EDITORIAL : THE NEW ZELAND HERALD, NEW ZELAND

New synthetic drugs need proper control

A Herald investigation yesterday provided a clear illustration of the pressing need for drug law reform.

On sale in many Auckland dairies, quite openly and legally, are sachets of synthetic cannabis which have not been properly tested and may be more potent than the real thing.

To make matters worse, parents and police told the Herald, the drug is being sold to underage customers.

The point was underlined by a 15-year-old girl who was able to buy the drug at a dairy with no questions asked. It was, she said, as easy as buying icecream.

Clearly there is a need for the law to tackle the issue of synthetic recreational drugs which include party pills as well as the imitation cannabis.

For years the law has being trying to catch up with a rapidly evolving trade in mind-altering substances. Every time one of these drugs is banned, another one bobs up in its place.

The Government is considering a Law Commission recommendation that new recreational drugs should be proven safe before they go on sale. This will be difficult. The country's most common recreational drug, alcohol, might not pass that test. But the effects of alcohol are well known and at least the sale is relatively strictly controlled.

Synthetic drugs do not meet either of those conditions. There are good grounds to enact the Law Commission recommendation that new substances should require approval before they can be sold. These drugs need to be presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Let's make sure hosting the Cup's a pleasure

The countdown to the Rugby World Cup passed the 100-day milestone this week in good heart. It is still too early for audible and visible excitement to be rising but all the elements appear to be coming into place.

There is no sign of the panic that has become almost routine in countries that host a sports event on this scale, no last-minute flurry of construction or public worry that vital infrastructure will not be finished on time.

It is not only stadiums and big-screen venues that will create the buzz before the kick-off but also amenities such as those nearing completion on the Auckland waterfront, linking the Viaduct Harbour to the redevelopment of the western reclamation.

All around New Zealand, towns and cities will have new spaces for people to share the experience. Even Christchurch, which had planned to use Cathedral Square and streets reduced to rubble on February 22, is arranging its own "party central" in Hagley Park.

The second earthquake will have presented a challenge to tour promotions overseas. All tourism to this country will have felt the impact. But it is too soon to be making excuses.

Half the total number of tournament seats have been sold so far, which sounds not bad considering the varied quality of the 48 contests. Most of the local attendance at pool matches will depend on the interest generated when visiting teams arrive in host towns, and the weather on the day.

The only cloud on the horizon at this stage is Fiji. The International Rugby Board is asking the Government to relax the ban on members of the Bainimarama regime and the Government, quite rightly, appears to be standing firm. The event offers the regime a rare opportunity to make Fiji suffer for the sanctions in place for the past five years. But that risk has been predictable for all of that time and the organisers must have contingency plans.

The Fijian team's absence would be keenly felt there and here. Fijians love rugby and the New Zealand organisers have given the event a Pacific flavour. Samoa, Tonga and Fiji should find it almost like playing at home. But it would not be the first time Fijian sportsmen and women have faced the sanctions.

A soccer World Cup qualifying match was moved from New Zealand in 2007 because Fiji's goal-keeper, the son-in-law of a military officer, was refused entry. The same year two Fijians were unable to play in netball's world championships in Auckland.

Sometimes the ban has been tougher on players than officials. The president of Fiji Netball in 2007, Alice Tabete, was allowed in despite having family connections to the military.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said that was why the ban was devised. So such a loophole seems available to the head of the Fiji Rugby Union. John Key said this week, "I think Frank Bainimarama's brother-in-law is running it now, and it would make a bit of a mockery of the sanctions that we have in place."

The Government could take a lenient view of any selected players and bona fide coaching staff caught by the ban, and maintain a hard line on officials. But whatever happens, the World Cup will happen.

As September gets closer the country should realise the scale of this event and make hosting a pleasure.

EDITORIAL : THE OUTLOOK, AFGANISTAN

                  

 

Stifle the Evil Attempts

Things are getting hazier in Afghanistan. President talks of US-led occupation and the Afghans' uprising against them if NATO air operations are continued. Certain notorious elements optimize the opportunity to raise anti-American sentiments in public. Thanks to the current freedom of expression, some media channels vividly provoke people to launch demonstrations that most likely turn into uncontrolled violence.

Many analysts wonder how a so-called Afghan intellectual, a University professor, didn't distinguish between the Soviet invasion and the US-led war in Afghanistan. He bluntly said US's presence here was a clear occupation of the country as they carried guns while patrolling. There seems to be no relevance of carrying gun and necessarily being an occupier. The United Nations Security Council sees the International Security Assistance Forces operating in Afghanistan as legitimate body to help Afghanistan get stable in the pro-Taliban age. However, there are some commentators excerpting president's statements and conclude an occupied Afghanistan.

President Karzai's heated speech came following a controversial attack that led to civilian deaths in southern Afghanistan. He thus ordered the U.S.-led coalition to stop bombing homes because too many civilians were being killed. "I warn NATO forces that a repeat of airstrikes on the houses of Afghanistan's people will not be allowed," Karzai said at a news conference at the presidential palace. "The people of Afghanistan will not allow this to happen anymore, and there is no excuse for such strikes." It was Karzai's strongest-ever statement against NATO alliance airstrikes and further complicated a difficult relationship with the Obama administration as it prepares a troop drawdown in the increasingly unpopular war.

In response to the rising concerns on civilian casualties, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Thursday June 02, 2011 that he is committed to reducing the loss of innocent lives to an absolute minimum. The statement marked Gen. David Petraeus's latest attempt to ease President Hamid Karzai's anger over civilian casualties. "We share President Karzai's emotion about this," Petraeus said. "We are here to protect the people, to safeguard them, not to harm them or their property."

On the other side, some experts maintain that president Karzai's harsh criticism and the warning comes as he is in the second term of presidency and will no longer keep silent for having US's support. So, they say, for president, it would be a good chance to amend his image in public and fulfill his promises to the Afghans. However, reports said that he had received advice that the Chinese could prove more reliable allies than the Americans. But that is not what the Afghans demand and how the process moves. Afghans need the international community and the US-led NATO presence for longer time to get capable of an independent fight against extremism. The entire county would come under attacks from more extremist groups and will see more external meddling as soon as NATO forces abandon Afghanistan.

Karzai's government is not yet ready to take on the Taliban insurgency by itself. In the short term, the government needs to avoid impractical statements on the US-led forces here and the country's foreign policy towards the regional and neighboring countries. And more importantly, it needs to prevent misuse of presidential statements and the situation by certain infamous circles attempting to deteriorate the instable situation and deepen the gap between Afghan government and the people and enhance public pessimist view towards the international community working here that will, of course, prove too costly for the new Afghanistan.

