EDITORIAL : THE USA TODAY, USA

Aurora gunman reignites debate on devil's bargain

Here we are once again, a nation united in horror — or is it disgust? — at a rage-venting lunatic's burst of gunfire, this time in a crowded Colorado movie theater. At least a dozen people are dead and scores more wounded.

No matter how often this sort of thing happens —Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, a Tucson parking lot and many more — it never seems to make any more sense. It's difficult even to look at photos of stricken parents or hear the desperate words that an anxious mother who couldn't find her 17-year-old son whispered to a New York Times reporter: "I haven't heard from him, and none of his friends are picking up their phones."

There is much we don't know, but many of the usual questions. Presuming this was not a deliberate act of terrorism — and authorities say they have no indication it was — who but an insane person would think it right to gun down dozens of people watching a movie? What was someone so unhinged doing with firearms? Where were the authorities who might have seen his insanity and moved to stop him? What happened to the requirements, modest as they are, that are meant to separate the insane from firearms? If past is prologue, the answers are likely to be complex and deeply unsatisfactory.

Virginia College student Seung Hui Cho was so obviously unhinged that a judge ordered him into mental treatment, which should have disqualified him from legally buying a weapon. But the state of Virginia was lax about passing such information on to authorities who run the national background check data base, so Cho was able to legally buy the two handguns he used to slaughter 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Tucson community college student Jared Loughner's behavior was so bizarre and frightening that some of his fellow students sat near the door when he was in class so they could run if he ever erupted into the violence they were sure was coming. But no one acted to get him into treatment. His college simply expelled him, avoiding the problem. In January 2011, he opened fire with a handgun in a supermarket parking lot, killing six, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and gravely wounding Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

One of the saddest and most mystifying shooting rampages came in October 2006, when a milk truck driver named Charles Carl Roberts IV walked into a tiny Amish school in Pennsylvania and shot 10 girls ages 6 to 13, killing five of them. Just that morning, Roberts had helped his wife walk their three children to the school bus; co-workers said he had been a bit tense and introverted in prior weeks, but had lately returned to his normal outgoing self. If there were any warning of such monstrousness, no one seems to have noticed it.

We don't know much about the alleged movie theater shooter, 24-year-old James Holmes, who was captured alive. Maybe it will turn out that he gave signs of dangerous instability before the shootings, maybe not. We don't know yet all the details of how he got the firearms — a rifle, a shotgun and two handguns — he carried into the theater. We don't know whether the system should have stopped him from acquiring the guns, or whether people around him should have reported him for treatment. We don't know whether there was any real chance to have stopped this horrific act.

What we do know from so many past experiences is that there will be calls for gun laws strict enough to stop incidents like these — but that those arguments will fade in coming weeks. The nation has had a long and contentious debate on guns and decided to allow individuals to own them, with modest limits. It's a devil's bargain that allows millions of law-abiding Americans to own and use guns responsibly, while accepting thousands of deliberate and accidental shootings a year, including the sort of perverse tragedy that occurred in Colorado on Friday.

Gun control strict enough to stop every shooting is a fantasy. For better or worse, Americans are fiercely devoted to their right to keep and bear arms, and the Supreme Court has upheld that right, with reasonable limitations. The notion that the authorities could somehow confiscate the millions of guns in private hands in the U.S. is a delusion. So is the idea that Americans would support prohibiting private ownership of handguns — the latest Gallup poll shows that just 26% of Americans favor such a ban.

That doesn't mean there's nothing to be done. Americans do support bans on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, which have figured in mass shootings and might have been a part of this one. There's no legitimate reason for the loophole that lets some people evade background checks when they buy guns at gun shows, and no excuse for ignoring rogue gun dealers who "lose" weapons that are sold illegally to buyers who could never acquire them legally.

And there is no excuse for ignoring those among us who exhibit delusional, threatening or violent behavior. The laws in most states allow authorities and even friends and family to ask a judge to have someone like that treated. Such intervention can save lives.

There is deep national grief and anger after the shootings in Aurora. The best way to honor the victims is to work on the imperfect but useful ways to try to make it less likely that this will ever happen again.

EDITORIAL : THE JAKARTA POST, INDONESIA

Strategy of the coward

The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) officially announced the final results of the July 11 gubernatorial election on Thursday, essentially confirming the results of a number of exit polls — known as a ‘Quick Count’ — that had put Surakarta Mayor Joko Widodo “Jokowi” and incumbent Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo as the top two finishers. 

Jokowi secured 1,847,157 votes and Fauzi 1,476,648; slightly different from the results released by five exit poll organizers hours after the voting finished.

As the race for the capital city’s number one position will be decided in a runoff election scheduled for Sept. 20, political temperatures are heating up with increasing occurrences of the two opposing camps involved in “unethical campaign strategies” — known as negative campaigning — against each other by, among others, referring to negative aspects of their opponent or of a policy rather than emphasizing one’s own positive attributes or preferred policies.

Such negative campaigns include the exploitation of aspects locally known as SARA (tribal affiliations, religion, race and societal groups) by means of pamphlets and pictures and message dissemination through Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry messages, and other forms of social media. The use of such negative campaigning is surely a setback in our efforts to maintain harmony in such a diverse society as Indonesia.

