Fatah wins the polls

FATAH’s victory in Friday’s municipal elections in Palestine underlines the fact that a majority of the Palestinians stand for moderation. Contrary to predictions, Hamas took second place to Fatah, though it still managed to get an impressive 33 per cent of the vote. Fatah, founded by Yasser Arafat and the dominant force in Palestine’s liberation struggle, was able to get 56 per cent. Whether this pattern will be repeated when parliamentary elections are held in July remains to be seen, but Friday’s results will be interpreted as a vote of confidence in Mr Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Abbas is a seasoned politician. He was the first among Palestinian leaders to get in touch with liberal Israeli leaders to probe possibilities of peace and was the man behind Oslo, too. As Arafat’s successor, he has a challenging task ahead of him. On the one hand, he has to consolidate the Palestinian Authority, introduce vital reforms and check the influence of Hamas and other militant groups from growing. On the other hand, he must face the consequences of dealing with an intransigent and thoroughly unscrupulous man like Mr Ariel Sharon. The real issue is getting the peace process moving, but there is no sign yet that such a possibility will emerge so long as Mr Sharon is Israel’s prime minister. At the moment, there is no roadmap in place. Oslo died long ago, for the Declaration of Principles (DoP), signed on the lawns of the White House on Sept 13, 1993, was never implemented. The man who signed for Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was murdered, and his successors made it their life’s mission to scuttle the DoP. Both Mr Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Ehud Barak had the treaty re-negotiated at several summit conferences — Sharm al-Shaikh, Cairo and Wye — but the end result was Israel’s refusal to honour the basic principle behind UN Resolution 242 and Oslo — land for peace — and withdraw from the occupied territories. The last attempt to get Oslo moving was at Camp David in July 2000 when President Clinton played host to Israeli and Palestinian leaders. However, the summit was a total failure, because President Clinton was unable to make Mr Barak give up his intransigence. In fact, as was later revealed, President Clinton was hand in glove with the Israeli leader, for both wanted Arafat to write off Palestinian sovereignty over Al Quds and surrender the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

The last roadmap that aroused hopes for peace in the Middle East was the one unveiled by President George Bush in April 2003. Prepared by the Quartet — the US, EU, UN and Russia — it provided for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza and the emergence of an independent Palestinian state by 2005. After accepting it, Mr Sharon announced that Israel would still keep “some” land on the West Bank. Regrettably, President Bush acquiesced in Mr Sharon’s sabotage of the roadmap. Later, he also declared that 2005 was an unrealistic date for a Palestinian state to emerge. Today, there is no roadmap available for Mr Abbas to follow. This makes his task of keeping the militants in check harder. What the US should note is that by failing to get the peace process moving, it makes Mr Abbas’s job difficult and strengthens the forces of militancy in the Arab world.

Local government changes

THERE has long been a demand from various sections of the people for the authorities to stand back and take a detached look at the working of the new local government system and the shortcomings that its implementation may have brought to light. Instead, we have had officials tinkering with it from time to time without due consultation with all the stakeholders. With new elections due, political manoeuvring to influence the system in favour of those in power at various levels has increased. The National Reconstruction Bureau held a meeting of officials from the four provinces and decided on certain amendments whose import is still not quite clear. One major decision taken was that “caretakers” would be appointed in each district 60 days before the district nazim election. These will be senior government servants nominated by the respective provincial chief secretaries (the chief secretaries of Sindh and Balochistan have just been changed). It is said that this is a compromise on the chief ministers’ demand that administrators with extensive powers be appointed to oversee the election process.

It is also claimed that the caretakers will deal with day-to-day-affairs and will not be authorized to transfer officials or make such other important decisions. Even if they will be selected by the chief secretaries, can the latter work in defiance of the wishes of their chief ministers? So the latter will continue to have the last word. If this step is meant to ensure greater administrative neutrality during elections, it should be logical to have caretakers not just for local polls but for provincial and national elections as well. What we may be seeing is that instead of the existing local governments influencing the polls, the provincial governments will be doing so, which leaves us nowhere. Similarly, a fuller explanation is needed of why the NRB has decided to change the no-confidence procedures relating to nazims and to reduce unions council seats, including women’s seats. A major argument given in favour of the new system was that it was meant to involve the people. But where are the people or people’s representatives in the changes now decided?

Free textbooks

WHILE distributing 3.4 million textbooks, free of charge, to be used by primary schools in the districts of Sindh, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim spoke of the dismal state of education in the province. He pointed out in many cases school buildings were either in a dilapidated condition or were being used as godowns or autaqs; teachers were either not there or the needed tools and appliances for teaching were missing. To rectify the situation, Dr Rahim outlined the government’s plans to reform the education sector, the distribution of free textbooks being part of this process. One hopes that these textbooks reach the poor and deserving students, and will not be dumped at union council offices as reported in the past or, worse, stolen and then sold at bookstores as one witnessed last month in Peshawar.

While appreciating the Sindh government’s initiative in making free textbooks available to students, it must be pointed out that this forms a small part of the stupendous task involved. Indeed, the real challenge in this sector lies not only in providing the required number of schools and teachers, along with the necessary facilities, but also in creating the needed motivation for education among the people, especially in rural areas. A recent figure showed that 6,000 villages in Sindh do not have primary schools, meaning that about 3.3 million children are deprived of education. The provinces are ostensibly distributing free textbooks so as to raise the poor literacy levels. While statistics show that enrolment has increased at the primary level, the drop-out rate is equally high. Only 42 per cent of children in Pakistan between the ages of five and nine go to school while less than half that number last for five years. The government needs to have a strong will to reverse the process. Free textbooks may be a welcome step but higher enrolment and fewer drop-outs are more urgent priorities.