EDITORIAL : THE AZZAMAN, IRAQ

New measures to ease return of Iraqi refugees from restive Syria

The latest disturbances in Syria are likely to have some adverse impact on the state of more than one million Iraqi refugees there.

Syria has been generous and liberal with the exodus of Iraqis who fled violence in their home land.

Today, many of them fear that their future in their country is at risk.

Scores of Iraqi families have returned home in the wake of anti-demonstrations that have swept several Syrian cities.

But Iraqi authorities expect thousands to return and say they have taken several measures to ease their coming home.

More staff has been sent to the border post of Waleed in anticipation of a massive return of refugees in case security conditions worsen in neighboring Syria.

The border post lies within the provincial territory of Anbar Province.

 Provincial spokesman Mohammed Hantoosh said the customs officials administering the border post have been instructed to “ease the return of Iraqis from Syria.”

He said a new health clinic will be opened and other facilities made available to cater for the returning refugees.

“We have instructed the customs officials to accommodate all the returning refugees regardless of their numbers,” he said.

Hantoosh said more troops have been deployed on the highway linking the border post with the rest of the country to secure the arrival of refugees to their destinations in the country.

The highway was recently the scene of attacks in which several vehicles were targeted and drivers kidnapped.

Analysts say the government is not prepared for a large-scale return of refugees as most of them have either lost or sold their property and belongings and will have nowhere to stay.

EDITORIAL : THE KOREA HERALD, SOUTH KOREA

Guryong Village

Guryong Village in the Gangnam district of Seoul represents some of the absurdities in present-day Korea. Many of the people who live in about 1,200 shacks at Guryong Village, located near the plush Tower Palace high-rise block, moved in from other parts of Seoul when they were evicted by city authorities for redevelopment projects in the 1980s. The urban migrants settled at the foot of Guryong Hill, which was a part of the “Green Belt” around Seoul, designated to restrict urban development.
They erected huts on land owned by others. As the authorities were busy with other businesses, the shanty town grew, joined by people who were aiming at “compensation” at the time of their eventual eviction. Occasional attempts by city officials to remove the squatters at the request of landowners failed in the face of collective resistance by residents claiming their right to survive.
A developer began purchasing plots in the 70-acre area from frustrated landowners. He plans to build some 2,700 units of apartments and lease 1,200 of them to present Guryong Village residents at low rents and later give them ownership for a set price. Gangnam district authorities, however, turned down the private development project and announced its own plan to provide 2,793 apartment units, including 1,200 permanent rental apartments for the present residents.
Villagers are divided in two groups, one in support of the private development plan attracted by the assurance of apartment ownership in the future and the other in favor of the district office plan which carries an official guarantee. Residents with differing opinions are quarreling over which would be more beneficial.
While the authorities racked their brains on how to eliminate the eyesore in Gangnam in the least troublesome way, the rights of the landowners were ignored for decades. The district office offers to take over the land at officially-assessed prices but the authorities are considering no compensation for their failure to protect the landowners’ rights for such a long time.
Collective resistance has become one of the most powerful social weapons in this country to thwart government programs or to deter the exercise of private property rights, as in the case of Guryong Village. At the moment, what the authorities fear most is a repetition of the tragic Yongsan incident in January 2009 in which five citizens and a riot policeman were killed during a violent clash over relocating tenants from a commercial building for a redevelopment project.
Officials assert that Guryong Village is different from the case of Yongsan as the latter involved small-business owners who refused to leave their places of work, while the former represents the problem of illegal occupation. Whatever the differences, the residents are feared to resort to “extreme struggles” until they come to a satisfactory settlement.
Gangnam is now to face a grave test with its Guryong Village project. It is about the authorities’ determination to carry out what they believe is in the best interest of the community and their ability to achieve it through the exercise of legal power as well as reasonable dialogue with those concerned.

 

Libya bombing

 

NATO’s bombing of Tripoli on Saturday, which reportedly killed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s son and three grandchildren definitely went beyond the U.N. Security Council mandate. However the alliance may try to stretch the mission given under UNSC resolution 1973 on Libya, which was to establish a no-fly zone over the country to protect civilians from military attacks, NATO commanders cannot justify the airstrikes on the homes of Gadhafi’s relatives.
If Western powers want regime change in Libya through the ouster of Gadhafi, they could stage an incursion into the territory as they did in Iraq in 2003. But the apparent assassination attempt on the dictator by airstrikes, in the fashion of the U.S. bombing on Gadhafi’s residential compound in 1986, cannot win international support.
NATO denied its fighters targeted any individuals. Its spokespeople claimed that all targets it chose were military and linked to Gadhafi’s systematic attacks on civilians. Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, who commands NATO’s operation in Libya, said the strike was part of NATO’s strategy to disrupt and destroy the command and control of Gadhafi’s forces.
News dispatches from Tripoli indicated that NATO warplanes have shifted their focus from direct support for rebel forces on the front lines to attacking the regime’s communications centers. Destroyed in Saturday’s airstrikes was Gadhafi’s family compound in a residential section of Tripoli, where reporters who were given a guided tour saw no trace of military activities.
Seif al-Arab Gadhafi, 29, the second youngest of Gadhafi’s eight children who had survived the 1986 U.S. bombing, was among the dead, according to Libyan officials who said he had no political or military position and had studied economics in Germany. The ages of Gadhafi’s three grandchildren who were reportedly killed in the airstrikes were not known. Neither were their occupations.
Washington made no comment on the results of Saturday’s bombing but condemned Libyan protesters’ attacks on Western embassies on Sunday. The State Department spokesman referred to the Vienna Convention on the protection of diplomatic missions. The burning and ransacking of British, Italian and U.S. Embassies in Tripoli by angry mobs fortunately left no casualties.
There is a stalemate in the Libyan uprising and the NATO airstrikes in Tripoli risking the loss of civilian lives suggest desperation on the part of alliance commanders. Yet, it is bad tactics if they seek Gadhafi’s capitulation with threats on the lives of his relatives and himself.

