| October 23, 2003 | Thursday | Sha’aban 26, 1424 |
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Misplaced demand
Another accident
MALAYSIAN Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad is under fire from sections of western leadership and media for his outspokenness. His remarks about Zionist ambitions and arrogance hurt them because they contain truths that they would not want to be spoken about. Torn out of context, his remarks at the last summit meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference have been blown out of proportion. Unruffled, Mahathir has stood his ground. He pointed out that his speech at the OIC conference also contained a harsh criticism of his fellow Muslims, and that he asked them to stop fighting a losing battle and sue for peace. These points have been largely ignored by his western critics.
Mahathir did not deny what the Israelis call the Holocaust — the persecution of Jews by Christians of Europe in the last century. But he correctly remarked that the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims had been outmanoeuvred by “a few million Jews.” Maybe, it would have been apt if Mahathir had spoken of Zionists, and not Jews, as controlling the world. But the truth of his remark holds good whichever way one looks at it. As Mahathir himself remarked, the global reaction to his speech “shows that (Jews) do control the world.” Today there is no county in the world — not even India — which has defied so many UN resolutions as Israel. Mahathir correctly remarked, “There are not many Jews in the world. But they are so arrogant that they defy the whole world. Even if the UN says no, they go ahead. Why? Because they have the backing of all these people.” The truth of Mahathir’s remarks can be seen in the policies pursued by America and many western governments. The US can better safeguard its strategic and economic interests by maintaining friendly relations with the Middle Eastern governments and peoples than by playing second fiddle to Israel. That the motives for blind support to Israel spring from the compulsions of America’s domestic politics are obvious.
The Zionist lobbies in the US and many western countries control the levers of power and they keep Israel’s interests above those of their countries’. Authors do not find publishers if they want to write critically about Israel, nor will any newspaper print criticism of the Zionist state. Congress is aptly called “occupied territory” because any critic of Israel is labelled anti-Semitic. It is well known that it is American economic and military support that has turned Israel into the region’s strongest military power. That is why when Israel bombs Palestinian homes and kills innocent men, women and children, most Arabs and Muslims tend to see America as an accomplice in these crimes. More recently, the war on Iraq was not at all in the interests of the American people. The Iraqi people are now resisting American occupation, and it is Americans — and not Israelis — who are getting killed. So Mahathir was not wide of the mark when he said “they get others to fight and die for them.” His critics would do well to do some soul-searching instead of resorting to Mahathir-bashing.
THE demand by a majority of members of parliament on Monday to raise their allowances and bring them at par with those of senior officials of autonomous institutions is unjustified. The claim that parliamentarians are as qualified, if not more so, as those employed at the top level of regulatory authorities is open to question. This is a clear case of comparing apples with oranges. The roles of government officials and parliamentarians are very different and as such the same criteria cannot be used to judge their remuneration. While it may be said that these regulatory authority officials, many of whom have been employed as consultants, may be getting salaries and perks far higher than what some other public servants of equal rank and importance are being paid, what cannot be said is that our parliamentarians are being shortchanged.
Apart from a handsome salary, they also get a number of allowances and benefits, including airline tickets and daily allowance during parliamentary sessions. Other benefits include sub subsidized accommodation in the parliament lodge in Islamabad and allowance for heading any standing committee, for holding any other parliamentary position. As against all this, not many members are known to make any meaningful contribution to parliamentary debates and discussions on crucial subjects before the house while many others neglect to keep abreast of the problems and grievances of their constituencies. Last month, the business of the house had to be adjourned on several occasions for lack of quorum. This sort of absenteeism does not speak too well of the commitment of our legislators to lawmaking or of their awareness of the crisis standing in the way of the country’s transition back to a fuller form of democracy. This record of performance is hardly compatible with our parliamentarians’ bloated demand for salary and perks.
If part of the inspiration for the demand has come from the fact that the provincial assembly members are getting more in daily allowance, then a case can be made for cutting that allowance instead of raising the National Assembly members’ allowance. At any rate, our NA members should be more concerned about their public responsibilities as lawmakers and elected representatives of the people than about perks, salary and allowances which in any case are quite reasonable at the moment.
THE tragic death of 22 people, including women and children, in a road accident near Havelian on Monday comes yet again as a reminder of the hazards of unsafe driving on our highways. The ill-fated bus carrying 59 passengers fell into a ravine reportedly as a result of speeding, killing 15 passengers on the spot while seven others died before reaching hospital in Abbotabad. Several women and children are reportedly among the 25 seriously injured passengers. Criminal negligence of one sort or another is involved in most such accidents. Yet it is a measure of our disregard for the value of human life that hardly any action is taken following the accidents, and the ministers and officials concerned maintain an attitude of studied indifference.
Bus and coach drivers are notorious for rash driving on both urban and inter-city roads across the country. They get away with their callous behaviour partly because many of the private transport vehicles are owned by police officers or other influential people with connections in the right quarters. The government’s failure to provide an efficient and affordable public transport has itself been responsible for the mushroom growth of unorganized, private enterprise in this sector. As a result, Pakistan is among countries with the worst road safety record in the world. Surely, the federal and provincial transport departments can help by simply taking their job a bit more seriously. They must tighten their grip on the unscrupulous elements in the field who continue to play with the lives of hapless travellers and refuse to move against those who run unfit vehicles driven by trigger-happy, often untrained, drivers. The important thing is that some one must care. Few seem to.