EDITORIAL : THE GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA

 

Law will not concede before maverick

Ai Weiwei, known as an avant-garde artist, was said to have been detained recently. Some Western governments and human rights institutions soon called for the immediate release of Ai Weiwei, claiming it to be China's "human rights deterioration" while regarding Ai Weiwei as "China's human rights fighter."

It is reckless collision against China's basic political framework and ignorance of China's judicial sovereignty to exaggerate a specific case in China and attack China with fierce comments before finding out the truth. The West's behavior aims at disrupting the attention of Chinese society and attempts to modify the value system of the Chinese people.

Ai Weiwei is an activist. As a maverick of Chinese society, he likes "surprising speech" and "surprising behavior." He also likes to do something ambiguous in law. On April 1, he went to Taiwan via Hong Kong. But it was reported his departure procedures were incomplete.

Ai Weiwei likes to do something "others dare not do." He has been close to the red line of Chinese law. Objectively speaking, Chinese society does not have much experience in dealing with such persons. However, as long as Ai Weiwei continuously marches forward, he will inevitably touch the red line one day.

In such a populous country as China, it is normal to have several people like Ai Weiwei. But it is also normal to control their behaviors by law. In China, it is impossible to have no persons like Ai Weiwei or no "red line" for them in law.

The West ignored the complexity of China's running judicial environment and the characteristics of Ai Weiwei's individual behavior. They simply described it as China's "human rights suppression."

"Human rights" have really become the paint of Western politicians and the media, with which they are wiping off the fact in this world.

"Human rights" are seen as incompatible things with China's great economic and social progress by the West. It is really a big joke. Chinese livelihood is developing, the public opinion no longer follows the same pattern all the time and "social justice" has been widely discussed. Can these be denied? The experience of Ai Weiwei and other mavericks cannot be placed on the same scale as China's human rights development and progress.

Ai Weiwei chooses to have a different attitude from ordinary people toward law. However, the law will not concede before "mavericks" just because of the Western media's criticism.

Ai Weiwei will be judged by history, but he will pay a price for his special choice, which is the same in any society. China as a whole is progressing and no one has power to make a nation try to adapt to his personal likes and dislikes, which is different from whether rights of the minority are respected.

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

 

Goal of 25% cut in emissions should be withdrawn quickly

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Vice Environment Minister Hideki Minamikawa has indicated that Japan's target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, including "the time frame and the size of the cut," will be "subject to review."
His remarks came after a slew of accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Given the uncertain situation at the nuclear plant, we think Minamikawa's remark--made as vice minister at the ministry tasked with promoting measures to fight global warming--is appropriate.
A nuclear power plant emits little carbon dioxide when generating electricity. Nuclear power is an essential energy source for any attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In its basic energy plan, the government said it would raise the operating rate of the nation's nuclear power plants to 85 percent by 2020 from about 65 percent in 2009, and construct nine new nuclear reactors.
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Difficult to stick to policies
However, given the ongoing problems at the Fukushima plant, we must say it has become difficult, at least for the time being, to implement these policies, which would have been prerequisites for reducing CO2 emissions by a quarter.
To make up for the power shortage caused by the shutdown of the Fukushima plant, the nation might have to raise its dependency on thermal power plants, which emit more CO2 than nuclear plants, and other energy sources.
These developments will have a major bearing on the source and amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced in this country. Accordingly, we think the government first needs to retract its commitment to cut emissions by 25 percent. It also should review its overall energy policy and reexamine what a realistic reduction target would be.
Then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced the plan for a 25 percent emissions cut to the world before he had even secured a domestic consensus on the matter.
Hatoyama declared Japan's commitment was premised on building a fair framework for reductions by all major gas-emitters--including China and the United States, the two largest emitters--and on all major economies reaching an agreement on ambitious targets. Yet the reality is that Japan's numerical target has taken on a life of its own.
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Reconstruction at risk
One estimate said if Japan alone reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent, efforts such as making more energy-efficient facilities would cost 9.6 trillion yen a year. Yet business sectors have been up in arms over this plan because they believe it would adversely affect economic activity.
Revitalizing the economy will be crucial for reconstructing areas damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Insisting on sticking to the 25 percent target could hinder these rebuilding efforts.
The accidents at the Fukushima nuclear plant will affect the crafting of a new framework that will succeed the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. After all, if nations involved in this process change their nuclear power policies, their emission targets also will need to be recalculated.
New emission-reduction rules are expected to be agreed on at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held at the end of this year. If Japan adheres to the goal of a 25 percent cut, it would be forced to shoulder extremely disadvantageous reduction obligations.
That is reason enough for the 25 percent reduction target to be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Prosecutorial reform must reflect outside opinion

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Prosecutorial reform must be carried out at the initiative of the prosecutors, but outside opinions, however harsh, should be considered with wholehearted sincerity.