Need for Furthering Interaction with Outside World

Due to years of war and conflict, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. It is facing myriads of problems, ranging from
high rate of child mortality and maternal death to high level of illiteracy and backbreaking poverty. There has been progress made after the fall of brutal and hard-line regime of Taliban in late 2001, which had led Afghanistan into isolation from the world and harbored the global network of terrorism that was threatening security across the world.

After the 9/11, which took the lives of about three thousand innocent people, Afghanistan was catapulted into international focus. Over the last one decade, there has been a great deal of interaction between Afghanistan and the outside world.
Afghanistan has benefited from this interaction the most and the donor countries have been contributing to economic restoration and reconstruction efforts by building roads, bridges, schools and carrying out the capacity-building programs for the human resources in the country. Despite a decade of international endeavor to help rebuild the country, the people of Afghanistan are yet to get to the point to live with dignity due to increasing deterioration in security situation and widespread poverty.

Afghanistan remains an aid recipient country and will continue to remain so in the foreseeable future because of the poor capacity to tap its resources to begin to generate sufficient income to stand on its feet.
The Presidential Palace on Friday, June 03, 2011 said that Afghanistan and Italy have signed two agreements on increased political interaction and multilateral cooperation. Italy has around 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is one of the major troop-contributing countries to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The agreements were signed by the foreign ministers of the two countries during President Hamid Karzai's visit to Italy where he attended a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of Italy's unification along with many other international leaders. According to the statement from the presidential office, the newly signed pacts are aimed at strengthening ties and cooperation in areas of trade, culture and education. In the meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in his talks with president Karzai pledged long-term commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Afghanistan needs to further increase its interactions with developed countries in order to make its way towards development and modernity.
It cannot get rid of the current ills of insecurity, poverty and other social fragmentation by choosing to stick to its traditional status.

 

EDITORIAL : THE NATIONAL POST, CANADA

       

 

Too zealous by half

Dr. Death is dead. But how many will miss him? For many years, Jack Kevorkian was the West's leading champion of a terminal patient's right to die by means of physician-assisted suicide. But over time, his self-promotion and macabre enthusiasm for his métier became liabilities. Though his cause had merit, Dr. Kervorkian did much to set it back.

He started off on solid ground. A passionate believer in the right-to-die for those suffering in great agony, the Michigan pathologist offered "death counselling" and devised elaborate ways to both deliver his merciful service and avoid entangling himself in the law. He devised two separate devices that would administer either a lethal dose of a medically controlled substance or of carbon monoxide gas. But, critically, Dr. Kevorkian only set up the devices. It was up to the individual seeking death to activate them, something no more involved than flicking a switch or pushing a button. In this way, he rendered controversial but arguably merciful aid to people who actively had sought his help.

If he'd kept to that, Dr. Kevorkian might have not only avoided the legal trouble that brought him down, but also could have continued to be a powerful, passionate advocate for the right to die. But seemingly emboldened and radicalized by all the press attention and official scrutiny, which included the suspension of his medical licence, Dr. Kevorkian became arrogant, and in the fall of 1998, went too far.

Dr. Kevorkian had been asked by Michigan-resident ALS disease sufferer Thomas Youk to help him die in 1998. Mr. Youk, crippled by the advance state of his disease, was unable to activate even the simplest of Dr. Kevorkian's death devices, so Dr. Kevorkian directly administered a lethal injection -according to his lawyer, the first time he took a life by his own hand, something that even those who had been inclined to defend him found difficult to accept. Dr. Kevorkian also videotaped the killing of Mr. Youk, and released the film to the documentary program 60 Minutes, which aired it several weeks later. Dr. Kevorkian dared the police to arrest him. The police obliged, and after a disastrous attempt to act as his own legal counsel and turn his trial into a platform for arguing the merits of right-to-die legislation, Dr. Kevorkian was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10-to-25 years in prison.

The episode was devastating to his moral credibility. Even those who believe that end-of-life assistance should be legal do not consider it laudable. It is at best a necessary evil, the best of bad options, something only fathomable if the alternative is prolonged physical agony without hope of eventual recovery. Dr. Kervorkian's seeming enthusiasm for his work therefore came off as creepy. And he became the punch line for lurid talkshow jokes.

Paroled in 2007, after eight years behind bars, Dr. Kevorkian seemed a broken, humbled man. Seriously ill with Hepatitis C, contracted accidentally while conducting medical research decades earlier, he promised to have no further involvement in the deaths of others, and to confine his role to advocating for the legal right to die. He died on Friday morning at the age of 83.

As our population ages, there is every reason to expect more debate about whether patients should have the right to opt for death, and those millions of sufferers will need a spokesman. They can do better than Jack Kevorkian.

EDITORIAL : THE KHALEEJ TIMES, UAE

Losing reason in Damascus

Syria’s cup of woe seems to have run over. Despite the recent amnesty declared by Syrian president for political dissidents including the members of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation — banned in the country since their revolt against President Bashar Al Assad’s father, Hafez Al Assad in the eighties — and the release of several hundred political prisoners, the unrest only seems to be growing.
This is of course being attributed to the continued use of force being pursued by Damascus. With reports of fresh killings of protesters in the central city of Rastan, the number of those killed at the hands of the security forces only seems to be growing. The biggest contradiction is that for every released prisoner, several more are arrested. 
Moreover, the Syrian government’s promise to launch an investigation into the death of the teenage boy Hamza al-Khatib — who has become a symbol for the Syrian uprising  — for alleged torture and killing by the security forces is being dismissed by the anti-regime opposition.  A preliminary query resulted in the Syrian authorities saying that Hama died as a result of bullets that were fired at demonstrators in Deraa in April. 
Hamza’s death while tragic epitomises the degeneration of the Syrian crisis.  Ironically, every death at the hands of the state at this point has only strengthened the resolve of the opposition to continue its efforts for the ouster of a regime that cannot be trusted.   Rastan is a case in point. Despite the amnesty the government did not consider restraint, as a result of which more people lost their lives.  The Syrian opposition groups that are represented by the Local Coordinating Committee have denounced the government offer saying it comes too late. Considering the widespread unrest and the growing anger towards the regime, it is likely too late for remedial measures.
At the same time, the credibility of the regime in delivering on its promises has plummeted to zero. The adoption of a dual policy entailing concessions and force has hardly gained the trust of people whose disappointment in the government has obviously crossed all limits.
The question is how long will this continue. Sooner or later Assad will face defections within his regime and loss of support among his security establishment. What could be worse is that he will have the blood of thousands on his hands once this bloody turmoil finally ends. Instead of plunging his country into a bigger ordeal than the one it is currently going through, it may be better for the Syrian ruler to put an immediate end to the use of force. By starting negotiations with the opposition and allowing political factions fair and free participation in the electoral process, much worse can be averted. Unless reason prevails and restraint exercised, things will only get worse.



