EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

Restoring unity

WHEN the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, reached agreement to bury the hatchet on April 27, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with a political ultimatum to the Palestinian Authority -- choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas -- and his finance minister used economic blackmail -- withholding the funds that the Jewish state collects from taxes and levies on the authority's behalf -- to undermine the reconciliation. As the attempt at intimidation failed and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas head Khaled Meshaal went ahead to "turn the black page of division" by signing the accord in Cairo on Wednesday, Netanyahu now seems intent on dissuading Washington, London and Paris from dealing with a Palestinian government of unity that includes Hamas. The fact that the United States and European Union have long categorised Hamas as a terrorist organisation may mean that they will need little persuasion to buy the line that the Cairo agreement was a "tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism".

This would be a great pity as well as a lost opportunity. To be sure, the inclusion of Hamas is not a sufficient condition for peace in the Middle East. But to suggest that no solution to the conflict is possible with its participation is neither sustainable nor desirable. In fact, as peace talks have been going nowhere, it is open to question whether continuing to isolate Hamas is a valid option. It may be Israel's policy. But unless they are more intent on unfailingly shoring up Israel's sense of impunity, it does not make sense for the West to refuse to talk to Hamas. What would be more meaningful would be to take a leaf out of Egypt's book, which has brokered the unity deal and is preparing to open the Rafah crossing, and consider a radical change of policy towards Israel.

As the infighting has weakened the Palestinian cause, it is certainly a relief that Fatah and Hamas have finally come to their senses and chosen to make up. With all the odds against them, the Palestinians can't afford to be at each other's throats. Unity is strength, and the more divided the Palestinians are, the better it is for Israel. No one can pretend that all will henceforth be well. Deep differences remain and there are major obstacles to overcome before the terms of the accord can be put into effect. The rapprochement may turn out to be as brittle as the one four years ago. But there is no question that the accord inked in Cairo is a huge step towards restoring Palestinian unity.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

         

 

Local and devolved elections: Yellow alert

As of this morning, the Lib Dems' path from pavement politics to national power will be tough indeed to tread

The cliche in reporting diffuse elections is to describe a mosaic, with many technicolour parts that tell a complex tale. As of the earliest hours of this morning, that image seems fitting enough for two of Westminster's three party leaders. David Cameron may have gone to bed worried about suburban losses, but will be heartened by his referendum hopes, as well as by some results in his solid south, such as in Castle Point where Labour once held the Westminster seat. Ed Miliband's spirits will have been cheered by Labour's reconquest of northern citadels it should never have lost, and more particularly by progress in parts of the Midlands. But he will have glanced north to unfolding events in Edinburgh with shuddering fear – for Alex Salmond looked set to snatch a second tartan term in commanding style.

Nick Clegg, by contrast, was still hoping against hope for any sort of mosaic, as opposed to a canvass of unremitting black. It is premature to assume that some glimmers might not emerge from the Liberal Democrats' darkest hour, not least because in more than half of the 279 English councils where voting took place, counting does not get going until this morning. But Labour's capturing of his home turf of Sheffield from his party's minority control is an intensely personal blow, as Lib Dem deputy leader, Simon Hughes, lost no time in pointing out last night. A savaging in other industrial cities, such as Liverpool and Hull, has shredded the third force's once proud boast to be the only party able to hold its own equally well in city and shire alike. The first Scottish seat to declare, Rutherglen, pointed to a collapse north of the border as well. In the (still far from certain) direst scenario, there could also be haemorrhaging to the Tories in the south and west as well, and politicians with yellow rosettes would then have nowhere left to hide.

The effect on political organisation is predictable and grim. As the representative of the Lib Dem councillors told the Guardian, these people serve as the all-important sergeants of local campaigning. Starting out with so many fewer MPs than their rivals, the Liberal Democrats' path from pavement politics to national power has traipsed through townhalls, from Somerset to Stockport. As of this morning, this path will be tough indeed to tread.