An expert panel, established in the wake of a series of irregularities involving a special squad of prosecutors at the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, has compiled a report listing recommendations and handed it to Justice Minister Satsuki Eda.

In examining how prosecutors should carry out their duties, the panel called on the judicial and prosecutorial authorities to conduct a sweeping review of their functions, ranging from organization to investigative methods.

In 2009, the prosecutors arrested and indicted Atsuko Muraki, a former director general with the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, in connection with a postal discount abuse scandal, although she was innocent. The prosecutor in charge of the postal abuse case tampered with evidence, and his misconduct was allegedly covered up by his superiors. The incident revealed structural faults within the prosecutorial system.

The special squad of prosecutors ignored their mission of "elucidating the truth based on law and justice" out of a desire to establish a case against a senior bureaucrat of a central government office. They resorted to coercive investigation methods repeatedly, such as trying to obtain depositions that fit their storylines.

Senior prosecutors of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office as well as the Osaka High Public Prosecutors Office and the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office approved the arrest and indictment of Muraki without recognizing how thin their case was.

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Monitoring function required

It was natural for the panel to place priority on bolstering the functions needed to monitor the investigation process.

To improve transparency, it proposed the establishment of a system in which outsiders would be encouraged to offer advice and a department to accept and deal with complaints about interrogations.

The panel also proposed transferring the right to indict to prosecutors not belonging to a special investigation squad. Up to now, cases undertaken by a special squad are conducted under the guidance of the lead prosecutor. As a result, evidence is often not given the thorough assessment it should receive.

Based on the panel's recommendations, the judicial and prosecutorial authorities must carry out drastic reforms as quickly as possible.

Prosecutors must ensure their investigations bring perpetrators to justice, and that the rights of suspects and defendants are protected.

Audio and visual recordings of closed-door interrogations are effective methods to prevent false charges. But police and prosecutors are concerned that recording all questions and answers during the interrogation process will make it more difficult to arrive at the truth.

To what degree could such recordings be permitted so as not to affect investigations? We suggest the prosecutors carry them out on a trial basis in various cases involving special investigation squads.

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Don't depend on depositions

The excessive emphasis placed on depositions in investigations and trials also should be examined. It is important to look into methods of investigation to establish cases that do not necessarily depend on depositions.

A plea bargain system exists in some countries under which punishment is reduced if a defendant admits a charge. It is unclear whether Japanese society would accept such a system.

The panel proposed the establishment of a forum to discuss such institutional reforms as well as legislative preparations for the adoption of audio and visual recordings of interrogations.

We hope the judicial and prosecutorial authorities discuss reforms from a wide perspective while listening to the voice of the people.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

 

Social mobility: hopes and dreams

Nick Clegg's plan to make internships transparent is all very well, but for the government's real priorities, follow the money

It is easier to identify practices that block social mobility than policies that produce it. The sort of thing that does not help is the recent Conservative fundraising auction at which rich parents purchased internships for their children at top City firms. Less shaming but more typical are the three-month unpaid internships flagged on the Liberal Democrat website. As with voluntary experience on offer in barristers' chambers and other top workplaces, any graduate can apply, but graduates whose parents have large London homes and the means to support them will be more likely to do so.
Nick Clegg yesterday published a plan making the welcome if modest suggestion that Whitehall internships will be advertised properly, not dished out via family connections of the sort that he was immediately and churlishly taunted for having relied on in his youth. Beyond SW1, it is hoped that businesses will volunteer to untangle themselves from the old boy net. A few have made that promise, but there is no obligation on others to follow suit.
Internships can only be one tiny part of a response to the social sclerosis that politicians of all stripes routinely lament. Mr Clegg's document was similar in tone to several that Gordon Brown published. While the evidence on whether mobility is worsening is mixed, it is plainly too low, and that needs to be said. But what matters is how words translate to deeds. The cabinet's offer to go into schools and give pep talks to teens was deemed to merit a special box in the strategy paper, suggesting that real policies were in short supply. The Lib Dem funding premium for poor pupils has a valuable role, although in this climate it is more about alleviating the cuts than anything positive.
Steps up the class ladder take place over entire generations, so five-year governments know they cannot be judged by results. The Telegraph enthusiastically reported that the issue was as much middle-class kids as the deprived, and it seems mobility talk can mean all things to all men. The BBC's gently teasing brainbox Evan Davis asked minister David Willetts whether the plan amounted to the hope that all government policies would work well.
To see where the real priorities lie, follow the money. A decent settlement was this week offered on pensions, even though the elderly are as unlikely to climb the class ladder as they are likely to vote. Meanwhile, from today, working families will see tax credits snatched away faster as they earn, child benefit frozen and a huge cut in childcare support. The message of yesterday's separate strategy on child poverty was that there is more to life than cash. That's as may be, but for poor parents hoping their children might do rather better, every little helps.

