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www.thepeninsulaqatar.com
Volume 21 | Number 7054 | 2 RiyalsFriday 27 January 2017 | 29
Rabia II 1438
Displaced people who fled the clashes receive aid in northern
Mosul, Iraq, yesterday.
Relief in Mosul
Qatar hails US call for Syria safe zones
QNA
Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani patron-ised yesterday
the graduation ceremony of the 12th class of officer cadets of the
Ahmed bin Mohammed Military College.
Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin
Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani attended the graduation along with a
number of ministers and ranking officers of Qatar's Armed Forces,
the Ministry of Interior, and military colleges of friendly
countries.
The Qatari National Anthem was played upon the Emir's arrival,
after which the com-mander of the parade came
forward to request the Emir to review the graduates' parade.
Commander of the Ahmed Bin Mohammed Military College, Brigadier
Abdullah Abdulrah-man Al Kaabi, expressed his delight that Emir H H
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended the graduation cere-mony.
Al Kaabi said that the 12th class included 90 officer cadets of the
Armed Forces, Ministry of Interior, Lekhwiya, Emiri Guard, and
state security. He added that the graduates received training in
Qatar, Mongolia, Britain and France that helped raise their spirits
and strengthened their sense of belongingness to the country and
the Emir. Al Kaabi said that the experience will help the new
graduates play their part
in Qatar's renaissance. The college cooperated with
a number of other colleges abroad such as Kuwait's Ali Al Sabah
Military Academy and Brit-ain's Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.
The latter carried out training in Qatar last November. Ahmed bin
Mohammed Military College also worked on attract-ing high-quality
cadres from different countries to provide the best service
possible in terms of military academic programmes and training
techniques.
After the speech, the Emir honoured some cadets of the 12th
class. These include officer cadet Mohammed Khalfan Al Mansouri who
stood joint-first in military science, first in law, first in
leadership and first in
physical fitness. The second hon-ours student was Abdullah
Hussein Al Marri and third was Mohammed Fahid Al Faheeda, Ghanem
Sultan Al Ghanem who stood first in police science and Mohammed
Mahfouth Moham-med who ranked first in information systems.
The Emir also honoured Brig-adier Hamad Ahmed Al Nuaimi, former
Commander of Ahmed bin Mohammed Military College, in recognition of
his efforts in developing the college. The Emir then viewed a
performance by the Pakistani military band, which is comprised of
52 military personnel. Later, the graduates took the oath and the
National Anthem was played. → More pictures on page 16
The Peninsula
Qatar has welcomed US President Donald Trump's call to cre-ate
safe zones in Syria.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Foreign Minis-try Media
Office Director, Ambassador H E Ahmad bin Saeed Al Rumaihi, said
the Min-istry welcomes the US intention to sign an executive
decision to draw a plan for the establish-ment of safe zones in
Syria.
The ambassador reiterated the need to provide safe havens in
Syria and impose no-fly zones that ensure the safety of civilians
in line with interna-tional resolutions, and protect the Syrian
people from the machine of destruction and mass displacement.
On Astana talks that con-cluded recently, the ambassador
expressed hope that the outcomes will help in
strengthening the ceasefire, stressing the need to establish an
effective and practical mon-itoring mechanism to pave the way for
Geneva talks.
In an interview with ABC, Trump had said that he "will
absolutely do safe zones in Syria" for refugees fleeing vio-lence
in the war-torn country.
"It’s a disaster, what’s hap-pening there," Trump said.
He criticised German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel's immigration
policies. Trump said Merkel made a "cata-strophic mistake" by
welcoming an influx of immigrants into her country but maintained
that he has "great respect" for the Ger-man leader. Trump stated
during his presidential cam-paign a plan to start setting up "safe
zones" for refugees in Syria, a step that Barack Obama long
resisted, fearing the poten-tial for being pulled deeper into the
conflict and the threat of clashes between US and Rus-sian
warplanes over Syria.
Meanwhile, Turkey said that it will wait to see the out-come of
Trump's vow to establish safe zones in Syria.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said that
his country has always been an advocate of the move.
→ Continued on page 2
Emir attends Military College graduation
Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the graduation
ceremony of the 12th class of officer cadets of the Ahmed bin
Mohammed Military College, yesterday.
Hope from talks The ambassador expressed the hope that the
outcome of the Astana talks will help in strengthening the
ceasefire.
Mexico president scraps summit with Trump over wall spatMexico
City Reuters
Mexico’s president yes-sterday scrapped a planned summit with
Donald Trump in the face of insistent tweets from the US president
demanding Mexico pay for a border wall, a deep-ening spat that
threatens Mexican efforts to salvage trade ties.
However, the White House left open the door for a possible
rapprochement. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the United
States was keeping open lines of communication with Mexico and
looking to resched-ule the meeting.
Taking a page out of Trump’s playbook, President Enrique Pena
Nieto fired the salvo on Twitter, after Trump’s call for Mexico to
foot the bill for his planned wall prompted a groundswell of calls
in Mexico for next week’s meeting to be called off.
Trump said in a Twitter message earlier yesterday that his
Mexican counterpart should cancel his scheduled visit to Washington
if Mexico refuses to pay for the wall that he has
ordered constructed along the border. Trump views the wall, a
major promise during his elec-tion campaign, as part of a package
of measures to curb illegal immigration.
Mexico has long insisted it will not pay for the planned
wall.
“We have informed the White House that I will not attend the
working meeting planned for next Tuesday with @POTUS,” Pena Nieto
tweeted. “Mexico reiterates its willingness to work with the United
States to reach agreements that favour both nations.”
Trump, who took office last Friday, signed an executive order
for construction of the wall on Wednesday, the same day that
Mexico’s foreign min-ister held talks with Trump aides in the White
House aimed at healing ties. Relations have been frayed since Trump
launched his campaign in 2015, characteris-ing Mexican migrants as
murderers and rapists and pledging to build a wall that he said
Mexico would pay for.
Trade ties are in the balance after Trump vowed to renego-tiate
the North American Free Trade Agreement and slap high tariffs on
American companies
that have moved jobs south of the border.
Mexico’s peso, which has fallen sharply against the US dollar in
the face of Trump’s stances on trade and immigra-tion, extended
losses to 1 percent after Pena Nieto fired off his tweet.
“The US has a 60 billion dol-lar trade deficit with Mexico. It
has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive
numbers... of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to
pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel
the upcoming meeting,” Trump said in his Twitter message.
Leaders of the Republican-controlled US Congress said yesterday
they planned to move ahead on funding the border wall. Trump said
in an interview with ABC News that Mexico would eventually
reimburse the United States for the wall.
“So we intend to address the wall issue ourselves and the
president can deal with his rela-tions with other countries,”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at a news con-ference
in Philadelphia.
→ See also pages 8 & 12
Israel approves 153 more settler homesJerusalem AFP
Israeli officials gave final approval yesterday to 153 east
Jerusalem settler homes, the deputy mayor said, adding to a sharp
increase in such projects since US President Don-ald Trump took
office.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman said the
approvals by a city planning committee were among those held up
due to pressure from former US president Barack Obama's
administration.
Turgeman said developers "could start building from
tomorrow".
Following Trump's inaugu-ration, Turgeman spoke of plans for
some 11,000 homes in proc-ess for annexed east Jerusalem.
"I'm going to deliver permits for thousands of homes in
Jerusa-lem in the coming months," Turgeman said.
Yesterday's approvals were for the settlement neighbour-hood of
Gilo. Israel has announced a major settlement expansion in the days
following Trump's January 20 inaugura-tion. Trump has pledged
strong support for Israel.
-
02 FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017HOME
Popular Sri Lankan artistes Saranga Disasekara, Visharad Manoj
Peiris, Ravindra Randeniya, Sachini Ayendra, television personality
Hishan Sameera and Executive Producer of popular Sri Lankan TV
programme Chat and Music, Chaminda pose for a photograph with
International coordinator, A Pantalion Perera (left) and chief
organiser of the event at the Grand Mercure Hotel in Doha
yesterday. The artists are in Doha for a special edition of the
Chat and Music, which will be held at the same venue today,
starting at 6.30pm.
Chat and Music in Doha today
Grand finaleThe finale saw performances by the Pakistan Military
Band, in addition to the activities and stalls that had been
drawing in crowds since the festival’s launch.
QNA
EMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable
of congratula-tions to Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on the
occasion of his country’s Republic Day.
Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime
Minister and Inte-rior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin
Kha-lifa Al Thani sent similar cables to the Indian President
yesterday.
Emir greets Indian President on Republic Day
QNA
EMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable
of congratula-tions to Governor-General of Australia Peter Cosgrove
on the occasion of his country’s National Day.
Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime
Minister and Inte-rior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin
Kha-lifa Al Thani sent similar cablesto the Governor-Gen-eral of
Australia, yesterday.
Emir congratulatesGovernor-General of Australia
The Peninsula
The curtains went down yesterday on the fourth Katara Winter
Festival, marking the conclusion to five days
of entertainment and activities at the Katara Esplanade.
The finale saw performances by the Pakistan Military Band, in
addition to the activities and stalls that had been drawing in
crowds since the festival’s launch on Sunday.
