By New
Age Islam Edit Desk
13 January
2021
• Hazara
Constraints
By
Farhan Anwar
• The
Anti-Rape Ordinance
By
Shaikh Abdul Rasheed
•
Balochistan Killings And Regional Peace
By
Sikandar Noorani
•
Incompetence Runs Amuck: Failure To Ask What Next
By
Harlan Ullman
• The American
Cause
By Syed
Wajahat Ali
• ‘Ugly
Americans’
By Mahir
Ali
•
Balancing The Dragon In The Middle East
By
Arhama Siddiqa
------
Hazara
Constraints
By
Farhan Anwar
January 13,
2021
THE
political economy of a space is shaped by the interrelationships of its
inhabiting stakeholders cutting across social, economic, cultural and
religious-ethnic profiles. The nature of these relationships can determine the
constructs of community bonding or divisions.
I had the
opportunity of working with the Hazara community, over a period of six months
in Karachi’s Hazara Goth a couple of years ago, when I supervised an academic
research project in ‘community development’ in which my students from Habib
University were participating. We wanted to understand the livability challenges
of the community — how they prioritised their challenges, engaged with service
providers and developed coping mechanisms. It was a learning experience in
trying to unravel the multiple layers of inequity that are a defining feature
of Karachi’s urban fabric with grave implications for increased poverty and
social exclusion. With the Hazara community already in the low-income bracket,
their vulnerability to ‘social injustice’ is compounded by their religious and
ethnic identity.
Nestled
between Safari Park and Aladdin Park, the community started settling in Hazara
Goth to escape sectarian killings in Quetta around 20 to 25 years back — a
process that continues to this day. They are concentrated in Hussain Hazara
Goth and Mughal Hazara Goth. These goths were initially illegal settlements and
were regularised in 1987 by the KMC. They now share the space with communities
of other ethnicities including Sindhi, Seraiki and Pakhtun.
The civic
problems — running sewage restricting the main access to the road, uncollected
garbage, substandard health and educational facilities — here are not unique to
the Hazaras. However, unique to them are the restraints that bind them because
of their religious identity, severely limiting their capacity to improve livability
standards. The Hazara community has a disconnect with the other ethnic
communities of Hazara Goth; resultantly, they find themselves outside the loop
of any collective community effort to engage with service providers for
resolving area issues.
This communal
isolation, aggravated by their lack of political clout, results in their
‘parcels’ of land being neglected even more. Effective mobilisation is also
constrained by their relative inability to blend and connect with those outside
their ‘Hazara’ identity — both within and outside the confines of Hazara Goth.
The
government-run health and educational facilities are ill-served as qualified
staff and private practitioners outside the Hazara ethnicity are reluctant to
practise in an area identified as a security hotspot. Women have shared
disturbing incidents of severe pregnancy-related emergencies, with lives lost
due to lack of adequate healthcare and an inability to mobilise outside the
community space. Worst affected are the older residents who cannot speak any
other language but their local Dari. Having found ‘refuge’ to escape sectarian
oppression, they are afraid and reluctant to step outside the community
confines.
A lot of
time was spent in engaging with the area’s youth and women. The youth are disillusioned
about their future prospects as they feel trapped and insecure and unable to
uplift themselves academically or acquire much-needed livelihood skill sets.
Hazara community members are often even denied CNIC registration if they are
recent settlers and are not able to provide required information going beyond a
certain date. As such, for a large proportion of the community, opportunities
to find gainful employment or set up private businesses are seriously
compromised. Consequently, the community draws inwards.
Survey
findings revealed that the majority looked to their religious leaders for
solutions to day-to-day challenges, with the area imambargah becoming the
centre of dispute resolution and problem solving. None of the respondents
indicated any hope of the government coming to their rescue. The levels of
isolation are alarming, with 25 per cent of respondents saying that they prefer
to remain indoors primarily because of safety and security concerns. Almost
40pc said they visited families outside their home, while only 10pc indicated
having visited places like city malls and markets.
We often
sat with the community members, listening to their hopes and desires, sorrows
and despair. As they related stories and sung songs, and as we ate their home-cooked
food, it was lamented that the community’s strife in Karachi is reflective of a
much larger, debilitating causal factor of urban disenfranchisement. Social and
political exclusion based on religious and ethnic identity is complicating any
attempt to make Karachi an inclusive, integrated city. This is sad and
unfortunate. Other cities blessed with diverse languages, cultures, ethnicities
and religious identities celebrate this mixture and leverage it to make their
spaces more inclusive, resilient and exciting.