 

 

 

 

 

EDITORIAL : THE TRIPOLI POST, LIBYA

Palestinian Unity and the New Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas-Fatah deal in Cairo was both swift and predictable. “The Palestinian Authority must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both,” he said, in a televised speech shortly after the Palestinian political rivals reached a reconciliation agreement under Egyptian sponsorship on April 27.
Despite numerous past attempts to undercut Mahmoud Abbas, stall peace talks, and derail Israel’s commitment to previous agreements, Netanyahu and his right wing government are now arguing that Palestinians are solely responsible for the demise of the illusory ‘peace process’.
Israeli bulldozers will continue to carve up the hapless West Bank to make room for more illegal settlements, but this time their excuse may not be ‘natural expansion’. The justification might instead be Israel has no partner. US and other media will merrily repeat the dreadful logic, and Palestinians will, as usual, be chastised.
But frankly, at this juncture of Middle East history, Israel is almost negligible. It no longer has a transformative influence in the region. When the Arab people began revolting, a new dimension to the Arab-Israeli conflict emerged.
As the chants in Cairo’s Tahrir Square began to adopt a pan-Arab and pro-Palestinian language, it became obvious that Egypt would soon venture outside the political confines of Washington’s patronizing labels, which divide the Arabs into moderates (good) and radicals (bad).
A day after the handshakes exchanged by chief Fatah representative, Azzam al-Ahmed, and Hamas’s leaders, Damascus-based Dr. Moussa Abu Marzoug and Gaza-based Mahmoud Al Zahar, the forces behind the agreement in Cairo became apparent.
While Israeli leaders used the only language they know for these situations - that of threats, intimidation and ultimatums - the US response was flat, confused, and extraneous. Aside from the outmoded nature of US officials’ remarks, the focus was largely placed on the only leverage the US has over Abbas and its Fatah allies.
Jennifer Rubin wrote in her Washington Post blog on April 29: “The Obama administration is reluctant to articulate clearly a position that if a Hamas-Fatah unity government emerges as Mahmoud Abbas has been describing, the U.S. will cut off aid.”
The temporary reluctance is not pervading, however. “Congress is an entirely different matter,” Rubin wrote, quoting an angry, unnamed official: “The only acceptable answers (to whether the US should fund the new Palestinian government) for most Americans would be no or hell no.”
But how effective will such financial arm-twisting be, especially with the possibility of other donor countries following suit?
If the question had been asked prior to the Arab Spring - and the Egyptian revolution in particular - the answer would have been marred by uncertainty. A whole class of Palestinian politicians had arranged their stances almost exclusively around funding issues.
What really allowed Israel and the US to control the outcome of political events, even internal Palestinian affairs, was the lack of any real political balance surrounding this conflict.
The US and its allies defined the will of the ‘international community’, and the region was trapped in Washington’s – and Tel Aviv’s – political designations of friends and enemies. It was a political stalemate par excellence, and only Israel benefited.
This analysis is not merely relevant to recent events. The greatest Israeli gain of the Camp David agreement (1979) was not of bringing peace to the region - for no regional peace truly followed. It was the total marginalization of Egypt as a powerful Arab party from virtually all Arab affairs of concern to Israel.
The absence of Egypt in the process made it possible for Israel to repeatedly attack Lebanon, and also to further its colonization and destruction of the occupied territories.
Now Egypt is back - not merely in terms of a return to the ‘Arab fold’ - but as the party that will increasingly define the new Arab reality. The signing of the Hamas-Fatah deal may have come as a surprise in terms of media coverage, but it was really a predictable consequence in a chain of events that signalled the remaking of a region.
Now a powerful Arab country spearheads the Middle East, secure enough to reach out to multiple partners - other Arab countries, as well as Iran, Turkey and others.
Not only did both Turkey welcome the deal, it was also one of the main sponsors of the Palestinian rapprochement. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been instrumental in pushing for Palestinian unity.
As for the Iranian position, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi hailed the “auspicious” agreement, which he described as “one of the achievements of the Egyptian revolution,” according to the Tehran Times (April 30).
The Israeli vision for the region was to keep it politically divided at any cost. Without such a division, Israel is likely to be on the defensive, and the US will be consumed in crisis management. A Palestinian unity in post-revolution Egypt, with the blessing of all Arab countries, Turkey, Iran, and many others, is an extremely worrying prospect for Israel.
Of most concern is the rise of Egypt as a political party, one that is capable of making decisions on its own. Aside from sponsoring the unity agreement between Hamas and Fatah, without Israeli or US permission, Egypt’s new foreign minister, Nabil al-Arabi, also described the decision to seal off Gaza as “shameful”, and he promised to lift the siege (as reported by Aljazeera on April 29).
“Egypt is charting a new course in its foreign policy that has already begun shaking up the established order in the Middle East, planning to open the blockaded border with Gaza and normalising relations with two of Israel and the West’s Islamist foes, Hamas and Iran,” wrote David D. Kirkpatrick in the New York Times (April 30).
Such language was, at one time, unthinkable. Now, thanks to the will of the Egyptian and Arab peoples, it is likely to define the new Arab political discourse. Not even a fiery speech by a discredited Israeli Prime Minister could prevent this powerful paradigm shift.

 

EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

No reward for abuses

The United Nations Human Rights Council is once again up to its old tricks of enabling dictators and winking at their violent abuses.

This time, the most favoured nation of the supposed human rights monitors is Syria. The regime of Bashar al-Assad has recently killed more than 700 citizens who criticised the ruler in their streets, and hundreds of others have ''disappeared''. Tanks have rolled into cities where Mr Assad believed Syrians were organising protests against his rule. In the meantime, the UNHRC is preparing for an ''election'' in about two weeks where Syria will be welcomed as a full member. This matters even more than usual, because the chairman of the UNHRC is Thailand.

The human rights division of the United Nations has long served the dictators and military juntas of the world. The people who have lost their human rights have rarely got a look from the body. Several years back, the group became so ludicrously pro-dictator that the UN itself dissolved it, and created the UNHRC. The idea was to keep the most dreadful abusers off the council _ Burma, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, etc _ while suffering the occasional milder torturer. Of course, it never works out that way, as Mr Assad is currently demonstrating.

He convinced many he was a reformer, but he is the same old violent dictator that his father was.

One of the main problems is that members of the UNHRC are not actually elected. They are selected by region, on a basis of nothing more than whose turn it is. Thailand had the temerity to actually run for a position on the council twice, and was soundly defeated both times. In 2009, it became the country's turn to take a three-year seat, and the ''election'' was a foregone conclusion. It is all as democratic and accountable as, well, an election in Syria.

This year is Syria's ''turn'' to be named to the UN body charged with monitoring human rights around the world. The country has been strongly endorsed by the Arab League, which should be ashamed of bestowing such an honour on such a violent and abusive regime as that of Mr Assad. And since the Asian region backs Syria as a member, the rest of the UNHRC will blindly follow.

That includes the chairman of the group, Thailand. Since becoming the chair of the UNHRC nearly a year ago, Thailand has yet to go on record to question any country over its human rights actions or abuses. Last month, Thailand as a member of the UNHRC strongly approved a laudatory report on the dedication to human rights of Libya. Burma last year told the UNHRC it ''has now reached the final stages of its transition to democracy''. Thailand signed a report that ''supported [Burma's] democratisation and national reconciliation processes''. Under Thai guidance, the UN body wrote that Laos needs to keep up the splendid work in education, its fight against poverty and the continuous advances in human rights.

This is not to say that the UNHRC has totally ignored its duty to investigate countries. It has scheduled a meeting to review the human rights situation in Syria. The hearing will be held on Oct 7 and last three hours.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has denounced the Syrian regime for killing hundreds, but refuses to intervene in the UNHRC process. It was only a month ago that the Human Rights Council was about to sign off on a report lauding Libya for its adherence to high principles. There is simply no way that Syria deserves the honour of a seat on the UNHRC, and Thailand should be taking strong, public steps to stop it.

