The campaign for the July 5 presidential election has entered its third week and all presidential and vice presidential candidates have already made numerous promises. They have at least promised two things -- to uphold the law and fight corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN).
Amien Rais, for instance, has promised to fight KKN hands-on from the presidential palace. Wiranto meanwhile has promised to impose the death sentence on corruptors, just as the Chinese government has done.
However, these promises are -- at the moment -- just promises. The reform era has, however, "boosted" the existence of KKN. Our control body -- the House of Representatives and the provincial and district legislative councils, supposedly the locomotives for reform -- have turned out to be corrupt themselves.
And now we are all waiting for a new government and its promises. Will these promises be fulfilled? It seems we won't know until it is in place.
To prevent us from being victims of sweet promises, we should take note of candidates' promises and later ask our new president and vice presidents to fulfill them one by one. If they start breaking their promises, we should be ready to say goodbye to them.
At present there is little sign the spirit of reform is still alive. People are fed up with seeing the political elite lose break their commitment to improve the country's lot. -- Media Indonesia, Jakarta
In a haze over forest fires
Once again, a pall of haze is hanging over much of Malaysia and drifting across Southeast Asia, caused by forest fires in Indonesia.
It is small comfort that the latest satellite shots show a reduction in the number of hot spots in Sumatra, especially when the weather is expected to remain dry for the next few days. It is also small comfort that this is not as serious as in 1997- 1998. The haze has become an unwelcome annual event which should not be happening at all, considering the time, effort and resources put in by the affected countries over the past seven years to prevent its recurrence.
Since a Regional Haze Action Plan was drawn up in 1997, ASEAN ministers and officials have met frequently to devise measures and establish mechanisms to deal with the problem at ministerial meetings, technical task forces, working groups on sub-regional fire-fighting arrangements, legal groups on law and enforcement, and regional climate reviews. Moreover, with the coming into force on Nov. 25 last year of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, there is now a comprehensive blueprint for tackling the hazard.
Needless to say, these have obviously been ineffective. Although the problem transcends national frontiers, local rather than regional solutions hold the key to eradicating the root causes of forest fires. As Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pointed out at the World Conference on Land and Haze Forest Fire Hazard in 2002: "From past experience, if early action can be taken at the national level in respect of surveillance, monitoring, enforcement, preventive and mitigating measures, the impact of transboundary haze pollution can be much reduced or even avoided".
As the major source of forest fires, it is clear that Indonesia should play a leading role in implementing the ASEAN agreement. To demonstrate its goodwill and commitment to work with its neighbors in combating haze, Indonesia should ratify the accord. More crucially, it should follow up with effective action against the plantation owners, timber companies and agriculturalists who burn trees to clear the land.
-- New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur
Awful act of brutality
The nation felt shock and grief when Iraqi militants were found to have decapitated a Korean man they had been holding hostage. Efforts to save him by the Korean government and the international community came to naught, to the chagrin of those who wished to see him return home unharmed.
Kim Sun-il, who had reportedly been held in captivity for five days, was killed on Tuesday afternoon after the Korean government refused the kidnappers' demands to withdraw its troops from Iraq and cancel its plan to send more.
He was a young man who just wanted to make money to continue his Arabic studies at graduate school. He had nothing to do with Korea's decision to dispatch troops, whose main mission is to help rebuild the war-torn country.
To be sure, the killing of an innocent civilian was an unpardonable act of terrorism. It must be condemned as such by all peace-loving people in Korea and around the world. His captors will have to realize that they have turned the Korean people into their enemy by committing this barbaric act.
Hindsight shows that the Korean government was not well prepared for such a terrorist act when it decided to send 3,000 troops, in addition to the 670 medics and engineers already stationed in Iraq. It failed to learn a lesson from Japan's experience in April.
Despite its initial fumbling, the Japanese government established contact with the captors through Muslim clerics and persuaded them to set the hostages free, arguing that killing the innocent civilians would aggravate international opinion about the Iraqi militants.
In addition, the Japanese foreign minister appeared on Arab TV to appeal for their release.
To keep similar kidnappings from taking place, the Korean government will have to evacuate all Koreans from Iraq, except for a few who must remain. While arranging better protection for those left behind, it will also have to warn Korean nationals against traveling to the Middle East, not to mention Iraq.
That is a job the Korean government should have done when it made the final decision to dispatch additional troops last week. Though belated, it should start the evacuation now. And it has an additional work to do.
Given an earlier report that al-Qaeda considered attacking American facilities in Korea during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the Korean government will have to tighten its security checks, both at air and seaports.