The E.coli outbreak

Beware of toxins in your food. The discovery of a highly infectious new strain of E.coli bacteria in the farmlands of Europe is quite disturbing.
The very fact that the lethal micro-organism has killed at least 18 is worrisome. Though the European Union has been quick to take up the issue and restrict the supply and use of the contaminated vegetable, a lot more remains to be done.
Slapping of a ban on imports by Russia and many of the Scandinavian countries is merely a precautionary measure, and doesn’t address the issue in totality. What is feared is the fact that shady market forces may resort to dump the perishables in other countries, and many of the vulnerable African and Asian countries could be an easy target. This demands  a consistent approach in, firstly, stemming the sneaking in of bacteria-laden green food to offshore destinations, and netting and eliminating the bacteria by seeking the help of bio-scientists on a war-footing basis.
The contamination threat has come close on the heels of the World Health Organisation’s report that a large number of countries face food shortages, and poverty is rising at a staggering rate. This vegetable conundrum is, however, quite different from the malaise that people faced in the form of mad cow, HN51 and milk contamination.
These bacteria in the greens possess the potential to impact other farm produces and could be a major source of deadly diseases that could only be discovered in due course of time, and might not be as instant as the cucumber casualty, according to scientists. This is why Russia and periphery countries of Europe who heavily bank on raw vegetables from the euro heartland are perturbed, and desperately looking for new avenues to retain food supplies. This has posed multiple challenges for the regional governments to keep a tab on restrictions and at the same time come out with a formula and a way-out to nip the bacteria in the bud.
This E.coli crisis has come at a time when Europe is mired in recessionary trend, and ailing economies are already resorting to protectionism measures. Yet, this is not a time to close the ranks. Firstly, the outbreak of disease is not contagious, which is promising. Secondly, the produce could easily be destroyed and the farmlands purged before the onset of next harvesting season. What is required is efforts put into place to eradicate it.

EDITORIAL : THE INDENDENT, IRELAND

          

 

A crisis that's just too big to go away

ON the streets of Athens, Greeks are becoming increasingly wary of foreigners bearing gifts. Within the city walls they are wondering was the bailout a Trojan horse, especially as they prepare to sell off a massive hoard of state assets, all to meet the terms laid down by the ECB and the IMF.

The sighs heard on the announcement of the new terms were more of resignation than relief. And one can understand why.

While the infamous "troika" -- the EU, IMF and European Central Bank -- may provide €85bn, of which €30-€40bn would come as EU and IMF loans, the rest must come from privatisation proceeds and private-sector debt relief.

The protesters in the streets complain this is more of a mugging than a rescue.

The new measures provide for the Greek government to create an independently managed privatisation agency. This amounts to polishing the family silver before a sell-off.

After a month of financial vivisection, the verdict seems to be that Greece has made some progress. Yet it was also pointed out that fiscal and structural reforms must be stepped up. This is damning with faint praise at its finest.

Athens has certainly veered off course because of a massive revenue shortfall caused by a deep recession.

The failure to deal with chronic tax evasion is also hitting the crippled economy.

The mandarins in Washington and Frankfurt may tut-tut, but there is no escaping the fact that the new programme faces mass opposition. Nor will Prime Minister Papandreou's governing PASOK socialists be overly enthused. An increase in EU funding for Greece will also shore up trouble in the German, Dutch and French parliaments.

Taxpayers across the eurozone are smarting at any extra burden. The mounting indignation stems from the fact that the investors who bought Greek government bonds do not share the pain.

It is only a matter of time before either their value is cut or maturities are extended.

But the European Central Bank is implacable on both counts. It fears that such measures could provoke a violent chain reaction on financial markets.

The crisis refuses to go away for all their nervous deliberation. The simple truth is that Greece's €340bn debt is too big an elephant in the room to ignore, and it will have to be restructured. Any of this sound familiar?

There is still a bright side of life

They say you know it's summer when the chair gets up when you do. This weekend, all over the country, people will get a chance to savour blue skies and the strange but reassuring feeling of warm sun on their skin.

For most, times may be harder than they were, but, as Charles Kingsley once wrote: "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about."

It seems like we have undergone an epic journey to arrive at the oasis that this particular bank holiday weekend offers.

The beach and the barbecue should shake off the last memories of a tough winter. And even if, as the Met Office predicts, the respite from the grey skies is short, all the more reason that it be savoured. But as is always the case on a long weekend, the need to take care on the roads and at the seaside can not be over-stressed.

They say that getting there is half the fun, so why not make haste slowly?

There has never been so many reasons for staying at home, and the tourism industry is going all out to guarantee good value.

For all the talk of bailouts and busts the IMF still hasn't worked out a neat way of putting a tax on a fine day.

EDITORIAL : THE BANGKOK POST, THAILAND

 

 

Minority issues being ignored

Two months have passed since a fall onto the tracks at a mass transit station in Singapore led to a young Thai student losing both her legs. Terrible accidents such as these only take a split second to happen but can result in a lifetime of heartbreak and disability.

Road accidents also claim new victims daily and many need long-term help, raising the question of whether enough is being done to improve the quality of life of the many Thais who have suffered such misfortune. The simple answer is no.

While there aren't happy endings to such tragedies, in the case of 14-year-old Nitcharee Peneakchanasak, there is the next best thing. As a result of a royal intercession, the teenager from Trang is likely to receive computerised prosthetic legs that will eventually allow her to walk again.

This willingness to help the less fortunate is part of our national psyche and was recognised by the United Nations in 2001, when the Franklin D Roosevelt International Disability Award was awarded to Thailand in recognition of its ''noteworthy progress towards the goal of full participation of citizens with disabilities''.

Happily the progress cited by the UN has continued, although the goal of full participation has yet to be met. Even though banks, call centres, software developers and other businesses are now welcoming people once shut out of the system because of handicaps, rights advocates claim that the disabled are still the most marginalised and vulnerable group in society.

While the constitution guarantees them equal rights, those who are academically qualified can still find barriers to employment in the government sector. Such occupations as doctor, lawyer, prosecutor, judge, judicial official, civil servant or even a simple city employee can be strewn with obstacles. True, some of the barriers the disabled once faced have been torn down as a result of legislation, policy measures, corporate initiatives and positive discrimination strategies, but there is a great deal still to be done. Regrettably the priority being accorded to righting existing wrongs has fallen of late and the outlook is starting to look bleak.

This indifference is being reflected in the policy platforms of the various political parties contesting the July 3 election which make no mention in their campaigns of catering to those with special needs, even though this affects over a million Thai voters. The clock has been stopped on minority issues, apparently in favour of populist policies with mass appeal.

