March 3, 2006

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BuzzFlash Note: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MARCH 3, 2006

1//Azzaman in English, Iraq--IRAN TO INVEST $1 BILLION IN IRAQ (Iraq has agreed to invest $1 billion to rehabilitate the country’s industrial sector, said Industry and Minerals Minister Abdulaziz al-Najafi in a statement. The statement, obtained by Azzaman, said the money from Tehran will be invested in several industrial projects and Iraqi entrepreneurs were welcome to make use of it. It said the money will be in the form of a long-term loan as it is being raised by an Iranian bank set up to encourage Iranian exports. The statement said the bank has already earmarked up to $400 million for immediate investment and urged Iraqi entrepreneurs to hold talks with the Iranians on the kind of projects they want to participate in. … Najafi said his ministry was keen to take part but would rather encourage the private sector to have the lion’s share of the investments. … It is the first such deal the ministry signs with a foreign country. Negotiations with other countries failed due to security reasons. However, the Iranians have said they will proceed ahead with their investment despite mounting insecurity.)

2//The Daily Times, Pakistan--MULLA OMAR OPERATING FREELY IN PAKISTAN: AFGHAN FM (Afghanistan has hit back at Pakistan’s dismissal of its intelligence about Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Pakistani territory, notably information about the whereabouts of the reclusive Taliban leader Mulla Omar. … Pakistan at first denied in statements to the media that it had received the intelligence and then said most of it was outdated, including about the possible whereabouts of the fugitive Omar. … Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah questioned Pakistan’s attitude. … “We have provided evidence of him being outside of Afghanistan, in Quetta in Balochistan, to our Pakistani friends.” This was not for “one day, not one hour but time and again in Quetta.” Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Taliban training camps on its soil and also alleged that some circles in Pakistan support the hardliners.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--PHILIPPINES: POWER, NOT GLORIA (If the Philippines' current political crisis was initially about the political survival of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it has quickly turned into something much bigger. While the fallout from a scandal last year involving the president allegedly coercing electoral officials could have been contained, a confluence of events has since paved the way for a standoff that has polarized domestic political forces. Arroyo's fate is now almost incidental. Beneath the coup plots, shadow plays and shifting alliances is the protracted and unresolved class struggle for power. … Having dominated the state through the electoral process, the ruling elites have countered challenges to their rule by successfully thwarting persistent demands for a redistribution of power, wealth and economic opportunities. One rough measure of the entrenched inequality: on the eve of the first "people power" uprising in 1985, the top 10% of the population took 37% of the total national income; the lowest 20% garnered a mere 5%. Twenty years later, judging by the latest available official data, the top 10% still controls a whooping 36% of the national pie, while the lowest 20% remains stuck at 5%. … How exactly the US is playing its hand during the current crisis may not be known for years to come. Since the crisis began, however, US officials have repeatedly stated that they would oppose another "people power" incident.)

4//MosNews, Russia--KADYROV POISED TO BECOME NEW PRIME MINISTER OF RUSSIA’S CHECHNYA (The lawmakers in Russia’s restive province of Chechnya voted on Thursday to support nomination of Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen president killed in May 2004, to the prime minister post vacated after Sergei Abramov stepped down earlier this week. … Kadyrov, who heads a shadowy security force that many Chechens and human rights group say abducts and intimidates civilians, has been seen as likely succeeding Alkhanov after he turns 30, the minimum age for presidents under local law. He will be 30 on Oct. 5. He is the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen president who was assassinated in a bomb blast in May 2004.)

5//EUobserver, Belgium--BERLUSCONI CALLS FOR EU-US UNIT ON PRE-ELECTION TRIP TO WASHINGTON (Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has urged unity between Europe and the US in a common fight against Islamic extremism. In his speech to a joint session of the US congress on Wednesday (1 March), Mr Berlusconi called for "a grand alliance of all democracies" and warned against a "politically dangerous" tendency in Europe to stand apart from Washington, according to press reports. … The broadcast of the speech on Italian television channels owned by Mr Berlusconi’s Mediaset was viewed with dismay in Italy, with the opposition complaining of yet another pre-election move by the campaigning leader. … Recent polls show that the Italian prime minister is currently losing to the center-left coalition, led by the ex-president of the European Commission Romano Prodi. … But analysts also point out that the left-leaning opposition is politically weak and fragmented, as opposed to the strongly knit center-right Forza Italia party of Mr Berlusconi. Moreover, the Italian leader is gaining political points thanks to his powerful media campaign, both due to his strong links with media and his own media-friendly character. Experts point out he has been on TV or the radio every day, with declarations like a promise to abstain from sex until after election day, or comparing himself to Churchill, Napoleon and Jesus Christ.)

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1//Azzaman in English, Iraq March 2, 2006

IRAN TO INVEST $1 BILLION IN IRAQ
By Muthana Aidan

Iraq has agreed to invest $1 billion to rehabilitate the country’s industrial sector, said Industry and Minerals Minister Abdulaziz al-Najafi in a statement.

