A new turn for Saarc

THE 13th Saarc summit in Dhaka, which ended on a positive note, gives rise to hopes that the regional body will now be revitalized. True, the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta), regarded as the central pillar of the Association and scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2006, may not materialize by then, but it has not been abandoned either, and the leaders who met in Dhaka reiterated the need to strengthen transportation and communication links across the region to accelerate economic growth and integration. This may take time and political will to bring the agreement into conformity with the weaker economies of the region. Yet the decisions taken at the summit at Dhaka last week might provide Saarc with the energy to mobilize its strength for the task ahead. The most noteworthy development is the expansion of Saarc. Afghanistan has been admitted as the eighth member of this body. With China and Japan being admitted as observers, Saarc will become a larger grouping that should have a positive impact on its working. While these two economic giants will, hopefully, reinvigorate the organization that seems to have been hamstrung by its inter-state conflicts and inertia, the entry of Afghanistan will give it a new dimension.

It is the political aspect of this expansion of Saarc that is more exciting. India and Pakistan, the two largest members, have dominated its working to such an extent that their bilateral ties had virtually come to determine the direction in which Saarc was to move — that is, if it were to move at all. China and Japan will now be influencing not just economic activities in the region but also political developments here. If this helps dilute the rivalries and polarization among the traditional competitors in South Asia, this may act as a catalyst to make the grouping more dynamic and active. Afghanistan is important for another reason. Given the devastation caused there by war for over two decades and the role the country has acquired in any policy in the region to check terrorism, no move to pacify and conciliate South Asia is feasible without Afghanistan’s active participation in it.

Apart from the membership issue, Saarc’s leaders agreed on a number of key questions — the declaration lists 53 points on which decisions were taken — that will be of significance to the grouping. Some of them are no more than an expression of hope but it can create the momentum for better things to come. For instance, the declaration speaks of more people-to-people contacts: it reminds the UN that its secretary-general to be elected next year has to be an Asian in accordance with the geographical rotation formula and Sri Lanka has already named a candidate. But the more tangible issues that were decided upon appear to be more promising. For instance, the summit ratified the additional protocol (signed at the Islamabad summit in 2004) to the Saarc Convention on Suppression of Terrorism. The convention was signed in 1987 at Kathmandu. This will enhance their cooperation in the fight against terrorism since they have now agreed not to finance terrorists and to exchange information and coordinate the functioning of their intelligence agencies. This is a major move, for if the mechanism is set up and the South Asian countries actually join hands to root out terrorism, there is no reason why the level of violence cannot be brought down. One hopes that Saarc members will move towards the institutionalization of a common anti-terrorism approach.

Similarly, another area where Saarc can play an effective role and where the first step has been taken is that of dealing with natural disasters. The existing machinery, namely the Saarc Meteorological Research Centre and the Saarc Coastal Zone Management Centre, will be established in India on a priority basis as agreed in the Saarc ministerial meeting. Much can be done in this respect to avert extremes of disasters through early warning systems — the more coordinated they are, the more effective they will prove to be — and one expects Saarc members to act without delay to address the question of disaster management on a cooperative basis. The experience of a number of South Asian countries has shown that when natural disasters strike, human suffering can be alleviated considerably if the countries in the region work together to address the crisis.

One hopes that Saarc will now move on from being the paper grouping it has so far been to becoming an effective mechanism for political and economic cooperation. The only exception has been in the cooperation professional bodies in the member countries have forged to work together. Whether journalists, lawyers, doctors or other professionals, they have managed to work together in their own fields to improve the area of their activity. But without greater understanding between the governments of the South Asian countries, Saarc cannot be as effective as regional groupings in other parts of the world.

Sangla Hill outrage

THE burning down on Saturday of three churches, a missionary-run school, two hostels and several houses belonging to the Christian community by an enraged mob of some 3,000 people in Punjab’s Nankana district speaks volumes for the bigotry and intolerance that misguided mullahs often preach against minorities. Following allegations of blasphemy levelled against one Yousaf Masih by his gambling partners who accused him of torching the Holy Quran, calls were reportedly given from mosque loudspeakers to punish the local Christians. According to Lahore archbishop Lawrence Saldanaha, the assault on some 300 families residing in the area was carried out by people who had been brought there by buses from outside. The alleged desecration of the holy book took place on Friday, which gave the local fanatics enough time to plan the attack against the minority community the next day. That the police stood aside and failed to pre-empt the strikes against Christian institutions despite apprehensions voiced to the effect by community leaders is all the more incomprehensible. The extensive damage caused to property and the communal tension now gripping the area could have been prevented if timely action had been taken by the security authorities.