-----
Farhan
Anwar is an urban planner and CEO, Urban Collaborative.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1601202/hazara-constraints
----
The
Anti-Rape Ordinance
By
Shaikh Abdul Rasheed
January 13,
2021
On December
15 last year (2019), President Arif Alvi approved the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020
which is said to be in line with the constitution of Pakistan and also
international treaties.
The
government says that the legislation will ensure expeditious trial of cases of
rape against women and children and will also sanction punishment of chemical
castration of convicted rapists.
Chemical
castration requires the use of a drug to diminish testosterone levels and will
be applied as a measure to reduce recidivism among sex offenders. It is
believed that it would help decrease the risk of convicted sex offenders
repeating their crimes. The castration procedure has been used in many of the
American states to reduce deviant sexual drive, fantasies and behaviour. First
of all, California in 1996 and then other states including Florida, Louisiana
and Wisconsin made castration a provision in their laws. In 2019, Alabama
included a chemical castration measure into law. Besides, Indonesia in 2016
amending its law allowed chemical castration.
It should
be learnt that punishment of chemical castration to repeat rapists does not
solve the issue of rapes permanently. The castration procedure does not cause
sterilization and is a very temporary thing. When the chemical castration drug
is discontinued, a man becomes normal after between three and five years.
However, punishment of 10 to 25 years in prison for rape, and death penalty or
life imprisonment for gang-rape awarded under Pakistan panel code is much
better if effectively implemented.
Under the
ordinance, special courts are to be established all over the country for speedy
trials of accused sexual assailants. The courts will finalise rape cases within
four months. Incidents of rape of children and women are alarmingly on the rise
in the country. Official statistics drawn from the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, police, law and justice commission of Pakistan etc show that at least
11 rape cases are reported daily across the country. Of the overall 22,037 rape
cases reported since 2015, only 77 offenders (0.3 percent) have yet been
convicted and a huge number of 4,060 cases are still pending in the courts. The
situation necessitates the establishment of a large network of special courts
with a large number of judges to deal with newly reported and pending rape and
sexual assault cases within a time-frame set by the law.
Moreover,
Anti-Rape Crisis Cells are also to be set-up which would be empowered to
conduct medico-legal examinations within six hours of the incident. The fact is
that medical evidence occupies a pivotal role in making prosecution successful
in cases of rape and other bodily attacks. A medical examination determines the
very nature and extent of injuries and criminal charges in cases of numerous
physical attacks rely on it.
Unfortunately,
Pakistan lacks an efficient and dependable medico-legal system. Except for a
few specialized doctors in government hospitals in urban areas, mostly
unqualified doctors are assigned the task of performing medical examinations –
and they end up using inadequate methodologies and technologies. These doctors
have very little comprehension of the evidentiary scope and judicial role of
medical examinations in cases of rape and sexual attacks. As a result,
unelaborated and unexplained medical reports are submitted in courts, which
yield no fruitful results.
Moreover,
there is a lack of female medico-legal doctors in government hospitals which
leads to a number of barriers for women survivors/victims of rape and sexual
attacks. All these factors have a disturbing effect on survivors or victims who
have been unable to secure convictions in their cases in the courts. To get
productive medical reports within a set time frame, there is a desperate need
to provide medico-legal doctors with specialized training in medical statutes
and forensic sciences.
According
to the ordinance, any police and government authorities found negligent in
investigating rape cases would be awarded imprisonment for three years along
with fines. Moreover, any police and government functionaries found providing
inaccurate information would also be punished.
The fact is
that police performance in investigating reported rape cases has not been
satisfactory. Because of lack of training, police personnel have been
unprofessional with their investigative techniques. They have mainly failed to
conduct all-inclusive and well-timed investigations. Moreover, in most cases
the accused have even managed to bribe the police to tamper with witness
accounts etc. All these inconsistencies weaken cases and create complications
for the courts.
