Issue 60 Vol III, March 31, 2008

F O C U S

Pakistan: Text of Six-point Murree Declaration

MURREE: Following is the text of the six-point summit declaration regarding the formation of the government finalized between the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) at Murree on Sunday.

PML (N) leader Mian Nawaz Sahrif and co-chairman PPP Asif Ali Zardari signed this declaration in Bhurban on Sunday.

Text:

1-Allied parties, the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League (N) resolve to form a coalition government for giving a practical shape to the mandate, which was given to the democratic forces by the people of Pakistan on February 18, 2008.

2-This has been decided in today’s summit between the PPP and the PML (N) that the deposed judges would be restored, on the position as they were on November 2, 2007, within 30 days of the formation of the federal government through a parliamentary resolution.

3-The parties agreed that all allied parties would fully support the candidate for the position of the prime minister, nominated by the PPP. The PML (N) suggested that the candidate for prime minister should be such person who can take ahead the common agenda of the allied parties.

4-The parties agreed that the speaker and the deputy speaker of the national assembly would be from the PPP while the speaker and the deputy speaker of the Punjab assembly would be from the PML (N).

5-Both the parties agreed that the PML (N) would be a part of the federal government while the PPP would be a part of the Punjab government.

6-This is the solid opinion of the leaderships of both the parties that the allied parties are ready for forming the governments and the sessions of the national and provincial assemblies be summoned immediately.

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Procrastination defines leaders in Punjab
Gobind Thukral

THE present Akali- BJP Punjab government is frightened. It is acutely aware of the financial mess in which the state has been pushed into. It knows that Punjab may not even achieve its 6 per cent projected growth rate. It knows well that the debt burden currently at 57,369 crore shall  rise further, eroding state’s fiscal well being and increasing its back breaking debt servicing to the tune of 4817 crore as projected in the budget estimates for 2008-2009.

Is the government not aware that Rs 15,927 crores is the debt burden that public sector undertakings carry? Budgetary allocation for agriculture is a mere Rs. 302 crore. It is merely 4.78% of the total plan outlay. This budget has Rs. 95.45 crore or 1.5 per cent for health. The much touted rural development is supposed to grow with Rs. 153 crore that is four per cent of the plan outlay. Education, a core sector shall remain in the same tragic situation.  As many as 18397 government schools in Punjab lack basic   facilities; no boundary walls, no rooms, no teachers for more than 35 lakh poor students. They suffer as commercialisation of education continues to grow a bigger speed.  Drop out rate from class I –IX at 44 per cent troubles none. The government has nothing to offer for industry in the budget; mere Rs 27.40 crore or .35%.

It also knows that it can not revamp its tax collection system and add any more money to its coffers.

It is painfully aware that agrarian sector faces an acute crisis and majority of the over 66 per cent people who depend upon farms are in deep debt and an annual growth rate of 2 per cent can not bail them out. Farmers owe around 25,000 crore as debt from all the sources. Even if the magnanimous debt relief from the banks and other institutions minus the arhtiyas by the central government becomes a reality, it has no way to stop suicides by farmers or farm workers. The leaders now ruling with full comfort know that there is no serious effort to pep up research to being better varieties of seeds and farm practices including natural or organic farming is beyond their m imagination.

So with empty coffers, a young western education and poetry loving finance minister, dead set against wastages, usury, extravagant subsidies presents a budget saying that the state has turned a corner, he only ends up by burying his face in the sand. He spares a paltry sum of Rs 350 crore for an ambitious plan of Rs 3,243 crore to set the irrigation system right and add 40 per cent more water for the farms. What could it mean? A ten year period that too in a corruption ridden department. It would not even soak the bread in the wine pegs of the hungry officials. Any money for ambitious mono rail projects for Ludhiana and Amritsar or ring road around Ludhiana estimated to cost of Rs 4,000 crore. What would become of the ambitious declarations of his party president and dear cousin who desire a Punjab matching the best in the world and not just close by Haryana that has a double growth rate that of Punjab. And, rule for 25 years. What about the first rate schools along with Adarsh schools, the pet project his elder uncle and the state’s fourth time chief minister. That is the mark the young minister would leave on the pages of fiscal history of Punjab.

Akali BJP ministers are painfully aware of the mess they are in. industrially growth is going to be sluggish with small factories closing their shops every day. These several units are the backbone of the economy, supplying parts to large industries and also weaving dreams for the poor workers and small t entrepreneurs. Government apathy and higher pries of inputs like steel and electricity.

Can anyone believe that the power board is broke and the government sits pretty not knowing it?  Proverbial pigeon and cat story; close your eyes and wish the problem is over and danger is past. Look at the report which PSEB has submitted in the end of March 2008. The debt burden has crossed Rs 5,000 mark; if at all a mark was required. It is borrowing to pay back loans and interest. During 2005-06, it borrowed Rs 895 crore to run its daily affairs. In two years its debt liability has increased five fold and now is at Rs 8,000 crore. It has no plans to pay back or rather it has no sources to pay back. Bankruptcy is the only way out. Its revenue was expected to be Rs 11,294 crore including the subsidy of Rs 2,428 core. The state government played a trick this time. It directed the Board to adjust Rs, 1400 crore subsidy from the pending government loan. The revenue receipts came down to 8,984 crore. Unavoidable expenditure includes Rs 2,500 crore to purchase coal to generate power and Rs 2,100 crore as salary etc for the staff. The expenditure on power purchase would exceed Rs 5,600 crore. Add other expenses; the total would be Rs 10,700 crore. Policy of the present government is free power and no subsidy.