-- The Korea Herald, Seoul
Bill Clinton's book
If the weeklong memorial leading up to the funeral of former President Reagan marked a return to the 1980s, then the rush of news and comment in recent and coming days over the release of former President Clinton's memoir represents a return to the 1990s. With that return comes a resurgence of all the familiar debates.
Among some there'll be a return of adoration for the man and his progressive, forward-looking policies, most notably an economic revival. Among others there'll be scorn cast from those who continue to blame Clinton for everything from a loss of American "values" to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Notably, unlike other recent presidential memoirists, Clinton himself is believed to have written the first draft of the memoir in longhand. The result is a publishing phenomenon likely to have repercussions on everything from the Iraqi occupation, to the war on terrorism to the upcoming presidential election.
At more than 900 pages, My Life is not what typically comes to mind as a "beach read." Yet given the subject and the wide range of emotions it causes, it could certainly become one. -- The Anniston Star, Anniston, Alabama
British servicemen held in Iran
The detention of British sailors raises questions about the (Iranian) regime's intentions. Why risk an incident that could develop into a diplomatic crisis? One explanation that has been launched is that the ships were a delivery to the Iraqi police which has been trained by British forces. Relations between Iran and Iraq are still tense and Britain's support for the Iraqis may have been seen as a provocation. At the same time, it seems strange if the military acted on their own. The political adjusting in this drama seems definitely to dominate. The uncertainty regarding the motive and the potential for a more risky development is worrying. We will wait and see, London says. But behind the stoic behavior and the subdued choice of words is an understanding that Iran's action may be a new expression for the ongoing power struggle between moderate and radical forces (in Iran). The detained sailors are obviously pawns in the game." -- Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Sweden
Humanitarian disaster in Sudan
In Sudan, a humanitarian disaster is now unfolding which the surrounding world community has not managed to stop in time. Up to 1 million people have been forced to flee and another 1 million people have been affected by the ethnic cleansing war that is staged in the country's Darfur region.
It is no longer a matter of whether the disaster can be avoided, it is going on. The upcoming rainy season will destroy the roads in the region and make it impossible for those who need help to get the short-term relief that is heading for the area. Tens of thousands of people will die in the coming months, relief organizations believe.
The responsibility for the disaster doesn't only lie with the government and the militias in Sudan. Behind is a long chain of problems stemming from the world community that only reacts when the injury has taken place instead of intervening with preventive efforts much earlier. -- Kristeligt Dagblad, Copenhagen, Denmark
EU's constitutional treaty
It wasn't quite like when America's founding fathers gathered to create a new Constitution for the 13 colonies. The European Union's new constitutional treaty, which the leaders of the grouping's 25 member-states approved last Friday, lacked the clarity of the American Constitution. What they produced was not even a Constitution as such -- which, "is a contract between a state and its citizens," as one commentator noted -- but "an agreement between sovereign states."
If ratified, the new Constitution will render the EU's alphabet-soup of institutions more transparent and Europeans will have a clearer idea of what the grouping can and cannot do, but it will not create a super-state, with a unified foreign and military policy.
But this is not to minimize the new Constitution's significance. The fact that 25 member-states agreed to it, indicates the EU's recent expansion will not cripple it.
One particular feature may determine the future course of the EU -- namely, the "brake-accelerator.". It will allow countries which reject some feature of European integration to slam on the "emergency brake," and appeal directly to the 25 heads of government. And if some countries want to press on regardless, they can do so by stepping on the "accelerator". In effect, it will allows integration at different speeds.
ASEAN in particular, and Asia in general, might learn from this example as they consider creating an Asian monetary union or a regional free-trade agreement. Instead of proceeding as prescribed by the lowest common indicator, Asian countries should consider proceeding on multiple tracks. -- The Straits Times, Singapore
On the Clintons
With the partial exception of Harry Trumans autobiography, the memoirs of presidents have not made for gripping reading. This may be because those who might have had genuine literary flair Lincoln, FDR and Kennedy died in office. Furthermore, the men who have been president are not best placed to assess their own achievements or even to identify the truly important issues of their tenure. The most intriguing sections of their books, as in Mr. Clintons case, often consist of childhood experience and impressions. The recent presidents have either been the products of political dynasties or rags-to-riches individuals. There is some consolation (besides an advance of some $10 million for Mr. Clinton) for those who have secured the Oval Office, but are not destined to win a Nobel Prize for Literature. Presidents might not be able to write about themselves convincingly but they become, in time, outstanding material for others. ...
