President's

President's criticism of the press

Press freedom is considered one of the most outstanding fruits of the reform movement.

The system of government may change and presidents may come and go, but freedom of the press will stay triumphant.

Previously, the power of the press was deemed as poisonous, like a devil haunting the authorities.

Because of that, the press should be tamed and be controlled to become free and responsible.

The free and responsible press years ago was dominated by the authorities and the irresponsible press had to be destroyed.

However, times have changed. The system of the reform government has swept away the authoritarian government which regarded the press as poison.

We are living in a democratic era, where freedom of the press is a pillar of democracy.

Indeed, the press have power but are not always true. They neither determine nor dominate the truth. Thus, the critical press can also be criticized.

This criticism was made by Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Thursday when she opened the 21st Congress of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan.

The president's criticism is that press freedom should be able to create a right 'corridor' and to play a role in the nation's development. -- Media Indonesia, Jakarta

Human abuse

We accept that there are religious dictates and cultural sensitivities, but we cannot accept that tenets or customs justify human abuse.

An immigrant to Britain was jailed for life for slitting his daughter's throat. He is a Muslim and she had begun dating a Christian. This so-called "honor killing" was frankly an atrocious deed.

That statement is not a criticism of his faith. The followers of every major religion have at some time acted extremely badly. But where are the voices of condemnation?

In the second case, a 12-year-old Romanian gypsy princess was married off against her will. No doubt in Roma culture there are precedents for this sort of thing.

But, for goodness sake, we are living in the 21st century. It is an age when the talk universally is about freedom of choice, freedom of spirit.

Now one 18-year-old is dead, that choice denied, and an even younger girl faces the possibility of having her spirit crushed.

We cannot change Kurdish tradition or alter Roma custom, but we can ask whether we treat our own daughters with dignity.

-- The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa

The leak of a CIA agent's name

Revealing the name of a CIA operative is a serious federal crime. Whether one or more officials within the White House committed such an offense by leaking a CIA agent's name to the press is therefore a serious concern. So serious that, despite the CIA's recent letter requesting a Justice Department inquiry, this is a matter for a special counsel to investigate.

What is known so far is this: At least six journalists received calls during July from administration officials who identified the operative. She just happened to be the wife of a former ambassador who had publicly declared after a mission to Niger that there was no evidence to support the claim that the regime of Saddam Hussein had tried to buy "yellowcake" uranium ore for possible use in a nuclear weapon. His conclusion forced the White House to retract the claim, which President Bush had included in his State of the Union address last January. ...

According to The Washington Post, the CIA asked the Justice Department about a possible investigation soon after Mr. Novak's column appeared. Yet even as recently as Sept. 16, when reporters questioned the White House about the column, there was no call by the Bush administration for an inquiry, only a summary denial that anyone within the White House was authorized to reveal an agent's name.

This lax approach to what is on its face a serious breach of the law is the strongest reason for assigning an independent counsel to investigate - and to do it now.

-- Times Union, Albany, New York

, on British Prime Minister Tony Blair's difficulties over Iraq:

Blair has only himself to blame for ending up in this situation.

Just like Bush, he did not have the courage before the Iraq war to say openly that a war of "prevention" was being waged to remove a potential danger, not an actual one.

Instead, his spin doctors thought up urgent threats that could not be backed up afterward.

That Blair now says Iraq is a better place without Saddam Hussein is not false, but this is only somewhat comforting for an open society because it - rightfully - demands sincerity from its leaders.

-- Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany

Voting against the recall

Californina's recall election ...is happening because one wealthy Southern Californian decided to use some of his money to hire professional signature gatherers, and, aided by volunteers, they collected sufficient signatures. And because millions of Californians are unhappy about the economy but don't want more spending cuts or a tax increase. ...

Gray Davis is only the fourth Democrat to govern California in the past 100 years. His election broke 16 years of GOP rule. ... Imagine the outcry if Hillary Clinton set out to remove President Bush from office, because the economy took a nose dive during his term, which it has. That's what's happening here. ...

True, Gov. Davis has not been an inspirational leader; he misread the 2001 energy crunch and is obsessed with fund-raising. Of course, the same could be said of many other pols. ...

If the recall effort succeeds, the chaos in Sacramento would negatively impact California's prospects for economy recovery. Discontent with the new governor would prompt demands for another recall.

-- The Monterey County Herald, Monterey, California

Poverty in the U.S.