Why is the government procrastinating all the time? It is scared of the elections, panchayat elections [how silly to announce and then postpone and eat a crow. The government was not ware that farmers would be harvesting wheat and teachers busy with examinations] thereafter Lok Sabha elections in April 2009. And what becomes of the favourite game of the Akalis; bashing the center for every ill of Punjab if the NDA returns to power. Then eternal silence, remember the previous five year term of the Akali-BJP government that coincided with the NDA  under  BJP leadership NDA term and what Punjab got out of that. Much less what it is now getting and the chief minister twice admitted it in the Punjab assembly and thanked the Congress government at the center for generosity and patted himself for taking the projects to the center for help.

Opportunism and procrastination are not the mark of heroes, but of weaklings. But no Akalis and the BJP leaders are not alone. The Congress has plenty of them to offer for this cowardly set of politicians.

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2008 Beijing Olympics: Torch-Raining fire on its way
Khushwant Toor writes from Toronto

ON March 24, 2008, the Olympic Torch was lit at the Olympia stadium, the 2800-year-old birthplace of the ancient games in southern Greece. Instead of crying the message of peace, unification around the word, this year the torch seems to be setting up fire on its route to Beijing, due to agitation against Chinese suppression of the Tibetan uprising.

The torch was lit in the ancient stadium amidst tight security using sun’s rays focused over the flame using a parabolic mirror. Two men carrying the flag of a free-press group ran onto the field of the stadium during flame-lighting ceremony, evading massive security aimed at preventing such disruptions in the wake of China's crackdown in Tibet.

Since then protests all around the globe had been gaining momentum, and places like Taiwan, Tibet have openly boycotted not to participate in the flame passing ceremony before the flame finally reaches Beijing.  Humanitarian organizations in support of the Tibetan uprising and protesting against China have been trying to set up barricades on route the flame. In Greece itself, before the torch was handed over to the Beijing Olympic organizers, on March 29, 2008 about 10 Danish activists were blocked by police around 70 kilometers outside Larissa, who were protesting against China’s handling of the Tibetan situation.

China apart form keeping tight-lipped and hushing the world to let them mind their own business in handling the Tibet situation has been asking authorities to shorten some of the route the flame would have otherwise taken. As the flame relay is advancing, criticism around the world against China is growing.

History of Olympic Flame

The lighting of the Olympic flame takes place a few months before the opening of the Olympic Games in front of the ruins of the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. For the ancient Greeks, fire had divine connotations. It was thought to have been stolen from the gods by Prometheus. The Olympic flame represents the "endeavor for protection and struggle for victory."

The Olympic Flame was reintroduced during the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The modern convention of moving the Olympic Flame via a relay system from Olympia to the Olympic venue began with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany.

The lighting of the Flame follows the tradition of ancient Greece. Eleven women, representing the roles of priestesses, perform the ceremony. The high priestess prays loudly to praise Apollo, the ancient god of sun before the Temple of Hera. Then, the flame is lit using sun rays passed through a parabolic mirror. This is the only way to light the Olympic flame. The flame obtained in this way is put into an urn and carried by the high priestess to the ancient stadium and passed to the first runner, who carries the official torch of the Games and starts the relay to the host city of the Olympic Games.

In order to guarantee the purity of the Olympic flame, the flame obtained only in this way can be used throughout the conduct of the torch relay. It may not be combined with any other symbolic fire nor can it be separated for more than one torch relay. During the relay, the flame must never go out. A safety lantern lit from the original fire from Olympia, is kept handy to relight the torch in case of any eventuality.

The Olympic Torch Relay ends on the day of the opening ceremony in the central stadium of the Games. The final carrier is often kept secret until the last moment, and is usually a sports celebrity of the host country. The final bearer of the torch runs towards the cauldron, usually placed at the top of a grand staircase, and then uses the torch to start the flame in the stadium. After being lit, the flame continues to burn throughout the celebration of the Olympics and is extinguished at end of the closing ceremony of the Games.

The Olympic Torch

International Olympic Committee approves the design/style of the torch to be used to carry the Olympic flame. This years Beijing Olympic Torch boasts Chinese design and their technical capabilities. It represents Green Olympics, a High-Tech Olympics and the People’s Olympic.

The slightly curved aluminum torch is 72 centimeter high and weighs 985gm. It uses propane as fuel and the flame produced is photographable even in sun shine and in areas having extreme brightness

The number of torchbearers and the distance covered varies with each Olympic Games. Each torchbearer usually covers a distance of between 200 & 400 meters and approximately 100-200 torchbearers participate in the torch relay each day. Each torchbearer runs a leg of the relay carrying the torch in their hand and kindles the flame of the next torchbearer's torch. The relay goes on until it arrives at the final site of the day for a celebration.