EDITORIAL : THE INDEPENDENT, IRELAND

Much-loved Pope not without paradox

BEFORE the Second Vatican Council convened in 1962, a little-known Polish bishop called Karol Wojtyla wrote to the organisers, telling them that the world wanted to know what the Catholic Church had to say about the human condition.

Karol Wojtyla went on to become Supreme Pontiff of the Church, one of the greatest men of his age and one of the greatest Popes of any age. When he died in 2005, a Cuban cardinal said that he had "carried the moral weight of the world" for 26 years. But argument continues about whether he ever answered the question he himself asked in 1962.

As so frequently with such a towering figure, his life and reign had their consistent threads but also their paradoxes.

On doctrine, particularly on birth control, he was a rigid conservative, much criticised for the ban on Catholics using condoms in the Third World. But on ecumenism, he was a liberal, reaching out not only to other Christian churches but to non-Christian religions.

He beatified more people than any previous Pope, and it seems somehow appropriate that his own beatification has occurred so soon after his death. The timescale, and the process itself, have raised doubts and questioning among both liberals and conservatives. The popular view, however, is overwhelmingly positive -- witness the enormous attendance at the ceremony in St Peter's Square yesterday.

Perhaps no country, apart from Poland, viewed him with more love and admiration than Ireland. The fervour inspired by his visit here in 1979 has never been forgotten.

But the visit was followed by one of the most calamitous episodes in the history of the church: the clerical sex abuse scandal. The scandal itself, the cover-ups and the inadequacy of Catholicism's leaders at all levels were a world-wide phenomenon; but in Ireland, the shock to faith and trust, the damage to the authority and reputation of the church, were immeasurable.

In a generation's time, the reputation of John Paul II may rest less on his record of religious leadership than his contribution to global politics.

Late in his life, he conceded what every interested person had known or suspected -- that he had played a role in the overthrow of communism and the freeing of his beloved Poland. He gave no details. Nor did he boast. Like his forgiveness for Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who tried to kill him, it was part of his moral mission.

Making of a President

DAVID Norris, Michael D Higgins, Mairead McGuinness . . . Sean Gallagher. Sean Gallagher? What brings the 'Dragons' Den' panelist into the list along with those three colourful politicians? Mr Gallagher's name has cropped up among the aspirants for nothing less than the Presidency of Ireland. And why not?

There are no specific qualifications for the job. The three experienced politicians all have admirable personal qualities, and viewers of the television series have learned that the same is true of the newcomer. He clearly has that invaluable quality -- common sense -- in abundance. He seems like a man with whom anyone would like to do business. And he does have political experience, if only in a relatively humble capacity as a Fianna Fail activist.

But perhaps, with a rare Presidential election looming, the time has come for a debate on whether we should insist on qualifications for the job; and if so, what qualifications?

Two seemingly unrelated provisions of the Constitution hint -- no more than hint -- at a key role for the President in the event of an acute political crisis.

Whether or not that is what its author wanted, we should argue out the question.

There could be an objection on the human scale. We could install some genuinely distinguished person in Aras an Uachtarain, only for him to find no work commensurate with his abilities for seven years, or even 14 years. That actually happened once. As the saying goes, there ought to be a law.

EDITORIAL : THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA

NSW police get the job done

CANBERRA is sending the wrong signals on asylum-seekers.

It's no laughing matter, but there is a bad joke doing the rounds in pubs as drinkers speculate whether they might get away with burning down the tax office if they first claimed refugee status. Unfortunately, the asylum-seekers who spent 11 days on the roof of Sydney's Villawood detention centre treated the Australian government as a joke, defying repeated orders and pleas to climb down. The Immigration Department, the Australian Federal Police and the operator of the centre, Serco, appeared helpless until Kurdish detainees Mehdi Darabi, 24, and Amir Morad, 22, climbed down on Saturday. The mishandling of the crisis sent a bad message to the nation and the world that Australia's handling of the issue is out of control.

Federal authorities have much to learn from NSW Police and Fire and Rescue officers who wasted no time in safely pulling three protesters off the roof of Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's Sydney electorate office on Friday. It's understood that Premier Barry O'Farrell would have happily sent in police with the expertise to handle the Villawood debacle, but it was not his jurisdiction. Serco staff have raised serious concerns with their union that their training is inadequate for the task they are being asked to perform. Until that shortcoming is rectified, the government needs to delegate the harder jobs to the AFP, the army or contract it out to services such as the NSW police. Instead, as it dithered, the rooftop protest, which followed a riot on April 20 in which nine buildings were set alight, causing millions of dollars damage, signalled to the world, including people-smugglers and would-be asylum-seekers, that Australia has lost control of the problem.

Mr Bowen is right to amend the character test to ensure that detainees who incur any criminal convictions fail the test so that those responsible for riots, violence and vandalism will have their quest for permanent residency rejected. While the Gillard government denies it is restoring Howard-style temporary protection visas, it is right in granting only temporary asylum to refugees who break the law.

Beyond handling of the crisis in overcrowded centres, the government must also stop the influx of boatpeople by resuming offshore processing at Nauru or Manus Island, and considering a form of temporary visas for all boat arrivals. It is time to retake control. 

Gaddafi's rule is irredeemable

ONLY the despot's departure will end the bloodshed.

With the death of his youngest son and three grandchildren in a NATO airstrike, Muammar Gaddafi, even in his megalomaniacal madness, must now realise the game is up and he has no alternative but to go. Otherwise he faces not just further destruction of his country, something about which he has shown he cares little, but also more loss of life within his family circle.

Libyan government officials say Gaddafi and his wife were in the mansion when their son Saif al-Arab, 29, and three grandchildren were killed and other family members and friends injured. The despot and his wife, it is claimed, were unharmed in what his officials label an assassination attempt, something denied by NATO, which insists the attack hit one of the regime's command and control centres and individuals are not being targeted.

Loss of life in any conflict is always to be regretted, especially that of children. But the inescapable reality is that the bloodshed in Libya, wherever it is occurring, is the result of Gaddafi's murderous obduracy, and it will end only when he goes. The Libyan government's oleaginous spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, seeking to raise sympathy in the Islamic world, claims Saif al-Arab was martyred. That's hogwash. He died as a consequence of his father's murderous rampage against the Libyan people as they seek freedom and democracy after decades of tyranny, and NATO's determination, at the behest of the UN Security Council, to put an end to the bloodshed. Claims of martyrdom will inevitably find an echo in some parts of the world. So, too, will charges that Gaddafi and his family are being unreasonably targeted, something not provided for in UNSC resolution 1973. The coalition must not be deflected by such arguments, but should step up its drive to demonstrate that his situation is irredeemable.

While not specified by the Security Council, regime change is an inevitable consequence of seeking to end the bloodshed. It is also essential to serve notice on other loathsome dictators such as Syria's Bashar al-Assad that they face similar consequences if they continue their brutal suppression. NATO is right to reject Gaddafi's latest disingenuous plea for a ceasefire. The only thing that will end the killing is the despot's departure. The sooner he buckles, the fewer lives that will be lost. 

