let loose on the well.

To allay any concerns over militarising the crisis, the Navy and Coast Guard should be placed in a task-force structure alongside a corps of experts, including independent oil engineers, drilling experts with dedicated equipment, geologists, energy analysts and environmentalists, who could provide pragmatic options for emergency action.

With this new structure in place, the Navy could focus on stopping the leak with a conventional demolition. This means more than simply "blowing it up": it means drilling a hole parallel to the leaking well and lowering charges to form an explosive column.

Upon detonating several tons of explosives, a pressure wave of hundreds of thousands of pounds per square inch would spread outward in the same way that light spreads from a tubular fluorescent bulb, evenly and far. Such a sidelong explosion would implode the oil well upstream of the leak by crushing it under a layer of impermeable rock, much as stepping on a garden hose stops the stream of water.

It's true that the primary blast of a conventional explosion is less effective underwater than on land because of the intense back-pressure that muffles the shock wave. But as a submariner who studied the detonation of torpedoes, I learned that an underwater explosion also creates rapid follow-on shockwaves. In this case, the expansion and collapse of explosive gases inside the hole would act like a hydraulic jackhammer, further pulverising the rock.

The idea of detonating the well already has serious advocates. A few people have even called for using a nuclear device to plug the well, as the Soviet Union has done several times. But that would be overkill. Smartly placed conventional explosives could achieve the same results, and avoid setting an unacceptable international precedent for the "peaceful" use of nuclear weapons.

At best, a conventional demolition would seal the leaking well completely and permanently without damaging the oil reservoir. At worst, oil might seep through a tortuous flow-path that would complicate long-term cleanup efforts. But given the size and makeup of the geological structures between the seabed and the reservoir, it's virtually inconceivable that an explosive could blast a bigger hole than already exists and release even more oil.

The task force could prepare for demolition without forgoing the current efforts to drill relief wells. And even if the ongoing efforts succeed and a demolition proves unnecessary, the non-nuclear option would give Obama an ace in the hole and a clear signal that he's in charge — not BP.

- Christopher Brownfield is a former nuclear submarine officer and the author of the forthcoming memoir My Nuclear Family

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THE STATESMAN

EDITS

NO ABSOLUTION

POLITICALLY-DRIVEN RECOMPENSE

 

WHATEVER few positives may eventually trickle down to Bhopal's suffering masses will be negated by two undeniable realities. Bad enough the 25-year-delay in putting together a package that superficially appears decent; worse that the action leading to the recommendations of the Group of Ministers was essentially an exercise to contain the severe political damage the Congress-led government was suffering when the verdict of a Bhopal court generated unprecedented public outrage. All the sympathy articulated by the head of the GOM reeks of the insincere lip-service which lawyers-turned-politicians spew so unabashedly. Will UPA-II care to explain why it and preceding Congress governments (not that the interim BJP-led NDA is guilt-free) long glossed over the plight of the victims? Is there a single recommendation of the GOM that could not have been initiated years ago? What came in the way of curative petitions, cleaning up the toxic site, higher financial payments, improved medical cover etc? The answer is uncomplicated ~ there was no political compulsion. And that is all that matters in what passes off for governance in New Delhi these days. Not that everything is nicely sewn up now, there are legal issues to be resolved. Curative petitions are not automatic remedies. "Fixing" Warren Anderson is a catchy token, but by the same token every railway minister and almost every civil aviation minister (particularly the present one) would invite multiple charges of culpable homicide. Without in any way making light of Union Carbide's negligence, what about the negligence of factory inspectors in Bhopal? Who furnished incorrect figures to the Supreme Court on the basis of which the initial compensation was wrested from Union Carbide? What is the future status of settlements facilitated by the apex court, will they be subject to review? There are still too many unanswered questions. Alas, experience would suggest that neither inquiry commissions nor joint-parliamentary committees are effective probe-mechanisms.

The truth counts for so little on Raisina Hill. It is true that probing issues of culpability ~ Anderson's "safe passage" for example ~ were not the GOM's mandate, yet it appears to have bent over backwards to "clear" Rajiv Gandhi. Even his most severe critic would be sympathetic, he was still groping in transit from an aircraft cockpit to the national control panel that is the Prime Minister's Office. Yet to suggest that the greenhorn was out of the loop is ridiculous: the foreign secretary's contention that there was nothing on record to confirm what one of her respected predecessors has stated is less than laughable. Are external affairs conducted on a babu's file? What particularly disgusts is the Congress party making a convenient scapegoat of the man it persuaded to come out of retirement to lead its first post-Rajiv government; the man who had the foresight to set the course for economic reform on which Dr Manmohan Singh was carried to Race Court Road. Is this because PV Narasimha Rao was perhaps the lone Congress leader who did not bow in obeisance every time he drove past 10 Janpath?

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITS

Nothing to celebrate

Left slogans drowned by despair 

IT is a sign of the times that the Left Front had to pull out all the stops to fill 10,000 seats at the Netaji Indoor Stadium to celebrate its 34th anniversary. The voices had to be strident but the message that finally came across was that there was hardly anything to celebrate. The anniversary was being held in the shadow of what many in the Left consider a virtual farewell party. At this late stage, the Left will have to depend on a miraculous change in the public mood or serial blunders by its opponents. While some of the smaller partners who have shied away from taking responsibility for the Left's current distress have declared that a turnaround is impossible, Biman Bose insists that the Opposition's gains in the last municipal elections are due to "money and muscle power''.

 

This reads dangerously like the allegation levelled against the Marxists during days when there was no challenge and is a pathetic confession that there is now an alternative that has mobilised the organisational strength to dislodge the Left. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee carries the fiction to the next chapter to suggest that change means "anarchy'' ~ implying that voters over the past three years have either not fathomed the dangers of courting Trinamul or have been misled into a mass awakening in the cause of a false prophet.

The chief minister is not one to reverse an industrialisation programme that has been blotted by "a few mistakes''. He still believes that an assurance of investment of Rs 7,000 crore will re-ignite the hearts of thousands who have lost their land, been displaced with a promise of a new future or have been deprived of the basic means of livelihood by a callous administration. Nothing said at the anniversary meeting suggested that the government had any regrets for its non-performance or its partisanship, for the systematic way in which the Left has tried to dominate every aspect of social life and for the damage in vital sectors like health, education and food distribution that cannot be undone even if Assembly elections are held on schedule next year. The chief minister has directed colleagues to draw up a roadmap for development for the next six months. What he has not bargained for ~ or is perhaps not willing to acknowledge ~ is a sense of the inevitable that could make the government's performance more uninspiring over the next few months. The orchestrated notes of a "fightback'' cannot drown the groans of despair.

 

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THE STATESMAN

EDITS

TOUCHING GESTURE

NO WONDER OUR VETS FEEL SORE 

PHOTOGRAPHICALLY it was no classic. Not surprisingly few Indian newspapers carried the agency-circulated picture. Yet a time-enduring saga was captured by the shutterbug when he "clicked" British Prime Minister David Cameron bending to pick up a walking-stick that had been dropped by a war veteran. It mattered little that he was escorting his French counterpart around a military hospital and they had no dearth of aides in attendance. It is just that in some parts of the world the ex-serviceman is an honoured elder statesman. Fifteen years ago when an Indian winner of the Victoria Cross was walking towards a memorial in London (the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II was being observed) he was stunned when an "official looking" car stopped and he was given a ride by a VIP who had "recognised" his ribbon/medal. Hours later the queue at the cash counter in a supermarket made way for him. Not just in the UK: a small post office in the Australian outback boasts a plaque bearing the names of its staffers who "did not return from Gallipoli". 

Contrast this with the way Indian veterans have to make a series of visits to the bank/post office to collect their pensions, how revised rates are not automatically implemented, how even in military hospitals serving personnel ~ and their wives ~ get priority treatment. The issue goes beyond the unfulfilled political promise of one-rank one-pension, it gives an Indian touch to the lines that "old soldiers never die/they just fade away" ~ nobody cares as they wither away. And now they are being exploited: the once prestigious Indian Ex-Services League is a house divided, some vets are being pressured to "return" their medals in protest again a poor deal. Many former "top brass" don't approve, but don't condemn that ~ are they hoping they might also derive some "collateral" benefit?

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THE STATESMAN

SPECIAL ARTICLE

TOWARDS A NEW LEFT

PUT IN PLACE A DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM TO CONTROL CORRUPTION

BY BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA

 

THE Marxists have initiated a 'rectification' campaign to put in place a democratic system to control corruption after their defeat in the last general elections. In their reckoning, the defeat was due to the entry of non-Communist elements into the party. This has tarnished its image. This assessment is likely to be correct. But how did the leadership allow these non-Communist elements to come in? A proper diagnosis is the beginning of a correct treatment of the disease. The patient will not be cured if the diagnosis is wrong. Malaria will not be cured if antibiotics are prescribed. Similarly, the CPI-M will not be able to revamp the party if it does not make a proper diagnosis of its failures.

The decline of the Marxists had set in immediately after their aggressive efforts to forcibly acquire land from the farmers at Singur and Nandigram. Ironically, their winning streak of the last 33 years can be substantially attributed to land redistribution. The root of this misadventure lies in the rejection of the market. Karl Marx had said that the market merely treats the human being as a raw material. This dehumanization of man is the source of his unhappiness.

Anti-market ideology

THE village blacksmith develops an emotional attachment to the plough because the farmer who uses it is known to him. Both are happy if the plough is strong. But goods made for the market are used by unknown persons. Hence the producer is alienated from the process of production. Manufacturing the plough for the market gives no happiness to the blacksmith. Marx had envisioned a Communist society in which there would be no monetary transaction; there would be a spontaneous emotional bonding between the producer and the consumer; and the people would produce for the pleasure of working.

The Marxists in India are under the sway of this anti-market ideology. Gherao was common in the eighties and nineties. They threw out the industries from Bengal. Jobs dwindled. Then, faced with the grim reality of declining growth rates and incomes, the Marxists made an about-turn. They went about aggressively inviting big businesses, and launched the aggressive land acquisition process to rectify their anti-industry image. The Bengali voter was not amused, however, and he has now meted out a punishment. These problems arose because the anti-market theory was first advocated and then abandoned altogether.

The weakness of Marx's theory is that the source of happiness is said to be a connection with the consumer. A painter enjoys painting not knowing who will buy it. It is enough for him to know that someone has bought the painting. The creation of the painting is pleasurable for him because it suits his temperament. He can express his inner thoughts through that medium. Similarly a farmer enjoys producing cabbage not knowing who will consume it. It seems the true source of happiness is the doing of work that is in keeping with one's temperament. The farmer will scarcely be happy with a painting brush in his hand and the painter at the back of the plough even though they may be producing for their loved ones. The point is that the market helps a worker in finding a job that is suitable to this temperament. The Marxists have gone downhill because they have painted the market as the villain while actually it is a liberator.

Marx had also said that the market fosters inequality. Big companies crush the small producers as the textile companies have done to the handloom weavers in our country. Marx solved this problem by postulating an era of 'abundance'. He said that the industrial revolution would enable production of goods in such large quantities that there would be no scarcity. People would get all they want. But in order to bring forth this ideal situation, the government would for some time have to be controlled by the 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat'. The Communist Party would seize power by force and develop the production to abundant levels.

The problem with this pious dispensation is that there is no check on the "dictatorship". It can become self-serving. Marx, Lenin and Mao; and Dange, Namboodiripad and Sundarayya were all good human beings. The parties established by these good individuals may not, however, be so good. The parties led or established by Mahatma  Gandhi and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee have become corrupt. The Marxists are not far behind. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had walked out of the Jyoti Basu cabinet in 1993 terming it as a 'cabinet of the thieves'. The fact that the Marxists have to undertake a rectification campaign indicates that the party has deviated from its lofty ideals. "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" has been reduced to "Dictatorship of the Powerful". The latter may yet espouse the cause of the poor,  but this is subject to their whims and fancies.

Cosmetic programmes

OTHER mainstream parties contend that the Marxists serve themselves even if they do not admit this in public. They implement cosmetic pro-poor programmes so that the poor can be exploited optimally. They try to extract as much money from the people as possible but not so much to create a political reaction. They throw crumbs at the common man to keep him in a stupor of dependence and helplessness. But the Marxists do not accept this truth. They believe that the government machinery is genuinely interested in serving the people. They thus come up with harmful economic policies. They are in favour of expanding the role of the inefficient and corrupt public sector. They ignore the fact that these have become centres of patronage distribution. They demand that the Public Distribution System, which has become a den of thieves, should be made the mainstay of the country's food security. These proposals are mooted because the Marxists characterize the market as anti-people and the state machinery as pro-people. No wonder public support for them is waning.
The Left will have to revisit its theory of Marxism.  It will have to put in place a democratic system to control corruption among their leaders instead of assuming that they are honest. They will have to formulate  policies aimed at securing the welfare of the poor with a lean State machinery instead of unwittingly supporting the tyranny of the State on the poor.

 

The writer is former Professor of Economics, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

 

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THE STATESMAN

PERSPECTIVE

IF BP CAN, WHY CAN'T DOW OR CHEVRON?

 

Last week, US President Barrack Obama succeeded in getting the oil company BP to set aside at least US$20 billion in a fund to meet claims for losses arising from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. It is both interesting and heartening that a government is able to pressure a big company to agree upfront to compensate for the damage it is causing. The funds will be used to meet claims for economic losses of local people in the Gulf Coast states for loss of income (for example - from reduced fishing or tourism) and to pay the cost of environmental clean up. Another $100 million fund will be set up to pay workers laid off due to suspension of offshore drilling. BP will also suspend paying dividends so that there is enough cash for the new funds.

Both agreed to this package because of the growing public anger at the negligience of BP and the government's lack of regulatory actions, as well as that after two months the oil is still gushing from the broken BP oil installation.

It has been described as the worst US environmental disaster. But worse ecological catastrophes have been caused by international companies in developing countries, with greater loss to life, income and the environment. But little if any compensation has been paid by these companies. And the governments of the countries whose people own the companies usually turn a blind eye.

The most outstanding case is that of Bhopal in which the emission of poisonous gas from the US-owned company Union Carbide in 1984 affected half a million people, killed 2,300 people immediately, with another 15,000 to 30,000 dying subsequently and many thousands of others maimed seriously. Even now the land and water in the vicinity continue to be contaminated with toxic chemicals that affect human health.
Neither Union Carbide or Dow Chemical which bought the firm in 2001 accepted responsibility for the disaster. The Bhopal factory was sold to a local firm in 1992. An arrest warrant for Union Carbide's then chairman Warren Anderson was issued in India but he has not been brought to trial.

Union Carbide paid $470 million in a deal in 1989 with the Indian government, but this is a small amount, given the enormous numbers of people who died, were injured and continue to suffer.

On 7 June this year, an Indian court found seven former executives of the Indian subsidiary of the company guilty of negligience and they were given sentences of two years' jail, which is being appealed against. The Bhopal residents and their supporters are dismayed at such a light sentence, and that they are still demanding proper compensation.

A second case is Ecuador's Amazon region being contaminated by oil and toxic waste in amounts far larger than the Gulf Oil spill so far. The oil and waste was discharged by Texaco (bought over by Chevron in 2001) when it operated an oil concession in 1964-1990.

The New York Times in May 2009 reported indigenous people in the area saying that toxic chemicals had leaked into their soil, groundwater and streams, and that some of their children had died from the poisoning. It cited a report of an expert (contested by the company) who estimated that 1,400 people had died of cancer because of oil contamination.

The indigenous groups have filed a court case against Chevron for $27 billion in damages. They accuse Chevron of dumping more than 1.3 billion litres of crude oil into the rainforest. Chevron is also said to have dumpted 70 billion litres of toxic waste in pits in the forests.

Experts claim that the disaster has devastated their lands, income and health to a degree far larger than the BP spill in the Gulf. The company paid Ecuador's government $40 million in the early 1990s for clean-up costs, but this amount is seen as much too little given the immensity of the damage.

US Congressman James P McGovern, vice-chairman of the House Rules Committee, visited Ecuador in 2009 and is reported to have written to Obama that "the degradation and contamination left behind by (Chevron) in a poor part of the world made me angry and ashamed... I also saw the infrastructure Texaco/Chevron created that allowed the wholesale dumping of formation water and other highly toxic materials directly into the Amazon and its waters."

 

A third case is the Niger Delta in Nigeria, a major oil producing region in which Shell and other companies operate. An article in The Observer entitled "Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill: The US and Europe ignore it", describes spilt oil has contaminated swamps, rivers, forests and farmlands in the region."In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico," wrote John Vidal.

A report by environment groups calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5m tons of oil - 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska - has been spilled in the delta over the past half century. Last year, Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights outrage.

On 1 May, a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline spilled more than three million litres into the delta over seven days and thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast. Local people blame the oil pollution for the fall in life expectancy in the rural communities to a little above 40 years.

The article quotes the Nigerian writer Ben Ikari, "This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta. The oil companies just ignore it. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards."

It also quotes Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International, "We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US. But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa."

These cases show a big contrast between what the US administration is doing to hold a multinational company financially accountable, and how similar companies that cause ecological catastrophes in developing countries are able to get away either freely or with grossly inadequate pay-outs.

What the US administration and Congress are doing to get BP to compensate for the environmental and economic damage it is causing is commendable and should be supported. Developing countries should learn a lesson from the US and take similar action in line with the "polluter pays" principle.

And just as importantly, the governments of the home countries of the multinationals should also act to make their companies accountable for their actions when they operate in other countries, and to compensate adequately when they cause environmental damage.

The Star/ANN

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THE STATESMAN

PERSPECTIVE

WHEN YOU JUST CAN'T SWITCH OFF

 

Have you ever interrupted childbirth, coitus, a wedding or a graduation ceremony, a funeral or a minute's silence to send a text? Does the thought of going cold turkey from technology make you want to daub your social networking status in your own blood across the nearest brick wall? Is your ideal six-month sabbatical from work an extended period playing World of Warcraft in a windowless bedroom?
If so, then box up your broadband, swallow your SIM and visit a hospital. You could be the country's latest gadget junkie, reared on years of laptop hogging and online high living. People are contracting the computer bug early: according to research published last September by Cranfield University School of Management in Northampton, of 260 secondary school pupils surveyed, 26 per cent spent more than six hours a day on the internet. This battalion of hi-tech tykes yielded 63 per cent who felt they were addicted to the web, 53 per cent who had a compulsive attachment to their mobile phones and 62 per cent who were bought their first computer before hitting the age of eight. But is technophilia really such a plague?

"If teenagers become more withdrawn they run the risk of being developmentally out of step with their peers," says psychiatrist Dr Richard Graham. "It's a very young field of research, but there is some evidence to suggest that girls who spend too much time on Facebook miss out on key developmental steps and could feel immature. Extreme cases can put people's education and employment at risk. Then there are the physical aspects. You can have a poor diet, lose weight, not eat properly. If teenagers are pulling all-nighters they might turn to stimulants, like caffeine or taurine, and there is evidence that can increase anxiety in the long-term."

Teenagers, necessarily, are a high-risk group, as are those who've had a bereavement, separation or redundancy. But no one is free from its impact. Technology experts talk anecdotally of the Texan 13-year-old who developed repetitive strain disorder from texting, or the Korean couple who were building a "cyber-baby" on the internet but neglected to look after their real-life offspring. Scientists quizzed by The New York Times claimed juggling email, phone calls and other incoming information can change how you think or behave. It undermines our ability to focus. Having Twitter, RSS, Facebook, Digg and email feeds open at the same time capitalise on a physiological response to opportunities or threats. This stimulation provokes excitement, in the form of a dopamine squirt, which can be addictive. It can have deadly consequences – which is why talking on your mobile phone while driving was banned in Britain in 2003.

"At the moment people are trying to study the effects of high exposure to technology during the early parts of people's lives," continues Graham. "There are developmental windows in which 'wiring' of the brain takes place. For example, if you have a squint and it is not dealt with in the first five years of your life, part of your visual cortex switches off. It's a 'use it or lose it' principle in neurology and it might have relevance here."
So how can you tell if you've got an addiction? Questions include: "Do you ignore and avoid other work or activities to spend more time on-screen?" But aren't many such choices unavoidable for modern workers – taken subconsciously? Speaking as a journalist who spends eight hours in front of a computer at work before transplanting himself to another desk and computer set-up at home, how can I tell whether I've got this evil sickness?

The Independent

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THE STATESMAN

PERSPECTIVE

100 YEARS AGO TODAY

NEWS ITEMS

A TRAMWAY STRIKE

 

Sequel To A Chitpore Road Disturbance

There was a strike of tramcar drivers and conductors in the northern part of Calcutta on Tuesday, and the early morning service on the Chitpore, Shambazar, Belgachia, and Nimtollah routes was considerably disrganised.
The strike, one of the Tramway Company's officials told a *Statesman* representative, was the result of a disturbance which occurred on a Chitpore car on Monday night. A Babu passenger, asked the conductor to stop at a point between Grey Street and Baghbazar, where there is no stopping place, and the conductor said he could not do so. He stopped the car at the next stopping place, and the Babu, before he got down, struck the conductor. The driver went to the conductor's assistance, others took the Babu's side, and a general *melee* seems to have caused, in the course of which sticks were used.

The disturbance was eventually stopped by the police and it was found that one conductor and the driver were badly hurt on the head, while another conductor was slightly injured. A passenger named Tinga Singh was also seriously injured. All four were taken to the hospital and subsequently a complaint was laid at the thana against the Babu and his friends. Their names are not known, however, and the police are trying to trace them.
In consequence of this disturbance, the drivers and conductors employed on the Northern district cars refused to go to work yesterday morning on the grounds that it was not safe to work there.

Prize medals were awarded to the girls in the Girls' School on Thursday evening at Bhavnagar by the Rani Saheba for fine exhibits in embroidery work put up in the recent exhibition held at Bhavnagar.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

YUAN RISE

 

The People's Bank of China's announcement that it would allow its currency — the yuan — to appreciate is being taken with three pinches of salt. Cynics see the move as a diplomatic hat tip to the upcoming Group of Twenty meetings in Toronto. For more than four years now, the 'global imbalances' that the world has been trying to deal with have much to do with China's artificially set exchange rate. After the initial euphoria that came with the announcement, the Chinese government was quick to say that the appreciation would be 'gradual'; the rupee — benefiting from a 'sentiment' rally (the belief is that other Asian currencies would benefit as their exports would become cheaper vis-à-vis China's) — appreciated nearly 10 per cent on the first announcement, but lost it all on the second. Other currencies fared similarly.

 

As most China watchers know, the Chinese government's own economic and political motivations are prime movers. The appreciation will help producers in China: producer prices in May went up 7.1 per cent year on year, mainly because of commodity prices. Exports in May grew 48.5 per cent resulting in a trade surplus of near $20 billion for the month, but profit margins were less than two per cent. A study by the China International Capital Corporation suggested that cheaper imports in yuan terms would have a greater positive impact on those margins than revenue losses in exports. In other words, a stronger yuan benefits those who import and sell into the domestic economy. A stronger yuan could help on the inflation front. A significant import is coal, which is priced in dollars; a weaker currency increases energy input costs for China significantly, especially if one takes Western economists' estimates that the exchange rate of the yuan is between 30 to 40 per cent lower than its actual value. The Chinese government intends to keep economic growth chugging along strongly — which means greater energy input — and more coal imports for power plants; a stronger yuan will contain inflation in energy costs, and that will keep overall inflation down.

 

In the trade-off between benefits for domestic producers and exporters, a stronger yuan would make products in store chains like Walmart and Home Depot — which import heavily from China — more expensive. That could create an increase in US inflation, and potentially dent a recovery in US consumption growth. But that depends upon the pace in which the yuan appreciates. Some analysts suggest that it could be about six per cent a year. A three per cent appreciation would save the Chinese government $5 billion in oil, iron ore and copper which is not exactly small change.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

UNQUIET FRONT

 

Coming only days after the prime minister's second visit to Kashmir and his promise of zero tolerance to human rights violations, the recent spate of bloodshed in the valley has taken on a colour deeper than usual. Three youths have lost their lives in close succession and the inescapable tragedy is that the armed forces are once again linked to the deaths. Two died in "routine" firing and one from severe beating at the hands of the police. Together with the disclosure of the fake encounter in Machail that raised a storm shortly before the prime ministerial visit, the sequence of events is taking the valley close to breaking point. It is irrefutable that no matter how sincere the political will — of the government of India, but, above all, of the people of the valley — to get things working in Kashmir, the ham-handedness of the administration and of the keepers of law and order is definitely not helping matters. Naturally, the "quiet diplomacy" launched by the Union home ministry late last year to draw all parties, particularly the separatists, into a dialogue seems to have died a quiet death. The fumbling over Shopian and the consistent reluctance to bring to book the guilty among the armed forces (take the crime in Pathribal) have not only rekindled public mistrust but have also united the separatists and given them back their hold over a helpless people let down by their own government.

 

The disquiet in Kashmir perhaps could not have come at a worse time. It is bound to undermine India's position in the forthcoming foreign-secretary level talks followed by ministerial-level talks with Pakistan during which India has decided to discuss the Kashmir question. India's "quiet" dialogue with interest groups in Kashmir could have provided the requisite thrust to the re-opening of the back-channel diplomacy, involving the people, that could lead to a workable solution. Unfortunately, the ongoing violence and the deepening trust divide in the valley may continue to negate such chances.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

OPINION

DEALING WITH THE PAST

CANADA WILL HAVE TO CONFRONT THE GAPS BETWEEN PERCEPTION AND REALITY

DIPLOMACY

K.P. NAYAR

 

Canada lost its innocence last week. And not merely because an upright former judge of that country's supreme court delivered an excoriating pronouncement that Canada's intelligence and security systems are broken and that victims of those broken systems are treated like adversaries instead of being protected and supported by the State.

 

Last week was a bizarre week to be in Canada. First, there was a laudable, albeit painful, initiative by its Truth and Reconciliation Commission to make Canadians aware of the cruelty and discrimination that were practised within the fenced compounds of the Indian Residential Schools. These schools, which were opened in the 19th century and flourished in the 20th century, had nothing to do with India. Their history is a sordid tale of collaboration between the church and the State in an effort to 'reform' children of natives who inhabited the land before the arrival of white settlers and prepare those young boys and girls to live in 'civilized' white society.

 

Two years ago this month, Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, showed exceptional courage and apologized on behalf of the government for its shameful treatment of natives in the so-called Indian Residential Schools. Such treatment included taking native children away from their families to these residential schools, where they were punished if they spoke their language and were converted to Christianity and initiated into Western ways of life.

 

It is estimated on the basis of documents in Canada's National Archives, which were examined three years ago, that half the children in these residential schools in the early 20th century died from tuberculosis, overcrowding, poor sanitation and lack of medical care. And then there was mental, physical and sexual abuse of the children. It may come as a surprise to many readers of this column that the last Indian Residential School in Canada was closed only in 1996.

 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was set up in 2008, began a series of events across Canada last week at which most of the 80,000 survivors of this dreaded school system are expected to testify before the commission at some point in the next five years. The aim of these hearings is to tell and retell the stories of a monumental Canadian wrong and to correct doctored history in the minds of many Canadians in the hope that their people will behave differently in future under similar, but different, circumstances in the 21st century.

 

Also last week, another judicial commission of inquiry, this one headed by Justice Thomas Braidwood, a retired appeals court judge in British Columbia, exposed the "shameful conduct" of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the death of a passenger at Vancouver airport. The RCMP used a 50,000-volt stun gun on him with fatal consequences. Robert Dziekanski had arrived from Poland to join his mother who was living in British Columbia.

 

The Polish immigrant, a first-time traveller who did not speak English, became distraught when he could not find his mother at the airport for nearly 10 hours, but the police used stun guns on him at least five times, killing him even before paramedics arrived on the scene.

 

In the post-September 11 world, when every city in the world is making its policemen more technologically equipped, judge Braidwood's findings are something to think hard about. "I can't help but think if the taser was not there they (RCMP) perhaps would have reverted to their former skills....When the conducted energy weapon was not available, you had one RCMP officer police a whole community without any problem, using the skills they had been taught," the inquiry report observed.

 

What was worse about the case was that when investigations began into the conduct of the police officers, they cooked up their version of facts to justify what amounted to murder by the men in uniform.

 

But the biggest loss of innocence last week for Canadians was the release of an inquiry report on the bombing of Kanishka, an Air India plane, 25 years ago killing all 329 people on board. Canadians are shocked that retired supreme court judge, John Major, was convinced enough to assert in his report that the kind of intelligence failure that enabled Khalistanis operating in Canada to put bombs on Kanishka and on another Air India plane on a single day still existed and that sweeping changes were required to remedy the situation. He made ordinary Canadians aware of the huge gaps in securing cargo going in and out of Canada which made their country a vulnerable target for terrorists at a time when the Harper government has its armed forces in Afghanistan and is supportive of global counter-terrorism actions.

 

For this writer, who is a frequent visitor to Canada, there were other findings in the inquiry report that appeared inexcusably shocking. It was revealed during the inquiry, for instance, that Canadian officers who were tailing Khalistani suspects lost track of them because every Sikh in a turban and Indian ethnic clothes looked alike and the intelligence operatives could not distinguish one suspect from another or a suspect from some other Sikh who was not connected with the plot.

 

This, in a country of immigrants where a Canadian identity is supposed to include everyone — even those who look different from the original European settlers — was disappointingly discriminatory going beyond the intelligence deficiencies that cost 329 lives. Major reinforced that element of disappointment when he confirmed that the government of Canada behaved in the aftermath of the tragedy as if the Kanishka bombing was someone else's problem involving an Indian plane with passengers who were mostly of Indian origin, notwithstanding the fact that a huge majority of them were Canadian citizens. Since it did not form part of Major's terms of reference, there was no way he could tell us if this was still true.

 

Many jaws dropped at Major's press conference in Ottawa last week when it was revealed that Canadian intelligence officers who actually witnessed the dry run of the explosion that occurred on-board Kanishka could not record it — or photograph the Khalistanis who set off a trial bomb blast — because they did not carry cameras with them as they followed the suspects to a place where they were having the dry run. The episode could add a variation to the much discredited caricature of a 'flat-footed' policeman by describing its Canadian variant as a flat-footed 'mounted' policeman.

 

In the next few weeks and months, Canada is most likely to go through a catharsis as it comes to terms with the gaps between perception and reality, not only in its national consciousness but also in areas of practical urgency, such as airport security. But the net impact of the findings of the judicial inquiry into the Air India bomb plot at long last will be that there is no statute of limitations on moral responsibility as Alice MacLachlan, a professor of philosophy at York University, told The Globe and Mail, Canada's premier newspaper last week.

 

Coincidentally, that seems to be the lesson which the Indian government is learning after ignoring the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, also 25 years ago. "The wrongs of the past, whether it's Air India, or Bloody Sunday or the residential schools, can't always be measured out materially or legally," MacLachlan said. "Part of dealing with the past means negotiating our moral and political relationships with each other, so we find ourselves taking up a language like apologize, forgive, reconcile, come together."

 

That may well be what the government in New Delhi has to keep in mind as it negotiates a way out of the fallout from a recent judgment on the gas tragedy.

 

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THE TELEGRAPH

FIFTH COLUMN

FOR THE VICTIMS

SEKHAR RAHA

 

Last week has been remarkable for three high-level inquiries by governments abroad into past misdeeds. On June 15, the British prime minister, David Cameron, placed before his parliament a report on the "Bloody Sunday" killings in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1972, the incident in which 14 unarmed Irish civil rights protesters were shot dead by the British army. The report was severely critical of the British army, naming officers and soldiers involved, and accusing them of giving false evidence. Significantly, it overturned the findings of an earlier British government report which had sought to absolve those concerned.

 

In the United States of America, on June 17, the chief executive of the petroleum company, BP, faced a Congressional inquiry on the culpability of the company regarding the explosion on its oil rig that was followed by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And in Canada on the same day, the voluminous report of the former supreme court justice, John Major, was released on the bombing of Air India's aircraft, Kanishka, in 1985. It explicitly blamed the laxity of the Canadian security intelligence service and criticized the Canadian government for its indifference to the victims' compensation.

 

Each government deserves applause for its tenacity in seeking out the truth. These reports come in a week in which accusations have been traded in India over the actions following the Bhopal disaster of 1984. And there is still serious discontent over the inconclusive findings on the Sikh massacres earlier that year.

 

For the families that have suffered a tragic and unforeseen loss, a credible approach to truth brings some sense of closure. In contrast, governmental obfuscation and prevarication deepen the grief, which eventually turns into anger. So even after the lapse of decades, we owe it to the victims' families to bring about some acceptable finality to the investigations into the two tragic events of 1984.

 

Seek out

 

Regarding the Bhopal disaster, the US should have exercised standards of corporate responsibility similar to those it seeks to use for the BP oil spill. Recall that 11 people died as a result of the BP accident whereas more than 2,500 people died or suffered as a result of Union Carbide's negligence. The US president, Barack Obama, has been aggressively outspoken about BP's responsibility for the oil spill and has sought financial compensation, in spite of vociferous criticism from BP's shareholders in Britain. Why has there been no similar action from any US president over the past 25 years regarding Union Carbide's mismanagement in Bhopal?

 

Double standards have also been used by the Canadian government in the Kanishka case. The uncomfortable truth is that Americans and Canadians attach a relatively lower value to life when the victims are Indian rather than North American. Many of the blogs in Canadian newspapers following the release of Major's inquiry report were downright racist. Our own government must recognize that we reinforce that prejudice by being complaisant when such tragedies occur. Neither of our two largest political parties can be proud of its follow-up actions on Bhopal.

 

In the past few years, India has increasingly been recognized for its economic success. As the US has shown, power resides in the ability to exercise authority to fix the blame for man-made tragedies irrespective of the nation or nationals involved. To be deserving of respect, we in India must seek out and indict those responsible for the misdeeds of 1984. This is also the lesson of the British inquiry into the "Bloody Sunday" killings of 1972. If correctly handled and credibly communicated, with sincere apologies and appropriate compensation, justice delayed need not be justice denied.

 

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******************************************************************************************DECCAN HERALD

FIRST EDIT

POLLUTER MUST PAY

"DOW CHEMI-CALS MUST BE MADE TO ACCEPT ITS LIABILITY."

 

The government has woken itself to some action after sleeping over the Bhopal gas tragedy for over 25 years. The Group of Ministers reconstituted after a Bhopal court's judgment earlier this month has recommended a package of steps to bring justice to the victims and to deal with the human and environmental ill-effects of the gas leakage. One major issue was the inadequacy of the compensation. The GoM has proposed disbursal of a further Rs 1,300 crore as compensation to the victims and families. This is inadequate but after the government let off Union Carbide with an out-of-court agreement which provided for only a meagre compensation, it had to bear the responsibility for any further payment. The sovereign agreement makes it almost impossible for the government to make any further demand on Dow Chemicals, which is Union Carbide's successor company, in the matter of compensation. The Indian tax payer is therefore being made to foot the bill.

But the government must pursue all avenues to make Dow Chemicals undertake the cleaning up operations at the factory site. The cleaning up of the toxic site is a very difficult task with financial and technical challenges, which the GoM has decided that the government will get done. The government must approach the court, either here or in the US, to make Dow Chemicals accept its liability in the matter. It is unfortunate that the principle 'polluter pays' has been given the go-by on all issues connected with the Bhopal gas leak. There was even condemnable view within the government that the company should not be pressured on this in view of the investment possibilities in the country. Legal and other means, including diplomatic, should be pursued to enforce accountability on the company. The US action in making BP liable for the huge loss and damage caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill should be a lesson.

Simultaneously efforts for a review of the supreme court order that diluted the charge against the culprits and for extradition of the then UCC chief Warrren Anderson should also be made. It is obvious that the law has failed to give adequate punishment for those responsible for the world's worst industrial crime. The new stirrings in the government is a result of the public outrage in the wake of the judgment. Effective and sustained follow-up action is important, lest the cause of justice be forgotten again.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

SECOND EDIT

FREE SUU KYI

"INDIA MUST PUSH FOR THE RELEASE OF AUNG SUU KYI."

 

 

On the occasion of Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday, world leaders and activist groups have called for her release from detention. Suu Kyi is under house arrest. She has been under some form of detention for much of the past 20 years. Her 'crime' is that she leaves Myanmar's powerful generals insecure and unsure of their grip over power. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide mandate in general elections in 1990. But the military refused to hand over power to the NLD. Instead they strengthened their iron grip and sought to eliminate every threat to their rule. They have found it hard to come to terms with Suu Kyi's immense popularity in Myanmar and outside. Her presence in the public sphere would be a daily reminder that the generals' rule is illegitimate and provide public protest against the junta a powerful rallying point; hence the need to lock her away under some pretext. The latest excuse for denying her freedom and keeping her out of public life is that she violated the conditions of her detention. In 2008, an American supporter entered her lakeside home uninvited. The military has held her guilty of allowing him in. With elections due later this year, the generals are not taking any chances. They want Suu Kyi out of the political arena.
Issuing statements for Suu Kyi's release and candlelight vigils are comforting ways of showing support. But these sporadic campaigns by themselves, are not going to push the junta to release her. What is required is a sustained campaign of diplomatic engagement with the generals to prod them into doing so.

India and China are among the handful of countries in the world that wield some influence over Myanmar's military rulers. Yet neither has been willing to use this to secure Suu Kyi's release. China's silence is easy to figure out. It is not a democracy. But India is committed to the principles of democracy. Not speaking up against the illegal incarceration of one of the greatest pro-democracy icons of our times is unconscionable. Besides, India must wake up to the fact that its long-term interests in Myanmar are best served by the restoration of democracy in that country. It must push the generals to release Suu Kyi immediately.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

MAIN ARTICLE

LIVING IN THE PAST

BY BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA

The market helps a worker in finding a job. The marxists have gone downhill because they have painted the market as a villain.

 

The marxists have initiated a 'rectification' campaign after their defeat in the last general elections. The thinking is that the defeat was due to the entry of non-communists elements into the party which sullied the image. This assessment is likely to be correct. But it must be asked how did the leadership allow these non-communist elements to come in?

A proper diagnosis is the beginning of a true treatment of the disease. The patient will not be cured if the diagnosis is wrong. Malaria will not be cured if antibiotics are prescribed. Similarly, marxists will not revive if they do not make a proper diagnosis of their failures.

The decline of the marxists set in after their aggressive efforts to forcibly acquire land from the farmers at Singur and Nandigram. Ironically, their winning streak of the last 34 years can be substantially attributed to this very land redistribution. The root of this misadventure lies in rejection of the market.

The marxists in India are under the sway of an anti-market ideology. Gherao was common in the '80s and '90s. They threw out the industries from Bengal. Jobs too went away. Then, faced with the grim reality of declining growth rates and incomes, the marxists made an about turn. They went about feverishly inviting big businesses. And they launched the aggressive land acquisition process to rectify their anti-industry image. The Bengali voter was not amused, however, and he has now meted out a punishment.

The point is that the market helps a worker in finding a job that is suitable to his temperament. The marxists have gone the downhill road because they have painted the market as villain while actually it is a liberator.

Karl Marx had also said that the market fosters inequality. Big companies crush the small producers as the textile companies have done to the handloom weavers in our country. Marx solved this problem by postulating an era of 'abundance.' He said the industrial revolution will enable production of goods in such large quantities that there will be no scarcity. People will get all they want. But, he said, in order to bring forth this wonderful situation, for some time the government will have to be controlled by 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat.' The communist party will seize power by force and develop the production to unheard of abundant levels.

Problem in this pious dispensation is that there is no check on the dictatorship. It can become self-serving. I personally believe that Marx, Lenin and Mao; and Dange, Namboodiripad and Sundarayya were all good human beings. But this is matter of the individual. Parties established by these good individuals may not be so good, however. We see before us that parties led or established by good individuals like Mohandas Gandhi and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee have become corrupt and power hungry.

Deviation
The marxists are not behind. It is reported that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had walked out of the Jyoti Basu cabinet in 1993 terming it as a 'cabinet of the thieves.' The fact that the Marxists have to undertake a rectification campaign is proof that character of the party has deviated from its lofty ideals.

Dictatorship of the proletariat has been reduced to dictatorship of the powerful. The powerful may yet espouse poor people's problems but this is wholly at their whims and fancies.

Other mainstream parties admit that they are there to serve themselves even if they do not admit this in public. They implement cosmetic pro-poor programmes so that the poor can be exploited optimally. They try to extract as much money from the people as possible but not so much to create a political reaction. They throw crumbs at the common man to keep him in a stupor of dependence and helplessness.

But the marxists do not accept this truth. They believe that not only they, but the entire government machinery is genuinely interested in serving the people. They thus come up with many bad economic policies. They say the role of inefficient and corrupt public sector undertaking should be expanded. They ignore the fact that these have become centres of patronage distribution.

They argue that government school system in which double the number of students fail the exams and permanently spoil their future should be provided with more money. They demand that the public distribution system which has become a den of thieves should be made the mainstay of the country's food security.

These hopeless policy suggestions arise because they characterise the market as anti-people and state machinery as pro-people. No wonder public support for them is waning. After all, no one wants his child to spoil his future in a government school!

Editorial in a leading daily said that a Left political formation will always be relevant so long as poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality afflict society. But in order to sit on this reserved seat, the Left will have to revisit the theory of Marxism. They will have to put in place democratic systems to control corruption among their leaders instead of assuming they are ever honest.

They will have to seek policies that secure welfare of the poor with a lean state machinery instead of unwittingly supporting the tyranny of the state on the poor.

 

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DECCAN HERALD

IN PERSPECTIVE

TOWARDS AN INCLUSIVE GLOBAL ECONOMY

BY SUPACHAI PANITCHPAKDI

The economic crisis has made it imperative that we forge a more balanced and inclusive global economy.

 

 

This time last year, the global economy had reached the nadir of the financial and economic crisis. Since then, a succession of optimistic commentators, economists and others has been pointing to the strength of the recovery: the resurgence in stock markets, the restoration of bank balances, and the reversals in growth rates. At the same time, data have emerged describing the full impact and cost of the crisis, particularly for developing countries, including an increase in unemployment, an additional 53 million people falling below the poverty line and over 100 million more going hungry.

The debt crisis in Greece, which is threatening the entire euro zone, is indicative of the continuing malaise in parts of the world economy. In the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and other developing nations, progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been reversed, and it is now unlikely that all of the goals will be achieved by 2015.

Moreover, what momentum there was for the reform of international economic governance has stalled. Apart from macro-prudential regulation and some action on bankers' bonuses and taxation, there have been no fundamental changes to the institutional architecture of economic governance. Indeed, currently some of the most significant changes are taking place at the regional level, involving increased South-South cooperation and integration.

Multilateral initiatives

In addition, changes in policy at the national level in both developing and developed countries for example, from tight macroeconomic policies to a loose countercyclical stance- need to be recognised by multilateral initiatives, such as the MDGs and World Trade Organisation trade talks.

The scale of the financial and economic crisis has made it imperative that we forge a more balanced and inclusive global economy through two channels: measured government intervention in markets and strategic policy action at the national level, and better coordinated and more inclusive economic decision-making at the international level.

For African and other LDCs, which have limited financial resources to mount national stimulus packages or mobilise domestic resources, economic and trade growth needs to be supported by the global community. Such external support should include better market access and entry conditions at the multilateral and regional levels. India is one of the large emerging economies to have granted LDCs duty-free and quota-free market access.

The challenge for African LDCs is to utilise the trade preferences available to them. But market access is only one element in a successful development strategy for LDCs: building a strong productive base in agriculture, manufacturing, and services that can compete internationally is another essential ingredient.

Internationally competitive industries and markets do not establish themselves automatically: they require government investment to support strategic infant industries, and government intervention to correct market imperfections.

As we have seen during the current economic crisis, the market does not always get the prices right, nor does it always provide a level playing field for firms to compete. Governments must create fair markets through the prudent use of macroeconomic policy as well as other regulatory mechanisms, laws, and policies that maintain a healthy environment in which enterprise and economic development can flourish. Competition law and policy is one such area that governments need to get right.

Inspired by our successful experiences in Latin America, UNCTAD decided to set up a Regional Programme on Competition Law and Policy for African Countries — called Africomp — to assist African countries in formulating and enforcing sound competition law and policy.

With generous financial and human resources from Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany, Unctad has been able to launch Africomp for five African countries. In addition, other cooperating partners, including France, UNDP, and the UN Development Account, are funding Unctad technical assistance projects for African countries. These projects will be brought together under Africomp.

However, trade is not sufficient in itself to create the levels of growth and economic development that LDCs are so in need of. Establishing a strong productive sector, which can operate in fair and competitive domestic, regional, and international markets, will also be essential for LDCs. Hope our partnerships with LDCs can be strengthened through Africomp and that African LDCs and India can build on their preferential trade scheme.
IPS

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DECCAN HERALD

RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE

THE HORROR FLICKS

BY LASYA SHASHIMOHAN

'Watch them when you are really grown up!,' chided my mom.

