| 13 October 2004 | Wednesday | 27 Shaban 1425 |
Musharraf and de Gaulle
Rising oil prices
Quaid's house in Mumbai
Lawmakers' assets
Derrida's theory of deconstruction
'Miracles, wars and politics'
Pedestrians' right
Does mere intention suffice?
Edhi and CBR
Public transport
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The apostrophes around the word yes in the title of the editorial "EU's 'yes' to Turkey" (Oct 9) constitute a remarkable prelude to what the editorial suggests. The editorial attributes the EU's apprehension towards Turkey's possible EU membership simply to "Turkey's Muslim credentials" but overlooks certain deep and practical aspects of the matter.
If the EU was not genuinely interested in admitting Turkey into its fold, why would it set into motion a process the main objective of which is Turkey's admission into this club? Democracies don't function in such a mercurial way.
The reality is that the EU jealously guards the values that it espouses. No doubt Turkey has "undertaken vital reforms to come up to the EU standards", and this is the reason that the EU has finally shown flexibility towards Turkey. However, one should try to understand EU's fears while hoping that these fears will turn out to be unwarranted.
Although Turkey is a secular country, its history is marred with rigidity and a lack of acceptance of diversity, especially religious diversity. Europe's lack of eagerness to get cozy with a framework with such a heavy historical emotional baggage should not surprise anyone. Europe has worked hard to jettison its own such baggage and should not be blamed for not wanting more of it.
Turkey's efforts to make structural adjustments to depoliticize the military are definitely praiseworthy. Unfortunately, certain attitudes change at a disappointingly slow pace and you don't have to travel far to see this.
Turkey belongs to a general political culture in which successful attempts to justify extra-constitutional or even unconstitutional manoeuvres under the 'doctrine of necessity' and/or in the name of 'supreme national interests' are not an alien phenomenon; pardon the apostrophes.
Consider Turkey's recent attempts to outlaw adultery. Although these efforts were eventually abandoned upon the insistence of the EU, it shows that bad habits are resilient.
Why would Turkey open an issue that was bound to irritate the EU while being in the midst of its efforts to join this body? Once Europe legally prohibited adultery, too, but this was a long time ago, not yesterday.
Therefore, the European Commission's warning "that the talks will not be open-ended and that negotiations could be suspended if Ankara was found wanting on reforms" makes much sense.
Those who know the EU's history will understand its approaching Turkey with caution. For many years, France was averse to British entry into the EU on cultural grounds.
When it was time to consider Spain's entry into this club, Spain was made to repeal certain outdated laws that obstructed religious freedom. Although these laws had not been enforced in modern times, the EU insisted upon their being repealed. It proves that religion is not an issue for the EU while freedom is and it should be.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin wall perished under the weight of freedom resulting in the reunification of the East and West Germany. Soon after this epochal incident, Germany faced a great social problem. Its returning citizens who not long ago had lived in its eastern side showed their lack of cognizance of the values of freedom and human equality.
They reacted to the cultural and religious diversity that existed in the western side with hostility and bigotry. They couldn't really be blamed for this anti-freedom behaviour, as their interaction with freedom was nascent; attitudinal transformation cannot occur overnight.
This situation created many embarrassing moments for the EU in general and Germany in particular. However, Germany did an excellent job at putting its long-lost citizens at ease and quickly bringing their freedom consciousness at par with its national standard.
Today, when you say that "the main opposition to Turkey's membership comes from Germany", it is not because Germany wants to keep the body "a Christian club" but because Germany and the rest of the EU want to ensure that freedom will remain supreme and unhampered.
Despite the EU's efforts to advance and protect freedom, Europe has started to degenerate, though. Until France passed a law banning headscarves in public schools, Turkey was perhaps the only country in the world that disallowed women to wear this garment in government offices.
This is Turkey's chance to upstage France by abolishing this anti-freedom law and then claim an enhanced right to be admitted to the EU. Once admitted, it could ask France a question or two: how could a democratic country regulate its citizens' dressing habits? What is the difference between such a law and Iranian and Saudi Arabian laws requiring women to wear this garment?
SIDDIQUE MALIK
Louisville, KY., USA.
Musharraf and de Gaulle
This refers to Mr Ayaz Amir's analysis ("Touching upon history", Sept 24) of General Musharraf's interview with The New York Times in which the general compared himself with General de Gaulle to justify his desire to remain army chief after December 31 despite his earlier promise to relinquish the post.
Mr Amir rightly stated that the analogy drawn by General Musharraf is uncalled-for. A famous incident from de Gaulle's career serves to highlight the difference between the two from another aspect.
After President de Gaulle escaped an attempt on his life, carried out by the secret army representing French settlers in Algeria who opposed his decision to free the French colony, de Gaulle's comment about the assailants was: "They don't know how to shoot."
Security was certainly bolstered, but no extraordinary arrangements were made in the name of security to cause great hardship to citizens. But here we have the police close entire roads to traffic and pedestrians for miles around when our own de Gaulle is in town.