It certainly needs further investigation to find out who the instigators of such negative campaigns are. But the fact that the campaign team of Jokowi and his running mate Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaya Purnama and the general public have received materials denigrating Jokowi’s and Ahok’s religiousness as well as the latter’s Chinese background, and the dissemination of pictures that portray Fauzi Bowo as Adolf Hitler or Jokowi as US President Barack Obama only confirm that such negative campaigns do occur.

It is regrettable that such campaign materials are still used in a democratic country such as Indonesia, as it is feared that such negative campaigning could spark clashes between supporters of the different candidates. Worse still is that it could even create segregation in society.

However, the fact that the Jokowi-Ahok pair received the largest number of votes in the first round election at least shows that voters do not really care about the ethnic and religious backgrounds of the candidates, but rather their personality and track records.

There will still be two months for the two pairs of candidates to “influence” eligible Jakarta voters before the runoff election. Learning from the first round election, the two pairs should therefore use smarter methods in “promoting themselves”. 

Rather than launching negative campaigns against each other, they should make maximum use of the time remaining to promote their programs on how to settle serious and chronic problems in the capital city: Traffic congestion, annual flooding, poor sanitation in slum areas, health services and urbanization.

Offensive campaigning, however, is within tolerance as long as it touches, for example, on the negative track records of the candidates, such as whether a candidate is implicated in corruption or whether a candidate has failed to perform well in providing services to the public. Such facts are indeed important information for voters before they go to the ballot boxes in September.

For Jakartans, they want to see the candidates offer substance, not sentiments, in their campaigns.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY TRIBUNE, THE PHILIPPINES

Doleouts just won’t work

The conditional cash transfer (CCT) program of Noynoy is one of the most expensive items in the yearly government budget and the most frequently criticized due to doubts that it is being properly monitored, thus turning it into what many fear it is turning out to be just as what was intended by Noynoy and his Liberal Party — which is mere political doleouts that would be used to bribe the poor to give them the vote come election day.

The allocation for the program which the administration calls the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P) totals P23 billion this year and by next year the allotment for it will almost double to P40 billion to target 3.5 million families which were supposedly identified by the administration of Noynoy as extremely poor.

Not so poor, after all, as the Commission on Audit (CoA) review of the program showed many of the so-called beneficiaries of the program are not exactly among the marginalized.

The CoA interviewed sample beneficiaries throughout the country and the results were no surprise at all, especially to critics.

A handful of the beneficiaries was obviously delegated by some allied political figures in the areas, some have legitimate jobs and even one is a proprietor owning an apartment space.

What it shows is that the so-called survey method being used to identify the poorest of the poor, as well as monitor their use of the funds, doesn’t work. Worse, the management of the billions in funds is highly questionable.

Billions, incidentally, are also spent by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for its so-called workers and personnel in monitoring the program, which is obviously money wasted — considering that the CoA itself pointed to the poor monitoring as well as poor management of the funds, along with other irregularities found.

Some six percent of those interviewed by the CoA should have not been included in the program since they have their own means of livelihood. That percentage of ineligibility is equivalent to about 250,000 households getting unnecessary doleouts from Noynoy.

There were several other anomalies in the flagship poverty alleviation program of Noynoy that took almost 300 pages for CoA to detail. Shown also was the tendency of beneficiaries to use the CCT money to bet in gambling operations.

Another glaring anomaly was the failure of the DSWD which implements the program to liquidate more than P6 billion of the P20-billion budget last year. The budget for the program has been increasing progressively from P20 billion in 2011, P23 billion this year and P40 billion next year, which, to point out, in election year.

The unliquidated portion is substantial enough since it comprises about 25 percent of the total budget for the program during the period reviewed, which not only placed doubts on the credibility of the process in providing the cash transfer but also the effectivity of the program itself.

Even surveys reflect the nil effect of the program in reducing hunger much less poverty among Filipinos as most believe that they remain poor before and after the assumption of Noynoy as president and the implementation of the CCT program.

The results of the CoA review should be used as basis for a comprehensive review of the 4Ps program since scarce government funds are being used for it and it seems that the program is being poorly monitored.

Monitoring is an essential component for the success of the program since the provision of cash transfers is tied to certain conditions which are believed to improve the economic conditions of a family.

Otherwise, the program turns into a pure doleout for political patronage, which is what is happening today.

EDITORIAL : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES, MALAYSIA

Changing perceptions

Just as in US and UK, people feel crime is rising when it has actually fallen

WHEN it comes to crime, perception and reality are not always on the same page. Research shows that in many instances a person's perception of crime is greater than the actual occurrences. In fact, it seems that the fear of crime rises as crime rates drop. This is the case in the United States where annual Gallup polls show that most Americans continue to believe that crime is worsening despite a decline in the US crime rate since the mid-1990s. While crime rates in the United Kingdom have also been falling, the perception has remained, for many, that crime is rising. This also appears to be true for Malaysia. While index crimes decreased by 11.1 per cent last year and street crimes dropped 39.7 per cent from 2009 till last year,   the majority of Malaysians remained worried about falling victim to crime, though the Taylor Nelson Sofres survey in May did show a 3.9 per cent decline in the measure of fear since December 2009.