 

A sizeable percentage of the human race is fascinated by horror flicks. They derive gruesome fascination out of watching haunted houses, possessed dolls, bloodied daggers, decapitated corpses, speaking skulls, extraterrestrials with malevolent agendas, human creatures with cannibalistic tendencies and what not. I admit to being one of those mortals who derive masochistic pleasure by nearly frightening myself to death, watching this genre on celluloid.

I recall the pangs of envy I had felt when the Ramsay's Zee-horror show was discussed among friends with ghoulish relish. Entreaties to get cable TV installed were promptly negated at home and I was advised to catch the news on good old Doordarshan. Hitting my school books seemed a more interesting option. A visit to Bangalore during summer and a cousin reignited dormant passions by telling me about 'Omen.'

Much stimulated, I started coercing mom to get me the ultimate forbidden fruit. My mother, helpless this time, got the video of 'The Good Son' instead. This was an equally blood-chilling tale of a psychopathic soroxicidal boy (or had he killed his brother?). The very night I dreamt of the boy, his eyes evil, coming after me and the next thing I knew was I was being inundated in my bed. "Watch them when you are really grown up!", a cheesed off mom chided the next morning. My 8-year-old cheeks burned in shame.

During the rest of my childhood and even teens, I gave goth and gore an avoid. Then one fine day I decided I was ready to take horror flicks head on. I approached a friend of mine, a Ms X, who is a veteran in this domain. "I say X", I asked "Can you suggest a real delicious scary flick?". "The Hell Raiser, The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby....." she began. "Stop! Let me watch these first", I replied before making a dash for the nearest DVD store. "Hey, mind ya", she called after me — "these aren't for the faint-hearted". "Nor for the weak-bladdered, I guess", I smiled ruefully as I recalled the mortification of eons back. Over the next couple of years, I watched many horror movies — good or trashy. Umpteen vampires, Frankeinsteins, Draculas and co. Later, I was weary but not satiated.

A few days ago, I had some stroke of luck as I came across Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho.' The movie's a riveting one — Marian Crayne, a young woman steals $ 40,000 to tide over some personal hangovers. She then checks into a way-side motel. Norman Bates, the shy mild-mannered young owner, welcomes her inside. In between he seems to have an altercation with his mother who seems pathologically jealous of the  'Strange young girls' Norman allegedly entertains. Over dinner in an eerie parlour replete with relics of taxi-dermy, Marion gets a slice of Norman's suffocating life as well. A few minutes later she's murdered in the shower... Rather than being macabre, 'Psycho' is somewhat poignant and has been crafted after having delved deep into the human psyche. After watching it, I reclined on the couch- satisfied. I know which maestro's movie I'll pick up next weekend.

`          

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THE JERUSALEM POST

EDITORIAL

SHAS'S DISMAL SILENCE

The Emmanuel affair has brought to public awareness the ugliness of Ashkenazi haredi discrimination against Sephardim. Importantly, too, it has shed light on Shas's unforgivable acquiescence to this ongoing discrimination.

Shas's development is a story of Sephardi Jews' uphill battle to, in the words of its spiritual mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, "return the crown to its rightful owner." For Yosef, this meant reasserting the dominance of Sephardi Torah scholarship, which, inevitably, would lead to improvement in the status of Sephardi Jews in a haredi society devoted almost exclusively to the learning of sacred texts. But while Shas has scored some victories, Ashkenazi hegemony and condescension persist, as the Emmanuel affair demonstrates.

Ironically, it was discrimination against Sephardi girls in haredi schools that led to the creation of Shas. In 1982, faced with discriminatory quotas, MK Nissim Ze'ev created the party to run in Jerusalem's municipal elections as a means of gaining the political clout needed to offer an alternative haredi school for Sephardi girls. In 1984, Shas was established on a national level after Ashkenazi politicians reneged on a promise to integrate a Sephardi MK into Agudat Israel. Shas enjoyed the backing of Rabbi Elazar Shach, probably the most dynamic and influential spiritual and political leader of the haredim ever. Though Yosef was appointed the nominal head of the party, Shach remained Shas's patron with unofficial veto power.

FROM THE haredi Ashkenazi establishment's perspective, the creation of Shas was an ideal way to indirectly gain the backing of a traditional Sephardi constituency that would never vote for Agudat Yisrael. The assumption was that Shas would faithfully subordinate itself to Ashkenazi rabbinic hegemony – know as Da'at Torah – in all its political decisions.

Shas took its first cautious step toward political independence when party chairman Aryeh Deri supported Shimon Peres's behind-the-scenes attempt in March 1990 to topple his Alignment (Labor) Party's coalition with Yitzhak Shamir's Likud and create a left-wing government coalition willing to make territorial compromises. But Shas was forced to backtrack from what later became known as "the dirty trick" when Shach – in a fiery speech before tens of thousands in which he attacked the "rabbit and pork-eating" Left – demanded that all haredim reject Peres's overtures.

The break with Shach and the haredi establishment came two years later, when Shas joined Yitzhak Rabin's Labor government, which included Meretz as a coalition partner. But the trauma of that break would haunt Deri.

In a speech before entering prison in 1999 for taking bribes, Shas's popular former chairman publicly apologized to the ailing Shach for rebelling against him.

 

In recent years, Shas has shown deference to Ashkenazi hegemony on various issues. The Sephardi party did not even send its own representative to the 2000 Tal Committee, which was created to find a solution for tens of thousands of haredim who indefinitely deferred mandatory military service, and were, therefore, forced to remain in yeshiva and not work. Shas allowed an Ashkenazi politician to represent it, even though Shas's position on IDF service and employment for haredi men is more moderate.

In 2002, Shas failed to rebuff attacks on Yosef's daughter, Adina Bar-Shalom, who was publicly castigated by the Ashkenazi establishment for running a college that trained haredim to be accountants, social workers and computer programmers. Just two months ago, under pressure from the much smaller United Torah Judaism, Shas withdrew its support for Israel Beiteinu's conversion reforms.

BUT THE most glaring example of Shas's gratuitous kowtowing to Ashkenazi hegemony is the haredi educational system. Almost three decades after Shas made the first step toward creating its own schools, elitist Sephardim – including Shas's own MKs and ministers – continue to prefer Ashkenazi-run schools for their children. Perhaps that is part of the reason Shas MKs – except for the irreverent and independent-minded Haim Amsalem – were maddeningly silent when over 100,000 haredim took to the streets of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem last week to defend their rabbis' call to discriminate against Sephardi school girls.

Shas and Yosef have a unique, often more lenient and open-minded position on an array of issues, from employment to army service to conversions. They also still have a battle to fight against discrimination. Sadly, due to the party's deference to the Ashkenazi establishment, Shas's voice is not being heard.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

COLUMN

 

PALESTINIANS NEED TO LOOK FORWARD, NOT BACKWARD

BY RAY HANANIA

 

The construction of what is called the first 'Palestinian settlement' in the West Bank – Rawabi – is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing more of to build Palestine.

Qatar is unlike many of the other Arab countries that support the Palestinians.

Instead of donating lip-service and writing checks to be used in conflict, it has invested heavily in a project with a Palestinian construction company to build a new city in the West Bank called Rawabi.

The Palestinians should be focused on doing more of this; building Palestine, and switching gears from the confrontation-style politics of Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran and a lot of other losers who love to exploit Palestinian suffering.

Even Turkey might consider putting a cork in its rhetoric.

 

The confrontation politics of the past was a zero-sum game that achieved very little. In terms of Palestinian interests, it's a step backward, not forward, to keep fighting with Israel. Instead of confronting Israel at every corner, Palestinians should spend at least some of their efforts building their country and strengthening not only its economy but national pride.

Building Palestinian cities in the West Bank is just one way to do this.

If Hamas had any real leaders instead of the modern-day bombastic Nassers it has now, they'd spend more time trying to lure Arab world development into the Gaza Strip to build rather than spending all their time with their confrontational go-nowhere rhetoric that helped empower Israel's stranglehold on the Gaza Strip.

We really do need to start building more cities in Palestine, mainly for the day when the refugees will be able to walk out of their camps. We need to give them a quality of life alternative to the sad existence sustained by the charity of the outside world.

Not that the outside world doesn't owe Palestinians a lot. It does.

Rawabi is a brilliant vision of what Palestinian life can be after confrontation with Israel. Palestine can be a better country. It can be the economic hub of the Middle East.

Palestine, in peace, can offer the region far more than as a constant antagonist.

Of course, that means the activists need to stop exploiting Palestinian suffering for their own needs, too.

But mainly, Palestinians need to stop listening to the no-future activists who promise only confrontation.

Rather than flotillas, Palestine needs more Rawabis, places where Palestinian pride can defeat Israeli occupation. Rawabi would be the first modern, planned Palestinian city – a step that officials say will help build an independent state – located about 30 kilometers north of Jerusalem. It's modeled on the typical US suburb.

THE BIGGEST problem is Israel. Israel has been dragging its feet on giving approval for an access road. The Israelis keep saying how much they want peace and how much they want Palestinians to focus on rebuilding Palestine, but while Israel "talks the talk," it doesn't "walks the walk."

The $700 million Rawabi project is funded by the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. and the Ramallahbased Massar International.

Mortgage loans would be managed by the US Overseas Private Investment Corp., an investment arm of the US government.

The company began pouring foundations this year and anticipates that the first families will be able to move in by 2013.

 

But without an access road, residents would have to do the "Palestinian-Israeli shuffle" used to navigate Israel's checkpoints and road access restrictions, traveling through narrow winding roads, including on two miles of West Bank land controlled by Israel. Rawabi is located in Area A, which is controlled by the Palestinians. The road access it needs is in Area C, controlled by the Israeli military, and on the ground, by settlers who continue to protest, angry that foreign dollars for settlement construction in the West Bank are going to Palestinians.

Palestinians will continue to have to put up with the warped views of Israeli writers like Yoaz Hendel, who recently wrote in the op-ed "Anti- Jewish apartheid" for Ynet, rather inaccurately, "We [Israelis] got used to the world referring to the war against Palestinian terrorism as apartheid, we got so used to being guilty, to the point of failing to notice that the construction apartheid is happening to be directed against us. The Arabs are allowed to buy homes anywhere, while the Jews are not. The Arabs are allowed to build, expand and engage in familyreunification.

The Jews are forbidden."

No Yoaz, Palestinians are not permitted to live or build anywhere.

Take a trip to my land, for example, next to Gilo: 34 dunams that Israel has frozen so non-Jews cannot build there; land located in the West Bank annexed by Israel on the Israeli side of the wall. Yet Yoaz says it is hypocritical for Palestinians to criticize the settlers, who build Jewish-only settlements while the Palestinians build cities like Rawabi, which presumably is for Palestinians only.

Well, Yoaz, the fact is that the settlers are not building homes in Israel. They are building them in the West Bank. The true comparison would be if Rawabi were being built next to Haifa, for Palestinians only.

Of course, that's a small detail that right-wing Israelis love to ignore.

But if Palestinians are going to move forward, we'll need to ignore the ranting and self-righteous lamentations from both the Israeli and Arab sides.

Build more Rawabis. And in the process of building Palestine, we must find time to negotiate a genuine peace agreement.
The writer is an award-winning columnist and Chicago radio talk show host. www.YallaPeace.com

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

COLUMN

WHO'S MISUNDERSTANDING KYRGYZSTAN'S PROBLEMS?

BY SETH J. FRANTZMAN

The tragedy unfolding in Central Asia was quickly misunderstood and twisted for an audience that seeks seemingly deep but actually simplistic explanations.

Around June 10, reports began appearing in the Western media of violent clashes in Kyrgyzstan. They spoke of refugees and ethnic fighting. As days went on, the reports, although conflicting, mentioned refugees numbering in the tens of thousands and a death toll officially reported at around 115, but numbering perhaps as high as 1,000. Almost all the reports noted that the violence was mostly one-sided, with Kyrgyz massacring Uzbeks and the latter fleeing to cross the border into Uzbekistan.

The UN did nothing about the clashes, and as EU leaders remained pragmatically modest in their declarations, reports began being issued by "experts" explaining the situation. Analysis replaced the glaring headlines and gradually the story faded, no longer flashing across the BBC or other major news outlets. The tragedy unfolding in Central Asia was quickly misunderstood and twisted for an audience that seeks seemingly deep but actually simplistic explanations for almost all conflicts so long as they don't involve Israel.

 

The Economist, probably the most intelligent and serious news magazine in the world, described the violence as "Stalin's harvest." It said it was Stalin who "arbitrarily" divided the Fergana Valley among Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, leaving ethnic minorities in each.

Like the history of Africa or Central Europe, these "artificially created borders became final." The result was clashes that erupted after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990. A civil war in neighboring Tajikistan claimed some 50,000 lives in the same period.

A June 14 article in The New York Times described the clashes as "rooted in class, not ethnicity" according to "experts." These experts weren't troglodyte communists hiding out in the basement of some forlorn university but Alexander Cooley of Columbia University's Harriman Institute. In a story reminiscent of the Balkan wars, the article described the Muslim Turkic speakers as having "ethnic distinctions between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz [that] are so slight as to be hardly distinguishable."

The secret lies in wealth; "the one that is most responsible for the animosities that led to the recent violence, Central Asian experts say, is economic."

 

Supposedly the Uzbeks were petit capitalists, kulaks no less (a Stalin-era term of derision referring to successful farmers), who had prospered in business. The Uzbeks had been farmers and the Kyrgyz traditional nomads, and most people are familiar with the fact that pastoralists and settled people are often in conflict. This story of Uzbek success, however, was contradicted by a BBC report the next day in which Nazira, a Kyrgyz, claimed "Uzbeks live in houses made of straw and clay that are built very close to each other.

When one house gets burned – the whole area gets burned. Kyrgyz people live in blocks of flats – those are more difficult to destroy."

SOME REPORTS laid the blame at the government's doorstep. Government troops were accused of colluding with the militia. A secretive paramilitary force of snipers was said to be involved as well, perhaps supporters of the recently ousted president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. There has been a lot of misinformation about what is taking place in Central Asia. When massacres took place recently in Nigeria, the same "experts" explained, in the words of the UN's Navi Pillay, that "it would be a mistake to paint this purely as sectarian or ethnic violence...

underlying causes... namely discrimination, poverty and disputes over land."

But when similar violence breaks out in Israel between Jews and Arabs, or in the Balkans, it is isn't excused by references to "poverty" and "economics." It is condemned as ethnic-cleansing and racism. Furthermore, the fact that outsiders cannot distinguish a Jew from an Arab, a Serb from a Croat, a Nigerian Tarok from a Hausa or a Kyrgyz from an Uzbek is not reason to believe that the people themselves cannot.

However, it is worthwhile to look to history. In 1917 the Soviets appealed to the "Kyrgyz and Sarts, Turks and Tartars" to "arrange your national life freely and without hindrance."

Soviet ethnologists and leading communists such as Lenin took a special interest in the best arrangement for Soviet Central Asia. To combat pan- Turkism and Islamism they decided to split the region into five ethnically homogeneous republics, the ones that exist today.

Svat Soucek, a Czech-born specialist, argues that the supposedly "artificial" borders were no more problematic than any borders that leave minorities in nation-states. Along with promoting women's rights, the Soviets launched a literacy campaign and standardization of language and culture in the republics which helped fuel a degree of nationalism. In a sense the nationalism replaced the tribalism that had existed before. For Soucek, the "legacy of the past" is not gerrymandering but rather the political and bureaucratic infrastructure which was corrupt, dictatorial and Sovietized.

What set off the violence may never be clearly known, whether it was "orchestrated" as the UN argues, due to a national referendum to be held on June 27 or some other factor. The Uzbeks claim they no longer trust the government to protect them and are calling on the UN to administer their areas. From experiences with UN colonization in Haiti, East Timor, Gaza, Bosnia and Kosovo that surely can't bode well. Why Uzbekistan, patron of the Uzbeks, has stood by so quietly is not clear. Airlifting Russian troops, which the weak Kyrgyz government has requested, may offer a temporary solution, but as the conflict in Georgia illustrated, it can also lead to provocations.

Most strange is the deathly silence from Europe, whose politicians like to get a condemnatory word in about everything. It seems they have taken a break after running out of breath condemning Israel regarding the Turkish flotilla.

And speaking of the Turks, one wonders where they are, since they have taken an interest in involving themselves in the region's affairs and since the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks are Turkic peoples. It would be better for us all if the Turks could focus their ire on squabbles between Central Asian nomads and farmers and away from Iran, Gaza and Israel.

The writer is a PhD researcher at Hebrew University and a fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies.

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

OPED

LION'S DEN: THE LEFT'S NEW ENEMY: 'EMPIRE'

BY DANIEL PIPES

 

What the Left seeks: One catchword is authenticity.

We know what Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao wanted (state control of everything) and how they achieved this goal (brutal totalitarianism); but what do their successors today want and how do they hope to achieve it? It's a curiously unexamined subject.

Ernest Sternberg of the University at Buffalo offers answers in an eye-opening article in a recent issue of Orbis, "Purifying the World: What the New Radical Ideology Stands For." He begins by sketching out what the contemporary far Left (as opposed to the "decent Left") opposes and what it wants.

 

What the Left opposes: The prime enemy is something called Empire (no definite article needed), a supposed global monolith that dominates, exploits and oppresses the world.

Sternberg summarizes the Left's all-embracing indictment of Empire: "People live in poverty, food is contaminated, products are artificial, wasteful consumption is compelled, indigenous groups are dispossessed and nature itself is subverted.

Invasive species run rampant, glaciers melt and seasons are thrown out of kilter, threatening world catastrophe."

Empire achieves this by means of "economic liberalism, militarism, multinational corporations, corporate media and technologies of surveillance." Because capitalism causes millions of deaths that a non-capitalism system would eliminate, it also is guilty of mass-murder.

The United States, of course, is the Great Satan, accused of hoarding disproportionate resources. Its military oppresses the poor so its corporations can exploit them. Its government promotes the pretend-danger of terrorism to aggress abroad and repress at home.

And Israel is the Little Satan, serving as Empire's sinister ally – or maybe the Jewish state is really the master? From World Social Forum meetings in Brazil to the UN antiracism conference in Durban and from mainline churches to NGOs, Zionism is represented as absolute evil. Why Israel? Beyond the not-so-subtle anti-Semitism, it alone of Western countries lives under a barrage of constant threats, which in turn compel it to engage in constant wars.

"Stripped of all context," Sternberg notes, "Israel's actions fit the needed image of aggressor."

TO FIGHT Empire's superior resources, the Left needs to ally with anyone else opposing it – notably Islamists. Islamist goals contradict the Left's, but no matter; so long as Islamists help fight Empire, they have a valued place in the coalition.

What the Left seeks: One catchword is authenticity: Empire's artificiality makes indigenous culture analogous to endangered species. Culture should be indigenous, organic and sheltered from Empire's crass commercialism (e.g., Hollywood), its bogus rationalism and its false concepts of freedom.

A second catchword is democracy: The Left rejects the distant and formalistic structure of a mature republic and instead celebrates grassroots, non-hegemonic democracy that offers a more direct voice. The democratic process, Sternberg explains, "will proceed through meetings freed from the manipulative reins of law, procedure, precedent and hierarchy."

These high-flying words, however, disguise a recipe for despotism; those laws, procedures, precedents and hierarchy serve a very real purpose.

A third is sustainability. To integrate economies into Earth's ecosystem, the new order "will run on alternative energy, organic farming, local food markets and closed-loop recyclable industry, if any industry is needed. People will travel on public transit, or ride cars that tread lightly on the earth, or even better, ride bicycles. They will occupy green buildings constructed of local materials and inhabit cities growing organically within bioregions. Life will be liberated from carbon emanations. It will be a permanent, placid way of life."

Socialism definitely forms part of this picture, but economics no longer dominates, as once it did.

The new leftist goal is more complex than mere anti-capitalism, constituting an entire way of life. Sternberg dubs this movement world purificationism, but I prefer left-fascism.

He then asks the vital question: Will the Left's latest incarnation once again turn totalitarian? He finds it too early to answer definitely but points to several "totalitarian warning signs," including the dehumanizing of enemies and accusations of mass murder.

He warns of an inflection point when Leftfascists "stand true to their cataclysmic rhetoric and strap on suicide belts or take up arms to become martyrs."

In other words, the dangers are real and present.

So much for those fashionable theories of two decades ago, trumpeted as the Berlin Wall fell, about the end of ideology. The Left retrenched after the fall of Leninism and now threatens humanity with a new version of its anti-Western, anti-rational, anti-liberty, anti-individualist ideology.

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

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

COLUMN

IN MY OWN WRITE: THOSE WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER

BY JUDY MONTAGU

 

"IT'S THERE, in our daily discourse – Jews calling other Jews 'Nazis.'"

 

 'The origin of kapo is unclear," says Wikipedia.

"Some think it is an abbreviated form of the word Kameradschaftspolizei (roughly, "comrade police force"), or comes from the Italian word for "head," capo."

At any rate, "a kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during WWII in certain lower administrative positions.

 

The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary," but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.

"Kapos received more privileges than normal prisoners, toward whom they were often brutal.

They were often convicts who were offered this work in exchange for a reduced sentence or parole."

I knew the word, of course. I heard it first from my mother, on the rare occasions when she talked about her experience in Auschwitz. What moved me to search for a more precise definition of it was hearing a friend raging about a superior at work who behaved in obstructionist and nasty ways toward other employees and with whom she had recently had a showdown.

"He's just a kapo," she said.

 

I commented to this friend, who works in the media, that she had coincidentally used the term just as I was about to write about the phenomenon of Holocaust terminology being used by Jews to describe other Jews in totally other – and by definition, immeasurably more benign – contexts.

Didn't she feel her use of this terminology trivialized the Shoah? She smiled a bit shamefacedly. "Don't judge people in their moment of anger," she said.

THAT'S just it, though. It is during moments of anger that we swiftly, instinctively search for an apt word or descriptive phrase to express our outrage against those who have evoked that anger.

But when we find ourselves reaching for the words and phrases of an epoch which, out of respect for historical accuracy and our dead, we cannot compare to anything – however maddening – we here in Israel face, we need to clamp our lips firmly shut.

The behavior of my friend's workplace superior, infuriating as it undoubtedly was, perhaps even ill-intentioned, cannot be likened to the way the worst of those German-appointed prisoner functionaries treated those in their power.

'IT'S THERE, in our daily discourse – Jews calling other Jews 'Nazis,'" a thoughtful journalist colleague told me recently. "Politicians are careful to avoid using the word. But among non-politicians, it comes out whenever people feel strongly about an issue.

 

"You hear those on the Left accusing, for example, Avigdor Lieberman of being "a fascist...

you could almost say a Nazi"; while on the Right, it's the forces sent to evacuate illegal outposts that get compared to 'Nazis riding horses into town.' "I've even caught myself doing it," he confessed, "if only in jest."

FEW who followed the disengagement from Gaza in 2005 will forget the heart-rending television footage of Jewish settlements being evacuated – the weeping and pleading of residents with the IDF soldiers who had come to remove them from their homes; the numb disbelief of those who had believed a last-minute miracle would descend to stop it happening, and didn't; the impassioned cursing of and yelling at the generally stoical, often deeply affected Jewish soldiers ordered there to carry out an unenviable task.

Despite violent confrontation between settlers and soldiers in a few settlements, the nation's sympathies were overwhelmingly with those thousands of Jews who had been encouraged by governments of both Right and Left to build their homes in Gush Katif and were then, after making those settlements bloom, forced to leave through no fault of their own.

But at the same time, there was an unconscionable exploitation of Holocaust imagery by settlers that should never have been allowed, described by Sam Ser in an August 25, 2005 feature article titled "A shocking show of hands": "It started with the orange Stars of David that Gaza Strip settlers wore this spring to protest the prospect of being evicted from their homes. It worsened with the announcement by Elei Sinai residents that they would greet soldiers in striped concentration camp-style uniforms. Then a group of teens started protesting restrictions on entry to the Gaza Strip by scrawling their ID numbers on their forearms with black markers, like the tattoos of Holocaust victims...

"But the final straw came in Atzmona, when a settler couple paraded their eight children in front of television cameras, hands raised and wailing, marching from their home. It was an obvious reenactment of the famous photograph of Jews being deported – at rifle-point – from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.

"'Absolutely disgusting,' said Efraim Zuroff, the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Jerusalem bureau chief."

TODAY, it is haredim from the extremist, non- Zionist Eda Haredit group who seem bent on noisily grabbing headlines via destructive demonstrations and the hurling of Holocaust terminology at police.

"Yesterday," wrote Ben Hartman on June 17, "hundreds of haredim took to the streets of the predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Ajami [in Jaffa], throwing rocks and bottles and setting trash cans alight to protest a construction project they say will disturb Jewish remains...

"The rioters repeatedly yelled 'Nazis!' 'Hitler' and 'Eichmann' at police officers..." five of whom were wounded trying to control them.

Mainstream haredi figures have refrained from such obscene comparisons – including during last Thursday's passionate but peaceful massive show of haredi support for hassidic parents from Emmanuel jailed for contempt of court following their discriminatory practices at the local Beit Ya'acov girls school.

They haven't followed the lead of Slonim Admor (Grand Rabbi) Rabbi Shmuel Barazovsky, who lamented to his hassidim a week ago: "To take women, mothers and small children, to [force them to] leave their families and be arrested – I think something of the sort hasn't happened in any civilized country since the war in Germany ended."

Whether the Slonim hassidic parents were discriminating against a group of girls at the school because they were Sephardim, or acting out of excessive religious fervor; and whether the court behaved wisely or foolishly in sending those parents to jail is beside the point. Neither side's actions can remotely be compared to those of the Nazis in WWII, and it was the height of shame for any Jewish leader to do so.

FORMER Shas chairman Aryeh Deri has been trying to help solve the Emmanuel crisis. Interviewed on television last Thursday night, he was asked by Channel 2 news anchor Yonit Levy: "Don't you think the haredim's calls of 'Nazi' and comparisons with Nazi Germany are a bit... exaggerated?" Answered Deri: "I think a law should be passed making it a crime to call anyone a Nazi."

I'd guess many viewers agreed with him. And to those claiming such a law would shackle free speech, I would counter that it would be an acceptable price to pay for helping to prevent trivialization of the Holocaust.

As renowned historian Bernard Lewis wrote in Semites and Anti-Semites (1986): "If the Israelis were no better than the Nazis, then it follows that the Nazis were no worse than the Israelis."

'I SEE I shall have to weigh my words carefully when I talk to you," said my media colleague wryly, after calming down following her run-in with that nasty superior.

"Nothing wrong with that," I retorted. "We all need to."

 

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THE JERUSALEM POST

OPED

BETWEEN PRINCIPLE AND PERIL

BY AMIEL UNGAR

 

The fear of serious resistance to expulsion orders accounts for the renewed interest in a solution for settlers that would leave many Jewish communities within a Palestinian state.

 

It is perhaps somberly appropriate to address this issue of settlers remaining in a future Palestinian state one week after a state investigation committee made its final report on the failed resettlement of the Jewish expellees from the Gaza Strip. Five years from the announcement by Ariel Sharon's agitprop that there was a solution for every settler, most of the expellees are still in limbo.

If this was the best the government could do for the 9,000 former residents of Gaza and Northern Samaria, it is hard to expect a superior performance if such a tragedy is revisited on a population that is twentyfold larger. Once the Israeli peace camp could expect international largesse to resettle the expellees, but the current global financial crisis and the prevailing winds of austerity dash such optimism. The fear of serious resistance to expulsion orders also accounts for the renewed interest in a solution that leaves many Jewish communities within a Palestinian state. It will require the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria to make a Hobbesian choice between principle and peril.

The principled and patriotic decision would be for the communities to remain in place. Jewish "sumud" (steadfastness) will demonstrate to the Arabs that Jews are not latter day Crusaders – an alien entity – but are motivated by their religious and historical link to the land of their forefathers.

The sages in the Talmud, perhaps observing a similar predicament in their era, opined that it is preferable for a Jew to live in the land of Israel even in a city with a non-Jewish majority than to live outside it in an ancient version of Borough Park in Brooklyn.

 

It is also a matter of simple reciprocity. If an Israeli state can be expected to host an Arab minority approaching 20 percent, then a neighboring Palestinian state can be expected to do the same for Jewish communities rather than emptying its territory of Jews.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE issue of principle clashes seriously with the perilous reality on the ground.

There are no prospects whatsoever that would allow a Jewish minority in a Palestinian state to survive and prosper. Jews electing to remain will consign themselves to suffering and probably martyrdom.

And martyrdom in Judaism is a last resort, not the preferred option.

The benign treatment accorded British nationals in the Republic of Ireland once that country had attained its independence will not be revisited in a future Palestine. Observe the fate of Jewish communities throughout the Arab world, where even the minuscule remnants of the Yemenite Jewish community face persecution and mortal danger.

One can also extrapolate from the dwindling Arab Christian communities: persecution by the Muslim majority has made emigration the preferred option; Bethlehem, once a symbol of Arab Christianity, is effectively a Muslim town. If this is the treatment accorded people who share a similar culture and speak the same language, can Jews expect greater benevolence? A newly independent Palestine can be expected to honor Jewish minority rights at best on the level that newly independent Poland adhered to the provisions of the League of Nations minority treaty – i.e., it will ignore them totally. The Kingdom of Jordan imposes a death penalty on anyone convicted of selling land to Jews. In Israel, by contrast, when the chief Rabbi of Safed exhorted Jews not to sell houses to Arabs, the Israeli legal system came down upon him like a ton of bricks.

One may not even have to resort to pogroms.

Dominating the remaining Jewish communities will be mega-mosques with mammoth loudspeakers that will regale the Jews 24/7 with decibelsplitting calls to prayer. Perhaps the new neighbors will be toxic and noxious factories. If the Jews fail to get the message, we will move on to boycotts, violence against property escalating to violence against individuals, followed by abduction, detention and murder. For form's sake, a Palestinian leader may even issue an intermittent denunciation (preferably in English), but the perpetrators will receive an encouraging wink and a reward. The international community will not lift a finger for fear of endangering the "peace process." The voices of progressivism will intone that the settlers brought it on themselves.

Perhaps a Palestinian state may tolerate a supine Jewish minority that will dutifully appear at anti- Zionist demonstrations. The Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria however will not abjure their Zionist beliefs to make this scenario a reality, while the Arabs will not countenance the presence of a Jewish Ahmed Tibi assertive of Jewish minority rights.

This inevitable scenario could be deterred if the Palestinian state feared a crushing military reaction from Israel or violent retribution from the Jewish populace in Israel that would transpose the situation into the Greco-Turkish case of the 1920s or India and Pakistan in 1947, namely a mutual expulsion of minorities. But this eventuality would be thwarted by Israel's human rights cartel and legal establishment, while military conquest will only bring us back to square one in the conflict and perhaps exacerbate it further.

The writer is a foreign policy columnist and commentator for Makor Rishon newspaper and a contributing editor to The Jerusalem Report. This article was first published in www.bitterlemons.org and is reprinted with permission.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

THE CAUSES OF DISTRUST

THE GOVERNMENT HAS CONSPICUOUSLY IGNORED CERTAIN HIGH COURT RULINGS IN RECENT YEARS, AND HIGH-RANKING POLITICIANS HAVE DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES IN SLANDERING THE JUDICIARY.

 

The past decade has seen a 33 percent drop in the public's faith in the Supreme Court, according to a decade-long University of Haifa study reported on yesterday in Haaretz.

 

The crisis in confidence is even sharper with regard to the public's faith in the court system itself, and among the ultra-Orthodox and settlers, doubters far outnumber believers.

 

The study's findings should serve as an alarm bell for anyone concerned about the future of Israeli democracy, the existence of which depends on a strong, independent judiciary. It is easy to pin the public's lack of confidence on judicial foot-dragging or disappointment in specific court rulings. These explanations, however, are too simplistic.

 

Those primarily responsible for the public's lack of trust are the politicians who have so doggedly striven to weaken the courts. Their battle has been waged on a number of fronts. The government avoids making controversial decisions or follows inequitable policy based on narrow political interests, such as ensuring welfare payments to yeshiva students. Such issues eventually reach the High Court of Justice, and the presiding justices - not the politicians themselves - are then targeted for criticism by the communities affected by their rulings.

 

The government has conspicuously ignored certain High Court rulings in recent years, and high-ranking politicians have distinguished themselves in slandering the judiciary. Among them were political figures facing criminal charges - from Aryeh Deri to Ehud Olmert - who sought to intimidate investigators, prosecutors and judges hearing their cases. There were also justice ministers like Haim Ramon and Daniel Friedmann who would undermine and denigrate the court system at every opportunity.

 

Ultra-Orthodox politicians have stepped up their campaign of defying the High Court, peaking with the protest staged by Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush opposite the prison where the parents of students from Immanuel are being held. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a limp reaction to Porush's actions and left him in his post, proving that he values keeping his coalition intact more than the honor of the Supreme Court.

 

Netanyahu and his partners in government must pull themselves together and give the judicial system the support it needs to operate properly, first and foremost by adhering to its rulings and condemning those who incite against it. Any other reaction will only deepen the current crisis and potentially lead to the destruction of Israeli democracy.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

IS ISRAEL BECOMING A BANANA REPUBLIC?

ISRAELI SUBSERVIENCE TO AMERICAN DEMANDS DOES NOT STRENGTHEN ISRAEL'S IMAGE IN THE EYES OF ITS ENEMIES AND IN THE CAPITALS OF EUROPE AND ASIA.

BY MOSHE ARENS

 

It is almost 30 years since Menachem Begin gave his now famous reply to the administration in Washington, which threatened Israel with punishment over the Knesset's passage of the bill applying Israeli law and administration to the Golan Heights: "Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic?" For many years, Israeli governments have insisted on maintaining a position of proud independence to friend and foe alike. Everyone should know that we are not a banana republic.

 

Interestingly enough, just as Israel repeatedly defeated its enemies and grew in strength militarily and economically, it began the slide toward behaving as a vassal of the United States. Ten years ago, under pressure from Washington, Israel canceled a large contract for the supply of Phalcon airborne warning and control aircraft to China. The contract had been duly signed, a large down payment had been made, and Chinese president Jiang Zemin, on a visit to Israel, had been assured that the aircraft would be delivered. But shortly after he returned to China the contract was peremptorily canceled under pressure from Washington.

 

It was a blow to the close relationship that had developed between Israel and China, and the Chinese leadership, wise to the ways of the world, concluded that Israel was not really independent.

 

But with Benjamin Netanyahu's second government and Barack Obama's entry into the White House, things have gone from bad to worse. After Obama's Cairo speech, Netanyahu announced, despite his pre-election platform, that he favored the establishment of a Palestinian state. This was followed by the government's decision, contrary to pre-election promises, to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria for 10 months. The humiliation of Netanyahu during his visit to the White House resulted in a decision effectively freezing construction in parts of Jerusalem.

 

And now after the interception by the Israel Navy of the flotilla of boats that tried to break the blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, the Israeli government, under pressure from the White House, established an investigative committee including international observers. The composition of the committee was not announced until it had been approved by Washington. That set a record for Israeli subservience to Washington. One wonders what will come next.

 

Not that one should deal lightly with the subject of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. It is an important component of Israel's strategic posture. At least some of Israel's deterrent capability rests on the assumption that the United States would support Israel in any conflict with its enemies.

 

Therefore the question needs to be addressed: Does Israeli subservience to the United States really strengthen that relationship? After all, that relationship has been built up over many years on a foundation of common ideals, values and common interests. A relationship that has stood the test of time and many differences of opinion over the years, and that has been beneficial to both nations.

 

Now that the Obama administration has decided to raise the profile of the differences of opinion that existed for many years, Israel giving in to Washington's demands may momentarily assuage tempers in Washington. But the emphasis is on momentarily. Additional demands will be coming, and if they are not accommodated the situation may worsen. In Jonathan Alter's book "The Promise" on Obama's first year in the White House, Obama is quoted as saying: "I know how to handle Netanyahu." And after a year of dealing with him, Obama probably gives himself a good score on this subject.

 

Has the government's policy of giving in to Washington's demands strengthened the relationship between the two nations? It certainly does not seem that way at the moment. And what if the Israeli government had stuck by its positions - would that have resulted in a crisis? Or by sticking to its principles when vital Israeli interests were at stake, would the Israeli leadership have gained respect in Washington? The jury is still out on this question.

 

But it is clear that Israeli subservience to American demands does not strengthen Israel's image in the eyes of its enemies and in the capitals of Europe and Asia. The net result of this Israeli policy in recent years is negative. Add to that, and not least important, how Israelis feel about themselves in light of this subservience. After having attained independence at great sacrifice, and having gotten used to a democratically elected leadership determining the nation's course of action, it is a blow to our self-esteem to see our leaders obeying orders that come from abroad.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

THE NATIONAL EDUCATOR

LAST NOVEMBER, THE KNESSET EDUCATION COMMITTEE CONVENED TO DISCUSS CIVICS STUDIES IN THE WAKE OF A REPORT BY THE INSTITUTE FOR ZIONIST STRATEGIES, WHICH WARNED THAT THE CURRICULUM EMPHASIZES DEMOCRACY AT THE EXPENSE OF STRESSING THAT ISRAEL IS A JEWISH NATION-STATE.

BY AVIRAMA GOLAN

 

Something very strange has happened to the Knesset Education Committee headed by MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi ). From a committee that is supposed to oversee the government's activities in education, it is turning into a tribunal that summons everyone whose opinions and activities it does not like and brands them with moral turpitude. Apparently chairman Orlev enjoys using the committee to develop an agenda and a new role for himself: the national alarmist.

 

The following are just some of many examples. Last November, Orlev convened the committee to discuss civics studies in the wake of a report by the (rightist ) Institute for Zionist Strategies, on the grounds that the curriculum emphasizes democracy and does not stress that Israel is a Jewish nation-state. "Israeli children," said Orlev in his summation of the discussion, "are being educated in an inappropriate way ... in democracy studies .... There is a leftist, liberal and universalist bias in civics studies."

 

In February this year, Orlev adopted the Im Tirtzu organization's "inquiry" into the New Israel Fund - and this time he was even more extreme. The left, he said, referring to Meretz, has become a body that "apart from concern for human rights hardly deals at all with Zionism and values. Worse than that, according to the inquiry, they seek the elimination of the State of Israel. They are defaming the country, just as the spies in the Book of Joshua did."

 

Since then, apparently Im Tirtzu's heads have become the main academic-educational referents for the Knesset Education Committee, whose members convene frequently and urgently for discussions about betrayal of the homeland. In this spirit the committee's MKs have considered firing "leftist" school principals and have lashed out at university lecturers who, according to an Im Tirtzu report, "are maintaining a reign of leftist terror in academia." They have also rebuked lecturers and stoked a witch hunt against them.

 

In this context they reprimanded the Holon municipality for "a street exhibition that shows Israel Defense Forces soldiers harming Palestinian children." The transcript of this discussion, from January this year, should be taught in the new Jewish civics lesson. Municipality representatives tried to explain that the picture in question was an advertising poster for an exhibition marking the anniversary of the Geneva Convention, that the photograph expressed the opinion of the photographer and that the right to consider what to show in exhibitions was reserved for the municipality.

 

However, Im Tirtzu's heads determined that this was "cynical exploitation of freedom of speech with the aim of promoting a campaign of slander and lies against IDF soldiers and Israel ... We contacted the interior minister, and he reacted with contempt and said there is no scope for funding exhibitions by the local authorities ... If you want to disseminate your lies, do it with funding from the European Union."

 

For his part, Orlev asked whether the picture in question wasn't anti-Semitic incitement against Israeli soldiers. When he did not get a satisfactory answer he concluded that while it is necessary to praise Holon for its cultural contribution, the committee protests against the showing of the exhibition and there will be a further discussion. He also castigated the IDF, which preferred to remain outside the debate, and promised that "the committee will insist that an IDF representative take part in the next discussion."

 

It seems Orlev, who until a few years ago came across as the moderate representative of the national religious camp, has realized that if he wants a political life his positions have to change with the spirit of the times. In light of the takeover of his community by the ultra-Orthodox national religious (hardali ) spirit, this should come as no surprise. The "values" of violence the hardalis are perpetrating in the national religious education system and all the branches of the religious establishment is sending moderates scuttling into deep cover so nothing bad will happen to them and their families. It is forcing women to cover their entire bodies and compelling children to lie about the way of life in their homes.

 

Ostensibly, this an internal religious matter. In fact, it is seeping into Israeli society in its entirety and corrupting it. Orlev's McCarthyist energy is a way for him to survive at the head of Habayit Hayehudi. But it means that the Knesset committee is not dealing with matters of education but rather is branding enemies of the people.

 

In this process it is making no distinctions between trends and views, but rather is adopting the deceptive dichotomy of the Im Tirtzu people and their ilk between "loyal" and "traitor," and between "Zionist" and "anti-Zionist." In this way they have made Orlev, who speaks pleasantly in the name of national unity, and his colleagues on the Knesset Education Committee into the vanguard leading the crushing of Israeli democracy.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

TO NEUTRALIZE

UNLIKE IN THE CASE OF THEIR JEWISH COUNTERPARTS, WHEN IT COMES TO OFFENDING ARAB DRIVERS, THE ISRAELI BORDER POLICE WOULD RATHER KILL THAN ARREST.

BY AMIRA HASS

 

If a policeman had witnessed the hit-and-run accident that took the life of cyclist Shneor Cheshin on Friday, would he have killed the driver after catching him? Of course not. But on Friday, June 11, in broad daylight in the middle of a residential neighborhood, a policeman killed a driver who ran into - but did not kill - pedestrians: police officers on foot.

 

The killing was buried immediately in the giant cemetery called "of no interest to the Israeli public." Why? Because all this happened in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem (Wadi Joz ), and because the driver's name was Ziad Jilani.

 

Until his case is decided in court, Tal Mor is rightfully deemed "the suspect in Cheshin's killing." But Jilani was treated to a lightning trial: He was convicted on the spot of intending to carry out a terror attack because the people hurt by his car were Israeli policemen. They chased him as one chases someone defined as a terrorist, while shooting (first in the air, but then in a way that endangered passersby. In fact, a 5-year-old girl sitting in a parked car was injured ).

 

And then, when he was lying on the ground shot, according to witnesses, he also took two bullets to the head. That is, between the second the man was indicted for intending to run people over in a terror attack, and until the moment a gun was allegedly pressed right up to his head and the trigger pulled, the Border Police on the scene were victims, witnesses, prosecutors, judges and executioners.

 

The Border Police spokesperson wrote to Haaretz: "Citizens have been killed and dozens injured by vehicle terror attacks that occurred in Jerusalem from 2008 to 2009. The lives of other innocent citizens were saved thanks to the intervention of police, Border Police combatants and civilians who neutralized the perpetrators and prevented more killing. The latest running-over incident ... only by a miracle ended without combatant fatalities. In this case as well, the perpetrator was neutralized after he tried to flee the scene against the law."

 

When Jilani fled his vehicle into a dead-end alley, did he endanger the lives of civilians? Did the police fear that the Palestinian (after all, they were certain he was not Jewish ) would harm Palestinians in the heart of that Palestinian neighborhood, so they had to "neutralize" him? Who knows, maybe so. Perhaps that was the reason they fired at him when he got out of his car and they chased him, lest he pull a pistol or an assault rifle out of his pants and attack innocent passersby, Palestinians like him.

 

Down the alley, near his uncle's house, there were no police at the time who could be endangered by a potential weapon or an explosives belt. When he was already lying prone on the ground, apparently injured in his leg, back and arm, were the approaching police still afraid he would draw a rifle and kill them? So that's why they did not bother handcuffing him?

 

They call the Border Police "combatants," going around the streets of East Jerusalem with their long rifles and helmets. Against whom and why are they doing combat there, between a butcher shop, two vegetable stores, a laundry, a car-repair shop and a sidewalk that serves as a playground?

 

Israeli police, whatever they are called, are sent to the streets of East Jerusalem as enforcers of government and municipal policy. It is that same policy of intentional discrimination that has brought 65 percent of the 303,429 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem below the poverty line (double the number of poor Jews in the city ) and 74 percent of Palestinian children below that line.

 

The police serve the government that since 1967 has expropriated 24,000 dunams (8,000 acres ) of land from Palestinians and over the years has built more than 50,000 housing units on it - for Jews only. Police accompany the bulldozers that demolish homes built, for lack of choice, without permits.

 

It should come as no shock that police feel hostility toward them in the occupied city. Perhaps that is the reason they did not stop and think: It might have been a brake malfunction, the man might have lost his senses or not have been aware of police and border police procedures for opening fire. The reasons Jilani ran into the police could have been brought to light in court.

 

But they chose, allegedly, to return him to his family with his face imploded after being hit by two bullets, apparently fired into his right cheek. The bullets did not even have a place to come out because, lying there, his left cheek was on the asphalt. Neutralize means eliminate.