The councillors newly elected this morning, have won themselves a miserable job – meting out the very harshest of those coalitional cuts that are coming so dangerously thick and fast. No local politician of any stripe is going to do everything they might like to for their population in this fix, and especially not since Britain's fiscal centralism blocks every theoretical escape. But when retrenchment is in train, it is more important than ever that town halls are run by people prepared to risk middle-class wrath to protect services for same poor people. After being dealt a horrendous hand in last year's election and binding themselves in with the Conservatives, the urgent question for the Lib Dems now is how they can now persuade electors they stand for something distinctive.

The pre-mortem got going even before the first ward had declared, with Paddy Ashdown blasting the Conservatives on Question Time, and telling the Guardian that their "regiment of lies" will settle the terms on which the coalition ends. The elder statesman is only one of those agitating for a final line to be drawn under the "marriage in May" tone which Mr Clegg over-indulged right throughout last year. The pitch will have to become far sharper, and make less reliance on over-hyped income tax cuts which get lost in the mix with national insurance and VAT as tax credits are snatched away. Along with Scottish problems, Mr Miliband may potentially have a dash of southern discomfort. Mr Cameron's own mosaic of local difficulties could be serious, but that awaits the settling of the dust. For Mr Clegg, by contrast, the questions are now obvious – if not the answers.

Banks: The protection racket

The PPI racket casts a light on how much needs to be done to clean up the banks

Company results can tell you about much more than the fortunes of an individual business; they sometimes reveal the worrying state of an entire industry. So it is with yesterday's quarterly figures from Lloyds. Sure, the company-specific stuff gets its full and ugly reflection. Taxpayers and other interested observers can see for themselves that the state-owned bank remains in fragile condition, racking up losses of £3.47bn in the first three months of this year. And the group continues to pay a heavy price for earlier misadventures in the Irish property market. Lloyds shares are now bouncing around 55p, about 25% below the price the government paid for its stake, which raises serious questions about when and how taxpayers will get their money back.

But yesterday's results tell us about more than one messed-up balance sheet; they help paint a picture of a rotten industry practice. Because the bank's single biggest source of red ink is due to losses in a business that most of its high-street competitors were also in up to their necks: payment protection insurance.

The theory behind PPI was simple: you take out a mortgage or a credit card, but are worried about falling sick or losing your job – so the bank sells you an insurance policy that covers your payments. Unfortunately, as so many customers over the past decade found, the theory behind PPI rarely translated into practice: according to industry sources, most banks paid as little as 15% of their PPI income to claimants. And many of these costly policies should never have been sold in the first place; yet the banks had no compunction about flogging protection against redundancy to, say, self-employed plumbers. This was a racket, yet when the industry came under fire from the press (the Guardian was the first national paper to report on the PPI profiteering), consumer action groups and bloggers, it clammed up. Institutions batted off claims for compensation; and the British Bankers' Association took its own regulators to court. The best that can be said for Lloyds is that at least it has woken up to reality. By setting aside more than £3bn to compensate swindled customers, it has done the right thing – and upped the pressure on RBS and other rivals to follow suit.

But the bottom line is this: the PPI racket casts a light on how much needs to be done to clean up the banks. Just making the system safer, as regulators are urging, is not enough; it needs to be made more useful. Even in their pomp and glory, British banks lent like drunkards and ripped off their PPI-buying customers. They must not be patched up and allowed to go back to business as usual. Because as PPI reminds us, business as usual was rotten.

Barack Obama: Belief returns

'No one can say whether this has been a pivotal week for the US president, but it has certainly been an extraordinary one'

No one can yet say whether this has been a pivotal week for Barack Obama's presidency, but it has certainly been an extraordinary one. You don't need polls to judge how far he has travelled in just a few days. All you have to do is compare what his friends were saying about him before Bin Laden's killing and what his enemies are saying now. The New Yorker culled a litany of barbed judgments from the foreign policy establishment two weeks ago. They ran: Mr Obama does not strategise, he sermonizes; he leads from behind; he's no John Wayne. And now? "The administration deserves credit," says Dick Cheney. "I admire the courage of the president," claps Rudolph Giuliani. "I want to personally congratulate President Obama," says Donald Trump, the man who hounded the Democrat for his birth certificate.