In praise of… academic Wikipedians

Fresh means must be found to lure big brains into the world's biggest seminar

Net evangelists are most persuasive when they talk of tearing down barriers to knowledge – of a world where a farmhand can pick up a cheap laptop and freely pick from the freshest fruits of the human mind. A Library of Alexandria in which all humanity held a card would indeed be an institution worthy of Plato's Republic; but try to access contemporary scholarship with the actual web and you get tangled up. While the stated aim of academic journals is disseminating ideas, they throw barbed wire around themselves and keep the interested public out. If charges were needed to keep scholarly bodies and souls together this might be necessary, but contributors, referees and even editors are frequently unpaid. Experts publish in big-name journals to advance their careers, but they are reliably happy to email a PDF to anyone who asks for one, recognising this as the only way to get their papers read. Perhaps the ivory-tower publishing racket will one day come crashing down. In the meantime academics serious about public erudition must consider their options. Wikipedia offers them the same opportunity, and poses the same frustrations, as it does for everyone else. Many heroes do chip in for anonymous glory, as is evident from the briefest glance at the best of the entries. But too few scientists and particularly literary scholars are willing, so Wikipedia is undertaking a survey to get to the bottom of their reticence. Fresh means must be found to lure big brains into the world's biggest seminar.

Goldstone report: the unanswered questions

Indiscriminate warfare, as opposed to deliberate killing, was undoubtedly Israel's state policy

It is difficult, in this digital world of instant claim and rebuttal, to say that you were wrong. But Richard Goldstone's retraction of one of the claims of the report that he chaired – that Israel targeted civilians in the war on Gaza as a matter of policy – is one such instance. Mr Goldstone deserves credit for honesty. It is another matter altogether to decide whether all the other claims of a 575-page report are now invalidated. The Goldstone report was a fact-finding mission, not a judicial inquiry. It was not a document of verdict, but put forward evidence for further investigation. So which facts caused Mr Goldstone to retract? Three, principally: that the shelling of a home in which 22 members of one family died was the consequence of an Israeli commander's erroneous interpretation of a drone image; that the officer was still under investigation; and that Israel has since investigated over 400 allegations of operational misconduct. Had he known then what he knows now, he concludes, the report would have been very different.
Two of the three other members of the mission disagree with their former chairman's change of heart. Hina Jilani, who served on a similar fact-finding mission on Darfur, said that nothing changed the substance of the original report, and Desmond Travers, an expert on international criminal investigations, still feels the tenor of the report stands "in its entirety". Mr Goldstone has parted company with the other members of his mission. It is therefore worth returning to the original report. The retracted allegation refers to the attack which killed 22 members of the Samouni family, who, following instructions from Israeli soldiers, were sheltering in a house in Zeitoun. But there are 35 other incidents that Goldstone's team investigated. It found seven cases where civilians were shot leaving their homes waving white flags; a direct and intentional attack on a hospital which may amount to a war crime; numerous incidents where ambulances were prevented from attending to the severely injured; nine attacks on civilian infrastructure with no military significance, such as flour mills, chickens farms, sewage works and water wells – all part of a campaign to deprive civilians of basic necessities. The key paragraph of the report states: "The Mission finds that the conduct of the Israeli armed forces constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention in respect of wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons and as such give rise to individual criminal responsibility." On the Samouni killings it states that even if it amounted to an operational error and the mission concludes that a mistake was made, "state responsibility of Israel for an internationally wrongful act" would remain. All of this still stands, as does the charge that Hamas's rockets deliberately targeted Israeli civilians.
Clear to one side the superheated flak of the debate today. It arises from Israel's current international isolation, of which the Gaza operation formed only a part. It is now said that the Goldstone report became the cornerstone of a campaign to delegitimise Israel. None of this is relevant to what happened in Gaza between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, events which led to the deaths of 1,396 Palestinians, 763 of whom, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, were not taking part in hostilities when they were killed. The report did not in fact claim that Israel set out deliberately to murder civilians. It said that Operation Cast Lead was "deliberately disproportionate" and intended to "punish, humiliate and terrorise". That charge stands unanswered. Indiscriminate warfare, as opposed to deliberate killing, was undoubtedly state policy. Shooting the messenger is always easier than dealing with the message itself. This time, the messenger had the grace to shoot himself. It does not change what happened in Gaza, nor what will happen the next time war breaks out.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