Although most of the time the torch with the Olympic Flame is carried by runners, it has been transported in many different ways. The fire traveled by boat in 1948 to cross the English Channel, and it was first transported by airplane in 1952. Remarkable means of transportation were used in 1976, when the flame was transformed to a radio signal. From Athens, this signal was carried by satellite to Canada, where it was received and used to trigger a laser beam to re-light the flame. In 2000, the torch was carried under water by divers near the Great Barrier Reef. Other unusual means of transportation include a Native American canoe, a camel, and the Concorde.

In the 1992 Barcelona Games, Paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo shot a burning arrow over the cauldron from a platform at the opposite end of the stadium to light up the flame in the stadium and mark the beginning of the games. To make it more melodramatic, two years later, the Olympic fire was brought into the stadium of Lillehammer by a ski jumper.

In 2004, the first global torch relay was undertaken, a journey that lasted 78 days and the flame covered 78,000 km in the hands of some 11,300 torchbearers. When the Olympic flame came to the Panathinaiko Stadium (stadium of the 1896 Summer Olympics), to start the global torch relay, the night was very windy and the torch, lit by the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee blew out due to the wind, but was re-lit from the back up flame taken from the original ceremonial flame at Olympia. This was the second time that the Olympic torch flame was put out.

The first occurred at the 1976 Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Canada. After a rainstorm that doused the Olympic flame a few days after the games had opened, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.

2008 Olympic flame relay is a real test for China this year.  It will make despite some hiccups.

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Tumult in Tibet
Micky Sharma

THE demonstrations and consequent violence have once again focused the world's attention on the Chinese government’s rule in Tibet. This in spite of tremendous development that has taken place in that Himalayan region.

No country challenges that Tibet is not part of China, yet the concern from various quarters is how the Tibetans are being ruled over.

On March 10, protests began in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, to mark the 49th anniversary of the failed Tibetan revolt against the Chinese Communist occupation and the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile. On March 14, after police surrounded Lhasa’s principal monasteries and arrested scores of Buddhist monks, the demonstrations soon escalated into acts of violence against non-ethnic Tibetan residents, such as Han Chinese and Muslims. Witnesses said Tibetan rioters “set fire to large numbers of Han-owned businesses as well as a mosque”. Qin Gang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, initially tried to downplay the unrest as “a few monks in Lhasa [making] some disturbances”. Despite strict control over the flow of information out of Tibet and the surrounding areas, even the Chinese government could no longer deny the violence spilling over into surrounding areas. Riots spread to the neighbouring province of Gansu on March 18, when the demonstrators tried to storm a government office as “roughly 100 armed troops repelled the protesters with tear gas”. Tibet’s government-in-exile has said 140 people were killed in the unrest, while China has claimed a total of 20 deaths, 19 of them in Lhasa. The Chinese government “accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating Tibetan riots to wreck Beijing’s Olympic Games”. On March 20, speaking in Dharamsala, in northern India, the Dalai Lama called for calm and said he was prepared to meet with Chinese leaders. China has denied any such possibility. The Dalai Lama has stated that he wanted autonomy, not independence, for Tibet. Both sides have different notions of autonomy.

In two weeks time, the government was on Blackfoot, worried about the fall out across the world in view of the Olympics and China’s increasing clout [due to its economic development] was also under threat.

Writer Wen Lao suggests that the Chinese government have been troubled by the “Kosovo precedent” and fear what may result from any agitation by Tibetans for independence. Tibet’s relationship with China goes back at least to the 7th century. Chinese have controlled the country since 1951. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959. China’s current President, Hu Jintao, served as Communist Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region from 1989 through 1992, overseeing a police crackdown and imposing martial law in response to a series of demonstrations in 1989 that called for democratic reform. Though the Chinese government considers Tibet to be part of China, Tibetans have resisted cultural and political assimilation. China has defended its rule over Tibet as a beneficial “civilizing mission” and has accused the Dalai Lama of having run a primitive, feudal society before the Chinese “liberation”.

Activists and scholars have noted the effort by the Chinese government to bring ethnic Chinese in to Tibet to change the demographic character of the region, a process accelerated by the completion of a Beijing-Lhasa railway. The Dalai Lama has accused the Chinese government of attempting to erase Tibetan history through a campaign of “cultural genocide”.

The real problem arises from two demands pushed by the Dalai Lama. The first is his concept of ‘maximum’ autonomy in line with the ‘one country, two systems’ principle. The Chinese government does not accept this though this is applicable to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Secondly, the 2.6 million Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which constitutes one-eighth of China’s territory, form only 40 per cent of the total population of Tibetans in China. The Chinese government does not accept this demand for ‘Greater Tibet’ or ‘one administrative entity’ for all 6.5 million ethnic Tibetans. This would mean breaking up Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces, doing ethnic re-engineering, causing enormous disruption and damage to Chinese society and political system. Hence the stalemate.

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