Only the populace, not the elite, can foster a republic

PRINCE William is shaping up as a first-rate monarch.

As senior members of the royal family have indicated in the past, the question of Australia becoming a republic is entirely a matter for Australians. Such a transition is not a first-order issue, but The Australian has long supported the idea as a natural progression of our independent, robust democracy -- possibly after the distinguished reign of the Queen. That said, the extraordinary worldwide interest in last Friday's royal wedding is an indication of the resilience and durability of the monarchy, which has defied attempts to be written off as an anachronism. And, from what we have seen in recent weeks of Prince William's interactions with victims of Queensland's floods and cyclone and the New Zealand earthquake, and at his wedding on Friday, Britain and possibly this nation have the makings of a first rate monarch in the future William V.

Most of Australia's commentariat regard the advent of a republic as a no-brainer. Once again, however, their preoccupations have been shown to be vastly out of step with millions of Australians, including many young people. When the figures are finalised, the number of Australians who watched the royal wedding on television or online will not fall too far short of the audience who tuned in to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Most were delighted by the rich pageantry, the dignity of the traditional ceremony in the hallowed halls of Westminster Abbey and the refreshingly unaffected young couple at the centre of it all. It does not suggest any widespread desire to break ties with the commonwealth or turn our backs on the Westminster system, heritage and cultural traditions. Nor will the predictable arguments of radical nationalists impress young Australians, who have rediscovered the Anzac tradition in a way that has surprised their parents, who were reared on the cynicism of the One Day of the Year and the teachings of left-wing historians in the 1970s. For them, William and Catherine are people to admire and respect.

It is almost half a century since Donald Horne wrote about the inevitability of a republic, a concept heavily promoted by the old Bulletin magazine late in the 19th century. Horne and others recognised one of the biggest threats to the monarchy would be its possible degeneration into nothing more than a celebrity cult or, in modern terms, a soap opera. Such a fate seemed imaginable with the crumbling of the first marriage of the Prince of Wales and that of his brother, the Duke of York. But the stoicism of the Queen following her "annus horribilis" has shown that it is so much more. The stability afforded by constitutional monarchy was emphasised on Friday in the abbey that has served as the Coronation church since 1066.

Being discerning and independent, Australians would eagerly oppose the monarchy if they saw it eroding the robustness of our democracy. After voting down the 1999 republican referendum in all states, people will need more convincing, and a much better model, before they revisit the issue. Given the resistance of the monarchy to fall in with predictions of its demise, only a brave person would predict when Australia might become a republic, which this newspaper believes is our destiny. In the meantime, in the absence of an Australian head of state, Prince William has the makings of a good substitute. 

EDITORIAL : THE JAKARTA POST, INDONESIA

Dancing with another giant

About three months ago, Indonesia and India held a summit in New Delhi where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also witnessed the signing of US$15 billion in new investment commitments by Indian companies in the development of natural resources and basic infrastructure in Indonesia.
During Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s visit to Jakarta over the weekend, Chinese companies also signed almost a dozen agreements committing over $15 billion in new loans and investments in Indonesia’s infrastructure and natural resource development.
It was encouraging to note that despite the noisy protests by Indonesian manufacturers and farmers over the last few weeks against the flood of Chinese goods in the domestic market since January 2010, the launching of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) did not divert the attention of Indonesia’s government and business leaders from the long-term, broader benefits of expanded bilateral economic cooperation.
Bilateral trade has expanded in leaps and bounds over the past five years to almost $40 billion last year, although Indonesia has faced a widening deficit. But, we think this is only temporary as the country has yet to improve its economic efficiency and competitiveness through massive infrastructure development and bureaucratic reforms.
As a member of the prestigious Group of 20 major economies (G20) together with China and India, it would look immature and capricious for Indonesia to ask for a renegotiation of regional trade pacts like ACFTA because of our widening trade deficit.
The agreement was not a bilateral deal between Indonesia and China, but also involved nine other ASEAN members. Moreover, the primary cause of the imbalance is our gross economic inefficiency and uncompetitiveness.
If imports from China caused severe disruptions in the domestic market, Indonesia could still resort to safeguard measures allowed by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization like anti-dumping and countervailing actions.
More important is for both countries to increase the depth and breadth of their economic linkages through investment, which is the best vehicle for the transfer of expertise, technology and the development of global market networks.
Indonesia has enjoyed many benefits from the booming Chinese economy. The persistently high prices of our major commodities like palm oil, rubber, cocoa, coal and other minerals while the demand from rich countries has fallen should be attributed to the robust demand in China.

Hence, China’s lending and investment commitments to infrastructure development are rather strategic because it is poor and inadequate infrastructure that has long been the main cause of Indonesia’s economic inefficiency and uncompetitiveness.
But, the devil is in the technical details. The implementation of Chinese loan and investment commitments will still depend on the ground preparations and regulatory framework already in place in Indonesia itself.
This requires a lot of homework on the part of the government, especially with regard to inter-ministerial coordination.

Recruiting the best minds

This year’s commemoration of National Education Day, which falls today, will essentially be a repeat of such events in the past, unless there are key strategic policies promoted to upgrade the country’s education system, particularly its end products – the students.
It is important to note that the government has taken significant measures to ensure that Indonesians of low-income-bracket families have relatively equal opportunities to attend state universities. One of these measures is a national education ministerial decree that requires state universities to accept more high-school graduates taking the open nationwide university entrance test system (SNMPTN), and fewer high-school graduates taking the limited university admission system (Mandiri or invitation).
That excludes the initiatives taken by both the government and the private sectors to provide scholarships to poor but eligible students to continue their studies at all levels of education, including university.
However, such measures are not enough, especially when we do a cost-benefit analysis of the existing system.
The current system does help provide students with equal opportunities to get proper education, but it is still unable to develop their academic potential, let alone compete with counterparts from more advanced countries in this globalized era.
The government’s decision, with the approval of the House of Representatives, to have the budget for the education sector increased to Rp 250 trillion this year, or 20.2 percent of the 2011 state budget -  a significant hike from Rp 225 trillion the previous year — will remain meaningless unless the money is put to the best possible use to help increase the quality of our students.
There are a lot of measures that we need to take to reach the target of producing quality Indonesian students. But the most important thing to do perhaps is to start recruiting the country’s best minds, for example screening the top 20 to 30 best graduates from top universities nationwide to be groomed as teachers. Having highly intelligent teachers should produce high-quality students.
hat will bring consequences of increasing the budget of the education sector in the future. But the increased expenditure is not comparable to the potential products — quality Indonesian students who are on par with those of advanced countries.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY TRIBUNE, THE PHILIPPINES

 

 

Too much noise, no results

 

Noynoy’s Liberal Party (LP) should start identifying who it labeled as guilty personalities presumably in the past administration that it said resigned Ombudsman Merceditas “Merci” Gutierrez should “reflect and see that she can still take a role” in bringing to judgment.

The LP said that through such an act Merci can still redeem herself.

The other question that the LP needs to answer is from what Merci should redeem herself.