The statement, obtained by Azzaman, said the money from Tehran will be invested in several industrial projects and Iraqi entrepreneurs were welcome to make use of it.

It said the money will be in the form of a long-term loan as it is being raised by an Iranian bank set up to encourage Iranian exports.

The statement said the bank has already earmarked up to $400 million for immediate investment and urged Iraqi entrepreneurs to hold talks with the Iranians on the kind of projects they want to participate in.

The Iranian side will cover the whole financing but only own 33% of the projects to be implemented. The other 66% will be owned by the Iraqi side.

Iraqis will start paying their share of investments 10 years after the completion of these projects in addition to only 1% interest.

The statement quoted the minister as saying that it was essential “for all Iraqi industrialists in take part in the legal, technical and economic negotiations with Iranian side that are scheduled to start very soon.”

Najafi said his ministry was keen to take part but would rather encourage the private sector to have the lion’s share of the investments.

“Iraq’s economic policy for the future is to solidify the private sector to enable it to have a pivotal role in the economy,” the minister said.

It is the first such deal the ministry signs with a foreign country. Negotiations with other countries failed due to security reasons.

However, the Iranians have said they will proceed ahead with their investment despite mounting insecurity.

A team of Iranian industrial experts is due in Iraq to map out the sectors of mutual interest, the statement said.

(SNIP)

“The money is there. The companies willing to do the job are there. And above all the governments of the two countries are keen to see the projects implemented,” said Sami al-Araji, undersecretary of the Industry and Minerals Ministry.

2//The Daily Times, Pakistan Friday, March 03, 2006

MULLA OMAR OPERATING FREELY IN PAKISTAN: AFGHAN FM

KABUL: Afghanistan has hit back at Pakistan’s dismissal of its intelligence about Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in Pakistani territory, notably information about the whereabouts of the reclusive Taliban leader Mulla Omar.

Afghanistan handed over the information during a visit last month by President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan — a key ally in the US “war on terror”..

Pakistan at first denied in statements to the media that it had received the intelligence and then said most of it was outdated, including about the possible whereabouts of the fugitive Omar. Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah questioned Pakistan’s attitude. He said that Afghanistan would not have handed over information it did not believe in and neighbours were expected to share details of the common threat.

“We wouldn’t have given anything to them had we not been sure about its credibility,” he said in an interview.

Abdullah said Afghanistan believed most of the “Taliban leaders that are actively instigating terror in Afghanistan” were in Pakistan, with Omar known to have spent time in the border city of Peshawar and in Balochistan. “We have provided evidence of him being outside of Afghanistan, in Quetta in Balochistan, to our Pakistani friends.” This was not for “one day, not one hour but time and again in Quetta.” Afghan officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Taliban training camps on its soil and also alleged that some circles in Pakistan support the hardliners. Pakistan denies the accusations, pointing to the tens of thousands of troops it has had in the region for two years to hunt down the militants. It also claims to have netted two-thirds of the Qaeda leaders in its territory.

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Mar 3, 2006

PHILIPPINES: POWER, NOT GLORIA
By Herbert Docena

MANILA - If the Philippines' current political crisis was initially about the political survival of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it has quickly turned into something much bigger.

While the fallout from a scandal last year involving the president allegedly coercing electoral officials could have been contained, a confluence of events has since paved the way for a standoff that has polarized domestic political forces. Arroyo's fate is now almost incidental. Beneath the coup plots, shadow plays and shifting alliances is the protracted and unresolved class struggle for power.

Democracy lite
After the fall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, Philippine conservative ruling elites aided by the United States moved quickly to reinstate the pre-dictatorship political system that had under Spanish colonial rule allowed them to entrench their economic dominance over society.

Smarting from the lessons of Marcos' dictatorship, and seeing that authoritarianism was not necessarily the most effective way to maintain their collective grip on power, the elite leaders restored civil liberties, but restricted democracy to mere electoral contests that - given the ossified distribution of wealth and power in the Philippines - remained structurally skewed in their favor.

Dubbed variably as "low-intensity democracy", "limited democracy" or "polyarchy" by academics, the post-1986 consensus became both the linchpin of stability and the source of legitimacy for Philippine ruling elites.

Through elections, the elite factions were able to manage competition among themselves while eschewing outsiders who lacked the resources required to challenge them at the ballot box. Those who won the elections were able to command obedience from the masses - not by force as in a dictatorship, but by reminding them that they (the leaders) were the people's choice.

Having dominated the state through the electoral process, the ruling elites have countered challenges to their rule by successfully thwarting persistent demands for a redistribution of power, wealth and economic opportunities.

One rough measure of the entrenched inequality: on the eve of the first "people power" uprising in 1985, the top 10% of the population took 37% of the total national income; the lowest 20% garnered a mere 5%. Twenty years later, judging by the latest available official data, the top 10% still controls a whooping 36% of the national pie, while the lowest 20% remains stuck at 5%.

Challenged from outside, crumbling within
Despite its strengths, the post-1986 political system has been inherently unstable. Over time, the masses became less content with the economic results of representative democracy.