What is clear is that people tend to base their perceptions on personal experiences and anecdotal evidence, direct and vicarious. When people have been victims of snatch thefts, live in a neighbourhood with a rash of burglaries, know someone who has been assaulted, or read about rapes in public places and robberies in shopping malls in the print, electronic and social media, the crime rate as captured in official statistics won't mean much to them. Indeed, following the spate of violent crimes, many will be hard-pressed to believe that we don't have a problem. So, while the perception that the frequency and severity of crime has increased has sometimes been blown out of proportion, and it may be very well to argue that perception is not reality as the numbers tell a different story, the fact is that there have been more than a few scary crime reports in recent months that have been quite disturbing. We certainly can't ignore the fact that there is a perception problem. As Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein rightly said, "we cannot be in denial any more".

That said, however, the situation is certainly far from hopeless or dangerous as indicated by the credible comparative data from the World Justice Project and the Global Peace Index. But the police must not rest on their laurels to make Malaysia as safe a country to live and work as possible. It is vital that the measures to deter and detect crime produce real changes on the ground in order to change the perception, and reality, of crime.

Funds forthe future

Retirement should be on the minds of working people from the start

THE PRIVATE Retirement Scheme (PRS) launched by the prime minister on Wednesday is the latest addition to the country's "multi-pillar" pension fund structure. It is intended for an ageing population, many of whom might not be saving enough for their golden years, and hence a fundamental policy initiative. Also announced was the Private Pension Administrator (PPA), the scheme's governing one-stop centre. While the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has for years been the financial mainstay of private sector retirees, time has, however, proven that increasing life expectancy has thrown up the need for additional resources to augment the income of senior citizens. For the most part, the payments to contributors at age 55 and over have proven sadly inadequate, even for the most prudent and even without dependents to support.

The average retiree, according to actuarial calculations, needs about 75 per cent of his or her last salary to be able to maintain a comfortable standard of living he or she has become accustomed to, on condition that purchasing power remains reasonably stable. Getting to that position not only requires a longer working life but the factoring in of additional post-retirement income into the worker's long-term financial planning. As safe as the EPF is, with its conservative approach to investment, it should only be counted on as a mandatory minimum. Anything above that should quite rightly be left to the individual, as the PRS does. The individual should therefore also have a choice between competing options in terms of services and yields.

The PRS if embraced by private sector workers and is, consequently, successful at giving contributors the returns they seek -- better than the EPF -- can do much to secure the future of Malaysians. Not only that, it has the potential of growing the capital market. After all, the outcome is an increase in the rate of savings among the population. Large pension funds are known to be market movers and shakers. If the financial sector remains regulated to maintain prudence there is very little chance that the pension funds here will suffer a fate similar to that in some developed countries hit by the 2008 financial crisis. For as long as the PPA governs with an iron fist to ensure that contributors' welfare is protected, the prospect for Malaysian retirees will be relatively secure given the greater freedom the funds will have in respect to their investment portfolios. From now on, opening an account with one of the funds should be as much a rite of passage as, say, owning a home.

EDITORIAL : THE GUARDIAN, UK

The Olympics: good sports

As long as it goes more or less to plan, then the Olympics will at last be not about the business of sport but sport itself

The Olympic torch has reached London. Its wet, winding journey through the British isles (with a detour to Dublin) is a neat metaphor for the Games themselves: a great deal of heavy-handed organisation, corralling of crowds and cranking up of national pride, followed by a large, loud appearance from the sponsors – Coca-Cola's scarlet pantechnicon of free drink and dancing girls – and finally the unexpectedly moving appearance of an ordinary person, often chosen by friends and neighbours for service to the community, bearing the torch itself. Next Friday, the athletes, the people who really matter, at last take over from the organisers and the arguments, the blunders and the oversights. As long as it goes more or less to the plans seven hard years in the making, then until the Paralympics' closing ceremony on 9 September, it will at last be not about the business of sport but sport itself.

Winning an Olympic bid is about as far from the Olympic ideal as the Games themselves can sometimes seem. There was scant evidence of global good humour when London ambushed the favourites Paris in Singapore in 2005. But some ideals survive even the most destructive of launches. Labour, helped by Seb Coe, the indomitable athlete turned Tory politician and now Olympics chief, won the Games for London with a message about legacy and participation. The Lea Valley – the Olympic zone that cuts across some of London's poorest boroughs – was finally to get a taste of boomtown Britain. First would come the Games, then housing, work and, of course, unrivalled facilities.

The news this week that the Olympic Park's media centre now looks certain to be taken over by iCity as a technology hub, with the promise of up to 5,000 jobs, is welcome evidence of the determination to fulfil the original promise, after rumours that it was to add to the generous provision of private (and some affordable) housing in the Olympic Park. Civic organisations and the local boroughs have fought to set ambitious targets for convergence, raising opportunities for Lea Valley residents to the level of those enjoyed by the rest of London. The lessons of other Olympic cities were studied: think Atlanta where a grim Games marred by a bombing in which one person died has left an admired community legacy, and not Athens, where almost the only useful remnant is a stretch of motorway.

But no one has yet pulled off regeneration on the scale being attempted here. It is not enough that the Games, as one assessment predicts, actually generate a return greater than the £9bn they are costing. The London Docklands tower over the planners as a warning of how good intentions go awry: a new overspill city from where the prosperous middle classes can travel elsewhere to work is not what they are after. It is harder to work out what the benchmarks by which the Lea Valley can be judged should be, but they will include employment, rising school standards and good, affordable housing. It might take a generation to achieve. By then local people should feel compensated for the missile launchers on their roofs and the lack of jobs on the construction sites.