Children were kept enter-tained by competitions and events
organised by the Child-hood Cultural Center, and the Qatar Heritage
and Identity Center.
A huge number of visitors were attracted to Al-Gannas
Association’s pavilion, that pre-sented an interactive exhibition
and workshop on falconry and Saluki. In addition, the organis-ers
of Al-Galayel Championship hosted an exhibition displaying
collectibles and equipment from all of their previous
championships.Katara’s efforts to revive
Qatari heritage and culture through events such as this
fes-tival, have met resounding success, as visitors to the
festi-val were mesmerised by various performances, that started at
4pm and went on until 9pm.
On the sidelines, the festival also saw displays of local
antiques, traditional food, and a diverse col-lection of Qatari
handmade costumes, offering visitors an opportunity to shop for
authentic Qatari products and goods.
The festival attracted multi-tude of people of all ages, and
from
all walks of life, including fami-lies, who were keen to have
their
children make the most of the interactive activities on offer,
in
the pleasant weather.See also Page 16
The Peninsula
Hundreds of Indian expats gathered at their embassy in Doha
yes-terday to celebrate country’s 68th Republic Day.
Indian ambassador P. Kumaran hoisted the tricolor to the
accompaniment of ren-dition of national anthem by school
children.
Kumaran also read Indian President Pranab Mukherjee address to
the nation on the Republic Day.
The speech reads as, “It goes to the credit of the strong
institutions of democracy built by our founders that for the last
six and a half decades, Indian democracy has been an oasis of
stability in the region trou-bled by unrest. From a population of
360 million in 1951, we are now a 1.3 billion strong nation. Even
then, our per capita income has shown a ten-fold increase, poverty
ratio has declined by two-thirds, average life expectancy has more
than doubled, and lit-eracy rate has shown a four-fold increase. We
are today the fastest growing amongst the major economies of the
world. We are the sec-ond largest reservoir of scientific and
technical man-power, the third largest army, the sixth member of
the nuclear club, the sixth
member in the race for space, and the tenth largest industrial
power. From a net food grains importing country, India is now a
leading exporter of food commodities. The journey so far has been
eventful, some-times painful, but most of the times,
exhilarating.”
Moreover, officers of the Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Samudra
Pavak visiting the Hamad Port, in conjunction with celebrations of
India’s Republic Day were present at the event held at the embassy
premises.
Separately a reception was hosted for the diplomats and Indian
community members
at the Sheraton Hotel. HE Mohammed Bin
Abdullah Al Rumaihi, Minis-ter of Municipality and Environment,
Ambassador Ibrahim Fakhroo, Chief of Protocol, Deputy Inspector
General Satish Kumar, com-manding officer of Samudra Pavak with
several other dig-n i t a r i e s g r a c e d t h e reception.
Similarly, several Indian schools in Doha organised dif-ferent
activities, including cultural programmes to observe the Republic
Day. Songs were sung by the stu-dents with patriotic fervour and
enthusiasm.
Indian expats celebrate Republic Day with zeal
Fourth Katara Winter Festival concludes
A stilt walker entertains the crowd on the last day of Winter
Festival at Katara yesterday.Pic Baher Amin / The Peninsula
Indian Ambassador P Kumaran hoisting the tricolour to mark the
68th Republic Day celebrations at a function held at the embassy
premises in Doha yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The
Peninsula
Officers of ICGS Samudra Pavak at the Republic Day function.
Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula
The Peninsula
Three private vehicle inspection centres were found violating
the con-sumer protection law during inspection campaigns carried
out by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce recently.
The surprise raids covered 15 such centers across Doha and three
were found violat-ing the rules and regulations including a failure
to provide a detailed report about the technical check up to the
customers.
In a press statement the Ministry said that the centres did n o
t p r o v i d e w i t h
full information pertaining to technical inspection of cars,
which is a violation of the law No 8/2008 on consumer
protection.
The inspection campaign is run under the framework of ministry’s
aim to monitor mar-kets and commercial activities to crack down on
price manip-ulation and protect consumers’ rights.
The ministry has warned in the statement that it would not
tolerate any violations of the Consumer Protection Law and its
regulations.
It would intensify its inspec-tion campaigns to crack down on
violations, it added in the
statement. The ministry has urged all
the consumers to report viola-tions to Consumer Protection and
Anti-Commercial Fraud department through its social media
accounts.
Three vehicle inspection centres found violating law
Inspection campaignThe inspection campaign is run under the
framework of ministry’s aim to monitor markets and commercial
activities to crack down on price manipulation and protect
consumers’ rights.
Continued from page 1"We have seen the US
president's request for con-ducting a study. What's important is
the results of this study and what kind of rec-ommendation will
come out," Muftuoglu said.
"Setting up of safe zones is something Turkey has advocated from
the start. The best example is in Jarablus," he said, referring to
a town near the Turkish border with Syria that was freed from ISIS
by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in August, Qatar News Agency
reported.
Meanwhile, a Turkish For-eign Ministry official said yesterday
Ankara will not allow anyone to overshadow the efforts deployed to
reach a permanent solution in Syria following Astana peace
talks.
“The meeting in Astana was not an alternative of a UN-brokered
Geneva peace talk, rather a complementary one,” the official
Huseyin Muftuoglu said.
Turkey backs Syria safe zones
-
03FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA
Lebanese President Michel Aoun (right) with EU Foreign Affairs
Chief Federica Mogherini at the Presidential Palace of Baabda in
Beirut, yesterday. Mogherini visited Lebanon for talks on Syrian
refugees.
EU Foreign Affairs Chief in Beirut
New President of Gambia Adama Barrow (left) with Senegal's
President Macky Sall at the Leopold Sedar Senghor International
Airport in Dakar prior to his departure from the Senegalese
capital, yesterday. Jubilant Gambians prepared to welcome home
their new president, who was elected almost two months ago but fled
to Senegal when his predecessor refused to step aside.
New Gambia President returns
London/Damascus AFP
Britain's foreign min-ister hinted at a shift in policy on Syria
yesterday, saying President Bashar Al
Assad could be allowed to run for re-election and mentioning a
possible "arrangement" with regime ally Russia.
"We were wedded for a long time to the mantra that Assad must
go. We haven't at any stage been able to make that happen," Boris
Johnson told members of a parliamentary committee in the House of
Lords.
Asked if one possible sce-nario could include allowing Assad to
contest a democratic election in Syria supervised by the UN,
Johnson replied: "Yes".
"I see downsides and I see risks in us going in, doing a
complete flip flop, supporting the Russians, Assad. But I must also
be realistic about the way the landscape has changed and it may be
that we will have to think afresh about how to han-dle this," he
said.
Britain has been one of the harshest critics of Russia's Syria
policy and the Assad regime, saying that his departure is a
precondition for any resolution in a conflict that has killed more
than 310,000 people and forced millions to flee.
Johnson's comments were wide-ranging and sometimes contradictory
as he also men-tioned the "possibility of an
arrangement" with Russia for "getting rid of Assad" and fighting
the Islamic State group.
But he added: "There are perils in that approach and it's by no
means clear that we would either achieve the end of the Assad
regime, nor is it clear that even if we did achieve the end of the
Assad regime that Syria would be in a better place".
Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to bolster a fragile truce in
Syria but rebels and Damas-cus made no progress towards a broader
settlement.
Mosul Reuters
An Iraqi soldier stared patiently through a high-powered scope
until he spotted a bulldozer across the Tigris River. He alerted
his elite unit, which fired a missile with a boom so loud it blew a
metal door behind the soldiers off its hinges.
The target, which was being used to dig earth berms to for-tify
Islamic State positions, exploded into a blaze that sent white
smoke into the sky.
Militants could be seen gathering at the bulldozer as it burned.
Some arrived on foot, others in a pickup truck or on a motorcycle,
seemingly unfazed by the prospect of
another rocket landing.“The terrorist driving that
bulldozer is burning. He is cooked,” said Mostafa Majeed, the
soldier manning the scope.
In three months of Iraq’s biggest military operation since the
fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, government forces have seized most
of east Mosul.
But they have yet to cross the Tigris, leaving the western half
of the city still firmly in the hands of the jihadists, who
declared their caliphate here two and a half years ago.
Now, the troops are firing across the river to harass the
militants and disrupt their for-tifications, in preparation for the
next phase of the campaign: the fight for the other side.
“The idea is to keep making life tough for them from our
position, to kill them and pre-vent them from escaping as other
forces surround them from other directions,” Major Mohamed Ali told
Reuters.
The methodical advance of Iraqi forces is a sharp contrast to
2014, when the army col-lapsed and fled in the face of a force of
only an estimated 800 Islamic State militants that swept into Mosul
and swiftly seized a third of Iraq.
The soldiers appear disci-plined as they position themselves on
rooftops behind green sandbags, painstakingly watching the
militants’ every move through binoculars and scopes, hoping to get
a clear shot with sniper rifles.
Israel says to take in 100 Syrian orphansJERUSALEM: Israel will
take in 100 Syrian orphans despite the two countries officially
being at war, the interior ministry said yesterday, in the first
such move since the uprising began in Syria. The children will be
given tem-porary documents for four years and later receive full
citizenship, a ministry spokesman said, confirming a report on
Channel 10 television.