 

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HAARETZ

OPINION

WE NEED A CONSTITUTION

THE ARGUMENT THAT BOTH BEN-GURION AND SHARON STUCK TO A NO-CONSTITUTION TRADITION PROVES NOTHING, SINCE IT IS DOUBTFUL WHETHER EITHER HAD A GENUINE COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS OR MINORITY RIGHTS.

BY MORDECHAI KREMNITZER

 

Embedded in his criticism of anchorman Yair Lapid, Aluf Benn considered it proper to critique the need for a constitution in Israel, and particularly the Israel Democracy Institute's proposal for one ("A danger called constitution," Haaretz, June 16 ).

 

Those who are not sensitive to human rights, and especially the human rights of minorities, won't find it difficult to agree with Benn. However, as he positions himself on the other side - the correct side of the divide - of those who care about civil rights, a question quickly arises: Is it possible to ensure human and civil rights without a constitution? That is its main purpose, after all, which is carried out via a document outlining human rights and through judiciary supervision over legislation.

 

Without a constitution, the majority, in line with the rules of formal democracy, can discriminate against the minority and even strip it of its rights.

 

This concern does not lack a basis. Suffice it for us to remember the bills that come up once in a while, threatening to destroy the soul of Israeli democracy, and the waves of hatred directed against the Supreme Court whenever it fulfills its duty.

 

The fact that some totalitarian regimes have beautiful constitutions in theory, but which have no influence in practice, does not suggest that constitutions are by nature irrelevant. In democracies, a constitution can significantly influence the protection of human rights, as can be seen for example by studying the history of the United States and German history after World War II. There is no reason to think that the wisdom of the Gentiles in this matter is something to be sneered at.

 

The argument that both David Ben-Gurion and Ariel Sharon stuck to a no-constitution tradition proves nothing, because it is doubtful whether either had a genuine commitment to human rights or the rights of minority groups.

 

Obviously an Israeli constitution must be a good constitution. It is also obvious that no constitution in Israel will enjoy significant support without compromises being made. Therefore anyone who opposes compromise opposes a constitution and prefers the current situation in which the anti-liberal majority can do away with the liberal dimension of our democracy.

 

The debate over the Israel Democracy Institute's constitution proposal must be based on an accurate presentation of what is being proposed. The institute does suggest - not as part of the constitution - the closing of shopping malls on Saturdays (while pushing for a two-day weekend ). But this is only within a framework of consent in which culture and entertainment, as well as limited public transport, will be available on Saturdays.

 

The Democracy Institute's proposed constitution does not perpetuate rabbis' control over marriage and divorce. It leaves this matter to a political decision. Only a person willing to risk breaking down the court entirely will support a decision by the judiciary on such a loaded issue.

 

The institute does, however, suggest establishing a separate body for registering civil partnerships. Saying that such a body is a handicap remains in the eye of the beholder. In my view it is an appropriate solution in the framework of the exigencies of compromise: for those who wish to be married outside the religious court. This would clearly amount to a substantial improvement over the existing situation.

 

Anyone who believes that the Israel Democracy Institute's proposal is not the best compromise possible is welcome to offer an alternative, as long as it is acceptable for part of the religious community.

 

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******************************************************************************************THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

THE PRESIDENT AND HIS GENERAL

 

Until this week, Gen. Stanley McChrystal had a reputation for fierce self-discipline. That makes his hugely undisciplined comments in Rolling Stone magazine — including derisive quotes from his aides about Vice President Joseph Biden and other top officials — all the more puzzling and disturbing.

 

After reading the article, the first question that comes to mind: What could he possibly have been thinking? Followed closely by: Can, or should, President Obama trust him after this?

 

The news from Afghanistan is bad and getting worse. Back in Washington, the Obama team is still battling — months after the president committed another 30,000 troops — over how deeply to invest in the war.

 

Mr. Obama, who summoned General McChrystal to the White House on Wednesday, must either fire his top commander or send him immediately back into the field with a clear mandate to do his job. He must order all of his top advisers to stop their sniping and maneuvering and come up with a coherent political and military plan for driving back the Taliban and building a minimally effective Afghan government.

 

The Rolling Stone article doesn't suggest any serious policy disagreements between the president and General McChrystal. But the general's quotes about others are both arrogant and indiscreet. He is depicted groaning after receiving "not another e-mail" from Richard Holbrooke, the White House's top civilian adviser on Afghanistan. He makes clear his contempt for the American ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, accusing the retired lieutenant general of covering "his flank for the history books" with a leaked cable questioning General McChrystal's favored counterinsurgency strategy.

 

The most incendiary quotes, the ones that have drawn the White House's fury, predictably have no names attached to them. "One aide" describes James Jones, a retired general and the president's national security adviser, as "a clown" who remains "stuck in 1985." A "top adviser" is even more insulting about Vice President Biden, who opposed sending more troops to Afghanistan. An unnamed "adviser" says that "the Boss" was "disappointed" with his first one-on-one meeting with President Obama, who "didn't seem very engaged."

 

General McChrystal has not tried to disavow his quotes or those by his aides. In a statement, he apologized for the profile that he said reflected "poor judgment and should never have happened." That is true.

 

All of this is a huge distraction at a time when no one involved in the Afghan war can afford to be distracted.

 

Instead of answering questions about his media strategy, General McChrystal should be explaining what went wrong with his first major offensive in Marja and how he plans to do better in Kandahar. Instead of General McChrystal having to apologize to Mr. Holbrooke and Mr. Eikenberry, they all should be working a lot harder to come up with a plan for managing relations with Afghanistan's deeply flawed president, Hamid Karzai.

 

Whatever President Obama decides to do about General McChrystal, he needs to get hold of his Afghanistan policy right now.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

CUTTING OFF THE UNEMPLOYED

 

It was bad enough when the Senate left town for a long Memorial Day break without passing a bill to extend expiring unemployment benefits. It's worse now.

 

Back in session for nearly three weeks, the Senate still has not acted. That means that 900,000 jobless workers have already lost their benefits, a number that will swell to an estimated 1.6 million people if an extension is not passed by the July Fourth holiday. Lost benefits — the average check is $309 a week — deprives struggling Americans of cash they need for buying food, paying the rent or mortgage and other essentials.

 

All indications are that when the Senate finally does pass a bill, it will be stingy and cynical — hacking away at jobless benefits and fiscal aid to cash-strapped states, while preserving tax breaks for the wealthy and other well-connected political donors.

 

The problem, as always, is getting 60 votes to overcome hurdles imposed by the Republican minority. But Republicans aren't the only culprits here.

 

Passage was delayed last week as several Democratic senators — including John Kerry of Massachusetts, Mark Warner of Virginia and Maria Cantwell of Washington — worked to water down a provision in the bill that would have largely closed an unfair loophole that benefits rich fund managers in investment partnerships. Unfortunately, the senators seem to have won that fight.

 

This has led to even more maneuvering. Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican of Maine, is now trying to eliminate another tax provision in the bill. The provision, which would raise roughly $9 billion over 10 years, would stop owners of some small corporations from overpaying themselves in profits and underpaying themselves in salary to lessen their payroll taxes.

 

At the same time, many lawmakers — mostly Republicans, but not all — are claiming that extending jobless benefits and aid to states is simply too costly. That may sound like good politics, but it is very bad economics. If the government fails to keep spending when the economy is weak, especially on core safety-net issues, it will only worsen unemployment and impede the chances of recovery.

 

Neither basic economics nor basic decency seems to matter. To win votes for passage, the Democratic leadership has agreed to drop the extra $25 a week that was added to unemployment benefits last year as part of the stimulus package. That would cut $6 billion from the roughly $40 billion it would cost to extend benefits through November. Senate leaders also are considering sizable cuts to the bill's proposed $24 billion aid package for the states.

 

It's unclear if even those cutbacks will be enough to win passage. What is clear is that unemployment is high, the safety net is frayed and the Senate has other priorities than helping struggling Americans.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

ABOUT THOSE PREMIUMS

 

President Obama told health insurers on Tuesday not to use health care reform as an excuse to raise the cost of premiums. The warning is timely. With critics still scare-mongering about the supposed cost of reform, insurers in several states have been seeking double-digit premium increases that look hard to justify as necessary to keep up with medical inflation.

 

The president acknowledged that there are a lot of factors driving up the cost of care. The health insurers have certainly perpetrated a lot of abuses over the years. But at least when it comes to who is responsible for relentlessly rising health care costs, that falls more on the hospitals, doctors and other providers who charge high prices and deliver more services than are medically necessary, and on the drug- and device-makers who push their most expensive products.

 

Even so, it will be important to monitor insurance rate increases carefully. And the Obama administration must be prepared to push hard. Unfortunately, the reform law did not give the federal government the power to regulate premiums. It did provide some weaker tools to help keep insurance costs down: new rules requiring companies to publicly identify the reasons for unreasonable rate increases; new exchanges where insurers will have to compete for business; and a new office and grant program to help state regulators evaluate and contest proposed rate increases.

 

The president also unveiled new regulations effective this year that should end some of the insurance companies' worst practices, such as rescinding policies for frivolous reasons after a person becomes sick; he thanked the industry for dropping this tactic earlier than required. He listed a number of other benefits that consumers will see soon, including a ban on lifetime coverage limits.

 

Mr. Obama vowed to defend the new law against Republican efforts to repeal or weaken it. He still needs to ignite strong popular support for reforms that could transform the American health care system. Requiring insurers to play fair is part of that effort.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

EDITORIAL

THRUSH'S SONG

BY VERLYN KLINKENBORG

 

In the woods the other day — redwoods and coastal oaks — I stopped to listen to a Swainson's thrush, a bird more often heard than seen. Usually its song is tempered by distance, its maker hidden in the understory. But this thrush was standing on a fallen limb right in front of me. The physical effort of its singing seemed so slight — head tilting, beak parting — compared with the quantity of its delicate, laddering song.

 

Listening, I found myself wondering about Swainson and how his name became attached to this bird, and to the hawk and warbler that bear it, too. It seems odd to think of this thrush — so much itself — tagged, honorifically, with the name of a 19th-century ornithologist. But perhaps that's no odder than the whole of Swainson's industrious human life reduced to the name of a nondescript thrush, uttered almost without thinking by generations of birders.

 

It's always this way with species. You go searching for their identity and end up entangled in thickets of human knowledge and language. I think of the effort to describe, in human phrases, the Swainson's thrush's song. According to the Birds of North America Online, the phonetic description goes, whip-poor-will-a-will-e-zee-zee-zee. Perhaps uttered by a more flamboyant soul than me, those syllables come out thrushlike. But I cannot imitate the bird. I admire the song for its otherness as much as its familiarity.

 

When it comes to identifying bird songs, I'm a little like a novice speaker of a foreign language. I'd like to pretend that I can think in French, but I can't, not without thinking, "I'm thinking in French." I'd like to have the intuitive ease of hearing the thrush's song and not have to say inwardly, "a Swainson's thrush" as I recognize it.

 

That same afternoon I watched a pair of ravens speaking to each other, one from the top of a Douglas fir, the other hidden in the shadows of an oak. Unlike the thrush, which liberates its song, a raven seems to mouth its voicings. I heard declarative statements and a few interrogatives, some almost philosophical in nature. Then the ravens hoisted themselves on the breeze, circling and making a low arc over where I sat. They peered down as if to see how well trained I was and whether I'd laid out any food.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE

BY MAUREEN DOWD

 

So this general with the background in intelligence who is supposed to conquer Afghanistan can't even figure out what Rolling Stone is? We're not talking Guns & Ammo here; we're talking the antiwar hippie magazine.

 

Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are, and they've never gotten over the fact that civilians run the military.

 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his hard-bitten, smart-aleck aides nuked the president, vice president and other top advisers as wimps, losers and clowns in a Rolling Stone profile meant to polish the general's image.

 

It was a product of the warrior-god culture, four-star generals with their own public-relations teams, that came from Gen. David Petraeus. And the towel-snapping was intensified by the fact that McChrystal used to be a tough special-ops, under-cover-of-the-night, rules-don't-apply-to-us military guy.

 

It was bad enough to infuriate even the placid president, who had already told McChrystal to keep his head down once after the infamous London speech, and who was left wondering where those military core values of loyalty, commitment and patriotism were.

 

As he summoned his top commander in Afghanistan to explain himself, President Obama said that his general used "poor judgment" in the derisive way he spoke, and let his aides speak, to writer Michael Hastings. But aren't we relying on McChrystal's good judgment, putting more lives and billions on the line, to get us out of our ghost war?

 

It's just another sign of the complete incoherence of Afghan policy. The people in charge are divided against each other. And the policy is divided against itself. We're fighting a war against an enemy that we're desperately trying to co-opt and win over in a country where Al Qaeda, which was supposed to be the enemy, is no longer based.

 

Even our corrupt puppet doesn't think we can prevail. As Dexter Filkins recently reported in The Times, Hamid Karzai told two former Afghan officials that he had lost faith in the Americans and was trying to strike his own deal with the Taliban and Pakistan.

 

Afghanistan is more than the "graveyard of empires." It's the mother of vicious circles.

 

McChrystal's defenders at the Pentagon were making the case Tuesday that the president and his men — (the McChrystal snipers spared Hillary) — must put aside their hurt feelings about being painted as weak sisters. Obama should not fire the serially insubordinate general, they reasoned, because that would undermine the mission in Afghanistan, and if that happens, then Obama would be further weakened.

 

So the commander in chief can be bad-mouthed as weak by the military but then he can't punish the military because that would make him weak? It's the same sort of pass-the-Advil vicious circle reasoning the military always uses.

 

McChrystal publicly pressured Obama to do the surge, warning that without it, Afghanistan would be "Chaos-istan." But the president did do the surge and Afghanistan is Chaos-istan.

 

The surge isn't working. But if it did start working, Hastings's article suggests, the military might ask for a new surge next summer.

 

McChrystal warns his troops about "insurgent math" — for each innocent you kill, you make 10 enemies. Yet we keep killing and making more enemies.

 

The Taliban, McChrystal told Hastings, no longer has the initiative — "but I don't think we do, either."

 

After nine years, more than a thousand troops dead, and hundreds of billions spent that could have been put toward developing new forms of fuel so that all our miseries and all our fun doesn't derive from oil, we've fought our way to a stalemate.

 

McChrystal painted a vicious circle around his commander in chief. As Stars and Stripes summed it up: "Fire Gen. Stanley McChrystal and risk looking like he's lost control of the war in Afghanistan. Or keep him and risk looking like he's lost control of his generals."

 

The lean McChrystal, who was dubbed a Jedi warrior by Newsweek, prides himself on his Spartan style. He banned alcohol and Burger King from the Kabul headquarters compound and only eats one meal a day.

 

But he has met his match in Afghan warriors, who have clobbered every foreign invader since Alexander the Great. The average Afghan fighter lives on grain, a bowl of rice, a bottle of water. How much does it cost by comparison to have a foreign soldier in Afghanistan?

 

McChrystal never should have been hired for this job given the outrageous cover-up he participated in after the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman. He was lucky to keep the job after his "Seven Days in May" stunt in London last year when he openly lobbied and undercut the president on the surge.

 

But with the latest sassing, and the continued Sisyphean nature of the surge he urged, McChrystal should offer his resignation. He should try subordination for a change.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

WHAT'S SECOND PRIZE?

BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's trashing of his civilian colleagues was unprofessional and may cost him his job. If so, it will be a sad end to a fine career. But no general is indispensable. What is indispensable is that when taking America surging deeper into war in Afghanistan, President Obama has to be able to answer the most simple questions at a gut level: Do our interests merit such an escalation and do I have the allies to achieve victory? President Obama never had good answers for these questions, but he went ahead anyway. The ugly truth is that no one in the Obama White House wanted this Afghan surge. The only reason they proceeded was because no one knew how to get out of it — or had the courage to pull the plug. That is not a sufficient reason to take the country deeper into war in the most inhospitable terrain in the world. You know you're in trouble when you're in a war in which the only party whose objectives are clear, whose rhetoric is consistent and whose will to fight never seems to diminish is your enemy: the Taliban.

 

President Obama is not an Afghan expert. Few people are. But that could have been his strength. The three questions he needed to ask about Afghanistan were almost childlike in their simplicity. Yet Obama either failed to ask them or went ahead, nevertheless, because he was afraid he would have been called a wimp by Republicans if he hadn't.

 

The first question was hiding in plain sight: Why do we have to recruit and train our allies, the Afghan Army, to fight? That is like someone coming to you with a plan to recruit and train Brazilian boys to play soccer.

 

If there is one thing Afghan males should not need to be trained to do, it's to engage in warfare. That may be the only thing they all know how to do after 30 years of civil war and centuries of resisting foreign powers. After all, who is training the Taliban? They've been fighting the U.S. Army to a draw — and many of their commanders can't even read.

 

It is not about the way. It is about the will. I have said this before, and I will say it again: The Middle East only puts a smile on your face when it starts with them. The Camp David peace treaty started with Israelis and Egyptians meeting in secret — without us. The Oslo peace process started with Israelis and Palestinians meeting in secret — without us. The Sunni tribal awakening in Iraq against pro-Al Qaeda forces started with them — without us. When it starts with them, when they assume ownership, our military and diplomatic support can be a huge multiplier, as we've seen in Iraq and at Camp David.

 

Ownership is everything in business, war and diplomacy. People will fight with sticks and stones and no training at all for a government they feel ownership of. When they — Israelis, Palestinians, Afghans, Iraqis — assume ownership over a policy choice, everything is possible, particularly the most important thing of all: that what gets built becomes self-sustaining without us. But when we want it more than they do, nothing is self-sustaining, and they milk us for all we're worth. I simply don't see an Afghan "awakening" in areas under Taliban control. And without that, at scale, nothing we build will be self-sustaining.

 

That leads to the second question: If our strategy is to use U.S. forces to clear the Taliban and help the Afghans put in place a decent government so they can hold what is cleared, how can that be done when President Hamid Karzai, our principal ally, openly stole the election and we looked the other way? Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others in the administration told us not to worry: Karzai would have won anyway; he's the best we've got; she knew how to deal with him and he would come around. Well, I hope that happens. But my gut tells me that when you don't call things by their real name, you get in trouble. Karzai stole the election, and we said: No problem, we're going to build good governance on the back of the Kabul mafia.

 

Which brings up the third simple question, the one that made me most opposed to this surge: What do we win if we win? At least in Iraq, if we eventually produce a decent democratizing government, we will, at enormous cost, have changed the politics in a great Arab capital in the heart of the Arab Muslim world. That can have wide resonance. Change Afghanistan at enormous cost and you've changed Afghanistan — period. Afghanistan does not resonate.

 

Moreover, Al Qaeda is in Pakistan today — or, worse, in the soul of thousands of Muslim youth from Bridgeport, Conn., to London, connected by "The Virtual Afghanistan": the Internet. If Al Qaeda cells returned to Afghanistan, they could be dealt with by drones, or special forces aligned with local tribes. It would not be perfect, but perfect is not on the menu in Afghanistan.

 

My bottom line: The president can bring Ulysses S. Grant back from the dead to run the Afghan war. But when you can't answer the simplest questions, it is a sign that you're somewhere you don't want to be and your only real choices are lose early, lose late, lose big or lose small.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

JUDGING MCCHRYSTAL'S WAR

BY MAX BOOT

 

ON Tuesday, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, was called back to Washington to explain disparaging comments he and his aides made to a Rolling Stone reporter about senior administration officials. The general's ill-advised remarks, which have prompted him to prepare a letter of resignation, will only feed the general sense of despair and impatience that Americans seem to feel about our progress in Afghanistan.

 

When President Obama announced last year the deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, the expectation was that progress would be as rapid as it seemed to be during our earlier surge in Iraq, where violence fell more than 70 percent from 2007 to 2008. But only about 21,000 of the reinforcements have arrived; the rest won't be in place until the end of August. Any suggestion that the war is lost is ludicrously premature, and it could prove just as wrong as the naysaying in early 2007 that the Iraq surge had failed at a time when it had barely begun.

 

It's important to remember that in Iraq the turnaround didn't occur overnight: as a direct consequence of the surge, April, May and June 2007 were among the highest-casualty months of the war. So, too, we are now seeing more killed and wounded among coalition forces and Afghans. Increased casualties are obviously not good news, but they aren't necessarily a sign of impending disaster. They could be the price of victory.

 

There are also significant differences between the two situations that need to be kept in mind. By the time of the Iraq surge, the United States had been fighting with at least 140,000 troops for most of the previous four years. We have been in Afghanistan longer — almost nine years — but still don't have 100,000 troops there and won't for a few months.

 

What's more, thanks to our larger commitment in Iraq, by 2007 the enemy had suffered considerable attrition, the civilian population had been exhausted and the United States had shown the will to prevail. These factors were crucial in bringing about the Anbar Awakening, when the Sunni tribes turned against the insurgency. While the Taliban are just as unpopular as the Iraqi militants were — only 6 percent of the population want them back in power — it will still take more time to convince the people of Afghanistan that it's safe to turn against them.

 

Iraq was also much more violent. Last year 2,259 civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Compare that with 34,500 civilians killed in Iraq in the pre-surge year of 2006 — 15 times as many. And not only was there more violence in Iraq, but much of it was concentrated in Baghdad, so it was easier to show rapid progress by flooding the zone with troops.

 

In Afghanistan, the violence is much more diffuse, making it harder to measure security gains. Indeed, until recently, many parts of southern Afghanistan had barely seen an American soldier, and there are still critical areas where the Americans lack sufficient troop density to impose their will.

 

That leaves the news media free to focus on bad news, of which there is no shortage. In recent days, we have been reading about General McChrystal's gaffes; the continuing insecurity in Marja, which Marines entered in February; and the assassination of an important district governor.

 

Such concerns are valid, but as the head of Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, recently pointed out, what

the public doesn't see is what NATO forces have been doing behind the scenes to create the right "inputs" to carry out a "comprehensive civil-military counterinsurgency campaign." Much of this has involved making sure that troops are operating in ways that will win over, not alienate, the populace.

 

Top-notch American officers have also been brought in to rejigger an unwieldy NATO command structure. A three-star general, David Rodriguez, was appointed to supervise daily operations in Afghanistan, as Raymond Odierno did for General Petraeus in Iraq in 2007. (General Rodriguez would be the obvious choice for the top job if General McChrystal is fired.)

 

A new two-star Regional Command Southwest has also been set up to run operations in Helmand Province, enabling the existing Regional Command South to focus its attention on Kandahar. Such bureaucratic shuffling isn't glamorous, but it can set the conditions for future success.

 

Just as important is the new NATO training mission, under Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, that was set up to supervise the expansion of the Afghan security forces. Thanks to its efforts, the Afghan police and army have grown from 156,000 men in January 2009 to more than 231,000 today, and their quality has improved through intensive mentoring.

 

The biggest difficulty in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, remains the lack of an effective, accountable government. General McChrystal is starting to address that issue, using intelligence assets to uncover corruption and setting up a new task force to monitor coalition contractors.

 

Some people will argue that the presence of President Hamid Karzai, who is linked to dirty dealings and predatory officials, makes this an impossible mission. But many of Mr. Karzai's actions (like his decision to fire his interior minister and his intelligence chief, two of the most effective and pro-American members of his cabinet) can be seen as a natural reaction to Mr. Obama's pledge to begin withdrawing troops in July 2011. If you were the president of Afghanistan and you believed that your main ally was abandoning you within a year, you too would be looking to cut deals with the Taliban and various warlords to assure your survival.

 

In fact, for all of the well-founded concerns about Mr. Karzai, he did display effective leadership at a meeting with local Kandahar leaders on June 13, where he raised popular support to drive the Taliban out of the largest city in the south. Mr. Karzai and other Afghans would be willing to do even more if President Obama were to make clear that our troops will stay in Afghanistan long enough to assure its success as a stable democracy.

 

By letting his aides mouth off to a reporter, General McChrystal has displayed a potentially fatal lack of media savvy. But he deserves credit for energizing a lethargic command and putting in place the right strategy to turn around a failing war effort. Whether or not he carries it out, his plan can work. We just need to give it a little time.

 

Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is writing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

THE OTHER TRUMAN DOCTRINE

BY ROBERT DALLEK

 

Washington

 

IRRESPECTIVE of anything he said, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, committed a clear breach of traditional standards by even agreeing to give an interview to Rolling Stone magazine. Presidents and defense secretaries make policy decisions, and military officers, from the lowest to the highest ranks, are obliged to follow orders without public comment. To be sure, civilian authorities ask military chiefs for private counsel on the best means to fight a war, but final decisions on grand strategy are the responsibility of the president. If a top officer feels strongly that his commander in chief is mistaken, he can resign and take his case to the public as a private citizen.

 

The precedents are clear. During World War II, Gen. George C. Marshall, the country's highest-ranking officer, was so determined to stay out of politics that he made a point of refusing to laugh at President Franklin D. Roosevelt's jokes. It was Marshall's way of preventing his being co-opted by a president who might wish to use him for political purposes. And Marshall was of course discreet about what advice he gave the president.

 

In the fallout from General McChrystal's remarks, many have pointed out that when Gen. Douglas MacArthur publicly defied President Harry S. Truman over how to fight the Chinese in Korea, the president fired him. Indeed, MacArthur had crossed a line, and Truman knew he could not be allowed to set a precedent. "If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military," Truman later wrote. "If I allowed him to defy the civil authorities in this manner, I myself would be violating my oath to uphold and defend the Constitution."

 

General McChrystal, however, is not Douglas MacArthur. His misdeed was not an insubordinate demand for a change in grand strategy. Rather, it seems more like a few mindless expressions of irritation at higher authority in a magazine he probably never reads: snidely mocking Vice President Joe Biden with the comment "Biden ... Who's that?"; complaining about frequent e-mail messages from the administration's special representative to the Afghan war area, Richard Holbrooke.

 

Couldn't one dismiss these remarks as relatively harmless examples of poor taste by a general burdened with a difficult, if not unwinnable, war? If so, the appropriate punishment might be a public slap on the hand. That would certainly insulate President Obama from accusations that he was overreacting to a misstep by a good soldier who has already apologized.

 

If only things were that simple. It is impossible to believe that General McChrystal didn't know exactly what he was doing. Surely he understood that an interview with a left-of-center magazine would produce headlines across the country. He was reading the president the riot act.

 

So, while this was not the sort of overt defiance that MacArthur challenged Truman with, it was defiance nonetheless. And the only fitting punishment is dismissal.

 

There is, in fact, a better historical analogy than the MacArthur controversy: President Roosevelt's approach to Gen. Joseph Stilwell, the top American commander in East Asia during World War II. Stilwell never openly defied the president (except in the privacy of his diary, where he was scathing). He did, however, treat Chiang Kai-shek, China's Nationalist leader, disrespectfully, even calling the generalissimo "the Peanut."

 

Roosevelt, who believed it was essential to keep Chiang and his armies in the war against Japan, complained that Stilwell could not treat Chiang "the way we might ... the Sultan of Morocco." The president removed Stilwell from command — not because he had directly defied the White House's authority, but because he had lost his usefulness as an instrument of the president's policy.

 

The same now is the case in Afghanistan. The president will surely take heat if he replaces McChrystal, and critics are already claiming that any reshuffling at the top will make it impossible to begin drawing down American forces next July, as the president has promised. In fact, the opposite is the case: the best way to ensure that we keep to the timetable is to designate a top commander who will closely follow the lead of his commander in chief.

 

Robert Dallek is the author of the forthcoming history "The Lost Peace: Leadership in a Time of Horror and

Hope, 1945-1953."

 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

OPED

WHAT WOULD LINCOLN DO?

BY DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

 

IF Abraham Lincoln's experience is any guide, Gen. Stanley McChrystal's fate will be determined by President Obama's judgment of how his firing would affect the war in Afghanistan.

 

For months during the Civil War, Lincoln chose to ignore insolent behavior by Gen. George McClellan, who served at times as the commander of the Army of the Potomac and the general in chief of the Union Army, arguing that his breaches of protocol were worth tolerating as long as he was exerting a positive influence on his forces.

For example, one night in 1861, Lincoln went with his secretary of state, William Seward, and his young aide John Hay to McClellan's house. Told that the general was out, the three waited in the parlor for an hour. When McClellan arrived home, the porter told him the president was there, but McClellan passed by the parlor and climbed the stairs to his private quarters. After a half hour more, Lincoln again sent word, only to be informed that the general had gone to sleep.

 

Hay was enraged, writing in his diary of the "insolence of epaulettes" and "the threatened supremacy of the military authorities." To Hay's astonishment, Lincoln "seemed not to have noticed it specially, saying it was better at this time not to be making points of etiquette and personal dignity." He would hold McClellan's horse, he'd once said, if a victory could be achieved.

 

McClellan's bad behavior did not end. In letters to his wife, he regularly referred to Lincoln as "the original gorilla." He considered the cabinet "some of the greatest geese I have ever seen," and called Seward "a meddling, officious, incompetent little puppy." Still, Lincoln kept him on.

 

When a critic in Congress demanded McClellan's firing, Lincoln asked who should replace the general. "Why, anybody," the senator replied. "Anybody will do for you," Lincoln said, "but not for me. I must have somebody."

 

So McClellan remained, until in November 1862 Lincoln finally lost faith in his commander's commitment to the mission, his fighting spirit and his ability to prosecute the war to ultimate victory. Only then did he fire "the young Napoleon."

 

Doris Kearns Goodwin is the author of "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

OUR VIEW ON 'RUNAWAY GENERAL': TEAM MCCHRYSTAL'S TRASH TALK LEAVES OBAMA IN A QUANDARY

 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, isn't the first American general to vent frustration with his superiors, but he might be the most thorough. In a Rolling Stone profile that could cost the general his job as soon as today, McChrystal and his top aides fire their verbal Gatling gun full circle.

 

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry "betrayed" him so that he could cover "his flank for the history books," McChrystal says.

 

National security adviser James Jones is a "clown" who is "stuck in 1985," a McChrystal aide is quoted as saying. Vice President Biden is a target of juvenile mockery. Richard Holbrooke, the special envoy to the region, and Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass, and John McCain, R-Ariz, are cast as annoying opportunists.

 

McChrystal was more circumspect in his criticism of President Obama, saying only that the commander in chief's patient review of the war plan was frustrating for him. But his point was made: McChrystal is right, and the wimps in Washington just can't see it.

 

Summoned to the White House for a meeting today, McChrystal apologized for "poor judgment," and surely that is the most benign description of his actions. Regardless of his frustrations, it is hard to imagine what benefit he saw in allowing them to become so public.

 

In the best case, he has undermined his relationship with people he has to work with daily, not just disagreeing with their opinions but impugning their motives. Such behavior is not going to help him win the war.

 

In the worst interpretation, he is challenging civilian authority — an offense that no president can accept.

 

Either way, he has left Obama with quite a problem, not just with McChrystal but with the war itself. McChrystal would hardly be venting if the war were going well. It is not.

 

A key operation around the city of Marjah, which McChrystal forecast as a walkover, has bogged down. That has delayed the next critical campaign, a much more challenging push into the Taliban home base of Kandahar, and cast doubt on Obama's objective of beginning to withdraw troops next summer.

 

In fact, the deadline itself, never a good idea in war, is making the fight harder. It has made both the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai skeptical of the American commitment. Karzai, meanwhile, has shown himself to be a feckless leader, and the Afghan people seem as distrustful of foreign troops as of the Taliban. Both echo the U.S. calamity in Vietnam, a parallel that in the Rolling Stoneprofile is very much on the minds of McChrystal's staff.

 

"It's not going to look like a win, smell like a win or taste like a win," says McChrystal's chief of operations, Maj. Gen. Bill Mayville. "This is going to end in an argument."

 

Not exactly an inspirational goal.

 

So what is Obama to do?

 

First he must deal with McChrystal, and there he has options.

 

If he concludes that his commander is a rebel in the mold of Douglas MacArthur, the Korean War commander who bristled when President Harry Truman very wisely refused to let him bomb China, then he has to go.

 

If, on the other hand, he sees McChrystal more as George Patton, the brilliant World War II general with a titanic ego and insatiable appetite for his foot, then perhaps the president can find a way to confine a chastened McChrystal to war fighting.

 

But if Obama sees McChrystal as a failure, then it will be hard not to conclude that the war plan is a failure as well. And that's not a problem that firing a general can fix.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

ANOTHER VIEW ON 'RUNAWAY GENERAL': DON'T FIRE MCCHRYSTAL

BY MICHAEL O'HANLON

 

Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his staff made major mistakes in the Rolling Stone interviews. Most troubling is why the interviews seemed necessary to anyone after McChrystal had effectively won the policy debate last fall, persuading President Obama to provide extra forces and support his rigorous counterinsurgency strategy.

 

At this point, I cannot blame anyone in the Obama administration for having doubts about the McChrystal team's loyalties; the general has lots of explaining to do at the White House today. But mistakes happen, especially for people under enormous stress. These mistakes were particularly unusual and out of character for McChrystal — to my mind, not only one of the most brilliant and most devoted, but one of the most respectful and even kindhearted generals I have ever known. His serious mistakes need to be balanced against his broader track record.

 

McChrystal was the general who told U.S. and NATO troops to use firepower much more carefully in order to save innocent Afghan lives — because otherwise we could create more enemies than we killed.

 

McChrystal was the one who after eight long years finally told those in Washington how many forces might really be needed to prevent the Taliban from retaking Afghanistan. McChrystal has the best relationship of any major American official with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who despite his flaws is someone with whom we must work to win this war. Indeed, he recently took Karzai to Kandahar and helped encourage him to give an inspirational speech to local elders, calling for sacrifice and patience in the difficult days ahead.

 

McChrystal also has good relationships within the Afghan ministries of defense and interior, giving him clout when we request that Afghan officials fire corrupt or incompetent subordinates. He is also well regarded around Kabul by the international military and diplomatic communities — partly because he is always eager to show deference to other leaders despite his transcendent rank and responsibilities.

 

At this moment, as we enter into perhaps the most crucial six months of the entire war, I hope and pray that President Obama will decide we cannot afford to be without the leadership of such an amazing American.

 

Michael O'Hanlon is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution,co-author of Brookings' Afghanistan Indexand co-author of Toughing It Out in Afghanistan.

 

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USA TODAY

EDITORIAL

COURT CHILLS FREE SPEECH

 

The Supreme Court's view of the First Amendment is growing curiouser.

 

In January, the court held that corporations enjoy the same speech rights humans do and can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. The consequences are ugly, but at least it was an endorsement of free speech.

 

In April, the court struck down a federal law aimed at banning depictions of animal cruelty. More ugly consequences will follow, but again the ruling was in tradition of protecting unpopular expression.

 

Now, in a sharp and troubling turn, the court has denied free speech rights to humanitarian groups— and potentially to academics and journalists — who "knowingly" give "material support" to terrorist groups.

 

That might be fine if the ruling affected only actual support of terrorism, such as contributing money, arms, transportation or other aid to a terrorist organization. But the law goes further and the court did, too, ruling Monday that it's also illegal to provide expert advice to terrorist groups on how to peacefully resolve disputes, advocate politically for their supporters, or petition organizations such as the U.N. — all activities aimed at turning groups away from terrorism and deserving of First Amendment protection.

 

The court, in its first post-9/11 foray into the murky intersection of terrorism and free speech, held that such aid "frees up other resources" for terrorists and "helps lend legitimacy" to them. While the 6-3 majority said the law leaves people and groups to "speak and write freely" about terrorist organizations, it hardly seems farfetched that a zealous prosecutor could pursue people for lending "legitimacy" to terrorist groups by publishing academic papers on their history and aims or their reasons for fighting.

 

Whatever the risks to free speech, the court said, Congress and the executive branch are best able to decide where to draw the line when it comes to national security.

 

Actually, it's the court's job to guard the First Amendment, not reflexively scale it back at the first mention of "national security." In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer urged that the law be enforced only against those who know or intend that their activities will help a group commit terrorist acts.

 

That seems like exactly the right balance to strike, and Congress would do well to clarify the law and make it so

 

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USA TODAY

COLUMNISTS' VOICES

REAGAN, OBAMA AND DEJA VU

BY ROSS K. BAKER

 

Early in the 2008 presidential primary season, when Barack Obama was getting set to go head-to-head with Hillary Clinton in the Nevada Democratic Caucus, he sat down for an interview with the editorial board of a Reno newspaper.

 

In the course of the interview, the candidate drew a comparison between his campaign and an earlier successful presidential drive.The candidate he invoked was not of one of the Democratic immortals such as Franklin D. Roosevelt or Harry Truman but of Ronald Reagan, a historical miscreant in the eyes of many Democrats.

 

"Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not," Obama said. He added that "we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing."

 

Obama's comment left him open to attacks from his Democratic opponents, who condemned him as an apostate. But his statement was an early clue to the course that he wanted to emulate. Now, a year-and-a-half into his presidency, both the political dynamics and Obama's response to them bear some remarkable resemblances to those surrounding Reagan. Though die-hard Reagan detractors might cringe from this prospect, Obama might well profit from Reagan's tactical and stylistic approaches to the presidency.

 

Dueling camps

 

The Republican Party that accompanied Reagan to the White House in 1981 was unified on only one thing: the remarkable personality of the new president and the issues he championed. Below the surface, however, there were two Republican parties. One consisted of social conservatives who backed Reagan's anti-abortion, pro-nuclear family view, and a quite distinct group of fiscal conservatives who emphasized his tax-cutting proposals and anti-regulation positions.

 

In like manner, Obama's Democratic Party is divided. There is an ultraliberal wing that favors an quasi-pacifist foreign policy, a loosening of social restrictions on such issues as same-sex marriage, and broad protection for the environment and abortion rights. A more centrist faction wants to concentrate on fixing the economy and reversing job loss and favors moderate reform of financial regulations. The first group regards efforts to enlist centrist Republicans as a fool's errand; the second believes that no lasting reform can be achieved without bipartisan support.

 

With both Reagan and Obama, it is their personal appeal that serves as the glue that holds this uneasy coalition together. In both cases, promises made to their ideological bases were shunted aside to deal with the problems of the economy that they encountered on assuming office. So while Reagan consistently championed the anti-abortion cause, he never appeared in person at the annual rallies that mark the Supreme Court decision in the Roe v. Wadecase and never pushed for an anti-abortion legislative agenda. Obama vowed to end the Clinton-era policy of "don't ask, don't tell" that prevents gays from serving openly in the military, but he has deferred to the leaders of the armed services to come up with a solution.

 

The economic problems that Reagan faced when he took office were less drastic than those confronting Obama, but both felt the need to employ strong measures. Reagan faced what was known at the time as "stagflation," a toxic brew of low economic growth, high inflation and an unemployment rate slightly higher than 7%. His antidote consisted of deep cuts in the federal budget and sizeable tax cuts, which were enacted by a Congress split between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. He got the votes of a number of conservative Sunbelt Democrats in the House known as the "Boll Weevils," a group very similar to the "Blue Dogs" in 2010, many of whom supported the Obama stimulus. It should be noted that the centrists who gave Reagan the votes he needed came from the opposition party; this is a benefit that Obama did not enjoy in 2009 and 2010.

 

Neither the tax and budget cuts of Reagan nor the economic stimulus of Obama immediately cured the nation's ailments. By the midterm elections in 1982, the unemployment rate was above 10% and the Republicans lost heavily. In 2010, the unemployment rate very nearly approximates the rate of 28 years ago. Reagan came to accept that his "supply side" approach to restoring the economic health of the nation was not working and endorsed Fed Chairman Paul Volcker's use of high interest rates to cure the inflation problem. Throughout this crisis, the eternally sunny Reagan urged Americans to stick with him. The phrase he used was "stay the course." Early in 1983, the economy began a dramatic improvement, and the year concluded with a 7.6% growth rate.

 

A political apocalypse?

 

Obama will need to convince Congress that more stimulus is needed and recently asked Congress for $50 billion to prop up the job market. But the severity of economic crisis means that Obama will need to implore Americans to persevere as Reagan did 28 years ago, and they may well respond by rebuking Democrats in November as they did Reagan in 1982. Throw in the uneven government response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the uncertainty of the military effort in Afghanistan and a rising fear about government indebtedness, and the Democrats could be facing a political apocalypse far larger than the one Reagan suffered in 1982.

 

Where the Reagan-Obama comparison breaks down most dramatically is that the political climate in the early 1980s was far more benign than it is today. Unlike Reagan, who came to rely on the occasional help of Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill, Obama has had little GOP support. A strong Republican showing in November may, paradoxically, improve the political atmosphere by bringing the Republicans into the governing process. But an even more important ingredient will be Obama's ability, as the person looked to by Americans, to project the same clarity and optimism that he attributed to Ronald Reagan.

 

Ross K. Baker is a political science professor at Rutgers University and is writing a book titled Profiles in Cover. He also is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

 

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USA TODAY

COLUMNISTS' VOICES

IS TIME REALLY MONEY? FOR THESE MILLIONAIRES, YES.

BY LAURA VANDERKAM

 

Most small businesses in the USA stay small — or fail. Few grow to have $1 million or more in revenue. So when the non-profit Count Me In organization, which provides support to women entrepreneurs, started seeing former finalists in its Make Mine a Million $ Business competition actually cross the seven-figure mark, the staff wanted to know why. What made these women different? Did they go to Ivy League schools? Maybe they didn't have families to distract them?

 

The answer might surprise you.

 

When I caught up with Count Me In founder Nell Merlino at the competition in Newark last week, she told me that these women had something else in common: They all used grocery delivery services. Before they made their millions.

 

Strange? Sure. But I soon realized that it made sense — and that all of us could benefit from the same mind shift in how we view time and money.

 

For starters, few of us ask whether we're spending our hours in the best way possible. While grocery shopping can be enjoyable — if you're making a special meal for company, for instance — most of the time you're battling traffic just to stick the same gallons of milk in your cart as you did last week. This is inefficient.

 

For a fee (FreshDirect here in NYC charges roughly $6 and people tip $3-$4; Peapod, Safeway, Netgrocer and others serve different regions), a grocery service will let you automatically refill the cart and put the driving time on the delivery guy. Not you.

 

A new financial equation

 

Now, $10 a week isn't much, but it isn't nothing either. Much of the personal finance literature we've gobbled up during this recession tells people to identify small recurring expenses, cut them and invest the money instead. Ten bucks a week for a year is $500. Invest that $500, and in 10 years you'll have ... about $500, if your time frame was 2000-10, but that's another story.

 

Million-dollar business owners view things differently.

 

"I was overwhelmed by their clarity of understanding of the value of their time," Merlino says.

 

Time spent on one thing is time not spent on something else. You're unlikely to build a million-dollar business spending an hour you could be chasing a $50,000 contract in line at the grocery store in order to save $10. You grow your assets by being "focused on what you're best at" — both at the office, where these entrepreneurs had learned to delegate tasks, and at home, where they outsourced grocery shopping, and sometimes cleaning and laundry, too. Even during the start-up phase when they were watching every penny. They knew that you can spend time to save money. Or you can spend small amounts of money to save time, and use that time to earn a lot more.

 

Time for a bigger return

 

That's an idea we could all stand to consider. Yes, Americans need to be better about living within our means. But if we want to boost our household finances, we could spend more time on routine household chores — cutting coupons and making our own laundry detergent, for instance. Or we could spend those hours learning negotiation techniques to ask for a raise, updating our résumés, or even taking on freelance projects.

 

The first set of actions may be easier, but the latter can generate a bigger return. After all, there's a limit to how much you can cut. But, at least in theory, there's no limit to how much your income can grow if you value your time and use it well. Just ask the million-dollar business owners.

 

Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think,is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors.

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

A WRONG-HEADED RULING

 

The looming legal battles over the central issues in BP's massive and presently unstoppable oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have not yet begun to take shape. But Louisiana's U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman apparently has already figured out -- at least for himself -- that the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on new deep-water drilling makes no sense. In his premature ruling on Tuesday striking down the temporary ban, he summarily determined that there is no link between the spill and its consequences and the "immense scope of the moratorium."

 

Judge Feldman's 22-page ruling, to be sure, is erudite, well annotated in case law, and encompassing in the breadth of the economic scope of the moratorium. But despite his findings, he does not address the broad core issue of safe operations on deep-water drilling rigs.

 

He acknowledged that agencies under the Department of Interior have authority over safety and public resource issues related to drilling and production in the Gulf. But his ruling seems far more concerned with the broad economic impact of the moratorium in his home region than with the efficacy of a moratorium on drilling while the administration studies the newly documented issues of environmental security and blow-out preventer reliability in the Gulf, and the regulatory infrastructure necessary to assure a spill-free industry.

 

Judge Feldman, for example, spent considerable time commenting on the economic and jobs values of the 3,600 "structures" (wells and drilling rigs) in the Gulf that supply 31 percent of domestic oil production and 11 percent of domestic marketed natural gas. These are indeed noteworthy and immense. But he seemed oblivious to the need to learn and apply the lessons of the BP blow-out to the 64 percent of drilling leases in the Gulf that are in water over 1,000 feet deep.

