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| February 05, 2008 | Tuesday | Muharram 26, 1429 |
Internet: a wake-up call
Imprisoned in time
US elections knee-deep in religion
OTHER VOICES Sindhi Press
POLITICAL commentator Robert Novak correctly states that Republicans are “staring into a 2008 election abyss”, having “lost credibility as upholders of lean government by sponsoring profligate pork barrel spending during 12 years in the congressional majority, and have not reformed” since the Democrats took over the US Congress in 2006.
YESTERDAY’S suicide bombing in Rawalpindi of an army medical corps bus comes as a rude reminder that terrorism is closing in on our cities. A twin target of the fatal attack was a van transporting federal government staffers to their offices. This was the second suicide bombing in Rawalpindi after the Dec 27 assault that killed Ms Benazir Bhutto. The loss of lives and the injuries sustained by many in the course of the deadly strike point yet again to the failure of the intelligence apparatus in preventing such attacks in our urban centres — this one took place within walking distance of the GHQ in the high-security cantonment. Further north and west in the Frontier province, gun battles rage between security forces and the militants holding large parts of North and South Waziristan and adjoining settled areas under siege, forcing the residents to flee in droves for their lives. Swat is no less of a no-go area for ordinary mortals as military action continues there against Mullah Fazlullah’s guerrillas. The gory drama enacted on Saturday in a Mardan village, where two militants were holed up inside a house full of ammunition and suicide bombing devices, and which left two policemen, a hostage and the militants dead, was a scene right out of a Wild West flick. For all practical purposes, the prodigal sons fattened on an obscurant jihadi ideology have come home to feast on the innocent.
In South Waziristan, unconfirmed reports now speak of a truce holding between militant commander Baitullah Mehsud and the security forces, while a tribal jirga settles the terms of the arrangement. Meanwhile, the number of displaced persons who have been forced to leave their homes because of the ongoing fighting in the area has been swelling. This is not the first time that the mechanism of a negotiated ceasefire has been applied to contain the rising wave of terrorism and militancy. In the past, attempts to keep the peace through jirga intervention fell flat, ostensibly because ceasefires and truces were not negotiated by the government from a position of strength. Such fire fighting makes little sense at a time when a blanket government offer of amnesty stands for all those who may lay down their arms, expel or hand over foreign militants and not indulge in subversive activities.
It is the absence of a national strategy to deal with growing militancy which is being felt today ever so acutely. There is no comprehensive plan in place to pre-empt acts of terrorism, as is evident from the frequency of the deadly attacks. The thoroughly politicised intelligence agencies must be weaned away from chasing after the political kill in the run-up to the election, and forced to get back to their professional duties. Unless that missing link is restored, our cities and the countryside will continue to bleed.
FOR all practical purposes, the ongoing crisis caused by the damaged undersea Internet cables needs to be taken as a wake-up call by all concerned. The extent to which modern life depends on the information superhighway means we can ill afford to be deprived of such an essential component without so much as a warning. For the last few days, global communications have been seriously disrupted throughout the Middle East and parts of South Asia. It is a sign of the times and a reflection of how the global village is rapidly emerging on the horizon that those affected by the disruption include people and firms right across the planet. When the stock exchange in Dubai, one of the world’s major financial centres, goes offline, or software and customer call centres in India with assignments from business houses in the West experience interruption of communication the consequences are colossal. It is no wonder that as many as 75 million people were affected by the first wave of disruption alone that involved two cables that were damaged off the Egyptian coast. Another went off near Dubai, and, as if there was not enough trouble already, a fourth cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on Sunday, leading to yet more outages.
Though it was initially suspected that the damage was caused by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because of bad weather, or by certain ships dragging their anchors, such surmises have now been ruled out by the Egyptian government’s footage recorded by onshore video cameras that show no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were damaged. As it is, the area is also marked on maps as a no-go zone for maritime traffic. The denial, issued by Egypt’s communications ministry, has thrown open a big debate: what caused such a serious breakdown? This uncertainty has led to websites and blogs jumping to conclusions about how and why the United States could have had a hand in the whole affair. They may make for interesting reading — and in this era of phenomenal confusion, nothing can be discarded out of hand — but one has to take into account the fact that the Internet has no gatekeepers and their contents have to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. The lesson in the whole episode is that the world needs to spend more time, energy and resources to ensure that critical communications are adequately protected — whether from disaster, conspiracy or terrorist strike. Inventing is only part of great technology; the real test lies in protecting it and keeping it functional.