The sharp jump in poverty announced by the government last Friday should come as no surprise to anyone who has tracked the ailing economy these last few months. ...

What should be surprising, even alarming, is the reaction of the Bush administration, which seems to range from indifference to petulance. Just three weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced proudly that the number of people receiving welfare benefits continued to fall last year. Does the administration really believe that when the number of people who need public assistance goes up, the number who actually receive it should go down? ...

Cash welfare is only one example of this administration's tin ear with respect to economic hardship. ...

Americans have turned a skeptical eye on anti-poverty policy ever since President Ronald Reagan famously announced, "We declared a war on poverty, and poverty won." Well, poverty did not win. The number of poor Americans, especially the elderly and the young, plummeted between 1960 and 1970, the years when Congress created food stamps, Medicaid and other food and housing programs. When the U.S. economy is strong, as it was during the 1990s, it reinforces a fine set of American virtues, including hard work and self-reliance. When the economy is weak, as it is today, it should remind us why Americans created programs to assist each other in the first place.

-- Star Tribune, Minneapolis

--- Los Angeles Times, on why the recall is wrong:

Californians are faced with the most important election in recent memory: the decision on whether to remove and replace Gov. Gray Davis. ...

Davis is a leader of intellect but of no soul. He is a competent policy wonk who ... can't get legislators of his own Democratic Party to, as he once put it, "implement my vision." For one thing, nobody knows what that vision is. ...

He has spent too much time avoiding issues: not dealing with the energy crisis and not ... cultivating legislative relationships that could have made him an effective governor.

Davis is, however, a moderate Democrat who has been in step with what most Californians want in environmental protection and personal freedoms. ... But what Davis will most be remembered for is relentless fund-raising from deep-pockets labor and corporate donors. ...

... So why not replace him? ... The alternatives - as much as truth hurts in this nation-sized state that deserves better - are not superior to Davis. In fact, they are potentially worse. ... ---

GetAP 1.00 -- OCT 3, 2003 00:17:10 ;AP; ANPA ..r.. NA-GEN--Editorial Roundup By The Associated Press= JP/

By The Associated Press= A selection of excerpts from editorials in newspapers worldwide: ---

Corriere della Sera, Milan, Italy, on the blackouts in Europe and North America:

The now-periodic collapse of major utilities, since the mid- August blackout in New York, has relaunched the habit of "doomwriting," an exercise in catastrophic forecasts of collapse.

Each time there follow disputed or inconsistent explanations: a high-tension line is down or a computer has failed, the mass consumption of energy has overloaded an obsolete infrastructure, a fuse has blown.

But is that all? In the search for a more general explanation ... one suspect has come to the fore. Perhaps the organizational and technical systems, in our times, have reached ever less manageable dimensions.

The so-called revolution of growing expectations in the economy of the last half century can not continue forever - not with the use of nonrenewable natural resources and atmospheric pollution, the greenhouse effect, acid rain, smog, industrial waste spreading even in our congested cities and suburbs. --- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, on Russia's international role:

Russia has not had superpower status for some time. But as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, it still has a heavy responsibility for world peace and stability. It is both a part of Europe and a friend of the United States. It is expected President Vladimir Putin will use that relationship to help mend a world fractured over the war in Iraq.

Much is expected of Russia, but there is still much about Russia that is ambiguous.

On one hand, Russia talks of the importance of international cooperation. But when talk turns to the situation in Chechnya, Russia considers it a purely domestic concern and rejects all offers at international mediation. Russia is deeply concerned with the nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran, yet remains indifferent to improving human rights in these and other countries.

Russia is often complex and difficult to fathom. While the country needs international help to scrap its nuclear submarines, a newly minted Russian billionaire can pay a huge sum for an English soccer team.

The Soviet Union collapsed 12 years ago. Isn't it about time Russia freed itself from superpower politics to be a normal European nation? That would make its diplomacy more persuasive. --- Goteborgs-Posten, Goteborg, Sweden, on French Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin:

In a situation where the United Nations is shortly expected to put forward a new resolution proposal on Iraq in the security council, French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin is doing what he does best - talking and putting up smoke screens.

Monsieur de Villepin however makes a realistic judgment when he opposes the United States' and Israel's boycott of Yasser Arafat. This man remains and keeps his position with legitimate authority from the Palestinians.