Meanwhile, London's groaning transport system may not cope and, however much Lord Coe insists that the Zil lanes are there simply to allow athletes to plan their warm-up routine to the second, it seems more plausible that they are really about guaranteeing members of the International Olympic Committee a smooth commute from their central London hotels. There is much about hosting the Olympics that chafes, and big questions to ask about how the IOC works and whether an organisation invented by a 19th-century romantic can escape being traduced by the hard-faced businessmen of the 21st. But not right now. Now it is time to sit back and relish the heady, exhilarating, unforgettable mix of triumph and disaster that is the Olympic Games.

Guns in America: beyond control

America has had more than its share of deadly shootings, but there is scant hope of a change to gun laws

There is something in the old libertarian refrain – guns don't kill without people getting involved. The deadliest shootings of modern times have included such disparate corners of the Earth as Dunblane in Scotland, Utøya in Norway and Port Arthur, Tasmania – humanity's crooked timber will occasionally prove devastatingly warped in any setting. But even before Friday's cinema massacre in Denver, Columbine, Virginia Tech and Tucson had already given America more than its share of slots on this grisly list. Every murder requires its means as well as its perpetrator, and these are more reliably at hand in the US.

It is not a hard argument to make, and yet it is devilishly difficult to do anything about its conclusion in American politics. New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, immediately called on Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, to respond to the massacre by detailing gun-control plans, but he shouldn't hold his breath. The National Rifle Association's lobbying, a Republican House, a Senate that filibusters as a matter of routine, and a conservative supreme court which recently committed itself to a particularly full-blooded interpretation of the second amendment's "right to bear arms" – any one of these would be a challenging obstacle to surmount, and every one of them stands in the way of using the law to restrict the flow of weapons.

Washington's paralysis problem is familiar in contexts from climate change to debt. With guns, however, the difficulty is not just checks, balances and partisanship, it is a great swath of voters. The one recent politician to have taken a small step towards control was Bill Clinton. He signed into law the Brady bill, which mandated background checks on gun purchasers, or at least it did until it was somewhat neutered in the courts. Even this modest move drained such energy that the president would later blame the Democrats' loss of Congress on the battle, claiming rifle toters "could rightly claim to have made Gingrich the House speaker".

But in the 1990s, public opinion was in fact running roughly two-to-one in favour of gun control. More recently – and especially since the great recession took hold – the urge for arms to protect oneself in a rough old world appears to have spread. Before Friday's massacre, the polls were suggesting something close to an even split. While the right's wilder voices continue to claim that President Obama is secretly plotting to trash gun rights through UN treaties or some other back-channel means, his legislative agenda has in fact meticulously avoided the subject. The most fitting tribute to Colorado's innocent dead would be a change in this position. Sadly, there is scant hope of that.

Unthinkable? Saving our newsagents

Set aside the big chains such as WH Smith, and about 10 independent newsagents go out of business every week

How did you last buy a newspaper? Scanned through the self-checkout at the supermarket? Added to the £20 of unleaded from the local petrol station? Our own circulation research suggests that only about half of readers will have bought Saturday's Guardian from a newsagent (it's more Monday to Friday). Behind that stat lies a big change in the way we buy print; there are more outlets than ever before to get your ink-fix, but fewer newsagent's shops. Set aside the big chains such as WH Smith, and about 10 independent newsagents go out of business every week. This decline was in train well before the recession. Many of the same factors are at work here as account for why more than one in 10 town centre shops are empty. Still, there is something particularly disturbing about the loss of newsagents. You might expect a newspaper to say this: that Big Supermarket Express is never going to deliver papers, and often does not carry the same range of publications. But a local newsagent's also serves as a community hub: staff know their customers, and often live above the shop. The last decade has been a bad one for our high-street institutions: pubs, post offices and paper shops. These business failures leave their communities poorer, and policies are desperately needed to arrest the decline: whether that be lower rates for community enterprises or something more radical. Our newsagents are valuable – and not just for people who like newspapers. It's time we started treating them as such.

EDITORIAL : THE GLOBAL TIMES, CHINA

Providing foreign aid a way to survive

Rumors have spiraled in recent days that China's foreign ministry just declared a debt exemption of $95 billion for China-friendly foreign countries, sparking criticism online. Though this has proved to be an unsubstantiated allegation, it demonstrates yet again how China's policy of providing international aid is misconceived by the public.

As the world's second largest economy, China provides aid to the world's least developed nations in a variety of forms, including material supplies, loans, and tariff and debt exemptions. While foreign aid is often interpreted by Western politicians as schemes to seal preferential energy deals, critics in China tend to stress the fact that millions of Chinese people still live in poverty.

Sadly, the depiction of China as a calculating factory owner squeezing oil from Africa counters the record of China's devotion to friendship among formerly oppressed nations. China's assistance to Third World countries in the 1950s and 60s when demand for imported energy was low reflected the ideal that undeveloped nations must help each other in a world system unfavorable to latecomers. Such ideals have not died.

From a more pragmatic perspective, it's in line with China's interests to aid poorer nations. Reducing the burden of debt contributes to the development of those countries, which will become growing markets for Chinese products.

In an increasingly globalized world, dependence on imported resources is common. China's economy is dependent on energy resources and raw materials from other countries, but the way China feeds its development has been and will continue to be reciprocal. Domestic critics must realize that it will be unimaginable if one day there are no raw materials to feed the factories or no gas to fuel the millions of cars on the streets. This will cost China's newfound prosperity and eventually its people's livelihood.