Not all of this can be attributed to Harold Macmillan's explanation of what blows a term of office off course: "Events, dear boy, events." Mr Obama placed himself firmly at the centre of this event. It was he who instructed Leon Panetta to make the hunt for Bin Laden the CIA's number one priority; he who was briefed on a possible lead six months ago and repeatedly since; he who determined they had evidence to go; he who insisted on the riskier helicopter raid, rather than one well-placed bomb. This last decision will earn him the respect of his military. It is safe to say that questioning his national security credentials is a game that can be played no more. Nor will Republican attempts to paint him as a liberal out of touch with the nation's values find such fertile ground. But is something bigger going on, or will it all soon be back to business as usual in the beleaguered West Wing – raging budget deficits, unemployment and petrol prices?

When Mr Obama walked into the fire station in midtown Manhattan yesterday and said that his commitment to making sure justice was done transcended politics and party, and that his audience would always have a president and an administration who has got their back, he was conscious of addressing an audience larger than the firemen who had lost 15 of their colleagues 10 years ago. He has made calls for national unity before. He has attempted to position himself above the partisan fray and fallen woefully short. He has appealed before to his political opponents' higher instincts, only to be roundly defeated by them. Yesterday he had a chance to make the same grab for the higher ground and remain on it. No longer as a dangerous, possibly even un-American liberal intent on pushing through unpopular reforms in stormy times but as a leader who can harness the mood of the nation. This is potent stuff. If he succeeds in winning re-election it will be because he has re-assembled many of the constituents responsible for propelling him into power. Until now, they have been clobbered in the battles of his first term – the most likely to be unemployed, or to have had their home repossessed. As they lost faith in the man who heralded change they could believe in, the independent voter lost faith too. And in many states with strong military connections this has the power to change the political map.

There was a sign yesterday that the Republicans, too, were changing tactics. They conceded their plan to overhaul Medicare was unlikely to succeed and offered to open talks with the Democrats on the budget. They have not got long – two weeks before the debt will hit the limit of $14.3tn, and before Congress faces a difficult vote to raise the ceiling. Much will still depend on the economy and on jobs. On these fronts, Mr Obama has yet to show the audacity of hope. But if a leasehold of the centre ground starts to grow in political value, then it has not come a moment too soon for his presidency. This does not mean that Mr Obama will come good on his promise to change America. But it may mean more Americans start to believe in him.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

 


CRICKET CRISIS: MATCH-FIXING OR FIX-UP 

Will former captain Hashan Tillekaratne keep his promise and come out with the names in the latest scourge to hit Sri Lanka cricket just a month after the team conceded the World Cup to India in a manner that raised many questions, some relating to match-fixing.  For a nation that was only a witness to match-fixing over the past two decades with none of its players tainted or hauled up before the ICC's anti-corruption unit, the scourge must be hard to bear and how the establishment will tackle such a syndrome is the million dollar question.

First and foremost Hashan Tillekaratne needs to be given all the protection usually reserved for court witnesses and not be seen as some disgruntled political element waiting to bowl no balls or bouncers. Tillekaratne is a widely respected cricketer and obviously knows what he is talking about or the gravity of making such accusations in an age when the very establishment he once played for and later served as administrator, was not so long ago branded the most corrupt public institution in the country by none other than former sports minister C.B. Ratnayake.

While questions may be asked why Tillekaratne waited so long to come up with such a shocking charge, it is also important to bear in mind that Sri Lanka has never been known to enforce the code of conduct on players, other than when administrators feel insecure, and nearly all of them down the ages were treated as sacred cows for emotional reasons except for one instance when in the early 1990s disciplinary action was taken against former captain Arjuna Ranatunga who rebelled against the establishment on a tour of New Zealand.

