We’re into the middle of January and I’m looking forward to the return of Parliament at the end of January. Yes, I’m a bit of a political nerd, but I’m also eager to watch my fellow New Democrats continue on their successful agenda of standing up for Canadian families.

Canadians took a good look at Ottawa and they didn’t like what they saw – ongoing scandals, divisive politics, inaction on important issues. So it’s no coincidence that on May 2, 2011, 4.5 million Canadians put their trust in the NDP to fix Ottawa and made history by electing an amazing team of New Democrats as the Official Opposition.

I’m proud that the New Democrat team has already delivered on that promise of change, with record numbers of women and young leaders in Parliament. They have set a new tone in Parliament and for the first time in decades, progressive Canadians from every corner of the country – including Quebecers, are united under one (orange) banner.

On the other hand, the Conservatives are continuing their agenda of putting their well-connected insiders first, and for failing to act on the issues that matter to Canadian families: job creation, health care, pensions, and lifting First Nations communities out of poverty. Canadians are now seeing a clear choice with a New Democrat team that will ensure families come first and nobody is left behind.

Going into 2012, NDP interim leader Nycole Turmel and the entire caucus remains as committed as ever to carrying out Jack Layton’s dream for a better Canada.

“The outpouring we saw upon his passing showed us something we all knew,” said Turmel. “The values Jack Layton held dear are Canadian values. He had a dream for a Canada built on hope, optimism, perseverance and the rock solid belief that by working together, there is no challenge we cannot overcome. That’s a truly Canadian dream.”

No doubt, New Democrats will always carry on Jack Layton’s legacy by working together, and by forming a New Democrat government that will always put Canadian families.

Rupinder Kaur is the Press Secretary to New Democrats.

About a year ago AL’s performance as the vanguard of the government came into serious scrutiny after its dismal showing in a local mayoral election and the two parliamentary by-elections. It was expected that the government would take into serious cognizance of the people’s message and would initiate drastic steps to metamorphose the mode of governance in coming days in order to arrest its sliding down the slope of popularity. However, a few of the government actions in the midst of those debacles and thereafter did not reflect any signal of change in the means and the modes of the governance.

When the government completed its third anniversary on the other day, the decline barometer of its popularity did not surprise any political observer. According to the Daily Star opinion survey, the negative ratings of the government performance in all aspects, starting from the direction the country is moving, view on economy and the overall popularity of the government have declined significantly over the last one year. For instance a year ago only 29 percent of the respondents were dissatisfied or much dissatisfied with the performance of the government as compared to 43 percent a year later. On the affirmative side, while this year 38.6 percent said they are either very satisfied or satisfied with the government, last year a huge 48 percent said so. The results of the two recently held mayoral elections where people in large numbers voted against the government-endorsed candidates, only validated the findings of the statistical polls.

An advisor to the government disagreed with the poll findings of the two national dailies. I would like to believe that he has only performed his routine tasks by dismissing the poll results or else I would urge him to come out from the company of the government sycophants to the midst of his party’s well-wishers, not adversaries, and from my own experience of their pulses, I can assure him that he would be surprised to discover that how still more than one third of the people are satisfied with the government.

Bulk of the sympathizers of AL are guided by some virtues, the values of our liberation war are the driving force of those virtues; their consciences are not easily swayed by any materialistic greed. It is only natural that the expectations of those people from AL, especially when the party is in the helm of the state, would be very high. Unfortunately, AL leadership, instead of taking cue from the criticisms of its well-wishers, set them aside as antagonistic elements. As a well-wisher of AL, I have sent personal e-mails to a numbers of government leaders offering my services on the arena (probably PM knows what I am referring to) on which they are either misguided or misinformed, but none of them even had the minimum courtesy to acknowledge the communications. A few politicians while they were not in the government when visited the City called me times and again requesting meetings with me. But after they became part of the government, many times I came to know from the media report about their visits to my neighborhood. When AL President visited Toronto in 2007 I was invited as the only speaker from the community in an ‘exchange of opinions’ congregation attended by a few hundreds invited guests. But when the Prime Minister visited the same city in 2011, I was not invited even as an audience, let alone as a speaker, as I am categorized now as an ‘antagonist’ because of my expressed views. These tell volumes of the extent the politicians in power are detached from their well-wishers in particular and the people in general.