 

The Budget Battles: Republicans Maneuver Toward a Shutdown

The House Republicans on Tuesday made it clear to anyone who had missed it that they are not interested in a deal on the current federal budget. In a meeting at the White House, they rejected a deal to get through the next six months. President Obama, silent for too long on this fight, emerged from the meeting to say that he would tolerate no more ideological gamesmanship. But the Republicans, if anything, only increased their demands, and a government shutdown seemed likely to begin on Friday.

That the Republicans are not interested simply in reducing the deficit was made clear when the House Budget Committee chairman, Paul Ryan, released his budget plan for 2012 on the same day as the talks to finish the 2011 budget were falling apart. It was less a budget-balancing effort than a press release for the 2012 elections. Similarly, the party’s refusal to accept Mr. Obama’s overly generous budget offer for this year makes clear that its leaders prefer a shutdown to abandoning their ideological crusade to abolish their least favorite government programs.
If their goal was to reduce spending, they would have accepted the Democrats’ offer to cut $33 billion out of the budget for the next six months — the same amount as Republican leaders had originally requested before Tea Party members forced them to double it earlier this year. As the president noted, that offer constitutes the largest cut to domestic discretionary spending in history.
But Speaker John Boehner and his negotiating team have continually moved the end zone. They spurned the specific cuts proposed by the Democrats because they did not end the programs reviled by the Republicans, including education improvements, health care reform and infrastructure rebuilding. They now want a total of $40 billion, a target that just emerged on Tuesday.
After meeting with the Republicans, Mr. Obama suggested with some bitterness that they were still trying to score political points, demanding victories on abortion or gutting environmental regulation to keep the government open. He made it clear that that was not acceptable, and neither are demands to cut 60,000 Head Start teaching positions, or medical research, or other items that are vital to many Americans and the fragile economic recovery.
There will still be a few more meetings before the shutdown deadline, but leaders on both sides say they are more pessimistic about reaching agreement. The public may need to rely on the pain of an actual shutdown to bring radical House lawmakers back to reality. 

The Budget Battles: Prosperity for Whom?

If the House Republican budget blueprint released on Tuesday is the “path to prosperity” that its title claims, it is hard to imagine what ruin would look like.

The plan would condemn millions to the ranks of the uninsured, raise health costs for seniors and renege on the obligation to keep poor children fed. It envisions lower taxes for the wealthy than even George W. Bush imagined: a permanent extension for his tax cuts, plus large permanent estate-tax cuts, a new business tax cut and a lower top income tax rate for the richest taxpayers.

Compared to current projections, spending on government programs would be cut by $4.3 trillion over 10 years, while tax revenues would go down by $4.2 trillion. So spending would be eviscerated, mainly to make room for continued tax cuts.

The deficit would be smaller, but at an unacceptable cost. Health care would be hardest hit, followed by nonsecurity discretionary spending — the sliver of the budget that encompasses annually appropriated programs. Those include education, scientific research, environmental preservation, investor protection, disease control, food safety, federal law enforcement and other areas that bear directly on the quality of Americans’ daily lives. The proposed cuts in such programs are $923 billion deeper than President Obama called for in his 2012 budget, which pushed the edge of what is politically possible.

Another big cut — $715 billion over 10 years — comes from mandatory spending other than Social Security and the big health care programs, a category that includes food stamps and federal retirement.

The blueprint does not call for any specific changes to Social Security, but, without explanation, it assumes a reduction of $1 trillion over 10 years in the program’s surplus. That would weaken the program by hastening the insolvency of Social Security.

When he unveiled this plan, Paul Ryan, a Republican of Wisconsin and the chairman of the House Budget Committee, declared, “This isn’t a budget. This is a cause.”