As an emerging power, China meets unprecedented difficulties in the international political arena. Restrictions come from existent powers that seek to maintain the established world order. However, unlike previous powers who achieved their status by waging wars, China chooses to make friends. China must maintain good relations with developing countries so as to diversify the source of international assistance.

Providing aid to foreign countries isn't a cause of domestic problems. China has relatively big State assets, so providing foreign aid doesn't burden the government and won't affect domestic expenditure.

Authorities should provide greater transparency in the decision-making process of providing foreign aid and welcome public supervision. This is the best approach to quashing doubts.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY YOMIURI, JAPAN

Continuous checks necessary on TEPCO power rates

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Higher electricity charges will be a heavy burden on users. The government looked into rate hikes sought by Tokyo Electric Power Co. and reduced their proposed size. We find this quite appropriate.

Electricity rate hikes for households have been reined in to an average 8.47 percent from the 10.28 percent TEPCO initially proposed.

The reduction came as councils of experts at the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Consumer Affairs Agency demanded TEPCO further cut personnel and other costs that were included in its power rate calculations.

The rate hikes will apply from Sept. 1, two months later than initially planned. Scaled-back rate increases will also apply to companies and other large-lot users, which faced rate increases from April.

In the wake of the crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, TEPCO is unable to restart its other nuclear reactors, which were shut down for regular inspections that they have now completed. This resulted in ballooning fuel costs for thermal power generation. Even with a 300 billion yen cut in costs, the company's balance sheet is expected to see a 700 billion yen loss.

===

Rate hikes inevitable

The coming power rate hikes are a precondition for the government to inject 1 trillion yen in public funds and virtually put TEPCO under state control. To maintain a stable power supply system, we consider it inevitable to have rate hikes to a certain degree.

What is important is that the government and TEPCO continue to check whether rate calculations are based on proper costs--and disclose what they find.

During the government screening of TEPCO's rate hike plans, the reduction in managerial salaries at TEPCO was increased from the initial 25 percent to 30 percent or more. We consider this adequate as it is about the same as rates that were applied to other businesses put under state control in the past, including a major bank.

However, if the government forces TEPCO to accept more severe restructuring measures than necessary due to negative public sentiment against the company, it would lower the morale of TEPCO employees and lead them to leave the company. This could shake the power supply system and adversely affect consumers' interests. Such a scenario must be avoided.

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Restart safe reactors

It is estimated that TEPCO's balance would improve about 80 billion yen each time one of the reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture is restarted. Reactors whose safety has been confirmed should be restarted one after another.

Regarding the screening of rate hike calculations, the Consumer Affairs Agency sought to exclude expenses for stabilizing the Fukushima plant and compensation payments to victims of the nuclear crisis from consideration.

But this might have exacerbated TEPCO's financial troubles and had a serious negative impact on damage relief efforts and power supplies. Allowing the inclusion of those costs in rate calculations was a reasonable judgment made during talks among concerned Cabinet ministers.

Ultimately, the only choices will be to let beneficiaries of power supplies shoulder the costs incurred due to the nuclear crisis through power rate hikes or to use taxpayer money to make up for the costs. What balance should be struck in imposing the burdens? The government needs to have fresh discussions on this point.

The extent to which costs for reactor decommissioning and radiation decontamination will ultimately rise remains unknown. But it would be impossible to make up all of those costs through electricity charges. The government must consider establishing a new system of public assistance for decommissioning and other tasks.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 20, 2012)

(Jul. 21, 2012)

Nuclear safety confirmation must be prompt, careful

The Yomiuri Shimbun

There should never be any negligence in efforts to ensure safety measures at nuclear power stations.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency--the nuclear safety watchdog of the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry--has instructed Hokuriku Electric Power Co. to reexamine whether there is an active fault beneath or near the utility's Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa Prefecture.

This is because new safety inspections by NISA of the Shika plant, construction permission for which was issued in 1988, have revealed geological data indicating the possibility of an active fault just below the plant's No. 1 reactor.

In a meeting held Tuesday to hear opinions from experts, numerous people said the geographical structure in question should be considered a "typical active fault."

Thorough studies must be made of the matter.

Nuclear safety regulatory authorities should evaluate the results of Hokuriku Electric's reexaminations promptly and carefully, placing top priority on ensuring safety.

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Basics of safety overlooked

According to the latest data obtained by NISA, there is a vertical fissure in the layer of earth just beneath the No. 1 reactor and both edges have undoubtedly been forced up and down.

Hokuriku Electric argues the fissure should not be considered an active fault but a "scar in the geological layer," but few experts support the utility's argument.

An active fault is one that may move again in the future. Should an active fault move right below a reactor, its core could tilt or turn over. If such an incident occurred while the reactor was operating, a grave situation could develop.

In the past, many large dams and bridges have been destroyed or collapsed because of the movement of active faults below them.

In screening applications for permission to build nuclear power plants, the government has prohibited building important facilities like reactors just above active faults.

If an active fault is confirmed in the reexaminations, the No. 1 reactor of the Shika plant would have to be decommissioned. If the reactor is deemed unable to meet the key requirement of safety, it would be only natural to shut it down.

