| 15 December 2004 | Wednesday | 02 Ziqa'ad 1425 |
Upgrading the infrastructure
Annan's timely reminder
In spite of the conditional go-ahead given by the European Commission on Oct 6 for beginning entry negotiations, Turkey's membership of the 25-nation group is still in doubt.
The issue will finally be thrashed out at the EU foreign ministers' meeting beginning on Friday in Brussels. But the odds still seem heavily tilted against Turkey. All leading European powers have supported Turkey's membership bid, but the support seems to be more for record.
Deep down, there is a lot of reservations about the very idea of a Muslim country with a population of 70 million becoming a member of a Christian club. If admitted to the EU at this stage, Turkey would be Europe's second most populous country after Germany.
However, within a decade, it could overtake Germany - a prospect which few Europeans entertain charitably. The entry negotiations are likely to be tough, for Mr Romano Prodi, chairman of the European Commission, has already warned that the talks will not be open-ended, and the EU could call off the process if Ankara does not continue to move forward on reforms.
Turkey has been waiting for entry into Europe since 1963 when it was given the associate membership of the then European Common Market. In contrast, last May, Slovakia and Estonia joined the EU within four years, and Poland within six years, of the beginning of the negotiations.
Two Balkan countries - Bulgaria and Romania - are now in line and would most probably become members in 2007. For Turkey, the entry negotiations could drag on, and EU watchers say - other things remaining equal - Turkey may become a member perhaps in 2015. For Turks and Turkey this is a great disappointment.
The biggest opposition to the Turkish membership is found in Germany. Already, more than three million Turks live in that country. Since an EU membership means free movement of goods and people, Germans fear they could be swamped by a new wave of Turkish settlers.
Opposition to the idea also comes from some religious elements in Europe. A cardinal, for instance, advised that Turkey should create and become a member of a group of Middle Eastern nations.
Opponents also point out that only 3.5 per cent of Turkey is in Europe and that its capital, too, is situated in Asia, with the country's borders touching Syria, Iraq and Iran.
For the government headed by Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's membership idea is "the project of the century". Turkey's is now Europe's fast-growing economy. Apart from undertaking some major reforms, Mr Erdogan's party has given stability to the country.
During the last election, its sweep was complete, and the party of Justice and Development was able to form a government without a coalition. It is also an Islamic party but one which has disowned the hard-line policies followed by Mr Necmettin Erbakan.
Mr Erdogan has shed the Erbakan baggage and has pursued moderate policies that have led to the conditional "yes" by the EU in October. If the entry negotiations fail, that would amount to the EU giving a wrong signal to the Muslim world and be accused of succumbing to religious prejudice.
A vibrant and moderate Muslim country becoming a member of the EU would help the EU's image and enable Turkey to serve as a bridge between the Christian and Muslim worlds.
Upgrading the infrastructure
The Sindh government has formally requested the federal government to financially help it out with the implementation of a new master plan for Karachi. The plan entails rehabilitating the mega-city's crumbling infrastructure.
The provincial government is seeking funds for the purpose from the $120 million being offered by the Asian Development Bank for streamlining the country's urban infrastructure. It is good to know that the new master plan lays emphasis on environmental management of the industrial areas, for which technology will be sought from Japan.
This is one area that has always been neglected in the past, and at a grave cost. The result is the pollution of the city's two seasonal rivers, Lyari and Malir, which have become channels for industrial effluent.
The discharge of toxic waste by industrial units into these rivers has also affected Karachi's coastline, causing enormous damage to the adjoining mangroves and marine life there.
One of the key components of the new master plan aims at improving living conditions in the long neglected and densely populated Korangi industrial area. Widespread pollution caused by toxic waste here has contaminated the aquifer, posing a serious threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who rely on underground water for their daily needs.
The situation has been compounded by the rush on Karachi of migrant labourers from up-country, who continue to pour in every year in large numbers. Unless appropriate steps are taken to upgrade the city's existing infrastructure and to provide for its increasing millions, the quality of life in the metropolis is under serious threat of degradation.
In this regard, the provision of reliable public transport, especially the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway and its integration with shuttle bus services, must also form a priority of the provincial and the city-district governments.
All these projects will require a generous amount of money which neither the provincial nor the city government can make available from their own limited resources. Thus, the resort to the federal government is the only way out for a cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic city that can truly be called a 'mini-Pakistan'.
Annan's timely reminder
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's has often been a voice of sanity in these troubled times. Speaking at a seminar in New York the other day, he urged world scholars and leaders to take steps to combat Islamophobia in the West.
He said that this made Muslims feel insecure and "even fear for their physical safety". Referring to the acts of terror committed by a handful of extremist elements since September 11, 2001, and their fallout on the entire Muslim community, Mr Annan rightly declared that it was a case of "a few giving a bad name to the many".
In his keynote address to the same seminar, Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr also supported the secretary-general's views. More pertinent still, he added that there would be no Islamophobia without mistakes made by Muslims. Together, the two views largely sum up the crisis facing the Muslim world today.
The truth remains that the West has turned a blind eye to many Muslim causes around the world, be it Palestine, Chechnya, Kashmir or even the question of Cyprus. In all these cases, the unresolved, long-standing disputes and legitimate freedom struggles from oppressive adversarial rule have created resentment among Muslims.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq was the last thing the extremists needed to win yet more converts to their obscurantist and radical viewpoint. On the other hand, lack of political freedoms, socio-economic development and the curse of illiteracy prevailing in many Muslim societies must also be assigned its share of the blame.
But blind antagonism from the West is no antidote for the hatred that has misled Islamic extremists to resort to terrorism. It is surprising how this critical point could be lost to the democratic, intellectually and technologically more advanced West. Mr Annan's plain talk should serve to correct their misguided approach and attitude to Muslims and Islam.