Somalia hotel blast death toll rises to 26MOGADISHU: A Somali
police official says the death toll in Wednesday's attack on a
hotel in the capital, Mogad-ishu, has risen to 26. Capt. Mohamed
Hussein says 52 others were injured in the assault that began with
a sui-cide car bomb exploding at the hotel gate. He says some of
the victims who suffered horrific wounds died in hos-pitals.
Islamic extremist group Al Shabab has claimed responsibility for
the attack.
Egypt bans lawyer from travel abroadCAIRO: A prominent Egyp-tian
human rights lawyer says he has been banned from leaving the
country, the lat-est in a series of travel bans imposed on rights
activists. Negad Borai, who runs the United Group for Law, says he
was heading to Jordan to visit his wife when airport authorities
informed him that the public prosecutor's office has banned him
from travel The ban comes amid an investigation based on an
anti-torture bill drafted by Borai and submitted to Pres-ident
Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Sudanese oppn leader returns from exileKHARTOUM: Leading
Suda-nese opposition figure Sadiq Al Mahdi returned to Sudan after
spending two years in exile, telling his supporters that he has
returned to achieve peace and democ-racy. Mahdi, who heads one of
Sudan’s oldest political par-ties, was the country’s last
democratically elected prime minister. He was overthrown in 1989.
Sudan’s government had accused Mahdi in 2014 of conspiring with
armed rebels, a charge that could carry the death penalty, leading
him to seek refuge in Cairo.
Addis Ababa Anatolia
The African members of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
have decided to renounce their involvement with the court, an
official said yesterday.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Gandour said that a meeting of
African Union (AU) foreign ministers had decided to leave the
Netherlands-based court. “The foreign ministers who are members of
the
committee vehemently criticized the ICC as holding a perverted
sense of justice that only pursues the heels of African leaders,”
Gandour said in Ethiopian cap-ital Addis Ababa.
He added: “The ministerial decision will be presented to
lead-ers who will meet this coming Monday and, on their
endorse-ment, African countries will withdraw from the ICC en
masse.”
Sudan's leader Omar Hassan Al Bashir, who is accused of
committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, has
been the subject of an ICC arrest warrant since 2009.
There are 34 African mem-bers of the ICC, making up the largest
single bloc of the 124 states that have ratified the 2002 Treaty of
Rome, which estab-lished the court to prosecute genocide, war
crimes and crimes against humanity cases in the wake of the violent
break-up of Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda.According to
U.S.-based Harper's magazine, which used ICC data, 97 percent of
people who are charged by the court in
The Hague are African.AU heads of state and gov-
ernment are due to meet next week. At a leaders’ summit held in
Kigali, Rwanda, in July, a mass withdrawal from the ICC was
proposed by Kenya.
In 2012, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was charged with crimes
against humanity over eth-nic violence that led to 1,200 deaths
following the 2007 elec-tion. He was the first head of state to
appear before the court but the charges were withdrawn two years
later. The case fostered the
belief among some Africans that the court was unfairly singling
out the continent’s leaders.
Last October, South Africa, Burundi and Gambia decided to leave
the ICC. Powerful nations such as the U.S., Russia, China and India
never ratified the Rome Treaty over concerns about sovereignty and
the expo-sure of their citizens and soldiers to the court. However,
it remained unclear whether all the 34 African ICC members would
withdraw following the decision on Wednesday.
Gaza Reuters
Marwan Annaajar, a Palestinian from the south of the Gaza Strip,
says he has not tasted sweet tap water in 10 years. Every day, he
travels four kilometres to fill a 20-litre plastic jerrycan at a
local desalination station.
Gaza has long suffered severe water problems, with its aquifer
contaminated by sewage, chemicals and seawater and the ter-ritory’s
three desalination plants unable to meet demand. To drink, most
citizens depend on imported, bottled water.
But locals and development specialists say the situation is
getting beyond dire, with more than 90 percent of the water in the
aquifer unfit for domestic use, accord-ing to Rebhy Al Sheikh, the
deputy chairman of the Palestinian Water Authority.
“The (tap) water is salty, as if it came straight from the sea.
We have stopped drinking it,” said Najar, a father of six, while
queuing to get water at the desalination sta-tion in Khan
Younis.
Instead, he and others use the desali-nated water to wash and
drink, while those that can afford it buy bottled water. The
water from the tap, when it flows, is barely usable, they say.
“It is not even fit for the ani-mals to drink,” said Fathy Mhareb,
60, an unemployed father of eight. “We buy sweet water and use the
salty water to shower.”
The causes of the problem are multiple, but stem largely from
the contamination of the aquifer.
Gaza’s main water source contains 55 to 60 million cubic metres
of water over the course of a year, but demand from Gaza’s two
million population exceeds 200 million cubic metres.
That means the aquifer is over-strained, allowing seawater from
the Mediterranean to seep into it, along with sewage and chem-ical
run-off.
“There is a continuous drop down and invasion of sea water,”
said Sheikh, men-tioning too the high nitrate content.
In a study published in 2012, the United Nations said Gaza would
become unlivable by 2020 and its aquifer unusable by 2016. Sheikh
said that was almost the case—according to international standards,
the aquifer is 96.5 percent unusable.
The situation isn’t helped by desper-ate Gazans trying to tap
into the underground reserve via homemade wells. Others use
home-spun techniques to
desalinate water and sell it on the streets, but the water
remains contaminated, Sheikh said.
One solution has been buying more water from Israel, which has
vast desalina-tion capacities. But it took the Palestinians 20
years of negotiation—from 1995 to 2015 — to secure the purchase of
just five million more cubic metres.
The blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt for most of the
past decade also makes it difficult to push ahead rapidly with
major projects such as new desalination facilities.
A 10-million-euro, EU-funded desalina-tion plant was opened by
the European Union and the United Nations Children’s Fund last
week. Mohanlal Peiris, a water and sanitation specialist with
Unicef, said the facility, which blends water with that from the
municipality, would eventually serve 75,000 people.
The big hope is that a large-scale desal-ination plant, costing
¤500m ($535m), can be built to get ahead of the rising demand.
Plans are in the works, but it remains years off.
For now, two of Gaza’s three desalina-tion facilities are
functioning, producing just 8,600 cubic metres of water a day.
Gaza’s water shortage worsening
Battle for west Mosul looms
Africans choose to leave International Criminal Court
Assad could run in future election: UK
Policy shift"We were wedded for a long time to the mantra that
Assad must go. We haven't at any stage been able to make that
happen," says Foreign SecretaryBoris Johnson
Britain has been one of the harshest critics of Russia's Syria
policy and the Assad regime, saying that his departure is a
precondition for any resolution in a conflict that has killed more
than 310,000 people and forced millions to flee.
-
04 FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017ISLAM
Abu Amina Elias
Islam teaches us to worship Allah out of love for Him but with a
healthy balance of fear and hope.Allah said: They arise from
their
beds and they supplicate their Lord in fear and hope, and they
spend from what We have provided them.
(Surah Assajda 32:16)Verily, they would hasten to good
deeds and supplicate to Us in hope and fear, and they were
humbly sub-missive to Us. (Surah Al Anbiya 21:90)
Al Bara ibn Azib reported: The Messenger of Allah (peace and
bless-ings be upon him) said: O Allah, I submit my face to you and
entrust my affair to you. I commit myself to you out of hope and
fear of you.
(Sahih Muslim)Fear of Allah means to fear fall-
ing into sin and earning His punishment in the Hellfire.
"Fear a Day when you will be returned to Allah. Then every soul
will be compensated for what it earned, and they will not be
treated unjustly." (Surah Al Baqarah 2:281)
Fear of Allah makes us think twice before we commit a sin. It is
the qual-ity of mindfulness and awareness of Allah that resides
inside the heart of a believer.
Abu Huraira reported: The Messen-ger of Allah (PBUH) pointed to
his chest three times and he said: Godfearing piety is here. (Sahih
Muslim)
Indeed, the description of punish-ment in the Hereafter found in
the Quran and Sunnah should increase our resolve to be righteous.
On the Day of Judgment, those who did not fear Allah will wish they
had never been born.
"Verily, We have warned you of a near punishment on the Day when
a man will observe what his hands have put forth and the
disbeliever will
say: Oh, I wish that I were dust!"(Surah Annaba 78:40)Fear of
Allah is the source of all
knowledge as it motivates us to seek the truth and act in
accordance with it.
"Only those who fear Allah among His servants are those with
knowl-edge. Verily, Allah is Almighty and Forgiving. (Surah Al
Fatir 35:28)
Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him would say
dur-ing his sermons: The best provision is mindfulness of Allah,
and the foun-dation of wisdom is the fear of Allah the Exalted.
And in the previous scriptures, it is written: The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and
instruction.
However, we need to balance our fear of Allah with our hope in
His reward and His Paradise.
"Shuaib said: O my people, wor-ship Allah and hope for the Last
Day
and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption."