One of the important election pledges of AL was to place ‘multi-pronged measures to fight corruption’ as was rolled out in the Charter for Change prior to the last general election. But did the government act according to its pledge? In fact, in this front, the AL government has even made its political opponents look like angels. It was for the first time a major donor agency brought allegations of corruption against a cabinet minister entrusted to building the most important communication bridge of the country, an important election pledge of the government. The reluctance of the PM to show concerned minister the door gave rise to speculations of the PM’s special weakness for the minister in question and it made the party’s election promise a mockery to say the least. In the process, its failure to build the bridge in its current tenure became the worst setback for the government, which otherwise would have been a landmark achievement for the party to sell in the next general election. It was impossible even for the staunchest supporter of the PM to defend her inaction. In fact, the all-pervasive corruptions which have permeated into and engulfed the lower levels of the party’s leaders and cadres hardly make any news in the national dailies but the local people, many of them are the direct victims, are very much aware of it.

Trial of war criminals is an issue dear to the heart of the nation. In this front as well, acceding a lot of limitations since the incidents happened some forty years ago, the hope of the masses has dampened; the hope that propelled millions of youth in particular to give AL-alliance the historic election victory in 2008.

The next general election is still two years away. If the government takes cue from the recently surveyed poll results, the criticisms of its well-wishers, and listen and respond to the pulses of the people, it can still reverse the tide of declining people’s support and bring them back to where they belonged some three years ago before their hopes with the government turn into irreversible despairs.

The writer is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh

The Pakistani military is a powerful state institution and the Army Chief is a pivot of power.    Civil-military relations in Pakistan are flexible in nature and the space available to civilians varies from issue to issue. It also depends on the context within which an issue is taken up. It is a bargaining relationship where both sides accommodate each other on reciprocal basis, although the military is sensitive on certain issues and does not like civilian interference in these matters.

Governance becomes a balancing act for the prime minister. He has to balance the demands of democratic politics with the imperative of maintaining good relations with overconfident military top brass.

The military has one clear advantage over the civilian leadership. The military is an integrated, disciplined and hierarchical institution with a well-defined command structure. It can deal with the civilian leaders as a cohesive entity.   However, civilians are not an internally cohesive entity with one authority structure. It is amorphous in nature comprising diverse, often conflicting, political, economic and societal groups.  They compete with each other for power and influence.

The civilian government is never sure that all civilian groups and parties would support it when it asserts its constitutional primacy over the military. In the present day Pakistani context when Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani took an exception to the disposition of the military and vowed not to allow a “state within a state,” not all opposition parties supported him. The PMLN took self-contradictory position. While Nawaz Sharif declared that he would oppose direct military intervention, Shahbaz Sharif and Chaudhry Nisar Ali criticized the Prime Minister’s hard hitting comments about the military.

The virtual anarchy in the political domain enables the military to apply pressure on the civilian government. The divided political domain also becomes vulnerable to manipulation by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). During the years of Musharraf rule, the Military Intelligence (MI) also assumed role in domestic politics.   This causes distortions in the political domain and fragments the already weak political and societal forces.

The PMLN is not supportive of strengthening the position of the civilian government, although it vows to oppose the military’s expanded role in the political domain. At the operational level, the PMLN is working towards weakening the civilian institutions because it wants to dislodge the PPP-led federal government.  As the PMLN does not have the required vote in the National Assembly to remove the government, it describes the parliament as an irrelevant institution. It has gone to the Supreme Court for the Memo issue and does not support the investigation by the parliamentary committee on national security.

Unless the political leaders and parties (both in power and out of power) rely on civilian institutions and processes, they would never be able to assert their primacy over the military.

The federal government’s position vis-à-vis the military is weakened because of its poor performance and the pressures of keeping the coalition together that requires some political compromises. Further, it faces strong opposition from the PMLN and other political parties.

In a normal democratic political system neither the Army Chief nor the Intelligence Chief can file their statements in the Supreme Court without the approval of the civilian government. Similarly, the Defense Secretary, a bureaucratic post, can directly send his statement to the court of law without the approval of the Defense Minister and the federal government.  However, in Pakistan, the military and the ISI have developed an independent profile and the Defense Secretary, a retired Lt-General, appears more loyal to the Army headquarters.

During 1997-2011, Pakistan had 7 defence secretaries; all except one were retired Lt Generals. In April 2007, General Pervez Musharraf appointed a civil servant (Kamran Rasul) to this post. This civilian Defence Secretary was replaced with Lt-General ® Syed Athar Ali in November 2008 on the recommendation of the Army Headquarters.  In the first week of December 2011, Athar Ali was replaced with another retired Lt-General (Khalid Naeem Lodhi).

As a matter of courtesy, the civilian government appoints Defence Secretary on the recommendation of the Army Headquarters and the Defence Secretary often listens to the service bosses rather than civilian authorities.  The Army headquarters/Army Chief often interact directly with the Prime Minister and the President.

The federal government is not yet known to take any disciplinary action against the Defense Secretary.    Even if the Defence Secretary is removed, the military will continue to be the most formidable political player unless the political leaders join together to create a credible civilian alternative, agree among them to strengthen civilian institutions and especially the parliament, address socio-political issues. Above all, they need to redefine Pakistan’s profile from a security state to a state devoted to human and societal welfare.