 

In fact, he said he was "unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings (in the moratorium memorandum) and the immense scope of the moratorium," which he said is elemental to the Gulf's economy and employees thousands of people directly and affects far greater numbers indirectly.

 

Notably, he asked, "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are?'

 

The answer to that core question is, maybe, or quite possibly.

 

Federal investigators, however, won't know for sure -- if it's possible to attain that degree of certainty -- until they determine why and how the BP well blew out despite its presumably fool-proof, fail-safe, 5-story, immensely complex "blow-out preventer" -- and all the mechanics inside that well-head building -- failed on the night of April 20.

 

If it's hard and takes time to find the answer, that's to be expected. The failed blow-out preventer sits 5,067 feet down on the ocean floor and is still spewing oil -- now anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons -- from an oil and gas reservoir some 18,360 feet deep. At 5,000 feet, few submersibles can withstand the pressure that crushes machines, nor can they get inside the infrastructure of the blow-out preventer to determine whether the freezing temperatures immoblized any of the hydraulic valves and parts that are supposed to enable the preventer's operations, especially its last-ditch "ram-shear" technology for cutting off and sealing the well pipe that carries the pressure-driven oil out of the well.

 

The failure rate of "blow-out preventers" may be 45 percent, according to a confidential study commissioned last year by a Norwegian company, Det Norske Veritas, of 11 blowouts among some 15,000 wells drilled in North American and the North Sea between 1980 to 2006. The New York Times reported on that inside-industry study, among other revelations, on Monday.

 

The Times also reported on two other industry studies, in 2002 and 2004, that found that even when some blind ram-shear cutters work in shearing off the well pipe, they sometimes fail to seal the well.

 

There are other troubling reports about how seldom the industry actually tests blow-out preventers before, and after, they are put into service, as well as the huge gaps in regulatory monitoring of the industry. We also now know that the BP well was one of 4 of Transocean's 14 drilling rigs that did not have a redundant ram-shear system, nor an accoustic trigger to activate the ram-shear -- nor did it use double piping with a cement liner. These are all safeguards regularly used by more conscientious companies. The operational shortcuts BP apparently took in shutting down the well also merit serious scrutiny. All of these issues still need to be weighed in new assessments of existing and new wells across the Gulf.

 

The Obama administration would be derelict and negligent to lift its moratorium before these and other operational issues are addressed in drilling rigs across the Gulf. If Judge Feldman cannot "divine or fathom" these issues, we hope the appeals judge who hears the administration's appeal of his ruling to keep the moratorium in place will have the capacity to consider them.

 

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Routine constipation treatment may be unnecessary

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

GROWING RISK FROM RADIATION

 

One of the constants in any talk about the cost of U.S. health care is the heated discussion about defensive medicine. That occurs when physicians order excessive tests, such as CT scans, to protect themselves against possible lawsuits rather than as a useful adjunct in diagnosing or treating an injury or an ailment. The debate turns on two salient points. The first is the cost the tests impose on the system. The second, often overlooked, is the cumulative risk faced by patients who undergo repeated scans over the course of their lifetime.

 

The former is relatively simple to calculate. Millions of such tests are performed annually, Multiply that number by the cost of each test -- which varies considerably -- for a dollar amount. Some medical economists put the total at hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. Whatever the number, it is inordinately expensive.

 

The latter has been more difficult to quantify. That's no longer the case. Recent studies offer a sobering assessment of the risks the tests can pose. The possible perils are significant. The Associated Press recently reported that U.S. patients receive the most medical radiation -- which can increase the risk of cancer -- in the world. Indeed, the average American's exposure has increased by a factor of six in recent decades.

 

One result, researchers report, is that as many as 20 million adults and 1 million children in the United States now face possible harm because of radiation exposure. The study estimates that up to 2 percent of cancers in the United States at some point in the future could be linked to radiation from CT scans being ordered now. Given that, it is imperative that current standards and guidelines for diagnostic and therapeutic medical radiation be revised to protect the public.

 

There is movement in that direction. The Food and Drug Administration wants to impose new rules that would require standard dosages for specific tests and to set up a system that would allow patients to keep track of doses. Those rules should be implemented.

 

Some CT scans, experts say, can deliver 50 to 100 times more radiation than a conventional X-ray. Actual dosage does depend on the part of the body being examined and the machine used, but dangerous levels of exposure can mount up quickly. One physician, for example, reported that he has seen individuals "who are 30 years old who had at least 18 scans done. That is a big problem," he said.

 

Increased FDA oversight, public education about the dangers of excessive radiation and reminders that ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be a safer but still effective procedure should improve public health in the long term. The best protection against possible harm, though, resides with the patient. He or she should ask if a CT scan or similar high-radiation test is necessary every time a physician orders one for them.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

OUR SHOCKING NATIONAL DEBT

 

Our country is a huge, productive nation. Just imagine, if you can, everything that all of our people throughout the United States produce in a single year.

 

It's tremendous!

 

It is defined as our "gross domestic product."

 

But our federal government is spending so much more than even too-high taxes produce that the national debt is $13 trillion!

 

How much is that? It's hard to visualize. But try this:

 

Our total national debt is 90 percent of our gross domestic product -- everything that our people produce in the United States in a year!

 

Don't you think we are spending too much and thus owe too much?

 

It's getting worse.

 

President Barack Obama's spending plans are going to increase our national debt close to $1.5 trillion in just the next year! That's not all.

 

Just last year, paying only the interest on our national debt cost American taxpayers $383 billion!

 

So interest alone on our national debt costs nearly 11 percent of our total federal government outlays each year!

 

The national debt and interest costs would be a terrible burden in boom economic times. Unfortunately, we are in an economic crisis.

 

Do you believe our national leaders are being financially responsible in imposing taxes on you, increasing the national debt and imposing a bigger interest burden upon us all?

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

WILD ESTIMATES ON 'STIMULUS' EFFECT

 

Suppose the president of a company told you his business earned somewhere between $1.2 million and $2.8 million last year. You might be skeptical, because there is a huge gap between $1.2 million and $2.8 million. You might even wonder whether the executive really knew how much money his company made.

 

But the federal government is offering even fishier estimates on the number of jobs supposedly "created or saved" under the $862 billion "stimulus" that Democrats passed last year. The money was supposed to jump-start the economy and keep unemployment under 8 percent. Joblessness is now nearly 10 percent, and there is serious concern about a possible "double-dip" recession.

 

Yet the Congressional Budget Office has put out an estimate of jobs supposedly linked to the stimulus. It says 1.2 million to 2.8 million jobs were "created or retained" by the law.

 

Do you have any confidence in those figures? After all, that is a big, 1.6 million-job gap between the low and the high estimate. Doesn't that seem more like guesswork than an indication that the "stimulus" is working -- especially when you consider that unemployment has stuck stubbornly around 10 percent and may get worse?

 

Well, consider the Congressional Budget Office's own words of caution about the jobs estimate.

 

It says it arrived at its numbers by "using evidence about the effects of previous similar policies on the economy and using various mathematical models ... . Data on actual output and employment during the period since (the law took effect) are not as helpful in determining (the law's) economic effects ... because isolating those effects would require knowing what path the economy would have taken in the absence of the law. ... (T)here is no way to be certain about how the economy would have performed if the legislation had not been enacted ... ."

 

In other words, the CBO relied on complicated formulas showing what the stimulus should be expected to do, rather than on "actual output and employment" since the stimulus took effect. And even then, the CBO admits it can't be sure the economy is better off with the stimulus than it would have been without it.

 

There is, unfortunately, little reason to believe the "stimulus" has actually helped the economy. But it has increased our catastrophic national debt, on which we and future generations must pay massive interest. And it has increased the size and power of the federal government, which was already too big and powerful.

 

We need a swift "about-face" in the November elections to reverse such destructive policies.

 

Academy alum raises the bar at Carson-Newman***************************************

TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

ARIZONA SUED FOR DEFENDING ITSELF

 

It should be troubling to all Americans that our federal government plans to sue the state of Arizona to strike down its new law against illegal immigration.

 

Washington, D.C., is far from the Mexican border, and it has not suffered from the illegal invasion the way that Arizona and other border states have.

 

The problems in Arizona are legion. Illegals cross private property on the U.S. side of the border in high numbers, causing destruction and leaving large amounts of trash -- to say nothing of endangering landowners who might get caught between the invaders and border agents.

 

Illegal aliens also use taxpayer-funded health, education and other social services. Some border hospitals have closed outright because they could not afford all the free care they had to provide to illegal aliens arriving in their emergency rooms for treatment.

 

And, of course, some illegal aliens commit serious additional crimes after they arrive in the United States.

 

These problems could be greatly reduced if the federal government upheld its constitutional duty to protect the border and enforce our nation's immigration laws. But year after year, Washington refuses to take necessary action -- often insisting on "amnesty" for illegals instead. As a result, we have anywhere from 11 million to 20 million illegal aliens in America today -- though nobody knows the number with any precision. Many of those individuals hold jobs that might otherwise go to some of our nation's millions of unemployed citizens.

 

Ironically, around the time that the U.S. Justice Department was saying it would sue to keep Arizona from protecting itself from the flood of illegal aliens, the department was also asking a federal judge to dismiss 20 states' legal challenge to ObamaCare socialized medicine. ObamaCare, which is unconstitutional, will impose huge new costs on the states. They want to defend themselves from those costs, just as Arizona wants to defend itself from illegal aliens.

 

It is a shame that the federal government has failed to protect our borders. But it should not undermine states that are doing what they must to protect their residents from illegal aliens and to safeguard their tax dollars against costly ObamaCare.

 

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TIMES FREE PRESS

OPINION

IS AIDING TERRORISTS 'TREASON'?

 

What is the definition of "treason"?

 

The short answer is "giving aid and comfort to the enemy."

 

In World War II, for example, would you have considered it "treason" if some Americans -- even peacefully -- had given money or technical aid or legal advice to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany or Emperor Hirohito's Imperial Japan?

 

What about current situations involving American groups giving money, technical aid or legal advice to terrorists?

 

The question came before the U.S. Supreme Court. It ruled 6-3 this week that our government does have the authority to ban groups in this country from giving such aid to foreign terrorist groups.

 

But Justice Stephen Breyer dissented: "Not even the 'serious and deadly problem' of international terrorism can require automatic forfeiture of First Amendment rights."

 

What do you think on this issue?

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

FROM THE BOSPHORUS: STRAIGHT - SELÇUK: A WARRIOR WHO WENT OUT FIGHTING

 

Journalists are a diverse and hard-to-describe bunch. Common to all of us is the fact we labor long hours, in often-difficult circumstances, for pay that we universally believe is less than our due. We are complainers, a group whose DNA is coded with dissatisfaction. Also common is the subjective matter of belief in what we do – without the sustenance that a sense of mission provides, journalists tend to drift toward PR and advertising, or other more lucrative professions.

 

But below these defining common traits, there are many different types of personalities who tend to wind up peopling the world's newsrooms. There are scholars, saints, teachers and those with a spiritual or even clerical outlook. There are groupies sometimes, and charlatans too find their way into our profession. The greatest, however, tend to be warriors at heart. We want to change the world, cast our stone at the wall of indifference, know the unknowable and right all wrongs. As one sage among us put it, "We must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable."

 

And so the passing of a journalistic warrior, a man of deeply-held beliefs, a scribe who fought what he saw as the good fight for more than half a century, nearly to the moment of his dying breath, is a moment of sadness for all of us at the Hürriyet Daily News. But it is also a moment of inspiration.

 

For İlhan Selçuk was a warrior who believed in his craft. He died Monday at the age of 83, the editor of the feisty daily Cumhuriyet that embodied the values of the Turkish Republic. We are saddened by his loss but inspired by his example. At times we certainly parted company with some of his views and those of the newspaper he edited. But no journalist in Turkey doubts the belief, the commitment and the passionate sense of mission that were hallmarks of his career.

 

In some ways, Selçuk's life was a metaphor for the evolution of Turkish journalism. He graduated from the Ankara Faculty of Law in 1950, the same year that multi-party democracy became a reality in Turkey. He worked at many newspapers but joined Cumhuriyet in 1963. Selçuk witnessed coups, endured censorship and endured imprisonment. After internment following the coup of 1971, he developed a code to communicate through otherwise innocuous poems the realities of prison, including his own torture.

 

The final indignity was his 4.30 a.m. detention two years ago at the age of 85 as part of the "Ergenekon" investigation. He was released two days later, but not before the abusive treatment became synonymous in the minds of many with the excesses of the continuing investigation.

 

Selçuk penned his final column, a typically feisty polemic decrying the ruling party, America and other random targets, on August 15 of last year. He went out fighting for what he believed in. No journalist can hope for a more honorable end.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

LITTLE COMES OUT OF THE 'STATE SUMMIT'

CENGİZ ÇANDAR

 

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack in the Southeastern town of Şemdinli the other day, top state officials first visited the scene of the attack, a military guard post at the border, and then gathered for an emergency summit at the Presidential Residence in Çankaya, Ankara. To some, this was a remedy and the outcome was expected anxiously. A statement issued after the meeting reads as follows:

 

"... Assessments have made on the fight with terror. It's been decided to take short and medium term measures in the light of recent developments as review on the structure of personnel as well as intelligence in the region is suggested. In addition, emphasis has made on active coordination with counter-terrorism units of regional and relevant countries. It's been also brought to the attention of media that they should act responsible while informing people about terror-related news in order not to encourage terrorists."

 

That is to say, what?

 

Nothing, nada, a big fat zero. Top of the state should forgive me but this is where we stand at present.

 

Just check the archives consisting of conclusion remarks made in similar meetings for the last 25 years, you see almost identical phrases.

 

In other words, little came out of the Çankaya summit, as usual.

 

The "state's mind" is mentioned, but if the issue is to determine an attitude in the Kurdish question and how to react against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, it is more appropriate to talk about the "state's mindlessness" for it insists on not learning any lessons from a quarter century of experiences.

 

But of course I am perfectly aware that I violate "It's been also brought to the attention of media that they should act responsible while informing people about terror-related news in order not to encourage terrorists" part of the speech.

 

It means that the "terrorist organization" may be encouraged by my remarks, no matter how unwilling I am.

 

But I think the terrorist organization will be encouraged by the statement released after the other day's summit anyway. For terrorists will read once again the very same pattern of sentences whish has not changed at all for the past 25 years. So, terrorists will not see the summit as a reason to change their behavior. On the contrary, they will see a structure failing to produce politics. Therefore, they will stick with the "route of their actions" and push for a "change of policy".

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

PASSENGERS WANT FREE-OF-CHARGE FOOD

UĞUR CEBECİ

 

ucebeci@hurriyet.com.tr

The world-encompassing low-cost-airline concept has introduced radical changes in air travel. Ticket prices decreased, but passengers were charged for food and beverages. Baggage weights were limited. Some airlines in the United States have even begun charging for the blankets and pillows handed out during flights.

 

The share of these extra revenues in the overall turnover of companies is gradually increasing. But research shows that passengers want to have many in-flight services for free, starting with food.

 

According to a poll conducted by airfarewatchdog.com, a website followed closely by airline companies where users can compare flight fees, a great majority of passengers insists on free-of-charge food. Whether it's a simple sandwich or a hearty dinner, passengers want to eat for free, as they used to do.

 

The top answers to the question "What would you pay for on a flight?" however, included Internet access, sending text messages and buying alcoholic drinks. The poll results indicate only 1 percent of passengers are willing to pay for the use of pillows and blankets.

 

Experts believe many airline companies cannot offer these services for free, given that the effects of the global recession are still visible in the sector. Market estimates point to an improvement that may take place as of 2012. In parallel, airlines are expected to offer their treats and services for free only at that time.

 

Another interesting outcome of the poll concerns the requests of passengers who have children. A total of 83 percent of the respondents have flown with their kids in the past year. However, 68 percent of them were not content with the experience. Twenty-seven percent of the respondents said they want a separate area in the cabin for children, because their kids are getting bored during the flights and disturbing other passengers. Some of them even requested a small playroom, particularly on long-haul jets with a wide fuselage, and suggested a professionally trained member of the cabin crew could be assigned to take care of them.

 

The top criterion of passengers in choosing an airline is the ticket price: 85 percent of the poll respondents prefer airlines with low prices, while only 30 percent choose by brand. As a result of the increasing price awareness, 68 percent of passengers closely follow the prices of weekday and mid-day flights, which are relatively cheaper than the rest, and buy their tickets accordingly. Sixty-two percent of passengers said they are uncomfortable paying extra for overweight luggage. If there were enough room in the cabin, 80 percent said they would want to have their suitcases onboard.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

GIVE THEM MORE INITIATIVE INSTEAD OF STATE OF EMERGENCY

MEHMET ALİ BİRAND

 

We are all very angry these days.

 

We can't make decisions when in a state of anger. But especially now we are passing through a stage in which we need to be cold blooded.

 

The PKK must have evaluated Turkey's international conjuncture and concluded that internally the situation was quite convenient for stepping forward even if it would do some harm to itself.

 

I'm saying even if it would harm itself, it knows it would not obtain a thing. For the PKK there is no punishment for losing its militants on hand. It is not called to account. Its sole purpose is to hurt Turkey, to anger the public and force us to behave impulsively. To tell the truth, they are quite successful these days.

 

The return of state of emergency would benefit the PKK

 

PKK leaders may have many things in mind but I see two important targets.

 

The foremost is to upset the public and agitate the administration to provide for the return of a state of emergency to the region.

 

Just imagine going back to precautions taken in the 90s and abandoning the military to manage the Southeast.

 

People won't be able to travel from one place to another.

 

Villages suspected to support the PKK will be torn up and burned down. People will be forced to migrate.

 

Unsolved murders will increase.

 

People will be arrested without interrogation.

 

The region will be unbearable.

 

We saw that movie in the 90s. If the PKK was able to increase its power then it was only because of these applications.

 

This is what the PKK wants, hopes for or dreams of.

 

It wants more bloodshed, more fights.

 

It wants to go back to the old days so that military pressure increases and the people of the region experience so much pressure that they finally rebel. The PKK wants the fighting to increase so that it is able increase its supervision on people of the region.

 

Thank god the chief of General Staff was the first to notice this game. He said, "There is no need for a state of emergency at the moment," which put us at ease. The prime minister too shared the same view. But the PKK will not give in. As they hit again and again the public will scream, "We want a state of emergency to be announced." I am afraid that with the pressure from public we'll end up with exactly that.

 

Will we again fall into this trap or will we once more employ the initiative that was initiated by the administration but not managed well because it wasn't brave enough?

 

Those who believe that the PKK terror can only be solved with weapons will oppose this approach.

 

They are very wrong.

 

Now let's leave aside the past. We'll take account of the ineffectiveness of Erdoğan and Atalay later during elections.

 

Now, let's talk about the initiative as much as we talked about struggle with weapons.

 

The PKK is fed by fighting that intensifies relations between people in the region.

 

On the contrary, a real initiative would break the PKK.

 

Let's leave aside the fear of votes and be brave in getting at them. Let's do what other countries can't do in the struggle with terror.

 

Don't be fooled by blaming Israel and the US

 

One other trap we fall into and pave the way for the PKK is that we believe all that we experience stirs from an

"international conspiracy."

 

We'd fall into a trap as soon as we believe that all this has to do with foreign forces who came up with a conspiracy and organized everything even though we have no concrete grounds for these assumptions.

 

This approach is very simple.

 

We like to bill "those foreign forces." We like to think that we have no fault. We escape from interrogating ourselves.

 

As soon as you say, "Turkey revolts and Israel and the United States show reaction because it reacts independently. They started to use the PKK as subcontractor," you'll feel better.

 

When you blame others then you are not called to account. You lose your grip. Once you lean your back against conspiracy theories instead of working on internal precautions and taking risks, you think you're off the hook.

 

But exactly this is the greatest danger of all.

 

This way you don't only deal with terror but also make yourself external enemies.

 

Let's not make new enemies

 

It may be true that some use the PKK as a subcontractor.

 

And many Muslim countries we feel close to, including the United States and Israel, may be directly or indirectly involved in this game. But let's not forget that if you can't clear the swamp then someone will come and benefit from that.

 

This is an international game played for many centuries.

 

Turkey too plays the same game. Other allies stir fishy issues. For, no one wants the other to be strong.

 

The PKK is out on the subcontractor arena.

 

And the message to the United States and Israel is clear: "Guys, I am strong enough to stir up Turkey any time I want to. If you have an unsettled account with Turkey, I am open for contributions. Show me the money and you can join the campaign."

 

It's up to Turkey to change this.

 

If Turkey could clear the swamp then there would be no subcontractor and no country abusing the PKK.

 

Let's not fall for "They have set the PKK in motion to prevent us from growing, becoming strong and acting independently."

 

Let's be smart and restrain from falling into such traps

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

CAN THE SYMBOLS OF NAZISM AND JUDAISM BE CONSIDERED EQUAL?

SEDAT ERGİN

 

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at times puts himself into awkward positions as he delivers impromptu speeches. His remarks cause problems as he tries to express himself.

 

I want to analyze some of his most recent statements that I believe people missed.

 

The first is Erdoğan's speech June 4 at a meeting in Konya where he criticized Israel and attempted to relate Nazis and Jews.

 

Erdoğan asserted that the Israeli government put Israelis into a difficult position due to a peevish manner of conduct that hurt Israel's image in the world. He said, "I am sure that Israelis are disturbed by a perception equating the Star of Zion to the Nazi swastika."

 

If the crescent and star was compared to the swastika?

 

The Star of Zion, or the Star of David, is the ancient symbol of Judaism. The swastika, on the other hand, is the symbol of the Nazi ideology that caused 6 million Jews to be killed in concentration camps during World War II. Nazis wearing uniforms bearing swastikas made Jews wear the Star of Zion during the Holocaust.

 

Comparing a symbol of ideology to the symbol of divinity for a nation whose members were massacred could awfully disturb Jews all around the world. A little empathy is enough to see that.

 

Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the Israeli people are two separate entities; mentioning the Nazi ideology and a divine value of Jews in the same speech is way off limits.

 

Have we not taken even a single step in the EU bid?

 

Another remark by Erdoğan that strikes me is in his speech June 10 at the Arab Forum held in Istanbul. After noting that Turkey applied to the European Economic Community for membership in 1959, he said no serious solid steps have been taken in the past 46 years, since the Adnan Menderes government in particular.

 

"We are the one who launched accession negotiations in 2005," Erdoğan added.

 

But that doesn't confirm historical information. Disrespect to statesmen, diplomats and technicians, who exerted tremendous efforts in this direction, is worrisome.

 

Turkey's second president, İsmet İnönü, was behind the Ankara Agreement, which was the initial legal contact between Turkey and the European Union; former President Süleyman Demirel was the state leader who signed the Participation Protocol in 1970. The late President Turgut Özal applied for full membership to the bloc in 1987, while former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller concluded the Customs Union Agreement in 1996 and the late Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit confirmed Turkey's candidacy status at the Helsinki Summit in 1999. He also initiated the first reform process along the way.

 

Therefore, all these names are being disregarded.

 

Who opened the Turkish air corridor to US fighter jets?

 

Erdoğan made another striking remark in the same speech as he stressed that the problems cannot be solved by arms and embargoes. "The world has seen various examples of it and paid a tremendous price for that. We still are paying it in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. "Millions died. We have lost people in every single age group. At this moment, there are hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans in Iraq. Will we remain silent? Those who turned this region into a mess must be held accountable before history."

 

We see that Erdoğan, in his speech, criticizes the U.S. for the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Prime Minister seems to have forgotten that he is the one who defended the deployment motion in Parliament in order to allow the transfer of U.S. troops to Iraq in 2003.

 

Following the rejection of the motion, Turkey opened the Turkish air corridor to American B-52 heavy bombardment and fighter jets on their way to hit Iraq. Was Erdoğan himself not the political authority during that time? Or was it someone else who allowed the use of the Incirlik base as main logistic terminal during Operation Iraq since 2003?

 

* Mr. Sedat Ergin is a columnist for daily Hürriyet, in which this column appeared June 16. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

EQUILIBRIUM - A LONG HOT SUMMER

BURAK BEKDIL

 

Ahmet Davutoğlu, the foreign minister, recently vowed that "Jerusalem would become the (Palestinian) capital, and we'll pray all together at the al-Aqsa Mosque." His wish may not come true too soon. It looks like the Cabinet members will be too busy this summer with plenty of funeral prayers to attend.

 

On Sunday, my usual gasoline station attendant, barber, café waiter (and his boss), newsagent, plus four different friends, all with otherwise different political views, seemed united in believing that Israel was orchestrating the PKK's escalated attacks in recent months. So, that will be the spillover benefit for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

 

Mr. Erdogan rightfully calculates that he could successfully hunt votes with his love affair with Hamas and hate affair with Israel. He also calculates that his unpopularity due to an increasing number of coffins wrapped in the crescent and star could be minimized if the blame is put on a country that Turks are only too willing to accuse for every evil. It works!

 

"My nation," a confident Mr. Erdogan said at the weekend, "is well aware whose sub-contractor the PKK is." More or less simultaneously, the military command denied that the two recent major PKK attacks on military targets in İskenderun and Resadiye had a helping foreign hand.

 

But on Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek described the "PKK's foreign sub-contractors" in a way that everyone was convinced Mr. Cicek, without naming any names, was referring to EU countries. He did not deny he did so. When he was asked by a journalist, "Why do we want to join a bloc that supports the PKK?" Mr. Cicek proposed that there should be a debate on the subject.

 

If the prime minister – or his deputy – is serious about his accusations he should make them public, with evidence. He won't do that. Mr. Erdogan is trying to take advantage of the "fog."

 

The confrontation with Israel has given Mr. Erdogan a golden opportunity at a time when he chases the votes of one of the worlds most anti-Israeli (and sometimes privately anti-Semitic) and most conspiracy theory-loving nations. With these two qualities put together, Mr. Erdogan has a carte blanche he can politically cash in almost any time he wishes to.

 

If in the future somebody documents corruption in the government? Oh, it's the Zionist conspirators … Economy going bad? It's because of the Israeli lobbyists ... Floods? The advanced Israeli technology … Bad harvest? Go back to the preceding line.

 

With a little bit more effort Mr. Erdogan can almost convince the Turks that for several years the PKK men had been trained in the Negev Desert of Israel, not in the Muslim Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, that Abdullah Ocalan for several years was a very important guest in Tel Aviv, not in Muslim Damascus; that Israel offered Mr. Öcalan political asylum but the Hizbullah helped Turkey capture him in Kenya, that for several years the Turkish military fought the PKK with weaponry supplied by Hamas…

 

Mr. Erdogan found a seemingly endless treasure box. He would be the one to weep the most if Israel ceased to exist today – Israel, the perfect alibi! Israel bashing is too profitable at home. In addition, pointing fingers at Israel when in trouble will bring in extra benefits by minimizing potential (political) losses.

 

If, by the way, it has gone unnoticed … Remember how a few years earlier Mr. Erdogan filed a suit to put a lady behind bars? The lady, upon the prime minister's exit from a building, was holding out a placard that read, "Whose prime minister are you?" Mr. Erdogan got furious because someone in the common public asked him whose prime minister he was.

 

During one of his recent public speeches, his supporters interrupted the speech and began to chant the well-known slogan, "Erdogan the mujahedeen!" A crowd was calling him the warrior of the holy Islamic war, the jihad, and he greeted them with big smiles. Mujahedeen is apparently a word of praise for Mr. Erdogan. Nice … I would never think his fans and I could agree on something. But, yes, Mr. Erdogan is a mujahedeen.

 

Perhaps the mujahedeen should devote more of his time to fighting the terrorists killing his own people by the dozens almost weekly, and less to fight a jihad outside Turkish territories.

 

No doubt, this is going to be a long, hot summer, and Mr. Erdogan's treasure box may have depleted a little bit when it has ended.

 

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

THE STARS ARE NOT SHINING YET

JOOST LAGENDIJK

 

After two rounds of qualifying games, we are now, Monday night, half way through the 2010 World Cup. To be honest, I am disappointed. I saw more than half of all the 32 games but I only enjoyed a few. During most matches, I really started wondering what had happened to all these wonderful players we know from the national competitions, the Champions League games and the sometimes-exciting friendlies played by the national teams in the run-up to the World Cup. Most stars look tired. They make mistakes that I never saw them make before. With a few exceptions, what is missing is creativity, surprising moves that show why these teams are the best in the world. Strong defences dominate the games. In the Netherlands, before and after the games of the national team, many hours are spent on speculating what is wrong with our heroes. Is the pressure on the players too big? Did they not have enough time to recover from a long and tiring season with their club? Are the temperatures too high or is the grass on the pitches too long? Or can everything be explained by the new ball that is hard to control? Let's hope that all teams have decided for a slow build-up and that the best is still to come.

 

A few conclusions can already be drawn. The Latin American teams are doing fine, the African countries are not living up to expectations and the big European teams are underperforming. In Group A, France, torn by scandals and infighting, is on the verge of elimination. When Mexico and Uruguay decide to go for a draw, the French are out. In Group B, Argentina is the only team that managed to win their games convincingly and they have still a lot of potential to improve, especially when and if Lionel Messi will finally start demonstrating some magic. In Group C, the English are really struggling. Most probably they will make it to the semi-finals, together with the USA, but it almost hurts to see players like Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney scramble, trying to regain some of the brilliance they showed before. Ghana is the only African team that could make it, from Group D, to the next round if they draw or win against Germany. If the Serbs beat Australia, those results would mean that the Germans are out. That would be a big surprise, especially after their flashy start.

 

The Dutch team was uninspired but still won its first two games in Group E and already qualified for the semi-finals. According to many commentators, the Netherlands have started in a "German style," meaning unattractive but very efficient, while the German national team played their first games in "Dutch style," very appealing but, potentially, quite ineffective. Let's see how far the Dutch will get with this new approach.

 

Their next opponent comes from Group F where a strong Paraguay and a weak Italy fight for the top spot. I am still not really impressed by the Brazilian team in Group G but I have to admit that it will be very hard, for any country, to beat them. Together with the Portuguese they managed to eliminate Ivory Coast, considered by many to be the best African team. Finally, in Group H, Spain did play some of the most inviting football that we have seen up till now but because they crashed against the Swiss wall, their last game against a surprisingly strong Chile will be the smash hit in the last qualifying round this Friday. Let's hope both teams make it to the knock out stage in which calculation and restraint have to be replaced by the determination to win and the ability to surprise.

 

* Column for Radikal 23-06-10

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HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

OPINION

DISCUSSIONS

YUSUF KANLI

 

The cheeky writer famous for her futile efforts to cash her allegiance to the government suggested in her column that the Turkish state should "realize" that the struggle against terrorism cannot succeed unless it conceded the bitter reality that it ought to sit either directly or proxy talks with the separatist Kudistan Workers' Party, or PKK, terrorist gang and Abdullah Öcalan, the chieftain of the gang serving an enforced life-term on the İmrali island prison.

 

Another pen-slinger of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, wrote that perhaps time has come for Turkey to decide for the bitter option and engage in a dialogue with the PKK to bring an end to separatist terrorism which has claimed lives of more than 35,000 Turkish nationals since its start in August 1984.

 

Another conservative writer who indeed is attached to the ruling AKP with family bonds, though in the past was

a conservative nationalist who served as advisor to a center-right prime minister, came up with a "No way… Turkey cannot negotiate with terrorists… The only way to fight terrorism is through force. Turkey must not confuse the need to undertake democratic reforms to bring an end to the sufferings of our people and the need to fight terrorism…"

 

A neo-liberal writer who sometimes criticizes the government but often serves to it as some sort of an unpaid advisor on reforms he believed this country must undertake, commented on the other hand that Turkey has come to a junction and has to take either of the two both painful roads in its fight against separatist terrorism. One option, according to that writer the least probable option, was acknowledgement by the government of the existence of a "Kurdish problem" and engaging in talks with the PKK and its imprisoned chieftain.

 

The prerequisite of such a development would be, the writer said, PKK stopping violence and withdrawing its militants outside of Turkey. This way, the writer optimistically forecasted Turkey may come out of the terrorism swamp in the short-medium term. The handicap of this option, he said, was the categorical rejection of the vast majority of the people of this land the existence of a Kurdish problem or consideration of the terrorism problem as part of an overall democratization problem and the conviction that there could not be an isolated settlement of this problem as long as Turkey overcame its democratization woes.

 

The second option, he said, would be continuation of the traditional methods – or the present "opening" of the AKP government – in battling the PKK terrorism through use of force complemented with some economic, social and political openings. In the nationalist and conservative-nationalist flank, on the other hand, most writers apparently are supportive of the suggestion of Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli that Turkey should declare emergency rule in the provinces affected most from separatist terrorism and battle with the terrorists with the aim of their annihilation.

 

In the social-democratic flank, on the other hand, there appeared to be a confusion what indeed new main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu indeed wanted to say when in a shocking deviation from the established CHP policies declared that "Blood cannot be washed away with blood. For 35 years they have tried to silence terrorism with guns. They have no intellect. There can be no such peace. Terrorism will be wiped off in a CHP government because we do not question the ethnic identity of people. We love all our people with their differences. We will provide all our people to take brad to their homes…"

 

Obviously, all segments of the Turkish society are traumatized with the surge in terrorism, there is an immense pressure on the government to finds ways of ending separatist terrorism which only yesterday claimed lives of three soldiers and a 17-year old schoolgirl in Istanbul and one soldier in a shootout in southeastern Turkey. There appears to be a consensus in the country that there is an acute intelligence deficiency that the terrorists take best advantage of in their intensified attacks.

 

Kılıçdaroğlu withdrew criticism of the government's failure in the fight against terrorism yesterday saying it is time for a concerted anti-terrorism action, while the prime minister was in his traditional yelling and blaming everyone but himself and his government. Perhaps, for a change, rather than hearing only what he has been saying, the prime minister lend a listening ear to Kılıçdaroğlu. Unfortunately Turkey will continue both discussing how to end terrorism and suffering from terrorism and is compelled to develop a common mind and strategy on this fundamental problem…

 

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TEHRAN TIMES

 PERSPECTIVE

WEST CAN OFFER TURKEY A PROPER SEAT

BY PHILIP STEPHENS

 

Turkey has not been lost to the West. Not yet, anyway. What has happened is that the terms of engagement have changed. Turkey is no longer the pliant supplicant that many in the U.S. and Europe imagined it would forever remain. It feels like another country. Economically vibrant and politically self-confident, it has outgrown the role allotted to it by the West.

 

The fashionable story about Turkey is of a nation willfully turning eastwards: eschewing western democracy for Islamism at home and looking East to reclaim leadership in the lands of the former Ottoman empire. Snubbed by the West, Ankara has been repairing relations in its own neighborhood. It has exploited economic and diplomatic opportunities to assert itself in its own region.

The rupture with Israel after the killing by Israeli commandos of civilians on the Turkish-registered ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, together with Ankara's defiance of the West at the United Nations over Iran, have confirmed this narrative. The conclusion drawn is that the Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan is willingly (perhaps willfully) surrendering a European to a Middle Eastern vocation. There is more than a grain of truth in some of these observations. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development (AK) party certainly looks comfortable in the company of its regional neighbors. Its "zero problems" foreign policy has gained it prestige and influence by reducing the threat of conflicts. The risk of war with Syria has given way to visa-free travel; tension with Iraq to political accommodation.

Night and day

The contrast between Turkey's new regional status and the disdain for Ankara shown by France's Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel is palpable.

The breach with Israel, which began after last year's invasion of Gaza, will be hard to repair. The fury caused by the Israeli attack on the aid flotilla has cut across political boundaries.

This was the first incident since the First World War, a distinguished public servant told me the other day, in which Turkish civilians had been killed by foreign military forces. Israel's refusal to offer anything resembling an apology for the deaths is viewed by Turks as almost as outrageous as the event itself.

Those committed to the secularist political settlement of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk are uneasy nonetheless about the government's angry rhetoric. The rift with Israel, they say, carries dangerous undertones. It marks an appeal to a radical Islamism that, left unchecked, could fatally undermine Ataturk's legacy.

In any event, the message I took from policymakers and business leaders at a recent conference in Istanbul convened by Chatham House was far more subtle than the present discourse in the West. Far from turning its back on Europe, the government hopes that the country's rising regional influence will strengthen its claim for admission.

It is not often these days that you hear anyone praise the EU. Turkish politicians are the exception. The Union, one of Erdogan's ministers told the conference, was the "greatest peace project in the history of mankind". Securing Turkey's membership remained a "national and a strategic" objective.

Nor, according to ministers, had Turkey taken pleasure in opposing a new UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran a vote that followed an abortive Turkish-Brazilian initiative to broker a deal over Tehran's nuclear program.

Nothing that I heard in Istanbul spoke to a nation looking for a breach with the West; what I took away instead was that 20 years after the end of the Cold War Turkey has decided that it can sometimes shape its own foreign policy. Membership of the West once meant doing whatever Washington said. Now it has interests, opinions and rights of its own.

For many Americans, and for some Europeans, this is more than irritating. The Turkey of their imagination was one forever in their debt and forever grateful for any seat at the western table.

The irony, of course, is that the new, assertive, Turkey has more to offer the West than its pliant predecessor. With a mind of its own, it has greater strategic credibility in the Middle East and the Muslim world. This is the Turkey the West really must not lose.

(Source: Financial Times)

Photo: Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's "zero problems" foreign policy has gained Turkey prestige and influence.

 

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 I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

TAKING DICTATION

 

The possibility that our government is more pliant to the interests of the US than to its own people was driven home strongly by the prime minister's unexpected comments on Monday in Garhi Khuda Bux. He stated that Pakistan was likely to abide by US sanctions on Iran – a move that would put an end to the $ 7.6 billion gas pipeline project with Iran. Confusingly, on Tuesday Mr Gilani appeared to contradict himself by saying that Pakistan was not bound to follow the restrictions placed on Iran by the US, and that we would consider the implementation of sanctions in the light of our 'international obligations'. Be that as it may, it is obvious the indication that the final signatures may not be put on the deal came in response to pressure from US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke who was recently in Islamabad.

Scrapping the deal would mean a still more acute energy crisis in the country. The pipeline is essential to meeting our energy needs over the next two decades. The agreement with Tehran was close to being finalized. For some time, Iran has been asking Pakistan to finalize this deal. One wonders why this was not done faster – before Washington could twist arms with so much force. Even now, there is nothing to prevent Islamabad from going ahead to buy gas from Iran. Why Pakistan, as a sovereign state, should feel compelled to follow the US lead on Iran is a question that will undoubtedly be put to the prime minister and other government members. The lack of power to run mills and machines has already inflicted massive losses and left thousands workless. People elect governments to protect their interests. Mr Gilani's remarks suggest this one is doing just the opposite. We urge the government to review any decision taken in this respect. It is vital that the welfare of the people of Pakistan be put ahead of all else. It is also important that regional ties be strengthened. The PM emphasized this himself with reference to India. It holds equally true as far as ties go with Iran. The scrapping of the deal, after it has been announced amidst much fanfare, will do nothing to build ties with Tehran and has already evoked angry voices across Pakistan.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

AT IT AGAIN

 

They are at it again, those enemies of democracy, those wicked conspirators who would see the country dragged down and diverted from the path of elected feudalism (sorry…democracy). The presidential speech on the occasion of the late Benazir Bhutto's birthday was something of a spectacle. Consider this verbatim quote –" It is not easy to defeat us. We have introduced such a political formula, that even if we lose, we will be the winners, and if we win so we will be the winners." Even allowing for nuanced differences in translation into English this is gibberish. He talked of fighting back against the anti-democracy elements – presumably meaning the political opposition. This may come as a bit of a surprise Mr president but it is actually the job of the opposition to oppose you and your party.

These enemies, said the president, were going to have to confront democracy – meaning his version of it – and wandered off into musing that the reason for Musharraf moving from country to country was a direct result of the political thinking and philosophy of his late wife. At this point the fine line connecting Mr Zardari to planet Earth finally snapped. The president must remember that there is a world out there beyond the party faithful sitting in front of him. It is listening, and what it hears is not his success, but the paranoid rants about conspiracies against democracy and winning even if you lose. It is the audience sitting in that world that might, on the evidence before it, presume that some naughty conspirator had purloined the presidential marbles.

 

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I. THE NEWS

EDITORIAL

ON THE UP?

 

With the presentation of the Balochistan budget this year's round of budgeting is now complete – and whilst Balochistan may be last, it is by no means least. It is too soon to say what the effect of the Balochistan budget proposals may be, but it is not too soon to note that there has been a significant increase in the amount of money that Balochistan has to do what by any standards is a very difficult job. For decades the Baloch have found themselves at the back of every queue in Pakistan. They have been serially neglected and built up a pool of resentment and disaffection, a part of which is based upon the province not getting what it needs by way of money to tackle the problems it faced. The new budget may be an indication that something is changing for the better.

The budget is the largest ever for Balochistan at Rs152.017 billion, representing a 100 pert cent increase over the budget for 2009-10. There is an estimated deficit of Rs7.10 billion but this can be bridged from provincial resources. Alongside the expected rises for public sector employees with the police, levies and Balochistan constabulary getting 100 per cent pay raise and a 50 pert cent increase for other employees, there is a clear and important commitment to development in Balochistan with the emphasis on health and education and the fishing industry. Our least developed province, with the lowest health and education indicators nationally has, when given the resources, prioritised the needs of the neediest. The aggregated provincial literacy rate is 34% compared to a national rate of 52% and in rural areas female literacy is as low as 10%. One billion rupees has been allocated to provide new equipment for schools, new teachers are to be recruited, new colleges built and many schools upgraded. At 158 deaths for every 1000 births Balochistan has the worst infant mortality rate of the entire developing world. Forty per cent of all children in rural Balochistan are underweight as a result of food insecurity. Today, there are 14 new RHCs and 31 BHUs being constructed and two new 55 bed hospitals; and a range of other health infrastructure needs to be addressed. Long-dormant education and health facilities are having new life breathed into them. With the partnership of the Japanese the Pasni fish harbour is to be reconstructed – the list is long. It is unreasonably optimistic to call the new budget a panacea for the many ills of Balochistan, but it is an indicator that the province may now get a chance to better manage its own destiny. It will be the work of a generation at least, but there is a sense that the 2010-11 budget may be a useful starting point.

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

INDO-PAK BORDER: THE ROAD NOT YET TAKEN

VAZIRA FAZILA-YACOOBALI

Nation-states and their borders are products of specific histories, and are shaped by political processes that need to be interrogated. In the Indian subcontinent we need to understand this shared history and reclaim our political imagination to transform the boundaries that divide us.

The highly restricted Indo-Pak border that we live with in the subcontinent today was not created, as some would believe, because of Indo-Pak wars over Kashmir. Rather, it has a very different history. By separating the border from the Kashmir conflict, this history may allow us to think about more open borders as the road not yet taken -- the road that lies ahead for finding solutions through affinity rather than difference.

While historians may argue for years to come over the roads that led to the denouement of the partition of 1947, when a line was drawn on maps to demarcate the territories of India and Pakistan, what this line was actually supposed to mean on the ground, in actual people's lives, was uncertain even to leaders of the time. The record is littered with formulations that may appear fantastical and ridiculous from our present location, but are extremely important for they reveal the many ways in which "Pakistan" was imagined as an Indo-Muslim space that was not severed from the rest of India, and as a territorial entity that would continue to be multi-religious like the rest of India.

For one, while leaving the difficult question of nationality laws to the two emerging postcolonial states the Partition Council went so far as to amend the British Indian passport rules "so that there should be no restrictions on the movement of persons from one Dominion to another". How citizenship was to be defined in this multi-religious landscape -- what would be the national status of Hindus and Sikhs that lived in "Pakistan" or Muslims that lived in "India" – was unclear, but freedom of movement was considered essential to maintain religious, economic and kin ties that the line would divide.

Thus, when the first restrictions on movement of people between West Pakistan and India were imposed on July 14, 1948, this was a shock to people in the region and for many the "real partition." These restrictions were imposed suddenly by the Indian government in the form of an emergency permit system when north Indian Muslim refugees, that had fled their homes in the midst of partition's violence, began to return to their ancestral homes in the thousands.

In violence-torn Punjab, the Indian and Pakistani governments agreed to a complete transfer of populations along religious lines. This agreement had far reaching consequences for the rest of the subcontinent that was not included in this agreement. One of those consequences was that the Pakistani government was relieved of the responsibility for creating conditions for bringing back Hindu and Sikh refugees that had fled their homes and lands in the Punjab, and the Indian government for Muslim refugees.

While the Indian government was willing to accept Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan as a whole, it did not want north Indian Muslim refugees to return to India (and thus claim Indian citizenship). On the other hand, the Pakistani government considered Muslim refugees from other parts of India as Indian citizens, and feared a mass Muslim exodus that it would not be able to cope with, given its territorial limits and the substantial number of Muslims on the other side of the line. The Pakistani government imposed a parallel permit system by September 1948, in large part to prevent Muslims that remained in India from coming to West Pakistan.