(Surah Al Ankabut 29:36)Hope in Allah motivates us to per-
form good deeds and to abandon our base materialistic desires
for the sake of righteousness.
"Wealth and children are only adornment of the worldly life, but
enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for reward and better
for one’s hope." (Surah Al Kahf 18:46)
The description of Paradise in the Quran and Sunnah should
increase our resolve to perform good deeds to be rewarded in the
Hereafter. In fact, it is a major sin to despair of the mercy of
Allah. Say: "O My servants who have transgressed against
them-selves, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Verily, Allah
forgives all sins. Verily, it is He who is the Forgiving, the
Merciful."
(Surah Azzumar 39:53)
Syed Abul A'la Mawdudi
Why is it that the Prayer, good and beneficial as it is, seems
to make no difference to our lives? Why does it
neither improve our morals, nor trans-form us into a force
dedicated to Allah? Why do we continue to live disgraced and
subjugated? The usual answer will be that you are not offering the
Prayer regularly or in the manner prescribed by Allah and the
Messenger. Such an answer may not satisfy you. I shall therefore
try to explain the matter in some detail.
Look at the clock fixed to the wall: there are lots of small
parts in it, joined to each other. When you wind it, all the parts
start working and, as these parts move, the result appears on the
clock face outside it which you observe. Both hands move to denote
each second and each minute. The purpose of the clock is to
indicate correct time. All those parts which are necessary for this
pur-pose have been fitted together and the winding system has been
made so that each of them moves as required. Only when all the
parts have been assem-bled correctly and the clock wound up
properly will it begin fulfilling the pur-pose for which it is
made.
If you do not wind it, it will not show the time. If you wind it
but not accord-ing to the prescribed method, it will stop or, even
if it works, it will not give the cor-rect time. If you remove some
of the parts and then wind it, nothing will hap-pen. If you replace
some of the parts with those of a sewing machine and then wind it,
it will neither indicate the time nor sew the cloth. If you keep
all the parts inside the case but disconnect them, then no part
will move even after winding it up. The presence of all the parts
will not serve the purpose for which the clock is made because you
will have disrupted their arrangement as well as their connection.
In all these situations, both the existence of the clock and the
act of winding it become useless, although an observer from a
distance cannot say that it is not a clock or that you are not
winding it. He will surely consider that it is a clock and will
expect it to be useful as a clock. Sim-ilarly, when from a distance
he observes you winding it, he will take it as a genu-ine effort on
your part to do the job, hoping to notice the result which comes
from winding the clock. But how can this expectation be fulfilled
when what looks like a clock from a distance has in reality lost
its ‘existence’?
Aim of Muslim ummahImagine Islam like this clock. Just
as the purpose of the clock is to indi-cate the correct time, so
the aim of Islam is that you should live in this world as the
vicegerents of God, as witnesses of God unto mankind and as
standard-bearers of truth. You must yourselves follow the
commandments of God and bring all other people under Him:
You are indeed the best community brought forth for mankind: you
enjoin the doing of right and forbid the doing of wrong, and you
believe in God (Al Imran 3: 11O) . And thus We have made you a just
community, that you might be witnesses unto mankind (Al Baqa-rah 2:
143). God has promised those of
you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely make
you to accede to power on earth (Al Nur 24: 55).
Wholeness of Islamic teachingsTo fulfil this purpose, various
parts
as were required, like those of the clock, have been brought
together in Islam. Beliefs and principles of morality; rules for
day-to-day con-duct; the rights of God, of His slaves, of one’s own
self, of everything in the world which you encounter; rules for
earnmg and spend-ing money; laws of war and peace; principles of
government and limits of obedience to it - all these are parts of
Islam. As in a clock, they are linked to each other in such a way
that as soon as the winding is done, every part starts moving and,
with the movement of all these parts, the desired result is
obtained. Rule of Godss law in the world, domina-tion of Islam,
start man-ifesting just as, with the movement of the parts of the
clock in front of you, the time appears on its face.
In order to fasten together differ-ent parts of the clock,
screws and small pieces of metal have been used. Simi-larly, to
join all the parts of Islam together, there is an arrangement
called the Jama’ah or organisation. Muslims should organise
themselves, and have leaders equipped with proper knowl-edge and
endowed with taqwa; the brains should help them and the limbs
should obey them, as they all strive to live under God.
When all the parts have been brought together and properly
assem-bled, regular winding is necessary to set them in motion and
to continue their movement: Salah which is offered five times a day
provides that winding, cre-ating the energy which sets an Islamic
life in motion. Cleaning this clock is also necessary: fasting
observed for thirty days a year cleanses hearts and mor-als.
Lubrication, too, is required: Zakah is like the oil which is
applied to its parts once a year. Then it is also necessary to
overhaul it periodically: Haj is that over-hauling which should be
performed at least once in a lifetime. And the more often it is
done, the better.
The processes of winding, cleaning, lubricating and overhauling
are of use only when all the parts are present in the frame, when
they are linked in the order designed by the clock-maker, and when
all are so trained that immedi-ately on winding they start moving
and begin showing results.
Alas, today the situation has become very different. For a
start, the very Jama’ah, the organisational structure, which was
supposed to link the parts of the clock together has ceased to
exist. The result is that all the fittings have come apart, each
has gone its own way. Everybody does whatever takes his fancy.
There is nobody to question any-thing. Everyone is autonomous. If
someone wants to follow the Islamic code, he can; if he does not
want to, he need not. Since even this so-called free-dom has not
satisfied you, you have pulled out many parts of the clock and in
their place put anything and every-thing: a spare part from a
sewing machine, perhaps, or from a factory or from the engine of a
car. You call your-selves Muslims, yet you render loyal service to
Kufr, yet you take interest, you insure your lives, you file false
law suits, your daughters, sisters and wives are forsaking Islamic
manners and your children are being given secular mate-rialistic
educations.
Despite this, you expect the clock to work when you wind it! And
you suppose that cleaning, lubricating and overhaul-ing it will
also be of use. With a little reflection, however, you should see
that in the condition to which you have reduced the clock you can
wind it, lubri-cate it, and overhaul it, for the whole of your
lives without any effect. Nothing will happen until you remove the
parts brought in from other appliances, replace them with the
original parts, and restore the original priorities. Then, and only
then, will the winding and so forth pro-duce any results.
This state of affairs is the real rea-son why your Salah, Sawm,
Zakah and Haj make no impact upon your lives. First, there are so
few among you who perform these acts of worship. Due to the
dissolution of Islamic Jama’ah
everybody has become autonomous. Whether you fulfil your
obligations or not, there is nobody to care. Nor do those who do
apparently carry out their obligations do so in a proper manner.
They are not constant in attending the congrega-tional Prayer.
People are selected to lead the Prayers in the mosques simply
because they are fit for no other work: people who exist on the
free bread doled out to mosques, who are uneducated, who lack moral
cali-bre. How can congregations led by them turn you into the
leaders of mankind? Similar is the situation regarding your
Fasting, Almsgiving and Pilgrimages.
Despite all these facts, you may argue, there are nonetheless
many Mus-lims who do discharge their religious duties
conscientiously. Why does that make no difference? But, as I have
said, when the parts of the clock have become unhinged and numerous
for-eign bodies have been inserted in it, it makes no difference if
you wind it or not, clean it or not, lubricate it or not. From a
distance it does look like a clock. An outside observer may say:
This is Islam and you are Muslims. But what he cannot see is how
badly its inside machinery has been tampered with.
Our deplorable conditionYou understand why it is so that you
pray and fast and yet remain trampled under the heel of cruel
tyrants. But, should I tell you something even more distressing?
Although most of you no doubt regret this situation but, I would
say, 999 people out of 1,000 are not prepared to change their
situation. They have no urge in their hearts to assem-ble the clock
of Islam again properly. They are afraid that any such
recon-struction would mean that their own favourite imported parts
would be thrown out, and this they are not pre-pared to accept.
They are afraid that any tightening of various parts would mean
that they will have to discipline themselves, and this they are not
will-ing to undertake. Instead, they prefer that the clock remains
a piece of dec-oration on the wall for people to be shown and told
how wonderful Islam is, what miracles it can perform. Those who are
supposed to love this clock more than others would like to wind it
repeatedly and zealously and to clean it most laboriously; but they
want to do nothing to reset its parts properly or tighten them, nor
will they seek to get rid of the extraneous parts.
I wish I could endorse your attitudes and behaviour, but I
cannot say any-thing which I believe is wrong. I assure you that
if, in addition to praying five times a day, you were to offer
Tahad-jud (pre-dawn), Ishraq (post-sunset) and Chasht (mid-morning)
Prayers, read the Quran for hours every day, and observe, over and
above Ramadan, extra fasts for five and a half months in the
remaining eleven months, you would still achieve nothing. What is
needed is to restore the original parts to the clock and fix them
firmly. Then even the little necessary winding will make it work
smoothly; and the mini-mal amount of required cleaning and
lubrication will be needed.
Wama alayna illal balaghThere is no responsibility on us
except conveying the truth.