The tragedy is that Israel's government through their heedless decision to "eliminate" Arafat, through deportation or something even worse, have made the Palestinian veteran's political star shine brighter than on many a bad day. --- Aftenbladet, Stavanger, Norway, on the blackouts in Europe and North America,

It's almost enough to make one believe it was more than coincidental. Over the weekend, Italy, last week Sweden and Denmark, in late August London, in mid-August large parts of the United States and Canada.

Millions without electricity.

So far, nothing has indicated that the power failures were due to sabotage or terrorism, but they certainly show how vulnerable our modern society is. And none of the power failures occurred under extreme weather. Local bad weather is something nationwide electricity networks have to be able to stand.

Is privatization compromising security? Is the power network out of date? Are better emergency solutions needed? The questions are many, and the answers must be found. --- Der Bund, Bern, Switzerland, on the power outage in Italy:

A whole country without power. Five people die. The economy loses 100 million. That's what happened on Sunday in Italy, and already fingers are pointing at Switzerland. Others put the blame for the blackout the EU's forced liberalization of the electricity market.

What's the answer? Fact: Switzerland provides half of Italy's imported electricity. We get money from it. We were also involved in the early events that finally led to the lights going out across Italy. So are we also guilty? Together with Italy's other neighbors, Switzerland was able to continue to meet Italy's demands for half an hour despite the loss of one line. They could have done it for longer if the Italian network operator had acted as planned. But it didn't, despite being told of the situation earlier. To that extent it seems somewhat hasty to sneeringly point the finger at the "perfect Swiss," as one big German newspaper did.

The Swiss electricity suppliers justly see the events of Sunday as a success, because along with the other suppliers they were able to prevent the lights going out in other countries. That sort of scenario is possible, as was seen in the United States recently.

Is the liberalization of the energy market also to blame? This argument also doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Switzerland of course has refused to open up its market. Germany, on the other hand, has one of the most open electricity markets in Western Europe. Both countries possess stable electricity supplies.

The blame really does lie in Italy, whose output capacity is very low. That's why a small breakdown led to such a big outage. It's as simple as that.

---

The Guardian, London, on the Labor party's debate:

Last year in Blackpool (the governing) Labor (party) held a stage-managed debate on Iraq which passed a dog's dinner of a resolution. This year, Labor has gone one better - or rather one worse. After a year in which politics have been utterly dominated by Iraq, Labor's union-heavy voting system yesterday chose to leave the subject off the agenda altogether. Yesterday's decision would be funny if it was not so tragic. It raises the question of whether this week's Labor conference really has any point in it at all, and whether democracy and the Labor party are subjects which can any longer be mentioned in the same sentence. In any event, this was not the action of a serious party.

We cannot say we were not warned. In his BBC "Breakfast with Frost" interview yesterday, Tony Blair had plenty to say about Iraq, but nothing but contempt for his critics. With the benefit of hindsight, he was asked early on, what would you have done differently over Iraq? Mr. Blair's reply was astonishingly direct: "Nothing. I would have done exactly the same." And so it went on for the next half-hour, on domestic policy and international policy alike. Nothing to apologize for. We have done the right thing. I am proud of what we have done. Anyone who has been secretly nursing the hope that tomorrow's speech might reveal a newly conciliatory prime minister need have no illusions now. Mr. Blair is not only not for turning. He has no interest in what his critics have to say. In fact, he seems to despise the whole lot of us. ...

---

The Daily Telegraph, London on misplaced anger during Italy's blackout:

There is something about catastrophe that brings out the primitive in us. Urbane businessmen, caught up in an earthquake, cross their fingers and mutter imprecations to the gods. And so it is with power cuts. The millions of Italians affected by a total electricity failure yesterday displayed many of the primordial instincts of our race, including one of the oldest of all: to blame your woes on outsiders. At first, it was all said to be the fault of the French. Then, as the lights stayed out, anger shifted towards the Swiss.

The accusations were reminiscent of those that flew about during the recent blackout in North America, when state and provincial governors queued up to blame each other. In fact, as far as we can tell, the accident was caused by a tree blowing against a cable near the Swiss town of Brunnen - although holding the government of even that beautifully administered state responsible for such mishaps seems a little harsh.

In Brussels, too, people reverted to their basic instincts. The EU's Energy Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, immediately declared that the blackout was an argument for - what else? - deeper European integration. Quite how this would have made a difference, Switzerland being outside the EU, is unclear. It is fair to point out, though, that opening Europe's energy markets would make such events less likely. The more varied our electricity supplies, the less reliant we become on each source. ... --- MORE[

GetAP 1.00 -- OCT 3, 2003 00:17:02