The unique form of the excruciating passport and visa system for Indian and Pakistani passport holders -- visas issued only for specific cities, requiring invitations, endorsements and police reporting – are all remnants from the permit system where people moving were largely those who were returning home, to family and friends, to ties deep enough to make people readily violate permit restrictions. When people were arrested for overstaying on their permits, a flood of court cases over belonging and citizenship followed.

In India, citizenship provisions (articles 5-9) were brought into force on November 26, 1949, in advance of the Indian constitution itself, to address these questions, and article 7 declared the act of "migration" as a basis for losing one's citizenship. As large numbers of Muslims were forced to contest their citizenship, it made the position of Muslims in India as a whole suspect and subject to scrutiny. On the other hand, the much-debated citizenship laws in Pakistan introduced a "date-line" for "migration," and along with the introduction of the passport system in 1952, made Muslims who remained in India, "foreigners" in Pakistan.

It is worth noting that there were no restrictions placed on movement between West Bengal and East Pakistan until 1952 when the permit system was replaced by the Indo-Pak passport system, and in the east freedom of movement was considered important to provide security to the substantial religious minorities that remained on both sides of the line. One could argue that this fact, that West Pakistan almost immediately lost most of its religious pluralism with the transfer of populations agreement in the Punjab while East Pakistan did not, affected how the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani state viewed East Pakistan, and shaped their parting of ways.

The Indo-Pak border was created to shape and control the massive displacements of partition, to fix the national status of religious minorities, and to create national difference where none had existed before. While the two governments made the border more and more difficult to cross, people repeatedly campaigned for an end to all travel restrictions, while some groups went so far as to argue for the repeal of the transfer of population agreement for Punjab. People resisted the border at every stage of its long and contested making, and divided communities and families held onto emotional connections despite their difficulties.

But sixty years on, the generation for whom the landscape was tangled, who had memories and feelings that told them that the other side was also a part of them, who had friends on the other side, well, that generation is passing away. For the post-1971 generations, the other side has become another country, and worse an enemy country with all its dark stereotypes, our political imagination hostage to fear.

The extreme border controls have divided people but not brought peace or resolutions to conflicts. May one dare to ask, if freedom of movement had been maintained after 1947 what would India and Pakistan look like today? What do we want them to look like in the future?

The writer is Assistant Professor of History, Brown University, and author of 'The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories' (Columbia University Press in 2007) vfyz@brown.edu

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

BUSINESS AS USUAL

SHAHID KARDAR

The budget for 2010/11 has been presented at a time that the economy is struggling and the government's fiscal position is under severe stress. This PPP government had inherited a precarious situation, which was compounded by insecurity and food inflation - some of it external in nature. Thus, it had limited room for maneuverability even if it had been able to achieve some directional shift to address perennial structural issues. Therefore, in many ways this is a modest budget which has tried to focus on maintaining stability and not aising any expectation for a major turnaround.

With this background, Dr Hafeez Sheikh needs to be congratulated on a brilliant presentation - candid, truthful and realistic - and for stating with clarity, his vision and his desire and intention to eschew the business as usual approach. He was also right in arguing that economic management is a 24/7 affair, as reflected in other government policies, like the monetary policy and policies with respect to administered prices of utilities and petrol and procurement prices of crops like wheat, and that the annual budget is essentially an accounting exercise, a statement of government revenues and expenditures. He also acknowledged the weaknesses of the government - its failure to address the issue of the low tax to GDP ratio, the crisis in electricity and the lax management of expenditures. It now remains to be seen how the vision that he had articulated will be owned by the rest of the political leadership and then implemented over the remaining tenure of this government.

While essentially agreeing with him on how one should look at the budget, I have one fundamental disagreement. In my opinion, the budget must indicate the steps in the proposed directional shift, something missing entirely in the budget that he is piloting; an act that he had to perform within six weeks of being parachuted into office, admittedly not adequate time to draft a plan to fit his vision and also garner support for it. Take the following examples: He spoke at length about the Rs235 billion losses of the PSEs and all that was proposed was their restructuring. A tried, tested and failed approach. Theirs is a case of moral hazard - these institutions know that they will be bailed out and successive governments have successfully been blackmailed into bank rolling them. Also, this government does not appear to be in the mood to privatize any of these organizations. There is little hope of addressing the issue of the continued losses of these PSEs as long as they remain in the public sector - these losses being twice the budgets of each of the provincial governments of KP and Balochistan, and also twice the annual financial assistance from the much maligned Kerry-Lugar bill. As long as they remain in the public sector they will be subjected to loot and plunder - as dumping grounds for party workers (serving as employment bureaus), for non-merit appointments of senior management and channels for bribes and other corruption.

He also spoke of the need for austerity even if in symbolic terms. But just before the budget was announced the PM went to Spain with the routinely large entourage. Also, while the written budget speech mentioned a 25 per cent salary increase for government servants, a 50 per cent increase was announced, with its obvious ripple effect on the budgets of the provincial governments. Moreover, there are a host of other agencies and departments whose roles were neither clear before and certainly no longer after the withdrawal of the concurrent list. You just have to drive through the Blue Area and some key sectors in Islamabad to come across organizations with exotic names that none of us would have heard of, let alone know with what mandate they are functioning. No reference was made to their future. Nor was any announcement made to reduce the size of government, the size of entourages with the PM or the President on foreign tours, discontinuation of Hajj and Umrahs at government expense and the grounding of the aircraft reserved for the PM, President, Governors and CMs. Our political leaders, only a small percentage of whom are actually taxpayers, are simply unwilling to make even a modicum of a sacrifice.

Let me now proceed to look at some of the budgetary targets. The tax revenue target is grossly overstated. The government hopes to collect Rs1,667 billion through the FBR. With the likely collection of Rs1320-30 billion in FY 2010, inflation of say 11 per cent (despite the government hoping for a rate of 9.5 per cent), economic growth of 4 per cent and assuming the government collects all the additional taxes that it has proposed, tax revenues are not likely to exceed Rs1,600 by the end of FY 11. In my opinion, the government should congratulate itself if by end of financial 2011 it has Rs1,570 in the kitty. Moreover, expenditures are understated, to begin with by the Rs25 billion for the extra 25 per cent increase in salaries announced in the budget speech.

Having accepted that the issue of the low tax to GDP ratio and poor resource mobilization had to be addressed, the only step the government has taken to correct the inequitable tax structure is to levy a capital gains tax on transactions in the equity market. For instance, the budget could have proposed an inheritance tax or the re-introduction of the wealth tax. It could have also threatened to levy a withholding tax on all the sale of cash crops like cotton, sugar, rice and even wheat, if the provinces do not start collecting revenues by taxing agricultural incomes. It was business as usual when all that the government did was to raise the GST by 1 per cent age point on all goods and services already in the GST net.

The trouble is that the rather selfish, if not greedy and predatory, rentier elite is not prepared to put in place an equitable tax structure that requires contributions from them on the basis of their capacity to bear such a burden. No wonder ordinary people ask why they should pay additional taxes, especially if the government cannot ensure the safety and security of their lives and property, let alone deliver decent quality basic services. So, Islamabad will simply have to beg and borrow more even to finance its non-productive expenditures, as the debt to GDP ratio continues to soar.

The budget deficit target of 4 per cent of GDP has been set on the assumption that the provinces will have cash surpluses of Rs167 billion - this being equivalent to 1 per cent of GDP. An unrealistic assumption, considering that they are not restricted by any Fiscal Responsibility Act and their past behavior provides no basis for making such an assumption. And in keeping with tradition, the governments of the two larger provinces have already announced deficit budgets.

To be concluded

The writer is a former finance minister of Punjab. Email: kardar@systemsltd.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

SICK WHITE ELEPHANTS

AYAZ AHMAD

As the government once again considers the bailing out of public-sector organisations, beginning with a massive Rs25 billion package for Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), let us analyse the causes of the losses suffered by these white elephants. If the drain on the public exchequer is to be reversed, there is need for evaluation of the implications of the subsidy policy, followed by suitable action for improvement.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani recently lamented the Rs220 billion the government is spending on non-performing entities. The amount translates into approximately 1.5 per cent of the GDP. However, some of the abusive practices that have occurred over the past two years are an indication of the government's seriousness about plugging this loss.

The Competition Commission of Pakistan uncovered blatant corruption in PSM when it implicated the organisation in the sale of steel, at throwaway prices, to Riaz Lalji's Abbas Steel group. While the PSM management stays mired in misappropriations, the Steel Mills' capacity utilisation remains abysmally low: at around 35 per cent. Meanwhile, PIA and Pakistan Railways have inducted a large number of politically motivated appointees over the past two years even though their financial performance continues to slide.

What are the options that the government can pursue in order to end the crisis in public-sector organisations?

The government basically has three options if it wants to get public-sector enterprises to perform. First, the state can appoint managers of these enterprises purely on merit. It should emphasise performance-based running of the enterprises. At the same time, it should steer clear of operational interference in order to allow competent managers to function independently in each organisation.

The government will need to set clear short- and long-term objectives and monitor the performance of the managements regularly. If the action is undertaken with care and transparency, the enterprises can be made viable over time. This arrangement could allow the state to have greater control over the scope of their widespread activities within a national infrastructural framework.

A second alternative is transfer of complete administrative control to a private entity, while a parliament-appointed policy board consisting of experts can oversee the administration of the organisation in question. This alternative can once again permit the state to influence policy indirectly, and push public-sector enterprises towards financial independence. The outcome would depend, to a large extent, on the composition of the governance board--as to whether it has the relevant experts and whether it can arrive at decisions without state pressure.

The third alternative is to privatise public-sector enterprises through a transparent bidding process. Given the poor financial condition of these entities, privatisation would yield very little returns. The future viability of these national organisations could be in jeopardy without government support. The government, in this case, should just let the market drive the fortunes of these enterprises and be willing to accept the possibility of their demise.

The crux of the solution lies in the intentions of the decision-makers as each of the above alternative can be utilised in turning around public-sector enterprises. Actions should speak louder than words in the expression of the government's true intentions regarding these enterprises. The prime minister's expressed concern at the massive waste of money does not appear to be reflected in the decisions of the government since it came to power in 2008.

This situation can be likened to Mr Gilani's criticism of holders of fake degrees on the floor of parliament, and actively campaigning for Jamshed Dasti, on the other hand. As well as from the repeated assertions of the prime minister that all judicial decrees, including the NRO verdict, are being implemented, while in its actions his government does exactly the opposite. Either the prime minister does not have control of the state's affairs or he is being dishonest with the people of Pakistan.

Whatever the case, the notion that privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills or PIA could itself make these organisations viable is flawed as the fate of Karachi Electric Supply Company demonstrates. Privatisation without transparency and merit would similarly render these organisations ineffective and lead either to their closure or their reacquisition by the state.

The problems plaguing public-sector organisations are not much different from those confronted by government departments. The problems in the former case emanate from insincerity, incompetence and a focus on everything but performance. Therefore, the solution cannot be as simple as financial support to them or their privatisation. Although it's true that privatisation would prevent the injection of budgetary funds into these organisations, the privatisation process itself could seal their fate and that of thousands of their employees. Sincerity and competence of the decision-makers will have to be primary determining factors if we are to turn around the fortunes of the ailing public-sector enterprises.

The writer is a management consultant based in Toronto. ayaza75@hotmail.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

THE BALOCH REALITY

ASHRAF JEHANGIR QAZI

Balochistan, Mea Culpa! We are to blame. We are so sorry. We agree with your every complaint. We intend to make amends. Please take note of our awards, packages, amendments and initiatives. Won't you at least be appreciative and put your faith in our good intentions? Can't you see, if not feel, the pained conscience of our liberal elite over your plight?

Well, if more than 60 years of alienation and exploitation can be washed away so easily it would be very convenient indeed. But Balochistan is not just a major issue in itself; it also represents the cumulative consequence for a country of deliberate and exploitative neglect, stupid self-serving governance, and the arrogant and ignorant use of force, under civilian and military rule, for six decades.

The alienation of the Baloch is just the most salient consequence of the systematic betrayal of the people of Pakistan. Placating them is not just a matter of striking sympathetic and soothing postures, it requires altering the governing context for the country as a whole – something that the ruling elite, not surprisingly, finds unacceptably inconvenient. They are the problem that has to be resolved for any answers to a whole range of specific issues, including Balochistan, to become available.

The ruling elite believes that demonizing Baloch leaders – especially if they resist its blandishments - and trying to recruit more Baloch into its ranks, including the military, can address the problem. This does not represent just arrogance and ignorance; it represents an attitude that sees the Baloch problem as something they can live with, because it can be contained even if never resolved. The Baloch are few in number. The people of the other provinces have their own problems and little contact with the Baloch who, by and large, live beyond the Indus Valley. Iran fears Baloch nationalism even more than Pakistan. Afghanistan has few links with and therefore little sympathy for the Baloch. India may try to leverage the situation to pressure Pakistan but is in no position to effectively assist the Baloch. The US may wish to use the Baloch against Iran but not, as yet, against Pakistan. Like the Kurds, the Baloch have no strategic friends. They can be suppressed at affordable cost – paid for by their own resources.

Moreover, the indigenous people of Balochistan are not one. There are the Baloch, the Brahwi, and the Pashtun. The latter do not identify with the Baloch nationalist cause. The Brahwi have a much more complicated relationship with the Baloch who consider the Brahwi as part of themselves. The Brahwi see themselves as acculturated and politically affiliated to the Baloch but with a distinct identity and language of their own. The Khan of Kalat and some tribes and sub-tribes are considered both Baloch and Brahwi. In recent years, religion and religious parties have come to play a more significant role among the Brahwi than among the Baloch. Nationalist Baloch in an effort to maximize political support claim to speak three languages: Balochi, Brahwi and Seraiki. The Brahwi only claim to speak their own language: Brahwi. Nevertheless, all said and done, the Brahwi are sympathetic to the Baloch nationalist movement and many of them play an active role in it. After all, the areas where neither the Pakistani flag is flown nor the national anthem is sung include Brahwi-inhabited areas.

What about the Baloch sardars? One often hears that the Baloch movement is only a stunt by the sardars to keep their medieval privileges over their own people safe from the modernizing influences of Pakistan. Alternately, and somewhat contradictorily, one hears that of the 70 or so Baloch sardars only three or four are associated with the Baloch national movement and the rest are patriotic Pakistanis. The truth is more complicated. The Baloch sense of grievance is not confined to nationalist sardars. It is shared by the whole Baloch intelligentsia. The sardars of irrigated areas are dependent on the good will of the local administration and have traditionally suffered from the raids of the more independent Baloch hill tribes. Accordingly, they have sought administrative protection against them, and continue this pattern of seeking official patronage today. But they do not wield any influence among the Baloch intelligentsia of today, including students, teachers, lawyers, professionals, etc. who collectively shape Baloch political opinion.

How does this Baloch intelligentsia view Baloch sardars? They make a distinction. They have, by and large, no sympathy for the pro-establishment sardars. As for the nationalist sardars, whatever reservations they may have with regard to their contemporary social relevance, they regard them as essential assets and symbols in their political struggle against the exploitation of the ruling elite of Pakistan – who are seen to be concentrated in the military and from Punjab. Accordingly, they support the nationalist sardars wholeheartedly, particularly the elder generation who led the fourth Baloch rebellion or freedom struggle against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and later, in their declining years, the fifth struggle against General Musharraf which continues today. It is true neither Bhutto nor Musharraf were Punjabis. But they were seen to be backed by Panjab-based institutions and priorities.

It is this perception that has led to the tragic phenomenon of targeted assassinations of "non-locals" who have lived for generations in Balochistan which they consider their home and have served admirably. Their loss would be disastrous for Balochistan. The Baloch intelligentsia, however, will not allow anyone to drive a wedge between them and the nationalist sardars, even though it is possible that they feel that when they achieve their nationalist goals the role of all sardars and tumandars would have to be superseded by contemporary democratic and development imperatives. Moreover, they are convinced an independent Balochistan would be economically viable.

What about the Pashtun of Balochistan? They have less grievances than the Baloch. But they are the "invisible people" of Balochistan. They feel politically ignored and taken for granted. So many informed people, including those in government positions in the rest of Pakistan, regard them as settlers from Afghanistan or Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In fact they are indigenous people who used to belong to the Kandahar province of Afghanistan before the British detached and included them and their areas in British Balochistan. They are happy to be Pakistanis but have grievances with regard to their situation in what they see as a Baloch dominated administration. The potential flash point between the Baloch and the Pashtun could be the city of Quetta. The Khans of Kalat used to own Quetta. But it was gifted to them by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan. The current Baloch aspiration for an independent country would certainly include Quetta as its likely capital. The Pashtun, however, regard themselves and the Brahwi as the indigenous inhabitants of the Quetta region, and would not accept inclusion in an independent Balochistan, or the loss of Quetta to it.

These are possible future scenarios. But they could be made real by the continued mishandling of the situation in Balochistan which, as stated, is integrally related to misrule in Pakistan. By and large, despite local rivalries and complaints about allocation of state resources including government jobs, the Baloch/Brahwi and the Pashtun co-exist amicably. The Pashtun of Balochistan accept their identity as Balochistanis. While they have a strong feeling of solidarity with the Pakhtun of KP (and of Afghanistan) there is no desire among them to be included in KP or ruled from Peshawar, which is considered too far, and from where they would be considered as a marginal people. Moreover, their economy depends on the resources of Balochistan which are largely located in Baloch areas as is their access to the coastal areas of the country. Accordingly, a policy of relying on the Pashtun and non-locals as a counter to Baloch grievance-based aspirations would be disastrous for the whole province and, indeed, the whole country.

This is the essence of the situation in Balochistan which needs to be considered by every concerned Pakistani. What are the solutions? Without accepting these realities there are none. If we do, they will be possible if not easy. It is our choice.

The writer is Pakistan's former envoy to the US and India. Email: ashrafjqazi@yahoo.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

TURKEY TURNS EAST

RIZWAN ASGHAR

In the wake of the Israeli attack on the international Freedom Flotilla heading for Gaza on May 31, Turkey cancelled the upcoming joint military exercise with Israel. The Turkish leadership has also made it clear that there is no prospect of further military deals between the two countries. Reacting to the attack, in which nine civilians were killed on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan went to the extent of denouncing Israel as the "vilest of criminals."

On June 8 and 9, Erdogan presided over the third summit of the 20-member Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building in Asia (CICA) in Istanbul, at which Israel drew sharp condemnation for the attack on the Flotilla.

Turkey's emphasis on its ties with Asia marks a clear change in the policy of Turkey, which was hitherto actively vying for membership in the European Union. For the last few months there is a growing perception that Turkey is now less keen on becoming an EU member.

This reorientation in Ankara's foreign policy dovetails with a process which began over the last decade with the November 2002 victory of the Justice and Development Party and the consequent shift in Turkey's perception of itself because of a host of factors.

The EU's failure to accept Turkey's application, which is under consideration since 1999, has been a key factor in Turkey's decision to move closer to the Arab world. After a decade of asking Turkey to meet the membership conditions of reforming its laws and the economy, giving more rights to its ethnic minorities and lowering the political profile of its military, reforms which successive Turkish governments carried out, EU countries, most prominently Germany and France, remain opposed to Turkey's entry into the 27-nation bloc.

US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates recently stated that "if there is anything to the notion that Turkey is moving eastward, it is in no small part because it was pushed, and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought."

The Cyprus problem, the growing European criticism of the Armenian genocide and Western sympathy for Kurdish national aspirations are factors that persuaded Turks to question their long-standing pro-Western policies.

As Turkey looks eastward, it takes a more active leadership role in the Middle East. Turkish leaders have started appreciating the fact that a hard-line stance against Israel's crippling three-year blockade of Gaza could vastly increase the country's influence among ordinary Arabs. Erdogan's increasing vitriol for Israel in his public speeches, describing Israelis as killers, has also built up his support inside Turkey, where the secular opposition parties are in disarray. A 2009 Pew Global Attitudes survey revealed that only 14 percent of Turkish people had a favourable view of the US, the lowest figure among the 25 nations surveyed.

The Western boycott of the popularly elected Hamas government in Gaza and the West Bank in 2006, and the three-week-long Israeli attack on Gaza less than two years later, strained Israeli-Turkish relations to a breaking point.

"When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill," Mr Erdogan shouted at Israeli president Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2009.

Trade between Turkey and the 22 members of the Arab League has more than doubled over the past five years to nearly $30 billion a year. Meanwhile, Turkey recently signed a deal with Syria, Jordan and Lebanon to establish a cooperation council to create a zone of free movement of goods and people.

This shift in Turkey's foreign policy paradigm is a signal that it intends to adopt a more independent and nationalistic strategic posture on the international front.

The writer is a freelance contributor. Email: rizwanasghar7@yahoo.com

 

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I. THE NEWS

OPINION

FROM MUSLIM TO ISLAMIC SCHOOLS

QUANTUM NOTE

DR MUZAFFAR IQBAL

It may not be an exaggeration that the greatest challenge faced by Muslims all over the world is that of education. This challenge arose from a failure of the Muslim educational system in the 16th and the 17th centuries, which resulted in a historic watershed. Muslims lagged behind Europe in production of knowledge, and this ultimately led to a shift in the global balance of power. This shift took place at a time when European educational institutions were becoming powerhouses of new knowledge based on modern science. This situation soon enabled Europeans to conquer most of the known world, including almost all lands where Muslims had then lived for centuries.

The Muslim resistance to this conquest, heroic as it was in some cases, was simply doomed because there was no possibility for swords to come close to the hands which held rapid-firing weapons. The two World Wars after the conquest of the Muslim world condemned hundreds of thousands of Muslims to being slaughtered on battlefronts which were not of their own choosing. These Great Wars also produced successive generations of weapons, each being more deadly than the previous one. By the time Muslims woke up to the realities of the post-World War II situation, the entire map of the world had been redrawn.

At the heart of this reconfiguration of the world was an educational system which successfully wedded modern science with the corporate world, on the one hand, and the state, on the other. Knowledge production thus became handmaiden to the worldwide rise of the Western world led by the United States of America after World War II. Universities, research laboratories and institutions like MIT served as propellers of a new world order created through sheer force.

There is no escape from the basic realities of our times: we are now living in a world where ideas, products, social, economic, and political currents, all flow in one direction: from West to East. This tidal wave originates in the educational system of the dominant civilisation and spreads throughout the world. Compared to the powerhouses of knowledge, research, creativity, and vigour, the educational system in the Muslim world remains sluggish, drowsy, even dormant; certainly, derivative and subordinate to what comes from the West. The mushrooming of Western-style schools during the last quarter-century has made matters worse, as we now have millions of young men and women who have emerged from schools which ape the Western educational system without ever coming close to the excellence of the original.

History cannot be denied. There is no doubt that the current situation arose because the Muslim educational system was at the lowest ebb of its vitality at the time of the conquest and colonisation of the traditional lands of Islam. There is also very clear historical evidence that the resultant colonisation and the subsequent implantation of the Western educational system further uprooted the Muslim mind from its spiritual, intellectual and historical ground. It is also clear from history that the political freedom regained in the middle of the 20th century did little to relocate the Muslim intellectual landscape; instead, the new institutions modelled on the European and American systems mushroomed at ever-higher rates and continue to thrive and multiply in all 57 Muslim states which now constitute the traditional lands of Islam. These institutions teach a curriculum based on a worldview other than that of Islam, they use pedagogy which is not rooted in Islam, their content has no resonance to what great thinkers of Islam have left behind.

In order to reverse the global imbalance of production of knowledge--and consequently current military, political, economic, cultural, and social imbalance--Muslims need to revamp their educational system. This cannot be done by sprinkling Islam on thoroughly secular curricula. The entire system of education, including what is taught, how teaching takes place, and the environment in which learning takes place, has to be redesigned on the basis of a philosophy of education gleaned from the Quran and the Sunnah, the two primary sources of Islam, and anchored in solid scholarship.

This effort is not easy. It requires, first of all, a tremendous intellectual jihad which will furnish fundamental principles that can be applied to specific areas of education--from pedagogy to a curriculum design to outcomes. It also needs resources and, finally, it needs pilot institutions where the new model can be tested. Once proven to be better than the existing models, such a system of education will automatically receive warm welcome all over the world.

Given the current political, economic, and social conditions of the traditional lands of Islam, this intellectual jihad is almost impossible anywhere in the Muslim world.

There is not a single country in the world where the top leadership (in the political, social, and cultural economic strata) shows any willingness to even start thinking about this change. Rather, this stratum of the Muslim society, which makes all the important decisions, is quickly turning the Muslim world into an educational colony of the Western educational system, as scores of franchised educational institutions are popping up in these countries, which are aping American or British institutions.

There is, however, a silver lining to this gloomy scenario. A new awareness is spreading amongst Muslims living in North America and Europe which has the possibility of furnishing a new model of education, if it is pursued with vigour and critical control. There are groups of men and women (parents, homeschoolers, educators, thinkers), who have realised the power of education and the deadly consequences of the secularisation of the Muslim mind. They are keen to re-establish links with the spiritual, intellectual, social and cultural traditions of Islam and find ways to develop a new system of education which will be adequate for the challenges of our times, and train Muslim children to leadership positions in a world dominated by secularism.

The writer is a freelance columnist. Email: quantumnotes@gmail.com

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

PRESIDENT EMITS FIRE

 

THE 57th birth anniversary of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto should have been an occasion for the PPP leadership to make commitments to pursue good things initiated by the late leader but unfortunately they missed the opportunity and instead indulged in rhetoric that could add to the existing political polarisation. The speech made by President Asif Ali Zardari at Naudero as part of the functions organised to mark the birth anniversary of his spouse was a case in point.

The address of Mr Zardari and the language used by him were unbecoming of a Head of State to say the least. Instead of appreciating the fact that almost all political forces that matter were throwing their weight behind the Government in safeguarding the system and also that there was no apparent threat from the traditional Establishment, the President thought it appropriate to lash out at imaginary foes and self-created threats to the democracy. What does he mean when he says that if bugles of war are sounded then Asifa would come out to hold the PPP flag except that he has the intention of strengthening the family hold further on the party leadership. No doubt, Mr Zardari is also Co-Chairman of the PPP and his rhetoric was meant to boost sagging morale of the party workers but this should not be done at the cost of national unity. He crossed all the limits by accusing that a particular class in Punjab thinks against them and 'we are at war with this thinking', a comment no one would ever expect from the President, who is supposed to be the symbol of the Federation. His remarks amount to fanning sentiments against a federating unit and the President is least expected to speak without giving due consideration to his inner thinking. This is despite the fact that the largest political force of the province ie PML (N) and PPP are coalition partners in Punjab and at the Centre the party is playing the role of a friendly Opposition. But it is because of this unjustified anti-Punjab thinking that the PPP has not been able to take strong roots in the Province. The President is supreme commander of the armed forces and Head of the State whose responsibility is to promote peace, reconciliation and harmony among the provinces and the Federation. He is required to take conscientious steps to promote understanding and national unity but strangely enough he is doing exactly the opposite. He must realise that Pakistan is standing at crossroads, economy is in bad shape and inflation and unemployment hit people who are disillusioned and it is his job to disseminate message of hope and not despair.

 

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

GILANI'S PRAGMATIC STANCE ON KBD

 

THE issue of Kalabagh Dam is once again back into focus — thanks to the clarion call made by Bushra Rehman of PML (Q) and the uproar it sparked among ANP and some elements in Sindh and massive support for its construction in Punjab. In this perspective, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani deserves appreciation that he did not take sides at this particular time and instead adopted a pragmatic stance on the issue.

Understandably pointed questions were raised during his press talk at Garhi Khuda Bux on Monday but the Prime Minister demonstrated maturity in handling the issue with the required deft, skill and vision. He thought it appropriate to explain the background how an otherwise vital project was politicised in the past. The Prime Minister also pointed out that personally he was not against its construction but the project cannot be undertaken without national consensus. This is the right approach to handle such issues of sensitive nature as against the move of Minister for Water and Power Raja Parvez Ashraf who arbitrarily made an announcement that it was a closed chapter. There was absolutely no justification to throw away such an important project, which was mature for initiating groundwork, in the dustbin. Instead, the Government should have tried to build consensus and apprehensions of the NWFP and Sindh could have been removed through dialogue and guarantees. We believe that when it comes to national interests, every one should rise above personal, party or regional prejudices and think in terms of the future of the country and the nation. The sane and wise approach adopted by Prime Minister Gilani is the right course of action and we hope that he has the necessary personality ingredients to work for building national consensus on this project of far-reaching importance.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

EDITORIAL

WAY BB'S BIRTHDAY WAS CELEBRATED

 

SHAHEED Benazir Bhutto was a worldwide recognised and respected political leader and in that context certainly her birthday should have been celebrated in the length and breadth of Pakistan in a big way. Every individual and political party enjoys the fundamental right to observe days of happiness and sorrow of their leaders as they deem fit to pay tributes to them.

However it is not appropriate to arrange countrywide events at the State expenses. Special flights were arranged to carry the high ups of the Government to Garhi Khuda Bux where fleets of official vehicles were sent in advance for the movement of the VVIPs. In fact whole of Federal and Sindh Governments were engaged in one way or the other to contribute in the birthday celebrations. Government officials and media too were on duty to attend and cover the engagements of the political leadership. Large size laudatory advertisements were released to the newspapers at a time of financial crunch. These advertisements did provide some relief to the newspapers including this newspaper but we would say that it is not question of a newspaper or media on the whole. It is a higher question of principle whether State money can be spent to celebrate the birthday of a leader, who basically was and is leader of Pakistan's political party. The poor State of Pakistan can ill afford to pay for the birthdays and death anniversaries of the leaders of the ruling parties and such occasions be treated as private affair. In our view Peoples Party should have done well if it had left the event to the party cadres to organise and celebrate the birthday of their leader according to their liking and that would have attracted more workers to Garhi Khuda Bux from all over the country to pay tributes to their late leader who gave her life for the cause of the poor masses. In our view birth and death anniversaries of only founder of Pakistan Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and national poet Allama Iqbal should be observed at the official level.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

SECURING PAK-IRAN-AFGHAN FUTURE

GEN MIRZA ASLAM BEG

 

Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan are passing through a very historic moment, as their future is being challenged by forces of aggression, attempting to weaken their commitment to their "value system", and "national purpose". Their struggle against the forces of evil, for the last thirty years in particular, has determined the threshold of their tolerance and resistance against such threats. They have made great sacrifices, now culminating into a new era, which promises a bright future for them. A few incidents of the recent past would explain the point.

In 1979 encouraged by the West, Iraq invaded Iran, to defeat the Islamic Revolution. General Zia called an emergent meeting of the cabinet, to formulate Pakistan's foreign policy options. I was called to attend the meeting, to represent GHQ, in my capacity as the Chief of the General Staff. The discussion lasted for over three hours and general consensus emerged that: 'Iraqi armed forces would sweep across Iran, defeating the resistance and the Islamic Revolution, in a matter of days, and therefore Pakistan should be prepared to deploy a peace keeping force in Iran, under the UN mandate.' I had not spoken by then, and sought the permission of the chair to put forward my argument. I said: "The war is not going to end in a matter of days or weeks, rather it would be a long protracted war, lasting over several years, with Iran emerging as the victor, and the Revolution would consolidate. The famous Chinese saying will prove right: "Never take-on the revolutionaries unless you have an ideology stronger than theirs." And there is no ideology stronger than the ideology of Islam. "Historically, the Iranians have always stood united against foreign aggression. No doubt Raza Shah's armed forces have been dismantled and are locked-up in their barracks, but they will rise, as one, to defend the country, supported by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, who would avail the opportunity to consolidate the Revolution.

"The Iraqi armed forces, no doubt, have a modern military machine, but their higher military leadership, lacks the professional ability of the German General Staff, to launch breakthrough battles and blitzkrieg operations deep into the enemy territory. The boggy areas in the South and the mountainous region in the north would restrict deep maneuvers. Thus there would be no major gains or losses and only slow slogging series of battles causing heavy casualties. "In the first few days of war, Iraqi armed forces will lose sight of the main objective of war, i.e., to defeat the Iranians, while the Iranians will continue to fight with greater resolve and on a high moral ground, i.e., to defeat the aggressor. Ultimately the Iranians would emerge victorious. I therefore submit that, we formulate our policy for both the options, i.e., a short war ending into Iraq's victory and a long war, with Iran emerging as the victor."

General Zia listened to my arguments attentively, gave a broad smile and said: "I agree with you. We prepare for both the eventualities." And there was 'the silence of the lamb'. No one spoke and the meeting ended. Eight years later, Iranian armed forces crossed Shatt-el-Arab and as they concentrated in the Fao peninsula, poised for offensive towards Basra, Saddam attacked with chemical weapons, provided by the civilized West. Iran suffered heavy casualties and having no defense against this weapon, called for seize fire. Ever since, Iran has remained under great pressure on one issue or the other. Now the UNSC has imposed sanctions, for the fourth time, testing the national resilience of Iran. The Israelis are provoking Iran, by deploying their nuclear submarine in the region. This provocation resembles the Indian nuclear intimidation of 1974 and 1998, which left no option for Pakistan, but to prepare for retaliation with overt posture. What are the options for Iran now?

September 2001, General Musharraf succumbed to Richard Armitage's undiplomatic warning and sheepishly accepted all the conditionalities to join the American war on Afghanistan. Having taken this decision, he decided to call the politicians, scholars, media men and diplomats in groups, to explain and justify the decision. I was invited, with one such group for the 22 September 2001 meeting. His monologue and the discussion lasted for over four hours. I had not spoken. He invited my comments. I said: "You have taken the decision and therefore there is no point in justifying it now. The critical issue is, of joining the war, having no moral or ethical ground.

The Afghans have never done any harm to us, nor do we have a defense pact with America to join them. We have to see how far we can go, so that the red line is not crossed to harm our national interests." "In a matter of weeks, the invading forces will occupy Afghanistan and the Taliban will fall back to the line – Jalalabad – Kandahar, from where they had started in 1996, and would link-up with their support bases in Pakistan. Ultimately they will regroup, forming an alliance with the old Mujahideen and supported by the new grown up lot from Pakistan and other countries, will build-up a formidable resistance against the occupation forces."

"As the resistance develops, the conflict zone would expand to our border region, reversing the war on Pakistan. This would be a difficult period for Pakistan, facing a two-front war." "No doubt the Americans and their allies will take full control of Afghanistan in a matter of weeks but ultimately it will turn into Vietnam for them. They cannot win. They will lose the war." "The Afghans, Pakistani jihadis and many freedom fighters, from many countries of the world, have embraced Shahadat for the Afghan cause. For Pakistan to join the American war in Afghanistan, would amount to compromising and bartering away the blood and sacrifices of the martyrs (Shuhada) – an unforgivable sin and God knows, how to punish the sinner."

On hearing my comments, General Musharraf's face turned pale. He mumbled something which I could not comprehend. The meeting ended, abruptly. That was my last meeting with him. We never met again, as we were two poles apart. The Afghan freedom movement now has reached a point where the occupation forces are suffering from failure of nerves, inducting more troops only to reinforce their defeat. The irony is that the occupation forces, which stand defeated, are trying to lay down the conditions for peace, which is the privilege of the Taliban, who have emerged as winners. It would, therefore be proper to focus on Afghanistan, the people, their culture, their national ethos, their sense of honour and value system, which lend resilience to the cause of freedom.

The occupation forces must accept the reality that they have failed to read the complex tribal and societal relationship of the Afghans. They must not repeat the mistakes of 1990 and 2001, of denying the fruits of victory to the Afghans, i.e., to share power and form a government. There will be no peace, if any other course is adopted. Taliban are now strong enough to snatch away their freedom, which they have won with such a great sacrifice. The people know the predicament of the occupation forces and the tenuousness of the routes of supply to Afghanistan. —To be continued.

The writer is former COAS, Pakistan.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

BB'S LEGACY OF RECONCILIATION LIVES ON!

FAIZ AL-NAJDI

 

Just few days before she was brutally gun downed on that fateful day of 27 December 2007, Benazir Bhutto was able to finalize the manuscript of her last epic book, "Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy & the West. In the foreword note of the book per se, Mark Siegel – her friend of a long standing - mentions that this book was written under extraordinary circumstances and that this book was very important to her. He also adds that Benazir was convinced that the battles between democracy and dictatorship, and between extremism and moderation, were the two central forces of the new millennium. He also adds that she believed that under dictatorship, extremism flourished and grew, threatening not only her homeland – Pakistan – but also the entire world.

The whole of the last chapter of the book per se (from pages-275 thru 318) is dedicated to the subject of reconciliation - in broader sense and perspective. In this chapter she focuses on the ways and means of bringing about reconciliation on both the fronts. She theorizes that there is much that Muslims can do to reconcile the internal contradictions that badly divide their communities in the twenty-first century. According to her, it can be achieved by charting such a course so that the Muslims can again become one of the central forces shaping the future of humanity. She suggests that the West too can bridge the gap between itself and the Muslim community by taking some concrete and specific initiatives. According to her, it is this widening gap of perception, values, and sense of compatibility which what threatens to explode into that feared epic battle of the twenty-first century. "The Islamic states, in my view, can both accommodate and reconcile with one another and with the West. It is an ambitious undertaking, but it can be done", she opinioned. According to her, the perception of the West by the Muslims of the world is deeply problematic. The problem is particularly intense concerning their feelings towards the United States. An abundance of data shows a steady and dramatic deterioration of approval of the United States in Muslim societies spanning at least five years. Benazir mentions in her book per se that the Pew Research Center has done consistent work on this topic demonstrating how formidable the problem of reconciling Islam and the West will be, in particular Muslims and the United States. The more detailed data are equally disturbing. The U.S. led war on terror is perceived, right or wrong, in much of the Muslim world as a war on Islam. The long-range problem seems to basically occur on the restoration of trust. It is however heartening to note that President Obama and his administration are quite alive to cognizant of all of the above. This is the reason soon after assuming the Presidency of the United States of America; he chose to address the Muslim nation at large – and which he did in his historic speech from Cairo-Egypt on 04 June 2009. The political critics had observed then that in his 55-minute address he was able to connect to the Muslim world largely because of the fact that he was bold enough to speak the truth.

And, it was also so because of the fact that he was able to relay signal of reconciliation. It was also opinioned by some experts then that the entire tone & tenor of his speech was set against the theme of reconciliation with the Muslim world as is also suggested and focused in Benazir's book per se. Benazir Bhutto has always been a firm believer in and proponent of the policy of reconciliation. All her life she worked to prove the one fact that the politics of vengeance and vendetta was not her cup-of-tea. This is very true as can be witnessed from her endurance of pain and sufferings at the hands of General Zia (and his henchmen), the military dictator who had captured power on 04 July 1977, after toppling her father and the democratically elected Prime Minister of the country – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Ever since she, her mother and other close relatives were witch hunted against, jailed and maimed during the Zia regime so much so that she was even not allowed to attend the funeral of her father who was hanged by him via what is now termed as a judicial murder. However, when her Party returned to power in 1988 and she became the youngest and the first Muslim head of an Islamic State (after Zia's death in plane crash) she shunned the politics of hate, vengeance, and vendetta. She adopted the course of reconciliation instead. It is now a part of record and history that all the Zia cronies, protégées and the henchmen continued to live peacefully and take active parts in politics during her regime. All of them even ganged up against her once again by forming IJI (Islamic Democratic Alliance) – a front of the right-wing and the pro-establishment political parties. They all continued to make her life both difficult and miserable. However Bhutto never ever turned to vengeance against them all. Vengeance and hate was not in her blood. The gory tale of the witch-hunting, malicious campaign, false politically motivated court cases, and all sorts of organized injustices meted out to her and her husband Asif Zardari (now President of Pakistan) by the joint conspiracy of her political adversaries and the so-called establishment is no secret. All of these had caused great pains and mental torture to her and her family. And, because of which her husband had to spend most part of his best life in jails and she and her small kids were forced to live in self-exile – she without her husband and her kids without their father. It's now a part of history and record that in December 1971 General Yahya Khan had sent a plane to New York to bring back the senior Bhutto (Benazir's father) to pick up the pieces of a broken and devastated Pakistan then. Fast forward to the last years of General Musharraf. Yet another military dictator and power usurper. When found in abyss, Musharraf now kneeled down before another Bhutto – this time Benazir Bhutto to bail him out. Being the largest political Party, PPP and Benazir had all the political power and support to dislodge Musharraf's government. But for Benazir Bhutto, the larger interest of the country and the region was in her mind. She very well knew that paralyzing the Musharraf government by means of mobilizing supporters on the street was a very risking thing to do. It would have done immense damage to the peace and stability of the country and at the end the poor people of Pakistan would have suffered the most.

More over, General Musharraf would have easily exited, and go in exile, by handing over the reign of the country to another General; a la Ayub-Yahya model in 1969. So, despite all opposition from many (including some from within her Party), she once again opted for reconciliation with his arch foe – General Musharraf. Thus a broad reconciliation was reached with Musharraf in the larger interest of the country to get the political affairs of the country going. This explained why the now-defunct National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was passed and promulgated by Musharraf's the then government But alas, the enemies of Benazir Bhutto and the enemies of Pakistan and its people had some other game plan in their mind. When she reached Karachi-Pakistan on 18 October 2007, after ending her long self-exile, she was greeted with over 3 million of her supporters and a huge bomb blast planned and executed by those who hated her guts. She was not cowed down then so they finally eliminated her on that fateful day of 27 December 2007 after her impressive political rally in Rawalpindi. Benazir Bhutto is no more with us today. However, on her 57th birthday (falling on 21 June) it is relieving to note that her message of reconciliation now lives on. President Asif Zardari has strived and endeavoured long enough to pursue the policy of reconciliation with all and sundries. Due to this, it has brought political stability in the country and the nation has risen up from the ashes, in the aftermath of the assassination of his wife and our leader — Benazir Bhutto. No wonder her killers silenced her — the messenger of peace and reconciliation — but could not silence her message of peace and reconciliation. BB's legacy of reconciliation thus lives on!

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

OBAMA'S ORDEALS

DR S M RAHMAN

 

Obama, the first Black President, in the prestigious Oval office, in the backdrop of colossal image tarnishing of USA by George Bush, his predecessor, under the evil influence of the neo-cons, had committed great mistake by invading Iraq on contrived lies, which is outside the pale of civilized norms and values. Obama was thus a breeze of fresh air and his rhetorics, entailed a commitment to rescue the sinking image of USA and to salvage the battered economy and drainage of taxpayers' money to the tune of trillion of dollars, which put USA under great debts and in a state of grave recession. Bush threw the country into a quagmire - economic as well as geopolitical.

Obama sincerely wished to set a precedence that a Black president could set things right with sagacity and evenhanded dispensation of justice, congruent to respectable image of a Super Power. The poetry of his eloquent exuberance, however, could not reconcile with the prosaic imperatives of the world, where wishes fall flat against a dreadful reality – "ordless order" and inhuman demands. The world is not what it aught to be and Obama's hopes thus got dashed against the rocks of impracticality and "pressures" unlimited. Obama had rightly identified that the resolution of Middle East conflict could boost up his image as the architect of peace in the region and that the "two-state formula" if implemented in the right spirit could be the harbinger of a feeling of co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians, and also could pave conditions for appreciable reduction of terrorism both on the part of state as well as non-state actors.

Obama rightly diagnosed that what had spawned terrorism in the world was the unbridled atrocities being committed by Israel on the Palestinians and illegal occupation of their lands in total defiance of the UN resolutions. USA's blind spot against Israel's misdeeds has led to the emergence of terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, which has no home of its own – no capital as its permanent base - but is free to move anywhere in the world and seek safe heavens to launch retaliatory aggression against any country which supports USA's unprincipled policies in the global affairs. When you have different principles for different nations of the world, you cannot camouflage your 'fascism' under glittering generalities – 'democracy', 'freedom', 'human rights' and so forth. In an interview, Johan Galtung, an outstanding predictor of nations'gratvatation towards self-destruction, makes a very apt comment: "If you try to dominate the world economically, militarily, politically, culturally at the same time, …. It cannot last for a long time."(Reproduced in Nation 11June 2010). The author, however does not relinquish his optimism and hopes the "blossoming period" if US could transcend the "narrow vision" of George Bush, who waged three wars simultaneously – war on terror, war on Iraq and war on Afghanistan, ironically not facing the reality that USA did not win the war in Korea in 1953 nor in Vietnam in 1975. The US is hopelessly entangled in "war number five" of major significance. This, he says, in typical for the decline of the empire that it goes like that."

Tyranny cannot coexist with the lofty ideals that Obama so eloquently wishes to promote in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan. This is a sheer a double-talk and consequently an erosion of its credibility. Richard Haass, in his article "The New Middle East" makes a valid observation:" The rise of news media and above all of satellite of television has turned the Arab World into a 'regional village' and politicized it. Much of content shown – scenes of violence and destruction in Iraq and Muslim prisoners suffering in Gaza, the West Bank and now Lebanon – has further alienated many people in the Middle East from the United States. As a result, governments in the Middle East now have a more difficult time working openly with US and US influence in the region has waned."(Foreign Affairs, Nov-Dec 2006 ,p.5) Israeli's blatant barbarism, in the international waters of the eastern Mediterranean, by its commandos and killing at least ten peace activists on the freedom flotilla, bearing the Turkish flag .Mavi Marmora, which was essentially on a humanitarian mission of carrying supplies for the besieged (around 1.5 million) in the Gaza strip.