It is
commendable that the ordinance bars revealing the identification of rape
victims and declares it a punishable offence. In this regard, the media,
police, forensic officials and social media users should show some empathy in
protecting the identity of rape victims. It has been commonly observed that
victims of sexual crimes are discriminated against and targeted by society
after their identification is disclosed. There is an utmost need to respect
rape survivors/victims’ right to privacy and a dignity of life. They must not
spend the rest of their lives under such social stigma.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/773238-the-anti-rape-ordinance
------
Balochistan
Killings And Regional Peace
By
Sikandar Noorani
January 13,
2021
Frequent
terrorist attacks in Balochistan need to be deliberately deciphered in true
context of prevailing complex regional scenario. Seven FC soldiers were
martyred in a fire raid in Harnai area on 26 December. Eight days after this
incident, terrorists brutally murdered eleven coal miners in Machh.
It is no
coincidence that all victim miners belonged to Shia Hazara community which
already has a tragic past on account of target killings and terrorism. As the
responsibility of miners’ killings was claimed by Daesh, it became evident that
terrorists intended to fuel the sectarian fire. It is worth noting that an
attack on border post in Mohmand from Afghan territory also resulted in
martyrdom of a Pak soldier on 6 January. Some intriguing points need to be
carefully analysed prior to adopting requisite remedial measures. This seems
more than evident that extra-ordinary thrust is being directed towards
Balochistan by the hardcore terrorist outfits. Two pronged strategy of these
terrorist groups revolve around contentious ethnic and sectarian slogans.
These
terrorist groups involved in heinous crimes are operating in remote areas of
Balochistan on the behest of Indian agencies. Long unguarded border with
Afghanistan and an inefficient policing system are the two major weaknesses
being exploited frequently by the foreign sponsored miscreants. There can be no
second opinion on this conclusion that Balochistan is primarily in Indian
cross-hairs due to the CPEC. Old tested weapons of ethnic hatred and sectarian
violence are being applied with full force to inflict a wider security crisis
on Pakistan.
Balochistan
is being projected as a hub of insurgency, militancy, ethnic discord and
sectarian violence by all those players who believe in containment of China in
entire region. Few sensitive developments on regional chessboard are too
obvious to ignore. Quad forum was activated by US with a clear anti-China focus
in past few months. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo uttered clearly in Tokyo
that Quad forum would strive to counter and contain the Chinese ingress in the
region. Subsequently, joint naval exercises of Quad countries hosted by India
further confirmed the contours of a larger conflict shaping up among global
players. India has many understandable reasons to be in front row of US led
anti-China campaign. Months long military stand-off at LAC could be easily
resolved at initial stages following the past precedence but a meaningful
escalation was preferred over settlement by New Delhi. Since reservations on CPEC and BRI were never
kept hidden by India therefore increasing aggression at LoC, rising frequency
of terrorism in Balochistan and attacks by hard-core terrorist groups from
Afghan soil pose extra-ordinary challenges to Pakistan.
Despite
many good signs, Afghan peace process has not yet accelerated towards desired
destination. Meaningful surge in violence during past six months has largely
compromised the spirit of Taliban-US peace deal signed in last February. While
striving hard for restoration of Afghan peace, Pakistan is facing
multi-dimensional security problems having deep roots across the Durand line.
Certain elements in Kabul government are in habit of unnecessarily pointing
fingers on Pakistan for their self-created crises.
An
introspection is much needed in Kabul to evaluate the peace balance sheet in
true relevance to regional security matrix. Why Kabul government has failed in
eliminating the terrorist groups involved in high profile attacks in Pakistan?
Though bi-lateral trade should be enhanced but Illegal border crossing from
Afghanistan needs to be strictly curbed. Apparently, heart wrenching incident
of coal miners’ killing in Machh has significant links with unrest in
Afghanistan. Reportedly, eight out of eleven killed miners are Afghan nationals
who used to earn livelihood through hard labor in coal mines.
Daesh,
which claimed the responsibility of Machh killings, is vigorously active in
Afghanistan where it launched some gruesome terrorist attacks during past few
months. Unfortunately, in Pakistan attention was diverted to protest sit-in and
unexpected delay in PM’s symbolic condolence visit to mourning Hazaras. Much
complex dimensions of rising terrorism in Balochistan are yet to be evaluated.
Government should be quick in drawing pertinent lessons from recent situation.