His challenge now is to find something to do. He is the second youngest ex-president after Theodore Roosevelt. That figure spent retirement, first, big-game hunting in Africa, then, bored, returned to run for the presidency again against his hand-picked successor, losing but wrecking his Republican colleagues in the process. He was later shot in the chest while delivering a speech (he carried on with the oratory) and lobbied for early U.S. entry into the First World War before dying not long after turning 60. Mr. Clintons ambition to steer his wifes possible bid for the White House in 2008 looks modest by comparison. ... -- The Times, London
--- The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, on Hamid Karzai:
Hamid Karzai visited Washington last week, staying just long enough to allow President Bush to showcase the popular Afghan president as the face of what Bush calls a major U.S. success in the war on terrorism. But that picture is distorted.
Karzai thanked America again for ousting the Taliban regime, depriving al-Qaeda of a base of operations and putting Afghanistan on the path to self-government. But he also cited some unpleasant truths -- for example, that the country has the world's second-highest infant and maternal mortality rates and desperately needs aid and investment.
But if the past is a guide, $4.4 billion in reconstruction funds pledged by donor nations in March will be slow to arrive. ... Yet the prime victims are the Afghan people, who deserve better.
Caught between self-serving regional warlords, a resurgent guerrilla force and foreign donors who deliver less than they promise, Hamid Karzai is forced to make compromises -- and to gloss over painful realities to obtain what he can. But failure to provide aid and security would betray Afghans and those Americans who fought and died for them. As in Iraq, Bush is either focused too narrowly on his own interests or still thinks nation-building can be done on the cheap, with the help of a few photo-ops. It can't. --- The Buffalo News, Buffalo, New York, on the deployment of U.S. forces:
Details are lacking, but the Pentagon's plan to redeploy forces now stationed in former hot spots from the Cold War is at least sensible and possibly urgent.
Thousands of troops have been stationed in Germany since the end of World War II, first to stabilize the broken country, then as a strategic counter to the expansionist aims of the Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union does not exist anymore.
By the same token, the decision to cut the number of U.S. troops in South Korea by a third -- about 12,000 -- is an affirmation of the reality that Seoul's forces are now capable, with the help of American air power, of defending the country.
The threat the United States and its Western allies face today is more likely to come from the Middle East or Central Asia. If the nation is going to station forces in foreign lands, it should be based on existing conditions, not a memory of decades gone by. ...If the nation has fewer troops than necessary to do the job in Iraq, part of the reason is that we still have them in Germany and South Korea, as well as Japan. ... With the World Trade Center obliterated and Iraq a shooting gallery, it's hard to see how troops in Germany and South Korea serve the nation's needs in the 21st century. --- Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio, on terrorism incident reports:
The U.S. State Department put out a report a couple of months ago ... that the number of terrorist incidents has dropped steadily from 2001 through 2003, reaching a 34-year low.
Recently, however, Secretary of State Colin Powell has admitted that the report was wrong.
The State Department left entire countries out of its count; it gave special weight to terrorist acts that resulted in no deaths, injuries or major property damage, and it discontinued its 2003 count two months before the end of year.
Normally, in situations like this, somebody calls for an investigation into how the foul-up happened.
However, given the quality of the Bush administration's other information-gathering and analytical exercises lately, maybe there's no point. ----
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Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, New York, on the Sept. 11 commission's findings:
We finally heard his voice. It was difficult to not be chilled by the words of Mohammed Atta on the tape played before the Sept. 11 Commission on Thursday. The words were cold and deceitful; his tone was deceptively calm. What would you expect from such a monster?
The dramatic denouement of the commission's public testimony gave a clearer picture of the chaos and misjudgments made in the air that day. Tapes and testimony reinforced the fact that responsibility for preventing the awful events of Sept. 11 cannot be placed on one back, but many.
There were the air traffic controllers who misunderstood messages. There was the FAA worker who, when pressed by the national Air Traffic Control System Command Center for an order to scramble fighter jets at United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, replied "Uh, ya know everybody just left the room." Thursday's testimony showed how weak our intra-agency emergency plans were for sky defense. Today, NORAD pilots make daily tests and dry runs of Sept. 11-like scenarios. That's at least one positive step. ...
The commission's report will surely contain some political bombshells. We must be quick to clear away the smoke from these and seize the opportunity to glean as much knowledge as we can from this horrific experience. Sadly, as the family of Paul Johnson now knows, al-Qaeda's war against us didn't end on Sept. 11.
GetAP 1.00 -- JUN 25, 2004 01:13:21 ;AP; ANPA3..1.. Editorial Roundup By The Associated Press= JP/
By The Associated Press= Here are excerpts from editorials in newspapers around the world: --- -- The Korea Herald, Seoul, Korea, on the South Korean hostage:
Many Koreans are asking their government to pull out our troops in Iraq and not to send any more, as the captors of Kim Sun-il demand. Some politicians joined the candlelight vigil as the citizens' call was in line with their policy opposing the government's plan.
Both the government and the compatriots of the poor young man should do all they can to save him. But we must not let this incident interfere with the decision on the Korean troop dispatch to Iraq.