The utter insensitivity of this suffering due to the blockade is expressive of a pathological mindset which Paul J. Balles point out in his article "Shame behind US silence over Israeli Crimes" (reproduced in Nation, June 7, 2010 from Redress). The response of the White House to the flotilla tragedy was typically that of silence. He contends: "The question posed … deserve a response but not the twists provided by Israeli apologists or Zionists controlled Washington. The author quite candidly asserts: "The US has not and never will condemn Israel for being what ex-Israeli Gilad Atzmon described as "an inhuman murderous collective fuelled by a psychosis and driven by paranoia." The Israelis have a shockingly callous record of killing 6,348 Palestinians (between 2000 and 2009) and Lebanese 1,401 in two unprovoked raids and around millions of casualties at the provocation of Israel by USA in Iraq and Afghanistan, surely the killing of just 10 peace activists on the high seas, will hardly matter. "Who cares approach" of the Israelis and Zionists lobby in USA, has also debased UN which was supposed to remove the scourge of war.

Gordon Duff a conscientious writer and a Marine Vietnam Veteran, in his article "Israel keeping World in turmoil", mentions: "Israel offered nukes to South Africa, a rogue nation under sanctions …. This made Israel a criminal state and Mr. Peres [Israel's President] a war criminal." (Reproduced in the Nation, May 30, 2010). He expressed quite candidly about Israel's puppet network like Fox News and their political hacks McCain, Lieberman, Palin, Pelosi and quite a number of others." Therefore, if Israel shouts Iran, - a nuclear wolf, it looks ridiculous when its blatant lies dominate its policies. 'Israel' Duff says, "has made a laughing stock of America, blind while living off our welfare. Israel is the consummate Cadillac state."

Obama's ambitious goals are under jeopardy. As Richard Burt says: "It is true that Obama's agenda for change is audacious, needless to say the White House's prospects for achieving its goals are uncertain. (All the Presidents Dreams, the National Interest, No. 16. Mar/April 2010, p-7). Senator Fulbright describes the United States as a "crippled giant." 'Break-throughs' can be achieved only if Obama makes US quit Afghanistan and Iraq; resolve the Middle East crisis by taming Israel and free South Asia of the dread nuclear holocaust, by prevailing upon its strategic partner - India to detract from militarism and ruthless killing of Muslims in Indian Held Kashmir and resolve the contentious issue of Kashmir with prudence and negotiations. With these goals achieved, history will immortalize him true to the dictum of Clausewitz, a great warrior against Terrorism, without using military might.

 

The writer is Secretary General FRIENDS

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

A BUFFER OR CLIENT STATE!

ABDUL BAQI

 

The modern times and leading nations have reshaped the principles of governance and the structure of the state. For a developing state it is vital to meet the standards and pre-requisites. To adopt the path of progress and acceptable status it is essential to craft the internal and external dynamics in accordance to the prevailing regional and global trends. Hence, denying of these factors would not only effect the development of state and a nation rather it would endanger the survival of that particular state. It is also vital to analyze the interest of leading nations by a developing sates to situate itself in a better position to become progressive and competitive in strategic environment.

For that matter the internal affairs are equally important vis-à-vis external. Well calculated and scientifically crafted policies along with in-depth analysis and adjustments are imperative. This can not be done without having good governance and excellence in delivering of goods and services through well designed mechanism. In case of Pakistan it is pertinent to note that military invasion or military threats may not be the core challenges rather the non-military threats could cause the internal collapse of the state. The geo-political challenging scenario and emerging interest of internal and external forces need to be analyzed. In addition to that in some of the areas their interests are intertwined and internal forces are serving their deceitful motives consciously and unwittingly both. The gravity of unsynchronized internal dynamics of the state along are inviting the decision makers (civil-military) and the statesmen to not only analyze the scenario but also craft precautionary measures against the nexus of internal and external forces.

The reality is that one way or the other our state infrastructure by design has been pushed in flux and the performance of state institutions is continuously deteriorating. It is also true that according to the grand design, this scenario is turning Pakistan into a buffer state onto a semi-client state. A state which is coping with strategic challenges and serving the interests of regional and global players is adversely affected in its internal political dynamics. The unfortunate part is that instead of getting out of the identity of being buffer state, now country is becoming a semi-Client state. Where all the state institutions have been polluted with nepotism, favoritism, corruption and their ineffective performance is creating an environment of distrust and retaliation among the masses.

Through well planed maneuvers, vital institutions of state like, finance, and Armed forces have been targeted. To put the central intelligence agency ISI and army on the back-foot the international players have created situation to restrain their ability and to cut down the power of intervention.

This eventually prompted the army to get engage in malakand, swat and warizistan. Eventually Pak-military's engagement has been highly appreciated by the whole world. Immediately the second round of the grand design started where human rights representatives, NGO's, media along with external counter parts started propagating and debating on unlawful detentions, unlawful killings, missing people and the legitimacy of military operation. Mr. Robert Gates during his visit to FATA, Swat, Malakand spoke about extra judicial killings by the army which was latter endorsed by Hillary Clinton. Afterwards their think-tanks and our representatives of human rights commissions started giving reports that three to four hundred people have been killed summarily. This smear debate surely begins to affect the image of the Army, which was the task.

Then the division of provinces on ethnic and linguistic basis which have turned as exploiting mean of existence, deteriorating economic conditions having no direction for sustainability and growth, corruption "Financial terrorism", law and order situation, Judiciary's confrontational and controversial stance, non-institutional mechanism of media, parliament's undefined supremacy, challenging dynamics of security, incapable group of people on the helm of state affairs and inefficiency of the state institutions. Even the formulation of 18th amendment is carrying lots of political appointees' interests instead of reviving the true spirit of 1973 constitution. The murder of Benazir Bhutto and the UN report on it is also on of the step of this grand design which is initiating controversial debate within the society. All these abnormalities eventually are becoming the factors of increasing criticality of the whole scenario. The hidden agenda for the grand design to mellow down state institutions continues and would target and use the judicial system and media to achieve their ulterior motives, as it has been done in 70's through the military, though in good faith.

Now In this second round the voice of people against corruption, nepotism, widely prevailing injustice within the society and mismanagement of governing authorities and the right for means of livelihood are being grossly ignored and set a side; irrelevant debates and irrational decisions are taking place. This very situation could put the country into anarchy and even demoralize the military commanders. That would eventually affect the war effort against terrorism and militancy, and weaken the capacity and resolve of Army. Army is the only institution which has the power of intervention in such cases. Now the third round would take place shortly. Serious allegations of rapes, loots, and arson would be the next chapter of this blame game. Hostile international media would lead this assault on Pakistan army to cause the final and decisive recoil.

—The writer is CEO, Centre for Policy & Media Study, Islamabad.

 

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PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ARTICLE

AMERICA'S NEW COWBOY DIPLOMACY

VIEWS FROM ABROAD

LIONEL BEEHNER

 

Americans are nothing if not-individualistic. That explains our go-it-alone can-do optimism that other countries find frustrating but which is the backbone of the American experiment, as it were. That is why the helplessness many of us feel as we watch oil gush into the Gulf of Mexico is so gnawing. Nobody can really do a thing. That is not the case when it comes to foreign policy. A number of individual Americans have taken it upon themselves to become freelance diplomats, freedom fighters, and crusading missionaries, to right the wrongs of the world, to fill in the gaps where US foreign policy has failed, and save the day. Cue stars and stripes, legions of adoring fans, and a Time magazine cover shot.

That was the inspiration behind Gary Brooks Faulkner, the 52-year-old California native who took it upon himself to find Osama Bin Laden in the sticks of Pakistan (he even carried a sword). Or John William Yettaw, the American who swam across a lake last year to rescue Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who lives under house arrest in Burma. Ditto for the Baptist missionaries arrested for "rescuing" 33 Haitian orphans. In all of the above examples, religion played a large role in their quixotic motives. The Christian theology of social justice and helping others inspired their thinking (or in Yettaw's case, the Mormon faith). If god is on your side, who's to say you cannot find Bin Laden or take down the Burmese regime.

But there is more at play behind these Rambo-like do-it-yourselfers, an almost unsaid acknowledgement that if our government cannot solve problems abroad, well golly gee we are going to just have to solve them ourselves! All of the above have occurred during the Obama administration, which has focused primarily on domestic events (Afghanistan notwithstanding, though no American individual to my knowledge has trekked to Kandahar yet to take on the Taliban, but give it time). This may be a manifestation of the Tea Party ethos taking hold among many Christian pockets of America, a group that hitherto has not focused much on foreign policy – beyond the need for a strong defence and the red-blooded patriotism of typical conservatives – but which will in the years to come, especially as America's ability to come to the rescue of every conflict diminishes and Washington increasingly relies on its global partners. For these Americans, globalism is a four-letter word and international institutions like the United Nations are not to be trusted, feckless at solving problems, and just an embodiment of big government.

What's unclear is how much of this freelance foreign policy will manifest itself among Tea Party candidates, as they expand their influence come November. Will new lawmakers, to shore up their Tea Party credentials, take it upon themselves to negotiate the release of American hostages held in Iran, or sneak into the Chinese central bank to flip the switch that devalues the currency? Even a few libertarian politicians and self-appointed constitutional experts like Ron Paul tilt at this take-matters-into-your-own-hands rhetoric in their campaign platforms. Sarah Palin's "Don't Retreat, Reload" could be taken as a clarion call for Faulkner's hunt for Bin Laden (although Christian verses were found in his pocket, not Palin catchphrases). The trouble, obviously, is this kind of freelance diplomacy only complicates the efforts of our suits in the state department.

America, especially now, cannot afford to have more than one foreign policy being executed at one time, or it risks losing allies, giving our enemies' false propaganda the semblance of truth, and looking even weaker in the eyes of the world. But this may become the new norm, as US policymakers' scale back their expectations of what can be achieved abroad and as disenchantment with Obama's hands-off foreign policy grows.

American individualism is what fuels the drive for smaller taxes and "taking back the constitution". By taking matters into their own hands, especially when those matters have important foreign policy ramifications, these individuals attempt to prove the uselessness of big government while bolstering the notion that Americans are strong and not to be trifled with. For many US patriots, that is a winning combination. — The Guardian

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

RMG FACTORIES CLOSED

 

The recent response from the garments factory owners to the bitter and long-drawn labour unrest has been rather hasty and hard-hitting. More than 200 garments factories at Ashulia, which lately saw violent clashes between workers and the police and also widespread ransacking of factories, have been closed indefinitely. Outbreaks of violence and work stoppages in different belts of apparel factories have been quite frequent since the workers first placed a demand by the end of 2009 for a minimum wage of Taka 5,000 at the entry point. The National Garments Workers Federation (NGWF), a platform of 16 garments workers unions, in fact pressed for implementation of their eight-point charter of demands, the most important of them being the pay hike and eight-hour working time.

Now it is rather intriguing why the labour unrest in apparel factories could not be contained despite the fact that the Minimum Wages Board (MWB) was given the responsibility on January 14 for fixation of minimum wage awards for garments workers. The ministry of labour and employment has done what was expected of it. But why has the matter been dragged this far when the law stipulates that the MWB recommend the new wages in six months from its first meeting. And the board first met on January 24 last.

Sadly, the eighth meeting of the MWB ended inconclusively on Monday as there seems to be a yawning gap between the demand of the workers and the offer from the garments owners. Against the latest demand for a monthly wage of Taka 6,200, the employers only offered to raise it to Taka 1,989 from Taka 1,662.50 fixed in 2006. Such disagreements should have been addressed much earlier. Now the MWB which was supposed to have completed its job by now has decided to sit with workers' representatives and those of the owners separately. A negotiated compromise seems rather remote.

If this is how the issue of employer-employee relations in the biggest foreign exchange-earning sector is treated, the latest move in favour of factory closure may prove suicidal not only for the apparel sector but also for the nation. Before it is too late, let the ministry concerned intervene for dispute resolution.   

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

EDITORIAL

BUET CLOSURE

 

More often than not, authorities of educational institutions - highest seats of learning in particular - are compelled to declare their campus closed. But then who has ever heard watching the World Cup (WC) football on TV is a compelling reason for untimely closure of as prestigious a university as the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology? But this is the case here, incredibly though. Clashes between students in favour of attending classes and those demanding early closure to facilitate watching WC matches ultimately led to early closure of the BUET. In fact, those preferring football to academic routine and study got away with their demand.

Well, football craze in a country having a standard far below the required for the big stage is taken to new height a little before and during each World Cup. There is no harm supporting teams from continents and countries many of the fans have little knowledge of. After all, this is the most popular game and the game's best players turn celebrities the world over. The beauty of the game is that in just 90 minutes it makes and unmakes the fortune of a team. What, however, endures at the end of the day is the sportsmanlike spirit that helps man accept both win and defeat with humility.

In the case of BUET, the students who turned unruly have not only disrupted the academic calendar but also failed to appreciate the spirit of football or for that matter any sport. Passion for a game is one thing and giving in to it in such a deplorable manner is quite another. They have defied the university authorities and made a mockery of discipline students must cultivate at this age. Indeed, they have given a poor account of themselves.

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

BOB'S BANTER

ALONE WITH YOURSELF..!

 

Pause a moment in the middle of the hurly-burly of your everyday life and tell me, with the TV, your cell phone and the computer always at your beck and call, do you ever get time to be alone with yourself?      

It was a few years ago I met this very saintly looking old lady and asked her the secret of her calm and peacefulness, which I could see on her face always.

"Sit," she said as she made place for me besides her, "I was twelve years old and one morning waited for a friend to come over, but she rang up to say she couldn't come, which got me so annoyed I began to make a nuisance of myself at home."

"Finally my father could not take it any longer and told me to get a book, a blanket and an apple. Then he took me in his car and drove eight miles into the country, till we reached a park, which belonged to some convent and there he left me, saying, 'You are not fit company for anyone! Stay till I come back and collect you!'

"At first I was angry and full of defiance. I wanted to walk back, but knowing my father's anger I changed my mind. So I decided that there was nothing else to do but settle down and let time go by, even so it took some time to let my anger subside, and I sat for sometime doodling and sulking, and as time went by felt hungry and ate my apple, and very gradually felt my anger going."

"Things quietened down inside me and I felt more at peace. I opened my eyes to the world around me, I looked up at the blue sky and again around at the beauty of the countryside. When I saw all this beauty I began to feel ashamed of my behavior and how childish and selfish I was!"

"Remember Bob I was only twelve years old!"

"And surprisingly as my mood changed to one of peace and even joy I found I liked being alone! And you know what, I got a feeling of my own goodness! At the same time I felt at one with the world around me and had a distinct feeling of being close to God!"

"Time flew and by the time my father came for me I was almost a new person! I had grown like a young plant in the sun, and I thanked my father for the risk he had taken, and for giving me an opportunity to discover myself."

The old lady her eyes twinkling, looked at me, "Try it out" she said, "That experience had a profound and lasting effect on me. I grew to love solitude and make a habit of seeking it at difficult moments! And you don't need the hills, the mountains or a beach, just a porch, a window or a balcony will do!"

And as I walked away I still hear her parting words, "Don't try to find yourself in a crowd, or in the hurly-burly of everyday occupation. You need to stand apart. You need solitude..!"

—bobsbanter@gmail.com  

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

POST EDITORIAL

WILL JUTE GET BACK ITS LOST GLORY?

TAREQUL ISLAM MUNNA

 

Environmentally unfriendly    plastic bags are helping to revive the traditional jute industry in Bangladesh.
Jute, a vegetable fibre that is spun into coarse threads, was once known as the "golden fibre" of the British Empire when the Indian sub-continent was ruled from London.

The material's long decline was hastened in the 1980s with the advent of synthetic fabrics, but the trend is being reversed due to growing opposition to the litter and pollution caused by plastic bags.

Jute exports from Bangladesh have surged -- up 70 per cent year-on-year in 2010 -- with the fibre now the country's second largest export after garments.

"We are exporting millions of jute bags to eco-friendly foreign buyers who want the finest products made of top quality material," Asma Mohabub Moni, a 29-year-old Bangladeshi entrepreneur and jute promoter, told AFP.

"I'm always busy now. I'm preparing an order for 700,000 jute bags from a Japanese buyer, and I have regular orders from a UK-based company which wants the best jute bags available," she said.

Jute cloth, also called hessian in Europe or burlap in North America, is environmentally friendly, bio-degradable, versatile and cheap, making it a popular alternative to plastic bags.

In 2002 Bangladesh became one of the first countries to ban plastic bags, with China following in 2008, and last month California passed a ban covering pharmacies, groceries and convenience stores.

Some cities and states in India have recently tried to follow suit -- with limited success -- and many shops in Europe impose a levy on every plastic bag used.

For Moni and the estimated four million Bangladeshi farmers who cultivate jute, the worldwide change in attitude is good news.

She said international demand for eco-friendly jute shopping bags has grown exponentially, with her own business, based in the northern town of Mymensingh, expanding from 15 to 850 employees in the last six years.

And Western consumers' preference for "fair trade" products has meant Bangladeshi jute farmers are, for the first time, getting a good price for their crop.

In 2002, after sustaining decades of losses, the government shut down the country's largest state-run jute mill which employed nearly 25,000 people.

Its closure was widely seen as the final chapter in the story of jute production in Bangladesh.
"The decline started in the 1980s when the world, especially European countries, switched to synthetic fibres," said A. Barik Khan, secretary of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association.

"But now consumers have understood the negative impacts of cheap synthetic fibres, and this has improved the potential for jute exports from Bangladesh, which has long been known for its good quality product."
Bangladesh occupies much of the river Ganges delta plain -- fertile land perfect for growing jute -- and last year exported 547 million dollars worth of jute goods, according to official statistics.

"Jute has a huge future as an export for Bangladesh," said Latifa Binte Lutfar of the Dhaka-based International Jute Study Group (IJSG).

The fibre can be used in any sector from handicrafts to engineering, Lutfar said, citing the more than 2,000 tonnes of jute that Bangladesh exports to Australia each year for use in erosion control and civil engineering projects.

With the new boom in demand, the IJSG is looking into developing high-yield varieties of jute seed, which will help Bangladesh -- one of the most densely populated countries on earth -- boost supply.

One recent sign of how production is evolving fast came when Bangladeshi researchers announced last week that they had decoded jute's genome sequence.

"We will now be able to enhance, change or add specific features to the plant," Dhaka University's molecular biology professor Zeba Islam Seraj told AFP.

With this discovery, jute could regain its lost glory as the world's golden fibre.

(The writer is a columnist and Conservator, Wildlife and Environment)

 

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THE INDEPENDENT

POST EDITORIAL

QUALITY ENHANCEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

MOHAMMAD AKHTARUZZAMAN

 

The government of Bangladesh commissioned the University Grants Commission (UGC) as the intermediary between the Government and the universities to regulate the university affairs. There are four types of higher education in the country viz. general education, science, technology and engineering education, agricultural education and medical education. Together, public and private universities cater for about 17 per cent of total enrollments in higher education.

Most of the universities do not have adequate access to the latest books, journals and research articles. Skill development opportunities for teaching staff are insufficient. Weak internet connectivity limits communications and exchanges both within and amongst academic communities. Enhancement of quality and relevance of higher education, both in public and private institutions, is now at the top of the agenda in the government's concerns and initiatives in higher education.

Even UGC, the apex body of all universities, is not adequately staffed to play its strategic role effectively. Planning, monitoring and evaluation are conducted in an ad hoc manner, with incomplete and untimely information for decision making. As a part of the commitment, the Government has been providing Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) under Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project during the year 2009-2013 in view to meet these challenges.

Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) is set up aiming to establish enabling conditions to enhance the quality and relevance of teaching, learning and research and introduce an efficient instrument for the allocation of public funds with emphasis on innovation and accountability. In order to reach these objectives, an AIF will be used to improve the quality of academic activities and outcomes, to promote and implement departmental or programmatic voluntary self-assessment exercise, as well as to strengthen universities' linkages with national development efforts. It will also be used to encourage cross-disciplinary or inter-institutional academic collaboration and to focus institutional attention to new or emerging issues of policy importance.
The total amount of the AIF Tk. 3720.00 lakh will be made available as a non-reimbursable grant for all eligible public and private universities on a competitive basis. Participation of universities in this project will be totally voluntary. Principles of the AIF are strict impartiality and transparency with clearly identified selection criteria and procedures and public disclosure of the decisions. These key features are built in the AIF design in order to yield expected results. Once the individual sub-projects are selected, the AIF resources will be utilised according to the approved sub-project proposals which include clearly defined measurable performance indicators and milestones.

The AIF will allocate its resources through three competitive three windows as improvement of teaching and learning, enhancement of research capabilities and University-wide innovations. Each of the first two windows will comprise two clusters of academic disciplines are Arts,  Humanities and Social Sciences  Business Studies and Law Physical, Biological and Earth Sciences Engineering and Technology  Medical, Health and Nutritional Sciences Agriculture (Crops, Livestock, Veterinary, Fisheries, Poultry and Horticulture.

The teaching and learning window will also be accessible for self-assessments, to help the universities and their departments to identify their strengths and weaknesses and to promote a culture of quality enhancement.
The third window will cover activities initiated at the university level, in particular investments to ramp up university computerization and university-wide Local Area Network (LAN) which will be generated as a response to the establishment of the Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN).
Thirty five per cent of the total grant of AIF amount will be allocated to the first round and 65 per cent to the second round. The breakdown between the three windows will be 40 per cent, 40 per cent, and 20 per cent for the Teaching/Learning, Research and University-wide windows, respectively. Within each academic window, funds will be notionally distributed amongst groups of disciplines.

Funds from the AIF will be allocated as non-reimbursable grants subject to successful implementation based on the performance contract. Private universities will be required to match the AIF grant with a notional 20 per cent contribution as their effective willingness to the AIF approach.

The academic innovation activities will be carried out as a major component of a larger Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project implemented by UGC. In this connection Chairman UGC Professor Nazrul Islam said the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC) is pleased to be able to implement the first ever academic innovation project in Bangladesh in order to enhance the quality and relevance of teaching-learning and research, encourage cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration and build management capacities in the universities.

The Chairman UGC also reminds that it has now become the sine qua non for increasing productivity and successfully accessing the market in the global economy. In this context the role of universities in the generation and adaptation of knowledge to produce new ideas, enhance technologies and create productive human resources has been recognized, he added.

In addition to AIF, fund has been allocated for institutional capacity building of UGC to carry out strategic planning to address the emerging challenges in higher education sector. In view of this, the Project will support the establishment of the Strategic Policy Unit.

The unit will be located directly under the UGC Chairman and will be responsible for analyzing the current status of the sector, based on the data collected by the Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) unit. 

HEMIS will be responsible for storing data related to different managerial and academic aspects of the universities including student admissions, students' performance, curriculum, lectures, alumni, academic staff, students' social affairs, etc. Secondly support with administrative and managerial information flows and to provide necessary information to the management of various institution, academic and non-academic departments in order to carry out all the tasks related to the system development and day-to-day operations.
Another important aspect of this quality enhancement task is to the establishment of a Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN). It is a high performance Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) network providing connectivity among education and research institutions in both public and private sectors to enable academics, scientists and researchers engaged in higher education and research to communicate with their peers within the country. The network, with its state-of-the-art high performance with access to broadband internet connections at a reasonable price, will support geographically dispersed academics, scientists and researchers with reliable access to high-end computing, simulation tools and datasets.

It will facilitate international collaborative research and will catalyze innovation in the country. Although it requires an initial pricey investment, the BdREN is a cost-efficient alternative to conventional ways to boost connectivity and communication within the academic community. With a proper information campaign regarding the use of the facilities, BdREN is expected to become a catalyst for communication amongst universities. A mechanism to ensure partial cost-recovery by users will be in place before BdREN is operational. Once established and operational for universities, it will be possible to extend the BdREN membership and increase its beneficiaries to affiliated colleges at a lesser cost.

The initiative towards quality enhancement in higher education was a long-awaited issue. It is expected that this initiative would address the intertwined challenges of our higher education sector by improving the quality and relevance of the teaching and research environment in higher education institutions. However, the gravity and extent of the deep-rooted problem related to quality of higher education demands a long term pragmatic endeavour.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

THINKING ABOUT HER GENERATION

KEVIN RUDD LOOKS SAFE AS LEADER, BUT AT WHAT PRICE?

JUDGING by his performance in question time yesterday, the Prime Minister thinks he can win the next election. So, it seems, does the caucus, including the person who has the most to gain by Kevin Rudd's exit from the top job. Julia Gillard is astute, capable and popular - and she is sticking by her boss. The question now is whether that decision ends up destroying the ambitions of a generation of talented Labor politicians, herself included.

Leadership of the party is a matter for the party and there are clear dangers in switching horses on the eve of an election, especially in a prime minister's first term. At the same time, with primary support at just 35 per cent and Mr Rudd being lampooned in television advertisements as "Kevin OLemon", there are clearly risks in Labor not risking a swap.

There is little doubt that Ms Gillard is a formidable politician, able to engage voters in a way that Mr Rudd finds hard, even though in some key Queensland marginals, according to Newspoll, she rates behind him as preferred leader. The most likely scenario at the election would seem to be a narrow Labor victory. But if the unthinkable happens - as it did when John Howard lost his seat of Bennelong in 2007 - Mr Rudd could lose government after one term. That could keep Labor out of power for a decade or longer, destroying the careers of some able MPs and denying the nation their talent. Ms Gillard would most likely be installed as leader if Labor loses but would have a reduced chance of becoming the nation's first female prime minister. A couple of lost elections would see her bundled out by her colleagues. The exit of colleagues such as Bill Shorten and Greg Combet might be even more rapid. They are just two of several talented performers who need another term to shine against a prime minister who has dominated and centralised power and decision-making. There are many others, such as cabinet members Tony Burke and Chris Bowen, who would be a loss to politics and the nation if they opted for corporate life, for example, rather than an extended time coping with the frustrations of opposition.

The alternative scenario advanced by many of Ms Gillard's supporters sees her replacing Mr Rudd a few months after a narrow Labor victory. She would indeed make a good prime minister. But like Peter Costello before her, the deputy might find that when it comes to power, timing is everything.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

STANDING FIRM IN AFGHANISTAN

STRATEGIC SENSE AND MORAL NECESSITY DEMAND WE FIGHT ON

THE deaths of three more Diggers in Afghanistan are a tragedy for those who loved them and a loss for all Australians who respect their sense of service. That they died in an accident, rather than from enemy action, does not diminish the debt we owe them. And we belittle their sacrifice if we argue that they, like the 13 others killed on duty there, died in vain, that the troops must come home from a pointless war. The truth is this is a war we must win, both to protect Australia and to end the oppression of ordinary Afghans. While some warlords are fighting for power and money, their Islamist allies want the country for a religious redoubt, where they can train suicide bombers, as occurred when the Taliban terrorists ruled between 1996 and 2001. Afghanistan was a safe haven for al-Qa'ida before September 11. The bombers who murdered 88 Australians in Bali looked to Afghanistan for inspiration, advice and equipment. We dare not allow it to again become a safe haven for such zealots.

We are also obliged to assist ordinary Afghans. Critics who claim that democracy and the rule of law are alien there ignore the way traditional society suits the powerful but allows little to those on the bottom of the social heap, especially women. Under the Taliban, women are forbidden education and can be killed for infringing their family's so-called "honour". Nor do the terrorists respect any other beliefs. In 2001, the Taliban blew up two giant 1700-year-old statues of Buddha arguing they were idolatrous. Unsurprisingly, ordinary people want the Taliban gone and yearn for equality before the law and the right to chose their rulers. At every election, especially those in 2004 and 2005, ordinary Afghans voted in their millions defying the Taliban, which despises democracy.

Lacking widespread popular support, the Taliban can only act like bandits, murdering people who defy them, planting mines, raiding allied outposts. They cannot defeat the allies, so they drag the war on, attempting to exhaust them. The strategy is working with the Dutch, who now provide infantry support for the Australian taskforce but are going home in August. We must not do the same. In opposition Kevin Rudd argued this was a war against terror we must win. He was right, there is no moral or strategic case for abandoning Afghanistan.

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THE AUSTRALIAN

EDITORIAL

BIG REFORM AT TELSTRA, BUT WILL IT WORK?

TIPPING TELCO'S CUSTOMERS INTO THE NBN IS JUST THE FIRST STEP

THE effective restructure of Telstra after two decades is a political win for the Rudd government, which can now point to the brave new world of competitive telecommunications that lies ahead. There is still plenty of work to do to bed down the transfer of Telstra assets to the national broadband network but the reforms at the "megacom" formed by the merger of Telecom and OTC in 1992 is an important development, undoing the policy failures of earlier governments. The deal means an end to a flawed model of combined wholesale and retail operations that stultified our telco market for years. What is less certain is whether the NBN will prove a win for the nation or a wasteful gamble with billions of dollars of public money.

The question is not whether the slimmed-down Telstra will prosper - as our columnist John Durie has written, the decision is a financial bonanza for the telco in many ways - but whether the NBN can ever be commercially viable. Solid figures and a rigorous business case have always been hard to come by for the NBN, which has had a back-of-the-envelope feel about it since it was announced last year. The original price tag was $43 billion but the government argued the private sector was champing at the bit to invest in high-speed broadband and that public money would only be a "fraction" of the price.

That now looks like wishful thinking. The government continues to claim the broadband network will be a commercial proposition, thus allowing it to book its outlays as investments and keep them off the federal budget. But the NBN implementation study by McKinsey & Company and KPMG released last month carried some ominous findings, suggesting that the NBN should be kept in public hands for the first 15 years.

Under its plan, the government would spend about $26bn over the first seven years with a possible return on its money of about 6 or 7 per cent over 15 years. Access to Telstra's customers and other assets for a total of about $11bn helps NBN's viability but this infrastructure development must be seen as a very big bet, not just on the technology but on consumer demand. There is great potential benefit to Australia's GDP in the new business applications that could flow from fast broadband. But just how many companies and individual consumers will want or need a high-speed connection? And while there is some confidence that the world will continue to need a fibre network to carry large amounts of data, the penetration of wireless technology puts a question mark over the level of demand.

The NBN has had a controversial start and even three months ago, it looked like a bit of a mess with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy unable to deliver Telstra to the mix, despite holding all the aces. Last weekend's agreement has transformed the landscape - although the opposition's pledge that it will kill the NBN if it wins the next election has created a layer of uncertainty. For the moment, Senator Conroy must put his energies into ensuring the NBN becomes a genuine commercial proposition rather than a drain on the public purse. Australia must avoid a repeat of the 1990s when policy failures destroyed real competition and innovation in the telco sector.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

WE'RE THERE BECAUSE...

THREE more deaths among our soldiers fighting in Afghanistan have understandably got more Australians pondering the point of our involvement. After more than eight years, the aims of the US and its allies have been wound back from the hopes of 2002 to build a modern democratic state founded on the rule of law and respect for human rights. Now the goal is much more modest, but the questions are still whether it is attainable and if so, by the current strategies.

That goal is ''to stare down international terrorism'', according to the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith. ''Our objective is to ensure Afghanistan does not again become a breeding ground or a training ground or a hotbed of international terrorism.'' A similar approach was taken by the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, after the death of the 300th British soldier in Afghanistan. ''We are there because the Afghans are not yet ready to keep their own country safe and to keep terrorists and terrorist training camps out of their country. But as soon as they are able to take care and take security for their own country, that is when we can leave.''

We can dismiss some other reasons for being there, such as the ''trillion dollars'' of lithium and other resources recently reported, or reform of the benighted ''-stans'' of Central Asia. Pakistan's stability and preservation from extremism is a strong Western interest, but this might be better addressed without foreign forces storming around just across the border in the shared Pushtun community and unleashing missiles from drones.

So we are left with the minimal goal where the enemy is not the Afghan Taliban forces our soldiers are fighting, but the international terrorists sheltering in their safe havens. The Afghan government we support seeks to detach the more amenable Taliban from those Taliban, and draw them into a political consensus. Pakistan, which we also support, has an army losing hundreds of soldiers in fights against local Taliban, and an intelligence service still, according to new Rand Corporation and other studies, quietly helping the Talibs in Afghanistan.

The goal, and exit point, is an Afghanistan with its own army and police supervising a general truce in which the different ethnicities and tribes run themselves and leave each other alone, and make international jihadists unwelcome. We are part of a strategy hoping to hurry this along with a short, sharp burst of aggressive counter-insurgency. This is being pursued by a general, Stanley McChrystal, who is openly contemptuous of the President, Barack Obama, who reluctantly agreed to it, and even more dismissive of the sceptical Vice-President, Joe Biden. Hovering above is a more senior general, David Petraeus, with eyes on the Republican presidential nomination.

Already this military-led approach is foundering. The recent assault on Marjah could not be followed up with lasting security for co-operative locals and better government services. The trumpeted summer campaign in Kandahar, in which the latest Australian casualties occurred, is being slowed for the same reason. The US and its allies would be better served by taking longer to train up the Afghan army and police, build institutions, and listen to Afghan leaders - making time a resource, not an enemy. Our soldiers can meanwhile go back to the old refrain: ''We're here because we're here because …''

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

NO ESCAPING DEMOCRACY'S MESS

THE secretary of the Treasury, Ken Henry, has expressed exasperation at the role economists among others have played in leading criticism of necessary policy changes. His irritation is entirely understandable, given the often misleading and self-interested claims made in current debates.

Henry deliberately excluded the mining tax from his remarks, but he might well have targeted some of the miners' bogus economic arguments. His complaint, though, is likely to fall on deaf ears, and for a good reason: economics can never be divorced from politics.

Henry said his tax review contained ideas that were far from new - originating in academic studies that are decades old. He concedes that not all academics agree, but achieving consensus among academic economists is easy compared with convincing the public. In a democracy the only change easy to sell is a tax cut. All that is true. Progress towards any goal is difficult in a complex modern democracy where some will be disadvantaged by change. In fact, so difficult has change become that politicians themselves tend to hand their power over to appointed experts to make sensitive decisions for them. The Reserve Bank's control of interest rates is one example, but there are others: the Remuneration Tribunal, to set MPs' pay; the Grants Commission, to allocazte GST revenue among the states to name two. The trend is unfortunate, but necessary for efficiency's sake. Dr Henry's exhortation to economists to repress criticisms of tax changes they may have in the interest of the greater good shows he is thinking along the same lines: economics should be left to the experts, and not mucked about by the ignorant public led on by politicians and dissident troublemakers.

It will not work. Democracy requires the consent of the governed. Education and persuasion - through thorough discussion - are needed if voters are to accept the sometimes painful measures that benefit them most.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

AFGHAN COMMITMENT NEEDS GREATER SCRUTINY

IN THE United States this week, the music magazine Rolling Stone published an interview with the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, in which he speaks candidly about his frustration with the Obama administration: it was uncomprehendingly slow, he complains, in granting his request for more troops to intensify the international coalition's war against the Taliban.

The startlingly frank interview is peppered with the general's acerbic remarks about other US officials, including Vice-President Joe Biden and ambassador to Kabul Karl Eikenberry, who are sceptical about the military surge. They fear that the US will become bogged down in a Vietnam-style quagmire, propping up a corrupt and unreliable ally but finding victory elusive. And all the while the US death toll, which has already passed 1000 in the nine-year war, will grow, increasing opposition to the war among American voters.

Echoes of the argument between General McChrystal and the politicians can, of course, be heard in Australia, too. There are those who believe that the Taliban must be defeated in order to prevent Afghanistan becoming a haven for international jihadist terrorists, as it was before the invasion in 2001. This is the Rudd government's official justification for maintaining the 1550-strong Australian contingent in the country, and the opposition agrees. The only difference between Labor and the Coalition is that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott believes Australia should increase its contribution to the war.

Yet there are also those who doubt whether a military victory is achievable, and argue that Australia's soldiers are accordingly being asked to risk their lives in vain. As in the US, this view is gathering strength as the death toll mounts. The deaths of three commandos in a helicopter crash this week, rapidly following the funerals of two sappers killed earlier this month by a roadside bomb, has raised that toll to 16. The number is small by comparison with the US tally, but it is influencing public attitudes just as surely. A majority of respondents to an opinion poll published this week - 60 per cent - opposed Australia's participation in the war.

The Australian debate about the war, however, is strangely muted by comparison with the US, or with Britain, which has lost 300 soldiers. This is partly a cultural difference: senior Australian Defence Force officers would not give interviews of the kind that General McChrystal gave to Rolling Stone. What is disturbing is the lack of serious political debate about the war. A majority of Australians now oppose involvement in it, but the main political parties are united in ignoring this. What passes for a contest of ideas on the war is nothing more than Prime Minister Kevin Rudd repeating that ''we must complete the mission'' - while insisting that existing troop numbers are right - and Tony Abbott calling for an increased commitment to fill the void that will be created when 1900 Dutch soldiers, who are Australia's partners in Oruzgan province, withdraw from Afghanistan in August.

Mr Abbott was perhaps more frank than he intended to be in making this call. If Australia was unable to help, he said, it would be ''a poor reflection on our defence capabilities and our value as an ally''. In other words, what really matters is upholding the US alliance, not whether the international coalition's present course in Afghanistan is a wise one. For its part, the government has not said so openly, but it has mostly been content to follow the US lead without public argument.

The US alliance, however, is hardly at issue. It retains the support of the vast majority of Australians, and rightly so. But it is not an ally's role to be a rubber stamp. Australia's politicians should acknowledge the growing public concern about the apparently open-ended commitment to Afghanistan, and debate the merits of the war openly. Our allies are doing no less.

Source: The Age

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

EDITORIAL

ISRAEL DELIVERS SOME RELIEF FOR GAZA

IT IS yet another irony of a very Middle Eastern kind. Israel responds with lethal force to what was basically a political protest designed to place its civilian blockade of Gaza under pressure. The result is not only a tragedy but a public relations disaster, which puts the Jewish state under even more pressure to give ground. And so we now see Israel caving in to global pressure by formally announcing an easing of the blockade of Gaza, which virtually ends the four-year isolation of the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Still, the decision warrants praise - for Israel, which says it will allow up to 140 trucks, laden with civilian goods, to enter Gaza daily, and for Middle East envoy Tony Blair, who helped bring it about.

Gaza's 1.5 million residents stand to benefit from the influx of more food products, office equipment, toys, items such as water distillers and some building materials. In a welcome end to Israel's sometimes farcical practice of allowing only items specifically approved into Gaza, now only items deemed risky from a security standpoint will be ruled out. The relaxation of the blockade also comes amid greater freedom of movement for Gazans since Egypt recently opened its border with the territory.

And there are also significant benefits from Israel's point of view, as Blair aptly observed, humanitarian groups now have no justification for seeking to reach Gaza by sea. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself noted, presumably oblivious to the irony, the new conditions would also rob Hamas of its ability to accuse Israel of harming the civilian population of Gaza.

Of course, the new conditions can work only if they are properly implemented, and how matters unfold on the ground remains to be seen. A great many problems still need tackling, including the ban on goods leaving Gaza, which has crippled local exporters and pushed unemployment to more than 40 per cent.

And from a wider perspective, Israel's agony over the fate of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit persists, as does its legitimate concerns about hostile attacks on its territory from Gaza. These issues are unlikely to be resolved soon.

But the relaxation of the blockade has at least defused diplomatic tensions between Israel and Washington and Israel and Europe, which in turn paves the way for renewed activity on the peace process. The blockade announcement was followed by news that President Barack Obama had convened a meeting with Mr Netanyahu at the White House on July 6.

Source: The Age

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

WELFARE SPENDING: SOAKING THE POOR

ALTHOUGH IT IS DIFFERENT FROM 1980S THATCHERISM, VULNERABLE PEOPLE ARE NONETHELESS GOING TO BE HIT

 

A famous old cartoon shows a grand man at the top of a ladder which slopes down to a river, with less flashy fellows on each of the rungs underneath him. "Just one step down," yells the man at the top, paying no heed to the chap at the bottom, whose head is only just out of the water. The test of George Osborne's claim to progressive austerity is whether he can rein in public debt without forcing anyone under the waterline. The evidence yesterday was that while the coalition is offering something different from 1980s Thatcherism, vulnerable people are nonetheless going to be hit. Meanwhile, a plan to hold benefits down for years into the future gave the lie to Mr Osborne's claim that shared pain will in due course be followed by shared prosperity.

 

It was always going to be a hard task to cut public expenditure without hurting those vulnerable people who most rely on it – and it is one the chancellor has failed. With the important exception of pensioners, a group unusually inclined to vote, benefit claimants will get a full share of the pain. In his speech, the chancellor detailed a litany of economies with machine-gun speed, and MPs had no time to take in what this would mean for their constituents. With barely a word about the causes of Britain's high rents, for instance, Mr Osborne rewrote the housing benefit rules in a manner which could force some private renters into squalid digs, and will potentially force older tenants out of their family home as soon as their children move out. He announced restrictions on disability living allowance, a payment which helps disabled people with the costs of care and getting around, even though there has until now been no suggestion that it is being abused. On tax credits, the anticipated cut-backs for the well-to-do were duly announced, but came together with reductions for people much nearer the bottom of the heap. Throughout, the overriding emphasis was on saving money – and quickly. Forget earlier talk from Iain Duncan Smith and others about investing in making work pay. The government's own figures showed that its budget will force more people to pay those super-high tax rates that arise when benefits are withdrawn.

 

All this bitter news was sweetened by a surprise and heartening move to sharply increase the basic child tax credit, a victory, perhaps, for the coalition's Liberal Democrats, and something it is impossible to imagine Margaret Thatcher would ever have done. In the straightened circumstances it might, just about, have been enough to declare a victory for a new centre-ground politics had it not been for one final ploy, which was every bit as familiar as it was disturbing. Nothing was more significant in steadily driving open the great gulf between rich and poor during the 1980s than the protracted failure to rise benefits in line with general living standards. Labour has since ensured that poorer groups which it deemed deserving (though shamefully not others) did at least keep pace. But, aside from pensioners – who will be delighted to get their earnings link back – everyone else who looks to the state for their living knows that it will at best stagnate. And by fiddling with the cost of living adjustment, Mr Osborne has also earmarked a stream of savings from the needy that will build up into billions, threatening a remorseless rise in poverty.

"We're all in this together" is a fine slogan, and there were moments yesterday when it seemed as if it might be justified. But by denying benefit claimants their chance to rise with the tide of future prosperity, Mr Osborne reveals himself to be breezily indifferent to the prospect of the water overwhelming them.

 

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THE GUARDIAN

EDITORIAL

BUDGET 2010: GEORGE OSBORNE'S NATIONAL GAMBLE

THE COALITION'S JUNIOR PARTNERS HAVE ALSO DIPPED THEIR HANDS IN THE BLOOD OF THE CUTS TO COME

 

Presenting his emergency budget yesterday, George Osborne made two enormous wagers, while pulling off two important tactical victories. The "unavoidable budget" was how Mr Osborne referred to it, but in reality it is the budget of a gambler. The Conservative chancellor is betting first that the economy will not collapse under the fiscal pummelling it is about to receive – the rise in VAT and other taxes, the cuts in public spending and benefits – and second, that the Liberal Democrats will stand firm with the Conservatives if the already bad times get much worse. If those bets go wrong, the new chancellor will plunge the economy into another recession – and could blow apart his coalition government too.

 

But that will not happen just yet. At the dispatch box yesterday afternoon, Mr Osborne was flanked by both Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander. This was not merely good political place-setting; the coalition's junior partners have also dipped their hands in the blood of the cuts to come. So the chancellor's first victory is a big one: he has kept senior Lib Dems on board even while embarking on the biggest fiscal tightening in postwar history. The second achievement is a more public one: Mr Osborne has turned his emergency budget, staged largely to seize the political initiative, into an inevitable announcement of government downsizing. That is the way it has been portrayed in the press, and it is an idea now apparently accepted by the public. But that still, as the old song goes, don't make it so. This budget was unnecessary. By the year's end, voters will have been subjected to four other major financial statements: a budget from Alistair Darling, spending cuts from David Laws – and in the autumn a pre-budget report and a comprehensive spending review. Even Perry Mason would struggle to make the case for a fifth.

 

More importantly, the austerity measures that Mr Osborne announced yesterday were unnecessary both in their timing and their size. In the middle of a severe worldwide recession, the government plans to make nearly £9bn of spending cuts and tax rises; by the middle of this decade, that figure will have risen to £113bn a year. These figures are much larger than even the most hawkish City analyst expected; and the risk is that the squeeze to come will derail the UK's worryingly tentative recovery. That was the tenor of the warning made by Barack Obama in his letter last week to leaders of the G20 most important economies; if anything, the tightening announced yesterday only heightens the worries.

