Opinions from the region June 2008
Pakistan
I am standing here
Proceedings from the Supreme Court of Pakistan of a hearing on a contempt-of-court notice to Geo News Bureau Chief Absar Alam and the Jang Group of Newspapers, 13 May 2008
Absar Alam: I would like to answer this question as it relates to me [Absar said while pointing to Justice Nawaz Abbasi]. My understanding is this that if there is something or news about some judge, and that judge is a party in that case, that judge should not sit on the bench hearing the same case. [Loud and prolonged clapping.] As you have personal grievances, you shouldn’t hear this case. You are imposing yourself on us. This is unfair. We will not keep quiet. This is our constitutional right. We will keep on speaking for our right, and no one can stop us. If you want to punish me, punish me now. I am standing here. But don’t snatch our constitutional rights from us!
Justice Nawaz Abbasi: Do you want that you abuse judges and they keep quiet?
AA: I am standing here. If you prove that Geo TV has abused you, I will resign immediately. But if it is not proved, then you should tell, what will you…
JNA: You should tell, and prove, that if some judge met with someone or not, why you published and aired the news.
AA: I will consult my lawyer. I will prove it. I can prove many other things too. You are a party in this case. How can you become a judge in this case?
Matiullah Jaan [journalist]: Sir, you are suppressing the media freedom by making a wrong case. We journalists will never bow before such tactics of gagging the media. We don’t accept all this. The court is a party now. [Again a loud cheer.]
– The News
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The Maldives
Maldives marred
If ever you want to see a government at the mercy of criminals, you are looking at one in the Maldives. At the moment, around 200 or so prisoners in the Kaafu atoll Maafushi Jail are on a hunger strike. The prisoners simply refused to eat, alleging discrimination against them. The vast majority of inmates in the Maldivian jails are in for crimes related to drugs abuse and small-time dealings. Some of the militia who orchestrate these drug dealings have impunity, because the regime takes immense political capital by using crimes and criminals.
Crime has been on the rise in this quiet corner of the world, which has been free from major crimes in the past. Over the past two years, escalating street fights have resulted in injury to people, damage to property, and have resulted in loss of life to a number of people – mostly young people. These incidents cannot be said to have been the result of a spontaneous quarrel but was clearly premeditated, and presumably resulting from serial street-gang fights and rivalries rampant in Male, with its huge population of bored, despairing and restless youth.
It has also been alleged that some big shots have a hand behind the street violence. Street gangs have revealed, without naming specific persons or parties, that they have been paid and encouraged to sow discord. And when violent crimes take place, these big shots quietly leave the country – and only return when the media limelight subsides. Hence, there is reason to believe that the current street violence, sponsored by some politicians and businesspersons, have hidden personal agendas, whatever those agendas may be.
It is therefore quite obvious that the rising violent and organised crimes, as well as petty crimes, will only cease with the departure of Dictator Gayoom. We need a government that is responsible and effective in implementing the rule of law. We need a government whose main objective is to serve the people, and provide them with social security and justice. Dictator Gayoom and his cronies have failed miserably, and it is time for a fresh beginning.
– Mohamed Bushry, Dhivehi Observer blog
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Afghanistan
Dear Kabul,
I know I’ve been mean to you in the past few days, and saying mean things about you. This is mainly because I’ve been feeling unwell. I’ve vented myself on your people, your roads, your tailors because they’ve not attended to my bridesmaid’s dresses. I don’t like your boys and men because they pester women. I don’t like your waters because it makes me sick. Not to mention the dust and pollution – oh, and the mud too, ruining my new shoes.
I don’t like your worthless currency shifting from the hands of the rich to the poor, bringing joy to neither. I don’t like your male-dominated society, where even if men do wrong, it’s still okay. I don’t like the way women have to scream to be heard, but men simply whisper and everything falls their way. The most heinous acts have been committed on your land, Kabul, yet you fail to do anything about it. Men have tortured women for decades, are you blind to see?
Your vicious winters, so cruel to the homeless.
Regardless of all this, you share my misery. Don’t think I haven’t appreciated it, because I have, I’ve noticed your clouds grieve as I hurt, sharing my pain. Grey and gloomy skies agree with my unspoken words. Your rains shed like my agonising tears, but when the sun rises and your tears stop – it all starts again. It pains me as I try to smile, a broken smile.