It will be a difficult task for the Pakistani state to change its security profile in the near future. The military can obtain support for its dominant role  among Islamist-militant groups and far right political spectrum. The main victim of this policy is going to be democracy, civilian primacy and the welfare of the people.

By Dr. Hasan Askari

Lahore

“We [the Liberals] are keeping our promises,” was the overall slogan Wednesday evening from a cheerful Glen Murray, Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities after his announcement to members of the press for a whopping 30% discount off post secondary tuition fees.  With the McGuinty government paving the way for some of the lowest tuition fees in the last 10 years, it is easy to see why the Minister was eager to spread his cheer in what he believes is an education promised fulfilled to Ontarians. “We didn’t promise [for education] $7 or 8 billion like the Conservatives did, and we didn’t promise $20 billion like the NDP did. We just promised $1.5 billion and we met that commitment in January.”

As student eligibility for this new Ontario grant is only applicable to full time university and college students in Ontario, it was not difficult to spot the large number of part time students left out of this new equation.  When asked what sort of options are available to these part time students instead, Mr. Murray eagerly responded to reporters that there are many social assistances and financial options in place to assist these students depending on their situations and that often these options are left unknown. In hopes to create greater awareness, Mr. Murray even offered one college professor in attendance, whose students consist mainly of part timers.

As the Mr. Murray continued to beam with pride throughout the evening with the Liberal’s strong commitment towards education he was also very vocal in his opposition to Opposition.

“I think the Conservatives should be apologizing to Ontarians. This is a party when it was in power cut half a billion dollars from colleges and universities. Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians who were fully educated and had done very well in high school could not get into colleges and universities of Ontario because they had closed so many seats and taken so much away from the system.”

Rob Leone, Member of Provincial Parliament for Cambridge and Official Opposition Critic for Training, Colleges and Universities expressed disappointment with the fact that the government is going further into the red to fund this so called tuition rebate.

 
“Premier McGuinty cannot keep spending money he doesn’t have. The Liberal Government has failed to introduce any new ideas to rein in government spending. It is clear that their plan is to pay for this policy with more borrowing,” stated  Rob Leone, MPP for Cambridge.

The Liberal Government’s tuition rebate will cost Ontarians an additional $485 million every year and will only increase an already unprecedented $16 billion deficit. The McGuinty Liberals have failed to introduce any new ideas to rein in government spending in an effort to account for the additional funding commitments.

In addition to the unaccounted costs, postsecondary education stakeholders are speaking out against the Liberal Government’s tuition rebate because it is a band-aid solution that only affects a small portion of Ontario’s students and does not prevent tuition fees from increasing.

As an enthusiastic Mr. Murray ensures his audience that the McGuinty government is working hard on making post secondary education affordable, it will ultimately be the students themselves who will be the judge of just how effective these changes will be for them.

By Anna Katryan

Unity in diversity is the most important mantra of India’s history. This land from Khyber to Akyab and from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari was a unique part of the globe where wisdom and civilization ushered 5,000 years ago. Many nationalities, diverse cultures and different languages all made a mosaic that kept its distinct identity for thousands of years. This truth was first challenged in 1947 by dividing India into two different political entities. But after 62 years there is a great silent revival for the Indian identity. Those scars and wounds created by this tragedy are gradually fading away and a new horizon of understanding is taking its shape. I find it difficult to differentiate between the people of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India when they are in the foreign multitude. The impression an outsider gets from a South Asian face is that this face belongs to India. Even the most parochial or a communal person can’t evade this recognition. If this is the case why this fruitless effort to create division and hatred among us?

Any one belonging to the Indian subcontinent who knows the history and culture of this ancient land has all the reason to be proud of its history and ancestry. While in the university I was asked by a Muslim professor if I feel proud of Sultan Mahmood of Ghuzni who invaded India 17 times in 11^th century. I flatly told him that Sultan Mahmood was nothing but a plunderer or lootera and is there anything to be proud of him? He came to India to loot our forefathers’ wealth and therefore no inhabitant of India could be proud of this invader. A very mischievous attempt was made by the religious bigots to separate the Muslims of India from the majority population by promoting Muslim history of India.

Many people played in this unfortunate game and a very unimaginable cost of human lives was paid. But the soul of India is so powerful and overwhelming that all these satanic plots are crumbling very fast. Even many diehard supporters of the Partition of India are now openly talking sense and promoting unity and understanding.

Many years ago while visiting Amsterdam I saw a very old white lady pushing a shopping cart trying to cross a street. I offered help and pushed the cart across the street.  She said thanks and asked, are you from India? I agreed.