Could Tillekaratne's shocking allegation be a turning point, we hope for the better and not worse, and change a system that needed a messiah to lead the game into a promised land where once again the game and not individuals can flourish. For his part Tillekeratne, whatever the reason he may have had to stir up such a hornet's nest, from now on will be looked at differently and whatever he does or says in public will be followed closely by both his critics and admirers. When none had the  guts to take on the dreaded subject of match-fixing Tillekeratne stood out and thus he'll be seen as the latest face of Sri Lanka Cricket right or wrong until what he has said has been investigated and made public.

Of-course the experts have plenty of ammunition to take on Tillekaratne on the question of why he remained silent for almost 20 years. This may also make him a guilty party for concealing what in his belief were facts and figures or the man he was attempting to fix. Only an International Cricket Council-sponsored tribunal can take up this matter independently with credibility for Tillekaratne was once accountable to them (ICC) as a player who had to follow their rules and  code.

The sooner that Sri Lanka gets over the match-fixing saga the better will it be for the team. Time may be running out. The game and players are fast out-growing everything else and Tillekaratne's claims may only go against him. It started with him and it should end with him and the sooner the ICC and Sri Lanka Cricket get to the bottom of it will be in the best interests of everyone concerned.

For Tillekeratne and Sri Lanka Cricket there is no going back. The road ahead is laid with political landmines and it is important to bear in mind that no side takes undue advantage over the other. Right now there are signs that Tillekaratne may be hounded and victimised by the powers that be who will take the easy way out, thereby allowing the wound to fester or perhaps create another time bomb.

 

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

India-Pakistan: unique opportunity

New Delhi has done right to make it clear that the agenda of the talks between India and Pakistan, which recommenced last month after many false starts, will remain unaffected by the death of Osama bin Laden. Since the killing of the al-Qaeda leader in a U.S. operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, many fanciful notions have gained ground in India, among them the suggestion that like the U.S., India must not hesitate to use force in the quest for justice for the victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Nothing can be more absurd. India and Pakistan are both joined and divided by history and geography; the sum of the ties between the two is different from that between Pakistan and the United States. There is no alternative to normalising relations between our two countries. Undoubtedly, the bin Laden episode has reinforced long-held Indian suspicions about the Pakistani establishment and its dubious role in nurturing militants on its territory. It has highlighted India's own list of “wanted” in Pakistan that includes the Jamat-ud-dawa chief and the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks Hafiz Saeed and the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, suspected to be living in comfort in Karachi. It has reiterated in a unique way Indian doubts about Pakistani promises that it will not allow its territory to be used by terrorists. It has strengthened India's demand that Pakistan should dismantle “the infrastructure of terror on its soil.” At the same time, it has also placed the Pakistan military on the defensive with its own people. Questions are being asked in Pakistan about how much the military and the intelligence agencies knew about bin Laden's presence a short distance from a prestigious military academy, and why the security apparatus was kept out of the operation by the U.S. In the three years since a civilian government took office in Pakistan, the politicians have been blamed for much that has gone wrong, but it is a rare moment in the rocky civilian-military relations of the country when the khakis take the flak.

For all these reasons, the death of bin Laden presents an opportunity for India and Pakistan to reshape their relations in a constructive way rather than for India to indulge in short-sighted triumphalism. Irrespective of how the al-Qaeda leader's departure affects the war in Afghanistan, and what strategies Pakistan's generals are planning in that country, this is India's chance to persuade the people of Pakistan that it is not the mortal enemy that it has been made out to be by their security establishment. It implies a whole hearted engagement, not just with the government but also with the people of Pakistan on all issues that trouble bilateral relations. Such engagement will also pave the way towards justice for the victims of the Mumbai attacks.

Unsafe helicoptering

The tragic death of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister, 56-year old Dorjee Khandu, and four others in the crash of a single-engined Pawan Hans helicopter on the Indo-Bhutan borders has turned the focus on the need to urgently address the safety and security systems for this class of aircraft. Too many lives, especially of political leaders, are being lost for one reason or another while moving around in helicopters. It has taken five days to locate the wreckage after the chopper, which was on an hour-long trip to Itanagar, went missing on April 30. That the wreckage was found 30 km north of the 13,700 feet Sela pass in Tawang district speaks to the sort of terrain in which it crashed. The search missions, in which ISRO and Defence personnel were involved, encountered several hurdles, chiefly the persistently inclement weather that forced them to cease operations intermittently. This raises serious questions about the clearance for flying the chopper on that ill-fated day.