This is not the first time that whipped-up mob hysteria has taken such a terrible toll. There have been similar instances in the recent past when pesh imams got mobs to lynch those whom they accused of committing blasphemy. For instance, the stoning to death of one Zahid Shah in Jaranwala in July 2002, was shocking beyond belief. Blasphemy accused have been murdered in custody by fellow prisoners and police guards, and there have also been cases when those acquitted by a court of law were gunned down. Even a Lahore High Court judge who had found an accused not guilty as charged was shot dead in 1996. The attackers in such cases have never been brought to book. The problem is rooted equally in the controversial blasphemy laws that were enforced through an ordinance by Gen Ziaul Haq in 1986 and in the state’s prevarication on the problem of bigotry in society. Since the latest violence in Nankana’s Sangla Hill area has targeted and shaken an entire community, the Punjab government must act swiftly, and with firmness, to bring the perpetrators to justice. Those who have suffered losses for no fault of theirs must also be compensated and made to feel secure in their homes and places of worship.

French riots and Blair’s debacle

THESE are tough times for Europe’s leaders. In France, Britain and Germany, the men and women in charge are grappling unsuccessfully with an array of difficulties, raising serious doubts about their ability to tackle key social, economic and political challenges.

France’s political class has come in for the strongest criticism for its particularly inept efforts to deal with the surge of anger and violence currently gripping the country’s five million strong Muslim immigrant communities.

But life is equally difficult — albeit for radically different reasons — for British Prime Minister Tony Blair who has seen the humiliating defeat of his counter-terror legislation by parliament and is still coming to terms with the departure from government of one of his closest allies, David Blunkett. Meanwhile, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Angela Merkel’s “grand coalition” of the country’s main centre-right and centre-left parties has run into trouble even before taking over the reins of power.

Leaders from both the French centre-right and the left have shown a remarkable inability to tackle yet another example of Europe’s failure to integrate its Muslim minorities. French leaders initially did little more than watch in alarm and panic as angry youths from the country’s Arab and African communities rampaged through the poor suburbs of Paris, torching cars and shops and engaging in nightly battles with police forces.

Some, including French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, made matters worse by insisting at least initially that the riots were the work of drug dealers and street gangs. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, who is Villepin’s main rival in the 2007 presidential elections, provoked further consternation and helped fuel the flames of protest by calling the rioters “scum” and “riff raff” who must be swept off the streets of France.

Islamic leaders and social commentators have acknowledged that most of the looters and arsonists are Muslims of Arab or black African heritage. But they also insist that the root causes of the violence are economic, not religious — even though the rioters often use slogans of radical fundamentalism. After almost 10 days of non-stop rioting, Villepin took the controversial step last week of re-introducing emergency laws dating back to 1955 which allow local officials to introduce curfews. The government has also vowed to introduce new employment and training schemes to get the disaffected youth off the streets and into schools and technical colleges.

Although the sudden outburst of unrest appears to have caught the political hierarchy by surprise, social commentators have long warned the authorities to do more to tackle the simmering anger in poor suburbs inhabited by Muslim immigrants — mostly from North Africa — which ring the countries main urban centres. The communities face high unemployment, discrimination and despair — fertile terrain for crime of all sorts. Muslim extremists have also been active in the poor suburbs, offering frustrated youths a way out.

Muslim leaders have been urging the government to choose its words carefully and send a message of peace, warning that in times of crisis, every word counts. France also incurred Muslim resentment and anger last year by banning Muslim girls to wear headscarves in school.

The jobless rate among French-Arabs and French-Africans is as high as 30 per cent in some neighbourhoods, triple the national average. French-Arabs regularly claim that when identical resumes are submitted to an employer with an Arab name on one and a French name on another, the resume with the French name will get the priority.

That much, at least, may be changing. In March, President Jacques Chirac appointed the chairman of the automaker Renault, Louis Schweitzer, to head a council created to fight job and housing discrimination. The country is also engaged in a debate over whether to bend its laws to allow affirmative action in the job market.

If such measures are undertaken, the recent violence may serve as a lesson for France and other European governments to start looking seriously at ways of integrating their Muslim minorities. There are some signs that after ignoring the issue for decades, European leaders are beginning to realize the need for quick action. Striking a more conciliatory tone after days of tough talk, even Sarkozy has acknowledged that Muslim grievances may be rooted in real social problems.

“Once the crisis is over, everyone will have to understand there are a certain number of injustices in some neighbourhoods,” he said. “We are trying to be firm and avoid any provocation. We have to avoid any risk of explosion.”

Sarkozy has said he supports positive discrimination and is also in favour of giving votes to non-EU citizens in municipal elections. Yazid Sabeg, a French businessman of Algerian descent and author of a book on positive discrimination has warned that the latest riots are a sign that “the young feel stigmatized and excluded and want real equality, not just legal equality.”

He says that positive discrimination is the only way to reverse the effects of years of xenophobia, pointing out that very few French chief executives or journalists and none of the members of the national assembly or Senate are from ethnic minorities.

The spiralling violence and the inability of French authorities to bring it under control have also shaken France’s neighbouring nations, many of which have restive Muslim populations of their own. An increasing worry is that the sparks might ignite similar unrest elsewhere on the continent. Estimates vary, but between 15 million and 20 million Muslims make their homes in the 25 nations of the European Union. But the Muslim face of Europe is largely invisible, with members of the community residing in immigrant neighbourhoods out of sight of mainstream society.

These have also been a bleak few weeks for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Nearly six months after comfortably winning a third successive election, Blair last week faced a series of setbacks which many say could force his resignation much earlier than his oft-repeated vow to stay on until 2008, a year before general elections expected the following year.

In a double blow last week, Blair endured a revolt in parliament over his proposed anti-terrorism plans and saw his key ally David Blunkett resign from government over a scandal over his personal business interests. The two humiliations came a week after three of the prime minister’s closest allies had a public row over plans to ban smoking in public places — a quarrel that suggested Blair was no longer in full control over his cabinet.

Fighting back, Blair has told critics that he believes it is better to do the right thing and lose than do the wrong thing and win. The British leader now faces a dilemma: should he listen to his emboldened backbench rebels and trim back his plans or should he press ahead regardless in a bid to secure a strong political legacy? Among the issues he has to deal with in the coming weeks are health, education, welfare, and the future of both nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

In Germany, meanwhile, chancellor-designate Angela Merkel’s is ready to take over the reins of government despite initial difficulties in setting up the first coalition between Christian Democrats and the Social Democratic Party since 1969.

Merkel’s task of setting up a “grand coalition” was always going to be difficult given feuding among her own party barons and power struggles with the SPD. But her problems intensified after Franz Muentefering quit as SPD chairman after his favoured candidate lost a vote for the SPD’s secretary-generalship and Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber also decided against joining a Merkel-led government as economics minister because of fears the SPD was lurching even more to the left.

The reformist Merkel is, however, soldiering on regardless and is expected to be sworn in as Germany’s youngest and first woman chancellor by the lower house of parliament on Nov 22. But her message of reform and austerity — she recently warned Germans they would have to tighten their belts — ensures that her time as chancellor will be difficult.

Avoiding avoidance

THE growing difficulty of raising taxes in an era of globalisation has been underlined in both Britain and Germany in recent days. Both governments need to reduce their escalating budget deficits.

Gordon Brown’s attempt to raise money stealthily by clamping down on tax avoidance brought a blunt warning from the CBI and top accounting firms that such a move could lead to less inward investment and an exodus of companies and managers to more favourable tax climates.

In Germany, proposals by Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat coalition partners to impose a wealth tax and raise income tax for the better-off generated a similar response, while the second part of the Merkel package — a willingness to raise VAT by 4 per cent — had retailers up in arms.

This is justified, since increased VAT is not an obvious way to help an economy whose basic problem is that people will not spend.

—The Guardian, London