In a social function when I told this incident, many of my friends objected to my assertion that I identified myself as an Indian. My position is very clear in this respect since my ancestry is Indian, my features are Indian, my language is Indian, and my food is Indian, my culture is Indian, my history is Indian, my philosophy is Indian and the whole world recognizes me as a person of Indian origin till I show them my passport. Then in the broader perspective what is my identity?

The Partition of India in 1947 was a blunder because religion was the basis of it but religion does not make a nation. The Indian Muslims were the victims of a vicious communal propaganda which made them aliens in their own country where their forefathers were born and lived for thousands of years.

Any sensible person would find pride in their identity as an Indian. India was known to the ancient world as a civilized land with rich culture and philosophy. 5,000 years ago when Europe was catching fish naked on the sea shore India was building civilizations. Indian mysticism was so rich that many of today’s questions were answered at that time. The Vedas and Upanishad are the most authentic and original scriptures which are respected and valued for their contents around the world. The famous French philosopher Romaine Rolland once said only a sage can understand India. India is an example of unity in diversity.

The Indian Muslims were taught by the mullahs to detach themselves from the Indian roots, become disloyal to its history, culture and nationhood. They were brain washed to disdain most historical Indian values. We were taught to make a hero out of Sultan Mehmood, a man who was nothing but a bandit in its true sense. The infamous Two Nations theory declared that the Hindus and Muslims are two distinct nations who do not take inspirations from the same history. What a brazen lie and a crook mischievous misinformation to break a unified nation.

But the greatness of India remains untouched from the time immemorialEmperor Harshavardana came to know that a Chinese scholar, Huen Sung, was studying at the University of Nalanda. Harshavardana invited Huen Sung to his court. He showed him utmost respect by showering him with valuable gifts and humbly asked him to bless India before his departure. Huen Sung with his folded hands said,’ O Emperor, India is a great country where sages lives, a great land who is being guarded by the mighty Himalayas from the north and from the south ocean washes it’s feet from three sides day and night. I am blessed that I could come to visit this country where a great emperor like you rules with so humbleness. India does need any body’s blessing’.

By Akbar Hussain

Toronto

The 17^th Conference of Parties of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as COP 17 was held in Durban. It was attended by representatives from over 195 countries. Apart from officials from different nations, various stakeholders, especially non-governmental organizations and passionate youth delegates also attended the conference to send a collective message of urgency, which seemed to have been missing from the negotiators. The conference aimed at addressing the fate of the Kyoto Protocol which is set to expire in December 2012. Kyoto Protocol was a legally binding agreement formulated in 1997, which required developed nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent from their respective 1990 levels. However, from the onset, the United States, one of the largest contributors of greenhouse gases decided not to ratify their commitment to the agreement.

The state of the world since the Kyoto accord has dramatically changed; new industries have surfaced, nations like China, India and Brazil have become highly industrialized, and consequently, their emissions have grown immensely over the past two decades. Thus, the main topic of discussion at COP 17 became the one of fairness and equity. The disparities between developed and developing countries heavily hindered the negotiations, each expecting the other to take a larger level of responsibility in reducing emissions. This discrepancy became apparent when Indian Environment Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan criticized Canada’s rather careless role in the Kyoto treaty as she claimed that the government had “signed the agreement and junked it in a cavalier manner…without even a polite goodbye.”

Conversely, Peter Kent, Canada’s Environment Minister, clashed with developing countries, accusing them likewise, for their lack of obligation.

So what was the final result of this event where environmental issues seemed to have been blurred in context of political and economic agendas? While they decided to extend the Kyoto Protocol to 2017, countries have been given until next May to submit their final decision.

After Canada’s appalling performance at Durban, it was not a surprise when Mr. Kent announced the country’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, sighting that it “does not represent a way forward for Canada.” It was made clear that a strong legally binding framework that requires countries to respond to the pertinent issue of climate change is not a direction that the country has decided to move towards. Rather than taking a step forward, it seems that Canada has done the opposite. It is not as if Canada has had a clean and positive emission record; but rather, its emissions have increased immensely since its 1990 levels.

On the other hand, the EU played a major leadership role at COP17 by assuring that they will continue their commitment to Kyoto. Moreover, a Green Climate Fund, which hopes to collect $100 billion dollars per year to finance adaptive management measures in poor countries, was also negotiated at the conference.  However, the sources of revenue that would fund this imitative were not established.