Delay in symbolic condolence visit and undesired sectarian shading unwittingly
served the purpose of enemies. Few days back, entire Indian media attempted to
malign Pakistan by creating hype on mysterious death of a self-exiled female
Baloch activist in Canada. Her name was also blinking in EU Disinfo Lab report
among those characters who were part of Indian fake news network poised against
Pakistan. Terrorism, propaganda campaigns, ethnic violence and sectarian
division are all aimed to destabilize the Pakistan. Decision making quarters
should lay deeper focus on foreign
hands involved in spoiling the internal affairs. How do Afghan nationals manage
to live illegally on Pak soil? Why do certain organizations take control of
protest after such heart wrenching terrorist attacks and add sectarian colors
to collective tragedies? It must be understood that terrorism in Pakistan has
been significantly reduced but its cross-border roots still exist.
There should not be any discrimination or
differentiation among the victims of terrorism on the basis of ethnicity, sect
and religion. Terrorist actually target Pakistan once they kill Hazara coal
miners in Machh, FC personnel in Harnai and
army soldiers at LoC as well as Afghan border. Routine blame game and
verbosity must be avoided by political leadership at the occasions of
collective mourning. Major onus of keeping the matters smooth and calm lies on
the shoulders of ruling regime. Recent terrorism wave in Pakistan and
Afghanistan must not be misinterpreted by viewing it with a smaller lens. A
joint Pak-Afghan counter strategy seems only
viable option against the hardcore terrorist outfits and Indian backed
proxies presently working freely from Afghan soil.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/712618/machh-killings-and-regional-peace/
-----
Incompetence
Runs Amuck: Failure To Ask What Next
By
Harlan Ullman
January 13,
2021
Is the U.S.
government capable of exercising any degree of competence? Or has incompetence
become the new standard? In terms of
going to war, the last war America decisively won was World War II. Vietnam, Afghanistan and the second Iraq War
were varying degrees of disaster. The
incompetence in those wars was not asking the what next question?
In Vietnam,
the body count and killing our way to victory became the de facto strategy
embodied by “search and destroy.” The
Afghan assault was to bring Osama bin Laden to justice and mutated into nation
building. Similarly, after the Iraqi
Army was smashed in 2003, the Bush ’43 administration never asked or answered
what next?
This
failure has spread well beyond the use of military force. In the fight to contain the Corona/Covid-19
pandemic, the private sector was brilliant in producing vaccines with breathtaking
speed. But the Federal government and
Operation Warp Speed based its strategy on manufacturing and distributing
hundreds of millions of vaccine doses.
Its
incompetence was failing to understand that the aim should have been to
inoculate about 300 million Americans by delivering shots into arms. Yet, production and distribution and not
inoculation of vaccines took precedence.
That was an extraordinary failure.
The January
6th riots and the takeover of the nation’s Capitol seemed inconceivable. After the attacks of September 11th,
protection of the nation became a top priority on which hundreds of billions of
dollars were spent. And still, with all
the advance warning about protestors and insurrectionists incited by Donald
Trump, that the Capitol was undefended
and unprepared is a colossal and singular act of incompetence.
Is the
United States any better prepared for January 20th and the inauguration than
for January 6th when calls for a “million man MAGA march” are circulating on
the Internet and social media? We will
see. One guess is that while the Mall
and Capitol Hill may be well guarded, what if rioters choose a location such as
the White House, Treasury, FBI or other government building to assault? Is the U.S. prepared?
The more
important question however is “what next” for Donald Trump? The 25th Amendment will not be invoked;
Trump will most likely not be censured.
And he surely will not resign.
The House will impeach and wisely should defer sending charges to the
Senate making the threat of a trial into a Damolcean sword hanging over Trump’s
head as leverage.
Then, what
must be done after January 20th when Trump leaves office? Current polls show Trump still has an
approval rating of about 43%, a figure
that has been more or less constant over the past four years. Beyond that,
about 75% of Republicans have declared greater loyalty to Trump than to
the Party.
General
Colin Powell believes that once Trump is gone, his relevance will decline. One hopes that the general is correct. However, ironically, it would not be
surprising to see a boost in support of Trump by his base as the House moves to
impeach.
Make no
mistake: the Constitution is at grave
risk. As this column has argued, a
system of checks and balances with a highly divided government and public can only work if civility and compromise are in
evidence. Both are not. And both parties
seem intractably divided.