Worshiping Allah in fear and hope
Abdullah Rahim
We all face situations in our life where we need to pray for
ourselves or those who we care about. At times, we feel that our
prayer has been answered. At oth-ers, we feel it has not been
answered. Sometimes we think it has been answered and then later we
think we were wrong. On some occasions, we wonder why a prayer has
not been answered. Much later we are thankful that it was never
answered. Some other times we feel dis-appointed that we prayed and
did not get what we prayed for.
We know that we are given life in this world to be challenged
(tested as some say) so that we can improve our-selves through
spiritual purification. This covers all aspects of life and all
daily affairs including the situations where we feel the need to
pray for a request, the prayer itself, and our reac-tion to what we
perceive as an answered or unanswered prayer.
The following example may illus-trate what this means:
My uncle is sick. He is in hospital. I love him a lot and am
praying for his recovery day and night. After a few weeks I may
face the situation where I think my prayer has been answered (i.e.
my uncle recovers) or the situation where I think my prayer has not
been answered (i.e. my uncle passes away).
The above is only a very limited perspective of what is going
on. What really goes on (based on our religious understanding) is
as follows:
– My uncle’s sickness is a chal-lenge for me so that I can
improve my patience and trust God’s wisdom
– All the worship and prayer that I do to ask for my uncle’s
recovery contributes towards my spiritual purification
– My perception of whether my uncle has recovered or not
provides me a new challenge
Looking at it from this perspective the clever ones are those
who, while passionately praying for their requests, do not forget
that there is a bigger pic-ture and a higher level of inquiry here,
that is, spiritual purification. I am pray-ing for my uncle, but
what I am “really” doing is to use the opportunity to fur-ther
purify my soul. At the end of the day, if my uncle survives today
he and I will die some day later. What really matters is that we
both fulfil our obli-gations in this world and have a good place to
abide in the hereafter.
To pray for some one, we need to talk with God humbly and we
normally do some acts of worship before or after the prayer. Our
prayer may be answered or not (according to our per-ception) but
this “talking with God”, our “requesting” attitude and “the act of
worship” all contribute towards our spiritual purification.
We therefore need to separate the two issues of our request in
the prayer being granted, and the prayer itself being answered. It
will be wonderful of course if we feel that requests in our prayers
have been granted. However, what is more wonderful is that our
prayers, when sin-cere, are always being answered. This is because
whether our request is answered or not, a sincere prayer itself
always con-tributes in further spiritual purification.
All prayers are answeredHas the prayer lost its power?
The usual answer will be that you are not offering the prayer
regularly or in the manner prescribed by Allah and the Messenger.
Such an answer may not satisfy you. I shall therefore try to
explain the matter in some detail.
-
05FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017 ASIA
'Hina' dolls
S Korea to keep Japan's statueSeoul AFP
A statue stolen from Japan in 2012 should be given to a South
Korean temple, a South Korean court
ruled yesterday, on the grounds that it was previously seized by
Japanese pirates centuries ago.
The ruling prompted an immediate protest from Tokyo, which is
embroiled in disputes with Seoul over history and territory.
The 14th century Buddhist statue was stolen by South Korean
thieves from the Kan-non Temple in Tsushima, Japan, five years
ago.
It was confiscated by South Korean authorities and Tokyo sought
its return.
But the Daejeon district court awarded it to the Buseok Temple
near the southern city of Seosan, from where it was allegedly
plundered by Japanese pirates long ago.
"Judging from statements made at hearings and inspec-tions of
the statue, it is acknowledged that the statue belongs to the
Buseok Temple," the court said in a statement.
Ancient scripts found inside the 50.5 centimetre-tall statue
indicate that it was dedicated to the Buseok Temple in the early
14th century.
Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga expressed regret
at the decision and urged Seoul to return it immediately.
"Through diplomatic chan-nels at various levels, government has
asked for an early return of the Buddhist statue, which has yet to
be given back".
"It is extremely regrettable that this ruling came against this
background. We will urge the Korean government side to take
appropriate action so that the statue will be returned to Japan
promptly," he added.
South Korea and Japan, which colonised the peninsula
from 1910 to 1945, are embroiled in a diplomatic row over
Tokyo's wartime slavery.
Another statue stolen by the
same South Korean thieves from a different Japanese temple, a
bronze standing image of Buddha, was returned to Japan in 2015.
Two-metre high Lego rooster to feature in HK's Lunar New
YearHong Kong Reuters
A LEGO rooster made of 220,000 red, white, yellow and green toy
bricks will be the centrepiece of a float in Hong Kong's Lunar New
Year parade to usher in the Year of the Rooster.
Andy Hung, the territory's only certified Lego profes-sional
builder, was commissioned by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to cre-ate
the two-metre tall bird.
"I wanted to use Lego pieces that resonate with people from the
East and impress my audience".
The rooster, which took 5 people 1-1/2 months to build, is one
of several Lego statues on the float, including a life-sized farmer
holding a rake, a tuxedo-clad waiter and a race car driver
clutching his helmet.
The night-time parade takes place tomorrow, the first day of the
Lunar New Year, when 10 floats will light up the streets of Hong
Kong's famous Tsim Sha Tsui shop-ping district.
Hung, a full-time artist with studios in Hong Kong and Beijing,
is one of Asia's three certified Lego professionals.
Bangkok Reuters
Thailand's top security officer will go to neighbouring Laos to
push for the extra-dition of critics of the Thai monarchy,
Thailand's defence minister said yesterday.
Insulting the monarchy car-ries a jail term of up to 15 years
for each offence in Thailand and
prosecutions have risen since the death last October of the
revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
His son, King Maha Vaji-ralongkorn, has taken the throne.
The government has asked seven countries, including Laos, to
extradite a total of 19 suspects accused of the crime of lese
majeste. None has said it would.
General Thawip Netniyom, the head of the Thai National
Security Council, would travel to Laos to follow up on the
request, Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said.
"Laos has responded very well to all our requests," Prawit told
reporters, adding that Thai-land had given details of the suspects
to Lao government.
Prawit did not identify the suspects in Laos or say how many
there were or elaborate on
the accusations they faced.Laos has only a tenth Thai-
land's population of over 65 million and its economy is barely
one fortieth the size.
Since taking power in 2014, the Thai junta has taken a tough
stance on dissenters.
The government has been criticised by the international
community over prison sen-tences for people found guilty of
violating the lese majeste law.The government has urged
citizens to report cases of lese majeste to authorities and
asked internet service providers to monitor and block
inappropri-ate material.
Thailand thanked Laos for blocking a social media channel
critical of the monarchy late last year, but the channel has since
resumed.
Denpasar AFP
Indonesian police have detained a family of five, including
three children, after they were deported from Turkey for allegedly
seeking to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group, an
official said.
The family were the latest Indonesians to be caught attempting
to join the jihadists. Hundreds of radicals from the world's most
populous Muslim-majority country have flocked to the Middle East to
fight with IS in recent years.
The family left Indonesia for Turkey in August, from where they
planned to cross to Syria to join IS, police said.
But they were caught by
Turkish soldiers this month and deported back to Indonesia,
arriving late Tuesday on resort island of Bali, local police
spokes-man Hengky Widjaja said.
"We interrogated them for two days," he said. "This morn-ing
they were sent for further questioning by the national police (in
Jakarta)."
The father received his masters degree in Australia and their
youngest child -- now aged three -- was born in Aus-tralia,
authorities said. The other two children are aged seven and 12.
Seventeen Indonesians were also arrested at the week-end after
being deported from Turkey due to suspicions they were trying to
reach Syria to join IS.
Thailand seeks extradition of royal critics
Japan considers removing Nanjing Massacre denial books from some
hotelsTokyo Reuters
A Japanese hotel chain at the centre of a furore over books its
presi-dent wrote denying the Nanjing Massacre in wartime China is
prepared to consider removing the books from at least some hotels
if it receives a formal written request to do so.
Tokyo-based hotel and real estate developer APA Group came under
fire last week for books by president Toshio Motoya, which con-tain
his revisionist views and are placed in every room of the company's
400-plus APA Hotels.
APA said on Tuesday that when negotiations took place in April
2015 about using some hotels to host athletes for the 2017 Sapporo
Asian Winter Games on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, it
received a ver-bal request from a travel agent to remove all
printed matter from rooms.
It added that if there was a formal, written request, it was
prepared to respond, without giving further details.
Officials for the Games said they wanted to create the best
possible environment for athletes but had not spoken with APA since
the hotels were decided.
They also had not been aware of the books.
"To choose host hotels for the Games, it is a prerequi-site that
any hotels meet our standards that there will be no promotion of
any kind of political, religious or racial views," said Hisatsugu
Yama-zaki, manager of the Sports Affairs Department at the
organising committee.
"APA made that state-ment regarding removing printed matter if
there was a formal request. We would like to discuss things with
the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and decide on a speedy response,"
he added.
The OCA is the governing body for all sports in Asia.
APA did not immediately respond to requests for addi-tional
comments.
In a statement, the Chi-nese Olympic Committee said APA's
behaviour was a viola-tion of Olympic charter, which bans the
promotion of politics at Olympic-related venues.
Indonesian family arrested over terrorist group links
Hong Kong AFP
Hong Kong leadership hopeful Carrie Lam tes-tified in a
high-profile corruption trial yesterday where she described the
accused -- a former city leader -- as her "role model".
Donald Tsang is charged with misconduct and bribery while he was
Hong Kong's chief executive and is the highest-ranking official to
be taken to court for graft.
The trial comes at a time when residents are losing faith
in Hong Kong's elites, as a string of corruption cases fuel
public suspicions over cosy links between authorities and busi-ness
leaders.
Lam was made secretary for development in 2007 during Tsang's
administration and said he "had been my role model in my career as
a public servant", when she was called as a prosecution witness at
the city's High Court.
Lam answered "yes" when the defence counsel asked whether Tsang
did his "honest best to serve the public".
Tsang, 72, was leader from 2005 to 2012 and has pleaded
not guilty to three charges of misconduct and bribery, each with
a maximum jail sentence of seven years.
He is accused of failing to disclose his plans to lease a
lux-ury penthouse in the neighbouring city of Shenzhen from a major
investor in a broadcaster -- which at the time was seeking a
licence from the Hong Kong government.
Tsang allegedly approved the company's application for the
licence, and also failed to declare that an architect he pro-posed
for a government award had been employed as an inte-
rior designer for the flat.Lam denied knowledge of
the Shenzhen property.She also said she had not
come under pressure when she nominated the architect for the
award after he was suggested to her department by the chief
executive's office.
"Of course I made my own judgement," she said.
The prosecution has called Tsang's behaviour a betrayal of
public trust.
Lam was most recently tough deputy to unpopular cur-rent chief
executive Leung Chun-ying.
Hong Kong leadership favourite testifies in corruption trial
An employee for Japanese doll maker Kyugetsu displays sets of
'hina' dolls with likenesses of US President Donald Trump and Tokyo
Governor Yuriko Koike at the company's showroom in Tokyo,
yesterday.
A 14th century Buddhist statue stolen by South Korean thieves
from the Kannon Temple in Tsushima, Japan, in 2012.
Tokyo protests"Judging from statements made at hearings and
inspections of the statue, it is acknowledged that the statue
belongs to the Buseok Temple".
Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga expressed regret
at the decision and urged Seoul to return it immediately.
Hong Kong's former deputy leader Carrie Lam arrives at the High
Court in Hong Kong, yesterday.
-
06 FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017ASIA
Philippine assures USdefence deal still intactManila Reuters
The United States will upgrade and build facilities on
Philippine military bases this year, Manila's defence
minister said yesterday, bolster-ing an alliance strained by
President Rodrigo Duterte's opposition to a US troop presence.
The Pentagon gave the green light to start the work as part of
an Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), a 2014 pact that
Duterte has threatened to scrap during bar-rages of hostility
towards the former colonial power.
"EDCA is still on," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
EDCA allows the expansion of rotational deployment of US ships,
aircraft and troops at five bases in the Philippines as well as the
storage of equipment for humanitarian and maritime security
operations.
Lorenzana said Washington had committed to build ware-houses,
barracks and runways in the five agreed locations and Duterte was
aware of projects
and had promised to honour all existing agreements with the
United States.
This week, Republican US Senator John McCain, who headed the US
Senate's Armed Services Committee, proposed $7.5bn of new military
funding for US forces and their allies in the Asia-Pacific.
The Philippines has said it wants no part in anything
con-frontational in the strategic waterway and will not jeopard-ize
promises of extensive Chinese trade and investment, and offers of
military hardware,
that Duterte has got since he launched his surprise foreign
policy shift.
Lorenzana said the Philip-pines had asked China for two to three
fast boats, two drones, sniper rifles and a robot for bomb
disposal, in a $14m arms donation from China.
The arms package would be used to support operations against
Islamist Abu Sayyaf mil-itants in the southern Philippines, he
said.
"If these are quality equip-ment, we will probably buy more," he
said.
Lorenzana said Russia was offering hardware such as ships,
submarines, planes and helicopters.
As with China, those offers have come as a result of a charm
offensive by Duterte, who has praised Russia and its
leadership.
He last year said if Russia and China started a "new order" in
the world, he would be the first to join.
Duterte was infuriated by US expressions of concern about
extra-judicial killings in a cam-paign against drugs he launched
after he took office in June.
Pakistan to send 1,500 PhD students to USIslamabad Internews
The Executive Committee of National Economic Coun-cil (ECNEC)
yesterday, under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar,
approved PhD Scholarship Pro-gramme under US-Pakistan Knowledge
Corridor (Phase-1) at a rationalised cost of Rs18.81bn including
foreign exchange component of Rs17.714bn.
Dar chaired meeting of the ECNEC yesterday.
The Committee considered and approved various projects relating
to climate change, energy, health, and higher edu-cation
sector.
On a proposal of the Minis-try of Planning, Development and
Reform, the ECNEC approved the project regarding Green Pakistan
Programme - Revival of Forestry Resources in Pakistan at an
estimated cost of Rs3652.142m.
ECNEC approved Higher Education Commission proposal of PhD
Scholarship Programme under US-Pakistan Knowledge
Corridor (phase-1) at a rational-ised cost of Rs18, 810.916m
including foreign exchange com-ponent of Rs17, 714.698m.
Under this segment of US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor, HEC will
send 1500 PhD students to top ranking US universities.
HEC will also provide coun-seling/guidance facilities to
candidates for taking GRE, TOFEL tests and proposal writing to
assist students in seeking admis-sion in US universities. ECNEC
directed HEC to ensure partici-pation of students/scholars from all
over the country on merit.
ECNEC also approved HEC proposal for establishment of Sub
Campuses of Public Sector Universities at district level at a
rationalised cost of Rs5, 206.28m. Under this project, campuses of
universities will be set up in districts where no such facilities
exist so far.
ECNEC approved the com-pliance report on Neelam Jhelum
Hydroelectric Project with the direction to WAPDA to formu-late
proper policy guidelines in the light of the Ministry of Water and
Power recommendations and to adhere to the timelines.
Manila Reuters
Philippines President Rod-rigo Duterte apologised to South Korea
yesterday after policemen killed one of its citizens, then said he
wanted to hang rogue police and send their heads to Seoul.
He called again for the death penalty to be reinstated so that
he could hang 20 crim-inals a day.
Duterte promised the toughest punishment for those behind the
kidnapping and kill-ing of businessman Jee Ick-joo inside the
national police head-quarters in October.
"I will see to it that they are sentenced to the maximum,"
he
said of the policemen. "You give that power to me
back again, I will execute them... I'll hang them in one day, 20
of them - 20 a day."
"You policemen, you will suffer. I can maybe send your heads to
South Korea."
The death of the South Korean comes as the Philippine police
face growing criticism from rights groups and law-makers, who say
cover-ups and abuses of power are rampant.
Duterte's critics, however, say he is to blame for creating a
culture of impunity by prom-ising to protect police on the front
lines of his war on drugs.
The police accused of kid-napping and killing Jee were
anti-narcotics officers.
Turnbull no to National Day date-changeSydney AFP
The date of Australia's national day should not be changed, the
prime min-ister said yesterday, as thousands protested over the day
that commemorates the arrival of the country's first Brit-ish
settlers.
While a national day of
celebration, some Australians view the date as 'Invasion Day' as
it marks the beginning of Brit-ish colonisation.
"I believe we should main-tain the date," Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull said yesterday.
"Everyone is entitled to a point of view, but I think most
Australians accept January 26 as Australia Day".
"It is a day where we cele-brate the rich diversity of all of
our cultures - from our First Australians... to the new citizens,
migrants who come from such diverse range of countries."
There were several 'Invasion Day' rallies across major
Aus-tralian cities, with protesters marching in support of
disad-vantaged Aboriginal community and a change of date.
Duterte to punish cops behind Korean's murder
English denies passport for sale to richWellington AFP
New Zealand passports are not for sale, Prime Min-ister Bill
English (pictured) said yesterday, after it emerged US tech titan
Peter Thiel gained citizenship in the South Pacific nation despite
not meeting official criteria.
The dispute over Thiel's cit-izenship follows reports that
mega-wealthy Americans are eyeing the remote South Pacific nation
as a "bolthole" should Donald Trump's presidency go disastrously
wrong.
The New Zealand govern-ment confirmed this week that
German-born billionaire Thiel was granted citizenship in June
2011, just two months after donating $730,000 to an official
Christchurch quake disaster fund.
English acknowledged Thiel did not meet the usual require-ments
-- living at least 70
percent of the previous five years in New Zealand -- but said he
was granted citizenship due to exceptional circumstances.
"New Zealand is a better place with Mr Thiel as a citizen,"
English said.
He declined to detail the exceptional circumstances and
dismissed as "ridiculous" sug-gestions New Zealand had sold
citizenship to Thiel, who Forbes estimates is worth $2.7bn.
"It's not a case of whether wealthy people can jump the queue,"
English said.
"It's whether people have particular skills, particular
con-tributions that don't quite meet the criteria."
Manila Reuters
The Philippines has received intelligence that shows closer
links between domestic militants and Islamic State, its defence
minister said yesterday, adding weight to worries that Middle East
extremists are building a net-work in Southeast Asia.