There is much truth in that. The blueprint is not a serious deficit reduction exercise for many reasons, the most important of which is that serious deficit reduction requires everything to be on the table, including tax increases. The plan released at the end of last year by the Obama deficit commission was one-third tax increases and two-thirds spending cuts. President Obama’s budget calls for a mix of tax cuts and tax increases, among the latter, letting high-end Bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. The Republican plan calls only for tax simplification. It would get rid of loopholes and reduce rates in a way that would not raise overall revenues but would invariably cut the tax bill of wealthy taxpayers for whom lower rates are more valuable than assorted loopholes.

The deficit is a serious problem, but the Ryan plan is not a serious answer. With its tax cuts above all, and spending cuts no matter the consequences, it is a recipe for more loud talk about the deficit but no real action.

The Budget Battles: The Threat to Medicaid and Medicare

Representative Paul Ryan’s proposals to reform Medicare and Medicaid are mostly an effort to shift the burden to beneficiaries and the states. They have very little reform in them.

They certainly won’t solve the two most pressing problems in the nation’s health care system: the relentlessly rising cost of care and the shamefully high number of uninsured Americans — now hovering around 50 million. Mr. Ryan is also determined to repeal the new health care reform law. Never mind that the law would make real progress on both fronts, covering more than 30 million of the uninsured and pushing to make health care delivery more efficient and effective and less costly. 

One of Mr. Ryan’s most damaging ideas is to change Medicare and Medicaid from entitlement programs — covering everyone who is eligible for a defined set of services. Instead, Washington would contribute set amounts that would almost certainly grow more slowly than medical costs. You will hear a lot about how squeezing outlays will mean more efficiency. The real result is that the most vulnerable — the elderly, the poor, the disabled — will have to pay more for care or forgo treatment.

The government currently pays half or more of the costs of Medicaid, which insures the poor. Under Mr. Ryan’s proposal, the federal government would give each state a lump sum that probably would not keep pace with rising costs or accommodate surges in demand. Right now when a recession hits, the federal and state contributions rise to meet the higher rolls. The states would be given great flexibility, but many would use that to reduce benefits or drop people from coverage.

Mr. Ryan would largely privatize Medicare starting in 2022. New enrollees would be given “premium supports” to help them buy private insurance. The rich would get lower subsidies, the sickest and poorest would get additional assistance. Once again, the federal payments would likely grow more slowly than costs forcing individuals to buy skimpier coverage or pay more.

Republicans hope that competition among the private plans would lead them to use the most efficient doctors and hospitals. The reform law also seeks savings from such competition but goes far beyond that, starting pilot projects and establishing new organizations to spread the most promising reforms throughout the system.

For decades the Republicans have made clear their antipathy toward Medicare and Medicaid. Now they are trying to use the public’s legitimate concerns about the deficit to seriously cripple both programs. This isn’t real reform. If it moves forward, Americans will pay a high price.

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Corruption, extravagance must stop and stop now

While millions of Sri Lankans were talking, thinking and waiting amid hope and tension for Saturday’s Cricket World Cup final between Sri Lanka and India, the government quietly slipped in the shattering news that the prices of petrol, diesel and LP gas were being increased from midnight Friday. Earlier reports indicated the government would wait till the National New Year to raise fuel prices as world prices keep on soaring because of the continuing turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East.Soon after the local council elections on March 17, Petroleum Resources Minister Susil Premajayantha said the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation was incurring unbearable losses and discussions were being held with the Treasury on the extent of the price increase. Apparently the cabinet at its meeting last Wednesday decided to increase fuel prices and also to delay the announcement till Friday night in the hope that world cup enthusiasm and expectations would soften the impact.

Whatever the motives or strategy, the game is over, the World Cup lost and millions of suffering people who are struggling to find even two proper meals a day will now have to pay more for transport and hundreds of items, mainly because of the huge Rs.238 increase in the price of a 12.5 kg cylinder of LP gas. Government leaders are boasting of mega development plans to make Sri Lanka the model of Asia but for millions of people those are mere words which they cannot eat just as they can’t eat the world cup. They are helpless, powerless and voiceless. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) is still embroiled and divided by leadership battles, thus being unable to provide a credible alternative or effective leadership to the people who are weary and heavy laden.

Immediate relief must be provided to the people. Though world oil prices are beyond the control of the government, hundreds of millions of rupees could be saved if immediate steps are taken to curb rampant corruption especially among political leaders and other VIPs. Several more hundreds of millions of rupees could be saved to provide relief to the people if political leaders set the example in stopping wasteful luxury spending and their indulgence in vulgar extravagance.