Overall, Durban symbolised the malfunction of international diplomacy. The collision of political, economic and foreign relations agendas only added to the intricacy of the arbitration process.  It seemed that the countries involved failed to see that the end goal is a global one, not national, where countries need to have differentiated and divided responsibilities. The criterion of emission liability was needed to be established. The final result was merely an agreement to further discuss a tool of legal force that would compel countries to curb their emission levels; no definitive deal on the obligation levels expected of developed and developing nations, or how to go about achieving emission reduction, was achieved. Kyoto Protocol’s main drawback is that it does not have a monitoring framework to measure and ensure compliance, a problem that was overlooked at COP17.

The truth is that emissions will continue to increase at an alarming pace until 2020, after which negotiations to incorporate China and India in a global deal will be planned.  The lack of any stringent agreements, loopholes in the Green Climate Fund venture, failure of cooperation, all point to the low magnitude of emergency exercised at Durban.  The inactive role of United States, now adopted by Canada, and the divergent viewpoints of developed and developing nations, play a vital role in the collapse of Kyoto. Time is of the essence and it is crucial that countries stop playing the blame game and start travelling the road towards climate change mitigation; however, it seems that there is still an unfinished roadmap. Creative solutions, concrete measures, political will, and compromise were absent at COP17.

As an environmentalist, I am thoroughly disappointed in results achieved at Durban as well as in the position Canada has chosen to assume.

By Puninda Thind

ON December 4, the BNP came up with its latest position on the government initiative to hold the trial of war criminals. Over the last many months different BNP leaders came up with different positions vis-à-vis the proposed trials.

On April 2, 2010, BNP said: “The government has stepped away from the trials of war criminals and now they are holding the trials for crimes against humanity, deviating from the election manifesto.”

On October 5, 2010, the BNP chairperson called the trial “a conspiracy to throw the nation into chaos in the name of war crimes trial four decades after the general amnesty to the collaborators.”

To make its final (so far) position clear BNP called a press conference, incidental or pre-preplanned is better known to them, in the month of December itself, when pains of our wounds and joys of our victory are revisited with solemn pledge to fulfill the dreams of martyrs and living heroes of our great liberation war.

At the press conference, a BNP standing committee member made no bones about BNP’s position vis-à-vis the ongoing trial process, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Act and the composition of the tribunal, and demanded that the government immediately stop the proceedings of the war crimes tribunal. The party also called on the international community “to put pressure on the government to fulfill the commitments Bangladesh had made through signing international covenants on crimes against humanity.” It concluded: “The BNP has no confidence in this tribunal. It believes that in the existing legal structure, the tribunal is nothing but a servile, rubber-stamp organisation.”

BNP’s statements are simply impossible for anyone who has the slightest respect and gratitude for those who have laid down their lives for freedom. BNP used lies, distortion and deception, the party’s forte, and quoted someone (Stephen Rapp) whose nation is not the best role model for upholding human rights in trying war criminals to make its case.

In my limited research I have not come across any war crimes tribunal whose proceedings are so transparent and where the defendants are given VIP treatment.

Telecasting of a court proceeding is solely a matter for the concerned court to decide. Does the US telecast any of the proceedings of the so-called war crimes tribunal of Guantanamo bay? Yet, the BNP leader found it appropriate to quote Stephen Rapp whose country’s president signed a law that allows the president to “identify and arrest members of al-Qaeda, ‘associated forces’ and those who ‘substantially supported’ them to hold them indefinitely without charge or trial.”

The BNP leader’s attempt to find flaws with the ICT while terming its proceedings as “farcical activities,” either reflects his self-purported ignorance of the law or is an ill-motivated attempt to mislead the public. In fact, to maintain international standard and to meet the pre-requisite of being a signatory to the Rome Statute, the Bangladesh cabinet, upon recommendation of the Law Commission, approved the International Crimes Tribunal (Amendment) 2009 on July 6, 2009, aiming to try those involved in acts against humanity during the 1971 liberation war.

It is a matter of great pride for Bangladesh that, according to a press release from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on March 24, 2010, “Bangladesh has become the first South Asian country to ratify the pact that established the ICC and gave it a mandate for trying people accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

The justices those who are presiding over the trials were justices of the highest court of the land. So far, their rulings have not corroborated BNP’s allegation that they are partisan.

In spite of the propaganda campaign initiated by BNP-Jamaat duo to sway international opinion in their favour, very few organisations that are genuine human rights watchdogs found any flaws in the ICT and its proceedings.

The Amnesty International (AI), reading through a few of my pieces on this issue in The Daily Star, wrote to me (October 20, 2010): “Amnesty International (AI) has for years been calling for an investigation of the human rights violations committed during the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence, and for those responsible to be brought to justice.” AI asked for a few clarifications and documents, which I gave to circumvent BNP’s falsehood that “Bangabandhu declared general amnesty to all collaborators.”