Slum dwellers urgently in need of improved water supplies, sanitation, better hygiene, child care, education and more effective health services have been left out in the cold as far as election pledges are concerned. So have countless unemployed school leavers and college graduates who are likely to remain as jobless after the election as they were before it. This is because guaranteed minimum or starting wages do not create jobs.

And while there is much talk of stepped up wars on drugs, there is no mention of prison reform or other indications of where all those arrested are to be incarcerated, given that our jails are already packed to capacity, with inmates suffering extreme hardship from overcrowding. Nor has anyone held out hope of a fairer, more humanitarian deal for children born to hilltribe parents who at present live a life of constant rejection. There are many other instances of issues involving minorities being neglected. With 29 days left before polling day, political parties still have time to tweak policies and prove their suitability to represent all Thais and give minorities some faith in the future.

EDITORIAL : THE AUSTRALIAN, AUSTRALIA

After almost a year, the Real Julia is a mystery

AS Julia Gillard approaches the first anniversary of her prime ministership, she is mired in a series of paradoxes of her own making.

Constantly trying to outline what she stands for, Ms Gillard has failed to demonstrate her beliefs and leaves the nation nonplussed. When she can utter the words, "It's time for me to make sure the real Julia is well and truly on display", or break a core election promise, she displays an alarming lack of authenticity. It is possible the nation has stopped listening because she has shown more pretence than conviction.

This dilemma is not the Prime Minister's alone. It betrays a deeper identity crisis for the Labor Party itself -- a life-threatening tug of war between its traditional suburban base and the green Left fringe. On Ms Gillard's watch, the green fringe is winning, with inner-city, tertiary-educated activists and advisers dominating Labor's policy, political and communications processes. Capital Hill has been hijacked by young careerists who have "learned" more about politics from watching The West Wing than from engaging in the real world or the private economy. Gone are the days of shearers and train drivers rising to enrich Labor's ruling elite, bringing sharp minds and rough hands to the everyday concerns of government. Now it is straight from university to a ministerial office, where the talk is of polls and messaging, and the people are distant. Surrounding Kevin Rudd were young, inexperienced men epitomised by a media minder Lachlan Harris, who was fixated on Facebook and Twitter but clueless about the challenging policy concerns of national government. Governments need a breadth and depth of experience in cabinet and in their ranks of advisers. Until this week, Ms Gillard has done little to address this weakness. At times, Labor's communications strategy has had all the depth of a Twitter hashtag. Experienced advisers always understand that substance is crucial and that messaging must be authentic, consistent and intelligent.

Labor has become disconnected from the suburban, aspirational, working families who hold the key, not just to political success, but to the wellbeing of the nation. Ms Gillard and her coterie must do more than pay lip service to Labor's traditional base. Since the Gough Whitlam years, Labor has deliberately appealed to both the suburbanites and the inner-city trendies. But during the high point of post-war Labor, the Hawke-Keating era, nobody was in any doubt that mainstream Australia provided Labor's ballast. There was no sense of the party abandoning its base until Paul Keating lost his way after 1993 and voters turned on him. The "working families" and economic conservative rhetoric of "Kevin07" paid homage to the suburbs and reaped the dividends, but the story since then has been desultory.

Mr Rudd walked away from the "greatest moral challenge of our time" and rushed to an ill-considered mining tax in a transparent attempt to play up the politics of envy. This underestimated the intelligence of voters, many of whom understood the importance of mining profits and investment in underpinning their livelihoods. Labor was forced into a retreat and Mr Rudd lost the prime ministership. Bob Hawke and Mr Keating never would have been so hamfisted. They understood the value of consultation, and credited workers with enough sense to understand that a co-operative approach would deliver the best outcomes for the enterprises, the economy and the workers.

Shrill campaigns against poker machines, alcopops and cigarette packaging, and against sexist interjections in parliament, share the condescending tone of a pious political class telling mainstream Australians what's good for them. These crusades have their genesis in the pleadings of special interest groups, the need for political distractions or demands from the Greens and independent MPs. But Ms Gillard and her ministers join them with the relish of GetUp activists rather than the sober arguments of a grown-up government. This hectoring tone pervades the entire Labor agenda. It can been seen in the Orwellian overreach of a national internet filter and even in the reregulation of the labour market, which is based on the assumption that individuals cannot be trusted to strike their own bargains. This posturing runs the risk of setting Labor at war with its base. When voters attended a rally against the carbon tax at Parliament House, they were denounced by Labor MPs as extremists. Critically, this trend is not being resisted by Ms Gillard but exacerbated.

Border protection is an area where Labor has mocked the concerns of the mainstream, and Ms Gillard's core beliefs have been either convincingly hidden or hopelessly compromised. Former leader Mark Latham recounted last month that in opposition, Ms Gillard was the author of Labor's softer asylum-seeker policy, which was pre-occupied with "mollifying the Left". In government, the consequences of that softer policy have been thousands of arrivals, a detention-centre crisis and deaths at sea. The Prime Minister first denied the problem, then floated the absurd East Timor solution, and now is grappling with the deficiencies and difficulties of her Malaysian solution. In full public glare over a number of years, she has talked down the problem, attacked the harshness of the Pacific Solution and accused the Liberals of appealing to racism. Yet now she decries the use of terms such as "redneck" and is implementing an approach that even former human rights commissioner Sev Ozdowski says is worse than the Pacific Solution. Australians surely cannot know where Ms Gillard truly stands on border protection.

Mr Latham has spoken at length about the party's drift away from its base: "You look through the long history of the Labor Party and there has never been a time where pacifying the Left has worked in terms of public policy principle." Yet in her minority government, Ms Gillard's constant mission seems to be appeasing the Left. Whether this is an exercise in political management or a return to her true ideological roots, the result will be the same. The disconnect with traditional Labor supporters is palpable. Former Hawke minister Graham Richardson talks about the people "Labor forgot" and how their voice is now found on talkback radio: "Tradies, pensioners and, well, ordinary voters who worry about the cost of living, about violence in their neighbourhoods, about Muslim immigration to their suburbs; Labor doesn't seem to know how to reach them any more."

Labor's mishandling of climate change policy brought Ms Gillard to the leadership because it destroyed Mr Rudd's credibility. After baulking at a climate poll, he was urged by insiders, including his deputy at the time, Ms Gillard, to walk away from the emissions trading policy altogether. This effectively told the public he stood for nothing. "Ever since then," says Mr Latham, "its been downhill for Rudd and the Labor Party and the public support for doing something positive on climate change." So it is extraordinary that Ms Gillard has been prepared to publicly sacrifice her own credibility on the same altar. During last year's election campaign, she said the issue of a carbon price would be reconsidered, including through a citizens' assembly, and there would be no price implemented until after the next election. In an emphatic pre-election pitch, she made the now-infamous pledge: "There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead."