Ironically the vital first step toward prosperity is austerity – a simple humble life style or ‘alpechchathavaya’ which has been a hallowed tradition in our culture and civilization for more than 2,500 years. If a modern example is needed, Mahatma Gandhi provides it in full and overflowing measure. He lived a simple life, sought no power or prestige, personal gain or glory. Yet his influence was so astounding that he became the key player in the movement that eventually toppled what Winston Churchill thought was the most powerful empire on which the sun would never set.

If our political leaders continue to indulge in an extravagant lifestyle, spending lakhs or millions of rupees on non essential events or ventures while ignoring millions of people who are struggling to survive, because of the high cost of living, then it might be a case of providing the fuel for a blazing crisis similar to what we are seeing in the Middle East where in Egypt for instance some 40 per cent of the people live below the poverty line while the ousted Mubarak Regime was a den of corruption and robbers with a family fortune estimated at a staggering US$80 billion.

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

 

‘World's greatest spying machine'

Speaking to students at Cambridge University earlier this month, Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, offered an important insight: “while the Internet has in some ways an ability to let us know to an unprecedented level what government is doing … it is also the greatest spying machine the world has ever seen.” Now, the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has cautioned against the Net coming under a regime of espionage and censorship in various countries, negating its potential for good. These warnings underscore the rising importance of the world's biggest public network and the need for the people to ensure that it remains truly free and open, unimpeded by official controls, technological discrimination, and cost barriers. The digital natives who inhabit the world look upon unrestricted, good quality access to the Internet as a fundamental right. Indeed, some progressive countries have initiated action to legislate such an entitlement. Finland became a model state last year by making broadband connectivity a legal right. There is a message here for India, which brings up the rear among fast-growing countries when it comes to high-speed Internet connectivity. After setting ambitious targets, it has taken weak, jagged steps to improve broadband coverage, particularly in rural areas. The target is to provide high bandwidth connections to 160 million households by 2014, but this involves a steep climb — the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India says only about 10 million were connected at the end of 2010.

Physical access to the Internet is crucial, but as Mr. Assange and Mr. Berners-Lee emphasise, the more complex issue is one of official controls. India put in place the Information Technology Act, 2000 and amended it subsequently in a bid to address public and industry concerns. But the law is still founded on the principle of executive control of online publication, rather than judicial due process. The amended Act has drawn criticism from advocates of free speech and data protection for its over-broad sweep and poor legislative clarity. This law must be rewritten in plain language and the fundamental right of free speech protected without dodges and equivocation. The more odious provisions enabling pre-censorship must go, and generic descriptions that serve as definitions of infringements need to be replaced with specific ones. India also needs a data protection law that restricts access to personal data collected and held by government. The Internet era is all about sharing and enabling people to express themselves freely. The imperative is to specify just what governments are allowed to do — and prevent them from exercising Orwellian control.

Goldstone's continuing value

Richard Goldstone, the internationally renowned jurist, has attracted attention by retracting key conclusions in the report he prepared for the United Nations Human Rights Council on Israel's 2008-09 Gaza Strip Operation Cast Lead. Writing in the Washington Post on April 1, he drew upon an independent investigation, chaired by the United States judge Mary McGowan Davis, to state that “civilians were not deliberately targeted” as a matter of Israeli policy — although both the Israeli government and Ms McGowan Davis have confirmed the validity of cases against certain Israeli soldiers. Mr. Goldstone also noted that Israel had investigated more than 400 cases of “operational misconduct” by members of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza; but that the Palestinian ruling party Hamas, for which Gaza is a stronghold, has investigated none of the allegations the Goldstone report made against both sides.

As can be expected, official reactions in Israel have been intemperate. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu wants the original report to be “thrown into the dustbin of history.” Other leading Israelis have launched vitriolic attacks on Mr. Goldstone, and there has been talk of attempts to persuade the U.N. to withdraw the report altogether. But the retractions do not alter the core fact that during Operation Cast Lead, more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed — and that half the number of Palestinians and three of the Israelis were civilians. Secondly, Judge McGowan Davis was herself critical of Israel; several investigations remain open, and there is “no indication” that those who planned and oversaw Cast Lead will be questioned. Thirdly, Mr. Goldstone states that he reached his original conclusions after Israel blocked all cooperation with his inquiry. He was given no information about Israeli forces' behaviour during Cast Lead, and his team was barred from the country. Fourthly, as Israeli journalist Aluf Benn points out in The Guardian, the IDF has investigated its own conduct in the Gaza war precisely because of the U.N.'s criticisms; it has also devised new procedures to protect civilians in urban warfare and to limit the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. While a just solution to the Palestine question is nowhere in sight, the U.N. can claim two significant achievements. Its strictures dealt a great shock to the Israeli polity; and it has shown the Zionist state that not cooperating with legitimate international investigations could lead to indictments in the International Criminal Court.

