SACW - 29 June 2011 / Aung San Suu Kyi on liberty / Sri Lanka Militarisation / India: world bank in the soup; Privacy; Corruption; Police intimidates Anhad; Communal violence bill; superstitious practices
Harsh K
aiindex at gmail.com
Tue Jun 28 16:32:37 EDT 2011
South Asia Citizens Wire - 29 June 2011 - No. 2718
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Contents:
I.
+ Aung San Suu Kyi - BBC Reith Lecture 2011
+ Pakistan: activists of the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami strike terror at Punjab university - statement by HRCP
+ India: Public Statement against Planning Commission engaging the World Bank to review pro-poor programs
+ Sexual Abuse of South Asian Women Workers at ’Classic’ Factory in Jordan
+ India: Reducing the corruption issue to a farce (Praful Bidwai)
+ India: A video reportage on Maruti automobile workers strike of June 2011
+ The Russians in Afghanistan - book reviews (Tariq Ali)
+ Pakistan: Take Action against Jirga’s That Triger Violence Against Women - Statement by National Commission on the Status of Women
+ India: Statement and petition against police killings in Assam on 22 June 2011
+ Bangladesh: restoring secular Constitution (Haroon Habib)
+ India: A bill to settle a terrible debt (Siddharth Varadarajan)
+ MF Husain was driven into exile by a hatred that has been allowed to flourish in Britain too
+ India: Our grief, our shame (Mani Shankar Aiyar)
+ The Emergency in India: Now, which is which? (Jawed Naqvi)
+ Convenient omission of the inconvenient truth: A critique of Mr. Narendra Modi’s Book on Gujarat’s Response To Climate Change’ (Rohit Prajapati)
+ India needs a national law against witch hunts and other superstitious practices (Hemchhaya De)
II. [Selected Full Text Content Follows]
India - Gujarat: Police Comes Knocking To Intimidate Anhad
Sri Lanka: The military follows where the politicians lead - Politicos to blame for militarisation (Kumar David)
India: Privacy And Security Can Co-Exist (Sunil Abraham)
Pakistan: The space for secularism in the national narrative (Tazeen Javed)
Egypt: Cometh the Islamists
Statement in relation to the outlawing of the Copenhagen Free University
Dangerous Distortions: Anti-Abortion Fascists and Third World Allies (ikivu Hutchinson and Diane Arellano)
III. [Selected recent content from Communalism Watch]
The Tyrant who rules over the Dawoodi Bohras
Maharashtra's Far right chauvinists in bed with a regional Dalit party
Advani's convoluted logic on Kashmir
Ramdev’s vigilantism has echoes from Latin America ?
Excerpts from the 25-page chargesheet - the Samjhauta plot
Don’t underplay top RSS leader's role in Samjhauta blast
Holy Shit - obscurantist politicians in Karnataka turn to god of land and property disputes
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I.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Aung San Suu Kyi - BBC Reith Lecture 2011
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Aung San Suu Kyi discusses what freedom means in the first of her 2011 Reith Lectures, entitled Liberty. The Burmese pro-democracy leader reflects on her own experience under house arrest in Burma, exploring the universal human aspiration to be free and the spirit which drives people to (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2171.html
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+ Pakistan: activists of the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami strike terror at Punjab university - statement by HRCP
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The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed alarm at torture against students of Punjab University’s Philosophy Department by armed activists allegedly belonging to Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) on 26 June 2011.
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2170.html
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+ India: Public Statement against Planning Commission engaging the World Bank to review pro-poor programs
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The Planning Commission of Government of India commissioning the World Bank to review key anti-poverty schemes of the government such as Public Distribution System (PDS), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Rashtriya Suraksha Bima Yojana (RSBY), Indira Awaas (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2169.html
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+ Sexual Abuse of South Asian Women Workers at ’Classic’ Factory in Jordan
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A report by Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights to expose and halt the regular rape of young Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi women workers at a garment factory (part of Classic Group of factories) in Jordan that is owned by an Indian and managed by a Sri (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2168.html
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+ India: Reducing the corruption issue to a farce
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The Indian government’s first-ever effort to accommodate civil society concerns on corruption has ended. This was a roller-coaster ride for the government-civil society joint drafting committee on the Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill. It left both sides injured. The two will present their separate (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2167.html
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+ India: A video reportage on Maruti automobile workers strike of June 2011
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Newsclick presents a feature on the recently concluded 13 day strike action by workers in the Maruti Suzuki Manesar factory near Gurgaon, Haryana. Exclusive footage of workers on tool down protest, interviews are presented here. This feature chronicles the major events during the 13 days of the (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2166.html
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+ The Russians in Afghanistan
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Tariq Ali’s book review of Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89 by Rodric Braithwaite and A Long Goodbye: The Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Artemy Kalinovsky
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2165.html
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+ Pakistan: Take Action against Jirga’s That Triger Violence Against Women - Statement by National Commission on the Status of Women
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The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) is shocked and horrified at the recent incident in Mardan, where a young girl was first brutally stoned and later shot to death. This is the most gruesome act of violence against women in the country. This violent action was taken on the (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2164.html
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+ India: Statement and petition against police killings in Assam on 22 June 2011
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On 22nd June 2011, at around noon, the Assam police opened fire, killing four, on a demonstration led by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) - a peasant organization of Assam. The protesters were demanding a halt to a massive ongoing eviction drive for more than a week around the hills in the (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2163.html
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+ Bangladesh: restoring secular Constitution
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For the first time after 1975, Bangladesh has got the opportunity to correct calculated distortions to its original Constitution framed in 1972, following independence of former East Pakistan. The ruling grand alliance, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, holds a three-fourths majority in (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2162.html
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+ A bill to settle a terrible debt
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For decades, the victims of communal and targeted violence have been denied protections of law that the rest of us take for granted. It’s time to end this injustice.
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2161.html
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+ MF Husain was driven into exile by a hatred that has been allowed to flourish in Britain too
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The BBC marked the death of MF Husain last Thursday by giving a Mayfair gallery curator a 30-second soundbite to describe one of the best artists of our time. The best tribute Britain could give Husain would be for the Royal Academy to organise a major retrospective of his art and include in (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2160.html
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+ Our grief, our shame
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I never met M.F. Husain. And I am not among those lucky ones, of whom there are quite a few, who received as a priceless gift from him a sketch or a drawing to hang with pride on their walls.
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2159.html
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+ The Emergency in India: Now, which is which?
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Indira Gandhi suspended constitutional guarantees and imposed Emergency at midnight on June 25, 1975. This will be discussed yet again on Saturday in seminar halls across India. However, the equally important international context of the landmark event is not viewed as (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2158.html
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+ Convenient omission of the inconvenient truth: A critique of Mr. Narendra Modi’s Book on Gujarat’s Response To Climate Change’
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Book by Mr. Narendra Modi - ‘CONVENIENT ACTION – Gujarat’s Response To Challenges of Climate Change’ has conveniently ignored the level of irreversible environmental degradation in the State of Gujarat. Convenient omission of the inconvenient truth and reality in the (...)
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2157.html
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+ India needs a national law against witch hunts and other superstitious practices
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The Rajasthan government has introduced a draft bill to tackle the social evil of witch hunts. However, a national law aimed at eradicating the practice may be more effective, argues Hemchhaya De
-> http://www.sacw.net/article2156.html
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II. [Selected Full Text Content Follows]
http://www.anhadin.net/article138.html
[India- Gujarat] POLICE COMES KNOCKING TO INTIMIDATE ANHAD
Press Release
Anhad formed in 2003 in response to the Gujarat carnage of 2002 and the blatant killing of over 2000 Muslims, raping of hundreds of women and dislocating over 150,000 families in the wake of the state sponsored carnage has been working in Gujarat for the past eight years.
It has fought for the rights of the internally displaced, for 2002 victims, it was in the forefront of getting POTA repealed and getting the 2002 victims compensation package from the central government.
Anhad has stood up for the human rights violations of every section of the people including women, Dalits, adivasis and Minorities in Gujarat. It has also extensively intervened with the youth and have organised hundreds of programmes covering every single district of Gujarat to spread the message of peace, communal harmony, to safeguard the Indian Constitution which has been under attack in Gujarat, has fought for the freedom of expression in Gujarat.
Anhad has constantly celebrated cultural pluralism and composite culture and have organised huge programmes in Gujarat.
Today two policemen came knocking at Anhad office from Shahpur police station around 2pm.
Our State coordinator Manisha Trivedi was present at the office.
They intimidated her by saying that Anhad is doing anti-state activities here. Does your landlord know that you are running an office here which is anti-state and government, giving a clear indication that they would pressurise the landlord to ask Anhad to vacate the office space.
They took down Manisha’s home address, telephone and names of everyone who works in Anhad, their parents name and addresses.
They further said you are supporting Sanjeev Bhatt who is against Modi.
We want to ask several questions from the State Government:
1. Have you declared an independent country where the Indian Constitution doesn’t apply?
2. If the Indian Constitution allows freedom of speech, protest , descent then how come it is not allowed in Gujarat.
Gujarat government is constantly tragetting upright officers and any officer who dare to stand against the state is intimidated, anyone, any organisation coming in defence of such officers is intimidated.
We want the amicus curie and the Supreme Court to take note of the fact that any form of dissent is crushed in Gujarat.
We strongly condemn this intimidation by the State police and wish to inform the state of Gujarat to lay its hands off from civil society groups who are working for justice and equality of every citizen.
Shabnam Hashmi June 28, 2011
o o o
The Island, June 25, 2011
THE MILITARY FOLLOWS WHERE THE POLITICIANS LEAD - POLITICOS TO BLAME FOR MILITARISATION
by Kumar David
Compared to the horrendous crimes that have taken place in this country in recent years the breaking up of two TNA meetings on Thursday 16 June was small change. Yes it could be the toe of the jackboot in another demonic 1983 JR-style stratagem, but so far it has not led to systematic or widespread attacks on Tamils. What is interesting is that there have been three styles of response from the government and the military depending on who the audience was and how many lies they could get away with. Style one was denial, or brushing it aside as a non-event or a minor incident; style two was the "persons in military uniform" game of charade (Who else? Come on, Douglas is awful but don’t tell me he did this one!); and the third response has been "the matter will be investigated and the miscreants severely punished". One and two are so boringly regular that it puts people to sleep, so I want to use three as my take-off for today’s piece.
First however I wish to digress for a moment and remind you that in this country the zenith of political power and zenith of military power bear a sibling relationship to each other. There is a power-gap from there to the actual military officer corps which does not in itself wield authentic power separate from its political authorisation. This is quite the opposite from say Pakistan, Burma, or Turkey till a few years ago. Hence when speaking of the militarisation of society in Sri Lanka one needs to bear in mind where the real source of power lies and appreciate that a military take-over against the wishes of the political leadership, or substantial independence from it, is quite impossible as yet.
Degrees of culpability
Let me return to the third, or "we will investigate" option. Of course I know that nothing will come of it; it will go the way as the five executed Trincomalee students or the murder of 17 Medcine Sans Frontiers volunteers. That’s a different side of the matter already much commented and condemned. In these two and many other similar cases, as with the assault on the TNA meetings, the other question that comes up is this: "Who is responsible?" I do not mean in the conventional sense because that answer is obvious; constitutionally, government and president are responsible; the buck stops at Temple Trees. Sometimes accidents happen in the best of families and a grossly criminal act in any democracy is, formally, the responsibility of the chief executive for which he/she must make redress – that’s straightforward stuff. If the cops beat up an innocent in New York the head of police is responsible and if police mayhem goes out of control the State Governor and the Oval Office must be held to account by public opinion.
It’s more than these platitudes that I am driving at in the present Sri Lankan context. What if systematic police misconduct is at the instigation of the White House or to serve its political interests? What if a joint behavioural disorder of the national political leadership and the strong-arm of state power is in play? That’s a nasty ballgame with sinister implications for the future of the nation, and primary culpability for which falls squarely and unequivocally on the national leadership. This is the message that I want to drive home today and the rest of this piece is filler to make this point.
Militarisation and its agents
I will steadfastly oppose the militarisation of society and efforts to place a military jackboot on the necks of the people. I deplore the involvement of the military in various business activities giving it an opportunity to distort fair business practices, deplore its involvement in university student induction programmes, I have an aversion for international conferences designed to inflate the image of the military, I oppose the appointment of retired officers to corporate and diplomatic posts in large numbers, and shudder at the attempt to give the military a say in municipal and urban development. This is the background to the attack on TNA political meetings in Colombo and Jaffna on 17 June and could have sinister significance depending on where the orders came from.
However, the most important point is this; responsibility for all this rests on the shoulders of the country’s political leadership; none of this can happen against its wishes. The decisions mentioned in the previous paragraph were not made by the military, they are political decisions made by those in power. In the case of the attack on the TNA the government denies involvement but I reserve judgement on whether orders were sent from higher up. Regarding the Darusman Report and the Channel 4 video, which have caused such shock and dismay across the world, it is easy, and indeed necessary to blame the military, but it is far more important to point out that not only constitutional but even practical responsibility lies with the nation’s leaders. This is doubly so when no credible inquiries are held and no punishment meted out. This turns the inaction of the political leaders into a cover up. Why would powerful political leaders want to cover up? Are they afraid the evidence that will surface at independent and credible investigations with international participation will expose their own complicity?
This style of incident is becoming an alarming international trend. Serbia’s Ratko Mladic has been taken to The Hague to stand trial for war crimes, Libya’s Gaddafi has been indicted for human rights crimes and when he is arrested he too will be tried. Syria’s military is bombarding its own people with tanks and artillery and is engaged in a bloodbath for which one day President Bashar al-Assad will be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity. On trial, these murderers will all try the obvious defence that they did not know what was happening and blame rogue elements in the military. Nobody should believe or accept such poppycock.
Halting the decay
Fortunately, the local and international environment for stopping the slide to dictatorship and turning back military encroachment into all walks of life in Sri Lanka is favourable. It cannot be done without the public exerting itself with grit and deploying the favourable international climate to advantage. It is advantageous that all the forces of opposition in the country are united against autocracy and militarisation and that many social classes are determined to fight back; first only the minorities, then the university student and teaching community, the liberal middle classes and now most recently sections of the working class. The rural Sinhalese masses are still perplexed but eventually they will follow the lead of urban society. The last bastion on which this regime will rest is of course the ultra-nationalist and chauvinist layers of Sinhala society.
The speed at which these processes of polarisation will mature depends on many contingent and unpredictable events, but the direction of the movement, that is growing isolation of the government, is very clear. Isolation is especially obvious in the international arena and it is not true that there is enthusiastic Chinese and Russian cheering on behalf of the Rajapakse government. True these two countries may still block moves for an investigation or condemnation in the UN Security Council and Human Rights Commission but it is also clear that they are embarrassed and fed up.
The West, as I have often pointed out in these pages, is into a new more aggressive phase of human rights activism across the world for its own purposes; but who cares if it is helpful to us in throwing back authoritarianism and militarisation.
The palpable collapse of Indian codling is a serious blow to GoSL. Jayalalitha is stoking anti-Rajapakse sentiment in Tamil Nadu, which is a confrontation that Rajapakse cannot afford since she seems to be in regular touch with Manmohan Singh and building a relationship to serve their own wider agendas. The press has reported that Rajapakse informed the three visiting Indian officials last week that GoSL was backing out of any commitment in respect of 13A-Plus. The ball is now in the Delhi-Chennai court and I am intrigued to see what the response will be. Beating up the TNA at this time will inflame the confrontation while a spread of anti-Tamil pogroms will evoke a red alert in Tamil Nadu. GoSL, presumably, is not suicidal and to the extent that it can control the Wimal-Champika-Mervyn-Duminda types and can restrain military outrages, will try not to let things get out of hand.
These are stressful and interesting times but with the government on the back foot and crouching in a defensive posture, its discomfiture and mistakes provide an opportunity for more aggressive assertion of democratic demands by society at large. We should grasp opportunity by the fetlock.
o o o
Mail Today, 21 June 2011
PRIVACY AND SECURITY CAN CO-EXIST
by Sunil Abraham
The blanket surveillance the Centre seeks is not going to make India more secure
TODAY, the national discourse around the right to privacy‚ posits privacy as antithetical to security.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. Privacy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for security. A bank safe is safe only because the keys are held by a trusted few. No one else can access these keys or has the ability to duplicate them. The 2008 amendment of the IT Act and their associated rules notified April 2011 propose to eliminate whatever little privacy Indian netizens have had so far. Already as per the Internet Service Provider ( ISP) licence, citizens using encryption above 40- bit were expected to deposit the complete decryption key with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. This is as intelligent as citizens of a neighbourhood making duplicates of the keys to their homes and handing them over at the local police station.
Surveillance
Surveillance in any society is like salt in cooking — essential in small quantities but completely counter- productive even slightly in excess. Blanket surveillance makes privacy extinct, it compromises anonymity, essential ingredients for democratic governance, free media, arts and culture, and, most importantly, commerce and enterprise. The Telegraph Act only allowed for blanket surveillance as the rarest of the rare exception. The IT Act, on the other hand, mandates multitiered blanket surveillance of all lawabiding citizens and enterprises.
When your mother visits the local cybercafe to conduct an e- commerce transaction, at the very minimum there are two levels of blanket surveillance. According to the cyber- cafe rules, all her transaction logs will be captured and stored by the operator for a period of one year. This gentleman would also have access to her ID document and photograph. The ISPs would also store her logs for two years to be in compliance with the ISP licence ( even though none of them publish a data- retention policy). Some e- commerce website, to avoid liability, will under the Intermediary Due Diligence rules also retain logs.
Data retention at the cyber- cafe, by the ISP and also by the application service provider does not necessarily make Indian cyberspace more secure. On the contrary, redundant storage of sensitive personal information only opens up multiple points of failure and leaks — in the age of Nira Radia and Amar Singh no sensible bank would accept such intrusion into their core business processes.
Surveillance capabilities are not a necessary feature of information systems.
They have to be engineered into these systems. Once these features exist they could potentially serve both the legally authorised official and undesirable elements.
Terrorists, cyber- warriors and criminals will all find systems with surveillance capabilities easier to compromise.
In other words, surveillance compromises security at the level of system design. There were no Internet or phone lines in the Bin Laden compound — he was depending on a store and forward arrangement based on USB drives. Do we really think that registration of all USB drives, monitoring of their usage and the provision of back doors to these USBs via a master key would have led the investigators to him earlier?
Myth
Increase in security levels is not directly proportional to an increase in levels of surveillance gear. This is only a myth perpetuated by vendors of surveillance software and hardware via the business press. You wouldn't ask the vendors of Xray machines how many you should purchase for an airport, would you? An airport airport with 2,000 X- ray machines is not more secure than one with 20. But in the age of UID and NATGRID, this myth has been the best route for reaching salestargets using tax- payers’ money.
Surveillance must be intelligent, informed by evidence and guided by a scientific method. Has the ban on public WiFi and the current ID requirements at cyber- cafes led to the arrest of terrorists or criminals in India? Where is the evidence that more resource hungry blanket surveillance is going to provide a return on the investment? Unnecessary surveillance is counter- productive and distracts the security agenda with irrelevance.
Finally, there is the question of perception management. Perceptions of security do not only depend on reality but on personal and popular sentiment. There are two possible configurations for information systems — one, where the fundamental organising principle is trust and second, where the principle is suspicion.
Systems based on suspicion usually give rise to criminal and corrupt behaviour.
Perception
If the state were to repeatedly accuse its law- abiding citizens of being terrorists and criminals it might end up provoking them into living up to these unfortunate expectations. If citizens realise that every moment of their digital lives is being monitored by multiple private and government bodies, they will begin to use anonymisation and encryption technology round the clock even when it is not really necessary. Ordinary citizens will be forced to visit the darker and nastier corners of the Internet just to download encryption tools and other privacy enabling software. Like prohibition this will only result in further insecurity and break- down of the rule of law.
The writer is executive director of the Bangalore- based Centre for Internet and Society
o o o
DAWN, 22 June 2011
THE SPACE FOR SECULARISM IN THE NATIONAL NARRATIVE
By Tazeen Javed
Pakistani police officer receives flowers and Valentine's Day cards for Mumtaz Qadri, the confessed killer of a liberal Pakistani governor, given by students during a rally out side the Adiala Jail where Qadri's special court hearing held, Monday, Feb. 14, 2011 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Qadri pleaded guilty to murder, telling a judge he didn't regret gunning the politician down because he killed "an apostate" as required under his interpretation of Islamic law, lawyers said. – AP Photo
Pakistan is a strange country; the people who garner maximum news coverage are often shady. If January was the month of Mumtaz Qadri, then February and March definitely belonged to Raymond Davis and the man who hogged all the headlines across the globe in May was Osama Bin Laden. Last but not the least was Illyas Kashmiri who was killed in a drone strike in June.
It is even stranger that though all four of them were shady characters – murderers to be precise – the response of the popular media to their deeds, lives, and reasons have ranged from high praise to utter ridicule. While Davis was lynched by our media for killing two Pakistani men, Qadri was praised by a certain section of media as the saviour who, by shedding blood of another human being, has somehow restored balance in the universe and saved the religion, humanity and galaxy. The kind of debate bin Laden and Kashmiri spark is the stuff of legends. People have called them terrorists, warriors, messiahs and everything in between depending on their ‘ideological’ and ‘idiological’ leanings.
But the strangest common factor in all the cases is that the popular media has developed the narrative and catered to the incidents surrounding these characters on the basis of religion. All the discussions and responses on the subject have been based, not on the news worthiness of the issue, but on the perceived religious reasons for the actions of the perpetrators and on the basis or lack of their religiosity.
Qadri was hailed as a hero because he was defending his faith. Even his critics were at pains to point out that he was mislead because the religion was not interpreted in its true spirit by who so ever was inspiring him. The only person, Sherry Rahman, who actually said that this law needed to be amended, had to stay cooped up in her house for the fear of her life. The fact that a man was killed was either ignored or the victim was blamed for his own death. The focus of the discussion stayed on religion and religion inspired laws and how essential they are to the survival of this society. The condemnation of that murder was subdued because vociferous denunciation would have challenged the religiosity of the narrative. Even before the death of the slain governor, one anchor decided to act as the prosecutor, jury and the judge and held a public trial of Governor Salman Taseer. With media pandering to the dictates of the overtly religious groups, presenting secular arguments in mainstream media is neither desired nor is considered safe.
Davis, an American guilty of the same crime homicide, was labelled the devil incarnate because he was an infidel who killed two Muslim men in the land of pure. The fact that it was Federal Shariat Court supported Qisas and Diyat Law that saved him in the end was again ignored. No one either wrote or spoke against the law in the popular media. The fact that perpetrators of the same crime can have different punishments depending upon their social standing and the amount they are willing to shell out to stay out of the prison and that the law actually supports the criminal with a sizeable bank account are largely ignored by our esteemed media persons and anchors.
Apart from these cases, the television debates usually centre on the quest of making the country a “true’ Islamic state instead of a working state. How many times have we seen sanctimonious anchors and so called experts discussing whether a legislation or a verdict by the courts is religious enough or not. Hardly have we seen any debate on whether a course of action is workable or not, which basically gives sanction to bad governance.
There can be two probable reasons for such glaring omission of the secular content in any news debate in Pakistan. The country was created on the basis of religion, when the raison d’être for a country is its official religion, then any ideology contesting it kind of gets lost in the narration. The other is that there are some secular voices but they either submit to the views of majority for the fear of retaliation or they think that their voice will get lost. In either case, secular voices end up ceding political space and jeopardising their own long term future.
This is not limited to the fourth estate. The other three pillars of the country – Legislators, executives and judiciary are as much to blame as the media for it. Last year, the Chief Justice of Pakistan expressed ‘concern’ about Parliament’s ability to redraft the constitution in such a manner that it will make Pakistan a secular republic. It was painful to note that the secularity of the constitution was seen as a threat by the man presiding over the most august court in Pakistan. The chief Justice’s concerns were obviously unfounded because the parliament is housed with likes of Shiekh Waqas Akram, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Rehman Malik who have repeatedly vowed to deal with anyone who dare speak against legislation based on theology.
In addition to them, the armed forces, perhaps the most powerful group in the country, owe their acceptance and popularity with the people on their stance as the defenders of not only the geographical boundaries of the country but also as the defenders of the faith. People are willing to forgive the armed forces for gobbling up the lion’s share of the resources in the country as long they stay vigilant against the threat of the infidel. That is why Pakistani nuclear capability is sold to its people as “Islamic atomic bomb” – a pan Islamic achievement rather than a national one.
Secularism cannot be pulled out of thin air like a genie. Just like fruitful discourse needs secular input, secularism cannot survive without debate, political space and social acceptance. It will not germinate in a vacuum but will arise out of liberal interpretation of theology and questioning the dogma which are not possible in current Pakistani milieu. Liberal research of the religion is virtually nonexistent. A few random liberal scholars like Dr Farooq Khan and Ghamdi were either killed or had to relocate to stay alive. If the country has to survive as a viable entity in future, its political, judicial, military and bureaucratic leadership must realise that giving space to dissenting voices is as necessary as bowing down to the wishes of majority.
Religion, in whatever way, has always been part of the discourse. Apart from Madrassah students, Islamic studies have been an integral part of the syllabus everywhere in Pakistan, from elementary school to degrees courses. The concept of secularism, on the other hand, has never been formally introduced in academia. We cannot move forward if this disparity is not addressed.
Tazeen Javed is a communications specialist, a blogger and a free lance writer.
o o o
From Al Ahram Weekly, 16 - 22 June 2011
COMETH THE ISLAMISTS
After official approval of the Muslim Brotherhood's new political party came the surprising approval of a Salafist party, writes Amani Maged
About 15 years ago, a faction of Muslim Brothers split off from the mother organisation, determined to found a political party. Their move and subsequent decade-and-a-half struggle to establish the Wasat (Centre) Party triggered intense debate over the nature and practices of a political party with an Islamic frame of reference. Soon after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, the party finally received an official stamp of approval. The news reverberated through the country, and not only because this was the first party to be established in the post-Mubarak era.
Then came the turn of the Muslim Brotherhood itself, which quickly unveiled its Freedom and Justice Party. Soon a group of Salafis followed suit with Al-Nour (The Light) Party, which received official approval a few days ago. Other religiously oriented parties are sure to follow. Many are currently under formation, such as Al-Nahda (Revival), whose founders are represented by Ibrahim El-Zaafarani, and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's party. The emergence of so many Islamist parties naturally gives us pause for thought, sparking no small anxiety with regard to their potential effect on public opinion, and considerable curiosity with regard to their political future.
But before succumbing to our misgivings, let us bear in mind that to political parties with an Islamic frame of reference Islam requires acknowledgement of the necessity of a civil state in which the people are the source of all government authorities, in which there is a division of powers and a system of checks and balances between branches of government, in which the principle of unity must prevail over all political rivalries, and in which government and government officials are accountable to the people by means of explicit laws and mechanisms that ensure effective public oversight. Yet as strenuously as Islamist parties have sought to clarify and affirm these principles, liberal forces still suspect that Islamist parties are bent on cutting off the hands of thieves and strict enforcement of literalist interpretations of Islamic law. This mistrust is the source of many problems, and it is precisely why it will be useful to take a closer look at parties with an Islamic frame of reference.
The Wasat Party is the brainchild of three prominent Egyptian intellectuals: Mohamed Selim El-Awwa, counsellor Tareq El-Bishri and the late Mohamed El-Mesiri. They held that as a political party its activities should be restricted to the political domain, with no crossover into religious proselytising. In other words, they conceived of the Wasat Party as a purely civil party that would offer an Islamic political vision based on the legacy of Islamic civilisation, which binds Muslims and Christians. At the same time, it subscribes to peaceful political practices, the rules of the democratic game, and the concept of the open society and respect for the other. The founding fathers of the Wasat Party and, since its approval, the party itself have avoided the pitfalls and shortcomings of the Muslim Brotherhood, such as its rigidity, resistance to change and the inability to build bridges of understanding and cooperation with other political forces. The Wasat Party has made considerable inroads into establishing constructive bonds with all other political forces. But as favourable an impression as it has made among the intelligentsia and political elites, a huge question mark hovers over its electoral prospects. The Wasat Party has yet to announce how many candidates it plans to field in the forthcoming parliamentary elections and even to unveil a campaign platform.
The Freedom and Justice Party is certainly better prepared in this respect. Although in many respects the Muslim Brotherhood today is the product of years of suppression since the execution of Sayed Qotb in 1966, which forced the organisation underground. The bulk of the Brotherhood's work has since been largely philanthropic, focussing on the spiritual problems of Muslims and assisting the poor with free healthcare, educational and other services. However, it has remained very tightly organised and organisationally methodological. Another of its strengths is the relatively high educational and cultural level of its members.
One of the greatest challenges facing the Freedom and Justice Party at present is to prove that it is earnest in its pledge to draw a clear line between the party and the mother organisation and to keep religion out of politics. So far, many political elites remain unconvinced. With respect to the forthcoming elections, many observers maintain that the party's prospects are not that strong. Popular support for the Muslim Brotherhood has eroded in tandem with the decline in popular sympathy since restrictions were lifted and the Muslim Brothers resurfaced in the public sphere. In addition, their party will face tough competition from all the new parties that have begun to emerge, whether those representing the revolutionary youth or those representing other Islamist trends, such as the Salafis and Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya. But some analysts disagree. They argue that the Muslim Brotherhood is the only political faction that is equipped to enter the electoral race and that it is powerful enough to win a sizeable chunk of parliamentary seats.
Al-Nour, the first Salafist party to be approved by the Political Parties Committee, is certain to encounter organisational difficulties. The Salafis have long shunned involvement in politics. In fact, many have long held that politics was sinful, that democracy and participating in elections were heretical, and that even defying a tyrannical ruler was wrong. Then the revolution came and suddenly we find Salafis staging protests, forming political parties and engaging in other types of political activities, much to the consternation of liberals and secularists. Yet it is impossible to deny that Salafis have a significant popular base and that as new as they are to politics they stand a good chance of winning quite a few parliamentary seats.
Other religiously oriented parties are emerging on the political horizon. In addition to Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya's project and Al-Nahda, mentioned above, a coalition of Sufi orders is expected to form one. However, the Wasat Party, the Freedom and Justice Party, and Al-Nour are so far the strongest. In the contest between the Islamist parties, the Wasat Party, created by the Muslim Brotherhood breakaway faction, and the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party will probably be racing neck-and-neck. Exactly how many seats they will win, and exactly what will be their political future, will depend on their actions and campaign strategies in the coming phase.
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STATEMENT IN RELATION TO THE OUTLAWING OF THE COPENHAGEN FREE UNIVERSITY:
All power to the free universities of the future
The Copenhagen Free University was an attempt to reinvigorate the emancipatory aspect of research and learning, in the midst of an ongoing economisation of all knowledge production in society. Seeing how education and research were being subsumed into an industry structured by a corporate way of thinking, we messy life people live within the contradictions of capitalism. We wanted to reconnect knowledge production, learning and skill sharing to the everyday within a self-organised institutional framework of a free university. Our intention was multi-layered and was of course partly utopian, but also practical and experimental. We turned our flat in Copenhagen into a university by the very simple act of declaring 'this is a university'. By this transformative speech act the domestic setting of our flat became a university. It didn't take any alterations to the architecture other than the small things needed in terms of having people in your home staying over, presenting thoughts, researching archival material, screening films, presenting documents and works of art. Our home became a public institution dedicated to the production process of communal knowledge and fluctuating desires.
The ethos of the CFU was critical and opinionated about the ideological nature of knowledge, which meant that we did not try to cover the institution in a cloud of dispassionate neutrality and transcendence as universities traditionally do. The Copenhagen Free University became a site of socialised and politicised research, developing knowledge and debate around certain fields of social practice. During its six years of existence, the CFU entered into five fields of research: feminist organisation, art and economy, escape subjectivity, television/media activism and art history. The projects were initiated with the experience of the normative nature of mainstream knowledge production and research, allowing us to see how certain areas of critical practice were being excluded. Since we didn't wanted to replicate the structure of the formal universities, the way we developed the research was based on open calls to people who found interest in our fields or interest in our perspective on knowledge production. Slowly the research projects were collectively constructed through the display of material, presentations, meetings, and spending time together. The nature of the process was sharing and mutual empowerment, not focusing on a final product or paper, but rather on the process of communisation and redistribution of facts and feelings. Parallel to the development of the CFU, we started to see self-organised universities sprouting up everywhere. Over this time, the basic question we were constantly asking ourselves was, what kind of university do we need in relation to our everyday? This question could only be answered in the concrete material conditions of our lives. The multiplicity of self-organised universities that were starting in various places, and which took all kinds of structures and directions, reflected the diversity of these material conditions. This showed that the neoliberal university model was only one model among many models; the o
nly one given as a model to the students of capital.
As the strategy of self-institution focused on taking power and not accepting the dualism between the mainstream and the alternative, this in itself carried some contradictions. The CFU had for us become a too fixed identifier of acertain discourse relating to emancipatory education within academia and the art scene. Thus we decided to shut down the CFU in the winter of 2007 as a way of withdrawing the CFU from the landscape. We did this with the statement 'We Have Won' and shut the door of the CFU just before the New Year. During the six years of the CFU's existence, the knowledge economy had rapidly, and aggressively, become the norm around us in Copenhagen and in northern Europe. The rise of social networking, lifestyle and intellectual property as engines of valorisation meant that the knowledge economy was expanding into the tiniest pores of our lives and social relations. The state had turned to a wholesale privatisation of former public educational institutions, converting them into mines of raw material for industry in the shape of ideas, desires and human beings. But this normalising process was somehow not powerful enough to silence all forms of critique and dissent; other measures were required.
In December 2010 we received a formal letter from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation telling us that a new law had passed in the parliament that outlawed the existence of the Copenhagen Free University together with all other self-organised and free universities. The letter stated that they were fully aware of the fact that we do not exist any more, but just to make sure they wished to notify us that "In case the Copenhagen Free University should resume its educational activities it would be included under the prohibition in the university law ?33". In 2010 the university law in Denmark was changed, and the term 'university' could only be used by institutions authorised by the state. We were told that this was to protect 'the students from being disappointed'. As we know numerous people who are disappointed by the structural changes to the educational sector in recent years, we have decided to contest this new clampdown by opening a new free university in Copenhagen. This forms part of our insistence that the emancipatory perspective of education should still be on the map. We demand the law be scrapped or altered, allowing self-organised and free universities to be a part of a critical debate around the production of knowledge now and in the society of the future.
We call for everybody to establish their own free universities in their homes or in the workplace, in the square or in the wilderness. All power to the free universities of the future.
The Free U Resistance Committee of June 18 2011.
Practicalities in Denmark: Please send a mail to the Minister of Science,
Technology and Innovation declaring your university (min at vtu.dk) and cc. to the
The Danish Agency of Universities (ubst at ubst.dk)
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The South Los Angeles Report
DANGEROUS DISTORTIONS: ANTI-ABORTION FASCISTS AND THIRD WORLD ALLIES
6-19-2011 |
By Sikivu Hutchinson and Diane Arellano
imageOn a recent Los Angeles talk radio show Louisiana state legislator John LaBruzzo lamented the “massacre” of millions of “baby women” by abortion. In this fascist’s warped mind abortion infringes on the civil rights of fetuses. LaBruzzo is the author of a bill that would abolish abortion on the grounds that denying fetuses civil rights is akin to the violent denial of black civil rights under slavery. According to male anti-abortion fascists like LaBruzzo, poor single women get abortions because they are forced to by predatory deadbeat dad boyfriends in training or by fathers who have committed incest. Hence, overturning Roe vs. Wade is consistent with gender equity and social justice.
As the national hijacking of women’s rights continues, the Right has become more and more skillful at manipulating pro-death anti-choice messages designed to make women believe that their interests are being served by powerful white conservative foundations and their “third world” allies. In Los Angeles, conservative Latino groups are now targeting Latino communities with a new wave of anti-abortion billboards similar to those aimed at African American women. The Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles is the architect of this latest assault on reproductive justice for women of color. As with the abortion-as-black-genocide billboards unleashed by the far right Radiance Foundation, the Latino billboards evoke reductive hyper-religious narratives of sinning promiscuous bad women and “breeder” good women.
The billboards claim that “the most dangerous place” for a Latino child is in the womb. Yet the reality of Latina fertility rates—three children are the national average for Latinas in their childbearing years—would seem to belie the need for this campaign. But of course reality in fascist propaganda is an oxymoron. Crafted as they are at the height of the recession, the economic subtext of these moral panic narratives must be exposed. The subtext of the campaign is that any form of access to abortion threatens the stability of patriarchal Latino families. Like black women, Latinas’ bodies are territory to be manipulated, controlled, and strictly policed vis-à-vis the regime of authentic Latino gender identities based on Catholic piety and female submission. As the most underrepresented and lowest paid group in the American economy, Latinas are especially vulnerable to socio-cultural narratives mandating that they stay barefoot, pregnant, and underemployed.
In the Latino community, the assault on women’s right to self-determination is also being spearheaded by former Latin American telenovela stars ready to lend their “expert” opinions on what Latinas in the US should and should not do with their bodies. The most vociferous of these is former boy band member and telenovela heartthrob Eduardo Verastegui. In 2008, Verastegui vied for the heart of the Religious Right with media appearances encouraging Spanish speaking Latino voters to vote yes on Proposition 8, California’s anti-same sex marriage initiative. He has returned to the spotlight as a founding member of Manto de Guadalupe, a nonprofit focused on “defending life from conception to natural death.”
On June 12th, Manto de Guadalupe sponsored a fundraising event in support of the development of the largest “pro-life” women’s clinic in the United States. This facility is slated to be built in South Los Angeles, which has one of the highest poverty rates in L.A. County. At the event, legendary Mexican telenovela star Veronica Castro introduced Texas governor and rumored presidential hopeful Rick Perry. Just a few days before the fundraiser, Perry introduced SB 9—sweeping legislation which would ban “sanctuary cities” or non-existent safe havens for undocumented immigrants—into the Texas Senate. SB 9 would further criminalize Texas Latinos by allowing law enforcement to inquire about the immigration status of those arrested or legally detained. Still, at the fundraiser, the predominantly Spanish speaking immigrant crowd cheered wildly for Perry.
The connection between the right’s anti-immigrant and anti-choice agenda is no coincidence. Criminalizing choice and undocumented immigrants is part of a larger scheme in which big government eliminates the rights of the underclass and expands “social welfare” for corporations, the wealthy, and the military industrial complex. Thus, right wing propaganda in black and brown communities must be met head on. Access to safe and legal safe abortions is not only paramount to women’s health but to economic and social justice. Pro-choice politicians like President Obama who waffle on the morality and necessity of abortion (talking only of the need to “reduce” the number of abortions), further distort the connection between unrestricted access to abortion and human rights. Indeed, the Left’s marginal response to far right anti-abortion fascism has enabled a climate in which Planned Parenthood has now been defunded in three states. If the war on safe and legal access to abortion does not shift to a national movement centered on how family planning and abortion are a fundamental human right, then the lives of black and brown women will continue to be expendable. And if the right wing of all hues continues to be allowed to define the terms of human rights and “social justice” women of color will be on the frontlines reliving the horror of the back alley.
Sikivu Hutchinson is the author of Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars. Diane Arellano is a photo documentarian and youth advocacy educator based in Los Angeles. Her work examines sociocultural instability and flexibility, the intersections of marginalized communities, race, class, and gender roles. Sikivu and Diane run the Women's Leadership Project, A South L.A.-based feminist mentoring program.
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iII. India: [Selected recent content on 'Communalism Watch']
The Tyrant who rules over the Dawoodi Bohras
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/tyrant-who-rules-over-dawoodi-bohras.html
Maharashtra's Far right chauvinists in bed with a regional Dalit party
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/maharashtras-far-right-chauvinists-in.html
Advani's convoluted logic on Kashmir
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/advanis-convoluted-logic-on-kashmir.html
Ramdev’s vigilantism has echoes from Latin America ?
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/ramdevs-vigilantism-has-echoes-from.html
Excerpts from the 25-page chargesheet - the Samjhauta plot
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/excerpts-from-25-page-chargesheet.html
Don’t underplay top RSS leader's role in Samjhauta blast
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/dont-underplay-top-rss-leaders-role-in.html
Holy Shit - obscurantist politicians in Karnataka turn to god of land and property disputes
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2011/06/holy-shit-obscurantist-politicians-in.html
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