No doubt the lack of conviction on climate change contributed to Labor losing its majority at the election, but ruling out a carbon tax probably helped it hang on to some seats. Yet Ms Gillard announced in February that she was trashing that promise and moving ahead with the Greens to impose a carbon tax. All the evidence suggests the Prime Minister doesn't quite understand the insult of that broken pledge -- she pocketed people's votes and then disregarded the very basis upon which they were cast. Nor does she comprehend how it leaves the nation looking at her and wondering just what it is that motivates her.

Ms Gillard started her politics at university and was heavily involved in the Socialist Forum, a group that included former communists and favoured death duties, wealth redistribution and shutting down US bases. She plays down this leftist background but whether she's discussing asylum-seekers, climate change or mining taxes, it is the rhetoric of the Left, and the language of the Greens and GetUp, that falls most naturally from her tongue and to which she reverts in heated discussions. Voters look at her inconsistent words, paradoxical actions and constant attempts to articulate her values, and wonder just who is the Real Julia.

Perhaps Ms Gillard encapsulated the dilemma best in her maiden speech to parliament on Remembrance Day 1998: "The end result of this political cycle is a weary people who no longer believe what politicians say and who think the politicians saying it do not even believe it themselves."

Quite, Prime Minister.

EDITORIAL : THE JAKARTA POST, INDONESIA

Prestigious award for Fauzi

We congratulate Governor Fauzi Bowo for the international community’s recognition of his anti-tobacco campaign. However, he still has to do more to increase public awareness of the dangers of cigarette smoke and other air pollutants in the capital.

The first tobacco legislation was issued in 2005 when the city, under Fauzi’s predecessor Sutiyoso, issued a bylaw on air pollution control. Several supporting regulations have been issued since. Unfortunately, they have not been able to significantly free public places from cigarette smoke.

The latest anti-smoking regulation was a 2011 gubernatorial regulation issued by Fauzi, which totally bans people from smoking inside public buildings. Under the regulation, building managers are prohibited from providing smoking areas inside their buildings.

“Many [Indonesian] cities have issued anti-smoking regulations, but Jakarta initiated the campaign. Currently, the Jakarta government is struggling to free the city from cigarette smoke,” World Health Organization representative to Indonesia Khanchit Limpakarjanarat said at an event to commemorate Tobacco Free Day at City Hall last Sunday.

We do not question whether the governor and the city deserve to receive such an award. But we have to say that the efforts to free Jakarta or at least its public places, from cigarette smoke still needs stronger commitment from relevant parties.

The media reported recently that building managers were still reluctant to abide by the regulations — operators of cafés, restaurants and entertainment centers are still afraid of losing their smoking customers, while many people are still free to smoke in train stations, bus terminals and inside public transportation vehicles.

We are aware that the job of anti-smoking campaigners is surely not easy in a country that is home to many large cigarette producers, including international brands, and the fact remains that smoking has become a habit for a large number of the people, including minors.

The essence of the anti-smoking legislation — no smoking in public places — is to protect non-smokers, including children, from second-hand smoke. Unfortunately, they are still unprotected because of widespread violations of the smoking ban. It is a strong indication that the regulation is still toothless against violators.

The job of Fauzi and relevant officials is to guarantee that existing regulations are imposed, with the laws upheld and the violators punished.

Meanwhile, other anti-tobacco campaigners have to continue their efforts to make people aware of the danger of tobacco smoke.

EDITORIAL : THE AZZAMAN, IRAQ

Iraq expects bumper harvest and record yields

Iraq says its barley and wheat growers have managed to boost production and quality to levels prevalent in the United States.

Harvest is in full-swing in southern Iraq and officials speak of record yields.

It is too early to decided the volume of this year’s harvest, but given the initial reports the country is on its way for record yields.

The head of the agricultural department in the southern province of Karbala, Mohammed al-Ardawi, said, “a donum of land (about 2500 square meters) has given Iraqi farmers on average more than 1,500 kilograms of wheat.”

“The quality of the harvest matches the imports we get from the United States,” he said.

In good years with sufficient rain, Iraq produces more than 2 million tons of wheat, but most of it has been of a very low quality.

Iraq relies heavily on imports to meet most of its food needs. The food import bill is estimated to cost the treachery about $5 billion every year.

“The reason for the purity of the harvest is Iraqi farmers’ increased knowledge of cultivation and the assistance the states offers them to improve techniques,” he added.

Southern provinces complain that their silos will not be enough to store this year’s harvest and have urged central government to provide additional storage.

Harvest in northern Iraq, where most of the country’s grain-producing plains are situated, is to start by early next month.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

A welcome step

Going electronic in procurement

Prime Minster Sheikh Hasina flagged off electronic government procurement (e-GP) system in Dhaka last Thursday. In the first phase e-tendering is to be introduced in four procuring agencies such as LGED, Roads and Highways, Bangladesh Water Development Board and Rural Electrification Board. Eventually, 308 procuring entities (PEs) would be brought under the system.

Since 75 percent funds of the annual development programme is used for public procurement, the government has the natural obligation to ensure transparency, accountability and purposefulness in the procurement processes. Its responsibility is basically three fold; first, professional and qualified bidders should have access to tendering process. Second, the procedures should be straightforward, uncluttered by bureaucracy. Three, merit and capacity to deliver quality goods and services should be the criterion for winning work orders. E-tendering could go a long way in meeting all the above conditions.

The e-GP is a single web portal from where and through which public procurement agencies and entities will be able to conduct their procurement related activities with transparency and accountability. For their part, the bidders and tender applicants will not only save time but also have a level playing field.

Previously, a lot of tension would have been created around submission of tender as people close to the powerful and the influential scrambled for monopolising it. This would now be largely obviated establishing transparency and accountability in the system. In the process, it is the government's credibility that will be enhanced with that of the agencies' concerned. Corruption, as a whole, should come down to a great extent.

There have been allegations of irregularities in the government procurement for a long time now. There is no substitute for e-tendering to curb these.

The imperative now is to implement the system successfully. Because it is on the basis of dividends of the limited e-tendering that the programme will be expanded to cover other areas of public dealings.

BRTA's new initiative

Instant licence, a white lily?

No one wants to wait indefinitely for a public service that is one's legitimate right to receive, far less a year-long wait for a driving licence. Everyone pays certain 'fees' to expedite the process, one really may not have to know how to drive. They just need opposable thumbs to help count out the cash.

Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) is thinking up a new initiative to help stop issuance of fake licences. BRTA teams reportedly should have been conducting tests for learners and issuing driving licences 'instantly' with effect from June 1. Those passing the tests at about 45 approved training centres would be entitled to the fast-track gift. This will be like 'instant' ticket to roads.

The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting held at the communications ministry to check fraudulence and bring ease in driving licence issuance. People who used to wait anywhere from two weeks to two months can now hope to get the same thing almost instantly.

This may intensify a known problem, if instant delivery of licences turns out to be perfunctory. There are already 15 lakh registered vehicles in the country while the number of genuine licences given out is around 10 lakh. The rest are fake. Of the originals, most may well have been procured in various under the table ways. Lest 'instant licence' mean shoving in instant cash beyond the standard fees, the authorities would need to keep a tab on. Apparently, BRTA only has the capacity to deliver 3,500 licences a year, but the real demand is much higher. So perhaps BRTA just hand out licences like flyers, albeit for a price.

If this new step should make people try and learn how to drive so they pass their test that would be a step forward. May the real issue of actually educating and training the would-be drivers be not lost in the hype for issuing instant licences.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY TRIBUNE, THE PHILIPPINES

 

 

Second frame-up?

 

From indications and statements made by Justice chief Leila Benitez, it is still Hubert Webb and company who are still the prime suspects in her reinvestigation of the Vizconde murder case.

Even as she told reporters yesterday that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the central bank found the passport of Webb to be genuine, along with the marks of departure and arrival stamps, she nevertheless injected yet another doubt, saying that even if the passport is genuine, it still does not mean that it was Hubert who left for the US, intimating that it was someone else — perhaps in the Webb family, like his brother, then saying that Webb is not yet off the hook.

As she put it: The passport cannot be used as evidence to prove Webb’s innocence, as someone else may have used it.

“The passport may be authentic but was he the one who really used it? Did he really leave the country? We don’t know and that would be the next task of the task force,” she pointed out.

Just what is De Lima trying to obtain, evidence against Hubert Webb? But even her so-called evidence can’t be used against Hubert, since he has already been acquitted by the Supreme Court, along with his co-accused.

But perhaps the reason for the focus on Hubert as the prime suspect is that she and her agency, the NBI, do not want to admit that the NBI, as an institution, along with some of the agents who are still there, framed Webb and his co-accused with the false testimony of their agent, Jessica Alfaro.

The fact is, even if there is a new leadership in both the Justice department and in the NBI, this still does not detract from the fact that the NBI is known to manufacture witnesses who perjure, and come up too with fabricated evidence, which probably explains why the NBI made too many excuses in the alleged loss of the semen sample taken from the rape victim. Perhaps the NBI had already found out that the DNA didn’t match Webb’s.

One wonders why De Lima and her NBI continue to focus on Webb as the prime suspect, when there were two other groups that were pointed to as suspects, and with even one group confessing to the rape and murder of the Vizcondes.

There has been nothing, but nothing, said by De Lima and her NBI on their findings of these two other groups. All they come up with during briefings with reporters are still focused on Webb as the rapist and murderer.

De Lima knows she has very little time left for that probe and for her to file a case against suspects since the prescription period is set to lapse this month.

As she said: “We are beginning our countdown before the prescription period for the crime lapses... we cannot divulge the details yet. What is worth noting is that experts had proven that Hubert Webb’s passport was not fake.”

Why then inject that doubt over who really left with Webb’s passport?

This is pretty suspicious, because she and her NBI, if they have really gone through a thorough investigation, would certainly have known that there were not only pictures of Hubert in the US, but also witnesses to substantiate his claim that he was in the US at the time of the murder.

Apart from which, there are already those documents from US immigration, attesting to Webb’s entry into and exit from the US.

Besides, even just reading through the SC decision acquitting Webb and his co-accused, it is a very logical conclusion to acquit Webb as everything Alfaro, who was an NBI agent, testified to, was primed by the NBI.

De Lima also says that she and her probers had a breakthrough, which would be the third breakthrough that she has announced without giving any details, except that now, she says there is a witness who is credible and has passed the lie detector test, which incidentally, carries no weight by way of evidence.

What it looks like is that De Lima and her NBI, perhaps knowing that they can’t solve the murder case by the end of the month, prefer take the easy way out, by again pinning the murder on Webb.

That’s being no better than the old NBI and Justice department.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

 

 

After the fall

AS the cause of the sudden death of Selangor Customs assistant director Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed could not be determined by the police, it is a death in which an inquest has to be held, as stated by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail. This is provided for under the law and the A-G is under an obligation to direct a magistrate to hold an inquest. But there are other compelling reasons for a legal inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Sarbaini's death. Technically, it may not be classified as death in custody, as the deceased neither died in a police lock-up nor in prison. All the same, as he apparently fell to his death in the course of seeing officers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in the federal capital, there is good reason to subject the facts pertaining to his fatal fall to careful scrutiny.

Indeed, his death cannot be explained away as some sort of freakish occurrence. As another sudden death took place in similar circumstances at the offices of the MACC in 2009, the judicial system is under an extra obligation to provide a plausible explanation as to the cause of death. Moreover, the guidelines issued by the Chief Judge of Malaya in February 2007 stated that in cases in which the views of the family or other significant members of the public are such that an inquest is likely to assist in maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice, health services or other public agencies, it should be held.

Unfortunately, as necessary as it may be, such an inquest may not be sufficient in helping to mitigate the negative fall-out. As the case of Teoh Beng Hock illustrates, some are not open to an open verdict. Neither are family and friends open to a verdict of suicide. The inconvenient truth is that though an inquest is not a trial, the MACC has been put on trial. And the only admissible verdict in this inquisitorial court of public opinion seems to be one that finds the MACC guilty of sins of omission and commission in their deaths. Where such evidence is available and proven beyond all reasonable doubt, this should certainly be a good enough verdict for everyone. But as the circumstances surrounding Sarbiani's death and the involvement of a third party remain far from clear, any predisposition to selectively credit or dismiss facts and to take a particular position will be as good as guesswork. This is why it would be wrong to pre-judge the inquest and draw premature conclusions.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, ENGLAND

            

 

Globalisation: Spinning into reverse

Putting the brakes on international integration is no longer as far-fetched as propelling away from the planet

The self-proclaimed grown-ups of New Labour parodied anyone airing anxiety about globalisation as making a childish demand: "Stop the world, I want to get off!" Putting the brakes on international integration is no longer as far-fetched as propelling away from the planet. For better or – quite possibly – for worse, it is happening. A few days before Russia responded to the E coli scare with a heavy-handed bar on all sorts of European vegetable imports, the cheeriest thing America's top trade official could find to say about the Doha round was that he was not ready to read the last rites over its corpse. Meanwhile, the collapsing global carbon market is a reminder that – outside Europe, at least – no multilateral solution has been found to the most multilateral problem of the lot.