The GOP is
the TOP—Trump’s Own Party. Democrats are split with a hard left-wing progressive
element and others demanding to bring Trump to justice in which impeachment may
not be a sufficient punishment. While
mainstream Senate Republicans are furious with Trump’s conduct, no clear
consensus has developed on what actions are appropriate and which are not.
First,
preventing Trump from holding any future Federal office is an imperative. But a trial in the Senate now would prevent
other business such as Covid relief and critical legislation from being
considered. As suggested, using
impeachment as a lever might be a better outcome.
Second,
what Donald Trump plans once he leaves office cannot be dismissed. Banned from Twitter does not mean Trump
cannot create his own Internet platform or acquire a media company from which
he can rally his base, send his message and claim a landslide electoral victory
of which he was cheated.
Third, the
vulnerability of government to physical disruption must be addressed. This column has argued that a new MAD—Massive
Attacks of Disruption—must become central to our national security strategy to
contain, prevent and deter it. January
6th could not have more strongly made this case.
But will
competence and common sense win out? If history is prologue, the nation is in
trouble.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/712626/incompetence-runs-amuck-failure-to-ask-what-next/
------
The
American Cause
By
Syed Wajahat Ali
January 13,
2021
What
happened at Capitol hill was not unexpected.The American republicanism clamping
downunderthe burdenof its ethnographic diversity?The preposition is farfetched
keeping in view the history ofsystemic resilience of this nation to preserve
democracy passing through the fourth century of political ups and downs-a
journey of immense polarization and bloodshed. Neither the crises nor the
events are new to those who keep an eye over the complex variables involved in
the assimilation process of human identitiesstretchedin a
consumingcorporateinequality-The US
Everybody
condemned it. In the wake of an assault on the Congress Wednesday, 11
government officials resigned including Betsy DeVos: Education secretary,
Elaine Chao: Transportation secretary, Tyler Goodspeed: Acting chairman, White
House Council of Economic Advisers,and John Costello: Deputy assistant
secretary for intelligence and security, Commerce Department.The House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi called for the impeachment of Mr. Trump against the charge of
“incitement of insurrection”, instigating a riot in Congress in which five
people died.
The
systemic resilienceresponded well. However,the inadequacies in the political
discourse allowing space for racialpopulism to steer the greatest military
might of the world need a fair analysis, confession, and fixation. It is
important to securetheprospects of the millions of detached migrants
contributing to the American Big; being declared as “The Strength of Diversity”
by Hillary Clinton. “I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman
from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather. I am married to
a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners –I
have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins, of every race and
every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will
never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible
“stated by Mr. Barak Obama during his speech on race, March 18, 2018.
Moreover,
it is also important to safeguard the universalityof a greater cause best
explained by Thomas Paine (1737-1809) in his pamphlet “The Common Sense” during
the struggle for independence. He stated “The cause of America is, in a great
measure, the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have and will arise,
which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all
lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are
interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war
against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders
thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature
hath given the power of feeling”.
The
American cause extracts legacy from John Locke’s theory of natural rights[1];
the father of classic Liberalism, incorporated by Thomas Jefferson (1743
–1826)in the preamble of the declaration of independence adopted on the 4th of
July 1776 as, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.
The second
phase of the struggle for this cause-The American Civil War consumed “750,000
human lives perished on the battlefield and from disease; a tragedy of
disastrous proportions; termed as convulsiveness” by Walt Whitman, 1882, the
American poet of liberty, an empathetic observer of that time in his book
Specimen Days.The consequent politicaltransformationimpacted the world’s
constitutional structures governing states and organizations. The United States
championed the race of free will, democracy, and human rights for decades.
However, a
substantial projection of the highest ingenuity to thiscausecan only sustain
the legacy. The US foreign and domestic policy contradictions, expanded
military outreach, decreasing social stratification, and above all, trading and
fueling world conflictsconsolidated a fear-driven identity populism by making
social well-being more competitive. A report from the Watson Institute of
International and Public Affairs at Brown University estimated a 6.4 Trillion
Dollars burden on tax-payers due to wars in the Middle East and Asia. That
total is $2 trillion more than the entire federal government spending during
the last completed fiscal year.
The
contradiction between the notion of political correctness and the growing income
gradient stimulated “Trump Populism” to make America a “white utopia” again.