By demanding the abolishing of the trial process BNP has lost its moral right to pay homage at the victory mausoleum and the monument for the martyred intellectuals. To make the mockery even more wounding, BNP arranged a reception for freedom fighters. It was surprising to see a few non-BNP freedom fighters attending the so-called reception, without questioning the BNP’s stance on war crimes trials declared only two weeks ago. These are the personalities who befittingly joined the freedom movement, not because of any circumstances, even though they never believed in AL politics. Likewise, this time around as well, maybe they are distraught by AL’s governance and politics.

The trial of war criminals is an issue not only for AL but, just like the freedom struggle, is also dear to the heart of the whole nation. At this crossroad, it is imperative that the force of law, and the force of the masses join together to thwart any conspiracy against the nation’s resolve to finish the unfinished task of erasing, once for all, the perfidious mark from our history.

Mozammel H. Khan is the Convenor of the Canadian Committee for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh. He can be reached at mozammel.khan@sheridanc.on.ca.

There are mixed hopes for Pakistani state and society in the New Year.  Some people are full of gloom and think that the situation is going to deteriorate. However, there is a need to overcome pessimism. Pakistan may not overcome all problems but there is little more hope and less despair.

2012 will be the year of change because the elections are expected to be held by the end of the year. This will force the federal and provincial governments to improve their performance to avoid an electoral setback. The sudden rise of Imran Khan also forces the PPP and the PMLN to change their ways because he is cashing on their lapses.

The PPP’s current concern appears to be holding of the Senate elections by mid-March 2012. They would like to give the election budget in June in order to win back the lost popular support by offering some economic concessions. This is expected to set the stage for the next general elections.

However, there are no chances of overcoming uncertainty and confusion in the political, social and economic domains.  The PPP-led federal government will continue to struggle for survival in the face of lopsided opposition by the PMLN and the fall-out of politically loaded cases before the pro-active Supreme Court that appears to be determined to root-out all deficiencies and corruption from the political system.

Even if the Supreme Court gives an adverse judgment for the federal government on the Memo, the federal government is not expected to collapse except if the National Assembly decides to remove it or some extra-ordinary crisis makes it dysfunctional. It is likely to manage until mid-year but it is not expected to have an easy ride partly because of its incapacity to overcome its deficiencies and partly because the PMLN and the PTI of Imran Khan will continue with their efforts to dislodge it.

The military top brass may not be happy with the federal government and they diverge from the federal government on the Memo.  They do not have a practical option available to dislodge it and assume power directly or install a government of their choice.  They are likely to exercise influence from the sidelines and restrict the options of the elected government.

The elected federal government and elected parliament will continue to face pressures from non-elected military and the Supreme Court that want to rectify deficiencies and corruption in the political system. The parliament’s legitimacy is also questioned by the PMLN because it does not have enough members to dislodge the federal government.

2011 was a difficult period for Pakistan when it comes to governance, political management and handling of foreign policy and security issues were concerned. Karachi experienced violence for several months. The federal and Balochistan governments adopted some measures for Balochistan’s development. However, as long as kidnapping and killing of politically active Balochs are not checked no amount of development work will reduce alienation and dissident activity.

Islamic militancy and Taliban related terrorist incidents and suicide attacks declined in 2011 as compared to 2010.  This is despite some high profile terrorist incidents like the killing of the Punjab Governor and a federal minister and the attack on a naval base in Karachi.

However, one negative development is the resurgence of overt political activity by Islamic militant groups (including some banned organizations) in the Punjab in the form of anti-U.S. public rallies.  It seems that the military-intelligence establishment has encouraged them so as to show to the international community that Pakistani populace is outraged at American attack on the border security posts in November 2011.  This may help to achieve some immediate political objectives but these very groups will be an obstacle for the military and the civilian government when they decide to normalize their relations with the U.S. Religious extremism and terrorism will continue to be serious challenges but the frequency and level of violence is not expected to be higher than the last year.

Pakistan will work towards improving relations with India in 2012. It will also pursue the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and take steps to get electricity from there. Despite the floods in Sindh in 2010-2011 agriculture is expected to show increased production that will keep the rural economy in a reasonable shape. In addition to foreign remittances some professions like banking, food and catering, telecommunication, IT and real estate/construction will provide opportunities for earning reasonable livelihood.

Pakistan is expected to disappoint those who talk of the collapse of the state and the society.  Pakistan is expected to continue facing internal contradictions and problems but it will move onwards. The society has enough resilience and good agricultural crops help rural economy and protect against starvation. Its enterprising people inside and outside of Pakistan are a major source of support to economy which is likely to continue.  International financial and diplomatic support is another source of strength. These factors will enable the state to maintain itself.

The general consensus among Pakistan watchers is that it will manage its problems with successes in some areas and failures in the other. The year 2012 will be difficult but not disappointing.