She was impeached by the House allies of Noynoy but the allegations made against her in the articles of impeachment never saw the light of day after she resigned and in effect prevented the convening of the Senate court.

Thus the allegations against her remained just that unless Merci herself is hailed by her predecessor on the same impeachment charges, although on face value these charges are hard to prove as grounds for her betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

Merci was impeached supposedly for her office’s low conviction rates since 2008; her failure to act promptly on cases filed against former President Arroyo, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, and other public officials on the kickback-rich National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE and the supposed delay in the investigation of the death of ensign Philip Pestaño aboard a Philippine Navy vessel, a case in which the United Nations (UN) itself rapped the Ombudsman for unreasonable delay.

A second impeachment complaint also alleged her failure to prosecute those responsible for the Fertilizer Fund Scam, Mega Pacific Automation Contract anomaly and the Euro Generals’ scam.

The allegations all dealt with the supposed snail-paced actions of her office, the same charges that apply on the entire judicial system.

It would be hard to prove that Merci indeed had unusual interest in delaying the cited cases of the supposedly involved individuals she was protecting.

Merci’s resignation is even being given a different color by Noynoy’s allies lately with them saying that it was a convenient ploy to save Gloria’s hide.

Noynoy’s groups alleged that the evidence to be presented in the Senate impeachment court will inevitably lead to Gloria’s doorstep and that Gloria would likely face grilling at the impeachment court.

The LP’s attitude toward Merci also constituted a veiled threat on Gutierrez and what likely awaits her if she fails to heed the party’s advice for her to cooperate in the anti-Gloria crusade.

The next Ombudsman is expected to be completely beholden to Noynoy and his cohorts, likely as a result of the ruckus raised by Noynoy and his wards that forced Merci’s resignation.

The next likely agenda is to apply pressure on Merci to testify against Gloria on the pain of the articles of impeachment against her being resurrected as a case filed with the new Ombudsman.

Such threat was very evident in the LP concluding that Merci’s resignation “does not absolve her and her principals from their wrongdoings.”

The backers of Noynoy in the form of the LP seems to have a clear picture on how to run after Gloria and who should be charged along with her which makes the statement of the Palace that it does not have yet an idea on what legal moves it can take against Gloria perplexing.

In reality, Noynoy and the LP are clueless on how to go about prosecuting Gloria and her supposed sins of the past.

Instead of building up a strong case against Gloria, Noynoy and the LP are resorting to hurling accusations primarily through press releases such as that which the LP recently issued on Merci’s resignation.

It would be all an endless stream of allegations to cover up for the administration’s lack of competence to achieve results.

Noynoy and the LP should put up or shut up.

 

EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

Stop the bombing

JUST like it did when the African Union (AU) put forward a deal for a truce and talks early last month, the rebel Transitional National Council in Benghazi has rejected Muammar Gaddafi's call for a ceasefire and negotiations. As the colonel's proposal did not include an offer to step down, long a non-negotiable condition for the rebels, there was indeed little chance that they would agree to any truce. But the problem is that it also appears highly unlikely that the rebels will be able to remove him by force. As it is, the airstrikes by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), which started more than a month ago, have not tilted the balance on the battlefield in their favour.

Neither have the bombings been consistent with the United Nations Security Council resolution, whose sole objective was to protect civilians. The protection of civilians is undoubtedly an honourable mission. But as experiences with no-fly zones elsewhere attest, it is often disingenuous to claim that they are designed to defend civilians. The inconvenient truth is that when bombs fall, as they did on Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli yesterday, they kill and maim non-combatants and children. Moreover, the avowed aim in Western capitals that Gaddafi must go cannot be squared with the terms of the United Nations resolution which does not authorise intervention to bring about regime change. In any case, whatever the air cover, the rebels do not seem to have the firepower to defeat the loyalist forces. Neither does the regime have the military capability to knock the opposition out. Unless Nato is prepared to go beyond the UN mandate and put boots on the ground to break the stalemate, they should start exploring a political rather than a military solution to the civil war in Libya.

As the desire to topple the long-time Libyan leader is the glue that holds together the hastily- assembled and disparate rebel movement, negotiating a settlement with Gaddafi may not be a palatable course of action. Of course, the armed dissidents enjoy international support and acclaim. But if they are truly the "sole representative" of the Libyan people that they claim to be, there should be nothing to fear from holding talks without any preconditions and accepting the AU offer to mediate. At the very least, it will test whether the colonel is as willing to enter into meaningful negotiations as he says he is. But, more importantly, the sooner the fighting and the bombing stop, the greater the chances that innocent lives will be saved.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

         

 

North Sea taxes: The fight turns nasty

Sudden lurches in tax policy just make life harder for businesses and deprive measures of vital oversight and consultation.

 
Six weeks ago, George Osborne picked a fight with gas companies. Yesterday, it escalated several notches – and is likely to turn really nasty before the end of summer. The chancellor will not emerge unscathed from this battle.

Ever since his March budget, Mr Osborne has come under attack from energy businesses furious at his imposition of a £2bn windfall tax on North Sea profits. Shell has estimated that the hike will cost it about $600m; Chevron and BP have complained too. Representatives from the oil and gas industry have been assiduously lobbying ministers and the press. But yesterday, things moved beyond whining and whispers. The company that owns British Gas, Centrica, announced it would close down Britain's biggest gas field, in Morecambe Bay, for routine maintenance – and that production might not be restarted. Centrica claims that the rise in tax on North Sea profits, to 32% from 12%, means that reopening the field may be uneconomical. It estimates that its older South Morecambe field is taxed at 81p for every pound brought in. Hostilities are unlikely to stop there: representatives from the oil and gas industry give evidence to the energy select committee this Wednesday and will in all probability attack both the tax rise and energy secretary, Chris Huhne – just before he turns up to speak to the panel of MPs. And over the longer run, industry observers forecast that other offshore explorers will also mothball their facilities.

Chancellors should generally avoid launching big tax changes overnight. Sudden lurches in tax policy just make life harder for businesses and deprive measures of vital oversight and consultation. This isn't just this paper's view, but apparently also that of Mr Osborne, who in 2007 blasted Gordon Brown for a "short-term focus on squeezing the maximum amount of revenue" out of the North Sea and so chasing away private investment. Now in No 11, the Conservative chancellor has learned what his predecessors also knew: that taxes on "profiteering" energy companies and highly paid bankers are the most politically acceptable revenue raisers. While it may be good politics, it also looks hypocritical. Nor does the government's appointment last December of Centrica boss Sam Laidlaw to a non-executive directorship in Whitehall look so clever.

On North Sea tax, Mr Osborne and other ministers do not have a totally watertight case. That said, companies are obliged to pay their tax bills even when they are sharply higher. After all, if a family decided to send back its gas bill because it was far higher than the last one, British Gas has the option to come down on them like a ton of bricks. Exactly the same principle applies here.

Women in politics: Progressive decline

What seemed signed and sealed 10 years ago now appears to be a chimera that fractured a progressive coalition.

