Curbing Indonesia's army<\/p>\n
The scale of the tsunami disaster and continuing health risks
\nin Indonesia's Aceh Province are almost beyond comprehension.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Indonesia's politically powerful army is not
\nused to putting humanitarianism first. Imbued with a reflexively
\nnationalist ideology and obsessed with a counterinsurgency
\ncampaign against armed Aceh separatist groups, army leaders
\npersuaded government officials to restrict foreign aid workers to
\nthe province's two main cities.<\/p>\n
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general himself,
\nneeds to make sure his generals understand that they are
\naccountable to him as the democratically elected leader and that
\nthe human needs of Aceh's people must be Indonesia's most
\ncompelling concern. Until that change is internalized, there can
\nbe no dropping of America's limits on military ties with
\nIndonesia. Those limits were imposed because of past human rights
\nviolations by the Indonesian armed forces.<\/p>\n
In September, Yudhoyono became the first Indonesian leader to
\nbe democratically elected by a direct popular vote, an event that
\nmany hailed as the start of a new era of more responsive
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
Those hopes now face a critical test. This is the moment for
\nYudhoyono to take full charge and insist that the needs of Aceh's
\npeople come first.
\n-- The New York Times<\/p>\n
Start compensation process<\/p>\n
It is anyone's guess how much it will cost to compensate Korean
\nvictims of Japan's colonial rule in 1910-45 for their sufferings.<\/p>\n
First of all, it is difficult to determine how many victims
\nare eligible for compensation. During negotiations with Japan,
\nwhich led to the 1965 signing of an agreement on normalizing
\nrelations, Korea put the figure at 1,032,864. But estimates by
\nacademicians go up to 4 million people.<\/p>\n
The Korean government will have to foot the entire bill
\nbecause, as recently declassified documents show, it mistakenly
\nrenounced individual claims to the Japanese government in return
\nfor US$300 million in grants, $200 million in soft loans and
\nanother $300 million in commercial loans.<\/p>\n
To spend tens of trillions of won will put an enormous
\nfinancial strain on the Korean government, given its 2005 main
\nbudget of 131 trillion won. But this should not keep it from
\nlaunching the process of making compensation payments soon.
\n-- The Korea Herald, Seoul<\/p>\n
Tsunami disaster is a chance to create anew<\/p>\n
The tsunami has opened the floodgates of charity worldwide.
\nBillions of dollars are being pledged in response to calls for
\nhelp in relief and rehabilitation work.<\/p>\n
That's why we need to take the cue from the way cities and
\ncountries have restructured successfully both their economy and
\ntowns post-disaster, springing back to life with renewed vim and
\nvigor. The Great Fire of 1666 that raged for five days burned the
\nCity of London to the ground.<\/p>\n
Post-disaster, London made the transition from a haphazard,
\nunsafe city to a well-planned, brick and mortar model.<\/p>\n
After the World Wars, the Marshall Plan enabled a bombed-out
\nEurope to make a fresh start. Countries went in for structured
\nmakeovers in town and economic planning.<\/p>\n
Rehabilitation implies restoring the status quo ante. We can
\nuse this opportunity to do much better than that: We can create
\nanew.
\n-- The Times of India<\/p>\n
Aid mission a test of integrated command<\/p>\n
The government has sent about 1,000 Self-Defense Forces troops on
\na mission to aid victims of the powerful earthquake that occurred
\nin waters off Sumatra, Indonesia, and the enormous ensuing
\ntsunami. Japan has never sent so many SDF members overseas
\nbefore. The recent dispatch shows that we have expanded the scope
\nof the SDF's role in the international community.<\/p>\n
The latest SDF mission was the fifth of its kind to be carried
\nout under the Japan Disaster Relief Team Law. The mission should
\nbe regarded as epochal in many respects.<\/p>\n
First, the scale of dispatch has never been greater. Second,
\nthe mission was part of an international cooperative effort made
\nby many countries. Third, the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-
\nDefense forces joined to form two groups that were sent on the
\nmission.<\/p>\n
The government intends to revise the Self-Defense Forces Law
\nwith the aim of expanding the list of SDF missions to include
\ninternational peacekeeping activities. If the SDF can
\nsuccessfully carry out their mission in the stricken areas, the
\npublic will be more apt to recognize the necessity of revising
\nthe law, which could expedite achieving that goal.
\n-- The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo<\/p>\n
New term, old agenda for Bush<\/p>\n
George Herbert Walker Bush will officially start his second term
\nas U.S. president after being sworn in at noon on Capitol Hill.
\nFresh from a narrow election victory that he said had absolved
\nhim of accountability for the Iraq war and given him new
\npolitical capital to spend on his conservative agenda, Bush will
\nnow go before America and the world to outline his goals for his
\nupcoming term in his inauguration speech.<\/p>\n
Given that his approval rating -- in the high 40s -- is the
\nlowest for any re-elected president starting a new term in more
\nthan 50 years, that he is confronted with deep fiscal and trade
\ndeficits, a weak job market, the Iraq mess and mistrust abroad,
\nmany are hoping Bush Jr will use the speech to send a more
\nconciliatory tone to the world.<\/p>\n
But that is unlikely to happen. Bush promised to \"show purpose
\nwithout arrogance\" in his first inaugural speech but found it
\ndidn't play well with his core political supporters.<\/p>\n
Yet in many ways Washington doesn't have much choice but to be
\nmore yielding. It needs help from the international community to
\nrestore peace in Iraq, for the sake of its economy it needs to
\navoid creating too much friction with China over trade, and it
\nneeds help from Asia in dealing with North Korea's nuclear
\nambitions.<\/p>\n
The international system through the United Nations similarly
\ntries to ensure the world doesn't fall victim to the law of the
\njungle. Bush needs support to get things done. To continue in his
\nuncompromising and unilateral way, either at home or on the
\nglobal stage is simply too dangerous.
\n-- The Nation, Bangkok<\/p>",
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