By Dr. Hasan Askari

Lahore

“I would advise people against purchasing an education at a college where the college isn’t regulated and reviewed by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Newspapers like your own can be very helpful in that. Because we’re trying to get that kind of information out so interviews like this are very helpful.”

In October 6^th’s Ontario elections, McGuinty Liberals made a number of significant promises for more Ontario students to have access to postsecondary education. One of those promises is already in effect as of January 1^st, 2012. McGuinty government is giving $1,600 a year credit to families that earn less than 160,000 to help them send their kids to postsecondary education.

Another promise McGunity Liberals made was to open a college campus at a high growth area like Brampton, Milton or Markham. Generation Next got in touch with new Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Mr. Glen Murray (MPP from Toronto Centre) to seek update on government’s priorities and what can Ontarians expect from Liberals in the next four years.

Here is our conversation with Minister Murray:

GN: The government committed to provide a $1,600 tuition break to families for facilitating post-secondary education. How does the government plan to pay for this?

It is being paid for by reducing expenditure on lesser programs. Some of the older programs will be phased out and there will be reduction in the administrative costs. So some savings will be achieved because some students will require less student’s aid in the future. So offsetting expenditure will pay for us.

GN:  What is the eligibility for this?

This is a program that’s specifically designed for today. By that I mean that the current conditions in the economy are making it very hard for some families to keep their kids in school. Many large families can’t even afford students entering college or university or enter the second or third year. So this program applies to any student whose family income is $160,000 or less, who has completed high school in the last four years. This is for low-income families and more modest income families, and it’s for students and families who are about to enter university or college in the last four years. Most people want to see their children succeed and have education, so there’s a lot of pressure.

GN:  How can students who can’t pay back their loans be helped?

This will help because OSAP—the Ontario Student Aid Program-  is still very much in place. Half of the students, around 155,000 are already on some form of student aid.

GN:  But my question was with reference to students who have graduated and started working in jobs. If they lose the job or are laid off midway and can’t pay back the loan, is there a way you can help them?

Yes, there is an interest forgiveness program; so students can get forgiveness if they are unemployed, and we provide different types of assistance to those who are unemployed. We don’t charge them until they are working; other students can get reductions in their interests and reduce payments by working in the not-for-profit sector.

GN:  Liberals also committed to opening a new college campus in high-growth areas. Two of these areas are Milton and Brampton. How soon can we expect to hear about this?

The high-growth areas are in Toronto and in the 905, and in suburbs like Brampton, Markham and Mississauga. There’s a proposal being developed for Brampton..we’ve not picked a city for them. We are expecting to get proposals from a number of universities, for example from Brampton, Toronto, Hamilton. All of those proposals will be evaluated. I would expect within the next five years the construction for those colleges to start.

GN:  Recently, there were some stories about colleges giving out fake degrees. The South Asian community is a little more vulnerable when it comes to these kinds of scams. How do you think the community can protect itself from these fraudsters?

People have to understand that if you have a post-secondary education in a public college or universities, you’ve got about no chances of getting into fraud. So this only applies to a small number of private colleges…these are run as private businesses; they charge whatever they want. During the first six months of the past year, we took over a hundred legal actions against private colleges that were not playing by the rules, colleges that would enroll students into the college but has gone bankrupt before the students finished the course they were in. There’s an inspection branch within the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities that does inspect colleges and make sure the colleges are properly regulated and certified.

I would advise people against purchasing an education at a college where the college isn’t regulated and reviewed by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. Newspapers like your own can be very helpful in that. Because we’re trying to get that kind of information out so interviews like this are very helpful.

GN:  The government also committed to giving $40,000 a year scholarships to international students. What has been the reception to this program been like?

This is for graduate students and international students, particularly from countries like China and India. We have an increasing demand for students in the PhD programs. It is very much in the interest of Canadians that we are able to attract some of the best and the brightest in the world. So you can get these $40,000 scholarships—a small number of them—if you are an elite PhD student in India, China or another country, who would like to complete their graduate education in Ontario. These are people who come to Canada not looking for a job, but often creating them. So whatever field they are in, they often would choose to stay in Canada, be researchers and help build the Canadian economy.

Having said that, we have about half a billion dollar in student aids and scholarships given to Ontario resident students. This (the international scholarship) is about a $30 million program—an important program, but a very modest program.

GN:  Is the government still committed to giving these scholarships in spite of tough economic times ahead in Ontario?