The European Union remains the single outstanding example of integration across borders, and yet here too the centrifugal force of national sovereignty is pulling afresh. Across its north the establishment is being battered at the ballot box by populists who resent bailing out the south. Meanwhile, those southerners imagined to be benefiting from northern largesse take to the streets of Athens and Lisbon to rage against the strangulatory strings attached to the money. The victors of Versailles once ordered Germany to starve itself into surplus, but today it is Germany that safeguards repayment of every last euro of bank debt by pushing pain on to Mediterranean taxpayers. Within the single currency, a cash-strapped periphery cannot devalue to boost exports and rebalance the accounts. Serious commentators line up to explain that swallowing this noxious medicine will not work, and yet the continent's fractured politics determine that swallowed it must be. Further fracturing is the foreseeable result.

If the paper notes in their pockets are the most regular reminder of the fact of the union to most of its citizens, the freedom to cross borders at will is their most tangible right. This is not so for Britons, who live outside not just the eurozone but also the Schengen agreement, which axed the checkpoints between 22 EU states. But recently the agreement has been creaking as never before. While the French and the Italians have bickered over the free flow of Libyan refugees between them, the Danes have moved to reinstall controls and met only minimal resistance from their partners. Perhaps others are planning to go the same way. A continental comeback for passports, the defining documentary expression of national separateness, could reduce Jean Monnet's vision – of a Europe that would not merely "coalesce states" but also "unite men" – into a passing dream.

Even before the slump, growing discomfort with diversity – both across an expanding union and between its communities – was making Europeans newly prone to hunker down into their nations. A sweeping new assessment of the continent's drift, David Marquand's The End of the West, concludes that after federalists sought to take the politics out of their project, politics is now having its revenge. Without truly cross-border parties, there is no connection between the discourse of the election campaigns that voters experience and what happens in Brussels. Whatever their misgivings about their own politicians, publics prefer to trust leaders whom they know how to sack if they have to. Marquand proposes a shot of democracy for the centre, through the direct election of the European council's president.

Like federalism in general, that suggestion is unfashionable. But officials and capitalists who had hoped to create a new international order by stealth are discovering that they can't. The only way to continue the mission is to secure legitimacy from the people, messy as that may be. Otherwise, the present age of globalisation could go the way of the previous one, which ended in 1914. Pro-trade technocrats would then find themselves pleading: "Stop the world, I want to get back on."
 

Sale of the Tote: High stakes

For all its familiarity, this year's Derby day marks the end of a long, beneficial partnership

Upwards of a hundred thousand people will gather on Epsom Downs today for the Investec Derby, one of the world's great horse races. Even for those who cannot make it, the 232nd Derby remains a splendid national excursion, a day of picnics and punters and the Queen cheering on her horse in (another) attempt to become the first reigning monarch since 1909 to own the winner.

But for all its familiarity, this year's Derby day marks the end of a long, beneficial partnership. The Tote was founded in 1928 by chancellor (and ex-cavalry officer) Winston Churchill to generate money for the racing industry, a move justified in a world where traditionalists still thought the horse had a role in warfare. Although its contribution to racing was overshadowed later by the levy introduced on all betting, the Tote still invests millions each year in racecourses and what has become the multimillion-pound racing industry. Now it is to be sold, in an operation that – while it might matter less – looks as ill-thought-through as many of the coalition's other essays in privatisation.

The government could have learned from Labour's decade of frustrated attempts to shed this accidental anomaly. The Tote has always existed in its own corporate limbo, so in order to sell it off, first it had to be nationalised. By the time that had been achieved, the financial crisis had erupted and the idea of raising money from a sale was abandoned, only to be eagerly seized upon last year by incoming ministers in their search for cuts. But they have found it no easier to handle than Labour did. It has had to promise that racing will receive half the estimated £200m proceeds of the sale, and last month it was still working on a model that would generate as much cash for the industry while retaining an appeal to commercial investors. Yesterday, after a series of missed deadlines, it finally emerged that its preferred bidder is to be Fred Done's Betfred, a fast-growing betting-shop chain that had pledged £120m of income to racecourses. But the racing industry, which preferred the rival Sporting Investment Partnership chaired by Sir Martin Broughton, the former boss of the British Horseracing Board, will look askance at a company whose motive, they believe, is the Tote's chain of 500-plus betting shops rather than the industry itself, while workers at the Tote's Wigan HQ will wonder what it means for their jobs.

Most of the Epsom racegoers will be unaware of the long, muddled saga of Tote privatisation. But it has been another example of the Whitehall tendency to decide on an end without considering the means. And, as so often, it will only be after the gamble fails to pay off that voters will ask what has been done in their names.

Unthinkable? Horrible heroes

Most people's villains can be unconditional heroes to others: Gaddafi, for instance, and Mladic

Controversy lurks where you least expect it: in, for instance, 11 across in Tuesday's Guardian quick crossword. The clue was: "Hero of Wuthering Wuthering Heights"; the solution, "Heathcliff". "Since when," our reader Marilyn Chorley Clegg of Carshalton objected, "is a wife-beater, kidnapper and property thief a 'hero'?" The answer to that, perhaps regrettably, is: since the beginning of time. In some contexts, certainly, a hero or heroine is a person of moral character whom we should all wish to emulate. But in others the hero is more an epic protagonist, a prime mover in great events. Thomas Carlyle, in his lectures on heroes and hero-worship, assembled a team whose members might also have set off dismay in Carshalton. First up was Odin, an addict of war, able to start them simply by throwing his spear, and a scandalously promiscuous progenitor – quite apart from the fact that (like Heathcliff) he never existed. Nor are Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon Bonaparte, Carlyle's choices in the category "hero as king", figures on whom most parents would want their children to model themselves. One of England's most lauded heroes is Robin Hood; yet he too was a blatant property thief. Most people's villains can be unconditional heroes to others: Gaddafi, for instance, and Mladic. Even Florence Nightingale had her detractors, while Joan of Arc was possibly mad. If the wild, the wilful and even the downright wicked were barred from admission, the pantheon of heroes would be a poor, shrivelled place.

 

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

      

 

Parties must unite to form strong post-Kan cabinet

The Yomiuri Shimbun

What was the point of delaying the resignation of Prime Minister Naoto Kan? In the end, the various problems the Kan administration is facing were just put off to be solved at some future date.

On Thursday, Kan announced his intention to step down from his post when restoration efforts from the Great East Japan Earthquake and the response to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. are settled to some degree.