The successful dispensation of high ideals of inclusiveness, equality, and
globalism needs delicate handling of human instincts, demanding employment,
accessible health, and racial stratification. The unfinished business of a
greater American nationalism needs a scientific re-orientation of national
resource allocation policy.
The rise of
Trump is not simply the retreat of considerable Americans from the lofty ideals
of their forefathers, rather it is an argumentatively exploited insecurity,
multiplied by the influx of migrants from all over the world. The pluralism
envisaged in Civil Rights Acts 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 is crumbling.
The polity split is dreadful again. The polarization is not about the execution
policy, rather it is about the existential concepts; what is the scope of the
confederacy? Who is an American?
The
greatest challenge for the president-elect Mr. Joe Biden is how to contract the
corroborating spaceused for authoritarianism? The highest rhetoric demands the
highest action. The Americans must know that democracy is not so durable to
throw anything towards it.The most challenging task is to fix the constraints
compelling a large chunk of the American polity to find peace in the final
argument ofidentity, an integral instinct of human conscious, which if not
checked timely, can turn into an identity crisis, having no logical remedy but
a catastrophic convulsiveness of the whole national fabric.
https://dailytimes.com.pk/712625/the-american-cause/
-----
‘Ugly
Americans’
By
Mahir Ali
January 13,
2021
THE Ugly
American is the title of a 1958 novel by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick. It
is a lightly fictionalised account of US diplomatic failures in Southeast Asia
that became a runaway bestseller and was distributed among his colleagues by a
young senator by the name of John F. Kennedy.
The title
refers not to the diplomatic corps but to an engineer who lived among the
locals and understood why they were attracted to communism; it nonetheless
rapidly became a byword for American arrogance abroad. The novel was set in a
country called Sarkhan, which was assumed to represent Vietnam — well before it
turned into a full-fledged disaster, partly thanks to precisely the kinds of
bluster and betrayals portrayed in the book.
It is
claimed that The Ugly American played a key role in persuading Kennedy, as
president, to launch the Peace Corps. The book was turned into a worthy (but
unsuccessful) film starring Marlon Brando the same year that JFK was
assassinated. Within days of the murder, Malcolm X, defying an order from the
Nation of Islam hierarchy to make no comment about the tragedy, called it out
as an instance of “chickens coming home to roost”.
I was
reminded of that remark when I came across one of the jokes doing the rounds in
the wake of last week’s antics at the Capitol in Washington, which said that in
view of current travel restrictions, the US had been obliged to attempt a
domestic coup.
And yes,
it’s not hard to imagine the glee among many of those who have been loudly
decrying the invasion of the hallowed chambers of Congress in Washington had
similar events unfolded, for instance, at the Venezuelan national assembly in
Caracas.
There have,
inevitably, been plenty of wisecracks since last Wednesday’s events, but they
have been drowned out by the relentless self-righteous hyperbole about coups,
insurrections, sedition and domestic terrorism, capped by the disclaimer that
“this is not us”.
Whether or
not any of the other descriptions hold much water, ‘this’ is undoubtedly a
large part of who you are. Sure, the mob inspired, instigated and unleashed by
Donald Trumpelstiltskin was seeking to thwart democratic processes. But since
when has it been un-American to do so?
The long
list of postwar US interventions, military or otherwise, in every part of the
world suggests that murder and mayhem in the interests of subverting the
popular will is as American as apple pie. But there’s no dearth of domestic
precedents either, even though they have invariably taken different shape.
The
19th-century American Civil War and its aftermath have repeatedly been cited in
comments over the past week, and not without cause. The sight of a Confederate
flag fluttering for the first time in the Capitol justifiably stirred up some
angst. (Incidentally, there were also Israeli and Indian flags — at least one
each — seen among the congregation, while one of the Capitol invaders was
dressed in a hoodie that bore the legend ‘Camp Auschwitz’.)
But it’s
hardy a secret that the Confederate cause has remained a part of American
politics ever since a very different Republican Party’s attempted Reconstruction
shuddered to a halt a dozen or so years after the Union triumphed in the Civil
War. Liberated slaves and their descendants were effectively excluded from the
electoral process — and frequently from civic life — for the next 100 years.