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, even more committed. Maybe I can give you one example of why this is important. When I was the Mayor of Manitoba, Winnipeg, one of the things we did was to attract the foremost cardiovascular researcher in the world. He came from India and his name is Naranjan Dhalla. Once he established himself in Winnipeg, he attracted 360 young PhD students in cardiovascular research. Winnipeg, which is a relatively small city, compared to some of the major research centres is one of the world’s most well-known cardiovascular research centres in the world. Because one man named Dr. Naranjan Dhalla decided to relocate his family from India to Winnipeg and build a research community around him that’s not small at all. So when you get elite researchers come and complete their education here and start doing globally significant research, you create new businesses, new jobs around them. You also make Toronto or Kitchener or Hamilton or London a global centre for research.

GN:  Our Premier is often called the Education Premier. What more can we expect from the McGuinty government with regards to post-secondary education?

We know that will give those children much better chance at success in life and improve their living skills right through to a major expansion of graduate programs and advanced learning…We are also looking at online learning, to developing the online campuses so students are able to do more, sitting at their computers or home or when they are working part time. We call it hybrid education, in which they do part of the education in the classroom and part of it online. This is likely to be a large part of the expansion of the college and university system—making learning more affordable and much easier for students to acquire their degree and get the education they need.

By Bhaswati Ghosh

Elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 2011 election as a member of the Conservative Party, MP Corneliu Chisu represents the electoral district of Pickering-Scarborough East. Trained as an engineer, MP Chisu retired as a Major from the Canadian Forces. He is fluent in English, Italian, Romanian and Hungarian and possesses a working knowledge of French, Russian and German. Generation Next recently spoke to the MP on a range of issues.

As a publication focusing on the concerns of the South Asian community, we are interested to know what are some of the major issues faced by immigrants—who form a substantial part of Mr. Chisu’s riding.

Going by the requests received by his constituency office, primarily, the concerns facing immigrants is exactly that—immigration issues, such as family sponsorship and visa application requests. The other concerns are jobs and old-age pensions. The MP concedes that these issues require an intense degree of attention to handle.

In response to how he plans to tackle the high rate of unemployment, while the MP admits that in the present scenario any amount of job cuts is too many, he mentions the introduction of job bills, including the recent Bill C-13, also known as Keeping Canada’s Economy and Jobs Growing Act. Additionally, he mentions, the Conservative government has created more than 600,000 net new jobs since July 2009.

Generation Next wants to know the MP’s reaction to the federal government’s latest policies regarding Super Visas for parents and grandparents, as well as the non-acceptance of new PR applications. Won’t these steps make it tougher for new immigrants to bring their families to Canada?

As can be expected of him as a Conservative Party, MP Chisu defends the temporary hold on PR applications. He feels this can help better serve those currently waiting to have their applications processed. “We are dealing with a massive backlog of applications and as I am sure many are aware the wait times on the process are astronomical. Currently it is not fair for applicants to have such a long wait, applications should be processed efficiently and quickly,” he says. He also endorses the idea of Super Visas as in his view, “instead of waiting for eight years, a parent or a grandparent can come to Canada within eight weeks.”

As for new immigrants coming to Canada, MP Chisu feels respect and acceptance are possibly the two most vital traits for a new family or individual landing in this country. He also says “Being Canadian is a value set that works in tandem with any other ethnic and cultural bonds one may have.” He has high praise for South Asian immigrants. “Most of the immigrants from South Asia are highly educated,” he says and adds, “I personally know many engineers, being a professional engineer myself, with excellent skills who work in my riding at the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant.”

Commenting on the issue of immigration frauds, MP Chisu draws attention to initiatives taken by the Canadian government, specifically to put a check on fraudulence in immigration. This includes the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC), a council that is in charge of cracking down on crooked immigration consultants.

Responding to the issue of a perceptible lack of the representation of visible minorities in prominent positions, the MP thinks that “their (visible minorities’) success minorities consists first in education and their participation in wide range of community activities.”

MP Chisu talks with satisfaction about the involvement of the South Asian community in Canada’s political process. He encourages one to just look at the recently-elected Canadian Parliament to gauge the community’s political participation. “On the Government side of the Parliament for example we have a number of great politicians such as Parm Gill, Nina Grewal, Joe Daniel, Devinder Shory, Deepak Obhrai. Our cabinet also contains South Asian background Ministers such as, Bal Gosal and Tim Uppal.” This, he points out, is only one level of government. On the whole, he feels enthused about the growing interest of South Asians in the political process, thereby becoming “a powerful force in elections on all levels of government.”

Looking ahead, what can Corneliu Chisu’s riding members expect from him? The MP hopes to increase his presence both in the riding and in Ottawa. “I plan to hold two Town Hall meetings a month in the riding, to better connect with my constituents, hear their issues and listen to their opinions. I will, time permitting, be involved in as many community activities as possible,” he says. In Ottawa, the MP plans to be more active in the legislature to represent his constituents and all Canadians.