A major factor behind the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was the fact that the possibility of the plant being struck by a gigantic tsunami was underestimated. This kind of failure must never be repeated.

For all that, we are aghast that problems involving the very basis of nuclear plant safety are being pointed out at this late date.

In addition to deficiencies in the utility's safety assessment, the reliability of the government's screening of nuclear safety must be questioned.

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Inspections of all plants needed

NISA has also instructed Kansai Electric Power Co. to make new safety examinations of its Oi nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, as some have asserted there may be an active fault below the plant. However, a majority of experts disagree and NISA says its instruction to KEPCO was to "make doubly sure."

Regarding whether other nuclear plants are free from active fault problems, NISA must swiftly make thorough inspections across the country about the adequacy of the screening that was done when the government approved their construction.

Nuclear power generation is indispensable for ensuring stable supplies of electricity.

However, except for the Oi nuclear complex, which has managed to resume operations, all the other plants remain idled after regular checkups in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant accident.

Taking every possible measure to ensure the safety of nuclear plants is key to the resumption of their operations.

Regarding the problems relating to active faults, NISA must quickly make public the findings of the examinations and explain them in an understandable way, since doing so is critical to securing the understanding of residents of areas with nuclear plants.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 20, 2012)

(Jul. 21, 2012)

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY MIRROR, SRILANKA

Mayhem in Mannar

Mannar is on fire. The eastern town was no better than a battlefield on Wednesday, when the unruly protesters pelted stones at the Mannar police and the courts complex, compelling the Police to disperse the crowds with tear gas. Six policemen including HQI’s of Mannar and Vavuniya have been injured during the clashes and the Mannar magistrate court was closed due to the damages caused by the protesters.

The situation hints of a conflict of more serious nature, which can result in horrendous consequences if not curbed in time.

The drama unfolded when the fisherfolk in the area wanted a group of fishermen who fled from Viddattaltivu during the war to return to their hometown. The latter, who were settled down in Uppukulam, did not want to go back for understandable reasons. However, it was not clear whether there was a standing arrangement to resend the fishermen in question, after the conclusion of war.

Incidents of such nature have the evil potential of instigating ethnic disharmony. Time and time again, history has showed that a flame at one end can set things on fire at the other end. Today, it is Mannar. Tomorrow it can be Pettah.

Meanwhile, work at all courts in the country came to a standstill on Friday due to a boycott by judges and lawyers in protest against the attack on Mannar Courts. Whether a counter protest is the ideal way to protest against a protest is another matter. The trend of damaging public properties and causing injury to public servants in the name of exercising the democratic right of protesting should not be tolerated at any rate.

Throughout history, when the so-called people’s representatives make hasty decisions, it was the judiciary that came into people’s rescue. Be it the Z-score muddle or an instance where the people’s right to information was violated, the court system in the country was bold enough to make sure that justice was on the side of people who were victimized by the incongruities. Hence, pelting stones at a courts complex is the last method in which one can show gratitude in return.

Whatever the reasons may be, people taking law into their hands should not be the standard way of meting out justice. The people are losing their right to point fingers at the rulers for their undemocratic practices; for they themselves behave no better than the underworld gangsters. Besides, to a country that had been on reverse gear due a quarter-century war, another conflict in the making is way too much to digest.

Democracy is not an exotic fertilizer that can be sprinkled on lawless societies; it is the citizenry of the country who has to plant it.

EDITORIAL : THE DAWN, PAKISTAN

Multan poll

BY-ELECTIONS are usually not a good barometer of the mood ahead of a general election. With political governments in place, they are usually tilted in favour of incumbents. But the narrow victory of Abdul Qadir Gilani in Multan on Thursday to the National Assembly seat that fell vacant after his father, former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, was disqualified by the Supreme Court in April has yielded some tantalising hints about the state of politics in Punjab. First, not all victories are equal and the few thousand votes by which the PPP held on to its former prime minister’s seat will have set alarm bells ringing in the party. Here, after all, was a district that the PPP via Yousuf Raza Gilani had lavished much attention on over the last four-and-a-half years. Here also was supposed to be fertile ground for two other factors the PPP will play up during the general election: a sense of victimhood, which the former prime minister embodies as yet another PPP prime minister ousted before his time, and the so-called Seraiki card, whose time is supposed to have come as an electoral factor. The election result, then, suggests all is not well in the PPP camp. It will not admit this publicly, but the party apparently still lacks a winning formula to overcome the woes of incumbency of a government often perceived as thoroughly incompetent and out of touch.

Second, the Multan by-election appears to have been a trial balloon for a possible revival of an alliance similar to the IJI, which fought it out with the PPP in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The runner-up in Thursday’s election, Shaukat Hayat Bosan, was supported by the PML-N, JI and PTI — all parties with similar politics and united to some extent by their opposition to the PPP. An electoral alliance may still be far off, but behind the scenes the debate over seat adjustments for the general election will inevitably pick up. Though it is far from a sure thing — at least publicly, the PTI and the PML-N are rivals — the lure of seat gains at the expense of the PPP will have Punjab’s eternally churning politics in a fresh state of excitement.

Third, the Multan by-election is a powerful response to the worrying speculation about care-taker set-ups and extra-constitutional interventions. The argument for recourse to the extra-constitutional has always been that the democratic process will not produce change. But as the highly competitive race in Multan has shown, the electorate isn’t so easy to manipulate and is ready to be wooed by other possible representatives.

Afridi and the US

A DATE has been set for an appeal hearing in the case of Dr Shakil Afridi, and it should be used an opportunity to set things right. From its inception his trial has raised questions about the real intentions of the state. To begin with, if he was thought to be guilty of treason in helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden through a fake vaccination program, he should have been tried in an open court. But even within his trial under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, there are problems that should be addressed in appeal. Why haul him up under the FCR apparently for a crime committed outside its jurisdiction, only to convict him for allegedly colluding with Lashkar-i-Aslam instead? Media reports from Khyber Agency that deny such militant links, combined with the uproar in Washington, imply that the procedure followed and the charges filed may have been designed to keep the trial behind closed doors, keep Dr Afridi behind bars and relieve international pressure. So the validity of the conviction, and the long sentence handed down, need a close look during appeal, which will unfortunately take place behind closed doors again.

There is also the matter of a possible cut in US military aid for reasons that include the Afridi trial. It is true that the tenacity with which the Pakistani state has gone after a man who may have helped in the hunt for Osama bin Laden contrasts sharply with the lax justice meted out to many with real links to terrorism. But that is no justification for linking this matter to the aid programme. Whatever Washington’s concerns about the Afridi case, they should be discussed in that specific context. Slashing assistance in response, as one chamber of Congress voted to do on Wednesday, will simply be counterproductive. Using aid cuts as a tool to punish Pakistan only undermines the US administration’s attempts to repair relations and put them on a more stable basis. The case is an embarrassment for Pakistan, but allowing it to overshadow other features of the already fraught relationship will do anything but allow for the rebuilding of ties.

Tailor-made

OFFICIALDOM awoke from its slumber in a corner of Pakistan not to deal with trifles such as security, health or hygiene but to take on — wait for it — tailors. In Landi Kotal on Thursday the administration detained a number of tailors for ‘overcharging’ and rejecting customers’ Eid orders. As reported in this paper, the unfortunate individuals were rounded up (though later freed) when residents complained to the authorities. Understandably, the tailors’ fraternity is up in arms over the incident, complaining that long hours of loadshedding have prevented them from taking on more work and claiming that charges have only been increased ‘nominally’. The authorities’ move is bizarre; under which law can tailors be arrested for not booking orders? Besides, Ramazan is crunch time for tailors due to Eid, so perhaps the disgruntled parties should have booked early.

The misguided zeal aside, the fact is that overcharging remains a major problem in Pakistan, especially during Ramazan. While many unscrupulous traders overcharge consumers year-round, it seems profiteering is religiously adhered to during the month of fasting. A story in this paper on Friday indicated that retailers in Karachi have increased prices of many food items popular during Ramazan, making a mockery of government-notified prices. Every Ramazan the state announces packages and other moves to reduce the impact of inflation on the consumer. Yet these measures have little effect, mainly because traders ignore official price lists. Also, subsidised goods are often either unavailable or of inferior quality. What is needed is a countrywide price-control and anti-profiteering mechanism during all times of year to keep a check on the more unscrupulous elements of the market that fleece consumers. Authorities in Landi Kotal and elsewhere should consider this rather than hauling up tailors.

EDITORIAL : THE HINDU, INDIA

Pawar strikes a blow

The relationship between the Congress and its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has reached a new low with Sharad Pawar threatening to quit the UPA government and provide only “outside support” if his party’s demands are not met. The NCP is part of the coalition government in Maharashtra and the threat, if effected, could have serious implications in the State. In a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the NCP has complained about policy issues and the fact that it is kept out of decision making. It has accused the Congress of one party rule and not functioning like a coalition. Mr. Pawar seems to have been goaded into action by the impending Cabinet reshuffle, the organisational changes in the Congress, where Rahul Gandhi is slated to play a more powerful role, and by the possibility of his one- time protégé Sushilkumar Shinde getting a key position. There are issues over decision-making within the United Progressive Alliance, and in Maharashtra there is antipathy to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s functioning. In a bid to restore the tattered image of the State government, the Maharashtra CM has been scrupulous, much to the dismay of the builder and contractor lobby. The rumbling about lack of decision-making in the government is largely coming from this section. Mr. Chavan has also done his bit to antagonise his coalition ally by putting the NCP-controlled Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank under administrators and insisting on a white paper from the NCP-headed irrigation department, among other things.

Today, the Congress and the NCP look more like sparring partners, not allies, and it is no wonder that they decided to go it alone in the Maharashtra local bodies’ polls. The NCP came up trumps, outsmarting the Congress in some municipal corporations by tying up with right-wing parties. There is speculation that the party will junk the Congress and go with new allies in 2014, but that remains to be seen. Mr. Pawar enjoys a good rapport with Ms Gandhi and the Prime Minister. It is unlikely that they will react unreasonably to his demands — assuming, of course, that his demands are reasonable. But the Congress also has to keep in mind that the NCP is not its only coalition partner and that the UPA has within its fold larger and trickier allies. The quality of the Congress’s mercy may be tempered by these considerations. Mr. Pawar, a man with prime ministerial ambitions, may be miffed at not getting his due in the Union government and the lack of discussion in key areas like agriculture, food security, irrigation and exports. But he is also adept at negotiating a good bargain. The Congress which is fighting its allies on all fronts, can no longer afford to take the NCP’s demands lightly.