Twenty years after the people-power uprising, official polls find that 57% of Filipinos still consider themselves poor, slightly higher than the 55% who felt poverty-pinched in 1983. As much as 20% of the population is unemployed, and every day as many as 2,000 Filipinos leave the country to work abroad. Economic growth has clearly failed to trickle down, the promises of globalization notwithstanding.

(SNIP)

'American approval'
As different groups and factions scramble for power, the US Embassy has become a very popular destination. "What everyone is trying to do," confided one of the cabinet secretaries who recently resigned and joined the anti-Arroyo movement, "is to get American approval." Even the government has no illusions as to what the embassy can do: "If the Americans decide to drop support of the Philippine president, it crumbles," the president's former chief of staff, Rigoberto Tiglao, has acknowledged. [1]

That has been borne out historically. The Philippines was a US colony until 1946, but even thereafter Washington regularly intervened politically by financing preferred candidates and groups, conducting widespread covert operations, and helping to stage-manage elections.

In 1950, a US National Security Council document stated that among the United States' goals in the country was the maintenance of "an effective government which will preserve and strengthen the pro-US orientation". In 1972, the US supported the declaration of martial law because, as a US Senate report put it, "Military bases and a familiar government in the Philippines are more important than the preservation of democratic institutions."

When Marcos finally became more of a political liability than an asset to the US, Washington immediately transferred its support to the anti-Marcos elite factions, attempted to unify them, and ensured that they would call the shots in the anti-dictatorship movement.

All these were critical strategies to guarantee that the outcome of people power would not be inimical to US interests. How exactly the US is playing its hand during the current crisis may not be known for years to come. Since the crisis began, however, US officials have repeatedly stated that they would oppose another "people power" incident.

(MORE)

4//MosNews, Russia Created: 02.03.2006 15:48 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:49

KADYROV POISED TO BECOME NEW PRIME MINISTER OF RUSSIA’S CHECHNYA
MosNews

The lawmakers in Russia’s restive province of Chechnya voted on Thursday to support nomination of Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen president killed in May 2004, to the prime minister post vacated after Sergei Abramov stepped down earlier this week.

Kadyrov’s candidacy was proposed by Alu Alkhanov, speaker of the People’s Assembly Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov told the Itar-Tass news agency.

A day earlier, Alkhanov was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying that he signed Sergei Abramov’s resignation but hasn’t decided on a successor.

Alkhanov said Tuesday that Abramov had resigned because of poor health following a traffic accident in November, but Abramov himself denied that, saying he stepped down to give way to Kadyrov, who is widely feared and currently serving as acting prime minister, The Associated Press reported.

Kadyrov, who heads a shadowy security force that many Chechens and human rights group say abducts and intimidates civilians, has been seen as likely succeeding Alkhanov after he turns 30, the minimum age for presidents under local law. He will be 30 on Oct. 5.

He is the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed Chechen president who was assassinated in a bomb blast in May 2004.

The contradictory versions of Abramov’s resignation raised questions about a possible power struggle within the Moscow-backed Chechen administration as it tries to bring a semblance of normalcy to the republic where separatist rebels have fought Russian troops for nearly a dozen years.

(MORE)

5//EUobserver, Belgium 02.03.2006 - 10:05 CET

BERLUSCONI CALLS FOR EU-US UNIT ON PRE-ELECTION TRIP TO WASHINGTON
By Lucia Kubosova

Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has urged unity between Europe and the US in a common fight against Islamic extremism.

In his speech to a joint session of the US congress on Wednesday (1 March), Mr Berlusconi called for "a grand alliance of all democracies" and warned against a "politically dangerous" tendency in Europe to stand apart from Washington, according to press reports.

(SNIP)

While highlighting common transatlantic efforts to fight international terrorism, the Italian prime minister avoided controversial aspects of the war in Iraq, let alone the fact that Rome is planning to pull out its troops from the country by the end of this year.

Strong allies crucial before elections
The broadcast of the speech on Italian television channels owned by Mr Berlusconi’s Mediaset was viewed with dismay in Italy, with the opposition complaining of yet another pre-election move by the campaigning leader.

Mr Berlusconi was just the seventh personality to appear before the top US legislature during George W Bush's administration, following Washington's key allies such as British prime minister Tony Blair, Spanish ex-leader Jose Maria Aznar, Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Ukraine's president Viktor Yushchenko.

(SNIP)

Recent polls show that the Italian prime minister is currently losing to the center-left coalition, led by the ex-president of the European Commission Romano Prodi.

The Italian economy is currently facing grave problems, with zero growth as well as a looming state budget deficit and debt.

But analysts also point out that the left-leaning opposition is politically weak and fragmented, as opposed to the strongly knit center-right Forza Italia party of Mr Berlusconi.

Moreover, the Italian leader is gaining political points thanks to his powerful media campaign, both due to his strong links with media and his own media-friendly character.

Experts point out he has been on TV or the radio every day, with declarations like a promise to abstain from sex until after election day, or comparing himself to Churchill, Napoleon and Jesus Christ.