Most Koreans understand that Korea joined the U.S.-led coalition ... because their government has a moral and political obligation to do so under its alliance with the United States, even though the mutual defense treaty between the two countries does not exactly call for it. Korea also needs U.S. help in maintaining its security on the peninsula, in the face of North Korean threats ... of its nuclear development. ...
... Even while Saddam Hussein was fighting his war against Iran, Korean firms built infrastructure in the country. Korea's basic policy of neutrality in Middle East conflicts has been maintained since 1973 when the government formally recognized the Palestinians' right to their own territory, despite Israeli protests. ...
The kidnapping has further fueled Korean anger and resolve to fight the evil forces represented by the hooded men holding Kalashnikov rifles and bayonets. While we condemn these terrorists, we call for the conscientious people of the Muslim world to join more proactively in humanity's efforts to eliminate terrorism. --- El Periodico de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, on terrorist tactics:
The groups linked to al-Qaeda that operate in Iraq and Saudi Arabia are using a new form of violence. The capture of foreign civilians, their murder by decapitation and diffusion of images, cease from being isolated events to become a normality. It's their new way of waging war. After last week's American engineer, now the ultimatum on the Korean translator expires.
... The objective is to blackmail the western governments and terrorize public opinions. ...
No war is clean and antiseptic. ... Facing that, the media have no right to twist -or sweeten- reality. ... ---
The Guardian, London, on sailors seized by Iran:
The fact that British boats had strayed a kilometre inside Iranian territorial waters in a narrow waterway in rough weather did not of itself provide Iran with a face-saving way of handing the sailors back.
British Iranian relations have been just as choppy as those waters in Shatt al-Arab. Both sides thought they had a deal when the Iranians agreed to reopen their nuclear program to outside inspection, in return for which Jack Straw and his counterparts from France and Germany agreed to transfer technology to support a peaceful nuclear energy program. ... Both sides were expecting too much. The inspectors found an 18-year program of concealment, which meant that Iran was well on the way to manufacturing a bomb, and Tehran found ... they were still part of Bush's axis of evil. Iranian threats to resume uranium enrichment have grown.
Both Iran and Britain have much to lose from a further fallout. Tehran has gained much from the destruction of ... Saddam. It now has a real presence among the Shia in southern Iraq, all under the noses of British troops. It wants to be treated as a bone fide regional power, not least in the sensitive waters of Shatt al-Arab. Old Europe for its part needs a diplomatic success to show Washington how delicate regional relations in the Middle East can be managed differently. It will be difficult to construct a face-saving deal. It may involve a groveling apology from Britain, but it is in the interests of both sides that oil is poured over troubled waters. --- Buenos Aires Herald, Buenos Aires, on the denied extradition of a Basque separatist: The decision of Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio against granting extradition to Spain of a militant member of the Basque separatist group ETA, Jose Maria Lariz Iriondo, on the grounds that under Argentine law the case against him in Spain has expired, poses an interesting turn of events in the judiciary and politics. And those two areas cannot overlook ... the apprehension at possible effects on Argentina's links with Spain. ... The decision ... has considerable political perceptions in that Judge Bonadio will be suspected of playing to a leftwing lobby rather than consider the magnitude of the crimes he is charged with in Spain. ... But that does not bear in mind the political and diplomatic perception that in Argentina there is a law for some that need not be applied to all. ... The local judiciary is faced with the suspicion that it stopped functioning as an independent entity and is frequently currying favor with an establishment equipped to overlook failings or improve careers. ... Judge Bonadio's finding will be seen as unfriendly by Spain and will provoke endless debate within the legal profession and diplomatic community. ---
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Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki, Finland, on the EU summit and planned constitution:
The debate about the planned constitution for the EU began immediately after the weekend summit. The points being made are the usual ones: EU-critical forces around Europe condemn the result, and governments praise it.
To estimate the actual value of the summit's outcome is made difficult by the fact that there are no precedents to compare the agreement in Brussels with.
If one is critical, a comparison could be found from years ago when the EU was supposed to be a matter of cooperation between member countries. But this view has the weakness that, with a constitution, there will be less of the kind of decision-making that always requires absolute unanimity among member countries.
One the other hand, one could compare the current results with the Nice agreement, which was confusing and temporary. In this respect, the Brussels solution clarifies the system and brings at least a minimum of understandability to the chain of decision- making.
When listening to EU critics, it's worth keeping in mind that the constitution is a significant affair. It is worth bringing it out in the open to be criticized, because many countries are headed for a referendum about it. A referendum will bring out EU critics, and they will mobilize protest votes, as they did in the EU elections. --- MORE[
GetAP 1.00 -- JUN 25, 2004 01:12:15