Pawan Hans, a mini-ratna public sector undertaking that was primarily meant to provide transport to the oil basins and the ONGC's exploration staff, has expanded its remit to offer charter services and cater to tourism in a big way. On September 2, 2009, a charismatic and dominant political leader, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, was killed in a helicopter crash under comparable circumstances in a forest area —the chopper, owned by the State government, should not have taken off. It is incumbent on the operators and the regulators who permit such flights to insist on the air worthiness of the helicopter as well as the weather clearance for the particular operation. As a parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture chaired by Sitaram Yechury points out in its latest report, VVIPs are known to force pilots to operate in adverse weather conditions, when visibility is poor and the terrain inhospitable. When the aircraft in question is a single-engine helicopter, the risk is all the more. It is time to put in place a strict set of rules to govern the operation of these aircraft. India needs an independent and statutory National Transportation Safety Board to investigate air crashes and accidents on water, in addition to major road tragedies. Before Pawan Hans embarks on its fleet expansion plans and proceeds to set up a training academy in Pune, it is imperative that no-nonsense regulations are in place with a clear enforcement mandate.

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Reassessing reality

THE dual messages being sent out by both the Pakistani and American camps on the US operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden look set to continue for some time. The Pakistan Army high command on Thursday played a softer hand, promising to investigate how Osama bin Laden ended up in a garrison town and how US special forces were able to enter and exit Pakistani airspace and operate on the ground without being interdicted. Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir took the harder line, rejecting the allegations of a colossal failure on the part of the military and intelligence network and pushing back against American pressure coming from its national security, as opposed to its political leadership. The American political leadership, perhaps mindful of continuing security challenges in this part of the world, has tread a careful line. And, notably, even American officials taking a hard line on Pakistan have stopped short of accusing the Pakistani state of complicity. For now, it seems that a total breakdown in relations has been avoided. But for that to hold, and the Pakistan-US relationship to perhaps even improve, both sides will have to take a hard look at their demands of one another and reassess what is achievable.

In some ways, a decade since 9/11 Pakistan has found itself back to square one. In September 2001, Pakistan was a pariah state, shunned by the outside world, one of the few countries to recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and on the verge of economic collapse. Then 9/11 occurred and Pakistan had a choice to make: hitch its wagon to the American war on terror or risk being trampled underfoot. But while circumstances forced Pakistan to make that choice quickly, the country`s own strategic interests demanded decoupling from the `non-state actors` and pushing the outside world to embrace it. Now, with Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind, dead, there is a second chance for Pakistan: look inwards, tackle the internal security threat with resolve, reset the strategic priorities of the state and engage the outside world as a responsible member of the international community. Anything less than that, and it is hard to see anything but further pain for Pakistan.

As for the US, in its approach to Pakistan it needs to understand that mistakes are very different from core national interests. Pakistan does need a stable Afghanistan. Pakistan will feel threatened by an increasingly powerful India that is courted and wooed by the international powers. But a less anxious Pakistan may be willing to engage the outside world more positively.

Extra-judicial killing?

FAR from being a chaotic and intense gun battle as described earlier, it now seems that the operation in which Osama bin Laden was killed was a precise venture with elimination — not arrest — as the sole target. On Thursday, a senior US defence official stated that only one of the five people killed in the assault had been armed; he managed to fire a single shot before being killed along with a woman who was nearby. This sole exchange of fire occurred in the first few minutes of the operation, after which reportedly the Navy Seal team met no resistance, armed or otherwise. Indeed, the defence official said that the raid should be described as a floor-by-floor operation to hunt down Bin Laden. Days before, on Tuesday, US officials had already retracted earlier claims that Bin Laden had been armed when killed and that he had attempted to use one of his wives as a human shield.