IN Pakistan, a verdict is clearly not the last word on the fate of one charged with a crime. Recently, two tragic incidents of prisoners who continued to languish in jails despite acquittal serve as testimonies to the severe lack of vigilant implementation of court orders. Last week, a report published in this newspaper revealed that a former judge of the Lahore High Court, Dr Ghulam Mustafa Ismail Qazi, has spent 17 years behind bars because his file had ‘disappeared’ in police custody. Despite being acquitted last August, he has neither been released by jail authorities nor has his case been transferred to other concerned departments as he still faces charges in Punjab. The second case is of a young man who was charged with cell phone theft. However, three months after his release orders were issued by the Sindh High Court, he too remains in confinement.
These are just two of scores of hapless prisoners who populate our jails despite being ‘free’. Countless foreign prisoners have completed their jail terms but their repatriation hangs in balance as it requires preparation of travel documents, followed by approval from their countries of origin. Then there are juvenile prisoners who, despite release orders, have to stay on until they furnish fines. Statistics run high due to the dearth of monitoring mechanisms to ensure that all formalities are completed to ensure the release of prisoners who have been acquitted by the court or have served their sentence. Human rights and legal aid groups would be serving a good cause if they were to look into the matter and set up cells with the involvement of the home department to do the needful. This is perhaps the only way to keep a check on the timely release of prisoners. Delayed implementation of court orders only creates more prisoners of conscience.
America’s ruling Grand Old Party (GOP) is indeed being haunted by a lethal, political threat to credibility. With America’s costliest presidential and congressional elections about 10 months away, the Republican Party is demoralised, rudderless and divided.
The price tag for this year’s presidential and congressional election is expected to cross the five billion dollar mark. The combined spending of the Republican and Democratic parties’ presidential candidates is projected to be in excess of a whopping billion dollars. The amount is outrageously high, even by American standards. It is almost double the sum that George W. Bush and his challenger John Kerry pumped into their campaigns in 2004.
Although the Republican leadership is plagued with contradictions on contentious issues, it seems to play to the conservative Americans’ galleries rather than concentrating on serious challenges that the country faces today.
With the US almost on the brink of economic recession, exacerbating costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the plummeting housing and stock markets, GOP candidates have done little to devise some viable and popular programmes to pull America’s ailing economy out of its abysmal state and restore the dwindling confidence of the voters. Virtually non-players on the issues that matter most to voters, the Republicans have largely clung to illegal immigration as domestic crisis number one, to no particular point beyond alienating Hispanic voters.
Instead of showing a worried and weary nation the way forward in key areas, the Republicans are increasingly focused on social issues. The so-called ‘moral majority’ wields a huge influence on voters in the US. Liberalism still has a few admirers; thus, social and religious conservatives have wide appeal. They invoke Reagan’s political philosophy instead of citing the political vision of the incumbent Republican President George W. Bush. The GOP is running on empty, with no ideas beyond the incessant repetition of Reagan’s name.
The results of the primaries and caucuses held so far have unmistakable imprints of the religious right playing a decisive role. For example, Mitt Romney won many more evangelical votes in Michigan than Huckabee. In Nevada, he won because the state has a fairly large Mormon population. Romney also received votes from born-again evangelicals. In the South Carolina primary too, religion and race shaped the results. Now all eyes are set on the Feb 5 Super Tuesday’s most prized state, California, where race is expected to play a bigger role than religion.
Republicans are not alone in invoking religion in their faith-drenched campaigns. At least one Democratic presidential candidate is also in deep trouble in the Bible belt over a religious controversy. Days before the crucial Jan 26 South Carolina primary, e-mails from unidentified sources were sent to thousands of Barack Obama supporters.
The e-mail claimed that Obama’s real faith was that of his father, a Muslim. It speculated that Obama received his early education in a ‘fundamentalist madressah’ in Indonesia. The 46-year-old Illinois senator debunked the claim, saying he had been going to the same church in Chicago for the past 20 years. He also made special appearances at churches in South Carolina where the majority of the population is African American. Obama scored a convincing victory over Hillary, thanks to overwhelming support from black voters.
Many analysts believe that the religious conservative face is the last frontier of the Republican election strategy. With its image mired by corruption, sex scandals and political and military setbacks in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the GOP was left with limited options to better project itself and save itself from increasing American public disquiet over the current administration’s failures on the domestic and foreign policy fronts.
