| May 7, 2002 | Tuesday | Safar 23, 1423 |
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Probing the referendum
Building collapse tragedy
THE sense of shock that had gripped France since the first round of presidential elections last month began to subside on Sunday following the overwhelming victory of Jacques Chirac in the two-horse race for the post of head of state. His challenger, the ultra-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, was comprehensively trounced in the decisive second round by the incumbent Chirac, who chalked up some 82 per cent of the vote. However, the fact that some six million more people voted for Le Pen on May 5 than in the first round continues to disturb those alarmed by France’s lurch to the far right. The extremist Le Pen’s shock success in the first round had stunned the nation and helped galvanize mainstream opinion. The prospect of a candidate from the far right, with his virulently anti-immigrant and neo-fascist views, coming so close to capturing the top job in the land rallied millions of otherwise apathetic voters to Chirac’s support. In an unprecedented display of unity, the entire mainstream political spectrum swung behind Chirac in order to halt the Le Pen juggernaut. Even the otherwise bitterly opposed Socialists and Communists decided to back Chirac in the second round, with the former Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin — who was eliminated by Le Pen in the first round — urging voters to back his arch rival Chirac.
The build-up to the second round was a noisy affair with hundreds of thousands opposed to Le Pen’s politics taking to the streets to express their dismay at his strong showing. Given the wide spectrum of forces that threw in their lot with Chirac, his massive success and the huge turnout was not unsurprising. Le Pen’s first round success was clearly a vote of no-confidence in France’s traditional political system, and reflected the frustration of voters with both the tainted Chirac and his uncharismatic socialist challenger, Jospin. Many voters decided to stay away from the polling booths or to vote for a string of lesser known candidates as a mark of protest. As in France, other countries in Europe have also witnessed a distinct shift to the far right in recent years. In Austria and then in Italy, parties with an ultra-nationalist agenda have scored remarkable gains, setting off alarm bells among the political establishments. With terrible memories of life under authoritarian regimes of both the right and the left, Europe is particularly sensitive to such political currents. The growing sense of alienation is exploited by far right parties that find convenient scapegoats for their problems.
In Europe, the most conspicuous targets are immigrants and refugees from Third World countries. Le Pen’s success owes a great deal to his repeated onslaughts against North Africans whom he accuses of being responsible for crime and unemployment. The recent anti-Muslim backlash following Sept 11 also played a part in creating a strong antipathy to France’s North African minority. It is a hopeful sign that in France, an overwhelming majority of moderate political and social opinion rallied to the support of the cause of democracy in a moment of grave national crisis. For Europe, the challenge ahead is to keep up this pressure against extremist forces while simultaneously trying to root out the causes behind the growing disenchantment with the political mainstream.
THE truth is likely to come out now that both the government and the opposition are keen to probe the April 30 affair. Talking to foreign newsmen, President Pervez Musharraf said he would order an inquiry if specific cases of irregularities in polling during the referendum came to light. The irregularities, he said, were not widespread, and it is quite possible that some “idiot” did it at some place. Similarly, the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy has announced it will issue a white paper on the alleged irregularities committed by the election commission. Not to be left behind, the Jamaat-i-Islami has also announced that it, too, will compile a white paper on the issue.
The referendum is behind us. But both the Pakistani and foreign media have reported widespread rigging. The media persons often found polling stations without voters, though it cannot be denied that at many places there was brisk voting, and the president’s supporters did turn up in sizable numbers to cast votes. Nevertheless, this referendum, like those for Ayub and Ziaul Haq, will remain controversial. The turnout, too, was disputable. While the opposition claimed that less than five per cent of eligible voters turned up at the booths, the government claimed that the turnout was as high as 70 per cent. There is, thus, a wide gap between the two claims. Independent observers may be tempted to come up with a figure between the two extremes. But that would hardly be a scientific way of determining the percentage of voters. For this reason one must welcome the two sides’ resolve to probe the issue. One hopes the opposition parties would be able to come up with specific instances of rigging instead of resorting to generalizations. The government, on its part, would do well to take action where inquiries prove that election commission officials had a hand in bogus voting.
THE death of ten children in the collapse of a double-storied building in Sukkur on Saturday is extremely tragic and serves to highlight the gross inefficiency of building control authorities in general. At least ninety people, many of them children, were injured including ten who are in critical condition. That this happened in the case of an illegally constructed structure is outrageous, since the deaths could have been avoided had the municipal authorities done their job. Several questions need to be asked with reference to this unfortunate incident. The first relates to the fact that a building that was nowhere close to completion was allowed to house three families. Unfortunately, given the way most building control authorities in the country fail to discharge their responsibilities, this was an accident waiting to happen. The building’s collapse was hastened by the construction of another illegal structure close to it, something that the municipal agencies also seem to have conveniently overlooked.
Perhaps, the worst affected are bigger cities like Karachi and Lahore which have an abundance of such buildings. Clearly, violations of building regulations and bye-laws cannot happen on such a huge scale without some degree of official connivance. While it would be unfair to brand all employees of, say, the Karachi Building Control Authority, as being on the take, every government organization has its share of black sheep. Agencies like the KBCA normally publish a notice in newspapers warning people not to buy flats in an illegally constructed building or informing prospective buyers of the approved layout plans of an under-construction structure. With that they seem to think that their responsibility is over. Hardly ever have illegally constructed buildings been demolished or their builders held to account. Notices in newspapers do not make builders demolish what they have built. That can only happen once building control authorities take on builders who construct illegal or unsafe structures and pursue the matter in a court of law.