Intelligence from allies showed a leader of the Abu Sayyaf
militant group, which has gained notoriety for piracy and
kidnapping in the southern Phil-ippines, was trying to spread into
new areas of the Philippines upon the instruction of Islamic State,
according to Philippine
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
"Isnilon Hapilon left his tra-ditional area of operation on
Basilan island and went to Lanao del Sur to see the area and find
out if it is conducive for them to move there," Lorenzana said,
referring to an Abu Sayyaf leader.
Lanao del Sur is a province on the main southern island of
Mindanao, to the northeast of the much smaller Basilan island.
Lorenzana did not say which country provided the intelli-gence
but said it included information that Hapilon had made the move to
survey the new area "at the behest" of Islamic State.
The army had until recently denied the existence of links
between IS and militants in the Philippines and said Abu Sayyaf was
had only pledged allegiance to the network to boost its
profile.
Abu Sayyaf, which operates in two southern islands, has
kid-napped dozens of foreigners over recent years and beheaded
several of them, including two Canadians last year.
The United States has a $5m bounty on the head of Hapilon for
leading the 2001 kidnapping of 20 people, including three
Americans, on a resort island. He has been identified as Abu
Sayyaf's commander on Basilan.
Sub-zero temperature leaves 27 Afghan children
deadMazar-i-Sharif AFP
Heavy snowfall and freez-ing weather has killed 27 children, all
under the age of five, in a remote dis-trict in northern
Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, with fears the toll could
rise.
Roads in Darzaab in north-ern Jawzjan province were blocked by
50 centimetres of snow, cutting off access for vil-lagers in the
area to medical care as temperatures plunged to -10 degrees Celsius
(14 Fahrenheit).
"Unfortunately we have 27
children killed due to heavy snowfall and freezing weather,"
district governor Rahmatullah Hashar said, saying the deaths had
occurred over the last two or three days.
All the children were under the age of five, he said, adding the
blocked roads mean the toll could still increase.
The deaths were confirmed by the Jawzjan provincial gov-ernor's
spokesman, Reza Ghafoori, who said aid would be delivered via
emergency committees.
Heavy snowfall and ava-lanches kill scores of people in
Afghanistan each winter.
Terror group 'building network' in Asia
Existing treatyThe Pentagon gave the green light to start the
upgrade of military facilities as part of EDCA.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed that Enhanced
Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is still on.
Aboriginal protesters hold signs as they demonstrate outside the
Victorian State Parliament on Australia Day, in Melbourne,
yesterday.
Philippine Police Chief Ronald Dela Rosa shows photos to Marissa
Morquicho, the househelp of Jee, as they appear at a Senate hearing
into Jee's death, in Manila, yesterday.
Pakistan bans TV host over hate speechIslamabad Reuters
PAKISTAN'S television reg-ulator yesterday banned a well-known
talk show host for hate speech, after he hosted shows accusing
liberal activ-ists and others of blasphemy, an inflammatory
allegation that could put their lives at risk.
Blasphemy is a criminal offence in Muslim-majority Pakistan that
can result in the death penalty. Even being accused of blasphemy
can provoke targeted acts of vio-lence by religious right-wing
vigilantes.
Aamir Liaquat Hussain, who describes his programme aired on Bol
TV as the coun-try's leading television show, had been at the
forefront of a campaign to discredit liberal activists who went
missing this month, as well as those defending them.
The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority said
Liaquat's show "wilfully and repeatedly made state-ments and
allegations which (are) tantamount to hate speech, derogatory
remarks, incitement to violence against citizens and casting
accusa-tions of being anti-state and anti-Islam."
Liaquat did not answer calls to his mobile telephone yesterday
and representatives of Bol TV were not immedi-ately available for
comment.
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07FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017 ASIA
NEWS BYTES
SRINAGAR: Avalanches killed 10 Indian soldiers in Kashmir after
cascading onto an army post and a patrol along the de facto border
that divides the disputed territory with Pakistan, the military
said yesterday.
The separate avalanches buried the soldiers under tonnes of snow
on the Line of Control (LoC) in the remote Gurez area on Wednesday,
an army spokesman said. A total of seven sol-diers in the patrol,
that was approaching a border post when it was hit, were
killed.
10 Indian soldiers dead in avalanches
Beijing AP
China has released a new list of items banned for export to
North Korea, ranging from wind tunnels to
plutonium, following a new round of United Nations sanc-tions
and complaints from US President Donald Trump that Beijing was not
doing enough to pressure its communist neighbour.
The step was seen by one leading expert on North Korea as an
attempt to show that China is fully meeting its commit-ments, and
to pre-empt any moves by the US to punish Chi-nese companies that
deal with the North.
However, the expert ques-tioned whether the ban would have much
effect in slowing a North Korean nuclear weapons programme that is
already well advanced and gathering momentum. A statement from the
Chinese Commerce Minis-try late Wednesday said the items included
dual-use tech-nologies that could aid the
North's programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biologi-cal
weapons as well as the missiles to deliver them.
While largely comprising specialty chemicals and rare alloys,
the list also includes
computer software, machinery, high-speed cameras, aerospace
engines and six-axle truck chas-sis. Grinding machines, molds and
radio transmitting equip-ment also joined plutonium and wind
tunnels among the banned items. The ban on "dual-use measures
related to weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery"
takes effect immediately, the announcement said. There was no
evidence that the extensive list of items was prompted by anything
other than the UN Security Council resolution passed in November in
response to the North's mis-sile test in September.
Foreign Ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying yesterday said
sanctions should be "imple-mented in an all-round and balanced way"
and China was merely meeting its obligations.However, the official
Commu-nist Party newspaper Global Times suggested the timing had to
do with the upcoming week-long Lunar New Year holiday, a period
during which North Korea last year staged a missile test and in
2013 held its third underground nuclear test.
China lists items banned for export to North Korea
Political sanction This move was following a new round of UN
sanctions and complaints from US President that Beijing was not
doing enough to pressure its communist neighbour.
The step was seen as an attempt to show that China is fully
meeting its commitments, and to pre-empt any moves by the US to
punish Chinese companies that deal with the North.
Colombo AFP
Sri Lanka yesterday said it was stuck in a "gigan-tic debt trap"
and that paying off foreign loans would hit a record $2.41bn this
year, up from $1.82bn last year. The Finance Ministry said the
cash-strapped coun-try's debt servicing cost this year was
estimated at about half of its foreign currency reserves, while
repayments were expected to worsen to $4.0bn in two years.
The main reason was loans taken by the previous administration
for white ele-phant projects such as an airport and a deep sea
port, Finance Minister Ravi Karu-nanayake said.
"Sri Lanka is embroiled in a gigantic debt trap," he said. "The
infrastructure develop-ment (of the former government) has not
brought any returns on its invest-ments." The government announced
it would raise $1.5bn through a domestic bond sale to rebuild its
for-eign exchange reserves.
Myanmar AP
Twenty-two humanitarian and development groups have called for a
halt to fighting between Myanmar's gov-ernment and ethnic rebels in
the country's north and for the pro-tection of civilians affected
by the conflict.
The groups signing the state-ment, circulated yesterday,
include the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Plan
Inter-national and Save the Children. "We are alarmed about
incidents of civilians being killed, injured and displaced due to
intensifica-tion of military operations and use of heavy artillery
in close proximity" to populated areas, the local and international
groups said. There have been reports that civilians who fled to
internal displacement camps have found
themselves caught in the combat.
Kachin state and northern Shan state have been wracked by
intense fighting since November, with the government employing
airstrikes and artillery attacks. It is fighting guerrillas from
the Kachin minority and three other ethnic groups seeking greater
autonomy. Khon Ja, a Kachin activist, said the government has not
allowed humanitarian groups
to have access to thousands of displaced civilians. The military
rejected the allegation. "There is no organization that the
govern-ment wouldn't allow, if they work and ask according to the
rules and regulations," said Maj. Gen. Aung Ye Win in the
Commander-in-Chief's Office. The groups also called for all sides
to "construc-tively engage in a mediated peace dialogue to achieve
sustainable peace in Myanmar."
Groups seek halt to fighting in Myanmar
Sri Lanka stuck in 'gigantic debt trap'
Dhaka gets $94.98bn remittance
India doesn't meddle in Nepal's affairs
Myanmar sues students over play
China may test new air-to-air missile
YANGON: A group of Myanmar students has been charged with
defamation over a play containing jokes about military wives having
affairs while their husbands are away fighting.
Nine students were in a court, where they were told they would
face trial over the performance that was staged during a workshop
promoting peace. A local army lieutenant-colonel lodged the case
because the play "could disgrace and destroy the image of the
Tatmadaw" and their families.
KATHMANDU: Contrary to the accusation from a section of people
in Nepal, India has never interfered in the neigh-bouring country's
internal matters, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae said
yesterday. Rae said: "We keep on listen-ing in Kathmandu during
some political speeches that India is interfering in Nepal's
internal matters, but actually people in Nepal do not feel that
way." India has never meddled in the internal political matter of
Nepal, but has always been cooper-ative intending to resolve the
crisis Nepal is facing, he added.