This week could and should have marked a transformation in the politics of the United Kingdom. The elections to English councils, to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies, and above all the AV vote, taken together, add up to a Super Thursday. It should also have been the moment when it became clear that women belonged at the heart of devolved politics. It could have been a truly progressive moment. The souring of the promise of electoral reform, and the probable demolition of a new politics, have many different sources – but both warn of the daunting conservatism of British political culture and its institutions.

Hope is not entirely dead. If everyone who wants political change turns out to support AV on Thursday, the bookies now raking in the cash for a no vote could yet have an expensive night. There is no such prospect for gender balance in Wales and Scotland. What seemed signed and sealed 10 years ago now appears to be a chimera that, with the premature belief that it was won, fractured the progressive coalition which had fought for the cause. Last month research for the Guardian confirmed what the Hansard Society had already anticipated, that less than a third of candidates were female. In Scotland, all five of the Labour women constituency MSPs who are retiring have been replaced by men, and if the very male SNP does as well as the polls suggest then the number of women in Edinburgh's parliament will tumble to a new low. As in Scotland, so in Wales, even though in 2003 half of its assembly members were women – setting a world record. So much for the idea that with critical mass comes change that cannot be undone.

Experience in Scotland and Wales has revealed an ineluctable reassertion of the values of the old politics, where conflict and confrontation are scored above compromise and conciliation, and reporting is too often about style and not often enough about substance. And then there is the relentless day-and-night news agenda, the morale-sapping personal scrutiny and the basic level of political debate in which, at Westminster, "calm down, dear" can be hailed as a side-splitting example of Commons repartee.

Into this traditional political culture, in the words of the Edinburgh academic Fiona Mackay, the new politics was temporarily "nested" – and found to be more or less defenceless. For this is a culture so robust that not even the glorious new buildings , with their non-confrontational, hemispheric debating chambers, nor their soft architecture of family-friendly working and gender-balanced electoral systems, have been able to survive its corrosive embrace. Worse, the effort to institutionalise reform – through, for example, all-women shortlists – merely set up a headline-grabbing backlash that in 2005 cost Labour Blaenau Gwent for the parliament.

Electoral politics merely reflects the wider world. The apparent triumph of education that sees slightly more girls than boys go to university, train as doctors and qualify as lawyers is immediately undermined at work, where the culture into which they graduate can be reflected in the sentiments of Simon Murray, the Glencore chairman, who claimed last week that women just don't try hard enough to get to the top.

But constitutional and cultural conservatism does not only hold back women. Black and minority ethnic groups are at least as disadvantaged by it. It excludes difference, whether of class or creed or colour. This is the big lesson from the reverse in electoral politics' gender wars: advance was achieved not by women alone but by a progressive coalition, and it is undermined the moment that progressive coalition fades. Meanwhile, electoral reform has not even had a clear run at building a progressive coalition. The decline of women in the political heartlands is the miner's canary: a symptom of an even graver failure of progressive politics.

In praise of … the Irish Writers' Centre

Among the locations the Queen will visit during her tour of the Irish Republic will be the Dublin's Garden of Remembrance

Among the various locations the Queen will visit during her historic tour of the Irish Republic this month will be the Garden of Remembrance just north of Dublin's O'Connell Street. Amid the pomp and ceremony, and the inevitable tight security, she might care to glance to the right of the memorial dedicated to Irish republicanism's fallen. Directly overlooking the gardens is a four-storey Georgian building that has become a powerhouse of literary creativity. Next door to the Dublin Writers Museum, which commemorates the dead scribes of the country's literary pantheon, is the Irish Writers' Centre, a place that concerns itself with encouraging the living. Founded in 1991 and staffed entirely by volunteers, it stages readings by Nobel laureates such as Seamus Heaney and workshops for would-be poets and novelists. Six days out of seven its doors remain open to readers and writers who are offered free tea, coffee and Wi-Fi as well as a vast range of books. The centre just survived Ireland's recent bouts of brutal spending cuts – apposite given that Dublin recently (and rather belatedly) became a Unesco City of Literature. It also embodies that sense of voluntary public service which long preceded David Cameron's "big society". The Irish Writers' Centre should now become a must-stop part of any culture tour around Dublin. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth could start the tourist trend with a quick nip over to 19 Parnell Square to see a real live literary hothouse in action.



EDITORIAL : THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

The Economy Slows

It has long been clear that economists do not see the world the way people experience it. That disconnect is especially pronounced now.

The economy lost steam in the first quarter. Growth in personal consumption — the single largest component of the economy — slowed markedly. Business-related construction cratered and residential construction fell. Exports stumbled. The only unambiguous plus was continued business investment in equipment and software, which is necessary but not sufficient for overall growth.

In all, economic growth slowed from an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

Not to worry. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, called the slowdown “transitory,” a judgment echoed by many economists who believe that the poor performance can be chalked up to bad weather, political unrest and other presumably temporary setbacks.

If only. Take jobs: When lauding the economy, Mr. Bernanke and many other economists and politicians point out, correctly, that the unemployment rate has declined from a recession high of 10.1 percent in late 2009 to 8.8 percent now. That would be encouraging news if it indicated robust hiring for good jobs. It does not.

Over the last year, the number of new hires has been outstripped by the masses who have either given up looking for work or who have not undertaken a consistent job search, say, after graduating from high school or college. Those missing millions are not counted in the official jobless rate; if they were, unemployment today would be 9.8 percent. The rate would be 15.7 percent if it included those who took part-time jobs in lieu of full-time ones.

Another purported bright spot in the unemployment data — the relatively low jobless rate for college-educated workers — does not stand up to scrutiny. For college educated workers over age 25, unemployment is indeed lower than for other groups. But for college graduates under age 25, unemployment over the last year has averaged 9.7 percent, and shows no sign of improvement.

Inflation is another example. Mr. Bernanke and others say that today’s inflation will likely be temporary, and they are probably right. But one of the reasons for believing higher prices won’t endure is that, in general, for inflation to take off, wages must also rise. There’s no sign of that. Stagnant wages mean Americans will have to cut consumption in the face of higher prices, and as demand drops, prices are subdued — hardly reason to cheer.

The economy still needs help and, specifically, a sustained focus on jobs and income. Instead, policy makers are gearing up for deep spending cuts, ignoring the damage they are likely to cause. Last quarter, cutbacks by governments at all levels took a chunk out of overall growth. If cuts of similar or greater magnitude become the norm, the slow economic pace of the first quarter also could very well become the norm. It’s nice to believe slowing growth is transitory. But as long as spending, jobs and incomes are at risk and policy priorities are skewed, it’s hard to believe in a turnaround.

From Secrecy to Absurdity

Anyone, anywhere, with Internet access can read the internal documents from Guantánamo Bay that were published last week. Anyone can analyze them and argue about them. Except lawyers for the people in those documents.

The Justice Department has warned lawyers representing prisoners held by the military in Cuba that the documents remain legally classified. That means the lawyers may not look at them except at a secure facility in Washington and may not discuss any classified information they learn. The rules, which serve no valid purpose, infringe on their ability to effectively represent their clients by promptly rebutting the government’s accusations and testing its basis for detention.