Your cruel mountains, so fierce, yet so sympathetic.
You’ve been cruel to be kind, I know my sorrowful companion will bring me joy. God has promised us that when he closes a door, he will open a window. My eyes are too wet to see a window, I need to stop crying to find my way.
Until then I will continue my quest for that window.
– Atash Parcha, Rejuvenation of an Afghan Soul blog
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Burma
Nobody can remember a storm so big…
Eyewitness report from Rangoon
I am in my apartment overlooking an area of about one square kilometre. Until Friday night it was covered with trees. Now all I see is a scene of utter devastation. Hundreds of trees are uprooted, houses smashed by falling trees and roofs gone with the wind.
I came home late on Friday night in the middle of torrential rains and gusty winds. But that was a prelude to what was yet to come. Around 2:00 am the cyclone hit with full force, to the sound of breaking trees, crashing of metal roofs and howling wind and rain. By 6:00 am, the first light of day began filtering in. I watched trees crash, one after another. Mango and banyan trees over 50 years old came down burying houses, smashing roofs, water tanks and blocking roads. By 12 noon it was all over. Overnight Yangon has been turned into a disaster zone. There is no electricity or water, roads are blocked, virtually no transportation is available, and prices of petrol, water and food are skyrocketing.
People are wandering along unlit streets late into the night, searching for water or a place to shower. The roof of Yangon General Hospital is severely damaged, there is no electricity or water. Patients awaiting urgent surgery have been sent home. A few lucky with generators have electricity, but diesel is already in short supply. The price of diesel rose from USD 4 before the storm to USD 12 yesterday. Meanwhile, the price of drinking water has quadrupled and food is getting scarce. Most shops are closed as employees find it difficult to get to their workplaces. Apart from roads being blocked by falling trees, most of the buses and taxis are stranded on the roads for want of gas.
And for all that, the military is noticeably absent. Except of some publicity stunts involving the Yangon Regional Military commander directing soldiers with chainsaws to cut trees, the clearing-up work is largely left to civilians and monks. They try cleaning up with machetes and small hand tools. But what they cannot do is restore electricity supply. Thousands of electricity poles, streetlights, traffic lights and loose cables are lying across the roads, obstructing traffic. To make matters worse, most of the public water supply depends on electric pumps.
People are furious at the military. They cynically comment, Only after we have done all the work, the government officials, generals, soldiers, militia and all will show up and boast of their good work and rapid action. Unlike in the West, there are no emergency shelters here, and schools or public buildings are not opened up to take in the homeless; neither is there emergency aid of rice or water for the storm affected.
Myanmar was totally unprepared for the cyclone. On Friday, no more than vague rumours were heard in Yangon about a big storm coming its way. The information came mostly from international satellite channels. Late on Friday, the Myanmar government issued a mild storm warning, and cautioned about rising tide. The information never reached the villages in the vast Irrawaddy Delta. Already one is hearing talk of several hundred thousand victims.
Nobody in Yangon can remember a storm as big as this.
– Mizzima News
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Nepal
End of the show
Oh what a circus! Oh what a show!
Kathmandu has gone to town
Over the death of an act called monarchy
We’ve all gone crazy
Mourning all day and mourning all night
Falling over ourselves to get all
Of the misery right
He had his moments – he had some style
The best show in town was the crowd
Outside the Naryan Hiti crying, Happy Birthday!
But that’s all gone now
As soon as the smoke from the funeral clears
We’re all going to see and how they did nothing for years!
Oh what an exit! That’s how to go!
When they’re ringing your curtain down
Demand to be buried like monarchy
It’s quite a sunset
And good for the country in a roundabout way
We’ve made the front page of all the world’s papers today
Show business kept us all alive
Since 1 June 2001
But the star has gone, the glamour’s worn thin
That’s a pretty bad state for a state to be in
You let down your people, Monarchy
You were supposed to have been immortal
That’s all they wanted
Not much to ask for
But in the end you could not deliver
Sing you fools? But you got it wrong
Enjoy your prayers because you haven’t got long
Your Royalty is dead, your Koirala is through
Freedoms not coming back to you!
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