 

There are four main sources of national income. The first is government spending, which has now gone sharply into reverse. The second is business investment in plants and machinery and staff, which Gordon Brown tried to encourage through a series of fiddly reliefs – most of which Mr Osborne will now scrap. The third is consumption, which is unlikely to hold up well under the VAT rise in January (plus all the other tax rises) and the cuts in welfare benefits and public-sector spending. That just leaves exports. Given the meltdown in the eurozone, where 70% of British exports go, one would have to be wildly optimistic to expect a big advance there. Putting all these four factors together, the odds on a double-dip recession have risen sharply as a result of yesterday's measures.

 

Most worrying of all, the chancellor does not have a Plan B: there is nothing to stimulate growth in case the economic outlook gets nastier. No wonder the Office for Budget Responsibility has already estimated that these measures will cost the UK £5bn, or a third of a percentage point of GDP. Nor do things improve over the longer term. Mr Osborne talked well in his speech about the need to rebalance the economy away from the City and towards the rest of the country and to other industries. Yet even setting aside the cancelled loan to Sheffield Forgemasters, his measures militate against any such thing: the lure to manufacturers to invest has been dropped in favour of a 4% drop in corporation tax – a move that will have been welcomed by the City. Over the short and long-term, then, Mr Osborne is taking a big bet that the economy will come right through market forces. That is an act of faith. And he does not have a safety net in case his bet sours.

 

Tonally, at least, Mr Osborne did not deliver a 1981 austerity budget. This was a budget fully as dramatic as Geoffrey Howe's a generation ago, but in a different tenor. The chancellor was careful to talk about the need for fairness and on child tax credits, in particular, he provided some of it. But Mr Osborne achieved this by a different, more negative, form of ringfencing from the one with which the current debate has become familiar. The first ringfenced group are millions of welfare recipients. But public sector workers are another, with a million set to lose their jobs. Years of hostility between the government and public sector workers beckon. Health and aid spending may be protected, but universities, housing and transport will have to cut a quarter of their budgets. Meanwhile the financiers who caused more of this mess than the Labour government ever did will get away with a small rise in capital-gains tax. That was not unavoidable. It was a matter of active choice.

 

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THE GAZETTE

WORLD NEEDS RESTRAINT, NOT MORE STIMULUS

 "GRUB FIRST, THEN ETHICS," BERTOLT BRECHT FAMOUSLY SAID, AND PARTICIPANTS IN THIS WEEKEND'S G8 AND G20 MEETINGS IN ONTARIO KNOW WHAT HE MEANT.

 

The formal agenda for the leaders of the world's biggest countries includes a daunting range of pressing issues: nuclear proliferation, maternal and child health, terrorism, climate change, energy policy, vulnerable states, and more. But in truth the central issue of these three days of meetings, likely to shoulder other topics aside, is this: stimulus, or discipline?

U.S. President Barack Obama leads the keep-spending side. He wants to continue pumping government money into his own economy, because recession recovery there still seems fragile, tentative, jobless, and altogether unconvincing. Obama's argument is that other countries, too, need to keep pumping or else the global recovery will sink.

There is, it appears, currently more firepower on the restraint side. Governments in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada, to name three, seem determined to fight what they see as the next war, not the last one: instead of more stimulus, they want to move briskly back to balanced budgets, and they want others to do the same. This strikes us as prudent and sensible.

Currently, we believe, the real economic "bubble" that must be deflated before it bursts is the bubble of sovereign debt. Recent scares over sovereign debt in Greece and Spain are a reminder that even governments can't keep spending forever. The enormous U.S. national debt can keep growing mainly because the U.S. is, as the saying goes, too big to fail: A collapse of U.S. government credit is a scenario so apocalyptic that nobody wants to go there; much better to tell yourself that the U.S. will surely snap out of deficit soon, if only it keeps borrowing and spending.

The pro-stimulus crowd took a hard hit yesterday when European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the New York Times that reducing government debt is essential to restoring investor and voter confidence.

Then there's the issue of how effective so-called stimulus really is. Infrastructure investment and handouts to selected companies or individuals certainly helps them, and makes politicians more powerful, and so these two classes are big supporters of stimulus. But plenty of economists strongly doubt that such spending, even in multi-billion-dollar amounts, really primes the pump of the whole economy very effectively.

If the U.S., for example, thinks it must continue to spend, then the way to do it is by extending unemployment insurance and expanding re-training programs, not by cutting cheques to big companies.

Canada's government ran surpluses in the 1990s, but other countries' deficits, accumulated even in boom times, are what dug this sovereign debt hole. And when you're in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

OIL SPILL IS BP'S CHERNOBYL

BY YULIA LATYNINA

 

The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the huge oil spill that resulted has led to a predictable reaction from many liberals — curses directed at profit-obsessed transnational corporations, calls for introducing exorbitantly high taxes on offshore drilling and appeals to abandon hydrocarbons completely and live in harmony with nature.

 

In reality, however, many technological disasters are not the result of negligence, ignorance or malice but are the consequence of highly complex technologies in unexplored areas that often have unpredictable results.  

 

We often believe that if something is created by man, we know exactly how it will perform. But this is far from true.

 

There were several other major disasters prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union that were caused by negligence and stupidity — for example, the Alexander Suvorov ship tragedy. On June 5, 1983, the ship's crew inadvertently attempted to pass under a low section of a bridge spanning the Volga River, tearing away the upper deck and claiming the lives of 177 people.

 

But Chernobyl was a different disaster. What proved fatal for the Chernobyl reactor was something known as the "end effect." This is when the reactivity of the reactor undergoes a short-term increase instead of the anticipated decrease. One good analogy is if you press down on a car's brake pedal and instead of slowing the vehicle it causes a brief surge in speed because of a freak situation in which the pedal's position suddenly changed.

 

The same thing is true of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling platform was equipped with every imaginable safeguard, and although the particulars of what actually happened are still unknown, it was clearly something that nobody had ever anticipated. Of course, some might argue that there should have been 33 levels of emergency response safeguards on the platform instead of only three. But in reality, nobody ever has that many backups in place.

 

There will always be sequences of events that are impossible to prevent because of the enormous complexity of the technical systems used — in the same way that it is impossible to predict an earthquake with 100 percent certainty.

 

There are a huge number of liberals, nature lovers and entrenched opponents of technological progress who are always eager to say offshore drilling and nuclear power plants should be banned because our ancestors got by quite well without them. What's more, they didn't pollute the oceans or die from radiation exposure.

 

But if we go as far back as our hunter-gatherer ancestors who lived in harmony with nature, few lived to 40, they were defenseless against epidemics and occasionally ate human flesh.

 

A modern individual living in a technologically advanced society lives longer and better than the typical caveman. Think of unpredictable catastrophes like the oil spill as a "tax" that we have to pay for technological progress.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

OPINION

GOING FROM STATE CAPITALISM TO PRAGMATISM

BY ANDERS ASLUND

 

The most striking thing about this year's St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was Russia's new, pragmatic consensus. President Dmitry Medvedev put it succinctly in the title of his introductory speech: "We have changed." The pretexts of building state capitalism are gone and replaced by pragmatic problem solving.

 

The financial crisis has actually had a positive impact on Russia's economic thinking, and the nation has proven itself. At the same time, however, the cost has been high and future growth does not look all too good. The country appears trapped with an inertia growth of about 4 percent a year, anticipating significant but tolerable budget deficits of 3 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product for the next four years. Since money has become scarce, a consensus has arisen about the need for new structural reforms.

 

In the same way that the financial crash of August 1998 ended the liberal period of President Boris Yeltsin, the global financial crisis finished the Vladimir Putin era of dependence on energy rents. Ideologically, the 1990s stood for militant liberalism, while the 2000s represented a partial restoration. The Bourbons had come back, but as the KGB rather than the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Overtly, an anachronistic triarchy of authoritarianism, nationalism and Orthodoxy had been restored, but it was never more than a Russian search for self-confidence. The oil price boom revived the old Soviet schizophrenia between inferiority complex and megalomania.

 

Thanks to the impact of the global financial crisis, all that is over. Russians have earned a new respect, and they know it. The current Russian mood reminds me of Sweden in 1993 after the severe banking crisis. Swedes had thought themselves immune to shocks thanks to their excessively protective social welfare society. When they realized that this was an illusion, they opted for rigorous market reforms. Shocks that wake up societies to reality are usually beneficial.

 

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, a leading silovik, offered one of the clearest expressions of the new Russian mind at the forum. He emphasized that the country's foreign policy was completely de-ideologized. Instead, it was characterized by pragmatic consideration of Russia's national interests. Russia did not choose between East and West but pursued a multivector policy favoring fruitful cooperation with everybody. In the words of Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Ivanov embraced modernization as opposed to the marginalization of the second Putin term, which culminated in the 2008 war in Georgia.

 

For two years, Medvedev has criticized his country for corruption and legal nihilism and has pushed strongly for modernization and innovation. Suddenly, even the siloviki have at least overtly adopted his new thinking.

 

The last big Russian reform wave of 1998 to 2002 was guided by one comprehensive government program — the so-called Gref program adopted in 2000. But no new program has been developed. Instead, an eclectic selection is taking place of specific problems that need to be solved. Reformers complain about lack of priority and cohesion, but after eight years without reforms, it matters little how they are undertaken, while it is vital that they start again.

 

The favorite topic of both Medvedev and his economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich is innovation. Their greatest manifestation is an elite center of business and engineering education in Skolkovo. They want to engage a major U.S. engineering and business school, preferably the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and top technology companies, such as Cisco and Google. Given the attention and resources devoted to this project, something good should come out of it. Russia truly needs a top-notch Russian Institute of Technology. Reform of high education needs to start from the top by building small elite institutions. Many outstanding Russian academics work at top institutions abroad. Why not offer some of them such freedom that they would like to return to Russia to create institutions of excellence in their country of birth? A related important endeavor is to facilitate the immigration of qualified workers.

 

The most important easy reforms are deregulation. Russia carried out a substantial deregulation of small enterprises in 2002 in their licensing, registration, taxation and inspection, but much more needs to be done. Medvedev has also proposed to adopt European Union standards and regulations to improve the enterprise environment, which would be a major regulatory improvement. Some amelioration of tax legislation and corporate governance is also being considered. Russia, as the United States, is intent on reforming export controls.

 

On Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama will receive Medvedev in Washington. For Russia, only one thing

is really important during this summit: that Russia finally accedes to the World Trade Organization. The outstanding problems are largely between the United States and Russia. In substance they are trivial, but neither the U.S. nor the Russian negotiators trust each other. They fear that the other side will add new problems after any interim agreement, as the long history of these negotiations has shown. Therefore, the two presidents need to make a political commitment to resolve the outstanding problems and not allow new ones to arise. WTO accession will clearly be a big boost to Russia's modernization efforts.

 

Yet, the current revival of reforms must not be exaggerated. No big, controversial reforms are likely in the next two years. Major reforms, such as pension and health-care overhauls and the breaking-up and privatization of state corporations, are once again postponed because they concern the very heart of the system that has just failed.

 

Medvedev is persistently advocating for a decrease in the level of abuses committed by law enforcement agencies. Although little has been done in this regard, a significant first step is a new law prohibiting pretrial arrest of businesspeople accused of tax violations, which reduces the opportunities of the police to extort businessmen.

 

In his final words at the forum, Medvedev conceded that economic liberalization is not possible without political liberalization. Meanwhile, the booklets written by opposition leaders Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov that criticized the poor results of Putin's 10 years in power were confiscated before they could be distributed at the forum.

 

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THE MOSCOW TIMES

EDITORIAL

REVIVING THE OSCE

BY DENIS MACSHANE

 

It is 20 years since leaders from across Europe and North America met to set the seal on the end of the Cold War. The result was the Charter of Paris for a New Europe, a visionary statement signed on Nov. 21, 1990 by most European governments, Canada, the United States and the Soviet Union. The statement was intended to replace the divisions and rivalries of the past with new institutions of common security stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok and was the basis for the formation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Participating states pledged to improve their relations, to treat security within the Euro-Atlantic area as indivisible, and to work together on the basis of mutual respect and common democratic values.

 

The OSCE was meant to be the organizational expression of this pan-European vision.  The informal mechanisms established by the Helsinki Accords 15 years earlier were replaced with permanent structures designed to prevent conflict, institutionalize security cooperation and strengthen democratic reform and human rights. Heads of state and foreign ministers were to meet regularly to resolve Europe's security problems and set priorities for the future.

 

Regrettably, the promise of that historic vision has not been honored. Instead of being a central pillar of the post-Cold War European order, the OSCE is more often an afterthought in the continent's most important security deliberations. Russia's authoritarian turn has weakened the base of common values that participating states are meant to share, with Moscow becoming openly hostile to the OSCE's human rights and election monitoring functions as well as to media freedom. Russia's intervention in Georgia, disputes over energy supplies, and a failure to resolve the frozen conflicts have added to a climate of mutual recrimination.

 

At the same time, though, it would be wrong to lay all the blame for the OSCE's decline at Russia's door. There has been no summit of heads of OSCE member governments since 1999, and many Western leaders give the appearance of having lost interest in the organization.  Some complain about the absence of a substantive agenda that might command their attention. But if Western countries were committed to realizing the goals envisaged for the OSCE in the Charter of Paris, they would be working to develop a substantive agenda of their own. It is Western passivity as much as Russian obstructionism that is at fault.

 

But there are now tentative signs that relations between Russia and the West might be changing for the better. U.S. President Barack Obama's reset policy has already produced an important nuclear disarmament agreement.  Europe, Russia and the United States are cooperating constructively again on Iran. In addition, the Russian government's sensitive handling of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre has opened the way for a rapprochement with Poland.

 

These are all encouraging developments. The violence in Kyrgyzstan, an OSCE member, shows the need to handle security problems in the Eurasian space in a cooperative rather than a competitive manner. The OSCE should be the vehicle that permits a defusing of the crisis. Russia, together with the member states of the European Union and NATO, should support the efforts of Kazakhstan to solve the crisis in its capacity as chair of the OSCE. With the backing of these countries, the OSCE could play an important role in facilitating the honest and stable government Kyrgyzstan needs, thereby making a valuable contribution to the security of Central Asia as a whole.

 

Russia and the West should be seeking to build on this opportunity. President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal for a new European security treaty has obvious problems. It is widely interpreted as an effort to sideline the OSCE, paralyze NATO and divide Europe into spheres of influence. But instead of summarily turning down Medvedev's security proposal, the West should embrace the challenge of renewing Europe's security architecture and make a counterproposal designed to uphold its own values while acknowledging Russia's legitimate role and aspirations. At the same time, the OSCE should condition Russia's role in European security on the Kremlin's adherence to the values and principles enshrined in the Charter of Paris and the Helsinki Final Act.

 

Meanwhile, Western governments should be developing a package of proposals designed to reform the OSCE and strengthen its ability to meet the security challenges ahead.  These should be explored at a heads of government summit to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Charter of Paris in November. There is certainly plenty to discuss.  With Kazakhstan the first Central Asian and the first majority-Muslim nation to chair the OSCE, it is a symbolically significant moment to address some of the big foreign policy issues of our time — how to accommodate the rise of Asia, improve cooperation in the fight against terrorism, and bring security and stability to Afghanistan.

 

These are all areas where Russia, Europe and North America should recognize their shared long-term interests in working together. The OSCE will either become the forum within which a new security partnership is forged, or the promise of 1990 will continue to fade to the detriment of all.

 

A new thaw appears to be taking place in relations between Russia and the West. Now would be the ideal moment to revitalize the OSCE and breathe new life into the vision of a Euro-Atlantic community that is united in the common pursuit of peace and progress.

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

LET'S NOT FORGET

TIME TO GET OVER LEGACY OF KOREAN WAR

Friday (June 25) marks the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. This year's commemoration of the fratricidal war has a special meaning as tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated following the North's torpedo attack on the South's warship that killed 46 sailors on March 26.

Even without the latest military provocation from Pyongyang, the worst national tragedy in modern history, Korea has sufficient reasons to remember the three-year-long war and those who sacrificed themselves to defend freedom and democracy.

It is more than necessary to look back on the inter-Korean conflict at a time when the nation also marks the centennial of Japan's forced annexation of Korea, the 50th anniversary of the April 19 pro-democracy movement, and 30th anniversary of the May 18 Gwangju uprising for democracy.

The history of the nation in the last two centuries had been characterized by a series of ordeals and tribulations. The war less than five years after the nation's liberation from Japanese colonial rule left deep scars in the hearts of the people of both South and North Korea.

What's important now is to draw a lesson from the internecine war that claimed the lives of about 140,000 South Korean soldiers and killed nearly 2.5 million civilians on the peninsula. Under the banner of the United Nations, 16 countries including the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand sent 610,000 troops to repulse the North Korean invaders. Around 50,000 of the U.N. forces were killed.

The Korean conflict left an indelible mark in the national history with its legacy still haunting the two Koreas. The North's sinking of the South's 1,200-ton frigate Cheonan is a vivid reminder of the still reverberating animosity and hostility between the two sides. On the other hand, the war has increasingly slid into oblivion. It is extremely sad that more than 50 percent of youth in their teens and 20s do not know when the Korean War erupted, according to a recent public survey.

The government, the academic community and schools have come under attack for neglecting to teach young people about the true picture of the war. In particular, bureaucrats and politicians have done little to bring the war to memory and honor those who fought for the nation.

South Korea owes the U.N. troops too much. But the Seoul government has been too stingy to express its thanks. Six years later on Monday, a National Assembly committee adopted a resolution to extend gratitude to the 16 nations that dispatched their troops. The plenary Assembly session plans to pass the belated resolution next week.

The measure is in stark contrast with the United States which still remembers the war better than South Korea. This month, U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate approved a joint resolution commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and reaffirming alliance between the two countries. Last year, President Barack Obama proclaimed July 27 as ``National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day."

The Seoul government plans to invite 2,400 Korean War veterans from the 16 countries this year to honor their service. But the authorities should bring more surviving veterans to the country and hold more commemorative events to recognize their dedication. Let's not forget the war and learn a true lesson from it in order to avoid a repetition of the tragic history and attain permanent peace on the peninsula

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

EDITORIAL

GROUP OF 16

TO GO FURTHER, KOREA MUST RESHAPE TEAM

Korean football opened a new chapter Wednesday, advancing to the second round in the World Cup finals on foreign soil for the first time.

It took no less than 56 years for this country to join the ranks of the world's football powers since it first took part in the Swiss World Cup in 1954. Korea reached the semifinals in 2002, but the miraculous feat received mixed responses at best, as it owed a large part to home turf advantage _ and an imported coach. That the nation failed to get out of the group stage four years later in Germany confirmed such suspicions.

In this regard, coach Huh Jung-moo and his 23-member squad deserve praise and encouragement for finally realizing the nation's long-cherished dream in the quadrennial global soccer festival.

Frankly, the possibility of grabbing even one of the top two spots in the four-nation group was rather slim for Korea, ranked 47th by FIFA, far lower than its competitors Argentina (7th), Greece (13th) and Nigeria (21st). Behind overcoming this disadvantage were the Korean footballers' tireless stamina and fierce fight ― and not a little luck.

The national team will continue to need lots of these immeasurable ― or insubstantial ― factors to progress further as far as the ongoing tournament is concerned. Four years from now, however, it will have to demonstrate more substantive elements, namely power, speed and skill.

Never to be omitted behind the Korean team's better-than-expected performance is the enormous support from their compatriots, both at home and abroad, who think nothing of cheering the night away. As a German journalist said in 2006, Korea should be the world champion when it comes to national cheering, led by the supporters' group, the Red Devils.

To reward the self-sacrificing fans once again on Saturday, coach Huh should renew his and his team's determination and reshape the team in less than 48 hours. He should sharpen the offense, consolidate the defense and give opportunities to fresher players instead of those who have shown their limitation.

Korea faces another uphill battle against Uruguay, a two-time World Cup winner with which the nation has recorded no wins in the past four encounters. Many Korean fans may not want much more from this World Cup, but such self-complacency should not keep the players from doing their best until the final whistle.

 

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

COLUMN

AMBUSH INTERVIEWS ANGER CONGRESS

BY DALE MCFEATTERS

Scripps Howard News Service

Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., ``deeply and profoundly" regrets his reaction to two video ambushers, but most people who see the now-viral video of the encounter will find his reaction profoundly understandable.

Etheridge was on a sidewalk near the U.S. Capitol when the pair intercepted him, asking if he ``supports the Obama agenda."

They claimed to be students, but they wouldn't say from where, ``here on a project," although they never said what it was. And, despite Etheridge's repeated question, ``Who are you?" they never identified themselves.

Etheridge grabbed one of them by the wrist and then forcibly held him for a few seconds before striding away, all of it duly recorded.

The video quickly surfaced on a conservative Web site, where the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, in the words of CBS's Political Hot Sheet, just as quickly ``pounced on the incident," concluding that ``Bob Etheridge has lost it."

Back in North Carolina, his Republican opponent in this fall's election appeared at a press conference with state GOP officials to lament the Etheridge video.

However, in a dismaying trend, the incident was not an isolated one. The newspaper The Hill reported, ``Lawmakers are increasingly frustrated with guerrilla-style reporters, bloggers and campaign operatives who ambush them on video to provoke an aggressive or outraged response."

Most of the lawmakers interviewed by The Hill had experienced ``gotcha" ambushes. Rep. John Culbertson, R-Texas, says he films them right back using the Qik program on his iPhone. He said that in response to his filming them filming him, the ambushers turn polite or sometimes just turn and walk away.

Maybe there's something to that. In the video Etheridge's ``students" posted on the Web, the face of the one who did the intercepting has been deliberately blurred. Perhaps he was embarrassed by what he had done or too cowardly to own up to it. Probably both.

Dale McFeatters is an editorial writer of Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

COLUMN

TRAPPED IN EUROLAND

BY TAKATOSHI ITO

TOKYO ― The eurozone is sometimes dubbed ``Euroland" by Americans (and some Asians). Given its echoes of ``Disneyland," a place of fantasy, that is a far more mocking than useful nickname.

Ever since the euro was first proposed, skeptics (mostly American) and believers (mostly European) have fiercely debated the economic preconditions for the single currency, its benefits for members, and its political feasibility.

Asian economists who promote regional integration in Asia have observed the debate with amazement, in that the fault line is not based on economic philosophy like ``Keynesians vs. Neoclassicals" or ``Liberals vs. Conservatives," but on a geographical, transatlantic divide.

American economists, led by Martin Feldstein, have argued that the eurozone's economies are too diverse, with too many institutional differences and labor-market rigidities, to form an optimal currency area.

Moreover, a common monetary policy combined with independent fiscal policy is bound to fail: the former increases unemployment in weaker economies because the interest rate reflects average eurozone indicators (with large weights on Germany and France), but keeps borrowing costs low enough that weak economies' governments can finance fiscal profligacy.

European believers insist that the single currency is really founded on the strong political will to secure eternal peace in Europe. Even if the eurozone might not satisfy the necessary economic preconditions at the outset, economic variables would converge later on.

Middle-income, low-price/wage countries would grow faster with a higher inflation rate. The Growth and Stability Pact would safeguard fiscal discipline.

During the eurozone's first, prosperous decade, European believers seemed to have won the debate. Eurozone countries grew at a reasonably high rate, per-capita income and price levels converged, and interest-rate spreads narrowed, with only occasional minor turmoil in the markets.

Several countries successfully joined the eurozone after fiscal and monetary reforms. More are waiting to do so. The euro has become the second key currency in international finance.

Asians have watched the formerly triumphant euro's Greek crisis with a muted sense of vindication. Back in 1997, many Asians thought that the speculative attacks then being mounted on Asian currencies were unjustified, with Malaysia's Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir leading the charge against speculators.

In response to the crisis, Asians sought to establish an Asian Monetary Fund, which would help any crisis-hit country by providing massive liquidity assistance. The very announcement of the Fund's creation was meant to deter speculative attack.

But the International Monetary Fund and the United States rejected the idea. Now the Europeans are setting up a European Monetary Fund ― a nickname that Europeans may oppose ― in cooperation with the IMF.

But announcing an IMF program (with regional bilateral assistance) was not what calmed markets in South Korea and Indonesia in 1997.

In the end, South Korea was saved by coordinated forced rollovers of foreign banks' lending (why not try that in Greece?), and Indonesia experienced financial meltdown, because the country could not fulfill much of the IMF's conditionality. (The new, gentler IMF has sworn off such harsh conditionality for Greece.)

Two differences between the Asia crisis of 1997 and today's Greek crisis stand out. One concerns who borrowed the money. In Greece, the problem is with sovereign deficits (much of it long concealed), while the problem in Asia was unmonitored private-sector debt.

The second difference concerns the exchange-rate regime. The U.S., the IMF, and others had encouraged Asian countries to increase exchange-rate flexibility. The depreciation that followed the crisis helped accelerate recovery by boosting exports.

Indeed, given that depreciation is a key tool for engineering a fast economic recovery, why not invite Greece to leave the eurozone?

After all, by staying in the euro, a rapid export-led recovery would be impossible. The only other way to achieve depreciation in real terms is through massive deflation of domestic prices, coupled with a severe recession.

Moreover, all of Greece's structural problems ― a thin tax base, large numbers of government employees who receive bonus payments, and generous pension benefits ― cannot be sustained within the eurozone.

But solving any of them will be extremely hard, and if these problems are not resolved in Greece and other troubled eurozone members, these other countries will follow the same path.

Even the European Monetary Fund may not be enough to save the day then, because those now on the side of the rescuers would become those in need of rescue.

Any financial crisis looks like a liquidity crisis for those who are stuck in the middle of it _ or anywhere nearby. The same crisis looks like a solvency crisis for those who are geographically distant.

And crises are repeated in different regions, triggered by strikingly similar economic and financial mechanisms, though the details of course differ. As Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff have written, everyone near a financial crisis thinks ``This time is different."

But the evolution of the Greek crisis is different from the Asian crisis. Europeans now have a regional monetary fund, which Asians wanted but could not have. The political will to protect the euro is strong ― perhaps strong enough to override moral-hazard concerns.

To keep the eurozone intact, regardless of the cost, became Europe's only viable option once the single currency was adopted.

So, as ``euroland" risks breaking up over the Greek crisis, musically-versed economists recall the cryptic last line of that 1970's pop song ``Hotel California" by the Eagles: ``You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

That line resonates as Germany and Greece contemplate their shared fate. Their worries are an object lesson for those Asians who are still contemplating deeper economic integration in the form of a shared currency.

Takatoshi Ito, professor of economics at the University of Tokyo, is a former Japanese deputy vice-finance minister for international affairs and senior advisor in the research department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For more stories, visit Project Syndicate (www.project-syndicate.org).

 

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THE KOREA TIMES

COLUMN

2010 NEARS HALFWAY POINT

 

Scripps Howard News Service

Monday (June 21) was the summer solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. At 7:28 a.m. EDT, the sun is as far north as it's going to come, not to be too Earth-centric about it.

The solstice has traditionally been considered the start of summer. But that's so inadequate. By the 21st, June was 70 percent over, and in another 10 days the year will be half over. We much prefer the National Weather Service's measure of summer ― from June 1 to Aug. 31 ― or even the way most of us think of it ― from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend.

The Druids, we are told, thought of June as a particularly auspicious month, which is supposedly why it is so popular for weddings. The term ``Honey Moon" is said to come from the copious amount of mead, fermented honey, the Druids drank at weddings, presumably by midnight. We think the Druids celebrated weddings in June for the same reason we do: The weather's good and school's out.

Two other great markers of the modern year ― the beginning and end of daylight saving time ― have a useful purpose attached to them: You're supposed to check the batteries in your smoke detectors. The solstice has nothing so earnest.

But next week, the days will start getting infinitesimally shorter, a process that will culminate with the winter solstice Dec. 21, when the night is longest and the day shortest.

Meanwhile, the summer solstice serves to remind us that the year is going by way too fast. Pour yourself another mead.

For more stories, visit Scripps Howard News Service (www.scrippsnews.com).

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

STRATEGIC DETAILS OF GROWTH

 

A chieving "a strong economy" is one of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's three major policy goals, along with "strong finances" and "strong social welfare." To realize his idea, his Cabinet on June 18 announced a new economic growth strategy.

 

To attain nominal growth of 3 percent or more and real growth of 2 percent or more through fiscal 2020, it has picked four areas — the environment (eco-friendly industries), health (medical and nursing care services), Asia (exports) and tourism — as areas where high growth can be expected, and envisages these areas creating 5 million new jobs and demand worth ¥123 trillion. It also envisages lowering the unemployment rate to between 3 percent and 4 percent in a short period.

 

The strategy clearly reflects Mr. Kan's idea of pursuing a "third way," which tries to create demand and employment through efforts to solve various social and economic problems, in contrast with the "first way" of relying on massive public works spending and the "second way" of pushing market fundamentalism. Many people may support the basic approach.

 

The plan has identified those four areas plus three others — employment and human resources, science and technology and financing — as important and has spelled out some 330 policy measures and road maps for the seven areas. Twenty-one of the items are characterized as "national strategic projects." Among them is reduction of the effective corporate tax rate.

 

Noteworthy are such measures as government support for export of superexpress railways and nuclear power plants, allowing use of unauthorized drugs and medical apparatuses at some 200 hospitals nationwide, integration of kindergartens and nursery schools and creation of a "personal support" system to help people who have been jobless for a long time.

 

But there are problems. It is not clear how to get necessary funds for various projects. Unlike manufacturing industries, medical and nursing care services and tourism will not have large ripple effects. A strong measure to revitalize agriculture is lacking. The government must further flesh out the strategy.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

EDITORIAL

PRAYER FOR PEACE IN OKINAWA

 

June 23 is Okinawa Memorial Day to remember the destruction and the loss of lives the Battle of Okinawa brought and to pray for the victims' souls and for peace. It should be a day for all Japanese to think about the hardship Okinawan people have experienced and the issue of U.S. military bases in Okinawa Prefecture.

 

On that day 65 years ago (1945), Japan's organized military resistance in Okinawa ended. But the battle's formal end came as late as Sept. 7 that year. The United States continued to occupy Okinawa through May 14, 1972. By coincidence, the current Japan-U.S. security treaty — the basis for the U.S. military presence in Japan — went into force on June 23, 1960.

 

The Battle of Okinawa started March 26, 1945, when U.S. troops landed on Kerama Islands. It was the only land battle fought in the Japanese archipelago during the Pacific War. For Japanese rulers and military leaders, Okinawa was a sacrifice stone to delay the U.S. armed forces' landing on Japan's main islands.

 

The battle killed more than 223,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians, some 14,000 U.S. soldiers and a number of Koreans, Britons and Taiwanese. The victims include some 94,000 Okinawan residents — about one-fourth of all the residents. Okinawans were not only exposed to a "Storm of Iron" (ceaseless U.S. naval artillery bombardment) and subsequent infantry battles. The Japanese military's acts also caused deaths among Okinawans — driving them out of hiding places, coercing them to kill themselves in mass suicides, killing them as spies, etc. (In 2007, the Abe administration killed textbook references to the Imperial Japanese Army's coercive roles in the mass suicides.)

 

Okinawa Prefecture, occupying 0.6 percent of Japan, hosts 74 percent of the U.S. military facilities in Japan in terms of area. Some 18 percent of Okinawa Island is occupied by U.S. bases. The issue of the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, has again highlighted the burden of the U.S. military presence on Okinawa. Every other local government and people in other parts of Japan must be ready to cooperate to help reduce the concentration of U.S. bases in Okinawa.

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

OPED

AMERICA'S CHINA POLICY FLOP

BY BRAHMA CHELLANEY

 

Success breeds confidence, and rapid success spawns arrogance. That, in a nutshell, is the China problem facing Asian states and the West. But no country faces a bigger dilemma on China than the United States because the present American policy simply isn't advancing its objectives.

 

Rising economic and military power is emboldening Beijing to pursue a more muscular foreign policy, as exemplified by several developments — from China's inclusion of the South China Sea in its "core" national interests, an action that makes its claims to the disputed islands non-negotiable, to its vile protests against the Indian prime minister visiting a state of the Indian Union, Arunachal Pradesh, on which Beijing has resurrected its long-dormant claim.

 

A new chill in relations between American and Chinese militaries, underlined by a Chinese admiral's carping lecture on American "hegemony," has torpedoed the Obama administration's hopes to make China a responsible partner in global affairs by giving Beijing a larger stake in solving international problems.

 

The shift in Beijing's South China Sea position has resulted in its conveying to the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian claimants the message that any discussions between and among them other over their claims would amount to interference in China's internal affairs. But no less significant is that China's expanding naval role and maritime claims are beginning to collide with U.S. interests, including the traditional emphasis on freedom of navigation.

 

Having earlier preached the gospel of its "peaceful rise," China is now beginning to take the gloves off, convinced that it has acquired the necessary muscle.

 

That approach has become more marked since the advent of the 2008 global financial crisis. China has interpreted that crisis as symbolizing both the decline of the Anglo-American brand of capitalism and the weakening of American economic power. That, in turn, has strengthened its twofold belief — that its brand of state-steered capitalism offers a credible alternative, and that its global ascendance is unstoppable.

 

Chinese analysts have gleefully pointed out that after having sung the "liberalize, privatize and let the markets decide" line for long, the U.S. and Britain took the lead to bail out their troubled financial giants at the first sign of trouble when the global crisis broke out. By contrast, state-driven capitalism has given China economic stability and rapid growth, allowing it to ride out the international crisis. Indeed, despite the perpetual talk of an overheating economy, China's exports and retail sales are soaring and its foreign-exchange hoarding is now approaching $2.5 trillion, even as America's fiscal and trade deficits remain alarming.

 

That has helped reinforce the Chinese elite's faith in the country's fusion of autocratic politics and state capitalism, with the largest companies — all government-owned — advancing the national strategy to secure long-term resource supplies from overseas.

 

The biggest loser from the global financial crisis, in Beijing's view, is Uncle Sam. That the U.S. remains dependent on Beijing to buy billions of dollars' worth of Treasury bonds every week to finance a yawning budget deficit is a sign of shifting global financial power balance — an advantage China is sure to politically milk in the years ahead.

 

The current spotlight may be on European financial woes. But the bigger picture for Beijing is that America's chronic deficits and indebtedness epitomize its relative decline. Add to the picture the two wars the U.S. is waging overseas — one of which appears increasingly unwinnable — and what comes to the Chinese mind is a global superpower bogged down in serious troubles.

 

Against that background, China's growing assertiveness may not surprise many. Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's advice, "hide your capabilities and bide your time," seems no longer relevant. Today, China is not shy to showcase its military capabilities and assert itself on multiple fronts.

 

Yet America's economic and military travails are crimping its foreign-policy options vis-a-vis China. Although the Chinese economy is still more dependent for its growth on U.S. economy than vice versa, Washington seems more reluctant than ever to exercise its leverage to make Beijing correct policies that threaten to distort trade, foster huge trade imbalances and spark greater competition for scarce raw materials.

 

By keeping its currency ridiculously undervalued and flooding the world markets with artificially cheap goods, China runs a predatory trade policy that undercuts manufacturing in the developing world more than in the West. However, by threatening to destabilize the global economy, China threatens Western interests.

 

Furthermore, its efforts to lock up supplies of key resources means it will continue to lend support to renegade regimes. The U.N. Security Council's latest Iranian-sanctions resolution is a "win-win" outcome for China because it exempts the key sector that matters to both Beijing and Tehran — energy — and opens the path to greater Chinese aid to, and clout in, Iran.

 

The present U.S. policy on China is a study in contrast to the way Washington unabashedly exercised its leverage when another Asian country — Japan — emerged as a global economic powerhouse in the 1980s. As it rose dramatically to become a potential economic peer to the U.S., Japan kept the yen undervalued and erected hidden barriers to the entry of foreign manufacturers into its market. That resulted in the U.S. piling up pressure on Japan and periodically arm-twisting it to make trade concessions.

 

Today, the U.S. cannot adopt the same approach against Beijing, largely because China is also a military and political power and Washington depends on Chinese support on a host of international issues — from North Korea and Burma to Iran and Pakistan. By contrast, Japan has remained just an economic power.

 

It is significant that China became a global military player before it became a global economic player. China's military-power base was built by Mao Zedong, enabling Deng to single-mindedly focus on rapidly building economic power. Before Deng launched his "four modernizations," China had acquired a global military reach by testing its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the 12,000-km DF-5, and developing a thermonuclear warhead.

 

Over the past three decades, the 13-fold expansion of its economy generated even greater resources for China to sharpen its military claws. But for the growing Chinese military power and political weight, U.S. policy would have treated China as another Japan.

 

The U.S. played a critical role in China's economic rise by not sustaining post-Tiananmen Square sanctions. But the central assumption guiding U.S. policy on China has gone awry — that assisting China's economic rise would help create both a compatible and cooperative partner and political openness within.

 

The challenge the U.S. faces today is to reframe its policy before it becomes too late to resist China's push for a redistributive global order whose institutions and rules respect the centrality of an authoritarian great power.

Brahma Chellaney is the author of the international best-seller, "Asian Juggernaut" (HarperCollins, New York, 2010).

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

OPED

THE BEAUTIFUL GAME HAS AN UGLY BLEMISH

BY ANDREI S. MARKOVITS AND LARS RENSMANN

 

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The quality of refereeing at the World Cup had been a source of relief until June 18, when referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali disallowed a perfectly legitimate goal by the United States that would have given it an all-important win over Slovenia. Worse still, Coulibaly never had to account for his terrible decision, or explain it to anyone — not the players and coaches on the pitch, and not the public at large.

 

Referee decisions in soccer, no matter how egregiously erroneous, are incontestable and immutable. Soccer fans the world over will always remember the outrageous error that awarded France the decisive goal against Ireland to qualify for the tournament, despite obvious hand-play by the French superstar Thierry Henry.

 

We believe that a concerted effort to reform soccer refereeing is urgently needed. Refereeing errors increasingly mar the game on all its levels — country and club, major and minor leagues, globally televised tournaments and matches, and local games. Since such errors have major implications for the outcome of key tournaments that define this most global of sports, their ubiquity and frequency jeopardize the game's very integrity — and thus its essential legitimacy. Such episodes, after all, are increasingly part of the public domain, owing to new media that have rendered the game even more global than it was.

 

What makes this issue so central to soccer's future is that these errors do not result from referees' negligence, inattentiveness or incompetence. Rather, they reflect the game's speed, its players' athleticism, the size of the playing surface, and a puzzling resistance by the game's leading authorities to adapt 19th-century rules to 21st-century resources.

 

First, there is a need for video evidence. This would literally furnish the game changer in those few key situations that decide a match, such as an unjustifiably denied goal, an erroneous red card, or an egregious offside call.

 

One could establish a sort of super official who surveys video monitors, immediately overrules blatantly wrong calls, and directly communicates this decision with the referee and linesmen on the field (who are already equipped with earphones). Alternatively, one could give each team the opportunity to challenge up to two referee decisions per game, employing video replays to review rules infractions and settle disputed calls.

 

This procedure would give the referees on the field the opportunity, if necessary, to overrule their initial decisions. And quick reviews would not waste much time or interrupt the flow of the game. Under current conditions, the berating of the referee by the slighted team's players consumes more game time than any review ever will.

 

Second, we need to make use of the perfectly functioning electronic chip already inside the ball to settle decisively whether a ball has crossed the field's boundaries or its all-important goal lines. Consider how an essentially equivalent technology has successfully reduced line-related controversies in major tennis tournaments.

 

Third, serious consideration should be given to introducing a second referee, with each given responsibility for one half of the huge playing field. After all, the U.S. National Basketball Association employs three referees on a playing surface one-ninth the size of a soccer field.

 

Lastly, the culture of secrecy and nonaccountability that permeates soccer's major governing bodies such as FIFA, UEFA and the various country federations needs to be changed. No other major team sport tolerates the arrogance of governing bodies who feel no responsibility to explain their actions.

 

These measures — and many others that include the overdue use of available technology — would augment the effectiveness of often-clueless referees, whose authority has declined sharply with the proliferation of decisive mistakes in major games and championships. While none of these measures is new, implementing them would add significant clarity and fairness to soccer, and thus enhance the legitimacy of the game.

 

Above all, referees must be accountable for their decisions. They must not be permitted to decide games of utmost importance in an arbitrary manner that need never be explained to anyone.

 

Many of these overdue reforms have long been promoted by leading soccer experts, such as the Dutch world-class striker Marco van Basten and the former FIFA referee Markus Merk of Germany. A majority of soccer fans around the world also supports decisive reforms that easily minimize refereeing errors. Like the Irish, many of them have become increasingly alienated by soccer's old ruling regime and the conservative authorities that guard it.

 

Of course, we are fully aware that human error will never be eliminated from affecting outcomes in any sport. Nor should it be. Indeed, we actually believe that the "we wuz robbed" dimension of all sports adds to their lore and legend. But those responsible for a global product on the scale of soccer surely must act boldly to minimize the most egregious and avoidable errors, and thereby preserve the game's integrity.

 

Andrei S. Markovits and Lars Rensmann, professors at the University of Michigan, are the authors of "Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture." © 2010 Project Syndicate

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

OPED

CHINA NEEDS A SERVICE-SECTOR REVOLUTION

BY BARRY EICHENGREEN

 

BEIJING — China is getting its exchange-rate adjustment whether it likes it or not. While Chinese officials continue to mull the right time to let the renminbi rise, manufacturing workers are voting with their feet — and their picket lines.

 

Honda has offered its transmission- factory workers in China a 24 percent wage increase to head off a crippling strike. Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer for Apple and Dell, has announced wage increases of as much as 70 percent. Shenzhen, to head off trouble, has announced a 16 percent increase in the minimum wage. Beijing's municipal authorities have pre-emptively boosted the city's minimum wage by 20 percent.

 

The result will be to raise the prices of China's exports and fuel demand for imports. The effect will be much the same as a currency appreciation.

 

China should count these wage increases as a measure of its success. Higher incomes are an entirely normal corollary of economic growth.

 

The only difference in China is that the adjustment has been suppressed, so it is now coming abruptly. It would have been better had Chinese officials encouraged earlier and more gradual adjustment, and if adjustment had come through currency appreciation, which would have enhanced workers' command over imports, rather than inflation, which will make no one happy. But that is water under the bridge.

 

With exports of manufactures becoming more expensive, China will have to grow by producing something else. It will have to move away from a strategy in which manufactures are the engine of growth toward the model of a more mature economy, in which employment is increasingly concentrated in the service sector.

 

China will never rival India as an exporter of high-tech and business services, because it lacks that country's large population of native English speakers. But it has ample scope for expanding the supply of personal and business services for a desperately under-served, increasingly prosperous domestic market. This is a point that Morgan Stanley's chief economist Stephen Roach makes in recent new book, "The Next Asia."

 

The good news, as Roach observes, is that the service sector places less burden on natural resources and creates more employment than manufacturing. The former is good news for China's carbon footprint, the latter for its social stability.

 

But the bad news is that the transition now being asked of China — to shift toward services without experiencing a significant decline in economy-wide productivity growth — is unprecedented in Asia. Every high-growth, manufacturing-intensive Asian economy that has attempted it has suffered a massive slowdown.

 

The problem is more than just the tendency of productivity to grow more slowly in services than manufacturing. Service-sector productivity growth in formerly manufacturing-heavy Asian economies has been dismal by international standards.

 

In both South Korea and Japan, to cite two key examples, the problem is not simply that productivity in services has grown barely a quarter as fast as it has in manufacturing for a decade. It is that service-sector productivity growth has run at barely half the rate of the United States.

 

Why is this?

 

In countries that have traditionally emphasized manufacturing, the underdeveloped service sector is dominated by small enterprises — mom and pop stores. These lack the scale to be efficient, the ability to exploit modern information technology, and the capacity to undertake research and development. In Korea, less than 10 percent of economy-wide R&D has been directed at the service sector in the last decade. This stands in sharp contrast to the U.S., where half of all R&D is associated with services. Enough said.

 

In both South Korea and Japan, large firms' entry into the service sector is impeded by restrictive regulation, for which small producers are an influential lobby. Regulation prevents wholesalers from branching downstream into retailing, and vice versa. Foreign firms that are carriers of innovative organizational knowledge and technology are barred from coming in. Accountants, architects, attorneys and engineers all then jump on the bandwagon, using restrictive licensing requirements to limit supply, competition and foreign entry.

 

One can well imagine Chinese shopkeepers, butchers and health-care workers following this example. The results would be devastating. Where value added in Chinese manufacturing has been growing by 8 percent a year, service-sector productivity is unlikely to exceed 1 percent if China is unlucky or unwise enough to follow the example of South Korea and Japan.

 

Employing workers in sectors where their productivity is stagnant would not be a recipe for social stability. China needs to avoid the pattern by which past neglect of the service sector creates a class of incumbents who use political means to maintain their position. Perhaps China will succeed in avoiding this fate. Here at least may be one not-so-grim advantage to not being a democracy.