The papers include the military’s risk assessments of 700 past or present Guantánamo prisoners, including Saifullah Paracha, a Pakistani businessman accused of discussing further plots against the United States with Al Qaeda after Sept. 11, 2001. A lawyer handling Mr. Paracha’s challenge to his detention, David Remes, has asked the Federal District Court in Washington to let him “print, copy, disseminate and discuss” the documents without fear of losing his security clearance or other punishment.

The Justice Department says it is studying the issue. The right answer is clear. Administration officials should make the petition unnecessary by agreeing to Mr. Remes’s request and treating the publication as de facto declassification. If they do not, the court should order it.

The government has a real interest in classifying certain information. But it is hard to see a current threat to national security in the released files. (They are certainly an embarrassing portrait of the Bush team’s incompetence in judging whether detainees were legitimately held.)

There is no sense in continuing to classify the files unless the aim is to improperly gag defense lawyers and let the government’s one-sided account of the evidence regarding their clients go unchallenged in public.

This ridiculous dust-up should occasion a thorough re-examination of the whole edifice of secrecy governing habeas cases filed by Gitmo prisoners. Beyond overclassification of documents and foot-dragging in declassification, lawyers are barred from discussing key information with their clients, all information obtained from clients is presumptively classified, and there is broad insistence on secret hearings.

Standing Up for Guest Workers

Slavery and human trafficking are alive and well in the United States, according to lawsuits filed by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of farm laborers in Hawaii and Washington State and shipyard workers on the Gulf Coast.
The suits allege that labor recruiters and employers lured, trapped and abused foreign workers hired through federal guest-worker programs. The government charges that more than 500 Indian men hired by Signal International of Alabama for rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina were confined in squalid camps, illegally charged for lodging and food, and subject to discrimination and abuse. When they complained, the suit says, Signal agents tried to intimidate workers’ families in India. Two lawsuits filed in Hawaii and Washington against other employers make similar charges about 200 men brought from Thailand.
The United States urgently needs to strengthen protections for guest workers who are lied to by recruiters and tied to employers with too much power to exploit them. Today’s shackles are the threats of deportation and financial ruin. They might as well be iron.
A recent agreement by the federal Labor and Homeland Security Departments to work together on immigration and labor enforcement at work sites is encouraging, though there are serious concerns about Homeland Security’s past behavior. Sworn testimony in a separate civil lawsuit against Signal International charged that rather than protecting the Indian workers, immigration officials coached the company on how to silence and deport them.
Workers in the new lawsuits may win some money and be eligible for special visas for trafficking victims. But they are only a handful of workers — both documented and undocumented — stranded in a system that accepts their labor but fails to prevent their exploitation.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

 

Use frequent dialogue to deepen alliance

The Yomiuri Shimbun

We hope the close dialogue and cooperation that has flourished between Japan and the United States in the response to the Great East Japan Earthquake will strengthen the bilateral alliance.

But to further improve the Japan-U.S. relationship, it should not be forgotten that efforts are needed to resolve pending issues between the two countries, such as the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington and expressed gratitude for U.S. assistance after the March 11 disaster. Matsumoto and Clinton agreed to cooperate to prevent harmful rumors about Japanese products that might spread due to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

This was the third time Matsumoto and Clinton have held talks in the 1-1/2 months since the disaster. We welcome these frequent meetings. Close political dialogue has underpinned Japan-U.S. cooperation in many fields, including the U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi relief mission, the dispatch of U.S. nuclear experts and assistance from economic circles.

It is important that maximum use is made of this frequent Japan-U.S. cooperation for Japan's future diplomacy.

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Key meetings coming up

A Japan-China-South Korea summit meeting and a Group of Eight major nations summit meeting are scheduled for late this month. International cooperation and how to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants during a disaster likely will be high on the agendas.

What preparations and arrangements should be made in advance so relief supplies and search and rescue squads can be swiftly sent to disaster areas, and to ensure smooth cooperation in the event of a nuclear power plant accident?

We suggest that Japan, based on its experiences from the recent disaster, actively propose the creation of concrete international rules and agreements on this issue.

During their talks Friday, Matsumoto and Clinton could not agree on a specific schedule for the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee, also known as two-plus-two security talks, involving foreign and defense ministers from both countries.

The two-plus-two meeting was originally scheduled to be held during the Golden Week holidays, but has been delayed because the government wanted to focus on disaster relief efforts. After this meeting goes ahead, the two countries are scheduled to issue a joint statement outlining progress in their efforts since last year to deepen the alliance. This is to be the premise for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's visit to the United States in late June.

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Remember Futenma

It has been pointed out that the stalled Futenma issue was behind the failure to arrange the schedule for the two-plus-two meeting. If Kan really wants to ensure his visit to the United States is a success, he cannot abandon the Futenma issue on the pretext of focusing on disaster response.

Last week, Carl Levin, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, visited Okinawa Prefecture. His trip came as calls grow in the U.S. Congress to slash the budget for relocating U.S. marines stationed in Okinawa Prefecture to Guam if the Futenma issue is left high and dry.

The Okinawa prefectural government wants to reduce the burden that hosting U.S. bases puts on its residents. We believe the Okinawa government does not want the gridlock in the Futenma issue to complicate the marines' shift to Guam.

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa will meet Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Saturday. The Kan administration needs to step up efforts to convince Nakaima and others who insist the Futenma base should be relocated outside the prefecture to reconsider their view.

Both govt, private sector must tackle energy saving

The Yomiuri Shimbun

In preparation for the power shortages expected this summer in areas served by Tokyo Electric Power Co., the government has compiled a new package of measures to cope with the likely gap between the electricity supply and demand.

The package calls on large-lot power users, such as major factories and department stores; midsized and small corporations; and households to cut electricity use this summer by a uniform 15 percent from a year ago.

Compared with the outline of power-saving steps the government announced in early April, the goal for power conservation has been revised downward, primarily because of the augmentation of TEPCO's power supply capacity.

However, electricity demand may soar due to increased use of power for air conditioners if there is a severe heat wave. Therefore it may not be easy to attain even the lower reduction target.

In addition to its relaxation of the power-saving goal for summer, the government has put the so-called Cool Biz campaign to have people wear light clothing at workplaces into effect from May 1, one month earlier than usual. It also has expanded the campaign period to six months.

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TEPCO supply capacity boosted

There have been moves among businesses to voluntarily adopt summertime working hours, bringing employees in earlier than usual to cut back on electricity consumption.

We strongly hope such energy-conservation and power-saving efforts in the public and private sectors will prove effective enough to avert the danger of an electricity shortage crisis this summer.

The government estimates this summer's maximum power demand in TEPCO service areas at about 60 million kilowatts. There were initially expected to be supply shortages of as much as 10 million kilowatts, prompting the government to address the expected supply-demand gap by setting extremely stringent power-saving goals.