There was a
similar, albeit more subtle, backlash after the civil rights movement scored
some legislative successes in the 1960s. Particularly in the southern states,
varying levels of voter suppression have been the norm in recent decades. Which
makes it all the more remarkable that Georgia has been wrested from the
Republican grasp in this month’s senatorial run-offs, albeit by narrow margins.
The two new
seats mean the Senate will be equally divided between Republicans and
Democrats, with incoming vice president Kamala Harris’s casting vote giving the
Biden administration a potential majority. Hurrah? It has been suggested Joe
Biden would rather have done without the extra pressure to act on any number of
fronts that a congressional majority brings.
The early
days after next Wednesday’s inauguration may be overshadowed by Trump’s trial
in the Senate, once his second impeachment — a proud record, no doubt —
proceeds through the house. Beyond that there’s a period as grey as Biden’s
hair, and although the incoming administration will likely be far less
incompetent than the outgoing one, it would be too optimistic to expect the
healing touch that America requires, let alone the kind of salvation that would
repair the damage that Trump has thrived on, wreaked almost without a break
since the Reagan era.
The
dystopian nightmare may noticeably recede with Tantrump’s exit, but it’s
unlikely to disappear. Not least because, to paraphrase the sudden social media
pariah, there are very ugly Americans on both sides of the overwrought (and
overestimated) partisan divide.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1601201/ugly-americans
------
Balancing
the Dragon In The Middle East
By
Arhama Siddiqa
January 12,
2021
In the past
few years, particularly after hacks on official Qatari websites in 2017 had
triggered the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) worst crisis (Qatar-Gulf
crunch), countries in the Middle East region, particularly the Gulf, have made
extensive efforts to assemble and establish their cyber capacities. Guaranteed
and continuous cyber cooperation is now deemed a requisite to effectively
counter and monitor threats such as those pertaining to hybrid warfare,
supervising terrorist movements and monitoring financial activities.
Today, no
relationship is more consequential for the future of world politics as that
between the United States and China. The pivot of the growing distrust between
the two countries (which already encompasses trade and technology) is now
shifting towards the cyber realm. In 2018, the US National Security Strategy
(NSS) labelled China as antipathetic; and in 2020, the Trump administration
revealed the Clean Network Initiative (CNI), a digitated trade zone which aims
to protect data privacy and human rights by introducing its own Global Data
Security Initiative. Unsurprisingly, it dismisses and discounts all Chinese
companies. This also adds fuel to the concept of ‘splinternet’ where now the
internet — once regarded as a universal common joint — is now becoming, amidst
all the intricacies in global politics, a labyrinth of conflicting rules. It is
in this maze that both the US and China are hastening to draw in as many states
as they can.
Presently,
the GCC countries have developed a diverse portfolio of technology partners
which include both Chinese and Western firms. Such balancing acts can be seen
throughout the GCC energy and transport sectors as well. Chinese companies
include Huawei, which is involved in the establishment and growth of 5G
networks by both Etisalat and DU in the Emirates. Ericsson, IBM, Microsoft and
Nokia are some of the companies on the Western front where the digital
infrastructure of the GCC is concerned.
Of course,
as it stands, the CNI will leave the GCC states with no other alternative but
to choose a side amidst the growing friction between the US and China. While
the latter’s non-interference policy in regional affairs and internal conflicts
is appealing, it should not be forgotten that the US has been and continues to
be the main security guarantor for these states.
However, in
light of his picks for the foreign and security policy posts, it seems that the
incoming Biden administration will avoid turning China into an outright
adversary while at the same time usher in GCC states under the cover of the
CNI. This portends a dilemma for Washington, given that there are growing calls
for ending US support to certain states over human rights concerns which will
easily push these states towards China. Moreover, if GCC countries are not part
of CNI, it would jeopardise the US ability to work with these states on key
security matters.
For the GCC
states, failing to abandon their partnerships with Chinese companies could
limit their own security guarantees provided by the US which would make them
more susceptible to growing outside threats given the heightened tensions in
the region.
It should
also not be forgotten that choosing the US could push China closer to Iran and
especially when the two sides are said to be embarking on a $400 billion
strategic partnership, though this is yet to be officially confirmed from
Chinese officials. Time will tell what 2021 will herald in but without a doubt
the Middle East will be the new battlefront for the eagle and the dragon.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2279699/balancing-the-dragon-in-the-middle-east
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