 

Barry Eichengreen is a professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley. © 2010 Project Syndicate

 

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THE JAPAN TIMES

OPED

A HUNDRED WELTPOLITIKS

BY JASWANT SINGH

 

NEW DELHI — Mao Zedong once famously called for the Chinese to "let a hundred flowers bloom." Soon, however, he was recoiling from what he saw as a chaos of competing ideas. Today, the world seems to be entering a period when, if not a hundred, at least a dozen varieties of Weltpolitik are being pursued by great and emerging powers alike. Reconciling these competing strategic visions of the world, in particular of global crisis, will make international diplomacy more complicated than ever.

 

The intervention by Turkey and Brazil into the globally divisive issue of Iran's nuclear program is but the latest, and also the clearest, sign of this new element in global affairs. In May, the Iranian, Turkish and Brazilian leaders met in Tehran to conclude an agreement that would supposedly have Iran deposit 1,200 kg of lightly enriched uranium (LEU) in Turkey, which, in exchange, would send 120 kg of enriched fuel to be used in Iran's research reactor.

 

Russia proposed this kind of swap earlier, but Iran declined the offer, and the version agreed with Brazil and Turkey was likewise intended to forestall Iran's ability to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU), which can be used for nuclear warheads. But its other intention was probably to stymie American efforts to adopt new United Nations sanctions on Iran.

 

It is too soon to tell if Iran's desire to obtain nuclear weapons has been delayed. The International Atomic Energy Agency has not ruled against the agreement, and I am informed that the Brazilian/Turkish brokered deal does not violate the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which Iran, as a signatory, is obliged to adhere. Nevertheless, the effort to pre-empt American strategy clearly failed, as new U.N. sanctions were implemented earlier this month.

 

As the deal was intended to avoid a nuclear standoff with Iran, why was there so much outrage in the United States and the West? I fear it is because the U.S. found itself denied its primacy in setting global policy on Iran. Instead of trying to explore the possibilities presented by the Brazilian/Turkish opening, the U.S. quickly pushed the U.N. Security Council for more sanctions (the fourth round so far) on Iran. This forced Brazil and Turkey, both currently nonpermanent members of the Security Council, to vote against the sanctions resolution.

 

The result? This vital vote was robbed of unanimity (Lebanon also opposed it).

 

The U.N. sanction vote was also heavily influenced by another small country with a Weltpolitik: Israel. In February, a high-level Israeli delegation visited Beijing to present the Chinese leadership with "evidence" of Iran's atomic ambitions. The Israelis then explained to their hosts — in considerable detail — the potential economic consequences for China if an Israeli strike on Iran should become necessary in order to stop Iran from fulfilling its "nuclear ambitions."

 

China appears to have taken the message to heart, as it voted in favor of sanctions on Iran for the first time. Iran responded by calling China's vote "two faced."

 

The emerging stew of Weltpolitik thickened even more with Israel's pre-emptive move in international waters to stop a flotilla supposedly bringing relief aid to blockaded Gaza. For it was on a Turkish flagged ship that Israeli forces killed nine people, causing a near-rupture in Israeli-Turkish relations.

 

To be sure, this complex web of interconnected events reflects the declining global role of the U.S. But it also demonstrates the robust assertion of national interest by new players on the global scene.

 

Brazil, Turkey, and, yes, Iran are all clearly keen to demonstrate their political and foreign-policy independence. Brazil wants to prove that it deserves a permanent seat on the Security Council. Turkey seeks to re-establish its Islamic identity and "Ottoman" influence over the Middle East, thereby flexing its diplomatic muscles for a European Union that has all but rejected Turkish membership. And Iran simply wants to show once again that it will not kowtow to the "Great Satan."

 

All of these motivations critically challenge U.S. global diplomatic primacy. But America had better get used to these types of diplomatic cat's cradles. For there are other powers, both emerging and established, with global foreign policies of their own — India, Indonesia and Japan. And regional players like South Africa, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia and South Korea among others, will also have to be reckoned with in future regional disputes.

 

This increasingly complex web of intersecting national interests is the face of international diplomacy in the 21st century. Ancient rivalries and atavistic feuds may or may not be part of this; only future crisis will tell. But this amalgam of competing strategic visions probably marks the end of America's post-Cold War power.

 

With the entire world affected by turmoil in the Persian Gulf and greater Middle East, perhaps that is all to the good. Surely, the national interests of the U.S. and the West are not the only ones that matter. Why, then, should the rest of the world leave the resolution of these disputes to America alone?

 

The era of U.S. diplomatic hegemony has drawn to a close. And it would be a grave mistake to think that a condominium between the U.S. and China will impose global order in the way that the Cold War-era U.S./USSR superpower rivalry did. Too many powerful countries now feel able to flex their diplomatic muscles in defense of their interests. Mao's hundred flowers may have bloomed only briefly, but today's myriad species of Weltpolitik are certain to bloom perennially.

 

Jaswant Singh, a former Indian foreign minister, finance minister and defense minister, is the author of "Jinnah: India — Partition — Independence." © 2010 Project Syndicate.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

EDITORIAL

IT'S EVERYONE'S POLITICAL RIGHT

 

Political elements of the nation, intrinsically represented by individuals and political factions at the House of Representatives, have been in the past week verbally debating a proposal by the Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters that military personnel be granted the right to vote in elections — a considerable political taboo in the New Order and subsequent Reform Era.

 

Apart from the opposing arguments of both opponents and proponents of the proposal, which are both equally valid, the idea to let TNI personnel exercise their political right in the general elections, which are held every five years, as well as regional elections deserves full support from all elements of the nation. Whether many, if not all, elements disagree with it, the proposal should be considered as one that would provide equal opportunity for the TNI personnel to exert their constitutional right as members of the nation.

 

Military members have voted only once in post-independence Indonesia, during the 1955 legislative elections. But this political right was scrapped during the New Order's 32-year rule, when the military was automatically allocated up to 20 percent of House seats by then president Soeharto.

 

We all need to give fair treatment to the TNI in a similar way to how we previously demanded and successfully forced the military institution to quit its active involvement in politics and businesses as is the case in the New Order era under Soeharto. The TNI, despite its unique status as the nation's key defense force, is part and parcel of the Indonesian nationhood. We have to bear in mind that TNI personnel are none other than "civilians in uniforms", whose rights and responsibilities are not different from other unarmed Indonesians.

 

It is true that granting such a right to military personnel, who are used to and bound to rigid command structure, is prone to manipulations and abuses. It is not impossible, as some military observers and House legislators have highlighted, that the TNI leadership in all echelons may have an influence in their subordinates' choices or preferences of certain candidates for both legislative and executive posts on both national and regional levels.

 

That excludes the potential danger of anarchic responses of losing candidates, especially those with a narrow-minded attitude, who enjoy support especially from voters with military backgrounds. It is feared — and not impossible — that those defeated candidates will resort to violent acts as they are aware of backups from military-trained voters.

 

But, that is the essence and the importance of clear laws and regulations. Those kinds of challenges and hindrances, therefore, need to be regulated in laws and subsequent operational regulations so as to minimize, if not prevent, such problems.

 

There are still a lot of things to do prior to effectively granting the TNI personnel their constitutional right to vote in elections. There needs to be revisions in the Law No. 34/2004 on the Indonesian Military, especially the necessary stipulation on military personnel's political rights in elections, in all election-related laws such as on the General Elections, as well as the issuance of operational regulations that will provide practical guidelines for military personnel in exercising their political rights.

 

In the meantime, we must ensure that all elements of the nation, including the TNI personnel, be granted equal political rights in elections. That's what the fundamental element of democracy is all about.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: STATEMENT FROM COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MINISTER

 

I would like to convey my reply to the headline published in The Jakarta Post on June 22, that I did not make a statement that degraded a religion.

 

On the morning of Thursday, June 17, a meeting was held at the Communications and Information Technology Ministry, attended by Press Council chairman Bagir Manan, Police Criminal Detective Agency deputy chief Dikdik Mulyana Arif Mansyur, Ramli from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry and a representative of the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, for the purpose of appealing that Internet service providers minimize the spread of pornography on the Internet.

 

At the meeting I requested the police promptly conduct a thorough investigation of the pornographic video case so that news on people resembling each other in this case be clarified.

 

In this way, the public would no longer be confused. Without clear explanation, this issue will remain unresolved. And unless this story of resemblance is clarified on the basis of investigation by law enforcers, it will exhaust public energy while other no less important problems have yet to be given due attention by the whole nation.

 

In connection with such "resemblance", without any pretension I mentioned to the forum a lesson from history, which has also become common knowledge, that Muslims are convinced Prophet Isa was not crucified, but it was a man resembling Prophet Isa who was crucified. Meanwhile, Christians are convinced that Jesus was crucified. Without any intention to involve the aspect of theology, I mentioned that this issue of resemblance had a long presence in history.

 

My statement is a historical fact, which is neutral and true. I have never linked the pornographic video case to the two religious figures.

 

Later, Rakyat Merdeka Online on June 17 posted an intriguing article titled "Eager to unveil Ariel, Tifatul implicates Prophet Isa and Jesus", written by Zul Hidayat Siregar. But the article contained incomplete substance of my explanation at the meeting. Controversy intensified further following a public debate that was only based on the title of the article, without delving into its substance, with ample chance of giving rise to misunderstanding in society.

 

I thank you for your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience. This will hopefully serve as a valuable lesson for all parties, including myself.    

 

Tifatul Sembiring

Jakarta

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

THE NATION'S AMBIVALENT ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX

AL MAKIN, YOGYAKARTA

 

From the incident of the leaking sexual video tape of allegedly involving Luna Maya (LM) and Ariel Peterpan (AP), an Indonesian version of the Tiger Wood's scandal, one may conclude that we Indonesians are ambivalent about sex. We have a contradictory attitude toward sex in our public and private life.

 

Privately, sexual matters are subjects of relaxed and casual conversation. People can joke about it generously.

 

People are eager to share the file of the LM and AP sex tape. Indeed, the video is spread among friends freely.

 

It is only a file with no more than 8,000 kilobytes, which can be sent via email or  copied with flash disk stick. In a minute, a hundred of copies can be produced effortlessly.

 

People can talk about sex with neither burden nor barriers. Sexual matters are a beloved subject.

 

Before dealing with a real theme in a formal and informal meeting, sexual themes can serve as an icebreaker. When a serious topic is boring, jokes about sex are preferable.

 

Teachers in the classrooms insert sexual jokes when explaining difficult subjects to sleepy students.

 

Upon listening the jokes, they wake up. They enjoy the content and laugh. The teachers can then return to the real theme.

 

Whether you're in restaurants or tents on the banks of streets, vendors and buyers chat about sex. They joke about sex. Taxi drivers gossip with his passenger about sex.

 

In a meeting among local parliament members, sex also becomes a fascinating subject. Once I heard that a member of local parliament asked his colleague how many wives he has. The colleague answered that he was polygamous, following the footstep of the chairman of his "Islamist" party who married two women.

 

We are addicted to sexual themes, which is ironically repressed by state authorities — be they an RT (a small neighborhood unit) chief, the village bureaucracy, ministers, the governor and parliamentary members.

 

At the public level, in which politicians want to control their clean image, sex looks taboo.

 

They want to impose a strict rule upon people. Yet it is uncertain whether they implement the same measure on themselves.

 

According to their vision, common people should be pious, religious and clean. Society should be guarded from dirty entertainment and games.

 

They are very concerned about the image of Indonesia. Sexual themes are given more attention than the eradication of corruption. This can be seen from their comments made when the video tape of LM and AP was watched by the world.

 

But, how many sexual scandals among national and local politicians during the reformation era are caught by the public? Mention them.

 

We are ambivalent about sex. As seen on TV, religious leaders, politicians, police and public figures seem to condemn the video tape. It remains unclear whether they themselves enjoyed the tape.

 

Ironically, a commentator, who is often called a media or IT expert, explained the episode of the tape in particular detail, action by action, and picture by picture, leading people to pay even more detailed attention to the video. Apparently, the expert and the audience enjoyed the video.

 

Authorities are repressive in response to the video. Like ostriches, they buried their heads and closed their eyes to avoid reality. In fact, the way in which sex is discussed has developed very far. Sex in private and public has progressed beyond their control.

 

Yet they tape and watch it among friends. Adults save the tape in their computers and flash disk sticks.
All love sex, sexual themes and want to see more sex films. If the police and authorities want to bring the case of LM and AP to the court, other cases will soon be revealed in public. Be ready to be flooded with sexual video tapes, whose actors can be artists, politicians and other public figures.

 

One may also wonder whether the authorities enjoyed the tape during investigation.

 

What is clear is that the spread of the LM and AP video has buried many other important issues in the republic, the selection of the KPK (Corruption Eradication Commission) leader, responses to the flotilla incident, the oil spill and the planned Muhammadiyah congress. All eyes and ears are on LM and AP.


The writer is a lecturer at State Islamic University, Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

PKS AIMING TO BE A MODERN ISLAMIC PARTY

DONNY SYOFYAN

 

The second national congress of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) ended Sunday. It victoriously came up with three significant results: Renewed party's statute, strategic planning and new structure.

 

Having left Luthfi Hasan as the party's president and Muhammad Anis Matta as its secretary-general, the PKS is committed to achieving the Big Three in the 2014 general election.

 

This event came to light as it was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Kuningan, Central Jakarta. The hotel was the target of a terrorist attack by Islamic extremists last year.

 

Many seem to think that it was a telltale sign of a good relationship between the Western-owned hotel chain and

Muslims. Rather it is more based on pragmatism due to cheaper prices compared to the costs of other hotels.

 

Leaving the public curiosity of the bombed hotel as the event venue behind, the PKS is apparently moving forward and taking steps toward far-sighted breakthroughs.

 

It is beyond expectation that the PKS proves itself as a politically-grown-up political party. More importantly, seen in the second national congress, the PKS has been on the right track to a modern Islamic party in Indonesia. This makes sense judging from the subsequent reasons.

 

First, the PKS has the right credentials for being a member party, even today is stronger and more credible.

 

Its integrity and performance never heavily relies upon strong individuals, noting that popular figures or selling leaders-based are not its major distinctive feature.  

 

Hidayat Nur Wahid, Anis Matta, Tiffatul Sembiring, or the late K.H. Rahmat Abdullah have come to the fore as hard workers, performance-oriented and perople of high integrity.

 

However, they neither endorse dynasty politics or personality cult within the PKS circle, as opposed to the country's current political parties' trend such as the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P), the National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Democratic Party.

 

"Despite his mild response to Gaza crises, the PKS still views Obama as strategic partners with Muslims across the world."

 

Preserving the member party status renders leadership-affirming processes to run on the right track in the PKS. Charismatic leader-based leadership, which occurred to the PDI-P and the PKB, not only makes pseudo-stability in the party but also risks misjudging creative dynamics voiced and done by opposing elements in the party.

 

For example, Guruh Soekarnoputra's running for PDI-P chairman in last April received no friendly response from the party's conservative elements, claiming it would have just made yawning gaps even greater within the PDI-P. Megawati's reelection to be PDI-P chairwoman for 4th time was more to do with her unifying factor in the party rather than her highly regarded leadership in the party.

 

With the PKS sticking to a member party, professionalism and loyalty to the system makes the party never run out of figures for national leaders.

 

The former leads the party leaders to put the national over party's interest, clearly seen as both Hidayat Nur Wahid and Tifatul Sembiring relinquished the party's top post when they were subsequently named People's Consultative Assembly speaker in 2004 and Cabinet minister in 2009.

 

Both greatly contribute to regenerate future leaders without slipping through charismatic figure decadence. While the public are not familiar enough with PKS top-post figures compared to the late Gus Dur, Amien Rais or Megawati, its grassroot members are turning into devoted political machinery beyond doubt.

 

Second, the PKS is getting more inclusive. The PKS is undergoing quantum leaps of its ideological feature, going ahead of and breaking conservatism. It seems that being a "frog under a coconut shell" for years is no longer promising and inviting to broaden the political base in the future.

 

The PKS kicks off its vow to be an inclusive paradigm by opening the door for non-Muslims as party members and executives, and giving "a hug" to the United States.

 

In principle, inviting non-Muslims to be party insiders reveals the party's strategic communication approach to preclude established prejudices over the party image on the one side and confirm the party's universal and borderless struggle heedless of religious and cultural backdrops on the other.

 

Embracing the US is actually gaining momentum due to the "Obama factor". Despite his mild response to Gaza crises, the PKS still views Obama as strategic partner to build better relations with Muslims across the world.

 

As for the PKS members, such an inclusive approach aims to prepare them for getting used to polarized views with non-Muslim views and avoid them from being prone to gather in like-minded groups.

 

It is eventually expected the approach would keep ghettoized, polarized, and keep insular voters at bay in the next 2014 general election.

Third, the PKS stays firm in humanitarian advocacy and moral force movement. The public has long credited the PKS with the two strength points.

 

PKS volunteers are among the best disaster response team in Indonesia, exploring every avenue to supply humanitarian aid straight away to the affected people in Aceh, Ambon, Palu, Yogyakarta, Padang and even in Gaza.

 

Despite the debate over its moral moves, the PKS has been and is still first and foremost vying for moral principles strengthening, like urging the House of Representatives to pass the anti-porn law in 2008 and standing against any efforts to annul the blasphemy law this year in the country.

 

While much of the focus here has been on the tyranny of majority, the PKS believes that the two laws are in line with first principle of Pancasila and is needed for the nation's character building.

Slowly but surely, the PKS has transformed into a role model of a modern Islamic party and political institution.

 

Instead of wasting time and energy talking about and establishing the Islamic State in Indonesia, the PKS members are now busy themselves upgrading internal capacity, which in turn will bring about future-oriented political innovation.

If so, it is really only a matter of time before the PKS comes along with others as the pioneer of democracy, preaching the gospel of democracy in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

 

The writer is a lecturer at Andalas University, Padang. He graduated from the University of Canberra, Australia.

 

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THE JAKARTA POST

OPINION

PORK BARREL' IS UNDEMOCRATIC, CORRUPT-MINDED

IWAN GUNAWAN

 

After successfully "unseating" the pro-reform finance minister Sri Mulyani, the pro-status quo members of

 

parliament championed by politicians from the Golkar Party take no time in trying to regain political domination through means that have become the reason for their political existence — vote buying.

 

This time they want the public to directly finance their vote buying enterprise by allocating Rp 15 billion (US$1.7 million) of state funds per parliament member to "build" their constituents.

 

The concept of vote "buying" is actually one of the basic principles of modern democracy. But, the "buying" part is of course not the same concept as what a businessperson would do through a financial transaction.

 

An elected representative obtained a parliamentary seat through election with a mandate to represent the people, among others, through their role in appropriating the public budget together with the executive branch of the government.

 

The outcomes of such a representation in the budgeting process are government programs that target priorities as demanded by the people.

 

The aspiration of the people is captured through various consultative processes, albeit imperfect, prior to the approval of the government budget.

 

In a good functioning democracy, the programs will have no partisan labels but the public can attribute each program to an individual or bloc of politicians who sponsor, support and approve the program.

 

This is possible by looking at how each parliament member use their political capital in pushing for a particular funding bill.

 

The people will then re-elect parliament members who best represent their aspirations. Clearly, the vote "buying" here is not a financial transaction.

 

The proposed Dana Aspirasi Daerah (Local Aspiration Fund) by Golkar politicians is clearly against the above principle of democratic representation.

 

Instead of focusing their efforts on "big ticket items" such as reducing poverty, preventing subsidies from benefiting the rich, or repairing the country's ailing infrastructure and natural environment, the proponent of this "pork barrel" scheme chose to fight for securing petty cash that would enable them to literally buy votes to get themselves re-elected.

 

If such a scheme is ever approved, Indonesia will officially enter an era of "democracy by cash" joining the club of mediocre democracies like the Philippines.

 

Pork barrel scheme ideas, although occasionally come-and-go in many modern democracies including in the United States, are always viewed as corrupt-minded although corrupt doesn't always mean money going into individual pockets.

 

 In many established democracies where at one point in their history they had tried such a scheme, the terms used always have the connotation of "electoral bribery".

 

In pre-civil war America, pork barrel literally meant salted-pork given to slaves who won the fights among themselves so the master could continue controlling them. The British use the term political sweetener while the Czechs call it political goulash and the Polish use political sausage.

 

All of these terms clearly imply corrupt-minded ideas of giving a little cash favor to loyal supporters instead of giving everything for the benefit of the general electorate.

 

The proposed pork barrel scheme proposed by Golkar politicians is also against the spirit of regional autonomy.

 

First of all House of Representative members are not representing regions, although they are elected by political districts.

 

The proposal did not come from the House of Regional Representativesthat actually hold the political mandate to represent the regions.

 

 Of course the Constitution has not given the regional representatives the proper budgeting mandate.

 

Nevertheless we have never heard of an idea from members of the regional members to allocate funds for them to reward their own constituents. So the proposal does not reflect the wish of the regions.

 

Internationally, Indonesia is actually quite advanced in devolving power and resources to the regions through regional autonomy.

 

In addition to legally delegating powers to the regions, fiscal resources have been transferred to provincial and local governments through various schemes such as general allocation funds, special allocation funds, revenue sharing and more recently, funds for common responsibility.

 

The legislators can show their constituents that they are worth re-electing after ferociously fighting for their electoral districts to get a fair share of resources from these various schemes, and not for bringing Rp 15 billion that they have earmarked upfront.

 

As a matter of fact, the proposed Dana Aspirasi Daerah will reduce the amount of funds transferred to regions through the above existing schemes by Rp 8.4 trillion. This means that the proposed scheme is a rip off to the rights of the local parliaments that have the political mandate to decide on how funds for regions should be spent as local budgets.

 

It is an irony that despite Indonesia's notable progress in democracy, anti-corruption and regional autonomy, the old political forces continue to sing the same old status quo song.

 

But who knows, the new leadership of the Golkar Party may be so noble that they are actually on a secret mission to sacrifice their own political reputation just to educate the public not to be fooled by cheap political tricks.

 

Or, maybe they are just simply becoming so obsolete with their same old trick that it no longer works.


The writer teaches regional development studies at the University of Indonesia and the Bogor Institute of Agriculture.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

BUDDING DREAMS

 

Welfare schemes aimed at city residents are denied to them; they contribute silently to urban development, yet are kept away from its fruit, including homes that they can call their own.

 

China must pay closer attention to the problems faced by more than 100 million second-generation migrant workers in order to ensure social stability and deepen the trend of urbanization, a research group affiliated to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions urged on Monday.

 

This call to action is both urgent and timely.

 

These young workers, although born and brought up in cities, have still been labeled as rural migrant laborers despite the fact that it was their parents who had migrated to cities in search of jobs a generation earlier.

 

This group faces many problems their parents never encountered. For instance, members of this group are not registered citizens of urban areas. They are more often than not poorly paid workers toiling away at construction sites in cities or private factories in the country's booming coastal areas.

 

Welfare schemes aimed at city residents are denied to them; they contribute silently to urban development, yet are kept away from its fruit, including homes that they can call their own.

 

Still, they continue to dream of living and working in cities.

 

Research done by the China Youth Research Center in recent years has clearly shown that more than 50 percent of these second-generation migrant workers intend to settle down in the cities where they are currently working in.

 

This is in sharp contrast to the aspirations of their parents, who are content to retire to their native villages in their autumn years. In fact, a survey of rural migrant workers conducted by Tsinghua University in 1999 revealed that 89 percent of first-generation migrant workers wanted to return to their home villages to spend their remaining years.

 

The young migrant workers of today can actually be termed a floating generation, with no roots either in home villages or in urban areas.

 

The government must create better living conditions to ensure that this vital group is smoothly integrated into city life. This is essential for social harmony.

 

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CHINA DAILY

EDITORIAL

EDUCATION REFORM

 

An education reform initiative that the Politburo, the top decision-making body of the Communist Party of China, approved on Monday will go a long way in ensuring social progress in the coming years.

 

By pledging to increase public expenditure on education and promote fair distribution of educational resources, the Medium- and Long-term National Educational Reform and Development Plan (2010-20) has laid a solid foundation for China to develop into a powerhouse of human capital.

 

The huge demographic dividend that the nation enjoys has contributed mightily to making the Chinese economy stronger over the past three decades. However, its rapidly aging population means China will no longer be able to rely on ample supply of cheap young labor for economic growth.

 

Clearly, policymakers have realized that the revamp will sustain growth by bettering education and improving work force quality. This initiative is also a laudable first-step to streamline more public funds into the education sector.

 

According to the plan, government investment will increase steadily, with the ratio of education expenditure to gross domestic product touching 4 percent by 2012. The ratio stood at 3.48 percent in 2008.

 

Yet, compared with the average international level of 4.5 percent, such spending increase on education does not seem ambitious enough, and more needs to be done in this regard.

 

Concrete efforts are badly needed to shore up a sector that has long suffered from funding shortages and development mismatch between rural and urban areas.

 

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CHINA DAILY

OPED

PROTECT RIGHTS

 

Mental health institutions are thoroughly capable of maintaining order on their own premises. No reports have emerged about hospitalized patients threatening public order. Therefore, police intervention, as many view it, is largely redundant.

 

The government has unveiled an ambitious program to revamp or expand 550 mental health institutions to hospitalize those suffering from mental problems.

 

The move, although welcome, has been tainted by association with public security safeguards following a recent top-level meeting of concerned departments that had put "comprehensive administration" of public security high on its agenda.

 

The emphasis, as is evident from media reports, is on preventing any threat to society from those who are suffering from mental health problems. The logic, though understandable, has led to justifiable suspicion.

 

Although experts have called on relevant authorities to take into account psychosis as a pervasive medical, and increasingly social, phenomenon, the close cooperation being urged between mental health institutions and public security departments has fanned fears of civil rights abuse.

 

The conference has obligated mental homes to "closely cooperate" with relevant law enforcement departments.

 

This is certainly worrying.

 

Mental health institutions are thoroughly capable of maintaining order on their own premises. No reports have emerged about hospitalized patients threatening public order. Therefore, police intervention, as many view it, is largely redundant.

 

The undefined nature of "cooperation" certainly has the potential to infringe upon civil liberties, as evidenced by multiple instances wherein perfectly sane citizens have been thrown into mental asylums just because they had dared to question high-handed officials.

 

In order to ensure that no citizen is wrongly labeled "mentally ill" and confined to a mental health institution, such cooperation must be subject to extremely strict oversight, by qualified health professionals as well as the lay public.

 

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CHINA DAILY

OPED

TOMB RAIDERS AND DESTRUCTION OF HISTORY

BY MAGNUS FISKESJO (CHINA DAILY)

 

China's cultural heritage is not just a matter for China. It is also world heritage. Its protection is in the interest of the whole world.

 

As a foreign scholar of Chinese archeology, when asked if ancient tombs like that of the historical figure, general Cao Cao (AD 155 - 220), of the Three Kingdoms period (AD 220-280), or of Qin Shi Huang (259 -210 BC), the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) should be opened or not, the first answer has to be that it is a question that only the Chinese can answer.

 

But China's cultural heritage is not just a matter for China. It is also world heritage. Its protection is in the interest of the whole world. Thus, everyone would hope that any such work should be sanctioned and supervised by China's own expert archeologists and its State Administration of Cultural Heritage. It is vital that archeological experts have the final say over priorities, especially since the resources for scientific archeology are limited.

 

When an archeological site is discovered, it is not just individual artifacts that are important, but the layout of the site, the arrangement of objects, the plant and animal remains, and other aspects that are often overlooked or even invisible to nonspecialists, who also, because of ignorance, often contaminate such remains. That's why it is important to allow expert archeologists to set priorities and carry out the work. Otherwise, all the potential knowledge about our heritage can be lost forever.

 

The excitement over the discovery of Cao Cao's tomb, investigated since 2008, is understandable because he is a very famous historical figure. It is no surprise that research resources are being allocated to carefully investigate the site. But there is also reason for widespread regret across China and beyond. Media reports say robbers raided the tomb before it could be investigated properly.

 

When tomb robbers ravage a site, their goal is to take things they can sell to antique smugglers, dealers and collectors. For every item they can lay their hands on, they trample 10 others. This is in addition to disturbing the site's original arrangement, and contaminating the remains.

 

I have heard reports that more and more tomb robbers are using the latest technology to achieve their goals. In one case, for example, the tomb diggers were said to be receiving directives from city-based smugglers by sending them photographs taken on mobile phone as "progress reports".

 

Such looters and middle-men should of course be arrested and punished. But they are not the key problem. Much more important is the issue of the market and the buyers of these antiques, without whom the looting would not take place. Every time a dealer or a private collector buys an item recently taken from an archeological site, he/she contributes to the destruction of the heritage of China, and the world, even if that particular piece is wonderfully intact. In reality, it is an orphan deprived of its "family history", violently torn out of its original setting.

 

Many collectors do not want to believe this. They are mesmerized by a singular piece, for they have not seen the heart-breaking damage done by tomb robbers with their own eyes (it happens out of view, in the darkness). If pressed, they might come up with the usual arguments about how "if I did not buy it, someone else would", or even "it is better that a Chinese rather than a foreign collector owns an ancient Chinese object".

 

But this is dubious, since whoever would own such a piece, the damage to its site of origin is irreparable. It destroys the possibility to learn about our history. It also destroys the potential for local tourism development. To me, it seems that China needs more publicity about the ongoing destruction of sites such as Cao Cao's tomb, and the accompanying loss of knowledge.

 

Alongside the antique shopping shows on TV, there could be programs that highlight this destruction. One could make arrested robbers walk the sites with reporters, under experts' guidance, and explain the damage they have done and reveal the names of persons who paid them to do it. Similar tell-all shows could be conducted with dealers who knowingly sell recently stolen items. One could interview collectors, and ask them to reflect on the sad consequences of their activity.

 

In Western countries, the most effective medicine against the pretense of innocence in looted objects' trade was the shock a few years ago, when Italian police broke up the Medici smuggler ring selling looted Mediterranean antiquities to major museums in the US. Their notebooks and Polaroid photographs told the shameful story. Most of these museums are now publicly committed to not buying recently looted objects, and the morality of collecting archeological objects has come under debate.

 

Perhaps a similar measure in China could shake up the market, so that it would no longer be honorable, but shameful, to own a recently looted piece of antiquity.

 

The author is professor of anthropology at Cornell University, New York, and former director of Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden.

 

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CHINA DAILY

OPED

TIME US GAVE THE YUAN A BREAK

BY XU LI (CHINA DAILY)

 

WTO multilateral trade rules provide the legislative realm for measures to address trade disputes, and the legal

action the US is seeking to restrict China is not in line with the WTO rules.

 

The issue of China's foreign exchange mechanism has remained on the political agenda of the US for some years now and has popped up from time to time, eroding bilateral ties. Since the beginning of this year, the US has been pressing China to revaluate the yuan. Some US senators allege that its foreign exchange rate has been manipulated to keep the yuan's value low.

 

The latest US attempt is centered on how to link the so-called Chinese currency problem to its America's internal legal framework. In other words, it wants to lay down the legal basis for imposing anti-dumping and countervailing measures on Chinese imports for the so-called currency manipulation.

 

WTO multilateral trade rules provide the legislative realm for measures to address trade disputes, and the legal action the US is seeking to restrict China is not in line with the WTO rules. The WTO anti-dumping rules are aimed at imposing sanctions against dumping by private parties. The countervailing rules are aimed at sanctioning against member states providing illegal subsidies to their specific industries.

 

In China, the foreign exchange mechanism is decided by the government and has nothing to do with private parties. Since private parties in all industries have to follow this foreign exchange arrangement, no specific industry can be identified as the beneficiary of a "special currency treatment".

 

Besides, China does not tie its foreign exchange policy to its export sector's performance, and importers and exporters follow the same exchange policy.

 

Currency manipulation is a legal term in the IMF's Articles of Association which governs the relationship between the IMF and its member states, and does not appear in the WTO framework. The IMF has the legal power to impose sanctions on its member states that contravene the Articles of Association, which means member states do not have the right to impose sanctions on each other for violation of the Articles of Association.

 

So the US has no right to impose restrictions on other IMF member states for currency manipulation. If it does so, it would override the IMF's jurisdiction. On the other hand, the IMF won't delegate its judicial authority to member states. So America's restrictive action against China's currency regime can't be justified under WTO rules, even though the WTO gives way to IMF decisions on foreign exchange matters.

 

In essence, America's proposed legal action against China on the currency issue can be described as an attempt to use trade remedy weapons offered by the WTO to curb the so-called violations of the IMF obligations. In doing so, the US is overriding the IMF's judicial right, increasing China's obligations under the WTO to include the IMF obligations, and abusing its trade remedy right under the WTO.

 

Though the WTO pursues free trade, its current rules reflect a mixture of free trade and trade protection. Apart from the trade remedy rights, WTO rules provide member states with various other protective means which constitute exceptional clauses, such as the balance of payment exception that allows a member to restrict imports if its balance of payment sinks into a critical situation.

 

Besides, the discriminatory China-specific trade measures in the WTO rules unfortunately push the WTO toward the protectionist track and give other member states a better chance of guarding against imports from China.

 

We can't help wondering why the US doesn't resort to all the protective, or even protectionist weapons that the current WTO framework offers to settle the so-called Chinese currency problem it has been severely criticizing.

 

The possible answer is that either the US is not satisfied with the present weapons or it does not qualify for such weapons and that it needs a new weapon, easy to use and effective than ever.

 

What we will see next is the US hesitating to sue China in WTO, and prefering sanctions in its own territory or bilateral negotiations when necessary.

 

The author is director of Policy Review Division, Beijing WTO Affairs Center.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

EDITORIAL

FUTILE PARLEYS

 

A sudden flurry of politically important meetings turn up to fuel optimism of a breakthrough to end the deadlock. The only highlight had been the three-point agreement penned in the late hours of May 28 for the extension of the tenure of the Constituent Assembly (CA). It might be called a sort of a safe landing despite the usual adamant stance of the UCPN (Maoist). Now, more than three weeks have elapsed since that understanding, but the real task of implementing the deal is nowhere in sight. Every now and then inter-party meets take place but inevitably they end on an inconclusive note. The latest in the list was the talks between the Maoist and Nepali Congress (NC) leaders which followed the path. Now, the UCPN (M) and CPN (UML) seem to be seeing eye-to-eye on the implementation of the May 28 pact. But, that has to bring the NC into the fold also. NC is obviously known to object to the tactics of the Maoists, and, as a consequence, the deadlock has remained as is where is. The PM's resignation demand of the Maoists cannot come first because the formation of the national unity government requires the pre-requisites to be fulfilled in the form of the demands made upon them by the NC and other parties. On this score, the Maoists do not want to bend the rules that they have created on their own which are in no way conducive to the major political parties coming together. The give-and-take policy is what can make the political game move smoothly in the interest of all. Flexibility in name alone cannot clinch the deal now.

 

Even as this ranting is going on, the budget presentation aspect is being pushed into the backstage. This can in no way augur well for the people and the country. With time running short, the pre-budget discussions that are so necessary to set the thrust for the next fiscal year is already on the wish list. With the Maoists coming out in the open to thwart the budget presentation, it is all on making a mockery of the very democratic set up that has seen the UCPN (M) becoming the largest represented party in the CA. This stubborn posture will possibly lead to a repeat performance of last year's budget session. Dislike of the present coalition government is alright, but to make the whole country suffer cannot be justified in any manner. And, this is what the Maoists seem to be heading for through not only their rhetoric but also by the way they have not agreed on the date to be announced for the budget session to be summoned.

 

The parties must see reason at a time when the country seems to be going downhill on all the fronts. Despite what is evident, the political parties particularly the Maoists do not have the desire to work in the interest of the people. If the Maoists want they can do the needful to break the ice, but they are not doing anything that is beneficial. The CA's term has been extended but no business has been recorded. When PM Madhav Kumar Nepal is willing to resign if the certain requirements materialize, it makes no sense on the UCPN (M) to continue on the same old stance that is not result-oriented and in the interest of the people in general

 

THANK THE RAIN

 

For the last couple of years the power outages have been a source of major hardship for the people. Virtually all sectors have been adversely affected by them. Industries have been forced to close down or operate below capacity, not to talk about the students being compelled to study under candle light. Lack of adequate water in the rivers has been blamed for compelling the authorities to enforce the power outages. Occasionally, the closing down of hydro-electricity plants for repairs have lengthened the duration of the load shedding ordeal. As if this was not enough, there is little being done to build more hydel plants. If things continue to remain as now then the country would have to bear power outages for protracted periods for years to come.

 

Fortunately, now with some rain the rivers again have some more water as a result of which the power outages period has been reduced and the people will now have to bear with about five hours without lights in a day. However, one shudders to think about what one has to undergo again when there is no or little rainfall. We certainly are very dependent on the vagaries of nature.

 

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THE HIMALAYAN

THE BARGAIN TOUCH

NEELU SUBEDI

 

The mango season is here once again to the delight of the palate. Now, with the rise in the temperature, mangoes become cheaper and cheaper. The green and yellow lavish mangoes are mouth watering every time you have it. Different varieties are sold by the fruit vendors. These mangoes are either brought from the Terai or from India and unlike other fruits they are not imported from elsewhere.

 

Last Tuesday, I had gone to Baneshwor intending to buy a few kilos of mangoes. Fruit vendors were there in their busiest hour. I slowly went to one of them who seemed to reflect innocence from his face, and who most probably was thinking how fresh looking the mangoes which he brought from Balkhu early in the morning were. His face looked tired and his eyes were speaking a thousand words.

 

His face posed questions for me as to whether or not he would be able to sell all those mangoes, what he would take back, what his profits would turn out to be and what he would do to make his family happy. He smiled looking at me before I asked him how much the mangoes cost. He said Rs. 50 per kg. I was annoyed at hearing the price because apparently there was no difference in the price of other mangoes to the one lying in his basket which looked much more yellowish and fresh.

 

I made up my mind to take those fresh and enticing mangoes, and I started the bargain game. Bargaining, in fact, gives a kind of self-satisfaction to ladies and they simply love doing it. Finally, I came up with a bargain of Rs 40 per kilo. I asked him to weigh seven kilos of mangoes and paid him accordingly. I hurriedly got them to my scooter and was on my way home .

 

All of sudden, something struck my mind. I went to a shop where I usually buy kitchen items. I took the mangoes out of my scooter and asked the shopkeeper to weigh them on his electronic weighing machine. Everyone there were shocked to know that the mangoes weighed only five and half kilos. Now, that vendor's face that had looked so innocent to me came to my mind.

 

I then realised the real meaning of bargaining and why people bargain so much with the fruit vendors. Tough bargaining is trouble, but the fruits have a better flavour for the money that you pay.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

EDITORIAL

VIGILANCE, THE PRICE OF PEACE

 

Initially one thought the explosives have been planted by some party with vested interests.

 

After all they could serve both local and regional interests of many.

 

However the latest intelligence reports indicate a flurry of activity by what is left of the LTTE in South India and Sri Lanka.

 

Surely those who are demanding a government in exile know for a fact that the transnational government for Eelamists will remain a dream if the peaceful atmosphere continues in Sri Lanka for long.

 

Despite the hiccups in the process of resettlement and rehabilitation, the life in the North is back on track.  In

about three year's time it will be a totally different region with better infrastructure, schools and other facilities. Nobody will talk about the LTTE or external self-determination once the people are convinced of a secure and stable future.

 

Hence, the desperation by Eelamists to create chaos and buckle up all the plans.

 

For them as they did with the case of the LTTE child soldiers, it does not matter even if this means bringing back misery to the lives of fellow Tamils in the North and the East.

 

The red alert forces and police, here and in Tamil Nadu have so far prevented any major incident although there had been sporadic explosions occasionally injuring a person or two.

 

Sri Lanka surely is extremely fortunate to have wiped out almost the entire military hierarchy of the LTTE, of course due to Prabhakaran's decision to remain in Mullaitivu till the last moment along with his seniors.

 

Still it is a feat that no other country has achieved in the recent past. What happens usually is that either the governments fail to contain the terrorists or the terror leaders flee to nearby countries the moment the fights intensified.

 

That way Sri Lanka has been extremely fortunate.

 

Despite a year of almost complete non-violence, which the entire country has now taken for granted, it goes without saying that peace is not something that any one can take for granted.After all the sophisticated network of the LTTE included so many players and nations that it is unlikely that they all have unanimously agreed to give up their goal after May 2009. The manner the LTTE military was crushed here certainly went on to demoralize the entire network and would definitely have made most of the supporters to give up the hopes of a separate state.

 

Still given the vigour with which the LTTE diaspora leaders forge forward with their transnational government campaign it is evident that there are quite a few who would do anything to get Eelam – even if that means bringing back misery to the lives of the people in the North and East.

 

Though nobody wants to ring alarm bells and create panic the latest reports have once again emphasized the need for the public to be on alert. That is still too smaller price to pay for the peace benefits the Sri Lankans have been reaping since May 2009.Eternal vigilance as the saying goes is the price of liberty and it is still not a very big price to pay.

 

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DAILY MIRROR

OPINION

 

 

CHALLENGES FOR MINISTERS OF EDUCATION

 

The two education ministers, S.B.Dissanayake and Bandula Gunawardena who seem to be equally eager to bring about radical reforms in the national education system face a whole range of acute problems and controversies today. These issues are not of recent origin, but those that have got complex and complicated over the years as a result of the failure of successive governments to approach issues objectively and to pursue remedial steps with a view to establishing a truly national system of education.

 

The present system of education that seems to be adrift like a ship without proper direction or destination, has caused numerous problems to students, teachers and officials. It has undoubtedly been the lopsided, haphazard and unwise decisions and politically motivated measures that some governments had adopted from time to time that have brought about this situation. The continuous closure of schools built throughout the country by dedicated organizations and generous donors;  the parents' perpetual struggle for school admissions; the fall in standards of student discipline; rarity of dedicated and qualified teachers; frequent conflicts in universities where party politics reign supreme; high rate of failures at public examinations; the inability of the university system to absorb all qualified students and a host of other shortcomings and inadequacies show the prevailing disarray in the education system.

 

Among the controversies that Higher Education Minister Dissanayake is grappling with today are, the reduction of the period of the Allied Sciences Degree course to three years and the move to open the field of university education to foreign universities. Both these proposals are vehemently opposed by the Inter-University Students Federation (IUSF). While the minister is bent on proceeding with these moves, the IUSF is equally determined to defeat both. The IUSF has, as usual, organized public protests and demonstrations to thwart the moves. Deputy Higher Education Minister Nandimithra Ekanayake had to face these demonstrations as he assumed duties in the ministry. In a show of flexibility on that occasion, he agreed to discuss the issue with a few representatives of the IUSF. Having invited the student representatives, the deputy minister called a high UGC official to join him in the discussion. But his effort failed as the official refused to participate. The deputy minister, however, had to assuage the students with a promise to give an opportunity to discuss the matter immediately after the new minister assumed duties. The promise was fulfilled but the discussion was abortive since both parties were sticking to their guns.

 

The issue of permitting foreign universities to open institutions here is even more controversial and involves major policy changes. Minister Dissanayke's position is that the opening of gates to foreign universities would provide opportunities for thousands of students who fail to get admission to state universities to pursue higher education. He points out that affluent parents send their children abroad for education in foreign universities while the children of the disadvantaged are left high and dry.  Only about 17 percent of qualified students could be accommodated in the country's universities.  Those opposing this contention accuse the authorities of attempting to destroy  free education thus causing social disparities to get worse.   

 

These arguments and counter arguments point to the need for objective, dispassionate and prudent examination and discussion of issues among parties to these controversies and experts on these matters. What has to be avoided, in any event, is the adoption of acrimonious and confrontationist methods to settle these issues. The unfortunate thing, however, is that even these issues that have to be treated as national policy matters placing them above divisive politics are thrown to the arena of party politics. 

 

The discussions conducted in the media demonstrate the extent to which political party prejudices have contaminated these issues. In a discussion on these matters conducted recently by a certain radio channel where Deputy Minister Ekanayake and IUSF convener Udul Premarathna participated, it was narrow political matters rather than educational aspects that dominated the discussion. The deputy minister accused Premarathna of attempting to use these issues for political purposes of the JVP to which IUSF is affiliated and questioned Premarathna's right to represent the student community since his studentship had been rescinded. Premarathna's argument was that the cancellation of his studentship was not done on a justifiable basis.  

 

The discussion, however, was not completely bereft of relevant contents. Premarathna's contention was that the existing universities have the capacity to accommodate more students if they are properly organized. On the question of reduction of the period of the degree course, his charge was that the decision had been made without proper discussion with relevant parties as required by the Supreme Court order. However, the flexible attitude of the deputy minister on that occasion raised hopes for resolving these issues through discussion and negotiation.

 

As Minister Dissanayake points out there is urgent need for meaningful measures to infuse a higher sense of responsibility into student unions in the universities. If the present state of things is allowed to continue with students resorting to violence, the lofty ideals of raising the level of education in this country will remain an unrealised dream.

 

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