Republican strategists know that the best way to counter the Democratic blitz at their failings is to change the focus of the campaign from external to domestic issues. The appeal to its conservative backers is all but obvious, and the GOP has had some success. That is why brown horses like former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher-turned-politician Mike Huckabee and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, have made dramatic gains.
A stranger to many among the electorate, especially in the northeastern states, Huckabee is known as a pragmatist who mollified social conservatives by opposing abortion and supporting traditional notions of marriage. A political backbencher till early November, Huckabee emerged as a frontrunner, leaving behind in some key states powerful candidates such as John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Despite the Republicans’ move to shift the focus of the campaign, the proverbial ‘Reagan sense of optimism’ of an inclusionary GOP is still missing, leaving the party in virtual disarray with its supporters, dazed, distraught and frustrated. Latest opinion polls say Republican voters are still finding it hard to choose a candidate. The Republicans’ real political power base — a conservative clergy of varying faiths, shades, and colours — is also falling apart and waning. It is expected that Democrats will get many of the Republican swing votes and make fresh inroads into the Republican heartland of the Bible belt as well, where religious groups wield the unique power of courting votes in favour of or against any candidate.
US law allows religious groups to support or oppose political positions but not the candidates who hold them. Political endorsement would invalidate a religious group’s tax exemption status. Religious groups have improvised to give unofficial endorsements. Each year, powerful religious groups, such as the Protestant Christian Coalition of America, the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Council of Churches issue separate ‘voter guides’ that present documented and well-reasoned perspectives on issues voters ‘must understand’ before they choose a candidate. These voter guides are thinly veiled recommendations but are technically not endorsements. As in the past, Republicans are seeking full blessings of these groups.
Four years ago in 2004, the present incumbent of the White House was successful in making ‘security’ the main campaign issue. Many Americans still believe that George Bush won in 2004, not because he was a powerful candidate, but because John Kerry was a weak challenger. History might repeat itself, but this time in reverse fashion. A weak Democrat might beat the meek Republicans in 2008.
The writer is a US-based journalist.
mjehangir@aol.com
Retired generals’ love for democracy
Kawish
RETIRED army generals at a meeting, while terming President Musharraf’s rule a threat to the country, have urged him to step down and hand over power to Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
All of sudden, a love for democracy has been ignited among the generals, but only after their retirement. Otherwise, as chief of army or while holding high offices in the army, they did not hesitate from (espousing) martial law, the suspension of the Constitution or the overthrow of democratic governments. After they left office, all of a sudden they became democrats…
Retired Gen Faiz Ali Chishti, now worried about democracy, was Gen Zia’s right-hand man when he overthrew the elected government of Z.A. Bhutto. Will Gen Chishti offer any explanation or apology for firing on MRD processions and other excesses?
Retired Gen Abdul Majeed Malik is also among the former soldiers now demanding democracy. Would he like to clarify his role in the imposition of the first martial law in the country?
Gen Aslam Beg did not allow Benazir’s government to run smoothly, while his reported involvement in the Mehran Bank scandal remained a mystery. Gen Asad Durrani spent millions of rupees on weakening democratic governments. Hameed Gul made a dangerous investment in Afghanistan, the dividends of which Pakistan is still reaping.
Why this love for democracy could not be seen when they were serving in the army? — (Feb 2)
What do the caretakers have to do with Kalabagh?
Awami Awaz
THE caretaker federal cabinet at its meeting has termed the Kalabagh Dam as inevitable to overcome water and power shortage and decided to build up public opinion for it. The meeting also decided to call a conference of the provinces in the second week of February. Kalabagh dam experts will also be invited to unearth the reason behind opposition to the dam.
By taking up the controversial issue, the caretakers have generated surprise and anger. Poking their nose in the sensitive issue is unnecessary and tantamount to intervention.
…The caretaker government is not performing its prime duty of holding polls properly. Political parties, candidates and voters have many complaints which they have failed to redress. When they are not performing their first and foremost duty, how can the caretakers take on an extra issue which is beyond their mandate and capacity?
…Whenever the government comes under pressure it raises the bogey of the dam issue. This time too this issue has been raised to divert the attention of the people from the prevailing political situation, but this is a very weak idea as political matters can only be dealt with politically. National interests should not be bargained for petty and personal interests. Everybody knows that this issue has generated much controversy between Punjab and the smaller provinces. The caretakers should remain within their prescribed mandate… — (Jan 30)
— Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi