Healing Balochistan

THIS province remains a seething wound on the body politic of the federation. This was more than evident during President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Quetta. While he was hosted by the governor, who is the federation’s representative in the province, the elected chief minister and most of his huge cabinet stayed away from the ceremonies. This despite the fact that the Balochistan cabinet contains men and women belonging to the PML-Q, the party the president publicly endorsed in the last election as his ally. Was the elected government avoiding incurring the wrath of Baloch nationalists, who boycotted the February polls, and who have declared war against what they see as a continuation of President Musharraf’s regime? For his part, the president did little soothsaying. He reiterated his stance that the insurgents in Balochistan were backed by foreign powers, without as much as naming one. If a foreign hand is involved in the insurgency in Balochistan, we have to admit it is our flawed policies which enable foreign powers hostile to Pakistan to meddle in our affairs.

The Baloch have a long memory. The killing by the security forces of one of the veteran sardars, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, in August 2006 remains fresh in the minds of many. The apology offered to the people of Balochistan by Mr Asif Ali Zardari for the state’s neglect of the province as he set about cobbling together a PPP-led coalition government after the February election also fell on deaf ears as far as Baloch nationalists are concerned. Their grievances are longstanding, ironical as it might seem in view of the fact that all the three leading insurgent tribes, the Bugtis, the Marris and the Mengals, have at one time or the other directly or indirectly worked with the Islamabad establishment to the chagrin of their own kinsmen as it were. Proof, if it is needed, that politics is a business of shifting sands.

The vast majority of the peaceful Baloch people deserve better. They must not be held back from sharing the fruits of development — albeit basic and slow in coming — that has been taking place elsewhere in the country. The blame game must end and a development package in which the Baloch people are the major stakeholders be devised and implemented. The reports of the two parliamentary committees set up by the previous government could perhaps be dusted off and their recommendations reconsidered. They had recommended greater job quotas and enhanced provincial revenues.

The need is for all concerned to give political dialogue a chance on issues that have remained unresolved because of coercion, subversion and military action. If the inspector-general of the Frontier Constabulary is to be believed, there is no military action going on anywhere in Balochistan as we speak. The insurgent groups should take advantage of this lull in hostilities, cease attacks on vital installations and commit themselves to a dialogue on all contentious issues. The representative Balochistan government should lead the initiative aimed at melting the ice between the dissident sardars and Islamabad.

Unprepared for floods

WITH many parts of the country once more reeling under the devastating consequences of heavy monsoon rains and flooding, it is obvious that the government failed yet again to prepare for the stormy weather conditions despite being forewarned by the Met department. It is the same story almost every year, with torrential rains and floods killing a large number of people and rendering thousands homeless. In the current season, the NWFP, lower Punjab and parts of Sindh and Balochistan have seen extensive damage to homes, standing crops and livestock to the tune of billions of rupees. The death toll is on the rise, people continue to be marooned and communications have been badly affected. The task of rescue and rehabilitation appears daunting, even though the army’s help has been enlisted. It will be some time before normality returns to the affected areas and the people are able to resume their daily lives. But whenever they do, fears of the next bout of cataclysmic weather will persist as they question their own and the government’s ability to ward off the consequences.

Such sentiments are justified because the government’s approach to disaster preparedness leaves much to be desired. One would have thought that coping with the after-effects of the 2005 quake would have made it more alert to natural catastrophes but this is not the case. A fully operational flood warning system has yet to be put in place and there has been no action to remove encroachments along the rivers — one of the main reasons behind flooding. It is surprising that local communities most vulnerable to floods do not appear to have been instructed on the dangers of haphazard development that can affect the flow of the floodwater. Regarding more immediate needs, an example of inefficiency was demonstrated in the procurement of only 1,000 tents when the NWFP government asked the National Disaster Management Authority for 5,000. Blankets, tents, etc to help the victims should have been at hand for an emergency that is all too common in this season. One hopes that matters improve and that plans are made well in time to manage flood-related crises such as infectious diseases and food shortages. In planning its disaster response, the government should also identify those in the communities likely to be the hardest hit. This group would include children who face a greater risk than others of succumbing to disease and death by drowning.

Xinjiang attack

WITH the Olympics just a couple of days away, Monday’s attack in the Chinese province of Xinjiang that left 16 policemen dead has come as a reminder for all concerned to be on their toes in order to ensure a smooth flow of the Games. The tense atmosphere in which the Olympic torch had undertaken its traditional journey across the globe must have been enough to set alarm bells ringing. The deadly attack, however, suggests that much more is needed to be done in this regard. From protesting Tibetans to the separatists amongst the Uighurs, there are elements that are casting a shadow on the Beijing extravaganza. Though the Xinjiang attack took place at the western end of the vast country that China is, the timing and intensity of it is enough to call for specific measures. The biggest hope right now is that the Games will not witness the kind of violent happenings that visited the Munich Olympics back in 1972, when political violence probably for the first time penetrated the world of sports.

While the attempt to use the global spotlight as a means of highlighting their own causes is clear on the part of such groups, the world would do well to recall that the problem in Xinjiang basically has separatist, and not terrorist, overtones. The local Uighurs are ethnically different from the majority Han Chinese and in the run-up to the Olympics they have often resorted to stirring nationalist sentiments. There is enough evidence on record to establish cross-border infiltration into Xinjiang from Central Asia and even Kashmir, which has made many to take it as a link within the perceived spectrum of pan-Islamic activity in the region. The infiltration, nevertheless, does not alter the contours of the activity in Xinjiang which clearly has more to do with ethnic nationalism than anything else. One hopes the attack on the jogging policemen in Kasghar will serve to goad the countries bordering the troubled Chinese region into making greater efforts to control jihadi exports from areas under their control.

OTHER VOICES - European Press

Loaded magazines

The Daily Telegraph

IT is a brave politician who takes on the fourth estate, and congratulations are due to Michael Gove, the shadow minister for children, schools and families, who has been unwontedly disobliging about magazines aimed at young men, such as Nuts and Zoo. “They celebrate thrill-seeking and instant gratification,” says Mr Gove, “without ever allowing any thought of responsibility towards others, or commitment, to intrude.” This is hard to challenge.

In a sense, all magazines offer instant gratification: they are little moments of glossy fantasy. But a woman’s magazine that promises instant gratification in the form of horoscopes, diets or shoes is doing less harm than a lad’s mag that systematically isolates sex from relationships. To put it another way, evolution has so conditioned us that girls rarely need to be told that sex should have a context; boys do. Yet politicians have … focused disproportionately on single mothers rather than on the men who abandon them.

Mr Gove is elaborating and extending that most elemental of Tory creeds: the belief that we should take responsibility for our actions. The tenant who won’t tidy his garden because he thinks it’s up to the council; the young offender who blames the absence of recreational facilities; … the man who beats his girlfriend and says “the pills made me do it” — all are consequences of severing the link between action and consequence.

If this sounds too stern, think of it in utilitarian terms. Absent fathers cost the rest of us a great deal. A family unit is better at dispensing health, education and welfare than the state services notionally charged with these things. It is to Mr Gove’s great credit that he is prepared to tell publishers, too, to ponder the link between their actions and the consequences. — (Aug 4)

MLP decides on its future

The Malta Independent

THE Malta Labour Party will today go to the ballot once again to elect a secretary general. Much is at stake for the MLP. It only seems like yesterday that Joseph Muscat, George Abela and Michael Falzon were slugging it out in a campaign to be elected leader of the Malta Labour Party.

The elections to be held today and tomorrow have been a far more low-key affair, with the only notable manoeuvrings coming at the 11th hour.

The first revelation was that Gino Cauchi and Joe Chetcuti pulled out of the race. The official reason was that they realised that the support they had drummed up was scant…. With the current system as it is, it is the first person past the post who is elected secretary general. The two figures could have believed that staying in the race would mean putting the party’s well-being in jeopardy…. All in all, they are to be commended — first of all for having the guts to withdraw and secondly in doing so for what they believe are the right reasons…. With the deputy leaders being who they are — not an exact fit to Joe Muscat — the party should seek to balance the boat…. What the party now needs … is a sensible CEO that can bring unity, coherence and a sense of direction…. [I]t is of this newspapers’ opinion that … wheeling and dealing … is precisely what the party needs to do away with. Infighting and sniping is never going to win the party votes. The race is on and it looks like it’s going to be a close podium finish. — (Aug 4)

Asia’s newspaper market

ACROSS Asia, rising newspaper sales are bucking the trend of dipping circulations in Europe and the US. China is now the world’s largest newspaper market with 107m copies sold every day, while India shifts 99m. Investors are jumping on the bandwagon by acquiring titles or launching new ones.

Mint, for example, is an Indian business daily launched by the Hindustan Times group and the Wall Street Journal. It now has a daily circulation of 120,000 and is on course to break even. Editor Raju Narisetti, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, is optimistic the conditions are ripe to keep the newspaper market buoyant across Asia, and in particular India, for at least another decade, in stark contrast to the gloom besetting “dead tree” media further afield.

“Internet penetration is very, very low in India,” says Narisetti. “It will change, but it’s not happening yet. As a result it will be 10 to 15 years before some of the problems of newspapers in the West are dealing with come to India.” The Indian market’s growth has led to a feeding frenzy for media companies that could end with blood on the carpet. “There’s a ‘gold rush’ of sorts,” says Narisetti. “Some will flame out in disaster and some will be successful.”Indonesia’s market is nowhere near as crowded. But it has some of the same economic and social pluses as India, prompting businessman James Riyandi to bankroll the Jakarta Globe, a new daily newspaper. He believes the paper can exploit the market dramatically better than the Jakarta Post, currently selling 30,000 to 35,000 copies per day.

In Cambodia, where a racing economy hit 9.6 per cent growth last year, Australian investors have bought out Michael Hayes, founder of the English-language Phnom Penh Post, who remains editor-in-chief. The Post, which will compete against the non-profit Cambodia Daily and the recently launched Mekong Times, has a circulation of just 3,000 as a fortnightly.

But even in this backwater, reassuringly, some things still hold true: newspaper barons and their egos. The latest salvo in the long-running feud between Hayes and the Cambodia Daily’s founder, fellow American Bernie Krishner, 76, came when Krishner discovered the Post was attempting to poach journalists.

— The Guardian, London