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

 

Housing census

AFTER a delay of three years, the first phase of a national census finally kicked off on Tuesday with the initiation of the house-listing operation. Pakistan has been quite tardy when it comes to conducting censuses. While the previous enumeration exercise — which is supposed to be a decennial event — took place in 1998, there was a 17-year gap between the last census and the one before it. So perhaps we are making progress. In the first phase, to be completed by April 19, each household will be counted along with the family’s head while a population census is to follow in August or September. Undoubtedly, conducting a census is a massive logistical operation requiring sound planning. And while governments in Pakistan are not known for the soundness of their planning, what complicates matters further in 2011 is the fact that hundreds of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed in last year’s floods while a large number of people were displaced. Many people are still living in temporary shelters and enumerators will have to consider this while recording data to reflect an accurate picture for future planning.

Nevertheless, it is good that the government has gone ahead with the house count and has not delayed the exercise further — although the census has not been free of hiccups. Some confusion reigned in Sindh as until Tuesday evening a census commissioner for the province had not been notified. Questions have also been raised about the enumerators’ capabilities in Punjab, specifically with regard to their training. It has also been asked if it would be possible for the enumerators to cover, on average, over 700 houses each in the period until April 19. There is no need to rush the exercise as inaccurate data is as bad as no data. This time around the house-counting exercise will be different from the past as apart from displacement caused by the floods, militancy has also rendered many homeless. The enumerators are enlisting the help of security forces in at least three tribal agencies. In fact, the civil authorities should seek the security forces’ assistance wherever access is an issue.

It is key that the house count is completely transparent and as error-free as possible as it will provide a baseline for the population census. Once data from both exercises is analysed it will help planners tackle Pakistan’s massive housing problem: World Bank figures from last year suggest that the housing shortage in the country is over 7.5 million units. The government should also launch an awareness campaign to encourage people to cooperate with enumerators as planning, service delivery, the sharing of resources and legislative representation all depend on accurate population figures.

Libya faces partition

UNLESS there is a diplomatic solution, for which moves are afoot, Libya could head towards partition. The rebels, in spite of Nato air strikes, have lost considerable part of the territory they had gained. Both sides now want a ceasefire — obviously to consolidate their positions. If it goes into effect, the rebels will get more western arms and sort out discipline and command problems to renew their offensive with greater vigour. There are indications that Muammar Qadhafi is willing to quit, but that his sons will oversee the transition. The ‘eastern’ rebels have rejected this and want the Qadhafi family to leave. The rebels’ diplomatic position has improved, with Italy joining France and Qatar in recognising the breakaway Transitional National Council. If more states recognise the Benghazi-based regime and the stalemate is prolonged, the oil-rich country will stand partitioned — the first Arab country to suffer this fate since the democracy wave began in Tunisia last December.

Turkey and Greece are now involved in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and find a peaceful solution that could end Libya’s misery. Civilians have suffered immensely, with neither side bothering to spare them. In fact, Nato has had to warn the rebels that if they do not stop bombing civilians in Qadhafi-held territory, its forces will target their troops just as they have hit Qadhafi forces to save civilian lives. As in Tunisia and Egypt, where the dissidents didn’t accept a transition process supervised by regime supporters, the Libyan rebels too are doing the same, even though privately revolt leaders admit that a military solution to the conflict is not possible. What they should note is that the sympathies of the world are by and large with them. A ceasefire followed by recognition by more states will strengthen their international status and erode Col Qadhafi’s power. Adopting a hard line will only prolong the conflict, add to casualties and aggravate the plight of the Libyan people. All one can hope is that better sense will prevail on both sides, that they will take care to avoid collateral damage and a ‘road map’ to peace is prepared to avert Libya’s partition.

Mass transit gap

FORTY passengers compete for each seat on Karachi’s public transport vehicles, according to the Karachi Mass Transit Cell. This remarkable statistic becomes less surprising when one learns, as reported in this paper last week, that public transport accounts for only six per cent of vehicles in the city but is used by over 50 per cent of the population. The enormous gap indicates clearly that significant demand for mass transit among the residents of this megacity is going unmet. Nor is Karachi the only Pakistani city to suffer from a lack of transportation options for those who cannot afford private vehicles or find it inconvenient to use them; this is a countrywide issue, and not even the capital has a mass transit system that meets its needs.

Beyond providing an essential public good for citizens, however, mass transit has obvious benefits that have been recognised the world over. It increases productivity and, by reducing traffic, lessens pollution and cuts down travel time. And at a time when oil prices are rising around the world — the government recently had to raise domestic prices of petroleum products by up to 13 per cent in response to global price hikes — improving mass transit is a key component of reducing dependence on an expensive fossil fuel. What provides some cautious optimism is that two studies are in the works, a local one that envisions a multi-pronged system including buses, a circular railway and light rail, and one conducted by foreign experts to examine how transportation in Karachi can be improved. These studies should be finalised as soon as possible and their recommendations taken seriously by the city administration. Nor should Pakistan’s other cities be forgotten; while they have significantly smaller populations, their mass transit systems are also in need of review with an eye to both improvement and expansion.

 

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

 

Violence during hartal

Vandalism cannot be condoned

The day-long hartal called by the Islamic Ain Bastabayan Sangstha on Monday has left the nation with much to worry about. In contrast with some other hartals we have witnessed in recent times, this one was certainly remarkable for the severe degree of violence its supporters resorted to all over the country. While one does agree that a hartal is a democratic right and that too of the last resort, one also feels that a hartal can never be made an excuse for vandalism or anything that might lead to a state of fear among citizens. On Monday, however, picketing by the hartal supporters swiftly degenerated into violence that left no fewer than 120 buses damaged and more than 250 people, including law enforcers, injured.

The angry way in which the hartal supporters came down on people trying to go about their normal business of the day greatly inconvenienced citizens. All hartals, unless they are called in the larger interests of the nation, are a way of putting up obstacles to normal life and movement in the country. On Monday, a perceptible level of fanaticism was at work among those enforcing the hartal. Rickshaw pullers had the air let out of the tyres of their vehicles and policemen were subjected, incredibly, to physical assaults in the form of kicks. Moreover, some hartal supporters were observed carrying copies of the Holy Quran as they marched through the streets. That was a deliberate bit of provocation since it was for the first time that the holy book was made an ingredient of picketing. It was a sinister move, seeing that the aim of the pickets was to get into a clash with the law enforcers, something that could have led to a desecration of the Quran. We condemn such motives.

Now that the hartal is behind us, we urge those who enforced it to make their points of view on the issue agitating their minds known through peaceful means. We have said earlier that the proposed national policy on women contains nothing that can remotely be construed as un-Islamic. Even if the detractors of the policy think they have an issue, they can very well respond to the government offer of sitting down to a discussion of it. But those who use religion to propagate their thoughts and those who support them are clearly pushing the nation down a dangerous path. It is time for all citizens of Bangladesh, because they believe in democracy, to come together and resist those who whip up unnecessary controversy in the name of religion.

Aila victims still in lurch

Somebody must be held to account 

It's a shame that we have to deal with the fall out of cyclone Aila which hit the southwestern part of the country in May 2009. The crack it created in the embankment has still to be repaired.

The saline water is rushing through the crack during high tide swamping 5000 acres of land in Betkashi union in Koira, Khulna. Over the last two years the crack have developed further threatening the whole region. People of the area have been living on embankments and on platforms made of bamboos ever since the cyclone struck, making lives miserable and unsure.

Hundreds of men, women and children are now passing their days in hunger and want of drinking water. As the monsoon nears people remain apprehensive of the dangers ahead. The days of cyclone and tidal surge are here, and there's no protection to save lives and property. As it is, the upcoming monsoon holds uncertain days pushing the entire region into a new kind of vulnerability.

The embankment which is a fifty year old structure topped off by a widening breach always needed repair on a priority basis. It is an indictment on the local administration and particularly on BWD board that even after two years no serious effort is in sight to complete the repair and ensure protection of the place and people.

According to the admission of a BWDB official, unless the embankment is re-designed it might not withstand another natural disaster. Has the BWDB moved the higher authorities on this point, or is it an excuse for their failure to repair the cracks for so long?

Quite clearly an intervention for a high level is required to move the juggernaut to ensure survival of these hapless people.