As for the people, Mr Amir has rightly stated that "the nation is reconciled to its fate". Considering the circumstances, one cannot blame the general for his "sense of insecurity", plus his awareness that the army is the strongest group in the country - the real reason behind his decision. Even the man in the street understands that.
But it is not a non-issue as some would have us believe. A bad precedent is being set - no improvement upon the past which would not serve the cause of democracy. He is merely affirming Mao's assertion, made in another context, that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".
Who says our leaders don't learn from history? General Musharraf seems to be drawing on the tactics of all three of his military predecessors - Ayub, Yahya and Zia - to prolong his rule. Incidentally, the first mentioned also liked to be called "de Gaulle of Asia".
S.H. ZAIDI
Karachi
Rising oil prices
This refers to the editorial "Oil price rise" (Sept 30) in which it was correctly observed that the war in Iraq would not end soon and the crises in Nigeria and Sudan were a prelude to a worsening state of affairs.
With no early resolution of Gulf crises in sight, international oil prices, as well as oil prices in our country, are bound to continue to increase. The question is: how long is the government going to absorb the hike? Obviously, the burden will have to be borne by the people.
If the government intends to steer itself out of this crisis, it has to come out with short- and long-term plans. As short-term measures, mobilization of the available resources and switching over to gas/CNG merit immediate attention.
A long-term measure calls for exploring new sources of oil, coal, solar and wind energy. Since other resources are exhaustible, greater emphasis should be laid on developing wind and solar energy as it is not only cost-efficient but also environment-friendly being pollution-free.
A workshop on "Wire line logging" was organized by the geology department, University of Sindh, (Dawn, Sept 30). In this workshop, experts stressed that future would witness an increase in oil, gas and coal consumption and a decline in production as their reservoirs would deplete. They reached a consensus that ultimately the world had to rely on inexhaustible wind and solar energy to meet its increasing demand.
The university has planned to generate solar energy on its own to meet its electricity needs. Through this, it will save Rs3.5 million a month which it pays against electricity bills.
Since the country is endowed with round-the-year sunshine, as well as with a long coastline, we can by tapping these inexhaustible energy sources save ourselves from future energy crises.
ALTAMASH MANZOOR H. KURESHI
Karachi
Quaid's house in Mumbai
This is with reference to the letter (Oct 3) by Mr Qutubuddin Aziz on the above subject. Recently I had the privilege during a group goodwill tour of India to see the location of the Quaid's house in Malabar Hills, Mumbai.
It took us about an hour to locate it because there was no signboards on roads or on the outer wall of the house to indicate its location. The gate of the house was locked, with a small tablet fixed on it with the words "Proposed site for SAARC cultural unit".
We confirmed its location from the two policemen posted on the roadside. Inside the gate were bushes, shrubs, wood, etc., so the building was not visible from outside.
The shady view of the premises and the state of affairs left us with no doubt that the building has been deliberately allowed to decay. We were not allowed to enter the building, nor were we given permission to take photographs from outside by the policemen.
The Quaid-i-Azam's House is not an ordinary structure; it is a great historic monument and a repository of historic events of pre-partition. It is a pity that this monument should have been so shabbily neglected.
It shows the height of prejudice and malice on the part of Indian authorities. The question is: had there been Gandhi's or Nehru's house in Pakistan, would the Pakistan government have dealt with it in the same manner and spirit? Would the Indian government have let us destroy it in this way?
Can't the Indians take a real CBM by handing over this building to the Pakistan government to be used as Jinnah Memorial Museum or Library?
KHAWAJA MUHAMMAD BASHIR BUTT
Bahawalnagar
Lawmakers' assets
Some honourable lawmakers are once again in the news for defaulting and neglecting to submit their assets' returns by September 30, the deadline fixed by the election commission.
The commission worked overtime last Sunday to receive returns but it is not known how far it succeeded in persuading the privileged lot to avail of the revised deadline.
Ordinary mortals are heavily penalized by the government for delay or default in the submission of IT returns, but perhaps 'ordinary law' does not apply to our privileged legislators.
The election commission in a attempt to exercise its writ last year prohibited defaulting lawmakers to participate in the lawmaking process but had to soft pedal the issue subsequently.
The commission should see this year if there is any habitual offender among them, and if there are some, more stringent action should be taken against them. The law must take its course against those who habitually flout it without fear or remorse.
The law of natural justice demands that those in authority should be punished more severely than ordinary people if they wilfully disregard the law. Do we have the courage to make an example out of them?
S.M.H.BOKHARI
Rawalpindi
Derrida's theory of deconstruction
This is with reference to the news item (Oct 9) about the passing away of French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Derrida was the founder of a mode of analysis known as 'deconstruction', which came to influence a diverse range of social science disciplines, including literature, sociology, philosophy, anthropology and development studies.
The technique of 'deconstruction' associated with Derrida subsequently came to populate universities in North America and Western Europe; mercifully, Pakistani universities are not too overtly imbued with it.
Deconstruction and its intellectual baby, postmodernism, are really a bourgeois fad which is meant to convert the study of society, an analysis of its problems and possible solutions into a hermetic and purely isolated exercise, focusing more on the use of jaw-breaking vocabulary and semantic hair-splitting.