These revelations have raised reservations about the legality and ethicality of the raid, particularly in Europe which has also been targeted by Al Qaeda. UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay, has responded to worries about whether the team that carried out the raid had been prepared to take Bin Laden alive, calling upon the US for a full disclosure of the facts. It is important for the US to comply. There is little dispute about Bin Laden`s culpability in crimes of immense magnitude. However, the basic tenet of justice is that of due legal process, which delineates it from vigilante action. The US has earlier been accused of carrying out covert killings on foreign soil. The Abbottabad raid, however, seems to be the first time that an overt operation has been carried out to kill in cold blood. The US regularly issues human rights reports in the context of other countries, including Pakistan, expressing reservations about extra-judicial killings among other abuses. But if the killing of an unarmed man, even if a criminal, who puts up no resistance can be justified, what is to stop any despot anywhere from justifying extra-judicial killings in the context of his own country`s situation?

Renewable energy

ALTERNATIVE energy, even in small doses, can make a significant difference in a power-starved country like Pakistan. In a welcome development, street lights lining the Hawkesbay road in Karachi have been hooked up to solar panels and there is no reason why this initiative should not be replicated elsewhere in the city or indeed the country as a whole. There will, admittedly, be the initial burden of buying and installing the hardware. Over time, however, the investment ought to pay for itself if the panels are kept in good repair. And besides saving money, shifting to solar power for street lights from oil- and gas-fired electricity could have a positive environmental impact in a country that can do with a great deal of conservation. At the same time, it might raise awareness of the fact that alternatives to fossil fuels do indeed exist and should be tapped at the earliest. That is the way forward, especially for a country that is largely dependent on oil imports in an age of fluctuating prices.

Solar power technology is still expensive and cannot reasonably be expected to run factories, mills and houses that consume vast amounts of electricity. That said, it is a viable option for homes, especially in rural areas, where people would see a working fan and a couple of lights as a huge advancement in their way of life. Pakistan`s wind-power potential in Sindh`s coastal belt must also be exploited to the fullest. Wind power, which is far more cost-efficient than solar energy on a macro level, can first and foremost reinvigorate a national grid that is currently teetering on the brink of collapse. Then there is another advantage: remote areas are not always easy to hook up to the grid and alternative energy provides an option for stand-alone projects. We need to look forward and act in a timely manner.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

           

 

The consultation process

Opposition needs to be engaged

Appreciatively, the parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment involved all conceivable cross-sections of society in a consultation process that seems to have concluded the day before yesterday. To our mind, it has not quite ended.

There has been one lacuna. For neither the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), nor its alliance partners, nor the opposition-leaning members of the civil society and the intelligentsia did participate in the consultation.

In spite of that, some valid points have come to the fore. The caretaker government system has been tampered with. This has led to the participants at the consultation laying emphasis on strengthening the Election Commission (EC) with a renewed vigour. In a bid to have the chief of the caretaker government in its favour, a ruling party had resorted to increasing the retirement age of the Supreme Court judges and appointment of party loyalists superseding seniors was taken recourse to. Such practices have only compromised the integrity and credibility of the judiciary.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the EC has to be made autonomous both structurally and financially so that it can work independently. And that the appointments of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the commissioners have to be made in strict conformity with constitutional provision by choosing impartial and non-partisan persons for the posts.

That way, the EC will not only be able to function independently, but it would also not remain beholden to the government of the day.

The opposition keeping out of the consultation process is neither congenial to, nor desirable for reaching a consensus on constitutional amendment.

To that end, the government will need to go the extra mile to engage the opposition in the process. But the opposition must also not capitalise on the issue as a ploy to push its political agenda. If it goes that way, it will be doing disservice to the nation as well as to its constituencies.

Let us not forget that the constitutional amendment issue is not the creation of the government. Actually, it has taken centre stage in consequence of a court verdict that necessitated legislation. As such, the opposition would do good to itself and the nation by looking at the whole issue from that standpoint.