DHAKA: Bangladeshis working abroad remitted home $94.98bn
between 2010 and 2016, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says.
"Bangladesh sent 757,731 overseas workers, including 118,158
women, to 162 countries and received $13.61bn as remittance in
2016," the state-run media quoted Hasina as saying. Hasina said her
Awami League party government had undertaken various programmes for
development and modernisation of migration procedure along with
welfare of the expatriate workers. She said the government had a
plan to open labour wings at Bang-ladeshi missions where more than
10,000 workers were living.
BEIJING: China may be testing a new, long-range air-to-air
missile that could take out early warning aircraft and aer-ial
refuelling aircraft, a state-run newspaper said yesterday, after
pictures of the new missile surfaced online.
President Xi Jinping is overseeing an ambitious military
modernisation programme that includes stealth jets and air-craft
carriers. The country has also tested anti-satellite missiles.
New Delhi IANS
The 68th Republic Day was celebrated yester-day across the
nation, from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu
and Gujarat to the northeastern states, with pomp and pageantry,
with the grand function in the national capital being the cyno-sure
of all eyes. Seven bomb blasts occurred in Assam, in a dampner to
the Republic Day function there.
In New Delhi, an overcast sky drizzling intermittently, led to
some moments of anxiousness -- but the rain gods were kind enough
to relent till after the event was over.
On both sides of Rajpath, a crowd of about 50,000 people --
including Indian and foreign dignitaries -- and jubilant
children dressed in colourful dresses cheering and waving the
Indian flag -- set the tone for a perfect start to the Republic Day
celebration.
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al
Nahyan, who was the Chief Guest, watched the parade
alongside President Pranab Mukherjee, from inside a special
enclousure. President Mukher-jee, who is commander-in-chief of the
armed forces, took the salute at his last Republic Day parade, as
his term is due to end in July. The proceedings began with
President Mukherjee
unfurling the Tricolour at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and Prime
Minister Narendra Modi paying tributes to the fallen soldiers at
the Amar Jawan Jyoti at India Gate.
A 149-member UAE military contingent participated in the parade
this time. Led by Lt Col Abood Musabeh Abood Musabeh Alghfeli, it
comprised of the UAE Presidential Guard, the Air Force, the Navy,
the Army and a band of 35 musicians.
This was followed by military and paramilitary
contingents.Making its debut were India's Light Combat Aircraft
(LCA) Tejas and Airborne Early Warning and Control System
(AEW&C). The parade ended with a spectacular fly-past by the
Air Force, with aircraft and helicopters setting the skies ablaze.
Mi-17 V5 heli-copters flew with the Indian flag and showered flower
petals.
India marks 68th Republic Day
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (centre) and the Crown Prince of
Abu Dhabi General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (right) watch
the Republic Day Parade at Rajpath in New Delhi.
The Indian Military Police's Dare Devil stunt team take part in
a dsiplay during the Republic Day Parade at Rajpath.
School children take part in a cultural performance at the Manek
Shaw Parade Grounds in Bengaluru.
Indian National Service Scheme (NSS) cadets take part in a
parade at the Manek Shaw Parade Grounds.
An Indian Army contingent marches in New Delhi.
Indian Army's Infantry Combat Vehicles are displayed during the
parade in New Delhi.
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08 FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2017VIEWS
E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6
QUOTE OF THE DAY
I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to
continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us
instead of uniting us. I have said it time and again Mexico will
not pay for any wall.
Enrique Pena NietoMexican President
President Donald Trump’s vow to accel-erate construction of a
“contiguous, physical wall” along the Mexican bor-der is slamming
into a Washington reality — who’s going to pay for it and
how? Not us, say the Mexicans. US taxpayers will foot the bill,
starting with money already in the Department of Homeland Security
account that amounts to a small down payment. Then it’s up to the
Republican-led Congress to come up with possibly billions of
dollars more, cut-ting money for other domestic programs to finance
the wall.
On Wednesday, Trump promised “imme-diate construction” would
begin on the border wall, telling ABC News that planning is
start-ing immediately. He again vowed that Mexico would pay the US
back, though he offered no details.
It is true there is a small amount available now in the
Department of Homeland Security accounts dedicated to “border
security fenc-ing, infrastructure, and technology” — $100 million
by one congressional estimate — that would permit work to get
immediately under way.
So far, thanks to spending in the late 2000s, Congress provided
about $2.3bn to construct 654 miles of fencing and vehicular
blockades. But Trump has promised a wall, not just fencing — and
it’s not a universally popular idea by any stretch.
“The facts have not changed. Building a wall is the most
expensive and least effective way to secure the border,” said GOP
Rep. Will Hurd, whose sprawling West Texas swing dis-trict
encompasses more than 800 miles of the border.
“Many areas in my district are perfect examples of where a wall
is unnecessary and would negatively impact the environment, private
property rights and economy.”
Statements by senior party leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., praised Trump’s hard line.
GOP members of the appropriations com-mittees are more likely to
take a green eyeshade approach to the money since they are familiar
with the likely trade-offs.
“There’s any number of complications,” said former House
Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., citing
obsta-cles such as Indian reservations and national parks and
forests. And much of the remaining 1,300 miles is very rough
terrain, with steep construction costs and a limited return for the
dollar. “It’s expensive and it’s complicated.”
Hundreds of miles of the border are so rugged and inhospitable
that it doesn’t make sense to even try to build.
And in Texas, almost all of the land along the border is
privately owned. When former President George W. Bush tried to
build bor-der fencing starting in 2006, he faced stiff opposition
from local ranchers and farmers, many of whom took the government
to court on plans to use their land.
In many areas along the Rio Grande the
Trump’s border wall faces reality check
fencing is built well inside the United States, as far as a mile
north of the Rio Grande, to ensure that the structure doesn’t
interfere with the flow of the river or is built on solid ground.
The middle of the
channel marks the internal border and a 1970 treaty with Mexico
requires that structures built there not interfere with water flow.
A popular golf course near the bor-
der in Brownsville was cut off from the rest of the city by
border fencing and was forced to close in 2015.
“We have built a fence along the bor-der almost as much as we
possibly can without violating tribal laws, environ-mental
requirements, and taking over peoples’ personal, private property,”
said Michelle Mrdeza, who worked for the House Appropriations panel
during the fence debate of the mid-2000s.
The existing blockade — roughly 350 miles to block pedestrians
and 300 miles to block vehicles — has already been built along the
southern border. That fencing was built in the areas that are most
vulnerable to illegal crossings.
“Insofar as the problem is a physical barrier, we’ve basically
addressed that issue,” said Rep. David Price, D-NC, who chaired the
congressional panel that funded the border fence when Demo-crats
controlled Congress. “This focus, this fixation on a wall and
pouring untold billions of dollars into a wall is foolishness.”
Cost estimates prepared a decade ago already varied widely. A
2009 Gov-ernment Accountability Office analysis put costs at $6.5m
a mile for pedestrian fencing and $1.8m per mile for vehicular
blockades. An actual wall constructed of concrete or brick would be
more costly and difficult.
Ryan, in an interview Wednesday on MSNBC, said Congress will
work with Trump on the upfront financing for the wall. Asked about
estimates that the project could cost $8bn to $14bn, Ryan said:
“That’s about right.”
Trump has repeatedly promised that Mexico will pay for his wall,
though nei-ther he nor his allies in Congress are able to
articulate how. The president of Mex-ico is emphatic that his
country will not pick up the tab.
“I regret and reject the decision of the US to build the wall,”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Wednesday in a nationally
televised address in his coun-try. “I have said time and again,
Mexico will not pay for any wall.”
Already, US agencies have been told to scrub their budgets for
savings that could be used for the wall.
“These taxpayer dollars would be better spent on investing ...
to find cures for cancer and other diseases, spending on hospitals
and doctors to care for our veterans, helping communities with
clean water investments, supporting police in our communities,”
said Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt.
Trump has repeatedly promised that Mexico will pay for his wall,
though neither he nor his allies in Congress are able to articulate
how. The president of Mexico is emphatic that his country will not
pick up the tab.
E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6
CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK
[email protected]
ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM
[email protected]
Gobal corruption watchdog Transparency International has come
out with its annual report on a phenomenon that is all pervasive
and probably affects the common man the most. The report ranks
nations based on the pervasiveness of corruption in governments and
societies. Like every year, most Scandinavian countries have been
ranked the least corrupt with Denmark tied for the first position
with New Zealand, followed by Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway,
Singapore, Netherlands, Canada. The trio of Germany, Luxembourg and
United Kingdom are tied at the tenth place, with BRICS nations of
Brazil, India, and China locked at the 79th position.
Somalia is again at the bottom of the list with South Sudan and
North Korea being the second and third most corrupt nations. It’s
for all to see that the rank of a country shares a strong
correlation with the depth of democratic institutions. Almost all
western liberal democracies score high on this count. Afghanistan,
which has had a consistently poor score has ranked 169 among 176
countries.
Transparency International has commented nega-tively about
populist leaders feeding the cycle of corruption. The report warns
that “instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually
install even worse forms of corrupt systems.”
The observation is important in the light of several populist
leaders em