The initial plans were designed to call on large-lot business users to cut power use by 25 percent, small-lot users by 20 percent and households by 15 percent to 20 percent.

As in its initial plans, the government's revised program is set to invoke mandatory restrictions on power use by large-lot business users based on the Electricity Business Law. This shows the government still has a strong sense of crisis over a possible electricity crunch.

TEPCO eventually announced it could boost its supply capacity to 55 million kilowatts through such measures as resuming operations at power stations that had been suspended. This led the government to revise downward its goal for reducing electricity consumption.

Already, some large-lot power users are considering trying to clear the 25 percent reduction goal through such means as operating at night and on Saturdays and Sundays, or by shifting production activities to western Japan regions.

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Households key

However, many firms in such fields as food processing and the operation of refrigerated warehouses will find it difficult to achieve even a 15 percent reduction. We urge these businesses to redouble their power-saving efforts.

Another concern is how households, which account for 30 percent of the nation's power consumption, will use electricity this summer.

Although many households are said to have tried earnestly to economize on electricity use, it is uncertain how much effort they will make in midsummer, when the need for power consumption cuts will be truly urgent.

To what degree should households reduce power use through such means as setting temperatures of air conditioners and refrigerators higher?

The government should seek sufficient cooperation from households by providing specific, detailed examples of how to reduce their power use.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Over the moon

So we saw another May Day yesterday.

The International Workers' Day is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries. It is also celebrated unofficially in many other countries. International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, when, after an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed a public meeting, Chicago police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight hour workday, killing several demonstrators and resulting in the deaths of several police officers, largely from friendly fire.

So much for the history of the Workers’ Day, but the definition of who the worker is remains disputable. The concept of worker (The world’s richest and many leading investors work harder than the salary men who lead a fragmented life of eight hour shifts anyway, that’s an aside)

But in general it has come to refer to “Workers” (Blue collar) whose pay is less or who figure at the bottom of the pay scale.

But the saddest part is that many a May Day today have been hijacked by the political parties to make a case for their survival rather than a Day which celebrates the hard work of the worker.

Yesterday again as usual the country saw May Day being hijacked by the major powers to demonstrate against a man called Ban Ki moon, who has knowingly or unknowingly solied his finger in the mire that is a country in the Indian ocean.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa meanwhile issuing a message on May Day stated  “after vanquishing the scourge of terrorism the government was in a speedy path to protect the rights of the working population. The introduction of a pension scheme for the private sector is another great victory achieved. He said that from this measure the contributory employees would get a better future.”

He had also expressed his gratitude for the working population for defeating terrorism (How?) which was the biggest challenge faced by this country.

The President said “that the hand that was raised by the working population of this country is being raised with much responsibility to safeguard the victory achieved.”

The United Nations and its Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was thus the focal point of attention of the May Day procession and rally in Colombo. 

Effigies, posters, cutouts and floats were taken in procession as part of rally. A few days after the UN report was handed over, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told his supporters to convert May Day into a show of strength against moves to slap war crimes charges on Sri Lanka.

One wonders how come Ban Ki moon affect a worker’s rights or his pay or standard of living.

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

Widen the investigation

Given the central government's conspicuous lack of enthusiasm to act against those responsible for the string of financial irregularities related to the Commonwealth Games 2010, the arrest of Suresh Kalmadi is certainly a step forward. The former Chairman of the Organising Committee — who has been arrested on corruption charges in a case relating to a contract for Timing, Scoring and Result (TSR) devices awarded to a Swiss firm at a scandalously high rate — has a lot to answer for. The Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating his role in another case relating to the Queen's Baton Relay, a traditional precursor to the Commonwealth Games (CWG) that was launched in London in October 2009. But there is no ignoring the fact that many of the scandals in CWG 2010 were the result of either the commission or omission of authorities belonging to a clutch of government bodies, which include the Union Sports Ministry, the Delhi government, and the Delhi Development Authority. The V.K. Shunglu Committee, which was set up to probe “the weaknesses in management, alleged misappropriation, irregularities, wasteful expenditure and wrongdoing in the conduct of the Games,” stresses in its report that the extravagance of the Organising Committee of the Games was coupled with a reckless lack of budgetary control on the part of government authorities. The report records the “galactic jump” of the original budget estimate — placed at somewhere between Rs.300 crore and Rs.400 crore — to an actual expenditure of over Rs.28,000 crore, of which Rs.16,560 crore was spent by the Delhi government.

The Shunglu Committee report implies that there were bigger fish than Mr. Kalmadi in the sea of corrupt CWG-related deals and projects. The CBI must keep the findings of the report in mind while broadening its investigation. The fortunes of Mr. Kalmadi, a Lok Sabha MP and former Union Minister, dipped rapidly after the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games. He was dismissed as the chief of the Organising Committee of the CWG, forced to resign as Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party and, following his arrest, suspended from the party's primary membership. Now Mr. Kalmadi is fighting to hold on to the position of the President of the Indian Olympic Association, his role having been taken over by the body's senior vice-president as a result of the former's “indisposition.” Rather than allow him unbridled power as chief of the Organising Committee, a firm check should have been put on Mr. Kalmadi once the first suspicions about financial irregularities emerged. The chaos today is a result of the failure of the central government and the Congress to act against him when they should have.

What ails public health research?

Why has the incidence of tuberculosis in India remained around 170 per 100,000 people for the last 20 years despite DOTS, the directly observed treatment strategy, being in place? Answer: DOTS is a passive system that kicks in only after a person takes the initiative and gets tested for the disease. Despite the high prevalence and mortality rate, researchers are yet to figure out a system that works proactively, identifying all people with active TB and treating them. The compulsion to identify and treat people with active pulmonary TB as early as possible arises from the fact these patients stop infecting others only at the end of two months of treatment. The reason for the overall failure to identify an efficient and effective system for tracking down people with tuberculosis boils down to a grievous lack of public health research originating from India. India has the greatest total disease burden in the world, and is plagued by both communicable and non-communicable diseases. Yet the total number of research reports and journal papers on public health is small. This, despite the fact that public health research plays a pivotal role in understanding disease distribution in the population and reducing the burden through effective intervention strategies.

A paper recently published online in The Lancet (“Research to achieve health care for all in India,” by Lalit Dandona et al.) reported that though the proportion of health papers published from India increased from 0.4 per cent of the global total in 1988 to 1.8 per cent in 2008, the papers on public health constituted a measly 5 per cent of the total health research papers published. While there has rightly been increasing representation of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in recent times, many of the leading causes of the disease burden such as lower respiratory infections and mental illness continue to be under-represented. The skew in the focus of health research reflects funding priorities. For instance, HIV/AIDS is better covered than chronic diseases and injuries that have much greater weightage in India's disease burden. Of what use are public health programmes and policies if the evaluation research to understand their effectiveness and deficiencies is weak? It is time these shortcomings were addressed by the national health policy, which promises to strengthen public health research. Increasing funding for evaluation research in addition to research on high burden diseases and the health system must be taken up as a life-saving priority. Now is the time for the government to put its money and political will where its mouth is.