As the vote approached on a no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition parties against the Kan Cabinet, support for the motion expanded within Kan's Democratic Party of Japan. This led to the very high possibility of a split in the party even if the no-confidence motion was defeated.

The result can be regarded as a very "inwardly focused" announcement of resignation by Kan, coming after he was persuaded by former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and others who feared a party split as well as a dissolution of the House of Representatives for a general election if the motion passed the chamber.

The no-confidence motion was voted down in the lower house, but 17 DPJ members either rebelled to vote in favor, abstained or did not attend the vote. This is not a small number.

===

Kan must clarify when he'll quit

The primary responsibility for the government and ruling parties' inability to respond quickly and flexibly to the disasters in a united manner of course rests with Kan, the prime minister. We urge him to seriously reflect upon the matter.

We believe it is a serious problem that Kan did not make clear when he will step down.

According to points confirmed through a memorandum Hatoyama and Kan exchanged Thursday, the only part that may be regarded as relating to his resignation is "deciding a schedule for early compilation of a fiscal 2011 supplementary budget."

At a press conference after his "announcement" of his intention to resign, Kan said he would do his best to bring the nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture under control and even talked about the possibility of considerably delaying his resignation. What he said Thursday night strongly contradicted what he said earlier in the day. Even members of his party are voicing strong opposition to Kan's attitude.

It is quite irresponsible for Kan to take the helm of the government in such a halfway manner. He should remember that those hit by the great earthquake and tsunami are still living in severe conditions.

A Diet session in which nothing can be decided continues, which may cause paralysis in national politics. Other countries may realize this administration is weakening, resulting in uncertainty as to whether the nation can rebuild its international relations. Such a situation should be avoided by all means.

To avoid dysfunction in politics, the period until Kan's resignation must be as short as possible.

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Pass 2nd extra budget quickly

To realize swift passage of legal revisions and new bills related to reconstruction and relief measures under the divided Diet, it is essential for the government and ruling parties to cooperate with the opposition parties.

Kan must make clear when he will step down and directly ask Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki and other opposition leaders for cooperation.

The first thing he must do to that end is drastically revise the party's manifesto for the 2009 lower house election, which stipulates dole-out policy measures such as child-rearing allowances and basically eliminating all expressway tolls.

Former DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa and some other DPJ lawmakers, who were not present at Thursday's vote, have been insisting on adherence to the party's election pledges, which have virtually failed already, preventing cooperation with the opposition parties.

The prime minister needs to make drastic policy changes by punishing Ozawa and the other rebel members severely, who could be dubbed "manifesto supremacists."

===

Secure sufficient revenue

Swift action must be taken to enact a basic disaster reconstruction bill, as well as to quickly compile and pass the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2011. To realize the latter, the ruling coalition should start close talks with the opposition in the drafting process.

The second supplementary budget, focusing on heightened restoration efforts, is expected to be much larger than the first one, which focused mainly on the reconstruction of infrastructure.

Since measures dealing with the disaster will remain in effect for a long time, it is a priority issue for the government to secure financial resources for them.

The government and the ruling coalition are studying a plan to issue bonds that will be used only for reconstruction purposes.

Some tax hike cannot be avoided. If the burden of reconstruction is considered something that should be shared equally but lightly by the public, we think it is realistic to raise the consumption tax rate.

The government and the ruling coalition must discuss such financial sources for reconstruction frankly with the opposition parties. At the moment, we cannot expect much from Kan, who has already revealed his lack of leadership and decisiveness. However, he should at least pave the way for a new administration to succeed his Cabinet.

===

Drastic policy changes needed

When he indicated his intention to resign Thursday, Kan said, "I would like to pass the responsibility on to a younger generation." This apparently expresses his feeling that Ozawa and Hatoyama should not be allowed to have any influence in the future.

We would like to suggest that candidates should have vigorous discussions on how to depart from the party's manifesto and compete over new, realistic policies in the DPJ presidential election to choose Kan's successor.

Tanigaki has been claiming the LDP is ready to work with the DPJ if Kan is replaced as prime minister. Now, as a responsible political party, the LDP must rebuild cooperative relations with the DPJ to prepare for the prime minister's resignation.

Young and mid-level lawmakers of both the DPJ and the LDP have organized joint study groups on policies, fostering momentum for cooperation. Such movements should be valued.

The administration that succeeds the Kan Cabinet must face the national crisis by forming a grand coalition and should show specifics on how Japan will be revitalized.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Sri Lanka needs a truth commission

Whatever is happening to the report of the experts’ panel appointed by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on accountability issues in Sri Lanka, whether the Rajapaksa regime accepts it or not, responds to it or not, May 2009 is now part of our history. However since then opposition critics and independent analysts locally and internationally ask whether the government has genuinely worked towards reconciliation with the minority communities and address the root causes of the bloody three-decade war. Amid pressure from Sri Lankan and international human rights groups, the Rajapaksa regime appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to probe and report on matters relating to both reconciliation and accountability. But the track record of most such high profile and highly publicized commissions is so bad that many might with valid reasons ask whether the report of this commission also will end up in the archives.

The ground reality is that thousands of people in the Wanni are still in camps or under tents having experienced the devastation of two monsoons in the aftermath of the war horror. The out spokesman Wimal Weerawansa being built up by the state media as the best housing minister is putting up quarters for the security forces personnel in the Wanni with building materials imported from China. While neighbouring India’s offer to build 50,000 houses for the displaced people appears to be stuck in some geo political quagmire.

With preference being given for the construction of houses for military personnel in the North, we also saw week long celebrations to mark the military victory with a massive parade on May 27. These and other factors including the controversial move to give military style training to 10,000 new entrants to the universities have provoked local and international critics to ask whether priority is being given to militarization rather than the much-needed reconciliation, which would bring about lasting peace with justice. 

In the Thanthai Chelva memorial oration, TNA parliamentarian and top lawyer M.A. Sumanthiran, charged that the Rajapaksa regime had yet not taken practical steps to address the grievances and meet the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil-speaking people.

Instead of this we hear Minister Weerawansa proclaiming that the victories of May 2009 and the elimination of Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE leadership have solved the problems of the minorities.

 Going by state media reports not only Minister Weerawansa but other government leaders and those who defend it also seem to believe that the May 2009 victory has solved the problems of the minorities though most independent analysts are of the view that we are in a post-war era and not in a post-conflict era.

They believe that if the conflict is not addressed urgently and  action taken Sri Lanka may end up again in a bigger bloody mess.

Sri Lanka needs to take a lesson from South Africa’s Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu that lasting reconciliation cannot take place without accepting the truth.  For lasting peace there must be justice and for all this there must be the spirit of forgiveness.