Syrians betrayed

The killing of 200 people in the village of Tremseh has confirmed the depth of the Syrian crisis and the dangers it poses for the region; it has also exposed major problems for international institutions. In Tremseh, one of the bloodiest episodes since the uprising started in 2011 occurred on July 12 when, according to United Nations observers, heavily armed government forces targeted rebels and defectors. A week later, a suicide bomber killed defence minister Daoud Rajha, his deputy Assef Shawkat, who was also President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law, and former defence minister Hassan Turkomani; a fourth victim, national security chief Hisham Ikhtiar, died later from his injuries. That the attack took place at the National Security Bureau in Damascus is a huge blow to the Ba’ath regime. Fighting continues in Damascus, and thousands of civilians have already tried to take shelter in a Palestinian refugee camp at Yarmouk, a southern district of the city. In a further key development, Russia and China have for the third time vetoed a Syria-related U.N. Security Council resolution, with Russia rejecting sanctions and military intervention; Moscow also accuses the western powers of blackmailing it with threats to block the renewal of the U.N. Supervision Mission unless it collaborates over Syria.

The violence there, which has claimed 17,000 lives so far, is itself terrible, but the inability of the international community to reach any kind of agreement means the crisis will almost certainly escalate even further. That Mr. Assad is in deepening trouble is not in doubt. Senior-level defections from his regime are becoming more frequent, and the rebels now hold five border crossings, four to Iraq and one to Turkey. Nevertheless the prospects for post-Assad stability do not look bright. The United States, in the person of its U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, says it will work outside the Security Council to put pressure on the regime; this is ominously reminiscent of the prelude to the illegal Iraq invasion in 2003. Second, there is increasing evidence of tension among the rebels resulting from the increasing involvement of extreme Islamists sponsored by West Asian Sunni-majority states, which have also provided sophisticated weapons of western manufacture. None of the external players is showing any motivation beyond self-interest. If Russia and China are concerned about the fate of the Assad regime, the U.S. and its allies are not willing to draft a balanced resolution that pushes regime opponents towards talks. Unless the big powers give up their games, Syrian civilians will continue dying by the thousand.

EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

Welcome holy Ramadan

Let us observe it in its true spirit

The holy Ramadan, a month of self-purification through fasting, begins across the country today as the new crescent moon was sighted yesterday evening in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the Muslim world, the faithful have begun to observe fasting through abstinences/ denying themselves foods and drinks between sunrise and sunset. But observing Ramadan in its true spirit does not end with merely abstaining from food and drinks. How faithful a Muslim is get tested in this month through the rigours of fasting, praying, purging one's body, mind and soul of all vices and sinful acts. Islam dictates that by realising the pain of hunger and thirst through fasting, a Muslim would feel compassion towards the indigent ones who find it hard to get two square meals a day. In this way, they are expected to understand the message of Almighty that all humans feel equally when exposed to the sufferings of starvation, thirst and other kinds of worldly cravings.

In Bangladesh, with the advent of Ramadan, a section of people are found to commit the worst form of haram (the forbidden things in Islam). They adulterate food items, apply poisonous chemicals to preserve fruits, hoard essential commodities and hike up their prices manifold to earn windfall profits without any qualm. Worse still, we are alarmed to see a section of traders, wholesalers and retailers colluding together to artificially raise the prices of essentials in the month of Ramadan. The practice has become somewhat of a ritual in itself and it is hoped that this year, the authorities will make headway in containing prices within acceptable levels to lessen the pains of the people who have borne the brunt of severe food inflation for the better part of the year. It is hoped that the Muslims in Bangladesh will shun such sinful practices, establish the true spirit of Ramadan, and be compassionate and tolerant towards their fellow people in every sphere of life.

The passing of a master storyteller

Leaving a nation in mourning

Humayun Ahmed aged 64 breathed his last in a New York hospital on June 19 after a prolonged fight against cancer. The writer will no longer enthrall readers and viewers with his uncanny ability to weave stories around everyday lives that touched the hearts and minds of millions of the middle class and the common man. How does one pray tribute to Ahmed? A professor of chemistry, he made the transition successfully to fiction writer extraordinaire. Ahmed won the Bangla Academy Award in 1981 and Ekushey Padak in 1994.

What made him stand out from many others was his portrayal of the little things in life which often go unnoticed. The intricate relationships that exist within the family, the conflict of ideas between the older and younger generations, Ahmed excelled at bringing out ironies and pretences that exist in our society and weave stories rich in mirth that won him devoted followers who bought his books in their hundreds of thousands. Ahmed's writing extended beyond novels and he was an accomplished playwright. Some of his memorable plays include Ei Shob Din Raatri where one of the characters Baker bhai, a hoodlum with a difference, acquired a cult-like following. It was his ability to touch deep rooted emotions of society that made Humayun Ahmed's works bestsellers.

It was Ahmed who was able to produce stories that the whole family could read and his greatest contribution lies in the fact that here was not only a brilliant teller of tales and a commercial success, but who went on to amaze with his direction of award-winning films. Aguner Parashmoni, Ahmed's first foray into the silver screen won him the National Film Award in eight categories, including Best Picture and Best Director. There will always be those who will contest whether Humayun Ahmed fit the role of a model writer. His fans will tell a different story. They will remember him as the one who broke the mold and inked the lives of the unnoticed in his many books, for he was a man of all ages.