That is the reason why postmodernism could not live up to its initial promise of offering an alternative to the Marxist mode of analysis and, in today's world of bourgeois orthodoxy and stupidity, has merely become an appendage to the tentacles of the neoliberal order.
For deconstruction and postmodernism take us far away from an analysis of the problems besetting Third World societies - oppression, injustice, imperialism, fundamentalism, fascism - or any attempt at offering a solution for the resolution of these problems.
It says that these problems are themselves liable to deconstruction and reinterpretation, which is actually a way of shying away from the problems of our time and engaging in a world populated by real people, the oppressors and the oppressed.
While such a mode of analysis is very useful at securing proper university tenures, its value as a tool for a scientific analysis of society is largely overblown.
It is a little disturbing when arcane theorists like Derrida receive admiration from the bourgeois press and people like the distinguished French scholar, the late Maxime Rodinson (who passed away in August this year), merit scant attention.
For unlike Derrida, Rodinson was very much engaged with the burning issues of his time and produced the most distinguished biography of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), a detailed materialist analysis of Islam and active participation as a member of the French Communist Party.
If the aim of Derrida's postmodernist moment was to turn Marxism on its head, it has done so in an ironic fashion, for Marx said: "The philosophers have merely interpreted the world, the point however is to change it." For Derrida, the dictum would probably go like this: "The philosophers have merely interpreted the world, the point however is to deconstruct it."
RIDA GHAFFARI
Karachi
'Miracles, wars and politics'
The op-ed "Pakistan: miracles, wars and politics" (Encounter, Oct 10) by Professor Pervez Hoodhboy is full of logical repartee against retrogressive religious customs. As always, he has lived up to his reputation of being bold and incisive in defence of reason. Hence it is all the more disappointing that a compulsive need for America-bashing compels him to add the following remark in his article:
"This primitivism is starkly evident in George Bush's America which promotes Creationism and Christian notions of the human foetus." If indeed the professor thinks George Bush's America is so unenlightened, perhaps he would explain why thousands of Pakistani students line up every year for a coveted student visa to study in the United States.
As for the "Christian notions of the human foetus', let me assure the professor that there are millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Parsis and atheists alike who believe in the sanctity of human life that begins at conception.
Speaking up for the unborn child is neither a monopoly of the evangelical wing of Christianity nor the exclusive preserve of the ignorant few. The true sign of 'primitivism' is not that one considers an unborn child a human being but that one dismisses it as a mere 'foetus'.
ESAM SOHAIL
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Pedestrians' right
Walking keeps people healthy. But clear footpaths and distinct zebra crossings are rarely seen in the congested areas of our cities. In markets, most footpaths are occupied by shopkeepers and, in residential areas, they are often fenced off as extension lawns. Are the municipal authorities unaware of these irregularities?
Also, there is no standard height, width or shape for footpaths. Shopkeepers themselves construct them to meet their own needs. Moving on them is not safe at night due to inadequate lighting.
Aged people also use footpaths. Many of them cannot cross roads by using overhead bridges. Such bridges do exist at a few places, but zebra crossings with proper marking and signals are mostly missing.
Underground passages are more convenient for weak and old people. What role can our town planning institutions and councils play in this regard?
A. R. QURESHI
Karachi
Does mere intention suffice?
This is with reference to news item "Baghdad had no WMDs, admits US report" (Oct 7). The Bush administration has now alleged that since Saddam Hussain had the intention to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, the invasion of Iraq was justified.
According to criminal jurisprudence, there must be a concurrence of both actus reus and mens rea for a crime to have been committed. Mens rea means a guilty mind or wrongful intent while actus reus is a wrongful act.
If there is only mens rea and no actus reus, the accused cannot be convicted. What we have seen in the case of Iraq is that the mere alleged intention to possess weapons has been considered enough to punish the country.
ANIL KHAN LUNI
Karachi
Edhi and CBR
This is with reference to the Edhi Foundation's press release (Oct 3) lamenting the CBR's insistence on recovering duties/taxes on vehicles which the former has imported to reinforce its ambulance service.
It is regrettable that the Central Board of Revenue is not prepared to provide exemption from duties on these vehicles which are meant to be used for public welfare works being done by the foundation across the country.
Even if providing relief was beyond its jurisdiction, the CBR could have easily obtained necessary permission/approval from the prime minister or the president and then released the vehicles. This would have increased its prestige in the eyes of the public.
NAJAM
Karachi
Public transport
I am a student of Karachi University and mostly travel by minibuses, which are often overloaded. Minibus drivers speed and are oblivious of the traffic on the road. They mostly do not care about traffic rules, passengers and pedestrians. This leads to accidents, both minor and major.
This should be a matter of great concern because 70 per cent of Karachiites travel by minibuses/buses. A possible reason for this dangerous situation is a shortage of buses. We need to regulate the transport system and increase the number of buses to meet the growing transport needs of the people.
GHULAM-E-HIRA FATIMA
Karachi
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